Ghost's Fury Chapter 25: Nadder Knockout, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 25, everybody! And now this week we watched Big Hero 6, so we're really good for this fic now. :D

I may or may not update next week, since that's Thanksgiving—under usual circumstances I'd say no because I'd be busy watching the parade and helping to make dinner, but it's questionable if we'll even have the Macy's parade this year (thank you, 2020), and we might be having more family over (don't tell that one mayor). So we'll see.

Obake slogged awake with his head feeling fuzzy, like he hadn't gotten a decent night's sleep.

Why that could have been so became clear when he woke up to find himself leaning against the Gronkle's side with Hiro curled up in his lap. Ah. Right. Apparently the dragons had opinions about hearing their fellows get downed last night. Fair enough. Work himself free, crawl over to the fire, check the teapot…sigh when he realized it was empty.

"Wrr?" Hiro noised, yawning, teeth bared.

"I'm debating," he muttered, staring at the little bit of light that managed to shine in around the blanket. Hiro made a pensive noise, padded over and sat down, rested his head on Obake's knee. Obake scratched between Hiro's ears, still lost in thought…did finally look down when he felt that moroseness radiating off the little dragon.

"They won't be killing those dragons right away," he told Hiro. "With Callaghan gone and the Yokai bored, they'll have been captured alive." To then be killed for sport, but hopefully it meant they'd leave him alone.

Hiro lifted his head, looked at him, ears twitching. "Hrr?"

"That does not mean I will be rescuing them," he said sternly. "A couple of dragons go missing? That's questionable. A bunch of dragons fresh from a raid go missing? Unless I lift the keys from Yama and plant them on someone else, that'll be my head on the chopping block. Don't even—Yama keeps those keys on his person at all times."

Hiro huffed, sulking now. Fair enough—he was trying to keep his own spirits up. All those potential test subjects, whose only destiny now was to die for sport. Depressing, yes. Wasteful, definitely. Worth getting himself killed over? No thank you.

It wasn't like those dragons would all be killed at once—they'd be picked off, one by one, stretching the entertainment until the next raid, killed and dragged out of the ring and—

Wait.

Snap his fingers above Hiro's head, prompting him to look up—

Freeze when Obake put a finger lightly to the pressure spot under his jaw.

"Do all dragons have this?" he asked.

Hiro's ear flaps moved, evidently debating—

Took a step back and barked at the Gronkle, startling it awake. Huffed and hawed—looked at Obake expectantly.

"So now we get to test," he observed, getting up. "Yay for me."

Gronkles did have a pressure point and did stay out for about the same amount of time as Hiro did.

Now here was hoping he'd survive this.

"For the record," he told Hiro after insisting on stay. "If I die doing this you stay grounded for life."

Hiro huffed at that, watched him with concern for as long as he was able.

It did nothing for his nerves, nor did sneaking back into the village. Dodge here and there, avoiding as many people as he could, slip into his forge—the whole kill ring bruhaha wouldn't start until close to lunchtime, to give the Yokai the chance to roust everyone and get them there, which gave him some time to do something productive.

He had a couple of fresh racks of nails done when who he expected finally came crashing down on him.

"So there you are!" the idiot whose name he refused to think jeered, leaning on the counter. "Nobody's seen you for ages—thought you were a ghost."

Obake gave him a moment to laugh at his own stupidity. "Yes, here I am, where any simpleton could find me. Key example being you."

"I wouldn't be like that if I were you," the idiot said, wagging a finger at him. "You're low man on the totem pole, the last in the runnings—Felix is actually ahead of you! Do you know how bad you have to be to have Felix score over you?"

Obake looked him over, noting how he was leaning forward. "Hold that pose for me, will you?"

Slammed the shutter down on his hands—hard.

No, the goons stomping in a few moments later and hauling him out wasn't a surprise, he was expecting it and had his forge closed down by the time they stormed in after him. Yes, slamming that idiot's hands was worth it.

Plus, this kept his general opinion of this ridiculousness well-known.

Calhoun was apoplectic when he was thrown in.

"Wow," Audrey noised. "Didn't think you'd actually find him."

"Find him—you idiots," she said, grabbing the two goons by the collars and hauling them in. "You and you—out," she ordered, pointing at him and Felix. "We are not risking the contractor and the blacksmith."

"Oh yes we are!" the pink-haired idiot said, leaning in. "Gotta give them a chance to get a little higher in the ratings—you two can stay in there though, you're getting too soft."

Calhoun grumbled something unintelligible, turned to face them, considering…settled on Obake finally as he righted himself and brushed the dust off.

"If you happen to set Sparkles on fire, I wouldn't object," she declared. "Now come on, let's see some hustle out there! These dragons are fresh and looking for a fight!"

Doubtful—and while he was at it, he doubted that anyone here would be able to offer a fight. Audrey was better at fixing weaponry, Obake was useless in a straight fight, those two goons were probably used to sneaking up and punching their prey, and Felix was about as pacifistic as you could get. He was willing to bet good money the man would hide as soon as he was able.

No, the only ones here who might offer a good fight was Vitani and…Momakase.

"We should really stop meeting like this," she said, acknowledging the irony.

"So what did you do?" he asked—went down winded at a sock to the stomach.

"You knew Mole was sleeping there," she accused.

"Your point?" he demanded, staggering back upright.

"She was out of commission for a few days and knocked to the bottom of the ranks," Vitani volunteered, fiddling with an earring. "There's a whole leaderboard set up now."

Oi vey.

Finally got his wind back as they went out into the kill ring, already set up with debris everywhere—probably just haphazardly thrown in after the dragon raid. Brace himself, hoping for a Gronkle—

Felt his stomach behave as though it was punched again when a Deadly Nadder barged out of the other gate.

Shoved to the side as the two goons charged forward, already swinging—Felix took the prescribed opportunity and dove for cover, scurrying under some handy debris—

"Come on, Felix!" Ralph yelled worriedly, glancing up—Obake followed his line of sight—ah, the leaderboard Vitani had been talking about.

"Ah-ah-ah, if you stay in last place you get punished!" the pink-haired idiot sang, dancing around and swinging that stupid knobbly club again. "Isn't that right, boyo?"

"I'm not your boyo!" Yama snapped, currently sitting in Callaghan's throne—something he wouldn't dare do if the man were here.

"Obake! Focus!"

Calhoun's bark sent him diving, narrowly avoiding the spray of spines—one of the goons wasn't so lucky, got one deep in under his collarbone, the other one getting stomped by the Nadder before it charged again, spraying fire everywhere—Obake flattened himself in the shadows of the debris, hoping its rampage would get it close enough—

Figured when it nearly stepped on him as it rounded on Vitani was as good as he was going to get.

Leap up, use his upward momentum, aim for the spot that best resembled the spot on Hiro and the Gronkle—if this failed he was a dead man—

Punched it hard enough to send pain dancing down his nerves all the way to his shoulder—

And then had to dodge when the Nadder went down hard, scrambling away as it collapsed.

Dead silence reigned in the ring.

"What just happened?" someone demanded finally.

Obake stood, acting wary—kicked the Nadder in the haunch, assured it'd be out of it.

"Congratulations," he declared, giving a deadpan look to Yama. "You captured an old Nadder that had a heart event and died. Very commendable."

Yama went a very interesting shade of red at that.

"That dragon's not dead!" someone yelled.

Obake grabbed a couple of spines and shook the head around after realizing lifting it wouldn't work. "It seems dead to me."

Vitani came over, curious—kicked the dragon hard in the face before scurrying back—

The Nadder, still unconscious, didn't move.

"I think Obake's right," she said, voice pitched to carry. "This Nadder's totally dead!"

"This guy definitely is," Momakase said, pointing at the goon that had gotten stepped on. "And that other guy's out of it too." Smirked venomously at the guy rolling on the ground. "Guess that means you're in last place."

"Whatever," Obake said, already turning to the gates being levered open—Ralph barreled over to where Felix was still hiding, Jian heading for the guy on the ground. "Just get rid of this thing before it starts to smell." Head for the gate, giving Ralph a wide berth as he dug—

"Hey Felix!" he said happily, tugging the little construction man out. "You made it! You're not in last place!"

"Uh, h-how?" Felix asked.

"Now wait a minute!" Yama bellowed, leaping to his feet. "I want confirmation that dragon's dead!"

Obake stopped to glare at him—was beaten to the deadpan snarking by Vitani, who pointed at the dragon while giving Yama what could only be a you really are THAT stupid look.

"It. Is. DEAD," she said flatly. "Face it, SOMEBODY nabbed a dud."

Which drummed up a whole argument as everyone disavowed that capture. Obake snorted, left as Calhoun hustled some people in to drag the dragon out before rigor mortis sets in have you ever TRIED to move a stiff that size? Maneuvered around the village, quickly gathering essentials and more for some extra traps around the village, slipped away and dodged over some of his old traps to see about being followed. Nope. Made a few more, circle around to make sure he wasn't followed, tug out his spyglass—didn't see anyone, all the activity was still near the kill ring…ah, there was Calhoun's little group, tugging the Nadder to the carving station for later skinning and deboning.

Not that it would stick around for that.

Stifle an ugly laugh, make his way back to the cave, slip in—

Flinch back at a growl before Hiro's little bark quieted the Gronkle.

"I come bearing gifts," he announced, depositing the bag. "And good news. We should be hearing some fascinating sounds in three, two, one…."

Couldn't help but go back to the cave entrance as he heard the Nadder bellowing, saw it powering away as fast as its wings could take it, hastily-fired arrows falling short of it as it took off like there was no tomorrow. Gave into that little ugly laugh then.

"Ah," he sighed, sagging to the ground as Hiro bounded around, acting and sounding like he was cheering deliriously. "Unfortunately, that trick will only work once—sad to say, we're going to need something a bit more workable if any of those others are to go free." Pity he couldn't lure it back here for further study…but Nadders were notoriously vain and aggressive, same as Nightmares. It wouldn't be worth it.

Hiro finally sagged to his stomach next to Obake, sighing, the Gronkle ceasing its happy rolling wiggle before righting itself and looking at them expectantly.

"I don't really have any other plans right now except turn that one cave into something we can use," he told them. "After lunch."

Both dragons were open to that concept.

Hiro was licking his paws after their meal, focusing on getting them clean—

Noticed Boulders-on-Hill was being strangely quiet.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

"That Nadder was from my flight," she said. "My old flight. I…I think I should try catching up with it, convince it to stay."

Hiro blinked at her. "But…can you even outfly a Nadder? You can't go after it right now, and you don't want to catch it and be back in range of your old queen."

She shook her head. "It was going in the wrong direction for that. I think if it's smart it won't go back…or at the very least it'll hunt for something to bring back to the nest first."

"That's an awful lot of hunting on your end."

"I'll be fine," she snorted. "I've been eating properly for a while now—I'm much healthier than that Nadder right now, trust me. And…." She stopped, looked at Obake, paused in his scribbling to gnaw on the end of his scribble-stick as he scowled at his dry-leaves. "And we're going to need more dragons if this is going to work."

Hiro looked at Obake, considering, ear flaps twitching. He wanted this smoothed and groomed before he went and included more dragons….

But she was right. Word would need to get out to other dragons, that fighting wasn't the answer, that they could break free of their awful alphas…that the Yokai, the most vicious of dragon predators, weren't as terrible as they seemed.

Except….

Except that kill ring said otherwise. That screaming today said otherwise. Last night said otherwise. They needed more than just Obake to say this conclusively.

But to try that, to proceed safely…they needed the firepower.

"That's not a Gronkle that was stuck in a trap for ages, though," he said, looking back at her. "That was a fresh-caught Nadder."

She nodded, got up. "It's why I'm leaving now."

Hiro was on his feet in a flash. "WHAT? No—not right now it's the middle of the day!"

"I'll go out back and go around wide—they're hunting for a Nadder, they'll be looking for a Nadder, I'll fly high and far enough they don't catch me."

Hiro scrambled for a reason to convince her otherwise, couldn't hit on one…this was dangerous, he didn't like this….

Didn't want to lose the company of a dragon he was starting to count as a friend.

Boulders-on-Hill nudged him. "Hey, I'll be fine. You're the one hanging around the big scary Yokai."

He huffed, trying to keep his face neutral. "I heard that sarcasm."

"Good," she chuffed. "I'll be back."

"And where are you going?" Obake asked as she left. Hiro watched her go, hoping she'd be all right. She'd have to be all right. he had to believe that the dragons he cared about would be okay.

She's right, he thought. And it makes me wonder how you'd take this, Older-Brother. I know you'd think this was crazy, but…if I can convince you, maybe I can convince anybody. Look at Obake. One singular maybe-Yokai, out of a whole flight of them. But I can't say anything for certain until we figure out if it's more than just Obake.

We need more Yokai.