May 5th - Victoria Embankment - Cleopatra's Needle

[Narrator]

Right across the Thames from campus the embankment with the obelisk was visible. Or it would have been if it wasn't for an oddly localized storm. Maybe 50 yards around the spire hail was coming down thick enough to almost obfuscate the entire area and send people caught inside it stumbling for cover.

[Jubilation Lee]

"What the fresh hell is this?" Jubilee said as she sped towards the obelisk.

[Nailah Weaver]

There, obviously, was no one around to answer her. At least until she got closer, because apparently she wasn't the only one who flew over the river as a winged figure was trying to fight her way into the storm, more or less successfully as she always seemed to get tossed back by a gust of wind.

[Jubilation Lee]

Jubilee flew once around the obelisk, and then over to where Nailah was trying to get closer. "Sometimes flying my way is easier." Jubliee said as she materialized a platform under Nailah.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah looks over her shoulder as the platform materializes under her. She looks vaguely distracted, almost like she does when having a vision but she seems a little more lucid.

"Thanks. Though as a shield it may be more useful. It's almost as if the wind is actively keeping people away."

[Jubilation Lee]

"The other weird stuff was all on campus." Jubilee replied "I hope it doesn't keep spreading."

[Nailah Weaver]

"No... I don't think it is... But if my suspicion is right, and I hope it isn't, then this is the seventh out of ten. And we do not want to let it get that far."

[Jubilation Lee]

Jubilee's eyes went wide as she caught Nailah's meaning "I guess we better call a kosher butcher and get a supply of lamb's blood."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm not sure there are enough lambs in Ireland to mark every door of every home in London. But maybe we won't have to. There's something going on in that storm, something that's spilling from the obelisk." she says and tries to approach the storm again with the help of Jubilee's disk, being more successful than on her previous tries at least, even if it's slow.

[Amanda Weinrich]

"I hate magic." Jubilee muttered as she looked at the obelisk.

[Nailah Weaver]

"We might want to call for Miss Valentine's assistance, just in case. Being familiar with something may not be enough for me to actuallydeal with this..." she says, though she sounds more and mroe absentminded the closer the two struggle their way to the obelisk.

[Jubilation Lee]

"Good idea." Jubilee said, buffeted by the wind.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah seems to have stopped listening. Or if she is she's showing no signs of it at least. Standing a few feet away from the obelisk she is staring at it blankly while the wind is whipping through her wings and clothes. At least until the former suddenly snap open.

"Victoria. Or Captain Britain... One of them needs to close it. It is like a foreign body spilling into this land..." she mumbles, her eyes darting over the hieroglyphics on the ancient stone.

[Janice Gilbertson]

As if on cue, Captain Britain began circling down from overhead.

[Narrator]

And as if sensing her approach the storm almost seemed to pull together and focus on Captain Britain to keep her from approaching. Along with the wind and hail swept a feeling of something that doesn't quite belong. Even if London is not exactly representative of Avalon and Otherworld the impressions of sand, stone, burning oil and incense the storm seems to carry along are out of place even here.

Despite the surge of activity of the storm Nailah seems to be oddly unaffected but still mostly unresponsive to what is happening.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Oh wonderful," Captain Britain muttered. "A cyclone that has to make it personal."

She fought against the wind, trying to get to the center of the storm.

[Nailah Weaver]

The ever-shifting wind was hard to anticipate and even harder to find the calm center if one exists. But slowly the winds lose some of their super-natural strength and let Janice advance.

It's hard to tell in the chaos but it seems Nailah has spread her arms and is shouting... something into the wind repeatedly. But even when Janice gets close enough to hear her over the storm it probably still doesn't make much sense to her.

"Heset-netjer sekhtet debeh a'nen
a'q hemet-netjer taem'key-ta..."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Professor Weaver, we've got to get you out of here!"

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah is distracted for a moment, turning her head for a split-second to look at Janice and let out a quick "No." before her eyes snap back to the obelisk, but it's long enough for the wind to pick up again for just a second, almsot blowing both of them off the embankment.

"Other side... Go close it off..." Nailah mumbles, nodding towards the other side of the obelisk, the only side of it that isn't being watched right now actually. Through the wind and hail the shilouettes of the two statues to each side of the stone-pillar are visible, appearing eerily similar to Nailah at this moment.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Let's hope my force-field holds..."

She circled around to the other side of the obelisk and tried to approach it. If she could get to the base, she would attempt to extend her force-field around it.

[Narrator]

As Janice approached the obelisk from the other side and, presumably, looks at it the storm wavers a little more, but when she turns onher forcefield the gale picks up around them, the mixture of wind and hail ripping apart the nearby trees. For now they seem to be standing in the somewhat calmer eye of the storm, but it seems to be closing in around them.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Doesn't seem to be helping!" She calls to Nailah.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Can't go too close to it..." she shouts, omitting the I think.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"You can't, or I shouldn't?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"I can, but I think you shouldn't... We need some kind of burst of 'native' magic to seal it. If you have to be close for that then do it fast."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Well, right now I've got it wrapped up in the absolute manifestation of my sheer Britishness, but I guess I can try to squeeze."

[Narrator]

And suddenly reality seemed to have a hiccup. The storm disappeared as if someone had flicked a switch, but what was more irritating was the split-second of feeling like they were somewhere else. They weren't the only ones though, apparently, as a fellow dressed in blue, white and red and an older man with an almost ridiculous collar seemed to look at them. The later with a bit of a 'What took so long?' expression on his face.

And then they were back in London, no signs of the storm ever having happened if it wasn't for the rather damaged trees and cars nearby.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"...well, alright then."

[Nailah Weaver]

And that was when Nailah collapsed into a sitting position on the floor.

"Please don't ask me what just happened here because I have no idea..." which is only partially true, but it hardly seems like the right time to discuss theories or suspicions.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Well I don't think there's any of Moses' people for us to let go, is there?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"I don't believe this was literally the wrath of God. Something must have set off the remains of a curse in that stone."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"It felt wrong. It's hard to explain."

[Nailah Weaver]

"It doesn't belong here. Not really. It's like a page of Kafka in a Douglas Adams book."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Suppose that explains it. I'm just not very used to being able to feel that."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Tell me about it..." and for a moment there's a bit of uncertainty on Nailah's face, maybe even a little fear.

[Janice Gilbertson]

"...hey, are you going to be alright? I can fly you back to the infirmary, if you need."

[Nailah Weaver]

"No no, I'm alright." she says and stands up to underline that.

"I am just not quite sure what I did here. Or how."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"Then that makes two of us."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I believe I rather need a drink now."

[Janice Gilbertson]

"I'm afraid the mystic protector of Britain cannot help you there," a smile evident in her voice as she took flight.