Stepping through the broken down doorway, Shale took in the weathered room. Part of the roof had fallen away, vines had broken through the windows, some of the shelves had broken off and everything was coated in dust. She was also half sure that their was a bat colony living inside.

But really, she didn't know what else to expect.

The cash register was still surprisingly intact. It was still closed but that wasn't a problem. She jammed the knife into the slot and wedged it open. Inside were a few more dead bugs, some shillings, a worn out 2 pound note and a ring of rusty old keys.

She pocketed everything she found. As for the keys, she doubted that she'd be able to find whatever they opened. Instead, she slid the key ring around her wrist and slid the keys between her fingers. Throwing a loose punch, she smiled. This would work as a makeshift weapon for one of the engines if it came down to that. Though the main issue would be convincing them to use it.

Looking up to the shelves, their wasn't much that was useful. Most of the contents were wiped away, but what was left were just cheap junk. Their were small boxes filling one of the shelves. Shale opened them, they were filled with a array of different polished rocks. None of it useful.

She noticed another door behind the counter. This one was also locked, but when she tried to pick it it wouldn't open after two tries. She tried to just kick it down, but she hissed at the impact.

"Shale? Are you alright?" Skarloey peeked through the doorway. "I heard a thud." He saw how Shale was standing by the door. "Were you trying to get in?"

She shrugged. "Yea, couldn't pick the lock. You'd think that it'd be easier to break since this place was abandoned."

Skarloey hummed and looked at the door. "I have an idea, but could you please stand back."

"Sure." Shale shrugged and jumped up onto the counter. The older engine took a few steps back from the door, took a stance, then charged towards the door. Instead of bouncing of like Shale expected, there was a loud crack followed by a thud as Skarloey barrelled through. Everyone outside imminently tried to pile through the doorway trying to see what had happened. Unfortunately, they attempted to run in all at once, and this led to them tripping in front of the doorway and landing in a heap.

Edward bolted through first but tripped over the doorframe. Renneas and Rusty stopped to help him up but Duncan barred through and knocked both of them to the floor. Falcon and Peter Sam were already running behind him and ended up falling over them.

And as for Shale, she was trying to pull herself of the ground from laughing so hard.

Each of the engines groaned from the floor. Duncan looked up to see Shale laughing at them. He growled slightly and pushed Peter and Falcon off his back.

"You two! Get your arse of me!" He yelled and pushed of Renneas back.

"Ow! Duncan, that hurts!" He said. "Edward? Did anyone see where Edward went?"

"Down here." Renneas looked down and saw Edward lying underneath him. Groaning from the weight. Renneas looked incredibly flustered at there position and stepped of immediately. It took the rest of them a few moments to untangle themselves, but they managed easily.

Shale was about done laughing at this point. She stood up shakily while holding her stomach, still giggling. When the other engines shot her indignant looks she just rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, don't tell me that it wasn't a little funny." She said

"To you, maybe." Falcon muttered.

Shale just smirked anyways. Then she saw how Edward was still on the ground, propped up by his elbows. She crouched down and helped pull him up. "Hey, you alright?"

"Yes - yes I'm fine." Edward rubbed his back sorely.

"Eddie, you just had five dudes land on top of you. Your not alright."

He sighed. "Shale, please. I'll be alright. I've probably had worse accidents."

"Yea, like-" Peter Sam paused to think. "Actually, I can't think of any."

"Really? Are you sure?" Renneas asked. "What about that one with the lorry? While you were taking the Flying Kipper for James?"

"That happened?" Edward brushed his right eye and scratched the back of his head. "I don't remember that happening?"

"Yea Renneas, I think that might have been something else." Rusty said.

"Anyways, the hell was that noise?" Falcon yelled.

"Down here! I'm alright!" Each of them turned towards the other door to see Skarloey poking out of the newly formed hole. He stepped out and dusted some splinters from his jacket. "I apologize for causing such a panic. I didn't expect to fall through so easily."

"What on earth were you doing Skarloey?" Renneas exclaimed.

"Well, Shale couldn't seem to open the door so I decided to try an alternate route. I didn't mean to cause such a fuss."

While the engines were talking, Shale walked over to the door and examined the cracked wood. She whistled and turned back to them. "Dam, I guess this proved my theory."

"Theory?"

"Yea, I wanted to know how strong you guys were compared to when you were engines. Wonder if the scientist know about this." Shale noticed a piece of rusted steel propped against the counter. She pulled it up and held it out to Skarloey.

"Here, try to bend it. Give it all you got."

He took the steel into his hands, but looked questionable at Shale. She rolled her eyes again and motioned for him to continue. So he grabbed the two ends of the steel rod and tried to force them together. His eyes seemed to focused on a point of the rod. Shale could see it in his eyes, he was angry, thinking of someone. It wasn't hard to imagine who. After a moment, to everyone's shock and surprise, it didn't bend at all

He broke it in two.

A loud metallic crack echoed throughout the building as Skarloey stared at the two pieces left in his hands. He and the others mouths were agape in surprise, including Shale.

She stepped up and traced the edges of the rod. "Well, dam. I didn't expect that. Weren't you guys the smaller engines?"

"Technically, its Narrow Gauge." Renneas mumbled.

"Noted, anyways you're defiantly gonna have to be more careful around other humans." She took the pieces and tucked them into her bag. "Let's see what's in that room."

This time, Shale walked through the broken door and made sure that they came in one at a time. Inside, it was some kind of office. There was a desk facing the doorway and above it was a shelf carved into the wall. Beside the desk on both ends were two filling cabinets.

Shale began to open drawers and pulling out papers onto the desk. She pulled over one of the intact chairs and started to read through the sheets. When she turned to see the others just shuffling behind her she gestured to the filing cabinet.

"C'mon, open em' up. There might be something useful in there and we can bring it back to the shed."

The engines then split into two groups and started pulling out papers to read. What Shale found were mostly just financial papers and stuff about taxes. She decided to keep them anyways for kindling. When she opened one of the binders from the top shelf she found more records of sales and brochures from various museums. She looked over her shoulder to see what the others had found.

On her right, Renneas, Duncan, Rusty and Edward had organized the papers into piles while Skarloey, Peter Sam and Falcon pulled out papers from the separate cabinets. She knelt down to see what was on each of the papers, again, mostly just financial things.

"Damit, I kinda hoped we'd find a map or something." She threw the papers against the desk in frustration.

"Well, we did find these needles. Are they medicine?" Peter held out half a dozen large needles filled with some kind of liquid.

"Drop it!" Shale yelled. Each of the engines jumped back and the needles fell to the ground. Shale then started crushing the needles with her boot, leaving nothing but glass shards and a stain on the wooden floor.

They then all looked up to Shale who was breathing heavily, glaring at the remains. She sighed and looked up again. "Sorry, but that was not medicine. Did you find any other needles, did any of you get a cut?"

Skarloey looked to the others and each of them shook their head. "No, but what was that? Is it poisonous?"

"It might as well be." Shale muttered. "C'mon, we should get out of here." She stepped through the door and the others followed. Are there any other places down this line Peter?"

"Well, there is a lake. Is that useful?" He said and Shale smiled.

"Defiantly, we need a fresh source of water and there could be fish too. How far is it?"

"Um, I'm not sure. But it was rather far, are you sure you can walk that much?"

"Greenie, I said I'd be fine and I am. C'mon, you take point." So Peter Sam took the lead and they all followed him down the tracks.

"Oy, you didn't answer out question." Duncan ran up to Shale. "What was in those needles? How'd you know they were dangerous?"

"I... well." She sighed again and pushed back some of the rust-red hairs that had fallen through the bandana. "I knew a guy who'd sell those of by a place I'd visit to get some cash. It was supposed to make you amped up for a fight, but all it did was make it harder to feel your teeth gettin' knocked out."

"But... why would he sell it then if he knew it was dangerous?" Rusty asked.

"I ask myself that all the time." She mumbled. She coughed and spoke up. "I don't know, we'd make a decent enough wage with the bets. Guess he just started to get greedy. Wouldn't be the first one."

"Wait." Falcon stopped and grabbed her shoulder to spin her around. Shale tried to jerk away but his grip was firm and it sent spikes of pain across her arm. "You said we. Did you work with him? How much are you keeping from us!"

"Falcon, calm down!" Peter ran back and pulled his friends arm of. "She'll tell us when she's ready. Just give her some time!"

"Nah Peter, its fine." She rubbed her shoulder. "Look, let's find that lake and I'll tell you all there. That sound good?"

Falcon raised and eyebrow but nodded. "Alright, but I want a straight answer."

"Fair enough." She shrugged and they all kept walking.

But along the way, Shale started to lag behind. Edward was by her side and holding her hand in what she though was meant to be comforting. But it was just slightly to firm and her hand was growing sore. She didn't have the heart to tell him of.

"Are you sure about this, Shale? Telling everyone, because you do seem uncomfortable with it." He asked.

"Eddie, look. I'll be fine, why are you always so worried about me?" She snapped back. It had a harsher edge than she expected and she saw how Edward shrunk back. "Don't get me wrong. It's fine, but I can take care of myself. Been doin' it for a couple months anyways."

He didn't answer this. So she decided to make a joke. "What? Is it like a engine thing to protect children?"

This made him laugh slightly. "Actually, yes. It's an instinct for most of us to be protective of children." That perked him up. "Wait, how old are you?"

"I swear I told you, didn't I? I'm sixteen ." She said. Edward didn't expect that.

"You are? But... but your so small." He said.

"Well that's what happens when you get the bare minimum for the first years of your life." She frowned and kicked up some pebbles against the rails.

"Oh." That was all Edward could say. He saw how Shale started to walk faster, they were both falling behind the others. Edward remembered when he picked up Shale when she was unconscious and how light she was. He wondered how much she ever got to eat in a day. So he bent down, slung his arms under her knees and behind her back and carried her bridal-style towards the others.

Shale of course, squawked and started to try and push herself of. "H-hey! Edward put me down! I can walk on my own, put me down!"

She pushed of his chest and jumped out and onto the ground. Though she landed on a weird angle on the rail and had to catch herself on her hands. She hissed at the impact on the bruises on her legs but tried to stand again anyways. Edward frowned, but picked her up again.

"Shale, your still damaged and you haven't eaten anything all day. If we're going to make it to the lake then you have to let me carry you."

"But..."

"No buts, Shale. You need to take is easy if your going to heal faster." He scolded. Shale didn't expect this from Edward, it was the first time she had herd this tone from him.

And unfortunately, he was right. The bruises still stung and her stomach had started squeezing uncomfortably a few hours ago, but she just ignored it. So she just hung her head, crossed her arms over her stomach and let Edward carry her towards the group. When they caught up, Shale had started to become drowsy and struggled to stay awake. Rusty, who was the farthest back, noticed and smiled at her.

"Heya, don't worry. We'll be their soon, who knows. Maybe we could try catching some fish for you."

"Do you even know how to fish?" Shale asked.

Rustys smile faltered. "Well... no. But it can't be that hard. You just cast out a line and wait, right?"

"I have no idea." Shale shrugged. Or at least she tried to, she hissed when she felt the bruises pulsing across her shoulders and arms.

"Shale, please. Just rest, I'll wake you up once we're there." Edward said, smiling softly. Shale just sighed, she didn't want to sleep so she just elected to watch the tracks and the trees.

:=======================:

"Shale! Shale, we're here!"

The red-head jerked up suddenly, then grimaced at the pain. She saw Edward shadowing over her with a worried expression. Then she noticed how she was sitting on a bench in some kind of station, head in Edwards lap.

"Eddie? Are we at the Lake yet? Where are the others?" Shales head scanned the room to try and spot them, but other than her and Edward, it was empty.

"Yes, you fell asleep before we made it here. The others are outside by the lake. They've been trying to catch a fish for you." said Edward

Shale sat up and started walking towards the door. "How's that been going?"

Edward started fiddling with his hands, a smile breaking across his face. "Well..."

A loud splash interrupted him and was followed by muffled yelling and laughter. Both shared a laugh before stepping outside the broken down shack and out onto the lakeshore.

It was an ideal little summer getaway setting, a large open lake, a floating wooden dock, a small rack of canoes and a fire pit surrounded by cut logs and a floating wooden barge with different coloured clothing piled on top.

Wait, what?

Shale heard another splash and looked out onto the lake. She saw each of the Narrow Gauge engines running around the lake shirtless. Skarloey and Renneas were the farthest out and were watching the water carefully. While the others were running around the lake, trying to splash each other. It looked like Duncan and Rusty were teamed up against Falcon and Peter, though occasionally they'd turn on each other and tacked one-another into the water. Each of them were laughing and calling out taunts to each other.

It was... nice. That was the only way Shale could put it. It was nice to see all of them so happy. She wondered when was the last time they ever got to enjoy themselves like this, or if they even ever got treatment like this. She looked up to Edward, expecting a smile. And he was, but she also saw him crying. Edward was silent as the tears rolled down his face and he didn't seem to be looking at the others. Rather, he was looking up to the sky.

"Edward?" asked Shale in a quiet voice. She laid her hand in his shoulder. "What's wrong? Do you want to go back inside?"

That seemed to snap Edward back to the present. He blinked for a moment and that's when he noticed the tear tracks down his face. He wiped the of with the back of his hand and smiled down at Shale. But she could still see how his eyes were puffy.

"N-no a I'm fine. Really, let's go meet with the others." He started walking down to th shore but Shale grabbed his hand.

"Edward, stop. You and I both know your not alright. People don't just start crying for no reason. Please, you can tell me." She looked out onto the lake again and back to Edward - who kept his eyes downcast.

"It's fine." His voice cracked this time. "Nothing could've been done anyways, I couldn't have change anything. I never could."

That's when it clicked. "It's your friends, isn't it." asked Shale.

Edward started to cry again, hiccuping as the sobs wracked his body. "I just... I just wish that I could've seen them like this. Percy, Thomas, all of them so happy. And I know it's stupid because there all... all." He fell to his knees and balled his fist into the dirt. "There all gone, I couldn't even say goodbye."

Shale knelt down beside him. She admitted that this was becoming tiresome, though she couldn't deny a simple fact; everyone is entitled to their own sorry, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it... irreplaceable.

So she tried to think of something supportive or comforting to say. "Edward, just because they might be gone doesn't mean any of us will be leaving you." He looked up to Shale at that.

She shifted until she was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest. "I... I don't know how long I'll be her with you guys. I don't know how long your going to have to live like this. But, I do know that as long as all of us live, we'll stand by each others back side. No matter if it's a matter of months, years, decades or even hours, I'll bleed and fight for you and I'll try to make it right for you."

Shale didn't know how much Edward was listening to, he kept crying. But at least it had evened out to quiet sniffles. She looked out onto the lake and saw how Skarloey was looking in their direction. She motioned 'shoo' at him and he hesitantly turned back towards the water.

Shale turned back to Edward, he'd stopped crying but his head was still hanging low. "Feeling better now?"

Edward didn't say anything, instead just nodding. "Alright, do you want to go back inside?"

"N-no, I'll be alright." he said. Shale stood up and held out her hand to him.

"C'mon, I wanna see if they've caught anything yet." She grinned down at him. Edward reflected her expression and took her hand.

Walking down to the shore, Peter and Rusty took notice and ran over. Unfortunately, neither of them were wearing pants and Shale had to cover her eyes. She wasn't keen to see exactly how human the engines had become, thank you very much.

"Shale! Edward! Good to see you stepping out!" Rusty exclaimed

"Yea! But are you sure your alright Shale? Why are you covering your eyes?" Peter questioned "Is it to bright? Did something happen to them?"

"Don't worry Greenie, I'm fine. It's...uh... a human thing." Shale tried to explain, though she was flushing slightly.

"That's a weird human rule." Peter said

"Why is it like that?" wondered Rusty

"I'm not sure? I think it's because they look different under the clothes?"

"They do?"

Shale heard Falcon offer his two cents into the conversation. "Well duh, she's the only one with a round chest. The rest of us are all flat. Not to mention she probably doesn't that have a funnel."

Shale was confused by the wording, but it didn't take long for her to understand the accidentalI innuendo. She coughed to get their attention.

"R-right so if you guys would put on some pants. I tell you what you wanted to know, Falcon." Shale mumbled. She heard someone stepping out of the water and imminently turned and started walking back towards the tree line.

After a few minutes she heard Falcon again. "So, are you gonna spill or what?"

She moved over to the extinguished fire pit and was surprised to see each of the other engines sitting around on the logs. Each of them in dressed in various stares, each of them still dripping wet.

Shale sat on the log in front of the engines and started to poke at the fireplace. "Alright, you all want to know more about me?"

"Yes." Falcon insisted "Who are you? How did you know those vials were dangerous? What were you do before you met us? What are you keeping from us."

Shale opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again and sighed. "Alright, you all already know my name - Shale - and I wasn't lying about that. As for who helped me picked it, he-" She snickered "He called himself 'Picks'. Ridiculous, I know. He found me on the streets after I just ran away from the orphanage. Picks took me in and taught me everything I knew; scavenging, street smarts, shoplifting, you get the idea. Once, he took me to see a street fights on my 'Lost and Found-Day'."

"Wait," Renneas interrupted "Don't humans call their building day their 'Birthday?'"

"Well I never could remember my actual birthday, so we just dubbed the day Picks found me my birthday. Anyways, I was fourteen when he brought me to my first street fight - nothing to violent the place had a good rep on the street, it was actually kinda fun to watch - and when I saw how much the prize money was I had to win it for us. Pick manages to make some decent money scamming the locals but they'd wise up after a while, so money was running thin. I tried to ask around to see which arenas would take a kid like me, since most arenas were lead by different groups of people, thus different rules. I found one that was holding a fight for the preteens in the neighbourhood and signed myself up without telling Picks. It was a few weeks from then so I started to train. And by train, I mean trying to break/lift random objects. So when the day came, I snuck out of the house at night and made my way to the arena. Then -. "

Shale let out a bitter laugh. "Well, I managed to take down a few of my opponents but when I managed to break top eight, it didn't end well. It started out alright and for a bit I was actually winning. But the guy I was fighting pulled out a switchblade after that. Needless to say, I got the crap kicked out of me. Got some nasty scars to." Shale pulled of her bandana and brushed up her hair to show a long pale line running from the tip of her ear the the centre of her forehead. She held out her hand and saw how the skin on her knuckles was puckered and paler compared to the rest of her.

"Though the Ref stopped him before he could do any real damage, but I was to weak to keep fighting. They gave me some pity cash and sent me back home. Picks found me after I made my way back. He was waiting for me and started to lecture about how stupid it was to try and win those fights. But then he saw the money I brought back. After I was healed up he started to give me some semi-formal self-defence training. It wasn't much, but by the time the next tournament came around I managed to break into fourth place. It still wasn't a lot of money, but I was pretty happy at the time. Then in my next fight, I made it to second, then first, then first again. That's when I noticed that Picks has set up a vendor near the arena and when I asked him what he was doing, he said that he set up a betting pool against me."

"After a while, I figured out that Picks had been selling of different drugs to kids before fights and played them of as steroids."

"What are-?" Renneas started

"A kind of addictive liquid that makes people stronger."

"Oh."

"Anyways, when I found out. I called him out for it and he said that it was how we'd survive. I mean, I get that, it's tough times. But if we decided to extort those other kids for what was free money at that point, then we'd be no better then those suit wearin' pricks. So I decided to inform the refs about this and they kicked Picks out. Unfortunately, I was kicked out to since I was technically an associate. I didn't want to go back to Picks so I struck out on my own. And that's where I've been for the last year."

When Shale finished her story, the silence stretched on for a few minutes after. She was concerned and broke the silence again. "You guys have any more questions?

"No Shale. It's just...a lot to take in all at once." said Skarloey

"Did you really have to hurt others for money?" Peter asked quietly.

She hesitated, but gave her answer. "Yea, I did. But it was never that bad, the referee would usually call the win before any of us broke something. And I swear, I never knew that Picks was drugging up some of my opponents. I never wanted to cause any permanent damage."

"Yea, and all we have is your word to go of it." Falcon muttered.

"And what exactly could I gain from this? What else could I gain from a fake backstory?" Shale shot back. "Look, I know I can't prove anything yet. But just give me a chance."

Under her breath she added. "I'm tired of being alone."

Each of the engines looked to each other. Some of them skeptical, most sympathetic. Edward shifted over to Shale and pulled her into a hug.

She was to stunned for any immediate radiation. She felt Edward brushing his hand through her hair and against her back. "Shale, I already trust you. I believe you and I don't think you wanted to do anything wrong. I'm not sure how much of what you did was good, but you didn't have many other choices to survive."

"Yea, I guess. Still, I wish I could've done something better." She didn't want to push out, instead letting Edward take his time. Eventually, he let go and let Shale face the other engines. "So, what do you all think of me now."

"Well I can't speak for everyone, but I do believe what you've said. And if what you said is true then you were protecting us by destroying those needles." said Skarloey "If you wanted, you could've used them to weaken us and... well... let's not go there."

"Alright, fine. I'm convinced for now, but don't expect be to let my guard down." Falcon stated

"Who said I expected you to?" She shot back.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I... um, well it's a good thing to be alert all the time? Honestly, I could t think of a comeback in time." Shale scratched her head.

"Now that I believe." Each of the engines had a laugh at this.

"Now, I heard something about you trying to fish?"


Man, this was the longest Chapter so far and I am damn happy about that. Also, I wanted to ask; where do you want the plot to go after this. I've got a few plans but nothing official.

1) The Narrow Gauge Engines try to confront Sir Toppham/stop his experiments

2) They try to work up to a normal life

3) Something else (Post it in a Review, I'd love some input)

Also I might have added some references to other pieces of media. I won't say what though, just wanted to tell you that they're there.