All six swans were soaring around the air, circling the two girls. Alexa was gaping, laughing, and tracing the trails of blue with her hands as the origami swans swirled around her. The littlest one swooped in and landed on the tip of Alexa's nose, just for a moment before taking off. They were slowly losing their blue light, it trickled out with every little burst of acceleration, but it was fairly easy for them to swoop past Sarah's hand and get topped off before fluttering into the air. The two girls quickly made a game out of the little swans, one or more would flit right in front of Alexa until she reached out to grab it, only for the swan to dart away again.

Alexa inhaled more magic, and started moving with incredible quickness and reflexes, but still the paper swans always darted right out of her hands. Often they'd dodge before Sarah was even aware that Alexa had started to move, as though they were paying attention on their own. As Sarah focused, she noticed that the paper swans would even use distractions to protect their brothers - Alexa would target a single swan only for another to sail right across her eyes, allowing the other to dodge.

Remarkably, Alexa tired first. She had drained the green fog from her body with her speed, and even calling more from the edges of her reach didn't let her last much longer. On the other hand, Sarah had been just leaning against the door frame, infusing tiny bits of blue into her little birds once in a while. It seemed that her swans could move just as fast as Alexa while using a lot less power. Of course, they barely weighed anything, so Sarah figured they probably took a lot less strength to move.

Meanwhile, it seemed like Finn hadn't noticed the two of them at all. He'd turned away to face the far wall and was focusing on making spark after spark crackle out into the dim warehouse. He was pretty clearly experimenting - Sarah could see that he wasn't just forming the bits of red that he could gather into simple balls, he was forming all sorts of shapes as he played with his power, gesturing wildly as he tried to push it farther. Sarah could see little sparks jump from one hand to the other, or wrap around his hand like a bright aura for a brief moment. Once he even made a little gout of flame, like he'd put a can of hair spray behind a lighter.

Glancing at Alexa, Sarah put a finger to her lips and sent the smallest of her little blue swans to fly out towards him. It landed lightly on his left shoulder, resting as he threw his arms around. The girls laughed out loud, watching the swan stay perched no matter how violently he threw his arms around. Sarah thought Finn was moving very dramatically for how small his sparks were. He’d make a huge motion like he was pitching a baseball just to have a barely visible spark of static electricity radiate away.

Finn must have heard the two of them laughing because he stopped firing his lightning and stood still with hunched shoulders. Sarah could only see him move because he was breathing so hard.

Finn finally turned to look at them, but before he could say anything he noticed a bright blue thing sitting on his shoulder. He shouted and dove sideways, brushing it hard off his shoulder as he fell. The swan fluttered in the air, holding its place as he fell away, even before Finn landed on the ground a thin rod of brilliant red light lanced out and zapped the swan from the air with a little burst of flame.

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The two girls ran over, Alexa knelt by Finn, grabbing an arm and shaking him a bit. "What did you do to Odetta!" she shouted.

"What?" said Finn. "Who's Odetta?"

"Sorry, we didn't mean to scare you, we were just playing around," said Sarah, picking up her swan. She hadn't done more than glance at Finn. It wasn't the first time he'd fallen today, and he seemed ok. Football players were probably a bit more bouncy than most people, and he'd missed any of the sharp metal littering the ground. Sarah was much more concerned with her swan. It might have just been a piece of paper, and she had five more, and she could probably get Alexa to make more, and she could even learn how to make her own, but she still felt worried about it.

It had landed on the cement, and it was fluttering limply on the ground with almost all of the blue light exhausted. It stilled as she approached, and she picked it up. At her touch, she filled the little swan back up to the brim, and she examined it closely. There were some soot marks on the side, but the paper seemed undamaged. It unfolded itself and erased its creases so she could examine it more closely. She brushed her finger over the scorching and the black soot just fell off, leaving the paper pristine and clean again. She let it fold itself up again and set it to circling idly around her head, turning her attention back to Finn and Alexa.

The two were just watching her, both of them with wide eyes that reflected the grey sunlight that filtered through the heavy clouds.

"So... I didn't hurt it?" asked Finn.

"The stuff she makes, it gets strong. Stronger than me," said Alexa.

"More just the same, I think," said Sarah. "When you broke those sticks before, I'm pretty sure you used up about the same power I did when I filled them."

"Maybe, I dunno," said Alexa.

"Good though," said Finn. "I don't really like breaking things by accident."

"I've got an idea," said Sarah with a smile. All six swans took off into the warehouse, spinning and flitting back and forth on the walls opposite the three of them. "You're probably getting bored, yeah? So why not some target practice? Keep the beams small and they should be fine. I'll bet lunch you can't get all six."

"But my swans!" said Alexa. "I slaved so long on them!"

Sarah just stuck her tongue out at Alexa. "You can just make me more. Besides, you couldn't grab them, you don't actually think Finn's better than you, do you? I mean, can he even keep his balance?"

Finn didn’t answer that. He stood, flexed his jaw, and turned to watch the flying swans. He threw out a hand and pulled all the red he could reach again. They'd talked long enough that he could gather a bit more than before, but it was still just a little flash that grounded itself right in front of him. It didn't come close to any of the swans.

Alexa relaxed, "Yeah, you're right. Hey, Finn, why are you wasting time with that dumb electricity? Do the scorching ray thing again, you might actually have some range with that!"

Finn paused before trying to line up another shot, lifting a single eyebrow to look at Alexa.

"Scorching ray?" asked Sarah.

"How am I the one who knows this stuff? Seriously," muttered Alexa to herself. "The laser thing, you know, what you already shot the swan with. Do that instead of wasting our time."

Finn shook his head, then turned and nodded again. This time he just made a finger gun sort of motion, and another lance of red light shot out toward her swans. She flinched as she saw the burst of flame, but he had missed them entirely, not even coming close to any of her birds. There wasn't any sign of his shot beyond a little black splotch on the moldy brick wall.

Finn squared up his stance and fired again. And again, and again, all the while ignoring the giggles of the girls behind him.