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.