ic Extradimensional Birdwatching Club (IC)

[Dr Archeville]

On the way back to the camp, Davyd moved to walk in front of Mia, and used his morphing powers to print a message on the back of his shirt for her to see.  IF YOU WANT TO GO BACK AND LOOK FOR MORE TRASH, I'M WITH YOU!  He left it there a few moments, enough to make sure she saw it, then reverted the top to its plain from and walked a few paces off from her.

 

Back at camp, he flashed Danica a warm smile.  "Who needs pictures when you've got me?!"  With a laugh he leaped into the air and shifted into the various birds and other animals he'd seen, and flitted or scampered about the camp.

 

Mia's remark about hunters gave him pause.  "Yeah, but I thought this was, like, a protected preserve?  With, you know, dimensional barriers or something, to keep out hunters and poachers."  He looked about the group, hoping someone else had heard that, that it wasn't just something he'd assumed.  "Or at least some sort of monitoring setup, to let someone back home know when someone's come here?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"The Freedom League watches it, but that's for things like big dimensional incursions, not for little pinpricks like this. Those are a lot harder to detect, especially if you're not watching..." Ashley stirred the fire with a stick, then caught a look from the others. "Hey, when I am taking my baby sister on her first trip out of this dimension, you better believe I do my damn homework." She frowned. "A planet's big, not to mention a solar system..." She cast a reflective eye at the stars, wondering if there was an alternate  version of Infinity up there. "Who knows what could be here beside us." 

 

Judy did indeed have quite a few pictures to share with Danica, having turned out to be quite good at sitting still for long periods of time given the way her powers worked. She'd kept up her luck with the Carolina parakeets, having found the nesting site for a whole flock, but had also made other interesting discoveries like a family of heath hens settling down in a sheltered space against the cold winter, and a gorgeous beachside shot of a fat and sassy pelican in the middle of gulping down a large fish. She took a few pictures of Davyd (and Danica too, for that matter) having overcome her unease about his powers, and was obviously enjoying herself and her new camera thoroughly on their little expedition. 

 

Looking closely, Vox was struck by the uncomfortable reality that he wasn't terribly familiar with what beer cans looked like! He was able to find an expiration date on the can that suggested it was only about a year old, and no obvious signs that it hadn't come from his home dimension. So it _could_ be from a previous school's mission, or maybe not - there was really no way to know without more information. 

 

Over supper, Mr. Jorgensen made promises of a trip across the river the next morning - and bunked down with the boys early. 

 

- 

 

Later that night, Judy stuck her head in the girls tent. "Psst! Ashley, Danica!" she whispered. "Ah just saw Mia teleport away with Davyd." It was amazing what you could see if you sat by the edge of the fire without anybody looking for you. "Ah think they're going back to the beach!" 

 

"Judy," said Ashley patiently, "if they want to sneak off and screw around, that's not really any of our business." She was sitting up still awake, having looked out a crack in the tent and actually seen the pair vanish herself. They tried to keep their voices down for Danica's benefit, but it wasn't a very big tent. 

 

"Aaashley," said Judy impatiently, "that is not what they are doing. Ah think they're looking to see if there are any more clues down there. Like the beer can." 

 

 

[Shofet]

As she teleported up onto the beach, Mia found herself staring up at the sky again. It was gorgeous, really. She wondered if all the other stars up there were empty of sapient life just like here, or if things went on, empires rising and falling without any regard for the fact that humanity had never risen to prominence. It was a sobering thought, that things would be fine without humanity. Just continue on without any changes.

 

“Well, here we are, Tom Thumb,” Mia said dryly, looking to her shoulder. Her eyes drifted over the beach as she took in the sound of the roaring waves. She shivered, but not because of the cold.

 

Briefly, she looked back at the treeline behind them, before returning her focus to the sands. “Well, we don’t have a metal detector, so it looks like we’re doing this all manually,” she said as she crouched down to make it easier for Davyd to get off of her. She rested her arms on her knees, and waited until he hopped off.

 

A thought crossed her mind as she waited, and she couldn’t help but voice it. “You know, this would be a great place to get baked,” she said. “Could probably access my pocket dimension from here and get supplies, if you know what I mean. After we find what we’re looking for, I mean. If we find anything.”

 

She just let that hang in there. She figured if Davyd didn’t like it, she’d be fine. He didn’t seem like the type to get others in trouble.

[TheAbsurdist]

Benny listed back, feeling uncomfortable, and it tended to clam him up.  He helped around the camp though.

When the return happened with the beer, he pursed him lips, and folded his arms across his chest, hearing Mr. Jorgensen explaining that they shouldn't drink... Not that he thought to bring any beer, but then he really didn't have the leeway to do it.  "So... someone has been here, recent enough that the birds didn't make a nest out of the can?  It's shiny, birds like things like that, right?" He was not an astounding student when it came to biology, but he peered at them owlishly.  Though he dropped the matter.

--

Later after dinner and the early going to bed, he blinked a little bit and got out of the tent, rocking his head on his shoulders, he hooded sweater on, and pulled over his jug-eared melon.  "Ah... everything okay?"  He said towards the rustling at the girl's tent.  There were bears, and other things that might not really give a care about rummaging on in.

[Dr Archeville]

Davyd, who'd ridden on Mia's shoulders in the form of an otter, scurried down as she kneeled and ran in a few circles around in the sand.  At her mention of illicit substances, he looked up at her, tilted his otter head this way and that, gave the closest equivalent of a shrug that he could manage, then bounded off to where he'd found the can.

 

Okay okay focus gotta find some tracks gotta find some clams to crack open no no tracks no footprints not in sand no scent tracks ooh!

 

As he paced, his body suddenly doubled and then doubled again in size, legs lengthened, and his sleek otter fur grew out to long shaggy hair.  Now he was a dog, specifically a Ukrainian SHepherd Dog, but with the droopy-faced head of a bloodhoud.   He sniffed the ground a few times, then tilted his head up and sniffed at Mia, then the air about them.

 

Daaamn!  That's a lot of new smells!  Whoa!  I... whoa!   This is amaaazing!  The animals, the trees, the grass, the sea, the- no, no, no, gotta focus...

 

He bent his head down again to where he'd found the beer can, and sniffed around, trying to focus on what his new senses revealed to him.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Dr Archeville

[Dariusprime]

In all fairness, Nick didn't really know what to expect. The expiration date did dovetail with the apparent age of the thing. Beyond that, yeah, he had no idea what a beer can included. About the only person he knew to ask would be his Great Uncle Otis, but time and space put certain constraints on that particular option. He jotted down the brand name before returning the can. Maybe a search back in the world would reveal more.

 

The talk of this world's status soured his mood somewhat. He joined the others around the fire, sneaking peeks of the day's pictures, but didn't contribute much beyond being a good listener. Still the day had been a good one, and he was content. He only nibbled his dinner that night. Which was saying something given his hummingbird metabolism. Perhaps Ashley's comment had put him off further.

 

An early bedtime, promises of trips or not, suited him just fine. Into his sleeping bag and out like a light he went in record time. His dreams coalesced peacefully. Mainly they focused on the day's sights and the sounds of the sea. After his stomach settled a bit, the one he would remember involved Mia and him building a shrink ray while discussing the proper settings for a Giant Carolina Parakeet. Meanwhile Keetzilla rampaged through the city. No freshly washed car was safe.

[Shofet]

Mia shrugged her shoulders, and then pulled out a few things from her pocket dimension. The first was a 'small' (and by that I mean massive) baggy of weed, which she proceeded to take a hefty sample from before placing it back into the ether, and then producing a grinder. Quickly, she shredded the contents into a manageable size, before she produced the piece-de-resistance: The micro-bong. Quickly assembling it, she used her powers to fill it up with water, before she freed up her lighter and began to go to town.

 

A rippling sound filled the night air, interspersed with a few coughs. "Alright, buddy, just lemme know if you find anything," she said.

 

It was nice to be out here, without judgment. Mia could already feel the stuff taking effect. She had gone with a hybrid with a high potency, because she had been smoking for two years and had grown used to the weaker stuff. She kind of wished Lulu was here. She imagined that girl would be super down.

 

"You ever gotten high before, Davyd?"

[Avenger Assembled]

A little while ago 

 

"C'mon, Ashley, they could get in real trouble out there. What if there really is an invader or - or one of those prehistoric monsters everybody was talking about?" 

 

"All right," said Ashley, pinching the bridge of her nose. "But I am _not_ taking you out into the dark, in the middle of the woods in another dimension. I need you to stay right here in this tent with Danica, do you understand? That is probably the safest spot in this whole damn dimension..." Judy pouted a little at that, but she hadn't really wanted to go out into the woods that badly.

 

Ashley stood up, pulling on her helmet, and slapped a magazine into one of her twin sidearms. "Okay, Rebound, let's go down there and make sure they aren't about to get eaten by a damn megalodon..." 

 

Startled from dreams of birds for a moment or two, Vox realized he was alone - except for the loudly-snoring Mr. Jorgensen. Peering out his tent window, he could make out a faint glow inside the girl's tent, and watch as a helmeted Watchdog and Rebound stepped out of it before heading off into the woods together. Surely this wasn't allowed! Watchdog didn't seem to be bothering with a flashlight, but she was carefully picking her way as she went. 

 

A second or two ago 

 

Horrowshow couldn't pick up any fresh scents - but he was able to find another beer can, and what looked like a crushed Twinkie wrapper. They all seemed pretty old, as if they'd been there as long as the original can, and smelled rather unpleasant, as if they'd been somewhere that a large number of animals had chosen to settle for an extended period of time. But his canine senses told him something was in the air, a strange, electric disturbance like a coming storm...

 

Now 

 

Not really bothering with stealth, Watchdog picked her way down the beach to where Mia and Davyd were - "What are you doing?" Her voice was muffled behind her helmet, but no less recognizable for that even in the dark. This was shaping up to be a long, long night. 

 

 

 

[Shofet]

Mia felt terror run up her spine as she heard Ashley's voice. She knew that the girl erred on the side of... legalistic, and as such she would have to use some legal judo to keep her butt out of the fire to keep the girl from keeping her away from one of the best friends she had earned in the school since then. Curse you, Ashley Smith!

 

"DYUHHH," Mia said, nearly jumping out of her skin. "Uh! Well, I was doing nothing illegal. Because you see, we're in another dimension, and as I discovered by reading the USG's website, United States law does not apply to other dimensions! And also no one can be tried for extradimensional acts under US law!"
 

She quickly stored her illicit goods into the other dimension.

 

"And also I was doing nothing illegal in the first place," she said. "So yeah."

Edited October 26, 2019 by Shofet

[Dariusprime]

Oh heck no.

 

No way on this or any Earth was he going to be left out. Officially allowed or not. His initial thought of waking Mr. Jorgenson disappeared as slipped outside and put on his jacket against the chill. He took a second to take in the camp's signals. Judy's radio signal and the transmitter spiked first, but Jorgensen's snoring mixed with another set. Did Danica snore?

 

Focus. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Nick quietly followed after Rebound and Watchdog. He didn't need to stay close. Their footsteps echoed through the ground, and their biosignatures sang through the quiet night. Something else he figured out was he didn't really need to use his eyes much in the dark. Bat-like he was not, but navigating through the woods under the stars proved unproblematic. The kid in him felt like an auditory version of the alien from Predator. Which of course he was too young to see but totally did thanks Uncle.

 

Now smiling, the small teen stopped at the treeline and watched the scene unfold. He did have the good sense to slip behind a tree. What was Mia up to? Where was Davyd? And where did that dog come from?

 

Judging from Ashley's tone and Mia's response, this was shaping up to be a fun, fun night.

[Dr Archeville]

Horrror!Dog shook his head when Mia asked if he'd ever partaken, sending his jowls flapping this way and that, for more than a normal bloodhound's should flap.  It was true he'd never used marijuana before, nor had Uncle Sasha or most of his associates... while he was around.  (Many of Uncle Sasha's associates did deal in a variety of uppers & downers: the illegal drug market in the States was much more varied and vibrant than in Eastern Europe.)  He'd had various types of alcohol, starting with small sips as a pre-teen at family gatherings, but never enough to get more than a mild buzz.  Can I get high now?  Would my body automatically negate it, like a poison?  Are there Grue drugs that could get me high?

 

He paused in his sniffings for a moment, lost in though, then shook his head again and got back to it.  He dislodged another beer can from the sand, and a Twinkie wrapper, and barked at Mia to get her attention, just as Watchdog came on the scene.  He trotted over to the two, smoothly shifting back to his Dayd form, though the long bushy tail remained, and flashed a goofy grin.  "Hey Ashley!  You come to look for more junk, too?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Watchdog counted to ten in her head - but was glad the teens hadn't just snuck away to smoke weed and make out, which part of her had been expecting and had really _not_ been looking forward to dealing with. "No thanks, Dogshow. Digging for trash isn't really my thing." While it wasn't the most flattering term, it was said with more patient affection than anything else. She turned her head to look at Soliton and added firmly, "I better not see you doing that around Judy." She didn't actually give a crap if the teleporter lit up a bong out here, but she'd be damned if she had to answer for stuff pulled by teenagers. "They'll bust your ass for that if they catch you. Dumb-ass reason to go to juvie." She looked straight up suddenly and muttered a swear word. 

[TheAbsurdist]

"Hey, ah, can Nick crash under that shell too?  If there is somethin' happenin' ya gonna need ta grab him and Mr. Jorgenson too..."  He resisted the urge to pick her up and get there faster.  If he burst of agility earlier hadn't impressed, which he didn't figure it would, the sustained run in the dark would.  Keeping up with Ash without any trouble, as he seemed to be aware of the space in front of him, adapting to the changes quickly.  "I swear, I wish I had supervision, or somethin'," he grunted as he vaulted over a downed log in a cartwheel like motion that didn't slowly him down, he just kept chugging like a freight train.

He got there at Ashley's heels, looking around them ,his hands instinctively up, as he scanned, really annoyed at some of his limitations at the moment.

[Dr Archeville]

"Hey, one person's junk is is another person's treasures, right?"  He was suddenly both happy and sad that Benicio wasn't there with them.  Also a bit on-edge, though he initially chalked that up to Ashley harshing Mia's mellow.  "Lots of archaeology is based on digging up old junk and figuring out what the people who'd left it were like."  He shifted into an archetypal college professor, with a gray receding hairline, nasal New England-ish voice, tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, slacks.  "Judging by these food wrappers, we can surmise that whomever left them did not care much for nutrition, nor for...," he glanced behind him, sensing something, but shook it off, "... for the state in which they left their environment.  Carelessness like that could be attributed to teenagers... or to poachers.  If any further diggings turn up some bullet casings, then-"

 

He turned suddenly, and pointed towards a patch of black in the sky, a patch moving directly towards them, "incoming!"

[Shofet]

Mia looked up above herself to see what was, frankly, an apocalyptic amount of birds. More birds than she had ever seen in her life, combined and doubled. And that scared the ever-loving daylights out of her. It wasn’t that she was afraid of birds, but birds did not have much in the way of sphincter control, which meant that she was about to be covered in a near-monstrous amount of poop, which would probably make it pretty obvious she snuck out.

 

Thinking quickly, she decided she was about to attempt what was perhaps the most massive attempt at using her powers ever. Sparkles filled the area as she began to weave the matter, desperately trying to create something as quickly as she possibly could.

 

“Behold the power of atomic sorcery!” she cried.

 

If she did it right, encasing the students would be a series of 13 ten-by-ten-by-ten cubic rooms made of biodegradable plastic to protect them from the avian onslaught in comfort! Ah, the wonders of matter manipulation.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Shofet

[Dariusprime]

Ashley cursed. Davyd pointed and let out a warning. Nick squinted.

 

What could that possibly...be? Oh dear. That's a lot of birds. Surely, a flock of birds couldn't be that dangerous. Then again he had also seen The Birds a tad young as well. A chill went up his spine. Alarm and curiosity wrestled for control of his brain.

 

So frozen in contemplation of the feathery sight, Nick completely missed Mia's matter magic. His ears picked up the flock's call, a cacophony of its own, and Mia's exclamation. He blinked at her workings. Especially how he missed what had to be a plethora of energy emissions to build that.

 

Wow! Now those are powers! And she teleports too!

 

Now was not the time! To stay or to go for the shelter? On the one hand, the flock wasn't necessary dangerous. Although bird poop didn't factor into his thoughts frankly. They didn't sound like predatory birds at this distance. On the other hand, Mia would build a shelter if she suspected a problem. Back to the first hand, he'd rather not blow his cover. In his hesitation, staying behind his tree and peeking out became his choice.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Dariusprime

[Avenger Assembled]

The next morning, there were pigeons everywhere. 

 

Everywhere! 

 

A thoroughly disgusted Watchdog had made her way back to the the girls' tent, where she'd startled Judy by stripping down to her skivvies before changing into her spare outfit. Thoughts like Should have taken the $(#Ing teleport ride $(#@( kept her up when she saw how much cleaner looked Mia and Davyd looked when they arrived. 

 

Everywhere! 

 

Chasing the pigeons away from the central firepit took some doing the next morning, but Mr. Jorgensen explained this was nothing unusual. "The passenger pigeons are a little early this year!" he laughed as he did his best to cook everybody's breakfast, though he seemed a little nervous beneath the gaze of tens of thousands of beady black eyes. Not that there were only tens of thousands of birds, no; just that in the midst of the vast flock, no, ocean of pigeons that had settled down over this alternate version of Bayview, only a few tens of thousands seemed to be watching them at any given moment. 

 

Everywhere! 

 

"Why did they fly in at night?" asked Judy, raising her voice a little over the singing. Oh, there was singing all right: not the whole flock by any means, but with a flock this massive even a small portion cooing and screeching and singing was loud enough. 

 

"($#($ing passenger pigeons," Ashley opined. "They are the worst #$(ing birds." 

 

Everywhere! 

[Shofet]

Mia figured at some point she was going to have to go back and disintegrate the temporary shelter she had made, but right now, she was mostly just pleased that it had managed to withstand the onslaught of bird leavings. It was admittedly rather creepy that all the birds were around now, but she chose not to mind.

 

Especially since she had other things to keep her spirits up. She knew it was bad to find it funny, but she couldn't help but take glee in Ashley's situation. And hey, she had offered the girl a ride home, so wasn't this really just the universe punishing her for being proud? 

 

"Hey, Ashley," Mia said, stifling giggles. "You look pooped!" She descended into a fit of laughter and snorting, only broken up by another crack of a joke. "Guess you're having a crappy day!"

 

More giggles, interrupted by the puff of an inhaler. Tears were at the corners of her eyes, and her face was read. "God, your face. Oh noooo."

[Dariusprime]

Now Ashley and Nick didn't start off on the best note. In fact, her little demonstration on the day he moved in only made him more curious. Claremont was full of secrets, and apparently so was Ashley. All of that became so much noise over the current events.

 

Nick agreed 110% with Ashley. 120%. Add your adverbs.

 

Only in hindsight did Nick realize his fatal error. Yes, birds pooped. This many birds pooped a lot. Epic, even mythical, proportions. Enough that nations would go to war over it. Once the "rain" storm commenced, Nick disappeared into the forest in a desperate and futile attempt to evade the bombing.

 

He only kept his cover by circling around the camp to the latrine. From there, he made his way back to his tent. Bad luck, poor guy. The ick factor made him contemplate burning his clothes, but he didn't have that many outfits. Plus he'd be hard-pressed to burn a vintage Journey t-shirt. Still feeling clean, frankly, never felt so good.

 

Nick ate his breakfast with something akin to contained terror. Take one bite, look up at the beady-eyed horde, swallow. His noise-canceling headphones proved invaluable. They didn't eliminate the noise but did at least make it manageable. Sleep however had eluded him for several hours. You know, because of the beady-eyed horde of pigeons. His yawning and general sleepy face betrayed that much.

 

Yes, Ashley. $@^#ing pigeons.

 

The faintest ghost of a smile appeared at Mia's jokes. He made sure not to let you-know-who see that though.

[Electra]

Danica, who had slept through the whole nighttime adventure, was delighted to finally get an up close look at some birds who wouldn't fly away no matter how long it took her to walk over to them. She restrained the urge to feed them anything, knowing that would only end in swarms and tears and general poopiness all over the campsite that was already well-festooned. "So what are we doing today?" she asked the group in general. "Did you guys find any more trash or treasures on the beach?" 

[Dr Archeville]

Davyd had burrowed about a foot under the tent he'd shared with Benny & Mr. Jorgensen, and slept under there for the evening.  I'm sure the tent would hold if they chose to attack... but I'd rather not risk it!

 

Come morning, a red ooze bubbled up from the earth, which piled upon itself into a column, six feet high!  The bottom split in two, two more tentacles emerged from the sides, and the top expanded a bit like a bubble.  The whole mass quickly resolved itself into the form of Davyd, who crouched a bit when he saw just how thoroughly surrounded they were.  He was still shaken from the night before, and less wary about hiding his true form from the others.

 

"So, uh," he slowly approached the breakfast fire, careful not to make any sudden moves, "if the birds are here early... and were flying in at a time when they don't normally fly in... could it be that something scared them?  Drove them off from where they were?"  He looked to Mr. Jorgensen and Judy, then the others.

 

At Danica's question, he drew the two beer can and Twinkie wrapper from his 'pocket', "yeah, found a few more things," he replied warily, keeping one eye on the birds, "but nothing that really helps."

Edited November 4, 2019 by Dr Archeville

[Avenger Assembled]

A bird landed and looked at Davyd. 

 

"It was a real shi*tshow, yeah, Mia..." Ashley was just about to say more when she realized what she could hear - or rather, what she couldn't hear. All around them, the gigantic flock of pigeons had suddenly fallen silent. They weren't dead, they weren't inactive, but they were all staring fixedly at the group with what looked for all the world with suspicious intent. And then suddenly, as if they'd been noticed, the birds went back to their chirping and cooing and singing. "Oookay," said Ashley, getting to her feet, "I don't think that was normal at all, so maybe we should be-" 

 

A bird landed and looked at Davyd. 

 

"Oh, I think it'll be fine!" said Mr. Jorgensen cheerfully, "anomalous behavior creeps up in flocks like this all the time. We have a rare opportunity here to observe a passenger pigeon flock larger than any we've ever seen here!" He was already taking pictures. "Danica, I think you and I should take up our usual position in the river blind; I'll be fascinated to see how the usual riverfowl interact with the flock while it's settled here." He hmmed. "I wonder if there was a volcano or other natural disturbance that prompted a larger than usual migration. That might explain the night flight too..." 

 

A bird landed and looked at Davyd. 

 

"I don't know," said Judy, "this is awfully peculiar." She was studying the birds, then she said, "Does anybody here have, like a superpower to understand birds?" She was frowning as she walked back and forth among the flock. "Ah could swear that the...the radio here has gotten _louder_, but birds can't send radio messages, can they?" 

 

A bird landed and looked at Davyd. 

 

[TheAbsurdist]

Benny remained calmed, they were just normal birds, right?  Right... sure were a lot, but they were told there were no humans.  Except for them, and trash.  He didn't have anything to add, not really being great with biology.  And he managed a fitful sleep, before waking up for this.  "Y'ever said thank god you don't have supersenses?  I'm doin' that right now."

"Okay, okay, okay..."  He ventured, turning his head to look at the birds that were landing and looking at Davyd, even he noticed that.  Whoa.  "That's not normal right?  I grew up in the city, but pigeons don't do this, and they ain't up at night, yanno, unless you bump into a roost while ya doin' the nightly rooftops..."  He shifted a bit, looking around at what was around them, after having echoed Judy's sentiment.

"Okay, now that is sinister."  He pointed right at one of the birds looking at Davyd.

[Dariusprime]

Or they're up to something, Davyd. No, it wasn't, Ashley. These do, Judy. I do, Benny.

 

"They're talking to each other," Nick signed out of the blue. He picked at the last few bites on his plate with his head down. He didn't expect anyone to understand him.

 

Heck, he wondered how he missed it before. The answer proved fairly obvious: the drone of normal bird noises drowned out the radio messages. Now after a moment of quiet, Nick began a standard analysis of the radio signals. The quantified data swam through his head. On a computer screen, an audio engineer would understand the numbers and patterns. Numbers, frequency, wattage, signal translation (from radio wave to cooing no less), and correlations between signals (auditory and EM) to name a few. The latter proved the most valuable. They appeared to be meaningfully communicating, and with will and intent, between each other in radio coos matching their audible calls. And some were broadcasting and cooing at Davyd.

 

He looked, well, not calm, but no more neurotic then usual. Except people that saw him regularly noticed a distinct ashen pallor. And that his heart beat fast enough to nearly be audible. He didn't need to see the birds to know where some focused their beady eyes.

 

Opening his notebook, he wrote across two pages and held up the message above his head. The notebook slowly turned so everyone could read it. "They're cooing to each other, to Davyd, with radio emissions. Stay alert."

 

On a lark, and more so to calm his nerves, he continued listening to the radio conversations. What patterns emerged? Did the messages ripple through the flock? Thousands of individuals sending radio messages? Or did they have a larger flock-sized pattern? Coordinating? Were they broadcasting outside the immediate flock?

[Dr Archeville]

"Sooo," Davyd began, struggling to remain his composure, "I'm going to try turning into one of these fellows, and see if I can communicate with them.  But before I do -- and in case this goes bad and they start attacking me -- I think I should come clean about something with you all."  He looked around to everyone, slowly moving his head so as not to startle the growing crowd of pigeons.  "You all know I'm a shapeshifter, you've seen me turn into all sorts of things.  But if I was just a physical shapeshifter, then me turning into an animal shouldn't let me communicate with it, right?  I man, if I mimic a French person, I don't suddenly know how to speak French, right?  Well, the thing is," his gaze lingered on Ashley and Judy, "I'm part Grue.  The lab accident I was in that granted me these abilities sort of... infused some Grue DNA into me.  So far all I've shown is the physical stuff, the shapeshifting, but I've been working with Miss Grue, and she says I could have some of their psychic stuff, too.  I've never tried, I've been focusing on the shapeshifting, but maybe..."

 

He shifted his focus to the birds around him, and concentrated.  His body shifted, warped and shrank, sprouted scales and then feathers from under the scales.  In moments he was something akin to the pigeons around them, but bigger and more feral looking, with a nasty beak and claws.  He cooed/screeched at them.

 

"<How do you do, fellow birds?>"