Titans tower was in shambles. There was a hole in almost every wall, and everything from Raven's bedroom to Beast Boy's video game collection was completely destroyed. Victor and Harper had already started to clear out the rubble (with a little help from one of Harper's many robots, model name: Val) when the team returned, and although this was their home, none of them seemed too surprised about the damage.

"Aww, man." Beast Boy whined, running a green hand through his unruly hair and staggering towards his pile of shredded comic books. "I'd only just started getting my collection back the way it was..."

Raven, who could be seen floating in the background, had an aura of darkness that sparked around her entire body. It was obvious that she was angry about the destruction of her room, but it had been happening so often of late that she could do nothing but sulk.

"Who was it this time?" Nightwing asked curiously. He wasn't an exclusive member of the Titans, but he still assisted them every now and then; much like Cyborg. Though they had both left to pursue a different path, the Titans would always be a part of who they were.

"It was my sister." The unmistakable voice of Starfire punctured the air. She had returned with only a few scrapes and a burn mark on her right shoulder. "I apologise for the mess she has made. I do not know how she keeps escaping the Arxis."

Harper inched closer to Victor, almost uncomfortably so, and whispered "Am I meant to know what this 'Arxis' thing is?"

"It's an intergalactic prison on the planet Celdon." Victor quickly informed her, though he was fairly certain that this information still wouldn't help her to understand fully.

"Oh, space stuff? Okay, not my area of expertise."

"What a surprise." Victor retorted blandly. Harper was an intelligent woman, no one could debate that, but she was also part of a military group for many years. It made sense that she would have been dealing with threats closer to home, rather than hunting down alien life forms.

Nightwing had been quick to comfort Starfire, and then he swiftly centred his attention back on Victor and the woman that he was with. "New friend, Vic?"

"She's not a friend." Cyborg stated bluntly. Though Harper raised a dark eyebrow at this quick retort, she didn't appear the least bit offended. "She's a new League member."

Though Nightwing's eyes were covered by a black domino mask, his confusion was immediately obvious. "Really? I've never seen her before..."

"I ain't from around here." She shrugged, knowing that her strong accent was a dead giveaway. "Name's Harper Reid, Australian military. Code name; Hyperion."

Nightwing nodded, but it wasn't difficult to tell that he didn't entirely trust Harper. She suspected that he probably put his faith in very few people, and a complete stranger wasn't going to be one of them. "Cool. I'm not telling you my name."

"I don't need to know it, dick."

The room fell silent, and in a manner of seconds, Nightwing's entire body had tensed. His eyes flicked to Victor, as if quietly asking if he had revealed his identity to Harper, but the Cyborg was too preoccupied staring at the Australian in disbelief.

Harper cleared her throat at the intense atmosphere, clearly becoming uncomfortable at the sheer silence. "It...was a joke. Jesus, you're real sensitive aren't ya? I mean, you can call me a dick as well if it'll make you feel any better."

"Why would he call you Dick?" Starfire cocked her head to the side in confusion. "That is not your n-"

"Kori!" Nightwing interrupted nervously. "You...haven't seen Raven in a while, right? You should take her to the aquarium or something."

Starfire's entire face lit up. "Oh! What a wonderful idea!"

The fiery-haired woman flew to her cloaked friends side, and with a grin that looked almost painfully large, she started dragging Raven out of the room. The demon-blooded girl growled at Nightwing. She looked like she was two seconds away from slaughtering everyone within range. "You'll pay for this."

Nightwing grinned. He had known Raven for years now. Her threats were never taken seriously any more. "Have fun."

Harper was left rather bewildered by the scene. She wasn't sure if she'd truly offended Nightwing, or if she'd accidentally stumbled into information she wasn't meant to have. Either way, Nightwing's true identity was of little concern to her.

"Woah. How's it lifting that junk if no one's inside it?" Beast Boy mused as he pointed behind Harper. She and Victor turned to face the Model Val chassis which was still in the middle of clearing up debris. It hadn't stopped, and wouldn't until Harper gave the order.

Harper answered "This and a few of my other ones use hydraulics, joint servos, and motors to apply force. That means it can hold itself up and walk around without anyone inside it, and is as powerful as a bulldozer."

"Wow that's so cool! So, whoever wears it gets super strength too?"

"Bingo." She said.

Victor crossed his arms as he scrutinised the working machine. "You'd be better off creating a layer of reactive alloy mesh that bends and folds when you need it to, but becomes rigid when you run a current through it."

"What, like...artificial muscle fibres?"

"Yeah. Hydraulics and motors are a bit primitive, aren't they?"

"What you're talking about wasn't possible when I built that thing five years ago. I'd like to see you do better."

Victor arched an eyebrow. "I am better."

Beast Boy sniggered "Burn."

"I didn't have access to alien tech unlike your dad when he souped you up, so that doesn't count. I wanna have a look at that reactive strand layer though. Sounds neat."

For the second time in less than ten minutes a hush swept across the room. The eyes of both Nightwing and Beast Boy landed on Cyborg, who's human eye had narrowed and teeth had bared. It was obvious by now that Harper had looked at his file, whether it was before their first mission or after it. "Don't talk about my father."

Harper crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't look concerned by his rising anger at all. "Alright, but me not talking about it doesn't change what he did."

Victor's red, cybernetic eye flared momentarily; the red glow serving as a warning. With a low growl, he marched out of the tower and as far away from Harper as he could possibly get. Nightwing sighed. "Real good with people, aren't you?"

Harper shrugged, and this sign of apparent indifference towards Victor's anger only heightened Nightwing's annoyance.

"I don't know if you have it in Australia, but over here there's a little thing called empathy." He hissed at the green-eyed woman. Victor was one of Nightwing's oldest friends, and he despised anyone that wasn't sensitive towards Vic's situation.

"You don't think I'm empathetic?" Harper questioned with enough surprise in her eyes to make Nightwing wonder if she was just crazy.

"Is that a trick question?" He replied with a furrowed brow. "If you were, you probably wouldn't have said that to Victor."

"Why not?"

Nightwing's lips parted slightly in shock. For someone so smart, she was apparently completely cluelessly "Uh...because he's sensitive about it?"

"So?" Harper finally gave the order for Val to stop lifting the last few remnants of rubble, but her gaze never left Nightwing's. "I don't believe in coddling people, and I'm not all that great at walking around on egg shells, but that doesn't mean that I don't have empathy."

"Actually, that's exactly what it means."

"Being empathetic is the ability to put yourself in another persons shoes; to understand and feel their pain. I know exactly how Victor feels, but treating him like a dying child isn't going to help him in the long run." Harper directed towards the door, and the chassis model Val clunked over to it. "He'll never learn to live with his new body if the people around him keep acting like it's a curse. You can treat him how you want, that's your decision, but I'm not gonna censor myself around him just 'cause he might not like what I have to say."

"I'm not treating him like a child!" Nightwing suddenly snapped. "He's just...he's been through a lot."

"Yeah, he has. It's unfortunate but it happened, alright? Ain't nothin' gonna change that, and the more you avoid the subject, the worse it's gonna be for him." Harper walked past Nightwing and stopped in front of Val. The robot cracked open, small strands of steam rising from its components as Harper stepped into it. The door closed again, but her presence within that robotic husk seemed to give it new life.

"He doesn't want you to talk about it, so don't." Nightwing ordered, ignoring almost every point that she had presented to him. It was apparent that she wouldn't listen, but he felt the need to say it regardless.

The chassis, which was only a little taller than the masked hero, slowly twisted around and waved a metallic hand at him. It was more than a goodbye. It was a complete dismissal of everything he had said. "See ya 'round, dick."

His eyes narrowed beneath his mask, and there was an instant aura of dislike. "I hope not."