Turns out that getting ahold of Hiccup to request his help was more difficult than Astrid had originally anticipated. The first few weeks after his introduction were completely booked with his upgrading other hero's gear, and the following week saw him making minor updates to every hero's suit. By the end of his first month the entirety of the hero community had suits that could withstand every firearm short of an rpg, armor piercing rounds not included.
During this time, the few heroes who had interacted with him all noted his aloof nature. They all claimed he was nearly robotic in his responses and indifferent to their requests of urgency, only Forge-arm spoke kindly of him and stated he was going through a tough time, but refused to go into detail.
Finally nearly two months after he was introduced, Astrid managed to find him in the armory workshop alone one night. He was hunched over his workbench and tinkering with a circuit board. Astrid had gone over how she would go about asking him to trace Night Fury's tech without arousing suspicion, but only now realized that she'd never gave a thought to how she's actually go about introducing herself.
"Deadly Nadder...". Hiccup spoke without looking away from his task. "I've been expecting you." He finished his final connection and slid the board away before turning in his stool to face her.
"You have?" Astrid asked in surprise, true she hadn't had anything upgraded yet, but he couldn't have possibly remembered every hero he'd done work for right?
"Yes, I have." He responded monotonously, "You're the only hero who hasn't requested any upgrades to your gear, the suit was ordered by The Chief, however you need a new sleeve system that better accommodates your spine ejection to ensure greater accuracy. Bring your suit by tomorrow and I'll have it ready before your patrols the following day." And with that he swirled back around and pick up a dismantled tablet and the circuit board. Seemingly having dismissed her without much fanfare.
A string of annoyance zipped through her, but she reigned it in; recalling he was apparently like this with everyone and was working through something personal. "Actually that's not why I've come." She state's stiffly, still wrestling her temper back. "I was hoping you might be able to help me with something. I lack the skills to do it myself, but with everything that you've done with our tech and gear I thought you might be capable of finding my target." This seemed to catch his attention as he put the reassembled tablet back down and turned to face her again. "My archenemy, Night Fury, he's gone dark for about four months now. I'm worried he might be up to something bigger than he's ever tried before, something that would take a long time to set up and I might not be able to defeat. So my hope is that you could possibly track down his tech's unique signature and pinpoint his location for me."
Hiccup stared at her for a long moment, his expression remaining neutral the entire time. Finally he took a breath and spoke. "No need." He turned back around and grabbed some other device and proceeded to take it apart. "Night Fury's tech has all been shut down. I sometimes hack the villain frequencies to be on top of what tech your heroes will need, all reports on their side say the same thing: Night Fury has left the game, Hunter-mind seemed particularly upset about it as he and Fury were as close as villains could be, almost friends I'd say. But they all indicate he's shut down his tech and vanished. Hope that helps."
Astrid stopped listening after he'd said he'd left the super world all together. She'd lost him, the one person in the world who had managed to slip past her hardened exterior and brought laughter back into her life was gone. She was under no illusions, if Fury had decided to disappear like Hiccup claimed then she'd never see him again, even if he was standing right in front of her.
Why hadn't she just told him who she was when he first asked?
Looking back it wasn't for any concern over her identity, she could take on almost every villain in a hundred mile radius. Truth is, she was scared of the idea of fully committing to someone, until she was forced to chose between that or losing Fury all together, and she still lost him in the end thanks to Trapper. Having been lost in her sorrow, she collapsed to her knees, arms wrapped around her torso in lew of having his arms to hold her.
A soft pressure on her shoulder brought her back to reality. Looking up, the heroine found the co-quartermaster looking at her with concern. His lips were moving but the words were muffled, she struggled to comprehend them and finally shook her head to restore her senses. "Wha... what?" She asked in a daze. The sound of her voice made his posture ease as if he'd been terrified.
"I was asking if you were ok. You just seized up after I told you what I knew, pretty sure you were dry heaving too..." the young man trailed off for a moment. "This was never about stopping some evil plot was it?" His tone told her enough, her reaction had been involuntary and given her away.
"No. It wasn't." Astrid admitted with her head bowed, not use in trying to lie her way out of it, she was caught. "Night Fury and I were seeing each other, there was a misunderstanding and he was hurt by it, I've been trying to find him ever since." Lifting her head she met the man's green eyes, eyes that reminded her of the man she loved. "I became romantically involved with a villain knowing full well what the consequences would be if it was discovered." She told him with all the fierceness of the dragon that her hero name honored.
Hiccup matched her stare, not with a fierceness of his own, but with understanding. "Well lucky fo you I know a bit about falling for someone you shouldn't. I'll keep this to myself, should anyone learn of it, it won't have been from me." He said as he stood and offered a hand to help her up. Astrid took it and let him pull her to her feet. "I don't think it will yield any results, but I'll see if I can track any active Night Fury tech that is out there. There's bound to be some in the hands of other villain, maybe some of them know more than they're letting on." The gratitude she felt in the moment was explosive as she gave him an uncharacteristic hug, afterwards she punched his arm and threatened him into swearing silence on it ever happening.
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After that evening Hiccup became a bit more personable. Heroes began warming to him as he actually began to show them alternative ways their new gadgets could be used to better their chances in combat and even in catching the bad guys. Heather even got a shiny new sword whip to wave around when the the Hunter gang started causing trouble, this prompted her to invite the man to sit with them at lunch(Astrid was pretty sure she was also trying to rile up Gronckle since the two use to date). Nightmare invited himself along and spent an hour trying and failing to impress the women, Hiccup entertained them by intentionally misdirecting him in the use of the gadgets he'd demanded be built immediately after the mechanic started.
Not long after that the Zippleback Twins joined them followed by a slightly sour Gronckle. To Heather's credit she had asked the quartermaster out but he kindly explained that he was just out of a serious relationship and wasn't ready to date again just yet, Astrid had to put a spike in Nightmare's butt to stop his teasing but the thin man took it all in stride.
About a week and a half after the seven started having regular weekly lunches, Hiccup showed up at her apartment door; heaving as if he'd run there. Astrid was grateful she still had her mask on at the time. In his hand was a tablet making a soft pinging noise every few seconds. Taking a few deep breaths to get himself composed once more Hiccup held it up so she could see what was on it. A satellite view of Dragon's Edge, and a location on the outskirts of the city just ten miles from the edge of Berserk, was a black symbol of a dragon curled in on itself: Night Fury's symbol.
"This just..." Hiccup started but he'd to take another deep breath, "this just popped up on the scan I promised I'd do. Night Fury tech, and a lot of it just came online."
Any trace of exhaustion that had been in her bones was expelled with extreme prejudice as the excitement of having a lead filled Astrid. She quickly thanked Hiccup and went to don her super suit, a quick call to Heather and the two agreed to meet outside the location and scout it out, both Hiccup and Heather had been insistent that she be smart about the situation as the activation of so much tech at once could spell trouble. As long as she found at least a clue to Fury's whereabouts though she'd be happy.
Heather arrived nearly ten minutes after Astrid did and the blonde handed her a spare set of binoculars that Hiccup gave her before she took off. They not only gave them a view from a distance, but also tracked the source of the tech signal for them to accurately pinpoint where they needed to go. Turned out the lair was beneath the factory, as if a soap making facility didn't draw enough attention. The lair must have been new, Astrid had been to Fury's multiple hideouts during their relationship for quick visits that weren't hero/villain related and didn't recognize this one, but the amount of tech being activated clearly meant this was Night Fury's.
After infiltrating the building the pair looked around and used the binoculars again to find a hidden entrance: concealed within a large display of the soap made there(Bewilder breeze). Heather was trying to figure out how to hack their way in when Astrid looked at the mechanism and it scanned her, the door slid open before either could drop a defensive stance.
Sharing a look of trepidation the women advanced slowly. The area below was filled to the brim with inventions, some Astrid recognizing from her various fight against Night Fury while others were a total mystery to her. Heather pointed out a couple she had seen used when Fury had teamed up with Hunter-mind, but even then there were so many neither had seen before. The sound of someone digging around the devices ahead of them put the duo on high alert. Heather leapt to the rafters for the element of surprise while Astrid continued moving on the floor in case it was just Fury finally reappearing.
Quietly moving as a team with years of experience working together brings, they soon found what looked like a main area. A computer with a list of the tech surrounding them was suspiciously left on, but otherwise the place was empty. Astrid moves to the computer and began reading through the list, it held detailed files of what each device was and what it did; as well as if it was present in the warehouse or in the possession of another villain. The one that caught her attention was the one marked 'MISSING'.
"Empath Ray?" She asked aloud, before clicking on the file to see how dangerous it would be. Heather landed beside her and looked over her shoulder as the schematics were displayed, the device looked relatively harmless like a simple tv remote, but what it did was the more important information. However before they could scroll down and read the purpose of said device, a the pair were hit with an old device Fury had used more than once: the immobilization cannon.
"Ah I thought I heard unwanted visitors." A calm voice spoke from behind them. The heroines didn't need to look to know who they'd found, Hunter-mind leisurely strolled past the two and turned the monitor and scrolled down on the Empath Ray's information. "I don't know how you managed to track down this place, Fury used it for storage after he finished devices that he either didn't like or planned to loan to others in our profession. He was unique in our line of work; never harmed civilians because he gained nothing from it, didn't hoard his technology and shared it willingly. I considered him a friend, he was so different from other villains that I sometimes forgot he was one himself." Hunter-mind chuckled before clearing his throat and facing the two women with a stern expression.
"Which brings me here, one day he just ups and disappears without a word. Having few whom I trust among the villains, I found myself concerned with this." The man approached Astrid until he stood mere inches away from her face. "So tell me Deadly Nadder: WHERE. IS. NIGHT FURY?"