Dr. Steinmetz's Annual Open House [Open]

Before hitting the ground, the man jams his shovel into the ground and spins around, landing on his feet, 10 feet away.

"You big guys are all the same, so clumsy", taunting Shard, chuckling.

Shard hears, but doesn't comprehend shovel man's words.
He jams Shrapnel into the ground and uses it to flip himself to his feet before hitting the ground.
He starts spinning, Shrapnel extended. He gets faster and faster, until he is just a blur. He activates Shrapnel, and tilts himself slightly so that each rotation has Shrapnel make contact with the ground, send a constant stream of rock flying towards shovel man.

The shovel man jams his shovel into the ground.

It shakes for a moment, and he twists his wrist. A solid wall of dirt jets out of the ground to block the incoming projectiles.

He then back-steps 20 feet, realizing the apparent diversion and likely followup attack.

The battle of rampaging Grumpy Boy vs Others had gone on for an annoyingly long time now (At least annoyingly long for Melissa, whose attention span is... below average) with still no conclusion. Despite not having a weapon, she figured it would be best to help out a bit.

Moving a fair distance behind rampaging Grumpy Boy, she attempts to signal for Shovel Man to distract rampaging Grumpy Boy for a moment.

The rocks that had missed their mark from the wall fell, but the wall didn't hold long against the continuous onslaught of rocks. As they broke through, Shard had rocks coming at the shovel man from every direction.
Shard also had some rocks spinning around himself as a shield.

The shovel man notices the young girl and nods.

He then shoves the shovel into the ground. A barrier of dirt surrounds him, fully encasing him in a dome.

Unable to see shovel man, Feral Shard assumes he was dead, and looks around for his next opponent, and spots a small female. Suddenly the rocks are directed at the girl as Shard continue spinning

'Note to self: Shovel man SUCKS at causing distractions.' were the thoughts going through Melissa's head as rampaging Grumpy Boy turned to her instead, launching a barrage of rocks. Instead of using her gathered strength to leap forwards, as she had planned, she instead dived to the side, avoiding the stones. She landed back on the ground with a roll, getting back to her feet and preparing for another attack. She was, unfortunately, unarmed, so there wasn't much chance of succeeding in a frontal assault.

Shard kept adjusting his aim to Melissa's location, adding to the already large repair bill Steimnetz was to receive when he noticed.

Before Shard can reach the young girl.

The shovel man bursts out of the ground in a pillar of dirt in the charging path.

IC:

"Shard....."

I stare at him in his mindless state, not knowing what had caused it, but knowing what had to be done.

Problem was, I didn't want to do anything to him, really.

"Stop!"

Hearing a newcomer, Shard stop his spinning. He looked over to where it was coming from, saw the owner of the voice, and then forgot the two behind him. Right now, all that mattered was killing the bastard in front of him. He gave Shrapnel a quick twirl, slammed it into the ground, and used the last of the dust in it's container to make a moving platform of pebbles, propelling him at mach speed towards his enemy. He jumped off and started spinning again, but this time vertically.
Like a buzz saw he propelled downwards toward Lan, at the same speed he had closed the gap with.

IC:

"Wait, Shard."

I sidestepped the downward strike even as Dual Victorize began it's extending motion, each metal blade sliding outwards. Slowly, I let my left foot drag itself back, even if just a centimeter, as I started to enter my combat stance. I didn't want to fight him, though, so I could only pray that behind that feral look, Shard could hear my voice.

"You can hear me, right?"

Shard stood up and swung at Lan with Shrapnel, letting go with one hand and using it to make a right hook

Seeing that rampaging Grumpy Boy was once more involved in a fight, Melissa signalled for Leader Boy to attempt to distract him, hoping that Leader Boy would get the idea as she prepared to jump. Hopefully Leader Boy is better than Shovel Man at distracting..

IC:

I swiftly ducked under his hooked arm. Behind his legs, I notice Melissa run across the grounds, as she made a hand motion that, to the average person, looked like some insane version of a panic attack. I could only guess that she wanted me to distract Shard for her.

Sorry then.....I can't let you hit him....

Quickly, I rolled to the side before launching upwards again, facing Shard within sword range but nowhere near arm's reach. One eye tracked his movements; the other followed Melissa as she continued running.

Shard, without realizing it, had lost a lot of blood from his legs. The missing chunks hadn't stopped bleeding since he had sliced them off, and he suddenly crashed to the floor, his vision blurring.
Still determined to destroy Lan, he picked himself up, and tried to swing Shrapnel, but couldn't muster the strength.
He bared his teeth and snarled, stumbling forward, towards Lan.
His movements greatly slowed, he went to grab Lan.

"You know what! Fine! I wont be helpful!" Melissa shouts, annoyed at having all attempts to help out thwarted, and sits on the ground, arms and legs crossed in anger.

IC:

A very low powered swing came towards me, before it dipped in its arc. Shard must be tired, which made this easier, I thought. As he leaned forwards, made a step, and attempted a grab, I countered with my own tackle, kicking off beneath his arms to grab his torso and push him onto the ground.

As Lan tackled Shard, he fell and hit his head on the ground, knocking himself out cold.
His wound, however was still bleeding, and he had lost a dangerous amount of blood.

IC:

"That idiot...."

I turned towards Melissa, and called her to go get help. This Steinmetz dude was a weapons lover, right? He'd probably have some bandages...just in case. Hopefully he'd have some meds for Shard.

I stood up, caught in yet another awkward situation. I knew I should be doing something....but I don't know what.

Melissa was about to shout at Leader Boy that she wasn't going to help when she noticed how much blood Grumpy Boy had lost. She paled at the sight, immediately standing up to go find someone that could help. Perhaps shovel man could help? Or maybe Other Teammate, he seemed to know people here.

She ran towards where they were, and would ask either Shovel Man or Other Teammate (Whichever she encountered first) if they had medical supplies or access to medical help, explaining the situation.

Before Melissa could say anything, the Shovel Man was already on his hands-free radio.

"Target neutralized. Requesting medical assistance, the target appears to have lost a lot of blood."

"What's that? No, don't tell the doctor, he's still tinkering with this little girl's spear."

He then turns to Melissa.

"Hi there, is everyone alright?"

"The Rampaging Grumpy Boy over there is bleeding A LOT! He's lost a dangerous amount of blood, and he's still bleeding! He needs medical attention immediately." Melissa said to Shovel Man.

"Oh, and you suck at causing a distraction!" She added as an afterthought.

A moment passes until a team of paramedics arrives from the southernmost building. They load Shard onto a stretcher, tie a tourniquet higher on the wounded leg, and rush him back to the building from whence they came.

Turning to Melissa,

"Sorry, kid. But you should've left it to us. In fact, aren't you unarmed? Were you really going to take on that raging bull in your condition?" raising one of his brows, quizzically.

"Well that's why I needed him to have his back to me! Even with about a weapon, most of my aura is focused on my legs so I can throw out a pretty mean kick if I need to." Melissa explained to Shovel Man, who didn't seem to think she could handle herself.

Seeing as everything had been handled already, she went back to the area where she had been when Steinmetz took her weapon to modify it, looking to see if he was done yet.

As Melissa beings to enter the doors of the warehouse, she finds herself face-to-face with Steinmetz what appears to be Soothing Mayhem in his hands.

"Ah, fräulein! Impeccable timing! Your weapon, she was very fun to tinker with. Why don't you see what she can do, now?"

Steinmetz walks out into the courtyard, and surveys the damage from the recent skirmish.

"Ah! I see I've missed the party! hohoho!"

Turning to the Shovel Man "Oliver, is everything under control?"

"It is, the big guy went a bit nuts and now he's in the west wing getting treated for injuries"

"Ah! That one. Yes, he was here yesterday! That boy really needs to learn some anger management! Hohoho!"