Everyone has bullies in their life, be it the kid in school who sat behind you and poked you with spitballs and pencils, or the guy who trolls you in the web forums. Bullies are a fact of life that everyone seems to accept, and either grow stronger from the association with them or buckle under and become a bully themselves thus perpetuating the cycle and causing it to become never-ending.

“Bullies never end it, seems.” Cisco mused silently, late one night in the lab. That day had been particularly harrowing with Hartley riding him all day about the smallest of things that went wrong making it blown out of proportion.

He remembered back to his childhood and the string of bullies that made him do things or risk being beaten to a pulp, just because he was smarter than everyone else. This continued on through most of his schooling, though he managed to temper it to make them pay him for tutoring while in college.

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He thought of his other friends who were bullied for much the same reason, and saw their inner strengths shine through in their various ways, Caitlyn handling it by becoming a strong independent woman, Barry becoming a bigger nerd and making those who tormented him seem small because he grew to just ignore them.

He always wondered what happened to those that made his life a living hell, but decided that dwelling on it would only make his life worse. He drew on this strength that had become tempered in these same fires to deal with Hartley, and heaving a deep sigh, he sipped his coffee and turned back to his project, his mind already on another topic the ideas of bullies pushed into the recesses of his imagination.

Next up: “Ripples”