Tornado_scramble_for_sky_chase -

"Stay on my wing, Static," Elias radioed. "Watch the updrafts. They’ll try to swallow you whole."

"Focus on your HUD," Elias replied, his voice a steady anchor. "We’re at the drop point. Deploying pods... now!"

As they banked hard toward the east, a funnel cloud finally touched the earth behind them, a roaring finger of dust and debris. Back at the base, the screens lit up with precise data. Because of the sensors, the sirens in Oakhaven had gone off five minutes earlier than expected. tornado_scramble_for_sky_chase

The engines of the modified scout planes roared to life, a mechanical chorus against the low rumble of thunder. Elias climbed into his cockpit, his hands moving with practiced ease over the controls. To his left was Sarah "Static" Jenkins, a rookie with a brilliant mind for meteorology but a nervous grip on the stick.

"Listen up," Elias barked over the rising wind. "This isn't about the trophy. We have twenty minutes before that cell touches down near the valley. Your sensors are the only eyes Oakhaven has. Get in, drop the pods, and get out." The Scramble "Stay on my wing, Static," Elias radioed

With a hiss of compressed air, three silver cylinders fell from Elias’s belly, their parachutes snapping open for a brief second before being sucked into the rotation. Sarah followed suit, her hands steadying as she saw her sensors sync with the ground station. The Escape "Pods are live! We’ve got the data!" Sarah yelled.

As they took off, the sky shifted from a bruised purple to an eerie, sickly green. The turbulence hit them like a physical wall. Their planes, reinforced with carbon-fiber shells, bounced violently as they approached the "bear's cage"—the area of heaviest precipitation near the updraft. Into the Eye "We’re at the drop point

"You did it, Jenkins," he said, handing her a bottle of water. "That data just saved a thousand people."