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.
Isabel was having fun toying with the bloated anit-mutant Redeemer. She thought he rather sounded like the pig he resembled when she stuck him. For all the big talking tough guy act he affected in front of his men, he wasn't much more than a coward, easily reduced to a pathetic, simpering child when faced with someone that could fight back.
She was in the middle of systematically pinning him to the floor when the Lion-headed mutant burst into the room. She had to step to the other side of her plaything to avoid a chair skidding into her legs. She'd been just about to take out his kneecaps, as he'd so enthusiastically demanded his crony do to her earlier in the evening, when she'd be interrupted. How rude!
She really had hoped those spikes in the hallway would have done more damage to the animal man. Even if it hadn't killed him, she'd hoped that one of them would have at least hit his leg or his ribs or something that would have prevented him from moving very far. He was starting to become a very large pain in the rear and she didn't at all appreciate his continued interference in her playtime.
And so, just to aggravate him in turn, she grinned widely at the man as he began to demand answers from her. He thought she was working for someone. How cute. This was obviously another individual that didn't read the papers or watch the news much. She seemed to be running into an awful lot of those people lately. Maybe she should start massacring cops again or something to get her popularity back up, and hopefully overshadow those terrible posters in the process.
"No one sent me," she replied, giving the spine in her hand a twirl a she regarded the increasingly furry individual at the door. She had heard the names he listed before. The Order was getting increasingly involved with the various mobs from what she could tell, but she wasn't taking work from them. "This is something I wanted to do myself, not because I was asked. And I'm afraid you're going to have to find your own sport somewhere else." Her grin widened as she stopped spinning the spine of bone in her hand and shoved it down toward the center of the mans chest.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
He snarled as he stood there and watched as the young girl had Hogman on the ropes. The once feared leader of the Redeemers lay there, sniveling and snorting as the bones that pinned him down cut straight through his flesh and showed no signs of letting up.
The girl that stood above him, smirked at Vicente and this only made the lion-faced man growl from the depths of his throat. It was obvious that she was taking a macabre pleasure in having beaten the assassin to the punch. She stood triumphant over the overly large mutant-hater, obviously showing no signs of sympathy for the man’s whimpers and cries as he lay there like an insect on display.
Hogman’s eyes wild with fear, he shot a glance at Vicente who stood back, a knife still in his remaining human hand. It was a look that almost seemed to be begging for help. Actually pleading for mercy with but a single look. It was obvious that the woman here was a demented killer. She took satisfaction in the pain she was causing the man. For her, this was all persona, obviously not how he himself would have presented himself in killing the man. For Vicente, it was all business, nothing more…
He paused as he stood there, watching the grin on her face. Just what was her stake in all of this?
>> "No one sent me…This is something I wanted to do myself, not because I was asked. And I'm afraid you're going to have to find your own sport somewhere else."
The spinning of her spear stopped. The grin widened. And Hogman squealed in fear.
Vicente’s movements were weaker than he thought. On seeing the raise of that boney blade, the older and experienced assassin reared his knife wielding hand backwards and, as fast as he could, swiped his arm forward, releasing his own blade as fast as he could. To an outsider observer, it would seem as if the blade he had just thrown was directed at the girl. By all rights, he had every reason for wanting to do this. But instead…the blade followed a different route.
Cutting through the air, looking like a sliver of silver, the blade flew for its true target. Instead of the girl, it arched down and aimed straight for Hogman’s head. Either way…whichever blade struck first, the man was going to die…
No! No, No, No! That jackass! That irritating, furbrained interloper! How dare he step in and ruin her fun? How dare he? She'd given him a real run for his money and had even drawn blood and he was still determined to step on her toes and ruin everything for her. He had better hope that head of his came with nine lives, because at this rate Isabel was ready to claim at least one of them.
Isabel had seen the blade coming, but caught up in her own movement as she was, she hadn't been able to stop it. She hadn't seen which of the two blades had struck first, couldn't tell which one had been the one to end that disgusting worm's life. The head and the heart were both organs that could be cut down to end a life, and in this scenario both had been targeted and struck.
She just stood there staring at the pair of weapons sticking out of the man's body as his life drained away into a quickly spreading crimson puddle on the floor. She'd have to wash her boots later. Her gaze shifted over to the mix-n-match mutant in the doorway with a look of disbelief. She'd been so sure she'd made the kill, that she'd won the little contest that had developed in her mission, that she was having a little trouble grasping the concept that it could have been taken away from her. She had no way of really knowing.
Her expression shifted into one of anger as disbelief melted away into blinding rage. "You're dead!" she shrieked, launching herself at the patchwork mammal as a nasty looking claw of bone extended from each one of her fingertips. She was seeing red. He was so going to pay for ruining everything.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
Both blades pierced the body at nearly the same time. It looked as if it really could have been anybody’s kill. His knife dug into the man’s skull while the woman’s was driven directly through Hogman’s hearts. The light was quickly extinguished from his eyes but there was no real sense of who was the person to deliver the death blow. The pair of weapons that been aimed so successfully that Vicente could not really identify which one of them had done it.
He had a feeling it was he. Was sure his knife was the deathblow. But he was simply not one hundred percent sure. There was still a doubt that maybe, just maybe it was that bow-clad bonemancer who had done Hogman in.
Whatever the case though, Vicente was simply glad that the man was dead. The girl already admitted that she did not belong to any group, therefore he could claim the man’s head and bring it in to claim his fee. He was actually quite fine with that option. No reason for either of them to continue this foolish little contest. They both wanted Hogman dead, and now he was dead.
Still eyeing her, and wondering why it looked as if a vein wanted to burst on her forehead, Vicente smirked as he eyed her closely. She seemed to be bewildered and awestruck as she stared down at the limp, bleeding body of former leader of the Redeemers. For the life of him he could not figure out why she was so shocked. He just needed her to vacate the room so he could claim his proof.
He was actually just about to tell her that.
But then…it was obvious what the girl’s problem was…
>> "You're dead!"
He smirked. “You know, you’re almost cute when you're pissed.” he chuckled.
Then sharpened bone erupted from her fingertips and suddenly Vicente found himself staring at a hellcat who was lunging at him as if she had all the fires of hell nipping at her keister. The bone claws looked deadly. The girl look maniacal. And Vicente could only smirk. He was liking this girl more and more.
“Really?” he laughed as he suddenly reached out to the side with his large and muscular gorilla arm and in a swift motion, grabbed a discarded office chair and swung it fast across the air to collide with the oncoming female. “I have no time for this!!”
"Oomph!" Patch had grabbed up a chair and tossed it effectively enough to catch Isabel mid-stride. And it hurt. That monkey arm of his obviously wasn't just for looks. That could be a bit of a problem up close, but if he continued to bleed at a steady enough rate, she could potentially wait him out until he started really getting sluggish. Her temper wasn't likely to allow that sort of thing, though.
The chair had caught one of her legs as she'd made a poor attempt to avoid the piece of furniture. She stumbled with the impact of it, one hand finding its way onto the slick red floor as she twisted to catch herself before she fell completely. There would be a nasty bruise on her thigh for the next week or so, she could already feel it. She could only imagine how hard that fist could hit, but he was still mostly human, and in her mind that was manageable enough.
Straightening herself back out, she glared murderously at the smartalic, oversized cat. So maybe launching herself at him hadn't been the best idea. Aside from those blades he seemed to be pulling out of nowhere, he appeared to be a fighter based on close-range combat. She could certainly avoid that.
She already had the claws, all she had to do was use them. Swinging one hand out in front of her, each of the five spines there rapidly lengthened, aiming for the patchwork mutant's body and looking to riddle it full of holes. She'd figure out what to do with the second set of claws once she saw how he reacted to the first. She at least wanted to leave him in a bleeding heap like Hogman, dead or alive.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
The chair connected and suddenly that fiery hellcat was sent sprawling off to the side. But she was apparently more trained than he thought. She twisted that lithe body of hers enough to minimize the amount of damage she would receive from the fall. That was not to say that she did not land hard on her hip. The sound of that alone made him cringe. But before she could so much as utter a hiss of pain, she was up again and glaring at him. The assassin flexed the fingers of his gorilla fist as he stared her down, willing her to make the first move.
All Vicente wanted was Hogman’s head. But he doubted that the girl was really going to listen. Any chance of that flew out the window the second he sent a knife barreling into the former leader’s skull. And it was sealed the moment he send a chair crunching into her side.
Eyeing that bloodlust behind her eyes, he knew she wanted him dead. There was going to be no alternative anymore. Only one of them was walking out of this room alive.
He tilted his head to the side and audibly cracked it. He rested his golden, feral eyes upon the female and waited for her to move. His mind raced as he tried to take in and process everything that he had seen this girl do since he ran across her. She was obviously much tougher than she let on. She was skilled in some kind of fighting and she definitely knew how to use those bone manipulating abilities of hers. She was young, small, and fast…
All-in-all she was a perfect killer.
But there was a flaw in his perfection. She didn’t know how to control her temper. Possibly losing the kill of Hogman to him was enough to send her blindly running at him. As well as back in the bar she was ever shot and overpowered before she let rage take hold. Maybe that was all he needed…to keep her mad…
It was then he watched as she lifted her hand with the bone-like claws jutting out from the fingertips. He slowly shifted his footing to accommodate either dodging or holding his ground. He already got a few stabs and scratches from those boney digits. Evident by the fact that bloodstain vest and fur he already sported. But what else could be next? Then she moved. Those bone spines from her fingers shot forward, extending, growing, and aimed directly for his chest.
He refused to show surprise though.
With only a split second to decide, the older assassin did what could only be seen as the stupidest decision…he ran straight at her.But unlike the woman’s devil-may-care, Hail Mary leap at him, Vicente, coming a fraction of an inch from the having his face impaled (though was still slit across the shoulder by one of those extended spines he misjudged the distance on), suddenly dropped to the ground. He used the momentum of his running to slide across the slick, linoleum tiles, aiming himself straight at her. Once he was close enough, Vicente kicked out, aiming to plant his heavy boot straight into her already gunshot wounded stomach.
It looked like Isabel had managed to draw more blood, but not in the way that she had hoped. For a human body dragging around a lion's head and a gorilla's arm, the guy was still pretty fast. He'd managed to dodge all but one of her spines and even then it had only really grazed him, rather than sticking through him like she'd wanted. It drew blood, though, which was good. If she could keep that up and keep him in the room, she'd eventually tire him out with all the bleeding he'd do.
The extended claws snapped back to their previous length as quickly as they could while the man charged her. She swiped with her free hand but misjudged his intentions and ended up only catching air. She'd expected him to come at her and hit her with the force of that arm. Instead he'd struck out with his leg and planted his large boot squarely in her stomach.
All the air left her lungs with that shot, her miscalculation costing her the chance to dodge or redirect the blow. It knocked her right off her feet, sending her skidding across the slick floor. It didn't mater how well armored she was under the skin, getting struck in the stomach always hurt. The bullet wound by he ribs only made it worse, the skin pulling at the stitches that were holding it closed and sending a sharp jolt of pain all along her side. It hurt enough to make her eyes sting and her nose itch.
Of course she still struggled to get back on her feet as quickly as she could, coughing and gasping all the while. That dark puddle on the floor certainly wasn't helping anything. Now that it had managed to get on and between the treads on her boots, she was beginning to slip more easily and it made keeping her footing more of a task than it should have been.
Once she had finally managed to get to he feet and remain steadily on them, she didn't waste any time in launching back into the offensive. They seemed to be engaging in a game of who could charge who and do the most damage. She could hold her own at a longer range, but it would be easier to more successfully deal damage to him if she could get up close and get a hold on him somehow.
Forgoing the claws on one hand to form a long strand of bone instead, she sent it sliding across the ground in his direction, aiming to wrap it around one or both of his legs and pull back on it, causing him to lose his balance. At the same time she rushed him yet again, her still-clawed hand brandished and looking to sink the barbs into his flesh somewhere and hold on. She would see how well he could deal with two assaults coming at him at once.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
The kick landed…and the girl was sent flying back across the room. Vicente took the second that she was air born in catch a breath. His muscles wanted to start weakening because of his blood loss. Tearing through that forest of sharpened bone earlier certainly did not help matters at all. The wounds were mostly superficial with a gash here and there, but they were going to start adding up soon. He needed to end this fight and get this girl out of his hair. There was simply no other alternative since it looked as if she was not going to be the reasoning type.
But as he stood from his position on the ground, he looked up just in time to see that she was also recovering from her own fall and catching her breath. He assumed that it was because that kick he planted into her stomach knocked the majority of the air from her lungs. But before he could take advantage of the situation, the girl managed to recover enough to glare at him. Even though her shoes looked slick with the blood that had already pooled on the ground, he doubted that it would impede her much…
And it didn’t.
Feeling a slight twinge from his muscles wanted to give in, Vicente took his eyes off the girl for only a second, but that seemed to be all she needed. A long strip of bone elongated and swept across the ground. Before he could react, that tendril wrapped tight around one of his ankles and then suddenly when taut.
A curse flew from his lips as the man was downed with one quick tug. The idea of it was odd, especially considering how large of a man he was, but that bone proved to be sturdier than he first thought. There was a momentarily feeling of being weightless as his leg was pulled out from under him, before gravity took over and pulled him down with an extremely hard THUD[/b]!!
Stars and cartoon birds fluttered across his vision before he looked up in time to see the bow-haired girl come charging at him again.
A lion’s roar fell from his lips as he tried to swipe out with his gorilla’s fist to connect with any part of her body. He was not losing to her!
Isabel grinned when she felt the snare she'd created pull taught as it snagged one of the patchwork man's legs. She yanked back on it, while at the same time reeling the bone back in through the palm of her hand as she got closer to him. It wouldn't do her much good to snag him, only to have the rope loosen back up again because she was no longer at the distance needed to keep it pulled tight.
Eenie meenie miney moe, catch a mutie by his toe~ As a gesture of ill will, she also barbed the length of bone once she was sure he'd been caught. She wanted to drive the small spikes into the flesh of his ankle and prevent him from using it well enough to potentially make a run for it.
The sound of his body hitting the floor was wonderful. It was the sound of her gaining the upper hand and she reveled in it. He had seemed like a tough enough guy when he'd first stepped into the fight and dispatched one of Hogman's goons so quickly, but she supposed looks really were deceiving. She'd hardly even gotten creative with her abilities yet and she'd already gotten him on the ground. He must have been older than she'd estimated.
She was almost on top of him when that damned gorilla arm of his shot up. The one means of attack she'd been anticipating and it had caught her off guard. She'd been hoping that knock on the back of his head had dazed him and she'd be able to pounce uninhibited. Fortunately she still had the presence of mind to remember her free hand was still armed.
The monstrous ape arm caught her in the side just under her arm, connecting solidly with her ribs once she'd gotten too close to sidestep it. She wasn't so sure she could have dodged on such a slick floor anyhow. However, before she totally lost her balance and was sent skidding again, she dug the claws of her free hand into the dark flesh and hung on.
She still lost her balance and ended up twisting so that her rear struck the ground, but she was determined not to lose her grip on his arm and as such prevented herself from slipping across the room again. She severed the snare at her palm so both of her hands were free and repeated her tactic, driving five more sharp points into his skin and digging in. She'd go after his face next, once she was able to wriggle back up onto her feet or knees.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
Lassoing him to the ground, that was a good move. But adding barbs to the ends of that whiplash of bone was just genius.
Despite the pain that ripped through Vicente’s ankle, he growled in anger, more than crying out in pain. The little bow-haired beauty obviously had a real talent for this. She knew exactly what she was doing so he had to give her that respect. She was a great fighter and a vicious killer, and he could respect that. But will be damned before he allows himself to lose to the likes of her. He did not survive all these years as a killer to simply be taken in by some bone-manipulating freak with an attitude problem. No, it was time to take the kiddie gloves off.
He felt the damage to his ankle. He knew that was going to be a problem. He was not going to be as fast and that woman already had the advantage there. But the second he felt his large gorilla fist connect with her ribs, he knew that that he at least had some chance. She closed the gap between them. Maybe he could take her simply on sheer brute force.
His fist connected and he knew she was hurt. She caught off guard and getting ready to tumble, but then she recovered just quick enough to jab those boney growths directly into the black skin of his arm. He roared as more pain spider-webbed through his body. His eyesight turned red as he watched her still stumble down onto her rear, but just enough still manage to twist herself and latch her other hand onto his arm as well. Those sharp pins of bone dug deep and secure as warm blood began to sweet down the coarse black hair of his arm.
Damn she was vicious. The thought alone made him grin.
A quick glance as he assessed the situation. She was down but she was latched on tight. Those claws on her fingers were only going to get more dangerous the longer he let her stay on. She was close though but as much as he wanted to sink his teeth into her throat, the assassin was not stupid. He remembered what happened prior, when the man back in the bar grabbed her arm and those boney spikes appeared. It was obvious that control was over her entire body. But a glance and he saw something that may have helped.
Plus, it may piss her off just enough for her to loss contact.
While she was still wiggling to get up off her posterior, Vicente acted fast. Twisting his body around, he ignored the pain from her grip and quickly shot his other, more human arm forward. But instead of punching her in the nose or grabbing her throat to throttle her, Vicente instead reached for a more prominent feature of her body. One that was quite…inescapable…
His fist zooming past her head, Vicente suddenly grabbed a handful of her long hair. Curling it between his fingers so that he had a tight grip, the assassin then made an imaginary torture rack. He pulled her back by the hair in one direction while in the other he suddenly pulled his gorilla arm which (thankfully) she was so firmly attached to. The movement pulled the buxom beauty in two opposite directions and would have snapped a normal man in half. But he knew she would not crack, not like that. Instead he waited for that moment for her to close her eyes in pain (after all who can have their hair pulled and not cringe?) before suddenly barreling his massive, golden furred forehead directly into her nose.
Every time Isabel thought she'd gained the upper hand, the aging lion man somehow seemed to ruin everything for her. She had just about gotten steadily to her knees when the man on the ground shifted toward her, forcing her to try and scramble backward in an attempt to keep some semblance of distance between them. She thought he was rolling in order to grab at her, or perhaps to try and pin her down.
She figured out what his real intentions where when a shooting pain covered her skull and raced down her spine. He had grabbed at her, but not in any way she'd thought he might. She couldn't remember ever having had her hair pulled in a fight before. It was something that middle school girls did when they got into fights, not grown men struggling to hang on to their lives.
She could honestly say she was glad she had never encountered such a tactic personally before. Not only was he yanking on her hair, but he was using it to pull her away from him, stretching her skin and muscles to the point of pain while she still clung to that monkey arm of his. She couldn't help the screech that escaped her when faced with that pain.
She did relinquish her grasp on his arm, but only through tearing the bone claws through his flesh before removing them completely, leaving long gashes in the dark skin. From there she used the now bloody spikes to reach for his human hand and tear at it, trying desperately to get him to let go of her hair. Flailing as she was, she'd ended up as close to on her rear as she could get with the man lifting her as he was, kicking her legs at him as often as possible.
Unfortunately she didn't get very far before that massive head of his came crashing down into her own. She felt her nose shatter under the force of that huge forehead and the warm mess of blood cover her cheeks. In another split second she was left coughing and sputtering, choking on her own blood as she gasped and tried to catch her breath.
The base of the nose was easy enough to repair, but she had no control over the cartilage that made up the majority of it. The best she could do was reform the shape with a thin layer of bone beneath the skin. She would have to go to the Infirmary to get it properly healed. She also couldn't do anything about the bleeding. The skin had been split in several places inside and out, and there was little she could do to stop the flow.
Her eyes welled with tears and stung with invading smatters of blood as the pain spread from the central point of impact outward. She had gone mostly limp with the shock of the impact, though her hands still hung up by his, the little claws caught in whatever bits of flesh they could reach.
Gradually she was regaining her senses and sloppily trying to get her feet up under herself. She was beginning to slow down now, she could feel it. Even in the brief moments that she was not moving, she could feel all the aches and pains that were accumulating across her flesh and in her muscles and it made her feel heavy. However, she wasn't going to give up just yet. She might not kill this may tonight, but she could at least lay him out and make her escape.
From her spine emerged four of the six spindly legs that she most often used as a mean of transportation. Two slipped under the hem of her shirt, and two up through the collar. From there they each struck at the old man's body as if they were coiled snakes. She'd riddle him full of holes sooner or later and she didn't have to rely on her hands to do it.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
The sounds of war filled this little room and were sickening to those who were not used to it. Vicente was. He reveled in the sounds battle, the slicing the flesh, the crunching of bones, the splattering of blood, it was all music to his ears and his stomach of steel. But that did not mean that he did not feel the pain of every blow.
He grinned, only slightly, with his black lips as he pulled the girl’s hair. Yes, it was not the most glamorous move in the world. Actually it was something that seemed better used between young girls on the playground. But if there was one thing the man knew was that women could be quite vicious when they wanted to be. And pulling hair seemed to be one of the most devastating blows a one person can use against another. At least that is how this girl make it sound when he pulled her hair one way and her arms the other as if she were taffy.
The screeching was a glorious thing to hear, but that was quickly followed by the sound of her spiny fingers ripping directly out of his muscular, black gorilla arm. He hissed and roared in pain at that sensation and brought his injured arm back as he continued to pull her hair with his other hand. She quickly, though, defended herself with her now bloodied claws on his human flesh. It raked, it sliced, and it burned like hell. This was followed by her spastic kicks, aiming for any part of his lower half, but Vicente silenced that the second he rammed his forehead into her nose.
It shattered like a peanut shell.
The crackle of broken cartilage resounded in his ears and the scent of that crimson fluid as it poured from her wound tickled his sensitive, feline nose. He was momentarily distracted from harming her again. He have rend her head from her shoulders had he thought about it.
But the fight was beginning to wear on him. As she lay back, dazed and choking and sputtering, Vicente began to feel the burning in his lungs and the arching lightning bolts of pain that shot throughout his entire form. It had been such a long time since the last time he fought this hard against him one. He doubted there were many people who could hold up against him this much. But this girl…there was something special about this girl.
His limbs being a little shaky from weariness, his body weakening from the amount of blood he loss so far, Vicente strayed his thoughts for a second, and only a second. As much as he wanted to end this miserable little interloper’s life tonight, he knew it would not come. His ear twitched as he heard the first scream of a siren down the block…
He growled as he turned his attention back to her, but all he saw was the sight of an extremely large, spidery, bone structure stab at him. Not once, not twice, but FOUR times…
Vicente barely twisted his body enough to dodge the first two as he let go of her hair and began to scramble backwards. But it was one of the last ones that really got him. He clearly felt the slashes directly across his ribs as he had lifted his arm to avoid a stabbing. The legs didn’t directly penetrate his body, but it took a nice long gash out of his left side, enough for him to roar in pain as he staggered back, trying to get up onto his two feet.
This turned into a bad idea because he forgot about his ankle and went collapsing down onto his knee into a pool of coagulating blood.
Hogman’s blood.
The Hogman who started this mess.
And who died with a shotgun mere inches from his pierced hand.
The flashes of red and blue lights could be seen growing brighter near the tiny window that had proven to be of no escape for Hogman. So the lackey didn’t bluff. He really did call the cops.
His gaze then switched to the bow-haired girl as he weakening hand suddenly snatched out, grabbed the discarded shotgun and pumped it. His bloodied fingers twirled around the trigger as his massive and equally bleeding gorilla hand held the forearm of the gun, pointed directly at the multi-legged beauty. She was able to take a shot to the back, but he wondered what would happened if he aimed just a tad higher…He grinned…
“L-Looks like…their flashing the lights…for us to leave heh…heh…,” the smell of gunpowder was still on the barrel and his sensitive nose caught a strong whiff of it. He lips still grinned as he watched the bloody-clothed girl. “Gunna…have to fill up…your dance card again…some night…” he said with still as much ego as a bloodied up, patchwork man/animal could muster.
Well, that last trick had worked as well as any of her previous ones had. The feline individual had apparently inherited some flexibility from that head of his and had managed to avoid the majority of the spines Isabel had aimed at him. There was one that had manged to cut a nice gash across his ribs. That had to slow him down. This guy had to be one of the few individuals she'd ever met that was as stubborn as she was in a fight. He just wouldn't go down and stay there.
At the very least it had gotten him to let go of her hair, though her footing wasn't very good and the sudden lack of painful support sent her straight back to the ground on her rear. She used the two pairs of spines to steady herself so she didn't end up on her back or side.
She watched him try to get to his feet and smiled widely when he found himself unable to do so thanks to her little snare. He would have fun trying to break that thing off while it continued to dig into his skin. He'd probably end up doing more damage in the process. She rather liked that idea.
However, her smile faded when the man picked up Hogman's gun and aimed it at her. She wasn't sure whether to be insulted or flattered. The man couldn't beat her with his mutation. She was the stronger of the two in hand-to-hand. The sort of desperation it took to grab up a firearm in a last-ditch attempt to turn the fight in his favor spoke highly of her abilities. The fact that he wouldn't expend the effort to try and beat her with his own hands, would rather resort to the most common method of humans to fight the battle was insulting to her. A mutant should be better than that.
In any case, she would very much rather avoid getting shot again, especially by that kind of gun. As it was she'd be spending a good amount of time pushing buckshot out of her skin later on. Her smile faded at the thought as she glanced between the barrel of the gun and the man holding it. It was a cheap shot.
"Cross my path again, Cat, and you won't live to brag about it," she warned, defiantly looking away from him and his gun and over toward the small window. Hogman could never have fit, but she bet she could squeeze through.
Without another word she used the four spindles to encase herself in a protective sphere, just in case her playmate decided to actually use that gun. The spines flattened and merged together into the circular shape before their ends extended back out and pushed the ball into motion, skittering off toward the window. Two of the spines planted themselves in the floor and two gripped at the wall to steady the structure in front of the window. From there the back of the shelter opened up and allowed her an escape route.
I’m just a well-adjusted gal who likes to leave a serious amount of mayhem in her wake.
The gun was aimed square at the woman. By no means could he miss if she attempted to come at him again. He was almost more than certain that a sizeable chunk of bone would be blasted away and he doubted she would be able to re-grow fast enough to take another blast. But despite his assuredness, Vicente did not want to solely rely on the gun. He wanted her to take the hint and vacate.
The look on her face seemed to tell him that she would.
He did not know why but there seemed to be a look of almost disappointment that he pulled a gun on her. She looked almost like she was expecting more of him, wanting him to not resort to using a gun and instead take her on barehanded. It was not a bad thought. Vicente had to admit that resorting to the gun was a bit of a sellout, but if there was one thing that the man knew was how to survive. Besides, neither of them would have been able to keep this battle up much longer with the cops showing up. If they were going to really get down and dirty in a fight, he would have preferred absolutely no interruptions.
Cracking his neck to the side, he growled deep in his throat as he watched the girl, still just as bloodied up as he was, turned towards the window. She cast a distrustful glance and Vicente narrowed his eyes.
>> "Cross my path again, Cat, and you won't live to brag about it."
“Oh trust me babycakes,” he smirked and tasted blood on his tongue. “I’ll make sure that we do.”
The barrel of the gun did not leave her person, even as she formed that shield of bone around her and stalked towards the window. She was smart too. Lose the bow and he might even be in love. He smirked at the thought and waited until she had managed to wiggle her butt through the window and leave out into the night air. It was only once he was sure that she was gone that he finally lowered the gun with a relieved sigh.
His body hurt. The police were here. He needed to collect his bounty.
Those were a lot of problems he needed to see to right away.
A glance over to Hogman’s corpse and Vicente reached over and pulled his blade free. The blood stained the metal and he leaned over to wipe it off on the dead man’s shirt. But as he glanced down he spied on the man’s ruined hand gold ring with the insignia of the Redeemers on it. That…should be more than proof enough…
A quick sever and Vicente stuffed the proof in his pocket. The lights from the police cruisers were even brighter now. It was time for him to make his exit. As he climbed onto his feet, the assassin hissed as he glanced down to see part of that little girl’s bone whip still lashed tightly around his ankle, its barbs sticking deep into the flesh. He limped forward and struggled on. He didn’t have time to waste on pain. He needed to get out of here.
So, slipping out through the backdoor, the assassin snarled the second the night air hit his once again human face. Limping out into the darkness he smirked. He was sure he’d meet her again. And next time…he’d be more than ready…