Sins In Twisters

by Blonkess

When Lincoln was destined to never have success like his family, after surviving the Royal Woods' Tornado, his future takes him on the path of becoming a renowned storm chaser. But as years pass since that day, his family tries to hold together after freak disasters put a halt to the sisters' lives when Lisa discovers a past family secret that tells Lincoln's time is running out.

17. Darkness Descends

Sins In Twisters

Chapter 17: Darkness Descends

---

On the morning of Monday, November 10th, 2025, Forecast and prediction centers called for a heightened risk of severe weather due to a collision of a deep trough from an early winter seasonal front and a pressure system pushing through the plains interacting with strong wind shear and the decaying elements of what was formerly Category 3 Hurricane Ogla tracking over the Mississippi River Division.

Due to the high abundance of wind shear, a deep low-level trough with significant upper and lower level rotation, the remains of Ogla's low-pressure system pulling warm, moist air into the direct path of the approaching front.

A Marginal-Risk for severe weather was issued for most of the Mississippi River Division, with a concentrated High-Risk area over parts of Northern Mississippi, Western Tennessee, and Kentucky, and South Indiana. With Western Tennessee and Kentucky having a tornado probability of 35 percent, significant tornadoes of EF2 or greater with wider expectations of strong straight-line winds and flash flooding…

At 11:30 pm Central Daylight Time, the Cap breaks. At just before 12 pm, severe thunderstorms rapidly begin to develop ahead of the line. At 12:45, the first reports of tornadic activity began to be reported.

The Outbreak is Currently Underway...

...

Salem, IN…

In the southeastern corner of the town of just over 6,000 residents, several families stood outside their homes in the steady rain, activity around the center of Public Square ceased, and shoppers at a small shopping plaza south of downtown stood in shock and disbelief. Scrambling to their cars or back into the stores trying to find shelter as the rain and wind began to intensify.

Above the grounds that laid the Crown Hill Cemetery, trees began to collapse, headstones toppled, and houses began to explode as a funnel rapidly condensed over the town.

Paducah, KY…

A camera inside a sedan filming out of the windshield was suddenly yanked off its mount and held up in reverse. It shows the face of a man roughly in his mid to late 20s with a red baseball hat in a black shirt, looking like he was sweating profusely as he kept looking back over his shoulder and out the wind with panic in his eyes.

"Time is 3:31 P.m. November 10th. I am right now racing down Route 62, and I have a giant tornado coming up behind me."

Shifting the camera between his hands, he lowered his window enough to reach it out as the sound of the wind blasting into the microphone blocked out any sound as the image of a nearly mile-wide tornado stood on top of the road. Behind him, dozens of headlights set backlit by the racing vortex as debris flew across the road. Cars in the Westbound lanes slam on their brakes and quickly turn around. Using whatever median they were closest to or riding along the shoulder. Many unable to go fast enough or decided to stay put were soon consumed by the leading edge of the wind field.

Nashville, TN…

"HOLY SHIT, GUYS!" A man screamed as he and a group of nearly a dozen others huddled together at a small 7-Eleven gas station as the surrounding neighborhood disappeared in a blaze of rain and winds. Chunks of roofing from houses and businesses flying in the air. Smacking down onto the streets and into cars, trying to navigate through the wind, trying to force their cars off the roads.

A large tree by the front of someone's house that couldn't stand the bombardment. The grass began to bulge from the roots, ripping away from the Earth as gravity brought it down full force into powerlines. Several poles snapped as the transformers erupted in a bright blue blaze, and sparks flew down the lines. Cars stopped in their tracks as some poles had a domino effect on others. Narrowly crushing some cars as a box truck was unlucky to snag onto one of the lower wires, sending another blast of bright light and sparks across the area.

In seconds, hundreds to thousands of homes and businesses plunged into darkness.

Clifton, TN…

"... We're positioning here southeast of the town of Clifton. We have a massive, very organized, very mature supercell moving directly over us. We're currently waiting for the storm to recycle after having tracked it for the last nearly 50 miles, and it has already produced two very significant tornadoes we were able to get out ahead of but didn't have enough time to deploy. Right now, we're here with the Dominators waiting for the storm to put down a big one…"

…

"Multiple eyewitness reports confirming a tornado touching down west of town by the community of Arthur…"

…

"We are south of Clarksville, violet tornado right there two hundred yards- Oh my god, there goes someone's house!"

…

"Parts of Indianapolis are becoming inundated by the White River. Some areas close to the river banks are currently under two feet of water, and levels are rapidly rising."

…

"Royal Woods is getting pounded by hail. Giant golf ball to baseball size hail all over the place!"

…

"Part of our house is just gone!"

…

"Watch out, look! There goes a train! Tornado just flipped over a train and is going through the CSX rail yard just to the southwest of Evansville, doing major damage."

…

…

…

More storms are expected to form in a stronger follow-up line and continue into the morning hours of the 11th.

---

Flying south back down Interstate 65, Lincoln gave no credence to the soaked roads as Storm Shrieker roared down at a steady 74 mph. The town of Bowling Green and the storm he had 'accidentally' intercepted was now far back in his rearview mirror, blowing off to the East with the radio buzzing of how some of the chasers that stuck around Cave City were reporting a second touchdown.

If the situation down south weren't so bad, then he honestly wouldn't have minded staying and turning back to chase after it. The first tornado did check him off guard from how it developed so fast, and he couldn't see it, but the area east of town was so much more flat and open like he would have been driving in eastern Kansas. There was no significant town out there, plenty of roads to keep ahead of and cross paths with, and it was a region that had a tornado siren to be able to immediately warn anyone around of what was coming. He didn't have the time to check that storm. See what reports or video was coming out of it. He was pretty sure Brandon and his brother were still on it, and he wished them the best of luck.

But right now, he was too focused on getting south. And so far, he was making good time. Half an hour out of Kentucky, he rapidly approached the state line. Yet so was the storm.

He might be unable to view what the cell to the north was doing, but the radar revealed an absolute beast to his south. From the clear slot that divided the cells as he passed Bowling Green, the updraft had to be screaming with how high the structure was going. Reports from anyone further south of him were calling in flooding, and some had hail reports measuring up to baseball-sized stones. Someone near Ridgetop is even calling possible grapefruit. He didn't know how accurate that report was, but it gave credit to how strong the storm was getting.

He was starting to penetrate the outer edges of the storm's limits. From where the rain to the north stopped briefly, it quickly began picking up as the storm expanded. The radio was still buzzing as another new severe warning was placed for the area he was driving through. Tornado warnings around Nashville were all over the place, making him edge the gas pedal down even further.

But there was one big issue: with so much driving and idling and stopping, the tank was burning fuel like no tomorrow. Five hundred dollars in diesel fuel doesn't get you as far as it did a decade ago, and with how hard he had been pushing Shrieker, he was burning it much faster than normal.

Storm Shrieker wasn't built for speed, so much of that power was diverted into the torc needed to be able to move 9 tons while still maintaining average highway speed. If he didn't have to tow a trailer and his Forerunner at only 60 miles, he would have covered the distance to Bobby's place much sooner. But like with any custom vehicle of this caliber, having so many parts and systems added so recently left much to wonder how well they and the old would hold up.

So far, since he left El Reno, Shrieker has honestly been running like a champ now more than ever. The new engine still roared light a demon out of hell, but inside, it was oddly quieter (to which he thanked a lot in the new firewall, dampening the sound). It accelerated fast and braked much harder. The transmission was running smoothly, and with the new axles, it felt like the truck was floating more on an airbag system like semi trucks used. Even from weaving all through the backroads, the tank took it with stride even when running over debris or potholes.

But one of the biggest rules in storm chasing when it came to driving was ALWAYS have a minimum of half a tank. Running out of gas while chasing or being chased by a monster tornado would mean the end in one of two ways.

Right as he crossed the line, a slight right sent Shrieker roaring down the first off-ramp he arrived at and blasted across the overpass toward the Community of Mitchell. A FiveStar gas station crowded with motorists all cramming themselves under the awnings, touching bumper to bumper, trying to dash towards the store or fuel up. The second Shrieker rolled down a dead-end road to turn into the lot; Lincoln could guess that a dozen or so people just went wide-eyed and got a dose of panic at seeing a tornado tank rolling in.

He paid them little mind beyond that. Cruising past a line of tractor-trailers lining the side of the lot, some with drivers and assistants trying to fix or cover up shattered windows, others assessing the damage or just standing out in the rain talking to another truck. He just rolled by towards the first available station where he could fuel up. The second he stopped by the pump and hit the parking brake, he shoved the door open to be greeted by a blast of humid, rain-cooled air to the face.

The rain was picking up more as a steady downpour, but he did not mind it. Unbuckling out of his seat and sliding out, he went to stand up the second his shoes touched wet concrete until he felt like his head was hit by a hailstone. Grabbing his forehead, his brain felt like a hardened blob of taffy being pulled off one of those wall hooks, but it was refusing to stretch. He closed his eyes tight, trying to use both hands like it would help break the tension. He quickly used one to reach over to the windshield and smeared it across the window, trying to get it as wet and cold as possible until he brought it to his head like a cold patch.

For a brief moment, it worked—a brief moment.

"What the hell…" he groaned. Rolling on his side, he kicked at the outrigger to press his head against the armor. He feels it does a lot better than just his hand as he adjusts to try to prop himself up.

He could feel his warm breath deflecting off the cold metal and back at him like it was flame right beside him. The tension in his head eased in a small area, but it felt like half his brain was getting consumed now. Just trying to move to the side to spread the cold made the pain slither down the side of his neck and throat, forcing him back. He took in a gulp of air, feeling his stomach notch up, and clutched it.

If his head weren't hurting right now, he would be cursing out. Asking why the hell did he go from absolutely fine to almost on his knees in five seconds.

Really, he wanted to berate himself. Everyone gets a headache now and then; he's had a long list of them since his childhood. But for the last few months during recovery, he felt he should have expected this by now—periods of being running on raw energy only to collapse later from all of it being drained. Today has been pushing those boundaries much further. Less than three hours from now would mark a full day since he put his plan into motion and three days since he really had any meaningful sleep. Lincoln knew he was on the path of no return, but he couldn't afford to stop just yet. Between the first drive, the run-in with Chandler, and the fiasco back home, adding in with unnecessary spikes of adrenaline, imaging some kind of ghost child like he was finally losing it to panic intercepting a tornado, it was all starting to take its toll, and he was starting to feel it all.

Turning around to lean his back against the fender and spike, he took in a few deep and slow breaths. Trying to ease the throbbing and gut notch to look up his surroundings. The sound of the rain hitting the canopy, off the front of the truck and pavement, with a few cars driving by, made that desire to park somewhere and listen all the more tempting.

It really wasn't helping him. He'd do it after a long day to film red sprites in the sky, not in the middle of an outbreak. It made him loathe the rain like it was a siren's call trying to convince him to fall into its grasp of slumber.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself off the tank and headed towards the back. He could rest after the day was done with, right when he needed to get back on the road as fast as possible. Pushing the door shut, he whipped out his wallet, jamming the first card he touched into the reader. Resisting part of the urge to hit it to speed up, rationality told him it would only make his growing migraine worse. Upon approval, he jammed it in the truck.

With that doing its thing, he stepped back a bit to where he could lean against the rear passenger doors. Part of some of the redesigns that went into Shrieker's overhaul was mainly in a similar vein to how another Intercept vehicle got rebuilt in 2009. Instead of just being windows where you had to crawl through the back door or across the front seats, while it was awkward to get in and out, passengers in the back now had direct access. So if they ever had a fourth person in the truck, at any time, someone upfront could have their door open or stand out of the hatch, the person in the back could open the door, and he could focus out of the turret.

The door was painted bright white over the steel, but the second he rested his head against it, the feeling of cold metal felt so soothing he propped his left foot up on the forward-facing outrigger to rest his side against the armor.

Sighing at the touch he hoped would try to help, he reached down, fishing his phone out. Unlocking, the home screen was bombarded with notifications. People posted videos on sites, and many followers tagged him in images or videos they found or discovered or recorded his spotter icon to the storm. He swiped it all the way; he could go through it all later. Right now, he needed information, so he went straight into his recent contacts and dialed up the second-last call.

After the fifth ring, the line clicked, and the sound of a crowd talking in the background with phones ringing came through, but no answer, "Erin?"

There as a muffled sound before a plastic hitting something, "I had to put you on speaker. Talk to me."

"I'm about…" He took a second to think. "Half a mile into Tennessee getting fuel now. About half an hour out from reaching Nashville. How's the sky talking?"

"Storm motion has decreased some, but it's just a big fucking mess. This thing is as organized and chaotic as May 16th."

"On a day like today, I'm honestly not a bit surprised." He responded feeling a bit taken back by thoughts of what was at the time one of the greatest tornado disasters in decades that, had it not been for Kingman, would have gone down in history with the likes of Joplin. That day had the lead-up of something historic happening, and it did. Today had been seen as possibly it, and that was developing over his head.

"What's the-" Lincoln almost smashed his head into the door when he felt an ungodly pulse of pain wash over him. His free hand grasped his head and hair, trying to grab onto the source that made him want to fall to his knees if it would somehow help. "...what's the current numbers." He gritted out.

"You okay, Lincoln?" She asked, sounding like a mother noticing her child wasn't sounding normal, "You sound like you're out of breath."

"I'm fine." He resisted from snarking back, rubbing his forehead again as he tried to keep composure, "You were saying?"

"There are multiple areas of rotation in this cell."

For a moment, his headache disappeared for a brief moment for a second of clarity, "What."

"From what's happened in the last hour, the cell spawned a confirmed tornado by Kingston Springs a couple of minutes ago, and we pulled the trigger on issuing a tornado emergency for south Nashville. The thought that its splitting would have ramped up the updraft was correct, but the left split tried merging back into its twin. The original rotation got choked out, and a new area is developing on the left side to the northwest of Charlotte."

"But you said there were multiple areas. We about to have something like a Pilger event?"

"Dominate twins? Not likely. But the old mesocyclone is being forced further north than expected. It's dragging the main core further north of the metroplex on a more northeast track. Models are mixed between the storm splitting again if the twin completely merges and either becomes the dominant cell or it kills them both off. Right now, others are pointing to a more embedded updraft moving further into the core."

"Alright, give me a second."

Taking it all in, Lincoln closed his eyes, imagining what exactly Erin and some couple hundred scientists were looking at. Wincing as he moved away from the truck and had to pull the door back open slowly, he stepped back up inside, laying across his seat, and pulled the computer towards him. He felt his eyes hurt for a moment from the bright screen inches from his face as he watched the most recent radar cycle.

Moving a little, he flipped on the main controls to the radar pods. Where he was, they'd at best only see the building bouncing back the signal, but each flick they got from pointing behind the tank revealed some of the beast that was approaching from behind.

And something was rapidly coming up behind him.

Squinting his eyes, trying to see how much the radar could pick up, the fact that each return was rapidly getting closer and closer made him quickly try to climb over his seat to look out the back windows. He could see a much larger dark shape approaching, but the windows didn't help. Grunting from all the sudden fast movement he was doing that was adding more hammers to his head, he stepped back out to feel his ears filled with the sound of the heavy rain literally falling as wind and dust came blasting across the field behind the gas station, swallowing the highway like a fog bank as he felt cold air blasting his back and rain coming straight at him.

He only had a moment to toss the hood of his jacket up and turn to the shield himself as some 50 to 60-mph winds sent rain and dust flying across the parking lot like a miniature hurricane and sandstorm at once.

"Jesus!" He shouted, scrambling back into the cab.

"Lincoln? What's going on?" He didn't answer. He dumped his phone in the cup holder as he fought to keep his headache from killing him and get his door shut with both hands pulling it but with the wind wanting to keep it pulled back.

"GrrrraahhhHH COME ON YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He yelled as loud as he could, like he was speaking to the storm. Either it or his door got the message, and with some leverage with the steering wheel, he slammed the door all the way back down and shoved the locks forward. Taking a second to peel his hood off, Lincoln grabbed his head and bit his tongue. He closed his eyes tight, trying to keep himself from screaming his lungs out in pain as the throbbing reached a new level of torture.

He honestly couldn't remember, either from it being so long or his brain just hurting too much right now, the last time he had a headache like this before. Getting sick wasn't uncommon anymore after most of the world got it for two years; stress was bountiful but manageable. He's gone days without proper physical or mental care, even in his youth, but it didn't go this far. It made him wish Lisa was suddenly by his side, asking if she could take his brain out to examine it. He'd gladly bend over and give it on a silver platter if it meant he couldn't feel this anymore.

"... you okay?" Erin's voice vibrated from the cupholder. Uncertain if to even ask that question at all.

Grabbing his water jug with at least a third of liquid left, Lincoln ripped the cap off and chugged its contents like he was trying to extinguish an internal fire. Why? He had no idea. For a moment, during each gulp, his mind reached the point of being numb until, too soon, all the water vanished, and he chucked the jug into the back.

Resting his forward against the wheel, he took in deep, slow breaths, trying to catch it after that little show and to calm his nerves. Adrenaline was good to help him stay awake, but it was actively pushing him closer to falling. "Just got hit by the gust front…" He muttered out loud enough for the phone to register it. Looking up enough to rest his chin against the top of the wheel as he watched the wipers swing past.

"The leading edge of the core should be on top of you any minute now. Northern meso is still roughly three miles to the southwest of Cross Plains, moving towards 65." Erin explained, though holding back going any further in-depth than needed. "The plan should be to Keep going towards Nashville. That area to the west is the greatest danger to the city, but keep an eye on the northern mesoscale. If that thing recycles, it could drop something right in the middle of the hail core."

"Alright. I'll-" Suddenly, all light around him blinked out of existence. "Now… Great, what now…." Lincoln leaned over, peering through the roof hatch window, noting that all of the canopy lights had gone out.

"What happened?"

"Gas station just lost power. That's just great…" he muttered, pulling the lock back, "Give me a second…"

Pushing the door back open all the way, the Loud was greeted by another blast of cold air blowing past him from the southeast. Whistling under the canopy, it shook ever so slightly from the force as anything loose, like litter or even the trash cans themselves, disappeared to parts unknown. He couldn't see if the rest of the station was dark because of the building itself having no windows facing him and blocking the other side, but all of the street lights had gone dark, and a glance over to a BP gas station just a walk to his east was completely dark.

Stepping over to the disabled fuel pump with only 72 dollars displayed as fuel dispensed. Ripping the nozzle out and slamming it back into the pump with a bit more force than needed, he spun about and climbed back inside. Twisting the key to watch the dashboard gauges light up and adjust.

"Just over a quarter of a tank…" He muttered in disappointment, "It'll have to do." He turned the key further as the truck came to life. "I'll call you when I get in position."

"Keep an eye out on the radio phone, too. I'll try to patch through the Nashville station. And please stay safe."

He went to say he'd be fine, but Erin ended the call before he could get the breath needed to voice it. Leaning back in his seat, Lincoln shook his head. He regretted it as another throb came about, and he went further against the headrest.

Today hadn't gone as he had hoped. The only thing that did was this morning, and everything after was borderline ready to crumble. Even as he reached over and grabbed his helmet, carefully putting it in as his mind felt like an echoing jackhammer in a tunnel, and pulled on his headset to adjust the side dial, he felt like he really didn't want to deal with this. The system for chasers out on the roads to directly relay live information to the local weather office so they could get an up-the-second observation of events occurring was oh so extremely nice to have.

But had the downside of broadcasting on a channel that anyone can listen to and even speak over.

And right now, he didn't want to talk to anyone until his head stopped being a would-be murderer. Let alone hearing God knows what is in his left ear for the next hour.

But God, Nature, or whoever was dictating things today didn't seem to care.

From the quiet console radio and his laptop flashing a new notification, a new tornado warning had just gone up to his immediate south. Detailing how between where he was all the way to Nashville was under the gun for multiple tornadoes. The new warning spoke more of what Erin told him about; a broad area of rotation inside the core was detected with past tornadic history. Experience told him that it really wasn't at all worth chasing. The storm favored the new updraft further south, and this one was moving into horrible conditions for this updraft to recover. Not to mention how dark this portion of the storm was becoming because of all the rain and hail getting dumped, making it nearly impossible to get a visual. He was in one of the worst spots a chaser could be trying to chase. Keep going south; you run the risk of driving into crippling hail or straight into the north face of a twister.

Call it the misfortune of opportunity or the luck of timing, but he was just one of the lucky few that most of those problems were invalidated.

Strapping on his seat belt, Storm Shrieker rolled away from the pumps and was immediately met with the pounding rain. Even some little bits of hail pinged off the roof, but Lincoln simply turned the wipers up higher.

Heading back the way he came, the tank rolled past the darkened store with emergency lights inside, barely making its way out the windows. Flicking a few switches, the two light bars on the roof and a set of pod lights on the rear came to life as the yellow hazards flashed. Becoming a stark contrast of bright white and amber light moving with a dark gray mass through the haze.

Coming up to the end of the lot, as he leaned over to look both ways for traffic, a massive 'ding' rang out from off the roof.

"Oh yeah. Here comes the hail..." He said with sarcastic glee as he floored the gas pedal some.

Heading for the highway, he took a glance at the radar. A blob of pink was rapidly approaching, but part of the storm had already extended over him. Some stones were starting to drop all around him, slowly getting bigger. On the highway, he could see some cars trying to squeeze themselves underneath the overpass he was passing over, with a few daring to keep going south or try and turn around on the off-ramp.

Where they struggled in this weather, Shrieker thrived. Roaring down the on-ramp back onto the highway with a giant misty plume behind it, wind buffeting against the side, hail and rain smashing against the windshield, trying to blind the driver to no avail. She was in her element and had a date with chaos.

---

As it turns out, going back to work to try to distract yourself isn't sometimes the best thought-out idea when most of your time is spent the better part of four and a half hours in your office, trying to clean and organize the stuff that was cleaned and organized hours before. Feeling that an organized space would help settle the mind away from what troubles it.

Lori had done that six times now. Straightening the same stack of paper in a tray for the third time before placing them so neatly back that it resembles more of a white brick. Her office smelled like lemon plague; her desk shined in the overhead light, her hair pulled back into a bun with her uniform clean and spotless. Tell anyone who didn't know where they were when they walked through the door that they were coming to see 'The Manager.' The first thought to come to mind was a woman who was at the top of a major corporation finishing up some business.

Right now Lori wished she did the kind of business those companies had right now. Become so focused on documents, orders, contracts, and everything else to the point she would lose track of time. Forget about everything beyond these walls until you find out the day has ended. That had worked for the first hour she got back. Taking some time to get more coffee in and sit in silence to calm herself, she burned through all of her work and caffeine so fast she was left with nothing left to do. Orders, requests, and payments are all caught up and sent through. Normally, she'd ask if it was fine to leave for the day if it meant there was nothing more, but she really didn't have the motivation to go anywhere else.

Maybe go out to the kitchen to help prep food any way she could. She wasn't the master chef like her father, but every little interaction helped to grow that knowledge. If it were a busy day, she'd be bouncing around waiting tables, ensuring orders got in and people were having a good experience.

Glancing at the camera monitor, the place was as dead as an abandoned pizzeria. She could see her dad in the kitchen with Kotaro cleaning up and a few of the other staff doing the same around the main floor. The morning rush had come and gone while they were out, and the lunch rush had yet to materialize at all.

Now it was just after 1, and all she could do was sit at her desk fiddling with a pen. Like kids in school taking apart mechanical pens like a firearm, she had most of it all back together. Clicking it once-

*Ping!*

Until the cap burst off, and the spring disappeared.

With a defeated sigh, she let the pieces fall from her hand onto the desk. Pushing it aside towards its companions, she leaned back and rubbed her hands to her face. She let out another sigh that was closer to a yawn, trying to think of anything else that could distract her from thinking about him.

They were so close… They were so close. Just a minute- not even a minute! Maybe ten seconds could have made all the difference.

Lynn said that when Lucy saw him, in her haste she fell with Lisa and scrambled to get out the door. What happens? The goddamn door knob breaks. Lisa said he acknowledged their cry of his name; it slowed him down, but not enough. She called them as soon as she could right when her siblings were arriving at the restaurant. They ran into Lynn, followed Lisa's directions, and still missed him.

But it agonized her how much it could have all been so different…. So many what-ifs… if Lisa was at her computer earlier to watch the cameras? If Lucy did yell and get out the door first? If Lynn was just that second fast enough to catch him?

If she hadn't dropped the keys and wasted valuable time…

People always talk about the could-haves and should-haves they think were supposed to be. Everyone in the world had these moments. Cause and Effect is the prime example. But part of her just couldn't deny there was something else.

Why would Lincoln drive all the way out here like this? Just to hand their dad some papers? Have the balls to leave their father at a gas station crying like he had just gotten word of someone dying and not be there? He made her confused, and it made her angry. The latter was like a volcano ready to crack open a new vent, bursting under pressure that the moment she ever saw Lincoln again, she'd turn him into a human pretzel for this. But the rational side kept repeating 'why?' over and over…

"Lori?" Lynn's meek voice asked behind the door with a soft double knock, stutring her out of thought, "You busy?"

It took her a moment to shift back into the right gear before she answered. "Yeah-I mean No! No, I'm not busy. You can come in." She tried not to stutter as her door slowly opened.

The way he moved, his voice, the lack of light in his eyes, it felt like she had seen him age over a decade in the span of a single day. Old or not, he always carried at least some energy in how he stood. Now that it was like seeing a tree barely keeping itself upright, like at any second, he might collapse again. She was ready to stand up out of her chair, feet planted and ready to dash around in case he did collapse. But he held himself to his strength and made it to one of the waiting chairs in front of the desk. Easing himself down, he let out a tired sigh that had years laced into it.

He didn't have his hat or apron on, with his head held low and shallow breathing; someone could mistaken him for falling asleep in the chair. But he kept his eyes open, looking down at the desk or into space; Lori didn't know. From how he entered, she felt like this would have been one of those times an employee knew their judgment day had arrived and was ready to face the consequences. But tucked in his left hand sat the pile of papers that had caused this mess.

"Dad?" she asked hesitantly, noting how soft she tried to speak. He looked ready to break down again, "Is something wrong?"

Lynn took in a deep breath, hand to his eyes like he was trying to stop himself from crying again. After all the crying he had done in the past, over all of their accidents and miracles, today had finally made him reach the point it was starting to feel like it was impossible to cry anymore.

"Lori…" He started; Lori braced herself for some kind of bombshell to be dropped, "... how much do you know about Probate?"

That… wasn't exactly what she was expecting. Then again, what was she? She had to wrack her brain for anything that related to what probate meant. Since golf didn't really kick off as she wanted to pursue it (though she still believed there was time up until last year), she did look into other avenues that suited her. Being high on a big corporation was one that she was slowly dipping her toes in, but for something involving law, she looked about doing online to try to build something out of it.

With her back the way it was, golf was dead, but you didn't need one helluva swing arm to be a lawyer. She was as close to being the family lawyer as anyone could be. Since May, that had taken the wayside. Now that things are a lot more stable for everyone.

"I… vaguely do." Lori made a so-so with her hand, "I'd need to refresh my memory on it. Why?"

Her father looked down at the stack, tapping it in his other hand for a moment. "... Your mother and I talked about it for a little before we came back here, and after, we were able to get ourselves together enough to go through the stack. It had letters for us and birthday cards for everyone. Something regarding the monthly checks and future details. But…" He ceased the tapping.

Slowly, like he was handing his soul to a devil, he slipped the envelope onto the desk and pushed it towards her. Flipping it over, there wasn't any writing for a return address like all the others, but the sheer thickness of it made Lori think back to her questions earlier. Pulling out a stack of papers, a lot of the titles caught her eye almost instantly. Titles and documents of finances, ownership, and even stock files from at least a dozen different big companies.

But the final portion made her blood run cold.

"The Last Will and Testament of Lincoln A. Loud…" Lori whispered. "Dad. This- this is-" She stuttered, gesturing to the paper to make sure she was seeing what she was seeing.

Lynn nodded. Folding his fingers together as he leaned forward, looking away from the documents. "I know. I know…" His voice cracked as she started looking over page after page, "When I went to get milk and ran into him, he said he was… tying up loose ends…"

Lori didn't know much about wills. At best, the most she remembered anyone in the family was after Aunt Ruth and PopPop passed away, and they were at the readings. Usually it was short four to five pages, maybe six or seven if it involved someone big. The thing in her hands was probably sixteen pages deep. Just skimming through it showed her how much detail everything was laid out and how the order of beneficiaries with all of them being marked along the list.

It seemed her brother was living up to his title of Man with a Plan, thinking this far ahead. But the fact he was thinking about this of all things made the ice feel all that more jagged with that sharp, almost burning sting. What he did was deadly. Everywhere he went, there had been many times in the past when people like him felt they had a grip on the world, and suddenly, it was lost in a moment that started out like any other time.

It wasn't the first time he had planned this either. By the corner where it had the dates of being created, it said this was made all the way back in 2018 and last updated on June 24th of this year.

'After Kingman.' A tiny voice in her mind whispered as several dots began to connect. Recalling how a lot of things had apparently changed in his life after that storm.

"I didn't read through all of it." Her dad spoke up, "I got most of the first page where part of the instructions state that only I or your mother was to view those until his passing, and only when one or both of us are gone, it would pass on to you. Technically I wasn't supposed to even say anything about it to you but… I felt it was in our personal rights, with you being the oldest and doing so much for the family, to know about this."

Lori honestly wished she had one of those water dispensers in her office right now. With how dry her lips felt, she was 104 percent positive she would have downed half the jug by now. When she always envisioned having major responsibility, never in her wildest dreams did she imagine it would involve something like this for her brother. (Though some tiny quiet voice deep down spoke otherwise.)

"Dad..."

"I know it's… not what we had hoped for from him. I tried." He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, "I tried to convince him to stay. He asked about you guys." He looked up to her, smiling. "Asked how everyone was and what we were all up to nowadays. It… surprised him what was true but… if it was intentional or not…"

He stood up, knees wobbling as he pulled out the fourth page in the stack. Laying it flat on the deck, it was just part of the very long list of assets Lincoln intended to give out to whom. As Lori looked it over, Lynn's finger moved about, trying to locate a specific statement until he found it.

"…he left us a clue." His voice cracked again, but this time, it was like he had just been given a spark of hope.

"El Reno." Stared back into Lori's light blue eyes. It wasn't as complicated or lengthy as other things here; legally signed co-owner to some 363 acres of farmland in Oklahoma. Forty of it was his, with a large house and secondary building being all that was on it.

Upon passing, if no one in the immediate family wished to claim it, it would go entirely to one Liam Hunnicutt as sole owner. Paper clipped to the side showed a screenshot from Google Earth in black and white with the property outlined in yellow sharpie. The street name was cut off and blurred, but she could make out just enough of the numbers on top of the house. It wouldn't be hard to type and search for it in just that area code.

"This is his house…"

Lynn smiled again, nodding, "I know." He wiped a forming tear away, "I… Once I saw that name, I remembered the show and how it all showed around that big house. I googled it myself, and it was the same. And it got me thinking…

Lori felt her head crack at how fast she looked up at him, "I know it might be last minute… but I had the idea of what if we went down there to him for Thanksgiving or Christmas, even if it doesn't involve dinner or presents or anything like that. To go down there and… and spend time as a family. He might be a very busy man now… but we owe it to him. For everything he's done for us."

Part of her old rebellious self said they didn't owe him Jacksquat. Five years, with the last two being hell, and he didn't bother showing up in person to help them, only to deliver his will and past birthday cards. They all spilled their own blood in one shape or form for another… Well, when she thought about it, really, what did they do for him in the last few years? As far as what she saw everything point to, he probably thought they were on track back into their high lives. They all bounced back and were working at their pace.

He wasn't. The ending to the show was a scripted lie, and she knew (at least she hoped she did) her brother enough that after something like that, life would have changed. Because Ronnie was here, Clyde seemed to dance around the topic and was now literally coming home only to turn away. Lisa showed them the brief video of him coming up and leaving the house, and the most precise picture of him standing on the porch, ready to knock, made her argue that it wasn't Lincoln. She refused to believe that someone who looked older than Grandpa Leonard was her younger brother. He had too much life in his bloodline to let life do that to him.

And then there was the voice within, silent but standing in the back of the room just out of view from the crowd of emotions that hadn't realized they had much more sway in the current matter than anyone thought. Just a thought in its direction, and anything else seemed to become grayscale. Her brother was stubborn like all of them; it was just part of being a Loud. The fact he went from being… torn apart to now meant he didn't let this go sitting down. But from how her dad described his reasoning for all this today, 'tying up loose ends,' it did make her nervous.

Call it overthinking or reading too much from movies and television, but so many times she had seen or read about characters in stories trying to make peace with anything involving family and friends often pointed to the fact they didn't plan on ever coming back again. And that piece made her feel that flame of resentment and anger be flushed away and replaced by her protective instincts.

This was her brother preparing his final defense. If anything took him out of this world, this would stop him from going further. Out of all the times for this to happen, he chose now. It made her panic run around her brain, thinking of a growing mountain of scenarios that could lead to this outcome, and each one was making her resist accidentally tearing the papers. They couldn't contact him or-

'No.' she scolded herself. Picturing her old self dressed like a military general years ago, looking down at a disappointing display,'They CAN do something about it now. They knew where to go, where he was going and staying. It wasn't storm season, so why would he go anywhere else? All of them could go down there, tie him up, and take him back home Loud style to get this stuff settled once and for all.'

'Or…' someone else said, 'We can just go alone. A quick flight down there all to ourselves with hopefully just him and me in that house in the middle of nowhere... All by ourselves… where no one would see or know-'

"Lynn!"Kotaro's voice yelled out. They could hear running and doors open until the office door almost flew off the hinges, "Lynn! You guys gotta come out and see this!" he said, trying to catch his breath. His uniform was soaked, like he had dunked his top half in the deep sink. He didn't wait for either of them to respond when he dashed back down the hallway.

Looking at one another, the two Louds quickly rose from their seats. Stepping out of the office, Lynn saw Kotaro utterly raiding the supply room, but his attention was drawn to the sound of dozens of voices coming out from the main dining room. Thoughts of what was happening, Lynn expected it to be some large rush they weren't prepared for.

Stepping through the swing doors, what they saw was chaos.

People were pouring through the restaurant's front doors, soaked to the bone, as they could see the maelstrom going on outside. Children were crying and looking around, confused as parents tried to usher them somewhere away from the door. Couples making sure their partners were present and finding somewhere to sit. In moments, there had to be at least 26 people, and that was slowly growing as cars outside raced into the parking lot and scrambled to the building.

On any other day, Lynn would feel himself beaming at how his place went from dead to rapidly approaching capacity as a late lunch rush. He was ready to turn heel and run into the kitchen to get ready.

But then we saw a group of men hoist another up onto one of the family tables, brushing decorations and utensils off to another; as they pulled him up, Lynn was ready to protest that they couldn't do that. Until the man himself howled in agony, trying to clutch his left leg as the others tried to stop him from touching it as they tried to support it and rush to get something to stop the flow of blood leaking onto the table.

They could barely see precisely what was wrong until Kotaro came rushing past carrying an armload of towels, rags, and anything they had for medical supplies. He handed some to one of their waiters and dashed off to another table where an older woman sat in a booth. Another woman by her side kept her hand pressed against her forehead until Kotaro gave her one of their cleaning rags. A thankful nod, and upon removing her hand, a bloody gash that had no right to be present on someone like the woman started to leak down the side of her head until the other placed the rag against it. Just beside them, a teenage boy tending to his supposed girlfriend with the back of her shirt lifted up, revealing an utterly disgusting canvas of red and purple bruises of all sizes that others began to reveal the same.

Lori had to support her father when he stepped back and nearly fell over. Gobsmacked at how fast the empty restaurant had become more like a mass casualty triage center as the cries of pain and confusion rang out around them.

"Wha-what's going on?" He voiced out. Not sure who to ask.

"It's bloody hail outside!" Someone exclaimed as they rushed towards the bathroom.

"Hail?" Lynn repeated. It was uncommon for hail around these parts. He vaguely remembered a very bad storm they had back in the summer of 2023, where they said there were baseballs over in Warren. Striding through the entangled crowd, Lynn weaved around, trying to get to the front as Lori followed closely behind. Coming up to one of the windows outside, he used his sleeve to wipe away the thick condensation on the glass to get a better look.

Rain poured down with such intensity one could mistaken for being under part of a waterfall. The sides of the streets became small raging rivers, creating a giant pool of water by the intersection that, as a car tried to drive through, upon the wheels hitting the edge and sending a wave twice the size of the vehicle all over, it almost stopped right where it was turning its hazard lights on.

But what surprised them the most was how white the ground had become. Shattered across the road, bouncing off the sidewalks and roofs, piling up in the grass, or becoming so thick it blocked some of the flows with chunks of ice. Like meteors, they watched more and more crash onto the road. Slamming into anything unfortunate enough to-

*CRACK*

Everyone jumped as the front window the two Louds stood in front of dented inwards. The bottom center bulges out further than the frame itself, with a hundred spiderweb cracks across the entire panel. Embedded at the epicenter, a chunk of hail, broken to pieces with its remains scattered somewhere on the sidewalk, made its way through.

With the fear that the window and all the others could go at any moment, many people quickly moved to try to get as far from the outer wall as possible. Some went as far as to quickly grab any tablecloths they could to drape over any windows they could as more people kept coming. But for Lynn, being so close that if he was but one step closer, he could reach out and touch one of the broken spikes of ice, he took a slow step back away, feeling the adrenaline growing in his old bones rise.

"Lynn!" He heard Kotaro call out again, "Do we have anymore-"

Lynn couldn't hear what his worker said as the whole building went dark, and a massive flash of light illuminated the street outside with the sounds of screeching and a heavy crash.

Dashing back between the crowd and through the kitchen, Lori slammed the back door open to see the back lot looking utterly covered in stones like thick snow. Cars left on and running from people abandoning them for the sake of getting out of the storm had their windshields caved in and shattered. Some having their hoods and roofs gain enough craters to be accurate representations of the moon's surface. Vanzilla itself was making its best impression of metal Swiss cheese. The only window not shattered to pieces was the driver's, but everything else was cracked, half missing or now spread across the ground or interior, with some of the bigger stones finding it easier to land their hits on such a big target and punch through the aging van.

But her attention was drawn to the street just beyond the restaurant. A red SUV half crushed under a collapsed power pole. The entire back half was smashed so far to touch the ground that from through the haze, she could just barely see the front door slowly trying to open- both she and whoever the driver was jumped back as the transformer connected to the pole erupted in a shower of sparks. Raining down on the vehicle as the driver ducked back inside.

She was ready to step out and run over to help. Yell out for them to stay put as she tried to figure out a way around the web of electrical lines. But with one step out the door, she was instantly hit by the relentless downpour and a golf ball-sized stone smashing into the pavement.

"Lori!" Her dad cried out from behind her, "Get back inside!"

She didn't acknowledge him. Part of her wanted to get back inside to shelter, but such a bigger part of her was crying out there was someone out there who badly needed help. It didn't help when the wind started to pick up and angle the rain and hail from falling straight down to bombarding the side of the building.

She tried to block it out with her left hand. The other tried to reach for the door to try and pull it closed as it banged against the side of the building. Losing her grip on the wet metal, she grabbed onto the edge with both hands as she felt another pair wrap around her midsection and pull her back inside. Nearly slammed the door on her fingers as pieces of debris started raining down.

---

Sitting here against a wall that was decorated with drawings and signs welcoming and celebrating the coming of Thanksgiving soon to arrive, Luan tried to keep a brave face and demeanor.

Up and down the hallway, everyone had been evacuated out of any classroom that was at risk of the wind sending hail and debris flying through the windows. Some were being boarded up with makeshift barricades when something did break through, and the service staff and teachers would race to cover it with a sheet from somewhere or decide to abandon the room and lock the door until later.

With the whole school practically spilled out into the hallways, the echoing noise of grade schools made it feel more like an echo chamber. So many were either confused, scared, or, in what she felt was the best, oblivious to the situation; the comedian felt her lips become dry just trying to take it all in.

The emergency power had kicked back on just a few minutes after the blackout. The fact that it didn't turn back on immediately made some of the panic grow when the backup struggled to get going and parts of the building had to be sectioned off. Some hallways and rooms were left dark or with just emergency lights; some managed to get full power and act like bright spots where most had gathered. Either by classroom or getting scrambled in a rush and joining together in friend groups, staying quiet, or trying to make the best of what was happening, with even some saying this would let them go home early.

Luan commended those who had that sight to see the silver lining in all this. It reminded her long ago, back when she was still in elementary school, that whenever something like this would happen, she had her sisters and friends somewhere close by. Sometimes, it took a while; sometimes, it happened so fast all it did was for that one annoying girl to scream when the power failed, came back, and failed again for ten minutes with everyone hoping for no more school until the lights came back on and she'd have a little story to tell when she got home. The same could be said in middle and high school. She would be the one out of the crowd cracking jokes about the weather not liking the education system as much as them being here. The teachers and staff always tried to keep them calm during those times.

Now, she was facing the same dilemma in both aspects. She was a grown woman who had been through it before, but the sheer weight of the situation that made her just as worried as some of the kids and staff made her feel like she was on her unicycle trying to get across a greased-over tightrope. Staff gathered by the intersections of the halls discussing in huss tones, heading up and down checking on kids or running off taking in their radios to somewhere else in the building.

A few parents who were among them held their children tightly against them. Silent as a mouse, just letting their family bond blanket them in this rough time. Some parents even talked about past events that helped lighten the mood as others listened in or joined in with their experiences.

She was in the same boat as them, sitting on the floor against the brick wall, partially still wet from the rain, with an equally soaked Lily curled up to her left side. Arms wrapped tightly around her midsection, resting her head on her chest. Compared to not even an hour ago, she looked so full of life; now she looked so tired she was fighting the urge to pass out. Their shared body heat probably didn't help that matter, but it was just a comforting feeling the youngest Loud couldn't move away from it.

And Luan didn't want her to move either. Compared to everything today, this felt like the most comforting thing she's had. Between waking up like she partied last night to Lincoln to the birthday party, literally being blown away (and her car being smashed…) leading up to their current predicament. How much she just wanted to follow in Luna's footsteps of just listening to music and being lost to the universe before coming here, knowing it would all turn into a disaster, felt all the more practical out of the two evils.

But really, what could she do now? A teacher came walking by in haste. She looked up, expecting something as they approached, but they had passed without a word in a flash. She was starting to get restless. Sitting here on the floor wasn't helping the greater matter, but that was far from saying that Lily wasn't one of her top priorities. She couldn't put it past her to try to help anyone else stuck in her; it was part of her nature to turn frowns upside down. It didn't help that the phone service was getting ridiculously spotty trying to call anyone. The closest she got was Leni's phone, but that went into voice mail.

It might have been not even an hour since the storm hit, but after it did, no one she heard within earshot knew exactly what was going on out there, minus a weather warning they all got. Kids were randomly chosen and taken to one of the safer exits a handful of times because their parents had come to pick them up. If her car weren't wrecked, she'd get Lily and try to make a run for it. Even trying to call Lori or the house for someone to come and get them was fruitless. By now, she had expected an update from Lisa, but nothing had come her way.

Call it the effect from the last month of unknown surprises, but she needed to know what was happening. At least to calm her boiling mind that once she has that knowledge, she can sit here focused on something else.

Green. Everything was so green she wanted to joke that maybe this is what the Grinch or the Hulk saw on a regular basis. Mixed with black clouds quickly moving across the sky, it felt much more like it belonged in a Halloween or apocalypse movie.

'Going Green… Greenage'

The hail mainly had stopped, with the rain becoming a more steady downpour that you'd want an umbrella for. The wind made it feel a bit cooler than it was, but the air felt so thick it was like she stepped into a swamp down south.

The wind felt all the more intense as it came down the small alleyway towards the loading docks, and Luan had to stick close to the wall in an effort not to get blasted further. Being she was on the north side of the building and part of the second floor helped to block out some of the rain that was still coming down sideways, she moved closer and closer to the end where the parking lot opened up to the street.

Coming to just past the threshold of the building and peering around, she caught sight of the utter mess scattered around the neighborhood. Hail of various sizes covered the ground like lumpy snow, chunks of trees ripped off and smashed everywhere, with some people in raincoats trying to clear the street. Roofs of houses looked like Lori had taken her entire golf club collection to them with an angry cat. And every car around her was covered in dents, with almost all their windows smashed. She could see what remained of her car sitting there like Herby after coming out of the derby.

She couldn't resist sighing in disappointment and feeling all the hard work just to afford the downpayment for her first set of wheels, only to have it smashed by falling ice. She seriously doubted her insurance would help cover fixing it and maybe see if Lana could do something with it. If it was hailing like this all over Royal Woods, Luna knew her little sister was about to make a colossal bank when people started looking around for repairs.

Though she could see it, she could just picture how destroyed the tents and party looked now after that kind of beating. If anything was salvageable, then they could continue it after a clean-up and relocate somewhere safer. If not, she felt it within her to try to make up for that little girl's special day being ruined like this. It was something to figure out later, she thought.

Fishing out her phone, she saw that there was just one service bar. A second briefly flickered but barely stayed on as she went straight to her contacts. Going down the list, she went straight to Lori's number.

Letting it ring, and ring, and ring… nothing. Straight to voice. She didn't bother leaving a message; if Lori didn't immediately pick up the phone, it meant she was usually busy with something, someone else had the phone, or she was dead. If this storm had hit, Luan figured she was trying to sort out her own mess. She tried calling her mother, but that went straight to voicemail the second it connected.

"Oh, come on! Is anyone even near their phone right now after all this?" Luan yelled out as she tried Leni next.

The line rang, and rang… and-"Hello?"

"Leni?"

"Oh, Hi Luan!"Leni answered back with a happy glee.

"Hey, Leni," Luan sighed, happy that a third time the charm was true, "You guys okay over there? We just got hit by a pretty bad storm, and Lori or Mom isn't answering their phone."

"Oh, we're totally great!"Leni answered with a bit more joy than the comedian thought she would be. Leni was probably the most devastated among them up there with their father. Her whole ride back home after picking up their father was spent just trying to console her big sister while trying to keep herself from bawling.

Now she sounded like she had just come back from prom. How magical her night was and how she wished it never ended (despite the reality involving it.)

"Like, it started all really, really foggy and depressing this morning, then slowly became so nice and sunny and warm, and I thought we were in Spring already. But I didn't have the feeling of doing much after you know what, so I stayed in bed occupying myself with anything I could think of, and then it started thundering really, really loudly-"

"That's great and all, but Leni-"

"and then I got this message on my phone saying there was a nasty storm coming even though it was already here, which I found kinda odd if it's supposed to tell you before it's here."

"Leni."

"So she brought me and Lucy down to the living room right when all this hail started falling all over the place-"

"LENI!" Luan yelled out her lungs. Bless Leni's innocence even at this age, but after 20 years, some things don't change. "That's nice and all, but are you alright?"

"Yep!"

"*sigh* Good. Now, can you, Mom, or Luna swing by Lily's school? My car isn't in the best shape to drive right now and-"

Leni interrupted, "Luna isn't here right now."

"What do you mean she isn't there?" Luan asked, confused.

"She totes isn't here. In the house, garage, attic, crawlspace, the neighbors' house. And I can't find Lynn or Lisa. Lucy said they went out somewhere and took Lori's car."

Luan smacked her face with her free hand. Falling back against the wall, trying not to let her frustration get the better of her or allow it to be vented through the phone.

"Alright. Does Lucy know where they- *beep*" Leni's end of the call abruptly went quiet. She couldn't hear anything, from breathing to her moving around.

"Leni?" Luan asked, wondering what had happened, "Leni, you still there?" pulling the phone away, she saw that the call had been disconnected.

"Dammit!" She yelled in a rather rare scene of her cursing out loud. Prepared to throw her phone at the ground but paused, realizing what she was about to do and what nothingness it would accomplish except make her frustration increase.

Just as she went to stuff it back into her pocket and go inside, another notification popped up,

Pulling it down, she was a bit surprised to see a text message from, of all people, her old boyfriend Benny. After their breakup she thanked anyone listening and was on more mutual terms, one or the other wanting to follow a dream the other couldn't follow; they still stayed in contact from time to time but never really talked much except an occasion checkup when he was in town.

The message read as three capped words; 'LOOK AT THIS!' with a video link. The last time he had messaged her was over six months ago, when things started to change with her family. The chances that he saw or even experienced this storm earlier, too, felt that maybe he was checking in.

While a thumbnail didn't load, clicking the link took a moment for her phone to get a signal locked down enough for YouTube to pop open. Loading the reds and whites of the site, it went into a reel posted just minutes ago…

'HUGE TORNADO DESTROYING CLARENCEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RIGHT NOW!'

… and made the blood drain from her face. Watching as someone stuck their phone out their car window, becoming pelted by rain and hail as a churning black wall passed right in front of them. Whether it was Benny or not, she had no idea, someone was trying to speak, but the sheer volume of the roar and sound of houses being obliterated with whole roofs flying across the road, smashing into other homes and cars. Some flying far out beyond the edge of the vortex only to disintegrate even further.

Then she saw it, the bright burst of something hitting a powerline lighting up the side of a monster, showing how the top merged into the low clouds, and the backside was hidden by the endless curtains of rain, hiding even more of its mass.

She hadn't really been around the Livonia area much in her life. A few times when part of the comedy club in school and even less personally for party events, but she knew that the place the high school was located was a lot bigger than the Royal Woods school given it was surrounded by the elementary and middle schools right next to it, even had a bridge going across the road that connected them all from one side of the street to another.

In the moments it took the vehicle to get closer, passing a church to the left, the backside of the school exploded like a fireless gas leak had sent the entire roof into the air. The part that was once the auditorium was erased, and what remained became entangled into the bridge. The very edge of the funnel, ground zero, where the street itself disappeared into oblivion and destruction as it cut straight through the middle school. The man pulled his phone back inside, filming through the windshield as debris and falling trees smashed in front of the school as parts of its second floor were being shredded.

The man got as far as just within throwing distance of the bridge, just within such close range you could see the texture of the funnel and the fog of debris flying around its edge. Rain followed close behind, like a vampire using his cape to conceal himself from view and vanish into the shadows before the video stopped.

Without thinking, Luan sprinted out of the loading docks. Running across the small patch of grass and the side of the building until she approached the spot where her car was parked. Her earlier idea that the party tents were destroyed was an underestimate, everything was gone. But that only delayed her for a second to look up towards the sky, past the distance where home was, trying to look as far over the distance as the buildings and trees would allow her to see what was beyond them.

All she saw was the large dark green and gray mass of the storm high above, hanging so low to the ground like it was a creature just waiting to fall to earth and consume everything before it.

---

About 15 Minutes Earlier, 21 Miles to the West…

"DAMN IT, LISA! WE NEED SHELTER NOW!" Luna yelled. Clutching the steering wheel with more force than she would have when ready to smash a guitar as the light blue sedan nearly fishtailed into oncoming traffic. Practically skiing over the slickened roads from the off-ramp as it and several other vehicles tried to dodge the falling blobs of ice and growing winds.

"WHY DID YOU EVEN LEAD US HERE?!" Lynn yelled in terror. Legs tucked as close to her seat as possible as she gripped the edge in a fist full of torn fabric and a roof handle already half ripped off. Flinching back as a massive hailstone crashed into the hood and sent chunks of ice flying over the windshield.

Even with the situation in chaos and her sisters in panic, ever so slightly Lisa readjusted herself in the backseat to correct from the sudden change in direction that displaced her body.

"Would you have preferred if I explained that the atmospheric dynamics of the last 1.3 hours have changed-"

"LISA!"

Rolling her eyes, the scientist didn't look away from her computer as lines and lines of data rapidly poured over. Without even skipping a single beat, a smaller window was brought up showing their current location heading West on Seven Mile Road towards south Northville. Moving ahead, she looked for any possible options for them to shelter under as her confidence in their means of transport having any surviving windows was already below ten percent and dropping where they were mostly surrounded by either neighborhoods to the north or shopping plazas to the south.

Much like her siblings' inability to look at the situation in a calm and collected manner, she wouldn't deny any observations upon seeing her react when a particularly large stone would impact the roof, and she would look up and reach a hand to see if she could feel the dent. Already, she was getting ideas of what to do for later, but right now, her frustration was in trying to find adequate space to set up.

Searching further up the road, she found a small gas station by the end of the road, but the satellite said it was already becoming packed. Looking around its location, a few results came up until one looked the most optimal. "Keep going forward for the next 2.4 miles, then take a left at the light. Proceed down Northville Road for 535 feet, then turn left again. There will be a car wash that should provide us with the necessary safety."

Listening as carefully as she could, Luna stepped on the gas. Flying past fields, abandoned buildings, and closed-off neighborhoods as much to some relief, if it could be called that, the rain had begun to ease up. The thick haze had mostly settled behind them, but the hail was still coming down with newly formed craters scattered all over the roads making the car bounce and jolt every time the rocker tried to avoid either drive into one or being directly hit.

Covering two miles went as fast as going from the end of the hallway to the bathroom in the house. Traffic was racing to get out of the storm, and Luna was using it to break some speed limits. Passing by a shopping plaza, Lynn looked past her driver, seeing that most of the lights were all out. No store, house, or even the street lights had any lights on. Given the time of day, it was understandable, but with how dark the storm had gotten and that everywhere else had them turned on, it felt weird to her. Leaning forward to look up out of the windshield, her eyes widened in surprise at the sight above them.

"Dudes… check out all the green."

While Luna was too focused on the road, Lisa did look up from her computer to look out the window to see what her sister was talking about. All around them, it felt like they had just driven into the Twilight Zone with how everything was bathed in a deep green color with black clouds above. It felt more like they had driven onto another world that was consuming theirs.

She tightened her seatbelt just a bit more as the car weaved around slow moving or stopped vehicles, rocking back and forth until grabbing the door handle to keep herself upright as Luna barrelled through the intersection.

Hooking a hard left through a flashing yellow, as soon as the car wash was in view and the opposite traffic was clear, the sedan flew across the lines and into the center wash bay of the three closest. Wheels and brakes squealed through the bay as the edge of the front bumper came within an inch of leaving the protectiveness of the roof's overhang as hail bounced off the roof itself, falling over the edge like a broken ice blower.

Placing the car in park, Luna sunk back into the seat as she ran a hand across her sweating forehead and placed the other over her rapidly beating heart. "I am never doing this again."

"Ditto." Lynn said as she undid her seatbelt and opened the door. Opening the door with a slow creck, she slowly swung her shaky legs out feeling like the countless goosebumps had made them so numb it was felt like moving dead weight. Once her feet hit the floor and she used the edge of the door for support to lift herself out, she wobbled for a moment, trying to get her nerves to calm down as she looked over the state of the car.

"Man, Lori is going to be beyond pissed when she sees this…." She grimaced, running a hand across the wet craters that populated the roof now. Wincing as she felt how much the metal had deformed, she couldn't imagine what it would have felt like.

To some degree, she could, playing baseball or softball and being hit in the legs, torso, or in more unfortunate cases upside the helmet from 60, 70, and the uncommon 80mph throws, but from something bigger than a softball falling out of the sky fast than Aroldis Chapman throwing a pitch and numbering in the thousands dropping everywhere made her regret not taking any of her old equipment with her. She remembered how sometimes, like for Lincoln's group, they had helmets and goggles, but it said that others who collected hail for scientific reasons would wear football padding.

Once today was over and done with, she knew that the next time this kind of thing happened, she was breaking out of the old gear.

Kicking her feet some, she closed the door and walked over to the edge of the bay. Leaning against the cold brick as she looked back up to the sky, seeing just how clouds could be so… spooky looking.

'I bet Lucy would get a kick out of seeing all this...' She thought, crossing her arms.

With her heart rate finally easing out from experiencing the adrenaline rush she hadn't gotten since touring, Luna rubbed her hands down her face. She groaned as her body felt like it had just been through three different life experiences at once, all while she was running on mental fumes at this point.

She needed some tunes—something even as background noise to get her mind away from the weather or Lisa's typing. Fiddling with the radio, searching through the static, news, country, pop, and rap stations, she paused when she heard the very ending rifts from an AC/DC song.

["-listing to Classic Rock for Detroit. Well, people of the greater Metro, I wish I could say that this day was going as well as these hits, but I would want to be caught lying. According to the weather report, it's going to keep on storming until around six in the afternoon, with lingering showers into the night, followed by Fall finally making its debut this year with temperatures dropping into the low 30s and getting up into the mid-40s tomorrow. So to keep that blood pumping and feeling nice and warm up next is a bit of an oddity for us here but seems very fitting, it's Riders on the Storm by Infected Mushroom."]

Sighing in frustration, she listened as the sound of thunder vibrated out from the speakers. It was just loud enough to be audible but a far cry from the car jumping up and down on its suspension that she really needed. Turning the volume just a bit more to drown out the typing as the vocals started kicking in, Luna smacked her head down on the headrest, closing her eyes.

"Well… at least the hail stopped. That's at least some good news." She commented on the lack of impacts happening beyond the car wash.

Lisa snapped forward, feeling like her eyes were threatening to leave her skull. "No…" Pushing herself between the seats to get a better look out the windshield. Much to Luna's displeasure of her pushing up so close into her personal space, Lisa crawled over the glove box until she supported herself on the dashboard. "No, it's not."

Moving back to her seat and pushing the door open, Lisa stepped out into the bay with her computer as she passed Lynn, sending her a curious look but didn't follow as the young scientist stepped away from the building. Kicking away shattered hailstones and stepping through puddles, she didn't care until she stepped off the lot and up a small hill leading to a line of train tracks.

Though not the greatest vantage point and no visible train in either direction, her eyes darted back and forth between the screen and the sky above that looked far, far lower than anything she had seen previously. Directly above them all, the sky bellowed out, breaking the green illusions with a mix of a lighter blue in dark gray puffs stretching out far beyond what she could see.

And all of it was moving.

She could only estimate that the storm's northwest edge was directly overhead. Back in the East, the heavy hail and rain made it impossible to see where the rest of it went, but to her south, it hovered over several dozen communities to their southeast. How low it was to the ground is hard to estimate, too. Too much was condensing and fading away as the storm progressed; what she thought was something wasn't.

"Guys!" she flinched, looking back to see Luna standing out of the car with a frightened look, "Listen to this!" Ducking back in, Luna turned the volume to the max as the last sound of the message echoed in the bay.

["-The National Weather Service in White Lake has issued a tornado warning for Northwestern to North Central Wayne County, Northwestern Washtenaw County, Southwest, and South Central Oak County until 3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time. At 2:12 pm, Doppler radar detected a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. The storm was located one and a half miles South of Northville, moving East at 35 miles per hour. Doppler radar has detected extremely powerful rotation within this storm-"]

"LOOK!" Lynn screamed out, pointing towards the distance as she stepped away from the building, running towards Lisa.

Snapping to the direction of interest, Lisa felt herself freeze up. Even with Lynn running up the embankment and grabbing her, she felt most of her muscle mass become so tense she was expecting her device to fall from her hands. Lynn stood there just the same, shock being a decent word to describe what she was feeling, but throughout her life, she had experienced it to so many different degrees that, somehow, this felt different.

As the wind rapidly began to pick up, blowing Lynn's ponytail like streamers, Lisa's lab coat like a tarp with raindrops coating her glasses, and Luna stepping back out as the wind passing through the wash nearly ripped the door away from her, they all watched as chunks of houses started flying in the air.

Despite the sea of naked trees that obscured the ground, it was impossible to miss the sudden appearance of a column of twisting dirt not taller than a twenty-story building suddenly condensing out of nowhere and immediately sending debris flying into the air with chunks of trees being tossed away like twigs. Another formed, descending from the sky as it joined its companion in a kind of deadly dance only the devil and nature knew. When the first one disappeared, another quickly took its place, and more debris became airborne.

From above, with the crack of lightning giving but a peak of the monster yet to be born, a giant grayish-white mass struggled to materialize itself that was far bigger

Another vortex formed in not even 2.3 seconds, appearing out of nowhere in a condensed form that anyone would classify as its own major tornado. But yet another formed, bulging outwards as they danced around each other, almost becoming horizontal as a third funnel, much thicker and organized, developed just as the first struck something. A pair of power flashes lit up the area as it and its second twin faded away. But the third twin didn't. It wrapped around, growing in size like it was heading straight at them.

Another bolt of lightning, deep inside the storm behind the vortex, illuminated its growing form, the top rapidly becoming wider and wider as an even bigger ring of dirt and debris formed around the base. They were at least a half mile away, yet from the pulling winds and the rain now coming from behind them, Lisa felt like they were standing within reaching distance of the vortex.

And like a demon realizing it had an audience, another power flash, probably directly in the eye of the vortex, exploded in such violence that a cloud of sparks erupted out and was instantly sucked into one of the many tendrils rapidly forming and dying. The flash had given them a clear picture and a beacon of what was happening to anyone around.

Rain curtains were rapidly moving overhead, heading south. The eastern edge of the vortex condensed like an apparition appearing out of the darkness to reveal the shape of a tattered wedge nearly a half mile wide and growing. More debris exploded as another vortice came out from around the backside. If Lisa had any guess between glancing back at her computer, the Northville Woods community was being erased from the earth before their very eyes.

She tried to focus on her computer, tried to get a satellite read out and link to every radar station in the region. But she felt like her focus was being lost. Just a glance away from her work towards the twister, it felt like each one took longer to tear her sight away. More power flashes erupted from the leading edge. The larger condensation funnel collapsed as more vortices took its place. Pausing in place at the ground as more debris was lofted and quickly taken by another funnel.

She couldn't look away.

For all the sake of science, space travel, teleportation, genetics, engineering, geology, so many directions that covered the functions of the world here and beyond. But here was something that felt too real to be possible. It wasn't just a spinning cloud touching the ground; it had solidity, a structure that gave its appearance of rapid motion that felt like it was rooting the world to the sky.

It felt too hyper-realistic, unimaginable that even with science to provide the whys and hows, it couldn't explain how something like this could be so alive.

"Lisa!" she heard Luna shout behind her in the wind, but she couldn't focus on it.

It looked a lot like something she had seen many times before when researching weather to understand Lincoln's mission better. She had never seen one in person, never had the intent or desire to. Maybe one day she'd develop a weather machine to stop such disasters, but that was a dream in itself.

Lincoln always said that standing in the presence of one felt like standing before the feet of a titan. Something that no matter what man could make in generations, nature would dwarf it in minutes. Watching as decade's worth of memories for countless people were being torn apart and scattered across the land.

The air changing its shape with such ease it would take mankind countless times to attempt to even grasp the edge of mastering the same. She felt something tug at her arm, but she didn't move. Couldn't move. Couldn't look away from the beast as it began to become consumed in a curtain or rain, gradually obstructing its shape. For a brief moment, she could see a new funnel form, a large cone becoming stretched out along the edge as a pair of smaller funnels reached down below it.

Almost like a giant man, shrouded in darkness and destruction, was walking- "LISA!"

Her focus was suddenly and violently brought back to reality as she felt a sudden stinging on her left cheek. Looking away from the storm, her 23-year-old sister stood kneeling in front of her, becoming utterly soaked as the rain hammered down on them.

"I-Wha-" She tried to speak before her arm was snatched in Lynn's grasp.

"COME ON! WE GOTTA GO!" Lynn screamed as the sounds of sirens filled the air with a crash of thunder. Not wasting any more time, the athlete scooped Lisa off her feet. Dashing down the hill as Luna pulled the car out of the bay, reaching over to shove the passenger doors open as far as she could. Pulling the back door open further, she deposited Lisa and slammed it shut before jumping back into the front seat.

"Oh my god, did that really just happen?!" Luna frantically tried and failed to keep herself from panicking

Lynn was trying to catch her breath as she looked over, "Dude… That was a tornado."

"A freakin GIANT tornado."

"Get North to Eight Me Road." Lisa suddenly said, making both look at the back seat baffled.

"What?"

"Seven Mile Road is about to become impassable and cut off a route to get back on 275. Go to Eight Mile, and we can reenter the highway to travel back the way we came and ahead of the hook itself, but stay out of the heavier rain and hail." Lisa explained, typing much faster on the keyboard like she was trying to stop a missile launch.

"What!?" Luna turned fully bodily to face her sister. "You want us to actually chase that thing? We're not even close to being like Linc-"

Lisa paused and looked straight into her eyes. Her own brown pupils glowing behind her soaked glasses and loose strains of wet hair in hues of red and green off her screen. Even when she looked like she had just suffered through one of Luan's bucket pranks, her poster solidified, her focus sharpened, and her voice came out stern and blunt. "At the forward speed of the vortex and its current heading of East-Northeast, it'll be in Royal Woods within 30 minutes. The polarimetric is already detecting a debris ball within the core, suggesting that this storm has already achieved either EF3 or EF4 strength. The damage this will cause compared to the last event we had will be far more catastrophic in every way possible."

Horror filled their eyes as their faces went pale. Memories of coming out of the bunker and the trip through town, seeing the destruction that stopped just before their house flashed by as how lucky they and many were from having their livelihood torn apart.

This was becoming the nightmare they feared for their home. They had seen what Lincoln experienced back then and now, but there was always the dread that it could happen again. Even back when it happened the first time, they asked themselves, what if it hadn't stopped where it did? What if it was just a bit faster, stronger, bigger? What if it hit somewhere else, and the next day they went to school, they realized some of their friends were gone?

But the reality was it was happening again. It was becoming bigger and stronger every mile they went. It took just twenty minutes to get to where they were from their house, crisscrossing highways and streets. This thing didn't care what path it took and what or who was in its way. Their home and everyone was in the path of death and destruction.

It was in moments like these that both older siblings wished their brother was here to guide them.

"Okay. Okay, we can do this." Luna told herself, tightening her seat belt, "We are really about to do this. Lincoln showed us how it's done, so we know what to do."

Almost like before, Lisa looked away from her computer as a thought appeared from the context of Luna's words. While she agreed that right now, she was trying to use all her collective knowledge in storm tracking and what she gathered from her brother, the most anyone would think of his way of chasing was-

"Luna, wait-"

She was a second too late as she was thrown back into her seat. Lynn shouted in surprise when she was tossed against the door as the car rocketed forward. Turning hard over, the rear bumper nearly fishtailed into an oil change shop that sat beside the car wash. With traffic almost non-existent because of the storm scaring off the people staying in shelter, the blue sedan screamed back onto the streets as it blasted through the intersection heading north.

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["To anyone receiving this transmission; this is SkyKnights storm chaser Lincoln Loud, spotter LLL, I'm approximately 3 miles to the East of Cross Plains, 26 miles North of Nashville, Tennessee heading south on Interstate 65. I got a mile wide, I repeat, at least a mile wide rain-wrapped wedge tornado crossing the highway 200 yards directly in front of me!"]

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(Note: These AN notes are written before, during, and after hand to convey my thinking. Not based on what's changed, reviews, etc., and is borderline me ranting out loud my way of thinking.)

So this chapter will mark the last chapter this story gets in 2023. Originally, I was hoping to get to chapter 20 before the year was out, but things happen, and here we are. I knew it was gonna be big (last chapter was bigger than expected, and at the time of writing this note (12/10/23 at 2am) I expected this to break roughly the same. This was comparably close to Chapter 10 for how much I was preparing for it. Debating on who, what, when, where, etc. and so as the events led on. But as I progressed things started to change and this is what it came to be. Two major parts were cut in favor of putting them into a revised Chapter 18 so that had something to work with. Even now with this entire Note is being edited at 2:30 on 12/24/23 as I'm writing Luan's part.

This chapter originally had another segment with Lincoln at the end along with one back at the Loud House, but between the desire to get this out before the year was done and that I had completely restructured the segments prior to publishing, I felt it wouldn't work. Part of this author's note alone has 3 whole giant segments I cut out from here simply because their context didn't fit in this chapter without the necessary events happening. These events alone in my original concept for this story were supposed to happen back in chapters 14-15. But as I said many times before, this story changes a lot as I go.

So far FFNet is still fucked up some; when it gets fixed next year is anyone's guess. With the story where it is after this goes live, I'll probably focus on the next trio of chapters for the next few months and post again on the story's one-year anniversary. How many chapters would that be, I have no idea, but hell, I can type quite a lot pretty fast when I'm really motivated.

Thank you to anyone who has followed and favored this story, it's probably not what you all were expecting so far for a Loudcest/NSL story, but believe me when I say, we still have one helluva road to go.

And have a Happy New Year.

(Note: These AN notes are written before, during, and after hand to convey my thinking. Not based on what's changed, reviews, etc., and is borderline me ranting out loud my way of thinking.)

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P.s. At the time of this part, I'm doing some minor edits and noticed that the view count is working again(!)