A week had passed since Aurora left Berk and returned her to Sanctuary. Her dragon friends were all amazed, seeing her with her new shield, sword and necklace, not to mention the Night Fury mark on her right cheek. Aurora asked Melody to offer some amber for her shield and she greatly let her have some of her amber to place into the crossbow.

"Perfect.." Aurora said as she entered her living space and placed her shield and sword next to a large basket with a carrying strap attached to it.

She laid down in her bed, wondering what Hiccup, Zenna and the others were doing. "Still thinking about your friends?" a voice said. Aurora shot up in bed and looked around only to see Shadow in the room, "Uh... who said that...?" Aurora asked, confused. Then to her amazement, Shadow actually spoke human, "It was me.. wait... I can talk?!"

"You can talk?!" Aurora exclaimed in shock.

"I-I guess I can now... but how..?" Shadow asked. Aurora looked at her Amulet and remembered the rule the Sentinel said to her, "For each deed performed her better or worse, a power is granted a blessing or curse... I saved Hiccup and eeryone from Viggo and Krogen and the Amulet must have given the power to talk to dragons along with that powerful roar I used.

"Oh, that's great honey." Shadow smiled in joy.

"Yeah, it is.." Aurora said with glee. Now she can finally know what her dragons were thinking. But that happy moment was short lived when Scar and Shear came in, "Aurora, come quick, it's Hiccup and Zenna."

Aurora and Shadow looked at each other and nodded. Aurora grabbed her shield, sword and basket and got on Shadow before they followed the sabertooths out of the Sanctuary and outside where they found Hiccup, Zenna and another man on Toothless.

"Hiccup, Zenna.. and whose that?" Aurora asked.

"This is Trader Johann." Hiccup explained. Johann waved to her.

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked.

"It's Speed Stingers, they've infested Berk while Zenna and I were out searching for Johann. We need you're help." Hiccup said.

"Right. Scar, Shear, you two look after the dragons while I'm gone." Aurora said to her two sabertooth friends.

"You got it." Shear and Scar said in unison.

"Let's go." Aurora said and the group flew off back to Berk.

When they arrived, Aurora saw the town completely empty. "You we're kidding, where's everyone?" Aurora asked.

"They're in the Cove." Hiccup stated, "This way." Aurora and Shadow followed the group to the Cove and when they arrived, Aurora saw that several of the people had already been paralyzed. Most likely those who had managed to escape had carried those who hadn't been so lucky to the Cove.

Among those unlucky ones were…

"Mom! Dad!" Zenna cried out, rushing over to her parents who were standing in a corner guarded by a still mobile Serpent and Serpentine. The maroon Hideous Zippleback crooned gently to Edgar and Henna, seeing that his Riders' hatchling had returned and was safe and sound.

Then, to Zenna's surprise, her mother waved her arms at her! "Zenna, love! Oh thank Thor you and Stryka are alright!" Henna said in relief as her daughter ran over to her and embraced her.

"Mom! You…you can talk! And your arms!" Zenna exclaimed in surprise.

"Your father and I were one of the first to be stung by those vicious Speed Stingers. Thankfully, the paralysis has worn off my upper half. Your father, I'm afraid, is still paralyzed from the waist up. At least he can walk around now," Henna said, sounding relieved to no end, as Edgar managed to walk over to Zenna. His whole upper torso was still paralyzed but Edgar was able to walk.

"Dad…" Zenna said, embracing her father, who tried to hug her back but couldn't move his stiff outstretched arms. Henna, herself, was still paralyzed from the waist down but at least she could speak. Needless to say, Zenna wished she had made some sort of medicine to cure them both. But it was tricky dealing with paralysis cures. For one thing, she would need a sample of the paralyzing agent to study in order to come up with a cure. Maybe she could try wrestling a few drops of venom from a Speed Stinger if she ever came across one…risky, but it was for the science of medicine after all!

Hiccup, meanwhile, had found his Dad.

Stoick the Vast, like many others had been paralyzed, and was now standing on a boulder with his sword in his right hand, arm outstretched and looking ready for battle but was now a little more or less like a statue. "Dad…" Hiccup said sadly before noticing Thornado, Stoick's Thunderdrum, watching over his father worriedly.

Gobber, who had been lucky enough to not get stung, hobbled on over to Hiccup. "He gave as good as he got, Hiccup. It took six of those Speed Stingers to freeze the poor bugger!" the blacksmith told his apprentice before hearing Stoick's muffled voice grunt out something.

"You betcha, Chief!" Gobber grinned.

"What did he say?" Hiccup asked his old mentor.

"No clue. Don't want to make him feel worse than he does," Gobber shrugged.

"Zenna and I should have been here…we could have been able to help!" Hiccup said dejectedly, feeling like a total failure.

"Nonsense, boy, there were too many of them. Nothing would have mattered. Tell you one thing, those Stingers would be dining on smoked sturgeon and yak jerky tonight if it weren't for your father and Zen's parents who were the first to spot the Speed Stingers and warn everyone else," Gobber reassured him as Zenna and her father joined them, Zenna carrying her mother over with Stryka's help.

"Aye, and in the process of warning the townsfolk, Edgar and I were the first to sacrifice in the line of duty," Henna smiled wryly.

"You and Dad have done the village great service, Mom," Zenna saluted her mother, who smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Stoick grunted out something again and Gobber merely said, "Couldn't agree with you more, Stoick!"

"HICCUP!"

"Look behind you, Hicc," Zenna winked at her one-legged surrogate brother mischievously. Hiccup looked behind him and saw Astrid running towards him and, before he knew it, she was hugging him tightly.

"Oh, Astrid!" Hiccup exclaimed, extremely relieved to see his girlfriend doing alright. "How's everyone else?" he asked when they stopped hugging.

"Everyone's fine. Well, except for…" Astrid said before gesturing to a frozen stiff Snotlout. The Twins were taking advantage of the Jorgenson boy's paralysis by moving his limbs to their own accord. Right now, they were…

"Stop hitting yourself!" Ruffnut exclaimed, slapping Snotlout's face with his right hand. "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!" Tuffnut jeered, slapping Snotlout twice using the poor paralyzed boy's left hand. Then Ruffnut made Snotlout pick his nose! "Stop picking your own nose! Stop scratching…" Tuffnut carried on as he and Ruffnut kept making Snotlout do embarrassing things.

Astrid, Hiccup, Gobber, Zenna, Henna and Edgar merely looked on with deadpan expressions.

"Actually, when you think about it, it's really not so bad," Astrid remarked.

"I could watch this all day," Zenna laughed.

"Zenna, manners," Henna reminded her daughter gently while Edgar let out a muffled noise that sounded almost like laughter.

"You too, Edgar," Henna looked at her husband who immediately shut up. Aurora looked at the paralyzed people, thinking. "I see you brought Aurora with you." Gobber noticed.

"Yeah, we figured she could help us." Hiccup said. "Being that she's been around dragons which might include Speed Stingers."

Aurora placed her large basket on the ground and looked through it before she found what she needed, "Perfect.." It was a medium sized medical needle with a green substance inside. "Uh.. Aurora... what's that..?" Astrid asked her.

"This Astrid, is Speed Stinger Anti-Venom.." Aurora smiled.

"ANTI-VENOM?!" Everyone gasped in shock and joy.

"Yep." Aurora nodded proudly.

"B-But how did you make anti-venom for Speed Stingers?" Henna asked.

"I live with some several dragon species that have poison, did you really think I wouldn't make anti-venom incase I accidentally got sting or bit by one?" Aurora deadpanned at them.

The group looked at her with blank looks, earning a chuckle from Aurora and Shadow. She went over to Zenna's parents first, "This should get rid of the paralysis in a minutes' tops." she declared as she injected a small portion of the anti-venom into Henna's legs and into Edgar's arms.

True to her words, the two Fiersomes were no longer paralyzed!

"Uh.. that's much better.." Henna stated with joy. Zenna was overjoyed and hugged her parents.

"Now for your dad, Hiccup.." Aurora said and she injected Hiccup's dad in the arm and she unfroze, sumg the sword and fell on the ground. "Oof!"

"Dad!" Hiccup called as he and Gobber helped him up, "Hiccup, you're here. How am I unfrozen?" Stoick asked.

"You can thank Aurora, she made Speed Stinger anti-venom and she gave it to you and Mr. and Ms. Fiersome. It really works.." Hiccup said with glee. Stoick nodded and watched as Aurora gave the anti-venom to the other paralyzed people in Berk and soon everyone was unfrozen.

"There we go.." Aurora said with pride before putting the anti-venom needle away in her basket. Shadow came up to her and smiled, "Excellent job, honey." he said.

"Thanks Shadow..." Aurora smiled, rubbing his head. Stoick and the others came over at that moment, "Thanks for the anti-venom, Aurora." Stoick praised.

"Your welcome, Chief." Aurora said.

"You're quite a resourceful girl, Aurora. Maybe you could teach me how to make Anti venom?" Zenna asked. Aurora chuckled and replied, "I don't see why not." earning a large, "YES!" from Zenna.

"It's going to be dark soon. The Speed Stingers will be back for the rest of the food." Astrid said, waling over to Hiccup.

"Gather the other Dragon Riders. We're heading out," Hiccup said.

Astrid smiled and went to alert the others. "Hiccup, you and Zenna be careful," Henna told him softly as Zenna strapped on her battle sticks.

"We will mom." Zenna promised.

Aurora grabbed her basket and placed it on her back again. In just a few minutes, Astrid had assembled all of the other Riders. "Okay, we're ready," she said, accompanied by the Twins and Fishlegs.

"Guys, these dragons only come out at night so we need to find where they sleep during the day. The only problem is we need to find their nest before sundown or…" Hiccup trailed off, looking a bit nervous.

"Can we not think about the or, please?" Astrid requested.

"Yeah, they came out of nowhere like a pack of wild badgers, scavenging and uh…and…" Fishlegs said.

"Badgeging," Tuffnut suddenly said, making Toothless and Stryka both warble in confusion while Hiccup, Zenna, Astrid and Fishlegs looked at him incredulously.

"What? That's what a badger does. It badges," Tuffnut told them.

"We don't even have badgers here on Berk," Zenna pointed out.

"Well thanks for that. Uh…let's go," Hiccup then said. "Let's split up and search Berk for possible Speed Stinger hiding spots," Hiccup instructed the team.

"Right.." the others said.

"Aurora, you've been around Speed Stingers a lot longer than we have. Any idea where they would be?" Hiccup asked.

"They like small, dark placed for sleeping." Aurora said. "That's the best place to start looking."

"So what's the actual plan?" Astrid asked. "Fishlegs, you said they follow their leader in a giant pack, right?" Hiccup questioned his chubby friend.

"Exactly. That's what I saw," Fishlegs nodded.

"So the plan is find the Speed Stingers, capture their leader, use it to lure them away," Hiccup told the team.

The rest of the Riders nodded and hastened to get ready. "I sure hope we can find them before nightfall…" Zenna said worriedly.

"Relax, Zenna." Aurora reassured. "We'll get them."

With Stormfly's magnesium flame illuminating the darkness, Astrid scoured some of the tunnels running underneath Berk.

Fishlegs and Meatlug searched the forest, the latter of the duo spewing lava uncontrollably while struggling with her paralyzed lower half. "It's okay! It's okay! Y-you're doing your best," Fishlegs soothed Meatlug before the two of them started spinning out of control! A branch knocked Fishlegs off of Meatlug and he was sent tumbling down some rocks and into a nearby bush. Recovering from his fall, Fishlegs scanned the area only to not see a Speed Stinger in sight.

The Twins, meanwhile, burst into an empty house, armed and ready. Tuffnut had a sword while Ruffnut had a spear. Seeing no Speed Stingers in one house, they tried another…and another. At the last house, Ruffnut thought it'd be a good idea to poke her brother's behind with her spear. Tuffnut yelped and fell to the floor, thinking that a Speed Stinger had got him. "I've been stung! I can't feel my tail!" the male Thorston yelped before hearing his sister snicker. Glaring at Ruffnut, Tuffnut threatened her with, "When this paralysis wears off, you're dead."

Snotlout and Hookfang checked the open fields, "Oh when I find those Speed Stingers I have only one word for them. Annihilate!" he exclaimed and Hookfang tossed him into the air and into a tree, "Aghhhh!"

THUD!

"Agh, Hookfang.." Snotlout grumbled.

After an hour or so, the Riders regrouped. "So? Anything?" Hiccup asked hopefully.

"Not a single Stinger," Astrid shook her head.

"Us neither," Fishlegs said glumly.

"I got stung," Tuffnut reported. "No, you didn't," Ruffnut glared at him.

"We didn't find anything either," Zenna shrugged, Stryka warbling worriedly.

That's when Aurora and Shadow came down, "Did you find them?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah, there in a cave near the village, this way." Aurora said and she led the riders to the caves.

The sun was already dipping low over the horizon as Astrid and Stormfly found a sturdy metal cage and they, along with the other Riders, flew towards the cave Snotlout had forgotten to check.

Landing at the cave's entrance, Hiccup turned to his friends.

"Okay, gang, we have to move fast because it will be sundown soon and we need to get that lead Stinger out of there. Without him, the pack is useless," Hiccup informed the team.

"And, whatever you do, try not to get stung," Zenna cautioned the others.

With Fishlegs, Hiccup, Zenna, Toothless and Stryka entered the cave. Looking around, they could see hundreds of Speed Stingers clinging to the cave walls and rock formations with their tails supporting them.

Then, Fishlegs pointed and whispered, "Hiccup, Zenna…there he is…" and pointed up.

Looking up, Hiccup and Zenna could see the lead Speed Stinger. Sporting a red head frill on the top of its head and a stinger bigger than all of the others was the sleeping Alpha of the Speed Stingers.

Hiccup then fired a pair of bolas at the lead Stinger, successfully ensnaring him without waking him up. "Got him," Hiccup said to Toothless who, along with Stryka, went to retrieve the Speed Stinger. Both Night Furies growled and their two best friends smiled for a job well done.

The sun was close to setting as they dragged the lead Stinger out of the cave. It stirred a bit in its sleep, making the teens and their dragons look back, but stayed asleep.

Unfortunately for them, the rest of the pack just woke up.

Then, once the light had faded from the sky, the leader woke up. Fishlegs was the first to notice and paled. "Um…Hiccup…? Zenna…?" the chubby Ingerman boy squeaked nervously, prompting the two bonded siblings to look over their shoulders and see the snarling lead Speed Stinger! And it wasn't just the leader giving them the angry red eyeball, the rest of the pack as well!

"Holy Shields…this can't be good," Zenna murmured worriedly. "Get this Stinger into the cage right away!" Hiccup said frantically before the Speed Stinger Alpha broke free from the bolas wrapped around him and let out an attack roar!

Quickly, Hiccup and Zenna narrowly avoided getting stung while Toothless and Stryka both fired plasma blasts. The lead Speed Stinger roared for its pack to follow him but they were kept at bay thanks to Snotlout and Hookfang. Looking up, Hiccup could see that his cousin was finally free from his paralysis. "That's right! Run! Snotlout! Snotlout! Oi! Oi! Oi!" Snotlout cheered before one Speed Stinger jumped up high and stung him on the rear!

"Oh, come on!" Snotlout managed to say before he was paralyzed once again.

Toothless and Stryka faced off against the Speed Stinger Alpha, the three dragons snarling and poised to strike. "He's too fast, Hiccup and Zenna!" Fishlegs said frantically from Meatlug.

"Not for a Night Fury!" both Night Fury Riders said as the Speed Stinger leader tried to sting Toothless and Stryka with his tail but they fought back with plasma blasts. Then, the Speed Stinger leader tried to strike Hiccup but the Berkian heir blocked the stinger with his shield, only for it to be flung away!

Good thing Toothless caught it and tossed it back to Hiccup!

"Thanks, bud!" Hiccup thanked his best dragon friend before hearing a yelp. Zenna had just blocked an attack from the lead Stinger before it lashed out again, but some Death Song amber came and caught it, trapping it. "Got'cha!" Aurora cheered.

"Yeah, and I don't think the pack's too happy about that, Hicc!" Zenna gulped as more Speed Stingers came running out of the cave. "Hiccup, Zenna, there's just too many of them! We're surrounded!" Astrid shouted as the Speed Stingers ran around the entire team in a frenzy, poised to strike.

"Shadow, Magnesium blast spin!" Aurora called and her Titan Wing Dramillion roared and spun around in a circle firing a magnesium blast, creating a ring around her friends and the Speed Stingers roared and backed off, "Now Shadow, grab the leader!" Aurora ordered and Shadow grabbed the ambered Speed Stinger and flew away with him with the large pack following close behind, "That's it, keep coming." Aurora called to them. "Higher Shadow.."

Her Dramillion flew higher to make sure the Speed Stingers couldn't sting him. The Speed Stingers ran across the water with their webbed claws and were near the pair. Then Aurora saw a large island upahead, "Perfect..." she said with a smirk.

Shadow flew faster and made it to the island before the pack. Shadow dropped the Speed Stinger Alpha and blasted it free with Monstrous Nightmare fire. The Speed Stinger screeched just as the pack arrived. "See ya..!" Aurora stated as she and Shadow flew off back to Berk.

With the Speed Stingers gone and all of the paralyzed people now recovered, Berk set to repairing the damage those pesky speedsters had caused. While Zenna didn't manage to get Speed Stinger venom to study, she was pretty proud of herself for discovering that she was immune to it.

"Nasty creatures, those Speed Stingers," Stoick remarked, hefting a wooden beam up. "

Aye, but we have a few nasty creatures of our own around here," Gobber told him, watching the Twins and Gustav play around with a still-paralyzed Snotlout.

Meanwhile Hiccup and Zenna had decided to give Johann a lift back to his ship. "Thank you again for the rescue, Master Hiccup and Lady Zenna," Trader Johann thanked the two teens profusely.

"No problem, Johann. Zenna and I are just glad everything's back to normal," Hiccup smiled.

"Let's just hope that we don't see any Speed Stingers for a while," Zenna said.

"Oh, before you two go, I have a something for each of you," Johann said, rummaging through his wares.

"Some little tokens of my appreciation," Johann said, giving Hiccup a large bottle of squid ink and a set of Greek medical instruments for Zenna!

"Pure squid ink, wrestled from the Colossal Squid of the Northern Waters and the finest set of physician's tools from Hippocrates' School of Medicine," Johann told them.

"Holy Shields…" Zenna took the kit and nearly fainted out of sheer joy with Strkya supporting her.

"Wow! Thanks, Johann!" Hiccup grinned.

"Your welcome." Johann stated. Then Aurora and Shadow came over, "Hey guys, time for us to head back." Aurora said.

"Thanks for helping us, Aurora." Hiccup said with a smile.

"No problem, see you guys later.." Aurora said as she and Shadow flew off back to their Sanctuary.