The Story!

Oh Fuzz, I think you're gonna be surprised.

Interesting...

On the beach, with nothing left in the sky but the bright moon and twinkling stars

Logan couldn't possibly be more thrilled. He had goosebumps all over his skin, which he recognized as something having to do with his heart rate changing or something. That may or may not have been an accurate fact, but it was a fact he had confidence in nonetheless. The more important fact he had learned was that magic was real on the Earth Eruption #5 had shuffled into his world! It had been years since he'd believed in the stuff, and in his experience he'd been right up to that point. The closest thing to such an incredible force that the young man had ever encounter was the Power Rangers and their stuff, but that was all technology once you got down to it. Zordon was clearly one of the most sophisticated beings out there, but so was Pearl!

Yes, Logan found himself instantly respecting the ol' beanpole. Sure, she looked practically anorexic, and maybe she caked on the white body makeup a little, but her professionalism and matter-of-fact sentences made Logan feel like she was definitely someone he could diplomat the fuck out of! He glanced around, checking out the direction that 'Garnet' had revealed herself to be headed in. Even though she was both speedy and graceful, he was able to make out her form over by the doughnut shop. It looked like she was literally picking up a great big ring of doughy yummers, but instead of taking a bite out of it she leaped into the air, placing it down atop the rooftop of the small standalone store. Pivoting in place over to Pearl, who appeared to be pointing around the beach and quietly speaking to 'Amethyst', the little purple one. Realizing what was going on, Logan's face lit up! They were going to clean up the mess from the destroyed 'Red Eye', as they'd called it! He couldn't help but feel surprised by this, as he'd never had the responsibility of cleaning up from the (mostly minor so far) damage incurred during his battles.

Convinced that such behavior was meritorious, Logan realized that he could probably also score brownie points with this new slew of potential allies by pitching into the effort! The biggest issue he could see with aiding them at the moment was that most of the chunks that he'd seen fallen from the sky were more than man-sized portions. Since he wasn't superpowered like the Power Rangers or these Gems apparently were, he knew he was going to have to head back to the train station. He had no clue where along the process of being unloaded and stored wherever its new temporary home would be, but he did know that he had to get over there. On the other hand, he also didn't want to risk getting left out of the loop and having contact with this group broken. Placing his hand on his chin briefly while he thought, the Ambassador came up with a solution that he thought would be very likely to work out with reasonable results.

“Sonya, quit taking pictures of the cannon on your phone and c'mere.” said the guy who'd stolen her talent from the train company.

“I'm not taking pictures of the cannon, fool. I'm looking into it with my phone so my head doesn't get blown off if it fires while I'm staring down the barrel.” She acted like this was an obvious fact.

“How are you at talking to people you don't know?” Logan asked, as he approached her instead.

Narrowing her eyes, Sonya shrugged sarcastically. “Good enough to run up on an unknown VIP and insert myself into his career with nothing but charm and a promise to use tools on a robot.”

Logan nodded in agreement. “Fair enough.” He placed his hand on the short woman's shoulder and spoke, “I will need a favor from you. Can you talk to Pearl a little, maybe find out a little more about what's going on with these people? I'd like to make a positive impression by working on those rocks with them, but that'll take mech power.”

Standing up straight with her hands at her hips, the professional engineer perked up entirely. “Aye-aye, commander! I will put aside questions as to why you think a cleaning job is more mecha-appropriate than an invading eyeball, and follow your orders with impunity!” Stiff as a board, she saluted like she may as well have been a bargain bin Captain America.

“At ease, kid. I'll see you soon enough.” He winked.

“I'm not a kid,” was uttered towards Logan as he walked away. It wasn't like a petulant yell, more like a confidently stated confirmation. Still, he couldn't help but laugh a little, as he often found himself doing in her company. It was nice.

Inside the Wonderchild's all-white cockpit, running down the short beach a short time later

“Ahahahahaha.” Logan was cracking up so hard there were tears in his eyes. Every once in a while, he had to take his hands off the controls and do something to disperse the hilarity physically, because he couldn't control himself.

“Are you okay, sir?” asked Adam the OS.

“I'm better than great, Adam! I'm a manic pixie dream guy!” Logan giggled to himself, and literally made the W-E do a short jump for joy, sending small amounts of sand flying everywhere before he continued.

“Such a thing is outside the bounds of my programming, sir. Unless you're speaking in strange metaphor, in which case please clarify.”

“Aww, you're usually so on the ball and reactive. Adam, a manic pixie dream person is a human who arrives in the life of another, usually someone who is suffering from boredom and depression. They mix things up with all kinds of fun adventures and experiences, and eventually the person understands the flaws of their old life. They usually fall in love, and then the movie ends before you get to see the person get bored again. But hopefully that doesn't happen.” Logan felt like he covered it fairly well.

“Is this in reference to your encounter with King Sphinx? That encounter was very brief.”

“No, this is with Sonya. I met her on the train, and now we get to work together! It's a whole new life for her, and good times ahead for me!” Logan had a very satisfied smile on his face. “Thing is, most of the time in movies it's a manic pixie dream girl because it's supposed to be like, a dream fantasy situation for bored moviegoing guys. But now it's real! And I'm the one doing it!”

“I see, sir. Should I remember that Sonya is depressed and bored, and that you have fallen in love?” asked Adam.

Logan stopped his machine dead in its tracks. He would have had to do that either way, but at that moment it was extra dramatic. “I... well, I hadn't thought about that possibility. She mostly seems pretty cheerful and funny. As for the falling in love thing, no, don't notate that. That's just part of the manic pixie trope thingy. I haven't really worked out where our relationship is going. At the moment, we're friends.”

“Acknowledged, unsure sir.” Adam said this before clamming up.

Putting that awkward moment aside, Logan decided to get to work. The beach was a mess, truly littered with large stones. Without even thinking to confirm with the team of heroes who'd saved the town, he started working his handles like a true veteran. In a process not too much unlike beach combing, the United Arms pilot directed the W-E to start picking up boulders of shiny stone that mostly conformed to the reddish-to-orangish part of the visible spectrum. This was very easy for his giant robot, but and he could carry a fair amount of them with its left arm cradling them to its chest, but that wasn't sustainable – a matter of space and not wanting any to fall, not necessarily weight. He had to figure out what they were doing with the pieces. Fortunately, as he picked, he encountered the purple-colored shorty from before. She was emerging from the sea, carrying a large blackish violet net with a bunch of boulders in it. The sheer weight of it must have been tremendous, but she had it slung over her back like she was carrying a bag of rice. Assuming the shards of crystal she had were of similar density to what the big silver and dark gray machine was carrying, it was a fairly decent feat of strength!

Activating his giant robot's speaker, Logan hailed the lady with the lavender locks. “Amethyst!” he said, waving with the W-E's segmented right arm. “That was a weird thing to say,” he thought privately, before deciding to clarify what his expectation was once the distracted person looked at him with surprise in her eyes. “Yeah, hi! It's me from before, Ambassador Logan! I'm here with my robot to help!”

“Ambassador?” she asked, trying to figure out what was up. It dawned on her and she put down the net. “Oh, you're that one that was bothering Pearl before! Nice digs!” Clearly, the tiny one was impressed, as she was actually looking up and down at the Action Frame instead of looking elsewhere or spacing out like she had been for as long as Logan had been aware of her.

“Thanks! You look like you're doing some work with that net! Where we takin' these, anyway?” Logan asked, gesturing with the Wonderchild's right hand to the stones he was carrying.

“Oh, just over to the temple. I've got tons of space in my room, but I'm just gonna float em around in Pearl's and drive her up the wall.” She grinned like a cat ready to eat a canary.

“That certainly sounds like one way to do it. Right, the, uh, temple.” The mech had no head to nod, so he just stood there.

“Yeah, the temple. You should come with. Or don't, those look like some choice ammo to throw at somebody dumb.” Amethyst picked back up her heavy net of stones, and headed further down the beach than the boardwalk went, around the corner past a fairly large hill.

In this out-of-the-way patch of shoreline, Logan was greeted with a sight far more lovely than he'd expected. On the side of the hill unexposed to the rest of Beach City, there was an absolutely titanic statue! Carved out of what appeared to be local rock, and indeed the hill itself, it resembled a giant woman with hair of curls and something like a toga on!! Tall and frankly quite beautiful, he realized that it had far more limbs than any human. Yes, despite the fact that several of them seemed to be broken off, and there was moss coating large portions of her, the statue cut a very impressive figure. Logan wondered if maybe it was a Hindu thing, since he'd seen some imagery of relevant gods with multiple extra limbs. Ultimately, he was totally distracted until his eyes reached the bottom of the statue. It was then that he realized that there was a small, mostly modern-style beach house around her stomach (the lowest part of the statue visible). It was led to by a natural-seeming ramp of stone and sand, and there Logan found a small problem. Amethyst was heading up the ramp, clearly planning to enter the house itself. However, the W-E was too large to follow her! The ramp might be something he could position on, but he didn't want to test the deck to see if it could handle his giant metal bro. Beyond that, entering the actual door would be totally out.

“Uh, Amethyst?” Logan called up to her. “Yeah, I'm not sure about this guy getting in there. Suggestions?”

Calling back, Ms. Smol answered, “Yeah, I'll take those.” As she summoned up a second spiky net with her free hand and threw it around the stones held between the W-E's arm and chest, the gem known as Pearl walked through the front door.

“Amethyst, just bring- What?!” The lanky girl's jaw just about dropped, her mouth quickly becoming as round as the large round object of her namesake that was attached to her forehead. “Amethyst, what did you bring home this time?!” She looked fit to be tied!

“I didn't bring crap! This is that guy from before!” She pointed up at the general area that she'd grabbed the stones from. Based on her reaction, it looked like she was used to being accused of things.

“Oh, no...” Pearl frowned, and tried to find a face on the W-E, only to fail as it lacked one. “Hello, Ambassador. Did Amethyst ask you for help? It's our job, she shouldn't be trying to push it onto humans we don't even know.”

A cheery tone in his voice, Logan quickly answered, “No, I just thought you all could use some help cleaning up after that amazing takedown!” He made the W-E's arms 'flex', to indicate that it had the power.

Biting her lip and playing with the hem of her tutu absentmindedly, Pearl took a moment to answer. “While I can appreciate a human who respects the value of cleaning, I don't think we'll be needing any more 'help'. Thanks, but that will be all.” She waved goodbye, saying, “And by that, I mean that you should leave. You've done more than enough.”

Choice Time!

>Fair enough.  Logan would rendezvous with Sonya, who no longer seemed to be with Pearl, and go hit the sack.  He hadn't even checked into his motel, and hoped he would still be able to.

>Aw, come on!  He wanted to see the temple!  If it's magic, there must be some awesome stuff in there!  He would ask nicely to be given a tour, but wouldn't push it if refused.

>Logan had to get in there no matter what!  He decided to ask Pearl if there was a challenge he could accept to gain access.

1. 2 votes

2. 2 votes

3. 1 vote

and 4. 1 vote for a suggested choice: stack up some additional boulders for them to take in.

3 way tie lmao

Still inside the W-E

“I suppose that's fair.” He didn't really suppose anything of the sort, since he had been willing to assist them and wanted only to see what was inside. Somewhat obviously, however, Logan didn't always have the chance to do what he wanted. As Pearl headed back inside the house's screen door, the ambassador turned to the tiniest Gem, Amethyst, and manipulated his handles to make the mecha shrug. “Hopefully I'll see you around town?” he asked, feeling like she was certainly a lot more receptive to things than Pearl had turned out to be.

“Prolly.” The diminutive one pulled down her top slightly, and from the slightly naughty smirk she had on Logan thought he was about to get flashed. No, what she was revealing was far more interesting: a precisely cut purple gemstone on her upper chest. “Check for this, though. The rest might look different, depends how I feel.”

“Oh, I see! Right, you're Amethyst. Because you have an amethyst. Like how Pearl has a pearl on her head.” The inherent stupidity of how he sounded escaped him until he was done, but he finally caught on after he finished talking.

“Uh, ya.” The thick-figured magical girl just sort of stared back up, her round eyes blinking in quick succession. She clearly didn't know what else to say to that.

“See ya then.” Cringing inwardly at how that talk ended, Logan whipped his giant metal frame around and started walking. It wasn't as joyous as his robotic dash down the beach from a short time ago, but at least he wasn't 'Charlie Brown walking' down the beach like the youngest son in a real estate family. Flipping off the machine's speakers he exhaled deeply and admitted a truth to his computer. “You know Adam, sometimes I kind of suck at my job.”

“I disagree, sir.”

“Are you programmed to say that?” L-man's left eyebrow shot up.

“Yes sir.”

There was no point to getting frustrated with a pre-programmed response. Logan just shut up while he was ahead, and smoothly whipped out his phone, typing out a quick message on his SMS app: “Where you at?” How eloquent a question! Excellent texting like that is certainly representative of the kind of social skills one would expect from a well-paid diplomat.

“The Big Donut” was the answer he received, and he wondered what exactly she meant. Last time he saw that giant, sign-sized fake doughnut, it had been placed atop the roof by the spectacular tower of muscle, hips and square-shaped afro hair known as Garnet. Well, she wasn't really as tall as a tower, but she sure was tall! As each mechanical step brought him closer to the end of the short distance around the hill, he considered how awesome it was that Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Steven all had such different builds and personalities.

“How do you think the Gems met, Adam?”

“Arbitrary speculation is not within my programming.”

“Do you think they wear the oversized jewelry stones and body paint every day, or just when they fight?”

“Arbitrary speculation is not within my programming.”

“Do you think they'll be friends or threats?” As he asked, Logan's voice got a little quieter and less frivolous.

“Any entity of sufficient power could prove a threat to United Arms and their goals domestically and abroad.”

At least he said something different. Actually thinking about how precarious the situation he and his faction found themselves in was hardly pleasant, but Logan knew it was something that had to be taken into account consistently.

“My job's too important to suck at.”

The Big Donut, a short time later

So that's what it was. Once he'd laid down his robot on its back on the two-way road nearby (in the process doing little but sending small amounts of dirt flying), Logan had climbed out and started to check what was going on. Obviously Sonya wasn't outside in the small parking lot or anything, so he took a quick gander through glass and window-advertisements to notice that the interior was glowing. Since the lights of the local businesses hadn't been on during the incident earlier, the tendrils of suspicion began to creep into his mind.

“Oh...” Logan smacked his forehead as a different thought came into his mind: comprehension. According to the largish letters on the front of the brick structure's blue and pink awning, the business itself was called “Big Donut”.

Pressing the glass door inward, the husky dude tried collecting his thoughts as to what exactly to say. He stepped in having no clue, and spotting Sonya rifling through a fridge unit, her hands a figurative blur as she turned cans and bottles around inexplicably. Her eyes shot over to Logan fairly quickly though, and she shouted “Ah! Hey!” Her beverage investigation was too important to be distracted from in earnest.

The problem was that the two were alone at the time. “Sonya, I''ll just cut to the chase. Did you break in here and turn on the lights?”

“Yes,” said the engineer flatly without even turning towards her friend.

Logan smashed both of his palms into his face and smooshed them around, making a sick-sounding groan that resembled someone who's had too much to drink and is about to vacate the contents of their stomach. “No, no, no. Sonya, come on! You don't have to break into unknown businesses and steal drinks just because you were bored working with trains and because of the pixie thing.” The sides of Logan's mouth were low as hell even as he spoke: frown-speaking.

“The pixie thing?”

“Yeah, the manic pixie dream guy thing. Wait, I talked about that with Adam. Nevermind, it's not important.” Logan's face visibly raised in temperature, the blood in his cheeks flowing freely as he realized what he'd said.

Having not even stopped her drink raid, Sonya quipped back, “Sounds like you have some interesting ideas! Maybe you should share some with me.”

“Yeah, not so much.” Logan struggled to come up with the correct words to use, having discarded a few ideas right away. “I would rather focus on the, uh... Breaking and entering problem.”

“Not a big deal. I'm just gonna get drinks for us. What did you say you like?”

“Vanilla cola. I doubt they-”

“They do. Don't worry about it, we won't get in trouble.” The spirited woman handed over a white can labeled 'Vanille', and even though it felt tantalizingly chilly, Logan didn't really enjoy the idea of taking it.

“Please put this back! There's got to be a security camera in here watching us.” A figurative black hole of worry started filling up his stomach, and the horrible thought of putting it back himself, ditching and publicly denouncing his friend to remain in favor started to seem more appealing by the moment.

As he fidgeted and stirred, a door that lead to some sort of back room opened, and out came some sound waves in the form of words. “Okay, I found-” The source of the pleasant and feminine sounding voice was indeed a female human, as Logan realized when she entered the main store floor. “Oh, sorry sir, we are actually closed.” It was a tiny young woman, even shorter than the already mini Sonya by at least several inches. She was thick-set of frame, fair of skin and golden of hair, and just based on her unassuming smile it seemed like she was someone who could be dealt with. That was the pilot's assessment, anyway

Sucking up all negative emotions and smiling as sincerely as he could, Logan initiated diplomode. “I am so sorry about her,” he said as he gestured towards Sonya with an open palm. “I don't know how she got in here, but I know we can make this right. Ambassador Logan, United Arms-” The dude extended his hand for a handshake, and was obliged but also stopped mid-sentence.

“It's okay, really! I let Sonya in when I was checking to see if the shop got hit.” Based on her lack of nervousness or overall insincere behavior, it seemed the blonde girl was telling the truth. The fact that she was wearing what looked like an employee shirt (featuring a cute picture of a half-eaten doughnut on the front) confirmed that the ambassador wasn't being taken for a ride, and he finally realized he could breathe easy.

Loosening up his shoulders, which he realized had been stiff as a board from mounting anxiety, Logan narrowed his eyes and frowned at Sonya. “Well, then why did you say you broke in?!”

For her part, the cute engineer was doubled over with such laughter blasting out of her mouth that the entire room was full of it. “You thought I was a crook! Ahahaha(etc...)”

“I wonder what gave me that idea.” The young dude was glad his hair had already changed color, otherwise he might have gotten his first gray hair that day. Instead, he just rolled his green eyes as far upwards and around as he could. Seeing that Sonya had grabbed a ginger ale bottle, he asked “Please pay for that.”

“I already have us covered,” she answered, having stopped giggling like a jester.

“Okay. Let's get out of this nice person's hair.” Approaching the mischievous one, Logan tried to remain as professional as possible and linked his arm around Sonya's. It wasn't a pulling gesture, but she understood what was being expressed and went along with him. Together, they made a beeline to the door.

“Bye Sadie! You're a peach!” was the last thing she shouted as they exited the door.

“Thanks! Come again when we're open for real!” said the pleasant ladie(spelling intentional) as they were returned to the rich night air.

Her face lighting up when she saw the W-E, Sonya made eye contact with Logan and declared, “Let's ride, 'Mr. Manic Pixie.'”

Choice Time!

>Fair enough.  The pair got in the damn Wonderchild, grabbed the frigging stuff he left over at the visitor's center, and headed to the room he booked to compare notes.

>Logan had about enough of Sonya's sense of humor at that moment.  He would take her to the hotel, but insist on going to sleep.  They can get caught up the next day or whatever.

>Actually, she could screw off.  Beach City wasn't big, she may as well walk to where they were meant to stay.  He, on the other hand, would use his mecha to cover the same ground.

I is for 1, and also for Intel, and I am for I.