Throk slid his book bag off of his shoulder and onto the floor beside his desk, his eyes moving from the bag and upwards as a voice called towards him. It was Mala, who he'd come to call a close friend within the short time he'd been attending the school. He gave a smile, wish she returned as she moved her hands into the pockets of her black leather jacket. "Feel like going to a movie after school?" She asks, Throk nodding .
"Definitely. I'll let Gustav k-"
"I meant just us, man." Mala said with a soft chuckle at his suggestion, Throk's eyes widening slightly in confusion for a moment. "Oh."
"Yeah...definitely." He finally confirmed. Mala smirked at him before giving a wink and walking to the back of the classroom. A few seconds later, Gustav walked up and took the empty seat before him, dropping his bag onto the floor before looking at Throk.
"What's up with the happy face?" He asks while pulling a pencil from his pocket and opening his notebook.
"I got a date tonight." Throk replied.
Immortal Manor
"We've had four more breakouts since our last confrontation with Viggo." Heather comments while typing away at the computer- Astrid, Hiccup, Snotlout and Eret standing behind her and watching each profile that popped up.
"That's Arthur Meldon- Gaslight." Hiccup commented at the first face to pop up. It was an African American male with a purple helmet on his head- the helmet based off of Gladiator times. "Enhanced endurability, flight, enhanced strength and toxic gas projection."
"He uses his gases to create poisons and hallucinations." Eret confirms as the next profile pops up. "That's Hotstreak. Speedster able to provide electrical charges from his body." The man had jet black hair which had been slicked back, along with a beard and mustache.
"He tried to kill Cami once- but failed when his body overloaded with energy." Astrid comments before moving her eyes over the next profile.
"Antonio Rosero- Blackout." Heather says with a soft sigh. "Leader of the Black Diamond Drug Cartel- solar energy manipulation. Can Bend light energy to form small black holes and project dark light from his hands."
Eret and Hiccup nodded upon hearing this, though Astrid looked on in shock. "He can form black holes? How he is not a Level 10 threat?" She asks as everyone looks to her.
"He's unstable. Barely able to control the black holes himself." Hiccup says as the final profile pops up. "You've gotta be shitting me." He says as he stares at the image.
On the screen was none other than Ryker Grimborn, Viggo's older brother.
"Makes sense I suppose." Eret commented before walking out of the room, followed by Heather.
Astrid and Hiccup lingered there for a moment, Hiccups emerald eyes locking onto the images that were on the screen . "He's got some kind of league of villains ready for us it seems." He says as she places a hand onto his shoulder.
"Are you ready for this?" She asks, looking him in the eyes now. He gave a curt nod as a response but was taken aback as she planted her hands onto his face
"I mean it...last time you...I almost lost you."
"But this time I'll be ready." He replies as he holds onto one of her hands and takes it into his own. "I promise you- this time Viggo is going down."
As they spoke, Ruff and Tuff made their entrance into the room. "We've got something. After Ryker was spring he left a trail- tracked him to a factor on the Upper West Side about three hours ago." Tuff said as Ruffnut moved towards the computer and began to type - the coordinates to the location appearing soon after.
"Alright. We've got em. Immortals, lets roll out!" Hiccup calls, pausing as everyone in the room simply stared at him
"What?" He asked after a moment- Astrid being the first to speak.
"So what, are we the Autbots now?"
He brought a palm to his face in subtle frustration, giving a sigh as they began to walk out of the room. "Just working on the catchphrase."
Factory
The Immortals had assembled with what they had- considering it was 11:55 in the morning, they were missing their youngest members- Fanghook and Changewing. Hiccup looked over who was present- Nightmare, Stormfly, Nightlight, Windshear, Typhoon and the Twins, who'd been more than willing to join them and replace the missing two.
Hiccup had outfitted them with some spare suits he kept in the Manor, though being the rowdy pair that they are, they changed the suits up a bit. Tuff had spray painted a lime green skull over the chest of his black form fitting Kevlar suit and added a black hood with a neon green hockey mask- a skull having been painted over that too.
Ruffnut had taken one of Heather's spare stealth suits- a black and white one (built similarly to the flight suits from X-Men: Apocalypse). She'd colored over the white linings with yellow and wore a black helmet, her hair having been tucked underneath it. The helmet was a simple design- with two eye slits. She too had painted a skull design upon it, this one in yellow.
"Alright so, what exactly are you guys supposed to be?" Snotlout asks while looking over the blade of his katana.
"The Terror Twins!" The two shouted happily, bumping heads with each other before continuing. "Barf-" Ruffnut said with a thumb pointed towards herself.
"And Belch!" Tuff said with a smirk beneath his mask as he juggled a few explosive balls Hiccup had given him.
"Barf and Belch. Creative." Hiccup said with a nod as he rolled his left shoulder gently, getting a look from Eret.
"You good to go mate?" The Brit asked with an air of concern. It had been weeks since Hiccup and Viggo's fight and Hiccup still didn't seem to be in top condition.
"I'm fine- let's just head in. And stop worrying so much guys- my healing factor is back on top!" He says with a hearty smile- one that leads his friends to believe him for the time being.
The door to the factory was pushed open almost as soon as he finished speaking, each hero wandering inside with their eyes and ears peeled- ready for the worst.
The factory was dark- the only lighting coming from Eret's body at this point. Hiccup's eyes darted across the floor as his mask entered its scanning mode- searching for all potential enemies and structural weaknesses.
"I got nothing so far." Hiccup called to the rest of the group, who had slowly trudged their way into the center of the building. Shutting down his masks vision, Hiccup took a brief turn to look at his teammates.
"It's emp-" he had begun, his words being cut off by the sounds of a wire snapping into place. As he'd look around they'd all see Astrid being dragged up towards the ceiling by her legs.
Everyone snapped to attention, guns being drawn and other weapons being readied at the immediate sounds of Astrid shrieking.
"What the hell?!!" She shouted as the lights in the factory came on, several figures looking over them from the overpass ahead
"The Immortals...we've been waiting." Said the grimly voiced Gaslight as he, Hotstreak, Blackout and Ryker Looked down upon them. The criminals wore super suits of their own- Gaslight wearing a black overcoat over dark green padded armor and camouflage pants, along with his helmet.
Blackout wore a black short sleeved Kevlar suit with white lines running down his sides, to his white boots. He also wore white gloves and had a white sun emblem on his chest, along with a white headpiece that shaped the outline of his face.
Hotstreak wore a suit that was quite the opposite to Typhoon's sleeveless- it was a burgundy long sleeved suit with black boots and gloves, a black lightning bolt belt and a pair of black goggles with red lenses, his hair slicked back. On the center of his chest was a black lightning bolt that led up to his right shoulder.
Ryker however was far more casual- wearing a black leather jacket over a coyote tan IOTV and a pair of black camo bottoms and boots.
"The breakouts...what exactly does Viggo have you losers up to?" Nightmare asks while taking aim at Gaslight with his semi-automatic.
"Don't worry about that! Just know it's sure to be a SHOCKING affair!!" Shouted the crazed voice of Hotstreak as he gave a wave and a wink to Typhoon.
"This guy sounds crazier than us." Barf whispered to Belch- who was almost immediately lifted off his feet by Hotstreak. The speedster had rushed down in a blur that almost went unregistered by even Typhoon.
"You callin' me crazy?!?" He'd asked in a shout, Belch nodding his head and shrugging his shoulders .
"Well I certainly ain't calling you for dinner, dude." He responded, dropping two of the explosive pellets he'd been carrying at the speedsters feet. The explosion was instant- sending both men flying back and struggling to recover.
It was a low level blast- but it was still the first explosion Tuff had ever taken- he'd taken bullets before (both while wearing a vest and without one), but this was an all new type of pain. He let out a loud groan as he struggled to his feet, not even caring what Hotstreak would be doing behind him.
"Aw come on!! My mask is all ruined.." he says while ripping the shattered material off of his face and chucking it to the floor. He looked over at his teammates and was surprised to see that they all had broken off to fight the criminals. Tuff figures they'd did this after the explosion. The ringing in his ears seemed to carry on with every slow movement he made.
"Yeah.,.i definitely need more training...and better armor..,a better mask, maybe a helmet…" he muttered to himself, before being flung forward and into the wall behind him by a fast moving object. He'd turned then, looking up from the floor as An angered Hotstreak stood over him with a hand vibrating at supersonic speeds.
"That...hurt." The man said, a scowl upon his face. Soon that scowl shifted into a psychotic grin, as he moved to plunge his hand into Tuffnut's chest. Time itself seemed to struggle to catch up with their movements, as Typhoon barreled into Hotstreak and sent him rolling to the floor , his hand having been mere centimeters from Tuffnut's chest. As the two speedsters tumbled to the floor, Hotstreak's head collided with the stone.
Typhoon rushed to her feet soon after the tumble and stared down at the crazed speedster as he slowly got back up.
"Ow…" he muttered while bringing a palm to rub his head, then turned to look at her. "You!!" He shouted, his body now sparking with electricity. "I got beef with you…" he says with a wild grin forming on his face.
"The feeling is not mutual." Was Typhoon's reply- she simply couldn't understand why the man wanted to kill her, she'd just met the guy once in her entire life.
He smirked at her then, lunging towards her at a speed she almost didn't register. Almost. She ducked and rolled onto her back before thrusting her legs upwards to send a sharp kick to his mid-riff, sending him flying back onto the floor as she kept back to her feet.
She returned the gesture with a smirk of her own. "Let's do this." She'd say, taking off at 15,000 steps per second- the crazed speedster rushing to match her speed and chase her down. The two weaved their way throughout the battlefield that the factory had just been converted into. Energy blasts of green and black ripples past their heads at a pace that was just above their own while they moved, ducking under them to keep on the chase.
Typhoon lept over the head of Stormfly as she sent a stream of lightning towards Gaslight, who'd been busy throwing a punch at Night Fury. As she moved past her friend, she turned on her heel to circle back and push Gaslight towards the bolt of Lightning, a thick fog of green gas surrounding him.
"Can't even smell it let alone breathe it at this speed." She commented to herself as she soon found herself being tackled to the ground by the opposing speed freak. Her head collided with the ground and time reverted back to a normal pace from her perception as she snapped towards the man, who prepared to deal another blow.
Striking his fist out at her, she had less than a millisecond to avoid the attack- thankfully she did and watched as the ground cracked beneath his fist.
"It's amazing isn't it? They're like a slideshow and we're like a YouTube video on fast forward." He'd say while staring over at her.
"We are alike in very few ways, speed at THATS all. Our morals, our sense of judgement couldn't be more different." Would be her response as she rushed towards the man, both lifting their fists to punch another.
The two gloves fists collided mid strike, creating a shockwave that would ripple throughout the building and send all others flying back along with them. Now, both sides were laying flat on their backs. And both sides quickly jumped back to their feet.
"Where's Viggo and Johann at?!" Night Fury called as a shot rang out loud, a bullet ripping its way towards Gaslight's left arm, courtesy of Nightmare. Hotstreak moved in, pushing the bullet aside and giving a nod to his ally, who returned the gesture.
"Don't worry about their whereabouts." Gaslight responded as Blackout charged up a bit of energy in his palms before sending it flying towards Nightlight and Stormfly. The burst of energy moved fast, so fast that Typhoon had to struggle to keep pace and move the two heroes aside, just barely missing the energy as it hit the floor and left a small crater.
"This is getting ridiculous." The female speedster would comment as her friends got ahold of themselves. They'd be toast if she hadn't been there, but luckily she'd made sure to be there...last time she wasn't there she nearly lost one of her closest friends,
Her eyes flickered over to Night Fury, whose left hand moved over his right shoulder in the briefest of motions. He moved back into a defensive position with his bo staff, sizing up his opponents before lunging at the nearest one. The nearest one being Gaslight, who'd begun to produce a thing cloud of black gas from his body as the man attacked. It seemed the second that Night Fury's staff connected with the side of his neck, the gas took affect.
Night Fury dropped to his knees after the strike, coughing wilder than a sick person. The gas he'd just been exposed to was bromine chloride. It had a toxicity in ppm of 290, and the healing vigilante could already feel its effects on his lungs. But why the hell was it black? He supposed that was just an effect of his powers, a distinguishing trait between the various gases he expelled. The thing that Gaslight liked most about his powers, was that he was immune to all forms of noxious gas and toxic gases.
As her friend hit the floor, typhoon took to running once again, circling around the cloud that had formed in order to push it up and dispel it. This was a distraction, one that Hotstreak used to his advantage. He planned it out for a split second, already having about 129 different ideas for the woman. And finally he found one- striking out just as she'd ran around for the 68th time, and slamming a foot into her ankle at 23,000 mph.
This caused the bones to snap like a twig , and the female speedster stumbled across the floor with a cry of pain. "Typhoon!!" Stormfly had cried before launching a bolt of lightning at Hotstreak, that moved just past his current speed. The lightning sent him flying across the room, but had the opposite of the desired effect. He was supercharged now, and let out a wild cackle as he began to exert the electricity from his body in a bubble.
"Dammit!!" Nightmare shouted before unloading his semi-automatic onto the speed freak, leaving himself open for a punch to the jaw from Blackout. The hit was weak compared to Nightmare's own strength, and the man smirked beneath his helmet before delivering a counter attack in the form of an upper cut. This attack sent the evil doer skidding across the floor, but he rebounded quickly as shot off a beam of energy at Nightmare. The man had little time to counter of evade, and sit off a weaker beam from his helmet to fight the oncoming beam.
The beam struggle that ensued was a spectacle to behold, though no one took the time to actually stand by and watch. Stormfly and Nightlight attacked Gaslight immediately, with a beam mixture of lighting and energy, striking his chest and sending him fleeing across the room.
Hotstreak moved once again in his supercharged state, making his way around all of the fighting and eventually reaching Stormfly. He smirked before sending a punch to her face to throw her off guard before latching onto her shoulders.
"You're like an unlimited power supply,let's see what ya got!!" He shouted while drawing the electrical energy from her body. It didn't take very long for him to feel a limit being reached, at which point he'd stopped. But Stormfly persisted, as he moved away she dragged him back and dug her hands into his wrist while smiling.
"You want my power? You're gonna get all of it!!" She'd retort while pouring her energy into the man's body, ignoring every scream of anguish he released as she did so. The two of them created a bright light and a bubble of electric energy that no one else could touch. Not even Eret with his radioactive form could pierce this, as all were left to watch.
Night Fury recovered from his poisoning and watched them, his eyes widening as his helmet scanned both of their bodies "STORMFLY STOP!!" He screamed, but recoiled slightly as she shook her head.
"NOT UNTIL HE'S LEARNED A LESSON ABOUT BEING GREEDY!!" She replied, Hotstreak trying his best to escape her grasp, even going as far as to headbutt her at 1,200 mph. This seemed to do the trick, as the weather witch fell to the floor unconscious.
Everyone have an audible sigh, as they knew what could've happened if that persisted. But their worries weren't over, and soon Hotstreak began to fidget wildly, before his body lit up with the electricity he'd absorbed.
"OH MY GOOOOOOOD!!" He exclaimed as it all poured out of him. Night Fury looked over to the downed Typhoon, who'd crawled her way towards the back wall and began to rush over while ushering EVERYONE in the building to follow.
"EVERYBODY GET O-" he'd begun to say, his words being cut off by the explosion that followed.
The building was torn apart from the inside, rubble and dust shaking down as the foundations destabilized and broke apart from the mass energy release. His vision was blurred at first, as he came to. He looked around frantically to find any sign of his friends, throwing prices of rubble and debris aside. Finally, he looked to his minicomputer and brought up all of their vital signatures.
Stormfly, Typhoon, And Nightmare were just barely clinging to life, while Windshear, And the Terror Twins seemed to be fine. Nightlight's showed that his body was being compressed, and slowly losing oxygen. So that's who he went for first, tracking his suit's signal to a pile of debris nearby and kicking off the top bits of the stuff.
"ERET!! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, BLAST UPWARDS!!" He'd have the command, silence ringing throughout the air for a moment. But then it came, the bright green he'd been used to seeing ripped its way through the debris and Eret struggled to pull himself from the newly made hole, Hiccup moving to help him to his feet.
"What the hell?" Nightlight questioner, with Night Fury biting his tongue gently,
"We've gotta reach the others, Stormfly, Typhoon and Nightmare first. They're in the worst condition. " he explained as Eret nodded before powering up with what little strength he had.
He dispelled a wave of energy out in front of them, strong enough to shrug off some of the debris and still too weak to damage anyone into a critical state. As he did this, Night Fury used his minicomputer to find the rest of their team. The first he'd found was Stormfly, who'd been lying under several pounds of debris with an unconscious Hotstreak on top of her. He pushed the villain aside and checked his pulse, giving a soft sigh as he found the man to be breathing- raggedly though.
He picked her up and motioned with a nod towards the area surrounding them, Nightlight taking the notion and blasting away some more rubble to uncover Nightmare. Dragging the man out by his shoulders, he pulled his damaged helmet from his head and began to examine him before looking to Night Fury.
"He's good, his helmet and armor took most of the damage." He'd say, Night Fury feeling the ghost of a smile arising.
"Typhoon is further back, you watch these two and I'll get the rest." Night Fury said as he gently placed the battered Stormfly down next to Nightmare. Her mask had been torn apart and she had a large gash running down her left thigh, her right leg was injured from the debris and her left shoulder had popped out of place. Along with that was a damaged nose from Hotstreak, that would need to be popped back into place later.
As Night Fury limped onwards, he felt the underlying pain from his last battle along with the toxic cloud trying to drag him down. This didn't bode well for him at all- as he knew he'd need to rest up a bit to get his healing factor back to one hundred percent. He trudged along now, the sun shining his path towards his friends. He'd uncovered the unconscious body of Gaslight as he moved along and noted the man's leg had been crushed by debris- it was most likely broken and would take months to heal. He looked over at another bit of debris and changed the features of his helmet to scan over the environment. Several bodies, all still alive. He moved to the nearest one and found Blackout with a broke nose, debris crushing his left arm from the clavicle down and a twisted right ankle. He'd be out of commission for a while too.
Beside him was Ryker, who'd stayed out of the fight for the most past. And yet he got the worst of them. His left arm was crushed from the forearm down and both of his legs were piled with debris. Shattered clavicle, four broken ribs and a hairline fracture upon the back of his skull. He was clinging onto the life.
Night Fury, against his better judgement, dragged the man from under the debris slowly and began basic first aid. After helping the criminal, he looked over at the last few bodies and rushed over.
There was an indenture in the ground, most likely created by unused chemicals going off nearby during the blast. This left the twins and Windshear trapped inside with several tons of debris on top of the hole. He wasted little time and punching and kicking away with all of his strength, shattering some of the debris. Once it had been weakened, he began to push until it slid aside, soon leaving one large stone slab that he had to lift and push over to find his friends.
Barf was the only one conscious and was looking over both Windshear and Belch the whole time. Night Fury dropped down and lifted Windshear over his shoulder before looking to her.
"Can you get Belch?" He asked. She was hesitant at first but gave a curt nod in response before lifting her brother and making the short climb out of the hole. It was a miracle in all honesty. Everyone they'd found had survived the blast.
As Night Fury laid Windshear down and elevated her head with a rock, he scanned over the debris one last time before taking off towards the very edge of it all. Lying there was a battered Typhoon, who had a gash across her forehead, along with several on her unsleaved arms. He lifted her up gently, carrying her over to Nightlight and Barf before setting her down.
"Jets on its way." Nightlight confirmed as the vehicle made its voyage back from where it had been parked earlier on. As far as he was concerned, this night was a fail.
Dragon Ridge Theater
Mala has to admit, Throk was the most kind guy she'd run into in a long time. The two drove to the movie theater together, in a car she didn't even ask about and he'd held the door open for her. Paid for her ticket, and food and carried all of it to their seats.
This had been one of the best dates of her life, and she honestly wished she hadn't had an underlying motive behind it. But as she entered the White House she called home and waved him off for the night, her hand ran over the wallet in her back pocket. Pulling out, she looked over the dark haired face of Throk with interest, while moving inside.
The dark figure she'd become so accustomed to seeing was waiting in the living room, sipping from a glass in a recliner.
"Got it?" The voice asked, Mala nodding softly.
"Yes dad...I got it."
Immortal Manor- Med Bay
Hiccup stood over the same bed he'd been laying in not too long ago, but instead it was the blonde haired beauty he'd devoted his life to protecting. And as he looked down at her still form, her blonde bangs draping over closed eyes, he resided he'd almost failed.
He almost failed all of them, wanting to go in for the kill on the enemies instead of planning it out further. He chastised himself for his ignorance, slamming a fist into the computer nearby and shattering its keyboard with ease.
"Don't blame yourself." A voice called from the doorway, Hiccup turning to watch as Gustav walked into the room wearing a black zip up hoodie over a burgundy shirt and a pair of ripped blue jeans.
"It's hard not to." Hiccup replied before taking a seat next to Astrid's bed, his teenage apprentice looking on at the fiery woman.
"You did what you thought was best. It was a bit brash but...but it should've worked." Gustav said, having been absent and gotten a basic explanation of the mission from Ruffnut and Eret upon his return from school. That was three hours ago, now it was around four in the afternoon. Not even sunset and he'd already managed to get half of his team nearly killed.
"It was idiotic, and a rushed plan. Moreso a lack thereof." Hiccup said as he looked to Gustav, whose face twisted into one of disgust
"You've gotta be kidding me. You're the Night Fury for fucks sake- stop putting the weight of the world on your shoulders." He said, Hiccup snapping to attention now
"You're not God, or whatever the fuck you believe in Hiccup. You're you, a person. And people make mistakes. You can't control every little variable of every situation- specially cant control it when a power crazed psycho gets greedy and Astrid gets angry."
"If I can't control it then what type of leader am I?" Hiccup asks, his anger arising slowly with every word that left Gustav's mouth.
"A good one. You knew what you were doing, it was Hotstreak and Astrid who messed it up."
"Don't say that...Astrid didn't-"
"Be honest man!!" Gustav shouted, ripping his hands from his pockets to ball them into fists. "You told her to stop and she didn't listen!! You love her, I get that. I do too- she's like a big sister to me but she should've stopped!!" He exclaimed, watching as Hiccup lept to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at him.
"It doesn't excuse the fact that several people almost died- or the fact that I'm the one who dragged them out there! God, I even let the Twins come and they have NO hero experience nor nearly as much training as any of us!! I fucked up here!"
Gustav paused, looking into Hiccup's eyes before shaking his head. "You're an idiot if you believe that."
Hiccup's demeanor shifted slightly, though he retained the scowl he'd taken as this argument began. "I'm an idiot?!"
Gustav stood strong in his wording, nodding his head. "Yes."
"..." Hiccup has paused for a moment to breath, then came to some form of realization. "You're right...I am an idiot. I let u trained soldiers go out into the battlefield and almost got them blown up.,I let a psychotic speed freak piss off the woman I love until she turned him into a living bomb..,and above all else, I let a teenager join me against my better judgement."
Gustav recoiled at that last saying, taking a moment to make sure he'd heard him right. "W-what?!"
"Leave your key card on the table...you're fired." Hiccup said, confirming the boys suspicion . This made him reel back, stumbling before regaining his stance and staring up at the Night Fury, his hero. But the dark scowl that adorned his face was cold, unfamiliar even. It left a sick feeling in Gustav's stomach, one he just couldn't shake off.
"I...I.." he began, feeling the tears welling up in his eyes. But he refused to cry here, refused to let himself be ashamed any further. Instead he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, slamming his ID card down onto the table near the exit with enough force to crack the wood.
The sound of the manor's front door slamming shut seems to be what brought Hoccup back to reality, and he slammed his hands into his hair, giving the auburn strands a great tug. "What is WRONG with me?!?" He asked with a shout before rushing out the Med bay and rushing towards the front door. He wrenched it open and looked outside for Gustav, shouting to the boys form.
"Wait!!"
He'd called out, but the broken spirited young man's look at him through the visor of his motorcycle helmet, his black bike revved up and ready to take him away
"Fuck you!!" He'd shouted back, though the voice sounded different. It sounded...broken. It struck Hiccup immediately , and the thought stayed with him even as his former apprentice peeled off from the estate. Gustav was crying.
———————-
So...another day another update. Y'all stay tuned for more