P. T. Boomer looked over Swanage from a nearby hill, his binoculars focusing in on the area below. The sheer amount of light produced from all the Christmas lights was blinding. He shook his head. Christmas was a time that brought him no joy at all, and if he had his way nobody would ever enjoy it again. He shook his head once more. He had to focus. He had a mission to complete.
He flicked his radio on. "I'm ready to report."
Opaline's voice flowed in over the radio. "Excellent. I have the stream from your binoculars now. What a waste of resources, all this merriment and goodwill to all men nonsense. But enough of that. You have your task."
Boomer nodded. "Recover the equipment and bring it back to you. That way we can initiate the next stage of the operation."
"Very good. Perhaps cause some confusion and delay on the way. Opaline out."
Boomer closed the radio module and stepped down the snowhill. He was close to completing another important mission, and then all would be well in the world. With this power he could finally right the wrong of all those years ago.
And once he had gotten that idiot Argyle out of the way, he would have Goldie all to himself... as it should have always been.
"Where is it?" Misty asked, as she and Bellerophon bustled up and down the yard.
"I can't see it anywhere!" Bellerophon said, in desparation.
"What isn't anywhere?" Zipp asked, as she walked along the platform.
Misty glanced over. "I've been tasked with putting together the train that will deliver the illuminations, decorations, and lights required for the Wonderlights train, but my work order either has a mistake in it or one of the trucks has been moved. They're in a different order to the order they were in last night!"
"And if we can't find the truck, the decorations will never be put up and Christmas will be ruined!" Bellerophon said.
Zipp snorted. "You sound like Pipp sometimes."
"I HEARD THAT!"
Zipp sidestepped. "Uh, never mind. Anyway, this can be fixed. It's not worth panicking over." She took a look at the work order. "Right. You need three vans and seven plank vans plus a brake van. That shouldn't be too hard to find." She glanced over into the yard and took a look. "One, two- there's your two vans to collect. And the brake van is in the next siding." She peered closer into the siding network. "And one, two, three, four, five, si-" Zipp trailled off as she saw there were only six plank wagons in the sidings, not seven. "What in the?"
"This is what I was trying to tell you about!" Misty said.
Zipp tried counting the trucks backwards. "Seven, six, five, four, three, two- nope. Still not seven."
She walked back to the office for a bit, and then came back with some information. "The station yard records indicate that there were seven in the sidings last night. And now there are six. So one of the wagons has been stolen!"
There was a sharp intake of breath behind them, and Zipp swung around to see Pipp there. "Hello."
"A truck has been stolen?!" Pipp said. "This is the WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!"
"I can think of plenty of worse things," Bellerophon said.
Boomer was very pleased with himself. Truth be told, he had reused a similar strategy he had used in Falmouth to get his hands on the lantern. OK, Misty had gotten the lantern, but he had come up with the plan, and as such the plan was his and his alone. He loaded the items he needed into a sack, and began to make his way back towards a waiting lorry. He would need to be extra sneaky in order to get away with this one.
He didn't notice that there were two sacks in the bed of the lorry as he drove away, back towards wherever he had come from.
Zipp looked to her friends. "Right. Focus. Where could the plank wagon possibly have gone? Are we all certain that no other engine has tried to move it? Been in the yard since?"
"I can't see any evidence of another engine in the yard," Pipp said, consulting the records. "If an engine had been in the yard, we'd have heard it, right?"
"What if it was a battery locomotive?" Misty suggested.
There was a moment of silence. "There's just one problem with that theory- the Swanage Railway doesn't have any battery engines."
"What if somebody brought a battery engine?"
"I think we'd know as well," Pipp added. "This is bad. This is really, really bad!"
Just then Misty had an idea. "Why not ask for the help of the Pippsqueaks? They can help us find the truck!"
Pipp nodded. "Great idea, Misty! I'll get a message sent out tout de suite!"
"Sweets?" Misty asked.
"Tout de suite," Pipp replied. "It's French. It means 'immediately'."
"Or sofort," Zipp added. "Takes far less time to say."
"A fort?"
"Means the same thing in German."
Luckily, the post that Pipp had made had done the trick, and before long the countryside was full of people scowering for the missing truck. The amount of work going on was nothing short of remarkable, and it was very enjoyable to watch. Despite the cold, the people were coming together in a spirit of community and common understanding. Work continued well into the day, with all sorts of interesting leads being turned up as they went along.
Eventually, one of the Pippsqueaks sent a photograph to the team, and they studied it closely. "Pipp, any clue where this is?" Zipp asked.
"Fraid not, Zipp," Pipp replied. "This snow makes many places look similar, and the photographer forgot to turn on geotag, so that doesn't help us."
"But we do know it's in a siding," Misty said.
"We have loads of sidings on this line!" Zipp said. "Searching through them all is going to take ages!"
Even so, they had to get to work. They examined each and every siding on the way up the line, but with little luck. They looked everywhere. In sidings, in sheds, even inside a box of cereal (Pipp had to point out a truck would not fit inside a box of cereal). But after many hours of searching, they finally found it, sitting safely in a siding near Nordon.
"Hooray!" said Bellerophon. "Now the work of getting the decorations set up can finally begin!"
"We'll have to get this truck back to Swanage first," Pipp said. "We're running very late!"
"Better late than never," Zipp observed.
Opaline sat in her throne room, looking very pleased with herself. "Once that prisbeam rod arrives, our plan is one step closer to completion!" she said.
Just then, Boomer stepped in and placed the bag he was carrying down. "One prisbeam rod, as you requested. The energy is a little mobile, so handle with care."
Opaline noticed the bag moving around, and opened it up to see-
"Boomer. In what way is this a prisbeam rod?"
She held up a white dog. "This is the Haven's pet dog, Cloudpuff!"
"There were two sacks in the bed of the lorry. I'll go back and get the other one."
Opaline was not massively pleased. "This is the sort of mixup I thought only Misty was capable of!" she bellowed. "And whilst you're getting the prisbeam rod... get this dog out of my throne room!"
Boomer exited the room, chasing after Cloudpuff. "Opaline pays me not enough..."
Later that day, Zipp started a stream with her friends. "Hey guys. Time for Secret Santa I guess."
The other faces popped in. "Come on, Zipp!" Izzy said. "Show at least a little enthusiasm!"
Hitch spoke next. "I'll go first." He opened a package. "It's a photo album, with pictures of all the things we did this year. I wonder who made this?"
Zipp opened hers next. "It's a magnifying glass... made entirely of opaque materials, meaning that light won't go through."
Pipp opened a box with some rather shoddily made goggles. "Goggles! These will be really useful for when we're in the snow, on a one horse open sleigh, and going over hills!"
"That song's about Thanksgiving, not Christmas," Zipp pointed out.
Sunny went next, revealing a rather deflated cake. "That's tonight's desert sorted!"
The last was Izzy, who revealed she had a diary covered in glitter. "A diary with glitter! Perfect!"
Misty popped open another box with a collection of images as well. Images of the time she had spent with all of them. The people who effectively served as her true family.
"Thanks for signing us up for that Izzy!" Sunny said. "That was great fun!"
Just then, bells started to ring. "Gotta go!" Zipp said. "Wonderlights train to run! See you!"
And it would be a succesful Wonderlights, as the lights and decorations were up. And as long as they had each other, they knew everything would turn out well in the end.