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.
“It never hurtsss to have othersss watching your back, is this everyone or do you commune with all arachnids?”
Her smirk widened a little. "There are usually more, but I was recovering from creating them, so I only made a few." Peeling back the sleeve of her coat, she flashed a patch of bandaged wounds, and winked. Being someone who simply controlled spiders was way less fun, even if you didn't have to do anything to get them. She was happy with the way it was, creating life. Creating life from her own body, even. Hm... Why didn't she like kids again?..oh yeah, you had to take care of them. At least her children took care of themselves.
”No wonder you sstayed as calm asss you did with a blade to your throat. For the record, I wouldn’t have bluffed with your sssafety, if it wasssn’t for the fact you didn’t ssseem to be all that worried about him.”
She shrugged her coat back on, careful not to dislodge her kids, and sent them a silent command to scram. The spiders tumbled and rolled from her shoulder, scurrying back into the shadows they had come from. She turned as the ambulance went screaming past, her lips dropping into a frown, and wrinkled her nose. "I've been in worse scrapes... in this place you have to keep a calm face, or your dead." Like animals... You could never show fear to an animal, because then it knew it had the advantage. Turning back to face the front though, she pointed as the store came into view and headed in its direction. ".. And don't stress about it. You don't have to explain yourself to me, we are all human. Ten minutes ago I was just a nameless stranger in an alley. You hero types have to make sacrifices sometimes, ya know?" She threw him a grin, and turned into the store as the automatic doors parted for her. A loud Ding-Dong sang itself to life as they entered, and Megan headed straight to the back of the store, where she knew the ice cream counter waited.
“that isss a nobel cuassse asss any. For being a ssstylish city there are ssso many people that need to be sssmacked and put in order.”
It was... so... amazing. She almost felt like weeping... there had been so many times when she had wanted to act out that exact action! Pink poodle woman came to mind and Megan visibly cringed. “yeah, I do!, how could I not?” She grinned, wickedly, and hopped a little farther away from him. Putting her fingers to her lips, she blew a silent, fake whistle into the night air, and sent out a mental call to the small squad of spiders she had with her.
They had been following since the alley, little blue eyes alert for any signs of danger. With the signal out, they tumbled from their hiding places and scrambled across the side walk to her. Up her tights, through her jacket they went, until all seven of them were sitting perched on her shoulder, tiny icy colored eyes trained on Koga. Megan put her hands in the air and shook them gently. Jazz hands. "Ta-da~ You are not the only one blessed with your friendly neighborhood mutation."
She pointed at the spiders one by one, "Steve, Johnny, Maz, Yellow beard, Viper, Jason, and Tipsy." At her command, each spider lowered itself in a short bow when it's name was called. Megan smirked, and rejoined Koga at his side. "They are my eyes and ears around the city. They keep me out of trouble...and find it for me." And of course, she was referring to him on that last note.
“I’ve been missssing out on the bessst ice cream in thisss whole city? This isss unacceptable.”
She nodded, sliding into step beside him as she led him towards the Market. "You're damn right it is! That's like living in Oregon and never eating tillamook Ice cream!" Not that she ate a whole lot of it when she lived there... but it was well worth the few pounds it tended to pack on. "..Like going to Florida and never seeing an alligator!" She finished her rather short rant with a grin. She should gloat, maybe pick on him a little more for only missing out on the one guilty pleasure good enough that she still allowed herself to eat it... but couldn't find the urge anywhere.
“That back there wasn’t my best work.”
She KNEW it! Megan danced a little mental jig and patted herself on the back. There was no stopping the fan girl obsession now! She had too Hero's on her list, and she just couldn't contain her excitement. He explained that he was not usually quite so brutal, but she couldn't have cared less. Restraining one's self was a sign of great power, was it not? That just meant that he had a little slip up now and again. Which just made him all the more cooler. "This is so cool!" She jumped a little, unable to contain herself. Just wait until she told the girls at work... and Roach.. oh, he would hate her so!
“How about you, Charlotte? what isss it that you do other then, massstering a tassser and crotch ssshot?”
She beamed with a certain amount of pride, and interlaced her fingers behind her back, her book still tucked under her arm. It was one thing to have a Super Hero out getting ice cream with you, but it was a whole different book if that same Hero called you pretty and complimented your manhood crushing skills in the same night. " Me? Well, I'm a hair stylist. When I am not wandering around alone reading books and eating Ice cream, I am hard at work making the people of this city look less hideous." She nodded, mater O' factly, and turned to face him. "But, I do have a secret weapon... Wanna see it?"
"... Koga is it? Well, it is very nice to meet you." She paused, torn between giving out her actual name for once, or sticking to her adopted one. "..I am Charlotte." Why break the habit now? She followed him, curious, and watched as he explained about payphones and the like. It took all of her remaining control not to burst into laughter at his impression of a lil' old lady. By god, if these were the type of people who wandered these desolate streets at night, she would have to make more excursions out! She covered a smirk and a giggle with her hands, laughing instead with her eyes, and waited for him to hang up.
“Sssso where does one find.”“Find ssstrawberry ice cream around here?”
The twenty three year old's eyes widened and her hands flew to her face. Oh lordy! Had she gotten ice cream on her face?! Her cheeks darkened, more from anger at the situation than anything else, and she wiped at her cheeks. How else would he have been able to know? "There is a little market store up the street that stay's open twenty four hours. They have the best ice cream in the city." Ooooh! Had she the mind, she would throw her hands into the air and curse a few times at how embarrassing such a thing was. She was with company though, so instead she turned, and pointed, and turned back again with a smile in place.
So what if she had crap on her face? She was walking with one of the coolest people she had ever met... like a real life-...er... hero?... Villain? She blinked. Not knowing what he was defined as was going to drive her insane... "so... let me get this straight. You mentioned to that guy that he wouldn't be doing 'buissness' here again, yes? Am I correct in assuming..." She adopted a sort of gleeful look, and skipped ahead of him. ".. That you are some midnight vigilante hell bent on cleaning the streets up?" If not, she could handle Super villain, or even diabolical genius.... She just couldn't see that type of person taking out the trash, rather than putting it in.
Megan beamed, Ab.so.lute.ly beamed. She had never had someone take her so seriously before.... maybe she was dreaming. A quick pinch of the skin on her arm told her she was in fact not. How glorious! Tucking her book under her arm, she watched as he shifted colors, marveling just a little at how smoothly he did it, and waited until he had cleaned himself up a little more before she stepped over the guy's body and stood by his side. He shifted color again, one that matched the light green in her shirt, and she grinned even wider.
"No problemo, I know I hate to have alien things on me. I can understand how it would bug you."Things like roach spit came to mind... or the carnage that got on her when she cleaned up the bodies he randomly brought home... Her name was questioned and she snapped back to reality. For a moment Megan thought about actually telling this one the truth. She decided against it a moent later, and turned the tables right back on him. "I will tell you mine, if you tell me yours."
Turning one last time, she glanced down at the guy and frowned. She didn't know him, and really didn't care at all what happened to him. But... what if something came from the encounter? If he died there would be no witnesses.. but the badass at her side would have killed him if he had wanted it so. "What about him? Are you just going to leave him here?" She questioned, raising a delicate eyebrow Koga's way.
"...I mean I expect a comedy to make me laugh…then a horror flick should be able to scare me. or at the least give me the creepsss.”
She lifted a finger all knowingly. " It is obvious, that you have not been watching the right type of horror films then!" She lifted her book up a little higher and angled it in just the right fashion for it to reflect what minimal light there was. "Good movies are all about psychological fear. No one is safe, not even the viewer." The few that came to mind first sounded most appeasing. "Alfred Hitchcock for example. Some of the best movies I have ever seen, and you hardly see blood and gore." She motioned with her book to the unmoving man at Koga's feet. "Modern movies are too reliant on the jump factor and needless bloodshed to make a decent film." She could think of a few of those movies too, but refused to name them out of spite.
She watched, quietly, as he rifled through the mans pockets and came out of it with a fist full of cash. 'dirty money..' She thought. But it wasn't her problem, so long as she didn't have to touch it. “..Do you want to go get that ice cream?”“ hisss treat.”
"Do I?" He might as well have been asking a five year old if she wanted to ride on a pony. "I would love too!" But first... she would need to do something about his appearance. Sure, speckled with blood was kind of hot when it was some beefy hunk in a movie... but, well, it would just be a dead give away if they went out like that. She fished out a pack of antibacterial wet naps from her back pocket, and tossed them too him. "I know with the red and all it probably doesn't show up on you as well as the average person, but you never know what's in that guys blood." A rare, genuine smile lifted her lips while she waited for him to make the first move.
She was already deep into her book again when he spoke up. She simply nodded, wanting to get through the part she had been sucked out of, before the whole thing started. Her eyes scanned the page quickly, coming to rest at a natural break and she was able to snap the book shut with a content sigh, and deposit under the crook of her arm. Obvious mutant guy was already on his way to where the fallen man was. Megan just couldn't help but follow him with her eyes.
“I’d offer to treat you, but asss I sssaid the two of usss ssstill have business.”
Oohh... Polite AND dangerous? What an award winning combination. She grinned. An offer was still an offer, and she could always ask him about it afterward. "I am more than willing to wait." She replied, her eyes glittering in the darkness. “ Ssso, Ice cream a book and a nice alleyway ssstroll?” She smirked at the question, crossing her arms over her chest. "The best combination, don't you think? I find it helps me to get into the type of books I read. Like watching a good horror flick with all of the lights off."
She watched curiously, perhaps a bit too curiously, as he fought off the knife attack with a good deal of stealth. Even more interesting for her though, was when he just went to town on the guys face. Megan withdrew her book and sheilded herself from flying droplets of blood that found their way in her direction. When she removed it, she was surprisingly happy to find that it had created a nice spray effect on her book. She would get chills when reading it from now on, she could see it now. "... And to think, I nearly stayed home tonight."
Outrage plastered its self on Megan's face. How dare he! She was not some toy to be tossed about like a... a... tennis ball! Why, if she were not being held at knife point, she would give that man what's fore! And then some!
“Tell you what, take the knife away from her throat let her go and fight her, and I won’t lay a finger on you.”
Fight her?! why, the absurdity! Sicking some smelly, probably toothless assailant on a helpless woman with ice cream. What kind of a cold hearted, calculating, completely despicable- “ or you can ssslit her throat and face me, when I’ve jussst watched the blood drain from a pretty face.”
- did he just call her pretty?
The anger washed away from her face instantly, seeing as her ego had been stroked, and she grinned. All of those other things he said dropped away and she straightened her back and chin and proclaimed. "That's Enough!" While the guy behind her was busy trying to frantically pick through his choices, she reared her ice cream bearing arm back into his face- square on the nose. The knife was moved from her throat as he grabbed at the offending treat. Megan took that oh so precious moment to snatch up her taser, turn swiftly, and lay the sparking blue light directly in the middle of the mans chest. He went as straight as a board until she took the weapon away, and then he fell with a deep, painfilled groan. Megan, just for good measure, sent a swift kick to his man parts- just to be sure he wouldn't get up again.
She turned and angled her taser at the red guy, wearing a wicked grin herself. "Well, that was easier than I thought it would be..." Stepping around the twitching man, she bent and retrieved her book, then paused and tsked. "... such a waste of good ice cream though."
With out raising her head, Megan glanced over the pages of her book. Her children told her that whoever it was, was heading her way. '...and I was just getting to the juicy bits, too..' She paused for a moment, licking her thumb to fake turning a page, and calmly puzzled over what to do. She could hide of course, but hiding rarely ever solved anything and was very boring. On the other hand, she had an ice cream- which she had paid for- and if she tussled with the guy she'd likely drop it. Her lips pursed. 'danger!' Her eyes darted back up to in time to see the man plow backwards into her. She was roughly elbowed in the face, stomped on, and kneed in the side as the guy scrambled to get up- then hauled to her feet by the crook of her arm and a knife was pressed to her throat.
'I knew I should have hid...' She grumbled to herself, her face the very picture of aggravation. What's more, she had dropped her book in the scuffle, and could see it down by her feet in the dirt. 'i hate dirty things...'"Back off! Or... or... I'll slit her throat!" Another figure entered Megan's field of vision and she squinted to try and make out any visible features. All she could really see in the darkness thus far, was red... shadowed red. "Did you hear me?!" The guy yelled, right in her ear too. Rolling her eyes, she brought her ice cream back to her lips and licked at it once more. "...annoying..." The guy holding her hostage had to have a good reason for doing this. He wreaked, felt grimy, and had a horrible sense of fashion. Nothing less than someone hell bent on murdering him would be good enough for her. God, and he was shaking like a chihuahua.
Maybe Dracula would step out of the shadows... some ungodly monster from- 'holycrapit'samonster' Or at the very least, someone who looked reallyreally wicked. Her aggravation diminished, and a small smile appeared again. Maybe this would be better than her book...
If not, then she was going to crush this guys manhood and electrocute him for a good while for touching her. Once he let her go, that is.
Modern day vampires never excited her as much as the older versions did. Sure, she could sit down and watch the latest vampire-monster slasher movie just like anyone else... but where was the drama? The class? There never was any. The monster was 2-D at best and usually completely corny. Not at all like the classic versions. With her well read through copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula in hand, Megan had gone for a late night walk in the dark to get herself all riled up. There was nothing like putting yourself into the story to really get the feel of it. Along the way, she had stopped for an ice cream cone, which she was lazily devouring whilst she read. She felt some of the vanilla, strawberry mixture drip down her fingers while she turned into an Alley, and licked it away before it could cause a mess. Her spiders scurried along the walls on either side of her, heading out in front to be her eyes and ears while she read. "...But, oh, Mina, I love him; I love him; I love him!" She muttered, her voice pitched high and girlishly as she mocked the character. Her thumb turned a page, and she moved to take another lick from her treat. A warning from her spiders made her pause, however.
Someone else was in the alley? Her lips curled slightly and she finished her lick. With sweet strawberry on her tongue, she switched her ice cream to her book hand and fished out her trusty taser. Once she had it securely tied to her arm via a small cord, she re-palmed her ice cream and continued down the alley. Her pets didn't know how many people yet... they had only heard one voice. She dropped her eyes back to her book, landing on one of her favorite parts, and she was instantly reabsorbed.
Great. Here came fail boy again... Maybe he was going to redeem himself and not look like an ass this time. Really, who announced themselves these days?! She readied herself by clinging to the hair on the guys hand. "Hope you're ready Bubbles, cuz here comes your maker!" Monkey Man paused, looking at her, and blinked. The masochist closed in and landed a solid blow in between his shoulders. The great ape's expression changed to that of aggravation, and he reached back with the hand Megan was in to try and swat the bug on his back.
The first two attempts led to Megan receiving a face full of sweaty fur, and the last left her hovering upside down next to the man who had come to save her. She spit fur out of her mouth and crossed her arms, her thread dangling in front of her eyes. "Go for the eyes!" She was withdrawn before she had a chance to add anything else.
Monkey Man returned to holding himself up with both hands, much to Megan's not-able-to-breath discomfort, and shook himself violently in hopes of detaching the annoyance. Once Megan had air in her lungs again, she hatched a plan, and rapped him on the knuckles as hard as she could. Her other hand dipped and she slapped the end of her rope to the wall behind her. It was long enough now that she would at least be able to hang onto the building with.
"Hey, Ugly! Why don't you just put me down like a nice little chimpanzee and scurry along back to the jungle?" Large brown eyes focused on her again, and she winced as the grip around her mid section tightened. Maybe ugly had been too harsh a term? Oh well, no point in holding back now. It was either get rescued by the doofus in a costume, or giant freaky monkey business... And she did NOT want to find out what he had in mind.
Fill out forms? Information about her? Apply for a schedule? Be Nice? None of those things sounded appealing to her, as a matte of fact it sounded like work! And she already had a job!... nor was she really all that interested in going back to school. Megan folded her arms in the same manner Gemma had, and blinked. "Well, I guess that cancels me out. I'm not really looking for something so complicated... or personal." Come to think of it, she had never really had to do much when it came to living somewhere... her last roommate had just let her move in. As had her current one. She forgot how lucky she was, sometimes.
"So, Charlotte. What brings you here, besides visiting a friend? Or you just decided to add your own decorations to the tree?..."
She shrugged, turning back to the tree behind her which was still pretty infested with spiders. Some of which has begun eating other spiders. Megan frowned, and considered stepping away from the woman- but figured it probably wouldn't change anything. "What can I say? I'm a grinch. Besides, that tree was much too happy, and aren't the holidays all about everybody putting a little bit of their own touch on the tree?" Or at least... that's what she thought the custom was... it might have changed in the time she'd been away from home. "I just added a little bit of Charlotte to it." And, if she hadn't been interrupted, she probably would have added a little bit of Charlotte to the couch, and the tables, and the windows...
The crowd below had gotten larger. More and more people were clustering up around the police barricade that had been set up. Three news vans had shown up already, they had cameras and lights pointed up in her direction. Shielding her eyes from the light, she turned and looked up at her kidnapper. "You know, whatever chance you had disappeared when you grew all of that hair." The ape stopped climbing and turned an angry look her way. He grunted, something she didn't understand, and she felt his grip start to loosen up. Instantly, she knew the grunt meant, 'oh, is that so? Well I'll just let you go then.' She was mostly right. "Gah! I was kidding! KIDDING! God, can't you take a joke?!" His grip returned, but instead of hold her any longer, he plopped her down onto her stomach over his shoulder. From that Vantage point Megan could see just exactly how high up she was, and just how many people were waiting for someone, be it her or the Monkey, to fall and go splat.
"Fear not, citizen! The Masochist is here!"
Both Megan and the Monkey Man looked up in unison. She recognized the guy instantly as the same one from her adventure in the subway station. Here came the hero! And the blood and guts! The- What the hell was he doing?! Megan watched in a combination of horror and anger and the spandex clad man leaped from the roof and came sailing towards them. 'That moron, he's going to knock us off the side of the building!' Her captor appeared to have the same thought, and swiftly swung out of the way of the falling man. Megan watched as he sailed right past them, and crawled forward to scream over the apes shoulder. "You idiot! Why did you announce yourself!?" Even though he probably couldn't hear or see her, she felt the urge to shake a fist at him- so she did. "You could have had the jump on hi- ack!"
A hand snatched her up again, and she was cut off mid sentence. Her kidnapper gave her a little shake to shut her up, which made her dizzy and relatively queasy. While Megan wanted very much to throw up all over his hairy arm, she tired her best to contain it- since she didn't want to get dropped. Instead, she set her focus on begging to weave web together in her mouth... Hopefully by the time they got where ever he was taking her, she'd had enough to climb to safety... or at least make a whip with which to protect herself. While doing so, she quieted down. She didn't want tall, smelly, and hairy there to notice that she had thin rope dangling from her mouth... Thankfully, the ape didn't seem to care too much, or he didn't notice. He grasped her tighter and resumed climbing. With a wince, she pried at the hand to gain a little more breathing room, and tried to relax. If all else failed, maybe she could squeeze out of his grasp down her rope, break a window, and climb inside. She plopped her chin in her hand and stared out at the buildings around her. "You know, I can see my house from up here. Monkey Man paid her no heed.
So... one didn't have yo live at the school then. Which made it okay that she just showed up? "That's.... good to know." ... somehow... that took all of the fun out of things. Maybe she was under the wrong impression though, hopefully. Megan glanced back at the tree the same time Gemma did and blinked. WOW. Her kids worked fast. She squinted ruefully, and frowned. much faster than she had ordered them too before she lost control.
"So, is this your speciality?..Do you control spiders?"
Her eyes darted back to the counselor, and she blinked before nodding slowly. Despite wanting it too, a wicked little smile lit up her face. "I do... Among other things." Of course, ask her to spit web or birth a brood of spiders now, and she'd be a pretty big disappointment.
But, onto lighter subjects. Megan was interested in this whole living on campus thing... "Say, Gemma, what does it take to become a student and move in here?" Sure... she already had a place, but there was always the possibility that she would anger her new buggy roommate somehow and be forced to go into hiding. What better a place than a school chalk full of innocent bystanders?
Megan had never before experienced what it was like to witness her feet dangling below her about five stories up, and getting higher. Nor had she ever felt large fingers wrapped around her waist... until now. But how had she gotten herself into this predicament? What with a large monkey-man scaling a buildings wall with her in his grasps? Well, that was something she had yet to really figure out herself...
The night had started off at a local Karaoke club. Megan had blared a few songs, had a few drinks, and she was in a pretty good mood. She had retired herself from the stage- seeing as her duct tape outfit was starting to come apart, and had seated herself at the bar. A male of average looks had approached her and sat down, which in Megan's book meant he was about to start buying her drinks.... and yet it never happened. He blathered on about this and that, complimented her dress and her figure, and when Megan didn't think she could take much more of it he stood and excused himself to the bathroom. She dropped her plastic smile immediately, and groaned to herself. The guy was a fricken dead end, she didn't see herself getting tipsy on his bill anytime soon. While he was gone, she excused herself from her seat and wandered over to the nearest lonely looking guy, and started all over again.
Of course, when the other guy came back to an empty seat, he had looked around for her. Apparently spotting her across the bar in someone else's lap, with someone else's drink, made him more than a little angry. He returned to the bathroom and fumbled for a small container of pill in his coat pocket. A sip of water and one pill later, and he felt the change coming on. He stormed back into the club, waltzed over to where Megan was sitting, and knocked the guy she was with clean out with one well aimed punch. It helped that by the time he had gotten there he had doubled in size and body hair...
Oh yeah, that's right. Now she remembered. She had barely had time to gulp down the rest of her drink before she had been roughly snatched up and kidnapped from the club. Her captor, who looked more like a giant ape than a man now, had darted across the street and started to climb. She recalled seeing something very similar to this play out in a movie once, and could barely wait for the fighter jets to arrive! Below, past her swinging feet, she could see police lights and an ambulance or two lining up on the street. A crowd had gathered on the outside of the ring, and she assumed that if they were like her, they were expecting to see someone fall and go splat. Her kidnapper grunted and tossed her painfully onto his shoulder, so he could use both hands to climb more effectively. As Megan clung to his hair, she was glad she had been able to finish most of her drink. She was definitely going to need it...