Breathing heavily, sweating and also bleeding a little, the group arrived at the cellar.

Outside, Jinn let drop pods rain from the sky. The entire estate was on fire, even the lower floors, causing a devilish heat to make the building feel like a trap from hell.

With a confused expression on his face, JD approached a hole in the wall. It was a tunnel, well illuminated by electric light, high and wide enough to fit an entire army. This had not been here the last time he had visited.
Yet again, his last visit was, what felt like, ages ago.

With his riffle raised in caution, JD entered.

"Why the hell did you build this?", he asked, throwing a glance over to his father.

"For emergencies. I'd say this counts.", Marcus replied.

"Yeah, well you could have finally fixed up the outside instead."

"Lotta good that would have done now."

Despite Marcus' comment being rather bitter, he did have a point. The entire house was nothing more but ruins. Quite literally. There wasn't a lot left that could be fixed. And if he would have done it the years prior, he would have wasted quite a big part of his lifetime.

Jinn really did not leave a single brick in its place. Not that it was particularly cruel of her. She had always been that kind of woman that valued the results more than the methods.

Annoyed by the father and son discussions, Del rolled his eyes.

"Guys, stop it.", he said and pushed the two apart. "How 'bout we talk about, I dunno, the monsters that just ran off with all our friends?"

Marcus let out a raspy hum.

"As soon as we get outa here, we'll deal with that. Now come on.", he pushed his massive body against a steel door to force it open wide enough so that everyone could slip through before he did. "With any luck Jinn'll think we didn't make it out of the house."

"She's still gonna sweep the property.", JD reminded him.

"Then we'll handle it."

Silence spread between them as they ran through the underground pantry, over to the door that was located to lead out at the very end of the property.

As they returned to fresh air, JD's eyes immediately jumped back to the house of his childhood.

Even from the bottom of the hill, he was able to see the flames reaching into the sky. Heat made the picture flicker while the sound of DeeBees mixed into the chaos.

"Holy shit.", he gasped.

Marcus hummed angry.

"Like I said, welcome home.", he turned away and walked on as if standing still and talking it out for two seconds could kill him.

He led them through the garden which was, despite all those years and lack of care, still quite impressive. The smell of freshly cut grass was in the air while new blossoms bloomed on the trees.

While walking down the paved path, JD had to admit that he didn't recall his childhood home being this huge. Especially as he walked past the greenhouse, in which his mother had loved to grow flowers with your help, he had to stop and eye the thing for a moment.

Inside, freshly grown tomatoes were hanging on their plants, neatly potted and well spread over the generous space.

"Dad, where the hell are we going?", he asked after walking on again.

"To the barn."

Kait took a sharp breath in. She was surprisingly well holding up with everything.

"And... where's that?"

JD sighed.

"Other side of the estate."

She wanted to respond something, telling him how relived she was to get out of this mess. But as her gaze wandered up the sky, her eyes widened in surprise and her mouth fell open.

"Oh no...", she gasped. "We got a windflare coming in!"

A silent curse escaped JD. He started running.

"Everyone, back to the greenhouse, now!", he wanted to turn on his heel but Marcus pushed him forward.

"No! The barrel shed is better shelter. We're almost there.", Marcus pulled him along.

A strong, dusty wind chased across the paths, bringing sand and other dirt that had not been strong enough to resist its force. The sky turned brownish red, only for white lightning to tear the veil apart.

With all his might, JD threw himself at the door of the shed to force it open. The wind was already tearing on his clothes, making it hard to keep a foot on the ground.

As the door fell open, the others stumbled inside, gasping for air and thanking all the gods of this universe, that they had made it in time.

The roof was already shaking and arching under the force of the storm.

With his eyes glued to the ceiling, JD rushed to his father.

"Dad, we need to go and check on (Y/N).", he insisted, being more restless than he had ever felt.

With a dark shimmer in his eyes, Marcus shook his head.

"You're being impatient.", he said. "We need to take care of Jinn first."

"No, we need to take care of a person!"

"You think my home is less important than a scientist that can handle shit?"

JD pulled a face. His heart was beating inside his chest like crazy.

"Look, I'm glad that we both hold my partner in high hopes, but this is not just a simple problem. We agreed to meet here."

"Good that didn't happen. You would have been single very quickly again."

"Dad! One thing that I'm asking you to do for me."

"You are prioritising the wrong things. I helped build the lab. It's perfectly safe. If (Y/N) needs to hide from a windflare than without risks. But we have an issue at hand."

"And I can't run around, shooting fucking robots, while I might lose what is the equivalent to me as mom was to you!"

Suddenly, Marcus froze. The anger faded from his face and for the hint of a second he was speechless. It seemed as if he didn't believe what his son just had said.

"Fine! Let's pass by the lab. But you'll be responsible for your friends.", Marcus stomped towards a hatch in the ground and pulled it open. "After you."

But before JD jumped in, he turned to Del.

"Del, you know where the barn is, right? Go there and wait for us. We'll be back as quick as possible."