Mermaid au where Danny gets thrown into another dimensions ocean and turned into a mer. Unbeknownst to him, the batfam meets a similar fate a month later and crash into the ocean. They have a much harder time adjusting to thier new bodies and have to make adjustments for the new watery environment. Meaning they had to ditch most of thier gear in a hidden location until they found a way to return to thier human forms (not that thier pants will ever be of use again lol)
They swim to the surface to talk and hopefully come up with a plan, which is difficult due to the new set of sharp teeth some of them had. It was obvious most of them were different types of mer. All of them had scales, fins and scaly arms from thier elbows to thier very sharp/ claws. Tim was all black with a dull and unnoticeable red tent to the tip of his claws and sharp edges to his fins. It didn't take a lot to prove he was poisonous.
Cass was very brightly colored to her surprise. Her tail was colored like a sunset and she looked the least threatening of the group and the most like a traditional mermaid.
Stephanie was overjoyed to be her favorite color! Her purple scales came in coordinated patches throughout her body, like a sort of armor. Her stomach, upper back, elbows and knuckles all had the thick hard scales decorating them. It was clear her species was made for combat.
Bruce and Damian looked largely the same with the difference being thier colors. They had claws like Tim, but no sharped fins or poison.
Dick looked the least like a mer out of all of them. His tail was long and thick, his fins were small but flexible which allowed him to be fast and limber in the water, doing loops and flips in a blur of blue and black. He was having an absolute ball.
Jason was the...shiniest of the group. His orange, red and gold scales glistened in any amount of light and attracted fish to them that would be immediately adopted by Damian. Jason quickly grew annoyed at all the fish coming to peck at his scales and started coating himself in mud...that would just fall off due to the smoothness of his scales. He was not having a great time.
Danny was lovely. He had long flowing fins like that of a beta fish sprouting all over his tail. His body looked like it was swathed in inky black silks at all times. This, combined with the scales on his arms ruching up to his mid biceps made him feel like a lady at one of those galas Sam hated so much. He felt pretty. His past experience flying through the sky with his ghostly tail was much appreciated now that he had to figure out this mess of scales and muscle.
His Phantom form was much the same, except he was entirely white and glowed like a star in the dark of the ocean, leaving him feeling (and looking) like a bride on thier wedding day. His friends could never find out about this or the teasing would never end.
Danny came into contact with this pod of mer a few days after they arrived. They were racing towards him while he was in his Phantom form, which wasn't unusual for fish, but mer? He had never made contact with any of the other mer unless one came up to him to flirt or try to kill him for being too close to thier territory.
Deciding to err on the side of caution, Danny kept turning invisible whenever he saw them coming his way. It wasn't too long before the batfam came up with a plan to sneak up on the other mer. They sent Tim, the most well defended and darkest colored of them to talk to him and maybe get some answers. Or at least directions.
Things went wrong almost immediately. Phantom flared his fins the moment Tim tapped his shoulder and caught him in the silky appendages. What no one realized was that his fins weren't made of cartilage or whatever, but were genuinely made of thin, strong muscle for capturing prey. Toxins filled Tim's body leaving his body to go slack in the others hold, and Danny was wounded by the razor edge of Tim's fins as Tim's own poison entered Dannys veins.
Everyone was panicking.
Danny would like to start by saying that it was an accident. He hadn’t meant to attack the poor guy currently passed out in the cave he’d taken to living in about the time he first showed up here (wherever that was). He’d snuck up on him, which was, to be honest, pretty impressive in its own right. He should have known that anything that doesn’t blend in in a place like this probably doesn’t need to. Danny wasn't the kind of thing to be taken by surprise, and anything or anyone with half a brain cell felt that, any form he took. That said, he hadn't expected the dramatic and visceral effect his poison truly had on the kid. Ok maybe the kid was a bit of an exaggeration, he was maybe three years younger than Danny, tops. Anyways, it was next to impossible to estimate age around here, given the sometimes dramatic differences in size and lifespan amongst merfolk. Nonetheless, he looked young, which was part of what made this so uncomfortable. Not the poisoning, the lip contact. Danny had needed to breathe for him, his lungs ceasing as toxins freezed his limbs. CPR was difficult underwater, but Danny managed to get him breathing again. Luckily, the heart attack had been brief, and though his pulse was slow, it beat. Danny tried to focus on that. Unfortunately, he’d broken his ribs trying to get him breathing, and Danny had to do his best to piece them back blind, hands intangible so as not to need to cut into his chest (Danny had some experience with having his chest cut open, and he’d rather not share it around). He used his ice to freeze the bones in place, praying to the Ancients he’d gotten the temperature and thaw time right.
Laying in the tide pool in the cave, glow worms lighting everything just bright enough for Danny’s dim eyes to see him, the kid slept, more or less ok. He’d hurt like a bitch, to be sure, and Danny wasn’t sure how long until he’d be able to go back home (how was Danny ever going to explain this?), but he’d be fine. He stirred. Danny swam over and placed a hand to still him. There wasn't much point trying to explain; merfolks didn't have any real spoken language, though they did click and whistle sometimes, much like dolphins, or deep songs and sighs like whales. The rest was in body language, though that could be complicated due to differences in anatomy. In many ways, it reminded Danny of ghost speak. Long fanning fins draped about him as he surfaced. In his hands was a fish, dead as a doornail from the same venom still working wonders on the poor kid before him. Danny bit off a chunk of flesh and chewed it into a paste with knife-sharp teeth. He opened the kid’s mouth and spat the fish into it like a bird with a chick. He tried to think of it that way, or else he’d likely throw up, but the kid was still too weak to chew. Luckily, he got the idea and swallowed. After they got through the fish, Danny turned his attention to his injuries. The kid had some mean claws. Judging by the necrosis, they were venous in their own right. That would explain why he was so cocky. Unfortunately for him, the kid was pretty solidly outgunned in the venom area, not to mention Danny wasn't affected much by non-ghost poisons. He stitched up the tears (luckily, he’d had a first aid kit on him when he first got here) and did his best to sleep off whatever lingering effects the venom might be having.
They continued like this for a long time. (Or what felt like a long time; time didn’t necessarily work right for Danny.) Eventually, the kid could move on his own again, though he was still weak. He told Danny his name was Tim, that he was a human once upon a time, brought to this universe and this body against his will. His family was just trying to get home. They thought Danny might have some answers for them. (Foolish, Danny never had answers, even for himself.) Tim told Danny stories of his home, about the heroes and villains who filled it. He left out details, Danny could tell, leaving Danny wondering which hero he was. His money was on Red Robin. It was a while longer before Tim was strong enough to leave the cave, but eventually, Danny set out on his own (he still wasn’t great, and the more rest he could get, the better) and tracked down the mismatched pod he knew was Tim’s and glowing bright, guided them to their prodigal son.
They could figure out how to get home soon. Right now, introductions were in order.
Some art for ya. (Sorry I only sorta listened to the color descriptions, I got carried away.)
Jason: Lionfish (specifically based on a red lionfish)
Danny: Amalgamation of a Betta fish, jellyfish, and a variety of deep sea creatures (while his “human” form is black, his ghost form is clear with a bioluminescent white glow)
