Astrid opened the door and Hiccup meekly followed behind. He was expecting a much nicer apartment, but not this nice. It was a giant 3 bedroom penthouse suite on the top of one of the Dragon's Edge buildings. Mostly grey decor with a few brighter accents. It felt like he was walking into a 5 star resort. There was very minimal furniture and not a speck of dust in sight. Pretty much just the essentials, small table, couch, giant television. Everything was ordered and tidy, the polar opposite of his apartment which he likes to call: organized chaos. Astrid gave him a small tour and finished it at one of the bedrooms.
"This is where you will be staying." Astrid showed him the bedroom, which was not only larger than his whole apartment, but even has a personal bathroom and walk in closet.
"Speaking of," He began, "How long will this arrangement be for?"
Astrid just shrugged him off, "Don't worry about it Hiccup. Stay here as long as you need, I have two extra bedrooms and rarely even use the one I sleep in." She walked in and placed one of his bags on the bed. "Please make yourself at home. If you need anything, my room is on the other side." She gave him a quick smile and started walking back to her room.
Hiccup stopped her, "Astrid." She stopped in the doorway and looked back, "Thanks. This really means a lot. No one has ever done this kind of thing for me."
Astrid just smiled brighter, "No problem Hiccup. You deserve to be treated like everyone else." With that she finally walked off to her room.
Hiccup started putting his clothes away in the dresser. It almost amazed him that there was more furniture and appliances in this room than what felt like the entire building he lived in. He was finishing up packing away his underwear when a voice next to him made him jump out of his skin. "I like her," Toothless said while leaning against the other side of the dresser. "Might be a little aggressive towards demons, but she seems nice."
Hiccup threw a sock at the demon, which just passed straight through him. "I don't think Astrid has ever been classified as seems nice. Hardcore, extreme, intesnse, stunning, and beautiful, yes. Nice, ehhh not so much." Hiccup looked around the room. "Well, at least not until today." Hiccup opened his eyes to an unusually bright morning. His apartment was in a grim and dark part of Berk, whereas this new apartment was on the top floor of a skyscraper and had light flooding in from every direction. When Hiccup turned his head to glare at the affronting sun, he noticed a certain demon staring forlornly outside the window. Hiccup slowly approached him and when he got closer, Toothless spoke.
"It's beautiful." He said as he looked over the city. People going about their business as if there was not a single worry in the world. Tall buildings that are full of businesses, firms, and retailers. At the far end is the beach with cliffs adorning on one side. To the right is the lower income neighborhood where Hiccup lives. And just beyond that is the forest next to the large cathedral of the Knight's Order. "Berk is a very beautiful city. We are lucky to have such a nice landscape for a small island." Hiccup responded.
"I never got to see the city like this during the day. Humans might not be very strong, but their capacity to create astounds me."
"You never got to see the city like this because you are usually sulking at night." Hiccup joked.
The demon glared at his human companion, "I don't sulk brother. It's a tactical advantage."
Hiccup shrugged off the demon and left the room. He still felt like he could get lost in the apartment considering how humongous it is. It was eerily quiet, such a large apartment and barely anyone in it. He made his way towards the kitchen and looked for the fridge. After spending far too much time, he realized that the appliance was made to look similar to the cabinetry and when he tugged on one of the drawers, it was not a drawer but the freezer. The fridge and freezer were empty aside from a few sports drinks. The rest of the cabinets were almost empty except for a single plate and some plastic cutlery. Hiccup heard steps from behind and looked at the newcomer.
Astrid was standing in her kitchen staring at Hiccup with her mouth slightly open and her brows furrowed. She seemed angry at first, then slowly began to cool down and relax.
"I forgot that you were here." She sighed, "I ran out here thinking someone was robbing my kitchen throwing all of the drawers open. Not like there's anything to steal." She gestured towards the empty kitchen.
"I was looking for the fridge." Hiccup said meekly. Feeling stupid.
Astrid just laughed. It sounded like sweet honeysuckle to his ears. "Yeah, I couldn't find it at first either. I lived here for about a week before I realized that I even had one!"
"Why are there only sports drinks in your fridge?"
Astrid's cheeks turned slightly red, "That's all I need, I usually eat in the mess hall with my friends." Hiccup didn't press any further as his stomach rumbled. He usually ate breakfast pretty early since he needs to stoke the fires early in the morning. "Sorry about that Hiccup, I'm not used to having guests. We can go eat in the mess hall."
Hiccup was going to protest, but the look that she gave him seemed more like an order than a request. "Sure, I-I'll meet you there."
"I'm not letting you weasel out of this." She grabbed him and practically threw him out of the door, ignoring all of his protests. Hiccup hated the mess hall. It was always a permanent reminder that he was an outcast from practically everyone in the Order. When he first joined, he had friends. They ate together, bonded, and sang merry songs. Okay maybe not the last part, but they did eat together. Soon once everyone realized Hiccup was, well, Hiccup. The people who sat with him slowly dwindled until there was none left. It was always much easier to just ignore this and eat by himself in the forge. Why do it in the mess hall where everyone would just laugh and point in his direction, gossiping about his latest invention that accidentally set something on fire.
Soon enough he was standing in front of the doors he so very much hated. Last time he was here he had no choice but to ask Astrid to help him with his Examination. That did go well, but it was a quick in and out job. A smash and grab. Hit and run. Now he has to stay and sit and eat and converse. This never goes well. He just trudged along behind Astrid, doing his best to hang his head low and hide from the general population.
Much to his surprise most people were too busy minding their own business to pay any attention to him. In hindsight, this might have been a blessing. Hiccup had acted like an outcast and a ghost for so long, he may have very well been forgotten. This makes his job easier. He grabbed some eggs and bread, then scouted for a nice, solitary table far from anyone else that he can just eat in peace without interruption.
"Where do you think you are going?" Hiccup was snapped back into reality when he noticed the angry blonde in front of him. "Our table is over here. Come." Hiccup watched her go and his feet just wouldn't move. His vision was starting to close in and his anxiety flared. Acting invisible seems impossible now that The Astrid Hofferson was making sure he followed her around like a shadow. She plopped down at a table and motioned for Hiccup to sit next to her.
The energy in his ring started to glow hot. Toothless was doing something. Sure enough he heard the familiar demon's voice in his head. "I don't know what you did brother, but there are now multiple people aggressively staring at you."
Hiccup whispered, "I'm sitting next to Astrid, they are probably all just jealous."
"I don't understand your human mating rituals. Do we need to fight them? I can blind them with a quick plasma–"
"NO!" Hiccup yelled. Causing everyone to look at him confused. Hiccup kept slapping the ring trying to dissolve the power that Toothless was conjuring up.
"Are you alright Hiccup." Astrid asked, looking rather concerned.
"What? Oh. Y-yea. Just, P-peachy." He stuttered out, noticing that Toothless was calming down.
Astrid was about to say something else before she got interrupted by another blonde female sliding into the seat next to her, practically knocking Astrid over.
"Girl! Did I see you coming into the mess hall," she leaned in close to Astrid and failed at whispering, "with a guy!" She leaned over Astrid and looked Hiccup up and down before purring. "Me likely. Details. Now."
Astrid flicked the blonde on the forehead, "Get your mind out of the gutter. It's not like that. I'm just letting him crash at my place until he can afford a new apartment."
Ruffnut nodded, clearly not believing a word that was said. Soon after, a few other compatriots joined the table. Tuffnut and Fishlegs sat on the other side and gave Hiccup a quick glance before eating as if his presence was a completely normal occurrence. The last knight was not as kind.
Snotlout was glaring daggers at Hiccup the entire time. He slowly leaned in and whispered to Hiccup, "What do you think you are doing?"
Hiccup raised a brow, "Eating breakfast?" he said inbetween stuffing his face with slices of french toast.
Snotlout huffed, "I can see that genius, I meant, what do you think you are doing sitting in my spot, next to my girlfriend."
Astrid slammed her knife down on the table, "Everyone in the Order knows that we are and never will be dating Snot."
He threw his hands up in the air, "Yeah, well, it could happen." He pointed aggressively at Hiccup, "Especially if this guy gets out of my seat."
"If you try to sit next to me Snotlout, I will break your wrist again." The knight just grumbled before sitting opposite of Hiccup and muttering under his breath as he ate his food.
Hiccup quickly shoveled down his food and clapped his hands together, "Well if this wasn't just," He glanced over at Snotlout, "Lovely, I am going to get to work."
Tuffnut just moaned, "This early? Dude, the sun isn't even up yet."
"It's been up for over an hour?" Fishlegs affirmed.
"It's still too early."
Astrid just gave Hiccup an apologetic look before he left. He worked his way down to the bottom of the Cathedral where his workshop was located. When he had a more central location, he may have accidentally blown up a wall and nearly collapsed the east wing. Since then his workshop was banished to the farthest corner in the wing. Before, he hated being so far from everyone else and having to walk miles every day. But now that he has certain, outdoor, activities, being able to sneak out of the order is a blessing he never knew he had. Hiccup may not believe he's good at many things, but being invisible was always a strong suit.
The previous issue with his cube catcher was an easy fix, all he needed to do was add some liquid nitrogen into a dewar and place the ejected crystals with demons inside of the cold dewar to cool them down. It was a simple solution and after a few hours, he had already made the adjustments and built a cabinet in his workshop to accommodate the captured demons. Now all that was left was to test it out. The only issue, it that it is noon. Not exactly the best time for sneaking around Berk hunting for demons. Luckily, Toothless and Hiccup has been working on a solution.
Out in the cove, Hiccup had installed a few defensive upgrades to try and keep this location as hidden as possible. That way no one would accidentally sneak up on Hiccup and Toothless training. Or there might be another situation like the run in with Astrid.
While Toothless coached, Hiccup summoned his divine sword. Previously the excess energy would explode out and cause Hiccup to lose control. The goal wasn't to protect against this extra energy, but to control it. So with Toothless' guidance, Hiccup successfully controlled this energy and formed it into a sort of divine armor. Now Hiccup had both his divine sword and divine armor.
It was completely jet black, much like the color of the energy that is released. From head to toe, he was covered in this armor that took on a scaly appearance. While trying to think of a good design for the armror, Hiccup was looking at Toothless' scales and used that as inspiration. He felt like some sort of dragon knight, straight out of a fantasy novel. Now that he was both protected and his identity hidden, they felt comfortable going looking for demons during the day.
"I have to say Hiccup, that armor is very impressive. Your progress with controlling the divine energy is also astounding."
Hiccup was adjusting one of the shoulderpads, "I think we make a pretty good team brother." Hiccup replied. They continued searching through the forest and eventually made it to the edge of the forest. Toothless has more sensitive hearing and smell than Hiccup making him better at tracking demons, and sure enough in the town they approached, there was a small demon running amuck.
It was a Terrible Terror class demon. Smaller than other demons, but quicker and harder to catch. It had bright green scales and was running around growling at humans scaring them off. Soon the Order's knights are going to be here and kill this demon. They had to capture it and quick.
Hiccup jumped out from the treeline and ran towards the demon. He gave a short whistle before throwing one of his cube catchers towards it. One of its eyes turned on its own and looked at Hiccup. Upon noticing him, it jumped and turned to run off. Before it got a couple of steps away, the cube catcher he threw, finished beeping and released a high pitched noise. The terror screamed as its body began to vibrate and it was then subsequently sucked into the cube.
Hiccup ran over the cube, ejected the crystal and quickly before it burned him, placed it in the slot of the dewar to drop it into the freezing liquid nitrogen. After a breath, he jumped cheering. He turned around and gave Toothless a high-five as he materialized next to him. They finally did it!
"Now that we can capture demons without harming them." Toothless poked the liquid nitrogen device, "We can finally move onto step 2."
Hiccup stopped dead in his tracks, "What! That was only step 1!"
Toothless nodded, "We have a lot more to do, to finally end the Queen's tyranny."
Hiccup was running through the city. He was in a creepy part of town. To be completely honest he never felt comfortable coming within a thiry meter radius of this place. But with Toothless by his side, he felt much more comfortable. In the short amount of time that they spent running around in this part of the city, they had captured seven other demons. Most of them were weak, but it was still an impressive number for a solo knight. If you could even call Hiccup that, he was probably the least knighty knight there was! If that even makes sense.
"1 o'clock. Behind the apartment complex." Toothless spoke, draggin Hiccup out of his thoughts. Hiccup slid and turned in the direction Toothless pointed out. And sure enough, when he popped around the corner, a Hiddeous Zippleback class demon stood there, diggin through the trash can. This demon was easy to identify as they usually had two heads.
One of the heads spotted Hiccup and alerted the other one that was digging through the garbage looking for food. It immediately started spraying a green noxus gas, trying to impede Hiccup's sight. Unfortunately for the demon, Hiccup didn't need to see it to capture it. With practiced ease, he drew a capture cube (The new name Hiccup was playing with) and threw it into the gas cloud. After a few seconds, a loud shrill broke through the air and the cloud exploded in a giant fireball. Hiccup was thrown backwards and slammed into a car on the side of the road.
Hiccup picked himself up and realized that part of his armor has dissipated. His right leg was no longer armorered. Quickly he summoned more divine energy and the gap in his armor was effortlessly replaced. Looking around for the demon, he saw no sign of it. So he slowly made his way towards the explosion and noticed that his capture cube was there in the center slightly charred but otherwise intact. He then noticed the blinking green light on the cube. Relaxing, Hiccup picked it up and ejected the crystal that contained the Zippleback. He was relieved that it still captured the demon, even with the explosion.
Toothless suddenly started growling, alerting Hiccup. He quickly stowed the crystal and the cube, before entering a defensive stance. Three knights from the order came running around the corner and a fourth one fell from the rooftop into the burning garbage.
"AH!" The knight that fell cried out, "I'm hurt, very much hurt!"
The knight closest to him grabbed his arm and pulled him upwards, "Shut up, Butt-elf. It wasn't even that bad of a fall."
Hiccup was very familiar with the knights that were approaching him. Unfortunately, he was most familiar with the one leading the charge. She slid to a stop, glaring daggers at Hiccup. Astrid seemed to have this uncanny ability to find him when he doesn't want to be found.
The last knight began charging towards Hiccup, but was stopped by Astrid's arm.
"Take the twins and go find the demon that caused the explosion. I'll handle this guy." She said pointing at Hiccup.
Hiccup slowly raised his hands in the air, "Please don't. I don't really want to fight anybody." His voice came out a little distorted. Probably Toothless' doing.
The four knights froze. Even the twins that were bickering. They just stared at him dumbfounded. Astrid then slapped Snotlout's shoulder trying to knock sense back into him. "Protocol Alpha! Organize it with the twins!" Astrid then turned and faced Hiccup, lowering her axe into a striking position.
Snotlout saluted, "Roger!" He then ran towards the twins before stopping, "Uh, what was Protocol Alpha again?"
Astrid yelled, "TAKE THE TWINS AND GET HELP! I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!" Snotlout yelped and dragged the twins off.
Hiccup still playing the peacemaker, "Seriously I don't wan-" He ducked in time to dodge her swing. He quickly drew Inferno and blocked the next strike. She followed up with a side kick and he went flying backwards, grabbing his stomach. Hiccup always knew Astrid was strong when they sparred in training, but this was beyond that. She was trying to actually kill him. His usual awkwardness is only going to be his downfall here. He had no choice but to fight back.
By the time he recovered, Astrid was already on top of him bringing a powerful strike from overhead. Hiccup spun on the ground and tripped her, throwing her onto her back. As agile as ever, she did a reverse somersault and was back on her feet charging. Hiccup had barely finished standing back up. He crouched down to absorb the blow and put as much of his divine energy into the swing aiming to block her axe. When his sword connected with her handle, the two weapons clashed, stopping just before slicing him in two. He saw the anger and perseverance in her gaze. A brief millisecond after, the weapons exploded throwing Hiccup and Astrid backwards.
Hiccup coughed, noticing some red splatter onto his hand. He slowly pulled himself upwards and realized that his armor and sword were gone. He must have run out of divine energy. He looked over at Astrid fearing that she would finish him off, but to his surprise she was knocked out across the street. Panicking he ran over to her. He checked her pulse and breathing. She was fine, aside from a few bumps. The same could not be said about her axe. It was laying next to her split in two. He was about to pick her up to take her to the infirmary, when Toothless alerted him to more knights approaching. Probably Snotlout with the reinforcements. Astrid would be fine, they'll take care of her. His hide was on the line now.
Hiccup stood up and ran, grabbing the nitrogen dewar that had fallen, and took off in the other direction. He ran straight for his workshop in case someone would come looking for him only to find him absent. He also needed to secure the crystals now, before they released all of the demons he captured. Hiccup took a deep breath before running faster.
He threw open the door to his workshop and nearly collapsed onto the floor. He slid over to the corner which had a door to the bathroom. He dragged himself inside and went over to the mirror. He was badly cut up and probably had a broken rib. Taken the brunt force of two explosions and one Astrid was more than he could handle for a day. He bandaged up what he could and disinfected anything that broke skin.
After patching himself up, he quickly grabbed all of the demon crystals and secured them in a permanent cooling bin. Basically a glorified crystal refrigerator. He hid as much of his equipment as possible and tried to return his workshop to look as haphazardly normal as possible. Just as he was throwing some papers into a drawer, his workshop door exploded. Gobber charged into his workshop.
"Lad! Let's go! Emergency meeting called by–," Gobber blinked, "What on Midgard happened to you?"
"Uh," Hiccup laughed nervously, "lost a fight to another one of my inventions." He rolled his shoulders, "You know how dangerous those can be."
Gober raised an eyebrow, clearly many more questions on his mind. "Aye I do. But no time! Emergency meetin' called by the Chief let's go now!" Gobber grabbed Hiccup and dragged him out of the room and up to the Great Hall. It was a large cathedral room, within the order where all major meetings happened. All official business too.
They rushed into the hall and everyon was already there. Murmuring and whispering throughout. Clearly everyone was confused as to why the meeting was called and they were all speculating at what the possibilities could be. Stoick the Vast stood up and raised one of his large hands, immediately silencing the crowd of knights.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I bet you are all wondering as to why I called you here."
Many of the knights nodded in assent, "One of our best up and coming knights was injured today. Astrid Hofferson. She is fine physically, but the report from Gothi is that she may never wield her divine axe again. She may never fight as a knight again." Hiccup heart sank. He did this. He was stariting to hyperventilate. Some of the knights started yelling now. It was common for a knight to fall or get injured, but to lose the ability to fight without losing a limb was unheard of. The crowd was getting wild and Stoick had to clear his throat to silence the crowd a second time.
"This is not enough to call an emergency meeting. It is a tragedy, but what comes next is much worse. Before she was knocked unconscious, she ordered one of her knights under her command, Protocol Alpha."
This time the crowd erupted in panic. Screaming both in fear and for revenge. Stoick tried to take control of the crowd again, but they were all riled up. He had to yell to finally get their attention. "Snotlout confirmed this as well. The demon that did this to Astrid, talked to them before attacking. Taunting them in Norse before brutally attacking her. He gave a very detailed description of the demon as well. This can only mean one thing."
The crowd stood silent, idly waiting for Stoick to say what was on everyone's mind. The tip of their tongues. What they were all afraid to say, fearing that if they speak of it, it will come true. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. "This means we have a Night Fury class demon on our hands. And it attacked one of our own."