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 Pharoah Dynasty
An ancient sorceress is on a quest to bring her long-lost warrior-king to the modern era in a bid for global domination. Can the heroes of the modern world stop her before all is lost?
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.
She was ubiquitous- everywhere at once, answering everyone’s questions while Kai just stood there, open-mouthed and gaping like a fish. He heard something about a gas leak and making lists of tenants. He stood out of the way, feeling very much IN the way.
The sirens that were in the distance grew louder and louder until they were right outside. Bunches of firemen burst in through the doors. The mad-driven panic of the fleeing residents phase was over, replaced by the cool, calm direction of the firemen. The girl in charge was on the phone as the firemen started barking orders.
“Ma’am, we’re going to need you to put the cell phone away,” one burly man said. “We can’t have the signals messing up the emergency lines.”
Kai really wanted to warn the guy- because the look on her face was the same one he saw upstairs when she questioned him. Dangerous.
“Ma’am, we’re going to need you to put the cell phone away. We can’t have the signals messing up the emergency lines.”
Noel fished around in her bag for... where was her bag? Probably upstairs. Melted. Poor imitation Prada. Your life was so short.
"Ma'am?"
Without her Badge, the best Noel could do was to shoot him a death look. With a quick eye-wiggle she made him forget why she couldn't be on the phone. In the same wiggle of the eyes, Noel forgot why she was even on the phone. So she jumped visibly when someone finally brought her back from being on hold.
They asked her to do what she did best. Keep a lid on it. They promised to send someone for backup and she was supposed to go up with the firemen. Her phone slid shut with an unsatisfying lack of click or clack. Slide phones just didn't have the finality of flip phones, but flips phone ran the risk of breaking and losing their display.
After a brief pause where Noel cradled her head, she went over to the fire truck. Who was the fire marshall in charge of the scene? Why, it was Burly McMuscles who had wanted her to get off of her phone.
It took her a couple tries to convince him that she was a Federal Agent. She told him everything about the situation, including the fact that the fire was a result of a dangerous mutant. She asked him to tell only those that needed to be told and then... he got her a helmet. It was Noel's opinion that he found the most ill-fitting fire suit available because of the thorn she was in his side.
In the end it wouldn't matter. She would likely be wiping his memory. Especially if what they saw up in the remnants of the apartment was bad. Where was backup? And when was she going to be able to sit down and hold her aching head?
Someone handed her an axe and when she couldn't lift it properly, they traded her for an extra extinguisher. Alright so... time to go back in then.
He was a warrior. A fine figure of a young man, keep fit from frequently and repeatedly lifting heavy objects. He was armed with a familiar weapon, the smooth wooden handle of the ax fit easily in his hands. Topped with a blade of sharpened steel and a special point on the opposite site of the head, it was a marvelous tool designed for noble purposes of rescue under some of the most dire circumstances; when “dainty” was tossed out the window, along with the door or wall that was in the way. This mighty instrument of destruction rested easily over his shoulder, giving Kai a new surge of confidence as he charged back towards the staircase. He would lead this group of skilled hunters straight to- and through- the danger lurking for them.
Moments earlier…
From what he could figure, Kai had two options. 1) Stay attached to the Federal Agent woman, avoid explaining exactly what he was doing/ who he was, and end up facing the “other” kind of “fire-man” once again. The benefits of this plan were that it eased his inexplicable desire to protect the woman whose name he didn’t even know. Or 2) turn tail, run, and hide. This second option had the added “pro” of being safe.
Kai shoved his hands in his jeans pockets, trying to figure out what to do… and realized that option 2 was out of the picture. There was nothing in either pocket. Specifically, no keys. No Keys!? So he had to go back up.
But how to do it? The second round of the choice tree was: try to act like you belong there or sneak upstairs. Again, Kai chose the first option- because it involved backup.
So he stood behind… hm… I still don’t know her name. and nodded along as she explained about the mutant and the danger. He then received his own helmet and, when the woman couldn’t carry it, the ax- which he wielded with expertise and precision. (At least, he would when they got up there and actually needed it. For the time being, he carried it respectfully.)
“Alright, enough dilly-dallying.” Kai spoke up to the group of firefighters. “We’re headed to the third floor.” And with much bravado and puffing-out of his chest, Kai led the way.
“Alright, enough dilly-dallying. We’re headed to the third floor.”
He was right. Noel shook her head under her sweaty smelling helmet, blessed the cool outside air, and ducked in line.
>"You got a good partner there."
Partner? Noel tilted her head until her oversized helmet clunked into the side of her face and she had to rearrange it on her shoulders. Had her back up arrived and not realized where she was? It wouldn't be entirely impossible that he had said hello and she had simply forgotten him either.
"Yeah. Yeah he is." For all the time Noel had worked for RUPERT, Kael was consistent enough to remember.
A stairmaster, Noel was not. She couldn't keep up with the joking and back slapping. At least once they approached the third floor, the meat heads sobered up.
There were singe marks on the third floor door frame. And the third floor door? It lay halfway between the second and third floors. Well. So far there was no need for the axes.
At the very first landing two burly firefighters moved past Kai, muttering something about structural integrity and how they should “check it out first.” The way they said it and gave a little laugh, he wasn’t quite sure whether or not they were being rude. But when it was all said and done, this was their area of expertise and he let it go.
The air was still thick with smoke as they approached the third floor. Kai hefted his ax, ready, but it wasn’t necessary. The door lay crumpled on the landing below that floor. It had been blown out, likely by whatever had chased them.
The group stepped cautiously onto the floor where the fire had started. The walls were blackened in places and streaked with soot. The carpet squished under their feet, a testament to the fire trucks below having done their best to put the fire out with their hoses.
“Why didn’t the automatic sprinkler system go off when it started?” One of the men wondered aloud.
They fanned out, taking careful steps to ensure that floor wouldn’t collapse under their feet. Kai inched his way towards the traitorous room. He tried to feel for the cactus… was that a faint sign of green life? Kai steeled himself and then made a dash through the apartment door before he lost his nerve.
Noel didn't participate in the stomping. The firemen tread heavily on purpose to test the floors. After a good stomping, though everyone seemed to tiptoe. Except for Kael who darted right into the scene of the crime. He had to know his comrades were still in here. Maybe he'd heard something?
The firefighters didn't seem to notice his abrupt disappearance, but they did notice where the fires had all started. And how they hadn't moved naturally. It echoed from one man's lips to the next that this scene had suspicious mutant activity written all over it. Fire Marshall McBurley-Muscles kept his mouth shut.
It was bad in Yanagi's apartment. Whatever was synthetic had melted, couch and curtains included, whatever was organic had burned. Horribly. Including the people. Grim-faced, the firefighters first checked the area to be sure that they wouldn't fall to their deaths and then worked to gather survivors. Surely they could heal that kind of damage away at RUPERT?
Someone hosed off a little trickle of fire very close behind Noel. It made her jump. She must have gotten stuck staring.
"Jimmy Christmas, would ya warn me first?"
Yanagi's eyes met hers through the clunky fire helmets. Where had he gotten a firefighter's suit?
"Be glad to."
His suit lit on fire. Or maybe he was just showing off? It was time to stop this thing before it started. Noel's pupils started to spasm.
Forget yourself. Forget your apartment. Forget your social identity. Your motivation. Forget your ambitions, your image, your frustrations. Forget what you were just doing.
People piled into the room with him, but Kai ignored them. He had reservations about the one who showed up claiming to be partners with… Was that something shiny? He took several steps towards the item that caught his eye, then backed away in horror. The item in question was not a key, it was a watch… still attached to the charred body to whom it belonged whilst he was alive. With all the adrenalin pumping through his system, Kai had completely forgotten about the policemen who had died while he escaped. He felt like he was going to throw up.
Around him people were dousing small patches of carpet and wall in case they sprouted flame again. But no one expected one of them to spontaneously combust.
Later, Kai would be kind of impressed that the fire-manipulator had the power to completely incinerate FLAME-RETARDANT clothing in a manner of seconds. For the moment, all he felt was rage. It bubbled up in him, hotter than any blaze. He killed all those people. He killed his cactus. And now he was advancing on a person that Kai had tried very hard to save. That was not acceptable.
He charged. Completely unaware that the target had stopped moving.
Noel was stuck until the command was finished. Where Yanagi had got cut off was entirely unknown, she was in her away state and it took a minor moment to come back to herself. Sort of like she had to wait for her brain to re-boot. And when it did... there was a lot of action.
Flaming man and her partner struggled to roll around and put out the flames. She would help. She was... in a suit and had an extinguisher handy. She'd never gotten to pull this kind of trigger before.
A quick hosing and the strugglers were out of flames. The man seemed angry. Her partner, more struggling to keep a handle on the situation. Just about everyone seemed confused.
Brawny hands and brawnier men came to separate the brawlers and hold them away from each other. The man just kept sprouting flames. Each time a tongue sprouted up, Noel hosed it down.
"What's going on here?" Seemed to be the question on all of their lips.
Noel had to shout over her extinguisher. "This man is not a firefighter. He is very dangerous. This apartment is his home. He is under arrest." Those were things she knew for sure and so she spoke them with certainty.
In case you were wondering, fire extinguishers are ‘contents under pressure’. Meaning that said contents tend to come out at high velocity when the pressure is released. So added to having fallen down a flight of stairs, getting into a fist fight, and getting dragged out of a fist fight, being doused several times meant that Kai was going to be black and blue the next day.
>>"This man is not a firefighter. He is very dangerous. This apartment is his home. He is under arrest."
Correct. Right on. That’s true… Maybe not so much. The fire-obsessed-bad-dude was doing his very best to NOT be under arrest. True, the fire extinguishers kept him from being at his most deadly, but it was impossible to get a good hold on him. None of the real firefighters wanted to get close enough to grab him. Understandable, considering the sporadic flame bursts…
So Kai did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed an extinguisher and hefted the metal canister over his shoulder. Then, circling around his unsuspecting foe, he snuck up behind him and clobbered him over the head.
Man, he thought with satisfaction, I hope that looked as cool as I saw it in my head…
The extinguisher resonated with a distinct klonging sound.
And then it was Noel's wide eyes meeting... not Kael's eyes. Blink.
She drew her... she didn't have a gun. Noel stepped over the bad guy's body and looked at him closely, extinguisher nozzle rising to maximum impact level. But... it was only the kid from before. "Delivery boy." She breathed the word with her relief. She let her extinguisher droop. "Help me carry Yanagi? Unless you're a volunteer firefighter or something." And where did Kael go?
"Thank you, sirs." She pat the muscly fire fighting arm closest to her. She dismissed them back to their stomping and dousing now that the danger was over.
Her job up here was done. She'd have to get the firefighters. Maybe some coroners later. For now, secure the prisoner. Noel stepped away from him, pulled off her glove and pulled her arm inside from her sleeve to root around in her clothes under her fire suit. The fire suit's arm dropped limp at her side.
Handcuffs. Tadah! Who said she didn't come prepared? She wriggled her arm back out, handcuffs and all then knelt to fix Yanagi's hands behind his limp body. It wouldn't be enough without Kael around. Where was that man? "Did you see where Kael went, per chance?"
The super-secret-agent woman also magically had a pair of handcuffs, which she employed in a timely fashion once the thug was unconscious.
>>“Delivery boy. Help me carry Yanagi? Unless you're a volunteer firefighter or something."
Kai shuddered. He’d seen enough fire to last him for a good long while. “No… not a volunteer firefighter.” He sighed. Was this the thanks he got for tackling the bad guy and subduing him? Not even a ‘thank you’ or ‘nice one!’. Nope. They asked him to carry the body back downstairs.
>>”Did you see where Kael went, per chance?”
That one caught him off guard. “Uh… who’s Kael? One of these firefighters?” He asked in hushed tones lest he offend someone. They seemed pretty interested in checking the rest of the room and paid little attention to the pair of them and their unconscious foe.
He crouched down, trying to determine the best way to lever the small man onto his shoulders. Totally not what I signed up for… He hoisted him up by the arms. He certainly wasn’t very heavy. Not terribly surprising. All the same… “Let’s move quickly before I drop him. Is there a police car or something out front?”
Hey, maybe if she was nice, he’d even let her take the lead this time. Thinking back on their last trip down this hallway prompted another stray thought- Hopefully this time we won’t end up in a pile. He hoisted the man over his shoulder and waited for further instructions.
Was Kael a firefighter? "No. He is not a firefighter. Not a firefighter at all." Not actual fires. Maybe proverbial fires, though. Noel explained as they hoisted the bad man into their arms and then it was the two of them back in the stairwell together. "Kael is something called an 'adapted.' He is human, but he has a special power to keep mutants from using their abilities. Handy for naughty firemancers." It was slow going between wet stairs and sensible heels and a limp body to carry.
"Hopefully there will be an adapted or an ambulance down there because if this guy wakes up again and there isn't one, you might have to keep banging him on the head. Wouldn't make for good press." She couldn't erase physical proof any better than anyone else could, but she could try to keep him subdued. Though Noel couldn't say why she cared about press or why she was bothering to hoist a bad man down the stairs, Noel just knew that she needed to. She was sure she had good reason, but it would be best if someone downstairs could fill her in.
Carefully, very carefully Noel made her way down the stairs with the delivery boy. So far, not even a wiggle of the little toe.
When she backed through the ground-level floor they were greeted with bulb flashes and shouted questions. When Noel answered "I don't know." or "I have no comment at this time." She was sincere and her words tasted fresh as the morning dew. The flashes did nothing to help her throbbing head. They did nothing to help keep bad fire man asleep either.
An adapted? Sounded interesting and somewhat useful in this instance. Does that mean that when he shows up, I won’t be able to hear plants anymore? Kai played with one of the acorns on his necklace. The idea of not being able to enjoy what trees had to say and benefit from their wisdom seemed a great loss, but lately he was almost willing to give it up if it prevented him from going overboard with his powers.
And possibly ending up like this guy…
They made it safely outside without any mishap and waded through reporters and cameramen, with their questions and their flashing and clicking. Kai just followed silently and nodded along with the “no comment”s.
After travelling through a gauntlet of microphones and other equipment, he could finally see the police cars and ambulances through the crowd of people. Which was good because the limp body seemed to be getting heavier and heavier with each step. He shifted under the weight, trying to rebalance it. And the body slipped- or moved?
“Uuhhh?!” Kai exclaimed as the arms that were hanging limp beside him were all of a sudden grasping at him. He lost his balance and fell to his knees with a dull thud. “I could use some help here!” He managed to yelp.
Then he was disentangling himself from a deranged, handcuffed pyromaniac in a crowd full of people. Greeeaaat. He hoped he could count on his backup at least, and possibly her’s.
Violence always looks worse on television. That was why RUPERT had pretty strict policies on pistol whipping in front of witnesses. Noel probably would have done it anyway if she had a pistol.
Instead all she had were her two hands, a fire suit and that extra tank of extinguishing fluid they'd strapped to her back before they went up stairs. When the wriggling started, the first thing to go was her grip on his legs. He yanked his foot out of one of her hands and then smashed it back into the other hand. HARD. He didn't have enough leverage to break anything but it smarted enough for her to let go. Which was what he wanted, of course.
He didn't shout. He didn't to anything but tussle. He could have at least shouted that we was going to murder someone in front of the press.
Noel tested her hand. It wasn't really in good punching order. It was time to go all in.
She dove.
She'd had training in this kind of thing and her body remembered better than she did. Between herself and the flower shop boy they could probably get him pinned without getting too singed. Probably.
"Stop struggling, you'll only make it worse." The words came out between tightened muscles and flailing arms. At least Yanagi was still in cuffs. Police were pushing back the crowds to see what all the sudden frenzy in the crowd was all about. The problem was that they were pressed shoulder to shoulder in order for each and every person to get a better shot than the next. Who was in charge of this crime scene? They had better be fired.
It had not been a very good day. And it seemed that it was only getting worse as the crazed and handcuffed mutant regained consciousness and broke free of their hold. Kai dove after him, trying to keep his hands pinned. (It was just a guess, but it seemed to be the point of his mutation.) The struggle was just growing, escalated by anxious photographers and news reporters looking on and freaking out, feeding the frenzy.
Kai desperately tried to restrain Yanagi. He knew his own strength would not be enough- but what else was there? A quick glance around- no convenient ropes lying around. Maybe the hoses could work if he could reach them, but…
He wanted to scream his frustration!
Then all of a sudden he felt veeeery calm.
The criminal stopped fighting him and Kai looked around lazily. A little girl, about 6, in a flowery white dress seemed to have ducked under the outstretched arms of the police and was standing a few feet from the crowd, yet no one seemed to be stopping her or trying to get her to move back to a safe distance. She skipped over to the three central characters, blond ringlets bouncing.