X-23

X-23 - By: LeeJJ

Wolverine

**X-23** (designated as **X23-23**, also known as **Laura**) is the biological daughter of Wolverine with powers identical to his, including regeneration and adamantium claws. Bred from a sample of Wolverine's DNA, she was raised to be a feral killing machine for the benefit of the nefarious Essex Corporation. However, Laura would escape and join the Mutant Resistance, after being taken to them by her father, the Wolverine, who died a hero to ensure she would live.

## Biography

### Creation of a Weapon

**Laura** was one of several children created by Transigen as part of their X-23 project in the first quarter of the 21st Century. Her mother was an unidentified Mexican woman impregnated in Transigen's lab, using genetic material salvaged from the Weapon X Project in the 1980s by the Essex Corporation after the escape of Wolverine. Much like her progenitor, she developed an advanced healing factor and bone claws, with two in each hand and one in each foot. These claws were laced with adamantium when she was still very young, and she was extensively trained in martial arts.

Her primary caretaker during her captivity was a nurse named Gabriela, and she, like the other nurses, soon grew disillusioned with Transigen's treatment of the children under Doctor Zander Rice. When Rice deemed the X-23 project a failure, the children were all earmarked to be destroyed while he focused his attention on X-24. Gabriela and the other nurses rallied to help them escape, planning to take them first to a haven named Eden in North Dakota, and from there slip them across the border into Canada. Gabriela personally assumed responsibility for Laura, and set out in search of the Wolverine for help reaching the others after they were separated.

### Meeting the Wolverine

Gabriella wanted to get her to North Dakota to the Mutant haven known as Eden, and tried to get Logan to help them. After Gabriella was killed by the Reavers, X-23 ended up in the company of Logan and Charles Xavier on the run. As they headed north, they were constantly dogged by the Reavers and also X-24, which resulted in Xavier's death. Alone with Logan, the pair headed for North Dakota – X-23 because she believed that Eden existed, and Logan to prove that it did not.

Arriving, they found a small group of children led by Rictor. Along with the other children, X-23 headed north to cross the border into Canada. They were followed by the Reavers and X-23 fought alongside Logan to protect the others. When X-24 mortally wounded Logan, X-23 killed him by shooting him with an adamantium bullet through the head. She comforted Logan as he died, then buried him. As a final testament to him, she removed the cross marking his grave and turned it on its side, creating an "X".

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Superhumanly Acute Senses:** X-23 possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. She is capable of seeing at much greater distances, and with perfect clarity, than an ordinary human. She retains this same level of clarity in near-total darkness. Her sense of hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing her to both hear sounds that ordinary humans can't and to hear sounds that ordinary humans can, but at much greater distances. X-23 is able to use her highly developed sense of smell to track targets by scent with an impressive degree of success, even if the scent has been eroded by natural factors, such as the weather.

**Bone Claws:** X-23's skeleton includes two retractable bone claws in each arm and one in each foot that she can extend and retract at will. These claws are housed beneath the skin and muscle. Unsheathing them causes her skin to tear and bleed, but the wounds are quickly dealt with by her healing factor. X-23 can unsheathe any number of these claws at once, although she must keep her wrists and/or feet straight at the moment the claws emerge. The claws are naturally sharp and tougher than normal human bone, allowing X-23 to cut through most types of flesh and natural materials.

**Regenerative Healing Factor:** Like Wolverine, X-23's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing factor that enables her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. She is capable of fully healing injuries resulting in massive tissue damage and blood loss such as multiple bullet wounds, slash wounds, and puncture wounds within a matter of minutes. Her healing factor may fluctuate with her psychological state as battle wounds tend to heal very quickly, but her self inflicted cuts appear to remain visible for some time.

* **Foreign Chemical Immunity:** X-23's natural healing also affords her the virtual immunity to poisons and most drugs. She can be affected by some drugs, such as tranquilizers, if exposed to a high dose.
* **Longevity:** Presumably, because X-23 is the daughter of the Mutant Wolverine, her healing factor will also provide her with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process.
* **Disease Immunity:** Due to her highly efficient immune system, X-23 is immune to all Earthly diseases and infections.

## Paraphernalia

### Weapons

**Adamantium Claws:** X-23's claws have been coated with the nigh-indestructible metal Adamantium. As a result, her claws are virtually unbreakable and are capable of cutting almost any substance. Her ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon the amount of force she can exert and the thickness of the substance. Unlike Wolverine, the presence of Adamantium in her body is not sufficient enough to interfere with her bones' normal function of generating blood corpuscles, although it is as possible that some degree of her immune system is distracted by the presence of the foreign substance. Because only her claws are laced with adamantium, she is much less susceptible to acute adamantium poisoning.