Astrid couldn't believe it was happening. Berk was being invaded, and Hiccup and Stoick had been tricked to leave for gathering medicine, leaving the village defensless. She had just taken down three dragon hunters that had attempted to capture her inside the Great Hall, and rushed outside. If she could get to her dragon, she'd have a chance to run the invaders off of her home island.
"Oh! No, no, no!" She shouted, seeing that her dragon had been captured in a net.
Defeating two more dragon hunters, she took an axe from one.
"Nobody messes with my dragon!"
She readied to cut Stormfly out of the net, but a blast from Krogan's Singetail stopped her in her tracks.
"How gallant." The villain spoke. "Risking everything for your miserable island and your worthless dragon."
Astrid hurled her axe at him, but he caught it with ease.
"Johann was right. So predictable." He smirked as two dragon hunters grabbed onto Astrid's arms.
"You might as well save the men, Krogan. You'll never take Berk!" she shouted at him.
"From the looks of things, we already have. Alas, you won't get to see the invasion in its entirety. I received a special request from Johann to have you sent to him. Oh, and I thank you for giving yourself up to us so easily. Prepare her for her flight, will you?"
Krogan flew off to instruct his troops, as more hunters gathered around Astrid. The two holding on to her forced her wrists behind her back, as a third one began to loop thick coils of rope around them. Astrid thrashed her arms as much as she could, trying to shove the hunters away with her elbows. The hunter that was tying her finished with her wrists, and began to tie additional ropes around her chest, stopping her from moving her arms from her sides. She was then picked up and placed on the back of a Singetail, behind a flyer. Just as she was about to try to jump off and make a run for it, dragon-proof chains were pulled around her, pinning her to the dragon's body. The last thing she saw before she was flown off was her home in flames, and its people in terror.
Hiccup and Stoick were on the brink of rescuing Berk. They might have been tricked into leaving it defenseless, but they weren't going to give up on their village. Just as Krogan was about to finish off Stoick, Hiccup and Toothless rushed in, blasting him away.
"Do you think one more of you is going to make a difference? This is finished." Krogan taunted.
"Who said it was just one more of us?" Stoick objected.
Hiccup then revealed that he had freed the village's dragons, and instructed them all to blast open the barricaded doors of the Great Hall. He saw Gobber, Snotlout, and Fishlegs shove the doors open, shocked to not see Astrid with them, and wondering where she was.
Krogan scowled as he saw his flyers being chased away by Berk's dragons.
"You're right about one thing, Krogan. This is finished." Stoick remarked.
"Enjoy your remaining days. We will do what we set out to do!" Just as Krogan was about to escape, he threw a rolled up map on the ground, without anybody noticing.
"Johann has no idea what he's started." Stoick said, watching Krogan fly off.
Hiccup quickly glanced around the village. He saw that everybody seemed okay, but he couldn't see Astrid anywhere.
"Has anybody seen Astrid?" he asked. "I can't find her!"
"She ran out of the Great Hall as we were captured in there. We haven't seen her since!" Gobber said with a worried expression.
"Astrid!" Hiccup yelled out to the village, still not spotting her. Everyone else joined in calling for her, but she didn't appear.
"They must have taken her!" Hiccup yelled, hands shaking.
"Hiccup, look!" Fishlegs said, pointing at the dropped map.
Hiccup rushed over, picked it up, and unrolled it.
"No! She's been taken to Johann's ship! And he wants me to trade the Dragon Eye lenses to get her back!"
"Johann's just begging for his death now!" Stoick exclaimed. "Go after her, son. Gobber and I will stay here to lead the Auxiliary Team in case the flyers try their luck against us again. You and the Riders need to rescue her before it's too late."
"Everybody mount up!" Hiccup yelled to the Riders. "They'll regret taking Astrid!"
Astrid shifted in her restraints as she was being flown, but found herself unable to get free. Craning her neck to see what they were approaching, she noticed Johann's ship coming into view. It filled her with anger knowing that she and the others had been tricked into thinking it was a ship that belonged to an ally before. The flyer landed his Singetail on the deck of the ship, climbing off and pulling the chains off of her. Immediately after, two dragon hunters that had been standing by pulled her off the dragon, onto her feet. Astrid was then escorted below-decks. As they entered, she was shoved forward and the two hunters remained behind her.
"Ah, Miss Astrid, I had been hoping you would be gracing me with your presence!" Johann said with a smirk.
"You back-stabbing excuse of a man! We helped you for years, and you repay us by taking over Berk?!" she screamed.
"Now that is a proper reaction to betrayal. You could teach Hiccup a thing or two about keeping things interesting!"
"I should have ended you when I had the chance! I still remember when you were at the tip of my axe, begging for your life!"
"You're far too weak to even consider ending me." Johann laughed.
"Weak? I'll show you weak!" Despite being tied up, Astrid tried to tackle Johann, but the hunters behind her pushed her to her knees. Each hunter held her down by pressing a hand on her shoulder armor. Johann simply folded his arms, giving an amused expression.
"You're certainly feisty for someone all tied up and helpless." He commented, looking down at her.
"If it wasn't for these ropes, you'd be so sorry!" Astrid growled, straining furiously against her bonds.
"Oh, you make such an interesting hostage! It's a shame we'll be trading you away for the Dragon Eye lenses. You know as well as I do, Hiccup would choose his betrothed over a bag of glass any day."
"Well tough luck Johann, I'm not going to make Hiccup have to risk the life of every dragon just for me! I'm going to talk him out of it!" Astrid exclaimed.
"Is that so? I'd like to see you talk him out of it with a gag in your mouth." Johann grabbed a cloth, and advanced towards her. He slid the cloth between her teeth, and tied it off behind her head.
"Thm drhghn rndmrf wnll fthp nhh!" Astrid shouted through the gag.
"Hahaha, once I have the lenses, nobody will be able stop me, silly girl. And now that we have you to trade, it's only a matter of time. You think we'll stop with Berk? The entire Archipelago will belong to the Dragon Hunters!"
Astrid glared at him, still trying to see if she could find a way to loosen the ropes she was tied in.
Suddenly, Krogan came barreling through the tent.
"Johann, we lost Berk, and its hostages. Unfortunately, Hiccup and his father were able to free the village's dragons and run the flyers away."
"Thank Thor." Astrid thought. "I knew they'd be able to rescue them."
"Not all of its hostages, Krogan. We still have our most important one. Our future Mrs. Haddock, at least if Hiccup is willing to part with his lenses."
Realizing Astrid had remained captured, Krogan let out a chuckle. "My, my, this must be humiliating. One of Berk's strongest warriors, reduced to a damsel in distress. Really, she's the only worthy warrior from the island."
"Gh jhmp imn Ghhngmwnng hgnd!" Astrid shouted at him.
"She wants me to jump in Changewing acid, eh? I say she's still too easy to hear. She could use more silencing." Krogan grabbed another cloth from nearby, covering it over the bottom part of Astrid's face. Astrid could now only let out indistinguishable mumbles. Her face reddened in the fury of not even being able to insult or threaten her enemies.
"Now comes the waiting game!" Johann clapped his hands together. "Soon we'll be well on our way to dominating the Archipelago! And Berk will be ours again!"
Looking intently at the map, Hiccup led the Dragon Riders to where the Hunters had arranged to meet.
"Can we hear the plan to both save Astrid and keep the lenses? I think that's something we should know." Snotlout suddenly spoke up.
"There is no plan. I'm giving the Hunters what they want." Hiccup grumbled.
"What? Surely you're thinking of something?" Ruffnut asked.
"Look, everyone. This is entirely my fault. Unlike me, Astrid's smart enough to not get herself captured all the time. And now thanks to me, she has to go through something that wasn't her fault at all. I can't take any chances of her getting hurt on my responsibility. I was the one that was tricked by Johann's map. I was the one that let the disguised hunters take over Berk. So I don't want to be the one that makes anyone suffer any more!"
"Hey, take it easy. We're heading to rescue her, aren't we?" Tuffnut asked.
"And as we know, Astrid can handle herself. I'm sure she's okay." Fishlegs added.
Hiccup noticed Johann's ship coming into sight, protected by a few flyers.
"Well, we're about to find out."
Hiccup told the riders to stay in the air, to keep the flyers at bay. Landing on Johann's ship, Hiccup stared down Krogan and his Singetail. Krogan pointed to the hatch of the ship, still staring at them.
"Keep them right there, bud." Hiccup said to Toothless, climbing off of them.
Toothless narrowed his eyes and growled at Krogan, and the man scowled back.
Hiccup began to walk below-decks, keeping a close eye on Krogan as he opened the hatch. Heading down the steps, he saw Johann, two dragon hunters, and Astrid, who had been bound and gagged. One of the hunters also held a sword near her neck, ready for commands from Johann. As soon as Astrid saw him, she immediately began to give out muffled shouts. Hiccup couldn't interpret her words, but he knew she didn't want him to make the trade. He'd have to endure her scolding him later. He wanted her back and safe, so that both of them could find a way to stop Johann, Krogan, and Viggo together.
"Let's not waste any time." Johann spoke. "The lenses for the girl's life. And if there's one thing I know, you'll pick her. How excited you had sounded when you announced your betrothal to me was far more helpful than you realized."
Hiccup just glared at Johann, not even wanting to acknowledge another mistake he had made. He held up his bag of lenses.
"Don't even think about any tricks. Show me that those are really the lens!" Johann shouted.
Hiccup opened the pouch, and Johann gave a malicious grin.
"Now bring them to me."
"And how do I know you won't have them kill Astrid as soon as I do?" Hiccup interjected.
"I would gain nothing from killing her. No, I'd much prefer to have both her and you as my servants once I take over the Archipelago. You'll instead be wishing for the relief of death, which I won't be gifting you!"
Realizing he had no choice but to part with the lenses, Hiccup handed the bag to Johann.
"Now was that so hard? You could have saved a lot of trouble by just giving them to me at the Northern Markets. Men, let the girl g-"
Astrid had had enough. She wasn't going to let Johann achieve his plans just because she had been ambushed and out-numbered. Before he could finish what he was going to say, she had spun around and sent a powerful aerial kick into the chest of one of the hunters. The impact knocked him into the other one, and caused them both to fall to the ground. Dropping to the floor to pick up the sword they had dropped, she began to start cutting her bindings.
Seeing that Astrid wasn't in immediate danger anymore, Hiccup charged at Johann and tried to pull the bag back from him. However, the man was stronger than Hiccup had ever given credit for! With both pulling on the bag as hard as they could, it then tore open, and the lenses fell through the floorboards of the ship, into the sea's current.
"No!" Johann shouted.
"Go, Hiccup!" Astrid yelled, having pulled the cloths out of her mouth. "I'm fine, get the lenses!"
Hiccup began to run to the steps, but Johann dove at him. Catching his prosthetic, he ripped it off of his leg, causing Hiccup to tumble down the steps, landing below him. Before he could get up, Johann forcefully slammed the prosthetic onto Hiccup's head, knocking him out cold.
"Oh no!" Astrid rushed over to Hiccup, checking to make sure the impact hadn't killed him.
"Get up here!" Johann yelled from the deck to the two hunters still inside.
The hunters quickly ran up the steps, leaving Hiccup and Astrid alone inside. On the deck, Toothless was still staring down Krogan and his Singetail, and the other riders were wondering why Hiccup and Astrid hadn't resurfaced yet. Suddenly, Johann had the hunters seal the entrance to the ship's interior.
"Sink the ship! I've had enough of those two! We'll get the lenses on the Singetails!" Johann yelled to his men.
"We have to get Hiccup and Astrid out of there!" Fishlegs yelled to the group.
All of them had their dragons try to blast open the deck, but all of their firepower did nothing. Toothless frantically tried to open the latch, but nothing he did could get him to his rider.
"Of course! Johann dragon-proofed his ship! Who would have guessed?" Snotlout said in frustration.
Fishlegs noticed Krogan, Johann, and the rest of the hunters searching for lenses on their Singetails.
"Twins, find a way to get Hiccup and Astrid out of there before the ship sinks! Stormfly, Snotlout and I will stop the hunters from getting the lens!"
"Leave it to us! We'll have our fearless leader and his bride-to-be out of there while you take them on!" Tuffnut exclaimed.
Stormfly immediately began to start attacking dragon flyers, signaling for them to begin.
"I'm going for Johann!" Snotlout yelled. He spotted Johann riding on the back of a flyer's Singetail, pointing where he believed the lens to be. Directing Hookfang straight towards them, Snotlout leaped off of his dragon, and kicked the flyer straight off of the Singetail.
"Oh Johann? I've been waiting years to do this!" Snotlout delivered a punch straight into Johann's face, causing him to fall backwards on the dragon.
Johann quickly rose up, but with two knives then in his hands. "And I've been waiting years to do this!" He began to jab at Snotlout, the dragon rider barely being able to dodge the attacks. "Never bring your fists to a knife fight!"
As that was going on, Fishlegs and Meatlug were doing everything they could to slow Krogan and his Singetail down.
"Out of my way, Ingerman! I'd kill you if I had the time to!" Krogan yelled.
"I won't let you hurt any dragons! Whatever you're planning to do with the lens, you need to stop!"
"And why would I listen to a wimpy child, babied by a pathetic dragon?"
"You want to see pathetic?"
Fishlegs didn't even need to tell Meatlug what to do, she knew she was being spoken ill of. Quickly flying over Krogan, she attempted to drop a stream of lava onto him, but he immediately steered his Singetail out of the lava flow.
"If that's the best you've got, you've got a long ways to go!"
Krogan's Singetail slapped Meatlug with its tail, causing them to be knocked away. Meatlug angrily retaliated by tackling the Singetail, finally getting its full attention.
Back to the twins, the two had flown onto a sea-stack nearby.
"If our dragons can't open the ship, maybe a big stack of rock will!" Ruffnut shouted. "Barf, Belch, pick up that stack!"
The Zippleback pulled the stack out of the water, and began to fly it to the ship.
Inside, the ship was beginning to sink, fast. Holding Hiccup in one arm, Astrid used her other and her legs to keep both of their heads above the rising water inside. Hiccup wasn't difficult for her to keep above the water, but it was filling up fast. If her friends didn't get them out of there in time...
"Hiccup, Astrid, get away from the hatch!" She heard Tuffnut scream outside.
"Okay!" She screamed out, pulling Hiccup with her as she swam away from the exit, hoping they knew what they were doing.
Barf and Belch flew as high as they could, and dropped the stack when the Twins determined they'd have enough force from the drop. Just as the ship's deck was about to be completely submerged, the stack crashed into the hatch, breaking it through. Toothless immediately dove into the water, swimming directly to Hiccup and Astrid. Astrid got onto him, putting her foot into his slide, and holding Hiccup in front of her. Flying them out, Astrid saw the sight of Stormfly taking down several dragon flyers.
"That's my girl!" she shouted, seeing her dragon protect everyone.
Back on Johann's Singetail, Snotlout was attempting to slip in punches while avoiding being run through by knives. "I really hate you! You know that?"
"Oh good, the feeling's mutual!" Johann shouted back.
Johann then kicked out Snotlout's legs from under him, and held a knife directly above his face.
"What joy this will be!"
"Ahhh!"
Suddenly, Hookfang headbutted Johann, knocking him into the water.
"Hookfang, you amazing lizard! I owe you one, buddy!" Snotlout climbed onto his dragon, and the Singetail he had been on flew away.
The twins then surfaced from the water, holding all of the lenses in their helmets.
"Who needs nets, when you have these?" Ruffnut said.
Fishlegs pointed at Krogan. "Who's pathetic now? Oh yeah, the guy who lost all his allies and is all alone, that's who!"
"You will pay dearly for this! You all will!" Krogan announced. Before the riders could react, he swooped down, retrieved Johann from the water, and flew off.
As Johann's ship completely sunk into the water, all that was left was the riders, their dragons, and the helmets full of lenses. Hiccup slowly began to regain consciousness, holding his hand to his head as he felt a sharp pain.
"What's going on?" He uttered out.
"We did it!" Ruffnut exclaimed. "Everyone's safe and we got the lenses right here!"
Hiccup perked up at the shock of seeing the lenses. "We did? How?"
"Well, you and I owe our lives to the twins." Astrid said. "Johann knocked you out and tried to sink his ship with you and I still inside, but they and Toothless got us out in time."
"And Hookfang and I kept Johann from getting the lenses from the water! I really schooled him in a fight too!"
"You mean Hookfang did! And Meatlug let Krogan know she's not pathetic." Fishlegs added.
Hiccup turned to Astrid behind him. "I'm so glad you're safe. Not that I was concerned about you not being able to handle yourself. And thanks for making sure I didn't drown while we were in there."
"Don't worry about it. It's neither of our faults that Johann knows about our betrothal. We'll just have to make sure he won't get to use it against us again." she replied.
Hiccup turned back to the group. "Thank all of you. Johann may have the hunters on his side, but I know we've still got the advantage. We'll defeat them, as a team!"
"As a team!" Everyone shouted together.