I had sent the fifth chapter of Alteration to my father for beta-reading. That awesome man sent this back to me, and I'm posting it on his behalf. (I love my daddy!) Starlight Express and its character © Really Useful Group
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"Where am I?"
Espresso's eyes were closed – all was dark.
He now sensed that his wheels were spinning at extremely high speed.
"Where am I?"
"What am I doing?"
He forced his eyes open but there was nothing to see.
He shook his head hard and his vision, first blurry, began to sharpen.
Green trees with brown trunks were racing past him to the right.
The steel trusses of a bridge were slicing past above him.
In front of him were the rails.
He was on the race track – right where it crossed the old steel bridge over the creek.
Yes! This was the race! Now he knew where he was.
And pulling ahead of him on his left was the familiar, though unwelcome, image of Electra.
At that moment Electra looked back at him with a smirk.
Electra had shocked him!
Anger flashed over Espresso's consciousness – "This was wrong!" he thought.
"How dare that engine do this to me!"
He had been ahead of Electra just a moment ago.
Now Electra's partner was even pulling past him as she flowed by behind Electra.
She looked over at him with a similar, satisfied smirk.
Anger seized Espresso.
In a flash the idea came to him.
Reaching his strong steel hand over to the rail to his left – for just a flash of a second, he placed a fist down on top of the rail.
It was faster than the eye could see, but just long enough for Electra's partner's front right wheel to hit it.
Her wheel bumped violently up over the fist.
And immediately he pulled his fist back up without slowing down.
The violence of the jilt passed through her axle to the other side.
It also brushed upward.
And then her wheels came back down again.
But they were not on the track – the right wheel was inside the rails, the left wheel outside – she was derailed!
Her expression, which he only saw for a split second, was no longer a grin but a look of shock – her mouth was dropping open.
In a moment she released her hold on Electra, uncoupling from him.
Electra looked back in dismay, immediately slowing down. This would disqualify him!
For a brief split second he saw Espresso's face as he raced by – not looking at him but glaring straight ahead – with an almost red-hot burning look of anger and indignation.
Behind him flashed by Espresso's partner.
In the brief split-second glance at his face he could see the message from this partner, which said, "Just try your electric shock on me. Just try it!"
Electra looked back to his partner.
She was crying. She was derailed – helpless!
He had to get help for her.
Seemingly for the first time in his life he thought about someone other than himself.
"Hold on, dear! I'm coming!" he called. "Hold on!"
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Far out in between the stars a great engine flew by pulling its train.
The engine could see on the earth far below that Electra had learned a lesson.
"Ah! So there is hope indeed!" he thought and flew on.