A/n: Here's the slightly-awaited 50th chapter! Being as I didn't get any requests, I took that as you guys giving me the all clear to just do whatever I want, which is what I did. So yeah.
I hope you like crossovers!
Tony's eyes widened as he caught his first first-hand glimpse of space. In any other circumstance, it would've been beautiful. Unfortunately, the effect was rather ruined by the lack of proper equipment. The suit's power had been fluctuating for some time already, and the lights from the screen finally dimmed altogether. They'd actually been to slow for Tony's liking; now, the last thing he ever saw would be the failure to connect with Pepper.
He didn't think anything, not consciously, just let his eyes drift shut as he embraced the darkness threatening to engulf him. Before he succumbed completely, the scene changed. He hadn't thought that death would be brought along by a view of the ocean.
Astrid smiled slightly as she noticed Eret's expression. Though Ruffnut had mostly got over her massive crush on him, she still managed to freak him out with her lack of personal boundaries. This was one such occasion, where Skullcrusher had to send a warning shot at Barf and Belch to get them to back off. Eret noticed her amusement and scowled at her, only serving to further Astrid's amusement.
"Something funny?" Hiccup asked, looking between the two. Concentrated as ever on his flying companion, Hiccup had managed to almost entirely miss the exchange between the two riders.
"No." Eret said, at the same time Astrid offered the opposite answer. He glared at her again. "Just Ruffnut flying a bit close."
Hiccup smiled at that, understanding what he'd seen. "I'll tell her to back off. Again..." he said irritably, turning to the twins to give another stern warning that the duo would surely ignore.
"Ruffnut?" he called. She didn't respond. "Ruffnut!"
"What's that?" she said curiously, completely ignoring Hiccup's call. The others followed her gaze, seeing a slight ripple in the sky.
"Stay away from it - or at least approach slowly," Hiccup cautioned, "I've seen it before; it's the portal... thingy."
"It'll send us to another world? Cool!" the twins enthused. They didn't heed Hiccup's warning and flew straight up to the ripple.
The others followed, much slower, until they came level with the twins.
"Okay, let's stay here..." Hiccup advised. "If we just watch it, we'll have an idea of what's going on."
They sat in silence for a while, watching the swirl grow. As it got bigger, the area it encompassed started to darken, making it look as though there was a small patch of night in the middle of the midday sky. For a second it shrank back, before exploding outwards to cover the riders.
"Oh gods, not again." Hiccup said sarcastically. There wasn't time to say anything else, as the vortex pulled them in, and they found themselves falling.
The next thing Tony was aware of was that the Hulk could be very loud. Very loud.
He jerked awake at the yell from the Other Guy, and the second thing he was aware of was pain. Not too much; just enough to remind him that yes, he was still alive. Yippee.
"Please tell me nobody kissed me," he said breathlessly. From the tired chuckles he received, he knew it was the right thing to say.
Nobody spoke after that, until a too-familiar voice blasted through the comms.
"It's not over yet." Nick Fury deadpanned. Tony could imagine him now, all frowny and official while he kept turning like an idiot to see both the screens in front of him.
"Uhh... wrong?" Tony said sarcastically. "We won, the bad guys all got exploded... I think the others mysteriously died? Gotta love them hive minds."
"And now we have a new problem." Fury finished. Tony scowled; he was going to win in a snark-off with that man some day.
"What is it?" Steve asked, in full Captain America mode and just as serious as the boss man in the sky.
"I don't know, but they're about a hundred feet above you."
"They?" Tony echoed. The comm link cut off. Rude.
About a hundred feet in the air, Hiccup was complaining about his bad luck. He was also falling uncontrollably, but that kind of thing tended not to bother him as much as it should, given his track record for it happening.
"We'll have to find the portal again, but it looks like it just sealed off." he said, looking up at where they'd appeared from. They'd come out of the portal just as it closed, in fact, falling much slower than the strange creature that came before them. The red and gold object had landed some time ago, actually; he didn't have the advantage of wings to slow himself down.
"This isn't the time!" Astrid yelled, reminding Hiccup that his first priority should probably be a safe landing.
"Yeah, sorry..." he said. "Alright. Is everyone okay?" he checked. Everyone gave a confirmation - Hiccup ignored Snotlout's shrieks about how he was about to die - and he mentally checked off the first step of his hastily made plan. "Right. Let's get to the ground - slowly though, and I mean slowly," He glared at the twins. "then we can work out what's going on."
After a short glide down to ground level, Hiccup was surprised to find what was quite clearly the aftermath of a battle of some sorts. There were only a few people stood in the middle of the smouldering remains of the strange grey buildings.
Well, people was a loose term.
There was a green creature, who was normal if you discounted that and his bulging muscles - they looked like they'd rival even a Viking's. The red and gold creature from before was still there, and its face had opened to reveal a normal looking human. Speaking of normal humans, a man dressed in red and blue stood next to the green man, and beside him was...
"Thor..." Hiccup whispered.
"Dragons?" Tony said incredulously. He shifted his head, trying not to wince at the pain such a simple action caused, to check if the others were seeing the same thing. Well, Capsicle certainly was. Thor, on the other hand, looked... amused?
"Vikings!" the god said.
Vikings. Well, the dragons made more sense. Wait - Thor was a Norse god, these were Vikings...
"Ha!" Tony laughed. "Cap, they're meeting god!"
The man in red and gold said something - Hiccup wasn't surprised that he didn't understand it - that the dragon riders ignored. Thor was there. And he looked pleased to see them.
"Thor?" Hiccup said, trying not to sound too nervous. Behind him, the other riders had noticed the god, and were having mixed reactions. The general consensus seemed to be that this was an appropriate time to faint; Astrid was the only one still awake, and it looked like she would soon be following her friends into oblivion.
"Yes?"
And oh dear gods he was just as amazing as people said.
"You're Thor." Hiccup said dumbly. Thor smiled again. "Actual... god... Thor."
That was enough for the Viking. He slumped over, completely dead to the world.
The scrawny one on the black dragon said something that Tony didn't understand - he was so going to have to learn Norse - and promptly collapsed. Tony found he couldn't really blame him; he'd just met one of his actual gods, after all. The other Vikings had all met the same fate, and their dragons had assumed defensive stances in front of them.
"Hey, Point Break," Tony caught Thor's attention, "What was the little dude saying?"
"He reminded me of my name." Thor grinned. Tony couldn't help but chuckle at that, painful as laughter was.
"So, no names?" Steve checked, once again a downer. "No explanations?"
"No!" Thor seemed positively jovial, as usual, "The dragons could tell me though."
Lucky gods and their all-speak.
"What's going on down there?" Fury all but shouted into the comms.
"We've found some Vikings. What should we do with them?"
"Bring them to your tower, Stark. I'll come to you."
Another click sounded, and the Avengers were on their own.
"Okay, this, and then we get shawarma?"
After regrouping with Hawkeye and Widow, scaring Loki a bit and letting the SHIELD goons cart him off to locations unknown, the Avengers finally had a chance to tend to their Norse guests. A quick translation program installed in JARVIS and a few beds pushed into one room were all it took to prepare for the small group. The dragons were happy to follow and stayed calm after Thor had a quick chat with them, and now all there was to do was wait.
They weren't there for long before the little dude - the black dragon had been calling him 'Hiccup', of all things - started to stir. He woke up easily, and soon calmed down after he scanned his surroundings a bit.
"Where am I?"
JARVIS gave a quick translation that made the Viking jump, and Steve answered: "Stark Tower. It's a safe place," he added quickly, pointing at Tony, "he owns it."
"Oh." Was all the young man could come up with after JARVIS translated for him.
"Who are you?" Steve took the lead instead.
"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third." the Viking said, with a slight smile, "Bad names are supposed to protect us from evil spirits." he explained.
"These guys are Astrid, Eret, Snotlout, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut." Hiccup continued. Tony noticed the way he grouped two of the names together - twins, perhaps? - "And... where's Toothless?"
"Toothless?" Steve frowned. "There weren't any other people there..."
"No, he's a dragon." Hiccup explained, "And my best friend."
Best friends with a dragon? Damn, Tony wasn't sure whether he should feel jealous of or sorry for the guy.
"They're in the other room, with Thor." Steve explained calmly. Hiccup visibly relaxed at that, though he still looked a bit tense.
"Are the Vikings awake yet?" Black Widow asked, popping her head round the door. She frowned slightly toward the ceiling as JARVIS started translating her speech. "Fury's here; he wants to speak with someone."
"You up for it, kid?" Steve checked.
Hiccup scoffed. "I can talk; I'm not the chief for nothing."
Chief? Tony thought, giving the Viking an appraising look. Doesn't look like one.
Steve stayed in the other room to wait for the others to wake up, while Tony took Hiccup through to talk to Fury. He soon saw the chief in the boy; he wasn't intimidated by Fury's commanding speech or posture - in fact, he looked quite used to being around people much more strong than the director.
"I am Nick Fury, director of the Strategic Homeland -"
"That's great and all, but I'm more interested in your plans," Hiccup said impatiently. "Do you have dragons here, or am I going to have to demonstrate?"
"A demonstration would be ideal." Fury snapped. Tony sniggered, revelling in the knowledge that Hiccup had managed to make unflappable director feel put out. You're doing great, kid.
"Okay. Toothless?"
Tony stopped laughing - it wasn't because Fury was glaring at him, honest! - and paid more attention to the black dragon walking over to Hiccup. He was the smallest of the group, but by no means the least threatening. Part of his wing was a different colour to the rest, a bright red made of a clearly different fabric. What had caused that?
"What do you want to know?" Hiccup asked politely.
"Are they dangerous?" Fury asked, subtle as ever as he glared at the dragon in obvious mistrust. Toothless glared right back, baring his fangs to the man. I thought he'd be... well... Toothless.
"Of course," Hiccup said, "But they're good; they won't harm you unless you harm them. Or me; they're fiercely protective."
Fury nodded. Tony used his momentary pause to jump in with a question of his own: "So they fly? And breathe fire?"
Hiccup laughed. He turned and said something to the dragon, which JARVIS didn't translate.
"Not telling us that bit, J?" Tony asked, frowning up at the ceiling.
"That was not a language in my database, sir." Jarvis explained.
"Oh, sorry. That was Dragonese." Hiccup explained. "I was warning Toothless not to demonstrate that just yet. But yes, he can fly and shoot plasma blasts."
"Cool!" Tony grinned. "Can I try?"
Hiccup answered by walking over to Toothless and hopping on. The dragon padded over to Tony, and Hiccup extended an arm out. "Hop on." he invited.
Tony, giddy with childish excitement, grabbed Hiccup's hand and practically jumped onto Toothless's back, injuries and tiredness be damned. Clint rolled his eyes at the show of maturity.
"Shut up. You're just jealous you didn't ask first, Legolas."
Clint muttered something obscene about where Tony could shove his statement, which JARVIS didn't translate. Tony laughed and blew a very mature raspberry before he had to grab onto Hiccup's back as the dragon took off.
"A little warning next time!" he yelled. Hiccup laughed at the response, saying something in Norse that was once again not understood, now that they were out of reach of the tower. It was a good thing that most of the glass had shattered during the battle, Tony realised, as neither dragon nor Viking appeared to have even considered to check the windows. Maybe they didn't have glass? Tony shuddered at the thought of such a primitive lack of technology.
Speaking of technology, Tony found himself more interested in the gear system by Hiccup's feet than the actual sensation of flight - it was an amazing feeling, and dragons, but... technology - which looked quite advanced for a civilisation that had yet to discover glass.
"You make that?" he asked, pointing at the contraption. As he did. he realised for the first time that one of the Viking's legs was missing - how he'd missed that, he'd never know.
Hiccup followed Tony's gaze and nodded, guessing what he was asking. He opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it.
He was just starting to enjoy the little flight when a slight buzz in his ear reminded him of the comms unit he'd had forced onto him back on the helicarrier. He sighed slightly as he realised why it was back online, and Hiccup slowed down accordingly.
"Get your ass back here Stark." Fury demanded. "Put your little friend on here and get that computer of yours to tell him what's happening."
"He's not a computer." Tony corrected impulsively. "He's an AI, or more -"
"I don't care if he's a talking monkey; get back here now."
"Fine," Tony sighed. He couldn't help but add a quiet "Popeye."
"What did you call me?"
"Nothing!"
That was pretty fun to write. I think I might make this into a full story at some point. If I did, it would be after I finish this fic. Speaking of which: I've decided that this will have no more than 100 chapters. I probably won't end it any sooner than that, but I might. Until then, expect (almost) daily updates.