Chapter Text
Kevin Richardson stood at the fence, looking at the sky when he heard the car pulling up. He didn't divert his gaze from the sky, a wall cloud was forming out over the open fields, clouds billowing angrily and a distant rumble of thunder. He didn’t need radar to tell him what was brewing in the western sky, the huge thunderhead blooming upward in the atmosphere like they had a grudge to settle. Today was going to be a long day, and it was only eight in the morning. They’d settled on this road after the new intern had made contact with Brian about an hour ago. A car pulled up towards the equipment van and a tall man stepped out.
“I think that's our new guy.” a voice from next to him said, and a shorter man appeared as his sandy brown hair blew in the wind that was picking up.
“You think so, cuz?” Kevin asked.
Kevin could feel it in his bones that something was brewing. The sky was starting to turn a nasty shade of green.
“She's really talking today, “ Kevin continued, ignoring what his cousin had said. Brian was younger than him, but not by much. They'd been chasing together for a while now since Brian had left the university they attended for the ministry and after that left to go to medical school because he was so indecisive about what he wanted to do with his life. After he graduated medical school, Kevin had practically begged him to join his storm chasing team, something they had enjoyed doing together. Having him around was truly a godsend sometimes Kevin thought. Brian was the team’s medic but also helped haul equipment when they needed to. Kevin was thankful to have some family around for support.
“Yep, that's him. He was supposed to be here a half hour ago.”
“Is he the one you've been messaging? Guy from YouTube? The photographer or blogger, whatever he was? He's late.”
“Don't start that crap already, Kev. This will be really good for the team, I promise.”
“I hope you are right.”
A tall blonde man in his early to mid 20’s approached the team that was currently spread along the lonely Kansas road. He stepped out of his green pickup truck, looking at the array of vehicles. Kevin looked the kid over, he was messily dressed in his jeans and t-shirt.
“You must be the video guy Kevin told us was coming,.” a voice called from the first van. The van was dusty and beat up and contained a lot of equipment, a man wearing sunglasses and a hat sitting in the open door, a half empty can of Monster energy drink at his side. He set down the drone he had been fiddling with, wiped his hands on his denim shorts, and greeted the newcomer with a handshake. The blonde man smiled and took it, shaking heartily.
“I guess you could say that. It was kinda hard to find you guys out here. The name’s Nick.”
“I'm Alex, but everyone calls me AJ. This is Howie. He's our navigator and also does data analysis. Sorry, not familiar. I shoot my own footage with these drones, it doesn’t leave a lot of time to browse YouTube.” AJ smiled, pointing at the other man standing in front of the van that was poring over a big pile of maps. Nick thought AJ was really cool with his tattoos and piercings, he admired his video work.
“Yeah, I saw your work online. I love your camera angles. I am a photographer and spotter but I also do blogging and vlogging. A little bit of everything.” Nick explained. AJ nodded, still playing with the drone in his lap. A rumble of thunder made them look up towards the horizon.
“You feel that drop in the pressure? This storm’s got teeth.” Nick commented.
“So I guess you really do know your stuff.” AJ grinned approvingly. Kevin observed them from afar, his expression remaining stony. The kid reminded him of his son Mason with his messy blonde hair and boundless energy. Not someone that he wanted to be reminded of just before they were going out on a chase.
“The dryline is tightening up over there, you see how aggressive this is?” Nick continued.
“Yes, the dewpoint is jumping all over the place. I’m Howie but you can call me D for Dorough. Everyone calls me D.” Howie waved from the hood of the van where he had several maps strewn about. Howie was a bit older than AJ, his long black hair tied back into a ponytail and had gone to the same college, they were old college friends. He'd joined Kevin's team after AJ talked him into it and left Florida for the Midwest. If you asked him, he would say he didn’t miss living in Florida but he was lying. He called his mom daily to check in with her because she would worry about her favorite son.
“Nice to meet you, Howie. I’m-“
“Nick Carter. I used to watch your channel before you stopped posting. I can see why Brian suggested we take you along, the two of us used to love your videos. He and Kevin are over there by the fence.” Howie said. Nick smiled because he hoped at least one person on this team had seen his channel and storm chasing videos.
“The sky looks like it wants to fight.” AJ said, as the thunder rumbled in the distance.
“I think it’s about to.” Howie observed, gathering up his maps and putting them into the truck. In the van, Howie was tracking the radar and compiling data about the growing wall cloud.
“Radar is lit up like the fourth of July, we got a bow echo slicing east from Dodge. Lots of shear. Rotation markers are tight.”
“How tight?” Kevin called from over by the fence. His eyes looked at the sky again.
“No warnings yet, but I think we should pack up pretty soon in case. I’ve got my stuff in the truck.” Howie shouted.
“Fifteen minutes, tops.” AJ chimed in casually.
Nick walked over to where the cousins stood by the fence. He’d talked to Brian on video chat before but this was his first time meeting Kevin Richardson. Kevin was well known in the storm chasing community and was one of the best at his craft. He knew what a storm was thinking and had great instincts.
“You're late.” Kevin said gruffly.
“Nick, it’s great to finally meet you in person.” Brian said warmly, offering him a handshake. Kevin didn’t turn around, his eyes fixated on the stormy sky in front of him with his jaw tight in thought.
“I had a hard time finding you guys, thanks for meeting me here. I am not super familiar with this part of Kansas. I usually go more towards Wichita.”
“Have you ever seen a real storm before?” Kevin asked suddenly, his eyes narrow and looking Nick up and down. Nick knew he was already being judged for his age because he got that a lot.
“I know I look young, but I’ve seen my share of tornadoes. I went to college and took physics and meteorology classes just like you did. I’m just here to get back into something that took a backseat for a while and to learn. So save it.” Nick snapped. He’d seen his share of tornadoes and didn’t feel like yet another fellow storm chaser judging him immediately.
“I just want to make sure we didn’t make a mistake. I saw your videos, you’re a bit reckless-” Kevin started but was interrupted by Howie shouting excitedly about a rotation about two miles away in a nearby town. Kevin looked back up at the sky and could see it in the distance. The wall cloud was definitely showing signs of rotation signatures and he could see where Howie had been talking about the hook echo.
“So are we going,, or are you going to keep judging me before you know me?” Nick smirked, running towards his truck. Taking a look at his cousin, Kevin and Brian raced to their van where AJ was busily loading up the drones he had been tinkering with.
“It’s go time, baby!” he said as he slammed the van doors like a kid on Christmas morning.
“Let’s dance.” Kevin said, putting on his headset and buckling his seatbelt and exchanging grins with his cousin in the passenger seat. The radio kept crackling with various conversations between the cars about direction and different things, all of them sounding excited over the CB.
“Head Northwest, towards Jetmore-”
“No, no….Northeast. It’s building pretty fast. We got a warning over there.”
“Are you sure, D? The vortices are crazy with this thing. Never seen anything like it, not since El Reno.”
Nick looked at the sky and felt his chest tighten, this was going to be his chance to prove himself.
“Kid, you still with us? You fell behind a bit on the back road back there.”
In his truck, Nick groaned at Kevin’s comment because he was still judging him. He hated being treated like a child, he was far from a teenager. In his twenties, he had seen his share of storms and weathered their burden. He thought back to the El Reno storm, the one that had taken his brother and made him stop videoing storms for a while.
He wouldn’t be a quitter this time.
“Yeah, I’m here and I’m not a kid.” he said over the CB with determination, gripping his steering wheel so that his knuckles turned white.
He was ready to prove them wrong no matter what it took. The storms wouldn’t control him anymore.