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.
Tension that had hitherto been unknown to Rex drained out of his shoulders as the giant laughed. The threat of offense had passed and the tattooed man seemed jovial. The storm was over, let the rainbows dance.
Hercules was not a god. He couldn’t be. He was a good man though, even with all of his flaws. He genuinely believed he was a god though, so who was Rex to try to sway his opinion? The giant was a man of conviction, however blasphemous that conviction may or may not be, yet it did not seem to come from a place of pride or anger or greed or lust, but rather a sense of humility, kindness, love, and joy.
With such bountiful evidence of the fruits of the spirit, Rex….he couldn’t hate the man. Especially if he too had suffered major tribulations in his life and come through them.
Rex finally opened his eyes as the man commanded him. He looked at the huddling victims. He also looked at Dr. Cama, who was stuck on the fire escape. He looked at the muscle man standing before him. He looked at the clinic that was being consumed by voracious flames. He looked at the hand stretched out toward him.
He looked at all these things before closing his eyes once again, bowing his head for a moment as one hand found its way to the crucifix hanging from his neck and under his shirt. His lips moved inaudibly as he sent out a prayer to the heavens. Then he opened his eyes. He looked up at Hercules.
He placed his hand in Hercules’s and pulled himself to his feet.
Tears were still glistening on his face, making tiny rivulets in the faint layer of soot that had accumulated there. The moisture was beginning to sparkle in the dim streetlight and the glowing orange that was appearing in the ground level basement windows.
Rex stood tall.
“Thank you,” he said stiffly, abruptly turning his face from Hercules to inspect the clinic. “I…I’m a bit…lost right now but I….I’m trying to find my way back. Thank you.” Rex’s throat went dry as he finished his speech. Still not looking at the other man, he grunted, “Would you…be available….if I needed to…talk?”
What would his wife think of him? What would his children think? Rex’s head tapped the brick wall behind him and his eyes squeezed shut. Rex himself didn’t know what to think. All he had were his demons.
Who would want a man like Rex in their lives? He could feel the heat from the building starting to make its way into the alley as the flames surely spread. A small part of his mind was tracking the unseen fire, predicting its path. It would probably chew through the ceiling first and then spread through the floor, avoiding the cinderblock walls. It would then be able to work its way down to the other rooms in the basement, but also the rooms on the ground floor, which hadn’t seemed like stone at all.
It was his fault.
He could almost feel the hulking presence of the other man. He definitely heard rustling and such. Likely crouching. The voice came from a lower height, and a softer tone.
Rex didn’t have any more fight in him. He listened.
It was…was it blasphemy if you weren’t a believer? Misguided then? Not to mention that the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Then again, Hercules’s words….had the ring of truth to them. How? Was this another attack? The Devil quoting scripture to him? Was this Rex’s desert experience?
Was this Rex burying his talent in the ground?
“I don’t know,” Rex said softly. “I don’t know.” It didn’t matter what he was responding to. He didn’t know what he knew. “You…you are sounding like my priest.” Hercules could’ve been reading out of the priest’s Bible, for his words sounded just like the ones the priest had spoken to Rex on many occasions. Intention, faith, and good works.
“I…I can’t accept that you are a god,” Rex said slowly and with many pauses. “I…just can’t.” His eyes stayed shut. He didn’t move his head. The tears slowed down, but they’d return in full force if he opened his eyes. “I can accept…that you are a good man. I think. I don’t know you well, but….what I’ve seen….you place others…before yourself. I…can’t ask for much more than that.”
The heat of the fire seemed to be getting just a little stronger moment by moment. Oh God, what had he done? His eyes were shut but all Rex saw was death and destruction. He almost could hear a voice calling out to him again from the fire, asking for his help.
“I don’t know what to think. Everything in me says you’re either deluded, a liar, or a servant of the great Deceiver. Maybe you’re right. Maybe dead wrong. I just…don’t know.” Somehow Rex slumped even more.
The faint klarion call of fire engines could be heard in the distance. It would still take them time to get here through the crowded streets, even at this hour. However, though they could not dry as the crow flies, Rex was confident they’d do everything they could to intervene at this clinic.
Which meant it wouldn’t be long before Dr. Cama and Rex himself would have to face the music.
Rex clapped along with a couple of the other people as the man with the eyepatch returned to his seat. This was the fifth group he’d been to since starting down this journey. Admitting he had a problem had been the first step, but now he needed others to help him through the rest. The first groups had been recommended by his psychiatrist, and Rex had given them chances, but none of them had felt right to him.
This one…seemed a better fit. It was his fourth meeting, but the group’s membership was more apt for him. One of the previous groups had mostly consisted of college students who were trying to pull themselves together. Another was mostly comprised of single parents. The others just seemed…well…innocent. No, that wasn’t the word. They just had different reasons that led them to drink than he did. He didn’t feel like they understood him, or that he necessarily understood them.
This group? This group could understand. The man who just shared…a mutant had tortured him with ghosts from his past. With his wife and kids. Rex knew what it was like to be haunted.
“I’ll go,” Rex said, raising his hand when the speaker asked if any others wanted a chance. With the host’s nod, Rex made his way to the podium.
He cleared his throat gruffly and stiffly looked out at everyone. “Hi, my name is Rex.”
Over the next minute or so, he gave a short, abridged version of his journey to drink and where’d come since. He was proud of six months sober. He was ashamed he’d been trying to stop for almost a year. He still heard that cry for help and could see the bodies in the aftermath of that building’s fire. He still longed for that sweet oblivion of liquor. He felt the void in his life that the terrible cult had filled, however briefly. Now he was struggling to make sense of his life. Getting back into church, giving back to the community, spending all his time helping others so he doesn’t have time to get lost in himself…
It was a terrible speech. Rex wasn’t one to express his feelings. At all. He wasn’t much of a talker. He could order subordinates around and take command of a crisis easily, but be in the spotlight? He was notoriously tight-lipped even the rare times journalists tried to interview him about events. Even so, this was still a better summary than it had been a year ago. He didn’t go into excruciating detail about the bodies, for example. In no version did he mention magic, though. It was hard enough revealing so much of his vulnerabilities to the group of strangers - he wasn’t strong enough to discuss his damnation with them.
Rex returned to his seat, tunnel vision locked in on it, his heart pounding in his chest. He avoided all eye contact and retreated into himself, the only thing moving was one leg that couldn’t stop bouncing in pure nervous anxiety.
Rex readied himself to quote scripture, several verses coming to mind lest Hercules indeed reveal his true nature. Only some of the verses would call up the fire that Rex summoned, even though Rex had seen Hercules shrug off fire and molten metal before. The other verses weren’t designed to call fire, they were designed to fight spiritually.
He waited, watching the other man, tensing himself and stilling, all the better to quickly move into any action, including….listening.
Hercules’s master was named William? Rex seemed to have triggered some frustration in the other man. Those strange, shifting tattoos began to glow again and Rex backed up in alarm. An immaterial wall of flame was nothing to this person - neither were spines and bones.
“No…no….” Rex said haltingly. “No, magic is evil. It’s a rebellion against god. Witchcraft. At the end of days, all sorcerers, wizards, and those with familiar spirits shall burn forever in the lake of fire. It is written.” The man’s mask began to crack. Water formed in his eyes and he started to shake. “No, I cannot undo what I’ve done, but I can choose not to go forward. You almost had me, Hercules. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know if you’re the agent of the Devil, a blasphemer, a con man, or just delusional. I’ve seen you do great things, amazing stuff actually, but…but even so! I…I just can’t…”
The strength went out of Rex and he slumped against the wall of the alley, sliding down it.
“If I keep using magic, I will lose my soul. Then I will never be able to look at my wife and kids ever again.”
Rex didn’t immediately look up at Hercules. The brawnier man had clearly overhead him. That made Rex uncomfortable. It was hard enough to open up to the person he had wronged, for another to hear him? That was…that was embarrassing.
The patchwork man groaned and his eyes shut, a certain limpness starting to work through his body. Rex didn’t think that boded well. The man was passing out, likely as shock was wearing off. There was nothing else the firefighter could do though - emergency services were already on their way and extra calls would not speed them up.
A hand settled on Rex’s back and he registered the calm words. He still knelt. He squeezed his eyes shut. The words felt like absolution, yet still. Did they justify his burning of this man? Of that…den of evil?
The burgeoning light began again as Hercules’s words change their tenor. “What….what do mean…yet?” Rex said haltingly. He turned his face upward to the false god’s. An ember of hope lit inside his soul but his face was a steel wall, keeping anything from rushing in to crush that hope. He frowned. Magic….can heal?”
Rex held his hands up and stared at his palms. They were covered in grime and blood from carrying the patchwork man. Faint bits of ash lingered around his fingertips and he could always believe that he saw phantom flames flickering. If he could learn to use the magic to help instead of hurt he could--
Rex snapped his gaze back to Hercules and he rose quickly to his feet. The frown was in full force. “What do you mean, your master?” he said in alarm. What a fool Rex had been. Lulled into complacency by the man’s congenial nature and acts of strength and bravery, only to offer…a deal. A deal for power. Had not Lucifer himself done the very same thing for Jesus in the desert? Offering him power, glory, and sustenance, for seemingly no prince. It was all right there, in front of Rex the whole time. Hercules, a man who reveled in witchcraft, who claimed to be a god, who had a master who would want nothing more than Rex to delve deeper into dark pursuits?
It was a quick call. Rex identified himself and crisply and clearly informed dispatch of the situation, including his estimate of how fast the fire was spreading and that police and medical officials were needed. Everything was delivered succinctly and swiftly, the years of experience pouring out of him. Then he ended the call and the phone returned to his pocket.
While on the phone, he’d kept a wary eye on Hercules as the man bodily lifted Dr. Cama off the front and stuck him on a fire escape. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if Hercules had hurt the man or tried killing him - Rex didn’t want to think about that, but he couldn’t ignore the real possibility. He remembered what Hercules had suggested down in the bowels of the clinic.
There was no trace of joy on the firefighter’s face as he watched the tableau form. There was hardly a trace of anything else on his face either, except maybe anger, revulsion, and steely resolve.
That eldritch light of Hercules flared up again as the man addressed the victims who’d remained. It was effective, even if it wasn’t very helpful. There was no way to guarantee protection - that wasn’t their job. That’s why Rex had called the authorities. He couldn’t help with medical treatment either - what little he could do was far better handled by hospitals.
Rex stifled a grimace as Hercules gave him a thumbs up. Rex coughed to clear his throat and raised his own voice, “The authorities are on the way. Firefighters, police, and ambulances. I alerted them to the situation - if you’d be willing to give statements, that would go a long way to ensuring that man,” Rex thrust a hand toward the dangling doctor, “is unable to do anything like this ever again.”
Many stuck around, either for want of medical attention or a desire to see the doctor jailed forever. Several left though, vanishing into shadows and around corners, to parts unknown.
Rex exhaled slowly and walked over to Hercules, who ended up standing over the patchwork man.
“Dios mio,” he breathed as he got his first good look at the man.
He was only wearing scrub pants. His chest and arms looked like a bad puzzle. Various patches of skin covered him, different shades, textures, hair types, and even a patch of scales. It was horrifying. The burns made it all worse. Rex felt sick.
He knelt down beside the man, although making sure he could keep Dr. Cama generally in sight. “I am so sorry,” he said softly. “For what I did, and what Cama did. You didn’t deserve any of it.” Water started to appear in Rex’s eyes. “If I had the power, I would heal you now. But I only have the power to burn.”
It was a sign of damnation. Cursed to destroy everything he touched. It even twisted holy scripture around, using something that was supposed to be good to call up something that hurt people. Because of that, he refused to touch the man. Rex had done enough harm.
A menu was promptly placed in front of the man and he began pursuing it. After several seconds, he realized he wasn’t actually reading any of the items. He squinted for a moment and then just set the menu down. “Fish sandwich actually sounds pretty good,” he said. “I’ll take that with a side of fries, please.” He was starting to get hungry. He chalked it up to the expenditure of magic. Just one more cost to pay for it, it seemed.
There was very little conversational reprieve after that. In his experience, usually when a person submitted their order, they were then left alone. That did not seem to be the case here. Melissa kept things going and out of politeness, Rex refused to allow his teeth to grind together. She’s a nice person - don’t make her feel bad. He could almost hear Gloria’s voice in his head.
“Firefighter,” Rex said after a moment. Then he felt a need to divulge more. Too many one word answers was often seen as rude. “Been on a leave of absence for some time though.” Some days it felt like no time had passed, other days it felt like years had gone by. It had only been about six months. Six months of struggling to stay about the murky waters of his life, but at least the job, the job he loved, wasn’t adding additional strain.
The bartender carried on with some of her dreams. “Congratulations,” Rex said noncommittally. It wasn’t that he didn’t care at all - well, there was a bit of that in there, okay a lot of that - but he’d encountered too many servers and bartenders and wait staff that talked endlessly about their dreams but never did anything to achieve them. If she was a dreamer and nothing more, Rex really didn’t want to get into that conversation. “How far are you in the process?”
Rex kicked the door shut behind him with a solid shove. No sense letting more smoke out. He took a deep breath of the night air and immediately coughed. They’d moved quick, all things considered. Smoke hadn’t had time to really build up. Rex had still been close to it though, and with lugging two grown men around and going up stairs, he’d been breathing harder than normal.
He nodded with relief as Hercules bounded out of the shadows to take the patchwork man from him, leaving Rex with just Dr. Cama and the inscribed chain. “Thank you,” Rex said in acknowledgement of haivng his burden taken away, if not directed at the man’s compliment. He didn’t like how the man kept adding “of the inferno” to his name. It sounded, well, hellish.
That can only be fair. Is not hell the source of all witchcraft?
The thought troubled him, as it always did. It was one of many things he discussed frequently with his priest. His priest offered absolution and mercy, but Rex…Rex couldn’t get over it. From what he’d seen this night, he didn’t think he wanted to.
How could magic be used for the glory of God? IT was an abomination, a rebellion. Rex stared at the creature now held up by Hercules. That thing existed like it did due to some unholy acts. The same kind of power Rex could call upon. He himself, in self defense, had caused a fire that was now eating its way through a free clinic, one that had helped hundreds of people even despite the horrors it held within!
He realized he was staring numbly off into the distance when Hercules asked about the…experiments.
Rex frowned and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.
“I…don’t know,” he said. “If they want to leave, they can. I think many of them are from this area. If they need medical attention--proper medical attention--we’ll get that for them. And, ah, I need to call this in, anyways.”
Rex pulled out his phone to put in a call to the authorities.
Rex, Cama, and the creature were the last to reach the stairs, burdened down as Rex was. He also kept checking each room they passed to ensure nobody was left in there by mistake, or else. Rex even looked in the room Hercules had been held in and a surge of triumph snuck through him as he noted no collapsed nurses on the floor. Good. Hercules had removed them as well.
There was hubbub and chaos all around, although it was a far cry different from the hellish wails and torments of before. Now the victims were panicked, but there were ways out and from the glimpses Rex caught of the glowing man at the other end of the hall, they had a figure to quickly marshal around.
Now Dr. Cama was pulling on the chain. “Let me go! The fire is getting too close! We’re not going to make it if you hold us back like this!” he shouted in Rex’s face.
Rex ignored the tone. “You are not leaving my sight,” he said and continued walking as fast as he could, one hand on the chain the other hand supporting the burned creature.
“Just leave the experiment then! It’s slowing us down!” the doctor cajoled.
Rex snarled, “If I was going to leave anyone here, it would be you! Not this poor thing you warped and twisted through your unholy sorcery! Now shut. Your. Mouth.”
Dr. Cama’s mouth fell upon but he saw the look in Rex’s eyes, the only part of the man’s expression that revealed anything. Despite the fire still far down the hallway and behind them, firelights were somehow reflected in his eyes. Angry fires.
The doctor shut his mouth and actually crossed in front of Rex to pick up the creature’s other side. Immediately they were able to move fast. “God, you’re going to get us all killed,” the doctor said.
Rex ignored the doctor’s vain use of the Lord’s name. “Then you’ll reap your rewards soon enough,” he said flatly and spoke no more.
Smoke was thickening in the hallway but Rex didn’t look back. It would change nothing.
They made it to the stairwell and followed the last of the abominations out, the slower ones who, by mishap or horrible treatment, were not able to rapidly make it up the steps. Progress was still made though, and after an agonizing amount of time, Rex brought up the tail of the group as they made it to the ground floor of the clinic and reached the doors, bursting into the cool night air.
There was no plan. None besides getting people out of the building. Every person.
Rex stopped by Hercules and Dr. Cama and he raked his eyes over the manacle-less man, whose wounds were rapidly vanishing and whose tattoos were glowing brighter and stronger than before. Obviously the man’s magic was no longer inhibited, meaning he would be quickly returning to his prior powerhouse levels.
It didn’t matter. Rex stared into the taller man’s eyes. “No more suffering,” Rex declared. “He will answer for his crimes, in this life and in what comes next.”
Rex and the doctor were left behind as Hercules began the break out. The chains on Dr. Cama still glowed with their own etchings and it seemed they still retained part of their power, as the doctor was making several savage claw-like gestures with his hands and glaring impotently at the creatures pouring out in the hallways.
None of the creatures were attacking, though. In fact, many of them could be heard shouting their gratitude and joy for their salvation.
As the first waves of heat from the flames started to reach Rex, he grabbed the doctor’s chain and yanked him off balance. “Can’t control them anymore, can you?” he asked. Then he grunted as he answered his own question. “Reaping what you’ve sown.”
Rex bent down and wedged his shoulder into the remaining creature’s stomach, where it was huddled over from the fire. At least those flames had been put out, although much of the flesh had already been scorched. “I am sorry for this,” he said as he hoisted the abomination to its feet and pulled it close so he could shoulder it’s weight.
With Dr. Cama in tow, Rex and the monster started shambling for the stairs.
“Wa hoo, monster mash. Wa hoo, monster mash. Wa hoo, monster mash. Wa hoo, monster mash. Wa hoo, monster mash.”
The doctor ran past Rex but the man had another focus. Let the place catch on fire further or try to stop him? The man could always be tracked down later - for now evidence had to be protected. It wouldn’t do anybody any good to catch the man and have nothing to prove that he did anything. Rex also didn’t want the man collecting any insurance.
The booming voice of Hercules filled Rex in quickly on the next events. The grim man actually creaked out a smile as the doctor was quickly apprehended. Good. It let Rex focus on the matters at hand.
He tried spraying down the doorframe but the flames were well-set, but Rex was thanking God the entire time the walls were made of cinderblock. But even as he slowly made progress with those flames, a glance inside the office problem was highly worrying.
There were a lot of flames.
The fire had struck the fallen papers and they’d gone up like tinder. From there, flames were spreading up the solid wood desk and were just reaching the papers on top of it, where they quickly flowed across the entire surface. The stench of burning flesh was already filling the air.
“Hercules!” Rex shouted. “I can’t contain this! We need to get everyone out! Dr. Cama has keys! We need to free the other prisoners!”
Rex took another look into the office, suddenly aware that all the evidence was going to burn up. He spied the leatherbound book only mildly touched by flames and made up his mind. Something was better than nothing.
Sweeping the extinguisher all around him, Rex rushed in and snatched the book from the pile of burning papers and wedged it into his pants, handgun style, as he returned to trying to control as much of the fire as possible. From inside the office though, he could see his efforts were going to end in failure. From this side, he could see the flames from his pillar of fire hadn’t stopped at just the doorframe. They’d gone higher, striking the ceiling, which was not made of cinderblock, but of kindling. The fire was rapidly consuming the ceiling and Rex noticed there was no sprinkler system.
What kind of a fool didn’t include a sprinkler system? The kind who didn’t want anybody knowing this part of a building existed.
“We have to go, now!” Rex shouted, leaping out of the office.
There were footsteps following him, a small stampede it seemed, but Rex wasn’t concerned. He flew down the concrete hallway, his target in sight. Dr. Cama wasn’t a particularly fast man, despite the panicked energy he had. He clearly spent too much time in the books and not enough time on a treadmill. Rex rapidly closed the distance and was mere yards away when Cama made it into his office and flung the door shut behind him.
The door did shut. The door did not lock, however.
Rex smiled grimly, even as he heard familiar bellowing from further down the hall. It seemed Hercules had decided to assist him after all. Excellent.
“Now everything is cool, Drac’s a part of the band and my Monster Mash is the hit of the land.”
Rex twisted the doorknob and shoved his shoulder into the door, ramming the door open hard enough to bang against the wall as he burst into the room.
Dr. Cama had just reached a cabinet and was frantically pulling folders and documents out of it, including an old-looking, leatherbound book with aged yellow pages. He looked over with wide eyes and yelled at Rex, “No! You can’t be in here! You’re ruining everything!” Anger flashed over his face. “Who sent you? Was it Rook? I paid him well for the books, we’re square!”
Rex glared. “I don’t know a Rook - I know the friends of the people you’ve abducted,” Rex said stonily. “I also know there’s a spot for you in the lake of fire for what you’ve done.”
“For you, the living this mash was meant too when you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you.”
The doctor sneered and gave a greasy smile. “Ah, one of those. Well, that just means this will be even more enjoyable! Agarrelo!”
No sooner had the command to “grab him” hit Rex’s ears when a sour, moldering stench filled his nostrils. His own eyes widened and two seized his arms and lifted him so violently his head struck the ceiling. “Aah!” he shouted as he was brought down. Rex leaned back and shoved his feet out to catch the doctor’s desk, using the surface to shove himself back into his attacker in hopes of knocking him over.
Instead, the body of his assailant just squished and backed up half a step, then moved no more.
“Then you can mash, then you can monster mash”
“That’s right, my pet, get rid of this intruder! And stop the other one too!” Dr. Cama ordered as he returned to rapidly packing up various papers and documents.
“You unholy abomination!” Rex roared at Dr. Cama as he writhed in the thing’s grasp. “What you’ve done here is a blight upon your soul and a stain upon this land!” The thing holding him wrenched one of Rex’s arms suddenly and he cried out. He took briefly and caught a glance of the face of death.
A pale, emaciated face stared back with mismatched eyes and sagging skin. Across its face were stitches and staples where very distinctly different patches of skin were grafted. Revulsion filled Rex and he fought to keep his gorge from rising.
“Then you can mash and do my graveyard smash.”
The creature opened its mouth and a ragged wail came forth and Rex was slammed into the doorframe and then into the other frame.
“Enough of this! Forgive me Father for what I must do!” Rex shouted even as the creature started to squeeze him in a python’s grasp. “He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people!” he quoted, the last words were gasped out with the last of his air.
Then fire burst forth once more.
“Then you can mash, you will catch on in a flash, then you can mash!”
The creature began to scream as flames latched on to its dehydrated, decaying flesh, instantly searing its entire body. THe flames whirled around Rex and struck the door frame as well, setting it ablaze within moments. The creature let go even as flames began traveling from its torso to its arms.
“My creation!” Dr. Cama cried, his lab coat turning orange in the sudden light of the flames. In his shock and surprise, he dropped his armload of papers.
Rex fell to the floor and gasped. His chest was on fire, even if none of the flames would touch him. His arms burned in pain and the right one wasn’t moving right. “Madre de Dios, ayúdame!” he gasped. He couldn’t stay down though. It was even more dangerous now. His fire was starting to spread and there were suddenly so many flammable things in reach of it.
“Then you can monster mash”
He shut off his fire pillar and backed out into the hallway where he had seen a fire extinguisher. That, at least, was standard operating procedure. He pulled the pin, aimed it at the burning man and began spraying it down. “Forgive me,” he croaked, smoke already starting to form. He then moved forward and began blasting the extinguisher into the office. The flames had just begun. Maybe there was still time to stop their further spread!
Rex hissed as metal splinters sliced into his hands and face but by the grace of God none of them hit his eyes. As he was pulled upwards, he dropped the fire spell, and the last of the thermal energy dissipated, the flames vanishing immediately.
“Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring, Seems he was troubled by just one thing.”
Rex stepped back from the man. “What? No! There’s no time for pacts or agreements,we have to get the others out!” Rex stared resolutely into the taller man’s eyes, his own flecked with burning determination. “I’m not leaving here without them!”
The missing people weren’t exactly his people. Rex didn’t lay claim to the neighborhood. He still felt responsible though. It was clear this doctor was doing something to the vagrants, the unfortunate, the poor, the ones who wouldn’t be missed by anyone who mattered. Rex could not abandon someone to this kind of fate, a slow, torturous death. Not again.
Hercules smashed another assailant and then Rex gave a final command. “You will help me or you won’t. You will not get in my way.”
“He opened the lid and shook his fist and said ‘Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?’ “
Rex turned away from the outstretched hand and vaulted over one of the gaunt nurses, shoving a second one firmly into the wall before reaching the door. He yanked it open and stuck his head out. No need for stealth or subtlety now. He saw a tall man striding away in a lab coat, looking exactly like the person from the ads and news segments. A new idea struck Rex.
“It's now the monster mash. (The monster mash). And it's a graveyard smash.”
They could get more time if they caught Dr. Cama. Surely there was enough evidence around to get the man imprisoned. Then the authorities could handle the extraction and rehabilitation of all these unfortunates. That witch doctor could be locked away.
“(It's now the mash) It's caught on in a flash. (It's now the mash) It's now the monster mash.”
Rex raced down the hall toward the man with the keys.
Music played, a jaunty, whimsical tune. The chain burst free from the wall and Rex staggered back at the force of the sudden release. He grunted with the sudden effort and quickly released the chain.
Several things happened then. The door banged open and a voice rang out. Rex whirled around and saw a man dressed in scrubs and wearing a blood-stained apron standing there. It had to have been the doctor.
Rex dropped and rolled as Hercules yelled and swung the chains still attached to his arm. There was no time left. They had to get Herc free now. Rex turned back to the chains and pulled himself to the ground as he studied the final bonds. Thuds and smashes and nightmarish howls described a skirmish he was glad he couldn’t see. Hercules yelled again to burn the chains, even if he had to burn Hercules himself.
The EMT looked once again at Hercules’s flesh, scar-riddled as it was. The man had to be at the end of his reserves. He’d seen Hercules heal instantly from gunshots, even severe burns from a metal man, in fact. Before, Rex wouldn’t have thought twice, no matter how many of his instincts it went against. Now, however, Rex wasn’t sure how well Hercules could survive, given the sheer amount of fire he summoned, not to mention how long it would take him to melt solid metal. Could he even do it?
Did he have a choice?
“From my laboratory in the castle east, to the master bedroom where the vampires feast,” sang the annoying DJ.
“Father, forgive me,” Rex breathed, closing his eyes for only a moment in prayer. Then they flashed open and he grabbed the chains as far from Hercules’s legs as he could and began reciting.
“Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day…”
“....The ghouls all came from their humble abodes….”
“...to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.”
“....To get a jolt from my electrodes!”
Rex felt the surging fire blaze inside of him and waited for it to burst forth into the volcanic whirlwind he was so horribly used to be now, but something was wrong. Ripples up heat poured forth instead, small flickers whipping around him in a phantom blaze, but now a swelling firewall formed. The power was still flowing through him though, just not into air but into… “They did the monster mash! The monster mash!”
The light of the chains, formerly a dull glowing yellow, was now an incandescent white, flaring brighter and brighter. The metal started warming beneath his hands and the metal began buzzing and vibrating.
“It was a graveyard smash! They did the mash.”
Rex couldn’t have known what kind of restraints they were. He couldn’t have known they were designed to leech magical energy away from their victim. He could never have guessed they were already hitting their transfer limits by Hercules’s and William’s powers. So when a third mystic added the full force of his infernal wellspring directly to the chains…
“It caught on in a flash!”
The light seared into Rex’s eyes and he let go to instinctively cover his face with a gasp of surprise.
“They did the mash.”
The spell-scribed chain links binding Hercules to the floor exploded.
Rex had been in many life-or-death situations. They were part of the job as a firefighter. You were trained extensively and prepared for the moment so when it came, you didn’t stand there like an idiot, mouth hanging open, frozen in fear or confusion. You acted.
The firefighter took a moment to take stock of the situation. Hercules was a mess. His clothes barely covered him and the ample skin they revealed showed the familiar glowing tattoos, their light turning the blood on him a ghastly black. The faint illumination displayed many cuts and slashes, or what looked like scars, even. Rex’s EMT training began kicking in as well. He knew Hercules could survive gunshots, poisoned metal shards, and was strong enough to crush a feared metal warlord in his bare hands.
Seeing him hanging from a wall like this meant something was terribly, terribly wrong.
The joke flew over his head and Rex never ever heard it passing. Instead he blinked twice, nodded once, and then marched over to the man, even before the man had finished speaking.
Their previous encounter hadn’t ended well. The man claimed to be a god and was very into magic and other blasphemies. He wanted Rex to join him on some kind of crusade against the Welldrinkers. Rex wanted nothing to do with any of that, now or then. However, Hercules had shown nothing but incredible resolve and upstanding valor, throwing himself into the line of fire repeatedly, even intercepting attacks meant for Rex himself. Rex would never have been able to free those hostages without the giant. Regardless of what Rex thought about Hercules’s beliefs, and regardless of what the man had said, Hercules’s actions had spoken louder than anything.
If there was something Rex could respect, it was a man who didn’t waste time talking when action was required.
“Let’s get you off this wall,” he said firmly and laid his hands on the chain that remained attached to the wall. An intercom went off and REx only then realized there had been a music station playing. Now a man’s voice was threatening surgery. “It’s time to get out of here.”
For some reason Hercules couldn’t free himself, at least not completely. The one broken chain was evidence of both, but Rex hadn’t missed the crusted blood around both of Hercules’s wrists. How long had he been there to have already been through surgeries or attacks or whatever?
He shook off those thoughts. They didn’t matter right then. He needed to get Hercules free. At the very least, Rex would feel better with the brute by his side. “Pull together on three,” he commanded, kicking a foot onto the wall by the chain and centering his balance. He wasn’t on the level of Hercules’s strength, not by any means, but Rex spent a lot of time in the gym. He was used to lifting deadweight, fallen beams, shoving furniture, running in full gear, charging up stairwells, and busting down doors and even walls.
It would have to be enough.
“One. Two. THREE!” Rex shoved off from the wall and pulled on the chain as hard as he could.
