4 The Facility

Sitting across from Laura was awkward as she seemed to just stare at me without speaking.

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"Sierra Nevada." Laura said in a clipped tone.

"O-kay then. Logan, how long till we get there?" I asked.

"It'll take about 5 hours at max speed." He called back.

I leaned back in my seat, trying to think of something to do for the next few hours.

'I guess I can work on shaping my body when I absorb a metal since I've got the time.'

Reaching down, I touched the metal floor of the X-Jet and absorbed it, coating my body in metal. I heard a noise and looking up found Laura with her claws extended.

"I'm just going to practice with my power." I said. She didn't really relax and but sheathed her claws, so I resolved to ignore her.

Concentrating on my body, I worked on forming spikes from different parts of me. Out of my forearm a spike protruded out suddenly, causing Laura to unsheathe her claws again.

"Alright, this isn't going to work if you think I'm going to attack you every second. How about you help me instead?" I asked.

"Help you how?" Laura asked.

"I have rudimentary fighting skills, why don't you try to teach me something. You clearly know some kind of martial arts."

"Good idea kid. Right now you just swing your arms around and hope it hits something." Logan said.

Hesitantly, Laura nodded and got up. Moving a little further back in the jet, she stood in front of me. She suddenly attacked me, throwing quick punches at my head and chest. I managed to dodge the first two, but the next couple connected and knocked the air out of me, letting her sweep my legs out from under me and I hit the floor hard.

"You relied on your enhanced durability when we fought. You need to use my force against me." Laura said.

"I know, that's why I asked for your help. Eventually someone's going to come along who can get through my defenses." I said, standing back up.

"Let's try this again." I said.

The next few hours were spent like this, with Laura attacking me and me trying to defend against her without enhancing my durability. I was slowly getting used to how she would attack me, when she changed up her methods and instead of going for punches she swept my leg first or went for a grab.

I learned quickly, my mind processing everything quickly and adapting to the ways she was attacking me. I wasn't any kind of martial arts expert, or even all that good, but I was able to at the very least react to her attacks. My reaction time was superior to hers, but my actual speed wasn't yet. It was also apparent that she wasn't trying all that hard, using basic attacks to work on my reaction.

The thing that somehow surprised me and didn't was that this was the most relaxed she looked. Fighting like this was something she knew, not the emotional conversation I had seen with Logan or her inability to know what to do while we sat across from each other.

"We'll need to land here and go from foot the rest of the way." Logan called out, causing the two of us to stop sparring and return to our seats as the jet landed. Walking out of the jet, Logan cloaked it and we continued on foot. I relied on their superior senses and Laura's knowledge of where the base was for direction, since I had no idea where we were going.

They both abruptly stopped eventually.

"Alright, the base is just up ahead. We're going to charge straight in since I don't have all that much faith in Casper's stealth ability. You absorbed the adamantium in Laura's claws when the two of you were fighting right?" Logan asked.

I nodded.

"I noticed the ring on your finger. Adamantium?" He asked.

"Yeah, I figured out I could produce a material I absorb, but it takes a lot of concentration. I could only make a ring and this is only enough material to change my arm." I answered. There was no point in lying about the ring when I was going to wear it at all times. It was only a matter of time before it was noticed.

"Alright here" Logan said and popped his claws out, holding them out to me. Reaching out, I absorbed the adamantium and the feeling I got originally returned, strengthening my entire body.

"Let's move quickly." Logan said before turning and running out of the bushes. Laura followed after him, with me being the last to follow.

The two made short work of the guards on the outside before I could even get close.

'I'll just have to move faster then.'

Sprinting forward, I ran at the door and barreled it over with it hardly slowing me down. Turning around I saw Logan looking at me.

"What, you said move fast."

"Don't get smart kid." Logan said and ran through the now open door along with Laura.

The three of us barreled our way through the Facility, knocking out most of guards we came across, although we ended up killing some of them when there were too many at once. Laura killed more of them than either of us, but neither Logan nor I mentioned it because we didn't really care. We all ended up getting some amount of blood on us though.

We searched through every room we came across quickly, glancing inside and moving on. It was at one of these rooms that we finally found something noteworthy. It was a living quarters, but the thing that stuck out were the pictures of Laura and a woman in a lab coat sitting on the bed stand. Laura slowly walked forward and lifted up one of the pictures.

"This was her room." She muttered. Both Logan and I heard it and knew who she was talking about, Sarah Kinney.

"She was a good woman." Logan said, putting his hand on her shoulder. Laura wiped a tear from her eye and took the picture, putting it in the pocket of her jacket.

"You good to keep going?" Logan asked her.

Laura nodded, and we left the room.

We continued mowing our way through the guards we came across, my adamantium body making it so that they couldn't harm me in any way. I noticed it was a crutch, so I returned back to normal.

"You sure about that?" Logan asked.

"It's a crutch. I'll manage without it until we find a heavy hitter."

Logan nodded and continued on. Now that I wasn't impervious to all damage, I had to be more careful. If there was a distance between us and the enemy I would let Laura and Logan go first while if we could get a close quarters encounter I would work on my melee combat.

Eventually we made it to the heart of the base, where we found a woman standing in the middle of a room. There were tubes coming up from the ground filled with some kind of green liquid and a computer sitting in the back of the room.

"Look at this. I was just about to go hunt for you and you came back of your own free will. Miss me?" She asked with a smirk.

"You Kimura?" Logan asked.

"That is my name, Weapon X. I'm glad you brought X-23 back to me."

"Don't call either of us that." Logan said, lunging forward and slashing at her chest, but his claws bounced of her and she kicked him back.

Laura growled but didn't run at her.

"Look at you, being a good girl and knowing you can't beat me. Don't worry, we'll get you reprogrammed soon so this little rebellious streak ends." Kimura said.

"Let me have a crack at it then." I said, stepping forward.

"And who might you be?" Kimura asked.

"You seem to like code names. You can call me Osmosis." I said.

"Osmosis. I assume it has to do with your power, but it matters not. You can't harm me, just like they can't." Kimura said.

'From what I remember her powerset let's her phase through attacks besides adamantium and strengthen her body to the point even adamantium can't pierce it. She's still a normal human other than that, so she would still die if I could manage to suffocate her, but I don't know how to do that when I can't crush her wind pipe. Her internal organs are weak, but the only thing I have that might work is freezing her blood, but that would reveal I can absorb powers.'

Logan had recovered and was attacking Kimura, but his claws couldn't pierce her skin. She had been engineered to rival Laura, and with her and Logan's similar skillsets he was mostly ineffective against her as well.

"Laura, let me absorb your claws again." I said to the girl, who was staring at Kimura. My words shocked her out of her daze as she wordlessly held her claw out. I touched it and covered my entire body in adamantium.

"Oh, that's interesting. I wonder, is it skin deep or all the way through. You could be a mine for adamantium." Kimura said.

"She seems impervious to damage, but maybe it has an upper limit. Laura, let me throw you." I said to her. She still seemed out of it, but nodded. I grabbed her arm and spun around before releasing her, sending her flying at Kimura, her claws extended.

Kimura finally tried to dodge instead of just taking the blow, but Logan jumped behind her and got her in a bear hug, letting Laura hit Kimura and pierce through her chest. Kimura was quick to kick Laura's body, sending her flying back, but I caught her, setting her down. Laura gave me a nod of thanks as Kimura flipped Logan over her and kicked him towards us as well.

The wounds on her chest were open, showing small slits where the claws had pierced her.

"See, you really shouldn't have done that." Kimura said, going on the offensive as she ran at us.

"Alright kid, that worked. Enough force can get through her defenses. I'll distract her, make some more opportunities." Logan said and ran forward, meeting Kimura's charge with his claws sheathed. He moved around her punch and grabbed her arm, throwing her into the wall. She stepped right back out, but he was quickly on her, focusing on grabs and throws instead of punches. Kimura was well trained and kept up with him, her punches breaking Logan's skin, although it quickly healed.

"Laura you ready?" I asked her.

She looked calmer now, and nodded with a resolute expression.

'Finally seeing Kimura bleed probably helped a lot.'

She held out her arm and I took it, spinning around again and flinging her in the direction of Kimura and Logan's fight. Logan saw her coming and tried to grab Kimura to hold her still, but she kicked him out of the way and ducked, punching upwards, sending Laura flying into the air.

Laura fell down and Kimura caught her in her arms.

"You've gotten rebellious X-23. I'll be sure to enjoy beating it out of you..." she said, but was cut off as I ran at her and decked her, sending her flying into the wall. Laura rolled and stood back up.

"Don't let her get in your head. She's just another target." I said.

Not looking to Laura for a response, I ran after Kimura, but she walked out of the wall and punched me in my midsection, sending me sliding a little back, but not all that much. My body was extremely durable at the moment, I could take all of her punches and dish them out just as much.

"You are much more of an annoyance than I thought you would be." Kimura said, her calm expression shifting into one of anger.

She ran at me and threw a punch that I ducked, but her follow up wasn't one that I could dodge, which sent me crashing to the floor. Kimura was on me, trying to pin me to the ground.

"I wonder if you still need to breathe in that form" she said as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I absorbed her power and I could feel my control of my body shift a little, but I ignored it for the moment. She couldn't crush my adamantium neck, however, so I shifted my arm into a hammer and brought it down on her head, sending her a few feet into the ground.

"We need a way to put her down for good. Her durability is too high." Logan said.

'She's made as a counter to Logan and X-23. Nothing they have can break through her durability, and I'm pretty much the same. The only thing I can think of is freezing her from the inside out, which I might have to do.'

Glancing around the room for some other method, Kimura phased out of the ground. My eyes were drawn to the bubbling liquid-filled tubes as she spoke.

"I'm done playing" She said and grabbed Laura, who had tried to attack her from behind when she emerged, choking her out. Logan managed to throw her off of Laura and ran at her.

"I've got an idea" I called out as I ran towards the tube. Swinging my hand, I shattered the glass tube and the liquid flowed out.

'Liquids are a material too. If I can absorb this, I can cover her body and drown her.'

Touching the liquid, I absorbed it and my body took on its properties. My body became liquid and it took me a moment to get used to the feeling. Absorbing a hard material made me feel sturdy and strong, but absorbing a liquid felt different.

"Logan, Laura, hold her down." I called out. They both glanced at me and saw my new form, taking it in stride as they jumped on her, holding her down.

"Whatever you're going to do, hurry it up kid." Logan growled out.

Quickly getting next to them, I put my fist straight through Kimura's head. Instead of punching her, my fist passed straight through her and her head was submerged in liquid. She struggled to escaped the grip of Laura and Logan, but the two stayed strong. Laura was weaker than Logan, so Kimura put more of her effort into throwing her off, but a claw popped out of each of her feet and dug into the ground, helping her hold steady.

Kimura continued to struggle, but she couldn't escape and slowly air bubbles rose as she drowned. Her eyes closed as her body went limp, but no one let her go as I kept her head in my liquid arm for another few minutes to make sure she was dead. Finally, Logan and Laura dropped her and I pulled my arm back, changing back to my normal form.

It felt strange, being solid again and I took a moment to readjust. I heard a whistle through the air and looked to see Laura had beheaded Kimura, adding to the blood that was already on her.

"To make sure." She said, seeing my look. She dropped Kimura's head, but her attention stayed focused on it.

"Well I don't know about you two, but I'm ready to go home." I said.

Logan nodded and said "You did alright for a rookie. Let's check the computer and get out of this dump."

Logan moved to the computer and typed something on it, but all that came up was a blank screen.

"She wiped it before we got here. Whatever was here is gone. There's nothing left for us here, let's go." Logan said.

I nodded and started to walk to the door with Logan, but he paused.

"Forget it Laura. She's gone, let it go." He said behind us.

Laura took one last long look and then reared her foot back, kicking Kimura's head into the wall, causing it to explode, painting the wall red.

She then walked over to the two of us looking like she was feeling a lot better.

'Whatever works I guess. Can't say I blame her with everything Kimura put her through.'

The three of us walked through the now destroyed base and back to the jet, getting on as we all sat down, although this time Laura sat next to me instead of across.

'Killing people let's her calm down around me a little? Fitting.'

The flight passed quietly, everyone content to remain in the peace of their own minds. I spent the time figuring out how the power I had gotten from Kimura worked. It seemed that it had combined with my body control, letting me control my density. I changed the density of my hand, testing the way it felt from denser to lighter.

'I can't go that far in either direction. Only a little denser or a little lighter. Look's like I've got another thing to train with.'

Eventually we made it back to the institute and Logan landed the jet. We walked down the ramp to find Xavier, Ororo, and Scott waiting. They looked at the three of us, covered in blood.

"Logan, I think we need to talk." Xavier said with a serious expression.