As the dust faded, a communication DeeBee appeared.

Annoyed, JD lowered his gun to face it.

Jinn's appearance lit up on the screen.

"Ah! Lieutenant. Time to finish our earlier conversation.", she approached.

But he shook his head.

"Jinn, listen. You have no idea what's actually happening here.", he tried to explain and flashed her a casual grin.

"Oh, but I do. Sedition. Led by one James Dominic Fenix, the son of an infamously disgruntled old Gear... Speaking of which. Sergeant, how are you? Sorry about the door."

Marcus pushed himself in front of his son, forcing him to take two steps back.

"Don't sweat it.", he hissed. "We were just leaving."

"So we're clear, Sergeant. If you choose to aid these fugitives, I can't protect you."

"Yeah.", Marcus looked down at the gun in his hand, already plating with the starter. "That sounds about right."

The sound of a running chainsaw filled the silence. A hint of surprise could be caught in Jinn's eyes before the blades dug into the DeeBee, slicing it into two uneven pieces.

Gasping in surprise, JD had to laugh.

"Holy shit.", Kait gasped.

But the moment of power didn't last long.

The remaining group of DeeBee's lined up in front of the house. The flood light of a helicopter tore the darkness apart.

Quickly, Marcus pushed the window to the backyard open and helped everyone get out before he climbed through himself.

"Nice to see you still have a way with people, Marcus!", Del huffed while chasing across the yard.

"Just head for the back door!", Marcus growled and fired the first shot as the helicopter dropped some gifts from the sky. "Ah, shit. Guess we're dealing with this first."

JD jumped behind one of his mothers flower beds and landed a clean shot, taking the first enemy down before his father hand the chance to impress.

Bullets chased through the air. The calm night turned into a battlefield.

The ground started to shake as the helicopter dropped more to deal with.

Annoyed, JD groaned and aimed for a particularly big DeeBee, a guardian. But he barely had the chance to press some bullets into it.

With a scream, Marcus threw a grenade through the barrier, causing it to explode while being trapped in its own shell.

"I take it these are Jinn's new toys.", he growled as the situation was under control again.

JD huffed.

"Yeah. We've been playing with them all day.", he smirked.

Marcus just shook his head. He had no nerve left for his sons lighthearted attitude. This was serious and he wished to handle it accordingly.

"Come on. Follow me upstairs.", he said and kicked the door to the main building open.

Again, enemies were stupid enough to jump in the way.

But he took them down quicker than the others were able to react.

"Wait, what's upstairs?", Del asked, carefully walking up the stairs to cover Kait.

"Family heirlooms.", Marcus explained.

Sighing, JD rolled his eyes and swallowed a bitter comment. He knew what he was hinting at and he wasn't a fan.

Suddenly, heavily armed units appeared.

JD jumped to the side, raised his riffle and fired a few shots. But the bullets didn't do any damage. Instead, they jumped off the robots like water from wax.

"Shit...", he hissed. "Del, pass me a grenade!"

Quickly, Del grabbed the one he had strapped to his leg and pushed it over.

JD grabbed it, pulled the key and threw it as well aimed as possible.

"Fire in the hall!", he screamed.

The explosion made the ground tremble. Wood splintered off the walls, windows shattered. The shockwave that followed tore a hole into the wall, making it possible for the moon to illuminate the hall.

With an apologetic grin, he shrugged.

"So much for fixing the place up.", JD joked.

Marcus swallowed a wave of anger.

"Careful.", he warned and kept on walking.

He led the group into what once had been his mothers office.

JD still remembered the place quite well. He had often played hide and seek in it with you while his mother had worked on important business. And yet she always has had the time to play a little game with the two of you. The memory brought a small smile to his face.

Marcus approached the wall of bookshelves and started to pull some books out. While doing so, he used a fixed order.

As JD noticed, he frowned. Sometimes his mom had done that too, just never when he had been in the room. He only knew it because he had spied on her once. She had caught him which was the main reason why he was so confused to see his dad do it too.

But his unasked questions were quickly answered as the shelves started to hiss. Slowly, everything began to move until a hidden door opened and allowed entrance into what seemed to be a weapon room.

Neatly lined up, four Gear armours appeared, accompanied by weapons and all sorts of fancy extras that came in handy when fighting a war.

Del's eyebrows rose.

"Yeah, now these are my kind of family heirlooms.", he chirped.

Frowning, JD shook his head.

"You kept our armour.", he said in a soft voice, walking up to his dad.

Marcus huffed.

"I knew you'd be back, probably with your ass on fire.", he handed his son his old chainsaw riffle. "I'm calling in a favour. Time to clear these bucket heads out of my house."

With a worried look, JD rushed to his side and leaned over to make sure that the other two weren't able to hear what they were about to discuss. It wasn't a matter of being ashamed, he just didn't want the others to think that he was being weak in a moment that called for strength and leadership.

"Dad...", he said in a low voice. "About (Y/N)."

Marcus glanced at him from the corner of his eyes.

"You're worried.", he said. "I understand. Back then I felt the same about your mother whenever she wasn't near me. But you can't expect everyone to do as you wish. Maybe something came in the way. Research shit or something."

JD sighed.

"I know. But it doesn't make any sense."

"We'll check the lab once we're done here. If anything happened, your sweetheart went back there."

"Thanks, dad."