COLAs (The Shapeshifter) facts for kids
COLAs are special characters in The Shapeshifter series of books by Ali Sparkes. "COLA" stands for "Children Of Limitless Ability." This name fits them perfectly because they have incredible supernatural powers. There are 111 COLAs in total, and one of them is Dax Jones.
When each COLA child was born, strange weather events happened. These could be anything from very hot heatwaves to sudden blizzards in summer! Sadly, none of the COLA children's mothers lived past their child's fourth birthday.
How COLAs Began
In the book Stirring the Storm, Dax uses a special alien object to travel to another planet. There, his aunt Hessa explains the amazing truth: every COLA child is a mix of alien and human.
For thousands of years, an alliance of 11 alien planets called "The Quorat" has existed. The beings from each of these planets have different supernatural abilities. About 15 years before the events of Stirring the Storm, The Quorat decided it was time to welcome a twelfth planet into their group. After looking at many possible worlds, they chose Earth.
However, they realized that humans weren't quite ready to meet them face-to-face. If the aliens just showed up, people would likely be scared. So, they decided to send special ambassadors to Earth. These ambassadors would slowly introduce humans to some of their powers and help broaden human minds.
To do this, several female aliens from each Quorat planet came to Earth. They settled in Britain, which was chosen because it's an island and its people were seen as very open-minded. These women were called "Seeders." They traveled to Earth using a special 'corridor' opened by a 'cleftonique' key. When they arrived, it caused a 'cleftonique aftershock,' which made the strange weather patterns appear.
The goal for each Seeder was to find a smart human man to marry and have children with. Each child born from these unions became a COLA. The birth of these children also caused another cleftonique aftershock.
Living on a different planet means being exposed to many new viruses. Over time, this can be very dangerous. The female Seeders were chosen because they were more resistant to these problems. However, the physical changes that happen during pregnancy made their immune systems weaker. Because of this, all the Seeder women became ill and sadly passed away from natural illnesses within four years of their child's birth. Luckily, the human father's strong immunity was passed on to the COLA child.
Dax's Aunt Hessa shared that humans have always had some small psychic abilities, like dowsing or healing. But the powers the COLAs inherited from their alien mothers are expected to become much stronger than anything Earth has ever seen! She also said that the main purpose of the COLAs is to spread their gifts around the world by having their own talented children.
COLA Powers
COLAs have many different and exciting powers. Here are some examples:
- Dowsing (finding water or other things underground)
- Clairvoyance (seeing things that are far away or in the future)
- Clairaudience (hearing sounds that are far away or not normally audible)
- Mediumship (communicating with spirits)
- Glamour (the ability to disappear or create illusions)
- Snake charming (controlling snakes)
- Levitation (floating in the air)
- Alchemy (changing one thing into another)
- Telepathy (reading minds or sending thoughts)
- Empathy (feeling what others feel)
- Telekinesis (moving objects with your mind)
- Teleportation (moving instantly from one place to another, like Olu)
- Pyrokinesis (controlling fire with your mind, like Mia)
- Rune-reading (understanding ancient symbols)
- Palm-reading (telling fortunes from a person's hand)
- Soothsaying (predicting the future)
- Astral projection (sending your mind or spirit outside your body)
- Mimicry (copying sounds or actions)
- Healing (making others better)
- Shapeshifting (changing into different forms, like Dax Jones)
- The ability to temporarily take the powers of other COLAs (like Catherine Reader)
