Archive of Our Own ^beta

If anyone were to ask what Louie Duck currently desired in life, he would wholeheartedly say that it would be sleeping. A nice cozy warm bed where he have a comfortable and peaceful slumber for a good long time. And he was kinda getting that desire at the moment as he was lied in his seat with a blanket shrouded over him in the cargo hold of the Cloudslayer, which was sitting out in the open of the woods near an open road.

This was something he needed. Sleep. No adventures, no life-threatening scenarios, and no alien invasions. He could just sleep. 

But it didn’t last.

Que “Las Mil Una Noches”

The music was foreign, that much he could tell and it was practically booming. Louie groaned as he turned to his side, trying to ignore and try to get some sleep.

But a slight jerk made him all the more awake as he suddenly felt half of the plane lurching upwards.

Seriously, what was going on out there? Had the others came back yet? Or was it… someone unknown?

Another lurch made the youngest triplet shuffle out of his seat. It was probably best that he head out and see just what was going on out there.

With a resigned sigh, he pressed the button that opened the cargo pit and stumbled on out of the plane. 

‘I can just get this over with and I can go back to sleep.’ Louie thought as he turned to the side of the plane. ‘Should be no pro-’ 

…Never mind, there might be a problem after all.

The music was coming from a grey van. And that probably belonged to the people who looked to be practically trying to steel the tires from the plane. He could tell just from the tools and jacks they were using which would explain why he had felt the plane lurching from the inside.

Louie sighed internally. A part of him already seemed to know that this wouldn’t go well at all.

Seeing that they were still using the jacks and hadn’t started removing the tires as well as not wanting to waste anymore time, Louie cleared his throat loudly to get the thieves’ attention.

“Guys,” The thieves whipped their heads around to where the slurring voice had come from and didn’t expect to see a young boy leaning against the plane. “I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure that’s stealing.”

They all got back on their feet and walked slowly towards the boy as he kept slurring out more words.

”Look, I won’t snitch, so how about you guys just go and-“ 

WHAM!

Louie didn’t get to finish as one guy had punched him right in the face which sent him right to the ground.

He groaned from the searing pain on the side of his face. That hurt. 

“Stupid kid.”

He heard one voice snicker. He then heard another scoff.

”Alright enough fucking around, get the tools ready.”

“Shit,” Louie hissed in pain on the ground as he had dared to touch the bruise on his face. He then noticed a bat leaning on the plane. Louie looked back at the thieves taking out the tools to begin removing the tires.

None of them were aware of Louie slowly making it back to his feet until…

”Uh, guys?”

The crooks turned around and looked at Louie in bafflement as they could’ve sworn he was down for the count. Regaining their composure, they began to march towards him.

”Guys, seriously,” Louie raised his left hand cautiously. “You don’t wanna do this.”

That didn’t seem to be the case as the thieves all continued marching towards him. Louie sighed as he raised his bat defensively.

It seemed that there wouldn’t be any talking out of this after all.

Louie clenched his teeth as his contorted from the hissing pain on his face. That was a distraction that the thieves took full advantage of.

He narrowly dodged a fist that had been aimed for his face. But he wasn’t fast enough to dodge the jab at his chest.

Off balanced and more pissed than hurt, Louie swung his bat at them as they converged, but he was too tired and they soon pounding on him.

With his rising adrenaline, he managed to swing the bat on one’s knee, hearing disgusting crack as well as the agonizing scream that followed as Louie had clearly broken his kneecap.

He didn’t have time to dwell on that as Louie had his own pain to be caught up in. Specifically, the gash on his right arm that he had received from a sharp knife. It wasn’t deep, but it still hurt nonetheless.

Great, another injury to worry about later.

He tried his best to keep them away from the plane, even stopping one that wielded a wrench before it could make a dent in it.

Louie let out a yelp of pain as he was tackled to the ground with all the crooks beating on him, reigning in their fists. Louie raised his arms, doing his best to block those fists.

"Kick this little shit!"

“Beat his ass!”

”Fuck him up!”

One had even gone to so far to kick him right in the face.

That proved to be a big mistake.

‘That’s it!’ Louie shouted internally as something took him. Something red. Rage!

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" A rageful roar exploded from Louie's mouth as he shot up from the ground like lightning fast with his bat and swung it right into one’s jaw, which sent blood and teeth down on the ground. 

That had to hurt.

But Louie didn’t care as a crook swung a punch towards him but he dodged it and launched his bat right into where the sun didn’t shine, leaving him lying in agony with his knees curled up.

It wasn’t over yet as Louie’s rage continued to push him further. Almost all of them were down. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the knife that had grazed his arm earlier. Which just so happened to be lying near the jerk that had stabbed him earlier.

Snarling, Louie dropped and dashed for the knife and grabbed it. He marched for the jerk, who was getting up, reeled back the knife and stabbed him in his shoulder, burying it deep. 

Louie didn’t care if the dude was in pain because he was in for a bit more as Louie suddenly roared with rage as he started pounding on him with his fists.

He only saw red as he continued to whale on the guy. He yelled with every punch, letting all of it out. His anger. His guilt. His mistakes. His screw ups.

All of it.

Until at last, the rage had started to fizzle out.

”Hey c’mon, let’s roll on the fuck outta here!”

At that point, the jerk and his little merry band of thieves had all decided that the tires of the plane just weren’t worth stealing anymore because they were soon stumbling back into their van.

With a rev of the engine, the van started to take off. But not before Louie took the bat that he had been using throughout the fight to throw it across towards their back window.

He knew he didn’t miss because he heard the obvious sound of glass cracking.

”YOU SHITHEADS BETTER RUN!” Louie shouted angrily as he watched the van disappear into the distance with the booming music fading as well.

Que Main Titles

For a few moments, Louie stood there, panting wearily. That was…interesting to say the least.

But there were other things to worry about as Louie looked down at his bloody knuckles, which were still dripping with blood.

Shit, he really lost it, didn’t he?

Louie winced as he turned to inspect the gash on his arm. The knife had barely grazed him and he could just put an ice pack on the bruise on his face. He could patch up the wound better when he got home.

He looked around. There wasn’t really anything messy that was left behind in the wake of that fight.

The jacks were still next to the front wheels of the plane. Still heavily panting, Louie removed the jacks, dragged and dumped them in a set of bushes.

All he had to do now was clean himself up. The last thing he needed was for his family to see him like this.

Looking around one last time, Louie headed back into the plane. It was all just a blur to him.

It was a blur when he used makeup to cover the bruises on his face. It was a blur when he wiped the blood off of his knuckles. It was a blur when he used rubbing alcohol to disinfect the wound on his arm.

That was what it all seemed to be for him, a blur.

He turned on his phone to open his camera app to get a good look at his face. It was best to make sure he looked fine when the others came back.

All things considered, he looked fine. Everything was fine.

Keep telling yourself that.

Louie scoffed as he just climbed back into the seat that he had been napping in prior to the fight and wrapped his blanket around his body, trying to ignore the conflicting thoughts occurring in his brain.

It was very rare that he had anger like that. Times where he had simply had enough and completely lost it.

Was it bad for him to have animalistic anger like that?

Maybe.

It was a powerful motivator though.

Plus, Louie had successfully protected the Cloudslayer. If he hadn’t been here, the tires would’ve been stolen for sure.

Maybe things wouldn’t have been that difficult if his family had been here with him, but no, here he was away from them while they were on another adventure.

Classic Louie, right? Always the cowardly one.

Louie’s hands clenched his blanket harder. He tried to go back to his nap in order to ignore those negative thoughts.

But he couldn’t. Because a big part of him felt that he deserved this.

…

Now Presenting:

LOUIE