Invasion of the Lightning Stacks
Written by Jonathan Downs, Rachel Ravens and Zack Wanzer
Prologue
It had been fifty-eight years since Oliver's infamous visit to Bigg City Port. He had been knocking about various harbours across the world, but never returned to Bigg City, especially since Peeper Pipes and his team had blacklisted him for his behavior. Sadly, Oliver didn't quite learn his lesson as he kept causing trouble wherever he went and would be dry docked for up to a year. Eventually, it was decided that, as punishment, he would be demoted to a river tug.
One such assignment took him to a place called Leadford in Cumbria in north west England. Leadford was once a mining town on an old branch line which ran to Armathwaite on the line from Settle to Carlisle. Nowadays, the line had become a heritage railway.
As Oliver was approaching Leadford, he came across six steam tugs who were painted in the same purple livery with a lightning bolt on their stacks. One of them was an ocean-going tug with a golden tiara which had a mermaid symbol in it. The other five were harbour tugs; one of them had a pink tiara with a silver mermaid in it, whilst the other four harbour tugs each had a cap in green, blue, red and purple, respectively, and all of which had mermaid crests. Their names were Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista and Andrina.
"Well, well, well," sneered Oliver. "What do we have here? Six steam tugs! I thought they'd be smart enough to get rid of you."
"They do preserve steam boats, you know," retorted Attina (the tug with the gold tiara), "and steam is preserved in this area, engine and tug alike."
"But," said Alana (the tug with the pink tiara), "our owner hates diesels and electric engines and wants them scrapped."
"Yeah," agreed Adella (the tug with the green cap). "You've got to get out of here while you can."
"Yeah, right," scoffed Oliver. "When your owner sees how useful I am, you steam tugs will be rotting in the scrapyard where you belong!"
"We're not lying!" insisted Aquatta (the tug with the blue cap). "You're in serious danger!"
"Turn back now before it's too late!" urged Arista (the tug with the red cap).
"Please! It's for your own good!" Andrina (the tug with the purple cap) pleaded.
"Oh, I get it!" smirked Oliver. "You're scared of being made redundant. Well then, I'm going to keep going up to Leadford and you six will be out by the end of this year."
With that, Oliver set off, leaving the six tugs with looks of concern.
Oliver soon arrived at Leadford, where he saw a harbour tug who wore the same purple livery as the mermaid tugs, but sported a blue-grey cap with an Eagle crest on top.
"Move along, grandma!" sneered Oliver. "The superior tug is here to put this backwater into shape."
"Oh, that's sweet of you," said the Eagle-crested tug sweetly. "I'm watching you!" she then snapped.
Oliver was shaken by that sudden change of personality, unaware of three other tugs approaching him. Then he gave a yelp as he felt a bump on his right side. One of the tugs wore a green cap with spikes on top and was named Venom. The second tug, whose name was Chlothilda, wore a pale, light green cap and the third tug, called Lightning, wore a dark blue cap.
"Look at this," sneered Venom. "One of these oil-guzzling claptraps!"
"Looks like a tug for the scrap heap!" smirked Chlotilda.
"Yeah!" agreed Lightning. "The boss will be pleased."
Oliver was terrified as several more steam tugs and a submarine surrounded him. Then, three women approached. One of them had long blonde hair tied in pigtails and wore a light blue shirt, black trousers, purple boots and oval-shaped glasses. The second woman had long black hair and wore a fancy designer's dress. The third woman had brunette hair in curls and wore a red boiler suit with the letters ADELR. All three had wicked smirks on her face.
"Well done, Cyclothymia," said the woman with the glasses. "We've got him right where we want him."
"W-what do you mean?" Oliver said in fright. "What do you want with me?"
"We've got a plan, and you're not in it," said the woman in the dress, motioning to a barrel.
"You see," said Saleen, who was an ocean-going tug with a mermaid crest on her cap, "the reason we were asked here was to set up a trap for you."
Then Oliver realised what was inside the barrel – Black Water!
"Oh, please let me go!" he begged, trying to fight back tears. "I'll never bully another boat as long as I live! I actually like steam tugs! I–"
"You will stay here and accept your fate!" snapped the woman with the boiler suit. "You oil-guzzlers have had it way too easily for far too long, and steam engines and steam tugs have had to pay for the price, just for your existence! Well, guess what! Your reign of terror is coming to an end! Julissa! Pour it now!"
"Gladly," replied Julissa (the woman with the glasses). She opened the barrel and poured it into Oliver's tank.
"No! Stop!" sobbed Oliver. "Give me another chance! I'll change my ways forever! I promise! I PROMISE! NOOOOOO!"
But it was no good. Oliver's eyes closed and his face was forever frozen in a neutral position.
"Okay, Cancer," said Julissa. "Take this tug's remains to the breaker's shed."
"Yes, ma'am," replied Cancer (a harbour tug with a spiked blue cap) as Julissa stepped off of Oliver.
"Nicely done, Julissa," said the woman with the dress.
"Thanks, Evelyn," replied Julissa, before turning to the woman with the boiler suit. "So, Addison, any more tugs you'd like to 'invite' up here?"
"No," replied Addison. "I've got a new assignment for you and the tugs."
"What might that be?" asked Julissa with intrigue.
"Well, my engines and I will soon be heading off to Sodor to get rid of the diesels and electric engines and make it the world's first steam-only railway in decades. In the meantime, you and the tugs are to carry out a similar mission in the United States at a harbour called… Bigg City Port!"
Arthour's notes: There isn't too much difference between this and the prime timeline yet, except that Addison's evil team has a few more members added.
Next time, we start to uncover some Memories and Mysteries.