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.
Sylar ignored her greeting, since he'd just said so out of the general flow of things. Sylar cared deeply for his friends, but humans and strangers didn't even register with the boy, to the point that he was naturally cruel if you weren't obviously a mutant or child. The girl said she wouldn't be trouble, which Sylar hoped for, but really when Roach was connected trouble just found it's way to you. The girl jumped again when he opened his drink, making Sylar think she was quite skittish. Not that he cared, but it might be fun to pick on the easily spooked girl a bit in the future.
"Good, I don't need extra work, and I'm sure you don't want to get on my badside." He said with a bit of force, just to get it across that she had best stick to the promise she'd just made. Not that Sylar couldn't handle probably anything this girl would get in to, he just didn't like having to work save when Roach asked him to do so.
She had a dream about Roach? Just what drugs was this girl on? "You...dreamt about Roach?" He mumbled a bit as she explained her dream, an odd image of Roach cooking the girl while having a friendly conversation with her, to the point of even asking how to prepare her? Yeah, this chick was crazy, made sense now that Roach would hire her to cook at his apartment. The boy shrugged as he finished his drink and crushed the can before tossing it at the nearest garbage can. "You're a weird one ain't ya?" He said in response to her dream description.
She made some odd gesture as she explained she wasn't allowed to clean either, though Sylar was too disinterested to even miss the joke. "Roach likes the place the way it is, keeps a lot of his kind around." Though he couldn't see the insects very well, Sylar knew the stench of a cockroach, and the apartment was never without a heavy stink of the bottom feeders. "He tell you what to cook?" The boy asked, a serious question considering Roach was an active cannibal and trying to raise Sylar into one as well when given the chance.
If the girl knew the kinds of things that went on within this apartment, would she run out of fear, or stay out of fear for what worse things could happen?
This girl smelled no different than any other frightened sheep, or at least that's what Sylar thought. Women smelled better than men sure, but humans all smelled the same to him...like meat. It was an uncomfortable thought, but he didn't let it show on his face. Confidence in the bad guy act, had to keep it up lest he lose his faith from Roach. This girl though, still struck him as someone he'd met up close before, which it seemed he'd just forgotten it.
He tilted his head once more as she stammered through her explanation, her heat beating a mile per minute. Sylar could pick up on subtle differences in people thanks to his unique senses, but with her heart like this he was pretty sure she was being as honest as a scared human could be. Or she was an excellent liar? Probably not. He shrugged a bit. "That so? You seemed familiar." He mumbled between her statements, as she continued to explain their connection. It would make sense, Sylar tended to spend most of his time with Roach focused on the bug man and his antics, ignoring people they might interact with, that could explain the familiarity.
The girl had misled Sylar a bit, but it's funny how twisting the truth just a little bit can produce the most believable lies. "Well nice to meet ya again human. I don't care much for your kind, but if Roach sent you here, that means you have some value." He said flatly, walking away from the girl now and moving towards the fridge. Considering the way he'd caught her before she could get at anything, she probably hadn't seen the inside of this fridge yet, and really nobody should. This humble appliance held some of the most horror movie deserving items if you took a moment to identify them.
However Sylar managed to simply pull out a can of soda, his body craving some sugar for the moment. He turned back to look at her, his own appearance matching the apartment some, grimy and horrifying were two words that might come to mind. "As long as you don't bring any trouble here, I'll be guarding you too, till Roach says other wise." Sylar didn't really care to make friends with a human, but if Roach had some purpose for the girl, best to keep her mostly unharmed till Roach was done with her. Sylar began to fiddle with his can of soda, revealing that in fact the nightmarish Boogeyman might have some issues.
Namely it was very hard for a blind person with knives for finger to open a pull tab can. He tried a few times, before getting a bit frustrated and simply jabbing his finger down through the top, creating a nice big opening with a horrific grating noise as claw punctured tin. He took a drink and a breath. "So Shelby, how'd you wind up working for the Boss?" He said, his voice flat and boyish, the tone most close to what Sylar really sounded like.
The girl stuttered, and tried to mask her fear with humor. A common enough tactic when someone was afraid, Sylar knew that, his natural understanding of fear psychology probably better than most doctors. It'd have been cute too if Sylar wasn't a blind humorless mutant boy. "Clever, but I'll warn you that playing cute will get you gutted. Keep to the truth." He said with menace, the point of his tail pressing forward just a little bit as he finished his words to prove the point.
The girl followed his commands, and turned to face him, though to be honest save for the movement of her body her image looked exactly the same to Sylar, a humanoid blob made from various shades of warmth. However her little jump and indescribably noise caused him to tilt his head a bit, her reaction not completely normal with that of fear, but more like...recognition? His tail began to retract back towards his body, slithering through the air as it did so, before curling up behind the boy's back, bladed tip still pointing at Shelby with sinister intent.
The boy stepped forward, closing the distance between them slowly. The girl said something, but Sylar had stopped paying attention for the moment, his senses suddenly trying to figure out the various stimuli they had picked up. He spoke, his voice a whisper rather than that earlier tone of threatening intent. "Don't move." He said as he stopped right in front of her, his brain putting the puzzle pieces together. And then out of no where, like a dog the boy leaned over, pressing himself uncomfortably within Shelby's bubble of space as he began to sniff, his nose wrinkling as he picked apart her scent.
It was...vaguely familiar? Had he mugged this girl before, or met her at some point? Was that why Roach had hired her? Another prank to pull on the sewer boy and ruffle his feathers? No maybe not, Sylar couldn't quite place her scent, considering the last time they'd met he'd pretty much just seen her as an annoyance to be dealt with, rather than a person. Her voice also began to ring a bell, prompting the boy to speak once more as he pulled back to look her over.
"Have we met before?" He said, his voice far too normal to fit with the flow of the conversation as he derailed all the momentum that had been building until now.
Bennu was certainly no gentleman, and Sylar's lack of vision made judging age difficult, but it seemed their was more than one phoenix around. This sort of negated the whole God argument as well, though Sylar kind of wondered about that. After all, if you were immortal, or absurdly powerful you might as well be a God right? You might even consider Sylar a sort of deity simply based on how terrified he made most people. Though he didn't think so.
"It's probably easy to believe you're a God when you're twice as powerful as everyone else. Especially if you're immortal too." Sylar said with a shrug, the boy didn't care much about the idea of divinity, considering his acquired atheism. "Bennu was...unique to say the least. He taught me a good lesson too, but he was no gentleman." Sylar said with a soft chuckle as they continued deeper into the envenomed labyrinth Sylar ruled over.
She asked if he ate his meat raw or cooked, which made Sylar cringe a bit internally as he thought of the various things he'd eaten before, both cook and raw. He replied with a deadpan voice. "I just eat." A fatally simple sentence.
Sylar nearly laughed as the girl said he wasn't that scary, as if to negate the life he'd lived for years now. She just didn't know, her power made her slip safely beneath Sylar's monster, saving her from the terror he could inflict. "You just haven't seen the monster. Come back with a heart beat, and you won't get to talk to me again." He said coldly, the statement oddly threatening considering how friendly Sylar had become in the past few minutes. Sylar didn't want to be scary, it was his instincts and hunger that made him so, every other living creature brought out the worst in him, a mixture of rage and hunger, tempered with fear, like a maelstrom of violence packed into one androgynous little package.
Sylar stopped abruptly for a second when she mentioned the term "hit-man", Sylar didn't like to think of himself as one, or ever being one. But he knew better, and the fact that she'd made a guess so close bothered him and made him wonder if Roach would get upset at him for being too friendly with a stranger. His tension dissipated though as he responded to her. "No, I'm not a murderer." Somehow that sentence felt flat, mostly because Sylar knew the truth as he remembered the man he'd gutted on his first day with Roach. "I'm a guard dog I guess. I keep my friend safe by scaring off anyone with the wrong idea."
He kept moving to try and avoid further explanation about his occupation, instead focusing on her. "How about you, how's the dead girl end up working for a mortuary?"
Hearing Evelyn be concerned rather than afraid reminded Sylar of just how kind she was, even to someone as dangerous as he. He'd have smiled if he knew how to, but instead he just kept to his spot, his body aching to flee from the confusion and pain of the night. "I already knew what I was Evelyn, even when I wasn't in control I knew what I was doing. Now I just have the image to go with it." That image was new fuel for Sylar's crusade of self loathing, it was more reason for his need for containment, for a leash.
He knew that this revelation and the idea of being afraid of him was hurting Evelyn, but he couldn't alleviate pain, he couldn't soothe her. Sylar was a living weapon, and he was realizing that trying to play the part of something else would always end poorly. He spoke softly, breaking up her refusal to think of him as dangerous. "The problem is...I can imagine hurting you. Just like tonight, being near me means getting hurt. That's what I am. Being near me terrified even you Evelyn, you don't want to admit it, but you recognize the danger."
Evelyn's power meant the girl was nigh a genius at understanding a situation, or figuring out a solution to a problem, and even she couldn't not be afraid of Sylar. This meant Sylar was by definition dangerous, just like fire was hot or water wet, Sylar was to be feared. The Boogeyman indeed was his real name it seemed, a fitting description for what he was. "Even if I keep my distance, will eventually just speaking to me be dangerous? I don't know what's different about me Evelyn, besides all the new skin and bone, but it's bad news for everyone else. Eventually talking to you from the dark like this will even be dangerous, I need to know you won't just end up on the menu someday when I lose it." Sylar suddenly found some bit of courage, not to defend himself, or ease his pain, but rather to protect his friend.
"I need to know the last thing I remember won't be the image of what could have happened that night." Sylar turned to face the darkness behind him, staring into the one constant he had in his life. "You should go home Evelyn, Get some rest, clear your head. And realize that being friends with me won't last forever." Pushing Evelyn away like this somehow made Sylar feel better about what he'd done, just like he'd done so long ago. Being alone hurt...but if being alone meant they didn't die, that they didn't see just how dark Sylar's heart could get, somehow made that loneliness not so crushing. Maybe Sylar's human side was just a big softie after all, but this callous monster had already eaten half of that.
The girl tensed, Sylar's senses certain it was a woman after hearing her voice. Shaky and afraid, and sort of familiar? Maybe, Sylar wasn't sure, he didn't care to memorize people who weren't in the rare group he called friends. His tail hovered in the air, it's curved tip pressing enough to be felt but not enough to puncture cloth or skin, the oily venom within barely dripping into her clothing. She claimed Roach had given her a key, unlikely! Roach didn't work with humans, not unless they were expendable and later wound up dead or missing. Sylar knew this from his first experience here, but he needed to figure out who she was first.
He took a breath, that hiss continuing to escape through his fangs between sentences. Cook for Roach? With Megan gone, Roach did seem to be missing a housekeeper, but to hire another normal looking mutant, or worse a human? This struck Sylar as odd. He spoke, his voice hollow and genderless.
"Roach didn't mention anyone! Especially not some normie looking girl! You a mutant?...Or are you human?" The monster boy demanded, keeping his distance from her for the moment, though he could close this gap within a second, the girl's life in danger should Sylar choose so. Though more than anything Sylar just didn't like surprises, he was more annoyed than worried about her presence. He didn't know anyone named Shelby either.
Knowing Roach though...hiring a maid or servant of some sort and not telling Sylar would be within his usual antics, the bug probably laughing at the thought of Sylar scaring the hired help senseless with his "body guard" act. The boy took a few steps forward, his clawed feet clacking upon the tile with a repetitive sound. "Turn around, slowly." He ordered, figuring the girl would know what she'd gotten into once she saw the Boogeyman himself. "Roach didn't tell me about you, and now that I think about it. I'm betting he didn't tell you about me either." This was an easy enough truth to gather from the girl's response and surprise to his presence.
Once she turned to look though, things might just go from bad to downright awful for poor Shelby, as Sylar's monstrous form would be easily distinguished in the artificial light of the kitchen.
"I'm Sylar, and I'm Roach's guard dog." He said lifting his clawed hand up and pointing at himself with a bladed thumb.
Hearing was nothing more than the mental identification of some sound wave, and as those sound waves bounced around they grew weaker. Most humans didn't pay attention to the quieter sounds, their lives too cushy to care about minor details, but the clicking of a key unlocking the door was enough to rouse a certain resident hidden deep within the apartment. His body currently curled up beneath his bed, the creature's tail began to curl up, looking sort of like a snake slowly stirring from a nap. He didn't wake yet, but Sylar was aware that someone was near his current home. It could be Roach, so his mind still lulled into the world between waking and slumber.
However the various noises that soon followed, the sound of a zipper, the soft clack of steps, and the ruffle of clothes all told him it wasn't Roach. It couldn't be Megan either, she'd left some time ago, which meant Sylar's mind had picked up on an unknown, an intruder, and thus the predator woke. His mutated eyes opened, and the blood began to pump through his veins as his world grew from black into a mixture of various temperatures.
His hands pulled him from beneath the bed, and the Boogeyman began to make for the kitchen, his steps quiet as could be. Creeping down the hall, the boy pulled his hood up, hiding his androgynous face from the light, and donning the mask of the monster. Who would be breaking into Roach's place? Everybody around here knew he wasn't to be bothered or messed with, especially since Roach's "dog" was quite ferocious, or at least Sylar tried to play that part.
The person was in the kitchen, light sounds and steps, a woman or small man? Sylar barely stepped from behind the arch to the kitchen, just enough to gaze upon the person who had entered his home, his sight clearly picking up on the image of a humanoid. Some pinky Roach had sent here for some reason? No human would be dumb enough to enter this place, but time to find out. Stepping into the archway, his form concealed from Shelby's sight as she focused on the kitchen before her, Sylar used a favorite trick of his.
His tail dropped to the floor, and like a python crept forward, slithering back and forth as it came up behind the girl, before rising up just enough for the blade to touch the small of the girl's back. The pressure enough to feel similar to having a knife pressed against your clothing. As the blade pressed forward, a hiss escaped his mouth, that alien noise that no other creature on Earth could emulate.
"Who are you...And how did you get in?" The monster boy demanded.
The girl mentioned a phoenix, and that perked Sylar's attention for a moment. He had met a phoenix as well, or at least a fiery man who claimed he could become one and was a deity as well. Sylar had no interest in trying to destroy the girl, so instead simply asked about the phoenix. "I met a phoenix as well, or at least he said he was. Was he weird? Like a weird accent and goes on about being a God?" He wondered if Bennu was still about, professing his Godhood to random mutants as he went about whatever it was that odd man did.
Emily's unique set of physical traits was protecting her from any of those more "dangerous" rumors that floated around about Sylar. Sylar was a predator, of course he ate meat, but her scent wasn't that of freshly killed or dead, rather more like something stale. And his gut didn't care for that, and thus Sylar was able to keep his human mind dominant, a rarity for him.
Sylar held no love of his hunger, it was like a drug that stole his reason and ability to maintain control if he didn't constantly feed it. "I don't eat candy much." Sylar admitted, though he did enjoy sweet things, it's just that chocolate didn't fill you up much, unlike other various junk foods. "And I'm more of a meat eater myself..." He mumbled as he continued to walk down the tunnel, with Emily in tow clasped to his shoulder pad.
So her name was Emily, a normal enough name for a dead girl he thought. She asked about the sewers, which was a rare question for him actually. People usually assumed he lived down here, or simply crawled out of the shadows like some monster on command. "I used to, well I kind of still do. It's a lot easier for me to get around down here, but I crash at my bosses place during the day." The girl apologized for chatting so much, though Sylar didn't mind. "I don't mind, I don't get to talk much on account of how I look. Usually just a lot of screaming or crying, so feel free to talk." So the dead girl lived at a mortuary, that was some real comedy right there, though he didn't laugh. Instead he just commented in that same old voice.
If only she could imagine what that vision had been like to Sylar. It must be similar to what people consider an epiphany or a bolt of inspiration from a God himself. To never know color or form, to know nothing of the world but empty blackness, and then see it clad around a person like a living suit of skin. The scariest thing Sylar would ever see was himself, and nothing would change that. Evelyn was befuddled, unable to put these pieces together since she was too confused or missing too much information. Humbling to think the girl wasn't as all knowing as Sylar imagined.
She tried to spin her words into something to comfort him, something to steal him away from that dark place deep in his gut. But no matter how much Sylar managed to rise out of that slude, the beast would always pull him back, always have at least one terrible claw dug into his soul. Because Sylar and the Monster were one, and now he knew what it looked like. His mind was flooded with but one image, the sight of himself. His sense of fear and guilt had doubled, and he realized more than ever that he had to contain it. If nobody else would imprison him, he would do it, to save people like Evelyn. He'd wished he'd known all along just how scary he truly was.
Sylar hadn't forgotten the other things he'd done, the time he'd saved her, and the times she'd save him. Mutants weren't like humans, their lives were fantastic and frought with chaos, so they had to take care of one another, far more so that the superflous way that normals treated one another. "I won't ever forget this memory. What I am was burned into my brain. I've no idea what you look like Evelyn. Are you pretty? Do you have freckles or dark skin? Are you blond or brunette? My entire world is filled with human like things constructed from heat. But I know what I look like."
Sylar lifted one of his claws, the ferocious appendage sticking out from the shadows, the bladed fingers spitting off a shine from what little light could reach them. It was like having knives for finger, even Sylar's touch was dangerous. Evelyn spoke of dealing with her own monster, and Sylar realized he needed to figure out an actual answer to himself, before he couldn't hold it back anymore. "Whether or not the monster only comes out at times Evelyn. My monster is real, it's not some emotional trauma or abandonment issue." Even though in reality both of those terms could explain why Sylar's psyche was so damaged. "I'm dangerous Evelyn, really dangerous. I know now, I can't just be leashed, I need a cage. Even Roach won't be able to stop me if I give into that again."
Sylar had caged himself before, locked away beneath the stone of New York, but that sewer wouldn't work anymore. Too many people had pulled the bars from that place. He needed clarity, he needed control. He needed a cure for the hunger. Or else Evelyn's memory would just come to pass again, he needed to protect the few friends he had, from himself.
"You need to have a plan for me Evelyn. For when the monster comes back, you really will run out of lives at this point." He said, a small glimmer of the boy inside escaping through a joke he'd told before.
Evelyn grew stronger as she cleared her mind and her lungs filled with fresh air, how fitting that the closer to her world she was, the more she flushed Sylar from her system, as if the boy was an invader to be fought off. Sylar had lost his own courage though, the thoughts of being stuck alone in the dark frightening him once again. He'd spent a long time alone in the dark, and just when he'd thought he'd grown used to it, various people had tried to pull him out, back into a world he'd been afraid of, and that taste had made him afraid of the dark once more.
It was like being trapped between two monsters that foamed at the mouth for a taste of you. Her step forward pushed him a step back, the darkness wrapping ever more around the boy's visage, all but his few human features remaining visible in the darkness. She tried to fight through the haze, to comfort him and reach out. But Sylar wasn't just tasting the fear this time, hearing it, smelling it, touching it. The most powerful human sense had always been sight, and Sylar had never been gifted with it, his entire life a blur of darkness until Evelyn thrust something into his mind.
Sylar's few sight had been himself, clad in rage and a black hunger, a nightmare. And it had terrified him. She might say he wasn't monstrous, she might reach out and pat his head when he was upset. But in the end he'd still been able to scare her. "I don't think anything is wrong with you Evelyn. It scared me too, what I saw." His voice was shaky and upset, the confusion of this whole night having already pushed him past the limits he'd grown into for pain from his mutation.
"I saw me Evelyn. I saw what you see, I knew I didn't look normal. I knew I was scary. But I'd never seen a monster before." Sylar's brain was wracked with the thoughts of all the people he'd scared and threatened since he ran away from home. Had they all dealt with the same monster Evelyn had shown him?
Sylar chuckled just a bit when Emily spoke out in surprise at him. He couldn't really see the girl with his usual senses, but spooking a dead girl had a sort of ironic twist to it he thought. He spoke softly, his boyish voice not fitting at all with the creature that it came from when you saw him in the light. "No problem, I get that a lot." He said, stopping for a moment as she brought up rats, which were animals Sylar didn't really care for either. "Er the scaring part, not the rat part. Actually I scare the rats too now that I think about it." He'd gotten lost on some abstract thought before he continued along.
She complimented him on his name, something he hadn't heard much of, well every really. "I guess, I just always thought my Mother had an odd taste for names. Not too many Sylar's about ya know?" He realized he hadn't heard or asked for her name, so he continued to just refer to her as dead girl. More than a century? Sylar was meeting way too many "immortals" for his taste as of late, he'd met a crazy firebird awhile back who had claimed immortality too. Must be nice to just live forever, instead of turning into a monster. Though Sylar wouldn't enjoy the stink of death coming off himself all the time to be honest. "So you're like immortal or something? Must be neat." He muttered as she continued, talking about the things she no longer needed.
While Sylar didn't care much for the idea of smelling of rot or never sleeping, the idea of never going hunger did hit him in the gut. Sylar's hunger was dangerous and mind numbing, like a drug that overtook his brain and made him crazy, he'd kill to never be hungry again. "It must be nice to never go hungry." The words were different than the rest of his speech, sad and envious of something that most people probably wouldn't be. However he quickly moved forward and went back to his somewhat boyish but emotionless tone.
He stopped briefly, jumping a bit himself as the girl grabbed a hold of his shoulder. While the armor dulled his sense of touch, Sylar could feel a cold grasp on his body, and his inability to sense it had surprised him, giving the girl a bit of vengeance in spooking him in return. He didn't shake her off or act upset though, after all he was probably the only person who could see down here. It was rare to have his mutation seen with interest or appreciation, especially since Sylar knew better.
His voice dropped down a bit, dipping into that sad tone again. "I will eventually..." He didn't want to risk her getting too curious about his mutation, so he tried to divert her by asking her name. "By the way, I don't think I asked for your name dead girl, got one?"
Claws sharp as knives, armor warped into his flesh, and a tail like some scorpion nightmare, Sylar couldn't help but intimidate at first glance. After all, Chris might hunt for fish, and be the top of the chain in a pond like this. But comparing to Sylar was like putting a man against a tiger, Sylar wasn't designed for the water, he was designed for murder.
Sylar had a talent for sniffing out fear, each of the various factors that happened when someone was afraid were easy to pick up with his enhanced senses, but when he knew the other person was a mutant, it somehow dulled those senses, back to almost human levels. But he could tell Chris was definitely uncomfortable around him, the way he quickly pulled back or reacted with a high pitched voice. But Sylar was used to it, after all, the Boogeyman was supposed to be scary after all, even when he wasn't trying.
Sylar stopped for a moment as Chris attempted to hide his anxiety with humor, and turned towards the fish mutant. "Oh yeah? I'll remember that next time." Sylar said flatly, his own brand of cheek often falling so terribly flat that it became somewhat scary. Sadly the boy was just awful at comedy.
As Sylar drew closer to the shore, his predatory motions turning more human as he got close enough to land to stand up Chris asked him about his mutation. Sylar wasn't even sure if he was aquatic actually, he'd spent most of his time in a sewer, which had some but not nearly as much water as a pond. More than anything Sylar was certain his mutation was just meant to be horrible. He turned back to look at Chris as he spoke. "As far as I can tell, I'm not aquatic. I'm just a predator. Spend most of my time in the sewers ya know."
Though Sylar couldn't see Chris, the way the other mutant moved in the water and smelled clearly made him out as some type of water creature, otherwise things might have ended far worse tonight than some mild injuries and a serious case of spooked.
Still confused both by Noel's change, and his sudden lack of aggression toward Noel, Sylar was ill prepared for the girls sudden screech. Sylar jumped a bit, the monster terrified of the prey, as the boy mumbled and attempted to turn and flee. "Holy crap! I'm go..." his words and distraction caused him to ram directly into a pew, tripping over the wooden seat and hitting another with a loud painful thud. "Crap crap!" He muttered some more as he scrambled to get up and actually make a run for it.
Unable to process anything happening at the moment, Sylar barged through the ruined door he'd torn apart, and tried to back track his way back out of the building. The confusion over the girl and his broken thoughts didn't stop him from recognizing a certain sound though, sirens. Police sirens were bad news, Sylar didn't have any excuse or plan for escaping the cops this night. Stumbling back into the room where this encounter began, the boy nearly tripped over a can of food, trying to grab something to take and have to show for this debacle of an evening. "What the heck is going on, Why'd I pick a fight with some random human? Why haven't I just gone home already!?" The word home suddenly clouded his thoughts, various images trying to claim ownership of that word.
A cold dank sewer, a confusing but welcoming life with a giant bug, and now suddenly the faded memory of a home he'd never seen with his new eyes. An odd welcoming darkness he remembered as his parent's house, a place he hadn't thought of in years. Grabbing a can or two, Sylar bolted out another busted door, turning towards the streets and trying to get a grip on where the police were. Too close, he had to flee, but where? Instinct still remained, even if Noel had altered the boy's memory, and taking over he quickly made for a man hole.
There were too many unanswered questions, and he realized the only people who could help him figure this out was the human he'd just assaulted. And his parents, they had suddenly re-surged into his mind, like some invisible phantom brought into the light, he wanted to know why his entire mind felt altered, confused. Sylar wanted to go home.
Sylar stopped himself from fleeing into the darkness, the only constant presence in his life, the chill of the shadow wouldn't comfort him this time. And Evelyn terrified though she was, still reached out for him, the boy unable to abandon the girl after he'd done this to her. He tried to explain why he should leave, but detective she was it seemed Evelyn was still trying to figure things out even when under the effects of a full blown panic attack.
She mentioned change, reminding Sylar of just how this event started. Sylar's mutation had started as mere physical prowess, strength beyond even the mightiest of creatures. But soon he began to change, his body morphing into something else. Then came the eyes, a new type of vision to bless the blind boy and help him navigate a new environment. Perhaps Evelyn was right, he had grown more tonight, maybe something about his new growth did this? Or the change in location? Sylar wasn't the bright one here, and Evelyn was so high on fear she could barely conjugate a sentence. But she was trying, he had to try too.
He stepped forward a few steps, his new body blending with the shadows of the alley almost too well. As if the darkness refused to relinquish Sylar to the light, to Evelyn's world. "Friend." He mouthed the word, barely audible as he tried to figure out the best course of action. Seeing Sylar would re-trigger that lingering fear in Evelyn's mind, his venom enhanced by his physical presence, but as the effects began to wear off, her mind and power would be able to figure out the lies from the truth. "I know Evelyn...but I don't know if I can be your friend. I'm barely human anymore, and this..." He was referring to her reaction to him, a reaction he'd once tried to force out of her, his instincts in control but the boy inside had eventually taken over and formed a bond, one that managed to keep Sylar attached to his human side as time went on.
"This isn't right Evelyn, even you're scared of me now. Even if you don't want to be, you still are..." He couldn't make sense of it. Had he grown that much more hideous with this shed? Or was it something more? Something deeper? The idea of envenomation still eluded him, after all, who would believe in an animal that could sting actual fear directly into your blood stream? "Have I grown so monstrous?" He asked, a question somewhat for Evelyn, but more for himself.
