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.
Rex remained standing, but he folded his arms in front of his chest as he watched Hercules extinguish the candle. His head actually jerked back several inches as Hercules failed to see the difference in flames.
“What? No, not at all,” Rex exclaimed. “When I call fire, it’s a fire whirl without the pillar of twisting air. It spirals around me instead of flickering straight, requires no external fuel source, doesn’t touch me, and it vanishes when I will it so.” He gestured at the faintly smoking candle. “They’re not even close.”
If there was anything Rex knew in life, if there was anything he was an expert on, it was fire. He nodded. “When I call the pillar of fire, I can use it to consume other fires it comes into contact with,” he acknowledged, “but there’s still the danger of reigniting other things around me. Fighting fire with fire just leaves nothing but ashes.”
Rex passed Hercules the lighter. “We do use water though. Teach me a water spell then.” Rex unfolded his arms and let his hands fall loosely to his side. He didn’t know what to expect so he wanted to be ready for anything.
Rex couldn’t help but wince. He’d clearly offended Hercules by shooting just his offer of hand-to-hand training, but Rex couldn’t bring himself to change his mind. Oh no, there were far more important things to do than be repeatedly crushed by the man. Rex was no slouch - he spent a lot of time in the gym, focused on weight training and cardio both so he could run up flights up stairs in full gear and carry people over his shoulders while still kicking down doors - but he was no Hercules either, whom Rex had witness crushing the molten metal hand of a man before and who could shrug off bullets.
If Rex was going to learn hand to hand combat, he’d find someone closer to his abilities, like a gorilla.
Rex wasn’t done either. He frowned. “I’m familiar with fire, I’m a firefighter,” he said. “I also know how to stop the fire pillar I make,” he added. “What I meant was, how do I extinguish a fire I did not make? At least one I didn’t directly make?”
He reached into a bag by the cooler and pulled out a six-pack of tea candles and a lighter. He took a candle out of the pack and lit it before setting it on the floor, several feet away from where he had been sitting. “Can I use a spell to snuff that out?” he asked.
Rex shook his head and waved a hand. “No no, it’s…it’s fine,” he said as Hercules started to explain why Rex wasn’t ready. “It’s fine. I get it. I’d only get myself hurt.” It was a blow to Rex’s burgeoning ego for sure, but he’d deal with that. It wasn’t Hercules’s fault that Rex was new to every aspect of this. Rex had let the new spellcraft go directly to his head and he’d imposed upon Hercules.
He smoothed away all expressions and hardened his face. He looked Hercules over one more time as the familiar massive club smashed a hole in the side of the warehouse and came to Hercules. “Rodney is going to kill me for this,” he muttered, staring at the damage. Rex had prepared for fire. He should’ve prepared for Hercules.
The man was a hulking brute though. He also seemed to think instead of training with a sword, he could train Rex to be a…grappler?
A memory flashed in Rex’s mind, of Hercules crushing the molten metal hand of the superstrong Brazen. Even now the man’s muscles looked like they were getting bigger as they swarmed with glowing tattoos and an oil-like sheen.
“Maybe some other time,” he said with a repressed shudder. “Stick to fire for now. MAybe show me how to turn off a fire?”
Rex’s jaw clenched slightly, but he swallowed his affronted pride. “Very well,” he said simply. What had he been thinking, jumping to throw his hat into a ring? He’d seen some of what the kind of foes Hercules fought - to think that he, Rex, would assume he could keep up!
“Pride cometh before destruction,” he whispered to himself with a faint frown before sharply nodding it away. He knew two spells now, yet he seemed to think himself a wizard. Forgive me, Father, he prayed, his eyes closing for a moment.
His deflation only increased even as he warred to keep it from being noticeable. Hercules wasn’t a sword-trainer either. Rex suddenly realized he might be asking too much of the man. He hadn’t agreed to become Rex’s personal trainer and combat teacher. He’d only agreed to teach him what he knew of magic. “Ah,” Rex said stiffly. “My apologies. I…can ask…one of them…then.” Maybe Sam would know who to go to?
He fought back the rising heat in his cheeks. No, he was no warrior. He was set on using his abilities to help people, not hurt them. That was the point of this training, was it not?
“Then we should continue training with fire then,” Rex decided. At the very least they could get that under control.
The two men were a study in contrasts in so many ways. Where Hercules was hulking and brawny, Rex was toned and merely tall. Rex was stoic and unbending, Hercules wore his heart on his sleeveless arm. One believed in only one god, the other believed he was a god. One fought fires, the other fought monsters. One cast magic, the other lived via magic. Rex was serious, Hercules was boisterous. Rex was broken and Hercules was carefree.
That made it far more interesting when they agreed on the same things. “I might like to join that conversation,” Rex said, trying to ignore Hercules’s tears. Rex didn’t know what to make of the man openly crying like that, so he tried to focus on the serious matters. The last encounter Rex had had with Welldrinkers was that man Raijin. Rex had ended up slashed across the back and on the way to bleeding out. Rex knew Hercules wasn’t quite so vulnerable to swords, not to mention potential allies in Cold Steel and those other mutants.
All in all, it was dark and unfamiliar ground to Rex, considering a cold war and acquiring allies. Those weren’t ways he was used to thinking. It was always man against flame, never man against man. Then again, he’d never started fires by quoting the Word either.
“I believe I will need much more training before that happens, though,” Rex said. “How good are you with swords?”
“THY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET AND A LIGHT UNTO MY PATH!” Rex yelled as Hercules commanded. He focused on the fire and the burning energy in his mind. He tempered it with his will and what he wanted it to be. The swirling shimmering ball of flame flared briefly with a new surge of power and it flashed solid white for several moments, before blue tints emerged on the edges.
The heat blurred the air around the ball and Rex shut his eyes instinctively. He could still see spots. In the distraction, the intensity wavered and the blue-white flames slid back to orange-gold.
It seemed visualization was indeed part of it. Imagination, willpower, and focus.
Rex’s head was starting to hurt.
The giant seemed satisfied with Rex’s progress so far, so Rex downed more water. The ball of fire on the floor still burned, but it wasn’t very hot, as flames went. It didn’t take as much out of him. That didn’t mean he was over the drawbacks from casting the pillar of fire so strongly though.
“I had a revelation,” Rex said slowly after several moments to string his thoughts together. “I was in with the Welldrinkers. After my family left me and I was unofficially suspended, they were the only people who showed any concern for me. Or so I thought. They took advantage of me, my fears, my heartbreak. They molded me into something I was not, yet something I craved. A way to strike back. To not feel the hurt. To balance the scales.”
Rex’s mouth was already dry. He finished the water bottle off and tossed it back in the cooler. “They asked if I wanted to level the playing field against mutants and, God in Heaven, I said yes,” Rex shuddered. He rubbed his eyes with the palm of a hand. “Dear God, I said yes.”
Memories flickered in his mind’s eyes like flames of darkness. That dark room, the people in robes, new friends, complete strangers, the air of expectancy…. Rex couldn’t look at Hercules. He stared at another point on the floor. “I….drank…from the Well,” he stuttered. “The moment I touched that power and felt it wrap around my soul, I heard words in my head. Words I hadn’t thought of in years, but I’d memorized as a child.”
He shook his head. “You haven’t read the Bible, so you might not know the story of the Exodus,” Rex began solemnly. “It’s the story of the ancient Hebrew people of thousands of years ago, when they were held captive in slavery to the Egyptians for generations. Finally, they had reached a point of such pain and misery that God chose a savior to be born for them, a man named Moses. Moses became a prophet of God, the first one in a long, long time and God enacted many miracles through him to convince Egypt to let Moses and the Hebrews, God’s chosen people go.”
“So they went, leaving Egypt behind them. However, God wasn’t done with miracles. You see, by day, God manifested as a dark pillar of cloud to provide shade for His people and to guide them through the desert. At night, he transitioned to a pillar of fire that continuously burned from the sky, providing light and warmth as they journeyed through the darkness.”
The firefighter felt a small smile tickle his cheeks. He didn’t resist it. “I remembered a scripture from that story. ‘And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people,’ “ Rex quoted.
“That’s when I realized that just because I had turned my back on God, He had not turned his back on me. As I spoke those words, as I spoke the Word of God, that’s when my own pillar of fire formed around me. I ran from that place, from that cult, right back to my church, to my God, and only when I crossed the threshold to that holy place did the flames finally falter.”
“My God led me out of my own slavery, turning my weakness into His glory,” Rex said, smiling into the ball of flames.
Almost no time at all passed from Rex signing the paper before it was whisked away. He’d only just started pinning his own number to his shirt when the first competition was to be announced. The three-legged race? Wait, that was the one he’d signed up for, wasn’t it?
“Let’s get this over with,” Rex said as he moved toward the starting line. He didn’t have a bad attitude toward the competitions, per se. He actually really enjoyed the physical side of it all, and morale was very important. Everyone needed to blow off steam. Rex just wasn’t feeling like himself anymore. He wasn’t the same man he was, even a year ago.
“66!” said the woman. Rex snorted quietly as he infiltrated the back of the group. Like most of the fire department, he was dressed in shorts, tennis shoes, and an official department t-shirt. He reached back as he lifted a leg and began to stretch while he waited for the number of the unlucky soul to be called who’d have to team up with the cop. How who they even decide who the winner was?
“Number 77!” was the shout.
Rex frowned. He looked down. “Heaven help me,” he said as he stared at the big 77 pinned to his chest.
He started making his way over to the starting line to find out who his new partner was, studiously ignoring the catcalls and slaps on the back as his fellow firefighters began cheering and ragging on him.
“Alright big guy, the events are about to begin so go on over and make us proud,” said Antonio and he stepped up to the grill beside Rex.
“Already?” Rex said to his coworker. Rex had only been back on active duty for a month or so and it was still taking some getting used to after just over a year-long hiatus..
“Yeah man!” Antonio slapped Rex on the back. “We missed you last year, so go show those donut-munchers how it’s done!”
“Very well,” Rex complied. He handed Antonio the tongs and he removed his plain black apron. Rex had volunteered to kick off the grilling for the hot dog contest later.
The firefighter made his way through the rest of fire department territory until he reached the sign up board himself. “In for a penny…” he muttered to himself, to the shock of the coworkers around him that knew him and his lack of verbosity. He put his name down on the first event of the list. Maybe that would satisfy Antonio.
Rex glanced up at Hercules with a frown. “I do not think that would be wise,” he said in all seriousness. An open flame, particularly one the size that Rex had conjured, would be quite a hazard. A moment’s inattention or a single failure in dexterity and new fires, ones not under his control, could erupt.
Rex nodded sharply as the lesson continued. He knew that part already. Fire had been an integral part of his life for decades. He understood how fire worked and what it was capable of in ways few others ever could. Now, he was learning even more about it. He could feel the fire burning inside his mind, feeling it devour the energy he fed it, feeling it shift, and wobble, and reform.
It went out in a blast of air.
He stared. He had to make a new fire? Very well. Rex did not beat around the bush. He just frowned and stared at the same, slightly scorched spot of the floor and spoke again. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Once more, fire bloomed.
Again, Rex stared at the man. Was he being mocked? Mentioning a greater power nearly always meant God and with the brief interaction they’d had previously, in which Rex did nothing to hide his faith, it was possible Sam was making fun of him. The way he seemed to place extra emphasis on “something greater than mutations.”
“Indeed,” he said simply, before turning to look back at the first. There was nothing more to be said. Something felt off about the man, but it seemed Sam was quick to turn any line of investigation around on Rex and he didn’t want to dive anywhere near that either.
That left Rex with just his fallback modus operandi. He stayed silent and watched the flames.
Rex stared at the flame with mothlike rapture. He could feel the flame burning, just as he could feel the pillar of fire when he summoned it forth, but this was different. Smaller. Less burdensome. It didn’t feel like it was eating through his mind like the pillar would do after only a minute or so. This was…simple. Like holding a door open when you were used to deadlifts.
His embarrassment deepened, but this time due to Hercules’s praise as opposed to his laughter. Praise and compliments were things Rex didn’t know what to do with either.
Intent. Visualization. Focus. Was that all there was to it? Rex frowned as he fed the fire. That didn’t seem right to him. The fire didn’t come until he spoke scripture, just like the other spell only happened when he recited very specific verses.
“I feel like I can keep this up indefinitely,” Rex said after a moment of consideration. “This fire is not very large.” Rex certainly wasn’t feeling any strain.
Many things had been expected. Yelling, frustration, sighing, steely, resolve, or a dozen other teaching practices Rex had experienced over time. Roaring laughter was not one of them. “Glad I can amuse you,” Rex said bleaky and nearly tonelessly. This was a mistake, a bad idea. The arrogance of him that he thought he could try learning magic! It was evil and accursed for a reason!
Hercules wanted him to try again. To “command the flames.” He’d already tried that! He told them to burn! Maybe he needed a fire first before he could control it? Did Hercules actually know what he was talking about? Surely there was a difference in superhuman physical strength and starting a fire with your mind!
Rex closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding it for six seconds before releasing it slowly. It didn’t really matter. He was here for a purpose. It was time to go all in.
“Father, help me,” Rex whispered as he crossed himself. He opened his eyes and stared at the floor where he was meant to make flames. Absently, he reached for a scripture that he commonly quoted when he didn’t know what to do. Hercules wanted him to dig deep? There was only one thing deep in Rex.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” he said as he reached for energy.
Fire responded.
A baseball-sized ball of fire appeared on the floor, softly crackling and sparking as it thirstily drank in oxygen.
Rex’s eyes widened. “Hah!” he said loudly, “I did it!”
Magic relies on intent. Rex stared at the brawny man in silence for a moment. A faint smile threatened to show on his face. Hercules sounded like his priest. As controversial as the priest’s stance was, he was the one who kept suggesting that this magic Rex had, born not of a pact with a devil, could be an opportunity from God to be a force for His good.
Rex hoped they were both right.
“My intent is to make a fire, completely under my control,” Rex said seriously, frowning in concentration. Visualize the flame. Focus on it. Make it appear. Make it grow or shrink. Make it do what he wanted. The frown deepened. That wasn’t normally how he called fire. It was just something he knew.
The firefighter focused on the floor where Rex had pointed and imagined a small fire there. He tried reaching out to that place where he tapped into that energy, that fuel for his fires. He felt the power there, felt it yearning to be unleashed, but as he focused on the fire in his mind’s eye more, it just…didn’t connect.
Rex set his water to the side and leaned forward, his face tight with focus. The frown was a full -on glare. “Come on,” he said to himself. “Burn.”
Nothing happened. “It’s not working,” he said, slumping back in the chair and grabbing for the water again to take a sip.
Rex stared at the other man for a moment longer, considering his words and stance. For a cop, he didn’t seem too interested in why the mutants’ powers failed at the most convenient times. Unless he was one of those cops who just wanted things to be neat and easy with the least amount of paperwork.
His face darkened a bit and he looked. “Definitely not a mutant. I’m a firefighter. Good at my job,” he said a bit gruffly. A pain struck his stomach as his eyes fell upon the burning building. “Or I was.”
Rex frowned at the cop. “I should think not,” he said stiffly. The last place he wanted to go to was a club. Even at his lowest point, he’d sought the quiet refuge of dive bars, where a man could drown in peace.
That wasn’t the only thing that triggered concern in Rex. “Their powers just…stopped working?” he said skeptically, looking over the detective again. He’d never heard of that happening before. Well, you heard stories of mutants occasionally having power outages, but never two at the same time, with very different powers. “Didn’t seem to happen to Fenrear.”
His eyes narrowed a bit. There was something there. “You wouldn’t happen to be a mutant, would you?” he said as inflectionlessly as possible.
