Darkness enveloped the Island of Sodor, but the Wharf was alive with spotlights. Diesel shunters, with "Ministry of Defence" plastered on their sides, shuffled back and forth along the lines, shunting various trucks filled with a wide variety of supplies towards the gigantic ship parked on the end of the Wharf. Colin the Wharfside Crane had never seen anything like it.
"This is real sketchy! I think I'm bugging, man!" He declared to the little beetle-like narrow gauge engine that had pulled alongside him. The little engine chuckled.
"Are you Colin?" He asked. The crane raised an eyebrow above one of his constantly half-closed eyes.
"That's me, little dude. How does a bigshot military guy know about a lonely crane like me?" The little engine grinned.
"I've worked with the engines on your railway before. You might know me as 'Beetle'?" Colin gasped.
"I've heard of you! The engines love talking about you! It's been ages, man!" He grinned. Beetle shared a brief smile with Colin, but his face snapped into stoic focus when a humungous shadow moved into the wharf.
"Calm yourself, civilian-"
"It's Colin, dude."
"Colin, apologies. But we need complete focus from all involved, so be quiet."
"C'mon man, why can't we just ch-Oh." Colin stood slack-jawed at the gigantic shadow gliding into the wharf. Beetle stood with a stoic expression on his face as the scale of the large load, hauled by two shunters at the front, two at the back, taking up two lines. Colin somehow managed to find words through his astonishment.
"W-what is that thing!?" He stammered, bewildered and terrified. Beetle looked up at him.
"Gün Dora." The large load was the biggest cannon Colin had ever seen, mounted on a variety of structures that looked like it could hold at least twenty men. The structures were mounted on a total of twenty-eight wheels, more than Colin had ever seen. Its grey livery seemed to absorb the white light from the lamps illuminating the wharf rather than reflecting it. It made Colin feel rather small.
"Gnarly." He muttered. Beetle looked stoically on.
"She was used by the Nazis in the war. We confiscated her after D-Day, after she had been used to fire over 30,000 tons of artillery and destroy almost as much in Allied weaponry and technology." Colin raised an eyebrow.
"How fast can that thing fire? It's gigantic!" Beetle grimaced.
"She was fired forty-seven times total during the War." Colin gaped.
"And did that much? Epic." He muttered under his breath. Beetle raised an eyebrow.
"It most certainly is not 'epic'! We are transporting one of the most dangerous weapons in the history of the world, and we require complete focus! If Gün Dora ends up in the wrong hands, it could have devastating global consequences!" Colin winced.
"Gotcha, little dude. We're on the same page, don't worry." Beetle was too busy to listen to Colin anymore. He began barking orders to the shunters across the yards.
"Be careful, you lot! She's a ticking time bomb!"
"SIR, YES, SIR!" The shunters called back in unison, and began pushing the gigantic rail cannon onto the ship parked at the end of the wharf. As the military worked, and Colin watched in amazement, no one noticed four shapes slink into the yard. Three of them were black diesels, with stubble on their faces and crazed looks in their eyes, and the fourth, smaller, was covered with a dirty, torn tarpaulin that seemed to cover their shape and scarred face like a hood. One of the diesels sniggered and looked to the hooded engine.
"Just what you says, boss? We'll make them lights go out real nice." The other two diesels cackled gleefully with him, but the hooded engine remained stoic. The first diesel rammed into some oil tankers, derailing them, before braking right nearby them, sparking his brakes and starting a fire. The two other diesels started off, and shunted a truck in front of them towards a power line. The truck realized what was happening and gasped.
"No! Please don't! I'm too young to-GAH!" The two diesels rammed the truck into the power line, severely electrocuting it as well as shutting down all power to the Wharf. The truck's eyes remained open as its singed frames fell on their side. The wharf was covered in darkness almost instantly. At first, confusion solely filled the air, but then…
"FIRE, DUDES!" Colin cried, spotting the burning trail across the yards. The military immediately sprung into action.
"That fire is absolutely priority! We have to stop it from spreading!" A man in a military uniform called. Beetle rolled alongside, before honking.
"You always know how to handle a crisis, Captain Bridges." Captain Bridges frowned.
"Save the compliments for when the fire's out, Beetle." The "bug" grunted, and Bridges hopped on, driving him to the fire to help. Unfortunately, the fire had left Gün Dora unattended, and the sinister four from before slunk towards the front of the harbour, using the darkness as their cover, and coupled up to the rail cannon. Suddenly, she jerked awake.
"Wo bringst du mich hin? Halt! Ich muss auf dieses Schiff kommen! Ich bin gefährlich! Ich-"
"Shut it, fraulein!" One of the sinister diesels cackled, and with a roar from their engines (and mysterious silence from the hooded one), they left the Wharf, dragging their quarry with them. Colin saw them leaving and cried out.
"The mega weapon's moving on it's own! THE WORLD IS ENDING, DUDE!" He shut his eyes tightly. The military panicked as they saw the cannon leaving the Wharf, pushed by two cackling diesels, and pulled by another as well as a hooded shape. Captain Bridges bellowed.
"KEEP FIGHTING THE FIRE! SPEED TEAMS, AFTER THEM!" Several shunters sped away from fighting the fire to try and catch the thieves, but they lost them in the darkness. The cannon disappeared into the night, leaving the military to fight the fire.
Later, the lights had come back on, and Belle and Flynn were putting the last of the fire out. Colin noticed a distraught Beetle rolling towards him, and tried to be positive.
"Hey, little fella. You dudes did a pretty solid job with that fire." Beetle grimaced stoically.
"It will only be the first of many, Colin. With Gün Dora in the hands of who-knows-who, the world will continue to burn." Colin gulped and stared out into the horizon, no sign of them.
The fearsome foursome was traveling with their load along an abandoned seaside line. Gün Dora was babbling in German, terrified.
"Lass mich gehen! Lass mich gehen! Lass mich-"
"Shut it!" One of the diesels barked at her. They eventually left her on a siding, and the three diesels scuttled around towards the fourth shape.
"We dids what you says. As fun as that was, we need our payment, mate." They received no answer. The lead diesel growled.
"Ye being cheap? We don't like cheap customers, do we, boys?" The three diesels began advancing on the fourth shape, who remained still and silent. That is, until he sped forwards, ramming all three diesels off the side of the cliff and into the sea, the three screaming until they hit the water. They were sickeningly silent as they fell to the ocean floor. The mysterious hooded engine watched them fall, with no expression, before looking out onto the sea ahead. He finally changed expression; a smirk. He then began to laugh. It got louder and higher, until it turned into a full-blown cackle, which echoed over the sea until it could no longer be heard. Sodor was no longer safe. Not with him around. He would make sure of it.
THOMAS & THE BUFFMAN BOMBER
Surprised to see this so soon? Well, Thomas & The Buffman Bomber will be following a different way of being uploaded than Rampage of the Rail Bandits did. Essentially, every time I finish writing a chapter, the one before it will be uploaded. Like Rampage of the Rail Bandits before it, it will tell an entirely original story with both new and returning characters. Speaking of which, the ones we meet in this chapter:
Beetle's return - After not popping up throughout all of Set 2, my main man Beetle, from Set 1's Bugged, finally makes his return. Beetle will serve an important role in this story, and in future he'll pop up whenever a story calls for him. Beetle will not appearing every set like the rest of characters, but rather, he'll pop up when a story warrants him.
Colin's return - Sure to be more controversial than Beetle's return is Colin's, complete with a new personality. I am not ashamed to admit that is entire personality is based on how baked his model series face looks, and his stoner lingo comes from the same cloth. But don't worry, under all the new is still the same lonely and friendly crane we all knew for one episode! Colin serves an important role in a subplot that will pop up in a few chapters, so wait and see that if you like the new Colin!
Gün Dora the Rail Cannon - Gün Dora is not the villain of the piece. Yes, she does speak English, but German is her natural tongue so she speaks in it when frightened. Dora is a very fascinating character to write simply because of how terrifyingly tragic she is. However, you'll get to see more of her as the story goes on, so keep posted on her.
The Buffman Bomber - My goal with the Buffman Bomber was to take the darkness of last year's antagonist "Slim" Jim Langley and multiply it tenfold. The Buffman Bomber is guaranteed to be the darkest antagonist Thomas had yet, and we haven't even seen him do the most terrifying stuff he does yet! Obviously, there's a lot about him we don't know, but I'm going to keep that hidden until you all find it out.
Next chapter, we'll get to see the story truly begin by meeting a few more newbies, another returnee, and our two main characters, in addition to hearing the special's first of five songs. Come back soon for Chapter 2, The World is Our Railway!