It was Ashton who broke through the tense silence left in the wake of Harper’s declaration. “I will begin,” he told their trainer, “I already have a good control of my power, so how much of a shock do you want me to give you?”

  “Start off with enough to knock me out, and scale up from there if nothing happens,” Harper ordered.

  There was the initial spark as the two shook hands, and then nothing. It looked like the most awkwardly drawn out handshake ever. Ashton’s eyes were focused, and Harper’s expression slowly became more strained. All of the sudden there was a sound akin to shattering and the two broke contact, Harper’s arm jerking and trembling slightly.

  “That is quite the dangerous power you have,” she muttered through gritted teeth, “If I didn’t have another barrier that might have been the end of me. How much further could you have gone?”

  “I don’t know,” Ashton admitted, “I would rather not find out. My power is meant to be well controlled, not thrown about haphazardly.”

  “I see,” Harper replied and took a moment to collect herself.

  It was amazing how quickly she recovered, but just in case she needed to buy some more time Summer volunteered to go next. She was well aware that her power was completely harmless. Harmless as it was, she could at least make it look cool. Summer focused on the light around them and slowly dimmed it, gliding through all of the colors until they were plunged into complete darkness.

  “So your power is more of a support ability,” Harper noted, “Useful, but not on its own. Can your power do anything at all to attack in a dangerous situation?”

  “I did have one theory but I have been too scared to try it,” Summer admitted.

  “Go ahead,” Harper told her, “Everyone else, stand back.”

  Summer took a deep breath and started pushing the light level higher and higher. If she made the rays intense enough they would go invisible and turn into microwaves potentially. Unfortunately, it seemed that invisible rays were beyond her but the intense brightness of the light she produced was deadly in another sense. It took everyone a few moments to recover their vision. That might have been more blinding than the darkness.

  “Impairing the sight of an attacker is an important defense,” Harper comforted, “However, I have some ideas on how you can improve. We will discuss them after this.” She then turned to the rest. “Just in case things go wrong, Kayla will go last, so it is your turn boys.”

  This was a power Summer had been curious about for a while so she watched with great anticipation. Kai calmly approached Harper as Levi took the time to lay down. Levi lost his grip and collapsed the rest of the way as Kai threw a punch that pushed Harper back despite her protection.

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  Before Harper could react Kai quite literally shrunk out of view as Levi started to grow. Next thing they knew Levi was at least ten feet tall and Kai was a midget. As she saw these events Summer realized the nature of their power. One would gain what the other lost. It was cool, but it seemed dangerous somehow.

  “You seem well practiced in your power,” Harper commented.

  “We have to agree and work together or nothing will happen,” Kai explained, “It is more of an inconvenience than anything else. Neither of us can remember what normal was like before.”

  That was actually horrible. Summer was glad her ability was just to manipulate light, though now she did have to wonder how much she changed subconsciously and if light looked different to her than it did to others. She didn’t have too much time to wonder about it, though. It was Kayla’s turn. Her demonstration was extremely anticlimactic.

  “It’s done,” Kayla told Harper, “You now have another power.”

  “I don’t feel any different,” Harper mused, “Is there any way to tell what you gave me?”

  Kayla shook her head. “I have done plenty of testing before, and there is nothing I can do to make it easier to tell what I gave someone,” she explained, “However, I usually always give the same person the same power, and it has something to do with what kind of power they desire.”

  “So the odd times out they must have desired something different,” Harper deduced, “How long until this new ability wears off?”

  “It varies but the shortest is an hour and the longest was three before I had to recharge it,” Kayla answered.

  The more she spoke, the less special the ability seemed. It was nice to see that every ability had drawbacks no matter how strong it seemed at first. It made Summer feel better about her own power, as well as guilty for feeling relieved by something like that.

  “Alright, I will take some time to try to figure out this power and meet you each individually after lunch,” Harper announced, “All of you have a lot to learn, and I won’t send out a team, noncombatant or otherwise, until I am sure you know enough to live past your first mission.”

  It wasn’t the most cheerful sentiment, but Summer was glad to have some time to reflect and eat something. She wasn’t sure if it was the powers or the nerves, but she was starving. After lunch, the inevitable summons from Harper arrived and she left to receive her critiques.

  “Ms. Harper?” she asked nervously after knocking on the door.

  “Summer? Come in,” Harper beckoned, “The moment you presented your power I knew exactly how to help you grow.”

  Summer braced for whatever she was about to hear. “What is it?” she asked.

  “You expertly showed your ability to use light and darkness to create and control colors,” Harper explained, “I want you to start trying to control two sources at once in different ways. If you can succeed at that, I believe we can work our way up to full illusions.”

  Full illusions made from her silly little light power? It sounded crazy as well as too good to be true. It was also too enticing of an opportunity to pass up. “I will give it my all!” Summer decided.