Boulder and Diesel weren't the only ones who were alerted by the commotion.

Cranky hadn't had a lot of time to really process everything the day before, having spent much of it clinging for dear life to the edge of the docks and then sleeping to try and recover the strength and energy the waves had sucked out of him.

When Henry had asked him if he was ready to see other places than just the Docks, it had honestly thrown him for a loop. The green engine was right- Cranky hadn't actually seen any of the rest of Sodor. Towering over the docks to load and unload freight, he could see the hills just beyond the Docks, but no further. All those places- Crovensgate, Tidmouth Sheds, Vicarstown- they were all just words to him, not places he could see or experience... and now they lay in ruin.

Even here in this form, he towered over the engines, and even a lot of the buildings. Thomas and Percy barely came to his knees, and Gordon, his waist. He could see over the broken town before them easily, and seeing as they were the only living beings here, tracking everyone's movement via flashes of color against the gray, dull landscape wasn't too hard...

...which is how he knew exactly what was causing James' sudden panic. "Fire!"

"What?" Emily asked, but Cranky was already moving forward. His new legs provided long strides, and the little emerald engine had to run to keep up with him as they turned corners and approached the source of the yelling and bright flashes of light. "James!"

James was standing a distance away from any of the buildings and only minimal plants- probably a good plan- but was completely engulfed in flames. Henry stood nearby, eyes wide but his body frozen in place. He didn't know what to do, and honestly, neither did any of the others. James' cries were not that of pain, but more that of panic. "Augh! Put it out! Put it out!"

"I-I don't know how!" Henry cried.

"What happened!?" Emily asked.

"I sneezed and burst into flames!" James closed his eyes tightly. "Augh! Somebody do something-"

"Cinders and Ashes!"
The others had arrived, and that included Boulder and Diesel. "What did you do, James!?" Diesel asked.

Boulder lifted a hand, taking steps forward. "James, don't move. Just calm down, you're okay."

"Okay? Okay!?"
The flames seemed to only grow bigger. "I am on fire!"

"James, please. It'll go out if you just calm down..."

"Y-You're sure!?"

"Yes, just breathe... in and out... in and out..."

James swallowed and then closed his eyes tightly. "O-Okay...! Okay...!"

"That's it... breathe... relax..."

The engines all watched as James took in deep breaths, and slowly, the flames began to fade. Growing smaller and smaller, they finally fizzled out as the red engine slumped down to a sitting position on the ground.

"Good..."
Boulder bent down, putting a hand on his shoulder. "...See? You're okay."

"R-Right...Right... B-But what happened? H-How did I do that?" He looked as his hands, "I-It was like my entire firebox just exploded out around me and wouldn't go out!"

Emily stepped forward, snapping her fingers and igniting a small flame over her hand. "The same way I did this, I guess...?"

Boulder looked at the two engines, and gave a smile and a nod. "Looks like you're both fire mosaics."

"There are other kinds...?"

"Yup." Boulder held out his hand, and they watched as the metal appeared to turn into rock and then back again. "I'm an earth mosaic... It's just a part of being this way. You'll get better control over it, I promise, and I can help."

"So freaking out makes it worse...?" Henry mumbled, "...Can it make you jump up really high?"

Boulder turned to him, "Well... If you're an air mosaic, then you probably created a burst of air that sent you up there."

"What kinds are there?"

"Well, so far, we've seen air, water, earth, electricity, and now fire. My brothers are all water, air, and electricity."

"Could they help us too?"

Boulder bit his lip, "They're all... unavailable at the moment. Perhaps soon, though. I'll help where I can."

Cranky frowned. The engines might all be too young to see it, but Cranky did. There was a weariness to Boulder's voice, a sadness, and the way he'd said 'Unavailable' seemed to carry more weight than just that they couldn't help right now... Something had happened to them, or perhaps between them.

The crane set it aside for now, it wasn't his business.

Boulder looked over the startled Sodorians and shook his head, "Let's try not to worry about it right now. If something else like this happens, then definitely let me know, but just try to keep calm. That's the best way to keep any flares under control."

"Keep calm... okay."
Boulder offered his hand as it turned back to normal and helped James back up onto his feet. "Find anything yet?"

"Not yet. Anyone else?"

"Well, we found an old shop!" Percy announced, "It had what looked like flour and some sort of sticky stuff all over the floor inside. I tried not to step in it-"

"Wait, you went inside?" Edward asked.

"Yeah!" Thomas announced, "We can fit through the doors!"

"Of course you can..." Gordon grinned, and the two little engines puffed out their cheeks in irritation.

"Alright now..." Boulder rubbed his chin, "Spilled flour and sticky stuff..."

"Broken glass too." Thomas remarked.

"Sounds like animals got into the shop looking for leftover scraps. How much stuff was left?"

"Well, I mean..." the two engines shrugged, "We've never looked inside of a human shop before, but it seemed like most of the stuff it had was still there! The shelves were full and stuff."

"Hmm... They just left it there... Let's keep looking, that's a good clue though."

Emily stroked her chin, "Shops left with all of their stuff, no humans, and no livestock. What animals we've seen are wild... What does it all mean...?" she mumbled.

Cranky hummed, "... Sounds like the humans left, but didn't have the space to take everything with them... Like us, for example."

Emily nodded with a frown, "Yeah... Why would they leave us here and take everyone else...?"

"Maybe they couldn't come back?" Henry suggested, "I mean, when I passed Vicarstown Bridge, there was no bridge to the Mainland anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"The bridge, the stock yards, they were all gone... But not like they'd been destroyed, but as if... they never existed."

"But we know they did!" Thomas argued, "You and lots of other engines all crossed that bridge to the Mainland all the time to deliver goods trains!" The little engine put his hands to his hips, "This doesn't make sense...!"

"Most of Sodor seems to be the same," Percy mumbled, rubbing his chin. "But other things are different... No Vicarstown Bridge, no passengers or controllers left on the island... what would make the humans all leave and then not be able to come back?"

"An evacuation..."

They turned to Boulder as he mumbled to himself, "What's that mean?"

Boulder looked back towards them, "An evacuation is what we did last night, when he left Sodor to go to Griffin Rock because it was too dangerous to stay here. If the island had to be evacuated, then that would explain why so much stuff was left behind. Shops left full of stock, for example."

"But we came back," James replied, "Once the storm was over and it was safe to come back."

"Exactly..." Boulder looked out over the island, "So what happened here that the humans weren't safe to come back...?"

________________________________________________________________

The Firehouse was quiet when Salvage and Blurr arrived, though that was unfortunately becoming the norm. The garage was void of humans and bots alike, making their footsteps seem to echo even louder on the walls than normal.

"Yeesh... I don't like this." Blurr mumbled, "We need to get everything back to normal."

"Sounds like a plan," Salvage muttered, activating the elevator to send the two of them down to the bunker. "Boulder?" He hollered out as it came to a stop. The bunker was also quite quiet- no Heatwave training on his dummy, no television humming from the wall, no other signs of life.

"Boulder?" Blurr called out, a bit more frantic in tone than Salvage's had been. "Blades!? Anybody!?"

"In here, mechs."

Quickshadow's voice came from the medical bay, and they turned the corner and found the femme sitting beside Heatwave's medical berth, arms and helm resting on the table. The firetruck had regained a little bit of coloring than the last time they'd seen him, not looking quite so close to offline, but he was still in a deep stasis, his sparkbeat slow and frame unmoving.

"You look exhausted, Quickshadow..." Salvage murmured.

"Just been a long few days, you know..." She looked to Heatwave's faceplate, giving a sigh. "...I'm worried where his mind might be right now... Can he hear us out here? Does he know what's been happening...?"

"Where are Blades and Boulder?" Blurr asked, "They're... not gone too, are they?"

"Blades went to talk to Bumblebee about using their scanners to check further out for Chase and Cody, and Boulder's... babysitting."

"Babysitting? At a time like this?"

The femme lifted her head, "Last night, he and Graham found nine more mosaics that just showed up on an island somewhere. They were all really disoriented and freaked out, so Boulder's with them on the island trying to help them find out how they got here."

"Aww man... Can't stop for a second, can he?"

"No... I think that's how he's coping with it. If he's busy helping them, he doesn't have to think about all the rest of this as much-"

They all sat up as they heard the buzzing of the emergency alarm go off, and then Quickshadow stood up. "That's our cue. Think you guys can chip in?"

"That's what we agreed to." Blurr popped his shoulders with a swing of his arms. "Let's go get some humans out of the danger of their own making..."

Quickshadow nodded, giving another look back to Heatwave. "I'll be back, Heatwave. I promise..."

The firetruck didn't respond.