in his private base. This action, however, only infuriates Tim more. Kicking her in the chest after she sneaks up on him, he reiterates that he cannot trust her and orders her not to follow him on his mission, leading her to return to Gotham. Batgirl Stephanie Brown graduates from high school off-panel, is a student at Gotham University, and is still living with her mother. Cassandra Cain has apparently become disillusioned following Bruce Wayne's apparent death and gives Stephanie her Batgirl costume. After operating as the new Batgirl in Cain's costume, Stephanie is confronted by Barbara Gordon who was notified of her activities by Dick Grayson. Barbara tried to reason with Stephanie to get her to stop being a vigilante, as she still saw Stephanie as an impetuous youth, remembering her role in causing a citywide gang war and her near-death experience at Black Mask's hands. However, a new type of recreational drug is hitting the streets of Gotham known as "Thrill", which they discover was manufactured by the Scarecrow and the second Black Mask, and the two women need each other to stop the drug trade. Stephanie eventually confronts and defeats the Scarecrow, impressing Barbara and proving that she now has the maturity and the responsibility to face her fears and failures. Barbara decides to allow Stephanie to continue on as Batgirl. Barbara later takes a job as an assistant professor at Stephanie's school to continue to keep in contact with her. Barbara also designs a costume for Stephanie to replace Cassandra's tattered costume, incorporating various elements of both the Spoiler and previous Batgirl costumes. As Stephanie is taking steps to balance her double-life as a college student and a vigilante, Barbara makes a test run on Stephanie's Batsuit, which includes monitoring Stephanie's vital signs and allowing both women to communicate through wireless links. After some warm-up against minor criminals, Stephanie finds herself against Livewire who causes a blackout in the city while draining its power. Fortunately, Stephanie's costume is insulated, and she is able to overpower the villainess. Stephanie also develops an attraction to Gotham PD's newest young recruit who just transferred from Coast City PD, Detective Nicholas "St. Nick" Gage, who is also attracted to her as Batgirl. However, this budding romance is complicated by Commissioner Gordon, who is trying to set the young detective up on a blind date with Barbara. The Commissioner finds their