A heads up for everyone, I might not be able to post for a little while after this chapter. As of writing this I've been preparing to return home after being away for a number of months and I will probably be super jet-lagged and busy getting back to the swing of things. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 6: Fire in His Belly

Hiccup parked his car in the bustling parking lot and hopped out, he looked around and felt the memories rush back to him. This was the first time he had been back to his old school since graduation and it looked exactly the same as it always had. Granted, it wasn't too long ago that he was going here, stressing out over exams and chatting with friends just like all the students surrounding him but it was still nice coming back.

He walked from the parking lot towards the main research building and walked in, the warmth of the building hitting him in the face as he walked inside. He took the route he always did to Gobber's office, passing by the workshops and taking the short cut through the breakroom. His office door was open as it usually was and Hiccup stepped slightly inside and knocked on the door. Gobber glanced up from his computer screen and immediately stood up upon seeing Hiccup standing in the doorway. "Hiccup!" Both of their faces broke out into grins. "It's about time you came to visit!"

Gobber was a large bulky man, similar to Hiccup's father, with a long blonde moustache and scraggly uneven teeth. And if that wasn't distinct enough, he was also a two-time amputee, missing his left hand and his right foot. He stood out like a sore thumb in the engineering department, heck he stood out like a sore thumb pretty much anywhere he went. He had been like family to Hiccup, not only had he been one of Hiccup's professors during his time at university but he also happened to be best friend's with Hiccup's father, so Gobber had known Hiccup since he was a baby. He had practically raised him, with how busy Hiccup's father always was from work. "Sorry, it's been kind of crazy at the lab lately."

"I heard," He said gesturing towards one of the chairs opposite to his desk. "Sit, sit,"

"I guess it's pretty well known, even dad knew about it,"

Gobber sat down, folding his hands down onto his stomach. "I wouldn't say that, nobody really knows what's going on at the lab, but everyone knows there was a breakthrough. It's quite the topic around here, everyone is dying to know what's going on over there." He leaned forward and grinned. "So…?"

"It's confidential."

He grunted and flopped backwards into his chair. "Well it was worth a try I suppose,"

"...I was surprised to hear that you quit teaching,"

"I wouldn't use the word quit," Gobber said scratching his nose. "I just felt like spending more time researching, I'm still working at the university, so if they ever need me to start teaching again, I'm right here. Anyway, what brings you to my neck of the woods Hiccup? Do you need help with anything?"

"I do, actually," Hiccup replied. "I heard about this robotic limb thing. I read an article about it, ok, well, I skimmed an article about it. I was wondering if I could look at the plans you have, it sounds really interesting,"

Gobber shot Hiccup a quizzical look across the table. "You came all the way over here because you thought something sounded interesting? You sure you're not working on something?"

Hiccup squirmed in his seat a little. "...Sort of,"

"Ooho, interesting," Gobber said smiling. "What are you working on?"

"I can't really talk about it,"

"Does it have to do with your work at the lab?"

Hiccup bit his lip. "...you could say that. Finn doesn't know about it though, it's my own...thing,"

"Well I can't really be giving away the plans to anyone willy nilly you know, this design is patented," Gobber said stroking his moustache. "But I guess if you're just using it for a solo project then I guess I can make an exception. If Finn asks for it though, he need to pay the patent fee,"

Hiccup laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not even going to tell Finn about this,"

"Alright," Gobber said nodding and standing up from his chair. "Follow me then, I'll show you the plans. I'll even show you our prototype, if you'd like,"

Hiccup nodded and smiled. "Yeah, that would be awesome,"

They both walked out of the office and down the hall to one of the various workshops. Gobber grabbed the key car clipped to his chest and used it to unlock the doors, gesturing for Hiccup to enter. It was a extremely nice workshop, even better than the one that Hiccup worked in at the lab. "Wow, you guys must have great funding here,"

"We've gotten better funding in the last few years. It really depends on how good our work is doing," Gobber explained limping slightly as he walked into the lab and sat down on a stool. "You know how it is,"

"That's great,"

"You can use the workshop if you need somewhere to work on your little side project. I'm always here, just give me a call," Gobber offered.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, it's fine, I don't want to bother anyone. And anyway, I can just use the shop at work,"

"It won't be a bother, actually I'd like to see what you're able to make with our plans, you might even bring in some new ideas," Gobber said. "Besides, if you're trying to keep it from Finn, wouldn't it be best not to work on it where he is all the time?"

Hiccup thought for a moment before nodding. "Alright, you've convinced me. Thanks for the help,"

"No problem, always happy to help," Gobber said grinning. "I'll get a copy of the plans for you, do you have a USB or something to put it on?"

"Yes, I do," Hiccup said turning slightly to rummage through his bag. He pulled out a small silver thumb drive and handed it to Gobber. He took it and rolled his stool over to a computer before sticking the thumb drive into one of the USB ports. "So what exactly are they planning on using this robotic fin for?"

"It's actually right up your alley, we're working on creating various aquatic drones for deep-sea exploration," He replied without looking away from the computer screen. "Of course it has the potential for many different uses once completed,"

"Like possibly aerial uses?"

Gobber turned to look at Hiccup as the files copied onto the thumb drive. "I suppose it's a possibility, it's not a fully blown wing or anything. I supposed if you adjusted the structure you might be able to create something with flight capabilities, but that would be much more difficult to achieve. I'm not certain it would even work at all,"

"I'm not trying to create a wing, or anything that actually has the ability to lift something off of the ground," Hiccup said waving his hands in front of himself. "Nothing quite so complicated,"

"So why the interest in aerial uses?"

"I'm looking to create something akin to a...tail fin,"

"A tail fin?"

"Yes, like something that would help steer a flying...object,"

Gobber nodded. "Right, right, that seems doable, I think with the right adjustments our design should be able to do what you want it to do," The computer made a quiet ding sound as the file finished copying and Gobber turned to grab the thumb drive, handing it to Hiccup. "You will show me what you're working on once it's finished right?"

Hiccup took it from him, sticking it back into his bag. "Eventually,"

He chuckled. "Well, it was nice seeing you again Hiccup, I should probably get back to work, but give me a call when you're ready to use the workshop, I'll unlock the door for you,"

"Yeah, I should probably get back, I only have fifteen minutes left of my lunch break," Hiccup said turning to leave, he then stopped at the door to turn back to look at Gobber. "Thanks by the way,"

He smiled. "No problem,"


Fishlegs walked into the workshop and over to Hiccup's desk where he was sketching out detailed blueprints of a mechanical fin. "What are you working on?"

Hiccup jolted at the sound of Fishlegs' voice and quickly began rolling the blueprints up. "It's nothing, just a prototype for something," He dropped the blueprints into a cardboard tube and shut it. "What's up?"

Fishlegs furrowed his brows. "Did you forget?"

"Forget what?"

"Their going in remember? Today,"

Hiccup groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Ugh, that was today? I've been so busy lately, I totally forgot,"

"Well it's happening in like twenty minutes, everyone's gathering to listen to the radio in the cafeteria, I thought you'd probably want to come listen,"

He nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in five, save me a spot okay?"

Fishlegs nodded before leaving, and Hiccup looked down at the blueprint tube sitting beside his desk. He was so close to finishing the plans but no matter how fast he worked, Finn worked five times as fast as he ever could. He grew increasingly concerned for the creatures that lived on the other side of the machine, and what might happen to them if they were caught by Finn and the lab. Hiccup picked up the roll and placed it inside of his filing cabinet, locking it shut. He then got up and walked out of the door and towards the cafeteria. It wasn't far from his workshop just down the hall and around the corner, once inside he saw that nearly everyone in the entire building had gathered around the large radio that connected to the people going to the other side. At the very front of the crowd was Astrid, sitting directly in front of the radio with a anxious look on her face. Hiccup looked around and found Fishlegs sitting off near the back of the right side. He squeezed through the crowd and shuffled over to sit beside Fishlegs.

"So?"

"Soon," He replied in a hushed tone. "Last thing we hear they had sent your drone in, and everything looked good,"

"They didn't mention...any living things?" Hiccup whispered back.

"No, they haven't really been describing much, mostly technical things,"

For what felt like the longest ten minutes of his life, Hiccup sat there waiting for something, anything to happen, any noise to come from the radio, anything. Then, finally there was the sudden sound of static and the radio turned on, at first to the sound of just wind whirling around on the other end, then the familiar sound of Finn's voice. "We're going in,"

This caused a burst of murmurs to break out through the room as the tension began to rise. Astrid glared back at the group whispering a angry "Shut up," that made everyone fall silent immediately. There was the sounds of wind still in the background and also the sound of the radio being moved around, then for about five seconds there was complete silence, before the wind came back, even stronger than before. Hiccup could only imagine how loud the wind was on the other end, it must've been deafening.

"It's rocky here, and there are what appears to be craters filled with water, we're optimistic about finding life here,"

"I'm taking a sample,"

"Good, and get some rock samples as well," There were some more rustling sounds on the other end, and the faint sounds of water splashing in the distance. "There has definitely been some kind of creature here, we can see footprints all over the sand,"

"What's that?"

"Eggs?"

"That's amazing, it looks like there are eggs over there,"

Hiccup gripped the armrest of his chair, starting to feel anxious, he didn't want them to find eggs, what would they do with them if they were able to bring them back? Hiccup wasn't sure he wanted to know. The sounds of rustling and soft grunting could be heard, it was clear they were having difficulty moving around on the terrain. "I see them, they're just over there,"

"Wait, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Everyone in the room leaned forward in anticipation and if not for the sounds coming from the radio it would've been dead silent. For the first few seconds nothing could be heard but the sound of the wind, but then a sort of loud screeching sound cut through and then the sudden rustling sound as they starting running. "What in Valhalla is that!?"

"Don't look back, keep running!"

"They're too fast, argh!" There was a loud thud as someone fell to the ground.

Astrid suddenly sprung up from her seat and pushed through the crowd of people. "Is it still open? If not, get them to open it right now!" She yelled rushing out the door and down the hall. A few others from the room got up and ran after her. At this point there was so many different sounds on the other end of the radio that it was impossible to understand what exactly was happening.

"There it is, go, go!"

"They're following us!"

"Keep going, we can make it!"

There were the sounds of feet crunching down onto rock, and the heavy breathing as they ran. The wind seemed even louder than before and the occasional shriek of something not human could be heard. Then, for five seconds, there was total silence and then the sounds erupted back into chaos. With loud thumps and bangs and the sound of metal objects crashing to the ground. It was then that the group could hear the same loud banging sounds, this time not just from the radio, but from somewhere in the building. Nearly everyone, including Hiccup, got up and rushed down the hall and started running to the control room. There was a crowd of people standing just outside the doorway, looking inside, shock and amazement covering their faces.

"They shrunk," One person said.

Those words hit Hiccup like a ton of bricks. He knew what that meant, and he didn't want to waste anymore time. He turned on his heel and went back to his workshop, grabbing his blueprints and storming out the door. Hiccup was more determined than ever to prove what Toothless could do, what those creatures could do, and no one was going to stop him.

Nobody who went through the machine was injured and it was only a few days later that word got out in the lab what had been found. There were four different creatures, all shared similarities but were distinctly different; that was the most information most people got about it. Finn had dubbed them "Dragons", a term that had caught on around the lab. It seemed to stick since most people had no idea what the creatures were like and felt that the mysterious nature of dragons fit quite well. They had tried to chase down Finn and his crew, along with a large number of other dragons, but only four made it through the machine before they closed it. It only took about two minutes after entering our world before they shrunk down to their tiny sizes, making them extremely easy to capture and confine.

This motivated Hiccup more than ever and he started spending more and more time at the university workshop working on Toothless's tail. In turn this caused him to spend less and less time resting like he probably should've been doing.

"Are you okay Hiccup?" He looked up from the workbench to find Gobber standing over him, brows furrowed in concern. "You've been working a little too much lately, maybe you should take a break. I mean, this is the third one you've made this week,"

Hiccup shook his head. "I need to get this done,"

"Is there a reason why you're in such a rush?"

"...Not really,"

"You're a terrible liar," Hiccup didn't reply, and Gobber sighed. "Well at least let me help you finish. I can get the welding done for you while you work on the webbing," Hiccup sighed. "I've seen you do this plenty of times already, I don't think I'm going to learn anything new about your secret project that I don't already know,"

"Fine," Hiccup said reluctantly. "You're better at welding than me anyways,"

"Not going to argue with that," Gobber chuckled, before walking off towards the welding station. "Where are you going to test out these things anyway?"


Hiccup slammed the car door shut and hiked out through the tall grass towards the middle of the field while carrying a large black bag. Toothless sat on his shoulder as usual, staring out at the open sky. "Home again, home again," He said dryly as he made it into the centre. "Fifth time's the charm, am I right?"

He lowered toothless to the ground and pulled out the small baggie of molecule pills, taking one out and tossing it to Toothless, who easily caught it in his mouth. At this point the growing process wasn't exciting to Hiccup anymore, so he stood calmly looking at his phone as Toothless grew to his full size. He then dropped the large bag onto the ground and zipped it open, revealing the newest model of Toothless' tail. Hiccup carefully pulled the tail out of the bag and carried it over to the back end of Toothless and strapped it onto his tail.

"Alright buddy," Hiccup said patting Toothless on the tail and pulling out the controller for the fin. "Let's try this again,"

Toothless leapt into the air and began to take flight. Hiccup quickly used the controller to help steer as Toothless flew, but his reactions just weren't fast enough to compare with Toothless and the controller had a slight time delay. It only took about thirty seconds for the flight to go wrong and Toothless came crashing back down onto the ground.

Hiccup rushed over to his side and crouched down beside him. "You alright bud?"

Toothless looked more frustrated than anything else, and in his anger he opened his mouth, creating a screeching sound that started quiet and slowly grew louder, and a blue glow began to appear from his throat. Shocked, Hiccup stumbled backwards and the blue light suddenly shot out of Toothless' mouth with a loud bang, completely disintegrating the grass where light had hit. Hiccup moved and touched the spot only to sharply recoil his hand, the spot was scalding hot. He started wide-eyed at his friend. "When did you learn to do that?!" Toothless just grunted, stood up and walked off towards the car. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?"

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