She Drops Down

Kimiko waited for the right moment to strike, waiting for the moment when her prey would walk right underneath her. The second Laura stepped underneath the rafter that Kimiko crouched upon, The Female dropped off the rafter, heading straight downward, and posed to pin X-23 onto the ground as soon as she made contact with the clone. Unfortunately for The Boys' muscle, Laura Kinney was more than prepared for this ambush.

While the scent of Kimiko's carnage had masked her smell and her position up on the rafters meant it was difficult for X-23 to hear her, the second she prepared her attack, Laura sensed her. In the same second that Kimiko dropped down, Laura caught a whiff of something, a scent that stood out among a room of corpses, the smell of epinephrine. The scent was coming above her and was descending upon her quickly. Nonetheless, X-23 stood still for a second and put on a poker face, not wanting her foe to think they still had the advantage.

Once Laura was in range, Kimiko raised her hand out, preparing to grab her by the back of her hair. But before the Supe's finger could even graze the smaller girl's hair, Laura suddenly leapt backward, unsheathing an adamantium claw from her left foot as she did. Kimiko's eyes widened as she felt her fingers curl around nothing but air and the woman that was once below her vanish. The Female of the Species crashed into the floor, landing in a cat stance; the concrete floor below her cracked as her hands and feet made contact with it. Kimiko was an experienced fighter, and due to all the hell the Shining Light Liberation Army put her through, she was more than aware that her opponent was now behind her. In an attempt to retaliate before her opponent could attack, Kimiko balled her right hand into a fist and tried to stand up and whip her body around to face her enemy. But the Female only managed to pick herself up from all fours, her knees half bent, before involuntarily dropping down onto her knees when she felt the feeling of cold metal slashing through her popliteal fossa, cutting through all the ligaments and tendons behind her knees, making her lose control of them.

Kimiko gritted her teeth in frustration over the speed of her opponent; she hadn't been prepared for it. The Supe listened as she heard the sound of foot steps approaching from behind her, then to her side, with a metallic ping being heard with every step of the woman's left foot. Kimiko glanced over her right shoulder, her eyes meeting the thighs of her masked opponent. "You must've thought you had me there, didn't you?" Laura taunted, walking in front of Kimiko and placing a hand on her hip as she stared down at the Asian woman, sheathing the metal claw on her left foot back in. X-23's red eyes narrowed as she starred at The Female; something about her seemed familiar. Clearly she was the one behind the attack on the facility; the dried blood on her knuckles and fingernails was evidence enough, but Laura wasn't sure where, but she had seen that face before. Trying to rack her brain around her, the best Laura could come up with was vaguely seeing a picture of the Japanese woman while being sent out on field missions when she was a child, which could only mean one thing, either the woman kneeling before her had a lot of enemies or she was really dangerous, or she was dangerous, or was up until Laura had compromised her legs. "Where do I know you from? she murmured to herself, squinting her eyes as she stared at the Japanese woman.

Kimiko's did not meet Laura's gaze; instead, she focused it onto the floor below her, watching as the blood from her legs pooled into the cracks underneath her. The injury stung—a bit of an understatement given the type of injury she had just sustained—but Kimiko was used to pain. Seconds ticked by, and any and all pain that The Female had been feeling vanished. A smirk crept its way onto Kimiko's face before she looked up to face X-23.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" Laura commented, taking note of Kimiko's noticeable silence. To the clone, it seemed as though Kimiko's silence was just her being petty, X-23 perceiving it as a form of silent treatment over having lost. In reality, Kimiko had an inability to speak; the trauma that she had faced during her childhood had left her mute. To communicate, Kimiko mostly used a special form of sign language that she and her brother had invented; few people knew it, one of whom was a close companion of Kimiko's, Frenchie. So, in response to Laura's taunting, The Female simply gave her a wide yet strained smile.

Laura cocked her head to the side in confusion, taken aback by Kimiko's action. X-23 opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by The Female suddenly launching herself at her at full speed. The X-Men member let out a gasp in shock, and the two claws in her right hand popped out instinctively as Laura swiped her arm at her approaching enemy. Kimiko weaved her head under the swipe, though her left arm didn't go unscathed; the adamantium claws had cut through the sleeve of both Kimiko's leather jacket and long-sleeve shirt, cutting through her skin and getting deep enough to touch muscle. With her undamaged arm, The Female threw out a powerful hook, her knuckles crashing into the right temple of the masked woman, partially caving in the area of the skull she hit and causing Laura's mask to peel off her face. As blood began to trickle out of her nose from her injury, Laura quickly slid herself backward in order to put distance between herself and her foe. To most people, staying conscious after having received a wound like that would be an impossibility, nevertheless being able to still move, but for Laura Kinney, this was nothing. X-23 reached a hand up to her and rubbed the side of her head, caressing the point of impact with her fingers. Her skull had already managed to heal itself in just under a second, one of many abilities she inherited from her father, though since she lacked a skeleton fully covered in adamantium, I meant she was more susceptible to devastating injuries than him.

Laura's real concern was her opponent. The damage that Laura had inflicted upon Kimiko's legs should've meant that they were useless; hell, they probably would've never functioned currently even with the best doctor's mending them. Yet here she was, not just standing up like nothing had happened. The only way she could possibly be standing now would be if... Laura's eyes trailed over to the wound on Kimiko's left arm; the once-muscle-deep cut had been reduced to just a large scratch, one that was rapidly closing itself up. She could regenerate at a similar speed as Laura could. Laura popped the claws out of her left hand and took a fighting stance, "Just my luck, you're just like me." X-23 grumbled as she watched her foe also take a fighting stance. The Female slouched and positioned her legs in a wide stance, bending them slightly to keep herself low. Her arms were spread out to her sides, and her fingers curled; the fighting stance seemed feral in a way, like it belonged to that of a beast. Despite both women having been injured, they almost seemed to be unscathed if it weren't for the tears in Kimiko's clothes and the fresh blood that was currently clinging to their skin and clothes.

While both girls acknowledged that they and their opponent were practically unkillable, neither one took into account the type of damage that their clothes would receive from this battle.