It's been a little while since I wrote much, but I finally started getting a little more inspiration as of late, so here's chapter ten! Things are finally starting to get rolling so get excited, I hope you enjoy :)
Chapter 10: Put into Action
Stressed didn't even begin to describe Hiccup's feelings right now, he had too much happen in too little time, and everything felt like it was crashing down onto him all at once. Part of him wanted to be angry at Astrid for telling him this right now, but he knew why she told him, he knew she wasn't trying to manipulate him. He knew Astrid loved her uncle, she loved him as much as Hiccup loved his mother before she disappeared. And if Astrid had had a chance to save her uncle without knowing it, but turned it down, she would've regretted that for the rest of her life. He had to help her, there was no question about that, but with only his skills they would be seriously limited and Hiccup knew he needed help if they were going to save Finn. Unfortunately with all the engineers from the lab long gone, their options were minimal. There was one person though, one person Hiccup trusted to help them.
"Gobber," He called out, walking into the workshop.
Gobber nearly fell out of his seat as he went to quickly stand up. "Hiccup! I heard about the attack, are you alright?"
Hiccup nodded and took his bag from over his shoulder, placing it on one of the work benches. "I'm fine Gobber, I wasn't even there when it happened," He pulled out a small thumb drive from his bag and handed it to Gobber.
"Still, it was at your-" He stopped and looked down at the drive in his hand. "What's this?"
Hiccup sighed and leaned his back against the workbench. "I didn't want to have to bring you into this mess, but it seems unavoidable right now, there's something very important that I need your help with,"
He nodded. "Of course, Hiccup, what do you need?"
"That drive contains a few of the blueprint files for the machine that Finn was working on at the lab, we need your help to rebuild it once we locate the rest of the files,"
"What? How much is on here?"
"We have half of the blueprints, there's about an eighth on that drive," Hiccup explained. "The people who attacked the lab are going to eventually figure out they're missing half of the plans, and they're going to start looking for the rest, so it's not safe to give you it all right now,"
Gobber looked down at the drive in his hand and then back up at Hiccup. "What in valhalla does this machine do Hiccup?"
"...It opens a portal, I'm not sure where to, but wherever it opens to there are creatures on the other side, and they have the potential to be very dangerous, so we need to make sure that the other half of the plans do not get into those criminal's hands,"
Gobber shook his head and grunted in confusion. "If this machine is so dangerous, why on earth are you trying to rebuild it?"
"Finn is trapped on the other side of it,"
He slowly lowered himself back into his seat, his expression a mixture of shock, horror, and deliberation. Gobber stayed like that for a few moments, eyes darting around on the floor as he thought, unsure of how to process everything. Finally he looked up at Hiccup and nodded. "If you need me to help build it, I will,"
Hiccup dipped his head down and let out a sigh of relief. "...Thank you,"
"I'm assuming I can't tell anyone about this?"
"Yes, this is strictly between us, if you have any suspicions that someone is trying to look at the files, destroy the drive immediately," Hiccup said, before handing a small slip of paper to Gobber. "The drive is encrypted, this is the password, memorize it and then flush it down the toilet. Look over the files, try to understand them as best you can. Right now we're trying to get the other half of the plans back, so the better you understand the ones we have, the better chance you'll be able to figure out which ones go with it,"
"You don't know what the other half of the plans looked like?"
Hiccup shook his head. "Unfortunately, all of the engineers who worked on the machine have gone into hiding, they know that the people who attacked the lab will come after them once they realize they don't have all of the blueprints, that's why we need you,"
"You keep saying 'we', is there someone else working with you?" Gobber asked, taking the slip of paper from Hiccup.
Hiccup paused and shifted his gaze away from him. "This is Astrid's plan,"
"And how is Astrid planning on getting the other half of the plans?"
"...I don't know,"
Gobber sighed and shook his head. "This isn't something you two should be doing on your own, this is a job for the police. Have you tried calling Spitelout about this? Or your father?"
"Don't tell my dad about this," Hiccup said, whipping his head around to look back at Gobber. "Nothing good will come from telling him,"
He scowled at that remark. "Nothing good with come from going about this on your own, it's too dangerous,"
"You know nothing will get done if we leave this to the police, they've been trying and failing to break up the gangs in Berk for years, crime is higher than it's ever been, and if those criminals manage to get the machine working the results will be devastating," Hiccup grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Don't worry about me, like you, I'm here as an engineer, nothing more,"
"If you say so,"
Hiccup walked towards the door before stopping and turning back to look at Gobber. "Hey, my dad, he didn't happen to call you did he?"
"He did actually, about a job for you, the offer is still open if you want it," Gobber replied.
Hiccup nodded. "I wasn't planning on it, but I think it's a good idea," He said. "It might cause suspicion if I keep visiting you randomly, but if I'm working here then it's just part of the job,"
Gobber smiled and turned to his computer. "Of course, I'll email the head of the department and set you up for a job. Once everything has been settled I'll give you a call about it,"
"Thanks Gobber, I really appreciate everything you're doing," Hiccup said, opening the door. "I'll see you later,"
Gobber waved to him as he left, and Hiccup continued down the hall and out of the front doors. As he made his way back to his car, he took out his cell phone and sent a quick text to Astrid; I spoke to him, he agreed to everything. Hiccup tried to be vague, just in case his phone was taken, he didn't want anyone figuring out their plan, and he didn't want to lead anyone to Gobber. He wasn't sure what else the criminals were capable of, and he was afraid to find out. More than anyone though he was worried about Astrid, he knew she was quite capable of taking care of herself, and just yesterday she had been assigned a police escort, but still he couldn't help but worry. He anticipated the moment when they would discover that they were missing half of the plans, what would they do then? Would they try to kidnap her again? If they succeeded, what would they do to her, he hated to even think about it.
Hiccup unlocked and climbed into his car, sitting in the driver's seat and chewing his bottom lip anxiously. Maybe Gobber was right, maybe this was too dangerous to do on their own, maybe he should go to the police. If he did Astrid would most likely hate him for the rest of her life, but at the very least she would be safe. He grunted in frustration and rested his head on the steering wheel.
Toothless climbed out of his pocket and onto the dash of the car where he looked out at the sun which had just started to turn orange as is moved towards the horizon. Hiccup glanced over to him, "What do you think I should do bud?" Toothless just made a quiet warble before laying down and shutting his eyes. "Well you're no help at all," He said with a sigh. Hiccup leaned back into his seat and started the car, driving out of the parking lot and onto the street. He glanced to the back, where Toothless' fin was stored, it needed some simple touch-ups, but more than anything Hiccup needed something to distract himself for a little while, so he headed off towards The Edge to pick up some items.
"Welcome back!" Tuffnut said, getting up from a folding chair that had been set up on the porch of the main building. "Didn't think you'd be back so soon after what happened," He leaned on the railing, a beer held lazily in one hand.
Hiccup climbed out of his car and shut the door. "Why is that?"
Tuffnut shrugged. "Thought you'd be mad at us for getting you in trouble with Astrid, you know, since you're trying to get that,"
"I'm not," He replied, trying his hardest not to be bothered, he didn't need get into it with the twins, not now.
Ruffnut, who was sitting in a second folding chair right next to Tuffnut's, looked up from her phone and chuckled to herself. "You're not mad or you're not trying to get that?"
"Both, and can you stop referring to her as 'that'?"
Ruff and Tuff both exchanged amused glances. "Ok lover boy, didn't mean to insult your girlfriend," Ruffnut said with a smirk.
Hiccup just scowled and walked off towards the back of the lot, a duffle bag with the fin slung over his shoulder and Toothless tucked safely in his jacket pocket. It was just better to ignore them, the more he reacted, the more they would tease him, Hiccup had to learn that the hard way back in high school.
Once over at the metal scrap pile, Hiccup unpacked the fin from it's bag and began working on it, adding and replacing what he needed to. He wasn't entirely sure what he was even doing it for, the original plan he and Fishlegs had come up with now seemed so far away. Hiccup looked up at Toothless, who was climbing around on the pile of metal pieces, and smiled to himself. "You think maybe we could go out to the country and try flying again?" Toothless looked over at Hiccup jumped around excitedly. "That's what I thought you'd say," He continued working on the fin until the faint sound of the electric gates opening in the distance caught his attention. He didn't want anyone seeing the fin, even if it was just a random customer at the junkyard, he was mostly finished anyway, so he thought it would be best to just pack up and finish the small touches back at home. Hiccup quickly packed everything back up and began walking towards the front of the yard. As he approached, he could hear voices in the distance, two were clearly Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and the third he also recognized. It was Snotlout.
"This place is pretty sweet," Snotlout said looking around at the yard, hands resting on his black police belt. "I can't believe your parents just gave it to you losers,"
"They didn't just give it to us, they insisted we take over," Ruffnut said opening a small cooler that sat between their two folding chairs, and pulled out a can of pop. "Something about it being in the family for generations or something," She tossed Snotlout the can and sat back down.
"Well, it's pretty cool, probably a heck of a lot easier than my job," Snotlout said catching the pop and cracking it open.
Tuffnut scoffed. "Yeah sure, you say that, but you'd never choose this job over being a detective,"
"What makes you say that?"
"You get way more chicks as a detective,"
Snotlout laughed and slapped his knee. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that,"
"Can't be that hard anyway," Tuffnut said taking one last drink from his beer and tossing the empty bottle over the side of the porch. "You're dad's the chief of police, who's going to want to make you do any work?"
He shook his head. "No way man, if anything, my old man works me harder than he does the other detectives, I always get the really important cases," Snotlout groaned. "Not only am I in charge of pretty much everything to do with that attack on the lab last week, but I'm also supposed to be training the newbies, it sucks,"
"The newbies?" Ruffnut asked. "That doesn't sound so bad, you can probably mess with them a lot,"
"Yeah, normally it's not so bad, but we got this one new guy, and he is seriously irritating," Snotlout said grunting in annoyance as he took a drink from his soda. "He's way to eager, and he's always trying to copy everything I do, guys around the station have started calling him 'Tiny-Snotlout' all the time,"
"Aww how cute," Ruffnut said mockingly.
"He's also calling on the radio all the time, asking me weird questions and trying to chat,"
Tuffnut laughed. "Can't all the other officers hear you when you use the radio?"
"Yes! It's so embarrassing!"
It didn't seem like Snotlout was planning on going through the scrapyard, so Hiccup thought it would be alright to go back and finish up his work before leaving. He wouldn't be much longer anyway, and he'd rather not have a run in with Snotlout, he wasn't in the mood, not that he was ever in the mood to see Snotlout. Just as Hiccup turned around and began walking back off towards the metal pile, the sound of the police radio crackled to life.
"Snotlout?! Snotlout do you copy?!" The voice on the other end sounded frantic and panicked.
Snotlout just groaned in annoyance, and slapped his hand against his forehead. "And that's him right there, dramatic as always," He slowly walked over to his police car, carefully placing his pop can down on the ground. Then propping the door open slightly, he picked up the radio mic. "What's it now Gustav?" He asked, tone flat and uninterested.
"They came and-, they came here, I didn't know what to do-, I didn't get out, I was supposed to but I didn't-"
Gustav was so nervous that he could barely string a proper sentence together, this seemed to catch Snotlout's attention. "Calm down, what's going on over there? Are you still with Astrid?" Hiccup's head nearly twisted all the way around when he heard her name, what was going on? What did Astrid have to do with all this?
"I don't- No, no I don't think so, I don't see her, maybe-, maybe they took her, but I didn't see where-, oh my gods what do I do? Should I go after them?"
By now, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had both stood up and leaned over the porch railing, listening to everything that was being said. Snotlout was now visibly on edge, brows furrowed and both hands clutching the radio mic. "Slow down, I can't understand you, did someone take Astrid? Is there someone else there?"
"Yes, I think so, I don't-, oh! I see them now! Over there!"
Snotlout quickly climbed into the driver seat and did his buckle. "Don't lose them Gustav, and tell me where you are, I'm coming over!"
"I'm at the corner of Ironside- of Ironside and Lodbrok, moving west!"
That was all Hiccup needed, he quickly rushed back behind a scrap pile and began to unpack the tail fin. Toothless, already aware of the situation, quickly pulled out the baggie of enlargium tablets from Hiccup's bag and swallowed one. Hiccup dragged the fin towards the back of Toothless as he grew to his full size, then attaching it to his tail. He silently cursed at himself as he attached the saddle to Toothless. He should've known the police weren't prepared to fend off another attack, he should've been there. If he had known that Astrid's police escort was a newbie, he wouldn't have left her side.
It had barely been a week since they stormed the lab, and they were already attempting to kidnap her again, they wanted this more than Hiccup had anticipated. He quickly did up the zipper on his leather jacket, pulled on his helmet, and climbed onto Toothless' back. "You ready bud?" Without hesitation, Toothless leapt into the air, and they were off.
They could see everything from the sky, all the buildings, cars, and people were in clear view. The two flew quickly over the streets, catching the attention of many below, and within only ten minutes, Hiccup had spotted the car chase. Gustav's police car ripped down the street at a dangerously fast speed, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Only a few car lanes ahead was what Hiccup could only assume was the car that Astrid had been taken in, a large black SUV with heavily tinted windows. "There they are," He said, leaning down slightly to get a better look at the scene. He thought about getting Toothless to blast at the vehicle, or to blast near the vehicle so that it would stop. But Astrid was riding in the SUV as well, and he didn't want to cause the car to crash with her inside, especially not while they were driving at such a high speed.
Hiccup could hear the sound of more police sirens approaching from behind, they had heard Gustav's distress call, and quickly drove over to assist in catching the kidnappers. He watched them from above as they slowly gained on the vehicle. This made Hiccup feel a little relieved, he thought that the police would be able to catch them before they got away, and he wouldn't have to intervene after all.
Just as he relaxed a little, the SUV swerved off of one road and onto another driving around other cars and smashing through bushes and mailboxes as it went. Gustav and the other officers struggled to keep up with the car as it drove recklessly through the streets. The sky was also getting increasingly dark, and that was only going to make the car harder to find.
The sound of helicopter blades cut through the sounds of the city below and a enormous yellow light illuminated Hiccup and Toothless from behind. He snapped his head around to see a police chopper only a few metres above them, it's large spotlight pointed right at them. The pilot look completely stunned as she stared at them, she then tried to yell something, but the unbearably loud sound of the blades made it impossible to hear her.
"Toothless dive!" Hiccup yelled, and Toothless complied, quickly pulling in his wings and diving down towards the street. They swooped up just before hitting the ground and flew in between the buildings, people screaming and running as they saw Toothless. "There!" He said as he pointed forward, not too far ahead of them was Gustav's police car, and a just little further, the kidnappers. The helicopter was not too far away either as it attempted to shine it's light down onto the SUV, but would often catch Toothless in it's spotlight. "We need to go up little, too many people can see us from here,"
They flew off to the right to get out of the sight of the helicopter and then started flying back up to their original altitude. Once they were up high enough to see the car chase again, the SUV quickly swerved right, then left into a underground parking lot. The other police vehicles didn't seem to notice, as they all continued forward, driving right past the parking entrance. Even the helicopter followed suit, completely missing them.
"Crap, go in a little closer," Hiccup said as he pulled out his cellphone and dialed in to the police station.
"BPD, How can I assist you?"
"There's a car chase going on downtown right now, I saw the car go into the parking garage near the intersection of-"
"What? I can't hear you, are you in a car right now?"
"The car went into the parking garage, the police are going the wrong way!" Hiccup yelled into the phone, hoping they would be able to hear, but there was too much wind up in the air, and Hiccup's helmet completely muffled his voice.
"You sound really muffled, and there's a lot of wind, where are you?"
"They need to turn around, the car is-" He noticed as a white service van drove out of the parking lot and went in the opposite direction of the police. "That's got to be them,"
"Hello? I can't understand you, you need to put the windows up,"
Hiccup hung up the phone, stuffing it back in his pocket before following after the van. The van drove very carefully, following all of the traffic laws and staying below the speed limits. This continued for a while until it had made it's way to the edge of the city, and entered a large unused warehouse. The warehouse looked like it hadn't been cared for in ages, it had broken windows and trash littered throughout the property.
Toothless swooped down beside another building and landed behind a cluster of abandoned dumpsters. Hiccup dismounted and crept over to the edge of the building they were near to peer out at the warehouse. There was barbed wire fencing all around it, and what appeared to be armed guards wandering about the outside. The situation was more than Hiccup could've ever imagined, and he was way in over his head. He turned back to Toothless, who didn't look nervous at all despite the situation.
"We're going to have to fly in, but there are a lot of men with guns, so you're going to have to be very fast," Hiccup stared into Toothless' eyes. "Do you think we can do it?"
They had a bag over her head and rope tied around her wrists with her hands behind her back as they dragged her out of the van and into what she assumed was their hideout. It smelled terrible in there, and she couldn't hear much in terms of cars, so it was likely that their hideout was far from the centre of Berk, the outskirts, or maybe even further. There were many footsteps around her as they walked into the building, just from the sound she guessed that there were twenty, maybe thirty men on the premises. She wouldn't be able to fight her way out of the building, even with the knife in her boot, and it seemed like they had won the car chase with the police. She was a little disappointed in the police department, she had really hoped they would be able to catch them, but in her experience the BPD hadn't been reliable in years.
They roughly pushed her down into a chair and pulled the bag off of her head. The room was dimly lit, and there were five people standing in front of her, but because of the limited lighting she couldn't see any of their faces.
"That's her right?" The biggest man asked.
"I'm pretty sure it is, she's blonde right?"
"What do you mean you're pretty sure? You're the one who grabbed her aren't you?" He barked back before turning to a different man on his left. "That's her right? Finn's daughter?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's her," He answered, his voice was raspy and low, like a old man's. "I've seen her at the lab before, she's there talking to him all the time,"
She rolled her eyes and blew a piece of her hair away from her eyes. "Finn doesn't have a daughter, I'm his niece, maybe you should do some research before you plan a kidnapping,"
They looked towards her, and one of the men emerged from the darkness. He wasn't the prettiest man she had even seen before. He had a long face with a pointed crooked nose, and and eyes that were a little too close together. The man had a large protruding moustache and a small pointed beard, both brown like his scruffy unkempt hair, that he grew out a little too long to hide his large ears.
He scowled as he moved closer to her, then he gave her a once-over. "But you are Astrid Hofferson, right?" She just nodded in response, and he grinned a wide grin with spaced apart teeth as he turned back to the other men. "See, I told you I had it right, this is her,"
"So then where is Finn? I thought you said if we found her, we'd find FInn," The biggest man began, clearly irritated. It was starting to become clear that he was the one in charge here. "She's not going to help us finish the machine is she, Savage,"
"No, but she might help us find Finn," Savage replied. "If anyone knows where he's hiding, it's her,"
The old man nodded his head from the shadows. "That's right, and even if she refuses to tell us, Finn will eventually come looking for her, I've seen them together in the lab, they're very close, Finn wouldn't just leave her here with us,"
Astrid tried to recognize the old man's voice, he kept talking about being in the lab, which must mean he was the person who leaked the information in the first place, but she couldn't place his voice.
Savage turned back to Astrid and leaned in towards her with a smile. "So, where's your uncle then?"
"Not anywhere you're going to look,"
His smiled quickly turned to a scowl and he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. "Listen, this can be very pleasant, or very unpleasant, it's completely up to you,"
Before she could reply, the sound of shouting and gunshots filled the air, followed by a screech and a loud boom that cause the whole building to shake. The men all looked towards the sound, shocked by the sudden disturbance. Astrid took her chance, moving her head forward and biting down hard on Savage's arm. He howled in pain and stumbled backwards onto the floor. She stood and jumped, quickly moving her bound hands under her feet so that they were in front of her rather than behind her, and ran off out of the doorway and down the hall.
"Idiots! Go after her!" The large man yelled as she ran.
This time the darkness worked in her advantage and Astrid managed to find a old utility closet to hide in as she retrieved the small knife from her boot and used it to cut the rope from around her hands. All the while she could hear people running about and yelling to each other. Once her hands were free, Astrid unzipped her jeans and pulled out a small tracking device that she had hidden inside her underwear, and placed it in her pocket. Then, holding onto her knife, she left the closet and began quietly sneaking through the building to try and find the exit.
Astrid turned a corner only to find an huge hole in the side of the building, there was broken peices of wood and debris all over the place and various unconscious men lying on the ground. She moved to approach the hole, to see if she could exit through it, but before she could, someone grabbed her from behind, placing a hand over her neck and holding tightly.
"Where do you think you're going?" He hissed from over her shoulder, she could tell right away from his voice that it was the large man from before. "You still need to tell me where you're uncle's hiding,"
"My uncle isn't hiding," Astrid began, as she slowly took the tracking device out and slipped it into his pocket. "He's trapped,"
"...Trapped?" He asked, loosening his grip ever so slightly.
Astrid took his confusion as a chance to take her knife and stab it deep into his thigh. He screamed in pain, and released her. Once free, Astrid immediately ran forward, grabbing a gun from off of the floor and jumping out of the hole and into the courtyard of the property. She expected to see police, but instead, standing in front of her was a gigantic jet black creature with black bat-like wings and glowing yellow-green eyes. Even in the dark she recognized who he was, she had seen him before, he was the creature that had saved her when the lab had been attacked. Astrid looked at the back of the creature, he had a saddle but no rider. Mesmerized by him, Astrid moved closer as to get a better look at him in the darkness of the night. She extended her arm out to touch Toothless, but the sound of footsteps suddenly grabbed her attention and she whipped around, gun pointing forward.
"Whoa, whoa!" Hiccup said, putting his hands up in the air. "Don't shoot!"
Astrid stared at him, slowly lowering the gun. "It's you,"
Thanks for reading, before you go please leave a comment letting me know if you liked it or not! I love to read all of your feedback, it really helps me improve as a writer, thanks again!
