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.
"Yeah yeah..." She muttered, not in the mood to grin. She watched him move into position beside the door, and flinched when banging on the door continued- even louder. She tried to steel herself in preparation... but it was hard. She was used to the occasional fist fight in a bar, or angry exchanging of words at red lights... but this? This was a whole new can of worms.
She felt apprehensive, frightened, angry... and even a little excited. With the possibility of a gun being in play, she was unsure of weather she would walk out of this in one piece, or at all for that matter. ....But she was damn sure going to try! She'd spent too many years running, starting her life over from scratch with every state, to give up now. ... not when she was so close to actually being free. Drawing in a slow breath, she ordered her children to be prepared.
With a deafening crash, the four on the outside broke through. The bookcase pitched forward, sending the few books and knickknacks on it bounding across the floor.
And the barrel of a fully loaded shotgun entered the room, followed by it's owner. Rafael launched into action, faster than she would have given a drugged man credit for. His blade disappeared into the man's shoulder, and then slashed across his front. Megan held back on hawking her silk glob and stopped the spiders lurking above the door from hurling themselves at him. Her companion sent him crashing to the floor quickly enough, and the gun clattered away into a corner of the room while he crawled away to nurse his wounds. Instead, she turned her attention to the next to enter, giving the silent order for three of the five widows above the door to drop onto him as he entered the room. One found purchase on his shoulder and two in his hair. He didn't notice as he rounded the corner and went after Rafael.
The next who entered wielded only a small switch blade, and behind him was Cameron. Megan spat her sticky silk ball straight at them. The first man dodged, stepped out on the way just in time, but Cameron walked straight into it. The silk slammed into the side of his head, partially covering his face, and he pitched sideways into the wall. he was stuck there, glued face to wall. The silk would hold him, struggling or not, for a short amount of time. She grinned at her handiwork, thoroughly satisfied, but made the amateur mistake of taking her eyes off of the one with the switch blade.
He charged her, knife at the ready, and she barely had time to stumble back as he slashed at where she had just been standing. Half cursing, she brought up her stolen blade and held it aloft. She was no knife master, hardly even knew how to use it really, but it was a weapon and the only one between her and him. They stared each other down for a second, and then the guy pulled some fancy karate sh*t on her, and swept her legs out from under her in one fluid kick. Landing flat on her back, she rolled to the side quickly, causing him to miss her and stab the carpet instead. Kicking at his head, Megan reached back into her hood and latched onto the largest of her spiders. A two inch tarantula with equally long legs. She hurled it at the guys face, hoping that it'd latch on and distract him, giving her a chance to launch her own attack. With her own fight going on, she didn't have time to see how Rafael was going against his bat wielding foe...
The commotion that followed just made it all the more difficult for Vicente to realize what was going on. He had to struggle to maintain his grasp on the present. He had taken care of the man wielding the shotgun but that did not mean he was focused enough to deal with a man that was brandishing a baseball bat. Vicente had barely enough time to turn around the three other men had flooded the room. But before he could really take notice of any, a baseball bat flew directly at him. Seeing up the three of them coming, Vicente did the best he could to dodge it.
Half turned, he flexed his arm and shoulder to take the blunt of the blow. He felt the baseball bat crack against his skin and muscle and he gasped in pain. The pain partially cleared his mind to realize that he was in the middle of fighting this next round. Quickly he took stock of his progress and found no bones broken in his shoulder or arm, just an intense and throbbing pain that he was not in the least surprised about.
Usually that momentary cloud lift over his head, Vicente growled as he spun his attack arm around and got a firm grip on the baseball bat, holding it tightly in his hand. Eyes wide with anger, he glared directly at the man holding it before he suddenly threw his head forward and smashed his forehead into the man’s nose. Cartilage shattered and splintered and the man choked and sputtered as he fell back, his hands loosening on the baseball bat.
Cameron Crane struggled in vain against the glob of webbing that pinned his head to the wall.
“What the ***K!” the man screamed! “You said you gave him the drug!!”
The man who had before held the shotgun whimpered and dragged himself across the ground.
“We did! I saw it!!”
Vicente shook as he felt the poison still coursing through his system. His burst of adrenaline was beginning to wear off and already he felt the sluggish effects overcoming him once again. He growled throatily as he pulled another knife from his belt and eyed the man who was crawling away towards the shotgun. Even though his eyes were blurry, he knew which one of them to hit. With a quick flick of his wrist, the knife flew and dug itself deep into the crawling opponent. Instantly the life fled from his eyes and Vicente turned his attentions back to Cameron.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Megan was actually going quite well. She had managed to distract her opponent with a rather large spider that she seemed to pull out of the recesses of no where! He hoped that was not just himself hallucinating that. Whatever the case, he grinned as he turned back to Cameron.
“You and I…we have an appointment to keep,” Vicente smirked as he felt his knee wanting to give you. But he still made an imposing figure as he lifted both blades to the man’s stuck face.
Getting to her feet, she focused solely on her opponent. He lurched toward her again, stopping her from getting any sort of defensive stance going, and latched onto her shoulder with one hand. He had a firm grip of her hoodie, and lifted his knife to stab at her. The blade tore through the sleeve of her coat, just below her shoulder and she hissed in pain, gritting her teeth tightly. With her free hand, she latched onto his wrist to keep the knife from slicing her again, and silently commanded the rest of the spiders lurking in her hood to march onto his arm, like they were pirates boarding a ship. He kept her own knife at bay by switching his grip from her shoulder to her hand when she tried to stab at his neck. He didn't notice the black widows until they were creeping up the sleeve on his forearm and onto his shoulder, and when he did he couldn't stop himself from flinching and attempting to step away.
His foot came down crooked on a book that had fallen from the toppled shelf, and he pitched backwards.... dragging Megan with him. The twenty five year old stumbled and landed on him. Her weight fell on the knife in her hand, driving it deeply into his chest. He breathed out once, a long, wet sounding Ooof, then stopped moving. Megan wasn't really sure what had happened until she sat up, sitting on his stomach, and saw that she had driven the blade straight through his left lung. For a small, horrified moment, she sat mutely and let the realization that she had just killed someone sink in...
Off in the corner of the room, the man with the broken nose spotted the discarded shotgun. He looked from the weapon, to Cameron, then to the assassin, then to the girl. They were all properly distracted.
He bolted to retrieve the gun, gaining Megan's attention in the process. By the time she turned and figure out what was happening, he already had it in hand and was straightening back out from having been bent down. She gave the panicked order to the spiders clinging to him to attack, and pushed herself to her feet, shouting out Rafael's name as she closed the gap between them and threw herself at him in an attempt to knock him to the floor.
The widows on the man with the broken nose jumped into action, flying down on hastily attached silk threads onto his face. One latched over his right eye, they other over his left, and they sank their fangs in deeply. The other found a spot at his neck to bite. He was immediately blinded, just as he had aimed the powerful gun at the assassin. Cameron finally pried himself from the wall, leaving his glasses (and a good amount of hair) behind. The shot gun went off, hitting him squarely in the chest, and he was thrown back into the wall violently.
Vicente paid no attention to the commotion that was happening around him. Instead he kept his focus squarely on the man who was struggling against whatever that webbing was that stuck him so quickly to the wall. The assassin grinned as he looked over his target, knowing full well that the man was completely at his disposal. Though he could still feel the effects of the drug that tried to knock him out flat, he knew that there was no getting away from this. It would be just another successful kill for him, another chance for him to prove just how good of a killer he actually was.
After all, how many of them could really complete their tasks even after being drugged as thoroughly as he was? Not many, he knew that.
But he was still too fuzzy headed to realize that he was not completely out of the clear. He growled as he looked directly at Cameron as the man struggled against his bounds. It would not take long for him to realize that he was in an absolutely hopeless situation. But before Vicente could make that first exquisite cut he heard the movement behind him. Suddenly the sound of a shotgun being pumped range through the air and heard his name being called out in a panic.
Vicente turned just in time to see the blonde throw herself at him and knock into him with the full force that her smaller body could produce. Normally Vicente could have been completely unfazed by the young woman’s actions but because he was not on steady legs to begin with, Vicente staggered off to the side as a gunman shrieked in pain.
Riiiiiiipppp!!![/b]
“Ah-HA!!” Cameron hissed triumphantly!
“AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!” the gunman screamed and squeezed the trigger.
KA-BLAM!!!!![/b]
Vicente had to recoil from the sound. It was so loud that he was sure his eardrums would have burst from the echo of the sound within the small quarters of the room. He shook it off as he looked up to return his attentions to Cameron Crane, his target for the evening. Upon inspection, though, it was obvious that he really did not even have to waste his time. Moving onto his feet, he glanced down to see the man, his target, with an expression of shock and surprise forever plastered upon his face…and a rather large buckshot directly in the center of his stomach. Vicente smirked as he held onto the wall. Slowly he could feel the drug working its way out of his system, finally, so he sneered as he glared down at Cameron, before turning to check the last man who was alive.
The man, the gunman, was still screeching as he held onto his eyes, blindly clawing at the carpet. Vicente watched him momentarily, to make sure that he was not going to cause any more trouble before he turned his eyes back to Megan.
“Could swear you’ve done this type of thing before,” he grinned as he held out his hand to help her onto her feet.
The after effects of the shot went unnoticed from her stop on the ground. In throwing herself at the older man and not knocking him to the floor, she landed on her side. Her ears were still ringing as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, and gripped at her injured arm.
Well... Cameron was dead. Very clearly so... and the guy with the gun wasn't about to be doing anything anytime soon. Glancing up at her companion with a frown, she halfheartedly wondered what kind of a guy could get drugged and yet still be able to function as much as he was. Her conclusion; A scary one. With only one man still alive, she figured it was a pretty safe bet that they could leave now. Any party goers still slumming around after that confrontation were probably either drunk, or too stupid to really pose any sort of challenge.
While her heart was still beating away excitedly in her chest, she let out a shaky breath and glanced up at Rafael.
“Could swear you’ve done this type of thing before,”
Megan snorted, running a hand through her disheveled hair before she took the one he had offered her. She let him pull her up onto her feet, and eyed the mess around them. "... Hardly."
Hell, the only killer she ever hung around was a goddamn giant cockroach. And even then, she didn't have to put up with crap like this. An overwhelming feeling of victory sprang to her chest, almost overshadowing the mixed feelings of confusion, dread, and exhaustion. The last time she had been involved in a situation like this, had been years before... on a subway train. ... and even then, she hadn't really killed anyone. Not like this time, anyway. Walking over to the body with her stolen knife in it, she pressed a foot to his chest and knelt down to yank the blade free. It was stained red, and she wasn't sure if she was fascinated, or thoroughly freaked out by that fact. Briefly, she considered giving it back to Rafael... but she shot that notion down quickly. It was hers. She had confiscated it fair and square.
The screams of the one man left alive had quieted into moans. Wrinkling her nose, she turned to face her partner in crime. "...He knows what we look like... The venom in his system could kill him, but it can take a while to get to that point. If he lives he'll be a problem." The guy heard her over his own moaning, and got steadily louder as panic set in. She shot a look back at him, and scowled. "...and he's really very annoying."
From over where Cameron's body sat, propped up against the wall, a crackling started up. Then, a voice broke through. "Cameron? Cameron...? What's the situation... ?" There was a brief pause, then... "...Damnit, we're coming up!"
Megan cursed colorfully, and hopped onto the bookcase sprawled before the doorway. "...It sounds like reinforcements, we need to move!"
He smirked as he helped her onto her feet. She was an annoying little bug but at least she was proving herself to be at least somewhat useful. That was what he needed to get himself out of this situation, he needed someone to be useful. But with Cameron Crane now dead and the rest of party pretty much deserted, it should have been clear sailing to get out of the building. Unfortunately there was no one to report that Cameron’s death was caused by the bloody Unicorn again.
Oh well. Maybe he could still exit the building under the guise of the Unicorn. It would not be hard for the populace to make the connection. Though that would mean he would have to show his ability in front of Megan. She was already embroiled deeper than he would have cared to have her involved.
Well, that’s what she gets for wanting to tag along…
>> "...He knows what we look like... The venom in his system could kill him, but it can take a while to get to that point. If he lives he'll be a problem...and he's really very annoying."[/color]
Vicente turned his attention back to the struggling, gasping man who looked lucky to be alive. The spider bites were already swelling and he was already having an adverse reaction to the venom. Chances were small that he would live. But he theoretically could live long enough to give a description of who it was that had actually attacked them. Certainly not the scenario that Vicente wanted. He would have to remedy that.
Still a little weak but beginning to strengthen up, Vicente walked menacingly slow over to the gagging, struggling man while Megan stayed behind with the fallen body of Cameron Crane. As he stalked up to the man, Vicente peered down at him and tilted his head, almost as if observing some curiosity that needed to be watched. But, within seconds, Vicente raised his shoe clad foot over the man’s jaw and…
The sounds that issued afterward should never be heard again.
Once Vicente was done, he moved back over to Megan, a mountain of brutality and dangerousness, but just in time to hear the words coming from some earpiece that Crane had…
>> "Cameron? Cameron...? What's the situation... ?...Damnit, we're coming up!"
>> "...It sounds like reinforcements, we need to move!"[/color]
Vicente raised the shotgun that he had collected from the dying man. A quick check of the rounds showed he had only a couple of shots left. That was okay, it made a pretty good blunt instrument. He turned and eyed Megan who still had not shrieked and run away from him. That would have been the smart thing to do. It looked like he was going to be stuck with a dodo for the rest of the evening.
“Then let’s go,” he muttered as he armed the shotgun and peeked out into the hall. So far it still sounded completely empty. They were not going to have long though before the floor was flooded with Cameron’s men. Without looking behind to make sure that Megan was follow, Vicente stepped into the hall, gun at his side as he moved for the nearest exit…
Inwardly glad she hadn't turned around to see how he took care of the last man, she cringed at the sounds still reverberating around in her ears and slapped her hand onto the wall next to her. She still have a small handful of spiders left, jumpers, and she planned on using them. As Rafael walked past her, her children marched from her body, five small black bodies scurrying as quickly as they could down the wall toward the exit. They were her last. If she made it out of the building alive, she'd have to clean her wounds and start all over again in the morning.
Trudging after her companion, she couldn't help but pause in the doorway of the bar. The trance like dance music was still thumping away, as if nothing had changed. The urge to run in and snatch up a bottle or two of the expensive booze was easily fought back, given the circumstances. She moved to catch up to Rafael, her stolen knife clutched tightly in her fist.
Down the hallway sat the main room, where the elevator was located. Not to far from that sat the only other exit out of the building. A solitary door in a corner, with a small plague that read 'Stairs'. She didn't know what his plan was, considering he probably had a better scope on things than she did at the moment... considering it was apparently his job, and all.
Door that led out to the elevator room was sitting wide open, and cups, plates, bottles and silverware were strewn about the floor. Even a shoe or two. Megan stayed back near the hallway, letting her children scurry off toward the elevator and the stairwell. One crawled across the ceiling and stopped just to the side of the light fixture, little blue eyes taking everything in before it radioed back to her. The room was currently empty. Another two squeezed through a gap above the stairs door, and peeked about for anyone loitering behind it.
The bright numbers above the elevator shifted steadily however. Indicating that it was heading towards the floor they were on. Most likely with troublesome occupants. Megan ordered the spider out near it to stay up, and tell her if anything changed. She made a beeline for the Stairwell door, opening it a crack... just to make sure it was really empty, before she stepped foot inside. Moving to the railing, she glanced down while silently commanding two of her remaining spiders to lower themselves to the bottom and make sure it was safe. She didn't like what she saw... "...hell..." They were so high up that looking down she couldn't even see the end of the stairs. The bottom just dropped off into semi darkness, probably due to dim lighting... They either had to stay and fight off whoever was in the elevator, or hoof it down the emergency stairwell.
She was almost willing to stay and fight... almost.... but then she got frantic word from her eyes out in the front room, that the elevator doors were opening. She took off down the steps, not even waiting for Rafael to lead the way, or follow. She just wanted to be out of the damned building as fast as possible.
Vicente stalked down the hall of the floor that had belonged to Cameron Crane. Where only minutes ago the place was full of hustling, dancing masses that descended to all levels of debauchery, it now looked like little more than a ghost town. Discarded food, drink, clothing, they were strewn about in all directions and it was obvious that the party was clearly over. No wonder Crane was angry with him for destroying his good time. But that had never meant to fully be in his plan. He was supposed to be framing Cameron’s death on the actions of another man.
Oh well. He would make due of the situation.
Storming down the hall, Vicente peered from room to room, trying to ignore the lingering effects of the drug that coursed throughout him. He knew that it would at least be 24 hours before he fully felt like himself again. He didn’t feel as bad right now, but he knew that he was still going to feel slower than he wanted to. They needed to make their exit now before he got cornered into a fight he would not be prepared to meet.
Beelining it for the room with the elevator, Vicente paused as he watched it. Already he could see the numbers slowly ticking upward. That had to be an elevator with Crane’s men. They would be here in moments and he doubted, even with Megan’s help, that he would be able to take all of them on. No, they were going to have to exit by an alternate route.
Vicente turned and followed Megan to where the stairwell was, but as he did, she paused and seemed to be releasing spiders. He still was trying to grasp the young woman’s powers but he would not get the time to do so…
>> “…hell…”
Megan paused and then inexplicably began to bolt down the stairwell. Even as she did so, Vicente could hear the sounds of the elevator in the lobby “PING”-ing that it had come to a stop and that doors were opening. The second he heard the scuffling of feet, Vicente quickly started to follow Megan down the stairwell. It would not take the gang members long to realize that Cameron was dead and that their suspects were on the run. The stairs would be the first place that they looked. The more distance that he and Megan put between themselves and that door, the better.
He growled as he felt his head suddenly lurch and Vicente grabbed onto the railing, needing to pause on his way down. He was not tired, but drug was flaring up. The adrenaline pumping through his veins now made the drug just that much more effective in coursing throughout his body. Vicente know that he was luck to even be standing here, much less be conscious.
Heavily breathing, Vicente tried to keep his world from spinning as he held onto the shotgun with one hand and the railing with the other. He definitely was not feeling good and was going to need just a tad of help in continuing to exit down the staircase.
"Megan," he hissed through his doubling vision. "We can't stay in the stairwell. They'll get wise and start firing randomly down here. Open that door to this floor. If we slip in, we may find something else to aid us..."
She hit the bottom of halfway point down the flight of stairs, where they turned with the wall, and stopped upon hearing her name. What the hell did he want now? With one hand on the railing, she turned back to face him.
"We can't stay in the stairwell. They'll get wise and start firing randomly down here. Open that door to this floor. If we slip in, we may find something else to aid us..."
The door he was talking about sat at the bottom of the second half of the short length of stairs. She glanced at it briefly, before directing her gaze back up to the door they had come through. ... He did have a point. "Or... I could just leave you here as a distraction." She felt that was a pretty good option, considering that they were technically after him.
....But then there was also that pesky chance of survival... and she didn't need to be on anyone else's Sh*t list in this lifetime. Marching back up the stairs, she paused at his side and offered him help if he needed it. Then, she moved back down and opened the door, peeking inside. It was dark... which was good because that meant it was most likely empty. "Looks deserted..." Stepping inside, she started building up some silk in her mouth while looking around. With basically no spiders on hand, and only a knife to defend herself, she figured she could use it as a safety measure if needed. Tripping people up, hurling spit globs... whatever. It made her feel a little better about the situation, for some reason. She heard a warning from one of her scouts that men were about to enter the stairwell, and slammed the door to the suite shut once they were both inside. Snatching up a chair from nearby, she wedged it under the door handle. It'd stop them for a while... but not forever.
With her mouth steadily filling up with silk, she cut back on chattering for the moment, and instead turned to scope out the room. It was far cleaner than the floor above, and far quieter. There was a large desk in the middle of the entry room surrounded by comfy looking chairs. Looked like some type of meeting room to her. Probably used to discuss things important rich people bothered themselves with, while looking down on the outside world and clinking brandy glasses with each other.
... That thought led her back to drinking. And she wished she had stopped and raided the bar. A warm cup of mind altering goodness wounded delicious at that moment in time. Her scout chimed in again with more info, informing her on what was happening.
"... There's two guys up on the floor above us..." She said, her words slightly distorted due to the silk. "... one of them is in the stairwell." Striding over to the front door, she slipped it open and stepped out into the hallway. The floor lights above the elevator door were still, so they weren't riding it down to them. But when she pressed the down button to summon it, nothing happened. No lights, no pinging, no nothing. It didn't bode well, so she turned to her partner for ideas....
>> "Or... I could just leave you here as a distraction."[/color]
He smirked. That was always an option. Of course, even though he was still feeling the aftereffects of being drugged, he was still easily able to overpower her and leave her behind as well. On top of that, even if she did manage to slip away, she had already been seen with him. There was no way that was going to be able slip out of the building undetected and there was definitely no chance of the rest of Cameron Crane’s men to simply let her walk out of her. And he doubted that spiders, webs, and a little knife were going to do her a hell of a lot of good in escaping this place.
Not without his help, anyways. No, she was going to need him and he absolutely knew it.
Apparently she realized this because instead of ditching him, she offered him help to get down to the door. He carefully took her assistance but only needed it until he reached the bottom step. Once there, she sneaked over and peered into one of the rooms.
>> "Looks deserted..."[/color]
“Good,” he muttered in response and followed as she stepped in.
Indeed this floor seemed to be completely abandoned. Maybe Crane rented out more than just his floor for this whole shindig. He wouldn’t have been surprised. Crane had more than enough resources to get that done. He eyed the abandoned rooms and continued down into the hallway with Megan at his side. His knife in hand, he peered closely at every dark corner, as if waiting for those men to suddenly materialize and go on the offensive. Nothing like that seemed to be in the cards, though. It was almost as if they had this building to themselves.
Vicente was not 100% sure how good of news that bit was.
>> "... There's two guys up on the floor above us...one of them is in the stairwell."[/color]
He growled. There was no going back to the stairwell and they couldn’t just sit here and see what would happen. They needed an exit. A glance down the hall and he spied that elevator. They could call for it but there was no telling what or who would be on the other side of the door when they did. But so far it seemed like it was going to be their only option. They strolled towards it and paused when they noticed that all the lights were cut for the elevator system. Megan pushed the button but nothing was happening.
“Damn it,” he muttered. “They must have cut the power to the elevator to keep his cornered."
A glance back down the hall and then to the door. She said there was only one man in the stairwell, but he may not be alone for long. No, they would have to use the elevator…but maybe they didn’t necessary need to ride in the box.
Shaking another effect from drug off, he growled as he shook out his right arm.
“I hope you don’t mind climbing down cables,” he said. Within seconds after that, his right arm started to snap and shift. Bones cracked, muscle mass grew, and a coarse layer of black hair began to cover and burst through the fabric of his right arm. Elongated and looking far more muscular, nearly a minute passed before the transformation was complete and Vicente arm had been replaced with that of a massive gorilla arm. Clenching his fist, he sighed soberly as he stalked forward and quickly threw his fists against the closed elevator door.
POW! POW!! POW!!![/b]
He punched it until it dented enough to for him to slip his fingers into the slit between the doors that separated the hall from the elevator shaft. Once he managed to do so, he gripped both doors and heaved them open until they were faced with a dimly lit, gapping maw of blackness that travelled all the way down to the bottom floor.
A smirk played on his lips as he glanced back to her.
yanking her eyes away from the black pit of doom before them, the twenty five year old stared at him blankly. He... wanted to... what?! Of all the crazy things she'd done in her life, entrusting her safety to a steel cable and her own physical strength was.... insane.
"Ladies first..."
One eyebrow arched, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Hooo-no. I am not shimmying down fifty some odd stories with you're hulking form waiting to slip up and come crashing down on top of me."
She pointed at empty elevator doorway. "You go first."
It looked like the gateway to Hell, honestly. Vicente growled as he stared down into the depths of the elevator shaft and at the cables that were still and rigid before them. It was risky but it really was their only hope of getting quickly down to the bottom floor. The stairways were out of the question and unless Megan had some helicopter hidden inside of her pocket, Vicente doubted that they had any other options. It was definitely risky, but Vicente had no intentions of dying this night; not here and not amongst fools like this.
He motioned for Megan to go first, but the look on her face was enough to set his teeth on edge. Great, he was already predicting more difficulty from her.
>> "Hooo-no. I am not shimmying down fifty some odd stories with you're hulking form waiting to slip up and come crashing down on top of me…You go first."[/color]
He growled and shook his head.
“We don’t have time for this. Get inside the damn elevator shaft. Unless you want to climb down with a gun in hand and cover our asses!”
Vicente was not in the mood to argue and it showed on his face. He was close to actually just hurling her into the shaft and letting her either sink or swim. But before he ever got the chance to do so, he heard something and immediately caused him to pause. It was a sound that he had been worried about since they first stepped onto this floor…that of a door opening.
He snapped his head to the side and watched as the door at the end of the hall, that led to the staircase, opened up and a man stepped out from behind it. In his hand he held a large rifle. He scoped the hallway for only a second before he found both Vicente and Megan standing there like a pair of sitting ducks. Though Vicente could not hear him, he saw the man make the motions of speaking into an earpiece; and so their location became known to everyone else!
Time slowed as Vicente watched the man begin to raise his rifle. Quickly the assassin grabbed Megan and threw her back against the wall to take her out of the line of danger. In one, swift motion, he pumped his shotgun, raised it, and fired off a shot. Though it was not aimed the best, it was enough to send the man hurtling off to the side, back in through the doorway that led to the staircase.
With the man distracted, Vicente suddenly reached out with his much larger, gorilla arm and seized Megan. In a very King Kong-like manner, he then proceeded to throw her over his shoulder as he took a run to the gapping doors of the elevator shaft.
“Hold on,” was all he said as he leapt into the darkness, grabbed a hold of the greased cables with his massive hand, and prayed he could keep his grip. He felt the tug of gravity and the slipperiness of the grease, but it had enough of a grip to hold himself up. Shotgun raised, he released one more shot into the hallway and began to propel himself downward. He really hoped that Megan did not mind the swift fall…
So focused was she on standing her ground, that she didn't notice the door opening, nor did she pay attention to anything her children were saying. She didn't realize what was happening as Rafael pushed her back into the wall and fired a single shot off toward the doorway they had come in. She barely caught a glimpse of the gunman, before she was scooped up off her feet and plopped onto her companions shoulder. Squeaking in surprise, Megan squirmed briefly, before she realized what was happening.
"Hold on."
... and then he leaped into the dark shaft.
If she had owned a set of claws, she would have sank them straight into his back to keep herself anchored. In their absence she wrapped her arms around his neck and screamed a sting of muffled, colorful words into his neck. With her eyes squeezed shut, she didn't see the quick descent. Nor did she see the man who Rafael had shot at looming over them, growing smaller and smaller as he shot down at them into the shaft.
She heard it, though. Bullets whizzing by, twanging off of the surrounding metal. They were actually lucky that it was so dark, as the lack of light was messing up the aim of the gunman.
After a moment of acclimatizing to the feeling of falling to ones death other the shoulder of some big monkey man, (Deja vu, anyone?), she singled out the tell tale voices of her spiders among the panicked thoughts bouncing around her mind. Her eyes snapped open, and flew upwards.
" They are going to start the elevator back up!"
The idea of getting squashed at the bottom of an elevator shaft didn't sound very appealing. With the mass of sticky silk that she had built up in her mouth, she spat it out at one side of the shaft wall as they were passing. It stuck, and the other end swung violently out, sticking to the opposite side.
She didn't have very much faith in it, but at least it was something. Maybe it would gum everything up a little, and give them some time to break through the door at the bottom...
This was going to hurt. Vicente knew that even before he threw himself out into the elevator shaft and began to propel himself down the length of cable. But the assassin was prepared for that burn and that pain. He was ready to take it in order to ensure that he actually had a chance to live. If anything, Vicente was a stalwart survivor and knew the risks involved in keeping himself alive.
The one thing that Vicente was not expecting, nor tolerated, was the screaming and the string of curses and invaded his ear canal.
Gripping the length of the cable, Vicente tried to swiftly yet carefully carry them both down to the ground level again. It really was the fastest way but Vicente knew that he was going to pay the price for using it. His hand could suffer sufficient damage. Thankfully Vicente knew the swiftest way to Dr. Adonis and he had enough money to pay the man off to heal him. But that knowledge did not make the greased cable that slipped through his hand hurt any less.
Gunshots rang out and the assassin snarled as he tried to press himself as close as he could to the cable as possible. The last thing that he needed was for one of them to suddenly become dead weight thanks to a bullet to the forehead. But the darkness of the elevator shaft helped to mask their presence from their attacker. Quickly Vicente lost sight of him as the darkness covered them completely. The sounds of gunshots ricocheting off the walls rang above their heads but nothing managed to get close to them anymore. Good, they should hopefully almost be in the clear…
>> "They are going to start the elevator back up!"[/color]
“F---!” he growled.
Already he could feel the burning in the pads of his hand. He will not be able to last much longer but the assassin ground his teeth and tried to keep focus. He could do this, he knew he could do this. Though Megan was extra weight (extra weight that he would love to drop at any second) the killer knew that she was proving herself to be more than useful. He would have to tolerate her, at least until he managed to exit the building.
Until then he attempted to slow his fall. It may have seemed like a stupid thing to do, especially when they were being pursued, but he was not going to risk ripping up his hand. More than likely he was going to need to use that to pry open the doors.
Another second or two and finally Vicente stopped, feeling the solid ground beneath his feet. He sighed in thanks as he finally let go of the cable and turned towards the faint slant of light that indicated the ground level elevator doors. The shaft echoed with each of his steps as he walked up to it but before he could even do anything he heard the whirl of gears and felt the vibration shooting through the cable. The elevator was moving…
“Damn it,” he cursed as he turned towards the slant of light and began to pound on it with his large, gorilla fist.
The ground met them quickly, and she couldn't have been more thankful. The current there-is-an-elevator-coming-down-on-us problem kind of ruined all traces of happiness or relief.
Megan slipped off of Rafael's shoulder as soon as she was able, and stared up into the black void above them. Her children were muttering incoherent nonsense about stairs and closing doorways, so she wasn't getting anything very useful from them.
Above them, the elevator and it's occupants were on their way quickly down. They hit the silk she had left stuck to the walls, but it did little more than stretch and slow them down for a moment or two, before snapping. Though she was able to easily support her own weight on it, it didn't hold very well against something as heavy as the elevator.
Knowing that time was a factor, she hurried over to the door and squished herself in between Rafael and the metal. Planting one booted foot against the side of the door, she slipped her fingers into a little crack he had managed to create with all of his fist pounding, and pushed with her foot, while pulling with her back and arms.
Between the two combines efforts, though mostly his, they managed to get the doors to part. Megan pulled with all of her might, earning herself a new little tear in her knife wound, and scooted with her back against the door until they got it open wide enough for them both to fit through.
Crawling out of the elevator shaft, she threw herself to the side, out of the way of Rafael's exit, and pressed her back against the wall. The elevator was coming down whether they liked it or not, and with the doors pried open it was all the more easy for their pursuers to chase after. Shifting into a better stance for stabbing at things, she grasped her knife in both hands and waited for the elevator to come down and greet them. She'd be prepared to stab the first thing she say, be it leg, stomach, or freaking face...