Izuku: the one

Reality

I am floating in a magenta amnion. body spasms, fighting against the thick gelatin.

Metal tubes, surreal versions of hospital tubes, obscure my face. Other lines like IVs are connected to limbs and cover my genitals. I am struggling desperately now. Air bubbles into the Jell-O but does not break the surface. Pressing up, the surface distends, stretching like a red rubber cocoon. Unable to breathe, I fights wildly to stand, clawing at the thinning elastic shroud, until it ruptures, a hole widening around my mouth as I suck for air. Tearing myself free, I emerge from the cell.

I am bald and naked, my body slick with gelatin. Dizzy, nauseous, I wait for my vision to focus. I am standing in an oval capsule of clear alloy filled with magenta gelatin, the surface of which has solidified like curdled milk. The IVs in my arms are plugged into outlets that appear to be grafted to my flesh. I feel the weight of another cable and reach to the back of my head where I find an enormous coaxial plugged and locked into the base of my skull. I try to pull it out but it would be easier to pull off a finger.

To either side I see other tube-shaped pods filled with magenta gelatin; beneath the wax-like surface, pale and motionless, I see other human beings. Fanning out in a circle, there are more. All connected to a center core, each capsule like a red, dimly-glowing petal attached to a black metal stem.

Above me, level after level, the stem rises seemingly forever. I move to the foot of the capsule and look out. The image assaults my mind. Towers of glowing petals spiral up to incomprehensible heights, disappearing down into a dim murk like an underwater abyss.

My sight is blurred and warped, exaggerating the intensity of the vision. The sound of the plant is like the sound of the ocean heard from inside the belly of Leviathan.

From above, a machine drops directly in front of Me. I swallow my scream as it seems to stare at me. It is almost insect-like in its design; beautiful housings of alloyed metal covering organic-like systems of hard and soft polymers.

The machine seizes hold of Me, paralyzing me as the cable lock at the back of my neck spins and opens. The cable disengages itself. A long, clear plastic needle and cerebrum-chip slides from the anterior of My skull with an ooze of blood and spinal fluid. The other connective hoses snap free and snake away as the machine lets me go.

Suddenly, the back of the unit opens and a tremendous vacuum, like an airplane door opening, sucks the gelatin and then me into a black hole.

The pipe is a waste disposal system and I fall,sliding with the clot of gelatin.Banking through pipe spirals and elbows, flushing upthrough grease traps clogged with oily clumps ofcellulite.

I begin to drown when I am suddenly snatched from the flow of waste.

The metallic cable then lifts, pulling me up into the belly of the futuristic flying machine hovering inside the sewer main.

The metal harness opens and drops me onto the floor. Human hands and arms help me up as I find myself looking straight at a skinny guy. I assume he's All Might.

He smiles.

"Welcome to the real world, Kid."

I pass out.

I have no sense of time. I hear voices whispering.

"We've done it, Uravity. We found him."

"I hope you're right."

"I don't have to hope it. I know it."

My eyes flutter open. I see All Might's face above me, angelic in the fluorescent glow of a light stick.

"... am I dead?"

"Far from it." He said

I open his eyes again, something tingling through me. I focus and see my body pierced with dozens of acupuncture-like needles wired to a strange device.

"He still needs a lot of work."

Ingenium and All Might are operating on me.

"What are you doing?"

"Your muscles have atrophied. We're rebuilding them."

Fluorescent light sticks burn unnaturally bright.

"Why do my eyes hurt?"

"You've never used them before."

He closes my eyes and I lay back.

"Rest, Kid. The answers are coming."

I wake up from a deep sleep, feeling better. I begin to examine myself. There is a futuristic IV plugged into the jack in my forearm. I pull it out, staring at the grafted outlet.

I runs my hand over the short hair now covering my head. My fingers find and explore the large outlet in the base of my skull.

Just as I start to come unglued, All Might opens the door."

"All Might, what's happened to me? What is this place?"

"More important than what is when?"

"When?"

"You believe the year is 2014 when in fact it is much closer to 2214. I can't say for certain what year it is because we honestly do not know."

The wind is knocked from my chest.

"There is no reason for me to try to explain it when I can simply show it. Come with me.

Like a sleepwalker, I follow All Might through the ship.

"This is my ship, the Nebuchadnezzar II. It's a hovercraft. Small like a submarine. It's cramped and cold. But it's home."

"Named for Morpheus' Ship." Neo said to me.

We climb a ladder up to the main deck.

Everyone is there.

"This is the main deck. Most of my crew you already know. This is Fire_Ice, Creati, and Lazer"

Uravity smiles and nods.

"The ones you don't know. That's Grape, those two guys are Mic and Ingenium."

The names and faces wash meaninglessly over me.

"And this, this is the Core. This is where we broadcast our pirate signal and hack into the Matrix."

It is a swamp of bizarre electronic equipment. Vines of coaxial hang and snake to and from huge monolithic battery slabs, a black portable satellite dish and banks of life systems and computer monitors. At the center of the web, there are six ecto-skeleton chairs made of a poly-alloy frame and suspension harness. Near the circle of chairs is the control console and operator's station where the network is monitored.

"You want to know what the Matrix is, Kid? The answer is right here."

He touches the back of my head.

"Help him, Uravity.

I allow myself to be helped into one of the chairs.

I feel All Might guiding a coaxial line into the jack at the back of his neck. The cable has the same kind of cerebrum chip like the one I saw inside the plant.

"This will feel a little weird."

There are several disturbing noises as he works the needle in.

My shoulders bunch and my face tightens into a grimace until a loud click fires and my ears pop like when you equalize them underwater.

I relax, opening my eyes as I pull back to a feeling of weightlessness inside another place.