Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This just might be the worst day of Slick’s life.

Not only is she being forced to kidnap her best friend, she’s being forced to kidnap her best friend by her weird psycho uncle who broke out of jail.

She’d never met her uncle before, but he had inspired her to crash trains, which she wasn’t exactly proud of. Truthfully, she didn’t know how to get out of this mess, and she was scared.

She looked over at the unconscious train next to her and grimaced. Dinah had been beaten up pretty badly; bruises scattered all over her small frame. She hoped she could get them out of this before Dinah got hurt anymore.

She glided over to the corner of the room and sat down, head tucked into her chest. She had to stop herself from hyperventilating. She tried to calm herself down, try to think of anyway out, but came up blank.

“Slick..?”

She snapped her head up and rolled quickly over to Dinah. “Hey, Di. We’re in a bit of a bad situation right now, and I need you to play along with me, alright?”

“Ok…”, Dinah replied groggily.

She was about to explain the situation when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. “Pretend to be unconscious,” she whispered quickly before standing up and facing the door.

CB waltzed in with a mischievous grin on his face; “Ah, Slick! Do me a favor and turn off her communications while she’s still unconscious. Don’t want her trying to call for help, y’know!”

“Her communications!”, Slick thought. How dumb could she be to forget that?

“I’ll be back in a few, Slick! I have some business to attend to. And remember what happens if you don’t listen!” CB shouted gleefully before exiting the room.

Slick waited a few seconds until she was sure her uncle was gone, and then turned to Dinah; “Send an SOS signal with your location to Greaseball. We’re going to need help getting out of here.”

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Greaseball had begun to worry when Dinah hadn’t come home from her morning shift. She tried to convince herself that Dinah had just forgotten to tell her she was going out with her friends, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

Greaseball got the ping from Dinah at 3:07, exactly 2 hours since she last heard from her. She dropped everything and raced out the door.

She had made it about halfway when she accidentally bumped into Electra.

“What the hell man?!” They cried as they turned around to face her. Only then they saw the look on her face and grew worried; “Woah, hotshot! What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“It’s Dinah. Something happened and she’s in danger!”, she said as she turned around and started towards Dinah’s location again.

Greaseball didn’t look back but could tell Electra was following her. She wouldn’t ever admit it, but she was grateful for the backup, as she didn’t know what kind of trouble Dinah was in.

Greaseball had imagined every possible scenario by the time they pulled up to Dinah’s location. She could only pray that Dinah was still okay.

She burst down the door and could hear Dinah’s crying from the room down the hall. She barged in and caught sight of an injured Dinah tied up in the corner. She quickly rushed over to her side and started untying her; “Dinah, are you alright?!”

“‘M okay, just scared,” Dinah whimpered.

Greaseball was about to ask her what happened when she heard Electra shout; “Slick! What the hell did you do?!”

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To say Slick was scared was an understatement. She knew they didn’t have much time before her uncle returned. “Listen to me, we have to hide. Now.”

“And why should we trust you? How do we know this isn’t another trick of yours?”, Greaseball retorted.

“Because we’re all going to die at the hands of my batshit crazy uncle if we don’t!”

Everyone stared at her in shock for a few seconds before she continued; “Now c’mon! There’s a closet over here!”

They hesitated, but followed.

Once inside, she turned to Electra; “Can you call your Components and get them come here as quick as possible? I’m going to need as much help as I can get.”

“You’re going up against him alone? How do we know he won’t kill you?!”, Dinah cried.

“Because he’s my uncle. And I’d rather it be that than have any of you get hurt. I’m done with causing people pain.”, Slick said as she shut the door.

Truthfully, she had no idea if her uncle would actually kill her. He seemed crazy enough. But one thing was for certain, she wasn’t about to let any of her friends get hurt because of her dumb mistakes anymore. As she heard CB entering the building, she braced herself for what was to come.

“Slick! I’m back!”, CB exclaimed with a wide smile across his face. His smile quickly dropped as he observed the empty room; “Slick… Where is she?”

“I don’t know. I went to get something and they were gone!”

“They? So there’s someone else here then?”, CB grinned.

“I- No-“ Slick stuttered.

“I told you what would happen if you didn’t listen to me. I thought you were better than this. Guess I was wrong!”, CB laughed maniacally.

“I’m not letting you hurt my friends!”, she cried as she punched him as hard as she could. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground.

She fought back as much as she could, but everything was all a blur. The last thing she heard before slipping out of consciousness was a gunshot.

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Dinah heard the gunshot and panicked. She couldn’t take it anymore. “Slick!”, she shouted as she pushed open the doors.

She hadn’t expected to see Killerwatt standing over Slick’s supposed uncle, pistol smoking. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Joule raced up to Electra, who had followed Dinah out of the closet; “Electra! Are you okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little shaken.”, they replied, but then they saw a crumpled, bloody form out of the corner of their eye and the color drained from their face; “But I don’t think Slick is.”

Almost as if on cue, Wrench dropped down next to Slick and began feeling for her pulse. It was weak, but still there. “Shit.”

Dinah’s heart rate increased. She’d never heard Wrench swear before. Alarmed, she asked; “Is she okay?”

“She’s barely holding on. We need to get her back to the yard. Now. Greaseball, radio Mama and tell her we’re on our way, and to set up a medical room for Slick.”

“On it!”

“Electra, Volta.”, Wrench continued; “Can you run Slick back to the yard? I need to get things ready.”

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Mama winced when she caught sight of Slick. As they got closer she asked, tears in her eyes; “Is she going to be okay?”

“We don’t know, but she needs urgent medical attention. Is there a room for her?”, Volta replied. They felt bad for the old steam train. They knew she thought of the freights, and most of the yard for that matter, as her children.

“Yes. Right over there!”

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Mama had been rolling around the waiting room for hours, waiting to hear an update from Wrench. She’d convinced mostly everyone to go home and get some rest. The freights had been very reluctant, no surprise, but she got them to leave, at last. Well, all of them but poor Rusty. He refused to leave until he knew Slick was alive. He glanced at her, and Mama caught what looked like guilt on his face. She decided she’d have to talk to him later. Finally, the door opened and Wrench walked out of the room, covered in oil.

Rusty stood up immediately; “Is she still alive?!”

“Yes, she’s alive,” Wrench assured, but Mama saw a look of uncertainty on her face.

“Can I go see her?”

“I’m afraid not. She’s in a coma. I don’t know when or… if she’ll wake up.”, Wrench replied somberly.

Mama watched as Rusty froze, and then took off out the door. She started to cry. “Thank you, Wrench.”

“I’ll look after her. I’m sorry, Mrs. McCoy.”

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Rusty sat, crying. It had been two months since Slick went into a coma. Dinah had been visiting Slick everyday, and his siblings visited often too. Even Greaseball and Electra visited sometimes, but Rusty hadn’t gone once. He couldn’t stand to see his sister like that. But he felt horrible. He’d been distancing himself from her since she crashed him at the championships. He’d barely even talked to her. He felt guilty.

All of a sudden, an idea popped into his head. He closed his eyes.

“Starlight Express..? It’s me, Rusty, the little steamer who won the race! I don’t know if you can hear me, but, if you can, please help my sister. She doesn’t deserve to die.”

As he opened his eyes, a wave of courage rushed upon him. He needed to go see Slick.

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Slick woke up in dark place. She looked around, but could see nothing but black. All of a sudden, she watched in awe as tiny stars appeared in the sky. Was she dead?

“Slick.”

“Who are you!?”, she asked, panicking. She turned to where the voice came from and locked eyes with a majestic illuminated train. “Starlight Express..?”

“Slick,” the voice repeated, although this time it sounded more motherly, “You need to wake up. There are people out there waiting for you. You’re too young to die.”

“I’m dead..?”

“No. You’re alive,” the train whispered as she fell out of consciousness again.

When she awoke again, Slick could only see white, except for a recognizable rusted brown color. “Rusty..?”, she groaned.

“Slick?! Oh my starlight, I thought you died! You stopped breathing!!”

“I’m alive,” Slick grinned groggily. Then she remembered what happened; “Is Dinah and the others okay?! Did he hurt them?!”

“No, you saved them. Killerwatt shot him before he got to them.”

“Thank starlight,” Slick said as she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m sorry, Slick. I haven’t been a good brother to you since the crash,” Rusty sighed; “I should have been there to protect you. I should have realized something was wrong.”

“Rusty. It’s okay. I’m here, and I’m alive.”