Stephanie Brown is a danger to society

They were not clues. They had found three already before tonight's, anonymous tips detailing Cluemaster's motions and plans. Whoever was leaving them must be getting close to him and therefore in grave danger if Cluemaster finds out about them. 

"Have You found her yet?" he asked Oracle over the com as he carefully folded the latest not and tucked it into his utility belt.

Usually Batman wouldn't be too concerned, he hadn't been... up until they had found video of when the last note dropped. The spy was a teen aged girl. Or at least someone who had the appearance of a teenage girl, it was difficult to tell over the grainy black and white security footage, Batman thought to himself, can't be too careful. Still he was sure that if there was even a chance of her being a teen they would have to approach her. It would not be safe for her to continue this path, especially alone. 

His intention was to get her to stop doing any sort of vigilante work entirely, his experience with his previous children told him that it was extremely unlikely to be going to work but he felt he had to try it first. If that failed he would try to make her an informant; Make sure she was gathering information on Cluemaster safely and give her a way to contact them, both with the intel and for emergencies. If she still insisted on going out on the streets (which he thought would be the most likely case) then he would do everything in his power to make sure she did it as safely as possible. 

"Not quite" Oracle responded "but i have located Cluemaster. I suspect our girl wont be too far away."

Batman nodded and started grappling towards the coordinates Oracle had sent him.

~

Batman sat, hunched on a roof of a warehouse looking carefully in through a skylight. Cluemaster had certainly set up shop. Tables were placed in an array across nearly half the warehouse floor, covered in a verity of equipment, parts, tools, and materials. Cluemaster himself sat at one of the tables tinkering with some of the tech pieces. The girl was nowhere to be found.

"Hiya!!!" a loud voice from behind him called out somehow quiet enough that the minor supervillain below did not hear. Bruce had to catch himself to avoid falling. "I thought I'd come help!" said the small, purple clad figure standing on the roof edge. Definitely not an adult, Batman thought.

"Go home" he said eloquently.

"Why" She asked. She sounded legitimately curious not like it was a challenge or being sarcastic, just inquisitive. I hindsight he probably should have found that concerning.

"Do your parents know you're here?" He asked, hoping that she had parents. He couldn't see most of her face but he could almost hear her thoughtful frown.

"Probably not. Mom's usually asleep or at work at this time, I guess I could let my Dad know I'm here, if your cool with that, of course." Later he would realize that he should have been concerned that she had asked his permission.

"yes, do that, then go home and don't let me catch you out here again."

"OK!" Too cheerful, his suspicions finally caught on but it was immediately distracted by her pulling a piece of fabric out from under her cape attached at the shoulders. She pulled it out horizontally behind her catching her cape in the middle. She then continued folding it up around and over the cape to he shoulders. The unidentified material became a hoodie sweatshirt, he noticed as she zipped it up in front and pulled the mask off her face and into her pocket.

"OK, that was pretty Cool." Nightwing's voice said in his ear. Batman hadn't known he was online but Oracle must be sending him footage. He would run a face recognition on it later to make sure the girl made it home safe. For now he turned his attention back to the Cluemaster down below and for the second time that night nearly fell through the window in surprise. The girl was walking right up to Cluemaster!

"Patching in audio" Oracle said as his com connected to the floor below.

"Hi Dad!" She said to Cluemaster's back as Batman's eyes grew wide. "Mom said the TV's broken again and I think she want's you to fix it. I frankly don't see what's wrong with watching everything is black and white but mom seems to have a problem with it. I'll have to figure out how to intentionally turn the colors off because I actually think it's really cool." Cluemaster had hunched over his work, doing his best to ignore and not looking at her. Batman's ears were ringing as Oracle and Nightwing made commented over the line. The girl, (Stephanie, he remembered reading the name in the file about Cluemaster's family) went on.

"I found the cutest little waffle maker at a thrift store the other day. It works so great on the pancake mix mom likes, wasn't as great with the muffin mix. I tried it with some brownie mix an it actually worked pretty well but the mix was a little too sweet for my taste. The cinnamon rolls were OK but I'm not gonna lie, i was expecting better. I tried making an omelet in it and it tasted absolutely divine but made a real big mess. I cleaned it up though so don't worry. Hey do you think I could make fish sticks in there?"

"Were's your mom at?" Cluemaster demanded gruffly, still not looking in her direction.

"She's probably asleep."

"Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"It's 8:45, my bedtimes at 11."

"hrmph" Cluemaster grunted and continued hunching over the table, shoulders pinched up to his ears. Stephanie had already continued talking.

"We've almost finished set building I thought I would be put on painting but no.... somehow I got put in charge of the design for Cinderella's dress. Specifically figuring out how to do the magical transformation quick change. Why was I put in charge, I'd like to know? I'm really not that great at sewing I have no idea how the director even found out that I knew how to sew at all, and the transformation scene is no easy feat, let me tell you. You basically have to fit a ballgown under a work dress. I've been watching a lot of videos of quick change artists and Cinderella productions to figure this out."

"well that explains the cape thing." Dick's voice cut through Bruce's disbelief and pulled him back into the realm of cognitive thinking. Stephanie was still explaining different quick change dress designs to her dad. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling so much more tired then he had 20 minuets ago.

"Not gonna lie," Oracle said, mirroring something Stephanie had said a moment ago. "I'm impressed."

Bruce sighed, "We may need to make a new plan about how to manage this situation with this new information going forward."

"We may need to get more waffle makers." Nightwing replied. "We're keeping her, right?"
Below them Stephanie had finally moved on to a different topic.

"That director is insane, no idea how she finds stuff out. I just know what will happen if the director finds out that I know how to juggle, I'm actually really good at it and its really soothing to me. Watch this!"

She grabbed three fist sized objects, one of which was glowing, off of the tables and started tossing them into the air. She was really good at juggling, Batman noticed. Cluemaster had yet to turn around. If he hadn't been hunching more and more with every word Bruce would wonder if he even heard her.

"I can't do four yet but a can walk around and talk without dropping any." she said without stopping. "Hey I wonder if I can jump up and down while juggling."

She tried. One jump later all three balls hit the floor, on shattered into thousands of tiny shards, one rolled into an open vent in the floor far out of easy reach and the one that had been glowing flickered and went dark. At this Cluemaster finally turned around, frustration evident on his face.

"Oh" Stephanie said, meekly, "Oops".

Cluemaster growled "Get Out", he said, pointing towards the direction she had come from.

"OK!" Stephanie said cheerfully, walking towards the door "See you tomorrow, Dad!"

Cluemaster grunted. He stared at the remains of the two still visible juggling balls a few seconds, breathing deeply, before popping an aspirin and going back to work on his tinkering.
Batman had never sympathized with a villain more in his life. Dick and Barbra were sounding far too amused buy all this over the coms.

"Now What?" Stephanie, back in her cape and mask, and having just appeared behind him asked suddenly.

Batman almost fell through the window again.