Izuku let out a groan as consciousness slowly returned to him, his head rolling uncomfortably against the cold steel panels of the deck floor. For a good minute or so he couldn't recall where he was or how he'd gotten there, but soon the fog clouding his mind began to lift. Even so, he couldn't believe the images that flashed across his mind. A butchered man, a cloaked ghoul, arms. So many arms. And…

"Ah, good! You're awake! I was beginning to worry!"

That strong, kind voice… It couldn't be…

Suddenly, Izuku's eyes snapped open wide to stare up and the goliath of a man that stood over him. Even in that dimly-lit alleyway, the impenetrable alloy plates covering the legendary Enforcer's body gleamed like polished chrome, the familiar glint of red, blue, and gold framing the figure like a halo of justice. Piercing blue eyes and an iconic smile beamed down at him, causing Izuku's heart to pound in his chest. Was this real? Was that really..?

"A-All Might?" he mumbled out incredulously. Surely there was no way… Izuku had spent his whole life looking up to All Might, endlessly watching every available extranet vid detailing his tireless deeds, but he never imagined he'd meet the man in person! Sure enough, there he was, extending a hand in an offer to help the teen up to his feet. Izuku hesitated, but reached out to grab it, the warm metal of the Enforcer's fingers wrapping gently around his palm and, with an effortless strength the boy could feel tugging at his entire body, he was pulled up.

Izuku couldn't help but stare down at his trembling hand after All Might released it. He'd actually touched his idol's hand! It was almost too much for him to bear, giddy tears gathering at the corners of his eyes despite himself. He'd never wash that hand again for the rest of his life!

"Well, you seem like you aren't injured at all, so I'll be taking my leave! Be careful on your way home, young man!"

Just like that, Izuku felt his heart sink in his chest. No, he couldn't just let this opportunity slip by! He couldn't let what he was sure would be the only time he'd ever meet the top Enforcer be over in mere seconds! He had too much to say, too much to ask!

"W-wait! Y-you can't leave just yet! I-I've always wanted to meet you! I'm your biggest fan!" he called out as the hulking cyborg turned to leave. All Might paused, glancing back towards the teen, his grin never fading.

"Sorry, kid, but I'm afraid I don't have time to stay and chat! I've got to hand this guy over to the Justice Bureau so he can't harm anyone else!" he replied in his usual boisterous tone, holding up the thing he'd had off to his side. His fingers had hold of a mass of silver hair, the head of that ghoul-like cyborg staring with crazed eyes right at Izuku. The teen flinched reflexively, but whatever threat those eyes held were moot. Its body lay in a wrecked heap in the alleyway next to the corpse of the gang member it had attacked, the only thing that remained attached to its head being the long steel-encased spinal column dangling from the base of its skull.

All Might hooked the decapitated criminal to a panel on his waist, turning to leave before the boy could stop him again. He wished he could stay for a moment and entertain the kid's questions, but he really had no time. His consciousness was drawn over to a small, ever-present warning in the corner of his internal HUD. Shit… He'd wasted too much time already. He needed to leave, and now.

The Enforcer crouched down, a low electronic hum building somewhere behind the vents in his heavy back plating before a force like that of a jet engine exploded from them. With one great leap All Might launched himself high into the air, easily clearing the nearby buildings. The endless rows of buildings suddenly came to an abrupt stop, giving way to a gigantic opening overlooking The Hole. He held out a hand as he passed by one of the gigantic pipes that ran from Deck-A all the way down below Deck-Z along the outer shaft of The Hole, sliding around it as a magnetic force kept him held securely against its surface. Once he'd made it a third of the way around he locked his eyes on one of the upper decks, planting his feet against the pipe and launching himself almost straight up.

"Ack!"

All Might furrowed his brown in confusion when he heard the sudden yelp somewhere next to him. What in the hell..? He glanced down, his eyes widening when he spotted the green-haired teen from a moment ago clinging to his waist.

"H-hey, what do you think you're doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" he reprimanded mostly out of shock. How did this kid manage to avoid getting torn apart by his air jets? He must have lucked out and grabbed hold in a spot that was relatively safe from them. The boy stared up at him, barely able to keep his eyes open from the force of the wind as they rocketed through the air.

"I-I'm sorry, I just really want to talk to you!" Izuku managed to shout past the roar of the wind. In all honesty, he wasn't sure what had come over him. He was just so desperate to talk to the Enforcer that he'd clung to him just before he flew off. He could apologize later, but for now there was no turning back. If he let go now, he'd fall almost a mile down to his death.

All Might was well aware of the dangers of the boy falling down into that scrap pit. He cursed internally, but there wasn't much to be done. He reached behind and grabbed hold on the back of the teen's vest to ensure his grip didn't slip. The vents in his back shifted more upward, firing in bursts to slow his flight as he aimed to land on a lower deck than he'd initially planned.

An electrical hum whirred into life, a pair of glowing red optics peering through a curtain of silver hair. They glanced around, the head of that ghoul-like cyborg attempting to identify its location. It saw mountains of scrap all around, the many layers of the city opened up to the shaft leading to the sky. It had landed in The Hole. A wide grin spread across its cracked lips. What an unbelievable stroke of luck!

Moments later, All Might had landed atop one of the shorter buildings lining Deck-M. Izuku immediately collapsed to his hands and knees, his whole body trembling from the unimaginable ride he'd just experienced.

"H-holy crap, I thought I was gonna die…"

"You could easily have done just that. That was an extremely reckless thing for you to do, young man," the Enforcer scolded, already turning away in preparation to leap away once more. "I've already overridden the lock on the door and summoned one of the maintenance bots to escort you through the building. Head home and try to stay out of trouble."

"W-wait! P-please, I just need to ask you one thing!"

"No!" he barked out in reply. "I'm very sorry, but I really have no time!"

"C-can someone with Analog Disorder become an Enforcer like you?"

That one question was enough to stop All Might in his tracks, a phantom pang hitting him where his heart once rested in his chest. He glanced back over his shoulder at the boy.

"Analog Disorder?" he repeated. Before he could say any more, he felt a jolt of pain shoot up his spine. Blinking red warnings filled his HUD, and he could already feel some of his internal components shifting and compressing. No, dammit! Not now! He tried as best he could to resist, but the automated voice in his head seemed to mock him for it.

'Neural Interface Latency exceeding maximum tolerance levels. Entering Low Power Mode in 10… 9… 8…'

Unaware of his idol's internal struggle, Izuku couldn't hold himself back. Everything he'd kept bottled up for the past ten years just came gushing out all at once.

"M-my whole life I've been picked on and told that I wouldn't amount to anything because I can't get cybernetic augmentations. I think maybe that's why… Well, maybe not the only reason why… But that's why I've always wanted to become an Enforcer! I want to help people and brighten their day with a fearless smile, just like yo—!"

Izuku's words were cut short when he finally glanced over towards where All Might stood, except… There was no way that the man standing there now was All Might! His cybernetic body was so thin and frail-looking that it seemed impossible for it to be standing upright, the limbs little more than naked steel pipes with minimal wiring and servos that looked hardly powerful enough to move anything of consequence. Gaunt didn't even begin to describe his face, framed in frizzy golden hair with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes cast in perpetual shadow, the glowing blue of his optical sensors the only bit visible through such darkness. He stood slightly hunched, as though it took considerable effort just to remain on his feet.

'Low Power Mode engaged. Have a Plus Ultra day!'

"Wh-what the hell?!" Izuku stammered out in shock. "Wh-who are you?! Wh-where's All Might?! W-were you an imposter this whole time?"

The frail-looking cyborg let out an exasperated sigh.

"I am All Might," he responded flatly, though the instant he opened his mouth a gush of glowing blue liquid dripped down his chin. Izuku recognized the substance as a sort of artificial blood common to full-body cyborgs. His own blood ran cold at the sight.

"N-no way!"

All Might let out another sigh, his joints creaking audibly as he lowered himself down to sit against the railing of the roof.

"Listen, kid… I don't know how to break it to you, but this is the real me. Well… It is now, anyway… Don't go spreading it around on the net, okay?"

Izuku's entire body was trembling in shock. This couldn't be real. There was no way any of this was real! It had to be some kind of sick joke! Yet… Somehow, when he stared into those intense blue eyes, he couldn't see anything but the frail ghost of his life-long hero.

"H-how..?" he stammered out, most of his effort dedicated to chocking back despondent tears. All Might leaned forward to rest his pole-like forearms against his knees.

"Becoming a cyborg doesn't make you invincible, no matter how strong or high-end your enhancements are. In the end, there will always be some squishy organic piece left of you that will be your weakest point." As he spoke, a hand that looked as though it was barely holding together on its own lifted up to point at the back of his neck. "For me, that weak point is my brain stem. After years of pushing myself and this body to its limits, the neural interface connecting my brain to the components of this body has deteriorated. I can't operate this body at full power all the time or I risk shorting out that connection altogether. It's become so badly frayed lately that I can only do Enforcer work for three hours a day. Pretty soon, I won't be able to handle it at all."

Izuku couldn't believe what he was hearing. Of course, he knew that even people who were well suited to cyberization risked their bodies eventually rejecting their augmentations. Humans just hadn't been made to have bits of metal and circuitry shoved into them. He also knew what neural interface degradation would do to someone. Over time, the brain's connection to the body would fray, making it harder to control the body. Reaction times would slow, limbs would refuse to move. Eventually, it would sever altogether, leaving the brain technically alive but unable to interact with the outside world in any way. He would eventually be trapped in his own head, unable to move, unable to talk, unable to even see or hear the world around him.

But this was All Might! How could someone so seemingly invincible go out like that?! It was so unfair!

"I know it's probably hard to hear, but it's the truth. I've been trying for so long to keep this from getting out. A symbol of peace who saves people with a smile can never show weakness, not even for an instant. But I don't smile because I'm fearless. No, I smile to hide my fear and the pressure I feel every day to tirelessly act to save as many people as I can, and the shame in knowing that, no matter how hard I try, I'm still letting someone down somewhere. So, to answer your earlier question; can someone without cybernetics become an Enforcer? No. Those of us with top-of-the-line enhancements can barely manage it already, so I shouldn't think someone like you would survive very long."

Izuku could feel his heart practically come to a stop in his chest as he heard that. It was nothing he hadn't heard hundreds of times before, but to hear such a blunt assessment of his future from All Might himself… It was more than he could take. He could do nothing but stare blankly forward. All those years of pushing himself past all the criticism, all those years of optimistically looking past his own limitations… All of that was crushed in an instant.

All Might seemed to take the boy's despondent silence as his cue to leave. He hefted himself back up to his feet with a grunt before making his way towards the door leading into the building. The door slid open at his silent command, but he paused just before passing through.

"Listen…" he began, his voice softer, almost consoling, but he never looked back. "Being an Enforcer isn't all there is. I understand it's rough down here, but there's still hope if you study hard. It's not nearly as glamorous, but becoming a social worker is fine work. If you really want to help people, consider applying at the Justice Bureau for an office apprenticeship. It's not bad to have dreams, kid. Just… make sure to pick one that's realistic."

After All Might left, Izuku found himself stuck in a daze. He didn't know what to do with himself. Hell, he barely remembered being escorted out of the building by one of the maintenance drones. His body seemed to be running on autopilot, his mind numb. He didn't want to believe it was true, that All Might himself had actually said all that to him. Yet, deep down, buried past all of his hope and denial, he knew what the Enforcer had said was true. All of those years he'd spent mindlessly hoping beyond hope, working his fingers to the bone scraping up every credit he could for one last grasp at an impossible dream… It had all been for nothing.

After about an hour of aimless wandering, he found his way back to Deck S. The streets were no less crowded than before, the rest of the residents having gone back to business as usual. He only looked up when he saw the familiar orange glow of the sign over Power Loader's shop, but it didn't hold the same comfort it had before. Now it just reminded him of how stupid he'd been to try to rise above his station. The neon lettering began to blur together as his eyes filled up with tears. He didn't bother to wipe them away.

Izuku continued down a maze of side alleys, down which the endless throngs of people were mercifully absent. Bakugo didn't seem to be around either, much to his relief. He didn't think he could handle the taunting just then.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, you freak?!"

Izuku nearly ducked down and curled into a protective ball upon hearing the familiar voice echo down the rusted corridors. That was Bakugo's voice, there was no mistaking it. Perhaps he hadn't been so lucky after all. He snapped his eyes shut in anticipation for what was to come, a big part of him silently hoping the other teen would make good on his earlier threat to blow his head off.

Further bullying never came, however, neither the verbal nor physical varieties. What filled the perpetual night instead was the most bone-chilling scream he'd ever heard in his life. Izuku's eyes snapped open again, his hands trembling at his sides, his blood running like ice in his veins. It was just like the scream he'd heard earlier that evening, but this time it wasn't the unfamiliar cries of an unknown man being torn to shreds by a horrifying ghoul. No, this time it was Bakugo.

Izuku set off running before he could register anything more than that. He dashed through the narrow gaps between buildings, slid past pipes and even dove through a flimsy grate covering a hole in a separating wall, earning him a fair few scratches and scrapes in the process. He didn't pay any attention to them. They weren't important. He didn't know where this sudden burst of energy had come from, but it had completely washed away every scrap of doubt and self-pity he'd felt just a moment before. It didn't matter that even All Might himself had told him he was essentially useless. There was no room in his head for thoughts like those. The only one that held any grip – and a vice-like grip at that – was the need to save his childhood friend.

"Kacchan!" he shouted as he neared where he'd heard the sounds of a struggle and Bakugo's cursing just a moment ago. As he emerged onto the scene, he found himself face to face with the impossible.

Bakugo was slumped against the nearby wall, his teeth grit against an unimaginable pain as he grasped desperately at the empty socket of his left shoulder, blood and nitroglycerine streaming from between his metallic fingers and mixing in a rapidly growing puddle below him. Standing before him was the impossibility. Izuku felt his breath catch in his throat as he stared wide-eyed at the back of that head of messy silver hair. It was the ghoul, the one he'd encountered earlier that evening. But it couldn't be the same one!

Yet, as the young scavenger's eyes drifted down to inspect the murderous cyborg's body, he found that he recognized every singe piece of mismatched mechanical body parts. This was not the body this creature had before, the one that All Might had reduced to unrecognizable scrap. No, this one was cobbled together from the very pieces of discarded parts and scrap that Izuku had been digging through that very morning.

He had to slap both hands over his mouth to keep from puking as the realization hit him like a truck. The Hole. This freak had somehow come dislodged from All Might's belt when he was flying over The Hole! It must have happened when he changed course after discovering Izuku had clung to him. Which meant…

This was all his fault.

The only thing that kept Izuku from collapsing into a guilty mess of crying and vomiting was the very real and present danger before him. He watched in frozen horror as the spider-like ghoul raised one of its many hands to shove what it held against its chassis. As snake-like cables emerged from the creature's body to fully attach the new limb, Izuku recognized it in a flash: it was the arm that had just been ripped from Bakugo's shoulder.

The pilfered arm twitched unnaturally for a moment before is seemed to settle in a natural position, the fingers flexing in turn as though the creature was testing their functionality. Once satisfied, it pointed the deadly palm of that arm towards the victim it had just been stolen from.

"No!" Izuku shouted instinctively, breaking out into a sprint towards the two. He knew that arm must not have had much fuel left in it to destroy much at that range, but if it detonated an explosion there with Bakugo sitting in what amounted to a puddle of liquid explosives… He didn't want to imagine the result. He just knew he had to stop it from happening.

Within seconds Izuku had managed to wrap himself around the hand that had threatened to kill his childhood friend, and before Bakugo could get much more than a shout of protest out, there was a bang.

It was sudden this time, not like being slowly choked out before. He couldn't feel anything. He couldn't breathe, not because something was blocking his airway this time, but because his lungs simply didn't exist anymore. His eyes wandered slowly downwards, spotting the familiar sight of his own legs, though they were a good two meters away from where they should have been and distinctly not attached to his person. His arms, still wrapped around the ghoul's latest stolen limb, seemed to lose their strength. What remained on his torso plopped to the ground with a wet, meaty thud. His ears rang, drowning out whatever cacophony was surely happening all around him. Or perhaps it was all in impossible silence as well. He couldn't tell. He couldn't even move his head to see if he'd managed to spare Bakugo the blast before the encroaching blackness finally took him.

"Detroit Smaaaaash!"

His flight through the steel maze of Deck S was a blur, as was the strike he'd landed squarely at the core of the silver-haired ghoul. There was a rush of air, a rain of metal, and it was over. Soon enough the only thing that registered was the incessant warning messaged flooding All Might's HUD. He could already feel the pinpricks of pain signaling intense damage to his nervous system, but he didn't care. He couldn't care. Not when…

The Enforcer glanced down towards the two teens he'd rushed to save. One, a blond street-ruffian with clearly illegal cybernetic arms, looked up at him in mixed awe and defeat. Strewn across the delinquent's lap was a figure that made All Might's eyes widen in horror. It was Izuku, the boy he'd encountered earlier, but… Well there wasn't much left of the kid. He was barely half a torso, the middle of his body completely blown away, his lower half lying limply some distance way.

"A-All… M-Mi…" Bakugo managed to mumble out with the last of his consciousness before he finally passed out. All Might cursed to himself, kneeling down to look the two over. The blond would live if he got treated soon but wasn't in critical condition, the remaining components of his torn-out arm having locked up and stopped the free flow of blood. The other, however…

The Enforcer reached down to gingerly cradle Izuku's head in his massive hand, the sensors in his palm activating and sending data to his HUD. Miraculously, there were still brainwaves, though they were rapidly growing fainter by the second. The kid was still technically alive, but he had a minute or two left at best. He grit his teeth against the growing frustration and guilt he felt. If he'd just been a little bit faster, the kid wouldn't be dying there right in front of him, and after everything he'd said… Now there wasn't a damn thing he could do to save him…

… But perhaps he knew someone that could.

Dr. Shield was startled awake by the buzzing alarm reverberating throughout the room, causing him to jerk his head up from where it rested on the one bare portion of his worktable. He attempted to rub the bleariness out of his eyes, but it resulted only in a soft metallic clank as the back of his cybernetic hand knocked against the surface of his glasses. Ah, clearly he'd fallen asleep working again. He was glad his daughter was asleep, or surely she'd be scolding him for sacrificing his rest in hopes of a breakthrough. He retracted the tempered lenses into their recesses at his temples to rub at his eyes before quickly leaving his seat, knowing that particular alarm to mean an emergency patient had arrived.

The cyberneticist wasted no time to straighten his disheveled coat, not wanting to keep whoever it was that so desperately needed such a skilled a doctor waiting. He rushed to the door of his clinic and hastily hit the release, allowing it to slide open and reveal who was waiting on the other side. What he saw drew a shocked gasp out of him.

"T-Toshi!" he stammered out in surprise, though it wasn't the withered form of All Might that surprised him. No, the top Enforcer practically lived at his clinic, so his presence wasn't unusual in the slightest. What was truly shocking, however, was what he carried with him. Slumped across the plating of his fragile-looking shoulders was a teen boy with cybernetic arms, though one had clearly been violently removed. All Might himself seemed undamaged – or at least looked as undamaged as he ever had in his pitiful-looking low-power mode – but the plating of his chest and abdomen glistened red with fresh blood. Cradled in his arm against his torso was another teen boy… or, at least, part of one. The poor thing looked as though he'd had everything below the chest blown clean off his body. He was horribly pale, and Dr. Shield would have thought he was dead for sure if he hadn't spotted the tangle of tubes and wires that had been hastily connected to what remained of the boy's vital organs and disappeared under the plating of the Enforcer's chest.

All Might responded to Dr. Shield's look of mixed shock and horror with a weak smile, propping his shoulder against the door jamb to keep himself from collapsing from the great strain he was putting on his body – both from carrying the two boys up through over ten decks to get there and having shared his life-support systems with one of them the entire way.

"S-sorry for bothering you so late, Dave. I… I didn't know where else to take them."