How to Train Your Autobot

Chapter One: War Comes To Berk

In the northern oceans of the planet Earth, located solidly on the Meridian of Misery, there was an island by the name of Berk. For time immemorial, the vikings who lived on Berk had been at war with the dragons who regularly raided their village for food. But recently, a young viking named Hiccup had learned that the dragons who raided the village were being forced to do so by a much larger dragon. Together with the Night Fury he had christened "Toothless", Hiccup had killed the monstrous Red Death, freeing the dragons from their slavery, and establishing peace between them and the vikings.

That was scarcely two months ago. In the present, Hiccup and his friends were racing their dragons across the skies of Berk. Hiccup and Toothless were in the lead, followed by Hiccup's girlfriend Astrid and her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly. Right behind them was Hiccup's cousin Snoutlout and his Monstrous Nightmare, Fireworm, tailed closely by the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who were riding their two-headed Hideous Zippleback, Double Trouble. Bringing up the rear was Fishlegs on his Gronckle, Horrorcow.

Hiccup and Toothless landed first, planting themselves firmly in the center of the viking village. Pausing for a moment to unclip his false leg from the specially designed stirrup, Hiccup climbed out of Toothless' saddle, turning just in time to watch Astrid and Stormfly land.

"Sorry, Astrid." Hiccup said apologetically. "Looks like you came in second again."

"Sheer luck." Sneered Astrid light-heartedly. "Me and Stormfly'll beat you two next time. Right, girl?"

The Nadder crooned in response.

"What about us?" Sneered Snotlout, as he and Fireworm landed. "If the sun wasn't in my eye, we'd've smoked you both!"

"Yeah, right!" Snorted Ruffnut.

"You couldn't win if the sun was in everybody's eyes but yours!" Sniggered Tuffnut.

"Come on, guys." Declared Fishlegs, as Horrocow landed wobbily. "Does it always have to be a competition? Can't we ever just fly for fun?"

"No!" Chorused Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

Just then, Hiccup noticed a group of battle-damaged vikings led by his father, Stoick the Vast.

"Hey dad, what's going on?" Asked Hiccup.

"We had some trouble with rogues this morning." Declared Stoick.

Although most of the dragons around Berk were now friendly, every so often, a "rogue" came along. Some dragons were mentally or physically inclined towards violence, and would attack viking and dragon alike, necessitating reprisal.

"There were three a' them." Stated Spitelout, Snotlout's father. "Nasty bunch."

"Strange ones, too." Said Hoark the Haggard. "Their scales were hard and shiny, like metal. Nothing we did seemed to harm them."

"We had no choice but to retreat." Said Ack. "Those devils won't be so lucky next time, though!"

"Call me crazy, but I swear I heard them laughing when Stoick sounded the retreat." Confided Gobber the Belch to the young vikings. "And not the usual "ghrrr-ghrrr" dragon laugh. It sounded, well, like us."

"You must have been hearing things, Gobber." Said Stoick sceptically. "We were all hit pretty hard by those things. You must have had a ringing in your ears."

"Yeah, maybe." Shrugged Gobber.

Later, as the viking teens and their dragons walked through the nearby forest, Hiccup found himself thinking about the rogues, and the odd qualities described of them.

"Hiccup, is there something wrong?" Asked Astrid, a worried look on her face.

"Oh, it's nothing, I guess." Hiccup shook his head. "It's just..."

Before he could finish his thought, Hiccup was distracted by the sound of thunder. As he and the others looked up into the cloud-strewn sky, they saw what looked like multi-colored flashes of lightning erupted all around them.

"That's one weird storm." Fishlegs noted.

After an especially large flash, accompanied by a noise like shattering armor, a massive black metal shape fell from the clouds and crashed to the ground, shattering several trees on impact. As the shape turned, the awestruck teens and their apprehensive dragons saw a metallic face peering at them with glowing blue eyes.

"Uhhh... Hi, there..." Mumbled the black metal giant.

To Be Continued...

(How to Train Your Dragon and all associated characters are the property of DreamWorks Animation. Transformers is the property of Hasbro.)