Berk-Three Years Ago
The multi-colored fluorescent lights of Berk's most popular club, "Viking's Axe" flashed about rapidly as a crowd of bodies freely danced around the white tiled dance floor, the floor itself featuring bright purple lights that mashed well with the pink and blue dotted lights that rained down onto the floor from the ceiling.
The air smelled of a heart mix of alcohol, expensive perfume, cheap cologne and even cheaper people. The atmosphere was live, a large area full of people all seeking to get out the stress of the past work week. Behind the crowds that danced around the floor and the lines that moved about the Bartender's area laid a row of tables and booths.
In one both sat a bright eyed figure, one whose finger loosely danced around the rim of a glass of tequila. He smirked as his eyes panned across the floor, locking onto a dark haired figure. He stood up, grabbing at his drink and making his way across the dance floor and to the bar, where he slyly slid into the seat next to her.
"Come here often?" He asks as the woman turns to him with a smirk of her own. "Just passing through." She says as she gives him a look over.
"You wanna get outta here? Have some real fun?" He asks as she looks down to her own drink, then back up to him. He wore a leather jacket over a nice blue button up shirt and some black jeans, she wore nothing more than a silver rhinestone studded dress with a gray leather jacket on.
"Thought you'd never ask." She replied as she began to leave the area with the Auburn haired figure. The two stepped outside of the club and headed over to a vehicle nearby- A black 1967 Corvette Stingray. The man clicked a button, unlocking the vehicle for the two of them to get in.
Not even thirty seconds passed before they are driving throughout the streets of Berk. "So...you gonna tell me why you're here?" He asks as she moves a strand of hair from over her eye, checking her make-up in a compact. "I'm an investigative journalist. Investigation is a big part of my job, Hic." Heather replies before snapping the compact shut and turning to Hiccup, who simply smirks.
"So what's the big scoop this time?" He asks as he rounds a corner sharply, driving into an alley. The alley seemed narrow in the night shade, but was more than spacious enough to fit the vehicle as it weaved it's way around another corner and turned , stopping at a garage. Hiccup looked at the dashboard of the vehicle and tapped it twice, a computer screen soon appearing. From there he inputted a code to open the garage they'd pulled up in front of.
After driving in and parking, both of them exited the vehicle with Hiccup locking it behind them. "Drug trafficking- mainly coming from these guys known as the Grimborns. I'm trying to get deeper detail on em… was gonna meet with one of their informants and try to get some info out of him, but the bastard took off from the club…" Heather says as the two of them go up a staircase leading to a small room.
The room was indeed small, nothing more than a metal desk with a computer set-up in the corner as soon as you open the door, a small bed in the back of the room with dark red sheets and two white pillows on top, and a door leading elsewhere about four feet from the desk.
Hiccup pulled out the chair behind the desk and began to do a quick search. "Grimborn...sounds familiar.." he says as Heather walks into the next room over, a light flickering on as she replied from inside. "It should, the Grimborn brothers were arrested years ago under drug charges but were let off the hook. I think they paid off the DA."
"Not surprising." Hiccup replied as he began to transfer digital copies of their criminal records and mugshots onto his minicomputer. He watched as Heather exited the room, dressed now in a nomex/Zylon reinforced black and dark gray suit.
"Stealth suit- forgot that's the only one you had here." He says as she slips the black hood over her head, her eyes showing clear as day as she pulled a black mask over her mouth and nose. "Concealment is key.." she replies as he nods and makes his way into the room.
He soon returned wearing the same outfit, looking over and giving a nod before rushing through the garage entrance nearby.
The garage was slightly different, housing Hiccup's car and three armored motorcycles beside it, all a dark red color. He rushed towards the nearest one, leaping over the top of his car and going into a tuck in mid-air then landing on the motorcycle.
He watched as Heather simply walked around and got on, rolling her eyes at him. "Show off much?'' she asks as he revs up his motorcycle, nodding and winking. "All the time." He replies as he takes off, the garage door opening in an instant.
Heather chuckled as she took off behind him. The two soon found themselves pulling up outside of a warehouse in the downtown Berk area, Hiccup removing his helmet and looking up as Heather did the same. "This is gonna be a quick job..' Hiccup says as the two head towards a ladder leading to the roof.
Inside were nothing but hired guns moving crates into shipping containers. Neither of the vigilantes could tell what they contained, but they made sure to check later on. Hiccup slid open a ventilation shaft and motioned to Heather to come over, watching as she slid down.
He then slid down behind her. The two slowed their descent into the vent shaft, dropping down slowly as they held onto the sides of the vent. Silence is always key- easy to keep silent with rubber boots soles.
The two made their way through the shaft slowly stopping as they reached another vent and peer down into the room below. Hiccup watched as the men continued their work, spotting a table carrying a disassembled M16 lying there. "Autos… either selling or buying em.." he says as Heather begins to open the panel.
"Alright...let's take em out nice and quick." She says, Hiccup giving a nod off approval. And with that, they dropped down and got to work.
The first wave of men was easy, twelve guys with automatic weapons aimed to kill. Simple misdirection led to about two fire extinguishers getting burst open and a cloud of fog clouding everyone's vision. Hiccup and Heather watched as the room became more visible, about four more men appeared from a pair of double doors near the back of the warehouse. Each one carrying some type of mechanized gauntlets- large and seemingly ready to do some work.
The gauntlets glowed a bright blue and they all shot off, firing bursts of energy at the heroes who swiftly lept out of the way. Hiccup looked at the crater left in their place then at the men. "The fuck?!?" he shouted as he looked around the area for a weapon to combat them with.
Heather launched herself into the corner nearby, grabbing at a broom and breaking the handle in half over her knee. In a sharp and nearly unseen turning motion , she launched one of the broke ends at one of the men, hitting him into the center of his head just as he went to charge another attack. This caused his to lurch back, firing a burst of energy into the ceiling above them.
The ceiling shook slightly as small debris rained down around the men, hitting them and bringing them to the ground. Hiccup nodded as he saw this. "Risky, but it worked out well." He says as he rushed over to the men, carefully removing one of their gauntlets to inspect them closely.
"This is….this is definitely something new…" he says as the gauntlet begins to glow blue once again- then stops. The color fades and a computerized voice speaks "Scanning For User…..User down….User has Failed…"
"...what?" He wondered as Heather had begun to approach, her eyes narrowing as she locked onto the gauntlets. They had begun to flash red. Her eyes then widened as she grabbed Hiccup and turned, leaping over the railing behind them and causing them both to land on the ground below just as the gauntlets exploded- the men's body's being destroyed in the collective blast.
He looked over at this, the explosion alone was enough to leave him shaken. But those men were dead now….and all because he'd tampered with their gear. Hiccup rushed to his feet, moving towards the area. As he made his way over, he found himself coming to a nearly immediate stop as he took in the sight before him.
Nothing left but a large ball of flames and four skeletons- the men had been incinerated. Hiccup stood there, eyes wide and mouth dropped nearly to the floor as Heather approached him.
"I….I….oh my Thor….what did I do…." He muttered as he approached the flames, the smoke arising to the ceiling and setting off the smoke detectors and sprinklers. As the water rained down, the flames soon died out.
Not too long until there was nothing left but the burned- nearly ashified- skeletons of the men. Hiccup almost vomited behind his mask as he looked at this, Heather placing a hand onto his shoulder in support. "Don't to dare blame yourself…." She said, hugging her friend.
But Hiccup was stuck- unable to move and internally, unable to move on as he continued to stare into one of the blackened skulls that laid before him. It seemed the more he wished to look away, the less he could move to do so….this image had burned it's way into his mind..
(Parkway Alley…..now)
Night Fury stood on a rooftop, staring down into the alleyway below. The scent of Chinese food from the restaurant across the street was more than strong enough to spread throughout, especially with his senses. His ears perked up beneath his mask, turning towards the entrance of the alley and watching as the blonde haired officer made her entry- dressed in a blue and white Nike tracksuit and some white and yellow track shoes.
He popped an eggroll into his mouth, swiftly chewing and swallowing the food before jumping off of the roof and landing on the dumpster a few feet away. He looked as she jumped back in shock staring at him like he was a madman. "Why?!" She asked as he slid off of the dumpster, looking at the dent left behind for a split second, then over at her.
He simply gave a shrug in response. Astrid sighed "This is gonna be a long day, I can tell…." She said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Night Fury simply chuckled "Probably" he said, his voice modulator sounding brand new. Astrid noted that his masks lenses had also been repaired, the lenses glowing green once again.
"Alright…. First Lesson in control- getting to know your abilities." He says as he turns, walking down the alley. Astrid stood there for a moment, eyebrow raised as she questioned what to do next. She decided it be best to follow the vigilante, which felt odd given it was still daylight out.
She watched as he walked over to a garage door and inputted a code into the door, the door sliding upwards to let the two enter. "What the-" she began as she walked in behind him, looking around the area and finding what looked to be a bunker full of supplies, a training area full of dummies and a mat, a workout area with several racks carrying different weights and a bench press alongside a leg press, and a computer set-up nearby.
"This is one of Thu- my...safehouses." he says, looking over at her as the door slid shut swiftly behind him. "This is where we'll start our lesson… now then- like I said earlier." He begins as he moves down the stairs, hands moving to his neck as small metallic clicks could be heard. Soon his cap dropped down onto the floor behind him, and he walked over to the training area.
"You need to get to know your abilities… now when I first started doing this stuff, I was about ten years old. It took a while for all the information to sink in but at the same time, it was easy." He said, Astrid nodding as she listened- and soon rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, so real quick.. what the hell even is your ability? Cause all I've seen is stalking, beating people, surviving two story falls and being a dick." She says, tapping her left foot against the floor in a most impatient manner.
"Right...not many people know. I have enhanced senses, can hear and smell a good distance away- along with that my body is more...built for action so to speak? I have strong ligaments and muscle structure that can take certain amounts of damage and soon heal severe wounds...like if I were to get shot in the stomach- I remove the bullet and the organs would heal after about two hours. There be a bruise left over but ya know…"
He began, moving over to the computer nearby and logging in. He brought up what seemed to be an x-ray of a broken leg, which Astrid simply scratched her head at. "This is from when I broke my leg when I was ten. And this…" he said clicking to a new image- another x-ray of a perfectly healed leg. "This is from about an hour later.."
Astrid's eyes widened, then returned to normal as she took in this new information. {So that's how he survived….} She thought as flashes of the previous night played on throughout her head- the shattered lenses of his mask and the piercing eyes that stood behind them glaring at her, having taken a fall that would end a normal man's life with ease.
"I also have a bit of enhanced strength and enhanced reflexes. My main thing seems to be my endurance and agility… I'm basically one of those super soldier types..bit of a photographic memory... But my dad, Thunderdrum...he's waaay different. Thunderdrum has the strength to shake buildings. I wasn't that lucky...managed to get some of that strength for myself but barely enough to rival him." he says, a small smile creeping upon his face as he stares off into the floor.
The smile had faded away about as quickly as it had formed and he cleared his throat. "All of those don't seem like something that needs control, but my senses took a good bit of training to get used to. The same can be said in your case."
"You um….you seem to speak highly of Thunderdrum despite your...separati-"
"Don't...don't take that as speaking highly….I have no choice but to respect him, he's been in this for way longer and trained me…..it's all a matter of if he trained me right...I personally don't think so." He replies, cutting her off as he walks towards her.
"Now let's focus on control." He turns, pointing halfway across the room. "Hit that dummy in the chest, specifically in the chest."
"But I don't know how to use-"
"You will learn… now to help get you started, I wanna go based off of what I saw, and felt thank you very much, last night. Think angry thoughts. Pure anger should course through your mind…" he starts, walking around her and watching as she closed her eyes.
"What makes you angry? Is it the criminals of this city, tearing apart the place you call home? Is it the corrupt justice system, some of your own co-workers running with the low down and dirty?"
He stopped walking, and stood directly in front of her at that point. "Or is it me? A hero stepping into your turf and cleaning up the streets that you pledged yourself to cleaning? Does that just tear at your ego? That I, some random dude in a suit has set out to do your job better than you?!" At this point he was virtually shouting at Astrid, her eeys clenched shut as her body shook slightly.
"SHUT UP!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, firing a bolt of electrical energy towards Night Fury, who easily and swiftly slid beneath it, turning his chin upwards to watch where it hit.
The bolt hit the test dummy dead in the chest, burning a hole all the way through it. He lunged to his feet and looked over at it. "Damn….seems I was right all along."
Astrid chuckled at the damage she'd done. "I did that! Yes!" She said happily as Night Fury turned towards her. "You've got some control...it's emotion based. Let's see if we can make it more easy to use."
"What are you saying?" She asked, arms dropping to her sides now as he walked around her again. "I'm saying- we need to get your powers to work without an emotional trigger. We need to get you to full control."
Astrid's eyes twitched slightly as she heard this. This was gonna be a long day.
(Casual Transition)
Night Fury spun on his heel and swung the opposing end of his metal bo staff at Astrid's head, watching as the woman swiftly ducked below it and sent a hit at his left inner thigh using a wooden box staff he'd given her. He swiftly thrusts his arm back and his staff downwards to block it before slamming it upwards to throw off her guard.
With the guard turn he goes into a backwards spin, aiming the staff for the side of her neck. She responds to the attack with another block and moves to kick him in the back, easily avoided with him tumbling forwards into a kneeling position and cracking her right leg with his staff, sweeping the leg and bringing her to the floor.
"You're fairly good weapon wise. Needs more work though.." he says as he goes to his feet, offering a hand to help her up. She looks at his hand slaps it aside before pushing herself off of the ground. " How is THIS helping me with controlling my powers?!'' she shouted at him as he stood aside, both hands on the top of the staff which now stood in front of him.
"Bojitsu takes complete control of every part of your body. Everything must move and work in synch to perfect the art. The same can be said for using your powers. Everything in synch. I'm trying to segue into that through this...but I don't think it's working well…"
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock.." she replies as she tosses the bo staff aside and glares at him, arms folded across her chest in anger. "Best course of action is the emotional spectrum thing again.." he says as he collapses his own staff and sets it down on a rack nearby.
He walks past her and over to the testing area once again. "Hit the dummies, doesn't matter where. Just hit them. Use that anger again, same as usual and you'll be fine." With that being said, he turned to walk away
"Wait that's it?!? Just get angry?? You're not gonna say or do anything else to help??" She asked as he stopped and looked at her. "I've done what I can.." he says with a shrug as he walks away, heading to the workout area.
Astrid's eyes twitched as she heard this, then turned to the dummies. She sighed as she focused on her angriest memories. Flashes of everything she truly hated went throughout her mind as she did so.
As she opened her eyes, she found the energy had formed in her hands. She chuckled slightly as she sent it flying at the dummies- the burst from her left hand hitting one in the head and the other hitting the floor behind it.
"Dammit!"
Her shouts didn't go unheard. Night Fury had looked over into the area, watching momentarily before returning to his workout. He'd set up the bench press with 1,000 pounds of weight on both sides, and laid back as he prepared to bench a literal ton.
After doing about twenty repetitions, he set the weights back onto the proper rack and stood up, heading to the punching bag nearby. He slammed his fist into the oddly shaped bag, hearing a loud crunch. The punching bag had been filled with rocks- a Thunderdrum training style.
He sighed as he began to beat the bag heavily, stopping every few minutes to listen to the curses of Astrid in the background. He chuckled to himself slightly as he rounded the corner into the training area, watching her disintegrate the dummies even further.
He surveyed the surrounding area, seeing the damage she'd done outside of those, biting the inside of his mouth gently as he looked at each burn. "You hit the dummy a good bit."
"I did good enough…" she replied as he finally made his way over.
"Good enough isn't always enough. You have to aim, focus solely on your target, make sure the surrounding area is safe." He says, looking at the dummy which had been burned down to the metal stake it had been on.
"It's just a bit of outside damage"
"And it's too much!!" He shouted at her finally, turning to fully face her. "You hit...the target. No one else should have to get hit… nothing else.."
With that, the lesson for the day was to carry-on...until his computer blared with a loud alarm. He looked over at it, rushing over to check out the situation.
"Heist at The Edge Credit Union.'' he taps the computer, pinpointing the location as he rushed over, picking up his cape and reattaching it to his suit before hopping onto his motorcycle.
"...so do I ride on the back of that or…"
"No, you stay here, you practice. I got the bank." He says, revving up the engine. Astrid looks on, anger building once more. "I'm still a cop ya know."
"For now, your main focus is control. The bank heist is mine." He looked at the computer once again, seeing the video footage from the bank and noting the weapons being used. He'd seen before years ago.
He sped off from the safehouse, a back entrance opening for him as he did so. Astrid huffed as he left, her eyes panning over to a few glass cases containing some suits- landing on a black hooded suit with a half face mask in one.
She smirked at it.
(Casual Transition)
Night Fury positioned himself on the roof, peering into the Union from a skylight and watching as several masked men moved around the area. He noted they used power gauntlets, same as the ones he'd seen three years ago.
Flashes of that same night played throughout his head as he watched them, but he shut the memories out and slid open a panel in the skylight, dropping down into the center of the room.
"Stealth approach isn't gonna cut it here." He'd decided as he looked at the men, each one looking at him and then turning their gauntlets on him.
He lunged behind a large stone pillar to his left, drawing three of his V shaped shuriken and throwing them outwards into the center of the room.
The shuriken released a high pitched shriek, the same one he used in his suit to alert of his presence. The shriek increased in tone, bringing all five men in the area to their knees in pain.
He lept out, the sound being dulled to his ears as he lept towards one of them, slamming the end of his bo staff into the back panel of his gauntlet and sending a large electric charge into it to override it.
He then punched the man into an unconscious state . "Not happening again." He said with a smirk as he looked at the friend technology, then turned to the other men who were stumbling to their feet.
The shriek of the Night Fury had ceased. The men opened fire, bursts of energy flying the hero's way as he went into a swift sideways spinning motion to weave through them all.
As he came to his feet, he smirked once again before retracting his bo staff to a length of 3 feet and throwing it outwards at a 45 angle , hitting one of them in the head just as he moved to fire again.
The staff bounded back, as the other men fired at him again. The staff landed in his hand and expanded again, just as he lunged out of the way. "Now then, let's really test this out." He says as the staff expands in his hands to it's full 6 foot extension. He slides his thumb down the side, triggering a new reaction which caused two large panels to burst from the sides of the staff. "Riot shield!!" He shouted happily as the men fired again.
The bursts were blocked, but the shield dented and he was forced back slightly. He noted that the bursts had been sent elsewhere in the process.
{Reflection...good..} he thought as he rushed at them again, stopping to put up the shield again and refract a blast to another man, hitting him in the chest and sending him flying back. The groans of pain from his landing reassured him that the blasts were still just as weak as before.
He looked at the last two men and threw out another shuriken, hitting the center of one of the gauntlets as he did so. This jammed the device long enough for him to rush over and shoulder check him to the floor. As he went to deliver the final blow, the last man fired off at him.
He turned on his hell, riot shield halfway up and was sent onto his back. As he recovered from it, he looked at the two men as they lurked over him, gauntlets whirring with a charging sound and set on him.
"Well shit." He said as he brought up the riot shield again, taking the full force of the four blasts up close.
The shield was burned apart, staff part was damaged as well and wouldn't retract anymore. Night Fury himself was hit aswell, groaning as he attempted to move to his feet.
The men chuckled at his state. "Man you're slow huh?" One of them asked as the other checked his damaged gauntlet , ready to attack again. "Ya know maybe you shouldn't work alone little dragon. Better to have back up."
"He does." A feminine voice says, the men turning to see a blonde haired, blue eyed figure dressed in black standing about thirty feet away.
Astrid had arrived, dressed in the same stealth suit once worn by Heather, half face mask pulled over her mouth and nose to disclose her identity. "Step back from the weirdo."
"Alright to be fair, you look pretty weird yourself." One of the men noted as Astrid took a step forward.
She nodded slightly to the right. "That's fair.." she said before bringing her hands together and creating a shockwave to send the two men flying back. The wave ripped across the building, shaking a few pillars slightly and causing dust to fall from the ceiling.
As the men hit the floor, Night Fury rose to his feet and smirked. "You did it…" he said, looking behind him at the downed men.
Astrid giggled at that.
(Back at the Safehouse)
"These guys were working with pieces of technology stolen from Dragontech, a subdivision off Haddock Technology." Night Fury began, as he observed the now disassembled gauntlet that sat on s table in front of him.
"Haddock Technology? My friend Hiccup is the son of the CEO. Maybe I could ask if he knows anything." Astrid suggested, still wearing the stealth suit.
"He might" he replies, turning around in the rolling chair he'd been sitting in. He looked over at her. "So...you got control. This calls for celebration." He says as he walks over to a fridge in the corner, picking up two beers and handing one to her.
She smiled as she held it and popped it open, looking at the bottle for a moment before looking at him. "I'm...sorry." she said
He raised an eyebrow beneath his mask at this whilst drinking. "For?" He asked.
"Everything. The arguing….the threats. Trying to arrest you. I just..never trusted vigilantes. But seeing the things you do. And why you do them, not to mention how your lives are constantly on the line. It kinda knocked some sense into me there.."
"Astrid…" he began with a smile. "You wanna be a superhero don't ya?''
She faked a look of shock "Who , me? I mean. I could make it work. And I look amazing in this suit.. but."
"But nothing..you wanna do it.." he says as he goes to the computer, bringing up a bioscan of her body. "Bio-electrical Storm Manipulation.." he said, causing her to walk over.
"That's my power?" She asked as he nodded. "Cool…"
"You got control...maybe with more training you can get a hell of a lot further….but for one thing, blacks kinda my theme."
"Oh please, I was gonna take this suit and paint it either ways.." she replied
"And another thing...you'll need a cool name.."
Astrid paused for a moment, turning to look at the computer again. She read over the official term for her ability once again and smiled. "Stormfly." She said.
"Stormfly? We don't even know if you can fl-"
"Oh I can.. or at least I think...it should be easy...right?" she asked, feeling as confident as ever before.
Night Fury merely nodded and lifted his bottle "Well...here's to Stormfly."