Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dick looked up at the sound of voices in what he hoped was a friendly argument. The speakers were coming down the stairs to the cave, mid-conversation.

"Can you actually go even a day without swearing?" Tim asked in what seemed to be exasperation. Dick wasn't sure what he was complaining about, Dick had heard him play video games.

"Of course I can! I could go as long as I like. But why?" Jason asked, using his bulk to deliberately slow Tim's descent down the narrow stone stairs.

"Bet you couldn't go... a week," Tim said, smirking. 

"What are the stakes?" Jason matched his expression.

Knowing that when competitions started in this family, they tended to get out of hand, Dick spoke up quickly. "How about the loser owes the winner half of his next Alfred baked desert?" Something that was valued enough to bet over without leading to chaos, destruction, or public humiliation if lost.

There was a moment of silence as Jason and Tim sized each other up before they nodded. "Deal." It was sealed with a handshake.

Stephanie giggled. "This should be settled quickly. One cookie says Jason loses tonight."

Damian scoffed. "The League would not back someone who failed that quickly. He will manage at least two nights."

Cass watched them both before commenting, "Four days."

Everyone looked to Dick, either to hear his prediction or in expectation he would shut them down. "Hmm, Jason's pretty stubborn, but sometimes words can slip out without you meaning to say them. He'll either fail in the first few hours or make it the entire week."

Jason rolled his eyes, over where he was changing into his uniform. "At least someone has faith in me. Sort of."

"I have faith in your desire to win," Dick said, smiling. "Your control... ?"

"You have to pick one or it's not fair," Steph argued.

"Fine. My bet, one cookie, is that he'll win." Honestly, Dick wasn't sure about that, but someone should bet on Jason succeeding. And there was no way they were going to get Bruce or Alfred involved. They might be willing to join, but that would take the sibling bonding part out of it. Besides, Bruce was out for the night. A Wayne Enterprises obligation, one that he had said not to disturb him at unless the city was on fire or being invaded.

They barely had that settled when it was time to go out. Ideally, with this many people, they would split up and cover multiple parts of the city. Or work with a partner, which Dick usually preferred. But before they could split up, there was a call from Oracle.

"I need whoever is available over in the Bowery."

"What do you have?" Dick asked.

"Looks like a rogue magic user. Whatever he is, he's causing a lot of damage. He's managed to turn two cops into flamingos, turn shop windows into water, and done something to the traffic lights. What he isn't stealing, people behind him are."

"On it."

Dick wasn't quite sure who responded to that, but it didn't matter. There wasn't anything else going on that matched this in intensity, and magic users were tricky enough that it was best to have as many people on it as possible.

Coming up with a rough plan on the way up was made trickier by the fact that none of them had magic and they didn't know the extent of his powers.

"I might have a better idea when I see him in action," Dick said. "I have a lot of friends who are magic users." They might have to pull Zatanna or someone in afterwards to fix his damage. But first priority was to stop him from causing damage in the first place. 

When they got there, Dick was kind of surprised to see what looked like a teen in street clothes. If he hadn't been waving a wand around and causing various things to go weird, Dick might not have looked twice at him. "Okay, the wand is almost certainly the focal point. If we can get that away from him, he probably won't be able to do any of this."

"Get the wand away? Should be easy enough," Red Robin said, "Anyone want to volunteer to be the distraction?"

"Tt. You need a distraction to get a wand away from a civilian?" Robin scoffed. "If you are going to be so-"

"I'll be the distraction," Dick volunteered quickly before this devolved further. "I'm probably one of the best at dodging." Cass might be a little better, but she was a lot better at stealth, so it would be better to keep her on that.

"If he turns you into a flamingo, I'm going to suggest keeping you that way," Hood warned.

"And I'm going to take so many pictures," Red Robin said, sounding like he very much liked the idea. "The Titans need new images for the newsletter."

"I don't know, I think Nightwing would make an awesome flamingo," Spoiler said, as she moved into a good position.

"Pretty," was Black Bat's contribution.

Nightwing felt a smile stretch upon his face. "I will do my best not to get turned into a flamingo. But if I do, give me a chance to at least try flying before changing me back."

"Birdbrain." Dick couldn't tell exactly who said that, but it didn't matter. It was showtime.

Being the distraction meant being flashy, being obvious, and most importantly, not looking like the distraction. So as their Harry Potter wannabe raised his wand to do heaven only knows what, Nightwing landed a little heavily on a lamppost, grapple ready to anchor elsewhere, and shouted. "Hey! Don't you know you aren't supposed to do magic in front of muggles?"

The kid jumped half a foot. Well, he clearly didn't know what he was doing. It was like he didn't expect to come across a vigilante. Pretty dumb in Gotham which had one of the highest concentration of vigilantes on the planet. 

Nightwing didn't bother waiting for what would probably be a less than witty retort. As the kid turned, the wand, possibly reflexively, possibly deliberately, started to move towards Nightwing. Or at least, towards where he was.

Dick had already done a flip around the lamppost, flipping twice in the air to bleed off speed, before grabbing a tree and managing to circle around that. He was still just a little too high off the ground for safety, but he had three ideas on how to get down without hurting himself or making himself too large a target. Plus, he was a little harder to spot on the far side of the tree. Not that he would be safe if the tree exploded or caught fire. Or melted like the lamppost did.

Scaling down the tree got him close enough to risk a jump to the ground while their magician was still trying to figure out where Nightwing had gone. Or possibly even who it was who had come to stop him. Nightwing had been moving quickly enough it was entirely possible that the guy hadn't gotten a good look at him. 

The kid clearly didn't know exactly where he was as he tried backing away, eyes darting everywhere. "Go away! I am... I am far too powerful for you to defeat! Run away before you face my awesome... oof!" 

Nightwing chuckled at the teen sprawled on the ground after tripping on Spoiler and Black Bat's trip wire. Unfortunately, the kid hadn't lost his grip on the wand. Also, his reaction time was a little better than expected as he quickly shot off a spell that had Spoiler dodging with a squawk. Black Bat tackled the kid, trying to take the wand from him. Nightwing moved in to help when he noticed something familiar about the wand. Oh, it was that kind of magic. 

His distraction cost him. Suddenly, there was bright light in front of him, on him before he could move.

***

Red Hood hauled the now disarmed kid up by his collar. "Okay, Kid, where did you get the wand?"

"It's mine! Give it to me!"

"Not a chance." Hood shook the kid just enough to rattle him "You've caused enough damage for one day. Did someone give it to you? Did you steal it?"

"Nightwing?" Red Robin said, voice sounding... off.

Jason swallowed the urge to yell at Tim for interrupting his interrogation to force himself to look where Nightwing had been standing a few seconds ago. More than half expecting to see his ridiculous older brother turned into a flamingo, he was startled to see... absolutely nothing. Had he been made invisible? Transported somewhere else? "What. Did. You. Do?" Each word was punctuated by a much harder shake.

"I... I don't know!"

There was a weird sound from where Dick had been. Jason looked over and down. There was a black cat, staring at them all.

"Well, it's not a flamingo," Spoiler said.

Robin started to move in, the stray cat whisperer that he was. "How do we change him back?"

"Break the wand, maybe?" Red Robin said. "That works, sometimes."

"No! That will make everything permanent!" The kid called out.

"Then what do we do?" Red Hood demanded, using his fiercest, 'You have made your last mistake' voice.

"I..." The kid gulped as the collective Batfamily stared him down. "I have to touch him with the wand."

"Where did he go?" Black Bat asked.

Sure enough, the street was empty of cats. Jason was really wishing he could join in the chorus of swears that rang through the air.

Chapter Text

The next step was to take the kid, now identified as Jeffery Rogers, off the street, and into one of the closed storefronts on the street. Rogers was tied up and Robin and Spoiler were guarding him while the rest of them split up and try to find Dick the cat. As quickly as possible because apparently animal transformations could have worse effects the longer one was in them. There was also an attempt to get to the flamingo policemen, but that might take a little longer, since they were currently being handled by Gotham Police. 

Tim knew that the roofs weren't the best way to spot a black cat, which could be all but invisible in poor lighting, which Gotham was, and he should be at street level. But he needed some scope. Besides, Cass and Jason were on street level. So Tim found himself using binoculars to look for a cat. Which was probably the worst way to search.

Unfortunately, they had already asked Oracle. 

"His vital signs have disappeared. Probably a result of the transformation. But I can't get a location."

"Right. Thanks, Oracle. We'll find him."

Maybe he needed to go down a little. Like try a fire escape. Because, he really wasn't having much luck. Maybe if he could figure out why Dick had run off in the first place, they'd have some ideas. 

Had something scared him? A dog barking? A loud noise? Tim couldn't remember any unusual sounds, but even the normal Gotham sounds probably sounded very different to a cat than they did to a human. Maybe he was reacting to something they hadn't heard.

Or possibly a smell? Cats had pretty good noses, right? Maybe there was something tempting that he wanted to investigate or something that felt threatening to get away from.

In any case, it rather implied that Dick didn't have his normal mindset. At best, he had his memories and cat instincts. At worst, they were dealing with full cat mentality. If his memories were completely intact, then Dick probably wouldn't have run off, right? But they wouldn't know for sure until they could find him. 

Oh well, how many black cats could there be in Gotham?

***

There were a lot of black cats in Gotham. Cass hadn't gone three blocks and she had found five already. She was as sure as she could be from her brief look at him that Dick had been solid black, so that ruled out the two with white mittens or belly, and the one that had a streak of white on the face. One of the solid black cats was a kitten, far too small to have been the cat she had seen earlier. The remaining black cat was not interested in getting close enough for Cass to examine. She had seen the cat, very briefly, before it ducked under a dumpster. Cass had tried to lean in to look, but that cat hissed at her.

So, she sat crosslegged in front of the dumpster and waited. The cat would come out eventually. Maybe sooner with the food she was offering. Of course, she really hadn't planned on feeding a cat, so none of the food she had on her was quite cat suitable, except for maybe the jerky. She wasn't sure if that was safe for cats or not. Instead, she had snagged an abandoned hot dog from the dumpster, and set it on the ground about a foot in front of her.

If it was a regular cat, eating food off the ground wouldn't hurt it, and the cat would be more comfortable taking it from the ground than from her. If it was Dick, he was either in full cat mode, where he would be more comfortable taking food from the ground than from a person, or he would remember her and come out to see her, probably ignoring the hot dog.

As one final lure, she took off her cape and draped it over her lap, hoping to entice the cat.

Part of her training had been learning patience. Waiting without movement until her target approached. Cass tapped into the patience, while keeping her body language as open and non-threatening as she could. 

Eventually, her patience was rewarded, as the cat poked a paw out from under the dumpster and tried to reach for the hot dog. But Cass had put the hot dog out of reach. After a moment, the cat seemed to give up.

Cass didn't move.

A head poked out, eyed her, and froze. Cass didn't move.

Finally the cat eased out a little more, and reached for the hot dog. 

Cass didn't react, just watching.

As the cat caught the hot dog, he started to retreat. 

Cass threw her cape over him and scooped him up before he could shimmy under the dumpster.

The cat cried out a pitiful mew and squirmed like a snake. 

After a moment of examining the cat, Cass let him go. This was a street cat. His fur was patchy, he was missing a tip of one toe, and he had fleas. The poor cat ran as soon as he touched ground. Cass left so that maybe the cat could at least have the hot dog. He deserved something for his trauma.

***

Jason was trying to think strategically. Where was a cat likely to go from where they were? How far did cats roam? Actually that was probably a bad question, since Jason had a vague idea that the answer to that question was pretty far. But cats were sprinters, not endurance runners, so even if something did make cat Dick decide to bolt, he probably wouldn't have gone very far. Not in one stretch. 

No, Jason was pretty sure that whatever had made Dick run probably had him hiding right now. Unfortunately, black cats are very good at hiding.

Making a slow perimeter around the ground zero of the fight, Red Hood made a point to check every bush, look under every car, and give at least a passing glimpse into every storm drain. Everything that was low to the ground, and big enough for a cat to hide.

He was so busy looking on the ground that he almost missed the shadow with glowing eyes that was half-way up on one of the trees that the city had put in as some kind of revitalization and beautification effort, and didn't dare remove once Poison Ivy became prominent. Jason huffed a grumbled laugh to himself. He should have figured that even as a cat, Dick would flee up, not down. Now he just had to get him out of the tree.

"Hey, Wing. It's just me," He spoke as softly as he could through the modulator as he approached the tree. "I know everything is strange right now, but it's going to be alright. We just need to fix you up." 

The words weren't important, he reminded himself, even as he felt stupid. If Dick had his human mind and understood him, then they were superfluous. If Dick didn't have his human mind, then it didn't matter what Jason said, but he'd probably feel more reassured if Jason spoke as calmly and gently as possible.

Considering the way the shadow was cringing from him, odds were good that Dick couldn't understand. Still, Jason maintained his slow pace until the cat turned to run out of the tree. Only then did he lunge forward and grab the varmint.

The cat yowled, struggled, and scratched. Jason ignored him, knowing cat claws couldn't actually penetrate his armor, so as long as he kept the claws away from his unprotected skin, he should be fine.

Fortunately, they were only a block from the warehouse where the magician was waiting, because holding a writhing, crying cat was not fun. "It's okay. You're okay. I'm not hurting you." It wasn't helping. "When this is over, you can throw a punch if it makes you feel better."

"Quite a promise to make," said Oracle over coms. "Are you sure about that?"

Hood scoffed. "It's a pretty safe one. He probably won't actually remember. If he does remember, he almost certainly wouldn't take me up on it." A spar or even a more serious fight, sure. But just to hit someone who would retaliate? Not Dick's style.

"And if he does?"

He shrugged, regretting it as he quickly had to readjust his grip on the cat. "I can take a punch." Not that Nightwing couldn't hit hard if he wanted to, but Jason trusted him not to do damage without a good reason.

Oracle laughed, and Jason was suddenly pretty sure that Dick would end up hearing a copy of this conversation. 

"So, you are planning to keep pictures of Wing as cat for blackmail in perpetuity, right?"

She laughed again. "I'm keeping pictures, and I want more before he's changed back, but I don't know that they'll work as blackmail. He doesn't tend to get too embarrassed at being changed into an animal. Remember when he was a rabbit?"

Jason rolled his eyes, "He made sure everyone saw the pictures. I thought the stuffed Bunnywing toys would at least make him blush when Marketing made them. Nope! He loved them!"

"He ordered fifty of them the first day they came out. He's ordered another twenty since, and seems to be giving them out regularly."

Jason absolutely did not blush and even if he did, no one could see it because of his helmet. "He gave all of us one." It was softer than he had expected. Roy had tried to tease him about having it just once, before Dick decided that meant he was jealous and quickly arranged for both Roy and Lian to get one. 

"Most, if not all of the titans, too.""

You have one?" Jason asked, certain she did.

"That's for me to know and you to wonder and obsess about. Anyway, got to go. Make sure Red Robin gets some pictures."

Jason didn't bother to reply as he carefully kept the caterwauling cat as still as possible as he opened the door to the warehouse.

Both Spoiler and Robin looked at him judgmentally. 

"Are you torturing him?" Spoiler asked.

"Nah, Wing's just a drama queen."

Robin sneered as he got closer to examine his findings. "That is not Nightwing. It is smaller, the face is more wedge shaped, and the tail is too short."

It looked like the same cat to him. "Listen, Squirt, I think I know my own brother."

Robin took the cat, who calmed significantly, the traitor. "In addition, this cat is female."

"Well, snickerdoodles."