I got some wonderful plot bunnies from some wonderful readers (I'm looking at you Kunneg Andris) which I'm totally planning to use and was inspired to add in some extra characters (Fate of Chaos -super cool username by the way :) so thank you! ALSO, mmmmm. Sorry it took so long to update this too, my other stories had taken priority and, well. I've had this is typed out for ages, just never posted it, but it's here now! Yay!

Roy's life did not flash before his eyes as a gigantic bus hurtled at him. Something blue did however, effectively saving his life and ending the bus's.

It had looked like a huge incredibly strong flashlight that had the ability to blow things up. He scanned the area around him, but Roy was pretty sure no one was there except for Donna, Robin, and himself. That was to say, Donna and himself, since Robin was no where in sight.

Any sane civilians had fled way earlier. And this wasn't Gotham, so the majority of the people weren't psychopaths. He looked around nevertheless, but the only person he saw was a hooded figure with a glowing blue fist- oh. The figure jumped off of the pizza joint he'd been on perched on top of - seriously? What type of city has two story pizza restaurants? - and started walking toward the alien who'd thrown ip the bus.

Roy squinted at it, trying to get a closer look. He was no Batman, but he was pretty sure that it was a dude. Wearing a hoodie and sweatpants. Who also must have had a severe case of pinkeye, because he was pretty sure that the dude's right eyeball was glowing red.

"Yo!" the guy - his suspicions were confirmed - called to the alien. "This is my city! You want to get out?" He blasted the alien with his glowing blue fist, and Roy was kind of surprised to hear a whirring sound.

The alien made a warbling noise before falling to the ground.

The guy's hood had fallen from the strength of the blast. The teenager - he was seventeen at most - had skin that reminded him of the fish boy- Kaldur or something. He was bald, which Roy would have found odd for a teenager if almost half his face hadn't been mechanical, and his if his right eye hadn't actually been glowing red. His one dark eye narrowed at him, but he looked sad. Roy knew the feeling.

"Take a good long look! I know it! I'm a freak."

Roy looked and saw the guy's fists, they were both mechanical. He looked at his own false limb, and gripped it, watching it become silver and plated again. He met the older teen's eyes - that red one was suspiciously good at glaring - and offered a smirk.

"I think you're a step up from a boy who runs around in tights to fight crime with a bow and arrow."

, The older boy's good eye widened, and when it became clear that Roy had shocked him into silence, he decided to make the first move. "You can call me Speedy. Or a Freak. Whichever." Roy extended his hand.

The older boy snorted, looking not depressed - pressed? He'd ask Robin later - for the first time since they'd met. "Little man, I could call you anything, and you want me to call you Speedy?"

Roy glared at him, and gestured wildly to his - still outstretched, thank you very much - hand. "Usually, this is the part where you say your name, we shake hands, and stare deeply into each other's eyes."

"Victor. Victor Stone. My friends call me- used to call me Vic. Now they call me Cyborg," the older teen looked down at the ground, clearly remembering something private.

"Well, we're friends now too, so I'll call you Cyborg too," Roy said. Normally he wouldn't be so outgoing, but he'd never run into someone going through the same my-limbs-are-gone-and-I-have-mechanical-replacements-instead issues before. It was kind of nice. "Now the handshake, and finally we gaze into one another's souls."

Victor - no wonder he was so grumpy with a name like that - smirked and finally shook the archer's hand. His mechanical hand.

"Friends, huh?" Vic said, clearly, to himself.

"And we've gotta stick together!" Roy declared, trying to gauge the guy's patience as he dragged him along. "This entire stupid city is stuffed with aliens. Let's go blast 'em!"

"What'd you just say about my city, little man?"