Hiccup in a Flash, chap 1

I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or its characters, just merely borrowing the character for an adventure of my own.

This is my first fanfic I ever wrote so please have mercy! ^^ More seriously, I would like to precise that English is not my mother tongue so please point to me the errors I made, the misuses of expression or what expression would be better to use so that I can improve myself.

About this fanfic: I was actually in a frenzy of reading HTTYD fanfic and especially Modern AU ones. And I really enjoyed O Superhero and The Stormfly but was sad that I couldn't read some more about it so I decided to write one myself.

Please enjoy yourself with this fanfic ^^

- Chapter 1: Hostage situation

"We are still here at the Bank of Berk and the status of the hostage situation has remained the same. No progress has been made in the last few hours."

The angle of the camera changed to show a close-up of the bank. The stores in the surrounding area were closed up and the police had completely surrounded the bank.

"As you can see the criminals have taken refuge inside and have taken hostages. We've been told that there are at least five hostiles with 18 hostages. They apparently came in force for a quick grab-and-run operation but were stopped by a police patrol passing by. The police quickly surrounded them and Commissioner Haddock personally came to supervise the negotiation."

The view changed for another camera that was filming the Commissioner Haddock barking orders.

"Seven hours have passed since the police surrounded the bank. The situation seems quite hopeless for the hostages inside, as the robbers have already killed three of them to prove they are not to be taken lightly. We still haven't been told what they were asking for but Commissioner Haddock, as he had already declared in his last nomination speech, clearly stated that he refuses to be intimidated by anyone, especially not by those ready to use such degrees of violence. He has kept his men on site freezing to death outside without moving for the entire time in order to keep the bank surrounded on this 12th February."

After the camera had shown different angles showing the police surrounding the bank, it went back to the correspondent on site.

"We've also been told that there is apparently at least one hostage wounded and nothing seemed to make his misery shorter. We have come to an understanding that this situation is likely to remain in a state of stalemate for the remaining duration of time. No major changes are expected before nightfall."

Back to the news station.

"Thank you Anthony for this update on the hostage situation at the Bank of Berk. We will keep you posted. A reminder for the viewers joining us right now that a bank robbery turned into a hostage situation is still happening right now at the center of our city and footage is coming to us from our correspondent on site."

He then turned to his co-host.

"But I have to say that, sadly, this situation isn't that surprising. Berk has grown to know quite a peak of criminality for the past three years don't you think so Samantha?"

"You're right Frank. Violent crimes have increased by 50% since 2012, larceny is up by 60% and murder by 40%. But a large part of it is due to the rapid growth of Berk. It is the most spectacular growth for a city that has been seen in the the past century. The population has doubled in the last 5 years and the size of the city has tripled in size with the arrival of multiple offices, schools and factories in the suburbs and in the center of the city."

Different graphs and statistics appeared on screen as she spoke.

"But it is also true that the criminality has been down by 18% this one month and thus after an 8% steady decrease for the past months. This is a historical record for Berk that is hard to explain. Even if the Police Department prides itself on having the most efficient police force in the US, many seem to be dissatisfied with this explanation alone."

A glimpse of comprehension passed in her co-host's eyes. "Ah! You must be speaking about the mysterious Night Fury we've been hearing about in recent rumors."

She blushed a bit at the grin and teasing tone of Frank but kept her head high.

"I know that most rumors sound a bit out there but I genuinely believe that there is some amount of truth to these."

Frank himself was not one to put stock in fairy tales.

"Do you really think that there is a mysterious vigilante in a black costume running the streets, helping people, fighting crime for justice, liberty and..."

He stopped in his tracks as orders were yelled into his earpiece. He frowned at the interruption, clearly displeased at it; though it sounded urgent.

"It seems that there has been progress on the robbery of the Bank of Berk. Anthony what can you tell us?"

The frown on Frank's face deepened even more as the correspondent on site appeared on screen. Frank never liked when such sudden interruptions occurred, he always found it unprofessional but not as much as it was proving to be right now. It looked like the correspondent completely forgot that he was on TV as he stared at the camera blankly, shock written on his face.

"Hum, Anthony? Can you hear us? Are there changes on site?"

Waking up from his trance, he tried to answer the question the best he could.

"I -I don't know what -I -it seemed like..."

He stopped and forced himself to calm down, taking deep breaths. Then he tried again as professionally as he could.

"As you can see behind me the hostage situation has been resolved a minute ago and a man dressed in a black costume is currently standing in front of the bank. From the looks of it, he alone has ended this tense hostage situation without any bloodshed."

The camera zoomed over his shoulder to focus in on a 6 foot-tall man dressed in a night black leather armor suit. He was standing in front of five men on their knees, hands tied behind their backs. He turned to face the camera, watching the crowd through the slits of his mask and disappeared in a flash.

"What happened?! Where did he go? How did he do that?" exclaimed Frank, losing a major part of his cherished professionalism.

"I -I have no idea. Let's see what our camera managed to film a minute ago."

The picture changed, showing the exterior of the bank filmed from the roof of the building in front of it.

A black blur in the shape of a line seemed to enter the building. Immediately afterwards some shots were heard quickly followed by 15 people fleeing out of the bank, one of them with a wounded shoulder. Moments later the unconscious robbers appeared one by one outside the bank as a blur seemed to be going back and forth from the bank. When all of them were apprehended a man stood in front of them in a full black costume. He stayed there staring at the robbers a moment then, turned around to face the crowd when he suddenly disappeared in another blur.

The picture suddenly went back and stopped on the moment he turned around. The image was blown up and you could clearly see the mysterious savior. He was wearing a black leather suit with an engraving of a red dragon symbol on his shoulder. He had a helmet also made of black leather with two slits for the eyes and two black fins on his hears. Smaller fins formed three rows going from the eyes' slit and disappearing at the back of his head.

Frank couldn't comprehend what he was looking at, what he had just seen. He said the first thing that came to him.

"Who the f*ck is he?"

"Night Fury," answered a gleeful Samantha.

"THIS MENACE HAS DISGRACED THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT!" yelled Steven Haddock, Police Commissioner of Berk.

As always his voice was as massive as his person. Over 7 feet tall, in his black suit he looked like an ox with a particularly impressive beard. He was wearing a deep blue (almost black) suit with a white shirt and blood red tie that was the same color as his massive, but surprisingly well combed, beard braided in thick braids like a sunset. On the reverse of his jacket shined the pin of his position.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS HAS EMBARRASSED ME?! Could you please explain to me how the finest of Berk needed the help of one guy in a costume to save their arses?!"

No one dared to answer. The Commissioner was fuming and with his impressive build and the natural respect he commanded even Hulk would have thought twice before talking back to him. The Commissioner was the kind of man that needed 10 men to stop him in his prime and, even if he had grew old and was beginning to show some belly, you would still need 6 strong men to stop him, just to be on the safe side. He was not someone to be trifled with.

"Do you know how much of a fool you made me to be?!"

Steven Stefan Haddock, also known among the cops as Stoick The Vast, was many things but foolish. Second generation in the Force, he worked his way up from the very bottom to the post of Commissioner and earned the respect and admiration of his peers. If one had to qualify him after his 32 years in the police, he would describe Stoick as boar-headed and intuitive. He always knew when he was being lied to, cut straight to the chase and he was usually spot-on when chasing his gut feeling. Dedicated to his work, he earned the reputation of being fair in his decisions and to always staying true to his word. That's why he had been nominated as the Commissioner for the past 26 years. As exemplary as he was, he was also known for his impressive temper and everyone knew better than to get on his bad side.

Well, that is everyone except his son Harold and Night Fury.

Speak of the devil, Harold Henri Haddock, aka Hiccup, third generation in the Police did not seem to be too pleased to have to attend his Father's speech. He did not see the point of him being here. Sure he was a cop but he was just a forensic scientist and he was not really concerned by all that. Plus he was pretty sure that he would have his own private version of the speech given to him by none other than his father later, in his forensic lab. Along with the disapproving look of his father on his lab coat, an eternal reminder to him that Hiccup was not following the family tradition like he did.

"That vigilante that saved ALL of your ass's is NO HERO!"

To be sure he had made his point across he slammed his fist onto his podium that made a sickening crack.

"He is like a LEECH; sucking energy off of the attention, waited hours to be sure that the media was there to see him! And only then, too late by hours, he intervened and interfered with police work! He's trying to RIDICULE us and prove us INCOMPETENT! He wants to make the population of Berk believe that they don't need us! But not on my watch! He got lucky this time that nobody else got shot! But if he had worked with us instead of against us we could have prevented the death of three people! Those deaths are ON HIM just as much as the robbers!"

Hiccup twitched at the last remark. He was sure that Night Fury wasn't to blame.

If he knew...

"Despite what the media are saying, he's NO GOOD SAMARITAN! And I am pretty damn sure that he is closer to being the UNHOLY OFFSPRING OF LIGHTNING AND DEATH ITSELF rather than a HERO! Why else would he use a mask and costume; of which the only aim is to terrify the population of good citizens?"

Hiccup winced.

The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, really Dad? Don't you think that it is a bit overdramatic? Why not say that it's some legendary fire-breathing beast while you're at it.

Although, the lightning part is not quite so far off.

"I WANT HIM ARRESTED! No man and woman of this department should rest until we catch him! I will not let a damn wannabe vigilante let loose in MY city! The only heroes of this city are the people of this department, RISKING THEIR LIVES in the open every single day for this city! Not some FREAK in a mask and a costume whose only superpower seems to be running into problems and MOCKING US!"

He ended his speech, his voice vibrating with anger, fierce flames of determination shining in his eyes.

Yep, I am definitely in trouble thought Hiccup.

Hiccup, commonly known by the population of Berk by his alter-ego Night Fury, never intended for things to turn this way. Since he started to patrol the streets 5 months ago, he tried to help whenever he could but never never before had he caught the relentless eye of the media. He enjoyed staying in the shadows and being nothing more than a legend. At first his actions were just a rumor that no one seemed to believe. Minds were forced to changed as it became obvious that someone was fighting crime. But even then people tried to dismiss the possibility of a vigilante with powers that seemed to be coming straight from a comic book, elaborating all sorts of theories. Those theories went from gangs turning on each other to a secret police task force with a tad of governmental conspiracy.

Then a month ago a kid got trapped in a burning apartment. His parents were away for the night and he apparently thought he could fry himself some eggs. But when the oil in the pan caught fire he threw, some water in it; sending flames to the nearby curtains. Panic overcame him and he thought he would be fine if he locked himself in his room and pretended that he had done nothing wrong.

Definitely a bad idea, but when you're five, you know more about avoiding being grounded than how to put out a fire. So as he was elaborating excuses, he got blocked in his room by flames that spread everywhere in the apartment and the firemen were too late to try and rescue him. They could only evacuate the other residents and try to control the fire. Hiccup arrived when the fire was starting to spread into the kid's room. He took him in his arms and quickly ran to the playground behind the building. But as he asked him if he was okay the kid burst into tears, screaming unintelligibly that it wasn't his fault if the kitchen was on fire, it was the water's fault.

A tad panicked, Hiccup tried to reassure him. He said whatever he could to calm him the sobbing child. It was utter non-sense that could be somewhat resume like that: that it wasn't his fault - sob - and because it was such a dark night - sob - the fury of flames would make him come to the rescue every time - sob - so he didn't have to worry - sob - that he would be safe even if that ever happened again. Hiccup, himself, didn't know what he was saying but it seemed to work as the kid began to calm down. Then he suddenly heard someone coming and disappeared in the night.

But unknown to him a neighbor in the next building filmed the fire and also filmed Hiccup and the boy when he heard the kid crying. When Hiccup disappeared in a flash he showed it to a journalist who then asked the kid what Hiccup told him. He couldn't make much sense of what the kid told him but understood one thing: he said that he was Night Fury.

After that it became his official nickname. Hiccup found it kind of funny how such a nickname could come from his previous blabber but he liked how cool it sounded. He didn't think he would have found better - he's been trying for weeks to find a cool nickname but the best he had come up with was The Flash. Not his best idea.

The video of him disappearing in a flash was soon spread everywhere and everybody in Berk had watched it at least once. The media started arguing whether it was a hoax or not. If there was really a vigilante with superpowers or it was just some big joke. Most people thought it was just a hoax of someone trying to be famous but a few began to watch the street in hope of catching a glimpse of Night Fury.

Hiccup's father however didn't see from a good eye the possibility of a vigilante. The last thing he wanted was some wannabe hero doing more harm than good in the street and undermining the trust in the police.

Since then Hiccup had tried his best to stay out of the way of police work. When he arrived on a scene where the police were already present, he would wait to see if they could manage on their own and intervene only if somebody was in immediate danger or if they were in way over their head. But above all he promised himself to never intervene when the media or his father were present.

As fate would have it, not soon after that he found himself breaking his vow. When he heard about the hostage situation he waited to see how things would turn out. When he saw his father personally taking charge of it, he thought that everything would be all right. Little did he know. A few hours later, he heard that 3 hostages had been killed and that his father still wouldn't agree to the conditions that the thieves had proposed. He knew then that he had to intervene. He got there in a matter of seconds and entered without hesitation. He stopped and looked around to evaluate the situation.

He cringed when he saw the 3 bodies and a security guard injured on the floor, a bullet in his shoulder. 14 people were lined up on the floor near the register and were held at gunpoint by 3 robbers with their backs facing him. A robber next to him was watching the entrance while the last robber was on the phone arguing with the Commissioner. He was threatening to kill more hostages, yelling that after all "it's not like I will run out of hostages for the next few hours".

"What the f*ck!"

The robber watching the door yelled and opened fire at Hiccup. The four other robbers turned around and started to shoot while the hostages began to scream. Quickly Hiccup dodged the bullets by the narrowest of the margin with his lightning fast reflex and took the gun of the closest of the robbers faster than he could blink. By the time he realized he was no longer armed, Hiccup was running to the other four disarming them one by one. After piling the confiscated guns he cut loose the hostages.

"Run! They're disarmed! Get the hell out of here!"

In a matter of seconds the hostages were on their feet for the sprint of their life to the door, nearly running over the robbers. Two of them helped the wounded security guard to move. Once the hostages were no longer threatening to run them over, the robbers quickly took a defensive posture, knives and handguns flying in their hands.

"Who the hell are you? Are you supposed to be this Night Fury guy?"

"No. Just some random dude in a costume passing by." A smile in his voice, sarcasm dripping from it.

"Really?"

One of the robber genuinely believed his answer.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. Nobody gets his humor.

"Okay guys let's wrap this up nice and quick."

He took the leftover restraints from the robbers' bag and began to attach them one by one as he dropped them in front of the bank. He was glad that the lightning from his accident six and half months ago gave him some abs and more upper body strength on top of super speed. Otherwise he would have never been able to lift the robbers. But even now he was still doing it with some difficulties. He promised himself that he would definitely work on that later.

Once the last robber had been disarmed and dropped, he took his time to check if everything was done. Without a second thought he turned over on the sound of flashes going on and faced the crowd. Everyone was gaping at him, staring at the impossible. Even his father's jaw was dropping but by barely a millimeter. And even if the difference was imperceptible, Hiccup had to admit that was quite a sight. He had never seen his dad that surprised in his entire life, but it quickly made way to a fury of a scale that frightened Hiccup. As he diverted his gaze, he noticed a camera crew on top of a building filming directly at him.

So much for discretion and remaining an urban legend. Quickly he left the scene.

At this very moment, everyone present knew with certainty that life on Berk had changed forever. That the door to a universe of impossibilities had just opened and Hiccup knew that from this moment on, his life would become immensely more difficult.

"Hiccup, the Commissioner wants to see you."

Hiccup grunted.

What does my father want with me? Is he going to scowl at me and tell me that I should start acting like a real 'cop' again?

"Thank you Gobber."

Gobber was a family friend and an old partner of Stoick when he was still a detective. Gobber was a tall, bulky man with two out of four prosthetics limbs and a belly showing proof of his love for cheap food. He was wearing a sempiternal dirty lab jacket that he absolutely refused to change.

Once Hiccup tried to convince him to change it as it was in dying need of being washed. He argued that there was no point in changing it as he was sure that one day Hiccup will just burn it again with one of his experiments. Hiccup protested to that accusation, promising that he wouldn't burn his lab coat but Gobber would have none of it. To be fair Hiccup hadn't burned his lab coat in years.

Ok, maybe not that long. A year two months and twenty-five days.

And he may had burnt a few dozen lab coats before that, including Gobber's, but it always had been alright, and he had finally managed to have Gobber wash his lab coat (even if it was a bit too late for that).

Hiccup took a moment to look at his second father. Blond and nearly bald with an impressively long mustache above a clean-shaven jaw, Gobber was quite a funny sight. He looked like one of those old Vikings of lore. He could be rough on the edges and tend to talk a bit too much of his mind but Gobber was someone that always kept a glimpse of amusement in his eyes with a hint of madness. Always keeping his calm he could brighten up every situation, even tough ones. And God knows Gobber had been in tough situations.

Together with Stoick they formed the most successful combo in the history of the Police Department with an impressive 87% of solved cases. It was until one day Gobber was run over by a fleeing criminal. He miraculously survived a risky operation but his left arm and right leg had been damaged beyond repair. He got amputated of both and lost a tooth in the process. After that accident he could no longer be on the field, despite his protests that he was fine.

As he was the only one at the time that knew how to operate the meager scientific equipment in the department (mostly because no one else would bother learning how, saying that it was just getting in the way of actual detective work) he was offered to create a scientific lab in the police department. He accepted it but was annoyed that he had been put on the bench like that. As time flew by, the science made progress and proved irreplaceable in solving cases and more and more of them came to depend upon the forensic work. Gobber was offered to become the head of the forensic lab with a generously reviewed budget.

A few years later he became the right hand of Stoick, the newly appointed Commissioner, position that hadn't existed before. Seven years later, as a favor to Stoick, he had let the young Hiccup wait in the lab while his father finished working. The seven-year-old boy became fascinated by the equipment and started liking it better than his dad's office. By ten, he knew how to operate every piece of machinery in the lab better than anyone. By twelve, he was proposing ideas to Gobber on how to improve things. By fifteen, he started making new equipment, doing his own experiments.

Coincidentally it was around that time that other cops started hearing explosions and yelling coming from the lab. By sixteen, he was known by the whole department as Hiccup as he once managed to create a powder that somehow made everyone hiccup for a whole week.

Even his classmates heard of it and soon after that, with Berk's world famous appetite for nicknames, everyone but his father was calling him Hiccup. Now at twenty-three, he was the second of Gobber and by far the most competent forensic scientist of the BCPD. Gobber was his second father that taught him everything he knew and the only one of the two he had to be proud of his work.

With a sigh Hiccup stood up and started making his way to the Commissioner's office. He paused a moment in front of the door and knocked at the door. He heard a grunt of his father as a response. As he entered he found his father behind his desk watching him enter, an eternally present scowl on his face at the sight of Hiccup's lab jacket.

Stoick couldn't comprehend Harold's interest in the forensics. When he started bringing Harold to the Police plaza after school he had hoped that he would be inspired by the cops and detectives as he himself had been when his own father brought him to the police station. He had always hoped that Harold would start working out and studying to become a fine detective as he had, that he would become strong and fast enough to catch criminals. Because at Berk, it was a necessity.

For long Berk had been a fishing village and all its inhabitants had very few to do except fishing and fighting each other. The result of such traditions being the birth of two odd particularities that all Berkians shared: the love for nicknames and the love of exercising. Nearly everybody in Berk loved to work out and an overwhelming portion of criminal had the physique of a Viking warrior.

Stoick had always hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps and become the pride of the department rather than being just a lab rat, never doing a real difference in the world, Berkian criminals being more brawn than brain. He tried many times to talk him out of it, to convince him that he should do better, especially after the fire in his lab that nearly killed him.

But no! The only thing he had to inherit from me had to be stubbornness!

Stoick let out a sigh.

He looks so much like his mother.

Chasing those dark thoughts away, he focused himself on the discussion to come.

Hearing the sigh, Hiccup steeled himself for another argument on how he should start developing a physique that would allow him to make a difference in the world. How he should be more like his cousin, Detective Jorgenson, aka 'Snotlout'. Snotlout was a genuine moron but he was one of the strongest men of the Police Department. Hiccup grinned. He never saw someone so full of himself.

Once he saw his cousin whispering sweet words to his biceps in the mirror for like half an hour.

Suppressing the cold chill he felt at the awful memory of his dumb cousin in front of the mirror, he stepped into the office. Surprisingly, Stoick stopped scowling and gestured Hiccup to sit down. As he headed to the chair Hiccup noticed that someone else was also sitting in front of his dad's desk.

He spotted the blond braid that he could recognize everywhere and his heart skipped a beat.

Astrid was sitting there.

I would like to thanks Septimus714 for the amazing job he did beta reading this chapter ^^