The Zeta Project (2001)

The Accomplice

On the run from the NSA former robot assassin Zeta saves the life of a teenage runaway Ro Rowan. In return, Ro helps him escape the NSA. She persuades Zeta to search for his creators, since they would be able confirm his innocence.

His Maker's Name

While looking for one of his creators, Zeta walks into a trap set by Agent Bennett.

Remote Control

While looking for Dr. Selig at at science competition, Ro and Zeta encounter Bucky, a kid genius who invented a universal remote control. Bucky's supervisor Dr. Tannor steals his invention and tries to pass it off as his own.

Change of Heart

Zeta and Ro track Dr. Selig to a museum in Grandview, but get waylaid when a little girl becomes trapped in a fusion power chamber.

The Next Gen

Zeta and Ro head down south to intercept a drug lord, unaware that the government has sent a new, improved model of the Zeta robot project on their trail.

West Bound

Zeta and Roe flee on a train to avoid pursuit, and only Agent West manages to get on the train with them. Their efforts to avoid him are complicated by the fact that as the monorail train passes through certain electrical barriers, Zeta's hologram projectors go out of control, forcing the robot to change into different people at random. Despite this, the pair manage to escape and save the train after West's shots endanger it.

Hicksburg

Ro returns to visit her first foster family in hopes of finding information on her biological family. Determined to impress, she creates a rich girl persona via Zee's unlimited charge-card.

Shadows

After a brutal attack of Infiltration Unit Seven in a Gotham City shopping mall, Zeta has to take Ro to a hospital. Believing Zeta is solely responsible for the mall destruction, Batman vows to take him down before he can hurt anybody. Meanwhile, Zee contemplates abandoning Ro so she will not be put at risk anymore.

Crime Waves

Zeta and Roe intervene when a local biker gang harasses a child, who is the son of a wealthy robotics manufacturer. When the child is kidnapped after he invited them to his home, Ro and Zee are implicated in the crime.

Taffy Time

Fleeing from Agents West and Lee, Zeta and Ro are lured to an abandoned candy factory by bounty hunter Rodin Krick, who plans to collect the reward by any means.

Ro's Reunion

Ro takes a chance and appears on a Jenny Jones/Oprah like show because they claim to be able to reunite her with her brother.

Kid Genius

Bucky needs Zeta and Ro's help to get his parent back from Dr. Tanner. Tanner has them working on a technological Fountain of Youth that's not quite perfected.

Absolute Zero

Zeta breaks into a security base to steal a database containing retinal IDs, then breaks into Cyrobin disguised as a Dr. Wilhelm. His creator, Dr. Selig, is working at Cyrobin. Things go amiss when the real Dr. Wilhelm shows up before Zeta can communicate with his creator and prove his innocence. Selig is caught in a cyrogenic freeze unit when a stray shot shatters the control. With the lab in lockdown, Zeta is forced to remain hooked up to Selig's suspension unit and maintain his life. The authorities are breaking in, so Zeta takes a risk and tries to go into the unit, using his internal heaters to revive Selig. At the risk to his own ""life"", Zeta succeeds, but is forced to flee before Selig regains consciousness. Meanwhile, Agent Bennett is being shut out of the investigation by a mysterious Colonel Lomak, and Agent Lee resigns after giving away Bennett's plans to Lomak.

Wired (1)

Zeta and Roe are rescued from Bennett by three hackers who claim to be Internet hacker types who want to free technology for the people. They're sort of right: however, they plan to dissect Zeta to find out how he ticks, while one of their members, obsessed fan Buss, keeps Roe prisoner. Roe and Zeta both manage to escape, but Bennett arrives. In the subsequent pursuit, Buss rescues Roe but Zeta is captured and taken in by Bennett in preparation for a complete CPU wipe. (to be continued)

Wired (2)

Agent Bennett still believes that the captured Zeta has been programmed to believe he is acting of his own volition, a suspicion that seems to be borne out when the research team discovers a previously unknown chip in Zeta's head. Roe plans a rescue but it goes amiss when Zeta protects his memories from removal by transferring them from sector to sector. This results in the activation of his old killer-type programming. He goes on a rampage but Roe manages to get through to him and they manage to escape the NSA compound.

Resume Mission

The parts from the IR hunter unit, that were destroyed by Zeta in a hospital, find their way into the hands of a young boy who likes to build things. The boy, Jace, accidentally activates the primary chip and the IR unit proceeds to rebuild itself from scratch. Zeta gets wind of the unit's activation when he notices the shipment of parts under the unit's ID. Tracking it to Jace's house, Zeta and Roe end up fighting the unit, and with Jace's help Zeta removes the primary chip and deactivates the unit.

Hunt in the Hub

Zeta and Roe are on the trail of one of Selig's associates, who is in a business/administrative area, the Hub. However, it's a trap set by Dr. Boyle, who attached a credit-nullifier to Zeta. In return for removing it, the two must steal items for Boyle for his research. Further complicating matters are Agents West and Rush trying to track them down. Eventually Zeta and Roe manage to lose the agents and set up Boyle to remove the nullifier and then be spotted by the NSA agents, while making their escape.

Ro's Gift

Lost and Found

Zeta malfunctions and recovers his memory of the moment he decided not to hurt people, when he is ordered to impersonate Eugene Dolan but instead gets close to him and his family.

Eye of the Storm

Forced to take refuge from a tornado, Ro and Zeta meet two brothers, Dex and Carl, who are using an experimental process to disrupt tornados. They partially succeed, and the two fugitives join up with to get moving when their car is destroyed. With Zeta's input Carl the smart one manages to come up with a complete process, but pilot Dex gets the glory. Carl goes off on his own to take on another tornado and gets in over his head. With Zeta and Ro's help Dex rescues his brother and the two settle their differences.

Quality Time

Bennett tracks Selig via highly secure files to a research base where Selig was studying aquatic regeneration. Ro and Zeta are also there on the trail of Zelig. Bennett takes his son James Jr. along and while Ro, a local boy and James go underwater in a sub, Agent Bennett spots and pursues Zeta. But the kids get in an accident. Zeta reveals himself and volunteers to go down and Agent Bennett goes with him. Zeta has to act as the rudder for the injured sub to get everyone to the surface in time. At the end Bennett has to choose his son over capturing Zeta.

On the Wire

Ro and Zee take refuge at a ""Pictocon"" - basically a 21st century comicbook con where they take on the role of Owl Man and Squirrel Girl. Bucky contacts them there and puts Ro in contact with her long-lost brother Casey MacCurdy, a reporter. Casey's boss Jenson finds out he is the brother of a renegade and first insists he do a story on it, then alerts Bennett and the NSA. Ro and Zee duck the NSA in San Francisco but Casey sets up another rendezvous on the Golden Gate Bridge. He's persuaded to make it a trap. The NSA close in but Casey sides with his sister and helps them to escape. Casey plants an ad with a secret message for Ro reassuring her, but is under NSA scrutiny so their family reunion is delayed...but Casey starts to get the true story out on Zeta.

Cabin Pressure

The NAS find out about Bucky and make plans to capture him and, through him, Zeta and Ro.

The River Rising

Zeta's quest to locate Dr. Selig leads him to another member of the infiltration unit design team, Dr. Myrell. He runs a non-profit organization called the Myrell center, where he constructs and tests new technology to help the handicapped. One of these is a young man named Kevin, who is confined to a wheelchair. The doctor has created a backpack device called a ""synaptic amplifier," which allows him to walk normally. Zeta and Ro sneak into the center disguised as Kevin and his backpack, but end up encountering a thief there to steal the real amplifier pack. On a non-handicapped person the pack provides them with fantastic strength and agility. Blake, the thief, escapes, but a security guard who had seen the Zeta/Ro illusion of Kevin there after-hours accuses him of the theft, and he is arrested for it. It's up to Zeta and Ro to find Blake and clear the innocent Kevin.

The Hologram Man

Zeta and Ro are on the run from the NSA when they stumble into a No-Tech community. The group is protected by law so Bennett can't go into their community without a local warrant. Zeta and Ro take refuge there but Zeta's robotic nature is soon discovered by Amy. She advises them to keep Zeta's nature a secret. Zeta predicts the No-Tech's river levee will break during an upcoming storm. Bennett gets his warrant when the No-Techs use a catapult on West. Zeta has to reveal his true nature to save the No-Techs and is damaged. The No-Techs take Zeta prisoner and prepare to destroy him but the levee breaks. Zeta rescues the No-Techs and they come to appreciate his non-soulless nature as the two make their escape once more.

The Wrong Morph

Zeta and Ro break into an NSA depot used to store holograms/robots. They spot Professor Zelig, who downloads information and leaves. The two follow him to a steel yard where he is revealed to be Professor Edmunds, who worked on Zeta's hologram projectors. He is being blackmailed by Sweet, the head of Brother's Day, an anti-tech terrorist organization. They get Edmunds to work with them to lead them to Selig, unaware that Brother's Day has followed them to the hologrammatically concealed floating fortress where Zeta's creator is working to create semi-organic synthoids. Sweet plants an explosive as a disguised Zeta confronts his creator who confesses he secretly planted a "conscience chip" in Zeta (which Bennett overhears). Sweet triggers the explosion before Zeta can reveal who he is. Sweet shoots the escape pod with Selig as he escapes and the scientist is believed dead.