Contents 1 HistoryEdit 1.1 New X-Men 1.2 X-Force 1.3 Messiah War 1.4 Expanded History 1.5 Finding Herself 1.6 Avengers Academy 1.7 Circle of Four 1.8 Avengers Arena 2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit 2.1 Powers 2.2 Abilities 2.3 Strength level 2.4 Weaknesses 3 ParaphernaliaEdit 3.1 Weapons 4 NotesEdit 5 TriviaEdit 6 Clone Or Not 7 A Letter from Laura's Mother 8 LinksEdit 8.1 Discover and Discuss 8.2 Footnotes

HistoryEdit

The Facility created me to be a weapon. Killing was all I knew. I didn't know how to say "no." But if I ever did say no, they had a way to make me kill. A chemical trigger. This is it. A lot of it.

-- X-23 ^src 

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, Doctor Marin 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, and though her request was initially denied, she still went ahead and produced a viable female subject, prompting Sutter to reconsider. Despite resistance from his protégé Doctor Zander Rice, whom Sutter had raised after Rice's father had been killed by a bestial Wolverine at the original Weapon X Project, Sutter allowed Kinney to proceed. As revenge for her insubordination, Rice forced Kinney to act as the surrogate mother for the clone, and she gave birth to "X-23".

Seven years later, 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" causes Laura to kill mercelessly 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.

Three years later, 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. For one mission she was assigned to pose as the Kingpin's daughter and kill the ones who had captured her, bringing the head of their leader back. 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 Kinney's niece, Megan, who had been kidnapped. 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. Instead, she let him live. Later, Rice revealed to Kinney a chamber with dozens of incubation pods containing female clones before he fired her. Before fleeing the facility with X-23, Kinney gave her 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".

X-23 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. X-23 informed Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she had killed him.

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. After X-23 and Megan parted, X-23 decided to confront the man who made her creation possible -- Wolverine.

X-23 tracked Wolverine to Xavier's mansion and engaged him in a battle, defeating him via tactics and maneuverability. However, she did not kill him. Instead, she told him why she had come. Wolverine 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.

X-23 surfaced in New York two years later 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 Kidon 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 newfound friends and the 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.

X-23 quickly became very protective of Wolverine, attacking his teammate Bishop after he felled Wolverine during a training session. She also took to observing Wolverine on the mansion's security monitors. During one such viewing, an anomalous energy spike prompted X-23 to investigate. Encountering Spider-Man (Peter Parker) at the source of the signal, X-23 initially mistook him for an enemy and attacked. The pair ultimately teamed up to save the young mutant Paul Patterson from an alternate reality version of the armored Avenger Iron Man (Tony Stark). The arrival of the heroic Captain America and the super-spy Black Widow helped turn the tide.

X-23 secretly followed Wolverine on his investigation of strange activity in the Canadian Rockies. Ambushed by the Hauk'ka, evolved Saurians from the Savage Land, X-23 managed to escape and alert the X-Men. Traveling to the Savage Land, X-23 and the X-Men teamed with the Land's lord Ka-Zar and his circumstantial allies, the Savage Land Mutates, to prevent the Hauk'ka from destroying human civilization by controlling the weather-manipulating X-Man Storm.

Sometime later, X-23 was approached by the cosmic Uni-Power in hopes of making specific use of her healing ability. Although she initially resisted its attempts to bond with her, and she remained reluctant even though it pleaded with her. She ultimately agreed to aid it and became Captain Universe for a brief period of time.

New X-Men

After M-Day, X-23 was one of the few students who hadn't lost their powers. The depowered students and staff were sent home; however their bus was bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker and his Purifiers. Subsequently, Emma Frost had the surviving students engage in an free-for-all brawl, with those deemed to be the best performers assigned to a new team of trainee X-Men. Despite Frost's attempts to omit her, X-23 was among those students who made the grade.

Shortly afterwards, following Stryker's attack on the depowered students, X-23 heard Dust talking to Icarus, who had fled the Mansion. Dust intended to meet Jay, but Laura told her it was a trap. She eventually had to knock out her roommate to keep her safe. Donning Dust's burka X-23 came to Stryker's compound and was shot. After a few minutes spent healing and playing possum, Laura returned to the Mansion to see it being attacked by Purifiers. Laura fought valiantly and helped fend off the intruders.

The kids grew to be more receptive of Laura following her part in stopping Stryker's attack, in which she single-handedly killed three Purifiers who had incapacitated Surge, Hellion, and Emma Frost. Subsequently, she started to bond with her friends, using her enhanced hearing to find out what happened to Icarus for them, learning that Stryker killed him.

After Surge received a distress call from Forge, X-23 followed the team to Dallas to rescue him from the sentinel Nimrod. At the height of the desperate battle she managed to cut through to the interior of the machine with her claws, allowing the sentinel to be defeated. She was mortally wounded during the battle by Nimrod's energy blasts and was unable to heal herself. In order to save X-23, Hellion supercharged his telekinetic powers in order to rush her back to the mansion where she was healed by Elixir.

As Hellion recovered his strength, and found that his power levels had been massively enhanced, Laura kept watch over him. Emma confronted Laura, asking her to leave the school because of the trigger scent. Their confrontation was cut short by Cessily coming to Laura's defense. Cessily pursued Laura, the two went out for coffee. However, the cafe was attacked by Kimura and her minions. It was discovered that the attackers have not come to reclaim Laura, but rather to capture Cessily. Laura went back to the Xavier Institute where Hellion informed he was going with her to attack against the Facility. The two found a facility hideout where Laura interrogated a man at gun point. Julian was shocked when X-23 shot him in the head upon securing the information she needed. After an encounter with Kimura, the two found Cessily in liquid form, barely able to compose herself. They were attacked by Predators and saved by the combined forces of the X-Men and the New X-Men.

X-23 aided the X-Men in their fight against the Hulk. X-23 managed to knock over the Hulk and tore his eyes out. Eventually his eyes grew back, and he defeated X-23 by throwing her into a wall.^[1]

X-Force

When Cyclops ordered Wolverine to assemble the new X-Force, X-23 was tossed into the mix. As they caught up to Cable, the Reavers attacked, and X-23 attacked Lady Deathstrike, seemingly killing her. At Muir Island, X-Force attacked the Marauders and Predator X. When Predator X swallowed Logan X-23 became angry and attacked, and Wolverine finally killed it. ^[2]

During X-Force's raid on a Purifer base, Purifer leader Matthew Risman brought out a captive Wolfsbane at gunpoint. While Wolverine called for the team to stand down, X-23 activated a concealed detonator that set off a series of powerful explosives she had planted earlier without telling her teammates. The explosion brought most of the base down around them but Risman was able to escape with Rahne during the chaos. When X-Force regrouped later, Wolverine admonished Laura for being so reckless with the lives of her teammates and for letting Rahne get kidnapped.

X-Force was given a mission to capture the Vanisher and get back the Legacy Virus he managed to get his hands on. X-23 went with Archangel and Wolverine to complete the mission, but it ended in failure. When X-23 tried to kill herself due to becoming infected with the Legacy Virus, Elixir stopped her and got rid of the Legacy Virus.

Messiah War

X-23 later moved with the X-Men to San Francisco, where they were accepted as heroes by the mayor, having rejected the Fifty State Initiative. X-23 was roomed with Armor and Pixie. Laura left behind a towel covered with blood, which the latter brought to Emma Frost.

X-23 was finally reunited with Kiden Nixon. Sadly this future version of Kiden was hooked up to several machines and was used as a generator in order to create a temporal anomaly that disrupted time travel technology, essentially trapping X-Force (which was lethal for them if they didn't return within 33.5 hours), Cable and Hope in that era. While X-23 agonized over killing Kiden or not (Kiden herself asked for death) the matter was taken out her hands when Domino shot and killed her. X-23, Domino and Proudstar were dispatched back in order to save Boom-Boom, however both Domino and Proudstar fell ill due to the time travel. Feeling grateful for saving her friend and ending her suffering, X-23 disabled the time travel devices on the other two and went back in time in order to save Boom-Boom herself. She arrived just in time to stop the Leper Queen before she could kill Boom Boom out of spite for X-Force not killing her. X-23 then collapsed in exhaustion. H.A.M.M.E.R. then stormed the building, giving medical care, while they took X-23 in for questioning.

She was taken back to the Facility. There Laura was reunited with Kimura, who sawed off her left arm. Agent Morales arrived and helped Laura to escape. The rest of X-Force arrived and took Laura and her severed claws home. Laura was able to regrow her arm, and, at her request, Dr. Nemesis replaced the regrown bone claws with her original adamantium claws.

Extended History

Expanded 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, Doctor Marin 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, and though her request was initially denied, she still went ahead and produced a viable female subject, prompting Sutter to reconsider. Despite resistance from his protégé Doctor Zander Rice, whom Sutter had raised after Rice's father had been killed by a bestial Wolverine at the original Weapon X Project, Sutter allowed Kinney to proceed. As revenge for her insubordination, Rice forced Kinney to act as the surrogate mother for the clone, 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. At one point Rice introduced her "Handler", Kimura, would punish her when she did wrong. Next, Rice created a chemical compound he called "trigger scent" that sent X-23 into an involuntary berserker rage upon smelling its presence. This "trigger scent" was tested on X-23's master, one of few people who treated her with kindness. X-23 was forced to kill her master in berserker rage -- Kimura punished X-23 for this. Three years later, 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. For one mission she was assigned to pose as the Kingpin's daughter and kill the ones who had captured her, bringing the head of their leader back. Rice, in an attempt to avenge his father's murder, abandoned X-23 on a particularly dangerous mission, 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 Kinney's niece, Megan, who has been kidnapped. 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. Instead, she let him live. Later, Rice revealed to Kinney a chamber with dozens of incubation pods containing female clones before he fired her. Before fleeing the facility with X-23, Kinney gave her 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". X-23 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. X-23 informed Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she had killed him. 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. After X-23 and Megan parted, X-23 decided to confront the man who made her creation possible -- Wolverine. X-23 tracked Wolverine to Xavier's mansion and engaged him in a battle, defeating him via tactics and maneuverability. However, she did not kill him. Instead, she told him why she had come. Wolverine 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. X-23 surfaced in New York two years later 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 Kidon 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 newfound friends and the 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. X-23 quickly became very protective of Wolverine, attacking his teammate Bishop after he felled Wolverine during a training session. She also took to observing Wolverine on the mansion's security monitors. During one such viewing, an anomalous energy spike prompted X-23 to investigate. Encountering Spider-Man (Peter Parker) at the source of the signal, X-23 initially mistook him for an enemy and attacked. The pair ultimately teamed up to save the young mutant Paul Patterson from an alternate reality version of the armored Avenger Iron Man (Tony Stark). The arrival of the heroic Captain America and the super-spy Black Widow helped turn the tide. X-23 secretly followed Wolverine on his investigation of strange activity in the Canadian Rockies. Ambushed by the Hauk'ka, evolved Saurians from the Savage Land, X-23 managed to escape and alert the X-Men. Traveling to the Savage Land, X-23 and the X-Men teamed with the Land's lord Ka-Zar and his circumstantial allies, the Savage Land Mutates, to prevent the Hauk'ka from destroying human civilization by controlling the weather-manipulating X-Man Storm. Sometime later, X-23 was approached by the cosmic Uni-Power in hopes of making specific use of her healing ability. Although she initially resisted its attempts to bond with her, and she remained reluctant even though it pleaded with her. She ultimately agreed to aid it and became Captain Universe for a brief period of time. New X-Men After M-Day, X-23 was one of the few students who hadn't lost their powers. The depowered students and staff were sent home; however their bus was bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker and his Purifiers. Subsequently, Emma Frost had the surviving students engage in an free-for-all brawl, with those deemed to be the best performers assigned to a new team of trainee X-Men. Despite Frost's attempts to omit her, X-23 was among those students who made the grade. Shortly afterward, following Stryker's attack on the depowered students, X-23 heard Dust talking to Icarus, who had fled the Mansion. Dust intended to meet Jay, but Laura told her it was a trap. She eventually had to knock out her roommate to keep her safe. Donning Dust's burka X-23 came to Stryker's compound and was shot. After a few minutes spent healing and playing possum, Laura returned to the Mansion to see it being attacked by Purifiers. Laura fought valiantly and helped fend off the intruders. The kids grew to be more receptive of Laura following her part in stopping Stryker's attack, in which she single-handedly killed three Purifiers who had incapacitated Surge, Hellion, and Emma Frost. Subsequently, she started to bond with her friends, using her enhanced hearing to find out what happened to Icarus for them, learning that Stryker killed him. After Surge received a distress call from Forge, X-23 followed the team to Dallas to rescue him from the sentinel Nimrod. At the height of the desperate battle she managed to cut through to the interior of the machine with her claws, allowing the sentinel to be defeated. She was mortally wounded during the battle by Nimrod's energy blasts and was unable to heal herself. In order to save X-23, Hellion supercharged his telekinetic powers in order to rush her back to the mansion where she was healed by Elixir. As Hellion recovered his strength, and found that his power levels had been massively enhanced, Laura kept watch over him. Emma confronted Laura, asking her to leave the school because of the trigger scent. Their confrontation was cut short by Cessily coming to Laura's defense. Cessily pursued Laura, the two went out for coffee and discussed Laura's crush on Julian. However, the cafe was attacked by Kimura and her minions. It was discovered that the attackers have not come to reclaim Laura, but rather to capture Cessily. Laura went back to the Xavier Institute; Hellion interrupted her as she was gearing up to attack against the facility. He informed her that he was coming with her. The two found a facility hideout where Laura interrogated a man at gun point. Upon securing the information she needed, X-23 shot him in the head. Julian was shocked and told her that killing would no longer be a part of their interrogation technique. X-23 looked at him, silently. X-23 aided the X-Men in their fight against the Hulk. X-23 managed to knock over the Hulk and tore his eyes out. Eventually his eyes grew back, and he defeated X-23 by throwing her into a wall. Following the birth of the first new mutant baby since M-Day, the New X-Men were not told because of the Purifiers involvement in the search for the child. Once they learned, Surge led a team to attack the Purifier base in Washington D.C., where they were ambushed by a new team of Reavers, wounding Hellion. Realizing they were out matched, Surge ordered X-23 to hold of the Purifiers while Pixie used a spell to teleport them. When the Sentinels were attacking the mansion, Iceman took the plane to bring the New X-men to safety. Laura jumped out of the plane and attacked the Sentinels. When Cyclops ordered Wolverine to assemble the new X-Force, X-23 was tossed into the mix. As they caught up to Cable, the Reavers attacked, and X-23 attacked Lady Deathstrike, apparently killing her. At Muir Island, X-Force attacked the Marauders and Predator X. When Predator X swallowed Logan X-23 became angry and attacked, and Wolverine finally killed it. When the team, which also included Warpath, met for the first time in the field, Wolverine asked her to reconsider taking part in the operation, since he felt that she did not understand what she was giving up and stated that if she continued down this path she would not be Laura anymore, but X-23 once again. When Laura didn't step down, Wolverine conceded "Fine. Your life." On their first mission, the team's investigated the theft of Bastion's cyborg head from a S.H.I.E.L.D. base. The trail led back to the Purifiers who had reactivated Bastion to help in their holy war against mutant-kind. During X-Force's raid on a Purifer base, and after killing many of its soldiers, Purifer leader Matthew Risman brought out a captive Wolfsbane, who had been caught earlier infiltrating the base and was now being held hostage at gunpoint. While Wolverine called for the team to stand down, X-23 decided Risman was bluffing and threatened him. Risman noted that X-23 has the "eyes of a killer", even more so than Wolverine as she was bred from birth to be a living weapon. After Wolverine commanded her to yield once again, X-23 appeared to surrender, but activated a concealed detonator that set off a series of powerful explosives she had planted earlier without telling her teammates. The explosion brought most of the base down around them but Risman was able to escape with Rahne during the chaos, despite X-23 leaving behind Wolverine and Warpath under rubble to pursue them. When X-Force regrouped later, Wolverine admonished Laura for being so reckless with the lives of her teammates and for letting Rahne get kidnapped. Laura remorselessly replied to both accusations by coldly remarking "they survived" and "saving Wolfsbane was not my mission." Later, when the team began to raid all known Purifier bases around the country in search of Rahne, killing and torturing many in the process, Warpath remarked that he couldn't see how Laura could be so indifferent to all the bloodshed they had caused, but Laura replied that she did not understand what he meant. When X-Force retrieved Elixir so that he could heal Wolfsbane, Laura was not seen in the room, even though Warpath and Angel were. She approached Wolverine outside, who told her that he helped train Wolfsbane when she was a New Mutant. When Laura remarked that Rahne should have known better, she realized that her comment made Wolverine angry and he admonished her, telling her that Rahne was the person they should die for. This confused Laura. She went into the forest alone and began mutilating herself with her claws. She caught the scent of Elixir's and Angel's blood respectively, and ran off to help them. She reached the room just in time to see Wolfsbane in her transitional wolf-form standing above Warren with his wings in her jaws. Laura prepared to attack Wolfsbane, but remembered what Wolverine said to her earlier about Wolfsbane being the one they should die for, and instead allowed Wolfsbane to slash her open. Later, after she was healed by her healing factor, and Elixir healed both his and Angel's wounds, she discovered along with the rest of the X-Force that Angel's wings weren't organic, and that Elixir couldn't regrow them. She stood near Elixir while they both watched Wolverine and Warpath try to calm Angel down as he was suffering from seizures of pain. She informed everyone to look at Angel's back as "Something is happening." That something happened to be Angel transforming back into Archangel, who was watching X-Force and Elixir with malicious intent. X-23 stayed by Elixir's side as they both watched Wolverine and Warpath attack Archangel and witnessed Archangel wound Wolverine. Laura was then wounded by Archangel. However, Josh healed her while Archangel attacked Warpath. X-23, Wolverine, and Warpath followed Archangel in a jet, where she commented that Archangel's targets were moving. After the group managed to defeat (or rather delay) Bastion's evil plans, Archangel transformed back to his 'normal appearance'. The X-Men returned to Angel's home, where they attempted to understand what had happened to Wolfsbane and Angel, and also decided what to do with Elixir, who unfortunately knew too much about X-Force. X-23, believed the easiest thing to do would be to kill Josh, but she knew that would not be allowed. Instead, she went behind everyone's back and contacted the Stepford Cuckoos, who were loyal to Cyclops and would keep X-Force's existence a secret. X-23 and Josh requested that the Three-in-One erase Josh's memories of X-Force, thus allowing him to return home without being a risk to the team. This didn't take place and X-Force was given a mission to capture the Vanisher and get back the Legacy Virus he managed to get. X-23 went with Archangel and Wolverine to complete the mission, but it ended in failure. X-23 also didn't trust Domino, even having her claws out when Domino was in the same room with her. When the Vanisher came to Angel's mansion demanding to know what they had done to him, X-23 confronted him with the rest of the team. When Archangel said that clones "aren't real," X-23 didn't appear to care. She took part in retrieving the Legacy Virus that Vanisher left behind. X-23 also attacked the Marauders clones that attacked them, killing them with very little hesitation. X-23 then told Elixir not to "hold back" against the Marauders' clones. When X-23 tried to kill herself due to becoming infected with the Legacy Virus, Elixir stopped her and got rid of the Legacy Virus. Messiah War X-23 later moved with the X-Men to San Francisco, where they were accepted as heroes by the mayor, having rejected the Fifty State Initiative. X-23 was roomed with Armor and Pixie. Laura left behind a towel covered with blood, which the latter brought to Emma Frost. X-23 was finally reunited with Kiden Nixon. Sadly this future version of Kiden was hooked up to several machines and was used as a generator in order to create a temporal anomaly that disrupted time travel technology, essentially trapping X-Force (which was lethal for them if they didn't return within 33.5 hours), Cable and Hope in that era. While X-23 agonized over killing Kiden or not (Kiden herself asked for death) the matter was taken out her hands when Domino shot and killed her. X-23, Domino and Proudstar were dispatched back in order to save Boom-Boom, however both Domino and Proudstar fell ill due to the time travel. Feeling grateful for saving her friend and ending her suffering, X-23 disabled the time travel devices on the other two and went back in time in order to save Boom-Boom herself. She arrived just in time to stop the Leper Queen before she could kill Boom Boom out of spite for X-Force not killing her. X-23 then collapsed in exhaustion. H.A.M.M.E.R. then stormed the building, giving medical care, while they took X-23 in for questioning.

Finding Herself

After the return of the so-called "Mutant Messiah", Laura began having nightmares of a demonic Wolverine. Cyclops suggestes she try volunteering at a nearby halfway house for depowered mutants. Laura blacked out, and found the building burning down around her. She was taken to a hospital, and believed she was responsible for the fire and the deaths of almost all the occupants. Wolverine (currently possessed by a demon) entered and attempted to convince Laura that she has no soul. She stabbed him just as Julian walked in. Following this, Laura decided to leave Utopia to go out and find herself so that she could be more than just a killer. Gambit tracks her down after taking an interest in her, believing that he can help her find herself.

They first encounter Miss Sinister who convinces them to come with her to one of Mr. Sinister's hideouts where she has been taking care of several children that Mr. Sinister experimented on. Miss Sinister betrays them however and reveals that Mr. Sinister has been taking over her body and in order to evade death she attempts to move her consciousness into X-23's body. The process fails however and Gambit triggers the self-destruct sequence and escapes together with X-23. Their next journey takes them to Madripoor where they encounter Malcom Colcord who is trying to restart the Weapon X program, as well as Daken, Wolverine's son. Gambit, X-23 and Daken make an uneasy alliance despite Gambits better judgement and they manage to drive Colcord out.

They find out that Colcord has been developing the trigger scent that drives X-23 into a killing rage and has found a way to make it effect ordinary people. They follow the scents trace to Paris where they encounter Wolverine and newly turned vampire Jubilee. They all team up to find the scent and manage it but fail to find the person running things. X-23 also strikes up a new friendship with Jubilee. They next travel to New York where they encounter the Future Foundation. A demon king has escaped from his prison and due to her previous status as host of the Enigma Force X-23 is instrumental in re-imprisoning him.

With the help of the Enigma Force, X-23 manages to return him to the dimension that is his prison and escape, saving Valeria Richards in the process and earning the trust of the Future Foundation. She is asked to babysit Valeria and her brother by Sue Storm but is pulled into the Collector's space ship together with the kids and Hellion who stopped by in order to win Laura back. They manage to defeat the Collector and make their way back but upon returning, Laura breaks all ties with Hellion. She and Gambit eventually part ways, as Laura chooses to go the Avengers Academy, not feeling that she belongs with either X-Men team anymore while Gambit chooses to go to Westchester with Wolverine.

Avengers Academy

After the events of Fear Itself, Laura joined the Avengers Academy. Reptil, possessed by a future version of himself, made a comment to Hazmat, making her think that Laura was hitting on Mettle. She butts heads with Hazmat for quite some time until she proves herself to truely be on the Avengers' side. She choses to stay with the Avengers after freeing her former X-Man peers to fight in the Avengers vs X-Men. Right now she has been kidnapped by Arcade and the others in Avengers Academy.

Circle of Four

X-23 tracked down to Las Vegas the man who stole her blood, who turned out to be Blackheart, he cloned her and bonded the clones with symbiotes, creating Symbiote Warriors.

Laura then made an alliance with Venom, Red Hulk (who was there chasing Venom) and Ghost Rider (who noticed the presence of Blackheart). Each four of them fought their Anthithesis until they were all finally killed. Laura killed the Symbiote warriors and then she moved to Blackheart who distracted her by telling her since he created her clones he knew if the clones had souls or not and she was herself a clone. Wanting to know if she had a soul or not she stopped and Blackheart mockingly told her that she was in hell and she was suffering which meant she did have a soul. Then he seemingly killed her by throwing her into lava.^[3] In Hell, Mephisto offered the heroes a new chance to live in exchange for defeating Blackheart. While X-23 found Blaze, the other three managed to get the Spirit of Vengenace, which had been trapped by Blackheart, and wanted to get it to Blaze, so he would become Ghost Rider again. During the battle, Red Hulk and Venom were thrown away by Blackheart, Flash gave the symbiote to Red Hulk and it bonded with him as well as the Spirit, thus becoming the new Ghost Rider.

Blackheart was defeated when Ghost Rider used a mirror which created Antitheses, being defeated by his. Meanwhile, X-23 and Flash were trying to help Johnny Blaze to return Hell from the dimensional portal and destroy it. When Las Vegas returned to normal, Red Hulk returned the symbiote to Flash and the Spirit of Vengeance to Alejandra. After the Secret Avengers arrived, X-23 left the scene.^[4]

Avengers Arena

X-23 along with 15 other people were kidnapped by Arcade and transported to Murderworld. Arcade forces all 15 people including X-23 to take place in a game of kill all or be killed. Arcade has stated he will only allow 1 of the 16 to live.

The games begin after Mettle sacrifices himself for Hazmat. As the groups separate Laura joins the remaining Avengers Academy students, which included Reptil, Hazmat, and Juston Seyfet. The group were then accidently attacked by the female Deathlok named Rebecca Ryker who attacked Hazmat as a defense protocol.

After a few days a unknown enemy has begun to attack the camps. Laura begins to investigate the attacks. During the search Juston disappears after he was attacked while repairing his sentinel. Laura soon came into contact with Cammi who she spared after she found out that it was not her attacking the camps.

Laura later meeting up with Hazmat and Reptil encounter the Runaways, Nico and Chase for shelter in exchange they will share food. The team agree, that is until Reptil is suddenly hurt by a fire blast which Laura and her team believe this is Chase's is doing. The group then banishes Nico and Chase away as the trio remain together.

Reptil begins to recover later on and informs both X-23 and Hazmat that it wasn't Chase but Deathlocket who attacked him. It wasn't too long after till Hazmat stepped on a switch to activate a trigger scent causing Laura to go feral and attempt to kill her team members. Hazmat and Reptil manage to escape, and left Laura on her own. She later once she regain her senses would encounter Juston Seyfert who is a live but in bad condition.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

As a clone of Wolverine, X-23 possesses most of his mutant powers. However, since she is still in her teens, some of her powers aren't as developed as those of Wolverine.

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 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 (Elixer was incapacitated at the time).^[5] 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.
  

• 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 human's 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.
  

• Superhuman Stamina: X-23'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.
  

• Superhuman Agility: X-23'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: X-23's reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
  

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.

Longevity: Presumably, because X-23 is a clone of the mutant Wolverine, her healing factor will also provide her with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process.

Superhuman Durability: She was capable of fighting the Hulk without sustaining any severe injuries and surviving energy blasts from Nimrod.

Uni-Power: Laura has been occasionally seen wielding the powers of Captain Universe, and has the mark on her hand.

Power Grids
Official Ratings[6]
Intelligence	2
Strength	2
Speed	3
Durability	4
Energy Projection	1
Fighting Skills	6
Fan Ratings
Intelligence	3
Strength	4
Speed	4
Durability	4
Energy Projection	1
Fighting Skills	6

Abilities

Expert Covert Ops Training: Raised in captivity, Due to her extensive 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.

Expert Tracker: Due to her enhanced sense of smell, Laura is a dangerous tracker and has memorized many different scents.

Master Martial Artist: She is an excellent hand to hand combatant, with intensive training in numerous armed and unarmed martial arts techniques.

Multilingual: Laura can speak fluent American English, French, and Japanese. She might be able to speak other languages.

Strength level

• Peak Human Strength: Because of her healing factor, X-23 can push her muscles, joints, and ligaments to levels beyond the natural limits of a woman of her height, weight, and build without sustaining injury. Unlike Wolverine, her skeleton isn't laced with Adamantium. While her skeleton, much like her musculature, can withstand greater pressures than a normal human skeleton, she can only withstand so much weight and pressure without sustaining fractures. While not superhuman, she is as physically strong as an ordinary human can be and can lift about 800 lbs.

  Weaknesses

Induced Berserker Rage: She has also been subjected to conditioning in which a specific "trigger scent" has been used to send her into a berserker rage, killing anything in sight.

Powerful Energy Blasts: Injuries like being hit with blasts of energy from Nimrod that caused her to age can't be healed, if she had been hit with it again she probably would have died.

ParaphernaliaEdit

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, with the exceptions of Adamantium itself and Captain America's shield. Her ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon the amount of force she can exert and the thickness of the substance. Also, since the bones of her hands and wrists are not laced with Adamantium, it is likely that the reverberation of her claws could conceivably break her hands with significant force. 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 likely that some degree of her immune system is distracted by the presence of the foreign substance. Her claws can cut through the Hulk's skin and eyes.
  

NotesEdit

• X-23's watch-timer in her self-titled limited series was always set to 22 minutes.
• Was originally made for the television series "X-Men Evolution" and first appeared in the comic NYX.
• The choice of her name, Laura, was influenced by Logan.
• In the two page spread of X-23 #3, she kills people around the world, the times shown are Craig Kyle's friends' birthdays.
• Talon is Laura's official X-Men code name assigned when she joined the New X-Men, not the more commonly used X-23.
  

TriviaEdit

• X-23 is a cutter, and has injured herself on a consistent basis using her claws from a young age.
• Laura has expressed friendship with her cousin Megan. She also is close with Cessily, Hellion (who she has a crush on), and a few of the other New X-Men, though her exterior makes it difficult to judge her true feelings to most of the team.
• During her time with the X-Men Shadowcat, Marvel Girl, Psylocke counted her as a friend.
• X-23 is highly protective of Wolverine and sees him as a brother/father figure.
• Her healing factor can go faster than that of Wolverine's due to the lack of Adamantium in her body, but since she is so young it fluctuates to the point that it becomes slower more often than faster.
• An alternate version of Deadpool has stated to Laura that in his past (possibly her future) there was an X-29 who was much more funnier. This can be an alternated version of her or another clone. Soon after there was a story ark with the Facility attempting to clone X-23.
• In X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1 it's stated: Laura Kinney, professional hard-case with zero patience, thinks bananas smell like Nail Polish Remover.

Clone Or Not

X-23's "Cloning Process" . . .

"While Technically it would not be a clone, for all intents and purposes, it would be a genetic twin." (Sara Kinney)

Extracting/Obtaining the damage DNA. Reassembling/Reconstructing DNA's hereditary information (Genome) and the X chromosome using a Protein base biotechnology and phylogenetic inference method. Repairing is accomplished by surveying the DNA for any unwanted modifications (damage) once found enzymes are cut into the DNA to remove the damaged DNA. Rebuilding this is accomplished by proteins called DNA polymerases, and there are several kinds of these in each cell. Since the DNA damage is in one strand at a time, the other strand has the information required to copy itself. After the DNA synthesis, there is a ligation process in which the gaps in the DNA are sealed and a new, intact double helix is formed. Replacing the nuclei of the Ovarian Egg with the restored genetic material of Wolverine. At this point, the egg of the host is considered fertilized. The embryo is then transferred into the womb of Sara for gestation. By a process of Maternal Inheritance the baby will develop traits of the carrier (Mother) through Mitochondrial DNA in the Uterus. The baby will also have identical genetics to Wolverine.

A Letter from Laura's Mother

In 'Innocence lost' X-23 got a letter from her mother. These are the contents:

Please forgive me. Even as I write the words, they ring so hollow. My mistakes… No, my choices… They cannot be undone, much less forgiven. How all this came to pass… and the truth about Weapon X. Had it ended there, would I be less a monster? Or more? Would I even know the difference? Of course I don't have to tell you about monsters. Your life is defined by monsters. Replicating the mutant genome proved difficult but rebuilding Weapon X seemed all but impossible. For every enzyme, for every codon, for every sequence we repaired, or even built back from near nothingness, we seemed to be missing a million more. But I felt alive, the work, the failure, the challenge. It was like a brilliant light, shining inside of me. I felt like my life had a propose. What a fool I was. I was defiant in the face of my failures. I was determined to succeed out of spite. Weeks passed. I was working on two projects, living two lives. I was used to that. I had kept secrets before. It seems so incredible to me now, that in all that time, given everything that I knew what I was doing and what the end result would bear I didn't give it a second thought. I told myself that you weren't real. I told myself that this was science not life. I was creating a weapon, not a child. I was wrong. When I was little I always believed that everything that happened to me -- I deserved it. That we all get what we deserve. Maybe I was right. No longer the experimenter, I was now part of the experiment. A vessel to be poked and proded. To be violated. They certainly didn't care about me...not with a weapon to train. A team of physicians, psychologists, nutritionists, and military strategists now ran my life. They watched my every move, but they didn't see everything. I asked for forgiveness before. Now I'm telling you don't forgive me. Don't forgive any of us for what we did. Ever. I remember everything...everything we did to you, and you deserve to know why we did these things. Your training was designed to strip you of your humanity. After all, in the eyes of the program, you weren't human, you were a weapon. A weapon I willingly conceived for them. Our orders were to keep you from gaining any sense of self, something they said would compromise our ability to control you. We were never to treat you as a child, only as a weapon, but not everyone followed those orders, for that I'm grateful. Sutter wanted to complete your construction, but that wasn't possible while your healing factor was dormant. You would never survive the surgery so Rice was given permission to take what ever steps were necessary to activate your x-gene. He chose radiation poisoning. You nearly died that day. Unfortunately Rice was right. The radiation worked. Now nothing stood in their way, especially me. I only found out later what happened, that your claws were extracted one by one, that he sharpened and then coated them with the indestructible metal, adamantium, outside of our body, it was never supposed to be like that. So much wasn't. I should have known what was coming, not that I could have prevented it, but I would have tried. I'm sorry, so sorry. When it was time for your first field test the target was chosen with the flip of a coin. Who it was didn't matter. As long as the target was high profile and couldn't be gotten to. Sutter needed to make a statement and you delivered it to the world. I wanted to understand why we were doing this. I told Martin I needed to understand why you had to publicly kill an innocent man, his family and so many others. So, he told me. He said: "It's simple. You can't sell anything without advertising." That's what this was all about. The buying and selling of lives for profit. Not saving the world, or taking it over. No, this was about money. A lot of it. Martin sold you for a million dollars a pound and as you know by now, there were no shortage of buyers. Rice was right. I didn't matter. Not to them. Not to you. Not to anyone. All I could do is watch. While you were forced to kill and kill, and kill, and kill. You killed royalty. Godfathers. Drug lords. Dictators. Assassins...anyone...everyone...for a price. For three years, you murdered without failure. Every target they marked, you killed. Every time limit they set, you beat. Every rendezvous point they plotted, you reached except one. The one where Rice was waiting for you. When Rice came back from the mission, he told us what happened. He said you didn't make the rendezvous in time. That he had to abort the mission when the team started taking fire. And that he saw you die. I didn't want to believe him. You never told me what happened. How you survived or how you made your way back. Why didn't you tell me? For so long, I held myself above Sutter and Rice. They made you a killer. They were the ones using you. But all it took was one phone call to open my eyes and see I was just like them. They say in life that we are judged by the choices we make, they are what define us, and I chose to bring you in to this world. I chose to stay in the program even after they stripped you of your humanity and molded you in to a weapon. I'm responsible for everything that has happened, for all the pain all the death for everything you have suffered, because I had a choice when you had none. And I chose to do nothing. I always assumed it was Rice that cut you. He hurt you so many times in the past...he almost killed you twice. I never wanted to believe it was you. The damage I've done...can I ever forgive myself?. You couldn't stop what Rice made you do...but somehow you managed to save Henry and tell me the truth witch means there is hope...you showed me we've failed...you are not a weapon, you are a child. Always remember you are not to blame. You did not pick this life. We...I forced it upon you. The blood you have spilled is on my hand not yours and please understand why I must ask you to kill one last time. Because tonight what you do is right. Tonight, what you serve is justice. Tonight, you take back the life we stole from you. I never wanted a family. My father stripped me of that desire. He took my childhood, my innocence, my life. And then I took yours. I became what I hated and feared most and you became my victim. But then you showed me hope. Not when you saved Megan, but when you saved Henry. You showed me that we can chose to be something other than what we are forced to be that we can be something better than we believe we are. And, in that moment, you saved my life, all that matter to me now is that I save yours. I wish we could just run away without any more blood shed. But if you don't stop them they will never stop. They will do it again. They've already started. After tonight, we'll just keep moving and never look back. We'll start a new life, have a future, be a family. I'm sorry I waited so long to tell you these things. There is so much more I want to tell you, and I will but one thing that you must always remember no matter what has happened and no matter what may come you are a child, not a weapon. You are my child. You are my daughter, and I love you. I will always love you, Laura. Your Mother Sarah

LinksEdit

• 236 Appearances of Laura Kinney (Earth-616)
• 287 Images featuring Laura Kinney (Earth-616)
• 7 Quotations by or about Laura Kinney (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Laura Kinney (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Laura Kinney (Earth-616) 
• Characters killed by X-23 
• X23-Lunar Tears

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Footnotes

1. ↑ World War Hulk: X-Men #1- #3
2. ↑ Messiah Complex
3. ↑ Venom Vol 2 #13.2
4. ↑ Venom Vol 2 #14
5. ↑ X-Necrosha Vol 1 1
6. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z hardcover Vol. 13

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