"Stop right there!"
The Wanderer paused mid air. Turning around, he noticed a drone hovering behind, barrel pointed straight at him.
"What's up?"
He peered closer at the drone, noticing that it was displaying the face of some stern-looking officer. The officer, seeing that The Wanderer had stopped, began to speak.
"That there in your hands, isn't that one of our Weather Controllers?"
"Yes, so what if it is?"
"Well, that's government property!!!"
"Yes, I know. You don't need to inform me about this, isn't it obvious?"
The man began to look annoyed.
"Well, are you a part of the government or not then!?"
"Uhh, no!"
A vein began to pulse on the man's temple. He studied the figure in front of the drone camera, this man who was sitting on top of a flying government Weather Controller. The question had merely been a formality - there was no way some guy in a cloak and mask could actually be a government official.
So why the f*ck did he answer it???
With a tired sigh, the officer spoke up again.
"Look, I don't know how you managed to steal one of our Weather Controllers, but you're not allowed to use it. You have 1 minute to give it to us, or else I'm deactivating it."
To the man's surprise, the cloaked figure facing him decided to start a conversation.
"Then, what law says I can't use a Weather Controller?"
"The Rain-Making Control Act of 1967, of course. It stipulates that without explicit Ministerial authorisation, one is not allowed to use our Weather Controllers for any intents or purposes, as well as blah blah blah blah..."
The officer continued to yap about the full details regarding the law, but because wordcount is precious, his subsequent filler was automatically converted into gibberish, before being promptly cut off by an ellipsis.
Basically, no using the Weather Controllers without permission. The Wanderer nodded in understanding. But of course...
"Well, what if..."
As he began talking, The Wanderer quickly turned on his Weather Controller once more, zooming off into the distance! The officer stared for a moment, before sighing and pressing a button off to the side.
BOOM!
With that, the machine was promptly detonated via a remote, causing The Wanderer to dazedly fly into the air. The officer's drone quickly began firing after The Wanderer's flying figure, ripping holes in his cloak.
F*ck, that hurts like hell! I guess it's not a bad time to remember that my cloak and mask are technically part of my body...
With that reminder to both The Wanderer and the audience who might've forgotten that he shapeshifted into his attire during chapter 2, he promptly shifted his cloak into a pair of wings and continued on his upward trajectory.
"Sh*t, what kind of ability is that? Cloth Control...? Well anyway, SHOOT HIM!!"
The officer's alarmed voice could be heard commanding the rest of the drones to chase after him. As for The Wanderer, he was starting to reach the cloud barrier.
Just... a little further, then I can... HIDE??
The Wanderer's thoughts were cut short.
At that moment, as he passed the clouds... he hit an invisible barrier, like a firmament over the City. Beyond the invisible barrier, there were no clouds at all. Instead, only a vast amount of Weather Controllers could be seen against the background of a gray sky.
Unfortunately, The Wanderer didn't get the time to enjoy the view any further, as the barrier... seemed to be a bit electric.
ZZzaappp!!
Dazed from before, and now paralysed from some hundred-billion volts, the fallen Heaven couldn't help but begin falling once more.
"AAHHHHHhhhhhh..." The Wanderer's voice slowly dwindled off as he went down.
Splat.
...
Now, one must be rather confused about such a sudden scene, right? Especially considering it entailed the second death of The Wanderer.
Well, moving back a few days prior, Cane and the rest were still thirsty. Meanwhile, The Wanderer was looking for a way to "naturally" send water to them...
...
"Rain, hmm? Raain... Or... well, it just needs to be a water source."
The Wanderer wandered down the Black Markets, hoping to find something to exploit.
"But still, what else other than rain could be explained by luck? Deus Ex Machina can only go so far before it becomes too obvious, and if it's too obvious, perhaps even Cane and the other kids might get suspicious???"
As he mumbled to himself, High Heaven No. 3's sarcastic voice came over through the mental channel.
"Well, I wonder if a certain someone were still a Heaven, would he be able to just, oh I don't know, control the weather into providing some rain?"
Tsk.
The Wanderer couldn't refute his words, since it was true. If he'd still been a Heaven, forget about controlling weather, he would be practically omnipotent in his world!
Trip.
By some unknown force, The Wanderer ended up tripping, knocking him out of his thoughts and into the head of some random guy. As expected, the guy turned around in anger, ready to dish out a fist full of fire!
"Uhh..." The man looked at The Wanderer.
His skin had already become stone, and his fists were flaming. Yet, he suddenly stopped for a moment. He seemed to recognise the pitch-black cloak and the white mask. Wasn't this the guy...
Wasn't this the guy who spammed high-calibre Plasma Pistol bolts at me, before stripping me of all my items, including the clothes???
"F*ck, it'll definitely be different this time, you damn thief! Last time, you stole all my clothes, this time I'm taking your stupid cloak!!!"
Fwooosh!
A flaming fist swept past The Wanderer's face, him having dodged it with ease. Watching the fist go by his face, almost as if in slow motion, he sent a layer of Frost Energy to coat the hand.
Crrakk!
The conflicting temperatures of the fire and Frost Energy directly crumbled the man's fist right there! The man's pupils narrowed, suddenly afraid once more, but he didn't have the chance to be frightened anymore.
Psshhh...
Another wave of Frost Energy rushed to his other hand, crumbling it into little stones as well. The man was now...
Completely armless.
Within the next second, The Wanderer flashed past the man's dumbfounded face, and as he passed, a kick to each of the man's legs could be heard.
Legless and armless, isn't this no different from being a human stick???
Ignoring the human stick, who was so shocked he couldn't even say anything, The Wanderer moved past him and headed on his way. Such incidents were never important, only serving as comedic filler.
However, a few more turns, and he realised he was completely lost. He wandered onto a crowded main street, filled with hawkers and passing people.
Hmm... where... am I?
"Actors for sale, actors for sale!"
"Have you ever wanted to try digging underground, reaching the base of the City??"
"I can professionally stand-in as my twin sister, for an hourly rate of 100,000."
"Psst, hey kid! Are you looking to get your hands on some government equipment?"
The voices from the nearby stalls made The Wanderer look up.
Government equipment...
"Hey, that's right! I have control over the Echelons, don't I?? Why don't I just go get some stuff from there?"
This leap in logic was hard to understand, but the gist of it went:
How could there be good weather when The City is flying in the sky, at such a high altitude? Thus, the environment is definitely faked in some way. The only people who could do such a thing is either the Echelons, the government, or both.
The hawkers (and others in the crowd) could only watch dumbfoundedly as The Wanderer disappeared in front of their eyes.
Could it be... a rare spatial ability????
Of course, The Wanderer had only turned invisible before leaving.
Regardless, from that day forth, a small rumour spread throughout the Black Markets - there was a man in a black cloak with a pale mask - and he had a spatial ability.
Due to Cane's... identical appearance to The Wanderer, it could be foreseen that he would be mistaken as the one with the spatial ability. Of course, this was still true, so one could only say that despite the convoluted journey, the destination was still the same.
Well anyway, the flashback began to end, bringing the pov back to the present.
...
"... Is this the second time one of my clones died? At least this time I know what happened... F*ck, I can't believe I died just like that! Hey, doesn't it seem like it's been easier for me to die, ever since I came down to my story world?"
The Wanderer knew it was silly, but he still couldn't help complaining about his situation to High Heaven No. 1. To her credit, she stayed and listened to his complaints, only providing a little guidance here and there.
"Well, that's your punishment, isn't it? It's time to know how difficult it can be to weave a story, so that you'll stop travelling to other story worlds and ruining perfectly good stories! Child, let me just say - grin and bear for now, It'll be over before you know it."
She paused for a moment.
"Hmm, well. Child, I'll just say, if you can't provide water naturally, you can always try the method we used to use. The one that older Heavens might be familiar with, of course."
The Wanderer, upon hearing her words, blanched slightly.
"Auntie, you don't mean... Personal accompaniment???"
Personal accompaniment was as self-explanatory as it sounded. All a Heaven needed to do was to play the role of a side character, perhaps one of decent value and screentime. From there, it was as simple as following the party, cleaning up messes whenever found, and generally keeping the demeaner of being unimportant.
It was an outdated technique, of course. Ever since the rise of technology, Heavens no longer needed to be by the MC's side all the time. Instead, even in ancient worlds where men had no clue how to operate an eraser, the governing Heavens would still try to keep a view, as if in a game.
The most important part was - it was really difficult to do!
Even for a Heaven with omnipotent powers, trying to act natural and weave a story in this kind of hands-on way was not easy, let alone for The Wanderer, who no longer had his Heavenly authorities.
The Wanderer could only sit and ponder for a while. As thoughts flew, he no longer payed attention to his death, the firmament, the Weather Controllers, or the strange conspiracy that seemed to tie it all together.
Personal accompaniment, huh?
How... would one go about enacting this...?
Well. I think there's still a good starting point.
...
"Uhh, guys? GUYS!"
And at the call of Susie, the others all gathered around her, coming to see what the issue was. There, in front of her, lay...
The unconscious body of a teen, who looked around their age.
Thus marked the day when a new guy entered the group.