Stephanie was now in the 'dimension' room she had opened, looking through the items she had collected, cleaning them off from sand, and examining them.

Notches and Lucy decided to take a break together in her room, and Stephanie opened the door to allow them to rest on her bed as she returned to her collection.

Some of the items were damaged, so Stephanie put them in a pile on the left side to repair later.

Others were either rusty or had some dents littering the cover, so she placed those to the right for refurbishment.

Strangely, most of the items she discovered were bullet casings after she picked up one of them from her pile, looking a little bewildered.

"Huh," Stephanie remarked as she looked at the bullet casing in her hand. "How did this get into the pile?"

She continued to look at the bullet casing and noticed the date at the bottom, removing some of the sand as it read '1939.'

"A World War Ⅱ bullet casing?" Stephanie muttered with curiosity. "Sodor had World War Ⅱ?"

She put the bullet casing in front of her and took out a book from her bag with the title on the front, 'Sodor's Greatest History.'

Stephanie sat down comfortably from where she was and flipped through some pages before stopping at a chapter titled 'The Great Wars.'

The chapter tells about Sodor's greatest wars throughout history, from King Godred MacHarold to World Wars Ⅰ and Ⅱ attacks.

"That makes sense," Stephanie softly remarked after reading the whole chapter, moving the bookmark to the page of the next chapter. "I should write this down sometime."

She put the book back into her bag and started to collect the bullet casings, seeing there was much more than she had intentionally collected.

"Blimey!" Stephanie softly huffed as she collected the hundredth bullet casing, now putting it into a bucket. "How many are in here?!"

Stephanie was halfway through collecting when she looked at the bucket in her hand and saw it was full and getting too heavy to carry.

"Okay," Stephanie muttered as she looked around. "Where would I put this?"

She saw a small space and walked over, placing the bucket down before picking up another, pausing after seeing the bottom had a hole through it.

Stephanie put the bucket to the side and picked up another, which had another hole, except it was on the side of the bucket instead.

She huffed slightly after seeing the two destroyed buckets and placed them down, thinking of what else could be used to hold all the bullet casings.

But then she remembered the song 'Jinxed' and the music video where the titular character, Jinx, was in a tub filled with bullet casings.

Stephanie snapped her fingers after the idea popped into her head and searched around the pile, finally finding a large old tub.

She grabbed the side of the tub and used her strength to drag it backward but struggled at first until the second pull finally allowed her to tug it back.

Stephanie yelped after the tub suddenly moved and toppled backward, landing on her bottom, and winced.

…Then she realized she had pulled the tub from a small pile of items.

Stephanie slowly pushed herself onto her feet and grabbed the side of the tub, using her strength again, and the tub moved forward.

She did it again, pulling it as she led it towards the bucket of bullet casings, and stopped, removing her hands from the ledge.

"How strong am I?!" Stephanie exclaimed, looking down at her hands. "I didn't even use the Taurus Zodiac either!"

She paused after exclaiming and wondered, glancing over to the bucket filled with bullet casings, knowing it was heavy for her.

But with a lingering feeling, Stephanie reached down to the bucket of bullet casings and lifted it, successfully lifting it without straining.

She was startled when she nearly toppled backward from the lack of weight, but Stephanie kept herself upright as she held the bucket's handle.

Stephanie moved the bucket up and down, noticing that it felt light in her hands whenever she moved it around.

But it was super heavy when she carried it before the tub unless she accidentally discovered something about herself.

Stephanie walked over to the tub and dumped the bucket of bullet casings into it before continuing her search for bullet casings.

It was soon full and had that same heavy weight in Stephanie's hands, but it was light in her hands.

Curious, Stephanie glanced around her surroundings and saw another bucket. She picked it up and checked for holes before filling that one with more bullet casings.

After that bucket was filled, Stephanie took the two buckets with her to head over to the tub of bullet casings, impressed at how she could easily carry them.

Stephanie filled the tub with the bullet casings and continued lifting heavy objects to sweep some bullet casings out from underneath using a broom.

Stephanie mended the broom with some screws and an extra brush to make it easier to sweep more debris.

The tub was soon full of bullet casings, and it was the last bucket of bullet casings, and Stephanie nodded with a sigh.

"I think that is the last bullet casing," Stephanie sighed. "I'll return to this tub later to look at the dates."

But then she paused after remembering she had discovered multiple screws all over the place, reminding herself, "Maybe I should find another tub to fill them with screws and such."

It hurt a little whenever Stephanie stepped onto one of the screws with her shoes, despite the lack of socks, but she was glad she did not walk around barefoot, or else it would hurt with all the nails and screws lying around.

So Stephanie started gathering all the nails and screws using the broom and dustbin, putting screws into one bucket and the nails into the other.

Stephanie found two more tubs to help her put the screws and nails inside, dumping the buckets filled with either screws or nails.

She paused in her collecting and was panting slightly, reminding herself it would take her years to sort through all this.

But remembering the Gemini Zodiac she had unlocked, Stephanie reached into her blue jeans pocket and took out the Zodiac Pocket Watch.

She turned the pocket watch's arms to the symbol of the Gemini and pressed the crown, transforming into her Gemini Zodiac.

"Okay," Stephanie gently muttered. "Let's do a little practice."

She focused on her powers, and her body split into two, holding each other's hands before releasing, and the light-haired Stephanie smiled.

"Okay!" the light blue-haired Stephanie nodded. "Let's do it again!"

The dark blue hair Stephanie silently nodded, and they both focused, splitting into four as they released their hands.

The two first Stephanies picked up the buckets and all started to wander around, collecting items from different piles and putting them into different ones.

Then more started to follow after the others as the Stephanies continued splitting, creating more based on her personality.

One was curious and would ask questions, ranging from 'Why is that one covered with holes?' to 'How long is this?' or 'What's that?'

One was a drill sergeant wearing an army general uniform with a whistle in her hand, blowing it while pointing in different directions to lead the Stephanies in the right direction.

…Others would be something the drill sergeant Stephanie would struggle with since they are either distracted, too angry, hungry, or… something terrifying.

But the Stephanies would continue going around, collecting items and sorting them by looking at the details before handing them to the others.

There were some moments where some of the Stephanies would use Dusts to help them transport some items around but only spend a little from accidentally emptying the Dust Whistle.

Soon the sorting was finished, and all the Stephanies gathered, looking at the success they had achieved in different piles.

"We did it!" A very light-blue-haired Stephanie cheered.

"Affirmative!" drill sergeant Stephanie nodded. "Now, let us return to normal and decide what we should do!"

The other Stephanies nodded in agreement and huddled together, focusing as they all fused back together into one Stephanie, and she sighed.

She reached up to her neck and snapped it off, returning to normal as the pendant transformed into the Zodiac Pocket Watch.

Stephanie put the Zodiac Pocket Watch into her blue jeans pocket and entered the gigantic pile of sorted-out items, looking at them thoughtfully.

Remembering her upgraded phone, Stephanie reached into her other pocket and took it out, turning it on before turning to the website on Google Chrome.

"Huh," Stephanie gently remarked. "The Wi-Fi does work well while inside the pocket dimension. Cool."

Stephanie's curiosity about the internet grew, always wanting to know what the website held.

She could not access it because of the foster parents… but since they were not here, why not browse through ideas?

So Stephanie turned to Pinterest to look for ideas, knowing that it was the first step in helping her make ideas of what she could make.

Stephanie found many interesting ideas as she continued searching through Pinterest, ranging from using the metal to melting it into different items.

Her curiosity continued growing as she looked more and more through Pinterest before something glowed from her bag.

Stephanie turned away from her phone and over to her bag, seeing the glowing light before it disappeared after a minute.

She turns her phone off after exiting Pinterest and crawls over to her bag, picks it up, and places it in front of her.

Stephanie opened her bag and saw scrolls inside it with the same symbol as the scrolls inside the trunk she had found.

"Where did these scrolls come from?" Stephanie muttered in confusion.

She reached inside and removed one of the scrolls, removing the seal before looking at what the scroll read.

The scrolls had what looked like a diagram of a key with other pictures of melting metal, pouring it into the mold, removing the mold after it hardened, refurbishing it, and then…

Stephanie looked confused after noticing the last picture was of the key but with a book with random faint symbols.

Does the last picture mean enchantment?

Stephanie pushed her glasses into place with a confused expression, looking at the words written on the scroll, but they were all somewhat worn out, and the gemstone on her staff did not translate them for her.

Maybe the letters were too worn out for the crystal to attempt to translate them for her to read.

She sighed and put her magic staff away, flicking her wrist, which transformed into a bracelet around her wrist, and looking at the pictures thoughtfully.

What if she followed what the picture said instead of having to read the letters?

"This could work," Stephanie nodded, pushing her glasses into place.

She looked at the huge tub of brass and smiled, deciding to use half of the brass to make keys but needing some kind of mold to make the keys first.

So she turned to her phone for ideas for making keys, sitting in the middle of the scrap pile dimension while searching through Pinterest.


Ember excitedly walked through the forest as she searched for something, holding what looked like the map of Sodor in her hands.

"Ember, slow down!" P.T. Boomer called from behind, struggling to catch up. "You're going to trip over something!"

"But we're nearly at the temple!" Ember called after stopping and turning to the others. "We're just a few meters away from it."

Conrad groans after Ember points and complains, "Can't whoever created the temple make it near somewhere where we can get to it without having to walk?"

"Quit complaining." Ember huffed. "You can't be a couch potato with all this," she prodded his middle with a finger, causing him to blush and wrap his arms around it. "Growing on you."

Some of the group giggled, and Conrad glared at them, and they stopped giggling after Conrad glared at them.

Diesel 10 and Diesel arrived with the others; both humans and Diesel bent over, panting as he had his hands on his knees.

"Is everyone here?" P.T. Boomer asked.

"Not everyone," Diesel panted.

"Who's behind?" Ember asked.

"Mine," Baz answered, looking over his shoulder.

Bernie slowly joined the group as Baz watched him before sitting on the ground and panting with sweat on his face.

Ember turned back to the front and moved some branches, seeing a massive temple in the distance with vines growing on it, but it looked destroyed like something gigantic had stepped out of it.

"Holy schnikes," Ember remarked as the others looked. "Is that the temple of the Nightmare King?"

They looked around the temple as Ember stepped inside, seeing that the structure was completely destroyed from the inside and that there were claw marks across the walls.

P.T. Boomer poked his head inside and saw Ember looking around, looking at the claw marks all over the walls and the destroyed items.

"Hey, guys?" Ember and P.T. Boomer perked up after hearing Diesel 10 call and headed over to where he was. "You've got to come and see this."

They approached where he was, standing in front of the temple's wall, and Pinchy was holding up some vines.

They looked at the walls and saw that there were runes decorating the walls on the rocks as if they were etched inside.

"What do you think these symbols mean?" Diesel 10 asked.

"Those are runes!" Ember pointed before P.T. Boomer could answer. "Viking mages carve runes into stones to protect homes or keep something dangerous inside, usually caves or temples, like this one!"

"Are you saying that this Nightmare King you mentioned is from the Viking era?" Diesel asked.

"Somewhat?" Ember shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I can't tell because this temple was already destroyed, and something was already out too."

As the group talked, something sneaked through the bushes, and they observed the group before approaching one of them.

The stranger slowly approached the unexpected group and lifted something up, pointing it directly at one of their backs, causing that one to freeze.

"Don't move an inch." The group stopped talking after hearing someone's voice.

They looked over and saw a man who stood on their hips, wearing a red uniform with a helmet on his head and was holding a rifle in his hands.

More appeared from the bushes, and the group instantly put their arms up, knowing it was dangerous to attempt to fight back.

They surrounded the group before a voice commanded them, "Halt!" The armed men stopped, moving back a little.

From the shadows came another man with short, dark brown hair, a square nose, cubic ears, and a scarred left eye.

He wears a Black uniform with red pauldrons, and the insignia of a Navy Lieutenant, and his belt, cap, and above his top left pocket have a symbol, which Sailor John perked up after seeing the insignias.

"Who are you all?" The Lieutenant asked. "How did you all get so near my base?"

"We didn't mean t', Lieutenant," Sailor John responded, causing the others to look at him. "We were investigin' this temple wit' Ember." He mentioned Ember with a hand as she sheepishly smiled.

The Lieutenant's frown lightened a little after Sailor John explained and said, "You were just investigating?"

"Yes," Ember nodded. "We have no reason to trespass on your property, mis-" Sailor John gently nudged her, and she corrected herself, "Lieutenant, lieutenant, sorry."

"I see," the Lieutenant nodded. "Please explain why you are investigating this temple."

Ember stepped forward from the group and said, "It's a long story, but do I have permission to ask questions?"

"Yes, you do," the Lieutenant nodded.

"Okay." Ember nodded. "Have you heard about a young girl named 'Stephanie' with pointed ears and straight blue hair?"

"Yes, I do," the Lieutenant nodded.

"She mentioned Sodor's history connected to Dust," Ember explained. "And I was in Ulfstead Castle's library looking at the examples of the Dust after witnessing her use of magic, though there were vague results. I instead stumbled across a book about celestials and one about a Nightmare King," she mentioned to the temple, "Thus coming here to inspect it."

The Lieutenant looked thoughtful before asking, "What does this 'Dust' look like?"

Ember excitedly made the 'one-minute' gesture before turning to P.T. Boomer's bag, reaching inside as he looked confused and slightly irritated.

She rummaged through it before taking out the Gold Dust and showing it to the Lieutenant as he took it from her, inspecting it.

"This is Gold Dust," Ember explained. "It's the same one that continued to repeat through history about its use of magic, along with others who use it."

The Lieutenant stared thoughtfully at the crystal in his hand, having an expression that silently said he had seen this type of crystal before.

"How many did this Stephanie discover?" The Lieutenant asked.

"Diesel 10 knows some of the Dusts she used, Lieutenant," Sailor John responded before looking at Diesel 10.

"Yeah," Diesel 10 nodded as the Lieutenant looked confused. "She used some kind of brown Dust, and I discovered another gold-colored Dust."

"You found one?!" Ember exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"I was exhausted!" Diesel 10 responded. "I just realized that using more Dust does take a lot of energy from you."

"Ahem!" the Lieutenant cleared his throat, causing the group to glance at him. "I now understand what you all are doing, but I am more curious about these Dusts you mentioned and their history. I am interested in learning about this."

"Really?" Ember asked. "You're interested."

"I am," the Lieutenant nodded. "May you all come with me? I would rather have this conversation in my office, as there are ears around here."

The group looked at each other before following the Lieutenant, and one of the armed guys said, "Just be prepared. I think he's planning on something."

"To do what?" Ember quietly asked, kneeling a little.

"I don't know," the armed man shrugged. "A new battle strategy towards the opposing team? It really depends on this guy."

Now Ember started to worry about trusting this Lieutenant, realizing she had spilled a lot of information about the Dusts to him without knowing he was dangerous.

So they needed to prepare themselves for what he could plan to use the Dusts for.