Voyagers Saga

Broken Nest

Chapter 16: From Out of the Dark

With Kala found and Astrid's wolfstone removed, the only thing that was tying the gang to this world was the inactive state of their ship. Now everyone was pitching in as much as they could to get it spaceworthy. Though for some like Morph, their essential assignment was to go gather more food for the trip home.

Fenris, who had decided to attach to the crew, waiting till they left so he could use their longboat was in charge of Morph-sitting. "Ok, fluffy, what are going to do tonight?" asked Morph happily, Mac sitting next to him with its normal aimless expression of brainlessness.

"The same thing we've been doing for the last three nights," said Fenris dryly, "Hunting and fishing."

"NONONO! You're supposed to say we're taking over the world," chirped Mac.

Fenris sighed and said, "I can't help but wonder if I've upset your commander in some way to have deal with this."

"He's always upset...FISH TIME!" said Mac, yelling the last part and firing a zap cannon blast into the sea.

Fenris just stared before looking at Morph who was gathering the fish before saying "So...why have you several cursed gems in a box?"

"I collect them," said Morph as if it were something perfectly normal to say.

"You realize it's insanely dangerous?" said Fenris calmly.

"Hey, I don't complain about your hobbies," said Morph.

"My hobbies keep dangerous magical artifacts," said Fenris loftily.

"And what's the big difference between our hobbies?" asked Morph.

"From what I've heard, you don't protect these rocks from anyone," said Fenris smugly.

"Hey, it's their own fault for snooping," said Morph.

"In a blank box?" said Fenris before Matt, who was passing said "Don't even try, he's too stupid to argue with."

Fenris turned to Matt and asked, "How much more food do we need?"

"Alot more, just keep Mac shooting," said Matt before walking off.

Fenris growled and said, "If I find out later that was a lie, you will feel my vengeance."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Matt.

...

"What do you mean that the ship's a giant paperweight?" snapped Chloe.

"It's the power core," said Techo, "You have any idea how much a power core can deteriorate when it's been left in the cold for at least a hundred years?"

"How bad?" sighed Chloe.

"Well...it's not as bad, but the igniter crystals are useless. Without a suitable replacement, the ship's useless," said Techo gloomily.

"And where are we supposed to find igniter crystals on this mudball?" demanded Chloe.

"Nowhere, I even checked Morph's box," snapped Techo, rubbing his forehead to get rid of a headache that was forming

"Nothing...came out, did it?" asked Chloe.

"Nope, nothing," said Techo, happily, everyone breathing sighs of relief.

"Good, now we have to find some way of getting some igniter crystals; make them, find some, steal some, I don't care," said Chloe.

"Yeah, we only need to wait to see if this Earth invents crystal-based computer systems," said Matt sarcastically before WARDEN said "There is a possible hit on file. I managed to bring external sensors online. Something is emitting suitable energy 40 miles to the north."

"That would be within the arctic circle, wouldn't it?" asked Matt.

"It's close enough and do we care? It's our only shot," said WARDEN.

"Fine, I guess we'll have to bundle up," said Matt.

"Who will we leave in charge?" asked Techo, everyone thinking before saying "Fenris."

"Are we going to leave some of the more sensible members behind so he doesn't end up tearing out his own fur?" asked Chris.

"He'll be fine," said Matt.

"I dunno, he seems like he's getting ready to crack," said Techo.

"Ah, what's the worst he can do to me, give me fleas?" mocked Matt.

"He could bite you..." began Techo before everyone said automatically "Not a werewolf."

"Doesn't mean it wouldn't still hurt," said Techo.

"Let's just go before he realizes," said Matt sneakily, Chloe sighing as the others followed him.

...

Quite naturally, no one went to the ice cap. It wasn't just because dragons avoid on account of their cold blood, but there was nothing really up there that was worth enduring all the blistering cold.

"Ok WARDEN, where's this damn signal?" Matt yelled over the wind, the group having arrived during a proto-snowstorm.

"Just a moment, the cold may interfere with my sensors," said WARDEN.

"Gee...what cold could that be?" snapped Chloe.

"Just stick tight to where you are," said WARDEN, "You don't want anyone wandering off and finding trouble."

"We are trouble," joked Chris.

"Yeah, besides, what trouble could we run into out here?" asked Matt. There was a snorting sound behind him and he turned around to find himself face-to-snout with a polar bear. "...Oh."

The others watched as the polar bear gave chase after Matt with an angry roar, the latter screaming the entire way. "Okay, that happened, are you sure this signals here, WARDEN?" said Chloe.

"Yes it should be...oh, how embarrassing," said WARDEN.

"What?" asked Chris.

"It would seem I have forgotten to check for altitude," said WARDEN, "Allow me a moment to determine the Z axis." The group expectantly looked up until WARDEN said, "Got it. The energy source I've detected is located approximately 4 miles...below your current location."

Chloe twitched at that before snapping "Ok...shall I pull a submarine out my arse?"

"That is not entirely necessary," said WARDEN, "If there is an Atlantean facility at this location, there will most likely be a surface access of some sort. A lift or a teleporter perhaps."

The group looked up to looking around, trying to spy anything and ignoring Matt and his furry pursuer before Matt apparently vanished into thin air. The polar bear stopped and sniffed around where Matt had vanished. Then it gave up and wandered off.

"Oh look, he found it," said Chloe, the group waling over to see a manhole-sized disk barely visible in the snow, a faint glow vanishing.

"We're lucky we didn't have to dig through the ice to find it," said Wilson.

Chloe shrugged before pushing Techo onto the pad, it flashing and causing him to vanish. "Next," she called.

...

Techo was thrown out of the other side of the teleporter pad and ended up against the far wall n3ext to Matt. "Oh...hello," Matt groaned.

The others came in a lot more gracefully. "So, what exactly is this place?" asked Wilson.

Matt looked around, saying "Reminds me of the wyvern facility on Avalar."

"Which probably means we'll be dealing with some of Atlantis's grow-your-own-monsters here," said Chloe.

"Oh goody. What is it today? Giant polar bears with laser eyes?" Mat snapped, everyone pausing worriedly at that.

"Chances are it's dragon-based," said Chris.

"What makes you say that?" asked Wilson.

"Because it's always dragons, every time," said Chris.

"Yeah, I suppose it makes sense in an ice land," said Matt, walking over to the door, opening it...and finding nothing.

"Maybe we're lucky this time," said Wilson.

Matt nodded. "Maybe...but let's be careful, all the same," he said carefully.

...

The facility itself was deserted. There were signs of life, animal life littered around. Several doors were also sealed and the cause was easy to see when they peered in to see that the rooms were flooded due to blast damage that had let the sea in.

"Ok...so they made things that explode," said Chris carefully.

"What do you think made this mess?" asked Chloe.

"Probably something I don't want to meet," said Matt as they moved.

They passed by a small cluster of crystals in the wall they didn't pay attention to. After they passed, the rock under the crystals shifted. The lump of rock detached itself from the wall as the stone segmented into plates with folded up under the crystals, allowing jade-colored fur to come out. A head, arms, legs, and tail uncurled from under, revealing a creature that looked oddly like a jade fennec fox that stood on two legs, had a segmented rock armor on its back, and a gem on its forehead that matched the crystals also on its back.

The fox thing silently wandered up behind the others, looking up as they discussed. "I bet it's more wyverns," said Techo angrily, none of them looking around as the fox stuck its tongue out silently at the group and making a silent foxy laugh.

"Nah, I'm betting it's something nastier, like some flightless cave-dwelling dragon," said Chris.

The fox glared at that, looking offended, sending a bolt of electrical energy into Chris's, who was next to Chloe's, butt before rapidly turning back into a rock as he yelped.

Chris turned to Chloe and snapped, "Real mature, Chloe."

"What?" asked Chloe.

Chris glared before turning back, the fox unfolding again and waiting again as Chloe said "Bet whatever it was is dumb and ugly as sin." causing the fox to snort quietly angrily before sending a crystal shard into Chloe's butt, hiding again as Chloe span, snapped at Chris and yelled "PERVERT!" and knocked him out.

Matt sighed and said, "Kids, don't make me reach back there."

Techo sighed as well before turning and tripping over the disguised rock. "Ok...ow," he snapped angrily.

"Was that rock there before?" asked Wilson.

"No, it probably fell from the ceiling...which means it's getting ready to collapse," said Techo, his voice growing worried. The others looked up nervously before Techo got his scanner too close to the rock and it blew out. "Then again..." he began before a real rock fell on Chris's head.

"Let's move to somewhere stable," said Matt.

Techo nodded, grabbing the rock before running after them, Chloe dragging Chris along after them. After a minute, all of the debris deformed into a mix n match of other fox creatures...

...

Meanwhile, Fenris was fighting a different battle for survival, the survival of his sanity.

"Now look...come down from there...NOW!" he said, roaring the last word and glaring up at where Morph and Mac, wearing pirate hats were sitting on a pile of crates they had named 'Treasure Island'. Several patches of singed fur were testament to Fenris's attempts to get them down

"Ye'll never take us!" called Morph.

"Keelhaul him!" squealed Mac.

"What?" said Fenris before a rock materialized in front of Mac and shot into Fenris's face

"Is that what keelhaul means?" asked Morph.

"I dunno," said Mac.

Fenris got back up, his eye twitching before he snapped "That...is...IT!"

"What's it?" asked Mac.

"I think he wants to play tag," said Morph. Fenris roared, materializing his sword in his hand and lunging at the duo. "Ooh, he looks mad now," said Morph.

"Ah, that's no problem," said Mac before using Teleport and taking Morph with him.

Fenris glared at that before Matt and the others came in. "You owe me 10 creds," Chris said happily.

"I wonder how crazy our two little idots have driven Fenris," commented Matt.

"Er, why don't you ask him?" asked Chloe pointing. Matt turned around to see Fenris's glaring face right in front of him.

"Hey, I fought off a polar bear up there, so don't think I can't go 10 rounds with-" said Matt before Fenris grabbed Matt by the throat and started slamming him into the wall.

"Pretty mad, I'd say," said Chris with a smirk before he and Chloe saw the rock.

"Ok...why'd you bring that again?" Chloe asked.

"That crystal's giving off a lot of energy," said Techo, "It fried my scanner so it ought to be useful for something."

"Maybe we got our trigger?" said Chloe cheerfully, tapping the rock...which wriggled. "Uh, rocks don't wriggle, do they?" asked Chloe.

"I don't know, let's just chisel those crystals off," said Wilson.

The rock bounced up at that, knocking Techo below the chin, before bouncing down and bouncing back up into his groin at high speed with a disturbing crunch before rolling away down a corridor

Chris and Wilson winced in male sympathy. "We better get some ice on that," said Chris.

"Good thing we're living in a glacier," said Wilson.

"GET THAT BOULDER!" yelled Chloe.

Surprisingly, the geode moved a lot faster than most people would assume a rock was capable of. Not to mention it seemed to be able to sense danger coming. Several troopers ended up faceplanted into walls or getting similar groin attacks while trying to grab it before it rolled into Morph's room, the closed door not even slowing it down.

Morph was lying in his bed when the geode rolled in. He looked at it and said, "Hey, another shiny rock for my collection. You wait there, little fella." He reached under his bed and suddenly got yanked under. The rock rolled to a stop as several angry roars came from under the bed, the resident mold monster having survived. "Down, down, it's me, you silly thing, gimme back my box," came Morph's voice.

There was a spitting noise and Morph shot back out to splat against the wall, the rock unfolding into the fox form to watch, the blob clearly being more dangerous to itself than anything else. Morph shook his head a bit before looking at the fox. "Aw, aren't you the cutest little thing?" cooed Morph. The fox yelped as Morph wadded up and gave it a hug before beginning to glow. "I can already tell we're gonna be best friends forever," said Morph, not noticing the humming energy.

...

Matt and the others ran round the corner. "When I catch that boulder, I'm gonna blow it up!" he snapped before the door exploded.

"Looks like Morph beat you to it," said Wilson.

"Or he messed up with his collection again," said Chloe.

Chris peered in to see Morph was giggling while painted over his room and a dazed looking green fox thing sitting in the middle of a blast crater. "Morph's got a new pet," said Chris.

"Is a tentacled horror?" asked Matt.

"Not this time," said Chris, "It's actually kinda cute."

Chloe peered in to see the fox who had shook its head back to sense before it looked at them and snarled, remembering the insults.

"Aw, it's so cute," said Chloe.

"That probably means trouble for me," muttered Matt. The fox glared as Chloe petted it before it bit her hand, causing her smile to freeze in place. "Yep, it's Jigglypuff all over again," said Matt, he and Techo backing up.

Chloe glared before aiming a punch at the fox which glowed and revealed what the explosion had been.

...

On a different island, the other group of off-world castaways was just about ready to take off. The only problem being they had nothing to show for their efforts.

"The emperor's gonna kill us, you realize that, right?" said OmegaMorph calmly.

"By 'us', you mean everyone except yourself as usual, right?" said Anton dryly.

"Yeah...you might get off," said Omegamorph.

"Well if you hadn't woken up the big dragon and just let take samples instead, we wouldn't be having this big setback," snapped Anton.

"And maybe YOU should stop pussy footing around?" snapped OmegaMorph.

"I'm getting better results than your ham-handing!" snapped Anton.

"Oh...you wanna start..." began OmegaMorph before their comm droid hovered up unnoticed and began a call from their boss

"Why are you wasting your time arguing on this pathetic water-soaked rock, you two pointlessly arguing dunderheads?" snapped Emperor Hamsterviel.

"Ok...ok...look, we lost our backup..." began Anton.

"In an exceedingly incompetent way that involved a lot over overestimating I bet," said Hamsterviel.

"We encountered unexpected resistance. Maybe our actual allies in the NSC should come and help?" suggested OmegaMorph sarcastically.

"I suggest you two find something worth taking back and get back here already," snapped Hamsterviel, "We have at least two rebel planets that need to be subdued."

"Yes...sir," growled OmegaMorph, Anton glaring and saying "Fine."

After Hamsterviel signed off, OmegaMorph said, "So, what say we steal a bunch of dragon eggs and get the heck out of here?"

"And get turned into a science experiment? No. There's at least one member of Lynch's crew who is nicer and vulnerable. You get a holo cloak and meet me at the ship," said Anton.

"Why should I have a holo-cloak?" protested OmegaMorph.

"Because, I have a good idea where at least one of Lynch's crew is...all alone and vulnerable," said Anton with a dark grin

...

Naturally, Anton didn't trust OmegaMorph to behave properly during this mission so he also slapped the restrictor collar on him.

"Heeey...the air's like...breathable," said OmegaMorph in a overly happy tone of voice, being led along by Anton as Stoick walked up and Anton pushed OmegaMorph away and got a sad look. "Greetings," he said, putting the verbal honey on extra thick

"Welcome to Berk, we don't get too many strangers out here," said Stoick, giving Anton a wary look.

"Thank you. I have heard from my brother of this village," said Anton smoothly before the happy-fied OmegaMorph started singing

"And who would your brother be?" asked Stoick.

"Cap-Chief Lynch," said Anton smoothly.

"I don't see much of a family resemblance," said Stoick.

"I get that all the time. I heard he got a dragon of his own," said Anton smoothly.

"Ay, a particularly rare and powerful dragon too," said Gobber.

"May I see it?" asked Anton.

Stoick gave him a suspicious look and said, "I think we better wait for your 'brother' to get here first."

"It's fine. We trust each other completely," said Anton with a pleasant smile.

"Then you won't mind waiting for him to come and collaborate what you say," said Stoick.

"I'm sure he'd be very offended that you didn't trust me," said Anton, sounding hurt.

"Or he might be very relieved," said Stoick.

Anton glared at that. "I'm sure," he said annoyed before sighing, "I suppose I'll have to go and fetch Matt myself to convince you."

"How do you know where he lives?" asked Gobber.

"He's my brother, we always keep in touch with each other," said Anton before turning to leave. He stopped at the last minute, nodding to the disguised OmegaMorph. "May my companion stay to relay my message?" he asked.

"I suppose so," said Stoick.

Anton nodded, turning down OmegaMorph's collar power a little as he turned before whispering into his comm. "No killing anyone, get Kala, understand?" he muttered as he walked back to the boat.

A bit of lucidity returned to OmegaMorph's eyes as he said, "Quite clear."

Stoick looked confused at that "What was that?" he asked.

OmegaMorph's eyes crossed as he sang, "White deer, white deer, look at them go." Stoick stared for a minute before shrugging and walking off, muttering about crazy people. As soon as the two Vikings were gone, OmegaMorph grinned and said, "An old-fashioned town sacking, oh, how I am going to enjoy this."

Anton's voice in his ear said, "No, this is in and out before Lynch catches on and tears you apart at the molecular level."

OmegaMorph snorted before saying, "He doesn't have the strength to do that."

"Willing to take that chance?" said Anton smugly.

OmegaMorph was about to get cocky when he felt the collar start to power up. "Fine, have it your way, killjoy," grumbled OmegaMorph.

"Just find her," said Anton's voice

OmegaMorph growled softly before sniffing the air. The dragon pens were not too far. He started heading off in that general direction.

...

Kala however was in a far better mood. In a few days, she'd have opposable thumbs again. Not to mention she'd be able to speak without a translator collar. There were quite a few things that she wanted to say as well. Some of it probably shouldn't be repeated.

"So...where will you guys go when this is all over?" asked Stormfly.

"Well, Avalar first," said Kala before giving it some thought and saying, "I'm not sure where next. We have a lot more people want to kill us than help us."

"Why not stay here then?" suggested Meatlug.

"No offense, but this place is a little too primitive for me," said Kala, "Not to mention I expect Chip will go mad if he has to remain here."

"The metal thing?" asked Hookfang.

"Yeah, the one who screams if you mention abacuses," said Kala.

"He doesn't seem like that much of a threat," said Hookfang.

"There's no telling what people will do if they lose it, particularly if they're very smart before that," said Kala, "Besides, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be the only one."

"Like Matt?" said Stormfly, getting a murmuring of agreements.

"Well, that does spring prominently to mind," said Kala, "So yeah, we have to go as soon as we are able. Hel might have called it quits, but that doesn't mean something just as bad won't come along."

A clicking was heard, the dragons looking up to see the door opening and a Viking walking in, tossing what looked like the bent lock aside. Seeing that got the dragons' group interest. As the Viking got closer, Kala growled. This guy smelled of trouble and she didn't like his face.

"Ok, I'm in the damn pen...there's two of them...which one? No, I'm not gonna check," said the Viking, apparently to himself. The dragons looked mostly confused, but Kala had the feeling that this so-called Viking was speaking to someone over a comm. "Ok...ok...let's see," said the viking, reaching into...himself and pulling out a headset

Kala snarled and shot a plasma blast at the Viking. The others looked horrified...then even more horrified when the blast didn't seem to do anything.

"Ok, I think I've got a pretty good idea which one's her. Preparing teleporter tag...get ready to reel her in," the Viking said before Toothless landed in front of him, baring his teeth. "Oh no...whatever will I do?" he said sarcastically. Toothless was about to bite him when the Viking smacked the dragon with enough force to send him flying into the opposite wall. The others looked surprised before they charged him...

...

Matt hopped off the longboat and onto the dock to see Gobber. "Hey there, I came to check of Starflame," Matt said in greeting.

"Yer brother dropped by to do the same thing," said Gobber.

"I don't have a brother," said Matt off-handedly.

"Stoick thought you didn't, so he didn't let him see Starflame. The fellow went off ta find ya and left his big lout behind." Matt pushed past Gobber at that, running up the dock.

...

"Stay STILL!" snapped OmegaMorph, trying to force a tag onto Kala's neck while fighting the other dragons back too. Of course, fighting off a group of dragons is not easy to do when you're trying to accomplish a task. Particularly with the dragons spitting various forms of fire at you.

"This...is...ENOUGH!" he snapped, sending a blast of energy out in all directions. The blast was enough to scatter the dragons around the arena, dazed from the blast.

"Now then..." began OmegaMorph with a toothy grin, the energy blast having shorted out his hologram, grinning at Kala who now looked terrified. "Please try to resist," he said evilly.

...

Matt ran across the bridge towards the pen, and saw the doors were wide open. "No...nonono…" he began, running into the pen with the Vikings close behind and spotted OmegaMorph.

Matt didn't give a thought to how many witnesses there were around him or who all was in the pen. The only thing on his mind was that monster was going after Kala. He pointed his palm at OmegaMorph and fired multiple plasma blasts.

OmegaMorph turned in shock as the first shot hit him before the others caused him to stagger back before he was gripped in a plasma field and thrown into a wall. "I'm guessing the petting zoo is closed right now," taunted OmegaMorph. Matt glared, his costume tearing in places as he changed to hybrid form and advanced angrily. "Ooh, you're in an ugly mood," taunted OmegaMorph.

Matt snarled before sending a blast at OmegaMorph, sending him through the wall. OmegaMorph just got up and shook himself off. "Oh, so you wanna rumble, do you?" he said. Matt simply lunged at him.

...

Chris and the others were still at the docks when they saw the first explosion. "What the hell?" began Techo.

"That had better not come from Matt," said Chloe.

Several more blasts were heard at that. "Shit, let's get up there," said Chris.

As they ran, Chloe growled, "He better have a good reason for breaking cover."

Something shot overhead at that, smashing a near U out of a roof to hit another one. Matt soon flew after it, clearly in hybrid form.

"Matt, get the hell down from there!" yelled Chloe, trying to get his attention and nobody noticing the rubble moving.

"He tried to take Kala!" snapped Matt.

Chloe sighed. "Killing someone will not..." she began before a blade nearly took her head off, only a developed 6th sense allowing her to avoid it.

The group turned to see something large and black emerging from the rubble. "Ah, you've brought your backup," said OmegaMorph, "Not like that's gonna save you." A second later, he had half a dozen laser sights on him. "I hate my job," groaned OmegaMorph before everyone shot him at once. The various blasts made his body explode and his head was shot up into the air and far, far away.

"Asshole," muttered Chloe before they noticed two things: first, that they had an audience and two, that Kala had been left alone. "Uh, Matt, maybe you should go check on Kala," said Chloe.

"Yer not going anywhere, monster," snapped a Viking, only for Matt to backhand him aside and run back for the pen.

Chloe turned to the Vikings and said, "Now, if everyone can just calm down, I can explain everything." The group of Vikings glared before Chloe finally admitted "Ok, I got nothing."

"Right, we'll be getting out of your hair and LOOK IT'S COMING BACK FOR ANOTHER ROUND!" yelled Techo, pointing behind the Vikings.

Despite everything, they turned to look before turning back to see the gang had vanished. "I can't believe that tricked us," groaned one of them

"There's still that other monster at the arena," pointed out another villager. The group immediately charged off back towards the arena.

...

OmegaMorph staggered in a circle, trying to get his brain to work again. He was alot more durable then NegaMorph had ever been but he was still dazed from being blasted around. Not to mention being left as just a head flying through the air can seriously mess up your orientation.

He managed to finally grab his head and snap it into the right direction. "Ok, when I get my hands on that creep..." he began before seeing Kala and the dragons all grinning. "Ah, screw you, you smug smegheads," he snapped.

The combined fire attacks produced a particularly fantastic explosion, blowing up all but OmegaMorph's head which was sent flying out to sea. "I HATE YOOOOuuuu!" screamed OmegaMorph as he vanished before the now fully shifted Matt landed in the pen, snarling like a chainsaw and staring with pinprick pupils

"Thanks for the prompt rescue, but we blew him away now," said Kala, "Not that you can understand a word I'm saying."

Matt didn't seem to be operating on anything except pure grade a rage and with the target of his rage gone, he seemed to be getting even more angry.

"This is when we back away slowly, right?" asked Meatlug.

Matts head span to face Meatlug at that. "Yeah," said Kala slowly as Matt opened his mouth, a blue flickering glow inside it.

Just then, a loud commotion was heard coming towards the arena: the telltale sign of an angry mob on the move. Matt turned his head and sent the blast into the door frame, blocking the only way in before he looked around angrily, roaring in frustration and sending several more blasts in several directions. The dragons scrambled to get out of the way, which is not easy for a larger lifeform with limited flying space. After a minute, the blasts stopped, Matt simply glowering at his surroundings

The other dragons didn't move a muscle, but Kala got in front of Matt and said, "Matt, stop it. You've already saved me from OmegaMorph and you're just making more trouble now."

Matt glared before seeming to calm down...just in time for the mob to start breaking in. "You're not going to get out that easily," said Kala, "Barf, can you make a smokescreen?" Barf nodded, burping up the flammable gas his species could produce, Matt looking confused, his brain clearly still not back to human intelligence yet "Matt, you need to make a break for it," said Kala, "Oh, why bother saying it? You can't understand a word I say. Ok, here's something you might understand." She suddenly lunged forward and bit Matt on the nose.

Matt's eyes went full feral again at that and he roared, giving chase as Kala took off and flew for it. The villagers had managed to get the gate open only to get blinded by the gas. They didn't have much time to feel their way through before they were bowled over by Kala followed by Matt. Toothless and the others looked innocent as the gas cleared to reveal the damage and the lack of Matt and Kala.

"Where'd that monster go?" asked one of the villagers.

"One of the Night Furies is missing too," said another.

If the dragons could have spoken, they would have been whistling innocently.

...

Meanwhile, Kala was starting to understand what Matt was dealing with when the Red Death had used her focused rage to attack him. She yelped as another hail of blasts barely missed her. "HEY! THAT ALMOST HIT ME!" she yelled.

She almost paused in midair at that. Those words came out as distinctly English, not dragon roars. But that was not enough to stop her from fleeing from Matt. It also seemed that Matt was too far gone for now to care as several more blasts missed her. "Ohshitohshit!" she muttered, flying towards the distant fake iceberg that formed the gang's base. It was a relief to notice that Kala had a better flying speed that Matt, however, his shots had a longer range and bigger blast radius.

She could see several of Matt's men on the surface, a few running to positions. "IT'S ME! DON'T YOU DARE SHOOT ME!" she screamed as she flew towards them. Quite a few of them paused in shock, but then Matt's enraged roars made them scramble.

...

Chloe was not in a good mood. The teleport beacons that Techo had designed had gotten them back in seconds, but the fact that their allies probably wanted them dead now didn't help her mood. As such when she heard a roar from above, something inside snapped.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP!" she yelled as she stormed towards the front door.

She stomped up the stairs and out to the surface in time for one of the marines to fly past her, out cold and turned to see Matt, in full dragon form playing pinball with his own men and Kala running towards her...and speaking?

"Chloe, oh thank god, Matt's gone nutso!" she said, causing Chloe to stare in shock for a second.

"Kala, how are you..." started Chloe before a plasma orb from Matt nearly hit her and she remembered the reason why she came up there. "Hold that thought," she said darkly, glaring at Matt and saying darkly, "Try that...one more time."

Matt snarled before spitting another orb of molten plasma at Chloe. Chloe's eye twitched at that and a dark grin appeared on her face.

...

The more senior members of the crew were starting to head out to confront the battlecrazed Matt when Chloe walked back in. She had quite a bit of blood on her, but she was smiling in a very unnerving way. "Do see to my brother, won't you?" she said in an oddly sweet tone, "He's had a bit of a nasty scrap and needs to check into the medibay."

"Oh boy, he tried to blast her more than once," said Chris slowly, the others nodding weakly.

Chloe was about to walk on before she paused and said, "And before I forget, Kala's feeling better now. Make sure you have something nice to say to her."

The others looked confused before heading up and wincing to see Matt looking like he'd been repeatedly run over by a monster struck and Kala facepawing before she saw them. "Oh...hey guys," she said gloomily.

"Kala...you're talking," said Chris a little dumbly.

"Apparently, guess my nanites finally worked out I was broke," said Kala, poking Matt who gibbered, "Talking of broke..."

"Lemme guess, his healing program is still not responding correctly," said Draco.

"I think he'll still need to go to the medibay even if it was working," said Chip.

...

"I can't believe you didn't do the ONE JOB that I gave you." snapped Anton, glaring at OmegaMorph, who was trying to reattach his head

"Lynch was a lot more explosive than I'd thought he'd be," said OmegaMorph, "And dragon fire can do a lot more damage than you would think. If you had allowed me some more leeway..."

"No...not till we're ready. We'd need far more men then what we have," snapped Anton.

"I saw a village as my head was on its way back." said OmegaMorph.

"As if any of those Vikings would be willing to join up with us," said Anton dismissively, "They probably won't be giving strangers the time to speak after that fiasco. Hopefully that'll be enough problems for Lynch and his crew."

"I doubt it. These Vikings I saw were definitely our sort of people," said OmegaMorph with a smirk.

Anton lifted his eyebrow a tad before saying, "Even if these were the type of brutes that can be easily hired for mayhem, their use is still limited even to act as a diversion. And passing around guns won't as helpful as you'd think."

OmegaMorph muttered "Vikings with lasers would be awesome though."

"Lynch's crew would easily be able to knock them down, even with proper weaponry. They wouldn't even be able to capture his attention for very long," said Anton, "We need something more effective than that."

OmegaMorph was about to complain when a tech walked in, "Sirs, sorry to interrupt but I picked up something on coms. Some kinda signal that's moving through the local area."

"What kind of signal?" asked Anton.

"Not sure, some kinda command signal judging from the wavelength," said the tech.

"Have you been able to determine what it's coming from?" asked Anton.

"Whatever it is, it's moving," said the tech.

"I want to find out what it is, where it's going, and how to override that command signal," said Anton.

"Y-yes sir," said the tech nervously.

"Aren't we supposed to be focused on capturing Lynch's girlfriend?" asked OmegaMorph dryly.

"This could be the step in the right direction we've been looking for," said Anton.

...

Hiccup and the others finally managed to slip out of town and over to the gang. The news wasn't good. "So...we're demons?" said Techo gloomily.

"The words 'witches' and 'Hel's spawn' have been thrown around as well," said Hiccup.

"Kinda expected that, how much egging on is Mildew doing?" asked Chloe

"Oh, quite a bit, he's been on a roll with claiming you've been 'leading us kids down the wrong path'," said Astrid.

"Can we kill him now?" asked Chris, Chloe actually pausing till the kids glared.

"Villagers can easily spooked, like with that lightning thing you told us about," said Chloe, "What's really important is what the chief thinks of this."

"Dad's suspicious but he's prevented a fleet coming after you," said Hiccup gravely.

"Ok, good, so long as he's not declaring war," said Chloe, "We've done plenty of good things for Berk that he might remember, like with the draugr and treating your sickness. We'll probably have to clean with a lot more stuff though."

Hiccup nodded, only for Matt to say, "Right, let's do a check: OmegaMorph's found us, the village hates us, and Morph's got an exploding pet."

"Exploding pet?" asked Ruffnut.

"Is it like a Firewyrm because that would be awesome," said Tuffnut.

"No, it's more like a MEATLUG, GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!" yelled Chloe before going past the kids and trying to pry Meatlug's mouth open. The kids watched as Chloe managed to pull a crystal-studded rock out of Meatlug's mouth before tossing it into the corner where it exploded.

After the smoke cleared, the rock was still there before it uncurled into a fox-like critter. "What is that?" asked Hiccup.

"We found it at the North Pole," said Matt cheerfully, the critter weaving up dizzily to Astrid.

"It's pretty cute," said Astrid bending down and scratching behind the critter's ear. The critter cooed happily before jumping up and sitting on her shoulder.

"Really? That's all it took to get to cooperate?" asked Chloe.

"Well, to be fair, you were kinda going at him aggressively," said Techo only to shut up when Chloe glared at him. The critter blew a raspberry at them at that, causing Chloe to snap and lunge at it, the creature jumping up and running down her spine as Chloe barreled into Astrid

"You have to admit he'd fit right in with this crazyass crew," said Chris.

"He's still giving off those energy bursts," said Techo thoughtfully.

"What kind of creature is it anyways?" asked Hiccup, "It doesn't look like a dragon."

"We found it in an Atlantean facility, one of their experiments," said Wilson, tossing the creature a piece of bacon from his sandwich which it ate happily.

"Was it hard to break in?" asked Snotlout.

"Nope, no security at all," said Matt cheerfully before a clunk was heard. "What was that?" he said manically cheerfully

Chip's voice was heard on the intercom, "Matt, we're picking up something on the sonar. By the looks of it, it's large, it's in the water, and it's coming for us."

"If that stupid Scauldron's here to gulp me again..." growled Matt.

"It's not Steampipe," said Chip, "It's much bigger."

Matt stopped at that, walking slowly to a wall and pressing a button, causing a hatch to open to show the ocean...or it should have. A vast yellow eye was staring in, a slit that looked like an 'X' peering in.

Matt stared back at it before pushing the button and closing the hatch again. He slowly turned around as the shock started to wear off. Then he yelled "SEA MONSTER!" and ran down the hall, screaming like a little girl.

The others paused before the hatch buckled from a blow, several streams of water coming in. "EVERYONE OUT!" snapped Chris.

Everyone ran down the hall. The critter had leaped back into Astrid's arms and was shivering with fright. Deep roars could be heard as something slammed against the base. There was also several sirens beginning to ring. "Alert...pressure integrity failing...evacuate floor 12 at once."

"Where are those external defenses?!" snapped Chloe.

There was a crashing noise and the roar of water behind them. "Oh, there they are," snapped Matt sarcastically.

Just then, a shadow portal opened up and NegaMorph poked his head out. "Guys, you're not gonna believe what-" he started before everyone barreled past him through the portal. "Wow, don't think anyone entered in willing before," he said. He looked up to see a wall of water barreling down the corridor. "Oh...there's why...ARRRRRRGH!" he said, screaming the last part before ducking back in.

The other end of the portal was outside on the iceberg, which was being shaken violently. The dragons outside were all pretty spooked and looked about ready to take off.

"Sea monsters...why is it always sodding sea monsters?" said Matt shakily.

NegaMorph sighed. "Look, it's not necessarily a sea monster, not everything in the sea here wants to kill-" he began before a tentacle crushed him.

Several tentacles rose out of the water and started slamming against the iceberg. "The kraken?!" yelled Fishlegs, "You guys have the kraken attacking you?!"

"I guess so. WHAT ELSE HAS TENTACLES LIKE THAT?" snapped Matt manically, losing it.

"We need to get to the air, it's our only chance," said Hiccup as he dashed towards Toothless.

The kraken however seemed to suddenly lose interest, several of its tentacles freezing in place as if it was thinking about crushing Lynch

"What is it doing?" whispered Astrid.

"Not sure, don't move," whispered Matt.

The kraken finally came into view, several huge cybernetics visible around what was presumably its head, its anger visible. "Matt, it's got-" started Techo only for Matt to shush him.

The kraken gave a rumbling before slowly dropping back under the sea, one tentacle seeming to flip them off but that would be silly...right?

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Ok, I want a damage report to see what that thing's done and someone to figure out why it came in the first place. If you need me, I'll be passed out right here," said Matt before falling over.

Chloe however was looking over the edge at the ripples. "What was that about?" she muttered.

...

"Confirmed, signal is strong. As long as we keep the original transmitter jammed then that thing's all ours," said the tech, proudly.

"A sea monster under our command, that will be very useful," said Anton.

OmegaMorph glared. "We should have let it crush them, one less problem," he snapped.

"You seem to have forgotten there are certain members of Lynch's crew that we want to capture alive," said Anton, "But now we have two advantages: control over the kraken and knowledge of where Lynch's base is."

"So have the kraken drag the ones we want alive back," snapped OmegaMorph, only to yelp as the collar shocked him.

"Does it look like a delivery service system to you?" asked Anton, "Anything that creature catches would be dead long before it arrived here. It can only be used for assault."

"Then let's assault. I'm sick of sitting doing nothing. Plus that jerk blew me up, THREE TIMES!" snapped OmegaMorph.

"We've no chance of taking her with all of them around, even with the kraken. No, what we need to do is force them to divide their resources," said Anton.

"Like what?" snapped OmegaMorph before Anton grinned "Can you teleport me to that village you spotted?"

"Why bother with them if we've got a kraken?" asked OmegaMorph.

"Because if we have them control it. We can attack the Lynches while they're trying to stop the kraken," sneered Anton, turning to the tech, "Can you miniaturize the control unit? Make it look Norse?"

"I think so, though it'll probably limit to the more basic commands," said the tech.

"Fine, just get it done quick," said Anton.

"Yes, sir," said the tech, running off.

...

Alvin was not in a good mood. Several strange things had occurred around Berk and his scouts had either vanished or come back with insane stories.

"We 'aven't attacked Berk in weeks an' it seems like every myth an' their old aunt has been assaultin' 'em on a regular basis," grumbled Alvin, "If we don't 'it Berk soon, they'll start thinkin' we're goin' soft."

A knock at his hut was heard at that. "Get lost, I'm thinkin'!" he yelled before another more forceful knock was heard. Alvin glared, yelling something best left unwritten here before the door exploded.

A man walked through and said, "Pardon the mess, but I tend to forget my manners when others forget theirs." Alvin glared, reaching for his axe only for the newcomer to say "I really wouldn't. People who do that tend to die." in a calm voice.

Alvin peered closely at the man. He seemed normal enough, but he had the kind of look that doesn't accompany empty boasting. "Ya got pretty big nerve for showin' up without an invitation," said Alvin.

"I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to have Berk as a smoldering crater," said the man sarcastically

"Well ya thought wrong," said Alvin, "What good would a smolderin' crater do me, eh? When ya go through a lotta trouble to conquer some land, it oughta be land worth conquerin'."

"It's a figure of speech, you overevolved ape," said the man coldly.

"Takes even bigger nerve to insult a Vikin' in 'is own 'ouse," said Alvin, stepping up to the stranger who was noticeably shorter than he was.

"I really wouldn't," smirked the man, showing off some prominent canines.

"So ya got some nasty teeth. Won't make much of a difference if I just punch 'em outta your mouth," said Alvin, "But I'm guessin' you came here for better reasons than startin' a fight."

"I came to offer you the perfect weapon to crush the Hooligans in under a hour of its deployment," said the man with a smirk.

Alvin lifted an eyebrow and asked, "People don't go 'andin' out ultimate weapons, especially to people who don't know 'em."

"No catch, you just do what you do best: cause mayhem. Just try to take hostages...and if I find out one dragon was hurt, I'll make you wish you were dead," said the man with a cold smile that confirmed he meant every word.

"And what be this weapon yer tryin' to 'ock?" asked Alvin.

"A kraken," said the man casually.

Alvin laughed boisterously and said, "I wasn't born yesterday, pal. No one 'as been able to find where the kraken lives and come back ta tell the tale, let alone tame one. Try someone more gullible like them Berserkers."

The man motioned to walk out. "We brought it with us," he said calmly.

Alvin decided to humor the stranger before he kicked him off his island with an axe wedged where it would make it very uncomfortable to sit down. The sight outside got rid of that, the light blotted out by the huge creature looming over their docks. "You like?" said the man.

"'Ow in blazes did ya capture that thing?" asked Alvin.

"That's for me to know and you to wonder about. Now then, my terms…" said the man calmly.

"No armin' dragons, ya say," said Alvin, "I expect there be somethin' else as well."

"There is a particular dragon, a female Night Fury. It's mine..." said the man, his voice getting cold again before he added, "Her rider is fair game...if you can."

"Female Night Fury, eh?" said Alvin, "It wouldn't 'appen to be the mate of 'Iccup's dragon, would it?"

The man snorted at that. "You're kidding," he managed, laughing

"Is there a joke I'm missin' out on?" asked Alvin.

"Trust me when I say you couldn't be further off in your theory. If you catch that dragoness, my employers will give you enough gold to buy a small country. If she comes back with a scratch, you die...easy?" he said, the creep factor up by the fact that he was still laughing

Alvin frowned. This stranger's way of laughing and threatening on the same breath reminded him too much of that new Berserker chief. "'Ow am I supposed ta make sure this beastie does what I want? Seems like the kinda thing you just point an' release," said Alvin.

The man held up a medallion. "Wear this and it does whatever you want. Just think it," he said calmly. Alvin took and looked at it. The medallion had a clear depiction of the kraken on it. "Mind that you're very specific with what you command it to do," said the stranger, "Magical beasts can be very loose with orders if they're not rigid enough."

Alvin glared "I'm not an idiot, ye know." he snapped, the man saying "Coulda have fooled me."

Alvin picked up the man by his shirt front and said, "Unless you can grow wings quickly, I suggest ya stop eggin' me on."

The man closed his eyes as he grinned. "Funny you should say that..." he said before opening some eyes that had a significant difference.

"Wot's wrong with your eyes?" demanded Alvin, "Is this some kinda trick?"

"I'm gonna give you a second to put the numbers together; reptile eyes, teeth that could pass for a bear trap..." said the man in a 'talking to 3 year old' voice.

"If you think you can pull yourself off as some 'alf-dragon, you're gonna have to do it ta someone who's more gullible," said Alvin.

The man tilted his head before his shape started to ripple. "Dunno how yer foolin' me eyes, but the only eye yer gonna fool is the fishes' if ya don't stop-" started Alvin before the stranger suddenly surged upward into a dragon's shape and let out a roar that rattled all the loose stones nearby.

There was a small silence as the anthropomorphic dragon the man had become glared. "Would you like to rephrase your previous insult?" it asked in a slightly deeper voice. Alvin fumbled for the medallion but the dragon man said, "Don't bother trying to make the kraken attack me. Its...spell of control prevents that."

Alvin glared as the man said, "My name is Anton, your partner in this little adventure. Do what I need you to do and you'll be the boss. Try to betray me and I'll pick you out of my teeth."

Alvin didn't become the leader of the Outcasts by allowing his nerves to show. "So, ya just want that one she-dragon and none o' the others to be 'urt? Sounds like a good challenge," he said.

"That is correct. But I repeat, mess this up and you die, simple as that," said Anton coldly.

"I suppose you 'ave a particular time in mind for when to release this beastie," said Alvin.

"We're ready. It's all down to you. So get on with it," said Anton coldly.

Alvin turned and bellowed, "Savage!"

Savage quickly ran up to him and asked, "You bellowed, sir?"

"Ready the men," said Alvin, "Today we're giving Berk an attack they ain't gonna forget so easily."

...

"Ok, so kraken don't usually care for explody foxes," said Matt, glaring at the critter which was looking innocently at him...in the fashion that all animals planning mischief do.

"Not unless they've been programmed to do so," said Techo.

"Meaning we got cyber-squid after us, sounds like the monster from a b-movie," said Wilson disgustedly.

"Well, at least that means it's not guarding the others right now," said Chip.

Astrid glared at Chip at that, "Wait...what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I've went and had a look at that facility you guys were at," said Chip, "Most of the computers were damaged, but I was able to pull out enough data to know what they've been doing in there."

"And what were they making?" said Matt in a twitchy voice as his temper peaked.

"Apparently this little fellow is one of the products of Project: Carbuncle," said Chip.

"Carbuncle? You mean like the red ugly swollen spot on Draco's butt?" asked Morph. Draco didn't even turn around before squashing Morphs head below his shoulders. "I feel your displeasure," Morph rasped

"Completely different kind of carbuncle," said Chip, "The idea was to make a farmable and renewable energy source. They used some of Malefor's notes for making grublins and combined it with some of their crystals as well as DNA from Petropia."

"Petropia, the Diamondhead world?" asked Draco, "Wasn't that blown up?"

"Obviously this was long before that happened," said Chip in a slightly annoyed tone.

"STAY ON TOPIC!" snapped Matt, causing the carbuncle to explode in Draco's face.

"A fine demonstration as to while the project was abandoned," said Chip, "These carbuncles may be able to generate considerable energy, but they're rather skittish and require a gentle hand. Atlantean scientists weren't all that tender."

"That explains the hole in the wall we saw...but the giant kraken?" said Matt.

"It's of local origin," said Chip, "Normally, the kraken here just stick to their territory and only go out to hunt once a decade or so. But the Atlanteans install implants that could control the kraken, made it their watchdog and retriever."

"Retriever?" said Chloe flatly.

"Yes, the carbuncles have a strong energy signature. They programmed the kraken to follow that signature if one ever got out and bring it back," said Chip.

"Then why did it not crush us into paste and bugger off?" said Matt.

"That's what I've been trying to figure out," said Chip, "My best guess is someone has overridden its command signals. And I can only think of one person who would have access to that technology."

"Anton, great, a psycho with super squid," snapped Kala.

"Can't you override his override?" asked Chris.

"Not without shutting down his signal," said Chip, "Even then, I don't have the right frequency to keep the kraken from crushing us."

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't..." muttered Matt.

"Is there anything you can do?" asked Chloe.

"Well, I can at least track it," said Chip, "Can't do much to stop it but at least we'll know where it is."

Matt nodded, "Tell me that the ship can at least fly. Laser cannons would be useful."

"Fly? We're barely staying afloat," said Chip, "If we don't get this ship to at least clear us of the sea level, it's going to permanently sink."

"Find a way, it's time we left," snapped Matt.

"Well, there is one way, but it's not going to be straightforward," said Chip, looking at the carbuncle. The carbuncle glared at Chip at that before sending a blast of energy into Chip's mouth. Chip juddered a bit before falling over. "Spicy..." he gasped, letting out a puff of smoke as he talked.

The carbuncle just gave a foxy snigger as everyone glared. "Look, you little fuzzball, all we need is a jumpstart!" snapped Chloe, losing her cool.

The carbuncle growled at Chloe. "What's wrong with a little positive incentive?" asked Astrid, "I bet it'll get you a lot farther than threatening it. That's why the Atlanteans couldn't get them to work, right?"

"If you help us, we'll let you go," said Matt quickly.

The carbuncle didn't seem impressed by this promise. "We know a much better place for you guys to live," said Kala, "On Avalar, there will be plenty of food for you and no krakens to keep you prisoner."

"And nothing that requires exploding," said Techo chipping in.

The carbuncle looked thoughtful before rubbing its belly. "Really? You want food?" said Matt, facepalming before saying "Ok Draco, everyone knows you guys always have a stash of it. Where's the cake?"

"Hang on now," said Draco, "It's one thing to be offering food to someone we need help from. But I think that's extending the limits of hospitality too-

"DO IT OR DIE!" yelled Matt.

The experiments lead out a loud groan before Chip says, "I'll go get it."

"Chris, Wilson, make sure they don't get peckish on the way back," said Chloe, causing some tantalog swearwords to occur.

Chloe gave the carbuncle an annoyed look. "I hope you think you're worth it," said Chloe. The carbuncle nodded smugly. "Stupid Voltorb reject," muttered Chloe darkly.

...

Meanwhile, Berk was still in an uproar. Stoick had his hands completely full trying to prevent a riot. "I am not going to send our warriors out after them, Mildew," he snapped, the aforementioned Mildew wearing a smug expression.

"Stoick, it's a matter of village security," said Mildew, "Who knows what those monsters will do know that we know their secret?"

"They had plenty of time to do something all the time they were here," said Stoick in a cold voice.

"Indeed, turning our own children against us," said Mildew.

"What do you mean 'our' children?" snapped Stoick, "You never had children."

"I consider myself fortunate for that," said Mildew, "But it's more worrying that the chief's own son has been swayed to their side."

Stoick glared, getting up to punch Mildew when, luckily for Mildew, Gobber came in. "Stoick, Alvin's here!" called Gobber.

Stoick gave a groan of frustration and said, "Could this day get any worse?"

Stoick and the others went outside. Alvin was very easy to standing at the prow of his ship. "'Ello Stoick, I was just in the neighbor'ood an' I thought I'd stop by and see if you'd like to surrender," called Alvin.

"I think you know the answer, Alvin!" yelled back Stoick.

"Oh, well I guess I'll 'ave ta show you me new weapon that'll smash Berk to pieces until ya give me wot I want," called Alvin.

"What, you gone and caught a dragon that's dumb enough to listen to you?" called Gobber which made many Vikings laugh.

Alvin grinned and said, "Better," before holding up his medallion, "Alright beastie, give 'em somethin' ta scream about!" The deep horn-like noise was heard before some...thing surfaced slowly in front of the outcast fleet before a tentacle shot up out the water.

There was a pause of shock before several villagers started screaming and running from where the tentacle was about to smack down.

Stoick glared, whistling to summon Thornado. The Thunderdrum quickly soared up to Stoick who landed on its back. "Let's see how much this monster likes loud noises," said Stoick before Thornado flew at the kraken and let out a sonic roar. The kraken slowly turned in place, one of its eyes glaring at the annoying dragon as it roared before it swiped at it.

"Uh, Alvin, sir," said Salvage, "Didn't that fellow who gave us that medallion say we're not supposed to hurt the dragons?"

"What he doesn't know won't 'urt 'im," said Alvin smirking as the kraken took another swipe at the Thunderdrum and its rider.

"Sir, isn't it odd that Stoick's boy isn't flying up there too? He's usually the first to fly in," said Savage.

"Yeah, that is unusual. The little brat's usually first in," said Alvin thoughtfully.

"Maybe he's not here right now," said Savage.

"Maybe, but that don't mean you lot get to sit around an' watch," said Alvin, "Get to shore, all of ya! We got lootin' ta do!" There was already some of the old catapults firing at the kraken which wasn't even noticing the hits unless it spotted a shot incoming.

"Sir, won't our ally be mad if we don't bring him his dragon?" asked Savage.

"Tell you wot, if we don't get that dragon taday, we'll come back tamorraw an' every day after that till it shows up," said Alvin, "Now stop question' me orders or you'll be feedin' the kraken."

...

"It's back," called a tech, pointing to a console.

Matt and Chloe ran up to look at the readout. "Ok...where is our octopus friend?" he asked.

"At Berk," said the tech grimly.

"Great...well, our cover's toast anyway. Chris, you're going to Berk," Matt said.

"Me? Against a sea monster with hundred-foot long tentacles?" asked Chris with obvious reluctance.

"Take as many men as you want and some of the railguns," said Matt.

"Matt, we have to go too," said Hiccup.

"Against a cyber-kraken? Probably upgraded with all kinda nasty things by the Atlanteans? Probably has atomic breath?" snapped Matt.

"Scans indicate that no further modification was made to the kraken besides the control implants," said Chip.

"And when has that ever been accurate?" said Matt darkly.

"Guys, we can discuss battle strategies later," said Kala, "Right now, me and Matt need to get flying."

"No, you're staying here," said Matt.

Kala snapped "Hey, I am not staying here! I don't need to be on a leash..." only for Matt to say "Sure, let's make it easy for a Shar-Virk like Anton to see where you live."

"You really think Anton would stop me? I know what's going. You're doing it again," said Kala.

"Doing what?" asked Matt.

"Keeping me back, making me stay out of the action because you don't think I'm ready. Why must you keep putting obstacles in front of me?"

"No, I lost you once to those psychos, never again!" snapped Matt, nobody noticing the kids leaving.

As the crew started to argue, Astrid said to Hiccup, "They're not going to let us go anyways, are they?"

"Not likely," admitted Hiccup.

"But we're still going, right?"

"Absolutely, get everyone together. We need to be at least halfway to Berk before they catch up."

...

Kala roared in Matt's face, "I'm not some invalid! I can look after myself you...you..."

Matt glared and said "Go on, say it."

"Ika pachooga!" snapped Kala.

Matt snarled at that, the leftover EXP virus in his DNA helpfully translating for him. "Can't you see I'm trying to protect you, ika toobaga?" snapped Matt.

"Protect me? More like letting no one take your property!" snapped Kala.

Matt's eyes got a crazy shine to them at that. "You want a solo shot? The door's that way. Don't expect help though," he said in a low voice.

"Fine, I will!" snapped Kala before marching out the door.

Matt glared before turning to the others. "WHAT?" he snapped.

"Gee, it's hard to decide where to start," said Chloe dryly.

"Then don't...where are the kids?" snapped Matt, pausing before saying the rest.

"I think they slipped out at some point prior to the collar part," said NegaMorph, "I wasn't pay attention to them before that."

"Why didn't you say something?!" yelled Matt.

"And interrupt this turning point in your relationship? Besides, I probably couldn't have been able to make you pay attention if I was using a loudspeaker."

"Goddammit, we'd better go," he began before there was a shaking, "Don't tell me the kraken has a brother."

"Intruder alert...surface entrance two has been brea-arrgh!" came a cry over the comms.

"Not a kraken, it would have made a lot more background noise," said Chip, "But the only other people on this planet who would be able to breach our security would be..."

...

OmegaMorph grinned as three of Matt's men fired point blank at him, the rounds bouncing or going through him harmlessly. "Is it my turn now?" he said with a smirk. He took in a deep breath before letting out a freezing blast of wind which froze Matt's men where they stood. He was tempted to use something hotter, but having the iceberg melt around him would make finding things irksomely difficult.

A whirring noise got his attention, a strange prong like gun unfolding from the ceiling before hitting him with a sonic blast. OmegaMorph gave the sonic emitter an annoyed look and said, "That's giving me an earache." He pointed a hand at it and let loose an electric blast that fired the weapon.

He grinned as the droids in his team charged past him before sighing as Anton commed him. "Are we having fun? Remember, Silvia is to be recovered...and don't let any of them leave. I'm busy enough making sure that idiot, Alvin follows our orders."

"Yeah, sure, grab the girl then sink the ship," said OmegaMorph, "It'd be a lot more fun if she had gone out to help with your loaned sea monster."

"Just get on with it or I'll damn well lobotomize you with that collar," snapped Anton.

"Fine, fine, anything else I'm supposed to grab? A bottle of milk perhaps?" asked OmegaMorph sarcastically.

"Just get Miss Lynch. I think Kala's on her way to my location so I'll handle that. Think you can grab one person?" said Anton sarcastically.

OmegaMorph glared and said "Yes." before Anton added "Oh, watch out for the spiders." before signing off.

OmegaMorph looked confused, saying "What? I can handle some tiny spiders." It was this point that the universe decided to have the spiderbots cut his arms off and run off with them. OmegaMorph regrew his arms and said, "So these are the infamous spiderbots? I expected them to be flashier."

He turned as he heard a rumble before whimpering as a literal wall of spiderbots descended on him.

...

While Matt would have flown after the kids before they got to Berk, the Imperial troopers demanded immediate personal attention.

"This is too convenient," he said, punching out a trooper before spinning and shooting a droid

"Looks like a classic divisionary tactic," said Chloe, "Divide and conquer. Anton must have arranged for the kraken to attack Berk."

"I'd ask how, but this isn't the best time to be asking questions," said Chip as he shorted out another droid.

"Someone called...Chris," began Matt before the shorted-out comm tower fell down, where several droids had wrecked it.

"Do you have any idea how long it took me to get that operational?!" yelled Chip before grabbing an axe one of the kids left behind and proceeded to do a different type of hacking on the droids.

"Chip, could you fix the comms?" asked Matt carefully, yelping as Chip threw an arm at him.

"I think he's too wrapped up with righteous vengeance right now," said Chloe.

"We gotta get to Berk...now," said Techo nervously.

"And allow these jerks the run of the base?" asked Matt disgustedly.

"Kala's gone to Berk," said Chloe faintly.

That made Matt change his tone. "Right, let's not waste time with the cannon fodder. Only Anton and OmegaMorph are the credible threats here. Once we get those creeps to leave, we're heading to Berk and we're gonna serve everyone more calamari than they can eat."

...

Anton and several of his men were standing on one of the rock towers, watching the fight. "It's...beautiful to watch," he said with a smile.

"Damn creepy if you ask me," said one of the troopers, "I hate squids."

"Don't worry, as soon as that idiots got what we want, we'll have it eat him," said Anton calmly.

"Like that's gonna make sleeping easier," said the trooper with a shudder.

"Then don't sleep. Just have the stasis rifles ready, they're coming," said Anton, staring out to sea.

The dropship wasn't quite the most impressive ship to use for first contact, but it was more than enough to grab all the villagers' attention. Especially when it opened up and the dragon riders on their dragons flew out.

Chris and his own team walked down the ramp, blasting away at the Outcast invaders with stun rifles. "The cavalry's arrived," Chris called with a smug voice. The kraken immediately started swiping at the newcomers, but it seemed to hesitate with attacking the dragons.

Chris punched out an Outcast before seeing Mildew was the one he'd saved. "Aw...did it have to be you?" he asked gloomily.

"Don't think I'm happy to see you," said Mildew, "None of this chaos would be happening if you lot weren't here."

Chris sighed. "Huh...we could always just toss you to the...hold that thought," he said as several Outcasts ran at him before shifting to his werewolf form and pummeling them into the happy land of unconsciousness. Chris turned around without shifting back and said, "Now, where was I?" He looked down to see Mildew was lying on his back with a shock expression on his face. For a moment, Chris hoped he had a heart attack, but a sniff confirmed that he had just fainted.

"We gonna shoot him?" asked a trooper hopefully.

"Unfortunately, he's a timeline specific," said Chris, "Not a major player, but enough to cause a continuity snarl if we get rid of him."

"Aw..." complained another trooper, though one gave Mildew a sharp kick before they headed back out.

The Outcasts gave the troopers very little trouble but the kraken's tentacles swatting at them was a much greater threat. Kala glared, spitting another plasma bolt at it, causing it to growl. The kraken seemed to focus on Kala, though it seemed to be trying to grab her than crush her.

Luckily, Toothless got a good shot in, one of the metal components exploding. The reaction on the kraken was quite obvious as it roared in pain before it stopped.

...

Remote connection lost...all remote units offline...

Switching to internal programming...recovery of project components

ALERY: Assault underway by indigenous forces

Reaction: Non-lethal neutralization

...

"Hey, I ain't called for a snack break yet!" yelled Alvin, "Keep smashin' them 'ouses!"

The kraken instead slowly turned to fix its angry eyes for a minute, fixing its eyes on the human that had been ordering it around before it lifted up a tentacle and brought it down on the center of its boat, the kraken turning its attention back to the flying reptiles harassing it.

Alvin and Savage were flung clear from the wreck and landed on another Outcast ship. "Uh, sir, I think your talisman might be losing its effect," said Savage.

The kraken turned to face the dragons angrily before several rocks shot in their direction, each rock easily the size of Hookfang. The dragons quickly took evasive action which wasn't easy considering that the kraken's other tentacles were still swiping at them and this time there didn't seem to be hesitation in attacking them.

Kala glared doing several dodges as all the frustration from this adventure bubbled up. "Treating me like a pet...having to carry him everywhere...CAN'T GET ONE SIMPLE GUESSING GAME STRAIGHT!" snapped Kala as she blasted at the kraken.

A piece of granite shot past her head at that, though she barely noticed from sheer rage overload before she saw a much larger piece heading for her, a brief look behind proving an equally large bit was headed for her from behind. "Uh oh," said Kala before flying upwards, but the rocks clashed against the tip of her wing. She roared in pain before the rocks released her wing, sending her into a tailspin towards the water. "C'mon, c'mon, getting working, wing," she said desperately as she tried to get her wing to respond right.

On cue, a blur shot out of nowhere, grabbing her. Kala gave a sigh of relief. "Thanks, I'm almost willing to forgive your behavior earlier," she said.

"Oh, so kind," said Anton's voice in her ear with a sneer before saying before she could start to struggle, "I wouldn't struggle, falling from this height, you'd get less damage hitting rock. Of course, even if you make a safe splash landing, you know it's not a good idea to be swimming right now."

"Wh...what do you want?" said Kala in a worried voice.

"Oh not much, but Dr. Johnson has missed you so much," sneered Anton.

Kala snarled and said, "I'm not his little lab experiment anymore."

"Oh no, no, you have become so much more than that. You're much more valuable than a science project. Why, I'd say you were general material," said Anton.

Kala whimpered at that as Anton continued, "Oh it won't be that bad. You won't miss Lynch for a start."

Just then, a small shower of laser beams and sharp fangs forced Anton to pause in midflight. "You will not have her!" roared NegaMorph as he swooped at him.

Anton sighed to himself before grinning as a tentacle slapped NegaMorph flying. "You need to work on your timing," he called. NegaMorph would have flown right back up there and attacked Anton again, but the tentacle had attached more than a few suction cups to him, including his face.

Anton just laughed. "Be sure to thank Lynch for handing our new general to us," he called.

NegaMorph thrashed to escape, but the suction cups were too powerful. However, NegaMorph's tail was free and it was able to lash around. Eventually, one lucky lash managed to cut into the tentacle beneath him and he then started focusing on hacking at the pseudopod. All that happened was that the kraken tossed him in the direction of the town in annoyance.

Normally, NegaMorph would use this opportunity to get back into the air and fly after Anton, but he was having trouble seeing where he was going and thus didn't make himself fluid enough when he crashed into the wall. "Ow," he groaned before sliding down the wall.

...

"Sir, might I suggest that we withdraw?" asked Savage, "I think we've done enough damage to Berk and it'll give Stoick to consider his surrender."

Alvin looked at the damage the now rampaging kraken was causing. "I like that idea," he said gruffly before everyone but him jumped as a tentacle just missed their ship. "Well, ya want another tentacle slam? Get this ship sailin'!" snapped Alvin.

The crew immediately ran to their stations to get the ship moving as fast as they could...only for a tentacle to grab Alvin. To Alvin's credit, he didn't panic. "Get yer slimy tentacles off me!" yelled Alving, pounding at the kraken with his free arm. The kraken pulled the Outcast up to one eye, its iris narrowing angrily before it carefully reached out and pulled the control 'amulet off' holding it up for Alvin to see before crushing it easily.

Now Alvin started to worry that he'd end up inside the kraken's stomach. The kraken itself seemed to consider this, opening its maw before it made the monster equivalent of 'meh' and tossed Alvin in the direction of his ship

"Boss?" began Savage before a rock narrowly missed the ship, providing the reason.

"Get movin' or you can stay behind and keep the beastie busy," snapped Alvin.

...

The kraken watched as the ship left before it slowly descended back down, ripples the only sign that it was leaving. It had a subject to recover

With the kraken and the Outcasts departing, the battle appeared to be over. Well...apart from the angry mob. "Erm...get the feeling we're not gonna get a thank you?" said one of Chris's men as attention turned to them.

"Ideally, we really ought to, but ideals aren't reality," said Chris.

"Hey, stop," called Hiccup, landing between the mob and the gang.

"Listen to the kid please," yelped Chris.

"These guys might not have told the truth about where they're from, but can we deny that they've been helping us out as often as they could?" asked Hiccup, "They didn't have to come back, especially after we treated them earlier, but they did so anyways."

"So...ye on their side too?" said Mildew with a smirk before paling as someone said "Boo." Mildew yelped and tripped over his staff, causing him to land in a manure cart.

The others jumped back to see a familiar, at least to the gang, anthro dragon. "If we hadn't wanted to play nice, we would have massacred you all weeks ago," snapped Matt, "But frankly, I don't care two figs whether you're here or not. Where's Kala?"

"Who's Kala?" asked a Viking safely at the back of the crowd

"My girlfriend I've been trying to find for weeks who I've found out is actually Starflame about a week or two ago," said Matt.

The Vikings all got skeptical looks but who was going to argue on what could pass as a monster from hell. "We didn't see yer Starflame," snapped Mildew rudely only to be lifted up effortlessly.

"Kala risked her own life just now, without prompting, so you yahoos owe her enough for you to start looking for her," said Matt in a false calm tone.

Mildew just said "Ye don't scare me." only to scream as Matt roared in his face.

"Now then, let's start looking for Kala as well as anyone else who's currently missing," said Matt. Mildew glared but noticed that everyone seemed to be suddenly against helping him.

"If nothing else, he's right about one thing," said Stoick, "We need to find out who has been hurt during the attack. Everyone start looking."

Matt turned to his men. "You heard him, spread out and see to casualties."

The damage to the village was pretty grim. Many buildings had been smashed and there were more than a few villagers found under the debris. Fortunately, so far they were all alive, though some had some broken bones.

"Any sign of Kala?" asked Matt after a while.

"Not yet, but we did find this," said Chris, holding up what appeared to be NegaMorph. However, he had pretty mangled by the tentacle and the crash. His face in particular had been warped into an indiscernible lump of flesh.

Matt glared before flexing his claw and squashing NegaMorph into a perfect ball before stretching him back out, NegaMorph looking dazed. "Someone get the license plate of that particle accelerator?" asked NegaMorph in a dazed tone.

"Where's Kala, you licorice reject?" snapped Matt, shaking him.

"She's been under your nose this whole time, you moron," said NegaMorph, "Haven't you noticed the similarities between her and Starflame?"

Matt glared before yelling "I ALREADY KNOW THAT, YOU MORON! WHERE IS HER CURRENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION?"

NegaMorph's eyes focused and he immediately started to struggle in Chris's hands. "Let me go, I need to get back up there and save Kala," he snapped.

"Bit late for that," growled Matt, his hand heating up.

NegaMorph looked crestfallen at that. "I'm sorry, Matt, I did what I could, but the kraken got in the way."

"Fine...where...is...she?" said Matt, squeezing and causing NegaMorph to make a squeaky toy noise.

"With...Anton..." wheezed NegaMorph.

"And he is where?" snapped Matt.

"I don't know," said NegaMorph, "I tried to fly after him but the kraken grabbed me." Matt glared before throwing NegaMorph aside and roaring angrily.

"What's up with him?" asked Gobber who had walked over.

"You remember how he was looking for his lost girlfriend when we first arrived?" asked Chris, "Turns out she was actually his dragon and now she's been kidnapped by a particularly nasty character."

There was an awkward silence before Chris said "Magic spell accident." before sighing as there seemed to be a sudden sense of relief.

"I'm truly sorry for his loss," said Stoick, "Plenty of us know what it's like to lose a loved one. However, I am a bit worried that he's about to let out his anger on the town."

"Believe me, if he had lost control, we'd be ash by now," said Chris before jumping as Matt stomped up.

"Those morons that were with Anton and the kraken, who were they?" demanded Matt.

"Why should we tell you?" asked Mildew.

Matt's expression and scale color darkened as he growled, "Because if you don't, I'll start listening to my natural instincts and EAT YOU!"

Mildew didn't back down this time...until Matt had to be grabbed by Chris to stop him lunging. "They're called the Outcasts," said Stoick sternly once Matt had calmed down.

"So? Where do they live?" said Matt icily.

"Outcast Island," said Gobber, "Not a pleasant place what with the wild dragons attacking all the time. Probably the second reason they want to come and take over Berk, asides from the whole revenge about banishment thing."

"When I'm finished with them..." began Matt before pausing, "I'll make sure that Anton's chased off."

"If Anton's even there," said NegaMorph, "Sounds like he's just using Alvin as a distraction. A distraction with a colossal sea monster for an attack dog."

"Then he will tell me everything," said Matt darkly, taking off.

Chris summed up the collective thought, "Well, shit."

"Don't be silly, we haven't gotten to the worst part yet," said NegaMorph.

"What worst part?" asked Chris.

Just then, one of the villagers pointed at NegaMorph and yelled, "Demon!" which soon spooked up the mob and made them draw their weapons.

"This is the worst part," said NegaMorph before they descended on him.

...

Anton grinned, sitting in front of Kala at the Outcast camp while they waited for a ship to arrive. He was already making a start on her, a small organic-looking circlet around her head and crackling. "Now please, I have to say I'm impressed. Chloe was screaming by this point," he said with a sneer, activating the circlet again, which caused Kala's pain centers to flare. Kala gritted her teeth before trying to shoot a fireball at him.

Anton just laughed at that before Alvin came in, clearly in a bad mood. "Yer stupid talisman didn't work," he snapped.

"Have you tried shaking it? You shouldn't try to bang it too much," said Anton dismissively.

"Yer beastie smashed it," snapped Alvin, holding up an axe.

"Then apparently it didn't care for the way you were bossing it around," said Anton.

Alvin glared and aimed a blow only for a red beam to decapitate his axe, the outcast spinning to see a metallic golem in the corner. "Take the hint," sneered Anton.

"No one double-crosses Alvin the Treacherous!" snapped Alvin.

"Fine, but my droids are all over your little village and if I so much as sneeze, they'll kill everyone," said Anton calmly, adding, "Look on the bright side, I've decided to overlook the fact that you let the kraken attack the dragons and pay you anyway for services rendered."

"Pay me 'ow?" asked Alvin.

"Gold? Jewels? Whatever you idiots like?" said Anton, turning back to Kala.

"Gold would be nice, but I'll need another kraken amulet," said Alvin.

Anton sighed. "Well that's a shame. It was a one-time offer, emphasis on 'one time'. The te...magic used to make the amulet means it's irreplaceable," he said.

"Well, the 'Ooligans on Berk won't know that, will they?" said Alvin, "They've already had a taste of the kraken's might an' they won't be wantin' more."

"Your funeral," said Anton calmly, before turning on the circlet again, this time getting a screech out of Kala that actually made Alvin wince.

"None of me business, o' course, but why are ye torturin' that Night Fury like that?" asked Alvin.

"It's a little project. She's someone I know. I'm just...bringing her to my way of seeing things," said Anton with a sinisterly cheerful tone.

Alvin grimaced and said, "I prefer me own point o' view. 'Ow you gonna keep 'er 'ere? Some people 'ave to sleep, you know."

"My people are coming to get me. In an hour me and she will be gone," said Anton, adding, "Her companion will be coming. You can kill him if you want."

"I gotta get back ta Berk. Need to strike while the iron's still hot," said Alvin.

"No, you go out against Lynch and he'll tear you to bloody ribbons. You want him to come to you. He has a habit of running headlong into deathtraps," scolded Anton.

"An' what deathtrap would work on 'im?" asked Alvin.

"You want to hit him with overwhelming firepower, don't try fire. He'll walk through it with a sneer. Blunt force would work," said Anton thoughtfully, grinning at Kala, "We even have bait."

Alvin eyed Kala and said, "If yer gonna be twistin' 'er mind around, what not make 'er the deathtrap?"

Anton broke into a grin at that "That's the most intelligent thing I've heard you say..." he said, turning to grin at Kala who whimpered weakly before he turned the device up to full...

...

Matt landed on the Outcast dock, looking around angrily. "Come out, come out wherever you are," he called, sending a plasma blast into a docked and empty longboat. "I can keep doing this to every flimsy little structure you've got," called Matt as he threw another plasma ball at a hut.

A second later, a large rock was fired from a catapult at him, Matt calmly blasting it to gravel. "Is that the best you can do?" Matt yelled, aiming a blast at another hut.

An axe-wielding Outcast charged at Matt with a loud battlecry but that battlecry soon turned into a high-pitched squeal when Matt kicked in the 'no fair' zone with enough force to send him flying over his head.

"NEXT!" called Matt, walking on and blasting another Outcast as it charged. This time, a whole wave of Outcasts came charging out, but they quickly turned tail when Matt made a wall of plasma flames spring up.

"GET OUT HERE AND FACE ME OR I'LL TURN THIS ENTIRE ISLAND INTO HEATED GLASS!" yelled Matt.

Then Alvin stepped forward with a large sword in his hand. "You're an impressive warrior alright," said Alvin, "But this is my island an' no dragon trashes it and gets away with it."

"You took Kala?" said Matt, not turning around.

"Nah, that be me tenant," said Alvin, "If ya be 'ere to cause trouble for 'im, I'd 'ave let you pass if ya didn't blast me huts."

"You were stupid enough to side with him. Now Matt's a calm...collected kind of person, but I'm not...and he's actually let me out willingly," said 'Matt' starting to get a crazy giggle in his voice.

"You some kinda berserker?" asked Alvin, "Ye look like ye could be a cousin of that cuckoo Dagur."

Matt just started laughing psychotically before spinning and lunging at Alvin. Alvin swung with his sword, but Matt just caught it with his hand and there was barely a trickle of blood.

"I'm a whole different breed," laughed 'Matt', not even caring that blood was pouring down the blade now before he kicked Alvin in the chest.

Alvin flew back and landed near a rack of weapons. He got back up, picked up a large sledgehammer and said, "If yer skin can be cut, then yer bones can break." He swung the hammer at Matt's head.

Matt ducked the blow before being knocked over by the backswing. "Ow...well color me impressed," he sneered, aiming a slash with the claws out. Alvin ducked back but the slash made contact with the head of the sledgehammer and gouged out a series of scratches. This was proved as Matt yelped before taking a deep breath and sending a blast of plasma fire at the Outcast.

The plasma melted the head off the sledgehammer which Alvin threw aside. "Oh, so ya wunna get rough, do ya?" he said before decking Matt.

Matt's head whipped to the side before slowly turning back, a small bruise appearing but that was it. "My turn," he said before dealing a punch of his own. The punch actually made Alvin sail through the air in a big arc before crashing onto a hut that hadn't been torched. "And I didn't even eat any spinach to do that," said Matt cheerfully.

He turned before heading for the hut that the outcasts seemed to have been blocked before blowing the hinges off to see Kala slumped in the middle of a room "Kala!" cried Matt before he ran over to her, "Kala, wake up, I know you're not dead."

Kala opened her eyes before saying slowly, "You came...idiot." her voice turning into a sneer before Matt was sent sailing by a plasma bolt.

Matt sat up and asked, "You're not still fuming from our little spat earlier, are you?"

"No, I'm just going to kill you," said Kala, shimmering before turning into a red eyed version of her human form.

"Kala, you've broken out of your encoding, that's wonderful," said Matt, though his joy sounded a little feigned, "You know what, before you decide to let your anger out, you should do a few things for yourself. You know, take a shower, get some fresh clothes, walk around Berk..."

"Kala's not home," said 'Kala' angrily.

"Wait, weren't you poisoned or something and made too weak to take control ever again?" asked Matt.

"We come back," sneered Kai.

"And here I thought you'd be the safest one of us," said Matt, "You know I've beaten you before, Kai."

"True, but you won't...and risk hurting dear Kala?" laughed Kai.

"It takes a lot to hurt us," said Matt.

"Well, how's this? I'm going with Anton," laughed Kala.

Matt winced and said, "Ok, I'll admit that hurt. But I'm not gonna allow that to happen."

Tough," sneered Kai as a blaster was pointed in Matt's ear.

"Oh, thanks, I've had this nasty waxy build-up and there are no Q-tips on this planet," said Matt before firing a blast to his side. There was a squashing noise before he was sent flying, "OmegaMorph."

"Lynch, I have to say, you have good taste in girls," said OmegaMorph's voice, "I don't care a bit about what she looks like, but she's a pyromaniac to be admired."

Matt glared, trying to get back up and failing. "You know...maybe I'll put you out my misery?" said Kai, walking forward.

"Aw, don't you still carry a torch? Not even for Draconus?" asked Matt.

Matt twitched at that before Draconus took control and he snapped, "Yeah...why have I gotta die too?"

Kai paused to think about it before asking, "What do you think, Anton? Should we keep Draconus?"

Anton looked at Matt, "I think the Emperor will want to deal with him personally."

"Of course he would, I'd be insulted if anyone in a lesser position did it," said Draconus before Matt took back control and snapped, "Not helping."

"OmegaMorph, kindly sedate him," said Anton calmly

"With pleasure," said OmegaMorph as his claws stretched out to needle points.

...

Chloe glared as Chris got off the dropship. "Ok...where is my idiot brother?" she said coldly.

"Most likely on Outcast Island," said Chris.

"Ok...why?" said Chloe, her tone indicating she was close to a mental eruption.

"Because he wanted to roast their leader, Alvin, for info about where Anton took Kala," said Chris.

"Ok...ok," said Chloe before yelling "AND YOU DIDN'T FOLLOW HIM?!"

"Well, we had to calm down the villager before they went on the warpath and help clean up the town," said Chris, "But I had NegaMorph tail Matt. If things get too hot, he'll haul him back."

"You sure about that? That mk 2 version of him's running around," said Techo.

"A good reason for NegaMorph to pull the lifeline quickly," said Chris, "He won't stick around if OmegaMorph shows up and he'll be dragging Matt behind him."

"And if OmegaMorph's got Matt?" said Chloe.

"Hopefully NegaMorph will be quicker," said Chris.

On cue a shadow portal began to open. "Finally...Matt, you'd better have a good ide...NegaMorph, where's my brother?" Chloe said.

"In Anton's clutches," said NegaMorph apologetically.

"Why didn't you GET HIM?" snapped Chloe.

"Because he was in OmegaMorph's grasp before I could get to him," said NegaMorph.

"And you didn't even TRY?" snapped Chloe.

"If I tried, I would have disintegrated and we'd still not have either Matt or Kala," said NegaMorph.

A growl from Chloe provided that this was not a passable excuse in Chloe's book

"Chloe, calm down," said Chris, "Try to look at the big picture."

"The big picture?" asked Chloe scathingly, "Our ship and only means of leaving this planet is sinking, the carbuncle who could boost its power won't cooperate, everyone on Berk knows our secret and are one bad move from declaring war on us, Anton's buddies with the local warlord and has both Matt and Kala captive with the intent of making them new generals for the Hamsterviel Army. Does that cover everything in the big picture?"

"Now that you say it like that..." began Chris as Chloe rounded again on NegaMorph. "You are going to warp us all to outside that village...and you are coming along..." she hissed angrily.

Just then, a rumble shook the iceberg and caused everyone to be knocked off their feet. "Let me guess, the iceberg is sinking more," said Chloe.

NegaMorph looked at the frothing sea surface and said, "No, much worse."

"Oh no," muttered Chloe before an alarm sounded. "Breach...launch bay," said the automated PA.

"No time to lose," said Chloe, "If we lose that carbuncle, we're sunk."

Just then, several writhing tentacles burst up out of the water like a twisted forest sprouting in an instance. "I think we might be sunk either way," said NegaMorph. The tentacles all bended forward before falling towards the iceberg like a deadly tsunami.

...

The carbuncle was sitting on the top of the old battlecruiser as the kraken tore the door open like it was paper. "You took your time," it said calmly as the kraken peered in and made a rumbling growl. "Oh, don't give me that excuse," scolded the carbuncle. A tentacle slithered its way in and started coiling around the carbuncle.

"Hold it, these people deserve something for actually holding me this long," said the carbuncle, the tentacle pausing before the carbuncle sent a blast of energy in the direction of the stacks of ignition crystals, re-energizing them.

Once the carbuncle had finished the tentacle lashed and out and grabbed the carbuncle with a suction cup before dragging it back out. "Hey, careful!" it snapped as the gang charged in, the carbuncle laughing as Chloe gave it a farewell selection of swearwords.

Fortunately, once the kraken had the carbuncle, it lost interest in the rest of the crew. The tentacles all withdrew except for the one that was keeping the carbuncle above the water. Chloe just stared as Techo examined the rejuvenated starter crystals before she said dully "What the hell just happened?"

"The kraken got what it came for and left," said Techo, "And it seems our little buddy has left us a parting gift that's not a bomb for once."

"Tell me that it lets the ship take off," said Chloe.

"These crystals seem fully charged so they should be enough to get us airborne," said Techo, "Getting into space may be a hassle, but we've been expecting that."

"Get em ready," said Chloe.

"Chloe, as much as I'd like to fly this ship at Anton, guns a-blazing, you know that won't be enough to stop OmegaMorph," said Techo.

"They're not getting my brother," snapped Chloe.

"Of course they're not, but we need a better way of getting him out of there," said Techo.

"Fine...you got an idea?" said Chloe angrily

"Uh...round up the dragons on Dragon Island and have them assault Outcast Island all at once?" suggested Techo.

"Fine, you wanna volunteer to get them to come?" said Chloe

"Er, that sounds more like a job for Hiccup and his crew," said Techo.

"Great, this will go well," muttered Chris.

...

Trying to ask for Hiccup's help was difficult from the getgo. They couldn't even speak to Hiccup without having to go through Stoick first.

"Yer not speaking to my son!" snapped Stoick for the umpteenth time, Chloe glaring as her patience began to wear thin and she tried to explain again.

"Look, it's very important. My brother is at stake and Hiccup is a very important part of getting him free. So may I please, please, please...how many times I've asked plus 1 just talk to him?" asked Chloe.

Stoick glared before sighing. "Just a talk," he said, stepping aside.

Chloe gave a sigh of relief before going up to Hiccup's room. "I think I've repeated myself enough for you to get an idea of what I need from you," she said.

Hiccup sighed, having overheard, Toothless simply watching from the corner. "You want us to attack the Outcasts?" he said skeptically.

"Well, pretty much, not necessarily you, but driving the dragons from Dragon Island might do it," said Chloe.

"Alot of them could be hurt, killed or caught," said Hiccup carefully.

"Well, it'll be for a greater cause?" suggested Chloe. Hiccupjust give her a cold look before Chloe snapped, "Ok, so I don't have a better idea! The ship can take off, but with OmegaMorph there, it'll be an easy target! I can't think of anything else that might work!" Hiccup sighed as Chloe said "Look, they're gonna do to my brother what they...did to me. Please, I can't let that happen."

"Chloe, I really do want to help, but we need an idea that isn't half-baked," said Hiccup.

"Then you tell me something, cause I'm at a loss," said Chloe in a defeated tone.

Just then, someone knocked on the front door. The two of them looked downstairs to see Stoick open the door. It was impossible to see beyond his broad back, but they could clearly hear Morph's voice saying, "Hello, me and my friends are going on an important rescue mission. Would you like to make a contribution?"

"Ok...what's the blob doing?" she said dully, facepalming.

"Your friend's already here to plead your case," said Stoick in an annoyed tone.

"Oh good, which friend is that?" asked Morph.

Chloe yelled, "MORPH, GET BACK TO THE SHIP RIGHT NOW, YOU LITTLE MARSHMALLOW OF HEADACHES!"

"Hi, Chloe, you helping out the good cause too?" asked Morph.

"I'd hardly call a suicide attack on Outcast Island a good cause," said Stoick sternly.

"Oh, you're doing that rescue mission?" asked Morph, "I thought you came here for my rescue mission."

Chloe glared, a small Morph-sized cloud forming just over the oblivious experiment before he was struck by a dozen or so high voltage thunderbolts. "But it's for a good cause," said Morph dizzily, "Somebody's gotta rescue the little guys."

Chloe sighed, saying "Who do you think we're rescuing, Morph?"

"You're freeing Matt and Kala and I'm freeing the carbuncles," said Morph.

Chloe actually spasmed at that from sheer stupid overexposure. "We're not freeing those kamikaze fixes...are we clear?" she said.

Now, if Morph's brain actually worked, he would have taken this lifeline to avoid pain...sadly this was Morph. "Is that a 'maybe'?"

...

The resulting thunderclap was actually heard on Outcast Island...

"Blimey, what was that?" asked one of the Outcast guards.

"Sounds like a pretty bad storm," said another guard.

"Hate to be on which ever island that storm's heading for," said the first guard.

...

Chloe sighed and said, "I feel so much better now without all that frustration. Sorry about the roof."

"That's fine," said Stoick carefully, Morph happily saying from his new crater "Does anyone smell s'mores?"

"Now then, have I made myself clear about the carbuncles?" asked Chloe.

"But we already got a boat and everything," said Morph.

"'We'?" asked Chloe. Draco flew through the hole in the roof and said, "Let me guess, we won't be getting much support from the chief."

"DRACO! I expected more IQ from you to actually go along on a Morph plan," scolded Chloe as the Vikings stared in shock at him.

"I thought he couldn't talk," said a Viking at the back

"There's a lot weirder stuff you guys haven't learned yet," said Chloe before saying to Draco, "Who else is in on this mad scheme?"

"Well...pretty much all the experiments," said Draco, "Chip says he's too busy and I think Megan and Gary are going to help as well."

"I'm going to kill them," said Chloe to herself in a sweet voice, even smiling before she said, "Is there any way we can stop you committing grand theft fox?"

"But those guys deserve to be free," said Morph, "They're no different from us experiments. Those dumb Atlanteans guys created them for their own selfish reasons and they didn't really care about them. Then they leave them trapped on this world with a big mean octopus to keep them from going anywhere. They should be free to do whatever they want and not spend all their lives in a cave. They need to be rescued."

Chloe stared for a minute before she said, "Have you plugged your brain in?"

"I dunno, let me check," said Morph sticking his arm up his nose. Chloe and the others grimaced before Morph pulled his hand out, "Nope, still unplugged."

"So you're gonna rescue the carbuncles with a boat," said Chloe dryly, "Aren't you forgetting about their 20-armed guardian?"

"Maybe we can free the kraken too," said Morph.

"That depends, does it want to be freed?" said Chloe

"Well, it probably doesn't like have all those implants telling it what to do," said Draco, "And it would probably be really grateful if we got rid of them."

"Fine, but no bringing back pets, am I perfectly clear? And if it looks like it's going pear shaped, LEAVE!" said Chloe, pointedly.

"No problem," said Morph, "Just a little voyage with my best buddies and even Gobber."

"Gobber?" asked Stoick.

"Yeah, he's right over there," said Morph, pointing.

Hiccup looked where he was pointing and said, "Morph, that's not Gobber, that's just a walrus that's wearing a helmet like his."

Morph paused and turned around to look at the walrus in the face who simply belched loudly. "The resemblance is uncanny," said Morph.

"Just go...the walrus will probably be the most sensible person in this endeavor," said Chloe icily.

"Okey-dokey," said Morph before hopping on the walrus's back and shouting, "Go Gobber 2!" Several villagers stared as Morph rode the walrus towards the harbor.

"This is our life. Don't curse us, we already have a curse of stupid on board," said Chloe casually.

Stoick sighed before asking, "So how is his...plan less mad than yours?"

"We are going in with weapons," said Chloe grimly.

"Somewhat better, but still sounds soft in the middle. You better let me have a look at these plans of yours," said Stoick.

"Dad, are you saying you're gonna be going with us?" asked Hiccup.

"It's the best way to make sure you don't get hurt," said Stoick, "Besides, I'd like to have a strong word with the one who wrecked my village."

"Fine, here's the plan," said Chloe, passing over a slip of paper that was began with Alvin and Anton's names and the rest was just a line of...interesting swearwords.

Stoick lifted an eyebrow. "Well, I can see that you're not much of a general," he said.

"I used to be," said Chloe coldly.

"Don't ask her about it, it's a very bad idea to do so," said Draco.

Stoick nodded before saying "You'll need a much better plan then this. Alvin only looks stupid."

"Let's not forget about Anton," said Hiccup.

"His hands will be mostly tied anyways," said Draco, "He's not usually allowed to kill people at worlds he visits. It's complicated but he won't use lethal force."

"He's never set krakens loose before either," said Chloe pointedly

"He didn't let the kraken loose, Alvin did," said Stoick.

"And who gave him the means to do that?" said Chloe darkly.

"Well, here's another question," said Draco, "Why did the kraken go back to our base and only grabbed the carbuncle instead of completely sinking it if Anton was still controlling it?"

"Means it's probably broken free," said Chloe, adding "When has Atlantean tech ever worked as intended?"

Just then, Gobber ran over and said, "Stoick, Alvin's back. He's come with a list of demands and that kraken amulet of his."

"Fine, may I handle the negotiations?" said Chloe nastily.

"Only if I get to watch," said Stoick with a grin.

...

Alvin, to his credit, didn't even jump as Chloe landed on his ship's deck. "Hello, you must be the suicidal idiot who kidnapped my dear brother," she said, in her half/half form.

"Well, I can't take all the credit," said Alvin, "He was the one dumb enough to attack me on me own island."

"No, I'm surprised that he didn't just blow the entire island up in a blood rage," said Chloe calmly, grabbing an Outcast who tried to grab her, electrocuting him till he passed out, "Now then, we both know that if you had the kraken still, that you'd have used it."

"Rebuildin' Berk from scratch is too much work," said Alvin, "Wanna get the island in as solid a piece as I can."

"I think it's broken," said Chloe casually.

"Ya really wanna gamble over that?" asked Alvin, "My beastie's acquired quite a taste for dragon. It won't turn down an exotic meal like you."

"Your medallions got a crack in it," pointed out Chloe.

"It's an old talisman, but it still works just fine," said Alvin.

"Let me see it then," said Chloe before grabbing the medallion and sending a charge through which went into the chain around Alvin's neck and zapped him. "What do you know, it does work fine," said Chloe. Alvin got his vision back to be picked up by Chloe. "If you have ANY intelligence, you will release my brother very soon," she growled.

"Do ya think I'd be dumb enough to keep that flamin' idiot on me ship?" said Alvin, "He's on Outcast Island under tighter security than you'll ever get through."

"Then I really do need a reason to not kill you." said Chloe calmly

"Ya know, I don't think I've ever 'it a woman in me life, but I guess there's a first time for everything," said Alvin as he threw a punch at Chloe.

Chloe's hand shot up at snake speed and grabbed his wrist, Chloe being careful not to cut anything with her claws but stopping the punch dead. "Not very smart," she commented

She was tempted to just make a lightbulb out of him, but she was in a bashing sort of mood so she just slammed him repeatedly against the ship. After a bit, her comm buzzed. "Excuse me, I've got a call," said Chloe before tossing Alvin up on top of the mast.

The other Outcasts were staring in horror as she put a talon to her ear. "Yes? I'm kind of busy here," she said sternly, backhanding an outcast who tried his luck.

"Chloe, did you convince Stoick to help out?" asked Chip's voice.

"I've made a good start. I still need to tighten up the details...hold on," she said, stopping and sending a lightning bolt into a sword blade that an Outcast had before turning back to her comm call, "It might take a few more minutes."

"Out of curiosity, who is it you're fighting now?" asked Chip.

"Alvin," said Chloe promptly.

"He tried to attack Berk again, did he?" asked Chip.

"He tried. He's lost control of the kraken, unless the control 'amulet' survives being put together with paste," said Chloe calmly, looking up at Alvin.

"Sounds like a good opportunity," said Chip.

"For what?" asked Chloe.

'"You haven't sunk his ship, have you?" asked Chip.

"No...I'm standing on it," said Chloe calmly, kicking the mast to make Alvin fall back down.

"Then it ought to be good for a good old Trojan horse maneuver," said Chip.

"I like that idea..." said Chloe, turning off her comm and kicking Alvin, "Oi, stupid, wakey-wakey."

"What now, ye blasted 'arpy?" asked Alvin.

"I have to admit, you're a lot braver than a lot of bad guys I've met," said Chloe, "But that better not be moronic bravery because I'd rather not have to dumb down what I'm about to say."

With that, Chloe lifted Alvin up by the collar, apparently listening to something before she shrugged, closed her eyes and reopened her now red ones. "Hi, I'm her resident psychopath, Silvia," she said, flicking out her claws on her spare hand and saying "Now then, here's your choices: help me...or I bite your head off one chunk at a time."

Alvin glared at her before saying, "You put up a 'ard deal, but I guess I'll have to go along. What do you 'ave in mind?"

"You are going to give me your ship," said Silvia, grinning in a way that most sharks preferred rather than to show any friendliness

"If you think I'm gonna let ya sail away with me ship, yer more crazy than ya look," said Alvin.

"Oh don't worry, you'll be coming along too," said Silvia, "A plan like this needs a figurehead."

"What?" said Alvin before a fist descended on his head, sending him to sleepyland for a bit before Silvia turned her comm back on.

"Guys, we have a way onto Outcast Island that won't have us being shot out of the air. Get every wannabe pillager ready and let's ship out."

...

A droid marched into Anton's room and saw Matt out cold, Kai 'playing' with the torture device. "Yes?" asked Anton.

"The Outcast leader's ship is returning," said the droid calmly.

"How charred does it look?" asked Anton, sounding amused.

"Scans indicate light damage," said the droid calmly, before asking "What are our orders?"

"Hmm, what do you think, my dear?" asked Anton to Kai.

"I don't know. It looks like Draconus just doesn't want to come out," sighed Kai, snuggling Anton and causing Matt to growl angrily.

"Kai, when I get out of here...I'll probably go easy on you until Kala gets back control," said Matt, "But Anton's gonna have to learn how to sonic roar without a tongue!"

"Aw, that's so cute..." sneered Kai before looking at Anton, "Can't we kill these Vikings now?"

"You know we can't kill off timeline specifics," said Anton.

"Pretty please?" asked Kai, batting her eyelashes.

"Well, maybe we'll just pick off the spares," said Anton. Kai clapped her hands happily at that. "Well, we have time to kill before the transport arrives," said Anton, "Shall we entertain ourselves with the locals?"

"After you, darling," said Kai before an explosion was heard, followed by gunfire.

"What the hell?" said Anton angrily, walking to the door and opening it to see a gunfight down at the docks, the droids and Outcasts fighting an equal force of mercs and Hooligans.

"Sounds like my rescue party," said Matt, "I'll take my equipment, my girlfriend, and some payback for you on the side."

"Kai, go kill them, put up a good act," said Anton coldly before, as she left, saying "You know...I think the Emperor would understand if you arrived dead."

"And I'm guessing Taleth no longer cares about me being alive anymore," said Matt.

"You caused far too much trouble and killed his mate. He wants you extremely dead," said Anton calmly.

"I figured as much," said Matt, "And needless to say, I haven't endeared myself to you enough to make you go against your bosses' orders."

"On the contrary, I'm going to enjoy this," laughed Anton, aiming a slash.

...

Meanwhile, on the Arctic Sea, a rather unusual crew was rowing a smaller boat northwards.

There were several voices heard, Draco's was heard saying "Urgh...give me another fur, it's freezing."

NegaMorph said "It's not that cold. I just can't see why we can't use the engine."

"Because the kraken will notice if we're using tech when we're close to its lair," said Chip "We've gotten as far as we can with it. Besides, rowing builds up all your muscles."

"Why don't I fly ahead and…" began Contrinus before everyone said "NO!"

"Gary, you're not pulling hard enough," said Megan, "I'd rather not be on open water if the kraken decides to show up."

"I'm conserving my strength for when we'll need it in free the carbuncles," said Gary, "By the way, why have you been called in a 'crak-ken'? I thought it was pronounced 'cray-ken'."

"Actually, it's pronounced 'krok-ken' in the original Scandinavian and 'krak-ken is closer to that," said Megan, "Besides, it rolls off the tongue better."

"I think 'kray-ken' sounds more original," said Gary.

Megan gave him an annoyed look and said, "It's a mythological creature, I can call it what I want."

"It's only mythical if it doesn't exist," said Draco, shivering from the cold

"Why don't we ask it how it pronounces it?" asked Morph.

"Oh please, it's nowhere near...and it's behind us, isn't it?" said Chip, annoyed before everyone, looking past him, said "Yup."

Chip turned behind and up at the looming island that was the kraken. "Erm, Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong?" tried Chip. The kraken lifted up a tentacle out the water before holding it rather pointedly over them.

"Hold up, hold up, we've come to bargain!" called out Megan. The kraken paused and let out a low growl.

"Sure would be easier if we had a translator," said Draco.

"Or a direct telepathic connection," said Megan before picking up Draco and twisting his horns like TV antennas.

Draco yelped, "Look, I can't simply be used as a-" he began before going rigid and saying in a rasping tone "What are you tiny things doing here?"

"We've come here to help you," said Chip, "Tell me, how long have you guarded the creatures in that cave?"

"That information is not for you. I guard the little exploding ones because I wish to," said Draco, his eyes rather worryingly starting to point in different directions.

"Is that truly what you want to do or is that what you've been shackled to do by the ones who came before?" asked Chip.

"The other tiny ones shackled me. I crushed them," said the kraken via radio Draco.

"But what if we removed those shackles?" asked Chip, "You don't have to be bound to this one place anymore."

"I am not. I choose to be here. Why do you choose to enter my home?" said the kraken nastily.

"Er, I don't suppose you wouldn't mind if we took those creatures off your tentacles. I mean, what are they to you? You don't own anything to those people who shackled you," said Megan.

"The little ones stay," said the kraken in a rather final tone.

"I'll trade you for them," said Morph.

Draco turned his head to look at Morph "What would you offer for lives?"

Morph looked stumped as he tried to figure something out. Then he sighed and pulled out a metal briefcase. "I offer my collection of special shiny red rocks," said Morph.

The kraken reached down and picked up the crate without effort before dropping it on Morph. "No," was the reply.

"Aw, but they're really shiny, take a look," said Morph clicking open the clasps. The others quickly moved to the opposite side of the boat.

The kraken peered closer before tossing the crystals over the side. "No," it said angrily.

Just then, the briefcase beeped, "Warning, radiation containment deactivated, please clear immediate area." There was a burst of light, the experiments ducking down, remembering the last time Morph's 'collection' had gone off before peering out to see a huge statue above them, the kraken. A few cracks were already visible, indicating that this wouldn't last forever though.

"Let's get those little critters and get out of here," said Chip.

"Preferably before he wakes up and crushes us," said Draco nervously, noting that one of the kraken's eyes was still normal and was aiming a death glare that was worthy of Chloe.

"My pretty shiny collection, your sacrifice will not be in vain," said Morph before asking, "Where's the front door again?"

...

The carbuncles were watching the mayhem through one of the feeds. Despite their looks, they were intelligent enough to turn on a security feed. "Does this mean he's gonna make a mess again?" asked one, referring to the kraken.

"He's not going to be happy when he gets out of there," said another carbuncle.

"You mean IF he gets out of there," said a third carbuncle.

"If, if would be good," said the second.

The damaged computer, which had long presumed the carbuncles were the base's crew, said "The defense unit has not suffered a permanent burst of reality energy...estimate 1 hour to rejuvenation." getting another carbuncle to say "Yay, one hour to a good fight."

"You think those guys will free us?" asked a younger carbuncle.

"Who cares? It's entertainment either way," said another carbuncle getting sounds of agreement.

"Still, it would be nice to be able to leave this cave," said the younger carbuncle.

"Why? We have all the food we want here," said an older carbuncle as a view showed the experiments trying to get past one of the base's more imaginative traps which involved the walls sandwiching a victim, in this case Draco and Morph.

"Well I don't like that big cuttlefish always watching us all the time," said another carbuncle.

"Ok, vote time. If they get in, who wants to blow them up?"

After the carbuncle paws voted for blowing up was counted, the younger carbuncle said, "Who votes for letting them rescue us when they get in?" The same number of paws was raised.

"Ok, compromise, we'll blow them up if they get here, THEN we let them rescue us," said the first carbuncle. There were several cheers at that.

...

The experiments finally broke through the last door, none of them in a happy mood. The base had almost been as creative with traps as the spiderbots. "I swear, those Atlanteans were downright malevolent," said Chip.

"Yeah, they've thrown just about every trap at us but a tiger pit," said Draco.

"This had better be worth it," snarled Contrinus, who had lost her patience after a close call with an ice beam.

"I'm sure the little guys will be grateful for us freeing them," said Morph cheerfully, never getting scathed for long by a trap.

"Hey, the scanner says they're in here. What's with all the ro-oh no," said Chip weakly as every 'rock' in the room began glowing.

"They've come to greet us," said Morph, blissful ignorant as usual.

The explosion was pretty big, destroying the room and leaving all the experiments blackened. "Ow," rasped Draco weakly.

Morph regenerated and said, "Aw, we just startled them. Carbuncles, you are free!"

The carbuncles all unfolded before running past the group, one stopping and saying in a good English accent, "Thanks guys." causing Draco and Contrinus to get a nervous twitch.

"You can talk?" asked Megan.

NegaMorph groaned "Yes they can." before a blast blew him up as the carbuncles screamed "DEMON!"

"Ok, so now that we've found them, how are we supposed to get them out of here before the kraken breaks loose?" asked Gary.

"They're stealing the boat," said Chip causally, looking at a surviving screen.

"Oh sure, that'll keep them safe from the kraken," said NegaMorph sarcastically, "Never mind my incredible shadow portal that can lead to almost anywhere on the planet."

"They worked out the engine, smart little guys," said Contrinus, peering at the view.

"So...how do we get back?" asked Megan.

"I guess we start flying," said Draco. There was a chorus of complaints and a few pieces of rubble tossed at Draco at that idea.

"Well, as long as we're clearing out this place, we might as well be thorough," said NegaMorph as he started working on one of the last remaining computers.

"I doubt there will be anything worth salvaging here," said Chip.

Then NegaMorph opened up a page and said, "Ooh, this looks promising."

Draco peered to see a schematic. "Oh...a new vehicle?" he asked.

Chip took a look and said, "Hmm, should be feasible to construct once we get to the Atlantean colony on Avalar." He downloaded a copy of the file and said, "Oh, this is interesting, it seems there may be one in storage here."

"Good, cause I think the krakens loose," said Draco casually.

"What gives you that idea?" asked NegaMorph before a tentacle came through the ceiling and yanked him out with a literal 'yoink' noise.

"What makes you think this submersible would be safe from the kraken?" asked Megan.

Chip said, "Knowing the Atlanteans, it can probably sink a continent."

"Don't you think that's a bit hyperbolic?" asked Gary. The others paused to look at him. "What? Just because I was originally born a few centuries ago doesn't mean I can't have an extensive vocabulary?"

"Let's just get out of here before the kraken finishes with NegaMorph," said Draco.

"Think he's indigestible to the kraken?" asked Contrinus.

"I wouldn't want to be up close if he was," said Draco.

A 'ptui' was heard before NegaMorph landed in a splat beside them. "It wants seconds," he groaned.

"Then let's hurry," said Chip, "I've read and seen enough adaptations of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to know that you don't want a giant cephalopod manhandling your submarine."

Morph settled it down by yelling "RUN AWAY!"

...

The Outcasts, meanwhile, were getting a battle they wouldn't be forgetting soon. It's bad enough that the Hairy Hooligans are attacking, but they have dragons on their side. Not to mention the various additions to the crew were too preoccupied with fighting their counterparts with beams of light.

Chloe sliced another droid down before stomping towards the main square, punching out an Outcast as he charged her before slicing down another droid to see Kala. "There you are!" she snapped angrily.

'Kala' turned and give an unnervingly wide grin. "Well, if it isn't Chloe," she said so sweetly you could tell it was frosted over something deadly, "I've wanted to have a girl-to-girl chat with you for some time."

Chloe raised an eyebrow at that before she mentally turned on her lie detector on her wrist comp. "Where's Matt?" she asked carefully.

"Sleeping off our big fun reunion," said Kala.

Chloe raised an eyebrow at that "Really? I usually need a crowbar to keep him out of a fight...try again." she said calmly.

'Kala' pouted and said, "I thought we were good friends. Don't you trust my word?"

"Then explain who turned you back? Even WARDEN said we needed to recode you," said Chloe nastily before sending a bolt of lightning at Kala.

Kala jumped back and threw a fireball at Chloe. "Just to let you know, you started this fight," said Kala before unleashing a triple flamethrower at Chloe.

Chloe's reply was a double lightning bolt, snapping "I thought you were dead, Kai. I pay alot more attention than my brother."

"Wasn't Silvia dead too after Omnirus sucked her out?" responded Kai.

"Point to you, now go back to hell," said Chloe nastily.

"Only if you come with me," said Kai before making fire erupt where Chloe was standing. After a minute, Kai ceased the flames before sighing "Oh well..." before a lightning blast hit her in the chest, Silvia strolling out of the smoke.

"You were never good enough for my brother, even if he is a wimp," snarled Silvia.

Kai snarled as well, trying to shift to her anthro form, which was still a Night Fury before Silvia punched her back down "You don't really think you stand a chance, do you?" asked Silvia, "I have a lot more experience and training than you do. You barely have a dark side to reflect." Kai got up unsteadily before Silvia knocked her back down again and continued, "Even your dragon form's on low power."

Kai snarled and opened up her mouth to breathe fire at Silvia when Silvia grabbed a nearby bucket of water and tossed its contents into Kai's mouth, resulting in a lot of steam and coughing. "Had enough?" said Silvia, aiming her blade at Kai.

"I'm just getting warmed-" started Kai before a big blast of water soaked her. Silvia looked behind her to see Steampipe crawling up onto the beach.

"Erm...thanks?" said Silvia confused before noticing Steampipe making a beeline for the hut Kala had come from.

...

Anton wasn't the type to finish people off with one blow. He preferred to make as many wounds as possible and let the damage add up. Matt looked like he'd been dropped in a box of knives from the cuts that Anton had given him. "Well, looks like it's time to go. Kai should have subdued or killed Chloe by now, so..." he began, aiming a slice before the wall was smashed and a mouth chomped him.

Matt looked up to see Steampipe thoughtfully chewing on a protesting Anton before spitting him away with a loud 'ptui'. "Thanks...for once you were actually-" Matt began before he was swallowed. "Shoulda known," muttered Matt, not quite in the mood to be fighting his way out, "Oh well, at least I've built up a tolerance to the venom, unlike Anton."

...

Chloe winced as Anton was spat out the building, followed by Matt who slid to a halt at her feet. "Chloe, about time you got here, have you caught Kai?" asked Matt. Chloe nodded over at Kai, who was being helped up by Anton. "Oi! That's my girl! Paws off!" yelled Matt.

Anton grinned. "I think she likes it where she is," he sneered.

"I've been through too much to just let her slip away now," growled Matt, "Now get away from her before I come over and pull out your teeth."

Anton laughed. "Please...you got blood...bloood loss and I'm at full stre-" he began before apparently pausing, Kal peering at him before tapping him, causing the luckless guy to keel over like a statue.

"Yeah, I was like that the first couple of times after being chewed on by Steampipe," said Matt, "I think I might have been trippier though."

"Different people, different reactions," said Chloe, the two walking forward while Kai tried to back up.

"Kai, I'm only going to ask nicely once: surrender and let us take you prisoner until we can get back to Avalar or just give Kala back control now," said Matt. Kai glared and readied her claws...only to be shot in the back by a stun blaster.

"Ok, let's bring her back," said Matt before asking, "By the way, what's happened with OmegaMorph? I assume that someone's already taken care of him."

At that point, a burst of energy hit the Lynches, the Morph of the hour appearing from the air. "You rang?" he sneered.

"Did I keep you waiting?" asked Matt as he started pulling himself up, "I've had a couple of people lined up to kill me and I hadn't gotten to you yet."

OmegaMorph grinned before sending a burst of energy that sent Matt flying back. "Please, you haven't got a chance," he sneered.

Matt got back up and said, "Sure I do, I just don't want to do it here," before shifting to dragon form and flying off.

OmegaMorph shrugged, readying some shadow wings and taking off in pursuit. The two of them sped across the ocean, OmegaMorph throwing the occasional energy burst at Matt. "So, you have an actual plan, Lynch?" taunted OmegaMorph.

"Well, I mostly came out here so there'd be less collateral damage," admitted Matt, "But it also gives me plenty of elbow room."

OmegaMorph sensed what was coming, sending up a field of energy as Matt sent a blast of plasma at him. After the attack dissipated, OmegaMorph laughed and said, "Throw as big an attack as you can, I'll still shrug it off."

Matts reply was to tackle OmegaMorph, digging his claws in and trying the old plasma control trick. OmegaMorph's form started to distort, but OmegaMorph interrupted by punching Matt in the face.

"It takes more than that," OmegaMorph roared before sending a paralyzing blast into Matt's wings. Matt winced by managed to get his wings into a gliding position before he hit the water.

OmegaMorph just laughed before he paused, some orders arriving via text that appeared in his vision...orders to fall back. "Oh, come on..." he groaned before being tazered. "Fine, fine," he snapped. He looked down at the wavering Matt and said, "I'll guess I'll have to deal with you next time. If you don't drown before that." He then flew off.

...

Most of the fight was over by the time Matt made it back to shore. Anton had managed to exit stage left by the time that he had made it and Kai was screaming death threats in Avalarian at anyone near.

"Ok, give me one good reason why we shouldn't be leaving this backwater planet right now?" growled Matt, who had been batted around by Steampipe like a seal's ball before he managed to get to shore.

"The victory feast?" suggested Gobber.

"Look, sooner we leave, the sooner these guys leave," said Matt, pointing to the wrecked droids.

"Well, we'll need to find our funny little friends," said Chloe.

"Where are they?" asked Matt.

"Up at the Arctic, trying to do a rescue mission," said Chloe.

"Hey, boat coming in," called one of Matt's men, pointing to something speeding towards the docks.

Chloe looked and said, "That looks like the experiments' boat. Huh, I expected them to have sunk it."

"It's not slowing down." said Chris carefully.

"If I know those guys well enough..." started Matt before turning to the Vikings and saying, "Please leave the area within 50 feet of the docks."

On cue, the boat smashed into the shore and shot up the shore before smashing. After the dust settled, Matt said, "I suppose it was only a matter of time before those guys added a boat to their list of stuff that they wrecked. Alright, you little maniacs, come on out of there!"

What poked its head out wasn't an experiment; it was a blue version of the exploding fox from earlier. "So...they went to rescue the carbuncle," said Matt.

"No, they went to rescue all the carbuncles," said Chloe. Matt turned back to see almost all the carbuncles looking at him. Toothless and the other dragons covered their ears with whines as Matt screamed

The Vikings watched as Matt ran, closely pursued by all the critters. "What in Odin's beard are those things?" asked Stoick.

"Carbuncles, dad," said Hiccup, "And the reason Matt's running from them is because they like to blow themselves up." There were several explosions behind the building that Matt and the critters had vanished behind as if to emphasize the point.

"Don't worry, we'll be relocating them to a more suitable habitat where they won't be causing trouble and be free to live their lives," said Chloe before pausing and musing, "Or we could let them run around here on Outcast Island for a while."

...

The rebuilding of the village didn't take very long with the gang's help. Having things like gravity grapples and welders helped alot too. While most of the tension had left with the successful attack on Outcast Island, there were still a few people who glared at the crew. Most of them just gawked however.

"Look, we have to do it," said Chris as Matt came in.

"Do what?" asked Matt.

"We can't leave their memories intact. It'll wreck the timeline," said Chris sternly.

"Oh, that," said Matt, sounding a little sad, "Can't we at least leave the kids' memories intact?"

"No...gotta be total," said Chloe sadly.

"It's not like we're going to be coming back here," said Techo.

"You're right...but we can't just blast their memories" snapped Matt.

"Their memories would cause a lot more harm than good," said Chris.

"Fine...you handle everyone else...I'll deal with the kids," said Matt, dully.

Chloe gave him a suspicious look and said, "Really?" Matt nodded, activating the mindwipe system on his wristcomp and walking out.

Chloe sighed and said, "As soon as the experiments show up, we head back at the orbit, stop to pick up the Constructicons on the moon AFTER they dismantle their base, fly over to the sun and toss those bloody wolfstones in, then we head back to Avalar via the most optimal route."

...

Matt walked in to hear the kids celebrating their victory, even the dragons celebrating. "Hey kids, quite a battle we had today, eh?" asked Matt.

"Yeah, we got to beat up those Outcasts good and proper," laughed Ruffnut.

"And we ran off all those creeps who were trying kidnap Kala...and stuff..." said Tuffnut.

"That's right." said Matt, pulling out a fingerless glove, a metal disk on the palm and a LED control on the back that Matt began typing commands into.

"Matt, you don't seem as excited," said Astrid.

"Yeah...I just have one job to do first before we head off," said Matt, Hiccup seeing several flashes from the town.

"Matt, that's the memory-eraser glove, isn't it?" asked Hiccup.

"Afraid so..." said Matt casually.

Snotlout immediately pulled out his sword and snapped, "Nobody's messing with my head!"

"Might not need to mess around with it, it's enough of a mess already," said Matt, "A simple bonk on the head's probably all that's need. No, wait, that'd make you forget too much. We'll just use this then." Snotlout and the others didn't have long to move before Matt held up his gloved hand, palm out before there was a flash of light.

"Sorry about that, mates. It's been a great honor," said Matt, "You might have a little subconscious memory, something that'd pop up in a dream and dismissed just as easily. I probably shouldn't be talking like this and I might to flash you again to forget what I'm saying right now but I felt like I owed you that much."

He held up his hand again, the glove already set for that. Two buttons flashed, one would activate the wipe while the other would cancel. Matt sighed before deciding.

...

The iceberg that was holding the cruiser for untold years was finally breaking away. A large part of that was due to the kraken attacking, but the most driving force at the moment was most likely the cruiser rising up into the air.

Matt was looking at a feed from the ship's brig, where Kai was sitting, smirking at the camera. "Set a course. Let's get out of here," he said.

"Hey, it's not nearly as bad as the last time Kai was last in Avalar," said Techo only to shrink back when Matt glowered at him. "I see you do not wish to be reminded of that," said Techo.

"I do not. I had to brain wipe the only decent kids here and my girlfriend's psycho again," Matt snapped.

"A treatable condition," said Chris, "Just bring her back to that Atlantean colony and they'll get their brain and body pointing in the right direction again."

Matt glared. "Chris, you can look after Kai then...AND WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE CREW?!" he yelled.

"Sir, we're picking up a large object in the water," said a techie.

"Not the bloody kraken again," groaned Matt.

"No, this thing's mechanical," said the techie.

"What?!" snapped Matt, before he ran to a viewport to see triangular shape surfacing below them. The surface frothed a bit before a steel hull surfaced, vents on the sides of it opening and released gusts of stale air.

Matt squinted before seeing Draco emerge and wave to them. "GRAB THAT SHIP!" yelled Matt.

"Activating tractor beam," said the techie before a green light shone from the cruiser onto the structure below. Slowly, it lifted up out of the water, revealing itself to be a submarine of an advanced design.

"As soon as you have them, put them on brig duty too," snapped Matt.

"Sorry, captain, but you're not allowed to do that," said Techo.

"What do you mean?" demanded Matt.

"There's a very clear passage in the NSC lawbook that says that salvaging new vehicles requires debriefing of the ones who found it first," said Techo.

Matt grinned evilly at that. "Good, the rules don't apply anymore," he said.

"You should at least inspect it," said Techo, "You know, make sure it's worth the mass."

"We tossed out the rule book first day on the job," said Chloe.

"Ok, but you're the one who's got to go down and tell them they're on brig duty," said Techo.

"Gladly," said Matt before walking off.

"They're gonna kill him," said Techo casually.

"Not directly," said Chloe.

...

Matt had forgotten that one of the crew members he was going to punish was also a witch. And apparently she has been practicing her rope magic considering he was currently dangling from outside the ship.

"Let me in! THIS IS MUTINY!" he screamed.

"Nope, this is karma," said Megan before calling, "Oh Steampipe, we'll be leaving for good in a while and this will be your last chance to play with Matt!"

"You miserable little-" began Matt before he vanished as Steampipe chomped him

Chloe walked to the cargo door and asked, "So, how long should we let them play?"

"Well, we have gotten every last wolfstone, right?" asked Megan.

"Might need to do a flyover to check," said Draco, "Not to mention we need to take those Smothering Smokebreaths from Berk back to Breaknog Bog where they belong."

"I got all the stones," snapped Chloe.

"Oh, good," said Megan, "Then we just need to take care of the Smokebreaths."

Just then, Steampipe surfaced again, Matt trying to get out of his mouth. "SMEE! Er, I mean, CHLOE!" yelled Matt before Steampipe snapped around him again.

Chloe sighed, "He can get out of it himself this time."

"I'll save you, captain!" cried Morph before he ran past, oddly enough wearing a blue and white striped shirt, a red floppy hat, and half-moon spectacles.

The others just blinked before leaving, Draco muttering why they couldn't have stayed on Kauai.

There's the final chapter. Sorry it took so long to upload. The original idea was to make this a two-parter but then I realized that I didn't have enough material for a two-parter. Of course, I've also been pretty busy with other things that took up a lot of my time.

Anyways, since this was the final chapter, I'd thought we'd go out with a bang, what with Alvin's involvement and the kraken. It's been a moderately good story, hampered by the fact that we couldn't use season 2 material, but it was worth to be able to make a butt monkey out of Mildew. It's not very likely that we'll be doing another story based in this universe, but we'll be moving on to other stories that will have less constraint. The next story is still in the development stage but it will probably be started before too much time has passed. In the meantime, check for other updates for other stories and please review.