Stark had promised, and he'd delivered. The flight, plus a layover in Iceland, had taken half a day. And while Hiccup was eager to find his sword and reunite with his people, his body had decided that a nap during flight was more important. He wasn't expecting to close his eyes and nod off as he watched the world fly by underneath them. With a beer or two in him, plus his worries at ease, he'd managed—and managed to stay in his seat.

When he opened his eyes again as turbulence jostled him, Hiccup found that he was not prepared for the sight on the other side of the glass. They were coming in for a landing at the airport and were just low enough that Hiccup could get a glimpse of the city from the air. He let out a squeak of shock at the sight.

Buildings stretched to the sky like sea-stacks; they were so densely and evenly packed, he wasn't sure how someone could walk between them. Fae-lights of many colors scattered throughout the city, as if the stars themselves were on the ground. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the lines of fae-lights belonged to modern vehicles, as they moved while others did not. And that made the true scale of the buildings even more evident. Those weren't footpaths between the buildings—those were streets. And the lights... each row was an entire floor in and of itself.

The scale of the buildings boggled his mind—made worse by Nikki leaning over and pointing out the tallest one. "That's Freedom Tower; it's over a hundred floors tall." He turned to look at her, shocked, and she grinned. "Pretty neat, right?"

He nodded, feeling a bit numb, and watched the rivers of lights below, knowing that each small pair of dots was a vehicle like those he'd travelled in.

Hiccup wasn't sure his eyes could grow any wider as they came closer and closer to the port.

Seeing the mass of buildings seeming to scrape against the sky itself, Hiccup looked over to Nickolai, who was just now stirring from his own slumber, and asked, "How do your buildings stand so tall without collapsing from the wind or their own weight?"

Nickolai yawned, groaned tiredly and said, "It's a bit difficult to explain. But we use sturdier material."

"Steel, mostly," Stark offered, and Nickolai shot him a dirty look.

"And are all of those buildings great houses?" Hiccup asked, remembering how it wasn't unusual on Berk and other Norse settlements for homes to house five or six families.

"Some are; we call them apartments," Stark said. "But others are schools, offices, hospitals, businesses, stores..."

"A-part-ments?" Hiccup rolled the unusual word on his tongue.

"Homes stacked on top of one another. Sometimes two or more homes on the same floor of the building," Nickolai interjected.

Nikki pointed. "Yep. Mine's there, up near Midtown, see?" She pointed to one cluster of lights otherwise indistinguishable from the ones around it.

That was enough to placate Hiccup's curiosity as he 'mhmm'ed in understanding and turned back to the window, putting the knowledge away for later, even as he drank in the sights. Steel buildings... Wow! He remembered having spotted a 'bookstore' in the Iceland airport, and with Nickolai's resigned approval and some of Stark's money, bought a stack of books from 'Penninn Eymundsson' on a variety of topics, including history. But he hadn't had a chance to read any of them yet. And now, he was regretting not having found books on architecture, too.

"If you want a tour, I can play tour-guide," Nikki offered, with her 'smartphone' pointed at him to record his reactions. "This is my backyard, after all."

Stark yawned. "Tomorrow, kiddo. It's midnight, local time." He glanced at his watch. "Yeah, I'm going to get my ass chewed out once we land..."

Thor chuckled. "Pepper hasn't called?"

"Oh, she did. But I'm going to get the rest of it in a bit."

A long runway with more lights was coming closer, and Hiccup pointed. "Is that the airport?"

Stark nodded and Hiccup glanced out the window again as they sank below the level of the city's buildings. Amazing.

Some of the traders had told stories of the great and vast cities to the south of the Archipelago—London, Paris, Miklagard—but even the greatest tales he'd been told paled in comparison with this place.

A solid bump told him they'd landed, and as the airship moved to the dock for them to disembark, Nikki was already planning a list of places to take him, and foods to introduce him to.

"If you think you enjoyed the Airport grilled-cheese, wait till you try shawarma!" Nikki said eagerly.

Stark perked up and said, "Oh, introducing Wonder Boy to shawarma? I know a nice place."

"Ah, let's not rush the poor boy into trying something his palette isn't used to," Nickolai—who had taken it upon himself to watch Hiccup's diet—objected.

Nikki snorted. "That's the entire point of traveling. Trying new foods!"

"I seem to recall you turning your nose up at lutefisk," Emily teased.

Nikki pouted. "The idea sounded better than it looked."

Hiccup looked between them but forced a smile nevertheless. He had tried the dish Nikki called 'grilled-cheese'. It was delicious, and definitely something they could have made when he was a kid, but most Norse dishes were roasted or boiled. But the concept was simplicity itself—sliced bread, butter, cheese, heat until melted. The version she'd introduced him to had other vegetables in it, including the very tasty tomato, which had added a nice bit of juiciness.

So far, his experiences with modern foods were generally positive—and it was good to see that beer hadn't really changed much in a thousand years, except for whichever idiot had decided that adding bitter hops to the brew was a good idea. Hiccup had spat out the mouthful of bitter brew when he'd tried that. Although, according to Stark, having accessed the infinite library to find out, had informed him that said idiot had apparently been dead for almost two hundred years before Hiccup had been born—a Christian Abbot named Adalhard in France, who had written about it in AD 822. Why that idea had needed to stick around while his people hadn't, Hiccup had no idea. But the modern liking for bitter tastes aside—chocolate, hoppy beer and coffee (the last of which made Hiccup shudder in memory)—he was generally enjoying the new foods, and was looking forward to what the mead hall kitchens would be able to do with the new ingredients and techniques if... when he returned to Berk.

So, not sure what 'shawarma' was, or if he was being set up for a prank of some sort, he still played along. "'Shawarma', eh? I'll give it a try!"

Nickolai sighed. At length.

The wait as the airship came to a stop felt interminable, not helped by the fact that he had to stay strapped in so long as the big fae-light at the front of the cabin remained lit. It showed the modern belaying lines, and, he'd been told, so long as the light was on, he had to stay 'buckled'—although they weren't really buckles. He'd examined his on the flight to Oslo, and found that they used spring-loaded locking mechanisms that could be released with the pull of a lever. The instant the light went off, he popped the belt and stood, eager to be on solid ground once more. He was not used to flying for such an extended time, even when he had the luxury of riding dragonback. But at least these chairs were more comfortable in comparison to a saddle: they didn't even give you saddlesores!

Exiting the airship brought him out into humid—almost stickly—air, and he broke out into sweat almost instantly as he went down the metal stairs to the vast hard and gray road that the airships used to land and takeoff. Still other airships were nearby, and he heard the roar from the 'engines', and felt a gust of wind—which blew something solid right into him. He jerked, going to push it off, only for whatever it was to fly off of him.

Startled, he went for his sword, only for his hand to find the sheath empty, even as he laid eyes on the object. A disk about the size of his spread hands, it buzzed as it hovered a few feet off the ground; a small group of red and green fae-lights flickered on its underside and it seemed almost... curious as it circled him, hovering like a fly or hummingbird.

He reached out, wanting to touch the object and see just how it worked—and whether or not it was alive—but it pulled back higher into the sky just out of his reach, only to be right back in his face again once he lowered his hand. All Hiccup could do was just gaze in awe at it, hypnotized by its odd sounds and movement as he watched it, at least until a hand reached out for it from behind him and it immediately evaded just out of reach for a moment before taking off and disappearing over the roof of the port. He looked behind him to see Stark, his jaw set.

Stark scowled. "Paparazzi…"

Hiccup tilted his head and asked, "What's Pa-pa-razzi?" Another strange and new word.

"Scavengers of the rich and famous. Probably found out about you coming here, Wonder Boy, and they wanted to be first to get a glimpse of the newest Asgardian," Stark explained.

"Is that what that loud fae was? Was that paparazzi?" Hiccup asked.

Stark paused, as what Hiccup had said apparently made no sense to him. Then a look of realization replaced his confusion. "Oh, that? No. That was a drone sent to spy on us. It's illegal to fly them here, and very dangerous if one got sucked into an engine…" Stark said that last through clenched teeth.

"You think those Humans First! creeps spread the word?" Nikki asked, exiting behind Stark and yanking her rucksack over her shoulders, being mindful of her injured arm, which made Hiccup feel a pang of guilt.

"Maybe," Stark said thoughtfully. "But our quiet arrival just became first page news…"

"Cool!" Nikki blurted.

"Not cool. That means we'll be under the microscope, not just by the United Nations, but the general public as well."

"If you wish, I can run interference with them," Thor offered, exiting the plane last.

Stark shook his head. "I'll just get into contact with Security. And have them sort out which shithead piloted that drone."

Hiccup blinked, not entirely sure of what was going on. But the tone of mood suddenly shifted from excitement to tense, which made him anxious.

Once the group had begun walking across the large gray road to the indoor dock, his uneasiness had subsided. Since having disembarked, he had found himself adjusting to the warm and humid climate. A warm breeze buffeted him and it was refreshing feeling it through his new shirt, he caught himself enjoying it. It was certainly a change of pace from growing up in frigid temperatures.

"There he is!" A cheerful voice greeted them as they entered the indoor dock.

Hiccup looked through his group of friends to see a large man with broad shoulders, his arms spread out invitingly as he waited for them inside. He seemed on friendly terms with Stark.

"Had a good flight?" the man asked. After a moment, his tone suddenly shifted from friendly to anxious. "After Friday told me about this," he hefted a strange box that he was carrying, "and that it was for your newest adoption, I may have had to drop the news to Pepper. She wants to talk with you ASAP."

Stark snorted. "Is that all? Here I was afraid I was going to be grounded and forced to sleep on the couch."

The other man smirked. "I wouldn't rule that out."

"Great," Stark said sarcastically as Hiccup listened and hid a smirk of his own. Who was this 'Pepper? Stark's mother?

"So, who'd you adopt this time? And, hey, did you get a glimpse of that artifact that blew up the internet?" the man asked eagerly.

"As a matter of fact," Stark lifted his hand and motioned Hiccup forward with a flap of his wrist. "I brought it home as a souvenir."

The man gaped incredulously as the group parted and Hiccup walked forward.

"Him?" the man asked and looked him up and down. "So, what? We got Vikings making a comeback now?"

"Something like that," Stark said with a smirk.

The man scoffed. "What's next? Dragons?"

Hiccup froze.

Stark scoffed. "You know dragons are just misinterpreted dinosaur skeletons."

"Yeah, well. I've been reading a lot of weird crap lately that kinda makes sense, you know? And, hey, the Asgardians—no offense, Thor—"

"None taken," Thor said with a nod.

"—admitted that they came here before! So all of that ancient astronaut stuff could be real! So there might have been dragons and they got wiped out by, say, alien big game hunters or something. But there was something here that a lot of ancient societies knew about, something big, and now it's not. And it wasn't misidentified bones! How does a giant fire-breathing lizard just up and vanish?"

Stark gave the man a deadpan stare and looked like he was about to say something before Thor interrupted, "To be fair, dragons do exist on other worlds. I was chased by one in Muspelheim."

"See!?" the new man said triumphantly.

Hiccup swallowed and looked over to Nickolai and Emily. They were the only ones who knew that dragons existed, thanks to him letting it slip back at the cave when they first met. Something on his face must have shown, for the new person noticed.

"What's wrong with him?"

Stark glanced over at Hiccup. "You alright, Wonder Boy? You're not looking too hot. Flight disagree with you?"

"No, no, I'm fine," Hiccup forced out. Again he looked over to Nickolai with a pleading gaze.

Worried, Nickolai quickly approached him and placed the back of his hand on his forehead. "You don't feel warm, but I think it would be a good idea to get you a medical physical. You're not immunized against modern pathogens and you'd be susceptible to any number of diseases, superhuman healing or not. And with the wave of outbreaks lately I would rather you be safe than sorry."

Hiccup wasn't sure exactly what that all meant, but it was a change of topic away from speculation on dragons. So he replied, "If you think that's a good idea, then sure."

"We've got a doc back at the facility," Stark said. "He can look Wonder Boy over and get him his shots. But first... Happy?"

"Yeah, Mr. Stark?"

"Let's get Wonder Boy suited up."

The other man—Happy? Was that a name or a description? Although Hiccup supposed that he had no right to criticize—held out the case. On the side it read 'Stark Industries', and a long seam along the sides, with a hinge at the base, gave a hint as to how it would open.

Then Happy did something and the case popped open, revealing a helmet clearly patterned on Norse helms, with a nose-guard and eye-slits—strongly resembling his own helmet, long since lost, now that he thought about it—lying on top of a cuirass patterned after what he'd lost back in Norway. But it was obviously only patterned. Not only was the material different than the leather he'd worked with originally, the layout was different, complete with his crest on the breast, sending a bolt of loneliness and tempered grief through him.

He pulled the cuirass out—and then noticed that Happy had stepped back. But the case was still there—hovering in midair.

"Uh..."

He ducked his head under the case and saw four blue-ish lights at the corners, apparently keeping the case aloft.

Stark snickered. "Go ahead, try it on. In fact... let me help." He reached for his wrist and touched a button.

"I can dress myself," Hiccup started to protest—only for the armor to leap out of the box and slide onto him, the helmet slamming onto his head, the gloves slipping onto his hands, and the trousers and cuirass locking around his legs and torso with solid-sounding clicks. All in all, he was covered in a fraction of a second.

Stark burst out laughing at his yelp of surprise.

Wanting to give Stark the best glare he could, Hiccup reached up and went to pull off the helmet, only to find that it wouldn't budge. After a moment, he let his hands droop and sighed. "Very funny, ha ha."

Stark chuckled. "Don't worry, Wonder Boy. Here."

Lights and emblems seemed to appear in Hiccup's vision, and he found that he could read them.

"Toggle 'Civilian Mode,'" Stark said.

Hiccup twitched and found that there was a symbol that had that writing on it, the symbol looking like the toiletry-facility man-outline wearing trousers and a jacket. It took a moment and some very strange shiftings of his hands, eyes and fingers, but he managed to get the symbol to glow and then—

"Whoa!"

In what might be the winner for the strangest sensation he'd ever experienced, the armor flowed around him. In a matter of moments, he found himself wearing a set of what felt like leather gloves with the fingertips cut off, a necklace, a black leather jacket featuring more of those 'zippers', a pair of glasses like Martin had been wearing—in which he could still see some of those symbols hiding in the edges of his vision—a pair of heavy boots and found that his father's belt was much bulkier now...

Wait.

A pair of boots?

He looked down and saw that he apparently had two feet again.

"What the—?"

"It seemed like a good place to stash the extra mass," Stark said cheerfully. "It's just hanging out on your prosthetic. Should give you a good grip on slippery terrain, and we'll get you a good prosthetic later that can take the kind of forces you can dish out. I've got some ideas there."

More commentary had to wait, though, as Nikki, her voice awed, asked, "Is he an Avenger now?"

"What's an 'Avenger?'" Hiccup asked, looking to Stark.

"They are Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Stark and I are Avengers," Thor said, smiling proudly at Hiccup.

"I'm considering it, but for now, wear that."

"I can't take it!" Hiccup protested. "I would be in your debt—"

"Then consider it a gift and an investment. One day, you're gonna pick a fight you can't win and I don't want you getting shot by something bigger. Yeah, you handled pistol bullets pretty well, but I doubt that'll save you against machine guns, or stuff like those backpack bombs."

Hiccup considered, remembering the explosion, and then nodded. "All right. I accept it in the spirit in which it was given."

"The 'spirit' was so that you don't get sent to some afterlife inside a gemstone," Stark groused under his breath, making Hiccup give a glance and wonder what sort of gods Stark followed.

Adjusting the jacket and the glasses, Hiccup started to wonder what else they could do with Stark's enchantments. He was torn between wanting to learn the jacket's secrets, exploring the vast city, and finding his sword. But he knew that until Stark's servant found the location of the blade, he had no choice but to enjoy the moment.

###

T-mails were pouring in and Astrid found herself swamped by interrogative replies pursuing the truth. She could only continue with the official story—Spitelout was spreading rumors, there was nothing else beyond that—and reassure everyone not to worry about bringing elaborate offerings. But she still needed to confront Gobber.

She tried to put up a good front to mask her growing anxiety. But as she walked through the village she could hear murmurs and feared that word had already spread like a wildfire.

She took a deep breath, steeling herself as she stood before the forge. She could hear Gobber already at work inside.

"Gobber?" Astrid called into the forge as she walked through the side entrance.

"Ah, afternoon lass!" Gobber said cheerfully. "I hope the stress of organizing the big blot isn't—" he turned to see Astrid and immediately saw her stressed and tired gaze. "Er, oh."

"You didn't by any chance, have a mead with Spitelout recently, did you?" Astrid asked, remembering to tread lightly.

"Well, now, let's see. Today's Frigga's day," he counted on his flesh and bone fingers as he thought," last I remember seeing Spitelout was Odin's day."

"And do you remember what you two talked about?"

"Can't say that I do, lass. I must've had a few too many. I'm sorry," he said apologetically.

"It's okay, Gobber. I was just curious," she reassured him. She couldn't pin the blame squarely on Gobber. After all, just about everyone knew his weakness, and Spitelout would have surely known this being on Stoick's council with him. It just made her blood boil knowing the man exploited that weakness for his own personal gain. For Snotlout's sake, she hoped Spitelout would not do anything irrational the day of the blot.

A familiar voice echoed over the plaza and Astrid felt dread pool in the pit of her stomach.

"Astrid!" Dagur called.

"Astrid, I know you're here, Stormfly follows you everywhere," Heather's rational voice followed her brother's.

Well, so much for hoping to pretend to not be there. She swallowed as she exited the forge and watched the Berserker siblings land, dismount and walk up to her.

"We need to talk," Dagur said flatly.

Heather held her hand out in front of Dagur, stopping him. "I'll handle this. Astrid, are the rumors true?" she asked with a more gentle tone than Dagur.

"Depends. Which rumors?" Astrid asked, hoping to buy a little time to come up with an alternative.

Before Heather could reply, Dagur lost his patience. "The one about Hiccup being a god!" he blurted.

Astrid froze on the spot.

"Word is spreading that Hiccup isn't outside of this… bubble. But rather, he's in Valhalla with the Aesir and as a result, our people have been trying to get his attention," Heather said.

"So, is it true?" Dagur asked again.

Well, she'd been expecting this, and she very well couldn't pull a fast one with either Berserker. So much for keeping it a secret.

Astrid breathed in deeply and said, "It's true, Hiccup is a demigod. But I have faith he's outside of this bubble right now, trying to find a way to get us out."

"So baby brother Hiccup turns out to be a god? I always wondered why he was so hard to kill," Dagur reflected on the memories for a brief moment. "Hey, so has it finally sunk in yet?"

Astrid's brow popped up, not sure by what he meant.

"The reality that you slept with a god! Hello?!"

Astrid grit her teeth and was about to punch him herself before Heather shoved him back with an elbow to his gut. He objected with a yelp.

"That's not why we're here," Heather hissed at him, "we were wondering about this." She pulled out one of Spitelout's letters and handed it to Astrid.

It only took her a moment to realize what it was. "No, you don't have to bring offerings. Someone was trying to take advantage of Hiccup's legacy. But the situation is being taken care of," Astrid reassured.

###

As they made their way to the front entrance of the airport, the tension steadily increased in the group. Hiccup could tell in the way Stark held himself with his shoulders stiff and his jaw tight, and it seemed to be spreading among the others. Then, as they reached one of the main corridors, a wall of extremely clear glass separating them from the street outside, Hiccup could see a line of people outside the building, pointing boxes with glassy eyes at them, and lightning-bright fae-lights lit up the night in dizzying bursts. Behind them was a massive chanting crowd, at least ten times larger than what he'd seen in Oslo. They were waving signs, and being kept back by people in uniform. Hiccup could see a few of them carrying idols and effigies of Stark's armor, one stained with blood, another looking bizarrely disproportionate, with a strange mask, the jaw oddly curved. Another—he saw with a shock—was carrying an effigy of him, but his hands were stained with blood.

Hiccup turned towards Stark, swallowed and asked, "Didn't you say we wouldn't see crowds here?"

"I was expecting the paparazzi. Not a Humans First! welcoming committee," Stark said.

Nikki scoffed at his elbow. "I hate these guys…"

"Unfortunately, it's the American right to protest," Emily said.

"But they're like Westboro, but on steroids!" Nikki complained.

Hiccup wasn't sure who or what Westboro was, and he wasn't about to take a guess as to what steroids were, but he had to agree with Nikki. He was beginning to dislike these particular moderners himself. But their 'protesting,' he'd been so used to people going to war with him over the livelihood that he had built for himself and his people, that he didn't want to admit out loud that this protesting was a fresh, albeit unsettling change. That in mind, he wondered just how these modern humans would react to his lifestyle and whether or not they would go to war over it if… when he frees his people from the Bifrost.

One of the men in uniform—his jacket reading NYPD—came up to them and nodded respectfully to Stark. "Sorry, sir, but they got a permit to protest and everything. We've kept them back from interfering with traffic, but..."

He trailed off as Stark held up his hand. "Yeah. I got it." He seemed to be thinking, and Hiccup kept glancing out the window at the effigy of himself. They'd gotten the armor mostly right, with his emblems and everything... but the bloodstains that Hela had left were instead fresh and bright. And the expression...

He shivered.

Was that how they saw him? The look on the idol reminded him of Dagur's less sane and stable moments.

Stark turned to Thor. "That crowd is too big to have been checked for security."

Thor nodded. "I was thinking the same."

"All right." He turned and looked at the uniformed man. "All right. Change of plans. Make a big show of trying to get the limo through but let them block it and chase it off. We're taking a helicopter up to Avengers HQ on the downlow."

The uniformed guard nodded. "Got it. I'll pass the word."

A bunch of things happened quickly at that point, most of them flying over Hiccup's head. They turned around and went back into the airport, and a few minutes later, they were walking out onto the vast paved area where the aircraft took off and landed.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Some of those protesters might have been carrying heavy weapons—hidden in those effigies, for example—that could injure or kill you," Nickolai explained patiently. "So we're leaving via a different aircraft for the trip to the Avengers' Headquarters." He nodded towards a bizarre machine sitting on the pavement. "That one."

Hiccup eyed it. It was egg-shaped, with four narrow wings above it, set like a windmill, and another arm extending... back?, from the windows where he could see a pilot sitting.

He was just about to ask how it worked with the strange wings when they began to spin with a high-pitched whine, and the wind picked up, in a way that made him oddly homesick.

A few minutes later, they were aboard the 'helicopter'; Hiccup put the oddly leathery earmuffs over his head that cut out most of the noise, and then they took off.

"We've got a direct flight chartered," the pilot said through the earmuffs. "We just need to avoid Rikers Island and follow the Harlem up to the Hudson. Have you there in about an hour."

Emily coughed. "Best commute through the City I've ever had."

"Yeah, an hour from La Guardia might get you to my place. Maybe," Nikki added, and then she pulled Hiccup over to the window as the airport started to shrink underneath them. "Look!"

Hiccup looked, and now that they were both lower and moving much more slowly, Hiccup could see.

And it took his breath away.

The city glowed with 'millions' of lights, outlining the shapes of buildings and streets in dozens of brilliant colors. A bright blue spire topped with a red light glowed in the middle distance, which Nikki identified as the Empire State Building. Still more lights glittered, describing gentle arcs and strong lines across the river.

Nikki began pointing out sights to him, even as she bemoaned the fact that they were too far away to see some of the greatest marvels her home had to offer.

"Okay, we're over the East River... That's the Hell Gate Bridge, that's the Kennedy Bridge..." she motioned towards two grand structures below, "and that's Harlem over there," she indicated a broad stretch of glittering buildings on their left as the helicopter flew high over the waters of the river below.

Hiccup could only watch in awe.

The city was... alive. Even now, well after midnight, vehicles filled the streets, and he could even see individual people on the sidewalks, in the parks—even some on the high rooftops!

The contrast with Berk...

He remembered that first flight with Astrid, and seeing the Bifr... seeing what he'd thought was the Bifrost, and seeing the lights of their home from above, from Toothless's back...

That had been a beautiful, inspiring moment, and one that he still drew strength from, for more than one reason.

But at least when it came to the fires of his long-lost home that moment seemed paltry and insignificant compared to the magnificence before him.

His eyes welled up with tears and he swore to himself that he'd be able to share this view with Astrid and Toothless as well. They would race down through the metal and glass canyons of these massive buildings, he'd feed Toothless chocolate and laugh at the face his bud would make, and maybe even share this 'shawarma' food with them as well.

He took a deep breath and, with the back of his arm, wiped away the tears.

Then he jumped a little as Stark's voice came through the earmuffs. "Hey, Wonder Boy. Toggle on 'Location Overlay'; I think you'll like it."

Quirking an eyebrow, Hiccup fiddled with his glasses for a moment, finding the 'icon' and activating it.

Then he gasped.

His glasses displayed the gaps of the city, as if overlain with a very fine gridwork of wires, and little flags rose from various buildings, giving names and descriptions. The bridges below had names, as did the streets...

But then he turned it back off. With a smile, he nodded towards Nikki. "Thanks, but I've got a local guide."

Nikki grinned, and continued pointing out interesting places that she knew.

For Hiccup, it was an overwhelming deluge of sight and light and the knowledge that men had built this. It had taken centuries, years that he'd slept through, but there were buildings here—small ones, compared to the largest!—with more people sheltering behind their walls than lived in all of Berk. There were libraries and hospitals and great stadiums for the playing of sports, and all of it, all of it, had been made by the hands of man.

Yes, the gods of Asgard were powerful, but he could see now why they had sought refuge on Midgard in the aftermath of whatever cataclysm Hela had unleashed on them.

The people at the entrance to the airport, and at the museum of Oslo... they were terrible, to be sure, but seeing the greatness of what was one of the largest cities in the world spread out before him was a pointed rebuttal to the thought that this future world was all bad.

They reached the main river and continued north along the Hudson, and to the south, Nikki pointed out a massive bridge that spanned the river, the 'George Washington,' she proudly told him.

And on and on and on the city lights went, a vast hive of humanity, the greatest working Hiccup could ever have conceived of. No. An even greater working. He'd had dreams of making Berk into a home and haven for any that wished to come, but he never could have conceived of something like this.

Well.

He was just going to have to dream bigger, then. Make his home into something worthy of his people and the ones he loved.

As they left the city behind, he asked, "So... isn't my sword there?"

"Somewhere under it," Stark commented. "And Friday is doing a comprehensive search on the Hydra archives to find out where, how it's defended, and what else might be there. Don't worry, Wonder Boy. We'll get it. But there's no reason to rush half-cocked. Not this time."

"But—"

"Look. Assuming Heimdall was telling the truth about it being only 'months' for them, we could take the next six months to do this and for them it'll be less time than we spent getting here from Oslo," Stark said flatly, and then softened his tone. "I get that you want to get back with them. For you, it's been a week and it still hurts. I get that. But a couple of days for us will be only a few minutes for them. We can do this right."

Hiccup thought about it. The "time dilation" was a hard concept to wrap his mind around, even after they'd discussed it at length on the flight over, but, slowly, he nodded. "All right."

With that, he settled in, flipped on Location Overlay, and watched the small cities and towns north of New York City fly past.

True to the pilot's word, less than an hour or so later, they were making ready to land at a large complex of buildings, a large stylized A marking the tops of the structures, looking like it had been shot by an arrow—the sigil of the Avengers, he'd been told, just like how Berk's skull marked his tribe. Some things didn't change, it seemed.

Landing was uneventful, but as the wind from the helicopter died down, a tall redheaded woman marched forward, her body language upset. Hiccup was strongly reminded of Astrid in her less forgiving moods, and next to him Stark seemed to be having similar thoughts.

"Uh oh."

AN: To recap from a couple of chapters ago, Resurrection is currently undergoing a hiatus to build another buffer. So please, be patient until then. Thank you.