Part 2 - 'Til Death do us Part

Chapter 49 - How to Fail Your Dragon

Miles was brought back to reality by the door.

"Come in!"

Peter popped his head through.

"Edward needs us again in the briefing room."

"Already?"

"My thoughts exactly. I'll see you up there."

Miles stood up and pulled his suit over with a web then pressed the ball to his chest forming it around him.

"I'll be back soon." He reassured Gwen.

Edward seemed quite worried when Miles arrived. As soon as the spider was seated, he began.

"Helltreader has gone to 6119. The thing is, the tracker didn't tell us for almost three hours after he got there. So, Teresa, you're to hit him with another bullet."

Edward slid the case, containing the modified pistol, over to the commander who flipped it open and holstered the weapon in place of her usual gun.

"As far as we can tell, 6119 is quite normal. Its level of development is about that of the Vikings, although they have projectile weapons similar to crossbows which I think were more medieval. I could be wrong, but that doesn't matter. Same as usual: in, kill, out. Any questions?"

Miles nodded.

"I need to speak to you alone."

"Hold the thought, I'm afraid we don't have time. The ship is jumping in two minutes. I need you all down at the ramp in two and a half. Anything else?"

Nobody spoke.

"Dismissed."

The SGC Arachnid burst out of temporal warp above an ocean. Edward gazed out the view screen, but saw only clouds beneath the ship.

"Helm, set course for glitch location."

"Aye. Wings deployed, ETA three minutes."

The ship surged towards a high cliff. The person at ops spoke up.

"Flux Force reports ready."

"Acknowledged."

The person at the tactical station spoke next.

"Admiral, I've got four bogeys inbound."

"I need more details than that. Are they flying or sailing?"

"Flying. Varying sizes, about the size of a small aircraft."

"I didn't know the Vikings had planes. Shields up, arm weapons but hold fire."

"Aye. Maybe these are steampunk Vikings?"

The ops officer snorted.

"Steampunk Vikings? The entire steampunk genre just doesn't work. The closest it came to reality was Tower Bridge in London."

Edward chuckled.

"I quite agree. But can we focus on the fact these Vikings have made it work?"

"We've got incoming fire, sir."

The ship lurched beneath their feet.

"Report." Snapped the admiral.

"Shields down to ninety-six percent. Maybe some burns on the paint." Replied ops.

"Take down two of them."

"On closer scans, I think they aren't steampunk Vikings, sir." Said ops as a quiet vibrating sound started.

"Oh?"

"I'm reading eight bio-signs. Four are human, the other four are...well...I don't know. That's the other three now, actually. Point defence scored a hit."

Edward frowned.

"Big birds?"

"Could be. But no bird I've heard of can spit energy with the power to knock a ship's shields by four percent."

The ship lurched again.

"Correction, eight percent. Shields down to ninety-two. And scratch a second hostile."

Tactical turned a little.

"The survivors are retreating towards the coast."

"ETA one minute." Added helm.

The Arachnid slowed heavily as it approached the coast. It turned sharply, using its momentum to bring the ramp up to the cliff edge for the team to disembark. They stared at the scene in horror. They were standing in a village, or what was left of one. Fires ripped through the buildings. However, that didn't catch their attention nearly as much as the enormous jet of energy streaming down from the sky at something in the middle. Arachnid pulled away and disappeared into the clouds. At the same moment, Miles' spidey sense lit up. He looked up to see a black object streaking down at them. A purple ball of energy hurtled from its mouth. Darian yelled his three words. The resulting shockwave blasted the object out of the sky. Peter spotted someone falling from its back. He webbed onto the object and swung up, grabbing the person and placing them back down. Meanwhile, Miles blasted the ball of energy with a venom web before glancing back at Teresa and Darian.

"I'll keep that other thing busy. Go and check out that beam and shout for me if you need help."

The pair sprinted past the collapsing houses and into the centre of the village, suddenly hit with a ferocious heatwave. Teresa raised her arm and pushed on until she could see where the beam was striking. She spotted Helltreader standing with his arms spread wide. She followed the beams course: it seemed to be coming from the Sun. She knew what was happening immediately and returned to Darian, along with Peter who had swung down next to 'Mystery Man'.

"He's absorbing the Sun. We have to stop him but it get's hotter the closer you get. Any ideas?"

Miles swung down, his suit bearing a scorch mark.

"What's happening?"

Teresa repeated her report. The spider sighed.

"If we can't stop him this entire solar system is doomed."

"Does that matter? Looks like you had quite the adventure up there." Said the commander.

"Yes. These people are probably freaking out right now. Some magic dude just appeared out of nowhere and wrecked their village, then a massive bird popped up. Also, I'm pretty sure those things with the riders are dragons of some sort."

Darian sighed, raising his sword and running his finger along the flat side.

"Those are some pretty lame dragons, if you ask me."

"They're small, agile and hit hard. Small for dragons, that is."

"Could we use that to our advantage? We hit Helltreader with a shot from a dragon then go in for the kill?" Suggest Peter.

"It might work, but how do you reason with a pissed off Viking?" Remarked Teresa.

"We have to try. Teresa, try and shoot the guy. If we get a new tracker in, it's at least one victory. I'll try some good old diplomacy. Darian and Peter, try and find a way to disrupt him with her." Miles ordered as he reached up to his chest and pulled out the plate, dropping it on the ground.

He scrambled on top of a burning building. A blue dragon was circling with a rider on its back. As it came to its closest point to him, he fired a normal web and caught onto it. He was pulled along behind, but the dragon noticed and began to turn to fight him. Miles cut his web and sprinted along the length of a burning roof before jumping up again and catching the dragon. It twisted and turned frantically until he managed to get onto its back and cling on tightly. The rider tried to punch him off but he ducked.

"Stop! I don't want to fight!" He said, hoping his suit would translate into whatever language these Vikings spoke.

The Viking, a woman, narrowed her eyes.

"I doubt it."

She swung again, Miles caught the fist with his own.

"I can help stop that guy in the village!"

The Viking looked down at Helltreader who was still absorbing the Sun. A blue shockwave rattled out but did nothing.

"Doesn't look like you can help."

"We can handle him if we can stop the beam. Get your dragon to hit him."

"We tried that. Nothing happened."

Miles sighed, then had another idea.

"Alright, I can try something else, but your help might be useful."

"I have someone I love which you or one of your friends might have killed."

"If you mean the guy on the black dragon from earlier, he's down there."

The woman looked down and spotted the person and the black dragon down below. The blue dragon suddenly dived towards them. Miles leapt off, using his glide suit and swooping down to join the others.

"They tried it. Dragons won't work. But I know something which might."

Miles picked up the Plate and put it back into its slot before tapping his chest to the side of it.

"Miles to Arachnid. We need an orbital strike on Helltreader."

There was a second of silence, then Edward's voice.

"Understood. How powerful?"

"As powerful as you can get."

"Then get away from him. This might flatten the entire village, or what's left of it."

Flux Force retreated and found themselves near the black and blue dragons, along with their riders. Arachnid emerged from the clouds over the ocean; an enormous cannon extended from the bottom of its hull. The entire ship visibly lurched as a ball of red energy shot from the barrel. It scored a direct hit on Helltreader and exploded, blasting the village apart. But it had worked: the beam was gone. A shockwave rolled out towards the team. They began to run towards the dragons and Vikings until they realised it wouldn't be far enough. Darian turned and unleashed his own blast of power which seemed to counter the oncoming wave. All that hit them was a light gust of wind. Miles fired a web at Arachnid as it rumbled overhead, pulling him up so he could get a better view. Helltreader was still there, but clearly weak. The spider dropped down, drawing a longsword which he plunged through the immortal's head. There was a bang which threw him back a little. He sighed, sprinting back to his team and the Vikings, both of whom seemed to be conscious. Both dragons were awake too, which worried Miles since they hit pretty hard. He sighed and approached the Vikings.

"See, I don't want to fight."

"Clearly, since you just flattened our home."

"It was all gonna burn down anyway. At least you can rebuild, now. If we hadn't done that your entire world would be gone. I've seen the results before, and I don't want to see it again. A picture was bad enough."

The other rider, a man, turned to the woman.

"I think they mean well, Astrid. And he's right, it was all going to burn down."

The woman, presumably Astrid, seemed to relax, but was still hesitant to trust them.

"And what about when you knocked Hiccup and Toothless out the sky?"

Miles pointed at Darian.

"That was him, and you were about to blast us."

"Yeah, we were." Said Hiccup with a sheepish grin.

Darian moved up beside Miles.

"If those are dragons, what isn't a dragon? Next you'll be telling me you think that's a dragon."

'Mystery Man' pointed to Arachnid which was hovering out to sea again, but below the clouds.

"That's not a dragon. But you could tell us what it is."

"Beyond your understanding." Replied Teresa who had been talking to Peter.

"Oh really? Try us." Said Astrid.

Miles sighed.

"Can everyone just cool it? It's a star ship. SGC Arachnid: Marvel Class temporal corvette."

Hiccup looked at Miles as if he was crazy.

"That was not..."

The spider's suit couldn't translate the word, but presumably it was the language the Vikings spoke.

"No. It wasn't. I'm speaking a completely different language, as you'll hear if I do this."

Miles double tapped the side of his head.

"See? Definitely not that language."

The Vikings looked at him as if he was crazy. Suddenly, Darian seemed to have a thought and began to chuckle to himself. Miles glanced at him, but shrugged, bringing his mask back.

"I'm Miles."

He offered his hand. Hiccup went to shake it, but Miles suddenly pulled it back again and removed the Plate again, dropping it on the ground. He offered it again; Hiccup shook it hesitantly.

"I'm Hiccup, this is Astrid. We are...or were the chief and chieftess of the village."

"Once again, I'm sorry about that. I'll ask the person I work for if he'll send some people to help you out."

Astrid was eyeing the Void Plate.

"What's that?"

"This is...really beyond both of you." The spider replied, picking it up and returning it to its place.

There was a cough behind him. He turned to see Edward standing with his arms crossed.

"Where did he come from?"

Miles ignored the question.

"Everything OK up there, Edward?"

"Yes, just about. A couple of dents, some scratches in the paint, nothing too serious. Miles, you wanted so speak to me?"

"Yeah, I'll come back with you. Darian, you're in charge of the social work. Don't mess it up too badly."

"I'll try."

The spider and admiral were standing on the bridge a few minutes later, waiting for another Sol ship to arrive to help the Vikings with repairs.

"Capital ship signature detected." Said the computer as an enormous ship burst out of temporal warp.

Edward sighed.

"Ops, you have the bridge. Miles, with me."

The pair entered the admiral's office off the bridge and sat down.

"Is everything alright?"

"I'm not sure. I was speaking to Gwen about her mental state earlier, and what she told me worried me a little."

"What did she say?"

"She said she was getting increasingly angry at you and sometimes felt like punching you for putting us in situations where we're obviously out of our depth."

"That's...I'll be honest it's not as bad as what I thought you were going to tell me. I can understand why she feels that way, but is that not the whole job of being a spider person? You go and fight the fight not because it's easy, but because it's hard and nobody else will. You have your team mates to cover your weaknesses."

"That's what I thought, but I didn't say it. It just worried me that she wanted to punch someone who's on our side."

"Yes, I'm not a fan of it either. But I must agree with why she feels angry. Unfortunately we are where we are and that won't change unless you both keep fighting. Thank you for telling me this, Miles. Keep me posted. Is there anything else?"

"No. That's it."

"Alright. Go and get some rest."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- How to Train Your Dragon
- And of course the still mysterious one I'm not saying