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.
(For those of you that do follow my thread, this one is just before the threads where Sara’s sight has returned to her. Thank you.)
Sara was currently sitting naked in a shower of an apartment she was barrowing. It was true that Sara had been staying at the x-men’s mansion for the past two weeks, but that was only because she had no idea where else she could really go that she could get the.. .. .. dare she even think the work.. .. .. help. Help that she needed because she still had no idea how to really cope with being blind, and yet there she was. Blind and as vulnerable as if she were a child again.
To be honest, without her sight, Sara felt as naked walking around in public, as she did now, sitting in the shower with her tail tucked around her knees that were pulled up for her arms to hug. With her sight, she knew she had a chance at hiding herself. Her emotions, and the way she looked from people because her sight told her when people were looking at her, and when to turn away from them. Without it, not only was she missing her favorite ability she had, but she couldn’t hide the subtle changes in her face, in conversation. She couldn’t hide her little tells in emotion that she had tried to hide in the past.
Things had changed for her. Even in the way she picked the place to shower at. Two weeks ago, before she had been shot in the head by a man who shouldn’t of even had a chance at killing her, Sara would have chosen any old apartment. Probably one that was occupied and one that she would have had a chance at getting caught in, because two weeks ago her confidence in her own healing abilities were just that high. Today, she had selected a shower that there would be no chance of someone walking in on her. No strangers were going to point guns at her, and this was going to be safe.
The fact was, this apartment complex had been empty for a long time. Dust particles hung heavy in the air, and they tickled Sara’s nose every time she breathed in. The apartment had been a part of a warehouse style factory that had been shut down a few years ago. With old copper pipes corroding, broken lights high above the floor, and a strong smell of urine in the lower levels, from past squatters, a real estate agent would go with the term, fixer upper.
Sara’s unseeing eyes stared dead a head of her. The tub was bone dry, and she had put off the cold water as long as possible but feeling the cold of the water was something she was looking forward to. Even if it was so cold it would hurt, because it would be something to feel, and no matter how much it hurt, she would be able to feel every drop smacking down on her through her fur. She still had the sense of touch.
It was true, that because Sara had been staying at the mansion, she could have taken a shower there, and have been very comfortable enjoying water that was so hot her muscles would feel like they were melting into relaxation, but that would defeat the purpose of being irrational and wanting the cold shower. In fact for the first time, since Sara had become blind, making a irrational decision felt wonderful. Why should she choose to be comfortable in hot water when she wanted the shock of the cold. Because the cold would be something.
Sara didn’t necessarily feel numb since the accident that involved a gun going off while being pointed at her head. Actually it was the opposite. Without her sight, her other senses were running wild to compensate and help her get by. She needed a sensation that would feel like it was numbing the rest of her senses. Something that, when compared to the sensation of freezing, would feel tiny. Not so over whelming.
There was a creak, as Sara turned the nozzle for the water on full blast, and the pipes hummed making the shower head whistle as it released the air from the pipes but the water was slow. Sputtering a little wet mist that spit water than was reddish and smelled like rust before the full blast came pounding down on Sara’s head and shoulders. Soon the water ran clear and Sara started slowly rubbing her arms so as to free herself of the rust, from inside the pipes, as her fur began to soak up the cold water. Ten minutes went by and Sara staid in that same position. Still seated in the tub and feeling naked as ever while she shivered. A smile crossed her face as her body fought hypothermia that would never fully set in thanks to her healing factor, with a few seconds of a more violent shaking fit.
Sara squeezed her arms harder around her knees, willing the shaking to stop, and the smile stayed on her face, even though she was fighting herself. Her eyes squeezed shut, and her teeth chattered, till she made the stupid decision to suck in her lip, and it herself. Instantly filling her over active sense of taste and smell with the sensation of copper again. Instantly she pressed her lips tight together, and the sharp pain, where her teeth had pinched the more delicate skin, numbed away into nothingness just like she knew it would. Because that’s what every injury did to Sara except for her injured eyes.
Sara yanked her thoughts away from her lost vision, and focused her attention on the water that was pounding down on her, from above. She focused on how she felt the different streams of water running through her fur. She focused on how the water collected at the base of her tail, and the way if felt as the slant of the tub pushed the water towards the drain though not fast enough to prevent the water from pooling around her feet and allowing a puddle to form. Drops of water that didn’t hit Sara, managed to splash her with the puddle in the basin, and as the minutes ticked on, she twitched her tail in every direction she felt the little tiny sprays of water coming from. Making it a quick jerky movement, that could have easily been mistaken for the violent shivers the rest of her body was going through.
Thirty minutes went by, under the cold water, and every river that ran through Sara’s fur, could have been cutting into her skin. The splashes in the water below, grew to the awareness of the little splashes of the water droplets on the tiled wall to Sara’s left. Then choppy an as un even as the water had started, several lines, in Sara’s minds eye, traced themselves to where Sara knew the shower head existed. Looking like a 3D road map that shot straight up in Sara’s head and all the little lines representing water shot together becoming a thickline, before cascading down on the other side of the wall. The pipes zigzagged just below Sara’s feat, then darted down a good forty feet, past the cement Warehouse floor, below.
Sara sat there with the water falling over her feeling all of it. Not just the drops that fell on her, and the rivers that flowed past her fur but the extensions of the water. The rivers that speed trough space to her, falling from the shower head above, and the rivers that left her swirling together at the drain and following the pipes back out. It was like Sara was part of a ribbon dance, only the ribbons just kept coming towards her and going. Repeatedly tracing that map that formed in her minds eye, but never retracing the pattern, nor allowing the same ribbon to repeat it. Always new ribbons.
It was beautifully disorienting and Sara found herself spacing out as she focused on a show that she couldn’t quite explain and only she could enjoy. So she sat there quietly. One arm had moved slowly to a locket Ayesac had given her. It was meant to replace the first locket he had given her, that had been taken from her during the camps. Inside was no picture, but a single crimson scale. Sara never removed it, and it normally was just barely hidden under tufts of her fur.
Ayesac would say I was silly, if I ever tried to explain this to him. Sara thought to herself and a smile that was much more relaxed crept over her face. She didn’t understand how she knew that the movement was the water around her. Only that something told her it was and that something could be questioned later. Maybe Ayesac would be able to give her some insight as to why she was able to understand the movement of the water. For now, she was suddenly finding herself content just thinking of his reactions.
It was because she was lost in her thoughts that she didn’t feel the locket slip away, right away. At least not when the chain snake through her fur, but she heard the curplop into the water, and instandly her hands were scrambling in the tub to catch it and a new ribbon like line, that was the locket, flew down the drain with the rest of the water.
Sara exploded from the tub. Clad in nothing but the fur on her skin, as her hands frantically felt along the walls as she ran. Nearly nailing her shoulder on the door frame to the bathroom of the dusty old apartment, down the hall, her feet hit the stairs with an extra loud thump. She almost fell on the first step. Then took the rest of the steps three and four at a time, racing the locket to the ground floor, where she sprinted again. Leaving the safety net that her hand sliding across the wall provided, as she headed straight for a wall, with the old piping behind it. Her locket was about 10 feet above her head when she punched through the wall. Wood and splinters clattered in a mess at her feet. More just was let into the air when Sara ripped apart the insulation an jerked the pipe from the wall. The locket’s path changed as did the rest of the water. Falling on Sara and pooling onto the floor but that didn’t matter to her.
She had the locket. Dirty again, thanks to having destroyed the wall. And still wet and nude, Sara pulled the locket close. The motion of the chain swinging back and forth in Sara’s mind’s eye faded into the thin gold line, with a broken clasp that had caused the mischief in the beginning and Sara breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the single red scale was still safe inside.
She leaned against the wall and let her legs collapse under her. So relieved to have the locket back, it took her a moment to realize that Ayesac’s gift hadn’t been the only thing returned to her.
"Oh? Huh, I suppose it's a good thing that I didn't pull out all the stops then. Otherwise we might not be here enjoying a conversation while eating."
Sara’s nose darkened into a blush. Typical male stroking their own ego. At least she had gotten faster in the last year. Not that she would tell him that. “Technically I could take that statement two ways. Either you saying you’d rearrange my face so I can’t eat, or I’d be dead. At least I heal.” Or she just might have been killed anyways.
She wasn’t going to admit to any pain she still felt that she shouldn’t be feeling, but she notices a slight pain and discomfort in her gut when she leaned against the counter.
She finished her first grilled cheese, then started in on her second. Rolling the first bite of that one into a ball only for the fact that he looked confused when she first started doing it. She was part cat. It was in her nature to play with her food. The very fact that Kaz looked confused when she rolled her sandwich into balls, made her feel like she gained a small piece of her dignity back.
“What I see if most valuable, and what I would take are two different things. I found cameras outside,” Not to mention motion detectors. No doubt he knew she found them. “I could hear them running in here. At least the ones I saw.” There was electricity running to other things in the walls. Sara thought back to suddenly seeing all those lasers pointed to her top. “If I did take anything it would have been something you didn’t even know you were missing but still pawnable. I’d rather be able to revisit a place I’ve made a profit from before, and stealing something of high value right away, makes that much harder.” Sara wasn’t proud of the fact she was a thief as well, but on those pick pocketing, thieving occasions, she was good at what she didn’t.
Well apparently it was a surprising thing to see a cat woman in a swim suit. Sara fought the blush she felt forming on her nose as she looked around. Maybe it would have been better to just attend this little party in her usual cloths. Long pants, and some sort of old comfy top Sara thought as Sam spotted her, along with who knows how many other faces. At the whistle he let out, Sara instantly lost that battle with her nose, and the fleshy area darkened into a blush.
“So cats can swim? Guess I have to see if you’re as fast as in the water!”
“Yeah. Cat’s can swim but this one isn’t planning on it for today.” Sara said trying to smile and shake off the thought of the not so attractive wet look. Sara’s sight shifted and there was Shawn apparently being entertained by her as well. “You know you people would be just as amused with me if I had arrived in normal cloths.”
"Sara... you're looking sleek as always."
Now there was the voice of someone who knew how to give a compliment… even if he couldn’t really see her. Sara felt Luke’s sonar sweep over her and her ears flicked back for the brief moment. “Thank you, Luke. See that’s the way you greet a lady in a swim suit.” Sara stuck her textured tongue out and Sam and Shawn.
"Watch yourself guys. She is a friend after all."
Sara smiled and her attention turned to another familiar face. Her friend from the book store opening.
“Hey Sara, no tail problems today, hopefully.”
“The day is still young.” Sara said with a shrug. “At least I don’t plan on finding trouble today, but when does one ever plan on finding trouble.”
The grill was starting to make Sara’s mouth water, and despite the smell of the food, she resisted the urge to just grab a burger when it was cooked rarely. However a familiar figure making his way to the grill on all fours didn’t seem to be having any luck in the ignoring cravings department. Sara could have just reached out and stopped him from grabbing the meat, but the fact was she didn’t think someone without a healing ability was going to be so stupid. Turned out Sara was wrong in that department as he started cussing and yelling and holding his hand.
“Speaking of trouble.” Sara sighed. “Dominic seems to get into as much as I do.” Sara stepped over and reached out to grab his hand so she could look at it herself. “I heal but unfortunately the ability only works on myself. If someone has a bottle of aloevera, for sun burns, that will help.”
They were moving off at a good pace, but not so fast it looked out of the ordinary. Just following the crowd of people they were in. Sara was feeling rather smug at the moment. She’d never really encouraged other people to pick pockets before. Let alone giving them hints on how to do it better.
Sara jiggled her bags and looked back at the art store as they passed it. There were actually a lot of things she wanted to shop for, but most of them she hadn’t decided if they were practical for her to have, or store yet. The skate board only just came in out of curiosity. She was sure if she didn’t use it she could give it to someone else or something. “I think I’ve got everything I could want right now.” Sara said lightly as the passed a toy store and then the sporting goods store she had purchased the skate board.
“naturally sticky fingers do help when it comes to this type of stuff.” Sara said as they walked on. “I use the tips of my claws to hook things without pushing my fingers around them at first. I could probably demonstrate but you’re right, it would be hard to follow, the way I work. We could head back and try to use a manikin, or pick pocket from each other as we go along shopping.”
Lunch was quick and creative. That was one thing good about the x-mansion that Sara remembered. It was full of the bare essentials for a lot of quick meals, pasta, cheese, hot dogs, and eggs. Sara had cut five hot dogs the long way, half way up, so that they looked like octopuses. Thin lines of mustard made their mouths and little dots of ketchup made their eyes. While those sat aside, Airyn was arranging the golf fish crackers on five plates so that it looked like they were swimming in a school on half the plates.
Sammy had seen Sara set out a bag of baby carrots, and scoffing, he asked her how carrots could be in the sea with and oscopuse. Sara simply asked if he ever seen a sea slug. His answer was no, but he had bet they had spots. So Sara found some left over olives she cut into thin O ring slices for Sammy to press to the baby carrots.
Mean while Sara was finishing off a batch of mac-n’-cheese, at the stove. Only Sara’s mac-n’-cheese was green. She’d managed to find a packet of food coloring left over from who knows what, and she’d colored the cheese so it would look like sea weed, and put a scoop on each of the five plates. The octopus rested on top, with his gold fish friends and the sea slugs. Circling his bed of mac-n’-cheese.
They were just finishing setting the lunch up, when Sara heard foot steps down the hall.
When Sara first entered the building, she couldn’t see, but she could hear a heart beat and a set of breathing closer to her than she had expected the child to be. And taller. Sara pulled her head away from her long coat collar for a moment to listen. Ears flicking back and forth trying to catch everything over the sounds of the fire.
“Who’s there?”
The voice sounded sort of familiar. Sara strained her ears but that’s all that was said. “My name is Sara.” She called out. “Don’t be afraid. I just came in the window.” Her voice tightened up and she coughed into the collar of her coat. Pulling he shirt up too as she let her body stay as low as possible under the smoke that was trying to escape out the open window, though too much more was still being created.
Ok so the voice was an adult. What she saw in the window was not an adult. Meaning there were two in the room, other than herself, who needed to get out. “where’s the kid?” Sara’s tail flicked back and forth behind her heals like a whip.
As if to answer her question, there was a cough coming from behind the window’s curtains. Sara checked under the hem, of the curtains. There were a pair of tiny feet. One was bare foot with little purple painted toe nails, the other had a sock over it with the toe area slipping off of her foot. Sara pulled back the curtain, and the little girl behind it tightened her grip on a itsy bitsy white kitten with orange tiger patches.
The little girl screamed when she saw Sara and when Sara put an arm around her, holding her close, the child’s free hand made a little tight fist that she tried to beat Sara back with. Little legs kicking and screaming. Sara just endured it with a low nervous, and rare, vibration in the back of her throat. The kid was panicked. Screams shifted to gentle sobs within seconds and just as quickly the child stopped the hitting and kicking burying her head in the side of Sara’s neck under her fur and coat. The kitten shifted somewhere between them.
“I can get both of you out, but I can only take one at a time and-“ Sara had started rattling off what she was going to do as she leaned out the window, with the child. This was how she had gotten people out of the fire before. Through the window. It was the quickest way she knew and once out side, she could breath correctly and see however she was cut off by a loud crunch and crack from above her. “Watch out!” Sara let out a steady stream of words a small child probably shouldn’t know as she dove back inside trying to grab a hold of the other lady in the burning room, and pull her along into the hall, just as half the ceiling fell in and debris from the floors above blocked Sara’s way out.
In the process of backing out of the apartment, Sara rammed her shoulder against the frame of the door. It ached, but it would go away fast. Save with the pain in her spine from her just stepping on her own tail. Stupid appendage…
Sara took another step back, not really paying attention till her back moved into something that must have been incredibly hot, because it felt like cold steel through her cloths and fur. She sucked in air between her teeth and stumbled forward again. She looked back, to find out what just burned her to find she shouldn’t have been burned at all.
Sara forced herself not to look at the faces. She either stared up at the trees in the distance or at her feet but even those weren’t save places to look. The distance away from them only confirmed the size of the grave sight. The number of the bodies that were crammed in the one area and her feet were close to a set of hands that poked out of the ground, bent, like a dying baby tree. If you didn’t know who someone was by looking at their face, you could look at their hands. Calluses told of days at work. The size told age, the skin and wrinkles told age. Sara felt her stomach tighten and all too willingly went back into the jet.
Before long, they were off again and when Sam asked Sara to watch out for Katrina, Sara tilted her head. “Of course.” Was Sam not coming with them? For some reason when he started the jet, Sara knew this part of the mission was for her and Katrina, but for some reason she expected Sam to stay with them.
The second landing was another relief. Sara really hated flying, but fighting the air sickness was a relief from fighting the sickness that came from the dead bodies. Sara could deal with it, just by bowing her head and holding her gut.
“We’ll call when we’re ready, Bro.” Sara said as she said her fare well to Sam. But it wasn’t good bye. It didn’t even occur to Sara that there was trouble coming this soon till Sam was in the air.
Sara had turned and gathered her duffle bag, and she was starting to walk away from the make shift landing strip when the jet’s sound changed. Sara’s fur on the back of her neck, stood on end, and she felt the fur around her mouth bristle, when she turned around to see.. .. .. “no.. .. ..”
Sara couldn’t see much, two lights from who knows what type of weapon exactly, were following the light of the jet, Sara’s eyes widened and her mouth went dry. Swallowing only felt like one side of her mouth was sand paper, rubbing against another piece of sandpaper. “Pull up.” Sara preyed softly. Willing the jet to stay air born. Her heart was hammering against her ribs as if she was about to sprint across a NasCar race track, but in actuality, her feet couldn’t move. They wouldn’t move, and when Sara forced them to, her balance tipped and she only managed to stumble one step. Maybe two. Who really knew. Sara wasn’t able to pay attention to her feet she was paying attention to the jet. That little flying box that was currently defying all common laws of sense, and gravity.
“No!” Sara demanded as she stared at the little dots in the sky. The word was clear and said much louder before her voice became nothing more than a choke, again. “No. Please, no.. .. .. no,no.”
The fleshy area of Sara’s nose went pale white and gray. Her heart hammered in her head demanding that she do something. Screaming at her brain to think of something and tell her body to do it. To help even though her head was the practical one, and knew there was nothing else she could do. Sara was helpless.
“Sam!”Aside from Ayesac, Sam was the closest thing Sara had to a possible family. So what if they only met when Sara was twenty. “No!”
BOOM!
Sara stumbled and hit her knees. She was shaking uncontrollably. Her eyes became fuzzy and she blinked, not even realizing that they were so wet, because her mouth was so dry. Her heart felt like she was taering it in two as she struggled to look at the explosion. Trying to see if there were signs of life because Damn it! Sam could fly. He didn’t need the jet to do it. He just had to be awake. He survived the explosion, so he had to be awake and Sara would see him flying and waving at her and Katrina with a goofy grin on his face. A grin Sara hated so much and wanted to see again. The other side of her heart struggled to pull her gaze away from the wreck. She didn’t want to see the proof that Sam might be.. .. .. That he was.. .. ..
“Right.” Sara said as she took the other half of Sebastian’s shirt and used her thumb claw to skillfully cut a strap like piece of cloth, twist it like a rope, and use that side to restrain the second man that had gone down. That was before she started collecting the various items from the men. Mean while she listened to Sebastian. “My body only heals it’s self. It’s not even something I can turn on and off.” Some power for a team. Sara almost never worked well with others, but when she did, she put herself on the front line.
She let Sebastian finish what he had to say, looking at his curiously. Under any other circumstances or spoken any other way, Sara would have found his words very morbid. She would have scoffed at him for his ignorance but being that he was a healer as well, and listening to his heart, she believed him. That he was a rare one that really knew about this curiosity and she caught her curious eyes lingering for a second too long on his skin that had been under his shirt. Visible even more so now that he was without it. She’s only ever seen skin that light and colorless on people who were forced to not see the sun. and even then, the skin looked thin, or sunken in. like those fish that survive in caves. Sara mentally shrugged, associating the color of Sebastian’s skin with what ever the rest of his mutation was. It felt good to just keep working and moving. Sara was finally feeling herself cool off when she tossed Tarin the gun and it went off, having hit the ground.
“Are you freakin’ nuts?”
Her ire rose again, with her pulse giving an extra thump against her inner ear. “Yeah. I probably am!” Her eyes squeezed shut with her ears pinned back, having jumped from the gun fire and thinking she’d missed someone who had been sneaking up on the group.
“You’re going to kill someone tossing guns around like that. Not all of us are battle hardened militants.”
Sara’s lips tightened. “Excuse me for thinking a grown man had more hand eye coordination than a two year old.” Sara turned to face Tarin and strolled over, scooping the riffle up and holding it out in front of Tarin. It might have been considered mocking him the way she was acting, but she was after all… Ticked. “Would you please hold this, and carry it.”
“I’d be more likely to kill all of us before I hit anyone in a fight. I’ll stick with the spirits, thanks.”
“So long as this isn’t left here.” Sara said. She was trying to be calm and collected with Tarin, but it was so difficult to hold back her natural attitude. “I don’t expect to have to use a gun, or have you use it, but I’d prefer not to leave it here where it could end up being used against us. Share the load. Got it?”
And then Tarin was looking around again. You know those people that when you’re talking to them they just won’t look you in the eye? Ugh. Sara sighed. She reminded herself that he was able to see things she couldn’t but it was still one more thing Sara found to tick her off. Sara tried following Tarin’s eyes but saw nothing at first. In the time it took to drop her eyes squeeze them and rub them, the figures had taken on shape like before. When Sara looked up again, she froze, not exactly sure what she should be thinking, but her curiosity wondered what was running through Sebastian’s head, after their short conversation.
One thing that Sara didn’t have to think about was how it felt. She felt good to see the spirits go and what Tarin had just said confirmed that they were indeed gone. He’s the only one of them who would know. “How long do you think it will be before we can move on again?” Sara asked the group. She knew she could keep moving but she had no idea if the others needed things like water or a food break.
The kid wanted to get up and Sara let her. Carefully listening to her movement and her heart beat for any extra strain, though the IV was a pain. Sara hated IVs they’d been used too much on her, when she was a kid.
Though when the child got to the door, Sara put a gentle hand on her should to halt her. Hopefully. “I don’t know what you’re mutation is, but it’s definitely not healing if you’re still hurt.” She was part predator. Picking out when others were injured was simple to her. “There will be a change of cloths in the closet down the hall, but first, just to be sure, I want you to let the Doc Prof at least check you out. You’re in the infirmary now, for a reason and if something medically happened to you, because you are leaving now, I would only be the one to blame, seeing as I told you I would take care of you.”
Sara stepped aside so that Caelita could see the bed again. “Just let the Doc Prof examine you long enough to give you a clean bill of health, seeing as your are up an moving, he should be able to do that, and then we’ll go and get you set up in a room here.” Sara sighed remembering how fast she couldn’t wait to get out of here before. Medical areas gave her the willies. “My body heals it’s self and I still have spent a night or two here under Doc Prof’s care.”
Despite the Chaos, things seemed to be mellowing back down again. Sara had heard a strange humm in the air, and if felt like the sound washed over her body, making her tight nervous muscles relax. Her wide amber eyes slanted down again, rather than repeatedly darting up to look at individuals she didn’t even know, and she concentrated on the work she started with picking up Dominic’s mess. Only glancing lightly behind her when her ears flicked back, listening to Alexandra approach her and the store employee from behind.
Alexandra did this really cool trick with the table, to put it back together, and it clicked in Sara’s head. “Were you the one who manipulated the door?” Sara grabbed her tail, that had healed enough that the dull ache was hardly noticeable, as long as she kept herself busy. But the fur where the door had crushed it, was still looking ragged. “Thank you.” She forgot about the books for a moment as she curiously leaned forward investigating the table. Her fingers traced the grains of the wood where they started, and then where they didn’t line up right before she started sorting out the books that looked clean, and didn’t carry the smell of blood. Covering the blemish in the once broken table. Sort of like sweeping dust under the rug. There. Good as new.
“Can you hold the blood splattered books up? I think I can remove it.”
The book store employee paled at the thought of holding an object up for a mutant to work on. Maybe it went with the hole idea of putting an apple on your head from someone to fire an arrow threw. Sara just glanced at the employee, then nodded and obediently held up the book.
“Huhh” her eyes skimmed the cover and the description on the back, as she held it up. It was a book discussing Myths and cultural beliefs from different civilizations. Egypt, Roam, Mesopotamia. Sara’s mind jumped to the trip she had recently taken for slate, as she read on.
Sara’s temper didn’t normally flare up like this. In fact it was shocking even her that she chose to pin her comrade against the tree like this. And why did he have to smell so much like horse? Sara’s mind flashed back to her trip to Canada, with Raina, Luke, Sam, and Neveed where she had undertaken a vision quest and a white horse had come to her.
Then the azure eyes that were so different from hers in nature that they were even colored with colors that were on the opposite side of the color wheel. Complimentary colors, and yet Sara’s first reaction to the man with a horn sticking out of his head was far from giving him a compliment.
“The tree that cannot bend with the wind breaks, Miss Sara. Many battles have been lost because generals cannot adapt their plan.”
“True.” Sara paused. Her eyes flicked up to the tip of Sebastian’s horn again then right back into his complimentary eyes. “But trees can also bend too far, and uproot themselves.” Then Sebastian continued, As if he knew exactly who Sara was and that just made her feel like her skin was still steaming as she forced her ire back down.
”……--- I don't suppose you've ever heard of Achilles; he thought he could survive any hit, too.”
“Children of the blood” Sara mumbled, softly, remembering back to her recent trip to Egypt, where she met a time traveler, who told her of the factual secret that some legends about gods, fairy tails, or beliefs were true. “I’m not like Achilles at all.” Not that this guy would really know what he was talking about. Did he even know that the myth he spoke of was more than a story but a memory of a mutant in history. Ha! Definitely not!
That’s the thing. Sara knew she wasn’t invincible. About a month ago, she had gotten shot in the head, and she was convinced that if someone wasn’t there to keep her heart pumping and air in her lungs, she’d now be dead. Nothing more than the memories of people that they were trying to help now, and less than the memories of the legends, because in this day and age, the person had no respect for the people like her. Who looked like her, and because of that, might of needed some help finding respect for themselves and to make matters even worst, she’d been nearly killed by a cripple.
Sara, the creature, the WereCat of New York City, had been beaten in an instant, but a cripple with a breathing problem that wheezed so loud, Sara could hear his breaths a block away. She should have heard the attack coming. She should have been fast enough to duck, or strong enough to break Rupert’s gun arm but for that moment, Sara wasn’t. Sara knew that she was far from being invincible. However she also knew that she had more of a survival chance against a hit. Sara wasn’t invincible but she tried so hard to be tough. To put up a physical front, and a mental one.
“and what about you? Do you think you can survive anything?” Sara was calming down but her jaw was still tight as she dropped the hold on Sebastian’s shirt just as she was hearing Lee and Tarin coming up. Oh good. They weren’t following complete plans either. Or maybe they just needed to plan better.
"Are you two alright?"
Sara’s eyes rolled and she shoved away from Sebastian. “We’re Peachy.” Just Freakin’ peachy!
“Here Lee. There’s two live men here who hadn’t had a chance to use up a lot of energy.” Sara said taking in what Sebastian had just confirmed for her. “And there’s a third over there on the other side of the tree. Sill alive. Don’t go into the brush over there.” Sara nodded where the ghosts’ victim had been dragged and there was a trail in the ground, from his feet. Could Tarin see the dead soldier yet or did that spirit stuff take time? Sara wondered.
Ok. Work time again.
Sara kept her ears open for more possible attacks. Mean while she collected her throwing knife from one of the men’s hands, cleaned the blade on their clothing then replaced it where it belonged at the back of her belt. Next Sara grabbed the riffles and tossed one to Tarin, and one to Lee. “It’s probably best these men don’t have these, should they wake up too early.” The gun from the first soldier Sara encountered was thrown to Sebby. She’d move to retrieve the gun from the dead soldier in a moment. And anything Sara found as she quickly riffled through the men’s pockets was pocketed by her. Including a few rolls of Columbian paper currency.
Part of being a predatory cat was recognizing inconsistencies. Things that broke the normal rules of the way an object, or animal should act, or what broke the pattern set by other individuals. In the wild, it’s how predators survived. Recognizing the weak, or the old. A zebra in a herd, looked like the entire herd, till it moved differently. Then the mass and jumble of stripes were able to be singled out for a meal.
Sara used the same tactics in her every day life. Though she didn’t hunt to make a kill so much as she hunted for money that happened to come from people’s pockets. She picked people out of a crowd, to thieve from, by the way they were paying attention to their surroundings, in comparison to the others around them. The same fundamentals hit her here, between listening to Martin’s voice, and the way he felt with she touched his had. And it wasn’t just the feeling. She could feel her own emotions shift and she pulled away from his hand more hastily than she planned. What just happened with the shift of emotion wasn’t exactly something that she could explain, and she ended up leaning back in her seat. She didn’t even move to stop him from getting to his feet, and let the glass clatter to the floor as she tried to figure things out. Mean while he was on his and Sara’s ears were following him, even though her head staid in the same position.
“How terribly stupid of them.”
“I assume you mean the Humans by saying them.” Sara said as her head tilted. “As a whole, yes how terrible, but there are some who are trust worthy.” Just like there were some mutants who were untrust worthy, even to their own kind, as Sara remembered a few mutants who had become guards in order to torture their own kind. She chose to leave that information away from him seeing as he was already upset.
“At home they never would do such things. There it was quiet. Some simply vanished and it were not many. Someone did not want to look suspicious.”
Sara listened to him quietly wondering if that was why he was here in the US. Fear of being one of those people who’s blood ran in the streets. To be forgotten because people were choosing to ignore what was truly going on. Or if he had other more personal reasons why he was here. Sara knew very well about running. She’d done as much running from city to city out of fear of being found or fear of being sent away before moving on was her choice. For years the only contact she had kept was a draconic mutant with scarlet scales, named Ayesac. Someone who understood her perfectly. If Martin was looking for a better place to run, Sara didn’t know of one.
“How did the people let it happen? How could they?”
Sara shrugged and shook her head as Johnny scurried out of the kitchen with a towel, and a broom and dust pan, to clean up the broken glass. “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. Probably fear, for different reasons. Of us, or of their selves that and what some think.”
Sara nodded quietly to herself as she listened to Koga give the two gentleman an ear full. She tried to tell exactly how the two norms would actually react. For the most part they seemed flabbergasted, and when Kog came to join Sara, she gave a nice little finger wave that might or might not of shown a little flash of claw, before turning to lead Koga somewhere else, before the norms could really decide what happened, and what their real story was.
As they walked she gave the box of big soft pretzels a shake, offering one to Koga with the melted cheese. “many times bad luck is a self inflicted state. It’s why I don’t tell people when I take their things. I just return them and move on.” Sara said once she was sure they were out of ear shot.
“Speaking of moving on, we might want to do that just incase they decide to go to security anyways.” Exactly why Sara had planned to do their shopping first. “Up for another try?”
