1990 – London, Nightfall
The rain came down like broken glass.
Inside the small flat above a closed pub, chaos reigned. Not the kind with bullets and engines but the kind with blood, cries, and trembling hands.
Mrs. Shaw was in labour again.
Deckard was off on an MI6 training op.
That left Devon sixteen years old, red-eyed, adrenaline running cold in his veins.
"You're going to be alright," he muttered, holding their mother's hand as she screamed through another contraction.
Thirty-nine minutes later, Owen Shaw was born.
A wailing mess of life and future.
And Devon Devon held him like he was a live wire.
"I've got you," he whispered.
And he meant it.
The Ghost in the Machine
While Deckard vanished into government blacklists, Devon stayed behind raising Owen while building an empire no one could see.
By day, he worked mechanic jobs. By night, he cracked military-grade encryption systems like puzzles.
The System evolved with him.
[Skill: HACKING – Tier A+]→ Upgrade Available: Initiate Shadow Protocols?[Y/N]
He clicked Y.
His vision blurred.
Code lit up like constellations in his mind.
He wasn't just breaking into systems anymore.
He was rewriting them.
[New Feature Unlocked: Predictive Trace Bypass][New Passive: Auto-Scrambler – Your signal will now randomly reflect through 173 dead satellites every second.][New Tool: Sandbox Injector – Create false data footprints in real-time.]
Pentagon Job – 1993
Devon didn't do it for fame.
He did it for information.
One night, with Owen sleeping beside him in a makeshift crib and his second laptop booting with a hum, Devon made a decision.
"Let's see what America's hiding."
He connected to an old military relay obsolete, forgotten. A digital catacomb.
The firewalls were brutal.
But Devon's hands moved like lightning across the keys. One window, two, six, thirty-two.
"Talk to me," he whispered.
[Entering: BLACK VAULT SUBNET | Class: Above Top Secret | Status: Quantum Lock]
It was there.
The bleeding edge of military tech.
❖ Nano-fusion turbine prototypes❖ Carbon-laced smart chassis for vehicles❖ Hyper-EMP shielding❖ AI-targeting neural overlays❖ Project: DARKSEED – autonomous AIs for infiltration drones❖ Project: WARPATH – quantum inertia dampeners for orbital vehicles❖ Project: ZEROPOINT DRIVE
"Bingo."
He downloaded schematics in segments, wrapping each in encryption.
And just as a trace began to lock onto his signal
[System Emergency Protocol: Phantom Split Engaged]– Tracing IP rerouted through the International Space Station– Source logged as: Cairo University Archive Server– Pentagon Alert Status: False Positive – Dismissed
Devon leaned back.
Heart racing.
Eyes wide.
He'd just walked into the heart of the most secure digital fortress on Earth…
…and left with the keys to the future.
Legacy of the Dark
The hacker forums lit up the next week.
A ghost had appeared no name, no signature, just a file leak with impossible tech blueprints marked "DO NOT EXIST."
They started calling him ZeroDrive.Others whispered a newer name:
The Car God.
Because the tech he began releasing in whispers untraceable engines, anti-drone shielding, gravity-pulse nitrous-changed the underground.
He didn't ask for payment.
He didn't need it.
He had the System.
And he had Owen.
Years Later – Owen at 10
Owen slammed a wrench down beside Devon's workbench.
"I wanna drive like Deckard."
Devon looked up from a project something absurdly illegal involving stealth coils and carbon memory paint.
"Deckard hits things. You want to be better."
"Better how?"
Devon smiled.
"By never getting caught in the first place."