The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Welldrinker Cult
A shadowy group is gaining power, drawing in people who are curious, vulnerable, or malicious, and turning them into Mystics. They are recruiting people into their ranks to spread the influence of magic in the world, but for what end goal?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
It was lunch time at the canteen, but not like any lunch time the canteen had witnessed for several long months. For the first time in what seemed like ages to the somewhat pudgy lady in the hairnet, the canteen was quiet. During lunch. They were not running out of hamburgers, the drinks were fully stocked, and there were more mashed potatoes made then would probably be eaten. The lunch lady sighed with contentment, looked around, and pulled out Extreme Sudoku. Ah, back to the good old days before the resistance came along. They were all off defending the innocent and breaking the jail and all those good things and the lunch lady did her sudoku.
Halfway through her second puzzle two familiar faces came through the door. One of the faces was both striped and whiskered, the other belonged to the resident twelve year old. The lunch lady had a soft spot for the twelve year old, it seemed like everyone did. As for the tiger boy...
“Tigers are not allowed to help themselves to the buffet,” she reminded the pair over the clear plastic sneeze guard.
The twelve year old responded first, “Maybe I could dish up Calley's food for him?” Blink. Blink. Cute eyes blink.
The lunch lady considered this for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. She was in a good mood and there was more sudoku to solve than there was mashed potatoes to mix. “Oh all right,” she agreed.
“Thank you!” the twelve year old grinned and proceeded to fill up a tray of food with a slice of pizza and lots and lots of hamburgers.
~ “Tigers are not allowed to help themselves to the buffet.”
~ "Maybe I could dish up Calley's food for him?”
~ “Oh all right."
~ “Thank you!”
So it was spoken, so it was done. The hamburgers were piled higher than Katrina's head on that most glorious of trays. Much good trailed in their wake like sparkling anime stars as they proceeded triumphantly to the deserted cafeteria table. The tiger padded with dignified silence at the twelve-year-old's side, its large head held proudly high and even with her shoulder; a royal bodyguard fit to escort this persuasive Queen among Seventh Graders.
Thus did the feeding begin, with Katrina's mere presence converting her simple Canteen chair into a throne worthy of her food-procuring aptitude, and the tiger seated at the tables end, delicately hooking burgers off of the tray with knightly swipes of its claws and eloquently forking them into its maw.
Even with most of its fighting force out in the field, all was well at Mondragon Labs. A veritable hum of vast contentment was sounding in the Canteen. This may or may not have sounded coincidently akin to a large Bengal Tiger's rumbling purr.
Then did a dark cloud of despair and anti-fun walk into the room, concentrated into the form of one man: Doctor James Ingram. Calley's purr cut out and his ears laid down flat against his head as the man walked into the serving area to get lunch. Ha! He fooled the tiger not: clearly, this vessel of despair feed upon the suffering of small children and smaller cats. He needed no other sustenance than his own diabolical deeds. He-- he--
He had a ring of keys clipped on to the back of his pants. The tiger's ears flicked forward. Its tail dusted the floor in a quick sweep to the left. It leaned a fraction of an inch towards Katrina, and whispered: "So. That guy over there. If I distract him, can you grab those keys? I'll tell you why later."
It broke the huddle abruptly, getting to its feet and padding towards the serving area with its whiskers held nefariously close to its cheeks. Doc Jimmy was long overdue for a tiger face bath.
Oh the peer pressure! It was too much for the innocent twelve year old and her underdeveloped moral code. It was hardly her fault that she was stuck in the interpersonal harmony stage of moral development. Blame Kohlberg and his theories of relative morality! Really, Katrina had no choice. To be cool, she had to get those keys. The good opinion of her peers depended on it, and Kohlberg only knew that nothing was more important to a tween than that.
>>>"So. That guy over there. If I distract him, can you grab those keys? I'll tell you why later."
Katrina needed no further prompting. As Calley stalked toward the unsuspecting victim in a swift slinky gait, Katrina ducked beneath the table and vanished from sight. Moments later she emerged on the other side, the keys in her sight. There were a lot of them, and they were shiny, and they were attached to a carabiner, and they were clipped to the mans' waist, and they were jingling ever so slightly and ever so enticingly, and Katrina had to take them. It was her destiny. Kohlberg said she had to. Blame Canad... er... Kohlberg.
Within moments she had the keys and was slipping out through the door, which was miraculously opening of its own accord. And with nothing but a slight jingle, the keys vanished from the waist or one Doctor James Ingram.
Posted by Cheshire on May 28, 2008 12:27:06 GMT -6
Mutant God
3,233
18
Sept 24, 2018 19:41:05 GMT -6
Calley
If Doctor Ingram had a hair less dignity, there might very well have been tiger globs exploded all over the Canteen. Instead, as the tiger nefariously reared up and put its paws on the man's shoulders, tongue extended, the good doctor gave the no-nonsense stare to end all no-nonsense stares. Calley actually tumbled over backwards, repelled by its sheer force of I Will Eat Your Firstborn Child and Pour Salt in the Eyes of Your Family Dog. As he attempted to coolly roll back to his feet, his ears caught a very small noise: the tinkling of keys vacating the room. He shook out his fur under the Doctor's frigid gaze. His tongue rasped quickly over the fur on his left shoulder, putting it back into its unruffled place. "I concede the battle," he mumbled defiantly. Then he bolted out of the room with his long stripped tail streaming behind him like a bugle call to retreat.
Katrina stood outside of the Canteen doors, a ring of keys in her innocent hands. The battle was lost. But the war was on.
"Come come," the tiger beckoned, its tail twitching with undefeatable mischief, "you just acquired the key to the Boss' Dungeon. Let's try it out, shall we?"
Our scene: an unflattering close-up of a stout key entry pad, with a key hole next to it.
Pan out.
Our heroine and her loyal companion stand outside the steely dungeon double-locked door; the first barrier to their entry. There are no guards around: Doc Jimmy's lab generally guards its own secrets. And, umm, they waited behind that corner over there for the last guard to pass by. A sensible action for enterprising new adventurers.
"I'll take care of the keypad; you turn the key exactly as I hit enter, okay?" The tiger sinuously raised up a paw and delicately unsheathed a claw. With deliberate jabs, it keyed in a seventeen number pass code. Had it tried to get in here before? Perhaps been stalking Doc Jimmy just the teensiest bit during its stifling free time of supreme boredom? Clearly not.
Enter.
The keypad flashed a green light, and the door clicked open. The tiger nudged it open further with a light butt from the top of its head, then stepped aside, with a flourish of its paw. "Ladies first." There would be other rooms and other locks within. But then, there were always obstacles on the way to the Treasure Room. There were always monsters, too.
They stood in front of a steely door. In her explorations, Katrina had seen it and wondered what secrets were hidden behind it many a time, but alas it had always been locked. There were many locked doors in Mondragon Labs, but none so shiny and so obviously secretive as this one. With the tap of a claw and a twist of a key, the curious pair gained access to the unknown lair of the good doctor.
Inside the door there was a small room with a row of hard plastic chairs across from three doors. It looked like a waiting room, but Katrina was unsure of what they would be waiting for in the dimly lit . She shuddered, recalling a bad dream. Why would there be a waiting room here, so far from the infirmary? Did Mondragon Labs have two doctor's offices? Katrina pulled out the keys again, anxious to be out of the waiting room. She randomly selected door number three on the right and walked up to it.
“Let's try this one,” she mumbled half to herself. There was no code pad on this one, just a normal door lock, Katrina found the key that fit in the key hole and opened the door. This room was more interesting. It seemed like a combination between an operation room from Grey's Anatomy and the garage workshop of inventor Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future. There was a hospital bed on one side of the room and a workbench on the other side of the room. Various tools, both medical and garage variety were resting in their designated spots. Also in the room were monitors and machines, some of which looked to have medical purposed, others had purposes that Katrina couldn't begin to guess at. Katrina wandered over to the work table to have a closer look. There were lots of interesting looking gadgets, and one of the medical machines was turned on. There were orange numbers glowing on the screen and the jagged line of a heart monitor. Beep...beep...beep...
(OOC: So you thought while the boss was away the cat could play huh? Well, I think I've got something to say about that.)
IC: Dr Ingram's unique security computer picked up the intruders immediatly. The child and tiger were far from unnoticed. Thus the computer did as it was programed to do, and moved all the key parts of Ingram's research to secure locations where the intruders could not access them while leaving most of the interesting but replacable equipment where it was. It was designed so that someone breaking in would be presented with things of apparent value that would keep them in the room until security arrived, but nothing of value would be at risk.
The second thing the computer did was contact the highest ranking member of security staff currently on site. This turned out to be one Nigel Banks. A brief look at the security footage revealed the pair slinking into Dr Ingram's lab. He thought for a moment, before deciding not to act. Ingram's security ment there was nothing that they could break that could not be replaced and Nigel still had a soft spot for Katrina.
However, he would not make any effort to help them out of the trouble that they would end up in once Ingram found out. At they very worst he'd find them in the lab when he returned, in which case they would be in real trouble as Ingram would activate his defences in a non-lethal but decidedly unpleasent manner. A quick check of the lab's security showed the pair had roughly fifteen minutes till the doctor returned. Nigel sat back to watch what would happen, hoping that he wouldn't have to step in to stop the doctor doing something that Calley and Katrina would regret.
((ooc: Now Boss Man, who said anything about playing? This is deadly serious, I assure you! Also, that's cats, thank you. *begins grooming behind her left shoulder, with much upstanding dignity*))
Calley fanned his whiskers, watching that heart monitor. Beep... beep... beep... It was more than a little creepy. His large tail lashed to the side, striking the leg of a bed. A hospital bed. Not a nice bed at all. He glanced over his broad shoulder, his ears flattening half-way as he looked about the room. It reminded him of his first day in the Lab. The apartment-breaking-into, Hunter-in-a-towel, Doc-Jimmy-made-collar first day. He'd spent a fair share of that first day sleeping off power-usage-induced exhaustion in a room very similar to this. All in all, he had to say he was disappointed. There were the usual tools and such, but only ones he'd already stolen on his other visits to the place. Nothing big. Nothing fancy. The most interesting things were those two bulky guns sitting on a worktable, but they looked only half-finished, and more than a little like toys out of a space blaster game; the good doctor had probably been tinkering with them before he went to lunch. They didn't look all that great. The large tiger plopped its butt on the floor, a huff vacating its lungs as its whiskers hinged back towards its stripped face. A treasure room, this was not.
His gaze swung back to that heart monitor, then above it, to a glass pane. His ears twitched forwards. Glass? A little out of place in a room that wasn't anywhere near the walls of the building. He stood back up and padded towards it, lifting up his front paws to rest on the inch-wide ledge. His warm nose pressed against the glass.
It was about then that Nigel Banks, sitting in front of his row of monitors and watching the pair of intruders with amused tolerance, realized what room they were in. He was on the radio before he even knew his hand was moving, calling out an alert. All guards anywhere near Doctor Ingram's labs were to get there. Now. He was out the door himself, running with ground-eating strides. Katrina. Mister Antonescu would kill him if something happened to Katrina. If he was lucky enough to die, that is. To a lesser extent, it would be inconvenient if Calley was seriously maimed.
Elsewhere in the Labs, Doctor Ingram himself was walking out of the Canteen with a meal to go. Even with the communal feeding trough mostly disserted, he was not about to sully himself by associating his lab coat draped posterior with the tables at which the common elements sat. He was returning to his lab to eat. In his hands were a glass of water and a plate of his favorite lunchtime meal: plain white spaghetti noodles. No sauce.
The tiger pointed its muzzle towards the glass, drawing the twelve-year-old's attention. Within moments, Katrina was sorting through the key ring for the perfect fit that would get them into that room next door.
Within moments, the security staff was committing a rare sin indeed: a forced override of Doctor Ingram's security system. They had to get into those labs.
Within moments, the good doctor himself was turning that last hallways corner, just in time to see Nigel Banks--slightly out of breath, shouting orders--joining up with the tail-end of the security team that was rushing in through that first door.
Katrina turned the key. The door to the Boss Room opened.
((ooc: Just sit back and enjoy the show, Boss Man. Z: that's your cue. ))
((ooc: In this thread, writing in this color is by Zelek. The posts were deleted; I’ve reposted them with his permission.))
Zelek had noted several things at his stay at this very trendy hotel. Nothing like a firm foam mattress on top of metal with an over stuffed pillow to say chic' yet comfortable. and for entertainment a few books, observatory medical equipment and a glass window with a view of a albeit ingenuous yet monotone Doctor. The doctor was the main one he observed, for one he was methodical to the point of being O.C.D. They way he stood while he entered the code to the first door. the way he held the door nob as he unlocked doors the way he immediately checked the thermostat and other environment controls of his labs. he then would check his computer for what he didn't know, and then carry on to the days specific tasks.
Whoever was entering the room was not Dr. Ingram and had not been here with out him before. further more Dr.Ingram was not a tiger or a little girl and from the little time he had been here he knew he would not allow the unsupervised visit of either, much less someone more responsible in appearance. With a fiendish smile Zelek unhooked several of the instruments that observed his every bodily function and more. The last was the heart monitor. The machine for a moment flat lined sending a light red glow across the room and let the steady beep that signified death.
He rolled lightly off the table that passed for his bedding for as long as he thought he couldn't resist feeding on Hunter's employee's,He however couldn't be blamed if they came to him. with a lick of his lips he thought to put into play the wondrous lesson that Hunter had taught him, the little girl's adrenaline would be glorious. The simplest way to avoid the Tiger was to not invite him in. Zelek waited for the door to come unlocked and leapt across the room, in a fluid moment he tore the door open grabbed the wrist of the girl pulled her in and hit the emergency lock switch just outside the door, that was there for Ingram's convenience, if Zelek decided his promise not to eat him was less worth while then remaining hungry. The switch conveniently slammed the door firmly shut for him when he was clear of it.
Zelek formulated this plan days ago, but admittedly it was much easier to render with the lessened weight of the girl. Now the emergency lock supplied him with time to be leisurely with the girl, no need to bleed her dry post haste. As he leaned his back against the door. he tilted his head and looked at the pretty little thing. thinking she might speak only English he decided to lower himself from speaking his preferred Russian, his accent was as always present. " My my when Ingram offered to bring me back lunch, I hadn't began to hope it would still be breathing. I think he grows irritated with how avidly I have watched him while drinking my pouches of blood."
He than bared his fangs in a eerily wide mouthed smile, Zelek had always had a big mouth, figuratively and literally, but it seemed to compliment his newly found vampiric aspects. He had to resist doing his best villainous laugh. No sense in making her pass out, just afraid.
And Katrina was quite suddenly on the other side of the door. The keys were still clutched in her fist. Katrina glanced up at the young man who had swept her through the door, eyes wide in surprise. He was thin with black hair and pale skin. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes as if he had just woken up. The only bit of him that was colorful was his eyes, which were bright green. The young man leaned against the door, blocking Katrina's exit. Who was this odd boy?
There was a loud explosion noise, like a gunshot outside of the door, and metal clanged with the reverberations. Katrina jumped about half a foot.
---
As the twelve-year-old vanished through the door way, Nigel Banks was shoving his way through the door, past the the other guards, past the unwitting tiger. He reached out to grab the girl, but was too late. Plan A, failed. His hand grasped the cold steel of the doorknob instead. He twisted, but it was locked. Plan B, failed. Instantly, he pointed his gun at the lock and pulled the trigger. The reinforced steel of the lock was indented, but not as damaged as Nigel had hoped. Plan C, failed.
Nigel pulled out his cell phone. Hunter was on speed dial number 2. Three other guards that he LARPed with (Percy, Artemis, and Edward) were 3, 4, and 5. Melissa Rivers was on number 6. Nigel pressed number 6 until it started ringing.
The instant Melissa picked up, Nigel was shouting orders, “Get the door in Ingram's Lab unlocked! Override automatic security system, NOW!”
---
Melissa turned back to the computer. Her fingers flew over the keys, and she hit enter. “There's some kind of error. Something jammed the lock.”
---
Nigel looked at the gun in his hand and back at the damaged lock. “Kuso.”
---
Meanwhile, the black haired young man had started speaking in a think accent, nonchalantly about Ingram bringing lunch.
>>>“My my when Ingram offered to bring me back lunch, I hadn't began to hope it would still be breathing. I think he grows irritated with how avidly I have watched him while drinking my pouches of blood."
Lunch? Drinking blood? Katrina's face paled. “What are you talking about?” she whispered. The young man grinned at her. He had fangs.
It was right about then that the glass window exploded inwards with a crash of shattering glass.
Four onomatopoeias which were not harbingers of good. The Bengal Tiger stood stunned for a second. Katrina had disappeared; a hand smelling vaguely of hospitals had snatched her. Then there was a man with a familiar smell pushing past him.
First enemy: The Door. Nigel Banks tried to twist it open. Nigel Banks tried to turn it open. Nigel Banks tried to shoot it and phone call it open. Nigel Banks: Fail.
Clearly, this was a job only a tiger could do. Calley turned his large head towards that much window again, determination clearly written in the backwards fan of his long white whiskers. He couldn't see Katrina and the Hospinator; they were still behind the door. The angle was all wrong. Nigel Banks could keep The Door busy. Calley's Enemy: The Glass Pane. Those four onomatopoeias--onomatopoeii?--were never harbingers of good, and he was in need of practice for taking on Bosses. Plus, he liked Katrina. He sunk low to the ground; the hair on his belly brushed lightly against the floor. His legs coiled under him. His tail became perfectly still. Silence in the chaos of Nigel Banks shouting orders, the guards milling, and Doc Jimmy's face beginning to turn an unhealthy shade of red that complimented his plain pasta nicely. Silence, and then--
EPIC TIGER SPRINGING HEADBUTT OF WINDOW PANELY PAIN!
Calley's skull impacted the glass pane. His neck impacted his skull. His body impact his neck. His tail impacted his body. Then the whole mess of him slid to the floor.
Oh, but the Window Pane was a crafty opponent, was it not? A real puzzle master among inanimate objects. It was clear that it was immune to physical attacks. As Calley lay dazed on the floor, and Slate glanced up from his latest mathematical proof just long enough to make sure they weren't brain damaged, his baby blue eyes dimly perceived something shiny on Doc Jimmy's workbench. Something that looked like the good doctor had been working on it right before he skipped out to lunch. Something that looked like it had come straight out of a game about combating giant spiders from Mars. The tiger gracefully rolled to its feet, and padded amidst the chaos towards that workbench. It was amazing how most people would instinctively clear a path for a tiger on a mission. At the foot of the table, Calley shifted back to human form. De-equip item: Fur. His right hand reached out. Equip weapon: Fusion Blaster Prototype Version 1. His left hand reached out. Equip weapon: Fusion Blaster Prototype Version 2.3. Doctor Ingram shouted something that contained more explicatives than usual, and a few barked orders at the guards. None of them were quick enough to stop him from turning around, lifting up the blasters, and taking aim at the Window Pane. He squeezed the triggers.
The window melted in place. So did the opposite wall. In the next room, a certain Chair of Supreme Unpleasantries smoked lightly from where the last energy of the blasts had singed either side of its back.
Nude Italian Boy: Win.
The whole room froze for a second. The largest movement was Calley's Blink of Surprised Heroism. Then the guards began streaming in through the remains of Calley's most worthy foe; in to rescue the Princess.
She looked puzzled at him at first not realizing that she was in as much and more immediate danger than she had ever been. She had the audacity to question him, He would have answered her if the others hadn't decided to be so troublesome. what a bother. A gunshot to the door had him wondering absently if he could he live threw those?...he lived through his heart being torn out, he decided he was invincible, that is when the window and the wall melted, he was pretty sure a shot of one of those could be harmful even to one so untouchable as himself. but enough of that, there were men coming in the window, in the middle of his preparing of dinner no less. Some people simply lacked manners.
Zelek reached out and whipped his hand around, an attempt to rake his fingernails down the girl's arm, as he did so he turned toward the guards. The first tumbled over the still hot window seal. A swift kick to the head bought his unconsciousness and provided Zelek with a gun. The second guard was grappled and soon had been over powered by the slim teen male. Even a budding vampire's strength was surprising to a veteran Merc. The barrel pressed firmly against the guards head settled him for a moment.. Zelek turned carelessly to his side speaking to the girl. " Run away poppet, I will be along shortly."
He pistol whipped the man in his arms sending him limply to the floor, but yet another guard was already making his way through the window to take his place.
"inconsiderate! I am trying to dine,quietly and civilly!" A misfired gun shot to the ceiling nearly announced a gun fight and a steady stream of bullets, but someone on the other side obviously still cared for the life of the girl and halted enemy fire which left Zelek a rather troublesome Issue. If he stayed here he would have to deal with guard after guard unti leventually he was overwhelmed and they learned some tactics better than one after the other. a quick decision had him diving trough the window even as another guard made his way in.
He slammed past one Nigel Banks, who apparently hadn't seen it coming and then into Ingram, Zelek cold cocked the doctor for his slighting of him, who brings a vampire spaghetti, what kind of foolish joke was that? Did he think a red sauce would amuse or appease his appetite. Another twist and turn, juking lithely past more guards and Zelek was loose in the labs.
Zelek turned right down a hall, sprinted a distance away and ducked into another room and waited. It appeared to be empty, the cameras would tell on him and his hiding spot but he needed a moment to concentrate on the scent of the girl...there was also the naked young man to consider, he thought it might have been the tiger, in this sci fi modern day world, the phrase fact is stranger than fiction took on new shape and truth.
Bright light and intense heat, followed shortly by guards streaming through what used to be the window caught the attention of the black haired and bloodthirsty young man, but as his green eyes turned away from the twelve-year-old’s grey ones, he raked at her arm with his fingernails. Then he rushed in to meet the guards and welcome them with his fists.
Katrina gasped and clutched at her forearm with the opposite hand, three angry red lines had appeared there, the center one just barely deep enough to bleed. Tiny drops of blood oozed out along the shallow scratch, lined up like soldiers ready to march toward their final battle. The black haired boy had moved so fast that her mind had at first connected the sudden pain to the heat of the window-decimating blast before she realized that he had scratched her. He had marked her, as if claiming her for himself.
>>>“Run away poppet, I will be along shortly.”
Katrina realized that she still had the keys grasped in her injured hand. Why was she still standing there? She rushed over to the locked door, and fumbled with the keys, trying to find the one that would let her escape the crazed teenager, who was even now occupied with beating the guards.
>>>"Inconsiderate! I am trying to dine, quietly and civilly!"
She found one that looked like it would fit in the keyhole. She didn’t want to be dinner for anyone. She slid the key in, her hand shaking and twisted it. At first it felt like it wouldn’t turn, but with an extra hard twist something finally clicked and she was through the door, slamming it behind herself and locking it again, before realizing that boy could still come out the window just as easily as the guards could go in.
That was about when the blood drinker did come flying through the window. Katrina’s heart leapt into her throat again as she registered the boy as a black and white blur, swishing past the naked boy, knocking Nigel off his feet, and upending Ingram’s plain noodles down the front of his white lab coat. Nigel’s cell phone clattered across the floor. Then the scary teen boy was gone, disappeared down the hallway.
Katrina’s heart was still racing, her eyes were wide taking in the scene before her. The tiger with whom she had originally arrived was gone and in his place was a naked boy with two big guns, a mad scientist, a sprawling Nigel Banks, and a handful of bewildered guards. When had they all arrived?
“He…he said he was going to eat me,” she pointed at the empty doorway, her voice and her finger shaking. It sounded like a little girl’s tall tale, but it was the truth. She glanced around again, to see if anyone would believe her, hoping they would. Her eyes caught on Calley and it finally registered in her brain (now that she wasn’t so intently focused on survival) that he was naked.
Katrina’s normally white face flushed bright red and she turned away, shielding her view of Calley’s corner of the room with her hand. “Sorry. I…I didn’t mean to look. I didn’t see much… I mean… I didn’t… I mean.. Sorry! ”
Nigel had already retrieved his cell phone and was shouting someone’s name into it. “Melissa! Are you still there? Melissa!” There was no response.
The Nemesis had fled. That... was unexpected. What sort of ne'er-do-well just ups and quits a fight scene? Just because the (morally relative) good guys had him outnumbered and outgunned! Calley took this stunning moment to blow over the top of first his Fusion Blaster Prototype Version 2.3, then his Fusion Blaster Prototype Version 1. Oh yeah. They definitely had that random really-quickly-moving blur of a teenager out-gunned. Calley grinned with much self-satisfaction, particularly at the fact that the teen had white spaghettied Doc Jimmy's lab coat--and cold thingyed him!--and knocked over a few guards, but had left him unscathed. Clearly, because Calley was such a badass. As shown by exhibit one, his left hand, and exhibit two, his right.
~ “Sorry. I…I didn’t mean to look. I didn’t see much… I mean… I didn’t… I mean.. Sorry!”
"Huh? What?" Calley was too badass to remember that clothing was a good thing. Who needed clothes when you had two guns that could melt walls? It was a rare person who'd even point out that the guy holding said guns was more naked than his mother had ever intended him to be.
The vile and spaghettied Doctor Ingram took Calley's moment of weakened confusion to wrench the gun's out of the Italian teen's loosened grasp.
"Hey!"
"You," Doctor Ingram said with a completely level monotone, "are not authorized to touch these. Put on some clothing," he added as an afterthought. Then he was leveling a look that could make small children swallow their cries against everyone in the room: "Get out. Now." Another afterthought, spoken as he turned away from them all: "Bring the Experiment back here. I'm not finished with him."
Whether intentionally or not, the good doctor was holding two Fusion Blasters while he issued his orders. No one questioned his orders. Because he'd just been upgraded to badass.
Calley vindictively stole a white lab coat as he was shooed out, shouldered it on with a vengeance, and buttoned it with sheer outrage. It covered him to his knees, but it couldn't cover one simple indisputable fact: that was his badass ranking the doctor was holding. As Nigel Banks could have said: urusarenai. Unforgivable.
"So, umm," Calley eloquently spoke in the hallway, as the guards tried to organize themselves for an Experiment hunt, "Sorry about that whole flashing you thing. I blew up the window, though! Did you see? It melted. The wall, too!" He beamed merrily, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of the convenient lab coat. Cure status: nudity. "So, ah, shall we go to the Library and get me some clothes? I like clothes."
Meanwhile, not so very far from the Library, there was a room that had appeared empty not so long ago. The room in question was none other than a stationary supply closet. Moving towards it down the hallway, blissfully unaware of its current occupant, was Noin Mortman. Above her ear and tucked into her short black hair was a sharpened wooden pencil. Missing from her right hand was one pinkie finger. On her mind was restocking the front desk fax machine with paper. The Nine-Fingered Secretary turned the doorknob, and set into action a series of events that would lead to the Last Stand. It was to be the stuff that legends were made of.
Back near the good doctor's lab, Nigel Banks was learning many epic lessons. Like why you shouldn't shoot doors you wanted to open, and why you shouldn't drop cell phones you wanted to work. Melissa Rivers had given up on him and his sub-par reception as soon as she saw the video feed. She was running through the Mondragon Labs hallways now, with a team of three hastily gathered men behind her: Nicholas Williams, Frank Newton, and Charles Triggs. The Triforce was on their way.
The lab coat wearing Italian boy and the mildly traumatized and-about-to-become-more-so twelve-year-old would get there first.
Noin Mortman the Nine-Fingered Secretary screamed.
((ooc: Rule for this thread: don't kill them if they have a name. A little light maiming is fine, though, as long as they don't need quick medical attention. ))
Zelek quickly climbed to the top of a shelf and waited crouching; he then almost immediately studied his middle nail it held more than enough to gain his full attention. A drop of blood rest there and with a lick of his tongue he felt the bliss of the taste of young mutant blood (of course he didn’t know that particular flavor was a difference in the x-gene, just that there was a certain something nice about it.) on his finger tips with a nice dash of fear. He would have more before this night was over.
If he was to be cornered again, he would ensure he at least had the initial advantage. As it was, they sent a lone woman instead of another battalion of slow moving human guards. and they sent her to look for paper? When she finally dined to look up she immediately screamed and caused Zelek to act accordingly. He almost immediately pounced on her and began to fight her as if her life depended on it, for the moment it did. She didn’t by any means stand there and take it but fought him accordingly, if he had time he would have liked to enjoy this one but unfortunately her little display of her vocal range would bring more along shortly.
The woman was apparently seized on the idea of causing internal injury, she was violently focusing on his kidney, and unfortunately for Noin it was obvious that Zelek’s own flurry of blows had weakened her resolve. A few more punches to her face and she was dizzying. He grabbed her shoulders and threw one his left knee into her fore head and sent her to unconsciousness. He embraced her in what might have looked like a hug bite down on her shoulder and took a drink or three. She didn’t taste nearly as fresh or…vibrant as the youth. He discarded her to the floor and her fate. The wooden pencil rolled harmlessly away from her ear, if she had only known, she might have made Buffy proud.
He spun around and climbed back up the shelves making his way to the ceiling, why a supply closet needed its own vent was unknown to Zelek but it was convenient. He reached to the ceiling and pulled on the grate after pushing up and over he removed the cover tossing it down onto the secretary with a satisfying thud.Then pulled him self up and into the tight yet maneuverable ducts. Making his way unwittingly toward the library and the destination of his prey. He smiled as he heard guards cursing at the still live, mercilessly beaten body of Noin Mortman.
Ingram's laboratory wasn't safe. Hallways weren't safe. Closets most certainly weren't safe. The library probably wasn't any less safe than any of those other places. And clothes were a good thing.
Now that the black haired teenager wasn't grinning his evil, pointy toothed grin right in front of her, Katrina's mind worked to dismiss her fear. She probably hadn't really been in danger of being eaten. Maybe that crazy teenager had been playing a prank on her. Maybe he had fake teeth and was just really mean to children and guards. Just a prankster. After all, there was no such thing as vampires.
Kat waved to Miss Mortman as she passed them in the hallway. The secretary waved a cheerful four fingered wave and entered the supply closet. Katrina liked Miss Mortman; she had once braved the dual dangers of paper avalanches and the potential for painful paper cuts in that very supply closet on Katrina's behalf to find paper suitable for origami.
Moments after the twelve year old and the tiger had passed the secretary and the supply cupboard, they heard a piercing scream coming from behind them. Her nerves already on edge, Katrina bolted down the hallway, away from the scream. Narnia, that closet was not.
--
“What do you mean, you don't know where it went?” Melissa Rivers glared at Nigel Banks. Nigel was learning another epic lesson: why you don't lose track of potentially murderous science experiments.
Moments later the recruiter duo and the Triforce were running down the hall, following the sounds of screams from the supply cupboard. Melissa jerked open the door just in time for a flutter of movement to draw her attention to the fact that cover over the air duct was missing.
*insert colorful language here*
Poor Noin lay on the floor in a rather uncomfortable looking position underneath the missing vent. Melissa knelt next to her, reaching for her neck to see if she had a pulse. There were two small puncture wounds there, as if a vampire had bitten her. She was beaten (and slightly eaten), but still alive and breathing. Melissa turned to one of the guards that had followed from Ingram's lab, issuing orders to take the mistreated office worker to the infirmary.
--
As soon as he realized the experiment was loose in the air ducts, Nigel turned and ran for the training rooms, passing the canteen at a sprint and almost knocking over the lunch lady, Tabby Mono, who was carrying two large sacks of apples. Tabby interrupted her grumblings (“Stupid tiger never cleans up after himself... should have known better...”) to glare at Nigel's retreating back as he continued toward the training room and the locker where he stored some of his favorite weapons. He suspected that he was going to need all the fire power he could get his hands on. He expected to run in, grab his guns, and run out again. What Nigel actually found in the training room was not at all what he had expected.
Posted by Iris/Rayne on Jun 6, 2008 15:58:12 GMT -6
Mutant God
1,558
0
Nov 20, 2008 23:33:20 GMT -6
(OOC: Let me know if need to change anything. Continued from Back in the Labs.)
Iris paused to get her bearings. She'd been headed for the Infirmary, she thought. But after the past three hallways, nothing looked familiar anymore. Finally she sighed and turned back.
"Coming through!"
"Outta the way!"
"Hey!" Iris jumped sideways, to avoid getting trampled, as a group of three men and a woman hotstepped roughly past. Iris huffed. "You're excused!" she called after them. They rounded the corner without any acknowledgement.
Her frown deepened, and she crossed her arms. This place already made her nervous and uncomfortable. Now she questioned her decision to return in the first place. She even turned and headed back the way she came.
Two hallways down she again stopped, and sighed.
"Quit acting like a child, Iris," she mumbled aloud to herself. "You're here to help the refugees, at the Infirmary, not teach manners."
Of course, the fact of the matter was that she was still lost, and that group of rude gorillas were the only signs of life she'd seen in the last five minutes. Her patch changed a third time.
And naturally her delay in action cost her; she totally lost them around the corners.
Now she was frustrated. She glared at the empty hallways, as if her eyes could conjure a body out of thin air. She looked up and saw a corner mirror, the kind that usually indicated a hidden security camera.
"All right, I know someone's watching in there!" she all but shouted at it. "This place is supposed to be a lab. Lab! As in people in lab-coats running all over the place, playing with who-knows-what-kind of experiments! Where is everybody??" She threw up her hands in disgust.
And nearly leapt out of her skin as a shriek pierced the air nearby. She did actually jump several inches up and sideways, nearly running into the wall. She held out her hands to steady herself, grey eyes wide. Instinctively she backed away from where she thought the scream had come from, around a corner.
She all but ran down a smaller body apparently attempting to do the same thing. Iris fell backwards, and landed on her rear with a painful, "Ga-aie! Ooo.....!" She tensed to let the pain pass, then opened her eyes.
"Katrina? Oh wow, I'm sorry! Are you okay? I'm so sor- Calley?? What the-??" It took her confused mind a few moments to register both the terror in the girl's face, and the sparseness of the boy's clothing. Her face turned slightly red, and she put a hand over her eyes.
"If I ask what's going on, I'm not going to like the answer, am I?"
Posted by Cheshire on Jun 10, 2008 15:56:18 GMT -6
Mutant God
3,233
18
Sept 24, 2018 19:41:05 GMT -6
Calley
Calley blinked down at the blonde woman on the floor as she began to make interesting but flight-impeding noises. He was rather with Kat on this one: no weapons upgrades meant he was best off getting very far away from the distinctly not-healthy scream behind them.
"Calley?? What the-??" Interestingly, it wasn't until after she'd turned a neat shade of red and covered her eyes with her hand that he recognized her. "If I ask what's going on, I'm not going to like the answer, am I?"
"Iris?" He blinked. "Umm, I liked the black better. And short answer: escaped lab experiment guy who's threatening to eat Katrina and is maybe eating a receptionist behind us, so long answer: running now." He offered her a hand up, with a skittered running start behind it. From zero to barefooted dash in 1.5 steps. To the library! Truly it was a safe place to be, despite its many nefarious hiding places and utter lack of defense capabilities! And it had such good ventilation!
Calley left the Ladies in the cozy-chair-and-plush-rugs part of the library, with a little sheepish grin and a distinctly sheepish point. "Umm, I usually keep some spare clothes over there, in the Natural Sciences. I'll, umm, be right back and decently clothed in just a sec. Try not to get eaten while I'm gone."
He located a spare oversized guard uniform between the plastic dart guns set on top of the Astronomy books--"shooting stars"---and the wooden sword thrust deep between the pages of a Mineralogy book--"the sword in the stone". Kat had helped him pick out places for all of his things.
It was at the very moment that he was nobly tightening a leather belt to keep from disastrously flashing the room that, suddenly...!
...Elsewhere, Nigel stood in the training room doorway, his face darkening. Percy Ferretly the Paladin shifted uneasily from foot-to-foot, tucking his dull-edged metal sword back into its sheath as if that would make it less conspicuous.
"This isn't what it looks like," Artemis Moonfeather the Archer spoke up, after tucking his bow and arrows behind his back. Each of his arrows were topped with a white ping pong ball, to blunt their sharpened wooden tips.
"Really." Nigel spoke, with the unwavering steadiness of a man who had killed before and could kill again. "Because it looks like you're trying to catch up to my level while I'm on duty."
Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV, Sorcerer, tapped his wicked gnarled staff thoughtfully. He gave a nod. "Well, then. I guess it's exactly what it looks like."
Nigel Banks the Ninja narrowed his level fifty-nine eyes, and uttered a single word. A word of honor in times past, twisted with the ages to become insult: "Omae..." Heads would roll for this. Quietly, in the shadows, when they did not expect it. For now: "You're all with me. Get some real weapons; Ingram's experiment is on the loose in the Labs."
Zelek lay for a moment deep in the vents, and waited he felt at his bruised flesh near his kidney and shrugged it off. He took another minute and rolled back over and made his way toward the vent at the end of the way. When he looked out he looked for one thing in particular a way to get down this particular vent opened looking down on a carbon fiber shelf. His sharp ears picked up remnants of a conversation across the vast room, they were definitely not using their inside voices and should promptly be shushed. he however was taking much more care with this vent then the one he sent crashing on that stupid woman.
He eased the vent open and it hung down, he slowly eased himself down onto the top of the shelf and looked across the room and envisions the largest set of dominos he could imagine. He rested his back just below the lip of the shelf and then placed his feet on the nearby wall and began to push. the rather solid shelf at first wouldn't budge, he then release all the pressure he had placed on it and it came slightly toward him, he then pushed again as it went back and out a groan and a thud and the rocked back toward him. He pressed his attack again and forced it to almost tip over several books slid to the edge and changed the weight in favor of his insane scheme...he would eat that girl and if it work as he liked it would trap the lot of them in and the guards out. He kicked with his legs and sent the shelf into the other and just as planned, they cracked into each other as the shelf landed he changed his balance to leave him standing in the book filled wreckage. the last shelf leaned firmly against the door frame and the doors it held, as far as he knew the only exits he could see were high windows, the vents and the restrooms. He smiled toward the area where the females now resided the naked boy was also in the room, he could smell his unwelcome scent easily, But hadn’t bothered looking around for him just yet. Perhaps he should be more wary of those who wielded wall melting weapons.
“Hello there, I hope you didn’t find it too rude of me rescheduling our little luncheon.” He began to walk casually toward the pair,” I see you brought dessert along with you.” He smiled wanly at the older more mature Iris. it was also worth mentioning that he hadn't in fact, bothered cleaning any of Noin's blood off of his face or shirt for that matter. He then noted Iris's face, she was a familiar sight, important, a frame from the mostly lost film called his memory. he pondered her significance and briefly questioned whether he was now hunting a former friend. ah,well waste not want not as the saying goes.
Edward Song Hau Sepelu Sivrusky the IV followed as Nigel strode down the corridors. The gun holster he now had across his mail-clad chest seemed out of place. “If I may ask, where exactly is this escaped experiment?”
From down the hallway came a series of very loud, very heavy sounding crashes.
“I retract the question.” Various pieces of chain and plate armor clinked and clanked as the foursome ran toward the library. Artemis Moonfeather reached the doorway first, and twisted the handle. It wouldn't budge.
“Here, allow me,” offered Percy Ferretly. He drew his handgun and pointed it at the offending handle.
“Nooooooo,” came the portentous cry of Nigel Banks.
--
Meanwhile, Katrina glanced around at the bookshelves in amazement. In moments, the room where she had studied and learned, played and eaten and (sometimes) slept during the last several months had been transformed from a peaceful library to a crashing, cascading, waterfall of shelves and books. “Calley?” but alas, it hadn't been the tiger boy that had toppled the noble shelves in their bookish haven. Emerging from the cloud of dust and flying page fragments was none other than the dehydrated dracula, himself, splattered in blood that was most certainly not his own. Katrina started slowly backing away.
--
Elsewhere, Dr. James Ingram was fiddling with the Fusion Blaster Prototype Version 2.3. The aiming mechanism was still imperfect, and that bothered the good doctor to no end. He hated to leave experiments unfinished. And speaking of unfinished experiments, where were those good for nothing guards with his revitalized cadaver? Ingram was getting fed up with waiting and his low blood sugar levels, due to a lack of proper nourishment at the noon hour, were beginning to effect his temper. No plain spaghetti equals one crabby scientist.