Sorry for the long wait! Because of Christmas, December is a extremely busy time for me and I haven't had very much free time to write. Luckily I was able to get this done for December, and I should be able to get more done in January so huzzah! I hope you enjoy!


Chapter 12: Infiltration

Breathtaking. That was the word Astrid would've used to describe how it felt to soar above the city on Toothless' back. She had ridden in a helicopter once before, but that couldn't even compare to this. There was nothing obstructing her view of the vastness of Berk, and nothing blocking the wind that rushed past them as they whizzed through the air. She could feel the moisture of the clouds as they passed through them, and the sharp coldness of the air so high in the sky. Astrid loved everything about being in the air, she loved it more than she could've ever imagined. It was like nothing she had ever experienced.

"This...is amazing,"

Hiccup chuckled. "I'm glad you think so, most people misunderstand him when they first see him,"

"Is that why you hide?" Astrid asked.

He paused for a moment before speaking. "...It's one of the reasons,"

Just as the sun fully disappeared behind the horizon, Astrid peered over Hiccup's shoulder and spotted the building just ahead of them. "There, it's the red auto shop at the corner," She said, pointing forwards. "Land behind this building and let me off, I'll continue on foot,"

Toothless quietly swooped down behind another building and Astrid dismounted from him. "How will I know when to start the distraction?" Hiccup asked.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and turned on the flashlight at the back. "Stay on the north side of building, I'll flash this light in your direction when I'm ready,"

He nodded. "Got it,"

"Try and stay as high as possible, and make sure to keep moving around in the sky, it'll make you harder to hit,"

"Right, and if something goes wrong…"

"It won't."

"But if it does, just yell for me,"

Astrid smirked at him. "And you'll come rescue me?"

"...Something like that,"

She just chuckled to herself. "Noted. Now let's get going before the other men figure out that I'm not at the office,"

"Alright," He said before Toothless leapt back up into the air and disappeared into the darkness of the night, flying off towards the building.

Astrid began briskly walking down the street towards the auto shop that was the cover for the outcasts' hideout. The area was quite desolate, not many people lived out here, which was why it probably made such a good place for them. She approached the chain link fence that surrounded the property and noted the two men who sat outside the auto shop. They were standing by the front door listening to a small portable radio and chatting amongst themselves. Luckily for her, the two men were too busy chatting, and it was too dark for either of them to notice as Astrid quietly passed by the front gate and slipped behind a tree. She took out her phone and quickly flashed the light two times up to the sky, before turning it off and tucking it back into her pocket.

For a moment she waited there as the radio continued to play, but soon there was a loud high-pitched scream from above and a huge boom as something hit the side of the building. The two men rushed over to see what had happened and Astrid immediately took her chance, climbing over the fence as another blast hit the building. She hid around the side, watching as more men came running out from inside to see what all the noise was. As they all stood in the yard trying to figure out where the blasts were coming from, Astrid crept around to the side door. There was a small window on the door that had been covered up with cardboard from the inside, she tried to peer in through a crack, but it was too dark to see anything. Astrid pressed her ear to the door and listened carefully, not hearing anything on the other side, she quickly pulled two bobby pins from her hair, bending one to have an L shape and the other to have zig zags. Using these, she picked the lock and very slowly opened the door, making sure that no one was on the other side. Another screech and boom echoed through the air as she shut the door behind her, and a few men could be heard rushing up a flight of stairs and outside. Turning a corner in the darkness of the empty hall, she felt her hands up and down the walls as she walked until her hand hit a small metal door. Astrid opened the door, turned on the light on her phone, and used it to look over the buildings electrical panel. Her eyes scanned over all of the switches until she found the breaker, and she immediately pulled it down, cutting the power and turning off all of the remaining lights. From inside her jacket Astrid produced a multi-tool of which she opened up into a pair of small pliers. There was a protruding piece of metal with a slot on the panel door that was meant for a lock to be placed, using her pliers she bent the metal backwards until the door would no longer open. In the pitch darkness, she slowly continued, approaching where she had heard the men come from, and found what she believed was a staircase leading into a basement. She nearly fell down the stairs as another blast smashed into the building, shaking the ground. Holding tightly to the railing, Astrid crept down the stairs in the dark, feeling around with her feet as she went.

"Did it hit the power? What's going on?"

"I think maybe whatever is shooting at us blew a fuse,"

"Grab your guns, we need to go check the box,"

"Careful on the stairs,"

Astrid stiffened as she heard three voices approaching her, they all began climbing the stairs and when the first man's shoulder brushed against hers she just continued walking down, a little more quickly this time. "Excuse me," She muttered, in the lowest voice she could muster up.

"Watch out, someone's coming down," He said as they continued up the stairs.

She let out a sigh of relief as she made it to the bottom of the stairs, and started wandering down one of the pitch black hallways, hands against the wall feeling for any doors she could enter. The first door she found she opened and entered, turning her phone light on to get a better look around. It was what appeared to be a small makeshift laboratory, with old mason jars and dollar-store measuring cups and funnels scattered across the counters. There was no paper and no filing cabinets, but in the corner of the room was a small desktop computer, pulling her multitool back out, she crouched down by the computer and turned it around. With the small screwdriver bit, Astrid unscrewed the back of the computer and pulled the hard drive out, stuffing it into her jacket pocket and turning the computer back around.

Another blast shook the building, the rumble it made felt even more intense underground, and soon after came the sound of gunfire from above. "No time to waste," Astrid whispered to herself as she climbed back to her feet and exited out to the hall. She was able to find a few other rooms, but none of them were of any importance, one was a small bathroom, another was just a closet, and the last one was a gun storage room. Just when Astrid was about to return to the surface she heard a low rumbling sound from the end of the hallway. She cautiously approached, listening carefully to the noise as it got louder. At first she thought maybe it was some kind of a machine, maybe something that had a power source separate from the building, but as she got closer it became very clear to her that the sound was coming from something that was alive, an animal. The rumbling sounded like growling, but not just any growling, it didn't sound like a tiger or a wolf, it sounded larger, much larger.

Astrid turned on the flashlight on her phone, and shined it down the hall to find a single door at the end only a few metres ahead. It was no ordinary door either, it had numerous locks securing it shut in addition to a large cage door over the first, locked up with a heavy metal chain. Upon further inspection she found that of all the locks, only one required a key to be opened, the rest could be easily unlocked from the outside. That could only mean one thing.

From the sky above, Toothless shot another blast down at the building and it crashed down at the ground below, where a large group of people had gathered. Hiccup leaned forward and squinted his eyes in a attempt to see if Astrid had made it out yet or not. "Do you see her anywhere bud?" Toothless warbled in response. "Me neither, I'm starting to get worried, what if they caught her?"

More flashes of light and the sound of guns firing off could be seen and heard from below, Toothless quickly swooped backwards, startled by the loud sounds. "Can they see us up here?" Hiccup looked down at the men, but from what he could see they were just firing randomly into the air. "Doesn't look like it," He touched the side of Toothless' head. "Let's let them know we're still here," Instead of shooting out another blash, Toothless whined and shook Hiccup's hand away from his head. "What's wrong bud?" He continued to make huffing and whining sounds while backing away from the building. Hiccup slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the enlargium. "Do you need more?"

The building shook with the heaviest blast yet just as Astrid managed to open all of the locks on the door. She knew she was pushing her luck by staying for so long, but she had to know what was behind this door. With shaky hands she grasped the handle and slowly pulled it open,the door was very, very heavy and took quite a bit of strength to pry open. Astrid was able to get it open just far enough that she could slip in, leaving the chain between the door and the frame to prevent it from completely shutting behind her. The room was completely pitch black, but she could now hear the growling louder than ever, she could even hear the heavy breathing of something much larger than herself. Just by how high the sound was coming from she could tell that this wasn't any ordinary creature, whatever it was it was taller than any horse she had ever seen. Astrid picked up her phone and slowly moved it up towards the growling sounds, it stood there, behind a set of heavy metal bars, it's huge mouth looked like it could gobble her up in one bite. It was tall, and it had an enormous round head and a full mouth of jagged pointed teeth. The creature had large nostrils and yellow snake-like eyes, with one large horn on the top of its nose, and several pointed horns adorned on its head like a crown. As Astrid moved the light lower, she noted the large wings that it had, along with a large spiked tail and clawed feet. She took a shaky step forward to get a better look at it, but as she did another blast hit the building and the creature immediately roared and charged towards the bars, smashing into them.

Astrid stumbled backwards and landed on the floor, she could hear even more growling sounds, coming from further into the room. She scrambled back to her feet and rushed to the door, using all of her strength to push the door open and squeeze through to exit back into the hallway. Whatever was in that room, it was angry, and getting more angry by the minute, growling and roaring while repeatedly crashing against the bars of its cage. It was then that all of the lights returned, and Astrid knew that she had run out of time, she had to get out. The creature's roaring and slamming we sure to catch someone's attention, and just as she thought, from the other end of the hall she could hear fast approaching footsteps. Astrid quickly ran into the gun storage room, shutting the door behind her and hiding inside. She listened as the footsteps ran past her and towards the end of the hall

"The door's open, do you think one of them got out?"

"They're too big, if they went through the door would've been taken clean off,"

"Those things can shrink remember,"

There was slight clunking and rattling sounds as one of the men inspected the locks. "It looks like the lock was picked, if one of them did get out, it had help from someone,"

"Do you think it was a inside job?"

"Whoever it was, they clearly planned this attack and the power outage...go find Alvin, we need to let him know what happened here, I'm going to make sure all the creatures are still accounted for,"

"Alright, be careful," He said turning and running back down the hallway.

As soon as he passed by, Astrid slowly opened the door and looked down the hall, the man who had stayed behind wasn't looking her way, he was pushing the door open and looking inside. She crept out of the room as quietly as she could and snuck down the hall, back towards the stairs. Toothless shot another blast at the building, causing Astrid to stumble as she climbed out of the basement.

"Hey!" Someone yelled from behind her, she didn't bother looking and bolted towards the side door, tearing it open and making a break for the fence. She could hear heavy footsteps chasing after her, by the sound if it there were at least five people. "That's her! That's the girl!" One person yelled as they ran. Astrid jumped up onto the fence and began climbing over, someone's hands grabbed onto her leg but she managed to kick them off and make it over. The fence rattled as more people scrambled to climb after her. "No! Don't shoot her, we need her alive!"

Astrid continued running, her lungs burned like fire but she didn't slow down, she couldn't. The men chased close behind her, slowly gaining on her, but something swooped in from above and created a huge gust of wind that knocked them to the ground. She turned back to find that Hiccup and Toothless had landed on the ground right behind her.

He reached his hand out towards her. "Quick! Get on!"

Astrid grabbed onto his arm without hesitation and he pulled her up onto Toothless' back, who leapt back up in the air and flew off into the darkness of the night.

The men climbed back to their feet, still staring at the sky where the three of them had disappeared. More men from the hideout rushed over to see what had happened, followed closely by their leader, Alvin the Treacherous. Alvin, not the least bit happy about what had conspired, shoved past his men to see where Astrid had gone to. He turned to look back at them, clearly furious. "What happened?"

"The creature from before, the same one who came when we were raiding the lab, it looks like the girl is working with it," One man explained. "She must've been using it has a distraction to get into our base,"

"That must be it, someone got into the locked room in the basement,"

"Why does she have a creature just like the ones we have? Does she know how to use them too?"

"Those things were from the lab, weren't they? Maybe she was trying to get them back,"

"It's got to be Finn's doing!"

"I thought she was at the Terror Mail building? Weren't men sent to get her? What happened to them?"

"Enough!" Alvin roared. Everyone fell into silence. "How did she even know where our base was?! Let alone managing to get inside of it!" No one answered. "You should've been watching the doors, all of them, no matter what else is going on, the security of our base is more important than anything else...our location has been compromised, we need to find somewhere else to go, immediately,"

Savage emerged from the back and moved to stand beside Alvin. "Alvin...we can't move right now, the creatures...they're still at full size, and because of all the noise they are extremely agitated,"

"Then we'll just have to chain and muzzle them," Alvin looked over at a group of men. "Go now, we need to move as soon as possible," They nodded and rushed off towards the hideout. Alvin then turned to Savage. "Did you know they could do that?"

"Do what?"

"Blast like that, the ones we have can breathe fire...but nothing like what hers can do,"

Savage shook his head. "I don't know, the one she has looks different from ours...maybe it's blast is stronger than theirs, we know that they're not all alike,"

Alvin turned to look off into the distance. "The one she has...we need to capture it,"


"Which one is it?" Hiccup asked, as they flew, looking over the buildings.

Astrid leaned down a little to get a better view, and pointed to a small street of townhouses not too far off. "Over there, I'm the blue one at the end," He nodded and they swooped down towards the buildings, landing on the roof of her townhouse. Astrid unwrapped her arms from his waist and climbed down onto the roof, holding onto the chimney for support. "Thanks," She said.

"You were in there for a long time,"

She smirked at him. "Were you starting to worry about me?"

"Yeah a little, I wasn't sure if they had caught you or not,"

Astrid smiled and brushed the bangs away from her eyes. "They didn't catch me, thanks to you,"

"Did you find anything?"

She nodded. "I found a lot actually," Astrid reached into her coat and pulled out the hard drive she had taken. "They had some sort of a lab in there, and I took this from the computer inside, hopefully there's something on it we can use. I'll take a look at this tonight, I've got a guy who used to work at the lab too, I can get him to look at it as well,"

Hiccup smiled, though she couldn't see it, and let out a sigh, "That's great, maybe the documents are on there,"

"Maybe, we'll just have to see," She said tucking the hard drive back into her coat. "There was something else though...maybe you can tell me more about it,"

He looked over at her. "...I can?"

She nodded again. "There were more...of him in there, I got a good look at one of them, but from what I could hear down there, they have at least two more,"

"...What?"

"The one I saw didn't look exactly like Toothless, but it was definitely similar, they're like...two different dog breeds or something. Whatever it was it wasn't any animal I've even seen before, and it had...wings. Just like his,"

"They had more in the basement? Why didn't you tell me this earlier? We have to go get them,"

Astrid grabbed his arm. "We can't, you said it yourself, no matter how strong Toothless is, he isn't bulletproof, if you go now you'll only get yourself killed," Hiccup nodded. "Listen, I know you're not exactly one for sharing...but I think it's time you tell me where Toothless came from," He tensed up and pulled his arm away from her. "You obviously know something, something you're not telling me, something that could help us,"

"I don't."

"Toothless is from the machine isn't he? The one my uncle built,"

"You're wrong."

"So how did you get him? Are you working with them somehow?"

"I'm not!" Hiccup yelled back. "I would never work with anyone trying to capture and lock up creatures like Toothless,"

"Then why the secrecy? Why the mask?" She asked, moving in closer.

"Because...because I'm…" He stuttered.

"Because you're what?" Hiccup's mind was going a mile a minute, there was too much being asked all at once and he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell Astrid the truth, or even how to explain why he had hid it from her in the first place. A thousand different explanations and scenarios flashed through his mind all at once as he tried to think of the best way to say it. "Because you're what?" She repeated, more firmly.

"Because I'm not like you!" He blurted out.

Astrid just stared at him, clearly a little confused by his response. "You're...not like me? What is that supposed to mean?"

Hiccup silently cursed himself for giving the most vague and least useful explanation of his life. "I'm trying to say that I'm...because I'm actually,"

"Wait...you're not saying…" She said staring at him. "That you're from...there, are you?"

"There?"

"The other place, where Toothless is from," Astrid said. "Are there others like you?"

"Like me? Not really," Hiccup scoffed.

"How did you get through the machine without anyone noticing?"

"...it was when the machine malfunctioned, there were only a few staff members in the building that day,"

Astrid crinkled up her eyebrows and looked towards the ground. "...Of course, when they thought something had come through...they were right...it was you and Toothless…" She looked back up at him. "I can see it now, those creatures in the basement, they were the small life forms that came through the machine when my uncle first went in. I remember that they changed size from large to small when they first came through, somehow the outcasts were able to figure out how to get them to their full size."

Hiccup nodded. "That's right,"

"If they're anything like Toothless...there's no telling what they're capable of, we can't let the outcasts keep them for much longer, who knows the damage they could cause,"

"We should use what's on the hard drive, if there's important information on there, maybe we can use it as leverage,"

"Possibly, first I need to look through it all," Astrid said. "Go home and rest for now, meet me here in two days, nine o'clock, I'll have figured it out by then," She moved towards a skylight on the roof and opened it up.

"Will you be alright?" He asked. "They might still be after you,"

Astrid smiled at him, halfway inside. "I'll be fine, after what happened tonight they'll be too busy moving their base to bother me for a little while,"

He smiled and nodded. "Okay, I'll see you later, goodnight,"

"Goodnight," She said before ducking into her house and shutting the window behind her.

Toothless took flight again and the two began flying off towards home. As they soared through the sky, Hiccup's phone made a ping sound indicating that he had received a text message. He took his phone out from his jacket pocket and looked down at it. Astrid had sent him a message; Meet me at the black sheep tomorrow at eleven, and bring Fishlegs with you.


Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you liked it, please be sure to leave any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish in the reviews for me, I read every single one, and I try my best to reply back to all of them. And for those of you reading this in 2017, happy holidays and happy new year! I'll see you in 2018 :)