Avery's dad, John Hayes, was in his basement, dusting cobwebs off the walls. As he walked over to a new wall to cleanse it of the sticky webs, he felt the room get slightly warmer. He turned towards the middle of the room and saw a strange sight. It appeared that the light in one area was being distorted, creating the illusion that space itself was bending and twisting. John backed up against a wall, knowing what was coming next. In the area of distorted light, what appeared to be wisps of colored smoke appeared, swirling around and around. They started to get thicker and appeared to solidify, coming together to form the shape of a 14 year old girl. The shape, which was blurred and out of focus, sharpened, and Avery was suddenly standing in the basement, looking around the room. The whole process has only taken about a second.

      "Looks good so far, Dad," she said, as if she had simply walked into the room instead of appearing out of nowhere.

      "You could have replied to my message and told me that you were coming immediately," replied John, a bit pale. "You about scared the life out of me! What have I told you about teleporting right in front of me with no warning?"

      "Anyway," said Avery. "I saw the feed from the camera, do you think she'll actually knock anytime soon?"

      "I hope she does soon, I'm getting impatient. I was contemplating just opening the door and inviting her in, but I wanted to wait for you. Also, I wanted to give the impression that we're not crazy or anything, since most people around here don't bother with security cameras."

      "Friendly Ferndale, huh?" asked Avery with a grin.

     "The whole world is probably gonna get a lot less friendly soon," her dad replied grimly. Avery frowned. Just then, Avery's high-tech watch and her dad's matching one beeped at the same time. Avery ran upstairs excitedly, with her dad following behind her. Avery slowed to a walking speed, took a deep breath, let it out, then opened the front door. Standing on the porch was a teenage girl, a couple years older and at least an inch and a half taller than Avery, who was 5 feet and 3 inches tall. Avery smiled at her.

      "Hi, I'm Avery. What can I do for you?" she said, sounding very friendly.

     "Oh, hi. I'm Bailey. Um... this is going to sound really weird, but..." Bailey looked extremely uncomfortable with the situation.

      "Would you like to come in?" asked Avery, stepping to the side to allow Bailey room to walk through the door. Bailey thanked her and walked in, surveying the surroundings. Avery led Bailey to the living room, where they sat down on chairs facing each other. John was on his smartphone, and he glanced up at the two girls.

      "Hello," he said, addressing Bailey. "You must be Bailey. I heard you two talking at the front door. I'm John, Avery's dad. Sorry my house is such a mess, I wasn't expecting company."

     "Oh, it's fine, " she replied nervously. "I don't mean to barge in on you, it's just that something really weird happened." Avery gestured for her to explain.

      "Well, I was just coming home from school, I felt kind of strange so I called my mom to come pick me up. When I got home and walked up to my room, I picked up this thing that I had found on a camping trip 4 days ago." Bailey showed them something she had been holding in her left hand the whole time. It appeared to be a shard of glass, about 5 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. It didn't look like it could cut anything, as it's edges were smooth, not jagged like you would expect a piece of glass to be. The shard was a brilliant cobalt blue color, and it shimmered with other shades of blue. Bailey continued her story.

      "As I picked it up, this glass shard got warmer and warmer. It started glowing, which freaked me out a lot, but I couldn't bring myself to put it down, or look away. It started getting brighter, then everything went dark, and I was in front of your house. I don't even know what city or state this is." Bailey watched for Avery and John's reactions. She was taken aback when they didn't seem at all surprised.

      "You don't think I'm crazy?!" she exclaimed. "I mean, thanks for not thinking I'm nuts, but why aren't you surprised?" Avery looked at John, who looked apologetically at Bailey.

      "I'm afraid this whole crazy situation is our fault. I'm sorry to cause you so much confusion. All will be explained soon, but not right now." Bailey did not look happy with this, and opened her mouth to protest or ask a question. But a knock at the door interrupted her, along with two beeps from the watches that Avery and her dad wore. Avery asked her dad to get the door this time, and he got up to open it. Avery took the opportunity to observe Bailey. She had jet black hair with blonde streaks in it, which came down a little bit past her shoulders. Her eyes were grayish. Avery noticed that Bailey seemed to be observing her in return. What she sees won't be very interesting, thought Avery, who thought of herself as not very pretty and rather plain. Bailey thought differently. She noted that Avery had hazel eyes that darkened to a rust color near the pupil, and dirty-blonde hair that she had pulled back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. But the oddest thing about Avery's appearance was the every once in a while, her eyes would flicker from hazel to bright green. At least, Bailey thought they did. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times, then discreetly looked again. Sure enough, they were still flickering. Hope I'm not going insane, thought Bailey.

      Two boys walked into the room, followed by John. One was Avery's age, the other about eight years old. They both looked quite a bit less nervous than Bailey had. Avery assumed that the younger boy's parents and teachers hadn't drilled the concept of "stranger danger" into his head enough. As for the boy her age, Avery attributed it to arrogance. The way he swaggered confidently into the room like he owned the place gave away that he had a big head; and this worried Avery.

      The boys sat down on the couch, and John stood against the wall, having given up his seat so the kids could sit down. No one said anything for a moment, then the arrogant boy spoke up.

      "So, let's cut to the chase. Who are all of you, and how did I get here?" he asked. Avery and Bailey introduced themselves. The sandy-haired eight year old was named Lucas, and the older boy was Joey. John spoke up from where he was standing against the wall, introducing himself too.

      "Now that we all know the names of one another, I'll explain what you're doing here," said Avery. "I assume you all felt sick today, picked up a shard of glass, and were transported here with no warning?" The group all confirmed this, surprised that they had all undergone such similar circumstances. Avery continued.

      "This is going to come as a bit of a shock...no, a big shock really. You were all chosen to have superpowers."