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.
The segway was there. But now they had no intention of using it. Because they were about to get some wheels. Zek had no problem with that. After all, he’d also swiped one vehicle in this escapade and that had actually turned out pretty well, considering the ginormous amounts of cash he now had.
Who knew epic heist automobiling could be so rewarding?
Then lo and behold, a nice red car showed up, just out front of their alley. Funny how so much stuff seemed to pass right by there. It was a wonder that more people didn’t stake that alley out for such fortuitous times like this. Then again, Zek guessed that standard thieves and robbers didn’t quite have access to his and JuJu’s...er, skillset..
“Herewegoagain!” he cried, barely having enough time to leave a red orb on the segway. Cellphone guy appeared on it in the exact same position as he had been, and the segway then rolled into the wall of the alley. “Nexttimepayattention!” Zek’s voice carried as he himself was carried away and through the alley to grandmother’s house we stole.
Slickest moves he’d seen. Zek stuck his amazing tongue out at the the man they were liberating from the burdens of automobile insurance and then pointed a finger forward. “Engage, Number One! First street on the left and straight on ‘til morning!”
And they were off!
Zek started fiddling with the expensive-looking radio set and started trying to find a good station (and adjust the light display on the console) when ice cream got his attention. “I am soo interested,” he said matter-of-factly. “And remember, it’s on you. Think we’ll need to stop by a bank first though?”
He patted her fun-gotten duffle as she slid it back. Then the car started acting funny. “What’s that soun--?”
Then a medium-sized dog suffered a rude awakening and tried to make it’s way into the front. Juniper EEPED. Zek shrieked “AYIYIYIIYI” and immediately plastered himself to his side of the car. The car swerved and physics pulled the dog further into the front, where the gods decided to ensure the dog came onto Zek’s side and his lap.
“AAHHHHHH!” he panicked and immediately pushed the dog away. A blinding flash (at least, in those close quarters it was blinding) appeared and the dog vanished.
“AAAAHHHHH!!” he continued to yell because sometimes you just needed to yell. “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” He started to roll down the window on his side for several seconds before realizing cars only had digital window controls and no manual cranks anymore. “AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!” His fingers found the door locks. THe doors locked. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” THe doors unlocked. “AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!” He found a candy bar. “Oh yum.” The window started rolling down. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” He threw a red orb out the window. “TAKE THAT YOU LITTLE DEMON MONSTER FREAK! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”
Then Zek sat back and patiently rolled the window up.
Aaaaand more running. Because they hadn’t done enough of that already. But at least there were some good views. Inside of a van wall. Inside of a brick wall. Inside another kitchen (were they only passing through kitchens?). Inside another wall. THen finally out into not-so-fresh air.
Zek was really wanting to heave. All that running and not that long after absorbing a van. Not a great combination. His legs were starting to lock up. “Owie owie, owie,” he muttered as he stumbled away from Juni’s grasp.
Hopefully by now they’d managed to actually lose the losers. And at least his powers seemed to be working. And he had a mace. So no matter what happened, he was ready. But first the murder bucket. A ball formed right on top of the handle still in his hand and the murder bucket vanished. “I...need…ice cream….” Zek huffed. “We go...to find…. Ice cream.”
Zek absorbed the morningstar as well and bent over to rest his palms on his knees. Gasp. Breathe. Pant. Listen to Juniper’s amazing sounding idea. And watch the dude on a segway appear.
“Sounds great to me,” he said wearily. “I’ll throw, you fetch.” And then Zek straightened up and threw another ball at cellphone pedestrian man. He completely missed. Boy was he out of it. But so was the guy. “This is why you shouldn’t be on the phone when on one of these thing,” he muttered. “No awareness.” The second ball missed as well, blinking out of existence as soon as it had gone past the guy. Right before the man rolled away from the mouth of the alley, Zek finally caught him.
“Okay, now we got a random segway from out of nowhere,” he said. It was entirely possible Juniper had been talking this whole time, but he really couldn’t be bothered to pay attention at the moment. He was suddenly really wanting to sit down and devour an entire sundae. With all the toppings. He continued: “Quick: suggest us knocking someone out of their Ferrari.”
Zek was sure Juniper was trying to help, he just really wished she wouldn’t! His smile stretched to a painful degree and his eyes lit up with mania. Dead gods! We’re going to die! All because we wouldn’t want to lose something big and hammer-y! If his face hadn’t frozen in a rictus, Zek was confident he’d be going into hysterics.
His voice was squeakier than it had been since puberty when there was a loud metal clang of Juniper dropping something and then the guy started coming in. Zek backed up a half step. “Oh, this is your van!” he tittered. “Well on the bright side, nobody seemed to get hurt or --CATCH!”
He whipped his hand forward and a glowing ball
Did not appear. “Double you, tea, eff?!” Zek swore. He blinked at his hand. And the guy was coming in.
Zek felt a kind of wrenching inside of him, but also off somewhere else, and then Muscle-Man was coming out of his storage closet. “What the FLITTERJIBBLETS!” he roared in disbelief. But now they had an exit. The Facial Horror was out of the van and out of the picture, at least for now, and Juniper was still going fast.
“Yeah I got a plan!” Zek said, dropping down by the money. “Get the loot and get out!” He pushed the money together in a pile and willed an orb into being. Huh, it worked now. He smashed it into the money and then materizled the now full orb and shoved it into Juniper’s bag. “Zip it up, let’s go!” he said and grabbed his own bucket.
And the morningstar. He wasn’t leaving that just lying around.
“Can you take us through the wall?” he said quickly, once fully loaded. Otherwise, it was going to be a close run to base.
Zek continued to diligently dump the designated dollars into his dingy diminutive dumpster. He snorted. “Nope! Ice cream debt isn’t annulled until there is actual ice cream!” he decreed. “And Betty is lame. Nobody likes Betty.” And that was really all there was to it. No matter the giggles that came from Juniper. He Hath Spoken.
And the guys maybe weren’t the mob. Wait, were they ever the mob? Zek hid his puzzlement behind a look of confusion. “Hired goons? So who’s after you, then? Wait, is it an ex-lover! Aw, you’re really good at playing hard to get,” Zek said. His pearly whites flashed at her and he momentarily stuck his bright blue tongue out.
She handed him a file and his day just got even better. “Oh look, your admirer has such pretty handwriting!” he said. He pointed at the margins. “And it looks like they had some other plans, too. Let’s see, C.G. + J. J.” He stared at his cohort. “So much passion! You’re a lucky woman!” By now his voice was just dripping with sap.
“I don’t think ostriches are legal,” Zek said as they looked into other folders, the money apparently forgotten. There would be time to finish later. “Oh look, this Gabrielle likes singing in the shower and dancing in--on second though, we’ll come back to that one,” he said hastily. OF all days not to have his trenchcoat and its big, conveniently hidden pockets.
THe she asked if he had a dating profile. Whoops. “Maybe,” he said quickly. “Do you have one of these files?” Haha, ball’s in your cou--
"Don't you two know it’s rude to rifle through someone else's things?"
“Yipes!” he squeaked in a low voice, so only Juniper should hear. She kinda exploded into motion but Zek instinctively did the opposite. Smoothly standing, Zek pivoted and faced the voice.
It was an ugly guy. Like, real ugly. The kind of ugly you modelled cheap Halloween masks after. Seriously. Warthogs would run from this guy. Zek didn’t have that option. He forced himself to not vomit and instead plastered a hopefully convincing smile on his face. “We are all friends here” it was supposed to say. He slid his hands into the air.
Oh, the guy had a gun too. Zek’s smile stretched just a little bit more and he thought fast. “Oh hey,” he said in completely moderate levels of surprise yes sir. “Are you the owner of this van? We heard a terrible noise and saw it crash. We were wanting to make sure nobody was hurt.”
“Well, if ye say so,” Zek said, falling entirely out of the pirate accent. He glanced at the woman. Interesting how she was so familiar with bank money. And that she was being chased and, like, possibly brutally murdered by a bunch of guys who had weird access to weapons and so much bank money.
Zek liked her. And her snickers. The booty wasn’t bad either.
“You’re probably right,” he said. “Why drug or poison money. Why send a dozen doofuses after one woman. Why be bald.” Zek looked Juniper over a few times in a slow, meandering gaze. “Well, you’re not dead yet. Guess I’ll take my chances.”
Zek started looking around the van again, but this time with a purpose. “Halfsies is awesomesies,” he gushed. “This will definitely make up for the ice cream!” Actually, dumping it on a guy’s head had already been worth it, but he wasn’t gonna turn down lots of free money! Even if it was drug money or drug-covered money. These bills were just so crisp! He could already imagine rolling around in them on his apartment floor.
“You take the bag for your half,” Zek said, looking around still. “And I’ll take….the murder bucket, I guess,” he finished lamely, his eyes rettling on the hammer bucket. Well, it didn’t have to be pretty. His shoulders sagged before shrugging. A couple of orbs later, the bucket was on the floor beside him and he was ready to start swiping some serious scratch.
And to revisit the whole mysterious envelope thing. “So by the way,” he drawled. “I notice you noticed some files and stuff. Care to clue me in on what they’re about?” He put a stack of money in the bucket. “Some kind of dating portfolio, perhaps? Been there, done that, got a red check for it?”
Zek definitely didn’t hear the sound of some footsteps entering the alley.
Zek felt like he’d been poking around in the van for over a month. It just seemed to absorb you, like those gross ViewTube videos on people popping pimples that you couldn’t look away from. Different parts of the van exuded creepiness, chilling fear, and downright absurdity in varying measures that they all seemed to congeal into a soggy mess of “wut”.
He was just crouching to take a look at what appeared to be a speargun nestled underneath one of the lone chairs when Juniper nixed the idea of money in the glove compartment. “Well, darn,” he said offhandedly. It was a tad disappointing, but, like, he’d had no expectations at all so it really wasn’t ruffling any of his feathers. “We can’t sell creepy on the black market and I don’t have any contacts in Hollywood.”
And then a candy cache was found. “Ewwwww!” he said in a slightly higher register than normal. His skin crawled. He suddenly felt like capturing a bucket of soapy water to scrub out the pocket dimension the van had been stored in. No, scratch that. He suddenly felt like capturing some napalm to burn away the pocket dimension.
And if he looked enough in the van, he’d probably find some napalm, too.
Zek was facing the back of the van and doing his best not to touch anything, including the air, when June-June made a discovery. His neck snapped around quick, his eyes widened, and only then did the rest of his body pivot. “Arrgh!” he exclaimed, slipping into a terrible pirate accent. “It looks like ye found the booty!”
Heheh, booty.
He grinned. And not just because of his immature thoughts. Stacks and stacks and stacks of money were just sitting there, amid a pile of...sharp garbage. “And it appears the booty be booby-trapped,” he continued.
Heheh, trapped.
Zek crouched down by the money and held a glowing orb up to it. It wasn’t the best light source in the world, but it did okay at illuminating the print and designs on the greenbacks, even if in a very golden light. “Recken ye this money be funny?” he said, eying it. “Or like, laced with something?” Help! Me accent be slipping!
Zek watched the cops come in and do their thing and paid particular attention to the cop who seemed to think he was above it all. Literally. Dude didn’t even touch the floor for several minutes. Now if only I had that ability. Zek’s mind immediately started planning out what he’d do if he could fly. Or float, even. Walking-on-water scams started flashing in his brain.
Zek also finally decided what to do with all those olives. He tipped the jar over his now-empty frosted glass and started dumping some olives out, using his hand as a strainer. It wasn’t super messy, but it clearly wasn’t what One-Eyed Snowman had in mind. Which is what Zek was going for.
He was popping olives into his mouth and blatantly listening in on Slushie and Fly-Guys banter when he heard his cue. “Hi, I’m Zek,” he said, another olive going into his mouth. They were rather salty and not that great, but what could you expect in a bar that didn’t even have decent heating?
He whipped his bounty hunter license out of a pocket in his trenchcoat and showed it to the officer. “Licensed bounty hunter,” he continued. “I’m here to detain Jeff ‘Polecat’ Wiesel for skipping out on bail. Currently got him in a storage dimension but l can bring him out confirmation as needed.”
Zek was now in full-on professional mode. Except for the olives. He made sincere eye contact and kept his face no-nonsense, without any teasing inflections in his voice. He didn’t know these cops so he wasn’t going to have fun with them until they at least knew how he fit into everything. Also, the last thing he needed was for them to think he actually killed someone.
“Also, the defendant was involved with some kind of hand-off, potentially drug-related.” With his olive hand, he jerked a thumb at Arctic Breeze. One olive fell from his loose grasp. “Captain Ice Cube also witnessed it.” He finished off the olives in his hand. “So would you like to take Polecat in now or have me deliver him to the station later, like in the morning?”
It was best to give the boys in blue some options. As long as he got credit, he didn’t really care how Polecat got returned.
It was time for Zek’s compliment to be returned. But for once someone else managed to sneak in a word edgewise before Zek himself could. And then another person managed to do it after the first guy finished! Zek barely managed to keep a nonplussed look off his face. They were stealing his shtick!
And they were talking about Pokeman or something. Off hand, Zek couldn’t remember what that was, although it did sound like some kind of reggae band. And nothing else made sense.
So he did what he normally did when he had no idea what was going on - he baldfaced lied and went along with it.
“Yep, alternate dimensions,” he said agreeably. “Fresh out of Pikachus though.” Whatever that was. And as the Musical Wolf-Slayer began to get annoyed (a state Zek generally enjoyed people in) Zek winked at the reggae-obsessed guy. “Nice suit, by the way.” Zek flashed the guy a prize-winning smile and then shifted attention back to the singer.
“Let me guess,” he said. “You shrink things and right-size them on command?” Zek had caught some kind of motion before the guitar appeared, but there weren’t any convenient lights or manifestations to clue him in on what happened. Sometimes he wished his own power was more subtle, but then he remembered the shock value that typically occurred when people thought he vaporized things. Which could cause its own problems, which could also be super fun.
As Zek spoke, he lobbed an orb back where he’d first encountered dogs. His aim was off a few feet, but it was good enough that when he released the table it was within a few feet of where it should’ve been, falling only a couple of inches through the air. Probably good as new.
The wolfman smashing into the floor face-first was expected. Planned, even. As was watching the table come crashing down on him. What Zek hadn’t planned was the lead singer of Hunter’s Moon pulling a guitar out of nowhere and smashing it into the dude’s head. By that point, there wasn’t much fight in the guy.
There was absolutely no fight when the Guitar Fighter played kick the can with wolfman’s cannolis. Zek immediately winced in sympathy, then smiled devilishly in delight.
And the wolves vanished. “Woohoo!” Zek shouted. Various sounds of relief could be heard around the big ol’ room. Not that it really sounded too different, since none of the hounds had made any sounds. But now people could step back and take a breath.
Zek turned to the guy who’d landed the finishing blow. “Nice move, man,” he said. “I’d say that performance of yours was a smash hit.” He gave the guy a thumbs up and then lobbed a couple of golden balls at wolfman and the table. Both vanished. “Alright, now he’s taken care of.”
And not a moment too soon.
“Zek!” Janine’s voice clearly cut through everything. Somehow she still looked as sharp and perfectly poised as ever, still brandishing her clipboard but having relinquished her chair. Which, Zek noticed, was positioned perfectly at its original table.
“You have the singer?” she asked. It came out more like a confirmation, like she was checking off something she already knew.
“Yes ma’am,” Zek replied, raising his voice. “Got one of his band mates, too.” Speaking of. Zek glanced back to where Wild Hunt had been. There were two guys standing by their table, looking a combo of shocked, embarrassed, and resigned. There should’ve been a third guy, but he was nowhere to be seen. Jim was making his way over to them.
Janine nodded sharply and turned back to David, who pulled out a phone and started tapping on it before putting it to his ear. Then she started making her way over to Raisin Crane, all of whom were looking scattered and disoriented. Hell’s Angles were still calmly seated behind their fire-shape fortress.
Zek glanced back at the members of Hunter’s Moon. “Sooo, yeahhhh,” he drawled. “Thanks for the assist,” he said jauntily. “I can’t promise we’ll do this every night, but you never know. Personally, I’m rooting for you guys to get the gig and not just because you pull things out of air, too.”
Silent howls greeted the arrival of energy fastballs striking the flanks of several spectral hounds. Dismay and confusion and a lot of flinching infected the hounds and it seemed that Mic Stand Warrior managed to do the rest. Zek saw several hounds shatter into sublimating wisps of green.
And then the guy charged a...a werewolf? “What the--” Zek said. Like, granted, it was thematic and all, so points for that, but like, come on! Glowing energy dogs weren’t enough?! And the short little singer dude was some kind of hardcare metal fool for taking the wolf-dude on. Zek would’ve absolutely watched and applauded if he hadn’t been on the clock.
I am definitely bringing this up when my performance review comes around.
Guitar Hero was losing quick though. And a last-second savior also failed.
“Looks like I’m up to bat, then.” Zek said. He was only about a dozen feet away. Easy-peasy.
Zek hopped up on a chair and, taking advantage of the lycanthrope’s momentary off-balanceness, Zek launched a ball that swallowed the man up.
He shouted to the other guys, “You guys okay? ‘Cause I’m about to bring him back, so you may wanna get away or get ready to hit. Three...two…” Zek threw a red orb toward the ceiling. About twenty feet up, it turned into a table. A suddenly falling table. He threw another red orb at the floor in the middle of the space between him and the other guys, right under the falling table. The wolf guy reappeared two feet in the air and at a 45 degree angle, his face closest to the floor.
“...one!”
Yeah, he could’ve just kept the guy in storage indefinitely, but where was the fun in that?
Zek just knew she was lying through her teeth. “How curious,” Zek said thoughtfully. “I don’t recall any commotion outside. Other than you pulling a Freaky Friday on me and this fine, upstanding monster man, here. And you didn’t have a real ID even then.” He stopped and stared at her for a moment.
“You know, I’m betting that was an unlawful use of a mind-altering power. Easily a violation of privacy. Possibly identity theft. Probably assault. Oh, and trespassing,” Zek continued, rattling off a list as he stuck up fingers. He maintained a carefully constructed stern expression. Honestly, he couldn’t do anything. Well, the trespassing thing could stick, since he’d forbidden her entry in front of several witnesses, but all the other things would require actual proof. And he doubted Birdman’s testimony was going to cut it.
“So I think you should actually stick around for a little longer,” Zek said, “until the cops--”
A THUK and a sudden impact to the back of his head interrupted him. His ball vanished.
Zek snapped his neck all the way around in a sudden twist. He saw the gryphon. He saw a shoe lying on the floor by his own feet. Zek barked in response to the shriek, “‘Oi! Cut that out! I said I wasn’t putting it on you!”
Zek twisted his head back. “It’s time for you to leave. You’ve caused enough trouble tonight,” Zek said stepping closer to the girl, forming a new orb in his hand. Just in case.
The air conditioning was seriously broken in this place! It just kept getting colder. No wonderful Mr. Icicle chose the place! The dive could provide the chill vibe while One-Eye-Guy could provide the cold shoulder. Zek pulled the trenchcoat closer. Ironically, he’d dressed well for this bar.
But then olives! Zek snickered as he accepted the fork and the jar. Snow Miser just barely avoided Zek sticking his entire hand in the jar just to scoop out the olives, make a dripping mess, and really annoy him. Or at least have fun trying. Still, Zek took a good long moment to consider if he should just pour out some olives on his hand. Oh the possibilities.
Zek was still deciding when another chill washed over him. The olive jar started accumulating hoarfrost. Zek began scraping crude drawings on the sides. Eyepatches were prominently featured.
“My, my, Sam,” Zek said idly. “I guess, Sam, that explains your skill with the cold shoulder.” When Zek came up with a joke, he liked using it as soon as possible. Zek copied Mr. 10 Below’s neck movements, except his neck went way farther and still didn’t crack. He did not cross his arms though - his hands were busy adorning the jar with a caricature of Mr. Cool that was very unflattering.
“Actually Sam,” Zek said. “Seventeen people on six different occasions have told me that. Of course, technically the little green guy with big ears I met a long time ago in that swamp far, far away doesn’t really count, since he really said, ‘Talk too much, you do’ but like, the spirit was totally there. Completely unlike the three people I met during the llama incident, because while, yes, they did say my name, mentioned talking, and the words ‘too much’ and ‘you’ they were actually talking to this other guy who look exactly like me (although not as hot of course) so they weren’t really telling me anything, and besides they’re too nice of kids to just talk about someone like that to an imperfect stranger. And of course, it didn’t count when that giant squid-faced guy said it to me because it was like, in my head and honestly I don’t think he could actually speak human words, and it was really more a command, because he was trying to mind control me at the time. Fortunately my best friend was there at the time and he was all like ‘You shall not pass’ for like the millionth time and like, kinda blew them both up. IT okay though, my pal was fine. Saw him at dawn on the fifth day after that and he didn’t even have any dirt on him - hard to do, when you mostly just wear white. But anyways, he actually though I didn’t talk enough and so encouraged me to actually keep going on, because he liked the sound of it. And that actually reminds me of the time I was in the semi-finals for the Wimbledon Tournament of Bood, but you know, I’ll just save that for next time. So to make a long story short, yes, I’ve been told before that I talk too much.”
And then a couple of cops started coming into the bar. Zek took a breath. “Hey fellas!” he said with a wave. “We’ve got some presents for you!”
Zek decided that cat-bird-guys were terrible at charades. Or at least Birdman was. For purposes of sanity, Zek was assuming that since he was him, Birdman was Catbird. And Catbird was....wanting a pair of shoes? It really seemed to like a particular pair of abandoned heels. Fortunately, it wasn’t the worst things Zek had seen abandoned there. Nightshade’s janitors really earned their money.
Completely misunderstanding the gryphon, and not on purpose like his standard modus operandi, Zek just shrugged, “You can have ‘em. I’m not judging you, but I’m also not putting them on you.” Also, the heels looked rather small for the mythical monster, but who was Zek to decide what made the catbird feel pretty?
Well that was done. Birdman-Catbird probably wasn’t going to attack, not when it could be distracted by some shoes. So Zek moved on to the other priority. Tracking down the enemy girl who’d...unswitched them? Zek blinked. Yeah, she was definitely going on the blacklist. For sooo many reasons.
Zek turned around and was about to stride up to the mensroom when he realized that Ms. Demeanor wasn’t in there. He realized this because he saw her attempting to creep away. Zek raised his orb in a casual throwing position. “Hey!” he said loudly, to be heard clearly over the music that wasn’t nearly so loud to him now, “You got a real ID?”
As before, there were lights and odd creatures flashing around him and he kept getting glimpses of...himself! That’s right! THat’s who he was! He didn’t know what those other critters were, nor where that music was coming from, or why he was throwing red/white balls instead of glowing golden ones, but that was him!
And then Zek was staring at a gryphon. Yipes!
It chirped and screeched. And started to ...check itself out? Zek classified it as a non-threat and relaxed slightly. And then realized what had been happening. “Dead gods, that was trippy!” he said. And then his back started to cry for his attention and his arm. “What the,” he said, then he remembered, “flip!”
And why did he have two people and...a chair, something ropelike, and bottle….stored away?
But that could be dealt with later. First thing first: ensure the giant catbird was going to attack again.
His last golden orb appeared in his hand and he kept his back to the bathroom door. He addressed the gryphon. “‘You okay in there?” he said warily. He’d never caught a gryphon before, but then again he’d never been one before. It was a night for many firsts.
And as soon as he dealt with the gryphon (or heck, bought it a burger) he’d deal with Pandora and her brainswitching.
The Familiar was moving. The gryphon instinctively changed its course, maintaining a distance between them, moving in parallel and away from the Familiar. The Familiar lowered itself and….the gryphon liked that.
It began to slink forward, almost crawling forward, its neck stretched out. Sniff or bite, both were easier that way. And it just so happened to be a great position for pouncing.
Then LIGHTS.
The sudden appearance made the gryphon pull its head back quickly and its neck feathers began to ruffle up. It let out a small hiss. And then began creeping closer.
The Familiar made sounds again, but this time the Gryphon didn’t care. It now realized it had been maneuvered, no longer near the Enemy and the cave wall. And the crack in the wall was back, although still tiny.
But the gryphon was strong. All it needed was a crack and the rest could be torn open.
It’s mouth opened slightly and it began closing in on the Familiar and its crack, it’s talons tapping on the floor and its hind claws gently clacking. .