Lyric Walker was there when the Alpha arrived. Like many, she wondered if they were invaders, never suspecting that they were on the run from a greater terror. When the real threat arrived, it came with a tidal wave that destroyed Coney Island. Everything and everyone Lyric ever cared for, including the Alpha prince Fathom, was either killed or lost forever. It changed the world. Now the military fights a war it cannot win against an enemy that will not die. Walls and roadblocks pit state against state. Refugees are public enemies, and a new nightmare approaches that is even more terrifying and deadly. In the midst of this chaos, Lyric, along with her best friend, Bex, and the prickly Alpha girl Arcade, search for Tempest, a rumored top secret camp where her parents might be imprisoned. But once they find it, she is captured as well, and offered a deadly deal she cannot refuse. The world's last, best hope is a group of thirty-three children who possess the same powers as she. It falls on her to train them before the second wave of a cataclysmic invasion eliminates mankind for good.