After hearing about a diesel coming over to their railway to assist them, the Josephine Railway engines were all anxious and uncertain about what'll happen. They were unsure of what'll occur, whether this engine could be useful or not, or that the engine will just be a bully like Croghan was.
Braedey, meanwhile, he had a suspicion about who this diesel might be. He knew it's a BR Class 42 'Warship' hydraulic-diesel locomotive, but he remembered from his conversations with Thomas that the engines on Sodor had dealt with that type of diesel before, one in particular that had caused it's fair share of trouble on the island years ago, and it involved a small engine who worked on the island and has magical properties.
'If this diesel is in fact that very same one... then we'd better be ready for anything that comes our way.' Braedey thought to himself, letting off steam from his cylinder cocks. 'And if he does anything... I will give him what for and knock him off his engine block.'
With that on his mind, Braedey stormed off in a cloud of steam, ready to get on with today's work, but all the while prepped and prepared for whatever may happen soon.
A few days later, Gordon was stopped just down at Barrow-in-Furness. He had just taken a fast train from Knapford to Barrow, and he had taken the time to take on more water. He had enjoyed his long run and was now relaxing in peace. But as Gordon did so, he and Silver Link the A4, plus Pip and Emma, all could hear the rumble and roar of an approaching diesel locomotive, one that sounded like it was coming in fast and not slowing down for the station. Then suddenly...
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!"
At once, something fast shot right through the station, kicking up a tonne of dust and dirt in the process at the steam engines and the passengers, and whatever did so raced off down the line, heading off down the tracks towards the Josephine Railway. The engines looked, and saw a large diesel, painted in tan with small olive stripes on the sides, racing away in a cloud of dust.
"Oh, Diesel 10's back! Hoo-hoo!" Gordon shivered, his entire body shaking from when the large diesel raced by.
As the dust settled after the diesel raced by, Gordon and the others engines, plus the passengers on the platforms, were covered from their funnel to wheels, as well as their heads and heels, in grey and brown dust.
"What in the name of Gresley was that?" Silver Link demanded with a huff.
"Who is Diesel 10?" Pip now asked to Gordon. She had never heard of this 'Diesel 10' at all, so she was rather curious.
"A troublesome diesel who came to the island years ago. Ten out of ten, for his devious deeds and brutal strength." Gordon explained, looking to the others. "A blast from the past, who hates steam engines!"
"I see." Silver Link acknowledged back to Gordon. "He definitely sounds like a brute if I've ever seen one."
"And he seems to be going to the Josephine Railway." Gordon added in with dread laced in his voice. "Oh, I pray to the engines that they'll be alright."
"Same here." Emma added in. "But why would the controller of that railway being such a haughty and horrid diesel to work on it?" She asked.
"Perhaps Mr. Franklin must be short of engines and needed some help, and had to outsource an engine." Gordon took a guess. "Oh, be careful." He muttered softly for the engines of the Josephine Railway.
'If push comes to shove for them, I'm sure that Braedey will be more than capable to deal with that brute of a machine.' Gordon thought to himself.
Back on the J.R, Braedey had been shunting the trucks about a lot harder than normally, getting the attention of the other engines, seeing the stern expression on his face. The trucks remained deadly silent, not wanting to get the ire of the crimson locomotive, fearing to be turn into kindling.
Kieron pulled up alongside Braedey. "Hey, you okay there, Braedey? You seem a lot more agitated than normal."
"I'm just thinking about the diesel that's coming." Braedey fumed in frustration. "If he's anything like that diesel Thomas mentioned-"
"Like who Thomas mentioned?" Kieron asked in confusion.
"Thomas mentioned to me a time when a BR Class 42 diesel had come to the island years ago, and he had caused some issues and trouble on Sodor." Braedey explained. "He was big and mean, armed with a huge claw on his roof. He also sees steam engines as being cowardly, cranky, worn-out hunks of metal, and are all but useless. He also wanted to take out an engine who was rather special." He added on.
"Who might that engine be?" Jane asked as she pulled up alongside the two. Before anyone could reply, the rumble and roar of a diesel's engine could be heard, just as the BR Class 42 rolled up and came to a stop with a hiss of its brakes.
'It's him... Diesel 10.' Braedey thought to himself, his eyes narrowed and sharpened at the locomotive that was opposite him and the others.
Diesel 10 is a BR Class 42 'Warship' diesel locomotive. The diesel is painted in rusty brownish-olive green with yellow-tan warning stripes, covered in oil stains across his form. However, sitting up on his roof is a very large brown-grey hydraulic arm with a serrated claw head.
"Well, well. Look what we have here." Diesel 10 smirked evilly at the steam engines. "A group of old kettles fit for the scrap heap." He laughed, then moved his large claw towards the engines, and snapped at them.
Braedey steamed up alongside, blowing steam at the BR Class 42 'Warship' like a mad bull. "You'd best watch your tongue while your here on our railway. If you don't, we'll make sure you're sent away on the next train."
"Oh, yeah? You wanna try me, kettle?" Diesel 10 threatened, snapping his claw. Braedey snorted back in response, and gave a hard bump into Diesel 10's buffers. "Hey!"
"Okay, that's enough!" A stern voice called. Everyone looked to see Mr. Franklin walking up. Once he saw his controller, Braedey reluctantly reversed away from the diesel, pulling up next to the others. "Now, let's not start today on a bad note." He turns to face the diesel. "Now, Diesel 10. I understand that you have caused a lot of trouble back on Sodor. I'm going to give you a chance here, but you'll only get one opportunity. You foul up even once, I'll send you away at once."
"Of course." Diesel 10 acknowledged, now resting his claw on his roof.
Mr. Franklin kept his stern eye on the diesel. "I want you to deal with some fallen trees by the lumber yard, as well as cleaning the track of any debris that might have ended up there." He said, and Diesel 10 rode away with a rumble and roar.
"What do you want us to do?" Liliana now whispered to Braedey once Diesel 10 was gone.
"Follow him. Stay out of sight." Braedey whispered. "Don't let him catch sight of you. See what he's up to." Liliana winked back, now heading off after the diesel, the others going back to work.
Later, Kieron met up with Braedey again alongside Diana, the trio were alone down at a section of the line that was hidden off the main track. Nobody was about, and no sign of Diesel 10, so the trio were able to chat freely.
"You were saying about the engine that Diesel 10 wanted to get rid of before he arrived earlier?" Kieron began.
"Right. Diesel 10 wasn't just after any engine. He was after a special locomotive, one called 'The Lost Engine of The Legend', and one of the most important engines of Sodor." Braedey now explained to Kieron and Diana. "She is a magic engine, one who possesses what is called Gold-Dust, and she is believed to be the source of how we exist. And she really exists."
"What engine?" Kieron asked.
"What legend?" Diana asked also.
"The legend is of an engine whose magic makes her more powerful than Diesel 10 will ever be." Braedey replied back in explanation. "That's why he wanted to find her. He wanted to take all of that power, and use all of that power to destroy all steam engines."
"So, if that is true, then where is she now?" Diana asked next. "We never saw her on Sodor."
"Thomas told me her home isn't just Sodor; it is inside of a lone mountain in a valley in the United States." Braedey clarified. "She runs on her own little line called the Magic Railroad, and it links America to Sodor."
"So why isn't she here?" Kieron asked.
"For her safety and to keep her away from Diesel 10 and those alike, she's to remain in her little hovel cave." Braedey explained to them. "It's all for her safety and for us."
"So what do we do now?" Diana asked.
"For now, we just stay silent about this around those like Diesel 10." Braedey replied back. "He's not an engine that can be trusted at all."
"I agree." The trio looked over to see Ken chuffing up alongside. "What do you guys plan to do with that buzz box with a crane machine on its roof?" He asked.
"For now, we just have to remain silent around clappy-claws." Kieron advised to them.
"Good thinking." Braedey agreed, then he headed off to go and get his next train, with Kieron, Diana, and Ken now going off to also collect their trains.
Liliana, meanwhile, she had snuck along down the line, eventually coming up to the nearby workshop yards of Viet. She looked around to try and find Diesel 10, then came to a sudden stop when she saw the big diesel just up ahead of her, his claw ripping up steel from the nearby junkyard. Liliana froze and remained silent as she looked at the huge diesel locomotive before her. She didn't go any further forward in case she got swiped by the claw. She watched as things go, then she silently retreated away.
"Phew. That was too close. Hopefully he didn't hear me." Liliana muttered to herself as she goes down the line. "I'd better get back and tell the others."
Liliana eventually arrived at the shunting yards, taking some deep breaths as her crew now topped her water tanks. Liliana then heard the rumble of a diesel's engine coming in behind her. Liliana began to freak out until she saw it was Max, much to her relief.
"Oh, it's just you, Max." Liliana sighed in relief.
"Sorry if I spooked you. Guess you had to go tail that Diesel 10 fella?" Max took a guess, taking note of how spooked the little green engine was. "Yeah. He's not someone we can easily be friends with."
"That, and on top of that-" Liliana was cut off when Diesel 10 roared through the yards with a rumble of his engine and a cloud of smoke.
"MOVE OUT OF MY WAY, YOU BUMBLING CIGARS!" Diesel 10 roared as he soon roared away.
Ken puffed in to get more coal in his tender. "What a pain in the coupling." He fumed in frustration. "Why is he even here when you have all worked out things just fine before my arrival?" He asked.
"I have no idea why Mr. Franklin had called him in, but we'll just have to stay away." Max replied, now going forth to shunt some trucks and coaches nearby.
"Well, what will we do now?" Charlotte asked as she pulled in with wagons behind her.
"For now, we just have to hunker down and be ready for anything." Liliana sighed as she headed back to do her track inspection runs.
Later on that evening, everyone had gone home to bed, and the engines had returned to their sheds for the evening. They've all had a very long day. That night at the sheds, the engines had fallen asleep, all of them with content looks on their sleeping faces. Braedey had arrived after getting another train ready for the evening, feeling exhausted from the late night working.
"Man, I've never worked so hard or for so late." Braedey muttered as his crew soon gone home to bed. "Time to get some sleep..." With that, Braedey finally fell asleep.
As the engines slept, Mr. Franklin made his way into the sheds to check over his engines. He held onto what looks like a photo album, as he now made his way over to what was a table nearby. He gently pats the buffers of Jane, the E2 engine smiling contently. As he looked at the engines, Mr. Franklin started to look through the photos, some of them with his daughters when they were young and innocent, plus pictures of his and Caitlyn's honeymoon. He also looked at pictures of him, his wife, and his father and grandfather purchasing the engines over the last number of years. He couldn't help but feel proud of who his kids are now. Even he's proud of his wife. They raised a great family.
"It's amazing how much they've grown over the years." Mr. Franklin breathed out with a smile. He puts down the photo book, for to his feet, and looked over to the engines, all fast asleep. "We've all become greater than anything. I'm sure Sir Topham Hatt would agree." He spoke quietly to the slumbering engines, not trying to wake them up.
However, unbeknown to Mr. Franklin or the slumbering engines, someone was rolling up slowly towards the sheds, and was laughing quietly, but in a dark and evil tone. Two small lights emerged from the darkness, and the figure got closer and closer to the sheds. Then, as the nearby floodlights reveal who this being is, it now revealed it to be Diesel 10. He slowed to a crawl up onto the turntable, then came to a stop, just outside the front of the sheds, where he can see the engines asleep inside, but couldn't see the controller awake.
"Alright, Pinchy, my little bucket of badness." Diesel 10 spoke quietly to his claw, as he stopped with a hiss from his brakes. "Time to feast yourself." Then, he raised his claw up to the top of the building above him, ready for action. Then, with a swing, he smashed into the roof and wall!!
Mr. Franklin stumbled from the violent shaking that shook around the whole building, and this woke up the engines, all of them in shock and surprise of what was going on. Then, as the roof and brickwork around the berth of Braedey's fell away into a large pile of rubble down on the ground, the engines now saw who caused the disturbance.
"Cinders and ashes! It's Diesel 10!" Jane cried out in shock, and the other engines were all in shock, as the dust settled around them, while Mr. Franklin looked around in shock.
"Oh, cowcatchers." Ken mumbled in concern.
Diesel 10 laughed evilly, as he snapped his metal claw at the engines, while Mr. Franklin prepared for action. "Hello, Twinkle Toes! I've got a plan, and you're not in it!" Diesel 10 snapped his claw at the engines and human inside the sheds.
"You..." Braedey suddenly felt his fire erupt inside of his firebox without hesitation, steam erupting from his pistons and funnel.
"You despicable machine, Diesel." Alex declared to him. "How dare you..."
"You stupid hunk with a huge claw." Ken called out.
"How dare you destroy our home." Max fumed. The other engines all also protested against Diesel 10 with anger laced in their voices, all of them berating them arrogant BR Class 42 engine.
Diesel 10 laughed evilly, as he snapped his claw at the teens. "You engines think you can stand against me, huh? Now, that's just adorable. Now tell me, where is the Lost Engine?" He demanded, the engines taken aback by his demand.
'So he's still after her.' Braedey thought to himself, his eyes narrowed as he built up more steam than he ever did before, his firebox glowing a bright red at once. "You'll never find her here on this railway, not even on Sodor!" Braedey stated back firmly.
"You're not tough enough to stop me." Diesel 10 snapped his claw at the crimson locomotive.
"Yes, I am." Braedey replied back.
"No, you're not!" Diesel 10 snapped back.
"Yes. He is." Austin spoke again.
"No, you're not!" Diesel 10 snapped again.
"Are too!" Diana called out.
"Are not!" Diesel 10 countered back.
"Are too!" Jane added.
"ARE NOT!" Diesel 10 barked.
"ARE TOO!" Liliana called.
"ARE NOT!" Diesel 10 snarled.
"ARE TOO!" Ken bellowed.
"ARE NOT!" Diesel 10 snapped.
"ARE TOO!" Everyone called.
"ARE NOT!" Diesel 10 roared, snapping his claw.
Finally, Braedey had enough. He blew his whistle so loud and so hard, he actually cracked his whistle in the process, now sounding loud and deep, the sound now echoing all around the yard and the area. Everyone all winced from the sheer volume of the noise, but before anyone could stop him, Braedey shot forward at speed in a cloud of steam, ramming right into Diesel 10's front buffers, knocking the BR Class 42 off the turntable as he continued to push. Diesel 10 was taken aback, but he began to push back, sparks now flying off his front and rear wheel bogies, his engine rumbling and growling in the process, trying to push back against the crimson engine who charged him.
"You can push, but you'll never win!" Diesel 10 mocked with an evil laugh, snapping his claw. "Right, Pinchy?"
"Oh, just shut up." Braedey snapped angrily, and he gave an alright shunt, sending Diesel 10 sliding down the tracks with screeching wheels and brakes. "You want to try that again, huh? You wanna try? Bring it!"
Diesel 10 growled angrily, ready to charge again, only for a loud cracking sound to suddenly echo all around, and it sounded like it skimmed past Diesel 10's roof. "WHAT IS THAT!" He gasped in fear, and he looked to see Mr. Franklin standing by Braedey's side, armed with a large whip in his hand.
"Say hello to my little friend, Diesel 10." Mr. Franklin announced, spinning the whip above his head for emphasis. Diesel 10's body shook and he placed his claw back on his roof. "If you don't get off my railway, I'll give you what for here and now!" He stated firmly, then he whipped the air around him immediately, the loud crack echoing again. "Now leave!!" He ordered, and Diesel 10 begen to reverse away with a growl.
Diesel 10 grunted out, as he began to reverse. "Leave it for now, Twinkle Toes. Because you won't what's coming soon!" He yelled out, as he reversed away from the sheds and began to reverse away down the line to Barrow-in-Furness. "Neither will that... that line of steam kettles!" Soon, he was out from sight, but he can still be heard, since his claw wouldn't be quiet. "Shut up, Pinchy." With that, he was gone.
Mr. Franklin breathed a small sigh, wrapping up and putting the whip back on his hip. He turned to Braedey, who looked to his controller with concern, Mr. Franklin now patting the crimson locomotive's buffer.
"Sir. What about the sheds?" Max called out.
"Yeah. Where will Braedey sleep?" Jane added in next.
"Yeah. There's a tonne of bricks and roofing in his berth." Austin added in.
"Don't worry, guys. I can sleep in the carriage shed." Braedey reassured to the others. He then looked over to his controller, who was looking in the direction where Diesel 10 ran away. "Sir. What will happen to Diesel 10 now?" He asked.
Mr. Franklin sighed, turning to Braedey. "I honestly don't know, Braedey. That is a matter for everyone else to handle, especially the Railway Inspectors Unit."
"Should we inform Sir Topham Hatt about Diesel 10, sir?" Jane asked.
"I'm already on it, Jane." Mr. Franklin acknowledged, now sending a text message. "Right now, let's all get some sleep."
The engines all agree, now falling asleep despite the fact there's a huge hole in the wall. Braedey made his way into the carriage shed, falling silent and asleep.