Chapter 24: Railroad Wrath
Sometime later, Cuphead, Mugman, and Red Rose come across each other at the intersection at the end of town. Each of them are holding two rolled up parchment papers. What's more, all three of them are looking rather tired.
"Hey guys, glad to see you two again. How did things go?" Red rose asks.
"I got Dr. Kahl's robot's contract and Rumor Honeybottoms' contract. Those two were rough. I thought my head was going to crack," Cuphead answers.
"I got Wener Werman's contract, and I just got Sally Stageplay's contract. I also ended up giving a performance during one of her shows," Mugman answers.
"Sounds like you had a good time with her," Cuphead replies.
"Not if you had to watchout for stage props. Some of them hurt," Mugman says, rubbing his head.
"At least you didn't have to deal with sea creatures. I dealt with sea animals at sea sometimes, but what I had to go through is crazy. I manage to get the contacts from Brineybeard and Cala Maria, but those two were tough. And you want to know what the crazy thing is, Cala Maria is actually a friend of my parents" Red Rose explains.
"What?! She is?!" Mugman exclaims in shock.
"Yeah. According to Cala Maria, no one but my dad was able to beat her. Only I was able to beat her with a plan not a boat. Soon after, they both became good friends. She also became good friends with my mom," Red Rose explains.
"Yeah. Either way, we only need to get one contract left. And um…" Cuphead says, starting to sound concern.
Then he says to the others, "Guys, I'm starting to think handing these contracts to the Devil might not be a good idea."
"Yeah. This doesn't feel right. Even if we hand those contracts to the Devil, how do we know he's going to keep his word," Red Rose agrees.
"I know what you mean," Mugman sadly replies.
"So what are we going to do? I may not know the Devil as much as you guys do, but I'm pretty sure the Devil is not going to take no for an answer," Red Rose wonders.
"I'm sure we'll figure something out. Right now, we have one more debtor to find and collect the contract from," Cuphead says.
Mugman wonders, "Who was the last one again?"
"It's the Phantom Express," Cuphead answers.
"The Phantom Express?" Red Rose questions
Mugman shivers and shows a scared look on his face, "The Phantom Express is supposed to be this haunted train that lives in the tunnel of the train tracks. What's more, the cave where the casino is… it's close by."
"Well, it looks like we know where we need to go after dealing with the ghost train," Red Rose replies.
"Yeah. Let's get to the train tracks," Cuphead says.
The three head down the path to find the Phantom Express with Cuphead taking the lead. Surprisingly the tracks where they need to look for isn't that far from the city.
"So this is where the train track is at," Red Rose replies.
"Yep. All we have to do is collect the contract and then we'll be heaving back to the casino," Cuphead says.
"And it seems the train tracks are closed," Mugman replies.
The three friends look to see the tracks has a wooden plant with red and white stripes blocking the tracks. Plus, the signal lights is red so they are unable to walk across the tracks.
"So how are we going to get across?" Red Rose asks.
"Yeah. The track wasn't blocked the last time we were here," Mugman replies.
Then Cuphead suspect, "I'll bet the Phantom Express is coming here."
Right on cue, they hear a loud train whistle. Then, they look to see the train riding right past them at top speed.
Red Rose looks at the boys, and asks, "Alright, how exactly are we going to catch that train? There's no way we can tach up to it by foot."
"How about that train car?" Mugman points out.
Cuphead and Red Rose looks to see another train car. This one is most likely a large board with wheels, and turn wheels attached to poles.
Cuphead smiles, and says, "That will work."
"Whoo hoo!" Red Rose screams with a smile.
The three friends are now riding in the train car. They are going up, down, and side to side on the tracks. The three are actually having fun.
"This is fun. We should do this more often," Cuphead says with a smile.
"Maybe after we get that contract from the train," Red Rose replies.
Then Mugman says, "And there it is."
The three look ahead to see the caboose of the train. The problem is that they need to beat the train in order to get the contract. Luckily, Cuphead is able to get the train on the other tracks, so they can move forward to catch the engine of the train.
When they manage to reach the caboose of the train, a big gholish light blue ghost appears from the train. There is only one eye hole on the face, and an eye on each of the palm of his hand. The three scream in fright.
Red rose asks, "What in the world is that?"
"This one is the Blind have to defeat him in order to get to the others," Cuphead answers.
"Quite an eye full isn't it," the Blind Spector remarks.
The three simply stare at the spector for the joke.
Red Rose sighs, "Let's just blast him."
The boys nod their heads in reply, and they begin firing at the Blind Spector. Butthe ghost is not giving up that easily. It begins to throw eyeballs from his hands to attack the three. The three managed to dodge the attacks, and continue to fire at the caboose. Red Rose looks up to see pumpkins with wings flying over them with red bricks. Then drop them. Red Rose blast the pumpkins, and kicks the bricks out of the way. The three then continue to attack the ghost. Once the ghost is defeated, the Blind Spector goes back into the train.
"Well that's one down," Red Rose replies.
Then Cuphead says, "But we still have four more of his friends to deal with. I think the next one is T Bone"
Soon, Mugman turns the wheel, and they accelerate to a different part of the train past the caboose. Suddenly, a giant skeleton head wearing a red conductor's hat with a little yellow on it pops out of the middle car with massive arms and hands coming out both sides.
"I'm guessing that's T Bone," Red Rose suspects.
"That's him, and he's huge," Cuphead replies.
"What do we do now?" Mugman asks.
"Mugman, you and I need to turn the wheels so we can dodge the hands. Cuphead, think you can take on that giant bag of bones," Red Rose informs.
"Got it," Cuphead agrees.
Red rose takes the left wheel while Mugman takes the right. With that, Cuphead begins to fire his magic at the skull. Just then, the head and the arms duck in the train cars, and come back up in different ones. Now the head is on the left car, and both of his hands are on the other.
Cuphead calls out, "Red Rose, we need to move out of the way."
"On it," Red Rose says.
Red Rose turns the wheel, and the platform draws back to the left car so Cuphead can fire at the head. At the same time, the large hands smash on the tracks, missing the three.
Soon the skeleton ducks inside the train again. Then reappears on the far right.
"Mugman!" Cuphead cries.
"Got it," Mumgan answers.
Mugman turns the wheel, and the platform moves to the third car. Luckily, the hands misses, and Cuphead continues to shoot at the skull.
The skeleton and his arms get inside the car again, and appears over the middle car. Red Rose turns the wheel, and they get to the middle car. Cuphead is able to fire his magic at the skull. It disappears again, and appears in the left car. Red rose turns the wheel again, and the platform goes to the car where the skull is. Cuphead continues to shoot his magic at the skull.
Soon enough, Cuphead is able to defeat T. Bone the skeleton conductor. T bone cries and goes back into the train.
Mugman turns the wheel, and they forward to the other set of three train tracks.
Red rose wonders, "Are these guys going to be in different train cars?"
"Pretty much," Cuphead answers.
"So who we have to deal now?" Red Rose asks.
"I think it's the Blaze Brothers," Mugman answers.
Suddenly, two strange poles with circle heard, yellow eyes, red eye brows, sharp noses, and sharp teeth appear from the two train cars. The only remaining ones, is the middle with two black pipes moving up and down.
Red Rose comes to the middle, and says, "Cuphead take the wheel. I'll handle these two."
"Alright," Cuphead replies.
Cuphead takes the wheel and Red Rose stands in the middle of the platform and she begins to fire her red rose bullets left brother. The brother on the right, begins to take deep breath, and blast out lightning. Cuphead turns the wheel, and help the cart move to the one Red Rose is firing.
"That was close." Mugman replies.
"Yeah, but it's not over yet. Let's get the other one," Red Rose says.
The boys turns the wheels so the platform can go to the brother on the right. Red rose fires. As predicted, the brother on the left unleashes the same attack.
After that attack, Red Rose notice small ghosts are flying towards the platform with she and her friends on it. Red Rose fires at the ghosts and disappears. During the time, Red Rose understands a pattern.
She turns to the boys, and says, "Get to the one on the left. After the right one fires, then we head towards him."
"Aye eye captain!" the brothers chant.
The boys turns the wheels, and they are rolling towards the brother on the left. Red Rose fires at it. The brother on the right fires the lightning.
Once that is done, they roll to the one on the right. Red Rose shoots her magic as the brother on the left fire. At the same time, the small white ghosts are floating to the platform, so Red Rose is able to shoot at them too.
Once, the left brother finishes the attack, the boys turns the wheel, causing the platform to roll to it. Red Rose continues to fire at the left brother of the train.
Suddenly, the left brother's head melts away and the pipe goes inside the train. Soon the last Blaze brother fires the lightning to attack the boys, but he's fart out of his reach. Then is going to return.
Red Rose calls out, "Guys, now's our chance! I'll fire as you guys get close to it!"
"You got it!" Cuphead answers.
The boys turn the wheel and reach the second train car as Red rose fire at the second Blaze Brother. Red Rose continues to fire at the other brother until his head melts off too, and the pole goes back inside the train.
Soon, the boys turn the wheels and go forward. The three cheer with smiles on their faces. Soon, they are going past the rest of the train even the train engine.
"Glad to know this is over," Mugman happily says.
"Yeah. And it looks like that rumor wasn't true,"Cuphead replies.
Red rose looks at the boys with confused, "Rumor? What rumor?"
"Oh, it's just a rumor about a rampaging locomotive that is supposed to be attached to the Phantom Express. I'm just glad the rumor isn't true. Otherwise, it will be chasing us. Plus, legend also says that the Phantom Express can only be on that track, so there's no way it can get us," Cuphead explains.
Red Rose turns around, and becomes a bit nervous, "Um guys, I think the rumor is more true than you think."
The boys looks back to see the grayish purple locomotive with a blue face of the Phantom Express is running right towards them on the track. The train now has long blue legs, and grayish purple wheels, and showing his teeth and eyes in anger.
"It's… AFTER US!" Mugman screams in fright.
The boys turn the wheel, and they go at top speed. But the aggressive head of the train is chasing after them. The locomotive manages to catch up with them.
"Alright guys, we're going to have to fire at that train," Cuphead says.
"Right," Red Rose and Mugman answer.
Soon, all three begin to fire their magic at the train engine, but it seems to be affecting it a little. Cuphead then notices the tran has a red light sticking out of the back. Cuphead kicks the light, and the engine compartment opens to reveal a kind of strange heart with pipes on it.
Cuphead has an idea, "Guys, aim at the compartment."
Red Rose and mugman looks to see the heart shape engine inside the train, they nod their heads and begin to fire. Cuphead joins in. As they fire, the engine is spouting out flaming coal, and bone like frisbee.
Soon the compartment closes. And Cuphead kicks the light again. Soon, the three friends are dodging the attacks as they shoot their magical abilities at the train. They keep hitting the heart engine, and the door closes. Cuphead has to continue hitting the tail, and the three use their magic at the engine heart three times, as they dodge's the train's attacks.
Suddenly, Mugman has an idea, "Cuphead, let's me give a whack at that train."
"Whatever you say, Mugs. If you're sure if it will work," Cuphead answers, not questioning it.
Cuphead takes the wheel, and Red Rose holds on as they try to get rid of the train. Mugman kicks the light, causing the compartment to open up revealing the engine's heart. Mugman then uses the magical art, causing a spirit version of himself with the heart in the middle to come to life. Soon, the spirit of Mugman begin to punch the heart. Cuphead and Red Rose are amazed to see the special power Mugman performs.
Soon the spirit breaks the heart engine in half, and the train begins to cry as it lose it balance. Just then, with a loud toot, the train launches a rolled up parchment into the air, and lands on the platform.
"What is that?" Red Rose questions.
Cuphead picks it up, and unrolls it to see what it says, "It's the Phantom Express' contract."
"We got it!" Mugman cheers.
"And it's thanks to you bro," Cuphead complements.
"Yeah. How you learn to use that kind of power?" Red Rose asks.
"Ms. Chalice gave me a special magical artifact that gave me that special move," mugman answers.
"Let me guess, she got trapped in another mausoleum," Red Rose suspects.
"Right," Mugman answers.
"Should have known," Cuphead replies.
After defeating the Phantom Train and getting his contract, the three friends are able to ride the rails back to the tunnel to where the cave is. What's more is where the casino and the Devil is at. They get off the platform and sit down with exhausted look on their faces.
Mugman sighs in relief, "Phew, that was too close!"
"You can say that again. It's official, I hate trains. Remind me to never go on a train again," Red Rose says looking very annoyed.
"Whatever you say," Cuphead replies.
The three then get off of the train car, and walk towards the cave. From Red Rose's point of view, it's like how her mother says it looks like.
"So this is where the Devil and King Dice are. Are you sure we want to go in there?" Red Rose replies.
"Well, we don't really have much of a choice," Cuphead answers.
"Kind of wish we did," Mugman scaredly replies.
Cuphead says, "You ain't getting scared now."
"Not after the contracts we had to collect," Red Rose replies.
"Yeah. I know. We better get going. The sooner we take care of this, the sooner we can get out of here," Cuphead says.
"I agree. I do not want to get into anymore fights longer than I have to," Red Rose replies.
The three friends begin to head towards the cave where the Devil and King Dice are. Now they have use all the power and magical abilities they can to fight them back.
Back at the boys house, Elder Kettle is sitting on his rocking chair. He looks at the photo of himself along with Cuphead and Mugman. He really hopes the boys and Red Rose are alright, and hope nothing bad has happened to them.
Suddenly, he hears knocking on the door.
Elder Kettle gets up from his rocking chair, and wonders, "Who could that be?"
Elder Kettle walks to the door, and opens it. When he opens the door, he shows a surprised look on his face.
"I'm I seeing things?" Kettle asks in surprise.
"No. But it's been a long time since I left to the high seas," a man's voice replies.
"It is you. It's been years since I last saw you Storm," Kettle replies with glee.
The man is indeed Storm Wilds, Red Rose's father and his crew are with him.
"So what brings you back to the island?" Kettle asks.
"It's kind of a long story, but I'm wondering if you have seen a young girl around thirteen years old with crimson red rose hair and blue eyes…" Storm begins to asks.
Kettle chuckles with a smile, and says, "I had a feeling you'd be asking about Red Rose. She told us about the incident that she had."
"You saw her?" Storm asks in surprise.
"Yes. She's with my boys about now going a long journey. Why don't you come inside with your friends and I'll explain everything. I'll even make you some nice hot tea," Kettle answers.
"Thank you Kettle," Storm says.
Elder Kettle escorts Storm and his crew and soon he will have to explain to Storm about what his daughter is doing with the boys. He can only hope the boys can take the news well.