Meanwhile, up in Muffle Mountain, Burnett was pushing a small wooden steam engine across his work bench, his thoughts on Lady. He looks on at the small wooden model he has made before a little while ago, but he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Tasha, the Conductor family has a little steam engine... with her own railroad. The railroad has wonderful magical energy because of her, one that links two worlds together." A young Burnett Stone's voice echoed in his head as he looks on. "But an evil diesel wants to destroy her, and without her, the conductors' universe and that railway will vanish. The man with the sparkle told me that one day 1 of his family will return... but until then. Guard her well, young Burnett."

Burnett now looks over at a painting behind him; it was of a beautiful little tank engine chugging along through a meadow on a green grassy hill with blue sky behind it.

"But I didn't guard you well." Burnett said sadly as he looked at the painting, tracing one finger around the name 'Lady' on the painting. "I just don't... seem to understand about... magic anymore." He turns back to the little engine in the workshop, letting out a soft saddened sigh.

As this was going on, Scorcher looked over at Burnett, seeing how saddened and lost he was. He can't help but feel sorry for his old friend, seeing and hearing him say that he didn't understand magic anymore. It sounds like the spark of inspiration and happiness was gone...

~*~*~

Baton Rouge in the state of Louisiana. A city on the Mississippi River, and capital of Louisiana. Antebellum landmarks include the castle-like Old Louisiana State Capitol, now a museum, and Magnolia Mound Plantation, with its French Creole house. LSU Rural Life Museum is a complex of refurbished buildings illustrating 18th- and 19th-century life. On the river, the USS Kidd is a retired WWII destroyer is now a museum.

Out on the streets of Baton Rouge, Scorcher's wife and daughter Sheeva and Maria were both walking along, the two of them enjoying the peace and quiet for the time being, though it was rather quiet and lonely without their husband/father not here to be with.

Sheeva is a lovely woman with short jaw-length violet-colour hair and green eyes with a round face, her skin having a gentle tone. She has a slender yet curvy hourglass body. Her attire consists of a lime green-coloured blouse with a green neckline and trim, complimented by a long, white skirt. She is also wearing green boots.

Maria is around 10 years old. She is a petite girl with fair skin. She has long, dark blue hair reaching down to her waist, with two bangs framing her face that reach down to her chest alongside her brown eyes. She has on a flowing dress with a triangular pattern near the top and crossing pattern around the rest of the dress. She wears a thick band around each of her arms and ankle tied sandals on her feet.

'This is where Scorcher's wife and daughter come into the story. They live in the big city of Louisiana, and are close friends to Mystery Incorporated... and they are also a few hours' train ride from Shining Time. Maria sees magic no one else has time to. Like the reflections of light on a rainy day. So, she and Sheeva are off to go and see Scorcher, up on Muffle Mountain.'

"I know that Dad had to go and meet someone, but he didn't even say where." Maria sighed sadly as she goes along with her mother down the street.

"I'm sure he has his reasons." Sheeva reassured to her. "Maybe he's gone up there to see someone."

"Who did you think it might be?" Maria questioned.

"Honestly, I'm not too sure. Maybe it's someone that he knows of before he met me and hasn't told me about them." Sheeva shrugged back to her daughter. "But I know that he'll be back soon."

"Why don't we try and find him?" Maria suggested.

"Maybe we can." Sheeva considered the idea, then looks over to see a department store. "I'm going to go take a look inside this store here." She said to her.

"Okay. I'm gonna go up this way." Maria gestured over to a large tree nearby.

"Alright. But be careful." Sheeva warned.

Maria rolled her eyes. "You always say that." She slowly began to climb up to a spot in the tree.

"See you in a minute." Sheeva said to her daughter before she enters the store.

Maria sits up on one branch of the tree, then she pulls out a small pendant locket she has around her neck. She opens it to see a picture of her, her mother and father together.

"Don't worry, Dad. I'm keeping Mom safe." Maria said softly to the picture of her father, then she looks to the dark clouds as she saw rays of sunshine breaking through them. "Wherever you are, I hope you're doing okay..."

~*~*~

'Far far away on Sodor, the engines of the North Western Railway were all confident, bright, and very cheerful. And they were all determined not to be bullied around by Diesel 10...'

Over at Tidmouth Sheds about a day after Mr. Garcia had arrived on the island, Gordon, James and Thomas, along with Braedey, Rose, and Scooby-Soo, as well as Henry, Edward (who just arrived back from The Works), Toby, and, Percy, were all talking about how to stand against Diesel 10 and what they can do. They had opted to meet up here and discuss about the situation, as well as the talk about this 'Lost Engine'.

James however, who had finally been let out of his shed by Mr. Garcia earlier on, was complaining about him not collecting Mr. Garcia the other day. He thought it sounded more important for a big red engine to take him around the island instead of a little blue tank engine.

'Only James, who now felt really useful too, was doing nothing but complaining...'

"Wobbly wheels." James grumbled to himself as he looks down at his buffers.

"Puffy pistons." Thomas added with a smile, as he was preparing to reverse down to take some empty coal trucks away, looking over at James.

"Thomas, you and I know that I should've been the one to collect Mr. Garcia!" James interjected back at the tank engine, just as Gordon reverses up alongside James in the adjacent shed siding.

"James, you were shut up in the shed and couldn't leave." Rose interjected. "Thomas was just lucky to have been given the job."

"James is right, little Thomas." Gordon now told Thomas, the latter who rolled his eyes in annoyance at the big blue engine.

"Excuse me?" Braedey raised an eyebrow at this, looking at the prototype LNER Pacific locomotive. "What are you saying?"

"Collecting Mr. Garcia is an important job, Hmm." Gordon continued. "Important is big! James is a big engine, hmm?" James now smiled brightly hearing this praise coming from Gordon. "And you, Thomas are small! Small-small-small, teeny-weeny-weeny." Thomas now fumed in anger at Gordon's words as he looks down at his buffers in annoyance. "And I, I'm a big blue engine, who knows everything." Gordon declared and chuckled.

"Bossy SPROCKETS!" Thomas fumed in annoyance, then suddenly reversed into the trucks behind him, bumping them hard, and making them crash into one another. "All that hot steam has gone right to your funnel." He grumbled as Gordon goes over to the water tower to top up his water in his tender tank.

"Don't let it get to you, Thomas." Rose reassured to the blue tank engine, walking up and gently patting his buffer beam. "He's just trying to get a reaction out of you."

"Yeah. It's kind of like when Fred does his teasing." Braedey added in, he and Scooby snickering as they recall those moments. "Plus, things happen. Like how Scooby, Rose, and I got lucky when Toby found us."

"That is true." Thomas reluctantly conceded in understanding with the three young individuals.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the steam engines in the sheds, Splatter and Dodge had both arrived in the yards, and they both were reversing down the goods yards nearby the sheds so they could eavesdrop in on the conversation between the locomotive.

"There they are. We'll fix their wagons. I don't feel good about backing up. Me neither." The two diesels said to one another, as they go silent and park, listening in to what the engines are saying.

"What's important is to stand up on our own wheels to Diesel 10." Toby declared to the other engines.

"Toby's right!" Henry suddenly spoke up as he looks over to the other engines. "Diesel 10 knows that the Lost Engine in the legend really exists." He stated.

"What engine?" James asked in confusion.

"What legend?" Percy asked also.

"What do you mean, Henry?" Rose inquired.

"Of a mighty engine whose magic makes her more powerful than Diesel 10 will ever be." Henry clarified with a look of concern. "That's why he chased after her all those years ago, and that's why he wants to find her."

"He intends to use that magic power as a weapon of destruction to destroy us and our island home." Edward included ominously.

"That's right, Edward." Henry acknowledged.

"Then we'd better find her first before Diesel." Percy announced.

"Reah, Percy." Scooby nodded.

"Leave it to the big engines, Percy!" James announced loudly, and he puffed out of the sheds to go and collect his first train of the day, he and Gordon going ahead.

"Little engines can do big things." Thomas added in. "Especially when they have nice blue paint like me." He beamed to himself, Rose giggling softly at the blue tank engine.

"I agree. As Fred would say, I suggest we all split up, and search for clues." Braedey began to set up a strategy, the other engines in agreement with this plan. "Gordon and James, you and Henry will go handle the mainline and see what you can find. Percy, Toby, Edward, and Thomas. You handle the branchlines. If you have any information to give, we exchange information at the end of the day, and we also tell Mr. Garcia about it." Everyone agreed to the plan, as they now began to depart the sheds.

"Hey, hey. Just watch what happens with that blue puffball and those little brats..." Dodge said.

"...When Harold the Flopper Chopper flies past here." Splatter added.

"Right." Dodge laughed.

And right at that moment, the sound of whirring rotors could be heard overhead. Harold the Helicopter flew into view, and began to descend down close to the sheds. Harold is a 1954 Westland Whirlwind helicopter with added pontoons. These helicopters were primarily used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. Harold is painted in white with red lining. His name is painted on his sides, near his tail, in red.

"Routine flyby, chaps. Hello." Harold called as he smiled down at them.

"Here comes Harold." Percy said, looking up at his helicopter friend. However, unbeknownst to the three individuals or the engines, a wall of white smoke and powder rose up above the shed roof.

"Uh, is something going on back there?" Rose said in confusion, she and Braedey now seeing a wall of white smoke before the sheds.

But, Splatter and Dodge were laughing quietly to themselves as they're about to watch the chaos unfold. "The boss dumped sneezing power everywhere." Dodge laughed. "Let's start laughing now!!" Splatter laughed harder. "Yeah." Dodge laughed back, as they watched the fun.

Harold flew down a little too close to the sheds, and suddenly, a wall of white dust flew everywhere, now inadvertently covering Thomas and some of the other engines in the process, as well as Braedey, Rose, and Scooby. "Whoa! Sorry, troops. A little bit of a dust up down there. Love to stay and clean up. But got to go, bye now!" Harold said, and he hurried away with a whirring of his rotors. But when he did, he blew dust right onto Splatter and Dodge, covering them in sneezing powder.

"Uh, did you mean to look like that?" Splatter asked. "Uh, no?" Dodge said. "Yeah, neither did I." Splatter replied.

Thomas quickly pulled away from the sheds. "This must be Diesel's doing." He now started to sneeze wildly. "Ahh, CHOO-CHOO!!" He sneezed aloud, as he puffed away with his line of empty trucks.

Braedey shook his head, him covered head to toe with the white dust. He looks over to see Scooby and Rose also covered up in the process. He then saw the yards looking like so, and he breathed a heavy sigh.

"Not the best way to start your morning..." Braedey muttered to himself. It was going to take a long time to clean up all of this mess.

~*~*~

Down at Knapford Station a little while later, Mr. Garcia was currently in Sir Topham Hatt's office along with Braedey (who had cleaned himself up after what had happened earlier), the two of them looking at a note that The Fat Controller had left behind.

"'Dear Mr. Garcia. Where were you? My wife said she couldn't miss our little holiday. We'll telephone to make sure you have arrived. Signed, Sir Topham Hatt'." Mr. Garcia reads the note before putting it down on the desk.

"Wow. Guess he really wanted to be on his way with their little holiday." Braedey commented to himself, then saw three framed pictures of Thomas, James, and Henry up on one wall. "Very nice."

"An avid fan, aren't you?" Mr. Garcia mused.

"You can say that, yes." Braedey nodded. "Have the book series and have watched the TV show. Got my own little model railway back home."

"And that's when you're not solving mysteries?" Mr. Garcia added in, he and Braedey laughing together.

Braedey then looked over to a hat rack, now spotting a proper and sharp-looking top hat. He takes it off the hat rack, humming to himself as he looks at it, then he goes and dusts it off before putting it back. "Best to keep it clean and ready for his return." He said to himself.

Suddenly, the telephone rang, startling the two men in the room, nearly making Braedey knock into the desk before Mr. Garcia caught him. The two look to the phone, the latter helping the former out before he adjusted his outfit, then answered the telephone.

"Hello. Oh! Good afternoon, sir. A real honour, sir. Like my family before me." Mr. Garcia began to say, and Braedey immediately knew he's talking to Sir Topham Hatt. "And how is Lady Hatt? Yes. Watch out for Diesel 10. Absolutely. Keep an eye on Henry's health. Certainly. Yes, sir, the 3 R's." Mr. Garcia now took in a deep breath as he stood tall. "I mean... I will be responsible, reliable... and really useful. Yes, sir. We will get a good night's sleep. Looking forward to a hard day tomorrow. Goodbye, sir." He finally finished, and he puts down the telephone before letting out a sigh.

"That... could have gone better." Braedey admitted.

"I admit, I did mess up there." Mr. Garcia sighed. "I guess I was taken by surprise."

"Don't get upset. It happens to everyone." Braedey shrugged back, Mr. Garcia patting his shoulder in response. "Things will get better."