Standard disclaimer: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. I own only my own characters and this story. Now here's chapter 11:

11 – LIFT-OFF

As soon as the switch had been thrown a great rumbling was heard that grew in intensity as it went on. Although it could be heard in all parts of the city the source of it was from underneath the lowest levels. A great machine, or rather a lot of great machines, had been activated and were powering up to full strength. In the control office Robot, Virgil, and Sniffles watched a monitor which showed the power levels increasing in the machinery towards a critical point.

All at once the rumbling stopped. A brief silence followed. Then there was a rapid series of loud cracks, like clamps and locks suddenly coming loose – which is exactly what they were. Underneath the city the foundation columns that held it firmly in place on the ground were uncoupling from the ground and retracting into special slots in the city's base. Each time a column retracted it made one of the loud cracks that was being heard throughout the city. The cracks went on for several minutes before finally stopping. Once again there was silence.

The silence seemed to go on for hours but was actually only a few seconds. All over the city everyone was frozen waiting to see what would happen next.

Toothy had moved a chair over to his office window and was now looking out at the land below. Barry followed and stood beside him. All they saw were the bare hills around the city, which blocked a view of the valley beyond where Barry had met and fought the marauder scout.

Or did they? It seemed to Barry that he was able to see part of that valley from where he stood, something he had never been able to do before when he had looked out of this window. In fact, he was able to see down into it a fair way, almost to the bottom and – !

All at once he realized what was happening.

"We're rising" he said to Toothy. The beaver nodded, saying nothing but staring transfixed at the scene below, which was now expanding before them.

"I can hardly feel anything," said Barry, amazed.

"Isn't technology wonderful?" said Toothy, "and here comes Splendid with the team. Would you open the window for them?" Barry opened Toothy's office window as far as it would go. Fortunately it was a big window, one that even Flippy could fit through. He and Toothy moved back from it so the warriors could enter when they arrived. They watched Splendid flying toward the city.

"I wonder what this looks like out there?" Toothy said.

Splendid, Flippy, and the Buddhist Monkey never forgot seeing Metramegopolis take off. Although Splendid was flying swiftly towards the city he was still some distance away when it detached itself from the ground. All three of them had a good view of the initial lift-off.

After all of the rumbles and cracks of the detaching phase somehow there was no sound when the city took off. For several seconds it sat on the ground in silence. Then slowly, very slowly, the city began to rise upward, as if it had suddenly decided to grow a couple of extra levels. But this was only because the lowest levels were below ground level. After a few minutes the very bottom level cleared the ground and a small space underneath the city appeared, which grew bigger and bigger as the city rose higher and higher.

"Incredible!" exclaimed Flippy as he watched.

"Let's get inside" said Splendid and he flew quickly toward Toothy's window which now stood open. When he got there he passed the Buddhist Monkey in first, then helped Flippy climb in the window, before finally entering himself.

"Welcome back" said Toothy nonchalantly, "so glad you could join us."

"It looked like you had fun" said Barry enviously.

"How is this possible?" asked Flippy, ignoring Barry's remark, "a city, a whole city, and of this size – "

Robot's image appeared again on Toothy's communicator.

"Code Zero successfully executed" he said, "we have lift-off."

"How?" demanded Flippy, "how can a city fly?"
"I'll have to tell you at another time" said Robot, "there's no time now for explanations. We need a quick group conference to determine our next move."

(To Be Continued)

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