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Author's Chapter Notes:

This story is just a wild idea that suddenly sprouted up.
It is highly inspired by my all-time favorite Empire series of Gator/TopMilenko.

If you like it. Let me know and I will happily add more chapters.

 

Chapter 1

Holli looked up at the flag which flaunted in all the colors a rainbow had to offer, like a model who’s all gussied up to steal the show.
It fluttered on the waves of a windy spring breeze in the morning when she tried to distinguish its printed text.

'Kaiser & Wiggins' it said.

She raised the collar of her long thin coat a bit higher when a chill traveled up at the back of her neck. Despite the vast blue sky and the sun finding ways to show his face now and then between the soaring office buildings Holli still found it chilly so early in the morning outside.
She quickly made haste to enter the store she was highly anticipated about.

A colleague had told her all about it.
“Shrunken cities I'm telling ya!” She quoted with a chuckle. It sounded even more ludicrous when she said it out loud. She just had to see it for herself.

“Morning ma’am, can I take your coat please?”

Jolted up from her thoughts, Holli spun on her heels and in her consternation saw a little man, maybe around six-inches tall, hovering in front of her face with a rocket-belt. It was a middle-aged man with a long curly moustache and a dignified voice. He reached out his mini hand in a welcoming gesture to take over Holli’s coat.

“Shoosh Albert, this one is mine.” A young girl, not older than eighteen walked up in a perky manner.

Albert quickly flew off to help another customer.

“Your coat please?” The girl’s voice teared Holli’s attention away from the marvel of seeing a tiny man for the first time in her life.
“Yes. Thank you. So, what city has your liking? You prefer the cities with the hip-height buildings or do you rather go for the handheld ones?” The pulled up blond haircut asked with a sales-smile.

Holli was a bit overwhelmed and stammered. “Im sorry miss. This is all new for me. I just came here to look around first.”

“I see. No prob at all miss. I 'll be happy to show you around if you like?”

“That would be great. Thank you.”

“This way please.” The girl ushered her through an arched doorway which came out on a vast open plaza.
Holli couldn’t believe her eyes. Everywhere she looked. She saw various throngs of customers just like her, ambling among a large warehouse filled with miniature architectures from varied sizes, some nicely positioned in rows on the floor with pricing tags attached to them. The highest of them would barely be able to reach her boobs, other buildings, who were a lot tinier, subsisted nicely stocked up in rows of endlessly long shelves.

When she looked to the left, she saw two bratty girls argue with each other in front of a table with a bunch of deodorant-can-sized skyscrapers on it. Apparently, one of the girls by accident dropped one of the pristine buildings to the ground, sprawled in pieces on the floor.

Holli heard her juvenile guide whispering something through her earpiece, probably summoning a colleague to take care of it. A moment later, Albert buzzed by in his fly-pack and conversed with the agitated girls.

“Are these like... toy buildings?” Holli asked in uncertainty.

“No.” The shop girl shook her head. "They are actual man-made structures, solely shrunken down to microscopic size.” The girl casually snatched one of the handheld skyscrapers from the table.

“See? They are the real thing.” She almost pushed the structure in Holli’s face. “You don’t get cheated here at Kaiser & Wiggins.”

Holli looked in amazement at the structure safely tucked into the girl’s firm grip. Every aspect was so detailed. It looks so real.

“Are there also people living in them?” Holli peered through the countless of glimmering windows, but she saw only the reflection of her own face. Luckily, her brown curls were still in volume she thought.

“Not in these.” The girl gentle placed the building back next to the others.
“Youlle only find empty shells in this department. We sell them piece by piece for people to pimp up their cities. Further down this alley we have cities of the same size all packed up with thousands of shrunken inhabitants.”

“Inhabitants?” Holli frowned. “You mean like… people? Like REAL people?”

“Mmm.” The girl nodded like it was the most normal thing ever. “This way please. I’ll show you.”

Holli followed the girl on her heels when she guided her through the maze of shelves. It's easy to get lost here she thought.
While sauntering, Holli took a glance here and there and was amazement about… well everything really.
They apparently were in the vehicle department now because all she could see were miniaturized cars, planes and boats everywhere. She almost tripped over the hull of a dog-sized frigate lying on the floor. It had a big discount tag on the side. Holli could see why. It appeared to have some rust spots.
Holli marveled again a second later when she saw the same sort frigate, only much smaller, all fastened in a wharf not bigger than the play board of monopoly game. In curiosity, Holli crouched down for a better look and saw dozens of centimeter-tall people up and running on the banana-sized ship, painting and welding it. Holli’s curly face cast a shadow over the little workmen. They gaped up and waved to her with their tiny hands. Holli waved back with a simpering smile and immediately got jolted up when the shop girl prodded her to keep up.
She quickly stood up and in haste, followed the trail of the girl who strutted around the corner at the end of the passageway.

“This is our main hall. In here we offer customers the chance to buy fully-operational cities, needless to say, with inhabitants included.”

Holli gazed in awe. This hall has got to be at least eight times bigger than the previous one with the loose parts. Next to that, the layout was also different. Where the first hall consisted mostly of an endless maze of aisles and shelves, which made it impossible to comprehend the hall’s size, the imposing walls of the main hall however, could be seen clearly. If she had to guess, Holli would have said that there had to be at worst the space of like two football fields between her and the closest of the outer wall.
The space was divided into compartments of transparent plastic plates of about four feet high with narrow aisles between them to allow travel.
At the ceiling occurred to be a massive glass dome upon which beams of sunlight journeyed through to find their way on the countless of roofs of the miniature landscape inside.

“Its to give them a natural rhythm of day and night.” The girl explained when she saw Holli gaping at the dome.

“What are those?” Holli pointed at the sight of some flying objects. They looked like teeny helicopters.

“They aid in the maintenance around here, transporting material and people and such.”

“So, which cities do you like to see first?” The girl continued. “Over here we have the hip-height ones. However, if we take a hike further ahead they start to become really small. Here, take a look.” The blond girl used a key to open a door to enter one of the compartments, which was dotted with basketball-sized domes with whole cities in them. She picked one up, gently, and handed it over to Holli.

“Don’t be afraid. They won’t bite.” The girl reacted on Holli’s reluctant facial expression.

“No effing way. This is unbelievable. They are just so little. I can barely see the mobs of people and cars and such. And those skyscrapers… Gosh... I could pinch them with my thumb and index-finger if I wanted to."

“Pretty cool huh?” The girl said with proud in her voice. Suddenly, Holli and her guide got both startled up when they heard someone humming in glee. It was a youthful girl, maybe fourteen years old, with shoulder-length blond hair and dressed in a belly-shirt and cut-off denim shorts. They saw her entering the same compartment. She crouched and took out a gun. She aimed at the city, and a laser-like sound was heard when a radiant red glow engulfed the city, and it began to shrink down even further and further, until it was no bigger than an apple.
With a sardonic chuckle, the young girl reached out her hand and picked the city up.

“Haha, your all mine now.”

“Addyson, does your mother knows you’re here?” The shop-girl asked.

“None of your business!” The little girl snapped. “I could get you fired you know!”
With that, Addyson smacked close the gate and rushed off with the microscopic metropolis in her young hand.

“The boss's daughter?”Holli asked.

“The boss's niece, insufferable brat that one, walks around like she owns the place. Anyway, what do you think of your city?”

Holli took a closer look and was surprised to see minute firework and explosions aimed at the glass.

“What are they doing?” Holli asked.

“They try to fight you.” The girl tittered. “These cities are labeled as the unyielding types. They refuse to give in to their fate, no matter how hopeless it seems. You have to work to make these critters give in to you, have to show them who’s boss. You seemed like the kind of woman who enjoys to submit others to her will.” The girl winked. “But stop me if I'm wrong, and I will get you a more obedient one.”

“No, don’t bother yourself.” Holli enjoyed the sight of the lice-sized people using all their machinery and might in a desperate attempt to destroy her. “I think I’ll take this one. You take MasterCard here?”

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