Chapter 19: A View to a Skrill

I find it interesting how a two-parter can have a significant impact on the main plot of a series.


The Darkest Day Prophecy

Find the warriors of the two towers,
Find the seed hidden in the snow,
Find the birds and the Regis,
Find the one who is a king, but does not know.

Something is coming to cloud the sky,
Something is coming to shake the ground.
The islands will fall on the Darkest Day
Unless the Expansion can be found.


The sky was thick with storm clouds, the sea choked with ice, and the wind bitter with cold. But Hiccup, Astrid, Heather, and Brandyn flew onwards despite the very elements conspiring against them. Their dragons powered against the biting chill with their powerful wings, carrying them further and further north with every stroke.

"We're getting pretty far north!" cried Astrid, shielding her face with one hand to prevent the wind from stinging her skin.

"Bucket and Mulch are two days overdue from their fishing trip!" Hiccup answered from the front of the pack, keeping his gaze focused on the ice floes in front of him. "We have to keep searching!"

From atop Buck the Grapple Grounder, Brandyn nodded his agreement. "The more time we take, the more angry Stoick gets, and that is not a very pleasant thing!"

The four trainers begrudgingly urged their dragons forward, each wishing that they had a Pokémon or two to accompany them. Their friends had elected to stay behind, both because of their shared aversion of Vikings and as a precaution in case an emergency were to pop up elsewhere.

"Are you even sure they're up here in the first place?" Astrid went on, rubbing her bare arms. Unfortunately, it offered no relief from the cold.

"No," her husband admitted. "But it can't hurt to look."

"Arglerarrrgh flort," announced the tiny eel-like dragonet that was curled up inside Heather's jacket. "Eeeepow? Mama?" She looked hopefully at her mommy.

"I think 'eeeepow' means 'eat now'," Heather explained. "She's been saying it for the last half an ocean."

"EeeeeeeeeeeeePOW!" Sonata demonstrated with expansive wings gestures, trying to wriggle free. "EEEEEEEEEEpow!"

Heather stroked the little Siren's head and said in a calm but firm voice, "Sonata, I told you, you have to wait until we get home. And no more whining, or there won't be any dessert for you tonight."

Sonata flopped slowly over backward so her head and wings drooped toward the sea below. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeenever," she said, mournfully and distinctly.

Slightly ahead of them, Hiccup allowed himself a moment to facepalm. They had meant to leave the Siren dragonet with a babysitter, but she had a habit of throwing a big hissy fit any time Heather tried to leave without her, and they had yet to find the time to train her out of that misbehavior. One of these days, Sonata had to learn that her adoptive mother couldn't take her every single place in the whole wide world.

Then, carried on the same cold wind that felt like talons slicing at Hiccup's exposed skin, came a cry from the distance. He glanced down, and immediately saw a giant iceberg floating in the water just ahead. Resting against the massive block of ice were two boats, one of which was very familiar!

"We can discuss Sonata's feeding schedule later," the team leader shouted back to the other three trainers. "Right now, Berk fishermen are in trouble!"

Down below, Bucket and Mulch stepped back warily as a group of armored warriors readied their weapons on the opposing ship. One of them carried a long gangplank, which he slapped into place between the Berkians' fishing boat and their own warship.

"Berserkers!" shouted the captain, drawing his sword. "Commandeer this vessel for Dagur the Deranged!"

Immediately, the Berserker soldiers, and about three or four Mightyena, charged aboard the fishing boat, all of them grinning as they anticipated an easy victory. That was why they ended up being so surprised when the fishermen didn't surrender - rather, they stood their ground and fought back.

Mulch swung a dead eel in an elaborate, showy fashion as he approached the nearest Berserker. "Slimy, stinky eel - meet slimy, stinky marauder!"

The weapon-wielding Viking lost his smirk and replaced it with a look of confusion, and backed away warily, not understanding what Mulch was trying to do with the eel. His hesitation made it easy for Mulch to overwhelm him, slapping him over and over again with the elongated fish until he backed off far enough to lose his balance and tip over the side of the boat.

Two of the Mightyena suddenly rushed Bucket, who had been standing idly by. Now noticing that he was being targeted, Bucket quickly grabbed the Bite Pokémon by the scruff of their necks and tossed them over the side by reflex. A Berserker swung his hammer at Bucket's head from behind, only to stop dead with shock when the heavy weapon simply bounced off of the half-brainless man's bucket with a *clang*. Bucket turned around to face the Berserker, who abandoned all further attempts to attack and simply threw himself overboard, not wishing to incur the wrath of a Viking whose head was impervious to weaponry.

(Evidently, he was probably too stupid to notice the bucket in the first place.)

However, even though the fishing boat was now clear of Berserkers, it was not over. Mulch and Bucket faced the opposing ship once more, and this time came face-to-face with ten crossbows being aimed squarely at them.

Smugly, the captain proclaimed, "Surrender, or -"

"SCREEEEEE!"

The piercing shriek echoed over the ocean, followed by the dreaded whistling sound of poisonous spines flying free, caused the Berserkers to reflexively duck. Deadly Nadder spines soared straight over their heads, providing the two fishermen the opportunity to safely find cover behind the mast.

Up above, the four Trainers of Destiny were fast approaching, their dragons' mouths all open and ready to fire.

"Not these morons again!" shouted Brandyn. "Let's send 'em crawling back to Dagur!"

"Nice shooting, Astrid!" Hiccup complimented. Down below, Bucket and Mulch looked up at the sound of his voice. "Now it's our turn! Ready, guys?"

"RADA!" squealed Sonata.

Windshear inhaled deeply before letting loose a stream of fire. The force of the blast tossed the Berserkers' gangplank into the water and rocked the boat to send the soldiers stumbling off balance. The Razorwhip then flew high out of reach of their crossbows before they could regain their footing, while Hiccup and Toothless dove in from the other side to take the Berserkers by surprise.

Once they were close enough, Hiccup yelled, "Toothless, fire!"

But by now, the Berserkers had recovered from Windshear's surprise attack and aimed their crossbows at Toothless. Before he could fire his plasma blast, a rapid series of *WOOSH* noises occurred as the projectile weapons fired their shots at once. The flying arrows, moving fast enough to pierce even thick Gronckle hide, forced Toothless on the defensive. He dispelled his waiting plasma blast and soared away.

The Berserkers reloaded, and their crossbows fired once again just as Brandyn came flying in for an attack run. Buck jerked to the side to avoid the hail of shots, which caused his fire blast to miss and hit the water instead of the deck.

"This is tougher than I thought!" Astrid called to the others. She was circling above, waiting for an opening, but the Berserkers weren't giving her one.

Toothless, Windshear, and Buck joined Stormfly up in the sky, trying to find a good spot in which to strike. However, the Berserkers fanned out, making sure that their weapons were pointed in every direction so that no dragon could get close enough to hurt them and come through unscathed.

Things were looking bleak - until an unexpected, nonhuman voice made itself known.

"The trainers of the prophecy?" the voice announced. "You leave them alone, you big ugly Vikings!"

Blue-colored beams of ice began to rain down around the Berserker ship, and the men cowered with their hands over their heads to try and protect themselves. Shaken to his core, Hiccup glanced wildly in the direction the voice had come from, only to see a Kyurem standing on the glacier behind them. For a minute, he thought it was Fjord, but then he realized that it was no bigger than a Tauros.

"What the..." muttered Heather. "Hey, isn't that...?"

"A Kyurem!" finished Astrid, sounding equal parts astonished and delighted. "What's he doing here?"

The theropod-like frost wyvern sucked in a rather big breath of air and released a cold blast of wind filled with shards of ice. The icy chunks pelted the Berserkers and froze the Mightyena in blocks of glacial ice.

"Looking for ice crystals," the Kyurem replied to the former Hofferson. "I have quite the collection. But, since you four looked like you needed some help, I figured I'd try putting my battling skills to the test. Impressive, are they not?"

Together, the four trainers surrounded the Berserker boat. It only took a few plasma blasts, fireballs, poisonous spines, and Ice Beams to convince the soldiers it would be better to retreat then to fight back. The captain shouted frantic orders at his men even as the ship turned tail and fled away from the glacier.

After circling the area from above, just in case there were more Berserkers on the way, the Trainers of Destiny landed their dragons on the boat and dismounted to talk to those they had just saved. The Kyurem charged down the glacier, stopping mere inches away from the boat's figurehead.

"What happened here, Mulch?" asked Hiccup, getting right to business.

Nervously fiddling with his hook, the portly Viking answered, "A storm blew us off course, and when it was over, we found ourselves here in Ice Pokémon country!"

"Not to mention," said the Kyurem, "You also scared all of the locals half to death."

Heather tilted her head a little as she eyed the Boundary Pokémon. "Who are you, exactly?" she asked.

"Serac," the Kyurem replied. "Son of Fjord."

Astrid gave him a suspicious look. "Fjord never mentioned he had a son."

Brandyn shrugged. "The Resistance isn't very big on hosting Take Your Kid to Work Day."

Sonata poked her head out of Heather's jacket. "RAWR?" she inquired. "Bammo slammo eeeeeeenow?"

"Will you please shut up?" hissed Astrid, slowly turning to glare at the dragonet. "The adults are talking!"

"Shusha mee smush," Sonata grumbled. She curled herself around Heather's arm and gave Astrid a matching glare. "Asty growlface."

Once they were finished, Hiccup gestured with his hand for Mulch to continue. "Go on, Mulch."

Nodding, Mulch scratched the back of his head. "We thought that the Berserkers had hit this iceberg, so we came over to help, and..."

His expression turned completely deadpan, and he finished, "...they attacked us."

"Why?" Brandyn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because we saw..." said Mulch, and then paused for dramatic effect. "It."

Silence fell upon the group as they digested this admittedly obscure information, left wondering what this 'it' Mulch referred to was.

It was Serac who asked the question. "And would it be too much trouble for you to tell us exactly what 'it' is?"

In order to give them an answer, Mulch and Bucket hopped off of their boat and headed up the slope of the giant iceberg, with four trainers and their dragons closely following. Once they'd climbed up to a solid wall of ice that lay directly at the end of the path, Mulch gestured at the translucent wall with his hook.

"It!" he repeated.

Hiccup squinted at the dark blotch that seemed to be locked within the ice. It didn't seem to have any real shape at first, but when he moved closer, he started to pick out recognizable features. The ice was far too thick to see the whole thing clearly, but the parts closest to the surface could be seen easily. Claws...teeth...purplish-grey skin...and lots and lots of spikes.

"That looks like...a dragon," he whispered in surprise.

The others got closer and knelt down to view the dragon's features for themselves. Astrid was the first to get up, and backed away until she was standing close to Hiccup. She seemed on edge, eyeing the frozen creature as if she were expecting it to suddenly break free.

"Why would the Berserkers want a frozen dragon carcass?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"I don't know," Hiccup replied. He picked up one of the tools lying on the ground and moved it around in his hands, an idea coming to his mind. "But I'm going to find out."

Brandyn saw how Hiccup was playing with the tool and misinterpreted his expression, sending him a skeptical look. "You're going to dig it out?"

Grinning, the team leader let the pickaxe fall and gestured to Toothless, who was currently rolling around in the snow like an oversized puppy. When the other three trainers saw the Night Fury coming over, they understood what Hiccup was planning and called their own dragons over to help out.

"Everyone, fire!" ordered Hiccup.

With the combined firepower of four different dragons, the trainers successfully pulled out a solid block of ice containing the frozen dragon out from the iceberg wall. Even though the dragon couldn't be seen through the ice, the ice block was about as big as Toothless was, maybe even bigger.

After retrieving some long ropes from Bucket and Mulch, Hiccup and his friends lashed them around the ice block and secured the ends to each of their dragons. Windshear, Toothless, and Buck all held the ropes in their mouths, while Stormfly grabbed the two remaining ropes in her talons. Together, the four dragons lifted into the air with the frozen dragon dangling beneath them.

Hiccup looked back as the iceberg began to recede into the distance, and caught a glimpse of Bucket and Mulch waving to them as they pushed their fishing boat off of the iceberg. There was no doubt that they'd be able to make their way back to Berk, meaning that the four trainers could just focus on bringing their new discovery to the academy.

The sound of thunder came from overhead, which seemed to roll across the sky in a long rumble. Hiccup glanced upwards, noticing how the undersides of the clouds were flickering with white light.

A lightning storm, he thought. Better hurry before the weather turns bad.

He led the group in the direction of home without looking back, unfortunately missing the lightning's eerie transition from blinding white to a pulsing red that rapidly bled out into the clouds.

But someone else did notice. Serac stood on the edge of the glacier, intending to freeze himself a path back home across the ocean surface, but the sight of the red lightning made him freeze right in his tracks (no pun intended).

"Something is coming to cloud the sky..."


Despite the thunderstorm looming on the horizon, the sky was still clear over Berk, allowing the gang to enjoy a beautiful day as they flew down towards the gates of the Dragon Academy. The hard part was getting the large block of ice inside. It was just barely small enough to fit through the tunnel leading into the arena, and ended up getting stuck on the spot where the slant ended.

Heather and Brandyn were in the front, pulling with all their might on the ropes that were now tied around Windshear and Buck's necks. That left Hiccup and Astrid to take the rear and push, with the added assistance of Toothless and Stormfly's heads.

Needless to say, it was not as easy as they had thought it would be.

"Come on guys," Heather encouraged, "Push!"

"If I push any harder, I'm gonna give birth to my colon," was Hiccup's sardonic reply.

Astrid complained next. "The ice is numbing my fingers, hurry up!"

"It's the same amount of work no matter how fast you go," said Brandyn, "Basic science."

"Brandyn?" asked an overly sweet voice from behind the ice block.

He knew what was coming, but he answered anyway. "Yes?"

"When my fingers start working again, I have a job for the middle one!"

Sonata poked her head out of Heather's vest, eyes shining with curiosity. The dragonet's adoptive mother hastily pushed her back behind the fabric. "Please, not in front of the kids."

Snivels and the entourage of Pokémon Go-Getters were right there waiting for them - and boy, were they surprised when they saw what the search-and-rescue party had brought along for the ride!

As soon as the ice block was finally settled smack dab in the middle of the arena, Toothless put down his rope and laid down on the academy floor to rest his tired body. Hiccup came over and affectionately patted his muzzle as thanks for the hard work. The Night Fury warbled softly and licked his rider's face in reply. The other three trainers were feeding their dragons or otherwise clustering curiously around the frozen dragon.

Hiccup turned to Snivels, who was twitching his tail this way and that as he drank in the sight.

Everyone else seemed ready to investigate it, judging from how they were all staring at it in deep thought, so Hiccup decided to join them. They needed to come to an agreement on what to do with it now that it was safe in the arena.

"You could try cutting it out," suggested a strange voice.

Everyone collectively turned to see Adhesive hovering next to a Poipole that was a blinding white and yellow instead of a cool purple and pink. It was the Shiny one that had spoken.

"Who's your friend?" asked Hiccup.

Adhesive scratched the back of his head nervously. "Right, of course, sorry." Then, more confidently, "Everyone, this is Sticky, my girlfriend."

"I already know all of your names," Sticky smiled.

Adhesive's matter-of-fact statement completely floored all four trainers. The Poipole had never mentioned before that he had a girlfriend, so they had assumed he was single. How could it not have crossed his mind just how important that detail was?

It was Brandyn who recovered first, stepping forward and offering a hand for the Shiny Poipole to shake. "Welcome, Sticky. What brings you here?"

"Couple of bugs in my science project," was her answer. She pointed to an cylinder-shaped, rust-colored device topped with a half-sphere that had a pair of dispenser tubes sticking up like the horns of a Viking helmet. "Adhesive's helping me fix it." She patted the machine affectionately. "It was originally a Fossil Reviver, but when I cross the red wire with the blue wire, it becomes a Fossil Fuser. You're looking at a six-time first-prize winner of the Ultra Megalopolis Science Convention! We would have made lucky number seven this year, but one of the other Ultra Guardians solved cold fusion, and...well, that's all she wrote."

Astrid raised an eyebrow at the Shiny Poipole and asked, "And how long have you known Adhesive?"

"We met at the Ultra Megalopolis Theatre," said Sticky, whose cheeks turned pink as she exchanged a look with Adhesive. "I got a job there to help pay for college tuition. I was on duty, and he lost his ticket to the movie he wanted to see. I lent him my all-access pass because I'd already seen it a hundred times, one thing led to another, and here we are. That was, what, about five years ago?"

Adhesive thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, five years, give or take a month or two."

That was certainly nice to know. But, wait, if Adhesive and Sticky had been together for five years, then why hadn't they seen her in Ultra Megalopolis during the Mastermind Incident? Surely they would have remembered seeing a white and yellow Poipole during the battle against "Hroar's Army," as Snivels called it.

But that wasn't important. Right now, the frozen dragon was their first priority.

"Snivels?" Hiccup asked his best Pokémon friend. "Any idea what it is?"

The Servine prince proceeded to circle the block of ice. "I'm not sure. I'm gonna need a better look." Then, to Amber, in Pokéspeak, he asked, "Can you give us a slow burn?"

"For sure," said the Charizard. She got to her feet and stomped up to the chunk of ice, which was incidentally about a foot or two taller than she was. She stood there staring at it for a second or two, then uttered in Norse, "Stand back, everyone." Once she was sure her friends were far enough away, she opened her jaws and let out a gushing stream of fire that covered the ice and melted it down. The block was still big, but now it was a lot less opaque, as the walls were now thin enough for light to pierce through.

"Good work, Amber," complimented Hiccup, and moved to kneel in front of the frozen dragon.

Now that it was easier to see the dragon trapped inside the ice, the Go-Getters grew more intrigued about what it was, and clustered around the block to get a better look at it. Hiccup and Snivels knelt close to the creature's spiny head, while the others wandered around to check out its wings and tail. No-one seemed to have a good idea about what it could be.

"Very familiar," muttered Snivels, standing up to circle the block again.

To Hiccup, and Brandyn as well, it actually did. Their eyes widened upon studying the details of the dragon's head, an epiphany coming to them at the same time.

"Is that what I think it is?" Hiccup asked in awe.

"I believe so, but I've only seen pictures," remarked Brandyn.

"You realize how huge this could be?" Hiccup responded. His fists were now clenched with excitement.

"I believe the appropriate word would be something along the lines of 'epic'," Brandyn offered.

Nearby, Astrid facepalmed. As much as she loved her husband, it could get extremely annoying when he and his friends started nerding out over a new dragon species. It was especially frustrating when she didn't know what they were talking about and they weren't paying attention enough to tell her.

"I hate it when they get like this..." the former Hofferson grumbled, folding her arms.

Meanwhile, Snivels brushed past her and rejoined his trainer. "Guys," he said. "If this is really what I think it is, we could be in huge trouble."

Growling, Astrid grabbed the Servine's small head crest and threatened, "If someone doesn't start filling me in, I'm getting my axe!"

Hiccup stood, turning around to face his wife with a dead serious look. "Astrid, there's no time to explain right now, but let's just say that this is..."

"This is what?!" she asked impatiently.

His expression went from serious to straight-up grim. "...really, really bad," he finished.

"Should we tell Stoick?" asked Heather.

Pulling himself free from Astrid's grasp, Snivels protested, "No, thank you. If I'm not mistaken, which is usually the case, he's holding a meeting in the Great Hall right now."

Cocking his head a little, Brandyn asked, "Is that bad?"

"Is that bad?" Snivels echoed. "You don't remember the last time we were there?"


The Last Time They Were There

"Please," begged Blaze, her hands over her ears and a horrified look on her face. "No more, I can't take it!"

Just a few feet away from the table where the whole of Team Go-Getters was sitting, an inebriated Gobber was swinging his tankard full of mead all over the place, a dopey smile stretching his face. "One more time!"

He threw his head back and, oblivious to the exhausted cries of his sober audience, sang jovially at the top of his lungs.

"One hundred big mugs of mead on the wall,
One hundred big mugs of mead...!
"


Present

"Huh," Brandyn shrugged. "I thought that was just a bad dream."

"Well," said Hiccup, "one way or another, Stoick's going to find out about this, and I'd prefer it to be under better circumstances."

"Not like that first time, you mean," said Snivels as he, Hiccup, and Brandyn boarded their dragons with the intention of heading home to check on the Book of Dragons. Wanting answers, Astrid, Blaze, Heather, Ninjark, Amber, and most of the other Go-Getters did the same, following in their wingbeats all the way back to the village.

Nobody noticed that Ra, Camazotz, and Adhesive weren't with them, however.


Things were a lot less calm at the Great Hall than they were at the academy. Every villager on Berk, human and Pokémon alike, was there, and boy were they riled up. Even Stoick the Vast, the best Viking Chief the island had ever seen, had his hands full as he tried to keep the mob under control.

Brumous the Beartic roared over the shouts of the crowd.

Unfortunately, while the yelling did quiet down a little, the Vikings were still seething mad and shuffled around anxiously, as if they could barely wait to grab their weapons and sink the blades into something. Mulch and Bucket had just got back with news of the Berserker attack, and there was nothing quite like an impromptu attack by one of your closest allies to get a Viking's blood pressure shooting up!

Stoick could understand their outrage - he was mad, too! - but he hadn't become chief by listening to his impulses. He needed to do the intelligent thing and consult with his council about what to do next. In all his years as the Chief of Berk, this was potentially the most delicate situation he'd ever found himself in. He wanted peace with the Berserker tribe, but it seemed as though they no longer did.

Even the normally mellow Mulch slammed his mug of ale down on a wooden bench and shouted, "This is an act of war!"

The crowd approved of his statement, backing him up with a generous amount of yelling.

"Let's not jump to conclusions about what this attack means," Stoick told the portly Viking, keeping his voice measured and careful.

At the Haddock man's side, Gobber took a large gulp from his tankard and said, "I don't know, Stoick. Seems pretty cut and dry to me. I mean if you think about it, an attack is an attack! AM I RIGHT, PEOPLE?!"

He spoke the last words in a furious shout that riled up the mob of Vikings once again, and they renewed their angered yelling peppered with numerous demands for Dagur the Deranged's head and the oceans turning red with Berserker blood.

...Hey, they were Vikings, after all.

"Thank you, Gobber," Stoick muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off a growing headache.

Oblivious to the problems he'd caused as always, Gobber lifted his mug and cheerfully replied, "Always here to help."

When Hiccup, Snivels, Astrid, Blaze, Heather, Ninjark and Brandyn pushed open the doors to the Great Hall, they found themselves in the closest thing to Helheim they'd ever seen. Or at least, some other realm, or dimension, of endless chaos. Angry villagers crowded every spare nook of the spacious room, making it notoriously difficult for the teens and Pokémon to squeeze their way to where Stoick was at the central table. However, their determination paid off greatly, and they were soon able to push their way up to the front.

"Dad!" called Hiccup. "We think we know why Dagur's men attacked Bucket and Mulch."

Immediately, the chief's son was at the center of attention. While the Vikings carried on shouting, the Pokémon quieted down and became still, wanting answers rather than vengeance like their owners desired in that moment. Gone were the days where Hiccup Haddock the Useless would be dismissed without a second thought - no, the Pokémon of Berk trusted him and his ensemble of friends as much as they had King Solidago and Queen Salvia.

The lanky teenager stepped forward and stood next to his father, the size difference between the two made greatly apparent. Astrid went to join her husband, her face the very definition of serious. Snivels had informed her about what they'd found in the ice on their way to the Great Hall mere minutes ago, and not only did she understand, but she wholeheartedly agreed with the situation - it had the potential to get extremely bad.

"We got a better look at the dragon they were trying to excavate from the glacier," Hiccup reported.

"And?" Stoick pressed.

But before Hiccup could go on, Bucket started hopping from foot to foot delightedly. "Oh, we found a dragon, Mulch?" he squealed with excitement. "Can we keep it? I've always wanted my own dragon!"

Turning around to face the bucket-headed fisherman, Hiccup finished his statement in a completely serious voice. "...It's a Skrill."

An ominous hush fell over the entire Meade Hall at the sound of the dreaded elder dragon's name. The single word was enough to make even the bravest of Vikings shudder. Skrill.

"O-Oh," Bucket whimpered, suddenly fearful. "I don't want one of those..."

Mulch harshly elbowed his friend in the gut.

His face like stone, Stoick knelt down to look his son in the eye. "Are you absolutely sure about this, Hiccup?" he asked, sternly.

But the chief's reply didn't come from his son.

"Oh, we're sure," Snivels confirmed, setting the Book of Dragons on the table in front of them. He opened the book to the appropriate page, the illustration depicting a purple wyvern-esque dragon covered in spikes and surrounded by lightning. Even one who had never heard of the dragon before could tell that the picture was of a creature that was feared by most, if not all.

"This has terrible implications," Stoick muttered. He sounded more apprehensive than anyone had ever heard the great Stoick the Vast sound, which was enough to make the crowd even more nervous. "A Skrill, by Thor's hammer...If that thing is still alive..."

"It's even worse than you think, Dad," replied Hiccup, unhappily. "The glacier we found it in was on the very northern borders of Berserker territory."


In the fog-enshrouded waters surrounding Berserker Island, a fleet of a thousand ships floated en masse. Up above, the sky was black and rumbled ominously with thunder. Completing the foreboding image, one Dagur the Deranged stood at the bow of the lead vessel, standing proudly atop the ship's figurehead as he addressed his armada behind a metal mask with a sinister-looking pattern painted on it.

"My brothers!" the demented teenager proclaimed dramatically. "This is a historic day for the Berserker tribe! After many years, and many searches, Captain Vorg has found something incredibly valuable up on our northern border - a Skrill!"

The cheers from his men welled up like a tidal wave, able to be heard for miles around on the silent sea. Dagur the Deranged paraded back and forth along the sides of his ship, drinking in the hollers and applause with a smug smirk twisting his face, unseen behind the mask. He stopped pacing, ending up right next to Captain Vorg when he turned back to the soldiers to speak once more.

"It is such a momentous occasion..." Dagur continued, trailing off for effect. The armada was left waiting for him to continue.

Then, the Berserker Chief's demeanor took a dark turn, as he ruthlessly kicked Vorg in the back of the leg and brought the man to his knees. A deep hush fell upon the watching men as their unstable leader took his frustration out on his captain, which only stopped when he was slumped on the deck with ugly bruises on his face and arms. Even Dagur's Bisharp, Deathblade, was stunned into silence at the display.

Dagur finished darkly, "I am willing to forgive him for not bringing it to me. Get up, Vorg."

Incredibly, Vorg did, although he wobbled unsteadily on his way back to his feet.

"For centuries," Dagur declared, reaching up to clench the air with his fist, "We Berserkers have searched for a weapon that would allow us to rule the archipelago as the strongest Viking tribe! The Skrill will be perfect for our strength, our power, and our ferocity! As long as Hiccup and his little club have our find, we will not rest! We'll take this dragon from his frail little hands and use it to destroy Berk forever!"

At the end of the inspirational speech, the Berserker warriors cheered again, louder this time. They did so partially because his words were genuinely inspiring to them, as many of which looked forward to the day the Berserkers would rise above the other tribes, but also because they feared Dagur's unpredictable mood swings and how the lanky teenager could so effortlessly beat down Captain Vorg.

No matter the reason for their cheers, though, Dagur soaked it all in like a sponge. He was reveling in this moment. For once, everything was finally going his way. This was his chance to get that Night Fury and take revenge for what Hiccup and his friends had done to him and Deathblade back on Dragon Island. His face hadn't yet recovered from the Slash attack that Amber had used on him when he lunged at Hiccup - inflamed, red, and dripping with black ink from his tattoos, Dagur now had to wear a mask to conceal his unsightly disfigurement.

Oh, yes. They were going to pay very handsomely for this...


When Hiccup, Astrid, and the rest met with the other Go-Getters outside the doors to the Great Hall, the entire sky was blocked out by dreary grey clouds. The weather seemed to be taking a turn for the worse, which matched the grim mood among them as they began to realize the true identity of the mysterious frozen dragon.

Even the Skrill's name inspired fear among Vikings. Having the dragon itself on Berk's shores, even entombed in ice - not good.

"Legend has it the lightning comes from the Skrill's mouth!" Gobber was telling the group enthusiastically. "And thunder from its...well, you know."

He chuckled at that last statement, contrasting the various looks of disgust the others sent him as their brains processed that foul image unbidden.

"Remind me never to get behind one," Astrid said huffily.

Rolling his eyes, Snivels stated, "That's completely inaccurate. The Skrill draws lightning from the clouds, and then redirects it. It can also store the lightning in its body and use it later."

Stoick, however, didn't seem to acknowledge him. "I've heard enough," he decided. "We need to get it out of here. If it's as powerful as you kids say it is, and you found it in Berserker waters, Dagur will want it. Its presence here on Berk is just the excuse Dagur needs to go to war."

"We all know I love a fight as much as the next Viking, but why not just give it to him?" Gobber laughed, shrugging his broad shoulders nonchalantly. "It's just a frozen carcass, after all."

"Actually, you're underestimating the survival skills of dragons," Brandyn corrected him. "Because of their internal body temperature, Skrills can stay safely frozen solid in ice for decades. I wouldn't be surprised if the one we found is still kicking."

A very unpleasant silence stretched over them as they slowly made sense of that. A scene unconsciously played out in each one of their minds - Berk being leveled to the ground in a storm while a chaotic dragon wheeled in the sky with a terrible roar.

It was Sonata who broke them out of their morbid reverie. Popping right out of her hiding place within Heather's jacket, she announced, "Dwagin!"

Stoick raised an eyebrow at the dragonet. "And what is that?"

Sighing, Heather grasped the slippery little Siren and held her up in plain view. "Stoick, Sonata. Sonata, Stoick."

"Stookie bleh!" Sonata stuck her forked tongue out at the chief.

"This could get dangerous," said Blaze. "Maybe now would be a good time to leave the Siren with a babysitter?"

"EKNO!" Sonata objected, throwing her wings around Heather's neck. "NOBYNOBYNOBE!"

"Sweet song," was her adoptive mommy's calm but firm response, "I can't take you with me this time. You need to stay here."

"STOOKIEBAD!" the dragonet protested. "YUUUUUUUsafe!"

Stoick covered his face with his gigantic hand, feeling another headache coming on. "So let me get this straight. This immensely powerful and destructive dragon may still be alive, and you want me to babysit a tiny eel with wings?!" he yelled.

Sonata wasn't very pleased about that, either. "GROWLFACE! ARGNORAW RGUMPHLE!"

Hiccup cringed. His father was looking directly at him when he said that - but that wasn't why Hiccup felt so embarrassed. Rather, it was because while Sonata had thrown hissy fits before, she had never acted up this much when they'd tried leaving her with a babysitter. Was there any Pokémon or dragon in the archipelago who didn't hate Stoick with such passion?

"Okay, maybe leaving Sonata with my dad isn't the best idea," he replied, sheepishly. "But we have plenty of time to figure this out."

Ironically, as if on cue, an explosion went off at the Dragon Academy.


Ten Minutes Earlier

"So, how does it work?" asked Camazotz as she circled around Sticky's Fossil Reviver.

The Shiny Poipole shrugged and said, "It's very simple. You just insert a fossil containing enough creature DNA in one of those tubes, push this big red button on the back, badda-bing badda-boom, you've got an egg containing a living extinct species!"

"That's how we stocked up the Sanctuary Dimension with all of those dinosaurs and whatnot," Adhesive explained.

Ra sat down on his haunches. "Why add the fusion part?"

"Well," said Sticky, "A lot of the fossils we found were just fragments, so I thought it would be cool to make hybrids, like they did in that other dimension. Thankfully, we're still years away from making an I-rex, let alone an I-raptor." She then pulled a heavy-looking bag out from behind the machine. "I found some fossils on an excavating field trip a few months ago, they belong to four extinct species of Pokémon known as Velozolt, Dracostego, Dunklevish and Arctomosa. For some reason, I was only able to find them in halves, so I thought I'd try making hybrids of them. Unfortunately, the Fossil Fuser isn't entirely compatible with Pokémon DNA, so I thought maybe Adhesive could help."

Obligingly, her boyfriend popped open the panel on the back of the device and went to work. "Looks like the back of my mom's television," he mumbled. "You should really start using twist-ties."

A few minutes of rearranging wires and adjusting the motherboard later, he closed the panel. "I think that should do it."

Trembling with excitement, Sticky reached into her bag and pulled out a yellow fossil with a bird-like skull and a green fossil with dragon-like tailbones. She flew right over and dropped the two rocks into each of the tubes on top of her Fossil Fuser.

"Are you sure it's going to work?" asked Ra, eyeing the machine suspiciously.

Adhesive shrugged. "The fusion process is a little out of practice. If it works at all, it usually short-circuits."

"Well," said Sticky, "There's only one way to find out."

She pressed the button.

At first, nothing happened. Then the machine rattled and shook in an increasingly violent manner. Just when it looked like it was about to explode, it stopped, gave a melodious *ding!* and a half-yellow half-green egg with reddish-pink stripes plopped down into the oval-shaped opening in front with a *ker-thunk*.

The white and yellow Poipole retrieved the egg from her machine, giving it a once-over. "Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would -"

BOOM!

The machine, which had still been trembling, blew up, sending metal parts and electrical sparks flying everywhere.

Unable to see themselves through all the smoke, Adhesive and Sticky hovered stiffly near Brandyn's Solgaleo and Lunala as their minds began to fully grasp the recent event.

"Sorry," Adhesive coughed.

"It's alright," Sticky coughed back. "A lot of that equipment was outdated. I've been working on a newer model for months." She held up the colorful oval in her arms. "Besides, the Dracozolt egg is still intact."

The tone quickly went dark, however, when a low growl echoed off of the arena walls.

"Please tell me that was your stomach," Camazotz begged.

"Unfortunately, no," sighed Ra.

That was when a pair of jagged wings opened from the center of the smoke cloud, whooshing the vapor away to reveal the dragon in all its horrifying glory.

The Skrill was only about as big as a Night Fury, but the multitude of spikes on his head, wings, back and tail made him look almost twice that size. His scales weren't simply purple - there was a faint bluish gloss that made them shine wherever the light struck him. His yellow reptilian eyes pierced through the smoke like two flashlights in a dark room. Some stray sparks from the decimated Fossil Fuser arched across his spines, providing the answer to what had caused him to spontaneously break out of his icy prison.

The four Pokémon were scared stiff at the Skrill's imposing form. It took Adhesive a second or two to find his voice, but when he did, it was tremulous and hushed with terror.

"I think we're in trouble," he squeaked.

As if in agreement, the Skrill let out an unearthly shriek.


From far in the distance, two Kyurem, one smaller than the other, stood on a small spot of land barely within view of Berk, their yellow eyes narrowed at the sight of the explosion.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Serac asked.

"The four trainers have been through much worse," Fjord answered. "Surely they can handle a claustrophobic Skrill."

Serac lowered his head, a pained expression in his eyes.

Fjord noticed his son's distress and nudged him a little. "Something wrong, son?"

"I've been having these strange flashes," Serac said. "Red lightning, a coiled dragon in the sky, darkness everywhere. I can't tell if they're dreams or hallucinations. I don't even know what they mean." He thought he say a glint of realization in his father's eye.

"Are there any words?" asked the older Kyurem.

"Sometimes," his son answered. "Something about warriors, a seed, a king who doesn't know, and..." His face scrunched up, as if he felt a headache coming on. "The islands will fall on the Darkest Day, unless the Expansion can be found."

"The Expansion?" Fjord repeated. The choppy sea below them bubbled slightly, and a faint purplish-red glow could be seen underneath. "Perhaps we should consider paying them a visit."

The overcast sky began to turn black, and thunder rumbled ominously over the island of Berk.


The Skrill strained against the light purple aura that held him prisoner in midair. Camazotz's eyes glowed the same color as she held her stare at the dragon, determined to keep her focus. The Skrill made several efforts to struggle, or thrash, or anything to get free, but the best he could do was twitch.

"It's a good thing you learned how to use Psychic last week," Ra spoke.

Camazotz shushed him. "It only works if I concentrate."

Just then, Hiccup and the others came rushing into the academy, joined by Stoick and Brumous. Their collective attention was immediately drawn to the remains of the Skrill's icy prison scattered around the stone floor, and then the spiky dragon hovering in midair via psychic energy.

"It was an accident!" Adhesive instantly blurted in Norse.

Hiccup turned to the Poipole, his face hard as stone. "We leave you with a dragon that could possibly destroy all of Berk, and your first instinct is to release it?" he snapped, irritated beyond belief with the amount of pressure weighing on him. "What in the name of Arceus were you guys thinking?"

"You're making it very hard for me to stay focused," Camazotz said through gritted teeth.

Ra stepped in between them, defending his Lunala friend (who he was definitely NOT in love with) and the pair of Poipole. "To be fair, we didn't know it was a Skrill," he told Hiccup calmly.

"And we didn't mean for it to escape, honest!" Sticky added, trying to be helpful.

The banter between the Go-Getters was brought to a halt when they noticed that Stoick wasn't paying attention to any of them - instead, he was silently striding forward as if in a daze. He stopped in the center of the arena and gently, almost reverently, kneeled down to pick up a chunk of the ice that had once encased the Skrill. When Hiccup walked over to check on him, he saw that he was staring at the ice as if it had just divulged a very dark secret.

"What is it, Dad?" the younger Haddock asked, sensing that something was wrong.

Standing back up to his full height, Stoick stared solemnly at the blackening sky and reminisced, "When I was a lad, my grandfather would sit me on his knee and tell me tales. I thought they were just stories..."

"Stories about what?" Hiccup questioned, although he wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer.

"Berserker fleets," Stoick replied grimly. "Attacking behind harnessed dragons that brought down lightning from the sky and destroyed everything in their path."

The Go-Getter leader's blood ran cold at the thought, but he rapidly shook the feeling away. There hadn't been any record of Skrill sightings in hundreds of years, so he didn't know if such a thing were possible or not. If Vikings as fierce and war-mongering as the Berserkers were capable of taming such a powerful beast, this was the first he was hearing about it.

"Y-You don't actually think Dagur could harness the power of a...a Skrill, do you?" he inquired, a noticeable quaver making it into his voice.

"I didn't think anyone could ride a Night Fury. We just can't take the risk, son!" Stoick pointed out. He turned to the Go-Getters and glanced at each of them in turn, seeing that they all looked somber in light of this troublesome situation.

"As much as I hate to admit it," said Snivels, "He's right. If the Berserkers are after this dragon, and somehow figure out a way to control it..."

Hiccup didn't want to think about that possibility. Instead, he placed his comparatively tiny hand on his father's arm and assured him, "We can handle this, Dad. I promise."

Before anyone else could add onto that, an ominous roll of thunder reverberated across the sky, and flashes of light flickered across the underside of the clouds as they released lightning somewhere inside of them.

The sudden noise and flashing light startled Camazotz. She flinched back and shut her eyes, and the Skrill fell to the arena floor with a *thump*.

Everyone stood frozen stiff as the dragon pushed himself to his feet. He let out a shrieking cry and burst past the Go-Getters as if they weren't even there. Now free to go, the Skrill charged out the academy's exit and spread his wings, heading directly for the thunderstorm now brewing on the horizon.

Snivels's eyes followed the dragon as it fled, and he flinched a little at the foreboding sound of thunder. "Something tells me that might be harder than we think."

Camazotz bowed down so that she was eye level with the four teenagers. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright," said Brandyn, patting her head. "None of us were expecting any of this."

"Guys, we have to get to that Skrill before Dagur does," Hiccup declared loudly enough for the whole group to hear. "Storm or no storm, we're going out there."

That was enough for Team Go-Getters, who immediately prepared to leave the academy. Imitations of dragon roars blew out into the air as they sounded their dragons whistles, and before long their dragons came flying through the gates to pick them up. One by one, with Hiccup leading, they exited and soared off into the stormy sky, followed by the Sticky - who knows, perhaps the white and yellow Poipole understood the crisis and felt the need to lend her aid.

Regardless, the academy was empty in moments, leaving Stoick behind to stare somberly after them.

"May Thor be with you, son," he murmured softly into the wind.


The team didn't get very far out the academy gates when they heard screaming coming from the Viking village. The followed the sound on dragonback, and what they saw was no surprise.

The Skrill was there, flying in circles of varying sizes, electrical sparks branching between his spikes as the thunder roared in the clouds above. He gave a mighty screech and fired upon the roof of the Great Hall with a powerful blast of lightning.

"Should we engage?" asked Ra.

"Not yet," Hiccup answered, "You know the drill - we catch it, tame it, and train it."

"Yono dadwill," Sonata squeaked, her head the only thing visible from her usual place behind Heather's jacket.

Heather smiled down at the dragonet. "Don't worry, Sonata," she said, stroking the Siren's head comfortingly. "Everything will be alright. Mama and her friends are gonna save the day."

Sonata snuggled in a little more and started singing softly to herself, "Sana awite, Mama sabladay. Sana awite, Mama sabladay..."

Hiccup hadn't even known for sure if Sirens could really sing like humans. And judging by the looks everyone else was giving the dragonet, he guessed they hadn't either.

Unfortunately, the noise Sonata was making attracted the Skrill's attention. He saw them, let out a shriek, and darted upward into the clouds, disappearing from view.

"So much for an easy catch," sighed Blaze.

Of course, their next course of action was to land their dragons in the plaza and make sure that everyone was okay. Almost the moment their feet touched down, they were swarmed by panicked Vikings.

"That dragon came out of nowhere!" yelled one man who was wearing a helmet that looked much too small to fit on his head.

"Where has it gone?!" a beardless man demanded.

"You have to do something!" shrieked one of the mothers, who was holding her child in a hug tight enough to choke them.

Only the voice of their chief had the power to silence them. "Everyone calm down!"

Now the team was free to inspect the damage the Skrill had left behind. Suspiciously, even though there were some smoking buildings from the lightning, there was something off about the Skrill's behavior. Hiccup couldn't put his finger on it, but as he observed the slightly-burned village, hearing nothing but his friends' breathing, he felt as if there was more to what they had seen happen.

"Who shot first?" asked Snivels, quite suddenly.

Off guard, Stoick asked in response, "What?"

"Who shot first?" the Servine repeated, turning to the assembled villagers. "The Skrill, or you guys?"

Every Viking in the plaza synchronously turned to their own four Dragon Riders, and their Pokémon partners, sitting atop their respective dragons. Gulping nervously, Fishlegs raised his hand to point at Snotlout in what he hoped was a subtle manner. Nevertheless, the Jorgenson noticed.

"What?!" he demanded. "Did you just expect me to sit here and do nothing while a perfectly good dragon was within range of the great and mighty Snotlout?!"

Astrid and Blaze exchanged a look with each other as they rolled their eyes.

"What was the Skrill doing before you had Hookfang fire at it?" asked Brandyn.

"Just flying," answered Fishlegs, "And shrieking - very loud, in fact. And it kept looking around, like it was searching for something."

"Totally boring," Ruffnut groaned.

Her brother chuckled. "And then Snotlout was all 'ANNIHILATE!' and just like that it was beautiful destruction time!"

All at once, the Go-Getters looked thoughtful. The Skrill hadn't attacked until after it was shot at - why?

A voice broke the unnerving silence - Sticky's, from her position at the back of the pack. "Any idea where it went?"

"We'll split up," Hiccup answered shortly. "That way, we'll find it faster."

"You make it sound like it's going to be that easy," drawled Astrid.

"Above all else, we need to keep it away from Dagur so he doesn't get a chance to control it," he emphasized, knowing perfectly well that Astrid was right.

This would be the hardest dragon he'd ever attempted to train, if it was even possible at all to begin with. But for now, that was the plan. He just needed a bit more time to work out the details.

From somewhere in the middle of the group, Heather spoke up next. "Shouldn't someone stay here, for babysitting duty?"

As if to prove her point, Sonata exclaimed, "Iccasty!"

Hiccup and Astrid both pretended not to hear the Siren's comment, but they turned faintly pink anyway.

The moment Fishlegs's eyes landed on the dragonet, he started to fidget and babble to himself with an excitement that couldn't be contained. "I-Is th-that a...?! Tell me it can't...there's no way...! It's a...it's a baby...! A baby Si-" he gushed, only for a hand to clap itself over his flapping lips.

"Lombre," Pad reprimanded.

Ninjark gave his trainer a slight nudge. "Looks like we've found a babysitter."

"He has a point," said Hiccup, "It could take all of us to tame that Skrill." Then, to Fishlegs, he asked, "You wouldn't mind watching over the young ones for a while, would you?"

The pudgy Ingerman boy gently removed his partner's hand from his mouth and swore, "I won't let them out of my sight!"

Satisfied with their choice, Heather pulled Sonata out of her hiding place and gave her a gentle hug. "You be good, okay? Mama will be back soon."

"Begud," Sonata crooned. Remarkably, she made no protest as her mommy handed her over to the dragon enthusiast.

"You are so cute!" Fishlegs gushed excitedly. "Yes you are! Who's a baby? Who's a cutie baby? Uncle Fishlegs is gonna take good care of you, yes he is!"

"Feeshie!" Sonata squealed. "Eeeeeeeeeenow! Feeshies yum, yum, yum!"

Just like that, a realization suddenly hit Hiccup, his eyes lighting up with genius. "Guys, Sonata just said something unintentionally brilliant," he stated.

"She did?" Heather asked, surprised and confused.

It certainly wasn't expected - Sonata had proven herself useful to the team. His hope restored, Hiccup grinned and privately made a mental note to give the Siren dragonet a pat on the head, and maybe a seafood snack of some kind, when they took the Skrill back to the academy.

"What's the first thing you want to do every morning?" he questioned, looking at his friends expectantly.

"Well," Adhesive thought about it, "First, I get out of bed...then I go to the bathroom..."

"After that," Hiccup deadpanned. That good mood certainly hadn't lasted long.

"Oh," the Poipole replied, then moved onto the next item on his morning routine. "Eat!"

Now expressions of dawning realization were appearing on the other Go-Getters' faces as this information sunk in. If the Skrill had just woken up from a who-knows-how-many-years-long slumber, then chances are it would be hungry. After all, everyone knew that the most important start to a good morning was to fill their bellies. The Skrill might agree on that same principle and have gone hunting as it fled the village, allowing them to track it based on whatever it left behind.

Maybe Hiccup was right - Sonata had said something unintentionally brilliant.

"As I thought!" the Haddock boy exclaimed triumphantly. "Snivels, what is the Skrill's food of choice?"

"Well," mused the most dragon-savvy of their group, "If I had to make a guess..."

He trailed off, his gaze gradually shifting in the direction of the ocean. Seafood was the go-to meal for most dragons, and that included Skrills.


Thunderstrike had certainly not been happy to find himself in the middle of a dragon-killing arena when he woke up from his rather icy nap. Not only was he starving, but he was probably being pursued by those bloodthirsty Dragonslayers right now.

Oh, how he would love to chomp off the head of the idiot who tried to annihilate him!

Now that he thought about it, he recalled hearing some faint sounds from outside his block of solitude - voices talking. Something about a colon...and science...and middle fingers...and kids...and a sticky girlfriend...and fossils...and sniveling...and bad dreams...and some made-up vision word...then came the fateful explosion that set him free.

That was when he got the opportunity to meet the creatures behind the voices. It had been so long since he'd been trapped in ice, he wasn't even sure he remembered how names worked, all he knew was that his name was Thunderstrike.

He did recognize some of their voices from before - the scrawny one with a metal leg was the one who was talking about the colon. Colon Boy was what Thunderstrike decided to call him for the time being.

The snappy, blonde one with spikes - Angry Girl.

The black-haired one with the Siren dragonet - Kid Lover.

The science guy with bad dreams - it took him forever, but he eventually came up with Clever Nightmare.

(He thought he remembered a dragon whose species had a name like that...Gruesome Nightmare? Unholy Nightmare? Fearsome Nightmare? Definitely something-Nightmare. Maybe it would come to him later.)

He did recognize Solgaleo and Lunala. It was so unfair for that batty Pokémon to trap him with Psychic so soon after he'd had his first taste of freedom after how many years!

And that big ugly Dragonslayer - what was he doing there? Surely he'd been planning to slaughter Thunderstrike and mount his head over his fireplace. After all, he'd yet to meet a Dragonslayer who didn't want to do that.

Perhaps, for the sake of clarity, he should give the Dragonslayer a nickname, too. After coming up with several names that were very inappropriate for children, he finally settled on Hairy Jerk.

And the Pokémon? He remembered there were other Pokémon in the arena besides Solgaleo and Lunala. He'd already called the Lunala "Batty", and the others...well, the most striking thing Thunderstrike had noticed were their colors. Green, Red, Blue, White, (the Charizard looked more Amber than Orange) and Purple and Yellow.

Enough thinking about other creatures. Time to go get some breakfast!

And the rest? That was for Thunderstrike to decide.


Everyone was on high alert. Hiccup, Astrid, Heather, and Brandyn were at the front of the formation with Hiccup flying point, scanning the cloud-choked sky ahead. Trailing behind on the left were Snivels, Blaze, Amber, and Kickin Hawk, keeping their own sharp eyes out for any activity. On the right, there were Ninjark, Ra, Camazotz, Adhesive and Sticky. Finally, in the back, there were Xylia the Sceptile, Palus the Swampert, Mawnan the near-sighted Dartrix who was now sporting a new pair of glasses, Cross the Torracat, Marina the Brionne, Crackers the Drizzile, Flare the Raboot, Trommel the Thwackey, Kerosene the Salazzle, Buddy, and Fossilwing. Only Palus seemed at ease with the storm clouds, probably because his species had an immunity to electrical elements.

And speaking of electricity...that was the only thing up here to accompany them.

*THRRRRRR-OOOOOOM*

If the thunder was ominous before, now that the Go-Getters were flying directly into the heart of the storm, it had become downright horrifying. Every time the thunder boomed, it rolled and rumbled through the clouds around them, sounding as though it was coming from everywhere at once.

When his ears weren't being assaulted by the thunder, Hiccup kept his senses on high alert for any disturbance. There was nothing but grey fog - well, clouds, rather - in all directions.

A distant flash of lightning illuminated the clouds ahead, startling the group with the sudden source of light. This wouldn't have been unusual for the fact they were flying through storm clouds if the lightning didn't repeat several times in the same spot. One flash after another lit up the endless grey haze, drawing the curious attention of the group.

They sped up on Hiccup's orders, following the suspicious behavior of the lightning. As they got closer, though, they began to see a shadow in the center of each flash, its wings silhouetted in different positions as it flapped through the storm. The lightning seemed to be being drawn toward it.

Seeing the phenomenon sparked a memory in Hiccup's head, the memory of Snivels reciting something...

The Skrill draws lightning from the clouds, and then redirects it, the Servine had lectured. It can also store the lightning in its body and use it later.

"Hold up, everybody!" shouted Hiccup.

He pulled hard on Toothless' saddle. Toothless slowed down, but did not stop flying entirely. The rest of the Go-Getters slowed down as well, until they were going quickly enough to keep the Skrill in their sights but slow enough to keep from drawing attention to themselves.

"Okay, we found it!" Astrid announced. "Now what?"

"Stay back," the leader commanded, looking back at the others. "If the Skrill sees just one dragon, maybe it won't attack."

Everyone nodded, deciding that it was a good plan. Toothless sped ahead of the group, soon leaving them behind in the clouds as he went to get his first look at the Skrill.

In the air, the Skrill was nothing short of majestic, slowly cutting through the sky like a Viking longship through the sea. With his wings spread wide, he looked twice the size of Toothless. His scales were purple, but they seemed to have an outer gloss that glowed electric blue. Periodically, a stray spark of electricity from the clouds would jump to his body, most frequently his many spikes and horns.

The Skrill's eyes locked with his, and Hiccup steeled his courage. I have to try to train it, no matter what it's like on the inside. If I can convince it not to harm anything else, there won't be any unnecessary fighting or bloodshed.

"H-Hey there, buddy," he tried to still the tremors in his voice. "You've been asleep for a long time, haven't you? So I'm guessing you're pretty cranky."

He reached out with a hand, only for the Skrill's horns to spark and almost burn him. The dragon's reptilian eye continued to stare at him with that unspeakably intense gaze. Beneath Hiccup's legs, Toothless tensed up and growled softly, muscles bunching under his black scales.

Some glint of emotion stole across the Skrill's eye, and it opened its impressive jaws for a horrifying screech. "SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Toothless screeched back, fire glowing in the back of his throat as he prepared to defend. He slashed out, battering the Skrill with his claws. But the electric dragon flared out his wings, catching the wind and sailing backwards until he was gone. He shrieked, ear-splittingly, and his mouth sizzled with lightning as he shot a blast over Hiccup's head, forcing him to duck and steer Toothless away.

"Hiccup!" shrieked Astrid's voice, coming from somewhere nearby - although it was impossible to tell exactly where.

More lightning flashed from the surrounding storm clouds, flickering across the Skrill's wings and head and making his scales appear even more iridescent. Sucking in a hissing breath, it gathered more electricity in its mouth and launched another crackling beam. The beam lanced away from Toothless and into one of the nearby clouds - a second later, the Go-Getters exploded out in every direction from within. Some of the dragons' scales were smoking lightly from the near miss, tinging the electrically-charged air with a faint acrid scent of burning.

One of the Go-Getters - Snivels - steered his dragon several hundred feet below the Skrill. Verne's wings flapped soundlessly on the wind, clearly intending to remain as discreet as possible. Snivels knew there was something familiar about the Skrill's behavior, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it...

Then the Skrill screeched his bone-chilling screech. "SHREEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Snivels's eyes instantly lit up with realization. "Mother of Arceus," he breathed in Pokéspeak, "He's calling for help! GUYS!" That last word was spoken in Norse.

Having heard the yell, Hiccup and Toothless dove back toward their friend, the force of gravity pulling them both out of the way of another electric blast. The scent of ozone was now hanging extremely heavily in the air around them from the Skrill's wild lightning shots.

Fire blazed from all directions as Stormfly, Windshear, and Buck closed in on their powerful quarry, coupled with sand and sound when Dragonfly and Wavern came to assist them. The final blow came from Spike, who lifted his head towards the sky and fired a sphere of purple energy straight up into the clouds. Bombarded with Draco Meteor rocks from all sides, the Skrill shook his head derisively and fled, his spikey form soon disappearing for good. As his body vanished, his haunting scream floated back to resonate in the ears of the Go-Getters, chilling their blood.

Slowly, the gang calmed down and brought their dragons back into a standard flight formation.

"He was calling for help," Snivels explained, a little bit faster than his friends would have liked. "That's what that screech means. Back at the village, he didn't attack until Snotlout shot at him. And just now, when Hiccup tried to touch him, he must have felt threatened, or trapped. He's not acting like some unfathomable, bloodthirsty monster. He's doing everything a normal creature would do!"

"If they suddenly found themselves in an unfamiliar environment," Blaze finished.

The Skrill was nothing more than a confused and frightened creature who was looking for help. Sure, it seemed ludicrous, given its species' reputation, but it was the truth.

Hiccup raised his head as they continued onwards through the storm clouds, watching and listening. He heard nothing but the faint sounds of distant thunder and the steady wind that blew the storm on its course. But even as he listened, he realized that something seemed off.

It was hard to pinpoint what, exactly, felt off about the sound of the wind in his ears. It was almost like it was flowing around something - something nearby. The Go-Getter leader closed his eyes and dipped his head, straining to hear even the slightest anomaly. Everyone saw how concentrated he was on this task, and wisely kept their mouths shut, even though many of them desperately wanted to ask him of his motives.

With his eyes closed, Hiccup wasn't sure how he would describe the sound the wind was making. The air was definitely flowing around something, and it was this mysterious object that was altering the path, and thus the sound, of the moving air.

The only thing it could be was a dragon. And there was only one possible dragon it could be.

He opened his eyes at last, and they immediately widened in shock. A huge, dark silhouette was looming ahead of him, coming towards him through the clouds ahead.

"It's coming back!" Hiccup yelled.

But there were no great wings flapping on either side of the coming creature. It wasn't the Skrill.

It melted out of the clouds like a ghost, as buoyant as a ship on the water as it floated without propulsion. Huge white fins adorned its body, a dark blue crest sat on its head, white whiskers dangled below its gaping mouth, its eyes glowed red as it peered down at them. It was enormous, many times its real size, its body glowing faintly with reddish energy, a trio of small dark red clouds circling around its head.

"It's...it's n-not the Skrill!" stammered Astrid, such was her shock.

"A Gyarados!" Hiccup clarified with a gasp.

The Dynamaxed Pokémon had her jaws twisted in a snarl as she regarded them. Her eyes flashed dangerously as she stared them down, her fangs glistening in the faint light. She let out a bellowing roar, and her aura flared out.

"Anyone know a very powerful Electric attack?" Adhesive squeaked. "Because that would really come in handy right about now."


Back at the academy, Fishlegs mumbled to himself as he examined the egg Sticky had decided to leave with him. It was unlike any he'd ever seen before, he wondered what kind of creature would be coming out of it.

On the other side of the arena, Snotlout grumbled to himself as he gathered fish into a basket, the reason for which he didn't even bother to remember. Why was he stuck here helping Guppylegs with babysitting duties when he should be proving, once and for all, that he was the single best Viking on Berk?!

When he asked that question out loud, Fishlegs answered, "Because, obviously, I can't look after all of these guys by myself."

He was right. Not only did he have Sonata and the egg on his plate, but there was also Alba and her siblings, the flightless Speed Stingers, Mortem and Bigwings, Blaze and Kickin Hawk's children, Fearless the Flightmare, Torch and his siblings, Glory the Changewing, Earthcracker the Whispering Death, Clay the Mudraker, Tsunami the Tide Glider, Bumblebee the Gronckle, Stoker the Monstrous Nightmare, a Zippleback named Yin and Yang (whatever that meant), a Rockruff named Hokkaido, Komodo the Jangmo-o, a Dreepy called Launch, a yellow Swablu named Aria, and the Noibat trio, consisting of Ruido, Onpa and Laetio.

As adorable as they all were, Fishlegs couldn't complete the task of looking after them himself. He needed helpers.

Odin knows why he even thought of asking Snotlout and the Thorston twins to fulfill that role.

Said twins were lounging in the corner, their expressions the epitome of boredom. "Can't we just blow up a barrel or something?" whined Tuffnut.

"No," said Fishlegs in his firmest voice (which wasn't very much so). "Hiccup trusted me to look after these guys, and that's exactly what I'm going to do!"

"Why don't you go tell that to someone who cares?" asked a certain pig-headed Viking. "'Cause the Snotlout doesn't do babysitting!"

He didn't notice Sonata curled up on the barrel next to him until she practically screamed in his ear, "Snotface!"

He jumped, and the fish he was holding slipped out of his hands and landed on his helmet. Not far away, the twins roared with laughter. "This is more fun than yak-tipping!" Ruffnut guffawed, clutching her stomach.

Outwardly calm, the Jorgenson boy yanked the slimy bit of food off of his now-wet helmet and dropped it into the basket. "Snotlout," he growled. "My name is Snotlout, got it?!"

"Snotface!" Sonata squealed, making it clear that she didn't get it at all.

Shaking a little with frustration, the Jorgenson tried again to correct her. "Snotlout!"

"Snotface!"

(Somewhere in the background, Fishlegs uttered, "Um, maybe you shouldn't...")

"SnotLOUT!"

"SnotFACE!"

Now fuming, he grabbed her behind the head, lifted her up to his eye level and shouted, "SAY 'SNOTLOUT', DAMMIT!"

"Dammit!" Sonata parroted innocently.

Fishlegs let out a fearful squeak, his face turning as white as a sheet. "Oh, they're gonna kill me!"


And that's the closest I'm ever going to get to using a swear word in this series. Well, except for "son of a Bisharp," which will appear later.

The full names of the four fossil Pokémon in Sword and Shield are non-canon. The fanmade artwork for them can be found on Twitter, just Google search "gerph_art fossil pokemon". Trust me, they're really good.

Be sure to review, and the adventure will continue!