On the surface, Scarlet and her agency finally managed to apprehend the villain that attacked them out of the blue.
"Suspect restraint," said a policeman as he and the other offices placed the shackles around him.
"He went down pretty fast for such a big guy," said Windshear.
"Good thing," said Valkyrie.
"His name is Drain, he increases his size by absorbing the life force of the person he touches," Scarlet explained. "Isolating now before he regained consciousness."
"Yes, ma'am," the policeman nodded.
"Things are sounding pretty lively over there," said Surge. "We had better get moving."
"We're entering in later than I hoped, but let's catch up with Nighteye," said Scarlet.
"Right!" Valkyrie and Windshear nodded.
Then suddenly, the two of them felt weak all of a sudden.
"What's happening?" Valkyrie asked weakly.
"I don't feel so good," said Windshear.
Scarlet's eyes then immediately turn to Drain, who was absorbing their life force along with the policeman. 'He's stealing their vitality, but how? He's not even touching.'
"The power booster Girmmel gave me is finally kicking in," he said, reading her mind. "About damn time." He then started to grow in size and broke through the restraints. "That's more like it!"
"Oh no," said Scarlet.
"I feel like a new man!" Drain roared swinging his fist at her.
Scarlet quickly transformed and caught his fist. 'So that's it, his power has been enhanced.' Drain kept on swinging his fist at her, and she kept on blocking. She then looked back on Valkyrie and the others. 'He's drained them so completely that they don't have the energy to stand.'
She had ended quickly before he got too powerful for her.
"Surge!" Scarlet yelled.
Surge was right above her, she had been affected by Drain power but not as badly as the others. She was now concentrating her power into one blast.
"Yep, I'm going for a full charge," she said began blasting him with her energy blasts.
Drain laughed as the attacks tickled. "Looks like the drug wore off, so I'm going begin a little handsy with you."
"Back off, you creep!" Surge yelled blasting him again.
Valkyrie was still trying to get to her feet when she saw Hiccup down the street.
"Astrid, we need some backup quick!" he yelled, pointing down the street. "Underground right below the intersection over there! The others are pinned down, we have to help them!"
Valkyrie and Windshear looked at one another, under normal circumstances Valkyrie would question why Hiccup was on the surface when he just entered the hideout. Additionally, he called her by her first name during hero work; he was always a lot more professional.
Scarlet, on the other hand, had no time for questions. "Let's go!"
She then slammed into Drain, pushing him towards the intersection and Valkyrie jumped in something in a shield and hitting him in the face. Then I was quickly followed by Windshear creating a tornado that swallowed Drain and Astrid ride the wind and kept on striking him with her shield. He tried again out the way, but Scarlet had a firm grip on him, and they were slowly making their way to the intersection.
"Now Surge, and as with everything you've got!" Scarlet yelled.
"How are they stupid little girls still move!" Drain roared.
"We don't give up," said Astrid.
"And no matter what…" said Heather.
"We always go beyond," said Surge and then blasted him with her full power.
The attack was strong enough to slam Drain into the intersection with so much force that is smashed right through the ground. All of them and found themselves in the underground lair, but then to their surprise, they frowned Hiccup down there was well.
"Scarlet?" Hiccup stared. "You guys came?"
"Hiccup?" Astrid stared.
"Wait, if you are here then who's the Night Fury we just saw?" Heather frowned.
Looking down at them from the holy had just created was Turid, who had disguised herself as Hiccup.
"Go beyond," she said as her disguise melted away. "I prefer go chaos."
Standing beside her was Compress fiddling with a marble. "Clove yourself, before you give this old man a heart attack." He then looked down on the marble. "You may duplicate of me so I could extract you."
"That's right," said Twice. "That's step one of the plan, I make a copy of Compress. Step two: using Compress' power, we tunnel for the ground and escape to the surface. Step three: Turid disguises herself and notifies the heroes. So far, so good I say but now comes the best part. Because this is the first time that the Mafia have letters near the kid their plan depends on."
"Their secret weapon as a kid?" said Compress.
"Sure is, which means you have to get down there and grab her."
"Me?"
"Don't be such a baby about it what's the worst that can happen?" said Turid.
Compress then gestured to his stump. "Hey, I already lost an arm to that man. You want me to let him finish the job?"
"You're just a copy, you'll be fine," Twice assured him.
"Good luck," said Turid, shoved him down the hole.
"Psycho!" he yelled as he slid down. "Are you unable to think about anyone but yourselves?"
Scarlet turned and saw Compress sliding down towards them. 'The League of Villains.'
"Valkyrie, look!" said Windshear.
Valkyrie looked away from Compress and saw Nighteye on the ground missing an arm and a massive stone spike in his gut.
"Nighteye!" she screamed.
Hiccup activated his jets and made his way towards Ariel. "Take care of him, go on!"
Sadly before he could grab her stone pillar was formed in front of him tossing her up to the air, and more stone spike were created blocking the path of both Hiccup and Compress.
Hiccup turned on him. "Grimmel!"
Grimmel then created a stone pillar beneath him, and he began to rise towards the surface, grabbing Ariel along the way. "You filthy heroes screwed everything up!"
"She's coming with us!" Hiccup yelled, activating his jets. 'Save a for good this time.'
"Stubborn fool," Grimmel growled. Then he noticed that one of the boulders that had been tossed up into the air had caught on Vemillion's cape. "That piece of trash is still here? Disgusting."
Ariel saw it. "His cape." She then began to remember all the heroes that been getting injured fighting for her. 'No, enough. I don't want anyone else to die. I don't want this, why do they keep trying?'
Ariel then began reaching out towards the cape, and then suddenly, the horn on her forehead began to glow.
Grimmel then remembered when he met with the boss, as he had something important to discuss.
"I have a daughter, you might remember Grimmel," he said. "Anyway, that girl is her child. My fool of a daughter abandoned her own blood. She said that her husband died and that the girl was to blame because she's cursed. Apparently, one day her husband reached for the child, and his entire body simply vanished.
Seems the girl's ability manifested and it's unlike any kind of metapower from both sides of the family. A mutation rather than an inherited how. I hear it's extremely rare, but it happens. I'm told she doesn't know how it works or how to use it and that he has no awareness of its activation. From the sound of it, her power may be similar to yours. Look after her, and while you do investigate her ability, I know you're good at that kind of stuff."
Grimmel did what he was told and began to experiment with power and discovered something shocking.
'Similar to my power, I wouldn't say that,' he said as he saw the mice, he was testing on becoming younger and younger than to the finally disappeared. 'It isn't repair or restoration, but something else entirely. Something unbelievable. Ariel's power is able to rewind living things.'
Back in the present Ariel had just reached for the cape when Grimmel and Confession were separated from one another.
She looked down and saw Hiccup flying towards her. 'These people aren't going to give up. Not until I'm safe, even if it means they die. I have to let them, I have to go back… I have to go back. I have to trust him.'
Ariel then picked herself up and then jumped down towards Hiccup.
Hiccup activated his whole graphic sword slicing through the rubble, though it was painful as he was still injured from his previous battle with Grimmel. He was so focused on Ariel that he failed to notice Confession fell past him.
"Ariel!" he yelled. 'This time, I will save her. I failed before… she needed me, and I let her slip away. But that won't happen again, this time I will hold on.'
Ariel then fell into his arms, and he hugged her tightly. "I have you, I won't let you go," he whispered into her ear.
Hiccup then saw Grimmel looking down at him curiously as he slammed his palm on the pillar. "Give her back!"
The surface of the pill he was standing on disintegrated and stone spikes shot down towards him. Hiccup had to perform a few fancy manoeuvres in order to avoid them and then to make matters worse Grimmel had jumped down towards them.
'I won't let go, I will never let her go. I'll keep us safe, no one will ever hurt her again,' Hiccup vowed. 'I will be strong so that no one has to worry about me. I will win, I will say people!'
Hiccup then channelled his power for his entire body and used his legs to smash through the spikes, but then he suddenly vanished, and a massive shock wave erupted completely out of nowhere. It was so powerful that Grimmel was slammed towards the ground, the stone spikes and pillars were smashed apart.
Scarlet shielded Valkyrie, Windshear and Nighteye, who just looked up towards the sky. Hiccup has somehow managed to launch himself into the air, and now he was currently several hundred feet above the ground.
"Hold on, what happened?" said Scarlet.
"Where's Night Fury?" Valkyrie asked.
Then they saw movement and saw Grimmel picked himself up, his right arm appeared to be broken, and there was blood all over his coat.
"Grimmel," said Valkyrie.
Hiccup was somewhat perplexed how he managed to launch himself into the air.
"Toothless, what happened?" Hiccup asked.
"I don't understand it, Hiccup," said Toothless. "Though I believe somehow your kit was able to launch you into the air. I believe the air pressure from your kit launched yourself at such a high speed that you quite literally took off."
"But that is allegedly sense, the only way for that to happen was for me to use my full power," said Hiccup shaking his head.
"You did lift the limiters earlier," Toothless reminded him. "So it's quite possible that you lost control briefly like when you force against Snotlout."
Hiccup looked down at his leg, confused. "But that doesn't explain how come my leg isn't broken."
Grimmel places left hand on his right arm and repair the damage. "I never told her what her power is, much less how to use it. Ariel, you naughty girl. You belong to me."
He then approached Drain, who was unconscious on the ground and then did the exact same thing he did with Confession. "In order to realise the old man's greatest wish, I need you, Ariel."
"Not good," said Scarlet.
"You needn't worry," said Nighteye weakly. "You through your safe, at least for the time being. He's not going to target any of us. He'll head to the surface in pursuit of Hiccup and Ariel. And then he will kill Hiccup and then escape."
Valkyrie looked at him horrified. "We can't let him—" She attempted to attack Grimmel, but her legs gave out. 'I want to move, but I'm so weak… Night Fury.'
"I foresaw it," said Nighteye.
Scarlet then began to raise her wings. "We can't just sit here and do nothing!"
"Given the shape, you're all in, you cannot stop him. I'm sorry."
"That doesn't matter!" Valkyrie yelled defiantly as he rose to her feet. "I have to do something and help him! There is no future, except the one that you create!"
Valkyrie only managed to take a step forward, but her perseverance reminded Nighteye about Hiccup's statement earlier. The one where he said that the future wasn't set in stone you would smash right through it.
"Windshear… you go help Marcario," said Nighteye. "He's on the other side of the wall, through that whole. Valkyrie… Scarlet… I need your aid. Take me to the surface."
Hiccup finally managed to land back onto the ground, still confused about what had happened.
'My entire body is on fire,' said Hiccup. 'Wait, now it's cold. I use all of my power, but I'm okay? My bones are intact, in fact, even my injuries from before are gone?'
He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but all this happened while he was holding Ariel. He then placed her down on the ground and looked at her curiously.
"Is this your power at work? Are you a healer?" Hiccup asked. Then suddenly, his body doubled over with pain. "What's happening? It's like my body being pulled apart from the inside?"
"She has no control over it," said Grimmel's voice behind him.
Hiccup quickly saw the groundbreaking apart and grabbed Ariel, pulling her to safety just before stone spikes erupted from the ground. Then rising from the ground was Grimmel, but his lower torso seemed to be fused with some kind of gigantic creature with multiple arms, and he was embedded with a tongue should be. Hiccup quickly concluded that he combined with another one of his underlings, probably the one that crashed through the ceiling.
"She may have activated her power in time, but she doesn't know how to turn it off," said Grimmel. "Isn't that right Ariel? She has the power to rewind people, that's her secret. Use handwriting you might even be able to turn someone back into a monkey. If you keep carrying her like that, you will be annihilated. Everyone who touches her will be we rewinded to nothing. Didn't I tell you that the girl is cursed? Hand her over, the only way to stop her is to disassemble or do you want to be wiped out of existence?"
Grimmel must be pretty wound up if he was diagnosing that kind of information because that bit of information Hiccup knew precisely what to do. He detached his cables and reattached them to his waist and then allow the cable to wrap Ariel around his back.
"Just hold on Ariel," said Hiccup.
"Hiccup, I would advise against this kind of action," said Toothless.
"Not ideal, but it's the only way to get us out of this mess," said Hiccup and smiled. "As ability is a good thing unable to damage my body at a rapid pace. To me, it seems as if your power is a blessing Ariel."
Hiccup then began to charge all of his power through his body. "Normally, when I use all my power either breaking all my bones, but since you are able, we wind the damage before they get broken, that means I can fight to my full strength. I just have to keep smashing myself at a greater speed, and you can rewind, and I'll be fine."
Hiccup's muscles began to expand over his arms, causing the armour to break apart around them. He also removed his damaged helmet and then turned to face Grimmel.
"Ariel, please lend me your power," said Hiccup.
"None of you truly realises the true power of her ability," said Grimmel. "Metapowers grow exponentially stronger as you develop them. By conducting countless experiments, I extracted Ariel's power, and I transformed it into its ultimate form. As a result, it doesn't simply stop rewinding the flesh it works on a much grander scale. It rewinds the course of the species to a time before metahumans ever existed. Can't you see? Ariel represents change!"
Grimmel then swung his massive hand down towards them, destroying a building in the process.
"The ability to annihilate metapowers once and for all and change humanity back to normal!" Grimmel roared. "With her power, I can end this affected society! Cure this hero sickness! She is mine! A naive little boy like you doesn't know how to use her! It is a comedic your humanity!"
He then unleashed several stone spikes towards Hiccup, but he moved with such blinding speed that he matched and dodged the attack. He then reappeared beneath Grimmel and other powerful kick that sent flying into the air.
Behind a corner, Turid and Twice were watching from a safe distance.
"Damn, Hiccup… nice," said Turid.
"Hey, what's Compress during?" Twice wondered.
Compress was currently being crushed by Scarlet's claw and quickly turned into mud.
"Go on, Valkyrie!" said Scarlet using her wing to toss Valkyrie, who was carrying Nighteye in her arms, into the air. "Get Nighteye to an ambulance! Try to keep the spite stabilised in his stomach!"
Hiccup was currently flying through the air, and he could feel Ariel's power getting stronger.
'Ariel's power is getting stronger,' said Hiccup. 'Grimmel said that she doesn't know how to stop her power. He hasn't given her a single bit of training or guidance, so she's completely lost.'
Grimmel was flying through the air and was remembering a conversation he was having with the boss.
"Grimmel, I'm told that you started another brawl," he said, looking at him disappointingly. "Your opponent is in critical condition."
"I just let out a punk who was moving in on our turf," he said as he was cleaning his hands. "Trying to save up plummeting reputation, we have to set an example, so they know who's boss around here."
The boss narrowed his eyes "Is that so? I know you started a new racket without my approval. I told you not to get involved with drugs." He sighed and looked at him. "Look I appreciate that you're trying to pay me for taking you in, but you always take things too far Grimmel. Don't stray from the path that I laid before you."
Later that night, Grimmel was venting while Chrono stood there watching.
"Obsolete mafia ideals won't save the organisation," he growled annoyingly. "Why doesn't the old man understand?"
"Well, you have to admit the idea that the Mafia once again ruling the underworld does sound like a dream and reality," Chrono pointed out.
"I'll make it happen, just wait. If my plan succeeds, there will be no stopping the Dragon Killer clan."
With that said, he continued his research on Ariel's abilities without the boss knowing and then presented his plan to him.
"The first phase: we release some of the unfinished product, let people get whiff," said Grimmel. "A drug that the powers heroes, it will be irresistible. And once we established a hunger for it, we'll sell the finished product at exorbitant prices then we introduce the counter drug to the heroes who will be used to rewind and restore their lost hours. While we sell the bullets to the villains, we sell the serum to be heroes, and since Ariel's flesh is the source of the drug we will have a complete monopoly on the market, and then the Dragon Killers will once again rule America from the shadows."
"Grimmel," said the boss with a disgusted look on his face. "I told you to forget about this! She is a child, have you completely lost your humanity? Additionally, you're risking to start a war between heroes and villains. If you go against our ideals then I'm sorry, you have no place in."
Grimmel wasn't gonna take no for an answer this time and decided to take matters into his own hands literally.
"You don't get it," he said as he slowly approached him and removed one of his gloves. "You took me in I just want to you!" The boss then realised what he was about to do. "Not to worry, just lay back and relax."
He then uses powers to put the boss in a permanent coma, he told everyone else that he had fallen ill and was currently on life support. With the boss now incapacitated he could now control Dragon Killer without the approval of anyone.
"I owe you everything," he said, looking down at the boss. "You were strong, but those diseased heroes back you into a corner. Once my plan is on track, I will repair you, and you'll thank me for what I've done, pops."
Back in the present, Grimmel has opened his eyes and was now completely serious, channelling all his anger towards Hiccup.
"Why doesn't anybody see the big picture!" he roared as he took apart his body and reformed it into a new form. "I'm going to turn down this entire world, destroyed very foundation! You're all blinded by some outdated sense of what's right! You're just pretending to be heroes! I won't let you stand in my way!"
He then attempted to grab Hiccup, but he was moving too fast. A split second later he felt Hiccup knocking him back with a backhand. The blow was so powerful that his left arm and legs disintegrated on impact and he was trying to fix them once again.
"If I can't save Ariel, one small child was relying on me to help her…" Grimmel had managed to reformat his arms and legs, but Hiccup appeared right in front of him. "…how can I call myself a hero, who saves everybody!"
He then punched Grimmel so hard and fast that it looked as if he was punching him with multiple arms. Each one of the attacks broke apart Grimmel's body, and he was crashing right back down towards the ground.
When Grimmel looked up, Hiccup was directly on top of him. "That's true I'm going to be!"
Hiccup punch completely destroyed Grimmel's body and knocking his mask clean off his face.
Valkyrie and Nighteye were on the ground when a sudden shock wave hit the ground.
"Where is he?" said Valkyrie frantically, and she looked down at Nighteye who began to stir. "Nighteye?"
"But I saw…" said Nighteye looking complex. "Grimmel succeeded and escaped while Hiccup lost his life. That is an immutable future, I saw it so clearly."
Valkyrie looked up and saw that dust was beginning to settle, Grimmel and his monstrous body were flat on the ground barely conscious while Hiccup stood there triumphant.
"But this… this is new," Nighteye continued. "A different set of events."
He just stared at Hiccup. 'Does that mean the future can be changed?'