Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, all rights to the owners.

Moving on.

ROBYN

"Heeeey, Robbie, nice to see you again!" Hex jokes as he and the HIVE saunter up to the entrance of the detention center. "It's been too long."

"Not long enough." I reply, thoroughly unamused.

"Crow told you we were coming?"

"Yes." I grimace. I turn sharply and stalk inside. "Come."

I don't miss the way Hex chuckles when he follows. If we didn't need his help, I'd seriously consider slapping him.

I bring them to the reception area where most of the higher-ups are gathered. The police chief raises an eyebrow at seeing the HIVE, but she was told they were coming so she doesn't immediately detain them. "I see we have help."

"Fortunately." I say with as much sarcasm as I can possibly put into the word.

"I don't suppose they've seen Kid Flash?" The chief asks, looking hard at Hex.

"Sorry, no dice." Hex shrugs. "What have you all been doing here?"

"Repairs." I sigh. "All the cells were broken, we couldn't take anyone into custody until they were fixed."

"Ah, got it. Still need help?"

The chief shakes her head. "We're mostly done the essentials. We can handle the rest. You supers should get out there."

"Right." I nod. I quickly round up the other Titans, and we assemble within a minute. We crowd around a large map in the center of the room, which the chief has politely allowed us to use. Using erasable markers on the laminated surface, I mark important locations around the city. The power plant, the city hall, the metahuman detention center (where we are), the main police station, the fire stations, and the hospitals. "These are key areas of interest. Our priority should be to secure these. Whoever controls the infrastructure controls the city. If we can get the power back on, so much the better. If we can shut off the signal jammers, that's great too, but I wouldn't count on it."

"Big operation." Hex mutters. "We splitting?"

"I think that would be most efficient." I nod. "However, since our communicators aren't working, each group will need someone who can alert the others if needed."

"The mages and fliers I assume. Crow, Wykkyd, Angel, Star?"

"Yes." I agree. "I'm thinking we should work with people we are familiar, so with as little intermingling as possible, just for simplicity's sake."

"Fair enough. You Titans only have five members though, right?"

"Yes, me and Star will go by ourselves." A wry smile crosses my face. "Starfire will make up for the missing person."

"You flatter me." The boy in question says with a totally flat expression on his face.

"So the teams are you and Star, and Changeling, Crow, and Cyborg." Hex says. "Then… me, Angel, and Arachne, then Wykkyd, Numerous, and Private Hive… uh…." He stares at Gizmo, Mammoth, and Seemore. "Shit."

"I can fly." Gizmo reminds him dryly. "Jetpack, remember."

"Oh, sure, you three then."

We each take a key objective. Cyborg's group takes city hall, we take the power plant, Hex's group goes for the main police station, Prive Hive's group takes the nearest hospital, and Gizmo's group heads for the nearest fire station. We all have secondary objectives to complete if those locations aren't under attack, but more likely one of us is going to need help so those people that find duds will go to help the other groups.

We're not expecting a repeat attack on the detention center, and we'll be fanning out in a circle anyhow so we should be able to catch anyone notable trying to get through.

CYBORG

I can see a problem early on into our approach. Above the city hall, and only above the city hall, is a rumbling stormcloud. It's almost perfectly circular, and swirls ominously without actually striking lightning (despite the thunder). That's weird, and probably magic. Mumbo maybe?

Either way, we're probably gonna have a fight on our hands. I wonder if we're going to need backup. Depends on who's there. Mumbo would be a tough fight, but I do have Crow with me. A mage for a mage. Hopefully he'll be enough, because I don't fancy taking on a mage myself.

"Looks like we're gonna have a fight." I warn the other two in the car. "Those storm clouds don't look normal."

"Fun." Changeling sneers. She looks antsy, and her fingers are drumming on the windowsill. "I need something to hit."

Well, that's expected. She's probably still frustrated about Chang and needs some stress relief. Crow is fiddling with one of the gems on his belt and only half paying attention.

Rosebots start emerging from the city around us, so there's no way we've gone unnoticed. The T-Car has some built-in weapons left over from it's time as the Tumbler that I haven't changed out yet, so I power those up and take aim.

It's beyond me why Batwoman had gatling guns on this thing, and a rocket launcher, but I'll happily make use of them.

The gatling guns, not the launcher. I don't need a rocket launcher to take out rosebots.

The T-Car is also tough enough that it can just plow through the rosebots too. This thing is honestly closer to a light tank than a car. I really have to wonder what Batwoman needed this thing for, it seems ridiculously overkill for what she usually gets up to.

We aren't dealing with Rosebots forever though. A blinding flash forces me to squint my human eye, and my systems inform me that the T-Car just got blasted with electricity. Combined with the loud rumble that accompanies it, I think the T-Car just got struck with lightning.

"Begone!" A loud voice booms from above us. "We control the city, heroes! Retreat or surrender, lest we be forced to fight you!"

"Indeed!" A second voice, higher pitch than the other, agrees. "Begone, car of blue! Flee!"

"I recognize those voices." I growl as I shove open the door. Changeling and Crow jump out of the car as well, staring up at out attackers. "Thunder, Lightning! I'm disappointed!"

"Ah, Titan of metal!" Lightning says gleefully. "We meet again!"

"Little mage, hello." Thunder actually bows to Crow. "My apologies, but it seems we find ourselves in opposition."

"I know. Sorry in advance." Crow replies. "I'll try not to hurt you too badly."

"You are so certain you will win? You offend us! Offense I say!" Lightning barks. "We have improved mightily! You shall not best gods of nature so effortlessly!"

"Gods of nature?" Changeling sneers. Her claws are already out, and her fangs are extend after she's done talking. "I'm unimpressed."

"Then I shall impress you!" Lightning proclaims. Bolts of lightning appear in her hands and she hovers in the air. "Come then; let us partake in a glorious battle!"

'Glorious' is stretching it a bit. The battle is brutal and short, mostly thanks to Lightning's supreme overconfidence. Lightning can fly, and her bolts have quite a bit of range, but she hovers close to the ground while fighting so that she can taunt and brag and posture. That proves to be a devastating mistake very quickly, as Changeling takes the first opportunity she can to leap at her and grapple Lightning to the ground.

Lightning may have great speed and lightning powers, but Changeling has far more strength than her. Even when Lightning outright electrocutes Changeling, the green girl just grins and brutally bends Lightning's wrists backwards until she surrenders from the pain of it.

Thunder is a lot more practical. She keeps a fair distance between us and herself, and sends shockwaves through the air or through the ground to keep us from easily approaching. Her flight allows her to dodge my projectiles relatively easily, so it's mostly up to Crow to deal with her.

Crow's projectiles aren't necessarily faster or better than mine, in fact it's probably the opposite, but he has a cheat card; and by that I mean he has flexible magic.

"Azarath, Metrion, Fulgar, Zinthos!" Crow cries out. He raises a hand high to the sky, then slams it down to the floor. The clouds above us flicker once, then a bolt of lightning slams down from the sky and strikes Thunder from above.

The comedy of striking Thunder with lightning is not lost on me. It also ends the fight very quickly. I follow up the lightning strike with a blast from my cannon, and Crow quickly restrains both of the so-called 'gods of nature' with black bindings and spends some power on a short-range teleport to send them back to the detention center.

"The bindings will last ten minutes." Crow mumbles. "Should be plenty of time."

We all pile back into the car, but I don't feel calmer. I have a vague feeling that there's going to more opposition awaiting us, because I doubt Thunder and Lightning were entrusted to guard the city Hall on their own.

Origami Stars: Plot!

ocean melodies: There's too much to respond to all at once, so I'll keep it short. Changeling is fun, this story hasn't gotten popular because it's a niche AU type to begin with and the first dozen chapters are particularly weak (and possibly the dwindling fandom, as you pointed out. I wouldn't know, I actually don't pay much attention to other Teen Titans stories anymore). Ruban is… an interesting case. All of these characters I developed along the way, rather than having a complete plan from the start. The original concept for Ruban was just "cute, small, genophobic mage, dependant on Changeling". Almost everything else about him, including his hypopituitarism, biological immortality via age locking, and the more romantic side to his relationship with Maria all came later. So no, I don't really have anything planned for it, but I do know what general themes I intend to explore, and having Ruban be incapable of the mature parts of a relationship kinda gets in the way of that (hence the rather weak hand-wave of the issue in chapter 129).

Azarath Cat: I had so many more plans for the Hypnotist, but alas it didn't fit nicely into the flow of the story. Also, thanks for the sketch. I like.