ARC 2: Cinders & Shroobs
Chapter 3: Purple Madness
That night, the engines were resting in their sheds, having been rid of anything to do with King Bomb-omb or his minions. The king himself was nowhere to be found but no doubt still alive...possibly plotting. Yoshi, Birdo, Boom Boom and Pom Pom became guests at Topham Hall, of course the pairs had to share rooms. The romantic couple didn't mind, but the sibling argued over which side of the large bed they got.
Back at the sheds, as the engines tried to get some sleep, Percy couldn't. He had to go out in a few minutes and take the mail, so as he watched the other engines sleep, he could hear something in the distance.
"Hmm?"
A large twinkle in the sky flashed before a strange UFO started to fly down, this frightened Percy, but also made him curious.
"Oh no, more trouble is seems, then again, I could be wrong. Ooh, I can't disturb the others, I'll just go check it out myself, maybe it's just a weird shaped meteor." He figured.
He quietly raced out of the sheds and proceeded to follow the object. He followed the path through the shunting yard, past the Steamworks and into Knapford Station. The object was getting close and Percy could see it was a space ship after all. Percy had to make a few turns that led him away from the ship's sight, though it was probably for the best in case the aliens spotted him.
"Oh where did it go now?" Percy wondered.
He rounded another bend and sped through a level crossing before the ship came back into view much closer than before. Percy braked hard when the ship crash-landed right on the top of Gordon's Hill.
"Oh no, that's not a safe place to be." Percy said.
And he was right, the massive ship began to tilt and slide down towards him. Percy raced away backwards as the ship raced towards him.
"HELP!" Percy yelled.
As the ship caught up, Percy was directed onto a siding while the ship headed straight towards a station. Percy shut his eyes as the ship demolished the empty station and came to a stop, throwing up a massive dustcloud. When it settled, Percy slowly approached the ship but kept a good distance.
"Whoa...a real alien spaceship, they're bigger than I thought." Percy gulped.
The door of the ship slowly opened letting out a cloud of smoke, Percy could make out what looked like 2 pairs of red glowing eyes, the second pair much higher up than the other. Percy kept quiet as he could here more voices.
"Nice landing sis." A sarcastic voice said.
"Well excuse me, I'd like to see you do any better." Another annoyed voice said.
Percy gasped when the two beings stepped out brushing themselves off, then came a ton of strange purple beings behind them. It was none other than the two Shroob princesses and their minions. The younger one was given a map by one of the minions.
"Hmm, I think we're here. That building we just destroyed was one of the locations on this map."
"Good, now we can start small and takeover this island, should be simple enough. Those sentient engines they have here are useless without rails." Elder Shroob chuckled.
"True, this will be too easy." Younger Shroob rubbed her gloved pincers together.
Percy gasped, he had to warn the others before it was too late. He pretended he hadn't heard anything and left the siding with the mail cars. Unfortunately, he didn't get far. The sisters had noticed Percy and growled.
"He knows too much." Younger Shroob sneered.
"I'll take care of this."
Elder Shroob bolted for Percy, she was a lot quicker than she looked. All Percy saw was a blur of purple and red before he was blocked by Elder Shroob who stood on the tracks with her arms out to the side.
"HOLD IT!" She yelled.
Percy braked just in time and slowed down. Elder only had to put a pincer on his buffer to completely stop him, this horrified Percy.
"Oh no." Percy muttered.
Elder put on the most evillest expression she could make, if Percy was a human he would've shit himself. Elder was a little bigger than Percy, only his funnel reached the placement of her crown. Young Shroob walked over as well dragging a pincer across Percy's side.
"So? What is a little engine like you doing out so late?" Young Shroob asked.
"Uh...just taking the mail, it's a long night job." Percy smiled nervously.
"Well then...looks like you won't be delivering it on time." Elder growled.
Without warning she created a large energy orb between her pincers before throwing it at Percy knocking him off the rails, then she dashed to the side and tackled Percy on his side. Percy was so dumbfounded he couldn't say a word.
"That'll do it." Elder brushed off her pincers.
"Why are you here?" Percy asked.
"We received these strange invitations to come here, don't know who sent them." Young Shroob pulled her outs.
"I figured it would be a trick, believing in living machines, looks like we were wrong about that last one." Elder shrugged.
"Now sister, we should begin our invasion, and establish another vim factory here. But of course have some fun while we're at it."
"I agree sister, don't worry, we're gonna have the time of our lives. These engines won't have any idea what hit them...except this one." Elder pointed out.
Young P. Shroob lunged her arms up and the shroob minions began scattering around to explore the island, some stayed to destroy all the mail in the vans, others stayed next to the sisters. Percy watched helplessly as the sisters laughed loudly and started speaking in their own language.
"Oh man, what can I do?" Percy thought.
Before anything could come to mind, the sister got his attention by throwing a rock at his buffers. Young Princess Shroob walked over rubbed Percy's face with a pincer.
"Now dear, if you know what's good for you, you'd never tell a soul that you saw us...or my sister here can easily tear you bolt by bolt. Got it?" She purred.
Percy just stared with horror into the princess' red glowing eyes.
"Yes..."
She pinched him on the cheek.
"Yes WHAT?"
"Yes...Ma'am." Percy sighed.
She let go and returned to her sister.
"Good, sis let's go!"
The two, being able to fly, flew off into the distance laughing while Percy was forced to stay there until morning. When it came, everyone at the sheds wondered where Percy was.
"All we know is that he was taking the mail." Edward said.
"Hmm, I'll go look for him." Thomas said.
"Be careful." Emily called.
Meanwhile, people were less panicky and more confused as seeing the small fanged shroobs. The shroobs didn't draw their weapons, instead they were just causing destruction and scaring people. Engines began to have issues when the shroobs would block their paths, throw cargo off flatbeds and uncouple engines from their loads. Some shroobs took over signal boxes and changed points causing engines to crash. Duck and Oliver were taking passengers back and forth when the points were switched so they collided with each other. Toby was switched into a siding and smashed into some buffers, and Rosie rammed into some freight cars that were stranded in the middle of her path.
Sir Topham Hatt was receiving complaints and being told what a bad railway it was. He couldn't even keep up with the amount of calls he was getting. He had to get his other men to get the calls. But his stress was about to get even worse, suddenly the office doors slammed open. Sir Topham Hatt and the other workers halted and watched as the Shroob princesses came in with their pincers on their hips.
"W-What? What is going on?" Sir Topham Hatt asked.
"ZIP IT!" Princess Shroob hissed.
Elder then roared loudly at the other men who all fled the office. With them alone with STH, they decided to get down to business. Elder stormed over to the desk and slammed her pincers on it making STH jump at the crack that formed on the poor desk. Young Shroob went over behind the chair and gripped it.
"You're the head of this place right?" Elder hissed.
"Yes." Was all STH could say.
"Excellent, BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT NOW!" Elder shouted in his face.
"WHAT?"
"WE'RE TAKING OVER! AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP US! WE ARE THE SHROOBS, HERE TO CONQUER THIS SMALL ISLAND AND CLAIM IT AS SHROOB TERRITORY, SOON IT WILL BE THE WHOLE PLANET WHILE WE'RE AT IT!" Elder explained.
Young P. Shroob grabbed STH by his shoulder and forced him up and turned him to face her, though him being much shorter, she turned his head up to her.
"Now then, take a hike before we DESTROY YOU!" She yelled that last part.
She shoved him towards her sister who grabbed him and literally tossed him out of the office before slamming the door. Immediately the two began to go wild in the office, Young Shroob spinning in the chair and Elder jumping up and down shaking the whole office.
"That was too easy!" Young Shroob laughed.
"I know, how fucking pathetic these people are. This will be the best vacation ever, maybe we can even find a way to move our planet closer here." Elder said.
"I don't think that's possible sis."
"Oh...well now with this place taken over, we'll do as we please until we get bored then go back home where we'll plot our next invasion to defeat that annoying plumber."
"Agreed."
"Now then, get out of that chair it's mine turn!"
"No way I'm not done yet!"
"IT'S MY TURN!"
"MINE!"
"GGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR!"
Elder tackles her and the two start tussling. Meanwhile at Topham Hall, Yoshi was out picking apples in the backyard when Birdo came outside yawning.
"Sleep well?"
"Yeah, I meant to be up earlier...oh well. Can I get an apple?"
"Sure."
With the other duo, Boom Boom was doing some stretches while Pom Pom looked out a window.
"It's looks nice outside, I'm used to looking at fire and spikes around Bowser's castle." Pom said.
"I know, we got to come here more often...as least the kooplings aren't here."
"Don't get me started on them...I mean Wendy is probably the most sane out of them all."
"Wendy and sane in the same sentence? HOW?"
Pom rolled her eyes until she noticed something off down below in the front of the house. A shroob was heading towards the door, gun drawn.
"Hey is that a shroob we've heard about?"
Boom went to look and gasped.
"It is! GET IT!"
They raced downstairs and rammed the front door open only to see more than I one shroob now, it was 5 of them. The gun-drawned shroob looked surprised, then angry.
"Where did-OH SCREW IT! TO BATTLE!" Boom Boom yelled.
Both sides lunged at each other, Birdo and Yoshi heard the loud commotion and groaned.
"Now what?" Yoshi groaned.
"Let's go check it out." Birdo rolled her eyes.
When the saw Boom Boom and Pom Pom losing the battle with the shroobs, they gasped.
"SHROOBS? WAIT...NO! DAMN IT!" Yoshi stomped a foot.
"What?" Birdo asked.
"I don't know why the Shroob sisters are here, but we need to stop them." Yoshi said.
"But first..." Birdo cracked her knuckles.
Yoshi grabbed a Shroob with his tongue, swallowed, and popped it out of his butt as an egg and like before, Birdo kicked it towards the other shroobs knocking all but one out. Both duos tackled the last shroob and pummeled it before lifting it up.
"WHERE ARE THEY?" Yoshi demanded.
Thomas had asked several engines about where Percy could be...no one knew. On his travels he passed by more shroobs that either looked at him, aimed their gun threateningly or just flat out ignored him. Finally he found Percy by Gordon's Hill.
"PERCY!"
"THOMAS?"
Thomas saw Percy was lying on his side.
"You okay?"
"No...there was-"
He then remembered he wasn't supposed to tell anyone, some Shroobs could be watching and listening.
"There was what?"
"Nevermind, just get help."
"I'll get Harvey, I think Judy and Jerome are very occupied right now." Thomas said.
"Thanks Thomas." Percy smiled.
Sir Topham Hatt had managed to get to his car without any more problems when the 2 duos arrived.
"Sir, we heard the Shroob Sisters are here, where are they?" Yoshi asked.
"They were in my office over there, I gotta get home to safety. I don't know what we can do." STH sighed.
"Don't worry, we'll get rid of them." Boom Boom said.
"Yeah, there's no stopping us." Pom Pom said.
"LET'S GO!" Birdo said.
The four dumbly race straight into the office only to get blasted right out and on the ground.
"Got any better ideas?" Yoshi asked.
To be continued...