Disney after Dark

“Hey there!” a gruff voice called out.

Fi

Me? Fi

Wayne asked, “What’s happening? Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he warned.

Charlene and Philby moved steadily closer.

Wayne, appearing distraught, admonished Fi

Fi

A shimmering Charlene approached a tree. She tried to walk through, but crashed into it instead. “How’d you do that?” she asked. “Why can’t I do it?” she asked Wayne.

Wayne seemed flustered. “You all need more time.” He glared at Fi

The harsh grinding of metal dragging on pavement interrupted them as the pirates pushed the line of blue cars.

The one in the hat, with a broad moustache and thick black beard, hollered out, “Ahoy, there, matie! Lend us a hand, if you will.”

Fi

“I said lend a hand!” hollered the elaborately dressed man. Behind him, the more scruffy pirates— machines!—pushed and dragged the blue cars. All of a sudden, Fi

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Fi

“Pass? I gave ye an order, me boy. Now heave to!” the captain growled.

“An order? I don’t think so.” Fi

Charlene stepped back and dragged Philby with her. They ducked behind the tree.

“The name’s Blackbeard,” the man said. His mouth moved like a puppet’s. His arms and legs moved stiffly. His eyes mechanically shifted, from the left to the right, their motion disco

Fi

The captain stepped forward boldly, still a ways off. “Is ye now?”

The pirates stopped their pushing. They gathered behind their captain.

Fi

Blackbeard drew his sword. His six pirates drew knives. “I said lend a hand. You’re my conscript now, lad. I’d be obliged if you hove to.”

“You’re not ready,” Wayne hissed at Fi

Fi

He figured he could run faster than a bunch of mechanical pirates but wasn’t sure he wanted to test that theory. Besides, he couldn’t budge.

Fi

“What are you doing with those cars?” Fi

“You might could say I’m borrowing them, laddie. Or you might could say the Space Ranger Spin is under repair.” He tilted his head and cast an evil eye in Fi

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Fi

“He’s one a’ them hosts, Captain,” a smallish man with frog eyes called out. The man’s right arm continually lifted up and down, up and down. This was apparently the motion he made in his role in the attraction, and he couldn’t stop it.

“A host!” the captain declared. “A new ride? Is that what ye’re telling me?”

His pirates mumbled.

“We don’t much care for new rides,” the captain explained in a dry, cold voice. “Don’t much care for them at all.”

“Do I look like a ride?” Fi

“You’re my boy now,” the captain declared. “Ain’t he, lads?” His pirates all nodded in chorus.

He said to Fi

“I’d prefer not to,” Fi

“Ye don’t turn yer back on the captain, youngster! I said halt!”

Fi

One of the pirates climbed into a Space Ranger car. He aimed its toy laser ca

Another thin red line of light flashed. Again, it missed.

But then Fi

As if to answer him, the next pinpoint of light struck his arm. A red bead flickered on his shirtsleeve. The fabric instantly turned brown, then gray. Then… ouch!

It burned him! Fi

“Hey!” he blurted out.

He smelled burning hair. His hair. His skin.

The laser was real.

Another flash. Fi

Now the other pirates circled and closed in on Fi

If a toy laser can burn, what is a very real-looking knife going to do? Wayne had warned him that he was half hologram, half human. Only now did he realize his human half could hurt.

His wounded arm looked less transparent all of a sudden. He wondered if his fear made him more human than hologram. He pushed against the fear, as if he were trying to shut a heavy door.

A gray-haired pirate with a peg leg thump, thump, thumped his way closer. The circle closed around him. Now Fi

Charlene called out to him from behind the tree.

The captain raised his sword higher, trying to follow that voice. “Reinforcements, mates! Be ye ready!”

Two of the younger pirates closed in on Fi

The two young pirates, their knives glinting, pressed ever closer.

The captain, with one knee cocked, his foot perched on the lead car, thundered, “Well, now, laddies! Serve him up like a fine filet!”

“Hey, dog breath!” It was Philby. He stepped out from behind the tree.

All six pirates turned toward Philby at once.

With the pirates’ attention briefly diverted, Fi

Another pirate charged. Fi

Fi

Fi