Chapter 9: I'll Make a Titan Out of You!

The five former students were all sleeping soundly when Cyborg found them early the next morning. Mammoth and Numerous lay on the floor, both snoring louder than anyone he'd ever met (then again, he'd never heard himself snore before). Angel had found a small box to lie against and prop her head up on to avoid lying on the ring around her wings. See-More and Kyd Wykkyd were both upright against a large crate, both turned away from one another. Like this, they looked so peaceful, resembling a bunch of children worn out from a day of playing outside instead of the group of vigilantes that they really were. Then again, that wasn't enough to stop the metal man from getting a little bit of revenge.

Rubbing his hands together, Cyborg smiled slyly at the slumbering teens before making his way down the basement stairs carrying a large boom box. Setting it on the ground, he was about to turn it on when another idea hit him. An even more evil idea. He chuckled slightly to himself before running up the stairs as quickly and quietly as he could so as not to wake his victims. Halfway up the stairs however, his foot missed a step, dinging the rail on the side. He winced as the sound of metal-on-metal echoed throughout the spacious room and for a moment, he froze dead in his tracks. Luckily, the sound was not enough to wake the bunch, all too exhausted from all the excitement the night before. He released a breath then continued upwards treading more carefully this time.

After a few minutes, Cyborg returned, this time bearing a large speaker under his arm. Once back downstairs, he plugged the speaker into the wall, connected the boom box to the speaker, and amped up the volume as high as it would go. Last but not least, he pulled out a pair of earmuffs and placed them comfortably over his ears, ready for what was to come. Taking one last look at the group, he almost felt sorry for them. Hm, maybe this is a little too mean, he thought idly to himself. Then he remembered his time at the academy and the doubt was gone in a heartbeat. "This is for making me walk around in a tutu!" he whispered just before his finger hit the play button.

"AAAGGGH!" Mammoth screamed as he jumped out of his skin. Or rather he would have had he not been wearing the large weights strapped to his arms. A rather rude awakening had suddenly shaken him up in the form of a traditional military bugle call now blasting throughout the room.

"Who, what, where?!" Billy cried out, nearly duplicating himself on impulse, earning him a shock from the device on his neck. He fell backwards in a daze from the rather large zap of electricity. Next to him, Angel panted erratically while clutching her chest, obviously startled by the noise. See-More had jumped to his feet in shock, colliding with a wooden board sticking out of the crate he'd been laying on. He clutched his head and grunted before falling over onto Kyd Wykkyd who been trying to stand up, knocking them both to the floor in a heap. Billy would have laughed had his own head not been pounding from lack of sleep. Off to the side, Cyborg stood waiting, arms crossed, and eyes boring into them from far away. This time, Billy did chuckle. "Mornin' Bubba! What's with the fancy-pants sergeant's hat ya got perched atop yer head?" he asked.

"ALRIGHT, all of you get your butts over here and line up!" Cyborg demanded instead. At first, none of them budged. The only sign of activity was a brief flutter of the eyelashes as they struggled to rub the haze out of their eyes. Cyborg scowled, bending over to switch off the boom box. This wasn't going to be easy. "NOW!" he yelled. They lined up almost instantly. That's better, he thought triumphantly. Making his way over to the bunch, his hands behind his back, Cyborg began pacing back and forth, scanning each and every one of them as he passed them. On the outside, he appeared to be sizing them up, giving them an intimidating look that sent sweat trickling down their necks.

On the inside however, his mind ran through his memories, fighting to remember exactly what he'd learned about each of them while in the academy. Some of them were easy, like Mammoth and Billy Numerous. Mammoth he'd faced dozens of times in battle, and it didn't take a genius to remember Billy's powers. But for the others, it took a little more time. Cyborg remembered taking a few classes with See-More, but hadn't really paid much attention to him. Sure they'd faced each other once during the mall robbery instance, but he'd been too preoccupied with dealing with Private Hive at the time. Kyd Wykkyd had sat next to him in a class but they'd never really spoken to each other (not that he ever could), and he hadn't dealt with Angel at all prior to now. Cyborg's human eye twitched slightly. He'd have to be sure to study them one at a time and get a feel for each one of their powers in case they ever became a threat like before, something that wouldn't surprise him if it ever did happen.

Clearing his throat, Cyborg stopped his pacing and turned to face them staring down at the group with the fiercest expression he could muster. "Alright then, now let's get down to business! From this moment on if you really want to become honorary titans, you do everything I say. Some rules for you: no talking unless spoken to, no questions until I say so, no misbehaving, no yelling, no complaining, and most important of all, no whining! Is that understood?!"

The group gulped audibly and nodded dumbly in response, already missing the academy. "Good. Any questions?!"

"Uh, I've got one." See-More muttered, his hand trembling slightly as he held it over his head. Cyborg looked at him expectantly. "When can I get my helmet back?"

"You get your stuff back and your extra baggage removed when I deem you ready! Any more questions?"

"What da we look like, a round'o bucking broncos?! Ya can't keep these thingies on-"

"Do I hear someone whining? I specifically recall saying no whining! Keep it up and it's gonna cost ya," Cyborg warned, following up with a look that could melt the ice caps.

"Nope," Billy responded quickly with an audible gulp.

"Anybody else got something to say?" he asked once more. When none of them responded, Cyborg nodded and about-faced. "Good. Follow me."

The five followed him grudgingly up the stairs, Kyd Wykkyd guiding See-More to keep him from tripping, and out of the basement all the while wondering what he had planned for them, though none of them really wanted to know. Walking through the hallways, it appeared as though the other Titans had just awoken themselves. Robin stepped out of a room, which they assumed to be his bedroom, completely dressed in his uniform but still in a sleepy stupor. Instead of the usual spikes, his hair stuck out in every direction greatly resembling a bird's nest. At the sight, Billy couldn't help but snicker. Every time he'd laid eyes on the boy wonder, it was always when he'd be pulling off a crime. During those times, Robin was all action, no jokes accepted. To see him in this state was unbelievable and pure gold. "Hey Robin, yer nest needs tendin'," he whispered, earning him a glare from said teen. Luckily Cyborg hadn't heard him and they continued on.

Beast Boy stood outside the bathroom dressed in a brown bathrobe with a green towel slung over his shoulder and a rubber ducky in one hand. Apparently, lack of sleep had affected him as well judging from the scowl on his face and the furious pounding on the door. "Starfire hurry up! If I don't shower at exactly 7:00, it messes up my morning schedule and cuts into my video game time!" he yelled.

"Just a few more minutes please!" a female voice called from inside, probably Starfire. "I have recently acquired a new set of the fragrant spray called perfume from the mall of shopping and am unsure of which to use. The kind lady of the sales said each one is customary for a separate occasion." At that moment, the door slid open and Starfire stepped out carrying four different bottles each a different color. "Tell me Beast Boy, which would provide the most soothing scent for a day such as this one? The Lively Lavender, Passion Peach, Ravishing Rosebud, or Scrumptious Sweet Pea?" she asked with a wide, innocent grin.

"Uh, Star?" Beast Boy responded with a cross-eyed look.

"Pfft, I'd like to git ta know the fella who came up with them names," Billy whispered to Kyd Wykkyd while elbowing him in the side. All he got was a deadpanned look from the drowsy alien.

"Oh, good morning former H.I.V.E. students who are no longer evil. A glorious day to you all!" Starfire greeted happily, waving to them after noticing the group.

"Good morn-," Angel started.

"I don't remember giving anyone permission to speak!" Cyborg interrupted with his back still turned to them. Picking up on the hint, the group sighed softly to themselves and moved on quietly. But just before she left, Angel managed to whisper "Can't go wrong with the lavender!"

After a few more minutes of walking, though it felt like a millennium to the teens who felt dead on their feet, at last they arrived at the final checkpoint…and nearly cried when they saw what it was.

"What, what is it? Where are we?" See-More asked.

"The gym," Mammoth answered the loathing evident in his tone of voice. While normally such a place wouldn't receive such a negative response from the super powered students, at the moment they were tired, hungry, and just wanted to die. And surprisingly, the place wasn't exactly what they expected. The gym had to be ten times smaller than the H.I.V.E. academy gym. Sure the place normally housed only five people compared to a whole class, but for an entire tour, it left them feeling unimpressed. Not to mention how embarrassing it was that they would constantly lose to a bunch of heroes who worked out in a place like this.

"Now then," Cyborg said, turning back to them, "we'll start with the easy stuff: stretches. After that, we can move into the gym and get started on the real workouts."

"Now hang on Bubba. Ain't this the gym?"

"Don't make me laugh. This is only the first section. You'll be moving into the main section once we're finished. Now all of you, DOWN ON THE FLOOR!" He yelled in that low, booming voice that left the ground shaking underneath them. Or maybe it them themselves who were shaking, but either way all of them complied quickly without any hesitation. One by one, they sat on the ground with their legs out front, thankful to no longer be standing. Stretches went smoothly at first, everyone following Cyborg's orders as he walked through each technique. They were all fairly used to stretching from their time in school, and for the most part they were all pretty flexible. That is, until Cyborg began to crack down.

"Now then, on the count of three, let your legs slide out sideways from underneath you so you're doing the splits!" He commanded. "After that, try to get your left leg over your head!"

"Rise and shine," Jinx whispered softly to the slumbering boy next to her. When she received no response, she reached an arm out to shake his shoulder. After this failed, she tugged back the covers, leaving him exposed and cold. That got a response from him.

"Mm, who turned down the heat?" Kid Flash mumbled softly as his eyelids fluttered open.

"You're going to feel a lot more than that if you don't get up. It's already 8:00 and you're not even dressed. The Titans woke up about an hour ago!"

"Way too early if you ask me," he muttered before curling up into a ball to retain whatever heat he could.

Jinx's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Do I have to make your pillow explode again? Because I swear I'll do it if you don't get out of bed soon."

At that, he was sitting up and stretching his arms awake, yawning loudly. Kid Flash knew fully well she'd do it, he'd seen it happen before. "Ok, ok, I'm up. Good morning Jinxy!" he greeted her cheerfully with one of his trademark (totally handsome in his opinion) smiles. "So, why're you up so early? Normally I'm the one who has to wake you in the morning!" He asked. It was only then that he realized how…incomplete Jinx looked this morning. Her dress wasn't completely buttoned up in the front, just barely above her chest (to his pleasure!), one of her shoes was missing and only half her hair was up. It was almost comical considering how put together she normally was.

"Cyborg starts training the rest of the H.I.V.E. students today, remember? I have to make sure I'm there to watch just in case anything goes wrong." Jinx said, pulling on her shoe with one hand while attempting to tie up the rest of her hair with the other.

"Oh, so that's what this is about," he replied before swinging his legs out of bed and making his way over to her. "Need a hand, because I've got two." She nodded. "I wouldn't worry Jinx. Cyborg can handle himself," he explained while tying up her hair.

"It's not Cyborg I'm worried about. It's what Cyborg could do that bothers me. I want to make sure he doesn't do anything too…drastic."

"They'll be fine, just relax! Here, let me get those buttons-,"

"I can do it myself, thank you!" she answered heatedly, both hands covering the front of her chest. "I think you've already gotten a good enough look as is."

Kid Flash deflated slightly, though only temporarily. "Hey, can't blame a guy for staring. You leave me breathless just by looking at you." Gently, he pulled her forward, intending to give her the first kiss of the day. Unfortunately, she wasn't thinking the same thing.

"Speaking of breathless," Jinx started, her handing covering his mouth only inches from hers, "you may want to brush your teeth first Casanova. Your breath reeks!" Pulling away, Jinx gave him a sly smile before she turned on her heel and made her way out of the room, heading to the kitchen for a quick breakfast, leaving Kid Flash alone. He rolled his eyes. What is it with girls and hygiene? he wondered.

Off to the side, a light jingle caught his ear. He turned to see Kyddie staring back at him with those large yellow eyes and a knowing look. He scowled. "What're you looking at?"

Glancing about, Cyborg's eyes searched the large hall, looked back on his victims (ahem, "students") and then back to the room. Eventually, he led them over to the first part. The weightlifting machine. He grinned. Perfect. "Hey Mammoth, get your elephant butt over here!"

Mammoth grumbled under his breath while walking over, or rather dragging his feet over. "What?" he asked.

"Think you can handle this baby?" Cyborg teased, jabbing a thumb towards the machine in question.

Mammoth cracked his knuckles. "Just watch me!" he said eagerly before taking his place underneath it. Without missing a beat, the metal man made his way over to the controls, punched in a few numbers and let a rip. Almost immediately, the machine activated and began to drop weights on the top, slowly at first but quickly speeding up. Mammoth grinned triumphantly as he continued to hold his own. Until he realized that the machine had yet to stop lowering more and more weights. With the added weights already strapped to his arms, the muscled giant began to feel beads of sweat already begin to drip down his back, and it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. Only once the machine had dropped the last weight in its reservoir did it finally cease, leaving Mammoth shaking under the strain.

"Now hold that weight for about four hours and then I'll let you have a short break." Cyborg explained with a hint of humor in his voice. Mammoth only growled through his teeth. "Come on man, Starfire could lift that weight all day with one arm," he added with a satisfied grin. Looking back at the rest of the group, Cyborg urged them forward.

"You're up little lady," he said, glancing over at Angel once they'd reached the next station. With a slight tremor, Angel stepped forward. "With all that flying, I doubt your legs get used very often. So it's the treadmill for you!" he said happily before leading her over to the treadmill in the corner of the room and placing her on it. Making his way over to the controls, Cyborg began punching in a few numbers and turning a few knobs, all the while the evil smirk never leaving his face. Angel let out a surrendered sigh. She'd used the treadmill a dozen times in the past and it never scared her before, but then again, in the past she'd had control over the settings and judging from the look on his face, Cyborg was having a little too much fun. I wonder if it's too late to- AGH! She cried before finishing the thought as the rubber belt suddenly jolted underneath her at an incredible speed. She found herself already sprinting.

"There. That ought to be good for about 3 hours or so."

"Three hours?" she panted.

"Don't worry, it'll start slow and gradually get faster."

"Faster?!"

"What're you a parrot now? Yes, faster! Beast Boy does this at least three times a week. Now less talking, more running Polly!"

Next up were the pull-up bars. They started off fairly short, starting at about Raven's height, all the way up to 10 feet high, or what it appeared to be. Making his way over to one of the higher ones, Cyborg punched in a few numbers into a touchpad built into it and slowly the bar lowered until it was only five feet off the ground. It was all set and ready to go, and he knew just who to use it on. "Alright, Billy time for 100 pull-ups," he said, motioning to the southerner in question.

Billy laughed with enthusiasm. "Bubba, you gotta be pullin' my leg! Pull-ups are nothin' to ol' Billy here. In case ya misplaced the chip ta yer memry file in yer brain, I was able to haul yer entire bridge outta the ground faster than a six-shootin rifle!" he boasted.

"Well then, let's see watcha got tough guy!" Cyborg answered, stepping back to allow Billy access to the bar. Once he'd taken his place and grabbed hold of the bar, Billy easily pulled himself up and did ten push-ups in seconds without even breaking a sweat. But before he could say another word, he found himself being lifted off the ground, the bar he was holding onto rising higher and higher into the air until his feet dangled from a height of twenty feet tall at least. Below him, Cyborg waved.

"Hey, what gives?" he called from above. And if that wasn't enough, once the question had left his lips, Billy was suddenly struck by a powerful force that tugged at his body. He felt as though someone had grabbed ahold of his neck and was pulling him downwards with the strength of ten bulls. Now Billy had never been the smartest guy in the world, but he knew well enough that even gravity wasn't strong enough to pull him down that hard.

"This'll give you a bit more motivation to keep going," Cyborg explained. "See those glowing lights underneath you? Those are some specially designed magnets I installed, and they're tugging at the collar around your neck. This time when you do a pull-up, you'll have to work past that magnetic force and try not to fall off in the process. I designed these to make pull-ups a bit more fun."

"Bubba, you've got too much time on yer hands," he answered through clenched teeth as he pulled himself up for his first "modified" pull-up.

Cyborg chose not to answer and instead led the remaining two students to their own tests. In the end, See-More was assigned to a balance beam five feet off the ground and was forced to walk across it 50 times while balancing two books on top of his head and two bowls filled with water in his hands. Despite his protests that he still couldn't see a thing, Cyborg only insisted that it would help improve his balance and eliminate his dependency on his helmet. See-More had been pretty reluctant at first, but quickly got to it after Cyborg mentioned that Raven could do it with her eyes closed. Once again, See-More found himself wondering just what had he done in his past life to deserve to be treated like absolutely nothing by just about anyone. Maybe it was the bank robbery, or maybe the jewelry robbery, or maybe crashing the shopping mall, or perhaps the government building vandalism, or…the list went on and on.

As for Kyd Wykkyd, Cyborg assigned him to the peg board on the far side of the gym. Similar to a rock climbing wall, the peg board was lined with holes up to about 80 feet high, where a small bell dangled at the top. Using two sticks, he had to insert them into the holes one at a time and gradually make his way up to ring the bell at the top. After Cyborg's pushing and threatening, Kyd Wykkyd finally took a deep breath and began to make his way up the slippery wall with his legs dangling uselessly beneath him. He slowly made his way up one hole at a time and forced himself to ignore the jeers from the metal man below, stating that Robin could do this in his sleep. For once the alien boy was glad he was mute and that his hands were occupied. Otherwise, he was sure he'd have yelled back some obscure profanity or simply flipped the guy off, something that wouldn't bode well with the positive image the group was trying to convey.

Once they'd all been assigned to some sort of workout, Cyborg took a step back to admire his progress. All of them appeared to be panting for breath, scared out of their minds, completely furious, or all of the above. Either way, it was rather entertaining to watch and he wondered just how much they could take before they finally all quit. It had been his main goal ever since they'd stepped foot in this tower, though he'd never admit it to the other Titans.

Cyborg shook his head. No, they could never be Teen Titans, not ever. From what he'd gathered from the academy, being villains was all they knew, nothing more. No matter how hard they worked, no matter what they said, they'd be sure to revert back to their old ways. For all he knew, they could be plotting their revenge against the Titans at this very moment. Jinx was the only exception as far as he could tell, and that was because Kid Flash had taken a liking to her, and it was hard to deny him. But the others would never make it, not by a long shot. All he had to do was show them.

Hello everyone! I've finally been able to get this chapter out. I've been planning to post it for a while, but just never got the chance to finish. School's been tough but I'm hanging in there! Hey XFatalities-of-the-sane-mindsX and Wallart Plus Flinx equals war, hope you're patience hasn't worn out yet! I promise to keep writing whenever I have time, and trust me, this story will finish...eventually.

Anyway, for anybody who doesn't know about the peg board, it's sorta like the kids toy version except a lot bigger. Trust me, you never want to try those things they are hard to climb. You can't use your legs or else your sticks come loose!

For anyone who enjoys my story, check out XFatalities-of-the-sane-mindsX page, I go there whenever I'm bored and have free time. And don't forget, reviews, remarks, and criticisms are greatly appreciated, just no flames! Bis spaeter!