Legacy - A Ducktales Fanfic.

22. Deadly Duel.

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   Louie retched up blood as he attempted to regain his footing. Maria's betrayal had left him in an unfortunate situation: Locked in an inescapable vault, with poison gas pouring into the room via the air-vents and to top the situation off, she had taken the crown with her, as well as the glove which he needed to escape the room and with no outside support...

Things looked bleak.

However, Louie was nothing if not prepared for the worse. Reaching into his jacket, he grabbed the small breathing apparatus from one of its many inner pockets. The device consisted of a sliver, cylinder air tank that was no bigger than a tv remote and an attached mouthpiece. It contained two hours of oxygen. He also had a second cannister in his jacket. 

But the gas wouldn't dissipate until twelve hours had passed, and the rest of the cans that the team had prepared were in the bag, which Louie quickly realised Maria had also taken with her when he had his back turned.

So, with the two cannisters and if he controlled his breathing, he'd be able stretch it out to six hours, half the oxygen he needed. 

So, step 1: Escape the vault before he passed out, got captured and probably tortured and then murdered and dumped in some lake somewhere in rural Poland.

Taking long, deep breaths from the cannister device. Louie felt the pressure in his lungs disperse, and the light-headed feeling disperse. The deafening alarm had also ceased, so things were seemingly looking up for the teenage thief, however, the door was still locked shut. 

A speaker system, located along the top of the walls, Louie hadn't noticed crackled to life, and a deep voice echoed into the room.

"You are not going to escape." - It rasped and Louie immediately recognised it as Arthur Mazur, having heard it on multiple interviews while he prepared for the heist. - "You are going to pay for breaking into my family's home. For trying to steal, from ME!" - He threatened as a camera above the large vault door stared him down.

Louie normally would throw out a witty retort for when he was in a situation like this, but with the oxygen cylinder blocking his mouth, he settled for flipping the camera off. 

A knot grew in Louie stomach. Even though he didn't want to admit it, Mazur was right. He was trapped, with no hope of escape. At least he could take solace in that his last sight would be of a vault full of priceless artefacts, paintings and jewellery.

Suddenly an idea struck Louie, and idea he so greatly despised, that he tried to push it to the back of his mind, only for it to push straight back to the forefront.

Sighing, Louie shuffled over to a display of a Kamakura period Samurai sword, which judging by the plain sheath and lack of detail on the handle, probably belonged to a warrior of lesser prestige. But the sword was sharp, and that's all Louie needed it to be.

Crossing over to a large painting, that the teen recognised as 'Ferris Wheel' by niche classical painter, Georgia Allana. While Louie didn't personally believe the portrait was anything special, the painting was valued at four million dollars, so it hurt him when he sliced the canvas down the middle, leaving it practically worthless.

"NO!" - Screamed Mazur through the speaker. - "Do you know much that was worth?"

'Do I know how much that was worth?' - Louie thought, as he swung the sword through a porcelain vase, decorated with a silver dragon breathing golden flames.

"THAT COST ME THREE MILLION!"

Next, Louie lifted a pearl necklace strung together with strands of diamond covered silk, using the sharpened edge of the Katana, the silk string snapped, the pearl beads scattering across the tiled floor.