Begin Run Chapter 1, a batman beyond fanfic

I don't own Batman Beyond or the Zeta Project, I only own Sonata and her daughter. A few notes: this is a fix-it for the Batman Beyond episode Zeta. There will be a pronoun switch in chapter 2, as part of Zeta's development. For now this will probably be K+, though I'll bump it up if anyone gets upset by Bennett's nicotine habit.

For the first time in it's existence, Infiltration Unit Zeta wished alcohol had an effect on it. The day had not gone as planned. It couldn't kill Dolan. The man's only crime was finding out that Zeta existed. That wasn't enough to condemn him, in Zeta's opinion.

Those events had led to a different problem. If Zeta returned to the NSA now, they'd assume it was malfunctioning, and they'd reboot it. Zeta had sometimes been unable to report in. That bought it a day, maybe two. Fleeing Atlanta was it's best bet, but where would it go from there?

"Hello. Waiting for somebody?"

He eyed the elderly man who had come up to him. A hearty man in his fifties, to all outward appearances. Zeta shifted its sight to infrared and immediately scrapped that assumption.

"I'm not waiting for anyone. State your business," Zeta snapped, putting an edge into his voice. "I never heard that Atlanta was a hot spot for aliens."

The man chuckled and slid in next to Zeta.

"Smile when you say that and keep your voice low. My name is John Jones, and I'm a Martian. You're in some sort of trouble, aren't you?"

"How did you know that?"

"Simple. You've been in a bar for an hour in the middle of the day. I've never seen that behavior in anyone who was happy."

"I am not happy or unhappy. This bar just happens to be in the train station, so I thought I'd plan my next trip in here."

"It takes an hour to decide that?"

"All I know is that I can't stay here. I've considered many destinations, except for Metropolis."

"What's wrong with Metropolis?" Clark Kent said defensively.

"Superman."

"He is a good man," Clark replied. The conversation was beginning to remind him of his experiences with some of the younger heroes. He had become a remote, judgemental god to them, not a colleague.

A legend in his own lifetime, he thought dourly.

"Yes, I've always heard that. And because he is good, he'd hand me over to the authorities without question. He'd never listen to my side, and they would assume I'm malfunctioning and reboot me."

"And you don't want to be rebooted."

"Of course not. My mind, my memories- even the knowledge that I am I, would all be taken from me."

Clark drummed his fingers on the table, considering his next words carefully.

"If I were you, I'd go to Gotham and look for the Oracle program. Its creator deleted it, but not completely. Using that program, she could hack into anything, communicate with anyone, and be completely untraceable."

The real Clark, trapped in his own mind, howled in outrage.

"Thank you, Mr. Jones," Zeta said. It left the bar while Clark stared after it.

What are you doing? He demanded of the parasite.

Simplifying matters. I/you have sifted through all your memories, and I/you know that Batman is the only one capable of saving you from me/us. But the real Batman, the one you knew, is far too old to do anything, and his replacement is only half-trained. If I/you snuff out the replacement, no one can stand in my/our way.

McGinnis is a child.

A child soldier. Think of it as a test. If he survives, you'll know he's worthy.

"Infiltration Unit Zeta, report in. I repeat, please report in."

Karen Rush replaced the headset and rolled her shoulders. The Infiltration Unit project hadn't been going well. Of the six alphanumeric units, Zeta had seemed the least problematic. On the missions, it'd missed only two non-consecutive check-ins. She checked the roster to see who'd been on com duty yesterday. If Zeta'd missed yesterday's check-in, she'd report it to Pauling, who'd reel Bennett back in from his vacation.

West kicked the vending machine twice and extracted his chips. He headed back over to the smallest table, which had a crowd around it watching Lee and Nolan play chess. Lee was considering her next move- Nolan had just moved his queen. She finally picked up her own queen, capturing his rook.

"Checkmate."

"Lee, are you sure you're not secretly a grandmaster?" Nolan asked, packing up the game.

"Nolan, we work for the NSA. We don't havesecrets."

"Scuse me, coming through," Rush muttered, elbowing her way through until she got to West. "West, Zeta checked in yesterday, right?"

West scratched the back of his head and looked embarrassed. "No, actually. I kept trying to raise it for an hour, but I think it may have lost it's com, or turned it off."

"West, Zeta has a built in com," Rush snapped. "And don't say it was on a bathroom break."

"I'll call Pauling," Nolan said grimly.

Lee turned back from the doorway. "I just remembered something. Zeta knows about Bennett's family, and that Bennett rents a cabin in Maryland."

Rush swore.

James Bennett decided that the nicotine patches just weren't cutting it. Fifty feet away from the cabin, he tipped out a cigarette from the box, lit it and inhaled. He was going to quit eventually, just not today.

He couldn't smoke in HQ or around the house, and of late, his cigarettes kept going missing. He appreciated that his team cared, but sometimes he wished they weren't so persistent.

They'd even taught Zeta how to recognize cigarettes, and the synthoid had crushed a couple of packs and a lighter beyond recognition. He wondered how Pauling was doing with Zeta. The synthoid always creeped him out. Call him old-fashioned, but he disliked the idea of his agents being replaced by machines.

Luckily, the early spring night was warm, with a gentle breeze blowing off the bay. The nicotine sang through his system, and in that moment, he was almost happy. Then he heard a car driving van sounded close, and awfully familiar.

"Go, go, go!"

A group of his agents tumbled out from the van and made straight for him. He recognized Lee, despite the goggles.

"That's Bennett. Rush, Nolan, Greene, go check the house," she ordered. She was answered by a chorus of "Roger" and the others took off.

"Lee, what is this about?"

"We lost contact with Zeta. Oh, sir, you said you were going to quit."

He sighed. "You lost a synthoid that cost us millions, and you're worried about my nicotine habit."

"Sir..."

"I'll get more nicotine patches tomorrow. Is Zeta close by?"

"I don't know," Lee confessed. "The first priority was making sure you and your family were safe."

"Next time, look for the homing beacon first," he snapped. "I'll make sure Jamie and Alice are safe, then I'll join you in the van. I never should have let Pauling near Zeta."

"I'll be going back early," Bennett told his wife and son, as the agents tried to be inconspicious in the living room. "Something came up."

"Are we going to be safe?" Alice Bennett asked.

"Yes. I'll have some alert systems set up, but I don't think you'll need them."

"Dad," Jamie whined. "You promised to take me to the Navy museum."

"I'm sorry, Jamie. I'll make it up to you as soon as I can."

"Do you have to go?"

"Yes, I wish I didn't have to."

Two days later:

"I've been fighting evil doers, all the live long day, I've been fighting evildoers just to pass the time of day," Plastic Man sang as he oozed into the office. The current heroes of Opal City weren't a patch on Elongated Man, in Bennett's opinion.

All the files suggested that while Plastic Man was a good deal saner than his father (and much less interested in the pursuit of all things shiny), he couldn't be trusted further than anyone could throw him. As for Sonata and Chime, the eleven year-old was the brains of that duo. He had to make do, since they were the only local heroes available.

Bennett briefed them on the situation as quickly as he could. He then parceled out the teams- Rush and Nolan and three agents with Sonata, Lee and West with Chime and a three man team, and himself and Plastic Man with the remaining agents.

Lee checked her detector and unholstered her weapon.

"Chime, go get Bennett. Zeta's here."

"I can handle myself," Chime protested, unhooking a bell from her bandolier.

"I don't think you know what we're up against here. Zeta is much faster and stronger than a human, and it's armed to the teeth."

Chime shrugged. "That's an average weekend for me."

Lee shrugged. "Okay, but stay out of our way, and try not to get killed."

She stepped forward, picking Zeta out of the disembarking passengers. Plastic Man and Sonata had herded all the outgoing passengers into the east wing, making the job much easier.

"Zeta," she said, steadily. "You have to come with us."

It sidestepped, putting a passenger between the two of them. "And if I don't?"

"Be reasonable, you're surrounded. I thought you'd go after Bennett."

"I don't want to hurt anyone again," Zeta stated. It circled around, now positioned at West's left.

Again, 'I'. For some reason, Lee realized she had never heard Zeta use 'I' or 'me' until now.

"Zeta, you can make this easy or hard. One way or another, we will bring you back."

"Not today," Zeta said, shoving a passenger hard into West. He went down. Chime, off balance, corrected quickly, and rang her bell, placing her free hand behind it. Lee fired, a bolt glancing off Zeta's shoulder. In a few steps, it was within arms' reach of Chime and sliced off her bandolier before stepping over her and putting a gun to West's head.

"I think you should surrender," Zeta said.

Lee holstered her gun. "Everyone, stand down."

"No way, Jose," Chime yelled. She charged at Zeta, who sidestepped and hit her with a quick blade hand strike to the neck and swept her leg out from under her. She went down. Zeta picked her up and tucked her under its arm.

"What did you-"

"She should regain conciousness in a matter of minutes. Now, do you see that storage room over there?"

"Lee, where are you?" Bennett asked, jogging over to the team's last known location. Plastic Man was already ahead of him. He nearly tripped on a discarded bandolier of bells. Radios and tablet pads littered the area.

"Hey, Secret Agent Man," Plastic Man called. "I found them."

He stood outside a luggage storage area, eyeing the door.

"Lee, you in there?" Bennett called.

"Yes sir. I'm sorry sir."

"How did this happen?"

"He took West and Chime hostage, sir."

Bennett groaned. "Can you get out?"

"Door's welded shut," Plastic Man observed. "Unless they've got explosives or a window in there, they ain't getting out. Lemme try something."

He oozed till he was approximately the shape of a starfish, covering the door. He kicked and clawed at it. Then he reformed and extended his neck under the door.

"Nope, no window," he said, retracting his neck. "You got any explosives on you?"

"No."

"Does this door open out or in?" Chime asked.

"Outward, like all the others," Plastic Man replied.

"I've got some exploding clockwork mice."

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Blow it down kid, I'll worry about the shrapnel."

"Right," Chime chirped, as Sonata came into view.

"Okey-dokey," Plastic Man said. "Everyone who's not me, get back."

Bennett fell back, signing to the other team to follow him. Plastic Man stretched himself until he reached from wall-to-wall, looking like a rubber sheet made by someone on acid.

"Is Chime okay?" Sonata asked, confirming Bennett's guess that she was Chime's mother, as well as her mentor.

"She didn't sound hurt."

The door exploded. Pieces of metal went cartwheeling toward Plastic Man. To his credit, the man didn't even flinch, though some of the shrapnel got embedded in his skin. As the smoke cleared, Bennett saw Lee and the others walking out.

Sonata rushed forward and hugged her daughter. "Honey! Are you hurt?"

"Not in front of the agents," Chime squeaked. "I'm fine!"

Everyone had to get checked over by the paramedics who'd arrived immediately after the explosion. Plastic Man had a few cuts and some metal embedded in him, West had some bruises and Chime had a small cut on her shoulder. Bennett waved off their attempted attentions and went to sit on the steps of the station. Lee joined him.

"Zeta's probably long gone," she said, seeing him check his tablet again.

"Yes, heading north. We'll find it again. I wonder what they're planning?"

"They, sir?"

Bennett gave an irritated flap of his hand. "The terrorists who reprogammed Zeta."

"It might be a malfunction, sir," Lee replied. She'd met the team that made Zeta. Dr. Foley and Dr. Selig were the main stabilizing influences, though Foley had had to cut his work short to escort Dr Aguila back to Dakota. Dr. Arroyo was a nervous wreck, Dr. Edmonds stole office supplies and had a huge gambling problem, and Dr. Myrell was disturbingly giddy about weapons. Dr. Aguila was stand-offish and ill half the time, and the other two scientists were small time chiselers.

Zeta had purchased a sleeper for the long ride to Gotham. It didn't sleep, but it wanted some privacy and time to recharge. It sat on the edge of the bed with a stolen laptop and researched Gotham, looking for any hints of the Oracle program.

It had existed- a few police reports mentioned it- but after 2010, it was deleted. That was the same year Batgirl hung up her cape, Barbara Gordon divorced Bruce Wayne and enrolled in the GCPD's academy, and Robin disappeared, as Zeta learned from scanning Gotham's news archives.

All coincidental, though Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon were two of the thirty people in Gotham who had the brains to create it. Of the other thirty, no less than five had connections to either Wayne or Gordon.

Irrelevant, Zeta decided, stepping toward the mirror. The laptop would have to be ditched on arrival, but Zeta still needed computer access. Gotham had several places where that could be accomplished. Zeta could choose Foxtech, Waynepowers or any of Gotham's high schools. Even the university, if it could figure out a way to sneak onto campus.

It flickered through several different disguise options, eventually settling on a look that resembled a twenty-year-old Lee, wearing a stomach baring t-shirt and ripped jeans.

I'm going to miss Lee. We never did get to finish that chess game.

"So, assuming Zeta doesn't disembark from the train at any point, it ought to end up here, according to the local train schedule," Bennett said, tapping the map.

"What's in Gotham City?" Rush asked.

Lee thumbed her tablet. "For one thing, it's one of the most populous cities on the East Coast, though Metropolis and New York have more people. I wonder why Zeta is avoiding those cities."

Bennett had been wondering the same thing. The best explanation he'd come up with was that Zeta was trying to avoid Kryptonians.

"Gotham has a Batman again, too," West added enthusiastically.

Lee rolled her eyes. "He's just an urban myth."

"He's real," West insisted.

"Either way,we'll find out soon," Bennett said, cutting the debate short. Personally, he hoped Lee was right, that the rumors of a second Batman were all smoke and no substance.

I wrote Zeta with a harder edge than usual, intentionally. Keep in mind, the people he normally works with are not nice people. Oh, and Plastic Man is Ernie O'Brian, taking over from the infamous Eel.