I DON'T SEE WILL SMITH!

RIO WAS NOT TRILLED. Why? Because she was buckled up in the back seat of Javi's truck, driving toward a storm with Kate in the passenger seat. They were heading west, and she really wished they weren't.

"What'd the tornado cowboy have to say?" Javi asked. Kate had informed Rio that Tyler Owens came to talk to her.

"Exactly what you'd expect," Kate said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, the rest of his crew seemed real nice," Rio admitted. "Met them inside the store."

"Well, that's worth something, I guess." Then Kate looked out the window. "Oh, updraft is cycling. Okay, let's lake a right up here."

They ended up heading for a wind farm, and Rio watched with a frown as the wind turbines began trembling, a sign that most of them wouldn't hold up if things got much worse. She didn't want to be around if they didn't.

"It's forming just like you called it," Javi said excitedly.

Rio then watched Kate, who was watching the clouds circling nervously. This was the first real tornado Kate had been in since it happened, and Rio wondered if she was as scared as she was.

As Kate watched and they continued down the road, Javi called to the others on the radio.

"Scarecrow, Tin Man, get into position?" Javi said over the radio. "Wizard, stick with me."

"Nice names," Rio said with a smile, appreciating the homage to Dorothy.

"What's the plan?" Kate asked.

"I'd like to know too," Rio said even though she might not understand it.

"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. Tin Man will get in there behind the tornado and plant its 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 collect will be received by Wizard."

"Right. Sure," Rio nodded, only sort of understanding.

"How about Lion?" Kate asked, knowing it was the one saddled to their truck.

"We gotta complete the triangle. We get right in front of that thing and set up our radar," he said before noticing how she was taking deep breaths. "You got this Kate. Just tell us where the front of the tornado is."

"Okay," she breathed out.

Then a thin funnel began forming, which excited Javi but terrified Rio. "That's our tornado, baby!" he exclaimed.

But suddenly, an annoyingly large truck came in front of them, running them off the road. Rio grabbed the back of Kate's seat and cursed, glaring at Tyler's truck as Javi tried to regain control.

"It's like psycho Wild Wild West out here!"

"I don't see Will Smith" Rio shouted in annoyance as he got back on the road, driving behind Tyler.

No matter what, Javi couldn't get past Tyler's obnoxiously large vehicle, who was purposefully blocking them. And behind them, the caravan was blocking the rest of their team as well.

Rio tried to ignore than and instead looked out at the wind turbines, noting that they were beginning to shake.

"Get me in front of it," Javi told Kate, trying to ignore Tyler's car as well. They could hear the radio blaring from the speakers.

"Okay, okay. We need to take a right. Here!" Kate instructed.

They made a sharp right, and hail began falling. It was easily golfball-sized, Rio noted, which was a good sign even though she hated it. She kept her eyes on Tyler's car, her eyes going wide as one of the fans fell and the blades nearly crashed into them.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, her face to the window.

Thankfully, they swerved right out of the way, no doubt terrifying that reporter that was with them.

And the show was certainly exciting to a group of fans who were parked nearby, cheering for the YouTubers. Much to Javi's annoyance, one of their own trucks pulled over to watch.

"Hey!" Javi shouted, honking. "What are you doing?"

"Is that the Tyler Owens effect?" Rio asked, raising an eyebrow, not seeing the appeal. His channel must've been bigger than she thought to garner this kind of a reaction.

"Wizard, hang back. Get those hard drives fired up," Javi ordered over the radio.

"Copy that, Wizard hanging back."

"The path is shifting," Kate noted before looking at a map. "Okay, there's a right coming up."

The truck turned down a muddy side road. And as they drove, the units with Tin Man and Scarecrow got their PARs in position, sending in the hard date.

"Where at, Kate?" Javi asked, knowing they were the last step. "I gotta be within three hundred meters for the radar to work."

"We're almost there," she said, leaning forward a bit.

Javi then held out two pairs of goggles to the girls. "Kate, Re, take these."

Rio shook her head. "I'm not getting out of this fucking car, Javi, and you know it."

"Fair point," he shrugged.

Unlike Rio, Kate did slip her goggles on. Then she noticed the windshield wipers beginning to shake, unable to fight the wind. And Rio saw too, getting a reminder of that day. Both girls fell silent.

"Come on, Kate. Talk to me. Talk to me," Javi said, noticing as well. "We're getting close."

"Just up there in the clearing," she finally said, pointing it out. Javi came to a quick stop, facing the bed of the truck toward the oncoming tornado.

Both got out, and Rio turned around, watching through the back window as Javi raced to the bed of the truck. But Kate looked at the tornado, suddenly frozen in fear. So, Rio opened the little back window and called out to them.

"Javi! Check on Kate!"

"Kate! I need you! Kate! Kate!" Javi shouted, not noticing her panic attack.

"Javi, I don't think she's okay!"

Then Kate snapped out of it and ran to the truck. "Javi, get in! Get in!"

Kate was the one to get behind the wheel, and she sped off once Javi was inside. Rio felt her eyes watering, fearing that the storm was going to get worse like last time.

"What is it? What do you see?" Javi asked, scared that the storm was going to get worse as well.

"This isn't right," she muttered, stepping on the gas.

"Hang on, guys. We're gonna find a closer spot," Javi said over the radio. "Is this where it's headed?"

Once they were back on the road, Kate brought the car to a halt. "Javi, I—"

He was already scrambling out of the truck, prepared to set up the PAR. However, after opening up the bed, he actually looked at the tornado, which he realized was too far away. And Kate knew it too.

"We're too far!" he shouted angrily, slamming the bed closed.

And of course, Tyler had to pull up, his music blaring. Rio wiped her eyes and rolled her window down, seeing that Boone and the reporter, Ben, were also in the truck.

"Javi! What are you doing out here, man? Tornado's that way!" he teased. Then he looked at Kate. "Hey, Kate! Howdy, Texas. Heard about you from Boone."

Rio was surprised that his actually bothered to mention her, but also he was probably curious about her and Kate, the two new girls. Then Tyler drove off, while shouting, "Nice goggles, Javi."

Rio then climbed out of the truck and watched Tyler as he drove right for the tornado. He and his crew were hollering at the top of their lungs, and Rio was amazed at how fearless they seemed.

And as they disappeared inside the tornado, bright red and orange lights shot up into the vortex. Rio had never seen anything like it, and for the first time, for just a second, she thought the tornado was beautiful instead of terrifying.

"Are those fireworks?" Kate asked, not believing it.

"Yup," Javi muttered.

"That's amazing," Rio said in awe, running a little closer to get a better look.

She could hear them cheering as the tornado passed them, leaving the truck in tact. Then all of them got out of the truck, jumping around excitedly. Except for Ben, who stumbled on his feet and then threw up.

"He's insane," Kate breathed out.

"Yeah," Javi said, clearly very upset as he went to the truck. The girls silently followed, knowing that they couldn't fix this. They'd missed their chance.

As they got inside, Tyler pulled his truck back up to theirs and smirked at them before swirling his finger like a tornado mockingly. Boone managed to wave at Rio, who weakly waved back. Then Tyler drove off again.

"I'm sorry, Javi. I - I screwed up," Kate admitted shamefully.

"Hey, we'll find another one," Javi said, trying to not make her feel bad. "That's all part of the gig, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"I'm gonna go check in with Scott," he then said, getting out of the truck.

It left the girls alone, and Rio saw how upset Kate was with herself. She kicked the side of the door and put her head in her hands.

So, Rio quickly climbed into the front seat, taking Javi's spot. "Hey," she said softly. "Don't think for a second that you did something wrong."

"But I did," she insisted. "I completely choked," she said, rubbing her eyes. "And Javi might get in trouble. He brought me on to predict storms, and I couldn't even do that."

"You can do it. But going back into one after what happened? That's not... that's not something that you can prepare for. Javi is asking a lot of you, so he needs to be patient."

Kate took in a deep breath and nodded. Then she reached for Rio's hand. "What about you? How was it?"

"I definitely don't miss it," she admitted with a frown. "I don't get how Javi is so okay. Makes me wish I could move on like that."

"Maybe we will. One day."

"Yeah," she muttered. "Doesn't feel like it'll be any day soon, though."

☆︎

Rio walked alongside Kate and Javi toward their rooms at the motel. The parking lot was alive with food and music around every parked car. For a moment, Rio smiled, reminded of all the motels they stayed at while storm chasing.

"Haven't we stayed here before?" Javi asked, thinking it looked familiar.

It made Kate laugh. "Yeah, Javi. We've stayed in every motel in Oklahoma."

"Remember we used to have Addy check in," Rio said with a sad smile, her eyes watering as she thought of her girlfriend. "Then later, we'd all sneak into the room so that we could all sleep ten bucks. We'd have Addy do it cause—"

"Cause she looked so sweet," Kate said, smiling bitterly. "Even though Re was younger."

"It's cause she was," Rio said, quickly wiping a stray tear that fell.

"Hey, um, you wanna hang out later?" Javi suddenly asked the girls, who he'd missed so much. Rio noted, though, that he was looking more-so at Kate. "You know, I'll just go up to the room real quick and, obviously, shower and we can come back out here."

"Um, look, I'm real tired," Kate mumbled. "But maybe another time?"

Javi was clearly disheartened. "Yeah. Alright. Night."

Rather than remind him that she was still free to hang out, Rio opted to follow Kate, who was walking away. Their rooms were right next to each other.

"Night," Kate mumbled.

"It's good to have you back," Javi said. "Both of you."

"I'm not back," Kate said, shaking her head.

"I remember. One week."

"Yeah, I got a PhD to finish," Rio reminded him.

Then the girls walked up the metal stairs, heading toward their rooms on the second level. Only to pass by a big ol' truck and a group of rowdy YouTubers.

"City Girl? Texas?" Tyler questioned, not expecting them. He thought they'd be holed up in some fancy hotel in town given that Kate was from New York and worked with Storm PAR.

"Whoo!" Lily cheered, making Rio smile a bit.

"Hey," Dexter greeted cordially.

"The cells to the west will choke each other out, she said," Tyler said, shaking his head. "The one to the east will put on a show."

Kate just smirked. "Well, didn't throw you off the scent."

"Hey, that's what makes Tyler famous," Boone bragged.

"Oh, he's famous?" Rio asked, raising a mocking eyebrow.

"You mean on YouTube?" Kate asked, clearly judging them.

"Y - Yeah. We're on the YouTube," Boone said, his eyes on Rio. He sat a little straighter now that he had her gaze on him. "We've got about, what? A million subscribers now."

"Yeah!" Lily exclaimed proudly.

"That's actually pretty impressive," Rio admitted, making Boone beam.

"Uh, Kate and Rio what?" Ben then chimed in. "Your surnames just in case I include you in my piece."

Kate bit her cheek, knowing her last name would give them away. "Oh, um, just Kate's fine. And Rio too."

"She's a tricky one," Tyler told him.

"Actually, you made a good call earlier. The other storm, it looked stronger, but the cap never broke," Boone said to her.

"What's a cap?" Ben asked, unfamiliar with the terminology.

"Temperature inversion in the mid particle atmosphere inhibits the storm from forming," Dexter explained.

"Okay," he said, clearly not understanding. Rio finally felt like she wasn't the only one not an expert on storms. "Good."

"Where did you guys all meet?" Kate asked as Rio leaned against the railing of the stairs. "Did you - did you study meteorology at the U of A?"

Lily, who was working on her drone, just laughed with the others. It was Boone who answered.

"Me, you know, I just flow with the wind," Boone told them, again speaking more to Rio. "You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I never went to, like, school or nothin'." He looked a little embarrassed to admit that.

"Nothin' wrong with that," Rio said softly, making him smile.

"Tyler, he studied meteorology though," Boone went on.

"Him?" Kate asked, looking a bit surprised.

Tyler sucked on his teeth to hold back a smile as Boone kept going. "Yeah! You know, he's a cowboy scientist. You know, he's got this natural instinct—"

"Okay, Boone," Tyler said, getting a bit bashful.

But Boone kept going. "Taught me everything I know. So—"

"Boone," he cut him off firmly. Then he eyed Kate. "You know, our crew's not like your crew, Kate. We don't need PhDs and fancy gadgets to do what we do. I gurantee you, these guys have seen more tornados than anyone else in this lot combined."

She raised an eyebrow. This guy had no clue. "Is that right?"

"Do you think there's a chance we'll see one tomorrow?" Ben questioned.

Dani threw him a beer that he barely caught. "Yeah."

"Oh, yeah," Boone agreed. "Outbreak, baby."

"You know, if you can keep up, we'll put you two in the episode," Tyler offered before sipping his beer.

"Wow," Kate said, not impressed.

"Where are you chasing tomorrow?" Lily asked.

"Oh, no. No, no, no," Tyler said quickly. "Not falling for that again. Kate's from New York. Can't trust a thing she says."

"Well, you can always trust a guy that puts his face on a t-shirt," she shot back.

"Ooh!" Rio snickered as Kate finished going back up the stairs. She opted to hang back for a minute, laughing with the others.

"Oh, my god. Look at his face," Lily teased, watching Tyler.

"That surprised you, didn't it?" Dani asked, chuckling still.

"The shirt is pretty tacky," Rio said, smirking at Tyler.

"Hey. Tacky sells," Dani said, grinning. "You wanna hang out with us, Texas?"

"No, way! She's working for City Girl. Can't be trusted," Tyler said, really only joking.

"Naw, we can trust her. She almost hit that Scott fella," Boone said, chuckling.

"That was funny as hell," Lily said, nodding along. "Come on, grab a beer."

Rio glanced up at the stairs where Kate had disappeared. Usually, she said no to invitations like this — any kind of social interaction. But she was also still wound up from the tornado and didn't want to be alone.

"I guess one beer won't hurt."