Anyone else getting excited for the new HTTYD comic coming out? Just a few more days now :DD
In other news; my schedule might be getting a little more hectic in the next few months so don't be surprised if I go on hiatus. Nothing will probably happen until November, but you never know.
Chapter 18: Plan
Hiccup clacked away at his computer, eyes darting around the computer screen as he worked. He looked over what he had just typed out, groaned, and began slamming the backspace button repeatedly. It was hard to properly focus after his discussion with Fishlegs, he couldn't understand what The Outcasts were planning, and that worried him. The small dragon in Fishlegs' kitchen was just one of many, and he didn't even want to think of what could be happening to the others right now. They needed a plan, and fast.
Gobber came up from behind Hiccup, placing a elbow on his shoulder. "Working hard or hardly working?" he asked peering down at his computer screen.
"I've been a little out of it lately," Hiccup admitted. "Ever since they found that dragon I've been wondering what might be happening to the-"
"Oh they told you did they?"
Hiccup spun around in his chair and furrowed his brows. "What? Oh! Yeah, Fishlegs told me about it yesterday."
Gobber narrowed his eyes at Hiccup. "Is that so?"
"...Why are you giving me that look?" he asked hesitantly.
"It's nothing, only...I noticed that The Night Fury had something very interesting when I got to meet him," Gobber said with a nonchalant shrug. "He had a fin device that was suspiciously similar to the one you were working on, you didn't happen to give him the fin did you?"
Hiccup froze, unsure of what to say. Should he admit to it? He didn't exactly give the fin to anyone, but then again, the alternative was telling him the truth, the whole truth. "Uh...yes," he said stiffly.
Gobber crossed his arms and started down at Hiccup. "I thought you never met him before?"
"Well I did," he replied with a nervous grin.
"And why exactly did you feel it was necessary to keep this from everyone?" Hiccup didn't reply, he couldn't think of a believable excuse. "Have you told the others?"
"Fishlegs knows."
"What about Astrid and Heather?"
"Don't tell Astrid!" he exclaimed, popping out of his seat.
Gobber stumbled backwards slightly, startled by Hiccup's sudden outburst. "Why not? She's part of the group working with him isn't she? Wouldn't it be better if she knew your relationship with him?" Hiccup stared up at him, mouth pressed into a tight scowl. "There's no reason to be so secretive, I mean it's not like-wait, you're not, no, no that's impossible," he said with a chuckle. Hiccup didn't laugh though, and this wiped the smile right off Gobber's face. "No, no you're not. There's no way that's possible."
"Don't tell Astrid."
Gobber stared at Hiccup, mouth agape. "Hiccup. Tell me you're not him. Tell me you're not The Night Fury." Hiccup said nothing. "You can't be serious, what were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking okay? I didn't mean for it to turn out this way, it...it just sort of happened."
"Just sort of happened?" Gobber echoed. "Do you mean to tell me that you got a secret superhero identity by accident?"
Hiccup winced. "...Yes."
Gobber crossed his arms. "So why exactly can't you tell Astrid in particular?"
"It's...it's complicated okay?"
"I don't have anywhere to go."
He sighed. "It's...we're…" There was no casual way to tell him this, even under normal circumstances it was awkward to tell a family friend about your relationship, and this wasn't an ideal way to tell him. "Astrid and I are kind of...you know…"
Gobber dropped his arms and leaned forward. "Really? You two have…? That's great, I never thought you'd ever build up the courage to-" he stopped suddenly and narrowed his eyes. "...Hold on. When you say Astrid and you, you're talking about you as you right?"
"Not...technically speaking, no."
His face quickly turned from uneasy to angry. "Hiccup."
"I know, I know alright? It was a terrible idea, but I never thought it would happen!"
"No, clearly you don't know, because you're still going along with it."
Hiccup stood up from his chair. "You know how long I've wanted this, and now that she finally likes me, wants to be with me, you think I should end it? You're the same as Fishlegs!"
"No," Gobber said, "I don't think you should end it, I think you should tell her the truth."
"That's the same thing."
"You don't know that."
"Neither do you," Hiccup said, grabbing his bag from beside his desk. "I have to go, I told Fishlegs I'd meet up with him today."
"Hiccup, hold on for a second," Gobber said, cautious hands outstretched.
Hiccup gave him a sympathetic look before mumbling a final, "I have to go," and rushing out of the lab. He knew what he was doing couldn't last forever, but the fear that she would see him, the real him, and look at him with disappointed eyes was the most terrifying thought he'd ever imagined. So he buried it, and ran from it.
There was a ka-chak as the door unlocked, and the faint rattling of the chain being removed. Fishlegs opened the door to let Hiccup inside and quickly shut it behind him. "You're early," he commented as they walked towards the living room. "Astrid and Heather won't be here for a little while."
"I finished work sooner than I thought," Hiccup lied. "How much did you tell them?"
"I told them about the enlargium and the megadosing, I didn't go into the details though," Fishlegs said. "I was worried they would start asking questions, but the other dragons seem to be their main concern."
"Of course," he said with a nod. "How's the dragon?"
"Better, Meatlug's been able to move around more but he's still quite weak," Fishlegs explained.
Hiccup quirked an eyebrow at his friend. "Meatlug?"
"Oh, right, that's what I started calling him. I thought it would be easier than just saying 'the dragon' all the time."
"I like it," he said with a smile. "It suits him."
Fishlegs walked over to the couch where the small brown dragon lay curled up. "He's actually very smart, I've even taught him to use the tv remote," he said excitedly, grabbing the controller from off the coffee table and placing it in front of Meatlug. The dragon opened it's small yellow eyes and sniffed at the remote, moving a foot over to press down the power button, flickering the TV to life.
"You thought I didn't know did you? Well I did, how co-!" A voice over the television yelled, a dramatic soap opera, before being cut off as Meatlug pressed another button, changing the channel. "You just grab it and go, it's that easy! Wow!" Another voice chimed, before the channel was changed again, this time to the news station. "Yet another bank robbery occurred this Sunday, nearly thirty thousand dollars worth of cash and valuables stolen from secur-" Meatlug changed the channel for the last time, leaving it to play cartoons.
"That's impressive, I didn't realize the dragons even had an interest in television," Hiccup said looking down at Meatlug. "Maybe I should've tried that out with Toothless."
"It's not just television, he understand things, when I talk it's almost as if he hears what I'm saying. They might be the most intelligent species outside humans that we've ever encountered. And not we as in us, we as in all of history."
There was a knock at the door and they looked at each other, then Fishlegs walked over and peered through the peephole. Once he knew who it was, he unlocked and unlached the door, letting Astrid and Heather inside. "Should we have scheduled this meeting earlier?" he asked, amused, "everyone's so early."
"We couldn't wait," Astrid said, much less amused. "The more time we waste, the closer those other dragons get to dying from the megadosing."
"Why do you think they're doing it?" Heather asked, as they all walked towards Hiccup and the living room. "Do they think they'll be able to make then stronger by doing it?"
Fishlegs shut and locked the door, walking over to join them in the living room. "That's my guess," he said.
"They have three dragons though," Astrid pointed out, "four before we took that one," she said gesturing towards Meatlug who sat on the couch, still watching cartoons on the TV. "Everyone's seen what The Night Fury can do with just one dragon, what do they need more power for?"
"A gang war maybe?" Hiccup suggested. "They wanted the machine so they could get more dragons, but without your uncle and without the other half of the plans, they can't do that. I'm thinking this is their plan B."
Heather furrowed her brows. "Four dragons wasn't enough for them? What kind of gang are they up against?"
Hiccup shook his head and looked to the floor. "I don't know."
"It doesn't matter right now, what matters is getting the other half of the plans and the dragons back," Astrid interjected sharply. "If there's another gang we can deal with that afterwards."
"How though?" Fishlegs asked.
"We could try and sneak Toothless in again," Heather proposed, looking at the others.
Astrid shook a hand at her friend. "No, that won't work a second time, they'll be on edge after we got the first dragon out and we can't risk losing Toothless. It's too dangerous."
"We need to get them out of their base, that's the only way we can have them on our terms," Hiccup said. "Then we'll have the advantage instead of them."
"What could we possibly do to make them leave though?" Fishlegs asked, looking around the room as the others thought silently.
"We could flush them out," Heather suggested. "Set their base on fire, or send the police to them. But both those options are risky, for the dragons and for the plans."
Astrid nodded in agreement. "You're right, it's too risky. We should be trying to lure them out, using something they want."
"Something they want?" Hiccup asked, he didn't like the direction she was going in.
"They want me, if I try to-"
"No," Hiccup said quickly, "if something goes wrong, if they catch you-"
"They won't."
"Hiccup's right," Heather interjected, "even if you tell them what happened to Finn they might not believe you and who knows what they'll try to do to you." She shuddered at the thought. "You said we couldn't risk losing Toothless, the same goes for you."
Astrid looked around at the others, and let out an exasperated sigh. "What else can we do?" she asked. "There's nothing else they want, only the plans, and I'd rather them get me than the plans."
"That's not necessarily true," Hiccup said slowly. "They only want you because they want Finn. If we send them a message claiming to be him, maybe we could get Alvin to come out of his base, even take his half of the plans out with him."
Fishlegs looked upwards in thought. "Pretended to be Finn…? That might just work."
"Why would Finn agree to meet him?" Astrid asked. "Without a reason it'll seem to good to be true, he'll realize it's a trap."
"So we have to give a reason," Hiccup explained. "We send a letter to The Outcasts, claiming to be Finn, agreeing to give up the rest of the plans in exchange for Astrid's safety. We ask them to bring the first half so we can authenticate them."
"My safety?"
Hiccup nodded. "They still don't know where Finn really is right? Think about it, if you were in hiding from a group of criminals and they had attempted to kidnap a close family member of yours in order to capture you, wouldn't you start to feel responsible? It makes perfect sense that Finn would cave and agree to their demands."
"Finn would never do that," she said shaking her head.
"But they don't know that, do they?"
Astrid nodded slowly, a small smile appearing on her face. "No, they don't."
"Okay, so we send this letter, they come to us with the plans...how exactly does this help us get the dragons out of their base?" Fishlegs asked. "Am I missing something?"
"No matter how convincing we try to sound, The Outcasts will still be suspicious about the letter," Hiccup began, "especially if we ask them to bring their half of the plans with them."
Astrid's smiled widened, she understood where his plan was going. "They'll probably bring half their men with them, to keep the plans safe, their base will be easier to attack."
"Exactly."
"So...half of us meet with them and half of us attack the base while they're out?" Heather confirmed. "Who should go where?"
"We should have a watchout," Astrid said. "Someone needs to stay near the base to let us know when they leave or if anything unusual happens. That building is still standing isn't it?" she asked, turning towards Heather.
She nodded. "Yes, but not for much longer."
"Fishlegs and I can be watchouts," Hiccup offered, giving Fishlegs a nudge and a glance.
Fishlegs furrowed his brows for a moment, before realizing the reason for the strange behaviour and quickly cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah, yeah we can do lookout."
"Maybe Fishlegs should come with us," Heather said, "it would be helpful to have someone to pretend to be Finn, and he's the closest in appearance, male and blond."
His eyes darted towards Hiccup, he could see a suppressed panic in them. "No, Fishlegs is too young, they'll see through it. I can ask Gobber to do it, he's also blond, and closer to his age," Hiccup offered.
"Do you think they'll be fooled by that? Finn doesn't look much like Gobber, not in the face," Astrid said, her mouth and brows crumpled in uncertainty.
"They won't know his face as well as you do," Heather reminded her, " and we can put glasses and a hat on him, they won't know the difference."
"And what about The Night Fury?" she asked.
"He should stay with us," Fishlegs said, "for the attack on the base."
"No," Hiccup told them, shaking his head, "The Night Fury should be at the meeting site, we don't know what they'll plan to do, if something goes wrong you'll need him there."
Fishlegs stared at his friend in disbelief. "So we're supposed to attack the base on our own?" he asked sharply, wide eyes staring daggers at the side of Hiccup's head. He could tell by his tone that we was meant to mean me instead.
"Gobber will pretend to be Finn, he can confirm if the plans are real. Once that's done you can tip the police, I'm sure they'll jump at the chance to catch The Outcasts' leader," Hiccup explained slowly. "After that's finished, The Night Fury can fly over o the base and assist with the attack, even if they figure out what we're doing, they won't get back there before he does. Not when he's on Toothless."
Astrid nodded. "This could work."
"How are we going to get the message to them?" Heather asked the group. "They don't exactly have a mailing address."
"Nothing traceable, otherwise they might figure out it's not from Finn," Astrid said.
Hiccup walked over to the window and looked out, he could see only a small sliver of the river between the buildings and bridges. "Which way does the river flow?" he asked, keeping his eyes out the window.
"South I think," Heather answered.
He pointed out at one of the many bridges that crossed over the river. "If we drop a bottle or a canister with our message from that bridge, it should make its way down to The Outcasts' base. There's no way for them to trace that back to us."
"How will we know if it keeps going and misses the island?" Astrid asked.
"I can send in a small drone with a camera to watch from the sky. If we make the bottle a bright enough colour it won't be hard to see," Hiccup said, turning back to the others.
Heather nodded. "I can also put a tracker on it."
"Wait, wait," Fishlegs interrupted, waving his hands in the air. "Even if we get this message to them successfully, there's no way for them to respond to us. What if they have other demands, what if they don't agree to our terms?"
"They will," Astrid said suddenly. "The Outcasts are desperate, we can see that. They're afraid of something, maybe we don't know what, but we know what they want, what they think will help them. If we give them that, no negotiations, just yes or no, they'll take it. They can't afford not to."
"We'll have to find somewhere for us to meet with them, preferably somewhere far from their base," Fishlegs said.
Heather nodded. "I can do that."
"I'll have to get a drone ready and speak to Gobber about the plan." Hiccup cringed at the thought, after their last conversation today it wouldn't be easy to convince him. "We should all prepare and meet again in a few days, Wednesday?" Everyone nodded. "Good, I'll see you all then," he said turning towards the door.
"Wait, we'll come too," Astrid said catching up with him. "It's better to go in groups, especially at night."
"Actually, I'll stay a bit longer," Heather said, sitting down next to Meatlug. "I wanted to see the dragon a little more."
Astrid turned back to her friend. "How are you going to get back? I gave you a ride over. I can wait, how long do you think you will be?"
"I can give her a ride if she needs one," Fishlegs offered, putting a hand up.
Astrid looked to Heather, to make sure she was alright with this. Heather just smiled and gave a nod, eyes drifting towards Fishlegs. "Okay," she said, turning her body back to the door where Hiccup was. "I'll see you at work." Hiccup and Astrid let themselves out of the apartment and stepped into the elevator. "Thank you," she said to him as they stood inside, the elevator making soft beeps as they descended, "for everything, all your help. I don't know if we could've done any of this without you."
"It's no problem."
"I know you're doing this for your mother, I shouldn't have said what I said that day, but I-"
"I'm not doing this for her," Hiccup said, keeping his eyes forward as the elevator door slid open with a ping sound. That surprised Astrid, and she stared at him for a moment, unsure if she heard him right. "She's dead. I've known that for a long time, I only wanted to know what really happened to her. That's not important anymore though, there's so much more at stake now."
They stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby. "You must think I'm such a manipulative bitch," she said with a short laugh.
"I would never think that about you," he said as they made their way out to the street.
She smiled to herself "That's good to hear. I know I've dragged you into a lot of danger, I'm sorry for that."
"You don't-" he stopped and moved to touch her arm, but she stiffened slightly. He wasn't The Night Fury right now, he was just Hiccup. He pulled back, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "You don't need to apologize, I choose this on my own." The parking lot for Fishlegs' building was a little ways off, a short walk through the dark streets, it was no wonder Astrid didn't want anyone to have to go on their own. "You drove here?" he asked as the parking lot came into view.
"My bike," she corrected.
"It must be-" before he could finish his sentence, a shadowed figure crept out of the darkness and moved towards them.
It was difficult to see the figure, his clothes were dark and his face was obscured by shadows. They couldn't even tell that he was a man for certain, but the gleam off the knife he held was quite clear. "Keys," he said gruffly, approaching them slowly.
Astrid's hands clutched tightly to her bag, and Hiccup put his hands out slowly. "Hey, listen, you don't want to do this," he said cautiously.
"Keys," he repeated, a little more firm this time. Astrid reached into her bag with one hand, eyes glued to the man in front of them. "Slowly," he said, pointing the knife towards her. She slowed her arm down, reaching in and pulling out her keys, extending her arm out for the man to take them. Hiccup watched her, he knew Astrid wasn't the type to submit to anyone. Using his free hand, the man reached out to take the keys from her. When his hand was only millimetres away she dropped the keys and grabbed his arm, giving it a hard twist until he fell to the ground, the knife clattering on the asphalt by Hiccup's feet. "You bitch-!" the man hissed, diving towards the knife. Astrid's eyes darted towards Hiccup, they were wide with urgency. As the man's hand moved towards the knife, Hiccup stomped on his wrist stopping it. She ran over, grabbing the knife and tossing it into a nearby dumpster with a loud echoing clang. With his other hand, the man grabbed at Hiccup's ankle, yanking at it until he was able to get his arm free. Hiccup stumbled backwards as the man rose to his feet and scampered away down the street, yelling profanities back at them as he did.
Astrid sighed, shoulders relaxing. "What a city we live in."
Hiccup walked over to where Astrid dropped her keys and picked them up for her, brushing off any dirt that had gotten on them. "You should be more careful, what if you were alone? He could've killed you," he said handing her keys back to her.
"He wouldn't have killed me, he's a coward, and a car isn't worth murder charges."
"Do you think he was with The Outcasts?" Hiccup asked as the thought suddenly came to him. "There were people following you before weren't there?"
She shook her head. "It's been a month or so since I last noticed someone following me, I'm not sure if they gave up or what." Astrid took the keys from him and tucked them into her pocket.
Hiccup perked up. "That's good news, that's great news, why didn't say anything earlier?" he asked, though he really meant why didn't you tell The Night Fury earlier?
"I wasn't sure if they had stopped or gotten better at hiding it, I'm still not sure."
"If they stopped...do you think it's because they gave up? Or because they don't want Finn anymore?" he asked.
Astrid shrugged. "I guess we'll find out, won't we?"
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or cries of anguish please leave them in the reviews and I'll see you next time!
