All fun and games
The train yard was bustling with energy as they prepared for another action filled racing season. Mama was frantically pacing around the yard at a break neck speed making sure everyone was doing their part. Racing season always started with a big tournament with the four largest yards in the area all entering at least four teams into the race. It was rolling stocks’s turn to host it and Mama wanted to make sure this racing season went off without a hitch, possibly because it was her son’s first season as a champion but she always put a lot of effort into it. Everyone had a job to do and they’d all put in the work to get it done before the other teams arrived.
The Freights, Rusty, and Greaseball were in charge of moving up and down the racetracks and making sure everything was clean and orderly. The Coaches were setting up the main station where everyone would be arriving, cleaning and decorating. While the other engines were making sure the guest shacks were functional.
Now that all the work was done everyone was gathered at the main station to greet their guests. Dinah was excitedly greeting the other trains while dragging Greaseball around. A death grip on her diesel engines hand. Dinah saw movement in her peripheral vision so she looked over to see Pearl waving her over.
“Ahh Dinah, this is gonna be so great. We did such a great job decorating the station.” Pearl smiled proudly, her hand firmly grasping her steam engine.
”Yeah you climbing on my shoulders to get those streamers up was totally worth it.” Dinah chirped. “Even if we both hit the ground.”
”Wait, You didn’t tell me you fell!” Greaseball responded. Pearl gave an awkward laugh.
”Well it wasn’t that bad, Pearl broke my fall.” Dinah joked.
”WHAT?!” Rusty exclaimed “Pearl did you get hurt!?” The two coaches rolled their eyes.
”Oh relax Rusty I fell in the dirt and I was wearing my helmet.” Pearl responded.
”You need a helmet for that?” Greaseball asked raising her eyebrow. She felt Dinah elbow her in the side.
“I just didn’t want to take any chances, you know. With the races starting today I wanted to make sure I was ready.” Pearl sheepishly replied.
”Uhg she’s been driving everyone nuts for weeks about that!!” Dinah groaned.
“Oh that’s what all that was about!!” Greaseball jumped at the realization. Remember a spat the two them had on a pulling job the other day. “I thought you were just slowing me down to be a pain in the ass.” Dinah elbowed her again and Pearl glared. Greaseball looked down and sighed “right sorry.”
”Well you should know the speed limits on the tracks are ment for IDEAL conditions, it was raining GB.” Pearl stomped her foot and crossed her arms.
“Uhg are you still on that?” Greaseball rolled her eyes “I was going a snail’s pace!” Then she felt a tug on her arm and saw Dinah giving her ‘THE LOOK’! Greaseball heaved a small sigh “Sorry Pearl, I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Thank you for the apology Greaseball I hope you learned.” Pearl said giving Dinah a satisfied look. “Uuuhhhgg I wish the other trains would just get here, I hate waiting.”
“That we can agree on.” Greaseball muttered. Though she noticed Pearl wasn’t really listening, her and Dinah were chittering among themselves. Leaving her and Rusty awkwardly staring at each other. Things had been… odd since the final race last year. Greaseball had apologized to the steam engine for the relentless bullying she’d thrown his way, but she really didn’t know what to say to him after that. Unfortunately for Greaseball his girlfriend was her girlfriend’s best friend so they wound up seeing a fair bit of each other. They stood around for a little bit, twiddling their thumbs before Greaseball tried to break the silence.
“Soooo… first season as a champion huh? You excited?” She asked looking down at the floor.
”Hehe more nervous actually.” Rusty admitted
“Eh same thing!” Greaseball said with a shrug. “Well eventually you can trick yourself into thinking they’re the same thing.”
“Oh good tip.” Rusty responded quickly, they stood there a little longer nodding at each other. Thankfully the voice of control echoed over the speakers.
“This is control!! This is control!! The other racers will be here shortly, please be polite!!” They announced.”
“Oh thank god.” Greaseball muttered quietly to herself. When the guest engines started rolling in. First came the engines from Starlight international, they had trains from all over the world. Greaseball recognized all of them, there was Bobo from France, Turnov from Russia, Espresso from Italy, and Manga from Japan. Greaseball had a kinda friendly rivalry with them, in the sense that they didn’t want to kill each other. Dinah waved excitedly as Buffy and Ashley rolled by following their engines, they were pretty good friends.
The next to arrive was Electra and their motley crew, they’d wound up hanging around longer than they’d originally planned last year. However they decided that settling in one yard just wasn’t for them. They did make a couple friends while they were here though, but Greaseball did not consider herself one of them.
The final group caused Greaseball’s breath to catch in her throat as they rolled into the yard. She’d truly hopped she’d never see that guys face again. He was huge, bigger than Greaseball remembered. His plates painted in a bright neon green camo pattern that stuck out like a sore thumb, the exact opposite of what camo was supposed to do. He had a wicked grin on his stupid face as he posed for the crowd, running his hand through his blonde, buzz cut hair. His army green eyes scanning the crowd, a lack of any sort of soul behind them. Dinah flinched when she felt Greaseball’s hand tightening around hers. Greaseball flinched when she felt Dinah’s hand on her shoulder.
“Greaseball? Love is everything okay?” She asked looking over at her.
Greaseball looked over to Dinah, Pearl and Rusty. All of them still watching the guest engines roll in. Greaseball got all of their attention and pointed to the new green engine. “That guy, over there! His name is Sargent you need to watch out for him, he plays real dirty. Dirtier than I ever did.” Greaseball choked out a response before turning away, pulling Dinah behind her.
”Hold on, Greaseball how do you know that? We’ve never raced against him before.” Dinah paused glancing back for a second. “I don’t even think I’ve ever seen him before.”
“I know that because he’s the bastard that got my brother killed!” Greaseball answered louder than she ment to.