Sodor's Deep Sink

Emerald Hero

2:30pm. August 25th

Bert was quiet as he pulled a large train of metal poles down the line. He hard barely spoken a word in days...and almost never looked up from the rails. The once threatening diesel now becoming easily frightened, jumping at any sound and sometimes breaking out into sobbing fits, especially if he saw a body or any scrap. He was under constant surveillance by his crew due to his...habit of trying to kill himself, but, atleast for now, he seemed to be acting alright. "Driver...I feel weak" Bert grumbled and his crew checked his gauges and sighed before slowing to a stop. "Something must have come loose" his driver said as he switches them to a siding and rolled into it with the train before turning on the brakes and shutting off the engine. "Great.." Bert grumbled sadly "just another reason my brother should be here and not me..." he grumbled and his driver softly patted his buffer before opening the diesel's side to check on his engine. "Yep, it is completely fucked" he driver said and sighed "it is an easy fix but...I don't have the parts" he sighed and shut the cover before he climbed into the cab and radioed for help before he got out a sleeping bag and pillow. "Welp time for a nap" he driver said as he lit a cigarette before he got wrapped up. "Bert tell me if there are any otherworldly monsters" his driver teased and Bert snorts. "The only monster here is your breath" the diesel responded and his driver laughed as he shut his eyes and fell asleep.

4:52 pm. August 25th

Bert's driver woke up to his engine screaming. Quickly he ran out the cab to see a steam engine with a deformed face and he sprinted off running before he heard. "Crap I think we over did it! Driver come back it's just a prank!" Causing the man to freeze up and turn around to see the steam engine's crew come out and remove a mask from the engine's face. "Haha! Gotcha!" Emily teased and Bert's driver went pink in the face. He felt super annoyed, but sighed and walked back to his engine and climbed into the cab. "Very funny you two..." he snorted as Emily pulled Bert out of the siding and began puffing down the line. "Where were you Emily? We hadn't heard anything about you since this entire thing started" Bert's driver said and Emily sighed as she looked off in the distance. "I was helping out at Great Waterton, passenger numbers had increased and Flora and Stanley couldn't handle it all so I was sent there to assist, and when the dams broke all three of us sprinted in different directions" Emily explained as she pushed Bert along the line. "Any idea where they went?" Bert's driver asked as his engine looked down at the rails, his eyes starting to get misty. "At the moment no, I ran off with my own coaches and went down towards a part of the line called The Lift, which is a angled bridge that you would cross just after the difficult bend if you are heading to the mainline" she said before pausing. "Stanley was shunting and accidentally took a single old coach with him due to their chains getting tangled. I think he went through the back of the town, then Flora took her coach and followed me, but got sent down another line...I don't know where she is" Emily said sadly and the engine and his driver got worried. "But I have no doubt that they will be fine" Emily said confidently, catching the two off guard. "Stanley maybe a perfectionist and a day dreamer but he is a capable engine, and Flora is...well she's just too stubborn to die, but I guess she gets that from me and Edward" Emily laughed, her positivity really making Bert think. He found himself beginning to wish he was like her, proud, confident...happy. But thinking about this only brought his mind to the countless steam engines he had to scrap, all the engines who were once happy...meeting a firey end. "Ey, what's wrong Bert?" Emily asked, snapping the diesel out of his thoughts and he looked up at her, she had a kind smile...something he had never seen before. Atleast...not from anyone except 'Arry, his brother was the only one who would even give him the time of day, the only one that treated like an actual living being. He had tried to convince Bert to ask to be sold to the NWR because 'Arry knew Bert had much more life due to him being a later build compared to his brother who was an early build. "Bert?" Emily said sounding worried "huh? Oh uh nothing sorry" Bert responded quickly before looking down at his buffers which were bent from him hurting himself. Emily noticed this too before pausing and speaking in a softer more...older sister like tone. "I know how it feels to lose the people you care about...I know how it feels to lose everything and filled with regret and self hate" she said and Bert looked back up at her and she gave a kind smile. "It will always lead to self harm if you let it overcome you...do you want that?...Do you think your brother would want that?" She asked ans Bert sighed. "No...he always wanted what's best for me...even if I was too stubborn to accept the fact that meant we would be separated" Bert said softly enough that only Emily could hear it. She smiled before she noticed something...besides the damage he had done to himself, he had rust spots and wasn't well maintained by any standard. "Bert...has your company been maintaining you?" She asked and Bert looked down at the rails before his eyes looked back at his body. "...We don't have the money...and I been giving my spare parts to 'Arry...in the hopes that...when our company shut down...he would get bought by a heritage railway" Bert said with a soft sigh, his voice trailing off for a moment. "And if I was reduced to nothing for that to happen...I was willing to do it..." Bert said and looked down." 'Arry deserved better than what he got...being a earlier 08 he had been many places in his life span...quarries that were dangerous for everyone, tunnels that cut through the ocean, factories that harrased him and railways that didn't care for him" Bert said softly as he looked at Emily in the eye, tears began to flow down his face. "Because of this, my brother never learned how to interact with others in a kinder way then he did, he never wanted to be seen as a monster, and to steam engines on the mainline, he wasn't. His aggressive nature and stubborn attitude...as well as...what they say...free spirit, allowed him to hide steam engines and protect them. Infact he helped hide Oliver in a place he knew he would be found! Of course...he never got the chance to tell Oliver his plan because he got sent away to another line" Bert said softly. " 'Arry was never in a single place for long, he never got the chance to make friends, and even if he did stay in one place, he found it hard to get people to like him, not only for his attitude but also the fact that diesel was replacing steam." Bert paused to steady his breath and sighed. "That was until he came to this island, of course...none of the engines liked him...and he was expecting the same thing to happen like all the other times he tried to get a home...that was until I showed up" Bert said looking at the cloudy sky. "He has said hundreds of times that when he met me and we became brothers, he could have died there and had been happy...I was young at the time...I had only worked in a small quarry away from everything else...and through the years 'Arry taught me everything I know. Down to the smallest detail, heh if it weren't for him I wouldn't know about the history of railways, the difference between a 4-4-0 or a 0-6-0. I would know nothing besides the bare essentials if it weren't for him" Bert said softly and Emily looked at him solemnly. "...And even when everyone else doubted me...he always made sure to support me, even with my stupid dreams.." he said through sobs. "...What's your dream?" Emily asked and Bert sniffed "its...stupid don't worry about it" Bert muttered and Emily gave him a look. They rolled along in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again "...my dream is to run a passenger service...not an emergency service, like an actual passenger service, doesn't have to he named, doesn't have to be something big like the express...I just want to pull a passenger service" Bert said and Emily blinked. "Wait wait wait wait...they said that dream was dumb?" She asked and Bert let out a feeble "yes." Before Emily flipped her lid. "Those idiots! You can damn well pull a passenger train! What do they know?! Despite all the scrap they melt down and iron they sell, they can't even keep enough money to maintain their engines! It's improper! They must have rods up their asses if they think that some worthless no names can tell someone else they can't dream something!" She said, her face growing red and her eyes looked like hell fire before she took a deep breath and calmed down. "Right, I'll talk to the Fat Controller when this is all set and done, the company rebuilding the dams should be sending in starting equipment in a few days so the goods engines will be hard at work with that, I'm currently taking you to the works, James and Old Stuck Up should be there, Old Stuck Up is almost finished and apparently he woke up not too long ago" she explained as the sounds of tools came into ear shot. "Ah, were here" she smiled and shunted Bert next to the diesel who had a terrified look on his face "Hmm? What's up?" Emily asked before she and Bert followed his eyes just to see James's smokebox hanging from a chain. "Oh hey James" Emily said and he smiled "yo" James responded and Emily smirked "how's it hanging?" "Ah you know, the usual" James teased and Bert couldn't help but laugh. James gave him an awkward look before looking at Emily...and then Bert again. "I'm surprised your not like Old Stuck Up over there, most diesels act like that when they see a steam engine like this for the first time" James stated and Bert winced, it was then when James realized. "Oh right sorry" he said and Bert sighed "it's fine don't worry" Bert said and looked down. "Heya James, do you remember what happened during your runaway?" Emily asked looking up at their number 5. "Apparently your tender was damaged or something" she said and James paused as he looked towards the big, rude diesel who had tried to derail him. The diesel looked down, ashamed in himself before James gave a small grin and said "I don't remember" which caught the diesel off guard. "All I remember was Old Stuck Up over there trying to help stop me" James said and the engines looked towards the diesel who was completely silent. "Hmm...maybe you aren't not as bad as we thought" Emily said as people began to work on Bert. "For now, if your feeling up to it, we could use your help on the Great Waterton line" Emily said and the diesel's engine roared to life. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it Miss Emily"