A/N: Hey everybody! Hope you guys are having a good summer! Enjoy! :D
Philby's eyes blinked and met all the other pairs of eyes now looking at him. Their mouths were open in shock, either from Maybeck's rash actions or Philby finally awakening. Philby had opened his eyes to the sight of Maybeck and Willa hugging. Awkwardly hugging, if you ask him. Willa whirled around and stood facing Philby, a new brightness in her eyes.
"Philby!" She gasped. "You're awake!" Her hand quickly reached up to cover her mouth, as if to calm herself instead of screaming from excitement.
Philby blinked and wiped his eyes lightly, pushing the sleep from his eyes away.
"Um, yeah, I am." He said. What's the big deal? he thought. Nothing happened. Wait. Did something happen? He couldn't remember. From the expressions of the others, something big definately did happen.
His mind drifted off to the awkward hug between Maybeck and Willa. What was that even about? Thinking about it, something began to hurt inwardly. "So," he ventured non-chalantly. "What's goin' on?"
He observed everyone's expressions. Maybeck's guilty face, Willa blushing, and Finn staring sternly at Maybeck, having a silent conversation with him.
Philby then noticed something that hadn't struck him before. He was wet. Soaking wet. His eyebrows knitted together. "What happened?"
"Well," Willa hesitantly began. "It's kind of a long story. Do you remember anything?"
"Uh," He searched his thoughts. Philby felt a tingly sensation on his neck and reached to itch it. "I think I remember-agghh!" He took in a sharp breath.
Pain was in his neck. His fingers delicately brushed the band-aid placed over the cut.
That's when he remembered. Crossing over earlier. CLU. Fighting. Pain... He had thought it was all a dream.
"I remember..." He muttered.
"Yeah. Clu got you bad." Finn said.
Philby nodded in agreement. "He was pretty fierce." Just thinking about it made him feel a little sick to his stomach. "Ugh, what else happened?"
Finn gave a glance toward Maybeck, who still wore a mixed look of guilt. "Well," Finn said in a accusing voice. "Maybeck over here decided to take matters into his own hands." Finn went on to explain how he and Amanda got there, finding him, and bringing him to the First Aid, and how Maybeck threw ice cold water on him.
At the end of the story, Philby shot an exasperated look at Maybeck. He gave a sheepish grin in return.
"Dude! Why'd you do that? Do you know what could've-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Willa already yelled the same thing at me. Jeez, you guys are alike." He snapped.
A blush flew up into Philby's face. Not because he was mad, but because of Maybeck's last comment. Willa had turned slightly pink in the cheeks as well.
Breaking the awkward silence, Charlene asked, "So, are you feeling ok now Philby?"
Philby shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Besides being freezing cold and the slight pain on my cuts, I feel fine."
"What about your eyesight? Anything... weird? Unnatural?" Finn inquired.
"Actually, now that you bring it up, yeah." Philby nodded. "Earlier it was really weird. Like, the sky began to turn green, the trees purple. Everything tinted the complete opposite of its natural hue. Right now it's fine, except for everything on my left. Everything on the left keeps shimmering orange and yellow."
Finn rested his chin in his hand, deep in thought, running over everything Philby had said.
"Same with me." Amanda piped up. The other Keepers also agreed, saying how they had been experiencing the same thing.
"I wonder what's causing it..." Finn said.
"Probably has to do with the server and our bodies. We're in California and our bodies are back in Florida. A bad connection causing our vision to go crazy? Technicolor Syndrome, perhaps?" Professor Philby observed.
"Why is it that you always have an answer?" Maybeck complained.
Philby smirked, taking it as a compliment.
"Technicolor Syndrome," Jess wondered aloud. "Sounds like a good enough name."
Everyone stood there in silence for a moment, all caught up in their own thoughts.
"Well," Finn said, clasping his hands together. "Now that we're all together again, how about we find a way to get out of California?"
"Yes, FINALLY." Maybeck sighed.
"What do we do to get out of here?" Charlene reasoned. "I mean, it's not like we have another fob. But even if we did, I wouldn't trust it. I really don't want to end up in Disneyland Paris or something."
Finn shrugged. "I really don't know what to do." He looked to Philby for assistance. "Uh, Philby? You have any clue?"
Philby was silent for a moment, running the options through his head. He shrugged, defeated, too. "I don't have any ideas, either." Everyone let out a sigh.
"Wait," Willa perked up. "Didn't we bring our cell phones?"
"Our cell phones..." Philby muttered. "Yes! Of course! Can't believe I forgot about them,"
"Well, you did get knocked out..." Willa laughed.
"So, that's it then?" Finn asked. "We just use your cell phones to call Wayne and get him to manually send us back?"
Philby looked up at Finn and nodded. "Yep. Pretty much."
"Seems kinda... simple."
"Not everything has to be a whole heroic shin-dig." Jess rolled her eyes.
"What?" Finn said defensively. "You try battling evil Overtakers for two years! It makes you leary of the simple things! It's messing with my miinndd!"
Amanda stifled a giggle as Finn proceded to freak out. "Ok, we get it, hero. You need sleep."
"You bet I do." He sighed, plopping down into one of the chairs and running his fingers through his hair. He leaned back in the chair, attempting to relax.
Philby took out his phone and began to dial Wayne's number. He could feel the tension and anxiety of everyone, desperately wanting Wayne to pick up. It rang several times, and Philby's breath caught at the long pause, thinking he had picked up the phone.
We're sorry... Came the automated voice. Philby hung up before he could hear more.
He dialed again.
He waited a few moments, tapping his finger impatiently.
"Hello?" Came a gruff, sleepy voice from the other end.
"Wayne! Hi, it's me, Philby."
"Philby! Wait, why are you calling? Did you find Finn and Amanda? Is something wrong?" Concern filled his voice. Suddenly, he didn't sound very sleepy anymore.
"Yeah, about that. It's a pretty long story, explain it to you later, but somehow we ended up at the Disneyland Park in California as our DHI's. And we don't exactly know how to get back. We were thinking you could manually send us back home, since we don't have a fob and its whacked up anyway."
Wayne took in his words, thinking. "Ok. I'll see what I can do. Get close together. I'll stay on the line and tell you when I'll send you back."
"Ok." Philby replied, putting the phone on speaker so that everyone could hear. "Let's get in a circle, guys." Everyone formed a circle in the middle of the room, linking arms just in case.
"You still there, Wayne?" Philby spoke into the phone.
He paused. "Yeah, I'm here," came the muffled voice. "Ok. You guys ready to go?"
"Yeah."
"Ok then. Three..." Wayne began to count down, the Keepers eagerness only growing.
"Two..."
"One."
There was a brief pause, a moment where time stopped and everyone held their breaths. After a minute of relentless waiting, Charlene said, "Uh, is it going to work?"
"There might be a delay..." Wayne said. He sounded far away. Philby yawned just to clear his ears and make sure he was hearing things right. But instead it made them more clogged, the sounds around him more dampened. He couldn't pop his ears to relieve the pressure. It just grew more and more. Not only that, but he began to feel butterflies in his stomach. Like the feeling you get on a sudden drop on a rollercoaster.
"C'mon," Philby heard Finn mutter. Philby looked his way, except Finn wasn't exactly... Finn. Instead, he was painted an assortment of colors. He looked at everyone else and noticed the same thing was happening too.
"Uh, are you guys experiencing the Technicolor Syndrome like I am right now?" Philby asked.
"I thought I was just going insane, but I am." Finn laughed nervously.
Everyone else chorused their thoughts, but Philby couldn't hear them. Their voices were getting farther and farther. Everything turned blurry and unfocused. He closed his eyes, suddenly getting very dizzy. He just hoped this would be over soon.
"Sleep!" Finn gasped, eyes wide as he sat upright in his bed. His breathing was heavy. He felt his forehead, which was beaded with sweat. He looked around him, taking in the familiar scene of his room. He was home. Home at last. After, what? Two, three days?
Finn reached over and switched on his bedside lamp. He took in his home, the familiar scents, the pile of his dirty laundry in the corner, his posters on the walls. He noted that his vision was now back to normal- insane-color-free.
He reached back over and turned the light off. His head hit the pillow and he closed his eyes, smiling at the chance of rest.
He didn't know about everyone else, but he himself was done with all this Overtaker-Disney junk.
Sleep... Finn sighed, contently drifting off to sleep. I missed you SO MUCH...
A/N: Reviews make authors happy. :D
