The large heavy door screeched open and light poured into the room, Viper was stood outside gazing down at Claude and the test subjects.

"So, you want to escape do you? You're such bad test subjects" she chuckled "I knew about your little plan pretty much immediately, do you really think I wouldn't have a system that monitors every room in the facility? I could hear everything you said. Naughty test subjects get punished!"

She waved her hand to signal somebody. A large man with a metal lower and upper jaw walked up beside her, he wore a torn up black coat and torn black trousers with heavy dark boots.

His hair was messy and unkempt. He smiled, his teeth, sharp steel spikes, peeked out from his cold metal jawline.

He traced his tongue along his teeth, it bled as he moved it along.

He spoke in a voice that sounded mechanical and synthetic.

"Viper, do you wish me to discipline these imperfections?"

His eyes glowed bright orange as he stared down at Claude and the test subjects.

Subject 043 turned to Claude "That's Subject 007, his name is Spike Blackthorn, we don't have any more time to plan, it's now or never!"

Viper stepped forward "Let's play a game shall we? How about hide and seek, I'll give you ten seconds, go hide little subjects, Blackthorn will come and hunt you down!" She chuckled.

Viper waved her hand. "Have your fun Blackthorn, don't worry about who survives, if you kill Claude make certain his corpse remains intact, that way we can extract his soul."

Viper stepped back to allow the test subjects to leave. "Ten seconds, good luck!"

She chuckled and used her mechanical claw to inject Blackthorn with an orange liquid. "There, pain nullified for three hours, I don't expect you to take that long, just consider it a contingency."

Subject 043 nodded to Claude.

"Go, take 051 with you, I'll be right behind you, that way if Blackthorn catches up, I can keep him occupied, since I'll just regenerate."

Claude nodded and grabbed 051's arm, they rushed out of the room and down the darkened corridor.

Subject 043 stood in front of Blackthorn to block the path that Claude ran down.

Claude rushed past several sealed doors and unknown machinery dotted around the corridor.

051 sprinted at one of the doors and repeatedly hit it, she growled and scratched at it.

Claude stopped and looked at her. "What's behind there? Claude walked over to the door and tried to help get it open.

After a lot of effort and the combined strength of Claude and 051, the door fell, it landed with a loud crash as it revealed a large open room, machinery beeped from within and the room was shrouded in darkness.

051 pointed her arm into the room as if trying to point. "Exit..." she mumbled as she pointed across the room.

All of a sudden, an alarm blared loudly and a speaker started up with a static noise, Viper's voice echoed out of the speaker.

"You thought you could hide? This facility is my domain, everything here is under my control, Blackthorn, they're in room B-5, Go get them!!" Viper chuckled and cut off the speaker.

The feint echo of metal clanking against the ground grew louder and louder, a metallic voice called out. "You have no chance of escape, none have managed it in years, and we've increased security since last time."

He appeared in the doorway not long after. The room appeared empty as Blackthorn walked inside.

"Where are you hiding? You won't evade me for long." He clenched his hand into a fist, a drill rose from his knuckles and started to spin violently.

He started to walk around the room, he dragged the drill over the metal wall to make a loud hissing and screeching sound.

Suddenly he struck a table in the middle of the room, the table was torn into wood chips that flew around the room.

Blackthorn smirked and walked around the room. From the darkness a black tendril shot at his arm, it wrapped around it to hold the drill in place.

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051 stepped out of the darkness, the tendril extending from her throat firmly grasped Blackthorn's arm.

Blackthorn chuckled "Nice try, it's a real shame you chose to disobey."

Blackthorn's arm cut open and a sawblade rose from within, it cut through the tendril, causing it to bleed out and 051 retracted back, she let out a screech and hissed at him.

"It's unfortunate that you came out of hiding, perhaps you simply wanted to get your death over with."

Blackthorn turned to her and the drill on his hand retracted, in it's place rose a long metal spike.

He began to approach 051. A small red wire was attached to Blackthorn's shoe, it suddenly started to shake and stretch, then from the darkness 043 flew at Blackthorn along the string.

He landed a punch in Blackthorn's face, just above his metal jaw.

Blackthorn recoiled backwards and reshaped the spike where his hand was, it became a blade, he slashed at 043's neck, decapitating him.

"You're an irritating one, don't you know when to quit? I must say though, I'm impressed, after how many pieces I tore you into, I didn't expect you'd regenerate so quickly, nor that you'd attach one of your wires to me."

A red wire shot from 043's head and pulled it back onto his body, stitching itself together quickly.

"Blackthorn, we won't let you destroy us, this ends here!" Suddenly an explosion occurred and Blackthorn's blade shattered.

Claude stepped out from the shadows. "Subjects, work with me, together we'll take him down!" Both subjects nodded firmly and surrounded Blackthorn.

"So, one against three huh? This might end up being fun after all." Blackthorn laughed and both his arms turned into sawblades.

Subject 051 held her tendril like a whip and swung it around to gain momentum, meanwhile Subject 043 threw his arm forward, it detached and the wire started to circle around Blackthorn.

As Blackthorn was occupied with the wire, 051 was able to find an opening.

She shot her tendril like a whip at Blackthorn's body. Blackthorn caught the tendril in his mouth, he began to crush it with his metal spiked teeth.

051 screeched and tried to pull back, but Blackthorn had her stuck in place, his sawblades cut 043's wire which caused it to retract.

"I've defeated opponents far stronger than both of you, I'm used to being outnumbered." He bit down on 051's tendril, which caused it to bleed out and 051 to fall to the ground.

Suddenly he felt an explosion on his back, it caused him to drop the tendril from his mouth, he growled and turned around.

Claude was stood with his hand extended on the far side of the room. "Seems you forgot about me." Claude glared at Blackthorn.

Blackthorn looked annoyed. "I see, so you've learned at least one of your abilities, you stand to be a real thorn in my side, I'll need to deal with you quickly, but first, I should deal with the others, don't want our fun to be interrupted too early."

Blackthorn's hand extended into a drill once again, he approached 043, 043 used his wires to try and confuse Blackthorn, but Blackthorn drilled through his defences, he plunged the drill straight through his heart, he then snapped it off and left it running on him.

"That'll keep you occupied for a while." 043 repeatedly regenerated only to be continuously torn apart in a swirl of blood and body parts.

"Next comes the other subject." Blackthorn chuckled and picked up the tendril of the now fallen 051. "Say goodbye, you're defenceless."

He pulled the tendril to drag her towards him. He turned his hand into a blade and plunged it through her back. "Stay there, or I'll finish you off!"

Blackthorn turned to Claude and growled. "Now, down to business."

Claude extended his hand again and closed his eyes, he concentrated and Blackthorn felt the air in the room start to change. "Not this time Claude!" Blackthorn charged at Claude.

"I really must thank you Blackthorn, I figured out the basics of my power thanks to you. Watch this!" Claude clicked his fingers and pointed at Blackthorn.

Blackthorn's blade and saw shattered like glass, which caused him to stop in his tracks. "I see, so that's how it is, alright then, I'm not holding back anymore Claude!"

Blackthorn's metal jaw started to widen, it made a screeching noise as it did, the metal teeth in his mouth all pointed outwards, towards Claude, he extended a sharp steel horn from his forehead and multiple spikes protruded from his arms, running all down his forearms. He charged at Claude, this time even faster than before.

Claude chuckled. "Wow, battle is exhilarating, I didn't realise things would be this intense!" As he charged, Blackthorn thought to himself. "Claude wasn't this confident in the video feed from earlier, just what on earth did Viper inject into him?"

Blackthorn reached Claude and just as he was about to make contact, Claude extended his hand and suddenly the smell of smoke filled the air and Blackthorn was launched backwards into a wall.

Claude smirked. "Is that all you have Blackthorn? I can't even understand my power properly and yet you'd really lose to me this easily?"

Meanwhile Viper watched from the video feed, she nodded excitedly "Yes, there's the Claude that I'd heard so much about, this experiment is going wonderfully!" She laughed cheerfully.

Back in the room where Claude was, Blackthorn stood up and shook himself off, he glared at Claude. "As if I'd lose to you, don't get cocky, you're just experiencing true power for the first time, you've let it go to your head."

"This ends now, too bad you'll never be able to learn the full extent of your powers!" Blackthorn used the wall as a platform and launched himself from it, directly at Claude.

Claude started to falter, his breathing became laboured and his arm wobbled as he pointed it forward. "No, not now!" Blackthorn laughed "Looks like your body has hit it's limit Claude, it was fun toy with you for this long, but this is where things end."

Blackthorn crashed towards Claude, he impacted him and his horn pierced into Claude's leg, which caused Claude to crash to the ground. "It's over, say goodbye Claude!"

Blackthorn extended another spike from one of his arms and plunged it towards Claude's chest. Claude closed his eyes tightly.

When he opened his eyes he saw 043's arm pierced through and blocking the spike.

His body was being mangled by the drill yet his arm managed to regenerate outside of the drill's range.

Blackthorn growled and pulled the spike out, he pushed the arm away and turned to attack Claude again.

At that moment Claude closed his eyes and focused, an explosion engulfed the room. The building began to creak and shudder, the ceiling came crashing down and everything went dark.