Arcturus knew why Hilbert did that. It was so the soldiers wouldn’t be dispatched in the Outskirts and would try and chase them. It was all so the civilians would be left alone. Suddenly, the vibrations got louder. Arcturus peered out a window to see that the house started moving. The movement became slow, but the speed accelerated, which caused Arcturus to worry.

“Are you sure this is alright?” He asked Hilbert.

“No worries! Besides, this flying house of mine has a few more tricks up its sleeves.”

The worries within him were washed away as excitement took its place. “More tricks?”

Hilbert took Arcturus to the living room. “Since you said that we need to get rid of that wall, I think this ‘trick’ could work.” He called Sara. “Press the red button.”

A loud noise resonated in the room. This caused Arcturus to cover his ears; he saw that everyone else minus Constance did the same. Hilbert then poked at his arm, which signaled Arcturus to remove his hands from his ears. Hilber looked at him confidently.

“Look outside!”

Thankful that he was still able to hear, Arcturus opened a window and stuck his head out. He looked up to see a long metallic object attached to the side of the house. This caused him to gape. He pulled back and pointed at the window while staring at Hilbert.

“What is that?”

“My flying house invention comes with many tricks! It can fly, produce metallic limbs and even swim! It’s a multi-functional house!”

“You forgot to mention that it’s a prototype!” Marlo yelled.

Hilbert turned to Marlo. “Shush.”

Arcturus was amazed with Hilbert’s genius. “You’re amazing! I don’t think any Laminans have been this innovative, yet an Ilacian did all of this.”

Hilbert huffed. “Of course! I am the son of an inventor after all! My father was an inventor, but his inventions had been overshadowed by more renowned people. In hopes of passing on his legacy, I had to be innovative! Although the Flying House is just a prototype, it’s my most ambitious project yet!”

He focused his attention on the phone. He put the call on the speaker. “Sara, get the house to punch the wall!”

“Yessir!” Sara responded through the phone’s speaker.

Arcturus peeked out the window again. He saw that they were approaching the wall. The distance between them was gradually getting closer. He really wanted to see the arms punching the wall and to see if it would work. The arm on the right, the one Arcturus was looking at, started moving. It moved back like how a person would do when setting up a punch. Suddenly, it launched forward; he saw the arm punching the wall. The vibration caused the entire house to shake. He heard yelps from the other people. There was also hard swaying that came with the vibration. Despite the attempts to destroy the wall, the metal fist did not even make a dent on it. This made Arcturus realize that the only solution was wishes.

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He pulled back and remarked, “It didn’t work.”

“What should we do, then?” The person in the ivory hood asked. “The metal arms don’t work on the wall.”

“What’s next?” The person in the yellow hood inquired.

All eyes were on Arcturus and it made him nervous. He had to come up with something on the spot or they’ll get captured. “Well…”

Remembering how he and Nova entered Sirius by making a hole in the barrier, he realized that was their only method of escape. They can escape, find a place where they could be safe and then once they come up with a good plan, they could return to Sirius. Hopefully, Nova would be awake by then. He explained this sudden change in plans to the group. They accepted it easily.

Hilbert spoke to Sara on the phone. “Do you hear that? Let’s escape for now!”

“The airship is chasing after us, though.”

“Punch it!”

“As you wish.”

Arcturus saw the house rotating from seeing the change in scenery from the window. He became startled when he heard a loud and frightening clunking noise. He rushed towards another window, opened it and saw that the airship was flying in another direction; there was a large dent on it, so he knew it was going to explode in minutes. He slammed the window shut.

He grabbed the phone from Hilbert’s hand. “Excuse me, Sara. Can you move this house quickly? The airship is going to explode and we could get caught up in it!”

“Alright. Hold onto something tight.”

Arcturus took the chance to rush back to the loft and held onto Nova so he wouldn’t slip out of the bed. He held himself between the wall and the floor so he wouldn’t slip. The way the house started accelerating reminded him of being on the train back home. He then felt the house elevating as if he was on an elevator. He could tell it was trying to ascend towards the hole on the barrier.

“We made it out!” Sara yelled through the phone.

Arcturus sighed with relief as he heard everyone else cheered. Constance came up to the loft with a rather cautious look on her face. Her eyes were glued to the ceiling. Her serious expression got him curious.

“What’s wrong?”

“I sense something from above…”

“What is it?”

“A Shiftie…”

“What?”

The person in the brown hood came up to the loft. “Did you say a Shiftie?”

Before they could explain, a loud noise was made from above. Out of caution, Arcturus

grabbed Nova and took a few steps back. The ceiling got a dent that was made from a force on the roof. Something hit it again and a hole was formed from above. Arcturus saw someone entering from their feet first and then squeezing the rest of their body inside.

Their intruder was a young man with the same strawberry blond hair as Constance, but had antlers and no freckles. Their eye colors did not match for he had green eyes while hers was blue. He also had long ears just like Constance, but had a red earring on the left opposed to Constance having hers on the opposite side. The position of his earring and the way he looked near identical to Constance made Arcturus realize that this was the brother-bot she had mentioned before.

He could tell this Shiftie wasn’t here for a family reunion. His eyes were in his direction, specifically at the person sleeping on his arms. This caused Arcturus to hold onto Nova tighter. For a person based on an herbivore animal, the enemy in front of him looked like a predator.