Previously:

Hiccup experienced a bad nightmare that triggered an anxiety attack, luckily Sam is used to dealing with anxiety and panic attacks—due to his work around veterans with PTSD, trauma and the like— and was able to help de escalate the situation. Hiccup then had breakfast with a few of the Avengers and was once again denied of flying with Toothless. He watched a few of them train and was reminded of Astrid by Natasha's demeanour.

Refer to the last chapter for Peter's recollection of the recent events

Now:

I thoughtfully tap the page of my notebook, studying the sketch of the prosthetic tail. I'd just done it, it's really just the usual 'manual' tail but with scales. Toothless croons lowly, looking at it.
"Yeah, bud. I think if we collect enough scales we should have enough to coat it." I whisper, being mindful to keep quiet because everyone is currently once again trying to contact this 'Captain America' guy and his friend. It's been nearly half an hour since they last spoke to the guy, apparently they haven't heard back since. I can see why they'd be worried.

Toothless brightens up at what I say and runs off. I chuckle, knowing he's going to gather as many scales as he can. Sure enough, he returns a few minutes later. He bounds up to me and opens his mouth, dropping a whole heap of scales—covered in saliva might I add—into my lap.
"Well we've got the saliva down." I grimace, flicking my finger to try and be rid of the sticky, smelly stuff I've come so familiar with over the years. He chortles a laugh at me.

"It's been half an hour," Bruce, I believe his name is, sighs in the background. I ask Toothless to find me a bowl from the kitchen so I can put everything together, listening as Bruce continues. "They should've called, right?"

"They're old, they probably forgot how to use a phone." Kate jokes while Toothless bounds off. I'd go with him, but *gestures to the mess in my lap*. He returns in second with a large glass bowl, nearly dropping it twice but by some miracle of the gods it gets to me unscathed. I start putting everything together, grabbing a brush from a saddle bag and using that to crush and mix things. There's movement in the corner of my eye but I ignore it, busy trying to get this formula right.

"Is everything—?"

"Guys—"

I yelp and nearly drop the bowl when the room lights up before going pitch black. Thunder rattles the sky and the light returns to the room briefly, but flickers off as it starts to rain heavily outside. Toothless growls lowly next to me, looking around us warily. Are we right in the middle of one of those storms?! I look out towards the window to confirm my suspicions, just to flinch when something large and metallic slams into the window before falling out of sight.

"Was that..." Spider-man hesitates.

"An Ultron." Wanda scowls. It's a change I don't like, she had been so cheery when she introduced herself to me.

What on earth is an Ultron? I glance at Toothless and he returns my confused look. Warily, I continue to mix absentmindedly— because what else can I do other than listen to them freak out?

"But...how?"

"I don't know,"

"Didn't we... stop him?"

"Yes,"

"Then how is he—"

"I don't know! I don't have the answers to every—"

"There's more of them," Kate interrupts, which has me glance up. Yep, there's a lot more. I'm talking, a dragons nest type of numbers, it's crazy!

***time skip brought to you by Hiccup wondering what the [redacted for Steve] is going on ***

So, good news: I finished the tail! I just finished reattaching it. Sure, it's not as good as the actual scaled one, but it's not bad considering we only had a limited amount of scales and equipment. It should hold up well if we ever go through fire with it.

"Has Captain America gotten back to us?"

Oh yeah, and the bad news is that he hasn't been heard from yet? Also, they've all been running around getting ready and dressed up in fancy outfits that don't completely look practical (but who am I to judge). I guess they're going out there, into the apparent battlefield?

(Mm couldn't be me, I prefer ✨ life ✨)

They've gathered in a weird room with a large table not unlike the size of the ones in the Greater Hall. I know this because I came looking for them, I was going to ask what to do but they're all talking.

"No, not yet..." Bruce is saying, "We-we can't track them, either."

"We can't afford to wait around," Wanda exclaims, her irritation evident. I'm assuming it's personal. "The captain will have to catch up outside."

"She's right. We're wasting time," The Vision guy responds. Finally, I decide to speak.

"Can we do anything?" I pipe up, eager to help out. Especially since this might be the chance to get home. They all turn to regard me, startled. They must have forgotten I was here.

"No," Tony responds bluntly as his suit forms around him. He walks past Toothless and I, leaving the room. "The best thing you can do is not get in the way." What are you? My dad?! I'll try not to take it personally, but damn, that kind of talk reminds me of my father. "Stay inside" Hiccup, "stay away from the dragon raid you'll only make it worse" Hiccup, "don't fly off and hand yourself over to the enemy and his crew" Hiccup. Ridiculous.

"Ookaay then..." I chuckle awkwardly, rubbing my neck. They all pass me now, but Spider-man has the kindness to give me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. It doesn't surprise me that he'd be like that, he just seems like the kind of guy. Or kid, I'm still not sure about his age.

Coming out of my thoughts, I leave the room to see the "Dr Strange" guy is back and talking to everyone hastily.
"Yeah, They're— they're from across the multiverse, like I thought." The things outside? I guess that makes sense? "The earlier storms must have been failed attempts to— to get them here." Oh. Wow. So someone really IS behind this.

"And these ones succeeded," Natasha observes. "Which means there could be even more." Oh, that doesn't sound great. Judging by the numbers outside, there's already enough!

"So... they're not our resurrected Ultrons," Tony contributes thoughtfully. "Good, can't blame me this time!"

"Tony no one was—" Bruce tries to assure him, but Tony cuts him off.

"You were all thinking it."

Judging by the room, yes... yes they were. Do I even want to know what went down in the past for them to think that? They're not even making eye-contact, so no. Probably not.

"I'd just like to say that I wasn't!" Spider-Man seems to be the only one in the room who wasn't 'thinking it', so points to him I guess. They start talking about the multiverse again, all I gather is that they want to fight and kill them by any means while Dr Strange and someone named Wong try to make a portal to send them back. Hopefully they won't forget about Toothless and I.

"...but I think they'll be resurrected when they return to their universes...maybe." Dr Strange is saying. He starts moving his arms and orange sparks appear before expanding into a circle. Visible though the circle are the machines and weird creatures. I stare in shock. Whoa, Its like a doorway directly to the battle. "

"Something tells me that 'maybe' isn't very confident." Tony's helmet retracts. Dr Strange nearly takes the bait, before deciding to ignore him and initiate whatever the helheim these guys are going to do.

I lean on the wall next to Toothless as we watch them split up into two groups, I may be wrong but it seems to be by those who are capable of flying, and those who aren't. So what are we supposed to do? They won't let us help, which yeah—I get it, it's not our world and we don't know what we're supposed to do (and I'm injured, not that I can feel it right now). But I don't know what I'm supposed to do in the meantime. What if they don't come back? How will we get home?!

"Alright," Tony's helmet comes back down and he is once again concealed by the weird metal and glowing eyes. "Let's do this shit."

And just like that, they're gone in seconds.

I cross my arms, walking up to the window and looking down to the streets below, seeing them swarming with the machines and the weird creatures. Toothless comes up beside me and I sigh.
"Yeah, I don't like the look of this bud." I rub his head absentmindedly as I watch the weird creatures. "I just have a bad feeling."

Subject file: Operations
Access code: ****
Facial scan> accepted
Operations> "Vérités"
Access code: ************
Finger print> accepted
Opening "Vérités"...
"Vérités" status: ongoing
Stages> active/completed stages: 1 >dormant stages: 2
Accessing Dormant stage
Initiate?> Yes
Access code: ************1310
Access granted> initiating stage 2 of " Vérités "...
Stage 2 initiation attempt #****** successful.

A sigh of relief. "We're finally underway."

—

And there we have it! As the spooky rando said, we are underway! Gonna be relatively fast paced these next few chapters, and there's gonna be a lot of fight scenes which aren't my strong suit, but we'll see how we go! Feel free to drop comments, theories, suggestions and bodies. Kidding. Alright, until next time!