Chapter 1: A Death In The Family

Berk, 7 Years Ago

No POV.

"Mommy I made rainbow explosions!" Shouted a small child no more than 10 years old prancing around his mother, his light auburn hair covered in colored stains that were faded, but still visible. His green eyes were burning with excitement and joy whilst his mother smiled at his antics.

"Oh Hiccup, you shouldn't have mixed those together, you could've been hurt." Hiccup's mother's tone was reprimanding, but her eyes shone a certain kindness that couldn't be seen by Hiccup as the boy stopped moving and hung his head down.

"I'm sorry." Said Hiccup. Hiccup's mother, Valka was a world-renounced scientist in the field of bio-organics, but she was mostly prominent in her research into meta-humans, super powered beings that started appearing in the late 1990's. Hiccup had begged her for two days straight to see what his "mad scientist mommy" did at work and she decided to bring him. Her colleagues adored Hiccup and now she was bringing him home from a disastrous mess with some chemicals, Hiccup's curious nature, and a really colorful explosion. So now she was walking Hiccup home, putting on a stern look at her son. However, his cute baby face broke her down slowly until she ruffled his hair and he giggled in glee.

"Oh I can't stay mad at you my little dragon." Said Valka, however, ruffling her son's hair drew attention to her wristwatch, showing that it was already 9:45 PM, 45 minutes after she was supposed to bring him home. "Oh dear, we're late! Your father's probably thinking we're being mugged, c'mon Hiccup, no time to waste!"

"Yay, we're gonna take a short cut!" Hiccup squealed as Valka took his hand and ran down a back alley. Little did they know though of the dark figure that was following behind them, his scarred face frowning at the sight of the scientist and her brat.

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Present Time

Hiccup POV.

I woke up with a jolt, jumping out of my bed. I was sweating heavily and panting as I recounted the events of seven years ago as if it had happened yesterday and I relaxed when I remembered it was just a dream.

Whew, ok Hakon, just a dream, just a… oh no. I thought, looking to my alarm clock displayed the time 7:00, thirty minutes after my alarm was supposed to wake me up. I rushed to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, freshened myself up and did all the morning essentials before running down to the kitchen to grab a quick meal which was laid out for me in the form of a slice of buttered toast and a note from my dad:

"Didn't want to wake you, went to the precinct early, enjoy breakfast. – Stoick"

Psh, typical dad, ignoring me and leaving some scraps to try and keep me alive, but due to the situation I just ran for the first piece of food I saw and bolted out the door. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself didn't I. My name is Hakon H. Haddock III. I know, great name right. Better than my nickname though, "Hiccup". I hate that name, mainly because it's derogatory and offensive, but it brings back some memories I don't like resurfacing. Now the question on your minds right now, what was that dream I just had? To answer this question, I'd like to start from the beginning. When I was 10 my mom, Valerie "Valka" Hadrian Haddock was killed right in front of my eyes by a man with one arm and my dad Stephen Haddock (or Stoick as his friends called him), being a lieutenant in the Berk Police, fought tooth and nail to find whoever killed her, but the one armed man fell off the grid before he could be found. The "incompetence" of the local PD, as the news put it, sparked the worst crime wave in the history of Berk. Criminals and the general scum of the earth thought the police had finally gone soft and with all the corruption in the force itself and many important lawyers and politicians, crime is allowed to run free. And don't even get me started on the metahumans.

That kinda drove a wedge between my dad and me and our relationship hasn't been the same, more so since I just got into high school at Bork High. With school, everything becomes more complicated. My dad's barely around the house, given his position as lieutenant of the force; and with me needing to pitch in extra effort in after school activities and a larger workload, we spend less and less time around each other than we ever have and only communicate through notes or sometimes texting or the occasional one-word conversations.

Now back to the present, late for school, bus left bus stop, chasing bus… oh wait, I haven't gotten to that part yet. So after snatching the morsel of what my dad calls breakfast, I jumped out the door of the house and ran as fast as I could to the bus stop, only to find the school bus slowly disappearing into the horizon.

"NO, WAIT!" I shouted, running even faster to try and catch up to the bus. Due to my very scrawny, paper-thin build, it felt like I was running with weights for shoes trying to catch up to the bus. Luckily though, it hit a stop light ahead and I was able to catch up. I rapped at the door as loud as I could, panting and sweating like I just ran a marathon. The bus driver didn't even glance as he opened the door and I nearly crawled onto the bus, but that wasn't even the worst part. As I clambered in, nearly all the eyes on the bus concentrated on me. For two brief seconds I felt like I was going to faint, not from the running, but from the sheer tension that was in those two seconds, but then, just like that everyone returned to what they were doing, chattering and dicking around the bus as I searched the rows for somewhere to sit. There was an empty seat next to this girl, but she glanced at me once and casually moved herself to the seat along the aisle, giving the not-so subtle message of "go away". It was like that for every row on the bus, people whom seemed pretty friendly to others turned me away like I was diseased. Finally, I reached the end of the bus, at a seat not quite at the back, but just neglected enough that there was no one around me. It was at this moment I relaxed and put my aching legs to rest and drowned out all the noise around me and just waited patiently for school to officially start.

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Bork High

Hiccup POV.

Inside the school was absolute chaos with students running around, getting accustomed to returning to, or beginning high school. There was the incessant nattering about the "magnificent" weekend everyone had, days with friends, movies seen, even a few visits to completely different places like San Fransokyo, Corona, Dunbroch and other such places, spoken by the rich pricks of the school. My weekend? Well, it was mainly sitting at home alone with my dad which mostly consisted of a several silent hours in a practically empty house, and my dad being called to work early because of some major crime that "needed his attention", leaving me alone for hours, even an entire day before he remembers I exist.

So anyways, school was chaos and I tried making my way to homeroom as quickly and silently as possible, but, as usual, someone rather unpleasant noticed me.

"Cousin Hiccup the Useless!" shouted a gruff voice. I cringed at the title and turned to meet my doom and before I knew it, five figures were cornering me agains the lockers. At the forefront, Stuart "Snotlout" Jorgenson, quarterback of Bork High's Vikings, Senior, and my "cousin" by blood, but he barely acts like family. Ever since he moved to Berk in 6th grade, he's been using his glaringly obvious physical advantage over me to torment and abuse me for years.

"Hello Snotlout." I replied, hastily trying to get away, but Snotlout had other ideas as he grabbed my shoulder and roughly slammed me against the lockers.

"Oh but Hiccup, we haven't seen each other in so long and I've been dying to see you, isn't that right guys?" Snotlout said, looking to the rest of his group, specifically two snickering fraternal twins, Rachel and Tommy Thorston, or Ruffnut and Tuffnut as they've been dubbed.

"Yeah, heh, dying." Snickered Ruffnut. Ruffnut and Tuffnut, for a long time, have dedicated themselves to following the god Loki, god of pranks. As such, they've pulled off the most daring and dastardly pranks over the years, to students, teachers, adults, and their favorite target: me.

"Dying? Wait, we're not dead? Are we?" asked Tuffnut. Yeah, they may be pranksters, but they aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, if you get me.

"Dunghead, it's an expression!" said Ruffnut, slapping her brother at the back of his head.

"Hey!" Tuffnut replied, retaliating against his sister with another slap.

"Uh, guys, m-maybe we should try not to start a fight on the first day of school." Nervously croaked another voice. Frank "Fishelgs" Ingerman, one of the nerds of Bork High and Snotlout's pet nerds. He does the work Snotlout and the twins are to "academically lacking" to do, in exchange for hanging with the cool kids of the school and not getting his ass kicked on a daily basis. We used to be good friends once upon a time, but after Snotlout came it was survival of the fittest and apparently, my chubby friend was more fit than me.

"Yeah guys, knock it off, if anyone's gonna start anything do it later." Ordered Snotlout and the twins stopped glaring at each other. As the conflict continued I attempted to slip away, but Snotlout noticed this and held me tight by the shirt collar and I was trapped. "Now where were we, oh right, so Hiccup, why don't we start this year with the usual tribute."

Snotlout held out a coarse hand out and made a "give it up" motion and I knew exactly what that meant.

"Come on Snotlout, isn't this a little Middle school for you?" I asked but Snotlout only tightened his grip on me.

"What can I say, can't teach an old dog new tricks, now, lunch money." Snoltout growled and I thought of a terrible quip that might just give me a bruise.

"Yeah, you are pretty dog-like. Bulldog? No, I see more ugly pug or fluffy poodle in you." I remarked. Next thing I knew I'm thrown onto the floor with Snotlout towering over me.

"Oh so where did you get this attitude? I'll have to put you back in your place." Snotlout raised his foot to stomp me in the chest and I cringed in anticipation for the hit, but it never came. When I looked, I saw a bandaged hand on Snotlout's shoulder and through the ceiling lights of the school, it seemed as though a guardian angel had saved me.

"Enough Snotlout, you can settle this later, right now we have to get to class." Said a voice. Astrid Hofferson, the most beautiful and amazing girl in the entire school. She's athletic, smart and a complete mystery to anyone but herself and my secret crush since she moved to Berk about 7th grade. She seemed to fit into nowhere as she was at the top of the school food chain until Snotlout's gang formed up and they just absorbed her in one day and then the gang was complete.

"Of course babe, anything for you." Snotlout winked, but Astrid rolled her eyes in disgust as she led the group away, leaving me sitting on the floor, adjusting my glasses and silently having a breakdown.

Oh god, Astrid stood up for me! What could this mean? Is this a sign? Wait, crap, class is almost starting! I thought as I ran to my homeroom, trying to forget the serious beat down I was going to get after school.

Timeskip: After School

Crap, now I really got myself into trouble. I thought as Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had me backed against the wall of the bathroom. I tried my best to avoid them, going so far as to use the back exit of the school, but the found me before I could escape. They dragged me to the closest bathroom and now had me backed against the sinks.

"So Useless, thought you could escape huh? You're gonna pay for making me look bad in front of Astrid." Said Snotlout, cracking his knuckles menacingly. It would have scared my pants off years ago, but now it just made my sarcastic side come out, a bad time at that.

"Well, you didn't really need me to do that." I quipped and I could see veins pop out of Snotlout's skull.

"Alright smartass, you wanna play it that way? Tuff, grab him!" Barked Snotlout and Tuffnut charged towards me and held my hands behind my back. Snotlout then painfully grabbed me by the hair and pulled me towards one of the stalls. By now I could see what was coming, but I could do nothing against my stronger opponents as they shoved my head in the toilet and hit the flush. I know, a swirly, old school, but extremely effective. After almost drowning me in toilet water, Snotlout lifted my head and brought my face close to his. "Anything else to say?"

Unfortunately for me, either my bravery or stupidity, I had a lot of things to say, none of them good for my health.

"Why is Ruffnut in the boys bathroom with us? Or are we in the girls bathroom with Ruffnut? I can never tell which you are Snotlout, a really ugly boy or a very ugly girl?"

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Streets

Hiccup POV.

"That was a terrible idea." I mumbled as I dragged myself home, twenty bucks poorer and smelling like I just took a bath in toilet water… oh wait, I did take a bath in toilet water. Every day I have to walk home instead of the bus because I have to buy ingredients for food as my dad has no idea how to cook and I have to fill in mom's place to sustain both of us. What's worse is that I have to pass the same alley every day I walk home, the alley where my mom was killed, aptly renamed Hellheim's Gate. The very thought of that place gave me shivers, the crack of the gun and my mom falling to the ground with a hole in her chest. Absorbed in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed I'd come up on the alley until I heard a shout come from the alleyway. My head perked up at the sound and, against my better judgment, ran right for the alley. What I saw there almost shocked me more than my mom's death. Before me was a man on the ground and standing before him was a figure, probably about 5'10" with glowing, pixel-like stains surrounding him and the same pixel like forms surrounding his arms. Whilst looking at the boy, only one thought reached my mind:

Metahuman.

Metahumans started appearing a few years ago about the late 1960's. Records of metahumans were never officially recorded. The only real and confirmed sighting of a metahuman was a woman dubbed "Snow White". She had the ability to talk to and control animals as well as summon spirits of the earth that people called the Seven Dwarves. She disappeared around the mid 1980's, but she, unfortunately wasn't the last. All across the world from the City of Burgess all the way to Pride Rock, Africa, the metahumans population grew fast and soon enough, there were more metahumans around the world than ants in a backyard. With the growth of metahumans came the rise of the generic comic book superhero and supervillain, but also fear of having over a million regular people with the power to cause a mass genocide of "normal" people on a whim.

So about a decade before I was born, the governments of the world issued the isolation and elimination of the metahumans by having scientists find the "metahumans gene" in fetuses before they are born and since they're the freaking government, they abort the baby. Some governments did not comply to this new international law and closed their borders to prevent the other countries coming after them. The things that people do when they're afraid. As much outrage that this law caused, the pre-existing metahumans were even more outraged and some even went antiestablishment and attacked anything government. This caused serious backlash when the world declared an open meta-hunt and by the mid 2000's, all the metahumans were either killed, imprisoned or in hiding. There are the random spikes here and there, when especially powerful metahumans are missed during the pre-birth exams as the metahuman gene is very tricky to identify and about half a dozen fetuses are not identified. Even after the age of metahumans, society still cultivated a negative image of them, naming them freaks and monsters and encouraging their constant persecution. Personally, I have no problems with the existence of metahumans, the good ones, if there are any, are a big help to humanity and should be kept around. But if they decide to turn on the people, then their destruction is justified. The world isn't as black and white as that, but I've never really met a metahuman so my opinion may be biased. Until now that is.

"F-Freak!" shouted the man

"N-No, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry!" said the figure as I came closer and hid behind a dumpster close by. With a better point of view I could now see that it was a boy, probably as old as me with black hair, pale skin and tattered clothes. The boy with glowing arms reached for the man, but he screamed in panic.

"NO, GET AWAY FROM ME!" he shouted, pulling out a gun from under him and pointing it at the boy. I panicked at the sight of the weapon and accidentally knocked over some cans lying around. Both the man with the gun and the boy looked at me, however, the man, in his state of shock, fired the gun and instead of hitting the boy, the gun was pointed at me, as well as the bullet. My eyes widened in shock and time seemed to slow down as my last moments on earth came closer.

So this is how it ends. How ironic this is the place. I thought as the bullet was about to hit, but to my surprise, something happened that would change my life forever.

"NO!" shouted the boy as he flung his arm at me and a pixelated blast shot out of his arm and hit me square in the chest. I was flung back a few feet from the force of the blast and my head hit something hard and the world began to spin. Everything after that was a large blur, I remember screaming, blood, loud noises and then a bed of grass as I passed out.

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Unknown

Hiccup POV.

I woke up in a room of white. It wasn't anywhere I'd seen before, or anywhere at all, it was just all white, everything except me.

Where am I? I thought, then all the events in the alleyway came flooding back and I started to freak out. "No, no, no, no, the guy, that… metahuman! He hit me with some weird blast! A-Am I dead?"

I spoke out lout without the thought that someone would reply, but when someone did, it scared the living daylights out of me.

"No, you're not dead." Said the voice, it sounded like static and fear combined into a single voice.

"Who-Who said that?!" I asked

"Turn around." Said the voice and when I did, I nearly screamed. It was the only thing with color in where this place was aside from me, but it was all black and blurry. The… thing standing before me looked like a bunch of ink splotches vaguely forming a human shape, but it seemed to be wearing a sort of long, foot-length coat, long sleeved and open down the middle, revealing a short glowing line. It's head had two pointed ears and the most menacing stare with its' glowing blue eyes.

"What are you?!" I shouted, slowly backing away.

"What would you do if you had power?" the figure asked, ignoring my question. I tilted my head in confusion.

"W-What?"

"What would you do if you had power?" asked the figure once more.

"Power? What power?"

"Power. The power to change the world. Power to avenge those you have lost. Power to redeem yourself for the death of your mother." Said the figure, its' eyes glowing brighter and electricity crackling in its' hands. My eyes widened like dinner plates and I backed away slowly as the figure reached for me with his sparking hands. He suddenly grabbed my head and I felt a jolt of electricity shoot through my brain. A torrent of images blasted through my head, memories I had of my childhood with my mother but also memories of things I've never seen before, pain like I've never felt. The memories were like fuzzy ten pixel videos, but there was one thing I could feel throughout the experience… sadness, despair… death. The figure released me and I slumped down to my knees, holding back tears, clutching my head at what I saw.

"W-What was that?" I stammered.

"Do you want the power to stop that pain from happening." Asked the figure and I looked into its' eyes.

"Will it stop. Will the power stop the pain." I asked. I felt hesitation in the figure and after a few long, tense seconds the figure replied:

"No." I was somewhat shocked at the figure's answer. It started out trying to convince me to take whatever power it was handing out, now it tells me that it can't stop any of the pain or suffering it showed me.

"Wha-?" I started, but the figure raised its' hand and I shut my mouth.

"The pain cannot be stopped, the pain can never be stopped. However, with each trial you survive, with all the pain you take, you take from the people you protect. Think about it, do you want anyone else to suffer as you had? To watch as the one who loved you most die in front of your eyes, helpless and useless to stop it? Do you want the bullies of the world to continue throwing around the weak while you have the chance, right now to take the throw and throw back even harder? Do you not want to find the monsters who kill because they can?" I was stunned. My brain tried to push the figure away saying the pain was too much to bear. However, my heart said otherwise, the chance to be able to save all the people who needed to be saved and punish all the monsters who needed to be punished. And as a bonus, find the man who killed my mother. Well, I guess it's obvious who won the argument.

"Yes… I want the power." I said softly but the figure heard me and as I stood up to meet his eyes, I noticed that he wasn't as tall as I thought he was, in fact, we were almost the same height.

"Are you sure?"

"I have been weak for my entire life. My friends think it (if I ever had any), the adults think it, hell, and even my own father thinks it. I will not allow anyone to suffer as I. I will not allow the scum of the earth destroy people's lives any longer, not when I have a chance like this!" I shouted, putting all my heart and emotion into my statement. I couldn't see it, but I could feel the figure was taken aback as he turned and began to walk away.

"Then you shall have what you want." Said the figure. Suddenly, the white around the corners of the space began to fade, the darkness creeping up on me from all corners, fast. The spiderlike shadows passed harmlessly through the figure, but when it reached me, it began to latch on to my body, first my legs, then my body. I struggled against the tenebrous webs but I couldn't move. I started shouting for help, but my voice seemed to catch in my throat and finally I couldn't speak or move. My eyes widened in terror as I felt the shadows envelop me, covering every inch until it was about to cover my eyes when something strange happened. I saw the figure's glowing slits disappear for a moment, apparently it was wearing a mask and decided to take it off, and in the instant before I completely lost consciousness, I could have sworn I saw myself.

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