Philby

Finn was taking charge... Again. Like the dutiful 'student' I was, I quickly changed into black sweats and a black Nike shirt with a white swoosh across the front. I jumped into bed and pulled the covers up, suddenly filled with a tsunami of energy. Maybe because I was going to see my best friends I hadn't seen in over a year. Maybe it was because I had the desire to walk through walls again. Or maybe it was because I couldn't wait to feel the rush of being a Keeper once more. 

Before I knew it, my eyes drooped heavy and I drifted off to sleep. When I crossed over, all the other Keepers were waiting for me. "Was I really that long?" I asked, looking up at the six other faces. 

They looked at each other and said in unison, "Yeah."

"Oops." I muttered and sat up on the bench around the Partners statue, which I had woken up on. I rubbed my eyes and looked at each one of them. Charlene was looking just like a model as ever, Finn had his calm aura, Maybeck wore a smug smile on his face, Amanda kept glancing at Finn, Jess was staring at her feet, and Willa was just, well, stunning. Our eyes fixed on each other before she turned away. I frowned at this, but only for a moment when I realized that something was wrong with all of us. Very wrong. "Something's not right here." I said.

"Yeah, about that..." Amanda trailed off. 

"We have some explaining to do." Finn finished her sentence.

"What kind of explaining?" I inquired.

"Just cut to the chase." I heard Maybeck whisper to Finn. 

"We, well," Finn scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how to phrase whatever unspeakable message he was attempting to convey to me. Amanda nudged him, and his ears reddened while he simultaneously blurted out the rest of his information. "We have to go back to DHI 1.0. Those rookie Keeper replacements couldn't handle daily OT mischief- like Br'er Fox-and it escalated quickly before the Imagineers realized what was going on. Scar-" Finn's voice caught. "Scar got into the Base and mauled all the computers, microchips, and records. All DHI technology was lost. The Imagineers were able to quickly reprogram 1.0 because, well, it's rather easy if you've done it twice. But programming 2.0? It's gonna take time. For now, we have to deal with this." He gestured to himself. 

"But I can help! I can program it and-" Maybeck cut me off.

"It ain't gonna work man." He reasoned. "It's too much. These men and women have been working their whole lives towards DHI technology, you can't go and program it in the advanced 2.0 format in a day."

"Well Rome wasn't built in a day! I can work at it! I-I-" While I was struggling to get words out, Willa got my attention, and held it, unlike Maybeck did. 

"Philby, it's not going to work. You can't do it. There are some freak genius technology things you can't do yet. We just have to focus on dealing with the OT's and DHI 1.0 for now." Willa's sweet voice calmed me, and I could feel my Adam's apple bob up and down as I tried to keep from what I thought might have been crying, but hoped wasn't. She just kind of placed her gentle hand on my back and rubbed it back and forth. I felt my shoulders relax.

"We're all dealing with this, Mr. Philby." An all to familiar voice piped up from behind my fellow Keepers. I couldn't identify the voice, but judging by the fact it made me so happy, I knew it was someone I wanted to hear from. My friends parted, and the owner of the voice stepped in front of me.

"Wayne?" I whispered, rising to my feet. I now stood taller than him. I guess at the age of 19 puberty had finally caught up to me. Oh the joy. 

"Dell." He nodded in my direction. I could never figure out if he favored me or not. 

"What first?" I asked rubbing my hands together and gathered my senses, shaking off my little meltdown.

"First, we need to practice using 1.0." Finn cautioned. Like he was the expert. I looked down to hide my eyes rolling.

"Yeah, what for?" I asked, pushing all fear out of my mind as I did so, and walked towards a fence, promptly banging my confident thigh into it when I reached it. "Ow," I grumbled and took the walk of shame back over towards the other Keepers.

"That's why." Maybeck snickered, which got a punch from Charlene. 

"Guys, guys. Don't argue, we're all in this together!" Everyone hummed the melody to the High School Musical hit before snapping out of it.

"Well, why don't we ask Wayne. What fir-" Amanda was stopped her sentence when she realized the old man was no where do be found. 

"Isn't that convenient." Finn muttered. Then, something rustled in the bushes. We all whipped around in a force of habit. 

"Wayne?" I squeaked out. And no, it wasn't a voice crack. I was scared stiff. More rustling from the bushes. We all instantly grabbed the person's hand on either side of us and backed away like one of those kicklines. 

I saw a flash of red fur in the bushes, and recalled what Finn had said. "...like Br'er Fox..." My breathing turned into shallow breaths. Willa leaned across Maybeck, Finn and Charlene to look at me. I was sure my already pale face was getting whiter by the second. Soon I was going to look like a piece of paper with red fuzz attached to the top if I didn't act out soon. "OT." I managed to get out. That caught the attention of everyone. 

"What did you say?" Maybeck asked.

"OT." I repeated, pointing a shaking finger at the bush. Sure, it was just Br'er Fox, but when I thought about him, I thought about the frightened look on Br'er Rabbit's face right before you go down the waterfall. I gulped, remembering the hundreds of times I had given him a look of sympathy before plunging down the 'big drop' on Splash Mountain, when my sympathy was replaced by a fearful look of my own. Much like the one I was wearing right now.

"Who?" Jess whispered, the first thing she had said yet. Her eyes were focused on the bush. I looked down and saw Amanda's hand next to her. Amanda's fingers were moving slightly, probably getting ready to 'push' any minute. 'Pushing' is what we called Amanda's telekinesis, and when she could use it right, she was dangerous. Like, really dangerous. 

"Fox. Br'er Fox." I answered, to which Maybeck started humming the Mission Impossible theme song. Finn elbowed him in the gut, and he shut up.

"Run?" Willa asked me.

"Run." I said before taking off toward Tomorrowland. Everyone else followed behind me, and then soon ended up in front of me due to my lack of athletic strength. Maybeck and Charlene took the front and you could tell were racing, even though we were in the middle of a crisis. We all remembered not to look behind us, as Charlene constantly reminded us.

"Just keep moving forward!" Amanda called, quoting the Robinson's as we raced towards the Carousel of Progress.

Hey everyone! I hope this chapter was to your liking:) 

The video at the top is of High School Musical's "We're All In This Together". That movie was my childhood! I hope you enjoyed the reference, along with several other Disney ones throughout this chapter. And am I the only one that thinks the prepubescent Zac sounds like Ashley??? And if you didn't pick up on it, I purposefully put the Robinson's quote in as they went into Tomorrowland. Clever, huh? 

What do you guys think is going to happen next? When will Jess and Amanda have to use their 'gifts'? Do you guys have any Disney Parks memories like Philby's? Let me know in the comments below!

I hope you guys are enjoying this fanfic! I'll be at chu later with another chapter:)

xoxo

~bcruzy_02