Stephanie Brown

On the southeast edge of the island, there's a little cove set off from the rest of the beach that gives swimmers all the privacy you could want. No doubt other people have found it through the years, but today it's all theirs.

The day is gloriously hot, and Steph's plans to lay out with a book are promptly abandoned. She's scaling an outcropping of rocks in a little purple polka-dot bikini, so much tanner and blonder than she could ever get in Gotham. Shading her eyes against the sun, she looks over at Cass. "Coming in?"

She's on the job but not actually on the job, because it takes work to pull off an thirty-million dollar heist. Surveillance can be booooooooring sometimes but that doesn't mean it's not important, and being the sidekick means getting stuck with the crap jobs. Plus, practice makes perfect and Steph intends to be perfect.

But hour three into the stake-out of the warehouse where Pizulli's goons are holding the platinum and Stray's getting bored. The guard pattern was easy enough to learn and the fancy binoculars means she's got a good look at what the security measures inside look like. Now it's just a waiting game to see if anything changes and finding ways to amuse herself.

"Oh, Perry, you know I love you but I also love football," Guard A says to Guard B, or so Steph says in a deep voice as she watches them from a rooftop two blocks away. "My greatest dream has been to be a professional mascot and you can't stand in my way."

It's going to be a long night.

Nothing is so sweet as the days after school ends, never mind that school's optional or that Steph actually likes her classes nowadays. Vacation is still vacation, and it's awesome. She's determined to enjoy it. It doesn't matter if she's seeing Black Mask more and more every day or that Halloween's getting closer. Scared and maybe a little crazy isn't all she is, and Steph refuses to let the spectre of him ruin the good things.

But all that grit and stubbornness doesn't seem to persuade her unconscious mind, so nightmares. She's basically been elected mayor of Nightmare City the past few weeks, no matter how much meditation or clearing of the mind she does before bed. It sucks, but she's coping. Most nights she even manages to fall back asleep. But those early mornings when the sun's already started to come up by the time she sits up with a gasp Steph just throws in the towel and rolls out of bed.

Today's one of those days, and it was a bad one: Black Mask with his knives but this time she was strapped down to a hospital bed and the doctors were just standing there watching, like they knew she was bad, like she deserved it. But she's here and alive, screw you dream doctors, and she's totally earned to start the day with comfort carbs.

It's still relatively early when Steph comes back to her room, where Cass spends most nights now, with a big plate of waffles in hand. "Wakey wakey, my little black bat. I've come bearing delicious goodness," she says and sits on the edge of the bed, then spears a waffle and waves it tantalizingly in front of Cass's sleeping face. It might possibly be a little obnoxious.