The 12 Labors of Cyborg
I don't own Teen Titans, but I do own this story. Not that that does much for me. I mean… I own some fanfiction! What am I going to do with it? I can't sell it… or anything… but if I see it reproduced without my written consent, you're going to be in biiiig trouble. Plagiarism is punished with whips.
Summary: Cyborg is under appreciated. Thus he gets a story centered around him. And I also get an excuse to pound more Greek Mythology into your heads. You people WILL learn something!
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Temporary Insanity
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"Here?"
"No. Lower."
"Here?"
"A little to the right…"
"Here?"
"Down a little bit…"
"DAMMIT MAKE UP YOUR MIND!" Cyborg shouted at the top of his lungs. He wheeled around- the picture frame he had been holding liberated itself from his grip, and went flying across the room, hitting the far wall and shattering into about a million pieces. The photo, a picture of all five of the Teen Titans playing football (Raven standing at the very edge of the picture with an unhappy, forced smile) looked weak and helpless separated from the frame.
Starfire's eyes teared up. Her lips began to tremble. And Cyborg was immediately ashamed.
"Listen Star, I'm sorry, but… er…" contritely he scrambled over to where the remains of the picture frame and the now-homeless photograph were, and tried to clean them up. He carefully picked up the picture- a piece of glass hung onto the edge, before tumbling off and falling knife-like back to the ground.
Timidly, Cyborg stepped back over towards Starfire, holding the picture out to her. Starfire snatched it, hugged it close for a minute, and then pulled it back. She stared carefully at it. For a moment, Cyborg just stood there, not really quite certain what to do… Starfire didn't look like she was going to cry anymore (which he couldn't handle- he hated it when girls cried) but still a hint of misery tugged at the corners of her mouth. "The edge of the picture has been torn," she mumbled, her voice wavering slightly.
"We could just cut off that part…" Cyborg suggested hopefully, looking for any way to divert this situation without getting a starbolt in the chest, or having Starfire mad at him for the next week and a half like the last time he had broken something.
He blinked, realizing that Starfire had wheeled around to face him, her green eyes glowing with an almost deranged light. Cyborg took a step back. "Star…?"
"We must not deface the picture more than has already been done!" Starfire wailed, not shouting at the top of her lungs, but close enough. "If we cut off the damaged piece than we will not be able to see the happy smile of friend Raven!" The golden-skinned alien shoved the picture in Cyborg's face to show him.
Indeed, the small tear in the edge of the photograph had strayed into the picture itself- probably from the added stress of Starfire waving it around, but Cyborg decided to stay quiet. And, if they cut off the part that had been damaged, then most of Raven's head was going to go with it. Cyborg gave the photograph a long, studious look. He rather doubted that Raven would be all that upset to be excluded from the picture. The smile on her face looked painful. Cyborg looked closer… no wonder she was grimacing like that. Robin was poking her in the back with a birdarang.
Forced photography. Cyborg grinned… no wonder Robin's hot dogs all exploded after they had finished their game and sat down for lunch.
"THIS
IS NO LAUGHING MATTER!" Starfire screamed, so suddenly in Cyborg's face that he
withdrew with a cry of shock. He tripped over the edge of the couch, and went
down… hard.
Starfire appeared overhead, then, green eyes wide with shock and panic, hands covering her mouth. "Friend Cyborg!
I am sorry! I did not mean to make you fall…" she offered him her hand
contritely. He took it, rather afraid that she was going to… electrify him… or
something. Could Starfire do that? He wasn't willing to bet against it. The
half-robot dusted himself off, and was about to respond with a satisfyingly
brusque comment about how Starfire was out of control, when Robin and Beast Boy
came running in.
"Dude… we heard an explosion! Did something blow up?" Beast Boy shouted, eyes wide. His eyes traveled from the photograph clutched in Starfire's hands (she had snatched it back from the 'clumsy robot') to the shattered remains of the picture frame against the wall. "Whoa… who blew up the picture frame?"
Starfire turned towards Cyborg with a loud "hmph!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. NOT me. It was an accident, Starfire- the picture slipped, alright? I didn't mean to throw it," Cyborg said quickly, before Robin or Beast Boy started in on him, too.
Beast Boy started laughing… Cyborg wasn't quite certain why, but it wasn't safe… to laugh around an angry Starfire… Robin cleared his throat. "That couldn't have been the sound we heard… what was that crash?" He asked, obviously not willing to get involved in the 'crisis' that had Starfire so wound up.
"Cyborg fell down," Starfire chirped. Beast Boy began to laugh harder- he doubled over, clutching at his stomach, and then fell onto his side, literally rolling on the ground.
For a few moments, no one moved. Beast Boy continued laughing, Starfire glared angrily at Cyborg, Cyborg looked to the ceiling the wall, anywhere but Starfire… and Robin just stood there, a bit of annoyance working into his face. "Alright… so… you broke the picture frame, Cyborg?" Starfire held up the picture and jabbed at the cut. Robin rose one eyebrow. "And you broke the picture? I guess you'll have to go to the Photoshop to get it fixed than… and then to somewhere to get another picture frame."
Cyborg frowned. "It's Raven's turn to do chores…" he said darkly.
"Raven IS doing chores- and she's not in. You broke the picture frame, Cyborg, I think," Robin took a deep breath. He was trying extremely hard not to laugh, "I think you can handle the responsibility of this perilous mission."
Cyborg scoffed, and snatched the picture from Starfire, who squeaked in surprise. "Fine, fine, I'll do it… but I'm not doing laundry next week…" he said haughtily.
The corners of Robin's lips were twitching… "Fine," he said. And then he started laughing too. This, if anything, made Beast Boy laugh even harder.
"THIS IS NOT FUNNY!" Starfire screamed.
Cyborg shook his head and stalked out of the door. "Laugh all you want… jerks…" He grumbled.
He had things to do… important… kind of… things to do. Then again, how long would this take? At least Star wouldn't be mad at him anymore… Cyborg sighed.
On to the Photo Shop it was.