Hi, guys! Thanks for stopping by. This is my second fan fiction about How to Train Your Dragon.

This is a modern AU story. Hopefully you'll like it.

Reminder: How To Train Your Dragon movie franchise is owned by Dreamworks Animation and the book series is owned by Cressida Cowell

Chapter 1:

"Hiccup! Fishlegs! For the fiftieth time, stop fooling around in the fucking lab! And what happened to this place? It looks more like a giant trash can than a laboratory!" A six feet five man with long beards dangling in front of his chest fought his way through piles of equipment, data sheets, computers, and machines while trying to not step on some sensitive, million dollars electronic devices. "How can you work in this mess?"

"Come on, Gobber, we are just having fun here," Still romping around with his co-worker, Hiccup Haddock, an engineer who was working for a private technology company called "Muspelheim", laughed at his superior, Main Engineer Gobber.

"What in the name of…Fishlegs! Put that sensor on the table right now! Mr. Timothy bought that for fifty thousand dollars! Fifty thousand! It's for god damned research purposes, not a knock-off grenade that you use to throw at someone!" Main Engineer Gobber the Belch dashed over to Fishlegs and seized the black and opaque sensor from Fishlegs right hand and rested it carefully in a box with foam to protect the contaminants from impact..

Hiccup and Fishlegs were both dressed in their white, water-and-slightly-fire proof lab coats. Holding a clipboard with some papers attached to it, he rolled the long sleeves of his lab coat up, exposing the scars and cuts on his arms from multiple accidents during field testing and constructing weird and whimsy machines. For an 18-year-old, Hiccup had an absolutely average body shape, five feet eight, skinny torso, not a lot of muscles and not a lot of fats, just like a boy that could be easily overlooked in a crowd. His forest green eyes were slightly covered behind his long, dark brown hair. Fishlegs was completely oversized, as large as three Hiccups. His lab coat was customized due to his unusual size.

"What's the big deal with that shit? Just ask Mr. Timothy and buy another one. This company is rich," Hiccup humorously and carelessly made a gesture of "counting money" and pointed at the sensor with the hand that held a clipboard with research data. "And I can see that your profanity problem hasn't been solved yet. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Timothy won't be happy about that."

"First of all, that sensor is a big shit. Mr. Timothy gave that to you because he trusts you. Second, this company is not fucking rich, or no longer fucking rich. Do you know how much money we need every month and how much money you guys wasted? You are the most talented engineer in this company, so please stop acting like a five-year-old," While Gobber questioned Hiccup, Fighlegs tried to move away silently and avoid getting himself questioned by Gobber. Everyone in the science and engineering department knew that being questioned by Gobber was better than being questioned by people holding guns.

"And where do you think you are going? You are not inculpable, Fishlegs," Gobber raised his tone. "Don't try to sneak your butt out and pretend that you didn't do shit."

Fishlegs froze. He put his hands into his pocket and looked around pretending that he was innocent.

After a long pause, Gobber signed, "I know that you two are intelligent and whatnot, and we can tolerate some of your minor 'fooling around', but if you get yourselves into some serious troubles, you are not the only two people who will get your ass kicked."

Muspelheim, a private company that dealt with every kind of technology, from electronic cloaking to create a spaceship that could land on the sun without getting itself evaporated. The Timothy family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in this world, which used to dominate the nasdaq, founded this company a couple of decades ago in order to create their personal laboratory that could surpass DARPA. Today, Muspelheim became one of the most advanced technology companies. With its 150 engineers from all around the globe, even DARPA wouldn't, and couldn't say that themselves were in the lead. The advancement of this company forced their engineers to use high-quality apparatuses, computers, equipment, and materials to serve their customers, otherwise, their fame that spent decades to build up would vanish instantly. The Timothy family, which spent billions and billions of dollars for Muspelheim, almost went bankrupt during some of the most severe time periods of this company.

Their clients, in order to receive one of the best technical supports and services in this world, must pay a crazy amount of money to Muspelheim. The expensiveness of dealing with high tech wasn't a joke. The average cost for a project would vary from around nine hundred thousand to two million. Some big projects, like when two years ago, a mysterious client paid eight million dollars for a genetic decode system that could fully read and analyze the DNA of a race.

The headquarter of Muspelheim, Asgard, was located in the mountains six miles north of Asheville, North Carolina, near Mount. Mitchell. From the outside, Asgard was just a five-story high concrete building in the forest, but it contained one of the most advanced laboratories and some apparatuses that existed only in this building. Nearly 40 engineers and 20 scientists worked directly in Asgard, and the rest were scattered around in different bases of Muspelheim.

Hiccup Haddock, 18 years old, became the youngest but most talented engineer that Muspelheim had. The president of Muspelheim, Mr. Timothy, personally interviewed him and hired him right after Hiccup graduated from high school. To Muspelheim, Mr. Timothy never made mistakes, and he was like a prophet to this company. He brought Muspelheim back from downfalls like how Franklin Roosevelt pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression Many engineers doubted Mr. Timothy's decision about Hiccup, but they had been forced to shut up due to Hiccup's outstanding performances.

The first project that Hiccup encountered was to design and create an exoskeleton that a group of mercenaries ordered to empower themselves. They paid seventy hundred thousand dollars and would glad to pay more if needed, but they wanted to receive a completely elite and unique product from Muspelheim. Hiccup was an assistant engineer in that project, but he created a key system that allowed the exoskeleton to carry computers, tracking device, environment sensors, arms, and even entertaining system, totally transcending the preconceived idea that an exoskeleton was nothing but a man-made muscle.

After that project, judgments toward Hiccup were changed. Engineers no longer view him as "a mistake of Mr. Timothy", but as one of the brightest engineers in this company. Mr. Timothy assigned Main Engineer Gobber the Belch as Hiccup's advisor and superior.

Main Engineer didn't directly work with one project, but he was in charge of all engineer in Muspelheim. Gobber was one of the founders of Muspelheim and a close friend of Mr. Timothy. His expertise and experience in engineering were the core of this company. Other technology companies tried to hire him, even gave him triple the benefits, but Gobber remained loyal to Muspelheim. Despite Gobber's cursing problem, he was a man that any laboratory needed. Mr. Timothy tried to help Gobber solve the problem, but it was pretty hard to alter someone's speaking routine when that person had been using that routine for more than thirty years. He could design a new airplane in a few hours, create an intelligent computer program in a few days, and even figure out ways to reshape the structure of atoms and molecules to form new materials that were not on the periodic table.

Under the directs and advice from Gobber, Hiccup partnered up with another brilliant engineer, Fishlegs Ingerman. This young duo was a legend of Muspelheim, and they earned the respect and fame in just a few months. Their contribution to Muspelheim bypassed most of the engineers that had worked here for their lives. Their lab was located on the fourth floor of Asgard with a great view of the forest and the Appalachian Mountains. To Hiccup and Fishlegs, there was nothing that couldn't be solved by the power of engineering, and everything was just the problem of correct constructions and materials. There were rumors about Hiccup and Fishlegs as well. Sometimes people talked about Hiccup and Fishlegs put a micro-computers in their heads to assist them during engineering. Others believed that Hiccup was actually a member of the Timothy family. Because of how close Hiccup and Fishlegs worked with each other, someone even said that they were gay.

"You guys already started fooling around, so I suppose your project is done?" Gobber questioned.

"No, sir, we were just trying to release some stresses and anxieties," Fishlegs replied.

"Then keep working," Gobber examined the duo's in-process project which was placed carelessly on a table. "How is this supposed to be an invisible suit, or electrical cloaking technology?"

"Just wait and see, Mr. Main Engineer. You'll get the invisible suit… I mean electronic cloaking technology in time," Hiccup confidently flipped through a few pages on his clipboard. "Do you want to take a look at our progress?"

"No, I'm good. I still have another twenty-five teams to talk to. I can't spend all of my time with this electronic cloaking," Gobber said as he walked towards the door. Then he stopped, and turned around, "Just a reminder, tomorrow a group of clients will come to Asgard. They'll visit your lab and see how smart you are, so better clean up this god damned mess. "

"Just like usual," Fishlegs shrugged.

"Oh, one more thing," Gobber added quickly. "The security team will be around during the visit. Seems like these customers aren't messing around. So, good luck."

Discomforts crept up the duo's faces. They traded a few complains and started cleaning their lab.

Muspelheim had three divisions: Engineering and science, treasury, and security. The engineering and science division was the largest and most important division, and of course, they were the core of this company. The Main Engineer, highest possible level of an engineer in Muspelheim, was the leader of this division. The treasury division was in charge of the money of course. They needed to make sure that Muspelheim was running smoothly without going bankrupt, and they reported directly to the president, Mr. Timothy.

Due to the intense competition in this field and the advancement of Muspelheim, some other tech companies or associations might be thinking of sending spies to steal classified data or research products from Muspelheim. A few years ago, a Muspelheim engineer was murdered in his house because his research product was almost dominating the market and the field. In order to solve problems like this, Muspelheim officially created the security division, which was responsible for the security of vital information and engineers of Muspelheim.

Right now the security division had 55 guards, all from military or private security companies. Lead Security Officer, Helga Ragnardóttir, was in charge of this division. She was a former SAS lieutenant, an Icelander born in England, a beautiful attractive blonde that had a large number of males who wanted to win her hands. Muspelheim hired Helga seven years ago when SAS kicked her out due to threatening another officer physically because he said something that offended her family. Helga did not have patience and generosity within her. In SAS, her soldiers gave her the nickname "Hel". This nickname remained with her after she came to Muspelheim.

"I don't trust those shitty security guards," Hiccup commented boldly.

"The guards… oh," After realizing what Hiccup was talking about, Fishlegs signed. "I know, but they are doing their best. You know that they only have 55 guards and there are around 150 engineers in this company."

"Anyway, it doesn't matter," Hiccup threw his clipboard onto a table.

"All right, if you say so."

Nearly 10 pm, Hiccup arrived at his house five miles away from Asgard, in a typical country community where everyone knew everyone. At night, the community was so quiet that after shutting down his car engine, Hiccup couldn't even hear the sound of pedestrians or crickets. He hopped down his sky blue Ford and turned his head towards the south, the direction of downtown Asheville. He used to have an idea of going to the downtown and see what everyone was doing. But he chickened out, he was too antisocial for that.

Fishlegs loved to visit downtown once in awhile. He said that he needed to refresh his mind from engineering, and downtown was a great place for that. There were restaurants, theaters, and waves of people at night that you might need to wait an hour for a movie.

Each time, after Fishlegs finished his long tale of how downtown was so awesome, Hiccup would always comment indifferently: "Sure."

Hiccup shook his head, trying to eliminate some useless thoughts in his mind. He walked towards the entrance and unlocked the steel door of a small, brick-walled house that seemed like an old fashioned British dwelling. Hiccup entered the house and closed the door behind him. His living room contained just two sofas, a table, and a few lights on the ceiling. The only thing that stood out was the walls. The walls were covered by data sheets, vital information, graphs and pictured filled with notes, and research results. Almost every day when Hiccup returned, he would tape one sheet onto the wall, showing that he overcame another obstacle in engineering. The walls were also his "reflection center": almost everyday after coming back from work, he paced before the papers and creating scientific models in his head, calculating the goods and bads of his work.

Half dozen pictures rested on a table. Hiccup protected these pictures with frames like protecting a fragile baby. One picture was Hiccup and Fishlegs standing in their lab smiling at the camera after Hiccup unveiled his talents in engineering. Another one was Hiccup and a six feet seven man with thick, brown beard wearing white lab coat standing in front of the entrance of Asgard. In that picture, the man put his beefy hands on Hiccup's shoulders like father and son. The pictures formed in a circle on the table, surrounding the picture among them. The frame of that picture illuminated under light, and the picture presented a boy and a girl, both around seven-year-old, sat in the backyard of a house, bathing in the sunlight on a flat, open grass field and an oak tree in the corner. The girl sat behind the boy so that she could cuddle the boy in her arms and rest her jaw on his shoulder. Unlike the boy whose auburn hair was untidy and tangled up like a bird nest, the girl neatly braided her blond hair into a ponytail behind her head.

Hiccup gently picked up that picture with his left hand as if he was afraid that he might break it, and examined the duo in the picture. He gently ran his thumb across the face of the girl in the picture. He smiled.

To be continued