Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

"Wait," Doctor Finch said right before Cyanide could leave. He stopped in his tracks, then turned around.

"… Made your decision?"

"Heh. What can I say? You caught me. I do hate those bastards. I'll join you on this journey of yours. It's been a while since I've moved from this place, but I have knowledge valuable to you."

"A wise choice. But… how can you prove your loyalty to me?" Cyanide asked, baiting him. "You are a mutant, after all. How do I know you won't betray me?"

"Hmph. Loyalty, is it?" Doctor Finch snorted. Then, to Cyanide's surprise, he suddenly plunged his sharp claws into his own mechanical chest, destroying the wires in the process. Slowly, he pulled out a metal black cube. It had a plethora of lines on it, like roads running in intersection with one another. Along some of the lines was a faint red, comet-like glow, moving through the roads at a moderate pace. It was radiating with powerful energy.

"Here… take this."

Cyanide was silent, stunned, and debated whether or not this was a trap. Doctor Finch, seeing this, coughed a few times.

"Agh… goddamn it, kid! I can't last long without my core! Hurry up and take it!"

"Don't worry, Cyanide," Luna hurriedly said. "This is a mutant core. It is safe to touch, and by doing so, you can…"

Cyanide took the core out of Doctor Finch's hand, and immediately, a bright red glow came from the cube, enveloping the entire room. Cyanide had to cover his eyes to protect himself from the brightness, but after several seconds, it went away.

"H-Hrrrk… hurry… put the core… back in…" Doctor Finch groaned, sprawled on the floor. He only had a few seconds left.

Not wasting any time, Cyanide stepped forward, bent down, and plunged the imprinted core back into the hole in the Doctor's chest where his human heart had once been. Immediately, Doctor Finch spasmed a little, and Cyanide backed away in caution. However, after a few seconds, the Doctor stopped, and the wound he had inflicted upon himself moments earlier began to heal.

"Hah…" Slowly, he rose up from the floor, while the wires on his chest connected and entangled around one another once again. Then, shooting a glare at Cyanide, he spat.

"You nearly got me killed, damn brat."

"… Maybe next time give more of a warning before doing something like that?" Cyanide shot back, folding his arms. "So? Care to explain what that process just now was?"

With a sigh, Doctor Finch got to his feet and sat down in his chair once more, as if exasperated.

"Every mutant has a mutant core. You know that much, right?"

Cyanide nodded. "It's listed as a possible item I can obtain by killing mutants, though I haven't received any yet due to not meeting the requirements. I need a Luck stat of 50. I only have 15."

"That's not important," Doctor Finch cut in brashly. "Different rarities of mutant cores are needed to craft endgame equipment and items, but that's a different story. There's something special you can do with Stage Three Mutants and above. The process that we just did… they call it 'Imprinting.'"

This intrigued Cyanide, who raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Tell me more."

"You 'players' have the ability to Imprint on a Tier III Mutant Core or higher, as long as you touch it. It allows you to take full control of the mutant who the core had belonged to, essentially forcing loyalty. Go ahead and test it if you want. Hell, it's even possible for you to kill me right here, right now. Oh, but if you want information, don't test that part."

Cyanide rubbed his chin, then turned to Luna's hologram beside him. "Is everything he said true?"

"Yes," she replied. "After hearing what he said just now, I have unlocked access to the Imprinting library in the knowledge database. I can confirm everything he just said is true."

"Hm. I see. Then…"

Cyanide turned to Doctor Finch, then furrowed his brows and sent a cognitive command with his mind.

'Stand.'

Immediately, Doctor Finch's eyes went wide as he was forced to his feet, buckled up strictly like a soldier in the army. He looked at Cyanide, as if saying 'See?' with his eyes.

Cyanide let go of command on the Doctor, allowing him to slump back into his seat.

"A neat feature," he said. "But there's one thing I don't understand. How… do you know all of this information?"

"Don't forget, kid. I am still a doctor, even if I'm not human anymore. If anything, my intellectual capabilities have improved further upon becoming a Stage Three Mutant. I can easily piece together the bits of information previous generations of players have told me and remember them for as long as I need to. Besides… other players have tried Imprinting on me before. Forcefully. All of them failed. Want to know why?"

"… You killed them?"

Doctor Finch slapped his own face. "God, no! Why do you always assume the worst?!"

"It's the reason I'm still alive."

Doctor Finch stared at Cyanide for a few seconds, then sighed. "Yeah, well… no. I didn't kill them. But I did threaten to kill myself."

"Oh? I see… they can't Imprint on a dead mutant."

"Indeed. Players can imprint on a mutant one of two ways—one, the mutant offers it on their own like I did just now, and two, the player wounds the mutant just hard enough to render it completely unable to move, but also still alive. Then, they can forcefully retrieve the core and Imprint on it. But the second method, of course, requires insane precision and control, something not many people have… especially not in a survival game where all is at stake."

Cyanide didn't answer to that. He knew he was one of the few who DID have such precision and control. Many of his assassination missions involved torturing information out of his target before silencing them for good. Control was a crucial skill to have for a professional assassin.

"Let's go, Doctor," Cyanide said after a while, turning around and starting to walk away.. "There's something on my mind, and I'd like to see if you know anything useful about it."