Aelita, Anne, William, Chase, and Jeremie stood together in the engine as they chatted about the engine.
"So, have you guys ever been on a train engine before?" Anne asked.
"Nope." Aelita shook her head.
"Uh-uh." Chase said as he shook his head.
"No." Jeremie answered.
"Not really..." William answered.
Anne shrugged. "Me neither."
Just then, they heard a voice in the distance. Aelita carefully poked her head out the window, finding one of the engineers, a short, stout man, yelling to them.
"STOP THE TRAIN!" the engineer yelled.
Aelita went wide eyed as Chase also looked out.
"WHAT?!" Chase called over the wind.
"STOP THE TRAIN!" the stout engineer yelled again.
"They want us to stop the train!" Aelita exclaimed to the group.
"Which ones the brake?!" Jeremie asked.
"I dunno!" William exclaimed
The bespectacled teen looked around frantically. "What about this red one? It looks like a brake!" Jeremie said as he pointed at a red lever.
Aelita shook her head. "No, he said this was the brake!" she said as she pointed at the small lever.
"Are you sure?!" Jeremie asked.
Aelita was silent for a moment, her face full of doubt.
"Are you sure?!" Jeremie repeated.
Instead, Aelita sat down and covered her eyes.
Chase went wide eyed, looking at Anne.
"Anne, do you have any idea which one it is?" Chase asked
"How should I know?! I don't know anything about trains!" Anne retorted.
"STOP THE TRAIN!" they heard the stout engineer yell again.
Jeremie gripped onto the red lever and prepared to pull it. However, he paused and looked at Aelita, who still sat in the engineers seat with her eyes covered.
If Aelita was right, then it was worth a shot...
Hesitating for a moment, Jeremie pulled the small lever and the Polar Express screeched to a halt.
Aelita looked at Jeremie, going wide eyed as she saw him pull the small lever.
Up front, the stout engineer nearly lost his balance and quickly grabbed onto the other engineer, who was much skinnier. The stout engineer ended up grabbing the skinny engineers long beard, making the latter yell.
The train then screeched to a halt as the stout engineer came face to face with... a caribou.
"Caribou?!" he asked before the caribou snorted in his face.
In the engine, the group sighed with relief.
Chase looked out, and immediately went wide eyed.
"There's a bunch of meese in front of the train! Or mooses! Moose... I don't know what it's supposed to be, but it's there." Chase said
"It's 'moose', Chase." William retorted. "And those are actually caribou."
Anne poked her head out the window and her visible eye widened seeing the amount of caribou outside. "Holy..."
Just then, they heard the Conductor coming in.
"What in the blazes is going on in here?!" he demanded. The conductor scowled seeing Jeremie. "You! Young man, are you trying to ensure that this train never reaches the North Pole?!" he asked as he scowled at the bespectacled teen.
"But look!" Aelita exclaimed as she pointed out the window. The conductor poked his head out the window and his eyes widened.
"CARIBOU CROSSING?!" he yelled.
"How many of those things are out there?!" Chase exclaimed, with shock
One by one, the Conductor and the group climbed out of the engine and made their way to the front of the train.
Chase's jaw dropped, seeing that there were HUNDREDS of caribou out in their way.
"Well, s-"
Aelita quickly covered his mouth. "Watch your language!" she scolded as they reached the front of the train.
"I make that herd to be at least a hundred thousand, maybe even a million! It's gonna be HOURS before we clear this track!" the stout engineer exclaimed.
Chase growled. "HOURS?! What the-"
Aelita covered Chase's mouth, frowning.
"Stop saying those words!" Aelita scolded
"Sorry..." the messy haired teen apologized.
"A tough nut to crack!" the skinny engineer said.
"We are in some serious jelly..." the Conductor muttered as he looked out at the herd.
"And a jam." the stout engineer added.
"Tight spot!" the skinny engineer chimed in.
"Up a creek."
"Up a tree!"
"Lost in grass!"
"I'll tell ya what's grass; our-" Before the skinny engineer could finish, Anne had accidentally slipped and grabbed onto the skinny engineer's beard, making him yell. "OWWWW!"
After he yelled, a caribou whined and let out a snort. The others noticed this.
"Hm..." the Conductor muttered before he got an idea. He grabbed hold of the skinny engineer's beard and gave it a tug.
"OWWWWWW!" The engineer yelled
One caribou let out another whine as it backed away a little.
The Conductor gave one final pull on the engineer's beard, making him let out a long yell of pain as William and Jeremie cringed. "OWWWWWWWW!" the skinny engineer screamed.
The one caribou whined back before it started to move to the side, as well as the other caribou.
Jeremie had a wide eyed look.
"Didn't think that'd work..." Jeremie said
Chase let out a whoop as he and Anne high fived.
"WHOO!" Chase laughed.
The Conductor looked out at the caribou moving aside and smiled. "Problem solved. All ahead, slow!" he announced.
The two engineers climbed back into the train engine and started the train up again.
Aelita, Jeremie, Chase, Anne, and William all smiled as the train resumed moving.
In the engine, the stout engineer tried to pull a lever, but he noticed that it was stuck, causing the train to chug faster and faster.
At the front of the Polar Express, Jeremie's eyes widened. "Hey, we're going pretty fast..." he observed.
"Okay, yeah, we're going WAY too fast!" William agreed
"Tell the engineers to slow down." the Conductor ordered.
Aelita headed over to the side of the train and called, "SLOW IT DOWN! WATCH THE SPEED!"
However, the engineer couldn't hear her, as he was still trying to pull the throttle. Finally, it broke off, the pin bouncing all over the place. "Jumpin' jeepers, the cotter pin sheared off!" the stout engineer exclaimed.
"Where?!" the skinny engineer asked.
"There!" the stout engineer cried as he saw the pin on top of a vent. However, he accidentally slammed his hand on it, causing the pin to fall through the vent.
"OH NO!" the two engineers exclaimed together.
Back at the front of the train, Aelita looked back at the Conductor. "They can't hear me!" she exclaimed.
The Conductor's eyes widened. "They can't?"
Aelita shook her head.
"Uh-oh..." he muttered as they looked back forward, seeing two signs as they were heading towards a large hill. One said 'DANGER 179 DEGREE GRADE' and the other said 'USE LOW GEAR'.
"Quick, under the safety bar." the Conductor ordered as he and the five Lyoko Warriors quickly headed over to the safety bar.
"What's happening?!" Anne asked "What should we do?!"
The Conductor grabbed a rope that was part of Aelita's jacket and tied it to the safety bar and around them to use it as support. "Considering the fact that we have lost communication with the engineer, we are standing totally exposed on the front of a locomotive, the train appears to be accelerating uncontrollably, and we are rapidly approaching Glacier Gultch, which just happens to be the steepest downhill grade in the world, I suggest that we all hold on... TIGHTLYYYYYYY!" the Conductor yelled as the train suddenly went down a huge hill.
The group started screaming. Jeremie and Aelita even locked hands as tightly as they could, from fear.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Anne screamed as they sped down the hill rapidly, the wind blowing their hair back.
Chase's hair whipped wildly in the wind as they zoomed down the hill.
The Conductor also screamed as they started rapidly zooming up a hill, all of them nearly falling back if it wasn't for the rope that was supporting them.
William tightly shut his eyes as Aelita screamed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" they both screamed.
"I WANT MY MOMMY!" Chase screamed
They all screamed as they all lurched forward, almost falling over the safety bar as the train suddenly went downhill again.
It was like they were on a roller coaster!
"I HATE ROLLER COASTERS!" Anne somehow managed to scream out.
Meanwhile, in the passenger cart...
The kids were laughing and whooping with excitement at the fast ride.
Odd whooped and threw his hands up in the air. "YEAAAAAHHHH!" he yelled.
Dylan held onto his seat tightly as his eyes widened with fear.
"This is insane!" Dylan shouted
Yumi held onto her seat while laughing while poor Ulrich was clinging onto his seat with fear.
"It's like a rollercoaster!" Yumi exclaimed
"GET ME OFF THIS THING!" Ulrich screamed with fear over Yumi whooping.
"Odd, hold onto the seat! You might get hurt!" Dylan snapped at Odd.
"No way that's gonna happen!" the purple clad teen whooped.
Odd laughed, loudly as he threw his hands in the air.
Dylan groaned. "What a moron!" he exclaimed out loud as he held onto his seat.
Back at the front of the train...
In the engine, due to the sudden change in gravity, the pin flew out of the vent. "THE PIN!" both engineers exclaimed as they made a grab for it.
However, as the train suddenly went downhill, the pin flew into the stout engineer's mouth. The stout engineer accidentally swallowed it.
The other engineer looked at the stout engineer, seeing him pointing to his opened mouth, showing that he accidentally swallowed the pin.
Back at the front of the Polar Express, the group gasped seeing that ice had frozen over the tracks ahead of them.
"Jiminy Christmas, the ice has frozen over the tracks!" the Conductor exclaimed.
"I take it that's not a good thing?!" Chase asked, with worry
Chase didn't get an answer, as the train went onto the ice. It skid left and right, over and over again.
Meanwhile, back in the engine, the other engineer hit the stout engineer in the back of the head with a shovel, causing him to spit out the pin. However, the pin ended up landing out on the ice, causing it to begin to crack.
Suddenly, the train slammed into a mini berg, causing it to tilt to the right slightly. Aelita had fallen off, but thankfully, the Conductor grabbed the back of her jacket. Aelita screamed with fear.
"Don't worry, I've got you! It's okay!" The Conductor assured, but he was starting to slip as well. Anne, Jeremie, William, and Chase all grabbed the back of the Conductors coat, but Anne was starting to slip.
Suddenly, Anne felt something grab her jacket. Anne turned around and went wide eyed, seeing the hobo was keeping her on the engine. No one else noticed him.
The hobo raised his finger to his lips. "Shhhhh!"
Jeremie looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened seeing the hobo. "You're-!"
The hobo simply smirked as he held a finger to his lips, signaling them to keep it a secret.
The Conductor regained his balance as he and the others helped Aelita back on. Anne looked over her shoulder and saw the hobo give them a smile and thumbs up before he vanished in a flurry of snowflakes.
"Young lady, quick thinking on your part!" the conductor complimented Anne.
Anne nodded as she and Jeremie looked at each other with shock.
Back in the engine, the skinny engineer got an idea. He took his hat off and pulled a pin that kept the hair out of his eyes out of his hair, causing it all to fall in his face.
Quickly, he inserted the hairpin in place of the cotter pin. The stout engineer quickly pulled the lever, causing the train to turn skid to a halt and turn around slightly.
The engine rocked back and forth a little and Jeremie almost fell off, but the Conductor helped him back on as the engine stopped rocking.
"Well... That is more like it." the Conductor said as he adjusted his hat and glasses.
Anne simply stared ahead with wide eyes. "I... Hate... Roller Coasters..." she gasped out.
Chase was trembling, with fear. "I-Is it over...?"
The Conductor nodded. "Yes. You can calm down, now."
Chase let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god..."
The group climbed on top of the engine as the Conductor opened the door that led into the engine and frowned down at the engineers. "What in the name of Mike?!"
Just then, they heard a loud cracking noise.
Jeremie gasped as he pointed off into the distance. "LOOK!" he exclaimed.
The ice was starting to crack!
"Oh no!" William exclaimed.
"IT'S CRACKING!" Aelita warned
"Get us the blazes out of here!" the Conductor yelled to the engineers.
Jeremie and Aelita tightly locked hands again as the train started slowly backing up.
"Turn this sled around!" the conductor yelled down to the engineers.
The stout engineer quickly pulled a lever and made the train turn around. The five Lyoko Warriors crouched down as the Conductor somehow managed to keep his balance as he stood up.
The engineer pulled another lever and the Express quickly turned around and started speeding away from the rapidly cracking ice behind it.
William's eyes widened as he saw something up ahead.
"Look! Over there!" he yelled as he pointed at it. The Conductor looked up and his eyes widened. They were railroad tracks!
"Tracks! Dead ahead!" he called down to the engineers.
As the Polar Express got closer and closer, the Conductor shouted directions down to the engineers.
"Right!"
The stout engineer pulled the throttle to make the train go right.
"Left!"
He pulled the throttle again and got the Polar Express to move to the left.
"Right!"
At the command, the engineer pulled the throttle again to make the Express go right.
"Hang a Louie!"
The train went left.
"Toss a Ritchie!"
Right again.
"Port astern!"
The train went left once again.
"To the starboard!" the Conductor called down to them as he saw they were getting closer.
Meanwhile, as the Conductor shouted directions, Jeremie's slipper had started to fall off with Aelita's ticket starting to slip out.
"You're gonna lose your ticket, Jeremie!" Aelita exclaimed.
"That ain't his ticket, Aelita! It's yours!" Anne cried out as she held on tightly.
The pink haired teen gasped. "It's my ticket?!" she asked as she and Jeremie both reached for it.
"... Keep up with me! Left! Right! Left!" the Conductor repeated over the chugging of the engine.
As the ticket started to float away, Jeremie and Aelita grabbed it together. The two then gasped as they saw that the cracking ice had caught up with them just as they were only feet away from the tracks.
"OH NO!" all five Lyoko Warriors cried out in unison. The Conductor's eyes widened at the sight. "BRACE YOURSELVES!" he warned before everyone dove down. Thankfully, the Polar Express reached the tracks in time, chugging away from the cracking ice.
Everyone sighed with relief. "Well, that's more like it." the Conductor remarked before hopping down into the engine.
Aelita hugged Jeremie tightly. "Thank you! Thank you so much for finding my ticket!"
Jeremie blushed and hugged her back. "Uh... N-No problem, Aelita..." he stuttered.
The Conductor then popped back up at this. "Did somebody say they found their ticket?" he asked. Aelita and Jeremie nodded.
The Conductor smiled a bit. "Well, you're lucky to have him as a friend." the Conductor told Aelita, referring to Jeremie.
The two simply blushed while Anne, William, and Chase chuckled.
(REVIEWS ARE LOVE! SO LOVE US!)