The next Saturday, Diana and her parents went to Sodor to meet David Windsor, and they and the rest of the steam team promised their children that they can have a playdate. They arrived at Knapford where Diana saw her friends.
"Hello guys." said Diana.
"Hi, Diana." greeted the little steamies.
The little steamies did their secret handshake and a group hug. Lady and Thomas got out of their engines and they greeted the little steamies. Then David stepped up.
"You must be Thomas Billinton and Lady Stone." said David. "Diana told me so much about you, and I must say, it is an honor to finally meet you in person."
"Yep. That's us. And you must be David Windsor." said Thomas, shaking David's hand.
"Please, call me Dave, and as long as the little steamies trust me, I think we can drop the Windsor thing."
"Very well." said Lady. "And our daughter has told us a little about you. I don't fully trust you being with our daughter. However, since you kept my daughter out of trouble and risk of exposure, Thomas and I will allow you to hang out with the little steamies."
"Oh thank you, your highnesses." said David in a formal tone. "I promise you won't regret it."
"We better not." said Thomas, still cautious. "Now, if you'll excuse us, Lady has to get back to the Magic Railroad and I have a passenger run."
And with that, Lady and Thomas left. The little steamies were excited about what to do on their playdate.
"So what should we do?" asked Diana.
"How about a board game." suggested Noah.
"Nah." said Freddy. "I don't feel like playing a board game."
"What about to the park?" suggested Laura.
"No thanks." said Jefferson. "I want something else to do."
"Austin, didn't you suggest building a treehouse last Thursday?" asked David.
"Yes, why?" asked Austin.
"Maybe we should do that." said David.
"Great idea, Dave." said Grace.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Freddy muttered.
"We can build it in my Dad's forest." said Abigail.
"Only one problem." said Jefferson.
"What's that?" asked Austin.
"Henry's forest is miles from here." answered Jefferson. "Not to mention our parents are too busy to give us a lift."
"You do make a good point." said Freddy.
"So, how are we supposed to get to Henry's forest?" asked Laura.
"Leave it to me." said Diana.
"How can you help us?" asked a confused Noah.
"I'll show you. Everyone hold hands." said Diana.
The little steamies were confused, but they held each other's hands.
"Now what?" asked Grace.
"Now, hold on tight." said Diana. Then, she took out a whistle from her pocket and blew into it. Suddenly, gold dust came out of the whistle and the little steamies teleported to Henry's forest. The little steamies were amazed with this.
"Wow." said Jefferson. "How did you do that, Diana?"
"Didn't your parents ever tell you about the gold dust?" asked Diana. "That's the stuff in my whistle my parents gave to me on my 8th birthday."
The little steamies admitted that they might've heard about the gold dust. But they never believed it to be real.
"Well," Diana continued. "The gold dust is the main source of magic here. It's what Mr. C. and Junior use to teleport anywhere they wish, even to other dimensions, like Shining Time. Not only that, but its what keeps Sodor alive. Our parents have that stuff too."
"I didn't realize that dust was that important." said Laura.
"Is there anything else it can do?" asked Austin.
"As a matter of fact, yes." replied Diana. "I don't think your parents told you, but the gold dust gave them super powers."
The little steamies couldn't believe it. They never knew that the gold dust gave the steam team powers.
"I think we can ask the steam team what powers they had a little later." said David. "For now, let's build the treeclubhouse."
"Oh, of course." said Abigail.
And they got to work. Austin, Abigail and Jefferson got the materials needed to build. Laura, Freddy and Grace measured and planned on how to build the treehouse. And Diana, David and Noah built the treeclubhouse. Soon, after a few hours, it was complete. Everyone thought it looked beautiful.
"This is so beautiful. We really outdid ourselves." remarked Grace.
"We certainly did, Gracey." agreed Jefferson. "We certainly did."
"Let's go inside and check it out." said Laura.
And they did just that, they climbed the ladder and went inside their new clubhouse in the tree. To their surprise, it looked much bigger on the inside than the outside.
"Wow. We really outdid ourselves." said Austin. "How do we even find our way around here?"
"I planned for that." said Diana, and she showed them a map. "Prepare for more craziness."
"What could be more crazy than this?" asked Freddy.
"Well. I labeled each of the rooms on this map." replied Diana. "There is the a walk-in wardrobe of wackiness, thunderbolt theatre, a dive-in movie theatre; spoiler alert, wear scuba suits to watch the movie, a laughing laboratory, a gyrosphere, kooky kitchen, a petting zoo, amazing arcade with games galore, a rowboat ride for romance, a stage for singing, a library, cowboy corner, and Uncle Gordon's stinky sock collection."
The little steamies' jaws dropped.
"Should I keep reading?" asked Diana. After a long silence, "Fine! Let's do what we want."
And so, the little steamies went their separate ways. Grace went to the library, Jefferson and the twins went to the arcade, Noah and Austin went to the cowboy corner, Abigail went to the laboratory, and Diana and David went to the rowboat ride. They were having the time of their lives. They decided to meet up at the theatre next. And there standing on stage, is Diana in a comedian outfit.
"Welcome to the thunderbolt theatre where we play quick quippy drippy gags played by our cast of comedians and pranks from the old joke trunk." Then an elephant sprays water with his trunk. "Not that kind of trunk!" Diana then pulls a lever which opens a trapdoor. The elephant falls down it, landing in a pile of hay. "Anyhoo," continued Diana, regaining her composure. "I introduce to you, our comedy with our kooky cast of crazy characters. And now, on stage, Jefferson and Freddy are here to tell us jokes."
And then, there tap dancing onto the stage is Jefferson and Freddy in comedian outfits. After a minute of tap dancing, Freddy got bored and wanted to have some fun.
"Hey, Jeff, did you hear the news?" asked Freddy.
"What news, Fred?" asked Jefferson.
"The policemen just chased a holdup man through the drug store near the Tidmouth cafe." informed Freddy.
"Oh yeah!" gasped Jefferson. "Did the police catch him?"
"No." said Freddy. "He jumped on a bathroom scale and got A weigh!"
Freddy laughed so hard he thought he could faint. Jefferson, on the other hand thought that joke wasn't funny and thought of a way to get back at him.
"Well, Freddy, I bet you can't answer this: What's green, noisy and very jumpy?"
"Hmmmm. Green, noisy and jumpy. A frog?" guessed Freddy.
"Nope." said Jefferson.
"A seasick kangaroo?"
"Nope."
"Okay. I give up. What is it?"
"A grasshopper with the hiccups!" answered Jefferson.
This time, Freddy got annoyed. They started arguing and the other little steamies, who got tired of the argument threw tomatoes, pies and eggs at them. Diana stopped it by using a Vaudeville hook to pull Jefferson and Freddy off the stage and back on the back seats.
"Now that the uncles are off, please welcome our beauties who will charm their way into your hearts: Laura and Grace!"
And on the stage danced Laura and Grace doing ballet. They charmed the boys, but that made Abi and Diana jealous. Unfortunately, Grace slipped on a banana peel and she flipped into a pile of pillows.
"Oops." said Grace, "I think I should be lighter on my feet."
Then a springboard launched Laura and Grace onto seats with pillows.
"That was fun." said Diana, "But unfortunately, we have run out of time. Until next time, please stay tuned to the kooky cool channel. #Steamteamchildrencandobigthings. Until then please check out the concession stand."
And with that, the curtains closed and the Little Steamies went to the kitchen and got food.
"Man that was fun." said Abigail.
"Yeah. And we barely even got to check out the rest of this place." said Noah. "Still, I don't get how it's bigger on the inside than the outside."
"But you have to admit, I was the best out there on stage." boasted Freddy.
"Yeah, the best with failing to make us laugh." remarked Jefferson.
"Oh boy." sighed Austin. "Like fathers, like sons."
"Who says?" barked Freddy and Jefferson.
"I do." said Austin.
Before anyone could say anything else, they were almost blinded by a silver light. They stopped what they were doing and went to the glow. There they saw strange dust.
"What's that?" asked David.
"I don't know." replied Grace. "But I hope it's not dangerous."
"Hey, that looks strangely like my gold dust." said Diana.
"Funny. I never saw the gold dust shine a silver color before." remarked Freddy.
"Do you think it's safe to touch?" asked Noah.
"Don't ask me." said Laura. "Ask the princess here."
"Well," said Diana, annoyed by the remark, "The gold dust never harmed anyone. All the gold dust does is transportation and healing and granting powers. I think this is safe to touch."
And the Little Steamies each took a handful of the dust. Then something happened to them! They got knocked back by the blast. A few minutes later, Diana regained consciousness she looked around and she thought everything was fine until she saw that Jefferson was up in the air.
"Jefferson, everybody, wake up!"
Jefferson slowly lifted his eyelids.
"What's up, Diana?" he asked.
The others woke up and were looking at Jefferson on the ceiling.
"You are, Jeff!" exclaimed Noah.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Jefferson asked. "Are you saying I'm too tall?
"It wasn't an insult! You are on the ceiling!" replied David.
"What!" questioned Jefferson and saw that he was on the ceiling. "Ahhhh! What's going on? How did I get up here? How do I get down?"
"Calm down!" shouted Abigail.
"Calm down? I am on the ceiling and I don't know how to get down!" panicked Jefferson. "Can someone get me down from here?"
"Please, calm down." said Diana. "Just think of yourself floating down to the ground."
"How will that help?" questioned Jefferson.
"Just trust me." said Diana.
And Jefferson, who was still reluctant, gave in. He thought about getting back down on solid ground. And slowly but surely, he landed safely on the wooden floor.
"You can open your eyes now, Jeff." said Austin.
Jefferson did and saw he was safe and had his feet planted back on the ground.
"Thanks, Diana. Not that I needed it anyway. I knew I was on the ground the entire time."
"Sure." groaned the little steamies. Then they turned to Diana.
"That was amazing, Diana." said Noah.
"You sure know your stuff." complimented Abigail.
"I can see why you are Lady's daughter." added David.
Diana blushed at the attention. "Oh, please," she said, "it was nothing."
"We should tell our parents that we got powers, just like them!" exclaimed Freddy.
"No!" snapped Diana. This startled everyone. "I mean... no. We should not utter a word to our parents about this. If others found out we had powers, someone might make fun of us, a bad guy would want to hunt us down, or maybe... our parents will ground us forever!"
That got the little steamies to gasp. They didn't want tp be grounded.
"Well, then what do we do? And what are we supposed to do with this silver dust?" asked Freddy. "If our parents see us holding this stuff, wouldn't they be suspicious of us?"
"We hide the silver dust, keep it a secret from everyone and test them out in secret." said Diana. "Agreed?"
"Agreed." replied the little steamies.
"Come on, let's get out of here. Our parents must be worried sick." said Grace.
And they agreed. They went out of the treehouse and Diana used her gold dust to teleport back to Knapford, just in time to see their parents arrive.
"Hello, kids." greeted the Steam Team.
"Hi." greeted the Little Steamies back.
"So what did you do today?" asked Emily.
"We went to Henry's forest and made a Treehouse. You know for hang outs and stuff." said Noah. "Diana teleported us there with her gold dust. And we built the treehouse. We played a bunch and had lunch there. And we discovered so..." but was interrupted with Laura's hands over his mouth.
"Thank you, Noah." said Freddy. "That would be all."
"What did you see?" asked Rebecca.
"We saw some of Gordon's stinky socks." fibbed Abigail.
"Are you hiding something behind our backs?" accused Edward.
"No,we are not, dad." said Grace, "Although you might say that we might have gotten..." But her mouth was covered by Austin's hands.
"Grace, was saying we have gotten some good food in that fridge." Austin lied.
The Steam Team was getting suspicious. They thought their children were lying, then Thomas saw something shining from David's pocket.
"What have you got there, Dave?" questioned Thomas.
"Oh, it's just a spoon I picked up in the clubhouse." said David. "Isn't it time for us to go home?"
The Steam Team looked and saw that it was time for them to go home. So they all decided to let it slide. They all said their goodbyes and the little steamies gave each other a wink unnoticed by their parents and went their separate ways. But there was a pair of eyes spying on them.
"Soon, my rule will become certain." said the voice and disappeared into the darkness. Who knows what the Little Steamies are going up against. And what are their powers anyway. I would tell you but it would ruin my story.