SITTING IN THE CAR WASN'T AS DIFFICULT AS AURORA THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. She settled in the front passenger seat, Phillip having convinced Peter to simply sprawl out in the back, the younger boy agreeing begrudgingly, tugging his mask on and talking to the "suit lady" whom he fondly referred to as Karen.

"—yeah, Karen, can you text her for me? I know she doesn't like you, but she doesn't like any of my Spidey stuff, so at least if you send her the text she'll know I still care," Peter argued, huffing as he listened to what must have been a persuading argument, relenting with a grumbled, "Fine, I'll tell her myself."

With a sigh, Peter tugged off his mask, looking over at the others who were sitting in silence, Aurora's legs pulled up to her chest, Phillip lounging with one hand on the steering wheel, sunglasses back on. With his heightened senses he was aware of every breath in the silent car, the thrum of the vehicle, everything around them.

"So we're just gonna drive around?" he asked, unable to help himself, needing a distraction, "Do we have any destination in mind?"

Phillip shrugged. "I'm just making turns when I feel like it. Briar?"

"She's really powerful," Aurora explained, "Stronger than my godmothers, their mutations are in the same vein, but she's much stronger. I don't know, I just...I feel like we're going in the right direction, you know?"

Peter nodded, thinking back to his danger sense. "Yeah, I get that."

The three continued to drive in relative silence, Phillip often mumbling about the driving of others, Aurora fiddling with the radio station, and Peter google searching and texting in the hopes of finding some breakthrough.

He felt the hairs on his arm stand and he jerked his head up, frowning. "Hey, guys..."

"I feel something," Aurora said, also sitting up straight, "Phillip, keep going down this way. Where are we?"

"Wish I could say, but I kinda zoned out," he said, cautious, looking around, "But, yeah, I'm feeling like we should go this way too."

Peter worried on his bottom lip, rubbing his arms. It was a two-to-one and if they thought they should head down this way, he could only hope his danger sense was just acting up, alerting him to something major instead of deadly.

They continued along the way, Peter checking in with Karen to find that they were, once again, in Westchester County—North Salem, to be exact—and he was surprised at how neither of them noticed that they had been driving for quite some time.

"I never had a good concept of it," Aurora admitted when he said as much to the group.

"I go on autopilot a lot of the time, my dude, I nearly drowned in a pool once because of it," Phillip added, sitting up straighter, both hands on the wheel, slowing down as he made a left, continuing down a dirt path.

Peter shivered and shook his head. "Guys, listen, I've got a really bad feeling about thi—"

"Guys."

Aurora and Peter looked over at Phillip who had pulled the car into a complete stop in the middle of the road, staring over at the large patch of land on their left, drowned in a purple-green tinted black wave that shifted about.

"Are those crows or ravens?" Peter breathed, pressing himself against the glass, narrowing his eyes.

"I think we need to find that out," Aurora said, climbing out the car, Phillip shocking back into action and calling for her to wait until they were parked, rushing to find a place, keeping his eye on her as she walked to the fence.

"Is this trespassing?" Peter asked as Phillip haphazardly parked on the side of the road, the two stumbling out and following after Aurora who was waiting at the edge of the large mass, standing as stiff as a board.

"Life or death," Phillip replied, and the younger boy shrugged, mumbling an agreement.

The two paused on either side of her behind the fence, Aurora in front of it, all of them looking out into the murder. At least, they assume they were all crows, though, considering none of them were flying away, there had to be at least one raven.

"What's the deal with this?" Phillip asked, watching as Aurora took a tentative step forward while Peter fumbled around for his mask.

"It's like a needle in a haystack, but with birds," Peter said, throwing on his mask, "Hey, Karen, can you help me sort out these crows for a raven? Please?"

While Peter went about with that, Phillip climbed over the fence, walking over to the birds to see what they would do. Some shifted away from him, others stayed put, but none of them made any motion to fly away.

He looked over to Aurora who was doing the same thing, taking bolder steps as time wore on, still careful not to step on them, bending down every so often to reach out towards them, only to draw her hand back before she was within biting distance.

"Do you think she put them here?" Phillip asked, pausing to look around, finding that he had waded his way through to the middle of the birds, shivering as they hopped around, looking up and squawking every so often.

"Yes," Aurora replied slowly, crouched down in front of a larger bird, "But I don't know why."

"Found one!"

The two looked up to find Peter waving over to them, his mask still on, pointing down to a bird. "It's over here. Listen, I-I don't want to touch it, it looks ready to kill."

Phillip and Aurora made their way through the birds, Phillip nearly tripping over his own feet, Aurora's eyes trained down so as to not step on any of the birds that were all now looking up at her, almost smiling, beaks opened slightly, and she felt her heart begin to race, her breath catching in her throat.

She paused in front of the raven, blinking down at it. She didn't know much about ravens, but she saw that instead of the green tinted wings of all the other birds, this had a bluish purple tint to its body, and was larger than the other birds. By a substantial amount, which was all the more concerning.

She slid down into a crouch and reached out towards the bird, staring into its beady eyes, vaguely aware of the fact that the crows and the boys all took a step back, circling them with enough room to breathe, all of them faced towards her. With shaking hands, she reached out and ran a hand over the raven's feathers, palm down, a feather fluttering off as she finished running her hand along its back.

Picking it up, she stared at it for a moment, watching it shimmer under the setting sun. One pause. Two.

The raven shrieked and surged upward at her, aiming for her face, and she shrieked, jumping back, tumbling into Phillip who shouted, the two nearly falling onto the crows that were beginning to shriek around them.

"Hey!" Peter shouted, batting away the birds that were coming at him, reaching into his bag and pulling out his webshooters.

"Don't hurt them!" Aurora cried, jumping forward and grabbing his wrists, "It's not them, it's her, don't hurt them!"

"They're hurting me!" Peter cried, shouting as a claw scratched at his arm, smacking wildly at the air. He reached out and tried to shoot out towards one of the trees, only to have a crow fly up and scratch after him.

"Peter!" Phillip shouted, jumping towards them and shoving the keys into his hands, "Get the car, started, I'll buy you some time, hold onto the feather." He said the last bit to Aurora, shouting as he was scratched right across the cheek.

Aurora shrieked as she saw drops of blood fall onto the ground, seeming to spur on the murder, and she was unsure of where the raven was, grabbing at Peter's backpack and dropping it inside, zipping it up and clinging onto him.

"You just gonna stand there?" Phillip demanded, having raced towards the edge, batting away at the crows, picking up a branch and waving it around, "I said, scram!"

Grabbing onto Aurora with one arm, Peter tried to run, shooting out a web that clung onto one of the farther trees, giving them just enough to get off the ground. Aurora shrieked as the crows started to come at them, shielding her face while Peter's was in his mask, only to hear other squawks.

Turning back she found Phillip holding the branch with two hands, waving it furiously, not hitting any of the birds, but throwing them off, holding up his arms to try and protect his face.

Stumbling back, he fell, blinding grabbing for something to shield himself, hands up as the crows began to descend upon him in a swarm, shrieking madly. He shouted and felt something dig into his hand. Prying open his eyes, he found a piece of metal and, with the hopes he wouldn't get an infection, pulled it up and blocked his face, pushing back against the crows, metal sheet in one hand, branch in the other.

He started to make his way back towards the fence, taking off into a run with the lack of crows on one side, now that they were clumped much closer together, some flying overhead. He shouted as they all came at him, biting and scratching at the parts he was unable to hide or defend, tearing through his clothes and skin, though warded off with the flailing branch and unable to penetrate through the metal.

"Phillip, come on!" Peter called, sitting in the front seat, his mask now ripped off, Aurora watching in horror in the backseat, a hand clasped over her mouth.

As the boy neared the fence, they watched him throw the metal and the branch back towards the birds, sprinting the last few feet, only to trip as he tried to jump over the fence, the murder still after him. He shouted in pain as he fell along the harsh asphalt.

Peter leapt out of the car and grabbed Phillip, tossing him into the backseat, Aurora having held open the door, throwing himself back into the driver's seat, locking the doors and securing the hood, speeding off.

"Shit," Phillip spat, looking down at his torn up clothes and all the scratches, blood dripping from his face and arms.

"I'm calling my godmothers, they'll meet us here," she said, looking around, unsure of how to stop the bleeding.

"When do we stop?" Peter asked, hands shaking as he tried to remember all that he had learned in the lessons with his aunt.

"When the weird feeling is gone," Aurora breathed, looking back to see a few of the birds still following, "They'll have to stop eventually."

"I said it once and I'll say it again," Phillip spat, his body screaming as he tried to shift, pinpricks of pain shooting from all directions, "I hate this hag."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 06.11.18 )

This was a shorter chapter, but I think we're gonna be alright with it, there's gonna be a longer chapter next time, I'm pretty sure, so yeah. I didn't expect for it to take this turn, I knew they were gonna go find them in a pumpkin patch, but I didn't plan on the birds attacking, though I'm kind of glad it did, because we got to see Phillip with the sword and shield motif, you know? Accidental, but I'm happy.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!