X-23

**Laura Kinney** is a mutant artificially created by the Facility using Wolverine's DNA to serve as their private assassin. Geneticist Sarah Kinney was tasked to lead the project,

proposing to create a female subject after twenty-two failed attempts due to a damaged Y chromosome in the genetic material. Contradicting her superiors, Kinney mixed her own genetic material with Wolverine's and became the surrogate mother to the experiment, giving birth to **X-23**. In the Facility, X-23 was forged into a lethally efficient weapon, being constantly brutalized by her trainer, Kimura. However, she met a glimpse of tenderness with Kinney, who at the cost of her own life helped X-23 escape the Facility, recognizing her as her daughter "Laura".

## History

When a top-secret program attempted to recreate the original Weapon X experiment that involved the feral mutant, Wolverine, they failed to secure a test subject who could survive the bonding process of the virtually unbreakable metal Adamantium to their skeleton. Seeking to take the project in a new direction, the project's director, Dr. Martin Sutter, recruited renowned mutant geneticist Doctor Sarah Kinney and tasked her with creating a clone.

Using the only available genetic sample from Weapon X, which was damaged, they were unable to salvage the Y chromosome after twenty-two attempts. Kinney proposed they create a female clone instead, and though her request was initially denied, she still went ahead and produced a viable female embryo using her own genetic material combined with Logan's to complete the process, prompting Sutter to reconsider. Despite resistance from his protégé Dr. Zander Rice, whom Sutter had raised after Rice's father had been killed by a bestial Wolverine at the original Weapon X Facility, Sutter allowed Kinney to proceed. As revenge for her insubordination, Rice forced Kinney to act as the surrogate mother for the specimen, and she gave birth to "X-23."

Raised in captivity, X-23 was trained to be a weapon. Kinney did her best to ensure the child retained some semblance of humanity, but her efforts appeared to be in vain.

After seven years, Rice had X-23 subjected to radiation poisoning in order to accelerate the activation of her mutant gene, and forcibly extracted her claws and coated them with Adamantium. After Rice realized the child was growing soft, he blamed her sensei, one of the few people who treated her with kindness, and tested a chemical compound called "trigger scent" on him. The "trigger scent" caused Laura to kill mercilessly anything in her path, and thus she murdered her best friend. Rice already had a replacement in the wings, a woman named Kimura. Kimura was harsh and strictly punished X-23 for the death of her sensei.

At 11 years old, X-23 was sent on her first field mission to kill Presidential candidate Greg Johnson. She was assigned the mission as somewhat of an "advertising" ploy. Numerous other missions followed, as X-23's services were sold to the highest bidder. She was left emotionally stunted as a result. Her missions took her to locations all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Las Vegas, Japan, Colombia, the Congo, and many others. Rice, in an attempt to avenge his father's murder, abandoned X-23 on a particularly dangerous mission with A.I.M., but she survived against overwhelming odds and managed to return to the Facility. After her return to the facility Kimura punished her for not coming back with Rice.

Sarah Kinney let her out once, not as an attempt to escape but instead to use X-23 to help her find her niece, Megan, who had been kidnapped by a known murderer. X-23 found and rescued her with ease. Ultimately, Rice persuaded Sutter to hand control of the program over to him, then secretly ordered X-23 to kill Sutter and his family. X-23 was able to kill Sutter and his wife but was unable to kill their son, Henry. Later, Rice revealed to Kinney a chamber with dozens of incubation pods containing female clones before he fired her. Unwilling to let Sutter get the upper hand, Kinney gave X-23 one last mission - destroy the pods and kill Rice. However, Rice was able to exact revenge on Kinney from beyond the grave, as he had earlier exposed her to the trigger scent, sending X-23 into a rage that caused her to kill her mother. As she lay dying, Kinney named X-23 "Laura".

Months later, Laura traveled to San Francisco and tracked down Megan and Debbie (her mother's sister). Introducing herself as Sarah's daughter, she moved in with them. Although Megan experienced vivid nightmares of her abduction, her family believed these to be utter fantasies. Laura informed Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she had killed him. Over the next few weeks, Laura and her cousin bonded and she told her how she was raised to be an assassin and forced to kill her mother.

Debbie's boyfriend turned out to be an agent for the Facility who had been instructed to manipulate X-23 into killing Megan and Debbie using the trigger scent; however, the agent fumbled the assignment and was killed by X-23. Facility agents stormed the house, led by Kimura. X-23 managed to get Megan and Debbie to safety by handcuffing Kimura to a radiator and then triggering an explosion in the house, buying some time. Later, Laura provided Debbie and Megan with instructions to escape and assume new identities (originally meant to be used by Laura and her mother) though confessed that she would not be able to see them again. After Laura and Megan parted, Laura decided to confront the man who made her creation possible -- Wolverine.

X-23 tracked Wolverine to Xavier's mansion. One day after Logan left the grounds, Laura confronted him, coming face-to-face with her biological father for the first time. She engaged him in a battle, defeating him via tactics and maneuverability, after which she told him she had come to kill him and then herself so no more mutant weapons like herself could be created. Logan told her she could kill him if she wanted to, but he wouldn't let her kill herself. He also revealed that he was aware of X-23's ordeal, having received a detailed letter from her mother. The talk was interrupted when Captain America came to arrest Laura.

As a captive of S.H.I.E.L.D., Laura was interrogated by Captain America and Matt Murdock. Despite the mayhem in her past, Matt Murdock accepted X-23's innocence. Captain America wanted X-23 to atone for the murders she had committed. However, he ultimately freed X-23 in order to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D.'s exploitation of her as their own weapon. Putting her on a bus to New York City, he also gave her the copy of her mother's letter so she could read it.

X-23 resurfaced in New York and was found living on the streets by a pimp named Zebra Daddy, who took her in and employed her as a prostitute. X-23 met Kiden Nixon, a young mutant with the ability to freeze time when in danger. Together with Kiden's teacher, they rescued another young mutant, the feral Catiana, from an angry mob. Zebra Daddy tracked X-23 down, but with the aid of her new-found friends and a mutant named Felon, Zebra Daddy's thugs were defeated. X-23 killed him to save the lives of her friends.

X-23 later took a job at the mutant-themed Wannabee's nightclub in the Mutant Town district of New York. It was there that she saved the life of the daughter of mob boss Don Parisi from a gang of thugs, whom she killed. The deaths inadvertently implicated Wolverine, prompting his teammates in the X-Men to investigate. X-23 instinctively attacked Wolverine on sight, but he was eventually able to calm her down. She led the X-Men to Parisi's daughter. After aiding the X-Men against Parisi's super-strong mutant enforcer Geech, X-23 fled the scene. She later returned to help the X-Men save victims of a car accident, after which she was enrolled at the X-Men's Xavier Institute.

## Personality

Under the Facility, Laura was raised to be a living weapon and treated as a tool, with only her mother Sarah Kinney and her sensei treating her with kindness. Being forced to kill them under the influence of the Trigger Scent was a deeply traumatic experience for Laura, who internalized a deep sense of self-loathing and guilt. Without a healthy outlet for her depression, she began cutting herself with her claws - a habit that continued well into her teenage years, and was also prone to outbursts of extreme rage and violence similar to her father's. For much of her life, Laura struggled with her self-loathing and the belief that her past as an assassin made her unworthy of being an X-Man. Another source of angst for her was whether she could be considered a real person and had a soul, as she had been raised to believe she was an imperfect clone of Wolverine.

With the support of Logan and the rest of the X-Men, Laura was slowly able to work towards overcoming her traumas -- best seen when she cast aside her Facility-assigned codename of X-23 and took up the mantle of Wolverine after Logan's death; rejecting Kimura's attempts to gaslight her by affirming her identity as Logan and Sarah's daughter.

## Powers and Abilities

**Regenerative Healing Factor:** Like Wolverine, Laura'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 is developed to such a degree, she is capable of reattaching severed limbs, such as a hand. She has also proven capable of regrowing an entire arm on her own (Elixir was incapacitated at the time). 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 she is exposed to a massive dose.

**Disease Immunity:** Due to her highly efficient immune system, X-23 is immune to all Earthly diseases and infections.[*citation needed*]

**Longevity:** Presumably, because Laura 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. This was seen during her time in the Vault where time moved much more quickly than time in the outside world. She spent at least 200 years there and was able to maintain her youth to an extent.

**Superhumanly Acute Senses:** Laura 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, and her visual acuity is so refined she is able to see a single Sentinite with her naked eye. 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 hours afterwards. She was even able to detect the victim of a killing had high cholesterol by scent alone.

**Superhuman Agility:** Laura's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.

**Superhuman Reflexes:** Laura's reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. In at least one case she reacts to and slices in half with her claws a bullet fired at her face from nearly point-blank range.

**Superhuman Durability:** She was capable of fighting the Hulk without sustaining any severe injuries and surviving energy blasts from Nimrod (even if she required healing and nearly died).

**Superhuman Stamina:** Laura's muscles produce considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the muscles of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before fatigue begins to impair her.

**Bone Claws:** Laura'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.

**Psychic Defenses:** Laura has demonstrated a level of resistance against psychic probes and attacks: When she first arrived at the Xavier School it took Emma Frost time to finally break through them and be able to freely probe her mind. Her defenses were also strong enough to expel Mr. Sinister's consciousness when he attempted to take over her body.