Disney at Dawn

ALSO BY RIDLEY PEARSON Kingdom Keepers—Disney After Dark Steel Trapp—The Challenge WITH DAVE BARRY Blood Tide Cave of the Dark Wind Escape from the Carnivale Peter and the Secret of Rundoon Peter and the Shadow Thieves Peter and the Starcatchers Science Fair www.ridleypearson.com If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped” book. The following are some of the trademarks, registered marks, and service marks owned by Disney Enterprises, Inc.: Adventureland® Area, Audio- Animatronics® Figure, Big Thunder Mountain® Railroad Disneyland®, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park, Epcot®, Fantasyland® Area, FASTPASS® Service, Fort Wilderness, Frontierland® Area, Imagineering, Imagineers, “it’s a small world,” Magic Kingdom® Park, Main Street, U.S.A. Area, Mickey’s Toontown®, monorail, New Orleans Square, Space Mountain® Attraction, Splash Mountain® Attraction, Tomorrowland® Area, Walt Disney World® Resort Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters © Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios Toy Story characters © Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios Winnie the Pooh characters based on the “Winnie the Pooh” works by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard Copyright © 2008 Page One, Inc. Illustration on page vi by Greg Call All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney • Hyperion Books, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690. Printed in the United States of America First Disney • Hyperion paperback edition, 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file. eISBN 978-1-4231-0708-8 ISBN 978-1-4231-0708-8 This book is dedicated to all those readers who, by e-mail, demanded it be written. You see? Someone’s listening…. CONTENTS TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT PAGE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 41 CHAPTER 42 CHAPTER 43 CHAPTER 44 CHAPTER 45 CHAPTER 46 CHAPTER 47 CHAPTER 48 CHAPTER 49 CHAPTER 50 CHAPTER 51 CHAPTER 52 CHAPTER 53 CHAPTER 54 CHAPTER 55 CHAPTER 56 CHAPTER 57 CHAPTER 58 CHAPTER 59 CHAPTER 60 CHAPTER 61 CHAPTER 62 CHAPTER 63 CHAPTER 64 CHAPTER 65 CHAPTER 66 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 LIGHTNING FLASHED ON THE HORIZON. A breeze swirled around the Cast Members. The air tasted dusty, almost bitter, with electrical charge. Finn Whitman, one of five kids on top of the final parade float, pointed to the far gate where the Magic Kingdom’s DHI-Day parade was to pass through, where five identical kids, wearing identical clothing to theirs, stood waiting. DHI stood for Disney Host Interactive or Daylight Hologram Imaging— depending on whom you asked—a recent addition to the Magic Kingdom that offered the holograms of five teenage kids as Park hosts. The five kids who had auditioned for those roles were typically forbidden to enter the Magic Kingdom. But tonight was special: it was a DHI celebration. Finn sensed trouble coming, wondering if it had to do with the electronic illusions waiting by the gate. “How weird is that?” he said, seeing himself as a hologram not thirty yards away. The Finn Whitman standing by the gate looked no different from himself, except for a slight sparkle, a glow, when viewed from a certain angle. “It gives me the weebies,” said Charlene, regarding her identical, though electronically projected, twin. She too wore a cheerleader’s outfit; she too had her blond hair pulled back severely into a ponytail, not a hair out of place; she too looked slightly embarrassed to have the body of a young woman, instead of a girl. Charlene was an athlete and champion gymnast and had clearly been recruited as a Disney Host for her clean, cheerleader looks and her uncanny physical ability. She was good with people and could make friends with anyone. Most kids at school were jealous of her—but the other DHIs appreciated the skills and abilities she brought to the team. The hologram of Charlene stood next to the hologram of Finn, but the software had all five holograms in PAUSE, making them look more like glowing mannequins than kids. They awaited the start of the parade with the patience of the robots they were. “We’ve been here before as them,” said Willa, “but never with them.” “I was, once,” corrected Finn. “Only the one time, and I was being chased by Security. I have to admit, it was plenty strange to see myself guiding some guests while I was also running for my life.” “What’s that?” asked Philby, pointing up at the rise behind the tall boundary fence inside the Magic Kingdom. “Cinderella Castle,” answered Charlene. “No, the gray balloon,” Philby said. “It’s massive.” “Looks like a weather balloon,” said Terry Maybeck, who seemed to stand more than a head taller than all of them. An African American, Maybeck currently wore his hair in dreads, making him look older than the others. The swarming clouds suddenly swallowed the large balloon. “It doesn’t make sense,” said Philby. “You don’t release a weather balloon in an electrical storm unless you’re Ben Franklin.” “Not our problem,” said Maybeck. “All we’ve got to do is ride the float and wave to the guests. Let’s stick with the program.” At that moment, music started and the first float moved toward the open gate. The five holograms came to life, as if a switch had been thrown. They formed a line at the front of the parade, waving to the bushes, as if guests were waving back. “Sometimes our DHIs look so stupid,” Willa said. “Sometimes?” Philby said sarcastically. “They paid us well,” Maybeck reminded them, “and we got Gold Fastpasses for our families. We’ve got nothing to complain about.” “And they’re having a parade to celebrate our DHIs returning to the Kingdom,” Finn said, “and we get to be part of it. Things could be worse.” “Who here doesn’t miss the way it used to be? Before they patched the source code?” Maybeck met eyes with each of them. Finn had been the first to “cross over” during his sleep: to wake up as his own hologram in the Magic Kingdom. Initially it had seemed impossible, but encounters with pirates and witches had made him reconsider what was real and what was make-believe. Soon, all five kids had come to the same realization: when they went to sleep at night they awoke inside the Magic Kingdom as their DHI holograms. In reality, it had not been a corruption in the software’s source code but the ingenious work of a veteran Disney Imagineer named Wayne, who had needed their help. But no one at Disney knew this other than them, so recently programmers had inserted a software patch to correct “the problem.” None of them knew if Wayne could, or would, undo it, allowing them to return to the Magic Kingdom as nighttime holograms. But all of them secretly hoped he would. “Here we go!” said Finn. “Hang on!” Their float jerked and climbed up the sloping asphalt just behind another float carrying Aladdin and Jasmine. With all the floats strung out in a line, the kids had lost sight of their matching holograms out in front, leading the way. The music swelled, and a man’s voice dramatically announced, “Welcome to DHI-Day at Magic Kingdom!” The sound of applause rose above the lush jungle landscaping. “Keep your smiles on,” said Maybeck, “and hang on tight.” But at that moment, all five kids lost their balance and stumbled into each other. Jasmine and Aladdin also slipped off their pillows as their float accelerated to close a sudden gap that had appeared in the parade line. It took Finn a moment to spot the problem: one of the floats—the villains float—had been pulled out of the line and off to the side. The Aladdin float, and the one carrying the DHIs, had sped up to close the gap. “What’s with that?” said Maybeck. “Broken down?” “No,” said Philby. “It’s empty.” He was right: the float’s platform lacked a character or Cast Member. It was just an empty wooden rectangle. Below it, the Cast Members responsible for preparing the floats scurried around frantically, hurrying to get the empty float out of the way and to fill the void created by its absence. “What happened?” Finn called down to one of the Cast Members just before reaching the gate and the adoring guests. The man didn’t answer immediately. But his face gave away his concern. “He was right there a minute ago,” he mumbled, nearly drowned out by the music. “I swear he was!” “Who?” called Finn. “Which character?” He and the others had long since learned to take nothing for granted. Not when there were Overtakers in the Park, who wanted to gain control of the Magic Kingdom.

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