The 12 Labors of Cyborg

Disclaimer: I honestly do not own Teen Titans, though I would really like to. I do own the character of Emily. I'm sure you guys really want her, too…

A/N: No, really- it's relevant.

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Hippolyte's Belt

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He had dreams about beating up Beast Boy all night. After severely cowing the green changeling, he and Starfire had found the negative tattered beyond repair. Cyborg had chased Beast Boy from the room- the last time they had seen him, he had been hiding on the roof. After Robin spent a fair remainder of the rest of the night making photography-related wise cracks, Cyborg had finally been able to get some rest.

He woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. And he knew exactly why… he had a date. A date!

All thanks to Beast Boy's stupidity, of course.

He moved restlessly about all day, shining his armor, updating his internal circuitry with the snappiest lines, and basically stressing out over the whole ordeal. After all, he hadn't gone on an actual date in… well… forever. The half-cybernetic angle tended to turn most girls off.

 He went, he picked her up, and they drove over to the restaurant. Emily was a rather feeble communicator- either she was terrified, or the hang-dog, worried, 'I'm going to die' look was her default expression.

Dinner… dinner was a good idea for a first date. Even before their food arrived, though, they had pretty much run out of ordinary, every day topics to talk about… Cyborg, at least at the moment, didn't want to talk about being a superhero unless his date brought it up, and she apparently didn't have anything… at all… to say.

A long moment of awkward silence followed.

Robin appeared at Cyborg's elbow just then. "We need to talk," he said.

Cyborg blinked. He glanced over at his date, and then back at Robin. "What… now?" He demanded, a little relieved for the interruption… but he wasn't about to let Emily know that.

Robin nodded. "It's important," he said. Cyborg sighed, and followed Robin out of the main dining room, into the kitchen. As soon as they were out of earshot of Cyborg's date, Robin began talking urgently. "Okay, so I took the liberty of looking into your date…"

"Gee, thanks."

"And it turns out that she's a lunatic," Robin delivered this calmly.

Cyborg glanced past the team leader into the next room. Emily was patiently fiddling with her glass. She scratched her cheek. The clerk looked bored… maybe a little nervous, but that was it. The half-metal man turned his attention slowly back to Robin. "Reaaaaally," he drawled, "That's funny. Because she doesn't look like a psycho to me."

Robin nodded sharply. "That's right- rehabilitated in Arkham for two years. They called her the Black Widow- she had a special toxin in her saliva that was either poisonous or turned people's brains into mush."

"Mush?" Cyborg repeated incredulously.

The Boy Wonder nodded emphatically. "Mush. And I think she also ate some of them."

Cyborg rolled his non-cybernetic eye. "Look, Robin, I appreciate you going out of your way to be all paranoid on me, but I met her behind the desk of a craft store. That doesn't seem like the height of villainy to me."

"Maybe it was an evil craft store," Robin suggested.

"It wasn't," Cyborg growled, with narrowing eyes.

Robin looked confused. "But aren't attacking origami swans evi-"

Cyborg pushed Robin towards the service exit. "Really, I think I have it under control…"

"But she's-" Robin began, before the door closed behind him. Cyborg wiped his hands together in satisfaction, turning around and heading back out into the dining hall. The cook watched him go with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Sorry about that," Cyborg said, sitting back down and trying not to look one bit paranoid, "Important super-hero stuff."

Emily leaned forward, looking excited. Still extremely nervous, but excited at the same time… it had to be her eyes that made her look so nervous. She was really confusing him. "You must do important super hero stuff like that all the time."

Cyborg resisted the urge to puff up his chest importantly. "Well, I don't like to brag…"

He didn't like to… but he did. The entire meal.

As the two made their way back to the car, walking in utter silence up the quiet, warm streets, Cyborg reflected on some of the more idiotic things he had managed to say during the date. It wasn't his fault… Emily would hardly respond to him. Maybe she was shy… that had to be it. He kind of liked her. He glanced over at her… she looked like she was afraid she was going to die. Cyborg grinned to himself… some lunatic! Robin must have gotten his sources crossed.  Either that or he was jealous that Cyborg had a date, and a date that wasn't an alien, either.

She looked really worried though… almost terrified. "You alright?" He finally asked. Where was the car? He grumbled to himself… didn't he leave it right at the corner?

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Emily replied quietly. She shot him a grin- but that didn't make her look any less terrified. Cyborg hesitantly returned the smile.

Then he turned back to the task of finding his car. "Didn't… I thought we parked here…"

"The corner of Elm and 3rd- yeah. This is it."

"Then where's the car?" Cyborg kept his voice calm… inside he was having a bit of a nervous break down. If some thugs stole his car… when he was on a date… he would destroy ever car-jacking ring in the city with his bare hands. That was all there was to it. Death and mayhem would rain down upon all the criminals in the…

…someone broke a board over his head.

Cyborg stumbled backwards, and then turned around to see just who was stupid enough to hit someone who clearly had a metal skull. There were two of them- one was trying to drag off his date, the other was staring at the broken pieces of the board with uncertainty.

"You picked the wrong date to ruin," Cyborg growled. He grabbed both pieces of the board and repeated the previously failed maneuver on the goon, and then grabbed the other guy and bounced him off of the side of the nearby building. Neither one got back up… that had been kind of simple.

"Are you okay?" Cyborg asked, turning worriedly back towards Emily.

She didn't look terrified, not anymore. "Oh, you were so brave!" She exclaimed.

Cyborg resisted the urge to flex and show off some more. "Well, I'm a superhero. Fighting crime is what I do," he said cheerfully. He turned back towards the two fallen goons, trying to figure out if he should just leave them here, or drag them to the jail, or what.

He felt Emily's breath on the back of his neck. "So brave," she repeated.

There was a rather pleasant tingling sensation on the back of his neck as she kissed it. "What are you doing?" Cyborg began.

That was when she bit him.

He was unconscious before he hit the ground.