The car screeched and veered to the left, bumping the curb that surrounded both sides of the road. The impact was little to none, the car just hit it and bounced off, despite the fact that the sides were not padded. The vehicle, a dark blue, swerved left and right slightly every so often as it wound through a series of curves.

No, the driver wasn't drunk but perhaps a little unexperienced in the realm of driving.

"You are awful at driving!" Skylar exclaimed as they hit the curb again.

"It's not as if I know what I'm doing!" Andrew protested, turning the black wheel to maneuver the car around another turn.

"Your parents never taught you how to?" She asked, truly bewildered and shocked that he did not know such a simple skill.

"No, knowing it's not legal for me to I haven't been thinking about learning yet. Is that so crazy?" Andrew defended, then after a moment of thinking he looked at her. "You know how to drive?"

"I do." She answered briefly. "Eyes on the road!"

Andrew had been busy looking at her and got distracted from the road a bit, resulting in a harder hit of a the curb a few times in the road.

He had been thinking about her answer, Skylar could drive, and it wasn't like a big thing either, it seemed to be a given, in whatever life it is she led outside. Skylar could drive and also seemed to be able to sword fight pretty well, rock climb, handed a rifle, use a stalactite like a knife, and was overall very skilled in pretty much everything, besides ghost hunting.

The thing was, all the stuff she had the most experience in weren't normal things a person would just know how to do in their life. It made Andrew even more curious about her.

"Why did you want me to drive again if you know how to?" Andrew questioned, remembering their previous car ride in Indiana Jones.

"I don't know, I didn't feel like driving." He hit another curb. "On second thought, I think I would have less whiplash if I would have." She sighed, wincing at his bad driving.

They passed a triangular, flashing yellow sign that read "Do not bump car in front ." The sign depicted one car hitting the back of another with an X over the action.

The car drove through two open green gates that said led to the Car Park. The Car Park was a nice little area of grass with little lampposts standing every few feet. There was also a miniature metal statue of a car that used to be used as a tiny car for children, back when the ride first opened.

Autopia has been open ever since the opening of the Disneyland in 1955. There were three different types of cars, regular, junior, and midget. Today, only the regular two person cars are left. The other types of cars are still on display in the Car Park.

Another statue in the Car Park had two of the smaller cars almost stood up vertically on their bumpers with their fronts touching keeping them balanced.

It was a nice little section of the ride that helped people remember the past of Autopia.

Soon, they were through the park and passed another sign that warned not to bump the car in front. No other cars were seen though, so that wasn't hard to do.

Wind through their hair, Skylar and Andrew rode around more turns in silence and thought.

Then finally, Skylar spoke.

"Do we dare trust them?" She said out of the blue.

"We don't have much to go on, but what have we got to lose?" Andrew worded slowly.

"I don't know, ignorance. Ignorance of something bad... possibly."

"If it's something bad, it'd be better to know about it, wouldn't it?" He reasoned, only speculating.

"Depends."

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"What if they are a trick to get us?" Kenton asked.

"You're thinking too much. Those two teens are really there and they have no idea what's going on." Quinn disagreed. "We are the ones who need to help them, they're not trying to hurt us."

"You never know that, the company has been more than astute in the past." He shot back.

Skylar and Andrew had taken their time in responding with any questions and it was starting to concern them.

Little did either pair know on either side about everything, they both had different important things to tell each other. Whether they would have time or not to exchange that crucial information was another thing.

Quinn and Kenton were taking their journey today, and would be soon infiltrating the "company's" headquarters. It was the risk that was the drawback, but they were going anyway.

The two fourteen year olds just really needed to hurry up.

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The third yellow sign they passed ,warning not to bump the car in front of them, flashed a red light that reflected of the dark hood of the car. The headlights of the car bobbed up and down as the vehicle bounced with it, in almost a rhythmic sequence down the winding road. Though they shed little light, the headlights were appreciated for the dim glow they gave.

The towering leafy trees concealed Autopia away from the rest of Tomorrowland and cushioned them into their own little world. The long shadows of the trees were beginning to stretch along the  pavement in a distorted way, giving that the sun was sinking.

Skylar and Andrew had spent more nights than they counted in the Happiest Place on Earth whether it was on the train or in the Wild West, the nights never held anything significant it was just a time to sleep. So, as the sun went down they hoped the car ride would come to an end soon as they grew increasingly tired.

"We should ask about the statue first." Skylar decided as she typed out a question.

"Word it carefully." Andrew advised, avoiding the temptation to see what she was writing and stayed focused on the road.

The Partners Statue, is it (he?) to be trusted? ~Skylar

There was almost an immediate reply. No, do not engage. and it is a "they" not he or it.

Skylar shared this information with Andrew and had a question typed up right away. This she had been dying to ask for quite some time. Every since Jungle Cruise she was sure of seeing a Hippo, more specifically the Hyacinth Hippo from Fantasia.

Characters, are they real in Disneyland? Or do they somehow exist here only? ~ Skylar

Another almost instantaneous reply. They do exist there, and are believed to be able to exist outside too, but is unknown for sure. Side note: Characters that don't talk in the old cartoons don't talk but ones that are able to, do.

Skylar resisted the urge to type "What?" and asked something else instead.

The statue mentioned messages or codes that were used to exit the attraction here, do they have another purpose? ~Skylar

Yes, DO NOT share said codes/messages with statue. We reiterate, DO NOT engage with them.

And they are? The people you speak of, the ones inhabiting (?) the statue, who are they? ~Skylar

People not to be getting upset with you.

I think that advice is a little too late ~Skylar

You better hope it's not.

Skylar took a breath and looked up from the phone. Still no Tomorrowland could be seen through the trees and the attraction was taking a lot longer to drive through than usual. It could just be Andrew's terrible driving, but she thought otherwise.

All the information she'd just received was still pretty vague or made no sense but it was something at least. Just taking it in all at once was hard to swallow and Andrew hadn't responded to anything yet when she read the messages between them.

You said you, both of you, have been here? ~Skylar

Yes

Is there  purpose of being here? ~Skylar

You mean besides "clearing Walt's name?" What do you think?  Their snarky tone was evident.

Then? ~Skylar

This was one of the only questions that took them time to respond to. The overall purpose is not completely clear but it isn't a good one, you should be able to tell that by now. It has to do with the codes of the attractions, the original attractions.

And people have been sent here for it, but why more than once, and years apart? ~Skylar

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. The years apart are for appearance, to not raise suspicion, we assume.

Skylar's hand hurt from the clutching the phone tightly so she could type quickly in the jerky car. She set the phone on her lap for a short respite from typing to see where they were, despite how eager she was to ask other things.

Still the road lay ahead of them not coming to an end that they could see. Another yellow sign flashed as they sped past it. The sky was getting extremely dark and lampposts on the sidewalk lit up to help them see, although there weren't very many of them along the road.

There were so many possible things Skylar could ask and so many that needed to be asked. Picking another would be difficult, but Andrew chose for her.

"Ask about the previous texts we got, the one about the greenery and then Star Wars land." Andrew said after not speaking for a very long time. He had only suggested a question because he saw how indecisive Skylar had suddenly become.

She had almost completely forgotten about the two first messages they got, for they were a while ago. That raised the questions to why those were sent to them as well. So that's the next question she asked.

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"Hurry up and swipe the key already!" Quinn urged Kenton as he fiddled with the door.

"Ding!" Their phone announced that they had another message.

"Silence that!" Kenton hissed under his breath before they noiselessly slipped into the room.

The black screened computers sat in dull rows of ten, awaiting orders to come to life. They glinted the fluorescent lights off their emotionless faces and from a certain standing point blinded whoever was looking at them.  On the floor sat their system units, cold, who usually had even colder people using them. No air exhaled from the fans like no breath would escape from a corpse.

The room's atmosphere itself was  musty and effete. It was rarely used now, since most of the technology was outdated, which made it perfect for two teens to take advantage of, or so they assumed. Kenton and Quinn had visited on a couple occasions so it was more of a regular process for them.

Come in, hack, access, download, escape.
Sounded easy enough to them, but still it was a thing to be cautious about. The people that inhabited this building were not to be messed with.

"They just asked a weird question." Quinn announced in a hushed tone to Kenton.

"Can we just focus on the task at hand right now?" He responded peevishly.

"This is for them too!"

"But what we're doing in here, it's for us as well, and many other kids to come. If I can just find the right file." Kenton had awakened one of the ancient computers and was searching rather rushed through documents.

Their overall mission for being at the firm again was to try and figure out how to control the partners statue. Over the computer it would be easy if they just had the right directions to do it. There was another way, but that would require them to be in the park and that was definitely out of the question.

They figured that there must be a original copy of how to monopolize that statue, a copy so old it may have been written by Walt himself. After all Walt's the one who started this thing, it was later that it turned bad.

"They received an old message of ours." Quinn said suddenly.

"Oh?" Kenton turned to look at her. "The fake ones?"

"Yes. Just the one about the plants dying and then one about Star Wars Land."

"Weird, the one was just left on there I guess but the one about the new land--that has to just be an informational text, sent to everyone." With that he turned back to the computer, picking up right where he left off as he typed frantically.

Two years ago, they had had that iPhone, the same one that was currently in Skylar's hand. They were sent messages, all of which were on how Disneyland was deteriorating while they were in the Happiest Place on Earth. These texts, they assume, were meant to motivate them and scare them into 'saving the parks'. At the time, the messages worked, and Kenton and Quinn were swindled into listening to the statue aka the company.

The phone also received the occasional memo that was also sent to the regular lackeys of the company that bought the stuff they were sold. That is what the Star Wars text was, just informational.

Although, that phone had been long out of use. Quinn distinctly remembered hurling it into the deep waters of Splash Mountain where they were sloshed around in a log down a very steep hill. It had been an adventitious action at the time, but later when they got out they were glad it was done.

So, as to how Andrew and Skylar were now in possession of the working phone was a mystery. Kenton and Quinn had only found out the fourteen year olds had it because Kenton was bored one rainy day and just decided to see if he could access anything else from it that could be used against the company.

Quinn messaged the teens a simple response of what the earliest two texts were and explained briefly that they were definitely not from them.

"I can't find a thing!" Kenton exasperated, throwing up his hands.

"Keep your voice down." Breathed Quinn anxiously. "Let me try."

She took a seat at the desk and began typing. Then the phone buzzed and she picked it up instantly. Skylar and Andrew had asked about a packet of papers they were given, some kind of instructions.

Quinn wasn't familiar with what they were talking about but as soon as she heard it was from the statue she urged them to throw it out.

Back to the computer she wasn't getting any further than Kenton had. Mostly all the the files on this computer where old informational things about rides that didn't exist anymore or documents that didn't make any sense at all.

She was getting as frustrated as he was. Here they were practically risking their lives and they hadn't accomplished anything.

Suddenly, Quinn had a question of her own to ask Skylar and Andrew but a jingling noise made her jump.

Before she could think to do anything Kenton had flashed off the monitor and pulled her to the floor. They inched away from the door, hoping that at a first glance in the room they wouldn't be spotted.

The footsteps that went with the jingling keys paused at the door and they both held their breath, but Quinn was also frantically sending a text message.

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Skylar vigorously ripped the stack of pages apart. They hadn't been the least helpful as far as directions go and now that she had justification that they were nothing, she was glad to be rid of them.

The papers zoomed by their heads and into the night as she let them go. Their royal blue car sped through the darkness seemly getting increasingly faster as they went, although it was hard to tell with it being dark and all.

The only proof of them not being in a secluded vast forest was a little yellow sign that they past.

Neither Andrew nor Skylar had spoken much the whole car ride, in response to each other. Skylar just recited the messages sent between them and a mysterious receiver who answered their questions.

The darkness had closed in on them slowly and had now enveloped the whole road except for the inch of it exposed by the car's weak headlights.

They very much wanted to stop the car and get out but seeing as the attraction did not want them to yet they didn't think it wise. So on Andrew drove and not being able to see did not improve his driving at all.

Then, finally they saw what they'd been waiting for, lights, lights of the station where they hoped to park at and essentially get out of Tomorrowland.

The lights got brighter and more roads came to run along the one Skylar and Andrew drove on.

Skylar got another text. What attraction are you at right now?

It was asked out of the blue but she thought she should answer it anyway. As Skylar typed "Autopia" and sent it,  Andrew made the car jump in the air almost as if he had raced over a speed bump. The phone also jumped, landing onto the floor practically under the pedal he was using to accelerate. 

It didn't stop him from stepping on the pedal but it was just out of Skylar's reach so naturally it was his responsibility to fetch it. He kept driving but his focus was on the phone despite how his eyes still concentrated on the road.

They were nearing the building and all the roads were pretty much straight from there on so Andrew figured he didn't have to really steer much and just kept the pedal down. Now was his chance to retrieve the phone that was at his feet.

Reaching down with just his arm at first he felt around but could not grab it. Then ducking his head under Andrew saw where it was placed and stretched to retrieve it.

Oblivious to all of this was Skylar for she had her attention off to the side of the road in the copse of trees, for some reason.

Neither actually looking where they were going for couple seconds made all the difference.

Andrew under the dashboard finally grasped the phone in his hand for an instant long enough to read "Watch where you're going!" Which was in response to Skylar's answer, regardless of how ironic it was; because at that moment someone really needed to be looking where they were going.

There was no squeal of tires for the driver did not break as they crashed with much deafening  tumult into the back of a car in front of them. The impact pulled every fiber of their being forward into the hood as it crushed itself into a an unnatural shape.  The only thing missing was the absent rain of glass since Autopia cars didn't own any but they felt the rain all the same.

The pain as tiny little sharp droplets in a million and one places at once. Like the violent water which pierced through already soaked clothes. The pain did sear as the downpour of it still made their presence known. Although, that first few seconds of shock was only the sprinkle before the torrent they soon found out.

For it was not more physical pain that could possibly be inflicted on them but mental torture to now see: they were in Toontown, where all the characters were waiting for them.

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