Epilogue from Chapter 1
Zee noticed that Ro had spaced out and tapped her on the nose with his finger.
Ro jerked backwards in surprise.
"Were you calculating your calorie intake for today?" Zee teased.
Ro looked down to see that she was holding a chocolate bar in her hands before ripping the wrapper off and breaking the bar into smaller pieces.
"Want some?" she offered Zee, and held out a piece for him with two fingers.
CHAPTER TWO
Zee, who was holding a packet of pasta in his left hand and a can of baked beans in the other, leaned over and took the chocolate piece from her fingers with his mouth.
Ro tried not to jump at the sensation of his lips brushing against her fingers.
"I think I'm getting better at multi-tasking with my motor muscles!" he exclaimed with a mouthful of chocolate, looking very pleased with himself.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth," Ro gruffly said back.
Luckily Zee ignored her demeanor and continued cheerfully putting the stuff away.
After Zee became a humanoid, living in close quarters with him had become a very different experience as opposed to when he was a synthoid.
It wasn't that Ro minded immensely it was just that lately, every sort of physical contact with Zee made her nervous.
Specifically, butterflies in her stomach nervous.
She pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind and put the rest of the chocolate away in the cooling unit and went to her room to take a shower.
Zee meanwhile was marveling at the chocolate on his taste buds and for the umpteenth time that day was grateful that he could experience taste.
The range of emotions and senses he had experienced as a synthoid was only 1/30th of what he could feel now.
Joy, affection, anger, annoyance, sadness, humour, touch, smell, nostalgia, wonderment and so much more that he could not quantify or adequately express.
It was like he was a child that had been left unsupervised in a candy store; he wanted to taste and feel everything!
So far the bodily senses he appreciated the most was taste and smell. When he was a synthoid, his olfactory senses were limited to identifying chemical substances only and they did not affect him as they do biological beings. But now he had a tongue and a proper nose that allowed chemicals to have an effect on both his physique and his new found emotions.
Cooking had become his new favorite hobby and for the last two months he had been preparing almost every meal for the two of them, sometimes three when Casey visited. Ro took a turn sometimes and turned out to be an adequate cook, but she preferred making recipes that took under a half hour to prepare so her repertoire was mostly variations of finger foods, pasta dishes and salads.
Food was exciting to him; there were endless possible combinations that could result in a myriad of flavors and aromas that he was just beginning to discover. He experimented a lot with different ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques which sometimes ended in inedible disasters (like steamed vinegar and vodka cupcakes), so he kept a food journal to help document his culinary adventures.
He hoped that Ro would like what he was planning on making for dinner tonight, Bucky had given him a recipe for chicken asparagus milk shake and wasabi stuffed sardines which he was eager to try it out.
- 3 months ago -
The ice truck stopped for another delivery not long after their escape from Macy's. From there they got out and hopped on a bus to one of the smaller towns between Central City and Gotham and arrived late in the evening. Ro had been craving a hot bath and a soft bed but since it was a small town, the only place available was a dingy motel with mothy smelling beds and ice cold showers.
Life of a wanted person on the run was NOT glamorous, no matter how romanticized movies made it look.
The next morning over breakfast at an equally cheerless diner, they formulated a new plan to get to Gotham.
They had seen a camper craft advertised for sale outside the diner and were wondering if they should drive to Gotham instead of relying on public transport.
Not long after Bucky had gone to live with his uncle in the Underground, he had sent them a batch of fake IDs as a token for helping him escape the feds along with an audio recording. He had tipped them off on the Net, leaving encrypted coordinates and clues that led to an electronic storage locker at the Hub. Bucky had altered his voice on the recording and used a code name, but Zee knew it was him by matching Bucky's diction from memory. It was basically an audio letter saying that he was alright and that he'd met a lot of shady but useful characters in the underground and was enjoying his new street cred as a wanted criminal. Ro was glad that he was safe (he may be a bratty twip but at least he was in their corner) though heaven forbid that she would ever tell him so.
They had used the fake IDs to create bank accounts for each of them (in case they got separated) and had used Zee's unlimited cred card to purchase bulk amounts of cash cards which they deposited into their bank accounts. It was slightly inconvenient but cash cards were untraceable and thanks to that, they didn't need to rely on Zee's cred card as often.
They followed the address on the ad and ended up in front of a suburban style cabin that belonged to an elderly couple, a fifteen minute walk from the diner.
It was a fairly modest sized vehicle with just enough space for two, but it was clean, in good condition and had a toilet. They were especially pleased to find it that came equipped with mobile internet, which cemented their decision to purchase it. The old couple was very fond of it and were sorry to see it go, but had explained that they were getting too old to travel and needed to sell it to pay for their ever increasing medical bills.
Zee inspected the vehicle while Ro worked out a deal with them where she would give them double the asking price if they took care of the paperwork. The old couple didn't think to question their good luck and when Zee gave the green light, Ro transferred the creds using her bank card.
Owning a camper craft turned out to be one of the best ideas they ever had.
Without the need to stop for rest rooms, hotels, food or Groundwires as often, they could spend less time in cities and public places which meant being less visible and lesser chances of getting caught.
After stocking it up with amenities for Ro from a convenience store and getting a power tablet* from the only electrical shop in town, they were off, with Ro driving and Zee perusing the Net for any news on Project Zeta scientists.
A five hour drive later, they had reached Gotham. They parked the camper craft in the parking lot adjacent to the park and waited for midnight. Ro was exhausted after the drive so she napped on the camper craft's short queen bed while Zee sat at the edge of it continuing his research. He managed to find a few leads that day, and after their meeting with Batman he decided they would continue on to Spring City where Dr. Barbara Anagnostakos was scheduled to give a lecture on the future of artificial intelligence in applied linguistics.
Judging by the topic of the lecture, Zee conjectured that she might have been responsible for designing the software and language database which allows him to imitate human diction and conversational logic. This feature had allowed him and other synthoids of his caliber to successfully assimilate human interaction during infiltration missions. It did not seem like she would be of much help, but with Selig gone, he did not have much else to go on.
Zee woke Ro up a half hour before midnight and they both headed to the memorial, towards their fated encounter with the caped crusader.
Due to the high crime rates in Gotham the park was empty of law abiding civilians at the hour, so it gave them plenty of privacy.
Batman had showed up impeccably on time (must have been a slow night in Gotham) emerging from the darkest shadows cast by the surrounding trees which seemed more ominous at night. His ebony suit stood out in direct contrast of the lights streaming from street lamps scattered around the park.
Zee was the first to break the silence.
"Hello Batman, it's good to see you again."
"Likewise Zeta, Ro. How goes it?"
Ro piped up.
"Right now? Peachy. But I'm guessing you didn't tell us to come to Gotham just cause you wanted to catch up."
Batman was unfazed by her attitude. In fact, he respected her shrewdness. He knew that life on the streets didn't leave her much room to be naive.
"Alright, let's get to the point. Zeta, Dr. Selig is alive. He's been relocated to a laboratory in Gotham to continue his work."
Zee and Ro were stunned. She looked over at Zee who was still trying process the news.
"For real? Batman, we saw his pod go under!"
She knew how hard Zee had took Selig's death; he had been devastated. She didn't want to see him be disappointed like that again.
Batman squinted at Ro.
"Yes Ro, I have no reason to make this up."
"Wait, if he's really alive and he's really here, then - ."
"I can still be free," Zeta finished.
Batman took out a power tablet of his own and showed Zee a holographic blueprint of the facility where Dr Selig and his assistant had been assigned to.
"This is a blueprint of the lab. It's a highly classified government facility so I suspect it will be heavily guarded. I can only provide you this much information, you will have to do the rest on your own."
Zee extended his data jack to the device and downloaded the blueprint and committed the data to memory.
Ro leaped forward and gave Batman a hug.
"Thanks again for your help Batman. You really are a hero," she had said before letting him go.
"Yes, thank you Batman. I do not feel as though I can do enough to ever repay you," Zee expressed before giving Batman a hug too.
Batman cleared his throat as Zee released him.
"There may be a time when I will need you to return the favour, be warned. Well good luck the two of you. Let me know how it pans out," and with that he disappeared back into the shadow of the night.
Ro turned to Zee and she could see the renewed hope in his eyes. She clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a huge grin.
"Come on tin man. Looks like there's somewhere we need to be."
- end of chapter two -
* I am assuming laptops will be obsolete in 2044 and will be replaced by tablets more powerful than our current day PCs, hence the term power tablet