A few days later, Hikaru was thrown from his sleep, as an alarm shrieked through Titans Tower at 11:47 PM—sharp, insistent, and screaming that something was wrong.
Hikaru was off his bed before conscious thought caught up with him, wings already manifesting as he threw on his costume. The security system's wail meant someone had breached the perimeter, which should've been impossible. The Tower's defenses were Cyborg's pride and joy, layered with redundancies that could detect a seagull landing wrong.
He yanked open his door just as Starfire emerged from hers, eyes already glowing green in alert. Down the hall, other doors burst open—Robin already in full costume, Cyborg's cannon already charging, Raven floating in her cloak with Donna right behind her pulling on her bracers.
"Common room," Robin snapped, already moving. "Now."
They hit the stairs in a controlled sprint, but Hikaru's enhanced hearing caught it first—the distinctive whine of energy weapons charging, multiple sources. The acrid smell of ozone and burning circuitry.
Then the wall exploded.
Concrete and rebar erupted inward as a massive fist punched through the Tower's reinforced structure like tissue paper. Mammoth came through the hole riding the momentum, his grotesque bulk seeming even larger in the confined space of the stairwell. Behind him, the distinctive pink glow of hex energy lit up the night.
"Titans! GO!" Robin's voice cut through the chaos as he vaulted over the railing, explosive discs already flying.
Hikaru didn't hesitate. He transformed mid-leap, his body shifting to pure photons as he shot through the destroyed wall like a laser beam. The bay stretched out before him, and his blood went cold.
At least twenty humanoid figures stood on the rocks below the Tower—dressed in black and sleek metal armor, each one armed with energy rifles. He recongized them instantly, Deathstroke's Robot Commandos. And leading them up the service entrance, Hikaru spotted the unmistakable figures of Gizmo, Shimmer, and See-More.
The Fearsome Five had come for their rematch.
A hex bolt screamed past his ear—Jinx, perched on a outcropping with that same infuriating smirk. "Miss me, angel boy?"
Hikaru reformed just long enough to bank hard right, wings catching air as pink energy cratered the rock where he'd been. "You know, there's easier ways to get my attention!"
"Where's the fun in that?" Jinx fired again, her hex bolts arcing through the air in patterns that made his senses scream. She'd gotten better, more precise with her aim.
He twisted through a corkscrew, light constructs forming shield plates that absorbed two bolts before shattering. The third clipped his wing and luck turned against him—a sudden gust caught him wrong, sending him into an uncontrolled spin toward the water.
Hikaru shifted to light form just before impact, reforming on the Tower's exterior wall in a crouch. Below, the Robot Commandos had reached the lower levels. He could hear the distinctive sound of Cyborg's sonic cannon, Starfire's battle cry, and the crash of Donna putting her fist through metal.
"Aw, running away already?" Jinx vaulted from her perch, landing in a perfect three-point stance that sent pink energy rippling across the rock. "How disappointing me."
"Trust me," Hikaru grinned, white light coalescing into twin swords in his hands, "I never disappoint."
She attacked.
Her acrobatics even more refined than their first encounter. Hex bolts flew from her fingertips in staccato bursts, each one aimed not at where he was but where he'd be. Hikaru met her charge head-on, swords changing to shields, shattering each time he blocked the hex bolts while closing distance.
Their powers collided in a shower of pink and white sparks. Hikaru swung low, she backflipped over the blade and fired point-blank. He went intangible, her hex bolt passing through him to detonate against the Tower's wall. He reformed behind her with a thrust—she was already spinning away, her leg sweeping through where his knee had been a heartbeat before.
"You've been practicing," she said, breathing harder now. Hikaru lunged forward, constructs shifting to chains that wrapped around her ankle.
Jinx's hex touched the chain and it shattered into bad luck—fragments flying back to slice across Hikaru's cheek.
"Funny, I was thinking the same about you."
Inside the Tower, the battle raged with brutal intensity.
Robin moved through a pack of Robot Commandos like a shadow with teeth, his escrima sticks crackling with electricity as he systematically dismantled their joints and optical sensors. Three went down in seconds, but five more pushed through the breach in the wall.
"Cyborg! Loading bay door!" Robin vaulted over a robot's grapple, planting an explosive disc on its back in passing.
"Little busy!" Cyborg's sonic cannon tore through two Commandos, but Mammoth barreled into him from the side, their combined mass cratering the reinforced floor. They began to grapple, Mammoth's brute strength matched against Cyborg's hydraulic systems.
Starfire filled the common room with green light, her starbolts reducing Commandos to slag and twisted metal. See-More's eye beams lanced toward her—Raven's dark energy portals caught them, redirecting the lasers back at their source. Forcing him dive aside while cursing.
"How'd they get past our defenses?" Donna blocked a plasma rifle with her bracers, the energy dissipating harmlessly before she crushed the weapon and its wielder with equal efficiency.
"Someone gave them the codes," Robin growled, snapping a Commando's neck with a vicious twist. "Gizmo!"
The diminutive genius cackled from his position near the tower's main terminal, fingers flying across a stolen interface device. "Your security's trash, cape-boy! Took me like five minutes to crack!"
Beast Boy charged him as a tiger, but Shimmer's hand touched the floor and it transmuted to ice. He went sliding, crashed into the wall, and reformed human with stars in his eyes.
Kid Flash was a red and yellow blur, dismantling Commandos faster than they could track. But there were so many—every one he destroyed revealed two more climbing through breaches, windows, service hatches. The Tower groaned under the assault, its structural integrity compromised in a dozen places.
Raven's dark energy lashed out, grabbing three Commandos and crushing them into compact cubes of scrap metal. But her eyes flickered between violet and red, her control slipping due to her intense emotions. The chaos and violence not doing her any favors.
"Raven!" Hikaru's voice cut through her wavering focus. "Stay with us!"
She grit her teeth, forcing the demon down. "Trying."