Disney at Dawn

Fi

Maybeck edged closer to Fi

“No clue.”

“AWOL all this time, and they suddenly reappear for our reopening celebration. Doesn’t that strike you as just a little bit odd?”

“Everything about them is odd, if you ask me,” said Charlene, overhearing.

“What was with the leaf?” Fi

“I like them both,” said Willa, joining in. Willa looked constantly on edge. She had chocolate-colored, captivating eyes and a somewhat grating voice.

“You like everybody,” Charlene said.

“So what?” Willa complained.

“It just doesn’t work. You can’t like everybody,” Charlene said.

“Why not? Of course you can!” Willa said.

“Oh, forget it,” Charlene said, shaking her pompoms. She looked more eighteen than fourteen.

“Amanda knows where I live,” Fi

“If she’d wanted to catch up with you, she’d have come by your place,” Maybeck said.

“So it’s you, I suppose,” Fi

“I’m just saying the timing’s kind of interesting,” Maybeck said. “We know there’s something strange about those two, and there just happens to be a pair of monkeys following them.”

Both Jez and Amanda reappeared, staying with the parade float once again.

With Amanda stabbing the sky and looking worried, Fi

“She could have been pointing to the balloon,” Fi

“Warn us?” Charlene said.

“About the weather?” Maybeck said skeptically. “I doubt it.”

“Could have been about the primates,” Philby said.

“Yeah. A couple of monkeys,” snapped Maybeck sarcastically. “Now, there’s something to set your legs trembling.”

“Maybe they were ru

“I’m not even sure they saw the monkeys,” said Fi

The parade kept moving, and their float along with it. They crossed the lagoon, heading for the Hub, the density of the crowds increasing. Cheers arose. Kids screamed out their names.

“We’re rock stars,” said Maybeck.

“Our DHIs are the rock stars,” clarified Fi

Fi

Suddenly the music was interrupted. “Ladies and gentlemen!” the booming voice a

“Look!” Philby said, “they’re cutting the parade short!”

Sure enough, the parade now hooked around the Hub, and instead of heading down Main Street, USA, for its final segment, it went fully around the Hub and back the way it had come. Fi

Whoever was in charge didn’t want the parade caught in the storm.

“Don’t you think we should tell someone about that balloon?” Willa asked. “That’s got to be dangerous in an electrical storm.”

“They must already know, don’t you think?” said Fi

Philby said, “The string or wire holding it is tied to that window. Maybe it’s some kind of experiment.”

“Isn’t that the window to the apartment?” Fi

“What if that’s what Amanda was pointing to?” Fi

“But why?” Willa asked.

“What’s so important about a balloon?”

“Nothing the Overtakers would like more than to ruin the DHI celebration,” said Philby. “What if they’re trying to use lightning to set Cinderella Castle on fire or something?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them,” said Fi

“We don’t know if the Overtakers exist anymore,” said Maybeck. “If they do, don’t you think Wayne would contact us? Has anyone heard from the old dude, by the way?”

The Overtakers were a group of Magic Kingdom characters, rebels led by Maleficent, the evil sorceress from Sleeping Beauty. Their goal was to overthrow the good and take control of the Park for themselves. Wayne and others believed the Overtakers intended to imprison any characters and Cast Members not part of their group. They had been caught preparing vast dungeons beneath Pirates of the Caribbean, which were said to be for this purpose.

The DHIs were now also known as the Kingdom Keepers—one of the most popular attractions in the Park. The last thing the Kingdom Keepers could afford was for Maleficent to gain power again. They had barely stopped her the first time, and she now considered them among her greatest enemies—a distinction they could have done without.

“We should probably tell someone about the balloon,” Fi

The peculiar phenomenon that had been discovered shortly after the Disney Host Interactives had been installed in the Magic Kingdom had carried all five kids into a struggle with the Overtakers and the evil fairy Maleficent.

Wayne had showed them an astonishing three-story maze called Escher’s Keep in Cinderella Castle, which led to the little-known penthouse apartment, now a secret hideaway used by Wayne.

Fi

“If Wayne’s up there,” Philby said, “we should go see him.”

“You can’t leave now,” complained Charlene, waving her pom-poms eagerly for the cheering crowd.

“Cover for me,” said Fi

“They’ll notice if you aren’t,” Willa said. “They won’t notice if I’m not.”

“That’s not true. Besides, I’m the one going, so I don’t think it really matters.”

“We never go solo. Remember what happened to Maybeck?”

Fi

“It was your rule,” Willa reminded him. “And it was a good one. We’ve had no trouble since we started pairing up.”

“Okay,” Fi

“Someone’s going to notice if you leave,” Maybeck warned.

“Just keep moving,” said Fi

“You don’t actually think we’re going to let you do this alone, do you?” Maybeck said.

“We’re all coming,” Philby said. “Here’s the plan….” He pulled them all into a huddle at the center of the float. “The fewest number of guests will be on the bridge to Liberty Square. We get off and start shaking hands and signing autographs like it’s all part of the parade. That’s also the closest we’re going to get to the castle. When we make our break, we all go at once—again, like it’s scripted. If we get separated, we meet inside the castle in Escher’s Keep.”