quiet_tiger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quiet_tiger) wrote2011-06-27 10:19 pm
quiet_tiger) wrote2011-06-27 10:19 pm
Ficlet: Fly on the Wall (Without the Wall)
Title: Fly on the Wall (Without the Wall)
Author: Quiet Tiger
Universe: DCU
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Gar Logan
Word Count: 1618
Warnings: none
Summary: Tim recruits a fellow Titan to help him with the mob.
~*~
“You okay in there?” Tim peered down at the tiny green lizard in the small cage, and the reptile smiled up at him.
“Sure thing. Just glad I talked you out of me being a bird. Or a fish.” Gar stuck out his tongue and Tim knew it was a lizard thing, not Gar being a smartass. Though being a smartass was also a good bet when it came to Beast Boy.
“You’re just going to have to stay in this form for a while. I thought being a bird would be fun, and if you’re a fish you won’t have to support your own weight.”
“But this way I won’t be wet. Or stared at expected to talk.”
“All right. I think we’re ready. Just turn into something so you can get to her dad’s computer.”
“All planned. Anole, macaque to get out of the cage, fly, and then hopefully into myself so I can type.”
“Good.” Tim nodded and walked around the corner he’d been stopped at while he talked with Gar. If people thought he was crazy for chatting with a lizard, well, they’d seen stranger things in Gotham.
He was more embarrassed that using Gar to infiltrate the mob had been so low on his list of ways to get info. He’d tried the old standbys like technological surveillance, a stakeout or two or five, going undercover, and the mob being the mob always stopped him.
They knew what they were doing.
He was actually pretty lucky he hadn’t been discovered and killed.
Then he’d been sitting in Titans Tower watching Cassie and Bart doing yoga, with Gar shape-shifting in and out of various forms trying to mock Bart, and he’d figured out a plan. There were various teenaged daughters who were part of mob families, and one, Eliza, was fond of lizards. So, Tim created a persona to draw her to him, applied make-up to mask his appearance and give himself the tough-guy look she seemed to like, and had gone on four dates with her so far. She was rather dull, but Tim only needed to go out with her long enough that it wouldn’t be strange for him to give her a pet.
He could be dashing and desirable and sweetly sexy when he needed to be.
He took the stairs up to the brownstone’s door two at a time, and casually pressed the door buzzer. After speaking with a butler or valet, he waited nineteen seconds and the door was opened. Eliza stood there looking completely not like Tim’s type, but he flashed a calculatedly disinterested smile.
She melted. “Tony! What are you doing here?”
“Hey, baby. I stole this from the pet store for you.”
Her eyes widened, and he knew she couldn’t tell if he were serious or not, and he knew she didn’t care. “He’s so cute! And I know just where to put him!”
She babbled for another minute, then Tim was finally able to get the hell away from her by saying he had to meet up with some buddies. Eliza looked sad, but oh well. Tim didn’t have to spend any more time with her than necessary, and after tonight it would no longer be necessary.
So long as Gar was able to do what he said he could do.
~*~
Rolling his eyes around for the dozenth or so time, Gar tried not to sigh. Being a lizard for more than a few seconds sucked. It was boring. Lizards didn’t move or make noise or have fingers , and they were expected to sit in their cages and do nothing. People were excited to see a lizard in a cage actually do more than sit and maybe blink.
And Eliza was also boring. Teenaged and superficial, she talked on Skype and texted as Gar watched. She tried to pet him and he pretended to try to bite her, and she’d backed off. He needed her to go to bed so he could escape. Not only did he have work to do, he was getting cramped.
Finally, after hours of inane chatter, Elisa shut up, put down her expensive toys, and got into pajamas (which Gar did not watch because he was a gentleman. And she was underage.). After a trip to brush her teeth, she came back towards his cage and smiled at him.
“Good night, Tony Junior. I’ll get you better food tomorrow. I didn’t know Tony would be bringing you!” Her eyes got that faraway look, and Gar could only think that Tim was a spectacular actor if he was able to make this girl that he disliked think she was the most special girl in the world.
After climbing in bed she read for a few minutes, no doubt something by Stephanie Meyer, then finally turned off the light.
Now the waiting game. How quickly would she fall asleep?
Knowing that he was in the most precarious of positions, Gar gave her more than an hour before he made his move.
His shift, to be more specific.
His bones grew larger, his body grew hair, and in almost no time at all he was a tiny green macaque squished into a tinier cage. He pushed up on the lid, and slowly pushed it aside. When he had enough space, his bones grew smaller then disappeared and he lost his hair, but gained wings and compound eyes until he was only a green housefly. No one would see him, and if they did he wouldn’t raise suspicion unless someone actually realized he was green.
He buzzed his way to what Tim had said was Eliza’s father’s home office. He crawled underneath the door, trying to not look too suspicious and like he had a mission. No one was inside, and he quickly flew to the computer then morphed back into his handsome human self.
But crap, the computer had a password. Of course it did, this was the mob. The guy’s iPod Nano probably had a password. What would Tim try? He tried password, abc123, Eliza, and Anna, Eliza’s mother’s name.
Nothing.
Why didn’t they think ahead on this? This was a stupid plan and Gar was going to be caught and shot.
Then his eyes flicked on their own accord over to the framed poster on the wall. Goodfellas. Of course. Thankful the computer didn’t lock him out after putting in too many wrong guesses, Gar tried the characters’ names, the director, and then finally the computer opened up for him after he typed in Pesci.
Gar thought that was pretty funny.
Nervous, he paused to listen in case someone was coming, but didn’t hear anything. Opening up the Internet, he typed in the URL Tim made him memorize. A few clicks later he was signed into and installing Remote Desktop. Shortly after that, Tim was controlling the computer from one of his billion safe houses somewhere else in Gotham.
Gar watched as Tim clicked through files and folders, downloading everything to look through later. Inventory, contacts, invoices and ledgers, basically everything he could find.
Forget hacking and firewalls and that kind of nonsense—if Gar could sneak in and infiltrate the computers of all the bad guys in town, in the country… It would take a long time, but the results would be awesome.
After what felt like hours, Tim closed the windows he had opened, and Gar took that as his cue to uninstall the remote application. With any luck, no one would even know this computer had been compromised.
Shifting into a fly once more, Gar zigged his way around the brownstone to find a way out. Not finding one in the energy-efficient home, he started getting worried until he remembered from Tim’s blueprints that there was an old fireplace in the master bedroom. He didn’t think it was functional anymore, but maybe he could squeeze through…
And…there! Exiting the chimney Gar transformed into a crow, not worried people would see that his feathers were green in the gloomy Gotham light. He beat his wings a few times to get clear of the building and stretch his muscles. After flying freely for a minute or two, he met with Robin at the designated rendezvous point—how did Robin beat him—and shifted back into his human form.
“You get what you needed?”
“I think so. If not you can always go back in.”
“Yeah, right. Next time you can be Eliza’s little pet.”
Even Robin looked a little green at that under his mask. “I’m sure I got what I needed. Thank you for doing this.”
“All in the name of justice. You Bats can’t do everything by yourself.”
“Getting into that home and not being caught would have been tough if not impossible. I might as well get help from someone who can sneak in and out virtually undetected. …Was there a password on the computer? I should have thought of that.”
“I figured it out. Pesci.”
He could almost imagine Tim’s eyes lighting up behind the mask. “Makes sense.”
“Too much. You need anything else?”
“No, I’m going to work on the files from the Batcave. Thanks again.”
“No problem. I’m going to get back to the tower and go to sleep. Not sure how you keep these crazy hours.”
“You get used to it. Not sure how you can go warm-blooded to cold-blooded to warm-blooded to invertebrate and back and remember how to walk.”
Gar grinned, and knew his fangs were showing to add to the effect. “You get used to it.”
They fist-bumped and separated, Robin back to the Batcave, and Gar back to San Francisco. A productive night for them both.
Titans Together!
Author: Quiet Tiger
Universe: DCU
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Gar Logan
Word Count: 1618
Warnings: none
Summary: Tim recruits a fellow Titan to help him with the mob.
~*~
“You okay in there?” Tim peered down at the tiny green lizard in the small cage, and the reptile smiled up at him.
“Sure thing. Just glad I talked you out of me being a bird. Or a fish.” Gar stuck out his tongue and Tim knew it was a lizard thing, not Gar being a smartass. Though being a smartass was also a good bet when it came to Beast Boy.
“You’re just going to have to stay in this form for a while. I thought being a bird would be fun, and if you’re a fish you won’t have to support your own weight.”
“But this way I won’t be wet. Or stared at expected to talk.”
“All right. I think we’re ready. Just turn into something so you can get to her dad’s computer.”
“All planned. Anole, macaque to get out of the cage, fly, and then hopefully into myself so I can type.”
“Good.” Tim nodded and walked around the corner he’d been stopped at while he talked with Gar. If people thought he was crazy for chatting with a lizard, well, they’d seen stranger things in Gotham.
He was more embarrassed that using Gar to infiltrate the mob had been so low on his list of ways to get info. He’d tried the old standbys like technological surveillance, a stakeout or two or five, going undercover, and the mob being the mob always stopped him.
They knew what they were doing.
He was actually pretty lucky he hadn’t been discovered and killed.
Then he’d been sitting in Titans Tower watching Cassie and Bart doing yoga, with Gar shape-shifting in and out of various forms trying to mock Bart, and he’d figured out a plan. There were various teenaged daughters who were part of mob families, and one, Eliza, was fond of lizards. So, Tim created a persona to draw her to him, applied make-up to mask his appearance and give himself the tough-guy look she seemed to like, and had gone on four dates with her so far. She was rather dull, but Tim only needed to go out with her long enough that it wouldn’t be strange for him to give her a pet.
He could be dashing and desirable and sweetly sexy when he needed to be.
He took the stairs up to the brownstone’s door two at a time, and casually pressed the door buzzer. After speaking with a butler or valet, he waited nineteen seconds and the door was opened. Eliza stood there looking completely not like Tim’s type, but he flashed a calculatedly disinterested smile.
She melted. “Tony! What are you doing here?”
“Hey, baby. I stole this from the pet store for you.”
Her eyes widened, and he knew she couldn’t tell if he were serious or not, and he knew she didn’t care. “He’s so cute! And I know just where to put him!”
She babbled for another minute, then Tim was finally able to get the hell away from her by saying he had to meet up with some buddies. Eliza looked sad, but oh well. Tim didn’t have to spend any more time with her than necessary, and after tonight it would no longer be necessary.
So long as Gar was able to do what he said he could do.
~*~
Rolling his eyes around for the dozenth or so time, Gar tried not to sigh. Being a lizard for more than a few seconds sucked. It was boring. Lizards didn’t move or make noise or have fingers , and they were expected to sit in their cages and do nothing. People were excited to see a lizard in a cage actually do more than sit and maybe blink.
And Eliza was also boring. Teenaged and superficial, she talked on Skype and texted as Gar watched. She tried to pet him and he pretended to try to bite her, and she’d backed off. He needed her to go to bed so he could escape. Not only did he have work to do, he was getting cramped.
Finally, after hours of inane chatter, Elisa shut up, put down her expensive toys, and got into pajamas (which Gar did not watch because he was a gentleman. And she was underage.). After a trip to brush her teeth, she came back towards his cage and smiled at him.
“Good night, Tony Junior. I’ll get you better food tomorrow. I didn’t know Tony would be bringing you!” Her eyes got that faraway look, and Gar could only think that Tim was a spectacular actor if he was able to make this girl that he disliked think she was the most special girl in the world.
After climbing in bed she read for a few minutes, no doubt something by Stephanie Meyer, then finally turned off the light.
Now the waiting game. How quickly would she fall asleep?
Knowing that he was in the most precarious of positions, Gar gave her more than an hour before he made his move.
His shift, to be more specific.
His bones grew larger, his body grew hair, and in almost no time at all he was a tiny green macaque squished into a tinier cage. He pushed up on the lid, and slowly pushed it aside. When he had enough space, his bones grew smaller then disappeared and he lost his hair, but gained wings and compound eyes until he was only a green housefly. No one would see him, and if they did he wouldn’t raise suspicion unless someone actually realized he was green.
He buzzed his way to what Tim had said was Eliza’s father’s home office. He crawled underneath the door, trying to not look too suspicious and like he had a mission. No one was inside, and he quickly flew to the computer then morphed back into his handsome human self.
But crap, the computer had a password. Of course it did, this was the mob. The guy’s iPod Nano probably had a password. What would Tim try? He tried password, abc123, Eliza, and Anna, Eliza’s mother’s name.
Nothing.
Why didn’t they think ahead on this? This was a stupid plan and Gar was going to be caught and shot.
Then his eyes flicked on their own accord over to the framed poster on the wall. Goodfellas. Of course. Thankful the computer didn’t lock him out after putting in too many wrong guesses, Gar tried the characters’ names, the director, and then finally the computer opened up for him after he typed in Pesci.
Gar thought that was pretty funny.
Nervous, he paused to listen in case someone was coming, but didn’t hear anything. Opening up the Internet, he typed in the URL Tim made him memorize. A few clicks later he was signed into and installing Remote Desktop. Shortly after that, Tim was controlling the computer from one of his billion safe houses somewhere else in Gotham.
Gar watched as Tim clicked through files and folders, downloading everything to look through later. Inventory, contacts, invoices and ledgers, basically everything he could find.
Forget hacking and firewalls and that kind of nonsense—if Gar could sneak in and infiltrate the computers of all the bad guys in town, in the country… It would take a long time, but the results would be awesome.
After what felt like hours, Tim closed the windows he had opened, and Gar took that as his cue to uninstall the remote application. With any luck, no one would even know this computer had been compromised.
Shifting into a fly once more, Gar zigged his way around the brownstone to find a way out. Not finding one in the energy-efficient home, he started getting worried until he remembered from Tim’s blueprints that there was an old fireplace in the master bedroom. He didn’t think it was functional anymore, but maybe he could squeeze through…
And…there! Exiting the chimney Gar transformed into a crow, not worried people would see that his feathers were green in the gloomy Gotham light. He beat his wings a few times to get clear of the building and stretch his muscles. After flying freely for a minute or two, he met with Robin at the designated rendezvous point—how did Robin beat him—and shifted back into his human form.
“You get what you needed?”
“I think so. If not you can always go back in.”
“Yeah, right. Next time you can be Eliza’s little pet.”
Even Robin looked a little green at that under his mask. “I’m sure I got what I needed. Thank you for doing this.”
“All in the name of justice. You Bats can’t do everything by yourself.”
“Getting into that home and not being caught would have been tough if not impossible. I might as well get help from someone who can sneak in and out virtually undetected. …Was there a password on the computer? I should have thought of that.”
“I figured it out. Pesci.”
He could almost imagine Tim’s eyes lighting up behind the mask. “Makes sense.”
“Too much. You need anything else?”
“No, I’m going to work on the files from the Batcave. Thanks again.”
“No problem. I’m going to get back to the tower and go to sleep. Not sure how you keep these crazy hours.”
“You get used to it. Not sure how you can go warm-blooded to cold-blooded to warm-blooded to invertebrate and back and remember how to walk.”
Gar grinned, and knew his fangs were showing to add to the effect. “You get used to it.”
They fist-bumped and separated, Robin back to the Batcave, and Gar back to San Francisco. A productive night for them both.
Titans Together!