Batingency Plans

#12

Another weekend, another mission. This time, it had been against Klarion, and had led to some unexpected chaos.

Zatanna had joined them on the fight. While she, Batgirl, Superboy, Blue Beetle, and Wondergirl had attacked Klarion, Impulse took care of his cat. Then formed Alpha squad. Meanwhile, Nightwing, Bumble Bee, and Robin, as Beta squad, were getting intel from the computer where Klarion had been staying. It had plans that Ivo had sent him for some mish mashed science magic weapon. Miss Martian, Lagoon Boy, and Beast Boy were in the bioship monitoring the perimeter. They formed Gamma squad.

Inside, Beta was finishing the download of the plans and deleting them off the computer, when the fight crashed through the wall. Suddenly, the three were thrown into the fight. Klarion forced them together and cast a quick spell. Nothing happened.

"That should be fun later!" Klarion laughed.

That was when three bats sent batarangs towards the cat, hitting it simultaneously and banishing Klarion from this world for a time.

"What was that all about?" Nightwing asked.

"I don't know, I've never heard anything resembling that spell before," Zatanna said. "I'll do some research when we get back."

The Team trudged into the bioship and started heading home. About halfway back, the ones who had had the spell cast on them started acting funny.

Barbara started having trouble seeing. Zatanna had a craving for carrots. Jaime just wanted to take a nap. Cassie's hair started changing color, growing darker. When they mentioned it, Bart started laughing and ended up barking instead. Karen complained that it was too hot. Connor wanted bananas. Robin tried to talk, but slurred his 's'es. Nightwing got a predatory glint in his eye.

All at once, they collapsed to the floor and undertook a drastic change. It left M'gann, La'gaan, and Gar completely shocked.

Nightwing shrunk and his arms grew feathers. A beak sprouted, and his feet turned into talons. He had become a black hawk.

Connor grew a bit. Hair covered his entire body. His skull elongated a bit, and his toes became more fingerlike. He had changed into something he hated. He was a gorilla.

Karen shrunk like Nightwing, growing slick black and whit feathers. She had turned into a penguin.

Robin curled in on himself, his skin sprouting red and black scales. He grew fangs, and his eyes turned into small slits. He was a snake.

Bart shrunk as well, fur covering him. He ended up on all fours as a cute, white, hyperactive puppy.

Jaime had taken off the armor when he got on the bioship, and the scarab was resisting the change that was taking over his host's body. But never the less, Jaime became a small black cat with a strange blue gray scarab shape on his back.

Cassie grew like Connor, her newly darkened hair seeming to take over her body. She collapsed on all fours as a brown bear.

Barbara shrunk, growing into a small, black, furry mammal. She stretched her wings, and found she couldn't see around the ship very well anymore. She was a literal bat now.

Zatanna, being magic, resisted the change the longest. But she too shrunk, becoming covered in white fur with long ears. She was now a little rabbit, and she fully understood the irony.

Now that all their friends had changed like this, M'gann, La'gaan, and Gar had no idea what to do. Forget Young Justice, they were more like the Super Zoo.

Back at the Mountain, Batman was waiting to hear about the mission. He wouldn't let anyone know it, but even after five years he was worried about them. What even he didn't expect was herd that came out of the bioship.

M'gann and La'gaan pushed the group of animals out while Beast Boy transformed to try and encourage the animals to get out of the ship. Batman stood there, his poker face hiding the fact that he was shocked.

"Miss Martian, report."

"Alpha and Beta squads were hit with a spell from Klarion. Nothing happened until we were about half way back to the Mountain, when they turned into animals."

"Can you reach them mentally?"

"Hello M'gann! I can try."

Her eyes turned green and she started to float a little as she ented the minds of the animals. About a minute later, she returned to normal.

"They're still there, but the animal instincts are overpowering them a bit."

"Keep them together."

Batman went to leave, and was joined by a hawk, a bat, and a snake. He guessed that these were his kids. "Stay here. I'm going to use Batingency Plan 12."

The animals attempted to nod, then joined their teammates. Batman left the room, and took a quick trip to the Batcave. In the great Batvault sat a small bag of magic powder that Dick had inherited upon the death of his parents. It was only used for the most severe circumstances, and with Dr. Fate unreachable, their only hope.

He placed the bag in one of the pockets of his belt and hurried back to the Mountain. Inside, it was chaos. A gorilla was sulking in the corner, snapping at anyone who got too close. The hawk flying around with different smaller animals. The snake, rabbit, and cat were sitting near where the hawk would land waiting for him to pick them up. The bat was hiding in the shadows. The bear was trying to fix a broken table and sofa. A penguin was frolicking in a pile of ice on the floor. There were several shredded pillows on the floor, most likely the work of the puppy that Gar was entertaining. M'gaan and La'gaan were attempting to clean things up, and make sure everyone was being safe, but were failing greatly.

Batman walked in silently. He started with the bear, sprinkling a little dust on it. Seconds later, it was Cassie again. She and the other three who weren't affected started rounding up the animals and sprinkling the powder on them. Soon all the animals were changed back into humans/aliens.

Except for one.

Nightwing, the hawk, had disappeared. Batman knew his son wouldn't want to be changed back, he had always wanted to fly. The rest of the teens, not noticing their leader was missing (he'd have to work with them on that later) went to go get pizza. Batman stood in the middle of the room, alone.

A few minutes later, the hawk landed on Batman's shoulder. "I know you don't want to give it up, but they need you."

Batman sprinkled the powder on Nightwing, and soon he was himself again.

"I'm going to skip the pizza. Let's go to that little diner and get some pie," Batman said, walking off.

Nightwing followed. Even though he had to give up his wings, at least he had his father.

What would we do without magic gypsy dust?

-Shadow