Streets of Hope

Three shrugged. "Beats me. I guess Bagley might've called Aldergard's penthouse staff so someone just Taxis something over for you. It's not like Arch keeps a selection of modern women's swimsuits.
- I did, actually," amended the Clank, who'd surrendered to the sunlight and angled his pool chair a bit lower. "But that was back in the day, in what you might call my Bugs Bunny period... A voicebox change, different plates and hair attachments, and I was generally ready to go."

Drake grimaced. "Thanks for the mental imagery...
- My," breezily replied the spy, "you're quite welcome, Aidan!"

As for Tom, he merely raised a hand and created a brief bubble of heated air around himself, designed to evaporate what surface of the created wave would've reached him and leaving the rest as its current temperature. Charles' water steamed off of it, after which he dispelled the dome.

"Not with sunglasses on, please," he said, adding a satisfied smile to it. "I'm a lounger, Charles - not a fighter."

Still, hearing this made Bucky want to lend a hand. "Y'want waves, Jenkins? I'll give ya some!"

As big as he was, Shamus didn't need to dive in. He settled with harshly stamping a foot down into the pool's shallow end, which sufficiently disturbed the rest of the water's volume.

Seeing this, Three whistled for Charles. "Hey, Rambo! We still have water guns in the tool shed over there, from the last schoolbus that dropped kids on us!"

Not too long ago, the last of the few planned activities by the school board had involved familiarizing the young ones with the needs and specifics of a modern superhero. Archie had figured the kids would be eager to test-drive everyone's abilities, so a few water guns had been handed out. Aislinn and Three had distorted water jets, Bucky had acted the part of the oblivious lug who ignored the sensation of eighteen jets of water against his back and Archie had regaled the kids with child-friendly stories of his safer escapades, while the now recognized ghost of Leonard Ephesian - the team's one-man legal defense - amused them by showing them how most jets passed right through him without leaving marks.

Smirking wickedly, Aislinn telekinetically lifted the sunglasses off Tom's face, folded them, and then put them to the side. "Now you can get wet!" she shouted, using her power to send a wave of water at the incubus.

Chuckling at her sister, Neasa smiled and ran over to the tool shed and then handed a water gun to Ciaran, Charles, and Aidan. The male roane went to fill his from the faucet on the side of the mansion.

"Yaah!" Charles retorted, taking a deep breath and ducking underwater. He quickly used the pool to fill the water gun, then popped back up and started spraying at Tom.

Unwilling to get wet, Katherine squeaked and ducked behind a lawn chair. "Don't ruin my shirt," she prayed, hoping to stay dry.

Tom tried to grasp for his glasses as Aislinn lifted them off his face, but the roane had obviously been refining her telekinesis... They flew off without their branches scraping the side of his head, leaving him defenseless against the wave she sent. He tried to go for some sort of feigned vexation, but he didn't have the time to land much of a comment before Charles' own wave struck him.

Once that was done, he gave the pair his best imitation of a malevolent grin. "I may not be able to manipulate water," he said, his voice mellifluous, "but I can alter heat sources... In other words, convection is my friend!"

Digging one hand in the water in the middle distance between Aislinn and Charles, he raised the other above his head, finger pointing. Immediately, a tongue of flame worthy of a flamethrower shot straight upwards. Starting with whatever water was directly in contact with their skin, the pool would begin to feel increasingly cold to the selkie and soldier. As he was essentially leeching off the water's stored heat to fuel his flame and could apparently start by leeching heat from the cubic meters of water pressed directly against his friends, they'd feel the cold encroach on them rather quickly.

However, Magnus wasn't about to let this turn into anything resembling a threat. It was a teasing retort more than anything - a playful barb within his abilities. Considering, he quickly decreased his tongue of flame's amplitude, ensuring that the water would only feel somewhat cold and not, as convection could've done, frozen outright.

Bringing his arm down, the Infernalist blew his now lighter-sized flame out. "Here's another perk to being a demon: I don't have to feel how cold this water is, now. So you two miscreants can just climb out and plot water gun revenge on me, while I'll just keep kicking back."

Three crossed his arms over his chest. "What about those of us who felt like taking a swim later?
- Oh, don't be silly," lightly chided the warthog, "convection works both ways! I'll just take some heat out of the ambient air and plug it right back in there, exactly the same as Mother Nature would've done. It'd be even easier if I were a Squid; it's just a matter of exciting them there molecules a bit more..."

Magnus smirked at Jenkins. "You could always scream at the water," he suggested, obviously referring to the Black Speech. "Take a deep breath, stick your mouth in, scare it into submission."

Of course, considering how the Black Speech worked, this qualified as half a joke and half a serious suggestion...

Jenkins frowned; the Black Speech wasn't to be thrown about so lightly, in his experience. "Mebbe later," he replied, scratching the back of his neck. As far as he was concerned, Tom had just killed the party, since no one else could now share the pool without him reheating the water.

"...is it over?" Katherine called from her hiding place.

While she had been amused by Tom's antics, Aislinn lightly sighed and sent him a look that doubled as a request to revert the water back to its original state.

Tom rolled his eyes and gave Charles a disappointed look. "What is it with you mortals and your lack of confidence in us?!" he asked, something in his tone suggesting he wasn't really that surprised. Sighing and with one hand casually rested on his chest, he dipped a suddenly glowing claw into the water. Somehow, its temperature skyrocketed back to its earlier state, the sudden return of warmth making the exact heat levels feel stronger than they actually were for just a moment. Human skin wasn't exactly used to bodies of water shifting so quickly, so while this wasn't dangerous for anybody, it certainly was a bit odd.

"There," he said, on the kind of patient tone you'd have expected of a schoolteacher. "I've ended my little prank because you're all so very adorable today."

"Right," Aislinn replied with a scoff, then playfully poking his chest. She couldn't help but tease him. "Just imagine me with in pigtails and a school uniform," the short woman retorted.

"I just might," suggested the warthog, who didn't exactly try and counteract his idle drifting away from her on his pool noodles, but who did use the few extra inches his snout provided to fondly nuzzle her shoulder before he went too far. The demon seemingly exercised acute tusk safety procedures, the gesture having left the length of keratin well south of any soft bodies he could've scratched or injured.

On the other hand, having a romantic interest with tusks in a pool meant the roane had a set of easy handles to manipulate him with...

Chuckling, Aislinn swam after him and gently grasped his tusks, pulling him in for a light kiss on the lips. "You really should try to ditch the pool noodles. I know you can at least float," she indicated as she poked his stomach. "Though, leisure's more your thing, huh?"