It was a gloomy and windy day on the Island of Sodor, but the engines didn't mind, for the excitement of Halloween kept their boilers and oil tanks warm. This Halloween was like no other Halloween, because this was the day they'd be celebrating the arrival of some rather unique visitors. All the engines knew about the visitors was that they were coming early and that they were considered heroes back at their home, so Sir Topham Hat ordered a new engine to help with all the work that needed to be done. All the newcomers had without a doubt riled up all the engines with curiosity.
Thomas and Percy were no different. They were waiting at the docks to greet the newcomer. "Oh boy! I can see the ship! Do you think he'll be like us, Thomas?!" Percy piped Thomas excitedly. "I don't know! That's the fun part! I bet he'll be the coolest engine!" Thomas exclaimed. All the chatter down below started to make Cranky annoyed. He complained "Can you two hush up for 5 seconds?! If I had ears you two alone would've talked them off by now!" "Sorry, Cranky!" Thomas shouted. "Thomas! There he is!" Percy peeped to his best friend.
When the ship finally docked with its back at the end of the tracks, the door to the back opened slowly like the drawbridge to a castle. The inside of the ship was very dark, but the sunlight allowed everyone to see the engine's massive outline. He looked bigger than Gordon! Dock workers rushed to guide the Hulk of an engine to the tracks on land. He slowly emerged from the cave of a boat. The first thing that Percy and Thomas saw was his face. He had a dirty and grumpy face. The fact that he was scowling and had his right eye shut intimidate the two a bit. The rest of him slithered out of the darkness. He was truly a massive engine. Thomas and Percy had no doubt in their minds that he was at least 10 times Gordon's size, even though in actuality he was the same engine model as Sam, an American engine who visited once or twice before. When he approached them the first thing he did was let out a long grunt and a big weesh of steam.
Thomas introduced himself "Uh... Hello. My-my name's Thomas. What's your name?" The engine let out a long grunt again. He scowled even further. His only eye darted away from them as if it was trying to flee from there. Percy said to the engine "Hey, that's a little rude, don't you think Mr...?" He looked at his nameplate. It was a metal plate with the word "Pancake" sloppily spray painted on it. Percy snickered "Wait, so your name is-" Pancake grunted loudly at him. His eye darted to him. Just then a man in a strange uniform came over to them. "This is Pancake." The main in the uniform explained. "He was rescued from some very mean people. They seem to have removed his eye and his tongue, so he cannot speak. He used to..."
"Oh, that's very mean! What else did they do?" Thomas asked. "Let's not talk about what this poor engine was forced to suffer through. This is the start of his new life with me helping him. Is that right, Pancake? Pancake?" Pancake wasn't listening to him. He had devious smile pared with a look of sinister joy on his face. He snickered and grunted to himself as he imagined himself in his own twisted wonderland. The man in the uniform apologized "I'm sorry. He has those sometimes. I believe it's a sort of PTSD. I'll be looking after him in a way and ensuring that he is doing well in his rehabilitation. If you need help with anything about him just give me a call. Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Wiggins. One of the world's very first engine therapists! Now, let's give Pancake a quick visit to the Steam Works! Lord knows how much repair he needs." As they started up Percy asked "Thomas? What's pee tee es dee?" Thomas replied "I think it's one of those words that's actually has a bunch of words in it. I think it means... hmm... Past Tension Side effect Determination?" Neither of them knew what that exactly meant.
All the engines departed and went on their way. Thomas and Percy were talking to Pancake about all the sights and such, but he thought it more entertaining to ram them a little too roughly from behind. When they made it to the Steam Works Pancake rammed Percy a little too hard and nearly knocked him off the track. Percy yelped in pain, but Pancake laughed anyways. No one else thought it that funny. Victor asked "Thomas? Who's this rude new engine?" Thomas replied "His name is Pancake. He came from bad people. They cut out his eye and tongue and did a lot of other mean stuff to him." Victor looked disgusted, but tried to keep a smile. He snickered awkwardly "Oh, did they now? There's nothing I can do about that, my friend. If it's a check up you want for him, then you've come to the right place, my friend."
Thomas and Percy left Pancake there, but, since Dr. Wiggins had no ride and couldn't stay there, Percy had to take him to his apartment. This left Thomas to do his own thing. Thomas remembered that a statue was found at Godred's castle, and they were doing a placing ceremony. He rushed to the castle where he was just in time to see it get placed on a big stone pedestal. The statue was of a giant bat with the head of a wolf and tail and feet of a cat. The bronze statue stared menacingly at everyone with its emerald eyes and vicious pose. Thomas was amazed at all the detail that was put into it. It looked almost like a real animal.
"Wow!" Thomas said. "That's a cool statue! What's it of?" "We don't know." Steven said with a puzzled look on his face. "Nobody has been able to figure it out. We don't even know when it was made. From what I heard none of the old scrolls mention a statue. Especially one like this. You wanna know what they did find?"
"What did they find, Steven?" Thomas asked excitedly. Steven licked his lips as he began his tale. "They found a tale of an ancient creature that looked quite like this statue. It terrorized all the citizens and even the residents of this very castle. No one could do anything to it because it possesed the powers of the night and used them to basically be the king of all of Sodor. That was until Godred, who was then a mere knight, was able to seal it away somewhere. The last of the story has been lost to time, but they speculate it ended with Godred becoming the king."
After Thomas heard that he felt his breath was carried away with his steam. "Do you really think the story may be true?" Thomas asked him. "I'll leave that for you to decide." The old engine replied. Thomas gazed back at the statue. He thought that one of the eyes was glowing, but he brushed it off as sunlight. Thomas said farewell to Steven and left to see if Percy was available. He really wanted to tell Percy of the story Steven told him.
Shortly after Thomas left, Millie chuffed up to Steven and asked "Do you really think that story is true?" "No! Of course not! Oh, but I remember when I was his age. I believed all the poppy cock anyone would tell me. Those were the good ole days." Millie stared at the statue. The giant teeth made her feel on edge. It looked like it would eat her if she got close. She carried on with her jobs while trying to avoid eye contact with it.
Meanwhile on the other side of the island two visiting engines were delivering an unusual animal to the Sodor zoo. These two engines were Flower, a 4 6 2 "Royal Blue" model engine who was yellow and had a flower print across her boiler, and Susie, a tank engine who was similar to Percy, but she had a name plate and was purple. Susie acted as Flower's guide since Flower was completely blind. Susie explained to her sightless friend "Alright, Flower. You're doing a good job. We're taking a left down this next siding, then we'll be almost there." "Oh good," Flower uttered in a quiet voice. "I really don't like these long roads. I get so nervous when I go even a few wheel turns out of my usual route." Susie said calmly "Yeah. Yeah. I know. You say that all the time when we do these jobs. You and I both know that with me by your side you'll never get lost. Oh! We're here!" Flower stopped just in time so that the cart in front of the platform.
A lot of people came to inspect the animal that Flower delivered. They were amazed to say the least that such an odd creature existed. "It has the talons of an eagle!" one said. "It has the posterior of a bovine," said another. All the whispers stopped when the head honcho of the experts came to examine. "Hmm," she pondered. "Let me examine it! I was the one who ordered it here! This is the most extraordinary creature that I have ever seen! I must have a closer look!" After she exclaimed that the creature stirred. It flicked its tail, twitched its legs, then finally removed its arms from its face. The thing stretched and yawned like a cat before putting itself in a sitting position like how a dog would. It stared at the head researched with a look of both curiosity and patience. Everyone who could see it was even more surprised than before because now the could see it had a humanoid face and horns like a ram's. All it did was stare with its green and purple swirled eyes. "Is it..." an expert gulped "an alien?" Murmurs arose from the crowd. The head researcher shouted to the crowd "No! This is no alien! Everyone knows that they don't exist. This is simply-" "A freak of nature?" uttered a voice from behind her. She quickly turned around to face the voice. The creature spoke again "Am I a... fluke? A mistake from the animal kingdom?" She snickered. "Oh, I am so much more than that. I am more than you... mortals... can comprehend." She giggled sinisterly. This made the researcher lose it, but not in an angry way. More so in a way that made her go crazy for a moment. She attempted to gatherher composer as she ordered some workmen to take the cage off the rails. The cage was taken just outside the vet's office where it would stay until the research they had planned was done.