The loud roar of twin engines signalled the arrival of the Ruffnutt and Tuffnutt. As the pair got off their conjoined bikes I straightened from my slouched position and said "what part of inconspicuously do you not understand?"
"Oh good you can explain it, cos we were like wondering what it ment."
Slapping a hand against my face, I dragged my palm downwards as I tried to school my features into something less aggravated. "Oh my gods. It means quietly and without attracting attention to yourselves."
"Oooooh."
"I think we managed quite well, brother dearest."
"Yeah me too, sister mine, me too."
I was saved from having to deal with the twins insanity, by the arrival of Astrid. "Hey Hiccup whats kind of emergency happened for us to have to meet up again so soon?"
Sighing in relief that I could at least rely on Astrid to be professional, I got ready to explain everything, at least then she could help me explain it to Snotlout and the twins. "Well I went to the library..."
"Oh gods, you dragged us up here to tell us you went to the library, don't you do that like all the time Hiccup?"
"No...yes...ugh..that is not the point Tuffnutt! I was trying to tell you guys, that I found out some very interesting information on 'Red' from the library. Specifically how he disbanded the street racing circuits."
Before I could continue, the roar of two more engines arriving cut me off, as Snotlout and Fishlegs rounded the bend and parked up.
"Okay cuz whats so urdent you needed us here that fast?"
"Snotlout I think its urgent not urdent."
"Shut it Fishlegs, no one cares."
"Anyway..." Pausing till I had everyones attention I said "he is killing off the racers."
"WHAT?!"
Grimacing at my still ringing ears from the multiple loud shouted exclamations, from different directions, I repeated myself. "'Red' is killing of racers in the circuits until the group disbands, due to either lack of numbers or fear. That is why he is so successful, of course all the deaths were reported as accidental. Crashes in the heat of a high speed chase and such, but he has never in all his career brought in a racer alive. All of them died and that statistic kinda ruled out coincidence. I know racing is dangerous but these people knew their cities, they wouldn't make rookie mistakes that get you killed. At least not without external influence."
"Hiccup this is huge! What are we going to do? We have to tell someone..."
Sighing I pulled at my hair slightly I knew Astrid was right but I had no idea what I could possibly do to fix the problem. The only way 'Red' would leave was if we stopped racing and none of us wanted that, but was it worth their lives. I knew I would race to the ends of the earth if I could, it was my only escape, but I would never ask that of my friends. "I don't know, we might just have to stop racing. At lease for now, until 'Red' leaves."
"You're just giving up?!"
Grimacing I rubbed at my neck, now I wish I had never told them who I was. It had always been much easier to lead the group when I had been the mighty NightFury, and not just Hiccup. "Look I don't know what to do and is racing really worth your lives?"
As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew I had made a mistake. "Our lives? What about your life?..."
"I know its smaller and not as meaning full as ours but still Hiccup, I didn't think you would put cheep thrills over living."
Shooting Snotlout a dirty look Astrid continued "Is racing really worth your life?"
Clenching my fist I tried to tamp down the anger but it didn't work, the rage burst out anyway. "YES!" Chest heaving I tried to slow my breathing and calm down but it wasn't really working very well. "Yes, racing is worth my life. You want to know why? Because racing is my life, to stop would be like trying to stop breathing. For me I spend all day hiding who I am and only get to relax at night, when we race. For you it is just fun, a hobby that lets you rebel and shirk your responsibilities."
"Hiccup..."
Narrowing my gaze I whipped around, yanking the door open and getting back in my car. Revving the engine to life I floored it, tearing around the switch back bends, getting heart stoping-ly close to the edge of the road and the vertical drop below. When I finally got to the bottom of the hill, I found a small army of police cars waiting for me. Slamming the brakes on, I screeched to a halt, dust and small pebbles getting sprayed everywhere.
Sparing a brief glance at the back seat I was surprised for moment when I saw no police radio I was sure I had dumped it in the back seat when I took Astrid for a ride, that when I noticed the very different dashboard. Rolling my eyes I waited patiently for something to happen, as my gaze tracked over the surroundings taking in everything.
"GET OUT OF THE CAR AND PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"
"Yeah how about no?" Grinning at my own sarcastic wit, I considered the flat bed tow-truck. All ready and waiting to cart away my pride and joy, clearly they were feeling very confident. They even had the gate lowered and ready to drive the car onto. The truck was nestled between two police cruisers, both of which had even more police cars on their other sides. All together they formed an impressive semi circle around the bottom of the mountain road.
For a long second I considered Astrid words earlier 'Is racing really worth your life?' And just like before I came to the conclusion that "Yes it is!" Flooring it I drove straight towards the lowered gate of the tow-truck. The front tires barely touching the ramp, before I started to turn the wheel. The turn causing the whole vehicle and myself to go flying off the edge of the bed of the truck, glancing off the roof of a police cruiser before hitting the ground heavily, out side the circle of police cars. Not feeling like hanging around I stomped on the accelerator, kicking up a huge dust cloud as I took off back towards the town.
xxx
It had taken quite a few hours of circling, doubling back and parking up, to evade all of the police cars but eventually I was able to make it back to the cove without leading anyone there. Slowly getting out of the car I started looking him over searching for any bumps or scrapes, that had been a rather harsh landing coming off the truck bed.
Spotting a bit of loose trim I leaned down and peered under the car, grimacing as the level of damage I could see straight away was far more than the tools here could cope with. Which ment I would need to do another secret trip to Gobber's garage to fix the damage, I hadn't done many after I nearly got caught by Astrid the first time. It was very much for emergencies and severe damage only.
Sliding back out from under the car I grimaced and wondered just what I was going to do now, the police had seen my car. It wouldn't take much to link my car to me and then I was going to be royally screwed. Praying for a miracle I unlocked Toothless and turned the volume on the police radio way up, I was hoping to hear what they were doing about finding out whose car they had almost caught tonight.
/...I'm calling off the search for tonight, we've lost him. We'll keep the regular patrols out tonight with back up on standby but we clearly missed our chance tonight.../ /...Roger that, Ill post the usual alert for the Nightfury.../ /...Hold on, our racer tonight looked to be in a different car, so it could be a new upstart.../ /...Roger that can we get a description.../ /...The new car was smaller, clearly built for speed and looked to be khaki coloured with some kind of pattern to it, possibly camouflage. I would say it was possibly a stinger with some modifications.../ /...Roger that I'll put a new bolo out.../
Turning the radio back down I slumped as the tension finally left me, gods it had been stupid to go and meet everyone still in Sharpshot. I could have completely blown my cover, I was just incredibly lucky the dust had disguised my car enough to be mistaken for a different colour and the small size and speed had caused them to mistake a terror for a stinger. Glancing at the still dust covered car in question I sighed and grabbed a bucket so I could set about cleaning as much of the dust off as possible.
20 minutes later and Sharpshot was finally clean, but the damage was much easier to see now. Most of the trim along the left side was scuffed and there was a large section just behind the wheel arch that had been damaged, almost ripped all the way off. Stepping back from the car, I grabbed some strong glue and a roll of tape. Sitting next to the damaged trim, I set about straightening it as much as possible. When it was as close to right as I could get it, I used a rag to clean the inside and edges before glueing the trim back into place, using the tape to help secure it from the inside. Sliding out from under the car I started cleaning up, that was as good a patch job as I could do from here, the rest I would need to do at Gobber's garage.
Rubbing my face, I peeked at the small alarm clock resting on top of one of my work benches. The little red blinking numbers proudly proclaimed it to be 4:57 am, it looked like I had enough time for a shower and maybe a brief nap. Grimacing and cursing under my breath, I slid back into Sharpshot and headed home.
xxx
This day had just gone from bad, to the worst day ever. First Gobber had yelled at me for being late to work after I had overslept during my 'nap', and then there was this.
"...Of all the irresponsible..pig headed...stubborn...reckless things to do..."
"Stoik, calm down! I'm sure its just all that teenage angst, boiling to the surface, causing a little rebellion. Its a phase I tell you, He'll grow out of it. There is no need to get so worked up over it."
"Gobber like it or not he is the chiefs son and what he does reflects on me, reflects on Berk. His little rebellion will cause problems with our allies and trade partners, not to mention the local populace. Who is going to trust a police chief who can't even control his own son let alone a whole town."
Feeling a little vindictive I muttered "I'm not sure most of them even realise you have a son, you talk about me sooooo much."
"You think is funny! That its some kind of joke!" Chest heaving he glared steadily at me, "your right. I don't have a son. You are not my son."
Freezing I stared at where he was stood, I must have misheard because as much as my farther was irritated with me and didn't know what to do with me most of the time he would never disown me like that. "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me." And with that parting statement, he stalked out of the holding cell. Hesitating briefly Gobber shot me an apologetic look, before hurrying out after my dad.
For several long seconds I just stared at the closed door, they didn't even know the worst bit. They just thought I had gone on a crazy one night joy ride with the other racers, they didn't even consider that I could be the mighty Night Fury. I have no idea how, but Red had managed to get a hold of some security footage from one of the buildings I parked up next to while dodging the police last night and after some careful analysis, had been able to get a plate number.
Which led to him leading a group of cops to come and arrest me, and now here I was sat in a police interrogation room after being chewed out and disowned by my dad. All in all it had been a good day.
AN: Okay I am soooo sorry it has taken me this long to update. I have just been super uninspired and then yesterday while I was driving the inspiration just hit, like BOOM and so voila...new chapter! I hope you liked it. I know the last bit was a tad sudden but we are winding up for the final battle and I alway hate writing filler stuff so I like to get right into the action. I hope you don't mind. Please review for me and tell me what you think. Cheers!
-SL xxxx