This was it for Clinker and Fitzgerald. It was their first day on their assignment. They worked at a branch line that was affectionately nicknamed "The Little Western". It was small, only with a few trains working on it, but it was a close knit railway section. They were working with two other engineers, both male. Their names were Montague and Oliver, two cousins by adoption that could almost be mistaken for brothers.

Montague, or "Duck" as he preferred to be called (he insisted it WASN'T because his feet were genetically splayed or because his engine supposedly waddled on the tracks), was fairly scrawny with very prominent cheekbones. He had forest green eyes with matching colored hair that he had tied back in a low ponytail. He was currently wearing his engineer uniform, which was a matching shade of green with greenish-gold detailing, and a large logo that said "GWR" on the back of it, a red necktie, black shoes, and a forest green engineer hat (that was slightly taller and tapered than the standard one) that bore the number "8" in red and yellow.

Oliver was a couple years younger than his cousin. He too had green eyes and hair, though his was a much more vibrant shade and his hair was cut so it stuck out fairly drastically off of his forehead. His uniform was also a vibrant green and had yellow detailing and matching necktie, and also bore the "GWR" logo (albeit much smaller than Duck's). His hat was a standard-grade engineer one, and bore the number "11" on it in red and yellow.

Joining Oliver in his work was his biological younger brother. Although his real name was Todd, everyone he knew called him "Toad", after an incident he had with a muddy pond many years back. Toad was in his late teens and was fairly short, yet often acted much older than he was. He had short greyish-brown hair with eyes to match and was currently wearing his shunter outfit, which consisted of greyish-brown overalls, a long-sleeved button-down grey shirt, grey work shoes, and a brownish-grey flat cap that had in white lettering "GW 56831" stitched onto it.

Clinker and Fitzgerald too were given new uniforms to go with their new line of work. Clinker now had a feminine version of the engineer outfit (which meant a skirt instead of pants) in dark blue with golden details and necktie. Her engineer cap, also a matching blue (and with a dark blue brim instead of the black that the standard ones had and golden detailing rather than the black as well) had the number "77" stitched on it in the matching yellow and red. Fitzgerald was given the shunter outfit that Toad wore, only with lighter grey overalls (that had to be cuffed a couple times around the legs thanks to size issues), a greenish-grey work shirt (that also had to be cuffed to right above his elbows), and dark red work shoes. He was lucky enough to keep his cap that he came to Sodor with.

Today, the job of the Little Western was to collect coal from their own coaling plant and bring it to the Narrow Gauge railway, whose mine was closed for the day thanks to some maintenance. Clinker's train, a Feldbahn that had been modified to run on standard gauge was hooked up to a small goods truck, Fitzgerald's to be exact. It was smaller than the ones issued on Sodor and had a nasty crack on its front, but it was still in very good condition. The three trains were soon on their way to the plant, where trucks were waiting…which meant the Troublesome Shunters were as well.

The Troublesome Shunters were a group of teens of every size, gender, race, and age. They were the ones that loved to empathize with multiple goods trucks and in return have multiple goods trucks empathize with them. While it was true that some of the stronger shunters would empathize with only one goods truck, many of them were still a threat to behold…especially one certain one.

As soon as the three trains pulled into the plant, a pair of eyes looked up from his goods truck he was maintaining, and, noticing the new faces of Clinker and Fitzgerald, gave a wide and mischievous grin, showing off an odd tooth that stuck out further from the others and often stuck out from his mouth. He was a teenager, about the same size and age as Toad. His eyes were light brown, and his hair was a matching brown that was cut very scraggily and choppily. He wore brown overalls that had seen better days, a short-sleeved light grey button-down shirt, and a brown hat with faded white lettering that was hard to make out. His face, clothes, and hair were caked with mud and grease, making him a huge mess. He slunk away from his truck, which also had the faded lettering, and headed toward a few other Troublesome Shunters, who were talking to each other, and quickly shut up when they noticed him.

"Boys," He said to them, grinning a devious grin that made the others follow suit. "We got a new target to join us."

Fitzgerald watched in the distance as Clinker, who now had a large black coal hopper shunted onto her load as well as his own truck, got her load filled up at the coal chute. She was talking to someone, but he couldn't make out who it was or what they were talking about. But he didn't care. He was just happy to see his little truck being useful. Fairly nearby, Toad was working with his own empathized truck, a brake van that was connected to Oliver's train. He was trying to keep an eye on the young boy, but was also preoccupied with his own work, making it hard to double task. However, he did take notice when he saw someone start to walk towards the two of them.

"Oh man…" He groaned to himself. "Not him. Not now!"

"Hello, there." The approaching teen said, giving his single-tooth grin towards Fitzgerald, who cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "You're new here, aren't ya?"

"…Yeah…" Fitzgerald said, looking down, while Toad glared daggers at the teen, who simply ignored him, keeping the same grin.

"What's your name, kid?"

"You don't have to tell him that." Toad called, giving an assuring glance to Fitzgerald, and then quickly glared at the other teen again.

"I'm not talking to you, froggy-boy!" The teen yelled, suddenly growing hostile, though quickly gained the grin back at Fitzgerald, who was now looking up at him in shock. "So, you gonna tell me your name?"

"F-Fitzgerald…" He stammered, as the teen continued to grin at him.

"Well, that's just fine and dandy." The teen said, in a sugarcoated voice that oozed with falseness. "I myself am called Sandor C. Ruffey myself. But everyone else, which means you as well, calls me Scruffey."

"A name that fits you well." Toad's voice piped up. He was now finished with his work and had walked towards the two shunters. Fitzgerald quickly ran behind Toad, who shielded him from Scruffey, while he glared at the teen.

"You're corrupting that kid, froggy-boy!" Scruffey angrily said, jabbing a finger into Toad's chest. "You're going to make him into a worthless shunter, one that won't follow MY orders! And he'll end up like that freak of a giant over there!"

To emphasize his point, he pointed over to where Clinker and the unknown person she was talking with.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do." Toad dryly said, taking no notice to Scruffey's actions as Fitzgerald tried to hide himself even more. "We need more shunters like him."

"No, we need more shunters like me!" Scruffy retorted, as he suddenly grabbed onto Fitzgerald arm forcefully and dragged him towards him. "We need ones to use our connections to our trucks to mess with those goody two-shoes engineers so we can show them who the most important part of this railway is!"

"Why can't you get it through your head?!" Toad finally snapped, no longer keeping his cool, and turning heads throughout the yard, especially from the unknown person. "We can't do a thing without these guys! They're the key parts, but we're key parts, too! They might get more fame, but we're just as good as them!"

"That's just the kind of talk that gets you nowhere in life!" Scruffy retorted, grasping onto Fitzgerald even harder, not noticing his expression growing pretty upset. "You only ally yourselves with those engineer freaks to gloat in the sunlight of still being alive! If it wasn't for them, you'd still be stuck fighting death. Or even better, you'd be dead now!"

He then angrily turned to Fitzgerald and inavertedly squeezed him even tighter.

"You, you little shrimp!" He said, facing Fitzgerald. "You're coming with me to learn how to become a true shunter! You got a problem with that?"

Instead of words coming out, a bloodcurdling cry did. The tears started flowing as Fitzgerald continued to scream. Toad tried in vain to pull him away from Scruffey's grasp, but he held tighter and tighter, which made Fitzgerald scream even louder. It seemed like all hope was gone for the cause…until an even stronger grip ripped Scruffey's hand off of the young boy and shoved the teen to the ground. When he recuperated from the shock, he looked up to see who had done that…and he wasn't glad at doing that at all.

Now clutching Fitzgerald in his arms was a teenager about the same age as Toad…though with a gigantic height difference of a few feet. He had short black hair and dark brown eyes that complemented his naturally tan skin. He wore black overalls with white fasteners, a long-sleeved grey button-down shirt, and a black shunter cap that had the name "HECTOR" written in large white text. He was glaring down at Scruffey, while gently carrying Fitzgerald, who was still sniffling, tears running down his face. Right behind him was Clinker, who was shakily breathing out of fear and from running as quick as she could to get there.

"You see what I did there?" The tall teen said, a thick Spanish accent in his voice. "Picking on someone smaller than me? Déjà vu, isn't it?"

"This isn't over, shrimp." Scruffey simply and angrily said, as he pulled himself upwards, and slunk off towards the other Troublesome Shunters, who were now laughing at his misfortune.

"You're sure you're okay? He didn't hurt you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Clinker was still fussing over Fitzgerald, who had calmed down by now, though still showed the signs of his previous distress through puffy red eyes. Hector, the teenager that had helped, was still with them, and now Duck and Oliver had come over to see what had happened, with Toad filling in some details to them.

"Thanks for everything, Hector." Clinker said to him, relief pouring throughout her words. "I don't know how I can repay you for this.

"It's no problem, Miss Clinker." Hector said, dismissively waving a hand. "I'm just glad I could help stop Scruffey."

He then kneeled down to Fitzgerald's level, as the boy turned towards him.

"Fitzgerald, don't hesitate to seek out my help if Scruffey ever hurts you again. I can't stand seeing bullies like him get their way."

"And I'll be there for you, too!" Toad added, grinning as well, making Fitzgerald give a small smile back. He felt safe…much safer than he had felt in a long while.

By the end of the day, when the sun was starting to set, the three engineers had plenty of coal in their trucks and were now parked in the transfer yards. As workmen transferred the coal from the standard gauge trucks to the narrow gauge ones, a familiar face was there to greet Clinker and Fitzgerald.

"Clinker! Fitzgerald! Over here!"

Standing next to a bright green narrow gauge steam engine with white details and gold metal features was Cogs. He now wore a light green engineer's outfit with white details and two rows of gold buttons to differentiate from the standard gauge outfits. He had his sleeves rolled up to right above his elbows and added a white belt to his jacket. He wore boots instead of the standard work shoes and also wore a pair of gloves. His hat, instead of a number, bore a gold-colored patch with white stitched-on letters that simply said "COGS" on it. He seemed much happier than the last time they saw him.

"It's great to see you again!" He happily said, a faint blush circling his cheeks.

"I told you that we'd see each other a lot." Clinker said, smiling, as Fitzgerald gave the same one. Cogs really hoped that this would continue to be true.