A murmuration swept across the skyline. Hundreds of birds swarmed together like a dark cloud of doom. From a distance, you might think it was simply a massive flock of pigeons disturbed by something sudden, or perhaps a typical murmur of swallows, but you'd be wrong.

True, there were pigeons and swallows in the flock, but there were also crows. Ravens. Rooks. Jays. Sparrows. Falcons. Hawks. Geese. Ducks. Vultures. And any other bird that the swarm had come across.

It was a birdwatcher's dream.

It was a nightmare for others.

But for the mutant mind possessing a raven in the center of the flock of doom?

It was an army of eyes and talons.

"That brings me up to 17!" Metazoa said through the raven's mouth. A communicator attached to a small band around the bird's waist transmitted the bird's words on a private channel to Cold Steel.

"I just snagged seven looters and forced them to tie themselves up!" she crowed.

None of the animals she controlled had opposable thumbs, but you could be amazed what you could get people to do with just some simple bluffs about pecking out eyes.

Since the news had broken that morning of an army of villains attacking the city, and with the subsequent news of what had caused it, the X-Men had been out in force. Liz had left her body back at the mansion in order to continuously pilot a horde of birds in order to cover as much ground as possible. She was teamed up with Cold Steel, because she was still technically a trainee, but also because she could keep up with his ice slides. And be a one-woman army much like his one-man army of ice golems.

So naturally, to keep spirits high and energy up, they turned it into a competition, criss-crossing the city and trying to put down as many bad guys as they could and see who could get more done.

"I'd like to see you beat that!" she taunted.

”What the **** is going on today?” Sam asked to himself and anyone on the comms that wanted to chime in. It was like everyone decided to do some crime today. Everyone one... Another beam of blue shot from his hands as he slide from high above the streets pinning a purse snatchers feet to the ground with a block of solid ice. He face planted and the lady chasing him grabbed her purse and waved to CS before running off. He hoped it was her purse at least, with today it could not have been but he didn't’ have time to investigate.

His private line with Liz chimed back with the first response. ”17 huh?” he smirked making the count himself with delay. Did apartment fires count as one or multiple? He’d count it for one right now. Even though she was beating him. ”Impressive. I’m guessing bluffing your way to get them to surrender?” he asked as he looked off to the side and saw a bunch of birds flying low behind some buildings.

Her powers scared him sometimes. To be able to control that many at once? The thought just gave him a headache. ”Well with that purse snatcher I just got that brings it up to ten for me. Still think the apartment complex on fire counted for more but it’s still early and I’m enough of a pessimist to know that there are more people up to know good.” he said diving low as two men climbed out of a storefront window carrying a handful of appliances.

Another beam of blue before he erupted the slide back over the buildings. The beam of ice hit the pair and their legs became frozen to the ground in a thick chunk of ice. ”You’ve been calling them all in right?” Sam asked imagining Liz trying to multitask while controlling all those birds. Again, her abilities scared him sometimes.

Another direct line was to a handful of officers in armored vehicles following the icemancer. They were on pick up while he was sliding around the city. He set it up so Metazoa had a team following the birds as well. More than likely from a distance.

”..... Got reports of a flash mob in times square. Private Dancer escaped from prison last night. You think he can control that many birds?” he asked with a smirk and changed directions with the news of the mob.

Metazoa cackled out loud, a vocal pattern that erupted from the throat of every speech-capable bird under her command, creating a cacophony of fiendish glee as her flock of doom descended upon a gridlocked intersection. A minotaur man was hurling cars around while a pair of jesters were bouncing around and throwing all manner of sharp and blunt objects at civilians. Everyone stopped as the cackling cloud fell upon them.

"I don't need to bluff," she said through just her host bird as the remainder of her troops began screeching and shrieking as they re-enacted Alfred Hitchcock's classic. "All I say is 'or else' and most people tend to go along with whatever I ask them to do."

One of the jesters was laughing hysterically as he spritzed a couple of crows with a pepper spray flower. The other one was screaming as she flailed her scepter around willy-nilly. A couple of birds went down.

"Well, we can't have that!" three ravens shouted in unison as the dive-bombed the woman's made-up face. She held her hands up to shield herself and then a hawk swooped by and plucked the scepter out of her hand before vanishing back into cloud of mostly black birds.

"A fire only counts as more if there's more than one person who started it," Metazoa declared. "But style points may be taken into consideration in the final calculation." After all, this really was about saving people, not just a competition.

More birds confiscated the pepper spray flower from the male jester and they ripped his belled-hat off too, for good measure. Meanwhile, the minotaur had ripped off the hood of a car and was swinging it wildly around. It didn't hurt the birds too much, for they were light, but it kept many from getting too close. The rush of air was sweeping more of them away than anything and even with coordinated efforts, he was just too fast and strong for any of them to get in behind him before he could turn and crush them in his hands.

"Of course I've been calling them in," she said. "That much I don't need opposable digits for." It just took a lot of coordination. Speaking of...

The cloud of birds parted around the minotaur and began forming a spiraling twister of feathers with him in the eye of it, just beyond the range of the car hood. Sunlight was able to peak it momentarily. Until a dozen geese and two dozen ducks dropped down into the vertical tunnel, diving until they were a scant ten feet above the horned man's head when they leveled out, but not before unleashing their payloads.

They carpet bombed the man with bird poo.

"Surrender! Surrender! Surrender! Surrender!" the birds began chanting, while non-speaking birds shrieked and called out.

"Let's find out!" Metazoa said as the minotaur slipped on the ground and slammed his knees into the ground. He dropped the car hood and with a groan, he held his hands up. "I'll be there in about five minutes. Hope you brought your dancing shoes!"