As Nova’s sleeping body was handed back to him, Arcturus heard all sorts of noise around him. He heard the panicking breaths of the other members of DUO, with a few of them bawling into tears after the scary ordeal; Asteria was consoling them, reassuring that everything would be alright now. Constance was asking Sophia and Murphy if they were okay. His attention was drawn to Hilbert who was frustrated as he kept sighing and groaning. He was lamenting over the damaged ceiling.
“How am I going to get this repaired when we’re on the run?” Hilbert mumbled.
Before Arcturus could start a conversation with him, Hilbert took out his phone and called Sara. “Sara, whatever you do, get out of Sirius. Fly this house as fast as possible.”
“Yes, sir.”
When he hung up, he noticed Arcturus staring at him. “Oh, it’s you.” He stretched. “That sure was some ordeal, right?”
“It sure was…”
Hilbert’s eyes are on Nova. “He’s still asleep…”
“Yeah, I’m going to put him back on the bed.”
Hilbert became surprised. “Are you sure? Constance’s brother’s body is there.”
Arcturus froze. Given everything that had transpired, he was wary of letting Nova be in the same room as the brother-bot. He wasn’t even sure if the Shiftie had developed a will like his sister. “I’ll go put him on the couch…”
When he went to the living room to put Nova on the couch, he took off his own coat and placed it on top of Nova. The hooded figure in the ivory cloak approached them and took off her hood to reveal an Ilacian woman in a pixie cut. Underneath her cloak resided a muscular body that made him look scrawny in comparison. “You can use this.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m Vanessa, by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Vanessa.”
She then walked off. When Arcturus straightened the ivory cloak, the person in the yellow cloak handed him her cloak, unveiling her to be a middle-aged woman. Because Ilacians live longer than the other races, what’s considered middle-aged to him does not apply to them. She had green eyes and her blond hair was tied in a neat bun.
“I’m Margaret.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Margaret.”
She walked off. Soon, Marlo and Esta came and handed him their cloaks. He was rather confused on why they were handing him their outerwear. Bootes was the last to approach him. As he unzipped his green cloak, Arcturus stopped him.
“Why are you guys taking off your cloaks and handing them to me?”
“We don’t have extra blankets, so we just thought that he might need the extra warmth.”
Since their motives were for Nova, he felt a tingly warmth in his heart. Once reluctant, he now accepted the green cloak happily. The pile of colorful cloaks he had received were now lying on top of Nova; he looked rather snug. Arcturus peered over to see Bootes was staring at Nova. It made him a tad anxious.
“Do…you need something?”
“It’s just hard to believe that I’m encountering the Charlatan again after twenty years. That whole fiasco felt like yesterday for me.”
While he had no ill will in his voice, Arcturus stood up so he was staring straight at Bootes. His brown eyes were drilling into his blue ones. “Look, I know that we’re cooperating to take down the mayor, but if we’re going to work together, I’d like for him to be treated with some respect. His name is Nova. It’s a simple, easy-to-remember name. Drill that into your heads or this alliance is through. Got that?”
Bootes looked surprised, but complied with his request. “I’ll make sure to let the others know.” He walked off.
Arcturus left Nova on the couch as he decided to head back to where Hilbert was. Right now, he was still in the same location, but he was conversing with Constance. The conversation looked a little heated, so he approached them to see what was going on. As he got a little closer, he could hear what they were talking about.
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“I don’t get why I can’t put my brother’s earring back onto his body.”
“I told you; you can’t because we’re scared that he could be hostile.”
“I can convince him to change sides.”
“Have you done that with other Shifties before?”
“No…”
“Then we can’t guarantee that it will be a success. Besides, he’s after Nova, so it’ll basically be a second round of chaos if you put that earring back on.”
Hilbert reached a hand out to her. “Hand me that earring. I’m confiscating it until we reach our destination.”
Constance clasped her hands and pulled them away from him. “I’m going to hold onto it…” She walked off without paying notice to Arcturus who she passed by.
“What’s going on?”
“Constance wanted to put the earring back into her brother’s body, but it seems that Asteria is against it. She came to me, hoping that I could convince her, but I have the same mindset as them.”
“I see…”
“I wouldn’t mind observing the Shiftie, but not right now. I don’t need any more holes in my house…”
Mentioning the Shiftie got Arcturus remembering why he wanted to speak with Hilbert. “What sort of adjustments did you make to my bangle? It has all sorts of improvements that it never had before.”
“Do you not like it?” Hilbert looked worried.
“I like it, honestly. I was just asking because I don’t like being perplexed all of a sudden. It would’ve been nice if I had been informed beforehand.”
“Well, I did promise to explain about the Monarch Shifties and there wasn’t enough time to add in information about the bangle. I’ll explain all of the new components a bit later.”
“Why later?”
“Because there’s something I’d like to ask you about since you said you like my adjustments.”
“And that is…?”
“While my Flying House project is a success, it’s still a prototype. It might take years for me to perfect it. As an inventor, I’ve got so many other ideas I want to see realized. One such project is creating a robot suit that can materialize when activated. It’s a little different from Virgo’s robot body. There’s no need to exchange your body and lose your humanity for this project. I’m not a strong guy myself, so I was looking for the right person to experiment on. When I saw you, I thought you’d be the perfect candidate.”
Arcturus recalled his first impression of Hilbert and how he wanted to touch his arm. He started connecting his actions from back then to his words of now. It was all because Hilbert saw him as a perfect candidate. If he had proposed this to him during their first meeting, he would’ve rejected instantly. However, without his earring, he felt powerless. He recalled how powerful Asteria and Constance were when they had pinned Virgo down and even pierced her to the point that she had to retreat. He knew that enemies would be getting stronger and he cannot rely on his daggers and physical strength alone. He needed to upgrade.
He trusted Hilbert’s skills as an inventor once he saw the Flying House in action. Constance also trusted him as someone who’d fix her when she’s in trouble. Shifties were beings that always detected lies, so he knew he was reliable from her actions alone. He even made interesting adjustments to his bangle that did contribute to the fight with the brother-bot. If such an inventor were to give him a boost in strength, he’d accept it.
And that’s what he did. Hilbert looked the happiest he has ever seen him. It made Arcturus feel happy too. He was glad to be helpful to someone.
Suddenly, Hilbert’s phone rang. He put the phone on speaker. “What is it, Sara?”
“Hilbert, the Flying House is out of Sirius now.”
“That’s great!”
“But I have some terrible news.”
Hilbert’s smile became a scared frown. “What is it?”
“We’re out of gas, so we’re going to be on the snow for now.”
“Already out of gas?” Hilbert looked very perplexed.
“Yes.”
Before Hilbert could retort, the entire house had this heavy falling sensation that everyone felt. The sensation disappeared in a flash. Arcturus froze due to what had happened. He saw that some of the furniture were scattered about due to the pressure of the fall. Hilbert scrambled towards the nearest window, opened it and gaped at what he saw.
Arcturus had followed him out of curiosity as he peered out the window next to his and saw that Sara’s words were true: the house was resting on the snow next to the large glass dome. It caused him to worry because they were right at enemy territory.
“What do we do?” Arcturus asked.
“Luckily, gas is only applied to the “flying” part of my house. I still have a few more tricks up my sleeve. Flying may be easier, but we shouldn’t be here.” He put his phone close to his mouth. “Sara, activate the legs.”
“Yes, sir.” She hung up.
Hilbert turned to Arcturus. “The limbs are powered by electricity, so we should still be able to escape, but not as a Flying House, but as a Running House.”
“How fast does it move…?”
“As fast as a walking person.”
“Great…”
Arcturus checked the time on his bangle. There were six more hours remaining until the next day arrived. He just hoped nothing terrible happens between that time frame.