Xaviers!

Somewhere off the coast of Great Britain, deep in the waters of the North Sea an unseen force disturbs the sea-floor. Grains of sand begin twitching and moving, slightly at first, then more frequently and with more force as the swirl of water grows stronger, tightening into a miniscule point in space from which an iridescent mass bubbles violently, swelling and twitching until a crab-like leg emerges, then another, then a third...


Not much later, in Blackwater Estuary near Maldon

It starts, as a lot of things do, benign. The water in the harbor and the river outlet slowly rises a couple inches past the average high-tide, hardly concerning, weather and tides are not 100% predictable at all times. It's when actual waves start gently rocking the boats in the harbor that people take notice. The estuary and the bird sanctuary island within it usually provide a sort of natural protection against actual waves that break long before they reach Maldon. And then a veritable swarm of birds rises from Northey Isle, hundreds and hundreds of them taking to the air with protesting calls. And it's around this time that some of the more extra-sensate students at the University take note.

Wanda, innately in tune with the weather and natural order would feel something wrong, this early Saturday morning. Like a violent gust of air suddenly disrupting the flow of wind and plunging everything into momentary chaos...

Samantha, mind of Crows and Conflict, wakes in an unfamiliar bed with thick drawn curtains and a pale, unmoving figure next to her. The previous night is a bit of a haze of dancing, Tequila, blood and who knows what else, but what pierces through any hangover is the distant cry of countless birds that makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She can feel something ancient and not quite hers in her bones, the ill omen of circling birds...

Emilie wakes with a inexplicable feeling of dread, like the shadow of a forgotten nightmare just passed over her.

Natalie is disturbed in whatever she does when everyone else is asleep by Clarion receiving an increasing number of alerts. Increased water levels in the estuary. Not a big deal. A shift in weather towards a possible storm. Sudden but nothing too unusual on the coast of England. Then a high-tide warning from the Essex Weather Service, followed swiftly by a dormant node in her own system suddenly coming online.

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}} Anomalous Energy Signature detected
}} Approximate distance 2.3 miles and closing

From the cliffs by the University it's a clear view across the water and the small island to Maldon's harbor. On the horizon stormclouds are gathering, but of more immediate concern is the swell of water that has almost entirely submerged the Northey Isle bird sanctuary, it's inhabitants now circling in a large swarm above. From towards the open ocean a wave is travelling suspiciously steady and uniform, an almost perfect half-circle of water about ten feet across and as it hits the small island in the estuary it slows down and begins to rise. A large dome of water, undulating shapes vaguely visible beneath the water before the surface tension finally break and shedding the water like a cocoon is an enormous gelatinous dome. Within it a scintillating eye of some sort swivels along the entire circumference as if searching for something. A large, grey crab-leg breaches the water and pulls the creature onto the shallows of Northey Isles, followed by two more legs, rimmed with hair or strange baleens of some sort. Short, maybe foot-long tendrils hang from the big jellyfish dome, constantly shedding water from seemingly nowhere.

The creature rears up, more and more water sloughing off it's gelatinous surface as it stands a good 25 feet tall and again the scintillating orb within it's cap spins around like a restless eye. And every moment it sits there more and more water spills forth, knocking about the boats in the nearby harvor as waves begin to spill over the pier and into the streets...

Not too much later the Blackbird swoops in and comes to hover above the creature currently clawing it's way onto land. It doesn't seem to pay the plane or it's occupants any mind and instead continues it's west-ward trajectory.

After the Blackbird comes to a hover, Wanda drops out of the back, letting the wind catch her and lift her to float as she watches the creature, eyes searching the world around it to see how it might be affecting the warp of the weather.

"Come across it's nose, and sweep back out to sea," Will ordered the pilot. "We'll see if we can't draw it's attention from the town by cutting in front of it's face."

"Can do," Natalie's voice comes from the controls as she kicks the ship into flight again and cuts across the 'front' of the thing.

That definitely gets it's attention. The 'eye' snaps towards the plane and swivels around to follow it while one of the legs moves to swipe at it in an upward arc. It hits only air but in the wake of the leg the water it's shedding like an afterimage is flung up and slams into the Blackbird, knocking the plane about for a stomach-lurching moment and dousing the entire rear compartment when water splashes in through the open ramp. The creature does not try to follow after the Blackbird but it has stopped for the moment as it watches the plane wobble in the air.

Wanda has a front row seat to see this unfold from the air and she can easily tell that the main effect the creature is having on the world is through water. Not just the obvious way in that it's shedding huge amounts but just generally acting like a huge distortion in the natural water cycle, throwing clouds and weather into disarray. It's not unnatural per se, just too much at once for the natural order of things.

"Let's... urgh... not do that again," Tosh said, stomach reeling. His inner selves being strangely eager to be set loose to indulge his kaiju battle fantasies wasn't helping his mental state either.

"It's disrupting the water cycle," Wanda reports, "Beyond just the water it's shedding. It will make a mess of the weather even if we coax it back out to sea."

Sam makes her way out onto the open ramp, casting her mind out ahead of her. Something about this is familiar, she agrees, but she's thinking in a different direction than Will and Tosh.

"Still, getting it out to sea lessens immediate collateral damage. We can worry about the weather once the town isn't flooding.

We've got it's attention now. Let's keep it. Take us under it's legs; see if we can't get it to chase us."

"I'll have to close the ramp to do that, don't want another deluge in the ship, especially flying under it," Natalie says, beginning to close the ramp as she starts circling around for another pass.

"Want me to annoy it with some lightning, keep its attention on us?"

Of course the gotdamn shark gets a go.
Dude. What can you do? Curse at it?

"Cut it out, guys. Seriously."

"If it swipes at us again, alright, but it hasn't openly attacked the city yet. I don't want to hurt it while we don't understand it."

"Can you two keep the chatter, internal or otherwise, down while I try to get a fix on this?"

Closing the hangar door the Blackbird comes in for a low approach. A human pilot would have their work cut out for it. The creature is huge but not that massive. But Natalie has the power of math on her side and an extensive autopilot system that makes the maneuver only a little daunting. With mere feet to spare from the surface of the water and an unknown amount of clearance above the Blackbird swoops underneath the creature, one leg each passing by the windows on each side. The third one comes into view as it stabs down right in front of the cockpit and only a sudden tilting of the plane by Natalie keeps it from crashing straight into it and possibly getting sawed in half. But there's only so much room and the creature is trying to slam it's bulk down on top of them, making one of the wings clips the creature's underbelly and sends the plane spinning horizontally, pressing the occupants into their seats or against the walls, skidding across the water until it hits solid (if somewhat soaked) ground and coming to a rest.

Sam manages to get a vague impression before the crash. An empty void with a flame burning at it's very end. She's seen this before both when fighting the giant rock-monster as well as when Cailleach dragged her down into the depth to show her the fractal tree. The funhouse-mirror version of her has ostensibly manipulated sparks before in order to break free from Muir and while she can only manipulate her own flesh it's... not completely impossible that she might have created some kind of empty effigy to imbue with a mutation.

"So much for plan A," Tosh groaned, a little green around the metaphorical gills.

"Everyone okay?' Natalie's voice checks in from the console, but it's got some static in it. "My connection's gotten really spotty."

"Thankfully I was strapped... Oh shit! Sam!"

He undid his straps and dizzily scrambled out of his seat, scanning the plane for Sam. She might be a shifter but she wasn't a living Looney Tune like Will.

"Report!" Will barked out, trying to regain his feet. "Is it coming after us yet, or ignoring us?"

He made his way towards the hatch, trying to see if it still opened.

Wanda moves around it, trying to whip up a fog to screen the downed aircraft from the creature. "Seeing how it reacts to something. It did seem intent on squashing you, watching it now."

Fortunately the rear ramp still opens, though it groans enough that something is clearly out of alignment. The creature is moving towards them but stops when Wanda's fog thickens around the plane. It's strange scintillating eyeball swivels back and forth and finally it pushes itself up with it's legs straightened out and it let's out a strange undulating sound that ripples across the surface of the water for a moment before it suddenly sends the water all around it outward, drying out the park but sending a circular wave out all around it. Most of it splashes against the rising terrain to the south or goes back out into the sea, but a large part of it sweeps towards the city and that is the direction the creature begins to move towards.

"Wanda! Can you shroud the town in fog, so the thing can't, uh, sense it?" Will shouts over the intercom.

"I can try," she responds, raising her hands as the fog starts to grow, moving to shroud the path to the town as well. At least there's plenty of moisture being thrown around to work with, she thinks.

Sam is sprawled on the deck of the jet, groaning as she slowly gets up. She's taken a decent tumble, but is recovering.

"...I don't suppose we brought the Will that likes turning into a giant bloody robot, did we?"

If the fog is impairing the thing's senses it doesn't seem to care as it continues marching right for the city, crushing the little gatehouse near the entrance to the park by stepping on it simply due to being in it's path.

"I don't think this thing's being diverted without force," Tosh said, stepping onto the ramp.

Shifting into Bruce, he added, "Let me at 'em, boss man."

"...how do you feel about the old Fastball Special, Tosh?" Sam asks as she finishes righting herself.

Bruce opened his mouth but instead, Ennio took the stage.

"Why? You gonna throw me?"

Bruce took over again. "Dude, not what she means. Yeah, let's do it."

Well, that was new.

"Don't tell me what I mean," she smirks wearily as she steps out of the jet... and starts to grow.

Samantha McManus wrote:Sam is sprawled on the deck of the jet, groaning as she slowly gets up. She's taken a decent tumble, but is recovering.

"...I don't suppose we brought the Will that likes turning into a giant bloody robot, did we?"

Will shook his head a little bit, as Sam began to get larger. "I'll be pushing it if I get to that size. Decreasing mass is easy. Increasing..." he said, trailing off as he followed Sm up...

"But Tosh is right. A little elbow grease may be required here."

Ennio took over again. "Move over fish stick, I'm easier to throw," he said smugly as he followed Sam.

"I don't care which of you I need to throw, you just need to be ready when you hit the damned thing."

Wanda gives up on the fog, but of course this is England so it continues to linger. Instead she makes a twisting gesture with her hands as she creates a vortex of wind to try and pick up as much of the water as she can and disperse it.

"That means me you wet noodle," Bruce interjected after taking over.

After growing to an appropriate Bruce-tossing size, Sam looks down to the rest.

"Are you going to get ready or what?"

Will took a few more deep breaths, getting larger and more muscular with each one. He was peaking out at about 12 feet tall, about half the size of the monster.

"This is the best I can do without more prep. It'll have to do for now."

Bruce put himself in throwing position and gave a thumbs-up.

Sam scoops up the electric fish and lobs Bruce at the monster.

Bruce charged up and let out a whoop as he prepared for impact.

Wanda can feel the air responding to her gestures, swirling around and gathering up the newly-shed water left in the creature's wake as it moves. The wave ahead of it is too far away and too much to lift up into the air but she can at least clear a path for them to follow as thick clouds billow from the tornado in a slow spiral. And then a shark-man comes flying through the air and the forming clouds, electricity arcing from him to the moisture before he slams down right on top of the monster.

The impact it less rough that he might have anticipated, the jellyfish cap having quite a bit of give to it, but it is also extremely slippery and constantly exuding water, forcing Bruce to dig his claws into the gelatinous mass to not immediately slide off amidst the electrified water washing over him. The creature doesn't react except for it's eye swiveling until it's right underneath Bruce, giving him a good look at it. It almost looks more like nacre or mother-of-pearl, having a rainbow-hue to it's otherwise smooth and featureless surface. It's an unnervingly blank stare that's only broken when the eye withdraws deeper into the center of the jellyfish with a slurping sound Bruce can hear as much as he can feel it through the thing's skin.