This story is dedicated to tate310, who asked me to write this story.
An awful noise reverberated throughout Tidmouth Sheds, coming from Gordon's berth.
The other engines were all awake, and most of them were very mad. "Why does Gordon have to snore like that?" James fussed. "Doesn't he know we're all trying to sleep here?"
Edward sighed. "He's too fast asleep to hear himself snoring, James." Following the old engine's words was a large yawn.
"Well, I'm going to put a stop to that!" James whistled loudly at the big, blue engine, rudely waking him up.
"Hey, who did that?" Gordon grumbled. "We're trying to sleep here."
"YOU'RE sleeping," James huffed. "We're not, because we can't. You snore so loudly and roughly; it gets on our nerves! None of us have been able to sleep!"
Gordon grunted. "Pah!"
"Never mind, James," Edward said. "Let's all just try to go to sleep."
The engines silently agreed and closed their eyes. Gordon clearly had been exhausted, for he was the one to drift off first. As the minutes passed, the other engines were nearly asleep, until…
A series of rough, grating noises jolted the engines. All their eyes flew open. "Oh, no!" groaned Henry.
"Not again!" scowled Percy.
None of the engines had gotten any sleep that night. All throughout the next day, they were fighting to stay awake through work. They were mad and jealous about Gordon as he shot past with the Express. The proud, blue engine was the only one who had gotten good sleep.
At the docks, James and Henry were complaining to each other about Gordon's snoring. Diesel was also at the docks, overhearing what the steam engines were saying. Sensing trouble, he was darkly delighted. A sinister grin crossed his face. "My friend will like hearing about this," he chuckled, sliding swiftly away backwards out of the docks. The devious diesel never seemed to have anything better to do with his time.
Arriving at the Dieselworks minutes later, Diesel discovered Diesel 10 up on the ledge, out of his shed. "Hey, Diesel 10. Got some entertaining news about the steamies," he oiled. "None of them got any sleep at all last night. I overheard two of them down at the docks. They say Gordon was keeping them all up all night with his snoring. I was wondering if maybe you would like to….join me…."
"Hmmm." The menacing clawed warship edged onto the turntable and was soon elevated down in front of Diesel. "Count me in."
The two devious friends slid out of the Dieselworks together. "I was thinking that…." The black shunter whispered the rest of the statement to the warship.
"I'm way ahead of you," the clawed menace murmured in a deeper, lower voice.
Both diesels snickered and laughed maniacally all the way to the docks. As they began to approach the docks, they quieted down and separated. Diesel crept into the docks to see that James and Henry were still at the docks. They had fallen asleep, and Cranky the crane was sighing and rolling his eyes from up above while doing his work.
Diesel 10 in the meantime was speaking to some little boys doodling with papers and crayons and tape a few thousand yards away from the docks. "Hey, kids, do me a favor, will ya?" He lowered his tone to the boys and specified exactly what he wanted to them.
Moments later, Diesel 10 crept into the docks, carrying white items in his claw. Seeing James and Henry asleep made him smile wickedly. Diesel grinned as the warship crept around and behind each of the engines, sticking something on their back ends. The black shunter had to do everything in his power to keep from laughing.
When Diesel 10 was finished, Diesel came by to take a look at the engines' back ends. He and the warship nearly died laughing. But they had to make sure they were quiet if their plan was going to work.
Diesel coupled up to James from behind, and Diesel 10 took Henry. Carefully and cautiously, the two devious diesels shunted James and Henry to the eerie smelters. They knew the Grim Messengers of Doom were in, but they could not be seen. That made it even better.
Snickering and cackling, Diesel and Diesel 10 left James and Henry in the smelters and reversed away quickly, cracking up majorly over their devious deed.
Seconds after they left, James and Henry woke up and were horrified to discover their new location. "What are we doing here!?" they exclaimed in unison.
Arry and Bert appeared from the red haze of the furnace and sneaked over to them with sly, sinister smirks on their faces, immediately noticing the pieces of paper taped to the engines' back ends.
Arry cackled. "What's all this?" They both smirked, reading the words that had been written on the paper with what appeared to be a red crayon.
Bert chuckled as he read the piece of paper taped to Henry. "'Push me….HARD'?" He burst into laughter. "All right!" Backing up a bit, the ironworks diesel gave Henry a hard, rude push.
Arry howled as he read what was said on James. "'Scrap me!'?!"
Both twins died with uncontrollable laughter.
James and Henry were scowling. Had something been taped to their back ends?
Arry grinned deviously at the engines. "Well, we'd be more than happy to arrange that," he oozed diabolically. "Bert! Shunt that big green piggy into the furnace!" He prepared to buffer up to James to take him to the same destination.
But James and Henry would have none of that! "NOOO!" they screamed in horror. They sped out of the smelters as fast as their wheels could go, immediately going back to work so that they wouldn't get into trouble with Sir Topham Hatt. They did not have any more accidental moments of falling asleep. Their narrow escape from death had scared the exhaustion right out of them. They also made sure the offensive papers were removed by their drivers before anyone else saw them.
But that was not the only trick the diesels pulled on the engines. After accidentally falling asleep out on the main line, Thomas woke up to the sound of Spencer laughing at him. Diesel 10 had used his claw to scribble messily all over Thomas's face with a black crayon while he was asleep, along with writing the word puffball over his forehead.
Thomas frowned. "This must be Diesel 10's doing!" he exclaimed. Who called him "puffball" the most? He started off quickly to the wash to get all the crayon markings off his face.
That night at Tidmouth Sheds, Henry, James, and Thomas were voicing to each other and everyone else about what had happened to them.
"I know it was Diesel 10 who drew all over my face!" Thomas said confidently.
"In that case, it may have been Diesel 10 who did what he did to us!" James said.
"At first, we thought it was Diesel," Henry said. "But I guess it must have been Diesel 10. Usually, we see Diesel doing things like that."
The engines continued the conversation for a while until they felt quite tuckered out from yacking and being upset. They all fell asleep and were finally peaceful for once, until…..
An awful noise reverberated throughout Tidmouth Sheds, coming from Gordon's berth.
The other engines' eyes shot open. "Oh, no….." Thomas sighed, glancing at the snoring figure of Gordon on the opposite end of Tidmouth Sheds. "Here we go again!"
THE END