Steam engines, Skullgirls, and Universes

Chapter 17: A Day Out

Days passed after James' evening with the famous singer Eliza. For once he actually wanted to stay in the yard, better than getting stopped out in the middle of the mainline by the demon singer. He had trouble sleeping at night and focusing on his work. That night had left a deep fear in James, and he struggled to concentrate. Trains were mixed up, trucks not in their sidings, and James looking nervously all around the yard. Duck saw this and begun to worry. 

"Oh dear. I hope Parasoul doesn't hear this, James is already on her bad side, hate for it to get even worse." he muttered to himself. 

That same evening the engines came back to the sheds. They sizzled calmly and chatted about the day's events, all except for James. Their talk was stopped when Parasoul walked into the sheds looking very irritated.  

"Good evening engines." she said.

"Evening sir." they all replied. 

"What's the matter, you look upset about something?" Thomas asked. Parasoul turned her attention to the red engine. 

"I am upset, at James." she began. James gulped. "Your work has been sloppy. First you brought a coal train for the local passenger, then the coaches were on the scrap siding, and then to add on you bumped the load out of the fruit van and delayed that train and wasted the farmer's produce! Are you purposefully trying to sabotage our kingdom's railroad!?" she yelled at James. James stood there silent as knowing she wouldn't believe what had made him act like that if it came from him. 

"Um. Actually miss Parasoul." Percy spoke up. Parasoul took her gaze off of James and directed to Percy. "James isn't trying to sabotage the railroad. He's just scared." he weakly said. Parasoul raised an eyebrow. 

"Scared of what?" she asked still sounding very irritated. Percy took a deep breath. 

"Well you see. When James was taking Eliza back to her residence she stopped the train. Her men threw James' crew out and highjacked him. They had burst one of his cab pipes and the three thought he did it on purpose. James snapped at them and told them he wasn't for sale. Eliza then, then." Percy couldn't bring himself to say it, he gestured over to James' buffer beam. Parasoul looked at it and noticed James' buffer. It had unpainted metal sheeting behind it. Parasoul was a bit shocked to see it in such a state. James finally had the voice to speak. 

"Then she ripped it off. She shot a bloody, tentacled hand and latched onto it. Then ripped it off." James said weakly, he looked like he was about to sob. Even talking about the experience sent chills through James' boiler.  

Parasoul stood there for a moment, thinking about what the two told her. Eliza didn't seem the type to be so hostile or cruel, she held multiple charity events and raised quite a bit of money for them. Though it wasn't uncommon for celebrities to have a fake surface image, and a darker truth to them. 

"And you said it was her, not one of her big henchmen?" she asked making sure they weren't mixing things up. 

"No it was her. She would've done more damage to me if it wasn't for Thomas, Squigly and Filia." James continued. Parasoul looked to the three. 

"You three helped him escape?"

"Yes. Squigly and I rode in on Thomas and fought Eliza and her bodyguards while James' crew tried to fix him." Filia explained. 

"Me and Leviathan handled Eliza, she was tough. James wasn't lying about her blood hand, she morphed blood into all sorts of things. We were at a stand still until James ran over her leg." Squigly said. Parasoul looked at James with shock. 

"You ran over her leg!?" 

"I-I didn't mean too, I was just trying to escape." James tried to explain himself. Parasoul stood there silent, which made James all the more nervous.