"Ready for volcano maintenance, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked his friend as he entered his hut.
"Just about." He replied to his friend. "Finishing up something I'd been wanting to try out on my Dragon Eye."
"Oh, that's good." Fishlegs made his way over to Hiccup's table. "Mind if I sit?"
"Not at all."
"Great, I've actually been meaning to talk to you about something."
"Oh yeah? What's on your mind?" Hiccup asked, glancing up from his work while still picking up various parts.
"I've been thinking a lot about the Dragon Hunters. Now that they have Heather's lens, we don't know what kind of surprise attacks they could pull out at us."
"I know, Fishlegs. We're all doing the best we can to be ready for anything."
"Well, here's what's bothering me. Am I really doing my best? You and I both know I really don't enjoy fighting. Obviously I've got the figure for it, but not the mindset. So, do you think I should become Thor Bonecrusher full-time to be of much more help?"
Hiccup put down everything he was working with and looked right at Fishlegs. "What? No! I would never want you to be Thor Bonecrusher. He's so, not you. Impulsive, reckless, and arrogant; completely not the smart, cautious, and calculating strategist our team needs."
"But the team already has a strategist, you! Astrid's also really good at that kind of thing. I was thinking about if the team really needed three people to do that kind of thing."
"Well, Astrid's a warrior too. Basically the perfect blend of intelligence and strength. It's crazy how she has that while also having beauty too. But, uh, we could always use more strategy! The twins and Snotlout have got the recklessness more than covered for sure."
"I know, I know. Still can't stop thinking of how much more useful I might be as Thor Bonecrusher though."
Hiccup rose from his seat. "Well, sounds like we'd better get to the maintenance so we can worry about that instead."
"I suppose you're right. Thanks for listening to me about that."
"Sure thing. Pretty soon you'll probably see how much we need Fishlegs, and not him."
The duo and their dragons made their way around the island, patching up opening volcano holes with Gronkle Iron and Deathsong Amber. When all the small holes had been taking care of, the four made their way to the largest new hole on the island.
"Looks like we've got quite a big one." Hiccup said, climbing off of Toothless.
"I've never seen one this big. It's like a miniature version of our volcano!" Fishlegs exclaimed, walking closer to it.
"Be careful! We've never worked with a hole this big." Hiccup warned.
"I'll just study it for a few seconds, then we'll take care of it."
Fishlegs moved closer to the hole to investigate it. He observed the lava inside suddenly beginning to bubble. Upon realization of what was about to happen, Fishlegs jerked his head back, but the force of the explosion hurled him through the air, crashing hard on his back. Unfortunately, thinking we was about to die, Fishlegs suffered a 'life flashing before the eyes' moment, except primarily for Thor Bonecrusher.
"Fishlegs! Fishlegs! Speak to me!" Hiccup shook his friend, still lying on the ground.
When Fishlegs opened his eyes, he wasn't Fishlegs. Upon impact, the shock caused him to truly think he was Thor Bonecrusher, without even needing to be hypnotized. He jumped to his feet, shoving Hiccup away from him.
"What did you call me, plebian?" Thor Bonecrusher demanded.
"Oh, that's so not good. You think you're Thor Bonecrusher?" Hiccup asked.
"I don't think I'm him, I am him! Now how was it possible that I was knocked to the ground?" Thor thought for a moment. "Of course! You had your Night Fury attack me. But even this dragon wasn't able to kill Thor Bonecrusher!"
"Toothless didn't do anything. You were launched by the explosion from that hole!"
"I shall engage you in battle for revenge of your attempted murder!" Thor exclaimed.
"We didn't attempt any murder! Fishlegs, snap out of it!"
"Not only will I defeat you in battle, I will do so in front of your followers! Then I will become the new leader of these dragon riders!"
"Under no circumstances am I going to fight you! I just need you to go back to the Clubhouse here on the island, and then we'll try to find some way to heal you."
Thor signaled for Meatlug to come to him, and he climbed onto her. "I will find a way to make you fight me. Enjoy your last few moments as the leader of this island, Hiccup Haddock!"
Thor flew off on Meatlug, leaving Hiccup disgruntled at once again having to put up with the nonsense of Thor Bonecrusher.
After returning to the main section of Dragon's Edge, Hiccup called the group together for a meeting.
"And after getting launched onto his back, he started thinking he's Thor Bonecrusher again. And since he thinks I had Toothless attack him, he's planning to try to make me fight him!"
"Clearly you should." Snotlout commented. "I'd love to see you get whooped in a fight against TB."
"Wouldn't be much to see." Ruffnut added. "Unlike Fishlegs, Thor knows how to put that hefty frame to work."
"No matter what, we're not going to let him fight Hiccup." Astrid stated. "He might try to severely hurt him, and I know Hiccup wouldn't want to accidentally hurt his friend."
"Exactly. What we need to do is find some way to lure him here, and keep him under control until we can change him back. Here's the plan. Toothless and I will wait here in case he decides to look for me, while the rest of you go search for him on the island. Take nets with you to trap him in as well."
"But how are we going to turn him back into Fishlegs? You said you didn't even hypnotize him." Astrid questioned.
"I...don't know." Hiccup said.
"The answer's quite simple." Tuffnut began. "Fishlegs is Thor Bonecrusher now, not hypnotized. So all we have to do is hypnotize Thor Bonecrusher to be Fishlegs. Boom, problem solved."
"Yeah, it's really obvious. How come the rest of you couldn't think of that?" Ruffnut asked.
"We don't even know if that would work, yak for brains." Snotlout responded.
"Well, we might as well try it. Just try to be sneaky, and bring him back here as soon as you can." Hiccup said, sending them off.
After the four riders and their three dragons had what they needed, they split up to search for the missing viking and Gronkle. While soaring through the forests, Astrid's sharp eyes spotted Thor standing a bit away below her. Upon seeing her in the sky, Thor quickly ran deeper into the more condensed sections, where he wouldn't be able to be spotted.
"Take us down, girl." Astrid told her dragon. Stormfly descended to the ground, and the two were faced with a fork in the trees. "Great, he got away through one of these paths."
Retrieving the net, Astrid then instructed Stormfly to take the path to the left, while she split to the path on the right. She realized Bonecrusher shouldn't be too hard to find because of his size. It's not like he could have hid behind much of anything in the forest. Still running down the path, Astrid stopped when she heard noises. She saw movement in bushes nearby, and slowly crept over to them. Still unseen, she quickly pushed the bushes away.
"Meatlug?" She questioned out loud, watching the dragon roll around in the grass happily.
As she was distracted by unexpectedly seeing her, she was completely unprepared for bolas that were quickly thrown around her arms and legs. Losing her balance in surprise, Astrid toppled to the ground, looking down at the cords that looped around her chest and ankles.
"Hey!" she screamed out.
Thor then revealed himself from behind the trees he had been hiding, carrying more ropes in his hands.
"Nicely done, Meatlug." he complimented his dragon.
"That's enough fooling around, Fishlegs. Let's get back to Dragon's Edge so we can snap you out of this Bonecrusher phase again."
"I will not be insulted by a title as senseless as Fishlegs! I will be going back to Dragon's Edge, but you won't be!"
"What are you talking about?"
Without continuing the discussion, Thor looped the end of a rope around Astrid's arms and waist, and pulled it tight.
"Yeah, I don't think so!" Astrid yelled, realizing what he was trying to do. She gave a surprise kick in his chest with her bound legs, and caused him to drop the rope he was holding. She began to try to shake off the bolas, but Thor recovered must faster than expected. He forced her to her knees, holding her to the ground by pressing a hand on her shoulder armor. With his other hand, he began to wind the rope around her upper body, with Astrid's struggles becoming lessened as she was tied up with more rope. Finishing off with a knot near her shoulders, completely out of reach of her hands, Thor began to use another rope to more effectively secure her legs.
At this point, Astrid realized she wouldn't be getting free on her own, and began to call to her dragon for help.
"Stormfly! Stormfly! I need your help over here!"
Realizing that an angry dragon could potentially give him trouble, Thor felt the need to clamp his hand over her mouth.
"What can I use to keep you quiet?" He pondered to himself.
Thor noticed that the tree he had been hiding behind was filled with apples, and that some had fallen in the grass. At that moment Astrid bit into his hand as painfully as she could, causing the skin on his hand to be torn into.
"Ouch! Oh, I'll give you something to bite into!"
He released his grip on Astrid, and picked up an apple. Using a knife from his pouch, he cut a hole through the center, big enough to feed one of his ropes through. While he was doing this, Astrid started to make ear-piercing dragon calling sounds that everyone had practiced. Her noises were instantly ceased as Thor shoved the apple into her mouth, and tightly tied it behind her head. Astrid tried to spit it out, but the rope caused it to effectively be stuck. It was a rather hard and fresh apple too, that would take effort biting into to break.
"Whht dh nhh thnng nhh'rm dhnng?" Astrid questioned.
"That should keep you quiet for at least a few minutes."
Thor hefted Astrid over his shoulder, her eyes going big in unexpectedness of what was next to happen.
"Come, Meatlug! We must take her far from here."
Still carying Astrid, Thor mounted his dragon, and began to stealthily fly out of the forest. As they were in the air, Astrid furiously bit into the apple, beginning to break off pieces and having to swallow them, being unable to spit anything out. Thor flew them to a section of the Edge with many small caverns, and by the time they arrived, Astrid had chewed enough of the apple to make it loose enough to spit out.
"Let me go!" she exclaimed. "I can't help you if you keep me tied up!"
"Oh, you are going to help me! Hiccup Haddock refuses to accept a fight with me. But you and I both know, he'd do anything to rescue you! I'm only going to tell him where you are once he's accepted my challenge, and I become this islands new leader when he loses!"
"Yeah, using me as a hostage is a real honest way to determine leadership!" Astrid yelled sarcastically.
Thor leaned in uncomfortably close to her. "I think you'll come to see how much a better leader I am than him. Perhaps you'll even choose me as your betrothed."
Astrid gave an expression of disgust. "I wouldn't be your betrothed if you were the last viking in the archipelago."
"Is that so? Very well then. Hope you enjoy your stay in this cavern."
Astrid was tossed into one of the small caverns, big enough for her to move around only slightly in. Thor began to start piling nearby rocks in the opening of it, creating a barricade.
"You're going to fail! Hiccup will find some way to hypnotize you to be Fishlegs!"
"When I return to free you, I will return as your leader. Do not think anything else!" Thor finished sealing the entrance in the cavern, not allowing any space of gaps between the rocks. Meatlug watched the entire time, highly confused at what was happening.
"To the fighting arena, we go!" Thor shouted, jumping onto Meatlug and taking off.
After Thor had left, Astrid immediately got to her feet, using the wall as traction to get up. With the cavern's short ceiling, she was forced to lean forward, only helping the horribly cramped feeling. Although she was tied up and stuck behind a wall of rock, She wasn't going to sit there and do nothing. Since Thor hadn't tied her hands behind her, she tried to get a grip on the rocks in front of her, having major difficulty reaching the rocks up high. The extremely annoying ropes prevented her from moving her arms at all, and there wasn't anything inside the cavern that could cut them. Astrid continued to try to pull on the rocks that she could reach, but the weight of the unreachable rocks up top was too heavy for her to budge any of the bottom ones.
Astrid let out a frustrated shout, trying to break the ropes off her arms by straining against them, but having no luck. To her surprise, she suddenly heard loud stomping coming towards the cavern. Soon the rocks began to shake, and began to decrease in number. As the rocks began to fall apart, Astrid recognized a large pair of eyes.
"Meatlug!" She called. "Keep eating the rocks!"
The dragon happily obliged, enjoying the wall of edible objects to her species. Once enough rocks had been removed, Astrid climbed out of the cavern. She elevated herself on a rock, enabling her to reach into the pouch on Meatlug, retrieving one of Fishlegs's knives. Cutting through the loops of ropes over her chest, Astrid shook them off as they fell to the ground. As she got free, Meatlug had just finished eating the last of the rocks.
"What do you say we pay Thor a visit?"
At the arena on the Edge, Hiccup waited with the other riders that had already returned after giving up on finding Thor.
"Astrid must still be looking for him. The rest of you could have tried as hard as she is, you know!"
"I'm telling you, there was no sign of him anywhere. He might not even be on the island anymore!" Snotlout exclaimed.
"Which is exactly why we need to change him as soon as possible. Thor wandering off is the last thing we need." Hiccup then saw Thor began to approach them, but to everyone's shock, he was holding Astrid's axe.
"Thor! Where did you get Astrid's axe? And where is she?" Hiccup demanded.
"Oh, I'm not telling you where she is. I will let you know I've got her tied up in an inescapable location, and I won't tell you where she is until you fight me. Oh, and if you try to pull anything with that Night Fury, I can promise you you won't be seeing her again."
"Scum of the archipelago." Hiccup growled. "You just had to involve Astrid in this."
"Well, it looks like you have no choice but to fight me. Gather your weapons and come back to this ring!"
Hiccup angrily retrieved his Dragon Blade and shield, advised Toothless to stay in his hut until he returned, and marched to the arena ring. Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut excitedly stood at the sidelines, eager for the combat to begin.
"Now listen here, runt. When I defeat you, you and the others are to address me as your leader. You will no longer be in charge of this island." Thor declared.
"Well, if I defeat you, you have to first show us where Astrid is, and then allow us to hypnotize you to be Fishlegs; the guy you really are!" Hiccup retaliated.
Thor let out a large laugh in response. "The nerve of you to even think you could defeat me."
"Let's just get started!" Snotlout yelled out.
Hiccup and Thor stood on opposite sides of the dome, holding their weapons ready.
"FIGHT!" Snotlout and the twins screamed all at once.
Thor didn't waste a second running towards Hiccup with a battle cry. Knowing he couldn't hope to stop a figure that massive hurdling towards him, Hiccup opted to run from where he was standing.
"Think he'll just keep running and try to tire him out?" Ruffnut asked.
"Well, he could tire out Fishlegs quite easily, but not Thor Bonecrusher. Must be something to do with his immaculate posture." Tuffnut observed.
Hiccup's plan quickly backfired, when he realized he was the one getting tired out first from running. He slowed down to catch his breath, and held up his shield as Thor began to swing his axe at him. Hiccup could barely keep his shield in front of him from the force of the blows. Thor continually bashed into the shield, until Hiccup had lost the energy needed to keep it in place. The shield was launched across the field, leaving Hiccup with only his sword. He desperately tried to disarm Thor without hurting him, but no matter how hard he hit the axe, it didn't budge at all. Thor grinned, and knocked Inferno out of Hiccup's hand in one swift swing of his axe. He then held his axe towards Hiccup's throat, with the young viking falling over when trying to back away, and ended up stuck between the ground and Thor's axe.
"Just as easy as I knew it would be." Thor stated triumphantly.
"Well, I guess we should probably do something to help Hiccup." Snotlout shrugged.
"I got an idea." Ruffnut said. "Hey Thor, a warrior like you doesn't even need weapons to defeat him! Show us another round without you using that axe!"
"Oh yes! That is, if you're not too afraid to do it." Tuffnut added.
"Afraid? Don't waste your time with such foolish mockery. I'll easily defeat him without this useless axe." Thor cast the axe aside, and alowed Hiccup to rise back up.
Hiccup showed a brief expression of gratitude towards Snotlout and the twins, and collected his weapons for a hopefully successful round two.
"FIGHT!" The three screamed again.
Hiccup decided to risk being offensive this time. He quickly shot out a bola from his shield, but Thor front-flipped over the spinning cords. As he was approaching him, Hiccup tried to jab at him with the hilt of his sword as not to hurt him, but the attacks did nothing at all to Thor's massive body. Thor simply gripped Hiccup's shield out of his hand, tossing it away again. He delivered a swift punch to Hiccup's gut, knocking him to the ground, defeated again.
"Thor Bonecrusher has proved once again that he is far more worthy of being your leader than this excuse of a viking!"
"Oh yeah? There's no way you could defeat him without using your hands at all." Tuffnut stated. "We'd like to see you try with your hands behind your back!"
Thor let out a grin, looking forward to yet again showing what he was capable of.
"Very well! I will fight him without using my hands at all!"
Hiccup stumbled to his feet, feeling like every bone in his stomach had been shattered from the forceful punch.
"I have to try to win this. He won't even be using his hands!" Hiccup thought to himself.
Hiccup collected his weapons a third time, and Thor clasped his hands together behind his back.
"Fight." Snotlout and the twins mumbled with boredom, knowing that Hiccup was most likely going to be defeated again.
Hiccup and Thor sidestepped around in a circle for a few seconds, both thinking about the best way to take the other down. As Hiccup was still thinking, Thor leaned forward and charged straight at him, much like a bull. Hiccup was knocked to the ground, losing his weapons in surprise. Without any prior warning, Thor then slammed his head into Hiccup's head with a massive headbutt. Seeing dark splotches in his eyes, Hiccup fell on his back, completely dazed and disoriented.
"I have now defeated Hiccup Haddock without even using my hands! You may now worship me as your all-powerful leader."
"Sorry, Hiccup. We tried all we could." Tuffnut said, squatting toward his injured friend.
"You gave it your best, so good work for that!" Ruffnut complimented.
"But it wasn't good enough. Guess Fishy's staying as Thor Bonecrusher forever!" Snotlout exclaimed, not upset about the situation.
The three walked away from Hiccup, to begin a heated conversation with Thor. Hiccup remained on the ground, still half-conscious and too exhausted to find the energy to get up. A few moments later, he was greated by the wonderful sight of Astrid looking down at him.
"A-Astrid? You're here? Are you okay?" He stuttered out.
"I'm fine, Hiccup. Thor underestimated the challenge of keeping me as a hostage, and here I am."
"I'm so glad you're back. Fighting to rescue you did not go well."
"Wait, you actually tried to fight him to rescue me?" As Astrid said this, she then noticed the dirt and bruises on Hiccup's face and his discarded weapons not too far away.
"That idiot hurt you! I'm taking him down, right here and right now. You just rest Hiccup, I'll handle everything."
She gave him a kiss on the forehead, before immediately changing her expression to one of pure rage, and angrily marched over to Thor.
"BONECRUSHER!"
"Astrid, when did you get here?" Snotlout asked.
"How did you even manage to escape my prison?" Thor questioned.
"I'll have you know I'm not easy to keep as a hostage. I don't appreciate someone trying to make me a damsel in distress! And I especially want you to know, no one hurts Hiccup and gets away with it!"
"And what are you going to do about it?" Thor asked, with a smirk.
"Take you down in a fight, that's what!"
"Very well! Normally Thor Bonecrusher doesn't fight women, but you seem like a worthy opponent!"
"Hooray, more fighting!" Tuffnut cheered.
Thor readied to pick Astrid's axe back up, but she cartwheeled over to it, grabbing it as she flipped back onto her feet.
"Nope, this is mine, chump."
"Then the flaming sword is mine." Thor proclaimed. He picked up the Dragon Blade, and activated its fiery coating.
"FIGHT!" Snotlout and the twins screamed with renewed energy.
Astrid let out a battle cry that made Thor's seem like a whisper. She rushed towards him, hacking at Inferno with much more force than Hiccup had previously used. Thor was slightly shocked, but nevertheless parried all of her blows. Thor attempted to knock her axe away, and when Astrid twisted her body to dodge, Inferno slightly burned her arm. Despite the immense pain of the heated blade, Astrid continued to block attacks and send out her own.
"You're far better than that runt, I have to say!" Thor said with a grin.
"Don't you dare say anything else bad against him!" Astrid readied to do a jumping kick, but Thor was prepared for her offense after the taunt. He grabbed her leg, causing her to slam to the ground. While he still had a grip on her leg, Astrid used her stomach muscles to propel herself forward, throwing a punch to Thor's face. He recoiled in pain, releasing his grip on her. Astrid rushed back in with her axe swinging, and Thor barely blocked it in time with Inferno. With both weapons locked into each other, they both slipped out of their hands, flying across the arena. Thor rushed after the sword, accidentally focused on his weapon more than Astrid. She then leaped onto his back, shoving his head to the ground. Gripping his helmet, she began to slam it against his head multiple times.
"Whoa! He's still Fishlegs! Don't kill him!" Ruffnut said in surprise.
At her distraction, Astrid lost focus and Thor jerked Astrid off of him, sending her tumbling to the ground. He readied for an elbow drop, but she quickly rolled out from under him. Using a move she knew worked on Fishlegs, she gripped him by his clothes, and flipped him over her shoulder. Just before he could get up, she suddenly had him in an extremely restrictive headlock.
"The Hofferson Head Press! She hasn't used that since the time she wanted to kill Snotlout!" Tuffnut exclaimed.
"Yeah, you don't have to remind me about that." Snotlout complained.
Thor struggled in the head press, but found himself stuck in a position he wasn't able to get out of.
"This is foul play!" he exclaimed. "This is not combat!"
"Will you be quiet? I'm restraining Thor Bonecrusher so I don't injure Fishlegs!" Astrid explained. "Snotlout, get the pendulum ready! Now!"
"Ah!" Snotlout rushed into the arena, grabbing the pendulum Hiccup had brought nearby. He held it near Thor's face.
"Get that thing away from me, knave!" Thor screamed.
Snotlout held Thor's eyes open, and began to swing the pendulum in front of him. "Listen up! You're Fishlegs Ingerman. The nerdy wimp we all know and, uh, love I guess. Not Thor Bonecrusher!"
"And you will never ever be Thor Bonecrusher again!" Astrid yelled.
Finally, Thor had stopped resisting. He closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"Uh, did it work?" Snotlout asked.
"Did what work?" Fishlegs asked in response. "And Astrid, could you please let me out of your head press? I have volcano maintenance to take care of."
"Thank the gods, he's back." Astrid said, jumping off of him.
"Back? I was only gone with Hiccup a few minutes."
"Nope! You went full on crazy as Thor Bonecrusher again!" Snotlout laughed. "Caused a lot of trouble too!"
Hearing Hiccup groan, everyone quickly went to check on him.
"Hey, Hiccup." Astrid said. "Guess who we fixed?"
"I'm guessing it's me. What exactly happened?" Fishlegs asked.
Astrid sat down by Hiccup, holding him up against her. "When you were launched by a hole, you turned into Thor, and thought Hiccup and Toothless had attacked you. Then you as Thor trapped me in a cavern to try to make Hiccup fight you to rescue me. And finally, Meatlug helped me escape and I came here to defeat Thor and hypnotize him back into you."
"Oh my gods, I'm so sorry! Now I see why I shouldn't be him. Thor has no respect for anybody! I never should have been thinking about if I should have been Thor Bonecrusher full-time."
"Please, no." Hiccup said, finally regaining full consciousness. "If it wasn't for Astrid, we may have never gotten our friend back."
"I need to go lie down. Her head press really does a number on the body!" Fishlegs walked off, and the others left too out of boredom.
"Even though you weren't able to defeat Thor, thank you for trying to rescue me." Astrid said to Hiccup.
"I really didn't want to fight him. But I just couldn't risk not seeing you again. Astrid, you've got burn marks on your arm! He used Inferno against you!"
Astrid laughed at his panic. "We both didn't come out unscathed. What do you say we go take care of each other's wounds?"
"That sounds like a fine plan to me, milady." The two made their way to the clubhouse, happily helping each other on the way.