Imposter System

Matt immediately activated his Detect Life and began inspecting Alexandria's life force. The network around her body was completely broken apart. Due to the living metal infiltrating her lower spine and the abdominal aorta, the infection rate multiplied by several orders of magnitude.

The spinal column gave the living metal access to the central nervous system and the abdominal aorta carried blood to her legs and various organs. Matt checked her toes and saw that they were starting to turn black as well. Matt lifted her eyelids and saw that her sclera started to turn black as well. The living metal must have infiltrated the cornea from the optical nerve.

Only her heart, lungs, and most of her brain showed significant life energy. Everything else was very weak and broken. Even under normal circumstances, she shouldn't have ended up this far along. If her infection rate stayed the same from before his intervention, she would still be fine. Something was suspicious here so Matt decided to investigate the lab first. He connected to Martha and asked her to relay everything that happened here since the last time he arrived.

Unfortunately, there was a large gap in her observation since she had just consumed several vials of the nucleotide solution and was sleeping. Matt continued his search and did not find anything out of place in the lab. He checked the cold room, and all of the samples from the experiments in the lower decks were untouched. The few living metal samples he had remaining from Cindy were also untouched.

Finally, he searched Alexandria's body and discovered a letter slipped into her underwear. As Matt unfolded it, he frowned. Due to the laser tag event, his personal device had been set to do not disturb. Because of the incident, he had yet to turn it back on. Matt regretted not being more attentive in this sense, because it had created more issues for him.

'Dear Matthew,

Your inaction in completing your task is no longer tolerable. Therefore, I arranged for your test subject to be injected with a special solution. This solution causes explosive growth in the living metal. I better see some results by the end of the month.

-W'

Matt saw Willard's unique W at the end of the letter and crumpled it up in frustration. He had underestimated how desperate Willard was for this research. Based on their interactions, he seemed to have everything under his control. Thinking about it again, Matt realized that perhaps the recent incident had pushed Willard over the edge.

When facing Westley, Matt encountered three technologies directly targeted espers. Originally, when Alexis had revealed to him that the ESP suit existed, he was baffled. Such a thing wouldn't even be conceptualized before some of the other more standard suits. However, thinking about Willard, the supposed human experiments on Earth, and the technology he had seen, it made sense.

Perhaps Willard was originally unaware of how advanced the anti-esper tech was. Since he intercepted the information, he must have decided to push his plans ahead and forced Matt into a corner. If his conjecture was correct, then Willard believed Matt had the means to solve the compatibility issue. This was likely related to him essentially halting the spread of Alexandria's infection initially.

Matt didn't have time to think about this anymore, so he took out a blood drawing ring and placed it around Alexandria's ankle and retrieved a sample. The blood had many black contaminates in it and was considerably more viscous than normal blood. Matt brought it over to his microscope and pipetted a drop into the slide. He watched as a spiked ball, that looked like a sweet gum tree seed, collided with a blood cell and obliterated it.

Matt focused his attention on the living metal cell and it suddenly went flaccid. He wondered if the living metal couldn't perform while being observed. After moving his attention to another cell, the same thing happened as Matt concentrated on it. Soon, all of the cells collected together to form a black drop in the center of the blood sample.

He retrieved the vial and focused on the black specks. Soon, they all connected together and clung to the side of the vial that Matt was looking at. Realizing he had a subtle control over the living metal, he attempted the same in Alexandria's body. With his Detect Life active, he attempted to collect all of the metal into her skeletal muscles and away from any nerves, blood vessels, or vital tissues. The process was incredibly slow and his work was quickly made useless once more of the living metal spread.

The situation was grim, but Matt didn't give up. He had a sudden idea that would be incredibly risky. He took the blood drawing ring and placed it around Alexandria's elbow. Fortunately, her arms were still in good shape since the living metal hadn't progressed that far yet. Once he retrieved a vial of her blood, he went into the cold room. He focused his mental energy on the billions of living metal cells spread throughout his body and concentrated a drop of them toward his finger.

Then, he retrieved a lancing device from a blood test kit, and pierced his finger. The black substance quickly formed a drop. Matt concentrated on the drop, and it responded very readily without much effort. It quickly dropped from his puncture and entered the blood sample. It spread evenly throughout the blood and began to multiply. Once he sensed that the living metal could not multiply anymore, he took the reddish black vial of liquid and took a small IV kit out from the first aid cabinet.

Once the IV was assembled, he quickly pierced the needle into Alexandria's arm and attached the vial to the other end. It didn't take long for the black substance to force its way into her body. Now that he had several helpers, he quickly mobilized them to remodel Alexandria's body. Based on personal experience, Matt was aware that the living metal could effectively strengthen the bodies skeletal muscles and bone structure. This was his goal.

Although, he wouldn't be able to recover the section of abdomen that she lost to her initial progressive infection. However, he did attempt to mobilize the living metal's healing properties and restore some of the areas in her body that were infected to their original state. After half an hour of concentrating, Matt was beginning to feel light headed. Remotely controlling billions of cells to completely rebuild the human body required a lot of technical skill and fine manipulation.

The living metal did not instinctively understand what was essential for bodily function. If not for Matt's innate abilities, when he was invaded by the living metal, he would have suffered a bit before reigning in the proliferation. Utilizing the original Matt's extensive anatomical knowledge, he was able to guide the rampant living metal cells to settle in the bones and skeletal tissues throughout Alexandria's body.

Then, he designated the living metal from his body to be like the generals of an army and command millions of troops below them. This way, the living metal wouldn't replicate on its own accord. Instead, they would slowly spread along the routes Matt already laid out. With this, Alexandria's body would become something like a cyborg. Although the living metal was still biological, so that wasn't quite accurate.

Seeing her strengthened bones and muscles, Matt couldn't help but think of adding a set of retractable claws on her hands. The idea was tempting, but he decided against it. Such a thing would stand out too much and he didn't want to give Willard any ideas. Thinking about Willard, Matt had a headache. He had essentially solved the puzzle in one go. Fortunately, one couldn't observe the changes in Alexandria's body from the exterior alone.

Without realizing it, an hour had already passed and he quickly placed Alexandria in one of the enclosures and placed his lab coat over her. He quickly made his way to the cafeteria to pick up breakfast for Alexis and himself. However, as he rushed out of his lab, he was hit with a bout of dizziness and almost fell over. Doctor Lisinger just happened to be walking by and he quickly ran over to support the wobbly Matt.

"Doctor O'Connely, are you alright? Do you need me to bring you to med bay?" He said with a worried tone.

"I'm alright, just a bit lightheaded from not eating. I'm headed to the cafeteria right now."

Matt's Detect Life had just run out a few minutes ago so he was caught by surprise when Dr. Lisinger showed up. Matt straightened his back and stood steadily. The doctor nodded and slid his hand down Matt's arm as he let go of his support. The doctor quickly left and Matt looked down at his hand. He went back into his lab and entered the cold room.

Matt unfolded the note and read it out in his head. 'Deck 5. Room 14. 2400.'