Disaster in the Shrunken City

Part 2

For a while Louie walked around aimlessly, wandering through the crumbling buildings as he passed them. The outsides of the homes were mostly standing, but the interiors were worse for wear. The wooden furniture and stairs were decaying. He didn't dare venture upstairs for most of the homes as the steps looked ready to collapse and bits of the wood flooring above would crash to the ground. As he walked through the homes he lazily flipped through any books that happened to be lying around, just in case any of them were the journal. He also checked the furniture and decorative pieces to see if there was anything of value, but so far he came up empty-handed either way.

He walked into a new building, not paying attention to where he was going as he glanced around at the interior. He made it a few steps then suddenly ran into something, stumbling and falling backwards onto the ground. He looked up at what he'd run into, shock flooding him when he realized it was a person. She was a tall heron, with black feathers, a long pointed beak, and a robotic arm. He quickly realized this matched Webby's description of Black Heron, a villain she had fought with scrooge. She looked down at him, her gaze a flurry of shock and a look like she'd been caught. In an instant, she lunged toward him. Louie gasped and scrambled to his feet, turning to run. His heart nearly leaping from his chest. He managed one step forward before she grabbed a hold of him. Her arm wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides. He squirmed and tried to cry out but she threw her other arm over his beak to muffle his cries. Louie kicked desperately, trying to loosen her grip, hit her, anything.

"Stop squirming!" She snapped, "I didn't know Scrooge and his brats were here. This'll ruin everything!"

Louie looked around the room looking for anything to help him escape, but every option was out of reach.

"If Scrooge finds out I'm here, our whole plan could go up in smoke!" She continued muttering to herself, "this stupid kid is gonna ruin everything! Unless..."

Louie's stomach dropped when she suddenly smiled down at him with a wicked grin.

"Hey kid, I got an offer for you." She began, bringing him closer to her beak so she could whisper in his ear. Louie reached up as much as he could and just barely managed to reach enough to pull her arm off his beak.

"Why should I listen to you!?" He spat.

"Listen, I'm here for a journal. I assume Scrooge is here for the same one. I can't let him see me here, so you are going to bring it to me." She said with a harsh tone.

"And what if I don't? Why would I help you?" Louie asked, glaring up at her to try to hide his fear.

"Let me put it this way, If you refuse, if you tell anybody you saw me, if you don't do exactly as I say, I will wipe out this entire city with you and your whole family inside!"

Louie's heart sank and a pit of dread took its place. His mind whirled with worry. He shook his head trying to force away his panic, he had to think carefully.

"How?" He challenged, hoping to trip her up. "There's six of us and one of you! I'm sure we could stop you before you could even try."

"Here, let me show you." She pulled out a ray gun-looking device from her pocket. She pointed it at a coffee table on the other side of the room and shot. A beam of light came shooting from the gun quickly surrounding the table in light. Louie yelped as, in little more than the blink of an eye, the table grew. Filling the room and slamming into the ceiling.

"That's how quickly I can unshrink and be on top of this city. Tell me, how long would it take you to tell your family? I'm outnumbered, sure, but you're the only one who knows I'm here. Since I haven't seen anyone else around. And I doubt you could gather them up fast enough. This time the numbers are your hindrance, not mine. So, will you help me now?" A wicked grin spread across her face, sending a chill down Louie's spine. The worst part was that she was right. His family was scattered all around this city and they only had the one shrink ray. They'd never make it. For a moment he tried to think of some way out of this, but would anything work?