Chapter Nine: Suddenly popular

The ambulance pulled away, the blue light flashing and siren whining as it accelerated. Hiccup watched his father vanish and hoped he would be safe: whoever had destroyed AI6 had wanted to kill everyone in there...and the Commander had to be the number one target. Then he glanced around: technically, they were all targets now...though Gods knew why anyone would target him. He was anonymous and technically useless.

The twins were grumbling and Astrid stood at his side as he stared until the ambulance vanished amid the traffic. "What the Commander said was very harsh," she tried, hoping to reassure him...but he shook his head.

"No, he's right...I'm just useless," he sighed, his shoulders sagging and for a long moment, Astrid looked at him. In the shattered restaurant while they were trapped and in mortal peril, there had been a different Hiccup there-a calm, quick-thinking, decisive man who had gotten them out of that little hole and saved their lives. And, looking around, they were about the only people who had escaped the building, save the Command staff that Hiccup had isolated and the guards stationed on the front door..

"STAND BACK!" the lead Fire and Rescue officer shouted and there was a rumble. The others spun and glanced back in shock as the remains of the building began to crumble...and then collapsed into a huge pile of rubble, a wall of dust rolling across them. Hiccup ducked, looked away and covered his face but the twins whooped and jumped...and then started coughing and hacking as they inhaled huge lungfuls of dust.

"Well, there goes AI6," Astrid commented, glancing up. "And my job."

"All our jobs," Hiccup sighed, brushing the thick grey dust off his tousled hair.

"WHAT THE THOR IS HAPPENING HERE?" a voice shouted and Hiccup groaned.

"And that happened," he muttered as a tall, buff man walked up, his dark hair slicked off his handsome face, dark eyes flashing with anger. Heather walked beside him, clutching a small brown paper bag from the premier bakery in Berk- 'Bread-Making Vikings'. She stared at the rubble and her grey-green eyes widened.

"What's been going on?" she mouthed.

"Well, it looks like AI6 has just collapsed," Hiccup commented dryly, turning to face them. The tall, buff man-VA49, Theo 'Thuggory' Mattson-glared at him.

"Was it you?" he demanded.

"Ouch," Tuff commented. "That burns!"

"No!" Hiccup snapped.

"Well, you blew up Q Department yesterday..." Heather accused him and he turned to her, his fists bunched.

"Oh great," he snarked. "I destroy my desk because THE TWINS mess with an experimental augmented purse I was developing for field use...astonishing that, what with Q department being the Quartermaster's Department...and suddenly you're accusing me of blowing up the whole frickin' HQ? Unbelievable!"

"Well, your reputation precedes you," Heather retorted, her face cold.

"Ever get in contact with Eret?" Hiccup shot back.

"Incommunicado," she replied superiorly.

"So...no..." he translated. "What were you doing out anyway? You were supposed to be in the Heads of Department Meeting!" She gaped and glared at him.

"And how the Helheim do you know about that VA 1019?" she sneered.

"Oh, drop the dragon dung, Heather," Hiccup sighed in a suddenly-defeated voice. "Everyone knows it's Heads of Department Meeting 1pm on Wednesdays!"

"Um...I didn't," Tuff put in.

"Nor me," Astrid commented.

"Wait-it's Wednesday?" Ruff asked in shock.

"Everyone who actually pays any attention to how the damned place actually works...worked...knows when HoD was!" Hiccup repeated, rolling his eyes at his companions. "Just as I know about the refuge so I could rescue the Command Staff inside before the remains of the building collapsed!" She stared at him and then narrowed his eyes.

"That's classified," she sneered.

"Not so much now," Hiccup replied. "Don't worry-the remaining security are making sure they are all safe." She shook herself and beckoned Thuggory.

"I will need you, VA49," she said. "It looks like we're the most senior surviving officers...so we need to secure the confidential and classified material and accesses urgently..." Hiccup shared a look with Astrid and the twons.

"Can we help?" he asked. Heather cast him one, very disparaging look then shook her head.

"Certainly not," she snapped. "You are nowhere near cleared to see this material...if I even wanted to risk it with you. And I thought you were suspended anyway..." Hiccup stiffened.

"Boy, good news travels fast," he said quietly. "The building's been blown up, most of the staff have probably been killed and yet somehow you managed to recall that I'm on suspension when, as far as I can see, there are only six agents at liberty and they're all standing here..."

"Actually," Heather said in an arctic voice, "there is only one agent-and that's me. Thug and the twins are field support only and you two are rejects from the agent programme." Hiccup heard Astrid's sharp intake of breath and glared at Heather.

"Thanks," he said sarcastically. "Pass my compliments onto all the other agents you have at your disposal. I'm sure they'll be looking forward to sorting out this mess!" And then he turned and walked away, head down and shoulders slumped. Astrid cast Heather a really furious look.

"You know-he saved us and all the Command staff," she snapped. "The least you could do is give him credit for that! He knew what to do-no one else. Not security, not the twins...and where were you anyway?" Heather glared back, her look equally dismissive as it had been of Hiccup.

"Not your business, is it, VA73?" she sneered. "Maybe you should go and look for a nice job in a Fitness Centre...or as a school Gym teacher. Because you'll never be an agent!" Astrid's fists balled...and then she spun, her braid slapping round against her cheek as she stormed after Hiccup. Pausing for a moment, the twins followed.

"Not cool, Heather," was Ruff's parting comment. Then they stalked after the retreating figures of Hiccup and Astrid. The blonde caught Hiccup as he reached the road and grabbed his arm.

"What?" he asked sharply. "You gonna blame me for that as well? Go ahead. Not gonna make any difference..." Her grip tightened.

"That was unfair," she said sternly and he swung his defeated emerald gaze back to look at her.

"You think?" he asked her dryly. "I mean, I probably caused Ragnarok, the defeat of Hamish the Valiant and Devastating Winter along with my other disasters..." She punched him in the shoulder and he yelped.

"I cannot believe her!" Astrid fumed, falling in step alongside him as he despondently turned along the road. "I mean...where the Helheim was she anyway? She should've been in the Command Meeting and then she comes up and says...that!" Hiccup paused and stared at her.

"Um...Astrid?"

"I mean, like she actually does any field work? She sits behind a desk all day monitoring communications and collating intelligence! How dare she say I should go and work in a Fitness Centre...!"

"Well, you are very fit," Hiccup noted...and then blushed as he realised what he had just said. "Um, I meant in a physical way. NO! AARGH! I meant...um...in a combat ready good exercise tolerance and punching people kind of way oh Thor I'm in trouble now..."

"Hiccup!" Astrid snapped. "I know what you mean..." And he sagged in relief.

"Astrid?" he asked again and she glared at him.

"Yes?"

"Why are you walking with me?" he asked carefully. Not that it's not my fantasy or anything...Thor, I need some better fantasies as well...

"Well...my locker is buried under a hundred tons of rubble and dead agents," Astrid snapped. "So I have no purse, no keys and no money. My apartment is inaccessible and I have just become unemployed. I'm coming to your apartment until I know what to do..."

Oh Thor.

That's another fantasy off the list...and somehow I never imagined it happening like THIS!

I am so dead.

"And the twins...?" he asked, craning his neck to see the grimy pair wave at him.

"Hey, we're just following our saviour," Ruff told him happily.

"Life debt!" Tuff confirmed. "We will follow and help you, good sir, until we have completely paid our debt to you."

"That's really...and I mean this sincerely...REALLY not necessary," Hiccup told them hastily.

"No trouble, good paladin!" Tuff told him cheerfully. "And because there are two of us, we will have to save you twice."

"Or we could just put you in mortal peril and save you from it twice," Ruff suggested.

"No, I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that!" Hiccup said quickly.

"In fact, I think you owe him three," Astrid pointed out, "since your messing blew up his device and got him suspended..."

"But that saved his life as he was in the canteen..." Tuff said quickly. "There-that's one already..."

"But then he saved our lives...and you can't count one that happened before he saved ours," Ruff pointed out. Her twin face-palmed.

"This life debt business is very complicated," he complained. "Okay, master...where is your apartment?"

Hiccup eyed them without much optimism. His tiny apartment probably didn't have four seats in it in total and he had no idea where he would put them. He had visions of one of them sitting on his fridge.

"Can't you just go to your Service-supplied apartments?" he asked sarcastically, still mildly wounded he hadn't even been considered for one. They looked at him in a hurt manner.

"All our keys and clearances were revoked as soon as the Service fell," Ruff said. "We're all locked out. And unemployed. And broke." Hiccup sighed.

"Okay," he sighed. "You can come to my apartment to try to work out where you're going...but you have to provide food. I'm out." Ruff and Tuff shared a glance.

"No sweat," they said and grinned. And that really didn't fill him with confidence...

oOo

Hiccup's apartment was tiny-three small rooms on the third floor of an old and damp building on the notorious Grimbeard Avenue just across from a strip joint. Astrid eyed the building up sceptically.

"HQ looks in better condition than this," was her verdict, her gaze sweeping over crumbling bricks, rusting fire escapes and leaky drainpipes.

"Ha ha. The sidewalk's that way," he shot back, flinching as she punched him again in the shoulder. "OW! What IS it with you and violence?" he complained.

"A gentleman wouldn't have said that!" she scolded him.

"Well, excuse me! I mean, today I've been shouted at-three times by everyone who knows me, been absolutely kicked from pillar to post and then suspended...before having to clamber out of a collapsed building, been made unemployed and basically told that no matter what I do, I'll never be good enough!" he shot back. "I was never even offered a Service apartment and I was kicked out of home at eighteen-before I completed School, so I had to take what I could afford working part time. This is it...and on what I get paid, I can still only just afford this!" He clambered wearily up the steep stairs and they followed, seeing him quietly seething. He walked along the landing, waved at the old lady who poked her wizened head out of the apartment at the far end, her squinting gaze thoughtful as he dragged himself up an even steeper flight of stairs to a dark wood door. The others followed, looking around. He pulled out his keys, unlocked the three separate locks, checked that the door hadn't been tampered with and then entered his home.

Inside, there was a main living area which was a kitchen-diner-living room with two small rooms coming off-a single bedroom with basically enough room for a single bed and a small wet room with a toilet, tiny sink and walk in shower. Astrid peered around, seeing the shabby walls, carefully repainted in pale green, the old drapes washed and clean and neatly tied back and the old and mismatched couch and chairs that were still carefully cleaned. The kitchen was clean but spartan with a wonky table. She turned around and looked round, seeing the shabby and cramped surroundings, the table laden with a pile of papers and a laptop, a picture of a black cat pinned to one of the kitchen cupboards with a collar taped to the picture.

"So...it's...um...cosy..." she said, vaguely appalled. Service apartments were one bedroom-but light, airy and about three times the size of this tiny place. Hiccup shrugged and dumped his bag under the table.

"Yeah, well I didn't qualify for Service apartment and I'm on minimum wage because my ranking is so low," he told her despondently, grabbing a pan and putting some water on to boil.

"Oh Gods...you mean you have to boil water for...?" she murmured, eyes widening. He gave her a mildly amused look.

"No, I have hot water," he assured her dryly. "I don't have a kettle though and wondered if you wanted a coffee?" She blushed at her assumption and sighed, then looked at herself: she was covered in dust and grime from the explosion and their escape.

"Actually-a shower would be nice," she mumbled and he sighed then nodded. He led her through to the wetroom/bathroom and handed her a brown towel.

"I'll get you a spare shirt," he offered and pulled the door to, walking to his room and fetching a pile of clothes he left at the bathroom door before he slowly trailed back to the kitchen. The twins were already there, poking around the cupboards and making disgusted noises. "What?" he asked, tetchily.

"Do you have any food in this house at all?" Ruff asked teasingly.

"Um...a bottle of mayonnaise and hot dog mustard," Hiccup said dryly. "Wanna make something of it?"

"Only a weird burger sauce," Tuff mused. "Okay, sis-pizza?" She nodded.

"We'll fetch pizza...any preferences?" Ruff asked. Hiccup stared at her and then shrugged.

"I'll eat anything," he admitted.

"Ultra-meaty-pepperoni-double-yak-jerky-with-extra-extra-extra-chillies!" they said as one then turned to the auburn-haired young agent. "We'll be back soon, Hicc! Be sure to let us in!" He gave a nod and sighed as they swung out, still arguing. Finally, Hiccup reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone...then hearing the shower start up, he dialled Fishlegs. Green eyes flicked up again to check no one was listening-then he sagged in relief as his friend answered.

"Sif's Blooms. Fishlegs Ingerman speaking-how may I be of service today?"

"Fish-it's me," Hiccup sighed.

"Hiccup! How are you?" Fishlegs answered cheerily. "What's happening?" Hiccup gaped.

"You don't know?" he asked.

"Know what?" Fishlegs asked happily.

"HQ blowing up? All the emergency services racing to the harbour? The huge pile of rubble where I used to work?"

"Used to?"

"Fishlegs-someone blew up the Service HQ and killed hundreds of people," Hiccup said through his teeth.

"Sorry-I missed it," Fishlegs apologised. "We had a new consignment of orchids and marigolds..."

"FISH! I need you to grab all the surveillance video of at the entire area round the HQ before it gets wiped or handed over to the cops!" Hiccup said sternly. "Then I need you to see if you can get into the Service servers and get the last three hours of internal video surveillance. Someone killed most of the agents in AI6 and almost killed my Dad. I need to find out what happened," Hiccup told him determinedly.

"Um...at work..." Fishlegs protested quickly.

"Fish...I really need you," Hiccup pleaded. "Look...I'll let you put Sif's Blooms as the preferred provider of Funeral Wreaths if you want..." There was a pause.

"Okay...I'll shut up shop and get to work," the larger man reluctantly conceded. "Are you coming over? Meatlug would love to see her Uncle Hiccup..." Said 'Uncle' rolled his eyes.

"Can you come over here? Soon? I need to find out what's happening and...um...I've got a couple of friends here with me..."

"Hiccup. You don't have any friends except me," Fishlegs said suspiciously. The auburn-haired young man sagged.

"Rub it in, why don't you?" he hissed, glancing towards the bathroom where the water had just shut off. "It's three other survivors of the building. I think we were the only people who got out, apart from the Command staff."

There was a pause.

"I didn't realise you were inside," Fishlegs said in a concerned voice. "Are you okay?"

"Grimy and sore but fine," Hiccup assured him.

"I'll be over as soon as 'I can," his friend promised and rang off...as steps approached and Hiccup spun-to see Astrid emerge from the bathroom. Hiccup's jaw dropped as she looked up...and gave a small smile.

"What?" she asked.

Her long blonde hair was loose over her shoulder, damp and curling at the ends. She was clean and her skin glowed, her eyes bright and amused at his fierce blush. Barefoot, she was dressed in his loose training shorts and service T-shirt, the material loose over her lithe frame.

"You look...amazing..." he mumbled. She gave a grin and swiped her damp hair away from her left eye.

"Thanks," she said as she handed him her filthy clothes. He placed them on the table then blinked, realising he was just as messy and feeling acutely self-conscious.

"Um...help yourself to coffee..." he said, gesturing to the boiling water in the pan as he headed for the bedroom to get some fresh clothes. He ducked onto the bathroom as she started making drinks and dashed into the shower, emerging minutes later damp but free of the concrete dust of HQ. He swiftly hauled on a pair of fading jeans and a long-sleeved green T-shirt, dragged on sneakers and emerged to find Astrid peering at his papers on the table, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand. Hiccup sped forward and tried to rescue his papers but she hummed thoughtfully and laid the paper down.

"You're studying mechanical engineering?" she asked and he nodded, hastily cramming the papers and an almost-complete assignment into a folder.

"Um...yeah..." he mumbled. "Well, I've got no social life, no hopes of ever becoming an agent and my father officially hates me so I thought I ought to do something for my career after AI6..." Her eyes darkened in pity and she sighed.

"Didn't you apply for funding for...?" she asked and saw his shoulders tighten.

"For what? A degree? To the Head of HR? Guess what the answer was!" he snapped. She scowled.

"Hey, not my fault!" she snapped. He looked for a moment longer then sighed.

"No...but not entirely mine either," he sighed. "Yet somehow I always end up blamed." She sat down on the couch and looked at him, her eyes trailing across the meagre apartment. Hiccup grabbed her clothes and his and a carrier bag. "I'll drop these down the laundry in the basement. They'll be done in an hour or so..." And before he could speak, he had gone.

oOo

Acid green eyes watched the arguing shapes of the twins as they emerged onto the street and headed for the main street, still covered in dust and grime. They narrowed as the door slammed closed and then homed in on the buff, menacing shape with spiked carrot hair and pale green eyes. Dagur pleasantly chatted to an older man who emerged from the dismal apartment block and the old man gave a cheery happy smile and pointed up to the third floor. Nodding, Dagur headed to the bar opposite and vanished.

"We've seen him before," the teen said to the owner of the eyes. He turned them on the rather small and sturdy fourteen year old, his spiky black hair and grey eyes topping a messy ensemble of grey jeans, black jumper and leather vest, his boots tucked under his pants.

"That's right, Gustav," the man said, his own spiky jet hair more styled. "Dagur the Berserker, top hit man in the Archipelago. Not a man to draw the attention of..." His tone was warning. The boy's grey eyes turned hurt.

"Really, T?" he protested. "I'm a pro! I don't need to be told not to alert the enemy..." A hand slapped over his mouth.

"Remember what we said about the 'E' word?" the man hissed. The boy nodded sulkily.

"Yeah, T," he grumbled.

"Yeah...so go and see if you can check the Port and make sure that 'the Whispering Death' is still moored at the Outcast docks," the man named T ordered. The teen nodded and slouched off. The man watched him, brilliant acid green eyes trailing him before he lifted his phone. "Iggy? You ready?" he asked.

"Sure, T," the voice came, alert and cheerful.

"Listen out," the man said. "Dagur's here-and he's after my target. I think it may get very messy."

"She won't be too pleased if you let Dagur finish off your leads again," Iggy commented.

"You leave the Red Queen to me, Iggy," T said darkly. "I can handle Dagur. I need Haddock alive."