⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 ASKING FOR IT      ╱     GHOSTS ON THE HORIZON.𖥔˚
chapter TWO

          Oklahoma was known for its dry heat, making the humid air sitting heavy on the chests of its residents this week a telltale sign of bad to come. Growing up as close to Tornado Alley as she did, it was a feeling Carmen was more than accustomed to. Deep in her soul, it was one she craved.

Her fingers curled over the button controlling her wind, the wind smacking her window almost like a siren call to roll it down and introduce herself to the storm. Yet with it, a memory buried deep in her soul, taking shape in the old form of Addy, comes too. It's enough to pull her fingers away from her button and toward the bite of her teeth.

In the front, Javi looks at Kate out of the corner of his eye, then tilts his head toward Carmen in the seat behind her. His eyes are a quiet storm. "What did the tornado cowboy have to say?"

"Exactly what you'd expect," Kate tells him, and Carmen hums around the nail between her teeth. Thankfully, neither of them turns to face her place in the back, meaning she avoids a scolding on that one.

"Yeah," she says after a beat, trying to clear the battle in her friend's eyes. "Wasn't anything to worry about."

Javi nods, but it's clear the words don't hit their target. He still doesn't quite look convinced. Instead, he lets the silence between them fester as he looks back toward the road in front of them. Carmen wants to fill it━━━will even settle for it to not be so uncomfortable. Deep down, she aches for a time when silence between the three of them could never be awkward.

Finally, after too many cycles of thoughts running rampant in her mind, Kate finally breaks it. "Oh, updraft is cycling." She points a finger toward the windshield. "Okay, let's take a right up here."

The redirection toward the focus of their day━━━the tornado, and the data it could bring━━━is exactly what everyone in the truck needs. Carmen blinks, pulling herself away from a dangerous path down a tattered and twisted memory lane, and looks out her window toward the cyclone of wind and water once again. "Damn." She whistles through her teeth, a sharp sound in all their ears. "Look at her."

The tires of the truck squeal as Javi hooks the right Kate previously pointed out, and Carmen slides in the backseat roughly. The seat belt digs into the sink just below her collarbone harshly, pressing the air out of her chest and stealing it for the area around them.

"Jesus, Javi," she laughs, pressing herself back against the seat and shaking her head. The flash of pain bursts in her system harshly, a reminder she's alive. Her fingers brush where the red mark will linger for the span of the day.

The man catches her eyes in the rearview mirror, mouth quirking into a sympathetic smile while his eyes shine. "Sorry, Carm," he mumbles━━━sounding nothing like he is.

"No, you're not," she refutes, softening the blow with a warm and understanding smile. The closer they got to the storm ahead, the faster their hearts raced and their emotions fell out of a range that made sense.

For Javi, it was because the prospect of collecting the data he could with the machines spread out through three different vehicles was life-changing. The same could be said for Carmen and Kate━━━but it wasn't all. For the former, it was the rush of adrenaline pumping in her blood and stretching through her skin. For the latter, it was the telltale sign of panic and fear that came with encountering the same thing that swarms your nightmares day in and day out.

In the distance, thunder rumbles softly. A last chance warning call. Before, it would've spurred the three of them further faster. Now, it rattles their bones so hard that hidden memories shake loose and it almost feels like Javi lets off the gas just enough to feel the effect. Quickly, he presses back down, leaving the moment to be nothing but a blip. It almost feels like he's trying to do the same to them.

"It's forming just like you called it," he crows excitedly, and Carmen looks toward the window in wonder. The funnel is starting to take shape, leading closer and closer to looking like exactly what they need to make this day a success. "Scarecrow, Tin Man, get into position. Wizard, stick with me."

Even though she knows she shouldn't, Carmen unclips the belt digging into her pale skin and slides into the middle seat. It's ultimately more dangerous, being in the middle and without a seatbelt, but that's part of what makes her do it. To feel that rush of panic and this is wrong that makes her laughs go giddy and her blood sing.

Leaning forward, she ignores the panicked look Kate immediately sends to her when her presence is noticed. The blonde might need the control right now━━━the need to know everything is okay because last time it wasn't━━━but Carmen needs this. She needs to feel it all and lose herself to the storm brewing outside that's stretching to reach her. It's been too long, and there's no denying the ease she feels finally being back in this scenario.

Still, she reaches a hand forward and grabs the girl's to squeeze roughly━━━trying to convince her with eyes alone that It'll be okay.

After a moment, Kate nods. Slowly, she squeezes back━━━hard enough to feel bones creak━━━before releasing and picking up the tablet in her lap once again. "What's the plan?" She asks Javi, who had been watching them silently with a haunted look on his face.

As if he's trying to dislodge the moment in order to focus, he clears his throat on a side of just a little too rough. "So, we want a 3D scan of the entire area around the vortex, which means we're gonna surround it with three radars, each one pointed at the tornado." The brunette looks toward the still-forming funnel in the sky, suddenly realizing just why they needed Kate Carter as badly as they did. There truly was no one else who could predict a twister well enough to get them in the right places. "Tin Man will get behind the tornado and plant his radar on the right-hand side. Scarecrow is gonna get behind the tornado and plant his on the left. And all the data that they send will be received by Wizard."

That left only one more vehicle and one more position. Carmen groans low in her throat and looks at Javi. "Seriously?" Sure, Kate agreed to come out for the week. But throwing her right into the fray of a tornado, right in front of it, for her first one back━━━after tears and blood left a sour taste in her mouth that had her fleeing before━━━felt like pushing just too far.

Kate, taking in her friends battling annoyance and guilt, speaks up. "And how about Lion?"

"We got to complete the triangle. We get right in front of that thing and set up our radar." Looking away from the road and toward Kate's inquisitive and startled eyes, Javi taps his fingers on the steering wheel a few times. "You got this, Kate. Just tell us where the front of the tornado is."

"Oh my God," Carmen mutters under her breath, realizing just how blind Javi truly is right now. How much he doesn't get it.

Whenever they used to chase storms, Javi was always the straggler left behind with his gadgets. It's where he felt safest and most comfortable━━━with his machines in his van a safe distance away. Never once did they judge him for his choice, only so many can accept the idea of throwing themselves into the path of death's arms and knowing how hard it is to get away, but the lack of real experience reflects in his optimism now. Maybe she should've asked how many tornadoes he and his crew had attempted to catalog in the field before she and Kate got there. Should know just who she's throwing herself into hell with.

"Okay," Kate mutters weakly, looking back down at the tablet in her hands again.

Smiling at her agreement, despite how small it is, Javi whoops lightly and leans further over the dash to look out the glass or the front windshield. "That's our tornado, baby!" He slaps his hand on the wheel under his deft fingers, and Carmen wants to do the same to his head.

Instead, she keeps her eyes on Kate as Javi steps on the gas. If something goes wrong and the blonde needs to be pulled out, which is looking more and more likely, that's her first priority. Fuck the data.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Carmen is thrown harshly to the right of the back cab. The entire truck shudders when Javi swerves roughly and sends them torpedoing into a field as he struggles for control of the truck again. "What the hell?" The Stetson on her head flies to the floor and her head spins, but she forces herself to hook her hand on the back of Kate's headrest━━━just barely stopping herself short from banging her head on the window as they are thrown around due to the bumpy terrain. It pulls the muscles in her arm tight, immediately straining them under her own weight, and she recoils as she sits back up.

"Dumbasses!" Javi hollers, directing Carmen's attention out the glass and to the familiar-looking red RAM now cruising down the street they were just on. "It's like the wild, wild West out here!"

Speeding back up without concern for his passenger in the back very clearly not buckled ━━━which, yes, is her fault but Jesus━━━Javi hooks the wheel to the right again with the intention to take them back to paved dirt inside of grass. It sends Carmen flying to the opposite side of the cab, only just barely catching herself with her hands on the door. The impact stings her palms, but she barely feels it. "Jesus, Javi!"

He doesn't dignify her with a response, but Kate turns around the best she can in the bumpy ride to grab Carmen's arm and help pull her back into her position sitting up. It doesn't last too long, as Javi cuts right in front of the last Storm PAR vehicle, turning harshly to the left to recenter and sending her toward the right. Quickly, her fingers clasp on the leather of Kate's headrest, and she ignores the ache when the muscles tense.

After finally getting back into her seat, and strapping the damn belt in, she watches through the front window as Tyler and his truck take a sharp turn off the road and subsequently, out of their way.

Seeing this, heavy determination fills the driver of the car, and presses down tighter on the gas pedal. "Get me in front of it."

Kate, still turned around and checking that Carmen's no longer sideways in the backseat, shifts back around in her seat at the demand and picks the tablet off her lap. "Okay, wait." Her eyes flick between the tablet and the twister. "Uh, we need to take a right." She points out the window urgently. "Here." Thankfully, the warning does wonders for Carmen.

They speed down the new road, swerving around bodies gathered in a clearing all holding a device of some kind. Most likely with the stream of Tyler's video pulled up. Surprisingly, some are standing just close enough to touch the grass off the road. That's further than she's seen most go. Less surprisingly, some huddle in their cars in case they need a quick exit. As they go, Javi lays down on the horn harshly and shouts, "Hey, what are you doing?"

In a quiet tone, he looks at Kate briefly, who's still staring out the window in shock. "That's the Tyler Owens effect." Into the earpiece keeping him connected with the rest of the Storm PAR crowd, he directs, "Wizard, hang back. Get those hard drives fired up."

In the rearview, Wizard's driver hits its brakes and slows to a stop beside the crowd of fans. For them, they only speed up as Kate's urgent, "The path is shifting," and continue gunning it down the path until she points out another right for them to take. It leads down a mud-covered road that the wheels sink into and fight against━━━as if trying to give them a warning.

Javi doesn't listen.

"Where, Kate?" He calls over the roar of the engine and the pounding of all their hearts. "We got to be within 300 meters for the radar to work."

The blonde continues to shout out directions over the rest of the chaos, and Carmen can only hold on as Javi takes turns sharper than he needs to. She knows it's because he feels like he's battling not only the storm by Tyler, but the sharp turns and stretched-thin muscles are leading to a build-up of pressure she's sure none of them wants to see break.

Reaching into the center console, the curly-haired man pulls out three sets of identical-looking glasses and shoves two pairs toward the girls. "Okay, take these."

Without arguing, they do. The glass is cold to the touch, and it's a shock to her flushed skin. It sends a strange feeling through her nerves and up her spine, and she smiles minutely as she slides them onto her face quickly.

"Come on, Kate, talk to me, talk to me. We getting close?"

There's an urgency in Javi's voice that fills the car with restless energy as Kate hesitates. It makes Carmen want to jump out of her seat and into the wind and the rain━━━to feel the sting on her skin. It's been so long since she's been close enough that she almost forgot what the feel brought her. Not only did it make her hollowed-out bones feel alive, but it brought her closer to her dad in a way she hadn't been able to feel in years.

The blonde splutters, looking from the tablet back to the sky━━━where the answers truly live. "Just up there in the clearing," she tells him.

Immediately, Javi swings the truck around to face the rear end toward the funneling chaos, and the three rip themselves from their seats and out the doors. Carmen jogs past the back end, where Javi and Kate will ultimately take over the scientific part of this chase, and gets herself close enough that she can almost feel the tug of wind down to her core. Something flies by her head that seeps out a metallic smell, and she has to drop her shoulder low to avoid being caught by it.

It makes it hard to hear much, standing so close to the overwhelming rush in her ears, but it's hard to miss Kate's strangled cry of, "Carmen!", behind her.

"Kate?" She turns immediately, taking in the stricken look on the blonde's face. In a blink she's by her side, holding her arms tightly and pulling the other so close their noses could brush. "Kate, are you okay?"

"Kate!" Their third party calls a few feet away, and she waves an angry hand at him. Can't he see it? The rigid line of Kate's muscles, and the memories clouding her mind and ripping her soul to shreds with their intertwined guilt.

"Javi, wait!"

Kate grips one of the hands on her arms and tugs so roughly the knuckles shift and pop in her hold, but she doesn't stop using it to pull her toward the car. "Javi, get in!" Ushering the two with choked cries and demands, she forces them into the truck. "Get in!"

Popping the trunk closed, the three scamper into the truck and slam their doors. Without hesitation, Kate's foot slams down on the gas and gets them moving.

"What is it? What is it?" he demands, twisting around in his seat in every direction possible to try and see what he thinks Kate is right now. "What do you see?"

"This isn't right," she breathes.

Carmen's stomach rolls, and she closes her eyes so tears don't spring to them. Fuck us, she thinks, for putting her back in here like it was going to be okay. To her, it couldn't be clearer what Kate was saying.

This isn't right. We can't be here. We already chanced it with fate once. Twice will never work.

Yet, Javi hears nothing but a storm and the outcome it could bring him. "Hang on, guys. We're gonna find a closer spot," he informs the people listening━━━clearly thinking that's the truth of it.

When they were five years younger, and there were six of us instead of three, five of them fell into the habit of gravitating toward Kate Carter like they were mere plants and she was the sun they needed to live. It was clear Javi was falling into that habit again now, thinking Kate was leading them to a better position instead of just far away like she was. "Is this where it's headed?"

The truck comes to a sudden stop, and Javi immediately jumps out of the passenger seat and rushes toward the hatch even as Kate tries to say, "Javi, I..." It gets drowned out and overwhelmed by the slam of the door, but Carmen hears it. Slipping forward in her seat again, she squeezes Kate's upper arm roughly. "Katie?"

The blonde doesn't get to answer before frustrated yelling comes from the back of the truck, and Carmen growls lowly. "That motherfucker," she mumbles, practically vaulting over the seats toward her door. The door flings open with such force that the hinges creak angrily, but she ignores it in favor of slamming it shut again and stalking toward Javi near the back.

Close enough to reach for him, she shouts. "Hey!" Flat palms hit his chest roughly, pushing and pushing until he's stumbling and hopefully feeling as off-footed as Kate does right now. "What the hell is wrong with you? Huh? Throwing her in front of the first twister she's seen in five years after the last one she was in took our friends? What sane person does that? And then screaming like a madman because we're 'too far'. She needs time Javi! She needs to process! She can't do that if you're throwing her into the middle of a storm at the same time she's got one in her mind. And it sure as hell ain't safe for any of us!"

For a moment, she thinks he's going to bite back. His eyes are wide and his fists are clenched, the perfect image of someone ready to pull off my flesh from old wounds and keep going. Yet, he says nothing. Only after Carmen shoves him again━━━lighter than the times before━━━does he deflate like a balloon popped. "I know, okay? I know. I'm sorry."

"I don't need your apology," she scoffs, finally pulling her hands back. She drops them to her sides, then immediately crosses them in front of her to stop her from doing something with leftover anger. "The girl a mental wreck in the driver's seat does."

"Right." He nods, scrubbing a hand down his face before stepping to move past Carmen and toward the car again. His steps falter at a call in the distance, and she rolls her eyes at the sound. It's impossible to miss the red truck that comes with it, nor the man sticking his head out the window looking at them.

"StormPAR!" Tyler laughs, the sound echoing around the empty clearing. "Javi! What are you doing out here, man? Tornado's that way." He waves a hand in the direction they had just fled from, and Carmen wants to grab it and shove it back in his own mouth so he'll shut up.

Like he can feel her thoughts, he brings said hand up and salutes her with two fingers off his temple and a cheeky smirk. "Carmen."

"Owens," she bites, unsure why she's even dignifying him with a response even as she does. Maybe it's the need to show him somehow he doesn't affect her like he clearly thinks he does. As her arms press tighter to her chest, she knows she failed.

He dips his chin at her, eyes dancing. Then, he tilts his head back to the cab of the truck. "Hey, Kate," he calls, loud enough to be heard through the rolled-up windows.

Successfully under all their skin, Tyler whoops obnoxiously and shouts, "Nice goggles, Javi!", before revving his truck and driving away. She crinkles her nose at the dust rucked up from his truck, and turns to watch as he drives straight toward the cycling tornado. Her chest tugs and the fleeting wish to be in that truck instead of Lion spirals around her. She doesn't even realize she's biting her thumbnail━━━or that Kate's suddenly beside her━━━until Kate's pulling her hand gently away.

As the three watch the truck disappear into the tornado miles away, guilt churns in her gut for silent thoughts and driving forces. It's only as a piercing whistle fills the air that her thoughts are shaken, and she blinks back into focus to watch as fireworks pop in a kaleidoscope of color in the spiraling darkness.

"Are those fireworks?" Kate asks solemnly, the obvious answer on display as the rockets continue to whistle and pop. Still, both Javi and Carmen sigh before telling her, "Yep."

She shakes her head, eyes wide and astonished. "He's insane."

Together, they all have no choice but to stand and watch as Tyler and Boone jump out of the truck━━━the tornado having just passed them and clearly still close enough to feel━━━and start hollering at the sky. "Yeah," they both echo again, tones much more subdued than they'd been at any other point in the day, before climbing back into the truck.

In the car, where the wind and the rain and ghosts of the past can't touch them, Kate sighs. "I'm sorry, Javi. I...I screwed up." Her shoulders are sunken in and her words carry a weight that's had to fester a lot longer than the last five minutes.

It makes the girl in the back frown harshly, and she cuts in immediately. "Hey. There will be another damn tornado."

"Yeah," Javi agrees, looking at the blonde. His eyes fill with a quiet understanding no one but them would know. "We'll find another one. It's all part of the gig, right?"

She nods. "Yeah, of course."

The smiles the two share are weak, but both pretend not to notice. Instead, Javi only shakes his head lightly. "I'm gonna go check in with Scott," he tells them, jumping out of the car before either girl can answer.

When he's gone, it's all Carmen can do to lean forward and wrap her arms tightly around Kate, whispering in her ear, "It's not your fault."

▬▬ mads speaks ╱ bonus scene: just imagine
boone in the truck with tyler going: "damn. you see her
all up in javi's ass?" & tyler going: "yeah. yeah, i saw."
and already being down bad. that's all.
until next time!