Hey guys! Sorry for being a bit late.

So anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter in hindsight. I wrote this one a few years ago, and it seemed hilarious at the time. I still think it's kinda funny, but I'm not sure.

Also I discovered I'm terrible at romantic sub-plots, and there's the start of one in here, so... Bear with me with that, it gets better as it goes along. I think.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD or Pokemon.

Chapter Thirty-Six:

The Hangover

Lyndrich, New Hampshire

Within minutes, the party began.

Almost everyone took part. Even the dragons and some of the Pokémon were coaxed into it. Soon, everyone was drunk- and the real night began.

It didn't take long for things to get out of hand. For reasons nobody seemed to really remember afterward, the group became scattered across town. Only Sam, Trent, Samantha, Lily, Jack and Reuniclus remained behind. They liked to stay away from alcohol (and in Jack's case she couldn't even drink). Evan also disliked drinking, however he went out anyway.

The night was pure chaos.

There were gunshots in the streets from the partygoers shooting zombies random things being detonated; Ben even drove his Mazda across town, blaring music at full volume while shooting his automatic out the window. He had more close calls than he could count. The portal gun was even used; it switched hands throughout the night. Portals were made out of every substance possible, and several of them were almost injured due to attempting momentum-based stunts.

The funniest part, however, were the dragons and the Pokémon. Gengar was almost impossible to keep track of, because of his ability to turn invisible, and was constantly popping up in front of people out of nowhere, scaring the living hell out of them. Elizabeth was getting into drunken brawls with people- and winning. Swampert was creating mini-Earthquakes wherever he went, causing things to fall and buildings to collapse. The dragons were the most dangerous part. They were flying recklessly, doing idiotic stunts with humans on their backs. And until they ran out of shots, they were also blowing things up as well.

Their night of bad decisions would not last forever, though. One by one, they crashed. And when they did, it was in the weirdest places imaginable.

The first thing Ben felt was the cold.

The cold was chilling him to the bone. It was a wet cold, and his first movement was a shiver. He opened his eyes, and rubbed the sleep out of them. Then he looked groggily at his surroundings.

He was outside. It was early morning, and he was on top of a snowy roof. Most of his clothes were missing, except for his pants, underwear, and glasses.

"What the fuck?" he muttered. He noticed the aching pain in his head, and the empty vodka bottle beside him. And then, the memories came back. Well, most of them. He remembered driving his Mazda- My God what was I thinking?- down the street, blasting "The Depths" by Of Mice and Men, and then everything was black.

He looked around the house. It was a blue, two-story house with an average-sized lawn. The grass, like everywhere else, was overgrown and strewn with weeds and saplings, and covered with snow with the exception of several footprints. In the front of the yard, he saw his clothes on the ground; the black Seether shirt he had been wearing, his dark grey sweatshirt, and his brown winter jacket.

As he approached the edge and tried to find a way down, he heard a voice from the back of the house. "…Help…" it moaned.

He made his way back and looked over the edge to see a hilarious sight. Anthony was hanging by his feet from a rope. Ben laughed. He couldn't help himself.

"How the fuck did you manage this?" asked Ben.

"I don't know…" Anthony groaned. "I can't remember."

"Well, I suppose I should get you down," Ben said. He looked at the rope, and saw that it was tied around the hilt of his knife, which was buried all the way to the hilt in the wall. He bent over, found that it was within his reach and grabbed it. Putting all his effort into it, he began to wriggle it out of the wood. It was in pretty deep, and Anthony's weight on it wasn't helping at all, but very steadily, he was accomplishing the feat. It didn't help at all that one of his fingers was missing, making the knife harder to grip.

After about five minutes, the knife was halfway out. Things were getting a little harder, as Anthony's weight affected it even more. "Are you gonna cut me down or what?" he asked.

"Give me a second!" Ben replied. "I'm freezing my ass off while trying to dislodge a knife that just so happens to have all of your weight pulling on it! You want me to go quicker? Eat a salad!"

"Fuck you!" Anthony replied.

After another few minutes, the knife finally came free. Anthony fell from the air, taking the knife with him. He landed in a heap on the ground, letting out a grunt of pain as he landed. The knife landed merely inches away from him.

He weakly stood up off of the snowy ground and held his head in pain. He looked up at Ben, who saw that his face was a deep, angry red from all the blood that had rushed to it. "You couldn't have picked a less painful way?" he asked.

"Well I could've," said Ben. "But I didn't."

Anthony responded by flipping him the bird. Ben ignored him and walked to the other side of the roof… only to walk right into Gengar.

"Holy fucking shit!" he yelled. The ghost had startled him. He scowled as Gengar burst into laughter.

"You think you're real funny, don't you?" Ben asked.

"Hey! Who's up there?" asked Anthony.

"Gengar!" Ben replied.

"Is he the one who hung me from the roof?"

Ben looked at Gengar questioningly, and the ghost nodded in amusement. "Apparently, yes!" he yelled back.

"That motherfucker!" Anthony cursed. "When I get my hands on him…"

Gengar grinned manically, and then disappeared. "He's gone!" Ben yelled.

"Fucking ghosts, man," Anthony cursed.

Ben walked the rest of the way across the roof, and then sat on the edge. He looked down and found a snowdrift a few feet to his right, and scooted his way over. He then pushed himself forward and dropped.

He landed feet first in the snow and managed to stay upright. He walked over to where his clothes were scattered- ignoring the uncomfortable cold coming from his bare feet- and put them on.

When he was all dressed, he ignored the discomfort of wearing wet clothes, and set off to find Anthony. "See anyone else around here?" he asked.

Anthony shook his head. "No," he replied.

Ben sighed, bent over, and picked up his knife. "Alright, let's go find everyone else."

They walked up the driveway and onto the main street. The first thing Ben noticed was the tire tracks; they swerved erratically across the street until they turned onto another road.

"This can't be good," said Anthony.

They followed the tracks until they reached the street. As they turned onto it, Ben saw something terrible.

The Mazda was poking out of a ditch off the side of the road.

"No!" he yelled. They ran over to the ditch and Ben looked at the horror in front of him. "My car!" he cried. "My beautiful car!"

In landing, the car had just barely missed a tree. Dread filled him as he went around to the front to see the condition of the car.

It was intact.

He let out a huge sigh of relief. The paint was scratched in places, but he might be able to fix that himself. For now, he was just grateful his car hadn't been destroyed.

"Thank you, God," he said. He turned to Anthony. "Let's get this thing out of here."

In another part of town, Matt was waking up. He opened his eyes and sat up groggily, clutching his head in his hands.

"What happened?" he moaned to himself.

He looked around and saw that he had fallen asleep in a ditch in the middle of the woods. He was the only person in sight. As he tried to figure out where he was, the memories from the previous night came back.

Well, most of them.

He couldn't remember where he was, or how he had gotten there. He remembered doing a plethora of stupid things the night before, but everything went black after the memory of him and Shade flying.

My God… we flew last night? He thought in horror.

He decided to find out where he was. He stood up and looked around the area, eventually finding his own footprints in the snow. He got up and followed them.

He trekked through the woods, eventually catching sight someone up ahead. They were unconscious, and hunched over a log in the middle of two trees. He ran over to them, knelt down, and rolled them over.

It was Elizabeth.

He gently shook her until she opened her eyes. She sat up suddenly and looked around, one hand clutching her head.

"Looks like someone had too much to drink," said Matt, grinning. "What do you say we figure out where the hell we are?"

Elizabeth stood up and punched him lightly in the shoulder. She then began to follow the footprints.

They walked along the trail of footprints for several minutes, until they finally emerged into what looked like a field.

Matt looked around and recognized where they were. It wasn't a field, it was a lawn. The intersection in front of them confirmed it; they were at the turn onto Long Pond Road.

There used to be a house here, but a few years before Z-Day it had burned down. It had been condemned, and the local fire department had a practice session with it. Now, there was only a large field and an old, worn out barn.

Or, there had been an old, worn out barn.

As Matt turned to look at it, he saw that it had been destroyed. The barn was now a pile of rubble.

"That wasn't like that yesterday," Matt remembered. "Come on, there might be someone in there."

The two of them ran over to the pile of rubble, and looked over it. A black shape caught Matt's eye, and off to the side he saw something sticking out.

A Night Fury's tail fin.

"There!" He pointed. They ran over and began pushing rubble off. Luckily, the wreckage here wasn't as heavy as it was towards the center, and uncovering the poor dragon was easy.

When all the rubble was off, Matt saw that it was Ashmore. He checked his vitals, and confirmed that he was alive. In fact, he was perfectly fine, save for a few scratches.

"Ashmore," he said sternly, shaking the dragon. "Ashmore, wake up!"

The Night Fury's eyes opened slowly, and he looked up. Matt could see confusion and pain on his face, and sympathized with him.

"Look, I know you're probably hungover right now," Matt said, as he remembered that Ashmore and Shade had drunken vodka as well. Holy shit, he thought. Best Christmas party ever. "But we need to know if there's anyone else here."

Ashmore nodded, and slowly got onto his feet. His legs shuddered with the effort- the dragon was exhausted- but he managed to do it.

He lowered his nose to the rubble and gave a few sniffs. Then, he walked around it, trying to find a scent. When he was done, he looked at Matt and shook his head.

"Are you sure?" Matt asked.

Ashmore nodded.

Matt sighed in relief. "Okay," he said. "We should get you two home. Ashmore, do you think you could fly to your house?"

Ashmore nodded. The house wasn't that far.

"Okay, thanks," said Matt. He and Elizabeth climbed onto Ashmore's back, and the dragon took off.

Kody opened his eyes to complete darkness.

He sat up, gasping and clutching his head. He realized with a shock he had no idea where he was, except that he was in a bed somewhere.

He remembered parts of the night before, but not enough to tell where him where he had ended up. "What the fuck…?" he moaned.

He stood up weakly and tried to find a door. He slipped and stumbled on what he realized was a slanted floor, and heard things falling over, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get out.

His hand finally came into contact with something that felt like stairs. He tested it out with his foot and confirmed that that was indeed what it was. He ascended them until his head came into contact with the ceiling.

"Motherfuck!" he cursed. His head hurt even more now. He clutched at his head, seething, until the pain died down a little bit.

He then stuck his hand up and felt around the ceiling, discovering that it was not a ceiling at all, but rather, a hatch. He found the handle and opened it.

Light poured in from above, blinding him, and causing his hangover to flare. He shouted in pain and let go of the hatch, and it swung shut.

When the pain had died down again, he opened it- slowly, this time. Once he was used to the light, he climbed out.

What he saw made him stop and stare.

He was in a boat. A huge one, with a cabin underneath it, which was where he had been. Only, it wasn't on the water; it was lodged in two large trees just off the shore of Long Pond.

"What the fuck?!" he exclaimed. He looked over the edge and saw that it was too high up for him to jump down. There was a ladder that looked like it was tall enough lying on the lawn of a house that was beneath him, but it had fallen over. He was stuck up there until someone came to help him.

Terror began to seep through him, and he felt panic coming on.

"Help!" he yelled. "Is anybody there?"

There was no reply. So he yelled again. And again.

It was on the fifth time that he finally got a muffled reply.

"Hold on a second! Jeez!"

It was coming from directly beneath him. He looked over the edge of the boat and saw a shed. The door to the shed opened, and Alena stepped out slowly.

"Alena!" he yelled. She looked up, and her expression immediately turned into one of shock and confusion.

"What the hell?" she yelled.

"I have no freaking idea!" Kody yelled back. "But can you put up that ladder for me?" He pointed to the ladder.

She looked to where he was pointing and saw it. "Sure!" she yelled. "Hold on!"

She dragged the ladder to a good position, walked to the other end, and began lifting it up. The higher it got, the harder it was for her to lift it, but she eventually accomplished the task.

The ladder was now leaning against the boat. Kody sighed in relief. It was tall enough. "Can you hold it still?" he called down.

Alena stepped on it and grabbed both sides. "Yeah, I think so!" she called.

Kody looked over it once more, and determined that it was about fifty feet tall. He took a deep breath and climbed over the edge and onto the ladder.

Rung by rung, he descended. He was terrified, as he had a strong fear of heights. But he knew this was the only way down.

By the time he was halfway down, he was so scared he felt as though his mind was starting to shut down from terror. His legs were starting to quiver, but he closed his eyes and kept going.

When he finally reached the bottom, Alena stepped off and allowed him access to the ground. He opened his eyes and leapt for safety, breathing heavily.

"You okay?" asked Alena.

"Yeah," Kody gasped. "I'm just glad that's over. I'm afraid of heights."

"So… where are we?" she asked.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure," he said. "But that looks like Long Pond, so… We're either in Lyndrich or Winchester."

"Oh God," said Alena. "Please tell me we're not in Winchester. I don't want to walk all the way back."

"I hope we aren't," said Kody.

Suddenly, in the middle of the pond, the ice exploded upwards in a geyser of water and ice. They both immediately looked, just in time to see a purple shape emerge from the geyser and onto the ice- cracking it where it landed.

It was Swampert.

"What the fuck?" Alena cursed. Swampert, knowing the ice wouldn't hold for much longer, ran towards them on the shore. He left behind him a trail of cracks in the ice that were following him as he went.

When he finally reached the shore, he jumped onto solid ground, just as the cracks reached where he had been standing moments before and the ice broke. Droplets of ice cold water cascaded through the air, as they had been flung from his skin when he jumped.

"Hey, Swampert!" Kody called, running up to him. "Everything okay?"

Swampert nodded.

"Any idea where we are?" Alena asked.

Swampert looked around the area, and then nodded again.

Kody had an idea. "Do you think you could give us a ride to Sam's house? We should get back there." He knew Sam sometimes used Swampert as a means of transportation.

Swampert nodded and knelt down, allowing the two humans to climb onto his back. They did so, and then he bounded off.

When Ashmore landed in Sam's driveway, Sam immediately came running out the door.

"Thank God you three are okay!" he exclaimed. "We were worried sick!"

"I can't believe I got that wasted," said Matt, shaking his head. "That was just stupid."

"Yeah," said Sam. "It was. Where the hell were you?"

Matt put a hand to his head. "I woke up in a ditch in the middle of the woods," he explained. "Elizabeth was nearby, and Ashmore crashed into that barn at the beginning of Long Pond Road. The thing pretty much collapsed on him."

Sam's eyes widened. "Oh my God," he said. "Are you okay?" he asked the dragon.

Ashmore nodded. "He's just scratched up," said Matt. "Hey, have you seen Shade?"

Sam shook his head. "No," he replied. "Sorry."

The four of them went inside, to be greeted by those who hadn't gotten drunk: Tim, Samantha, Lily, Jack and Reuniclus. They greeted each other, and began to swap stories.

A few minutes later, Ben and Anthony pulled up in their Mazda. After that, Kody and Alena arrived on Swampert's back.

"So let me get this straight," Trent said to Kody, trying to hold back laughter. "You woke up in a boat, in a tree?"

Kody nodded. "Yep. That pretty much sums it up."

"How the hell did a boat get in a tree?"

Suddenly, Gengar appeared next to them, a smug smile on his face. Everybody jumped in fright. "Holy shit!" Matt exclaimed. "Stop doing that!"

"You!" Kody yelled. "You put me in a tree, didn't you?"

Gengar nodded.

"Why I oughtta-" he lunged at the ghost, who disappeared. Kody went sprawling on the ground, and the sound of diabolical laughter filled the room.

The next group to arrive was Nick, Andrew and Alex. "So what happened to you?" asked Ben to the newcomers. "Where'd you wake up?"

"I woke up in an outhouse," Alex replied. "In the middle of the tennis court in that park by Matt's house."

"How the fuck did an outhouse get in a tennis court?" asked Kody.

Alex shrugged. "I wish I knew."

"I woke up in the slide on the playground of," said Andrew. "Completely naked except for my underwear. The rest of my clothes were hanging off of the swingset."

Everyone laughed. "Shut up!" he exclaimed. "It's not funny!"

"Yes it is," said Ben.

"You wanna know where I woke up?" asked Nick. "I woke up in some random family's closet. With a dead zombie on top of me."

"That's freaking disgusting," Matt said.

"Yeah, no shit," Nick replied.

"I woke up in someone's basement," Evan commented.

"How did you pass out?" Matt asked. "You didn't even drink!"

"So?" asked Evan.

A few minutes later, Samantha noticed something out the window and pointed. "Hey, someone else is here," she said.

One final group had arrived: Jean, Joey, Brian and Jeremy. They looked just like everyone else: hungover. They told their stories. Jean had woken in a shallow brook, freezing. Joey had woken up in the town's deserted horse stables. Brian and Jeremy had woken up at Smitty's Wrestling Barn, with bruises all over their bodies.

"You think you duked it out?" asked Nick.

"I'm assuming so," said Brian. "How else would I have gotten all these bruises?"

"Well…" Matt began.

"Don't finish that sentence," Brian warned.

Matt didn't. Instead, he changed the subject. "Has anyone seen Shade?" he asked.

Nobody had. They could tell he was worried about it.

Later that day, watches were assigned. Nobody wanted to do it, but it was necessary. Especially now, with the massive hole in their security that had been present.

Kody and Alena were part of one of the teams. They left at around noon, and were hoping to cover half the town. Another team was taking the other half.

So far, the trip had been uneventful, so the two had talked, and gotten to know each other.

"So," said Alena. "What were you doing in this hellhole before we found you?"

Kody thought. "I was part of a war, of sorts," he said. "You probably know that, though."

Alena grinned. "I'd heard," she said. "What was that like?"

"You want to know the truth?" he asked. "It was horrible. I mean, we killed people." Bad feelings came flowing back to him. "They were bad people, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't make it any better. And they killed one of us-"

His voice broke, and his eyes began to glisten.

"You don't have to talk about this," said Alena.

"No," he said. "I want to." He tried to find the words. "There was a boy with us named Kevin. A really nice guy. It was on our first real fight. After the war started, we found an abandoned military camp. We found a lot of equipment, like landmines and motion detectors. We took some back, and set up a circle of booby traps about a mile away from our house. It took forever, but we did it.

"Kevin was the one who set it all up. He was kind of a tech geek, you know? Anyway, we got everything set up, and even connected the motion detectors to a sensor at our house. We were ready for anything.

"And then they actually attacked." He took a deep breath. "Me and Kevin went out to watch. The squad had about fifteen men in it. I knew what the traps were going to do, but… It was still hard to watch.

"The traps took out about half of the squad. Then, they started running back. Me and Kevin stood up and fired, taking about three more out before they started shooting back.

"We took cover behind some trees- we were in the woods- and waited until they reloaded. When there was a break in the fire, we shot at them. Took about two of them out before it happened."

He stopped there. "What happened?" asked Alena.

"They… they shot Kevin," he said. "Right in the head. He didn't even get to know what hit him. It was terrible. He was just… dead."

"I'm sorry," said Alena quietly.

"It's not your fault," said Kody. "Anyway, I killed the last two, and then went back to the house. Andrew and Jean went to burn the bodies afterward."

They were silent for a few seconds, unsure of what to say. Finally, Kody broke it. "What were you doing before we met you?" he asked.

Alena stiffened up at the question. "Traveling with Samantha," she replied.

"I know that," he said. "But I also know that wasn't always the case. What were you doing before that?"

She glared at him, and at that moment, he saw how much the question bugged her. It was in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have asked."

"Thanks," she said. They walked in silence for another minute or so, until she spoke again. "I was hunting someone," she finally said.

"You were… hunting someone?" asked Kody.

Alena nodded.

Kody could tell that was all he was going to get, so he decided not to push it.

Suddenly, a large shape blocked out the sun momentarily. They looked up and shielded their eyes to see Shade flying above them.

"The hell?" asked Alena.

"Guess we found him," Kody remarked.

When they reached the other side of town, they called the others with their walkies. A few minutes later, Ben and Trent arrived in the Mazda and picked them up.

"So, how was it?" asked Ben.

"Nothing really happened," said Alena. Next to them, Kody shrugged. "What she said."

"So Shade came back earlier," said Trent.

"We saw," said Kody. "He flew over us. Where was he?"

"Concord, apparently," said Trent.

"Greatest Christmas ever," Ben remarked.

They returned to Sam's house. After a couple hours, it was dark, and Ben approached Alena.

"Hey, we're going back to my place to play some cards. Wanna come?"

"Sure," said Alena. She and Ben had been becoming good friends as of late.

She got up and followed him out the door, saying goodbye to the others. "Who's coming?" she asked.

"Me, you, Trent, Anthony, Matt and Shade," he replied.

"How the hell is Shade going to play cards?" she asked.

"Oh it's possible. I've seen him do it," Ben replied.

They left the house and got into the Mazda. Alena got into the back seat, next to Anthony. Trent was in the front, and Ben was driving.

They drove, and talked amongst themselves. When they finally arrived, they got out of the car to see Matt and Shade waiting for them.

"Hey!" Matt called, sliding off of the dragon's back. "How was your trip?"

"Good!" Ben replied. "Yours?"

"Great!"

They went inside, lit some candles, and set up the cards. They played for a couple hours, and all had a great time.

Throughout the game, Ben noticed Alena looking at him. He was starting to like her. As more than a friend. He had realized it a couple of days ago. Does she feel the same about me? he wondered.

Eventually, Matt and Shade left. They offered Alena a ride home, but she declined. But a couple hours after that, she was tired.

"I'll drive you home," Ben offered.

Alena smiled at him. "I'd like that," she said.

Is it just me, he thought to himself. Or was that a little more than a friendly smile?

They got in the car and he drove her home. On the way back, they talked, and it was then that Ben realized it. For the first time in a while, he was truly happy.

Maybe she likes me, maybe she doesn't, he thought. We're both happy right now. And I guess that's all that really matters.

He dropped her off at Matt's house, and said goodnight. And then he drove home.

And who knows? he thought. Maybe things will work out after all.

So... let me know what you guys think! And see you next Wednesday!