As the huge monster lunged at him, Pietro found that his legs were momentarily unable to move. Eventually he managed to force them into action and pivoted on his left foot to hit the creature with a spinning roundhouse kick in its chest. The creature stopped as Pietro hit him, grinning madly, before reaching out and grabbing hold of Pietro's leg with his good arm. Pietro's leg was almost wrenched out of its socket as he was picked up by the monster and thrown into the opposite wall.
Pietro's vision swam as he picked himself up and he stumbled unsteadily forwards, blood running down his face from a cut just above his right eye. #421 stomped forwards, his muscular arm reaching out for Pietro again, but this time Pietro was ready for him. Pulling the curved knife he'd taken off one of his two previous assailants, Pietro stabbed it into the creatures' wrist, tearing open an area that should have been filled with vital veins and arteries. Unfortunately for Pietro, the monster's physiology seemed to have changed because very little blood appeared from the cut.
Pietro then changed tactics, and grabbed the monster's hand with his own in an attempt to beat him through sheer physical strength. An expression of surprise covered #421's tiny face as Pietro managed to equal the monster's strength, sweat pouring down his whole body. #421 suddenly let out an angry bellow and forced Pietro backwards with a flex of his bulging arm muscles. Pietro steadied himself before hurling himself back into the fray using every single part of himself as a weapon, including his teeth.
#421 was taken aback by the uncaring ferocity of Pietro's attack - he had never met someone who was as advanced as he was and had the same lack of self-preservation as he did. Whilst he was thinking this Pietro forced his way through the monster's guard and ripped out #421's throat with his hand. Blood gushed down the front of the clone, who roared in anger again and picked Pietro off the floor with his arm. He charged forwards and slammed Pietro into the steel wall, back first, bellowing all the while like a wounded rhinoceros.
As he was slammed into the wall, Pietro bit #421 in the hand as hard as he could and the monster almost let go of him in shock. Spotting an incredibly sharp jutting out piece of metal #421 charged towards it, intent on impaling Pietro on it. At the last minute Pietro managed to extricate himself from the monster's grip and threw himself to the side. #421 stopped himself just before he reached the metal and turned just in time to see Pietro throw a workbench at him. #421 caught the bench and staggered backwards onto the metal, which tore through his chest like it was paper. The monster looked down at the jagged metal protruding from his chest and let out a low whimper. He tried to free himself, but slowly his struggles grew weaker and weaker until they died away altogether.
Pietro took several deep, calming breaths and slowly the red haze that had clouded his brain faded away and he regained control of himself. At the same time, everything he had just been through came rushing back to him and he fell to his knees, physically and mentally drained. He suddenly became aware of dozens of minor wounds, and some not so minor, which he hadn't realised he had before and had to work hard not to black out from the pain.
"That was a very impressive display," a low voice said from behind him. Pietro turned to come face-to-face with a tall, very thin man who was completely bald and wore tinted dark glasses.
"Are you another one of these freaks?" Pietro growled, before being seized by a coughing fit that involved him coughing up a lot of blood. The thin man's lips drew themselves into a tight line that might have been an attempt at a smile.
"No, no, I am not another clone Pietro. I am their creator," the man said this in a way that implied Pietro ought to be very impressed, but he wasn't.
"That's not such a great achievement, y'know. I just killed 'em all single-handedly. I suggest you go back to the drawing board and have another go at designing a killing machine." Pietro was racked by another fit of coughing, which forced him onto his hands and knees and stained the nearby ground with yet more blood.
"I have no need to," the thin man retorted when Pietro had finally finished coughing. "I have already created the ultimate killing machine."
"Great! So where is he," Pietro asked as he forced himself, despite all his wounds, to stand and try and assume a fighting stance. "I'm ready to take on another one of your freaks!" The thin man merely laughed, a high pitched sound that reminded Pietro of finger nails being scratched down a blackboard.
"My dear boy, you misunderstand me. The killing machine I speak of is already here." Pietro looked wildly around him, cursing himself for not taking more care. He had allowed himself to be distracted by this guy and now apparently another monster was here to kill him. Pietro knew he wouldn't be able to win, but he wasn't about to give up. He'd go down fighting. The thin man laughed again. "My dear boy, you are the killing machine."
"What?" Pietro exclaimed as he turned to face the thin man. "I'm no one's machine!" he said, his voice laced with anger.
"How do you think you have become so powerful, Pietro?" The thin man took a step forwards. "Who do you think gave you your enhancements?" Another step closer. "I created you and I nurtured you. Without me, you wouldn't even exist. Without me you are nothing!" The thin man was almost face-to-face with Pietro by now.
"Let me guess, you expect me to believe that you cloned me!" Pietro laughed. "I've already heard that story, so why don't you try something else. How about saying that a stork dropped me on your doorstep!"
"Laugh all you want Pietro, you know it's the truth. I cloned you from the original Pietro Maximoff and I made you what you are today - a perfect copy of the original Maximoff in every way, including every one of his memories. And physically enhanced of course. You are my ultimate creation, the ultimate weapon…"
The thin man was cut off as Pietro's hand darted out and grabbed him by the throat. "I am no one's weapon!" Pietro whispered furiously, his hand clenching around the thin man's throat. "I am the real Pietro Maximoff, I am not a clone!" Pietro's voice rose to a shout as he said this and his hand clenched even more.
"P…Pietro please!" the thin man gasped for air. "I'm your c… creator. I'm… the closest thing you have to… family!" Pietro's eyes narrowed dangerously and his hand contracted even more. The thin man gasped and choked for several seconds before there was a wet snap and he went limp in Pietro's grip. Pietro dropped the corpse and walked over to the security wall. He picked up the plastic explosive he had found on one of the dead soldiers and set it on the wall. He ran for cover and several seconds later there was a tremendous explosion. Pietro rose from his hiding place to see a large section of the wall had been torn through.
Pietro stepped through the gap and came face-to-face with Viper and Warren again. Viper and Warren had both been hurled backwards by the force of the explosion, and Viper was clutching at her arm where a piece of shrapnel had embedded itself. At the sight of Pietro, Viper forgot her injury as her jaw dropped. Warren smiled to himself as he watched Viper's terrified face but he could tell by the look on Pietro's face that he was in serious danger.
"How did you… you're supposed to be dead!" Viper stammered, pointing at Pietro as if willing him to disappear. Pietro smiled coldly.
"I wanted a word with you Viper." He walked over to her and picked her up by her throat. "I'm going to ask you again, and this time I want the truth. Why is there a clone of me in that tank?"
"Pietro, please let go of me!" Viper whined, which made Pietro tighten his grip. "Okay, okay! That person inside the tank is an attempted clone, which failed. We're keeping him to study and see what went wrong." Pietro opened his fist and let her drop to the ground.
"That's more like it," he said and walked past Viper, stepping towards the tank. Warren saw Viper suddenly produce a gun from her sleeve and point it at Pietro's back, and at that instant Warren knew there would be trouble and threw himself behind an overturned table.
Viper pulled the trigger and a bullet tore through Pietro's shoulder. Pietro whirled around and wrenched the gun out of Viper's terrified hand. He pulled her to her feet and smiled madly. "Big mistake," he whispered to her before coldly snapping her neck and dropping her lifeless corpse.
Author's Note: Thank you very much for your kind review last chapter Karakin, I hope you enjoy this chapter!