Annie and Clarabel had a sense something wasn't right with this Ryan character based on many factors.
The first was how he slammed into them at speed when backing down onto them. "Ouch!" Annie said. "Be careful, Ryan! We are very important carriages, you know!"
Ryan snorted. "I think you can take a few knocks here and there."
He pulled away with a laugh- far too harshly for their liking. "Not so fast!" Clarabel said. "There's no need to pull away so aggressively. Thomas would know how to do it if he were here."
"Well, he's not, so forget about him, OK?" Ryan said. "Besides, he was too small and too slow. It's about time this railway got a bit of an update to drag it kicking and screaming into the 1920s."
Sure enough, he arrived in the platforms at Knapford, where the passengers were very confused. "What is this big engine?" asked one.
"This isn't Thomas!" said another. "I'm not convinced this is the right platform, Cornelius."
"It looks that way, Jay," said another passenger. "Something very strange is going on here."
"I am your engine for today," Ryan said. "So come with me, and you shall get to your stops on time."
The passengers boarded, still rather confused at the scene. Ryan got underway with a blast of steam and some very rapid acceleration.
"This is far too rough!" complained one. "Tell the driver to accelerate far more cautiously in future!"
They powered out of the station, Ryan cackling to himself. "Time for this place to get an update! All clear for the jazz express!"
Ryan was soon up to speed, and his wheels pounded the rails as he flew along the line. He wasn't quite doing the speed limit, but he was a lot closer to it than Thomas could have gotten.
He skidded to a stop at Knapford Junction, and waited for the passengers to change trains before blasting off again and showcasing the legendary rapid acceleration his class was known for. The passengers weren't entirely happy, though.
"This not so much jazz as bebop!" complained one. "This is far too bumpy for my taste!"
Ryan blasted out of a tunnel, his condensor switching off as he exited- and resulting in an enormous cloud of smoke as he thundered along. Some local farmers were not exactly pleased by the blast of steam.
When Ryan finally made it to the end of the line, the passengers were not happy. "That was one of the roughest train journeys I've ever had!" a passenger grumbled. "I shall be filing a formal complaint with the board of the railway!"
Ryan rolled his eyes. "They'll get used to it. This island does need speeding up, after all."
A figure stepped off his footplate and over to a phone. "Good news," he said. "The disruption plan is underway, and we can begin to confuse our opponents and keep them busy for you."
"Excellent," said a voice on the other end. "Await my arrival."
Back at the crash scene, Sir Topham Hatt had arrived- a few minutes later than usual. Often he was so quick to crash scenes people were convinced he could teleport. "What the blazes has gotten into you?" he demanded. "Are you incapable of doing a simple task without messing it up?"
"It's not my fault, sir!" Thomas protested.
"Oh, here we go again..."
"There were no danger signs or detonators anywhere, and-"
"Not. Another. Word. I've had quite enough of his voice for one day."
"In fairness, when we headed down to rescue him there were no signs either," Porter said. "And I distinctly recall them being there earlier in the day."
"Well, that's because they were probably blown away when Thomas crashed into them!" Sir Topham Hatt replied.
"We do have CCTV footage covering the area if you'd like to review it," Izzy said.
"No need," Sir Topham Hatt said. "Put Thomas in the back of the shed for the rest of the day. If that doesn't make him behave I don't know what will." And just then he had an idea. He turned. "If you can't behave, Thomas, I shall take away your blue coat of paint and have you painted black!"
"Then nobody will know who I am!" Thomas protested.
"Exactly," Sir Topham Hatt said. "A small price to pay, I think."
Porter looked over. "I've been painted black my entire life. It's really not that bad."
"Not really helping, Porter," Twilight said.
"Sir?" called a voice. "We've found something!"
"Thomas' common sense?" Sir Topham Hatt said, and he walked over to the pit. But instead, his eyes widened in surprise. Sitting down there, right before his eyes, was a spectacular cavern, filled with glowing crystals.
"Now what have we found here?" he said, his eyes twinkling with delight. "I had no idea this was here!"
"Were you expecting a cavern, sir?" asked another worker, who seemed equally stunned.
"If my eyes are correct," Sir Topham Hatt said, "we seem to have found a branch of the Sodor Crystal Caverns. The system hasn't been mapped this far yet, so we have a chance to figure out what else might be going on here." He stood up. "We need to plan a diversion around the site, and bring in the archeologists to sort this out."
"Won't we need geologists?" Twilight asked.
"Why are you still here?" Sir Topham Hatt asked.
Sure enough, Thomas sadly puffed back to the shed, Porter in front of him.
"You look like you need cheering up," Izzy said.
"I could do with that, actually," Thomas said. "I don't seem able to live up to Sir Topham Hatt's standards. Perhaps all these years have diminished my usefulness."
"I wouldn't say that!" Salty said, looking over with a kind, toothy grin. "I've worked on many a dockside with many different engines, and we're all useful in our own ways."
"As one of my favourite music groups puts it, we're just members of the Union of Different Kinds," Sunny replied. "It'd be boring if we were all the same."
News of the incident had reached Argyle, and had intrigued him no less. No sooner had he heard the news then he began to conduct research into the new phenomena.
His eyes danced over the information he was looking at. "Oldest known cave formation on the island," he mused. "Well, that might just have been beaten. Isaac would get a field day out of this."
Goldie entered from another room, putting down her mug. "What you looking at?" she asked.
Argyle looked over. "Seems the construction crew made a remarkable discovery," he said. "An incident earlier today revealed a large cavern filled with glowing crystals. And as we know bioluminescence in rock formations is evidence for the presence of gold dust."
Goldie looked surprised. "How would that work? Sorry if these sound like basic questions, but I'll admit I'm not an expert in the field."
"It's OK," Argyle smiled. "I'm only an amateur at this myself. The existance of these patterns suggest something remarkable- that the crystal caverns are a branch of the Magic Railway. That would explain why Sunny ended up where she did during the November trip- the branch terminated there."
"So, some sort of fast travel system like in an RPG?" Goldie asked.
"Pretty much," Argyle said. "Just with fewer rolling D20s, of course. What is even more interesting is that the geology of the cavern closely matches what has been already found at the Tidmouth Crystal Caves, which have been mapped out very well."
He paused. "And that's not all. The map I'm referring to extends out over the water. The tunnels are represented using black lines, and if we look here," he noted, pointing to one line on his map, "it joins up to the caverns perfectly. The Crystal Caverns are part of the Magic Railway- a branch I was previously unaware of."
Goldie peered over his shoulder. "This could allow for instant travel across most of the country."
"For good or for ill," Argyle said. "But there's one line I can't make sense of." He pointed to one extending out to sea from roughly where Alresburgh was, continuing to the edge of the map and abruptly stopping when the map ran out of paper.
"The question is- where does the line stop? How far does the Magic Railway go?"
Goldie's phone buzzed, and she checked it. "See you in a bit, Argyle. I've got another meeting to attend. Please try to keep the volume down."
"Yes ma'am, quiet as a mouse," Argyle replied. Once she was gone he really dug into his research, determined to find the answers to the mysteries. "How many secrets does Sodor still hold?" he said to himself. "And how can I unlock them for the betterment of humanity as a whole?"
He was completely unaware that somebody had become aware of his act. "We need to move the plan forward. Argyle's figured out what the tunnels are."
"On my way," said the voice on the other end.
"Hold fast, me merry lads/
The night is nearin' the end!
No matter the storm, we'll pull her to shore/
We're ramblin' home again!"
A ship pulled into the harbour under the cover of the starlight, and docked at the port to offload cargo.
"I hope the ride wasn't too rough," said the captain to a woman standing on the deck.
"On the contrary you did a superb job," she said, adjusting her shawl. "My family has a past in the nautical world."
She hopped ashore. "Good luck, all of you!"
She made her way across the dock and grabbed some other supplies as she went on her way. She knew precisely where she wanted to head, and opened up a device which was beeping.
"Magic energy traces are this way," she said, and she ducked out of the cover of a lamp and continued on her way. She got some speed up as she ducked past some trucks, which were locked in place with brake blocks.
After waiting for a lorry to pass, she continued on her way, soon leaving the town proper and starting to climb some steps. This stairway was meant to connect the fishing town to the old fisherman's pathway. This had been used in the old days to connect Arlesburgh to Harwick, as fishermen would carry their catch to market in Arlesburgh. The new railway had threatened to eliminate his path, but that seemed to have been brought to a temporary stop.
Luckily, she knew a shortcut to get to where she needed to go. She ducked into a cavern and walked through it, feeling her way along to the end, which emerged next to the railway line.
Waiting for a maintenance gang to go by, she walked past and to the dig site. Truth be told, it wasn't hard to spot it with the bright light show it was giving off day in and day out. She walked over, crouched, and took out another device. This machine beeped as it took a reading, and her eyes lit up with delight at the readings.
"It's even better than I could have imagined!" she said. "The Magic Railway is connected to this area too! Clever old me!"
She closed the device and walked back, stopping next to a rock. She grabbed a radio. "Come in, Boomer."
"Loud and clear, Opaline."
"Those followers of ours have done an even better job than I could have imagined. The caverns are usable, and what we need from them is indeed there. They just might need a little encouragement to get us what we want."
"What would you propose?"
Opaline grinned. "A rather big bang might do the trick. I'm thinking some of the things they have at the construction site might do the trick."
"We'll need to move carefully. The niusance is there too."
"Maintain stealth and do what you can." Opaline closed the radio off. "Honestly, that fool needs to give up on her."