Chapter 5: Self-Image

It was another sunny day at Berk High School, and the afternoon news reporters, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, had spotted some commotion going on in the school halls. Tuffnut had turned on his camera as Ruffnut says, "We are currently witnessing some kind of spectacle going on in these halls! I'm going in for a closer look!"

The two of them dig their way through the semicircle of students until they come across Fishlegs, holding his school books tight in his arms and having a look of total fear, along with the big school bully, Alvin, who's been held back so many times that he had already sprouted an impressive beard whereas most of the students in his class are still baby faced.

Ruffnut gets up to Alvin and asks, "Excuse me, Ruffnut Thorston, Afternoon news crew, we were just wondering if you could give us some insight as to what's going on."

Alvin replies in his scruffy voice, "This load of lard decided it was funny to make fun of me."

Fishlegs replies with a shaky voice, "I-I-I just s-said that you h-had a s-s-stain on your shirt!" he gestures to a yellow mustard stain on Alvin's white shirt.

Alvin picks up Fishlegs by his yellow shirt and asks, "You think you're better than me? Huh, you yellow whale?" He looks to the camera that Tuffnut was holding and yells, "HEY! No paparazzi!" and flings his fist to the camera, which Tuffnut just barely dodges.

Tuffnut turns the camera around to say, "If I don't make it out alive, just know that even through you birthed Ruffnut before I, I love you, Mom." He turns the camera back around.

Alvin then growls to Fishlegs, "Well? You gonna say something, you sofa cushion? Or do you need to go home to eat more cake?"

Fortunately, the school's Vice Principal showed up and grabbed Alvin by the shoulder. "Alright, Mr. Treacherous, that's enough."

Being the one person that he's actually afraid of, Alvin puts Fishlegs down and walks away, making the crowd dissipate. Astrid and Snotlout then walk up to Fishlegs as Astrid says, "Hey, sorry we didn't show up in time. If we did, Alvin would be eating those words about now."

Fishlegs replies as he tries to catch his breath. "It's fine, guys, really, I wouldn't want to cause any more trouble."

Snotlout scoffs. "Even now that you're a Power Ranger, you still can't get over the fact that you're just…well…yourself."

Fishlegs then points a finger to the air. "That is it, that is IT! No more being that tubby guy that people push around, it's time I get in shape!"

Snotlout lets out a laugh to that. "That's a good one, Fishface! Honestly!"

Astrid adds, "While I normally would never agree with Snotlout, I do have to say he might be right, you don't exactly seem like the kind of guy that can just lose weight at a moment's notice. I mean, is that not candy sticking out of your pocket?"

Fishlegs stands up and realizes that he does, in fact, have candy sticking out of his pocket that he was saving for later. He picks up the candy and throws it into a nearby trash can and replies with, "I can do it, I believe that anyone can do anything if they set their mind to it!"

Astrid shrugs. "Well, you seem determined so if you wanna swing by my place tonight I can help get you on the right track."

Fishlegs nods. "Yeah, thanks Astrid."

Snotlout then replies, "Yeah, if Fishlegs manages to get fit as me or Astrid, I'm eating my hat." Before walking off to his next class.

Soon after Snotlout walks away, Fishlegs digs into the trash can and pulls out the bag of candy before shoving the multicolored chocolate pieces into his mouth as Astrid stares at him with a look of disgust. Fishlegs notices this and looks to Astrid saying, "What? It's still good candy." She chose to just let him have it as she walks off.

That evening, Fishlegs had made his way to Astrid's house after school, with his parent's permission of course, and was sat at her dining room table with a look of excitement on his face as he says, "You know what? The more I thought about it, the more I'm excited to look into the mirror and see a whole new, thin me!"

Astrid replies with, "Again, you seem determined which I suppose is a start."

Fishlegs then looks to Astrid's mom and tells her, "Thanks again for making dinner, Mrs. Hofferson."

Astrid's mom replies, "Oh, it's not trouble whatsoever. I'm always happy to have Astrid's friends over…well, except for Snotlout. We have strict rules about that."

Fishlegs nods. "I get it."

Astrid then walks over to the table with a plate in her hand and says, "Alright, eat up, Fishlegs."

On the table in front of Fishlegs, Astrid plops down a plate containing nothing but a beige colored piece of meat, brown specs and some small green trees. Looking down at the plate, his excitement is soon replaced with disappointment as his face falls, Fishlegs then asks, "Uh…sorry, what did you say this was?"

Astrid explains, "Chicken breast, brown rice and broccoli. It's all really good for you."

Fishlegs points to the broccoli and says, "I recognize this as broccoli, but where's the cheese?"

Astrid tries her best to hide her chuckle. "Fishlegs, if you really want to lose weight, you're gonna have to give up some of the things that you love."

Fishlegs's eyes widen and his mouth hangs open to that. "Even cheese?" Astrid nods to that, so Fishlegs takes a few deep breaths. "This is fine…this is fine, really. I mean, this couldn't be easier, right?" He cuts a piece off of the plain chicken and puts it into his mouth before his face drops even more. "…This would be easier if this actually tasted like something…well, perhaps second dinner will be better."

Astrid glances from side to side before replying, "There…is no second dinner, just one."

Fishlegs's looks even more surprised. "Just one dinner? H-how much are you supposed to eat?"

Astrid replies, "One breakfast, one lunch and one dinner. With maybe a snack here and there."

Fishlegs's jaw practically hits the table. "Every day?! H-how do you even live?"

Astrid shrugs and choses not to point out the fact that humans have been living that way for eons as she says, "Well, you better eat up, we're going jogging later."

Fishlegs just blinks to that. "Jogging? As in…running?"

Astrid nods again. "Yeah, it's really good exercise and can help you get the body you want quicker. I do it just about every night that I don't have homework."

Astrid's mom adds, "I can confirm this."

Fishlegs blinks some more before taking in and letting out a deep breath. "Ok, alright, I've ran before, this shouldn't be that hard!" Astrid was very certain about what was about to happen, but she chose to keep her mouth shut…until she needed to open it again to put more food into her mouth.

Later that night, Fishlegs and Astrid stood on the sidewalk near Astrid's house, Astrid was wearing a thin, blue sports shirt and shorts plus a set of blue sweatbands on her head and wrists, Fishlegs had on a tan track suit that he bought earlier that day along with some yellow sweatbands and both had full water bottles in one hand.

After stretching a bit, Astrid asks Fishlegs, "You ready?"

Fishlegs puffs out a few breaths before replying, "Heck yeah! It's all about taking that first step, right?" His eyebrows were crossed in a look of determination as he picks up his feet in small steps.

Astrid nods and gets into a starting position before the two of them begin to jog at a fairly slow pace, Astrid was going a bit slower than normal to ensure that Fishlegs was able to keep up.

Moments later, Fishlegs was bent over onto the sidewalk with his hands on his knees, sweat saturating his yellow headband, and shirt and was barely able to catch any sort of breath. He takes some big mouthfuls of water from his bottle which gets him back some of his breath, but not all. Astrid, who was standing there with her arms crossed and had a brow raised with worry, asks, "You alright? You look a little winded there."

Fishlegs nods. "Yeah…yeah…just *pants* need to…stop for a second…*pants* H-how long *pants* have we been going?"

Astrid looks down at her watch and replies with, "About 2 minutes."

Fishlegs nods and looks back up to Astrid before asking, "And how long *pants* do you normally…do this?"

Astrid simply replies, "About half an hour."

Hearing this, Fishlegs's eyes widen even more. "…Ah, crud."

Astrid then states, "We can stop, if you'd like. My house is right over there." She points to her house which was just 4 houses down from where the two of them were standing.

Fishlegs shakes his head. "No…no, I…I don't want to…slow you down. I'll just…just need to take…a few…hours." He lies down on the ground.

Shaking her head, Astrid goes back to her house to ask her parents to help her move Fishlegs back into her house so he could rest up.

The next day, at the Dragerium, Fishlegs sat on a rock in the forest temple, taking a good look at his reflection in the special pond and feeling even more disappointed and insecure about how he looks, before shutting his eyes and letting out a sigh of distress.

The Dragerium's emergency alarm then goes off, indicating that trouble is afoot, so Astrid goes up to him saying, "Fishlegs, come on, we gotta get going."

Fishlegs sighs to that. "What's the point? I'll never be as fit or fast as you or as strong as Snotlout or as skilled as Hiccup. All I'm going to do is just slow you guys down." He then plucks his yellow Drago Scale from his Drago Morpher and states, "I have no idea what this thing saw in me. Alvin was right, I'm just fat load of lard…I'm not cut out to be a Power Ranger."

Astrid sighs. "Fishlegs, come on. I know you're insecure about this, but that's no reason to just give up. Ok, yes, you're not as fast or strong as the rest of us, and none of us will be as skilled as Hiccup, as he just has that much more experience than us, but come on, our city needs us!"

Fishlegs continues to stare at his reflection in the water as he just can't get over the feeling of doubt. Astrid sighs, feeling bad that the things she tried for Fishlegs didn't work and she can't force him to change anything, so she says, "Ok, well, I guess we can fight without you." She then walks down the many stone stairs to join Hiccup and Snotlout as they teleport away to the scene of the battle.

It was then that Alicia appears from behind Fishlegs and says with a light smile on her face, "I couldn't help but overhear. You're trying to lose weight?"

Fishlegs lets out an even deeper sigh. "The key word there is trying."

Alicia then takes a seat on one of the stones near Fishlegs and tells him, "Perhaps what you are looking for is a different perspective." Fishlegs glances his eyes over and raises a brow in an 'I'm listening' fashion. Alicia then gestures to outside the temple. "Have a look at the Gronk Zord." Fishlegs looks over to the yellow Gronk Zord, who seemed to be having a fun chase with the blue Nadder Zord.

Fishlegs shrugs. "What's so special about it?"

Alicia replies with, "Just listen. Now, the Gronk Zord certainly isn't the fastest, the strongest or the most agile of the Drago Zords, so how do you think it battles?"

Fishlegs thinks about it for a moment before replying, "I…I don't know." They then see the Gronk Zord spins around and nearly hits the Nadder Zord with its tail. Fishlegs's eyes widen and his mouth hangs open as it hits him. "It uses its size to its advantage!"

Alicia nods. "Exactly." Having been given this new perspective, Fishlegs looks down to his yellow Drago Scale and thinks hard about what to do next. He then gets a look of determination on his face as he slips the scale into his Drago Morpher and heads out to join the others.

Before leaving, Alicia says, "Hold on, take this. I think you will need it." She then holds out a grey Drago Scale, one about half the size of the normal scales. Fishlegs looks the scale over and his eyes seem to widen as if he knows what it means. He smiles and gives Alicia a nod before heading out.

At the scene of the battle, Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout had already shown up and got into their respective black, blue and red Power Ranger suits and were currently fighting a small swarm of Scale Shedders who were, once again, terrorizing innocent people.

Hiccup had his black Night Fury sword raised as he slashes Shedders left and right, Astrid kept her blue Nadder Axe up as she hammered the back end of the axe into Shedders and Snotlout was blasting away with his red Nightmare Blaster.

While slashing away, Hiccup asks, "Where the hell is Fishlegs?"

Astrid replies, "Wallowing in his own self-doubt, something you are likely familiar with." Hiccup didn't have a respond to that as he kept on slashing away at Shedders.

From nearby, Fishlegs takes a step forward before asking, "You guys call for me?" The other Rangers look to Fishlegs who was standing before the crowd, looking high and mighty.

Snotlout states, "Oh, good, you're here! Could use some help here!"

It was then that someone else steps up, a new Scale Crusher that had a ton of armor protecting its head and torso with a sword about as long as a person. The Crusher laughs out loud, "You pigmy hippo think that you can take me, the Iron Knight, on? Then you've got another thing coming?"

Fishlegs closes his eyes as he says, "I am not just fat, I am a Power Ranger! And if you think you can take on my friends, then you'll have to get through me as well." Fishlegs then holds out his arms to look like he's spreading wings as he yells, "DRAGO FURY…" Before bringing the arm his Morpher was clipped onto to his chest and saying, "…FIRE UP!" and bringing the other hand down to press the Morphing button on the Morpher.

From his Morpher, a flurry of yellow scales flows out and covers Fishlegs's body from his feet to his head before the head of his Gronk Zord leaps up to become his helmet. Once morphed, Fishlegs yells out, "GRONK POWER!"

Having seen this new pose, Hiccup asks, "What the crap was that?"

Fishlegs replies with, "I figured that our Morphing movements could use a little update, what did you think?"

Astrid replies with, "I actually liked it."

Snotlout adds, "Same here!"

Hiccup shrugs and adds, "I can admit when I see something cool. Now, GET OVER HERE AND HELP US FIGHT!"

Fishlegs nods, "Right!" He leaps in and is instantly surrounded by Scale Shedders. He then yells out, "HAMMER FISTS!" His fists then inflate till they're bigger than his head as he smacks into Shedders and knocks them down.

Snotlout then asks, "What is Fishface doing?"

From the Dragerium, Alicia was watching and states, "He's doing exactly as I expected him to, using size to his advantage!"

Having taken out a good deal of Shedders, Fishlegs stares down the Iron Knight, who was laughing loud and saying, "Oh, now it's on!" It raises its super-long sword and slashes down, only to be met by a crossing guard of Astrid's axe and Hiccup's sword, but even gave enough force to nearly knock their weapons out of their hands.

Hiccup comments, "That sword is heavy but powerful, let's be careful."

Fishlegs then looks up, down and around the Crusher, hoping to find some kind of weak spot. It was then that he spotted something on the creature's back, a needle sized hole in the beast's armor. He uses the reflection on the face-cover of his helmet to show Astrid this very spot. Astrid nods and leaps up before yelling, "Nadder Spine!" She shoots a yellow spike with enough accuracy to hit the weak spot dead on, making the Iron Knight yell in pain.

"Hey! That's no fair!" the Bandit yells out.

Hiccup states, "Says the guy who has a sword bigger than himself!"

Fishlegs then grabs his yellow Gronk bludgeon and throws it, hitting Astrid's spike and sending the spike even deeper into the Knight, causing his armor to start breaking.

Hiccup then leaps up and yells, "Now it's my turn! Night Fury Sword, Flame Mode!"

The blade of the sword then flames up, making Snotlout ask, "You're sword can light on FIRE?!"

Hiccup smirks from inside his helmet as he replies, "Snotlout, you should know by now that I always have a trick up my sleeve. HYAAA!" Hiccup leaps up and slashes into the crack in the Iron Knight's armor, going all the way through and making the Crusher fall down as Hiccup doesn't even look back.

The four Rangers high five each other while, in the lair of the Scale Shedders, Grisly, the man with the white hair, comments to Vidger, the head of the Scale Shedders, "Those Rangers just can't keep their hands off of me. Engage Mega-Beast Mode!"

Grisly presses a red button which causes the Iron Knight become twice the size of a house. The Rangers step back in a moment of shock as Hiccup says to the rest, "Well, it's not like we haven't dealt with this before."

The four Rangers press their Morpher to the dragon symbols on their chest and call, "CALL, DRAGO ZORDS!" From the Dragerium, the four Drago Zords descend from the skies and head to where the Rangers were standing. The rangers then yell, "Form Drago Megazord!"

The red Nightmare Zord begins by standing on its hind legs, its head folds down into its chest and its wings fold up until the 'hands' on each wing is pressed against its shoulders, the blue Nadder Zord leaps up and its legs and wings fold in and takes position on the right side of the Nightmare Zord while the yellow Gronk Zord does the same but goes to the left, finally a head pops out of the Nightmare Zord's neck as the black Night Fury Zord's head pops off and hollows out to cover the head before the mouth opens up, making a helmet, and the Night Fury Zord's body curls up until it's just the wings and attaches to the back.

The Rangers enter the Drago Megazord as they get ready to fight. The giant Iron Knight raises its long sword and slashes down towards the Megazord, the Zord holds up its blue and yellow arms to block it, but the attack was quite powerful.

Snotlout then calls, "Fire Ball, go!" the mouth of the Nightmare Zord opens up and spits a ball of fire at the Iron Knight, but due to the armor that attack didn't even leave dent.

Astrid then calls, "How about this, then? Spike Fist!" The blue, spiked fist of the Megazord clenches up and swings towards the Knight, but that was blocked by its sword.

The Iron Knight laughs and asks, "That the best you got?"

Astrid states, "We need more power!"

Snotlout asks, "What can we do?"

Fishlegs then observes the Iron Knight closer as he thinks to himself, "Come on, Fishlegs, come on, what's a weakness I can expose?" He then notices how, while the top of the Iron Knight is covered in armor, for some reason its lower half seems to be more exposed, and even a bit weaker. "I got it!" Fishlegs says while raising a finger.

Hiccup comments, "Fishlegs, if you've got an idea, then I'm all for it!"

Fishlegs nods then pulls a small, grey scale out of his pocket and says, "Power Scale, activate!" and attaches it to a clip at the base of his yellow Morpher before calling, "Calling in Quaken Zord!" The scale then shines a light grey color.

Astrid looks over and asks, "Quaken Zord?"

Having heard the call from her spot in the Dragerium, Alicia says, "I knew Fishlegs would know what to do with that scale."

While waiting for this 'Quaken Zord' to show up, the rangers in the Megazord hold their ground as the Iron Knight continues to attack them with its heavy sword, dealing a good bit of damage to the Megazord. Snotlout asks, "Well, standing around doesn't seem to be doing much!"

It was then that Astrid felt a low rumbling coming from her right, she asks, "What is that? An earthquake?"

Fishlegs has the head of the Megazord look to the right as he points out, "LOOK!"

Rolling towards them was a house sized boulder that appeared to be covered in spikes. Astrid asks, "What is that? Some kind of massive boulder?"

Hiccup replies, "That's no boulder!" Just then, the 'boulder' leaps up and uncurls, revealing a grey Zord with a split lower jaw and spikes all over its body. Hiccup comments, "THAT would be the Quaken Zord!"

The Iron Knight comments, "I knew these Rangers had rocks in their heads, but this is ridiculous!"

Snotlout then asks, "Ok, how is this thing supposed to help us?"

Fishlegs replies with, "Just see." He then pulls a grey Drago Scale from his pocket and yells, "Quaken Zord, come help us!"

The Quaken Zord roars out before curling up into a ball again and going into the arms of the Megazord. Fishlegs then says, "Alright, time to shake things up!" He has the arms of the Megazord slam the balled up Quaken Zord on the ground, crating a fissure that went right over to the Iron Knight, and made it lose its footing to where it falls back onto the ground with its head facing away from the Rangers.

Astrid comments, "Of course, all of that armor on top of the Iron Knight made it top heavy!"

Alicia smiles wide and comments, "Absolutely brilliant, Fishlegs. Where you lack in strength and speed, you make up for with size and intelligence!"

Fishlegs then calls out, "Alright, time to roll out!" The yellow arm of the Megazord then rolls the Quaken Zord like a spiky bowling ball at the Iron Knight, colliding with it with enough force to make it explode where it was sitting.

The rangers cheer out loud at this victory while also giving Fishlegs some serious gratitude for helping.

Later that day, the Rangers had gotten out of their suits and had made their way down to Gustav's Place to celebrate the day's victory. They each had a drink in their hand as Astrid says, "To Fishlegs!" The rest say the same as they clash glasses.

Fishlegs comments, "Aw, thanks guys. Really."

Snotlout then comments, "I gotta hand it to you, Fishface, you really did save our butts today. I'm proud to call you my teammate!"

Fishlegs blushes to this while Astrid says to Hiccup, "So, the Quaken Zord, when were you going to tell us about that?" They were seated in a booth at the back corner of the restaurant so they could talk about Ranger stuff in private.

Hiccup knew this was coming, so he replies, "I guess you guys thought that our personal Zords were the only ones out there. Well, there are other Drago Zords, each possessing special abilities and powers and each comes with a small Power Scale that summons them and allows them to lend their power to us, though Alicia and I only know of a few and have even less. There's our personal Zords and the Quaken Zord, and that's all we have."

Astrid then comments, "Well, it will be fun learning about them, won't it?"

Just then, a waitress comes up to their table and asks, "Hey, you guys want anything to eat?"

Holding up a menu, Fishlegs then replies with, "Yeah, could I get the loaded nacho platter with extra cheese sauce on the side and…" Having listened to what he was ordering, it dawns on Fishlegs that this way of eating is just how he got to that and the previous day's predicament in the first place. He looks to his friends who all gave him looks of concern before Fishlegs asks, "Actually…could I just get a salad?"

The waitress nods and says, "Sure thing. Anything else?"

Astrid comments, "Uh, I think we're fine."

The waitress nods. "Ok, well just holler if you need anything." With that, she walks away.

Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout look to Fishlegs as he sighs saying, "I know what you guys are thinking, but the fact is that I'm a ranger now, so if I don't at least try to take care of my body, then I might continue to slow you guys down."

The other three look to each other with surprise before Astrid smiles and says, "Whatever you want, Fishlegs. It's your day, after all."

Fishlegs smiles to that and the four of them get back to chatting as the sun sets over the horizon, ending a very unique day.