Everyone was working hard in order to make their live performance perfect, the band was practising, the effect team were coming up with new ideas to make the show even more spectacular, and the dance team were hard at work practising their routine.

Hiccup and Astrid had to practice singing and dancing for their duet. Hiccup was also in charge of providing the perfect team of all the gadgets they would need.

Marcario was hiding behind a bush watching the dance team. "Looks like no one has noticed me at, Isle swoop in with a can't miss gag that will crack them up before they know what's what."

Sadly before he could do anything, Hiccup noticed him. "Oh, hey, Marcario!

Then he and Astrid noticed that he had brought someone along. "Ariel?"

"Hi, Night," she said timidly as the two of them rushed over to her.

Sven stared at the two of them. "Wait, don't tell me you have a secret kit?"

Hiccup and Astrid's faces turned bright pink.

"Don't be ridiculous," they said in unison making the situation even more embarrassing.

Astrid quickly turned around and smiled at Ariel. "That dress looks so good on you."

"Hiccup, finally got permission from the principal," said Eret as he stepped forward.

He then began to remember when he gave principal Dustin Hiccup's proposal.

"That's a good idea," said Dustin. "But you will have to be careful, the poor girl has been separated from normal society for an awfully long time. I'm afraid whole experience could overwhelm, she'll be thrown into a new setting that she's completely unfamiliar with."

"In order to avoid additional stress, we're letting Ariel explore the campus before the festival," Eret explained.

"Well, hello," said Speedfist as he approached her. "You must be Ariel from the Work-Study. Very nice to meet you, I'm Speedfist."

"Agnar," said Agnar. "Hey there, you're going to be a looker aren't you?"

Ariel then backed away and hid behind Marcario.

"Oh, right," said Marcario smiling down on Ariel. "She's kinda shy."

"That's perfectly okay," said Speedfist.

"Let's start the tour, I want to show has much of the school as I can so that she knows what we do here," Marcario explained and looked at Hiccup. "You want to come to Hiccup."

"Yes," Hiccup nodded.

"Dance team, new idea," said Dogsbreath as he, like not and Heather stood in the doorway.

"Wait, is that Ariel?" said Heather.

"This is the first time we've actually met her face-to-face," said Ragnar.

"Okay crew, let's grab a little break," said Ruffnut.

"Good idea we decided to have a break as well," said Ragnar.

While everyone was on their break, Hiccup accompanied Marcario as he gave a tour for Ariel around the school. Everyone was dizzy setting up of the Festival, despite the fact it was a few weeks away.

"It may be a Saturday, but since the students live here in the dorms this still a ton of people running around campus helping to prepare for the festival," Marcario explained.

Then suddenly appearing around the corner were two third-year Business Course students.

"Hey, it's Marcario!" said one of them.

Everyone then noticed Ariel hiding behind. "Wow, don't tell me your temporary leave from school was because you have a kid now?"

Marcario merely smiled and said nothing.

"Dude, you got to say something now I feel like it's for real!"

The other Business Course you then handed them a flyer. "All jokes aside, here. Class 1 is putting on an awesome lecture, so make sure you check it out." He then handed a flyer over to Hiccup. "You too man."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," said Marcario.

"This is really is a nice flyer," said Hiccup.

They then made their way onto the grounds where a whole bunch of students were getting props ready.

"Everyone's super busy, even though it still a month away," said Hiccup.

"Everyone wants to outdo last year, and it takes a lot of work to pull something to do that," said Marcario.

Then suddenly they jumped as a dragon skull appeared out of nowhere. It only took them a few moments to realise that it was fake and Class 1-B was carrying it.

"Sorry," said Tab and then he noticed Hiccup. "Hey, it's Hiccup from Class A."

"Why am I not surprised," said Cael. "So you're walking around like you got nothing to do, while we're all hassling."

Hiccup ignored him and looked at Ariel. "Ariel, you okay?"

"I thought it was that dragons on before," she said.

Hiccup frowned. "You saw a dragon?" He then remembered sky to crash through the ceiling during the raid on her dragon form. "Oh, you're talking about Scarlet."

"So you're just going to ignore me, talk about rude," said Cael. "I heard that Class A is doing a concert for us. That's so cute, but to put it bluntly, Class B's stellar performance is going to make you wish you hadn't even shown up. We're doing a completely original play which all of us are going to take part in. You should make sure that you've come prepared, bring a hanky to write the tears from your eyes when you realise just how superior we are!"

He then laughed maniacally, and that was when he was hit on the back of the head by Yale.

Hiccup had managed to cover Ariel's eyes, shielding her from the entire scene. "He's even more nasty than usual."

"Yeah, sorry about that guys," said Yale as he picked Cael up. "Kaia wasn't around, so there's no want to keep them in line."

"That strange usually come in a set," said Hiccup noting her absence.

"Well, she's off prepping for the beauty pageant right now. So…"

"Beauty what?" Hiccup stared.

"It's kind of funny that she didn't even need to enter."

"Cael was right though, we're pulling out all the stops," said Tab as they walked off.

"Sorry about that, Ariel," said Marcario looking down at her apologetically. "Berk is great, but every place has its downside, I guess."

"I didn't we were having a beauty pageant," said Hiccup looking at Marcario.

"Well, it's too late to enter," said Marcario. "But do you know who is gunning at it to win it this bad this time?"

"No idea."

"Last year's runner-up, the Big Three's best girl Ase Brightson."

They soon made their way into the equipment studio which had been turned into a makeshift dressing room. Ase was there hovering in midair wearing a turquoise dress, she looked down and saw the three of them staring.

"Hey, hey, what's Ariel doing here?" she said as she floated down. "Hey, girl, why are you here?"

Hiccup looked at her. "I'm surprised your runner-up, you look beautiful."

"Ah, thanks Hiccup," she smiled. "But every year I lose to the same girl, she's just too amazing. The beauty pageant queen Angel Starlight from the Support Course class 3-G."

"This year's pageant is stacked," said Asmund. "Kaia gained some underground fans thanks to that commercial so she's a real contender and of course Angel won't be holding back. Performing in front of all those people, it sounds like a nightmare. Imagine it makes me nauseous."

"At first the only reason I entered because Sue told me to," she said as she floated towards a girl with short red hair and holding a purple dress. "But it turns out to be a lot of fun, I'm going to crash it, I'm definitely going to win it this year since it's my last chance."

"You can do it," said Marcario and Asmund nodded.

"Though I'm surprised that neither Astrid nor Heather aren't taking part," she said, looking at Hiccup curiously. "Not that I'm complaining, those two would be real contenders."

"Yeah, Mr Eret didn't tell us about the pageant and to be perfectly honest well above are busy with our own gig," Hiccup explained.

With that they made their way to the development studio where many members of the support course were busy working on their creations. They were working hard so hard in fact that it was very noisy.

"All the greater working together to put on an extra awesome expedition of their work!" Marcario yelled over the noise with his hands over his ears.

"Can't wait to see what they come up with," Hiccup yelled. "I hear to highlight every year."

"Yes, the School Festival is the Support Course's time to shine," said Sigird sneaking up behind Hiccup, making him jump.

"Sigrid," Hiccup gasped then he saw a giant robot standing behind. "Whoa…"

"This is the mark two of my latest baby," she smiled.

Hiccup noticed that she was covered in grease. "You've got some grease on you."

Sigrid looked down and indeed saw that she was completely filthy what appeared to be the first time. "I'm filthy, but I can't waste time bathing."

"What?" Hiccup stared.

"That's dedication," said Marcario.

"Even though we showed off some items in the Thawfest Festival, we took a backseat to the heroes. But this time the contractions we come up with will be given the spotlight they deserve, which means a lot of big companies and buyers can get up close and personal with my work. I need to make sure that their perfect so they don't embarrass me."

She then looked at him curiously. "So how did those new weapons turn out? If there is anything else you need, please let me know."

"I will, thank you," said Hiccup.

Then suddenly, Sigrid's robot blew up.

"Baby!" Sigrid cried in horror.

"Not again, Sigrid?" a Support Course student moaned. "Where's the extinguisher?"

"I think now be a good time to run," said Hiccup looking at Marcario, who agreed. They then escorted Ariel out of the studio. "Don't worry, Ariel."

"Okay," she said, looking confused.

With that they made their way to the canteen and ordered some juice for Ariel.

"Well, that's pretty much all of Berk," said Marcario as he sat down.

"That's right," said Hiccup looking at her, she drank juice. "So what do you think Ariel?"

"I-uh-I'm not sure," she said.

The two of them had completely forgotten that he had never been to a school before, so she had nothing to compare it to.

"But I can see how hard everyone is working on the Festival and I do want to know how it all turns out," she continued.

Hiccup and Marcario smiled at one another because it seemed as if the tour was a success.

"It sounds like our special visitors getting excited," said Principal Dustin who was sitting at a table close by with Midnight.

"Principal Dustin?" Mrs Midnight?" Hiccup blinked.

"It seems as if we made the right choice," said Principal Dustin. "You know what I'm excited about everything too. I do love seeing so many students joining together and having fun, all in the hopes that their peers will have a good time."

"Now if only can get the police to understand that," Midnight sighed.

"Now now, Mala," said Principal Dustin as he rose from his seat. "Anyhow, I hope that your heart burst with happiness when the day rolls around."

Principal Dustin and walked off, remembering the composition he had with the police a few weeks ago.

"You must cancel the Festival," said Chief of Police.

"I can't believe that the Chief of the Police himself is paying me a visit," said Dustin.

"Villains are becoming more daring, and our heroes are losing confidence. If something would happen to Berk again, we might not be able to recover."

"I understand that, however…"

"Listen, you're putting everyone here at risk."

Principal Dustin then rose to his feet. "You're asking me to cancel an event that many of the students here looking forward to. I don't think you understand the resentment of the other courses have for the Hero Course students. They all know that the Hero Course is not to blame for the villain attacks, but they have no one else to blame. I stake my reputation. I will do everything in our power to make it safe, we can't let the future become any bleaker than it already does."

Midnight then rose to her feet and looked at Hiccup and Marcario.

"I'll spare you all the gory details, but the principle fought hard for you," she said. "As a result security will be heavier than in past years. Just know that if an alarm sounds, even if it's a false one, we'll have to shut down and evacuate. Those were the terms of the police agreed upon."

"That strict," said Hiccup.

"Of course to keep that from happening, we're also beefing up defensive measures. We got Bloodhound of his leash to patrol."

"You did?" Hiccup stared.

Bloodhound was an excellent track, but most of the time, he was more beast than man. The fact that the faculty while allowing him to patrol just through how serious they were taking these restrictions.

"By the way, did you know that Class A's performance is causing quite a stir in the faculty lounge," she smiled as she walked off. "You better make it pleasurable."

"Right," Hiccup nodded.

"Night, what performance?" Ariel asked curiously.

"We're doing a big live concert, and I'm gonna do my best to make it fun for you and everybody else. So be sure that you come and watch." He then rose to his feet. "Sorry you two, but my break is almost over. I'm off."

"Okay, just so you know I'm looking forward to seeing you go down too," said Marcario.

A week later, while they were in class, the effects team approached Hiccup as they had a little problem.

"What seems to be the problem?" Hiccup asked.

"We want Olaf to fly around the gym within lit up," Ranger explained.

"I'm sure people are going to see him," said Hiccup.

"The problem is we don't have a fly system in the gym, and I doubt you have time to make one for us," said Ranger. "I mean you've been designing some minor things for the effects team, but you must be preoccupied with dancing and singing.

"We were wondering if we could use Jeeves to move him around," said Dogsbreath.

"I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help," said Hiccup.

'We have practising meetings like this after class every day. I won't have much free time until the Festival is over, so I try and train hard when I get the chance.'

It was early in the morning, and Hiccup was practising his new long-range move. However, he was unable to do multiple attacks as each every single time is fingers got a little more bruised from every attack.

Stoick frowned. "It's still hard for you to shoot consecutively or while moving around." He then noticed the bruise on Hiccup's finger pulled another icepack. "That's a nasty bruise, here you can ice it with this."

"Thanks," said Hiccup placing the pack over his finger. "I'm trying to exercise much more control than I had in the past. Is there a trick to it or something that I might be missing?"

Stoick shrugged. "No idea."

"Very helpful," Hiccup grumbled.

"To be honest I was able to use a 100% of my power right away," Stoick admitted. "I can only reiterate about creating an image in your head about the egg, not exploding. All I can suggest is that you keep working until you feel the success and then just keep repeating those steps."

Hiccup nodded and continued practising. 'Even though we're related there's a big difference between us. Dad really is a natural-born hero through and through, there's no doubt about it.'

Then suddenly something shot out of the trees towards them, but Stoick was able to grab at it past him. Hiccup was astonished by reflexes noticed that he was holding some kind of drone.

"Oops, but nice catch," said Sigrid as she ran out of the trees.

"Sigrid?" Hiccup stared. "What are you—"

"Sorry, I was testing this drove, and it got away from me," she said embarrassingly.

"Don't worry about it," said Stoick giving her drone back.

"Thanks for snagging it, this sweety is a mini third either I'm working on." She then quickly turned to Hiccup. "Oh, Hiccup, about the new item you asked for the other day. I had a baby that could do something similar, so I'm rejigging it right now. Once the application goes through I'll get it to you right away."

Hiccup frowned. "I thought that you have to wait until after the School Festival?"

"Unlike you, I have a bit more spare time," Sigrid reminded him. "Plus and I have a base done already it will be ready sooner."

"Thanks, I can't wait," said Hiccup.

Sigrid then noticed that her drone taken off and ran after it. "Wait, where are you going?"

"A new item, huh?" said Stoick.

"Yeah, I can upgrade my armour and add some new devices, but for this, I needed a fresh pair of eyes someone who is experienced in developing special gear. I'm hoping that it can assist me with my wind pressure move."

"Ah, I tried something like that in the past too," said Stoick.

Hiccup stared at him. "Wait, you use to support item? How can you never said anything?"

"I only tried a few times, but in truth, it was too bulky to be usable. It was designed to use 20 or 30% of my power, it would have been fine if I use mid to long-range attacks, but since I'm more of a short-range brawler, I kept breaking it. Support item back then were not as compact as they are now, and that it was your mother that pioneered the tech that most he was used today. But since you already using some gear, it should be fine so long as you don't rely on it too much."

"I know," said Hiccup. "That's why I don't want to rely on my armour as often, which is why I am putting so much effort into developing my super strength."

"Point taken, but let's get back to practice," said Hiccup.

Later that night after another day of practising in preparation, everyone relaxing.

"You're rushing just follow my tempo!" Snotlout yelled at Clueless.

"But you keep throwing in new breakdowns, it's so confusing!"

Heather was pulling out some tea and looked at Ingrid. "You know it's like you were born to teach, Ingrid. I mean for a beginning like Clueless to learn chord progressions in just a week is impressive."

"It's okay I guess," Ingrid shrugged. "Today's tea smell very good."

"You have Jeeves to thank for that," said Heather.

"Indeed, I managed to procure it with extreme difficulty," said Jeeves as he rolled towards them. "It's called Gold Tips Imperial."

Astrid then approached Hiccup, giving him a cup of tea and noticed that he was looking for his phone. "What are you up to?"

"Just trying to find some information," said Hiccup. "Apparently my Dad used to support gear in his early career."

"Really?" Astrid blinked.

"Yeah, came as a shock to me too and I'm hoping that someone posted it." There while he was fumbling around with his phone yesterday press on a video. "Shot, I didn't mean to play that."

"Gentle Video!" said the video revealing that it was one of Gentle Criminal's videos. "Dearest viewers, do you drink different types of tea for different occasions? Whenever I'm preparing mine I personally—"

"A video about tea?" Astrid blinked. "Talk about perfect timing in."

"…this fine land is called Royal Flush," the video continued. "Whatever could that name imply, I wonder?"

"But you're discriminating tea set you apart from the rest of the world," said La Brava's voice.

"Be sure to stay tuned," said Gentle. "My next video is an alarm, not just to my people viewers but all of society. Try to contain your anticipation until then."

The video then ended.

"That was short," said Astrid.

"It's Gentle," said Hiccup.

"Is he famous?" Astrid asked curiously and noticed the lack of viewers on the video. "People don't seem to like him very much."

"I only kinda know who he is," said Hiccup. "He's a villain that is known for causing trouble and recording it."

"Oh," said Astrid.

"He's been putting up videos for years, but he still hasn't been caught yet. I wonder what he's planning next."

Gentle was currently at his apartment looking rather frustrated.

"Poor Gentle," said La Brava. "You been working so hard that you been skipping tea breaks for a week. Are you all right?"

"Yes," he said as he leaned back and La Brava then went to grab some tea. "La Brava, recently heroes have fallen out of favour with the public. Their feckless actions have great distrust from the masses. It is always the so-called do-gooders are ill-prepared for complications. They don't seem to comprehend the crisis they're in if they did they wouldn't even dream of putting on a School Festival in these most harrowing of times."

La Brava then placed a cup of tea on his desk. "Yeah, but Gentle I don't know how I feel about involving all these innocent children in all this, you know."

Gentle laughed. "My dear, this scheme of mine is merely a wake-up call. Following my masterful incursion, the future heroes will be encouraged to grow stronger."

"Your plan is going to inspire you for mines?" La Brava beamed. "You're so cool, Gentle!"

"Now let us go over the route we will take to invade. Open the criminal folder." He then attempted to open the folder on his computer, but nothing happened. "It won't open."

"Oh sorry, I loved it for protection," said La Brava. "Just click there…"

Gentle did just that an open the folder and then they began going through their route that they plan to take in order to infiltrate Berk.

"This path has the fewest number of hero agencies and less traffic," said Gentle. "At 5 o'clock, the morning of, we will make our way to a side road here."

"Why not just use your power instead?" La Brava asked curiously.

"It would be unwise given the many heroes who patrol the skies. After a jolt we will splint through a lovely park, once we're on the other side, we will almost be there. If we move carefully and avoid drawing attention, it should take us just 60 to 65 minutes at the most. And then, I'm delighted by this part, you see this old house standing in the shadow of a hardware store."

"Yes," said La Brava as Gentle zoomed in on the house.

"It's actually charming café."

La Brava looked at him, surprised. "You're not going to have your tea outside as usual? That's risky."

"The owners passing 70 and barely managing to keep his business open," said Gentle sadly. "It's a shame, no one notices that had anything more than an old home and there are only five or six regulars. But La Brava there is no question that I must drink there because this cafe carries the most lauded of tea leaves the elusive Gold Tips Imperial."

He then looked down at her. "Don't you think that it's fitting for the grand caper that we're about to pull off?"

"Of course," she said as he drank his cup of tea.

Gentle and placed the cup down on the saucer. "Because of owners advanced age, it opens early at 7 AM. We can enjoy 90 minutes of teatime if we get there when the doors open."

"This is way more research than you usually do," La Brava noticed.

"After that, we go back to the side streets and pass the construction site, where we will find a slightly sloping mountain surrounded by forest. Once we climb that we will arrive at Berk Academy. Most likely will have to deal with Bloodhound, who excels at sniffing out intruders, once we get the forest, we must rub dirt and leaves all over our bodies to hide are scent from the mongrel. As for the school, there is a sensitive security system that is nigh impenetrable and covers the entirety of the campus."

"And that's when my job comes in, right Gentle?" La Brava smiled. "I'll infiltrate Berk's internal network and secretly disable the senses, because not to brag but I'm a highly skilled master hacker."

"I surely have the most wonderful partner imaginable," he said, looking at her. "My dear, I am forever grateful to have you by my side."

"Oh stop, Gentle anything you need you know that I love you," she said as she danced around.

Gentle then grabbed the back of her head. "La Brava, I do mean it. When I first began, I learned to upload my videos, but technology often eludes me. Alas, there were few views on the rare comments that I did get were harsh."

He began thinking back several years ago when he first started out. He was currently looking at one of his uploaded videos video which didn't exactly get the response he had hoped for.

"It's only got 56 views and had already been uploaded for over a month," he groaned.

He then heard the doorbell rang.

'That doorbell signalled the end of my melancholy days.'

He made his way to the door and found a young girl standing there.

"I'm sorry, I-I have to your account to get your address," she said apologetically fiddling with her fingers. "I'm a fan, I can help you carve your name into history. May I?"

'It was you, my first admire.'

Back in the present Gentle still reminiscing.

"Do you honest I had my misgivings, I was terrified that I was being too careless," he admitted. "But then, when we began plotting recording and editing as one, the views on my videos began to increase. La Brava, I am betting my soul and my prized moustache on this audacious Festival scheme! For the world! For society! For my courageous dream! And on other feelings that you have for me!"

La Brava burst into tears and hugged him. "Gentle!"

"My La Brava!" he said, hugging her back.

"Oh, I love you, my Gentle Criminal."

"I love you to my darling girl, I'll make certain that nothing stops me. No matter what we will succeed."