I had a sudden burst of inspiration and was able to finish this chapter, I was surprised that I had the energy, but I'm glad I was able to get this done for you guys, so I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 7: The Edge
"Where have you been lately?" Fishlegs asked as he walked into my office, a cup of coffee in each hand. "Lately you've been running around like chicken with it's head cut off," He placed on of the mugs down on my desk beside me.
"Thanks," I muttered. "I've been working on our little side project, speaking of which, I might need more of those pills soon,"
He stared at me and furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Already? There were like twenty in that bag I gave you, how often have you been using them?"
"I've been doing what you told me I should be doing," Hiccup replied grouchily. "I've been trying to train Toothless properly, so I can prove that he's intelligent, don't you remember?"
"Yeah, but not while he's giant. We don't know what he can do in that form, so we should be careful about letting him stay that way too often," Fishlegs said taking a sip from his coffee.
Hiccup hiked himself up higher in his seat. "Yeah, you know, speaking of not knowing what he can do, he shot some hot blue fireball out of his mouth the other day, do have any idea how he would be able to do that?"
Fishlegs choked on his coffee, and quickly wiped his mouth. "What? A blue fireball? Are you serious?"
"I'm completely serious, and it seemed like it was a totally normal occurrence to him," He said squinting his eyes in contemplation. "It was super hot too, like it really burnt up the area where it landed, I touched the spot with my hand and nearly burned my fingertips off,"
"It didn't cause a fire?"
"What?"
"It didn't cause a fire?" Fishlegs repeated.
"Why would it cause a fire?"
He narrowed his eyes at Hiccup. "Because...you were...in your house...right?" Silence. "You didn't. For the love of Thor, please tell me you didn't,"
"Well…"
"Hiccup!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air. "You can't take him outside, he's not a dog, you can control him if he decides to just run off somewhere. What if he escapes or something? He could've hurt someone, we don't even know what he's capable of!"
"He wouldn't run off,"
"You can't know that,"
"I can, actually," Hiccup retorted, crossing his arms and leaning back into his chair. "Since I've taken him outside a bunch of times and not once has he ever tried to escape,"
Fishlegs started at Hiccup. "A bunch?"
"Relax, I told you he never tried to run right? What are you so afraid of?"
He shook his head. "I don't like this Hiccup, I really don't like it," Fishlegs started pacing back and forth across the room. "What if someone sees him? How are we going to explain this? And if he's starting to get more powers maybe you're giving him too many pills, what if he keeps getting stronger? What if he gets too strong to handle?"
Hiccup stood up and put his hands up in a calming motion. "Take a breath for a moment, you're working yourself up," He said. "No one is going to see him alright, I drove out of the city into the middle of nowhere, that's the only place I give him the pills, I promise. As for controlling him, it's not a problem, it doesn't matter how powerful he gets, Toothless trusts me, and he's not a monster, he doesn't want to hurt people,"
"What about the lab?"
Hiccup cocked his eyebrow. "What about the lab?"
"They need to know what those things can do, they have four of them in captivity," Fishlegs explained. "They need to know that these things can grow in size and shoot blue fire out of their mouths. It's not safe to have them here. Those creatures are way too dangerous, plus their going back in there soon, how powerful are the dragons on the other side?"
"You said that they knew what they were getting themselves into, what happened to that?" Hiccup asked, starting to get frustrated. "Besides, they're not dangerous, they're trainable, we know this already. Toothless wouldn't hurt anyone unless I told him to,"
"Maybe that's a bad thing. What if they fall into the wrong hands?"
"Nobody outside of this lab even knows that they exist," He replied calmly. "So I wouldn't worry about-" There was a loud clatter as a mop hit the ground. Hiccup and Fishlegs both turned to see Mildew pushing his mop bucket past the doorway, he bent down slowly to pick up the mop, not even turning to look at them. They both moved closer to the doorway to watch him slowly move down the hall with his mop and bucket. "I didn't even notice he was there,"
"How long do you think he was mopping here?" Fishlegs asked.
Hiccup looked around at the floor, which had been very sloppily mopped up, there was still dirt left at the edges of the walls. "Judging by the floor, not long,"
"That guy seriously gives me the creeps,"
"Do you think he heard what we were talking about?" Hiccup asked, turning back to look at his friend. "I mean, the stuff we were saying, do you think he understood it?"
"I don't know, probably not, his hearing is terrible,"
"It is?"
"That's what I heard, everyone says he's as deaf as a doorpost. It makes sense, he never replies to anything I say," Fishlegs explained rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't think he even understands what's going on at the lab anyway,"
"Yeah, you're probably right," Hiccup said before glancing down at his watch. "I gotta get going, I have some work to do, can you please make some more of those pills when you have the chance? Don't worry about Toothless, I can handle him just fine, even when he's big,"
Fishlegs sighed. "Fine. Just be careful, and only give them to him in secluded areas,"
Hiccup nodded as he gathered up his stuff and shoved it into his bag. "Of course." He then pulled his bag over his shoulder and waved to Fishlegs as he exited the room "I'll see you tomorrow, bye,"
"Bye,"
He quickly walked to the elevators, made it down to the front lobby and drove straight to the university. He needed to do more work on it, even after so many tries he just couldn't get it working properly and time was ticking. The university was relatively quiet as it usually was by the time he arrived to work on the tail fin. Hiccup parked his car pulled the fin out of the trunk of his car, walked into the building and headed towards Gobber's office. He just peered inside and knocked on the wall to get his attention. Gobber looked up and silently nodded, before pulling himself out of his chair with a grunt. "You're really spending a lot of time on this project,"
"Yeah,"
"How's it going, if you don't mind me asking," Gobber asked as he unlocked the door the stepped inside. He looked at Hiccup's expression. "Nevermind, I can tell just by looking. You know, if you're struggling maybe I can help you out, give you some advice,"
"It's just the controls," Hiccup explain sighing. "They're not responsive enough, so it keeps crashing. Plus I can't seem to steer it properly, I'm used to ground drones, flying is much more difficult than this,"
"Hmm," Gobber hummed, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "You could always buy a better receiver, but that'll be expensive, if the controller was wired directly to the fin it would be much more responsive but obviously you can't do that, unless you're planning on riding it," He said chuckling. "As for the steering it might be better if you put a camera on the drone, that way you can have a better view of where it's going, rather than having to view from below,"
"Right, I see what you're saying," Hiccup replied nodding.
"I have a old camera you can attach if you want,"
He thought for a moment. "That's okay, I don't think I'm going to need one, I think I have a better solution,"
"Alright then, I hope I was able to help," Gobber said moving to exit the room.
Hiccup turned to look at Gobber. "By the way, do you know any good suppliers? I need more materials that I can't seem to find. Preferably someone on the cheap end."
Gobber nodded, pulling a piece of scrap paper and a pen from his breast pocket. "I do have a supplier, but if you're looking for someone a little cheaper I recommend this place," He hunched over the table and began scribbling something onto the paper. "It's a scrap yard, so it'll take a little elbow grease to find what you're looking for, but there's plenty to find over there and they've got the best prices around. It's pretty close by, and they might even give you a discount, since they know you," He handed Hiccup the paper, now with a address and phone number scrawled across it.
Hiccup took it. "I know them?"
"Apparently you went to school together, their parents were the ones who ran it, but last I heard they took over the business a few years back,"
"They went to Berk University and now they're working in a scrap yard?" He asked, skeptical.
Gobber shook his head. "No, no, not university, you went to high school with them,"
Hiccup's face dropped. "Do you remember me in high school? I wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity, they're probably just going to remember me as the loser or the class screw-up,"
"Don't worry," Gobber said, giving Hiccup a slap on the back. "That's all in the past now, you were just kids back then I'm sure they're much more mature than when they were in high school. One day you'll laugh about all the stuff that happened in the past, trust me,"
Hiccup drove up to the entrance, he looked down at the address that Gobber had given him and it seemed like everything matched up. Despite being in the city, the scrap yard was in a pretty secluded place, shrouded by tall evergreen trees and a tall barbed-wire fence. In was located in the less than desireable part of town so many of the houses in the area were abandoned or rundown. The scrap yard, though not the cleanest looking, appeared to be in good condition. There was a large electric gate, large enough for cars to come in and out, with a big metal arch over top of it, with the name of the scrap yard displayed in stylish metal letters; The Edge. Hiccup drove to the intercom and pressed the large red button underneath the speaker, there was a crackling sound before a raspy female voice came on the other end.
"Yeah?"
"Uh...I'm a customer? This place was recommended to me by Gobber," Hiccup swallowed nervously. "Gobber from the university?"
"Okay, whatever," There was a loud buzz noise as the gate unlocked and the metal doors slowly slid out of the way allowing Hiccup to enter.
He drove into the scrap yard slowly and cautiously, the inside was even bigger than it looked like from outside. The lot was huge, and the vast majority of land was covered in enormous heaps of cars, old electronics, and other garbage. There was one small building close to the entrance, and a much larger warehouse all the way at the back of the yard. In Front of the smaller building was a small empty area with various tire tracks that looked like it was used as a small parking area, so Hiccup parked his car and hopped out. He looked around to see if he could find anyone, but the yard was desolate and quiet, from inside the small building he could hear the faint sound of a tv, so Hiccup walked up the steps onto the porch and knocked on the door.
"It's unlocked," A voice said from inside.
He opened the door and walked in, inside was a small office, it had a little sitting room decked out with furniture that Hiccup guessed was older than he was and the walls were all covered in tacky wood paneling. On the other side of the room was a front desk type area, at the desk was a man and a woman, similar in age to Hiccup sitting each on a desk chair watching tv on a laptop. The man was thin and gangly with a long face, as was the woman, they both had long blonde hair, the man's hair had been done into dreadlocks while the woman had hers in a series of messy tangled braids. They both look quite similar and it was clear that they were siblings, Hiccup recognized them immediately.
He walked over to the desk and looked at them, neither one even acknowledged his presence and just continued watching whatever was on the laptop. "Hi, I'm here to buy some stuff from the scrap yard...did I come at a bad time?"
"Nah dude, go ahead, just bring whatever you find back here," The male twin mumbled without breaking away from the laptop screen. "And be out by five, we close at five,"
Hiccup glanced down at his watch. "It's six thirty,"
"Five in the morning," The woman corrected. "Oh and you can sign in over there if you want," She said gesturing towards a small table behind him with a guest book on it, as she spoke she glanced ever so slightly up at Hiccup. "...Wait...I know you,"
The man looked up. "Oh, you're totally right, it's..it's…" He looked upwards in thought, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember. "...Hungry? Hulking? Heavy?"
Hiccup let out a long sigh. "It's Hiccup,"
The woman started to break out into laughter. "Oh right! You were the one who always hung out that fat kid. Do you remember the time he blew up half of the school's science fair, man that was funny," She asked turning to her brother.
"What about that other time when he caught the school principal in his home-made skunk trap, that was even better!" The man exclaimed slapping his knee. "Headmaster Heyral had to be taken to the hospital to get it off!"
"Listen, I'm just here to buy some stuff okay?" Hiccup said, trying to interject with no avail.
They continued, still laughing. "And remember on the first day of third grade? He wouldn't stop crying for his mom, what a baby!"
Hiccup's scowl deepened and he quickly turned and stormed out of the room, breathing heavily and angrily. He walked back to his car and swung the door open, before pausing, he was angry and he wanted nothing more than to just leave and never come back, but he needed parts, for Toothless. The two siblings inside were Ruffnut, the woman, and Tuffnut, the man. They were twins and had been going to the same school as Hiccup from kindergarten until the end of grade twelve, and he never thought he'd ever have to see them again. They had always teased Hiccup, mostly out of immaturity, immaturity they clearly had not grown out of. One thing was for certain, Gobber was wrong, the twins were still just as callous and childish as they were back in grade school. Still, he needed those parts, and he could keep buying everything at full retail price, not at the rate he was going at.
The twins both walked out of the building and onto the porch to see where Hiccup had gone. "Hey, don't take it too seriously, we were just reminiscing, we can show you around if you want," Ruffnut called out. "You wanted to look for something right?"
Hiccup took in a deep breath before climbing back out, shutting the car door, and walking back to the building. "Yeah, I need some electronic parts."
"Cool, we have a pile of electronic shit in the back," Tuffnut said pointing backwards with his thumb. "We'll take you there,"
The twins led Hiccup around the building and deeper into the scrap yard, despite how messy it seemed upon first glance each pile of junk was it's own. Four piles for broken cars, one pile for old furniture, one pile for bicycles, it was surprisingly organized. "This place is very well secured, are you worried about thieves or something?"
"Nah," Ruffnut replied. "Our great uncle Magmar founded this place so that he could run an illegal boar fighting ring, so he wanted to make sure nobody could sneak in and find out,"
"Nobody's been doing boar fighting for years though, but the boar pitt is still by the old tires if you want to see it," Tuffnut said, finishing for his sister.
"I'll pass,"
It only took little more walking until they had reached the area with all the electronic items. There was a lot of stuff, endless piles and piles of microwaves, computers, and washing machines as far as the eye could see. "This is it," Ruffnut said. "Just bring what you find back to the main office and we'll ring you up,"
Hiccup nodded and the twins began walking back. "Wait!" Hiccup called out, and they both turned to look back at him. "You wouldn't happen to have any saddles anywhere would you?"
They both exchanged glances before looking back towards Hiccup. "Saddles? Like for a horse?"
"Something like that,"
"I'm not sure about saddles," Tuffnut said looking around the scrap yard. "But we do have a pile of leather stuff, it's mostly leather ripped out of old cars but If we have any it'll be over there. It's over there near the broken motorcycles," He said pointing near the front of the yard.
"Okay, thanks," Hiccup replied nodding and turning back to the scrap pile. The twins walked back to the main building, chatting with one another as they walked while he got to work. He dug through mountains of broken materials doing his best to find salvageable parts with what little sunlight there was left, which was actually pretty easy since there was such an abundance of everything. Hiccup gathered all of his materials and put them into a cardboard box he found in the junkyard, then began walking back toward the main building to pay for them. On the way back he walked to the area where the discarded motorcycles were and found the pile of leather objects.
A lot of it was just large scrap pieces of damaged leather, most likely from car seats, there were also plenty of small leather items like shoes, bags, and clothing. Finally near the bottom of the pile Hiccup found a large worn down saddle made from brown leather. He pulled it out of the pile and swung it over his shoulder, before leaving he grabbed a few scrap pieces of leather, the thickest and most sturdy he could find for use in adjusting the saddle if need be. Then he began walking back to the building. As he walked, slowly and awkwardly because of how much he was carrying, he tripped and fell over something on the ground. His box fell and the contents dumped out. "Great," Hiccup muttered sarcastically. "Just what I needed," He moved to get up and as he did he looked back to see what had tripped him, it was a plain black motorcycle helmet that had rolled out of the pile of motorcycles. Hiccup gathered all of his items back into his box and before leaving he went to kick the helmet out of frustration but stopped himself, and stared at it, before adding it to his box and returning to the main building.
Hiccup dropped the box and saddle down onto the front desk with a loud slam, both Ruffnut and Tuffnut stood up to look over the items. They shuffled through the box taking note of all the items and writing them down onto a piece of paper. "A motorcycle helmet and a saddle?" Ruffnut asked, looking up at Hiccup as she punched some numbers into the cash register. "You wouldn't rather have a riding helmet?"
He shook his head in response. "No, I need something with a little more protection,"
"Planning on an exciting weekend I see," She responded.
Hiccup shrugged. "You could say that,"
"Nice," Tuffnut said nodding and smiling. "Well, have a good time,"
"Thanks,"
"Cash or credit?"
"...Cash,"
Now with all the parts and equipment he needed, Hiccup began working on his newest plan, it might've seemed crazy to others, but this whole situation was crazy. He starting working on the saddle, tailoring it to fit Toothless and fitting the wiring for the fin's controls into it. Hiccup worked faster than he had ever worked, fixing everything up in record time. Next thing he knew he was already driving back out to the field to test his newest creation. The weather was already starting to warm up a little and the grass in the field had started to slowly turn from a dull yellow-brown colour to a nice spring green.
"It's almost spring," Hiccup commented as he got out of his car, pulling out yet another large bag from the trunk and walking out into the middle of the field. "You ready bud?" Toothless made a quiet cooing sound and he jumped off of Hiccup's shoulder. "Looks like you're getting stronger everyday, it must be the pills," He said pulling out the baggie from his pocket, taking one out and tossing it over to Toothless.
As Toothless grew to his full size, Hiccup opened up the large bag and began taking out all of the equipment inside. He put on a jacket and gloves before picking up the saddle and strapping it onto Toothless who wiggled around, getting the feel of it. Hiccup then grabbed the fin and attached it to his tail, bringing the wires up and connecting them to the controls on the saddle. He looked up and down at his handy-work and smiled. "Not too shabby if I do say so myself," Hiccup grabbed the motorcycle helmet he had bought from the junkyard, shoved it onto his head, and climbed onto Toothless, a little awkwardly as it was his first time. "Okay, just try to take it slowly bud,"
With that, Toothless leapt into the air, flapping his enormous black wings furiously to get higher into the air. Hiccup reacted quickly, using the controls which he had wired into one of the stirrups of the saddle. He moved with Toothless, trying to estimate where he would move and how he would move there. It worked quite well for about a five minutes, as they flew over the trees and fields, looking over the gorgeous scenery and watching Berk from far in the distance. This lasted until Toothless tried going too high too fast, causing Hiccup to slip slightly from his seat and lose control of the mechanical fin. Before falling away from Toothless completely, Hiccup was able to grab onto the saddle, but this didn't stop Toothless from falling due to his tail fin not being under control. There was a panic and a struggle as they quickly fell from the sky, at the very last second Hiccup managed to climb back into the saddle and quickly maneuver upwards, narrowly avoiding the ground. They swerved around close to the ground, trying to get back in control, before crashing in a wheat field.
The flight lasted longer than any of their previous flights, which wasn't saying much, but still felt like a major victory. It was also quite the victory considering neither one of them died and only left the crash with a few bruises. "I think this is your tail, bud. Could use a few small adjustments," Hiccup said looking over the saddle and fin. "Maybe some more safety features, but all in all, that want quite well wouldn't you say?" Toothless responded by giving Hiccup a big lick with his giant tongue, coating him in saliva. "Argh!"
"...And you've seen them?"
"No," Mildew replied. "But I'm sure they're there, everyone talks about them,"
"How many?"
"Four, but I hear there are even more through the machine they built. Just on their first trip they came across a flock of them, so there could be hundreds, even thousands hidden on the other side," Mildew scooched closer. "Right now they don't know how to use them at their full power, but I learned how, they could be very dangerous though,"
A devious smile crept across his face. "Dangerous is exactly what I want,"
Thanks for reading, I really hope you liked it and please, please, please leave a review with your thoughts about the chapter, good or bad I love to hear what you guys think.
