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.
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.
A soft whumpf was the only forewarning before a flash of bright blue light filled the office of the chairman of the university's Egyptology department.
A woman wearining linens and jewels in the style of Egypt, circa 3500 BCE, stood there with azure malice in her eyes and a flaxen rope with a glowing jewel on the end of it.
"Ebb, Flo, secure the room," she said in passable English, despite her thick accent.
"Sure thing boss," Ebb said as he moved his wetsuit-clad self over to a door.
"Aye, aye!" Flo echoed with a sarcastic salute as she started to pace the perimeter of the room to ensure there were no other openings. She also wore a wetsuit, but unlike her twin brother, it was more for fashion than function.
Meanwhile, the chairman, was just starting to process what was going on. "What the he--"
"Dr. Goldstein," the woman said. "Where is the Jewel of Ash? I demand it's return now, or I'll wring it from your mind or corpse. Your choice."
The shocked archaeologist just sputtered and the woman rolled her eyes.
"Enough," she said as she began chanting and spinning her rope in a small circle.
It was maybe fifteen minutes later when Dr. Goldstein finally called the police. The mind control had worn off, but not before the woman had forced him to reveal to her the location of the Jewel of Ash, the god of oases. It was temporarily at his private residence, where he'd been working on studying it over the weekend.
By that point, the woman and the Tidal Twins were well on their way to the house, on the back of a a gargantuan heron summoned from the aether.
By the time Goldstein was able to convince law enforcement of the threat and for the police to call upon SUPER to send agents to the home, they'd arrived.
Neighbors began screaming and fleeing as a hole opened up in the sky over the house and the nearby river began draining down into the neighbor. With a wild cry, Ebb and Flow leaped off the heron's back and began directing the water around Goldstein's house, forming a moat and a swamp as the inundation only continued.
Only then did the woman descend on the heron as she started her investigation.
Rex grunted in acknowledgement. He didn't know much about how mutant powers worked even in the best cases. He mainly knew enough to understand when he should fear them and when they could set things on fire and cause reckless death and damage. He did understand not knowing how his own powers worked. For the longest time, he'd had no understanding of how to formulate new spells, relying on a single pillar of fire for everything.
"Good luck with that," Rex said. "Maybe the X-Men can help." They were experts on mutants, right? They taught at a school for mutants, after all.
Rex closed his eyes on the news of the manhunt. So it seemed Sam had continued to evade everyone. At least he hadn't done anything else to the mutant kid. "Tricky stuff," Rex said levelly. It was interesting and horrifying. Shapeshifting and power-warping? Rex started remembering Dr. Cama's horrors, including those plants that had controlled Hercules.
Maybe Rex needed to check in on Sam and make sure everything was still on the level. "Be careful though," Rex warned the man, opening his eyes and staring at Hunter's. This time, Rex's eyes held dancing firelight. "Not all mystics need tools to be effective. We just need time." Rex pointedly looked back to the floor, which was still festooned with powerless hieroglyphics and assorted body parts.
Rex narrowed his eyes in scrutiny over Hunter's words. He seemed truthful enough. It was rather too late to whip out a truth-detecting flame though.
"Good point," he said, dropping the matter and easing back into his customary frown. The firelight faded away. He didn't relax though. He never relaxed. Especially since the adrenaline was still pumping and he was surrounded by horrors.
"Yes," Rex admitted. The thought of lying never crossed his mind. Even though he didn't bandy his magic around or bring it up to others, like his coworkers, he wouldn't hide it if they asked or found out. Besides, why bother hiding things from Hunter now? After all the spells he'd already cast.
"Not sure what good it did though," Rex said. Thinking back, the weird warp spasms he'd seen made sense, if Sam had indeed tried to nullify Hunter's mutation. Since Hunter looked like he became a world class bodybuilder on demand, writhing musculature made sense. "Seems to me your power was on the fritz," he continued. "That's not something I can touch."
Then Rex had a thought. "You find the guy you were looking for yet?"
Befuddled people were easily moved to the sides and the pressure in the back was starting to vanish. What few police officers that hadn't been in the forefront of the compulsion and had therefore survived the slaughter, they started taking over.
This was a crime scene. Not a fire scene. Rex was relieved to have the authorities take over.
His frown intensified rapidly though. "You did WHAT?" Rex said as he pivoted toward Michael. "A reliquary?" The horror was unusually evident in Rex's voice. The sacrilege! The desecration! "Please tell me it was empty at least!" Reliquaries were where the bones and body parts of saints were buried! To simply stuff someone into one to lock them away was...was...it was almost enough to make Rex want to call upon more fire.
After another minute or so, as Hunter made a call, Rex finally let the sword vanish. No use keeping it around. He could always call it forth later. Right now he needed to sit.
He meandered over to a nearby bench and settled down. He grimaced at the effort, an expression that remained as Hunter ended the call.
"Magic," he said, looked back at the once-bulked out man. He nodded in his direction. "Mutant?" Rex hadn't seen any flashy lights, weird gestures, or random words, so mutations made the most sense.
Rex stared down at the blood and writing in the sand. He stared at the bodies, sandstone and flesh alike. He stared at the marble beetles and jackals. He stared at the growing crowd of confused people. Just...what now?
Hunter's words refocused Rex. "I have no idea where she went," he said. He didn't feel like trying to find her either. He was in no shape for a confrontation. He frowned and he tried to feel for magic, but he didn't think he detected any. "I don't think she's anywhere nearby though," he said, kicking a beetle across the floor.
Rex gave a very tired smile at Hunter. "The irony is not lost on me," he said as he wiped his face. The sword of light was still in his hand, just in case he was wrong and the sorceress attacked again.
Then Rex turned to the crowd. "Alright people! Once you get in, I need you to move away from the doors," he shouted. "We don't need a stampede! Once the compulsion is over, move aside so you don't get trampled!" He continued shouting instructions, trying to cycle as many people through the compulsion as possible.
As Rex's strength was flagging, it seemed as though Hunter's was blossoming. The fireman was almost mesmerized with the sudden fluidity of actions. The remainder of the jackalmen were dismantled like dolls, flung and beaten and pounded with the elegance of a heron and the power of a gorilla. It almost seemed unfair. If you hadn't seen all the bodies of humans lying around them.
Rex sobered and focused, forcing himself to swallow and moisten his parched throat. Dear God, let this soon be over, he prayed. And give us the strength to see this through to the end.
He strode straight at the woman. "I need to get my hands on her," he said to Hunter. "I can stop her from doing anything else." It was ironic, Rex thought, the way he wielded magic to prevent other people from using magic. It was about as ironic as a firefighter using fire to fight.
As if understanding his words, or just a keen observer and predicter, the woman chose that moment to glare straight at Rex. She slapped her bloody hands on the ground and he reflexively held his sword up, ready to shatter any curse sent his way, even as he walked closer. "Watch my back," Rex said, suddenly aware he was walking through a potential minefield of spells.
He was almost in range to impale her on the sword and keep her from casting anything else when she just smiled. A pained, tragic smile. Once again, she pulled a glass vial from her clothes and before Rex could register what was happening, she crushed it in her hand and vanished in another flash of light and a whumpf of air.
This time, when she left, all of the jackalmen started dissipating into nothingness. The last scarabs and jackals ceased movement, their animas not longer empowered.
The feeling of powerful magicks had also vanished, as all that was left was Rex's sword and the compulsion in minds that was slowly wearing off, even as ranks of noncombatants started making their way into the room through other entrances.
Two jackalmen that were trying to sneak up on Hunter died. They simply ceased to exist as the sword of the Spirit separated the animating magic from their constructed bodies.
Rex staggered at the backlash. It wasn't that it was incredibly hard to destroy them - it was extremely easy, actually - but the strain increased with every one. With the amount of spells he'd already been casting, and the amount of spells he'd been shredding, Rex knew he wasn't going to be able to stay upright much longer.
A third jackalman vanished as Rex whipped the sword through its torso. The blade was made of light and had no weight, but suddenly it just seemed so amazingly heavy. His swings were slowed. Rex was sweating all over. He was certain he was developing a fever, and he was so thirsty. He was well into the beginning stages of heat exhaustion, as all the magic channeling through him slowly cooked him alive.
But the work wasn't over yet. He slashed at another monster, but he mistimed it and only struck air. He swiped again and the creature dodged it. It was a sudden thrust that nicked an elbow that finally got it.
It was only then that he got a good look at Hunter.
The government agent had bulked up to an impossible degree and was shaking the jackals off like a bear shook off terriers. Numbly, Rex filed away the man's likely mutant designation. Right now it was a godsend. Both of them would've been dead by now if they didn't have powers. Rex thanked God that the man had been there.
As Rex ambled forth to try to slash at another jackal, he remembered the sorceress and he remembered something else he could do. He didn't think he had another pillar of fire or sunshield in him, but he still had his voice.
Now it was time to take hers.
He pointed at the woman scrawling with her own blood and spake, "Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth."
Magic formed invisibly around her mouth and flooded it, ready to nullify any sound that emerged.
Rex fought his way back to the room. With every swing of his oversized blade, he cut the compulsion out of another handful of people. His efforts weren't enough. He still saw too many people that he couldn't get to in time reach the room and enter a bloodbath. He knew he should be focusing his energy for confrontign the sorceress again, but Rex couldn't bring himself to let anyone reach that room if he could handle it.
There was started to be a burning in Rex's mind as he pushed more power into the spell, so its energies could disrupt the magic in yet another half dozen people. When he got to the main doors of the display, Rex swiped once more. "You five!" he roared. "Hold them back for five seconds!" He shoved the bewildered people at the still rushing crowd and in the momentary blockade, Rex managed to shut the large double doors. He snagged a standing sign and jabbed it through the door handles. It wouldn't hold people off for too long. The crowd would either barge through or find another entrance to the room, but it gave Rex time.
Speaking of time....
The sorceress was already spinning her jeweled rope in a glowing circle as Ranger targeted her, as if she knew what was about to happen. Or was just a really good guesser. She spoke again and the circle flashed and as the metal stick was hurled, space started to stretch again.
By the time the projectile struck her, it had expended most of its force, merely striking her hip hard enough to make her stumble and bruise.
She staggered further back and jabbed a finger at Ranger. She said something, even as blood started dripping from her ears, and the remaining dozen or so Anubian harvesters pivoted and charged at Ranger.
Then she crouched and with the blood from her ears, began tracing more hieroglyphics on the floor.
This...this went beyond anything Rex had encountered before. He'd thought he'd seen evil before, in the eyes of crimelords and mad scientists, but this was truly horrific. The sight of what those inhuman jaws could do...
The crunching of jackal skulls and the brutal appearance of Hunter snapped Rex out of his dread. He was right. Focus on what was at hand. Rex hefted his greatsword, which was almost weightless despite having a blade nearly as long as he was tall. This sort of thing is what the sword was for. He'd designed it to kill a friend if needed, and Hercules was far more powerful than these demons.
Rex roared in righteous fury and he started running again, this time the tip of his sword trailing along the floor and slashing the magic in several markings on the floor. Burgeoning lights winked out as he disconnected the magic empowering them, but he feared it wasn't permanent. He tried scuffing them as well as he ran toward the sorceress. If he could just get close enough, he could stop her magic and take her out.
Yet once again, it looked like she knew this. An eldritch gleam sparked in her eyes and her fingernails on one hand glowed a bright cyan. Then she flung another small glass vial in Rex's direction. He tried dodging, but he was moving too fast and he was too close, and besides, it seemed like the vial was thrown right to where he was dodging into. It struck him and exploded in a whuff and a flash of blue light.
The next thing he knew, he was back in the lobby, in the middle of a crowd of people rushing toward the Egypt display.
It almost felt like something was in the air. Not electricity, not steam, not even moving air. It was almost a sixth sense. Rex could feel something building and as he got closer to the showroom, the sensation just got stronger. That psychic cord between him and that other realm from which he called fire was tingling and Rex felt...magic.
Rex stepped into the room of the new Egyptian exhibit. "Sangre de Dios!" Rex swore as he crossed himself, his sword almost winking out in shock.
The room looked like the scene of a massacre. The floor was covered in sand and chunks of rock and...bodies. Hundreds of marble scarabs were crawling through the debris and drawing designs in the sand. Hieroglyphics. Rex himself had stepped over several of them before he even noticed. In the center of the room, chanting while swinging the jewel-tipped rope, the woman stared at Rex with fury and tears in her kohl-covered eyes, even as her voice reached a crescendo.
She screeched something ancient and painful and a compulsion began to burn in Rex's mind, just like in would in any human's mind for a few thousand feet. Come to this place. Come now. Come here as fast as you can.
It was certainly enough to reach the throngs of people outside the museum. It was enough to hit the police barricades and passerbys. Even those inside the museum would be hit by it, unless they had some form of psychic shielding. The crowds suddenly began surging back toward the doors, even trampling people if need be, in their sudden determination to get to the Egypt exhibit.
Rex felt the urge, but as he was already in the room, it made little difference. He'd already satisfied the spell. Instead, he had a front row view as a puff of brimstone-smelling smoke appeared and a red-skinned man appeared in the room. A teleporter. A second later, a blur appeared and became a bewildered woman. Before they could get their bearings, azure light blasted forth from the hieroglyphics they were standing on.
Before Rex could move more than a few feet, the two jackel-headed men that had climbed out of the light has already torn into their prey.
And there were dozens more hieroglyphics that were starting to glow.
