TOMORROWLAND NOW

by Lord Akiyama

The sequel to Dark Storm Dawn

"Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals… the Atomic Age… the challenges of outer space… and the hope for a peaceful and unified world."

-Walt Disney

DOCUMENT FILE NO. 01

Christopher Jenkins opened his eyes. He stared straight up, finding himself looking at nothing but empty black space. Still, he felt that he was lying on a hard surface. With a slight groan, he slowly positioned himself into a siting position. It took him a moment to remember that he was on board a pirate ship. One that, for whatever reason, had been outfitted to serve the needs of some strange creatures. The kind that had been ruthlessly hunting after his wife and her companions. It seemed like a minute ago that everything was starting to work in their favor. But then a strange series of lights flashed, followed by an unusual wave of energy that knocked him off his feet and onto his back. He did not know for how long he was out.

The sound of someone else moaning was enough to alert him that he was not alone on the vessel. He turned his head over to find a woman lying at the ground. The color of her hair being blonde made him wonder for a split second if she was his wife. Then he noted the length. Helga Sinclair had long blonde hair that was tied up in a single braid. This woman had short, almost medium length hair that did not even touch her shoulders. A further inspection of her features revealed that she certainly appeared much younger than his wife, though that was the kind of fact he would not dare reveal openly.

The young woman stirred herself awake. As soon as she could adjust her eyes to see her surroundings properly and clearly, she gasped and instinctively pulled herself into a ball as though doing so would protect her. She looked around frantically, presumably never having been on the ship before. Then she looked far beyond the ship itself, looking out in what appeared to be empty black space as far as the eye could see. A frightened expression painted all across her face.

"Qu… Quasi…?" she managed to utter in a whisper. "Quasimodo?" After a moment in which there was only silence, she slowly got to her feet and edge over to the side of the ship. "Quasimodo." Her expression of fright began morphing into panic. "Quasimodo!" She then suddenly turned to Chris and gasped, almost as though she was able to recognize his presence after some time. "Who are you? Where are we? Where is Quasimodo?"

It took Chris a moment to register what was happening before he finally got a chance to speak. "The name's Chris Jenkins," he said, answering her first question. "Where we are, I'm really not sure. Where Quasimodo is, I'm not really sure either. Last I recall, he was with my wife, trying to help free some of her companions who were kidnapped." He was not entirely sure, but he had a feeling that the woman's name was Madellaine. It was the name he understood Quasimodo kept calling out for and she was obviously looking for him as well.

"What do you mean?" Madellaine questioned further, still appearing quite uncertain about what was happening around her.

"I would assume it's because we all helped in getting him to rescue you," Chris replied, though he himself was not sure of the validity of what he was saying. At first, he could not remember what Quasimodo even looked like. After a moment, he remembered and concluded that he should probably choose the words used to describe him carefully given how much Madellaine cared for the guy. "Look, to be perfectly honest, I haven't the faintest idea of what is going on right now. All I remember is that we found the place hold my wife's companions captive, I stayed on the ship in case some baddie tried to jump us from behind, the flying pubescent dropped you off so that you would be out of harm's way for Quasimodo's sake. Then suddenly some lights flashed, I get knocked down, and now we appear to be in some black void."

"But what happened to Quasimodo and the others?" Madellaine asked.

Chris shrugged. "Wish I knew myself," he answered.

"I know where they are," a voice spoke from behind Chris. The two turned to find that the speaker appeared to be an anthropomorphic mouse wearing a black hooded robe. Chris slowly recognized him as Mickey Mouse, described by his wife's companions as the apprentice to the so-called Master of Masters, Yen Sid. "More importantly, I know what has happened."

"You mind telling us?" Chris asked. "And we'd appreciate it if you make it simple and to the point."

"I'm afraid that won't be an easy thing to do," Mickey stated. He then took a deep breath before he continued. "But I'll try. The others are trapped in a plane of existence called The Grid. A digital frontier set in a landscape separate from our reality known as Cyberspace. But it appears that, using the life essence of the Master of Masters and of the Twelve, a computer program labeled as the Master Control Program has acquired the power and energy needed to occupy all planes of existence."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Chris questioned with a confused brow raised.

"Is there was a way to get Quasimodo and the others out of where they are?" Madellaine asked roughly a second after Chris started speaking.

"Um…" Mickey managed to nervously utter before attempting once again to explain. He started by trying to answer the first question. "Whoever the true mastermind behind the kidnappings was appears to have figure out a way to use the Master of Masters and the Twelve as energy currents to supply the Master Control Program, or MCP, with enough power to take over all forms of reality. Which is what is happening as we speak?"

"I'm guessing that's supposed to explain why we're in the middle of empty space," Chris noted as he looked around. "Because reality as we know it is being replaced by whatever this MCP wants it to be."

"Correct," Mickey said.

"And you said the others are trapped in some place called The Grid?" Chris asked.

"Correct again," Mickey replied. "That is the home dimension of the MCP. It is also where the MCP is most powerful. Enough to prevent any of us from stopping him or to even rescue the others." Upon hearing this, Madellaine slowly dropped to her knees in sorrow. "I'm really sorry. But there is nothing we can do."

"So the bad guys win?" Chris questioned firmly.

Mickey hesitated to answer at first. "There is a slim possibility that the MCP can be stopped," he began to say. "But that rests entirely upon Quasimodo, Jim Hawkins, Queen Kidagakash, Alice Kingsleigh, Peter Pan, and Jack Sparrow. Because they are on The Grid, they are the only ones who have an opportunity to shut down the MCP from within and free the others. Only there's no way of communicating with them, and even if there was, we have no clue of what to do."

"Lemme see if I got this straight," Chris stated. "My wife, her companions, and Yen Sid are being used as energy currents to make this MCP so powerful that it can rule existence. Quasimodo and some others are trapped in the thing's home-world called The Grid. Those six must somehow, without us being able to communicate with them, figure out that the only way to escape, as well as save my wife and the rest, is to shut down the MCP. And they have to do so without knowing how, something even we don't know. Have I left anything out?" Mickey slowly shook his head. Chris then let out a defeated sigh. "Well, that's just peachy."

James Pleiades Hawkins had to blink a few times, as if it would help make sure that he was indeed seeing what he thought he was seeing. He then took a quick moment to pat himself, making sure that he was flesh and blood. Afterward, he immediately began to survey his surroundings. It was strange, what he saw. They looked as though they were like any other setting one could find. Only it seemed like there were actually shadows. Shadows that were lit by extreme illuminations of light, almost as though they were backlit or neon. It was both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Oh, man…" he managed to utter under his breath. He quickly shook his head and tried to focus himself into believing what he thought was reality. "This isn't happening. It only thinks it's happening."

"Okay," a female voice spoke. "Getting a really bad sense of déjà vu here." Jim looked over to see that the speaker was a girl with dirty brown hair and wearing a Victorian-era dress. He remembered that her name was Alice. "Definitely not a good thing to have at the moment."

"Nishentop Adlantisag," another female voice spoke. This one sounding slightly older. "What is this place?" Having silver hair and darker skin coloring, Jim recalled her name being something like Kida. She was the Queen of some foreign land.

"Lads, we have more pressin' matters to worry about," a male voice spoke in a commanding, yet rather slurring tone. One that Jim was all too familiar with having been around pirates lately. "Where the hell is my bloody ship?" This so-called outstanding citizen had previously identified himself to him as Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Can't you just see for one minute that we are not exactly where we previously were a minute ago?" another male voice spoke. This one directing a very stern, condescending tone at Jack. "Not able to do means you're either blind or stupid, and I doubt you've any booze to drink recently." Jim remembered the other speaker being named Peter Pan. And that the scarf wrapped around his head covered the spot where a missing eye was supposed to be.

"I don't drink booze, mate," Jack responded firmly. Then he raised his voice in finishing his apparent statement. "I drink rum!"

"I don't understand," a third male voice said. This one belonging to a man Jim learned is named Quasimodo. The poor soul looked noting like a human being and was quite deformed that it was any wonder that he was given the name the Hunchback of Notre Dame when he first saw him. "What is going on here? Where are we?"

"Not really sure," Jim said in reply, continuing to survey his surroundings. "All I know is that one second these electrical bolts were shooting all over the place, and then a giant cylinder with a face appeared. As if we just jumped from one extreme visual experience to another, really."

"None of this makes any sort of sense at all," Alice stated. "And I've seen bizarre landscapes before."

"Perhaps another question we should be asking ourselves is what we are supposed to do," Kida said. "The lion, Simba? He was trying to tell us something before he was thrown into a container. Something I believe we were to do."

"Then this should be a walk in the park," Jack proclaimed. "We dunno where we are, we dunno what we're supposed to do, and we dunno what the bloody hell is goin' on. Right ol' mess I got myself into."

"How many times do I have to say it, no one forced you to tag along!" Peter declared to Jack. He then rolled his eye and sighed. "Look, lemme just fly up and see if I can get a good idea of where we might be." Peter turned and proceeded to launch himself into the air. Only he found himself immediately dropping back down onto the ground, as though all he had done was jump. This left him quite bewildered.

"That was quick," Jack said sarcastically. "Did you happen to meet any geese while you were up there?"

"I don't understand," Peter muttered, scratching his head in confusion. "I should still be able to fly even when I'm outside of Neverland."

"You think maybe wherever we are might have some sort of magical presence?" Quasimodo asked curiously. "I dunno, that it might temper with other people's abilities."

"Hard to say," Alice said in reply. "Peter is the only one of the six of us with any sort of magical abilities. We would need to find the others, and last I recall they were trapped in a bunch of containers. None of which appear to be anywhere in our line of sight at the moment."

"Just adds to the list of questions we got no answers to," Jim noted under his breath.

"Perhaps we should take things one step at a time, as my beloved would say," Kida stated. "I believe we should first answer the question of where we are. Once we answer that, then perhaps we can answer the others questions."

"Works for me," Peter said in agreement.

"Same here," Quasimodo said.

"Don't think we have much of a choice really," Jim said with a sigh. "Okay, let's figure out what this place is." He quickly turned his attention to Jack. "And let's try to stay together."

"I'd rather not, but since you're so insistent, mate," Jack said, putting on a fake grin as he spoke. "Tell you what, you direct me to the nearest pub and I'll follow you to the end's of the Earth."

"Like that's a promise you'll ever keep," Peter snorted aside.

"And can we please stop with the bickering?" Alice asked in a stern tone. "It's annoying and will not get us anywhere." She looked at Peter firmly, who merely turned his head away and crossed his arms over his chest as if to show that he's surrendering to her command. "Thank you. Now, I suggest we move on before anything else happens."

In agreement, all six slowly made their way out of the spot they were in. It was later deduced that they were in some random back alley of what they would discover to be a breathtaking metropolis. One that left them both in awe and in fright. For it was a city like any they had ever seen before. Massive and great, dark and haunting. The neon lights that ran throughout were all that lit up the streets and the buildings. Without them, it would have been extremely difficult to see the features of the otherwise black landscape of their surroundings. The skies were black, only every once in a while letting off blue lightning bolts to show that the clouds engulfed all that was up above.

Buildings that reached high into the sky with glass surrounding on all sides so that one could easily see within each level any sort of activity that was taking place. The signs and advertisements were just as impressive, such as one listing that a movie called Chicken Little: The True Story was screening or another that displayed the name of the venue as Redd Rocket's Pizza Port. It was all so new, so foreign, and so unbelievable for the six of them to see. Or rather just five, as there were familiarities for one.

"Almost like home…" Jim whispered under his breath.

"And here I thought Singapore was interesting," Jack mused aloud. He then turned to the others. "So, mates. Any idea on how exactly we're gonna solve the riddle of where we are?"

"Well, I'm sure we'll have better success if we manage to move more than ten yards," Peter responded in a stern voice. He was immediately hushed by Alice, as if to remind him that they were to stop bickering.

"I hate to say it, but I think the pirate is right," Quasimodo said. "How do we go about answering the question of what this place is?"

"I couldn't hurt to simply ask someone around here, now would it," Alice noted.

Suddenly, the six of them heard a whistle sound. One that clearly was done by a person. They looked in the direction of the whistle to see a small figure, dressed in a black hooded robe. The figure appeared to be edging out from behind a building and was waving to them. Waving so that they would follow, or at least come closer. Moments later, he moved itself back behind the building, disappearing from their line of sight.

"Tell me I'm not seeing things as if I'm Jack drunk on rum," Peter said, verbally reacting to what he had just seen.

"You are not the only one to have seen that," Kida responded. "The size of a child that was."

"Maybe it's that mouse," Alice said. "You know, the one who sort of informed everyone of what was going on at the time."

"Looked about the same height," Jim noted. "But I don't think I saw the ears. Did not even look like he had the ears underneath that hood."

"Looked a bit eunuch to me," Jack stated.

"Why does everyone look like a eunuch to you?" Peter asked in a slightly annoyed tone. "Seriously, you've been saying that about virtually every person we have run into since-"

Without any sort of warning, a white light shined directly upon the group, in particular Jim, Alice, and Peter. All looked up to see the source of the light. What they found was something they could not believe or even understand. It was a strangely shaped object with a large rectangular top and two massive pylon legs slowly descending upon them. The sheer size of the object, one that towered even some of the buildings, was enough to cause the group to attempt to scatter. However, Jim, Alice, and Peter found themselves stuck upon what appeared to be a platform ascending into the base of the rectangular portion. And with Peter unable to fly, the three of them had no where to run. Jim just managed to catch Kida, Jack, and Quasimodo retreating behind a building and then edging themselves out just enough to witness what would happen to him, Alice and Peter.

Turning around, the trapped three saw two figures approaching them. They were clad in black from head to toe with red lines that looped in strange shapes, illuminated as though they were neon or backlit. Each figure was holding what looked to be black lances with red beams shooting out of both ends. The kind of weapons that would make it clear that they would harm the three of them if they felt need to do so. Surrendering without so much as a flicker of resistance, the three were examined by the two figures.

"THESE PROGRAMS HAVE NO DISCS," one of the figures stated. It had a monotone voice that sounded almost synthesized. "SOMEMORE STRAYS."

The two figures then pushed Jim, Alice, and Peter into the object. There they found five other figures seemingly placed in a line with their backs against the wall. The three were positioned within the line, soon seeing an seemingly invisible barrier appearing over their feet and locking them into place. The two arresting figures each went into the pylon legs and disappeared within before the object began ascending like a flying vehicle. Jim, Alive, and Peter watched in amazement as they began to hover above the streets, seeing everything that passes by both ahead and below them. It would seem impressive had circumstances not been what they were.

They continue onward until the appeared to be flying toward an impressive structure that seemed isolated from all of the others. Once they had arrived, the object parked and the rectangular base descended down from the legs onto the floor. Three more black figures waited, two of which were armed with the same lance objects. The unarmed figure began to approach each of the eight individuals placed up against the wall, examining each one and announcing what sounded like some sort of verdict.

"RECTIFY," it said to the first individual. It moved to the second individual and examined it. "RECTIFY." The third individual looked rather nervous, as if it was afraid of a different verdict. Which was exactly what it got. "GAMES."

"No!" the individual cried in a male sounding voice, also seemingly synthesized, as two of the armed figures proceeded to forcibly escort it off. "Please!"

The examining figure continued, seemingly unmoving and uncaring of the individual's plight. "RECTIFY," it announced of the fourth individual it examined before coming upon Jim.

"Um, look," Jim began to say. Regardless of how foolhardy it seemed, he decided to try pleading his case. "You probably get this a lot, but there's been a big mistake."

"GAMES," the the examining figure announced.

Jim made little bid for resistance as the other two armed figures each grabbed one of his arms and dragged him out of the object. After several feet, they placed him upon the center of a square, his feet once again locked into place. He had just heard the examining figure give the same verdict to Alice as it did to him when he suddenly found himself descending downward. At the speed he was going, he found that he was dropping very deep. Deep enough to be unable to see the lights outside. After a short amount of time had passed, the speed of his descent slowed until he came to a complete stop within the center of a seemingly empty room.

Moments later, four figures approached him from parallel points. The had the look of female humanoids, clad in shining white latex with line of light accentuating their features, and their hair tied up in cylinder buns. They came closer until stopping within inches of his body, making Jim feel very uncomfortable.

"Um…" he managed to utter. "Can somebody tell me what the…" His voice trailed off when the two figures in his line of sight each raised a finger. The tips of their fingers then lit as though they were tiny torches. The figures then bent down and proceeded to run their fingers down the side of his pants, each burning an opening line. If he was only slight uncomfortable before, he was really uncomfortable now. "Hey, hey! It's got a zipper!" He then heard two more torches being lit from behind him and saw that the other two were running their fingers down his upper body clothes. When it appeared they were done cutting open his clothes, the four figures tore them off his body and into suction holes in the ground. Before Jim could react to being left in nothing but his boxers, he suddenly saw black fabric appearing out of thin air cover his body. Almost as if a jumpsuit was being digitized onto him.

The figures then marched to one of two parallel ends of the room. Each picking up two uniquely shaped objects and then marching back toward him. They each began placing the objects onto his body, appearing as though they were some sort of hard plastic armor. The pieces and the outfit then began to morph until the overall suit was one and it created a unique appearance that was appropriate for some kind of battle.

"This can't be good," Jim mused quietly under his breath.

Lines of light then turned on as one of the figures marched a few feet away from him toward something that was rising up from the ground.

"ATTENTION, PROGRAM," a voice spoke from off the walls of the room. It sounded like a synthesized female voice. "THE MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM HAS CHOSEN YOU TO SERVE YOUR SYSTEM ON THE GAME GRID. CONTINUED BELIEF IN THE USERS WILL LEAD TOWARDS RECEIVING THE STANDARD SUBSTANDARD TRAINING WHICH WILL RESULT IN EVENTUAL ELIMINATION. RENOUNCEMENT OF THIS BELIEF WILL LEAD TOWARDS ELIGIBILITY INTO JOINING THE WARRIOR ELITE OF THE MCP."

The far away figure proceeded to remove an object that was within the small platform that rose up from the ground. Jim looked at it as best as he could while the figure was returning toward him. It appeared to be a perfect circular disc.

"YOU WILL RECEIVE AN IDENTITY DISC," the voice continued. "EVERYTHING YOU DO OR LEARN WILL BE IMPRINTED ON THIS DISC. IF YOU LOSE YOUR DISC OR FAIL TO FOLLOW COMMANDS, YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE DE-RESOLUTION."

The figure passed the disc onto another that was behind Jim. It proceeded to attach the disc upon his back. As it happened, Jim felt a strange feeling running through his body from his toes to the top of his head. Then noticed a flash the seemed only limited to his eyes. Once he had a grasp of his feelings again, he looked back at the figures surrounding him.

"Marrying complete," one of them stated, speaking with a female voice that seemed less synthesized than the other voices he had been hearing lately. "Disc activated and synchronized. Proceed to games."

"Games?" Jim questioned with a confused brow raised. He suddenly watched the figures march backwards toward the points in the room where they had first originated. "Hey. Where are you going?" One by one, the figures disappeared into the walls. When found that only one remained, he took this one opportunity to hopefully get one burning question he had answered. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Survive," the figure responded. She then disappeared into the wall.

The invisible barrier locking his feet to the floor retracted, allowing him to move. Jim then saw a doorway ahead open. Emerging out of the door was a blinding white light that seemed endless. Seeing no other alternative, he proceeded toward the light and to whatever it was that was about to happen to him.

END OF DOCUMENT FILE NO. 01

TO CONTINUE, PROCEED TO DOCUMENT FILE NO. 02 WHEN AVAILABLE