TATMR

"Thomas, stop!" Called out his driver.

"Not a chance!" Thomas called out. "Lily, don't worry!"

Thomas' driver tried to apply the brakes, but found that he couldn't. "Lily, you're going to have to jump," said the fireman, taking her hand. Lily shook it off.

"I'm staying with Thomas!" She said.

"We don't have time for this," said the driver, jumping out as Thomas neared the buffers. The fireman hesitated, but let go of Lily and jumped off the footplate and rolled onto the ballast.

"It's now or never," said Thomas, eyes shut, as he crashed through the buffers. Thomas' driver sat up, dazed and confused, as he watched his engine and the girl still inside disappear through the buffers in a distorted rainbow. He walked over to the fireman to see if he was hurt.

The fireman sat up, rubbing his head, and turned around, expecting to see poor Thomas smashed up against the cliff wall behind the buffers. "Where'd he go?"

"Search me," said the driver, "are you alright?"

"Never you mind about me," said the fireman, "what about the girl?"

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Thomas opened his eyes, and saw that he was still moving forwards. He looked down. Two faint, whispy parallel curving lines met his wheels, transitioning into glowing blue rails beneath them, and the world he found himself in was unlike any he'd ever seen. It was a misty, cloudy place, distances seemed to be misleading, and only a faint ambient blue glow lit the way.

"It is dark... and cold... and bumpy! We should probably slow down! Lily, can you turn my brake lever?"

"Which one is it?" Said Lily.

"The red one," Thomas said.

"Which red one?"

"This one," Thomas said, moving the lever. This shocked him almost as much as it did Lily. "Did I just..." Thomas started.

"You just moved your own lever!" said Lily.

"I did!" said Thomas, reducing steam and putting on the brakes, coming to a stop. He switched his own reverser to go backwards, puffed back a few feet, and swapped it forwards.

"I've never been able to drive myself!" Thomas peeped. "I once crashed into the stationmaster's house because I thought I could control myself, when I couldn't! I'm free!"

"We need to get going, Thomas, my grandpa is going to be worried sick!"

"Right, we must go on," Thomas said, building up steam. He felt that he had exactly as much steam as he needed, and was burning his coal very efficiently indeed. Had Lily noticed, she would have found that she didn't need to breathe to stay alive, but this hadn't come up.

Presently, Thomas spotted a coal truck on some nearby tracks--if one were to generously refer to parallel lines of mist as such.

"The missing coal truck!" said Thomas.

"Wait, Thomas! Stoke up the magic in the mountain and the lady will smile!" Said Lily.

"Of course! And that's what you do with coal! You stoke it! Lily, we're going back for that coal truck!"

Thomas stopped, and reversed, finding the mist had arranged itself exactly as he wanted, backing him up against the coal truck. The truck woke up.

"Nice of you to finally show up," the truck said, "It's been years." Thomas only looked back at the truck in confusion.

"Lily, can you get out and couple up the coal truck?" Thomas said.

"That won't be necessary," said the truck, "an eternity in this place will give you a new perspective on what you can and can't do," and with that, the truck lifted his own chain and linked it onto Thomas', and even connected the brake pipe.

"And we're off!" said Thomas, and he continued at full speed.

"You're a really useful engine, Thomas," said Lily, and Thomas crashed through the buffers.

Thomas skidded to a stop on the dirt on top of a mountain. There were no rails, not even the strange misty kind.

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"Thomas?" Lily waved her hands in front of Thomas The Tank Engine's smokebox door, which was now nothing more than that--a black painted door on the engine's front.

Lily received no response from the tank engine. "I'm so sorry Thomas. I promise I'll be back soon!"

The locomotive let off steam, which Lily took to meant that Thomas understood her. A few minutes after she left, an explosion shook the hills. The ground under the tank engine gave way, and without its brakes hard on, it rolled down hill.

A well placed bumper stop--of American design--teleported the tank engine back onto the Magic Railroad.

"Oh my god, where am I?" Thomas asked himself. He had only a foggy recollection of the past several minutes--was he even conscious? "Lily? Hello? Anyone?"

Thomas continued forward, unsure of where he was going. Finally, the environment began to change. It went from a dark foggy blue to a bright green, as the mist and fog settled into perfect green plains and meadows with tracks--real tracks, following them. He could make out something in front of him--could it be?

"The lost engine!" Thomas peeped, "You found her! And she's beautiful!"

Lily, Patch, and Burnette turned around. Lily blew Lady's whistle.

Shortly, Lady disappeared in a distorted rainbow, and Thomas followed, cutting off steam and applying his brakes just after he was passing through.

Thomas came to a stop just behind Lady and her crew, and saw the Conductors and his own crew sitting on an old disused platform.

"Thomas the Tank Engine," said his driver, sternly, "don't you ever attempt something so stupid as that again, do you understand?"

"But driver," started Thomas.

"No buts!" Said the driver. "You hurt the fireman and I, and you could have done a lot worse to yourself and Lily, plowing full-speed into that cliff face."

Burnett stepped off of Lady's foot plate and addressed Thomas' driver. "If it wasn't for Thomas, I'd never have been able to get Lady running again," he said. Thomas' driver and fireman stepped onto Thomas' footplate, still cross, but they soon had bigger matters to attend to.

"Ah-ha! There's the blue puff-ball! And look who he's with!" Said a deep, grumbling voice. Everyone recognized it. "Splodge! Come and destroy!"

"No, you do it yourself," said Splatter.
"We don't like you," said Dodge.
"And we mean that!"
"Emphatically!"
"What does that mean?"
"I dunno,"
"Good word."

Thomas peeped, "Run lady! And I'm going to help you!"

"Oh lord," said his driver.

"And so am I m'lady, I'll not let you down again" said Burnett, boarding Lady.

The little lady puffed off, Thomas followed shortly, and Diesel 10 was following in the distance.

Thomas The Tank Engine found that he had trouble keeping up. He didn't think he'd ever run faster--even in his race with Bertie. Diesel was catching up quickly, and even then Thomas knew that Diesel wasn't even trying. As fast as his fireman could shovel coal, burning a bright, hot fire, Thomas felt that he was losing steam.

"I like my lunch, STEAMED," punned the Diesel, as his claw threatened the engine.

"OoH! GET BACK!" Shouted Thomas.

He began to slow down, and Diesel 10 got nearer and Lady went further. "Come on, we have to think of something! I'm running out of steam!"

"Mr. Stone!" Thomas called out.

"What?!" Yelled Burnett.

"Switch that track up ahead!"

"What?"

"I said--"

"I heard you! WHY?"

"No time," Thomas wheezed, "to explain."

Burnett held a shovel out the cab and used it to switch the lever just as Lady passed it. Thomas was jerked onto the switch track, and now was on the same line as Diesel 10. "Time to give it a rest, Diesel!" Thomas said. He reduced steam and began to slow down, until he was just in front of Diesel.

"Get out of my way!" Diesel 10 threatened, but Thomas couldn't. The claw was just in striking distance, and it tried to strike at Thomas' cab. It succeeded, and Thomas shouted. Finally Thomas was running buffer to buffer with Diesel 10, and his claw tried to reach down in front to damage Thomas.

"If I were you, I'd try hard not to derail me!" Said Thomas, "Driver, now!" Lady was clearly losing steam herself, and despite Thomas' extra weight, Diesel was getting closer to Lady.

Thomas had been being pushed by Diesel for the past half a mile, and had built up a good head of steam. Swiftly he put his regulator on reverse and his brakes on emergency, and a horrible screeching sound echoed through the line as sparks flew. Thomas' wheels burnt as he skidded along, turning his wheels against the motion of the rails. Lady, Thomas, and Diesel 10 approached the viaduct. Thomas could see that the track was not safe ahead. As Lady crossed the viaduct, the bricks crumbled apart, until all that was left was bare rails.

Thomas reduced reverse-steam--he had one shot at this. He puffed forward and moved back, and As he went forward Diesel 10's claw grabbed Thomas' cab and tore the roof off. Thomas screamed, and he began to puff away from diesel, who was now pushing the cab debris. Thomas' driver and fireman crouched before they realized they were safe.

"It's now or never," Thomas said, and he increased speed, rumbing over the viaduct as one last piece of brudge crumbed into the river below. Diesel 10 finally got rid of the piece of damaged cab, before he saw the wrecked viaduct, and put on his brakes.

Diesel 10 shouted as he slammed on his brakes, but he couldn't stop in time before he fell into the lake.