PROLOGUE

For years, it had lain in wait. Traveling across the stars through the endless void of space, time holding no meaning at all. But now, it felt a stirring in the nothingness, a pull. It was being taken away, carried down to the planet below, freed from its prison at long last.

The time had come. The previous ones were gone but the new ones were out there, calling. And the energy would answer. It split into seven streams, soaring through the sky. For generations, it had been the source of power for the greatest warriors. Now these seven would take on that legacy and become the new Cloak Guard.

Travis Stroneman was at his desk, updating his blog when he noticed his room getting brighter. He frowned, looking up at his lamp but it wasn't changing. So what was happening? Was it coming from outside? He barely had time to turn around.

The ball of light shot through the window and hit him in his chest, sending a rush of energy through his entire body. Travis instantly scrambled up, feeling like his nerves were on fire like that time he'd gotten an electric shock, except more shock and less pain. And way more scary.

       Then the next second, it was gone, the light fading and the energy dimming inside him.

"Oh…my…god," he muttered, shaking all over. "This…this…oh my god. What the hell just happened?" He started panic breathing and had to pace back and forth a little to calm down. What had just happened to him? What had that light done? What had that rush inside of him been?

His eyes settled on his shelf where his vast collection of comic books rested.

"OH MY GOD!" he almost yelled, the idea hitting him. "This…this is incredible. This could be my ori- no, stop Travis. This is just like when you were a kid. That spider did not give you powers, no matter how many times it bit you, and just because you were the only one able to open the cookie jar did not mean you were worthy. This is just a fluke."

       But what if it's not? a voice inside seemed to ask. What if it's the real deal?

       This could be his moment. Maybe the past ten seconds was him dreaming or a hallucination or some other rational explanation. But it could be something greater. Some superpower given to him.

       This could be his origin story.

       He clenched his fists and then shot them out, hoping that would trigger something. When that didn't work, he tried faster, throwing his arms out again and again until he looked like a crazy monkey.

"Come on, you. Have. To. Work!" he pleaded with all his heart when he felt another rush of energy and a burst of electricity shot out of his fingers, striking the wall and scorching them. Travis stared in shock for only a second. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh…YES!"

Franklin Carson moved to close his bedroom window when he saw something. It looked like…a shooting star? But it wasn't shooting across the sky. It looked more like it was shooting…right for him!

"Crap!" Franklin scrambled back as the ball of light shot straight into his chest.

Wild energy rushed over him, a green light completely enveloping his body that filled him with strength like he had never known before, to the point where he felt like he could lift his whole house.

And then the light died down and he was back in his bedroom. For a split second, he thought he was wearing some sort of green silken robes but the next instant they were gone.

"What just happened?" he muttered aloud. "Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?" He pinched himself to be sure, but felt nothing. He tried again but couldn't get a good grip. His skin somehow felt tougher than before. And even when he did, he couldn't pinch very far. "Ok I have to be dreaming," he said. But…everything felt real. He could feel the air around him, could smell the apple core on his desk, and his bed felt real enough when he touched it. So he had to be awake…right?

He turned back to the window, aiming to see where the light had come from, when his foot landed on a loose sock and it slipped out from under him. He instinctively grabbed onto the railing of his bed, hearing a loud SNAP! right before he hit the ground. He braced but then blinked, realizing he had already landed. And he hadn't really felt anything. He slowly got back up, trying to make sense of it, when he realized he was holding the metal railing in his hand.

He stared at it for a long minute, not quite believing what he was seeing. "Oh, mom's gonna kill me. Yeah she's definitely gonna kill me."

"4…3…2…1…and done." Luke Decker jumped up, clapping his hands together in victory, having completed a 30-second mountain climber plank after his other routines like he always did before bed. He grabbed his thermos and chugged down some water before looking over tomorrow's schedule.

More practice. Big surprise.

But he had to stay focused, and right now that meant bed. He turned.

He saw the ball of light shooting right for him.

"Whoa!"

He leapt but too late as the light struck, enveloping him. He felt a rush of energy come over him, centering and expanding his brain outward where he felt like he could touch everything in the room. Then, it was over and he realized he was on the floor next to his knocked over lamp.

"Ok, seriously what the heck?" What had just happened? Had someone drugged him? Had there been something in the water? But, he had just filled it from his tap. Was it contaminated?

"Luke!" Luke jumped at his dad's voice coming outside of his room. "What's all that racket? Why aren't you asleep yet? You know we're getting up early for our morning run."

Yes, we do it every day dad, Luke wanted to say but instead he replied, "sorry dad, just throwing in some extra push-ups before I went to bed."

"Oh, alright. That's fine then. But no more. We have a busy schedule this weekend and you're going to need to be in top shape for tryouts." He heard his dad walking away.

"I know dad, I know," Luke said under his breath. "Alright, fine," he muttered. He was too tired right now to care about the stupid light. It was late and he just wanted to go to sleep. So he picked up the lamp and crawled into bed, not realizing he hadn't used his hands on the lamp.

"Faculty, staff, fellow students, I would like to thank you for…wait, are faculty and staff the same thing?" Gabriela Fuentes tapped her pencil against her cheek. "Hmm, I'll add think of better word here then," she noted. "Alright, where was I? Oh, right, 'I would like to present my stance to serve as your next…,' is stance the right word? Seems off. Huh." She tapped her cheek again before noticing the time on her alarm clock. "Oh snap." It was almost 11. If she wanted to keep her 8-hours of sleep quota, she needed to get to bed.

"I'll finish it tomorrow." It wasn't for another few days anyway. She had plenty of time to perfect it. She brushed her teeth, making sure to get each corner and gum, and flossed, before turning.

She had barely anytime to think before the bright ball of light shot straight into her.

She gasped, feeling a surge of pure energy, like every cell in her body was being filled to the brim. Her skin crackled and popped and she saw sparks shooting out of her. She tried to scream but all that came out was orange light. She felt like she was about to erupt like a volcano.

Then it was over. The light was gone, the feelings inside her vanished, and she was standing in her room like nothing happened. But what had happened? Had she had a nervous breakdown or something? Should she go to her dad or the hospital? But she felt fine now. Or was that just a fluke?

Calm down, she told herself, taking a deep breath. Whatever had happened, there was a logical and rational explanation for this, and she would find it.

Emily Simmons had had a long day and all she had wanted to do was crawl into bed and maybe have a nice, lovely dream. One of the ones you never wanted to wake up from.

But as she had just started to drift away, a bright light appeared, blinding her even with her eyes closed. She groaned, doing her best to ignore it but it just got brighter and brighter.

Then it was gone and she at first felt relief. But the next second, something strange came over. A sudden rush of energy throughout her body that felt like it was being stretched to its limits.

And just like that, it stopped.

She slowly opened her eyes, sitting up a little. She looked at her hands and then around her room. Nothing seemed different. It had to have been a dream. She'd had a long day and it had just caught up with her. Captaining the cheer squad, those ridiculous photoshoots, and all her homework on top of that. It was enough to make anyone imagine things.

But her eyes still flicked around. The strange feeling might have been a dream, but she couldn't have imagined that light. She could feel that blinding sensation. It hadn't felt like a dream. But what else could it have been? She tried to shake it off, tried to just lie down and close her eyes, force herself to sleep. But those feelings still filled her mind, of a bright light appearing and that energy filling her entire body to the point where she felt like every part of her was going to bloom out.

She gave up. If she couldn't force herself to sleep, she could at least do some exercise. Keep herself limber and in shape while wearing out her body. Nice combo there. She started with a simple stretch, touching her toes before reaching up for the ceiling.

Then she felt the ceiling. She blinked, moving her fingers around for a second before looking up. Her hands were touching the ceiling. The ceiling, which was several yards above her, had her hands touching it. She stared for another second.

"What the f-"

Sumin Jang considered themself to be, most of the time, a very rational and calm individual. There wasn't much that surprised or fazed them. After everything they'd been through this past year alone, they'd managed to keep their emotions and expressions in check, remaining in control.

At least until the ball of light came soaring through the window and somehow into them.

Sumin had been sitting cross-legged on their bedroom floor, listening to interstellar calming music. They'd found that listening to such music helped them still the roiling thoughts and emotions and come to terms with them, focus on each one individually. They had made it a practice to always listen to some sort of music before bed, to help ensure their rest was peaceful and restful. It didn't always work, but better than nothing.

After ten minutes of listening calmly, Sumin had been startled when a light had suddenly gotten brighter behind their closed eyelids.

They opened them slightly in time to see the purplish ball fly right at them and seemingly enter them somehow. Sumin instantly rolled backwards on the floor, feeling a strange sensation take over them, as if their mind had been given a new lens, that every thought they had was given a new dimension, and a weird energy breathing life into them. Then, the feeling had passed and they just stared at the wall in shock.

"That was strange."

Those were the only words they spoke all night.

Madison Jennings had been sitting against the wall for a while.

She didn't know long. She wasn't even aware time was passing. Her entire brain was going into lockdown mode, her body frozen stiff. She didn't know what to do. All she knew was something very terrifying had just happened.

She had been on her computer, running a new program she had developed. She had been so in tune with her work that she hadn't even noticed the light getting brighter until it was like the sun had entered the room. She had turned only to see a bright blue ball of that light shooting into her. Then, everything went bonkers crazy as she felt some weird sensation take over her skin, spreading throughout her entire body. It felt like something was forming directly over her body, like a second body made of pure energy that expanded. Then, the whole feeling vanished and everything went back to normal, like it never occurred.

But it had. That was the one thing Madison was sure of. It had happened. She didn't know how, but she knew that it had happened. She could remember that energy feeling clearly. She wanted to run to her parents' room and tell them what happened. She wanted to run right out of the house and as far away from here as possible. She wanted to crawl under the covers and pretend this was all a bad dream.

She didn't do any of that.

She just stayed there, hunched against the wall, replaying the same moment over and over of that ball of light entering the room and then entering her. She tried to make sense of it, find some reason for it, try in some way to understand it, but kept coming up blank.

So she just stayed there until she was too tired to think. Then, she finally moved, managing a few steps before collapsing onto her bed and falling into a restless sleep.