Chapter 6: Fighting Love

It was another bright day, well bright as you can get when you are in the deep, dark lair of the Scale Shedders where the hideous creatures are incubated and trained until they are old enough and strong enough to fight, which in some cases can take about a month.

The masked leader, Vidger, approaches his own leader, the white-haired man named Grisly, and kneels before him stating, "You requested me, Lord Grisly."

The man puts his fingers together and comments, "Vidger…I think I've done it this time. I think I have a way to shake those pesky Power Rangers to their very core and thensome. Especially their so called 'leader'."

Vidger scoffs. "Let me guess, a new Scale Crusher? Because the one's you've already sent have had SUCH great success." Even through Vidger's slitted mask, you could hear the deep sarcasm in his voice.

Grisly replies, "Oh, but this one will be far different. I suppose it will be best to just show you. Enter!"

The door to Grisly's chamber open up and, only showing from the back of her head, comes in what looks like a woman with snow-white hair. Vidger looks the woman up and down before stating, "Sir…isn't this…?"

Grisly nods. "The one, surefire way to tug at Haddock's mind and get him to surrender his Drago Scale…maybe even turn in the other three while he's at it."

Vidger blinks to this. "It's…brilliant, sir."

Grisly nods with a wide smirk on his face. "Let's see how those Rangers deal with this."

Meanwhile, at the Dragerium, Hiccup had walked down the many stone stairs leading to the Ranger's training ground where, as expected, he spots Astrid going at Scale Shedder dummies with her fists and legs. Hiccup crosses his arms while holding a cup of water and asks, "Are you ever not training?"

Astrid pauses for a moment and shrugs. "Yeah, sometimes I eat and sleep." She then rises her fists to strike one dummy in the stomach and chest before pushing it down to the ground.

Hiccup comments, "I will say, of the three of you guys you have shown the most improvement since joining the Dragerium. Keep it up and you just might get to my level." He proceeds to raise the water cup to his mouth to take a sip.

Astrid raises a brow and says, "In that case…" She slips over and smacks the plastic water cup out of Hiccup's hand before going into a fighting pose and saying, "…Why don't we see just HOW much I've improved?"

Hiccup rolls his eyes to that. "You do not want to fight me, trust me."

Astrid keeps the pose up and says, "Come on, are you scared that you might lose? That your moves might be a little…dated?"

Hiccup just shakes his head while smiling before, in one swift move, he sweeps Astrid off her feet and gets behind her, putting both arms behind her and her legs in a position where she couldn't even move them. Hiccup then states, "I could do more, but I actually care about your well-being." He then releases her.

Astrid brushes the dirt off her shoulder as she replies, "Fine, then, it was time I took a break anyway." She says with a full smirk as she walks up the stairs.

As Astrid walks away, Hiccup couldn't ignore something stirring in his mind. Being that close to Astrid in that moment, well, somehow it just felt…right. Like that was something that was meant to happen. From the side, Snotlout comments with lowered eyelid smile, "She sure is something, isn't she?"

Hiccup glances next to him and asks, "Were you watching us?"

Snotlout shrugs. "I like to watch Astrid as she trains. Really gets her to show how good she looks without any Scale Shedders in the way. Anyway, I'm off." With that, he walks away.

Once Snotlout was gone, Hiccup goes up to the main part of the Dragerium where Astrid was stretching near the special pond. Astrid hears Hiccup walking up and says, "Hey, listen, no hard feelings about earlier. You have much more of the experience and skill then me, and I still have much..."

Hiccup wasn't really listening to the words Astrid was saying, in fact his mind was being drawn away with each word that came out of Astrid's mouth, focusing on her beautiful voice. There was something about Astrid's voice that sounded like calming ocean waves or a gentle breeze.

However, what Hiccup didn't realize was that he was too caught up in Astrid's voice that he didn't realize that she asked a question. Snapping out of his trance, Hiccup says, "Huh? Uh, sorry, what did you say?"

Astrid blinks to that and replies, "I said, do you have any tips for me for how I can improve my skills?"

Hiccup had to scramble for a moment to blurt out the first answer that popped into his head. "Oh…right, uh, just keep up with training and, uh, never give up."

Astrid nods with a quizzical look on her face. "Thaaaanks. Uh, are you ok, Hiccup? You're acting a little strange."

Glancing around to everything but Astrid, Hiccup replies with, "Oh, no, nothing's wrong it's just…ah, NO!" He punches a nearby rock, smashing it into pebbles. "I CAN'T DO THIS! NOT AGAIN!" With that, he storms off into his room.

Having witnessed the whole thing, Fishlegs, who was sitting nearby reading up on the Drago Archives, states, "Well…that was something."

Astrid glances over to Alicia, who also happened to walk in just as Hiccup burst out, and says, "You've known him longer."

Nodding to this, the orange haired woman walks into the main part of the temple and sees Hiccup sitting on his bed, once again. "Hiccup? What's wrong?"

Hiccup puffs out a bit of air. "You…wouldn't understand."

Alicia then begins to put some pieces together. The way Hiccup's been looking at and talking to Astrid, the way he's been getting seemingly closer to her with each passing day, it was almost like… "You like Astrid. Don't you?" Alicia states with a look of shock on her face.

Glancing up to Alicia, Hiccup didn't know what to say to that, so he looks back down to the floor and says, "Astrid is an amazing Ranger, and an even more amazing friend. She, more than anyone else, helped to pull me out of the darkest time of my life, a time when I thought that I was truly alone in the world…I guess it kind of just…happened."

Now fully understanding what was going on, Alicia sits next to Hiccup and says, "That explains it, that outburst earlier. You are afraid that if you keep up with these emotions towards Astrid, you'll just end up hurting yourself like with…well, you know."

Hiccup puts his head into his hands and says, "What am I supposed to do? I do like Astrid, but what if this is all a big lie to myself? What if…I'm just toying with myself?"

Not sure what else to say, Alicia then hears the emergency alarm go off, signaling that trouble is afoot. Alicia holds Hiccup a bit closer and says, "Perhaps you need something to get your mind off of this."

Hiccup sighs. "Wouldn't hurt to try." He then heads off to see what was going on.

Having found the location of where some Scale Shedders were last seen, somewhere in downtown, Hiccup and the trio, not yet in Ranger suits, arrive to investigate. They look around and don't see any real sign of damage or stolen property, a usual sign of Shedders.

Snotlout asks, "So, what are we supposed to be fighting?"

Hiccup replies with, "The emergency alarm is rarely off, so keep an eye out."

That's when a soft female voice was heard from nearby. "…Hello, Hiccup."

Recognizing the voice in seconds, Hiccup pauses and turns to face an alleyway, and right in front of him was a woman with snow-white hair wearing a similarly white dress. Stopping dead in his tracks, Hiccup asks, "…Luna?"

The woman smiles and says, "It is good to see you again."

Hiccup nearly collapses onto the floor from shock as he dashes to Luna and hugs her as tight as he can. "Oh, Luna, all this time I thought I lost you! H-how did you escape? Where have you been this whole time?"

Luna puts a hand on Hiccup's face and says, "I'll tell you later, for now, let's just…enjoy this moment."

Seeing the woman in front of her, Snotlout lets out a whistle saying, "Dang, Hiccup, that is a fine mama!"

Fishlegs had his hands together next to his face saying, "Aww, how sweet! The two of them finally reunited."

Astrid felt the same way for a second, until something clicks in her mind. "Something's…off." She states. That's when, as Hiccup was holding Luna, Luna reaches down and seems to almost grab ahold of Hiccup's black Drago Morpher and was reaching up to the slot that houses the black Drago Scale that also belongs to Hiccup. Spotting this, Astrid yells, "HICCUP!" as she fires one of her spike shots into Luna's hand.

Realizing what just happened, Hiccup looks back and asks, "Astrid, wh-what was that for?"

Astrid glances down to Luna's hand and replies, "See for yourself."

Looking down, Hiccup leaps back as he sees sparks and small electric bolts coming off of Luna's hand where Astrid struck her spike. Slowly looking back up to Luna, Hiccup states, "…You're…not Luna…are you?"

Luna lets out a sigh. "You Rangers are smarter than you look." Just then, Luna's skin becomes covered in lightning bolts as a white, humanoid machine with a pink core in the chest wearing a black top hat is revealed. The robot explains, "I am the Illusionist, and I suggest you Rangers surrender your Drago Scales."

Perplexed by what just happened, Hiccup stumbles with his words. "I…Wha-how did…"

Astrid steps up and explains, "This is exactly what Vidger wanted, Hiccup. He wanted you to see Luna again so she could swipe away your Drago Scale when you weren't looking."

Hiccup blinks to this. "So…he was toying with my emotions to take me down…alright, that's a new low even for Vidger."

The Illusionist then laughs and says, "Well, I've got another trick up my sleeve!" It waves its hand and about twelve Scale Shedders show up, all ready to fight.

Hiccup stomps his foot to the ground and clenches his fist and, with a look of rage says, "You can attack me, try to steal my Drago Scale, and even kidnap me. But mess with the one thing that can shake me to my core…now you're asking for it!" He looks to Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs and asks, "READY?"

The other three reply, "READY!" They all pull up their Drago Morphers before holding out their arms in a T pose with their legs spread and yell, "DRAGO FURY, FIRE UP! HA!" Before bringing their right arm to their chest and slapping their Morpher with the other.

From each Morpher, a series of either black, blue, red or yellow scales pour out and surround their bodies to form their Ranger suits before the head of their respective dragons pop up and swallow their head to make their helmets. Once morphed, the four Power Rangers yell, "POWER RANGERS, DRAGO FURY!"

The Illusionist then calls, "MAKE THOSE RANGERS DISAPPEAR!"

The Scale Shedders charge at the Rangers and they disperse and begin fighting. Four Shedders surround Snotlout, in his red suit, and throw a punch his way, but he ducks and, while twirling his leg across the ground, creates a ring of fire that makes the shedders back up as he hits each of them.

Astrid, in her blue suit, leaps up onto a parked car and twirls herself, sending a flurry of spines that strike the Shedders in as many places as they could find.

Fishlegs, in his yellow suit, enlarges his fists and slams them to the ground, shaking the ground and making the Shedders lose their footing.

Hiccup, meanwhile, was doing his best at slashing Shedders with his black Night Fury sword when he hears the same voice. "Oh, Hiccup!" Looking over, he sees that the Illusionist has, once again, taken Luna's form but was wearing a much more revealing outfit and was calling to him. "Don't you want to stop this fighting?"

Astrid sees this, and decides to walk out to in front of Hiccup to say, "Hiccup! Stay focused! It's not actually Luna!"

However, this only made things worse as Hiccup was so distracted by Astrid's voice that he didn't even notice a Shedder about to punch the back of his head until it was too late and the Shedder makes him fall over.

Watching from the Dragerium, Alicia comments, "Oh, it's as bad as I thought. Hiccup's emotions towards Astrid were one thing, but now that this image of Luna is here…bless his dear heart."

Snotlout and Fishlegs, who took out the Shedders around Hiccup, go to Hiccup's side as Fishlegs asks, "Are you alright?"

Hiccup nods. "Yeah, I've taken worse hits."

Snotlout comments as he raises his red Nightmare Blaster, "Look, I don't know what's going on with you today, but whatever it is, you need to find a way to get over this."

As much as Hiccup hated to admit it, Snotlout was right. There's no way he could fight when he sees two ladies that he has deep feelings for right in front of him…unless...in a daring move, Hiccup stands back up and closes his green eyes, making the world around him completely dark before he calls out, "FURY CALL!" and a bunch of purple sound waves emit from Hiccup's mouth.

The sound waves reflect off of Astrid and Luna/the Illusionist, letting Hiccup hear exactly where it was and letting him leap to the human disguised robot and slash at her with his sword, making the illusion fade. Opening his eyes again, Hiccup states, "Well, I'd say it's time for our final trick. Ready guys?"

Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs nod as Snotlout raises his red Nightmare Blaster while Astrid, Fishlegs and Hiccup attach their respective weapons to the blaster and all say, "DRAGO FURY BLASTER! FIRE!" Hiccup pulls the trigger, making a red beam surrounded by spiraling blue, yellow and black beams go right into the Illusionist, destroying it where it stood.

Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs began celebrating the victory as Hiccup states, "Hold on, guys, the show might not be over yet."

Just then, the Illusionist grows to a skyscraper size in making its Mega-Beast Mode active as it lets out an evil laugh. Astrid comments, "It really kept that in it's hat!"

Hiccup nods. "Indeed. Well, we know what to do."

The Rangers then press their Morphers to the symbols on the chest of their suit and call, "CALL DRAGO ZORDS!" The four Drago Zords then descend from the Dragerium and fly over to where the Rangers were standing.

The Rangers enter their respective Zords and hit the Transform button to get the Megazord transformation started. As before, the red Nightmare Zord gets on its hind legs and folds its wings in to allow the blue Nadder Zord and yellow Gronk Zord to take position as its arms, the black Night Fury Zord then detaches its head to form the helmet on the head of the Megazord and the torso attaches to form wings.

The Illusionist laughs at the Drago Megazord saying, "You call that a trick? Watch this!" It takes it's hat off and pulls an explosive device from it and tosses it to the Megazord, the Megazord tries to block it but it blows up right in front of the Nadder Zord.

Feeling the shock of the explosion, Hiccup asks, "Is everyone alright?"

The other boys reply fine but Astrid says, "I'm fine, but it looks like the Nadder Zord took that pretty hard!" The Nadder Zord lets out a soft whine.

Snotlout comments, "And I thought the Nadder Zord was stronger than that!"

Fishlegs states, "That explosion was pretty direct, I can't exactly blame it. What do we do?"

Suddenly, the Night Fury Zord's head calls something that Hiccup hears. "Hang on, the Night Fury Zord says it's calling in a friend!"

"What friend?" Astrid asks.

Just then, from a small slot in the control area in the heart of the Megazord, a small black scale with red lining pops up. Hiccup plucks the scale from the slot and comments, "I guess there's only one way to find out. Power Scale, activate!" He clips it to a clip at the base of his black Drago Morpher and pumps his fist in the air saying, "Calling Drago Zord!" as the scale shines black and red.

It takes a few more seconds as the Illusionist states, "For my next trick, I'm going to make that massive toy of yours disappear!" and it goes into an evil laugh.

Hiccup then points out, "LOOK!" Just then, another Drago Zord appears with a mostly black figure and red linings, a scorpion-like tail and very long tusks. Hiccup comments, "The Gripper Zord! I didn't even know it existed!"

Alicia explains to the Rangers, "It seems that your Drago Zords do have connections. You can have the Gripper Zord take the Nadder Zord's place as it rests and it can fight with you. Just clip it's Power Scale into your own Morpher, and it will do the trick."

Astrid comments, "Works for me. Alright, Nadder Zord, time for a break! Gripper Zord, come join us!" Hiccup plucks the black and red scale from his Morpher and tosses it to Astrid who clips it to her own Morpher, this causes the blue Nadder Zord to detach from the Megazord's right side as the Gripper Zord detaches its tail and it straightens out into a sword that the Gronk Zord grabs while the rest of the Gripper Zord forms into an arm that clings onto the Drago Megazord.

Hiccup then comments, "Alright, now we have the power!"

The Illusionist scoffs. "Is that your card that you chose to play? Because it's pretty weak!"

Hiccup comments, "Just wait and see. GRIPPER UPPERCUT!" The tusks of the Gripper Zord clench up to form a fist as it punches upward into the Illusionist. Hiccup then calls, "VENOM TAIL!" The sharp end of the Gripper Zord's tail pokes right into the Illusionist's side.

The Illusionist then freezes right where it stands as it asks, "Hey…why can't I move?"

Hiccup explains, "One strike from the Gripper Zord's tail can paralyze you right where you stand! And now, let's end this! NIGHT FURY BLAST!" The head of the Drago Megazord lights up with a purple light as it blasts a beam that strikes the Illusionist and destroys it right where it stood, not that it could've moved anyway.

From inside the Megazord, the four Rangers cheer on as they congratulate each other. Hiccup, without even thinking, hugs Astrid tight before realizing what he was doing. "Uh…sorry."

Astrid shakes her head. "No need to be sorry! You overcame your feelings towards Luna and was able to take out that Scale Crusher! I couldn't be happier for you!" She then leaps up and hugs Hiccup around the neck. Little did Astrid know, however, his feelings for Luna weren't the only thing he was concerned about in that moment. He did, however, decide to keep these feelings for Astrid a secret, at least for now.

Meanwhile, in the Scale Shedder's lair, Grisly throws a random piece of scrap metal to the ground as he says angrily, "When will those rangers stop?"

Vidger comments, "Well, even your best attempt at taking out those Rangers weren't good enough. Can't wait to see what you come up with next time!"

It was then, however, that an Admin Scale Shedder, a Shedder that wears a red stripe running across its chest, runs up to Grisly. "Lord Grisly! Lord Grisly!"

Grisly grumbles, "Whatever it is, it better be important!"

The Admin nods, "Oh, I can guarantee it is, sir!"

Grisly then asks, "Let me guess, some newfangled Shedder?"

The Admin states, "SIR…we found them. The ones you've been looking for! And we know where to get them!"

Hearing this, Grisly stares at his monitor for a second as he realizes just what this means. He says to the Admin Shedder, "…Bring them to me! NOW!" The Admin nods and heads off to collect what Grisly requested.

Ok, so this chapter did have a tiny bit of Hiccstrid like some were expecting, but fear not because there will be more!

Also, what do you suppose Grisly wanted that was so important? Well, you'll have to wait till the next chapter to find out!