Boone stops the timer, looks at Louie stunned.
"How'd I do?" Louie asks
"Kid... That was spectacular! Let's see what all you got." Boone remarks as he is shown everything. "Let us see... Yep that is every last important document we had. You got about five million in valuables. Not spotted once. No suspicion..." He looks at Louie. "That has to be the best run I have ever seen..."
Louie is surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, really..." Boone smiles and kneels down to Louie. "I have to be honest with you kid, I originally was just going to test you to try and make you give up..."
"What!?"
"Yeah. Look. We have a policy against letting anyone under eighteen join, and given you are a McDuck, especially so. Plus, given your aversion to effort, I thought you'd give up. But, seeing this..." As he glances at the stuff taken. "I think I'll make an exception..." As he smiles at Louie.
"Wait, you mean..."
Boone puts a hand on Louie's shoulder. "Kid, I think you ARE Toppat material after all." He smiles at the duckling. "Testing is over, I'm going to go talk with the other leaders. In the meantime, go relax. There is a break room just down the hall on this side of the ship. Wait there until I send someone to get you." Boone hands him a card of sorts. "Show this to anyone who questions you being there."
Louie was stunned, and happy. That was it? He was in?! He nodded. "Thanks! Th-this is amazing!" As Louie heads off, Boone smiling.
However, unknown to either of them, things were about to get... Complicated...
Louie was sitting on a couch in the break room, drinking some Pep and watching Ottoman Empire. The Toppats were a mix of confused, annoyed, or scared, all for the same reason. There was a McDuck kid on their ship. Louie flashed the card given him a pass to be there when confronted. The Toppats immediately backed off. They whispered about him, expressing confusion, concerns, and frustrations. Louie ignore this.
Then, a figure enters. A male weasel, who walks up to Louie.
"Hey kid, Captain sent me to get you." He says.
"One sec, let me just finish this episode of Ottoman Empire..." Louie says sipping Pep.
"Oh, I think that can wait, especially since it concerns one last thing you need to do to get into the Clan..." He says with a grin.
Louie pauses. "Oh? Is it another test?"
"In a way. But, a small one. Do it, and you'll be a Toppat sure enough..."
Louie grins, gets up. "Alright then, let's go!"
"Good... Follow me..." The weasel grins as he leads Louie down the hall, to the meeting room. There are armed Toppats by the door, as it is opened. The sight shocks Louie.
On his knees, each arm held by a Toppat either side of him, is Boone. He has been beaten and bloodied, and is weak. He looks up at Louie. "Kid..."
"M-Mr Boone?! W-what is going on!?" Louie asks, worried.
"Simple, the captain here is no longer in charge. I am..." The weasel smirks slyly. "This, is a mutiny..."
"W-what!?" Louie scared. Why was he brought here for this? What did he have to do with this? "Why am I here?"
"Simple. One last test you must complete to become a Toppat..." As the weasel takes out a pistol, and hands it to Louie. "Kill the captain."
Louie's eyes go wide in horror. "What!? You can't be serious!?" He protests, but sees all the sinister looks of the mutineers with guns, he gulps, and takes the pistol.
"Worthless rat... Making a child do your dirty work and kill an unarmed individual? You truly are the lowest of the low..." Boone remarks.
Louie looks at the gun, then at Boone, then back at the gun. "I-I can't. I'm fine being a criminal, but, I don't want to kill anyone!" He protests, trying to be defiant, drops the gun. He gets a few rifles aimed at him.
"How cute, thinking you have a choice..." The weasel grins amused, calls on comms. "Bring in the contingency."
Louie is confused as he then hears muffled grunts and curses, as he soon sees the source, and is mortified. Brought the the door, hands tied behind their back back and rope around their chest and arms, gagged with a cloth over their beak, and blindfolded, is Goldie O'Gilt, a mutineer on either side of her, arm interlocked with hers to keep her from running. "A-aunt Goldie!?"
"Shhrphh?!" The Blonde adventuress shouts into her gag, struggling.
"L-let her go!" Louie demands.
"We might, so long as you kill the captain..." The weasel remarks.
"No! I won't do it! You can't make me!"
"Oh, I think we can. Either you kill that captain..." The weasel then puts a gun to Goldie's head. "Or we kill the bitch. Your choice."
Louie was horrified. He didn't want to kill anyone, especially not someone so nice to him. But he couldn't just let Goldie be killed! What was he to do!?
"Pick up the gun. Now." The weasel orders, pulling the hammer back on the pistol.
Louie gulps, and shakily picks up the gun he had dropped, looks at it with dread. He just couldn't do this. This was just too wrong! But, Goldie... He starts to panic. Soon, tears stream down his face, as he starts to cry. The weasel seems amused, smirking sinisterly.
All seems lost. Goldie was going to die, because he couldn't save her. Then, a voice speaks up.
"Kid, it's alright..." Boone says quietly.
"No, it's not! I don't want to kill anyone! But, I, I can't just let Goldie die! I can't!" He sobs pathetically.
"Kid, I recall when you snuck on here with her a few months ago. I saw how she readily chose you over the treasure. This surprised me, because I originally thought Miss O'Gilt only cared about herself and treasure..." Boone looks up at the captive Goldie. "Seems I was wrong."
Goldie rolls her eyes behind the blindfold.
"But, what does that have to do with anything?! She didn't have to kill anyone!"
"No, but she was willing to do whatever it took to protect you. She cares about you kid. A lot. And I can tell you care about her..."
Louie sniffs. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, for you to kill me..." Boone says calmly.
Louie is horrified, Goldie shocked, and the weasel intrigued.
"W-what!? No! You can't seriously be asking me to kill you!"
"Kid, sometimes to save those you care about, you have to do things you don't like doing."
"But if I kill you, I'll never be able to go back to my family. They'll never forgive me! Who could forgive a murderer?"
"Kid, they are your family. Of course they'll forgive you. And killing because you were forced to, to save a loved one, is different than killing on your own accord." Boone assures him. "The Clan is like family to me. No, they ARE family to me. I'd do anything to protect even one of them, whether that be killing someone, or letting myself be killed."
Louie looks to Boone, sobbing still.
"I can tell O'Gilt is like family to you. You want to save her, as she saved you. And I am telling you to do so. Do what needs to be done to save her. Kill me, so she can live. Okay?"
Louie trembles, and soon nods.
"Put the gun to my head, and pull the trigger. You don't even have to look..." Boone says, as Louie reluctantly puts the tip of the barrel to the otter's head. "Good. Now, turn your head, and look away..." Louie does so, clenching his eyes shut, and turning his head away from Boone. "There we go. Now, put your finger on the trigger..." As Louie does so. "And squeeze when you are ready."
Louie does all as he is instructed. This was it. He was going to kill someone. "I-I'm sorry..." He mutters.
"It's alright... I forgive you..." Boone mutters, closing his eyes and bracing for the end as Louie slowly pulls the trigger. However, before he can.
BANG
The doors to the room slam open as multiple armed Toppats, lead by Cross, bust in, aiming weapons at the mutineers, shooting any that try to draw weapons, reducing the mutineers to half.
"Let the captain go and drop your weapons, now!" Cross orders as she aims her AK at the weasel.
Boone uses the distraction to take out the two holding him, takes the pistol from Louie, and shoots the two holding Goldie captive, Louie rushing to catch her before she is dragged to the ground as he frees her.
"Aunt Goldie! Are you okay!?" Louie asks as he removes the blindfold and gag.
"Yeah, I'm fine kid, thanks..." She says with a slight smile as she is untied.
The mutineers are detained as Boone confronts their leader, the weasel. "I'd kill you now by just shooting you, but that is too merciful for traitors..." Boone signals the weasel to be taken away, before going to Louie, kneeling down to him. "Kid? You alright?"
Louie is crying, curled up, being consoled by Goldie. "No, I'm not. I don't want to kill anyone! I... I'm not cut out for this!"
Boone reaches to put a hand on Louie's shoulder, Goldie pulling Louie away, giving Boone a glare. He sighs, puts his hand down. "You probably don't trust me, given I encouraged him to be willing to commit murder."
"Yeah that's putting it lightly..." Goldie snarls at Boone, wrapping her arms around Louie protectively.
"Well, I had to do something, and honestly, I've kind a taken a liking to the kid." As Boone looks at Louie, who looks back. "Your skills actually made me almost break one of my rules. Not one of the severe ones, no, but still."
"So, what now?" Louie sniffs.
"Well, I'm going to be cleaning up the clan of any more trouble makers, and enforce the rules a lot harder. As for you... I think it is best you go home..." Boone says.
"How can I just go home? I abandoned my family! Betrayed them! They'll hate me!" Louie sobs.
"Well, I could always take you in Sharpie..." Goldie says, getting a glare from Boone. "Ugh, it was a joke!" She lies, Boone shaking his head.
"Kid, they are family. No matter what you do, no matter how mad they are at you, they will never stop loving you. I assume you ran away from home without telling them, correct?"
"And I, may have knocked out and tied up Webby and locked her in my bedroom closet after she walked in right as I was about to leave..." He says.
"Huh, finally using those skills I taught ya huh kid?" Goldie says with a grin, getting another disapproving look from Boone.
"Kid, let me ask you something. Has there ever been a time when you or another family member 'betrayed' your family even remotely like you did?" Boone asks.
"Well, yeah, once, when Dewey was upset we wouldn't listen to his story about his hat, he got caught by Don Karnage's sky pirates who actually listened to him and overthrew Karnage and made Dewey their captain and then he captured us and threatened to throw us off the pirate airship. He eventually came back to us after a bunch of stuff and apologized."
"Did you forgive him?" Boone inquires.
"Duh, he's family! Of course we forgave him, especially since us not being there for him was what partially caused it. But I don't see how that is even-ooooohh..." As Louie realizes he did pretty much the exact same with slight detail differences.
Boone nods. "You all forgave him for that, why would they not forgive you for this? I assume you felt your skills were wasted in a family focused on honest work, right? Well, don't tell them this, ever, unless you want them to get more pissed off at you, but not talking to you about that and helping you refocus those skills is part of the reason you left. Right?"
Louie nods, sighs. "Yeah, I guess..." He looks at Goldie. "Aunt Goldie, I want to go back home to the manor..."
Goldie nods, smiles. "Sure thing Sharpie." She looks to Boone. "Can you take us back to Duckburg?"
"In a bit. I need to handle some things first. Just wait in the cargo bay, some of my men will lead you there." Boone assures, pats Louie on the shoulder, smiling warmly.