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.
His footfalls as he had entered the alley had been silent, but the rush forward to grab the bat from out of her hands had made a sound. Plus, there was the sudden recognition the still-conscious person had flash across his face, as he looked past for for any possible help he could find. He noticed the newcomer before she did… and that helped her notice the man, at all.
He wanted her baseball bat? She would let him have it. As his fingers wrapped around the wood of the bat, Lenna let her fingers spread out and release it. As she did so, Lenna ducked down and turned away from him, body moving in a circle so she could wrap around and behind the thug she had been about to hit. She hit them. On the back of their head. They fell forward, towards the newcomer. Unconscious. She had punched the “off-switch.”
Lenna’s eyes flicked up to the new man’s face as she took two steps back and away from them. Her arms? She raised them. Her time around the X-men had taught her that some people who come to crime scenes are there to help. And he might have thought her the problem… rather than the men unconscious on the ground all around them.
She spoke quickly. ”These men kidnap children. They are bad people. They took a friend. He is of better use to everyone unconscious. You would not like him when he is conscious.”
Her eyes finally found his face. It was a familiar one. But not by much… in her dark clothes, hood, and domino mask, he would not likely have the same type of recognition. At least, until she spoke. Then he might try and place the face behind the mask.
There were sounds coming from the alley. Metal groaned against concrete. A sliding dumpster. Metal clanged. A trash can and it’s lid smashing into a wall. Bodies. Several meaty thumps. An alley cat, meow. Hiss. From a few houses away, barking. Muffled voices. Crying. A whisper. Silence, then the same phrase repeated. It came out the alley’s end loud, and not the least bit restrained.
”Where is Rachel?!” The voice? Gravelly, and absolutely fake. The reply? Whiny. Not faked.
“S-s-stoneface.”
More muttering. A scream.
To the outside observer, peering in, the scene would be a mess, unnatural, like the alleys contents had been tossed by a crashing wave. A dumpster on its side, trash scattered. Cans displaced, a lid lost. Four bodies, still alive. On the ground. Not conscious. Men, late 20s. Gang or mob. One man, still conscious. On the ground, with a woman in black looming over him.
Black pants, black shirt, black hoodie. Hood up. From behind, one could not tell age or sex or much beyond build and height… and even that was uncertain in the shadows. Black blended with black. She had made certain clothing was black, she had asked. Even the mask she wore was black. A domino mask borrowed (or stolen) from one of the x-men. There was also two streaks of black underneath each eye, and on closer inspection, maybe it was around each eye and extended beneath the mask as well. Maybe that was gross and the owner would not want their mask back? Who cared? The one notable thing other than the gothic horror show that was her wardrobe… was the small trickle of blood from one nostril, that ran down her face.
She stood over him and looked tough… but she was not feeling it. Use one of the wave always tired her. Not fatally, but she still felt as if she had ran far. The brooding darkness was an act. So was the confidence. But the bat in her hand was real wood.
Information gained… as much as it would do her any good… the woman drew back the bat, ready to knock the fellow out.
“Who the hell are you?!” He shouted.
Lenna did not know. Her mind latched on to the first nearby things she saw.
After that big psychic assault, her view of the world slid to a scope of only a few feet around her, and various scattered sounds. The sound of collision, a name… there was an impact against her chest, and as she bent to examine it, Lenna realized that it was a snack cake. Someone had thrown a snack cake at her while she zoned out.
As Zek captured Aura, Lenna ate the snack cake. It did not taste as orange as it looked to her. She chewed it thoughtfully and let the next few minutes blur by. Sam lifted her up. She smeared leftover crème filling in him by mistake. Words were said. They left.
…
Some time later, the group was stationed around a round table, eating pizza. There were some absences. Shin, for instance, had opted to stay elevated above the pizza restaurant, cloaked in V-tol mode. Hovering. He said said something about diets, and the movie Up. And Aura… Aura was still in a pocket dimension. Unaware of what she was missing.
”I know you said “Pizzas is for winners, Sam. Always be closing. Whatever you said,” Lenna mumbled around a slice of meat-lovers pizza. They had purchased two separate pizzas. One, for lovers of meat, and one… that was wildly unique and original, which she wholly blamed upon Zek. ”Thank you for helping to save her but we have enough pizza. Maybe she can have some even if she did not win? I do not care about dumb made up excuses like ‘last time I was mind-controlled nobody got me any pizza,’ and yes I did just imitate your deep, brooding voice. Be flattered.”
She opened the eye she had closed as part of the act of mimicry. It actually had not been a bad imitation, in her opinion. Perhaps she needed to take his voice more often. Could be useful, for getting out of things. Or into them.
Had they even spoken to aura since she had been trapped? Lenna could not recall. She knew they had mentioned freeing others. Or was it others had been freed? In the chaos, had capture mutants been released. Released themselves, overrun the base? Set it on fire, let it burn? Or had the trio taken their captive and ran…. Leaving the mutant fight club whole, sans one member? She could not recall. The logistics of their exit were like a skipped scene in a movie. She would have to take it on faith that all loose ends were sorted, or would by movies’ end. Probably in a succinct line of exposition. Maybe it was even her line.
Lenna tried it. Confidently, Lenna stated : ”All the other kidnapped mutants escaped the facility safely. Obviously.” she made eye-contact with Sam.
Aaand, she had landed. Lenna took a quick moment to reassess the situation… a moment which felt like about two months long, in subjective time… then, promptly used an invisible telekinetic bubble to shift the incoming ice golem’s head out of the way. It flew past her and skidded across the rubble, as her whole mental world shifted from living color, back to orange. Heh. For a brief second, that ice golems head had appeared the only orange thing in the world to her.
… do not eat the yellow snow, they said. But orange snow? Someone has health problems…
Lenna looked towards Aura, the source of the head, just in time to see her scream and attack Sam.
The move the woman executed was good, almost flawless, Lenna categorized as she watched. She had been in many fights, seen many moves meant to slip beyond a fighters guard, but this one. This one was beautiful.
Sam responded by bolstering his defenses. Good move. If he couldn’t block it. Then he rolled to lessen the impact. Then, he aimed a strike and purposely missed what could have been a lethal blow. Iced over the hole in the ceiling.
He was being all sorts of useful. And she really was not. Okay. Okay.
She rushed forward and lined up the shot. Took a deep breath, and— while Sam was fighting Aura, distracting her, Lenna fired off one more crashing wave of force.
The wave of telekinetic energy crashed forward at the speed of a rushing tackle. This wave was meant to hit with the equivalent force of a rushing tackle from a 300 lb professional football player, and hit everything within a 10 ft x 10 ft square directly in front of her. The area Aura AND Sam were currently occupying.
Lenna did not shout a heads up beforehand. A warning would just have forewarned Aura as well. Hopefully, this knocked them over so Zek could do his thing. Because Lenna was all out of gas.
To illustrate that she was out of fuel, Lenna promptly sat down on the floor. Exhausted. With a headache coming on like a raging storm.
Carrick did not try to fling the blade at the squirrel, or anything. He did not try to eat it, either.
The joke where he pretended to levitate the knife she was levitating was kind of funny, but she was distracted. She retrieved her blade with her mind and stashed it, then walked over to the squirrel… pointedly ignoring Carrick. Sorry Carrick.
She held up one finger to him as she bent and spoke with the animal. A brief whispered interrogation with the squirrel revealed the situation.
”I have to go. A teacher is stalking the halls, searching for me.” She said. ”It was… and I hope I do these “air quotes” you seem to enjoy correctly… “fun.” Maybe some other time we can do such a thing again.”
She was bare of foot. In hindsight, this move had been incredibly silly. Although she was not aware of it currently, one of those shoes had been stabbed by an Aura spike and would not be useful any longer. Very silly.
Her opponent also seemed silly, singing the rock and roll, of all things. And punching the floor. The punch actually did something.
The floor began to shake, and the shaking spread until it encompassed the entire corridor. And suddenly, Lenna was concerned less with her opponent, and more with not falling to her death.
She was still unpracticed at levitation. She could occasionally levitate objects, but it took effort to push and pull. To manipulate dexterously. In a perfect world. She would have it fully under control. Every aspect of her power, actually. But these things take time, and she went back and forth. So, levitation was not her first reaction.
Her first reaction was to grab her knives and leap at the wall. A split seconds attempt at stabbing them told her they weren’t drywall. The compound was likely made of something tougher, like wood or concrete.
She scrabbled at the wall for a moment, contemplated hopping from piece to piece of debris, and then just— took a calming breath and tried to focus her mind on stopping her descent… with telekinesis.
Lenna focused on her entire being. On surrounding herself in a bubble of telekinesis. And— she managed it, at the last moment. As the dust settled, she touched down and dismissed the bubble. Then, she looked to the guy she had been fighting. It looked like he’d hurt his arm on the way down, but he’d managed to shield his head. He was still conscious. She walked up to him and hit him on the back of his head, and that put an end to that. Now he was unconscious. From her limited battlefield medic knowledge, aside from a broken arm and a headache when he woke up, he would live. Maybe not be fine. But. Live. And that was enough. That settled, Lenna turned to assess the situation for the rest of everyone.
Her head was, what was the word again? Yes. Foggy. Not a deep fog, such as the kind that clings to the harbor early in the morning. Not yet. A few more force pushes, and perhaps it would be. For the moment, it was more the tail end of a good fog. A nice mist or something. Fine enough to dull her reaction times a bit, leave her distracted, you know? But not enough that Lenna was entirely clueless about what went on around her.
Focus was centered on enemies, rather than allies. This meant she paid far more attention to… the wall she was leaning against… and then a bit of floor as she swung her eyes up to the people and animals she had launched a telekinetic assault on… then them… rather than any screaming fools running the opposite way.
Squid dogs, yes. And— her mind snapped sluggishly to the woman she recognized. The one with the distinctive purple aura, that was a visible glow of colored light, even in her world of orange. Because you cannot target light.
She had not fought this woman before. Not in this lifetime, at least. Was she still holding her— no. At some point, she had dropped both her knives. Perfect… she brought up her arms, ready to turn, to deflect, to guide Aura’s strike away from her and her vitals (to the best of her ability).
Aura moved in what she thought was a guided strike at her neck. Whether she fell for the feint or not, it did not matter. Because her mind was not focused as it usually would have been, upon the next step in the battle. And the next. No. It was focused on the arm with the aura blade, the arm with the purple light that blazed in her orange field of vision. Her mind was still hazy, but adrenaline had begun to dispel some of that. To wake Lenna up.
She took a step back, from the slash (true, or false), and as she did, Lenna twisted her body to the left and thrust out her arms, palms up. Her goal would have been to slap that sword arm up, and to one side with a directed bubble of Telekinetic force.
The feint slashed the air bare inches from her neck. Aura turned the strike to a follow up upper cut motion, aimed at chest level. Her heart? Her ribcage? Other vitals.
Lenna’s focus on the arm tightened. Colors on the edge of her vision grew more crisp as her world became that arm. And, she would have misdirected it, too— if it had not been for Cold Steel.
>>> “Aura!” A beam of ice shot forward over Lenna’s shoulder aiming at Aura, then another beam as one of the dogs tried to give chase to Zek. ”Lenna down!” he shouted as he surged forward, placed a hand on her shoulder, and pulled her as he leapt forward with a kick aiming straight for Aura.
She was clear enough in the head to go with the flow. She was not really feeling too hot, and maybe she could have done it, maybe she could have even tried to snap Aura’s arm with the TK bubble, or puppeteer it back and into her like some sort of grade school bully.
But she didn’t. Orange flooded her mind again as she let Sam direct her down and out of the melee. His timing was really quite impeccable.
Well then. Now that she was on the floor— Lenna rolled away, and retrieved both her knives. Had he said something? Many things were happening, so if he had, perhaps it had gotten lost amid the confusion and noise of battle.
That dart of force someone had directed towards her? All that movement in the melee had caused it to impact on the wall near where Aura and Cold Steel fought. Missed her completely. But at ground level, she noticed that attempted assault, and Lenna took exception to that.
Before she decided to get to her feet and rush at that person, Lenna had time to let her eyes stray and focus on the ground in front of her. The ground where Aura and Cold Steel fought. On footwear. Aura’s, and Sam’s… in an optimal world, she would have mentally untied Aura’s shoes and just sort of ruined her day. The mental dexterity required for such a feat was highly skewed towards a level the young girl currently did not occupy. So. She reached down, and pulled one of her own shoe’s off. She tore the other one off as well, for good measure. She rested them on the floor.
Lenna got to her feet, one knife in one hand, one sheathed in the clutch across her chest. Then, she scooped up a shoe and lobbed it at Aura’s back: she did not care if it hit or missed. Lenna took off running before she saw the results of the childish and petty act. Right before she got to the dogs and the man who had launched the darts, Lenna focused on the other shoe where she had left it, and sent it sailing towards the guy, with a swift application of TK.
It hit him in the forehead and sent his follow up volley of force darts wide. She followed it up with a shoulder tackle that sent him on his ass. Then, she stabbed his dog.
Sorry small one.
She would feel terrible about that later, absolutely terrible. The blade went clear through its neck. No more fire breathing. Enough of that.
”On your feet, smart ass. My head is now clear and I want someone else’s head to knock around. You seem unattached.” Her Colombian accent drawled. ”Got one minute?”
He glowered at her. And sang out in a deep baritone that took her by surprise. She parried the force dagger out of the air. Just smacked it down.
The warning was noted. She prepped herself. Two bodies. Lenna got into a fighting stance, with one knife held ice pick style in her left hand and her right held palm open, so she could grab or deflect. He said non lethal, but still, there was much one could do with a blade that did not outright kill. Intimidation was but one excuse.
“Aaaand go.” Sam said. He quickly handled his. Her foe was— much less pretty than the many-armed one Sam had tangled with. Black fur, with a white stripe and tufted ears meant—
Lenna threw herself out of the way as a visible flamethrower of foul-smelling gas erupted down the hallway. Five whole feet, it extended, away from the bent mutants posterior. When it dissipated (the fire part, at least, ew), the mutant stood up from their “bent-forward posture”, and stowed the cigarette lighter. Then, they rushed the dazed young mutant with claws outstretched.
Somewhere along the way, invisible pressure was applied at just the right angle and degree that the force of skunk woman’s own running feet literally skewed her feet out from under her. Lenna took advantage of the sudden rough landing to pounce upon the target. One swift punch to the back of the head, and they were unconscious. How was that for non-lethal, Sam?
The odor still hung in the air. No one had gotten hit, save the ground of the room. It likely would put a damper on the mood of the concessions area for quite some time.
With a grunt, Lenna hauled the skunk woman over to Sam, and was grateful it had been female rather than make. Females are often lighter. A make may not have been so easily moved by a teenaged girl.
She found a closet not too far away, around a corner. She pocketed the bic, then shoved the woman in the closet, which was full of extra boxes of popcorn and salted peanuts. Hopefully the two mutants lacked a nut allergy. Or legumes. What ever.
Bodies stowed, they went onwards. They did not have to wait too long. As they rounded yet another corner, they heard the sounds of scraping and tapping, like many doggy feet pattering across hard floor. Large doggy feet. And shrieks. Then, Lenna saw them. Hounds? And— Aura. She was riding one.
”Everyone back! Please excuse me for what I am about to do—“ Lenna announced. And then, she—
She sent a wave of invisible force crashing across the intervening space with the force of a 300 lb football linebackers tackle. For every object it encountered, the size of the unseen wave would lessen, but each target struck would be sent reeling. That ought to at least knock the hounds and their riders on their asses. Aura could take it.
As Lenna sent the wave out, her vision flared normal colors around its edges, with the usual orange she always saw focused only along the path of the wave. Then, her vision momentarily staggered to black as she took a step to press her palm against the side of the hall. She would need a minute to recover. A Force push took much mental energy, and took a toll upon the body as well. Zek and Sam would have to engage whatever had been knocked ass over tea kettle and was still conscious.
He wished to bet. She rolled her eyes. No bet. Besides, it was all orange to her.
On-topic, she listed out thoughts. And on-cue, Zek ignored them. He did ball some person as they appeared though, which was handy. Amid the mewling about food and stuff.
Sam ignored it just as she had done, and continued in.
>> Right then. We’ll go room by room, like Lenna said. Room by room working our way down, as a team. I don’t want to get separated for.... obvious reasons.” Sam said.
Lenna nodded.
Sam continued by directing Zek.
His talk was interrupted by a voice on the nearby speaker. Lenna was suddenly reminded of Han Solo in the Death Star, responding to a storm trooper check in. She moved smoothly over to the source of the sound before Zek could Zek it. She put herself between him and the object in question, without acting as if that were her goal. She poked something on the map with a tiny “huh.”
No answering the call, no yes we’re fine! How are you? What’s your ID number?! ZAP!!
She followed Sam’s lead… by being first out of the room. They were moving.
—
They moved like she had directed them to do, rounding the building past offices. In the few minutes they managed, they saw nothing of note. They were almost to concessions, when the mantis woman appeared in front of them.
Lenna initially wanted to force push it into a wall, very smooshy, but very loud. Her follow up response was to rush at it with a knife in hand. As she came in contact with it, she partied the arm slash with her own blade, and locked arms and moved with the mantis, to ultimately throw it back towards Zek and Sam. The woman stumbled across the ground between them, right into the two men’s range.
Once that was handled, however that would be handled, Lenna turned and lead the way into the next area.
”Concessions await,” She said dryly. As if they had not just iced slash slashed slash balled a weird mutant woman.
Lenna ignored his Jones quip and his playful flirtations, mind on the act of teaching.
Her eyebrow rose at the mention of a wager.
She moved her hand, palm up, in a gesture meant to tell him to explain. Her mind could only construct a few scenarios a teenage boy might create in his head as things to win from a bet. Most would get him hurt. Some, worse.
He knife flipped. Flapped. Flew. Threw. The knife got the target but fell to the side, unable to find purchase in the tree. Lenna bent to retrieve it. She did not throw, however. His eyes were pulled elsewhere.
Across the grounds, a tiny squirrel was running. Towards them. Quickly. “Lenna Lenna!” It squeaked.
Quick as a wink, Lenna lofted the knife up into the air in front of carrick with her mind.
Shin threw Sam a thumbs up overcome shoulder, never turning around. When they’d left, he frowned. He gave them a quick prayer of good luck. Then he flew off.
—
Guards, handled, camera, handled, ice wall over real wall… handled.
Witty banter… handled.
>> “So what’d you use?” zek asked as he followed his fellow X-Men, doing whatever an X-Men did. “Curare? Arsenic? Strychnine?”
”Company secret,” Lenna replied mystifyingly. He was company she wished to keep a secret from. So it was all true. Mostly though, she did not wish to do shop talk when they were away from the shop.
They entered the building. Zek first, because he was pushy. She did not try to boot his butt, mainly through sheer virtue… and sheer luck. He had been too fast, too forward.
The Tranq gun was stashed on her back. A new, hand-sized fun gun was in her hands, in proper position to be readied but not pointed at any living things. Close to her body, and pointed up. She checked her zones as she followed him in.
He sat in a chair and spun, then kicked his legs up on the table… the tune-covered table. Something about the table struck her as strange.
>>”So did either of you bring the map of the place?” Zek said, licking the food tray clean.
Lenna said ”Yes, and your ass is sitting next to it.”
She strode forward, and punched a button an tables surface… a rune-etched button. A ghostly blue hologram of the facility sprang up above the tabletop. It had leetle nubs at the top of the projection “screen”, like internet tabs. She poked one. The air rippled, then switched to security feed in real-time.
It showed the outside of a room surrounded by six guards.
”Like Magic,” She said. She popped the hologram where runescript words hovered. The text resembled comic sans and it said “betting room.”
She switched between a few different tabs. The next showed the food cart, followed by the next few we’re office reads, both inside and out. Offices and hallways, she switched from one view to another. Hopefully this would give them all a good sense of layout. As she went, Lenna also noticed a tiny view of a map UI in the bottom right corner. It had a blinking red dot that noted the location of each view. Finally, Lenna reached a basement view.
Her next swing, Aura met with her drill, sending the droplets everywhere and Aura sank the drill to the other girls elbow but the other woman smiled as her split arm wrapped around Aura like rope, trying to draw her in, to smother her within her own body…
Lenna watched as the drill was replaced with a hammer. They all saw the rest of the scene. At least, until Lenna remembered the mission and punched the miniature map. It grew to cover the whole screen, and neatly censored the ultimate end to the conflict. Not that SHE had the squeams… was squeamish…whatever… but Zek WAS eating. A strangers food.
Obviously this was a security office and the official had left during a meal. To piss, most likely scenario.
The map showed the last tab’s location. The arena. The next tab, she clicked out of curiosity. It showed the holding cells, and was titled… “Fungeons.” She did not get whatever joke had been made.
The dungeons or the arena. Which first?
Well, obviously they would work in a circular pattern, from offices to concessions and bathrooms, to stairs, and down, cleaning the way as they went. They would avoid the betting room. Obviously if they freed prisoners first, they would have assistance. Unless prisoners were under a sway. Then, not.
Lenna quickly relayed this plan to Sam, and by fantastic feat of him occupying space, Zek as well.
A door rattled behind Sam, as she was finishing her thought. It opened and a man adjusting his fly stumbled blearily into the room. Sam was right there to handle him.
Yep. “Stay low.” She agreed. Finished her briefing, and then— suddenly, they were ready to jump out of an aero plane
Lenna was not sure anyone is ever truly ready to jump out of an aero plane. Even moreso without a parachute. Perhaps she should have worn one, in case the whole Zek plan went sideways. But if in a life or death situation, surely she would learn how to use her powers to fly. Surely, he was a joker when sitting around but when push came to shove he could be relied upon to—
“Wait, you guys got radios? Where’s mine? I’d like two please. And can you make mine black?” Zek said.
… Lenna… packed herself into a parachute, just in case.
Worst case scenario, she would touch down on ground and take it off. Better to be safe.
Lenna slapped a round badge with a black X against a red background onto his lapel. She told him to press it if he needed to speak, and apologized for if the needle had pricked him or damaged his coat in any way whatsoever. Then, she gestured towards everything and said ”Lets go. Stay frosty.”
She did not look to Sam when making the frosty comment. She just did not.
>> And then the rear ramp was opening. “Alright, it’s go time!” Zek cried.
Lenna tried not to cry too. For entirely different reasons. Something gold streaked towards her and she caught it.
——————————— And suddenly, she was on the ground several hundred feet later, but no time had passed. Huh.
>> What next, Fearless Leader?” Zek said.
Lenna looked to the sky for signs of falling snow. ”We wait.” She said ominously.
Then she kneeled and got to work reassembling a long range run she had opted to strap to her body.
——
Back up on the plane, Shin called back to CS. ”I’ll pay attention for any pickup calls, and just fly for a bit out of LOS. I can see why you don’t like that guy. Kind of takes nothing seriously ever. Be safe down there Sam, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
——
The parachute pack slid off her back, onto the ground. There had been no need for it, which was fine. She supposed she ought to tell him to hold onto it so they did not merely waste mansion money.
”Hold onto this. Maybe you can tangle someone in the chute later if they annoy you.” she told him.
It was a really nice parachute rig, with a big black and red chute that had the X-man logo on it over the entire chute. Lenna figured it was gone forever. Oh well. Maybe Sam would remind them of it later.
Sam landed and Lenna directed them in towards the facility, and the arena.
From a distance, she was able to spot the guards, the cameras, the tentacle dogs. She lowered her binoculars and offered them to Sam so he could see as well. Zek, she had already given a monocular to… though maybe Sam and him ought to have swapped.
She explained what she saw, how each entrance she had noted seemed to have a pair of guards, and a few magic dogs. How there were cameras. They would need to come at the facility from an angle.
”We are by water. Can you do an icy mist?” She asked Cold Steel.
Lenna figured the trick was in his repertoire. Lower visibility like that would be helpful… though perhaps it would have been more natural if the weather had been different or the time of day— actually. They had left later in the day and flown through the night. It was early morning now, a mist coming off nearby water was not beyond the course of natural weather patterns. Luck was on their side.
”Lower visibility will not be able to trick dog noses. Leave the dogs to me.”
They moved. When they were close enough, Lenna took out the collapsible tranquilizer gun. In a series of quick shots, she took out the dogs then the two guards.
She told Sam to mist over the camera area. Then they breached the facility.
Different? Yes, she did. She opened her mouth to say— and Zek cut in, speaking of himself. Lenna’s hand dropped away from the hair that had recently been shorn to free her from its confines... long story.
Zek moved his hands through his hair in a gesture highly similar to the one she had been about to make.
”Think he was speaking of me,” She muttered. And inwardly did not add “you narcissist.” Because that would have been... rude.
Sam said something. And she nodded at Sam’s explanation, about Zek and him working together, and about Aura and the zombies and all of that. Made sense. And Zek cut in again and just kept on talking. And Sam said some things and Zek said some things and Lenna took it all in and was left with more questions than answers.
Kiss? Tried to kiss? Hang-glider? Sammy-poo?
She had thought Sam was strictly into females. But anyways. Business.
Sam had met magicians. Zek could store Aura. Again, more questions. But Wheels up in ten. She thought that meant they were leaving and judging by his comments, yes.
She would take lead. Interesting. She could do this thing.
Lenna said ”Yes.”
She would not advertise anything. This was strictly business. Not a joy ride. Even though she felt the man she had met on the street felt it was such.
Her, the lead. Very well.
”If I am to lead, okay. Wheels up in ten. Let us gather our gear. I also have a few recommendations.”
And she began rattling off a few things she suspected were already in the jet’s kit, as well as some weaponry from her own personal stash. There would likely be things she could not plan for, security they would have to meet using intelligence and mutation.
When she had gathered the things she had in her room, as well as a few crucial items she felt would be of use in this endeavor, she returned to the location Sam had specified for the jets hangar.
They all got buckled in and took off. Over the next several hours, she went over ideas. Out loud, sometimes, but mostly in her own head. She asked many leadership questions of Sam, but knew that ultimately, any plan they made would go up in the air at the first sight of the enemy.
So ultimately, she was operating in the dark and did not achieve much. She did teach Zek Poker though. Which she suspected he already knew, but was humoring her about. A crying shame that lacked a holographic monster chess table like in Star Wars to kill the time.
”Finally. These trips into Canada take hours.” Lenna sighed. Even with high tech jets. It took time.
Her nerves? They were a little jangled. The base? Visible, and looking obscure and unimportant.
She had changed during the trip, from her wild outfit to a dark jumpsuit. One with plenty of secure points for knives and her firearms. Her entirely legal knives and firearms, wink wink.
”So, as per our previous conversation during the flight Zek. Ball me when it is time to jump. You know the operation of your hang gliders better than I. When we get to the ground, release me. We will go from there.”
During the flight, she had gone over her power sets, and listened to the general descriptions of others power sets. Because that is what leaders do.
She held her breath a moment, while turning possible responses over in her mind. Responses about it not being 2012, about what the mansion could do, about what she, herself, could go. About her own personal experiences. About the current state of things. About a great many things. Finally, she settled. For an awful mix of many things. The bargain brand Chex mix version. The kind that was missing the best parts, such as the crunchy rye crisps or the swirly little bread sticks.
She had recently been made aware of bargain brands of things. Knockoffs. Cheap imitations. Some were as good as the real deal. Some were better. And some, such as in the case of fake Chex mixes, were the worst. This was one of those situations, but with all her efforts, once she started speaking, Lenna could not easily stop.
”First off,” She said, Colombian accent ready and willing to roll her Rs and make every bite of knowledge have an extra bit of flavor. ”2012, it is not. We are a few years past that. You have been affected by a mutant who reversed time on your body. Please, do not worry. Many have dealt with it. I am one of them. Secondly,” as if that revelation were not enough, she continued.
”You have missed a great many things. I am told that in addition to the plot with the mutant who made people more youthful, there was also once with tears in reality. And at some point, something with a sunken city and girls made of coral. And giant turkeys, although that may have been years ago, and giant Christmas trees, and secret government organizations that— listen. I am off track here. I WISH it were 2012. Things would be far simpler. Although maybe not for me. Um.”
Like a deer in the spotlights, she froze. She WANTED to help this girl, liked helping kids. Felt it was crucial to her, and her character somehow. But... really, she was very awful at it. Maybe she could have talked less, and smiled more? Like in the song someone had once shown her, about the founding father who got shot, but was not throwing away his... shot, for some reason. Yes.
Lenna took a great big breath, and let it out again. ”Listen. There are a million things you haven’t done.” She held up a finger, explaining. ”But just you wait. Just you wait. The mansion can help. They gave me a home after everything, friends, food. Helped me get my life in order. Deal with my powers and gave me schooling.” She had jokingly wanted to say learnding, but... some jokes have no reason for their presence in adult conversation.
”You are not throwing away your shot.” She finished lamely, but she smiled. The kind of smile where one forces the corners of their mouth wide, in order to replicate a fine facsimile of a smile. It altered her cheeks and mouth, but did not really touch her eyes.
Maybe it had been Carrick who had told it, and maybe it had not. They made very little effort to conceal things such as a private jet plane and an outlaw vigilante group from the general population... although she supposed they were not outlaws in this day and age.
Outlaws makes for better storytelling, though, she thought.
Yes, she had noted the chill in the room. Would have had to have no perception at all not to notice something such as that. Maybe Sam did not care for Aura? Maybe Sam did not care for the man off the street?
Well. If you happened to have an outlaw vigilante group, and an illegal jet plane hangar in your basement, maybe you would be wary of strangers, too. Perhaps she should have done more to vet and verify Zek’s identity.
He requested the video. She had saved the video and emailed it to herself. Probably had gotten viruses up the wazoo, from the dark web... but it was on a SUPER phone that they still had not deactivated... so it likely had super anti viruses cell phone protection. Or else their data was forfeit, and it mattered little to Lenna because she was far more careful with her own things. Did not let teens with stolen cellphones wander about.
Lenna nodded, and went to stand closer to Sam so she could show him the video.
The announcer sprang on. If she had been more pop culture aware, she would have thought they sounded like a sports announcer for professional wrestling. Or maybe boxing. All that was missing was a Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNday!
—
On the other side of the mansion, Tetsuya Shinbo got the text. He looked up from grading math tests, and smiled. A little escape from grading drudgery, with possibility of death? Hooray!
Sam had not been very clear about what would be involved. Just to keep it quiet. So yup! Possibility of death. Never discount it when the X-men are involved.
He shot back a text, “I am ready to play Alfred, Mister Johnson. Meet you at hangar in a few.”
Then, he finished grading the test he had been working on, and went to suit up.
—
Meanwhile, back at the ranch. ”Lenna, how do you feel about parachutes?” Sam asked.
Lenna seesawed her hand, to indicate a balance that went both ways.
”I am not for or against them. Shame I have not mastered flight, or I would have no use for such things.” She added the last part quietly, wryly, mostly to herself.
>> “For the record, I love parachutes,” Zek said. He had ended up with a plate of cold cuts and assorted cheese, procured from Sam’s fridge, of all places. He was most certainly making himself at home. “My hang glider is way more fun though.” He sauntered over to join their conversation.
Lenna revised her opinion of the man in the trench coat. Perhaps he was not a perfect stranger, after all. She glanced between the two grown men, one pointedly ignoring the other. The other, with pilfered food and a casual attitude.
”As I look between the two of you, I notice chills and an electric chemistry that speaks of familiarity. Do the two of you know each other? If we are to work together, such information would be noteworthy.” Lenna said, then, to Zek, she added seriously, ”I suspect there will be both danger and people throwing about magic. The very fires of creation. I do not know you. Are you sure you wish to court danger? I see you are already experimenting with it, by your plate of borrowed food...”
She smiled for a moment, then grew severe. ”I remind you both, my friend’s life is at stake. To coin a phrase, ‘keep the ass clowning to a minimum.’ Okay?”
