Shadow in the hackers world

Arrival

Step!

"Now this one is better!" Shadow said about his portal, as he stepped onto a city roof through it. "So, what we got... Whoa!"

From the roof there was an amazing view. A huge city, all in advertising holograms, with a river dividing it. There were both modern and classical buildings there, but all covered with similar holograms. They said: "Albion".

"That definitely doesn't look good... though very futuristic. Oh, I'm a human again!"

A note appeared in front of Shadow.
"What's here... hmm... less than always."
There were only words: "Find and destroy the Zero Day".

"Nothing else? Well, probably I also should keep my forces in secret most time, as usual."

BOOM!

His thoughts were destructed by an explosion. One of the modern buildings was blown up.
Two more explosions followed it.

Shadow dashed there to find something out. As he arrived there, there were nobody but police and... they looked like soldiers, but their suits said "Albion".
"It's weird to advertise the army that much."

He though noticed that every single person had some kind of a chip on their temple. He put his hood on so that nobody could see he hadn't one, just in case.

He understood he won't get anything from looking at the blown up building, so he went to a park, just to wander around. He felt like he could unexpectedly meet someone or see some hint there.

Suddenly a soldier stopped him. "Random identity check," he said and put out a device. Of course, Shadow could give him nothing. The soldier noticed Shadow had nothing on his temple.
"On your knees! You are under arre..."
He was cut off by a guy who attacked him from behind with a bat, leaving him unconscious. Shadow couldn't even react to that, the man lent Shadow a hand.

The guy was in a golden pig mask. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt under a stylish raincoat with a hood on. From under the hood it could be seen that the guy had pink hair.

"You won't last long without an Optik here. How comes you don't have one?"
"Optik?"
"That chip in the head," the stranger pointed at his temple. "So how comes?"
"Wait, first who are you?"
"Sorry," he put off the mask. He was the same age with Shadow and wore yellow glasses. "Name's Peter, I'm from DedSec. And what's your name?"
"Umm.. Shadow. What is Dead... whatever?"
"C'mon, you are in London and know nothing about us?"
"I've just arrived!"
"Ok, you're weird, I'll get you to a safe house."
"Wait.. Why should I trust you? You've just hit a soldier!"
"And what was he going to do with you eh? You to choose, but if I were you, I'd trust my savior."
"Fair enough... let's go."

Shadow followed Peter to a car, which the guy unlocked with his phone, and they sat inside.

"Nice car. Is it yours?"
"Emm... you probably won't like it, but... it's not. I'll explain later."

"Weirder and weirder..."

Peter drove fast though the city, breakin all the rules possible, sometimes making Shadow lose his breath. He "parked" next to a cafe, and they went inside.

"We're gonna have a snack?" chuckled Shadow.
"Not really." Peter came through a staff-only door with Shadow and pulled a lever on the wall. A secret door opened, leading them to the basement. "Let's go."

Shadow followed him to the underground safehouse, where they were greeted by a... TV.
"Hello, Pete. And who are you? I can't see you in the system."
"Emm... I'm Shadow."
"You definitely are, without anything giving away your location! Oh, sorry, I'm Bagley, an AI assistant. And to talk with me, you'll need an Optik, even though I'd love to keep at least one of us a ghost. Whatsoever, how it turned out you are here without it? Are you an... alien or something?"

"Okay, I think I can trust you. You can call me an alien really, and I just got here couple of minutes ago. And I think I can solve the communication problem," he pulled tellomatics out of his pocket. "A friend in another dimension made those."
"Hmm... Ok, Pete, could you somehow connect it to me?"

Peter opened a device and, after looking at it, soldered several wires to a terminal.
"Ok, let's check it," announced Bagley, and Shadow's tellomatic rang. "Hear me?"
"Yep, it works!"
"Great!"

"And who the hell are you?" someone else told in Shadow's ear.
"What? Tails?"
"Yes, bro, that's me, and who's that?"
"Ehm... you know your tellomatic works between dimensions?"
"Cool!"
"And that was Bagley. He's an AI."
"Whoa!"
"So, Tails, if you don't mind, would you please change the channel or something for now?"
"I can!" Exclaimed Bagley.
"Okay, good luck there!" Tails disconnected.

"Wow. Okay, Shadow, right? I'll invent a method for you to see the same what people with Optiks see, and Peter will briefly introduce you to our world."

Peter explained him everything. He said that there are several, considerably evil, organizations: Blume, Albion, Kelly clan and, the one which most probably caused the explosions, the Zero Day. However they made it look like DedSec had done it, so they had to hide immediately. He also told him that they can hack almost anything with combination of Optik and a smartphone and that they normally attract recruits by helping them.

Shadow absorbed the information, asked several questions and was given a phone with hacking software, which would help him communicate with the things. Bagley got ready with his invention. It was a device which looked exactly like the chip, but it wasn't wired to brain, unlike the others, and made a hologram which appeared in front of user's eyes, imitating Optik's interface. It also was able to obtain some brain signals, and was linked to the Tellomatic wirelessly.

Shadow put it on and saw the world differently. He saw all the electronics and people nearby (it was only Peter) and their short description, but what's more — he didn't need to learn to use it.

"Here," Peter gave him a copter and a phone with hacking OS, "let's see if you can control it."
Shadow smiled, and in a few moments the drone was ready to fly wherever Shadow wanted, and Shadow could see what its camera sees.
"Awesome!" Shadow kept smiling while flying the drone, but he stopped playing with it soon. "Will get used to it soon. So, what are we going to do about the... bad guys?" he asked.

"Yet we know nothing about if any of the companies are anyhow connected to the Zero day, so, I guess, we have to search for evidence. By the way, what are your combat skills?" Bagley asked.
"By how I found you, they aren't too good, huh?" Peter said.
"Don't judge people by first impression," said Shadow.
"Let's check," Peter told, walking with him to a ring.
"No weapons?"
"You have any?"
"That means no."

Peter attacked Shadow as if they were on a real fight, but Shadow easily dodged all of his punches, even not using his superspeed. After the 15-th successful dodge, Shadow put his leg at Peter's way, making him fall.
"Enough maybe?" said Shadow, lending him a hand.
"Okay, and why you asked about a weapon?"
Shadow summoned a keyblade to show him, saying no word.

He left Peter with round eyes and sat on a sofa next to the screen with Bagley. His "Optik Bagley Edition" still needed to complete an update, and Shadow needed to analyze the new information, so he took a nap.