Chapter 34

'Initiating nanotech treatment. Starting nerve animation sequence'.

Hiccup pondered this as he read the words. He didn't really know what they meant. Then came a whirring sound and he looked up, through the somewhat foggy glass of the tube, to see small mechanical arms moving in the direction of Astrid's cloned body. Syringes containing a somewhat metallic liquid were attached to the various mechanical arms.

"Are those nanites?" Hiccup asked aloud even if no one was in the room with him.

"Nanites?" Astrid asked since she couldn't see into the room.

"They are being injected into the clone. Is that bad?" Hiccup asked as he watched the process.

"Not necessarily," Astrid sounded thoughtful. "They may be needed for the transfer. But it is a pretty advanced leap in technological thinking to use nanites to facilitate a reverse transfer of consciousness. Yet not totally unexpected."

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked.

"The process is a bit too complicated to explain," Astrid could be heard muttering. "Though it is safe to say that the nanites, if they are really there for the transfer, would be of great help with containing the flow of extra information."

"It just feels like this entire process was designed for someone else." Hiccup stated as he looked around. "The room not attached to the main system, the retrofitted cloning tube and transferring equipment." Hiccup mumbled. "I don't know Astrid. All of this seems like it would take more than a week to set up. Drago definitely had his own agenda. I think he wanted to do more than just work on a cure for Midas."

"Hiccup you said you found notebooks. Maybe a possible solution to Midas is in there. I did hand over what research data we had found on it to Drago the week before." Astrid stated while sounding pensive.

Hiccup looked around on the desk and frowned. The notebooks looked old and worn. The pages already turning yellow. He flipped through several of them but they only showed mechanical devices and pages entirely crossed out as if in a fit of rage. A couple of pages depicted a giant, fearsome looking machine. On the top of one of the page it read 'Bewilderbeast'. The drawings were done in much finer details than anything else that Hiccup had come across so far. It was as if this weapon, because from what Hiccup could see and read it was indeed a very big weapon, was what kept Drago sane while pretending he was on Mary and Hank's side. Hiccup thought that if Drago ever had had the chance to actually built this then Hank and Mary would have very likely been his first targets.

He rifled through some more of the documents, cluttering the desk, but found nothing that even resembled Midas. Hiccup was about to give up when he stubbed his toe against one of the edges of the workstation. He then looked down and squinted as something was wedged under the desk. He bent down, ignoring the pain in his toe and his eyes widened. There was another notebook there, wedged under the desk keeping it level. It looked far newer too and Hiccup proceeded to yank it loose.

Hiccup's eyes widened when he leafed through it. "Jackpot," He told Astrid as his eyes continued to scan the pages. "That was probably the weirdest place to hide a book," Hiccup mumbled as he relayed where he had found it.

"Or perhaps the smartest," Astrid corrected. "You only found it by accident."

"True." Hiccup nodded. "I can take these out of the lab so you can scan them with the camer-" Hiccup stopped and looked at the growth tube. It was making a whirring sound.

"Hiccup what's going on?" Astrid asked.

He placed the notebook on the table and hurried to the screen attached to the tube. 'Final cycle complete. Neural suspension active. Releasing subject'.

"Ah!" Hiccup slightly panicked once he read that. The monitoring equipment, including the breathing mask, began to detach itself from the clone body and the hatch began to open, leaking bioplasma onto the lab floor. The fluid flowed to a nearby drain and Hiccup panicked as the unconscious body fell forward. He moved quickly and broke the fall.

It was then that Hiccup's eyes widened and he turned his head away quickly while muttering "Oh Thor, Oh Thor, Oh Thor!" and trying to keep the blushing down.

"What's the matter Hiccup?" Astrid asked while Hiccup seemed to look everywhere besides at Astrid's cloned body.

"She's..... You're...... NAKED!" Hiccup sputtered as he kept his eyes diverted while hefting the clone body up and walking towards one of the tables that had linens on it. The clone's body was still covered in bioplasma which now clung to the front of Hiccup's clothes. Hiccup stretched out one hand while trying to balance the weight. He managed to grab a soft blanket and draped it around Astrid's body, all the while trying not to look.

"Of course the clone body is naked," Astrid said into the earpiece. There was clear amusement in her voice as she added "Did you think clones come fully clothed?"

"Har har har," Hiccup rolled his eyes as Astrid laughed. He now managed to get a better grip and was about to bring the clone over to the medical table when the doors to the secondary lab opened.

Hiccup whirled around, clone in arms, and his eyes widened at who was on the other side of the door.

"Hiccup, I swear I tried my best!" Snotlout exclaimed as he was being held at the back of his shirt collar by Stoick, who was accompanied by Spitelout.

"Hiccup final checks for transfer are complete and decoy progr-OH SHI-ITAKE MUSHROOMS!" Astrid quickly corrected as her cameras displayed the new arrivals. She had been so caught up in making a decoy program so that they weren't immediately discovered, only to get immediately discovered.

"Hiccup what in darn blazes is going on here?!" His father bellowed as he looked at Hiccup holding what appeared to be an unconscious woman.

"Dad...... I know this looks bad......." Hiccup quickly said. "But there is a perfectly reasonable and logical explanation for all of this."

"Snotlout was covering for you. He even started juggling to try and distract us!" Stoick grumbled as he shook Snotlout a little. Hiccup raised a brow at the juggling part. "Now there had better be a damn good explanation for why you are carrying an unconscious lass. A lass that I've never seen here before, and why you are in an area where a murder took place!"

"Everything will be explained Stoick," Astrid spoke up suddenly. "But first would you mind Hiccup putting my body down? I would like to start this procedure before the clone develops an awareness. The longer we wait the more dangerous it becomes."

"YOUR BODY?! AWARENESS?!" Stoick's red bushy eyebrows nearly hit the ceiling while Spitelout was muttering something unintelligible under his breath.

Hiccup turned around now and headed for the medical table again. Stoick, Spitelout and Snotlout had no other choice but to enter the secondary lab if they wanted answers. The doors shut themselves automatically once the trio had crossed the threshold. Hiccup wasn't paying them much attention as he carefully set Astrid down and read the instructions to start the machine. Astrid helped him along the way and started double checking everything. There was to be no room for error. He was lost in focus and even Stoick knew that he wouldn't get much out of Hiccup when he was like this.

"You sure everything is rigged right?" Hiccup asked aloud and Stoick and Spitelout thought he was talking to them until they spotted the small earpiece. "And you're sure they won't detect a change until it's too late?" Hiccup then asked. Stoick didn't hear the answer but Hiccup nodded. He then held up a cable to the device he had attached to the clone body and looked around.

"There should be a terminal in the wall to plug in," Astrid supplied and Hiccup had to crouch down to see it behind the medical table. "Once the terminal is reactivated I should have full sensors operational in the room. I can handle the transfer procedure then."

Hiccup nodded and reached down to plug in the neurotransmitter before pressing the button that would connect this lab to Astrid's main systems. When he had done it he heard Astrid let out a happy sigh through the headset. "It is good to be able to see you again," She flirted before starting the procedure.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the facility, Hank called out from behind a work terminal "Mary you have got to see this. Someone has been very naughty."

Mary approached and leaned over her husband's shoulder to see the room he was spying on. "Should we put a stop to it?" He asked.

"No," Mary smirked. "Let's see where this goes. This is valuable data after all."

"But....."

"Hank, this is rather interesting. Maybe we should move our plans up if this kid actually succeeds." Mary smirked. "Contact Pandora. We may be able to move forward with Re-genesis much sooner than we thought."

"Honey, just what are you planning?"

AN: Oh dear...... Stay tuned for more on Monday!