Laura. She had an identity, thanks to the Professor and others. She had been told it was her name, but she'd never used it. X-23 was her designation. To go out, to be able to do things, she needed identification. Real identification. She'd used many before, not feeling any particular attachment to any name or persona. This however, was hers. Laura. It had somehow made her uncomfortable to settle on a real name, identification, papers. It made her a solid in a world she had carefully traversed but never been a part of.
It had one major advantage, and that was that she was allowed to go out now. Not that she hadn't gone out before, just now, it was allowed. So she had headed into the city. She liked the city. Not for the hustle and bustle, the shopping, the sight seeing. No, she liked it because it was like a miniature version of the world to her. There was what you saw, what you expected. People, jobs, working, eating, talking. Then there was the darker parts. The parts that people somehow walked right past and ignored. The people living in the streets, under bridges, in alley ways. There was the decay and destruction that blind eyes ignored and others found safety in. She was much more comfortable there. In the darker corners, then in the brightly lit buildings and shops.
So she picked her way through the buildings, still grumbling to herself about the clothing she wore. It was easy to look like any other person while wearing them. Jeans and a sweater, a pair of boots, and even a watch. It just felt, odd. These were not clothes she could work in. She liked to be ready to work. Especially when she heard the sniffling of someone from another area of the building.
Her ears perked, her body stiffened slightly and she turned slowly. Picking her way through the building with as much silence as possible she sniffed the air. She saw a dusty head of blond bent over her own knees. Stopping a few feet short she tilted her head in observance. "Why do you cry?"