This was supposed to be short. It didn't quite end up that way. The entire thing is already written. I've just got to edit chapters before posting.
Nightwing barely dodged the giant paw whistling towards him. It was easily as big as his chest, with claws that would have made ribbons of his suit and him with it. He dissuaded the teeth that followed up with a heavy crack to the gums from his electrified escrima sticks. Yowling and hissing in pain the creature scrabbled away from him, finally, giving him some room to breathe.
Dick couldn't help but think that house cats on the hunt were much cuter when they weren't the size of a bus and convinced you were their next meal. Of course, there was always an exception. Looking at this particular cat, it probably wouldn't have been cute even if it was normal size. Its ribs were showing through its skin where clumps of its mangy matted fur had fallen out. Its left ear was torn up from an old fight and it had some infected looking scratches from a newer one. Even one of its fangs was broken. The thing had obviously been starved and neglected to the point of abuse back when it had just been a regular cat. Dick felt bad for the thing, even if it was trying to eat him.
With one last pained shake of its head, the giant cat recovered. Focusing on him, it scrunched up in preparation for another lunge. Predators didn't act like this naturally. He'd proven himself tough and painful prey half a dozen times already. Normally, this would have been the point an animal would go looking for something that didn't fight back quite so hard. Either it was hungry enough it didn't care anymore, it was half mad with some kind of disease, or the amateur wizard standing in the middle of the park with a glowing book and a stick topped by a toy cat's head had done more to the animal than just make it big. He was betting on the latter.
Tom Grey, 16, was the son of a missing animal hoarder. Somehow he'd gotten a hold of a book of black magic and figured out how to use it. Now he was on a mission to teach Gotham what 'horrible monsters' cats were by increasing the size of his mother's animals and releasing them on the population at large. For obvious reasons, he was the primary suspect in his mother's disappearance, and if they were lucky, she was alive and not her 'babies' last meal.
On the bright side, Tom didn't seem to have the juice to make more that one giant cat. The creatures Damian was battling, on his way to Tom, were much closer to tiger size than swallow you whole size. Giant Cat wouldn't be a problem much longer either. Tim had sniped it with enough tranquilizers earlier that it should be down for a little cat nap soon. Hehehe, cat nap, he'd have to work that into the take down of Tom somehow.
Speaking of Tim, as Dick dodged yet another attempt on Giant Cat's part to eat him, Red Robin used the opportunity to swing down from his perch and land on the cat's neck. He stabbed something shiny and metallic into it before springing away. Rolling to a crouch a little ways away, Tim gave Dick a quick thumbs up and shooing motion towards the villain of the hour, before turning to face Giant Cat on his own. The cat seemed amiable to the change in dance partners, apparently deciding the person who stabbed it was more deserving to be eaten than person who whacked it in the face.
Dick took the offered out and sprinted towards where Damian was disabling the last Big-But-Not-Giant Cats. If he was honest, he was a little worried that Dami would use a lot more force than necessary to take down the scrawny kid responsible for them. Damian loved animals, and he'd been outraged when he saw the condition this particular batch was in. He and their amateur wizard had been in a spitting argument about it basically since the fight started.
Dick had missed most of what they said while fighting Giant Cat, but he arrived in time to hear the conclusion. As the final cat went down, Tom shrieked and let loose some sort of shards of magic from his fingertips into the fallen cats surrounding Damian. "Oh yeah, well if you like them so much then you can just join Mom!" he taunted. The downed cats collectively spasmed, then jerkily climbed to their feet. As the cats attacked, Tom began to summon up a whirling ball of magic. If they hadn't been before, the cats were definitely being directly controlled now. Damian side stepped lunging animals and battered a few back to the ground as Dick ran forward to help fend them off. Just as Tom lifted the ball in preparation to throw it, one of the cats snapped its teeth around Damian's calf.
Dick didn't hesitate. He slammed an escrima into the animal's head and shoved Damian from the suddenly slack jaw out of the way of the incoming spell. Dami could be furious with him about it later. Between his brother getting hit by a bolt of who knows what kind of magic and an animal that was going to have to be put down afterward anyways, his brother takes priority. It just wasn't a question for him.
Of course, he didn't sit around waiting for the thing to hit him either, he jerked out of its path to what should have been a couple inches clearance. Would have been, if it hadn't turned out not quite as amateur as he thought wizard could course correct the spell mid-air. He didn't have much time to think of anything as the spell slammed into his chest and his pain nerves came alight in one giant flash before darkness took him.
—
The shouting was what woke Dick. "What did you do to him!" An angry voiced screamed from the darkness. Was that Damian? His voice sounded off. "What's the matter I thought you liked animals." Another voice sneered. That was definitely amateur wizard. Dick needed to get up. He needed to calm everyone down before things went south, and they ended up needing to explain an unnecessary hospitalization to Bruce.
That turned out being easier said than done. The return of consciousness brought along with it the awareness of how much he hurt. Every muscle in Dick's body felt like it had been through a six hour work out and protested every time he even thought about moving. Nothing felt torn, just frick, he'd really like to not move for a couple days right now. Even his freaking tongue felt like it had been exercised until it just gave out. What kind of spell had that been anyways? Presto-exhausto, now you're super sore and hate anything in the world that's not your bed.
Forcing himself to push his protesting muscles to get up, Dick groaned, and then nearly choked on his own tongue as something not even close to his own voice came out. Eyes flying open he was greeted by nothing but darkness. He tried to reach for his throat, but not only was he weighed down by something heavy, his arm was refusing to move right. His wrist would not twist like he knew it could. He discovered legs weren't moving right either, as he quickly tried to shift them too. Nothing was moving right, his joints were locked up and refusing to rotate like they were supposed to. His entire life, from his childhood in the circus to his nights spent running across the rooftops of Gotham and Bludhaven, had relied on a pretty perfect knowledge of what his body could and couldn't do. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't freaked out that it suddenly didn't respond the way he expected.
He stopped trying to move. No matter how much he wanted to panic, that could only make things worse. He'd been doing this way to long to make a rookie mistake and break something because he couldn't keep calm. Taking a steadying breath, Dick tried to call out to Damian. He'd been the closest last he remembered, and it was his voice he'd been hearing. When nothing but a yowl came out, Dick felt a rush of relief. That said so many things about his life. He'd been turned into a cat not crippled, that was something he could deal with.
Alright, magically turned into an animal. He knew what to do now. The darkness and heaviness he noticed earlier meant he was probably stuck inside his suit. Which actually was a good thing. First dilemma of being turned into an animal was convincing your teammates that you were you. Popping your new furry head out of your suit generally cut down on the hi-jinks necessary to make that happen. Now that he knew why his body wasn't responding how it normally did, it was fairly easy to figure out how to get on all fours and start moving towards the direction his head had been. It still hurt to move, but the pain was fading fast.
As he crawled, Dick tried to make as much noise as possible. He didn't have the vocal chords for actual words anymore, but he could still get an impressive amount of volume for his size. Hopefully Damian or Tim would notice him, before they knocked out the guy who could reverse this.
"You've got to be kidding me." A new voice said. It sounded a bit like Tim but still off. Maybe it was the cat ears? He remembered something about them having a larger range of hearing. That was probably why no one sounded right. Dick could hear someone walking towards him. He stopped making noise as the neck hole of the suit was pulled open and he was blinded with light. "Nightwing, is that you?" Tim said, peering in at Dick.
Dick nodded, squinting at Tim while his eyes adjusted. It was a little jerky, but the message seemed to get across just fine. A look of exasperation crossed Tim's face as he sighed. "Come on, then.", Tim beckoned him towards the hole, "Let's go get you turned back."
Dick finished his crawl out, and Tim picked him up. Which kinda hurt, his muscles were still sore from the transformation and all. As he was lifted up, Dick got a clearer look at the scene of the battle since he'd been taken out. The cats were all down, mostly breathing, still way to big for comfort. Damian had Tom thrown to the ground on his stomach, arms zip tied behind his back and Damian's boot between his shoulder blades. The stick he'd been using had been charred badly. The cat toy topper blackened to the point it was nearly unrecognizable. Damian was staring at Dick as Tim approached, eyes wide and a little shocked. Despite his training, Damian was still getting used to some of the weirder aspects of being a hero. Al'Ghuls tended more towards the murder your enemies, not annoy them severely in a way that matched your costume theme. The idea his big brother might get turned into an animal probably had never occurred to him as a realistic possibility.
Kid likely thought he'd been dead. Okay, now he needed to give him a hug. Scared little brothers got hugs, no matter how much they might deny having been scared in the first place. Dick turned his head to Tim and meowed at him before straining in the direction of Damian. Tim understood and passed Dick off to Damian before turning to interrogate their prisoner. Tim could handle that just fine, and there wasn't a lot he could contribute right now considering the state of his vocal chords, so he pretty much tuned him out to focus on Dami who was still giving him a bit of a wide eyed look.
Now that he was in his arms, Dick ran into a big issue with his original plan. Hugs really didn't work well with the current set up of his arms. He'd have to figure something else out. What did cat's do to show affection. Well there was licking people, but that was more of a dog thing, also slightly awkward. Purring would be good, if he had any clue how to do that. Headbutts! He'd seen Alfred the cat do it to Damian when he wanted food or attention. Just walk up and bump him with his head. Damian should understand the gesture at least. Planting his front paws on Damian's chest Dick shoved the top of his head at Damian's chin. That seemed to finally snap him out of it. Dick found himself mashed up against Damian's chest in a tight hug. Which, score, comfort dispensed, big brother duties officially honored.
Dami didn't try to crush him for to long, letting him up after a bit, scratching him behind the ears as he did so. That actually felt pretty good. "I am glad that you are unharmed." He said softly. Dick headbutted him in the chin again as acknowledgment.
"Bad news guys." Tim broke in, "Tom here doesn't know how to reverse the spell." Tim gestured backwards to where he'd propped Tom against a nearby tree. Well that wasn't good at all.
"Are you certain?" Damian said. The way Dami was looking at the guy, Dick got the feeling he was thinking of using some sharp objects to make sure. He trusted Tim to intervene if it came to that.
"Certain enough that I don't want to risk him trying it on Dick." Tim replied. Dick fully agreed with this course of action. Bad stuff happened when magic users who didn't know what they were doing tested out new things on live subjects. He didn't particularly feel like seeing what it was like to have two heads today. Especially, when they personally knew some magic users in the League that could reverse this with a snap of their fingers. As if he read Dick's mind, Tim continued, "You should take Nightwing back to the cave. I'll contact Zatanna. She'll be able to fix this."
Damian gave one last longing look at their cat hating villain, then nodded his head in agreement.
End Note:
Next chapter is a bunch of Cat!Dick and Damian hanging out. It's is also ridiculously long.
If you have a prompt for a story you'd like to see, after this one is finished, leave a comment. I'm always up for inspiration.
Criticism very welcome.