Chapter 2: A Cloud of Steam, plus a toy engine
Gordon puffed his way into a room, with Percy nowhere to be seen. The room was gigantic. If Cranky were in the room, he would be too short to reach the ceiling. The size was - according to Gordon's estimation - 10 Crankys high and 10 Crankys wide. Gordon would think that the crane would be honoured to have a unit of measurement named after him and based on his height… or maybe he would scold at Gordon for not using a measurement system that was already created and prepared.
"He should appreciate that I came up with a clever idea to measure great distances. Some people can't even imagine how long a kilometer is or a thousand meters without knowing what a metre looks like. A Cranky is so much simpler to envision in your mind. It's foolproof!" Gordon's voice echoed, mimicking his sentences.
There were multiple of doors, however, they were either bricked or boarded up. Gordon did not want a repeat of an accident he wasn't proud of. The only open exit was tiny, just big enough for a rat to crawl through. Gordon decided to be sensible and not demolish the wall. The problem was, how he would leave the room in order to chase after Percy?
There was a coal tower in the middle of the room. Its sign read 'Burn me'. Gordon was sure that the coal in the tower was meant to be burnt. Gordon filled up his tender by the coal tower, as he had probably lost some coal during the fall.
After only five seconds and Gordon felt like the room was getting bigger. "How strange!" muttered Gordon, "At this rate, I'll be the size of a toy engine!" His prediction was was a bit off, he was much smaller than a toy train.
"Oh the indignity, if the others were here, they would laugh at me. 'Who's the small engine now?' Thomas would say."
Gordon couldn't fit on the tracks anymore, but he was able to move without them. How peculiar! His size now allowed to pass through the tiny door, though he was still small compared to it. But suddenly, the door slammed shut.
"How am I meant to pass through now?" Gordon tried to bash the door open, but due to his size he was too weak.
Gordon saw a plaque on the door that held the following formulae:
Coal water = shrinks.
Water coal = grows.
He spotted a water tower smaller than the coal tower, with a sign that said 'Boil me'. "Well, steam engines have to boil water to make steam," concluded Gordon, "and I'm a steam engine afterall."
Though, he wasn't sure how he'd be able to use it without the help of humans.
Nevertheless, he went under the water tower. An odd lever that stuck out opened the lid for his boiler and the hose conveniently secured itself and began to pour water. At first, Gordon was shocked, but he relaxed at the feeling of cool water filling up his boiler.
With his boiler full, Gordon hoped that he would grow to a size able to push the door. Unfortunately, he read the last bit of the plaque just this moment. To be fair, it was in tiny font.
'Update: For every load of coal you will shrink and depending on how much water, your size will change either way as time passes. The formulae above is outdated. In other words, it's hard to predict what happens next. Sorry for the inconvenience.
PS. The coal burns for a very, very long time.'
In three seconds, Gordon grew so much that he was as long as 9.8 Crankys.
"Curioser and curioser! Wait, that doesn't sound right. I might as well forget the rest of my good vocabulary!"
Gordon believed that maybe if he had more coal, he'd might shrink down a bit. To his despair, the coal tower was crushed under the big engine's weight. Then again, Gordon would be too big to use it anyway.
"Now James would say 'You're literally too big for the rails, Gordon! You could crush Tidmouth instead of being stuck on the turntable.'"
Gordon wheeshed steam due to his anger over all the humiliation the other engines would give him.
"If there's an engine destined to destroy Tidmouth, it would be James."
In no time at all, the room was filled with steam. His face was bright red from both his anger, and the temperature of the room. The pressure of the steam busted the tiny door open.
All of the water in his boiler had evaporated, and soon, Gordon shrunk back down to his previous size.
The now miniature engine braced for impact, however, there was none. Gordon was floating upon the steam he created, as it flew through the door and carried him up to the sky.
Author's note:
I would like to give thanks to Bloopydoo (Mystarsignisno on Tumblr) again for proof-reading and editing this chapter.
-TailsTheDankEngine:
Thank you for the feedback, I agree that the section was irrelevant but at the time I wrote this chapter, I wanted to pay homage to the original as Alice wonders randomly as she fell through the tunnel herself. However, I still appreciate your feedback and will try to apply it in my writing.