Chapter 8: Supercharged Theo.

The next morning, Thomas, James, and the other heroes were working hard helping the steelworks gang with their work around the steelworks. It may have been cloudy, but nobody really cared.

At a far part of the steelworks yards, Leo, Raph, Mikey, Elastigirl, Margo, and Joy were working with Thomas, James, and Merlin as they were shunting rolling stock back and forth across the yard. Elastigirl and Leo worked with Thomas as was shunting a line of ladle cars up on the track by the slag heaps, they even helped dump the slag from the ladle cars into the pits below.

Elastigirl: "Phew, it's a good thing Violet offered to watch over Jack Jack and not have him hang out over here."

Leo: "Mrs. Parr, sometimes I just think you worry too much."

Meanwhile, Raph and Margo were working with James as he was shunting some flatbeds loaded with pipes into their proper order. Right after James had shunted 1 more flatbed against another, he started complaining.

James: "I'm telling you Raph, this really isn't the job for a splendid engine like me."

Raph lifted 1 of the pipes off of the flatbed, but he responded to James once he threw it down.

Raph: "Quit whining James, I'm okay with this heavy duty work. It's kinda like me and brothers training for combat, but with making and unloading metal."

James: "Ugh, if you insist."

After Raph unloaded another pipe, he looked to his right and took a glance at Margo. But she wasn't working at all, she was leaning against the far corner of the flatbed typing through her phone.

Raph: "Hey tuts,(Margo looks up towards Raph) aren't you supposed to be helping us with this heavy stuff!?"

Margo: "First of all, I'm busy texting my friend Avery. Second, I'm not even strong enough to carry just 1 of these stupid pipes!"

Raph: "I can help you with lifting them, now come on!"

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Margo tucked her phone back into her skirt pocket and went over to help Raph with unloading the next pipe. They each grabbed hold of another pipe, Margo on the left and Raph on the right. They hoisted it up off the flatbed, then they rested it on their shoulders (while it also squished Margo's ponytail a little bit). After they carried it over to the other pipes Raph had unloaded, they carefully dropped it down with the others before relaxing each of their muscles.

Raph: "There, was that so hard?

All Margo could do was give a big sigh while pinching the bridge of her nose, then they went back to work.

Meanwhile, Mikey and Joy were working with Merlin as he shunted 2 flatbeds loaded with steel beams against a set of buffers. After Merlin backed up a couple feet, Joy jumped down from his cab doing a front flip while Mikey did the same right behind her.

Mikey: "Booya-kasha, steelworks heroes in full effect yo!"

Joy: "Yeah, boo-ya!"

With that, Mikey and Joy did a quick high fist bump. Merlin was watching them, and he actually had something about them on his mind.

Merlin: "Excuse me, but how well do you guys do at your job as heroes?"

Mikey: "1 time, me and my brothers saved all of New York from a whole Krang invasion. We were so close to dying inside that technodrome, but we escaped in the last second by getting warped out of there."

Joy: "Aww man, I can't believe I missed all that!"

Merlin: "Oh no worries Joy, I'm sure you'll go on your own adventure some day. I for one love to go on adventures, I once visited a castle that was owned by a steam engine with robot arms."

Mikey and Joy suddenly gave Merlin a shocked look on each of their faces, but they just shrugged it off as Thomas, James, Elastigirl, Leo, Raph, and Margo came over to them.

Joy: "Thanks Merlin, I'm sure my adventure will be when we take down Diesel 10 and his army."

Leo: "You're right Joy, but we still gotta make sure we take them down the right way."

Margo: "But Leo, Raph said we just needed to be invisible, hard as steel, but make them think we can't do anything. As Thomas said, these guys have that covered for us."

Merlin: "Indeed, I've got the invisibility!"

Suddenly, everyone except Thomas gave Merlin a confused look.

Raph: "Hold on, you've got the invisibility?"

Mikey:(chuckles)"No offense bro, but I don't think it's possible for a steam engine to turn invisible."

Merlin: "Of course I can, allow me to demonstrate….Invisibility oooon!"

With that, Merlin puffed a massive cloud of steam around him. As the cloud kept spreading, Elastigirl, Leo, Raph, and Margo each coughed up a storm while fanning the steam away from their faces. As the steam cleared, they couldn't see Merlin anywhere. But after looking around more, they could see Merlin parked behind a line of ladle cars while having his eyes tightly closed.

Mikey: "We can se-

But before Mikey could finish his sentence, Elastigirl clapped her left hand over his mouth.

Elastigirl: "Thomas says not to tell him that he's not invisible."

With that said, Mikey just slouched in defeat with Elastigirl's hand still over his mouth.

Meanwhile at the yards by the side wall of the steelworks building, Violet, Dash, Lincoln, Lori, Agnes, Oscar, and Donnie were talking with Theo, Hurricane, Frankie, and Lexi while they were on their break. Theo and Frankie were facing the others from the further side of the track, and Hurricane and Lexi were parked by the other heroes facing the other 2 engines. Over in a grassy part of the yards, Jack Jack was playing with a small pipe while also whacking it against the ground. The other heroes were watching this, and they thought Jack Jack couldn't look anymore adorable.

Frankie: "Aww, look how sweet that little one is."

Violet: "Yep, my baby brother can be quite a ball of cuteness at times."

Dash: "Hey, he's my baby brother too ya know."

Hurricane: "Either way, I can't tell you 2 how lucky you kids are for having such a nice baby brother."

Suddenly, it looked like Jack Jack was about to sneeze. The moment he did, he burst into a mix of fire and electricity. During that, he accidentally shot a beam of his eye lasers towards the engines and heroes who ducked/backed up for cover. After they came back, they looked towards Jack Jack who just laughed off that fun moment.

Theo: "D-D-Did that kid just?..."

Violet: "Yep."

Dash: "Oh, he can do more than just shoot lasers and burst into fire and electricity. He can levitate himself in the air, he can teleport to all the corners of our house, he can make himself into a metal statue, duplicate himself and even turn into a monster. Freaking awesome!"

Donnie: "Wow, talk about mega power. If Mikey were over here, he'd probably name Jack Jack Mega-power baby or supreme baby."

Hurricane: "You got that right, your kid is a fine looking treasure that you cannot lose."

Lexi: "You said it Hurricane, Jack Jack is such a treasure."

Violet: "Thanks for the compliment you guys, it means a lot."

Frankie: "Theo, can you move those steel flatbeds behind you please?"

Theo: "Uhh, alright."

With that, Theo backed up against the flatbeds to get ready to move them. But when he tried to move them, they wouldn't budge.

Theo: "Uhh, let me try that again."

So he pushed against the flatbeds even harder, but they still didn't budge. He tried repeatedly shoving against the flatbeds, but all he accomplished was causing the flatbeds to vibrate from each impact. Feeling completely exhausted, Theo eventually gave up.

Lexi:(sighs) "It's okay Theo, I got it."

With that, Theo moved forward a bit as Lexi could switch onto his track. Once Lexi buffered up to the flatbeds, she pushed them over to a section of the yard where they wouldn't be in the way. While she did that, the other heroes noticed that Theo was looking sad.

Theo: "I'm sorry guys, I'm just so tired of feeling so weak and not able to shunt proper freight cars around."

After seeing Theo look so sad, Violet, Dash, Donnie, Lincoln, Lori, and Oscar shared sad looks with each other. Suddenly, Dash's face lit up as he got an idea.

Dash: "Hey Theo, how about this? If you wanna be as strong as your friends, maybe a supercharger can help you?"

Theo: "Really?"

Donnie: "But Dash, we didn't even pack the-

But before Donnie could finish his sentence, Dash quickly reached behind his back and pulled out a canister of superchargers.

Violet: "Dash you little sneak!"

Theo: "Do you really think this will help me become stronger?"

Donnie: "I don't know about this, being supercharged is very serious."

Lincoln: "Come on Donnie, we're only gonna use 1 supercharger."

Agnes: "Yeah, I wanna see Theo get supercharged!"

Donnie thought about this for a moment, he knew how valuable these superchargers were. But he knew they would only use 1 for now, so he had no choice but to accept it.

Donnie:(sighs) "Alright Theo, let's just get this over with."

After that, Agnes and Oscar started cheering while jumping for joy.

A few minutes later, Donnie used a supercharger-catching stick to catch a supercharger from the canister. Then he walked over to Theo, next he climbed inside his cab and started plugging in the supercharger.

Donnie: "Alright Theo once I plug this in, you're gonna feel a quick jolt."

After a few minutes, Donnie finished plugging in the supercharger. After he jumped down from Theo's cab, he stood in front of Theo.

Donnie: "That should do it, give it a try Theo."

When Theo tried building up steam, the inside of his funnel, his undercarriage, his lamp-light, his gear-bolts, and his firebox all started gaining a light blue supercharged glow. Throughout that whole moment, Theo started feeling much stronger than ever.

Theo: "Rattling rods, i've never felt so much power!"

Just then, Thomas, James, Merlin, Elastigirl, Leo, Raph, Mikey, Margo, and Joy came by to find out what all the commotion was about.

Leo: "Hey guys, what's going on over here?"

Theo: "Hey Leonardo, Donatello let me use 1 of his superchargers! Now look at me, I'm all powerful!"

Donnie: "Well technically, they're not entirely my-

Dash: "Oh you haven't seen anything yet, try moving those flatbeds away!"

Theo looked ahead at 5 flatbeds loaded with steel beams, then he narrowed his eyes in determination. He quickly moved towards the flatbeds faster than he had ever gone (by himself) before, then he shunted them against each other easy as pie. James watched in horror as the flatbeds came right at him, then he quickly reversed onto a siding to let the flatbeds shoot right by. After the flatbeds hit the buffers with a crash, Theo felt very proud of himself.

Theo: "What else am I able to move now?"

Theo quickly reversed back towards Hurricane and Frankie, then he bashed into 4 ladle cars behind him that were still filled with slag. He bashed them into another set of buffers, but some of the slag got slightly spilled around them.

Frankie: "Be careful Theo, you're spilling the slag!"

Theo: "Sorry Frankie, this is just so amazing!"

At the next minute, Theo raced onto a nearby turntable as quick as a flash. He then started spinning on it at lightning speed, Donnie, Elastigirl, Violet, Leo, and Joy started growing a bit worried.

Theo: "Come on, let's see what else I can do! I'll take on anything ya got! I'll defeat anything ya got! I'll…..I'll….."

Suddenly, Theo's supercharged glow flickered before it faded away. A coughing noise came from his funnel, then a wisp of black smoke started pouring out of it.

Theo: "Uhh, what just happened?"

Donnie: "Your supercharger must've burned out, it was fun while it lasted though."

Theo: "Aww man, I wanted to be as strong as you guys!"

Hurricane: "No worries Theo, you're still helpful with bringing us empty spare ladle cars."

Theo looked down in sadness, but he knew that Hurricane was right. Margo came up beside Theo, and she patted the side of his smokebox for comfort. Violet did the same on the other side, and Theo soon felt much better.

But while they were all comforting Theo, what they didn't know was that Bebop and Rocksteady were watching them from a hill by the edge of the steelworks yard. They faced each other and nodded, then they started making their way back to the dieselworks to tell Diesel 10 that they had found where some of the heroes were hiding out at.

To be continued.