Hiccup in a Flash, chap 11
I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or its characters, just merely borrowing the characters for an adventure of my own.
So yes Foxmorgoth, Hiccup's leg is just partially removed. I imagined it to be cut from just below the knee and that's the part that were exposed when the suit was torn in the warehouse. As I reminder I'm sorry I got the leg wrong. I forgot that Hiccup's left was my right when I was imagining him in my mind ^^
To answer thisguyiknow, the deadline was on the 21st because it's been exactly 6 months since I began this story and I wanted to do something to celebrate it ^^
So the deadline is up and it's the 6 MONTHS ANNIVERSARY of this fanfic. It's been exactly 6 months since I first publish it and I promised you last time a surprise for the next time. So to celebrate this 6-months anniversary I offer you TWO CHAPTERS INSTEAD OF ONE! ^^
Then without further ado, please enjoy yourself with this fanfic ^^
- Chapter 11: Detective work
Hiccup growled a bit as he was trying to think of something else than the freezing cold. He was back at the harbor of Berk after a short night sleep and a waking call from Astrid at an ungodly hour. She gave him ten minutes to be at the Police Plaza, ready to beat the street and accompany her to visit her sources. Being back at the same place that two weeks ago, he could only assumed that they were going to meet Trader Johann. As to prove his point, Trader Johann just appeared at the corner that Astrid was watching like a hawk.
Hiccup was happy to see Trader Johann, another hour waiting in this cold and he felt like he would become an icicle. But being as he is, his mind began to go off-track to protest to how ludicrous this idea would be on a scientific base.
After all even if my body is made at 80% of water it's not nearly enough to be considered an icicle that he is made nearly solely of water. It's true that most icicle have impurities in it, foreign objects that...
His mind kept on arguing like that until Trader Johann was finally close enough to greet them.
"Lady Astrid, jewel of the crown of the fine BCPD. How can I be of service to you?"
Ignoring the pompous greeting, she went straight to business.
"I need information on the leader of a burglar crew that operates here in Berk."
"Oh my, straight to business as usual Lady Astrid. What do you need to know exactly?"
"Where is Eret Twice?"
Trader Johann merely blinked a moment before answering.
"I've heard of this fellow, I never met him obviously. But he has quite a reputation. Not all bad if I have to say. It actually reminded of a nice fellow I had the pleasure to meet during one of my numerous travels. He was a rather successful diamond cutter that managed to have both a elogious and terrible reputation upon his work. You see, he had this troubling habit of..."
Astrid began to growl when she saw that Johann was beginning to do his usual ranting. She didn't have the patience for that and Hiccup promptly judge it would be best to intervene before things turn ugly.
"So you know Eret Twice. Do you know where he's right now?"
Johann was a bit annoyed at being interrupted like that but nonetheless answered, being the perfect gentleman he deemed himself to be. And a gentleman doesn't take offense for such a minor disagreement.
"Alas lad, I'm afraid I'm not quite sure of where that fella might be. Rumors as it that he left town but personally I don't think so. You see it appears that some of his crew members had been found dead, quite nastily at that, a mere few days ago. It gives me every reason to believe that he is still in Berk. But where? I'm afraid I'm in no position to tell you lad."
Hiccup couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He had hoped they would be able to quickly find Eret but if Trader Johann didn't where he is, his chance to find Eret seemed quite slim.
"Nonetheless, I have to say this Eret is quite the persona. Apparently his father was a brilliant hunter specialized in traps and he taught him everything he knew when Eret was still a young lad. He loved his father and he made his father proud by his talents as a trapper. However his father died from disease when he was merely 13 and he slowly engaged himself in a dark path. He first made some petty larceny but quickly realized that he would earn a lot more if he used his knowledge of trapping for his crimes. He quickly made a name for himself and started to form a crew that he would train himself. He made it large enough to face any situation but small enough so that every member is needed."
Astrid had no interest in the life story of Eret but the last part got her attention.
"You said that every member is needed in the crew?"
"Sure I did Lady Astrid. They can't work with one missing, each having his own specialty. It avoids betrayal when sharing loots as they would need one another for the next job."
"Three of his crew members died so he had to replace them. I'm sure you heard someone looking for three persons with specific specialties in the last couples of days."
"Well... I did hear of someone needing a fence in large equipment, a fighter and a driver. But I didn't think more of it, it's not something that unusual to look for new members."
Astrid knew otherwise. This could her first serious lead.
Finally something I could work with. I can't wait to put my hand on him.
"And I supposed you don't know where they were supposed to meet the recruiter?"
"You know all too well how this work Lady Astrid. You just give them a name and they take care of contacting the guy."
A knowing grin appeared on Astrid's face. Trader Johann recognized it for having seen it way too many time to his taste. This was the smile that always indicated that things won't go well for him.
"Seeing how you went everywhere and know everybody there is to know, I suppose you might have given a name of your own Johann."
He knew he couldn't lie to her if he wanted to live another day and was feeling more and more uncomfortable.
"I may have said to some people that I knew someone with decent driving skills and a certain flexibility in morals that some might not approve."
"Why am I not surprised?" She had a knowing grin, it was exactly as she expected.
"But Lady Astrid I assure you it was never in my intention to help some criminals."
"And I'm sure you shared that information with fine example of honest citizen with no criminal past whatsoever."
She got him and he knew it. But that didn't stop him to try to defend himself.
"Everyone is allowed mistakes Lady Astrid. It's just that some of my acquaintance may have made more mistakes than most. But that doesn't mean they're bad people either."
Astrid could guess what kind of good people those could be. The Berserkers for example.
More mistakes than most might be the understatement of the century.
"I want a name Johann."
Johann seemed clearly shocked that she dared to ask him that. Hiccup had to admit Johann was an extremely talented actor.
I really wished that I had half of his talent for acting. It would be really useful in the near future.
"What?! It is utterly ridiculous Lady Astrid! You know that I have a very strict policy of protecting my friends' privacy. Even if you were to threatened me I won't budge, I am a respectable man with principles that can't be accommodated with. Even for you Lady Astrid!"
He threw a side glance to the amused face of Astrid. She clearly wholeheartedly enjoyed this exchange that she knew beyond doubt that she would win. She always does.
Seems like his talent won't be enough to fool Astrid.
"Your friends' privacy? Really?" Johann answered nothing and met Astrid's gaze, refusing to back down from his stance. "But you're mistaken Johann. I'm not asking you to betray anything. After all, as you said you're a man of principles that one can only respect."
Even if he knew it was flattery Johann still was soothed by the change of tone of Astrid. But he couldn't help but stay apprehensive of what was coming next. Hiccup was simply enjoying the show.
"Thank you Lady Astrid, it's very kind of you. It is rare for someone to appreciate my personal policy to its just value. Nowadays no one seems to understand the importance of having principles."
"You're perfectly right Johann. I respect and admire that in you. It is why I even dare say that we are friends."
"But you'll be right to think so Lady Astrid. It is my utter privilege to count you as my friend."
Johann seemed really pleased at such show of respect from Astrid, it was something he clearly wasn't used to.
"Glad you think so Johann. So it wouldn't be a problem for you to tell us who was that driver you told us about."
The logic of why he should tell her seemed lost to Johann as he looked quizzically at Astrid.
"After all like you said before, you only spoke to him at some friends of yours. As you've done it before, it shouldn't pose you problems to speak of him to other friends of yours. And as you said, we are friends Johann. So please do tell, who was that driver friend of yours?"
Comprehension slowly draw upon Johann's face as he realized that he was trapped. On his part Hiccup could only admire Astrid's ingenuity.
Glad that she's on Night Fury's side. But on the back of his mind a small voice quickly followed that last statement: For now.
Snotlout, or his real name Sam Jorgenson, was having a good day. He went home early yesterday to catch the football game and arrived just in time to watch the victory of his team throughout a last minute epic comeback. After celebrating to himself, he went to bed drunk enough to have a pleasant memory of his night and yet not too drunk to suffer a major headache the next morning. Feeling sluggish upon waking up, he was back in shape with an extra hour of sleep. When he left, as he was leaving later than usual, he had the pleasant surprise to discover there was no traffic jam on his way to the Police Plaza. When he arrived to work he found a fresh pot of coffee ready for him. After exchanging a few jokes with some detectives and winked at the new girl in the detective squad, he went to his desk and saw that Fishleg had done his report for him as he had expected. Moreover he had no urgent business to deal with immediately as the hunt for Night Fury being halted by the chain of command so that they can revise their strategy to catch that damn vigilante. To top it all, Fishleg had been silent for the past hour and didn't annoyed him with any statistics on recent events or any of his so-called "interesting" facts. To be honest he had rarely been so silent.
He had never been this silent. Snotlout corrected for himself. Like ever. Even in the interrogation practices that Astrid made us do he couldn't stop himself from blabbing.
Frowning, he turned to observe Fishlegs. It was more than obvious that something was wrong. He was glancing nervously around from time to time all the while staring at the entrance of the detective squad. Even someone as dense as Snotlout realized that Fishlegs wasn't in his usual state. His first reaction was to ignore Fishlegs. It was not the first time and it wouldn't be the last time that Fishlegs was acting weird and by experience he knew it was usually be for the best if he didn't involved himself with Fishlegs's weirdness.
But as much as he wanted to ignore Fishlegs it proved to more challenging that he expected. In a way Snotlout had been right: Fishlegs is never that silent. Even if he wasn't babbling it didn't stopped him from annoyingly loud. At first he was just slightly muttering in his breath but Snotlout could easily ignored that. After all he had years of practices of ignoring Fishlegs's voice. Then things began to escalate.
Nervously Fishlegs started chewing gums and tapping his fingers on his desk. After accidentally swallowing his gum and coughing for ten minutes when Snotlout "gently" asked him to stop tapping his fingers, he started muttering in his breath more and more loudly while pivoting on his chair. When Snotlout thought it couldn't get worse, Fishlegs started to click his pen.
"ENOUGH FISHLEGS! Spill it! What the f*ck are you so nervous about?! And will you stop all that noise! It's driving me crazy!"
Fishlegs looked at him completely bewildered. Then his eyes shied away from Snotlout's gaze and began to speak quickly as he does when he is nervous.
"Nothing. No-Nothing is wrong really. I-I'm not nervous about anything. Especially not Astrid. Not nervous at all. I really don't know what you're talking about."
Snotlout might not be the best detective nor the brightest light but there was no way he was buying that. But before he could push Fishlegs further as to why he was nervous about Astrid, his phone shortly rang twice, indicating that he received a text.
He quickly read it and his face wore a smug smile.
"Seems like she can't get enough of the Snotman."
"W-Who?"
Snotlout simply grinned at him before taking his coat.
"Well it's a good thing that you're not nervous about Astrid because she just asked us to meet her in front of a bar." Fishlegs visibly paled. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get your coat and let's go! I'm sure that Astrid is dying to see me again. She's just so in love with me."
Fishlegs cringed at it. Something was telling that this meeting wouldn't go as Snotlout expected it to go.
Again Snotlout had been right on one point -it's not something you say often- Astrid was dying to see him again but not for the reason he might have thought. As Snotlout arrived at the location that Astrid had text him, she gestured him to follow her on a side alley a bit further away. Snotlout walked to her while puffing his chest with all the height he could managed, sure to impress Astrid as usual. Fishlegs was slowly walking behind Snotlout. He had recognized the smile on Astrid's face and knew that it won't be pretty.
As soon as Snotlout passed the corner of the alley, his guts met with a vicious uppercut from Astrid. Before he could recover from it, she swept his legs under him, seized his arm and twisted it while putting her foot on the back of the now fallen Snotlout.
"Snotlout you brain-dead moron fish! I swear to Freya, I'll kill if you ever redo that to me!"
"OWW! What's the hell?! What did I do?"
She twisted a bit more his arm.
"What did you do?! How come I was never informed that the metal crates from the warehouse had been stolen?"
"What?! But who gives a damn about..."
She twisted even more, closing to the limit of how much it could bent.
"OWWW! OWW! STOP! Ok, ok! I'm sorry! I should have told you!"
"Fishlegs. What was my exact words when I tell you about this case?"
Fishlegs flinched a bit but quickly executed himself.
"You said: This is my case and I would be the one that will catch that f*cker of Night Fury. If you ever encountered anything even remotely linked to Night Fury, I want to be informed immediately. Or I swear to God I'll make you regret it. Understood? I believe those were your exact words."
"Thank you Fishlegs. So explain it to me Snotlout. How come that when a major evidence from a case that directly incriminated Night Fury, a case that is the basis of why we are currently chasing him, could disappeared like that and you didn't judge it pertinent enough to inform me?!"
Snotlout gulped nervously. He knew that his next words could make him a dead man. Carefully, he began to think of how he could get out of this one.
"I just didn't think it would be... relevant to your case. As I know you're busy I didn't want to bother you with unimportant stuff babe."
Fishlegs and Hiccup cringed when they heard Snotlout called Astrid babe.
He's so dead.
As if to prove them right, Astrid began to twist his wrist on top of twisting his arms all the while bending with her other hand his fingers in the other way. And, pressing furthermore her foot on Snotlout's back, she lowered herself so that she could whisper into Snotlout's ear.
"You're lucky that I need you today. I'll let you go with just this light punishment. But the next time that you call me babe again, it won't matter if I need you or not. I'll break your arm in half and punch your face in before calling someone else in for the job I'll need you to do. Is that understood?"
To stress her point she put more pressure on him and played a bit with the limit of how much his arm can be twisted. Snotlout did his best to refrain from screaming and fight the tears peeking to his eyes. He vigorously nodded that he understood. To Snotlout's relief, Astrid let him go without further punishment. Slowly he got up again and began to massage his arm.
"So what did you need us for?"
"In the bar I texted you there is a suspect that I want you to follow. I'm going to see Mildew and I want you to follow the guy when he'll be on the move. Don't let him see you and with some luck he will guide us to the one I'm looking for. As soon as he stopped somewhere, call me immediately and I'll join you. Is that clear?"
"Like crystal ba-Astrid." He quickly corrected himself. He really didn't want to test how badly she needed him for the job. Fishlegs for his part simply nod his agreement to the plan.
"Alright, let's go. And don't screw this up!"
Mildew, really named Mike Shepherd, was a snitch that Astrid knew that lived a few blocks away from the bar they came from. He was was spending most of his time lurking behind a window on the corner of an old house that was swearing with the residential buildings around it and was once a slightly less old house outside of Berk. But with the rapid expansion of Berk, his old family house was quickly surrounded by residential areas and not among the safest of them. Mildew was an eccentric that refuse to move and leave his house even if it was in desperate need of repairs. The roof was pierced by places and the windows were cracked and in serious need of cleaning. Obstinate like no other, he quickly became know as the crazy old man of the neighborhood. Long retired he was passing his days watching by his windows what was happening in the street.
His hobby interested the thugs of the neighborhood as his house was strategically placed to observe who was coming. Mildew reached a deal with them: he would warn them if some cops or rival gangs were coming and in exchanged they had to respect his property and deal with the people that annoyed him. And of course a reasonable amount of money. His help was precious around here because as most of cops were long term resident of Berk, Mildew knew nearly all of them. And he had an excellent memory of who should or shouldn't be here. This is why nearly every gang in the area that wanted to do deals in that part of the city payed Mildew to stand watch.
However Mildew didn't have anything against a little cash for the police as an informant. Especially if they were looking for someone that was acting a bit stingy and wasn't paying him enough money. Also he didn't hurt him to have the police owing him some favors.
Despise all those connections, that stop some new gangs to take a shot at him. Usually he managed to fend them off by calling upon those who owed him but one time he got really close to kick the bucket if it hadn't been for a rookie police officer named Astrid Hofferson. She arrested by herself five thugs that had push Mildew to hide himself in his basement with his pet sheep. They were about to prop open the door when Astrid had erupted in the room. She had heard noises outside and decided to check in. After several shots were exchanged, four thugs were incapacitated with at least a bullet in two limbs and the last one surrendered. Herself had been only slightly grazed by the altercation.
Ever since Mildew owed Astrid a life long debt of gratitude and agreed to be her occasional informant. She could ask him one piece of information every two weeks not more. Otherwise it would be bad for his business. Mildew had proved himself to be a precious sources of information for Astrid in her years as a police officer. The intel she got from him greatly helped her to prove herself be one the youngest one to be promoted detective. As she accumulated experience and contacts she needed less and less intel from Mildew but it still proved useful for her to have Mildew as an indic.
Today it would be a bit over two weeks since Astrid last consulted him, last time being when she went to ask him if he had any information about Night Fury. Unfortunately for her, as every other informants in Berk, he didn't had any for her.
But this time Astrid had a good feeling that it will go according to plan.
She was strolling confidently towards Mildew's house. He was nervously looking around to see if anyone had saw her coming. Astrid was famous in those parts of town and Mildew really didn't want people to think he was working with her.
Luckily for him, it was raining outside and everybody was keeping to themselves at home. As Astrid was walking into his house he groaned upon seeing Hiccup enter too.
"Who's the kid?"
"He's my new partner."
"I'm not talking if he's here."
"That's not the deal Mildew."
He merely grunted. He knew it wasn't but didn't like it either. Something about this kid was unsettling him.
It's true that Hiccup was no longer a kid but for someone like Mildew everyone was a kid. Actually Hiccup was surprised that someone as old as him be an informant. He had heard of Mildew before but he wasn't expecting him to look so old. He saw in records that he was 64 but to him he looked more like 80. He was sitting still in his old cushioned armchair, a blanket above his legs and a cellphone in his hand. He was wearing a comfy pajamas under a warm brown dressing gown that was at least a decade old. You could spot stains everywhere on his clothes and judging by the smell he didn't bath for a least a week.
Surprisingly the house wasn't that bad inside. You could spot that renovation had been made a bit everywhere in the room and that most of the stuff was recent. Only the kitchen looked as bad as the exterior suggested. Hiccup supposed he renovated the essential part of his house with the money he made for the local gangs.
Hiccup was leisurely observing the rest of the house while Astrid and Mildew were still looking at each other defiantly. Finally Mildew conceded this silent dual.
"Alright, alright! He can stay but he doesn't utter a word! Got it?"
"Agreed. It might even do me some good." Astrid answered with a small smirk, earning herself a dark look from Hiccup. But as agreed he didn't say a word.
"So what do you want to know? Night Fury again?" Mildew asked, totally ignoring Hiccup.
"No. I know you don't have a shred of information on him. At least not that I already know."
"Alright, so what is it?"
"I'm looking for someone. He's a specialized driver for local criminals. I heard that he recently joined a crew and I want to find him."
"Does this specialized driver has a name?"
"Roscoe Hynes. He was a former lieutenant and pilot fighter."
Mildew began to stroke his untidy greasy beard while trying to remember who this person was.
"Yeah, I've heard of the fella. One of the best driver in town, he is said to be able to run every engine and drive about everything."
"So you know where he is."
"Sorry missy but he isn't living around here and I don't move much elsewhere. You might have a better luck with someone else. But if it can help he definitely doesn't live in this part of town or I would know it. I can assure you that."
Hiccup frowned at that but didn't say anything. After all he still wasn't allowed to speak and trust that Astrid had a plan.
"F*ck! I thought for sure that you'd know! That's one huge sh*t! What a waste, I should have ask you something else."
Okay, maybe she didn't had a plan after all.
"I answered your question as per our deal so now get the hell out of here before you destroy all my hard work."
"Alright Mildew. Thanks anyway."
She was halfway to the door when Mildew called her back.
"Oh! By the way Astrid, you don't need to go see the local gangs right?"
"No, go ahead Mildew. You could told them that I was here for Dagur."
"The head of the Berserker? Nice pick."
Then as Mildew had no business left with her, Astrid headed to the door, Hiccup right behind her. As soon as they were out, Hiccup could no longer refrain his question.
"Tell them that you were there for Dagur?"
"Yes. It is likely that some people saw us entered and exited from Mildew's house. He'll have to explain why we went to saw us. As I don't need to go into the neighborhood he could tell to the others that I went to see him to ask about Dagur and warned them that I'm around."
Hiccup thought about what Astrid just said. It was quite clever actually. Mildew got an alibi for speaking to Astrid and Astrid could throw them off scent on who the police were really after. But it still left him with another big question. But it wasn't the time to ask it as they were being soaked by the rain. They quickly run for cover in the car parked at the corner.
As they enter the car, he pushed his wet hair from in front of his eyes and turned to ask Astrid.
"But why did you ask him about Roscoe Hynes? We already know where he is. Snotlout and Fishlegs are watching him."
Astrid faced him with a winning smile and Hiccup took a moment to absorb what he was seeing. Her hair were dripping from her disheveled braid, her lips were glistening bright red in contrast to the cold white skin of her makeup free face and her eyes were hiding some black bags with some stray hairs forming an impromptu fringe. Astrid didn't pay much to her appearance this morning nor slept much either. She was way too excited yesterday night of finally having a concrete lead in her case. Hiccup didn't think he ever saw Astrid's appearance so undone,. So negligee. So raw. So perfect. In this moment, this perfect moment, every feeling he ever harbor about Astrid surged into him like a raging wave. The rawness of her appearance, the winning smile and the gleam of those stupidly perfect sapphire eyes, that was everything that makes Astrid... well Astrid. And in this moment he remembered why he was in love with her in the first place, what draw him to her. And in this moment never her luscious looked more kissable...
Then the moment passed when Astrid answered his question.
"So you know how Mildew owes me his life and made a deal to be my informant in gratitude?"
Hiccup merely nodded as he could speak for the moment. He was trying hard to hide his embarrassment. He didn't expect to experience such a surge of emotions, not at such a random moment. It wasn't even a romantic moment or anything. There was nothing particular except she just seemed so cute, so desirable, so... He scolded himself mentally before he went sidetracks again and tried to focus on what she was saying.
Listen to her! Stop being so rude! She's answering your question and you ain't listening to what she's saying for those magnificent lips that... STOP IT!
Astrid frowned at the lost look on Hiccup's eyes but decided to disregard it.
"Well, turns out that Mildew's gratitude doesn't last very long. Not a year after I stroke the deal with him he began to lie to me and snitch on me to other criminals."
Now she finally got the full attention of Hiccup.
"Then why do you still ask him for information? And why did you ask him about Roscoe Hynes?"
"Milch is a snitch so I knew he would sell me out someday. He's still saying me the truth for those who don't pay him. But when I ask him about the ones that pay protection to him, he would lie to me and inform them that I'm looking for them."
"But then why ask him about Roscoe Hynes? We saw him at a bar not 4 blocks from here and Mildew said that he didn't live here. He must have paid protection to Mildew."
Her smile simply grew larger if possible.
"Exactly."
She looked at Hiccup's confused face and nearly burst out laughing. He was just too cute all confused like that. She barely contained herself and start answering a quickly reddening Hiccup. Even if he didn't really understand how Astrid was thinking he knew her enough to she was making fun of him.
"I want him to inform Roscoe. He'll probably tell him that I'm looking for him and that I don't know where he is but that can quickly change. Being the newcomer of the crew he might have limited ways to contact the rest of the crew and with some luck he might lead us to the crew's hideout. But that's if Snotlout and Fishlegs can do a decent job."
She said that last sentence while grinding her teeth. Even if she personally trained them she knows that Snotlout have a tendency to screw important things that needed more subtil ways than charging head-on.
As Hiccup was about to say something, her phone began to vibrate. She quickly read the text that Fishlegs just send her.
"S.H on the move. Snotlout and I are following."
"Good. Now we wait."
Review what you thought of this chapter ^^ And now the next chapter.
