Izuku: the one

How to spot an Agent

All Might moves effortlessly through a crowded downtown street while Deku struggles to keep up, constantly bumped and shouldered off the path.

"The Matrix is a system, Young Midoriya, and that system is our enemy. But when you are inside and you look around, what do you see; businessmen, lawyers, teachers, carpenters. The minds of the very people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of the system and that makes them our enemy." All Might

A cop writing a parking ticket stares at Deku from behind his sunglasses.

You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."

A beautiful woman in a red dress smiles at Deku as she passes by.

"Were you listening to me, Young Midoriya? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?"

"I-I was..."

"Look again."

Deku turns just as Agent Bakugo levels a gun at his face. Deku screams.

"Freeze it."

Everything except All Might and Deku freezes.

"This -- this isn't the Matrix?"

"No, it's another training program designed to teach you one thing; if you are not one of us, you're one of them."

"What are they?"

"Sentient programs. They can move in and out of any software still hardwired to their system. That means that anyone that we haven't unplugged is potentially an Agent. Inside the Matrix, they are everyone and they are no one." Deku stares at the Agent. "We've survived by hiding from them, running from them, but they are the gatekeepers, they're guarding all the doors, holding all the keys, which means that sooner or later someone is going to have to fight them."

"Someone?"

"I won't lie to you, Young Midoriya. Every single man or woman who has stood their ground, who has fought an Agent, has died. But where they failed, you will succeed just like Neo."

"Tell All might *Thanks All Might." for me." Neo said.

"Neo says thank you All Might and why?"

"I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still based on a world that is built by rules. Because of that they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be."

Deku scratches his head.

"What? Are you trying to tell me that I can dodge bullets?"

"No, Young Midoriya. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to."

All Might's smartphone rings and he flips it open.

"We got trouble." Mic said over the phone.

The Nebuchadnezzar II blisters by, trailing a swirling, supercharged, electromagnetic wake. All Might slides into the copilot's chair next to Ingenium.

"Did IO send the warning?"

"No. Another ship. Big Brother I think, they're running a parallel pipeline."

All Might scans the decayed landscape of the sewer main that rolls by as me and Uravity squeeze into the cockpit behind him. An alarm begins to sound.

"Shit, Squiddy's sweeping in quick."

"Set it down in there."

"Squiddy?" I ask.

"A Sentinel. It's a killing machine designed for one thing."