Chapter 320
Hiccups POV:
It's been a day since I came back to the island after finding out my kids had been attacked and that has led to today being nothing but headaches since I had to first explain to my parents what happened and then calm my parents when they both went on a murderous rampage. I then had to calm down Astrid who arrived back early from training with the Berk guard and to say she was furious is like saying Gobber's not that badly in need of a bath. After all this I was able to go back to the Bog Burgles and clear up some things such as why I left so suddenly which I am happy to say they understood and did not hold it against me since the chieftess was a parent herself and knew that the kids should always come first. After explaining things, Blanca and Chiaki were left to handle negotiations while I went into my shadow to interrogate my kids would be assassins who I'd fully disarmed earlier.
When I did this, I had to admit their leader's equipment was impressive with his multiple arrow crossbows and axe blade chains with a system that went up his arms and onto his back so he could quickly pull them back with a simple twist of the wrist. One by one I took them down into the crystal room where I took the information I wanted from their minds, and I did not like a single thing I found. Apparently, after I dealt with 'The sea masters fort', the pirates and other criminals of the archipelago became more cautious of me and doing gathering to discuss business. (AN: Chapter 269)
Someone used this as a business opportunity though and started making these hidden hideaways in towns where they could gather to discuss business, make plans, form alliances and surprisingly, gain information from the bar tenders whose employers had spies who could gain all sorts of information. Following the creation of the first few, the man who started it all began to expand his business to outside the archipelago to other lands like Egypt, Gaul, Greece, Rome and Arabi while gaining new business partners who ran the business' in their respective lands. Unfortunately, the ones who ran these various places had grown tired of me hunting down their clients and hurting their business', so they had these three sent to send a message through my kids. As for how they were able to get to my house, they snuck on a ship belonging to a trader I knew who had come to do business at the bazaar and hid before till nightfall. When that was done, they snuck past the defenses guarding my island and intended to do what they were paid for before stealing a ship and disappearing like they'd done on previous jobs.
Another headache was how they didn't even know who the one running these places was or who hired them since they always did business through one of their men and never face to face or even letting them know their names. It didn't matter to me though since either way, my blood was boiling, but I knew that if I was to stand any chance of taking all these crooks down, I'd need to remain calm and think things through and fortunately, my training from all over the world involved strategy training for bringing down foes who worked through others. The trick is to find the ones their working through and capture them before slowly working your way up to the top where you'll find the one who's in control of things and along the way, you do as much damage to their forces or business as you can.
This all brings us to now with me sitting at a table while using my golden spider to disguise myself as the lead assassin, sitting at a table in the same bar he was hired in. Surrounding me and filling the bar were drunk bandits and pirates or to be more precise, living statues I'd made after sneaking into the bar, tossing a couple of clear Loki balls filled with knockout gas in to take out all those within and then pulling them into my shadow. I opened a portal door and dropped them all off on Outcast island before returning and once inside I brought out multiple boulders I'd brought and turned them into living statues which now filled the bar to make it seem like nothing was wrong so when the one who hired the assassins comes, I'd be able to get the drop on him and also bring in some crooks. It was then a man in a cloak walked in and took a look around and when his eyes landed on my disguised form, he immediately made his way over to me, not bothering to sit down, but simply standing across from me as he asked.
"Is the job done?" I nodded.
"Yes, the targets have been dealt with."
"Good, here's your money." He dropped a bag onto the table which fell over to release some gold coins onto the table. "My employer is looking forward to working with you again."
"Speaking of your employer, I've been wondering for a while now so would you be so kind as to tell me who they are and possibly arrange a meeting with them?" The guy looked uneasy.
"We've gone over this before, my employer does not do face to face meetings or allow those they are hiring to know of their name for security reasons." I nodded.
"If that is the case then please pass on a message for me." He nodded before I snapped my fingers, and all the statues stopped what they were doing and stood up straight as they turned to us while I stood up from the table and dropped my disguise. "Tell them that if they ever come after me or my family again then they can hide anywhere in the world, but I will find them and make them regret the day they were ever born." With that said I dropped three black Loki balls, filling the room with black smoke and blinding the guy so I could sink into his shadow without him knowing meaning he'd take me right back to the one who he works for.
4 days later
To say the days that have passed since I confronted the guy who hired the assassins had been long would be an understatement since they guy who was meant to be taking me to the leader who tried to have my kids assassinated was just the last link in a long chain of people who the leader worked through and they all had to pass on the scroll with the message detailing what's happened. To make matters more complicated, he'd meet up with the contacts in various hidden bars and hangouts in numerous villages, so I'd have to write letters to the chiefs about them or take care of them myself, but I've needed to keep a journal on every spot they were. Along with this I'd been hopping from shadow to shadow with Toothless keeping me company through it all which made things a little easier for me alongside my ninja training in patience and speaking with my wives through my wedding ring. I just wish Toothless had the same amount of patience as I did since he was constantly fidgeting around or trying to sleep with me laying against his side. Fortunately, after all this time we'd finally reached the last contact which was a large man the size of my Uncle Spitelout with three large gashes forming a scar across his face, wearing a bear pelt vest over his bare torso with a necklace of bear teeth around his neck and in his hand was a large mace. All in all, he did not look like the type of guy you wanted to mess with, so it was understandable why he was the last one to go through since nobody would be crazy enough to mess with him when he's working.
After he received the message on the island, he took his own ship and sailed for five hours until he came to what looked like a dead volcano coming out of the ocean to form a wall of sorts. He docked on a stone dock that was carved into the side of the mountain alongside other ships with designs from other lands, before leaving his ship and making his way up a long stairway up the mountain and when he reached the top, I was shocked by what I saw. It was a boiling lake with what looked to be a small island in the center with a large tower like stone fortress in the middle that had a folded-up bridge on the edge, facing another folded-up bridge built into the side of the wall of the volcano. On either side of both bridges were small towers which each held heavily muscled guards who lowered the bridges, making them unfold so the guy could make his way across the lake. The inside of the fortress at first looked a bit like a castle from Camelot with armor and tapestries decorating the walls but the deeper we went, the more it looked like a prison with shackles and cages hanging from the wall and ceiling. We eventually walked through what I knew to be a mess hall from all the tables filled with food and the men stuffing it into their mouths, but we walked by so fast, I didn't get the chance to examine it as the man walked through some big doors at the back and made his way up a long flight of stairs.
Now though we had reached the end of the stairway and entered a long hallway leading to a door which had gold plating covering it to form a shield with a skull on it, circled by flames with large rubies in the eyes of the skull. The guy knocked on the door and a slit in it opened with two eyes peeking through, allowing music to flow out and then closed before the sound of locks could be heard and the door opened to let the guy in. Inside was a large circle room with a large ring-shaped table circling around it with it only being four feet away from the walls and in the middle of the room was a small circle platform. Surrounding it were multiple male musicians from various lands who were playing instruments from those lands and dancing around were women who were barely wearing anything while running their hands over their bodies to bring attention to their barely covered womanly parts. On top of the platform was a short red-haired woman who was dressed like in a red Arabian belly dancer and singing a song for the people to dance to and to entertain those at the table who were watching. There were a few men at the table, and it wasn't hard to tell that they were the ones who ran those secret bars where the scum of the world could gather and make deals, plans, etc. all from the comfort of their own bases.
I watched as a large man the size of my father, stood up, allowing me to examine him and saw that he had a long blond beard that was braided at the bottom, short hair and wearing a polar bear cloak, with a bear paw on each shoulder with the claws holding the cloak onto his silver chest plate which was connected to a silver armlet that was on his right arm and going down to a silver gauntlet that was bigger than his real hand which remain uncovered. My examination was ended when he asked.
"Do you have the report?" He and handed the metal container which held the message to one of the women who took it to the man who just nodded. "Gentlemen, I am happy to say that we now have the report on how our efforts to send a message to Hiccup Haddock has gone." One man who was overweight, dressed in Roman noble attire with a purple sash, golden wreath and had dark brown hair lining the sides and a no hair on top.
"Well don't keep us waiting, we're all eager to hear how those brats begged for their lives." The others cheered in agreement but the man who had the chest just chuckled and opened it up before pulling out the scroll and reading it before he frowned and shook his head.
"My friends, I am afraid that this letter brings unfortunate news for all of us." He placed the scroll down. "It appears our assassins have not only failed in their mission, but also been captured and exposed the location of one of the bars with Hiccup not only shutting it down but capturing our clients who were there at the time." A man dressed in white silk Egyptian noble attire with a gold and blue jewed necklace, a big black wig of braided hair with his beard being braided tightly with golden ribbons, slammed his fists against the table as he said.
"Dammit, he now knows about the bars in the archipelago and then it'll only be a matter before he comes for all of us or at least expose our side businesses to the royals who no doubt won't be happy that we've been helping criminals which includes crooks who've they've been after for months." A man with a short black beard dressed in dark blue Arabian noble attire with a black coat, black turban, jeweled gold rings covering his fingers, and I saw a bejeweled dagger handle sticking out of a bejeweled sheath resting in his belt then said.
"Don't forget about how we've been selling them information on their own personal shipments and traders so they can rob them and give us a some of their valuable stolen goods." The one wearing Greek noble attire with a golden wrap and red cape with short brown hair and golden circlet wrapped around it sighed and placed his head in his hand.
"This is just great." All eyes turned to him. "Now it's only a matter of time before he finds our bases and with them, the location of all our hidden bases with all our clients." It was then the Gaul who wore had orange hair tied into a low braid with a big bushy moustache, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt with white fur lining the sleeves and neck, a golden plate necklace around his neck and a golden belt around his neck asked.
"Don't we have plans in place to ensure we're never caught if any of our men are ever captured." The Norseman answered.
"Indeed, we use multiple messengers to hire assassins and ensure we never send those who actually know who we are." He leaned back against his chair. "Even if does capture a few of our men and know we exist, there's no possible way for him to find us and if he does then by that point, we'll all be rich beyond our wildest dreams and long gone enjoying the rest of our lives as wealthy men of leisure." Everyone cheered making me smile and sigh as I turned to Toothless.
"They seem to be in a pretty good mood." He crooned. "You know, normally I feel pretty bad about ruining people's good moods but in this case, I'm going to enjoy wiping the smiles off their faces." Toothless let out a draconic laugh. "Shall we?"
He growled and nodded making me smile before we came out behind the guy who brought me while extending my shadow to the door and letting Toothless out, fully armored and ready to go before I placed my hand against the back of the guy who brought me here and channeled a blue crystal, shocking him and making him scream drawing everyone's attention to him right as he collapsed.
"I'm sorry but your retirement plans are going to have to be changed up a bit." All eyes widened when they saw me as I cracked my knuckles. "On the count of you lot threatening my family and getting both me and Toothless angry." Toothless growled and nodded as those at the table went for their weapons except the Norseman who began to clap making all eyes turn to him.
"Very impressive Hiccup, I have to say I am impressed that you were able to find us so easily, but would you mind explaining to us how you were able to do so." I smirked and shrugged.
"You'd be surprised how many times my enemies have worked through other people to avoid me figuring out who they are and how many secret fortress' I've infiltrated." I shrugged. "In other words, I've had a lot of practice." He nodded.
"Well now that you're here perhaps we may be able to work things out." I raised an eyebrow. "First, we all know who you are, so you have no need to introduce yourself, but please allow me to introduce myself and my companions." He gestured to himself. "I Predar and I am the one who runs the bars that are located here in the archipelago." He gestured to the Roman. "This is Consus, he is a noble of Rome who also runs our business' in Rome and some of their cities." He gestured to the Greek. "Iason a wealthy merchant of Greece who also runs our business' in various Greek cities." He gestured to the Egyptian. "Baako, a wealthy Egyptian architect who has helped design some of our secret passageways and bars, including all those he had made in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and some of the other cities in Egypt." He then gestured to the Arabian. "This man of Arabia is Nizaar who runs a few trade routes to various cities in Arabia which has allowed him to find the perfect locations to set up our business'." He then gestured to the Gaul who looked familiar and then I remembered who he was so before Predar could introduce him I held up a hand to silence him.
"I already know he's Vendoritzit from Lutetia." He smiled.
"So, you've met?"
"Yeah, he's one of the annoying shop owners who constantly tries to convince me to sell them Toothless or join them in business ventures no matter how many times I turn them down."
"Excellent then perhaps we can do business." I raised an eyebrow. "You see Hiccup, recently you've been going after our more profitable clients which has been causing fewer profits for us." I smirked knowing the clients he was referring to be a couple of pirates who had high bounties on their heads because of all they'd stolen which unknown to them, included some items which were imbued with some pretty dark magic, all of which were now safely locked away in my vault with the other dark magic items.
"So, what do you want me to do?" I shrugged. "Break your clients out of whatever prison they're in because I'm pretty sure most of them have been executed." He chuckled.
"No, nothing like that since they're useless to us now with their fortunes and ships being confiscated or sunk, they wouldn't be able to afford our services anymore." I shrugged understanding where he was coming from. "No what we want is for you to turn a blind eye to some of our other clients and even begin hunting down some of our more troublesome clients who think paying us is no longer in their best interest."
"So, in other words you want me to ignore the actions of some of the most wanted criminals in your native lands and only hunt those who refuse to pay the bill."
"I assure you; we will make it worth your while." He snapped his fingers and two of the girls walked over to the wall, opening a section and pulling out a large chest before carrying it over, placing it over to me and opened it to reveal numerous jewels and gold coins. "Five chests like this with the same amount within, every month if you simply do as we ask." He then smiled. "I also understand that you have wives but no servants which is something we can remedy." He made a hand signal and the girls around the room struck poses. "All these girls and their services can be given to you, and I can assure you that they all have various talents besides dancing as their talents also extend to cooking, cleaning, organizing, child care, gardening, flower arrangements and more and all while looking gorgeous." He then gave me a smile. "And if you or your wives wish to take them to bed then they will prove skilled there as well." I clenched my fists at the thought of cheating on my wives or simply having girls who would basically be slaves in my home and shivered at the thought of what my wives would do if I took his offer and besides, I wasn't so blind that I couldn't see his offer was just a distraction.
"Well, I have to admit it is a tempting offer." I silently summoned my ninja while signaling them to remain hidden for now and they took to hiding in the rafters while looking down at us. "Just one question." He gestured for me to go on. "Do you think I'm blind or an idiot?" He raised an eyebrow. "I know you're just trying to distract me, so I won't notice the weapons your dancers have on them and are silently preparing." I then raised my prosthetic and grabbed the wrist of the woman behind me who had just tried to plunge a knife into my neck before I squeezed her wrist, forcing her to drop the knife and then spinning and throwing her forward. "Nice try but you have to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on me." They glared at me before Consus cried out.
"THE SURPRISE ATTACK HAS FAILED!" He then pointed at me. "DROP THE STEALTH AND KILL HIM AND HIS BEAST!" The women got ready to charge as I shook my head and turned to Toothless.
"Think they'll ever learn bud?"
He just growled and shook his head as I raised my hand and snapped my fingers, signaling my ninjas it was time to come out of the shadows of the rafters and they did, jumping down onto the female assassins with the masters landing in front of Predars allies who all looked shocked. I walked past the downed assassins who were now being pinned by my ninja forces while most of their employers were frozen to their seats by my ninja masters who were pointing their weapons at them. I walked up to the table and stood opposite of Predar before I said.
"Did you really think I would let my guard in enemy territory just because I was surrounded by beautiful women?" I smirked. "I've had enemies try to distract me with women more times than I can remember and the only women whose beauty that can keep me distracted are my wives." I released my punch dagger and examined it. "So do you want to surrender now or do you have other plans in place to try and stop me." He glared at me before he smirked.
"I also always have a backup plan." He slammed his foot down and the sound of a bell echoed through the base. "That just alerted all our men that our meeting room has been infiltrated which means every one of our men is charging up here as we speak so do you think you, a couple of men and your overgrown lizard could beat a small army of skilled warriors from around the world, all armed to the teeth?" I smirked and pointed my prosthetic at him before launching a bola at him, tying him to his chair.
"You'd be surprised what I can accomplish with the nightfury who's also my best friend, alone." I walked up to Toothless and mounted him. "Ready to take down some crooks bud?" He growled and nodded as I turned to the enemies in the room and extended my shadow, pulling them all in and leaving my ninjas free to help us. "Follow us and make sure nobody escapes this place." They nodded as the sound of footsteps rushing up from behind the door. "This, ends now."
Toothless shot a strong plasma blast at the door just as it was about to be opened sending the man behind it flying back from the force of the blast and he in turn knocked a few other men back. Toothless and I charged through the door with the ninjas following behind, before our attack began with Toothless blasting enemies at the front and striking enemies aside those who he missed with his tail. As for me, I launched my bolas and threw my scimitar throwing knives to capture any enemies Toothless missed or who had been running up onto the ledges. The few men that we did miss were dealt with by my ninja who would deal a quick blow to them, knocking them out until we reached the dining room where a large group of men were ready to fight making me smile since it'd been a while since I took on so many normal foes outside of training. We all charged in and began the big fight since I wanted to get home and begin using my Anubis khopesh and prosthetics nightmare smog to punish the ones who tried to have my kids killed before taking them back to their homelands to face punishment and shut down their bars.
1 hour later
It's been an hour since the fight began and in the first fifteen minutes, every single enemy had been captured and pulled into my shadow until we moved them into the cells of my ship so me, Toothless and my ninja could raid the place in peace. We found multiple cells filled with slaves who we were able to rescue and move onto my ship after healing them using my mystic Ganji waters to heal their wounds, looted their treasury which I'm sure would amount to a quarter of my own, raided their library of all books, raided Predar's private study of all notes, locations and more which would allow me to arrange raids on all his hidden bars and his clients bases, raided their food stocks, found a room where they kept livestock and had the animals moved to my ship and just looted the place of everything of value including some tapestries and other decorations. Now we were back on my ship with the both of us in the main map room, looking down at the top deck where all the captives were all gathered and watching the waves go by. The plan was to drop off all the people of the archipelago back at their villages and raid each of the bars in each village that had one, bringing in those who used them to face punishment for their crimes while also handing over the criminals who were wanted in the villages we visit. Following this, I'd return the foreign hostages to their own homes while also dropping off the ones who ran the bars to their rulers along with all the evidence and the locations of the bars and hideouts, I'd been able to get from them using my crystal skulls. I ran a hand through my hair and placed a hand on Toothless' head as I said.
"Bud, we're going in for a long night." He growled and nodded as I shrugged. "Well, it's for a good cause and at least we'll be able to clear up the archipelago and help some of our allies bring down some of the criminals that have probably been causing issues for their people, making the world a little safer for them."
He growled and nodded as I rubbed my wedding ring which would allow me to contact Blanca, and I'd also be able to use my messenger cats to talk with my other wives and alert my comrades in the foreign lands to let them know what's going on and to be prepared. I took a breath and made my way down so I could begin writing letters to my allies and let them know what's happened and that I'd be dropping off their people and some criminals. Hopefully they'd be able to set things up in advance and they'd be ready to receive their people and both the criminals' cells and bounties, so we'd be able to get the job done fast and return to dealing with the other rescued hostages and captured criminals. I knew it was not going to be an easy task, but it'll all be worth it since the crooks probably had all sorts of bounties on their heads and with them being locked up, the people would be able to sleep better at night. I would need to keep this in mind since it would help keep me from going mad during the long process of writing all the letters and it would be one of the many times I'll be grateful for my prosthetic since it wouldn't cramp up like a real hand. With my mind focused on this I got to work.
AN: Another chapter done and yeah, I know it's not that exciting but it's something I needed to write for what is to come in the next chapters beginning. Anyway, I would really like some reviews to read since I've been waiting for some more reviews for the last chapter but only got one and it's making me wonder if I should even bother continuing this story since it seems people don't care anymore. In addition to this, on Monday I had my two bottom wisdom teeth removed and it has not been easy since I can now only eat soft foods for the week leaving most of my favorite foods on the off list so please send me some reviews to enjoy.