ic Extradimensional Birdwatching Club (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

The vast horde of pigeons, which really was much larger than any flock any of the other heroes had ever seen, went mad! The birds suddenly took off, flapping and shrieking, in a blinding rush of wings and talons that didn't do any direct damage but pinned the heroes in place like they were trapped in a blizzard of very angry birds! The radio volume around Vox was almost deafeningly loud, and Benny and Mia had their own problems to deal with. 

 

<You were warned, Star-Flock!> The pigeons shouted at Davyd. <The Star-Flock was warned! NOW THERE WILL BE A PENALTY!> 

 

The birds seemed to be forming a particularly thick cordon between Davyd and the others, so much so that the shapeshifter was barely visible. As the volume of shrieks went up, Ashley grabbed Judy by the arm and pushed her towards Danica. "Chelone! Shell!" she called even as she reached into her belt to prime a grenade. 

[TheAbsurdist]

"Oh, son of a gun.  Teach, you're joinin' the shell brigade!"  He lunged to Mr. Jorgensen, and gracelessly tossed the man like a sack of potatoes at Chelone and Judy.  "Mia!  Throw somethin' after me, an' scatter 'em.  I'm getting Davyd!"  And he leaped...! 

In the wrong direction, going right into a tree getting a chance to use his powers.  He wasn't a show off most of the time, and this wasn't that either.  He hit the tree, and then he rocketed off it like a bouncing ball, aiming right at Davyd, and plotting out rest of his trajectory while it happened.  His big mitt snatched up the shapeshifter, and he sailed through the swarm.  Benny plotted it out to hit the ground back first, as he cradled Davyd defensively against his body, because this was going to be rough.  Ricocheting off it and sailing up and over the swarm back towards the rest of the team and going over them.

[Dariusprime]

Nick covered his ears and doubled over grimacing. The sound! The sonic shrieking hurt. A lot. The radio volume felt nothing short of agonizing. No matter how tightly he blocked his ears, the volume didn't decrease!

 

Over moments that felt like ages, Nick rocked back and forth. Later he'd thank Lulu for her meditation lessons. Right now, tears welling in his eyes, his thoughts chased the techniques she'd taught him. Especially those for high-stress moments. They helped a little.

 

He wanted to run away. To hide. To scream. To yell at the blasted birds to leave. Anything to make the pain stop. To make the birds stay away from him. The little focused part of him realized he had to do something. Before he made a sound and leveled the camp.

 

That's when he saw something amazing. Benny had powers alright. For a few precious seconds, the swarm parted and the tough kid seemed to fly. All across his flight path Nick marveled dumbly at his agility and precision. Benny may never know it, but his cool, professional use of his powers reminded Nick of his training. Closing his eyes, Vox took a slow breath and focused.

 

He looked up into the sky and spoke. The effect felt strange to those unfamiliar with his powers. The ruckus of the birds, the surrounding volume, hushed for a split second. A booming, deep voice burst through the quiet and echoed through the trees, "GO AWAY!"

 

Followed by an explosion. Shock waves ripped through the air, expanding upward from the teen into a cone of energy. A wedge of birds, thousands of them, launched upward in the blast. As the waves dissipated, splintered treetops and birds and feathers arced high into the morning sky. 

 

[Electra]

"They're just birds, you guys!" Danica tried to yell above the noise. "Just get where they can't poop on you, come on!" Even so, she expanded her shell into something the size of a small tent and stepped out of it so Judy or anyone else could race to cover inside. "Whatever you did to them, just say you're sorry!" she advised at the top of her lungs. The noise was deafening but there was no damage yet, certainly not to Danica (which often did not mean anything) but also not to anybody she could still see. "They've got really short memories, they'll go awa-" She cut off as the massive deep voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once, reverberating in her sternum and sloshing through her stomach as it went. And then... everything just went crazy. Danica screamed and dropped to the ground, covering her head as debris rained everywhere. 

[Dr Archeville]

"<Star-Flock?  Wait!  No!  We are not part of any->"

 

And then all the things happened.

 

Davyd's first thought was to stretch over to his classmates, and form some manner of shelter for them.  He was somewhat certain that these birds wouldn't be that much tougher or stronger than the pigeons back home, so he should be able to turn into something they couldn't peck or scratch through.  But then Benny was flying towards him!  He let himself be scooped up and carried back to the others, landing just as Nick let out a bone-shaking scream of immense power. 

 

"<They think we're->" he began, looking to Mr. Jorgensen and Danica, though it all came out of coos and screeches.  His body shuddered and warped, and now was a three-foot-tall pigeon-man.  "They think we're part of so-o-ome Star-Flock, and said they'd warned us befo-o-ore!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Watchdog slapped her hands to the side of her helmet and swore a word she usually didn't say in the presence of noncombatants - but luckily all of those were gone. Reflexively she threw herself in front of Chelone, even though she knew Danica could probably survive a fuel-air detonation above the top of her head. And then there was an explosion of bread flying into the air everywhere from Soliton, and Watchdog said more than one word. "Not if they can #(#$ing talk!" 

 

"<War! War!>" The pigeons screamed at Davyd as they took to the sky, their numbers so thick that they really did blot out the Sun!

 

And suddenly, as if a connection had been made between Davyd and the flock, the birds seemed to scream - in a voice that _everyone_ could understand like the cooing of a billion birds at once. "The Star-Flock has brought war with their lies and tricks! You cannot fool us with your poison bread!" Suddenly an image came to Davyd's mind, an image borne through fluttering wings - there was a flock in the stars, a flock that was red and moved its shape, a flock that had come and tried to take their roosts from them! But they had chased the Star-Flock away - and promised _revenge_ if they ever returned! 

[Dr Archeville]

Bird-Davyd clutched his head as the images poured in, images that were damnably familiar.  "I... I think the Star-Flock was... was a Grue invasion!  But the birds... they... they dro-o-ove them away!  But how-" he looked back out to the swirling flock, "no-o-o, no-o-o, time for that later.  Got to-o-o see if we can-"

 

He saw what Mia was doing, and ran-hopped to just outside Danica's shell.  "<Hear me, noble birds!  I am not of the Star-Flock!  We are not of the Star-Flock!  We oppose them, too!  They came to ravage our world, too, but we drove them off!  My friend will apologize for lashing out,>" he nodded to Nick, "<he acted rashly, when you startled him.  He acted in self-defense, did not mean to harm you!  We should be allies!  Friends!  See, here,>" he gestured to the piles of bread Mia was creating, "<we bring food, a peace offering!>"

[Dariusprime]

Nick heard none of this.

 

After his initial burst, the realization dawned on him that the radio squeal didn't diminish. If anything the volume increased! Hands still over his ears, he slid down to the ground and pulled his knees up against his chest. Putting his head down seemed to keep the birds at bay and protect from debris. With gritted teeth he turned to see what the others were doing.

 

The blast did help him focus against the noise. His thoughts were torn. On the one hand, part of him really wanted to open up on these feathered rats. Again mainly to make them shut up or flee. On the other hand, he already felt terrible for hurting the birds. And for probably scaring his classmates and teacher.

 

Speaking of which, where did the pigeon man come from? Probably the same place the Carpenter-esque pigeon came from. But he had no time for that! Why? First, a rain of bread. A bread-plosion. Then the pigeons spoke. All of them. At once.

 

Nick froze. Yes, he appeared to still be in control of his faculties. Yes, the sound originated from the totality of the pigeons. The bread had to be Mia's doings, and he slowly looked around wide-eyed in search of her. His gaze rested on the pigeon man as he danced about and appeared to nod at him. Not that he could hear a thing over the birds.

 

Whatever Davyd was doing he hoped he did it fast.

[TheAbsurdist]

Released Davyd, and he rolled smoothly into a crouch,.  One could imagine hearing springs slowly creaking and loading.  Looking at his teammates, he regarded them as slightly mad.  He moved to cut the distance between him and Nick, and he put a hand on his shoulders, to help guided him towards the shell, trying to place himself between the guy and what he perceived the danger.  "I am glad someone speaks pigeon."  Though he was keeping his wary eyes on Davyd ready to leap back at him to recover him once more if the birds went hostile.

 

He would say this is weird, but it really wasn't.

[Dariusprime]

Maybe not weird to Benny. This ranked among the weirdest things Nick had ever experienced. Painful too.

 

He looked up at the shadow falling across him. Over the roar, Benny could have said anything and he'd be none the wiser. Still the guiding hand got the small teen moving, and up he stood while keeping his hands over his ears.

 

Silently hoping the pigeons didn't scream louder, he followed his guide to Danica's shell and took shelter. Crouching just inside the opening, he nodded his thanks to Benny. Although the boxer probably didn't see the motion through the cloud of feathered fiends.

 

Having cover on three sides of him helped a bit. The near-deafening noise wasn't mitigated, but having the sounds arriving from mainly one direction took the edge off. Now their hope rested on Bread Bomber and Pigeon Man.

[Electra]

Danica obligingly grew her shell a few sizes larger, so it was the size of one of the tents and quite easy to huddle inside. She herself, though, gently nudged Ashley aside and took a few slow steps forward to pick up Mr. Jorgensen's discarded megaphone. So far on this trip they had mostly used it to call people in for meals or to bother one another with loud noises, but on a planet with no cell reception, it was better than nothing. It was useful right now. She lifted it to her mouth and thumbed it on. 

 

"Friends!" she called,  even her assisted voice half-lost in the tumult. "Friend birds, you remember the Star Flock, but don't you remember us too? We came last leaf-falling season and saw you flying, and the year before that, and before that! We put out birdseed and watched you roosting near the water for the night! We did not hurt you, only helped while we appreciated your beauty and strength!" Even through the megaphone she was startlingly persuasive. "We love your world and your wonderful nests, but we know it is yours and we are only visitors! We do not want your world, we do not want to hurt you or steal from you! Our gifts are good!" She picked up a piece of bread from the ground and put it in her mouth in a broad, slow gesture. "We want to be friends!" she finished, slightly muffled. 

[Avenger Assembled]

The birds flew around and around the group, not directly hostile but certainly still agitated. Her weapon out, Watchdog was clearly contemplating chucking another grenade into the flock before it spoke again. 

 

"Gifts!" squawked the flock. "And friends!" They landed amid Mia's bread and began digging away at it, fifty thousand eyes watching the teen heroes as if expecting them to go for them at any moment. 

 

Watchdog was doing the math on her fingers, wondering if she was going to tell this story to Fa'Rua...or not. "Okay. So without humans on Earth, the Grue took over the Lor, and they rule the galaxy. F*ckin Grue, amirite? But the...the telepathic pigeons chased them away. Okay. Okay." Thank God I can't smell!

 

"We feast!" came a great mass song from around Mia's bread, and certainly the pigeons seemed to have dived right into the mass. Now they were all surrounded by tens of thousands of singing, eagerly gobbling pigeons - with the exception of those still watching Davyd. 

[Shofet]

Mia watched with delight as the birds feasted upon her summoned bread. Thankfully out here, no one was around to sue her for attempting to copy WonderBread. Now that the pigeons were eating, they also seemed a lot more cute and slightly less terrifying (They'd be completely pleasant if not for the sheer volume of them.) Still waaaay too many birds for Mia to let her guard down entirely.

 

"Heh heh. You're welcome for the bread. Name's Soliton, I make things, sort of my thing. I'd ask your names but there's like a million of you and the human brain can only process about 150 people so I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen, but I want you all to think of me as a friend anyway. I can do requests, if you like, bird-bath, giant seed balls, bunch of statues for you all to ah, enjoy. You know. Just ask," she said, speaking quickly and wearing a grin on her face as though she was making a sort of sales pitch.

 

She knew she might be making a bit of a fool of herself, but she was also pretty sure that this could go south again at almost any time and she wanted to ingratiate herself to the feathery friends as quick as possible to ensure that didn't happen. Not to mention there were definitely still some of them giving Davyd the stink-eye and she was hoping that maybe by jabbering and putting on a show, they'd focus more on her and not on the person they seemed to equate with their worst enemy. 

[TheAbsurdist]

Benny set his jaw and rested his hands on his hips as he looked at the birds, posing without intending.  "Uh... well at least they ain't psychic flyin' squids, or sumthin'."  He was not trusting it, but he tried to look on the bright of side of things.  Though he wasn't all clear on the star stuff, yet.  But he was picking it up.

"So... I gotta ask though, we've been findin' trash?  What is up with that?"  His face scrunched as he looked at the birds, lifting a hand up to his face, and scratching at his upper lip.  "Cause... if we've been packin' stuff up, then is someone else usin' this place for somethin'? Like smugglin', or sumthin'?"

[Dr Archeville]

Dang, her adorableness transcends species.

 

Man-Bird!Davyd was very glad Chelone's words had had their desired effect, and strutted -- gingerly, slowly, making as few sudden movements as possible -- back to be closer to his comrades.  "Goo-oo-ood work, Danica!  And Mia, too-oo-oo, that bread was a goo-oo-ood idea."  He glanced back at the flock, and tried not to make eye contact with the ones that were still watching him.  "We can do-o-o great things when we wo-o-ork to-o-ogether!"  He suddenly crouched and pecked at one of several crumbs that had rolled his way, realized what a faux pas that was, and brushed the rest back to the flock.