Glory, Peach Fizz, and Seashell sat excitedly in front of Seashell's phone. A holding screen sat on their phone whilst 1980s inspired synth rock played over the speakers. The text on the screen read Stream Starting Soon.
"This is such an exciting moment!" said Glory. "Pipp is performing alongside the Cheesemakers."
"I thought it was Freddie and the Pizza Boys?" Seashell asked.
"That's next week!" Peach Fizz chimed in. "This week is the Cheesemakers. I guess it works, given cheese is often found on pizza, but I'm so excited I could explode!"
"Take cover!" Glory shouted, and the three girls started laughing.
This was before the screen changed, however. It had text, and a pre recorded message playing. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, we are sorry to inform you that due to technical difficulties this stream is being postponed. We thank you for your cooperation, and will inform you of the rescheduled date as soon as we can."
The synth music continued to play as the message looped. "Well, that's disappointing," Seashell said. "Maybe we should find Pipp and find out how she is?"
They wouldn't have to wait very long, as suddenly a loud and haughty voice started laughing. "Would you believe it?!" Charles snorted. "What a rotten bit of luck!"
"How so?" Porter asked.
"The world can rejoice! Pipp Petals has lost her voice!"
As insensitive as Charles' choice of words was, he was correct. Pipp was indeed indisposed. She was stuck in her room as well, unable to say a word.
Zipp popped into the room. "Hey Pipp. How you feeling?"
There was a few seconds of somebody writing on a whiteboard, before Pipp held it up. I've had better days, to be honest.
"Tell me about it," Zipp replied. "Not being able to speak sucks. We'll be here for you and get you back up to speed, OK?"
There was some more scribbling, then another board being shown. A plan of action would be better than vague promises. What about Sophie?
"Don't worry about her, we're on it," Zipp answered. "But I got you some stuff to keep you occupied whilst stuck in your room."
Pipp's eyes widened as Zipp pulled a mountain of books into the room. That's not what I think it is, is it?
"It is," Zipp grinned. "The complete works of Arda by J. R. R. Tolkien. Not just The Hobbit, but also all three Lord of the Rings books, revised and expanded with additional material, the entire appendix to Return of the King, as well as The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the History of Middle Earth in case you get lost at any point in the narrative."
That's a lot of books. How long do you expect me to be sick for?
"Whether it's two days or two months, there's no such thing as too many books."
Pipp pouted, but picked up The Hobbit and slipped her reading glasses on. No sooner had she started then Sunny appeared. "Hey Pipp!"
Pipp popped the book down and began writing again. This is like a Christmas special episode where everybody shows up.
"We just want to check up on you and ensure you are well," Sunny replied. "Nobody likes it when a friend is ill."
It just gets
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (here Pipp had to wipe the text off the board and start again) Boring! There's so much stuff I wanted to do! I was supposed to be recording new material today!
Sunny nodded. "I feel you. It sucked being housebound with chickenpox last year. If there's anything we can do to help your recovery just let us know."
Pipp spent a few moments wiping the text off the board and looked up once she was done. Could you ask mom if she has any of the special soup in stock? She always used to make it when I was previously ill, and it worked wonders!
Sunny nodded. "I'll pop down right away!"
As she was on her way, she passed Hitch. "Erm, what are you doing? I thought you were helping to fix Sophie!"
"Lord Haven says he has it all under control," Hitch answered. "Besides, somebody has to spend time with the patient."
Down at the dockyard, Brookes had been brought down from his usual perch of Truro to help out. "It's terrible!" he said to Bellerophon. "Nigel is left up at Truro on his own handling the yard. Pipp falling ill, Sophie breaking down, and this bumper shipment of fish- it couldn't have happened at a worse time."
Bellerophon, who was also working the dockside, glanced up empathetically. "You and Nigel are close, aren't you?" he said.
"Well, we shunters have to stick together, and his experiences aren't too different to mine," Brookes admitted. "That's how people and engines usually bond."
Argyle glanced out of the cab and looked back. "Looks like more fish has arrived," he said. "Let's get these vans processed."
They headed off and collected the trucks, before moving them to the sidings. But upon arrival, Bellerophon noticed something. "There are fewer trucks in the yard then earlier. Somebody has taken them!"
"Probably Charles," Brookes said.
"But Charles is in the shed!"
"Very odd," Brookes admitted. "Wait. Is that an oily trail there?"
"It is!" Bellerophon said. "There was a sign in the shed earlier- coughs and sneezles spread diseasles. Of course! It all makes sense now!"
"Err, no it doesn't," Misty said.
"Pipp falling ill, Sophie breaking down, and now the trucks vanishing- it's a diseasel! We must search for it!"
Meanwhile, it was now Izzy's turn to babysit Pipp, although the latter had protested the use of the term 'babysit' on the grounds she wasn't a baby and also wasn't keen on being sat on. Izzy, however, had soon started up a machine which was bubbling and rumbling like a cauldron.
Are you sure that thing is safe?
"It sure is!" Izzy said. "I've used it dozens of times! It's perfectly safe!"
Just then, it was ready. Izzy tipped it over and poured some mysterious liquid into a teacup. "This should get your voicebox working again."
Pipp apprehensively took it and drank some, then tried to speak. A raspy gargling noise came out instead, so she took to writing. I don't think it worked.
Izzy looked in it. "I made the wrong one. Oopsies!"
Meanwhile, Lady Haven was looking in the fridge, checking through the items they had. "Ah! Here we are! Soups!" She moved some boxes aside and checked through the stocks. "Hmmm. Looks like we're out of Ladle and Sons Number 25. Just our luck!"
She stepped out of the fridge and took a look on the laptop she had set up in the kitchen. She had turned the place into a base of operations, reasoning it made more sense to be based there as healing things could be prepared here. She scanned through the pages of a website before her eyes lit up. "Perfect!"
Just then, Sunny arrived. "Good morning! I was just talking with Pipp and she mentioned something about soup."
"Ladle and Sons Number 25 with extra carrots," Lady Haven said quickly, without looking up from the screen. "And we're in luck. Outingdale's in Truro has some in stock."
"Who are Outingdale's?" Sunny asked.
"Specialty soup stockist," Lady Haven replied. "I'd got up there and get it myself, but there's been a crash on the road. Nothing's getting through there for hours. Sunny, be a dear and head up to Truro to collect it? I promise to reimburse you for any costs."
Sunny nodded. "So, it's premade? Pipp implied it was home made."
"I've no idea where she got that idea from," Lady Haven replied, and momentarily turned to face Sunny. "I can't cook to save my life, and most jobs are done by household staff as I'm far too busy to clean rooms and prepare food! Speaking of which, if you do see Wadsworth tell him that the temperature needs adjusting on the sea side of the house."
Sunny nodded. "On my way!"
Upstairs, Pipp had gotten bored of reading and was on her phone. Zipp popped in and looked annoyed. "Hey! You're supposed to be resting and reading!"
Pipp wrote on the blackboard. I am reading... on my phone. Words can appear on screens, you know.
Zipp rolled her eyes. "Never thought I'd see a whiteboard be sassy with me." She walked over and pulled the phone out of Pipp's hands. "Consider this confiscated."
What happened next caught her off guard. Pipp lunged at her and grabbed for the device, nearly succeeding in pulling it out of Zipp's hand. Zipp stepped backwards and held out her hand, pinning Pipp in place. "Hey, this is easier than I thought. I'm barely putting any effort down."
Eventually Pipp exhausted herself, and simply resorted to writing on the board again. You're such a meanie, you know that?
"Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind," Zipp answered.
More scribbling. I'll remember that when you fall ill and I need to take care of you. Besides, isn't taking stuff that doesn't belong to you theft?
"Not if it's for the good of the patient," Zipp answered, and walked off.
As a result, she didn't see what was written on the whiteboard.
Salty and Bellerophon made their way up the line, with the two engines happening to need to go to the same place at the same time. As they rolled along, Bellerophon explained his theory to Salty.
"And that's why things are going wrong!"
Salty looked very confused. "You sure Charles' isn't rubbin' off on you? He says some very strange things sometimes."
"Yeah, that does sound pretty nonsensical," Sunny said. "It's probably just a coincidence."
Sure enough, they rattled into Truro, and before them was sitting a long line of trucks. "Our trucks!" Bellerophon said. "I told you they had been taken!"
Bellerophon bravely puffed to the front of the train, and sitting there was a diesel. A big, blue diesel. A big, blue diesel who looked a little unfriendly.
Back at the house, Izzy, finally had the tea ready, and tipped it into a cup. "If this doesn't work, I don't know what will!" she said.
Pipp nervously drank some, fully expecting a repeat of earlier, but to her surprise felt a change. "Ce truc fonctionne à merveille! Je peux parler – attendez, pourquoi est-ce que je parle français ? Je ne comprends même pas le français!"
Izzy looked in confusion. "Wait a moment. Did I put the wrong one in?"
Zipp then returned. "Hey Pipp!" she said. "How's it going?"
Pipp looked annoyed. "Je ne m'appelle pas Pipp! C'est Ruby!"
Zipp looked over to Izzy. "Izzy, what did you do? Why is Pipp speaking French?"
"I'm not sure," Izzy said. "It must have been an error in the brewing process. But you can talk to her in French, right?"
"Not without Google Translate, I can't," Zipp said. "It's German that we know."
Izzy's face lit up. "Let's try the tea again and see if that switches her to German!"
Pipp's face was one of horror. "Non! Pas allemand! Je veux juste pouvoir à nouveau parler normalement!"
Zipp looked surprised. "So she can understand us speaking English, but can only reply in a foreign language. Well, this is new."
"Elle a un nom, tu sais."
The diesel looked at Bellerophon. "Do you mind?" he asked. "I was having a nice sleep before you barged in."
"We'd like our trucks back," Bellerophon said.
The diesel looked even more annoyed. "Who is 'we'? Besides, these trucks are mine. They need to go elsewhere."
Bellerophon looked surprised. "You'll be sorry!" he said. "Now!"
Bellerophon dropped back whilst Salty roared up the other side. "Mornin', matey!"
As he reversed, Bellerophon flew up the other side. "Miss me?"
They went backwards and forwards, forwards and backwards, up and down for several minutes. The diesel's eyes went back and forth so quickly it looked as though they would come flying out. "STOP!" he shouted. "YOU'RE MAKING ME GIDDY!"
The two engines then stopped and pulled up alongside him. "These are an important delivery from your yard to another place! I'm waiting here for mainline clearance!"
"So you have nothing to do with Pipp?"
The diesel looked baffled. "Who's Pipp?"
It was then Bellerophon realised his theory didn't work. "Sorry," he said.
"You should be," the diesel said, as the signal changed. "I, for one, am glad to be out of this mad place."
Pipp lay there, looking defeated. "Peut-être que je ne pourrai plus jamais parler normalement."
"Hey," Zipp said, running a hand through her hair. "We can fix this."
"Vous ne comprenez pas un mot de ce que je dis, n'est-ce pas?"
"But we can try something else and-"
"Je suis ta sœur, pas un cobaye!" Pipp snapped. "Arrêtez de me traiter comme un patient et voyez-moi comme une personne!"
Izzy looked over. "I have no clue what she's saying either. But I think I have the fix!"
"Let's use it then!" Zipp said, before seeing her sister's face. It was then she realised what was wrong. "Oh the irony."
"What irony?" Izzy asked.
"I was so focused on getting Pipp back into health that I forgot to treat her as a person," Zipp said. "I know this probably sounds hollow, but I'm sorry. When you're back to health, we can go wherever you want, OK?"
Pipp seemed to understand, and nodded. "Espérons que celui-ci fonctionne correctement. Si je finis par parler une autre langue que l’anglais, je ne serai pas content."
Izzy passed the cup over, and Pipp drank it. She then opened her mouth and spoke. "Whoo! That worked a tre- wait, why do I have a Canadian accent?"
Zipp looked over. "Can you set it to American?" she asked.
Pipp shrugged. "At least I'm speaking English again!" she said. "No need for Google Translate!"
Sunny soon came back from the store with the soup in a box. "Got the soup!" she called. "Hopefully this'll get back to Falmouth in one piece."
Once back in the cab, she, Salty, Misty, and Bellerophon headed back down to Falmouth, where the engines were stabled. Sunny travelled up to the Haven residence and prepared the soup, before heading up to Pipp's room. "All ready!" she called.
Pipp glanced over. "Ladle and Sons Number 25?" she asked.
Sunny looked at Zipp. "Err, what's up with Pipp's voice?"
"It's a long story," Zipp replied.
"Thanks for doing this for me," Pipp replied. "At first I found the fussing a bit annoying, but now I see that you guys were only doing what you did because you care for me. How can I repay you all?"
"There's no need," Sunny said. "Being your friend is reward enough."
Pipp took the soup and had some. "That hit the spot!"
"Hooray!" Izzy cheered. "She has her old voice back!"
Later that day, Pippsqueaks got a notification that a stream was about to start. They excitedly took to their screens to watch, and sure enough the music faded out and Pipp's face appeared on screen.
"Hello Pippsqueaks!" she said. "Sorry for the delay, but I came down with something. However, I had my friends by my side, who join me from my bedroom now." She turned the camera to show them more clearly. "Please give a big cheer for them!"
The assembled viewers cheered and clapped them with joy. "And now," Pipp said, "I'll be debuting my new hit single, which is performed alongside The Cheesemakers! Ready boys?"
Opaline sat in her bunker, monitoring the situation. "She was ill?" she said. "I could take advantage of that." She switched to a telephone on her desk. "Boomer? Ready your men to deploy to Falmouth. You have an important mission."