Half-Life
Chapter 1

The ground shook as fires lit the night sky, the few remaining buildings spewing smoke into the air as two titanic creatures, their features shrouded in darkness, battled in the sky. Below, the streets embodied chaos as men and women alike battled amongst themselves. Flames spewed from their hands in torrents of flame and explosive bolts, depending on the person. Screams rang out as a blue bolt of energy smashed into the center of the street, blowing back the combatants. The streets froze in a mix of fear and surprise as a figure in dark leather armor rose from the crater, emerald eyes seeming to glow as another bolt of energy gathered in his palm.

Jared shot up in bed, heart beating against his rib cage as he struggled to catch his breath. A quick scan of the room did nothing to dispel the nightmare as he felt his stomach twisting into knots from anxiety. After a brief mental debate, he decided he wouldn't be getting any further sleep that morning, and swung his legs out of bed, despite the cracking of his bones in protest.

A few minutes later, Jared was rummaging around the kitchen for food, having traded his pajama pants for dark blue jeans, a burgundy t-shirt and a green hoodie. He stood at about 5'10 and was as thin as they come, topped with a mess of dark hair that he, against all odds, managed to make presentable each and every morning. The only bright side to the nightmare was that he'd woken up on time for the first time all month, a fact that was clearly appreciated by his mother's smile as she walked past him to go down the hall and wake his sister.

Taking out a poptart and walking to the fridge, Jared poured himself a glass of milk before settling down at the counter to eat. The kitchen and living room were both combined into a single large room, divided by the kitchen counter three-fourths of the way through it. Four fancy barstools lined the side of the counter, one of which was occupied by Jared. There were two tan leather couches on the living room side, pointed towards the thin TV against the wall.

Upon hearing his sister stumbling out from her room, accompanied by their mother, Jared quickly gulped down the rest of his drink before speedily walking into the bathroom and shutting the door. He knew if he stayed out that she'd likely realize something was wrong this morning, and he didn't have the willpower to deflect any questions this morning.

As he brushed his teeth he could faintly hear Hailee and their mother, Carol, talking through the door. Probably talking about grades and other school progress, Jared effectively tuned the pair out and began to hum a simple tune to keep himself busy. His mind wandered, trying to discern the details of the man in his dream. Already, the memory of it was beginning to fade from his memory.

By the time he'd finished cleaning his teeth and ducked past his mother out the door, all that Jared could remember of his nightmare was a man with blue fire and emerald eyes.

Oo00oO

The bus groaned as it pulled up at Berk High, the doors hissing as they opened and let out a flood of students. Berk High School was built to be sturdy, more for practicality than comfort. With a world where people possessed the powers of dragons, it had to be. Nowadays, dragons themselves were legends, but long ago the ancestors of modern man had discovered these newfound abilities and learned that there were countless species whose powers they could embody. The powers they gained depended upon which dragon their personality related closest to, and their strength depended on how precisely similar the two were from there.

In order to help guide their students into using their powers responsibly, Berk High had organized its classes by the seven dragon classes: Boulder, Sharp, Tracker, Stoker, Tidal, Strike, and Mystery Class. Everyone's first period was separated by dragon species specifically, and the other six were divided by their class, except for gym. The only time students were allowed to mingle freely with those outside their class were either in passing or at lunch.

Most people discovered their powers around the tie they began puberty, and were able to have their inner dragon species named and classified quickly. Like anything, however, there were always late bloomers such as Jared. At the age of 18, his inner dragon had yet to make itself known beyond a rapid healing factor and high tolerance for both high and low temperatures; standard powers that most everyone had. At his point in life, Jared's peers were already able to identify similarly enough with their inner dragons to manipulate fire, and some were even able to summon their wings to begin flight lessons.

Because of this, Jared was unintentionally turned into a social outcast. For the sake of his schedule, administration had tossed him into the Mystery Class. Because of this, he'd decided that apparently the office does have a sense of humor.

As he walked through the courtyard, he took note of all those already standing in their crowds. There were the Deadly Nadders; all smart, attractive, and deadly. Most jocks ended up having a Monstrous Nightmare as their inner dragon; all brawn and attitude. The only other group standing around was a large group of Gronckles. Those with a Gronckle as their inner dragon were a bit more diversified, as they were capable of being both tough and emotional. Just then the bell rang out, earning a groan from both Jared and many others as they reluctantly made their way to their first period.

Oo00oO

Being an unknown, and with the first class based on species, it meant Jared was stuck in a back room of the office for an hour. "Paperwork, love it…" He muttered sarcastically under his breath, stapling together another study packet. This must be cruel and unusual punishment, Jared thought, I've gotta put together the work I'll be given later today! He groaned as a passing teacher dropped another large stack of papers on the small meeting table, shaking it with its weight.

Oo00oO

First period may be hell, but at least this class makes up for it. Jared thought as he read through the textbook. The class itself was technically Psychology, but to Jared, it had become ninety minutes of trying to research what his dragon form could be or why it refused to manifest itself.

"Test on Wednesday." Levi, his tablemate, whispered to him. He was going on his 18th birthday soon, and had been a late addition to the school year, having moved here from England two months into the school year. Levi's mop of hair was swept across his forehead, his hair such a pale blonde that it was often misconstrued as being white. Combined with his bright blue eyes, it led to quite a striking appearance.

Unlike Jared, Levi had already discovered his inner dragon years ago; the mysterious Flightmare. Originally, the pair had struck up a tentative friendship after being paired in class for a project, consequently being seated together. It'd only taken a week for him to become fed up with Jareds' search, and the only talking the two did now was about or for schoolwork.

Jared just nodded and hummed in acknowledgement as he continued to read through the book, scanning the text for any useful information while hoping the teacher wouldn't call on him. "…Mr. Jared, would you be kind enough to enlighten the class on the Titan Wing Theory?"

Fuck.

Oo00oO

"Can I borrow some lunch money?" Leo asked to everyone at their small lunch group. On one side was Hailey, Jared and Ray, with Leo and Sarah opposite them.

Most shrugged or came up with some excuse not to, knowing that he'd never get around to paying them back. "Oh c'mooooon!" Leo whined, dragging out the word as he pleaded with his friends. The youngest one there, Leo was only a freshman but had been the first of the group to become friends with Jared; the summer after Jared's ninth grade year. He had curly dark hair framing his face and a light complexion was a few freckles smattered around. Standing at about Jared's shoulder, he had a more rounded build than the others. His inner dragon was the Hotburple, whom was very similar to the Gronckle.

"Sorry man, I never carry money." Jared shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. He knew that Leo would be fine, it wasn't the first time he'd pulled this stunt.

"I need mine for later, sorry Leo." Hailey explained to him, sounding genuinely apologetic. Unlike the rest of them, Jared's sister seemed to be one of the few people who were still willing to lend Leo any money. Like him, Hailey was also a freshman here at Berk High. She had piercing green eyes and long blonde hair reaching down an inch past her shoulders. She was built slim with curves in just the right places, but coupled with her ability to kick the ass of the majority of the school, she'd easily secured her place as the strongest Deadly Nadder on campus.

Sarah was also attempting to search through her backpack, trying to find any money to lend the hungry freshman. Along with Hailey, she was one of the few who still would shell out money to Leo. Sarah was one of the few early bloomers, having discovered her inner dragon, a Timberjack, at the age of six when a bully had been picking on her sister. Even now, people still gossiped about it when they thought she wasn't listening. Sarah hadn't been able to control herself at that young an age, and in her urge to protect her sister, had seriously wounded the young bully. Ever since then the school system and classmates had given her a bad rep, but in all actuality, she was quite possibly the kindest person at the table.

"Sorry…" Sarah mumbled to Leo, who smiled at her in thanks for at least trying. She had coppery tan skin and long black hair that was tied in a complicated braid down her back. She'd met and began hanging out with Jared during sophomore year together. While not as skinny as Hailey, she was far from being obese or unattractive. Rather than extreme dieting like some did, Sarah went to the gym often and transformed the majority of any fats into muscle.

"Nah." Ray replied off-handedly, clearly just not wanting to shell out any cash. He had a wild mane of blonde hair that was skewed out in every direction. Along with Jared and Sarah, he was also in his senior year and had only begun hanging out with their little group that year. Ray was one of the few people who weren't a Stoker Class that had managed to earn his place on the Berk High football team; the Vikings. Instead, his inner dragon had revealed itself to be a Thunderdrum somewhere in his middle school years, he'd never been too clear on exactly when or how. Because of this, he had a large amount of muscle that when combined with his height, towering over Jared, made him seem far more aloof and unapproachable than he really was.

Leo buried his head in his hands, slumping onto the table as he let out a muffled moan. "This sucks."

"Dude, you do this at least once a week. Why not just remember to bring some cash?" Jared retorted, zipping up the remains of his sandwich and putting it into his lunchbox. He personally wasn't a fan of the school lunch.

"I forget!"

Jared just rolled his eyes in exasperation, cleaning up his trash and balling it up. "I'll be back." He said, clambering out from the lunch table past their amalgam of jumbled backpacks. He waited as Hailey stood up with her own trash in hand, before dodging and weaving his way around the crowds to the trash cans in the front of the cafeteria.

"Shit, you-know-who is coming up on your left." Hailey hissed to Jared, who gulped as anxiety gripped his chest. True to her word, on their left was a particularly unhappy looking young woman with her blonde hair tied up in an efficient ponytail, dressed in a dark leather jacket and a deep blue tank top. Her boots clacked against the tile as she stormed towards the cans, making her message clear: Stay out of my way.

Jared sped up, balling his trash up further and tossing it into the can from a few feet away before turning back towards the table while Hailee continued on to the cans.

He almost made it away.
Almost.

"Oof!" Jared grunted as he turned and immediately ran straight into the person he had been trying so desperately to avoid.

"Watch it!" The blonde snapped as she stumbled back, brushing off the non-existent mess on her jet black jacket. "Use your eyes next time, moron." She scowled at him, before walking on past, but not without shoving Jared back with her shoulder for good measure. For someone much shorter than him, she could still pack quite a punch.

He winced at the blow, stumbling back slightly before continuing on his path back to his table. "You shouldn't let Kara treat you like that." Hailey spoke from behind him, gripping her forearm tightly. Jared turned, and between her fingers he could see deep blue spines tipped with white peeking out; the colors of her inner Deadly Nadder.

"Careful." He warned her, "I can take care of myself, you know that. Just relax…" Jared spoke soothingly, recalling the amount of trouble Hailey had caused the last time she solely gave in to her inner dragons' wishes. It had nearly started an out-of-control dragon battle across campus, and many students had been injured.

"Yeah, you can, until it comes to her." Hailey retorted with an unladylike snort, before starting to take deep breaths to calm herself down as Jared guided them back to their table. Unbeknownst to what had nearly happened, the rest had continued on with their conversation, and Leo had somehow managed to acquire some new food that he was digging into eagerly. By the time the pair sat back down, the spines had retracted and melded back into her forearm without a trace.

Oo00oO

"Shit!" Jared shouted, ducking to the floor. Above him, the wall had just gained a new scorch mark, courtesy of Adam and his gang of friends. They just laughed, patting out their flames and continuing to jog as Coach Gobber shouted from his stand for everyone to get a move on.

"C'mon lads, enough messin around. Ya got a game to win!" He yelled from his seat, shaking his prosthetic at them threateningly. Like Leo, Coach Gobber also had a Hobblegrunt for an inner dragon. For whatever reason, administration had decided to have the man with a prosthetic arm and leg teach gym. He was an older man in his early fifties, with hints of grey beginning to show in his long blonde mustache. "Get a move on, Jared!"

Groaning, Jared stood up and rejoined the rest of the class in the 'fun' game of capture the flag. The game itself was fun, sure, but when the classes Monstrous Nightmares all end up on one team and specifically target you… Anything tends to lose their enjoyment after the third fireball comes hurtling at your head.

Even as he stood, Jared could see another targeting him from the corner of his eye and groaned inwardly. Now would be a good time to find my inner dragon! He waited hopefully for a moment, and when nothing happened he let out a sigh. "This'll be fun." Jared muttered under his breath, dodging another fireball before joining his teammates in chasing after a Speed Stinger who'd snuck by to steal their flag.

Oo00oO

It was the last period of the day, and Jared couldn't be happier. Luckily, his sixth period just happened to involve sitting around in front of a computer the entire ninety minutes, and the teacher had developed a habit of giving out simple busywork as of late. This gave him plenty of time to continue on the search he'd started in Psychology earlier that day with the added benefit of music to listen to.

"Oh, fuckin got 'em!" The only unfortunate part of the class were his classmates.

Jared just rolled his eyes and pushed his earbuds in tighter as he scrolled through Google. He'd just been on the verge of finding something useful after following link after link, until the trail finally led to a page that undoubtedly would lead to a virus. Because of this, his patience was now at an all-time low.

His classmates continued joking and having their own conversations in the background, drowned out by his music. Jared was holding his head up with his arm as he clicked to the second page of Google, before pausing in confusion at what he saw.

A missing person's ad? How does that have anything to do with finding someone's inner dragon? Out of sheer curiosity, Jared clicked the link and waited as the computer tried to load up the webpage as fast as it could. A few moments later and it finally finished loading up. The school wifi definitely left something to be desired.

'Henry 'Hiccup' Haddock. Age: 15, missing since November 23rd of 2010.' Below the heading and brief info was a picture of the boy, a scrawny looking kid with bright green eyes and shaggy brown hair, with a crooked smile and a smattering of light freckles across his face. Underneath the picture was a further description of where he'd been last seen and other helpful information. What intrigued Jared, was that 'Hiccup' wasn't the only one with a missing person's ad on this webpage. It contained several others; Astrid Hofferson, Scott 'Snotlout' Jorgenson, Rachel 'Ruffnut' Thorston, Tucker 'Tuffnut' Thorston, and Frank 'Fishlegs' Ingerman.

All had gone missing on the same day and all were reported to have been last seen in each other's company a few hours prior to disappearing. Scrolling further, Jared used a few witness reports to piece together the last location they had been seen at all together: Ravens Point.

"There's nothing out there, it's just a bit of forest that leads to a cliff." He muttered under his breath in confusion. From the looks of it they were all the same age, and there's no way all five of them could have discovered their inner dragon early enough to materialize their wings, much less fly on their own, at that age. Especially not without having caught the attention of the media, who had been particularly eager to cover Sarah's early gifts.

The bell rang, interrupting Jared's train of thought and sending him into a frenzy to get the laptop shut off and put away in order to leave. If he'd had just a little more time, perhaps he would've seen the link of related articles, one of which detailed an explosion of blue fire in the center of town, leaving several injured. Causes unknown to this day, but it occurred just a few hours before the missing teens had disappeared off Ravens Point.