Chapter Text
In all honesty; Louie had absolutely no clue what he and his family were doing in Puerto Corima. He had never even heard of the place before they were on an eight hour flight(for once not reduced because LP was staying in Duckburg), and he was being told they would be in the Nicaraguan city for about a week.
He kept one headphone in as he stared out the window, watching as his mom brought the plane to a good area to land near the town.
Knowing Huey was still beside him without even looking, he asked, “What exactly are we looking for again? Uncle Scrooge’s accent went pretty heavy earlier this morning and he didn’t say much about it either.”
He got a small chuckle in response before his oldest brother shoved his Guidebook in front of Louie’s face, opened to a page with strange symbols, luminescent colors, and a creepy looking doll.
“The Doll of Laveau! It’s an ancient doll that’s over 400 years old, crafted in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey to work their powers of voodoo. It’s said that if you placed someone's DNA inside of the dolls mouth, anything that happens to the doll after that will happen to the person who it connects with.”
Creepy. “And we’re looking for this… why ?” Louie asked.
“Because,” they glanced back at their great uncle, seeing the man straighten the cuffs of his sleeves and walk over to the main door of the plane. “In the wrong hands, the doll is extremely dangerous. All it takes is a single strand of hair in its mouth and a sewing needle through the chest for someone to kill whoever they so please.”
Okay, yeah- Louie could see now why that seemed extremely dangerous.
Great.
Now they had to deal with finding some creepy doll that could be used by some of their greatest enemies. Hopefully Scrooge hadn’t decided to tell many others about this trip- his enemies usually had their ways of figuring out when he was after something and trying to get to it first.
If it was someone like Glomgold of the Beagles, then Louie wouldn’t worry about it too much- they usually got in their own way rather then Scrooges. But this sounded like something right up Magica’s alley, and Louie didn’t really want to deal with that. He didn’t want to deal with any of the enemies Scrooge had managed to make of the years, but it was usually an inevitability by this point.
Louie just hoped there wouldn’t be any more clones- he really lost the plot in his life when clones started to become a new normal for them all.
Seriously, how were they not still stuck in a TV show?
Wait- they weren’t, right?
Yeah!
Yeah… maybe…
.
.
.
Okay he was going to need to revisit that mental debate later on.
Exiting the plane, Louie slung his bag over his shoulder, walking beside Dewey as they followed in the back of their group. Surprisingly, Dewey was just as un-excited about this adventure as Louie was.
Which was a bit of a first.
When asked, Dewey shrugged and replied, “Meh; Scrooge already brought me and Webby here a few months ago for some other trip. The town was cool, but not cool enough that I’d get super excited about it. Plus, Mom agreed with Uncle Donald when he said he doesn’t want any of us going into the temple with her and Scrooge. Apparently there's too many death traps for even her liking.” That was definitely a first.
So basically, Dewey was bored with the trip already because he knew that the four of them were really just tagging along for the heck of it, and weren’t going to be allowed to actually take part in the temple raid.
Webby turned around, walking backwards as she tried to lift his brother’s spirits. “Aww, it’s okay! We can stop by that cool antique shop we saw last time! You know, the one where a taxidermied bear fell on top of you and you almost cried-”
“Okay okay! I know the one,” Dewey grumbled, a small puff to his cheeks as he looked off in embarrassment. “Minus the stuffed-bear attack, the shop was kinda nice. Not too exciting, but I guess it's better than just staying in the hotel the whole time.”
“Aaaand, if you all are interested,” Huey looked back with a wide smile. “I’m planning to get my History of Sorcery badge by documenting the history and powers behind the doll. Webby?” As the eldest expected, Webby was the most excited with the idea.
Dewey gave a half-hearted first pump and Louie didn’t even spare him a glance.
Huey planned to ask around town to see if there were any rumors or myths created about the doll from the townsfolk, certain that people probably had created wild tales over the years of it being in their neighboring temple.
The temple holding the doll was no more than three miles up a mountain just behind the town, making it easy to spot from the center plaza and giving the town an air of mystery that Louie was sure boosted its tourism.
He didn’t really care- he just wanted to get to the hotel.
When they reached the large building, Louie barely spared his surroundings a glance as he followed Della up to the receptionist. Della told Scrooge she would sign them in, secretly planning to get good rooms for them all rather than cheap ones(which is why she volunteered before Scrooge could). When the receptionist asked how they’d like to pay, Della just smiled down at him.
“Louie?”
Without a moment of hesitation or thought, Louie pulled Scrooge's credit card out from his pocket, handing it over to his mom. “He changed it to the month and date of Webby’s birthday. The real one, not the one we all keep.”
His mom handed over the card and typed in the code, smirking down to her youngest son. “I knew you must have done it by now, but when did you swipe it from him?”
“You really don’t wanna know.” For a guy as stingy as Scrooge, it took him a long time to realize his credit card and wallet got lifted. Louie hadn’t even stolen them today .
Della returned to the other fours with their room keys, having given Louie his already and waved him off as he immediately booked it to the bed awaiting him.
Look; he and his siblings were going to be stuck here for a few days anyways, so he might as well get comfortable.
Entering the hotel room, Louie tossed his bag to the side to unpack later, hopped onto the soft and plush queen size bed, and passed out cold in a matter of seconds.
Unaware that a certain someone was arriving into town just a mere hour later. A certain someone that Louie didn’t think he would ever encounter again…
When Louie awoke, it was to a pounding headache- oh, wait, no.
That was just Dewey pounding on his door.
“Louie, wake up! Let me in, it’s an emergency! You know I don’t remember your lesson on how to pick a lock!” If it was such an emergency, then Dewey should have just done what Louie did in the first place and just learn on YouTube.
Groggily rolling out of his bed(and regretting it entirely), Louie made sure to groan as loud as he could as he trudged to the door, taking his sweet precious time to unlock it. The moment it opened, he whined out, “Whaaaaaaaat?”
“FOWL.”
…Oh.
Louie’s eyes widened, taking in the nervous look on his brother's face.
Yeah, okay, anything concerning Fowl was an emergency that warranted waking him up. But- wait .
Louie blinked a few times, trying to figure out if he was still tired enough that he simply misheard him. “Wait, didn’t we already take out FOWL?”
Dewey shrugged and grabbed Louie's hand, dragging him downstairs and barely giving him the time to lock his room behind them. “Yeah, but Uncle Scrooge told me to go get you, and it was clearly the FOWL logo and letters on this guys jacket and laptop.”
Great.
So much for Louie using this adventure to relax and be lazy. Goodbye peaceful vacation…
Letting his brother drag him down to the main level, Louie tried to wake himself up fully from his rather short nap. He checked the time on his phone- he had only slept a good hour or two. Not too short, but not too long- it may seem like a decent time, but Louie actually hadn’t slept the night previous, so he had been looking forward to that sleep.
They reached the large dining hall, with Dewey trying to act sneaky by hiding the two of them behind a wall. He peaked around before making strange hand gestures, pointing in different directions and- oh for crying out loud.
“Dewford, neither of us know what you just told me!” Louie scowled. Dewey had been trying to make the secret code gesture that they often made in movies and Louie knew Huey might know from learning them as a JWC. He and Dewey however did not know these gestures, and Dewey was pretty much just wasting the time they could have used actually sneaking to their family.
Did they even need to be sneaky here?
Rolling his eyes and grabbing his brother by the back of his shirt, Louie dragged him over to where he spotted the others.
Webby and Scrooge both held up large menus to block their faces from view, with Huey using his guidebook and Della simply not even bothering. When the younger brothers joined them, Louie pulled out his phone and pretended to be interested in the blank screen. “What are we dealing with exactly? I thought we took care of FOWL?”
“We did,” Huey mumbled, glancing anxiously towards another area of the dining hall. “However, FOWL had a base in Europe. Mrs. Beakley said she had asked some old SHUSH workers she trusted to look into it and take it down, but apparently there were some people who escaped. The guy who’s here was a high ranked officer to them, almost as important as Black Heron was. I got the list of people who managed to escape capture, but I don’t know the lady he’s talking to?”
Louie glanced where he was directed, finding a mallard duck with a charming facade, a black suit and a briefcase to match- a briefcase that very clearly displayed FOWL’s logo on it.
He laughed at something his companion said, though by the look of the woman seated across from him, Louie could bet she wasn’t trying to be funny and was now rather annoyed and trying to not display it.
She…
Why did she look so familiar?
She wore her hair in a loose ponytail over her shoulder, and her outfit(while expensive) looked casual as a red shirt dress, and black black boots. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of pale blue that somehow managed to both be soft yet sharp at the same time. The look of a woman who could both be gentle and kind and yet kill you in a matter of seconds.
Louie knew those eyes.
He had conned those eyes.
And he most certainly hadn’t thought he’d be seeing those eyes ever again in his life.
Mira Gale looked upon her company with a look of disdain behind a tight smile, most likely thinking of how soon she could assassinate the man who dared to be unworthy of her time.
Louie sunk into his seat, a sudden wave of nerves hitting him as he realized that his peaceful vacation had not only left him, but it was now throwing him to the sharks- one shark in particular that he wasn’t sure if he could handle.
“Hoh boy…”