The two test subjects prepared for battle, Claude glanced around the room to get a feel for his surroundings.
Viper's voice echoed through a speaker as she stood in the observation room above, she held a clipboard to write notes.
"These are some of my finest creations, the guy there is Subject 043, an incredible creature, the closest to perfection we have ever achieved, we managed to merge two separate powers into his vessel, he's constantly tearing himself apart due to that, however he regenerates himself faster, good luck killing that one."
She gestured to the woman next.
"This one is Subject 051, a body that had a custom designed lifeform that we created inserted into her, it hollowed out her body and now uses the corpse as it's vessel keeping it fresh using a special liquid it secretes, think of it as a parasite wearing human skin."
Viper chuckled.
Subject 051 started to cough, she choked and writhed as she suddenly jolted forwards, the stitches on her jawline flew off, her jaw widened.
Suddenly she coughed up a tendril which dislocated her jaw with a cracking sound, it caused blood to splatter everywhere.
The tendril shot straight from her throat and directly at Claude, it fired through his shoulder like a bullet.
Claude winced in pain as blood seeped from the wound.
Claude pointed his other hand at her and concentrated, Subject 051 retracted her tendril and prepared to fire again.
Suddenly Claude fired a gust from his hand and fired straight at 051, Subject 043 slid in the way, the gust impacted him and his body was torn to pieces.
Claude looked down at his hand and breathed heavily. "What was that?"
A bright red string flew out from Subject 043's torn up body, a few more strings joined soon after, they pulled his body back together, it stitched him up and he stood up shortly after.
"You're really something, I didn't think you'd have that power. Do me a favour, Kill me. I think your power may be able to do it."
Claude looked at him confused. "Kill you? Why would I do that, and how do you know what my power is?"
Subject 043 nodded.
"I see, so you don't know? I guess that makes sense, the more a person understands their power the stronger it becomes, yours is naturally incredibly powerful, so I don't doubt that a lot of parties want to keep you in the dark."
He nodded towards Viper's observation deck.
"We need to conclude this battle, I'll tell you everything then, Viper should be satisfied if we rough each other up a bit, no need to hold back against me, I'll regenerate no matter what you throw at me, but please be careful with Subject 051, she's only as durable as a regular human, please don't kill her, she may not be human anymore but she is still sentient. Let's get this battle underway."
Subject 043 charged at Claude.
Claude focused and another gust fired from his hand, which was aimed at Subject 043's arm.
His arm stopped moving and fell to the ground, sliced cleanly through, he bled out as he avoided Claude's attack.
A red wire extended from his shoulder, it pulled his arm up from the ground and wound it back into place, it stitched itself back together.
"You'll need to try harder than that, focus and attack me properly."
Claude closed his eyes and pointed his hand at Subject 043's chest.
Suddenly a loud crackle filled the air and Subject 051 was stood on shaky legs, she held the tendril that extended from her mouth like a whip, she hit Claude's arm, which knocked it off balance.
Claude winced in pain and recoiled, the attack flew off course, it impacted Subject 051's arm, it tore clean off, she let out a gargled scream and held her bleeding arm.
"DIE!!" she hissed as she charged at Claude.
Subject 043 stepped in between the two.
"That's enough 051, we achieve nothing by killing him or risking your own life, we need him, we just need Viper to get bored of watching us, if he doesn't deliver the desired results, she'll send the three of us to confinement, that's our chance."
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Subject 043 looked up at Viper and shouted.
"None of us will fight anymore Viper, your little project here failed to kill me or 051, he won't use his real power unless he knows what he's working with, your test is over!"
Viper chuckled.
"I see, so you refuse to fight? That's fine, you'll change your mind later, after I've punished you, for now, get to confinement, you know where it is, fail to be there and you know the consequences!"
Viper walked away, further into the facility.
"Let's go Claude, she's serious about her threat, she'll send Subject 007 after us, he's... not the kind of guy you want to get on the bad side of, he's incredibly powerful and loyal to Viper and her boss. He was the first test subject who survived and is used as an enforcer, to keep the others in line. While he can't necessarily kill me, he can cause me a lot of suffering."
Subject 043 lead Claude out of the room and down the corridor, Subject 051 followed behind, she carried her severed arm with her while holding the blood back from the wound with her other hand, she stumbled as she walked.
A while later they pushed open a large heavy door, the door slid open with a screech as it lead into a darkened room the three of them stepped inside and Subject 043 closed the door with a thud.
Subject 043 sat down on the floor, 051 moved next to him, he pulled a red wire from his finger and began stitching 051's arm back together.
He spoke to Claude while he was working.
"We're all constantly suffering, barely anyone is left, and those who are have been reduced to Viper's little toys, constantly being broken, I repair who I can with my wires, but not everyone is so lucky, even those who remain fine physically, they often succumb mentally and break down."
He sighed.
"Viper's experiments are nothing compared to her boss though, the doctor is truly deranged, he's the one who placed a second soul into me, some old hero or something, had a very strong regeneration power, powers manifest differently for everyone, I got this wire because of it, and my wounds cauterise themselves after a few minutes. However due to my initial power, which should've killed me instantly, the power to separate my body into as many segments as I like, it will kill me if I split any vital organs and I'm not immune to bleeding out, this regeneration solves that problem, however I'm in constant pain, it's not so bad now though, I'm used to it at this point."
Claude looked down at 043 and took a seat on the cold floor beside him.
"So, that's why you asked me to kill you?"
043 nodded.
"That's right, I got a taste of your power and I thought you might be able to do it, given the nature of your ability."
"043, what is my power?"
Subject 043 finished stitching Subject 051's arm back on, he cut the wire from his finger and looked at Claude.
"Are you sure you want to know that? The man who held your power before you was a wildly different man than you are, you may regret it if you look into this."
Subject 043 took Subject 051 by the chin, he snapped her jaw back into place, causing her to cry out in pain, then he drew another wire from his finger and began stitching her widened jaw back together.
Claude nodded.
"I want to know who I was, I don't care about the consequences of that knowledge."
Subject 043 looked at him. "Very well... when your attack hit me the first time, I felt it tear me apart from within, as if I was being torn apart on an atomic level, I thought you could finally kill me, but it seems you're not strong enough yet, or maybe I just regenerate too fast. I know there was another man who had the power to manipulate atoms in the past, I heard Viper and the doctor discuss it together, however I don't know who the man was, just that he seemed quite significant, and not for a good reason since Viper was excited about him."
Claude looked down at his hand.
"Atom manipulation, that's my power? To what extent does it work?"
Subject 043 finished stitching up Subject 051 and looked at Claude.
"I don't know what the extent of your power is, you'd have to figure that out yourself, to that end, I have a favour to ask, I don't care what happens to me, but 051 here, I care about her, I know the parasite inside her has made her a husk, but I see flickers of life in her sometimes, a person can be killed but the soul isn't necessarily destroyed, I think she's still in there, somewhere. I want her to get out of here, to live a better life than just this. Will you help me? With your power I think it's doable."
Claude nodded firmly.
"I'll help, but I'm going to need some more information."
"I understand, I'll give you some information about this place and then we can begin planning." "
"Viper and the doctor take people, orphans, people who are down on their luck, people who, if they disappeared, nobody would notice, they're experimented on, in some sick experiment to create the "Perfect Human" as they call it, most subjects don't survive, and the ones that do become twisted creatures, like me and 051."
"The first to ever survive such experiments is 007, he was given a name and made the enforcer, to keep their other test subjects in line, though he never really had to do anything, since nobody had ever tried to make an escape... up until twelve years ago, Subject 022, a young girl back then, a prodigy at the age of ten, the power she was given, an experiment to fuse the powers of monsters into a human, one evening however, she breached containment, 022 managed to escape, though there were many casualties in her wake she made it out."
"Naturally 007 was dispatched to deal with her, she was reported eliminated, but many of us had our doubts, since they never retrieved her corpse, they'd have wanted her soul so they could use the power again. If we make our escape, we will no doubt alert Viper to our presence, she'd send 007 after us, I believe we can make it with your power."
Claude nodded.
"I see, I'm not confident in my ability to use my power yet, but I'll help if I can, I need to get out of here too after all."
Subject 043 nodded and stood up, he helped Subject 051 to stand and extended a hand to Claude.
Claude took his hand and stood up.
Subject 043 nodded.
"We'll begin when Viper returns, from there we'll attack her and make our escape, as far as I'm aware, Viper doesn't have a power, I heard the doctor and Viper talking, the doctor mentioned that he was searching for a power worthy of her, that he wanted to make even her "Perfect", and she agreed with him. She probably wants your power, with it she'd be unstoppable. Anyway, now all we can do is wait, I hope we don't run into 007, however if we do, I'll handle him, just get 051 and get out of here, 007 can't kill me so I can hold him back for a while. do whatever it takes."