Ghost's Fury Chapter 22: Jailbreaking and Entering, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 22, everybody! Cue the Mission Impossible music. :D

So Obake's starting plan regarding a dragon in his pocket was something I initially visualized until I remembered that some of my coats sag when I put something as heavy as a Nintendo DS in them, so no hey buddy wanna buy a dragon moments for the boys. XD The vest still works, theoretically.

And yes, we're getting characters from another Disney movie making an appearance—does it count as a Disney movie when Disney keeps pretending it doesn't exist?...Jian is an original character, by the way, and has the bedside manner of Doctor House or Doctor Becker.

There were two main problems with this plan, in Obake's estimation.

Not with slipping in and out, no—they'd be watching the skies tonight, not the ground. Nor with the actual act of freeing the dragons—ah, to be a fly on the wall next morning when Yama and that idiot found the cages empty.

No, his main problem was Hiro.

He couldn't leave him in the cave with the Gronkle, the Gronkle might eat him despite behaving. And he couldn't take him with him because that would result in them both being dead.

This, apparently, was not a concern for the dragon, considering he kept trailing after Obake when he tried letting him off the leash and then keening when Obake tried tying him to a stalagmite.

"Okay," he muttered finally, scrubbing at his face. "Okay, you stupid. Idiot. Dragon."

Hiro huffed at him, glaring, black scales blending into the dark—

Hold it.

A modification of that one plan he had considered, of Hiro clinging on to the inside of his coat—the article was loose enough on him when open that Hiro could easily cling there without giving himself away, he thought.

He thought wrong, the extra weight tugged the coat sideways, but having Hiro cling to his vest worked—and yes, the coat hid the shape then.

Hiro was currently clinging to his back, though, as he rappelled down the cliff, the Gronkle acting as a counterweight. Didn't make it all the way down, didn't expect to—touch down on the roof he was aiming for, slip along its main beam and down one of the supporting ones to avoid sending up any telltale creaks. Sneak along the edges of the village, keeping to the darkest of alleys, avoiding any sounds—nearly tripped over one of Mole's sleeping holes, the slight snoring being the only thing that tipped him off.

Getting into the kill ring was easy, considering he had designed it. No one was guarding it—no one needed to. No dragon had ever escaped his designs, and no one would be stupid enough to free the dragons. Even if they were, they couldn't figure out the various bolts without the keys Yama kept on his person.

Ah, irony.

Anyone else needed keys, that was how it worked. But Obake did nothing by halves, loved to overengineer everything—they needed keys, yes, unless you knew just where to touch and lift.

Hiro barked at the first dragon, the Gronkle, which snorted awake, startled—seemed confused at the next several barks and yips but flew away with no further prompting. And judging by the silence, it was keeping low. Terrors next, all kept in separate pens annoyingly, also listening to Hiro as Obake opened the cages, all slipping away with fortunately no nips sent in his direction. Close all gates, cages, slip back out, back to the cliff face, having to stray closer to the center of the village—

"Hey!"

Nearly strangle himself keeping from crying out, flatten his back to the nearest wall, squashing Hiro unfortunately—

"Ah," he noised, upon realizing it was Momakase. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"

"Seriously?" she asked. "No one's seen you since the Nadder and that's all you have to say?"

"I have better things to do than kill dragons for sport," he said—at her disbelieving snort: "Fine. I have better things to do than to kill dragons for those idiots' sport."

"Like hunting down a Night Fury?" she shot.

Freeze—stay calm, don't panic, keep a cap on your emotions—"Excuse me?"

"Isn't that what you said you were doing? That's what Dibs has been telling everybody."

"The day I give Dibs' comments any weight is the day I let a dragon cart me off," he declared, shifting a little to try and keep Hiro from squeaking and wriggling.

"Give me two weeks' notice, will you? I like to have a heads-up on my entertainment."

"Indeed," he said, watching her walk away. Don't, don't comment, you still have a dragon on your back—"Especially since tonight's entertainment saw fit to skip out."

She glanced back at him. "If that's the case, you'd better get to bed—you're in need of some beauty sleep."

Glower at her as she left—consider—she'd double back and stalk him if he wasn't careful—

Slip into the forge, locking it behind and retreating to an inner turning.

"Wrr?" Hiro noised once he was sat down.

"It's the better option," Obake assured him. "At least for right now." She'd assume he went to the forge, leave it at that, and go about her business—

What if she didn't? What if she decided to stake the place out?

Ugh, there were risks he was going to have to take—hope she didn't, hope he could slip back to the rope, or to the forest, that that Gronkle was smart enough to pull the rope up and hide—

He could stay, yes, but that would just postpone the problem and mean he had to keep Hiro hidden all day. All it would take would be one little slip-up…no, he was going to have to go now, and with Hiro properly hidden.

Couldn't help the wince at claws digging into his side, made sure he had the coat folded tight—ease out of the forge, glancing back and forth—

Take off, torn between the direct route and zig-zagging to lose a tail—Momakase was better than that though, and he'd wear out first—be clever, think—ah.

Double back on a route he had used on the way to the kill ring, deftly timing his step and jump to miss Mole's sleeping spot—which Momakase missed, judging by the curses and exclamations. A couple extra turns, skid to a halt by the cliff, scouring his surroundings—

Climbing back up the side of the building was a lot more effort than climbing down it, especially after a run through the village—climbing up the rope wasn't much better, he really needed to machine something up—

Gasp, hang on when the rope started going up, minor moment of panic before he kicked his feet at the cliff, hastening his ascension—

Rolled over the edge, gasping his relief and accidentally squishing Hiro. Oh man…that had been too close….

"I hope you're happy," he told the little black dragon sternly, struggling upright—flinched back at the Gronkle bounding over, wiggling happily and chuffing, a loop of rope in its mouth—follow it to see that the dragon had apparently figured out that by running around a boulder first it could run the length of the clearing while still pulling on the rope.

"Very clever," he told it, taking the rope from its mouth—hesitate a little before untying it, having to work around it bouncing around with Hiro—

Barking with disgust when it rounded on him and licked his face.

"Do you mind!?" he demanded, scrubbing the saliva off—disgusting enough to make his skin crawl—

No…that tingling was from that other dragon-related issue.

Except…why? That never flared up unless he let his emotions get the best of him—maybe he was just exhausted, that could be it.

Except the fact that it had coincided with a dragon interacting with it….

No. He wasn't getting to the bottom of this tonight, he was exhausted and emotionally strained and he was going to get that rope, go in that cave, and collapse on his makeshift bed, strange dragons or no.

It seemed a solid enough plan, even with the Gronkle curling up around a good chunk of the fire or Hiro curling up against his chest. Incriminating, yes—but hopefully no one had seen them come up here.

That was thin hoping though—he needed a plan, backup plans, traps maybe….

He fell asleep dreaming of worst-case scenarios.

Jian's so-called professional bedside manner apparently didn't prevent amusement at their injuries.

"You actually sprained your ankle stepping on his head," he asked, indicating Mole holding a cold compress to his head.

"It's not my fault he sleeps in a hole in the middle of an alley," Momakase muttered, still steaming.

"Excuse moi?" Mole asked. "I was asleep to ze side of ze alley, thank you very much! You were the one running down it like it was going out of style!"

"And if there had been a dragon raid?"

The field doctor whistled, redirecting their attention. "And why were you running down an alley in the middle of the night?" he asked her.

Oi, telling him would involve sharing her suspicions about Obake—no, not even suspicions, just a weird feeling, like he was hiding something. Yes, he was evading Yama and Sparkles, but something else felt off.

"I saw Obake," she said finally, deciding to stick to the basics—guesses and theories weren't going to help her right now. "And I was trying to follow him and see where he's been hiding."

Jian's snort as he finished tying off her splint said what he thought of that.

"Well, you two will be staying in here for the night, so no hunting ghosts for you," he said, grabbing the lamp. "In the bed, Mole."

"I object to being forced to sleep on this uncomfortable slab," Mole said crossly.

"I object to your questionable hygiene," Jian countered, heading further into the infirmary, carved into the cliff base like so many other crucial places.

"And I object to your sleeping habits," Momakase said, crossing her arms and looking away, glaring at nothing. She was still steamed at losing Obake over something so stupid, and the fact that she had hit it and Obake hadn't, hadn't shown any tells like swerving around—Obake had known and led her right into it. She felt like an idiot for falling for such a trap.

And as for why she had been chasing after him—he had been acting weirdly. Well, weirder—Obake could never exactly be considered an example of a normal human being. Mole couldn't either, but questioning his behavior would take most of the week.

Except she couldn't put her finger on why she thought Obake's behavior was off—she couldn't exactly blame him for hiding from Yama and Sparkles, or staying out of the village after missing a raid on a wild goose chase. He never much cared for interacting with anyone else, keeping it to only when strictly necessary, was mostly left to his own devices. So what had changed, that was making her question his behavior now?

The Nadder, she realized—she could get Ralph or Juniper or even Carl hesitating at killing a dragon outside the heat of the moment. She could get Obake refusing to play the game out of fury at being thrown in there.

She didn't get him bolting out of there as soon as he could, or what she overheard Carl telling Dibs later, that he had stayed in the forge doing very little the rest of the day. Something had changed in his behavior—and shifting behavior was never a good sign.

Sigh, sink into the bed—she wasn't figuring this out tonight. Probably wouldn't get a chance tomorrow or the next day either—Jian would insist she keep her weight off her leg. Good news was, she could avoid being thrown in the kill ring tomorrow (if anyone was still stupid enough to believe that was a lottery instead of those two torturing people they didn't like she'd eat her bandanna).

But she'd figure this out—Obake was hiding something.

She just had to figure out what.