The ground near the beach quivered ever so slightly as Dani lifted a medium-sized boulder out of the ground with her powers and threw it towards the straw figures twenty-five yards away. Unfortunately, the boulder failed to make it quite that far, crashing to the ground at nineteen yards. Dani’s only reaction at first was to bend over and try to catch her breath, sweat coating her forehead and exposed arms due to a combination of exertion and equatorial warmth. While she could easily have nailed the targets with smaller rocks, she had been trying to increase the weight she could use effectively. Of course, such a goal takes quite a bit of work before it becomes realized, resulting in a lot of frustration on Dani’s part.

With a grumble, she made her way to the beach towel sprawled out under an umbrella, popping open the cooler and pulling out a bottle of lemon-flavored Gatorade once she was positioned in the shade. The sound of the waves rolling in and out from the shore did a little to soothe the frustration she was feeling. A sudden, large gust of wind blowing over the beach drew her attention away from the results of her training, her hand grasping onto the umbrella to keep it from flying away. It was gone almost as quickly as it had come, however. “Sorry! That one got away from me!” the voice of Dani’s twin, Lexi, called out. Within a few moments, Lexi was there as well, a small eddy of wind tossing sand as she dropped a few feet to the ground.

Lexi’s own face was covered in sweat just as Dani’s had been, the exertion of training evident. Just as Dani had trouble moving large boulders, Lexi had trouble moving large volumes of air. It wasn’t that it was impossible, just that they were more prone to having their control slip. But that was why they were training after all. Without having to be asked, Dani reached into the cooler again and pulled out a bottle of strawberry-flavored Gatorade for her sister, who took it with a grateful nod. After taking a couple of drinks, Lexi sighed, sitting next to her sister and enjoying the beautiful scene before them.

“Do you want to call it a day?” she asked her sister, too tired to say much more than that. Dani nodded in response, and the two began to pack up their things so that they could be taken back to the house, a large mansion-like structure that all of the members of the Alliance stayed in. As the twins had only arrived about a week ago, they weren’t all that familiar with absolutely everyone, though they could recognize a few faces. Still, everyone had been friendly enough, and it was a very great place to live. Though it sounded cheesy, they were kind of like a big family, if not as close as one would expect.

The walk from the beach to the mansion only took a few minutes to complete, while the storing away of the items took another few minutes. After taking care of that, the twins decided to head to the rec center to unwind a bit and, maybe, get to know some of the other heroes in the Alliance a little better. Though neither of them were spectacular at talking to new people, it certainly couldn’t help to at least try, especially if they were going to be teammates down the road.

Surprisingly, the rec room was rather empty at the moment, though someone had left the plasma screen television occupying a good chunk of one wall on. With neither of them possessing much interest in soccer, or football as it was known in other places, Dani found the remote and turned the television off while Lexi set up the pool table, one of their favorite games to play in the room. Hopefully some of the others would come in before too long, which would make the atmosphere of the room a little more lively and comfortable.