Astrid entered the large plaza running, having parked her bike a few streets back, the plaza was a large, round open space with stone tiles covering the floor, occupied with benches and small trees. The first thing she noticed was that the plaza itself was empty, but dozens of people stood at it's edges, eager to see what was about to go down. Astrid frowned, these people at to be stupid to come here, they were in grave danger, she figured they didn't know as much as she did, and so thought Night Fury was going to kick some villain butt in public.
As she stopped Hiccup landed beside her, they shared a glance and a smile and Hiccup felt relieved, he'd not screwed things up. Toothless hopped off his friend's shoulders and onto the ground. Seconds after Toothless landing on the ground a large person fell from apparently out of nowhere a few feet in front of them.
"You came!" The person shouted, it was a large woman, big muscled arms and legs, her stomach a bit bigger than perhaps it should. Her legs and torso were covered in a leathery suit, while her arms were uncovered, revealing a pale, grey, sickly skin. The woman's face was covered by her mask, same one she wore on the video. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you after you bested my most deadly agents."
"Sorry I can't say the same Red Death." Hiccup spoke with an authoritative voice, showing his opponent no fear. "Why are you here?"
"Well… you killed my best scientist while he was developing something I need, now, he must be avenged, to show to those who defy me, that their challenge will cost them." She said threateningly.
"Developing what?" Hiccup asked, perhaps the mind control machine?
"The cure that killed your friend Belch." She said, spite evident in her voice, Hiccup was surprised, it was for her?
"Why do you want it?" Hiccup asked, trying to seem as tough as possible.
"So I stop looking like this!" She removed her mask, revealing a bald, horrible disfigured face, her skin pale and sickly like the one on her arms, one of her eyes was lower in her face than the other, her ears larger than normal and her face was full of bulges, it was quite a nasty sight, many of the spectators gasped at it. "Your mutation gives you fire… mine gives me me this!" She angrily gestured to her face. "Now he's dead, and he can't fix me! And I will kill you for it!" She screamed, pissed off.
"It's no use Red Death, there's 3 against 1!" Hiccup shouted back.
"Is it?" She said mockingly, as she did her ears started visibly shaking and Toothless broke down laughing. While Hiccup looked slightly confused.
"What are you gonna do elephant, wave us to death!" The black raccoon shouted between laughs.
"Kill them!" Red Death shouted. Hiccup's eyes widened as he heard Astrid unholster her gun behind him, he opened his wings and covered him and a laughing Toothless with them. Astrid started shooting at his wings and he heards tons of footsteps running towards them, the spectators "Still 3 to 1 Night Fury?!" Red Death laughed maniacally.
"I shouldn't have called her elephant should I?" Toothless said as he looked up at Hiccup under his wings.
"Nope, guess we know how she controls minds." Hiccup answered, although he did not seem pleased at all "I think she can't control us because of our mutated genes… we need to get out of here, away from other people, maybe she has a range or can't control them if she's not focused, grab my leg bud." Toothless gripped Hiccup's leg tightly and the mutant propelled himself into the sky, knocking the people closer to him to the ground, he looked back to make sure Astrid was ok. Said female was getting up from being thrown away.
He flew away from the Plaza, over rooftops, when he looked back he saw the grey woman landing hard on a roof and running after them, add super strength to the list of abilities, was Hiccup's first thought. Red Death jumped from roof to roof after them until Hiccup thought they were far enough away from the large crowd. He landed on a large roof, Toothless jumping off his leg and rolling before he hit the ground, the woman was close behind them and arrived at the roof little after they did.
"Getting me away from the crowd, nice move… Hiccup." the Red Death smirked.
Toothless withdrew his laser gun and shot it at his enemy a few times, but they hit her and did nothing. Hiccup and Toothless were shocked.
"Although it makes me look like a freak and gives me hundreds of health problems it has its advantages." She knocked on her own arm, and it sounded like someone was knocking on stone.
'Fuck!' Was the first thing in Hiccup's mind, last time someone was immune to his shots he nearly died! How was he supposed to beat her!?
Toothless and Hiccup began firing against her but Hiccup's fireballs were just as useless as Toothless' laser blasts. Red Death just laughed through the whole thing, when they stopped she dashed forward reaching them in the blink of an eye, she moved to punch Hiccup square in the face but he reacted quickly enough to redirect the incoming blow, with the amount of strength she had put in the punch, Hiccup's arms might not have made it.
He responded with a kick to her side, but ended up regretting it, as soon as his foot reached her body it felt like hitting a wall and he winced back in pain. Toothless replaced him and jumped in, literally, pointing his sharp claws at her eyes, she managed to turn her head so his claws hit the side of head, hurting him more than her, he stopped on her shoulder and she moved to grab him but he was faster, he jumped onto her head and managed to stab the highest eye before she grabbed him, she screamed in pain as her eye socket bled out.. purple blood? She pummeled Toothless onto the ground once, but with enough strength to crack the floor and leave him pretty much unconscious, a shot to her side by Hiccup interrupted her before she could repeat. Pissed, she launched Toothless in a random direction with so much strength the small mammal flew with an alarming speed. "Just you and me." She said simply, touching around her eye socket, where there was pretty much no eye anymore and she seemingly didn't care as she charged at Hiccup, who beat his wings in the exact moment, jumping over her and shooting her back, she tripped but did not fall and turned around to face him.
Hiccup dodged and fled for next few minutes, hoping to tire her out and hope that the blood loss would hinder her, but she seemed like she still had tons of energy, more than he did, this wasn't going well for him. Hiccup was starting to get really worried, he had no idea how to win this, he was all by himself against this extremely powerful mutant.
During that time a crowd had gathered around the building whose roof they were fighting on, the roof he was projected off when he didn't dodge a punch. He hit the side of the adjacent building and slid down until he hit the floor. The crowd had made room for him as he hit the floor. Once down he coughed blood, noticing his suit was ripped apart in several places.
This was it. This was impossible, even with an eye less this opponent was gonna beat him. He had failed everyone, he had failed Berk. As he gave up, he saw a hand in front of him, offering help to get him up, he took the hand and it's owner helped Hiccup to his feet, it was an older man, around his 50s with grey hair, he smiled at Hiccup. The super hero looked over the rest of the people in the crowd, they were all looking at him. Placing their trust in him.
He realized the answer to the question Toothless had made him. The people, the stubborn and rough people of Berk were the reason he went through what he did, to show them he was strong. To show them they could trust him. To protect them, to make sure mom's didn't need to worry about their children, to make sure women could walk the streets at night safe, for the people Hiccup would do what needed to be done. For his people. He looked up at the roof he'd fallen off, Red Death was on one knee, one hand on her side, her face lowered. Hiccup remembered her words "Hundreds of health problems." Her liver must not be in good shape. Hiccup clenched his fists. He could do this. He couldn't fail his people.
He took off towards her, charging a bigger blast than usual and firing, the woman looked up in time to get it by it, but she was only knocked back a little, but was enough for Hiccup to charge another big one and fire, he floated around the building, charging shots at her, eventually she got annoyed and rushed over to Hiccup, dodging the fireball he sent her way and jumping off the building to try and catch him.
Hiccup dodged, but has he regained position he got hit in the chest with a powerfully thrown brick Red Death had removed from the side of the building she had hit. Her hands were dug into the wall to keep herself up, but as the brick hit her opponent she leapt from the other building and tackled Hiccup how of the sky. They fell Hiccup's back hit the concrete, adding to the number of bruises he had and Red Death fell on top of him, she pulled back her arm and went to punch Hiccup. 'Crap!' Hiccup didn't have time for anything else other than trying to block the punch with his arms.
As her hand hit his arm a strange sound was emitted, the sound of stone hitting stone. Hiccup looked at the tears on the arms of his suit, but instead of pale skin, he found black scales. Hiccup's eyes widened, the combination with Moriarty's DNA had given him this. Skin to Scale power, and these scales were a rival for Red Death's skin.
Above him Red Death was quiet and took a bit to recover from her surprise, Hiccup decided it was time to even the odds and spun them around, it was harder than with Astrid, since this woman was rather fat, but being him on top now he punched her side, about where her liver was. The grey woman winced in pain, and Hiccup didn't stop. He punched her repeatedly. After a few punches she grabbed his hand and pushed, hard.
Although they were on somewhat equal footing with Hiccup's new found ability, the woman was still considerably stronger than the lanky super hero and her push showed, although he was driven a few meters, he quickly regained his stance looking as his opponent got up and raced towards him, aiming a punch at his face, he ducked just enough for her fist to pass over his head and kicked her knee with all his might, aiming at it like one would aim at a cockroach, but she moved quickly and jumped a few meters back.
Hiccup shot a rather strong blast, it hit her chest, having no effect and creating a puff of smoke. Hiccup took advantage of it and moved quickly, with a jump and a wing flap he was on her, covered by his now small puff of smoke he managed a strong punch in her jaw, she retreated a few paces but moved to counter, trying to punch Hiccup, she moved fast and he didn't have time as he regained his stance from falling, taking the hit to the side of the face, cracking his mask.
She moved for another punch, one he redirected and took advantage of the opening, punching her liver once more and as she staggered, he sweept her legs. As the woman fell Hiccup lifted his foot, moving to step on the woman's face, but she rolled away, getting up in a swift motion and using her momentum to spin and nail Hiccup in the side with her hell.
He staggered back and she jumped grabbing his face, ready to pummel it into the ground, but the hero reacted fast, flapping his wings hard and pushing away from the woman. They circled each other, neither of them expected the fight to be this matched, they were both panting, the effects of tiredness finally hitting Red Death, although she was breathing considerably slower than Hiccup, "Getting tired are we?" she mocked. His smirk annoyed her to no end. "We can take a break if you want, get glass of water, stretch our legs, maybe catch some sun, you're looking a little pale." The sarcasm was so evident it almost cut and the answer angered her more than his smirk.
To Hiccup's surprise the woman dug her hands into the roof and pulled a piece of concrete, throwing it at him with immense force. He reacted quickly, shooting it, forming a cloud of dust. Because of said cloud, he did not see the other piece of concrete until it hit his stomach, hard. He winced and fell to one knee, his enemy running towards him, hand pulled back ready to punch.
Ignoring the pain his stomach (which was quite a lot, by the way) he flapped his wings and pushed with the foot that was in the ground, kicking the Red Death's throat with the other, she tripped back, hands coming up to protect her neck, but Hiccup didn't let up, he jumped after her punching where he had kicked. Before he could repeat, the woman pushed him away.
When she removed her hands he saw her skin was fractured in her neck, with cracks on it. Cracks he could exploit. Weakened, it might be susceptible to his blasts. Before she could cover it again, he shot, confirming his theory as she stepped back, bringing her hands to the fragilized area. Her eye was bulged, she realized she was in a tight spot. She ran towards the edge of the building and jumped, landing near the citizens with a bang, Hiccup followed close behind knowing what she planned to do.
As she got up, her ears began shaking, and the people around her lost all of their worried expressions and began looking rather… stoic one could say. "Kil-" as she opened her mouth, Hiccup shot a small precise blast, which entered her mouth and burned her vocal cords. Her eye widened, turning glassy, and she brought her hands up to her mouth, clearly in a ton of pain.
The hero thanked every god there was for her interior not being stone-like too. She tried talking but was unable to formulate words.
"It's horrible isn't it?" Hiccup said as he landed, he noticed he was glowing a bright blue from beneath his scales, but paid little mind to it, Red Death had stopped shaking her ears, eyes wide, a few tears running down her face, her hands around her throat in a protective manner. Around him people began regaining their senses, "To not be able to talk, to communicate, to express your feelings." He continued, his face grim, moving towards her, "To be a ghost."
He reached her and punched her liver, she winced and stepped back, but he went after her, punching and punching until the woman fell, landing a few feet away from her opponent.
Her eye was still wide, and she was still in pain but as she fell, she glared at Hiccup, and gathered enough strength to pull out a device from a hidden pocket, a device with a button. Hiccup's eyes widened, 'The bomb!'. As she was about to click, a blue fireball hit her hand, not hurting it, but moving it enough to throw the device away, device which Hiccup rolled and grabbed, being careful not to press the button. He looked over to the origin of the shot and found Astrid, gun up and pointing at Red Death, he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. Of course she had saved him.
She glanced at him and looked surprised as she saw her boyfriend covered in black scales, glowing a bright blue from beneath them, she moved the thought of how awesome he looked to the back of her head. They both moved over to Red Death who was still on the ground, and from her face, clearly in quite some pain still.
As they got in front of her, they noticed several people coming out of the crowd that had surrounded them, they all had earplugs in their ears, Hiccup realized they were policemen, undercover within the crowd, guns pointed at the grey woman, it made sense, no Police Chief would leave the town's safety to chance. He noticed one of the policemen was his cousin, Snotlout, they made eye contact and his cousin gave him a respectful nod, which he returned.
His attention was diverted when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to the right, a blonde, short girl with a white earplug was standing beside him. He gave her a slight smile, which she mirrored "Officer Camicazi." He greeted, she responded in kind "Night Fury." She moved her gaze towards the woman on the ground, "What do you want to do?"
Even with the police force around them, Astrid had never lowered her gun and Hiccup watched the woman on the floor who had gone unconscious from the pain of her inside burning. 'Now what?' He'd been so focused in training he didn't actually think about what to do if he won, he guessed he never thought he could win.
"Kill her!" Some lady from the crowd shouted and there were many mumbles of agreement. He looked over to Astrid standing beside him, her smile, even as small as it was, it calmed him, and her eyes told him, no matter his decision, she'd be there for him.
He actually pondered killing Red Death for a few seconds, but then shook his head, "No. We are not like this woman and her thugs. We don't kill just because someone is an obstacle. There is no death penalty in Berk, and I will not be the first to apply it. This woman will serve time for all her crimes, Terrorism, Murder, Attempt of Murder and illegal human experimentation." He spoke loudly with confidence, to everyone in the crowd, "Pretty sure it's life sentence by the way, so no need to worry about her getting out." he said in a lighter tone, making some in the crowd chuckle.
"We can't just arrest her… she'll easily break our handcuffs and vests." Camicazi said, having witnessed the woman's amazing strength. Hiccup paused, thinking, then spoke "I have an idea."
"I see your work is done." Astrid grinned at Hiccup and he tiredly grinned back, it had been two days since they defeated The Red Death and it was around midnight, Astrid was on the couch of his apartment in her pj's with her hair out of her usual braid, watching the news.
She pointed at the tv, where the caption read 'The Red Death defeated. Night Fury, Hero', she frowned, he'd always been a hero. Behind the lady that was speaking to the camera one could see the precinct, from where the Red Death was being pulled out of and into a van that read 'FBI', she was wearing a vest made of black metal, she had also had blocky handcuffs that covered her whole hands, made of the same black metal, and a helmet that seemed to keep her ears still. All around the vest were several metal strings and beams that connected to a collar around her throat.
After the battle, they had taken Red Death to jail and locked her up, continuously sedating her through the cracks in her throat, while also treating her burned interior.
Hiccup, Fishlegs and Gobber had gathered in his workshop to build the strongest vest ever. Toothless had showed up a few hours later, totally healed but pissed off. He was delighted to hear the story and joined them in their construction, excited to finally arrest the woman behind all his suffering. Astrid discovered she very much enjoyed watching Hiccup work on his inventions, his eyes lit up when he explained his ideas and his face scrunched up cutely when he was thinking hard.
Together the 4 brilliant minds came up with a Blacksteel vest that was pretty much unbreakable, but had a special mechanism that if she tried to break it, the collar around her neck would tighten. The more the tried to break it, the harder it tightened, it wouldn't actually kill her, but it would get to the point where it would hurt. Alot. It would also make her breathing super shallow and it would knock her out if she stayed like that for too long.
Hiccup hadn't slept for two nights, he was tired, his whole body hurt and he'd coughed blood more than a few times, but he also missed Astrid and wanted to spend some time with her, alone. She shifted close to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry." she said simply, regret clearly evident in her voice.
Hiccup looked down at her with a frown, "What for?"
"You know… trying to kill you and all." She said, lifting her head from his shoulder and looking at him. He laughed.
"Astrid it's not your fault, she had you under control, there was nothing you to do, plus you saved the town, you prevented her from blowing up that bomb." He smiled at her and she felt instantly relieved.
"So… no hard feelings?" She asked.
"Not a trace." He grinned at her and she couldn't help but grin back, leaning her head on his shoulder once more
. She took a deep breath. She was pretty sure he hadn't heard her when he left for the fight. And now that he was actually there, she was afraid, she had never said it to anyone before. But Hiccup was special, he made her feel like no one else could, and she loved it. She loved him. And it was time he knew.
She took another deep breath and lifted her head to look him in the eye. "I love you." she said simply, Hiccup's face was of pure shock and bewilderment, the he turned a bright shade of pink before finally grinning at her and answering, "I love you too Astrid." hearing him say that made her heart explode like it had the first time she heard it and she couldn't help but jump on him, wrapping her arms around his neck before he laid down on the couch and her lips latched onto his.
so... what did you think? Too rushed? Fight too long? Poorly written? Too unrealistic? I'm sorry if the chapter did not please, I actually had quite a hard time writting, mainly because I had no idea what Hiccup would do to her, and it took me quite some time to figure it out.
Sorry if things don't seem realistic enough. I think Astrid's part could have been better, but as much as I love fluff I think I'm not that good at writing it, also, sorry for the lack of Toothless, but he is by far my favorite character in this story, that elephant (at first it was Dumbo but I realized he wouldn't know who dumbo was) joke seems like something he'd do.
BTW, I know it's not explicit in the chapter, but my idea behind Red Death wanting the cure, is that it would make her look normal and solve her health problems but would keeep her mind control ability. Sorry it's not explicit, it seemed she had already explained to much.
So, we're very near the end, not sure if the next chapter is the last one or the one after that is, but next one will probably be the last.
Also, how awesome is Hiccup's new power?