Kitty-witty
A.N.: Kikigraysonwestsuggested Nightwing dresses up like a neko and acts like a cat. While I don't deliver on the dressing up aspect, I think you'll like this anyway. The title of the story is the name I like to call my cat sometimes. I know, I'm crazy. Enjoy the story!
The team was investigating a mad scientist's abandoned lab. They had apprehended the man recently and he had finally spilled on where his laboratory was, though he wouldn't explain what he was doing, prompting the investigation. Nightwing and Batgirl had just passed another door when they heard a sound inside.
"Barbara, stay behind me. I don't know what's in there," Nightwing commanded. Batgirl, although miffed for being treated like she was incapable, stepped back and knelt down. Nightwing opened the door and was immediately engulfed in a thick gas that obstructed her view of him. She heard him coughing and hacking and she wanted more than anything to rush forward and help him, but despite the danger to her friend, her female intuition told her not to walk into the gas. Nightwing stopped coughing, or making any sound for that matter, and Barbara was worried. When the smoke cleared, she saw her friend and leader, sound asleep on the floor, with midnight back ears sticking out of his head, his human ears gone, and a matching black tail twitching and poking out of his rump.
"Guys, we'll have to continue this investigation another time. Nightwing's…changed. You won't believe me if I tell you, you'll have to see him. We need to get him to the med bay now," she commanded into her com, completely neglecting the telepathic link. Impulse was the first to arrive at her position on the second floor, naturally, and he immediately broke out into a wide grin at the sight of his friend. Despite the loud laughter that erupted from his throat, Nightwing remained slumbering on the floor. When everyone else had arrived, most of them with evidence, all of them shocked at Nightwing's new body, Barbara tried to move him or at least rouse him.
A simple prod didn't work, except for one ear to twitch, nor did multiple pokes and a call of his name. Finally, after gently shaking him and more frantic calls of his alias, his eyes fluttered open behind the mask and his mouth opened in a yawn.
On the stranger side though, his new ears swiveled back on his head and his tail curled away the sleep. His canine teeth had grown longer and were sharpened to feral points. Now fully aware, he was giving the whole team strange, unfamiliar looks. When Barbara reached out a hand to him, he took a step back against the wall and hissed, his ears folding down and blending into his hair. He held an arm back defensively, revealing razor-sharp claws that ripped out of his gloves.
Batgirl discretely handed Impulse a sprits bottle with a fluid that would put him under, and the boy zipped forward and had Nightwing on the floor before anyone could blink. M'gann levitated him back to the bio-ship and strapped him to a cot and put on anesthesia to keep him under. A hole had been formed in the living bed to allow his tail, which was currently swishing lazily back and forth, through it and Nightwing to lay on his back. Through the entire ride home, a low rumbling sound could be heard. A quick hand gently placed on Nightwing's throat revealed that he was, indeed, purring with an almost drunken smile on his sleeping face.
Once they were home, Dick was taken off the anesthesia and released from his binds. The drugs were still affecting him and Barbara continuously scratched him behind the ears, prompting more purring, so he wasn't as violent as he was earlier. The league was contacted and told to carefully investigate the lab, lest they become cat-men like Richard had. Robin saw Nightwing curled up on Barbara's lap and pulled out his video camera to film the way she stroked his back.
"Smile for the camera," he said.
"Now that's just cruel," Barbara replied. Tim smiled but didn't turn off the camera.
"Miss M, is Nightwing anywhere in there?" Bumblebee asked, gesturing to Nightwing. M'gann swallowed and looked at Barbara for permission. At Barbara's nod, M'gann's eye's glowed green and Nightwing stirred a little bit, seeming to get himself comfortable on Batgirl's legs. M'gann's eyes stopped glowing and she addressed the whole team, all of whom were wondering about Karen's question.
"There's a part of him that's there, but it's like it's locked. If I unlock it, one of two things could happen. Either his human side will be in conflict with his cat side and the two would be forced to mentally battle until one proved dominant at the death of the other side, or the human side would automatically become dominant and he'd come to realize himself in this body. If it's the latter, well, he's had a pretty rough week already; I'm not so sure if he'd be emotionally capable of handling a new body and new instincts. I think it's better if we just let him be like this, at least until we know more about what happened."
"Can you calm him down enough so that I can get a blood sample once we're in the med bay?" Barbara asked. M'gann nodded and the trio walked to their location. Nightwing was fully awake but was still kept docile by the combined efforts of M'gann's telepathy and Barbara's ear and under-the-chin scratching. Once the three were in the med bay and Dick seated on one of the beds, Barbara pulled out a needle and gently took Nightwing's arm in hers. Thanks to Megan's mental paralysis abilities, he could do nothing but watch curiously as the redhead stuck the needle into his vein and withdrew some blood.
Several tests ensued after that. M'gann left after both girls were sure that Nightwing wouldn't try to hurt them. Nightwing kept good company while she worked, rubbing his face on her shoulders and purring loudly. After the final test had been run, she came to a conclusion.
She and Dick walked into the living room where the rest of the team was assembled in civvies. Barbara stood while Nightwing sat in his favorite chair.
"There is no cure for the transformation. However, I have a pretty good hunch that it'll just wear off normally. If it doesn't, then M'gann will try to unlock the locked human side of his brain and we'll see what happens. Alright, M'gann?" M'gann nodded her approval. Everyone was dismissed and Barbara retreated to the kitchen to make herself some dinner, Nightwing in tow. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't one bit clumsy on two feet, despite about three to four pounds of tail to throw him off balance. She decided on a tuna sandwich for a low-maintenance meal. The second she popped the seal on the can, however, she heard a piercing meow from the table behind her. Turing around, she caught sight of Dick sitting at the table with his tail sticking upwards and curving down at the end. Their eyes were locked.
"MrrrrOOOOOOoooooww!" Dick whined again. She glanced down at the can in her hand, and then back up at her new cat. Smiling to herself, she continued opening the can at the continuous mewling and whimpering of Nightwing, which prompted Robin to appear with his camera. He filmed her placing the tuna on a plate laying it in front of Grayson. The cat-boy immediately started picking up pieces of meat and eating at the speed of sound. After, that he picked up the plate and commenced licking it clean. Once he was done, he purred even louder than before and left the kitchen. Robin watched him go, not bothering to keep the camera on his brother, before turning it off completely.
"He can use his thumbs?!" he asked in astonishment.
"Apparently so," Barbara replied, deciding on popcorn so as not to attract a purring boy.
"But he can't speak?"
"Not that I've seen. I'm pretty sure he would've spoken when I took his blood, or while I was running tests. He didn't though, just purred."
"Hmm," Robin grunted.
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For the rest of the day, Nightwing followed Barbara around. Towards the end of the night she decided to change his clothes for him, seeing as his uniform wasn't very comfortable to sleep in and that it'd most definitely get dirty if he wore it for however long it took for this to wear off. She pulled him into his room and locked the door behind her.
She pulled off his belts and equipment after seating him on the bed. His communicator had fallen out when he changed into the cat he was now. She awkwardly pulled off his shirt and gloves next and he obliged by lifting up his arms. She, even more awkwardly, removed his pants next. His face was calm, as if it was just normal that there was a girl ripping his clothes off.
She picked out an old pair of jeans for him and cut a hole in them with a bat-a-rang. She pulled them up his legs and left his feet bare. A plain white t-shirt followed. She left his mask on and scratched him behind the ears one more time before kissing one folded black ear goodnight. He lapped his sandpapery tongue along her cheek in his own goodnight kiss. She ruffled his hair and finally left for Bludhaven to defend it for her friend.
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Two full days had passed since Nightwing had been gassed. In that time, the team had gotten used to his new body and mannerisms. Barbara had accepted the role as acting leader and as Nightwing's owner/caretaker. Nightwing himself had taken to sleeping most of the day away, curled up on his chair and prowling around at night. In two days, he had hardly left Batgirl's side. After two days, he was finally about to wake up.
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Dick moaned as he slowly regained consciousness; he didn't want to wake up just yet. His brain, however, would simply not let him sleep. He reluctantly opened his eyes to see the lounge room of the cave. His brow furrowed in confusion; he didn't remember even returning from the mission. Nevertheless, he let loose a yawn and stretched away the slumber in his limbs. That's when he noticed his mouth.
His entire mouth felt drier, as if he had been eating nothing but sand for a whole day. On top of that, his tongue seemed spiky, like a cat's. His canine teeth were now fangs, almost cutting into the roof of his mouth. He rubbed his face and dragged his hands back towards his ears, where he paused. His ears weren't where they should have been. He felt something rustle the top of his hair. Quickly running his palms in the area where had felt it; he easily found two fur-covered triangles on top of his head. He pulled on one and blinked in surprise when he could feel his fingers on it.
Thunk!
The simple sound nearly scared Nightwing half to death. He turned around to see a curvy black something swishing back and forth near the end table, no doubt having hit it to make the sound. He, out of curiosity, pulled on the thing, only to wince at the pain that tugged at his rear. His hand followed the tail all the way to the slit in his jeans, only to confirm that it was, indeed, his own.
"Jeans? I wasn't wearing jeans a few minutes ago, who changed me?!" Nightwing thought in an embarrassed frenzy. He finally decided to get up and find a mirror to see himself, only to immediately stumble and almost fall down, had he not grabbed the back of the chair for support. He cursed his stupid tail. He staggered away to his private bedroom and looked into the full length mirror.
His mask was still on, good. He took it off, revealing even blue-er eyes than he normally had. His eyes looked bigger too, and angular like a cat's, although his pupils were still circular. He opened his mouth, revealing the fangs he knew he had. He touched his outstretched tongue and rubbed his fingers together over the almost no saliva that had rubbed off. His ears folded back in distress and his tail lashed. Before he knew what he was doing, he had hissed at his own tail, and then grimaced at himself for doing it. He replaced his mask and staggered out to the kitchen where he could hear Barbara tinkering around. It was strange that she was here in the cave so early. But then again, it was strange that he had turned into a neko, of all things. He rubbed his head and then winced. He looked down at his hands. Bloodied claws were sticking out from under his finger nails, he must've unsheathed them subconsciously. He retracted them and grabbed onto the edge of the bar.
"B-Babsh?" he stuttered and lisped over the fangs. His teeth ground together at the awkward name. Barbara jumped and turned to gawk at him, frozen in surprise. He felt…weird towards her. Emotions of love and pure trust were welling up inside him and at the same time: indifference, like he couldn't care less about her. It wasn't something he was used to feeling, nor was it something he liked to feel.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry you had to wake up like this!" she sympathized, rushing him with a hug. Her arms, instead of wrapping him diagonally, went around his neck with her hands in his hair. With only the slightest hesitation, he accepted the embrace. He soon felt her nails scratching his ears and he purred before he could stop himself, then winced. He stopped the hug before anything else could happen.
"What happened?" Dick began. "I can't remember anything." The purr continued when he wasn't talking and he cursed himself for it.
"What's the last thing you do remember?"
"Uh, investigating that lab yesterday and getting gassed. That's it." He tried as hard as he could to control the lisp.
"Yesterday? Dick, that was two days ago." Dick gaped.
"Two days?! W-what happened during that time?" he nearly screamed.
"Most of the time you followed me around. You wouldn't even bother with anyone else, just me. Tim recorded most of it, you can ask him. He's at the manor, as far as I'm aware. You hungry?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Starving, what've we got?"
"We mostly fed you tuna, much to la'gann's disgust. Would you like some of that?"
"No thanks, I'm in the mood for cereal." He grabbed a box of cereal and popped a handful into his mouth, only to wince in pain as he chewed. The fruity spheres had cut pretty badly into the roof of his mouth, his fangs didn't help either. On top of that, his favorite cereal now tasted like nothing. Normally it was sweet and sugary but now, absolutely nothing. Barbara laughed as his nose turned up in disgust and he put the box away.
"Want that fish now?" she giggled.
"Yes. Please. But please cook it or something. I hate this already; I don't want to feel like a cat."
"You are a cat."
"Don't remind me." Barbara found some salmon in the fridge, figured that would be a nice change from tuna, and fried that sucker up. In no time at all, Dick was shoveling salmon into his mouth with a fork, the purr having stopped.
"Thank you," he said with his mouth stuffed with fish.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Barbara chastised, playfully tapping him in the head. He smiled. When breakfast was finished, Nightwing pressed with more questions.
"Would I be able to go through the zeta-beams with my DNA the way it is?"
"There is no change in your DNA, I checked. I took some of your blood and ran tests on it. It's just you in there." She poked his chest where his heart was.
"Who changed my clothes, wasn't I still wearing my suit on the mission?"
"Yeah, you were. I changed them and cut the hole in your pants, hope you don't mind," Batgirl replied, obviously not really caring whether he was upset or not about the pants. Nightwing blushed; he wasn't fond of the thought of Barbara seeing him in his underwear.
"How long am I going to stay like this?"
"Probably, hopefully, only the rest of today. It's wearing off so the ears and tail will go away soon."
"Okay." Nightwing got up from the table and tried to walk in the general direction of the teleporters, only to nearly fall down again. He hissed in pain and frustration.
"Stupid tail!" he roared.
"So you really don't remember anything from the past two days then? Not even how to walk?" The question caught Nightwing off guard.
"No, nothing. What do you mean 'how to walk'?"
"You were walking fine yesterday and the day before that. Tail didn't hinder you one bit."
"Well, that was yesterday. It's all changed, I guess."
"Can you control your tail? Try moving it." Nightwing concentrated for a bit and lashed his pitch black tail, smiling at his success.
"Apparently."
"Why don't you wrap it around your leg then, or your waist? That way, it won't be weighing you down from behind."
Nightwing nodded and caught his tail. He used his hand to help position it around his waist like a belt, seeing as it would only make for an awkward gait if he were to wrap it around his leg. He said goodbye to Barbara and strolled more easily, more humanly, to the zeta tubes.
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Nightwing B-01
The name echoed through the bat-cave like a gunshot. It wasn't like it was unusual for the ebony vigilante to appear from time to time, the computer was just loud.
The Dark Knight sent a glance in his son's direction and greeted him.
"Dick." He didn't greet with overwhelming, or even whelming, compassion; he merely granted his son some acknowledgement.
"Hey, you know where Tim is?"
"He was in the living room, last I checked. Why?" Batman looked his son in the eyes, something few people could do while he wore his mask, and then furrowed his brows, seeing his appearance for the first time.
"What happened to you?" he asked, looking the boy up and down.
"I'd rather not talk about it. I just need to talk to Tim, that's all. Thanks." The boy left and The Dark Knight contacted Batgirl, knowing she would know what happened to Nightwing. She explained the situation and Batman cut off the radio communicator, smirking to himself.
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"Tim," Nightwing called as he neared the couch the younger boy was on. The younger ebony turned in his chair and smiled.
"Hey Dick. You feeling alright?"
"Yeah. Barbara said you'd filmed me the past two days?"
"Yep," Tim said, popping the P.
"Can I see it?"
"Sure." Tim pulled up the videos on his wristwatch computer and allowed Dick to sit next to him, tail laying at his right with the end resting on his leg, twitching slightly.
Richard watched as his dignity shattered before him. His entire world crashed around his ears as he purred in Barbara's lap. His face fell as he licked his plate clean. By the end of the videos, his face was in his hands and his ears were laid back. His tail was stiff with embarrassment.
"You were actually pretty cute like that. Shame it's wearing off."
"Relief is more like it. Thank goodness Bruce didn't see it."
"I wouldn't count on that." The sudden voice made Tim turn his head and made Dick jump before turning himself.
"Want something to eat? Maybe some milk?" Bruce continued to his eldest son, smirking.
"I already ate at the cave, but thanks," Dick answered with sarcasm in his tone. Bruce chuckled at his cat-son.
"Are you able to meow, still?" Bruce asked out of the blue.
"I would assume so, I obviously did it earlier, heck I've even hissed and purred today! But don't even ask me to try it right now. You will be scratched," Dick answered, brandishing his claws to prove his point and only earning smirks and giggles. The end of his tail lashed in annoyance.
"Tim, duty calls; suit up. Dick, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like, just don't pee on the furniture," The Dark Knight commanded, finishing with a wry smile. Nightwing glared at him and hissed. Tim and Bruce vanished into the sliding grandfather clock while Dick decided to chill on the couch and watch TV. As he was flipping through the channels, Alfred strolled into the room.
"Ah, master Dick. What brings you here?"
"Oh, hey Alfred. I just came to talk to Tim and decided to stay awhile, if that's okay with you."
"Of course, you are always welcome here."
"Thanks Alfie. So you're not even one bit curious about my new tail?"
"I am curious but I will admit that between you, Bruce, and Timothy, I have seen much stranger. So what, may I ask, happened to prompt your little transformation?"
"Little mishap while on a mission a few days ago. Barbara said it's going to wear off by tonight."
"Very well. Enjoy your stay."
"Thanks, take it easy Alfred." The Brit walked out of the room to do who knows what, leaving Dick to continue his browsing.
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"Is our little kitten okay?" Barbara asked over the telephone.
"Yes, he's just fine. I'm watching him sleep right now, in fact," Bruce replied. Dick had stayed overnight at the Wayne Manor and was currently enjoying a cat nap, pardon the expression, on the couch in the living room.
"You do realize just how creepy that is, right?" Bruce didn't respond, other than to give a little huff of acknowledgement.
"And you're sure he's changed back?" Barbara continued.
"Yeah, he pretty much slept through the whole process of changing back. I can only guess that being nocturnal for two days set his sleep schedule off. He hasn't shown any signs of waking up yet." Barbara chuckled.
"He's going to be so embarrassed when he gets the cave. Tim showed everyone the videos; most of them didn't get to see his little antics. They loved it."
"He's going to hate you now."
"As a matter of fact, he's asked me to marry him TWICE last week. Granted the first time around he was high and the second he was fast asleep, but they still count, right?"
Bruce chuckled but didn't speak. A groan was heard from the couch and Bruce looked to see Dick lazily lifting his head up, moving as if he weighed two tons.
"Who's that on the phone?" he asked, slurring a little bit.
"Barbara. She was wondering if you were okay. You're human again, by the way. Slept through the entire turn," Bruce replied. Nightwing ran his hands through his hair and smiled when he couldn't find triangular ears on top. He took the phone.
"Hey Babs. Want to roll around with a ball of yarn sometime? Meow," he said, giving his best and sexiest mew. Batman just shook his head at his beloved son's antics.
A.N.: The end! This was a long one, I'll tell you what. I'M THINKING OF MAKING A STORY LIKE THIS ON ITS OWN; TELL ME IF YOU THINK I SHOULD! If you have a suggestion for a future chapter be sure to leave it in a review. Thank you for your time and GOD BLESS!
