"You Tornado, will be going to Sodor for your next job," Stainer said with a serious expression on his face.
"Bloody hell another engine going to Sodor?" Braunton huffed annoyed as they gathered in the Museum roundhouse before Stainer. "We may as well move the entire museum stock there at this point."
"You will only be there for a few weeks, when you return you will be transporting Flying Scotsman back," Stainer ignored Braunton and gazed at the Young Iron.
"Scotsman's coming back?" City of Truro perked up immediately at the mention of his dearest friend. "Is he returning to the Museum stock?"
"No, he will be going straight to the Riley & Son works," Stainer answered.
"Riley & Son," Truro repeated as Tornado suddenly squealed loudly, making Bittern curse from being startled.
"He got his rebuild!?" Tornado shrieked excitedly. She began to shake excitedly and her entire frame shaking with excitement. "Scott got his rebuild!"
"Tornado calm down!" Truro scolded but he couldn't deny he was as excited as Tornado was.
After so many years, Scotsman was being returned to his full strength. After years of watching Scotsman struggle and suffer from terrible pain and continuous faults, maybe now he could finally be the strong young express engine he had been when they were younger.
Stainer grinned at them as he all gestured for hush.
"We will cover your duties here Tornado, the A1 Trust wishes you to spend some time on Sodor as they know you've been requesting to go for some time," he told her. "After Flying Scotsman has returned, however, you will go back to the A1 Trust. They've been missing you dearly."
"I'm leaving the Museum?" Tornado asked, suddenly saddened.
"I'm afraid so, at least for now, but I suspect you'll be working with is in the future," Stainer had a sad sigh and looked up at Tornado. "I believe they want you back so they can launch your build brother, the Prince of Wales. They're getting close to firing him up."
"Flying Scotsman will most probably kick up a fuss and want to double head with you, so I wouldn't worry," Pendennis assured her. "Unlike us, he actually thinks you are worthy of touching his buffers."
"Listen, it's not my fault that old man can't keep up with me," Bittern jabbed at Pendennis. "And besides, you're all Great Westerns, people will start talking if he goes buffer to buffer with one of you."
"He's just jealous that I outperform him," Pendennis said snidely.
"You got outperformed by a deer last week," Braunton grumbled and Bittern gave a loud snort of laughter.
"I was trying not to hit it you uncultured oaf!" Pendennis hissed back but Braunton and Bittern only laughed harder at him.
"Australia made you afraid of deer, did it little PenPen?" Bittern sneered. "All those Kangaroos got you spooked?"
"I'm not the one afraid of birds, Bittern," Pendennis sneered and Bittern's face turned red.
"Shut up!" The A4 snapped.
"Alright, alright enough!" Stainer yelled at them. He then turned to Tornado. "You'll be leaving tomorrow, Ms Tornado, I wish you the best of luck."
"Thank-you sir!" She said brightly, still trembling with excitement.
She knew wasn't going to get much sleep that night, but for once she didn't mind.
"You know if you shunted your own coaches you wouldn't have to wait for me," Thomas sniped at Gordon who huffed annoyed. "These aren't your coaches anyway, these are for Scotsman."
"And my brother isn't even here yet! Why didn't you fetch mine first?" Gordon grumbled.
"Because Scott is grateful and not a grump to me every time I go out of my way to help him," Thomas said with a huff. "And besides, Scott actually knows how the shunt coaches, unlike you."
"Really!" Gordon snorted blasting steam. "It's his fault for going to railways that don't have shunters."
"Come now Gordon!" His brother's bright tone called across the yard. "Maybe learning to shunt will mellow you out a bit."
Gordon gave a 'humpf' and rolled his eyes as the Flying Scotsman came into the station and began to back down onto his train.
"Oh Gordon's shunted in the past," James commented from the other side of the station. "He was hopeless at it."
"I recall you almost falling into the turntable pit several times when you were shunting," Gordon shot back and James's face turned red.
Scotsman laughed.
"It takes practice, especially when you're so big and have a tender," he assured them. "I've accidentally derailed my tenders a few times when I started doing it."
"See, if you guys did it more and stopped complaining about us little engines being late you could fetch your own coaches," Thomas pointed out but James and Gordon only huffed at him.
"Don't mind them Thomas, you're doing great," Scotsman assured him and Thomas gave a small whistle in return.
"Thank-you Scotsman," Thomas said backing out of the station. "I have to go fetch Gordon's coaches now because he's so lazy."
Gordon pulled a face as his brother grinned at him mischievously.
"You're such a pest, you know that," Gordon grumbled and Scotsman's grin widened.
"Oh I know," he said with a sly smile. "By the way, Tornado's arriving tonight."
Gordon perked up at that.
"Tornado?" He asked eagerly. "Why is she coming here?"
"Someone needs take me back to the mainland at the end of the month and Tornado's been wanting to return since she was last here," Scotsman said with a grin. "That and the Trust wants to capitalise on the publicity around Sodor."
"Will you be just as annoying as you were when she was here last time?" Gordon asked. "You don't have to tell her every embarrassing story about me you know."
"But brother, I haven't even begun to tell her all the stories of you embarrassing yourself in front of our siblings!"
"You wouldn't dare!" Gordon snarled while Scotsman burst into laughter.
"Oh you know I would!" Scotsman teased and Gordon looked murderous.
He was about to snap back when Green Arrow suddenly barrelled into Knapford tender first at speed.
"What-" Gordon began to say however James started shrieking as Green Arrow began to back down his track towards him.
"Hey! Hey! STOP! HEY!" He yelled out just as Green Arrow slammed into him tender first with a deafening bang.
"What are you doing!" James roared furiously at him as he was pushed almost to the back of the station, pain exploding in his front buffers from the force. "Are you insane? You almost derailed me!"
He had his brakes on and yet Green Arrow had still managed to push him almost clear of the station. The V2 was a lot stronger than he looked.
"Green Arrow, what are you doing?" Flying Scotsman demanded. He was about to start scolding his cousin until he saw V2's terrified face.
Green Arrow's entire frame was shaking violently and he was crying, in a state of complete fear and terror.
"Arrow what's wrong? Why are you scared?" Scotsman asked, suddenly concerned.
Green Arrow did nothing, he just sat there in the station, petrified of something as James sat behind him angrily muttering.
A loud cackle suddenly sounded and Gordon, Scotsman and James watched as a yellow brown diesel with a claw over its cab suddenly came barreling towards the station, whooping and laughing like a madman.
"Never seen a pickle move so fast!" The diesel shrieked with laughter and Arrow flinched and tried to pushback against James to try and get away but James held firm.
"Who are you?" Gordon demanded.
"Diesel 10 at your service old teapot," the Diesel grinned maliciously at him.
"Old Teapot!?" Gordon spluttered incredulously. "How dare you!"
Scotsman glared at the Diesel.
"Why are you chasing Green Arrow?" he asked as he observed the Diesel critically.
"Just trying to collect scrap, oh great flying sausage," the Diesel laughed. The claw on top of his cab snapped in Flying Scotsman's direction. "I can collect you too if you want."
Flying Scotsman held the Diesel's gaze unflinchingly.
"I see Cain has hired a reckless idiotic buffoon to do his bidding now, he must be desperate," Scotsman said cooling and Diesel 10's face fell and he stared at the famous engine.
"Huh, and here was me thinking you would shake in your axles at the mention of scrapping," the Diesel said curling his lip. "So sad. Thought you'd be more fun."
"Touch myself, another engine but especially Green Arrow and I'll personally see to it that you're made into a generator, Diesel 10," the Flying Scotsman said coldly. "That's not a threat, that is a promise."
Diesel 10's manic excitement seemed to instantly fall at the Scotsman's words. He believed without a doubt that Scotsman could and would do such a thing.
Scotsman was adamantly against scrapping other engines, but he'd proved time and again that that was perhaps not a good thing.
Diesel 10 sneered and kept up his bravado. He began to back away from them with an ugly scowl across his face.
"We'll see, Flying Sausage," he spat. "We'll see."
Diesel 10 then stared at Green Arrow who was staring at him petrified and still trembling violently in fear. The diesel grinned at Arrow who gave a faint whimper and began to hyperventilate from panic.
Without another word Diesel 10 slinked away and Green Arrow suddenly burst into tears, unable to deal with the intense stress.
James, unsure what to do, pushed him forward until he sat at the edge of the platform.
"Arrow what's wrong, what happened?" Flying Scotsman asked as Gordon and James stared on in complete silence, unsure what to do.
Arrow tried to use his lamps to speak in morse code but all that came out was nonsense he was so frightened and panicked.
"You're not making sense," Scotsman said kindly. "Arrow, you need to calm down."
"What happened?" Thomas asked as he returned with Gordon's coaches completely confused at what was going on. "Arrow? Why are you crying, what's going on?"
Without warning Green Arrow suddenly moved off, leaving the station as quickly as he came in.
"Arrow, wait!" The Scotsman called out but Arrow kept moving off at speed.
"I'll go after him," Thomas assured the bigger engines as he was uncoupled from Gordon's coaches.
Thomas quickly sped away as Gordon, Flying Scotsman and James all glanced at each other with deeply concerned expressions.
Rebecca was sitting at Vicarstown waiting to be uncoupled from her last train when a familiar face pulled up alongside her.
"Hey girlfriend!" a familiar voice said cheerily and Rebecca looked over to find a Caledonian blue Peppercorn sitting beside her with a cheeky grin.
"Tornado!" Rebecca squealed, startling some people on the platform beside her. "You're here! No one told me you were coming!"
"Only found out last night," Tornado laughed. "And I wanted to surprise people."
"Oh I'm so glad you're here! No offense to the Sudrian guys but they can be a bit intense," Rebecca huffed. "Emily will be pleased!"
"How is everyone?" Tornado asked desperately for details. It had been so long since she'd been a gossipy hen with Rebecca or Emily.
Sure the famous engines at the museum were fun and all but they didn't care for the childish gossip like Rebecca, James or Emily. Thomas was also a gossipy hen she found.
It was why she loved hanging with the little engines so much. They knew all the goings on unlike the 'know it all' bigger engines.
Despite herself, Tornado loved listening to drama.
"Well Gordon was very rude and mean to me at first," Rebecca said rolling her eyes. "He's been constantly a grump, it's hard to be happy around him."
Tornado laughed. "He's always like that, what's new?"
"Scott's been a terror as usual, going around like he owns the place, you know him," Rebecca rolled her eyes and Tornado laughed. "He and Spencer have been getting along though, it's weird."
"Yeah, well, I've kinda been making up with him too," Tornado admitted. "He's been polite to me, he even apologised to me again."
"Ah, still Spencer and Scott are still hurling insults at each other left and right. So, they're not getting along that well."
"I don't think they ever will, to be honest," Tornado sighed and Rebecca laughed.
She stopped laughing and paused to glance around.
"Green Arrow's here," Rebecca whispered and Tornado stiffened suddenly, boiling hatred rising in her boiler.
"I know, what about him?" Tornado said with a low growl.
"He's mute," Rebecca said and Tornado's eyes widened in shock.
"He's what?"
"He hasn't spoken a word since he arrived on Sodor and no one knows why," Rebecca explained. "There's rumours going around that someone removed his voice box. Victor apparently found it completely removed by someone."
Despite her hatred towards Green Arrow, she couldn't help but be unnerved.
Sure Green Arrow had been known to be a liar and a silver tongued menace that turns others against each other but to remove his voice was cruel, even for him.
Tornado said nothing as Rebecca went on to detail something about how a tank engine named Ryan had managed to charm and befriend Scotsman's coach, Lydia.
She could feel something very wrong and vile in the air.