//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14-The Battle of Falmouth 
// Story: Thomas and Friends: a New Generation 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

"Somebody's remodelled the place since we were last here," Sunny said.

And she was right. The skies above Falmouth were black with smoke, pouring from chimneys that reached high into the sky like needles. Lights glowed in the dingy distance, with large gaps between buildings. The rail approaches had been modified extensively, with the dockyards now being connected much more effectively to the rest of the town. Not only that, the station seemed to have been partially demolished, with rails running through to a large factory in the distance.

"I'm guessing it isn't normally like this," Zipp said.

"This is like the ending to that film I saw once," said Captain Charles. "They've been following us around. Just who are they?"

"Can you please stop doing Butch Cassidy?" Porter asked. "You've been quoting the film nonstop all the way here."

"We all have to see off boredom some way!" Charles protested. "I've been running on fumes for a bit."

"I was wondering why the fuel pumps all have warnings they're empty," Sophie said.

The formation came to a stop outside the factory. Several lines of soldiers marched forward in perfect formation to receive the people before them.

At the head of the formation was Sprout himself, and he had changed. Gone was the idiotic cadet of several days ago. His eyes burned with power, and his uniform would have looked more at home on a South American dictator than a CCF cadet.

"Corporal Sprout," Hitch said, stepping down from Rebecca's cab. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I believe you mean Generalissimo Sprout," Sprout replied, placing his hand on a revolver- which promptly went off. "Argh!"

He took it out and set the safety catch before placing it back in the holster. "Must be careful with that in future. Do you have the items that were promised to me?"

Hitch indicated to Argyle, not once taking his eyes off Sprout.

"Be careful, sir!" Salty called.

Argyle stepped over to Sprout, and handed him the three fragments. "I've honoured my part of the deal," he said. "Now release my wife."

Sprout indicated to a soldier. "Let the woman go," he said. Then he turned to another. "Chuck these over the edge," he ordered him.

Goldenalla fled from the area and into her husband's arms. "I'm so glad you came back!" she said.

"You matter more to me than anything else in the world," Argyle said. "I suggest you get out of here, before things turn ugly."

Goldie nodded, and headed on her way out of the city.

Sunny was next to speak. "Why did you ask us for the fragments if you just threw them away?"

"Because it got you right where I wanted you," Sprout smiled. "Since you were away, I have been working on a little something for you. Consider it something of a homecoming present. Bring the prototype forward!"

A siren blared as the doors of the factory opened. Smoke belched from the interior as machines drew a massive, much larger machine forward. It consisted of two flatbeds with cranes mounted on each, one facing each way. Between the flatbeds were locomotives, presumably how the machine moved backwards and forwards.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Sprout smiled. "I call it Maximus. And with it I can destroy you all." He clambered into the central locomotive, which was already running, and gunned the engine.

The giant machine began to rumble forwards, closing in on the assembled engines.

"REVERSE, REVERSE!" Rebecca shouted, and the engines began to scatter as Maximus bore down on them.

"Izzy, technical data!" Sunny shouted. "Just what is this thing?"

Izzy took as good a look as she could as the machine moved about. "Machine consists of two heavy duty rail cranes, each of which mounts a fifty ton crane. The machine is moved about by a trio of Class 25 diesels, seemingly configured to be run from the central locomotive unit. Probably quite slow!"

"Any way of damaging the equipment?" Zipp called.

Sophie was rattling along one side of the machine when suddenly one of the cranes swung out. It missed her by inches. "Large wrecking ball on this thing!" she shouted.

"I damaged a nail!" Pipp cried over the radio.

Sunny suddenly saw a glow over the side of the cliff. "The fragments!" she called. She fired up her radio. "Salty and I are going to recover the fragments that Sprout threw away! Can you guys cover us?"

"On it!" Hitch called. "All engines! Keep moving! It seems that machine can't accelerate or slow down very fast!"

And he was right. The machine ground along at about 10 miles an hour, much slower than the other engines. Suddenly, one of the arms began to swing back and forth.

"Do you like your meat diced?" Sprout asked over the megaphone. "BECAUSE I DO!"

Porter flew down one side of the machine, narrowly avoiding another hit and bashing into one of the couplings. As he did so, he heard a clicking noise. "That coupling is in bad shape!" he said. "If we break them, the machine will stop functioning properly!"

Charles roared by to draw level with the control cab on the other side. "Copy! Moving in to try and slow it down!"

Unfortunately, it seems Sprout heard him. "Not so fast, Crompton," he said, and he moved another switch.

On the other side, Rebecca drew level with one of the cranes. Hitch jumped from the cab and landed on the side mounting. He noticed the machinery was dependant on gearing to move both up and down and side to side. "Whoever designed this thing has no concept of health and safety." He found a metal rod and jammed it in one of the gears, preventing the arm from moving about from side to side.

Unfortunately, he couldn't have timed it worse. Charles was there at that exact moment, and crashed into the wrecking ball. This caused him to tip over to his side.

"Are you alright?" Rebecca asked.

There was a pause. "Some unburnt fuel's come out!"





Sprout, on the other hand, would soon discover precisely why most militaries had downsized and built large numbers of small machines rather than a handful of big ones. Maximus was proving to be almost impossible to control. The other engines were swarming about like flies, and although he had managed to knock out one of the diesels, that left four that he couldn't hit.

Not to mention one of the cranes was registering a fault on its control platform. It wouldn't move as much as he wanted.

He had no clue that somebody was out there.





On the crane, Hitch was still working to disable it. Holding that metal rod in place would only last so long, as the machine could potentially brake it. He looked over the bolts and found a solution.

There was a rig connecting the crane to the body, so he pulled on it. He heaved and huffed with all his might as steam came perilously close to touching him. But at last he tore it out, and the crane arm detached.

It bounced into the air and along the ground, narrowly avoiding hitting Porter as it bounced along.

"Watch it!" Porter shouted. "You nearly had my smokebox off!"

"Too close to call!" Izzy said. As her engine whizzed along, she spotted a new opening for an advantage. As Porter drew level with the first set of couplings, she grabbed a shunter's pole and uncoupled the rear car from the rest of the formation, also disconnecting the brake and power control systems whilst she was at it.

At the other end, the lack of a coherent strategy was becoming apparent. Pipp had brought Sophie to a stop at one end of the yard, and suddenly spotted a derailment switch. She sprinted over to the switch and pulled it, setting it away from the mainline and onto a path towards the cliff.

Sprout spotted this and smiled. "Not so fast." He shut off the throttle and applied the brakes, fully expecting to come to a complete stop.

He was wrong. The uncoupled equipment slammed into the back. With no way of cutting power on the rear locomotive, it pushed the first two and the lead crane along.

Sprout opened the door and looked out as he saw what was coming. "This is gonna suck!"

The first set of wheels reached the end of the track and came off. With a series of crashes and bangs, the gigantic machine plummeted over the edge of the cliff and down into the ravine below.

"Izzy, get down there and collect Sunny and Salty!" Zipp radioed. "Not a lot I can do with Charles on his side!"

"On my way!" Izzy called. "Come on, Porter!"

Maximus continued to fall downwards, and eventually slammed into the ground. The diesel locomotives exploded upon impact, showering the ground with rubble and flames. The cranes left a gigantic pile of rubble all over the place, making it doubtful that anybody could have survived.





Sunny happened to have picked up the fragments in her local area when she saw the explosions. She left Salty in park and walked over to the wreckage.

In front of it was Sprout. He was hurt, but very much alive. His eyes continued to glimmer with anger, and his tattered and torn uniform only served to emphasise the ugliness in his heart. "This isn't over," he said. "I will find a way to win."

Sunny decided to try diplomacy, noticing his left hand was oddly positioned. "What do we get by just fighting?" she said. "Humanity is at its strongest when we build bridges and not barriers. We're supposed to work together, not tear each other apart. I believe that anybody is capable of redemption. And you can help us restore the magic, and make the world a better place."

She paused. "I know admitting that you're wrong is quite hard. Changing your mind is one of the toughest things a person can do. But please, Sprout, it doesn't have to end like this. It can be resolved peacefully. Sprout, for the love of God please don't do something stupid!"

Sprout grinned. "Really? Stupid this."

He pressed down on whatever had been in his hand. A series of loud explosions echoed from the tops of the cliffs all around, and there was a pronounced rumbling sound all around.

A series of sirens began to sound as Sprout began to run. "Take a look around! This place will be your tomb!"

Sunny jumped back onto Salty and attempted to back out of the area. Unfortunately, Salty's engine spluttered, and then died.

"NO NO NO! NOT NOW!"

Porter crashed down the track and came to a stop behind Salty, and Izzy jumped out to couple him up.

"Let's go!" Izzy called, as they began to reverse out of the area. Rocks were falling from above, and a cloud of dust was rising as the sirens continued to blare loudly all around.

The engines bounced up and down as they flew along. "I don't believe I've ever gone this fast!" Salty said.

Porter was red in the face as he continued to put down more effort. Unfortunately, there was a series of sounds like breaking metal. And suddenly-

BANG!

There was a bang, and suddenly Porter shot away.

Izzy looked out. "The coupling's snapped! I'll move in to hook up!"

"There's no time!" Salty shouted. "The cliff's almost on top of us!"

Porter reversed out of the area as the landslide roared down and struck the diesel. Salty was knocked off the track as a mixture of rocks and dirt and sand roared past his position, soon piling up in a massive pile utterly burying the engine.

Sunny had last been seen on the footplate of the engine, and Porter sat in shock at what had just happened.

Finally, it was Argyle who broke the silence.

"SUNNY!"

Sprout's prediction had seemingly come true. Their only hope for restoring the magic had been buried alive.