Nelson was waiting impatiently at the Sodor Airport for the special visitor to arrive. He had been told she was arriving via ship but was being brought to the Airport as it was easy to get to and would show her around.
"I don't even see why I have to do this!" Nelson grunted as he watched Tiger Moth take off for Dryaw Airfield. As the bi-plane sped away, Jeremy the Jet Plane came in to land. Nelson tucked himself against the main terminal wall and shut his eyes as the plane landed a few metres away but the dust could still reach the transporter.
"Nelson, Nelson, I need to talk to you!" Nelson opened his eyes and looked to see Jeremy being taken down the runaway towards the hanger.
"What is it?" Nelson asked.
"There was some sort of explosion over by the forest near Tidmouth." The jet plane explained. "I was certain I saw three machines getting blasted." Nelson raised an eyebrow but wasn't to sure that anyone would be in that area.
"I'll head back to base and ask Miss Jenny. If her guest arrives please tell her I'll be back soon." And with that, the transporter sped away into the distance.

***

Mavis was trundling happily along the Anopha Quarry line. She had gotten through a lot of work that day and had just taken her last train to Ffarqhuar and was just heading home. Out of the corner of her eye, Mavis could see Oliver and Fredrick from the Pack heading towards her. She braked at the level crossing as they came close.
"Hello Mavis." Oliver said kindly. "Have you met Fredrick yet?"
"No I haven't, but I need to talk to Miss Jenny." Mavis blurted as she suddenly remembered the conversation she had overheard earlier that day.
"What for?" Fredrick asked, puzzled. Oliver looked at the diesel and Mavis quickly explained about Jack, Alfie and Isabella's plans to take a detour and avoid the police officer.
"Darn, I really need to get back for that." Oliver mumbled and Mavis and Fredrick shot him a look. "But we need to report those three at once!"
"Thanks for the tip Mavis." Fredrick said and the two machines headed off. Mavis smiled as they left and continued her journey home.

***

Oliver, Fredrick and Nelson arrived at the yard at exactly the same time and were shocked to find the place crawling with police cars.
"What's going on?" Oliver said, dumbstruck. Kelly saw them enter and scurried over.
"There are reports that Jack, Alfie and Isabella were caught up in an explosion at a forest near Duck's branch line." The crane explained.
"Jeremy was right!" Nelson gasped.
"Anyway, the police are here interviewing everybody but Miss Jenny is trying to get them to leave and search for them, but they say they are going to set up base here and head out soon." Kelly continued.
"But they could get attacked or go missing or… or… or…" Oliver stuttered, utterly shocked by what they had heard. Nelson looked at the three and mumbled something about taking the others and rolled away. Fredrick's eyes were fixed on the ground, instantly depressed at the thought of losing the two that had brought him a new life.
Outside of the yard where the ones who had controlled his old one.
George, Mac and Grudge were hiding behind the entrance wall, listening intently to going-ons of the Packard yard.
"Well well boys, looks like we've found something to do tonight." George chuckled.
"Which is…?" Grudge said and Mac sighed and George turned and looked at him with glaring eyes.
"Isn't it obvious, we've got some miniature machines to catch."

Miles away, the smoke had cleared, the area was quiet, but the explosion had done its job.
Jack, Alfie and Isabella were lying several metres into the forest in a clearing, the dying light shining magically on them.
In the entrance to the clearing was a man.
This man was unlike most men around these parts. He was very tall and tanned, though the majority of his body was covered up. He wore a black suit jacket over his muscular body and matching black pants. He had chosen to cover his hands in white gloves and wore black polished leather shoes. A black bowler hat nestled on his fair hair and he looked at the wrecked vehicles with dark brown eyes. He looked over at his black 2008 Nissan Titan who looked back it him, its face black to hide it's true identity.
"Yes boss?" He said tiredly. The Titan was exhausted from the rushing around of that days work.
"We are going to have to block this off and then take the remains of the container to headquarters." The man said and walked towards the car who managed to move slowly forwards to meet him and the door came open and the man climbed in. "Ok Canton, prepare to cover them." He said.
"I need a better codename." Canton complained as the black metal cover over his bed folded up to reveal a variety of rusted weapons and machines, along with some small metal tubes and a green sheet.
"You know we won't get better codenames or gadgets unless this mission succeeds." The man replied, growling. Canton mumbled in agreement as his owner picked up the metal tubes, and began to piece them together. Within a few minutes, there were three wide, two metre high metal stands. The spy covered them in the green sheeting, instantly turning the metal structure into hedge replicas. He put them in front of the clearing: they went in perfectly. Now the three machines were hidden from view if someone drove past.
"Let's get outta here Alpha." Canton said and Alpha nodded and he hit the accelerator and they sped off, the metal covering reappearing as they raced up the hill. All the remains of the container had been placed into a different part of the bed and the marks left by the blast had been cleared.

It was as if nothing had happened.
Miss Jenny let out a depressed sigh as she stared at her office door. She knew that she had to go out and listen to what Detective Fisher, the snarky officer from that morning, was saying to the machines, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
The past few weeks had been too much for her. Ever since they had received the contract, bad stuff had been happening all around the Pack. She couldn't take it anymore and was seriously considering dropping the contract.
No, She thought. All that would mean is a loss of money. Miss Jenny gulped, stood up, and slowly walked out of her office and out into the yard.
Detective Fisher was bellowing orders, organising the machines into teams.
"Ok, I want the crane, the dump trucks and the digger to cover the area of the forest closest to the road. The cement mixer, shovel thing, bulldozer and other shovel thing will cover the other side of the forest. Flatbed thing and steamroller, I need you to check the roads." He boomed. The machines all looked cross as they moved off into their respective units. Miss Jenny glared at Fisher and he looked around and sighed and walked over.
"Yes Miss Packard?" He said with a growl.
"My vehicles do have names you know." She snapped.
"I don't have time to name the machines, except for the ones missing." The detective explained and he walked away. Miss Jenny remained where she was standing, mouth wide open, for several seconds before marching forwards. Detective Fisher turned just as she raised her hand and slapped him across the cheek.
"Don't act like you didn't deserve it." Miss Jenny hissed and marched off. Fisher went to move forwards but was jerked backwards. He looked behind and saw that Kelly had hooked his shirt and was giving him the evils. He looked like he would wet himself and Kelly chuckled and let him go. The other police officers on the scene sighed and muttered to each other. Detective Fisher looked around and made a mental note: Find a way to get some sly revenge on Miss Jenny.

Everyone was heading off a minute later. The majority of the machines headed quickly towards the forest, but Nelson and Buster went off slowly.
"I could just take you on my flatbed." Nelson suggested, trying to sound friendly, but Buster stared.
"I know I am a bit slow, sorry about that, but I can't really help it sorry." He said nervously. Nelson nodded and smiled.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to sound bad." He said. Buster went to reply when suddenly they heard a loud screech. The two turned to see Flora racing past them, wailing loudly.
"What's that about?" Buster said instead, and the two raced off down the road. They both gasped as they arrived at the scene and saw what had happened.
Tar tankers lay broken on the side of the tracks as their contents were spread over the railway lines, yellow and orange flames dancing on top of them.
"Who would do something like this?" Nelson said, speechless.
"Look, over there!" Buster exclaimed. The transporter turned his attention to a wooden post near the tanker wreckage. Neither of them had seen it before but it was already up in smoke. Words appeared to be printed on it but the smoke was making it too hazy to read.
"It says something like DROP THE CON but I can't read the rest." Nelson said. There was a loud burst of noise from behind them and the two stared as about six fire engines pulled up.
"Get back, get back!" One of them boomed. Nelson lowered his ramp and Buster reversed and got up onto the flatbed as fast as possible and the two sped off as the men tried to tackle the blaze.

"Jack… Jack… JACK!"
The front loader yelled out and his eyes came open in a flash. He instantly regretted it as he began to feel lots of pain all around his body.
And we appeared to be upside down.
"What happened?" Jack grumbled, slurring his words. He looked around and saw that he was lying on a forest floor, as there were tall trees everywhere. Alfie was a metre away, lying on his left side with his scoop and three wheels lying nearby. Isabella was the right way up but was missing two tyres, along with her bucket and all her windows were smashed. Both also had lots of dents and severely scratched paint. Jack noticed that his scoop and one of his arms were next to him. Rocks were scattered around them, though it seemed that a lot would have been destroyed by the blast.
"There was some sort of explosion." Alfie explained in a hushed tone, as if something would attack them if they spook too loudly.
"No shit Sherlock." Isabella hissed and the two stared at her.
"I think… I remember." Jack said slowly, straining to remember the events.
"I don't care about remembering, I just want to get out!" Isabella bellowed. Alfie looked at her and sighed.
"You do realise Jack and I are sideways and you have no tyres?" The excavator said and Isabella coughed nervously.
"Well…. Who do you think planted the bomb?" She said, her eyebrow rising. Alfie and Jack looked at her, than at each other, than back at her.
"Do you think someone planned it?" Jack asked.
"Hmmm, let's see. There was a container lying in the middle of the road. There was a ticking sound. It conveniently exploded as we went by. I think it was planted!" Isabella squawked.
"It does seem rather likely." Alfie said. "But who would want to get rid of some machines?" All three exchanged worried looks as the thought suddenly dawned upon them.
Someone was out to get them.

Night fell quickly, but the rescue operation continued.
Kelly and Fredrick led the way into the forest, discussing the events as Max and Monty followed behind.
"It is a highly tragic thing." The crane said, sighing.
"I have only known them for a short amount time." Fredrick added sadly. Max and Monty, who were already bored with the proceedings, began to mock the two.
"Oh dear Weddwick, our wiends are missing." Max said in a high pitched tone.
"I know Kelly, it is so horrible, and I just want to cry about it." Monty added with a girlish voice. Kelly and Fredrick halted as the dump trucks burst into laughter.
"This isn't a time for jokes!" Kelly snapped.
"Oh shut up." Max snapped.
"Excuse me?" Kelly growled, turning around.
"Calm down guys." Fredrick said, rotating as well as the dump trucks revved their engines. Monty gave the digger a look and he went to back away.
"Always the coward, eh old timer?" The four members of the Pack froze and looked around, searching for the source of the call. There was a burst of laughter and they looked up. Mac was staring down at them for a higher area of the forest, a wicked smile on his face.
"Grudge has found your little friends." He called jeeringly. "We may leave some bits behind for you." And he cackled and quickly sped away. Kelly instantly looked at the twin dump trucks.
"Go after him." He said. "And if they have even been scratched, I'll make sure you two pay." Max and Monty were about to retort but they knew that know wasn't the time. With forced smiles and nods, the two sped away.