Chaos ensued immediately at this revelation. Lucas gasped, Joey shouted, "WHAT?!" and Bailey shook her head vigorously, and said,
      "No way. That's impossible. You're just messing with us." She stood up quickly and walked towards the door. "And I'm leaving." Avery called after her.
      "Wait! I know this is hard to believe, but just stick around for a little while. I'll show you all my own powers." Bailey hesitated, then walked back to her chair and sat down. Avery thanked her, then began to speak.
      "I assume you all have one of these," she said, holding up a green version of what Bailey had shown her. Everyone nodded, revealing theirs. Lucas had one that was the same color as Bailey's, and Joey had one that was crimson red. Lucas's shard was smaller than Bailey's.
"Alright. These are called Shards, with a capital S. They aren't made of glass, as you may think." Avery smacked her Shard on the coffee table as hard as she could, then held it up to show that it hadn't even chipped. "These things are virtually indestructible, although...." she trailed off, her eyes un-focusing for a moment, then snapping back to focus.
"Sorry about that. What was I saying? Oh yeah, I remember. These are made of a material called Glimmerium. It's not actually an element, as far as I know, but the "ium" suffix just makes it sound more official. The Glimmerium was discovered by a team of scientists who were studying a small meteorite that fell into the Indian Ocean. When they cracked it open, they found a multicolored core. As soon as it was exposed to air, most of it crumbled into a fine dust. But some of it broke into several identical Shards of a single color each." Avery paused for a moment. "This is going to be a long-ish story, so you can sit back and relax. Anyway, the scientists were soon approached by a businessman named Andrew Pullman. He had found out about the meteorite core and it's indestructible properties through an intern at the lab who had sold him the information. Pullman was most interested in the dust that had been created. He approached the lab about buying the dust, in the hopes that he could use it as a substitute for diamond dust on saw blades, and make himself a fortune. But the scientists refused, telling him they couldn't let him buy it, as they weren't even sure that it wasn't radioactive. Pullman decided he would have to acquire the dust a different way, and took a team of bodyguards to steal it. But as he passed by the Shards in their containment unit, one of them chose him."
      "What do you mean it chose him?" interjected Joey, making air quotes with his fingers.
      "Shards choose people to become the recipient of the powers it holds. We have no idea how it works yet. One of the two purple Shards chose Pullman. As soon as he touched it, he felt it's power and went crazy, destroying the lab and anything else in the area. Luckily, it was in a fairly remote location. Pullman vanished without a trace, along with all of the dust and the purple Shard." Avery looked to her dad, who stepped forward slightly and cleared his throat.
      "I was one of the scientists who extracted the meteorite from the ocean. I tended to go to work earlier than the others, so I was the first one to see the lab destroyed. I salvaged what I could of the security tapes, and found the remaining Shards unharmed, buried in the rubble. We're lucky that all of the information from the security cameras was sent to an offsite location and stored, or no one would know what happened. Now, we've received intel from one of Pullman's bodyguards who has realized how crazy he is and has become our agent on the inside. Pullman has been in hiding, building up his power until he can unleash it on the entire world."
      "I've been training for that day since I could walk," said Avery. "But I won't be able to do it alone. I need your help to stop him." Avery picked up her Shard from where she had set it on the coffee table.
      "I promised you a demonstration, so here it is." Holding the Shard in her left hand, Avery outstretched her right hand toward the table. It began to glow with a green light, the same color as her Shard. Her eyes began glowing too. Three coasters that were sitting on the table were engulfed in light, and as Avery brought her right hand up, they began to float. Then her entire body became engulfed in light too, and she rose a foot off the ground.
      "This is called telekinesis," she said, as her eyes dimmed and changed back to their normal hazel color. The light surrounding Avery and the coasters vanished, and they all dropped down. Lucas started clapping enthusiastically.

      "That...is...amazing," breathed Bailey. Joey nodded in awe.

      "All of you will be able to do that and more with the proper training," said John. "All the different colors of Shards have different powers that come with them, but they all come with telekinesis and teleportation. The unique power that comes with the blue Shards, which Bailey and Lucas have, is light manipulation. This means you can generate force fields, turn invisible, and shoot concentrated beams or blasts of light. Joey, with your red Shard you can control fire and electricity. Avery's green Shard gives her speed powers and the ability to phase through solid objects."
"How can you tell, bro?" asked Joey. Visibly amused at being called "bro," John responded,
"A Shard chose me too. It's quite different from all of the others. I call it the Dowser." He showed them his own Shard. It was steely gray, and lacked the shimmering quality that the other Shards possessed.
"This Shard only has weak telekinesis and no teleportation. But it's worth it, because the Dowser lets me find anyone who possesses a Shard, and determine what their powers are."
      "What powers did Andrew Pullman get?" asked Lucas. Everyone looked at him in surprise, because that was the most anyone had heard him speak so far. John and Avery looked at each other with looks of dread.

      "Mind control," whispered Avery.