HTTYD: The Engineer

Summary: The Vikings of Berk have been fighting a war against dragons for 70 years. The chief's son Hiccup, has shown how his inventions can help fight them. Trained how to handle himself, he shows the world that you don't have to be full of muscle to fight. However, he will soon show everyone that everything they thought they knew about fighting dragons and most importantly everything else about them was wrong.

1. Night Launch

Story Start: Berk

It was a calm night in the Viking village of Berk. There were no clouds blocking the stars and moon as they shone down on the village. Lights could be seen in most of the houses as well as torches being held by Vikings as they made their rounds.

The peace suddenly erupted into chaos as fire began raining down from the sky. Horns were blown as the Vikings mobilized to defend their home from the airborne threat.

In the chief's house, a boy ran down the stairs and began pulling the door open before he saw a large red dragon in front of the house. When the dragon, a monstrous nightmare, saw him, it opened it's huge mouth and blasted a stream of fire at him. The boy's eyes widened and he slammed the door and leaned against it as the edges glowed red.

Getting his heart rate back under control, the boy thought 'Better take the back door just to be safe.'

The boy then grabbed a three foot wooden canister that had hinges on one side that he had invented to help his village fight the dragons, slinging it over his shoulder using the attached strap, and strapped a device to his right arm that he had also invented. The device looked like a bunch of thin metal plates stacked over each other on with a large bolt in the middle keeping the stack of plates together.

Heading to the back of the house, the boy opened the door and looked out cautiously before stepping out and closing the door. Once the door was closed, the boy flicked his right arm to the side. As soon as his arm stopped moving, the momentum caused all but the top of the metal panels to slide until they clicked into place giving him a complete circular shield.

Lightly tapping the shield, the boy nodded to himself when the shield kept its locked form before he ran around the house and began heading to his post while keeping an eye out for any other dragons.

Halfway to his post, the boy caught sight of a short stubby dragon with humming bird wings heading straight to him. The boy briefly considered using the canister on his shoulder but realized that he didn't have time as the dragon, a gronkle, opened its mouth.

Thinking quickly, the boy brought his left hand to his mouth and blasted out a long high pitch whistle. The dragon's eyes lost focus before the dragon veered to the left and slammed into the ground a few feet away from the boy. As soon as it crashed landed, the dragon was dog piled by a nearby group of Vikings.

One of the Vikings looked at the boy and said "You all right there Hiccup?"

Said boy just nodded before he continued running to where he was assigned to go when things got hectic like they currently were.

Finally getting to his destination, the boy collapsed his shield and took it off as well as placing down the canister before grabbing a leather apron. As he did, the other person in the building noticed him.

"Ah, there you are Hiccup. I was beginning to worry that you had been eaten."

Hiccup looked at the Viking who had an interchangeable prosthetic for his left arm and said "Please Gobber, what would they do with me if they ever actually caught me?"

Gobber shrugged and said "They need toothpicks don't they?"

The two chuckled before Hiccup grabbed a sword and began sharpening it. As soon as he was finished he went to the pickup window and shouted "Sword!" A Viking rushed over and grabbed it before heading back into battle. As Hiccup was pulling his head back in to work on the next weapon, a fireball suddenly exploded against a house sending it into flames. A group of kids his age appeared and began throwing buckets of water on the fire. Hiccup watched them for a moment before he shook his head and focused on the rest of the world around him. He had more important things than staring even if he did want to be out there with them at the moment. Like answering the call for a reload for one of the boa launchers that he had invented.

Deciding to save time, Hiccup grabbed his own canister and gave it to the waiting Viking who took it and aimed at a gronkle that was making a run through the street and pressed a button on the canister. The canister opened before launching a boa at the gronkle, entangling its wings allowing for the Vikings around it to capture it.

The Viking handed the empty canister back to Hiccup who took both to a corner where other canisters and boas were and began the process of reloading the one shot launchers. They may be more accurate than most hand thrown ones, but Hiccup still couldn't figure out how to make them shoot more than one without making them too big to actually be mobile enough.

Off to the sides of the boas was one said launcher. It was on a cart for easier mobility and was about two feet longer than the hand held ones. A prototype, this launcher had a larger boa meant to take down the larger dragons and also was supposed to be able to launch much further than the smaller ones. However, Hiccup hadn't had a chance to test it yet in a live fire situation.

Just as Hiccup had reset the launching mechanism in the second boa and shut the case, a shrieking sound made itself known before an explosion erupted.

"A night fury." Hiccup muttered before Gobber said "Hiccup! They need me out there! Take care of the shop while I'm out."

The older Viking traded the tongs on his left hand for a hammer and headed for the door. Turning around, he saw that hiccup had one of the launchers over his shoulder and rolling the bigger launcher towards the door as well.

"And just where do you think you're going with that?" Gobber asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hiccup looked at him as he came to a stop and reached over to strap his shield on his arm and said "To test it. Night Furies never fly lower than one hundred feet over the ground. This will be a good field test."

Gobber sighed and said "You know your father is not going to like this."

"He will if it actually works." Hiccup said.

Gobber just sighed again and said "Just don't get roasted out there."

Hiccup gave a quick salute before he took off to find a good firing spot outside of the hot zone that his village had become.

Stopping on a hill that ended in a cliff with the village to his left, Hiccup popped the lid on the launcher causing the sides to fall down and the launcher to rise a bit before the sides of the launcher mechanism sprung open making it look more like a giant crossbow.

Hiccup turned the launcher towards the village and then aimed up at the night sky looking for anything that blocked out the night sky whose shape he didn't recognize. All of a sudden the telltale shriek sounded before a blue ball of fire slammed into one of the watchtowers. Hiccup saw the blur coming around in a long arc for another shot.

As soon as Hiccup had his own shot lined up on the blur, making sure to lead just it just a little, he pulled the trigger on the launched which launched the boa. A couple of seconds later he heard a roaring sound as the blur kept moving before losing altitude and crashing somewhere farther in land near Raven Point.

Hiccup's eyes widened as he realized he had hit the target on the first shot and pumped a fist in the air with a cry of "Yeah!"

He was reloading the launcher so that way he could try for one of the other flyers that was over the village when he heard a snort. Looking to the cliff edge, he saw a monstrous nightmare climbing over the edge. As the dragon looked at Hiccup, he knew that he was in trouble. There was no way he could use the bigger launcher at this close range and expect the boa to unfurl enough to actually work and his smaller launcher would be like throwing a pebble at his father.

'Oh crap.' Hiccup thought before the dragon opened its mouth and shot a stream of fire at Hiccup who dodged out of the way flicking his shield open as soon as he came back up and began backing away. Where he was standing, burning embers were the only things that showed the launcher was ever there.

The dragon gave a snort that Hiccup swore sounded like an evil chuckle before it launched another shot. Hiccup dodged again and mentally counted '2' in his head keeping count of how many shots were fired like his father had taught him.

The dragon then lowered itself like a cat getting ready to pounce causing Hiccup's eyes to widen before he brought up his left hand to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle just as the nightmare launched itself. Hiccup jumped to the left as the misbalanced dragon went past his right and landed in a heap. Not giving it time to get up, Hiccup began whistling in short blasts keeping the dragon disoriented as he began backing up rapidly towards the village.

Back in the village, most of the dragons had been either captured or killed with the rest taking off to head back to their nest. As the chief was looking at a trio of groncles that were caught under a net, he heard someone whistling in short blasts.

Looking toward where it was coming from along with a few other Vikings who could hear it, they saw brief streams of fire illuminating a boy doing his best to dodge with his left hand to his mouth.

The chief's eyes widened before he groaned and said "Doesn't that boy ever listen? Come on!" And with that he and some of the other Vikings took off to help the boy.

Back with Hiccup, he had just dodged the six shot and thought 'That's six. Just got to dodge one more and then it's just a matter of staying out of its reach.'

His back then hit a post for one of the outside torch beacons causing him to accidentally stop whistling. The dragon snorted with an evil look in its eye and blasted the kid while it could still aim properly again. Or at least it would have if it's mouth was shoved to the side causing him to miss again.

The dragon glared at the man who had caused it to miss and opened its mouth to shoot again but only smoke came out drawing a concerned look from it and causing the man to smirk.

"You're out of shots." The man said before he rushed the dragon and punched it in the jaw causing it to fly back a few feet. The dragon got up and shook its head before it took off running, er flying.

Hiccup meanwhile was trying to get his heartbeat back to more normal levels before the man turned towards him and walked over saying "Hiccup! How many times have I told you not to try and take on a dragon on your own?"

Hiccup swallowed and said "Sorry dad, but I wasn't planning on fighting that thing. I had been testing out the new launcher."

Stoick rose an eyebrow and said "Really, and what might I ask did you test it on?"

Hiccup was finally able to stop leaning against the pole for support and said "The night fury. I was able to hit it and it crashed somewhere over my Raven Point."

Murmurs spread throughout the crowd and Stoik said "Are you certain?"

Hiccup nodded and said "Absolutely. We should form some search parties and go find it."

Stoik thought about it for a moment before shaking his head and said "No, that wouldn't accomplish anything. It's too dark right now to search properly and I doubt the dragon could survive a fall from a hundred feet if the boa did its job. Right now the most important thing is making sure all of the fires are out and start repairing what we need to. Why don't you go ahead and get some sleep son."

Hiccup sighed but nodded and headed back to the house. As he did, Gobber came up and said "You know, if Hiccup actually did take down that night fury, we could have him make some more of those launchers and put them up on the lookout platforms. They could probably come in handy next time."

Stoik nodded before he and the rest of the Vikings went back to the village to begin damage control. No one noticed as the back door of the chief's house opened and the boy running to the forest.