Bradley was currently slouching over a table in a grey-colored breakroom with NSA headquarters. He had a cup of coffee in one hand and he was using the other to support his head so he wouldn't pass out, though it isn't unreasonable for him to feel tired, after all how are you supposed to feel after checking computer monitors for over 19 hours. As the young programmer took another sip of his beverage the door opened, looking over he saw agents Stenson and Nilsson came walking in.
"Evening Bradly." Stenson greeted as he made his way to the coffee machine.
"Actually according to my watch, morning started over an hour ago." Bradley said taking a peek at his wrist watch.
"Oh, well I guess being in a windowless building staring at screens can really mess up your perception of time." Stenson said as he poured some coffee.
"It's all part of the job Stenson." Nilsson said grabbing a cup.
"You know we're technically off the clock you can call me Nathan." Stenson said stepping away from the coffee pot so that Jennifer could get to it.
"Well Nathan as I was saying this is standard protocol for us…well kind of." Jennifer explained as she poured herself a cup. "Normally we would have much more people on this but again due to what we're looking at." She trailed, allowing Nathan to finish the thought.
"I got it, I got it." He said taking a sip of his beverage. "It is pretty weird when you think about, I think Phillips is on to something, we got an unknown signal that we can't track that's being transmitted from somewhere we don't know by a mysterious part who can hack into are systems without much effort." He explained with nervous undertones.
"I have to hand it to whoever is doing it, they clearly know their way around code." Bradley said with a subtle admiration.
"You're applauding these hackers?" Jennifer asked.
"Not at all, I'm just saying that they know what they're doing." Bradley said about to take another sip but stopped momentarily, "By the way the term Hacker isn't as slanderous as you think it is, many actually take it as a compliment." He said bringing the cup to his lips.
"Thank you for that lesson in computer etiquette." Jennifer said with obvious sarcasm.
"You know sarcasm in unbecoming of a federal agent." Nathan joked earning him a slightly playful eye roll from Jennifer. "Speaking of which I kind or agree with Bradley on this one, whoever's sending the signal is pretty good." He said.
"Well good or not I hope we can find our perpetrators; this whole thing is getting more bizarre the more I think about." Jennifer said.
"Bizarre, but strangely familiar to me." Bradley said to which both agents looked at him confused.
"What do you mean?" Nathan asked.
"What…oh it's nothing, just reminds me of something that happened a long time ago." He said.
"And what would that be?" Jennifer asked.
"Well when I was a freshman at MIT, we used to hear some old ghost stories for the upperclassmen." Bradley explained.
"This reminds you of a ghost story you heard in college?" Nathan asked a little skeptical.
"It wasn't so much a ghost story as much as a rumor, but still it was really popular around the them time." Bradley began as he took another sip of his coffee while the other two looked at him with interest. "You see it goes like this, back in '78, a graduate student name Franklin Holbrook was doing research using university servers. As you know computers back then weren't as powerful as they are now but could still hold billions of lines of code." He explained.
"Alright." Jennifer said, following along with Bradley's story.
"Well one night when he was working, they say he found something in the code." Bradley said.
"What did he find?" Nathan asked getting more invested.
"No one was sure, the people who told the story described it as a whisper in the servers, like a message that no one understood." Bradley said.
Both the agents listened intensely to Bradley's, noting how eerily similar it sounded to their current situation, then Jennifer spoke up. "So what happened to Franklin?" She asked.
"No one knows, some say that he tried to solve the message and went crazy, others say that he was taken by some shadowy organization, either way he just disappeared, dropped right off the map without a trace." Bradley said.
After he finished his story there was a brief silence in the room, no one uttered a word, it felt like forever until Nathan broke the silence. "Well I guess you were right Bradley that does sound like a ghost story." He said.
"Yeah, well we probably should get back to work." Jennifer said heading for the door.
"Good idea." Bradley said as he and Nathan followed suit, seemingly anxious to get back to work and forget about Bradley's little tale.
Meanwhile many miles away in Berk, the morning sun was burning bright as Hiccup was rummaging through his closet, looking for something to wear for today was the day he was meeting Astrid at the Art Festival. "So what do you think bud?" He said holding out a pale blue long sleeve to show his dog.
Set animal was laying on Hiccup's bed and looked slightly perplexed at his human's behavior. "You don't like it." Hiccup said as he hung the shirt back up and continued to look.
The best way to describe Hiccup's mood at this point would be a mixture of exhilaration and terror. He was happy because he was hanging out with Astrid, but he was scared that he was going to to do something stupid. After a few more minutes of searching Hiccup finally settled on his attire, going with a green t-shirt, dark brown jeans and a black jacket.
"Alright bud, wish me luck." He said as he went out the door.
Heading downstairs he walked into the kitchen where he saw his parents sitting at the table eating breakfast. "I'm heading out for a bit, be home later." He said heading for the door but was stopped by his father's voice.
"Where are you going son?" He asked.
"Oh I was heading over to that art festival in the park." He said, although by looking at him, Stoick knew that there was more to the story.
"Is that all?" He asked cocking an eyebrow.
"Well…I'm also meeting someone." He said a little nervous.
"Oh, who are you meeting with?" Valka asked.
"Umm…Astrid." He said though seemed a very embarrassed about doing so.
"The Hofferson girl?" His father asked fairly surprised.
"Yeah, we were going to meet at the park and check out the venues." He explained.
His parents were both surprised to hear that their son was meeting with a girl, but at the same time they were excited, though it was more obvious in Valka's case. "Well then we won't keep you dear, have fun." She said with a smile.
"Thanks mom, see you two later." He said as he walked out the door.
When he was gone, Valka turned to Stoick who still had a look of surprise on his face. "Well Stoick you said you wanted him to socialize a little more." She said.
"Yes, yes I did." Stoick said, a small smile creeping on his face.
Berk's town park was a popular spot for people to get together, it was located near the town square and was often the site for public functions. Aside from some of the basic amenities such as benches, picnic tables and a playground for kids, there was also a large community garden. On this particular day, a large clearing in the park was being used to host many different venues for artists to show off their latest works, and they picked a beautiful day to host the festival, with spring approaching, the leaves were growing back and some flowers were starting to bloom. Near the park entrance, Hiccup stood waiting for Astrid to arrive, looking at his phone he saw that it was past 10 o'clock. With every passing second he become more nervous over whether or not Astrid was going to show, however his fears were quickly put to rest when he saw her coming towards the entrance. She was wearing her blue shirt, dark blue jeans, her red skirt, brown boots and a navy blue jacket.
"Hey Astrid." He called over.
Astrid turned and saw him, "Hey Hiccup." She called back as she walked towards him.
When she got to him, Hiccup tried to say something but he quickly stopped himself, trying to figure out what to say, 'What should I say, should I compliment her looks or should I just say hello?' He thought to himself, but then Astrid spoke up. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, just thinking, so are you ready to see some art?" He asked.
"Yeah, should be fun." She said with a small smile as they both entered the park.
Over the next hour they enjoyed the sights, checking out the various paintings and sculptures that were around them, with styles ranging from cubism to abstract, all the while they both seemed to be having a nice time. As they continued to peruse the exhibits, Hiccup decided to say something.
"You mind if I confess something?" He asked.
"Sure, what is it." Astrid asked a little confused.
"Well to be honest I never really took you as someone who like this sort of stuff." He said, hoping he didn't offend her.
"Don't worry about it, you aren't the only one, a lot of people think that because I like physical sports, I don't really like art or literature. To be honest sometimes I feel a little embarrassed about it." She said.
"Well you shouldn't be." Hiccup said to which Astrid looked surprised, "I think it's pretty cool that you like this stuff, and if anyone has a problem with that than they're the ones you shouldn't be worried about." He said.
"Wow, that's actually pretty well said." Astrid said.
"Yeah I've been dealing with that sort of stuff for a while, not a lot of people seem to like my interest in programming." He said.
"Well I don't know too much about computer stuff, but where this world is heading I think you're in the right field." She said.
"Thanks." Hiccup said smiling, after that they both continued to walk in mutual comfortable silence.
However, what these two didn't know was that they weren't the only pair walking through the art show. Not too far from them, the twins where walking through, although they didn't seem too interested in the art. In fact, the only reason they were there was because after their last fight wrecked the living room, their mother kicked them out for the day so she could clean up.
"Man, mom was steaming." Tuffnut said.
"Well it was your fault." Ruffnut said.
"Hey, you started it butt-elf." He accused.
"No it was your fault troll-face." She retorted.
As the two were about to get at it again, Ruffnut noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Looking over her eyes widened in shock, "Whoa, is that Astrid?" She asked.
Her brother followed her gaze and his reaction mirrored hers, "It is, and is that Hiccup?" He asked.
"Yeah, you think they're on a date?" She asked still in shock.
"Maybe, either way Snotlout's probably going to want to hear about this." He said as he took out his phone.
As the twins began sowing the seeds the discord, the other pair made their way to another exhibit and Astrid was getting a little excited. "Oh I love this one." She said.
"What is it?" Hiccup asked clearly curious but interested in the art around him.
"I always see this stuff when I come here, it's all art based on old Norse culture." She explained as she looked at the different pieces.
As Hiccup began to look, he was starting the share in Astrid's enthusiasm, Norse culture, specially the mythology has always been fascinating to him and a part of that probably comes from the fact that his family, much like many people in town are decedents of Vikings. Hell is Dad has several heirlooms from as far back as the 11th century. As he looked around, something caught his attention, it was a painting of a dragon, walking closer to it he could see the intricate details of the painting, but another detail caught his eye. It wasn't painted on a canvas, but a wooden circle that resembled and old Viking shield. This dragon had a very interesting design, it didn't have any horns but instead had some kind of ear-like flaps. It also had a sleek build and deep black scales, it was truly a unique design.
"You know if you didn't probably cost hundreds of dollars I would buy you." He joked to himself.
When he was about to leave he quickly noticed something else about the shield, on the outer rim, circling the dragon were Viking runes and something about them drew Hiccup in. "Wait a second." He thought to himself.
Taking a closer look at the runes something clicked in his mind that causing his eyes to widen, "Oh my God that's it!" He thought, however his thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. "Hey Hiccup?" Astrid asked.
The sudden interaction caused Hiccup to quickly turn around and give a quick yelp in surprise which alarmed Astrid. "Are you okay?" She quickly asked.
Hiccup took a few breaths and quickly regained his composure. "Yeah, I'm fine, what's up?" He asked.
"I was just going to say that I'm getting pretty hungry and I was wondering if you wanted to get some lunch?" She asked.
"Sure that sounds great." Hiccup asked as he quickly walked past her, Astrid was a little concerned but decided to follow.
The two went to a small deli not too far from the park and were currently walking on the sidewalk while chatting and occasionally laughing, the street they were one was fairly empty, most likely because most of the people were in the park. "So Snotlout dared me to try and recreate the vault scene from Mission Impossible using a rope made from tied of bed sheets." He said as Astrid laughed.
"You seriously did that?" She asked between giggles, "What were you thinking?"
"Hey give me a break, I was eight." He said.
"Did it work?" She asked.
"If by work you mean that the rope broke and I crushed my mom's rose garden, then yes it totally worked." He said with a smirk.
They both continued to laugh and after calming down there was a brief silence until Hiccup decided to ask something. "You know I normally don't listen to rumors, but I'm curious, are you and Snotlout a thing?" He asked.
"Oh God no, I know he likes to think we are but at best were casual friends." She said.
"Oh, well I'm just asking because you two seem to hang out a lot." He said.
"Well I also hang out with the twins and Fishlegs a lot too but I'm not dating any of them." She said.
"Good point, sorry it was a stupid question." He said.
"Ah it's fine, to be fair I don't really have much interest in most of the guys in school." She said as Hiccup took a quick peek at here.
"Well do you have any interest in any of the other guys." He asked nervously, this time Astrid peeked at him.
"Now that you mention it I might have…" She started to say but then was cut off when they heard a familiar voice shout, "Hey fishbone!"
The both turned and to their mutual shock and chagrin, they saw Snotlout along with the twins and the rather confused Fishlegs were standing on the other side of the street. "Hey, what's up cuz?" He asked.
"Crap." Hiccup mumbled, "Hey Snotlout how are you doing?" Hiccup asked.
"Oh nothing much, I was just enjoying a nice day at home when I get a text that said you were with Astrid, so I decided to come down here and fix that." He said.
"Yeah." Tuffnut said.
"You got that right." Ruffnut said.
"Wait, what, you guys told me that we were going to the art festival." Fishlegs.
"Not now Fishlegs." Snotlout said, "I got to take care of this first." He said punching his palm.
"Snotlout, why don't you just leave before you embarrass yourself." Astrid said.
"Oh don't worry babe, I'll leave as soon as I take care of Hiccup here." Snotlout said.
"Snotlout, can't we just talk about this, I'm really not in the mood to deal with this." Hiccup said slightly agitated.
"Well I'm in the mood to break your mood." Snotlout said which earned him a confused look look from everyone else.
"What?" They all said in unison over his failed attempt at word play.
"You know what I mean, not to take care of business." He said as he marched across the street towards Hiccup, however Hiccup noticed something and quickly became terrified. "Snotlout look out!" He shouted.
Snotlout turned around and noticed a truck was speeding down the street, however he was too scared to move and it almost hit him until Hiccup came sprinting forward and tackled him out of the way. As the truck sped past them Hiccup and Snotlout sat up and Snotlout still had a look of shock on his face. He then slowly turned and saw Hiccup with his head down and breathing heavily. "You saved me." Snotlout said slowly.
"Yeah, well you may be a pain but you're still my cousin and I couldn't just let you get flattened." Hiccup said.
"Oh my God that was so scary." Fishlegs said in shock.
"Forget scary, that was awesome." Tuffnut said, "Yeah." Ruffnut said.
"Are you two okay." Astrid said running up to join them.
"I think so, Snotlout?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah…I'm fine…thanks." He said to Hiccup.
This threw Hiccup through bit of a loop, his cousin Snotlout was thanking him, like genuinely thanking him. "No problem Snot…no problem at all." He said still surprised.
After the shock and awe wore off, Fishlegs and the twins took Snotlout home while Hiccup decided it was best to Astrid home as well. It was early evening when they reached her front door. Astrid was about the open it but then turned to Hiccup, "You know despite almost happened, I had a good time today." She said.
"I thought so too, maybe we could do it again sometime?" Hiccup asked.
"I'd like that." Astrid said.
Hiccup smiled a little but was inwardly celebrating, however his celebration was interrupted when he felt a sharp pain in his arm. Grabbing it he looked over and saw that Astrid's hand was forming a fist and realized that she punched him. "What was that for?" He asked.
"That's for scaring me." She said.
Hiccup just looked confused but then Astrid grabbed him by the collar and gave him a quick kiss of the cheek, which led him very surprised.
"And that's for everything else." Astrid said shyly as she quickly turned around and entered her home.
Hiccup just stood there for a second, almost completely immobile until he brought his hand to his cheek. Not only did he hang with Astrid, but she kissed him, Astrid Hofferson actually kissed him.
"Wow." He mouthed silently.
But then a realization struck him, something he almost completely forgot about, "I got to get home." He thought to himself.
Turning around he quickly ran to his house, luckily Astrid only lived a few houses down the street from him. Reaching his front door, he opened it and made a rush for the stairs, however before he could get far he heard his father's voice.
"How was your day son?" Stoick asked.
"What?" Hiccup asked, not fully hearing the question.
"I asked how your day was?" Stoick asked.
"Oh, it was actually really good." He said.
"Ah, that's good to hear." Stoick said.
Both father and son stood in awkward silence, both unsure how to proceed next, until Hiccup decided to speak up. "Well I'm going up stairs." He said.
"Oh okay, have a good night son." Stoick said.
"You too dad." Hiccup said as continued up the steps.
When he was out of sight, Stoick peered into the living room and spotted his wife with an amused look on her face. "How was that?" He asked.
Valka shook her hand and said, "Eh." But then laughed a little bit.
Stoick shook his head but couldn't help but smile a little at his wife. Meanwhile upstairs Hiccup entered his room and jarred Toothless out of his sleep and quickly opened his laptop and brought up the code.
"I think I've finally cracked you." He said to the code.
What Hiccup didn't know was that he wasn't the only one looking at the code, with NSA headquarters, Bradley was checking over computer terminals, seeing if anyone has made any head way in finding the code, however his morale was slipping.
"We may never find this thing." He said to himself, however he heard voice call him over.
"Sir, I think you may want to see this." One of his programmers said.
Bradley quickly went over to the terminal and looked at the screen and what he saw almost made him faint. In front of him was the code that they have so feverishly been searching for, Bradley actually rubbed his eyes to make sure he was hallucinating, but it was really there.
"Quick someone call agent Phillips." He called out to everyone who was listening, "Tell him we just found what we were looking for." He said.