Chapter 19

The lightning in the region has a fairly large amount of notoriety for striking various man-made objects. Most notably the highrise skyscrapers and the homes of people, they catch on fire quick as well. Perhaps it's because of the cheap materials used in the construction or just bad luck, the truth remains to be unknown.

Jack's house was no different from the rest. Mr. Gatrica lived right next door to the Ryens, Kayla had known him from her childhood when her parents first moved into the neighbourhood. Being a robotics engineer is no easy job anyway.

The lightning had directly hit the roof of his house. Nobody really knew what got hit until the sirens blared from inside Jack's dwelling.

Meanwhile, Natlia was awestruck by Kayla's imposed question. She turned back slightly to see her daughter sitting upright in her bed, fully attentive and ready to listen to the answer. Natlia took a deep breath, and said with a hurry, "I don't know, dear. Where did you hear that name from?"
"I'm not sure. I think it was in my dream."
"Tell me about it." Natlia retraced her steps back to Kayla.
"I think it was a dream. But it felt so real, almost like a flashback. Like I had lived through that?"
"What did you see?"
"I saw a girl and she was on the floor, covered in blood."
"Who was-"
That was all the time they had before the sirens were sounded.

"Stay right here. Don't move." Natlia said as she flung out of the room to investigate the source of the blaring.
"Yeah sure, not like I'm gonna anywhere in this condition."

Aaron was almost out the door by the time she reached downstairs.

The house belonging to their neighbour was lit. Black, acrid smoke was rising from inside when suddenly another bolt fell on the house. Hearing electricity for the second time in the same location was unsettling at best. Suddenly, a window from the upper storey shattered and out came a chair, followed by a slender man.
He fell on the grassy, front lawn and twisted his ankle. Aaron was swift in his arrival and he quickly picked him up.
"No, I have to go back in."
"We're getting out of here!"
"You don't understand! I need to save my prototypes."
"Listen, your life is more important."

The sky was roaring. The rain was falling, but it wasn't enough to combat the fire.
The firefighters, Hydrazyl had heard the alarm and dispatched FireBots to the premises. In a matter of seconds, 4 FireBots had reached the location and begun their work. The small, red, floating firefighting robots were using their titanium fan blades along with nitroxyl powder to literally put out the fire.

A fifth FireBot came and entered through the broken window. While the rest of them were putting out the fire, it entered Jack's lab discreetly, the prototypes of Jack's latest inventions were parked inside. The bot flew towards the main computing grid and deployed it's mechanical arms to press several buttons, the result being that a chip as small as a button was ejected from the computer. The screen displayed a warning stating that all authorized devices had been notified of the removal. The bot used telekinesis to direct the chip towards itself and made it's exit with the chip in tow. Jack's Glassius was right beside it and it began to ring. It left the house from the same window as before, Jack saw it leaving just as his wrist began to vibrate. He turned on the display mode on his Visor and saw the alert.

WARNING: COMPONENT E54::SE HAS BEEN REMOVED

Jack knew exactly what that meant but he couldn't understand why that error would be showing at a time like this and why the FireBot would be leaving early.
The fire was still raging and a handful of neighbours had gathered outside, spectating the scene.

Jack was impatient, he wanted to go inside and check on the error. He escaped from Aaron and reached for his door, he opened it and saw a FireBot trying to extinguish his burning carpet. A support beam fell from the ceiling and the bot dodged it neatly.
A sudden outrage of flame caught the bot in it's grasp and it blew up, scattering itself everywhere. Jack was thrown outside from his house by the flames. He had acquired several burns on his body in the process and he also lost consciousness. Soon, it was over. The house was not totally burnt but it did suffer some heavy damage, mainly to the living room, the kitchen and the hallway. His lab only suffered minor damage. Everything around the door of the lab was burnt to a crisp though.
Kayla had slowly leaned out from her window to see all the commotion.

Jack woke up on his lawn, being treated by medical personnel.
"Be grateful that you still have your life." Aaron said.
They sprayed medicine on his burns and he screamed in pain.
After he was all patched up, he went inside his house to see the damage. Surprisingly, almost all of his prototypes were untouched. He walked over to his computer and saw the error. He noticed that main chip was missing from it's module. The thought of the 5th FireBot hit him. Hard. Jack later, inquired from Hydrazyl about the FireBot. He came to know that the FireBots are always deployed in groups of four. They had no records of a fifth bot being sent to his address.

The ground beneath him crumbled and he fell into an abyss of despair, for without the chip, his work was of no use. Jack silently murmured something unintelligible and threw his Glassius at the wall in rage. It shattered upon impact, and shards of glass flew everywhere. Jack walked out of his lab and went to his bedroom. He laid down on his bed and went to sleep amidst all the chaos around him. In his mind, he was thinking of some way to retrieve the data from the chip and what he would answer to General Fifrewt.

Jack had stored all his research and test results on the chip and now it was missing.
Kayla was curious as to what was happening outside. She was waiting eagerly for her mother to come back with the details. The rain was increasing in volume by every passing minute.

Zandra had heard about the house fire in Kayla's neighbourhood but she hadn't confirmed whose house it was. Being the extra caring friend she was, she called her friend but the call couldn't get through. She silently looked out her window into the rainy street as if she was contemplating what she should do.