Marvel-11: World Inside Out

You beat up a ten-year-old girl? Good job! Feel like a real man now?

Once, in the distant past, before I became an experienced and world-weary "arrived" person, I might have felt awkward about such a "feat." But now, I'm a smart young man. Back then, as a tough idiot, I barely managed to escape from a small twelve-year-old brat. Yeah, jinchuriki—those are real monsters.

In the world of shinobi and chakra, you can't underestimate the age of your opponent. Young geniuses, who become jonin at the age of seven, are a dime a dozen!

That's why I wasn't bothered by the fact that I had nearly knocked little Laura into a comatose state. Instead, I turned off my main abilities and gently lowered the girl to the floor. No beds around, but plenty of new opponents.

Turning my head toward the sound of single claps, I saw another girl. Oh, who would have doubted.

"I don't know how you managed to calm that little pain in the ass so quickly, but it's definitely a plus for you!" she said, stepping into the soft light of the lamp, as if to flaunt herself.

Her emerald-colored eyes reminded me of X-23, probably due to a barely perceptible halo of danger. Her not-too-long hair was carelessly tied into a knot, with a few strands framing her oval face. In truth, I would never have noticed her; neither her clothes nor her appearance stood out in any way.

Of course, like most women I encounter, she was unrealistically beautiful, but on the whole, she wasn't particularly memorable. If it weren't for one thing. Her skin. That was the feature that made her stand out. The skin of this new, still unnamed acquaintance faintly glowed red. At first, I even thought I had met the Red She-Hulk, but judging by my memories, that one had a deeper red color, and all members of the Hulk family were tall and muscular, at least like bodybuilders! In this case, the girl's height was unimpressive, just a little taller than me, and that was with her wearing platform shoes, thankfully not high heels.

"Who are you?" I asked, knowing that the helmet slightly distorted my voice.

Working with the Sisterhood and Magneto, I didn't want to risk my future, which I still hadn't decided on. In any case, why expose myself when I could just wear a mask and pretend to be someone else? For this, I had even set aside my beloved kunai and gotten a set of regular throwing knives.

The trademark weapon of a ninja from my past world was too recognizable. Few people in this world knew how to use it properly, and the inhabitants here considered it a terrible weapon. Fools!

"Man?" The red-skinned girl asked, recognizing my faint baritone despite my voice manipulation. "Hmm, well, for you, handsome, I can introduce myself! Call me Kimura!"

This nickname was mentioned in Mystique's report. My metamorph friend, who had infiltrated this base, didn't have much time for espionage, so she hadn't learned everything. For instance, she didn't seem to know anything about X-23, but she did provide a small dossier on Kimura. Besides a description of her appearance, Mystique mentioned that this girl was quite proficient with almost all types of small firearms, had enhanced strength, and armored skin.

Unfortunately, my knowledge of the Marvel universe wasn't perfect, and I simply couldn't know all the characters from the comics, and Kimura was one of those I had no clue about.

"Why are you here, handsome?" Kimura asked, casually removing her plain jacket from her shoulders.

Looking around, I confirmed that Toad and Stain had successfully dealt with their opponents and were now moving closer to us. Great, that meant no one else was eavesdropping on our conversation. Well, except for that security camera over there. I took out a knife and threw it toward the ancient technology, which I considered outdated. Much better.

"What if I wanted to invite you on a date?"

"Ha-ha-ha!" Kimura laughed. "That's funny! Consider it another point for your reputation with me."

I could have made a joke about someone overplaying dating simulators, but I doubted these flash games had yet gained popularity here.

"Don't believe me?"

"Sorry, sorry, but my erotic dream number three couldn't just come true. That's not how it works!"

"Alright, then I won't hide it. I need adamantium and information about the prisoners here."

Kimura whistled in surprise.

"Sharp, handsome! But I'm afraid I'm the one who sets the conditions here."

"So, it's gonna be hard, huh?" I shrugged.

In another situation, I might not have let myself waste so much time talking, but considering that I had just acquired X-23's powers, which were essentially identical to what Sabretooth had given me before—why not?

Well, well. You figured it out, devils! It was all just too simple. I was stalling to fully absorb not just the new abilities, but also the memories of the clone girl. Of course, in eleven seconds, I didn't have time to get all of her memories, but I did get the most vivid ones.

That alone was more than enough to make me want to burn this damn place to the ground with napalm.

Evaluating the memories from my perspective, I could say that someone in the command structure of this base clearly didn't like mutants. How such a person was allowed to work here was a mystery, but nonetheless. To understand what was going on, we had to start from the very beginning.

This laboratory was built with one single goal—to create a functional clone of Wolverine. X-23 didn't know all the details, but it seemed that the government had somehow obtained a sample of Logan's blood and decided to make exact copies of him.

I guess it wasn't just to create an army of brainwashed soldiers, but also as a reserve of brutal men for a rainy day. There was only one flaw in this plan. The blood they obtained was defective, and the male clones stubbornly refused to be born, dying in the wombs of surrogate mothers.

So, the angry scientists gave up and started experimenting with DNA to create a female clone. Someone named Sarah Kinney succeeded in this, and she even became the surrogate mother for the first clone. For X-23.

So far, everything made sense, except for the part I didn't understand—why hadn't they expanded their clone program?

Part of this might explain why mutant abilities manifest during adolescence, and in the early years of the girl's life, the scientists didn't know if the experiment had been successful or if they were missing something. Maybe she could have developed a completely different mutation, or something along those lines.

These guys, who were actively working with the military, wanted to create the best soldier in the world—a soldier who was hard to kill and didn't need medical insurance. Why treat someone who can regenerate limbs and most fatal wounds for an ordinary person? Exactly.