His stomach had been growling without pause for the past few hours.  He'd been consistently hungry for two days.  His last meal had consisted of some extremely questionable stuff that he hoped had come from the restaurant he'd found it near.  Even he had tried not to taste it too carefully.

But now, oh now!  He was scattered through a few dozen trees, with a few birds chumming with the pigeons in hopes that some old ladies would at least throw bread crumbs his way, and one set of eyes spied something most definitely fresh and filling.  He couldn't see exactly what it was, since it was wrapped up tight, but the human next to it didn't seem particularly interested in devouring it.  Clearly someone who could afford to replace her entirely unnecessary lunch, then.  That was just perfect.

Gradually, innocently, first one crow hopped down from a tree to the back of the bench.  Then another joined it.  And then a handful dropped to the ground in front of the former food possessor and started squabbling with a great deal of noise and feather-pulling.  The first bird dove for the food, followed close behind by the second.

Food, food, food!

Tses had been somewhat strapped for cash lately. As strapped for cash as a street kid ever was, that was. After her conflict with Forte, getting thrown in the sewers, and recovering at the mansion, she was somewhat lost what to do. She resorted to stealing once more, but nothing major, trying to keep her act clean. But today, hungry and tired, she managed to make off with someone's sandwich from a nearby deli. After running four blocks, and ending up here, she decided to stop to rest before eating. It was never a good idea to eat when you were completely winded.

When she reached for the sandwich, however, she found a crowd of crows scrambling for possession of it. And that made her mad.

Tses was a thief herself. You didn't steal stolen food.

"Hey!" She snarled, green energy flaring across her arms as her hand swatted at the birds. She dared one of them to get close enough. "You hungry you better go get something else or you won't like the taste of my fist!"

Food food food food uh oh.

At the first flare of light, the crows sprang out of reach with the distinct flavour of someone recoiling from a hot surface. The irregular, newly subdued cawing continued, and Crow considered the situation from every angle.

Light like that meant the girl was probably a mutant. That was unfortunate. He was distinctly less interested in snatching food from a mutant, but he was so hungry. All of him was hungry. And that food-thing looked like it would taste so nice going down his throats....

Hunger won out over caution. After a moment's debate between the birds on the ground, almost all of his nearby birds dove between the woman and the food while a single bird hopped up, sank his claws into the wrapping, and made a break for it. Fooooood

The crows responded...differently, than Tses expected. Most animals scattered when you startled them, ran away when there was danger. But these crows flew back, and that was a warning sign to her. The birds between her and the food looked too organized, and the one grabbing the sandwich made her snap.

Energy orb formed, thrown, and collided with the thieving animal. While it was sent head over tail features Tses created a larger orb and get it a short timer, releasing it in the collection of birds. Hopefully the force going off would clear a path so she could retrieve her food. If not...

Well, there was more where that came from.

Damn it, Crow wanted that food. He'd invested too much energy now to just fly away. Swats and punches and kicks he could dodge, and failure probably just meant a bruise. He could heal from a bruise, and there were usually easier posts to which he could assign an injured bird.

Glowy balls of unknown qualities? That could potentially be a little less survivable. Crow mused about this as he went tumbling beak-over-vent, sandwich lost from his hungry claws. He also clacked a dozen or so beaks at the girl and turned distinctly irritated beady eyes at her.

That.

Was.

Not.

Nice.

The second burst of light was pretty visible, fortunately, and Crow scattered in all directions. A few birds tumbled through the air for a few wingstrokes as the blast caught them, but it was easy enough to right himself. He wasn't going to give up on his food, though, so those birds that had bolted in the right direction dove for the contested sandwich even as the first-struck bird righted himself and ruffled his feathers sulkily back into place. With a good screen of seemingly dispersing birds to keep an eye on everything, he tried to make another run for it, though he swirled behind the sandwich to give the labouring crow some cover. Come on come on come on!

The crows were definitely not normal. Normal animals ran when hit. Normal animals did not coordinate their attacks. Normal animals did not sulk when you hit them with explosives.

Normal animals did not try to give their companion cover to steal someones sandwich.

"Not so fast!" Tses's hand went to her boot, and she retrieved her collapsible bo staff. It didn't take her long to expand it and start swinging, aiming first for the bird with the sandwich, second for any bird that happened to get in it's path. Her green energy flared, feathers flew, and she released the staff with one hand long enough to send another explosive into the fray. "DROP IT!"

Another swing of the bo staff, and she kept her focus on the sandwich. She refused to let them get away with her food!

That she stole first.

Darn thieves!

This really was not going as it should have. It should have been a simple snatch and grab, easy getaway, and then finally a meal.

Not a series of flashes and pain. Was the food worth it? Normally Crow wouldn't have thought so, but he had been hungry (and cold, and dirty, and generally miserable) for too long now. He wanted that food.

The explosive girl was yelling at him. Clearly he needed to move faster, and definitely not drop it.


... She had a stick. A rather more intentional-looking stick than his. Which... was stashed high in a tree at the other end of the park. Didn't seem like such a good idea anymore... Crow recalled every single one of his birds, though, dismissing tact and crow-behaviour for regrouping. He was getting his butts kicked, so the least he could do was spread the damage out a little - ouch.

He wasn't quite fast enough to dodge the swinging stick, and cawed in pain as the staff caught him in a sandwich-carrying leg. He dropped it, though there was already a bird underneath to catch it, and threw all of his reinforcements to the back of the pack to catch the flash of light.

Owowowowowow that was just mean.

Still struggling away with the sandwich, he swarmed the girl, smarting and bruised and really fed up with this. He pecked and clobbered and shrieked crowy insults, and then made a break for it, streaming for a sheltering conifer.

Generally, hitting someone with a stick and blowing them up would make them abandon their mission to steal your sandwich. Generally, they did not turn around and start PECKING AND SCREECHING IN YOUR FACE! Tses's swinging became more chaotic, and she was acting with less of a warning swat and more of a break your darn wing swing, as evident by the curses she was yelling.

The crow started getting away. The sandwich was going with it. Enraged and angry, she threw explosives after the birds, intent on damaging as many of the dumb creatures as she could.

Darn animals.

Darn crows.

Darn sandwich.

Yup, time to book it, grab his stuff, and find somewhere less explode-y. Dodging wild swings was much easier than dodging flashes of exploding light, but he had time to -

Splat.

escape.

Crow peered at the torn scrap of wrapping still clenched between his toes. A chunk of bread was left! He snapped it up while the other bird dropped the tattered remains. The rest of the sandwich was regrettably smeared against the ground in unfortunately small bits and pieces. Ooooh his food. That was so sad.

And distracting, he realized as a burst of light in one of his faces smacked a bird against a tree. He was feeling that already. Ow. Ow. Ow. Bit of bread swallowed, he split, making a run for the tree with his stick and coveralls and boots and empty wrap of cloth that had once held food. This was not a good day.

Tses may not have rescued the sandwich, true, but she did manage to get a few good swings at the birds. Somehow, that felt satisfying. She hope she broke one of them. She hoped they regretted it. As the crows heading back for the tree she stopped on the sidewalk, and glared after them.

She threw one last explosive for good measure.

She hoped they felt that too.