Marvel-11: World Inside Out

Later, she became a subject of an experiment, after which Kimura gained a set of superpowers and her signature reddish skin.

"B-but how?" Ino asked, surprised. "That means another form of schizophrenia will settle permanently in your head!"

It was hard for me to tear myself away from watching Kimura's memories and focus on what my Asian friend was saying.

"Yeah, but you'll take care of me, right?"

For a while, she stared at me intensely, as if trying to look beneath the mask. It was funny, but I didn't think this would help her.

"Hi!" She greeted me with a bow, which I just scoffed at.

You don't need to be a telepath to understand her thoughts. By absorbing Kimura, I would grow stronger, which would also strengthen the Sisterhood. It would benefit the organization. Magneto had hinted at something like this before, wanting me to kill and absorb the powers of a couple of mutants who, in her opinion, were misusing their powers. Heh, she even suggested luring and attacking Charlene

Xavier, but quickly abandoned the crazy idea. Her abilities were too powerful to trust them to a near stranger. It was better for them to stay with an enemy that Erica knew very well.

I had already dismissed the other candidates myself. Even though I agreed to join them, I had my own principles. So far, they had forgiven these small liberties. Magneto was quite satisfied with my current set of abilities, particularly the ones I took from Masquerade. Again, I didn't really want to do this, but I had altered the appearance of some of her friends and sponsors.

"That's it," I said, carefully lowering the dried mummy that Kimura had become to the floor. "Let's go."

"What do you mean?" Morty exclaimed. "What about the mission?"

"I think it's because Rascal absorbed the memories of these girls, right?" Ino asked, quickly catching on.

"Yeah, there's no adamantium reserves here except for what covers this girl's claws. The telepath that Mystique mentioned was indeed held here for some time, but they moved her. We have nothing left to do here."

"Alright, alright, as you say," Morty raised her hands.

"Then take the girl and head to the exit, I'll catch up with you."

"What are you planning?" Ino immediately became suspicious.

"Distraction plan, plus I'll try to grab a couple of hard drives."

The blind spot clearly didn't want to let me go alone. She was responsible for my safety, but the situation had changed. As long as I had the abilities of Sabretooth, X-23, and Kimura, I was practically a king and god of this dungeon. Ahem, the main thing was not to get cocky, or else one lady had already fallen victim to her own pride.

"Move it, ladies!" I snapped, and they reluctantly obeyed. I had a feeling I would definitely face a scolding at home. But we'd get through that.

Once I was sure they were heading in the right direction, I allowed myself a few seconds to admire the reddish skin on my hands, then put on gloves.

Now I needed to hurry. Time waits for no one, and I had more to do. The hard drives weren't the priority.

The local control room was hidden behind a thick armored door, and before testing Kimura's enhanced strength, I clenched my fists and extended claws similar to those of Laura Kinney. However, in my case, they were made of sturdy, sharp bone, not adamantium. Using them, I found that they didn't slice through the armored door as easily as adamantium would have. Pity, but expected.

Retracting the claws, I imagined the door as a punching bag and began practicing simple, straight punches. My fists left deep dents in the metal, but the door stubbornly held its ground and didn't seem to give under my desperate assault.

Shit! Alright, this isn't the only trump card in my sleeve!

A bundle of grenades turned out to be much more effective; the door didn't explode completely, but I easily widened the gap and snuck inside. I was shot at with a gun magazine, but I barely felt it. No, my skin dented slightly, and I felt more of the kinetic impact, but these bullets couldn't tear through my new flesh. They were pathetic.

Inside the room, all the local leadership had gathered, including the one I had been searching for—Zandi Rice. According to Kimura's memories, the scientist had some personal vendetta with Wolverine, which was why she hated X-23 so much.

I thought it was important to kill her with the claws I'd taken from the girl. So, without hesitation, I put them to use. The rest of the leadership panicked and tried to scatter in every direction when their white coats were splattered with crimson blood. But I ignored almost all of them. It would have been smart to kill the bastards, but I didn't have the time. I still had to catch up with my team, so I couldn't stay here too long.

Grabbing the head of the base by her long hair, I dragged the elderly woman to the table and sat her in a chair.

"The code for the console," I said simply, but Dr. Sutter stubbornly decided to act tough.

"No code, no deal."

It was easier for me to just pull the information I needed straight from her mind. I didn't want to put the burden on a normal, especially an elderly person. But since she was resisting, what could I do?

After getting the code, I pushed the chair with the unconscious woman aside and quickly did what I needed. It was good that the Facility guys were such safety freaks; almost the whole complex was rigged with explosives. According to protocol, they should have blown up the base if anyone got as far as I did, but the guys just didn't have the guts.

Well, I got lucky. And that's a bad sign—I don't like to rely on luck.

Knowing all the passwords, I immediately blew up all the laboratories and the room with artificial incubators. Turns out, I was wrong about these guys. After confirming that the X-23 project was a complete success, they decided to mass-produce super soldiers. Dozens of ten-week-old clones of Laura were growing in special artificial wombs. Well, they were growing up until now.

As I said before—sometimes we have to make very tough decisions