"Percy…Percy…PERCY, WAKE UP OLD BOY!"

"Whuh…whuh?"

The little black tank engine opened his eyes. His driver and fireman were standing in front of him.

"Come on, Percy, we have to deliver parts to the other engines today!"

Percy groaned, but felt a little better as his fireman lit his fire.

"Alright, here I go…" and he emerged from his small shed outside the workshops.

The little tank engine, called Percy, had four small wheels, a large saddletank that covered his boiler, and was painted completely black. Percy was a pilot engine at some railway works, where all the railways in Britain sent their engines to be fixed when they broke down, or they needed an overhaul, and sometimes even a rebuild. Percy's job was to ferry the engines around the works whenever they needed to be moved, or to deliver parts to certain parts of the workshops. Although many engines came and went in the works, none of them ever stayed, as they all went back to their old railways. Percy was the only engine owned by the workshops, the other being an engine built at the works that had yet to find a buyer. His name was Clyde. Percy was passing him when he heard him call out.

"Bring these parts here, Percy," said Clyde. Clyde was much bigger than Percy, being designed as an express passenger engine. He had four small leading wheels, and six large driving wheels that made Percy's look very small, as well as a tender. He was painted a dark green, with black stripes. Clyde had been in the works for a long time, but Percy didn't like Clyde very much. Clyde loved pushing Percy around, and telling him what to do.

"My wheels are aching, have your crew give me an oil right now!" Percy tried to keep going, but his crew brought him to a stop.

"Why did we stop? He's just trying to make me do his bidding," grumbled Percy.

"It's policy, Percy," his driver sighed. They stepped down from Percy's footplate and went to inspect Clyde.

"Botheration, now I'll be late!" Percy sat impatiently waiting for his crew to return, when the other engines around the workshop spoke up.

"My filler cap feels loose, can you check it over?"

"My boiler feels leaky!"

"My cylinders are cracked!"

"Just a checkup, Percy!"

"It's your job, Percy!"

Percy groaned. Clyde told the other engines that Percy would do anything if they asked. As a result of this, Percy frequently got harassed to run menial errands for the other engines.

"Oh shut up. You know that I'm busy!"

"MY FIREBOX IS ON FIRE!"

"Oh, that one was just being smart!"

The other engines laughed as Percy's crew returned. They returned their oil can to the trucks. Before the other engines could make their requests, Percy sped off to try and get his trucks to where they needed to go.

"Don't worry, Perce, you'll be useful someday!" Clyde sneered as Percy puffed out of his range of vision.

Percy sighed.

"I don't like how they push me around. I'm just as useful as the rest of them! At least I'm actually working! You'd think they'd show me some respect!"

His driver chuckled, and began braking Percy to a stop as they approached the end of the siding.

"Percy, everyone has their day. You just haven't had yours yet! Just be patient and keep working hard and you'll get the respect you deserve!"

Percy rolled his eyes; it was nowhere near as easy to do that as his driver thought.

"…absolutely unbelievable! We need someone to shunt our coaches! Tender engines don't shunt! I don't know when the Fat Controller will get it through his head, but I personally think, no I know, that we need an engine to shunt this yard!"

As he complained to no one in particular, Gordon backed down onto his express coaches, which were sitting in the carriage shed. He missed Thomas. Not because he was particularly fond of the little engine, but because without him he had to shunt his own coaches. In fact, all the big engines had to. They all hated it. The sidings at the big station were difficult to navigate, and backing up could be a pain.

"I pull the express! It's an absolute crime that I have been reduced to shunting trucks like a measly tank engine! I swear, I will do anything possible to get the Fat Controller to see what we need. A protest, a rally, a…"

"Stow it, Gordon, and just try to be really useful, no matter what your job is." His driver coupled Gordon up to his coaches, and they started off for the big station platform. His driver noticed a satisfied smirk on Gordon's face.

"You up to something, Gordon?"

"No, no, not at all, driver," denied Gordon, "simply I've thought of a way to make the best of our problem!"
"Oh, good." As Gordon rolled up to the platform, his passengers climbed on the train.

"Yes," he grinned, "I'll tell them tonight…"

And with that, the guard's whistle blew and Gordon rolled out of the station, in a cloud of steam.

(NOTE: Play the first chorus and verse, and the last chorus of "It's Great to be an Engine" here for desired effect)

As Gordon left, James pulled up to the platform.

"Get in, quickly please!"

James' passengers climbed on board and he tried to start off, but steam hissed everywhere, making the inside of the station very wet. This caused quite a commotion, and the Fat Controller left his office to see what the commotion was.

"GAH," cried James, and he took off like a rocket, leaving the Fat Controller very confused.

"Engines…" he muttered, before waving the moist air away from him and returning to his office.

Edward was sitting at the platform, waiting for the men to finish loading his trucks, when he saw a train with no engine nearby.

"I wonder what that could be?" A familiar whistle soon confirmed Edward's suspicions however, and clanking echoed throughout the station as the large green engine pulled into the station.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Henry panted to the passengers, "I had some…steaming problems."

Henry was coupled up to the train and tried to start off, and slowly but surely he was out of the station. Edward looked on in a worried manner.

"Oh dear, poor Henry."

Henry struggled along the line, with the coaches clanking behind him. He tried to keep up good steam, but his small firebox prevented him from getting enough steam up, and he began to slip on the hill.

"Oh no!" Henry tried to keep up speed, but he couldn't and slid back down to the bottom of the hill.

No matter what Henry or his crew tried, they were stuck, and were forced to reverse back to Wellsworth. Edward was there, having made his delivery.

"Oh dear, Henry, are you alright?"

"No, Edward. I can't get enough steam to get up the hill! It's my blasted firebox again."

"Don't get too down, Henry. Tell you what, I'll take your train on from here and you can rest in my sheds!"

"B-b-b-b-but…"

"We don't really have another option," remarked Henry's driver, "it's very unlikely we'll get enough steam up for that hill any time soon."

"Oh…very well, Edward."

Henry limped onto a siding while Edward coupled onto the train.

"Don't worry, Henry! Have a nice nap and you'll feel much better!"

"Thank you, Edward," said Henry, trying to smile. As Edward left the station, Henry sat in the sheds, feeling miserable.

"I suffer dreadfully, and no one cares…"

THOMAS AND FRIENDS: TROUBLESOME ENGINES!

Well, well, well. I decided to write this Adventure Begins-style adaptation of "James the Red Engine", "Tank Engine Thomas Again", and "Troublesome Engines" because I loved the original so much. And seeing as I've yet to see a good sequel story, I've decided to write one. If and when another one comes out, I'm still going to use this, and I am going to update as I write. I have the entire thing planned out. Now let's discuss the key differences first:

- Order of Events: This story has the events of the third, fourth, and fifth Railway Series books taking place alongside one another. I'm doing this because it allows for a more coherent narrative, as well as not just feeling I stringed the entire thing together just using the books. Only two stories have happened prior to this, and we see them in flashback.

- Percy's livery and workshop days - Changed it to make more sense for his character and later developments in the story. Clyde is part of these differences as well.

- Original characters - This would be a note, except Clyde is the only one. So yeah, the only characters appearing in this are Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Terence, Bertie, and Sir Topham Hatt. So I'll be sticking to canon in that regard.

So I can't wait to write more, and hope you all enjoy "TROUBLESOME ENGINES", a new Thomas and Friends special!