The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Welldrinker Cult
A shadowy group is gaining power, drawing in people who are curious, vulnerable, or malicious, and turning them into Mystics. They are recruiting people into their ranks to spread the influence of magic in the world, but for what end goal?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
Water was now coming from everywhere. It was filling in from the windows and the walls, and now pouring down the stairs like a waterfall. Rex pushed himself to his feet once again. The water was already past his ankles. He didn't spare any thoughts to wonder how it could happen to quickly, only focusing on that it was happening, and very quickly.
As a firefighter, his life revolved around the dangers of fire and ways to suppress it. Naturally, water was used a lot. As a result, he was acutely aware of how damaging water could be. The destruction of the windows was just the beginning. The amount of water that had surrounded the house...well, he didn't think all of that water was going to stay outside the house. Not with the gravity-controller lying unconscious in the water.
With a grunt, Rex reached down and hauled Ebb up until he could get him into a fireman's carry. "Enough!" he shouted over the sound of many waters splashing and pouring. "You'll bring this whole house down on us!"
His voice caught the woman's attention and Flo shouted, "What did you do to my brother?!"
Then a pillar of water smashed into Rex, blasting him out from underneath Ebb even as two more pillars emerged, one aimed at blasting Hunter and the second to cradle Ebb.
"Well met," Rex said after Maya introduced herself. Rex waved a hand at himself belatedly. "Mystic." It was weird tacking that on to an introduction, but he guessed it was relevant. The session was in part about mutant-mystic dynamics and, well, if there was to be any animosity about that, better for it to emerge now and not after emotional vulnerability had commenced. Rex would almost prefer animosity over emotional vulnerability.
He redirected his attention to Mrs. Cervantes as she began the session. This at least was familiar to him, even if the people and the place were not. He started pulling his thoughts together, but Liz got there first.
It sounded too quick, to him, much like a story a person had told themselves rather than an accurate truth. He didn't know the woman well enough to mention that though, nor was it his place. There was a pause after she finished speaking and Rex spoke into the void.
"It scares me," he said stoically. "The powers the Welldrinkers unleashed, that they commanded, and the powers that we retaliated with." He couldn't help but glance at Elizabeth again. He'd seen her assault on the aerial forces of the Welldrinkers. He'd also seen a behemoth of water arise, a man becoming a winged lion beast and slaying a man, right after that man had laid waste to the former incarnation of this school. They were things from the book of Revelation, or as it was in Spanish, Apocalipsis.
Rex had just stepped onto the stairs. He was keeping his distance behind Hunter and letting the combat-experienced man take point. The firefighter had simply nodded when it was suggested he hang back. He was already feeling winded - the power he'd channeled had taken a lot out of him. The equivalent energy the body would need over a period of months to heal such injuries naturally had coursed through Rex in less than a few minutes. It still wasn't perfect. It wasn't good enough. Unfortunately, Rex did not have the luxury of completely healing the man, even if it was within his power.
The battle was not over.
Hunter yelled about a tidal wave and Rex barely had a chance to process the words. He just fell as the torrent rushed down the steps and swept his feet out from under him. He tried to break his fall with his hands but the water was fast and strong and it twisted him enough that he struck the steps with his head before the water yanked him back out into the parlor at large. The water kept coming though.
Rex grabbed onto the wrecked ottoman as the water began rapidly covering the floor but the broken furniture didn't arrest his momentum. He smashed into the unconscious form of Ebb and had a single moment to pick his head up, when the windows in the room suddenly shattered and the water that had surrounded the house in a bubble began flooding the first floor.
On the second floor, there was a shriek of anger and rage and a woman in a wetsuit appeared at the end of a hallway, rapidly getting closer to the stairs. She was surfing on a small wave of water, swiftly dodging obstacles and roaring at Hunter. More and more water from the second floor converged at the stairs.
Energy from another realm continued to course through Rex and into Ebb's body, empowering the downed man's cells to start fighting back against the wounds and regenerating. "Oh Blessed Maria," Rex breathed as his own strength started to enter the healing flow.
Shame flushed Rex's face. "I cannot choose the healing," he said as he kept energy surging through his hands. "All I can do is give him strength. The rest is in the Lord's hands."
Rex made room and noted the swiftness and ease with which Hunter worked. He'd clearly done this before. Ebb gasped violently as his lung began reinflating and repairing, but there was a grim horror to it, as flesh began sealing around the pen. "I've got it from here," Rex said. "Go keep a lookout." More power rushed into Ebb and Rex uttered another prayer, "Father, I need your help. I need to know this man's pulse."
Numbers appeared in Rex's head, as if uttered by a still, small voice, and he breathed a quiet thanks. A minute later, he repeated the prayer and the numbers got a little better.
"Hallelujah," Rex said as he finally took his hands off the villain, ending the spell. "He's stable and--oh," Rex broke off as the room momentarily spun and he swayed to the side. He felt tired. Very tired. As if he'd just completed a strenuous workout in just a couple of minutes. A hand shot out to the ground to keep his balance and then Rex slowly pulled himself to his feet. He checked his belt and his glove before giving Hunter a weary nod.
Rex began nodding as the woman apologized. "I understand, I have two children myself," he said, feeling her exhaustion. "I am Rex Vidales. And you are?" he asked. He knew Liz and while he hadn't met Gemma before, he at least knew he'd be meeting her that day. Likewise, he was sure she had his name. Well she did now, anyways.
The exchange was enough that Rex could relax a smidgen, firmly tamping down the emotions that tried roiling up when parenthood was mentioned and instead focusing solely on what was at hand.
As Gemma explained the foundation, Rex found himself nodding again. It was just like the AA sessions. Support-focused. Not so much therapy. "Yes," Rex agreed.
As August claimed to feel artistic, Rex had a sudden moment of worry. Perhaps this was a mistake? August clarified though and Rex let out a breath he didn't know he'd held.
"Have...fun then," he said. He stared blankly at the graffiti before shaking his head. The giant-sized images were practically blasphemous or otherwise offensive to decent sensibilities.
He passed the spray paint over and with the rest of the tools, he made his way back to the gate and began scraping at it with the wire brush.
After a moment or two passed, Rex felt like he should force himself to get to know his co-mystic better. "So...what's it like being a concert violinist?" he asked, having no frame of reference for what that entailed. It didn't sound like a sustainable, actual career to him.
The screams of a man being burnt would haunt Rex's soul for a long time. He just knew it. The sickening smell of burning human flesh that filled his nostrils nearly drove him to retch but he managed to hold back. Fortunately, Ebb's wetsuit protected him from the worst of the burns, but Rex knew they were sure to be torturous regardless.
It was one more sin to add to the confessional.
Rex couldn't dwell for long on the ethics, because the weights of the room suddenly focused on him. Dozens of books began falling at him at terminal velocities and even as he weathered those, a corresponding bookshelf fell his way. He managed to avoid most of it was still got clipped on his side.
Then an awful crunch made its way to Rex's ears and gravity normalized. With a grunt of surprise, Rex fell to the floor and his the fallen bookcase hard before rolling down it. "Blessed Maria," he cried as a bit of wind got knocked out of him. As he fought off vertigo and another attempt to puke, Rex caught sight of Ebb who was now dangling listlessly from the still burning bush.
Rex cut off the spell and the fire construct vanished, letting Ebb strike the floor. Rex rushed over as fast as he could, ignored the aches and spasms in his own body as he knelt by Ebb.
"And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus," Rex said as he began pouring healing energy into the man. Immediately, burns began scabbing over and shrinking but not much was happening around the chest. "Dear God, save him!" Rex pleaded.
Tis was unlike anything Rex had ever dealt with. He was used to burning buildings, rushing into infernos and maneuvering across floors that were liable to break down, aware that at any moment the building might fall on top of you. He understood that. You tested floors, avoided intense heat, broke down doors and walls as needed, and sometimes had to make leaps of faith.
He'd never been in a rock tumblr house before.
He caught the lamp that swung his way and dropped it. He lunged out of the way of couch and banged his knee against a wall sconce. He let go of the sword and bright magical light vanished, leaving the large living room/foyer/lobby illuminated only by the ceiling lights, which Rex was suddenly leaping over as gravity twisted again.
By the time he got his bearing, he heard a shotgun fire. He saw Hunter...go down hard. Then gravity stopped and Rex was falling from the ceiling. He missed Ebb by several feet and just barely missed getting skewered on an upturned chair.
"Blood of God," he swore. Firelight gleamed in his eyes as Rex focused on Ebb and began speaking.
Fire bloomed and burst from the floor underneath Ebb as a burning bush of solid fire rapidly sprouted toward the man. Right now, Rex didn't care if the branches burned the man - he could heal the man later. He just needed gravity to get back to normal.
Rex slapped his leg lightly and the iota of power built up in the glove dispersed harmlessly against his leg. He barely even noticed it. The glove sill seemed to work despite the water.
"Thank you," Rex grunted, only vaguely realizing Hunter was joking.
Hunter was gearing up so Rex did as well. In the dimness, he realized they wouldn't be able to see nearly as well. Normally he'd summon a floating fireball or two, but he didn't think they be effective in the water.
Hunter attacked the door and charged in. Rex called forth his lightsword again and followed suit, into well-lit and sizeable house. It was a three story house and easily looked like it had half a dozen rooms on each floor. The owner had done well for himself.
Rex tripped and nearly lost his grip on his swordspell as he was suddenly running over a fireplace. Then he leaped a ducked an ottoman that was hurled from the floor to the wall where Rex was, as it to followed the new course of gravity.
A figure in a wetsuit suddenly floated into view. "Well what do we have here!" he called out mockingly. Ebb floated in the center of the room, unconcerned by the gravitas of the situation. "Hey Flo! We've got some uninvited guests!"
"Get rid of them already, you idiot!" Flo shouted back from apparently upstairs. "We're still searching!"
"Fine, I guess I'll be the big tough man and save you women from the hard stuff," Ebb sneered as he cracked his knuckles. Then he said to Hunter and Rex: "Okay, time for you two to die!"
Furniture starting zooming around the room as gravity twisted and warped, turning bookshelves into shields, couches into battering rams, and paperweights into lethal projectiles.
The flame burned bright and straight, no deviance nor dalliance. Hunter was sincere. That in itself raise some interesting questions, but Rex didn't bother asking them. Mutants. They rarely made sense.
"Alright then," Rex said, trusting Hunter as his word. He got to his feet and immediately prayed over him hands, simply asking for them to be warmer. Moments later, they started radiating with gentle warmth, fighting off the effects of the cold water. Then Rex pulled one of the gloves out from his pocket. It was waterlogged and drenched, but he was pretty sure it would still work. He slid it onto his right hand and made a fist. He focused momentarily on it and a tiny bit of light illuminated some words that had been burned into the leather: Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. He'd worked overtime in the last couple of days after the museum to put the finishing touching on the glove, but he hadn't had time to work the spell into working with left handed gloves. So the glove in his back pocket was another right handed glove.
He was ready for more jackalmen and sandstone warriors.
He wasn't ready for what happened next.
"Hey Ebb! What the $%^& happened to the water?" he heard an angry feminine voice yell from inside the house.
"How the #$%# should I know?" yelled a male voice. "You're the $%^$%^$$ watershaper!"
A third voice said something but it wasn't in a loud tone.
Moments later, the water in the moat suddenly surged upward and all the water beyond it began rushing back as the moat began growing taller and taller and began arcing inward toward the house, until it formed a watery dome, easily a dozen feet thick, filled with mud and debris. The house and everything else underneath the dome was cast into dimness.
The water was cold and that didn't make things any easier for Rex. The entire time he'd been falling, he'd been underwater, and now he was being dragged around deeper and deeper. Panic started setting in as his instinctively tried fighting for the surface. His boots weren't helping and the shock of it all was slowing him.
Still, Rex wasn't a quitter and he wasn't going to go down that easily. After a moment or two to shrug off the shock and focus his mind, Rex began kicking hard and fighting toward the surface. He broke through with major effort and started sputtering as he tried to collect his bearing, but the current was too swift. He slipped underwater again and almost lost his air, but suddenly something latched onto him and pulled him out of the water.
Rex flopped like a fish for a few seconds as he coughed and sputtered. He rolled over onto the mud of the swampy ground nearest the house and retched what water he'd swallowed.
"Thanks," he sputtered as he started to push himself into a kneeling position. "...Hunter?"
It wasn't Hunter. Or maybe it was. It was a woman wearing Hunter's clothes, now oversized. Looking across the moat, he didn't see anyone else. Rex frowned and then quickly quoted a verse. "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” A small candleflame appeared over his upturned hand. "That you, Hunter?" If it wasn't, Rex was already selecting another verse that would bring forth fire and pain.
Rex entered the water and splashed forward until he could step into Hunter's hands. He laid his offhand on Hunter's shoulder a moment for balance and nodded when he was ready.
He wasn't ready. There was no way he could've been. It was too late to chance his mind though. Because Rex was suddenly flung nearly four stories in the air in a slight arc. In seconds he was higher than even the portal and if he'd had a moment of calm to realize what was going on he would've been panicking, but he didn't have time for that. He had a single shot at this.
By the grace of God, Hunter had aimed true. As Rex started descending, he was right on target over the portal. From this end, it was just a blurry mass of blue light, but he knew the side facing the ground was still dumping water out. Rex took a brief moment to cross himself and then he held the sword of the spirit in front of him, pitching forward like a falling spear, and shot through the portal and shattering it to pieces.
The shock of it hit Rex and he opened his hand, allowing the sword to vanish. It wasn't going to help him anymore and could potentially hurt the next phase of his plan: surviving the fall.
Fortunately, the moment Rex broke the portal, he was engulfed in the last several dozen gallons of water that had been pouring through the portal. He was still falling at lethal speeds until somewhere around a dozen feet or so above the ground, things started shifting. He suddenly felt lighter and the water started changing course, as if it were being directed.
Which it was. The column of water was defying physics as it twisted and angled and splashed over various parts of the house and yard and in doing so, it absorbed much of the momentum of the fall. Rex finally struck the moat hard enough to leave bruises all over him, but at least he was alive. For now.
A current of water immediately snatched him away and tried pulling him further into the moat that was started to flow swiftly in a constant circle.
Rex didn't laugh at the joke, although it was amusing. "But of course," he said in response. Hopefully there wouldn't be a next time. This sorceress was dangerous and seemed to have no regard for anything, not even her sandy comrade who was being held in a mutant-proof cell somewhere. She was every bit as bad as a mutant.
He scanned the situation again and blew out some air. "I'm not scared of water, but this is going to severely limit my usefulness," he admitted. "Give me a sec," he said as he trotted back to his truck. He pulled out a heavy duty belt complete with a fireman's ax in a holster and a variety of other tools of the trade. He put it on and made his way back to Hunter. "Personally, I wasn't planning on walking, I was planning on charging in."
Hunter was right though. The water was definitely the problem. It was already spread out over the adjacent properties. There was undoubtedly already flooding happening in their basements. The water just spread so quickly, as if guided. It even moved uphill.
Rex had a hunch though. He furrowed his brow and squinted up at the portal that was dropping dozens of gallons of water every second. He tried to focus on it. Was that...? Yeah. It felt like magic.
He said as much to Hunter. "From what I understand, if a person can teleport or make things appear out of thin air, opening a portal to or from somewhere isn't much more difficult," he reported. "I can shut it down, but I'd need to get close to it." He glanced at Hunter, remembering the man's ability to bulk upon a dime. "Think you can give me a boost?"
Then Rex began quoting a scripture and as happened many times before, a sword of light and ready to slice through magic appeared in Rex's hand.
A white pickup truck came to a stop by the urban tank. The truck was in fairly good condition - you could tell it had seen a lot of action over the years, but it was still lovingly cared for and maintained. The same could be said for the six foot three man who got out of the truck. He was dressed simply in slightly faded jeans, black work boots, and a blue and white flannel shirt. A pair of leather gloves hanging out of his back pocket completed the look.
It was the rigidness with which he stood and surveyed the scenario that set him apart. There was no flicker of surprise, shock, or awe on his face as he witness the heavens ripped open to form waterfalls and a new swamp. It was the face of a veteran emergency services worker, and a mystic to boot.
"Hunter," Rex said in acknowledgement and with a small nod as he stepped up to the now-familiar government agent. Rex wasn't even surprised to see him there, not truly. Magic tended to work in nearly as many mysterious ways as God. About fifteen minutes beforehand, one of the oracles at the Veil, one who specialized in detecting dangers and often served as a dispatcher when sending people to deal with missions in other countries to help or extract nascent mystics, called him to say the police had reports of an "Egyptian magic lady" looking for something and where she was going. Rex had just so happened to be the closest Veil member to the location who also had any experience or skill in dealing with magical foes.
"It seems as though we're destined to keep meeting like this," he said wryly. If it was indeed the sorceress he and Hunter had stopped mere days before, than this was definitely an act of God bringing them together once again. "I'll follow your lead." After all, this was Hunter's job. Besides, the man knew enough of Rex's abilities and probably had a better sense of how to direct them in a violent confrontation.