It had been a very interesting six and a half months. Abdul reflected on this as he entered the genetics lab. The logistical challenge of running the bunker with fewer and fewer humans around and one (Morian) who no one wanted to deal with had been fun. But they had worked things out. Once the Furies left, it would be far easier for the remaining members of the team, because they would only be providing for themselves. The Furies had helped with what they could, but there was only so much they could do. Even after one of the engineers had built an oversized keyboard and custom mouse capable of being used by Furies. There were things they just couldn't do efficiently. Still, it had all worked out in the end.
And, he reflected as he put the transfer helmet on, it was almost over. He was the last human in line for the transfer, and his future body was already in the half-vat, waiting. He had been given a Fury with light-grey eyes, the only one with that eye color in their group. He smiled at the doctor and geneticist, two of the five team members who weren't taking the opportunity, in answer to the unspoken question. "I've been ready for months."
A few minutes later, Abdul carefully walked out of the genetics lab. It had worked as expected. They hadn't had a single problem with the entire process. The hours of quadruple checking every single possibility in the months prior to the first test had really paid off in that respect. He would greet the other Furies, and begin learning their language soon. But first, he went and retrieved the keyboard and mouse that he could use, and brought it back to the genetics lab. All five of the humans who had declined the process were there. He had them hook the components to the main computer and typed a short phrase as a comment into the command line. 'Are you all sure you will never be able to make this change?'
Each person reaffirmed their decision.
Abdul huffed, as a way of wordlessly expressing resignation. 'Fair enough.' He entered a series of passwords into the main genetics computer, as it ascertained he really did have the authority to wipe it clean. He pushed one last key, and the genetics computer proceeded to destroy thousands of hours of work. Everything they had on Night Fury DNA, and manipulating it. That information was just too dangerous to leave here. It would be nearly impossible for anyone to duplicate what they had done now, especially without a Night Fury to replicate their research. But he wanted to be entirely sure. Those remaining in the bunker would never need the oversized vats. Even in the highly unlikely event that they would need to grow something, the normal vat could do that.
Abdul left in search of Toothless. He eventually found him, and Toothless understood what he wanted, as they had discussed it beforehand.
Toothless entered the genetics lab and spoke to the people inside. "You might want to stand back." He waited as the humans exited the room. Then he did something he hadn't done in almost a year. He fired a plasma blast straight into the central vat. Immediately after that he quickly hit the other two vats, and then the large machine that performed the transfers. His blast did a massive amount of damage to the glass and delicate electronics. What was left could hardly be described as technology anymore. It was more of a big metallic hunk of debris, scorched and covered in the green fluid from the vats. He chuffed. "I wonder who's going to clean this up?"
Morian heard none of this. He was, as was usual these last few months, hiding in his spare room. He had steadily retreated from the rest of the bunker as the Fury population increased. There were now sixteen, at this point probably seventeen of them, and the bunker was almost crowded now. However, he still had to venture out for food. And when he saw a faint wisp of smoke, his heart leaped with hope. Had they finally arrived?
His heart fell when he realized the smoke was coming from the genetics lab, and not the entrance as he would have assumed. And none of the few visible Furies seemed alarmed. So it had to be something else. Morian followed it and quickly realized that the main genetics lab probably wasn't off-limits anymore. The security system was clearly deactivated, and as he entered he saw why. There was nothing in there worth protecting. He wondered who had built the thermal explosives that had clearly been placed in the four melted hunks of metal that might have been computers.
He also noticed the green fluid unique to vats was pooled in random places. That really wasn't much of a surprise, but it confirmed his theory. Whatever data there was that allowed the creation of these monsters, it was gone now. As was the technology involved in the process of putting human minds inside them. That was extremely convenient. He had hoped to find some way to destroy the research and equipment himself, but now he didn't need to. They had done it for him. These monsters were all there were. And if he had his way, all there ever would be. His surprise was scheduled to arrive any day now if they hadn't been delayed. That was good because he was tired of hiding in his room.
Toothless laughed happily. These last few months had been something of a dream come true. He was watching several Night Furies teach Abdul the basics of flight. In the sky, several more flew, practicing more advanced techniques. And on the ground next to him was Hiccup, watching it all with him. Skyler was helping teach Abdul, as was Iris. The two had picked up flight quickly, and as it turned out, were fairly good teachers too. He and Hiccup had just returned from another race. He was still the superior flier, but by a razor's edge only. Hiccup was by far the best flier out of the humans-turned-Fury, and probably always would be. He could match Toothless turn for turn with an intuition that meant he reacted faster than thought, and Toothless's only advantage was a slightly higher endurance. That made their races long and draining, but also the most fun Toothless had ever had.
His mood was helped immensely by the fact that after Abdul learned to fly, they could leave the now somewhat crowded bunker behind. Hiccup and the engineer had created pack-saddles that were entirely human-independent. That meant that Furies could put them on, take them off, fill them, empty them, and seal and unseal them without human intervention. That had taken a lot of work, but Hiccup had been insistent that a solo Fury should be able to do it all on their own, for safety reasons. The pack-saddles were made of the same fireproof carbon meshes as the riding saddles. Speaking of which, while every Fury had a pack-saddle to their name, there were about a dozen riding saddles stored among those at random. As Hiccup had said, 'just in case'. As the riding saddles were all extremely light and flexible, they had been folded and took almost no space in the storage of the pack-saddles.
This allowed each Fury to carry more than a week's worth of water and those disgusting protein bars. Those would only be needed as a last resort, given their travel plans involved always being near the ocean.
In terms of other supplies, they were also bringing seventeen tablets, which were solar powered and had extremely reinforced cases, along with a backup battery that would last a few months. They were nearly indestructible and programmed to only do one thing. Translate anything spoken by a Fury into one of any of the hundreds of languages loaded on the tablet, specifiable by voice command. When turned on, of course. Each Fury had one in their pack-saddle, and they would hopefully not be needed very often. They wouldn't last forever, but barring damage they would last several decades at least. More than enough time.
There was also a quite detailed map of the world stitched into the inside flap of each saddle, just as a reference. Even Toothless's despite the fact that he wasn't great with maps.
That was all they were going to take with them. The Furies were wearing their pack-saddles as much as possible, in order to get used to the weight. Fully loaded, they weighed about a hundred pounds. Toothless knew that the maximum weight he could carry was at least four hundred pounds. He knew this because he had once carried Stoick the Vast around for a full day. And he was at least four hundred pounds. One hundred wasn't much of a burden at all.
He turned to Hiccup. "We're almost ready to go." He knew Hiccup would pick up his train of thought.
"Yeah, we are. Everyone can speak, most of the first Furies fluently. Abdul will learn that and flight in a week or so, and then there's nothing holding us here." Hiccup, Iris, Skyler, and Winston had all developed the intonation and natural-sounding delivery of the language by now, though everyone else was still practicing. It made their voices sound entirely natural to Toothless and each other, while those still developing sounded slightly off. It took time to perfect the use of all levels of sound in this kind of speech. Until one did, it sounded like they were speaking in a monotone.
Toothless grunted in agreement. "We could leave now, but we'd have to walk for the first week. Might as well wait." He wanted to get to an ocean and stop eating those terrible protein bars, but walking the first week would be wasted effort.
Skyler ran over from where Abdul had been. Apparently, he had successfully glided about thirty feet. She nuzzled Toothless as she relayed that information.
Hiccup watched in approval. It was something of an open secret now that those two were together. He personally had suspected it for quite a while. They spent so much time together, even after Skyler had learned everything she needed to know. It had become obvious about a month ago. But he was fairly sure they weren't going to do anything about it until the Furies had found a permanent home. Night Fury eggs in the middle of a dangerous journey would be a terrible complication.
He actually, upon reflection, didn't even know what a Night Fury egg looked like. He had for obvious reasons never seen one. Upon further reflection, he wasn't even sure if Night Furies laid eggs, and no one had thought to spend the time combing over the genetic code to check. He had assumed all reptiles did, but Iris had informed him in an unrelated discussion that a few modern reptiles gave live birth, so it was possible. Upon questioning Toothless, they learned that he couldn't remember his first few days of life well enough to confirm or deny any of that. So they really didn't know. He supposed they'd all find out eventually.
Either way, he was happy for his friend. Especially when they had spent almost five years slowly realizing that this exact scenario probably would never happen. If nothing else, he was thankful they had been frozen for that.
That brought back memories Hiccup hadn't considered for a while. He was well and truly over the life he had been forced to leave behind. It had taken a while, but he could remember it all without any regret or pain now, just vague fondness. Even for some of the less happy parts of his life. Distance brought perspective. He would never approve of the way he had been treated, or some of his own actions, but he truly saw now that it had all been necessary for things to turn out the way they did. And, he thought as he looked at the small flock of flying Night Furies and Iris walking over from an excited Abdul, he wouldn't trade this for anything.
That night, they all squeezed into the cafeteria, seventeen Furies and five humans. No one was surprised Morian didn't attend. He had been something of an unpleasant shadow the last few months, only really present at mealtimes. The five humans who would be remaining here with him had all at some point tried to find common ground with him, but he rebuffed any attempt at friendliness with aloof scorn and ridicule. They simply tolerated him and hoped that he would mellow out over time. It helped that he kept to himself.
Iris looked over the assembled Furies. Abdul had been right about the diversity of eye color. There was one Fury, Sophia, whose eyes were a startling shade of off-white, just a tinge of brown hinted at. Another Fury, Charlie, had cyan eyes that were almost as vivid in intensity as Iris's own vibrant purple eyes. Abdul had pale grey eyes, the only Fury with that color. Toothless and Hiccup were the only green-eyed Furies, and most of the other colors had two or three variations in the group. All in all, they were a very colorful grouping of eyes in a uniform black background.
Iris spoke to the gathering, and a tablet translated for the benefit of the humans and Abdul. "We are almost ready. Once Abdul can fly, we're going to go help the President. And we in all likelihood aren't going to come back here. I want to congratulate everyone here. You all worked for years towards this goal. Everyone was vital to this project's success. From the geneticists to the engineers, to every discipline of science in between, to the man and dragon who survived a thousand years in a block of ice to bring us the last pieces of the puzzle. Even the doctors, who were originally hired as merely a safety precaution, have been vitally important at many points in this project to the point of us certainly failing without them. This is the success of all of us, whether staying or leaving." She paused for a moment. "We brought a sentient species back from extinction, and did far more than our share of ensuring the future of intelligent life on Earth!"
There was a scattering of human clapping, which was almost drowned out by Furies purring in approval, quite a loud noise when the action was performed by that many dragons in an enclosed space.
Even later that night, Toothless was out above the bunker. He had, in the past months, developed a habit of flying at night. Teaching the basics of flight meant that he spent most days holding himself back, and this was an easy way to let himself loose on his own time. Sometimes Hiccup or Skyler joined him, and Iris had once or twice, but tonight he was alone.
And so, when he spotted slowly moving lights in the distance, he didn't have anyone with him to confirm he wasn't seeing things. So, he flew in for a closer look.
What he saw was something Toothless recognized from the history shows Iris had shown them in their first days here. It was a convoy of jeeps and trucks, complete with armed soldiers on board. There had to be at least a hundred soldiers, and they were heavily armed. But, as Toothless silently and invisibly watched from above, he noticed something. They seemed to lack the discipline that was the staple of what he had seen of every national army for the last few centuries. They argued, cursed, and waved their weapons around. This was enough to identify them as dangerous, in Toothless's mind. It really didn't help that they were heading, slowly but steadily, towards the bunker. Straight towards it.
He winged his way around and flew as fast as he could back into the bunker. The elevator shaft was nowadays always open. They had removed the elevator's roof and left the roofless cab at the bottom of the shaft. So, after closing the blast door, Toothless was able to drop the several hundred feet into the bunker proper in seconds, and open the blast door. He ran to what he recognized as a speaker for the intercom system, and clumsily pushed a claw against the button. He had seen Iris do this several times when she wanted to contact everyone. "We've got trouble! Everyone up!" He shouted this several times, then roared as loud as he could into the speaker, recoiling at the magnified roar that blasted out of every speaker in the bunker. He made his way to Iris's room and ran into quite a few confused and frightened Night Furies, before shoving past them and telling her what he'd seen.
Iris snapped out of her sleep-induced grogginess. "Everyone, prepare to leave! I want you all in the cafeteria ready to go in five minutes!" She turned to Toothless. "How long until they get here?"
Toothless quickly considered how fast they were moving, and the distance. "Maybe half an hour. Twenty minutes before they get close enough to see us leave."
Hiccup, who had made his way through the hectic corridor, winced at that. "We'll never be able to leave before then. The elevator shaft is too narrow for more than one Fury to fly up at a time, and there are seventeen of us. That's already pushing past twenty minutes." It took about a minute for a Fury to fly that height straight up. The elevator wasn't any faster.
Toothless growled. "We need to slow them down."
Hiccup knew what Toothless wanted to do. "Just like old times. We two can do it, we're the most agile, and we know war." He grinned. "Think they'll know the old saying?"
Toothless grinned in return, unsheathing his teeth. "I highly doubt shouting 'Night Fury! Get down!' survived a thousand years of no Night Furies. We'll have to teach them."
Hiccup laughed. "And we'll use Gobber's favorite technique: On the job!"
Iris interrupted their joking. "This is going to be really dangerous. They have guns, and I don't know how well scales deflect bullets. It might only take one lucky shot."
Toothless chuffed sarcastically. "We're used to that. Dragon-root arrows were always one-hit kills, figuratively and sometimes literally speaking."
"They might have night-vision goggles." Iris wasn't sure Toothless understood modern warfare.
Hiccup was quick to reassure her. "It won't matter. We're too fast to be seen or targeted anyway. Night Furies don't rely solely on darkness to fight. Most of our biggest battles were fought in the day." He nudged her towards the cafeteria. "We're going to buy you time, but get everyone out as fast as possible. We'll meet up twenty miles South of here."
Iris sighed in defeat and lowered her head. When she looked up, her eyes were blazing in anger. "You'd better come back. Both of you."
Toothless and Hiccup abruptly returned to total seriousness. Toothless spoke first. "I have something I'll never leave. I'll be back, no matter what." He turned and ran for the exit.
Hiccup considered Iris. He reached a decision, or maybe more of a realization. "And so do I." He was staring directly at her. After a moment, he turned and followed his best friend.
Iris stared as Hiccup departed. She would process what he had said later. Right now, she needed to be sure there would be a later for both of them. She rushed to grab her pack-saddle and performed the necessary steps to attach it to herself. It was actually a quite ingenious series of subtle straps and buckles, all specifically designed for Furies to use. She was done in seconds and darting through the halls. When she entered the cafeteria, she found all of the other Furies, as well as Morian and the five humans of their team. The Furies were watching Morian and Sammael, one of those still human, argue.
Morian was currently recoiling from some horrific statement. "Why in the world would you accuse me of that?"
Sammael sneered angrily. "Who else would give our location to a group of mercenaries? The rest of us would never bring anyone with guns here, or anyone at all!"
Morian was acutely aware that there were over a dozen 'monsters' watching him. That made him both determined to protest his innocence, and too nervous to put too much thought into it. "It wasn't me!"
Sammael balled up a fist in anger. "You realize you've doomed us all, right? They'll kill anyone who gets in their way. A bunker is extremely valuable now, and they won't want to share."
Morian didn't respond.
"You knew that, didn't you? What did you promise them? A free bunker in exchange for letting you stay here with them, once they had slaughtered the previous occupants?" Sammael finally let loose and knocked Morian to the floor with a very enraged blow. He kept shouting. "I hope you enjoy their company, although I bet it won't be for long. You traded a bunch of very tolerant scientists for a group of armed thugs. It won't take long for them to get tired of you, and they'll have no problem just killing you. I hope they let us live long enough to watch." That was said with more venom than anyone in the room had ever heard from Sammael, who was a generally reserved man.
He turned to the Furies. "You guys need to leave. Thanks to Morian here, we're dead no matter what. The radiation you won't even notice will kill us if we go with you, and we're dead if we stay here."
Iris bowed her head at that. He was right. Even the nearby town was more of a ghost town now. Drifting radioactive particles were deadly, and would be around for months to come. They had the equipment to detect such drifts, but there wasn't any time to get it built and out of the bunker. "Is there anything we can do?"
Sammael, who seemed to be speaking for the others who were still human, nodded grimly. "Get out alive, all of you. That way our work won't be in vain." He turned to the other four. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather go out fighting."
The two women in the group agreed immediately. They had no desire to be held as prisoners, given historical precedent. The other two men weren't far behind.
Sammael turned back to the Furies. "We'll fight back, and before we fall, I'll set the reactor to overload. We'll rid the world of one group of merciless killers, at least." He smiled darkly. "We have a few minutes. We're going to find things to use as weapons."
The group of humans started for the door. Their leader stopped and turned to stare at Morian. "Leave him alive. I'd rather let the mercenaries dispose of him. To prove a point, if you will."
Morian quaked at the deadly glares of fifteen Furies. He fully expected the monsters to tear him apart.
Iris was discovering that dragons couldn't cry. The equivalent was much more dramatic. Something akin to blue flames were jetting out of her nostrils. It didn't hurt, but it was extremely foreign-looking. She wasn't the only one displaying that particular emotion either. These men and women were colleagues, and in many cases, friends, though not close ones. And Morian had doomed them with his... was it revenge? Or just stupidity? "I hope you get what you deserve, Morian." She led the other Furies out of the cafeteria and sent one ahead to begin the ascent flight.
Morian was alone. He had been terrified beyond comprehension by the few crying Furies, having no idea what those blue flames meant. But now he felt like celebrating. He had survived many months in a bunker with the monsters, and now they would be gone, one way or another. He felt a slight tinge of regret at the looming deaths of the other scientists, but he dismissed it as the result of their own stupidity. They shouldn't fight back. The mercenaries he had contacted so many months ago weren't at all a polite lot, but they were known for their efficiency and their post-nuclear capabilities. They had advertised in certain dark corners of the web as being entirely capable of operations immediately after nuclear war. He had taken them up on that, in exchange for two things. They got the coordinates of the bunker, but they would let him stay there, and they would get rid of any resistance. He hadn't specified what kind of resistance, anticipating at the time only that monster and Haddock as the ones who would even try to fight back.
Morian abruptly remembered what one of them had said.
'We'll overload the reactor'.
He needed to make sure that didn't happen. He scurried off to the only passage to the interior of the reactor and locked himself inside one of the airlocks built into the hallway, immediately barring the door using a thin fire extinguisher found on a nearby wall. Now no one could get to the reactor. He'd wait until the mercenaries had cleared the bunker, and then he'd come out.
Sammael immediately sent the other four scientists after supplies in the labs. But first, he asked a seemingly strange question. "Is anyone here good with a sword?" No one had had any experience. He, on the other hand, had at least had some experience, albeit only in duels at the Medieval Reenactment fairs of his youth. About six years ago, not that he'd admit it. So, once everyone else went off to find equipment, he made his way to a certain storage room. He spoke aloud as he opened a glass case. "I don't think you'll mind if I borrow this. Not like you can use it anyway."
Sammael returned to the central intersection and quickly instructed his fellow scientists in exactly what these things would be used for, and where to set them up. They smiled darkly as he elaborated. They weren't usually violent people. But they were going to spite their killers by making this as dangerous as possible. No one would take this bunker without paying a price. Maybe, if they were very lucky, they might even succeed in driving the mercenaries off entirely. They weren't expecting to last that long. But that was the goal. In the frantic planning, Sammael and the others forgot to overload the reactor, spending the little time they had on the other side of the bunker. But they wouldn't have been able to anyway, thanks to Morian.
Iris was the last Fury out of the bunker. As she fled into the night, she looked for the convoy of trucks Toothless had described. They were approaching now, but clearly, they had been stopped for some time. That was all she had time to see before Winston and Silvia pulled her towards the rendezvous point in the distance. She hoped Hiccup and Toothless's success hadn't cost them their lives. Tonight would already have far too high a price. She tried not to cry as she flew away. It would give her position away, and this night didn't need any more bloodshed. What was coming was already too much.
Author's Note: It's been brought to my attention that the intended scene breaks didn't carry over in the actual publishing of chapters. If sudden transitions or time skips caught anyone by surprise, that's probably why. I've fixed that particular issue.
Also, due to my personal schedule, while chapter 15 will come on time, chapter 16 will be delayed until the 25th, posted most likely right before midnight. However, chapter 17 will be posted on time on the 29th, so it's not too big of a delay.