This is new..

[X-23]

Laura groaned as she opened her eyes to a dull ringing in her ears. She brought a hand to her head, caressing her forehead, nursing what she had briefly suspected to be little more than a headache. But not this time. She squinted into the darkness, desperately trying to find her focus in the pitch darkness around her. A pair of hazy silhouettes finally coalesced into one singular being, grinning eerily at her. The clone moved to scramble backward, away from whatever the grin belonged to, but found herself frozen in place. Fear? No, she felt oddly calm, unnaturally even. She opened her mouth to speak, producing nothing but an exhale of breath.

Laura sneered, “The fuck is this?!” She asked herself, inwardly, her gaze locked onto the Specter before her, “The fuck have you done to me?!” Was this another Weapon-X scheme? She snorted to herself, she’d laugh if she could.

“My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it. The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.”

Laura’s brow furrowed as she found herself leaning in to listen, curiosity getting the better of her, foregoing what would normally come naturally to her; anger.

Omni hands you a glimmering orb in which all the colors of the rainbow coalesce. “This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it. You will find that using it comes naturally. Just think of what you desire most.

The woman studied the Omnilium with thinly veiled intrigue, staring into the orb, watching the colours swirl and shift, all held within.

“You will not be alone in the Omniverse. There are others. Of course, they, too desire Omnilium. Do not fear death. For as long as you interest me, you will be reborn.

“That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.”

A thousand questions spiralled through the clone’s mind but as quickly as they came, so too did darkness.

Kinney rolled onto her back with a rather more audible groan, this time. She shifted against the hard ground, finally deciding laying spread eagle was the most comfortable option. The clone took a deep inhale through her nose and furrowed her brow. She didn’t recognise the smell, not a feeling she was used to. She propped herself up on her elbows and quirked a single eye open, grimacing as she glances around. Whatever that was, wasn’t a dream.

“At least it’s not Weapon-X, huh?” She croaked, out into the stark white landscape, a half relieved, half exasperated sigh escaping her.

With an audible huff, X-23 pushed herself up onto her feet and spun on her heels, hands planted on her hips, to survey the Nexus for the first time. A drawn out “Jesus” rolled off her tongue as she spun, a hand raised to sweep her chestnut hair away from her face. Her stomach knotted as she took it all in, a volatile mixture of confusion and curiosity taking hold.

No horizon, no real sky, just white on white, almost clinical. Silent, aside from the fountain that stood behind her, it’s waters babbling steadily, incessantly. A haze took over as she turned her inspection inward. She had no recollection of arriving in this place, let alone how she got here.

Laura cast her gaze downward, toward her fists hanging at her side, in particular. She cocked a brow. Her features screwed up as she concentrated, a relieved exhale escaping her as a grim Snikt echoed out from her fists, a pair of Adamantium blades erupting from the skin of her knuckles on each hand, accompanied by a single blade from each foot. She smirked, at least this Omni had gotten these right. A few drops of crimson blood sullied the otherwise pristine ground as the blades retracted into her hands, the skin around that had been broken knitted itself back together, another relief for the woman. Her healing factor was intact in some capacity, at least.

“Well.. the fuck do I do now?” She questioned the vast expanse, tapping her boot to the ground, glancing around still.

[X-23]

Laura grunted as she lowered herself to the ground and rested back against the fountain. Her gaze rose skyward, or lack thereof, for a moment to inspect the colourless expanse. She considered the being that had brought her here, for a short while, mulling over the myriad of reasons as to why she had been brought here in the first place.

23 exhaled through her nose, conjecture was getting her nowhere fast, but there must have been something she was missing. If she were so interesting, why was she left in a blank expanse with little more than a fountain for company?

Laura grumbled, irritably, boredom clawing at her every muscle. She sat, crossed legged, picking and biting at a particularly aggravating hangnail until to her joy, or not, an unfamiliar sound and smell broke the status quo of the bleak, white landscape. The clone winced and screwed her nose up as a shrill cry echoed through the Nexus.

‘A kid, here?’ she questioned herself internally, glancing about for the source of the noise. The hysterical cries continued to grow louder as she stomped around the fountain, soft whimpers interrupting the child’s cries, whenever it inhaled sharply, catching its breath. Laura grimaced, kids were far from her area of expertise. She sighed and shook her head, rapidly, attempting to clear whatever doubt lingered.

“Hey, kid, where you at?” The clone called out into the stark white. The cries halted immediately, “Look, kid, I’m not gonna hurt you.. can’t help you if I can’t see you.”

The clones calls elicited a quiet; “O-over here..” to which she spun on heel, quickly spotting the creature a short way off into the distance. Laura approached the child, her features quickly contorting into a look of disbelief and confusion. Before her stood stood a short, not taller than a foot, tan creature wearing a much larger skull atop its head and clutching a small bone club to its chest, tears streaming from the vacant eye sockets of its skull mask.

“Okay.. what the fuck is this..?” 23 questioned nobody in particular as she inspected the Pokemon, a brow quirked for good measure.

“Mkay, so who.. what are you, kid?” She asked, no measure of exasperation absent from her gravelly voice, as she raised a hand to scratch at the back of her head.

“I -uh, I’m Cubone.. a Pokemon?” The child spoke, it’s confusion becoming apparent, “who are you?”

“Laura.. Laura Kinney.” The clone replied as she dropped to a knee, lowering herself to Cubone’s level, “So, what’s going on? What’re you crying for?”

Cubone sniffled, wiping away a tear rolling down its cheek, “The.. the men in white. I was out with my.. and we- they split us up.. she told me to hide.. and she- she was gone.. I tried to follow.. I couldn’t.. couldn’t find her..” short whimpers stalled the child’s speak before it burst into full blown hysterics yet again.

“Uh- it’s alright.. we’ll, um, go find her, okay?” Laura interjected, reaching out to stroke the Pokemon’s arm, awkwardly. Cubone shied away quickly, but the clone insisted as she rose to her full height once again, “Where did you come from?”

The creature sniffled quietly as it turned towards a small dot off in the distance, raising its hand to point towards it, its other hand practically clawing at Laura’s quickly retreating hand. 23 sighed in exasperation, once again, before stooping to pick the Pokemon up and place it on her shoulder.

The pair set off toward the grey dot in the distance, the parrot-esque Pokemon still sniffling in Laura’s ear.

“Alright, kid, jeez. We get it, you’re upset. Give it a rest already, huh?” The clone snapped, her short temper finally getting the better of her.

“S-sorry.. so, uh, you’re new here?” The Pokemon inquired, “Are you a Prime? That’s awesome, if you are, I’ve never met a real Prime before. You saw Omni, right?” The creatures deluge of questions assaulted the woman’s ear, a quick groan her go to response.

“Yeah.. I’m new here,” Laura mused, “I’m still trying to figure this all out.”

“The people I live with are looking for people like you, y’know?” Cubone spoke, nigh absentmindedly as it glanced around the Nexus from its perch.

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

Cubone shrugged quickly, “Dunno, loads of reasons. The last person that visited built us some new houses, the one before that brought a whooole crate of Pinap berries for us.” The Pokemon threw its arms out to the side, in a grand gesture to show the size of the crate, “They don’t grow in the island, so I dunno where they got them from. Pinap berries are the best, so everyone was really happy when we got them.” The child nodded affirmatively.

“That so? D’you get many visitors, then?” Laura asked quickly, practically praying the Pokemon’s tangent would keep it from crying again.

“Nuh-uh. Not so many anymore,” Cubone shook his head slowly, “The men in white have these boats on one side of the island, nobody really tries to get past ‘cos they’re not nice.”

“Oh, really? Why’s that?”

“I dunno.. everyone’s said they’re trying to be friends with us all.. but if they’re blocking the island off, how can we be friends?” Cubone’s childish innocence elicited a rare smile from the clone, regardless of how solemn it actually was.

“So how are we supposed to get you home if they’re blocking off the island?” Laura speculated, a brow quirked as she peered across to her newfound companion.

“Well, they’re not really really blocking the island. You can kinda go round them, ‘specially at night.” Cubone spoke quickly, “but, I heard people talking about how they’ll let you live on the island if you help out.”

“Nice island, then, is it?” Laura inquired, genuine interest ringing through this time.

“Uh-huh. Everyone likes it, I think. There’s loads of places to run around and stuff, so..” The Pokemon trailed off as the duo approached the portal gate, “This is where I came from.. if you stand in there it goes Whoosh! and then you’re nearly home!” Cubone stated matter-of-factly.

Laura quirked a brow as she inspected the portal into the Vasty Deep, nothing short of awe struck by the mere thought of how everyday the Pokemon had explained a portal.

“So, your home’s on the other side of this?”

“Mhmm, c’mon, let's go. Everyone’s gonna be worried!”

The clone grimaced as she took a few steps forward and into the portal before her.