Stephanie panicked as she ran through the tight crowds as fast as she could.
She could not miss the train now!
Her long legs ran as fast as she could, trying to catch up to it before it could leave the station.
Since there were many people around in the station, she could not show her powers publicly to speed things up for her.
People would be afraid of her and call the police on her, or worse, get the Pentagon to chase after her if she even used teleportation powers.
So, she tried doing the best she could without showing them.
Stephanie zoomed through the station, weaved through the crowds while pardoning herself, and jumped over objects without hitting them on accident.
"Excuse me!" Stephanie pardoned herself as she passed an elderly man with a teenager.
"Slow down, ma'am!" A conductor called after her before she disappeared into the crowd again. "Or else you might accidentally go into someone!"
"Sorry!" Stephanie called over her shoulder before speeding up slightly.
"All passengers board the train on platform two," the voice on the speakers spoke. "Where your train is about to leave."
Stephanie sped up faster to catch the train, weaving through the thick crowds and pardoning herself along the way.
But before she could reach the platform, she tripped over something that got in her way, causing her to yelp, along with the object she stumbled over too.
Stephanie landed on the ground roughly, where she bit her lip with her teeth, causing it to bleed slightly from the inside.
Her hands skidded across the concrete ground, which scratched them, and her glasses fell off, gently clunking against the asphalt, luckily not breaking the lens or the frame.
Stephanie's knees scraped across and scratched her legs along with her chin too.
After crashing into whatever it could be, Stephanie slowly and slightly painfully got up from the asphalt before reaching over to her glasses and picking them up, placing them onto her nose bridge.
She softly hissed through her teeth slightly when she felt some stinging on the bottom of her chin, reaching over to it with the tips of her fingers and feeling some blood against it when she glanced down at it.
Once Stephanie got up onto her knees, she glanced over at who or what she crashed into.
She saw a British golden-doodle dog right next to her, whining softly with its tail between its legs.
"Oh!" She exclaimed worriedly, turning her body around towards the dog and gently stroked its head. "I'm so sorry!"
She quickly checks for injuries on the dog before gently kissing the dog between the eyes as an apology.
When she kissed the dog gently between the eyes, she noticed there were bits of black blood stained onto the fur.
Confused, she reached up in confusion and felt her mouth with her left hand, noticing that she was bleeding from her bottom lip.
Suddenly, the conductor's whistle blew, and it caused Stephanie to perk up, panicking when she noticed the train was about to leave.
Scrambling up to her feet and ignoring the pain from tripping, she ran towards the platform she was supposed to be on, as the dog she went into watched her, as its tail wagged slightly.
Once she arrived at the platform after pardoning herself and gently pushing through the crowd, it was already empty, and the train she was supposed to take had already left.
She skidded to a stop from running off the platform and groaned in frustration, placing a hand against her forehead while gritting her teeth.
Stephanie missed all the trains after tripping over the dog!
She took her phone out of her pocket and looked up the schedule to catch the next train.
But to her dismay, there were no other trains to go to where she wanted to go.
Sighing sadly, she turned her phone off and placed it back into the pocket of her blue jeans, getting ready to turn around to leave the train station with glum.
Suddenly, a train whistle went through the air, catching her attention before she could turn around to leave.
She glanced around for a moment when a train pulled up along the platform Stephanie was standing on.
The train was painted bright blue with a red-lining, and the number one is painted on the sides of his tanks in yellow with red-lining, and the lining around his cab windows is yellow.
Curiously, the driver and fireman stepped out from inside the cab, not noticing Stephanie watching them with mild confusion, glancing around as they walked away from the steaming locomotive.
Stephanie looked around for a moment before glancing back at the train, groaning softly to herself while gritting her teeth nervously.
She is stuck between going on the train to hitch a ride or another one to come by.
But she does not want to wait another day to get on another train, not wanting to miss a chance.
So, daringly, she took the challenge and quickly went over to the train before hopping into it, hiding where the conductor or the driver and fireman would not see her.
She harnessed her powers into her sweater, pulling her hood up over her head, and hid tightly in the corner, using a camouflaged ability.
After she had hidden in the corner inside the cab from the conductors, she heard footsteps.
They were returning to the locomotive after a few minutes had passed.
She went as tight against the corner as she could as they hopped inside, and the whistle blew.
That whistle means the train has to leave the station.
After the whistle blew, she curiously watched as the driver and fireman went to work on stoking the coal into the firebox, as the driver turned values and moved steam around.
Stephanie continued watching the 'magic' with curiosity until she stifled a yelp when the locomotive started moving forward, causing her to be knocked back.
Peeking slightly from underneath her hood pulled over her head, Stephanie was relieved that none of them heard her move or heard her yelp in startlement.
Stephanie went back to where she was hiding, continuing to watch the driver and fireman working on the controls, keeping herself still.
Suddenly, she felt a strange feeling inside her that bloomed as she had never experienced before in many years.
It made Stephanie feel tingly as she shuddered to herself quietly, curling up more into a ball.
The tingly feeling lasted a long time, causing her to shudder more until it stopped.
Stephanie perked a little after the feeling disappeared, allowing her to unfurl from her ball slowly.
She glanced around in curiosity, wondering where she is now.
So, she bravely decided to come out of her hiding in the opening and look out of the window.
Using the knuckles of her fingers, she slowly crawled out from her hiding place, glancing up at the driver and fireman to check if they either saw her or moved.
The inside of the train looked marvelous to her, admiring the view of how the controls work.
After the coast cleared, she slowly stood up from the ground to look out the window when she stopped to look at the controls.
It was wondrous as she watched the levers, switching from side to side, up and down, and flicking in the same direction.
Truthfully, she had never been inside a steam-powered locomotive before in her life.
Slowly, Stephanie stood up more to her feet, forgetting to look through the window of the cab.
Luckily, her knees are already healed from the scratches, but they are still sore.
Suddenly, the train's whistle blew in the air that made her jolt, stumbling forward when her hands moved up from the ground at a quick pace.
Her hand accidentally touched the brakes when her knee slipped on some water on the ground, causing the train to screech into an unexpected stop.
During that move, she collided with the wall in front of her with a loud thud!
Her sudden slip made the driver and fireman stumble a little and land on the ground next to her, luckily not burning their hands.
Luckily, she turned her head before hitting the wall, but her glasses fell off her face unbroken.
She groaned from the impact on the side of her head and slowly got up from the floor, clutching her head.
Wobbling, she slowly rose from the ground, sitting down while softly hissing to herself, feeling the side of her head as her camouflage disappeared.
With her right hand, she picked her glasses up from the ground, placing them on.
She then slowly got off the train by crawling before landing on the ground on her side.
She stood there for a moment to get the dizziness out of her head before moving.
Once the dizziness went away, she slowly stood up to her feet, hissing through her teeth softly in pain from the impact of metal against her head.
It throbbed slightly, but not too much for her.
"Who are you?!" Stephanie recoiled when she heard the driver's voice, stiffening a little before glancing over her shoulder.
He and the fireman looked confused but mostly annoyed that they had an unexpected visitor in their locomotive's cab without them noticing.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Stephanie apologized as she gulped a little, trying to lie to them. "I, uh, I was-"
"Who's in my cab?" Stephanie's lies stopped when she heard an unfamiliar voice coming from outside, causing her to be confused.
"Who was that?" Stephanie asked, glancing over at the door of the cab.
The driver stood up from the ground after Stephanie asked, saying, "Stand up, and we'll show you who asked."
Stephanie paused a little with worry, thinking that they were going to report her to a conductor from trying to hitch a ride in their locomotive's cab, but agreed to just give in to explain what she was doing.
She took the driver's hand and stood back up to her feet, which confused him when he noticed her metal hand.
Instead of asking, he helped her out of the cab, stepping onto the gravel next to the rails.
"Driver, who was in my cab?" the voice asked again as Stephanie noticed it sounded confused but also impatient and worried.
Without the driver, Stephanie walked in front of the locomotive, thinking that there was someone in front of them.
But paused when she noticed that there was no one.
Thinking that it was some prank they were pulling on them, Stephanie was about to ask who was playing tricks on her when a voice responded from behind her, "Who are you?"
This confused Stephanie more as she turned around, only to encounter something out of the ordinary and a little scary.
The locomotive's front that was supposed to be an ordinary appearance had a face!
It looked to be a young adult, with black eyes staring at her with confusion.
Mostly about her appearance and metal arm with her long multi-color wires and eye.
"What… happened to your arm and eye?" he slowly asked, nodding gently to her arm. "And your hair, it looked like real wires!"
Stephanie looked at her metallic hand with slight confusion as her other hand reached over to her hair, gently twirling some wires around her finger.
"Uh… Let's just say that some things are not the right time to answer," Stephanie responded calmly, looking back up at him from her arm, and stopped feeling her hair.
He paused a little after Stephanie responded calmly to him after asking about her appearance before saying, "Okay, but what were you doing in my cab? Were you trying to come to Sodor too?"
A confused expression appeared on her face after he asked, asking in return, "What's 'Sodor?'"
He looked more puzzled after Stephanie asked, as she was using her search, looking up the term 'Sodor,' but found some evidence on her question.
"Oh, it's a magical island, am I right?" Stephanie politely asked.
"…Yes?" he nodded. "How did you know that quickly?"
She took her glasses off and gently tapped the side of her head, mentioning her left cybernetic eye.
"Well, since I have this as a replacement from my real one," Stephanie explained as she walked up to him without showing signs of fear. "I can use as much information I learned to understand things in a snap. Anyway, who are you since we got off the… wrong wheel."
He paused a little after Stephanie explained before answering, "My name is Thomas. Thomas, the Tank Engine."
"Ah, pleased to meet you, Thomas, the Tank Engine!" Stephanie smiled, bowing politely to him. "My name is Stephanie, Stephanie Allen!"
"What does 'Stephanie Allen' mean?" Thomas, the tank engine, asked with curiosity.
"It's just a name, Thomas." Stephanie chuckled, understanding his curiosity about her name. "But, in Greek, the name Stephanie or Στέφανος translates as Stephanos, which means 'crown.'"
Thomas's eyes popped with surprise after getting some information about her name, asking, "Do you know what my name means?"
Stephanie paused a little after he asked, answering with a gentle chuckle, "Your name in Greek sounds like this; Θωμάς."
Thomas listened as Stephanie continued talking, surprised at how fluent she speaks when she spoke in a different language, before looking confused when she giggled, "It means 'twin' and 'leader.'"
Thomas looked surprised after Stephanie explained as his driver chuckled, "So I guess your name does come with how you got the number one, hmm?"
Stephanie nodded in agreement before remembering the question of what she was doing in his cab.
"Oh, forgive me, I must've forgotten about the question of what I was doing in your cab." Stephanie politely spoke as she blushed in a light neon pink color. "I was trying to get to the train station back at Shining Time and was late because someone decided to stall time by screaming at me for something I did nothing wrong."
Stephanie's tone sounded a little dry with a hint of annoyance, which made Thomas nod in agreement, knowing that it would always happen.
"So I thought hitching a ride with you would help me go to where I wanted to go," Stephanie explained, finishing her story. "But got on Sodor instead."
Thomas slowly nodded after Stephanie explained as she asked, "But what were you doing at the station?"
"I was looking for someone," Thomas answered after Stephanie asked. "I thought she would remember coming to Sodor, but I guess I was wrong…"
Stephanie felt sorry for Thomas after he answered, reaching over with a hand and gently patted him as a way of comfort.
"Don't worry, Thomas," Stephanie softly assured him. "Maybe some other time. The second time is a charm!"
Thomas paused a little after Stephanie assured him about having a second chance before smiling gently and nodded in agreement.
"You're right, Stephanie." Thomas nodded. "Now, would you like to have a ride to see Sir Topham Hatt?"
A soft, confused expression appeared on her face after Thomas asked, asking in return, "Why meeting Sir Topham Hatt?"
"He and Mr. Conductor can help you find another train to get to where you wanted to go!" Thomas beamed. "Consider this as a free ride."
Stephanie paused for a moment about it before smiling softly.
"Sure, I'll accept that offer." Stephanie smiled, her blush fading. "I don't think I could get back there from here."
Thomas chuckles as Stephanie climbs into his cab with the help of his fireman.
His driver did the same thing on the other side as Stephanie re-entered Thomas's cab.
Once she was back inside Thomas's cab, Stephanie closed the door behind her back and gently leaned out of the side of his window.
"Comfortable?" Thomas asked, waiting for permission.
"Yep!" she nodded, gently patting his side. "No more hiding and getting my head thunked on the metal after getting startled!"
"Cinders and ashes, that was from you?!" Thomas exclaimed after he whistled and puffed off. "How much did that hurt?! Are you alright, though?"
"Not much, and I'm fine!" Stephanie responded, reaching up with a hand and feeling where she hit her head. "I have a pretty thick skull! And if you could, you could use it as a cannonball!"
She joked at the end of her sentence, which caused Thomas to chuckle.
"You are pretty funny!" Thomas chuckled. "Where did you originally come from?"
"I used to live in America!" Stephanie remarked, grinning from ear to ear. "You are pretty awesome yourself!"
Some puffs of smoke came from Thomas' chimney when Stephanie glanced up as if he was blushing a little.
"Thank you, Stephanie," Thomas thanked while smiling.
Stephanie chuckled softly from Thomas's reaction to her words and gazed out of the window, her arms on the ledge as her chin was on the right metal hand's palm.
She watched as the scenery of the beautiful landscape passed by as Thomas chuffed down the rails.
From the back of her head, she was not too sure herself if he was going to be happy when she explained she was stuck here until they found a way to get her back.