Chapter 24: All Fired Up
That's what I hope you're all gonna be while you're reading this.
Gustav wasn't going to give up.
So what if Hiccup didn't want to let him into the academy? So what if it turned out that Snotlout wasn't really dying?
He was going to become a Dragon Rider if it was the last thing he did. And the first step? Finding his own dragon to train.
With Sanzaru's help, he traveled into the forest with nothing but a fish for lunch in case he was out looking for a dragon for longer than he thought. The Darumaka was supposed to be keeping an eye out for potential mounts, but ultimately, he would rather curl into a ball and sleep though the trip. Hey, a Whispering Death was pretty cool, but if one of its spines were to stray...
He was brought out of his musings by the sounds of scuffling somewhere nearby. Both Pokémon and boy peeked over a bush to find a pair of small green dragons frolicking around. They squeaked and squealed as they tumbled around playfully.
"Terrible Terrors?" Gustav asked himself. Then the moment of consideration passed, and he scoffed, "Whatever..."
The cat-sized dragons turned around to face him and suddenly turned threatening. They narrowed their eyes and, with a couple of warning hisses, blasting streams of fire from their mouths, and Gustav ended up being chased by the furious Terrors for the next two minutes. Many acres of forest and lots of fireballs later, he flopped to the ground with exhaustion and crawled under a log.
On the other side, Gustav saw something large and colorful just ahead of him. The dappled sunlight streamed through the trees to illuminate its shiny scales. From this angle, he could only see the tail and hindquarters, but he could accurately guess what it was.
"Ooh, Deadly Nadder," he marveled.
It heard him and spun around, revealing its beak-like maw and sharp yellow eyes. It raised its whip-like tail, and there was an audible *ching!* as its spikes sprang out.
He gulped in fear and decided, "Nope, too spiky."
Ducking back under the log, Gustav was just in time to avoid the flurry of spines that the Nadder shot at him. He ran away and didn't look back, the dragon's screeches growing faint in his ears.
A bit more time passed as Gustav continued trekking through the woods, not coming across any more dragons. He paused for a moment and stretched, wondering if it would be smart to eat his fish now – then all of a sudden, there was a loud roar in the distance. Intrigued, he raced off in the direction of the familiar noise.
And just as he suspected, when he crawled up over a boulder to see what was going on, he found it. The perfect dragon.
"The Monstrous Nightmare," Gustav breathed in awe. "The most lethal dragon in the known world."
The magnificent beast was currently chasing a wild boar for reasons unknown. Gustav didn't pay much attention to that, though. He was focusing all his attention on the act of jumping down from his boulder and sneaking up behind it as stealthily as he could.
The wild Monstrous Nightmare stopped moving after the boar vanished from sight, dipping its head toward the ground and taking several deep whiffs as if trying to pick up its prey's scent. That suited Gustav just fine, and he was able to sneak closer to it until he was practically on top of it.
"Not just anybody can handle one of these bad boys..." he quietly recited what Snotlout had told him before. "But I'm not just anybody!"
He bent his little legs and jumped onto the Monstrous Nightmare's back. For a split second, an expression of proud surprise dawned on his face, like he hadn't been expecting to nail it on the first try.
Then the second was over, as the Monstrous Nightmare whipped its head around and spotted him. Its scales ignited and it thrashed like mad, throwing the Larson boy off its back and into a nearby tree. It followed him, bending low over the intruder and growling threateningly.
Gustav blinked woozily and shook his head to clear it. One new thing he'd learned about the Monstrous Nightmare – being on the receiving end of that fire power actually hurt.
"Hey..." he murmured, noticing something for the first time. "You're smaller than Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare."
The not-quite-full-grown dragonet bent its neck further towards him, its huge nostrils opening and closing as it breathed. It looked angry, but some of that anger seemed to be giving way to curiosity, like it was wondering what this strange intruder was all about.
Hesitantly, Gustav reached into his bag and pulled out the fish. He'd intended to bring it along as his own lunch, but his Plan B had been to use it to help him train his future dragon mount.
The young Monstrous Nightmare's anger vanished altogether when it saw the tasty morsel, and it licked its chops with anticipation.
"O-Oh, o-okay. Feeding time," Gustav said to himself, unsteadily wobbling to his feet. "F-Feeding time is b-bonding time."
He closed his eyes and recalled what Snotlout had done when demonstrating the best way to feed Hookfang.
Steeling himself, Gustav determinedly shouted, "Bond. With. THIS!"
He threw the fish directly into the Monstrous Nightmare's face.
It snarled.
"Uh-oh..." Gustav quailed, getting that unmistakable sinking feeling in his stomach.
The Monstrous Nightmare stepped back and growled louder than Gustav had ever heard from Hookfang. There was a suspenseful pause...and then things got hot.
Really, REALLY hot.
The morning after Snotlout's disastrous attempts to train Gustav to be a Dragon Rider, the Go-Getters were back to teaching the Berkian children about dragons.
Snivels was still holding firm to his "no Viking helmets in class" rule. He wanted to show the kids that there were other, potentially better, ways to shape the world around them. He preferred a world where a wide variety of creatures treated each other as equals.
After all, he'd already seen the true strength of bonds between two or more different kinds of creatures - from the Battle of Dragon Island to their latest showdown with Dagur the Deranged.
Hiccup wanted that kind of world, too, the Servine knew without knowing.
"Alright," Snivels told the class, "You've all learned the basics of dragon training. Now, it's time you tested your knowledge in the field. We've gathered some of the most docile and easy-to-train dragons on Berk. You will each approach the dragon of your choice and demonstrate the proper way to form a bond of friendship with that dragon. You" - he pointed to the Arachne lookalike - "may go first."
The brown-haired girl marched up and saluted him. "It would be an honor, sir!"
"State your name, please," the Servine stated formally, hiding the fact that he still didn't know it.
"Frida, sir," she answered, still holding her salute.
"Frida," Snivels repeated. "If I'm not mistaken, that means 'peace', doesn't it?"
The girl nodded. "Yes, it does, sir!"
"You don't have to make with the formalities," her teacher said gently. "This is a classroom, not an armada."
Finally, she lowered her hand. "Sorry, Mr. Snivels."
The Servine blinked. No one had ever addressed him as 'Mister' before.
"Alright, Frida," he said, "Choose your dragon. Take your time, and think very carefully. The dragon you choose will be your companion for life."
Frida examined her options thoroughly. There was a sea-blue Gronckle that looked half-asleep, a banana-yellow Zippleback whose two heads were fighting over a half-eaten trout, a small flock of Terrible Terrors that were roughhousing and creating a cacophony, and an orange Deadly Nadder that was standing at attention. He looked friendly enough.
"That one," Frida said, pointing to the Nadder.
"Excellent choice," praised a smiling Snivels. "That's Pincher, Stormfly's younger brother. Now, remember what to do?"
"Yes," the girl breathed, "Slowly move back toward the tail..." She took light, quiet steps as she approached the not-quite-full-grown dragonet.
Pincher tilted his head and stared at the small child that was tiptoeing towards him. Couldn't she move any faster?
Frida quickened her pace a little when the Nadder made no threatening moves in reaction to her approach. She reached Pincher's tail in no time. His spines were held at an angle, as a precaution. Moving slowly and carefully, so as not to prick herself by accident, Frida smoothed the young Nadder's spines down all the way.
"Very good," Snivels smiled, "Now you can get on his back."
As in on cue, Pincher lowered himself to the arena floor so Frida could more easily pull herself up onto him. The girl grasped his horns, planted her foot on his wing, and with one good tug, she was sitting up on the orange Nadder.
"Excellent job, Frida," praised Snivels, leading the applause. "Okay, who wants to go next?"
At that very moment, Snotlout swaggered in and asked, "Who wants to do the honors of lighting my flaming funeral pyre ship?"
His remark made the twins poke their heads up out of the giant pit they were digging in the middle of the academy. With Barf and Belch's help, the Thorstons had broken through the stone floor and reached the softer dirt underneath, which they were piling up beside the future grave.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on," Tuffnut said. "I thought we were burying the two of you alive!" His mood grew sour, and he dropped his shovel with a *clank*. "Ugh, fine," he grunted irately. "I'll start gathering wood."
"Yeah, and I'll start gathering pyres," groused his sister.
If anyone else present was willing to comment, they never got the chance. To everyone's shock, a mighty, yet immature, roar echoed out over the ocean, and seconds later, the dragon itself came flying erratically through the gates. In its attempt to land, it stepped on Ruffnut and Tuffnut's heads (pushing them down into the burial pit in the process) and then pitched forward and fell flat on its face. Two small figures went flying off of the Monstrous Nightmare's back and landed painfully at Hiccup's feet.
The Haddock boy was so shocked that he couldn't even glare at Gustav and Sanzaru. He totally would have otherwise.
Fortunately, the boy and his Darumaka were relatively unharmed. With a groan, Gustav sat up woozily and muttered, "I, uh, meant to do that."
The Monstrous Nightmare jumped to its feet and raised its head, twitching it this way and that as it examined the arena, the humans, and the dragons currently inhabiting it. It then proceeded to rapidly belly-crawl all over the place, sniffing at everything curiously, and bowling over anyone that wasn't able to get out of its way in time.
Sounding wary, Tuffnut poked his head out of the hole and asked, "Is it just me, or did a tiny little Snotlout and Hookfang just fly in?"
The juvenile Monstrous Nightmare darted over and stopped with its front claws gripping the side of the hole, its head slamming into Tuffnut and knocking him back in. After a split second, it snapped its head in a different direction and rushed off again.
Generally, it was behaving more like a twitchy puppy than a twenty-foot long engine of destruction.
By now, Hiccup was entirely over his shock and looked down at Gustav with a mixture of incredulity and skepticism. "Gustav, what are you doing?"
Getting to his feet, the Larson boy didn't back down and planted his hands on his hips with an expression of self-satisfaction.
"Well, you said you didn't want to train me," he explained proudly. "So I trained my own dragon!"
Hiccup folded his arms across his chest and hit the Larson boy with his signature Look of Disapproval. "Gustav, I'm not sure we have the same definition of 'trained'."
"Look how he defies authority," Snotlout admired. "Ah, I taught him well – now I can go in peace."
"Stop getting my hopes up," grumbled Astrid.
Drawing himself up as tall as he could manage, Gustav went over to stand beside his dragon and puffed out his chest with pride. The Monstrous Nightmare stopped sniffing and glanced down at the tiny human putting his hand on its wing like the proud owner of a brand-new catapult.
"Everybody," Gustav declared dramatically, "I would like all of you to meet my dragon, Fanghook."
'Fanghook' perked up at that and grabbed Gustav in his jaws before resuming his hyper pacing around the arena, much to the boy's delight.
The smile dropped off of Snotlout's face, abruptly enough for a couple of the Go-Getters to chuckle at him. "Fanghook?" he squeaked disbelievingly. "Are you serious? Where is your respect for authority?"
Calmly, Hiccup planted himself in Fanghook's path and lifted up his hand, stopping it in its tracks. He then reached up and gave the Monstrous Nightmare a gentle scratch under the chin, prompting it to drop Gustav. To his credit, the ten-year-old landed on his feet and only stumbled.
"Gustav, we told you that there's more to training a dragon than feeding and riding it," Hiccup reminded the younger boy. Then, taking a second look at his choice of dragon, he added for good measure, "And way more when that dragon is a Monstrous Nightmare."
"You need to have a bond," seconded Brandyn. "A friendship!"
"We do have it!" claimed Gustav. He ran back to Fanghook and wrapped his arms around his tail, only to be carried off by the impatient dragonet. "Test us, we'll prove it!"
"Test him! Test him!" chanted the twins, their arms rising up above the lip of the pit as they cheered. They only stopped when Fanghook jumped over the pit and accidentally smacked them down to the bottom with his tail, making that the third time.
When they were sure Snotlout was too wrapped up in something else to pay attention, the Go-Getters gathered together to talk amongst themselves. Hiccup wanted to put a stop to this and was about to immediately declare that to the group, only for an eager Adhesive to jump in and initiate the conversation.
"It might not be the worst idea," he hinted with a twinkle in his eye.
"No, I'm pretty sure it is the worst idea," Hiccup immediately argued, with that sarcastic drawl of his. "And I've seen some really bad ideas during my time as leader of this academy."
"Think about it," Ninjark prompted him. "Maybe Snotlout needs to see how easily he can be replaced."
"Sounds perfect. I'm in," Astrid said instantly, her grin mischievous.
Hiccup looked around and saw that everyone present didn't seem as opposed to this idea as he was. Which was typical for them, but what could he do? They did have a point – maybe with this plan, he could proverbially kill two birds with one stone.
Worth a shot, at least.
Nodding, the lead Go-Getter walked forward and announced, "Alright, Gustav, you're absolutely right."
Snotlout whipped around so fast it wasn't even funny. "Wait, hold the – he is?"
"Yes, he is," Hiccup clarified, completely serious.
On his hand signal, Toothless walked over and spat out a plasma blast at the arena floor. While the blue flames rapidly disappeared, the blast had left a small scorch mark on the stone. Hiccup scraped his metal leg twice over the soot, drawing an 'X'.
"Okay," he told Gustav. "Let's see you and Fanghook do a lap around the arena and land on this mark."
It took a few seconds for Gustav to figure out which mark he was talking about. His eyes widened when he saw it, and then the light of realization was quickly replaced by the glimmer of childish enthusiasm.
"Oh, that one," he replied, before quickly turning to his dragon. "Come on, Fanghook! Fire it up!"
As the two of them walked off to get ready, Blaze mused to herself, "Hmm, interesting battle cry."
"Pfft, it's...alright," Snotlout snorted, bitterly.
On the other side of the arena, Gustav clambered up Fanghook's tail, slid down his back, and arrived at a comfortable position just behind his head. With his tiny hands wrapped around the Monstrous Nightmare's horns, he gave the order to fly – and while Fanghook did obey the order, that didn't mean he was any good at executing it. He lurched around the academy, bumped into walls, tripped and slid before going back to being airborne, almost took Snivels's head off, and then blew right past the 'X' mark and slammed into Snotlout.
Hiccup looked away, fortunately just in time to prevent his eyes from providing the loud *crunch* of broken crates with an accompanying visual image.
"Hey, that was pretty good," the Haddock boy commented airily, once he felt it was safe to look.
Gustav emerged from a pile of shattered wood in a daze, then shook off the dizziness and jumped up with both fists in the air.
"Pretty good?!" yelled Snotlout. He scrambled to put his helmet back on before protesting, "He almost flattened me!"
"Hey, if this keeps up, Snotlout won't need the Five Signposts to go to Valhalla," Snivels suggested slyly.
The Servine's snarky comment was aimed at Astrid, who looked down at her feet with a hand covering her mouth so that no-one would see her laughing.
"Funny, snake boy!" Snotlout shouted, red-faced. "Very funny!"
"Is anyone else tired of listening to Snotlout's ghost?" Tuffnut asked openly.
That made the arrogant Jorgenson explode. "I'M NOT DEAD YET!"
"You're dead to us," smirked Ruffnut.
Ra stomped his paw once, grabbing everyone's attention. "So, next test?"
Nodding to him, Hiccup gestured for Astrid and Heather to help him with everything he needed. Once they were done, they had a short row of barrels standing against the wall with three barrels laying on their sides on top of them. The lids of the barrels were painted as targets, leaving little doubt as to what they were used for.
But, as any good dragon-training teacher would do, Hiccup figured a demonstration wouldn't hurt to clarify things.
"Bud, show them what to do," he instructed Toothless, pointing at one of the barrels.
Letting out a shriek, the Night Fury shot a plasma blast at the left-most barrel and struck it dead-on, blasting it into hundreds of tiny wood chips. Astrid obligingly went and got another barrel to replace it, giving Gustav three targets to hit.
And he did so with gusto.
"Fire it up, Fanghook!" the Larson boy cried.
Slowly, the Monstrous Nightmare stood up as tall as he could and sucked in a loud, dramatic breath.
Everyone that was previously standing anywhere near the barrels abruptly dove to the side. They hit the hard floor with grunts of pain, but when a stream of sticky flames completely missed every single one of the barrels, everyone was giving silent prayers to Arceus that they had only gotten away with singed hairs.
"Weaksauce," Snotlout said dismissively, "He didn't even hit anything."
"That's not entirely true," Hiccup replied, casually pointing to the leaf on the end of Snivels's tail, which was lightly smoking.
The funny part about it was, the Servine didn't notice it at first. Then his highly-sensitive nose caught the scent of smoke, accompanied with the unmistakable smell of burning leaves. One look over his shoulder later, he was stamping on his tail frantically, his eyes wide in shock and panic. He held his tail up near his mouth and blew what was left of the tiny fire out. The main prong of his leaf had been burned a grayish-black, but it would heal.
"Bravo, you're all set for the next Pokémon rebellion," Snotlout rolled his eyes in annoyance. "More importantly – are you guys serious about him replacing me?"
"It was your idea," Ruffnut grunted.
"We're just following the most beloved warrior's last wishes," Astrid added, placing unnecessary emphasis on the 'beloved warrior' part.
Whether or not Snotlout understood her sarcasm, the question turned out to be unfounded, as the Jorgenson boy wasn't even listening to her. He walked up to Gustav and stared down his nose at him for a second, then bent down so that he was sure Gustav had a good view of his challenging grin.
"Well, no-one's replacing me until they get past one of our obstacle courses," he smirked. "Ain't that right, Gustav?"
Although he initially appeared uncertain, Gustav soon straightened up and met Snotlout's grin with one of his own. "Uh...sure!"
"Hey!" called Frida from the other side of the arena. "I wanna come, too!"
Pincher squawked, matching his new rider's enthusiasm to a tee.
"Alright," Snivels said, still holding his tail protectively. "We'll get the other kids on dragons and take them out with us once they're all good and ready."
Hiccup, Snivels, Heat and Snotlout led Gustav, Sanzaru and Frida out to the woods, soaring over the tops of the trees easily. The most inexperienced of the three pairs seemed to be a little bit shaky on Fanghook's back, but for the most part, they seemed to be handling themselves quite well. Hiccup could see that the boy and his Darumaka had a little talent, at least – but if you asked him, it was still far too soon in his opinion for Gustav to officially join the Dragon Riders.
Frida, on the other hand, was doing remarkably well for her first time. Pincher leaned whichever direction she did, he went up or down whenever she said, and he didn't stray away from the group even once.
Soon the terrain below them started to become more familiar. Hiccup leaned over so he could see past Toothless' outstretched wing, and rapidly picked out the start of their 'beginner' obstacle course.
"Alright, Gustav," he called over to the younger boy, who perked up and paid renewed attention to his words. "This is one of our simpler routes. You just start at those pines and –"
Sadly, not everyone was willing to listen to his entire explanation.
"Blah blah blah!" Snotlout interrupted his cousin rudely, before looking over his shoulder with a mocking grin. "If you think you're good, kid, you'll keep up with me! Fire it up!"
With that, him and Heat and Hookfang were nothing more than an orange blur as they stooped down and vanished among the trees.
"Hey, that's my battle cry!" Gustav indignantly called after him. Tightening his grip on Fanghook's horns, he and Sanzaru followed Snotlout down.
"Wait for me, guys!" cried Frida. She leaned forward, and Pincher obediently folded in his wings and dove after them.
Worried, Hiccup urged Toothless to fly faster. He kept his gaze on the trees beneath him, watching carefully for any signs of trouble. He saw flashes of movement through the curtain of leaves blocking his view of the ground. From those brief glimpses, he could see that not only were Gustav and Frida following Snotlout along the correct course, but the girl was actually doing a decent job of keeping up – Gustav, however...well, he wasn't falling any farther behind.
"Snotlout's school is in session!" came the bragging Jorgenson's taunting voice from below. "And something tells me you're about to get expelled!"
Toothless flew slightly closer to the treetops so that Hiccup could better see what was going on. They followed Gustav, who seemed to have figured out that he could trust Fanghook to do most of the work in avoiding the trees. All he had to do was keep them on the same course, and with that kind of teamwork, they weaved through the trees and kept on Snotlout's tail relatively easily.
Huh, Hiccup thought. You know, if he was older, I would probably give consideration to the idea of him joining the Riders...
"Oh yeah, well dead man talking!" Gustav attempted to taunt back, interrupting Hiccup's thoughts. "I'm on you like an eel on a three-legged –"
WHAM!
Fanghook rammed into a tree, instantly dropping to the ground unconscious with Sanzaru still hanging on. Gustav's hands instinctively reached out to grab a branch before he fell with his dragon and Pokémon partner, but he was only barely able to wrap his arms around it.
Or maybe not, Hiccup winced.
Hookfang cruised by, and Snotlout cackled, "You get a G! As in 'fail'!"
"That's not even a real saying, you ding-dong!" Snivels shouted down from Verne the Noivern's back. "Didn't your mother ever teach you how to spell?!"
"She did too!" the Jorgenson hollered back. "Put that up your nose and smell it, S-N-I-V-L-S!"
"THERE'S AN 'E' IN MY NAME, DUNDERHEAD!" Snivels exploded. "SHOWS HOW SMART YOU ARE!"
That was when Gustav's arms finally slipped, and he joined his dragon and Darumaka in unconsciousness on the ground.
Sighing, Hiccup steered the Night Fury downwards with the intention of bringing Gustav back. They'd probably had enough practice for one day.
Gently, Hiccup picked Gustav up and slid off of Toothless' back, depositing the Larson boy on the arena floor. He was going to wait until he woke up, like earlier when Snotlout fainted, but Astrid apparently didn't have that kind of patience and got a bucket.
About two whole liters of water smacked the sleeping kid in the face, and Gustav woke up spluttering for air. Woozily, he sat up and rubbed at his eyes. "How'd I do?" he muttered.
It was Snotlout who gave him the answer he was looking for. "You lasted about...well, two seconds."
"But those two seconds? Awesome," Hiccup said supportively, remembering the plan.
"You're living up to our expectations pretty well," Blaze added, and no-one could accuse her of lying.
Astrid nodded along, encouraging, "I've gotta admit, you're going to make a great substitute for Snotlout, Gustav."
"Says who?" demanded the Jorgenson boy himself.
His loud mouth was poised to say something else after that, when a new expression crossed his face. He looked thunderstruck, like he'd suddenly come to some big realization.
"Wait a minute..." he muttered, then raised his voice to a shout. "You're trying to convince me that I'm not dying! What kind of friends are you?"
Snivels had to bite his tongue so hard to keep himself from yelling, "We're not your friends!" that he could have swore he'd drawn blood.
"Look, Snotlout," Hiccup sighed. It was time to come clean. "Listen to me - there were never any Signposts. It was all just a big practical joke we've been playing on you for this thing Adhesive told us about called 'April Fools'."
He looked pointedly at Snotlout's right hand when he finished that last sentence, the fingers of which were frantically scratching at his rear end in a most unflattering fashion. Snotlout noticed and grimaced with embarrassment, although he didn't stop.
"Remember when Brandyn came up to you yesterday morning and said that broadgrass prevents saddle chafing?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah," Snotlout replied, sounding genuinely perplexed. "Why?"
Brandyn answered, "I only said that because we knew you'd be dumb enough to try it. Sheep love broadgrass, so all we had to do was let them into the academy."
"Kickin' Hawk glided up to the ceiling and dropped the 'bird of death' while you weren't looking," Blaze explained.
Heather pulled Sonata out of her jacket. "The singing you heard came from Sonata, not the trees."
"I wet the 'weeping' rock with my Water Shuriken," said Ninjark, holding his hand up.
"And the 'flying fish' you saw were just a bunch of Arrokuda shot out of a Cramorant's mouth," Snivels finished. "Once we told them what we were doing, they were more than happy to pitch in."
Then they all bunched up together and declared, "April Fools!"
Snotlout stood there with a blank look on his face for a good couple of minutes.
"Ohhhh," he said slowly, presumably to give his brain more time to process. "So this means..."
The realization briefly appeared to dawn on him, but then he lost the momentary expression and finished, "I give up. What does this mean?"
Every human being present simultaneously facepalmed, including Gustav.
"It means we were messing with you," Hiccup huffed, wearily.
"Right, right," Snotlout replied, nodding to himself as he once again took the time to process that. Several silent moments clicked past, and then he started again, "So, um..."
This time, every human being and Pokémon and dragon present simultaneously facepalmed, facewinged, or faceclawed.
Growling, Hiccup lost his patience and stomped up to take his muttonheaded cousin by the ear. Leaning close, he tugged on the ear and yelled out three carefully-enunciated words – "YOU'RE. NOT. DYING!"
He released Snotlout, who staggered back and rubbed at his sore ear. Once he'd gotten over the initial pain, it took him three solid seconds before the information finally sunk in and sparked something in that dense mind of his.
"I'm alive?" he breathed.
He felt himself all over, slapping his palms against different parts of his body to make sure that they were all there. More seconds passed, and by all the gods, Hiccup fully expected Snotlout to turn around and ask for further clarification again.
But his concerns were unneeded.
"I'M ALIVE!" Snotlout shouted joyously, and began to gratefully kiss every inch of his body he could reach. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou Thor! Oh, the Snotlout's too beautiful to die!"
Astrid covered her mouth with a muffled gag. "And my lunch is in my throat."
The Go-Getters, aside from her, all breathed a collective sigh of relief that Snotlout was finally going to stop obsessing over the fictional Five Signposts to Valhalla. While they did that, Snotlout himself continued to jump around and cheer about how great it was to be alive. It was a change from him moaning about his approaching fate, at least.
But at the center of all that positivity, there was one tiny pocket of sadness.
"Wait," Gustav spoke up, more timidly than usual. "So this means I can't be in the academy?"
The laughter and breaths of relief died down as the Go-Getters turned around to look at him.
"Look, Gustav, it's okay," Hiccup tried to soothe the ten-year-old. "It's not like having a dragon and not being a part of the Berk Dragon Riders is unheard of. I mean, my dad has one..."
"But it's not the same!" Gustav protested, looking like he was close to tears. "I just want to be a Dragon Rider so bad!"
In one corner of the arena, Fanghook seemed to droop a little and emit a small whimper, almost as if he was sympathizing with the boy he'd only known for less than an hour.
Hiccup, too, felt a little guilty. To tell the truth, when he looked into Gustav's eyes right then, he saw himself – or more accurately, his past self, the one that had complained to Gobber about not fitting in with the rest of Berk just before he'd found Toothless in the woods.
However, it didn't look like he'd get the chance to act on these feelings, as Snotlout was moving in to have a word with his 'replacement'.
"On the one hand," the Jorgenson boy began, leaning down to stare Gustav in the eye, "I sympathize with your ruthless devotion to your goal."
"And on the other hand...?" Gustav asked.
Snotlout, without saying another word, simply picked up Gustav by the back of his tunic, walked over to the other end of the academy, and chucked him straight out the gate. Hiccup covered his eyes when he saw Gustav hit the ground face-first, and when he opened them again, Sanzaru was being rolled out by Heat and Fanghook was being roughly pushed out by a stern-looking Hookfang.
While the newly-confident and no-longer-crippled-by-fear-of-imminent-death Jorgenson charged out of the academy whilst swearing to get back at the Go-Getters for their prank, two someones walked past him in the opposite direction and emerged from the entryway. Those someones, to Hiccup's surprise, turned out to be his father and Brumous, and they both looked serious about something.
"Son, we need to talk," Stoick informed him, and without waiting for a reply, launched into his message. "There's something big and out of control heading for Silent Sven's flock."
"A dragon?" Hiccup guessed.
The chief frowned, which was not a good sign. "Our scouts said it look like a giant bug," he paused to wrinkle his brow for an instant, apparently second-guessing himself. "No, centipede!" he brightened. "That's the word. A giant flaming centipede."
Eyes widening, Hiccup turned to the other Go-Getters, who were looking at him with similar shock.
"Sounds like Gigantamax to me," Snivels deduced, to which they all nodded in agreement.
"Alright, Dad," Hiccup said, meeting Stoick's gaze. "I'll take a couple of Go-Getters and go check it out."
"You do that," the Chief allowed. However, before Hiccup could make a move, he held up a finger. "But don't engage the enemy. Not unless it's absolutely necessary."
"He probably learned that lesson the hard way," Blaze uttered under her breath.
Brumous heard it somehow, and he growled, "Beartic..."
"What about us?" asked Frida.
"You kids head back home," Snivels instructed. "All of you. Frida, take Pincher with you."
While Hiccup agreed to the logical conditions and went to discuss his plan for confronting the Gigantamax Pokémon with the others, no-one saw Gustav run around the corner so that he was out of sight of the academy entrance. The mischievous kid hugged Sanzaru tightly like a precious doll and looked up at Fanghook, giggling giddily at the idea that was already surging through his mind. After all, what pre-teen didn't dream of a little bit of rebellion now and again?
"They're not going to engage the enemy – but we will!" he whispered excitedly. "Then they'll have to let us join the academy! We're gonna prove to them that we're every bit as good as them!"
His moment was ruined when the Monstrous Nightmare took him and his Darumaka headfirst into his jaws and charged away from the academy. Oh well...he'd surely get another, more awesome moment when he saved all of Berk!
Only the light of the stars was there to guide Hiccup, Snivels, Astrid, Blaze, Heather, Ninjark, Brandyn and Adhesive toward the Berk woods. With ease, they made their way to a grove of trees to hide in, then worked their way up to a higher vantage point on foot. Once they were all set, they peered out between the trees.
It wasn't hard to find the perpetrator.
It was a massive, flat, red centipede with a yellow underside with light-yellow circles inside each of the many sections of its body. It had just about a hundred legs that were a shade of dark red, along with its mandibles. There were flames on its head and telson, large and long with lighter parts at their center, like a pair of 'X's. Small diamond shapes dotted its back periodically, and on its forehead was an orange and yellow mark shaped like an exclamation point. Its angry yellow eyes were scouring the forest, its red and white pupils burning intensely. Three red clouds floated in a circular motion above its telson.
It looked more than powerful enough to burn the entire island to the ground – not that Hiccup would allow it.
"Well, there's something you don't see every day," he announced to his followers. "What's our diversion?"
"I think that's my cue," said Adhesive.
The Poipole quickly took off in a rush of wind. Even though he was purple and pink and at risk of being seen, he managed to fly out over the forest without being spotted and made it all the way to the far side. From their hiding place, Hiccup and the others kept a close eye on his progress. They were all tense, half-expecting something to go wrong at any moment.
The Centiskorch was weaving through the trees, any that she got too close to burst into flames. Sizzle had been having a regular, boring day, minding her own business, and privately expecting a Scolipede to pop out at any moment, before she was struck by a stray beam of Dynamax energy and she felt that unrivaled rush of adrenaline that accompanied the Gigantamax transformation. She had never felt such sheer, unmatched power before in her life, and she wasn't planning on letting it all go to waste.
But then Sizzle heard a Pokémon's voice call out teasingly to her. She turned around and immediately saw Adhesive the Poipole making a "Nyah-nyah nyah-nyah nyah nyah!" gesture at her from up in the air. Half-shocked and half-angry, the Centiskorch let out a shrieking roar and chased the fleeing Ultra Beast back into the forest, away from the village and Silent Sven's farm, with a surprising amount of speed in spite of her immense size.
"Huh, Adhesive's doing well," Astrid commented as she watched the spectacle from afar. "He's not ahead by much, but it's more than I expected."
From their hiding place, they saw Adhesive fly off at a high speed through the trees, drawing the Centiskorch even further away from the village. They wouldn't get a better opportunity than this.
"He can handle it," Hiccup replied to Astrid's statement. "We just need to keep that thing away from the village."
Toothless, Verne, Stormfly, Wavern, Windshear and Buck all lifted off with practiced stealth, purposely flying low to the ground so that they would be hidden from view amongst all the trees. As they wove through the forest, the Gigantamax Centiskorch ahead of them gradually grew closer and closer.
Only a little bit farther...
Suddenly, the Centiskorch turned her head at the sound of wingbeats and found the group following just a few feet behind her. Then, the white glow of the stars was blotted out by the light of a massive, burning fireball being launched at the surprised Go-Getters!
"LOOK OUT!" screamed Hiccup.
The team immediately scattered and took to the skies, no longer bothering to remain hidden. The ball of flames exploded against the trees, setting them ablaze. The Centiskorch took aim with her G-Max Centiferno again, and Hiccup clutched the saddle, prepared to make a last second dodge –
A scream rang out into the night, startling the Go-Getters for the second time in less than a minute. A dark shape blotted out the stars above them, alerting them to the new arrival's presence. But upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to be one of their number at all!
Almost as if in response to their incredulous thoughts, Sizzle looked up at the newcomer and shrieked. A collection of butterfly-shaped energy blasts soared up to illuminate the flying dragon and its human and Pokémon passengers. When the Max Flutterby shone against purplish scales and revealed two tiny figures dangling helplessly from the Monstrous Nightmare's neck, the Go-Getters could not believe what they were seeing.
"Gustav?!" Astrid and Snivels cried simultaneously.
Hiccup groaned aloud. "Oh, this cannot be happening..."
The Centiskorch started firing another G-Max Centiferno, and Gustav scrambled up Fanghook's neck so as not to be struck by the massive ball of fire.
"Fanghook, evasive maneuvers!" he cried, once he was in the proper riding position.
The Monstrous Nightmare obeyed, swooping and diving erratically and managing to avoid all of the attacks aimed at him. While Sizzle was busy concentrating on him, Hiccup and the others were allowed to fly closer, which they did. It was no longer a scouting mission – Gustav's interference had forced their hand, and they were going in to wreak some serious havoc.
The ground rumbled as heavy footsteps charged their way. A goliath of a Pokémon with a coal-black body, a somewhat proportionately-sized head, two legs and a pair of stubby arms, alongside two massive spikes atop its shoulders. It resembled a giant stone oven, with a massive mountain of coal on top that had a trio of familiar red clouds circling it. Its mouth and two eyes had a burning glow inside, like it had swallowed an entire mountain full of molten lava.
I don't want to know where that thing came from, Hiccup decided. Sensing his tension, Toothless darted forward and prepared to shoot the Gigantamax Coalossal.
A bellowing roar was unleashed, and a giant stone slab rose up from the ground, towering over even the Coalossal. The stone slab then tipped over and fell to the forest floor with a mighty crash, shattering into countless pieces of stone that went flying everywhere. One of the rocks struck Fanghook in the back of the head; he dropped like a stone and hit the ground in between the Centiskorch and Coalossal.
Hiccup glanced down at the ground and saw the shapeless mass laying on the ground – Gustav and Sanzary were refusing to leave Fanghook behind, even in spite of the mortal danger that was literally staring down at them. The Centiskorch and Coalossal were already moving to surround them, abandoning their efforts to bring down the Go-Getters for the moment. Thanks to this, Hiccup was easily able to regroup with his friends.
"Well, I hope you've got an idea," Ninjark said, wringing his flippers. "Because things are about to get ugly very quickly."
From somewhere behind them, someone yelled, "NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!"
Everyone simultaneously turned around and saw a ten-year-old brunette flying toward them on the back of an orange Deadly Nadder.
"Frida?!" Snivels shouted in disbelief. "What are you doing?! I told you to go home!"
"I know!" the girl shouted back. "But I saw Gustav fly off, and I followed him here! I want to help!"
"No, Snivels is right," said Hiccup, "It isn't safe. Go back home. Pincher will protect you."
Frida opened her mouth to protest, but then paused to contemplate what she'd been told. She looked past the team at the Gigantamax Pokémon, thought about it for a few brief seconds, then nodded and nudged Pincher into a U-turn back toward the village.
The Go-Getters instantly brought their dragons forward in a reckless charge, fire gathering in Toothless, Stormfly, Windshear and Buck's maws as they prepared to save Gustav, Sanzaru and Fanghook. Verne, Wavern and Adhesive trailed behind them.
Rumbling loudly, the Gigantamax Coalossal turned slightly to the right and glared right at the incoming heroes. The Coal Pokémon opened its mouth as wide as it would go, and a burning fireball burst out, flying straight at the one in the lead – which just so happened to be Toothless. Hiccup's eyes widened upon seeing the Max Flare rushing up to swallow him and his dragon companion, not unlike the explosion of the Red Death. Realizing that it was far too late to avoid the attack, he braced for impact...
...only for a giant shuriken made of water to collide with the giant ball of flame, instantly extinguishing it into a harmless cloud of steam. Hiccup turned around to see Ninjark in his Heather-Greninja form.
"Thanks, Ninjark!" the lead Go-Getter called out.
The Greninja saluted from atop Windshear's saddle and he and Heather dove down, clearing the two massive Fire-types away from Gustav and Fanghook with Ninjark's Water Shurikens. Following their lead, Snivels, Astrid, Blaze and Brandyn split off from Hiccup to let their dragons rain blasts of fire and wind down on the enemy and keep them on their toes. That left him free to bring Toothless into a stationary hover right above Gustav.
"Gustav, get out of here, now!" he cried.
From on the forest floor below, he got an annoyed reply of, "But I can do this!"
"No, you can't!" Hiccup shouted over the din. "These Pokémon are too powerful! You don't know what they're capable of! Go back to the village!"
The Monstrous Nightmare dragonet got to his feet, and through the embers left over from the Centiskorch and Coalossal's attacks, Hiccup could see Gustav clambering back onto the dragon's neck. Patting Toothless' neck, he got the Night Fury to back off, because they still had some Gigantamax Pokémon to stop.
Not one to let himself be left out, Gustav shouted, "Fanghook, fire it up!"
The young dragon took one look at the two Fire-types towering over them and shot upwards, heading straight back toward the village with a protesting Larson boy and his Darumaka in tow.
Hiccup watched them go, a sense of relief washing over him like a wave on the shore. Unfortunately, he failed to notice the rumbling of the Coalossal's rocks behind him.
"Hiccup, behind you!" screamed Astrid.
She and Stormfly rushed forward, but there was nothing they could do – the Coal Pokémon summoned another G-Max Volcalith that slammed into Hiccup and Toothless without either of them expecting it. Hiccup gasped with pain as the breath was driven from his lungs, and the giant stone slab's own momentum pushed him and Toothless up into the air, where they stayed for a moment before falling back down to a painful impact with the unforgiving ground. He lay there nestled under the Night Fury's outstretched wing, feeling dazed.
The Gigantamax Coalossal let out a triumphant roar.
Blinking the stars out of his vision, Hiccup weakly managed to sit up, but that was all he was able to do. Even if he hadn't hit his head upon crash-landing, he and Toothless were quickly being surrounded by the Gigantamax Centiskorch's body segments.
Snivels saw all of this from above and gasped with horror when his two best friends in the whole universe were taken out of commission. Quickly, he rallied the other Go-Getters, and together, they gathered into a formation in preparation for one all-out assault to get Hiccup free.
"We're on our way!" Snivels yelled down to his fallen comrades. He gripped Verne's white fur and prepared to bring the Noivern into a dive. The giant Pokémon were closing in, the Centiskorch curled around them closely enough to put a stop to even their smallest struggles. Toothless growled, and Hiccup raised his hands, but neither of them moved.
The sound of crackling flames reached their ears, and the two captives turned their heads up to face the Coalossal, whose glowing eyes glinted madly as he prepared another Max Flare to make the killing strike.
"FIRE IT UP!"
A collection of voices from above made the Gigantamax Pokémon pause, and they looked up to see two Noivern, a Deadly Nadder, a Razorwhip, a Grapple Grounder and a Poipole rushing forward at top speed. The pair of Sound Wave Pokémon opened their jaws and delivered a combined Dragon Pulse powerful enough to blow the Coalosal, as well as the Centiskorch, completely off of its feet.
In that instant, Hiccup pulled himself up onto Toothless's back and the Night Fury took off into the air in record time. But instead of escaping, Hiccup swerved Toothless around and joined his friends in one final assault.
"Fire at will!" he commanded.
In the next few seconds, every team member present launched their own unique attacks - Toothless's plasma blast, Snivels's Leaf Storm, Stormfly's spines, Blaze's Flamethrower, Windshear's spines, Ninjark's Water Shuriken, Buck's pulse blasts, and Adhesive's Sludge Bomb.
The impact made both the Centiskorch and the Coalossal topple over. There was a flash of reddish-purple light, and the two Pokémon's sizes drastically decreased. Just moments later, a perfectly normal Centiskorch and Coalossal were lying passed out on the forest floor.
Only then did the Go-Getters leave, but not after making sure that the two Pokémon were still alive and breathing after what they'd just been through.
Stoick the Vast was waiting for them by the time they arrived at the academy early the next morning. While the others checked on their dragons (and Gustav complained about not being allowed to participate in the mission), Hiccup filled his father in on what had gone down.
"So...there were two Pokémon?" Stoick asked, once he was done.
"It's called Gigantamax," his son confirmed. "We've only just heard about it, and we don't know everything."
"Ah," Stoick replied, nodding in understanding. "Well, I'm glad you all made it back safely."
He bent down to give his son a quick hug and subsequent pat on the head, then he left to begin his Chiefly duties for the day.
For a few minutes, the arena was quiet and content as the Go-Getters fed their dragons some breakfast and checked them over for any possible injuries. They'd bring Amber, Kickin' Hawk, and the rest up to speed on what had happened once they arrived for training.
In the silence, Gustav timidly walked up and cleared his throat, catching the attention of the older trainers. Upon seeing his expression, the teens seemed to sense what he was going to say, and frowned slightly with worry.
"I'm sorry for not listening to you and putting myself in danger," he apologized humbly, hanging his head. "I guess I'm not in the Dragon Academy, huh?"
"No," agreed Hiccup. "At least, not for a while."
Gustav looked up, confusion in his eyes.
"You're not in the academy, but you will be," Astrid explained. "You're suspended for a month. We discussed it on the way over."
"That means no flying," said Blaze. "You can keep 'Fanghook' around, but you're nowhere near ready to fly on him."
"And," Snivels added lowly, "If you pull just one more stunt like the one from last night, I will personally cart you over to the Great Hall and hang you up on the ceiling by your undergarments!" He grabbed the Larson boy by his shirt and glared at him dead in the eye. "Is that clear?"
Nervous, Gustav squeaked, "Uh-huh, yeah."
The Servine released him. "Good. Now get out!" He pointed a finger toward the exit.
Gustav finally came to his senses and put on a more somber expression. Perhaps sensing this, Fanghook walked over and gave his new rider an encouraging nudge. It was this simple gesture that made Gustav realize that it wasn't all bad – he just needed to have patience if he wanted to be a true member of the Dragon Riders, and in the meantime, he still had Fanghook to take care of.
Sanzaru sulked behind the boy as he rode his new dragon out of the arena. What am I, chopped liver? the Darumaka asked himself.
Snivels then turned to Frida, who was standing by nervously with Pincher. "And as for you," he started.
"You don't have to say it," the Arachne lookalike said sadly. "I disobeyed orders, too. I should have stayed home like you told me to."
"True," Snivels said, "But I praise initiative, which you showed when you recognized the trouble and went to act upon it. And you've proven that you're capable of learning from your mistakes, and that you can follow clear and reasonable orders." He smiled. "Therefore, it is with great honor that I officially name you Junior Go-Getter in training."
The sadness cleared from Frida's eyes, to be replaced with pure excitement and a generous amount of hope. The combination made her face beam brighter than the sun. She hadn't thought it would be possible – not after what she did last night – but she was going to be trained as a Go-Getter!
"You realize, however, this means you have to study," Hiccup cautioned the little brunette, holding out the Book of Dragons.
Frida saluted and replied, "Yes, sir!"
"And help take care of the chores around the academy," Astrid added, holding a shovel used for cleaning out the dragon cages.
To her credit, Frida didn't even flinch. "Not a problem at all! I help with chores all the time at home! Uh, ma'am."
"Please don't call me that," said the blonde.
The young girl shrugged. "It was either that or 'Hiccup's girlfriend'."
After sharing an awkward look with the aforementioned male, Astrid confessed, "He's not my boyfriend."
Frida lowered her salute and looked wonderfully sad. "He isn't?"
At this, Astrid kneeled down to match the girl's height. "Can you keep a secret?" she asked.
"Sure," said Frida, walking up to her. "What is it?"
After making sure there was no one else nearby that might overhear, the former Hofferson leaned in and whispered in Frida's ear, "He's my husband."
The ten-year-old brunette's eyes went wide, her smile as wide as it could go. "Okay, that is the best secret EVER!"
It was a new day on Berk – and with it came the first member of the special Junior Go-Getters class at the Dragon Academy!
The forest was quiet that morning.
A little too quiet.
Coal's rocky joints groaned as he sat up, clutching his temple. "Do I have a killer headache."
"How do you think I feel?" asked Sizzle, stretching her segmented body as long as it would go.
The two then noticed they were sitting in a very decimated forest. "What happened here?"
The Coalossal scratched his head. "Last thing I remember was falling asleep in my mountain cave."
"I was patrolling my turf," Sizzle said, "I saw this flash of red lightning, then these weird voices started speaking to me...and that's it."
Coal pushed himself up onto his feet. "Maybe we should get out of here before whatever happened starts back up again."
"I heard something like this happened to Snapper," the Centiskorch said. "Last I saw him, he said he was heading out to find the Expansion."
"The Expansion?" Coal repeated. "I thought that was one of those tall tales for entertaining prevolves."
Sizzle whipped one of her flames at him. "You believe what you want, but I'm going to find them." Then she scurried away on her many legs.
Coal stared after her for a minute, thinking. Then he steeled himself and lumbered after her, calling, "Wait for me!"
Neither of them noticed a ten-foot-long, skeletal, draconic Pokémon hiding herself amongst the remaining trees in the clearing, staring after them. Decade had been searching every corner of the archipelago for her father, but found no trace of him. She didn't think it would be that hard, Millennium was much too big to hide in many places. But Eternatus were known for being elusive when they needed to be.
Decade looked back toward the academy, where she knew Buddy would be. Part of her wanted to fly back to him, but she didn't want to bring him into the middle of her family drama. She couldn't stop thinking about the Silvally, he was by far the most interesting creature she'd ever seen. She wasn't quite ready to admit that she had a crush on him, but she was enchanted by how odd and caring he was.
Don't worry, she thought in his direction. I'll be back soon, I promise.
She took off flying after Sizzle and Coal, keeping a leisurely pace to remain far enough back so they couldn't see her.
If she could find the Expansion, maybe they'd be able to help. Not just her, but her friends as well.
How many of you forgot about Decade?
I wanted Gustav to be properly punished for his disobedience and impulsiveness, but nothing too harsh. Hopefully the threat of being hung up by his underpants is enough to keep him in line. Well, for a while at least.
Because you're probably wondering why Sizzle and Coal have no memories of the incident, let me tell you that they may not have been the ones in control while they were Gigantamaxed...
And I do not own Pincher. He appears in the mobile game Titan Uprising.
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