Emily arrived at Ulfstead to find the place in chaos. People were running all over the place, police cars sat near the tracks and Harvey was there rerailing Gordon who had somehow derailed over some points.
"What happened?" She asked shocked as she approached Gordon and Flying Scotsman.
"A Tornado came through here that's what," Scotsman growled angrily. He didn't look at all pleased and he was clearly very upset and distressed. He was stuck in his berth as Gordon blocked his way but still Oscar and Gordon's driver were firing him up to give chase just in case.
"Green Arrow was taking refuge here at the castle," Gordon explained. "But then his driver went insane and tried to scrap him. We had her contained but then Tornado came in and distracted everyone and now his driver has hijacked Green Arrow and taken him to that new diesel to be scrapped!"
"That's horrible! We have to do something!" Emily cried out.
"Tornado was ordered after them but…" Scotsman looked doubtful.
"She caused a scene at Tidmouth, I went to chase her and Thomas and Edward went to get the Fat Controller," Emily explained. "Henry's on his way too."
"We have to find him!" Scotsman said desperately. "I don't know why his driver would do something this stupid but-"
"They're where?" Sir Robert said bewildered, drawing the attention of the engines. "You can't be serious!"
"Sir?" Gordon asked.
"They're in Ulfstead Mine," Sir Robert said with a nervous glance at Flying Scotsman.
The Green Pacific said nothing, his expression unreadable.
"I'll call Sir Topham," Sir Robert said, "We need to deal with this as quickly as we can."
Emily and Gordon glanced at each other nervous and tense but the Flying Scotsman was unreadable and stoic.
"You, you can't-!" Yvonne begged Boomer and Diesel 10. "I was promised that parts sold off of Scotsman were going to fund Green Arrow's rebuild!"
Diesel 10 rolled his eyes while Boomer rounded on her.
"You honestly believed that?" He said mockingly. "My dear lord you're naivë! Flying Scotsman's now under some of the strictest security, even I wouldn't dare try and scrap him."
"But-"
"They said it was easy to trick you because you had such a hatred for good ol' Scotsman," Boomer laughed. "I can see why they found you a hilarious woman!"
"But I-" Yvonne looked at Green Arrow who was staring at the ground blankly. "He's the first and last of his class, you can't! He's a piece of history!"
"If he was so important, then why did no one care about him?" Diesel 10 said with a malicious grin. "Only one who seemed to care for him was Flying Scotsman, who you ironically were trying to scrap."
Yvonne was silent.
She'd been so focused on trying to get one over on Olivia and get the Flying Scotsman scrapped that she hadn't realised that she was putting Green Arrow in harm's way.
"Now get out the way lady, we gotta make this pickle into a sliced pickle before they find us!" Diesel 10 hollered loudly.
"No!" Yvonne jumped on to the tracks in front of Green Arrow but the Diesel just laughed at her.
"Did your mother never tell you not to play with trains girly?" He hissed and went to grab her with Pinchy but she dove out of the way and tried to run for Green Arrow's cab.
Boomer however intercepted her and grabbed her.
"Get off me!" She yelled at him while squirming in his grasp. Boomer just laughed at her.
"No, you can watch as your family's precious engine is destroyed," he said coldly with a sadistic smile.
"No! I'm sorry Arrow! I'm so sorry!" Yvonne began apologising and crying to Green Arrow.
The engine didn't respond in any way. He looked away from Yvonne and ignored her.
"Aw he hates you," Diesel 10 jeered looking into the face of the V2. "Can't say I blame him. He got done by your complete stupidity."
"I wanted to save you," Yvonne said to Green Arrow who still ignored her. "I just wanted you to be restored. I wanted… I wanted the best for you."
Green Arrow's eyes narrowed and he glared at her venomously, a look of disgust stretching across his face. She flinched at his gaze.
"Ah yes, clearly the best for him was removing his voice box," Diesel 10 taunted. "An engine, famous for his sweet charming words and his ability to talk his way out of anything. Clearly the best for him."
"Will you shut up and get on with it!" Boomer suddenly snapped at the diesel. "We don't have time, they'll be onto us!"
Diesel 10 pouted before raising Pinchy right up to Green Arrow's face.
To his surprise, Green Arrow didn't cower or cry. He stared straight into Diesel 10's eyes with a determined and intense glare.
"Huh," Diesel 10 said curiously. "Facing scrapping with dignity are we? How brave of you."
He was about to drive pinchy into Arrow's smoke box when the sound of a shrill haunting whistle blared in the distance.
Green Arrow's eyes widened in shock.
Tornado…
"Damn it! That was far too fast! How the hell did they find us!" Boomer cursed and his surprise was more than enough for Yvonne to take her pocket knife and plunge it deep into Boomer's thigh.
He roared in pain and let her go.
Yvonne quickly sprinted to Arrow's cab and put him in reverse, managing to almost get him clear of Diesel 10 and Pinchy however the claw still managed to carve a deep cut in Arrow's face eliciting a choked scream from him.
"Idiot they're getting away!" Diesel 10 snarled at Boomer but the grifter could barely walk as blood spurted from the wound. The Grifter, realising that Yvonne must have nicked an artery, chuckled to himself.
"Didn't see that one coming, you got me good girly!"
He reached into his pockets and pulled out the C4 explosives and his lighter.
"Just you and be old bud," he jeered at Diesel 10 who stared at him in horror.
"What are you doing! Stop!" Diesel 10 screeched at him. "You'll take this entire place out you stupid fleshbag!"
"But at least we'll take the new iron with us," Boomer laughed, gesturing at Tornado who was getting ever closer, her lamps blaring in the distance.
"STOP YOU STUPID FLESHBAG!"
Tornado thundered into the cavern as Yvonne managed to pull Green Arrow far away from the villainous diesel. She stormed right past Green Arrow who stared at her horrified.
He couldn't scream at her to stop. He could only watch but maybe he could…
Yvonne screamed as Green Arrow suddenly jerked forward on his own after Tornado.
"Stop! Stop!" She screamed at him and tried to grab his brake handle but it burnt her hands and she had to let go.
Arrow felt a powerful presence deep within his boiler suddenly flared to life as his fire roared and his wheels turned despite having no driver.
He glared at the back of Tornado's tender, desperate to save her, no matter the cost.
It didn't matter that she hated him. It just mattered that she was okay.
Ahead, Tornado who had been going after the diesel suddenly realised too late what the human next to the diesel had in his hands.
"Explosives! He has explosives!" She screamed in horror, slamming on her brakes.
"Tornado reverse! TORNADO!" Matthias bellowed trying to throw everything into reverse but Boomer only laughed.
"Pinchy get him!" Diesel 10 shrieked and the claw began snapping angrily in Boomer's direction.
Boomer narrowly missed the claw and pushed back away from him.
"Goodbye Diesel 10! It's been fun! Guess we're going to hell together!" Boomer jeered before throwing the lit C4 on the track in front of the diesel. "At least we'll take the Young Iron with us!"
The diesel began to panic and snarl, screaming profanities at Boomer who now only laughed like a madman.
Tornado was desperately trying to reverse but being such a big engine that had come in at speed had made it difficult.
Diesel 10 and Tornado caught each other's eyeline for a single brief agonising moment.
Suddenly there was a brilliant flash and they both screamed.
Diesel 10 felt the ground give way beneath him and then the rails bend and snap under his weight as a huge sinkhole opened up beneath him.
His wheels spun to grip on to something, Pinchy desperately grabbing and clawing at anything, as the diesel suddenly plunged face first into the deep bottomless pit.
Tornado screamed in terror as she found herself at the edge of the newly created sinkhole, the sleepers falling away and the rails bending beneath her.
"HELP ME! SOMEONE HELP ME!" She screamed petrified as her boiler began to angle downward and she stared straight down into a pitch black hole so deep that the light from her lamps couldn't even see the bottom.
Her terror only grew as she suddenly felt her crew jump out of her cab to safety.
She began to wail in pure terror, her entire being consumed by fright.
She heard the shout of someone behind her.
"Green Arrow!"
Something suddenly coupled onto her tender and began to drag her back with a terrific force.
Whoever it was that was pulling her back was incredibly strong.
It was Green Arrow. She knew that. Despite everything she had said earlier, Green Arrow had come to save her.
Matthias and Arrow's fireman, Jason quickly climbed into Green Arrow's cab, Matthias unceremoniously shoving Yvonne out with an angry glare.
Green Arrow's wheels slipped and shrieked as they grinded the rails, sparks lighting up the pitch black cave, as his boiler began to creak and his pistons screamed under the weight.
Slowly, Tornado was pulled away from the edge of the deep dark pit of despair.
Green Arrow didn't stop however, dragging the bigger engine further and further away from the hole to safety.
As he did so, black smoke and sparks began to billow out of his chimney and he began to cough and choke painfully.
"Arrow stop," Matthias called to the engine as he surveyed the engine's controls. "You're going to damage your boiler."
Arrow refused. He stared at the back of Tornado's boiler, a look of complete and utter determination etched across his face.
Tornado could hear Green Arrow struggle. She could smell the nasty fumes that were coming out of his boiler and see the shower of sparkles that were floating in the air.
She knew that if Arrow had his voice he would be screaming in pain.
"Arrow?" She called out to him.
A split second later an enormous bang echoed through the mine and Tornado felt the coupling go slack as Arrow suddenly lost power and rolled into the back of her tender.
The crew suddenly began shouting and yelling around Green Arrow as Tornado's fireman climbed back into her cab and slammed on her breaks.
Tornado felt a panic rise in her boiler. Fear gripped her and she began to tremble in fear.
"Arrow? ARROW!?"
Flying Scotsman and Emily arrived at the entrance to Ulfstead mines to a huge assortment of engines and workmen.
Sir Robert and the Fat Controller surveyed the scene from Scotsman's cab with a grim and foreboding feeling in their chests.
The Breakdown train sat on the tracks nearby, along with a large flatbed.
Sitting atop the flatbed, Green Arrow sat, tethered and bound to it, unconscious but relatively intact apart from a huge fresh wound across his nose and left cheek.
The Flying Scotsman gave a huge sigh of relief as he saw him. It wasn't until he rolled closer that fear gripped his axles.
Part of Arrow's boiler had burst at the seam, boiler tubes hung out like innards and steam gushed out of the open panels.
His boiler had burst.
Catastrophically.
It hadn't exploded which was good. Most of it remained intact but the large hole in his right side was still not much better.
"No, Green Arrow…" he choked horrified. "No, no, no, please no."
He felt broken.
He'd failed. Failed to protect the last V2. His poor cousin.
"No! No! NO!" He yelled in anguish.
He was furious.
This could have been avoided.
This shouldn't have happened.
Green Arrow should have stayed at Ulfstead Castle. He would have been safe. He would have been protected.
He shouldn't have been hijacked.
He had been safe and protected.
"Cousin," he choked out to the silent and broken V2. "I'm sorry I failed you."
He heard Sir Robert and Sir Topham talking and yelling orders to people but the Scotsman could only stare at his cousin's silent and deathly face.
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced over to see Tornado rolling towards him nervously.
She looked incredibly guilty and sad but right now the Scotsman didn't want to deal with her.
He shot her a furious glare and she suddenly stopped, frightened by his expression.
He hissed steam loudly at her, clearly a warning for her to not get closer and she looked scared of him before looking at the ground, regret and guilt written all over her face.
It was very clear that it was taking all of Flying Scotsman's strength not to explode at the Young Iron for her part in causing this horrible incident.
She reversed without a word and parked herself in a siding a distance away from the commotion but still watching.
Scotsman himself took Green Arrow to the Steamworks despite the protests of Sir Robert and Sir Topham.
Tornado however, simply sat in that siding all night, cold and alone refusing to move even when her crew tried to take her home.
She couldn't face anyone right now.
Not for a long time.
For updates, art and small short stories from the Young Iron AU, you can find me at .com