Chapter Thirty-One:
“Dimension B” Zone – 2011
The immense geodesic sphere practically shadowed over
most of the attractions in the Tomorrowland area, including Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and Star Tours. Staring up at its towering
structure, Sean got a sense of déjà vu; he was used to seeing it up close in
the Epcot theme park in Walt Disney World,
standing tall and shiny in the midst of nothing but a garden of beautiful
flowers and well-structured hedges. He could not deny that there was also a
sense of oddity in what he was seeing: a Disney
World attraction in Disneyland,
only much different from the one that Sean was familiar where he came from.
There was not enough time to process its origins as the women Sean was with at
the time seemed highly anxious to check it out.
(Authorial Note: Livingston's vision of the Spaceship Earth geosphere in Disneyland's Tomorrowland was inspired by his curiosity of the Epcot attraction featured as one for the Anaheim park. One known science fiction-themed attraction in Walt Disney World's Epcot placed in Tomorrowland for Disneyland is Captain EO.)
“This ride is twenty-nine years in the making…literally!”
Feather stated. “Rumor has it that Disney Imagineers kept it hidden within a
secret warehouse somewhere far out in the Mojave Desert to prep it for its
imminent debut next month.”
“Why did they keep it hidden for that long? And in a
Mojave Desert warehouse of all places?” Aubrie questioned.
(Spoiler Note: The ending to World of Disney refers back to these details with the final scene centering on the discovery of the Sphere in the Mojave Desert. The scene was written to connect the past to the present, setting the stage for World of Disney 2. When the original draft for WOD2 didn't stick, the Mojave setting was kept in favor of focusing the story in the Marvel Universe. Depending on perspective, readers can figure whether or not "Dimension B" is the Marvel Universe itself.)
Feather shrugged. “Who knows?”
“And who cares?” Danny snapped. “I just wanna see this
thing in action! To think, we can finally go into the cartoons that we all grew up watching as kids – Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, The Fox and the Hound, Cinderella…the
list could go on and on!”
Whereas the three blondes were beyond ecstatic, Sean
appeared very hopeful; the machine could be his only access back into the world
of Disney, finding out where his sisters might have gone. As he approached the
front of the attraction (which looked much like the Spaceship Earth attraction from his reality) with Feather, Danny,
and Aubrie, the four soon discovered that people were walking away from it rather than into it. Observing the scene, Aubrie
asked, “Um…what’s going on?”
Feather quickly spotted one of the cast members for the
attraction and forwarded Aubrie’s question over to him. The cast member
responded, “The ride’s been shut down for the moment, due to technical
difficulties.”
Needless to say, Danny did not take the news lightly.
“What?! You’ve gotta be kidding me, man! You had twenty-nine years to do test
runs with this thing, and you’re already
havin’ technical difficulties?!”
(Factual Note: Theme park attractions, notably ones in Disney, are known to break down very often, especially during cast member previews and grand openings. The "technical difficulties" can lead to longer wait times or, in few cases, temporary ride closure.)
“What kind of technical difficulties are they having?”
Aubrie inquired.
“I don’t know.” The cast member replied. “Something about
the machine shutting us out from the ‘Disney Worlds’ or whatever. Look, folks,
I’m just as confused as you are about this thing. I don’t know how it works.”
“No, but you do know how to put on a good poker face,
Lady Gaga.” Danny retorted.
Her comment stemmed an argument between her and the cast
member that Feather and Aubrie were quickly forced to break up. Sean looked
on the incident with amusement, seeing just how much of a loose cannon Danny
was. I feel a little sorry for my
counterpart to have to deal with her on a bad day, Sean thought to himself.
It was only then that he realized the perfect opportunity standing out in front
of him while Danny created the scene between her and the cast member: he could
walk right into the attraction undetected. If there was one thing that Danny
was not overreacting on, it was the notion that the ride was suffering any
“technical difficulties.”
Not hesitating whatsoever, Sean moved into the loading
area of the attraction without being seen by anyone, including other cast
members. As he passed through the area, he spotted one noticeable difference:
the mural that represented the ages of science and technology had been replaced
with one of the “D” in Walt Disney’s signature that was animated to look like a cluster of stars that made up a
galaxy. Sean found the new mural to be original and creative; it was a perfect
representation of the universe that Bunsen Honeydew’s machine had created, if
not an actual model of it from the
outside. Continuing on his path, Sean expected to have entered a loading area
that was just the same as the one from the ride that he knew; however, he soon
discovered something vastly different…
(Authorial Note: Developing the "new yet familiar look" of the "World of Disney" attraction relied on memory of the times in riding Spaceship Earth for Livingston. To fill in certain gaps, he primarily searched YouTube "ride through" videos to help create the perfect visual for the alternate version of the attraction.)
Expecting to have entered a room with Omnimover vehicles
passing through with cast members either waiting to guide riders into them or
standing near a control panel, Sean walked into a large, circular room with
five enormous steel doors at all sides, one of which was the entrance that Sean
walked through. The room was chrome-plated with only the doors serving any type
of décor from their teal colors. Beside each door were scanners reserved for
palms, which presented a challenge to Sean since he did not have the proper DNA
access for them. Hoping for the best, he approached the door directly across
from the one he entered through and pressed his palm against the scanner. A
beam of light from the scanner went down from the tip of his fingers to the
bottom of his palm, detecting every portion of his hand.
Much to Sean’s surprise, the door slid open, granting him
access to whatever laid beyond it. Cautiously, Sean walked through the opened
door and entered a gigantic area that literally sparked with energy. It was
shaped in the same manner of the sphere it was contained in; its walls followed
with the exterior structure. In the very center of the room was a large
mechanism consisted of a glass cylinder that contained a glowing, spinning, and
floating mini version of the geodesic sphere he was in, with the exception of it
being orange. It did not take much to figure that the mechanism was in
actuality the sphere’s core generator – the true power source of Bunsen
Honeydew’s Magic Gateway machine.
(Pop Culture Note: The design of the Sphere's generator room bears a strong resemblance to the TARDIS console room from Doctor Who. Livingston, a self-proclaimed fan of the British sci-fi show, had not intended this to be a direct reference, not having become a fan until after completing the story. This is a mere coincidence.)
It was science that Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison,
Stephen Hawking, and many other scientists could never have imagined to happen,
yet somehow Bunsen Honeydew managed to create it. Sean approached the
mechanism, traversing across a walkway that led straight to the control panel
for it. At the moment he arrived upon the panel, something very strange
occurred: the sphere glowed brighter than it already was, almost blinding Sean,
and a deep, electronic voice sounded from seemingly out of nowhere. It carried
throughout the entire room, making everything from the control panel to the
walkway vibrate under its booming tone.
“Welcome, Sean Thomas.” The voice said. “We have
estimated your arrival for some time. Your settings are exactly as you have
left them in the time zone of 2037. All that is required is your chosen realm
time, and you shall return within the world of Disney.”
(Narrative Note: This "voice recognition" scene has been established as the biggest mystery of the World of Disney series, and it has yet to be resolved. However, this and all the other mysteries introduced in this story will be fully explained in The Disney Access; though it can already be presumed one of Sean Thomas's reincarnations, possibly Genevieve, is behind it - this can be backed up by the fact that the Sphere is what had given Joanie her abilities that are passed down to Sean and his future incarnations.)
Listening to the voice, Sean was surprised and confused
that it knew him by name more so than he was over the fact that the machine was
referring to the same year from which his future daughter came from. It made
him wonder just what type of man he would become in twenty-seven years to be
involved with such a complex form of machinery. Wherever (or whenever) it came
from was question that he did not have the time or intelligence to ponder; he
needed to find his sisters and, if possible, Joanie as well. The only problem
was that Sean did not know where or when to start.
Any “realm time” could have been a good start, but the
one that came to mind for Sean at the moment was the one that had been stuck on
his mind since he had gotten involved with this machine. Without a second
thought, he said to the machine, “Realm Zone…1937.”
As soon as he input his chosen destination, the
mini-sphere within the glass cylinder spun more rapidly until it was
practically a blur; its glow intensified until the entire room was consumed
with white light. Once the transaction was complete, the glow dispersed and the
mini-sphere slowed down to its normal orbit. Everything in the room was exactly
the same as before with the only difference being that Sean was no longer
inside of it. The door leading inside the core room of the geodesic sphere
closed shut, preventing any one else from entering.
---------------------------------
Within an entirely different sphere at an entirely
different location, Brandy had materialized upon the walkway leading to the
generator, courtesy of her special wristband. The machine did not react to her
presence and continued function as it normally did, allowing Brandy to approach
the control panel without any interference. None of what she was seeing in the
core room impressed her at all; she mostly kept her focus on the task at hand,
which operated the machine to bring her aunts, her grandmother, and her
great-grandmother back to their respective times. Brandy figured the situation
between Tracy and Queen Grimhilde could have been easily taken care of with her technology, not Bunsen’s.
(Narrative Note: The notable difference in the way that the Sphere reacts to Sean and Brandy's presences is a major clue to readers as to whether Brandy inherited her father and grandmother's "Guardianship" or not, in consideration to the subsequent World of Disney stories.)
Brandy did not waste any time in approaching the control
panel in front of the generator. Just as her hand got near it, she suddenly
found herself unable to move her fingers anywhere over the buttons and
switches. Her body had become very stiff, as if all of her joints were locked in
place, making it impossible to even twitch her eye. She then unexpectedly
dropped to the hard, chrome floor and was pinned down to it by an undetectable
source.
Of course, the source soon revealed itself once Queen
Grimhilde – still inhabiting the form of Tracy Belcher – walked right into
Brandy’s view from her left side; she stood over her with a devilish grin that
brought an uncharacteristic sinister effect over Tracy’s appearance. Brandy was
on the verge of questioning how the Evil Queen come to arrive within the
underground complex until Grimhilde appeared to have read the young woman’s
mind and said, “You’re not the only one who has the power to see what goes on
beyond the layers, my dear.”
(UP NEXT: A warning from the past...or present?)
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