Hi guys, this is my first attempt at a fanfic and so will probably be not that great, if you have any advice for me don't hesitate to give it in the reviews or PM me, but first enjoy the chapter. Just going to say now that italics means it's a thought and not speech.

It was a cold morning with a breeze winding its way through the dozens of identical streets that made up the suburb. It was a typical day in New York with the early risers slowly waking and preparing for another day of life. The monotonous landscape of dark green leaves and grey apartment blocks was suddenly punctuated by two flashes of startling yellow which went un-noticed by the resting populace.

The two flashes in question were a pair of yellow canaries, a rare sight in this area of the city where few could afford even a moderately exotic pet, especially if it didn't have any practical use for defence or as a sign of status. The two canaries were nearly identical from a distance with both being the same bright yellow shade with a cream colouring on their chests and brown feathers on the ends of their wings and tails. The similarities between the two were due to the fact that they were nearly identical twins. The one in front was the eldest (by five minutes), Janet who had bright blue eyes and a small patch of well-kept feathers on the top of her head which were currently wind swept.

'Hurry up slow-poke' Janet called behind her.

'It wasn't my idea to wake up this early!' Nico responded.

Nico was Janet's "little" brother, a fact she refused to let go, he was the same as her in many ways except for his eyes which were the colour of milk chocolate and the fact that the patch of feathers on his head was fluffed up and refused to flatten even with the wind rushing over them. Another major difference between them was that Nico was and never had been in any way, shape or from a morning bird.

'You know what they say, the early bird catches the worm' Janet replied promptly, 'and you never get the worm!' To which Nico had no response as they both knew she was right.

'Don't even like worms' He mumbled before flying harder to catch up.

The destination of the two birds was the local park which was in reality little more than a glorified football pitch with benches around the sides. Despite the cold and damp there were usually several birds there hoping to get hand outs from any passing humans. As Nico and Janet reached the park they immediately noticed several things, the first being the fact that there had clearly been some kind of celebration during the night as the area was strewn with rubbish and leftover food. The second was that they weren't the only ones to have found this out; at least a dozen pigeons were hovering up the food and didn't seem to be in a sharing mood much to the dismay of the two canaries.

The two of them flew down and landed beneath one of the park benches to remain out of sight.

'What now early bird?' smirked Nico

'shhhhh, I'm thinking' hissed Janet. She was looking over the scene trying to find a way to salvage the morning's meal. She suddenly looked up and turned to Nico 'I've got an idea'.

The pigeons were slowly eating all the food when Nico and Janet hopped up ont the top of the bench.

'Say Janet?' Nico called out. At the sound of his voice all the birds below stopped eating and looked up to see what was going on. 'I had I had a chick girl She wouldn't did me real wrong, I mean I did the same thing to her but She ain't have no right to do me like that though bird, for real'. When Nico finished rapping he hopped down out of sight whilst Janet quickly took over to keep the audience captive.

Janet quickly cried out with her melodic soprano voice which instantly fixed the attention of everyone.

'You, been seeing her, and I know And I was with him, and you knew about it…..

Whilst she sang she started to move around and dance to the beat. '….I wanna ask, has she been by the crib? Has she been in our, car? And did you let him, drive?...'

At this point she jumped off the bench and flew to the left whilst still singing and leading the audience to follow her. Taking his cue Nico edged out from where he had been hiding behind the bench. '…And it ain't a point to feeling blue you're just like me and I'm just like you'

As she reached the chorus she started belting out the lyrics to mask the sound of Nico leaping onto the field and grabbing a nearby empty bag of crisps. Looking up to check that he remained unseen he started moving along the field grabbing crumbs of bread and anything edible he could find whilst taking great care to stay silent. Looking around for more a more valuable catch he noticed a whole slice of bread next to a bin lid.

'Jackpot' he whispered to himself quickly glancing up to see how Janet was faring. She was performing ever more elaborate moves to keep the pigeons occupied. Nico reckoned he had another minute until the song ended and that he had to hurry. Flying over to the bread with his now half full bag he quickly started breaking it up into smaller bits, he was so absorbed with his work that he missed the sound of someone sneaking up on him. Glancing up he nearly cried out in shock as two rats were standing right in front of him.

Both rats were staring greedily at his bag and the bread between them both.

The larger of the two rats looked up menacingly at Nico 'Hello there little birdie, how nice of you to bring us breakfast' he chuckled.

'Back of the bag ratty' Nico said trying to sound more confident then he felt.

'Oh he wasn't talking about the bag' the other rat giggled to himself.

Suddenly the rats launched themselves at Nico who cried out in panic before kicking the bread at them and throwing himself backwards. Both rats cannoned into the bread and landed on Nico in a frantic melee of fur and feathers. In the confusion Nico slashed on of the rats across the face with one of his talons and managed to grab his bag in one the other before leaping out from under the bench. He had barely gotten a foot into the air before jerking to a stop, glancing down he saw one of the rats had grabbed on to the bag and was holding him back whilst the one Nico had clawed was still clutching it's snout in pain.

Janet was well into the last verse of her song and was still desperately trying to keep the crowd's attention whilst simultaneously wondering what was taking Nico so long. The last she had seen he had flown under a bench with a bag of what she hoped would be their food. 'He should be done by now' she thought 'otherwise we're in trouble'. She knew that she couldn't keep the attention of so many hungry pigeons focused on her indefinitely and she didn't want to be stuck with an angry mob. She was reaching the end of her song when she noticed Nico come hurtling out from under the bench with the bag of food, her relief was short lived when she noticed the large furry mass clinging onto the bag.

Janet realised her mistake too late, she had stopped singing and several birds were turning around to see what she was staring at. Before they could take in the scene they were presented with Janet leapt off her perch and hurtled towards her assailed brother. One of the pigeons was more alert than the others and cried out 'look those rats have some food!' at this all the birds charged towards the bag.

Nico desperately tried to pull the bag away from the rat but he was running out of strength whilst all the rat had to do was hold on tight. He was quickly running out of ideas and beginning to panic when he was blasted away by a sudden impact, he lashed out at his attacker assuming it to be the other rat.

'Nico stop it's me!'

'Janet?'

'Yes you idiot now let's go now' Janet swiftly took to the sky.

Looking behind him Nico realised that the bag was now unattended as the rats were busy trying to fend off the growing mob of angry pigeons.

'I am NOT leaving empty taloned' he growled. He dashed over to the bag and struggled to lift it.

Janet flew down to him and grabbed the other end of the bag. 'Why are you so stubborn!' she screamed at him. Before Nico could respond he heard an enraged cry and looked up to see the larger of the two rats leaping at him. He threw himself backwards causing the rat to miss him; however they both landed on the bag forcing Janet to drop it. From Nico's view everything was a blur of grey as he tried to disentangle himself from the bag and the rat. Just as he managed to find his bearings he felt a sudden rush of pain and looked down to see a bloody gash down his right wing. Swallowing down the agony he launched himself away into the sky where Janet was already speeding away from the brawl below.

'Whew', well that was a blast to write. This chapter is nothing like how it was supposed to be when I started writing but I just kept on getting new ideas. Hopefully you liked it :-). The song Janet was singing was 'just like me' by Jamie Foxx. Please review and tell me what you think.

Strykeruk out.