Chapter 21: Outcast Overthrown
Keep an eye out for Mark Hamill references in this chapter (the reason for which will be revealed at the end). Fair warning: get ready to expect the unexpected.
And P.S. the characters Himinn and Typhoon belong to JDunks896
It was the dead of night, and there was still no sign of the Skrill.
Hiccup had been organizing search parties in teams of two ever since they had gotten back from the battle with the Berserkers. They had let the Skrill go his own way, but it wasn't too much to fear that Dagur and the Berserkers could have managed to capture him when they weren't looking. With Dagur's armada cruising the seas, the Skrill nowhere to be found, and Dynamaxed Pokémon prowling about, the archipelago was more dangerous than it had ever been.
Of course, when he'd brought that up to the group in his rousing speech just before starting the search parties, Snivels had reminded him that they still had to fulfill the Four Trainers Prophecy as well. Leave it to Hiccup's prime partner to recall all of the important details.
Anyway...it was getting close to midnight, and Hiccup had finally decided to lay off the other Go-Getters. The last search team had been Amber, Kickin' Hawk and Xylia, and all three of them were definitely worse for wear. The Charizard and Hawlucha were having trouble staying awake in midflight, while the Sceptile was actually asleep and had been whisked back home by her flying friends, no questions asked.
Now, Hiccup was the only one left at the Berk Dragon Academy. He stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the sea, staring out at the stars and wondering where in the name of Odin the Skrill was. He wasn't alone, of course - Toothless was there with him, waiting patiently as he fixed his lantern.
The young trainer was just about finished with the repairs, when suddenly, the unique sound of a half-roar half-screech came to his ears. He turned around to see Buddy the Silvally padding up behind him.
"Good evening, Master!" the Synthetic Pokémon declared. "Have you any luck finding our elusive electric friend?"
Grimly, Hiccup shook his head. "None," he answered. "And you really don't have to call me that, you know."
"I am as the Arceus made me," Buddy replied. "But, if it may please you, I am more than happy to call you by name, Hiccup. Now, why don't you join me on my walk home? The other Go-Getters have come in for the night, and you and Toothless look like you need some sleep."
Hiccup glanced at the Night Fury, and did notice that his posture seemed to be sagging a little. He grimaced, knowing that Toothless was likely tired as well from the eventful day they'd just experienced.
"Don't worry, Buddy," he said, while standing up to fiddle with his saddlebag. "I've got more provisions. I'm heading back out."
The Legendary Pokémon looked visibly surprised. "What do you plan to do, fly until you find the edge of the earth? Which, by the way, does not exist."
"If I have to," Hiccup replied, his tone leaving no room for argument. "I can't get comfortable knowing that the Skrill is out there somewhere."
He easily slid into Toothless' saddle, while Toothless shook off his tiredness and got himself ready for another flight. Buddy stepped closer to the pair, a determined look in his eyes.
"Then I'm going with you!" he decided passionately.
But Hiccup didn't want to hear it. Buddy was no doubt worn out from the full day of searching they'd had, and needed sleep as much as the other Go-Getters did.
"Go get some rest, Buddy," he smiled reassuringly. "We all really appreciate your help."
One spreading of scaly black wings later, Hiccup and Toothless had bounded into the starry sky and were lost from view. Buddy watched them go, frowning to himself. He and his friends really had found themselves in a troubling situation, hadn't they - what they'd first thought would be a fun little search-and-rescue for a pair of Viking fishermen had turned into a crisis bigger than they'd imagined.
"Hmm..." he mused to himself as he glanced at Hiccup and Toothless's retreating forms. "Perhaps I should go and inform the other Go-Getters about this..."
Hiccup had flown far in only a short time, and now he was experiencing heavy cloud cover as he and Toothless pushed forward in their search for the missing dragon. Thunder rumbled occasionally in the background, but it was the only noise for miles around, providing the perfect atmosphere for Hiccup's great brain to mull things over.
"You know," he mused aloud, "Maybe we've been looking at this entire thing the wrong way. In this big storm, the Skrill will be attracted to lightning, so if we follow the storm, we'll find the dragon! Can't hurt, right?"
Happy he'd reached such a conclusion so quickly, he tried to steer Toothless in the direction of the nearest distant lightning flash, from where the thunder was now emanating. But Toothless put up a bit of resistance when he first tried, growling and straining against his human companion's tugging.
"Yeah, I know, bud," sighed Hiccup, understanding why he'd be so against flying into the thunderstorm. "We don't know for sure what's out there. But we've tried everything else..."
Toothless huffed, definitely giving off an air of frustration, and heeded Hiccup's request by plunging into the thickest of the grey clouds. Rain started to patter against his black scales, but it was only a drizzle that they could survive without catching cold.
Just as Hiccup was thinking that the weather was much better than he'd initially thought, a bolt of lightning crashed through the sky right next to him. Its sudden appearance coupled with the abrupt burst of light and noise startled Hiccup quite badly, his green eyes flying open in fear.
"Whoa, watch your tail, bud!" he yelled out in worry. When a stray lightning bolt nearly grazed his left side, he added hastily, "And I'll watch my leg."
Satisfied with this, Toothless continued to head deeper into the storm clouds. Together with Hiccup, all of their senses were on edge for any sign of the Skrill. But compared to yesterday, this storm wasn't all that bad - maybe it was elsewhere, where the weather was worse, so it could draw more power from the environment.
"O-Okay!" Hiccup shouted in shock when a second bolt of lightning stabbed toward them, almost touching the shield he had strapped to his back. "Draconium and lightning - not a terrific combo."
The rain was picking up, and Hiccup was starting to get a little chilly as his clothes got wetter and wetter. The lightning began to get more frequent, and the clouds around them started to churn with the increasingly violent weather. Before Hiccup could make a move to dive out of the storm, however, he noticed that the clouds ahead of him were much calmer and whiter.
The rain was gone and the thunder was distant. Hiccup was out of the storm, his eyes fixed on the clear skies and calm waters ahead. He didn't stop urging Toothless onward, not even when he started to make out key details on the island such as the dead trees and the jagged mountain peaks.
"That's Outcast Island down there," he realized, but did nothing to halt their course.
When Toothless realized that they weren't going to stop, he gave a sharp growl of protest.
Feeling resigned, Hiccup explained to his dragon, "I know you hate the place, bud, but we've got no choice. We have to set down and wait out the storm."
The Night Fury seemed to accept that, and together they continued their descent toward the home island of Berk's archnemesis - Alvin the Treacherous.
About an hour later, Hiccup rolled over onto his back and studied the sky from his hiding place amongst a pile of boulders. The stars had vanished, choked out of sight by dark clouds. Occasionally, a roll of thunder or a flicker of lightning would come from their depths, confirming to the hiding Haddock boy that they made up the same storm he had just escaped from.
"Looks like this storm isn't going anywhere, Toothless," he whispered after a while. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was waiting for us..."
"Mrrrble..." Toothless quietly replied.
Hiccup shimmied up the largest boulder to take another look at the reason why he'd chosen this hiding spot in the first place. Not very far away was the Outcasts' dragon-training ring, which he'd never seen close up before. Sure, he'd been on Outcast Island quite a few times, usually against his will, but he'd never had the opportunity to see their arena. As he suspected, it wasn't too impressive - just a barren pit with cages made up of welded-together weapons and such. And judging from the various scorch marks, bloodstains, and other signs of failure littered around the place, Alvin wasn't having a whole lot of luck getting a dragon mount of his own.
When Hiccup snuck another peek at the Outcast training ring, he noticed immediately that something had changed. Last time he'd spied on the arena, there were only a couple of guard Outcasts on duty by the cages. But now, the arena was positively filled with Outcast soldiers, about half of which were accompanied by the usual Houndoom. At their head was Alvin himself, as well as Savage and Eidolon, Alvin's Dusknoir partner.
"That's a lot of Outcasts..." observed Hiccup, extending his spyglass a little more. "What're you up to, Alvin?"
"All we know is that he's planning something big with that Skrill," answered Snivels.
Hiccup blinked, surprised by the news. "Alvin has the Skr-"
He interrupted himself when the far more important news struck him like a Rhyhorn's charge. "Wa-wait, Snivels?!" he stammered in shock. "What are you doing here?!"
Indeed, the Servine prince himself was standing right beside him, casually leaning on a boulder as if he had been there all night. And he wasn't alone - the other three Trainers of Destiny, accompanied by their Pokémon partners, were all right there with him on Outcast Island where Hiccup had been least expecting them to be.
"Rephrase," said Hiccup. "What are you all doing here?!"
"Making sure you don't do anything stupid," Astrid replied, matter-of-factly. "Your friend Buddy told us everything."
Of course he did. Why wouldn't he? But even if the Silvally had gone straight to them right after Hiccup and Toothless had departed, how in the name of Arceus had they gotten to Outcast Island around the same time he did?!
Merely a second after Hiccup had said that out loud, a long black tendril came out of nowhere to seize his waist in a death grip. Hiccup swore that his heart just stopped.
"Surprise!" boomed a familiar voice.
"GAH!" the Haddock boy screamed in shock. "Drageist, don't you ever do that again!"
Smirking like a Gengar, the Origin Forme Giratina relaxed his grip on the young trainer and let him stagger away, still breathing hard from the unexpected prank. Behind the Legendary Pokémon, Adhesive and Sticky bumped fists as they grinned at Hiccup, both of them having gotten a huge kick out of his reaction.
"Wait, did you plan this?" he asked them, suspiciously.
"Sure did," Drageist laughed. "The Poipole planned it, and I just went along because I thought it'd be funny."
"Turns out his species does have a sense of humor!" Adhesive said.
Feeling his stomach do a flip-flop - not the kind he got around Astrid, but a nervous sort of flip-flop - Hiccup shook his head and muttered, "And now I'm gonna be having nightmares for a week. I take it you all got here through one of Drageist's portals?"
Snivels gave him a shrug as if at a loss as to what else they could tell him. "It was faster than flying all the way here, and safer, too, when you consider how easily the Outcasts would have seen us flying in."
"Fjord and Serac saw Alvin grab the Skrill," Drageist summarized. "So they sent me to lend you some assistance."
With all that officially settled, Hiccup crawled back onto the boulder and put his spyglass up to his eye again. "Okay. Let's take a look and see if we can find out what Alvin plans on doing with that dragon."
As he continued to eavesdrop on the mass gathering in the training ring, which was apparently important if Alvin and Eidolon were involved, Drageist, Ra, and Camazotz hid their large bodies as best they could behind the rocks and half-dead trees of the island's landscape. They were at the most risk of being seen, since they were the largest of the group.
"Can you see the Skrill?" Blaze asked.
Hiccup turned back to her. "Not yet," he quietly answered. "Still looking."
He returned to his post and was just in time to see a group of Houndoom-supported Outcasts drag a struggling Skrill into the arena. There were five soldiers to the one dragon, and they were definitely having trouble getting it to stay put. Its neck was bound with a solid iron clamp that attached to five long chains, each one pulled by a different Outcast. Electricity flickered across the Skrill's spikes, but it didn't seem to be able to use it as a weapon - probably because it didn't have any lightning from the sky to back it up.
"Yep, there it is," Hiccup muttered grimly. "Man, this is not good."
"We are in serious trouble," agreed Snivels.
"Up to our necks," Adhesive elaborated. "Dealing with that joker is bad enough, but put a Skrill behind him, and he's nightmare fuel. Like Malefor, only smaller and fleshier, and minus the mastery of darkness."
He seemed to sense the impatient and unappreciative glares being sent his way, and finished, "Shutting up."
Unfortunately for the group, the surprises weren't over just yet. Hiccup audibly gasped and instinctively set down his spyglass when he saw who walked into the arena next, too surprised to react any other way. Snivels immediately went for the tool and held it to his own eye, allowing him to see for himself.
Now stationed between Alvin and Savage was a face any Go-Getter would find familiar, and that was the very thing that made it so unexpected. The old man Mildew stood there, engaging in conversation with the Outcast higher-ups with his sheep Fungus accompanying him.
Hiccup had secretly suspected that Mildew had been working for Alvin back when he'd been held prisoner, but seeing it for real was a whole other story. Mildew was willing to do anything to get the dragons off of Berk, and this was proof that joining the Outcasts was one of those things.
Snivels certainly didn't like what he saw, either, as he slammed down the spyglass and nearly shattered it to pieces on the rock below. "Mildew," the Servine hissed the elder's name in silent rage.
Hastily, Hiccup took back his spyglass before anyone could break it. He peered through it, and wrinkled his brow at what was going on now. And to think that things couldn't get worse after Mildew entered the scene.
"That's weird. Those are Berserker soldiers," he spoke his observation aloud, noticing the distinctive helmets and spears of the rows of warriors currently filing into the Outcast arena.
And of course, where there were Berserkers, there was someone else with them.
"Dagur!" Hiccup gasped. Even with a metal mask covering his face, there was no mistaking the familiar helmet and inflamed eyes as the deranged Berserker Chief made his appearance to join Hiccup's two other least favorite human beings.
"Dagur and Alvin, together, with the Skrill," he summarized dazedly, feeling as if he had fallen into a bad dream.
"Really, really not good," Heather commented with a shudder.
"Thank you for summing that up..." he grimaced.
"Don't forget Mildew," snapped Snivels, whose tail twitched in frustration. "And in case anyone was wondering, I'm still not over the fact that he almost killed me twice!"
Now that they had seen all that they needed to see, the four teens and their Pokémon friends slunk away from the arena. They needed to meet up with their dragons, and once they were all regrouped in a safer hiding place, it would be time to work on the next stage of the plan.
Down in the arena, the perimeter was completely surrounded by armed Outcast guards as the Skrill was brought out to present to the visiting Berserkers. Dagur's eyes widened with glee when he saw the purple-gray dragon appear before him for the first time. In flagrant disregard for his own personal safety, Dagur abandoned his circle of Berserker guards and went to see the living natural disaster up close and personal.
"Skrill!" he spoke its feared name with undisguised excitement. "The new weapon of my people! So beautiful, so supple, so furious!"
The Skrill reared his head back and roared, cutting off his gushing with the terrible sound that made even the brave Berserkers break into a sweat. While Dagur did stagger backwards to give the enraged Skrill some space, he did so with a manic grin practically splitting his face in half.
"Oh, the look on Hiccup's face when he sees me crush his little friends with the Skrill's might!" he squealed giddily, breaking into a prolonged insane giggle that made even Deathblade uneasy.
Mildew wasn't as amused as the Berserker Chief was, hobbling forward with his staff outstretched. He cried angrily, "Gah, the only thing a dragon understands is a staff to the snou-"
"Touch it with that stick, and I'll make you eat it," Dagur threatened snappishly.
"G- what?" Mildew gaped at the interruption.
Behind his mask, Dagur smiled condescendingly at the former Berkian's ignorance and went on, "You have no idea what you're dealing with, do you? Because if you did, you'd have this dragon safely out of the storm."
The Skrill abruptly put on a new burst of struggling that lifted one of the Outcasts off the back of his feet. The poor man yelled with fear as he was swung from side to side with the Skrill's thrashing movements, hanging onto the chain as if his life depended on it.
Ignoring the commotion, Mildew scoffed, "And why's that?"
"He draws his power from lightning!" laughed Dagur. "The only safe place to contain this beast is in the water, you smelly old man."
Wrinkling his crooked nose, Mildew waved his hand and snapped, "Bah, that's nothing but an old wife's tale."
Right then, a lightning bolt lanced down from the clouds above and struck the highest point on the arena ceiling, sending the entire structure ablaze with electricity. Some of the electricity seemed to jump down to the Skrill's outstretched wings, and its horns began to sizzle with electrical power right before it spat out a bolt of energy. Mildew couldn't get out of the way in time and was smacked aside, tumbling straight into the wall on the other side of the training ring while smoke rose from his twitching form.
Dagur, of course, was not very sympathetic. "Man, I love it when I'm right!" he gloated.
"Bisharp," uttered Deathblade, his tone unreadable.
Finally, the Outcasts seemed to have had enough of the Skrill and all banded together to force it back into its pen. All the guards around the arena pitched in to drive the god-like dragon into the cage. Their Houndoom darted in and snapped their teeth before darting out again, switching positions so that some could spend some time out of the Skrill's range. Even though the Skrill was vastly more powerful than any one Nadder, there were so many attacking at once that it was too confused to pick out a single target. The Skrill didn't shoot even one blast before it had been successfully locked away in the training ring's most secure cage.
Once it had quieted down and retreated into the shadows, Dagur came sidling up to the cage and casually leaned up against it, peering through the gaps in the bars to look the dragon in the eye. His smug look never faded, not even when he was faced with the Skrill's age-old glare that would've cowed any sane man.
"Don't worry, Mr. Skrill," Dagur almost cooed to the object of his desires. "Once we get you all harnessed up, you'll be free to destroy anything you want! Or, more precisely...anything I want."
The Skrill's glare seemed to intensify, its reptilian gaze boring into his as the teenager nonchalantly walked away. There was blatant disrespect in Dagur's actions - he thought of the dragon not as a powerful force to be respected, but as a toy he could use whenever he fancied.
That was why Alvin approached him with his impressive chest puffed up - to give the boy a reality check.
"The dragon ain't yours yet, Dagur," the Outcast Chief growled lowly. "Don't worry, you'll get your prize - but only after you fulfill the terms of our deal."
Alvin and Dagur stared stubbornly into each other's eyes in a classic staredown, waiting to see who would submit first. Finally, Dagur began to head off, but he never broke eye contact with Alvin until he was halfway to his party of Berserkers. Only then did he turn completely around with a huff of annoyance, the reluctant gesture automatically making Alvin the victor.
When the Berserkers filed out of the arena, Alvin allowed himself to growl in frustration at the way his guest was acting. He hadn't liked Dagur the Deranged, not from the moment he'd met him. The boy might've come to power by disposing of his father, but he flaunted that power like a spoiled child and was single-mindedly obsessed with Hiccup. Not that Alvin didn't sympathize with him there - Hiccup Haddock was a thorn in his side too - but the fact remained that Dagur needed someone to put him in his place.
Perhaps, if things went smoothly, Alvin could do that in a relatively non-violent way for once.
Noticing how Alvin's mood was worsening, Savage approached him with some trepidation and spoke very cautiously to prevent his boss from losing his cool.
"Remind me why we're dealing with this lunatic?" the club-wielding man whispered in his ear.
"His knowledge of the Skrill and the size of his fleet," he replied shortly. Then he lost his irritated expression and replaced it with his signature sly grin. "We'll need both to ensure that we reclaim Berk. After we have, we'll dispose of them all."
Savage understood easily, and he shared in his superior's evil laughter.
It wasn't long before Hiccup came up with a plan to get some more information. After all, what better way to get it than to go straight to the source?
"We need to sneak down there and find out what Dagur and Alvin are up to," he explained his idea. "I can't go, though - they'd recognize me."
"And me," Astrid replied. She was secretly hoping that the other girl would be willing to volunteer, but she shook her head no.
"Alvin would recognize me anywhere," Heather said.
Regretfully, Brandyn explained, "Dagur met me back on Dragon Island, the night we first encountered Mortem."
Rubbing his forehead, as though he felt a headache coming on, Hiccup said, "Well, we better figure something out, and quick. We're running out of time."
Cue Drageist. "This is where I come in."
He unfurled one of his appendages, revealing his Griseous Orb. The angular piece lifted up into the air, and several shimmering doorways to other worlds started opening up around it.
"Trainers of Destiny," Drageist announced in a firm voice. "Pick an ally you can trust to assist you on this mission. Choose wisely; each individual possesses different strengths and weaknesses. Once the mission is over, you must bring them to me so I can send them back to their home world."
Hiccup instantly remembered having done this when he and the others went to the Isle of Sirens. Their short-lived reunion with Batwings had certainly been helpful, but who could they trust to assist them here?
Instantaneously, Adhesive flew right over to the portals. "Guys," he announced. "We need someone who knows a thing or two about storm dragons. And I know just the right person!" He flew up to Drageist's level and whispered something to him.
Dramatically, the Giratina made a big show of enlarging one of the portals, reaching in and grabbing something, which yelled out as he pulled them through. It was a young woman, a few years older than Hiccup, with auburn hair tied into a ponytail, green eyes that were so pale they looked gray, and a small constellation of freckles on her face.
Pushing herself to her feet, the girl dusted off her purple sleeveless tunic, then burst, "WHAT THE *$!&%# JUST HAPPENED?!"
"You've been selected to aid Team Go-Getters in their mission to retrieve a Skrill from the Outcasts and Berserkers," Drageist explained as idly as though he were discussing the weather. "And would you be so kind as to tone down your language? There are children present."
A little head poked out from behind Heather's jacket. "Langang."
"It's 'language,' Sonata," the raven-haired girl corrected.
The Siren dragonet uttered something under her breath.
The girl turned toward the sound, and her eyes landed on Hiccup. "What are you doing here?"
"You know me?" was his confused response.
"Her name is Himinn," Adhesive explained. "She's your older sister. Well, actually, she's the older sister of another you from another dimension. And she rides a Windwalker!"
As if on cue, a spiny, dull purple dragon wearing a leather saddle burst out through the portal with a roar.
"Take it easy, Typhoon," said Himinn, holding a hand out to her dragon. "We don't know what we're dealing with here."
"We need your help," said Hiccup, getting right to the point. "See, we're from another dimension, and -"
Um, excuse me, but we've already been through this before, would it be alright if I did a timeskip?
While most of the creatures turned their heads every which way in confusion over suddenly hearing the author's voice, Drageist smiled and said, "Of course. Go right ahead."
Thank you.
One Lengthy Explanation Later
"...So, now we need you to go down there and investigate what the Outcasts and Berserkers are up to," Hiccup finished.
Smiling, Himinn reached out and playfully ruffled his hair. "Will do, little brother," she announced. "Don't worry, it'll be child's play."
"I'll leave you to it, then," said Drageist. Then, with a wave of his tendrils, he vanished through a portal back to his home in the Distortion World.
Deciding that it would be best to get right to work, Himinn clambered over the boulder that shielded them from the guards down at the arena. She made it about halfway down, crawling like a spider, when Typhoon vaulted over with a roar and landed below with a thud.
In other words, the Windwalker made her approach in a way that was the total opposite of stealthy.
Sighing, Himinn continued her descent and resignedly watched her dragon sit down on her haunches and start grooming herself. "You know, sometimes you're way more trouble than you're worth..."
When Himinn finally made it to level ground, she made her entrance in the exact opposite way as Typhoon had, striding forward with complete finesse.
Unfortunately, in all the excitement with which they had arrived at the Outcast training ring, they had failed to notice one crucial detail. That happened to be the fact they were standing directly in front of an Outcast guard.
Up above, Hiccup groaned to himself and buried his face in his hands. One plan, he thought to himself, tugging at his brown hair in frustration. Just once, I would like one of my plans to go smoothly from the get-go. Is that too much to ask?
"Halt!" shouted the Outcast, unsheathing his sword and holding it before the two intruders. "What're you doing there, and who are you?"
Himinn didn't even flinch at the sight of the blade. Already, a genius plan was piecing itself together in her mind. "Name's Himinn," she declared, confidently. "I'm a professional dragon wrangler."
Typhoon let out an indignant snort.
The Outcast soldier lowered his weapon, incredulous. "A professional dragon wrangler?"
"I specialize in storm dragons," said Himinn. "I happened to be in the neighborhood when I heard some rumors that you boys had a wild Skrill that needed to be shown who's boss." Then, to support her claim, she snapped her fingers at Typhoon and demanded, "Heel, beast!"
The Windwalker did not like that at all. But, nevertheless, she padded forward and sat down at her rider's side.
Even though Himinn had come up with the idea on the fly, the demonstration was good enough for the Outcast soldier. He put away his sword and smiled excitedly at the 'storm dragon wrangler'.
"Very good, ma'am!" the guard announced, then rapidly added, "Impressive! Alvin's gonna love this!"
"Good," Himinn said, greatly satisfied with her compliant response. "And where is the head honcho?"
"He'd be in his throne room, opposite the harbor," the Outcast explained. "Celebrating the treaty with the Berserkers, ma'am. I'll escort you right to him, if you wish."
"Good!" Himinn said again. She started to walk in that direction, but she felt like she needed to say something to Typhoon. "Alright, lizard, follow me. And stop slouching, you want everyone to think you're weak? A healthy dragon is a deadly dragon, my monster."
Oh, Typhoon was gonna get a real kick out of payback later. With another indignant snort, she pushed herself to her feet and stomped after her friend.
From above them, the Go-Getters watched the scene unfold with bated breath.
"I have a very good feeling about this," breathed Adhesive.
"I'd hold off on that," said Brandyn. "Just for a little while. Anything can happen."
Sonata wriggled her way out of Heather's jacket and squeaked, "Eeeeenow. Feeshie yum-yum."
"Sorry, little song," said her adopted mother. "I didn't bring any fish."
The Siren dragonet gave a perfect imitation of Astrid's glare and snarled, "Dammit!"
Everyone visibly jumped at that.
"Did she just say what I think she said?" asked Ninjark.
"Where the heck would she have learned that?!" Camazotz shrieked.
Everyone simultaneously turned to look at Astrid.
"I didn't teach her that!" the blonde protested. Then she self-consciously hugged herself and added quietly, "Well, not that word specifically..."
Snivels got up and started pacing as he ran through his personal list of suspects. "Fishbreath would never say something like that, especially not around a youngster. The Twidiots wouldn't even remember hearing that word, let alone saying it." He paused before concluding, "This has Snotface written all over it."
"Guys," said Hiccup, "let's just deal with one problem at a time, okay?"
He was right. At the moment, their number one priority was getting the Skrill out of Alvin and Dagur's clutches before they could do anything nasty with his lightning powers.
Because that wouldn't be pretty in the slightest.
The mood could not have been tenser in Alvin's throne room, where Outcasts and Houndoom and Berserkers and Mightyena sat on opposite sides of the central fire and tried to out-glare each other. Their food went untouched, as neither side was willing to look away from the other for even a single instant. Savage sat stiffly at Alvin's side, having no-one in particular to glare at, and so simply shifted in his seat with nervousness from time to time.
But as far as Alvin and Dagur were concerned, there was no-one else in the room except them. Eidolon, who hovered beside Alvin's throne, felt the agitation radiating off of his master and glared, waiting for Alvin to order him to Shadow Punch his opponent's lights out. But Alvin gave no such order, just continued to glare at Dagur. Their staredown was so intense there were practically flames colliding between them.
"Alright, Dagur," Alvin finally broke the thick silence. "Let's talk strategy."
Pounding his fists on the table with glee, Dagur exclaimed, "Ooh, strategy, strategy! I love strategy! You first!"
Raising an eyebrow at his rather childish reaction, Alvin slowly started, "Fine. My fleet will lead the -"
But then, Dagur abruptly went against his last statement to interrupt his host with a snappy gesture. He even took it further by getting up from his seat and parading around with his hands behind his back as if he owned the place, about as big an insult one could give to a Chief without doing it to his face.
"Ah ah ah, let me stop you there, big boy," sneered Dagur, while Alvin ground his teeth angrily. "Try this on for size - my fleet, led by the glorious Skrill, will lay siege to the dragon-training arena, where we will incapacitate Hiccup and his Night Fury!"
Letting out a measured breath through his nostrils, Alvin growled, "You do realize Berk is more than just a bunch of kids and their trained dragons, Dagur."
Dagur made a huge show of rolling his eyes melodramatically and tried to compromise. "Fine, then you and your sad little fleet of rejects can blockade their harbor."
Sadly, Alvin was not a compromising sort of man. He got up from his seat, pushing the throne back from the table with a scraping sound that echoed through the room.
"I don't think so, boy," he growled, stomping around the table to confront Dagur more directly.
Meanwhile, Himinn and Typhoon had followed the Outcast soldier's escort and found themselves entering a darker portion of the throne room, where the light from the fire at the table did not quite reach. This gave them the advantage of not being seen immediately, especially since all eyes present were currently on the growing conflict between Alvin and Dagur.
Himinn put her hands on her hips and surveyed the contents of the room. There were stone walls, a stone floor, and a stone ceiling, which was to be expected when your chamber was built into the side of a mountain. She studied the large table in the middle of the room, where all the Berserker and Outcast warriors were gathered, and tried to figure out how many of them she could take with her bare hands if her cover was ever blown. Unfortunately, she'd left her twin Gronckle Iron swords back on her dimension's Berk - there hadn't exactly been time to grab them when Drageist had gone and yeeted her and Typhoon through his portal.
"Huh, he actually has a throne room," she mused to herself, watching as the Outcast leader stood up from his huge chair. "Never saw that coming."
However, Typhoon was currently more interested in the only other piece of furniture in the room - a long wooden table packed with edibles. She let out an excited screech and made a beeline for it - only to be stopped short when Himinn stomped down on her tail. She wasn't sure if the grumble that followed came from the Windwalker's mouth or her stomach.
Back at the meeting, Alvin had approached Dagur and squinted down at him threateningly, silently daring the visiting Chief to disrespect him again on his island. Dagur glared back from behind his metal mask, which did make him slightly more intimidating but didn't quite hide the slight uncertainty that Alvin's massive frame inspired in him. He might've been crazy, but he was still smart enough to know who was bigger.
"First I get Berk," Alvin snapped, once he was sure he had Dagur's attention. "Then, and only then, do you get the Skrill. That was our deal."
Eidolon moaned, his one eye staring right into the souls of his master's rivals. Deathblade glared right back, grinding his blades together. The Dusknoir barely flinched at the shrill sound of metal rubbing on metal, but the Bisharp didn't let up for even a second.
Dagur wasn't shaken by neither Alvin nor his partner. "Really," he challenged.
"Really," Alvin repeated menacingly. He bent down to stare the teen in the eye, showing his uneven teeth in a quiet snarl.
In that moment, when the two evil Chiefs faced each other down so close together that they could smell each other's breath, the tension in the room was so thick that it could've been cut with a knife.
At last, Dagur took a step back, and his glare turned to a heavy-lidded, stony expression, any emotions chipped away. "Say whatever you want, but my idea is better. You and your sad little soldiers give me the Skrill right now, then after I go and destroy Berk with it, you can go ahead and just waltz in and take over."
"Take over what?" Alvin snapped. "A pile of smoking ruins? I'm many things, boy, but an idiot ain't one of them. Either we do this my way, or we don't do it at all!"
There was a flash of silver, and a thin red line sliced slowly, darkly, murderously across Alvin the Treacherous's chest like the widest smile in the world.
In spite of all the pain, and the inevitable fate that he now faced, Alvin did nothing but stand and glare down at his rival. His last words were, "You traitorous rat," and then his body fell with a crash onto the floor.
The Chief of the Outcasts was dead.
And Dagur the Deranged, Chief of the Berserkers, was holding the knife.
Lagoon and Albatross. That's all I'm going to say.
...other than the fact that Mark Hamill did the voice of Alvin the Treacherous, and because he's officially dead for real in this series, that's why I included the references to Hamill.
