Legacy - A Ducktales Fanfic.

15. Acrophobia.

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   Louie stared ahead at the long thin wire in front of him, before turning his gaze at the twenty-foot distance between the platform he was standing on, and the ground. Using his weight, and height, he calculated the speed at which he'd plummet, and then used the figure and the formula distance divided by speed, to calculate the time he would have before he hit the ground.

The teen sighed. - 'Less than two seconds.' - He determined.

Normally a tightrope walk would be accomplished with the aid of a long light pole, which the performer would carry as he made the trip. The purpose of the pole was to lower the centre of gravity of the balancer, making it harder for them to fall. Louie didn't have that advantage.

He checked behind him, and saw TrickShot standing there, spinning a throwing knife between the fingers of her left hand.

'No going back.' - Louie thought, as he slowly crept towards the beginning of the rope, hoping to maximise the time before he had to actually begin the climb across the fifty-foot gap. But he quickly ran out of space between him and the rope.

Slowly, he lifted his right foot and placed it onto the wore, gaging the strength of it. When he was sure that the wire wouldn't just snap when he stepped on it, he repeated the movement with his other foot.

Now his life was completely in the hands of how well he could balance on a wire barely thicker than a piece of spaghetti.

He took another step, and nearly slipped, causing the audience below to gasp. 

He had bested some of the most viscous and cunning people on the Planet, and he was going to be beaten by a bunch of weirdly dressed sub-par con artists? He stopped and took a calming breath, before continuing his slow trek across the rope. And as he did so he began to devise a plan to escape from his restraints.

When he was fourteen, and just beginning his training with Goldie, she had brought him to Las Vegas for a week. Most of their time was spent in a Casinos, where he taught him the best way to charm and manipulate the people in the City of Lost Wages, but one night Goldie had brought him to a magic show.

The routines that went on that night, were far from the grand acts of the mystic arts that he'd seen Magic de Spell, or even Lena perform. Instead, they were just acts of deception, meant to trick the eyes into believing something that wasn't actually happening... mostly done through fog machines, inhibited guests, and the right lighting.

Once the show was finished, Goldie had brought him backstage where he met, the show's crew. All of them were professional performers, but they also were friends of his mentor, and were happy to gave him a few lessons in the art of misdirection.

One of them, an elderly possum, who had spoken in a French accent, and introduced himself as Daniel Dubois. He was an escape artist, and according to Goldie, the best in the business.

The man had given him a notebook full of ways to escape from shackles, which Louie had read religiously. So it was thanks to him, that Louie had an idea of how to escape the constraints he'd been put in.

Luckily, the straitjacket was slightly too big for him, which meant he had a bit of wiggle room to work with. So Louie stopped in a position where he was less likely to fall, and  pushed his right arm up and away from his body and rested the hand of it on his left shoulder, with all his might he pushed his head through the gap his left shoulder and right elbow. Then he used his teeth to deal with the strap buckle that joined the two sleeves.

Now he had the ability to manoeuvre his arms better, Louie reached around and began dealing with the buckles on his back, only to get distracted and lose his footing.