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.
He listened to her, that was a first step in a good direction. She had been half afraid that he wouldn't even take her ramblings seriously. Then again, he had pretty much caught her as a mutant bug man tossed her out of the back of a moving semi truck. She gave him directions as calmly as she could, making sure to make them as easy to understand as possible, and buckled into the car. Heck, she didn't care that he'd just hot wired a stolen car; there were more pressing matters at hand here.
"Shelby." She muttered back, clenching and un-clenching her hands in her lap. "Shelby Walters." Might as well give him the full name. If he was associated with the force like she assumed he was, he would probably ask for it later anyway... after they got to the apartment and made sure Jen was okay.
"I am fully aware that it was pretty stupid move... but I was also fairly certain that I was going to die, and I didn't want a bunch of murderers to get away with it." She breathed deeply, slowly, and glanced outside the window. Watching the world pass by in a lazy blur.
His next question, Was she okay? That was a hard one. Physically she had a few bangs and bruises. She was still fairly certain that she had some form of a concussion, and wasn't entirely positive that she hadn't just imagined the whole thing a few moments ago. Giant talking bugs threatening to eat her head? If not for the lack of her camera and the aching physical pain she was in, she would have happily passed if off as a delusion.
Mentally, though... was she okay? She... didn't know. She didn't know what classified as normal in this situation. Was she supposed to break down and cry like she felt like doing? Was she supposed to stay strong and power through it, then deal with the trauma later when she was alone?
... would she ever be able to get over it? Put it behind her?
She decided rather quickly that those questions were less important that the safety of her friend, and so she shoved them somewhere back into the recesses of her mine. "I.. I'll be fine. I'm not very hurt. Few scrapes, maybe a bruise or two. Might want to have my head checked after..." She sighed tiredly, "...after I make sure she is okay."
She went back to staring at her hands, and her brows knit together. "That man, the... the one who looked like a giant bug? He wants me to destroy the pictures that I took today. He told me that if I didn't talk to anyone, and that I destroyed the pictures, he would leave me alone." Her voice cracked for a moment, so she paused to steel herself. "But he said he was going to kill my roommate. She called me while he had me in... in there. He has my phone... he..."
The horror of that statement settled in fully, then. "I need your thing!" She lurched to the side in her seat, panic on her face, and pointed at the com attached to his arm. "I need to see that! Does it have access to the internet?!" God, she sounded crazy even to her own ears. She made the extra effort to clarify lest he think she had officially lost her mind.
"He has my phone, which has access to the database that those pictures were sent too! If he figures it out before I can download them somewhere safe he'll delete them!"
The clawed hand touching her made her flinch, but she didn't move to shake him off. She was too terrified. She allowed him to steer her, guide her, half hearing his words while she tried to reflect inwardly on herself. What kind of person was she? Why was this happening to her?
""Now remember my dear... Not. A. Word."
The door flung open, she was surprised to see someone out there, least of all the very same man who had tried to save her before... and then Roach shoved her. At the speed they were going she was instantly sickened. The sight of the roadway underneath her blurring past before she was snatched from an unknown, painful fate nearly made her pass out from fright.
She hadn't even heard the gleeful farewell, too encapsulated in her own little world was she.
Not until she was forcefully jolted out of it by the landing. Once more her mystery hero saved her. She was clutched securely to minimize damage as they rolled, and when they came to a stop she had to gather her wits back to her in order to even get her voice working.
Goddamnit, she didn't even know if this was the right thing to do, or if she was walking right into a trap, but she couldn't sit back and do nothing. Jen was so young. She was deep into her degree and she held so much promise. If there was even a chance what the stupidity Shelby was about to release would save her, she was going to go for it. "We have to go! You have to take me to my campus!"
The words blurted past her lips, and honestly didn't make much sense at first. Her frustration reflected on her face as her expression shifted and she balled a fist in his uniform. "My friend is in danger! They are going to kill her! We have to go to my apartment!"
The camera shattered and she suppressed a shriek by forcefully covering her own mouth. The battery operated light clattered to the floor of the container they were in, casting a demonic shadow behind the giant bug man. She couldn't help it then, tears broke past her barrier and freely fell.
"Shell... You'll be so glad to hear this. You aren't going to die here. You are going to go home. You are going to take those images you uploaded to the cloud, and no one is ever going to see them again. In return, I'm going to become a regular customer of yours! Great news, right?"
He.. He was going to become a regular customer? Her breath stilled. In other words he was going to be keeping an eye on her. In other words, she would never be alone, never be safe. Big brother would always be watching.
"I really can't stress how much I don't want those pictures getting out, you know. I know that you are likely a brave little girl. You can't be brave here, Shell. You don't want to know what I can do to you. Aaaaand, that's where we get to the really. Good. Part."
He kept using that name... the nickname Jen gave her. shell... the more came from that... thing, the more it cause a sick, heavy bubble to grow in her stomach.
"I'm going to inform you now, that in a few days, your room mate Jen is going to go missing! You'll have the place to yourself! They'll find her body in an alley somewhere. Well... They'll find some of her body in an alley somewhere, at least. And you... You won't warn her. You wont tell a soul... Or it'll be your body... Do you understand, Shell?"
Right then, in that very moment, Shelby felt the world stop. The same thing she had pondered on earlier in the day, it was actually happening. It only lasted for a second however, and then her senses returned to her. Her heart hammering painfully in her chest. Her lungs struggling to breath evenly and calmly. Her limbs and core trembling as everything threatened to shut down from stress and exhaustion.
His words echoed in her head and she couldn't stop it from repeating over and over, relentlessly. He was going to kill Jen. Kill her... and if Shelby didn't keep her mouth shut, she would die instead. Or they both would die.
Like poison, traitorous thoughts crept into her head.
Better her than me...
I'ts not like you'd really miss her... only known her a year....
Gotta save yourself. Don't want to die!
She was suddenly reminded of all of those goddamn theoretical moral questions. Your grandma is tied to a train track, you can switch the path of a train to a different track, but on the other one sits a broken down buss full of school children. The train cannot stop... what do you do?
She knew what she had to do.
She was too young to die... she had too much to live for. To many dreams to just give up like that.
"....I-I... I understand.." She started, but broke down and sobbed half way through. "I won't... I w-won't tell her. I won't tell anyone.... I'll get rid of all the pictures..."
She covered her mouth with her hands, the knuckles ghost white and struggled to stay on her feet.
Oh crap, oh crap! He was opening it! Shelby mentally shat herself when the big bug man opened up the sd card slot and pulled it out. He KNEW! HE %$#@in KNEW!
A jolt of terror raced through her when her ring tone went off and she was pretty sure her heart stopped beating for a second there. She didn't make a move for it, her wide petrified eyes glued on the beetle-man, waiting. He stepped away, her camera still in hand, and told her exactly what he wanted her to do. Expected her to do.
She swallowed thickly against the frog in her throat, blinking away moisture that was collecting in her eyes, and reached into grab her phone. The screen glared up at her, nearly blinding. It was Jen. Her roommate. She had never been so relieved yet simultaneously terrified in all her life. Well, actually no. She had been more relieved when she thought the Meta bots were coming to save her. She was less relieved right now.
Swallowing her fear, she followed his instructions and attempted to put on a happy mask. Jen wouldn't be able to save her if she screwed this up. "...yessum?"
"Shell? Bloody hell, where are you? Have you completely forgotten about the curfew?!" She could have wept at the tone of her friends voice, if she weren't trying so hard to keep it together.
"No," She sighed shakily, "no I haven't forgotten. How could I forget?" She heard her friend grumble incoherently at her.
"Yea? Well where are you then? You said you were on your way back home over an hour ago!"
She struggled to come up with a good excuse. One that didn't sound forced. "I know, after I left that creepy apartment building I stopped and got some coffee... you know, my pity drink." She paused, glancing at Roach.
"I stewed on it too long and missed my bus. I had to wait for the next one, and in that part of town it apparently takes a half an hour for the next one to come along." There was a brief silence on the other end, and for a moment she was sure her friend was going to call bullshit on her story. Then...
"Damnit, Shell. This is why I can't leave you alone for a second. How far away are you? Want me to come get you?"
She so desperately wanted to say YES! Yes, please come save me!... But she couldn't. Instead she hummed to herself, pretended that she was looking at the clock, and sighed shakily. "Nah, i'm not far away now. It would be a waste for you to get dressed and come get me when i'm right around the corner. I'mm be home right quick, kay?"
"Okay, Shell. But you bee-line straight here! No stopping for puppies and strangers with candy on the way home!" There was a bit of humor in there, and Shelby held in a sniffle. Yeah, she would... no stopping for puppies or strangers.
"Rodger that, Capn'. Shell's out." With a press of her thumb she ended the call, struggled to breath out calmly, and returned a nervous gaze to the one who had only moments ago threatened to eat her head whole.
"Oh ho ho ho! Miss, why are you hiding in the corner over there? Can't you see there really is nowhere to hide? Stop acting silly and come over here... I insist."
Gulping, she continued to eye him warily even as she complied with his demand. She knew that there was some kind of rule about obeying commands like that, within reason. She certainly didn't want to piss him off. So, she shuffled out a few steps, closer than her instincts wanted her to be, but far enough away she still felt somewhat safe.
"Lovely camera you have there. Shame it got a little beat up. You don't mind if I take a slight glance at it? I mean, it's why you're here, after all! I told my little friends here to grab it, but you see, they're simply terrible at following directions! Pity that, for you at least....Goodness, how rude of me! I haven't introduced myself, have I?! I am called Roach... And yourself?"
Gulping, she weighed her options quickly. She could hand her camera over and be done with it, or she could hold onto it in hopes that he wouldn't force to to give it up. If the pictures she had snapped where what had caused this... then, well she was in a pretty bad way.
Mainly because with her particular camera set up her photos uploaded automatically to a backup space called 'Atmosphere' whenever wifi was present.... and considering that she paid a pretty penny to be sure she always had wifi via her data phone plan, her pictures were always uploading themselves onto the backup program passively.
Not that she had much choice in the matter when it came to handing the camera over anyway. He was big enough to take it, and she had no feasible way of fighting him off. "...Shelby.." She answered back, not even bothering with any thought about a fake name. It was still slapped on her camera, after all.
She eyed the multiple arms, quickly moving to hand the camera over to that man. No identified as 'Roach'. She was hesitant to take the hand, but... felt it would be toeing a dangerous line if she flat out refused him. So, while beads of nervous sweat rolled down her spine, she did as he asked and prayed to god that he wouldn't know how a smart sd card worked....
Her shriek reverberated around the walls of the container and she lurched as far away from the voice as she possibly could. Jerking her camera up she flipped the switch on the small light attachment atop it. Thankfully it still worked.
Unfortunately, she was greeted by a larger, far more hideous bug person. She backed up further, lodging herself firmly in a corner of the container and kept the light aimed in the direction of the new threat and the smaller ones.
"...Photographs.. f-for reference pieces."
Oh god, she was stuttering... and she shouldn't have said that... Swallowing thickly, she attempted to gather her scattered nerves back up and compose herself. She couldn't let the large.. bug... thing scare her. She needed to stay strong and follow her mental list of things to do to ensure her survival.
What was step three? Shit, she couldn't recall. It had been years since she had bothered to read any of the safety stuff again. Maybe she could just skip ahead to what she did remember?
Step 4-ish: Be observant. Take in details that might help you escape. What do your captors look like?
She studied the guy silently, in horror, but tried not to let her expression betray it. He was a... beetle? Beetle-man. She would refer to him as that from here on.
Where was she?
...In some kind of goddamn storage container on the back of a semi.
Were they armed?
... Some of them had freakin' grenade launchers only a little while ago!
The unevenness of the road rocked her to and fro, making it harder for her to keep her footing than she liked. The container she was in was old and nearly pitch black. The only light provided came from jagged holes that had rusted through the metal ceiling, providing brief glimpses of her surroundings as they passed under streetlights.
She didn't like what she saw in those few moments. Every eight to nine seconds she'd catch glimpses of bulbous insect like eyes staring at her, unblinking. The quiet chittering sounds the creatures produced were also very unnerving. Her new abductors so far hadn't made a move towards her, or said anything, even though she knew they were capable of at least basic speech. "Oi, why you think we grab her?"
"Dunno, maybe dinner."
Her stomach lurched and her legs quaked and Shelby gripped the wall of the metal semi container even more desperately. In her other hand she still had her camera clutched in a death grip.
They planned on eating her? Had that been the idea this whole time?
She didn't know how long they had been on the road, but she had been trying to keep track. She'd read once, somewhere online, a few brief things to keep in mind when in a hostage or abduction situation... given that she'd only recently moved to New York shortly before she had read it, it had been a few years.... but she could still recall some of the things you were supposed to keep in mind exactly for the situation she currently found herself in.
Step one: Attempt to thwart the abduction.... She'd already attempted that and failed.
Step two: Regain your composure.
She could work on that. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. If she was calm, collected, and rational she would be able to make better decisions. She wouldn't let fear cause her to screw up any chances for escape she had left.
Shelby imagined that drowning in a lake was probably a lot less terrifying than her current situation. She was trapped on all sides, slowly being crushed by warm, moist pressure. There was air, for now... but as the gooey walls pushed in on her, it was becoming harder and harder to breath. The air was hot and warm. Uncomfortable. She couldn't really struggle; just wiggle uncomfortably. Was this what it felt like being in the womb? God, she hoped not. And she dearly wished there was some sort of cord supplying her much needed oxygen as well. It was also worth noting, somewhere in the back of he thoughts, that she could still hear muted sounds. Gun fire and shouting, robotic commands. She could hear her soon-to-be murderer breathing. It would have been almost comforting, if not for the current circumstances.
Then, seemingly almost as fast as she can gotten sucked in, she was suddenly out. And also wrapped in someone else's grip, and also seemingly flying... however short lived.
They met the ground, rolled, and as soon as she could she sucked in a breath of fresh, not warm and moist air. Didn't have much time to savor it though, as the next instant there was a rather loud whistling, then a violent explosion. She curled up further into the embrace of whoever it was shielding her, protecting her face and neck as much as she could. A few moments after the blast, she gathered the courage to open her eyes and actually survey the area.
It was chaos... there were more... things, now. Insect like creatures with... were those goddamn grenade launchers?! The thought of that didn't even have time to settle before the battle picked up again. One of the little creatures fired another grenade, bullets were flying... Shelby felt like she had wandered into some kind of bad dream.
A glint caught her eye, and she spied her camera within arms reach of her. The psycho who had taunting her with it had tossed it off to the side earlier... she remembered now. On impulse she reached out and snatched it back to herself. A quick look over it showed that it was no worse for wear... a small crack in the plastic casing and a dent in the lens from the fall. It still had the a good deal of space left for pictures as well...
While she was still able, she lifted it and started snapping pictures like crazy. Pictures of the insane little bug men. Pictures of the guy who had tried to suffocate her in himself pictures of the sociopath. She caught a slightly out of focus picture of a larger figure over by the semi truck, and then another much clearer picture directly after. she didn't stop to check the quality of each, instead just focusing on capturing as many images as possible. In her mind, it was probably the only proof she would have that such a thing had indeed happened to her, or in the event that she didn't walk out of there alive, the only sliver of hope to make sure whoever killed her got caught.
She imagined that this was what it felt like to be at all near a war zone, let alone smack dab in the middle of it. From her perspective there was a lot going on, and oddly enough, she had a lot of time to inwardly reflect on it. It was... abstract, in a way.
For instance, she was aware of the fact that the back of her neck was covered in a cold, sticky sheen of sweat. It added to her discomfort on some minimal level. She could also feel an angry, lurking headache somewhere within skull, and noted that it was strangely not on the side she had gotten acquainted with the pavement on. She was also aware that the whole 'slow motion' or 'everything became a blur' tropes were no where to be found. Time was meandering on at it's same boring ol' pace, which, in her opinion, was way worse than the other alternatives.
Hell, as she kept struggling she was acutely, horrifyingly aware that every time she pushed on the guy holding her captive her hands sank into him a little bit. In fact, with what little strengths he had left she dug her hands vainly into his chest. Perhaps he had a heart in there she could latch onto? Maybe his organs weren't made out of the same gloopy material and she could grab one and cripple him? Maybe she was just delirious with fear and desperate, but hell, it seemed like a better idea than sitting around and letting herself get used as some sort of meat shield!
Something exploded in a whoosh of air not far from her, a tire on a stray parked car had been hit. She yelped in surprise, which her captor didn't seem to enthused about. "Shut up, already!"
Unluckily for her, she had still been harboring the assumption that they were after her for some reason. Even if that reason was nefarious and would most likely end in her demise, it still left her with the possibility that they wanted to keep her alive for now.... or at least until the Meta's were gone. In reality she was just the pawn that had set the whole thing in motion; she was dispensable. A fact that her captor was well aware of, and decided to act upon while he had the chance, if only to keep her from distracting him any further. He still needed to keep her, at least until the Sentry showed up fully... but that didn't mean that he couldn't start the process of getting rid of her.
Before Shelby knew what was happening the tendrils that had been confining and restraining her tightened immensely. Instead of crushing her immediately though, they started to drag her toward the man. Into him. She wasn't physically strong enough to fight it, but she was able to throw her head back and away as one might when slowly sinking into thick mud. Postponing the inevitable, really... but it was all she could do. Quicker than her mind could keep up with her arms vanished into his chest. Her feet, legs, and lower half soon followed. The last thing she saw before being pulled fully in, was the sides of him extending out like welcoming arms, to wrap her in a dark, warm embrace.
About the same time she fully vanished inside of Pudds, the Sentry rounded the corner down the street.
What the hell was happening? What did they want!? Tears openly fell at this point, and Shelby had started to shake her head in disbelief. Was this some sort of horrible joke? Had they taken it too far and couldn’t back out now? Where all three of these men just sociopaths?!
She could feel herself starting to lose control. Breaths coming in faster and faster, getting dizzier. “..What the hell…” The words were barely above a whisper, but it was all she could muster.
"I decline negotiation. I decline negotiation. I decline negotiation."
“What the hell do you want from me!?” Her stunned silence broke the moment the other man refused to demand anything. Multiple times.
She tried to swivel in place to see what he was talking about, but she was unfortunately much shorter than the man holding her hostage. Instead, she had to rely on what she was hearing to evaluate the situation. Which… was escalating at the same pace as a NASCAR race at this point. Suddenly camera guy was talking to himself, then there was the loud bang of a gunshot, then something fell into something else somewhere off in her blind zone. She screamed, of course, because what person wouldn’t shriek in terror in her situation?
Then, the Robots all took cover. Shelby could have cried out had she not been so god damned confused and terrified. Some weird mix of the two. Conterifused?
"Well I'll be... Shelby, you had an X-Man looking out for you! Shame... No one can save you now."
Then he was in front of her, that damn camera in her face. Her camera.
”Guess the rest of the party is on it’s way, huh?” The shutter clicked, he tossed the camera off to the side, and then he spun away. Her captor sprang into action, his body suddenly expanding from the sides like extra arms. Within each crude hand were guns… some sort of pistol. Shelby wasn’t a gun nut by far, and her knowledge of firearms was very limited. But she had seen similar guns before in games. They were meant to shoot a lot of things and do a lot of damage. When another of the weapons materialized beside her head, from within the man’s chest, she shrieked, renewing her efforts to struggle free as all three men prepped and opened fire on the META bots that had come to help her.
Her head was fuzzy. More... chaotic than normal. It was harder for her to have a thought and stick with it. Right now she was attempting to figure out what to do next. The only problems she was currently facing was the fact that fatty was still sitting on her (how much did he friggen weigh?!) and that was all she could really focus on. She absently wondered if she'd gotten a concussion of some form from the fall, but didn't have a whole lot of time to ponder on it. As soon as the robot was close, her captor moved and pulled her up with it. The startling bit was that he didn't really stand, so much as he reformed himself into a new position. In fact, in the places where he had a hold on her, his skin was latching onto her. A new breed of horror settled in her gut quickly. She chose, perhaps wisely, to keep her mouth shut and let the META do all the talking. They were programmed for this stuff, right?
"I will be your hostage negotiator. Please state your terms for release. Please know that violence is not your ally in this situation, and that I am here to help."
The one who had been holding her bag and drawing pad, which had been abandoned on the street as soon as the bot showed up, wandered over towards them. "Well, see, problem with that is that we haven't got any demands. Our friend here, eh.." He withdrew the camera he had pilfered from her bag from his pocket and squinted at it. "Shelby, we are all gonna have a nice time chatting together, ya know. All friendly like."
She flinched, having forgotten about the name labels on most of the things she used for school and after school work. It was disconcerting hearing her name coming from the thug. "Ain't that right, Pudds?"
The guy holding her wheezed out a laugh, which was concerning really, and she felt his grip on her shift. Not in a way that hurt, right at first. No, just a subtle shift that almost made it feel like his grip had loosened. For a moment she wondered if she could break free and make a run for it, toward the bot.
...but then, she felt what his change in grip had really done. Little bits of him were twining around her. Even though his arms and hands had loosened on her, little tendrils of his body had started to creep around her shoulders and waist. One around her knee, one around her wrist. She stilled, frozen in absolute terror and stared wide eyed at the META. Then, with another laugh, pain.
The tendrils that had gotten a hold of her gripped harder; enough to leave bruises, she was sure. The pained grunt that escaped her was the only real clue of what had happened. Meanwhile, the man with her camera had sidled up right alongside them. "Ahh, yes. That's it Pudds." She heard the snap of the shutter, and fixed a terrified stare on the man. "See, you've got me in an artsy mood now. That expression, the background... perfect." The shutter snapped a few more times as he circled around them. Then he turned and snapped a picture of the Meta bot, lopsided grin in place. "What, you still here? Shoo!"
Shelby, panicked, shook her head and whimpered. Unbecoming, yes... but god she was getting desperate. "Help me! Please!" The tendrils squeezed again, and she hissed.
Her friend hadn’t answered, so she had resorted to furiously texting her about the whole thing. So engrossed with her rant was she, that she didn’t even see the movement of a man in front of her until he was already blocking her path. Startled, she nearly dropped her phone but managed to catch it last second in a flail of limbs.
“Jesus!” Her exclamation seemed to entertain the man, as he shot her a lopsided grin. Heart hammering around in her ribcage like a rabbit’s, she immediately turned on her heel to head in the opposite direction while keeping an eye on the fellow who had startled her. A few steps away she bumbled suddenly into someone else and her senses were immediately on high alert. One man behind, another man directly in front of her, whom she immediately skirted back from. She eyed the other side of the street and noticed a third not to far away. And man, it would have been hard to miss that one even if she weren’t scared shitless at the moment.
That one, the third, was a rusty orange in color, had warty looking growths all over his body, and his hair seemed to twist off in horny looking protrusions in all directions. Most startling to her, was that he had the most vibrant, eerie yellow eyes.
“Hey now, not even gonna say hi?” One man laughed, she cringed and jerked her head his way. “How about we all get to know each other, since we’re going to be spending some time together… hmm?”
Gulping, she blinked a few tears away and attempted to get her voice working again. She couldn’t let fear shut her down or she’d be in a very bad spot. “L-look… I don’t have much, but you have it, okay? My friend.. M-my friend has probably already called the police… you can just take my bag and leave..” It was true, mostly. She didn’t have a lot, hardly anything really. She didn’t make it a habit of bringing anything terribly expensive with her on trips like this. The last part however… She’d just finished telling her friend she was on her way back via text, before she noticed the guy. The police were definitely not on their way.
One man chuckled and took a few casual steps toward her. “Darlin’, that is exactly what we're countin' on…”
All three of them laughed, and Shelby was very suddenly aware of the peril she was in. Acting on impulse, she un-slung her bag from around her shoulder and flung it as hard as she could at the nearest guy, while breaking out into a sprint in what looked like an open direction.
Unfortunately for her, the only visible mutant made a move at the same time. A shadow suddenly loomed over her, and as she turned her chin to look the guy landed on her. She did a full body plant into the road, knocked her head good on the pavement, and felt all of the air leave her at once. He proceeded to make himself comfortable sitting on her back and turned to face his buddies, while she clawed at the ground and pushed at his rear to no effect. Damnit, she couldn’t breath and he was crushing her rib cage!
“Man, chick wasn’t kidding. She must be poor as shit.” The fellow she’d tossed her back at muttered as he shifted through her stuff. “Got a pretty nice camera in here though. Oh, and lots of art stuff. You think she’s one of them art geeks?” He drew a sketch pad out, after stuffing her camera in his pocket, and proceeded to shuffle through it one-handedly.
The dead-weight sitting on her back shifted and she sucked in a breath greedily, coughing and gasping. "Yeah, but are they any good? Any shmuck can pretend they're an artist." The mutant chuckled, and promptly sat back down on her fully. She could have cursed him, had she been able to breathe.
Then, the sound of something repeatedly striking against the pavement reached her ears. It was distant at first, but was nearing quickly. From around the corner down the street came the source of the sound. A Knight, sprinting towards them as fast as it was capable of. Shelby croaked out the happiest sound she could muster, having never been so glad to see one of those bots in all her life.
Times were tough, or at least they were for a struggling college student. Shelby was getting by, but just barely. With the high cost of her tuition, food, and room and board she was constantly scraping the barrel when to came to the rest of her finances. Her part time job only brought so much money in, so she had to find other ways to supplement her income.
...Which was how she found herself pacing nervously back and forth behind a bus stop, across the street from a rundown apartment building in the crappiest part of town. “God help me, why am I here!?” For the billionth time she cursed under her breath, her fingers nervously twitching around the strap of her supply bag.
“Hey, Shell… just calm down and breathe, kay? Stop wearing more grooves in the sidewalks.” Her roommate's voice murmured into her ear. With a long, exaggerated sigh, she did just that. “Okay, okay… fine.” Stopping behind a bus shelter she slumped down on the grimy grate seat and rubbed her temple. “I just hate this. You know how much I hate this!”
“Yes, I know your crippling anxiety and unwillingness to socialize on so many levels it's not even funny anymore. But, this was your idea, remember? No one is twisting your arm behind your back here.” Shelby groaned into the phone as a response and wriggled anxiously on the bench. “Yeah, yeah. Just… remember the plan, okay?”
“Call you in fifteen with some sort of dire emergency. If I haven’t heard from you in twenty minutes, send the cops. Yup, i’m on it. Gosh, Shell.. If I didn’t know any better i’d think you were going on a date!”
Shelby pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose, snapping out a quick goodbye before hanging up on her friend. Honestly, she wouldn’t be so paranoid… but the last few commissions she’d gotten had been questionable. Like, old men in speedo’s with cats, questionable. She really didn’t want to have to run into that again anytime soon. But, given that she charged at least a few hundred dollars per commission, she really didn’t have the option of giving it all up. Not if she wanted to continue with her few guilty pleasures. Like her freakin’ data plan. Who could live without the internet these days?
Sucking in a deep breath, which smelled and tasted like things she didn’t want to think about, she fished the slip of paper with the address on it from her pocket and stood up. It was now or never. Glancing up at the building as she made her way across the street she glanced up at the windows and wondered which one held her client. Which floor was 36c on? High up? Down low? She stopped before the stairwell, squinting up at a sign on the door through her glasses.
“... Please use… other door?” An grimey arrow pointed to the right towards a dirty chain link fence that led to a dark alley.
“... Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope.”
Turning on her heel, she fished her phone from her pocket to call and tell her friend she had chickened out, and made to march right back up the sidewalk from whence she came.
