Chapter 2

-[Batman]-

Looking at the tied up man at his feet, his lips showed a frown.

Patrick Hubert, a grieving man who lost his daughter in an altercation between Penguin's men and the GCPD. He hired thugs to abduct a police officer whose bullet was responsible for ending his daughter's life.

The stories in Gotham never got any less dramatic or tragic.

They ambushed the cop on his way home from a club he usually frequented after his shift was over for the day. A man like Patrick with no connections in the police knowing a cop's personal information was alarming on its own but it wasn't the strangest part.

What was strange was that commissioner Gordon got a call from an old lady who claimed to have witnessed it. That call was the only thing that kept the man from dying.

Gordon had tried calling the number but it didn't work. His own attempt to track the number got the same unsuccessful result.

After interrogating Patrick, he found out that it was someone called Zero who provided him with the information.

It wasn't the first time he'd heard of that name. The first time was a few years back when Talia offhandedly mentioned them as a skilled hacker who the league of shadows thought would be useful.

He'd looked into this 'Zero' ever since then but he had been less than successful. They covered their tracks too well. He'd been tempted to hire them but didn't, knowing that on the off chance that they could hack his systems, it would be disastrous.

For now, he could only look for more clues that would get him closer to finding out more about Zero.

-[Evan]-

As a part of his job, he kept himself current on what was going on in the superhero and supervillain sector of the world.

He wasn't all knowing but he tried his best. For his own safety, the apartment building he was currently living in was bugged to hell with tiny beetle drones.

He trusted Artemis but with Sportsmaster also living there, she wasn't exempt from this. Seeing as how she was his friend, he supposed that in a way it was also for her protection, not that she really needed it.

She had years of training from her father while he had his brain.

Sitting at his other desk, he inspected his most recent project. It was a black belt with dark purple circuit lines on it and a gray oval at the front.

He got the idea from the sidekick of a new hero that popped up in Dakota city, Rocket. He never had the chance to go there to meet her or inspect the inertia belt that she used to do heroics but he'd done his best to create something using that concept.

Putting on the belt, it easily fit under the waistband of his trousers, only a tiny part of it showing but that was hidden under his shirt.

'It's time to test it out.' He thought, closing his eyes and accessing the camera on the drone in Artemis' room.

Seeing that she was asleep, he let out a breath of relief. There had been a few times he'd accessed the camera and she had been in a…less than decent state of dress. He appreciated the sight but he wasn't a pervert…mostly.

Throwing on a dark hoodie and sneakers, he turned the dial of the watch on his hand, the screen lighting up as an image was displayed.

Cycling through the images, he picked one, pulling the crown of the watch as a dim light washed over him for a very brief second.

Standing in his place was a taller male with short blonde hair and green eyes. It wasn't an omnitrix but he was proud of it.

A high tech watch that employed photonic displacement and hard light to allow him to take on various solid disguises.

Eying his dog that laid asleep near the door, he shook his head as he made his way out of the room.

•••

He made his way to Gotham Academy which was empty by this time of the night. With a thought, he shut down the security cameras before moving to the track field.

Even if he was seen, that's what his disguise was for.

He came here to test the capabilities of the belt he was wearing, which he had christened; the velocity belt.

Whereas Rocket's inertia belt used kinetic energy to allow her to fly and create force bubbles, his velocity belt used kinetic energy to accelerate and amplify his speed.

At least that's what it was supposed to do. He was here to test it out.

Getting into a running stance at the starting point of the track, he mentally activated the belt, a purple aura covering him.

He felt the Effect take place as he took off running. All that could be seen was a purple blur streaking across the track before crashing painfully into the wall.

"Oww." He muttered in pain, rubbing his now sore face with a slight glare at the wall.

Despite what happened, he was genuinely happy. His inexperience aside, it worked. He didn't know how the enhanced speed would compare with that of the flash or kid flash but knew it was in speedster territory.

All he needed to do was actually learn how to use it without crashing into a wall. Trying again, a purple aura formed around him as he took off, quickly running into the wall at the other side of the track limits.

"Oww!" It was going to take some time.

•••

He spent a few hours trying and mostly failing to get used to sudden change in perception. He said mostly because he eventually managed to not crash within the first two seconds.

Walking into his apartment, he spent the first few minutes treating his bruised face and body from all the crashes he suffered.

Taking off the velocity belt, he put among the other gadgets on the table. It needed some fine tuning that would allow him to adjust the speed amplification as he wished.

All in all, despite his sore body, he was satisfied. No experiment ever went perfectly. This wasn't an obstacle, it was simply a door to even more solutions. He just had to find the key.

It was this mindset that allowed him to progress this far.

*Bark!* *Bark!*

"Oh so now you're awake." Evan said as the German shepherd crawled around him as he made his way to his room.

*Bark!*

"Ace, I'm tired. We'll go for a walk in the morning, okay?" He said, getting a bark of agreement from the dog.

Other than Artemis, he mostly kept to himself so he'd gotten the bright idea to get a dog to keep him company.

The damn animal was smart.

Ignoring his aching body, he slumped onto the bed, feeling Ace climb on the bed as he allowed sleep to claim him.