A blue portal opened, heralding the arrival of Batman, Wyldstyle and Pepper.
"Alright," Batman started," The first thing we need to is WHAT THE-"
It was at that moment that the three figures realized they weren't actually standing on solid ground. They fell several feet before landing in a large pile of black studs.
Batman quickly recovered and examined the studs. "It appears to be coal."
"Why would anybody need this much coal?" Wyldstyle asked. "I mean, when there are so many cleaner and more efficient forms of energy."
"Well, X-PO could have accidentally sent us to the North Pole and this is Santa's supply of coal for naughty children," Pepper stated, "Or it's for them."
The other two looked were he was pointing to see a massive surface mine. Several of drilling machines and construction vehicles lined the sheer rock walls. The ground was covered in a series of railroad tracks that were in use by dozens of hopper cars that were filled with rock, iron ore and of course, coal.
The coal pile they were half buried in suddenly shook and started to move.
Wyldstyle sighed. "We're in a train car, aren't we?"
"Guess now we just go with the flow," Pepper chuckled. "Or tracks, as the case may be."
"Let's make our way to the engine and talk to the driver," Batman stated. "He might know something about what's going on here."
Unbeknownst to them, at that moment they were being watched. High above was a dull gold robot that was little more than a head, torso and single rocket keeping it aloft. Its red eyes were trained on the three heroes, relaying a live feed of the back to its master.
"HA! Just like 'ol Sammy said!" chuckled a male minifig. He had light gray skin and was clad in a black trench coat. His hair was bright red and sported a pair of goggles with yellow lenses.
"Jack, why must you give all of our allies stupid nicknames that they would no doubt not appreciate?" a ghostly transparent purple figure with a white face and red eyes questioned.
"Hey, my nicknames are brilliant!" Jack Spicer retorted before he turned back to the large computer screen that was displaying his spy-bot's live feed. "You're just incapable of fully appreciating them, Wuya." He opened a comm channel on his computer. "Jack Spicer to Peridot, come in."
"This is Peridot, I read you," came the reply.
"I have the targets in sight- they're in a coal train heading south-bound. One of my spy-bots is trailing them, so you should lock onto it and send you Peri-bots to intercept."
"For the last time, Jack, they're called Robonoids, not Peri-bots!" the gem-figure replied.
"You're just jealous because you didn't think of it first," Jack smirked.
"Ugh. Peridot, over and out."
The call ended, Jack still grinning. "Yeah, she's TOTALLY jealous of me and my mad robot naming skills." He leaned back in his chair, then let out a shriek as he fell backwards onto the floor.
Wuya hovered above him, beaming. "Oh yes, Jack, your robot naming skills ARE amazing! Just like your coordination!"
"Alright, listen here you floating purple pile of-" Jack stood up, then immediately fell back onto the floor as he tripped over the chair. "You know what? Forget it."
"Man, how long IS this train?" Wyldstyle asked. "We must have climbed through two dozen train cars already!"
"Some trains can pull hundreds of cars at a time," Pepper commented.
The female minifig sighed. "Wonderful."
"Actually, I think we're about there." Batman point ahead, where the back of a blue train could be seen a few cars head.
"Thank the Man Upstairs," Wyldstyle huffed as she started climbing through the last few cars.
They arrived at the train in no time. However, a problem soon made itself evident.
"Uh, dudes? The doors are on the sides," Pepper pointed out.
"So what?" Wyldstyle leapt onto the train, hanging from its coal hopper. She made her way to the side, then twisted around and jumped through the open doorway. "Think you guys can keep up?"
Rather than respond verbally, Batman whipped out his grappler and fired it, the hook catching onto the side of the open doorway. "How are your tight-roping skills?"
"Never tried, though I have zipline'd plenty of times," Pepper replied as he grabbed onto the cable and slid the short distance to the cab. Batman followed by retracting the cable, pulling him into the cabin.
Wyldstyle quickly spotted another problem. "Uh, guys? There's no driver!"
"Runaway train!" Pepper exclaimed.
"It must be a trap!" Batman figured.
Suddenly a voice spoke from seemingly nowhere. "Uh, hello?"
The three figures jumped, huddling back-to-back in a defensive position. "Um, hi?" Pepper replied. "Who are you?"
"I'm Thomas," the mysterious voice replied. "Thomas the Tank Engine."
"Tank engine?" Batman repeated. "You mean you're the train?"
"Yup!" Thomas replied cheerily.
"Where exactly is your voice coming from?" Wyldstyle asked.
"Um, from my face?"
"A talking train with a face," Batman sighed. "This adventure is going to be even crazier than the last. I take it your face is on the front of your boiler?"
"It is! Come on up!" Thomas replied.
The three figures glanced at eachother, unsure how to proceed. Finally, with a shrug, Pepper went to the doorway and carefully walked across the narrow running boards along Thomas' sides. Batman and Wyldstyle followed.
They came around to the front of the train where they found Thomas' large, smiling gray face. "Hello!" he gasped. "Are you Batman?"
The Dark Knight nodded. "I am. These are Wyldstyle and Pepper Roni. We're looking for the source of a series of inter-dimensional portals. Have you seen anything strange around here lately?"
"Actually I have," Thomas answered. "There have been strange figures taking cars and trucks everywhere. I think some of them have even been stealing things!"
"Sounds like we're in the right place," Pepper nodded.
"And we're heading in the right direction," Wyldstyle stated, looking at the readout on her Relic Scanner.
"Good," Batman said simply as he stared at the sky.
"Bats, you DO know you can't stargaze in the day, right?" Wyldstyle joked.
"We're being followed," Batman simply answered.
Pepper's eyes widened. "What? By who?"
"Not sure, but there's a drone of some kind that's been tailing us since we left the quarry."
"And you didn't see fit to bring this up before WHY exactly?"
"I didn't want to alarm you," Batman explained. "Then our follower would know we're onto them."
"Yeah, and staring straight at it doesn't give us away," Pepper stated.
Before any more witty responses could be shared, something landed in the coal next to them. They looked over to see what appeared to be a lime green sphere with four crab-like legs. Several more of the spheres landed around them, effectively surrounding them.
"Oh look, dudes, they're onto us," Pepper stated in a deadpan tone." I wonder what could have given us away."
Batman whipped out a batarang and pointed it at one of the spheres. "Who do you work for?"
"That would be ME!" A much larger sphere, this one with six legs, crashed down into the car behind them. Standing on top of it was a minifig in green armor and triangular hair.
"She's one of the mysterious figures that has been flying around the island!" Thomas exclaimed.
"Who are you?" Batman demanded. "What are you doing in this dimension?"
"I am a Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG from the Gem home world," the green figure explained. "I'm in this dimension because someone of high power wishes it. And I can't let you interfere with his plans…"