Disclaimer: I DISclaim.
Chapter 3: Going and Going…
Cyborg skimmed over the information files. All the numbers registered just perfectly as he scrolled through them. Keystroke after keystroke he his fingers slid across the keyboard in his lap. He never missed a stroke.
They were the feedback reports on his bi-annual check-up. Checking every little crawl space of his electrical wiring to prevent any future bugs or problems. Same old stuff for the mechanical boy.
He cut off a yawn, his hands still moving gracefully across the keyboard.
Virus scanning was clean. Memory had plenty of room left, the temporary or useless files had been cleaned away for needed room.
There were no rusting or broken circuits and he was maintaining a 100 percent efficiency.
He listened to the sound of the other titans downstairs as he pulled up the last figures of the report. There was laughing and some kind of music playing.
Though Cyborg never had problems, he always liked to do the overview alone. There's was something about it that was all too personal.
Truly, it was his entirely flashing across the screen. For anyone other than the metal man, it would have been strange.
Mechanical effects we're working fine. His built in light system was flawless and his battery was-
His finger's skipped a beat, hitting a wrong key.
His battery was dying. Cyborg bit his lip, putting the keyboard back on the stand. He stood with a quickness that left his computer chair spinning.
The internal battery had a way of burning out rather quick and every time he had to replace it there was a deep sense of foreboding. He only had so many, and that part of his self was no longer replicate-able.
His father, working at S.T.A.R. Labs had been the only one able to create the tech he needed. Initially he had created plenty of gadgets to replace the wear and tear.
Of course, those things run out especially quick when you're a super hero.
And then his father died.
Cyborg moved across the room and stopped in front of a door. Inside concealed all his extra parts.
What he had left was all there would ever be. It was frightening, more than anything else he could dream, that someday there wouldn't be any left.
End of the assembly line.
Instead of growing old, dying of disease or fatigue he would simply shut off.
Like a damn computer.
He input his code number and verified voice recognition. The metal door hissed open, the automatic lights flickering on inside the small room. There were tall shelves categorized carefully with every little part that made Cyborg.
Solemn, he crossed the threshold, feeling phantom shivers up his robotic arms. Coming back to this room was like temping death, one day there wouldn't be what he needed.
But there had to be a battery left.
He sighed and turned down another row, sliding sideways in the small space. There were small labels, half peeling, on the shelving to try and identify the item. Cyborg had come back enough times for a battery to know where they were without looking.
He reached up above his head on a shelving, arching on his tip toes when he couldn't feel one.
Swiping clean air, Cyborg withdrew his arm. A kind of sick feeling settled into his stomach.
In truth, he had never really looked up onto the shelf to see how many were left. It would upset him too much to be counting down his life. He knew, as soon as he learned how many we're left he would calculate the amount of life he had left.
He was a machine, it was only natural.
But he could no longer reach the black box he was after… it was time to see how many were left.
Though the temperature conditions in the room were rather cold, and he had internal cooling, the boy was giving off a heavy sweat. He tread back through the room to his computer, grabbing the computer chair.
Lifting it over his head, he hauled it back into the room. His heart was hammering and his breath was choppy.
The laughter downstairs now made him sick and nervous.
He put the chair down and rolled it beside the shelving. His breath came out in a small puff from the heat he was generating in his anxious state.
What would he do if there were none left?
Ever since Starfire had regaled them of her visit to the future he had worried about his parts. In her future he had run out. He was stuck depending on the power from the tower to keep him running.
It would be worse than any kind of jail imaginable. You were the only thing keeping yourself from freedom.
He gripped the top of the chair, carefully stepping onto it. It inched a bit under his weight, but held him. He used the shelving to help steady himself as he raised to full height.
Suddenly, all the higher shelves were within eyesight.
And in the very back of the shelf on which he was looking… was two black glossy batteries.
Only two.
If he was still capable, he might have cried. He snatched the two with one arm and stumbled off the back of the chair. It fell over with a clatter as he dismounted.
His mind was already averaging the past battery lifetimes and doubling it. It gave him… somewhere between one and two years.
His throat was thick and he felt as though he couldn't swallow. On his way out of the room he smacked the reset and close button. The door snapped shut behind him, followed by the clicking of locks.
The computer part of his mind was theorizing ways to fix this. He could stay plugged in most of the time, using batteries only for missions. Spend his time trying to replicate the battery (something he had tried many times and lost precious batteries doing so). He could always-
He stopped thinking that way. He was more human, the machine did not get to decide what to do.
The boy dropped the two energy sources on his computer desk, before moving over to a chair on the other side of the room. He dropped into it with a smack, his face falling into his hands as he groaned. Sadly disheveled he tried to sort out where to start.
He had friends, team mates, practically his family just downstairs. How could he possibly tell them? How could he be so selfish as to weight them down with the secret of his problem?
Cyborg muttered to himself incoherently, wishing for a way to release the depressed feeling that had quickly swallowed his insides.
Why, why, why?
It was unfair! All he did was work and help to protect the good and defeat the evil. Everything in his ability he did to accomplish this. So why was he to be chained down, sentenced to a life worse than death while evil constantly broke free?
He slammed a fist into the nearby wall without thinking.
It resounded loudly, immediately recalling his attention. He jumped out of the chair alarmed at the chunk of wall that was crumbling to the floor. Downstairs had gotten oddly quiet.
He cursed himself, faltering over to the door to his lab, knowing the rest of the Titans would be arriving soo-
"What was that?" Robin slid into the room, looking tense and on guard. Raven appeared next from a black puddle, followed by a floating Starfire and a bird Beast Boy.
Cyborg tried his best to fill the range of view so the four wouldn't catch the hole or the two batteries. "Just got a little angry with a game station game that wouldn't load on my computer." He covered, hoping he still wasn't sweating.
Robin shifted, giving him a curious expression. He sidled sideways slightly, assessing that something wasn't quite… right.
"Stand down." Robin called waving an arm at the three behind him.
"Sweet, Star ya still up for another round?" Beast Boy called. There was an agreement from the girl, and the scrambling sound of their leave.
Raven paused, staring at her leaders back.
Robin seemed to feel her eyes on him. "I'll be right there." He spoke without turning to her.
She nodded anyway and disappeared in a flare of black wings.
Cyborg now turned his attention to the one left. Robin, though shorter, looked up at him with equal eyes.
"Care to talk about it?" The Boy Wonder raised one eyebrow.
"Talk about what?" Cyborg rubbed his neck, feeling the slick perspiration still there.
Robin shook his head slowly and sighed to himself. "Someone once told me only the selfish and untrusting keep their problems to themselves." He gave Cyborg a meaningful look, before turning and leaving.
Cyborg stood still until Robin had left the room and his heavy metal footsteps were fading away. As if timed, his shoulders slumped and Cyborg deflated once more.
In his absence, his internal computer had begun running once more in its cold calculating ways.
Cyborg slid to the floor, leaning against the wall and closing his eye. He didn't have enough energy to care.
His insides wretched at the double meaning of that thought.
When he finally opened his eye, a glinting from the other side of the room caught his interest. The two boxes reflected the light of his computer monitor.
Maybe he should just virus himself up until he crashed. At least then he wouldn't be wasting away his life until his parts just stopped. He picked at the tiled floor with his mechanical fingers. It peeled away easily.
Disgusted with its fragility, he turned away from it. Instead he picked at the wiring along his knee. It was so intricate, taking such time to put together… and he could rip it up in an instant if he wanted.
The boy felt antsy. What was he to do now?
The batteries mocked him from across the room. Stupid infernal things. He hated depending on other things. He wished to be self sufficient… to be human.
But no, he was the exception to life. He was the one with that proved cheating death was an option. To some he was an abomination. No Gods or religion was kindly to an abomination.
There was a prick of a nerve in his mind. He looked down at his knee he had been subconsciously scratching at. A few wires were frayed, one completely detached.
The small portion of his knee was black.
The light always dimmed to dark.
Cyborg pushed himself up, tired of sitting there idly. Instead, he moved over to the plug in, reeling his port out.
He jammed it into the plug and hit the shut down button. Before his calculating side could warn him of equipment malfunction and misuse he shut down.
In sleep mode, the glowing blue of his circuits faded to black. It matched the inky color of the two last batteries, one of which Cyborg had yet to find out didn't work.
I actually developed a lot of ideas while writing this. I may transfer a few into a story eventually, because Cyborg is such an interesting and complex character.
Review and let me know what you thought.
:Bloody Fae: