"Vic! Wait up!"

Victor Stone turned around to see his girlfriend, Brianna, running to catch up to him. Finally caught up, she threw herself into his arms and gave him a kiss.

"What's going on, Brie?" Victor asked.

"I just wanted to give you a kiss before you went to practice."

Victor smiled at his girlfriend. Her mocha skin was light compared to his dark brown. Her curls were dark and bounced up and down with her movements. Deep brown eyes and a large smile were found on her face. She was a vision of beauty.

"You're so sweet," Victor said, gently kissing his lips to hers once more.

"Vic! You coming?!" Victor looked up to see one of his best friends, Mike, standing there with a football.

"Yah, I'll be right there," he yelled back. "I got to go, babe," he told Brianna.

"No," she whined.

"Yes, I do. I have football practice." He disentangled himself from her circling arms and ran towards Mike. "I'll see you after practice," he yelled over his shoulder.

When he was out on the field he noticed most of the boys on his team were circling something. "What's going on, Mike?" he asked.

"Don't know. Let's check it out." The two ran over to where their teammates stood. Pushing their way to the front of the circle they could hear cheers and chants. When they arrived they realized why the circle was there.

In the heart of the circle was a boy. Sitting in a wheelchair he looked as if he was ready to cry. A broken camera sat on the ground next to his chair. He was a reporter from the school newspaper there to write an article on the football team. Being a cripple he was ruthlessly made fun of. It was not new in Victor's school.

With one last, "You suck!" from a teammate the football team pushed the kid out of his wheelchair. He landed hard on the ground and began to cry. The team laughed and walked away to continue with practice.

Victor had not participated in the sport of making fun of others. But he had not stopped it either.

"Alright, that's it for today, boys," the coach yelled. "Hit the showers!" The team of football players headed to the locker room. "Stone!" Dan stopped walking and jogged back to the coach.

"Yah, coach?"

"I saw you play today." Victor was ready for the worst. Today was not his best day. There was a rumor going around someone would be kicked off the team soon. It was going to be him. "You were great."

Victor looked up thinking he had heard wrong. "What?!"

"You were really good today, Stone. Good enough to make it in the world. You have a gift for football. Be proud of it. Now go hit the showers. You smell horrible!"

Victor smiled and ran away from his coach to the locker rooms. He was greeted half way there by Mike. "You off the team?" he asked.

"Actually no. Coach wanted to tell me I played well."

Mike's eyes grew wide. "Really? Coach never compliments anyone!"

"Yah. I was surprised also. I guess he really likes me."

Mike laughed as they entered the locker room. They began to get out of their gear. Victor looked up for a minute. "Hey, Mike?"

Mike grunted to show he was listening.

"Why do you think they like beating up the crippled kid?"

Mike looked up for a minute before looking back down. "When you're a cripple, you're a freak. Freaks shouldn't be here. They should be locked up. That's what most people believe, at least."

"Do you?"

Mike stared at Victor after that question. He looked down again after a moment. "I just try not to get involved."

Victor nodded and began to pack up their things. "You still dating Brianna?" Mike asked.

"Yah, why?"

"You should break her heart before she can break yours."

Victor sighed. "How many times am I going to tell you that we love each other?"

"Yah, but the next really hot star quarter back comes up and she's done with you and all over him. She's slept with half the guys on the team already!"

Victor just shook his head. "We're happy. That's that."

He heaved his bag on his shoulder and left the locker room.

"Vic!!" the shrill voice of Brianna almost broke Victor's ear drums.

"Hey, baby!"

Brianna pranced up and gave him a kiss. "How was practice?"

Victor shrugged. "The coach said I'm really good."

Brie smiled. "Congratulations! Finally the old goat has some sense! You are the most amazing player ever!"

Victor smiled. "Yah. Coach has always been a good judge of character."

Brie took his hand and her face became a look of disgust. "Ew. Look at the cripple. Shouldn't he be, like, reading or something?"

Victor saw the same boy the football team had made cry earlier the afternoon. Victor felt pity for the boy but he never went back on the subject. A few kids came up to the cripple and began to surround him. Victor turned his back.

"Drop me off a block away today, ok babe?" Victor looked at Brie and smiled.

"A whole block? Why?"

"My mom is home and if she sees me dropped off in a car by a boy, she'll go ballistic on me."

Victor smiled. "Ok, a block."

Victor pulled to the curb. Brie gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," he replied.

She smiled and slipped out of the car. With a wave he drove away.

Victor couldn't stop thinking about the crippled kid. Should he have helped him? Victor pulled on the highway. A car in front of him stopped. Victor found himself stopping short. His cell phone fell off the passenger seat where it sat and onto the floor. Victor ignored it.

After driving a few more minutes the hard metal of his cell phone went off, alerting him someone was calling.

"Shit," he muttered, letting go of the wheel and disappearing behind the dashboard to retrieve the cell phone.

Down for almost a full minute he finally grabbed it. Flipping it open he said, "Hello?"

Victor came back to above the dashboard just in time to see a blinding pair of lights, then blackness…

Something was wrong with Victor when he woke up. In one eye he could see different scans almost. Whiteness surrounded him. He tried to move his hands. Something felt weird and heavy. He lifted up his arms to see blue mechanics decorating his limbs. Victor went wide eyed and looked at the rest of his body.

He was a cyborg.

A truck accident had made him loose most of his body parts. His thick black hair had been shaved to reveal a bald, black head. Half his face was mechanical. Most of his body was mechanical.

After being in the hospital for 3 weeks straight, he finally was able to return to school. He drove his new car and parked in the student parking lot.

Getting out he got the stares of lots. He walked by a few people and heard them mutter, "Freak."

He whipped around and stared at them. "Want to say that to my face?!"

The people just laughed and walked away. Victor was ready to cry. He didn't want to be a freak. He wanted to be him.

He saw Brianna not too far away. All the while in the hospital she had not come to seen him, called or even sent a card. "Brie!" he yelled.

Brianna turned around and stared at him. He ran up, trying to embrace her. She pushed him away. "Brie, what's wrong?" he asked, hurt.

"Victor. Look at you. I can't be caught dating you. You're a freak. I'm sorry. We're over."

Victor stared at her as she left with her friends, her hair bouncing while she walked. She broke up with him because he was a freak. He wasn't one of them any longer.

After school he headed to football practice. His mechanics slowed him down. He couldn't catch a ball because of his strange hands. He saw the coach shaking his head a lot.

After practice the coach called him over. "Stone, look at you. You're not one of us anymore. I'm sorry. You're off the team."

In one day Victor's life had been ruined. He had lost his girlfriend and got kicked off his team.

He ran to the locker room. "Mike!" he shouted. "Can you believe I got kicked off the team?"

When he looked at Mike's face he felt dread coming to him. Mike looked solemn. "I'm sorry, Vic. We can't hang out anymore."

Victor stared at Mike. "What?" he asked quietly.

"I told you I didn't pay attention to cripples and freaks. But it's….different now. Look at you. I can't be caught hanging with you. I'm sorry."

Victor watched as the last of his life crumbled under the weight of his mechanics.

Victor sat in a coffee house staring into the blackness of his coffee. No thoughts came to his mind. He had shut it off.

"Looks like you need some company." Victor looked up to see the boy in the wheelchair that always got made fun of at school. "Neil." The boy thrust out a hand introducing himself.

"Victor," Victor replied unhappily.

"Something interesting in the coffee?"

Victor looked up. "How can you stand it? People make fun of you and ridicule you yet you go without a look of hurt on your face. You don't care? It killed me to watch my old friends, my girlfriend look at me in disgust."

Neil looked down. "I guess you just get used to it." Then he looked back up. "I think it's cool."

"What?" Victor asked coldly.

"Your mechanics. They look awesome. Personally I would love to have something like that. Those are awesome!"

Victor stared at the boy. "You think so?"

"Totally! You could be like a super hero or something!"

Victor smiled. Neil was seriously cheering him up. "Maybe. But I don't know…"

"Yah! You could be Robot Man. No, taken. ManChanics! No, too cheesy."

"How bout Cyborg. Just plain Cyborg?" Victor asked.

"Booya! That's awesome!" Neil and Victor grinned at each other

"Booya?" Victor raised an eyebrow.

"I like saying it sometimes. It perks things up." Neil gave Victor a sheepish look.

"Maybe I'll adapt it sometime." Victor looked thoughtful.

A watch beeped and Neil looked down. "Sorry. I have to go. See you later, Cyborg!"

Victor smiled. He had a new identity. He looked up to a TV in the corner of the coffee shop.

"And in the latest new, Jump City has become one of the most crime infested places in the world…"

"Hmm…Jump City," Cyborg pondered…