Knuckle Duster Up (Open)

It was a nice, quiet day, until some innocents had been cornered by a group of muggers. The leader of the wicked band gave a crooked grin, gesturing with a pistol. "Alright, ya know the drill. Money, jewelry, any valuables ya have, now. Make stupid decisions, and get a lobotomy for it. Let's move it." "Y-yes. Please, don't hurt us."

The crooks laughed at the meek answer, and stood by as valuable were handed over. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the citizens being mugged, someone stepped onto the scene with the intent of stopping the crime being committed. "Woah. Now, this is a classic mugging if I've ever seen one. You've got citizensbeing threatened, stupid crooks wearing balaclavas, even a loot bag! I've gotta hand it to you muggers, you sure know how to pull off the look." At the sound of a mocking voice, which was followed by equally mocking clapping, the small gang whirled around. The leader, spotting 10-Hander with his Arms at the ready, took a hesitant step back, then sneered and raised his gun. "Great. A hero. How about you shove off and get a job at a massage parlor, punk? Or I'll put a hole right through that thick skull of yours."

10-Hander raised a brow, then raised all of his hands. "A pistol, huh? Can't believe you found my only weakness. Alright, alright, I'll walk away. '' He stepped back, then paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, I can..." One of his Arms suddenly turned into a large fist and shot towards the leader, bowling him over. "Do that. Heh." The other muggers yelled and ran at him with bats and knives at the ready. Grinning excitedly beneath his mask, 10-Hander gave a loud whoop and settled into a boxing stance. "Wooh! Now we're talking! Let's go!" As he fought with the crooks, the leader sat up with a pained groan and raised his pistol, aiming it right at 10-Hander's back. "Urg...Freaking cheapshot. Eat lead you sonnava-.."

And then suddenly the totally not PG-13 remark would be silenced as the speaker felt... something stomp down on him- not in anyway able to seriously hurt him but it would definitely cut him off. The culprit? A floating, oversized looking burlap sack with some kind of... face on it; looked more like a mask. Anyway, the sack would immediately start scurrying around grabbing the would-be muggers ill-gotten gains and reveal the actual culprit with a poof of smoke. It was... STEIF! The Sneaky Snatching, Stealing, Sacking Steve! So many shiny things! Why waste time trying to scare people into giving you their stuff when you could have other people waste their time for you? Steif zipped and zooped, trying to clean the place out in the confusion, as more sneaky sneaks seemed to appear and start picking up discarded weapons- like that one guy's pistol! What litterbugs!

To someone unaware of what was going on, all of these things would look like they were just floating around spoopily... Steif was the only one visible and only because he hadn't noticed his mask had partially come undone, making Steif Sounds as he continued throwing stuff into his Steiving Sack.

The mugger boss's finger was curling, ready to pull the trigger, and his mouth was stretching into a wicked grin as he prepared to whack 10-Hander...however, he was interrupted as some sort of...giant sack?... used him as a stepped stone. "-ack! Wait...What." He gazed at Steif, surprise, and no small amount of frustration, rendering his voice and face blank. That blankness faded as he noticed Steif swipe his pistol. "Wha...No! Hey, give that back ya little thief!"

Meanwhile, 10-Hander was handing out a full course buffet of knuckle sandwiches, his power adding in a dazzling lightshow as his Arms grappled, tossed, and punched the various crooks. He was currently drawing in one of the said muggers for a punch across the jaw when they both noticed a discarded knife float up beside them. "...Huh." He traded a confused look and shrug with the mugger, then his eyes curved into a grin. The mugger gave a nervous smile back, only to give a started whoop and pained yelp as he was sent bowling into another mugger that'd been staggering back up. Dusting all of his hands off, he turned to the leader at hearing the crook's demand . Blinking at the sight of Steif, he couldn't help but give a laugh. So it was one, (or some?) of those little mischiefs causing this, huh? "Ha! Gotta love the irony...Hey, troublemaker! Hold on a second there, buddy."

Shiny things for days! Why did people keep these out where anyone with a love of shiny things (and with sticky nubs) could swipe them? But Steif froze with a start and a small exclamation point over his head as 10 hander somehow saw him- how was that possible? He was sneaking! There was a Sneaky Steve Squeak. Oh fuzzbucket, his second little mask was messed up. Steif honked and squeaked with alarm and Sneaky Steves seemed to poof into vision with puffs of Steve Smoke. The jig was up! Which means it was time to make a Stevey Escape, with Steif fixing his mask and once again vanishing... except for the large sack that now looked like it was floating- and it was floating hurriedly toward the currently closed door.

Sneaky Steves rallied to their boss' aid, with one Sneaky Steve being a Shinobi and summong Shadow-clone Sneaky Steves. What's the difference between a Steve and their clone? The clones explode with smoke, a Steve explodes into confetti. They were also all wielding hockey sticks, the original Steve having taken it off of one of the would-be muggers as the mini-swarm of Steves charged 10-hander with literally no coordination, getting in eachother's way by accident- and generally not doing a good job actually reaching him...

10-Hander gave a little chuckle at the Steif's reaction to being noticed. "That's right, I see yo-...ah." He blinked as the little thief disappeared, leaving it's bag seemingly floating in midair, and some more of it's friends poof into view. As the bag starts floating towards the door, the hero started trotting after it. "Oh no you don't...I just need a few thi-" As one of it's friends pull a Obvious Ninja and summon a swarm of copies,he pauses. Sighing, 10-Hander raises his fists. Don't get him wrong, he loved a good fight, but he couldn't help but feel slightly guilty at fighting these particular ones.

Fortunately, they weren't exactly coordinated, and the hero blinked as the Steves get in eachothers' way. Chuckling at their antics, he skirts around them and attempts to approach the Steif. He spares a glance towards the mugging victims. "Don't worry, folks. I'll try and make sure you've got all your stuff back, but please get outside and to safety, yeah?" A familiar, annoying voice yells out. "Hey! Don't forget about me, hero-boy! You're gonna regret this!" 10-Hander pauses, then grins wickedly beneath his mask as he gets a idea. "Don't know what you're complaining about. You've still got your gold chain and all of that loot hidden on ya." "What're you talking ab-...-out...." The thug's voice trails off as he realizes what 10-Hander was trying, and he pales in fear.

There was now a Sneaky Steve-pile as they failed in their objective, the clones poofing with smoke and leaving the original Sneaky Steve Shinobi now armed with... a NEWSPAPER! No, one of the muggers had not tried to rob the store with a newspaper- that'd be silli. No, in fact the Sneaky Steve Shinobi brought it with him! But that aside, Steif's escape was obstructed! Curse his tiny and stubby legs! Never again will he mock the vertically gifted Stilt Steves for their stupid stilts again! Wait- what was that about a gold chain? The bag seemed to do a fancy little roundabout as Steif spun on his heels. The bag immediately flung itself at the poor mugger, who was to suffer the greed of Sneaky Steif The Snatching Stealer Steve! Did he actually have a gold chain? Who knows!

The Sneaky Steve Shinobi used this momentary distraction to sneak around, attempting to smack 10-hander in the head with a newspaper.

The thug gave a frightened yelp as the seemingly floating bag pounced on him. "Oh...nonoNO DON'T YOU DA-AGHCK!" To the thug's misfortune, he did have a gold chain! A couple of them, in fact. Whether or not he had additional loot was up to fate and luck, for though the brawling adventurer had had sharp enough eyes to spot the chains he didn't exactly have x-ray vision. Grinning beneath his mask, 10-Hander gave a raucous laugh and called over to him. "Aahahaha!! Don't dish out what you can't stomach, pal!" Now then....Maybe he'd be able to retrieve those citizen's stuff while both of them were distracted...

Then there was a sudden THAWK! 10-Hander's head rocked forward slightly, and he gave a surprised yelp. Rubbing the back of his head, he turned his head to Sneaky Steve Shinobi. "....Ow???? Why you little..C'mere, shortstack!" The hero's Arms flared outward, then he attempted to scoop the little mischeif maker up.

Victory screech! Steif claimed his prizes and took anything not physically glued to the would-be criminal mastermind before scampering away. Steif Sounds. It was time to make a speedy getaway! He had overstayed his welcome and wanted to get away with all of his shiny things and so tried to rally the stunned dogpile of Sneaky Steves into... being useful.

Meanwhile, The Sneaky Steve Shinobi would be Snatched. He resorted to Steve Smacking 10-hander with his newspaper while the Sneaky Steves... started snatching people. Yes. They just ran up to a person, innocent or robber, and picked them up. There was still however one problem. The door was still closed. Why didn't someone think to open that door? Fortunately Steif had a solution! He plopped his sack down and reached into it, still invisible himself as he pulled out... a rock! Which he then threw at the glass door to shatter... some of it. FUZZBUCKET! Oh well, he made a run for it anyway! FULL STEVE AHEAD! The Sneaky Steves were confused though and didn't want to drag people through broken glass...

10-Hander grinned beneath his mask as he snagged the Shinobi. "Gotcha!" As noticed the Steif start to sneak away, the hero barked out. "Oh no you don't! Hold it ya little bandit!" He took a step towards the Steif, only to blink as the Shinobi starts smacking him with the newspaper. "Owowow..Would you quit it already, little buddy?"  He gave the little masked mischeif-maker a scolding look, only to notice a rock floating out of the pack and aiming itself at the door. "Oh, don't you dare..." TTTSH!! As the sound of breaking glass fills the room, the beleaguered hero gives a sigh. "Aww man, c'mon...O.K., That's it. C'mere you trouble maker."

He starts stomping towards the Steif, only to pause as said Steve's friends start picking up people. Don't say they were gonna... He couldn't just charge over. If they panicked and started trying to excape with their hostages, someone could get hurt. He raised his hands reassuringly. "Oh no...Easy now. You'll hurt them if you try pulling what your buddy's pulling!  I don't want that, and I'm sure you don't want that either. Besides, you try taking and hurting people, and I will have to start swinging, alright little buddies? And, since I don't particularly want to fight you lot, maybe we can chill out and let those people go? I can even let your pal here go if you put them back down." He raised the hands holding onto Shinobi Sneaky Steve, gesturing at said Steve.