Alright, so, this has been something I've been musing about within my devious mind for a while now(well, my mind, Alli's mind, Zeph's mind to a degree...credit to them for assisting in my plotting.) Strange things have happened in our little wonderful community, but it dawned on me that the site has, for a while, not had a serious threat that the whole site could get behind. So I plotted and schemed and plotted some more and this is what I came up with.

The idea, as it were, is to have a man, known for now only as the General, to arrive in New York city. The General's purpose? The complete destruction or enslavement of the mutant race; if a mutant cannot be controlled, it needs to be a corpse. To achieve his means, the General has two powerful weapons at his disposal. The first; a small army of loyal followers who believe wholeheartedly in the cause. From those with only a voice as a weapon, to his military trained zealots, the General has soldiers both equipped to handle your average mutant and loyal enough to never question his methods.

But they are only the tip of the iceberg, the cannon fodder that he can replace with more. His true weapon lies in the the twelve elites at his command; the twelve mutants under his command known as the Zodiacs. Taken from young ages, indoctrinated to obey and "implanted" with a belief through another of his allies, these Zodiacs are not only his most loyal soldiers, they are his most powerful. Each alone possesses a power that can bring many a foe to their knees; and they are often paired up. The Zodiacs have one goal that his human followers cannot achieve; to handle mutants of higher quality, the strongest mutant threats out there.

Last but not least, the General has two at his sides at all times; his right hand and left hand "advisers", who are also mutants as well. With all his pieces finally assembled, the General is making a move upon New York and its mutant population as a "test" for his worldwide plan.

Phase 1 and 2 of this plan are simple and are planned to occur at the same time; Phase 1 involves having his human soldiers spreading out and striking at several known mutant gathering points, using the tactics they've been trained to use against the greater mutant populace; at the same time, these events will be "broadcast" as if these soldiers are stopping a mutant attack. Phase 2, on the other hand, is the General's plan to not only prove his strength, but take several serious threats out of the picture. Several mutants of known prestige, as well as several who have been considered a serious threat, will be publicly defeated by the Zodiacs; each has been assigned to a pair of them. For those who do not have targets, they are to assist the human soldiers assaulting the mutant "forts".

The idea is for the site to rally against this threat, although of course, serious losses must take place first. I have already spoken to several key players and as the days pass, I shall toss up the Zodiacs bit by bit. As they arrive, I would love to hear opinions, about them and the plot, as well as anyone who wants to join in on this hopefully chaotic plot.

Welp, there you go folks. Rip and tear away. ^_^

Update: Thread List to date.

First Act

Zodiac Strike! The Bone Queen's Despair!

Zodiac Strike! Shatter the Frozen Warrior!

Zodiac Strike! Silence the Wind!

Zodiac Strike! The Vigilante Falls!

Zodiac Strike! A City in Chaos!

The Zodiac Crew!

Aries: Able to transfer injuries to his body to another person via touch. Sustained contact is required to transfer larger injuries.

Personality: Calm and collected, Aries rarely shows any sign of discomfort or that the situation is out of his control He's also one of the few Zodiac members that speaks politely to his foes; despite that, he is utterly remorseless in combat and will easily torture his foes without an inch of compassion.


Libra: Able to implant a parasite onto a target's head that induces violent rages in the person. Through said parasite, he can also "suggest" and
guide a person towards a target as an outlet for their rage.

Personality: Insane is easily about the only word that can define the way Libra is. He enjoys making others suffer, to the point where its almost a release for him. Little breaks through this euphoria for him, even being injured in battle. That being said, Libra often works from the shadows, only entering the field of battle when he has sufficient pawns at his disposal.

Gemini Male

Gemini Female: Able to target a fellow mutant and make their power go out of control. Only able to affect one target at a time but to a much greater degree. Twin can affect mutants within a certain range, but to a lesser effect.

Personality: The Gemini twins are emotionless. There's nothing else to it; neither twin shows any sign of emotion. They are committed only to the tasks they are given, speaking only when necessary and often in monotone and single syllable words. They have been known to speak one word at a time when they need for form a sentence, one twin speaking one word while the other speaks the next and so on.


Leo: Able to screech at high level frequency's, meant to disorient foes or shatter surroundings depending on the frequency. Stronger matter requires higher and longer frequency's. By building up the screech in his throat beforehand, Leo can fire high frequency blasts; it takes him a short time after before he can use his ability again.

Personality: Like his codename, Leo is a bit on the wild side. His actions are often considered twitchy and he rarely remains still for any substantial period of time. He also tends to disagree with any method that requires him to be passive, for he finds that biding time is wasting time. Like several of his counterparts, he is without compassion in combat and will not hesitate to injure bystanders if they get in his way.

Scorpio: Long index finger nails that, if a wound is created via them, induces massive pain and burning in the wound. Each wound in succession feeds off the previous one, making following wounds hurt much more.

Personality: Sadistic and cruel, Scorpio takes great joy in the torturing and suffering of others. Fitting, considering his ability is almost designed for torture and pain. Scorpio prefers to target those that can give him the greatest high from his hobby, which are those with strength. By bringing them to their knees in pain and agony, Scorpio gets the biggest rush.


Virgo: Able to copy another mutant's power and "infect" a human to imitate both the appearance of a copied mutant and their powers, although to a lesser degree. Mutations ends if the user is rendered unconscious or killed or the afflicted human remains copied for more than a hour. Afflicted human will perish after one hour due to rapid cellular breakdown.

Personality: A through and through genius, Virgo is the de facto leader of the Zodiacs when commanding them in the field. Virgo dresses for style, emits a radiance that many would kill to have...and is the cruelest of the his entire group. With the exception of his comrades, everyone is merely a pawn in the grand chess game that is life for him, pieces of be scarified for the greater good of the game. If he were a normal man, this would not be a great worry; because of his intelligence, however, it is far worse. Virgo often plans several steps ahead, anticipating what orders will come next or what his foes will do and makes several plans in order to counter on the spot. To this end, he often uses his power as a way to test the field or secure the game...and unlike some of the others, Virgo has no qualms being out on the field only after things are firmly in his corner; to his mind, things are ALWAYS in his corner.


Capricorn: Enhanced physical strength within the leg portion of the body. Kicking strength said to be strong enough to dent steel and able to run up to 30 miles per hour in short bursts. Enhanced jumping ability about to three stories and skin density on the feet said to resemble iron.

Personality: A tactical genius, Capricorn is the brain behind the brawn when it comes to combat. Capricorn often makes plans on the fly, taking everything about the current situation into account to utilize his ability and the abilities of his comrades to their fullest. Though he's a bit eccentric and overzealous at times, he is one of the most dangerous of the group for the simple fact that he adapts fast, adjusting for just about any situation within moments.

Pisces: Mutation makes user able to produce plant life from her body, as well as control plant life within a general radius.

Personality: Pisces is by far the most gentle of the Zodiacs, preferring to subvert her foes into giving up to their new order over violence. However, should they resist, Pisces will not hesitate like her comrades to put down her foes. Unlike most of her comrades, however, she seeks to finish her foes as quickly as possible, preferring to end them with as little pain as possible. Outside of that, she is calm and serene, just like the plants she wields.

Cancer: Able to find what a person fears and manifest it into reality; said manifestation remains until the user is knocked out or overcomes their fear of said manifestation. If multiple people are present, is able to mix the fears into a being known as the Jackal, which incorporates the fears into a jackal-like body.

Personality: A twin in terms of sadism to Scorpio, Cancer differs from his comrade in two diverse areas. For one, while Scorpio takes pleasure in the suffering of people from physical agony, Cancer enjoys making them suffer from mental agony. The rush he gets from sensing what another fears and then using it against them is a high that nothing else can replace. Also unlike his counterpart, Cancer enjoys making the weak suffer more than the strong, for there are more of them for him to torture.

Taurus: Massive upper body strength. Punches can easily break through most substances with a single punch, with the exception of metals; items such as steel can be broken through in time. Reduced speed as a trade off; is able to create small quakes from force of impact and pick up large objects with ease.

Personality: The brute of the group, Taurus isn't exactly the brightest bulb on the block. He prefers to handle the tasks and problems he faces head on with his power. That being said, Taurus isn't a complete idiot either; he can adjust to find the most effective way of his using his power to the fullest in a fight and is at his most dangerous when paired with someone who can do the thinking for him. Of the group, he is also the most direct when getting to a point.


Sagittarius: Mutation allows any item thrown to be thrown at a target with uncanny accuracy. Additionally, if the user manages to touch the target with their left hand, any item thrown will seek the target touched until it is physically stopped. The longer the item remains in transit, the greater its speed and force become.

Personality: The Archer is, like Aries, a calm and collected individual. Unlike his counterpart, however, the Archer is capable of showcasing things that catch him by surprise or showing other emotions when things go awry. This allows him to acknowledge that there is an issue and to do his best to circumvent said issue as soon as possible. Because of his ability, the Archer can and is often at his calmest when flinging his weapons, much like a real Archer would take control of himself to fire his weapon.

Aquarius: Control over water; is able to manipulate it extensively so long as there is a source. Is capable of drawing it from the moisture in the air if necessary, although this takes longer for she has to create enough to wield it effectively. - Aquarius.

Personality: Elegant and adventurous, Aquarius is the Ying to Pisces Yang. Unlike her female companion, Aquarius enjoys teasing her enemies, half flirting with them mid combat while doing everything in her power to crush them with her power. Of course, the flirting is intended to be a distraction in order to catch her foes unaware, allowing her to capture them and take her time stealing away their life. Outside that, she varies from two states of mind; quiet as a river or as violate as the ocean.

SOund slike fun, I wnat aura to fight one or two of these guy's. Quite a few would be good solid matches for her. I Know you and alli discussed one of them making Alli and aura hurt each other somehow? But i never found out to much about that.

I could even see aura being a frequent target simply because of her high body count. Still I Like how many of the zodiaks powers sound and the idea looks pretty solid.

I. Am. So all over this.
I would toss Mirror in for "high profile" targets since s/he has been on TV with the X-men quite a lot (thanks Sam). Sveta might be an interesting addition since she boosts powers, and also becoming known as a mutant vigilante. They might want to take her out, or just take her, and use her powers (it has been known to happen before).

On a side note: Mirror's background story and a thread we have done included an agency that hires out highly trained mutants for... pretty much any job people can pay for (Mirror's mother is one of them). They were based West Coast. If you wanna tamper with this idea, feel free, or shoot me a PM.

Yay Zodiacs! When does it start?

An interesting idea Forte. some of the Zodiac members sound a bit odd to me though. Like why is the sign for fish doing things with plants, and the crab is fear? For Pices maybe have it share some sort of feature with an aquatic animal? there is those angler fish that leads people to their doom, chomping at them with an impossible mouth of teeth. For cancer maybe some sort of shearing power, or take inspiration from the mantis shrimp? I also worry that the gemini ones may go into god moding. How is anyone suppose to deal with them if their powers are in essence not existant? The only ones who would be effective against them would be adapts. What about someone who replicates themself, or some sort of power that works in halves like the twin card from Cardcaptors?

The call signs don't always reflect their powers. On a note, Cancer is fear, because I ripped a bit from Knights of the Zodiac for him; the Cancer knight dealt with the world of the dead. So I made Cancer someone who deals with peoples fears to reflect that.

To answer your question about the Gemini, your powers are not gone. But they alter the ability to control them; sort of like a 1/10 chance that what you want it to do is what it will do. Also note that the twins have the same power, but different. One can affect someone to a high degree, so 1/10 chance. The other is meant for crowd control of weaker mutants or those with physical mutations; messing with them to keep them from being an overlooked threat. (Also, I never god mod anything...well, intentionally anyway. Accidents have happened.) While I will allow people to make use of them as NPCS without me, nothing can be done to them without MY permission and any godmodding with them Ill leave to the mods to handle appropriately.

The idea is to have fun though.

The gemini thing still sounds a bit overpowered to me. If there is a one in ten chance of it working correctly, then ninety percent of the time you aren't able to control your character, which seems to me a very dangerous ground for a npc to be treading. Nine out of ten times they win. That is almost the same as being around an adapt. Also how would they affect physical mutations? Like someonewith wings or cat features?

I like the idea. It sounds like ti would be fun to play out; however, I agree with Locke and they do sound a little over powered to me in certain aspects. It'd just take a few certain aspects and it sounds like it'd be a blast.

Personally I don't have a problem with overpowered npcs it makes them an actual threat and can make for interesting interactions between pcs I.e. aura working with an X (no idea any active Xs) to take down a mutual enemy. Just my 2 worthless cents

Overpowered NPC's work best if at least partially controlled by an actual Member, otherwise you run the risk of the PC's being too successful too quickly. For example if Aura and Locke were fighting Capricorn every three or four posts Forte or someone else would take control of Capricorn for a post to do something unexpected. It keeps the NPC's from being too powerful or too easily beaten

It just keeps things interesting.

Otherwise seems like fun.

Right now, Roach and I plan to get the Order more active to create more hostility between the different factions. We've been busy lately, so it hasn't happened, but when we get to work, that'll help jazz up MRO and give you players a bit more of a 'threat'. Optimally, I'd love to see players playing against players, rather than players playing against NPCs, but that's just my personal player opinion.

Having just come off the Riot Plots, with hostilities still existing between some law enforcement, civilians, and government individuals, I personally feel like it might be a bit too soon for a plot this big right now. That said, if it's something lots of players are interested in, there's plenty of time to discuss it and hammer out details. I always love a good site-wide plot! This one could be interesting! It sounds like a blending of several old MRO plots. We once had a General, General Whitmore (I think). He was before my time. He authorized anti-mutant stalker robots and the mutant registration act. There were mutant camps where players were imprisoned (or where they broke free), and lots of in-character troubles for all. With something this big, we definitely would want the right timing and planning, to keep it as epic as it can be.

Modifications made to the Zodiac list. *points up for all to look*

*pokes*

[Edit]
Reading over everything you’ve outlined Forte it’s clear you’ve put a good deal of thought into this and I’m looking forward to seeing it in action. We so rarely get a chance to let our characters have a no holds barred fight where we don’t have to worry about the no killing rule, this will let a good number of us cut loose and write something different.

In regards to organization I think you may want to start disclosing how the initial encounters with Zodiacs will progress (i.e. who will be fighting who) just so people can get an idea of the general timeline and when various Zodiacs might be free to fight/run away from.

You may also want to clarify how the NPC’s can/can’t be used. From what I understand you want to RP the initial encounters and that’s fine but we should have something set down to allow other players to use the NPC without the same individual showing up in five or six threads. Perhaps some kind of bidding system on a first come first serve basis?

Finally I would encourage others to start plotting here or simply put in requests to face different Zodiac members or maybe even requests to gang up on zodiac members. Just remember that you can’t beat them right from the outset, things need to evolve over time to make defeating them in the end an actual accomplishment.

In regards to Kat’s questions below:
1) From what I understand after talking with Forte, the General will be something akin to a mob boss. People on the street will know he’s behind the Zodiac but there won’t be any kind of paper trail to connect thus, legally, there won’t be anything the government can really do.

Also, just because people know the General’s involved doesn’t mean they know how to find him or even how to go about opposing him.

2) The brainwasher/loyalty implanter was, at least initially, meant to be a close relation to the General, possibly a son/daughter. Forte will be able to provide far greater detail than I.

3) See my fourth paragraph.

Sounds like a fun idea!

I like the idea of having a couple of super-tough bad guys around for people rally against.

I think playing a character with an out-of-control mutation would actually be interesting. I'm sure if there are some people made uncomfortable by the idea of facing a foe that makes their power go awry, there are an equal number of people who would love the opportunity to try it. I assume that the player would get to determine what their out-of-control power does, so it wouldn't be god-modding.

I'd recommend letting the players writing in the thread control the NPCs, either by taking turns or deciding ahead of time who controls them.

I'd avoid assigning the players that will defeat the Zodiacs ahead of time. By the time the plot is run, people that were active might not be and new people that join might feel left out that they didn't have a chance to play a big role in the plot.

I recommend allowing anyone who wants to have an encounter with the zodiacs permission to do so. Of course, if they intend to defeat a zodiac they should probably make that plan known in this planning so they don't take an NPC out of the picture that other people wanted to go up against, or can set it later in time so others could face him/her earlier. If you too tightly control who is allowed to play against them, people will feel they don't have enough freedom to be creative and may lose interest in the plot.

I could actually see this working well with the idea of getting the Order more active. Clearly these guys are encroaching on the Order's turf and need to be made examples of. The X-men better get out of the way, because the Order is totally taking them down (or thinks they are). All sorts of great possibilities here: like Isabel almost getting defeated by a Zodiac, but getting rescued by CS. <- Just one example of the awesome interactions that could ensue.

A couple questions:
1. The general is acting on his own, without government support, correct? If so, what is the government's response to a private army descending upon it's largest city? How are police likely to respond?
2. Who is the ally that implants loyalty? How do they fit in?
3. Can anyone who wants to have an encounter with the zodiacs?

I like the idea of this incurring the Order's wrath. That's a definite fact. Lenna won't like anyone encroaching on her territory. It might take time, but Lenna will do everything she can to squash said problem. I plan to thread to make that readily apparent through example, using other gangs and NPCs.