Alright alright, here we go with the next part...
Intermission
"Did you hear what Strop was planning for the first trial?" Nemo scratched at the dirty tiles with his stick.
"Why yes, yes I did," Devoidless murmured, his hulking body curled up on the roof of the cathedral spire. From here, they had a marvellous view of a great portion of the city, blocked only by the ArmorCastle. It was an unusual location to hold a conversation here, but Nemo had his reasons. Namely, there was no way Ubertuna would be able to get up here, or so he thought.
"Well, any ideas?"
Devoidless took a drag of his cigarette, then stuck his head in the spire window and blew large quantities of smoke down the staircase. "Maybe we could tinker with his balls."
Nemo frowned "Like how?"
"I dunno. Spit on them? Puncture them? Grease them up so he won't be able to handle them properly?"
"Nah, that's too...crude." Nemo made a face. "And probably a bit too obvious, too."
They were interrupted by a series of hacking coughs echoing through the spire. Just then, a fin poked out the window.
"Aw man, not again!" Nemo slapped his hand to his forehead.
"You know," Ubertuna huffed, as he clambered onto the roof, "It's rude to go around your friends when you're planning something fun."
"But I'm not-"
"You can thank me later, my good Nemo," Ubertuna simpered before drawing up his faux-villain airs. "For I have a plan that is guaranteed to be, as you say, fun."
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"Just how many rooftops do you plan to cross? This suit is...restrictive."
Strop didn't reply. Perhaps it was because he couldn't hear anything above the clatter of hooves across the tile. Wait- that couldn't be right: hooves or not, Strop was a ninja, and had mastered the art of silent running. Cen's shoes, on the other hand, were really heavy the soles were really hard. And running in them was loud. And painful. Increasingly so.
"Besides, Strop, I don't understand why we have to run on the rooftops, when there's a perfectly good street* below..."
Still no response, for Strop had just leaped into the air, seemingly gliding across the space between the rooftops before landing (again, soundlessly) on the other side and taking off without pause. Cen had just enough time to realise that he was going in the same direction as Strop, and therefore was going to have to jump the same gap or suffer a smearing fate on the walls of the housing commission flats of the low-ranking residential areas of AG.
Without even pausing to consider why he was bothering to follow Strop in this lunacy in the first place, Cen jumped. Arms and legs flailing as he wobbled over the street, a good six storeys below, he suffered a terrible stomach-dropping moment before he landed, face-first, on the roof of the opposite block. His brain couldn't decide which was more remarkable, the pain or the miracle of not dying, so it elected to continue talking:
"And how come I'm the one who has to carry the sack..." Cen shrugged the massive burlap sack off his shoulders. It was surprisingly light and even, perhaps, buoyant, which might have explained how he managed to jump a ten meter gap in suit and dress shoes without dying.
Slowly, Cenere peeled his body off the roof and dusted off his suit. Trying to ignore the Cen-shaped pattern of crushed roof tiles, he scanned the area for Strop, but as usual, the ditz had run off without him. He sighed and rubbed his forehead with the complimentary handkerchief that came with the suit, realising, in the process, just how sweaty he was.
"And my feet are completely covered in blisters, too," he mumbled to himself.
Just then, a bandaged hand clapped down on his shoulder.
*Strop has received the comment "What's wrong with the stairs?" too many times to count.
There is no task just yet! Stay tuned for the next update, coming tomorrow!