Dragons, Superheroes and a Tear in Time

Chapter 13: This place is weird (Hiccup)

Previously
As I almost stumble back towards the seat, I come to realise that Spider-man had been speaking the entire time, but I hadn't heard a word of it. I squint up at him, hearing nothing but ringing in my ears. I throw myself down into the seat, not bothering to hide my shudder.

Blurry figure number one immediately jumps forward. Blurry figure number two isn't long behind. I barely concentrate enough to stay awake. What is that wet feeling on my side?

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

Now:

After some time the machine we're in changes directions: presumedly to land. I'm still in quite a bit of pain but I can tell Toothless is worried about me so I try to mask it. Despite my efforts, I have a hard time focusing.

"It's alright bud," I assure him as the machine touches down, "we've dealt with worse!"
After all, I am a dragon rider. We don't exactly go injury free! But it's part of the life, a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make. I'm not sure if this injury counts, though. Seems more like an act of Thor than a consequence of dragon riding.

I look out the window, wanting to see how high up we are. The world is small below us, a sight we've seen countless times, but not like this. Here, everything is so different. Big, bright and busy. If I told Astrid what I was seeing right now, she'd probably send me to Gothi, thinking I'd finally gone mad!

Tony stands up, Spider-man following suit. "Are you good to walk, man?" Spider-man asks me, I wave him off. "We can help!"

"Yeah, no I'm good!" I respond, standing up as quickly as possible and ignoring the pain. Toothless, though, is at my side in an instant. I try to assure him I'm fine, but he gives me a sarcastic face that only he could pull off, and forces me to lean on him. I go along with it, knowing I'd not win the argument against him.

We follow the two foreigners down the isle and out of the now open door, emerging out into the wind and down a ramp. The fresh air makes me feel a little better, as it always does.

Toothless and I pause and look around us, admiring the unusual sight. The busy world buzzes down far below, filled with shiny tall buildings (much like the one we're standing on but not as tall), more machines, and bustling people— a sure example of how different our worlds are.

Another whirling sound gains my attention, and I look to see another flying machine in the distance. This one is different to the 'jet'. It's smaller, bulkier, and has thick blades spinning above it and what looks like giant skis below it. It's advancing on us relatively quickly.

"Hey, this way Mr Hiccup sir," Spider-man calls out rather urgently. "You shouldn't let them see you!"

I give one last glance at the machine before following after them. We walk along the balcony and approach some sort of door. Tony is first through, he says something but I don't quite catch it. Spider-man bounds in next. I glance at Toothless, trying not to get nervous, before we both walk inside.

The door shuts behind us automatically but I don't focus on it, my attention drawn to the surroundings. The interior is fancy, open and clean. And I thought the machine was fancy! I can see my reflection in the floor.

Toothless gives a warble of excitement, pawing at the ground playfully. I chuckle under my breath, still looking around us and trying to take it all in. In doing so, I notice that a woman has come into the room—dressed smartly in white clothes with red hair pulled back from her face. Her feet click on the ground as she walks in, her shoes weirdly elevated.

"Oh good you're here," she speaks, papers in hand. She looks up from them. "Now I've paged the doctors and they're at the medbay, it's all good to...go." She trails off when she sees Toothless and I. "What is that?"

"This—this is Toothless, my dragon. I'm, uh, Hiccup." I answer, giving a small sheepish wave. She takes a breath in and out, composes herself, and when she speaks her tone is polite, unlike the slightly scared tone and exasperated tone she had a second ago.

"I'm Pepper. You're the injured one?" She nods at me. I look down at my hand which has been clutching my side since being inside the machine.

"Yeah, apparently so." I chuckle lightly which does not help the injury. Pepper nods again. She turn on her heel and walks out of the room, Tony and Spider-man following after her. I shrug at Toothless and we follow suit.

"Why didn't you tell me there's a dragon?" Pepper snaps at Tony as we walk through a long hall, her shoes clicking on the ground echoing around us.

"I didn't think it was important!" Tony retorts dismissively.

"Not important?! Tony—" she cuts herself off and sighs, rubbing her head. "We're going to have a chat about priorities later."

We make it to a weird metallic door. Pepper walks in, followed by Tony and Peter. I look at Toothless, confused. There's no other door. Why are they getting in?

"Come on," Tony roles his eyes. "You're as bad as capsicle."

"I don't know what that is," I respond, warily shuffling in with a Toothless. The door closes behind us. It's a tight fit with all of us in here, I think at one point Tony copped a wing to the face. I'm not sure it was entirely accidental.

"Priority Medbay, Friday." Pepper speaks up. I look at her confused, but all of a sudden the floor moves beneath me. I clutch onto Toothless in surprise.

"A little warning would have been nice!" I grunt as the room stops moving and a small ding sounds before the door opens.
"Wait, you haven't been in an elevator before?" Pepper raise her eyebrows in surprise.

"Is that what it's called?" We have moving platforms on New Berk, but they're operated by pulleys, winches and ropes. We don't use them often, of course, because we have these things called our dragons. So our manual systems are for transporting large things, like ships or building supplies.

We move out of the so-called elevator and down a hall. This one is simpler, white, but still very clean. There's a faint smell in the air that I can't place.

"The news is already going crazy," Pepper speaks as we walk, "they don't have a lot to go off, thankfully. But the phone lines are going crazy, news stations, investors, government, S.H.I.E.L.D. They're all calling."

"Just ignore them, it wouldn't be the first time." Tong instructs.

"For once I agree, we can't go telling the world and freaking them out before we know what's going on." Pepper responds.

Soon we reach two doors that have been pushed open. "We're here," Pepper leads the way into the room. Walking in, the room is large. There is what looks like several beds—though they're wrapped in white sheeting that looks more comfortable than the beds on Berk. Theres a few metal tables, on wheels, that have miscellaneous items across them. There's several different types of beeping and buzzing filling the room. There's three other people, all wearing white coats and blue pants. They're all moving around the room, touching things, but stop when they notice our presence.

Aaand that's it. Point out any errors! Sorry it's a little late, I had work last night and then ended up doom scrolling instead of being productive when I got back home 💀