The helicopter hovered close to the ground and set its cage payload down in a clearing by a river. After detaching it, the helicopter rose and flew away, leaving soldiers below to attend to the cage. More cages were nearby, along with some antennas, parked vehicles, and small buildings that served as barracks and armories.

From a tree branch, the near-invisible Night Fury stared down at the site with bright purple eyes. A soldier looked in his direction, prompting him to close his eyes and avoid detection. The soldier walked away and the dragon silently dropped down, darting up to behind one of the buildings.

"Why keep these things around if they refuse to cooperate?" asked an annoyed soldier.

"Because," another replied. "We need them for the new program. The world gave us an opportunity and all we need to do is take it."

"Do you think it'll work?"

"The chips are coming off the production line. As soon as we get those in, we're good to go."

Chips? What chips? The Night Fury moved closer to the building's corner, keeping himself low to the ground.

"We've already captured plenty of dragons. Nightmares, Nadders, Zipplebacks, even those feisty Terrors. Command wants to move on to other specimens soon."

"I've heard chatter that some are wanted more than most. Like the one that… what's its name, the one that shoots lightning?"

"A Skrill. And why they want that one more, that's not my business. But you wanna know what really has my attention? The Night Fury."

Of course, they were looking for him. He was rare, after all.

"They say it was last seen somewhere in Jersey. We find it, we bring it in, and we have the most powerful dragon at our disposal."

"I heard it's smart. Like, freaky smart. They say it caught a missile in its jaws and launched it right back at the chopper who fired it."

"Whatever it can do, it won't get away from us for long. Now, stop talking and get back to guarding the cages." The two soldiers split up, with one of them heading to a cage close to the Night Fury's location. The dragon had questions. What was this program they mentioned, and why did they need dragons for it?

He looked to a cage holding a still Deadly Nadder. Speaking of… while he didn't know much, he knew enough to know it was bad news. He couldn't stop it now, but perhaps he could slow down progress.

It was time for a jailbreak.

Becoming one with the very shadows he resembled, he ran swiftly-but-silently to the cage in less than a second. He circled, looking for the right place… and then he found it. A small panel.

Mudballs. An electronic lock. One that could only activate if a hand was placed on it. Obviously, his own claw didn't fit the description. But like any situation, he needed the right tool for the job.

A soldier wielding an electric baton patrolled near the cages. Something from inside whined, earning it a quick zap from the soldier. A brief yelp of pain was heard before it quieted down.

The Night Fury narrowed its purple eyes. That one would do. But how to make it cooperate? Backing up behind a rock before the human's eyes could move over him, he spied a smaller pebble resting by his feet.

Perfect!

He took the stone in his mouth and turned his eyes to the cage opposite from the Nadder's. He flung it, making it bounce off a metal bar with a loud clang. As he expected, the soldier whirled his head towards the sudden noise and moved closer to investigate.

The Night Fury crouched low; a predator ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey. The soldier stopped in front of the cage, staring at the dragon inside as if believing it to be responsible.

THWAM! The Night Fury lunged and smashed the guard's head against the bar with his claw. The impact knocked it out cold instantly… but it also awoke the slumbering giant inside. The muzzled Monstrous Nightmare snorted and opened its eyes. When it took in the sight of the Night Fury, it grumbled in amazement.

The Night Fury just took the guard in his grip and dragged it over to the Nadder's cage. As he did so, the Nightmare called out to him and snarled, begging for help. He needed to act quick, or else the noises from the dragon would draw unwanted attention sooner than he would've liked.

The Nadder just snorted and blinked drowsily. It tried to stand and shook its head, attempting to rid itself of grogginess. The Night Fury crept close to the cage's side with the unconscious guard in tow…

"What the- it's still woozy?!"

The Night Fury quickly ducked out of sight and blended into the darkness. He tucked the guard's body close to his own, making sure he was still knocked out. Two more soldiers, each armed with rifles, approached the Nadder's cage to inspect the dragon. One of them turned to the other in disbelief. "How much sedative did you shoot it with?"

"I… I thought it was one of those dragons with the bludgeon tails," answered the other, knocking himself on the head. "My depth perception isn't so great."

The Monstrous Nightmare grew tense and angry at the sight of the humans that had imprisoned it. In agitation, it growled and slammed its head against the cage bars. The two soldiers turned around to face the Nightmare and quickly approached its cage. "Hey! Quiet, you big, dumb lizard!"

They were distracted! Now was his chance!

The Nadder gave a small squawk and blinked again, noticing the Night Fury just outside. Dragging the guard's body to the electronic panel, the Night Fury took its arm… and placed the hand against the panel. It went from blue to green in a second, unlocking the cage door.

Beep!

Both soldiers perked up at the sound and turned around… too late.

The Deadly Nadder charged and bashed the door wide open, barreling into the soldiers before they could raise their guns. The dragon squawked and roared, using its head to knock them aside. The Night Fury ran back over to the Nightmare's cage, disabling the lock on that one as well. Instantly, the Nightmare pushed the door open and stepped outside, allowing the Night Fury to seize the muzzle on its mouth and remove it. The Nightmare shook its head as the contraption fell, roaring at the new freedom it now had.

A horrified gasp rang out, alerting all three dragons to an unmasked soldier who dropped its weapon. His eyes were wide with fear and two other men had frozen in their tracks. The Nadder roared again, this time charging right for them. The Monstrous Nightmare followed it, blasting its thick and sticky fire at one of the site's buildings. The unmasked soldier threw up his arms and made a run for it, his comrades opening fire with their weapons.

Bullets flew through the air before the men's legs were taken out from under them by the Nadder's tail. The Nadder ran out of sight while the Nightmare began smashing open locks for the other cages.

Suddenly, red lights flashed on the antenna towers, followed by the blaring of alarms. The Night Fury dropped the unconscious guard he was holding. "Red alert! Containment breach! Red alert! Containment breach!"

His incredible sense of hearing picked up human voices and weapons being grabbed. He spotted two men running for a jeep with a mounted turret. He denied them this by blasting the vehicle on the spot and reducing it to a burning chunk of overturned metal that nearly crushed the men.

"The Night Fury!" he heard someone cry. "The Night Fury is-OOMPH!" He cut the man off by charging into him head-first and knocking him down. The alarms continued to blare while silhouettes of dragons flew up into the air, raining down fire from above. Explosions obliterated buildings and sent soldiers flying. Everywhere the Night Fury looked, he saw liberation.

A Zippleback blinded soldiers with gas before lighting them up. A Monstrous Nightmare picked up an ATV in its mouth and threw it aside, letting it smash against a jeep. A Rumblehorn roared and charged after soldiers who opened fire on it, but the bullets couldn't pierce its thick hide. A Nadder shot its tail spikes at three soldiers, who all cried out and dropped to the ground.

Someone fired a rocket launcher at the Nightmare, which exploded and sent the dragon crashing to the ground. Another manned a turret on a jeep and pointed it at the Rumblehorn, letting loose a barrage of bullets. This only aggravated the dragon while a Nadder snatched the man from his perch.

The Night Fury spun to see a man with a taser stick jab his weapon at him. He quickly stood back, closed his jaws over the man's arm, and threw him at a man pointing a pistol at the dragon. Another jeep was sent tumbling along the ground, an antenna tower collapsed when a fireball struck it, and streams of fire engulfed entire squads.

The Night Fury sprinted around the camp, shooting at any locking mechanisms he could. He pulled cage doors open and barked at the formerly-captive dragons, who showed their appreciation by joining the attack.

A small and shrill sound caught his attention. Behind a man who just met a charging Nadder's horn, a purple Terrible Terror was cornered against the back of an empty and unused cage. The soldier inside had a pistol in hand and pointed it at the tiny dragon.

He leaped into action right when he realized the danger. The Night Fury ran up to the cage and pounced on top of the soldier, knocking the gun out of his grip. He snarled at the Terror, who squeaked and ran out of there. The Night Fury turned around and jumped out of the cage, allowing the soldier to weakly stand.

The Night Fury grabbed the cage door and slammed it shut in front of the stunned soldier with a loud bang. The electronic lock engaged and sealed it shut, leaving the men gripping at the bars both confusedly and desperately. The Night Fury simply snorted and took off into the air.

Most of the dragons were already flying away. He noticed that the soldiers were shifting their attention away from them… and onto him. Rifles clicked and shots rang out, forcing him to evade. He fired a bolt of violet plasma down on the group, sending five men at once to the ground. And as smoke and ash rose from the site, he flew off into the night sky…

The next morning, everyone was gathered in one of the underground rooms. Unlike the M.E.D. chamber, this one was larger and shaped as an arena. A set of doors led to a small elevator, which ascended to an observation platform with a control panel and a viewing window. Fred was currently at that position while everyone else was down below.

"Remind me again why we're here," John groaned in a bored fashion.

"As interesting as it is to have you guys see through your ancestor's eyes," came Fred's reply from loudspeakers on the walls. "It won't be enough. Fiona called me earlier and said we had to try this out. She explained it to be a simulator of some kind, which will test us against various hostiles."

"So what?" Val asked unamusedly. "We slap a VR headset on ourselves?"

"Not exactly," Fred answered, fiddling with the control panel in front of him. "Check this out." Whatever he did on his end caused bright lights to activate on the high portions of the wall, which beamed down to the area below. A blue human figure materialized into view: one with a short sword and a shield, along with wearing an Eastern-looking appearance and a goatee.

"Whoa…" Val whispered. "That's so much cooler than VR."

"Wait, we're fighting holograms?" John blinked in bewilderment. Before anyone could confirm this, he smirked and stepped closer to the hologram. "Alright, that's cool. I got this! I'll be setting a high score in no time at-AAAH!"

The hologram attacked and struck John with its shield hard enough to make him crash against the wall. He slumped to the ground while laughter rang out from the rest of the group.

"No…" John moaned, clutching his head while he stood back up. "No fair! I-I wasn't ready!"

"Sorry, John…" Fred said with a little bit of a snicker. "But this isn't exactly like a video game. Even though they're just holograms, they're programmed to act and move just like the ones the Riders fought."

"And they can actually hurt you?" Julie asked.

"Yep," Fred answered. "But the good news is that there's a setting for it. They can make you feel a small sting to a big bruise, but given that they're just holograms, they can't actually… you know, kill you."

"And what's this one supposed to be?" Dan questioned.

"This guy's supposed to be one of the soldiers from a military junta called the Northern Alliance. Think of them as Drago's minions. They're experts in hunting and capturing dragons for their big boss. Now… does anyone want a go at him?"

"I'll take it," Dan answered, stepping towards the hologram. He switched on his Dragon Blade and let the flames burn bright. Right after he activated it, the hologram rushed at him. Dan sidestepped and struck the hologram on the side, only managing to nick it with the blade. The hologram responded by whirling around and bashing Dan in the face with its shield, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"One more time. Come on."

Dan rolled away from the hologram's sword and hoisted himself back up. He dodged and blocked some of the following strikes, kicking the hologram away from him. The hologram stumbled and ran for him again, the sword held high. Dan managed to parry the weapon and, with his free hand, knock the shield out of its grip. Before the projected weapons could hit the ground, it dematerialized out of view.

The hologram went on the offensive again and swung at Dan wildly. He backed away from the swings and blocked the last one, countering with three strikes. He spun around after the last swing and slashed the hologram across the upper chest. The hologram staggered back, fell, and dematerialized.

"Nice work," Fred commented as Dan turned off his Dragon Blade. "Definitely better than last time. Now, keep in mind that tougher enemies will require more hits to bring down. And for some of them… they hardly need to be hit at all."

Dan opened his mouth to ask what Fred meant by that… and saw the faces of everyone else. They were all staring at him in surprise. Val was nervously pointing to something behind Dan.

And that had to mean Fred had started up another hologram that was going to attack from behind. Dan clenched his weapon… and felt an artificial breath on his neck. A breath that didn't feel human.

Slowly, he turned around, hoping to see a large human-like hologram ready to kill. Instead, he saw a hologram… of a Deadly Nadder.

He yelped and rolled to the side, barely avoiding the hologram's bite. "She put holograms of dragons in this thing?!" he shouted, taking off running with the holographic dragon hot on his heels.

"Of course! Just in case we run into wild ones!"

The holographic Nadder knocked Dan into the wall with its head and held its tail high. With a gasp, Dan ducked just as the fake spikes embedded themselves into the wall. A blast of artificial fire hit the wall to his right, making him take off to the left. The fake Nadder squawked and ran after him.

"How am I supposed to beat this thing?!"

"Simple!" came Fred's answer. "You're not!"

"What?!" The fake Nadder swung its tail at Dan, which sliced him across the face and sent him sliding across the ground. To him, he felt like he was bleeding… but when he touched his hand to his cheek and looked at it, he saw nothing.

So, the holograms could trigger pain receptors, but not cause any physical damage. Well, as far as he knew.

The fake Nadder revealed the spikes on its tail and snarled, starting to slowly advance on Dan. "You know how Hiccup preferred befriending dragons rather than slaying them?" Fred asked.

Dan's memory of that statement came back in a rush. "Okay, I get it! But what do I get to do to calm it down?!"

"Fiona told you that Hiccup's Dragon Blade could calm them! Make them think he was one of them!"

"You better be right about this…" Dan lit up his Dragon Blade and held it high over his head just as the fake Nadder reached him. He closed his eyes, silently praying for it to work. While he did know that the hologram couldn't kill him if it ate him, that didn't mean it couldn't try. And he certainly did not want to know how much it would hurt.

The fake Nadder squawked curiously, causing Dan to open his eyes. The hologram's eyes were trained on the burning blade, staring at it as a child would to a bubble.

"That's it," Fred said. "Now try moving it around or something."

He moved the sword in a circular motion over his head. Intrigued, the hologram followed its path. When Dan took a step forward, the hologram would step back. He kept holding the Dragon Blade high, allowing himself to get closer to the hologram.

"You have it right where you want it," Fred continued. "Now all you have to do is make it completely comfortable with you. Try scratching it on the chin."

Dan did so, rubbing the fake dragon right underneath its jaw. The hologram let out a squawk of surprise… and collapsed on the floor, where it purred in content.

"Uh…" Dan said, switching off the Dragon Blade. "Did it work?"

The projectors on the wall switched off, making the hologram fade from view. "Yep. Nice work."

"So, I guess this is it," Val piped up. "We just lay low from the Fists until we're ready to come out of the gate swinging…"

"And live in luxury while we do so!" added John cheerfully. "It's a two-for-one, V. Can't turn it down."

"Alright, you guys do whatever," Dan said, making his way into the sub-level hallway. "I'm gonna go check on the dragons." The stables weren't too far from here, as it was just two doors down. And inside, each of the dragons was lying down in their own separate enclosure… save for one whose spot was empty.

A ceiling panel slid open to let sunlight inside. A black, winged shape flew through it, followed by something small. The dragon touched down on the metallic floor of the stables while the panel slid shut behind him.

"Hey, there you are, buddy!" Dan called, greeting the Night Fury by scratching it on the head. "Where've you been all morning?" A reply came not from the black dragon... but from the small, purple one that cocked its head at Dan. At this, the Night Fury let out an irritated grunt.

"This little guy followed you home, huh?" Dan guessed. The Night Fury nodded in reply. "Hey, it happens, bud. For me, it was a stray cat that apparently 'chose' me as its new owner."

He turned his attention to the little Terrible Terror. "Hi there, little pal," he whispered, scratching it on the chin with one finger. "Thought this big guy here would keep you safe?" That's when he noticed something on the Terror's side. A mark. It looked like a burn mark, but he knew that to be impossible due to fireproof scales. Maybe it came from something electrical, like a downed power line, a bug zapper…

...or maybe a shock stick like a taser.

That last one seemed to fit the bill, as the mark was small yet noticeable. "Oh… looks like you had a few run-ins with some bad guys."

The Terror chirped.

"You don't need to worry anymore, Terry. You'll be safe here with us."

Another grunt came from the Night Fury. Dan stood up and noticed that it had a questioning look on his face. "What?" The dragon looked to the Terror, then back to Dan.

"Ugh… it fits, okay? It may be obvious, but it fits! Trust me!"

The Night Fury just rolled his eyes and walked away. The chirping Terror flew after him. Dan crossed his arms and sighed. "Who knew dragons could be such critics?"

"Tell me exactly what happened here…"

"It… it was the Night Fury, sir."

Lucas looked over the wreckage and ruins of the site. "One dragon… did all of this?"

"Not one, sir. It released all of the dragons we had transported here. Multiple casualties. We still don't know how it managed to get past the electronic looks on the cages."

"This dragon is one of the smartest there is," Lucas told the soldier. "It can find a solution to anything. Gather anything undamaged and move out."

The soldier nodded, leaving the commander to his business. With a curious gaze, Lucas walked through the site that was still smoking from the surprise attack before sunrise. Bodies of his own men, tipped-over and burning vehicles, wide-open cages, and destroyed buildings were everywhere. And near a group of soldiers, a black mark in the dirt caught his attention.

Lucas knelt and touched a hand to the mark. It was still smoking with a purple mist, and it felt hot to the touch. He pulled his hand away and flipped an eyepiece to scan it. Sensors ran over the mark and transmitted its chemical composition in no time.

"Ionized oxyacetylene," he murmured. "Pure plasma… perfect." He picked up a test tube he was carrying, placed it close to the burn mark, and scooped up the burnt dirt. He rose to his feet and examined the tube, holstering it to his being before raising two fingers to an earpiece.

"Agent Stinger, do you copy?"

"Affirmative."

"I have what I came for. Get the prototype ready."