Okay, hopefully I'm not making Shale a Mary Sue. Call me out if I am. Along with the logistics of 'certain events'. But hey, it's all a fanfic about a world filled with sentient trains. Fit me nerds XD


The motley group of humans and humanize day engines continued on the pathway to the lakeside cabin they'd use as their temporary home. Renneas and Rusty brought out some of the food they had as they all sat down in a circle inside.

"So, is everyone still in one piece?" Brigitte asked.

"More or less." Stephen joked. But closed his mouth at his sisters glare.

"Please take this seriously." She said plainly. "Look, we know where we need to go, we have our plan and - if it comes down to it - viable weapons."

"And I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that." Peter mumbled.

"We all do." Skarloey stated. His brother and Rusty handed over some of the food and offered water to all of them.

The narrow gauge leader folded out the map onto the wooden floor. He stroked his chin in a thoughtful motion. "We're pretty close to one of the patrols. I think if we hid in a bush we could steal their outfit for you."

"Yes, that was what I had in mind." Bridgette added. She pointed to a spot on her neck. "There's a spot at the base of our neck that can knock a human out. Aim for there when you hit. Try not to hit to hard, cause… well. Then they'll either be dead or paralyzed."

Each of the engines flinched slightly. But then Renneas cocked his head. "Paralyzed?"

"Means they won't be able to move." Stephen answered.

"Oh."

Even as engines, they had the capacity to move. Not being able to do so at all, the idea terrified them. Skarloey breathed deep and sighed. "So, what else do we need to do?"

"Not much. We still have our plan. Get a uniform, sneak inside, set up the virus, find Shale and some evidence and get out."

"Would it be better to split up in two groups?" Renneas asked. "This way we can search the facility faster."

"Yes, but if we do, then we have a higher chance of getting lost. And we have no efficient way of contacting each other." Skarloey added.

His brother nodded in agreement. "That is a good argument."

"Oh!" Brigitte snapped her fingers. "I've got an idea. After we load the virus onto the computer, we could have one if you come with me and pretend to be captured. I get you to the holding area and you break out Shale. You two then meet back at a set location and then we all run back here. If this area is compromised, then head back to your old railway."

The engines glanced to each other. The human twins did as well. Stephen spoke up. "We know this is probably an uncomfortable idea. If you don't want to do it, we can stick to the old plan."

Finally, Duncan sighed. "Y'know what, fine. I'll do it."

Falcon immediately a double take at that. "Wait, what?"

"Look, she's the only decent human we know. An' she's just a kid. If this means she'll get out faster, then it'll be worth it." He explained. "It's gonna be hell goin' back there. But if we get her out it'll be worth it."

"Thank you Duncan." Edward expressed. Squeezing the others hand. "Thank you so much."

The other coughed and patted his hand. "Yeah, yeah, you're welcome ya old puffball."

"Well, alright." Brigitte nodded. "There's a patrol not to far from here, we can knock him out." She sighed and rubbed her face. "I can't believe we're really doing this. This is happening."

The silence stretched on for a few minutes longer. Each of them taking that in. Yes, this was happening. All of this was happening. Each of the engines thoughts were unique as to how they felt, some anxious, some angry, some determined. But each of them - including the humans - wanted justice.

Justice for all the wrongs committed, justice for those who deserved it for all the things they get away with. This was it. Skarloey stood and breathed him before offering his hand to Brigitte.

"We do this together. All of us. We go together and we leave together." He promised. The others nodded, emboldened by his promise.

They all stepped out together, Briggite taking point and holding the map out to track how far they were from the guard. She handed Skarloey and Renneas one of the handcuffs each while she gave Stephen the peper spray and she took the club. It was about mid afternoon, so the sun was still high in the sky. But despite that, the sky was a pale grey-blue and the few clouds cast additional shadows among the ones formed by the trees.

She had to squint, but she could make out the shape of a man in a grey uniform and helmet carrying a rifle with a light attached to the tip. There were an array of bushes and thick trees, she pointed to each engine and then to where they'd hide. Skarloey and Renneas were both positions closest to the guards path, squeezing the others hand for reassurance.

The guard turned to their way and just as his back was turned, Skarloey leaped out and chopped at his neck. The man was only briefly able to gasp in shock before he fell to the ground. He caught him by the shoulders before he hit the ground and dragged him back.

Brigitte began pulling of the pieces of the uniform while the others left to find a place to hide the body. They cuffed him to a low hanging branch and gagged him with his sock. By the time they got back she was in the middle of adjusting the helmet so it fit better.

"Alright, so Duncan, you're gonna have to come with me." She announced. They'd have him hiding in the bushes and Brigitte would pretend to be surprised and call for help from the fellow guards who'd help take him in.

He nodded and got into positions. Skarloey and the others waiting for the verbal signal to run to the back doors of the facility marked on their map once the virus was loaded.

She continued the path of the guards patrol while Duncan hid in a spot along the way. As she circled around again, he snapped a twig and her head snapped to his position.

"Who's there!" She yelled, attracting the attention of the other guards in the area. She along with the others slowly circle around where Duncan hid before he sprung out from the trees and tacking her.

She cried out in mock shock as they wrestled and pretended to struggle before she slapped on the handcuffs and pinned him to the ground.

"Sorry." She whispered.

"Get the hell offa me ya filthy meat sack!" He screamed. She grinned, he probably wanted to say that to her anyways.

"Wow, what's it doing here? I thought that machines were supposed to be smarter than that." One of the guards commented.

Another laughed. "This one sure ain't. C'mon, bring it inside. Boss'll wanna see this one."

Brigitte had to try to hide her expression. "Boss? Ya mean Tophan?"

"Duh, who else."

She tried to hide her shaking but nodded as she guided Duncan to the building as he struggled the whole way. He nearly even got away, if it wasn't for one of the other guards shoving the butt of his gun into his lungs

They stepped inside the concrete facility which looked no more different than the outside safe for the solid steel doorways. "So, where do we put him?"

"We put it with the others. Cell Block A, down the hall and to the left." He stated. She nodded as they guided her to the area, likely because they knew of the engines strength.

The only thing unique about this door was the large letter 'A' spray painted on. There were two rows of thick metal doors - though each were unlocked with the same key - and before they entered they stripped Duncan of all his clothes. Brigitte made sure to try and glance away at that. She was not interested in knowing exactly how human they'd become.

They forced him into a pale, thin blue gown and after opening one of the far too cramped cages they threw him inside. Brigitte only got a short glance, but she saw no trace of Shale and her rusty hair.

"Shit." She hissed. "Excuse me, I was made aware that there was a… special subject captured. I didn't see her in the cell block."

The two guards glanced behind her. "Subject 062 has been deemed a High Risk factor and has been stored in a more secure location."

She didn't try to press further, it'd look to suspicious. Thankfully, they had to return to their post so she was left to herself. She recalled seeing a map near the entrance, showing the three main hallways, a cafeteria and the current area she was in - the cell blocks.

Turning into one of the hallways, she subtly peeked through the rooms before finding one with a computer. After a sideways glance to be sure nobody was following her, she slipped inside and loaded the drive.

Waiting by the monitor as the virus loaded, once it did Brigitte had full access to each of the cell cameras and controls. Flipping through she found the one with Duncan impatiently shaking the bars while another displayed the outside in grainy footage.

The loop was already set so she quickly left to get the others. Leaving through one of the emergency back entrances, she made sure to check again as she approached their hiding spot.

"Pst, did you know shale rocks are red?"

That was their code and each of the engines peeked out from their hiding areas. "Did you load it?" Her brother asked.

"Yea, it's in. But there's a problem. Shale isn't kept in the main cell blocks."

"Damn." Stephen hissed. "Got any idea where she is?"

"Well, there's only three big hallways, so it shouldn't take too long to find her. So that's a slight alteration, Duncan should be able to break out of his holding area with some help, but I don't think this'll be as clean of a getaway as we all hoped."

Skarloey nodded. "Alright, so we all go back in and pair of to search for Shale. Once we do we help to break Duncan out again and get out as soon as we can."

Each of the engines nodded and split up, Skarloey with Renesas, Peter with Falcon and Rusty with Stephen and Edward. Brigitte snuck then all through the back entrance and lead them down to the room with the hacked computer.

Stephen sat down and told the others that if he caught anything suspicious, he'd have Rusty run the message to them. Afterwards they all split of to check the second hallway. He asked Edward to stay by his side and warn him if he heard anything. He trusted the engine more than himself to carry his weight out the door if worse came to worse. That, and despite his improving mental health, he could still see that Edward was shaken deeper than the others once they stepped inside. Call it brotherly intuition.

Meanwhile, while Duncan sat thinking about breaking out himself, he glanced to the others in the cages. And despite all his bravado, he couldn't help but feel unsettled. Seeing the other former engines broken and shaking made him feel equally hopeless. But then something caught his eye.

It was a human, evident by her long, blond hair and pale skin. She was small and covered in bruises. She looked familiar. He crawled over to the edge of his cage and reached out to try and tap on the bars.

"Pst, hey, hey kid." He whispered. "Ya ain't one of us, what'cha doin here?"

She curled her arms in tighter and pressed back away from him. Duncan cringed to himself and pulled back. "Alright, well, names Duncan. What's yours?"

When she didn't respond he sighed. "Kid, listen, I know you're scared as hel-heck. I'm kinda freaked out too. But you gotta talk to me if you wanna get outta here."

The little girl - after a long minute - shuffled forward. "D-Diana."

"Holy shi-sugar." Duncan exclaimed, catcing himself at the end if his sentence. But he cracked her a lopsided grin. "Kid, this'll either be the best or worse day of your life."

He glanced up to the cameras again, no signal; it being th camera bobing up and down. "Just you wait, kid. We'll get you outta here." Duncan really was starting to get impatient, but he knew the others would come for them. And even if they didn't, he could break them all out regardless.

Outside, Peter and Falcon poked through open doors together, calling out for Shale quietly. Stephen kept a close eye on their hallway specifically, it was dangerously close to the mess hall which was crawling with off duty guards and scientists. But there were also regular patrols in the halls.

One was getting close to their position, he told Rusty who nodded and bolted of to them. He managed to reach them and warn the two, giving them enough time to duck into a empty supply closet. They all held their breath as the guard passed by. His footsteps fell like rocks through the silence.

But once he did pass, Peter was the first to peek outside. Looking to both sides, he saw no one and called the others out. They looked down the hall, lined with the same metal doors but more sterile. Each labeled Laboratory A and Brespectively.

That's when they noticed they didn't walk into a closet. It was another lab. Inside was a long metal table with dozens of leather straps and a cart filled with medical tools none of them knew the function or use of, but looks painful regardless. There were cabinets lined with papers, stained black and red. The air smelt of old blood and oil masked with chlorine. It made each of them gag and Falcon had to try not to puke again.

They all knew the implications of this place, none of them said anything. Rusty left, stating that he needed to get back to Stephen and told them to leave if they needed. But Falcon shook his head and forced himself to step in further and hastily read over the papers.

Beside that, were more small bottles of clear liquid and syringes. The same shape as the ones Shale had. He couldn't understand most of the words, but what stood out the most were 'experiments', 'improvements', 'usefulness' and 'subjects'. Along with it were polaroids of what looked like a adult human strapped to a table, struggling against the restraints. Under it was a label stating '3 Days into Treatment'. The picture were each labeled with the number of days into this 'treatment'. Starting from there and moving up to almost two month. Since they were all in black and white, it was hard to see many changed, but there were other notes of to the side.

'Subject 027 shows promising physical results in testing, being able to carry a load exeding 100 kilograms. Skin pigmentation had begun altering. Mental state deteriorated, delusions and decreased literacy and comprehension. Subject 027 deemed useless and will be terminated and dissected for further research to improve the Treatment.'

Falcon swallowed hard. "They-they were working on other humans." He muttered. "They're tryin' to make more of us out of em'. Or at least do something to make em as strong as us."

This made Peter visibly angry, fisting the loose material of his sweater. "I can't believe this, why would they do this to their own? All for what? Money?"

"Probably, cheap labor too I guess. Or a tourist attraction, turn em into a freak show. It's the only reason they kept us around." Falcon muttered. "C'mon, lets get outta here."

Peter nodded meekly, then rushed up and pulled the other in for a hug. The other raised his free arm and pressed closer, that's when he realized he'd been shaking. After a moment, they nodded to each other and left the room together. They ran back to Rusty and Stephen and showed them what they found and both of them looked mixed between yelling or being sick.

"Oh, oh gosh. This is… Is is worse then anything I expected." Stephen wispered. "The legal system was always flimsy when it came to living machines, but this… there's no way they can ignore this. This is illegal human experimentation, wrong no matter how you cut it."

"That's a understatement if I've ever heard one." Falcon snapped. "We've got the evidence. Now we gotta get Shale and Duncan, the others here too."

Stephen opened his mouth to protest. But snapped shut, he had an expression that said he'd go through it no matter what he'd say. "Okay, it's gonna be harder to get everyone away. We'll need a big distraction."

"We'll figure that out once we're there." Falcon countered. "Where are the others?"

Stephen looked and flipped through the cameras. Skarloey and Renneas had finished looking through the second hallway and had turned to the third. But just as they did, a guard walked out from a side door connected to the cafeteria and Skarloey just managed to pull his brother back.

"Shit." Stephen hissed. They couldn't hear anything from the cameras but they saw the guards suspicion. He began walking down the hall, and had a pistol cocked up. All they could do is watch as the brothers hid behind the corner.

Renneas breath caught as he heard the footsteps. But Skarloey squeezed his hand, a silent promise to trust him. He nodded as he footsteps came closer and he saw his brother close his eyes.

None of them expected what he do next.

Skarloey burst around the corner and charged, Renneas heard a loud bang and something crack and when he turned the corner the man was on the ground with his brother standing over. He didn't have time to say anything as he was dragged in to an empty room just as more men came rushing in from the cafeteria. They bolted back down the hall and hid in the janitors closet as they heard yelling. That's when Renneas finally saw his brothers face properly.

He'd been shot, right through his right eye at an angle. It didn't go straight through, but that didn't make the sight less gruesome. There was just a black pit where his eye was leaking oil that trickled down his cheek and another hole above his ear. Renneas clamped his hand over his mouth, to shocked to speak.

When Skarloey has charged, all he had felt was something fly through his face as he punched the man straight at his face. Now, he couldn't see out of his right eye and he felt slightly dizzy and oddly euphoric. It was only once he felt the liquid drip down his face was when he realized why. There wasn't any pain as he probed the hole. But he knew he needed to patch it or something bad might happen.

Scanning the room with his one good eye, he found a rag and tied it hastily around his head. Renneas was still in shock, Skarloey tried not to think about what he'd just done. He'd said he'd wouldn't let his friends be hurt and he meant it.


Again, don't read to much into that. Also just to be clear, it was established in the comic this was based on that the humanize engines don't feel pain.

Not to mention the mental handicaps that come with loosing a chunk of your brain. Google em' you've got the internet, use it.