Chapter 29: A Tale of Two Dragon-types


Today, we will be observing the gentle rhythm of the forest.

As if on cue, loud, upbeat music started blasting from the second floor of the Go-Getters' living quarters.

Gentle rhythm!

The music increased in volume.

Oh, nevermind.

Toothless groaned, paws over his ears in a vain attempt to block out the noise. Frida and her Pokémon partner, Adhesive, were dancing all across the bedroom in perfect sync with the beat.

"Ocean wave!" the Poipole announced, spreading his arms out to his sides and waving them like the surface of the sea. "Swaying tree!" He pulled in his limbs to his body and swayed back and forth.

"Tornado!" Frida cried gleefully, spinning like a top as fast as she could without making herself sick.

"Reverse tornado!" Adhesive exclaimed, flipping himself upside down and spinning in the opposite direction Frida was.

The music was coming from Adhesive's phone. It blared through the entire house, causing all the creatures on the main floor to drop everything they were doing and cover their ears.

They were all annoyed alright, but Astrid was furious.

"ADHESIVE!" she shouted over the loud music. "TURN THAT NOISE OFF!"

Startled, Adhesive spun out of control all over the room for a few seconds before crashing into the wall.

Frida, in spite of the dizziness from her spinning, approached the bedside table on which Adhesive's phone was resting. Once she'd gathered her bearings, she paused the music. Then, and only then, did she ask, "Are you okay, Ad?"

"I'm okay," he answered, a little stunned. "It's still better than getting sat on by Stoick the Vast."

The Go-Getters were already waiting for the two as they descended the stairs. Their faces were filled with annoyance, disappointment, and, in Astrid's case, frustration.

"Morning, everyone!" Frida greeted cheerfully, her head held high and her eyes shining like stars. "Nothing like a little music to start the day, huh?"

"You said it, sister!" Adhesive lightly nudged her with his nozzle. Then he added, "I don't really have a sister; it's just an expression. You're my trainer."

Frida laughed at the Poipole. "And happy to be acknowledged as such! Come on, let's get some breakfast."

The ten-year-old girl made a beeline for the dining table; she grabbed a piece of toast and bit off one of the corners.

"Listen, you two," said Hiccup. "I know you like music and everything, but it's a little too loud for the rest of us. Let's try to keep it more quiet in the future, okay?"

Frida set her toast down on the table before giving the team leader a salute. "Okay, Hiccup!"

"Reeda!" squealed the Siren dragonet curled up in Heather's jacket. "Akey, Icca!" She made a movement with her wing that Hiccup guessed was supposed to be a salute.

"Very good, Sonata!" praised Heather. "Yes, that is Frida! You're so smart!"

A half hour later, the table was cleared of food and a paper map was spread out on its wooden surface. At the center of the map was Berk, and surrounding it was Dragon Island, Outcast Island, Berserker Island, Changewing Island, Sunstone Island (which they'd found was appropriately abundant in Sun Stones), Breakneck Bog, and Unova, among several other islands. There was a border of question marks, hand drawn by Hiccup, all along the edges of the paper.

The lead Go-Getter didn't hesitate in getting down to business. "Alright, where did Ugajin say Galar was?"

His question was directed at Frida and Adhesive.

"Southwest of Berk," the Poipole answered, pointing to the bottom left corner of the map. "About a couple days worth of flying; maybe less on a Night Fury."

"Nite Foo-wi," Sonata repeated in her solemnest voice.

Hiccup sighed. It bothered him greatly that the Berkians' maps captured so little of the world around them. Every day he and his friends would find something new, something that no one had ever thought to imagine before. He hoped that someday they could expand the map beyond what they already knew.

"So we should get going, right?" Frida asked. She couldn't help but smile; she hoped that she could tag along this time, like a real Go-Getter.

"No," said Hiccup, "not yet. With Alvin dead, Dagur has both the Berserker and Outcast armadas. Berk can't handle the strength of two armies, not without us. If we leave now, then every creature on this island - Viking, dragon, Pokémon, and who knows what else - will be vulnerable. But if Ugajin went to get help, then maybe we can meet them halfway. We'll take turns patrolling in the southwest, a few hours at a time. The last thing we need is to overexert ourselves."

"I'll go first," Amber offered, claw raised.

Snivels smiled up at her. "That's very kind of you," he said. Then he added in a sort of half-whisper, "If it's not too much trouble, would you could keep an eye out for Orre while you're at it?"

"Orre?" Blaze questioned, her eyes lighting up in recognition. "You wanna find our home? Now, of all times?"

"We'll have to find it eventually," he told her. "The reason I ended up here on Berk in the first place was because I was lost and trying to find my way back home. With all the chaos that's been going on, it was just so easy to forget about it. But I think we have to go back. With both of my parents dead, the Pokémon of Orre have no one to look to. They need help, and we're the only ones who can help them."

"I agree with Snivels," Hiccup said supportively. "But, for now, let's try to focus on finding Galar." He turned to Amber. "Maybe you should take someone with you, to help you search."

That "someone" ended up being their Aerodactyl friend, Fossilwing. He and Amber were on much better terms since their first battle, but they still had the occasional spat.

The Go-Getters all stepped outside to bid the pair good luck as they departed, heading to the southwest. The sight of the Fossil Pokémon flying overhead caused several Vikings to stop whatever it was they were doing and stare in bewilderment.

We didn't even know about what came before us, thought Hiccup. Aerodactyl, Omanyte, Archen, Tyrunt, Velozolt, Dracostego, Arctomosa, Dunklevish...How many other creatures have been lost to time? Is there anything we can learn from them now?

"We should probably tell Stoick about Dagur," Ninjark said, not wanting to waste any time. "Before that maniac comes knocking on Berk's door."

Heather shifted uncomfortably. "Couldn't we have brought him to the Resistance instead of leaving him on Outcast Island?" she asked.

"It was either leave him there or inflict the wrath of two leaderless tribes upon ourselves," answered Ra. "If not the whole archipelago. And that's only if they don't tear themselves apart first."

"What about Savage?" questioned Camazotz. "He seems smarter than most of the Outcasts. Perhaps he'd take the position as leader if both Alvin and Dagur were gone?"

"All the more reason it was a good idea to leave Dagur on Outcast Island," said Brandyn. "With his complete absence of sanity, it'll take more time for those two tribes to get themselves organized."

"Agr!" Sonata spat like she'd just eaten a rotten fish. "Yucky bleh!"

Frida pouted. "How come I had to miss all the good stuff?"

"Because up until our April Fools prank on Snotlout, none of us had met you," Adhesive answered. "Which is weird, right? I mean, seriously, it was like you didn't even exist until then."

Hiccup sighed, unable to believe just how much he had to deal with right now.

"Well, we better get to it," he muttered, bitterly. "No matter how much I don't like having to face my father..."


An hour later, the five young trainers and their partners, both Pokémon and dragon, were in the Great Hall, standing before the Berk Council. Stoick and Brumous, Gobber and Norward, Mulch and Rumble, Bucket and Brainwash, and Silent Sven and his Dubwool, Jacob, were all seated in silence, each of them eyeing the teenagers (and Frida). In the far corner, Spitelout of the disgraced Jorgenson clan was left sweeping clods of dirt and stray dust bunnies under the watchful eye of his Pangoro partner, Rogue - it was the only way he could take part in any kind of council meeting after his family had been caught cheating in Thawfest.

The Berk Viking Chief stood up from his seat and slowly approached the gathered Go-Getters, glancing at each of them in turn. They met his gaze, although Snivels responded with an icy glare.

Hiccup was still trying very hard not to break, physically and emotionally, under his father's expectant gaze. No single Norse word was capable of describing his feeling so small and helpless while standing before a man the size of a mountain.

Stoick spent several seconds pacing back and forth, as though he were sizing them all up, before he finally spoke. "So, what brings you here that's so important that you had to interrupt a council meeting?" he asked.

Snivels stepped forward and declared, "We have news regarding the Outcasts and the Berserkers."

He immediately became the recipient of a skeptical look from Stoick. "What news?"

Gulping, Hiccup stepped forward to assume responsibility for the announcement. "Well, Dad, uh...Alvin is dead. Dagur killed him and took over the Outcasts."

From the span of the next full minute, there was nothing but pin-drop silence.

"Dead?" Stoick asked in a tone Hiccup couldn't quite place. "Alvin is dead?"

His son nodded wordlessly.

"Alvin the Treacherous?"

Another nod.

"Alvin the Treacherous Ogglebert is dead?"

No sooner after Hiccup had nodded for the third time, there was a burst of laughter from the youngest of the five human members of the team. Everyone turned to stare at Frida, who was clutching her belly as she laughed uproariously.

"Seriously?" the young girl wheezed between fits of laughter. "Alvin Ogglebert? That is hilarious!" She collapsed onto the floor, still laughing. "You mean to tell me this whole time everyone was terrified of a guy named Ogglebert?!"

Her laughter turned out to be contagious, as there were a few snickers from the assembled group.

Stoick cleared his throat loudly. "So, Alvin is dead and Dagur has taken over the Outcasts, is that right?"

"Yes," was Hiccup's blunt reply.

"How long ago did this happen?" asked his father.

Hiccup ran the numbers in his head. "Um...a few weeks, maybe a month or two? I'm not really sure."

Just like that, the chief's entire demeanor changed from professionally calm to highly irritated. "And you waited until now to tell me this?!"

"We've been busy," his son tried to explain, meekly. "Gotten caught up in a lot of different things recently, and..." Fully aware that he was now the center of some very unpleasant attention, the younger trainer looked at his feet and finished guiltily, "I'm sorry."

Gobber arched an eyebrow at his (former?) apprentice and said dryly, "'Sorry' doesn't make us weapons to fight two enemy tribes."

"No, it doesn't," agreed Stoick. "Which means we now have an entirely different matter to discuss."

"But we still haven't settled on what to do with Mildew's property," Mulch said. "It's been abandoned ever since he was shipped off after the big lightning storm."

"We'll take it," Brandyn offered. "It has good fertile soil, and we can use an extra building to store our supplies."

Everyone stared at him like he'd suddenly started speaking turkey.

"How can you kids take care of an entire farming property?" Spitelout asked with a condescending scoff.

"Better than Mildew can," Snivels said. "Since he's dead, too."

For the second time, there was a whole minute of pin-drop silence.

"Well, then," said Stoick, "now that that's settled, let's move on to preparations for the Outcasts and Berserkers."

"And we should get to work cleaning up our new property," Astrid said, nudging her husband's shoulder in a not-so-subtle way. She wanted to do at least one productive thing today, preferably without any goofball-related interruptions.

As the Go-Getters left the hall, they could hear the council erupting into joyous cheers.

Snivels couldn't help but smile. You'd have to be a fool to not rejoice at Mildew's death.


When the Go-Getters arrived at the large plot of land covered in nothing but dirt, rocks, and rotting vegetables, it hit them that restoring the place that had once been owned by someone who was kind of a rotting vegetable himself was not going to be an easy task. But the mess had to be cleaned up eventually, so for now they were doomed to suffer for the next several days.

"Ugh," Blaze said with disgust. "Why do we have to start with cleaning up the cabbage field?"

"Because it's perfectly good soil that's just sitting here unused," Hiccup answered, reasonably.

"Not to mention it hasn't been used in months," Snivels pointed out.

Ninjark tentatively picked up a cabbage and gave it an experimental sniff. He immediately regretted it and tossed it away. "That is revolting," he muttered.

A loud chomping sound from nearby drew their attention to a certain pair of Legendary Pokémon. Ra had an entire cabbage in his mouth and was chewing.

Two seconds later, the Solgaleo's face scrunched up in disgust and he spat out the foul vegetable. "This is supposed to be food?!" he coughed. "It tastes worse than it smells!"

Camazotz levitated the half-eaten cabbage with her Psychic to get a better look at it. "I wouldn't eat that for all the desserts in the world," she commented. "Yuck!"

Before they got too off-track, Hiccup took charge and began, "Okay, gang, the sooner we get started, the sooner we finish. Astrid and Brandyn, since you two have the strongest Pokémon, you'll be breaking down the big boulders on the far edge. The rest of us will start collecting these cabbages."

"Yes, sir!" Frida said cheerily, giving the older trainer a salute.

"You know," said Snivels, "you really don't have to do that."

Frida lowered her hand and shrugged. "I was taught to respect my elders."

"Elders?" Hiccup echoed, chuckling a little at the implication. "How old do you think I am?"

"Maybe that wasn't the right word," the young girl amended. "How about this - I was taught to respect people who are older than me."

"Nice save," Snivels commented.

Soon, the gang settled into a nice little routine. Everyone was off in their own corner of Mildew's field, individually working to get the disgusting place fit for planting again. The majority of the work involved moving all the boulders that covered the place - how Mildew had been able to get any cabbage-growing done with so little room to plant, Hiccup would never know.

A significant portion of the group worked on gathering up all of the leftover cabbages that littered the field. After months of neglect, the crop had spoiled far beyond the point where it was safe to eat. Meanwhile, Stormfly and Pincher got to work using their spiny tails to plow the soil in preparation for future crops. However, they had to stop every fifty feet or so to pick the dirt off their scales - Nadders were quite particular about cleanliness.

"Why are there so many cabbages on this field?" Frida remarked, tiredness in her voice. "The academy is never this messy when I help clean it."

"So have a little fun while you're at it!" Adhesive suggested with delight.

With that, the Poipole retrieved his cell phone from his duffle bag of curious devices, along with a set of what he called 'wireless headphones', which he then put on over his head. Then he unlocked his phone and started to dance to music only he could hear.

O...kay, thought Hiccup. That's...a new one.

But at least Adhesive was still cleaning up the cabbages while he was dancing.

This'll be fine, Hiccup thought with a faint smile. We can work together and do this as well as we've done everything else. Just another job for Team Go-Getters...even if it's a sizable step down from saving the world.

Camazotz gracefully flew by, a large boulder following her through the air as she levitated it over to the steadily-accumulating pile in the corner of the field. The boulder landed with a *thud*, its own weight driving it into the soil.

Nearby, Brandyn and Ra pushed one of the boulders off of the pile and gradually rolled it all the way to the edge of the cliff. Then, he patted the Solgaleo's neck, who replied by charging in and giving the boulder a powerful blow with Zen Headbutt. The rock sailed off the cliff and plunged into the water far below.

"Very impressive!" the Legendary trainer praised. "That must've been fifty feet out to sea!"

Camazotz, who had overheard, regarded them with a playful smile. "Very nice. Let me try."

The Lunala promptly levitated one of the remains boulders with Psychic, which she then used to send it flying into the ocean.

"Beat that," she smirked, a playfully competitive glint in her eyes.

"Can we focus here?" Astrid interjected, her tone a mix of annoyed and authoritative.

"Right, of course," Brandyn sighed. "Focus."

Blaze noticed his crestfallen expression and nudged Astrid's shoulder to get her attention. "They were just having a little fun," the Blaziken said. "What's wrong with that?"

The blonde trainer's reply was accompanied by a list off her fingers. "Dagur's got the Berserkers and Outcasts wrapped around his finger, there are Dynamax storms running rampant, there's an army of Shadow Pokémon out there somewhere, we now have two prophecies to fulfill, and we're in the middle of cleaning up this cabbage field. We don't have time for fun!"

Something bumped into Astrid's back, and she turned around. There was Adhesive, still listening to his music.

"Sorry," the Poipole said earnestly once he realized what had happened. He started back toward the field where the others were still gathering cabbages, but Astrid blocked his path.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked. "We're out here working and you think you can just goof around on the job?"

"Can't hear you," the Poipole said, still boogying to the beat.

Astrid grabbed the band of his headphones and pulled them off so they rested on his neck instead. "Are you ever going to take things seriously around here?" she half-asked, half-growled. "In case you're not aware, life isn't all fun and games."

"Hey, relax," said Adhesive. "We're outdoors, it's a nice day, I've got my tunes." He put his headphones back on and started singing along. "I love rocky road. So weren't you gonna buy half a gallon, baby..."

"Well," Astrid sighed, "at least it isn't Chop Away at my Heart."

"...I love rocky road. So have another triple scoop with me!"

Hiccup looked around the field, and the more he watched his friends work, the more satisfied he became. Everything was progressing harmoniously, with everyone performing their individual tasks with perfect contentment (or at least without complaint) and generally moving like a well-oiled catapult. It was always nice to see the entire team working together so well, especially after all of the nail-biting experiences they'd been through recently.

"See, Toothless?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury beside him, unaware that he was tempting fate. "It's all going -"

"SQUREEEEEE!"

"SQURAAAAAAGGHH!"

The all-too-familiar roars of two Deadly Nadders blasted through the otherwise tranquil atmosphere, making Hiccup cringe mid-sentence. The cringe was both from the noise itself and from the realization that hit him at the same time.

"And I just jinxed it, didn't I?" he sighed.

Stormfly and Pincher were circling each other, oblivious to everyone and everything around them. Even though his older sister was almost twice as big as he was, the adolescent male eyed her with blind rage, a gaze that she reciprocated.

"Pincher!" Frida shrieked. "What's wrong?! Are you sick?!"

"Stormfly, snap out of it!" Astrid shouted, equally as loudly.

It was at that moment when, for reasons that would only be mysterious in hindsight, Stormfly abruptly attacked Pincher.

The young male jerked back, away from his sister's jaws, then lashed out with his own teeth. The two Nadders hurled a flurry of spines at each other, but they both dodged and the spikes hit the ground instead, and the siblings jumped forward to retaliate even before the dust had settled. Fireballs shot from their mouths, which exploded against the ground with enough force to make it shake slightly.

"We have to break up the fight," Hiccup said. He patted Toothless's neck and urgently ordered, "Toothless, plasma blast!"

The burning orb of blue fire landed directly between the rampaging Nadders, startling them into backing off a tiny bit. However, the effect was short-lived, and they continued to growl and snap at each other while their stunned riders could only watch in horrified confusion. Seeing that his effort hadn't done any good, Hiccup mounted Toothless and flew over to intervene directly.

But something strange happened. Almost the instant Toothless landed amidst the fight, he stiffened, giving Hiccup only a split-second warning as to what was going to happen next. The team bigwings grabbed tightly onto the edge of the saddle as Toothless sprang forward to join Stormfly and Pincher in their rampage.

The Night Fury's enraged roar drowned out all other noise, and the other Go-Getters dropped what they were doing to look on in horror.

Only now did Astrid and Frida seem to find their senses. They ran in and mounted their respective Nadders, and began to pull on their saddles, grunting with exertion as they strained their muscles in a fruitless attempt to regain control over their dragons.

"Pincher, heel!" Frida ordered, to no avail.

"Stormfly, calm down!" Astrid shouted, but the worry seeping into her voice made it sound more like she was pleading.

Toothless suddenly whipped his head from side to side as he tried to bite both Stormfly and Pincher, an action that made Hiccup yell in shock. "Whoa, bud, come on! We're trying to break up the fight, not win it!"

"Please, Pincher!" Frida tried again, her voice full of tears of desperation. "STOP!"

The three riders' cries seemed only capable of egging their mounts on and driving them into an even greater rage. They were almost thrown off entirely when the dragons lunged for one another. Fortunately, they managed to keep steady, and each dragon's attack on the others somehow missed.

"Guys, back your dragons away from each other!" Hiccup cried, strain evident in his voice as he pulled on Toothless's saddle with all his strength.

"I'm trying!" protested Astrid, repeatedly yanking on her own saddle.

"Well try harder!" he barked, his patience being stretched thin by this harrowing and unexpected event.

Then, just as Stormfly, Pincher, and Toothless were about to pounce and rip each other to shreds, there was a blur of brown. There was another dragon entering the fray - it was Buck, his long tail and snake-like body writhing violently like an eel out of water. Even in their maddened frenzy, the fighting dragons' self-preservative instincts spoke louder than their urge to kill, and they all scurried away from the snakish dragon that was thrashing in the air above their heads.

And just like that, everything stopped. Buck stopped flailing, Toothless and the other dragons stopped attacking, and the riders in distress stopped shouting. From atop his Grapple Grounder, Brandyn drooped, relieved that his admittedly half-baked idea had worked. Hiccup, Astrid, and Frida panted heavily, the adrenalin slowly ebbing away and allowing them to relax their aching muscles.

Everything just...stopped.

"Thanks...Brandyn," Hiccup somehow found the breath to speak. "Everyone to the rock pile!"

This time, they were each able to fly their dragons over to the other side of their field. It was as easy as it had ever been, and they all landed in a neat triangle once they'd reached the pile. But once Astrid and Frida jumped down from the saddles, the fragile moment of peace shattered.

"What happened to Pincher?!" Frida cried.

"What about Stormfly?" asked Astrid, completely dumbfounded. "That wasn't like her at all."

Hiccup tried and failed to produce an answer to their questions. "Guys..."

"That wasn't just a normal sibling dispute," Snivels said. "There's something wrong here. And I think I know what it is."

He made his way over to one part of the field, stopping only when he saw himself walking through a mess of Nadder footprints. It only took a glance at the size for him to determine that they'd been made by Stormfly.

"Adult Nadder prints over here," he reported. "Everything looks pretty normal."

The Servine wandered away from Stormfly's prints until he reached the spot where Pincher had been working. And sure enough, when he examined the soil under his feet, he saw the evidence of Pincher following his sister's lead. "And here are Pincher's tracks. Still peaceful. But over here is where the trouble started," he finished as he approached another part of the field.

When Verne rushed over to catch up, they were standing amidst a mix of two different sets of Nadder footprints, both of which were spread out in a chaotic pattern. In a couple of places, the tracks crossed over, showing the places where the two fighting siblings had actually made contact. The Servine rubbed his chin as he scrutinized the battleground, deep in thought.

"So, the question is, why here?" he said to himself, presumably forgetting that the other Go-Getters were there. His brow furrowed with fascination. "I wonder...Verne, try digging here!"

The Noivern obediently got to work, using his powerful talons to scoop huge clumps of dirt out of the way. In a few minutes, his work was all finished, and he backed away from the pit he had made to give the Go-Getters room to examine it.

"Good job!" Snivels complimented, patting the bat-like wyvern Pokémon on the nose.

There was only one course of action open to them now - both Servine and Noivern peered down into the hole, curious to know why the dragons had gone crazy with rage on top of that spot.

And once their eyes rested upon the object nestled at the bottom, they suddenly understood.

"Aha!" Snivels said triumphantly. "Exactly as I suspected!"

Curious, the other non-dragon Go-Getters joined the two to see what they'd found.

Inside the pit was a large, knobby root, whitish in color, fading to green, with some smaller roots branching off of it.

"This is Dragon Root," Snivels explained. "A very potent behavior modifier for most dragon species, except Gronckles for some reason that hasn't been figured out yet. In its natural state, it causes uncontrolled rage in most dragons. Interestingly, if consumed by a Dragon-type Pokémon it gives them a significant boost of power over a short period of time."

"We can't leave it here," Hiccup decided. "Who knows what'll happen if some wild dragons wander by."

Verne squawked, giving the lead trainer a playful whack with his tail, then got to work. He flew up, only a few feet off the ground, then descended into the pit, grabbing the Dragon Root in his talons and pulling up with all his might. It was still attached quite stubbornly to its home soil and refused to give.

"Hold on, Verne," Snivels said. He carefully grabbed on to the edge of the hole and gently lowered himself into the pit. Then he bent down to the base of the root and, in one swift movement, Cut right through it.

Finally, Verne was able to pry it free.

"What do we do with it now?" Heather asked.

Adhesive, who had forgone his cell phone and headphones when he noticed the Nadders fighting, flew right up to examine the root. "We could make it into some yummy Pokémon food," he suggested.

"You would," Astrid scoffed.

The Poipole looked offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I can't believe you!" she retorted. "Stormfly and Pincher just tried to kill each other because of this root! How can you be so...so...APATHETIC?!"

"Apathetic?!" he echoed. "I'm trying to lighten the mood! I've been in plenty of tense situations before; I was just trying to help!"

"You mean like how you were helping with the cabbages?" she half-asked half-scoffed. "Flitting around the field dancing like a bird having a seizure?"

In perfect unison, Hiccup, Snivels, Blaze, Heather, Ninjark, Brandyn, Ra, Camazotz, Verne, and Frida swiveled their heads back and forth as they watched the two banter.

"Hey, I was still picking up cabbages while I was dancing!"

"It's true," Snivels said, trying to be helpful. "I saw him."

"Stay out of this!" Astrid snapped at him. Then she turned back to Adhesive. "Why do you always have to make a game out of everything?!"

"It's called 'making work fun'! You should try it sometime!"

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that you can't spend your whole life playing and goofing off?!"

"Well, you can't spend your entire life working, either! I'm sorry if you don't like it, but that's a fact!"

For the third time that day, there was a moment of pin-drop silence.

Astrid clenched her fists and growled, "Talk to me like that again, and I'll strangle you!"

"You can try," Adhesive said with a surprisingly straight face. "But you'll never catch me." Then, in the blink of an eye, he did a backflip in the air and dove into one of the empty holes in the field that used to house Mildew's crops.

"Oh, for Arceus's sake!" Astrid got down on her hands and knees and started digging into the hole, trying to get to the runaway Ultra Beast. "Adhesive, come here!"

The Poipole popped up out of the ground in another hole a few feet away, taunting the livid girl with a cheerful cry of, "Bazinga!"

Astrid lunged at him, but he was underground again. Five feet away, he popped up out of another hole.

"Bazinga!"

Once again, a lunge and a miss.

"Bazinga!"

Again and again, the Poipole would duck into the empty crop holes and then pop out with Astrid chasing after him all the while, like a life-or-death game of Whack-a-Mole.

"BAZINGA!"

"BAZINGA!"

"BAZINGA!"

Hiccup stood there dumbstruck, unsure of what he was supposed to do. On the one hand, it was kind of funny. On the other, he had to stop this before someone got hurt, specifically Adhesive, but getting between Astrid and the object of her infuriation was not something one would live to tell others about.

Deciding that they'd all seen enough, he carefully backtracked to where the dragons were waiting and gave Toothless a light pat on the neck.

"Hey bud, would you mind...?" he asked vaguely.

Toothless got the message and coughed up a small plasma blast that burst in between Astrid and Adhesive, finally stopping them. However, no explosion could prevent the blonde girl from giving the Poipole a heated death glare.

If looks were arrows, then poor Adhesive would've been made a pincushion on the spot.

"Thank you," Hiccup said wearily. He approached his wife and Frida's partner and gently made his request. "Now, could both of you please stop arguing with each other and take a break from the field work for a little while? Just until you've both calmed down."

"You mean until she's calmed down," Adhesive corrected. "I was having a pretty good time before she decided to get herself tangled up in my business!"

At this, Astrid actually lost her glare and replaced it with a look of mixed shock and outrage. "You've got to be kidding me," she fumed, and turned around to properly explain her side of the issue. "Hiccup, Adhesive has been bugging everyone with his music and games and who knows what else while the rest of us are working our butts off!"

Flinging his hands up in the air, Adhesive shouted, "Oh, come ON! When have you guys not worked your butts off recently?! At least take an extra few minutes to relax and unwind, that's all I'm saying!"

"Never mind," Hiccup sighed, shaking his head. "Look, do you two think you can work together, yes or no?"

Both of them turned back around to give each other a long, unreadable look. However, instead of answering, Astrid stood right up and stomped away, hoisting herself onto Stormfly without saying a word and flew off, leaving an uncomfortable silence behind as the other Go-Getters watched her go.

Needless to say, Hiccup was a little frustrated, and more than a little worried with this recent development. Clearly Astrid was still wound up about the musical morning from earlier that day - but even still she and Adhesive were both right to an extent. Which probably meant that Hiccup was going to have to deal with their conflicting viewpoints again later.

Breaking the tense silence just then was Frida. "So, are we gonna make food with the Dragon Root or what?" asked the junior Go-Getter in training.

"If Snivels is right about it being beneficial to Dragon-types," Heather responded.

"Have I ever been wrong about anything dragon related?" Snivels pointed out. He then added proudly, "I passed my Dragonology lessons with flying colors."

It was a point that made Hiccup stop and reconsider the situation. Now with the Dragon Root out of the way, they could get back to restoring the field to a better version of its former glory...as long as Astrid and Adhesive didn't continue to rub each other up the wrong way. And, as far as he could remember, they never had before. At least, not like this.

Yes, at this point, Hiccup was definitely more than a little worried. But there was nothing he could do now but wait and see how this event would unfold further...


The Go-Getters had been looking forward to retiring for the day, especially Hiccup. A filling meal and a warm bed would definitely help him forget his troubles until tomorrow, when he and his friends would be back to work in Mildew's field.

Well, he'd been looking forward to it until he walked through the door and found his wife sitting by the fireplace, sharpening her axe.

"I hope you're not planning to use that on Adhesive," he said sardonically.

She regarded him with a humorless chuckle.

As Hiccup walked further into the room with the intention of getting something to eat (as well as a basket full of fish for Toothless, of course), he heard the front door open, signaling the arrival of the rest of their friends who had also been working in the cabbage field.

"Mama!" Sonata crowed from the table, where Amber was holding her like one would cradle a human baby.

Snivels's heart went *ba-thump* at the sight. Just the thought of starting a family with his beloved mate was enough to make his heart race like crazy.

"That's right, sweet song," Heather said in response. Amber lumbered over to the girl and gently handed her the Siren dragonet. "Mama's home! Have you been good to your aunt Amber?"

The Charizard laughed joyfully. "Better than she was to her uncle Crackers."

The Drizzile, who was lounging in a comfy chair, protested in a lazy voice, "There wouldn't have been any trouble if she didn't try to eat all my crackers!"

"How was patrol?" the team bigwings asked, his voice full of hope.

"Uneventful," Amber replied. "Fossilwing and I didn't find much, aside from a few sea stacks. We came back after a couple of hours, and Buddy volunteered himself and Mortem for the next shift. I think they're still out there. What about you guys? Word on the winds is we're now in ownership of Mildew's old property."

There was a minute of awkward silence among the gathered friends, and, after leaving Toothless to his nightly basket of fish, Hiccup strode across the room to the fireplace, where Astrid was still tending to her weapon.

"There was a, uh, minor disagreement," he tried to wave it off breezily.

Astrid nudged him hard, causing him to cry out. When he looked at her questioningly, he was immediately met with his wife's distinctive scowl. She didn't speak, but her eyes said, Really? That's what you'd call that?

Noticing the tension between the couple, Snivels suggested helpfully, "Why don't you two go and talk upstairs? We'll get started with dinner."

"Oh, thanks Snivels, that's a great idea!" Hiccup babbled rapidly in reply, hastily pulling Astrid to her feet and up the stairs to the expansive bedroom. Only once the couple were alone upstairs did he relax.

"Didn't we already talk this out?" he asked.

"You talked, we listened, as usual," Astrid summarized in a vaguely unhappy tone. "But I'm not going to put my friends in danger by working with that 'funaholic', who can't even control himself."

"He has his ways," Hiccup started.

"He treats everything like a game," she continued. "The day he actually starts taking things seriously could be the day I sprout wings! Honestly, Hiccup, if I can't handle Adhesive, how could I -"

She cut herself off as she realized what she'd been about to say.

How could I handle our children?

Astrid was nowhere near ready to admit that she'd thought about it. Why wouldn't she? She was married, to Hiccup no less, and she knew he wanted to have kids someday. For all she knew, he'd probably been planning on it since their wedding.

After a moment of careful thinking, she finished, "...how could I handle anything else?"

It was late, and Hiccup had had more than enough of this stressful situation for one day. So, he immediately raised his hands in a placating gesture and deferred to her wishes instead of arguing.

"Okay, fine, fine. I will deal with it tomorrow, I promise," he sighed. "You won't have to worry about Adhesive getting in your way anymore."

At his sincere words, Astrid lost her scowl and broke into an honest smile. "Thank you, Hiccup."

She gave him a quick, affectionate punch in the shoulder before leaning in to plant an equally-affectionate kiss on his lips. Before Hiccup could attempt to reply in kind, his wife was already rushing off down the steps that led back to the ground floor.

He drew out a deep breath and let it rush out of his mouth all at once, feeling relieved. With that crisis averted, he started for the stairs...only to be met with Adhesive's strangely apprehensive expression.

"Hiccup, I -"

"GAH!"

Hiccup stumbled back, almost falling to the floor, looking scared half to death. The Poipole had come out of nowhere, just inches away from his face.

"Please. Don't. Do that!" he almost shouted. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Oh, sorry!" Adhesive cried, backing up several feet. "Uh...okay, look, for once, I was not filming you and Astrid! I just want you to know that I didn't mean to get in anyone's way, especially not Astrid's. Just because I like making work fun doesn't mean I don't take it seriously! The average person spends a third of their life at work. Why would anyone want to waste a third of their life being, for lack of a better word, miserable?"

Hiccup genuinely didn't know what to say to that, if he was being honest.

"Forget I said that," Adhesive amended. "Anyway, the thing is -"

"You don't have to say anything else," Hiccup interrupted. "I understand both you and Astrid. I just don't know how to handle this right now."

"I get it," the Poipole sighed. "You need time to think. While you're at it, I'll go see if I can get Astrid to listen long enough for me to apologize."

He pivoted around and flew back down to the ground floor, leaving his trusty cellphone on one of the night tables. Again, Hiccup sighed as he watched his friend go, but this time, it was less of a sigh and more a huff of frustration. What am I going to do?

He walked back down the stairs, following the welcoming smell of roasted yak chops - Astrid's favorite. The firelit room was the perfect place to relax. With everyone busy eating, the only sound that could be heard was the soft crackling of the fire. Normally, such a sound would be soothing after a stressful day, but Hiccup wasn't feeling particularly soothed. Not when his wife kept staring at Adhesive like she was trying to murder him with her eyes.

It was starting to make Hiccup feel paranoid.

"I really am sorry, Astrid," Adhesive said after swallowing the bite he'd taken.

"I know you are," she replied, sounding a lot calmer than she was earlier. "I just haven't forgiven you."

They were quiet after that. Hiccup grabbed a plate of his own and went to join them, sitting down between his wife and his Pokémon partner. Snivels regarded him with a nod before returning to his own meal - Brandyn's specially-made, all-natural Pokémon food. Hiccup picked at his yak chop, his silence one that could only be called "tense awkwardness".

"Will we be heading back out to the cabbage fields tomorrow?" Ninjark asked.

"Some of us will," Hiccup confessed, once he'd gotten his thoughts straight. "The rest of us will take turns patrolling the southwest. Maybe if there are more of us on each shift, we'll have better luck."

With a swallow, Blaze stood up from her seat and walked over to get more food. "Speaking of which, where are Buddy and Mortem?"

As if the question had summoned them, there was a loud thump from outside. A minute later, the soor swung open, revealing the Silvally and a panting Red Death dragonet.

"Sorry we're late," Buddy said as he walked in. He headed for the fireplace, where he lay down to rest. "Poor Mortem hasn't gotten the hang of flying yet. We had to take a lot of rest stops on the way back." He sniffed the air. "Yak chops?"

"Yep," Hiccup responded simply. "Want some?"

"I'll pass," Buddy said while lowering his head to the floor. "Mortem and I got ourselves our own dinner while we were out. So, what did I miss?"

Eyeing Astrid nervously, Hiccup stammered out, "Uh...I'll tell you in the morning."

To his relief, the Silvally seemed to drop the issue rather quickly. He shut his eyes, smiling at the warmth of the fire, and quickly dozed off.

Tossing what was left of his yak chop out the door where Mortem had been eying them curiously, Hiccup silently lamented to himself, How am I going to settle things between Astrid and Adhesive? There has to be a way for them to work together. They already work so well with Blaze and Frida...

Wait.

That's it!


All was quiet in the abandoned cabbage field the next morning. Several woodland Pokémon had come out of the forest to snack on some leftover seeds that had been scattered around.

The peacefulness was unfortunately interrupted by an electric humming sound that gradually increased in volume. There was a surge of electrical energy in the form of a small circle right in the middle of the field.

Frightened and confused by the display, the Skwovet and Pidgey that had been feeding on the crop seeds beat a hasty retreat back into the woods.

The energy exploded into a pillar of light, which faded as quickly as it had appeared, revealing a Pokémon like no person currently living had ever seen before.

The violet creature was airborne for all of one second before her four feet touched down. Her pixelated eyes scanned the area around her, prompting her computerized brain to harvest visual data.

"Time jump successful," she uttered in her own language. "Scanning for compatible life forms."

Her yellow-cyan pupils flashed several times; an invisible radar pulsed across the island, surveying all of the plant and animal life than inhabited the area. It didn't take long for the violet Pokémon's sensors to pick up the signal she was looking for - four of them, to be exact.

"Targets located," she announced. "Activating Glide Mode."

The light silver antennae on her head expanded into an energy membrane and her back legs folded into a pair of jet-like engines. In the blink of an eye, she was up in the air.

She'd barely been flying for five seconds when her internal sensors picked up something unusual.

Warning! Time rift detected. Unidentified signature incoming. ETA in 60 seconds.

The violet Pokémon curved into a neat turn. Her search for the trainers of destiny would have to wait for now.


The cove was peaceful that morning. It was empty and devoid of movement except for the fish swimming calmly in the lake. Birds and bird-like Pokémon chirped and whistled from afar.

The peace was shattered by the abrupt appearance of a long, thin, vertical line of light that rapidly expanded in width. From within the time rift, a creature emerged with a crying roar.

The scarlet Pokémon blinked her yellow eyes as they adjusted to the morning sunlight. She took in her surroundings, which were vastly different than where she'd come from. At every turn there was potential danger, but here it was quiet and calm with no signs of any threat. She turned back toward the time rift, only to find that it had vanished.

She was stuck here. Wherever, and whenever, it was.

Something zoomed overhead, and she looked up, seeing the afterimage of a violet creature flying through the air.

"What was that?" she growled in her own language.

Whatever it was, it flew back the other way.

The scarlet Pokémon's primal curiosity piqued, and she sprinted for the cove's exit. She didn't have a clue what this strange world had in store for her, but if she was going to find a way back home, then following that violet creature was probably her best bet.


On Hiccup's request, the two Nadder trainers were instructed to stand side-by-side in the middle of the academy. Hiccup wasn't particularly worried about their self-control, but he was worried about how Astrid would react to his idea, and so he wanted to keep her as far away from Adhesive as possible in order to minimize the risk of a homicide suddenly breaking out.

And so far, so good - Astrid Camicazi Hofferson-Haddock hadn't expressed any hints of aggression toward the Poipole since the previous evening. As for their riders, well, they silently fumed at one another, probably blaming each other for the sudden fight earlier that morning.

"Astrid, Frida," Hiccup declared to get the meeting started, "there's been some conflict between your sides, and I think I have a solution."

"Let's hope it's a good one," Brandyn tried to joke. He and the other Go-Getters were gathered nearby to watch things unfold.

Heather nudged him and shook her head. "Not funny."

Paying them no heed, Hiccup kept his focus on Astrid and Frida and walked forward until he was almost between them. Drawing a deep breath, he strode over to Astrid's side and took her hand, giving her a gesture that told her to follow along. With her compliance, he led her over to Frida's side of the arena, and let go of her hand once she was underneath Pincher's raised head. He then proceeded to do the same with the junior Go-Getters.

"You need to walk a mile in each other's shoes," he explained as he pulled a bewildered Frida across the academy. "Metaphorically, of course."

Then, when the young girl was standing next to Stormfly and Blaze, Hiccup stepped back and smiled with satisfaction. "Perfect."

"What's perfect?" Astrid growled suspiciously.

His satisfied smile growing wider - How come I never thought of this before? he asked himself - Hiccup gave the two confused trainers his answer.

"You two are going to swap partners for the day," he proclaimed.

The older girl glanced wide-eyed at Adhesive before shouting, "WHAT?!"

Almost smugly, Hiccup grinned, "That's right."

"So cool!" Frida cheered, her reaction the exact opposite of Astrid's.

Stormfly leaned her head down and sniffed the ten-year-old girl, looking bewildered.

Pincher, meanwhile, bent his head toward Astrid and sniffed her inquisitively, prompting her to grimace and push him away in slight disgust. He was already acting just like Adhesive - carelessly invading her personal space.

"If you can learn to understand each other's partners, then maybe you can learn how to work with them effectively," Hiccup lectured, glancing between the brand-new trainer-dragon-Pokémon teams he'd ingeniously created.

Astrid blew her bangs out of her face in a huff, but she otherwise didn't complain.

Maintaining his optimistic attitude, Hiccup finished cheerfully, "You both can take the day off and take the time to get to know your new best friends. As for the rest of us," - he turned around to address the other Go-Getters - "we're going to patrol the southwest in larger groups and continue working on Mildew's cabbage field."

A sharp, powerful blow suddenly spiked Hiccup in the shoulder, making him stumble off balance with a yelp of pain. He rubbed the wound tenderly and turned around to see Astrid lowering her arm.

"I really hope you know what you're doing, Hiccup," she glowered at him.

Giving her a smile that was half-reassuring, half-pained, he replied, "It'll work out fine, Astrid. Trust me, you and Adhesive are going to be good buddies by the end of the day."

Her serious expression never faltered. "It's not just that," she insisted. "Do you really think Frida knows how to handle Stormfly and Blaze properly?"

At this, they both risked a glance in the direction of said girl, who looked like Snoggletog had just come early. She looked up at the Blaziken in unrivaled amazement, prompting Blaze to gently pat her head.

"Not really," Hiccup conceded. "But come on, you know that if she makes a mistake, Blaze and Stormfly can take care of themselves."

Astrid gave him a long, flat look before backing down. "...Fine."

Both of the switched teams exited the Dragon Academy while Hiccup stared after them. It was definitely an unusual method, and it had left his wife in a worse mood than before. But the fact that both parties were willing to cooperate was evidence that it was a good, compromising solution.

Now hopefully, it wouldn't blow up in his face...


Something swift and blue sped across the surface of the ocean around Berk. It was an adult Deadly Nadder - specifically Stormfly, flying at such an intense speed just for the sake of it.

But if any bystanders were to assume that it was Astrid riding the blur of a bird wyvern, then they would be shocked to learn the truth.

"Whoa-ho-ho, wow!" Frida shouted over the wind. She held onto the saddle with both hands to keep herself from flying off, grinning like a crazed Gengar. "Stormfly, you are one fast Nadder! I mean, Pincher is fast, too, but you are, like, crazy fast!"

The adult Nadder opened her mouth and let out a loud caw of pleasure at the compliment, and raced around the side of a cliff to find a maze of sea stacks rapidly approaching.

"This. Is. AWESOME!"

That last word became a high-pitched scream of joy as Stormfly pulled up, scaling the side of a sea stack and heading rapidly toward the open air.

After several minutes of flying, Stormfly finally landed on one of the sea stacks. Frida's hair was windswept and sticking up in odd places, but she didn't care. She was having the time of her life!

No sooner after the young girl had voiced that exact declaration, Blaze and Wavern flew up to greet them.

"Glad to see you're having fun," the Blaziken said.

"You bet I am!" the young girl commented enthusiastically. Then she asked, "So, what do you guys usually do with Astrid?"

"Training," was Blaze's blunt reply.

Uncertainly, Frida prompted, "Anything besides that?"

"We talk," Blaze confessed. "Usually about training, sometimes about our love lives, what we think our friends are up to. But, yeah, mostly we just train like dogs."

"That sounds awful," Frida said with a frown. "Productive, but awful. Don't you ever have fun together?"

Blaze directed her Noivern mount to land on the sea stack next to Frida and Stormfly. "We have fun with our friends," she said. "But training is a serious matter to Astrid. She doesn't like to let up in even the slightest. She still takes breaks, of course, but only to catch her breath. I keep trying to tell her that there are more enjoyable exercises we can do, but training isn't a game to her. Guess that's what happens when you spend your entire childhood in the middle of a war."

"Well," Frida briefly paused to think it over, "what if we made training more fun?"

Stormfly cawed something in reply, which sounded uncannily like a joyful laugh.


While Frida was busy getting acquainted with her new partners, Astrid was taking Pincher on a casual flight through the forest. So far, she was actually impressed with how easily she was guiding her new mount. The juvenile Nadder wasn't quite the same as his older sister, but she had to admit that he was comfortable to ride.

Spotting a clearing nearby, Astrid took Pincher down and landed in the center. Satisfied with the flying for now, she decided she wanted to try out something else. There was a large pine tree directly in front of her, taller than the rest of the trees growing next to it.

That'll do, she decided.

"So," she said to Adhesive in a casual tone. "What moves do you know?"

The Poipole, who had been following close behind the entire way, confessed, "I know Toxic and Fury Attack. Fell Stinger, too."

"That's it?" Astrid questioned, sounding disappointed.

"I've been trying to learn a new one," he told her. "Dragon Pulse. And before you ask, yes, my species can learn that move. I know better than to have unrealistic goals."

Pointing at the tree, Astrid gave him the proverbial green light. "Then let's see what you've got."

Adhesive aimed the nozzle on his head at the tree and focused. A ball of multicolored energy formed at the tip of his nozzle, about half the size it should have been, and a tiny little spark of multicolored energy spattered off and burst with a pathetic popping sound.

Astrid scowled at the pitiful display. "Well, I've never seen a Dragon Pulse like that before. We've got a lot of work to do."

"It's a lot better than when I started," Adhesive claimed as he straightened himself up.

"You'd probably be a lot further along if you didn't shirk off your training," Astrid grumbled.

"I have not -" the Poipole started, but stopped when he realized that it would most likely lead to another altercation like the one they had yesterday. "Okay, so, can you help me perfect it?"

For a second, Astrid was simply speechless. Of all the things she expected Adhesive to do, the last thing on the list was asking her for help.

"Of course I can," she said. "But you have to do exactly what I say. No exceptions, and NO fooling around! And the second you try, I'll have Pincher use his spine shot on you! Got it?!"

Adhesive gulped nervously and squeaked, "Got it."


TIME TRAVEL!

...What? I see this as an absolute win.

A year ago today, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet were officially announced worldwide. And now, Koraidon and Miraidon are in the world of How to Become a Trainer! (Also, Scarlet and Violet DLC! I can't wait!)

I'm guessing I owe an explanation for Alvin's surname. In the books, apparently Alvin's father's last name was Ogglebert, so...yeah. For the record, I really did think it was a stupid name for an evil Viking.

Also, I don't own the song Adhesive was singing. Or anything else in this series. (Just imagine if I did!)

Please leave me some reviews!