Steam engines, Skullgirls, and Universes

REWORKED-From Branchlines to the Big City

'Legend tells of an ancient artifact that can grant a woman's wish... The Skull Heart, however if she is impure of heart her wish will be corrupted and she will turn into an immensely powerful, twisted being of destruction...The Skullgirl.'

'However, there is one timeline where things go a bit... differently'

'Forces beyond had a hand with a new timeline, one like no other they had ever done'

Trees blow in the wind on a peaceful countryside meadow. A railway line runs through it for goods and passengers to be transported. The engine that regularly runs this line is a little blue tank engine. This engines has six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome, with a number one painted on his side tanks. Humming was heard from the engine, not from the crew but from the engine itself. His name is Thomas The Tank Engine; he runs a branchline to Ffarquhar on the island of Sodor. He is very proud of his branchline and tries to run it to exact time. However these sometimes aren't meant when there's a mishap on the line, such as a cow on the line, or when some trucks break loose of a train and get stranded in the middle of the single track line. 

Today it so happened to be a cow blocking another engine from passing and kept Thomas waiting at a station. He quickly grew cross waiting around. 

"Humph! Already that little green snail has kept me waiting for TEN minutes!" he fumed. 

His driver tried to comfort him.

"Nevermind Thomas, we'll make up for lost time surely."

This didn't help to much. At last they heard a 'Peep!' in the distance as a little green engine with four wheels panted up to the station with a line of stone trucks. 

"Well well well Percy, glad you finally decided to show up." scolded Thomas. 

"It's not my fault!" Percy snapped back. "There was a stubborn cow on the line, took ages to get him to move!"

"It's not my problem you wanna play with the live stock Percy, unlike you I take my work here seriously. Now excuse me I need to make up for lost time." and with that he puffed out of the station as quickly as he could, leaving a very red faced Percy. 

Thomas raced up his line for the rest of the afternoon trying to make up time. To make things worse he was halted by a stray cow on his return journey to the junction, where he was late and had to get an ear full of what the big engine there thought about his excuses. After the big engine had left the station master told Thomas that he was to return to Tidmouth as the shunter there was short of steam, and they needed him to fill in while Daisy would take Thomas' coaches. This only made Thomas cross as he fussed into Tidmouth yards.  

The engine was sitting in a siding while workmen examined him, he was looking sad. Thomas rolled along side. 

"Oh thank goodness you're here." he said

"Yes Yes, just tell me what was the job you were doing when you decided to go and do this." Thomas said rather uninterested. 

"I was fetching coaches for James' local train."

"Right, let me get to it." Thomas puffed away, muttering under his breathe. "Useless newbie."

For the rest of the day he huffed and puffed around the yard dealing with coaches and the noisy trucks. He hated pilot work as he found it a bore, just moving between sidings and the station platform. 

When the day's work was finished Thomas went to the big roundhouse where the other mainline engines and the pilot engine slept. He was spun 'round on the turntable and puffed back into the open birth. Various engines stayed in the shed, A mix traffic engine called James, A heavy goods engine named Henry, the island's express engine Gordon, and a few that would come and go. 

"Well little Thomas, The Fat Controller shunted you back into the yards again?" Gordon teased. 

Thomas scoffed and rolled his eyes, like he needed to be reminded where we was.

"Alright Gordon, don't tease him." said another engine. He was a small blue tender engine called Edward. He was one of the oldest engines on the railway and had known Thomas for a long time. 

"Thomas, what you're doing here is a great help to the railway, I'm sure the pilot will be back in no time." he reinsured. 

Thomas smiled at Edward, but still could only sigh and fall asleep. 

Next morning Thomas' crew found it hard to build up steam, his fire just wouldn't start. When it eventually did Thomas had to rush around and get Gordon's express ready and all the other mainline trains. When everything had been done, and the yard tidied up his crew took him over to the water tower for a drink. He puffed backwards towards it still in a fowl mood. 

"Why couldn't Duck, or Donald, or any other engine come do this instead of me!?" he asked. 

"Thomas." his driver started. "You know that this work needs to be done, besides The Fat Controller asked YOU to do it, so you have to do it regardless of how you feel about it."

Thomas grumbled under his breathe as he continued to back down to the water tower. He was hoping something would make the day a little more exciting. He looked around and saw a something peculiar. The world around him begin to flicker, flashing between the yard and different places. 

"What!? Driver stop!" he cried out. His driver peaked his head out and saw what was happening, and he was frightened, so was the fireman. Thomas' breaks were slammed on and he stopped as the flickering became more aggressive until a bright light consumed the three of them. Thomas shut his eyes tightly waiting for it to all be over. The light faded, Thomas and his crew went with it. 

After the light faded Thomas slowly opened his eyes, only for them to shoot open. They weren't in the yard anymore, not even on Sodor, they were in the middle of a big city. The lights of the towering buildings and the moonlight lit up the night sky, but not a soul could be seen. 

"Woah." he suddenly remembered. "Driver, Fireman you ok?" he asked. 

"Yeah we are." groaned the fireman. 

"Blimey, I've never seen a place like this before." the driver said wide eyed looking around. Thomas then looked down and was surprised. 

"Fireman, driver. We're on rails!" he said happily. 

His crew got out of his cab and found that they were on a tramway that ran through the city. 

"Well that's some good news, and they look about your gauge." The crew examined the rails and made sure they were safe for Thomas. 

Unbeknownst to them however, a figure watched in the shadows of an alleyway. It watched this mysterious engine, and its crew. It pulled out a small radio, and began to speak. 

"Anti Skullgirls Lab. I believe one of the old doc's creations, or project Peacock's cartoon friends are on the loose."

"Well what is it?" a voice called from the radio. 

"It's a living blue train."

"Funny... The Doctor doesn't have any records of anything like that, and Peacock's never had an interest in locomotives. Keep an eye on it for now, see what it does... we'll send Ben to investigate him."

"Understood." she put the radio down and fades into the darkness. 

"Alright boy, the rails seem to be a good fit. Let's find out where we are." the driver told Thomas. The crew made their way back to the cab and Thomas puffed off, feeling a bit nervous inside.