Chapter Text
Robin ran through the clock tower. The weird sound her wet boots made when stepping on the wood floor were almost just as uncomfortable of a sound to her ears as wearing those wet leotards was for literally her entire body.
Her uniform was stupid. There were the bright colors that made her look like a traffic light, the lack of protection, how stupidly tight it was and the stupid underwear over pants that all the heroes wore for some stupidly stupid reason, but she couldn't even complain about it, after all she was the one to design this suit — and judging by the way it had turned out Stephanie wasn't much of an artist —, Batman had only brought it to life, and, honestly, improved it. But even though she could have done a better job this result was still not completely on her, if only the other Robins hadn't designed such dumb suits in the past she wouldn't have to keep up with the overly colorful bird theme.
Stephanie almost was mad at a bunch of children and teens she never even properly met for making her have to deal with this sort of stupid-looking clothes on a cold, dark and raining night in Gotham, but even in this situation, she couldn't bring herself to be mad at Nightwing, the one who had started all of this, because even in the worst, most unpleasant moments, it was impossible for Stephanie Agnes Brown to not enjoy being Robin, and without Dick Grayson she would've lost what had become the best part of her day.
Even when hurt, mad or uncomfortable the thrill, the joy, the excitement Robin felt by having become Batman’s sidekick overcame all the bad parts. How could she not be excited? The daughter of a knockoff Riddler getting to wear the reds and greens, the eternal mantle of Gotham, only less iconic than the Batman himself. Stephanie's happiness was so massive that sometimes it hurt from how much smiling she had done in the past months.
Today, just as in the past weeks all Steph had thought about during the whole day was how many hours she had left locked inside Gotham’s public middle school until she could head out and go straight to the batcave to meet up with Bruce Wayne, the Batman and her mentor. Usually she would go home and wait until night time to patrol, but lately Bruce had been letting her hang out there for as long as she liked, that is, if she agreed to train at least three hours a day, which wasn’t a problem at all, because she liked training, she liked having lunch at the manor, she liked hanging with Bruce, she liked helping him solve cases, she liked sleeping at the cave and waking up in a guest room that, by now had become basically hers, but especially, Robin liked how Bruce was growing to trust her.
When Stephanie first got the opportunity to become the Girl Wonder she didn't think that she and the Batman would actually grow as close as they did, but against all odds now she could be proud to say that the Dark Knight liked her, and she liked him too. She was a bit annoying sometimes, but he didn't seem to mind that. He said he liked having company and she also liked having his, even if he was mostly silent. Steph figured that was why Bruce so happily let her be at his place day and night; he felt less lonely. But today there had been a problem, because she was supposed to go and spend the day at the manor, but he wasn’t there.
Stephanie found it weird, of course she did, but decided to just do her training normally. One, two, three, four, five hours passed by and Bruce hadn’t come back yet. It was already time to patrol and she didn’t find any notes, warnings or anything indicating where he could've gone. Alfred, the butler also didn't seem to be there, but it's not like she was going to check. She and Batman might be close, but not at the point of going upstairs to his house without asking first.
Whatever the situation was Robin had to do something, Batman wasn’t the type to miss patrol especially without warning someone first, but as far she was aware there wasn't any protocol she could execute in case of a Missing-Batman type of situation, so she went for the only place in which you could find out everything about everyone: The Clock Tower, or Oracle's place.
Stephanie had replayed all her interactions with Batman of the last week in her head at least a million times, but it was pointless. There were no signs, no warnings, no codes, no clues, no nothing. There wasn't any crazy conspiracy undercover mission going on, something really was wrong, she knew that, but if there was one person who could help her that was Barbara Gordon.
Stephanie started to run faster in a useless hope that the adrenaline would make her not feel so cold from the rain she was caught in when coming here. As expected, it did not help, but the anxiety she was feeling did seem to be pleased by the increasing hurry.
As she spotted the Oracle’s empty working spot, Robin instinctively slowed down, stopping to examine the cheap wood desk carefully. All of Barbara’s huge computer screens were turned on, maps of the city, hacking programs Stephanie didn’t understand in between other things. On top of the table rested multiple open case files, some messy and with pages all around, others slightly more organized, probably documenting less important criminals she didn't have to check upon so often. There were also tracking devices, microphones that gave access to commlines, empty Starbucks’ cups and unfinished meals that seemed to have been sitting there for hours.
Stephanie felt bad for Barbara. Back when she was still Spoiler she constantly deemed Oracle's job as “the easiest one”, she knew she would have never even thought that if she had frequented her “office” since the beginning. Thankfully she never said it to the woman's face, or Robin would have probably embarrassingly crawled to the clock tower to apologize instead of majestically jumping in through the window whenever she needed something.
Steph looked around one last time, when she didn't see any signs of the Oracle she snatched one of the extra trackers from the table and turned it on, if not Barbara then maybe this could help her. The small screen lit up, showing a dark green map of Gotham City. On the left side of the screen each of the Bats' symbols were placed inside of small circles organized in a vertical line. The girl clicked on Batman’s symbol, which seemingly triggered an error in the device, making a loud high pitched noise that caught Stephanie off guard, letting the tracker fall to the ground with a "crack" sound.
The Oracle sighed as she heard noises coming out of what has been her living room for the past days. She wheels her way out of the small kitchen with a ham sandwich in hand, not that surprised to see that the cause of the disturbance is the third, maybe fourth, Robin (at this point it basically depends on who is counting).
"Oh! Hey, Babs! I didn't think you were here", Stephanie said as she spotted Barbara judginly staring at her. She is pretty sure she hears the other woman mumbling something along the lines of 'Where else would I even be?', but doesn't mention anything about it, afraid she might make the obvious bad mood even worse.
“What do you want now, Stephanie?", Oracle says tiredly. Even though Steph doesn't see any eyebags she is sure that Barbara hasn't slept properly in days. There are traces of already old makeup failing to completely cover her exhaustion, her voice sounds so hoarse and tired that you could feel the sharp pain on her dry throat just from listening to it, her shoulder-length hair was somewhat tied up in what seemed like what was supposed to be a bun, but at this point it looked more like a ginger bird nest.
“So sorry to interrupt your Oracle-ing, but… '', Steph says in an attempt at a more light hearted tone, that Barbara clearly disapproves, making Robin immediately force herself back into 'work mode'. "Uhm, sorry. It’s just that I went to the bat-cave to meet up with Batman for tonight's patrol and he wasn’t there… I don’t know what's the protocol in this kind of situation, so I came here to see if you could help me".
A tired, heavy, sigh, that’s a sound that Barbara makes all the time and still proves itself useful to make literally everyone else around Oracle tired too, which is basically unbearable when you are a fourteen year old vigilante who already barely gets to sleep.
Stephanie understands that Barbara is tired. Stephanie understands that in Oracle language, Robin has a problem might as well mean "More shit for me to deal with", but understanding doesn't mean that she appreciates it.
Barbara stared at Steph for a couple seconds with a piercing glare that she couldn't really interpret before moving back to sit in front of her computers with a distant look on her face.
“If the only reason you have to be here is Batman then you can leave, because I’m already working on it", okay, it's common knowledge that Barbara was obnoxiously territorial when the subject was choosing and solving cases, but this was a bit too much. Stephanie was Batman's sidekick, his Robin. That was one of those things Barbara couldn't just not bother to explain to her.
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘working on it’? Where is Bruce?!”, the aggressive tone came out with not much thought put into it. It might not have been the best reaction, but if there was something that pissed Robin off that was being treated like she was 'too young' and 'wouldn't understand' the important matters.
“This is a little more complex than ‘where is Bruce’, Stephanie", Barbara said, pretending to not be mildly startled by Stephanie's quick mood change. The reaction, even if small, gave Robin a childish feeling of satisfaction, but that was not time to drop the anger. Not yet.
“C’mon, man! Just answer me already!”, Robin hoped that in this second attempt the desperation in her voice sounded less obnoxious than it probably did in the first time.
“I- Ugh, okay, fine!", she blurted out, appearing quite pissed and, in a way, this anger was way more comfortable than Barbara's cold approach. "Just don’t do that thing where you only pretend you're listening because I won’t explain it again", Stephanie was indeed guilty of ignoring Barbara. Constantly. But it was not her fault if all of their conversations were either emotionless rants about everything that was happening at their night shift or boring lectures she didn't want to listen to.
As always Steph only nodded but being this a matter of Batman's — Bruce's — safety, for once she actually paid attention, "You might have seen it on the news, but a couple hours before your patrol was supposed to start citizens appeared walking around affected by Scarecrow’s toxin and Bruce went out to look for Crane".
Steph hadn't seen the news, she was inside of the cave too busy getting excited and worried while waiting for patrol to start, but she still nodded as if she had, "And then?".
"Batman went to some of Scarecrow's past hideouts so he could find some clue of how that had happened or residue of fear toxin so he could make more antidote shots and fix the problem as soon as possible, but during his way to start searching his comm line was cut and his tracking device was turned off, or maybe even worse; it could be destroyed! And now, Stephanie, I have no fucking idea of where he is!", Barbara rambled all of her sentences fast and loud, making it hard to distinguish what she was saying, but Robin couldn't help but notice the mocking tone at her civilian name.
Normally, Stephanie would be pissed at Barbara for being rude like that, it wasn’t new, but she recognized the fear and anger that her friend (that is if they even could call each other that word) must have been feeling, not because at this crucial and dangerous moment where Batman was not there to guide them she had suddenly felt a wave of understanding and bond towards each other that fixed their issues, but because she felt it too.
'We are both scared', Steph figured, and the thought that she wasn't the only one who was frightened for not knowing where Bruce is was comforting in an odd and somewhat selfish way, but the slight comfort did not make not having Batman around any easier to swallow. It made Stephanie's stomach hurt and twist inside of her belly, but she just knew she had to do it anyway, because she is Robin, and Robin cannot be afraid at times like this, they need to be brave. Or at least to act as if they were.
“Okay, then… How can I help?”, she asked, hopefully sounding more confident than she actually was.
“Look… Ugh, Stephanie, don't get me wrong, but it’s better if you don’t interfere. You're just a kid and in situations like this just one person working is more useful than kids dressed up as birds", Barbara looks up, taking her eyes off the computer screen to see the Robin's facial expressions. As she guessed, she is not happy. "Look, you're young and smart and… ", her voice cracks, but it happens so slightly it might as well have kept going normally, "I know you're just trying to be useful, but… sometimes it's better if you just don't".
Before it was just anger, but as Barbara speaks and goes on to go back to the computer as if she didn't even matter, what Stephanie is feeling reaches a level of straight up indignation.
“What the hell was that supposed to mean?!", she asked with an increasingly louder voice.
Barbara pinched her nose bridge, knowing what would happen next.
"Oh for fuck's sake… ", she mumbled quietly.
"What is this about?! Bruce is Batman. My mentor! My partner! I can and will help find him!", she screamed. "I was trained, you know? I don't care if you don't like me, but I am more than capable of– ", Robin tried to continue but was cut off by Barbara.
“Stephanie, don't do that. I’ll find Bruce in a minute, just let me handle this on my own, alright?", the Oracle said in between her gritted teeth, exposing a horribly failed attempt at sounding calm.
“No! I am Robin, and I am not gonna sit here waiting while you tell me about how it's better if I 'don't get involved' in something that is literally my job!", the girl screamed.
Stephanie was right. She knew she was right because that’s what Jason would have done and he was the best Robin, but then why did saying it out loud still felt so wrong?
“You're right", Barbara said, actually finding some calm in her voice this time. Ironically, this tone was the thing to actually make Stephanie flinch "you are not gonna sit here with me throwing your little tantrums because you are going home".
'Tantrum?', Who the fuck was Barbara Gordon to tell her what she could and couldn't do?! She wasn't her mother, she wasn't Batman, and even if she was, what the fuck is this?! It's unfair, that's what it is! Stephanie felt her face redden, if what Oracle wanted was a tantrum than she was going to fucking get it. God, she was about to start screaming again.
“You canno- !”.
“Stephanie, don’t even start. I know what you're gonna say and I’m not in the mood to deal with you tonight. Jus- Just go, okay? Please? It'll be better like that”, Better? Yeah, right. Because without Steph everything was always better for Barbara, wasn't it?
"No! You can't do this, alright?! You're not the boss of me! A- and I'm not even asking for much! No, I just wanna do my job! Y'know, the thing I am here for?!", Stephanie pointed at the yellow 'R' in her uniform "See? You might not like it but I am Robin, and Robin always saves Batman!".
"I thought I told you to not start talking", was the only answer she got.
"B-but– ".
"No buts. Go home, Stephanie. Now".
Robin stopped for a couple seconds before sighing, Barbara clearly knew that was the sound of her victory “Fine then… I’ll go home".
Barbara looked over at Stephanie. She smiled, "Good".
"Can you at least call me if you find him?“ She waited, but didn’t get an answer. That was alright, at this point she wasn’t genuinely expecting to receive one.
Steph bent down and picked up the now cracked tracker from the floor she let fall down earlier. She packed it on her utility belt and gave Barbara a last look. Obviously, the Oracle was staring at a screen while typing intensely, no thought behind her eyes besides "work".
Sometimes, Robin feels like she understands quite a lot about Barbara. Well, a lot considering that they don't exactly bond with each other.
Of course she is no Cass Cain, but Stephanie had always considered herself to be quite perceptive, knowing what to do to please certain types of people. Based on how they act she would guess what they might want that she could possibly give them. It was one of those things she had to learn early or she wouldn't survive childhood, being that because of her father's unpredictable mood, her mother's emotional instability, Crime Alley's general danger and violence or the crooks that always hang around her house to make business with Cluemaster.
It's at least interesting to apply the ability of knowing what people want to someone that she spends so much time with and yet shares little to nothing about her personal life with. Barbara is distant, and yet Robin feels like the only person who understands Oracle.
Maybe, if it was on Robin, she and Barbara would be way closer, but differently from Dick, Bruce and Alfred she didn't even try to pretend to like Stephanie.
Stephanie couldn't blame Barbara for not liking her, but she could be mad about it, couldn't she? Sure, she was annoying sometimes, but she hadn't done anything actually wrong to deserve to be mistreated. Except, maybe, being Robin. Which wasn't even wrong, after all, it's not like she got the last one fired. It's not like she forced him out of their lives. It's not like she had killed him. If anyone was to blame, then that was the Joker, not Stephanie.
It was unfair, stupid even, to be mad at someone for something that wasn't her fault. Even stupider to not approve of her being Robin because of that.
Stephanie wasn't dumb. She knew that the Oracle was grieving, and some patience was needed in this sort of situation, but the only actual reason that she wasn't completely welcome in the Clock Tower, maybe even in the team, was because she wasn't Jason Todd, and that was unfair, because no matter what, she could never be him.
Jason was a forbidden subject between the Bats. Bruce refused to talk about him and got aggressive whenever he was brought up; Dick also wasn't a big fan of talking about the last Robin, but at least (when in a good mood) he would manage to tell nice stories about his brother; Alfred missed his boy more than anything, he didn't talk about it but also never pretended he didn't feel that way; and Barbara… Well, Stephanie would rather not ask about him near her, because it might not seem like it, but she wasn't stupid.
Oracle probably missed her brother, or friend, or whatever the hell they were to each other, and just saw this new Robin as an annoying replacement. It's not like the others didn't feel that way too, they just hid it better than her.
Robin — the new one — sighed. She walked away from the room, going towards the massive windows of the Clock Tower. Even though she knew Barbara wouldn't look back at her, she double checked to make sure that she wasn't paying attention. It was an act of paranoia, it's not like Barbara could figure what Stephanie had in mind just by looking at her, but she couldn't help but feel a bit insecure while planning her next moves, because it was impossible that she would just go home and not help Batman like she was told to.
This is not what a hero would do, and even more important, this is not what Stephanie Brown would do. But she also had limitations. Like, for example, the tracking device on her uniform, but that was nothing that couldn't be fixed. She just needed time, which she didn't exactly have a lot of. To be honest, she was in a rush. Bruce was missing, most likely in danger. Most likely affected by fear toxin and experiencing the worst moment of his life. Most likely at the mercy of Jonathan Crane, the fucking Scarecrow.
Stephanie sighed. She couldn't panic. Not now.
First things first, she needed to go home. Barbara would definitely check her location, so before getting rid of that knock-off child tracker she had to go to the Browns' residency. Going home. That was easy enough of a task. The hard part was figuring out what to do then.
The Girl Wonder opened the window and reached for her grappling gun. She looked for something outside that would support her weight. As she spotted a strong piece of metal in a balcony on the twentieth floor of a building near the tower she pushed the trigger. The claw hit its target. Robin pulled the rope slightly to make sure it wouldn’t give in.
Everything checked, she could jump safely.
Stephanie walked around three feet back. 'Deep breath in, deep breath out'. She ran, jumping through the open window with velocity enough to swing for hours even without any extra movement.
Controlling the way you're going with a grappling gun is essentially just throwing your body in the right direction and firing the claw. The catch is that you have to think fast, you can't have much in your mind besides the movement or you're going to break some bones. If you don't die, that is.
Throwing your body weight, firing the claw. Throwing your body weight, firing the claw. Throwing your body weight, firing the claw. Stephanie repeated inside her own head.
Grappling gun-ing wasn't the most sophisticated method of locomotion, but it is pretty practical when you need to be discreet, and tonight she doesn't want the wrong people to know that there is a Robin flying in Gotham all by herself, so she uses it. Just as Batman had taught her.
These quiet nights swinging by the city made her remember about being Spoiler, running by Gotham's rooftops in a homemade purple suit, no fancy smoke bombs or cool grapple guns, only some pocket knives, a switchblade, good old rope and occasionally stumbling with Batman and Robin. It wasn't exactly nice and not easy in the slightest, but now it did have some bittersweet sense of nostalgia attached to the memories. Back then she admired other heroes in Gotham who could go around swinging in between buildings, so much so that doing it herself nowadays felt unreal. That's why she hung onto every moment, enjoyed every moment, because sometimes she was sure that this was just a dream and she could wake up at any moment.
Being Robin was the dream, Stephanie thought it would never happen to someone like her, and now that she had done it and was, well, still her, it still seemed impossible, an untouchable title that she got out of pure luck. She needed to honor Robin, like Dick Grayson did, like Lance Bruner tried to do, like Jason Todd did until his last breath.
Stephanie had always admired the superheroes she watched on TV, of course her favorite was Superman, not Batman or Robin, but she was still a gothamite, so they were the closest thing she had at the time. Superman might have made her dream, but Robin, being that the small dark haired kid, the blondie with an attitude or the freckled brown haired boy, made her believe. Seeing those little kids in tights fighting for her city's safety was inspiring, it's what made Spoiler come to life even if the odds were all against her.
But of course super hero-ing wasn't all glamor. For her first year as Spoiler, Stephanie didn't even see Batman or a lot of villains. At the time she was just some, surprisingly sneaky, scrawny eleven year old with too much confidence. But as time went by she improved her techniques, started going out more frequently and built enough of a reputation to be noticed by the bats and birds of Gotham.
During their first interactions the Dynamic Duo was usually nice to her, but of course Bruce had always been kind of dismissive, he was too worried but had no emotional capability of being nice about it. It didn't need a child's death to make him cold, he was just… himself. She thought he hated her, but that wasn't the case. He thought that if he acted broody enough he could make the Spoiler back off and save herself from ruining her own life. At the time she thought he was just an asshole. Sometimes she still did. Sometimes he really was. But he was also worried, and even if he wasn't, she could never hate Batman.
Back then, Steph and Robin weren't anywhere near friends, but the similar age and energy made them a good team, so working together was never a problem. He always gave her the best tips and pun ideas, what more could she ask for in a partner to fight crime? Now looking back it all seemed way too obvious, but Stephanie couldn't have known it back then. The thing is, the second (or should she say the third?) Robin had been her neighbor for five years.
Jason was one or two years older than her, not much of a difference, especially when you grow up in Gotham's poverty. They used to play together with some other kids, but after learning that he had died he became the only face she remembered between all the other scrawny kids from her neighborhood. She could still see him in her mind; the wide smile, the dark brown curls, the naturally tan skin, the yellow teeth, everything.
Growing up in Crime Alley had made Stephanie used to it, to the violence, the danger and the unfairness of the world. It was normal going out to play soccer and have a friend missing one day just to never come back, but Jason was different, because one day a big black car with a big fancy man arrived, packed Jason's things up and took him with them. And even when Stephanie was only eleven she just knew that differently from her and the rest of their friends, he was going to be safe. And if Bruce was an actual normal fancy man, maybe he would have been, but no billionaire saved Jason from the Joker, just as no one was going to save Stephanie, so she would have to be smart enough to do that herself.
Stephanie landed on the ground as she arrived at a tall building near her house. She wandered around for a bit, looking for some extra clothes that she usually sneaked up at strategically placed rooftops to change quickly. There was a dirty purple backpack laying there, it looked like it had seen better days, just as the clothes did, but they were all she had at the time and they better serve their purpose before getting completely moldy.
Robin changed as fast as she could, putting the Robin suit inside the backpack and using the grappling gun one last time to get down from the building and straight to her front door. A door that to her looked like hell’s gates. It always did, probably because she never wanted to be there, but tonight there wasn't much of a choice when Barbara Gordon can track you down with just a couple clicks on her computer.
Steph stuffed the gun inside of her smelly backpack and took her keys, she tried to unlock the door before realizing it was already open, she had to remind Crystal to lock them the next time.
"Hey Ma. You's there?" Stephanie whispered as she walked inside.
The living room was a complete mess. The TV was on, making stupid noises of a show Crystal liked. There were empty bottles on the ground, circling the couch where Stephanie's mom layed down, a dirty and thin blanket poorly covering her body.
"Ma, you drinking with meds again? I told ya to stop with that… S'not healthy", Steph said in a louder voice.
"Uhn… ?", was all the answer she got from her lifeless-looking mother on the couch, although that groan sounded more like a question than an answer.
"It's me, Steph", she said, dropping out of the angry tone. They were both too tired for a lecture about alcohol. "Rough night, huh? Me too. You doin' okay?".
"Uh huh… " oh, so she was not that stoned.
"I'm goin' to bed now, s’that 'kay with you?".
"Yeah… Sure Stephie, you gon' sleep in your room up there and Imma be right here if ya need me for anything, Sweetie… ", she answered with a hoarse voice.
"You should sleep too, ya know? On a bed and everything".
"Yeah?" Stephanie held back a weak chuckle. Crystal was definitely funnier when she was half unconscious.
"Yeah… Yeah, you shoulda already be in you's room, dontcha think?", she said while taking away the blanket that covered her mother, Crystal shivered as she felt the cold run through her body, it made Stephanie feel immediately guilty. "Think you can walk?".
"No, no, no, no… Give me tha shit back, Stephanie… !", Steph sighed.
"Here", Stephanie said as she put her mother's arm over her shoulder. "Imma Carry you. S'that better?".
"No… Stephanie! Lemme go back to the damn couch!", she cried, but Stephanie didn't stop trying to get them both to stand up. "Stephanie!", she said, now with literal sobs.
Stephanie groaned, finally getting up. Even with all the adrenaline from hero-ing around, she remembered having a way harder time doing something similar when rescuing people from a fire, but it also wasn't that hard to pick up a half unconscious woman hanging by your shoulders when that woman smoked more than she breathed.
As she walked towards her mother's room, Stephanie realized Crystal was probably the same weight as her, maybe even lighter. That was a bit of a shock, but, honestly, it did make a lot of sense. Her family didn't eat all that well or all that often. Daddy dearest had no job, no one wanted to hire a criminal and half of the time he was rotting in some jail. Crystal was a poorly paid nurse that skipped more work than she attended, and besides, all the money she ever got was spent on drinking and medications. Not really the sort of house where you regularly get food.
Robin herself was malnourished for the biggest chunk of her life, but that had gotten way better after she started hanging out with the richest guy in town and was forced to get into a healthy diet, but her mom didn't have that luck, and for the sake of her own secret identity she couldn't share it with her.
Stephanie opened the door to her mother's room. Not great, but it was clean enough to sleep. She lay Crystal down on the bed, throwing the old smelly blanket on the floor and taking a couple less dirty ones to cover her with.
"Nighty-night, Ma", she whispered into her mother's ear, but Crystal was already asleep.
Steph sighed. She checked her watch, 1 AM already. God she had lost precious minutes with this coming home thing. Crystal better thank her for the rest of her life.
Robin closed the door gingerly trying her hardest to not wake her mom up and rushed to get to her room as fast as possible. Not like those two seconds would change anything, but at least it was something.
Steph closed her door loudly, cursing herself for spending so much time with her mom. She opened her backpack and threw everything inside of it on her bedroom's floor, not caring for how fragile or expensive some of the things inside must be. She stared at the broken tracker she picked up on the Clock Tower.
Ugh, fuck!
It'd be impossible for her to find out how to deactivate a tracking system that was smaller than her nails, and even if she did that would probably take two hours to do so manually without actually destroying the device. The only way to end that thing's ability to track her would be to hack into it's system and trick it into either showing that Stephanie's static location is her home or find a way to make it stop showing her at all and make it seem like a believable system failure, but Robin had no idea of how to do any of those things, besides, Barbara was a fucking hacker, probably the smartest one alive. There was no one who could possibly outsmart her in her own game.
Stephanie sighed. Fuck. She stared at the floor blankly. There was another device for comm lines there. So that’s the backpack where she had left that. The one cool gadget she hadn’t gotten from Batman.
Stephanie stared at the device. It certainly wasn’t the ideal, but at this point could she really be this picky about plans? She didn’t like the answer to that question.
"Ugh, can't believe Imma 'bout to do this… ", Robin said out loud as she picked the small device up. She stuffed it inside of her ear and clicked on the thing’s side button. She could hear the ringing sound for a couple seconds before her call was picked up.
"Hey, Jackson. I really need your help".
There was no one who could possibly outsmart Barbara in her own game, but Tim Jackson Drake certainly could win Stephanie some time.