"Samael." A pair of azure blue eyes with vertical pupils opened, revealing a tall man with long, mane-like jet-black hair and a long cloak with a fur trim around the neck.
He glanced over his shoulder at what looked like a black cat sitting on the ground behind him, with four eyes, the same eyes staring at Stephanie from the tunnel.
"Where are you going, Samael?" the cat asked, speaking to the stranger.
"I need to get somewhere," the figure named 'Samael' responded, turning slightly away from the cat. "I-I don't want to stand around here anymore. There's so much out there I want to know!"
"I see," the black cat nodded. "You want to spend your time on earth with the other humans, am I correct?"
"Yes," Samael nodded. "Lucian barely gives me acknowledgement that I'm there with him. He pretends I'm just some shadow to him, even if I try to confront him with what he was doing."
He sighed as he ran his hand through his wild, jet-black hair, continuing, "I can't just sit on the throne next to him and just hear him talk all the time. If he doesn't want me around, then fine, I'll be with the humans instead."
"Hmm," the cat softly spoke, standing up from where they were sitting and approaching the man. "Very well. But think for a moment, Samael. What would happen if you stepped onto the mortal world? They'll know you are a Celestial and will attempt to kill you. Remember what happened to the King of Shadows when he arrived on Earth?"
"I know," Samael responded with a sigh. "That story is always a children's bedtime story for over a thousand years. You don't need to remind me of that old story."
He paused as he looked over the railing of the platform he was on, looking down at the earth as he stared at it longingly.
But then he remembered something and sat back up, asking, "What if I take the form of an animal? Humans don't usually pay attention to animals and just continue their days!"
"Very well," The cat nodded, jumping onto the railing beside him. "Which animal do you prefer?"
He looked back at the planet Earth and hummed softly, staring at it before asking, "What's Earth's version of the night?"
"Wolves, I believe," the cat responded.
"Then I'll be a wolf," Samael smiled, showing what looked like sharp canines. "And I'll spend about a hundred or fifty years on Earth. Then, if I don't like it, I'll return to the Celestial Plane. If I like it, I'll stay for another hundred years."
"Very well," the cat nodded with a smile. "But do be careful when you arrive on Earth. There are even earth-bound Celestials roaming on Earth too."
"Wait," 'Samael' spoke, his voice slowly changing from his to someone else's. "There's earth-bound Celestials?"
Loud noises came from around as the scene switched to someone's point of view, and the whole place transformed.
They glanced around as dark shapes came from the walls, looking almost like arms with sharp claws.
They were heading towards the person's shadow, so they ran as fast as they could, avoiding the shadow-like hands and running down the place.
Suddenly, something massive crashed in front of them, causing them to skid to a stop as they saw an enormous figure with pale blue skin and short dark blue hair littered with stars.
Then a clawed hand appeared and stabbed through the being's body, and the person tried to escape by digging their fingers into the ground but eventually collapsed after the clawed hand yanked out what looked like a star in its clawed hand.
The clawed hand moved up as the body faded away, and a pair of ruby-red eyes with vertical pupils glanced directly down at them.
"There you are." The person's fear spiked after the eyes looked down at them and started running in the opposite direction, heading down where they were running and into the shadows.
The shadows all shrieked and moved like thick water as they trudged through it, ignoring the shadows as they grabbed their limbs.
They continued wading through the shadow-like ocean as the creature behind them attempted to reach them with its sharp claws, but a geyser of shadows suddenly shot up and scratched at the hand, causing the monster to shriek in pain and move back.
Suddenly, the shadows wrapped around the person's midsection and started yanking forward, wading deeper and deeper into the ocean of shadows as they tried to slow down, but the shadows were tugging them forward.
"You can't save them all, Rseebu!" the monster bellowed angrily.
The person looked confused after the monster bellowed angrily before something started to rise from the shadow-like ocean behind them, causing them to look over their shoulder.
They saw a giant horned monster before a pair of eyes opened, showing what looked like a symbol for pupils and red irises.
P.T. Boomer's whole body jolted awake after that nightmare had ended, and he sat up slightly from where he was and glanced around, noticing he was inside Pinchy.
He must have fallen asleep during the ride back to the Dieselworks, and Diesel 10 scooped him into Pinchy as he fell asleep.
…But it was a little uncomfortable for him as he shifted slightly from where he was sitting.
Pinchy moved somewhat after feeling P.T. Boomer moved and opened a little more for him, allowing him to crawl out, feeling his joints popping and aching a little.
Note to Self: Don't sleep in Pinchy again.
Pinchy moved down a little towards P.T. Boomer with noises that sounded worried and confused, as P.T. Boomer assured, "I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm just a little sore."
Pinchy moved away from P.T. Boomer after he assured himself and looked down at the others, seeing that some were asleep in some of the Dieselworks.
Sailor John and Baz had created their hammocks in two separate places: Bernie sleeping on the ground in a fetal position near where Baz was, and Conrad sleeping on a chair near his trailer.
Out of everyone else, why does he get to have a trailer with him?
…Well, at least no one else is sleeping in his trailer with him because it looked much more cramped than Diesel 10's cab.
Pinchy helped P.T. Boomer down to the ground as he winced at his body aching again, forcing himself to get used to it as he took some steps forward.
It looked like P.T. Boomer woke up at the break of dawn as he poked his head outside, seeing the sun rising from the distance and the air was slightly misty.
He closed the door behind him quietly before stepping further, deciding to get some breakfast to start his day.
But his phone suddenly made a notification noise, startling him from what he was doing, but he did not make a noise.
He reached inside and took it out, seeing it was a text message, and it read;
Come to Ulfstead Castle! I have found something that you and your group might want to learn about! - From, Ember.
"How did Ember manage to get my phone number?" P.T. Boomer mumbled with confusion, mostly blushing slightly.
But considering that she mentioned the 'group,' it must be important for everyone.
P.T. Boomer stepped back inside to wake everyone up but saw that Sailor John was already up, shaking Bernie up as Baz slept.
"Come on, get up from the ground." Sailor John spoke as Bernie finally woke up. "We need t' get up."
"Do we have to?" Conrad groaned, slowly standing up with a groan, mostly wincing from his back aching from sleeping in the chair.
"Yes," P.T. Boomer nodded, showing the text message Ember sent him. "Ember found something in Ulfstead Castle's library. We might need Diesel 10's help."
"I got it," Sailor John nodded, walking over to the sleeping Diesel 10.
After waking Diesel 10 up, they boarded Diesel 10's cab as his driver filled Diesel 10's tanks with diesel fuel before heading to Ulfstead Castle.
Diesel 10 entered Ulfstead Castle's grounds and glanced around wearily, knowing Glynn, Stephen, and Millie would be around, but they were thankfully still asleep.
He comes to a spot where he can hide when Glynn, Stephen, and Mille wake up and allows everyone to step out, waiting outside as they enter Ulfstead Castle.
The group walked through Ulfstead Castle and soon entered the library, coming across what looked like a table filled with different books on top of it.
"Ember?" P.T. Boomer called as Baz looked at the title of the books, looking confused. "Where are you?"
"Over here!" a voice called. "Just a minute!"
Movement sounds were in the distance before the library's ladder rolled into view, revealing Ember holding some books in one arm while the other held onto the ladder.
"Hi!" Ember smiled with excitement as she stepped off the ladder. "I didn't properly introduce myself earlier, but I'm Dominique Maeve Ember, but you can call me Ember."
The others looked confused after seeing Ember and P.T. Boomer asked, "How did you get my phone number and get into Ulfstead Castle's library without the Earl knowing?"
"Well, I have a somewhat bad record for breaking into places I shouldn't be going into," Ember responded as she walked over to the table covered with books. "Mostly for intruding on properties too. For your phone number, I sort of poked around your bag and found your journal, which had your phone number if it was lost."
P.T. Boomer blushed a little after Ember explained, reminding himself he needed to find a different bag to keep his items safe.
"Whoa, wait a minute," Conrad said, looking confused. "You've been breaking into people's properties for how long?"
"Twenty years before I stopped after hitting thirty," Ember explained before shaking her head. "That's not the point, though. I found some interesting things while searching through the library."
Ember opened one of the books and flipped through the pages, coming across pictures of different Crystal Dusts as she pointed at the Gold Dust, Silver Dust, and Copper Dust.
"These Dusts were first used in the Paleolithic Era when male cavemen would mine for these types of crystals to create necklaces for cavewomen to wear as a sign of respect," Ember explained excitedly. "Ever since, Dusts were common for people to wear until they stopped wearing the Dusts when gemstones were first discovered."
"And these are the same Dusts Diesel 10 and Stephanie used?" Bernie asked.
"Yes," Ember nodded. "But there were different kinds of Dusts throughout history, like this one," Ember pointed at a picture of an unlabeled dark cyan Dust. "It looks like not many of them are recognized."
"Then we can find what other Dusts there are and use them, right?" Sailor John asked.
"Yes," Ember nodded with excitement. "But we must be careful with mixing two different Dusts together."
"What happens if two Dusts are mixed?" Conrad asked.
Ember flipped through the pages, showed what looked like a black sticky substance in a bucket, and explained, "That's Black Goo. From the description I got, it's a dangerous and contagious material that will corrupt anyone or anything it comes into its path, meaning engines too."
P.T. Boomer nodded slowly as everyone asked more questions, wondering what else she had discovered as he noticed something.
It was an old dark brown book with no title, just hiding underneath the stacks of books Ember had collected for study.
He reached over to the titleless book and carefully took it out from the stack, looking at it with confusion as he looked at its cover.
"Hey, Ember?" P.T. Boomer spoke, turning to Ember with a confused expression. "What's this book?"
Ember looked over and noticed the book in P.T. Boomer's hands, looking confused after seeing the titleless book in his hands.
"I never grabbed that book," Ember responded, standing up from where she was sitting and over to him. "How did it get into my book pile?"
P.T. Boomer shrugged his shoulders after Ember asked before opening the book with Ember standing beside him, looking at the pages with him.
They soon came across the book's first page, which had someone's name on it, but it was blurred out because of the worn pages.
P.T. Boomer flipped to the next page, which had a written page with a sketch of a half-lion and half-human hybrid wearing a king's uniform with pure yellow blond hair and light blue eyes on the other.
The page reads:
King Lucian is the Celestial Guardian of the Sun, Life, Protection, and Order, giving fair trials to anyone who had an unjustified life and would guide them to reincarnation.
He keeps everything in balance and has the touch of bringing anything that was once dead back to life and would give his blessing to anyone who has good in their hearts.
The legends say that King Lucian once brought an entire planet back to life by walking around the planet for 80 days straight, returning everything that was once dead.
He studies the planet's solar system and keeps stars to create constellations, keeping the balance scale perfectly leveled, or else Samael would take the chance to create chaos.
"Wow," Ember remarked as she took the book from P.T. Boomer, as he felt a little confused. "This book is about celestials?"
"What book?" Conrad asked, looking confused.
He noticed the book with the others as Ember flipped to the next page, showing what looked like another celestial, except half-wolf and half-human with jet-black hair and azure blue eyes.
The page beside it reads:
Samael is the Celestial Guardian of the Moon, Death, Destruction, and Chaos, bringing destruction and chaos to anyone he comes across, bringing ire to King Lucian.
He destroys anything in his path for 'fun' as he claims, and enjoys seeing chaos among the many people that roam on planets.
The legends say that Samael once traveled through the Underworld out of boredom from staying on the surface, bringing chaos to the new land and charming many creatures with his crazy antics and neverending parties.
King Lucian tried to stop Samael's antics for millions of years, but Samael would find his way around King Lucian's rules, bending them to his will and creating more chaos than King Lucian anticipated.
"That sounds like one crazy celestial," Sailor John remarked.
Ember nodded and flipped to the next page, showing what looked like a knight with golden armor, a headdress, short orange hair, a red cape, a sword, and golden yellow eyes, his face covered with battle scars with the symbol of the sun behind him.
The page written next to the picture reads:
Aelius is the Celestial of the Sun, Gold, and Life, protecting the sun and bringing life to anything on earth, even protecting the cosmos from dangers that come from the darkness.
His right-hand man is King Lucian, sharing his powers with him to help spread his protection to earth and the cosmos, bringing life to different stars and sharing information with people to help mankind.
Legends say that a Roman empire once attempted to fight against him because he was the most handsome of any human.
But Aelius victoriously won any battles against anyone who dared to fight against him, gaining his scars as a symbol of his victories.
"Wait, there are two sun celestials?" Bernie asked.
"No, there's a guardian and the celestial," Baz explained. "The guardian is the one who protects the celestial, and the celestial is the one who controls."
"Exactly," Ember nodded as she flipped the page to a picture of a beautiful white-haired woman with starlight white eyes and wearing a beautiful sky blue dress as she had a star in her hands with a star-shaped symbol behind her.
The page written next to the picture reads:
Andromeda is the Celestial of the Stars, Philosopher, and Balance, protecting the stars, creating new constellations, and sharing the curiosity of the stars with people.
She has different kinds of guardians in her realm and stores many different stars to spread through the night sky.
Andromeda keeps Aelius and Luna in order from stepping out from their lines, reminding them of their jobs and purposes and even giving them information about what is happening.
Legends say that Andromeda once brought a human into her realm to study the stars, and the human returned with pure white hair due to coming into contact with the stars.
Ember flipped the page after reading it and saw another celestial with pure jet-black hair with the ends ending in a midnight blue color.
She wore what looked like the uniform of a grim reaper with the scythe in both hands, holding a sand hourglass with the symbol of the moon behind her.
The written page reads:
Luna is the Celestial of the Moon, Death, and the Afterlife, bringing lost souls into the Afterlife to give them rest from spending time roaming on planets.
She spends time with Andromeda's constellation guardians and keeps in check with Samuel, sometimes confused by the chaos Samuel has brought onto certain world spots.
There have been rumors that Luna secretly goes to earth to roam around, singing a song while using her scythe, her sand hourglass gently clinking as a sign that she is coming.
Legends say whoever grabs Luna's hourglass and rewinds the time will restart their time back to the beginning and be young again.
Many had attempted to do so by grabbing Luna's hourglass, but no one had returned to tell how they managed to rewind it.
"Now there's a death celestial?" Conrad worriedly asked. "How many death celestials are there?"
"Depending on the legends," Ember explained before picking up a coffee cup and drinking it before placing it down. "There are millions that ranged from either parties, comedies, showers, and," she paused and changed, "And other things that I want to say but will be censored."
"Good idea," Baz nodded as Bernie looked confused. "What's the next page?"
Ember flipped the page before coming across a very worn-out page, showing what looked like a clawed being with armor and had the appearance of a king, but the face was faded.
The written page reads:
The Nightmare King is the ruler of nightmares, bringing unpleasant dreams to people around, and comes out at night to terrorize unexpecting humans who dare step out into the night.
He enjoys a good scare out of people and would continue terrorizing them until they faint out of fear or never to be moving anymore.
The Nightmare King is very powerful during the night, but when daytime comes, he will hide in the darkness and wait until the nighttime comes to return to his duties.
Legends say that Aelius, Andromeda, and Luna locked the Nightmare King away in a special temple to keep him from exiting to spread fear among the people.
He is forever locked in that small temple with an enchanted seal, and if anyone unlocks the temple, terrible things will happen to the world.
Ember looked at the group with concern, mentioning the picture of the Nightmare King, and slowly asked, "Is… this the person sending out those Nightmares across Sodor?"
"It must be," P.T. Boomer nodded. "But that doesn't make any sense. How would the Nightmare King still roam on Sodor if locked in a temple?"
"Then we got to ask Stephanie about this," Ember pointed as she closed the book. "She has much more knowledge than we do and more experience too."
"Wait a minute!" Baz exclaimed as he stepped in front of Ember. "Are you saying we want Stephanie's knowledge of what is happening?"
"Yes," Ember nodded. "If you guys are still thinking about 'taking over Sodor,'" Ember mocked, which caused some of them to blush with embarrassment. "You need her knowledge of what to dodge and what to not dodge. Sometimes you must learn from your enemies to know your surroundings."
"'N that be a bad idea, Ember," Sailor John explained. "Haven't ye forgotten that Stephanie be wit' Fat Hatt?"
"It's Sir Topham Hatt, mind you," a voice interrupted, causing them all to flinch as they glanced over at who spoke. "And how did you all get into my library?"
It was the Earl of Sodor, Sir Robert Norramby, and he looked irritated with his arms crossed over his chest.
Ember perked and responded honestly before the others could lie, "I snuck into your library to look at some things about what I had encountered, and I brought everyone with me to show what I had discovered."
"I see," Sir Robert Norramby nodded.
"How much did you overhear, though?" Ember asked.
"Not much," Sir Robert Norramby responded. "But next time, use the front door to sneak into the library, okay? You left the window wide open."
"Gah, I thought I had that closed!" Ember softly groaned before putting the book down. "But, I will next time. Right now," she turned to the others as she picked up her coffee and drank the rest, looking a little buzzed. "Let's get these books back on the shelves and go on a trip!"
She continued chattering a little as she sorted through the books, and the others looked at each other as Conrad remarked, "Okay, no more caffeine for you."