fandomhigh | Practical Crisis Problem Solving - Danger Shop, Tuesday, Period 3 (11am-12pm)

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Practical Crisis Problem Solving - Danger Shop, Tuesday, Period 3 (11am-12pm)

Upon walking through the doors of the Danger Shop, it was completely understandable if the fine students of Practical Crisis Problem Solving (which the Doctor preferred to call "Staying Out of Trouble Badly") were very confused. They were in the park. Yes, the park, the one in Fandom just outside and down the road. Fandom all around them looked normal, at least as far as the beach. Then the water and everything beyond it was all hazy. The sky was an odd shade of red too.

"Hello!" the Doctor said, looking very smart in his tweed jacket and bow tie. There were other clothes too (including pants), but those were the two articles worth mentioning. "I'm the Doctor. You are all in Staying Out of Trouble Badly." See, with the calling the class the wrong name. "Which might be on your little schedule spreadsheets as something to do with problem solving. If you're not supposed to be here," he added with a smile, "stay anyway. Have some fun. Today we're going to get the creative juices flowing." He frowned. "No, I don't like the sound of that. It sounds too...moist. Doesn't matter." He switched back on track. "You might be wondering why the sky is red. Or orange. Burnt sienna? Would we call it that? Maybe Sinopia instead. The colour, not the planet. I had a point somewhere.

The sky. Yes. The sky is red because the entire island," he turned around in a circle and pointed in every direction for emphasis, "is surrounded by a shield. You can't penetrate it and you can't transport out of it, sorry if that's your thing. The reason for this a species called the Atraxi have tracked a criminal here to the very pretty Fandom Island. Prisoner Zero is its name. If Prisoner Zero doesn't give itself up in an hour, the Atraxi are going to incinerate everything and everyone inside the shield. They don't do things by halves.

I don't expect you to find Prisoner Zero today, but before the hour is up, each of you is to come up with a plan. Brainstorm. That's what we're here for today. Brainstorm a plan. Talk to me. Talk to each other. Let's get some ideas on how to find Prisoner Zero, stop the Atraxi from burning us all to a crisp and save Fandom. Your name might be useful too, if you don't mind telling me it. Oh, and if you do have higher brain function and can understand what I'm saying, please raise your hand so I can identify anyone who doesn't and can't."

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Hiccup opened his mouth, then closed it again. "Okay, fiery burning death starting to look like an option," he deadpanned, frowning. "There must be a way to talk to them, can't we phone them or something? I know they've got phones here that can call all the way around the world and technology that sends pictures through the air." He waved a hand. "The radio station! They could send out a message to the Atraxi from the radio station, everyone can hear that."

Hiccup really had only the vaguest idea of how radio worked.

"We could send one out to Prisoner Zero, too but that probably wouldn't work because the Atraxi could hear it. What we need is a way for him to find us. Except I have no idea how to get him to do that."

"Focus on the people trying to kill you for the moment. Radio station. Probably not loud enough unless they're monitoring communications, but you could boost and direct the signal with the right equipment and know-how. Good. Send off people who know how to do that. Sorted. Prisoner Zero's next, and you'd better be ready for the possibility that no matter how much mercy you show, no matter how willing you are to be on Prisoner Zero's side, Prisoner Zero might not want to be on yours. But you were on the right track. Mass communication."

"They probably are listening, they'd have to be or they wouldn't know if we found him," he said, frowning and tapping his metal foot on the grass while he thought. "Yeah, problem," he sighed. "If Prisoner Zero's guilty of something awful, he's not going to want to come out, and if he's innocent, he's not going to want to come out." He looked up. "Why can't everyone else help find him? There's a lot of people on this island. Okay, it might be a million to one chance, but any chance is still a chance. The radio could broadcast that as well...except we still don't know who we're looking for. Are you sure they want us to find Prisoner Zero? Cause they're not making it too easy."

"They probably don't think much of us, if they're willing to incinerate us so easily. For Prisoner Zero, they're trying to flush him out. Die with the humans and dragon or go back to prison. Or face the death penalty possibly. Either way, their prisoner doesn't go free. And yes. More people on the island than just us chickens, even if they're not programmed to appear. What's the plan? Get the word out to them, then talk to the Atraxi? What do we tell them to look for? We're in a limited space. Small town. Everyone knows what belongs in a small town. What do you look for?"

"Look for something that doesn't belong. Look for someone that no one recognises. Look for someone scared, though that's probably everyone at this point. Look for someone who's trying to hide?"

"Yes, yes, yes and yes. Though he could be hiding by pretending not to hide. But that's the key, the first one. A town as small as this, everyone who's been here long enough knows everyone." He was leaving aside the reality that the real Prisoner Zero had been a multiform and could have looked like anyone. "Get the word out. Everyone. All the eyes and ears and tendrils and psychic waves you can think of, reaching out, looking for what doesn't belong on an island full of people who don't belong."

"Okay, we do that." He paused, and it stretched out for a little while. "And then we have to figure out what to do once we find him."

"Let's assume all this works. The Atraxi have been contacted, though they're not much help. They keep announcing that Prisoner Zero must vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. They don't really want to talk. The search is out and someone's found someone who doesn't belong. Could be Prisoner Zero. What now? And why haven't the Atraxi found him on their own?"

"I'm thinking the Atraxi aren't too much with the hands on. Why bother, when they can make us do the work for them." He ran his hands through his hair, talking faster now. "We can't just hand an innocent guy over to the Atraxi, whether he's Prisoner Zero or not, so we have to figure out if he is, and if he is, what he's done. Maybe he's a mass murderer or maybe they just don't like his haircut. So we talk to him, and talk fast. Try and figure it out. Send someone who's good at talking, who's good at reading people, to get his side of the story. I can take them on Toothless, so we'll get there fast."

"And if Prisoner Zero turns on you?"

"If he turns on us..." Hiccup glanced at Toothless before looking back at the Doctor. "Then we," he nodded at Toothless, "stop him and hand him over to the Atraxi."

"How?" The Doctor was curious about how far Hiccup had thought this through.

How far was actually not all that far. "There's no way Toothless would let me off while Prisoner Zero was being questioned, and together we're fast, faster than just about anything," he said, frowning as he worked this out. "Toothless takes off, grabs him in his claws, and we fly straight up and keep moving fast. If they want Prisoner Zero, they'll have to drop the shield. They have to be somewhere nearby, so we deliver him."

"And if Prisoner Zero was to hurt either of you? Even kill you?" Pushing and pushing a little further, and then a little further.

Hiccup didn't answer right away and he looked at Toothless before he spoke. Then he shrugged. "It's not like it'd be the first time something tried to kill us. Last time it was a monster dragon, this time it's Prisoner Zero," he said with a crooked smile as Toothless rested his head on Hiccup's shoulder. "I'm a Viking. It's an occupational hazard."

"I have plenty of those myself. You'd try anyway? Knowing you're both in danger, for the sake of a distant chance that you could save everyone?"

Hiccup and Toothless exchanged a look before turning back to the Doctor. "What else are we supposed to do?" he asked. "I mean don't get me wrong, not dying, not getting hurt, still the primary goals here."

The Doctor stood back and considered Hiccup for a few seconds. "I won't lie to you. There's a good chance you'd die, the Atraxi wouldn't see Prisoner Zero and everyone would perish in a fireball of Fandom anyway. But you'd have a reasonable chance of pulling it off. Oh, and Hiccup?"

He glanced at Toothless again, a little bit worried now. "Yes?"

"I need another teaching assistant. Make sure Cara doesn't set anything on fire." There was a fixation on fire today.

He blinked in surprise. "Uh, okay. And I'm uniquely qualified to stop people from setting things on fire," he said, then thought about who they were talking about and exactly how much she had in common with Astrid, and added, "Even Cara."

"And take her for a pizza or malted juice or whatever it is people your age do here to socialise. You'll be working together for a while."

Now that would be a challenge, but he was a Viking and Vikings weren't afraid of a challenge.

Mostly weren't afraid of a challenge. "I'll do my best," he promised.

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Practical Crisis Problem Solving - Danger Shop, Tuesday, Period 3 (11am-12pm)

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