Here have a 11.6k word chapter because I love you guys and don't know how to break up scenes.
Summary: Danny wants to do things on his own, Hiccup is reasonably stressed about leaving integral missions in the hands of a dead teenager, Tuffnut gives himself a nosebleed, and Vlad is forced to follow fire-safety regulations.
This chapter was originally gonna be called "The Heist-merang" based on a previous, very bad, one-liner that danny made in the original draft of this story but. Idk. the Ocean's 11 reference is suitable.
Anyways.
"Daniel, you do realize I can sense you?"
Vlad Masters did not look up from his paperwork as he spoke, and Danny grumbled under his breath.
"Just making sure you aren't going to attack," the younger hybrid let his invisibility drop as he left the corner of the ceiling he'd been occupying.
The mayor looked up at him through half-lidded eyes. They stared at each other for quite a few moments before he grumbled, setting down his pen.
"What do you want, Little Badger?" Vlad asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Danny quirked an eyebrow, "What, no banter today?" He felt a smirk pull at the corners of his lips.
Vlad simply gestured with upward palms at the amount of paperwork on his desk. "Unlike you, I actually know how to run Amity Park." he remarked, and when agitation blossomed in Danny's chest, he smirked. "Good enough for you?"
Landing silently, Danny placed two hands onto Vlad's desk, leaning on it aggressively. He chose not to answer that question. "Our friends in the Far North have a bit of a problem." He stated rather bluntly, accusation heavy in the air.
His core did not register any reaction from Vlad. The man instead raised a nonplussed eyebrow. "Friends." He repeated the word. "I'd be hard pressed to call those beasts as such, wouldn't you agree, Little Badger?"
Forcing back a scowl, Danny sucked in a breath. "I'm trying to be cordial here, you know."
"Of course," Vlad tilted his head to the side in a disparaging manner. A ghost of a smirk pulled at his own lips, revealing too-sharp canines, "What can I do for you, Danny Phantom?" He spoke the name with faux-reverence.
"The Infimap's gone missing again." Danny stated in monotone, "there was no ectosignature on-scene."
Vlad hummed apathetically, "you'd think those yetis would invest in better security measures by now."
Growling, Danny slammed a hand over the closest piece of important-looking paper, disintegrating it with an ectoblast. "Answer the question, Froot Loop. Did you steal it or not?"
His paper-destroying antics did seem to pull slight irritation out of Vlad, because he stared at the embers flittering around Danny's hand with a small pinch in the brow.
"I know nothing of the Infimap's whereabouts." He glared at the younger hybrid, "Now if you'll please –"
"Are you sure?" Danny's eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, "maybe one of your little henchmen is holding it for you."
"I have no use for that artifact anymore, Daniel." Vlad's eyes flashed red for a moment.
"And why should I believe you?" the ghost boy countered, feeling his own eyes blaze brighter for a split second.
"If you must know," Vlad pushed forward until he, too, was leaning over his desk, "I was off on a campaign trip for the better part of last month. And after that I was working with your parents to begin implementing some ghost shields in the shopping district. I haven't spoken with my ghostly commissioners in months."
"Convenient that my parents are out of town the day it goes missing then, huh?" Danny smirked.
Vlad, evidently, did not like being insinuated a liar. With a silent glare, the older hybrid picked up a piece of paper and slammed it between Danny's hands with a shudder of the oak. The ghost boy spared a glance at its contents to find that it was, indeed, a legal document for a craft shop that Sam frequented.
The correspondence date was stamped with the same one that the dragon riders had appeared.
With a disappointed sigh, Danny leaned back, picking up the paper to inspect it further.
"I haven't any time for 'schemes' right now, Daniel." Vlad curtly stated, "Contrary to what you may believe, I am trying to be a good tennant."
Pursing his lips, Danny slowly placed the paperwork back on the desk between them. "You're working with my parents?" He stated in disbelief, giving the man a once-over, "why?"
Vlad obviously found the arrangement as annoying as Danny found it unbelievable, because he pinched the bridge of his nose like a migraine was coming on. "I don't see how this is any of your concern, Little Badger."
"I thought Axion Labs had ghost shields already," Danny continued, "What's the deal?"
"The deal is that, despite Jack's reputation in this town, Maddie's genius is something that my scientists at Axion have yet to achieve!" Vlad spat, and then promptly made a show to wave his hand over a menacing-looking switch, "now are you going to leave me to do my paperwork, or am I going to have to trigger the ghost alarm?"
Throwing his hands up in defeat, Danny jumped back into the air, "Alright, alright, geez, I'm going…" He relented, and his shoulders relaxed when Vlad's hand moved away from the switch.
"And Daniel?"
Danny turned with a silent question just before he phased through the wall.
The older hybrid did a once over of him before stating, "Whatever you're meddling with, don't let it interfere with my job."
Narrowing his eyes, Danny simply replied, "Don't let your job interfere with my haunt, Froot Loop."
Taking a detour around the shopping district added an extra five minutes to his flight, but it did calm the ghost boy's nerves about anything fishy going on there. He supposed Vlad's story would be easy enough to prove with a paper trail, but that still meant that their number one suspect was now off the table.
Danny landed in the park just in time to see Tucker get nailed in the head with a frisbee, which then rebounded and snagged Snotlout in the face.
"Hey! Watch it, you two!" The latter picked up the projectile and waved it annoyedly in the air towards Astrid and Sam, who both had very similar smirks on their faces.
"What, reflexes getting rusty, Snotlout?" Astrid quipped, catching the frisbee with ease as he chucked it back to them.
Snotlout scoffed as Tucker rubbed the back of his head, disgruntled, "Unlike the twins, I don't like getting concussions."
"Oh," Astrid said in mock-realization, nodding dramatically, "sure."
"I also don't like concussions, you know." Tucker swiveled to give Sam a glare as he replaced his glasses onto his face.
Sam snorted, turning back to Astrid, "what is it with guys and their ability to complain?"
The translator in Astrid's ear blinked as it processed the statement, and a moment later she chuckled. "Well. Just this guy, really."
She jabbed a thumb in Snotlout's direction, causing him to gape in offense, "Oh, you wanna fight, Hofferson?" He stumbled to his feet and Hookfang jumped from his shoulder, hastily scampering over to Fishlegs and Meatlug.
"Come at me, Jorgenson!" Astrid yelled, crouching for an attack with an excited smile.
As Snotlout bolted off with a battle cry, Danny let his invisibility creep off his skin. "You know, I also don't like concussions very much."
Tucker looked up from his phone with a snort, "And yet you still have a record of one per month."
Squinting his eyes, Danny threw his arms out to the side and gestured towards his healed chest, "Need I remind you?" He spoke as he landed on Sam's purple picnic blanket.
Hiccup's nose left his journal and he glanced around their surroundings, "Are you even allowed to be seen with us?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as Toothless grabbed the pencil from his hand.
Glancing around as well, Danny turned back to Hiccup, "Not anymore than you're supposed to be here," he cracked a smile.
Not that any prying eyes would be looking at the vikings as opposed to him. The rest of Hiccup and Fishlegs' friends had joined them in donning modern clothing as well, and they passed scarily well for regular teens.
Astrid was in a navy blue tank top and a pair of black athletic leggings; Snotlout was in a looser white shirt and jean shorts, and the twins were in similar flannel get-ups.
Their new looks were pretty long-coming; it had been about two weeks since Danny, Sam, and Tuck had found the vikings stranded in the Ghost Zone, and though there were still some moments of shock, a lot of it had passed.
It was replaced, however, with an ever-increasing sense of restlessness. After all, he, Sam, and Tucker still had school to attend, so that left the vikings somewhat unfairly stuck in the manor. Danny's core had gotten so choked up with the restlessness that permeated them that he convinced Sam and Tucker to get the vikings some air. After all, the Fenton Phones weren't debugged for nothing.
It seemed to be working, at least. The area felt just a bit less cluttered.
Hiccup shrugged at Danny's remark, sending a glance to his dragon as he flipped the journal to a blank page, "Fair enough."
"Did you get anything from the Froot Loop?" Sam asked, having retreated from what had effectively become a wrestling match between Snotlout and Astrid.
Flopping down onto the blanket with a sigh, Danny looked to the clouds, "He has an alibi as strong as steel." he grumbled, allowing his eyes to flutter shut as the sun's warmth hit his face.
"How?" Sam asked incredulously, like the mere idea that Plasmius could be innocent was a prospect never heard of before.
Danny shrugged with still-closed eyes, "his story would be pretty easy to disprove. Campaigning last month and, get this, working with my pa –" the ghost boy's eyes flew open and he covered his slip up with a cough. He sat up on his elbows and twisted to look at Sam, "the Fentons."
The goth's eyebrows flew to her hairline. "Vlad is working with Jack?"
"To implement ghost shields into the shopping district!" Danny threw his hands up with sarcastic jazz hands, "Saw the paperwork myself…"
"Ironic that he's working on infrastructure to prevent ghost-theft." Sam scoffed.
"And why is that?" Hiccup asked, causing both of the younger teens to look at him in alarm. And then to the translator blinking in his ear.
Right.
Danny shared a concerned look with Sam, who shook her head in just the slightest bit.
"Ah…not really important, it seems." the ghost boy brushed off the question and tried to ignore the unconvinced look that Hiccup gave them both.
A few minutes were spent in silence as Danny closed his eyes and laid back down once again. Thankfully, Hiccup didn't push it.
Eventually their conversation, the occasional clacking of Tucker's PDA, and the laughs and shrieks from Snotlout and Astrid began to blend together as Danny focused on his core.
It was almost like his ghost sense, in a way. Learning to read his haunt. It felt like echolocation, even. Like shapes in the fog that he could feel instead of see.
There was a couple and their dog somewhere over the hill. A few kids playing on the playground across the park. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but the fact that Danny still had to focus still made him doubt whether or not he was doing it correctly.
He was drawn out of his musings by Hiccup's pretty blatant ask, "So if this Vlad guy didn't take the Infimap, what's our next move?"
Peeking an eye open, Danny tilted his head backward until he spotted Tucker, who answered with a "presently? Finding the blueprints to the Boo-merang."
"And the Boo-merang is…?"
"Tracks ectosignatures. The Infimap has an ectosignature." Danny summed up the same conversation they'd been having for the better part of two weeks.
Rolling onto his stomach, he asked Tucker, "how's that going, by the way?"
"There isn't a big market for ghost hunting equipment outside of Amity," the look on Tucker's face was utterly exhausted. He turned his PDA around, "but do you realize how hard it is to take down firewalls of companies that breathe high-tech?"
"Says the guy that hacked through both Technus and Skulker's systems in minutes." Sam snorted.
"I said hard, not impossible." Tucker pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose, "I've already weeded out some of our suspects."
Danny felt his brow pull together thoughtfully, flipping over onto his stomach. "...you know, if Axion Labs is working on ghost shields with the Fentons, it can't be far off that they'd buy other things off their hands too, right?"
Sam glanced at Tucker as if looking for an answer, "did you check them out yet?"
Clearing out whatever was originally on his screen, Tucker switched to a different application. "Ask me that again in half an hour or so."
"And this Axion place is…what, exactly?" Astrid said, sitting next to Hiccup with Snotlout, fresh clumps of grass in his hair, trailing behind her.
"A place that's going to be hard to break into again." Danny groaned, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
"Again?"
"Long story." Sam, Tucker, and Danny groaned simultaneously.
The vikings side-glanced one another before Hiccup sighed restlessly, "Well…it's not like we don't have lock-picking skills, I guess."
A surprised snort left Danny at that, "you're not helping."
The dragon riders looked almost aghast at that. "What do you mean?"
He felt a surge of exasperation from Sam. "Danny –" she began, but he'd already rolled over onto his stomach.
He sent Hiccup as stern of a look as he could muster, resisting the urge to flash his fangs. "You can't get home if you're thrown in prison. Or worse." He said, glancing at Sam with a 'don't start' look as she opened her mouth again.
"Besides," He shook his head, "It's going to be a bit more complicated than picking locks..."
Hiccup's lips were pursed, he seemed to be running his words through his head, and when he finally spoke it was preambled with a steadying sigh. "Look, Phantom, we appreciate your…initiative." His words were cautious, and he trailed off.
He looked over to Astrid, who seemed to have the words he did not. "Look, us dragon riders are a team." She leaned forward in earnest, "we're not helpless. Future or not, we've done more…ah –"
"Stealing? Larceny?" Tuffnut oh-so-helpfully supplied.
"Double-crossings? Ooh, Robberies!" Ruffnut continued, and Astrid cringed.
"I was going to say undercover operations," she sent the twins a pointed look, which they obviously didn't register. "But the point is: this mission only exists because we're here. We need to take part in it."
Danny wanted to rear back at that, wanted to scoff, wanted to tell them to stay out of harm's way.
But he bit his tongue and held his posture.
"Besides," Hiccup said, "if you really think this is going to be more complicated than picking locks, you're going to need all the help you can get."
"I don't need help." The words left his mouth in a monotone. He refused to look anywhere near Sam, despite the holes she was burning into the side of his head.
Hiccup shrugged that off. "Maybe not," He said, and Danny definitely didn't like the implication of the word 'maybe', but you're getting it anyway. This is our mess, too."
Danny felt his brows furrow, and Tucker chose that exact moment to let out a triumphant exclamation. His head shot up from his PDA with an excited glimmer. "There was indeed a single transaction between Fentonworks and Axion Labs a few months before their current communications!" He spoke with an overconfident head bob. "I can't access the files, but I doubt it could be anything else."
"Then it's settled," Sam dusted her hands of something, and it was now Danny's turn to glare daggers for her to ignore, "let's Ocean's Eleven this shit."
Most of the planning happened at Sam's place, away from prying ears. Much like Phantom said, it wasn't as simple as picking locks. Apparently this building was akin to a fortress with its anti-ghost systems. And regular security systems that made Hiccup quite thankful that he came from a time where avoiding lookouts was the hardest part of a mission. He couldn't imagine dealing with things like security cameras on Viggo's ships.
But eventually, with a search of the building's blueprints and a couple firewalls later, a plan had been solidified.
The humans would get in and deactivate the anti-ghost systems, allowing Phantom to slip in and search for the Boo-merang blueprints while they ran distraction.
Easier said than done.
Phantom still didn't seem very pleased that the dragon riders were joining him on their mission, but if he had anything more to say, he bit his tongue. Hiccup had to wonder why – after all, it seemed like this place had made it nearly impossible for him to enter without help – but he wasn't going to pry. He was used to stubbornness.
The dragons seemed rather peeved that they weren't allowed to help out, but considering the ghostly artifacts around their necks, and the fact that Stormfly still had a rather large hole in her wing, Hiccup and the others weren't willing to take that chance.
Toothless had a perpetual scowl on his face that Hiccup tried to sooth, but he was finding that wiping the forlorn look from his face was getting harder by the day.
His promises that they would be back in the air soon were beginning to fall flat, and Hiccup knew he couldn't keep it up for much longer.
"My dragon may quite literally die if I don't get him in the air soon." He muttered somewhat to himself as they crossed the car lot towards the giant metal building in front of them.
Astrid nodded empathetically, "Yeah, Stormfly's taken to roosting on the ceiling fan." She admitted.
"I thought she couldn't fly…" Snotlout grumbled, to which Astrid sighed like a weary mother.
"She can't."
"So what, you just put her up there?"
"Well, she tends to scream if I don't." Astrid admitted with enough defeat that Hiccup patted her on the back.
"I'd take screaming any day," Snotlout boasted, "Hookfang's just resorted to biting me every time I tell him no." He pulled the neck of his shirt down to reveal an angry, red, rodent-sized bite mark. Not that Hiccup needed proof to believe it.
Hiccup caught Sam and Tucker sharing an apprehensive look; it reminded him very much of his father's after-work migraine grimace.
"Finally, some actual working chimney's!" Ruffnut exclaimed, pointing at the multitude that Axion seemed to boast. They were impossibly large, billowing what seemed like an equally impossible amount of smog into the air. Hiccup wrinkled his nose at the reminder.
The gang had reminisced that the air in Amity smelled…sick. Sour. Hot, if that was even possible. Like cigar smoke, but more acidic.
What they'd learned upon mentioning this was that there were downsides to the seemingly world-changing inventions surrounding them. Hiccup caught a bit of an earful as Sam promptly went into an almost-tearful rant about their nature and how it was effecting the earth.
They'd gotten a name for the sickness in the air. Pollution. It made Hiccup wonder if Ragnarok was not as far off from this future as they originally thought, watching the pillars of smoke disperse into the air.
His head snapped down to the doors leading to the building, and with a gulp he tried to stand up straighter.
They entered a small room with a woman sitting behind a desk. She was a wiry frame with graying hair and even grayer eyes, and she looked up at the teens with skepticism. "Name?"
Sam put on a smile that was just a bit too wide to be sincere, "Manson. We're here for the four-o'-clock tour."
With a sigh, the woman turned to the computer and if someone could press buttons in monotone, she managed to. Her eyes flitted across the screen and then she peered over the top of her glowing glasses to the rest of the group. Hiccup hoped his smile wasn't nervous.
"Take a seat. Your tour guide will come get you at five before." She droned and pointed behind them with a pencil.
A couple more groups joined them in the ten minutes it took for their tour guide to arrive. He was a burly man with a friendly mustache and receding hairline. He greeted the group of twenty with a smile and held the door to the main part of the building open for them to enter.
"I didn't think Mr. Gray would be our tour guide." Hiccup caught Sam mutter to Tucker through grit teeth.
"Well, he is passionate about his job." Tucker countered, eyes wandering to the towering inventions on their sides in hunger. He sighed, "Oh, I would so enjoy a real tour of this place…"
Hushing him, Sam scolded, "keep your voice down!"
Her gaze darted behind her to the vikings as Mr. Gray began explaining Axion Labs' beginnings.
Waiting to break off from the group was nerve wracking enough that Hiccup couldn't focus on Mr. Gray's words, try as he might. When he spotted their destination, his voice practically became static in his ears. He sent a glance to Astrid, who had also zoned in on their exit point, and she nodded a comforting affirmative.
The group came to a stop in front of some window looking into a lab, where employees in white coats were bustling around. At her queue, Sam raised her hand.
"Excuse me, Mr. Gray?" She asked with a slight twist of self-righteousness, "I have a question about the ethics of using such procedures…"
She moved until their tour guide conveniently turned his back to continue their conversation, and with a quick tap on the twins' shoulders, Hiccup, Astrid, Ruff, Tuff, and Tucker cleaved themselves from the group.
Resisting the urge to run on the linoleum floors was something Hiccup did at the cost of a shiver up his spine as they ducked down the hallway. He kept looking out over his shoulder as Tucker hopped a menial rope onto a stairwell and then disappeared behind the railing as it turned.
Doing much the same, Hiccup helped Astrid over and followed. He let out a sigh of relief as they landed on the second floor and were met with another, slightly longer, hallway directly above the one they'd just come from. There was a window at the end that overlooked the main area in the center of the building, and Hiccup had no doubt that if they went to it and looked down they would see the tour group below them.
Tucker paused to read a directory – to double check, he assured – and nodded to himself. He quickly tugged off his red beanie, stuffing it into his pocket and unwrapping the blazer he'd tied around his waist. He buttoned it up hastily before straightening the collar.
"How do I look?" He asked, and Hiccup and Astrid shrugged.
"Gods, you're a fashion disaster!" Tuffnut squawked, placing his hands on his hips, "I mean, seriously –"
"Tuff." Hiccup hissed, "Later."
Tucker did not seem phased by this. "Alright, this way." he whispered, and with the sudden lack of background noise their footsteps were much louder in this hallway as they made their way down.
Turning into another hallway that ran parallel to the main room, they came to the first door on their left. A bronze plaque with what was undoubtedly a name engraved to it was on the door.
Clenching his hand into a fist, Tucker brought it up to the door before hesitating. He gulped, shoulders suddenly hunched, as he turned to the older teens.
"You guys remember the plan?" He asked, and Hiccup nodded earnestly.
The techie seemed to relax just slightly, but that was quickly cut short when the door in front of them opened suddenly. With a slightly strangled cry, Tucker leapt back and bumped into the twins, who managed to steady him with snickers.
The man in front of them, though surprised, had the same strict, almost-dreary look that the woman at the front desk had. With a buzz-cut head and a clean-shaven face, he was a bit taller than Hiccup and wearing what the future considered "formal work attire".
"Who are you? This area is restricted access!" He stood up straighter, voice sharpening authoritatively.
"D-Doctor Smith?" Tucker asked, and the man snapped his gaze towards him incredulously.
"And you are?"
Jaw clenched, the techie puffed out his chest and pushed his glasses back up onto his face. "We're associates of Fentonworks." He replied coldly.
Blinking, Dr. Smith took a step back into his office, head almost-turning back to his desk. "I wasn't told of any meetings today."
"Really?" Tucker seemed to be falling into his role rather quickly, "That's strange. We were told we had one at 4:30 today."
"You?" Smith said incredulously, "Why would the Fentons send a child to do their bidding?"
"A child?" Tucker gasped, faking offense, "I'll have you know I am a protege of engineering and interdimensional technology! I am a graduate of MIT and am working on my third PHD!"
Recoiling, Smith immediately backpedaled and stammered, "I-I'm sorry, sir. I mean no disrespect! I wasn't aware of any other…partners of the Fentons…" He eyed Hiccup and the other dragon riders warily.
"It's a temporary position." Tucker said, "They're quite swamped, you see. That's why we're here in their place."
He managed a split-second glance to Hiccup, and his facade faltered slightly, "Were you really unaware of our meeting?"
Smith rubbed the worry lines on his forehead bashfully, "I – I suppose I had the dates mixed." He sighed.
"No worries." Tucker smiled, "we're just here to discuss some new assets."
That seemed to catch Dr Smith's attention, because he raised an eyebrow greedily. "New assets?" he inquired, taking a step out of his doorway.
Nodding, Tucker tilted his head to tap at the device hooked to his ear. "The Fenton Phones." He smiled, "What were once simply ghost interference filters are now much more." He took a step to the side to put the vikings in the spotlight, "we've flown some linguists from Iceland out here to help."
Ruff and Tuff stepped into Smith's main area of focus. "Ah, yes," Tuffnut put on a ridiculous bravado, "Doctor Smith, was it? What if we told you that any language – existent and nonexistent – was now at your fingertips?"
Hiccup resisted the urge to slap his face as Smith's eyebrows widened at the translation, "I would say that seems impossible." He responded skeptically, even as his eyes glittered with newfound greed.
With a boisterous laugh, Ruffnut slipped an arm around the man's back, turning him away from his office, "then allow us to explain…" she began, and the twins effectively herded Axion's head scientist down the hallway.
Astid shook her head incredulously as she watched them go, "I still don't know how they do it." She muttered as Tucker spent no time darting into Smith's office.
"Maybe they really are more children of Loki's." Hiccup wondered, following his footsteps.
"If they are, I'm not complaining." Tucker's laugh cut off to keep quiet as he darted towards the desk.
"Okay," Tucker breathed as he checked his watch, "don't think someone would keep a key card to the security room with their lunch…" he deadpanned, lifting a bag as evidence.
Hiccup snorted as a metal cabinet caught his eye, "Probably not."
Astrid hummed, and he glanced over his shoulder to see her spinning in the center of the room thoughtfully. "It would be someplace hidden, but convenient…" She spoke to herself.
Tucker lifted up the mouse pad he was kneeling in front of gingerly, and when nothing was revealed he set it back down with a wrinkle of his nose. His head then ducked until all Hiccup could see was his red cap, and the sound of a drawer opening made its way to his ears.
The metal cabinet's drawers had a type of locking mechanism on them that Hiccup, thankfully, worked out quite easily. Though at the sight of the amount of paperwork in the drawers, his attention was turned towards the slightly-less-daunting array of trinkets on top of the cabinet – a picture frame spoke to him, and he picked it up to shake it gently. When he didn't hear any rattling, he hummed in disappointment.
"Someplace hidden but convenient…" He muttered, deciding that the hundreds of papers in the drawers probably weren't the best description of such a place. He shut the drawer quietly and turned to see Astrid walking towards a bookshelf, "Are we sure he wouldn't keep it on him?" he asked.
"A key to the entire security system?" Astrid asked, "No way."
"But leaving it unattended in his office?" Hiccup shook his head as he picked up a potted plant that, despite having bone-dry soil and dust collecting along its leaves, looked pristine, "Seems kinda irresponsible, don't you think?"
The sound of another desk drawer opening was a preamble to Tucker's response, "True, but Smith doesn't seem to be the most…street-smart of people." he muttered.
He glanced at his watch again. "How much longer do you think we have left before the twins run out of time?"
"The twins don't run out of time. They run out of patience." Hiccup groaned, "I'd be more worried about Dr. Smith's well-being if we can't find this thing."
"No need, boys." Astrid exclaimed with a smile. She turned with an opaque blue vase in one hand, and with the other she held up a white-and-teal plastic slip.
"You found it!" Tucker shut the desk drawers and made his way over to her with excited steps; the shield maiden handed the key card to him with a smile.
"Like I said. Hidden, but convenient." She cracked her knuckles anxiously, looking over her shoulder towards the door, "Hurry, let's get out of here before Smith catches us."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Tucker chuckled in relief, and went to enter the hallway–
Except at that moment, Hiccup caught movement on the other side of the window, and with a yelp he reached out to the techie and pulled him backwards.
"Get down!" He hissed, and all three of them scrambled to press their backs against the wall below Smith's window.
If they held their breaths, they could faintly hear voices drift through the wall. Squeezing his eyes shut, Hiccup recognized Ruffnut's, which sounded only slightly concerned.
"Because you've been such a loyal business partner we've decided to cut you a deal!" Her voice moved with a flurry of footsteps that came to block the doorway.
"A deal," Smith said in disbelief.
"Indeed!" Tuffnut chimed in, and Hiccup could imagine his malicious smile, "We down at Fentonworks have been talking – we believe you are deserving of a discounted price, which would bring these bad boys into your archive for the mere price of two–"
" Three –!"
" – four million! Gold pie – I mean, dollars."
Tucker's eyes bulged out of his head as Astrid buried her head in her hands. "What are they doing?" he asked.
"Loki's will." Hiccup and Astrid deadpanned simultaneously, he could almost hear the twin's voices in their words. Without giving much caution, the shield maiden shifted until she was crouching, eyes just barely raising above the ledge to the window.
She waved her hand gingerly, and then a bit more fiercely. Her eyes widened pointedly, and Hiccup assumed that one of the twins had seen her.
"Get him out of here!" She hissed, and Hiccup leaned away from the wall just in time to watch Tuffnut give a thumbs up.
He glanced over to Ruffnut, who was doing a pretty good job at keeping Smith out of his office by, quite literally, leaning seductively on the doorway. Hiccup chose to ignore her ramblings about money and power and brains lest he lose any more of his nerves.
Well he didn't so much choose as he was distracted, because Tuffnut's oh-so-genius solution to their problem was to slam his head into the windowsill. The force was strong enough to rattle the blinds.
"Oh, my – Okay." Tucker choked as Tuffnut rebounded, eyes rolling into the back of his head as blood began to trickle from his nose.
Smith shrieked as he fell with a resounding thump, and Astrid hastily ducked back down as he and Ruffnut crowded around Tuffnut, who was now groaning overdramatically.
"Oh, my!" Ruffnut exclaimed in faux-surprise, "I'm sorry Doctor Smith, my brother must not have taken his medication this morning!"
"M-medication?"
"Yes! He has this condition, you see. Very serious." Ruffnut sounded like she'd crouched down, "Requires some medical intervention to prevent his episodes."
Tuffnut took that moment to groan loudly, cutting off whatever Smith was about to say.
"I don't suppose you have a medical doctor here?" Ruffnut said.
"O-oh, yes, of course, let me just get my phone –"
"There's no time!" Ruffnut shrieked, and a pretty aggressive thump assaulted the office door, "You have to take us to them now, Doctor Smith! Do you want my brother to die?!"
"D-Die?!" He exclaimed, and then squeaked, "Right – of course, no, here, this way!"
"Excellent!" Ruffnut called, "Yes, yeah, no, nope I got him," She grunted and, presumably, lifted Tuffnut into her arms, her voice dropped huskily, "You don't need to act all gentleman-ly…"
Hiccup cracked open the door to see the small group making their way down the hallway once again. Tuffnut, who was indeed in his sister's arms, broke character to send them an enthusiastic and bloodied thumbs-up, and then quickly broke out into another wail, thrashing wildly enough to kick Smith in the ribs.
Trying not to groan, Hiccup pressed his lips together and nodded, giving a salute to the duo as they rounded the corner.
Tucker appeared behind him, stepping out into the hallway to stare at the small trail of blood that Tuffnut left in their wake. "...I guess that's one way to do it." He swallowed.
Considering the word 'security' was in the term 'security room', Hiccup figured it would have at least one person in it. Not that he was complaining – it made their mission a lot easier – but it still made some part of his nerves shiver with unease. He knew not every opponent was as skilled as Viggo, but most of the missions Hiccup had been a part of for the last year never seemed to be this easy.
A few clacks on the keyboard deactivated the security cameras and wiped their memory, and Tucker then handed the keycard to Hiccup before slipping over to a panel of decidedly more expensive-looking instruments, eyes scanning the maze of buttons expertly.
With a nonplussed hum, he pulled out his PDA and connected it to the device with a chord. It seemed like Hiccup only managed to share a look with Astrid before Tucker let out a pleased noise and a message in a concerned font popped up on the screen.
"Warning: Ghost Shield Disabled," Tucker mocked in a falsetto with a roll of his eyes. He checked his watch again and pressed a button. "Alright. We have ten minutes before the admins get a mandatory alert. So let's hope we find the blueprints in less than, hmm?"
They used a separate, more-secluded stairwell to get down to the basement. It was an echoing thing that made every footfall sound like a cracking glacier, and once they ended, Tucker waited for any echos to dissipate before cracking open the door. He peeked his head out and then waved at Hiccup and Astrid to continue.
The basement was darker – the overhead lights were a dim white color that didn't quite reach the amount of luminance it took to keep the gray-and-navy halls shadow-free. The employees down here were not dressed in the business attire that Doctor Smith donned. Most wore knee-length white coats, teal polos, and black slacks, from what Hiccup could see while trying their best to avoid any prying eyes.
It was tense, sneaking around like this, but alas they didn't have the clothing to fit in.
Precious minutes were spent making their way to the storage room, and upon the last stretch they were met, much to Hiccup's horror, with a door swinging open just as they were about to pass it.
A strangled curse almost left Hiccup's mouth as a hand clasped onto his shoulder and he reared backwards – the door would have hit Tucker had he not flailed back as well with a horrible squeak of his shoes. With the sinking realization that they were much too far from the corner to duck back behind it, Hiccup began trying to form an explanation that sounded remotely believable.
The scientist on the other side of the door turned their head towards the noise with an interested blink, hands lingering on the handle as they stalled on the small group of intruders.
And then the cold that Hiccup had originally thought was goosebumps intensified, and he found himself holding his breath as the scientist looked right past him.
Blinking, he turned to look to Astrid, only to find that she wasn't there.
Or, rather, that he couldn't see her. He could feel her hand in his, squeezing desperately, and he could feel Tucker's presence on his shoulder as they pressed tight against the wall.
But all Hiccup could see was the wall.
Confusion crossed the scientist's face as they turned to look the opposite way with a furrowed brow.
"Bentley?" Came a voice from inside the room, and the scientist turned an ear back towards the door, "You taking your break or not?"
"Sorry, I just –" Hiccup held his free hand up to his face with a gulp as Bently turned back towards them. When he still didn't see anything he brought it to his cheek just to confirm that it was, in fact, still there.
"Thought I heard someone. I'll be back in thirty." The scientist dismissed and then walked directly past them to disappear down the next corner.
A gasp he didn't know he'd been holding left Hiccup, and he stumbled forwards when the hand on his shoulder lifted and the cold retracted itself from his body. He saw his hands reappear in a wave, and he clenched them desperately, relief flooding over him at the fact that he could see them do it now.
"Sorry I couldn't give you a warning," Came a bashful, echoing voice, and Hiccup whirled around to find Phantom giving an awkward smile.
Tucker rubbed his arms together with a shiver, "I'll never get used to that."
"Would you rather have gotten caught?" The ghost rolled his eyes as Hiccup rubbed the tingling in his palms away, voice still missing, "C'mon."
"What, you – you just –" Astrid stuttered and then immediately clamped her tongue as they crossed the last two doors to storage: it was a room on the corner between two hallways, a window looking out to one with the door leading to the other. When the door closed behind them, she continued, "I mean, thank you, I guess, but what the Hel?"
"You're welcome…" Phantom droned, exasperated, before quite literally sticking his hand through the filing cabinet he was closest to.
Astrid's gaze flitted in disbelief as he pulled a file out through the metal and flipped it open. He said nothing else as he skimmed the file, and a moment later he shut it with a disappointed hum.
Hiccup and Astrid were still staring at him, and the ghost turned with a raised eyebrow. "Uh…You guys got lookout?"
That caused Hiccup to blink, and he shook his shoulders out with a slightly staggering shrug. "...Well, we can't exactly read English." He admitted, watching as Astrid moved over to the window and lifted an edge of one of the blinds to peek into the hallway.
"Okay, we've got five minutes before the admins are alerted." Tucker warned, throwing open a drawer of his own as Hiccup positioned himself at the small window that the door possessed.
"Right," Phantom sounded suddenly determined, and Hiccup watched as he swiveled around in the air, "Then let's get searching."
Hiccup found his fingers tapping restlessly on his upper arm as he leaned against the door, counting the seconds in his head.
"Okay, these are from a couple years ago," Tucker observed with a bit of unease in his voice, closing the drawer he was skimming through. He opened the one below it, and a few seconds later he said, "These are from a little later."
"They're organized by year?" Phantom asked, flipping a paper over, eyebrows raising to his hairline, "These are from last year. When was that transaction you found?"
"This summer…" Tucker muttered, taking a step back and counting the drawers with a finger.
Phantom tucked the file back as the techie zoned in on a particular shelf, pulling out another piece of paper, grimacing, and then moving down a few sections.
The ghost boy trailed him, opening a drawer that was one down from the one Tucker was interested in. "Here." He called, rifling through the folders, "these are from the last few months."
A sigh of nervous relief left Tucker as he crouched next to the ghost, "And with two minutes to spare."
He seemed to have spoken too soon.
The two younger teens grew more frustrated the further they got through the drawers, and then in their desperation moved onto the surrounding ones. Hiccup shared a nervous glance with Astrid.
Phantom exclaimed, "how can it not be here?!" floating back in the air restlessly, "Don't tell me they misplaced it!"
"They could be working on it?" Hiccup suggested, and the utter dismay on the ghost's face as he turned to him made a disturbed empathy blossom in his chest.
With a groan, he raked a gloved hand over his face. "Oh, Ancients…"
"You think you can check around?" Tucker asked nervously.
"That's what I'm here for, is it not?" Phantom resigned, glancing to the wall that led towards the room they'd passed, "Do not get trapped in here, Tuck." He warned.
Tucker's head inclined in a small nod before the ghost flickered out of view. A few seconds later, the room began to warm up again.
Cursing under his breath, Tucker closed the drawers. "C'mon, let's get back to the security room. Maybe I can reset the system –"
"Incoming!" Astrid hissed, dropping the blinds and backing away from the door. She turned with steely eyes, "We've got company."
"Now?!" Tucker's eyes bulged, and Hiccup cringed at the volume, "How many things are going to go wrong today?"
"Don't worry," Astrid grabbed Hiccup's wrist and began dragging him to the door, "We'll distract them. You get to the security room and buy Phantom some more time."
Bewildered, and slightly concerned, Hiccup handed the keycard to an equally confused-looking Tucker, who took it with a suspicious side glance as Astrid threw open the door.
"Wh-what are we doing, exactly?" Hiccup stumbled as Astrid pressed her back against the wall, head turning to the corner where footsteps were growing.
"Kiss me."
Hiccup blinked. "What?"
"Did I stutter?" Astrid almost-chuckled.
"Now?" He asked again, just to be sure.
Astrid rolled her eyes desperately. Hiccup could see a shadow approaching them now, and hastily he stuttered out, "For the record, this is a pretty faulty –"
He was cut off as she pulled him close and locked their lips. A surprised hum left Hiccup as Astrid tilted her head to the side, and his eyes fluttered shut as he felt her eyelashes brush his cheek.
His hand came up to cup her face, and he felt her giggle against his lips briefly. He would have laughed at the absurdity too had it not been for the man that was suddenly rounding the corner.
He managed to watch him – a security guard, from the way he was lacking a lab coat – falter for a second.
"What are you kids doing down here?" He then barked, and Hiccup did his best to act surprised, whipping away from Astrid to their company.
The man was stalking up to them as Astrid wiped her lips, face managing to pull together into a pretty convincing display of embarrassment. "Oh," She tucked her hair behind her ear as she glanced behind them, "This isn't the bathroom…"
"...No, it's not." The man's hand fell to his belt as his head tilted down sternly, wary of their translators, "how did you get down here?"
Hiccup forced a nervous smile, "Sorry, Sir. My fiance and I can't read English. We must have…gotten lost." He sent a glance to Astrid, who nodded earnestly towards their company, batting her eyes innocently.
"Fiance…" The man glanced them up and down like that was a strange thing before a restless sigh left him, and Hiccup forced himself to not look towards the doorway.
"You do realize this is a serious offense? We will have to question how you got in. These doors are supposed to be locked."
Gulping, Hiccup and Astrid both pressed their lips together. His voice was much quieter when he spoke, "Right. Of course."
"Is there any way we could just…let this slide?" Astrid asked, putting on a show by biting her lip nervously, "I mean – it was an honest mistake, right?"
"Mistake or not, this kind of security breach is unacceptable." The security guard gruffly stated before grabbing onto both of their upper arms.
Astrid protested with a "Hey!", and tried half-heartedly to rip her way out of the man's grasp as they were forced to start walking.
Hiccup also put on a show of protesting, but he didn't quite listen to what he was saying. His head turned over his shoulder to find Tucker poking a cautious head out of the storage room, and with the biggest nod he dared give, Hiccup turned back to Astrid and the security guard.
"Wh-why don't we just talk about this?" He asked, chuckling nervously, which actually made Astrid snort for some ungodly reason, and Hiccup looked across their captor with widened eyes as she clamped her jaw shut.
"You two think this is funny?" The security guard snapped, pulling them to a rather harsh stop. Feeling his shoulder pop, Hiccup let out a grunt as he tried to right himself.
"No, no," he gritted his teeth as he was yanked back up, "Not at all."
Astrid looked like she very much missed her axe at that moment as she glared at the man, "We apologize." She stated in a dangerous monotone.
The man scowled at them as they stood in the dimly-lit hallway. "Good. Now move your feet, let's–"
A shriek suddenly raked through the hallway, cutting off the security guard and causing Hiccup to whip his head around towards the noise, afraid that Tucker had now been caught.
Instead, the voice continued, and a scientist stumbled backwards out of a nearby door, pointing a shaking finger at the room, "Ghost!"
"Ghost?!" The security guard parroted, and Hiccup bit back a curse at the sight of a blueprint floating mid-air above a desk scattered with various parts. It paused like a deer in headlights before folding up and blinking out of existence.
Astrid groaned and Hiccup was forced to follow the security guard as he took a few startled steps back, "how did it get in?" He asked the scientist, who was already running towards something on the wall.
With shaky hands, she opened the protective casing, "You're the security guard!" She slammed the button, and suddenly an ear-piercing screech made Hiccup's hands lunge towards his ears with a grimace. The lighting changed. Now it was dark and red and flashing.
She wasted no time running off after that, and the noise seemed to set the security guard into motion as well, because Hiccup was suddenly being tugged along again.
"Come on, let's get you two to safety!" The man said, and the dragon whisperer would have been touched otherwise.
They didn't have much choice in the matter when it came to making their way towards the staircase – there weren't as many people running around for battle as Hiccup would have thought, considering this was more or less a weapons factory.
Instead, people were locking their doors and turning off the overhead lights. Only those left in the hallway were joining their sudden sprint to the stairwell. If there were screams, they were drowned out by the sirens.
The security guard didn't let go of Hiccup or Astrid until they were on the main floor, which was much more of a free-for-all than downstairs. People were running in all different directions – a disorganized mess that made him miss Berk – and Hiccup faltered to try and catch any familiar faces in the mess.
All he got was a bark to keep moving from their escort, and with a slight stumble he complied.
Astrid faltered her steps until she was next to him, covering her mouthpiece. "Well this excursion is just going great, isn't it?"
Hiccup did much the same, sending her an exasperated look, "This is what we get for letting a dead sixteen year old plan a heist."
"And aren't you worried about that?" She asked, and looked like she wanted to say more, but was cut off.
A person tripped in front of them, and out of instinct Hiccup lunged forward to prevent them from falling. He recognized Sam as she quickly pushed away from him with a yell, which suddenly turned to an apology once she recognized him.
Sending a glance to Astrid, Hiccup said, "Ask me that again when we're out of here."
He uncovered his mouth piece as Sam exclaimed, "What happened?!" She clamped her hands over her ears with a pained grimace as the sirens blared again.
"I think Phantom found our blueprints." Hiccup sighed, glancing over his shoulder to find Snotlout and Fishlegs rushing up to join them with perturbed expressions on their faces.
"Unfortunately, someone found him, too." Astrid yelled over the noise, causing Sam to groan.
"Of course they did."
"Where's everyone else?" Snotlout yelled perhaps a bit louder than needed, hands still firmly clamped over his ears, "Do you future folk not have eardrums?! We get it, you know!" He turned to yell at the nearest blinking light.
"The twins are probably near the infirmary; hopefully Tucker's heading towards the security room." Hiccup answered with a swallow.
"The infirmary–?" Sam began to ask, but was cut off by a blast from the entrance of Axion. Hiccup whirled around to see a section of the wall crumpling in with a cloud of dust, and through it, metal glinting off her uniform, stood – or rather, floated – the Red Huntress with a weapon in-hand.
"Shit," he heard Sam grumble, glancing wildly between the vikings and the ghost hunter. She repeated the curse one more time – this one with more desperation, before shoving them to the side. "We can't let her see you!"
Hiccup wasn't going to protest that. He grabbed Astrid's hand as they made their way towards a display shelf and ducked down behind it. It held some large metal contraption that looked more like a sculpture than anything else – Hiccup knew it probably had some purpose he couldn't even begin to decipher, but he was a little preoccupied to be dwelling on that right now.
Despite her rather un-cosmopolitan entrance, the Red Huntress' presence seemed to be taken as a blessing to the other occupants of the building. A glance around the shelf revealed the ghost hunter ushering people out with a stiff wrist, eyes plastered to the room in front of her.
Sucking in a breath, Hiccup quickly retreated back behind the shelf.
"What do we do?" Snotlout hissed, and Hiccup turned to find everyone staring at him.
Brow furrowing determinedly, he glanced to the other side of the room, racking his brain for the map they'd studied. "Is there another way out of here?" He asked Sam, who blinked rapidly.
"I guess even the Froot Loop has to keep up with fire regulations, right?" She nervously agreed, eyes darting towards the ceiling and squinting like she was looking for something amidst the still-blinking lights.
"What about Phantom?" Astrid asked.
"He can handle himself," Sam answered, but Hiccup didn't think he was supposed to hear the 'I hope…' she mumbled out afterwards.
"And Tucker?"
Sam opened her mouth apprehensively, but was cut off by a shriek from the Red Huntress, "Phantom!"
If she were a dragon, Hiccup was sure that they'd have been surrounded by flames.
Gulping, he peeked his head around the corner again just in time to hear a familiar, echoing voice state, "I swear, this isn't what it looks like!"
A heartless, almost-betrayed chuckle left the Red Huntress, and she hoisted her weapon's barrel until it pointed directly at the ghost boy. "Even if I gave you the chance to explain yourself, I wouldn't believe it." She scowled, and though Phantom's back was towards them, Hiccup could see him flinch.
"Hiccup!" Astrid called, and he whipped his head around to find that Sam had pulled out her phone.
"There's another exit on the south side of the lab!" She announced and then pointed towards a lit-up sign hanging from the ceiling. "This way!" She ushered, and her own feet had to move away from Phantom's dilemma before her eyes could.
Hiccup shared a look with the other dragon riders, who were looking at him expectantly. He stood as well. "Well, you heard her!" He urged.
The sirens ceased as they snuck their way through Axion once again. The lights stopped their flashing, and instead stumbled into a flickering that quickly sputtered out, leaving them in darkness. Hiccup glanced up in alarm as, a few seconds later, they sparked back up with a gutteral hum that gave off a dim, green glow.
In their caution, the group had come to a stop. The silence that left in their wake would have been deafening if Hiccup couldn't still hear the remnants of the screeching sirens bouncing around in his head.
With a gulp, Astrid asked with a small voice, "Tucker?"
Sam nodded her head silently. "Let's hope." She whispered.
Thankfully, it seemed like Phantom and the Red Huntress' squabble remained relatively confined – though from the sounds of it, words had been traded in for shots.
A blue wash of sunlight was illuminating from a hallway that they were quickly approaching, and Hiccup sighed in relief.
Seeing this as well, Sam muttered a very similar-sounding "Let's hurry." and her heavy foot falls sped up as they came closer to the corner.
But then the blue daylight began twisting with…something else – something warmer, and Hiccup's goosebumps suddenly felt like he was feeling steam from a hot spring.
His faltering had caught the rest of the riders' attention, and trusting his gut, Hiccup shoved open the nearest doorway, wordlessly ordering them inside.
He watched with growing unease as the red glow seemed to brighten, and at what felt like the last moment, he stumbled forwards, gripping onto Sam's shoulder.
"Watch out!" He hissed, yanking the younger girl backwards just in time.
She gasped, but Hiccup didn't give her the time to ask a question, pulling her into the spare room.
Astrid shut the door as quietly as possible as Sam whirled around with widened eyes. The red light was peeking out from under the door now, lapping at their feet like flames.
"Oh," She whispered, and then turned to look up at Hiccup as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." He nodded before turning around to the rest of the dragon riders.
"Don't tell me there's another ghost, now!" Snotlout hissed, eyes flickering to the red light.
At the reminder, Hiccup took a step to the side, melding into the much less-daunting shadows just in time to hear a creak from the other side of the door.
Astrid tensed as she crouched next to it, and he sucked in a breath.
The light grew brighter, reaching further beneath the door, and Snotlout and Fishlegs took a couple cautious steps backwards as their toes were basked in red.
Pressing a finger to her lips, Astrid pressed her ear to the wall and closed her eyes. There was a humming in the walls that Hiccup wasn't quite sure was from the ghost or the electricity.
He dared not blink, and thankfully it seemed he didn't have to for very long. Their silence was rewarded by the red light retreating with a flow as slow and steady as lava. The shadows shifted as they left, swinging to the right and casting Astrid, Sam, and Hiccup in fleeting light that made him flinch.
And then it was gone.
Sam recovered more quickly than the others. With a sigh that seemed more annoyed than relieved, she walked back towards the door, "Hurry, before he comes back."
"He?" Astrid inquired, standing back up.
Sam's purple eyes widened with a warning, "Let's just say he doesn't do well with trespassers."
The look Astrid sent Hiccup was exasperated, "You do realize that doesn't answer anything, right?" She hissed, and then quickly cut off when Sam cracked open the door.
She didn't answer for a long while, but when she did there was a hint of resignation in her voice, "I know. I'm sorry. There's just some things…" She turned to look at the dragon riders with a gaze that suddenly seemed much too old for her.
Sam stared at them for a moment before shaking her head. She opened the door with a rush of air, careful to not let it hit the wall. "Whatever. Let's go."
Hiccup rushed over to hold the door open as Sam darted off, and Astrid scoffed in her wake. He sent her a sympathetic look as she shook her head incredulously.
"I swear," Snotlout grumbled as he walked out the door, "If these little muttonheads get us killed, I'm coming back to haunt them."
"Can you even haunt a ghost?" Fishlegs wondered out loud, following with his hands anxiously hovering near his chest.
"I'll make it happen." Snotlout deadpanned.
"Not if I can help it," Hiccup let the door latch shut quietly behind him as they continued their seemingly-impossible journey to the exit. Looking over his shoulder, he half-expected to find the mystery ghost making his way back towards them. He shuddered, pace picking up to catch up to the rest of the group as they rounded the corner that finally revealed the pair of glass doors that the sunlight was streaming through.
A sigh of relief left Hiccup at the sight.
And then heat raked its way up his spine, and he shuddered as a booming voice came from right over his shoulder, "this is not how you honor a truce, Ms. Manson."
Whipping around, Hiccup stumbled back to see a man – or rather, what used to be a man – in a pressed white suit and a billowing, crimson cape. His arms were crossed in something that would have been disappointment had there not been a condescending tilt to his head.
Gulping, Hiccup narrowed his eyes as he took a few cautious steps back.
His movement seemed to prompt a retaliation out of the ghost, because the air sparked with a heat that Hiccup could once again only compare to lava. The ghost's gaze fell with mild surprise upon him, and though there were no pupils to track, Hiccup could feel it flow among his dragon riders before landing on a very pressed-looking Sam once again.
Dipping lower in the air, the ghost landed with a small thud and took two pretentious steps towards the goth, who stood rooted to the ground. Hiccup had half a mind to grab her and bolt, but much in the way he'd felt when fighting Skulker, his mind told him that he'd never be fast enough.
Leaning forward with a gloating flash of fangs that were much sharper than Phantom's, and with a voice as deep and smooth as a whale's song, the ghost's glowing red eyes fell with a bemused interest.
"Now tell me, Samantha, what has our Little Badger gotten himself into, now?"
Phasing through another wall spared Danny only a split second before it was obliterated by Val's blast. He bit his tongue to prevent a shriek from escaping and pressed the Boo-merang's blueprints against his chest to prevent them from being damaged.
The ghost boy managed a glance over his shoulder to find Val diving through the hole she'd just made, so he banked right and phased back through the door that used to be the only entrance to that poor room.
At least the building seemed to have been cleared. Danny flipped in the air and skid on the ground as Val reappeared, leveling her blaster to his chest. He quickly stuffed the blueprint into his back pocket and held his free hand out in front of him.
"Red, I need you to listen!"
"Yeah? Well I don't want to!" She yelled, and a scalding mark was suddenly at the place where Danny's feet had been a moment prior.
"I knew I should have gotten rid of you when I had a chance!" She scowled, and Danny squeaked, throwing himself backwards just in time to watch another laser beam rake through the air. "And here you really had me believing that ghosts could change."
"We can!" he cried in something that was very close to despair, unwillingly charging up an ectoblast, "I promise, if you'd just let me explain –!"
Would he really tell her the truth if given the chance? The surprising amount of ache in his chest told him yes – at the very least, he'd explain the dragon rider's situation.
But that was only his human side.
Somehow, Val pulled the front of her board upwards to stop her movement. There was a moment of stillness in the air as Danny held up a glowing fist in preparation.
"Alright, then. How can this possibly make you out to be the hero you claim to be?" She spat.
Opening his mouth, Danny heard a stuttering croak – a fraction of a word – leave his throat. And with horrible resignation, his jaw slowly closed with a sigh. "...I can't tell you."
Val scoffed, shaking her head, and cocked her weapon. "Typical."
Hastily, Danny scrambled to find other words, "but if you'd just trust me –"
He didn't have time to finish that thought: a trail of mist left his mouth then, and it distracted him long enough to have Val's next blast singe his belt. He had no other option but to return fire, hitting the underside of her board before darting off down the hallway with a curse.
He heard her yelp distantly as he followed his ghost sense. "Please don't be Vlad," He prayed to himself, cutting a corner just a bit too tightly, "Please, please. Don't be Vlad."
It was Vlad.
Of course it was, it was his building, after all.
Still, Danny heard an enraged "Plasmius!" rip its way from his throat at the sight of the man leaning condescendingly over Sam, with four of the six dragon riders in similar fighting stances around her.
The man turned smoothly as a trail of red mist left his own mouth, and Danny felt his eyes burn a brighter green as he clenched his fists.
"Daniel." Vlad stated calmly, giving him a once-over as he spun the rest of the way to face him. "Did I not precisely tell you to not let your meddling get in the way of my job?"
Danny's nose wrinkled in what he would not admit to be shame. Instead, he forced a smirk on his face. "Sorry. Don't recall."
A scowl formed on Vlad's face, and his aura flared blisteringly. "For a boy who seems intent on order, you sure don't know how to honor truces." He growled.
Pressing his lips together, Danny floated a few inches back in the air, letting his hackles drop. "Okay, okay. I'm –" He cut himself off, gaze darting to the wall beside him as he forced his face to fall back into a neutral expression. "We're just passing through."
Plasmius tilted his head towards the ceiling, at which point Danny followed his gaze. He could feel the ghost shields thrumming over the building as well. "And how's that going for you?" The man gloated.
A retort was on Danny's tongue in an instant, but he never got to spit it out, because a blast sent him careening forwards with a shriek.
He spun just in time to see Val rounding the corner, murder in her posture, which quickly turned to confusion as she reared back at the rather unprecedented sight in front of her.
"Oh, Cheese and Crackers…" Plasmius grumbled under his breath.
"Plasmius!" the Red Huntress roared at the sight of her former employer.
Danny's already wide eyes grew even more as Plasmius turned with a sigh to him. "Whatever you've stolen, you will be paying for." He stated with all the audacity of a man who thought of himself as a father figure.
And with that, the older hybrid duplicated himself and disappeared in various directions.
Val took chase instantly. Danny chose to comfort himself with the idea that, even if he wasn't on her good side, at least he was still lower on her revenge list than Plasmius.
Still, a defeated sigh left him as he sank to the ground, sticking a gloved hand into the burned hole in his suit.
"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked, eyes darting between him and the tear.
"I'm fine," Danny reassured, pulling the blueprints from his pocket. He carefully set them into the dragon whisperer's hands. "Take these. Keep them safe."
"Where are you going?"
Pointing to the ceiling, the ghost boy grimaced. "Ghost shields are up. I've gotta find a way to deactivate them."
Hiccup glanced to the ceiling incredulously, but nodded anyway. "Okay."
He squared his shoulders as he turned to his dragon riders. "Let's go, guys."
Danny sent Sam a small nod as Hiccup turned back towards him, hesitating for a split second. "And stay safe, Phantom."
The ghost boy saluted silently and waited until the doors shut behind them before turning to the security room.
He knew it was a bit too much to wish for an abandoned office, but Danny could have at least handled a couple people. Not what looked like an entire floor's worth of employees crammed into the room.
With a curse, he retreated back the way he came, only to run, quite literally, right into Tucker, who let out a shriek before realizing who it was.
"Oh, thank the Ancients!" he exclaimed, placing his hands on either side of Danny as he stabled himself, "You're okay! I heard fighting…"
Tucker's gaze caught the tear in his suit, but with no visible injury, he simply raised an eyebrow.
"Val." Danny deadpanned, and that seemed to be enough for Tucker.
A trail of mist left his mouth then, and with a suspicious glance over his friend's shoulder, Danny quickly phased them into the nearest utility closet. "Plasmius is here, too." He whispered, "They're…keeping each other occupied for the time being."
Shaking his head, Tucker said, "I'm sorry, I tried to get to the control panel, but by the time I got to the security room it was already packed –"
"It's okay, Tuck." Danny shook his head earnestly, but his friend still sighed.
"This heist doesn't seem to be going very well."
And that was his fault, Danny had to horribly acknowledge. He should have made them stay at home.
Still, he managed a brave face, "Well, at least the Boo-merang's blueprints are secured."
Tucker's eyes brightened at that, and a smile twitched at his lips.
"Really?!" He exclaimed, only to cringe as Danny hushed him.
They paused and waited for any movement outside of the closet before Tucker tried again – much quieter this time. "Really?"
With a nod, the ghost boy said, "How's that for a four-hour plan?"
The two teens high-fived triumphantly from within their measly broom closet, but Tucker's face quickly soured again.
"Now leads the question…how do we get out of here?"
Brow furrowing, Danny took a step back to think, before looking back up to Tucker with a nervous smile.
He let his transformation rings wash over him again. "Care to take a stroll with me?"
A wary expression passed over his friend's face, eyes darting back towards the direction of the security room. "...it can't be that easy, can it?"
It could.
Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley passed through the ghost shields with nothing but a small zap (and a small heart attack at the sight of the Fenton's vehicle screeching into the parking lot). Thankfully, there was a crowd of bystanders and workers alike choking the place, so it was easy enough to blend in.
A block from the rendezvous point, Danny let his transformation wash over him again, and no sooner did Phantom and Tucker round the corner to the sight of their friends were they met with relieved greetings.
Sam threw herself at both of them, squeezing the boys until Danny thought he would pop. She pulled back with a relieved sigh and a perpetual smile, "Glad to see you guys are safe."
Laughing, Danny mirrored the sentiment and then turned to the vikings. Hiccup held the blueprints firmly in his grip and had a tentative smile on his face.
The ghost boy felt his smile drop with a puzzled frown. "Wait, where's the twins?"
His question was answered, merely a second later, by the sound of two sets of maniacal laughter nearing. Danny turned just in time to see Ruffnut and Tuffnut (with tissues shoved up his nose?) sprinting with what looked like the entire contents of a vending machine in their hands directly past them.
"Hurry, before they catch up!" Ruffnut's rapidly dissipating voice cackled.
The other dragon riders groaned like it was a very typical sight.
I figure I should explain how the Fenton Translators work:
I imagine they have two settings - a "walkie talkie" setting in which both sending and receiving translations are fed directly to the wearer (this would require both sides of the language barrier to have an earphone); and a "speaker" setting, in which receiving translations are fed to the wearer, and sending translations are projected like a megaphone's would (meaning that only one party would require an earphone). Both have their disadvantages - "walkie talkie" has a bit of a delay, where as "speaker" can be prone to auditory jumbling.
So for, say, interactions between the main cast, they'd be in "walkie talkie" mode, since everyone has one. For interactions with Amity Park residents, they'd be in "speaker" mode. Obviously this is just me infodumping for anyone worried about the logistics of it. For those who don't really care, congratulations! you're a better person than I am.
TL;DR: the language barrier is broken.
Also I just. I adore the twins. I know I've said this before but they're just. Incomprehensible. I love them. So much.
"When I was growing up, dogs were boys and cats are girls! And yet nowadays, it seems like every single dog is a she and every cat is a he. LIBERALISM HAS GONE TOO F -" User "epilesbian" on tiktok
until next time, my lovelies :)
~Local Dragon Haunt