A/n: hey guys! Back again, providing you with a really long chapter. And it hasn't even been that long since I put the last one out! Can I get a round of applause?
Thought not. Ah well, thanks for the reviews (reviews are love, reviews are life) now take this chapter and read it!

Hiccup glared into the phone. He was dressed in baggy pants - the source of his irritation, mostly, since they just wouldn't stay on - and a hoodie, several sizes too big, which was supposed to detract attention from himself as he wandered through the supermarket, trying to find a covert way to keep on the phone with Tony.

"Seriously, no-one's going to look at you funny just 'cause you're calling someone." Tony said for what was probably the hundredth time (Hiccup wasn't counting, but nor was he exaggerating; he'd been walking round for a few hours now, and the phrase was repeated in some variation every few minutes).

"Whatever." he countered intelligently. "What else do I need?" Please tell me that's everything...

"A bottle of champagne."

Hiccup looked flatly at the phone. "No, anything I need for these... weapons?" he barely remembered to whisper the last word, and had to check around quickly to see if anyone was in the vicinity who might've heard his near slip-up.

"I do need it!" Tony insisted. "It's... uh..."

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Yeah, thought not. Right, I'll go pay then, should I?" He took a confident step forwards, pushing the trolley along with him. "Uh, where do I pay?"

Tony's eye roll was practically audible. "See, this is why I should've been the one to go. Or both of us could've gone - would've taken way less long."

"Yes, we should've sent the famous figure who's assumed dead out into a public place when it's not entirely necessary. Great idea - wonder why we didn't do that?"

Tony sighed. "Fine. Just go find the till, swipe the card and get back here."

After paying for the goods, with relative success, Hiccup returned to the grimy hotel room he and Tony were sharing. The items he'd been sent to purchase lay strewn across the bed, tipped out of the plastic bags they came from in a rather careless manner. It struck Hiccup as odd - Tony usually took utmost care of all his technology - but he didn't comment; all the pieces were to be disposed after use, so it was logical to assume that they'd be less valuable than what he usually made.

Hiccup currently wasn't of any use - he wasn't familiar with any of the items and wasn't really sure what it was that Tony was trying to create, and the billionaire neither had time nor patience to explain it at present - so he had nothing more to do than contemplate useless things. There must be something I can do...

Useful for the upcoming break-in... it occurred to Hiccup that he didn't know anything about the hideout yet. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure that Tony did, either.

"Have you..." Hiccup frowned, searching for the word - it was one that, JARVIS had explained, wasn't technically the correct verb but was in common use as one anyway - "googled it? The place we're breaking into."

Tony laughed. "Sorry," he apologised as he calmed down, "it's just - a Viking - saying googled! That's hilarious... Anyway, what were you - oh yeah, that's what this thing's for." He produced the electronic screen he'd been fiddling with. "Should be done now. You give that a shot while I mess around with all these new-fangled trinkets, eh gramps?"

"Nice to know I'm your replacement Steve." Hiccup quipped as he accepted the technology, finding the search engine that had driven Tony to hysterics already up for him to tap in the co-ordinates Harley had sent them.

"Doing a good job at it, too." Tony grinned, taking a canister and shaking it up. "So, got anything yet?"

Hiccup shook his head. "This isn't exactly your I-can-hack-SHIELD-in-seconds AI we're talking about; even getting internet connection takes a few seconds."

Tony shuddered at the thought. "Be glad you didn't come out of that portal in the eighties," he said with mock sternness, "otherwise you'd be ringing up for your wi-fi, like a heathen."

"What, like, hello internet people, I would like to request information on this potential terrorist hideout?" Hiccup asked mockingly.

"Ah, but of course sir." Tony continued, "Just a minute. May one be so bold as to ask why you need this information?"

"Oh, just trying to save the world from these guys that can heal like nobody's business. Nothing special."

"I see. Well, here's your site. Good day, sir."

Hiccup grinned, then looked back down at the screen. "Holy Thor! It worked; magic!"

Tony laughed disbelievingly, dropping the wire he was tugging on to get a better look. "Huh, what do you know?"

The page Hiccup had managed to load contained a blurry map image of the compound. Though it was already of below average quality, zooming in to get a 'better' look - by the time the image was close enough to get any details, there was barely anything visible on the screen through the blocky colours that vaguely represented the ground - was an option.

"So, how're we gonna tackle this?" Hiccup wondered, squinting at the low-res screen.

"Same way we tackle everything," Tony said - Hiccup could feel an inspirational slash witty one liner coming up - "with style."

Quite a few miles away, a different group were completing a similar task.

"You got the location yet?" Clint asked, leaning over Natasha's shoulder as she typed furiously. He knew his way around a computer, sure, but he'd never tried his hand at serious hacking; he had no clue how far along she'd got, no matter how hard he squinted at the text boxes darting round the screen.

"Why don't you go sharpen your arrows, bird brain?"

Clint took that as the 'no' it was intended to be, and wandered off over to a different group without even making the easy comeback he had planned - 'Yeah, they could use a bit of sharpening, couldn't they, itsy-bitsy? I modelled them off your wit, you see.' - which was nothing less than a strike of genius. Truly, not even a thousand scholars given a thousand years could come up with anything to match it's amazing -

"Watch where you're going!" Clint's gratuitous - and perhaps a bit undeserved - self-congratulation was cut short by a rough shove from an unimpressed Snotlout. "What're you even doing? I thought you were helping your girlfriend steal that magic map."

Clint wasn't sure which part of that sentence to address first. Instead, he returned fire with a witty "what're you doing?"

Clint, like, a million, Snotlout zilch.

"Grooming Hookfang, duh!" Snotlout gestured to the dragon behind him, cleverly choosing not to mention Clint's choice of comeback. "He needs to be in top condition to storm this scary guy's place!"

We're using the dragons for that? "Okay then, I guess... is everyone just petting dragons?"

"Uh... pretty much. No, wait - Ruffnut's hitting Tuffnut."

"Great..." Clint said, in a tone suggesting that he thought the information was the exact opposite. "Well, I'll be off now. Shout if you need anything."

Snotlout nodded as Clint left. Where to now? he wondered. The twins were out, as were Astrid and Natasha. Bruce? Well, it was worth a shot.

"Hey Bruce." Clint held up a hand in a lazy wave.

"Hey." Bruce nodded in return. "So, Natasha chucked you away from the laptop?" he questioned innocently.

"Yeah." Clint watched as Bruce scratched the dragon - Skullcrusher? Skull-something, certainly - who sat in front of him. "Why's everyone petting the dragons?" he wondered aloud, taking a step forwards to join in.

"Lack of anything better to do?" Bruce shrugged. "We're at a lull in the action; only so many can be useful at once."

Clint shrugged. "Well, Natasha better get something soon. I don't like being useless."

Tony watched Hiccup take a running leap at the fence, and wasn't jealous of the younger man's agility. Not at all.

No you're jealous! Tony told the little voice in his head - an irritating one which liked to argue against him. (What a prick.) It wasn't a successful endeavour anyway, since it did nothing but give the voice more ammunition - but I am you, which makes you jealous!

Tony shook himself out of the mental argument and ran up to the wall - quite a nice one, befitting of the mansion they were approaching, that matched the pale, sand coloured bricks of the main house. He jumped, managing to get a grip on the wall's edge and heave himself over.

"You're missing a leg!" Tony whispered as he dropped down beside Hiccup and fell into a crouch.

"And I'm a Viking..." Hiccup shrugged as he came up to the first guard. "I fight in mid-air battles using dragons."

Fair point. Tony let the conversation drop there as he found his own security guard to take out. "Let's see who can get the most!" he called over to Hiccup as he got his taser-glove out and took out the man in front of him. It alerted the guard Hiccup was going after, but too late: the Viking had a taser-glove of his own waiting for the man as he turned round.

"Thanks," Hiccup said sarcastically, "calling out like that really helped us escape detection."

"Oh, relax!" Tony waved the concern off, "It's not like anyone saw us!"

Hiccup huffed and rolled his eyes at the statement. "I bet you just jinxed -" he stopped mid-sentence to look behind Tony and groan, "- it. Great." Hiccup sighed as he pulled a small dart-gun out of his pocket. He aimed it quickly, nailing the guard in the neck before he had a chance to do anything about the intruders he'd just noticed. The dart remained in his neck as the anaesthetic caused him to sink to the floor."

"Well," Tony began as the guard dropped, "that wasn't -"

"No." Hiccup cut him off, "We aren't getting jinxed again."

Tony rolled his eyes. "You're no fun." he pouted, and continued down the path. There weren't many more guards to speak of, none of which managed to get anywhere past the taser-glove.

The inside of the mansion didn't look quite like he was expecting. It just looked like a house. A quite normal house, with a drunk girl on the couch - scratch that, it looked like the only shady activity going on in here was drug dealing, not terrorism.

Still, Tony forced her out, using a gun from the table as persuasion, and continued on into the house.

"Is this your average terrorist hideout?" Hiccup asked as they continued into the house, which now contained sets and scenery that Tony recognised from the videos.

Well, it was certainly the right place.

"No, not really." Tony admitted. "I haven't broken into many terrorist organisations, but this one is certainly not staying true to the stereotypes."

"Well, good for it." Hiccup said distractedly. They were out of the scenery forest now, and had come to a clearing with a bed in the middle. There was a lump in the bed - possibly the Mandarin.

Tony shushed Hiccup with a finger, then yanked the covers back to reveal... two more scantily clad women. Great.

"Is the Mandarin even here?" Tony asked in exasperation, cut off slightly by a toilet flush.

"Uh..." Hiccup said awkwardly, pointing at a spot behind Tony.

"What is it?" Tony asked, swirling around.

It was the Mandarin.

He wasn't wearing his usual getup, but it was unmistakably him - same hair, same face, same beard... he looked a lot less impressive in real life. He was also, Tony noticed, holding his hands up in surrender, babbling on about things he could take, and - this wasn't the Mandarin. Must be a double, certainly a fake.

"Where's the Mandarin?" Tony asked threateningly. The Mandarin knock-off didn't respond, just flailed around and backed away. "Where's the Mandarin?" Tony repeated, shouting now and pointing the gun directly at the other man.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, he's here, but he's not here." Mandarin knock-off explained.

"What do you mean?" Tony demanded. He'd now backed the man up enough that he was sat on a chair, with nowhere to run.

"It's complicated."

"Uncomplicate it." Tony shot a look back to Hiccup, "Get the ladies out."

The Viking nodded, shooing away the women, who seemed more than happy to leave.

When Tony turned back round, the Mandarin knock-off was no longer on the chair. Tony found him a few feet away, trying to crawl off, and fired a warning shot that just missed him.

"Okay, okay!" The man dashed back to his seat. "My name's Trevor, Trevor Slattery."

"What are you?" Tony asked, lowering the gun somewhat. "A decoy, a double?"

"What, you mean like an understudy? Well, absolutely not." Tony wasn't sure that he and 'Trevor' were on the same page. He put the gun back up - maybe then he'll start making sense. "Don't hurt the face - I'm an actor!"

What. Tony stared at Trevor, completely confused now. He shot a look back to Hiccup, who shrugged. "You have a minute to live, fill it with words."

"It's just a role... the Mandarin, you see, it's not real.

What.

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?"

"Well, I had a little... problem, with, er, substances. And I ended up, um, doing things - no two ways about it - in the street, that uh, a man shouldn't do..."

"Next." Tony snapped, stealing looks over to the door. He was still thoroughly confused, and Trevor wasn't making things any clearer. Over in the corner, still making sure that nobody came in, Hiccup looked equally shocked.

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs..."

"What, they said they'd get you off them?" If they had said that, they were lying - Trevor was clearly on something.

"Said they'd give me more!" Trevor revealed happily. "And they gave me things - they gave me this palace! They gave me plastic surgery, they gave me things..." Suddenly, Trevor was snoring.

"Did you just nod off?" Tony asked incredulously. "Hey." He kicked him.

"Oh! And a lovely speedboat!" Trevor continued as if he'd never stopped. "And, the thing is, he needed someone! To take credit, for some 'accidental explosions.'"

He. Tony had a pretty good idea who that was. "Killian?" Trevor nodded. "And he created you... a custom-made terror threat." Tony backed off, sat down as Trevor carried on talking, imitating his speeches. Tony turned round to Hiccup to give him a look - can you believe this guy? - only to find him unconscious.

"Hiccup!" Tony stepped forwards to help his friend, but was stopped when someone grabbed him. There was just time to turn around and see the man from Tennessee before something hit him and everything went black.

Tony woke up in an awkward position. It was a while since he'd found himself good and captured, and he had to say that these were possibly the least comfortable restraints he'd ever been in.

He found it quite funny that he was tied to a bed frame - had they not had anything else to tie him to, or were they just trying to make a - no longer valid - joke?

The world may never know.

"Not a chance of moving to first class?" he joked. It occurred to him then that he hadn't opened his eyes yet. He peeled them open quickly - it would've been terribly awkward to tell a joke to a crowd of none - and was relieved that the only person in the room with him was Maya.

Why Maya was there, exactly, he hadn't a clue. Well - she was obviously taken for her skills... thinking of which, the first time he'd met her had been at the same conference he'd met Killian at.

Maya hadn't responded yet - apparently the joke really had been as weak as it had sounded in his head (shame) - so Tony continued. He grunted and shifted his zip ties around, which apparently caught her attention more than weak attempts at humour.

"So..." he began awkwardly, "you took Killian's card." Well, it was only to be expected, even if it was a little disappointing; he hadn't taken Maya up, so it was inevitable that someone else would... why did it have to be Kilian? "And here we are, thirteen years later, trapped in a dungeon."

"No, you're stuck in a dungeon. I'm free to go." Maya smirked, finally standing up and moving over.

Oh.

"Really?" It truly was a shame. "You had a lot of promise, you know. You could've... not ended up working for a psychopath, for one."

Maya looked at him disbelievingly. "Extremis is nearly stabilized," she argued, "just a few more -"

"No." Tony cut her off, a bit more roughly than necessary. "People are exploding, turning into shadows on the walls... you know, you used to have morals. Now look at you..."

"You know what my old man used to say to me?" Killian caught Tony's attention. He was standing on a raised platform that led to another room, leaning slightly against the handrail. He started walking down the steps, swinging a briefcase by his side. "His favourite of many sayings, really: the early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

Well, wasn't that just an amazing saying. Tony could really see that going far - maybe someone would actually use it someday non-ironically while also not being a total idiot! Tony decided not to comment on that, going for a simple "you're not still mad about that Switzerland thing, are you?" instead.

Killian continued talking, something about thanking and gifts and other things Tony didn't understand and didn't care to understand. "Yeah, that's great, but, uh - d'you know where Hiccup is? Viking, can't really say how high with these ties, got a metal leg?"

Killian smirked. He started prowling towards Tony as he spoke, words innocent but tone anything but. "Have you noticed an interesting common feature in all of my test subjects?" he asked. How did he know I'd watched the videos? Tony wondered, though the was more concerned about the link. Something told him that Killian wasn't just bringing that up for the fun of it. And since the connection was a missing limb...

"You wouldn't!" Tony gasped involuntarily, and Killian smirked.

"I would." he grinned, "and it's not the only person I'd do it to." As he spoke he rolled three small metal balls along the floor. They came to a halt beside the upturned bed frame, and when Killian pressed down on the remote he was now holding, a holographic screen sprang up showing Pepper, strapped down to a tilted table and struggling against her restraints.

Tony didn't ask how he'd managed to get Pepper, or why. It wasn't the time, and he needed to be concentrating on a way to escape. Well... he had his way, just not the exact details.

"If you'd been listening," Killian continued, increasingly impressed with himself, "you'd know that I'm giving you the gift you gave me. A nice, equivalent exchange."

"And that gift would be...?" Tony inquired, still trying to get his head around the implications of the new information he'd gathered. He doubted that Killian's reasoning would help him solve anything, but it was worth a shot.

"Desperation." Killian said plainly. "Now, of course, you'll be working for me now, to help stabilize extremis." He moved forwards suddenly, violently grasping Tony's throat and half-throttling him. "So, what kind of pay package are you looking for?"

"Let him go."

Both men turned their attention to Maya, who was now holding what looked like a stapler to her neck.

"Hold on a sec," Killian whispered, dropping Tony so that he could breathe again. "now, Maya -"

"I said let him go." Maya insisted, hand shaking by her neck.

"- what're you doing?"

"Twelve hundred ccs, a dose half this size and I'm dead." Maya informed them, and Tony stiffened at the thought. When he'd told her she needed morals, this wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind.

Killian, meanwhile, appeared just as calm as ever. "You see," he turned back to Tony to say, "it's times like this my temper is... tested, somewhat... Maya, give me the injector."

"When I die Killian... what happens to your soldiers, your product?" Maya asked. Killian continued pacing towards her, hands half-up as he tried to back her down. Tony watched on, helpless, as the two exchanged verbal blows.

Eventually Killian stopped, took a deep breath and looked back over at Tony.

Oh no... he's not going to -

Apparently he was, as Killian gave a grim smile a yanked a gun from his pocket, shooting a bullet directly into a completely astounded Maya's chest. She dropped the injector and fell back, mouth slack in shock.

"The good news is," Killian said, still maintaining his façade of calm, "a high level position has just been vacated."

Tony let out a half-laughing breath born from shock as Maya collapsed to the floor completely. "You are a maniac."

Killian shook his head, said something Tony was too distracted to hear, and left the room as though he hadn't just shot and murdered someone in cold blood.

"Oh, by the way," Aldrich shouted from halfway down the corridor, "we've got the Iron Patriot."

After Killian left, there wasn't much left for Tony to do other than twiddle his thumbs. Someone came in after a minute to remove Maya's body, and two more security guards arrived a few minutes later to watch him.

Considering that they were working for a terrorist organisation, they didn't seem that bad. They didn't try to make conversation, so Tony used the time to take account of his possible injuries and weapons.

As it turned out, he'd been stripped of all but clothing. Even the watch, a lovely Dora the Explorer one with very little function other than the alarm Tony had set to alert him of the suits' estimated charging time coming to an end, was no longer on his wrist. He couldn't see it, but Tony hoped that it was at least still in the room, or within earshot - he didn't want the suit turning up when he wasn't ready for it.

Speak of the devil - the alarm went off, revealing the watch's position on the table behind the guards. One of them picked it up and turned it over in investigation.

"Could ya make it shut up?" the other requested. The one holding the watch gave it a quick shake. It had no effect. He then raised it a little - it looked as though he was going to drop it.

"Hey, you break it you bought it." Tony warned, as the guard did just that. The watch fell to the floor and was trodden on thoroughly. It stopped the alarm, but the watch was now quite smashed. "Son of a - hey, that wasn't mine - it's a friend's sisters."

The guard looked up at him unapologetically.

"You know what, for that, I'm gonna kill you first."

The guard laughed. "With what?"

"With... this!" Tony flicked out his hands, ready for the suit to dramatically bust through the windows and fly into his waiting palms. It didn't happen.

Instead, four dragons burst through the windows, landing in front of the guards and tossing them out of the way before they could even so much as scream.

"Well, thank god you guys showed up," Tony said, still looking over towards the window in search of his errant suit, "otherwise that would've been embarrassing."

Snotlout asked something - a question perhaps - that his lack of translator made it impossible to understand.

"Eh?"

"Wow, you still don't know any Norse?" Clint grinned, then continued to demonstrate his own skills in the language, in a way that made every one laugh. Laugh - at him!

"Well, I didn't really have the time." Tony explained tersely, flicking his hands out again to call the armour, "Getting blown up and having to save a Viking with some sort of concussion then getting blown up some more and watching some frankly disturbing videos and having a mental fucking breakdown at the side of the road -"

Tony paused when a hand pressed down reassuringly on his shoulder. He flinched away from the contact, breathing heavily now that he'd noticed his sudden lack of oxygen, but Steve didn't move.

"It's okay," Steve was saying, "we've got you, we're gonna get Hiccup and Pepper, just relax." and suddenly, Tony felt the fight, and the tension and the adrenaline just leave him, and he wanted to go home. Not Malibu, that place was wrecked, and he wasn't sure if he even wanted to rebuild it, he wanted to go back to the tower, pretend the whole mess had ever happened and learn Norse and joke around with his science bros...

It took Tony a while to realise that he'd gone into a mental tirade, then stop that tirade, by which point someone had released him from his zip ties, he was sat, slumped, on the floor with someone rubbing circles into his back, and something - tears, he imagined - were making slow tracks down his face.

He was crying.

Damn.

He shrugged off the hand - Eret's, surprisingly - and wiped hastily at the tears. He stole a quick glance over at Clint, and was quite surprised to discover that even the feathery asshole - and what a great nickname that was - wasn't laughing at him. He did look concerned though, and that was almost worse.

"Well!" Tony said suddenly, bouncing up and pretending that it didn't make the world sway around him, "The suit should really be on the way now, but for some reason it isn't, so..." he lost the bravado for a second when he realised that he had no idea what was going to happen next. He continued a second later, clasping his hands together and using the pause as a dramatic effect, "what's the plan?"

There was a hesitance amongst the others to speak as they decided whether or not to accept Tony's one-eighty mood change, or to call bullshit and make him 'talk about his feelings' and 'hug it out'.

Astrid opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. "We don't have one." she said eventually, "It was just to get here and rescue everyone."

Apparently they'd chosen the former. Thank God.

"Well, that means I know more than you right now!" Tony realised, grinning, "Okay, I'll fill you in later, but for now you need to know that Hiccup needs rescuing as soon as possible, and Pepper isn't here anymore. Rhodey is, though."

"Ah, okay." Steve nodded, then - "ah!" - ducked down and rubbed his head as a flying piece of metal took a glancing blow at his head.

The suits had arrived.

"About damn time!" Tony grumbled, holding out a hand to receive the first piece. "What took you so long?"

The rest of the suit arrived, slightly slower than the hand, as the others watched on, slack-mouthed.

"How did you?" Bruce asked, a question which Tony ignored expertly.

"What took you so long?" he asked again, with JARVIS there to hear the question.

"Sorry, sir, there was an obstacle."

"Obstacle?" Tony rolled his eyes, flipping the faceplate upwards. "Okay. Now: here's the plan."

'-cup... Hiccup!'

Hiccup's eyes snapped open as he recognised the voice calling his name. 'Toothless?' he asked tentatively, straining to the left to see his friend.

'Right next to you.' Toothless said, and the Night Fury was indeed there; Hiccup could see the edge of a wing if he stretched far enough.

'Where are we?' he asked next, tugging experimentally on the metal strapping him down. Predictably, it didn't let up. Worth a shot.

'I don't know. The other woman, Mm - Ma-something - she was working for this guy, and they got Pepper.'

'Where's Pepper then?' Hiccup couldn't see - unsurprisingly - or hear any signs of anyone else in the room. 'Is she somewhere else?'

'Yeah... the guy said something about a grand finale, then sent her off somewhere else. I think we're where M-something is.'

Despite the situation now being far, far more dire, Hiccup couldn't help but smile. 'I've missed you, bud.'

The sound of Toothless straining against his restraints reverberated around the room. With great effort, the Night Fury managed to get one wing to awkwardly nudge Hiccup's side. As hugs went, it was pretty bad, but it would have to suffice.

'Yeah, I'd hug you,' Hiccup grinned, 'but I'm a bit tied up at the moment.'

Toothless groaned at the pun, causing Hiccup to cackle. The Night Fury sighed as his rider cracked up, and eventually ended up joining in with the infectious laughter.

The sound of an explosion brought them out of their amusement.

'Was that...' Hiccup trailed off, listening harder. Shouts were sounding in the corridor, none of which revealed anything other than that the explosion hadn't been intentional. Hopefully, the people who were breaking in weren't any worse than the terrorists currently holding them captive.

The door slammed open, and a man in a white suit stormed in. Hiccup remembered him from the videos - he was the twisted man who'd experimented his 'extremis' on unwitting amputees.

"Oh good, you're still here." the man said, slowing down his panicked run into an urgent jog. "It'd be terribly awkward if I couldn't hold true to my promise to Tony."

'Who's this guy?' Toothless asked, to which Hiccup shrugged. He didn't know what the 'promise' was, either, but he could safely assume that it wasn't a good thing.

More crashes sounded outside, along with some yelling. Hiccup recognised one of the shouts as Tony's, but he had no idea what the billionaire was saying.

"I'm going to inject the extremis into your bloodstream." the man explained, flicking a switch. Hiccup suddenly noticed the IV line next to him - how had he missed it? - and started struggling against his restraints. "Now, there's no point in that." the man chastised. He was approaching Hiccup from the right, brandishing a needle.

The shouts from outside were getting louder now, and Hiccup could clearly make out Tony's voice. He was shouting orders to someone else, telling them to "find him, before Killian gets him."

Oh, they were talking about him. Hiccup looked over to who he assumed was Killian, who was speeding up now that he too could hear Tony. He jabbed the needle into Hiccup's arm, then rushed for the exit.

"Sorry to be so rude," Killian paused in the doorway to speak, "but I really must dash. Hope Mr Stark finds you in time."

The glowing orange of extremis was dripping slowly down through the line towards Hiccup's arm. The room was left in a stunned silence for a second in Killian's absence, then:

"Tony!" Hiccup yelled at the top of his voice. The noise from outside the room paused. "Tony!" he tried again, "I'm in here!"

The cacophony resumed immediately, whoever was outside rushing in his direction. The orange liquid was halfway to his arm now, and Hiccup unsuccessfully tried to tug his arm away from it.

"Hiccup?" Tony, dressed in a banged-up Iron Man armour, barged through the door.

"He's trying to put the extremis in me -" Hiccup explained quickly, "you've got to remove this thing!"

Tony nodded, running over to the table Hiccup was attached to and yanking away the line. The orange glowing liquid splashed out as Tony pulled, leaving it to spill all over the floor.

"He's okay, guys!" Tony called out. Who's he talking to?

Hiccup's mental question was answered when a head popped round the door. Astrid wasted no time in getting into the room fully and rushing over.

"Are you okay?"

Thank the gods, there was finally someone to speak in Norse to! "Yeah... just need to get out of these things."

A few good tugs with the strength of the Iron Man armour solved that problem, and Hiccup was finally free.

"Is... uh... is my armour here too?" he asked awkwardly.

Tony nodded. "Yeah. Figured you'd want your dragon more, though."

"Not an option." Hiccup shook his head mournfully, gesturing to his legs - or leg, as he'd just realised - then to Toothless's broken tail - oh, lack of tailfin. Killian had removed both prosthetics, and they weren't anywhere in the room.

"Ah. Wait a sec, I'll go get it."

"So," Hiccup asked awkwardly, "what's the plan?"

"We've split up, us two are getting you, everyone else is getting Tony's friend."

"Rhodey?" Hiccup checked, to which Astrid nodded in recognition. "What's he doing here?"

Astrid shrugged, and Tony came back in, struggling to move the suit while simultaneously having it in a bear hug. He dumped it in front of Hiccup, who hobbled into it and smiled as the faceplate slid down and screens - blissfully in Norse - popped up to tell him the suit's current condition.

"Okay," he said, making full use of the return of the translator, "let's go."

It was Astrid who led the other two back to the rest of the group, who had by now found Rhodey and were outside the mansion.

"Well, that was a success." Clint said, nodding slightly to himself. It really was. They'd come to rescue two humans and a dragon, and here they were with two humans and a dragon. Perhaps not the same two humans they'd had in mind, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Okay guys," Tony was saying, and it was actually quite nice to hear his voice again, since he was technically supposed to be dead, "we need to go back to the main house. There's someone I'd like you to meet."

"Hi, Trevor, Trevor Slattery."

Hiccup had to admit, for all his faults, the man could perform well under pressure. All of the Avengers, a few dragons and some pretty angry Vikings, and Trevor was still trying to introduce himself.

Okay, maybe he was just really high, but still - impressive.

"Right, here's the deal: you tell me where Pepper is, and I stop him doing it." Tony explained, cutting off Trevor's introduction to Rhodey.

"Stop wha - ah! Ah, okay," Trevor grabbed his ear, "I don't know about any pepper, but I do know the plan."

"What plan?" Steve demanded.

"It's happening off the coast... something to do with a big boat - I could take you there! Whoa!" Everyone jumped as Trevor started cheering - he was watching a football game, and someone had just scored.

Okay, slightly less impressive.

"Oh, and I know, this bit might have something to do with the vice president. Is that important?"

"A little bit!" Tony snapped. He sighed, moving away from Trevor and beckoning the others over. "Okay, we need a plan."

"What're we gonna do, go back to the tower?" Steve asked.

"No, we need something faster than that."

A chill ran through the group as they realised what Tony was implying; there wasn't even enough time to get back to New York - they really needed to get moving.

"Wait - Trevor," Tony turned back to the man, who'd now opened a canned drink and was fully engaged in watching the football, "didn't you say something about a lovely speedboat?"

Anyone notice the oh-so subtle reference to a different fandom I put in there? Extra awesome points if you did.
Hope this lived up to everyone's expectations...
Well, there don't appear to be any questions to answer, and I've given this a vague once-over for spelling and stuff, so up it shall go!