Do Steel Hearts Bleed? [Featured]

[The Mad Scientist]

"An Automated Recall Device," Dr. Steam whispered as the thief and teapot made their moves. The teapot seemed to have swung itself to the side while the thief had dropped the arm from the sky.

"What is an Automated Recall Device Dr. Steam?" The voice asked as the world went grey again and the battle paused.

The doctor looked in the direction of the voice and said, "An Automated Recall Device is a way to keep all your parts together. What happens is that when a machine loses a piece of itself, the A. R. D. will find it then bring it back to the robot, it will then reattach the piece making it as good as new. That means that if I was to remove a piece of the machine while the A. R. D. was still active, more than likely it will just put that piece back on. There has to be a way to shut off the A. R. D. for maintenance purposes. If I was to find that switch, I would be able to shut that down and then I can get to reverse engineering that machine. Of course as it is Professor Roddley's work, I will not be able to use every part of the machine but some of the stuff in there can be useful for future inventions. For example, if I can see how he made it sentient, I might be able to make robotic guards for Vent. This is one of the reasons that I am here."

"Okay, I think I get it now Dr.," the voice said with a slight bit of confusion still in it. "I wish you luck."

The world returned to normal and Dr. Steam circled the machine, as he did he searched for a place where a panel might be hidden. Suddenly he saw a square shaped panel that looked like it was there to cover something important. It was located at the base of the neck. "There you are." Dr. Steam said as looked for the way to reach the controls. There was no ladder to get up there so that was out, So that meant that the machine was expected to lay down before they shut off the A. R. D. However, that didn't stop Dr. Steam. Instead he just sighed. "Guess that means it's time for." Suddenly the world went to grey again as Dr. Steam jumped backwards next to a machine that wasn't there a minute ago. "The Jumper! This baby can give me great speed and agility for 30 seconds or jump 12 feet in the air three times. I invented it myself." Claps could be heard but the crowed in the stadium was still frozen in time. "I will use this baby to jump up to that panel and remove it. Then I'll shut down the A. R. D. and start to take this baby apart." Both the machine and Dr. Steam seemed to jump slightly as Dr. Steam landed in the machine and attached the pipes on the machine to his steampack. The world started to move again as the Dr. landed, Dr. Steam's legs hidden by the machine, as it started up. He then moved a lever and the machine crouched before it jumped up with a hiss straight for the back of the metal giant.

[Lloyd]

"Oh Fuck!" Lloyd said as he immediately turned and kneeled at the lifeless corpse of his former thrall. Brainstorming his next move, what would he do, what could he do. As he thought of possibilities he started to feel in his medical satchel for one of his scalpels. Literally kneeling in a pool of blood Lloyd started his procedure. Blunder was a lug of a man, but he was still human, Having all of the human parts just like the next guy. As his huge cadaver lay skewered and sliced open long ropes of his intestines could be seen protruding from his opened stomach.

Heart is a machine, big and brawny. The Mystic thought as he made his first cut in the long ropes of Blunder's intestine. Cut after cut Lloyd worked on the pile of flesh, what he was doing was a secret that only he knew. Then all of a sudden heart started to reach, blasting a huge and hot cloud of super heated steam at the floating tea pot. And from his rear an army of robotic spider emerged targeting the time-space bending elf thief. But he is no man, nor able of foresight. He continued on his train of thought.

Minuets passed and finally Lloyd had finished what he was doing and gathered a coil of blunder's intestine. Like a rope Lloyd carried the bloody coil over his shoulder and began to sprint toward the mech.

[Hysteria]

Heart's chassis shimmered and was gone; stolen by the thief’s nefarious magic. For the first time the metal monstrosities insides were displayed. Heart's form was far more lean without the bulbous chassis holding the ARD spiders. Thick copper wires, some insulated and some not, wrapped around a steel skeleton. His whole form was wreathed in electricity, jumping from wire to wire. The pipes on his back connected directly into two glowing cores set into his chest. It was these that powered him.

“Professor,” Herbert pointed his hat towards the Professor again, “Worried about this sudden development?”

“Oh, no my dear boy. That chassis was designed to protect us.”

Heart bent his knees, pushing steam into the joints as he prepared another powered jump. His body rocked forward slightly, then the legs released. He moved like lightning, ripping across the sandy ground towards his now revealed arm. In a surprising show of acrobatics he twisted in the air, catching his arm and landing feet first against the wall with a deafening crack.

Time seemed to pause as he jammed his arm back into the socket and turned his vacant face towards Aly. His legs took only a second to reload, not enough time for gravity to catch up and pull him from his horizontal position. Another hiss of steam and he was sent rocketing back towards the thief. The two sudden bursts of pressure took their toll on the robot's legs. A large crack slithered its way down the side of both his legs and taking away most of their strength.

Heart's body moved towards Aly, but he gripped his retrieved arm with the other and pointed it towards Dr. Steam and the teapot. He couldn't use the arm with any dexterity, but he could overload its circuits for one particular move. The arm exploded, his forearm was a ball of fire, rocketing his fist towards the pair.

Meanwhile, the robotic spiders closed in on Aly, still driven by their impulse to open the thief. It seemed they would catch here when they suddenly went quiet. The knock from Dr. Steam had indeed had an effect and cut the ARD's impulses. The only danger to Aly was Heart himself, who smashed straight into a boulder. With all the force the lame creation could muster he shoved the rock forwards, sending it directly towards the resourceful thief.

[Lloyd]

He is weak. Lloyd deduced as he saw that the metal man had started to show signs of faltering. He might have an opening if he could only reach him in time. With Lloyd running at top speed toward the robot, blunder's intestine in hand he figured that this would be his only shot to do this. Within leaping distance Lloyd launched himself in the air at the monster, wile air born he uncoiled his flesh rope.

"Everyone now, hit him with everything you got!" Lloyd yelled as he landed on the giant's back and with one fluid motion slipped the flesh rope underneath the lip of Heart's helmet. Lloyd leaning back and holding onto both ends of the intestine trying to pry his helm just enough up to make an opening to all the wires underneath it.

[Alydia Ettermire]

The robot's sudden burst into the air had thrown the thief from his massive back and sent her plunging to the ground. Her body twisted in the air, lean muscles pulling flesh and bone over and around in a spinning scarlet spectacle. Black boots impacted golden sand and long legs folded gracefully into Alydia's body, minimizing the force of her landing. Millions of gritty grains scattered and flew in the wake of voluminous vlince that flared at her flight's finish, sending up a thin cloud to mark her terrestrial return.

A dozen razor-wielding robotic arachnids scurried for her, racing with pre-programmed bloodlust, looking to disassemble her in a much more permanent fashion than she'd played at disassembling Heart. But their gears whirred and then withered, their bodies crumpled like so many dead spiders. Not yet.

She was up in a flash, watching the robot charge from beneath the broad brim of her hat. Her body tensed, her feet dug in, and she waited, ignoring the powered-down spiders. It careened closer and closer, as fast as a speeding train. Not yet.

It faltered and fumbled, crashing into the sand and sending a boulder bouncing her way. Not yet.

Blue eyes fixed on the rocketing rock and on the downed robot behind it. It flew closer, and closer, and when it was about to impact her she turned, reflexively grabbing hold of her fedora. The boulder came to rest in the space she had been, and the crowd let out a stunned gasp. Was this truly the end of the redcoat who had stolen her way into the arena?

Darkness erupted from Lloyd's shadow, where the air was thick with the reek of roasting viscerae and the sharp scent of burnt air. Electricity crackled viciously beneath the thief's boots and singed the hem of her coat. "Good job, waelin uss. Now run."

Swift feet rushed along the titan's back, sticking to insulation where possible. Ten thousand nights of running rooftops, sewers, and even the branches of the Daer Taure paid off in this moment, where to slip would be to die in the fury of a hundred hundred bolts of lightning. She skidded to a halt atop the pipes that connected to the machine's power sources and crouched down, planting her hands with enough force that the machine rang out like a gong. She focused her thieving skill, ignoring the pain when electricity started surging through her. She needed to finish this quickly; the leather protecting her hands and feet was thin and would not last long.

First she reached deep. Then she reached wide. She wanted to pull as much out of this machine as she could and shut it down permanently.

Heart was designed to test melee and magic users. Somehow, in this moment, she very much doubted it had been designed to test thieves.

[Tourneymant]

Barnabas Watched as the arm turned into a missile and went straight for him and the Scientist who had a wrench for a weapon. Barnabas yelled, "That thing will explode on impact, get out of the way." He then jumped behind a boulder that was conveniently near by. Not two minute later, he heard the sound of an explosion and felt the wind brush against his back. That wind pushed him over but that just made him more protected from the wind that would have picked him up and made him fly, most likely into a wall. After the wind stopped he looked over the protection that was his bolder to see what damage was done.

[The Mad Scientist]

"That thing will explode on impact, get out of the way," a voice said from the direction of the teakettle.

The world went grey and time stopped as the doctor asked "Did that kettle just speak?"

The anonymous voice that seemed to always answer him asked, "You mean to tell me you don't see the human shaped heat wave like blur that is holding the teapot?"

Dr. Steam looked again and saw the distortion. He then picked up his and hit himself over the head. He was dazed for a second but then shook it off before he said, "How on earth did I miss that?" The strange voice just sighed as the world returned to color and time continued on.

Dr. Steam didn't have time to ponder this though because as soon as time started again, the arm continued to race towards him as the invisible man with a kettle jumped behind a rock. Dr. Steam pulled another lever as the jumper started to hop forward in short quick jumps that made him fast and agile. The doctor then jumped into the air and got ready to land on the Iron Giant as soon as the giant hit the ground. As soon as he was on he could start to search for the main control center in the creature and maybe find a way to make a fully steam powered centient robot.

[Hysteria]

The smell of burning zombie intestines was not unlike pork. The irony was lost on the giant robot, for even if he had a nose, he was currently distracted by his quick deconstruction. Heart twisted, trying to shake off the thief and necromancer, but to little avail. The robot's legs groaned and buckled under him and he fell to his knees.

His mind was cloudy, his vision blurry and confused. His most basic programming emerged from under rows of complex routines. Protect the secret. Doctor Steam appeared on creatures chest as he toppled sideways, the sand around the machine littered with bits once attached.

“Looks like the shows over Prof” Herbert turned his sparkling eyes to Rodderly, but frowned as he found the old man beaming from ear to ear. The Professor reached into his bag and pulled out a long umbrella looking contraption. Rather than waterproof material however, it was had a fine metal chain mesh for a cover. Rodderly lifted it in front of him and pressed a button. An electric charge surged through the metal and it extend out around the man in a tight fitting metal ball.

“All good shows have an finale, I thought you of all people would know that.” He yelled through the buzzing shield.

Heart's hand shot past Dr Steam and plunged into his own chest. The electricity surging across his frame burst with renewed energy. Large twisting arcs of shot outwards in all direction like an angry lighting god. They danced around him in lazy trails and burned through anything they touched. Under the bright fingers the sand turned into dirty molten glass, the stones cracked and charred and Heart melted. Mere seconds after enacting his finale action, the metal marvel exploded in a cascade of fire and electricity.

When the dust settled there was little left of Heart but scrap and a crater where he had been. Up in the stands Professor Rodderly watched with a smile, the bits of stone and debris that pelted the crowd bounced off his magnetised shield harmlessly. He had enjoyed watching the carnage his robot could do, and more than that he could practically feel the money that would come streaming in. Even if it had been destroyed, half a dozen Hearts as shock troops would break most armies resolve in minutes.

[Tourneymant]

Barnabas ducked behind the boulder again as the creature exploded. However it didn't take long for the wind to subside. As he looked up he said, "Dang it as a giant piece of metal was headed for him. He tried to jump out of the way but the piece was too big. He was crushed beneath the metal. What was worse was the the entire ground started to heat up and get hotter and hotter. Soon it was to much and he started to get burned. First Degree, Second Degree, Third Degree, And just as he knew death was to take him, the metal above him melted and encased him, his teakettle already melted way. His body turned into a life sized statue of himself for all to see. At least this is in the citadel, I'll be alive again when we are done and over with, he thought as he took his last breath.

[The Mad Scientist]

Dr. Steam was blown back by the explosion that had caught him off guard. As he flew in an arc towards the wall he quickly unhooked his machine which was no longer of use as he had used the last of his steam. As soon as he was unhooked he jumped out of the machine just before it hit the wall. He landed in the stands as the metal creatures part began to melt, all possibilities to study the creature's parts, gone. Water then entered the arena as steam enveloped the arena due to the super heated ground. After the ground cooled completely all that was left was a steam that quickly dissipated as a thin layer of water covered the metal and glass ground. As soon as Dr. Steam saw that it was safe to reenter he jumped back into the arena and headed towards the middle, ready to receive his prize.