Chapter 7: Frenemies

Industrial Warehouse

Hiccup POV.

I woke up slowly and groggy. I felt like I was thrown into a blender with a box of pins.

Am I dead? I thought, but as I opened my eyes, I didn't see a blinding light or a chorus of angels, I only saw the rusted roof of an old industrial warehouse.

How the hell did I get here? I thought. Suddenly, the blurred memories of the night before came back in a flood and my gaze instinctively went to my shoulder, to find it, surprisingly, my shirt off and me all bandaged up.

"I'm alive?" I said out loud, not expecting a reply. So when someone did reply, I was both shocked and slightly annoyed.

"If by 'alive' you mean held together by strings and a touch of gauze, then yes, you're alive." Said a familiar voice. I groaned and turned to see Toothless leaning on one of his server boxes.

"You? You saved me?" I questioned skeptically and Toothless just rolled his eyes.

"Of course I saved you! Who else is gonna pick up the dying idiot on the street? The donut munching asshats you call the 'police'?" Toothless huffed indignantly. I bristled in anger, but as much as I love my dad, I agreed with him.

"How did you even find me?" I asked and Toothless rolled his eyes and flicked his hand towards him. Suddenly, my phone that I had in my pocket started vibrating, then a little glowing bug crawled out of my pocket. In panic, I swatted the strange creature away and it dissapeared in a little puff of data sparks.

"I bugged you. Ha, get it, it's a bug made of pixels." Toothless chuckled, but I didn't find the joke funny as he seemed to, as the implications of being bugged by a guy who has omnipotent conrol over all things technology dawned on me.

"I'm guessing that tracking where I was all day wasn't the only thing your little bug did?" I asked

"Wow, smart. You actually have a brain somewhere in that space you call a head. Yep, I know a lot about you know, Hakon Hadrian Haddock, son of Stephen Haddock, Lieutenant of the BCPD and the late Valerie Haddock, doctor of Bio-Organics." I inwardly cringed at the mention of my mother's name, but I hid my anger with a glare shot at Toothless' direction.

"You know my name. Great, good for you. Now if you'll excuse me, it's a Wednesday and I have to get to school." I said, sitting up on the table I was on.

"Actually it's Thursday afternoon." Responded Toothless nonchalantly and I sputtered in surprise.

"Wait what?! How the hell is it Thu-… I've been out for two days?!" I exclaimed.

"Well, actually it was more of one day and a whole morning, but two days is a pretty accurate assumption." Toothless said, but I wasn't listening as I darted my gaze around the room searching for my shirt, all the while muttering all the things I had to do so I wouldn't be murdered by the school administration.

"Crap, crap, crap. I need to email the principle, catch up on all my work, submit all my homework, then I have to make up so much bullshit to tell my teachers and…" I said, clutching my head in panic as I jumped off the table I was on, but Toothless shoved me back down before I could do anything.

"Relax, it's all taken care of. I used your dad's email to forge some excuses; apparently you've come down with a serious viral infection and the doctors recommend a whole week of rest away from human contact." Said Toothless

"Wha-What? Why would you…?" I started, but Toothless raised a hand to shush me.

"No, no, no. It's my turn to ask the questions this time. What the hell were you thinking?!" He shouted and I raised an eyebrow.

"Uhh, what?" I asked and Toothless facepalmed himself in exasperation.

"What the hell was going through your mind, jumping up and over buildings and taking on random thugs like a suicidal maniac? You came within an inch of your life and if I wasn't there to save you, you'd be another dead idiot laid out along the sidewalk." Scolded Toothless and I furrowed my eyebrows in anger.

"Well why the hell do you care?! In the few hours I've known you, you've been a sarcastic, temperamental asshole who doesn't understand the concept of politeness and kindness!" I retorted

"Because I am not in good concience going to let someone die on me again! Not when I have the chance to save them!" I was about to shout something back, but something that Toothless said had me thinking.

"Again? What do you mean someone die on you again?" I asked and a horrified look crossed Toothless' face and he turned around as soon as the look came to his face.

"Shut up." He muttered. I was tempted not to, but anyone could see that this was a touchy subject for Toothless as he was holding his arm and clenching his fist so hard that his knuckles were turning white, obviously to keep from crying.

"Toothless?" I asked. As much of a jerk Toothless had been to me, I couldn't help feel a little bad about bringing up such a painful memory. So I reached out to clasp his shoulder, but he just jerked away from me, going over to his office chair and slumping into the seat. I turned away as well, going off to find my shirt when Toothless suddenly broke the silence.

"To be honest, I don't even know why I saved you either." He admitted. I turned in confusion as he seemed to just stare into space, unknowingly thinking out loud.

"I guess that… this city has taken so much from me… from everyone really, that I'm not sure if I can handle knowing that more and more people are lost. That more lives are destroyed, more families are torn apart, it's just too much to handle." He said, resting his head on his hands. I walked over to him and held my hand out; I hesitated for a moment, in fear that he might lash out again, but I sucked up my anxiety and placed my hand on his shoulder. To my relief, he didn't react in any way, he flinched a bit, but that was it.

"I understand how you feel." I said and he turned to glare at me with puffy red eyes and remnants of a few tears crawling down his face.

"Liar." He said.

"No. Believe me, if anyone knows what you're feeling right now…" I replied with a pained expression.

"… I do."

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Flashback, 7 Years Ago

Hiccup POV.

Most people forget the things that happen to them when they're still children. But this moment, on this day, I'll never forget for the rest of my life. We had walked into an alleyway, a sort of shortcut so we would avoid most of the twists and turns to get to the bus stop so we could head home.

"Shortcut, shortcut, shortcut, shortcut…" I sang as I skipped along, holding my mother's hand as she smiled at me. I ran ahead, skipping and twirling around, completely unaware of a man dressed in a black trenchcoat standing in my way until I bumped into him. I looked up and saw him glare at me; I took a few steps back, bumping into my mother as she pulled me behind her.

The next few minutes were a blur of angry words and shouting from the man and calming, kind words from my mom. At the time, I had no idea what was going on, and I still don't, but what I did understand was the man pulling out a gun and raising it to her chest. My eyes widened in fear as the gun goes off and my mom suddenly jerks back. I watch as the blood splatters all over me and my mom lands hard on the ground, her cold eyes piercing my soul. I couldn't tear my eyes of her body as I dropped to my knees and the blood began pooling around her, soaking my legs in the crimson liquid. Even as I feel cold steel being pressed on my head do I flinch, still trying to process what was happening. As the hammer of the gun clicked back, I heard another scream from the other side of the alley and sounds of alarm from passing bystanders. I feel the gun move away from my head as the man swears and backs away, dissapearing into the darkness, leaving me and my mother as I continue to look in fear at her cold dead eyes.

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Present Time

Hiccup POV.

Toothless wipes whatever tears are still left in his eyes as he pushes himself off his chair.

"Well this is just fine and dandy. Two idiots in the ass end of the world crying like babies about people they've lost." Said Toothless, his sarcastic demeanor returning to him.

"But isn't that more of a reason to do something about it?" I asked and Toothless was about to reply, but this time I silenced him with a raise of my hand.

"Hey, that's my thing!" smirked Toothless and I smirked back.

"Listen, I've got no idea who or what you've lost in your past, but do you really want anyone else to go through what we've been through? Every day someone in this city breaks the law and spits on the name of justice. You're right, the cops won't do a thing about this, mainly cause most of them are criminals as well. We've got the power, we've got the motivation, we just need to start fighting." I said and Toothless chuckled, shaking his head.

"Hehe, did you just say 'in the name of justice'? That was the most cliché thing I've ever heard, heh, you really are an idiot." Said Toothless, but this time it didn't sound like an insult, it sounded more like friendly banter.

"It was in the heat of the moment, I wasn't really thinking my whole monologue through that well." I said, grinning and rubbing the back of my head. Toothless smiled back and soon enough we both were grinning.

"So… I guess that means friends?" Asked Toothless, holding his hand out in

"Hey hey hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves here; I think we can chalk it up to 'frenemies'." I said

"Asshat." Toothless laughed as I took his hand and shook it. And that was it, that was the start of our frienship and our adventures together as a dynamic duo.

"What time is it?" I asked out of nowhere. Toothless raised his eyebrow.

"Umm… 4:24, why?" he replied.

"I'm going back out there."

"What?! Umm, did we just have an emotional moment for nothing?!" exclaimed Toothless, pushing me in the shoulder.

"Ow, dammit! There's still a hole in my shoulder man!" I shouted

"No more hole moron, metahuman super healing, we've all got it." Replied Toothless and I felt around the bandages on my torso, only feeling signs of early scarring.

"But that's beside the point, I think we need to talk about throwing yourself in the line of fire again, and that isn't a metaphor."

"What? Are you gonna tell me not to do it?" I said, crossing my arms.

"On the contrary, I was gonna say you need more than an exercise shirt and a ski mask to stop bullets." Toothless smirked as he walked over to the side of his giant computer set to the tarp covered object at the corner of the room. He threw the tarp off the object and I could see a set of armor, broken and in disrepair on a pedestal (think of the Arkham Knight's body armor, except more broken).

"Umm… that looks… broken." I said, no other words coming to mind.

"It looked better back in its hayday, but it's mostly kevlar and a bit of metal plating, but it's not completely bullet proof, you'll only have some protection from small rounds but anything about a .50 caliber round won't end well." Said Toothless, tapping the suit as I went closer to feel the material.

"How do you have something like this?" I asked, but I wasn't looking at him so I couldn't see the expression on Toothless' face darken a bit.

"It's a, uhh… hand-me-down." He replied.

"Can we fix it?" I asked, turning to face him just to see him shrug.

"Meh, won't be as durable as it was before, but I'll need a few things I don't have around here." He said.

"Ok, what do you need?"

"Well, maybe two or three kevlar vests." Toothless said and I raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"And where am I supposed to get kevlar vests?" In response to me, Toothless just facepalmed.

"Just take some from the police department, your dad's a lieutenant so you could probably get some stuff in and out of the police building easy." Said Toothless and I mentally groaned. It's gonna be very difficult to get past Gobber, he's got the eyes of a hawk and won't just let me walk off with a bag of kevlar vests.

"*Sigh, I'll see what I can do." I said and Toothless grinned.

"Thank you my frenemy." Said Toothless in sarcasm and I gave him a deadpan look.

"Oh don't look at me like that. Hey, catch!" exclaimed Toothles as he tossed something at me. I caught the object, immediatley inspecting it; it was a helmet of sorts, or more of a cowl maybe. It was all black and made of metal. It had two circular bumps on each side of the head, where the ears would be. There were two points that were the largest and stuck out above the head and the other four points were medium sized and also pointed up with the two larger ones attatched to the circular bumps. The face had two openings in it, most likely for the eyes but the rest was covered by a full facemask.

"A helmet?"

"No, a cowl, not a helmet; helmets protect your head, cowls protect your identity. Besides, it isn't just an ordinary cowl, put it on." Said Toothless. I felt around the cowl to try and find out how to put it on my head, and after a few seconds of searching blindly, Toothless sighed and took the cowl from me, hitting the back with his fist. Suddenly, the mouth cover split apart and the back of the helm retracted upwards into the top of the head, leaving a giant opening. I chuckled in embarrassment as I put on the cowl. I did what Toothless did, hitting the back of the cowl and sure enough, the retracted parts at the back and around the mouth extended and tightened around my face. For a while, I could only feel strangely soft material covering my face, but then a bright light, as if someone turned on a floodlight in my face, turned on and blinded me. I could see spots for a while, but soon my vision cleared up and the spots were replaced with a video-game like HUD display.

"And why am I suddenly in a video game?" I asked and I could see a little soundwave icon pop up on the bottom left of my vision.

"It's to help you more when you're out fighting crime and stuff." Said Toothless over a communication line. I looked to where he was sitting on his office chair and he just looked at me annoyed and told me to look away. "Look the other way, I'm testing the communications to see if they still work. You can hear me right?"

I gave a thumbs up in acknowledgement and Toothless continued speaking. "Alright, so the cowl has three vision modes, normal vision, sonic vision and combat vision: normal vision is what you see now, just how everything normally appears and with a few simple readouts, for sonic vision just say 'sonic vision'."

"Sonic vision." I said, jumping a bit as my voice came out as completely different than what I usually hear, it was deep, growly and somewhat like mashed up static. Suddenly, the colors of the room turned into a purple-ish shade and all the cracks, crevices and objects seemed to be highlighted by yellow lines. I turned to Toothless, and once again, jumped back in shock as instead of Toothless, all I saw was a skeleton sitting on his office chair (think of detective mode in Batman Arkham Series, only purple).

"Relax, it's just me." Said Toothless over the comm line, and I pieced together that he was the skeleton on the office chair. "What you see now is a layout of the environment around you. Most of the programming flows through me from your current location and I send it back as a digital readout. It's got a maximum range of 40 meters and everything you see is outlined and human or organic matter can be seen through anything and anywhere, even through walls. The best use for this is when you've got the element of surprise on a bunch of thugs or when you're facing off against an ambush and you need to know how many and where they are."

"And what's the last one? Umm, 'combat vision' right?" I said and without warning, the display of the cowl changed completely, now everything was back to the normal HUD mode. Also, the points on my ears I was talking about earlier? They seemed to have turned downwards, giving me a sort of aerodynamic look.

"Combat vision may seem the same as normal vision, with some slight modifications." I looked at Toothless to see he wasn't a skeleton anymore and the HUD changed; there were signifigantly less displays in my view, only showing the outlines of my environment and the little icon for Toothless' communications.

"As you can see, there's less displays on the HUD so you won't get distracted, you can focus on your enemies more; all the scanners and readouts and crap I'll see and alert you if something important pops up. Oh, and the ears come down so no one can grab it, and it looks pretty damn cool too." Said Toothless, grinning. I returned the HUD back to normal mode, after which I hit the back of the head, retracting all the parts of the cowl and taking it off.

"So all we need now is kevlar right?"

"Yep, some kevlar and we're good to throw ourselves to the lions and the snakes."

I shook my head and smiled at Toothless' metaphor. I placed the cowl on a nearby desk and found an extra shirt lying around.

"Hey can I borow this, it's kind of cold out, you know, now wearing a shirt of all."

"Oh yeah, go ahead. Hey, do you want this back?" he asked as he reached under his super-computer and pulled out the shirt I had on the night before. I felt a little weird seeing the shirt was completely torn and there was a giant hole in the shoulder with a giant bloodstain of my blood.

"Nah, keep it, I'm going home. It's Friday so my dad might be back, and he's a cop so he'll notice if and where I've gone." I said and with that, I waved Toothless goodbye as I walked out the giant doors of the warehouse, looking back at Toothless in his cove of computers.

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