Hawks had reached the Liberation Army's mansion to give a report to the top commanders, most of what actually members of the League of Villains.
"You wanna start report?" he said, looking at them calmly. "Yeah, sure, let's see… I'm spreading the good Liberation word."
"We noticed that you can passing this book out to heroes," said a man in a business suit holding out the book Meta Liberation War. Hawks remained calm despite the fear that his cover had been blown. "It's obvious that you have not only read it, you truly understand Destro. You're someone who gets us."
"Gee, thanks," Hawks smiled.
"If I'm being honest, I still don't really get what we're doing," said Twice. "Teach me some time."
"Happy to; bet you'll catch on fast."
"You're like a walking billboard," said the businessman. "With your help, Liberation ideology will spread. Your core fan base of teens and twentysomethings will be a great boon for us."
"I'll double down my efforts then."
"Though I would advise not handing them out to every hill you come across," said Viggo. "Some of them might be wondering why you recommend such a book."
"I'll be careful, don't worry."
"You're working super hard, huh, Hawks?" said Twice. "You're a pretty good guy. Pure evil. Happy that you're on our side."
"Happy to be here. As far as I can tell, we're not even on the Commission's radar yet. They're investigating the League's involvement at the Herson Incident, but our troops are staying off our radars. Meanwhile, we're starting to influence the next generation of heroes."
Turid then suddenly squealed excitedly. "Oh, my gosh, it's Hiccup!"
Turid had been skimming through all of Hawks actions until she found Hiccup and the others jumping in to help Hellfire during the Star Servant incident.
"Really, that's a coincidence," said Twice as he looked at the screen.
Diablo smirked. "From what I see, Berk students haven't grown all that much."
"Well, yeah, you are talking about a bunch of high schoolers," Hawks pointed out.
"Excellent work," said the businessman as he put his hands together. "You may go, Hawks."
Hawks bowed and left the room.
He closed the door behind him but made sure to leave one of his feathers within the cracks so that he could hear what was going on with the commanders.
'I've been trained to intercept the smallest pieces of intelligence,' he said as he leaned against the wall. 'My feathers can detect sound vibrations in the air, allowing me to interpret it. I can hear you.'
"Spinner, are things going as planned?" said a guy wearing a blue coat with a hood covering his face.
"Yeah, we just got to keep the troop morale up," said Spinner.
"The fun is going to start pretty soon," Turid smiled, which made Hawks' blood run cold. "Four months from now… bomb! Everything is destroyed, and Krogan will ruin this world."
Upon hearing this, Hawks left, being escorted by a butler. 'Four months… how many heroes are involved in this plot? What exactly is Krogan planning to do? I don't have much access to speak of. With my wings closed, it's hard for me to hear from far away. There was so much that I don't know, and the clock is ticking. By the time I've got details, it will be too late.'
Hellfire was going through the book that Hawks had given him and deciphered his hidden message.
'… before that… I'll send… a signal,' he read and frowned. 'Hawks, are you secretly investigating the enemy?'
Hawks had reached the door, which was heavily guarded.
"You may not enter here," said the guard.
"For real?" said Hawks, looking bummed. "I'm just looking for the cafeteria."
"Access denied."
"All right, all right, I get it," said Hawks as he walked away.
'If we just surrounded this place, we could probably take them. No, that wouldn't help much. I need solid numbers of how many serve the Liberation Army, the locations of their secret bunkers across the country and the names of the heroes who are helping them so they can all be rounded up at once. If we don't do it that way, then we will lose the enemies we can't see, and the citizens will suffer more in the long run. That's why…'
'…in case of… failure… will need… more manpower,' Hellfire read as he rose to his feet.
Suddenly it all made sense; the president of the Health and Safety Commission had summoned him not too long ago.
"Is that the reason you summoned me?" Hellfire asked.
"Yes," she nodded. "This will provide the students with some real-world experience, and I believe it's going to be beneficial to you as well. Train your Work Study students thoroughly, Hellfire."
Hellfire closed the book. 'The Commission and Hawks have deduced that our enemy is strategising. They are obviously working behind closed doors, which must mean that the Work Studies are to prepare for an attack.'
Hawks was leaning against the wall looking out the window. 'I wasn't so sure about the Work Study thing. If we fail the safety of the country, it will fall to our students.'
Hiccup and the others were currently with the Flaming Side Kickers.
"So, here's the thing," said Burnin. "Snotlout is the only one that Hellfire wanted to train on his own, but don't worry, our psychics will take good care of you other two."
Snotlout gritted his teeth. "That old man is embarrassing me."
Hiccup sighed. "To be honest, I was expecting this. Based on the fact that he never sent an offer to me, I can suspect that I'm the last person he wants to train."
"I agree, but at least we will gain some experience, though not as much as we had imagined," said Ranger.
The door to Hellfire's office then opened, and he stepped outside, and everyone suddenly fell silent.
'This Work Study program is insurance,' Hellfire deduced. 'What a mess. I don't agree with it, but for now…'
He then stopped in front of Hiccup and the others.
"Snotlout… Night Fury… Glacier… I'll look after you three myself," he said to them.
Hawks continued looking out the window, remembering what Diablo said about the Berk students not learning that much. However, he was only basing this analysis due to the position of the camera, and Hawks have been close enough to see their skills.
Hawks smirked. 'I'm glad you are underestimating them. It was worth stealing their glory then. I'm positive they could have handled things if I hadn't shown up no sweat.'
He is already experiencing firsthand when he trained with Fishlegs, teaching him how to use close-range combat moves and how to control the things he made weightless more easily.
'You're the one who changed how I view students, Graviton. I'm glad you're the one who came to my Agency. You're a strong kid, and your friends are strong too. Every day you improve faster than me. This will definitely not go down the way the villains wanted to; I just hope next year we'll all be smiling.'
Hiccup and the others change into the hero costumes and meet up with Hellfire in the gym.
"You boys are now under my tutelage," said Hellfire. "Night Fury… Glacier… before we begin, tell me about yourselves. What are you currently capable of? What weaknesses do you need to improve upon?"
"I want to perform at my fullest, but to do that, I need to gain better control over my power," said Hiccup.
"How interesting, your power so strong that it hurts you, is that right?"
"Yes, my power allows me to stockpile a massive amount of energy and release it. However, there's only a certain limit my body can take, so I have to limit myself or else I end up breaking my bones. Also, I have my technopath powers to hand; controlling technology while on the move is not easy."
"Is there anything else?"
"My armour does have long-range capabilities, printers I can fire plasma blasts, and I can just how powerful they can be. For instance, I can cause them to explode on impact, or I can lessen the power output so that it is just not people over. However, if I don't have my gauntlets or if they're damaged, I can unleash large amounts of wind pressure with my fingers, but to be most effective, it needs more output than my body is prepared for. In my current state, I can tolerate maintaining a certain amount of power with the help of my artificial intelligence, Toothless. I can use about 10 or 15% of power, but my long-range move wise me to use 20%. Using that amount doesn't break my bones but does leave a nasty tingling feeling and affects my mobility and speed. Saw them practising to use that technique in short bursts before reverting back, but that's not easy when I'm in a fight with so much going on."
"He talks so much I completely lost the thread," said Burnin.
"Quite the self-analysis," said Ranger.
"It makes my brain hurt," Snotlout moaned.
"I see so hard you basically want to adjust power levels when you're fighting," Hellfire surmised.
"Yes," Hiccup nodded.
"You understood him?" Burnin stared. "No wonder your number one, sir."
Hellfire could understand Hiccup's goal of reaching the same League as his father. He, after all, had been spending the past decade trying to surpass Skullcrusher.
"You had trouble with your power; trust me when I tell you you're not alone," said Hellfire and then turned to Ranger. "You, your turn."
"I believe my main problem is adapting to situations," said Ranger. "You see, normally, I try to finish people off with one big attack, but I recently discovered that I'm getting stuck in a rut. If I keep on using the same technique, again and again, villains will develop countermeasures, so I need to adjust my techniques."
Hellfire nodded. "Then, let's not waste time."
He then walked towards the door, passing Snotlout.
"Hey, what about me?" Snotlout yelled.
Hellfire turned on him. "You want to work on my techniques, aren't you?"
"Over the last year, I have learned a few things," said Snotlout. "Like having raw power doesn't truly make you strong. I came here to figure out what would make me better to surpass you."
Silence filled the room as everyone looked at Snotlout and Hellfire.
'Since he chose to do his Work-Study here for himself, I thought he wanted to work beside me,' said Hellfire. 'However, it seems as if I was mistaken. He really is my son.'
"Very well, then from now on, you will learn from me on the field," said Hellfire.
Hellfire soon began taking them all around the city.
"Rescue… evacuation… combat… most of our jobs fall into those three categories," said Hellfire. "Normally, heroes focus on either rescue or fighting as specialisations in their agencies. But my policies to tackle all three, I know every corner of my jurisdiction and stop the smallest disturbances.
If there's an incident or accident, I rush to the scene faster than anyone. In order to keep casualties down, I keep bystanders at bay using my flames. Those are the basics, parallel processing and swift response. Make that the norm."
'Parallel processing?' Hiccup pondered.
"Remember what your goal is. At Berk, it is hard work, and here it is experience. Rank up much of the latter as you can here. The things that you each need to work on can be conquered in this way. This spring, I want you to show that you can capture a villain faster than me just once."
Hellfire then suddenly got a message on his radio and quickly took off. Hiccup and the others followed him; the views split a second later.
"Wait up!" Snotlout yelled his flames to propel himself.
"He responded so fast," said Ranger as he propelled himself using his ice.
Hiccup used his jets to fly. 'I can't afford to learn slowly. At first, I only had one ability, but as I got stronger, I discovered that I had my father's power as well. Mastering that took a while, even with Toothless' help and I still haven't perfected it.'
"The suspect has turned the corner and is headed east," said one of Hellfire's sidekicks on the radio.
"Got it!" said Hellfire.
He then suddenly made a sharp right turn by propelling himself using his flames, much to the surprise of Hiccup and the others.
"Whoa, he never stops accelerating," said Hiccup.
"That turn," Ranger stared.
A guy on a motorcycle was driving dangerously across the street, but then he saw Hellfire flying towards him. He has on the gas, trying to put into pulling away from him, but Hellfire was too fast. He tried to turn into an alleyway, but Hellfire fired a burst of flames. This forced the biker to slow down, and he skidded off his motorcycle.
Hellfire's sidekicks and apprehended the biker and his bike.
"Hit-and-run suspect caught!"
"You are far too slow, kids," said Hellfire as Hiccup and the others arrived.
"Snotlout, did you notice that?" Ranger asked.
Snotlout looked at him irritably. "There's nothing you could have possibly noticed that I didn't catch before you, but let's go ahead and hear it."
"Wow, petty," one of Hellfire's sidekicks mumbled.
"That turn, he used those claims to propel himself and up his speed," said Ranger. "Just like he did when he fought that Red Death. He probably compressed the move so that he would drive himself forward."
'This speed as he gets from those temperatures, it's all about controlling the flames,' said Ranger.
"I did the same thing with my explosions; where do you think I learned that from?" Snotlout asked.
"Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out."
"Let me point out one more thing," said Hellfire as he chested down the alleyway which led to a busy highway. "A busy street is nearby."
"I see," said Hiccup. "By omitting flames to intimidate his suspect, he managed to prevent him from relieving towards the highway."
Hellfire then suddenly took off.
"Go on, leave this to us," said Hellfire's sidekicks. "It's rare for the big guy to teach anyone but his son, so you should take advantage while you can. We'll catch up later."
The three of them nodded and took off after Hellfire.
Hiccup and Snotlout caught up with Hellfire in the air while Ranger followed them on the ground.
"You're not gonna work with your sidekicks?" Hiccup asked.
"Hawks and I thought together to take down that Red Death, but that was an exception. Top heroes need to handle everything by themselves. By the way, I was aware of the glass villain's underlings before; you didn't help me."
"Wow, petty," Snotlout muttered.
"Talk about the pot telling the kettle black," said Hiccup and his breath.
"Son, you said earlier what more there was to learn, right?" said Hellfire. "It is true your movements are fast. You are pretty good for a rookie anyway, but what is plainly obvious is that you can't beat me at my current level."
Hellfire then suddenly landed on the ground and stopped a truck from nearly running over a poor woman who had just been crossing the road.
"This isn't a classroom; if you don't make it in time, you don't get a bad grade. People don't go home.
Hiccup immediately rushed over to the woman. "Ma'am, are you okay?"
"I-I think so."
"Snotlout… Glacier… I'm giving the two of you the same homework assignment today," said Hellfire.
"Why do I always get lumped together with this guy?" Snotlout grumbled.
"But how power is ice, not fire," Ranger reminded him.
"You still need to store up your power, focus and then unleash it in one burst," said Hellfire. "You need to unleash your maximum output in one fell swoop. Always focus on precision. Firstly practise until you do one of those things without thinking about it."
"Like when I channel my power into my body," said Hiccup.
"Ranger, you are nearly there; you need to improve your precision. You've already proven that you can do that with your ice. Now you just need to master it."
Later they had lunch on the rooftops; they were currently eating sandwiches as they looked down at the busy streets.
"Night Fury, is it fair to say you can max out your power in an instant and control technology without thinking too much?" Hellfire asked.
Hiccup nodded. "That's right, but I still need to concentrate when using my wind pressure."
"Keep on practising until that move is second nature to you."
"Sir, earlier, you mentioned something about power processing?" Hiccup asked curiously.
"People learn using parallel processing every day without realising it," said Hellfire as he looked down at the cars. "Your subconscious does the work. Take the man behind the wheel of that car; he wasn't born knowing how to drive.
Turning the wheel… pressing the gas and brake pedals… noting his surroundings. He learned to do those things individually and then eventually learned how to do them reflexively. First, you need to be able to do two things at once without concentration.
No matter what kind of power you may have, its foundation is based on a steady accumulation of skills. There are exceptions, but the majority of heroes filled their abilities brick by brick. At least, that's the only way I know how to do it. Even if you're using some of the same concepts you learnt at school, real-world experience is completely different. Don't forget what you picked up a class, but get used to being out here because this is real life."
"We will," Hiccup promised. 'It took a long time to get where I am now, but I can't stop climbing. Dad scaled a mountain that was impossible to climb, and to carry on his legacy, I needed to scale it. Berk has already taught me so much, but at other times I feel as if I'm being dragged along at dizzying speeds, but I won't give up.'
"What?" said Hellfire looking at them. "Don't worry, you're up to it yet. Whether the three of you fail or succeed is absolutely no reflection of the work of the number one hero."
Hiccup nodded. 'That's right, I'm chasing my dream. Increasing my powers quickly as I can. I'll learn everything there is, one thing at a time.'