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.
Ugh... jesus, did her head hurt. Like someone had cracked her in the temple with--....
Oh... Yeah. Now she remembered.
Cracking an eye open hurt like hell too. Raising a hand to gently prod at the skin that was surely going to bruise stung like a @^%$*&... and... why was it suddenly drafty? It took one too many moments for her to realize that the usual feel of cloth on her legs, and upper half for that matter, was gone. Instead, she was stuck with an itchy, lace feeling digging into her in odd places, while the rest of her felt more or less uncovered.
Sitting up with a gasp only caused her to sway as a sudden dizziness set in. God... what had happened? Where was she? With blurred vision, she squinted around. There were candles... she was on a pristine looking bed... in a rather dark room, and she was too far from the outline of the door for her own comfort. As the realization set in that she'd been stripped of everything, her hand flashed back and found that she was also lacking her only weapon. Well... not her only weapon, but the one that really mattered.
"You're up... Good. I was just getting ready." Her head whipped around so fast that another wave of dizziness latched onto her. She hadn't looked off to that side of the room yet, still trying to collect her thoughts. She'd missed the other occupant completely. With another gasp, she practically flew off the bed. There wasn't enough room to get a comfortable distance away from him, and with a wall pressed into her back she was starting to feel rather trapped. Only the bed separated him from her as she shook herself and sized him up.
...she didn't like what she saw. He was huge... and from the looks of it, clearly readying himself for something. One of her arms rose on it's own at that thought, covering what little she could of herself from view.
"Here's how this work... You fight... You fight as if your life depends on it... I slowly deprive you of hope and control... I dominate you... and then the real fun begins... How about we get started?"
....
Jesus christ. How did she always manage to run into these freaks? Without even realizing it, she attempted to back up another step, and her breath hitched in her throat. "You can go @#%$ yourself with a &%#$ right in the $@%#*&^!" The words were out of her mouth in a flat second; her kindly response to his question.
***
Harry speared a rueful glare on his radio, swearing under his breath before he clipped it back onto his belt. Leave it to Clive to be the voice of reason when things got hairy. "Smug bastard..." Turning, he waved over one of his fellows. Once the man was in ear shot, he drew him a little ways away from the group of captured survivors and fingered his gun. "Grab yourself a hostage, mate. We've got unwanted company. Order's are for the lines to remain silent, and keep your eyes peeled, got it?"
"Who's orders?" Harry didn't much like the tone of his companion's question. He responded first with a swift slap upside the back of the kids head, and then, "Straight from Clive. Johnny's busy, so he's in command for now." This bit of information seemed to quiet the kid up real fast. One nod later, and they both turned and headed back to the waiting sheeple. Without a word, Harry leveled his gun, turning his sights slowly as those that noticed gasped and shrieked. "Everybody quiet the @&%# up! We need two volunteers, any takers?" With a grin etched onto his lips, the kid lurched forward and grabbed a middle aged woman by the arm, dragging her away from the group. Harry's gun kept anyone from trying to haul her back.
"Alright, one down, one to go! Who's next?" A man stood a moment later, hands in the air, and stepped forward. "Paul, no!" The woman, soon-to-be-meat-shield, cried out. She was silenced with a rough slap across the face by Harry's younger partner. The gun was motioned, signalling the male volunteer to move forward. Once both the victims were on their knees, the younger male set about tying their hands behind their backs with zip-ties. The two were them hauled up, and moved to stand just in front of both raiders.
She nodded and stood, shaking slightly. It had been a while since she'd been covered in this much blood. The many times she'd gotten dragged into the Assassin's troubles, or dragged him into her own... and then that time with Allison, when she'd-... ugh. Better to not think about that. She'd been a different person back then. So full of anger at the world that throwing a punch had felt exhilarating. It had been her addiction for a while, the adrenaline that came with a good fight... even when she had gotten her ass kicked.
She'd never looked back and reflected on how lucky she was to still be alive. There had been so many moments where if she'd been alone, all by herself, she'd have never seen the light of day again. But, back then, she hadn't really cared. The world had been an awful place in her eyes, saturated in greedy and corruption.
... How wrong she'd been.
Compared to now, where criminals were the power, that life had been a blessing. Megan suppressed another shudder, and followed after the Judge. The woman had hushed herself into a quiet moaning, and as she passed, the twenty eight year old dropped a little warning her way. "Just stay in here, okay? Don't go outside, or open the door for anything. I'll come back for you when it's safe." She didn't stick around to see if her words registered, or if the woman nodded.
She followed him out, staying out of sight as he took care of another man exiting the next room, until it was all clear. As the body dropped, she stopped beside him, twiddling her weapon nervously. "I'll take care of that... you find the hostages..."
"Right, on it." She parted ways, her confidence in her own skills only slightly better than it had been before. She'd gotten one distracted guy in the back, but that really wasn't something to celebrate. As she looped around the center of the dilapidated office building, she found what she was looking for. The people from her camp were all huddled together in the middle of the large room. Three guards walked in lazy circles around them, one with a gun of some sort, the others with length blades. Blades that looked suspiciously like machete's. She could see a few open spaces as they wandered around, that if she timed it just right, she could slip through unnoticed.
But... as she crouched in the shadows and watched, another idea hatched. Somewhere behind that mass of bodies was a child. Squished up against the wall, forgotten. Anger bubbled to the surface of her emotions again, halted only by the fear of being caught, before it over took her. She'd nearly rushed out headlong into the thick of it last time, stopped only by her companion.
...her companion, who was now busy with his own foe. A tight smile captured her lips, the same she'd grown accustomed to wearing, and she waited for the moment to appear where she could slip into the group of people unnoticed by the guards. When it finally came, a break in the lazy formation, she quietly crawled over, and blended into the back of the group. No one seemed to want to pay her any attention, not even a curious or startled look. Everyone was lost in their own mental worlds, empty gazes staring blankly at the floor. Good, she thought, It's better this way...
She didn't make it all the way to the back, where the kid had been, before one of her spiders finally alerted her to the presence of the man who had killed him. Her chin whipped left, eyes straining in the semi darkness. He was off across the camp, somewhere behind the large bonfire. The only problem of getting over to him, was the five or so other raiders still scattered around the inside. She would never make it on foot... A man off to her left, one of the men with the blades, was about to pass by her. She quietly tucked her knife back into her pants, yanked her tank-top back down into place over the top of it, and reached out to snag his pant leg.
He reacted violently at first, nearly kicking her hand away, but once he laid eyes on her, he paused. She stared up at him, positioned perfectly so that he caught a flash of cleavage, and couldn't avoid a wide, blue eyed stare. "...I... I was told to.. to.." A hint of shame shaded her expression, while she chewed on her bottom lip in a sad, desperate manner. "I was told... to meet the man in charge. He wanted me to be taken to him..."
The raider regarded her quietly at first, torn between the urge to drag her off for himself, and paying attention to the words that tumbled from her lips. He could easily over power her, what with her twiggy arms and scrawny body.. but if the boss really had asked for her... then he'd get his nuts cut off for ruining the bosses fun. Of course, then there was the fact that she had a spattering of what looked like blood sprayed all over her front, including her pale face. With one eyebrow raised, he shook her hand off his leg, turned around to stomp across the camp and find out for himself.
Megan waited nervously, wondering if her ploy would work, before the man returned. There was a grin on his face that she didn't much like... but she choose to ignore it for the moment. "Yeah.. Boss wants to see ya, c'mon." He hauled her roughly to her feet, twisting an arm behind her back, and shoved her in front of him as he moved. She found herself silently praying that he wouldn't spot the knife in her belt, but her worries were unneeded. Before she knew it, she was carted around the camp fire, to a spot where three men stood. The one in the middle turned to face her as she was brought forward; the others barely batted an eyelash at her.
"So..." He started, taking a lengthy step toward her. His eyes roamed her up and down... but, she noted, it wasn't the same kind of look she'd seen the other men give her. He wasn't leering at her... he was studying her. "You're the idiot who wanted to see me?" He flat out laughed in her face, as her guide let go of her and turned to leave. "What can I say?... I saw you before... and wanted to talk with you. Is there maybe.. somewhere more private we could go?"
The gleam in his eyes shifted, and he grinned at her. "Yeah, sure... Boy's! Why don't you show our guest to the pent house?" Megan made the mistake of taking her eyes off of him, in order to glance over at one of the other men. The moment she turned her attention away, one of them lifted a rifle and popped her neatly in the temple. She crumpled before she even knew what was happening, and was promptly seized by the wrists. They dragged her with them as their boss turned and walked swiftly away, stopping by an old, dirt covered metal hatch on the floor. With a grunt, he lifted it open, and the two men dragged Megan inside with them. The 'Boss' turned to give his encampment one final searching look, before he too followed after, letting the heavy metal door slam shut after him.
Megan stopped beside the other woman, wondering just how long she could hold the men off with her knife if it came down to it. Considering her rusted experience with the blade, and the fact that she was semi paralyzed with fear, her mind decided for her that it wouldn't be long enough for either of them to walk away unscathed.
"Ohh... you're both pretty, huh? I gotta let you know... I'm not gonna be gentle."
A shudder ran through her, and she clenched her teeth. There had to be some way of distracting them.. something she could do to capture their attention long enough for her companion to come through and literally save the day. As she sat, one of her hands inching slowly behind her, she found that she couldn't think of anything that wouldn't make the situation worse. As much as she hated it, perhaps attempting to play along would buy her, no... them, some time.
Thankfully, it never came to that. She was facing the doorway as it started to slowly open. She didn't notice it at first, so caught up with the fact that one of the guys was advancing on her, but after a moment she noticed the dark shape standing within the door frame.
Oh.. thank god he's here... She pulled her eyes back to the man closest to her, shaking her head gently to keep up the act, even as relief flooded into her. Everything would be alright... because he was here now. Then, in an instant, one man was on the floor and another was quickly on his way to join him. Megan was too busy recoiling from the spray of hot blood that washed over herself and the woman next to her. She managed to keep from shrieking, but the other woman didn't.
When Megan looked back up, she noticed that the last raider was still standing, and that his gun was swiftly being leveled at her companion. She rolled onto her knees, reaching back to yank her knife free from her belt, and was on her feet in an instant. The blade sank all the way to the hilt, straight through the man's back and into one of his lungs, as she barreled into him from behind. He toppled with a strangled gasp and Megan landed on top of him. She mustered just enough strength to yank her knife free again, before she drove it back into the guy's neck.
She missed the spine by an inch, hitting muscle and skin instead, but effectively sliced clean through a rather important artery. The sounds of his gurgling were drowned out by the other woman's frantic wailing. The twenty five year old gave a moment's pause to reflect on what she'd just done, before she shook herself and glanced up at the Judge.
"They'll think nothing of her screaming... nothing that wasn't already going to happen, anyway."
Her apartment looked... empty. Barren of the life it had once held. She'd picked up the trash, which ended up being most of Roaches stuff, and before it... there wasn't much left. The living room was clean, and while any normal person would have been more than happy with stray slices of pizza not laying around on the floor or smashed onto the ceiling, she found that it irritated her to no end.
After all the time she spent cleaning up after him, complaining about his constant mess... she missed it. There was no one to burst through her bedroom door and destroy her peace and quiet. No one to scream and squeal in an assortment of entertaining voices. No one who needed her, yet didn't like he had... No one to watch stupid tv shows about women being floozies in New York.
As she stood, surrounded by black trash bags crammed full of junk, she felt her heart twist and tears welled in her eyes. "oh... goddamnit." With a huff, she discarded the dish gloves she had been using to clean, and collapsed onto the couch. She honestly didn't know how much longer she'd be able to stand living in the apartment she'd shared with her... her friend.
Her very dear friend.
Without so much as wiping the tears from her eyes, Megan stood and made her way to the door. She snatched up her keys and a jacket, sniffling quietly before ducking out through the front door. There were too many memories, it was maddening. She couldn't look at anything without bursting into tears.
Taking the stairs two at a time, she worked her way down to the parking lot and hopped on her scooter. Maybe if she went out for a little while to clear her head, she'd feel better. Then she'd be able to approach the situation with a clear mind, and finally figure out something to do.
When he pulled back she got a good look at the smile he was angling down at her, and shivered. The man was all predator, through and through. But she'd be damned if she'd let herself become the mouse in this situation.
“You can stay if you like, If not, the door is right behind you.”
Oooooh no! She was not going to let him pull that card on her. Turning his back on her and walking off as if he expected her to turn tail and run. She stood frozen to the spot for a moment, weighing her decisions. It would be easy to simply gather her things and leave... but, a challenge had been issued, and she stubbornly refused to back down.
... but... if she did follow him, what awaited her? He wasn't the same as he had been when he'd been struck by whatever that kid did to him. he was the usual gruff, irritating man she'd had the misfortune of running into. Would he be as gentle as he had been before, and if not... was she ready for something like that? Megan found her cheeks suddenly on fire, to the point that it was becoming rather uncomfortable.
He forced the thoughts from her head, held her chin up high, and stomped after him quickly. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of showing how nervous she was. How apprehensive. But, as soon as she crossed the threshold of the doorway into the actual bedroom, that notion flew straight out the window. There were too many fuzzy memories from before. She ended up standing just inside the doorway with her hands clasped behind her back, glaring ruefully at anything but Vicente.
How was this kind of thing supposed to go again? She'd been more than mildly drunk last time.
The amount of expletives that ran through her head as she walked toward the room had reached a staggering number. What was she doing? She was walking into an unknown situation with three armed men... and she had somehow been talked into exposing a good amount of stomach. Why was she doing this? Because this was the judge's idea of running a good distraction.
Sonofa...
Worry gnawed on her insides as she approached the room, that solitary door that led into an office. She didn't know what awaited her on the other side. The sounds issuing out from being that door, though... Ooh, they were enough to make her shudder fearfully.
"Alright, Megs... you can do this. Just... deep breath in, and..." With a grip on the doorknob, she swung the thing in and announced her presence. The sight that greeted her was horrific. Three men, two in various states of undress, stood above a woman in the center of the room. She was sobbing and curled in on herself, arms thrown up to protect her face as one man sent a vicious kick straight into her unprotected midsection. All eyes turned to Megan, however, and the woman was temporarily forgotten.
"Who the f@#k is that?" A pistol was leveled her way, from the man with all of his clothing still intact. Megan instinctively raised her hands up, and tried to slap the most innocent looking expression she could muster onto her face. "...I...I... I saw the light of a fire... and heard people yelling..." She let her eyes widen and forced a visible shiver, before taking half a step back. "... I-i don't want any trouble... really. Please don't hurt me..."
The man with the gun lowered it slightly, clearly assuming she wasn't a threat. He was partially correct, even with a knife stuffed down the back of her pants, she wasn't much of a danger to any of them. "Man... b*tches just keep falling from the sky, don't they? I'm gonna go get the boss."
Another man threw out his arm, stopping his companion from moving. Megan kept her eyes on the man with the only visible weapon as of yet. "Not yet, I don't want to get shafted with no sloppy seconds this time." Even from her spot by the door, Megan felt a jolt of fear, anger, and revulsion race up her spine. The two unarmed men advanced on her. She attempted to backpedal out the door, but tripped and ended up landing on her rump. They didn't waist any time before latching onto her legs to drag her quickly back in. In their haste to throw her into the center of the room where the other woman was huddled, they neglected to close the door. Megan bit back the worry that her plan would fail somehow, while keeping her back to the floor, and started crawling slowly backwards. A pair of pants went flying across the room, as well as a belt and a shirt. They really weren't wasting any time...
She wasn't even able to land a blow on him, not a single bruise or claw mark. Her fist was dwarfed in his, enveloped in an iron grip. Her outrage tripled, and she yanked on her arm to try and free herself.
... and then he was kissing her.
Wait...What?! Dumbfounded, her mind scrambled to catch up to this strange turn of events. She'd expected to get punched right back, or at least to get flung across the room and laughed at for a good long while. But... kissing? She couldn't even process it, and ended up standing there awkwardly with his lips pressed against hers.
Then, when she finally managed to pull away, it all caught back up with her. Megan flat out stared at him, eyes wide, lips parted in shock. Why had he gone and done that?... She'd been perfectly fine being angry at him, not confused.
...or... was he just screwing with her again? Pulling another trick on her about that night, to rub it in her face some more? A scowl captured her features and she stepped right back up to him, nearly onto him, and stared him right in the eyes.
Two could play this game!
And then she kissed him right back, just as swiftly.
"You're staying here... Let me know which one he is... Put a spider on me, have it give me a sign when I'm near him... we'll punish him last... For now, you have to focus... Are there any more strays... anyone I can thin out before we engage the group?"
Yeah... yeah, he was right. There was no use rushing head first into a battle now... the child was dead, and nothing was going to change that fact. Though it took every last shred of effort she had left in her, Megan forced herself to stand down. The knife flopped by her side as she nodded and dropped her eyes to the dirt at her feet. Silently a call went out from her to her spiders. They called back in turns, each relaying the position of the men they were stalking. With a mental map in place, she set about figuring out the current positions, before kneeling to drawn out her map in the dirt.
"There... there are seven left. Three off to our left, around the side of the camp. The other four are off to the right, one not to far from this room over here, while the other three are together in this room."
It really didn't occur to her that he might not be able to see what she was drawing, but she wasn't paying that much attention. Her mind was still clouded with anger and thoughts of the boy's mother... where was she during all of this?
"These three... " She continued, "..haven't left in a while. I don't know what they're up to in there either." Her hand drifted over to the other side of her shakily drawn map, and she circled two of the three dots that represented their targets. "These two on the other hand, have been talking with each other the whole time, and are armed with some of the larger rifles." She'd forced her children to be clear about what the guns looked like, since they didn't know exactly what the weapons were, or did, aside from kill things.
"Neither of those two groups have parted ways yet, so it might be hard to take them down without shots being fired and attention being drawn your way." She knew that he could handle himself, quite easily in fact... but with his unexpected return still as fresh and dominant in her mind, she couldn't help but worry about his safety. Losing him, she was sure, would be like losing the last shred of hope for a good future, and not one ruled by greed and violence.
"...I really suck with a knife, I know... but i'm pretty fast... I could run as a distraction if you need me too, to keep them off of your back while you work." She reached out to touch him, a fuzzy black spider already in the process of crawling down her arm and onto him. It would find a safe place to hunker down and latch on, and from there she'd be able to keep tabs on him.
"When I find the guy that did it, i'll have my friend here give you a little nip. He's not venomous, so you won't have any lingering nasty effects, but it should be enough to grab your attention."
Her guts clenched, and it was hard to breathe.. Her partner had been gone for a little while, not too long... but the silence that had followed the child's keening wail was nearly unbearable. The urge to stand and turn the corner, effectively abandoning her hiding spot in order to find out if he was even still alive was proving hard to ignore.
...maybe... maybe she could just sneak a little closer, yeah? She more or less knew where the bad guys were stationed. They didn't seem to move too far from the posts they had apparently been given. But... more or less was a little more risky than she was comfortable with.
'Where is the child? I can't hear him any more...' Her thoughts reached out to her children, and though a few excruciating moments of silence followed, one got back to her swiftly.
Many young ones
The aggravated smile that was becoming ever present on her lips slipped back into place momentarily. 'The one we have watched before... the frail one' Her thoughts slipped back to the day he and his mother had wandered into the camp, dirty and very malnourished. The boy had been no older than three, and was suffering from a rather bad infection to an old wound that ran the length of his back. She could remember clearly the doctors asking the mother what had happened to him, as well as the stricken look that had settled on her features, and the way she chose to stubbornly hold her tongue. Whatever the cause, his would had refused to heal quickly. Daily administration of fresh bandages and half of a pain pill kept him happy and as lively as a child his age should be. Megan had watched the both of them gain some weight back. It had been a rather happy sight, amidst the vision of a wasteland New York had become.
As if thinking about the boy triggered something deep within her, the strange feeling she had already experienced twice that day came creeping back. Her vision blurred momentarily as she struggled to pull herself out of it... but the moment she stilled visions danced before her eyes. Weeping faces, huddled bodies, darkly dressed silhouettes outlined against a raging fire. One image stood out among the rest, and Megan felt herself go weak in the knees. The crumpled form of a child, clutching a filthy blanket to his side... Alone, tucked into a corner... bathed in a puddle of deep black (or was it dark red?), lifeless brown eyes gazing forever forward as if into her own.
Suddenly, blackness. Unbeknownst to her, a guard stomping by the boys still form and crushed her scout spider underfoot. She was released from the terrible vision instantly, and with the freedom, she promptly turned and wretched quietly against the wall behind her.
... The boy was dead. Murdered because he was in pain and could not express it in any other way, then left in a corner without a care. A rage she had not felt in ages spread through her. The injustice of it all, the unfairness... Her palm was wrapped around the smooth leather bound handle of her knife without her even knowing, and she had swiftly gotten to her feet. Anger fueled her, for what exactly she didn't know yet. She clenched her fists at her sides, before turning around and moving to take a step away from her hiding place.
She bumped into an unexpected form, and her knife was immediately up. It was a slow movement, slow and terribly predictable... but the surprise of bumping into someone forced the reaction out of her nearly instantly. She didn't even realize there were little hot tears at the corners of her eyes, or that she was gnawing on her lip again viciously. She also didn't lower her weapon after realizing who it was, mostly because she wasn't thinking about the action at all.
"They killed Tommy... those... those" She was trembling with anger, an emotion her body had nearly forgotten how to wield. "... I'm going to kill them."
A voice stretched out of the black, and she stopped in her tracks. Never mind the fact that she was actually doing as he had asked, she was too busy straining her ears to care. ...Was that the sound of...?
... no.. It couldn't be. Why in the hell would be be getting naked at a time like-
Ohshit. Her mind reeled, and some part of herself that she had all but abandoned reared its ugly head and back handed her. Instinctively, her hand flashed back and tugged the knife she carried tucked into the back of her pants out. It was old... hadn't been used in ages, but it was sharp. She made damn sure of that. Megan stood shock still already on the balls of her feet like she was a gazelle waiting to spring away at the slightest hint of danger.
"You're a goddamn idiot, Rova." She muttered to herself, blade out before her like it blocked her safely from the enclosing pitch black. A damned idiot. All was silent until odd foot falls started her way. Her eyes flicked back to the light filtering down from above behind her, and she mentally calculated how fast she could get to the ladder before he was upon her.
...Not fast enough, she decided. Instead, she flattened herself against the wall, her blade ready and waiting. The foot steps grew gradually closer, and with them her heart rate spiked. Each step pounded in her ears, and then....
"You're a damned fool, you know... following a man you don't know into a dark hole in an abandoned area... Especially in these times."
The words caused her to jump. She hadn't expected them so close... Really, she was in poor shape when it came to fighting or defending these days. The added fact that while in the darkness she was just as visually handicapped as he was didn't help to settler her nerves, either. Before she could act, whatever action that may have been, the foot steps started up again.
A strange confusion washed over her, which didn't feel at all good when mixed with heavy fear. He was walking away.... after such ominous, strange words, he was leaving? The vague notion that he was perhaps toying with her jumped to mind... maybe he knew about her knife or something, and was waiting for her to lower her guard again?... He'd known about her spiders, after all.
But.. before she could think of what to do, whether to run or question him, she finally caught sight of him in the light by the ladder.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she had to brace herself against the wall. Good god, she'd lost her marbles. Really... for reals this time. Up ahead of her, standing almost as tall as she remembered, was the goddamn Judge. A bloody ghost from the past. It was.. it was more than she could process. Megan slid down on her rump, her back against the wall, and stared off into the darkness for what seemed like hours.
Really, it had only been a few minutes. When she finally managed to gather herself together, she worked her way back over to the ladder. He was already up and out by the time she got there, and for a moment she found herself wondering if he would also be gone by the time she crawled back out on top. When she looked up, her eyes locked on a turbulent, darkening sky... she felt a small bloom of hope blossom in her chest for the first time in...
"...God... it's been an eternity."
***
Later, and she honestly didn't know how much later for the life of her, Megan found herself crouched down behind the remnants of what had once been a grocery store wall, listening intently to the sound of a child wailing in the distance, and a man screaming something foul in reply. She didn't know what was more distressing... the words flying out of the man's grubby maw, or the fact that she could recognize the child's voice, and knew he was probably crying because he had missed his normal dose of medication. He was probably in a lot of pain right now... and all of the creative cuss words in the world wouldn't stop him from letting the world know just how unfair the situation really was.
With her armored companion off to her left, she clenched her teeth and forced herself to stop listening. It would only serve to distract her from the current mission... and she was going to need to pay close attention to what was going on around her. "... What's the plan?" She asked quietly, unable to hide the edge in her voice that gave away nearly all of her emotional distress.
She had yet to be able to rid herself of the.. the joy that had sprung up at the sight of him. Hope, admiration... a little bit of shame, even. She couldn't help but feel them with him alive beside her. A hero. A true hero!
Shaking herself, she plopped her forearms on her thighs and sucked a slow breath in. The ten or so spiders she had scattered around the large temporary camp were almost constantly filling her in on little movements of men with guns, or what so-n-so was doing with this person or that person. Some of the information... she really didn't need floating around her head... But, every cloud, you know? Because of the little arachnids, she knew a lot of key things. Exits and entrances, where food was, and where weapons were. She knew where the poor people from her camp were being held, and that there were more than a few armed guards standing patrol. The only things she really didn't know were names, and the location of the leaders... if there even were leaders. She'd taken time to lay out the area as much as possible, and fill her companion in on what she knew as the information slowly came together. She was waiting on him now.. on his experience to shine through.
She watched as he pulled the hatch open, not bothering to show her surprise at the hidden entrance. Back when she had lived there... er, kind of lived there, anyway, she hadn't much cared about the mysterious inner workings of the school. She'd had Gawain to follow around, and his new girlf--..
Ah, balls... Her chest constricted without her permission, emotions stirring on the inside. She avoided the man's damaged gaze as he looked at her, as if he would see the pain in her expression, the tightening of flesh at the corners of her lips and eyes. A silly thought, given how badly his eyes had been wounded.
Still, she waited for him to look away before leveling her own gaze back on the new hole in the ground. It hurt to think of those days... of the faces, her on and off roommates in particular. She'd never wanted friendship back then, too stubborn to let anyone fully in... god, how she wished she had before everything went to hell.
With a mute nod at his words, she waited for him to ease himself in... and then he jumped. Her heart skipped a beat as the man she had been looking after for quite some time vanished into the darkness of the hole. All she could think about was him injuring himself further, and how difficult it was going to be in order to try and take care of him in some unknown location.
"H-hey!" She was at the lip in an instant, her feet already on the steps of the ladder as she- wisely- followed his advice and crawled down. Once her feet were on floor again, she turned to figure out if he was alright. "You can't go throwing yourself around like that, you'll aggravate your injuries more." The soft scolding tone of her voice stepped aside as worry set in, and she fiddled with the flap of her bag. "Are you okay?... " Aside from the cone of light filtering down upon her from the open hatch, she found herself staring into pitch black. He was nowhere in sight... and for a moment, she felt a jolt of fear shoot through her.
She'd followed him, lead him even, all the way here... some strange man she didn't even known the name of. Now she was alone, in the dark... and very much at a disadvantage.
"...Hello?" She took a hesitant step, then another, slowly trailing her way into the darkness with one hand pressed against the wall... all while chewing savagely on her bottom lip and praying she hadn't made a very, very foolish mistake.
Before she knew it, there was an arm latched securely under her armpit and around her throat. She was plucked up before having gotten all the way to her feet, and bodily dragged back over the top of the bar.
The fighting behind her was suddenly all around her, and as her bottom thumped onto the floor she found herself quickly swallowed up in a sea of thrashing legs and fists. Something crashed into the side of her head hard enough to knock some sense back into her, and she made a beeline for the bar. Stools gave her a little coverage as her attacker was suddenly set upon by the growing sea of brawl occupants. A window opened, and she snatched it up without hesitation.
Crawling on all four in the most disgraceful manner she could, she managed to sneak her way past the mob into a pocket of relative calm. As the men who had jumped up to help her were swamped and dragged to the floor, she got to her feet and reached across the counter for anything heavy that she could grab. An unopened bottle of vodka was her prize, and as she turned back to the little battle waging on in the bar, she attempted to spot the jackass who had started the whole commotion.
Finally, she found who she was looking for. A wicked grin settled on her face, and with weapon in hand she advanced. He was matching a big burly man punch for punch, either spurred on by his state of inebriation, or finally showing some true physical prowess. Megan was inclined to believe it was the drink, and nothing but the drink. Still, he had a buddy right next to him, trying to corner their opponent. His back was to her, so without hesitation she sprang upon the chance to wreak a little havoc of her own.
Sure, it was a cheap shot, hitting someone over the back of the head like that... but as the bottle contacted skull, and as the resounding force of the hit rolled back up her arm, he dropped like big dried piece of cow pie he was. With the neck of the bottle still in her hand, she barely had time to turn and face the guy's buddy, before a fist came spiraling out of nowhere and took her off her feet.
A clean right hook to the jaw. Her head snapped back so fast that she didn't even feel her neck crack in protest, nor did she feel the floor come rushing up to meet her...
She froze before she even had a foot out the doorway. Her shoulders visibly tensed, and the back of her neck reddened to a point that there was no use trying to hide it. Though he couldn't see it, a horrified look flashed across her face, before she managed to get a hold of herself.
Oh... My... God... He had not just called her that... had he?
He was the most infuriating man on the planet! She was one hundred percent sure of that fact now. She could feel her her pulse throbbing as her tempter struggled to wrench control away from her, and she was more than a little surprised that none of her teeth cracked from the way she was clenching her jaws together. How she managed to keep herself rooted to the spot while every fiber of her being wanted to turn and pelt the man with her fists, she would never no.
After a moment of standing there in silence, her body tense, the tension flooded from her like water dribbling off onto the floor. She felt relaxed.. but frighteningly so.. like her mind had shut off, and she wasn't thinking about how angry she had been only seconds before. Turning to face him, her expression flat and blank, she studied the guy in silence while
"...You were my first, you know that?"
Taking a step back in, and then another, she stopped before him. Her arms flat at her sides with her sweater dragging the ground in one hand. It was the truth, honest and bitter on her tongue. As much as she hated it, she had opened a door, no, a window, to this man. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to live with the memory of what they had done and that was that.
... but she still didn't have to be %&^*@$# happy about it!
"I wish it had been anyone other than YOU!""The fingers of one hand curled into a fist, and she reared her arm back to throw a wild punch at his damn stupid, smug face. (Or throat, since she was a tad bit shorter than him naturally.)
Too close. She thought to herself. It had been a while, a long while, since she had event allowed herself to think of all the people... the kids... who had once resided behind the impenetrable walls of the school. Oh, how deluded she had been thinking that this place would be the one building the chaos left unmarred.
Faces of people she had met, had known and... and even loved in a way, floated to mind and she was forced to shove them back into the shadows. "Yellow marker...?" She echoed, well aware that she hadn't replied to the guy's first question. It didn't seem like he needed an answer anymore, anyway. Blue eyes instead turned to the task of picking through the rubble, and when she found that she could not see anything from her current position, she begrudgingly forced herself to step through what was left of the ruined mansion gates.
Leaving him behind for the moment, she wandered. The ruins, as that was the only way she felt she could describe them, made her shudder. As did the makeshift graveyard she avoided, and the garden. It was as she was wading through the brambles of a dying prickly bush, some form of weed she was sure, that she spotted a flash of yellow. With a grunt, she latched onto the dried, thin branches bathing her up to the knees and yanked. Thankfully as they came away, her gloves kept her from shredding her palms to pieces.
When she was done clearing a sizable path, she didn't bother to try and decipher whatever it was she was looking at, instead choosing to turn on her heel and head back to pick up her companion.
"I think... I think I found your marker. Come on, i'll take you there." Thinking that it was best to help the guy through the little maze of a path she had made in the brambles, she held her hand out to him and touched him as gently as she could on the arm.
Her resolve cracked slightly. Go out and die, or flee and live to fight another day. She managed to pointedly ignore the little voice in the back of her head that reminded her of her own womanly state, and how very possible it was that she would end up being sold right along with the other women.
Better to die, at that point.
What good was she with a gun anyway? She'd hardly ever fired one in her life... The cracks of gun fire grated on her nerves, and as he spoke she cast one solemn look toward the front entrance. All that stood between them and the battle outside was... cloth... and it was doing a pretty poor job at keeping bullets out. Her eyes turned back to him and she raised an eye brow at his question. How did he know about her children...? No... nevermind, it wasn't the time to start asking questions like that. They needed to do something... something soon. The squeeze of her shoulder mixed with the... hope?... in his words, and she found herself unable to argue. He was right.... she would be no help in the fight, and walking out there would only serve to get herself captured. A grim smile overtook her lips again, and she dropped the gun next to the body of the man on the ground. It would serve her no purpose anyway...
Hours later, the scene of the fight was far behind them. The ratta-tat-tat of gunfire has long since faded, and she'd lost contct with her spiders. Regret and guilt had settled heavily on her shoulders for leaving so many behind... people she had spent a good deal of time with since their world had virtually ended. There was no going back now, though... No changing her mind after the fact. They were either dead, or being dragged off to only god knows where for some new unknown torture.
For the majority of their journey, she hadn't been able to say anything. The tight-lipped smile had long since faded, replaced by a placid mask. She hadn't so much as questioned where they were going, but had instead set about going through and memorizing everything she had managed to squeeze into her bag. It wasn't until the roads and ruins of buildings started to look familiar that she bothered to really look up and take a gander at her surroundings. She didn't really like what she saw...
... What are we doing here?... This place is a graveyard." She didn't have the energy to try and mask the discomfort in her voice, or in her expression for that matter. Nor did she really care all that much. Her mind was too busy stumbling over everything that had happened, including how someone who really shouldn't be able to see too much, let alone a teeny tiny spider, knew about her pets.
... and how did he even know she could communicate with them? ...Who was this guy, anyway?