Chapter 4: Mahogany Station

In the castle on Freezer Mountain, we find Dr Doofenshmirtz and the Ice King playing checkers in the main quarters where Santa stood in his cage. "Ha! King me sucker!" exclaimed Ice King.

"You may have been crowned this time! But I will prevail!" said Doofenshmirtz as he placed a checker piece onto the Ice King's.

"Can I play winner?" asked Santa.

At that point, the doors shot open revealing the burnt up Zim who weakly walked up to the surprised two.

"What happened? Did you forget to put on your explosive-proof undies?" asked Doofenshmirtz.

Zim let out a loud cough releasing a big black cloud of smoke from his mouth. "Uh… the kids… proved to be… a teensy-teeny-tiny bit more challenging than I had anticipated."

"In other words, the train didn't go boom and the kids are still on their way." Said the Ice King sighing.

"This IS a bit problematic." Said Doofenshmirtz rubbing his chin.

"I did say they would be more than enough to take you down." Said Santa chuckling. "Might be a good idea to give up now before they humiliate you more."

"SILENCE SANTA!" shouted Zim as he pointed to him. "This was a mere setback. My true might will be sure to bring those little human-brats to their untimely painful and oh so explicated DOOM!"

"He's enthusiastic, I'll give him that." Said Ice King.

Doofenshmirtz stood up and faced Santa. "Eh, it's no matter, I planned ahead. Even if Zim were to fail, that train won't be moving anytime soon. Plus, we set up a little surprise for them further down the line. It'll be sure to DERAIL their plans!"

Ice King, Zim and Santa all groaned at his joke. "Really?! You went there?!" Asked Ice King.

"Oh, I sure did!"

Back at the train, we find the kids in the restaurant carriage having some lunch; Bowla and Samantha didn't get any earlier due to their interruption. Everyone had different orders except for Teo, he chose a different fish meal. The kids continued their lunch while having a light chat, all except for Teo of course since he had social problems. He was also thinking about what had happened today, finding the real culprit and stopping him before he destroyed the train, he felt more at ease, but he still felt somewhat tense as he knew this wouldn't be the Evil Buddies only attempt to stop them, he just couldn't help but think what they would try next and if whether they could stop it.

"Enjoying your meals so far?" asked Luigi as he walked up to them alongside Mandy who was wearing her dinosaur bone necklace.

"Even better than yesterdays!" said Mike holding two thumbs up with a mouth full of food.

"Either swallow your food and then talk, or don't talk at all." Said Sabrina, she then turned to Mike. "On second thought, just don't talk anyway."

"Good to know." Chuckled Luigi, "I put in some extra effort for you kids as a thank-you gift for stopping that alien."

"Thanks, such a shame we still have more to do." Said Jack.

"What can we say, us heroes never get a break… well really I'm the hero and they're all my sidekicks." Gloated Mike.

"Sidekicks who don't have to listen to you AND can kick your caboose left right and centre." Said Bowla looking annoyed.

Teo realized something. "Um… this train hasn't moved yet."

"Well duh! We're refuelling, we can't move while we're getting more fuel dummy." Mike turned to Bowla. "Seriously, what do you see in this tailed-idiot?"

"Teo's right actually." Said Mandy looking out the window. "It takes three minutes to refuel; we've been here for ten."

"Something must be wrong with the train." Muttered Teo.

"I believe it may well have something to do with the repairs being done." Said Sabrina. "Bowla's fire breath produced some damage to the train, plus with how many fractures and indentations Zim made into the walls and floors. I doubt anybody would want to ride or drive a train with damages like that."

"Even so, they weren't that bad." Luigi looked over to some of the damages being repaired by Yen, Gadget and Stan. "Mind you I'm no expert on trains, I just cook."

Teo felt some sort of unnerving feeling about all this, he chomped down on the last of his fish. "I-I'll be right back." He got off his chair and made his way to the next carriage leaving the others behind feeling confused.

Teo entered Room Five and picked up his winter clothing and placed them on as quick as he could, then he made his way to the door leading outside the train. He opened the door and slowly walked down the steps to look outside.

Teo saw something that didn't seem good; he saw one of the staff members looking at some barriers blocking the tracks as well as a raised drawbridge. He slowly walked up to the staff member looking puzzled. "Um...e-excuse me."

The man turned to see Teo. "Oh, can I help you?"

"Um... I-Is there something um, w-wrong with the train?"

The man raised an eyebrow feeling a bit confused by his question, but he turned to the drawbridge. "Well nothing wrong with the train per say…"

"What do you mean?" the two turned to see Bowla and the other kids – in their winter clothing – walking up to them.

"Well uh… you see the draw bridge is up, we can't cross the bridge if it's up like that."

"Well just bring it down, throw the switch." Said Bowla.

"I'm afraid it's not so simple." The man pointed to the station where they stopped at.

The kids grew surprised to see Mahogany Station itself. It was completely abandoned, the windows were smashed, the walls and roofs were cracked, it had a load of rubbish everywhere. It was a complete mess.

"Mahogany Station was abandoned in the 1930s ever since the town got a new station much closer to it. Nowadays our train is the only one that visits it because despite that no one works here, fuel still gets delivered to the pumps here for our train only… because it's been abandoned for so long, no one knows where the lever to the drawbridge is."

"Can't be too hard to find." Said Jack fixing his glasses.

"But given its conditions, I doubt anyone would want to enter that facility." Said Sabrina.

"The station has broken in a few places due to the cold and high winds, plus so much snow has built up in that place, it's difficult to get through without a team of expert snow-removers." Said the man.

Sabrina got an idea and turned to Bowla. "Hey Bowla, your fire breath might be able to liquesce the snow."

"Really? Cool, let's get burning!"

"Not so fast." Said the man. "Kids like you shouldn't wander into abandoned buildings… even if you were allowed to, your 'fire breath' might burn the entire station down on top of you."

"So, we need a controlled fire like earlier." Said Sabrina.

"Excuse me, you're not listening. Kids like you shouldn't be wandering around abandoned buildings." Said the man looking annoyed.

Bowla looks up to the man. "My daddy just so happens to be a mafia boss! Does Mervaradi ring a bell?" the man flinched slightly. "Besides, the lever for the drawbridge needs to be pulled, right? Well I don't see you going in there and doing it yourself. So, I say that we should go get the job done while you just stand there staring at the raised drawbridge while sulking!"

The man stepped back more. Teo let out a slight chuckle. "Y-You certainly scared him."

Bowla chuckled herself and faced Teo. "Tell you what, why don't you get back onto the train and relax a little?"

Teo looked surprised hearing that. "But… um… w-why?"

"You've done a lot today, you deserve a break." Said Bowla smiling, "Me and Sabrina can handle this just fine."

Sabrina raised an eye brow. "Why me?"

"If you think I'm going in there by myself you have another thing coming, I need someone just as competent as Teo and you're as competent as they get." Sabrina shrugged her shoulders in agreement.

"What do you mean?!" asked Mike looking angry "I'm way more competent than Teo! In fact, almost everyone is way more useful than him!"

"Whether or not you are, I'm far more than capable of helping Bowla out than you lot put together." Said Sabrina, she then turns to Teo. "As for usefulness, wasn't it Teo who found the one who threatened to destroy the train just in time while you went after the wrong man?"

"Oh please, I knew hands down it was Chip all along, I just pretended I didn't know to let him drop his guard for me to strike when he least expects it!" Mike closed his eyes looking smug as he crossed his arms. "I know, amazing, right? I also knew he was some kind of freaky alien! Does make me wonder why you prefer that little wimpy cat over a fantastic guy like me."

"Um… Bowla and Sabrina already left." Said Teo.

Mike opened his eyes in shock as he looked around seeing Bowla and Sabrina were indeed gone. "Hey! What gives! I was in the middle of talking."

"They did seem in a bit of a hurry actually." Said Teo looking concerned as he looked over to the abandoned station the girls were going to.

"Wait for me!" shouted Mike as he ran ahead. "An innocent girl like you shouldn't go without a brave hero like me!"

"W-Wait up!" exclaimed Jack as he ran after Mike.

Only Teo and Samantha were left behind. Teo felt a bit worried about Bowla, but he felt even more worried for anything that would get in her way. He felt the need to help Bowla, but he knew Mike and Jack would get in the way and Bowla did insist on him staying behind and arguing with her was a bad idea. Now that Teo thought about it, Mike and Jack were going to be leaving him alone for a while and he knew Bowla and Sabrina would be safe in their own. He grew a small smile knowing exactly what he could do, so he calmly walked back into the train with Samantha slowly following.

'Now that both Mike and Jack are gone for a while, and with Bowla not pestering me into loving her and Sabrina not going to do any of her tricks… I can finally do what I want for a while, all the things I couldn't normally do because of them around.' Thought Teo feeling a bit excited.

As he and Samantha entered their room and took their winter clothing off. Teo immediately climbed up onto his couch, picked up his Baby Bunny and curled up to take a nap. Samantha noticed this and felt she should leave him alone while he sleeps. "I bet the restaurants still open." Whispered Samantha. With that she left Room Five and walked down towards the restaurant carriage.

Meanwhile, we find Eddy walking up to Room Two and knocked at it. There the two boys wearing purple jackets opened the door. "Oh, it's you again… didn't Trixie tell you to beat it?" asked the blonde boy.

"She said if I was able to find something that she liked, she'd go on a date with me." Said Eddy raising an eyebrow. "Well I have the perfect thing for her, so I'd like to speak to her now."

"Don't bother wasting her time with some sort of gaudy knickknack you got from that little shop." Said the black-haired boy. "Now do us a favour and beat it!"

Eddy gave an annoyed scoff, he then cleared his throat. "HEY TRIXIE! WE HAD A DEAL RIGHT!?" he yelled making both boys block their ears in pain at Eddy's loud voice.

At that point, Trixie walked up to the door. "I can hear you! No need to shout."

"Course there was, my normal voice wasn't going to get past your two bodyguards… now Trixie, you said you'd go on a date with me if I brought you something you really liked. Are you gonna keep your end of the deal?"

"Assuming you have kept yours of course."

Eddy dug into his back pocket. "Heck yeah." Eddy took out the diamond necklace and shown it to Trixie who immediately gasped in shock.

"T-That's my…"

"I found it in the restaurant carriage under one of the tables. I figured you wanted it back."

Trixie took the necklace looking gleeful. "Oh, thank you so much! I lost it the other day and I was so worried! I thought someone might have stolen it!"

"If someone did then they accidentally dropped it." Said Eddy with a small smirk.

"How do we know you didn't just steal it yourself?" asked the blonde boy.

"Because I had no idea it even existed until I found it."

"Yeah right! And how did you know it belonged to Trixie in the first place?" asked the black-haired boy.

"It's got her name on it." The two boys looked confused at first, but then they leaned over to see Trixie's necklace seeing that it did indeed have her name engraved onto the diamond. "Funny how you two never knew that was there, yet aren't you her friends?" the two boys growled at the smug Eddy. "Well, a deal's a deal, right?"

Trixie looked back at Eddy, then to her necklace and sighed. She placed the necklace into her bag and stepped out. "Yeah, so what do you wanna do? Movies? Dancing?"

"Well this train will be leaving soon so I doubt you'd wanna do anything like that. I was actually thinking of just dinner and talking. My treat."

"I hardly expected much from you I guess, dinner it is."

With that, Eddy and Trixie made their way to the next carriage with the two boys following, until Eddy turned and noticed them. "I'm pretty certain I asked Trixie out on a date."

"Like we'd let Trixie date a low-class unpopular dork like you on her own." Said the blonde boy.

"So, we'll be making sure you don't do anything funny." Said the black-haired boy.

Eddy rolled his eyes. "Do these two always follow you around?"

"We mostly walk together." Said Trixie.

"Well I think they're just going to interfere with our date. Surely you wouldn't want them to do that."

"They don't like the idea of me dating someone as unpopular as you." Trixie turned to the boys after sighing. "Tad, Chad… he did return my diamond necklace, I do owe him a lot for that. How about letting us have our privacy?"

The boys looked shocked. "W-What?!"

"Look, I'm not letting my friends interfere either." Said Eddy. "I'm just asking for a simple date, I'm not gonna touch her or anything."

"Just this once you two. I'll be alright." Said Trixie.

The boys felt shocked, but then they growled their way back to their room. Eddy and Trixie continued to walk towards the restaurant carriage. "If anything, it sounds like they're more jealous than worried for you." Said Eddy.

"They do seem a bit like stalkers at times. Well what can I say; the rich popular students should stick together."

"Are any of them even your friends?"

"O-Of course, best friends." Eddy could tell Trixie wasn't being honest, but he wasn't ready to blow his one and only chance to date her.

Mahogany Station looked even worse on the inside; the wooden beams were on the verge of collapsing, cracked in several areas. The walls have crumbled in a few areas and the floor was littered with broken bits of wood and metal, if that wasn't enough, there were giant piles of snow blocking large sections of the station.

Sabrina held a large spade with a metal head she found just outside the station. She slowly placed it in front of Bowla. "Ok, just a small flame."

Bowla gently began to breathe fire on a small scale onto the head of the spade until it was red hot. Then Sabrina shoved the spade into a huge pile of snow blocking the door and the snow began to melt fast, within a few seconds the snow had turned into a huge puddle of water. "There, using this spade and only a small flame, we can dispose of the snow without setting the place alight."

"Gotta hand it to you Sabrina. You're good at these ideas… though it would be more fun to blast the place down until the lever is all that's left."

"There are numerous reasons as to why we cannot do that. But rather than take hours of our time, let's just keep going."

"Hey, I reckon if Bowla wants to burn the place down, let her. No one works here, and it will be easier to find the lever." Said Mike simply trying to get into Bowla's good books.

"See, Mike's good with ideas too." Said Jack fixing his glasses.

"You are both idiots." Said Sabrina looking annoyed. "Now look, I personally do not wish to hear one more divergence with any of you, can we just please finish our assignment without destroying the station?"

"Fine, but you're making me hold back a lot of my strength." Said Mike. "You'll be begging for me to use it sooner or later."

"Strength? Please… the only thing you and Jack are good for are meat-shields." Said Bowla.

Sabrina sighed as she walked up to the door they freed from the snow. But when she opened it, another huge pile of snow fell from the door blocking their way. She then faces Bowla with the spade, "You know what to do."

Bowla breathes a small flame onto the spade until it was red hot again, then Sabrina shoved the spade into the snow making it melt, Sabrina was forced to walk with the spade making it melt more however. Once it was cleared, the four arrived at a long broken-down hallway.

Sabrina turned to Mike and Jack. "Meat-shields… frontline."

"I never signed up to be a meat-shield!" exclaimed Mike.

"Same here." Said Jack.

"Either you two be meat-shields or you'll be cooked meat-shields!" said Bowla pointing to the front. Mike and Jack immediately ran to the front and the four began to walk along the hallway.

After a minute of walking through this, they found another door which Mike opened for them. As they entered it, they found themselves in a large open room with so many rotting books on worn out, cracked shelves. The four looked around for a bit.

"Where exactly are we?" asked Mike.

"There's a high probability that this is the records room." Said Sabrina looking at the shelves. "This must be where they record each and every train that arrived here, as well as individuals, damages, employees... everything." She turned to look around more. "Every single book must have all their procedures which become apparent in this station… if we were to recite them all, I believe we could learn how this station used to work and what transpired here before it was shut-down… mind you." Sabrina took one of the books only to have it crumble apart in her hands. "The tribulations of time were disagreeable to this place."

"Meh, readings boring anyway." Said Mike.

"Mike, you can't read… or write for that matter." Said Bowla in a mocking tone.

"I don't need to learn." Mike points to Jack with his thumb. "I have Jack for that."

"Of course, loyal for life I am." Said Jack.

Bowla looked up to see a worn-out flight of stairs. "Reckon the lever's up there?"

Sabrina looked at the stairs and then looked around. "I do not see any other place to go, so it is possible. But watch your step, undoubtedly they are icy… and deteriorated."

The four began to climb the stairs slowly and carefully. Trying their best to keep their footing, as they did, Bowla began to sigh as she looked around. "Y'Know… it doesn't feel right without Teo… next time my little wimp's coming with me."

The four made it to the top and opened the one and only door on the upper floor. They were all introduced with a burst of cold wind revealing the door was leading outside, they all stepped back blocking their eyes. "Man, can't see a thing!" said Mike.

Bowla immediately stepped forward and took a deep breath, then she blasted out a huge stream of fire from her mouth which not only pushed the wind back, but lit up the way for a moment, there Sabrina saw that this used to be just another room, but the walls and roof were gone, likely destroyed in the wind, but up ahead was another room. So, the four immediately ran for it as Bowla stopped breathing fire.

They made it to the other room and slammed the door shut to keep the wind out. Bowla sighed as she kept her hands firmly on the door. "Phew… that was rough."

Sabrina nodded. "The weather conditions must be getting harsher, we must locate this lever and vacate before there is an opportunity for this structure to breakdown."

Bowla turned around to see that they were now in some sort of small office with a large crippled desk, an old phone, a chair that has been chewed apart by rodents and there was a large pile of snow near the wall. Sabrina took the spade and shown it to Bowla for her to breathe fire on, once she did, Sabrina shoved the spade into the snow making it melt, until-

CRAACK!

The surprised Sabrina took the spade out of the half-melted snow to reveal the head was completely cracked in the middle. "Woah... how did that happen?" asked Bowla.

"It is an old spade; it obviously broke from the weight of the snow." Said Jack looking smug.

"Wrong, the snow turned incredibly soft every time I put the spade into it. It broke because of the dramatic temperature changes it went through. Going red hot to icy cold in mere seconds can break anything apart… I anticipated this possibility and I had hoped it would not break before we locate the lever."

Jack crossed his arms feeling furious at Sabrina. They all turned to see that while the snow was only half melted, it melted enough to reveal a lever on the upper half. "JACKPOT!" said Mike as he marched up to it.

But just before he could pull it, a massive hoard of tiny spiders ran down from the ceiling crawling along the walls scaring the kids. "SPIDERS!" Sabrina screamed. The spiders soon ran onto the floor and scuttled under the floorboards disappearing from sight. Sabrina shuddered with a good chunk of her hair sticking up from the chills she got. "Bleck! Ick! Gak! I… HATE… SPIDERS!"

"Heh. Scardey Sabrina! Scared of a few hundred spiders." Mike looked around for a bit, and then he reached for the lever again and pulled it down. Then the gang heard a loud rumble, they all looked out the window seeing the drawbridge was lowering. The man – who covered himself more to protect himself from the weather getting stronger - looked at the bridge, and then he looked towards the window the kids were at and waved at them.

"Ok, let's blow this frozen popsicle stand!" Said Bowla as she was about to make her way to the door.

"Hey look." Mike pointed to a large safe that was rusted and damaged in multiple places, but the door to it was slightly ajar.

Jack walked up to it and opened it up, the others looked and all they saw was one book, but all the pages had been laminated, preserving them in perfect condition.

Sabrina reached for the book and opened up the first page to read it. Each second, she had a more intrigued expression.

"Well, what's it say?" asked Bowla.

"It would appear to be a journal." Sabrina responded. "The proprietor of the station has had some interesting history concerning artefacts and… Santa Claus."

"Wait? The boss of this place was buddies with Santa?" Mike asked.

"It would seem so." Sabrina closed the book and held onto it. "Let us return to the train before the weather's conditions worsen."

Back at the train, we find Teo still sleeping peacefully as he cuddled his rabbit. That was until he heard the door open making him slowly open his eyes. He turned to see Bowla, Mike, Jack and Sabrina have returned; he immediately perked up when he saw Bowla. "B-Bowla, you're back."

"Have you just been sleeping this whole time?" asked Bowla.

"Um… I do like my naps."

"Well whatever, while you were just napping. Brave heroes like me were facing danger head on and saving lives!" gloated Mike as he stared down at Teo.

"By danger, he means piles of snow and some spiders… and by saving lives, he means pulling a small lever." Said Bowla as she smiled at Teo.

"Hey! I'm the hero anyway, I pulled the lever and lowered the drawbridge." Said Mike looking to Bowla. "Surely that makes me way better than Teo who never even bothered to go."

"No… it doesn't, anyone could've pulled that lever… and I asked Teo to stay here, he deserves a break after taking on that freaky alien."

"Nevertheless, the train will be redeploying soon. We should pull through to Shiver Town tomorrow at one according to the conductor." Sabrina takes out the pocket watch she stole from Stan and looked at it, revealing to be three o clock. "I will be setting the alarm for eight again… with any luck it does not get rigged again."

"And with that freaky alien gone, the rest of this ride will be smooth sailing." Said Jack.

"Um…" Teo felt the need to speak. "P-Probably not."

Everyone looked over to Teo. "Why?" asked Jack.

"Well um… I'm certain the um, bad guys are going to try and stop this train again… I mean… it was likely that they were the ones who pulled the lever raising the drawbridge to begin with."

Sabrina rubs her chin. "Teo makes a compelling argument… that station was abandoned in the 1930's, and this train has been travelling on these tracks for years, so somebody must have pulled it recently… in fact, it is possible that there is an additional perpetrator on this train."

"Wait! So, there might be another guy who's in cahoots with that alien and this 'Doofen-whatchamacallit' guy?" asked Mike.

"Perhaps… someone must have pulled that lever when the train stopped. Meaning that whoever left the train at some point, must have been the one who pulled the lever."

"But… we were the only ones who left the train didn't we?" asked Teo.

"ALL ABOARD!" shouted the man who entered the train. At that point, the train slowly started moving once again.

Sabrina noticed the man and walked up to him. "Excuse me, who departed the train throughout the time it was motionless?"

The man rubbed his chin. "Hmm… well there was me and you kids… I believe Sharpfin, Mandy, Yen and the three Eds were the only ones to leave… oh and Chip Skylark, but he hasn't come back yet… guess he was departing at Mahogany Town."

Sabrina could've told him the truth, but there was no point. "Ok, thank you." She walked back into Room Five and closed the door. "Ok, that man could be the primary suspect; he was the only one who left the train besides the others who got rid of Zim. It's likely he pulled the lever while we were distracted with Zim and our lunch."

"Speaking of lunch? Where's Samantha?" asked Bowla.

The door suddenly opened revealing a green-faced Samantha looking terribly ill. "Urgh… blarg…"

"Uh... y-you ok?" asked Jack.

"Urp… a twenty-seven-course meal…" muttered Samantha.

"TWENTY-SEVEN?!" Exclaimed Sabrina, she turned to Teo. "Teo did you not keep an eye on her?!"

"I thought she was in here the whole time!" said Teo looking worried.

Suddenly Samantha's cheeks inflated as she tried to desperately keep her mouth close. Everyone immediately grew terrified. "INCOMING!" Screamed Mike as he ran to a corner.

BAAAAAARRRRRRFFF!

Much later, turning from afternoon to night, the gang had moved themselves and their belongings to Room Four while the staff cleaned up Room Five. Everyone recovered physically, mentally and emotionally. All except for Samantha who lied on the right-side couch groaning in misery… "I'll never eat again…" she leaned up. "Speaking of which, I wonder when dinner is."

Teo wasn't paying any attention to her; he was looking around his Baby Bunny for any spots he might have missed when he was cleaning her. Jack was sitting on the bottom left bunk bed reading a book, Bowla was playing on her 3DS and Sabrina had been reading the book she took from Mahogany Station on the opposite couch. Mike not long came into the room after having a quick shower. "Man… I swear I still have carrot-sticks in my ears." He grumbled as he was digging into his right ear.

Sabrina noticed Mike coming in. "Ok, that is everyone right?"

"Yep." Said Mike as he climbed up onto the top left bunk. "Hey what the?!" suddenly the Persian cat jumped off the bed and landed on the couch next to Teo.

"Oh, hello there. Thanks for helping me earlier." Said Teo as he began stroking the cat who immediately cuddled up to Teo.

"I forgot about that cat." Said Mike as he looked down from his bed.

"Aww, how cute." Said Bowla.

"I did not know this train allowed animals." Said Sabrina.

"Well if they let Teo in of all people then they're gonna let a cat in." chuckled Mike.

Teo looked up to Bowla. "So, what are we gonna do about this second culprit?"

"No idea." Said Sabrina. "Even if we prove he was the one who pulled the lever, what difference would it make… unless he planned to destroy the train too which I doubt, since the next stop is Shiver Town itself. He'd be forced to destroy the train with him in it so-"

Suddenly the cat started meowing at Teo. "What's that girl?" he asked. The cat continued meowing; luckily Teo understood every word she said. "I see…" he turned to Sabrina. "Celina here said that man isn't the culprit… the lever was pulled before the train arrived."

"You seriously gonna believe what some mangy cat has to say?" asked Mike.

"Well yeah… animals don't lie." Said Teo. "Plus, this is Santa's cat."

"Santa's?!" exclaimed Bowla.

"So, Santa owns a cat… and she's helping us?" asked Jack.

Teo nodded. "Celina said she was put here by Santa's elves to help us out. They knew the bad guys wouldn't let us get to Shiver Town easily, and Celina claims to have a fraction of Santa's magic to help her find the truth in mysteries."

"Well it explains how you knew it was Chip Skylark that was threatening to blow up the train earlier." Said Bowla.

"W-Well Celina guided me to the right area… and Z-Zim kinda messed up his disguise by talking about the explosives." Teo turned to Celina. "So… is there anyone on this train we should be concerned with?" Celina meowed a few times. "She said no, only Zim was part of the group, everyone else is fine."

"Well in that case! Allow me to be the first to kick back and finally relax!" said Mike as he slumped down onto his bed.

"Well don't get too comfortable, it won't be long before dinner starts." Said Jack.

Mike leans over the side to look down to Jack. "Is it? Well now that you mention it, I am kinda hungry."

Samantha was about to get up, but she fell back onto her couch still feeling sick. "Blurgh… bring me back something please."

"You have had more than the sufficient amount." Said Sabrina. "You might have to miss breakfast tomorrow."

As the gang made their way to the door, Teo turned to face Celina and Samantha who stayed behind. "Um… we'll bring a little something if we can." Celina meowed cheerfully while Samantha simply waved.

"Anyway, I'll be setting the alarm for eight tomorrow." Said Sabrina.

The gang went to the restaurant carriage where they were having a very delicious meal again; as the kids were eating, Sabrina placed the book onto the table and opened the pages. "I have been reading this journal the proprietor of the station had kept in a safe. And I had discovered some very interesting subjects."

"What?" asked Mike.

"According to the book, the proprietor, whom is referred to as Abraham Wallace, has had family ties to Santa Claus since the 1700s. The family has had great respect for the man and has been known to travel with him during expeditions. Apparently, Santa Claus would travel the world when Christmas had passed. The last member of the family, Abraham, conducted a very important expedition, searching for these strange objects called Naughty Crystals."

"N-Naughty Crystals?" Teo asked.

"From the research, it would appear that Naughty Crystals - dubbed by Santa Claus – are a category of minerals infected with negative energy, when exposed to humans, the energy would corrupt their hearts, turning them evil. However, it takes a tremendous amount of time for it to corrupt and a human can be purified, simply by remaining out of contact, though it seems to have a greater effect on children. Abraham's journal specified that he alongside his parents, had travelled with Santa, to terminate the Naughty Crystals."

"Wow, to be able to travel with Santa. That must be something." Said Bowla.

"There is more information. When Abraham had inherited the Mahogany Station, he severed his ties with Santa to fulfil his business. It was there that he discovered a small mine in the east with a giant pile of Naughty Crystals within the deepest level, the last of its kind according to the book. But instead of destroying them, he discovered the monetary value to them. From what I can gather, Abraham got corrupted by the Naughty Crystals if he intended to sell them for a profit as opposed to simply destroying them."

"So, he got a good get rich quick scheme huh? I sure would like one of those." Mike mumbled.

"That is accurate, however he did not exchange them instantaneously, he instead buried the Naughty Crystals deep into a series of treasure boxes scattered across the mountains, to protect them and to exchange them for wealth should he succumb to financial complications. However… he never did exchange them when that time had arrived. And his journal ended abruptly, it is possible some sort of sudden event occurred, but it is implied he chose to not exchange the Naughty Crystals."

"So, they're still out there?" asked Jack.

"It would seem so. However… the last page of this journal states that the Naughty Crystals should be destroyed, and that a map revealing the location of all one hundred and twenty treasure boxes. But…" Sabrina turned the page to see that the map was not there. "The map is absent, it is my logical presumption that someone came to this station before us, and took the map. And if I had to invoke a deduction, I would presume that it was the same individual who pulled the lever in the station."

"The Evil Buddies…" Mumbled Teo.

"Precisely." Sabrina replied as she closed the book. "If this estimation is correct, then this means that the last of the Naughty Crystals are being used in some manner to destroy Christmas."

"So that just means we need to do more smashing!" exclaimed Bowla looking excited.

"Indeed. But a more immediate matter is upon us." Said Sabrina.

"What?"

"Dinner of course."

After dinner, they brought back a small piece of chicken for Celina and a cookie for Samantha, but had to leave it until she was feeling better. Then the gang tucked themselves into their beds and couches after Sabrina set the alarm on her clock. With that the gang fell asleep more peacefully than before, knowing they had no more troubles to deal with.

… or so they thought…