Leon was running around in a panic, with Janet and Evelyn trying their best to keep up with him. Leon had no idea which buildings could house a bomb. Presumably it wouldn't be his apartment that had people in it, right? The gods are messed up, but they wouldn't force him to go homeless again, surely?
He approached an abandoned building, hooking a piece of wood covering a window and trying his best to tear it out. He was slightly stronger with the hook out and was fairly certain he could do it. After a few seconds of pulling, it was out, going flying past his head and barely missing Evelyn.
"Hey, you mind?" Evelyn yelled.
"We need to stop these!" Leon just yelled as he tore down the rest of the wood and went inside. Janet and Evelyn slowly followed him in. It was an old apartment block from the looks of things, that was abandoned for who knows how long, seeing as the reception desk's wood was already rotting. The formerly white tiles were a weird shade of dirty green, and many of them were sticking out. Which Janet was made aware of when she tripped on one, having to be caught by Evelyn.
"Woah now." Janet chuckled, looking at Evelyn's blank expression.
"You ever consider taking the glasses off?" Evelyn asked.
"No can do." Janet replied as she adjusted them.
"You do remember I've seen your eyes, right?" Evelyn sighed.
"No can do." Janet repeated, her tone slightly deeper.
Evelyn let out a noise of frustration, but continued opposite Leon's footsteps. They had no idea what they were actually looking for, just assuming the bomb would be easy to notice. Maybe one of those big black cartoon spheres with a fuse sticking out, knowing the gods. They looked around each old apartment, trying to find the bombs and avoid any mold or anything else that could be a health hazard. Evelyn found a pair of old underwear with mushrooms growing out of it, and let Janet inspect that room. But eventually, she found something triangular with a bunch of wires sticking out of the top, and figured it wasn't some old tech some weirdo left behind when he moved out. When she saw the button, she was slightly apprehensive about pressing it. So she ripped a piece of rotting wood from the window, throwing it at the button instead. The ticking noise stopped.
"And Evelyn has stopped a bomb!" Xaawo's voice rang out.
A few seconds after that, a crashing noise was heard from the other end of the building. Janet poked her head into the hallway.
"Was that Leon?" She asked.
"Hey, we need to get going!" Leon yelled from outside.
Janet looked through the hole in the window Evelyn made, seeing Leon looking desperate.
"Just jump out! I'll catch you!"
"We can also just run downstairs." Janet replied.
As she turned around, she felt something latch around her neck and jerk her back. One more pull from it and she was pulled from the window. Leon caught her, clutching her sunglasses in her arm. And the second he let her down, she went for the crotch. Leon clearly felt the pain, but chose not to say anything in favour of just running to the next building. He was already gone by the time Evelyn made it downstairs. The two decided that dealing with Leon wasn't the best move, and he could take care of himself, so they went into the old storefront next to the one he went into try and find something. Janet found one and defused it, and Leon yelled "Great job!" Before running back into another building.
The old apartment building Ramon and Mateo were investigating were yet to provide anything of note. Mateo hoped Ramon's street life would provide some insight on what a bomb would actually look like, but he was as clueless as him. So they were just stuck looking for anything odd or anything ticking, assuming the god bombs tick.
Ramon found something triangular, and upon investigation there was a button on the bottom. He pressed it, and the ticking stopped.
"Ramon has found a bomb!" The voice rang out. "But one slight issue: all the bombs are on different timers! So enjoy the next few seconds!"
Ramon ran into the hallway and looked at Mateo, who had his gauntlets summoned just in case, and right next to them an explosion was heard. Ramon quickly looked out the window, and a fire was breaking out in the building next to them. Following that was a frustrated scream by who sounded like Leon.
"Shit, what now?" He asked Mateo.
"We gotta find the bombs in the apartments." He said quickly. Sure, losing the empty storefronts would be bad, but if the fire spread to the apartments, he wasn't entirely sure if the city had the resources to put that out without people getting seriously hurt.
Mateo ran out and Ramon followed. He was being a little selfish, but he went to the apartments he figured were closest to where he lived to stop anything coming up. He didn't tell Ramon, but he followed.
They entered the apartment complex and frantically began looking for another bomb. Same as last time, comb each room and try to find something of note. Ramon would take the bottom floors, and Mateo the top ones. So Mateo began running, checking each room for a bomb, that was presumably out in the open. But as he continued running, he began to hear something. He thought it was the ticking of a bomb, but it sounded different. It would stop occasionally, for a start. It wasn't a bomb, somebody was walking on the top floor. Oh god, it was probably either a homeless guy or a teenager loitering around, and they needed to be warned. For a brief second, he put the bomb finding on hold, rushing to the top balcony to tell them to get out.
But on top wasn't a random person. It was someone all too familiar. The man turned to greet him with a smug look burned onto his face.
"Ah. Hello, Mateo."
Halford. Casually pacing over the building. He shifted his gaze to Leon as he tripped and scrambled into the next building, chuckling to himself.
"Well, there is a bomb in this building, if you want to try disarming it. I'll even give you a hint. It's closer to us than your friend Ramon. And is about to go off…"
Before his sentence even finished, an explosion was heard beneath them.
"…Earlier than I thought."
Mateo didn't move. A few seconds later, Ramon was out of the building, shouting at Mateo.
"Mateo! We gotta run!"
"Correct. You need to run to finish the challenge, Mateo."
But instead, Mateo summoned his gauntlets in a flash and landed a blow directly into his face. Tedros wasn't here, but it was time to help in his goal while he had the chance.
"So that's how you want to do this." Halford snarled. "Well, it's your time you're wasting."