Laura Kinney

* Talon
* Laura Kinney

## Background

### 1992 - 1994: Background

In 1992, the Weapon Plus Program decided to recreate the original Weapon X experiment but couldn't find a test subject who could survive bonding with the metal adamantium. Dr. Sutter, a member of the program, took a different direction & hired geneticist Dr. Sarah Kinney to create him a clone of Wolverine.

The only genetic sample that was left from Wolverine was damaged so all that was savaged was the X chromosome. After 22 attempts, Dr. Kinney proposed they make a female clone instead but was denied. Going against her superiors, Kinney succeeded in creating a female embryo by using her own DNA as well. Seeing her success, the director reconsidered his position & allowed Kinney to proceed. But for her insubordination, she was forced to become the subject's surrogate mother & carry the child to term. After nine months, Kinney gave birth to the clone, X-23.

### 1994 - 2006: X-23

X-23 was raised at The Facility for the next twelve years & trained as a weapon for the agency to use. Over the years, X-23 was trained in martial arts, conditioned to a trigger scent & exposed to abuse in order to strip of her of any humanity & sense of self. Though Sarah was under orders to not treat X like a child, she would do her best act motherly & read Pinocchio to her in secret.

Due to the slow process of her genes, the director had X-23 subjected to radiation poisoning to accelerate the activation of her powers. It worked, but also nearly killed X-23. They then forcibly extracted her claws to coat them with the metal adamantium, which Rice performed without anesthesia. Her skills were sold to the highest bidder & she became one of the world's most sought after assassins by the age of eleven.

After her creators realized she was growing soft, they blamed her sensei, one of the few people who treated her with kindness. They tested a chemical compound called "trigger scent" on him. The "trigger scent" caused Laura to mercilessly kill anything in her path & thus she murdered her best friend. Sutter already had a replacement in the wings, a woman named Kimura. Kimura was harsh & sadistically punished X-23 for the death of her sensei.

Dr. Sutter would soon pass on leadership of the Wolverine program to his protege Zander Rice, who in return forced X-23 to kill Sutter & his wife. He then showed Dr. Kinney all the other incubation pods containing other female pods before firing her for becoming too close to X-23. Not wanting to leave the child behind, she decided to flee with X-23 & told her to kill Zander then destroy the pods before leaving. She succeeded in killing Zander but unfortunately, he exposed Kinney to the trigger scent, sending X-23 into a rage that caused her to kill her mother. As she took her last breath, her mother gave her the name Laura.

### 2006 - 2008: Laura Kinney

With her new found identity, Laura tracked down Sarah's sister & found that she lived in San Francisco. Upon arriving, Laura introduced herself to Debbie & her daughter as Sarah's daughter & they allowed her to move in with them.

After living with them for some months, Laura discovered that Debbie's boyfriend was an agent for the Weapon Plus Program. When she realized he was going to kill both Megan & Debbie, she thwarted his plans by killing him first but her old handler Kimura had already discovered their locations. She broke Laura's back, handcuffed her with adamantium handcuffs then began to put her finger through Megan's heart. Laura recovered from her injuries, cut off her own hand & handcuffed Kimura to a pipe. After reattaching her hand & blowing up the house, Laura had them get new IDs & move far away as she realized she could no longer stay with them without putting them in danger.

In 2008, Laura resurfaced in New York City. She was found living on the street by a pimp named Zebra Daddy, who took her in & employed her as a prostitute. She made friends with another prostitute named Kiden Nixon, a young mutant with the ability to freeze time when in danger. The two became close friends & she went on to save her when a pimp tried to force another girl to become a prostitute. In response, Laura killed him to save the girl's life.

To get her some money, Laura took a job at a mutant-themed nightclub after lying about her age. She eventually saved the life of Jade Parisi, the daughter of mob boss Don Parisi, by killing a gang of thugs. Because of the claw stabbings on the men, the deaths implicated Wolverine as the attacker so him & his teammates went to investigate. Upon seeing the man & his claws, Laura instinctively attacked him on sight but he was soon able to calm her down after she did some damage. Their talk was interrupted when Captain America came to arrest Laura. Though Cap wanted her to atone for the murders she committed, he ultimately freed her after Logan said they both knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. would exploit her as their own weapon.

### 2008 - 2010: Talon

Instead of returning to the streets, Laura tracked Logan down to the X-Mansion & handed him a letter that her mother had written for when she finally found her father. After reading the letter & understanding her ordeal, he offered to take her in & had her enrolled at the Xavier Institute after the Christmas break. As the training squads were already set, Laura sat out for field day. She eventually joined Emma Frost's Squad, the Hellions & took the codename Talon. She quickly became very protective of Logan, even once attacking his teammate after he hurt him during a training session.

During an attack on the Institute by William Stryker & the Purifiers, Laura slaughtered the whole group effortlessly after the team became overwhelmed. As she was to thanks for saving their lives, the other kids grew to be more receptive of Laura. When a group of students went to Dallas to investigate some suspicious activity, Hellion specifically brought Laura along after admitting that he admired her strength & will. When they arrived, they found a man & a Nimrod he made. Though Prodigy said they should call for back-up, Hellion convinced the students they could take them but it became obvious that they miscalculated their abilities. At the end of the fight, everyone was okay except for Laura, who had been mortally injured. Hellion telepathically flew them back to the Institute & took her straight to her to Elixir, who used his powers to save Laura.

The same way she was protective of Logan, she soon adapted that same mentality with Julian. She even watched over him while he was unconscious for almost two days straight. They worked together when their mutual friend Cessily was kidnapped by Weapon Plus. The two found a hideout where Laura interrogated a man at gunpoint. When they finally track her down, Laura's old mentor Kimura stabbed Julian but he was still able to use his power to throw her away. As they attempted to escape with Mercury, they were surrounded by agents. Just in time, the X-Men arrived & took the agents out.

Laura began to feel as though her friends are always in danger because of her. She requested a leave of absence from school to she see what life had to offer other than death. Unknown to her, Gambit kept his eye on her. For the first two weeks, Laura started out on her own until she became aware of Gambit following her. Eventually, they began working together & ended up in Madripoor after hearing of Malcolm Colcord trying to continue the Weapon X program. He was being backed by Daken, who they discovered was Wolverine's son & hoped to gain more power through the program. Laura & her brother engaged in a brawl that eventually led to him selling out Colcord then selling out Laura right back. Colcord began experimenting on Laura before she broke free with the help of Gambit & Daken, who had taken her side once again. After taking Colcord down, they cuffed him to an explosive device inside the facility then blew the place up, killing him.

### 2010: Talon

Following the aftermath of it all, Laura returned to the Institute so that she could go back to her former life. Upon her return, Julian confronted her about leaving & not even giving him a real conversation beforehand. For the next couple of months, Laura did her best to avoid any long conversations with Julian. One night, while out on the lawn, Laura was kidnapped by Arcade & transported to Murderworld alongside fifteen other superpowered teenagers. Arcade forced all of them to take part in a game of kill all or be killed, with only one survivor. The games began after Arcade chosen to kill Red Raven for openly defying him.

As the groups separated, Laura joins the Avengers Academy students, which included Reptil, Hazmat, Ken Mack & Juston Seyfert, as well as Nico Minoru & Chase Stein. After a few days, an unknown enemy attacks the camps leading to Laura investigating the attacks. Things went fine until Reptil was suddenly hurt by a fire blast, which Laura & her group believed was Chase's doing. The group left them, deciding to make their way to medical supplies.

Along the way, Hazmat stepped on a switch to activate the trigger scent, causing Laura to go feral & attempt to kill her friends. Hazmat, Mettle & Reptil manage to escape & leave Laura on her own. She would later reunited with them, who had encountered the rest of the survivors. Unfortunately, Hazmat fell into a trap that released more trigger scent. Seemingly unstoppable, X-23 attacked the others until she was momentarily defeated by Bloodstone's monster form. But it wouldn't be enough until Aiden brutally attacked her, blaming her for Nara's injuries. She was kept alive only by the interruption of Reptil, who head-butted Aiden in his triceratops form. Laura remained unconscious until they were rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D., where she was watched over by Wolverine.

Following her rescue from Murderworld, Laura was more convinced then ever that she was nothing more than a killer after seeing how the trigger scent made her attack her friends. When Cyclops secretly assembled a new X-Force, Laura was tossed into the mix. Wolverine was highly against her joining of the team, even threatening to gut Cyclops but he made it clear that it was Laura's decision to join.

## Personality

Under the Facility, Laura was raised to be a living weapon & treated as a tool, with only her mother Sarah & 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 & guilt. Without a healthy outlet for her depression, she began cutting herself with her claws & continued to do this well into her teenage years. She was also prone to outbursts of extreme rage & violence similar to her father's.

For much of her life, Laura struggled with her self-loathing & the belief that her past as an assassin made her unworthy of being anything more. Another source of angst for her was whether she could be considered a real person & had a soul, as she had been raised to believe she was an imperfect clone of Wolverine. With her father's support, Laura was slowly able to work towards overcoming her traumas.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Mutant Physiology:** Laura is a second generation mutant & possesses powers similar to her father, Logan. Her accelerated regeneration augments her strength, speed, agility, endurance & reflexes.
	+ ***Enhanced Senses*:** Laura possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. She is capable of seeing with perfect clarity & at much greater distances 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 hear sounds that ordinary humans can't & to hear sounds that ordinary humans can, but at much greater distances. She is also 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.
	+ ***Bone Claws*:** X-23's skeleton includes two retractable bone claws in each arm & one in each foot that she can extend & retract at will. The claws are housed beneath the skin and muscle. She can extract any number of these claws at once. The claws are naturally sharp & tougher than normal human bone, allowing her to cut through flesh & natural materials.
		- ***Adamantium*:** Laura's claws have been coated with the nigh-indestructible metal called Adamantium. Her claws are virtually unbreakable & are capable of cutting almost any substance, with the exceptions of Adamantium itself & vibranium.
	+ ***Regenerative Healing*:** Like her father, her 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 & blood loss such as multiple bullet wounds, slash wounds & puncture wounds within minutes. Her healing factor is developed to such a degree, she is capable of reattaching severed limbs, such as a hand. Her healing factor may fluctuate with her psychological state as battle wounds tend to heal very quickly, but her self inflicted cuts remain visible for some time. It also acts faster than Wolverine's due to the lack of adamantium in her body.
		- ***Foreign Chemical Immunity*:** X-23's natural healing also affords her the virtual immunity to poisons & most drugs. She can be affected by some drugs, such as tranquilizers, if she is exposed to a massive dose.
		- ***Disease Immunity*:** She is immune to all Earthly diseases and infections.
		- ***Longevity*:** As the daughter of Wolverine, it is assumed her healing factor will also provide her with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process.
	+ ***Enhanced Stamina*:** Her 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
	+ ***Enhanced Agility*:** Her agility, balance & bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.
	+ ***Enhanced Reflexes*:** Laura's reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. In one case, she was able to slice in half, with her claws, a bullet fired at her face from nearly point-blank range.
	+ ***Enhanced Durability*:** She is capable of surviving energy blasts from Nimrod (even if she required healing & nearly died).
* **Peak Human Condition:** Raised in captivity, due to her extensive covert ops training as a top-secret operative, X-23 has been trained to become a living weapon. She is highly trained in the use of long range weapons and explosives, and is an expert in assassination techniques.
	+ ***Acrobatics*:** She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat & aerialist capable of numerous complex maneuvers and feats.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat/Martial Arts*:** She is a master in hand to hand combatant, with intensive training in numerous armed & unarmed martial arts techniques during her time in the facility.
	+ ***Stealth*:** Because of her agility, tracking skills & espionage training, she is highly advanced in the art of stealth.
* **High Level Intellect:** She possesses the ability to process multiple information streams at the same time & respond rapidly in tactical situations.
	+ ***Multilingualism*:** Laura can speak fluent English, French & Japanese. She's also fluent in other languages & known some Russian.
	+ ***Tracking*:** She is a dangerous tracker & has memorized many different scents.
	+ ***Photographic Memory*:** She has stated multiple times that she has a photographic memory. She recalls *everything*.

### Weaknesses

* **Powerful Energy Blasts:** Injuries like blasts of energy from Nimrod can cause her serious damage that require much more time or help to heal.
* **Self-Harm:** Laura has a history of cutting herself with her claws due to feelings of depression & guilt. These wounds heal much slower than injuries inflicted by others. Laura first began practicing self-harm after being forced to kill her sensei as a child & her arms showed visible scars for some time after.
* **Trigger Scent:** While under the Trigger scent influence, she is a mindless killer that destroys anything in her path. She is currently working with telepaths to fix this on a subconscious level.
* **Social & Emotional Skills**: Laura has poor social skills & demonstrates a limited understanding of the world outside of the Facility. She also shows signs of stunted emotional development, displaying behaviors more appropriate for a much younger child.

### Ratings

* **Acumen:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Might:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Quickness:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Mysticism:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Gadgets:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Projection:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Tactics:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Battle:** 7 - Master / Elite
* **TOTAL:** 170 - Power Level 4 / Moderate Threat

## Trivia

#### General

* She prefers spicy food.
* Logan stated that Laura has his mother's eyes.
* She thinks bananas smell like nail polish remover.
* She has never lost a game of chess.
* After Elixir saved her, Julian passed out from exhaustion & was asleep for over 34 hours. Laura watched him the whole time until he said "Sofia" in his sleep. Upset, she left & when he woke up, he saw an empty room the falls back asleep. She never told him about the incident.
* "Petite" is Gambit's nickname for her & Wolverine calls her Half Pint.
* Daken told Laura that she could be the perfect killer if she didn't let herself be weakened by compassion. She told him that being a killer was not where she placed her value. In turn, she asked why he closed himself off to compassion & he answered that he didn't think he was capable of such emotion.

#### Xavier Institute

* She is a member of the Hellions Squad, mentored by Emma Frost.
* She enjoys sleeping outside as being in her room sometimes reminds her of her cell.

#### Relationships

* Logan is her father & genetic template. She didn't meet him until she was fourteen. Over time, she became increasingly attached to him. He initially looked to her as a little sister though she continued to consider him her father. He eventually adopted her.
* Laura is not social & her exterior makes it difficult for people to judge her true feelings about them. The only people she has expressed a like for are her cousin Megan, Mercury, Hellion, Dust, Gambit & Psylocke. She considers Mercury & Hellion to be her closest friends.
* Upon her first meeting with Cessily, she pitied Laura for being a social outcast. Because of this, she went out her way to become close friends with her & reassure her that she had a home at the Institute. She's one of the few people Laura genuinely cares about.
* When she met Julian, he was extremely rude to her & called her "clone." Despite this, she developed a crush on him though she hasn't accepted it. When Surge kissed Hellion, she ran to the bathroom then cut herself & everything in sight. She has shown to care for him a lot.
* She does not trust Emma Frost.

## Notes

* The original character of X-23 belongs to the Marvel Universe.
* *Earth-44 Explanation: Originally, Laura Todd was an original character that received some inspiration from Laura Kinney. Now that I have officially decided to incorporate the Marvel Universe, I reworked her backstory to fit with the comics so it was CADMUS that did her cloning & not the Weapon X program. Then I changed my mind back & wanted to separate the characters so now there is a Laura Todd & a Laura Kinney.*
* *Earth-44 Explanation: One of the main reasons for the pairing of "Helix" aka X-23 & Hellion (other than their somehwtarelationship in the comics) is because of their contrasting personalities. While Julian is outspoken with a short temper, Laura rarely speaks & is quite patient with everyone due to her lacking of social skills.*