There were many reasons that Nos-4-a2 chose the land he did to build their home. First, the Unibuck went far in the Earth's budding interstellar economy, and the dusty, barren land was cheap to begin with. Second, the base of an ancient skyscraper provided the builders with a perfect foundation for the mansion. Third, it was perfectly positioned on the border of the Axiom colony so they could be close to Two's family while still being suitably far from the densely populated center. Finally, the plot still had plenty of land for Two to tend to her heart's content.
Because of its foundation, the house was square in shape: a large courtyard in the center gave it the likeness of a square donut. The main entrance opened at the south, three levels of offices on the east stretch were made into bedrooms, the storage area to the west became the lab, the conference rooms to the north were built into the two story library, and industrial elevator shafts were turned into tall structures rising from either northern corner. The northeastern rise, wider and shorter than the one on the west, housed Nos-4-a2's observatory. The other was built into a tower housing a spiral staircase that led to a single room nearly five stories above the ground level. The room was furnished with a few cushy chairs and an end table between them facing Two's piano. Four windows, evenly spaced about the round chamber, looked out for miles around.
For Fletcher, the high windows were an irresistible opportunity for experimentation.
"I dunno, Fletcher, this doesn't seem like a good idea," Darwin said for the umpteenth time, examining a holographic tablet. It displayed the design of the machine that Fletcher held outside the window, hardly more than watermelon strapped to a pair of broad, aluminum wings.
"Why? The math is sound. As long as the wind stays dead, this'll circle the tower twice before it lands in the fountain!" Fletcher declared. He was carefully unfolding various flaps on the wings.
"No, the math is not sound! I told you we didn't do any calculations for air resistance!" Darwin insisted.
Fletcher rolled his eyeforms. "Don't you pay any attention in physics?" He readied the contraption for release, "Air resistance is always negligible!"
Darwin didn't have time to retort before Fletcher launched the melon. He scrambled forward, squeezing his shoulders out of the window to watch the carnage.
Despite all logic, nothing seemed amiss. The melon dropped a few yards before it caught the air, tilted into a sweeping curve, and hugged the white wall of the tower. Fletcher hollered in triumph and scrambled back inside to press against the next window.
Darwin stayed where he leaned out of the first window, his eyeforms wide. Just as he started to accept that Fletcher had been right all along, physics took over. The melon began to pick up speed and turned ever tighter toward the tower. By the time it came around again, it was doomed. Fletcher leapfrogged over Darwin in dismayed silence as the aluminum clipped the wall. Its balance was ruined and it immediately lost all speed, dropping like it had never had any forward momentum in the first place. It fell fifteen feet before destroying a solar panel on the roof of the lab below.
Fletcher slid down Darwin's back into a crumpled heap on the floor, unsheathing his wings.
"Throw me next, would you?"