Author's Note: this was requested by my new friend, suicuneluvr, who wanted to see how the engines react to the Shed 17 sequel, Project G-1.
I hope you enjoy reading this as I have enjoyed writing it!
Spoilers for Project G-1 ahead! So please proceed with caution! (Unless you've either already seen it or are not worried about spoilers)
Nia and Rebecca were both confused to see a projector being set up in the middle of Tidmouth Sheds one evening. Thomas, Percy, James, Gordon, Toby and Emily were all there already, chatting excitedly amongst themselves.
"What is going on?" A confused Nia asked the other engines.
"We're watching Project G-1," Said James, matter of factly. "We were asked to watch it and give our opinion."
"Yep!" Added Emily. "You want to watch it with us?"
Nia and Rebecca looked at one another.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Nia…" Rebecca said cautiously.
"Nonsense!" Laughed Nia, reversing into an empty berth next to James. "It sounds harmless! I mean, how bad could it possibly be, Rebecca?"
"Alright…. I'll join in too," Rebecca conceded nervously, taking a berth next to Gordon, as his driver fired up the projector. She didn't notice that Emily, Gordon or James were looking morbidly amused. Neither did Nia.
If they had, they might have been better prepared for what they were about to see…
….
Thomas's corpse, burst wide open, was the first thing that Rebecca and Nia noticed on screen; already, that freaked them out. What made it worse for the two new engines was that none of them knew why Thomas's corpse was standing in the middle of a creepy shed, looking like he'd had his boiler stuffed with gelignite and blown up.
"Ah, nothing like a dead corpse to start the night," Smirked Emily. Thomas chuckled darkly.
"Well said, Ems!" He replied.
"You're not disturbed by this?!" Asked Nia, in shock. She was horrified! She didn't want to look at the morbid image; and yet, she couldn't take her eyes off the screen. She winced, hoping it was all a cruel joke.
"Nope," Thomas replied loftily. "I've seen worse." He smirked as Nia turned two shades paler.
Meanwhile, Rebecca yelped as something hovered on screen for two seconds, before the army started firing guns at it.
"What was that thing?!" She asked in shock, her mind still trying to figure out what it was. It didn't look like anything she had ever seen before, and she was filled with a disturbed curiosity to find out what it is; or what it was.
"The Dark Side," muttered Percy rebelliously, causing the other engines, save for the two newcomers, to burst into laughter.
The 'Dark Side' was a gross understatement indeed; if this was anything like Shed 17…
….
The engines later sputtered with helpless laughter at the montages of YouTubers apparently traumatized by the events of 'Shed 17'- particularly when one fell off his chair in fright at seeing the Fat Controller suddenly pop up on screen. They snorted at the guy who apparently could only memorize the dialogue from it.
What made it more ironic was that they had been nowhere near as disturbed as those Youtubers. They watched Shed 17 a couple of times for a time after; though their drivers and firemen got cross because of the projection set-up whenever they wanted to watch it.
It was gory, yes, and the ending had been disturbing- especially for Thomas- but it had an intriguing storyline, and they began getting philosophical about how they came to life for weeks on end after the first program came out, as, once they got over the blood and violent death, there was some intriguing points brought up in Shed 17.
It ended when Percy, out of curiosity, asked the Fat Controller about how biofusion worked, and whether they were biofused people authorized to run by the British Government. The Fat Controller turned an interesting shade of what appeared to be a mix of white, green and red; and he promptly banned discussion on the subject; especially on where the engines had picked these ideas up from.
But he had yet to know about the sequel….
…
"Hm, these are interesting drawings, don't you think?" Asked Toby, on seeing many drawings pop up on screen from key scenes from Shed 17. "People these days are so creative."
"I agree," Said Emily, thoughtfully. "My driver's nephew mentioned an online art gallery called… DeviantArt? Something like that; there's probably much more gory stuff there. What do you think, Nia?"
Nia was too transfixed with horror to respond. Clearly, she had never heard of the dark, creepypasta culture her friends had become involved in; albeit involuntarily.
Soon came the anonymous whistleblower; apparently key to unraveling more of the Island's 'mysteries.' Although Rebecca was curious to who this person was, Percy was less than impressed at his/her appearance.
"Reminds me of Screenslaver," he commented quietly to Thomas and Rebecca; who he was in between for the movie.
"Who?" Rebecca asked innocently, looking at Percy bemusedly.
"Percy, why are you bringing up the Incredibles 2?" Asked Thomas incredulously.
"Well, he does!" Argued Percy. "And they're both from sequels to popular movies"-
"That's not the point!" Hissed Thomas.
"Alright, enough!" Wheeshed Toby, who was sitting on Nia's other side. "We're trying to watch this, remember? So, don't go off topic!"
"…. It's just the trucks," Commented Gordon.
But for sure, the engines were clear on one thing; they would never look at any of the trucks the same way again.
For one thing, they'd look in them before loading them up with goods.
….
The engines sat through the first death of Project G-1 in disturbed, awed silence; as Duck somehow, with the help of Japanese technological advances, pummel Oliver to death; in what seemed to be a cross between an MMA fight, a sumo wrestling match and a Transformers movie.
"Well, that totally wasn't realistic at all," James commented wryly, and the others told him to shush.
Thomas looked over to ask if Nia was ok. But she had her eyes screwed tightly shut. It didn't look like she'd be wanting to watch on then.
Surprisingly, when he looked at Rebecca, he found that, despite her initial trepidation, she hadn't resorted to shutting her eyes like Nia had done.
