DEATH WISH - Twisters

Hypocrisy

"WOW, THESE scans are impressive" Tyler remarked as they looked at the screen. "I mean, it's a complete map of the chaos. Tyler, our moisture numbers are off. Currently, the polymer is only absorbing the existing raindrops, not the moisture from the humidity. I mean, we need it to precipitate out more" Kate explained.

"So, we need to make it rain" Phoenix said, looking to Tyler with a slight tilt to her head. "They were cloud seeding in Lawton a few years ago for the farmers" Cathy said. "Yeah. Yeah, silver iodide" Kate nodded, looking up at Tyler. "We could shoot rockets of that" Phoenix and Tyler said at the same time, causing them to smile at each other.

"Okay, thinking hat is on. The silver iodide converts the moisture into rain, and then the sodium polyacrylate, we need a lot of it, would pull the water from the storm..." Phoenix explained. "Increasing the cold pool" Tyler finished. "No faster way to choke a tornado" Kate smiled.

~~~~

"God, he gets on my ass for not answering the phone but he can do the same thing. Fucking dickhead" Phoenix muttered that last part, shoving her phone in her pocket and Tyler laughed at her.

"Hey, Lily. Yeah, I couldn't get Boone. No, we're gonna need you guys for something. No, no, no, we'll come to you. Alright" Tyler spoke into the phone as he walked around to the other side of the truck, t-shirt in hand.

Kate hugged her mom tightly and Phoenix leaned against Tyler, resting her head on his arm. "Is this it? Or you gonna come back before you go home?" Cathy asked. "You know I will" Kate replied before pulling away from the hug.

"Love you" Cathy smiled. "Love you" Kate repeated before walking away. "This is for you" Tyler handed Cathy the shirt and a look of horror mixed with embarrassment crossed over Phoenix's face. "You have any idea what you're getting yourself into?" Cathy asked as she unfolded the shirt.

"I'm beginning to" Tyler nodded as Cathy opened the shirt up fully. "Oh god" Phoenix cringed. "Huh. Thanks" Cathy smiled up at him. "Okay" Tyler breathed. "Thank you" Cathy repeated and Phoenix shivered from the awkwardness. "Tyler Owens, you are so goddamn lucky I put up with you" Phoenix sighed and Cathy laughed.

"If you burn the shirt, I will take no offense" Phoenix chuckled. "Thank you for your hospitality and the food. The food was great, best meal I've had in a while" Phoenix continued. "You are welcome back here anytime. Both of you" Cathy smiled. Phoenix smiled back before her and Tyler walked back to the truck, Phoenix getting the back with Tyler's help, despite her hitting him multiple times playfully.

~~~~

"You finally made it" Dani greeted, ending her conversation with Ben. "Ben you stuck around" Tyler smiled, walking up to the reporter. "Turns out, there's more to this story than I thought" Ben replied, shaking Tyler's hand.

"You asshole! You always get on my ass for not answering my goddamn phone but when I call you, you don't pick up! You fucking hypocrite!" Phoenix yelled at Boone while also having a smile on her face.

"I was sleeping!" Boone yelled back, a smile also on his lips. "You can sleep when you're dead, you lazy shit" Phoenix retorted, the smile on her face widening to a grin. "Well, in that case, find a socket wrench or some shit. I wanna sleep, dammit!" Boone yelled and Phoenix pushed his chest playfully, earning a shove in return.

Tyler was just laughing at the two of them as Ben looked moderately concerned and also amused. "Is this normal?" Ben asked as Phoenix and Boone continued to hurl different obscenities at each other. "Normal? Absolutely nothing about either of them is 'normal'" Dani replied and Ben chuckled.

"Prick!" Phoenix.

"Jerk!" Boone.

"Bitch!" Phoenix.

"Asshole!" Boone.

"Dumbass!" Phoenix.

"I love you!" Boone.

"I love you too!" Phoenix.

The two froze, their brows furrowed as that wasn't how this usually ended and everyone burst out laughing at the mirrored expressions the two wore. "The fuck just happened?" Phoenix asked. "You love me? Please tell me someone was filmin' that" Boone looked around at the others to find all of them bent over at the waist as they laughed so hard their sides hurt.

"Oh. Fi, I think we might've killed 'em" Boone looked to Phoenix, who also looked around. "We? No, no, you did this" Phoenix shook her head. "Me?! Nah, this was all you, girl" Boone raised his hands, stepping backwards. Phoenix opened her mouth to say some kind of retort but she made eye contact with Boone, causing her to quickly bite her lip to try and stifle her laugh.

"This was all y-" Phoenix started but burst out laughing at the same time that Boone did, causing him to grab onto her as he knees gave out. They were both laughing hysterically, as if they were both on every kind of drug, and neither of them could stop. Everyone around them was practically crying, as usual when these 'arguments' happened, and Phoenix and Boone were clinging onto each other as tears streamed down their faces.

"Holy shit, I got all that on camera" Lily cackled, and Boone cheered. "Oh my god" Phoenix panted, trying to stop herself from laughing. "God, what the hell did you two take?" Tyler laughed, wiping his face. "And this right here, is exactly why you do not keep these two apart for more than twenty-four hours" Dani walked up to the two, placing a hand on their shoulders.

"Get your stupid ass off me" Phoenix shoved Boone away, who chuckled, barely starting to calm down. "Alright, alright, jesus christ" Tyler waved his hands around, laughing softly as he stood behind Phoenix and next to Kate, who was barely keeping it together at this point.

"So, City Girl, finally decided to ditch all them squares, huh? Right on" Dexter nodded, a broad smile on his face. Phoenix side-eyed Boone, who proceeded to start laughing again and walk away, shaking his head. "Nix, I swear to god" Tyler laughed and she walked backwards with her hands up.

Tyler's smile fell quickly though as he looked to Boone, who was now standing off by himself. Tyler held up a finger to Phoenix, who simply nodded and smiled slightly, allowing Tyler to walk up to Boone. "Hey, buddy. I'm sorry" Tyler wrapped an arm around Boone's shoulders.

"How do I make it up to you?" Tyler asked. "Man, you abandoned me. I don't know nothing about no makeup-" Boone started, not looking at Tyler. "How about we launch some new rockets?" Tyler cut him off and Boone raised his eyebrows, looking up slightly. "You-you said rockets?" Boone asked, looking up at Tyler fully.

Tyler smirked and nodded slightly, causing Boone to start smiling. "Hey. Y'all ready?" Dani asked as she stood beside Ben and Phoenix.

~~~~

"We need a forty-foot trailer that's light enough for a pickup but heavy enough to anchor barrels in hundred-mile-an-hour winds" Dani explained. "Why the hell would you want that?" the worker asked. Dani went to answer but frowned, turning to look at Kate. "Why the hell do we want that?" Dani asked.

"Well, cause when we drive into a tornado, we want whatever's on the trailer to get sucked into it, but not us" Kate replied as if it was obvious. Boone slowly looked at Phoenix, who shrugged slightly and Boone nodded, clearly satisfied with the answer to the question he didn't even ask.

The worker just looked at Kate for a while, pure silence from the whole group. "You're gonna want aluminum" he said after a moment. "Okay" Kate nodded, and the group took off walking once more.