Talking to the birds

I am currently, as mentioned in last posting, doing a bit of touring and as part of this am doing a reading of a section of the new Super Maxwell book, The Isle of the Dead. Well, why not let you see it, I thought.
In this Billy encounters the Stymphalian Birds from Greek mythology...or are they?

Reading from Isle of the Dead

With soft thuds a dozen more creatures fell from the treetops and onto the snow. They started to stalk towards Billy with their jerky bird walks, their dusty wings fluttering with a low, dull sound that made his eardrums vibrate unpleasently. ‘Come on, Billy,’ he murmured to himself. ‘Use your noddle – WWBMD?’

Billy grinned suddenly. He winked at the advancing monsters. ‘See you later, ladies,’ he said gleefully, and he pointed his open hands at the forest floor.

Twin blasts of flame shot from the palms of his hands, and Billy spun on the spot. For a second he could see the moth-women advancing, could see their razor-blue teeth as their lips drew back in a snarl – and then they vanished in a scorching explosion of steam.

Billy crossed his arms over his chest and the flames were extinguished instantly. Just as suddenly flame engulfed his legs and propelled him into the air like a rocket at blast off.

Billy flew over a broiling fog of steam in which the monstrous creatures were just barely visible, backflipped through the air ... And landed with a heavy thump on his bottom. The flames on his legs sputtered and died.

WWBMD? What Would Batman Do? Well, maybe Batman wouldn’t do it quite like that, Billy reflected ruefully, rubbing his bottom as he turned and ran from the boiling wall of steam he had created.