PLOT:
Using advanced satellite tracking, Barbara is able to track Steve's getaway van to it's destination of an old
abandoned hospital. Like it or not she's got her field agent Stephanie Brown on their tails. But Barbara Gordon is
about to witness something - a triumph of will so great that it will change her opinion of Stephanie forever.
Batgirl infiltrates the hospital and makes her way to Scarecrow's laboratory lair. Steve is already dead. He'd been
dosed with fear gas and forced to fight another gang member to the death with a scalpel. And despite
inoculating
herself with an anti-Fear Toxin she found in Cass's old belt, when an entire
beaker of fear juice is shattered onto
the floor, the inoculation begins to loose its foothold and Steph's mind succumbs to it's darkest thoughts.
She battles not just the Scarecrow but her own visions of every failure in her life. Tim, her mother, even
herself! And all the while Scarecrow continues to swipe at her. And in a moment
eerily similar to her final battle
with the Black Mask during War Games, Stephanie stands frightened of the future, her costume torn to tatters. Her
face mask is torn down the middle. She stands there, part Stephanie Brown, part Batgirl. But which one is she
really? Which choice does she make now? Fight? Or Flight?
And at that very moment Stephanie Brown once again chooses to fight. She is Batgirl. And she isn't about to
be beaten by the likes of Scarecrow! Summoning the last of her strength she defeats Dr. Crane and leaves him laying
out for her new friend on the force - Saint Nick Gage.
Observing this from her base in the Batcave, Barbara Gordon is legitimately impressed by Steph. Perhaps, she thinks,
being a mentor isn't such a bad thing. And not just to Stephanie Brown - but to a headstrong young girl by the name
of Wendy Harris who is learning to deal with a new life stuck in a wheel chair down at the Thompkins Clinic.
That next morning, Steph gets up early and fixes waffles for her mother. They're a little burnt. They're far from
perfect. But they're hers. And that's all that matters. When she arrives at school she finds that she has a
brand new assistant professor in her COMP480 class - Ms. Barbara Gordon!
A ceremony is held that evening down in the cave. It's a ceremony much like one that was held years earlier down in
the Bat-Cave. There, by candlelight, Stephanie is pledged in as Batgirl with Babs as her mentor. And before the wax
can even dry on the cave floor, Stephanie Brown is back on the streets of Gotham, decked out in a brand new Batgirl
costume and ready to take on evil wherever it lurks!
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