The Story!

Sorry about the delay! Update tonight.

Streets of Newark (Daytime)

Hmm. Logan's head said check the temperature of the city's populace. His stomach said that he could gladly go for some of the local food, if it was even a thing here. He had never heard of Newark Cheesesteaks before, but then again there were a lot of things Logan had never heard of. Anyway, what his mouth said was “Sonya, what do you think we should do?” Sonya said, “I want a cheesesteak,” and Adam's speaker said “Cheesesteak status unconfirmed.” To dig out of the minor rut of things being said, Logan 'did' the task of making his machine walk, shaking his head as he did. Thankfully, the streets were wide enough for him to just stride around, and it only took a couple blocks walking before he found a decently large amount of people milling about a shopping plaza of sorts.

“Hello, citizens of Newark!” blasted Logan's voice over his speakers at a booming volume. He had accidentally managed to put it up to maximum, and the reaction to him abruptly turning the corner and shouting this was not exactly what he'd hoped. While the young man had predicted and expected cheers of wonder and gasps of awe, what he ended up getting out of the people assembled was a large variety of different pitched screams and yells. It wasn't like he was being jeered or insulted – more just pure fear, expressed at the presence of a (to them) brand new giant robot's presence. It wasn't what anyone would call a riot, but people were running in different directions, obviously seeking shelter. Unfortunately, he wasn't even able to pick up exactly what they were saying, as it just ended up as a big cacaphonous wall of sound.

“Please stop, citizens! I need to speak with you!” Logan was cringing hard as hell as he realized what he was doing was kind of doing the opposite of making most of them want to talk to them. He actually felt quite a bit like Godzilla – inspiring a crowd of innocent civilians to just run down the street in sheer terror. Naturally, the girl he was hauling around (rather unsafely, arguably) in the cockpit was laughing her head off at the level of fail displayed, but that was okay. She really did show the Ambassador almost no respect of any kind, so it wasn't anything new. However, it was not a bust entirely – at least a small slew of individuals ended up responding to his contact and remaining in the general area.

“Uh, hi!” He waved with his machine's right hand, assessing who he was addressing. There were some drunk as lords looking middle aged businessmen, who apparently didn't mind any taboos about day drinking. There was a small crowd of young, very giggly looking little girls that were taking pictures of the Wonderchild on their cell phones and pointing. And perhaps best of all, there was a gentle looking old black lady, who seemed quite impressed by the W-E and was actually walking over whilst adjusting some glasses on her head.

“Hi, guy!” One of the middle aged dudes yelled at the mecha, clearly not caring at all. His friends tried to shut him up, but he pushed em away.

“Yes, I am a guy! A guy from the United Arms, a brand new friend to this state and its people! Today I thought it would be good to get a chance to talk to some average citizens, and I think every one of you here qualifies!” The Ambassador put his robot's hands on its hips, trying to look appealing and heroic even though his Action Frame had no head with with to gesture and emote.

“Are you an alien?” One of the little ones shouted out, with a powerful voice belying her age-based shortness.

“Yes! Well, sort of. I have been on this planet Earth for a long time, but I was originally brought over in the year two thousand during the First Eruption. Before that, like you, I lived on a parallel Earth, which is now inaccessible to me. As is your home world. I don't know if you were aware of that yet or not, but-”

“Buddy, she's talkin' about the Glorft! You know da ones – pale green skin, tentacles, red eyes and all that? Runnin' around in giant robots, taking their macho aggression out on us poor bozos?!” This business-looking guy, a blonde who happened to be pretty damn fat, seemed drunker than the rest, and about as belligerent.

Digesting the fact that there was a new alien threat frighteningly calmly, Logan answered, “I see. Well, I am definitely not with them. No, the United Arms consists exclusively of humans, at present.” As the pilot said this, it occurred to him that it might be nice to recruit some space aliens or monsters or anything like that to the UA. Maybe one of the gems might like to come on part time.

“What do you look like inside the robot?” asked a particularly daring little girl. It seemed that the non-violence of this situation was drawing a few extra people out of the robot.

“It's not that important, but I'm Caucasian, about average height I guess, gray hair and a solid build.” He didn't exactly want this to turn into a Logan-focused discussion.

“You sound hot!” Some adult woman had shown up, and she was high fiving some dude she was with after having shouted this out.

Embarassed, Logan diverted, “My hotness or lack thereof is not the subject at hand. I'm here to let you guys know that the United Arms comes in peace, and you have nothing to worry about if you see this unit – the W-E Wonderchild! In fact, when I'm around, you're even safer than with only your local defenders.” Sonya took the idle control for the left arm and gave those present a mecha thumbs up.

“Pfft, that ain't hard! Those guys are nuts! Megas XLR comes around, I'm getting outta dodge!” Logan didn't actually catch who said this, but there was a smattering of agreement as more people came to see what was up now that they knew there wasn't violence being enacted.

“I'm sure I'll meet the Megas eventually.” He didn't know what a Mega was, or who they were plural, but it sounded like what he was looking for. General Keith had said he would like the local mecha, and if the Megas were its pilots, then that was who he was looking for. “For now, just think of me as the friendly face of the United Arms, taking care of business locally!”

“You said that twice! I like the sound of that name, son. United Arms – been too long since arms have been united 'round here!” It was the nice old lady partaking in the impromptu Q&A.

“Hopefully things will be a little moreso now that I'm in town! Now, I am sure you all have many more questions, but I have one for you!” Logan was ready to ask them something or other, but Sonya ended up cutting him off and shouting towards the mic.

“Where's the best cheesesteak around here?”

“Who's in there with you?” shouted one voice, but most of the rest yelled, “Dominic's”!

Briefly muting the mic, Sonya yelled “Yes! I told you Newark cheesesteaks were a thing!”

Dominic's East, Newark (evening)

And so they were! Life was seemingly pretty damn good, as Logan had been able to smell the sizzling meat, cheese and onions even before they'd entered the restaurant. He and Sonya had locked up the Wonderchild very nearby, and were on foot and had just been served at the house of sandwiches and pizza. Visually, it wasn't anything spectacular, resembling any other typical urban pizzeria. There was some seating, a drinks fridge and the area where you ordered, but at least to compensate for the basic layout there were some photographs of prominent Italian Americans from their world on the walls. Logan didn't recognize any of them except Frank Sinatra, whose presence comforted him with thoughts of similarity as opposed to differences. However, it had to be said that the core product being sold – sandwiches – were equal to exactly what he'd expected. It was a nice fresh hoagie roll toasted to perfection and filled with sliced beef, onions, mushrooms and cheese, all gooey and delicious and perfect. That's what you'd call the very model of what Logan had known tangentially as a 'Philly' Cheesesteak.

“Mmm-mmmm!” Logan was foodgasming as he bit into the sandwich, almost too euphoric for words. “This was the best idea, Sonya!”

The equally-happy engineer quickly wiped off her hand with a napkin before high-fiving the Ambassador. “Newark is the best city!”

“Well, I don't know if cheesesteak quality is necessarily the ultimate attribute necessary to be considered-”

“Help!” Slamming the door open, the fat businessman from before seemed to have sobered up a bit. Speaking over the lovely Italian language music that was providing Dominic's with its atmosphere, he elaborated. “It's the Glorft! They're coming at us again! This place got a basement?”

“Uh, no.” The skinny teen standing behind the register answered, quickly unprepared for how drastically things had changed since the moment before.

Logan, on the other hand, put down the rest of the steak that he had been eating and drained his water glass. He hadn't expected to have to fight this soon, but if the Glorft were around...

Choice Time!


>...then he had to get out of dodge.  He needed much more intelligence before going up against a mecha-wielding alien species.

>...then he had to go negotiate with them.  They sounded strange, but worth checking out.  He did like the idea of aliens as part of the Arms.

>...then he had to go blow the shit out of them.  These bastards and their robots were responsible for serious damage and loss of life in this city, and had to be stopped.  Any aliens who would attack civilians needed a taste of peace through superior firepower.

I remember the Glorft being more reasonable than some alien monsters, buuuuut not to the point negotiation has any chance of success and it's been so long since we really just mechd it up against other mechs, let's go kill them.

Newark is the best City!!!!!

Best line ever because how true it is.

Also well seems we are past the negotiation part. So pew pew Mech combat.

We must defend this oais of human development.

I would ask how neither of you have seen it, but... old. Also copyright issues that mean it can never be aired ever again or get a reboot or another season or... (sob).

Guys, I am so sorry. I have been dealing with some fairly bad depression lately, and haven't been in a proper mindset to be writing for this. Fortunately, though, I do have most of the next update ready to post. Thanks for being patient.