I had been under the impression tha the characters knew each other fom the beginning, if i am wrong, i apologize.

In the case that I am wrong, another idea: We are each handed a paper-wrapped lump, when we open it, our stone is there, and a slip of paper says, go to X location at X time.  Once we all get there, our stones start to glow, and we each suddenly get our powers
OR
We get the stone, get the power, go to place