"Hey, Stone! Hi, Stone, wanna study with me latter? Whoa, Stone, nice to see ya man. Stone, hey STONE, me and some guys are getting together for a video game tournament later, you coming? Yo, Stone, you going to Battle Practice now? Can I be on your team today?" The calls and greetings were endless as Cyborg strode down the hallway. Everywhere he went, everyone called out as he passed by or greeted him. He had been inside the Hive's base for two weeks, and in that time he had went from being just another new member to the Hive's strongest member and the most respected. On his first day he had stood up to Muscle Punch, an egotistical bully who bossed everyone around because he was stronger than them, and had flattened the bully with single throw. On top of that, Cyborg had joined the Hive after just beating the Teen Titans. Those two things combined had earned him the respect of almost the entire Hive, minus Muscle Punch and his few friends, who all now avoided Cyborg like a plague.

But while that had earned their respect, some of them had been intimidated by him or unsure what to make of him and his superior strength and power. But over the past two weeks that had changed. In combat practice, he had demonstrated his abilities to get along with others and to work as a team player. He had quickly memorized all the members names, powers and skills. After only a few sessions he was also widely recognized as a natural leader and a skilled tactician, coming up with strategies that complemented all his teammates powers and skills. After a few days even the most nervous and timid members began to relax around him a get to know him.

And in school he had been fun. Cyborg grinned to himself as he thought about it. I still can't believe I'm attending SCHOOL! Sure, its a school for teenage criminals, but its a school none the less. And on top of that, all the kids treat me like normal kid there, just another classmate to work beside. Well, a smart classmate to work beside. Cyborg laughed at him self. He still remembered his first class and how nervous he had been.

Two Weeks Ago

Cyborg sat down next to Jinx, feeling suddenly very nervous. Took a deep breath and sighed, uncertain why he was so nervous. I've spent every week for the past several years facing Super Villains bent on either world destruction or killing me, and I'm afraid of a little school? Talk about weird. Alright Cyborg, you can do this, just calm down and think of it like a challenge. Cyborg breathed deeply, slowly releasing his breath, calming down. But when Brother Blood strode in and stood behind his desk, Cyborg began to sweat slightly. Brother Blood looked around and surveyed the room, his eyes finally resting on Cyborg. "Ah, Stone, its good to see you. As this is your first class, feel free to just observe and try to keep up with the class, but if you feel like you know the answer to a question, just raise your hand. " Cyborg nodded his head, wondering what kind of things they would be learning.

Blood turned away and looked down at his paper before looking up and addressed the whole class "Hm, it seems that Muscle Punch will be in the infirmary for the next two weeks, due to the fact that he some how managed to break almost every bone in his body when he got into a fight with a wall and lost." As he said this almost everyone in the room was grinning and trying to hold in their laughter, causing Blood to pause for a moment. When the room quieted again, he resumed. "So if one of you would be so kind to drop by and tell him what he missed, I would be very grateful. Oh, and Stone?"

Cyborg looked up and noticed that Blood's face was unreadable. "I have a message from Muscle Punch." Cyborg tensed, and the whole room went deathly silent. "While I couldn't understand exactly what he was saying, due partly to the fact that he had a broken jaw, I got the general feeling that you two HIT it off right away, and had a SMASHING time." When Blood emphasized the words "hit" and "smashing" the entire class exploded into laughter. Cyborg looked at Blood, nervous and wondering if he was in trouble. But he suddenly realized Blood was smiling, and Cyborg sighed and relaxed.

After the last of the laughter died out, which took quite a while, the lessons began. Cyborg wasn't surprised when the lesson turned out to be how rob a military base, but he was stunned when Blood went about explaining how they should do it with causing minimal casualties. Wow, the guys trying to get them to hurt as few people as possible. Now that I think about it, the Hive always did seem to strike places when nobody was around, and when ever the police showed up to help us, they chose to run instead of wiping out the police. I always wondered why they ran instead of fighting, with their powers they could have killed all the police in seconds, and instead they turn and ran. Now I know, they were trained to get in and get out, and not kill everyone in sight. Maybe, just maybe, the Hive isn't so bad after all. There's plenty of worse criminals out there that we could be going after, and instead we are focusing on these guys. Hm, I'll need to talk to Robin about this.

Throughout the rest of the lesson, Cyborg paid close attention, listening to the methods Brother Blood taught them. While it was true that he said they should eliminate enemies who were a threat to them, no bodies perfect Cyborg thought, he told them that causing unnecessary casualties was wrong because it would put more pressure on the Hive's enemies to stop them. As long as they were no more than a bunch of teenage thieves, no one would focus on them over some maniac with a doomsday weapon who planned to wipe out the world.

Cyborg sighed and shook his head. Sure, it may not be for the right reason, but he is still telling them not to kill people if they can avoid it. And he's right, we should be out trying to stop Slade, or some other psychopath, not these kids. Later in the lesson Cyborg began raising his hand and answering questions, always answering correctly. Guess all those books and manuals Robin made us read finally paid off. By the end of the class cyborg could tell he had impressed his classmates. He had apparently impressed Brother Blood, for when the class ended he had congradulated Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth on finding such a strong and talented person.

As they filed out of the classroom, Cyborg looked sideways and saw Jinx was smiling broadly. When the crowd thinned as everyone headed off in different directions, Cyborg saw Jinx starring at him and he finally asked. "What? What is it?" Jinx only laughed and said. "I'm just glad you found us that night in the warehouse, that's all." Cyborg grinned back at her. "You mean cause I helped you guys beat the Titans." Jinx stopped and turned to look him in the eyes. "Nope." She said shaking her head. "I mean I'm glad I met you. Your strong, tough, funny, easy to get along with, smart, talented, and, well," Jinx paused in mid sentence and blushed slightly, as if she had been about to say something embarresing. For some reason Cyborg's curiosity got the best of him and he asked. "And?" Jinx was blushing furiously, her face was bright pink. "And your handsome." And with that Jinz leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before whirling around and running down the hall, skipping along lightly.

Cyborg stood there, stunned, his hand holding the place where Jinx had kissed him. After a long time he gradually came to his senses and slowly headed back to his room, his hand still on his cheek. When he reached his room, he turned off the lights lay down in bed, his thoughts racing over everything that happened over the day. Cyborg could hardly believe how his day had went. In a single day he had gone to school, earned the respect and friendship of almost 50 kids his age, and a girl had called him handsome and kissed him. It all seemed so unreal. Is this really my life? Did all of that really happen, or am I having the most realistic dream ever? Cyborg reached up and hit himself on the head, hard. He winced and rubbed his forhead. Nope, that hurt, so this is really happening. With this came the realization two things. One, he had enjoyed himself today more than he had any other day in his entire life. The second thing he realized was that he didn't want to leave the Hive. I know it's stupid to like the Hive after being hear only a day, but I can't help it. The Hive offers everything I have ever wanted, especially since the accident. He gave a mental shrug and rolled over and went to sleep. As he slowly fell asleep, he thought back to Jinx and smiled to himself again. You know, she actually is really pretty. I wouldn't mind going out with her. With that last thought he fell asleep, a small smile on his face.

Over the next 10 days, Cyborg attended class every morning, and soon established himself as one of the smartest kids in the class, though that was mostly due to his time spent as a Titan and Robin always getting him to read books on crime. But while he was okay at school, it was in the Battle Arena that he truly shone the brightest. The Battle Arena is where they spent every afternoon. They would all start of with fitness machines designed by Brother Blood himself, all had been made to stretch the user to his or her limits. Cyborg was delighted find out that the machines were able to actually keep up with his limits. Most fitness machinery broke long before he even applied half his strength. But these machines could go as far as he could, and he relished in the ability to strength himself to his limits for the first time. He was so caught up in pushing himself as far as he could, he was unaware of that everyone else was constantly stopping and starring at him, stunned by his strength and endurance.

The last device was a machine with a pressure pad that measured the strength of his punch. As the numbers rose, so did his smile, finally, when he could feel himself beginning to tire, he threw back his fist and swung it at the machine with all all the strength and power he could muster. Just for amusement, he changed his fist into stone right before it came in contact with the machine. His fist hit the pad, and to his surprise, kept going into the machine. He swore and grabbed the machine with his free hand and tore his arm out, dismanteling the machine in the process. He rubbed his arm, and when he looked at the machine to see how badly it was damaged, all he found was giant pile of scrap metal.

He looked around to see if anyone had noticed, and while the other students were continueing with their work outs, all of them were glancing at him, some were laughing while others were shaking their heads in amazement. He turned around and grabbed a towel and walked out and headed for the showers and preperation room for the second stage of the battle arena. As he left no one heard the some one whisper to themselves. "At last. I have finally found him!"

Cyborg was in the Team 6 preperation box getting ready for the second half of the Battle Arena. The whole hive was devided into teams, and they all competed in battle simulations, time trials, and even combat tournaments, all designed to combat skills and teamwork. After joining the Hive, he had been assigned to team 6, which happened to be Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth. He stood there waiting for the others to srrive. You only headed to the team box when you were done with your workout. Mammoth enjoyed working out even more than Cyborg, so he always spent the longest time out of their team. Gizmo would usually rush through it and spent the remaining time until stage two prepping his gadgets and going over his gear. So, he wasn't to surprised when Jinx was the first one to arrive after him. She smiled when she saw him and said. "Everyone talking about what you did to the impact machine." Cyborg shrugged felt kind of embarrased. "So what if I broke the machine, big deal." He spoke calmly, though in truth he felt almost proud that he had busted the machine.

Jinx shook her head and laughed. "You don't understand. Those aren't normal workout machines. They're made out of some sort of space metal that's superior to any earth metal. No one has ever broken one of the work out machines. Blood Brother designed them to be unbreakable." When Cyborg heard this, he couldn't stop himself from grinning. "So maybe Brother Blood needs to find tougher metal." As he said this Jinx laughed and stepped closer so that she was right next to him.

She starred at him and shook her head helplessly. "How do you do it, Stone? You've only been at the Hive a few days, and you're the most popular person hear." Cyborg rubbed his neck, unsure how to response to this praise. "I don't know about that, Jinx." Jinx just shook her head. "Maybe you don't, but I do. Everyone likes you, and I can see why. You smart, smarter than most of the Hive actually, but at the same time your the top fighter. Your stronger than anyone in the Hive, but you don't let it go to your head. Even though your smarter, tougher and as stronger than everyone else, you're nice to all of us and treat us as equals. You don't have any weaknesses." As she spoke, Cyborg slowly felt himself drawn to her. No girls ever talked to me this way. Even back when I was human, most of them either ignored me or made fun of me. After my accident, the only girls who would even talk to me were Star Fire and Raven, and even they treated me as a teammate and a super hero, not as teenage boy.

When Jinx finished speaking, Cyborg leaned closer and said. "You forgot charming, handsome, and most of all, dieing to kiss you." Jinx smiled and whispered. "I think I can help you there." And with that she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. Cyborg felt his heart stop as their lips met, and he felt as if he had a a monster in his chest, roaring in triumph. They broke apart for a second, both grinning. Jinx was blushing, and Cyborg could tell from the warmth on his face that he was to. But he he didn't care. He leaned forward again, and as their lips met again, he let the passion and burning desire he felt for her flow through his lips, showing rather than telling her how he felt. Only moments later he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. He could feel her body pressing against his, her lips on his. How long they stood their, Cyborg will never know. He had never kissed a girl before, and he had never felt about a girl before like the way he felt for Jinx. Even though he had only known her for 10 days, he felt drawn to her, drawn to her more than any girl in his entire life. And he some how knew that Jinx felt the same way.

Cyborg and Jinx were so wrapped up in each other, literally and metaphorically, they failed to notice Mammoth and Gizmo enter the room. When the two saw Jinx and Cyborg, they stopped in their tracks and starred dumbly. Finally Gizmo found his voice and said slyly. "I don't mean to interrupt, but todays match is a last team standing match, there are 12 enemies from four team, match starts in less than a minute, and we still haven't gone over our strategy." When he spoke up, both Cyborg and Jinx broke apart and looked away. Cyborg cleared his throat and looked at his two male teammates, both who were grinning. Even though they were his friends, their grins made him slightly nervous. I don't know what their thinking, but odds are it isn't good. Knowing those two, their planning some joke or prank for Jinx and me.

Cyborg asked calmly, while glancing at Jinx out of the corner of his eyes. "Who are our enemies." As Gizmo outlined their match, Jinx and Cyborg got ready for the fight, getting over their feeling and preparing for the match, knowing that if they had to work as a team if they wanted to win. The team quickly came up with a stratigey. Only moments later the bell rang and the door leading to the arena opened up. As they strode into the middle Arena, Cyborg paused and grabbed Jinx's hand.

Unsure of what to say exactly, Cyborg decide to be blunt. "Hey Jinx, later tonight, do you mind if I come by your room and hang out with you." He paused and glanced at Gizmo and Mammoth. "Preferably without those two clowns." Jinx's face lit up with a grin. She's REALLY cute when she smiles. Cyborg thought. "Sure! Come by when ever you feel like. I'll be waiting!" And then Jinx suddenly stepped forward and kissed him again, shocking Cyborg. She stopped and stepped back just as suddenly, grinning fiendishly. THE WHOLE HIVE IS WATCHING! Cyborg thought mortified. And seconds later, to his complete and utter embaresment, the crowd erupted into wolf wistles, cheers and even a few cries telling them do kiss again.

Cyborg whispered to Jinx while looking around at all the kids in the crowd. "Did you have to do that in front of everyone?" Jinx only nodded and smiled fiendishly again. "Oh yes I did!" She said, surprising Cyborg by her lack of modesty. She just kept grinning and said playfully. "That was to warn off all the other girls that your taken." What the heck is she talking about? He thought stupidly. "Taken?" He asked, unable to control himself. "Yea, taken, as in you already have a girlfriend." And with that she turned away and surveyed the other team as they filed out into the arena. As his team squared up against the other team, Cyborg could only think of one thing. I have a girlfriend!

As the match clock countdown began, Cyborg focused on the upcoming battle, but that thought was never far from his heart. Cyborg didn't know what came over him, maybe it was the fact that for the first time in his life everything was going great, or maybe he just wanted to show off to Jinx, or maybe it was one of the other many reasons that he could think of. What ever the reason was, Cyborg suddenly felt as if he was invincible. He activated his rings and channeled his feeling into his rings, making his body as strong as possible. As he felt himself grow harder and harder, he became aware that his body was no longer rock, but crystal!

He didn't stop to think about this new change, instead he roared at the top of his lungs as the bell rang for the match to begin and, putting all thoughts of strategy aside, he charged forward, the the Arena floor shaking with every pounding step he took. He heard people yelling in shock at his transformation, and as he closed in on the other teams, which had come together to fight and were fighting each other. As he aproached, he saw that they didn't know what to make of his charge. Grinning to himself, he roared at the top of his lungs again and charged towards the middle of their formation, Mammoth, Jinx and Gizmo following his lead and charging after him, screaming their battle cries. The other teams panicked and tried to scatter, but not before Cyborg reached them. With a triumphant cry he swung his crystal arms, sending enemies flying in every direction. The few he missed tried to run, but Gizmo and Mammoth reached them first, attacking with wild abandon, fueled by Cyborg's fearlessness. A few of the people Cyborg had sent flying tried to get back up, but Jinx took care of them, sending them sailing through the air again with her most powerful spells. The "battle", if you could call it that, was over in seconds. All 12 enemies lay on the ground, unconsious or unable to move.

Cyborg looked up at the clock of the Arena and was stunned to see it frozen at 9.7 seconds. He deactivated his rings and threw his hands into the air, yelling in triumph. He turned to his teammates and grinned. "Yea baby, and that's how Team 6 roles!" He said, yelling out loud for all to hear. The crowd was screaming in support, amazed by the speed of the match. As the four of them walked back towards their team locker room, all of their enemies defeated and all their peers cheering them on with wild abandon, Cyborg felt like he was the happiest man in the world. Truth be told, at that moment, he probably was. Little did he know that he would soon have to make the hardest decision of his life, a decision so important that it would change his entire life, forever.

Please Review! How am I doing so far. I know this is based on an actual episode, but I am taking the story in a completly fresh direction. Hope you liked it.