Chapter Text
Louie thought it would be a lot less dangerous to go on adventurers, or at least, he thought he'd still be able to handle it. But for whatever reason, the older he got, the more life-threatening they'd become. He really didn't know why that was; maybe it had something to do with Chloe moving out of the manor. That was his best guess.
The most recent adventure he'd been on with his family included multiple rivals trying to claim it first, trap and puzzle after trap and puzzle, and a skeleton army, curtesy of Dewey stupidly running into the cave as fast as he could despite literally everyone telling him not to. Huey didn't make it much better, simply barking instructions from his guidebook, expecting them to be followed without question without trying to actually do it himself.
But there was a small bright side to everything that had gone on.
Scrooge has a rule to adventuring wherein any and all treasure found, regardless by whom, goes directly to the Money Bin as soon as they returned to Duckburg. But Louie managed to find a completely separate treasure all on his own, and he'd smuggled it home without anyone noticing.
So that's where he was, in his room, or more specifically, Chloe's old room, going through what he found. His big sister told him there were no shortcuts to life, but she never said anything about alternate routes.
Among his exclusive treasure were at least five hundred dollars worth of gold coins, a few diamond necklaces, and a gold ring with a bright and seemingly polished emerald. After examining it and determining the emerald was real, Louie slipped the ring onto his finger and admired it. His reflection shown clearly in it, like a newly purchased mirror. It fit perfectly onto his finger as well, so he had no trouble removing it.
For the time being, he simply put the ring in his hoodie pocket and his the rest in a secret compartment he'd made since Chloe left.
Not two seconds later, Scrooge came barreling in. "Dinner, Louis!"
Louie groaned. It was to no one's surprise that Scrooge's age was finally getting to him, or at least his brain. He was still pretty physically fit, but he began to forget things easier and ramble on about stuff that would have nothing to do with the current situation.
All Louie could do was put up with it. "Sure thing, Uncle Scrooge."
Louie walked behind his uncle to the dining room. The manor seemed... empty the last few months. He'd been so close to Chloe for so long, he wasn't used to her not being around. They got along like, well, brother and sister. She taught him a few of her combat techniques, and he'd help teach her about modern technology, which she surprisingly wasn't very keen with.
Then, just a month after she turned eighteen... Cody What's-his-name entered the picture. He was, by all means, a nice guy, and he treated Chloe with care and respect. But he always treated Louie like he was five, simply because 'he was her baby brother'. Louie hated it. But he put up with it in return for Chloe putting up with Della for a few months.
Scrooge, however, did not put up with it. He told her repeatedly that Cody wasn't suitable to be with a McDuck, especially one of her talent. And then they both said some things that absolutely no one expected.
"Well maybe I wanna be more than a McDuck!"
"Fine! You're nothing but trouble anyway!"
A few weeks later, Chloe moved out and went to Dawson to live with Cody.
Everyone had seemed to make peace with Chloe's absence, but Louie still couldn't help but feel lonely.
He was drawn out of his thoughts when he suddenly tripped over something. He looked back and saw Huey had left his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook one the ground, and Louie had caused a few of the pages to fall out when he slipped on it.
The ring also came out of his pocket, ending up right at the feet at his Uncle Scrooge, with the rest of the family standing behind him.
"My JWG! No!" Huey cried dramatically as he held the book in his arms.
"Nice going, Louie," Dewey scolded as he went to comfort his brother.
Louie rolled his eyes. "Geez, it was an accident. And you've had that thing since you were six; you've had to have memorized everything in there by now."
Scrooge cleared his throat, getting Louie's attention. He was glaring at him, holding up the ring in his hand. "Did you steal this from me?!"
"What?! No, of course not!" Louie defended. "For your information, I found that!"
"You know the rule, lad. All money goes to the bin..." Scrooge recited.
"You weren't even gonna find that!" Louie replied instead of finishing Scrooge's rule. "What difference would it have possibly made if that didn't go to the bin?!"
Della stepped in between them. "Uncle Scrooge, maybe Louie's right. You didn't know this was back at the cave; he found it all on his own. Maybe you could let him keep this one."
Scrooge growled and pointed his cane at her. "I'm tired of you defending him all the time. Louie, in the den, now. We need to have a talk, man to man."
Louie rolled his eyes but did as he was told. Scrooge slammed the door behind him as Louie took a seat.
"You have got to start thinking of the consequences of your actions," Scrooge said, pacing in front of Louie. "That ring could be cursed for all you know. You're no expert on this sort of thing, and I am."
"Really? In that case, how do you know the treasure you found isn't cursed? And speaking of which, why do you even need more treasure? You literally have a giant bin full of gold!" Louie replied.
"You're too young to understand. But for now, you're grounded for trying to keep this ring for yourself, understand?"
Louie's eyes went wide with anger. "Seriously? Just because I found an extra ring? You are the greediest, most self-centered person I have ever met!"
"Watch your tone, boy. I took you in all those years and have saved your life countless times," Scrooge warned.
"Wow, you say family is the most important treasure you could ask for, but you only need family to get you more money easier," Louie responded, standing up. "Should've asked Chloe if I could go with her to Dawson," he added under his breath.
"Maybe you should've," Scrooge said. "Then you wouldn't be such a burden on this family."
Louie froze at Scrooge's words. Even in his advanced age and deteriorated state, Scrooge had never said something so hurtful to him, to anyone. He bellowed and blabbered endless nonsense, but he had never gone on the offense like that. Louie didn't say anything as he stormed to his room.
It wasn't fair. Dewey's the one who alerted the skeleton army to their presence at the cave, Huey's the one who left his stupid guidebook out on the floor, but of course, Louie gets the blame again. It had been like that pretty much since the Time Tub incident. Whenever there was trouble at the manor, and he was even remotely related to it, he was always the one in trouble. And it wasn't like anyone ever stood up for him. His brothers enjoyed always getting off scot-free in return for his bad luck.
"Maybe you should've. Then you wouldn't be such a burden to this family."
Maybe Scrooge was right. Maybe he was better off leaving, for the family's sake and his own.
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Della was waiting for Scrooge outside his den. When he finally emerged, she made her presence known.
"What exactly did you say to him?" she asked.
Scrooge straightened his robe. "Nothing to worry over. He's just grounded."
"Grounded?" Della repeated. "That's a little overboard, don't you think? It's just a ring."
"That he hid from me," Scrooge added.
"That he found on his own, without your help," Della corrected. "If anything, I'm a little proud of him for finding something so valuable without help."
"He knows the rules, and he chose to break to them," Scrooge said. "Actions have consequences, you should know that better than anyone."
Della sighed. "Why are all of Louie's actions requiring negative consequences? So what if he's a little different than the rest of us; he's his own person."
"If this has to do with Clarissa, I don't wanna hear it. The lass wanted to leave this family, and that's fine with me," Scrooge dismissed.
"One, Chloe did not leave the family. She simply wanted to start one of her own," Della replied irritably. "Two, this has nothing to do with her. All I'm saying is that Louie's growing up a little faster than we thought he would."
"Believe me, he is doing the opposite of growing up," Scrooge said as Della began to walk away. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to take to my son and tell him he's not grounded, if that's alright with you," she answered, finishing in a sarcastic tone.
Della took a few deep breaths as she ascended the stairs and walked through the halls. Scrooge had been getting on her nerves a bit as of late. But she couldn't hold him accountable for any of it. Still, she'd known his almost all her life, and this was the first time he'd ever shown any signs of his age getting to him.
"Louie, can we talk?" she asked through the closed door. When she didn't get an answer, she opened the door to find the room was empty. "Louie?" She then felt a sudden chill and noticed the window was open. She ran to it and looked out. "Louie!"
She ran back through the room and into Huey's and Dewey's room, where Huey was trying to mend the fallen pages in his guidebook, and where Dewey was playing with a ball Chloe had given him when he was younger.
"Boys, where's your brother?" she asked.
They both shrugged. "Haven't seen him since earlier when Uncle Scrooge yelled at him," Dewey said nonchalantly.
"Well, he isn't in his room, and his window is open!" Della said.
The boys both stood straight up and looked at her.
"Are you saying he's...?" Huey trailed off.
All Della could do was nod. "Y-Yeah, Louie's... gone."
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Louie considered himself lucky for the second time that day. Scrooge may have confiscated his ring, but he still had his five hundred dollars worth of gold coins and necklaces. With that, he was able to buy himself a train ticket to Dawson. Chloe had offered for him to come see her anytime, so he decided to take advantage of that offer.
He figured his 'family' had noticed he was missing by now, but the train was now pulling into the station. He also knew that if he could make it to Chloe's before they found him, she would at least stall long enough for him to leave again.
He made his way into the luxury car of the train; he decided to splurge a little. The rest of the train was nearly empty, save for a few other passengers. With a sigh, he decided to lie down and try to sleep the events of the night away.
He had been asleep for about twenty minutes into his five hour trip when he heard someone else get on the car with him. He opened his eyes to see a grown man, looking to be Della's age, and two teens, one his age and the other looking a bit older. They all wore hoodies, either grey or black, with a wolf on the front.
"Sorry, didn't know there was anyone else on this train," said the man.
Louie sat up. "It's fine, I can move to the other end."
"Oh no, it's no problem," said the older teen. "In fact, we enjoy the company."
Louie shrugged and sat back down.
"So where you heading, kid?" the man asked.
"All the way to Dawson," Louie answered absently.
The younger teen looked shocked. "Dawson? That's pretty far away!"
"I've made longer trips before," Louie replied with a yawn.
The man looked at him. "Jason's right. You seem pretty young to be making such a long trip alone on a train. A plane maybe, but not a train."
Louie shrugged. "I have family there," he replied, adding under his breath, "Real family."
"Someone you're running from?" the man suddenly asked, catching Louie off guard.
"Excuse me?"
"How do you think I met these two? They're both runaways too," the man explained.
Louie looked at them. "Really?"
The teens both nodded. "I'm more of an escapee to be precise," the older teen said.
The man smiled. "Say, what do you say you go with us?"
"I couldn't," Louie answered, looking back out the window.
There was silence for a few moments until the man cleared his throat again. "I know what it's like... to be tossed aside by so-called family."
"How do you...?" Louie trailed off, looking back at them.
"I heard that little comment about real family," the man answered with a sly grin. "In fact, both Jason and Danny here were abandoned by the ones they thought loved them. We could always take an addition to our little group. After all, the more, the merrier, right?"
Louie thought about it for a moment. If he took up this offer, his 'family' would probably never find him. And if they did, these three, along with anyone else they picked up, could defend him.
"What's the catch?" Louie asked.
"Catch? Well, I wouldn't call it a catch, per say, but I am going to teach these two a thing or two in martial arts, karate to be exact. In fact, we're on our way to Cape Suzette to start a dojo. If you were to join us, I guess you'd be a bit obligated to learn a few things as well," man answered.
Louie studied the man to see if there were any tells, or if his body language gave away anything he wasn't telling him.
Try as he might, he couldn't find any. "Sure."
The man smiled again. "Glad to hear it. This is Jason and Danny," he said, motioning to the teens.
"Call me Blade. Don't ever call me Danny," the older teen muttered.
The man ignored him. "If you need to call me anything, call me Travis. And what might your name be, kid?"
This was it, Louie's chance to make a new start for himself, to make his own story. And to do that, he needed a new name.
"I'm Louis... Louis Gold."