Hiccup in a Flash, chap 20
Sorry for the long wait! Lately I have been engrossed in reading Light Novels to improve myself and there was so much good stuff to read that I didn't had time to write. I hope that you will enjoy this new chapter ^^
I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or its characters, just merely borrowing the character for an adventure of my own.
Please enjoy yourself with this fanfic ^^
- Chapter 20: Spaghetti at midnight
"By Loki's frozen balls! I do hope that he has a very good reason to call me that late."
Astrid was jumping from one foot to the other to keep herself warm. Even if winter was coming to a close, the streets were still freezing especially at night. It wasn't snowing anymore but a large portion of the snow hasn't melted yet and she was now standing in a pile of dirty snow as she waited for Johann to finally showed up. He called her an hour ago and she already waited 15 minutes for him to show up. To make thing worse she was starving.
"Thor, I should have take that Chinese take out with us."
She was quite hungry before as she didn't finished neither her burger nor her fries for lunch and spend hours trying to find anything that could lead them to Eric Walkers. After that she didn't touch her diner as she ended up telling way more than she planned to about herself to Hiccup. In the end they left immediately after receiving Johann's call and neither of them thought to take the rest of the food with them. Hiccup has eaten some of it earlier so he wasn't that hungry for his part so he could only have a sympathetic smile as her stomach growled again.
"If you want..."
But he was interrupted by Astrid as she noticed that Trader Johann finally arrived.
"Johann The Trader. It's better be damn important for me to be out that late in that cold."
"Oh it is Lady Astrid! It is. I wouldn't bother you otherwise but I came across the most shocking news and knew that I needed to inform you at once."
"What is it then? What are those shocking news?"
"Lady Astrid, you know that some of my friends made more mistakes than most? They may have their different with the law but they are nonetheless outstanding and very interesting persons."
Astrid rolled her eyes. As if she had any doubt about what kind of person were Johann's "friends".
"Sure."
"As a matter of fact, some of them are finding themselves in a somewhat tough position and may be ... forced to be engaged in some reproved activities."
It wasn't like Johann to struggle to find his words. He looked somewhat nervous. It hinted to Astrid that he may have some real information, something that might justified her freezing and starving here that late at night.
"What activities? How are they being forced?"
Johann looked even more nervous than before, glancing nervously around him.
"It might be a bad idea after all..."
"Johann… I'm hungry, I'm freezing and it's freaking late. Do you really think it is the moment to test my patience?"
If her tone was anything to judge by, it was way too late for him to draw back. Knowing he won't escape his fate he tried to explain it quickly without his usual lyricism.
"Helheim's Gate is now controlling most of Berk's gangs and has the lion's share in every deal that happens in the city. Most of the criminals in Berk now answers to them and they forced every criminal in Berk to execute whatever they planned to do tomorrow. If they didn't had anything planned they must do some petty crimes and random extortions. All in the same day, for all day long."
That's rare. Johann is cutting to the chase. It's kind of disturbing but pleasant.
But the pleasantness of Johann current way of speaking did nothing alleviate the heaviness of what Johann just told them. If every criminal in Berk will engage in crime all at the same time they risked to create a massive panic in all over Berk.
"Why?"
"Apparently they need money. Large amount of it."
"Again why?"
Johann looked once again around to make sure that no one was listening.
"I tried to dig around a bit but I couldn't come up with much. All I know is that they recently acquired something of incommensurable value to them and they need large equipments and funds to exploit it."
"But why are they forcing all of the gangs to act the same day? If they don't had time to finish their plans won't that make them fail? They would be better off to wait for the gang to finish their business and collect on it." asked Hiccup.
"You're right lad. Normally that would be the case but it isn't anymore because of Night Fury. Ever since he went public and he started to act more openly all around Berk and the number of criminals that successfully managed to pull of something plummeted. As soon as someone reports that you are doing something illegal, you need to give up and run immediately because Night Fury arrive right next to you in seconds. Most of the criminals never did anything sophisticated as they are confident in their strength and firepower. They didn't fear the police all that much. But guns are irrelevant with Night Fury and a lot of them got caught by him."
"So their plan is to what? Overwhelm both Night Fury and the police by sheers numbers?" Astrid couldn't really believe that someone would actually consider it a viable plan.
"Precisely. It might be crude but they believe it would have a better chance of working. They made some tests to verify if it would work."
"Tests?" frowned Hiccup. He didn't like the sound of that.
"Yes, all conducted today. They tried to test Night Fury's limits and staged a series of situations requiring Night Fury's intervention all around Berk."
Immediately all those emergencies that kept appearing this afternoon came to mind to Hiccup. The bomb, the exploded tires of the ambulance, the high speed pursuit, the suicides, he knew that it couldn't be a coincidence that all of them happened on the same day.
"Those incidents they staged all of it?"
"It seems like you know what I'm referring to lad. Yes, they did and apparently they came up with a conclusion. Night Fury has his limits and can't be everywhere. He nearly didn't make it in time to the last suicide attempt. And while he was running to all of those that attracted both the police and Night Fury, they managed to successfully conduct a series of small robberies in opposite part of town. Even if they lost several men they concluded they would earn more than way. Now-"
"- they planned to reproduce it at a much larger scale tomorrow." completed Astrid as the horror of it sank into her.
It will be utter chaos.
"Exactly Lady Astrid. I thought you would have wanted to know about it."
"If they really go ahead with it, we risks a mass panic. That won't be pretty" Hiccup voiced out loud everybody's thought.
"But what can we do about it?" complained Astrid.
They had no way to stop it. Not if by some miracle they manage to arrest every criminals in Berk between now and tomorrow.
"Not much I fear Lady Astrid. Our only hope is that tomorrow Night Fury will be faster and better than Helheim's Gate estimates him to be. But we have no way to warn him."
Astrid kept a poker face but didn't miss Johann's last words. Their only hope might very well be in Night Fury. She'll need to contact him and fast.
She looked at Hiccup to make sure that he too didn't show signs that they have a way to contact Night Fury. He looked a bit tense but otherwise he showed no exterior signs that he knew something, effectively playing along Astrid. Satisfied she turned to Johann knowing it was time for them to leave. There was much they needed to do before tomorrow.
"Thanks for the info Johann. I appreciate it, really. If you have nothing else to add, I fear that we must go. We don't have much time before Helheim's Gate's attack."
Johann looked relieved that his part was over. He nonetheless met Astrid's gaze with a fervent look.
"Of course Lady Astrid! I understand perfectly, don't mind me. It also happens that I have places to have to be. I wish you good luck, you might very well desperately need it."
Then with a small salute, Johann disappeared in the shadows.
Astrid turned to Hiccup who seemed to be lost in thoughts.
No doubt he's using his massive brain to try and find a solution. But I'm afraid this time there isn't much you could do. Only Night Fury might be of some use but even him might not be enough…
She quickly shook her head to chase her dark thoughts away. Now wasn't the time to be pessimistic.
"Look Hiccup. We can't do much more here. It's getting late and you should probably-"
"Astrid." She was rudely cut off by Hiccup as he looked strongly. Under such a heated gaze she could do nothing except listen to him. "Come to my place."
Astrid was mindlessly stroking Hiccup's cat with the odd name of Toothless while she observed Hiccup in the kitchen. She didn't expect him to invite her to his apartment so suddenly. Even less that she would agree and that Hiccup would start cooking dinner for her. She appreciated that he wanted to cook for her but now really wasn't the moment for that, she really had to plan something for tomorrow. Well technically today as it was past midnight since 13 minutes ago.
Ever since they left the meeting place with Johann, she tried hard to think of a plan against Helheim's Gate, anything that could help them at all. But her brain came up empty as she ended mindlessly letting Hiccup guided them to his apartment. The only thing she could think of right now was to contact Night Fury and hope that as Johann said he'll be faster and better than ever.
Once again I'm counting on him in desperate time. Will he even contact me back? Last time when I called him at Cadmus Labs he never answered or showed up.
But she wasn't one to give up so easily and she will get him to help them even if she had to harass him all night on the phone. But first she needed to leave. She thought that Hiccup asked her to come because he had a plan but for the last ten minutes he said nothing as he was busy in the kitchen. Apparently he brought her here because she complained she was hungry before. It was sweet but she didn't have the time.
"Hiccup. I should really-"
"Bolognese or carbonara?"
"Huh?" She looked blankly at Hiccup who was examining the content of his fridge, turning his back to her. She didn't understood what she was asking her.
"Your spaghetti. Do you prefer it bolognese or carbonara?"
Astrid looked at him quizzically. "What are those?"
Hiccup looked to her, an eyebrow arched as he couldn't believe she didn't know what he was talking about. But he made no comment as he gently started to explain.
"Bolognese is your classical spaghetti. Meatballs, tomato sauce and some garlic and basil. Carbonara spaghetti are spaghettis with diced bacon, diced onions, sour cream and grated cheese. Preferably parmesan. Normally you should add a raw egg at the end but personally I don't do it and rather cook it with some white wine to give a sweet flavor to the onions."
"Hiccup I don't have time for you to cook for me. I must contact-"
"I already boiled the water. Either would take me 10 minutes tops to do it. Besides judging by how your stomach growled all evening I doubt you'll last much longer if you don't eat. It would be even more unlikely that you manage to do some constructive thinking in that state."
Astrid suddenly stood up from her chair, dropping roughly Toothless on the ground, not wanting to hear more of it. He knew he was right but her heart could rest if she did nothing. She made a mistake coming here. Determined, she said a last thing before turning to the door to leave.
"I must find a solution. Something, anything to make the situation better. I don't know what I'll do but I need to do it now. It's already late and I don't have much time left. I can't waste more of it."
Hiccup stayed perfectly calm as she watched Astrid getting worked up. Her face was showing clear signs of exhaustion and stress. He stopped before she leave the room.
"I know. I might have a plan for it."
Astrid looked at him so fast that she felt a little dizzy. But it was nothing compared to the small flickering of hope she felt in her heart.
"You do?"
She didn't dared to hope for much but her mind was clouded with thought as she feeling more and more lost. Maybe Hiccup was right, she was too exhausted and no longer capable of constructive thoughts.
"Yes."
His tone was firm and vibrant of conviction. Without knowing she suddenly felt more at ease and walked back to her chair. Somehow she was feeling hungry again. Gently she sat down on her chair, waiting for him to speak.
"So?"
She looked at him quizzically, not understanding what he was asking her. Why was he interrogated her? She was the one that wanted to ask him that.
"Bolognese or carbonara?" nonchalantly asked Hiccup.
Astrid inwardly groaned. He probably won't tell her anything until she agreed to eat something.
"Fine. Carbonara."
"Good choice."
She watched him take out ingredients from the fridge and grabbed some spaghetti in a closet above the kitchen. If she were to be honest with herself she was a bit curious about carbonara spaghetti. She never tried it before. She think that she saw it in some italian restaurant menu but never ordered it. She ate bolognese spaghetti before as her father regularly made them at home and it was always delicious, at least when she was 12. It wasn't her favorite food but definitely in the top ten. Although her father just called it spaghetti.
While she was remembering fond memories from simpler times, she smelled the familiar smell of bacon being fried as Hiccup poured the diced bacon and onions into a buttered frying pan next to the spaghetti getting cooked. She had no idea what it would taste like but it couldn't be bad if there was some bacon in it. Then, after letting fried for a few minutes, Hiccup poured the white wine in it. The smell was absolutely tantalizing and unknowingly Astrid began to drool a bit.
To her surprise Hiccup started to talked. He's been silent for so long that she thought he would only spoke to her after he was finished.
"Judging from what Johann said I think that there is more to Helheim's Gate's attack that he told us."
Bringing herself back from a world of delicious smells she focused on what Hiccup told her.
"You think he didn't told us everything."
Sure Johann was someone who liked to keep a few cards in his hands but he seemed genuinely scared and wasn't acting like he usually does.
"No I think he told us all he knew. I don't think he lied to us either. However I think he got Helheim's Gate's goal for this attack wrong."
For a few seconds he said nothing as he was stirring the spaghetti. Astrid let him take his time before explaining what was on his mind.
"I have been thinking back about those tests that Helheim's Gate have done with Night Fury today. I followed everything he did today closely and something does not match what Johann told us."
She was a bit surprised. He got mad at her for investigating Night Fury instead of chasing Helheim's Gate and yet he was the one that kept close tabs to Night Fury's activities. But she lost the opportunity to complain as he continued to talk.
"If Helheim's Gate goal was to simply test Night Fury's limits in speed and reaction time why were there such a gap between each test? Each time there was a minimum of a ten minutes gap before the next test at the exception of the suicide jumpers. That last one was a real test of reaction and speed, no doubt about it. But the others? I don't buy it."
"Then what were they?"
"If they really wanted to test how fast he could react and run they would orchestrated all of them at the same time. I think they were tests but not of speed and reaction. There was testing something else"
She was now intrigued.
"What kind of test was it?"
"Johann partially gave us the answer. He said: 'And while he was running to all of those that attracted both the police and Night Fury, they managed to successfully conduct a series of small robberies in opposite part of town.'"
"You remember word for word what he said?"
Hiccup quickly dismissed her.
"I got a good memory. But what's important is the last part of what he said. They conducted robbery at the opposite side of Berk when Night Fury was dealing with the incidents they staged. That means that they synchronized some robberies with when Night Fury appeared. I think that it was the real goal of those tests."
"So they're not testing if they could overwhelm you but trying to see if they could make diversions?"
"Exactly. I think that those tests were to see if they could match some specific operation with Night Fury's movement. They were tests to see if they could bait Night Fury somewhere so that they could make their move to specific place at the opposite side of town. They were testing the limits of how much of a window of opportunity they could get that way."
"What do you think they were testing?"
Hiccup added the sour cream to the frying pan.
"I don't know, it should be all kind of thing. How fast does he react to an announcement on the police radio? How long do they have before they lost track of him again? What kind of call does he respond to? Could they predict his movements and know from where he would go next? How long do they have before they got noticed and Night Fury came to see? There is all kind of variables and informations that could interest them for what they are planning."
"So what are they planning?"
The spaghettis were ready and Hiccup took them out and emptied the water.
"I think that Johann was right when he said they needed large amount of money. They probably need a lot of funds to purchase the equipment and material necessary to exploit the Speed Force. But I think money is not their real goal, they have better way to acquire it despite what Johann said about Night Fury greatly reducing the number of criminals. If they do such a large operation it's probably because they need specific thing they can't buy. Maybe some unique lab equipment or extremely rare materials. Either way they creating all that chaos just to obtain those items. It must be extremely important for them and they can't risk screwing up. If it is just creating havoc to steal that stuff they would need those tests. On the contrary they risked making us mefiant and losing the effect of surprise."
"Then why did they made such tests?"
"Even if they create chaos to help them steal what they need there is still a risk that I'm nearby and accidently found them. They did those tests to be sure of the window of opportunity they would get if they lure me somewhere to be sure that I won't interrupt them. All that planning is for that one window of opportunity where they'll know I can't interfere. I don't know what they are planning to take but it must be extremely important for them. They need it badly and they need it fast otherwise it would have been more prudent to try to take it discreetly."
Astrid nervously gulped nervously. She was already nervous before but she felt that the stakes for tomorrow just kept on getting bigger and bigger. She was afraid that pretty soon she would completely in over her head.
"We can't let them have it. No matter what it is they must not put their hand on it. I have no idea how we'll do it but we'll stop them. Luckily you said you had a plan right?"
Hiccup gave her a plate with a knife and fork while he poured the carbonara sauce onto the spaghetti.
"Yes. But we'll need the help of my father."
Astrid wasn't expecting that. Hiccup always fervently opposed telling anything to Stoick in the numerous time they argue about whether or not letting Stoick know, especially once they knew about the Speed Force. And now he wanted to go to him? She said nothing as she sense that there was more to it coming.
"I'm listening."
With a small smile, Hiccup served in her plate the carbonara spaghetti.
"Alright while you eat and can't interrupt me I'll explain to you my plan."
She eyed him suspiciously while her stomach was grumbling a little when she smell the carbonara spaghettis in front of her.
"Did you time it so that I can't talk while you explain your plan?"
Hiccup gave her a lopsided grin that made her stomach contract with nothing to do with the delicious smell.
"Maybe."
Rolling her eyes she gave up and started to silently eat her plate. And as she was listening to another crazy plan she somehow felt lighter in her heart as she let herself pull along the delicious food and warm energy of Hiccup's voice. Maybe tomorrow won't go that badly.
I know this chapter is rather short but I felt that it was a good place to stop for now. Let's start again slowly. Normally I read myself but it was a bit late so they might some mistakes.
But don't worry! I already wrote most of the next chapter and mostly need to read and correct myself and add some parts at the end. Normally you should hear again from me soon.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for the reviews and follows!