"There's an entire string of disappearances linked to a recent event in Canada. I'm not saying it's a big deal, but it's worth looking into." Hiccup argues across the vast dinner table to the large figure who sat at the other side, a whole turkey being half eaten before both of them.
Stock sighed softly. "Son what if something happens here while we're gone? That's on our heads then."
"Then call in the Force!!" He shouts back, all of his frustrations being released as he launches to his feet. "An entire town shaken by a little for virtually exploding then dying and that's not worth our attention- or anyone's attention?!" He asks as he looks to his father, who stood up then.
"I'm not saying that. I'm just concerned with our city."
"Dad you need to let it go, it was eight years ago.." He clutched his fists tight, knuckles nearly turning white as he did this. He couldn't believe his father would be so careless in the face of a situation like this.
"I left the Force for a reason.. I can't allow anything else like that to happen here." Is the man's reply as he turns away from the dinner table, making a move to leave.
"But anywhere else it's fine?" Hiccup asks , moving to follow behind as soon as he sees the man ready to go.
"I...no son I just."
"No way. I'm not gonna stand by while this happens. I refuse!" He shouts as his father moves to a stop, turning to him once again.
"You can't be a hero and just ignore all the cries for help, boundaries be damned!" Hiccup continued, hoping to get his point across finally.
"Fine!! Then go!!" Stock exploded, his rage shaking the foundation of the mansion as his foot stomped into the floor, leaving a small crater.
"I will.. I'm not going to let this go on." Hiccup replies as he walks out of the room, his father's voice belting out.
"Then do it! You're fired!!"
A brief pause halted all of his movements then, Hiccup stopping to take in the words that just escaped his father's lips.
"F-fired?" He asked himself, the words leaving his mouth slowly and in a soft tone. He shook them off and carried on to his bedroom, not staying or even looking to see as Stoick reeled from what he'd just said, not fully meaning it at all.
But it seemed it was too late, his son wouldn't talk to him after that he just knew it.
He'll talk in the morning.
Or so he thought. By sunrise, Hiccup had left the manor and was on a private jet set for Alberta, Canada.
As the young man stared out of the window into the clouds, the moment he realized he needed to be his own man replayed in his head over and over again.
"Fired… hmph." He muttered as he opened his laptop, pulling up a video chat log and calling someone he knew he could rely on for advice in the moment.
A few rings later and he was met with the blonde mustaches image of his fathers oldest and best friend, Gobber. Known to most as the Bionic hero , Forge.
"Hey Gobber." He said, watching as the man's expression twisted to that of a look of concern.
"Just spoke to ya old man. Now why ave ya gon and run off like that?" He asked, gettin straight to the point and watching as Hiccup shook his head.
"Restrictions. Paranoia… a lot honestly. He's holding on, he needs to let go Gobber. I know mom died during one of his missions with the Force, but I made peace with that. I blamed myself at first, I blamed him. But I realized I was wrong. I'm not gonna allow that to stop me from doing my job."
" 'Iccup you're head mechanic for your father's company."
" Not that job. Not that job at all. With my powers I feel like I can be much more than just a mechanic. I can research more, learn more and do better. I- I'm gonna become a detective." The young man replies, getting an eye roll in return from his Godfather , who was assuming this to be some sort of rebellion.
"You? A detective? I thought you disliked the law?" He asked as Hiccup looked towards the clouds once again.
"I do but sometimes you have to work with those you dislike. I've been studying the needed training and everything, as far as that goes I'll get through it with flying colors." He says, a small smile arising upon his face.
"I know you will lad, but please just call Stoick. He has a lot to say." Gobber looked at him with a look of sorrow, hoping to appeal to his greater sense of judgement.
"Eh. Maybe when I come back." He says, moving to end the video call there. He'd figure things out later, but for now his main focus was on this case in Canada.
He sat back in his seat, opting to call his best friend Frank. Frank always knew what was best, despite him being distant due to his studies at MIT.
He knew no matter what, their friendship would remain strong despite this.
(Safehouse- Now)
The Immortals watched on the computer monitor as several black SUVs pulled up in the alley outside. A few SWAT vehicles followed suit as several armed men burst from the vehicles, weapons drawn and ready to go.
"We've been breached!!" Eret shouts as his skin glows a neon green, his metallic skeleton showing beneath it all and giving the appearance of a green version of the Human Torch with a skeleton glowing free for all to see.
"Dude you can transform?" Gustav asks as he pulls his mask over his nose and mouth, drawing his practice sticks and looking at Eret who have a shrug.
"I don't use this form often, looks weird as shit." He responds as Astrid nods while putting her mask on.
"Agreed, you look like a toy skeleton with a green flashlight shining behind it." She comments while taking flight, Heather and Hiccup turning off the computers after clearing all of their information and sliding several flash dries into their belts.
"Back exit, be quick with it. Cami we need evac of some of the gear." The Night Fury says to his friend, watching as the Typhoon nodded.
"I can move it but we need a new location and soon!" She replies as she picked up several weapons from a rack nearby.
"The Den, get it there. We'll leave the computers behind, they may have been tracked." He says as he looks to his minicomputer, watching as the men approach the garage door outside and prepare to enter.
He rushes to his Nightcycle, starting it up as Heather hopped onto her own motorcycle and did the same.
"We'll rally at the den." He says as Astrid and Eret take flight towards the back exit, Gustav throwing his hands up in frustration.
"Okay did I miss the briefing on Eret's powers or something?!?" He asks as he rushes to Hiccup, hopping onto the back of the motorcycle as they take off.
Within a few seconds, the safehouse was cleared just in time for the door to open up. As the police chief walked into it , he let out a groan of frustration.
"Grab those computers, see what we can find in them."
(The Den)
The heroes sat in the Den , carefully surveying the streets of Dragon's Edge as Hiccup paced back and forth.
"The masked man. He did this, he had to have tipped them off." He says as Eret looks at an X-Ray device on a table. He passes it over his body and waits for a scan of his chest to appear, watching as a scan of his body came into view.
"Alright and I'm good." He says, looking st the small radioactive core built into his chest and checking to ensure it was still in a safe mode.
The others questioned this, but then began to ignore it as Heather walked to the computers, opening a new app on one.
"I'm gonna see if I can hack into the DEPD servers, maybe their cameras too. See what I can find."
Hiccup nodded as he heard this and sat down in his chair, finally allowing a sigh to release as he did so.
"I can't believe this. We need to find this guy once and for all." He said, watching as Toothless walked over to him and licked his face. This brought a smile back onto the Auburn haired man's face..
"Easy Toothless." He said as he began to pet the dog. The dog panted softly, then ceased as his ears perked up.
Hiccup did the same, striking to attention and turning towards the back corner of the Den.
"Show yourself." He said, drawing one of his shuriken out of his belt and watching as a dark figure moved from the shadows.
"Like what you've done with the place." He said, the same masked man from last night making his presence known to the Immortals.
It was nearly instant, the man finding himself pinned to the wall by Typhoon as The others rushed over.
"You're that weirdo psycho mask guy!" She shouted as she looked into the cracked lense of his helmet.
"Psycho? No way am I psycho. I'm just...enlightened." He says , using this as an opportunity. A second later, Typhoon began to seize up and fell to the floor, Windshear rushing to her side.
He looked at the dark haired woman for a moment, seemingly lost but quickly snapped out of it as a fist was launched his way.
He ducked beneath the Night Fury's strike and moved to counter with a palm strike to his chest, which failed.
Night Fury slid aside and brought his left leg down into the man's right ankle, bringing him to one knee before him.
"Who the hell are you?!" He shouted into his face, rage having built up in the past two days finally releasing.
The man's response brought a frown to the hero's face, as he released a cocky chuckle.
"I'm just a guy doing what's right. And ya know, fucking with you guys along the way." He replied , watching as Night Fury went to slap him and grabbing onto his wrist.
He pulled Night Fury his way, sweeping his leg from beneath him to bring him down to the floor before getting into a mounted position on top of him.
He lifted a fist upwards, which was quickly struck with a small bolt of lightning. He lurched forward and went into a combat roll before popping to his feet and taking a defensive stance as Stormfly approached.
Gustav and Nightlight looked on as they dragged the unconscious Typhoon to a safer area, the medical area to be exact.
Windshear stood by Astrid's side, drawing her razor whip and preparing for the worst. She stared the man down, and noticed a brief drop of his guard upon seeing her.
This brief drop was noticed by Hiccup as well, and he wasted no time sweeping his legs and popping to his feet before slamming his left foot onto the center of the man's back to keep him down.
"I've got a lot of questions to ask you pal." He says, driving his heel into the man's spine with enough force to crack cement. The man groaned in pain as this happened, taking up a stance on his hands and knees.
"Cut it out.." He began, leading hiccup to add a bit more pressure and yell at him "TALK!!" The venom behind his words being able to be seen even through his masked face.
The others merely watched as the interrogation began, Eret and Gustav attempting to resuscitate Cami as best they can. The woman's hyperactive body seemed to carry the controlled shock from the man's strange disk weapon better than even Hiccup.
And that was not good.
"I'm here to give you a fair warning… this place is compromised and it may or may not be because of that human microwave over there." He says, bringing an arm up to point at Eret.
"Pardon?" He asked as he began to make his way towards them. "The bloody 'ell are you on about?" He asks him.
"Your old boss… he had a tracker out into you , dumbass. And they've been looking for you like crazy." He says through strained words, the pain upon his back becoming a bit more overwhelming than he expected.
Hiccup looked to Eret, then to the man once again. "How do you know this?" He asks as he forced the man down a bit further.
"B-because I've been after him too. I used their systems to track him to you guys…" he replied, Hiccup grunting softly as he began to remove a bit of the pressure.
"And why are you after him?"
"To kill him obviously." He replies , quick and straight to the point. "Bastard deserves t for what he and his bosses did to me…" he says, taking a deep breath for a moment.
Hiccup shook his head "You were one of their experiments too…" he said, not expecting what came next.
The men rolled aside, lept to his feet and grabbed Hiccup , swinging around his taller form to lock him into a one armed choke hold from behind.
He slid a hand into his holster drawing one of his sidearms and pointing it to his head."I've been through a lot of shit. DEEP shit, and that fucker over there is one off the people who put me through it. I will have my revenge." He says, anger arising in his tone as he pressed the barrel to Hiccup's masked head.
"I REFUSE to let him escape me. I am going to end him here and now, and then when his boss gets here I'm putting him in a bag and sending them both upstream." He shouts into his ear , watching his movements and his friends movements.
"Let him go!!" Windshear shouts as she approaches, stopping as the man looked at her. "Stay there or I end him too." He says, pressing the barrel as deep into Hiccup's head as he could.
Hiccup kept a calm demeanor throughout it al", as his mask attempted to scramble the man's vocal disguise and find his true voice. So far it was working in patches, and what he heard was somewhat familiar.
"Look I don't wanna hurt him or you, but so help me GOD I will if it means killing that limey bastard over there!" He shouts to her, watching as she smirked.
"Oh I doubt some two bit street thug like you can do any real damage to us. You sure did good last time...not." She commented as the man's rage began to peak. The man's helmet lit up orange, the outline of the design on it firing off a blast of orange heat energy her way.
She cartwheeled out of its way and launched her razor whip, nailing him in the shoulder with it and causing him to drop his weapon. As soon as it hit the floor, Hiccup grabbed his arm and launched himself forward into a front flip, dragging the man along and slamming him into the floor with it.
He rolled over and got into a mounted position on top of him, wailing into his helmet and cracking the lenses even further. The man's heat attack seemed to draw a good bit of power from the helmet , as the orange glow soon died down.
Within a few punches, the helmet had dented slightly and the man grunted in pain as he attempted to gain an advantage once again. He managed to draw a small explosive from Hiccup's belt and set it off right in between the both of their bodies.
The blast sent hiccup flying back and left the man's helmet with nearly irreparable damage. His eyes showed clear as day now, as did part of his nose and mouth.
He slowly got to his feet, panting as he gripped his bleeding shoulder and looked to the heroes. "I led them here on purpose. I worked with Drago so that I could get you Eret, and when he gets here the grand finale will begin. Just you, me and him- no one else needs to get involved."
"You got us involved in it!!" Hiccup shouted angrily as the man shook his head. " I didn't mean to… but I had to do what I had to do. Shaking you guys off any way possible was included in doing that.." he states as he grunts in pain.
"For what it's worth...I'm sorry Hiccup… but I can't let him live after what he did to me."
"Okay slow the hell down. Who are you anyways?" Gustav asks as he steps forward, the boy having grown annoyed at the confrontation and watching his mentor get blown up.
"Who am I!? I'm the man that was dragged from his grave to be an experiment!! The man that Drago and Eret's boys poked and prodded until he burst back to life! I'm the man who's peaceful slumber was interrupted by a group of selfish bastards!!" He says, ripping the helmet off of his head
"I'M SNOTLOUT JORGENSON!!" He shouts, finally allowing his face to be revealed for all to see, hair flowing free as his stubble ridden chin displayed a few scars.
The whole room went dead silent, Eret even allowing his mouth to drop as he looked at the man, shaking his head slightly.
Hiccup stumbled forward, attempting to find the right words for the moment as he pulled his mask off. "S-snot…" he muttered to himself.
Heather shook her head as her eyes began to well up with tears, Astrid and Gustav's shocked expressions never once leaving their faces.
"Snot…" heather began as she walked up to him, analyzing his face.
Hiccup too began to cry as he saw this, running towards the man with a fist held high. He wanted to punch this twisted image, hit it til it stopped making him feel so dark inside. But as he connected with the man, he found himself instead hugging him.
"I-im so sorry…" he muttered as his cousin slowly hugged back .
"It's not your fault…" Snot replies , staring at Heather who rushed to hug him as well. Eret's eyes never left the scene before him, even as he carefully approached the three.
"I swear I didn't know he'd done that to you. I didn't know I just thought-"
"Thought I was just another of those innocent people they just kidnapped!?!" He asked with a shout as he broke from his hug to make his way over to Eret.
"I...yes…" was all he could say, as he watched the shorter man approach. He didn't even move to stop what came next, for he knew what to expect. He was hit with full force, feeling his nose breaking beneath snotlout's heavy hand.
He dropped to his knees and looked up, being met with a sharp knee to the chest that sent him onto his back, Snotlout then drove his foot into the man's chest and began to stomp down onto it.
Eret coughed slightly at this, but never moved to stop him despite knowing he could. The man's attack just continued with a barrage of punches nailing him in the face as he thought it to be over.
"You ruined me! I was fine! I was at peace! YOU BASTARDS RIPPED ME FROM THE AFTERLIFE AND THRUST ME INTO MONTHS OF SLAVERY AND CONFUSION! I didn't even know who I WAS for three whole months!!" his words spewed from his mouth with venom, the look of contempt upon Eret's injured face never once leaving, even through this assault.
"I didn't know that was you...I didn't know what had happened to you Scott...I never read news, or even followed events closely, and I sure didn't watch his experiment on you. I know I trained you, and I beat you and for that I apologise." Eret speaks, trying his best to appeal to the angered man, despite knowing he'd earned this attack.
The others merely looked on, never moving to stop them.
"I know what I did was wrong, everything I did was wrong...but that's why I'm here. I'm trying to make amends for the things I've done in my past, and it's damn near impossible to do so.'' he says, Snotlout'' bringing a hand to his throat and clutching it carefully, glaring into Eret's eyes.
"I don't care about your little road to redemption. I care about my life, and the things you did to me and other people. You don't deserve to live, God should've taken you off this Earth a long time ago!"
"I KNOW THAT!!" Eret screamed through strained breath. Snotlout's grip loosened slightly upon hearing this, a look of bewilderment arising onto the man's face. "I was supposed to have died fourteen years ago!! But it didn't work.." he said with a grunt.
"Mildew did this to me..when I was only fourteen. I never wanted this life, I WAS THRUST INTO IT JUST THE SAME!" He said, his body slowly gaining it's green glow as he removed Snotlout's grip and rose to his feet. He'd tried his best to refrain from attacking him, take the beating he'd earned. But he couldn't, not after hearing that.
"I watched my parents die in a car crash, a crash that should've killed me too. But instead I was taken by some men in white pretending to be paramedics and slapped and strapped down onto a lab table. All for some creepy old dude to cut me open and replace parts of my skeletal structure that didn't even need replacing…" he said, his bright form taking over now, metallic skeleton showing through his synthetic skin.
"THIS ISN'T EVEN MY REAL SKIN!!" he shouts as the energy flares around his body In the form of green flames. "So don't ever tell me that i shouldn't be here, because Lord knows that I know that!" He says as the flames die down, his skin returning to it's natural color after a moment.
The whole room had gone silent at this point, everyone just staring at the two during their confrontation, mixed emotions filling the air quickly. Hiccup moved , standing in between the both of them.
"You both have something against Drago, he's your common enemy here. So let's try to get him before going after each other huh? I don't care what you two do after we bring him in, but until then you both need to cool it." He said, taking control of the situation as though it were less than it actually were. This felt somewhat like a smack in the face to Snotlout , who scowled at his cousin and lurched back slightly.
"Cool it? Work with him? Are you insane?!! Do you know what HE has done to people? To me?" He asks with a shout as his anger begins to rise once more, Astrid walking over with an angry look upon her face now.
"I do. I was one of them. But I've heard him out, and I know he didn't want to do those things as much as they made him do them. You need to get that through your head, he's not the one who revived you nor is he the one that killed you. He was doing what he had no choice in doing." She says, jabbing a finger his way.
Eret looked towards the floor, a teardrop escaping his eye, which he quickly wiped away. "I thought I was free from Mildew's control all those years ago. I thought I was in charge...but that old bastard had more than one failsafe instilled within me." He says, looking to Snotlout as his hand glowed green, flames of the same color arising from his palm.
"The reactor in my chest, the thing that keeps me alive...he had a device to shut it down and reboot it at any given time…" he states, earning a look of confusion from Snot.
"And he used it alot…. I was legally dead about forty times throughout those years, lost what little control I'd managed to gain over him at the time.." the flames died down into his hand, the synthetic skin returning to normal as he looked to the opposing man.
"Drago and Mildew do that...they always have done that… I tried to figure it out, tried to gain control so no one else had to face the same fate and yet I failed- and became one of them against my will… I don't want to do that again.." he says as he turns on his heel and walks over to a chair , taking a seat.
Snotlout had a look of defeat upon his face now, dropping the stance he'd taken with a growl before dropping to his knees and slamming his fist into the hard floor repeatedly. "Dammit..dammit dammit dammit DAMMIT ALL!!" He screeched as he arose slowly to his feet.
"Now then..what was that you said about leading Drago here?" Hiccup asks after watching this small breakdown, and looking on as the darker haired man's eyes widened.
"I...I forgot.." he says, getting wild looks from everyone around him. Hiccup pulled his cowl over his face and shouted "THEY'RE HERE!"
His ears had picked up on the sound of heavy feet making their way towards their location, just a floor above them.
"We have to get out of here!" Astrid shouts as Gustav tries his best to resuscitate Camicazi, finally pulling the seizure causing disk from her body and watching as she jolted back to reality.
"Dear Bor that hurt." The speedster says as she clutches her head in pain, before looking around and quickly recovering. "What's going on?"
"We need to move out and now! Cami, take Gustav and Toothless and go upstairs, the sixth floor. Room 211- grab his mom and get them somewhere safe." Hiccup shouts over to her, causing Gustav to gasp gently.
"Wait let me help!!" He shouts over to his mentor, Hiccup shaking his head. "Help your mother!!" He says , nodding to Cami who nodded back and grabbed the teenager, much to his shouts of protest. The dog looked up to her, seemingly ready to growl at the stranger as she scooped him up as well.
"NO!!!" the voice carried out as the blur of the Typhoon took off from the area. Night Fury drew his bo staff and looked to Snotlout, who kept a stare onto the floor as he shook his head head.
"I was so wrong...I'm sorry Hiccup. I-"
"Save it for later. For now we have to-" a loud 'BOOM' resounded through the Den, debris being launched from the ceiling followed by a large burst of flame and ash. Several ropes dropped down into the hole that had been made, and some heavily armed men dropped down, immediately aiming at the heroes inside.
"Well….here we go…" Night Fury states as Nightlight enters his alternate form, Windshear and Stormfly taking up defensive stances as Snotlout loaded his Semi-automatic and took aim.
"Alright...Immortals ATTACK!" the cry was given and the heroes rushed towards the large group of Intruders.
(Elsewhere)
It was just another Friday evening, which ended the same as any other evening. He had a routine , a perfectly planned out schedule for each and every day and he followed it by heart.
6:35 A.M., wake up and get ready for the day. 7:55,drive into work and clock in for 8:00-always being a few minutes early. Work on breaking down firewalls and receiving/tracking intelligence from other organizations until lunch, which was at 12. From 1:00 to 7:00, do the same thing as before and finally head home at 7:15.
7:30, walk to front door of apartment and unlock it, a takeout menu tucked under his left arm as he carried his suitcase in his right. He would walk into the same, quaint and well kept apartment at the same time every night. He'd pet the same pitbull every night, as she awaited his return with an empty bowl and a wagging tail.
But tonight was different. Tonight he wouldn't be able to plop down onto his favorite, and only, brown leather sofa and flick on his 52 inch plasma screen TV. Tonight, as the lock to his door clicked and the knob turned to allow him entry into his abode, he found himself looking on in a mixture of shock and confusion as a dark class figure sat in his lounge chair, emerald colored eyes staring back at him under the light of his lamp.
"Hey Fish…" The Auburn haired man spoke up , after what seemed like an hour of silence. The blonde haired homeowner sighed as he tossed his suitcase onto the couch and began to approach the unmasked Night Fury, closing the door behind himself.
"Hiccup, what are you doing here? And what the hell happened?" He asked as he got a bit closer to him, examining his suit and the damage it had taken. There were mild burn marks on his forearms and lower leg areas, aswell as cuts going across his chest-and his symbol- and down the right thigh, leaving his recently healed skin exposed.
Smudges of blood laid on his cheeks and his forehead, with a few having been poorly wiped away recently.
"Alot...I need your help." Hiccup says as he looks up at his old friend. "Sorry about the factory by the way, I'm sure your dad was pissed." He says In reference to the event that led the police to put a warrant out for his arrest.
BOOM! Enter Fishlegs and Snotlout. Though I'm sure alot of you already knew who to expect behind that mask. Now then- I want you guys to pose some questions for me- I like your feedback and wanna get y'all some aswell.Ask away. Xoxo