Imposter System

There was not enough time to figure out what to do about the situation. He took out the blood drawing device from the small knapsack he always carried around and took as much blood as he could before the pressure was too low to draw up. Since his heart had stopped, there was nothing pushing the blood to fill vials so he only got three. He quickly pulled off the gloves and threw everything into his bag. Once he finished, he sent a message to the private chat and left the room quickly.

Matt threw up another Life Sense and saw that it was clear. He slipped out of the room and tried to process the information he gained and what just happened to the man. Whatever the device was seemed to be able to detect when certain key phrases were mentioned. These would then trigger the device to stop the heart. Matt had been asking about Cindy, but he was unable to tell him anything concrete.

What he learned was that she disappeared around that day Matt last saw her. Before then, she had been acting strange. She was very easy to anger and was obsessive over her work. When Matt finally got to talking about the lower decks and her purpose there, he began to stutter and struggle. Matt didn't realize something like this would happen or he would have used telepathy once enough hypnosis was laid out. The last thing he learned was Cindy saying she would be part of an important project.

While in thought, Matt's vision went blurry for a second and he realized it was a notification on the private channel. The message was a series of random letters from Alexis. At first, he thought it was an accident, but then, upon closer inspection, the letters were not random at all. It was as if someone's hand was about to reach the keyboard to type, but then it was suddenly pulled away. The dragging of the hand hit several letters and enter simultaneously.

His heart dropped and he tried to reach Alexis through telepathy. However, there was no response. Either they were too far away or she was unconscious. They had never thought to test the distance of the telepathy and Matt only now realized how foolish that oversight was. In cases where they are separated like this, being unable to communicate is a huge crutch. They took the ability to speak directly into each other's' minds for granted. Matt started running back to his quarters in hopes that nothing had happened.

However, when he used Life Sense all he saw was an empty room. He entered quickly and saw the mess. There was no way Alexis would not put up a struggle is she were to be attacked. She must have realized someone other than Matt entered. He noticed a blood stain on the ground and some black hairs. He picked one of the hairs up and inspected it closely. It was long and thin. There was a slight spiral to it and the root was white. This looked like beard hair.

Off the top of his head there was only a single person he could think of that he's ever encountered that had a black beard this long and could be behind this. Although there were other possible people, this one stood out to him. The day that Cindy was taken away, one of the two men had a beard that this hair would match to. Shephard had made his move once more. Matt clenched his fist and started to sort his thoughts.

This could not have been an accident or a spontaneous kidnapping. They were too precise and too organized. Although Alexis put up quite a fight, they still managed to take her away. This is no easy feat, so they must have come prepared. The fact that one of Shephard's pawns was sacrificed today once Matt discovered a certain piece of information. This would also mean that Shephard has a way to track him or at least tell his general area. Although Matt made a lot of assumptions to come to these conclusions, his instincts were telling him he was right.

However, Shephard would be very mistaken if he thought that simply taking Alexis would leave him vulnerable. He knew two things about Shephard so far. Firstly, he seemed to be operating with the mission as a basis to his actions. In this, he is very much like the Captain. However, Shephard seems to have an exaggerated understanding of the gray areas of the mission details and abuses the loopholes. In this way, he is able to manipulate and even kill crew members. However, Alexis had the perfect immunity to Matt's understanding. Since she was pregnant, he wouldn't harm her.

Unfortunately, this didn't make Matt any less angry. His humanity was screaming in anger due to his loved one being taken while his parasite side was seething due to the loss of a subordinate. Either way, he was extremely motivated to deal with Shephard. However, this would require more strength than he currently possessed. Matt reached into his bag and took out the vials of blood he claimed earlier.

Matt downed the vials and watched his evolution points go up. Once he finished, he threw the vials back in his bag with the intent to destroy them when he had the chance. Fortunately, he kept a bottle of bleach so he made sure to destroy any evidence first. Even though he was currently in a crisis, he knew panicking would only make matters worse. Matt looked at his points which were now at thirty-eight.

There was not enough time since the last splurging until now to stockpile for a situation like this. Therefore, he needed to properly consider his options. Although they never talked about the possibility of one of them getting taken out, Matt was sure that she considered it. He went into Alexis's private room and down to her safe. It was a six-digit code that she recently changed. Alexis specifically had let him know that she changed it.

After thinking for a second, he input the birthday of Amy. No one else other than her would know that number. And fortunately, the code went through correctly. Inside the safe were several documents. However, he noticed on the bottom shelf was a note, a gun, and a device. Matt took out the items and opened the note.

'Matt, if you are reading this, something happened to me. I left these things for you in case of an emergency. The gun is untraceable and the locator device is set to find me. Hurry up, I'm probably waiting for you to cause a scene.'

Matt chuckled a bit at the last line and put the note back. He took the gun and checked it to make sure it functioned. It was a similar technology to the PL81, using electromagnetism to launch projectiles at incredible speeds. He holstered the gun and turned on the device. As soon as it activated, it began searching the ship. After a while, a blip appeared.

However, it was in an impossible place, outside of the ship. Then, a few seconds later it moved to another random location. Matt realized that this was likely some sort of jamming device placed near Alexis. Although unfortunate, he never planned to rely on technology. In a case such as this, his own powers were naturally more reliable. He sat cross-legged up against the wall and activated Dream Walking.

He saw three markings on the ship. Since a part of him was inside Alexis, the signature from her was much stronger. He could clearly make out where she was. Matt floated through the dark space, occasionally hitting a wall or floor outlining them in white. He reached Alexis after an unknown amount of time and entered her subconscious. Luckily, she was unconscious so he was able to pull her into a dream. Once she materialized and realized what was happening, she made a quick motion to hug Matt.

"Since you're here, that means you probably weren't attacked as well?" Alexis asked and he nodded. She let him go and turned serious.

"I don't know who they were. They came into the room and I noticed them immediately. I sensed three people approaching me and I tried to fight back. However, they had some sort of device which made it impossible for me to activate my suit. I've never heard of this, so it must have been made recently. This means they have been prepared to kidnap me. Whatever they have planned likely anticipates you coming after me."

"That sounds reasonable. I thought something similar. However, they probably only expect me to have a weapon or two. Shephard knows that I know he is looking for Martha. He seems to have planned it all out accordingly and will only accept Martha to exchange for you. His mistake is assuming I'm weak. There is only one problem, I don't have enough points to evolve any of my skills to the next stage."

"Ah, I might have a solution for that…" Alexis said with a face of realization.

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Today's my birthday~ yay! Come celebrate with me on my discord in the comments. ->