Chapter One:
BBBRRRIIINNNGGG!
"Class dismissed," Gobber shouted as the long line of prospective protectors of humanity began filing out. The retired huntsman watched the throng of students for a little while, eyeing them over. This wasn't a very hopeful group. Only a handful stood a chance of being accepted to Beacon this year, if that. He shook his head as he hobbled along with his prosthetic leg that he kept telling himself he'd get fixed one day to start collecting his things. It seemed that every class he taught was weaker than the last. These kids were getting soft. Too soft! They could barely even handle a young Beowulf. How did they expect themselves to be huntsman. He shook his head as he slipped a book into his bag, barely paying any mind to the two students who remained in their seats.
Now those two, the petite auburn-haired boy with his nose buried in a book, and the curly red-headed girl with picking at her nails with her feet propped up on her desk, yes, those two had potential. Even though their parents couldn't see it, or refused to see it, those two were going to go somewhere. As soon as they stopped breaking the village that was.
Well, for now they were going to go back to his shop.
"Merida, get yer cousin out of booklland so we can go," Gobber said as he threw his sack over his shoulder.
Merida let her legs slide off the desk and slugged her cousin in the shoulder.
"Ow, hey!" the boy frowned as he looked up from his book at her.
"Ye been readin' through my entire lecture, Hiccup?" Gobber asked as he limped towards the two teenagers.
"I've literally heard that story since I was a baby," Hiccup answered. "I could probably recite it back to you."
"Alright, let's hear it then," Gobber said as he led the two teenagers out of the Berk Academy and towards his weapon shop. This was a common ritual for him and the two younglings. He was good friends with both of their parents. Hiccup was the son of the Berk Academy headmaster. Merida was the daughter of the Island of Berk's governor. Both sets of parents were busy. Too busy. Which meant the two teens often spent their nights hanging around Gobber's shop.
As Hiccup continued recounting the tale Gobber had told in class he was cut off with a loud-
"Oof!"
"Whoopsy! Did I do that? Aw, is the wittle boy got a boo-boo?" a nagging voice called as Hiccup picked himself up off the ground, tugging his ever-present, oversized fur vest back in place.
"Snotlout, you howling bampot, whaddya think your doin'?" Merida asked as she stomped towards the bigger boy.
"What, I was just walking, he was the one who got in my way!" Snotlout Jorgenson stated as he pointed back at Hiccup who had by now stood to his feet and had begu dusting himself off.
"You and I both know that's not the case!" Merida crossed her arms.
"Oh," Snotlout turned back to Hiccup. "So now you're going to let our little cousin stand up for you."
"I'm not little!"
"C'mon, Mer, let's just go," Hiccup grumbled as he grabbed Merida by the arm and they began to walk back towards Gobber, who was watching on with a deep frown on his face.
Merida stuck her tongue out at Snotlout as she followed along behind Hiccup.
"What, no love for the future patriarch?" Snotlout asked.
"As if we'd let-"
"Mer, let's go," Hiccup said in a firmer voice as he continued dragging the fiery red head behind him.
Gobber sighed deeply. It was a sad state of affairs, really. Three cousins, who should have been the best of friends, constantly at war with one another. Not that it was their fault. The fact that their mother, three sisters, had all married competitive men who always sought to outdo one another was something completely out of their control. As was the fact that two of their mothers had since vanished from their children's lives. At least Merida and Hiccup got along. Snotlout though, well, Gobber worried about that boy…
Setting a hand on the back of either teen, Gobber led Hiccup and Merida through town. They didn't have far to go. Berk was a small village as well as, in a word, sturdy. Most settlements outside the four main kingdoms didn't survive long, but this one had held its own for three hundred years. It had gone through several changes in those centuries, buildings having to be constantly remade after Grimm attacks. But they were still here. Having a training academy certainly helped with that. Though only a few students got chosen to attend any of the four huntsman academies each year, having nearly youth in town trained in some kind of combat was definitely a plus. It certainly added to the warrior spirit of the town. As if the carvings of Grimm decorating the houses, signs of the number of creatures the inhabitants had slain, weren't indication enough.
Not all of the houses were decorated in monsters, though. Some had other legendary figures etched into them. The maiden of the stars. The man in the moon. The blue fairy.
Finally reaching the only weapon shop in town, Gobber unlocked the door and opened it for the two teens. Merida went into the shop area behind the front desk and flipped on the television, skipping through the channels to find something to watch, picking at the ridiculously thick acrylic nails her mother forced her to wear. Hiccup trudged up the steps to the room that Gobber had politely dubbed "his cove." It was where he designed all of his creative gadgets and gizmos, though today he had no interest in tinkering. He was too invested in his new book for that.
He plopped down onto the cot in the back corner and pulled the book back out of his backpack. He sighed as he looked at the dent in the flimsy mattress he'd made. There was a good chance he'd be staying here tonight rather than home. With finals coming up his dad had a lot of work to do. Not to mention everyone was going to be stressed getting ready to try and not fail their classes as well as impress the representatives from Beacon. And with stress came Grimm. Hiccup could handle the smaller ones on his own and you barely saw anything bigger than an Ursa on Berk, but still, better safe than sorry. Especially after dark.
He laid back down as he flipped to the page he'd left off of and began reading again.
"...try as she may, the youngest sister could do nothing to reach her siblings. They were all bent on continuing and winning this war. Only the youngest of them saw that the fighting was pointless-"
"Hiccup," Merida poked her head in the door.
"Hm?" he asked, never taking his eyes from his book.
"Let's make a new weapon."
"I'm reading."
"But I'm bored!"
"Sounds like a personal problem," Hiccup said as he turned the page. "Besides, I end up doing all the work anyways."
"No ye don't!" Merida protested. "I come up with ideas and then you make them happen."
"Uh-huh. You come up with a ridiculous lump of explosives and fire and I have to figure out how to actually turn it into a design that's actually functional," Hiccup began counting off on his fingers with one hand while continuing to read. "Figure out how to get the stuff to actually make it, put the thing together, test for kinks, work out the kinks, repeat the last two steps at least five times, and then polish it and make it look nice."
"Exactly, I have the vision and you're the one who makes it happen," Merida answered.
"Not today I'm not," Hiccup brought his book back over his face, blocking his cousin from view.
"Ugh! C'mon cous, I'm dying!"
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to send flowers to your funeral."
"Yer the worst!"
"So I've been told."
"What are you even reading about?" Merida leaned over the cot to read the cover of Hiccup's book. "The Maid of the Stars? What's that?"
"It's about the Maid of the Stars."
"I got that much you dummy! But what does she do?"
"Tries to settle a war between her three older siblings, and then when that doesn't work she goes back to her magical realm called 'the star' harnessed the power of its core, and lock each of her siblings within the cores of their realms, the moon, the sun, and the earth respectfully. But by doing so she ends up blowing her realm into smithereens, thus creating the millions of stars we see now."
"Okay, you lost me at 'magical realm.'"
Hiccup rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Just read it when I'm done. It makes more sense in context."
"No!" Merida shuddered. "Don't you remember our agreement? Your the brains and I'm the brawn."
"Why, no. No, I don't not recall such an agreement. Now shut up so I can read," Hiccup huffed as he flipped the page again.
"But I'm bored!" Merida slumped to the floor.
"Again, sounds like a-"
Ding-a-ling!
"Welcome to Gobber's Weaponry. How can I help you?"
Both teenagers perked up at the sound, wondering if perhaps this patron would be someone they knew and could talk to.
"Oh, well that's mighty kind of you, hops along!"
Merida and Hiccup shared a glance. Neither of them recognized that voice. Berk wasn't a very big Island or village. After living here for their whole lives they'd pretty much met every person who lived here.
"How about I just take all your dust and money?" the voice asked again.
"Wait, wha-" Gobber began.
"Come on, limpy, don't make me get messy."
"Um, Mer, I think Gobber might be-and she's gone."
In a flash Merida had bolted down the stairs. Hiccup stood to his feet, setting his book down as he picked up his weapons. As he rushed down the stairs, he counted to himself.
"Fiery explosion in three, two…"
BOOM!
"There it is."
"Merida!" Gobber screeched. "Yer supposed to save me shop not burn it to a-and there she goes."
Hiccup made it to the bottom floor and to Gobber who was still standing behind the front counter, using his coat to beat out the flames left by Merida's fire bolt.
"Gobber do you ne-"
"Go get yer crazy cousin before she gets herself killed or burns half the village down!" Gobber shouted.
Hiccup nodded and took off out the door, making sure his vest was still in place as he did so. He could still see a trail of Merida's whisps, faint but still there, trailing through town. He followed them, running as fast as he could to try and catch up to Merida before her trail disappeared. There's no way she would have had much of a chance to attach to this guy's aura so her tracking on him couldn't have been that great. Hiccup didn't have much time.
He finally found her standing in the center of the town square, shooting several dust bolts at a man in a yellow trench coat and top hat with an eye-patch…
...floating ten feet off the ground.
"BAHAHAHA! Keep trying curly top and maybe you'll actually hit me."
"Huh," Hiccup set his weapons down to pull out a pad and pencil. "That's a new one."
He flipped to a page titled "semblances" and added "anti-gravity abilities of some sort" to the long and ongoing list.
"Hiccup, a little help here!?" Merida shouted.
Hiccup put his pad back and looked about. There were a pile of bricks lying near a demolished building that was in the process of being constructed because it may-or-may-not have been trampled by a stampede of Beowulf's that may-or-may-not have been angered by one of Merida and Hiccup's new weapons that may-or-may-not have malfunctioned, forcing the two to retreat back into town.
Regardless, these bricks were about to come in handy now. Hiccup reached a hand towards them and engaged his semblance. The bricks rose off the ground and Hiccup guided them towards the floating man with a flick of his wrist.
"Whoa!" the man in yellow said as he dodged the bricks. "Well, well, well, looks like we've got a telekinetic on our hands here, boys!"
"Boys?" Hiccup asked just as a giant airship flew out from behind the trees of the forest surrounding town. As the approached at breakneck speeds Hiccup and Merida could see a motley crew of people dressed in all kinds of colorful costumes riding inside the ship. As it drew close several jumped off of the ship and surrounded the two teens. One near Hiccup, a rather large and burly man with unusually large teeth, held up his hands to reveal the were decked in brass knuckles…
...that were fueled with lightning dust.
The man reared back to punch. Hiccup held up his shield. The punch hit against the hard metal, sending off a blast of electricity that zapped and pulsed through the shield. Hiccup listened, waiting for the 'click' that signalled that the blow had been fully absorbed. He then pushed a button on his shield and the lighting blast shot back through the shield and at the man who had given it in the first place. The man grunted and fell back, collapsing to the ground.
Hiccup smirked at his work just as two objects whizzed past his face.
He heard a couple of "laughs!" and "oofs!" from behind him and turned just in time to see two more croneys collapsing to the ground. Their weapons, apparently once held above his head, now laid at their sides. Two more objects whizzed past Hiccup, straight towards Merida.
"Mer-' Hiccup tried to warn her, but stopped mid sentence when the objects bounced off seemingly nothing. A loud yelp filled the air as a woman materialized in front of them and collapsed. Hiccup blinked, then turned to see where these objects were coming from and what they were. A tall man stood at the edge of the town scare, walking cooly through the crowd that had begun to form. He was dressed from head to toe in leather, and he held two boomerangs in his hands, jolting a zapping from lightning dust. Two large, gray bunny ears sprouted from his head.
"A faunus?" Hiccup gasped as the man drew closer, raising his boomerangs and throwing them towards the airship. Hiccup turned and looked, by now the man in the yellow trench coat had climbed aboard and was beckoning all of his cronies to do the same. "C'mon, you idiots! Let's go!"
Zap! Pop!
"Hurry, before this guys electrocutes us!"
The last of the lackeys, the big-toothed man Hiccup had fought climbed aboard and the ship began to take off. The yellow man smiled as he waved to the crowd below.
"Don't worry, folks, this isn't the last you've heard from good ol' Bill Cipher!"
The ship's door closed and it flew off, leaving a trail of smoke behind it.
"Bill Cipher?" Merida asked as she drew closer to her cousin.
"No idea," Hiccup answered.
"You two!" both teens jumped at the feel of a strong hand on their shoulders. They looked to see the bunny faunus glaring at them.
"Come with me!" he shouted as he began dragging them both to a hotel near the town square.