Well...This took much longer than I planned. I'm also not very happy with how this chapter ended. I'll get more into this at the end as usual. For now, enjoy what's good about this.
The Machine
The ball is snapped, and the quarterback throws a long drive. Victor caught the pass with ease and ran for all he was worth; which is now considerably more than the last time he tried out. The other players tried to stop him, but he either avoided them over forced them out of his way with more strength than his otherwise lathe frame would suggest.
Making it to the end zone, Victor spiked the ball and tore off his helmet in celebration. The other players, the ones Vic hadn't mowed down at least, all cheered him on. "Good work, Stone! Good work!" The coach walked onto the field, meeting Vic half way.
"Thanks, coach. So, what do you think, did I make the team?"
"Did you?" The coach slung an arm around Vic's shoulders, "Son, after what you did today, I'm starting you in the next game." Victor smiled in unbridled joy, he finally made it.
That last play just sealed the fact that the thin framed student was Metropolis High Centurions' material. He had been performing far above expectations all day, though considering his performance last try-out (And all those before) that isn't really saying much. He ran faster, threw farther, dodged quicker, and tackled harder than any other player on the field, including the varsity players.
He couldn't help but feel like he's cheating, but what people don't know can't hurt them, right?
"Victor!" The coach and Victor look over and see a middle-aged man with glasses and a well-tailored suit glaring at them. Victor grimaces and swears under his breathe while the couch walks up to him, "Mr. Stone, great timing! I was just congratulating Vic on finally making the team." He holds out his hand to Vic's father.
"Dr. Stone, Coach Whitmore." He says ignoring the extended hand and emphasizing the Doctor.
A bit unnerved, the coach retracts his hand. "Uh...right. Well I don't know what you've been feeding this kid, but..."
"I'm sorry coach," Dr. Stone interrupted, "But I'm afraid Victor will have to rescind his offer to join your team."
"WHAT!?" Both Vic and Coach Whitmore asked at the same time.
"Dad, you know how long I've wanted this. You can't just-"
"That's enough Victor!" Dr. Stone's voice drawing more attention to the situation than he wanted, he lowered it to address his son. "Do. Not. Argue with me. Not now. Go get changed and I'll meet you at the car." He then turned and walked away.
Vic's face contorted in frustration, "I don't believe it! He can't do this!"
"I'm afraid he can son. The rules say you need a parent's permission to be on the team." Vic's shoulders sagged and he let out a depressed sigh. Coach was right. He didn't even know why he tried out in the first place. Maybe if his dad saw him make the team, or saw how good he was now...Or maybe he just wanted to prove that he could make the cut. Prove it to who exactly, he wasn't completely sure.
Either way, it didn't matter at this point. The coach put a hand on Vic's shoulder, "It alright Vic. Maybe you and your old man can talk about this and work it all out, huh?" Whitmore blew his whistle to get the teams attention; probably to tell them Vic wasn't joining the team. Victor wasn't sure; he wasn't really paying attention as her walked back to the locker room.
"Work it out?" Vic scoffs, "Fat chance."
Vic got changed and exited the school building, seeing his dad's car right away. It wasn't hard; Dr. Stone always parked in front of the school. Mostly because he was rarely in the school for more than ten minute.
As soon as Vic got comfortable in the passenger seat, his dad laid into him, "What were you thinking, Victor!?" Vic flinched at the tone of his voice. "Trying out for a contact sport; with your enhancements? Of all the reckless, irresponsible thing you could have done..."
"Dad, I know what I'm doing. I've had the cybernetics for three months now; and if I could handle eggs without breakin' 'em, I can handle a linebacker without breakin' him."
"You don't know that, Victor." Dr. Stone said, becoming aggravated by his son's stubbornness. "We still don't know what your upper limits are, and we both know you have a temper. What if you hurt someone by accident?"
"Dad..." Vic sighed exasperatedly.
"I'm serious Victor. The operations I did to give you your enhancements are still illegal. They were never sanctioned. If you get anyone hurt, if anyone finds out about your enhancements..."
"Wait; THAT'S what you're worried about? Going to jail?"
"Victor, it's not that simple..."
"Y'know what?" Victor said shaking his head, "I'm not even surprised. All you've ever done is care about yourself!" In his anger, Victor slammed a fist into the car door, sending it flying across the parking lot.
Caught off guard by the accidental show of strength, and not wanting to hear an "I told you so" from his dad, Vic jumped out of the car and ran off, "Victor! Wait!" But his father was the last person he wanted to see right now.
A little less than an hour later Victor found himself aimlessly wandering through Metropolis. He had calmed down a fair bit since leaving his dad and was even willing to admit he may have overreacted a bit. The surgery that saved his life had been illegal. It was untested and if something had gone wrong Victor could have died. It was understandably he'd be worried about being arrested.
But in his defense, Silas Stone has never been the best father in the world. A part of him was still kinda surprised his dad would take that kind of risk. It made him remember everything that happened three months ago.
Tryouts had ended a while ago but Victor was still sitting on the bench, every muscle in his body screaming in pain. Just like last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. He'd been trying out for the team every year since middle school, and at this point he was starting to think Coach Whitmore only allowed him to keep trying to get a laugh out of the other players.
Sometimes he wondered why he still even tried. He sat there for a good while, wallowing in self-pity and because he could barely move (Did I mention how much pain he was in?) when a blonde boy walked up to him and sat on the bench next to him.
"So..." He started, "How'd it go?"
"How do you think, Gar?" Vic replied with his head still down.
"I'm sorry dude," Gar said, patting his friend's shoulder and causing him to wince, "Sorry."
"Is it possible for your hair to hurt?"
Gar and Vic sat in silence for a moment before the blonde said, "Y'know, Vic...I know that this is where I'm supposed to be the supportive best friend. Say something like, 'Don't worry, man, you'll make it next year.' Or, 'You just need to train a little harder.' But, dude, real talk?" Victor looked at his friend, already sure what he's about to say, "I think it might be time to call it quits." He said grimacing, as if the words physically hurt to say.
Victor just looks back down and closes his eyes. Gar, more gently this time, puts a hand on Vic's shoulder, "Hey, man...I just..."
But Victor cuts him off with a raised hand, "Naw, man...It's alright." He sighed and rubbed his face. He knew Gar's platitudes would be as hollow and meaningless as he made them seem. After more than five years, the chances that Vic would make the team as a senior were basically zero. It wouldn't matter how much he trained or practiced (Hell, he'd only gained four or five pounds after an entire summer's worth of training and an all protein diet) he'd never be fast or strong enough to join. Not without steroids at least.
"Y'know," Gar started, "Maybe football just isn't your thing. Why don't you join drama club with me this year? It could be fun."
Vic shook his head and chuckled lightly, "Yeah, 'cus I'm in a big hurry to wear tights and sing show tunes."
"Hey, I don't wear tights." Then Gar thought for a second, "Well, okay I did for A Mid-Summer Night's Dream last year. But I don't think we're doing any Shakespeare this year. Or musicals." He assured his injured friend.
The failed athlete sighed again. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. You can only stay with a dream for so long before it becomes an exercise in futility. And he'd get to hang out with Gar a bit more. Not to mention drama club tends to attract some very pretty women. And hell, he didn't even have to act; not that he was sure if he could or not. If he can build a computer by himself he could work lights or something like that.
The alarm on his phone goes off, and Vic groans as he slowly stands up. "I'm late." As the mass of raw nerves known as Victor Stone takes a minute to steady himself and prepare for the agony that is walking, he says to his blonde friend, "Look, I'll think about the whole drama club thing, Gar. But for right now I gotta pick up dad so we can get to Suzie's dance recital."
"Right, later Vic." They fist bump, and part, Victor slowly walking to the showers.
It took Vic a bit longer than he'd like admit to change and get to his car, but if he hurried he could still make it to the dance studio. Assuming, of course, he didn't get into it with his father...Again.
He made it to S.T.A.R. Labs with less than half an hour to spare. The attendant at the front desk gave him a key care for his father's lab. Normally you'd need an appointment for something like that to happen, but since Victor is Dr. Stone's son, he can enter the lab anytime; provided the doctor isn't performing important or dangerous experiments that shouldn't be interrupted.
Of course that wasn't the only reason, it's not like little Suzie could just walk into Dr. Stone's lab whenever she wanted. Victor's passion may be football, but he is also just as skilled in engineering and robotics as his father and late mother. Victor would often help Dr. Stone on experiments and prototypes when he had the time. It was some of the few times the two weren't yelling at each other.
But of course that just brought up more issues for them to deal with. Victor's technical brilliance was the only thing Silas was proud of him for. He didn't support or appreciate Vic's love of sports.
Victor Walked into his father's office to see him working on some kind of paper work. "Dad...?"
Silas looked up to his son examined him quickly, then went right back to his work. "I take it you didn't make the team."
Vic scowled at his father, even though he obviously wasn't paying attention to him. "Naw, I didn't."
"Surprise, surprise." Silas sighed and took off his glasses. "Victor, you've been trying out for that pointless sport for years. Don't you think it's about time you gave up on this nonsense and focused more on you grades?"
"Dad, I have a 3.7 GPA. My grades are fine."
"That doesn't sound like a 4.0 to me." He says while putting his glasses back on and returning to his work.
Vic closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm. Doing his best to not argue with his dad, it'd only waste more time. "Fine, whatever. Are you ready to go?"
"Go?" Silas looked at Victor with a cocked brow.
"To Suzie's recital." Vic sighed and rubbed his brow, "You forgot again."
"I'm sorry Victor. I need to finish these equations. I'm not going to be able to make it."
"Dad..." Vic said exasperated, "Come on. You can't miss this one."
"I can't make it, Victor. I'm sorry. Tell Suzie I'll come next time."
"You said that last time! Do you have any idea how long that girl's been practicing? Or how excited she was to show you how good she's gotten?"
"Fine, Victor. I'm sure someone will be recording the whole thing, just have whoever it is send me a copy and we'll watch it at home together."
"It isn't about you watching it," Victor ground out through gritted teeth losing more and more of his composure as the conversation continued. "It's about you being there! It's about your daughter looking into the crowd to see her father watching her dance!"
Silas took a deep breath, they both knew it was gonna come down to this. It usually did. Silas and Victor always argued when they were alone for more than two minutes. It may have been a simple father/son thing or something deeper. Probably something deeper.
Pretty damn certain it's something deeper. "Listen to me Victor: What we're doing here, it's important. If I can get these equations right, I'll have carte blanche to start human testing. The cybernetic enhancements we're working on could save millions of lives. I'm sure Suzie will understand why I couldn't go."
"I'm sure she will. But that doesn't mean she won't be heartbroken knowing you missed ANOTHER one of her shows."
"But at the very least she'll have better control over her temper than you." Silas put his glasses back on and prepared to get back to work, "Now if you'll excuse me..."
"Mom would have come." Silas stopped moving, it was hard to tell if he was even breathing. "She would have dropped everything she was doing the second I stepped in the door would have been in the damn car before I could get a word out. You know she would." Victor was surprisingly calm with his words. Usually he'd be screaming at his father by now, to the point where someone would come bursting into the room to make sure they weren't trying to murder each other. But bringing up his mother hurt him just as much as he'd hoped it would Silas.
And it did. The subject of Elinore Stone was the one thing on the planet that could well and truly affect Silas. She was the reason he came to bed before sunrise, didn't spend a full twenty hours at the lab, and actually took the time to see his damn family. But when she died, as horribly cliché as it sounds, a part of him died with her.
And it dies every time Victor brings her up again, because he always has to say, "Well, I'm not you mother. Now get out." Silas sat back down and continued his work. A haunted quiet in the way he spoke.
Victor didn't bother trying to say anything else, he just left. The "Mom Card" was an extremely dangerous tactic to use, as it usually left both of the emotionally sore for a few hours. It was usually also a futile tactic besides. Sometimes it would spur his father into some kind of action, even if it wasn't the type of action Victor expected, but more often than not it just caused him to close up even tighter.
And to make things worse, the time he wasted arguing with his dad made Vic late for Suzie's recital. Fortunately, Vic made in about half way through her class's performance. Vic could see a flicker of joy in his sister's face for all but a second before a clear look of disappointment became apparent. But she tried to be strong and continued her part of the performance without missing a beat.
Well, okay she did miss a few beats here and there, as did pretty much every other girl in the routine. They were five to eight years old, what'd you expect? This was an elementary school performance after all, so none of the acts showcased were anything resembling good, but that's not why anyone in the audience was actually there. It was to see their children dancing around in colorful costumes being cute.
After Suzie's class finished their routine Vic honestly just kinda clocked out. He tried to pay attention to the other acts...for about five minutes. Then he put on his head phones, played A Tribe Called Quest (Can't go wrong with Old-School) and started surfing the web on his phone until the recital was over.
Vic went backstage to see his sister. She'd already changed out of the tutu she wore during her performance and was talking to some of her friends. "Hey, Suzie!"
"Vicky!" The little girl ran to her brother, using the nickname only she was allowed to use. Suzie was, at least in Vic's opinion, the most adorable child on the planet. She had a bright expressive face, with a bit of baby fat still on her; not unlike many other girls her age. Her dark brown braided hair bounced as she ran, causing the burettes holding them in to click and clack. Vic still couldn't believe he WILLINGLY learned how to braid hair just to be his sister's personally stylist. But it wasn't like there was anyone else to do it.
Suzie ran into Vic's arms allowing him to lift her up, a radiant smile gracing her young face. Vic smiled back at her, "You ready to go?" She nodded, "Alright, then. Say good bye to your friends."
"Bye, girls!" Suzie waved to her friends, and the group of four other girls waved back, saying their own good byes.
Suzie was unusually quiet on the car ride back home. Ordinarily she'd be talking Vic's ear off about any number of subjects. But this time she just sat in the passenger seat silently. "I'm sorry I was late Suz..." Vic started, trying to get his sister to open up. "But I liked ya dance. Matter o' fact I think you were the best one up there." He said with no small amount of pride in his voice. And he really believed Suzie was the best on stage, if for no other reason that the other girls weren't all that good. And she is his sister after all.
The little girl sitting next to him smiles slightly at the compliments. But then she looked down at her hands. After a moment of silence, Vic was about to say something else but Suzie finally spoke, "Why didn't daddy come tonight?"
Vic just kept his eyes on the road and gripped the steering wheel tighter as he thought; It's because he's a selfish excuse for a father and only cares about his damn research. Vic bites back the venomous words and tried to think of something less antagonistic to say.
"He...had some work to do. Dad's been trying to figure out some equations for an experiment. It's 'important'." Even with the less accusing choice of words, Vic had a hard time keeping the bitterness out of his voice.
"Right..." the little dancer said in a small voice, "Daddy's research is important. Not like my stupid recital."
"Suz, come on. You recital wasn't stupid." Vic tried his best to keep Suzie's self-esteem has high as possible, usually by thinking of what his mom would do. When Vic was little, whenever he would do or mention anything that didn't involve something science related, Silas would just tune it out. Now he was doing the same thing to his daughter. It always fell to Elinore to show any kind of interest or affection for little Victor. Even if she had no idea what was going on, Elinore always watch football and basketball games with Vic, asking questions when she was especially lost. It helped Vic immensely growing up with that kind of support.
Suzie unfortunately didn't get the same treatment because Elinore died giving birth. You'd think Silas would hold some kind of subconscious hostility towards Suzie, but in all honesty he treated her better than he ever treated Vic. He actually listened when Suzie talked, and at least he said he go to her recitals. So far he never did, but at least he was trying. It was possible that he saw Suzie as the last piece of Elinore he had to hold on to and decided to go easier on her than he did with Victor.
That's not to say he was a good parent, just slightly better than before. He still failed miserably at showing any real tangible affection to his daughter, and Vic knew that would lead to all kinds of problems. So he made the decision to be to Suzie what Elinore was to him: A pillar of support to compensate for the lack of paternal attention. And he'd like to think it's made a difference in the little girl. Suzie was good at dancing, but Silas never had time to take Suzie to rehearsals or practice despite claiming he wanted to go (At the very least Silas had more respect for the arts than for sports) so Vic took her. He actually took the time to learn how to style girl's hair so she'd look good while dancing and even learned to sew to help make costumes. Suzie even managed to convince, not only Victor, but her Brownie's troop leader to make Vic a Den Mother. That girl could be a politician when she grew up if she wanted.
Vic made it his personally mission to make sure whatever Suzie wanted to do she'd have the confidence to do it. And above everything else make sure that his sister didn't start dancing in a G-string instead of a tutu.
Fortunately it was remarkably easy to get a depressed seven year old to smile again. "Hey Suz; what you say, before we head home, we stop and get some ice cream. Any flavor-"
Vic honestly wasn't sure what happened next. Everything just happening way to fast; and he only remembered bits and pieces. He remembered a truck horn blaring, a pair of bright headlights flashing, and the sound of metal crunching right before everything went black.
His father told him the whole ordeal after he regained consciousness. The truck driver that hit them had apparently been driving for more than twelve hours straight. The only thing keeping him awake was the crap ton of caffeine pills he had taken. Needless to say he wasn't in the best state of mind.
He ran a red light and bashed into Vic's car on the passenger side. A few other cars crashed as well, but Vic and Suzie got the worst of it. Thankfully someone called an ambulance to get as many of the injured to the hospital as soon as possible. Unfortunately even if an ambulance had been there the second the crash happened, it wouldn't have made much difference. Suzie's little body couldn't handle the trauma of the crash and died on impact.
Victor was slightly luckier. He survived the crash and the trip to the hospital; but he was in a coma. Even after surgery, Victor's body was so badly damaged the likelihood of surviving the night was extremely low.
Realizing that he was about to lose the last of his family, Silas decided to do something insane, dangerous, and illegal. Silas insisted that Victor be moved to S.T.A.R. Labs under the pretense of using the advanced medical equipment to make his son as comfortable as possible as they waited for the inevitable. Instead, Silas had convincing his colleagues, Emil Hamilton and T.O. Marrow as well as his intern Sarah Simms, to prepare both his cybernetics experiments and a surgery table. Hamilton performed the majority of the operation while Silas and Marrow made sure the cybernetic enhancements worked properly.
After several hours of surgery, and replacing over seventy percent of his body with cybernetics, Hamilton declared that Victor would pull through. After being told everything; Victor...didn't take it very well. His sister was dead, he was a robotic freak, and because the operation that saved his life was untested and didn't receive government sanction, he had to stay at S.T.A.R. Labs for two months to keep up the pretense that he had a "miraculous recovery" from the first surgery that took place the night of the crash.
And now here he was...Living with a massive secret that could send his dad to jail, possibly for the rest of his life. The cybernetics that couldn't be covered by his clothes had to be covered in a synthetic polymer that resembled human skin. It looked real enough but you could tell the difference if you looked closely.
Just like Vic was now. As he clenched his hand a few times, he could hear the subtle whirl of the hydraulics and motors in his robotic arm and see the unnatural cresses and folds of the polymer. Being a cyborg wasn't nearly as cool as Vic thought it'd be when he was younger. He couldn't really feel anything in his limbs as all four had been partially or completely amputated and replaced. His legs had been completely demolish and were beyond repair; as had his right arm. His left had only been replaced from the elbow down. Most of his internal organs remained intact, damaged but intact. Unfortunately one of his lungs had been punctured and needed to be replaced with an internal respirator. And, just to keep everything running properly, his heart had to be replaced with a high tech pacemaker that had to be recharged every 24 hours to power everything, as well as neural implants in his brain to move his limbs properly.
Part of Vic didn't fell human anymore. Maybe it's the part that a damn robot. He thought to himself looking at his reflection in a store window. He sighed and continued down the street. He'd been walking around for a few hours now; he still didn't know where he was going. Fortunately, one of the good things about being part robot is that he didn't get tired easily.
As he absent mindedly wandered through a residential area, the absolute last thing Vic expected was for an apartment building to burst into flames. The explosion came from the fifth or sixth floors, but would undoubtedly spread throughout the building quickly. Victor stared at the flaming building for a moment debating what he should do. It could take the fire department a few minutes to get here, and people could get hurt in that time. Hell they could get hurt even with them here. And with his enhancements he could get at least a few people out before the fire got too bad.
But this wasn't his job; he might make things worse somehow. And there is Superman. He could probably handle this...But what if he's on another planet or doing something with the Justice League?
Then he heard it, people screaming for help within the housing complex. Everything else fell away and Vic ran straight into the burning building. "I hope I know what I'm doing!"
Vic bashed his way into the building as a group of people make their way out to avoid being burned to death. He stopped one of the tenants as he tried to escape, "Do you know how many people are stuck upstairs?"
"Don't know. Don't care. I'm getting the hell out of here!" Selfish, but Vic couldn't blame him.
He pushed his way upstream through the panicked residents until he made it to the flood below where the fire started...only to find the stairs collapsed. Getting up to the next floor wouldn't be too much trouble thanks to his enhancement, but the extra weight of his cybernetics mixed with the poor structural integrity caused by the fire could cause problems.
But Vic had to get up there. How he was going to get everyone else out he still need to figure out. "I'm really starting to regret doing this." Vic jumped towards the wall of the demolished stairwell. When he made contact with the wall, Vic looked at his destination, and in the half-second before gravity took hold of him (thanks to his neural implants) made the necessary calculations to insure he took the proper trajectory to ensure he ended up in a place where his weight and the impact of his landing wouldn't cause the floor to collapse. Vic kicked off the wall and landed exactly where he needed. The floor cracked slightly, but other than that, there were no issues.
Whatever caused the fire, it spread throughout the building quickly. Most of this floor was burning and almost all of the apartment doors were open. The tenants seemed to notice the collapsed stairs and didn't think they could make the drop (And obviously using the elevator in a fire would be really stupid) so they may have gone higher to avoid the flames and wait for either the firefighter or Superman to save them. Unfortunately, Vic thought, All they have is me right now.
Vic took the time to knock down the closed doors just to make sure no one was home, then made his way to the next floor. There Vic found the tenants either panicking or trying to get their neighbors out of their apartments. The fire had spread to this floor as well, but thankfully not as much as the previous. Vic looked out the window to notice the distinctive red fire trucks surrounding the burning building.
"Hey! Everybody!" The tenants all turn towards the young man in slight surprise and disgust. The heat from the fire had melted some of the synthetic skin covering his cybernetics, making his appearance hard to ignore. "The fire department's here, we just need to get their attention and they'll get you out!" He calls out over the rising sound of crackling fire.
The building's residents murmur to themselves before Vic knocks a wall down. "That should get their attention." And sure enough, a truck drove up to the building and a ladder extended up to the hole. Vic ushered the people to the ladder and helped them down. Before the last people climbed down, Vic stopped him to ask, "How many more floors are in this building?"
"Three, why?"
"Don't worry about it, just get down there." And before he could say anything else, Vic ran towards the stair well. By now most of the building was on fire, but thankfully the firefighters started dowsing the flames. Like the last floor, most of the tenants were freaking out so Vic once again took control of the situation. He could keep smashing down walls like he did last time, so he instead led everyone to the next floor. With only two more floors of people left, if he could get them to the roof maybe the firefighters could rescue them all at once.
This was working pretty well, until they got to the stairs to the top floor. Vic had been leading the ascent up the building, unfortunately the stairs collapsed while he was on them. Vic crawled his way out of the burning rubble, even more of his robotic body being revealed through his torn clothes and fake skin.
A few of the tenants helped drag Vic out of the rubble and got him to his feet. One asked, "What now?"
Vic moved towards the window at the end of the hall, ordering the others to follow him. He smashed a hole in the wall and waved to get another fire truck ladder up to them. Once the ladder was up to them, people started making their way down. However, fire had weakened the building structure enough that the hole Vic knocked in the wall was too much for it and it began to fall apart. Vic pulled the next person to climb down out of the way of a piece of the wall falling down.
Unfortunately the rubble fell on the ladder, snapping it in half and sending the woman climbing down to fall to her death. Fortunately, a red and blue blur swooped down and caught her.
Superman floats in front of Vic and the others holding the woman who fell. "Anyone else need a ride down?" He asked with a warm and comforting smile. There were only a hand full of people left and Superman was able to carry them all down to the street.
Figuring Superman could handle things from here, Vic decided to make himself scarce and bashed through another wall to jump to another build's rooftop. He hopped off the roof into a dark alley and took a minute to catch his breath. He looked himself over and noticed just how messed up he got during the rescue. His clothes had been almost completely burned off. His shirt is in tatters and his jeans might as well be booty shorts with much of them had been burned off. And pretty much every inch of synthetic skin had melted, leaving his robotic part out to be seen by all the world. Vic had to get home before someone saw him.
"That was impressive back there." And someone just saw him.
"Crap..." Vic slowly turns, surprised to see the signature S shield and flowing red cape.
Vic was stunned into silence at seeing Superman gently landing in front of him. "And a relief to be completely honest. Most robots who come to Metropolis just try to wreck things."
"Uh, yeah...Well, I'm not really a robot."
"Yes, I see now." Superman said as his eyes took on a subtle blue tint. "You are mostly organic, and human. So a cyborg."
Vic nodded. "Most of your components look pretty advanced. Who built you?"
Vic scratched the back of his head and looked down. "I uh, can't really tell you."
"You don't know?"
"No, I defiantly know who built me." He said with a sneer.
"So it's to protect someone. I understand." Superman said with a kind tone of voice. I just wanted to thank you. I was caught up with some other business in South America and I couldn't get back here as fast as I wanted. If you hadn't been here, there almost certainly would have been more casualties."
Vic shrugged, "Yeah well...just doing what I can."
"You'd be surprised how many people don't have that kind of mentality. It's good to see more people who do." Superman floated slightly into the air, "Good luck, Cyborg. Maybe we'll meet again." And with that the Man of Tomorrow flew off.
Vic stared at the sky for a few minutes as a grin slowly worked its way onto his face. He just helped Superman. He just saved a bunch of people from a burning building and helped Superman all at the same time. Vic couldn't help a light chuckle escaping his lips as he made his way further into the alleyway. It'll take a while for him to find a way home without people seeing him.
As Victor walked off, Superman land quietly behind the hooded figure that had been spying on the robotic teen. "Well you seem quite interested in that kid. Can I ask why?"
The person turned their head slightly, but kept their face hidden. Then in a distinctly feminine voice said, "I have my reasons." In a puff of black smoke the hooded girl disappeared. Superman looked around quickly. She was just gone. "Magic..." He muttered to himself. He flew back into the night sky deep in thought. Something was happening; he'd have to keep his eyes open.
Just like Starfire, I always planned to bring Cyborg into this story. He's a founding member of the New Teen Titans, and kinda responsible for their most iconic head quarters, Titans Tower. I had the idea of changing Vic's football career more than a little. Instead of being a football star whose career was derailed by the accident that made him Cyborg, he is a failed athlete who finds purpose after the accident.
I loved everything I wrote in this story right up until the fire. I realized while I was writing it that something was off about it. It wasn't until I was almost done that I realized that the fire didn't work thematically. It was just some big crisis to show Vic as a potential hero, but I feel this wasn't the RIGHT crisis. I wanted to try and re-write the scene, but I realized that it had been more than a month since the last chapter, and I didn't really have a better idea, so I just said "F%#k it, I just want to get this out."
Also the end scene with Superman is really lazy, see excuse above.
Up next: The Cloak