Hiccup's hands moved frantically over his keyboard, trying to manually restart the group's badges.
"C'mon," he muttered to himself, his whole body shaking with panic. "Think, Tink, think." The only conclusion he could draw was that the residual explosion from the robot and Ruff's cuffs had sent out a blast of energy effective enough to cause all of their tech to malfunction. No matter what he did, he could only find WARNING notices and blank screens.
He nearly tore apart the soundboard trying to reconnect their audio feeds. "Guys, can you hear me?" he spoke into his headset. His voice trembled more than he wished it would, and there was only a faint buzz answering in his ears. "Guys, c'mon! Someone tell me what's wrong with Twist... Guys, please!"
Running his hands through his hair with frustration, Hiccup resisted the urge to slam his fist against the keys. He tried to close his eyes to calm his mind, but when he did, the image of his friends crowded around a still, blonde body was burned into his lids. All he'd been able to make out from the tiny picture on the news report were flashes of purple and a pale hand.
He shouldn't have sent her to stop the robot's blast. He should have figured out a safer way. He shouldn't be staring at a blank computer screen, his heart pounding twice as hard at the thought of Astrid's going quiet.
His hand shot out to slam her volume as loud as it would go. "Twist? Twist are you there?" Silence. Just silence. "Astrid, are you okay? Gods, please no. Astrid!"
There was a sudden screech of feedback in his ear that made him wince, and then a crackle.
"- you doing,Tinker!" Fishlegs' staticky voice sounded faintly over the line. "Code names! Our location isn't secure!"
"Dex?" Hiccup shot to his feet, accidentally knocking his chair a good few feet away and sending Toothless sprinting for cover. "You can hear me? Tell me what's going on. Is she alive? Is she okay?"
"We've been able to hear you for a few minutes now, but I guess you couldn't hear us. I poked at some of the badge wiring." The audio was still patchy, but at least Rolodexter's voice didn't sound panicked or grief-stricken. "She's not good, but she's alive."
"What happened?" Just that word- alive- it was enough to make the pain in his chest ease. His grip on his headset could have broken it.
"We just got her in the plane, headed back to HQ. She's not conscious, and her heart sounds kind of funny. And she's all..." He hesitated, though it didn't seem to be for a lack of words. It was as if he was nervous of Hiccup's reaction. "She's melting."
"Melting?" The question was sharply exhaled.
"It's something about the plasticity of her cells, I think." Rolodexter swallowed, and Hiccup could just barely make out the sounds of one of the twins' voices in the background. "She used her body to block the remains of the explosion after she got the cuffs in. They counteracted the plasma for the most part, but I think Twist absorbed all of the residual energy."
Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck and thought about all the theories they'd discussed concerning Astrid's cellular composition. Her skin didn't tear or burn like regular human skin. Her bones didn't break or shatter. If the matter of her body really did react like plastic or rubber, then receiving a large intake of energy would be similar to the time he was seven and angry and stuck one of his dad's action figures in the microwave. The thought made him a little sick.
"Get her here quick as you can. I'll see if I can figure something out." Tearing off the headset, he pushed away from the counter and jogged towards one of his storage units. If Astrid didn't have such a strange composition, they could have taken her to a hospital, but for the sake of her secret identity, she was stuck with them. It was a helpless kind of feeling.
Hiccup dug and dug until he came across the first rough draft of Ruff's cuffs. They were bulky and difficult to use in battle, but in theory, maybe he could use them to absorb the energy from Twist. After he'd gutted the heavy metal bracelets, he threw the excess steel in his scrap pile and carefully carried the Frankenstein-ish invention to the main floor bathroom. There he set them in the sink and snatched the shower curtain aside.
He had run frigid water into the bathtub and was emptying the freezer's ice bin into when he heard the clamor coming from the exit to the roof.
"Get her arm!"
"I have her arm."
"You have her elbow! Get her arm."
Hiccup ran to meet them, to assess the damage for himself. He hadn't known what to expect, but it definitely wasn't the sight of Astrid practically dripping from Snotlout's arms. He was trailed by Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who were attempting to keep the blonde's limbs from stretching to the floor. Her suit was rumpled and distorted in places, where the muscle had flattened and no longer filled out the fabric.
It was exactly as Fishlegs had said- she was melting.
"Oh gods," Hiccup choked, and then shook his head to shake off the disturbing thoughts. "In here, guys. Quick. We've got to cool her down."
They followed him, all six teens cramming into the bathroom. He directed his cousin to set her down in the chilly water, and was turning to retrieve the skeletal cuffs from the sink when he watched Astrid's serene expression slip beneath chunks of ice.
"Sh-" He only got out the first part of his swear before he was shoving Snotlout aside and half-climbing, half-tripping into the tub. "Snot, are you trying to drown her?" The hero made some indignant comment, but Hiccup wasn't listening. Immediately shivering from the cold, he attempted to ignore the sharp protests of his body. He slid behind Astrid and adjusted her so that her head lolled back against his shoulder.
It should have been nice, having her framed between his legs. Any other day, he'd love to have her lying against his chest and his arms wrapped around her waist. Now, though, he could feel the density of her skull beneath the skin of her scalp, could feel how it bent and gave the way bone never should. It made his stomach roil.
"Ruff," he swallowed, his muscles screaming in pain. "C-cuffs in the sink. You know how to use them." To Tuffnut, he said, "Go get a thermometer from the kitchen. We'll have to be careful not to give her hypothermia." With trembling fingers, he unpinned the badge from her supersuit and tossed it over the side. Her earbud was missing- likely fallen out somewhere between there and the city, given the way her head had dismorphed.
He was only aware of the way the group was watching him moments later, when he was muttering words of encouragement to the unconscious girl and trying not to notice how much the cold of Ruff's hands in the water hurt. His glance caught their stares, and he broke off mid-sentence.
"What?" The question came out a little harsher than he intended, but luckily being dripping wet and freezing took some of the bite out of it.
Fishlegs wrung his hands in front of him. "She's going to be okay, Hiccup. It's gonna be okay."
Even the twins nodded with identical sympathetic expressions.
Hiccup furrowed his brow. It wasn't like Legs to be the calm in the storm. Or for the twins to be in sync. He was about to ask about their strangeness when Snotlout beat him to the punch.
"Why's everyone doing that?" he growled with aggravation. "He's fine."
The siblings exchanged looks. Fishlegs blushed down at his feet. "You don't have an audio feed to the Forge," the teenager answered.
"What's that got to do with it?" Hiccup blurted for his cousin- and for his own confusion. His best friend wouldn't meet his eyes.
Ruffnut raised a blonde brow at him from behind her white face mask. "We could hear your begging."
Tuffnut jerked a thumb towards the girl settled against Hiccup's chest. "Begging for her."
He flushed. Remembered the way he'd been shouting in a panic for them to respond. Soaking wet, blushing, and likely turning three shades of blue, he probably looked ridiculous and pathetic. "I would have been the same if it was one of you guys."
Three of the four looked skeptical.
He opened his mouth to protest, but Fishlegs held up his hands to interrupt him. "Just get her better. Let us know if we need to take shifts holding her."
The indignation died in Hiccup's throat. Blinking, he snuck a glance down at Astrid's face. Her mask was lost, and her face seemed to be starting to regain some semblance of normalcy. Even in her condition, her lashes were long and thick and golden. Her lips were pale, but full and prettily shaped. He nodded and shifted the girl in his arms.
"Yeah. Okay." He was silent for a moment, and then he asked, "How much did you guys hear?"
"You don't want to know."
"Dibs on telling Astrid."