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.
The bleeding lady said something about Mai...? Danny got the feeling she was starting to get a little off from the loss of blood. So he just said “Yeah, sure.” And helped her along.
Lady started to say something when she saw green lady. And Danny felt like maybe, there was something there. And that there was a sudden need to actually get names. But there was no time!! He delivered his little line.
Understandably, the green lady was caught off guard by his comment. Off guard enough, the coffee suffered for it. An unexpected casualty.
And then, the lady... took over. Directing them to a nearby building. Danny opened his mouth and just let his jaw hang for a second. Like, “Uhhh.” They had been wanting to take the cab. But— what?
Because of the unexpected direction things had started going, the young doctor wannabe did not immediately hop to it to follow her away. He stood. Stopped. Glancing between the cab and the person. What exactly—
Oh. Things came sliding into place. She was a NURSE. Okay cool cool. He said a quick apology to the cab driver, who was looking pretty ticked off by now.
“Eh. Just make us your mind goddamn kids.” The older cabbie grumbled.
Danny called back sooooooorry and hauled his person over towards green and her building.
Green asked a question. Aaaand the other woman said something that made very little sense to him, about moons and Moscow.
“Dunno about Moscow moons.” Danny cut in. “Happened a few minutes ago. Ricochet and her power stopped the worst. She got lucky. Already took out the bullet. “But she’s lost a lot of blood.”
Had he called an ambulance? Again, the woman interjected. All nervous like, talking about being caged. “No ambulance.” He doubled down on the woman’s point. Firmly. “Please.” A glance at the green lady. “No. Insurance.” It was a lousy bit of deception, but as far as he knew, it could have been the truth.
To the woman, he added as soothingly as he could. “It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine.”
He followed Green to the room, supporting the other lady the entire time. To a couch. Danny helped her get situated, and it was good he had. She was definitely feeling the blood loss. Not steady, at all.
She didn’t lay down. Wanted to stay seated upright. Well okay. He could dig it, she had her reasons. With how she was gibbering, it was probably to stay conscious.
Danny had no idea what to make of what she was saying. Sounded bad though, what with the screams and the dying.
“Calm down,” he said. “Take it easy.”
To greenie, he said. “Backpack. Med kit.”
“Chill out.” He kept the lady from rising with a gentle hand. Would help the lady examining her if she didn’t have her patient flying off the couch.
“My name is Danny.” He said quietly. “This is... Mai.” He said the first name that came to mind. Just so happened to be the only name that had come out of her mouth.
“Sorry if I didn’t do so hot with the bandages and stuff. I’m only in my first couple years of med school. But I had to do something... the hippo oath.” He explained, as if that resolved everything.
“Yeah. I’m a mutant.” He confirmed, in what he thought a very soothing voice.
She seemed stressed. Reasonably so.
As he worked, he had answered her few questions and went with small talk. Casually. Who said he had no bedside manner?
>>”That’s an interesting power.”
“Thanks. It’s useful. For when I need stuff in stuff.”
He had examined the wound. Then she had asked him if he did this often. And an eyebrow had gone up.
“Not often. Helping strangers... maybe twice. This is the first one like this...” ‘Please don’t sue’, he thought to himself. ‘Or die.’
Dying would be bad. They needed to absolutely prevent that.
“I am in medical school though... still learning.” Danny said.
And speaking of preventing death. Time to call the ambulance. Except she wasn’t into that. No extra blood either. Did have barriers. Which was neat.
She seemed to be getting out of it which was bad. So he ignored her question for a moment and started wrapping a bandage around her middle.
“Hold this so it gets tight enough.” He said.
He finished up the medical stuff. Picked up his kit and reverted it to tiny form, gathered all his other stuff suuuuper quick. Then said “No. Cant shrink. Hold on.”
He got beneath her and gave her a steadying arm as they made their way out of the alley.
“No hospitals huh. Well... that place is a ways off. Cab it is. Oh CABBY!” Danny tried to call for a cab. The cab that had stopped nearby down the block, actually. The one currently being boarded by a girl with green skin and — he wasn’t sure at ALL what was going on with her hair. But it was there.
“Hey! Can we use the cab, lady? My friend here got SHOT.”
Maybe he shouldn’t have said that so loud but he was kind of dealing with a lot of things right now!
One of the venue’s people was screaming and doing weird mutant stuff but Danny was more focused on staying alive and stuff to really pay that more than a passing thought.
Ah ah ah ah staying alive, staying alive. The song began playing in his mind.
It was interesting that the ghost dogs could go through people, but solid objects. Metal objects. Seemed to hit them. He figured that out the hard way as he bum-rushed one of the wolves in a moment of ‘IDGAF’ bravery that was more an ‘F this’ than actual heroism. Danny brought his boot up in a kick at one wolf. Boot went through. Then, he went through the wolf with his forward momentum... except for the mic stand, which he had horizontally across his chest. He clotheslined himself with his own weapon.
The mic had not passed through the ghost hound. But he had. Until the mic. The result was a dead stop, followed by him being shoved backwards onto his ass.
“Weird...”
He stopped paying attention to his band mates, and focused on how he could use this.
“Metal hurts them!” He shouted. “Like some sort of dumb fairytale lore thing!”
Then he rushed at the nearest group of wolves and started swinging the mic stand.
On the floor, the wild hunt band leader groaned and stirred.
Simon and Isabelle were fending them off with their respective powers. Seemed the chair thing the one venue worker was doing was working, too. And was that Alec in the corner, with a metal chair of his own getting ready to sneak up on a wolf? Guess he wasn’t so Brave Sir robin after all.
“You’ve been shot,” he said dumbly. And then, for good measure he added with more emphasis, “You’ve been shot!”
Now that he’d had a chance to see the wound, he felt a little faint. Danny wasn’t generally nervous around blood, but hey! There’s a first time for everything. Like helping a person with a gunshot wound. And yes, he HAD heard the sarcasm in the comment about seeing how much blood she had. He had chosen to ignore it. Because rising to bait when someone was clearly in pain was just... dumb. Of course she’d feel like snapping. It had probably come off as a dumb question.
Come to think of it, repeating ‘you’ve been shot’ was probably idiotic as well. But as noted previously, this was his first real rodeo.
She had said to do as he wished, so Danny day his backpack down and pulled out a tiny red fox kit keychain. He focused on it, and plopped it down on the concrete. And it changed, into a large medical kit.
He opened the kit up, and looked at all the bandages and things inside. Then, he looked at her when she started talking about the bullet. And it’s current location.
The girl tried to force herself up. He moved to help her settle back down.
“No, no. Stay seated. We’ll get you up in a bit. For the ambulance. I’m going to call an ambulance once I’ve extracted the bullet. I’m only in my first couple of years of Med school and if there’s internal damage, I’m not sure what I can do about it. And that’s a lot of blood loss, so we’ll need an IV. But— for now. Just sit and focus on staying conscious.”
He pulled out his phone, just for flashlight functionality. Tried to shine a light on the wound to see if he could locate the bullet. As he worked, he muttered to himself. Thinking out loud.
“Didn’t go through. Maybe not a straight shot. Ricochet? Not sure about internal damage, but— hold on. There’s the little effer. Lemme just.”
It was HIGHLY unsanitary, to just reach in and poke it. So he pulled some clean gloves out of his med kit first. Then, barring any objections from her, he poked a digit gently into the lady’s wound. And did some shady back alley surgery.
In a real hospital, there would probably be forceps and things to hold back skin and stuff to get a good visual. To pluck the bullet out with tongs or tweezers or whatever. He hadn’t studied bullet extractions much yet. But he had the basic ideas from shows like ER.
Be afraid, lady. Be very afraid.
He also had his power. And by some stroke of luck, it seemed the bullet had been blocked somehow. It had not impacted as hard on bone, or gone through muscle or organ. It had not gotten very deep at all. He could actually see it, holding his phone and poking his index finger in. Gingerly. Oh man.
He had to set his phone down, and grab something to duality. What was— ah okay. He picked up the first thing that he saw on the alley floor. It turned out to be an old candy bar wrapper. Then he touched the bullet. It probably hurt while he was rooting around in there. He hoped she wasn’t too inconvenienced by it all.
“And now that’s gone.” He said casually.
The bullet had vanished the moment he had used his power. He had touched the wrapper and combined its essence with that of the bullet. The wrapper stayed where it was and now had the weight of a bullet. He could change them back and forth at will.
Danny pocketed the candy wrapper, and stripped off the bloody glove. Tossed it in the trash. Then, he pulled the roll of bandages out of the kit.
“Next, guess I wrap to apply pressure and keep the blood in. And we call an ambulance. You’re bullet-free, but you need extra blood. Unless your mutation is to have extra blood in which case I’m an idiot but I feel like you somehow blocked some of the bullets force and that saved your life.” For now.
Danny transformed his guitar back to pick form, and stuffed it back in his bag. The rest of his crew were gathering up their own things— mostly done— when the woman with the sharp nose stood up, and shared sharper words with one of the bands.
Thanked him, thanked the others, and then called out wild hunt. The band him and his had aped on, made fun of with their catchy, yet tasteful jibes. Called them out for not being mutants.
“Oh shi—“ Danny said.
He’d suspected the band had not brought any mutants, but here it was, painfully and bluntly confirmed. Made him glad he’d had some mutant action in his act... aside from Isabelle, that was. Alvin blurred on drums, Simon could do something with sound that was useful, sometimes... reverb, maybe? And him. He was. Hadn’t shown it but he was. They, Wild hunt, was not, and it showed. Somehow. She could tell.
The leader was pissed. Pushed. I was a teenage werewolf practically growled. He wasn’t even a real wolf man. How douchey of him to play pretend when he was not, to try and use something good for mutants for himself. The audacity of it all almost made Danny forget about the fact she’d been calling on frickin’ Raisin Bran instead of his own band. The freaky thing he did that summoned wolves, however, did the job. Danny totally forgot about being bitter like the cran in raisin cran. Which was their name, right? Not a bad name actually. Made you think.
Made you think what the tell was a raisin crane, made you think.
A sound like a record scraping to a halt cut through the dramatic ambience of the moment, just as Danny was saying to himself “You bet I’m wondering how I keep getting into sh** like this.” He stopped. Looked to Simon. “Really, Simon?!”
Simon smiled sheepishly. Maybe sound stuff was more than just reverb. Maybe it was Sound Effects. They’d need to use him better.
Wild hunt man shouted ‘we ride’ one more time.
“Ride this.”
Without a thought for why, or what possible strategy there was to it, Danny picked up his music bag and lobbed it at the Wild hunt lead singer’s head. It was just a backpack, mind you. A perfectly normal looking black school bag. The guitar pick inside the bag, and the fox kit medicine kit, added up to the actual real weight that crashed into wolf man’s head.
“Wild thump,” Danny stated brazenly, as the man tumbled onto his ass. “Get a real life, and stop taking advantage of us m— meep!”
He’d been standing on the stage, looking down at the jerk. Figured he’d won. Then. A ghost wolf hippity hopped up into the stage and bared its teeth. Danny took two smart steps back.
Usually, an electric guitar to the face crumpled fools. Made them unconscious. Either the tool was tougher than he’d looked, or his wolf buddies didn’t require conscious thought to control.
Danny grabbed a mic stand to stave off the wolf. As he batted it away, a loud boom shook the area and made the wolves cower in on themselves with their oh so sensitive ears.
“Simon, nice.” Isabelle commented appreciatively. “Do it again.”
Simon did not get to do it again, unfortunately. His grand gesture had drawn about half the pack surging towards the stage. With a crack, Isabelle produced her whip of light. Danny continues beating on the wolf In front of him, in the hopes he could get an opening and dart past it down to ground level so he could continue beating on the wolf man.
His bag was down there, dammit. Nobody better break his fox kit. An ex had given him that!
As for the rest of his band... Alvin has blurred into the background fast as he could. Which was pretty damn fast. And Theodore and Alec had executed flawless Brave Sir Robin approaches. Exit, stage left.
Danny heard what could have been gunshots, at a time he couldn’t have told you, in a place that hadn’t been a bad neighborhood or a good neighborhood, on the corners of don’t remember and who cares. He had not seen the car or it’s people. In New York, you might hear things that sound like gun shots all the time. He had not called the police. Surely, someone would call them for him. Maybe even a woman named Shirley.
What he had seen, as he cut through an alley (because he was smart, cutting through alleys in New York), was a woman staggering. And a notable wound. It was notable, because of the blood and because she was clutching it and lowering herself against a doorway and the wall.
His mind went tunnel focused, like how first responders may or may not want to be. He saw the injury, he knew generally how one might help a stabbing victim or something. He saw it from the ass end of the alley, though. Needed to get closer before he could tell the whole story. So, he did.
Danny stopped about six feet from the woman and got her attention.
“Hello, Miss? Miss, are you alright? Did you hear those gun shots? Are you stabbed? Is there anything I can do? I have, stuff.”
He may have come off harried and nervous. He was harried and nervous. Stuff consisted of a backpack full of school crap and medical supplies. Mainly a lot of first aid, that currently doubled as a fox shaped keychain in his bag. He felt like Winnie the Pooh when he said “Oh bother...”
“Awoooo!” The band man howled. And... and that wrapped up his band’s set.
Danny sat back, and laced his fingers behind his head. That had been... interesting. A Celtic Woodwind / Death Metal fusion band? Called the Wild Hunt? They weren’t terrible, but it just had not worked for him. And the band members had all gotten way into the theme. The main man had dressed like a wolf man, and the other band members had gone glamour with too much makeup. KISS, they were not. Hard rock, they were not. Or any sort of Death Metal he had ever seen. They looked like faeries... and maybe, that had been the point.
Danny had a feeling, just a gut feeling. But he was willing to be the curly hairs on his head that the lead singer, at the very least, was NO mutant. He just dressed like a wolf man, and tried too hard.
This was mutants night at the club he and his group were auditioning for. Mutant night meant that at least one member of the band needed to be a mutant. At least, that was what the whole point of the clubs thing was. But it was not as if one needed to show off the mutant might for mutant night. One could be a card carrying member without flashing the card... it just felt cheap to him. Mutants has to deal with so much bull, people who took advantage of them when good things happened were just low. But hell, that was up to the club owners to decide. All he knew for certain was that his set was next. Whet WERE they going to go by, tonight?
His band changed names often. A rite of passage for young bands of goofballs that had not yet made it big. His band members were people he knew from high school and college. While some people of his generation has played Halo, and were mastering Chief, him and his friends had been mastering the blade... of music! There. Now that was a neat band name. Blade of music. Reminded him of lord of dance.
His band members names were Simon, Alec, Isabelle, Alvin, abs Theodore. Ted, for short. Ted was backup vocals and bass. Ted talked. All the others had other suitable skills. He sang lead, with lead guitar.
His group got ready. Piled their things together, and worked on moving to the stage. To follow That.
A few minutes later, Hungry like the wolf played. It was a punky, catchy little cover of the song with a swinging beat... and they were playing up the gam and cheese. To sort of mock the band before them. Wild grunt, wasn’t it? They shifted mid-song into another one, all impromptu-like, at his directing. Into Howl, by Florence and the Machine. He’s been tempted by Werewolf of London, but some things are too much. And Howl was good and modern, to key off the good and old of hungry like the wolf. They killed it. Butts swayed, and by the time he was finished, Danny thought he’d done a great job. Captivated the audience, however small the audition group was.
“Thank you, my lovelies!” He finished. “Tonight, we were hunters moon!” He finished holding the mic up to his mouth. He clasped it by his chest, then returned it to the stand. Then, they wrapped up by gathering their things.
His band had showed off their skills at least once. Isabelle had swung her light ribbon around while dancing like an mffer. Take that, wild blunt. Take that, with cream.
All that was left was to see what followed, and hear the club’s hot take on all the songs. He knew the wild hunt’s take. During the set, they had glowered like their favorite animal was being turned into a wolf skin rug in front of their faces. Perfect.
Girly asked a question and it was a really good question!
“Shrink, stay shrunk. Shrink, shrank. Shrunk. Tiny stuff is easier to carry.” He supplies her with an answer.
He didn’t add that getting large would only give them reason to get small again. And that’s tax their man. He only had so much gas to give. Also that constantly changing sizes might get them caught.
Her explanation why they needed to get large again momentarily took him back. “Ah. Gotcha.” He smiled at her. “Glad you’re thinking ahead. Guess we’ll have to play it your way there. I’ll have to provide a distraction when you guys go big. Easy enough, right?”
He looked to Gary.
“Bees?” The man suggested.
“Bees, bees, bees.” Lucien agreed. “Easy.”
So when did they get started?
“Give is an hour to get Gary his hive, then we ride. Jive?” Lucien grinned.
Sooner is better than later.
—
During the hour, Lucien showed them the gear they’d shrinky dink. The fear to help them stay in touch. He showed the girl and her guy the maps and explained the layout, as well as an idea of what sorts of security they would face.
They took a minute to suit up. Everything was cool, gun metal gray and black jumpsuit with red accents. A helmet with a visor to see infrared, along with a communications array. Ear wig, mic. Built in. He figured now was better than In The car. If anyone was modest. They had toilets.
When they were ready, they drove to the bank in a white transit truck. The back was full of equipment. Computer banks, stuff to talk. Looked like a news van inside.
Lucien drove, and met them sit and talk.
Gnat man had lots to say to the girl. He was excited. He had plans for the cash. He was gonna get a big dog. And other stuff. Stuff to help his business. Make him rich. Er. Richer.
Gary had a backpack device that looked like a flamethrower. It emitted a low buzzing sound, amid the sound of humming fans. The glass tank on the back was a little murky. Dark like smoke had touched the inner sides. Through it, one could see surging motion. Something. Bees, most likely.
“It’s a big dog. Good dog. Kind you can’t find at the pound. Good breeding. Good buddies cost good cash... and those cheeks are gonna be so fluffy. Like Beethoven on crack.” Gnatty explained.
Gary stared at his bee thrower. He patted it and hummed with the fans.
They made it around the corner, and-- Yipes! She pounced him like a tiger. Buried him in kisses.
She was talking, calling him stupid, silly. But she wasn't mad at him. He had saved her life. She was thankful, wasn't she? Well, yeah. What with the kissing and all. Appreciative kisses. Not salacious. Sloppy. But that was okay. Danny liked it.
Unerneath the avalanche, he was grinning stupidly. The grin got wider when she mentioned dark corners, and the best night of his life.
"Oh yeah? Heh. Well." He looked around, to get his bearings. Clenched his hand. Noticed he'd gotten a cut. Nothing life-threatening or anything. A good score, not too deep. They could wrap a towel around it and it would be fine. He'd changed the knife before it could do anything worse.
Danny noticed he was staring down at the cut on his palm. He looked back up at her, and smiled weakly.
"That sounds wonderful. I think I saw a hotel about a block or so down when I was looking around a second ago. Maybe we could go there, wrap this." He wiggled the fingers on the hand he was holding up for her to see. "And then, we can talk about all that other stuff. Because it sounds wonderful. And you're lovely." That said. He planted one on her. And this kiss. This kiss, he tried to put some of that senSUality into that the other kisses had been missing.
As he broke away, he smirked at her. Then, gave a gentle tug with the linked arms. In the direction of the hotel.
Good. He had assuaged her concerns. At least, for the moment. Didn’t care about bars, but they could find plenty to pay her way. He was not worried about it either.
Lucien was thankful that Gary had never had any concerns. He was one of the more important members in this crew. Him and his bee. Gnat man... was concerning. That he had concerns, concerned Lucien. He kept it close to the chest.
Girly was still in. So— it was time to talk.
“Okay. Here’s the plan. Gnat man can shrink the main party. Gary, your bee if the main ride. I will be in the getaway vehicle, running commutations. Overseeing the whole operation. Not as fast as I used to be,” he smiled at the group. “But this still works alright.” He tapped his skull.
“So anyways, we take the bee and go through the vents. With our shrunk down equipment, I can walk you through the building vent layout and we can handle anything they throw at us. We will be well out of shot of any adapteds. Then, we get in. Get out. And get on with our lives.”
There. That was the quick summary. Clear as mud, right?
Lucien listened to X and his summary, taking keen mental notes of what the kid had done, did, and did well. As well as what he did poorly.
He had little control over finesse operations. His accuracy was poo. He took parkour to help with landings? Lucien knew jack diddly about parkour, and all them Frenchy French things. But maybe a martial art would help more with that? Those martial artists knew how to take a punch and fall over right. He hadn’t done any martial arts other than boxing, eras ago. And that was eras ago, as previously mentioned.
As for the nitty gritty, and details of his powers and experiences— the kid really laid it all out. He had no shame.
“So, you really took down Mothra?” He asked curiously, eying the kid. “That was you. I saw it in the papers. Two X-men. Giant moth.” Pronounced mawth. “Reporters didn’t get to interview either of you. You’ll have to tell me about it some time. But that story definitely tells me you need to work on accuracy.”
“With more accurate attacks you could have pelted him with smaller things. From more angles. And worn him down rather than launching something big and heavy for a single large attack.” He said.
“And we should find you a martial art. Help you learn to take a punch and fall right. Just saying.”
She took the elbow, and hit a whole lot closer. Danny liked this. If she was cold, he certainly could warm her up. Then she glanced around a short time later, and he noticed.
Why was she glancing around? Was something wrong? Had he done something wrong without realizing it?
She squeezed his arm, and he didn’t need to consider body language or whether he had done the wrong thing or not anymore! Because she flat out told him what the problem was.
The problem was... that they should go. She sounded nervous, and he upped his speed at her urging. If she had sensed something, something he could not sense, he was wise enough to listen to her about it. Rather than argue and make the situation worse. Some people do that. Sometimes, you just gotta go with the glow though, and extend a lil bit o trust.
A voice spoke behind them... and Danny did not trust it. Nope. Not one bit.
“Heeeey. I’m a bit lost.” A male voice murmured dreamily. “Bit lost. Could you—“ The man licked his lips.
Danny looked over his shoulder. Green man, trench coat. Voice gave him goosebumps. Creepy AF.
He tried to keep walking, but for some reason... his progress was impeded. As if by an invisible wall.
For Ash Lee, Desdemona, or whatever her name was that evening (Devia), the emotions coming off the guy would be heady and intense. A predatory glee, amusement, a hint of paranoia. He liked the situation, and had a good feeling about it. But there was always the chance he had picked wrong. The girl was a strange color, and he had not noticed that. Did not like it as much as the man goggling at him dumbly. She could be a threat.
“Dude.” Danny said, turning back towards the green man. “She said she wanted to follow you, but this is ridiculous. Man. Drop the wall and let us leave. You’re creeping her out.” And him. He was creeped out, too. But he was not going to broadcast for very much he disliked this situation! Devia was scared, and he needed to be cool-headed. For her.
The green man smiled his toothy smile. He needed a dentist. Crooked yellowed teeth. Gaps. “Just asking... asking for directions.” He said, and took a step towards them. Danny could not take a step back. The man stepped forward again, and there was a flash of silver.
Danny did not think. He acted purely on instinct. He brought his free hand up to block the silver thing, and as he did, he tried to move his other hand to touch something... and failed. Because it was linked with Devia’s arm, and she was close. So, he did the best he could do, and swiveled his hand do that he could brush his palm against the side of her body, and her shirt.
He focused for a second, past the slicing pain. And suddenly, the knife was gone. The shirt was still there. In a week, they would be separate again and Devia would have a knife with his blood on it. Hell of a souvenir!
Danny followed up the super cool disarming move he’d just done by taking the bag off from where it hung by a strap over his shoulder, screaming like a girl, and swinging it at the green man’s head.
The bag was heavy, but not bulging at the sides with stuff. There were a few things. Minor things. But it was the smallest thing, the lone guitar pick, that gave the bag it’s hefty weight. When he made duality objects, you see, the item gained the additional property of weighing as much as the heaviest item in the pairing, in either form. Which technically meant that Devia’s shirt now weighed as much as a heavy Bowie knife. Unless the shirt had weighed more from the onset. And also, it technically meant he was smashing the green man in the face with an electric guitar. Without damaging the lovely guitar, itself.
The man flew sideways and crumpled. From the knife slash to the bag smash, the whole thing has probably lasted about six seconds.
“Screw you!” Danny shouted. “Ain’t nobody following that!”
And then, he shifted his bag back over his shoulder and hauled Devia by her arm, forward.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!”
They passed through the invisible wall. Danny has been scared and all nerves before... but he liked it when he passed on through.
So, the kid was repulsive. That was a mean thing to say about one’s self! From a completely impartial perspective, based entirely upon the facts... the guy was muscular, with strong features many a man or woman might deem striking. Handsome, even. From a purely superficial standpoint, he was a looker. As far as personality went... they’d only just met. If he had a repulsive personality... well, that was his issue to deal with.
Repulsive. He repelled. From himself, and by himself. There were a lot of possibilities there. It was a real goatee-on-chin scratcher. If he’d had a goatee on his chin, he would have scratched it. But he didn’t. What an embarrassing oversight.
X asked what the training entailed, and Lucien stopped scratching his bare chin. He nodded to himself. “Fair question, fair question. Well, X. Lemme tell ya. Training entails using the machines. The practice range and the exercise equipment. And talking. Lot of talking.”
“What I do, as a coach is. I brainstorm with you about ways you can best out your skills to good use.” He nodded at him. “A sharing of the minds, of you will.”
“If things go well, we might even go for a field run at some point. This isn’t a one-and-done sort of deal. My schedule isn’t always stable, but if you like how I train, we can arrange future coaching sessions. Fair?” He asked.
The kid would be paying him for the training. His rates weren’t too high. It really wasn’t about the money. Honestly, why was he doing this? For some evil plan down the line to utilize the kid for some sort of crime Maybe? Maybe. But it was more about him being a bored old man... he had a lot of ideas. And a lot of downtime in which to contemplate this. If others could utilize his brain pan, hey! At least he could feel useful, in his old age. Criminal enterprises were simply his area of expertise... but hey! Maybe knowing how criminals think makes one an expert in training heroes in order to combat that way of thought? Eh? Eh!
“Oh, don’t worry about the roadblocks.” He smiled knowingly at her. He was Annoyingly confident. “We won’t be taking the road. As for what’s in it for you... well, in addition to your usual fee, which we have discussed, you’ll get an equal portion of whatever we take home.”
An equal portion was more than fair. Especially since they could take home quite a bit.
“Gnat here can shrink things with his breath. And while they’re tiny, they weigh less. So we can literally stuff a duffle bag full of bills or gold and stuff and carry way more than we normally could. Plus, your power helps with that sort of thing too, Spekter. And then there’s the safe deposit box.” Lucien grinned.
He wasn’t going to say what was in that box. That was for him to worry about. Well. Except maybe she really wanted to know. She was really pissing in his cornflakes here.
He grimaced and rubbed at his chin. “On second thought, the safe deposit box really wouldn’t interest you. It mainly has information someone stored. Stuff for personal security... for some very bad people. I plan to sell it back to them at an exorbitant rate. Really... does not affect you. Honestly, I’m not sure what would convince you to put your life on the line beyond loads and loads of easy money, but—“ He rambled and trailed and shrugged.
“Eh. What can I do? If you don’t want to stick your neck out, you don’t want to stick your neck out. Would it help if I explained to you. To all you people. Exactly how we will be circumventing the danger of adapteds and the majority of the building’s security? Promise it’ll only take a few minutes. And if you all still do not like the idea, I guess we can cut our losses and I can pay you for your inconvenience and send us all on our happy little ways?”
He smiled weakly at the group, focusing mainly on the largest dissenting voice. Gnat-man glanced around, looked at the girl, and laughed. “I got five minutes. Company isn’t too bad.”
Gary blinked dully. “Um. I never had any objections in the first place? Not like I’m a busy bee...”
Lucien glared at him. He coughed, into his fist. He glared harder. Gary pulled out a disinfecting wipe from a pack in his pocket. Cleaned his hands.
They exchanged pleasantries, good good. Once that was done, he shuffled them all to a large table in the center of the room. The table had donuts and coffee on it. Lucien took a donut, pour d out some coffee, and sat down.
He took a bite of his donut. Drank some coffee. He didn’t die or anything. People would just have to take his word on it that the whole tray of donuts did not have any hidden razor blades or poison, and that he’d taken the one good chocolate cake boy.
Once they were settled, he began.
“So, you all have particular skills. Think I went over them. Gary has his bees, Gnat-Man can make things get big or small. And Spekter can ghost through things, and make them lighter when she’s holding stuff that’s all ghostly and stuff. Right? Right.”
He’d seen the can thing, he knew she had not struggled to hold it. And then she had. That had given him a fairly good read on that aspect of her power. Enough to know how he could utilize her skills to their fullest.
“We’re gonna rob,” he listed off a bank. It was a nice sized one. One girly probably had not robbed, what with their terribly effective security. “They have gold bars held in the vault, and there’s a safe deposit box I got my eye on. Their security, though... it’s pretty good.”
He sipped his coffee. Then spoke. “The front entrance is your basic bank front. Cameras and guards. Nothing special. When you get past it, though, there are certain traps laid out for people. I’m not sure how they do it, but they have a system that detects if a mutant power is used within a certain area in the bank. Once that’s triggered, a silent alarm is sent out that alerts some private security guards in their nearby stations to trouble.”
He grimaced down at his donut. “These trouble shooters nullify mutant powers in a large radius.”
Gnat-Man smacked a hand down on the table. “So how do we deal with them?” The honey had gone from him. Now, he was all business.
“Team effort.” Lucien smiled. He pointed to each person, in turn. “Spekter, Gary, Gnat. You are all gonna work together to circumvent this security. Go ahead, ask how?”
