Rachael and the Charge of the Mermaids

This is the second story written in the 10th Grade year (2011-2012) and the fifteenth written in the series. It takes place in late November 2011.

Summery
Gabriel is telling Sabine, Alana and Sophia about the time he and most of his friends encountered the Merminator at his worst. Armand cuts in to add all the other horrible things the Merminator has done. Rachael intervenes by saying that she doesn't believe that the Merminator is bad and that he is secretly a merman himself. Armand objects saying that the Merminator is pure evil, but the school bell rings and they all have to leave for class.

Later the kids have a mermaid pool party at Sophia's house. Rachael asks to get mermaid powers but Armand refuses to take her to Sodor; 1: because it's not the weekend, 2: he doesn't want to endanger anyone else to the Merminator, 3: he's slightly irritated at Rachael for not believing him.

Frustrated Rachael leaves only to come across a train who sympathizes with her. The next day the Train offers to take Rachael to a friend who might be able to help her solve her problem. Rachael is hesitant at first but then decides to do it. At the end of the day the train takes her to a botanical gardens where a cave is located and a hooded man awaits her. He takes her into the cave where she meets his gang. Rachael and the Hooded man converse about her perdicament with Armand and he gives her some advice until she has to go.

The next day Armand asks her if she has seen any suspicious locomotives as almost everyone in the area seem to have rough nights, largely because of nightmares. Rachael bluntly dismisses the subject which takes Armand aback as she doesn't act like this. Before he can ask, Willa asks him to investigate a box-like device that she found abandoned in the bushes.

Armand and Willa go to the science lab where they plug the device in and activate it only to find that it's a growth machine and it turns them into giants exactly the height from the ceiling to the floor.

Danielle, Rose Tui, Katherine and Alisa find them and question them about their perdicament. Kat attempts to shrink Willa and Armand back to normal size but only makes them grow bigger. Armand and Willa rush outside before they damage the school. Now they are about the height of the high school building. Rachael notices and has a chuckle at their problem.

Seeing as there's no way to shrink Willa and Armand back and no way they can go to their homes, the girls suggest that they sleep in the gym, though Armand is cautious at the idea for two reasons, 1: because the gym would be an uncomfortable place to sleep, and 2: he's worried about some things going out of hand between himself and Willa. Seeing as he has no other choice he's forced to go with the flow.

Later Rachael tells the hooded man about Armand and Willa's problem to which he answers that he might be able to solve their problem.

Early the next morning before school starts Rachael, the hooded man, his gang, and the train all go to Green Meadow to fix Armand and Willa's problem. The hooded man recognises the growth machine as his own product and uses a shrinking machine to shrink Armand and Willa back to normal size. But not sooner are they returned to normal size when the hooded man cages them and reveals himself to be the Merminator, his gang as his lackeys and the train as being the Nightmare Train who unleashes a swarm of demons and wraithes into the school property and scare the living daylights (both metaphorically and literally) out of the entire school which is soon abandoned.

The Merminator and his lackeys take great delight in dominating the school as their new lair as they were tired of their old one, and with the Nightmare Train on their side no one would dare enter the school grounds. Rachael is horrified but the Merminator turns nasty on her saying that she helped them dominate the school.

Feeling ashamed, Rachael secretly goes to apologise to Armand and Willa. Armand gives her his sparkle whistle and tells her to collect all the students who have mermaid powers (who have had experience with the Merminator and know what they're up against), find Little Engine (aka the Little Engine that Could) and ask her to take all of the mermaid kids to Sodor to find Thomas the Tank Engine (who supposedly would come up with a plan to stop all this).

The process takes longer than expected as Rachael has to first sneak out of the property unnoticed, find out who in the class has mermaid powers, find the location of Little Engine, get her to a portal to the magic railroad, and once on Sodor find Thomas and convince him to help them.

Meanwhile the Merminator and his lackeys torture Armand and Willa by making them do all the chores for them (eg. make food, clean up, take out the garbage and compost, etc.) Once they tried to escape by putting on disguises but got caught and bound.

On Sodor Thomas takes an immediate liking to Little Engine and the kids give Rachael mermaid powers of her own. Then they all set out to the rescue.

Thomas and Little Engine take the students to the school at night when everyone is asleep. The kids sneak into the Arts building through the side entrance, find Armand and Willa, release them and make their way back to the waiting engines.

The engines leave with everyone on board assuming they've gotten past the worst. Instead the fog rolls in obstructing their sight. Worse, the Nightmare Train and the Merminator appears in front of them giving them a scare. The Merminator knew what was going on with his telepathy explaining how they found out. The engines and kids hijack it out of there but not before witnessing the Nightmare Train sucking one of the Merminator's lackeys into his firebox just for laughing at him.

The Merminator and the Nightmare Train chase after the kids, Thomas and Little Engine until the latter are suddenly transported onto the magic railroad. The sudden transition startles Thomas (who was scared white by the Nightmare Train) so much that he shudders violently causing his passengers (Armand, Willa, Rachael, Thea, Hannah, and Kat) to fall out of him and onto another branch of the Magic Railroad that seperates them from the main group.

The story ends at a cliffhanger when Armand and the girls all fly out of the portal into an unfamilier location and are knocked cold upon impact. A shadow comes across them.

Kids

 * Rachael
 * Willa
 * Danielle
 * Alisa
 * Rose Tui
 * Katherine
 * Hannah
 * Thea
 * Armand
 * Gabriel
 * Taylor
 * Yaniv
 * Julian
 * Lukas
 * Dakota
 * Sabine
 * Alana
 * Sophia

Trains

 * Thomas the Tank Engine
 * Little Engine
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * The Nightmare Train

Created Characters

 * The Merminator
 * The Merminator's Bodyguard 1
 * The Merminator's Bodyguard 2
 * The Merminator's Bandit
 * The Merminator's Strongman
 * The Merminator's Gangster

Songs

 * Beat It - Michael Jackson