Chapter 150: That's When Everything Went Wrong!

The plasma blast ignited a powerful explosion which swept Wall.e, E.v.e., Nightstriker, Hal, Hiccup, Toothless, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Barf and Belch, and the Skrill up in its fallout, flinging them in all directions. The Skrill screamed as it was flung back by its own mistake, its defenses overwhelmed by the powerful electrical blast generated by the explosion. Ruffnut and Tuffnut screamed, "YEAAAAAAH! WHOOOO! THIS IS AWESOME AND SCARY AT THE SAME TIME! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGH!", and Barf and Belch screamed simultaneously as they were launched backwards by a force they couldn't control. Hiccup cursed, "ODIN'S RUUUUUUUUUUUUUNES! I HAAAAATE THIIIIIS!" as Toothless roared in fright, their lives flashing before their eyes as they fell out of the sky. Wall.e squealed, "OOOOOUUU! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!", as she was recoiled backwards by the overwhelming force of the blast. E.v.e. screamed, "BLOOOOODY SKRIIIIILL! OH FUUUUUCK!", as she and Wall.e were thrown in the same general direction as the twins and their Zippleback. Hal squealed, "REEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEP!", as he was tossed backwards by the expanding electrical field. Nightstriker roared, "REEEEE-AAAAAAAAOOOOUUUU!", as she was propelled through the air alongside her brother. Uzi squealed, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!", in terror as he and his Crimson Howler were catapulted away from the explosion's epicenter.

Dagur the Deranged watched the Skrill fall out of sight, cursing, "... Damn you, Hiccup! Hoh.... well, it looks like Hiccup can't catch my Skrill either." Captain Vorg spat a live fish onto the deck, pointing up and saying, "Sir, look." Dagur brushed him off, "Not now, Vorg. Vorg?!? Didn't I push you overboard a few minutes ago?!?" Vorg shrugged and said, "Well, I am an excellent swimmer..." Dagur started to stride towards Vorg, getting ready to push him overboard for the umpteenth time. Vorg nervously backed up, quipping, "Perhaps we should withdraw, sir! We've lost half the fleet and we need to rebuild!" Before Dagur could take another step, he was suddenly knocked down and pinned by a massive weight falling out of the sky. Hard spines dug into his back, and Hiccup landed on the deck next to Dagur, catching him completely off guard. "Hiccup?!?" Hiccup was momentarily pinned by Toothless's head landing on top of him. Vorg fell back into the water by accident, tripping over a barrel near the side of the deck. Hal and Nightstriker landed on the deck next to Toothless, riderless. Hiccup apologized, "Sorry about your deck...", as Toothless righted himself and he clambered back into the saddle. Toothless, Hal, and Nightstriker took off together, leaving Dagur to watch, gobsmacked, as they reunited with the rest of the riders. Captain Vorg scrabbled back up the side of the deck, spluttering and coughing up seawater. Dagur absentmindedly pushed him back into the water, and ordered, "Retreat! We'll stop at the nearest forested island to make repairs!" The Skrill's Revenge turned around and began to pull away from the battlefield, followed by any Berserker Ship that could still sail. As he paced the deck, Dagur growled, "Hiccup... as it stands, you're drifting further and further into being my enemy. Someday- not today- someday you will kiss my boots!" Toothless landed on the nearest seastack, and Hiccup asked, "Has anyone seen the Skrill, the Twins, Barf and Belch, Wall.e, or E.v.e.?" Uzi shook his head, Astrid said, "No.... why?", Fishlegs shrugged and replied, "Nope. Haven't seen them since before we disabled half the fleet...", and Snotlout blathered, "... Northblort." Hiccup looked back at the watery horizon, saying, "This is bad... we need to find them before Dagur does."

The Skrill landed in the water with a loud scream and an explosive burst of electricity. A school of dead fish bobbed to the surface a moment later, along with a stream of bubbles. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Barf and Belch crashed into the top of a nearby seastack, the twins screaming until the wind was knocked out of them by the crash. Wall.e crashed into the next seastack over, squealing, "OOOUUU! AAAAA! E.V.E.-AAAAA!", as she half scrabbled, half slipped down the spire and landed on the mostly flat, rocky ledge. E.v.e. crashed into the seastack on the opposite side from the twins, shouting, "WAAALL.EEE! WAAALL.EEEEE!", as she half slipped, half scrabbled down the side and awkwardly glided onto the top of the same seastack as Barf and Belch. Spotting her partner, Wall.e leaped into the air, flapped once, and glided into an awkward landing, joining E.v.e., Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Barf and Belch on the same seastack. Wall.e and E.v.e. nuzzled each other, and Wall.e awkwardly sidestepped around her wife, gently nudging her wife's belly with her nose and sniffing it. E.v.e. turned and watched her, then awkwardly stretched towards Wall.e's ear and started to whisper into it. At the same time, the twins caught their breath, and uneasily sat up.

A ship quietly glided out from behind a nearby seastack, its decks filled with caged dragons and Grimborn Dragon Hunters. The captain of the ship, Sharpknife the Cunning, stood at the front of the main deck, surveying the water ahead of him. Glancing off his port side, he spotted a school of dead fish floating near the base of a large seastack... and a stream of bubbles floating up to the surface and popping in the same area. He shouted, "HALT THE SHIP! THERE'S ONE RIGHT AT THE BASE OF THIS SEASTACK!" A hunter shouted, "YES, SIR! RIGHT AWAY, SIR!", and ran below deck. A moment later, the oars stopped rowing, and the ship coasted to a stop right next to the patch of dead fish. Sharpknife kept his eyes locked on the stream of bubbles, observing that they were gradually tapering off. A dragon hunter asked, "Sir, what do you think? Tidal Class, trying to dive out of reach?" Sharpknife narrowed his eyes and grabbed the synth by the throat, exploding, "NO, OIKISH! THAT'S NOT A TIDAL CLASS!" He pointed out, much more quietly this time, "The bubbles are tapering off way to quickly to be coming from the lungs of a tidal class dragon... and look at those fish. They're scored with electricity." Oikish backed off, nervously glancing between his captain and his master, Bearhug the Dimwit. Sharpknife barked, "Oikish! Bearhug! Lower the chain! Looks like we'll be fishing up a Skrill this afternoon!" Oikish and Bearhug did as Sharpknife asked, heaving the heavy grappling end of the chain over the side of the ship and starting to crank the winch. The chain sunk into the water, plunging after the Skrill. Sharpknife smiled deviously and cracked his knuckles, smirking to himself, "Scraptrap, eat your heart out when you get a load of this Skrill..."

From the top of the seastack, Tuffnut complained, "Oh great. We do all the work and the Berserkers get the Skrill anyway." Ruffnut agreed, "Yeah, this is why we don't work. It accomplishes nothing." E.v.e. slunk up to the edge of the seastack and peered over the side, watching the Grimborns haul the Skrill up from the depths. She cautioned, "Wait a moment. That's not the Berserkers... let's see- three hulls, three masts, carved wooden tails... that's the Grimborn Tribe!" Sharpknife cackled loudly as the Skrill was hauled onto the deck, muzzled by more dragon hunters, and hauled towards a temporary restraint- where it was locked into a chained collar and stabbed with a dragon root spear by one of its new captors. Incredulous, Ruffnut asked, "Hey... they already have so many Skrills caged on deck... why would they want another one?" Tuffnut agreed, "Yeah, wouldn't they get sick of capturing the same dragon over and over again?" Wall.e rhetorically asked, "Why wouldn't they want another one? Did you see how many they have?" Ruffnut realized out loud, "They could sell them to Dagur or attack Berk directly with them..." Tuffnut gestured at the Grimborn Ship, asking, "... So we should do something about this, right?" E.v.e. nodded and said, "Yes, we should. I suggest we follow them at a distance and obtain more information." Ruffnut chipped in, "And them what do we do?" Tuffnut slowed her down, "Woah, woah, woah, woah! Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay?" Wall.e brought their attention back to the ship, saying, "It looks like they're turning around and sailing off..." They watched the ship sail away for a moment, and then the two synths and the Zippleback silently took off and spiraled down around the seastack until they were flying close to the waterline. They then started following the Grimborns at a distance as they began to sail the next leg of their voyage.

On the deck, Sharpknife studied the drugged Skrill, wondering out loud, "I wonder how you ended up in the water, big fella?" He reached towards the Skrill's snout. It weakly snapped at his hand, hissing. Sharpknife pulled his hand back, taunting the dragon, "It doesn't matter now! You are on my ship now... which means I can do whatever I want with you!" He mockingly planted his boot on the Skrill's nasal horn, and stared it directly in the eye, taunting it, "I might sell you off to the highest bidder! Or maybe... Viggo will sell you to some enterprising warlord at the next dragon auction. Perhaps Scraptrap can find you a new occupation as a living weapon, hmm? I'm sure you'd love being able to strike whomever you want... or more accurately, whomever your master wants, HAHAHA! Eh, I might just turn you into a new coat and pair of boots." He strolled away from the Skrill and returned to his usual place at the prow of his own ship. As Sharpknife watched the waves speed by, he barked, "Let's get this beast back to Auction Island. Unless Scraptrap decides to show his toothy snout around here, I have big plans for this Skrill... and all the other Skrills we've captured."