Book Series about boy who learns he has powers and gets sent to a private school by a “secret society”

Question

I read this book series around 5 years ago. I remember many bits and pieces so I will try to give as much info as possible. It was kind of a series for teens and it was set in present time.

It started with a kid discovering he can run faster than ever (superhuman) after getting nervous something was watching him. Then going home afterschool where his parents get taken over by some sort of electronic bug/parasite.

Some big dude in a muscle car ends up “saving” him I guess and it turns out he’s part of some heaven-like society that is fighting against some evil secret society. He warns him and says he’ll end up fighting when he’s ready.

Eventually the main character somehow gets to this super fancy private school where he’s super confused. He meets the dean and some new roommates, etc.

Flash forward and the main character finds out the school has something to do with his parents. His running coach somehow knows about his powers and ends up training him to run. And he develops this kind of power to put any image he wants in other people’s heads.

He also ends up snooping around the school, trying to figure anything he can out. There’s a giant castle on a lake near the school. There’s secret tunnels and stuff all over. He ends up telling his roommate/friends about some of the stuff and ends up getting their help.

Then it turns out they all have powers and have to develop them together. They end up discovering kind of like a separate hellish world that seems to be the world the secret society is in. They also find out they were kind of made in a lab to attain the powers they all have.

There’s a lot of random details I could probably give but I’m not sure if they’d be helpful, so if anyone knows this series I would greatly appreciate your help.

Answer 1

Is this the The Paladin Prophecy trilogy by Mark Frost...?

• Book 1: The Paladin Prophecy (2012)
• Book 2: Alliance (2013)
• Book 3: Rogue (2015)

According to this Goodreads user review of the first book, the main character, Will West, has lived his life under the radar, as per his parents' instructions, until one day he notices some strangers looking for him, spurring him to flee on foot. He's subsequently invited to an exclusive prep school where he makes new friends and finds he isn't alone in his abilities and talents.

Will West has always lived his life under the radar - moving every 18 months, never making friends, always striving to be average and unforgettable, just as his parents have always wanted him to be, until one morning when he sees a mysterious black sedan. "They are looking for an address they can't find," he knows. When the vehicle suddenly stops in front of him, he instantaneously receives a text from his father (who is in another city at a conference) - "RUN!" That's just what he does, out running these strangers. His day only gets stranger when he learns, The Center for Integrated Learning, an exclusive prep school is giving him a full-ride scholarship, based upon an unusually high test score. Not knowing who to trust or where to turn, armed with his fathers rules, with strangers trying to kidnap him, and his parents acting abnormal, he runs to the school, where he finds he isn't alone in his abilities and talents. Now he must find who is after him, what they have done with his parents, and where he fits in with his new-found friends.

This review notes that Will can run as fast as a cheetah and throw images at people that change their perceptions.

Will West is a very special kid - he can run practically as fast as a cheetah, can throw images at people that change their perception, and is a super genius.

The Wikipedia page notes that Will is aided by a man named Dave, who tells him he must fight monsters from another dimension called the Never-Was. Will also discovers a mysterious group in his school called the Knights of Charlemagne, led by an evil mastermind, and he and his roommates come to believe that they may all have been genetically-engineered test tube babies .

Dave tells Will he must fight against a group of creatures who want to invade the earth and destroy humanity. These monsters live in the Never-Was, an alternate dimension where they are imprisoned. Dave is a protector whose objective is to keep Will alive to eventually defeat the Never-Was and its inhabitants. Together they discover that the Peers are really a school group called the Knights of Charlemagne.

[...]

He meets 'Mr. Hobbes', the evil mastermind behind the Knights of Charlemagne. During discussion with his roommates, they believe that they may have all been test tube babies who were genetically altered while still an embryo.