Passed the first week of school alright. Now I've got to go pay for my education with a nice check. *sigh* I really don't want to go outside though. I didn't expect this to end up going in the direction it did, but I think it worked out all right. And yes, I do think Cy's dad is a jerk. I've read through the history. Maybe not to this extent, but you've got to be pretty crummy to experiment on your own kid. BB gets a little into it, and there is some more umm, intense language, I guess. Nothing terrible though. Enjoy!

I own a sense of dissatisfaction, but I'm not sure why. No Titans.

It didn't take him long to find his best friend. But actually getting to him was proving more of a problem.

The first thing he had done was try the normal code. When that buzzed negative, he tried Cy's usual back up. Which also didn't work, but he still had the emergency open. Normally, he was a pretty patient guy. But when the door refused to open, he had just about had enough.

He ended up having to transform into a fly and squeeze underneath the door. The space was either getting smaller or finally growing was affecting his transformations. But Cy had been almost certain that a few inches wouldn't make that much of a difference. Raven said it was probably just all in his head, and it was his subconscious was trying to tell him sneaking underneath doors was wrong.

It wasn't that he didn't understand 'personal space'. He just didn't really care. The Doom Patrol's ship had been filled with locked doors and limitations. As far as he had ever known, that was what a family was like. He had enough of rules for a lifetime, but that was then. Besides, sometimes his friends just needed to be pushed outside their comfort zones.

People really underestimated flies. Sure, they were a little annoying, and disgusting. But those were normal flies. He wasn't a normal fly. No matter what the others said, he did wash his hands often. Nobody ever worried about a fly breaking into buildings. He would have laughed at the thought of how many criminal headquarters he had broken into, but sadly flies couldn't laugh. Oh well.

He let the thought of the housefly fade from his mind and felt his body reform. It was something he had never managed to get over. The whole process shouldn't be possible. He shouldn't be alive, doing what he did, but there he was. A living insult to physics.

The room was dark but it wasn't hard to find Cyborg. The bigger Titan was angrily pacing his floor, grumbling to himself. He stayed close to the floor for cover. Even though he knew Cy was mad enough to completely overlook him, he also knew his best friend had a tendency to shoot first when he was this upset. The trick was to move slowly and then wait.

The sonic blast impacted less than ten inches from his right foot. The sight of Cyborg, towering over him with sonic cannon still smoking and a glare that would have been enough to make some of the more cowardly villains faint. Titans don't faint though. They face challenges head on. Either win or get knocked out. As he slowly made his way to his feet, he really hoped today wouldn't be the second type. Cyborg glared at him for another moment, then put away his cannon.

"Sorry. Your eyes. They were reflecting the light again." He always forgot about that. Then again, there wasn't really much he could do to stop it, natural reaction and all. The anger radiating off Cyborg was getting him riled up. He needed to do something.

"Dude, it couldn't have been that bad. Just let it go." A harsh laugh was all he got in response. Cy turned away and stalked back to his desk.

"You haven't read it yet have you?"

He shook his head. Cyborg picked up the morning paper and threw it across the room. Out of instinct, he caught the rustling paper with a crunch.

"Read it and then tell me to let it go."

The headline was big and bold. A slap to the face in paper form.

LOCAL SCIENTIST CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR "CYBORG"

Many locals have questioned the backgrounds of our cities new heroes. Amongst the concerns about the age and responsibility of these 'Titans', there has been an outcry against the mystery covering the past of these five youth. Recently, one Dr. Silas Stone has helped lift the shroud around 'Cyborg'.

"Yes. I created him."

He looked up to see Cyborg watching him across the room, waiting for a reaction. He growled angrily.

"Keep reading." He turned his eyes back to the paper.

Stone comments, "Yes, I know. It's against nature, but this proves our capabilities. We are no longer held to the standards of humanity. We can overcome and we have." When questioned about the morality and ethics of extending the human lifespan by use of machines, Stone had very few reservations. "If we can shed the fragility of the human existence, there is no limit to what we can do. 'Cyborg' is the perfect example. The future is calling. And "

He spared a glance at Cyborg. The older boy was still seething. Then he moved across to the garbage can, and tossed the newspaper in. He could feel Cyborg's eyes on him as he opened a compartment on his belt. Pulling out a lighter he wasn't supposed to have, he lit one edge. The little flame hungrily moved along the pages, blackening the page. When he looked back at his friend, he felt his heart break a little.

The mismatched eyes were fixated on the flames burning in the bucket. He didn't have to be a mindreader to know what was playing through his best friend's mind. The larger boy looked like a statue, not moving. Not saying anything, simply staring into the little fire and seeing who knows what. He could see the pain written across his face. He could feel the anger. For once he wasn't sure what to say. So they stood there, watching the smallest wisps of smoke curl upwards.

"...Against nature." Cyborg didn't speak loudly. He didn't have to.

"That's a lie and you know it." He could feel his own anger rearing up. All those instincts he pushed to the back of his mind were screaming to be followed. Somebody had hurt his family, and he wanted nothing more than to chase them down and make them hurt too.

"Cyborg." His best friend wouldn't look at him. A few steps and he was across the room, gripping the metal shoulders. They were solid, strong. Like Cyborg had been, how he was supposed to be. He shook him a little, as much as a person can shake somebody twice their size.

"Cy, buddy. C'mon." Still no response. He knew right then he was going to have pull out the big guns.

"Vic." That got his attention. The mismatched eyes pulled themselves away from the sight of the burning trashcan and focused on what was right in front of him. Two big blue green eyes were staring right into his face, unflinching and unafraid. Just like always, he wasn't afraid or scared.

"Vic, I don't care what kind of bull that guy says. He doesn't own you. You aren't some machine. You're you. Remember?" Cyborg's voice was so quiet, so defeated. It scared him.

"Dude, he's my..." He shook the larger boy again.

"I don't care who he is. He could be freaking Batman and I wouldn't care. He gave up any claim he had to you a long time ago. You're one of us now. A Titan. Look at where you are, what you're doing!" He swept his arm around the room, trying to put things into words. "You picked this. You did. Not him or any kind of program. You save people because you chose too. This is who you are and this is where you belong."

The hug he got shocked him more than the sprinklers going off. Nobody but Starfire hugged him. It was just a fact of life. Unless it was once in a blue moon on a Tuesday, the most he got was a playful punch in the arm, being tossed into a wall, or a hair ruffle. That was fine. He got the message clear enough. But as the water seeped slowly into his uniform, he figured that sometimes you just need to get the real thing instead of just having it implied.