harley keener is so keith kogane to me and my brain thinks he should kiss altean peter. (i don't explain voltron well here, my bad guys (this isn't proofread btw))
harley is trying (and slowly failing) to not get kicked out of the galaxy garrison. he's 16 years old and dirt poor, only managing to get into the piloting academy division because a well-known graduate student, steve rogers, had vouched for him back when he was 14. he doesn't really subscribe to the idea of being a soldier for the government, even if that government is a global government. [vld world has no borders apparently] but a steady paycheck in the future isn't just in service of himself - his mom and his sister will have better lives. but steve rogers, who was highly irritating with his do-good attitude yet was the only person to care for harley, had disappeared in space, alongside a pilot and a mission specialist. everyone knew it was risky, kerberos being the farthest humans had dared to travel in years. [this whole thing was inspired by artemis ii] and yet he'd held so much certainty that the mission would be fine, that steve would return and his weekly video calls were just to stave off their inevitable reunion.
for a whole year, harley had slowly dwindled the teachers' and staffs' patience. whether it was not studying for an astrophysics exam to comb through conspiracy theory blogs, or failing to cooperate with his pilot simulation team, natasha romanoff, a friend of steve's, had finally sat him down and spoken plainly. "think about your family," she spoke, eyes firm but not unkind, "can you do it for them? can you do it for him?" the 'him' in question went unspoken.
after that, he'd truly tried, but it was like anger simmered underneath his skin and the slightest brush made him lash out. one night, sulking with his head in a textbook, he'd gone out of the barracks and walked to the higher education wing, hoping to ask for bucky barnes' help understanding military flight patterns.
he hid behind a wall as two figures with hushed, whispering voices hurried down the hallway.
natasha strode with confidence, uniform and weapons strapped on. "the garrison's scout team will pick up on the radio signals soon. i'll get there first."
beside her, a man in a lab coat struggled to keep up, "nat, you don't even know what it is! maybe it has nothing to do with him."
intrigued, harley had followed them to the dark and deserted hangar, where natasha had promptly pointed a gun at him. she lowered it and frowned. "harley. go back to the barracks."
"what are you doing?"
"n-n-nothing! nothing at all, just taking a walk, haha..." the spectacle-d man responded.
both stared at him with unimpressed eyes. he shrunk into himself and looked away.
nat shooed away harley, attempting to give him no attention, but the boy rushed to spout out, "if you don't let me come, i'll snitch on you!"
harley glared. "i'm not above tattle-taling."
"we're going to lose our jobs..." the man beside nat whimpered.
natasha stood pensive for a moment, before shrugging a shoulder and moving forward to a parked hovercraft. "jump on. we're losing time."
they raced through the clouds of sand at night. a few miles away, harley and lab-coat startled as the garrison lit up with alarms and garrison vehicles took off into the dark sky.
nat tsked. "bruce, where am i going?"
"oh!" lab-coat - bruce - pulled out a clunky piece of technology from his satchel bag, screen lighting up with green lines and text. harley barely made out coordinates, like the ones on the fighter jet simulations.
"they should be close to tuckup canyon."
they drove in silence, the hovercraft's blue headlight lighting the way rather dimly. natasha, who maneuvered past bolders, into valleys and around bushes with practiced ease, had a determined furrow on her face.
after a while, natasha jerked the vehicle up a steep incline, before parking it rather bruskly and jumping off. harley and bruce trailed behind her with hesitant steps. all three inched closer to the edge of the cliff where they could see a great team of garrison soldiers and scientists busy traveling in and out of a make-shift laboratory.
the three crouched and watched.
"what are they doing?..." harley whispered, uncertain.
"they must've found what entered the atmosphere." natasha replied. "can you enter their computers from out here?" she asked bruce, ignoring harley's gasp and following stammers of confusion.
something had entered their atmosphere?! harley's amaze distracted him until bruce turned his screen towards them, smile wobbly. "live video feed!"
steve is strapped to a table. he's missing an arm, has a jagged scar across his nose that looks like burnt skin, and barely visible white hair amongst his blonde head - although it all looks terrible, with dirt and sweat coating the strands.
he's also the most scared harley's ever seen him. he's screaming, warning about aliens attacking earth. his hands, covered in gloves that match his strange uniform, bang against the restraints holding him down. one of the larger scientists hold him down, and the other settled a gas mask on him, until slowly he's put to sleep.
harley's fingers twitch, and he immediately makes to leap down the slope before a hand stops him.
natasha's looking at him with a raised brow. "what are you doing?"
"we have to help him, nat! they're not listening to him, or comforting him, they're just tying him down like- like a dog! he's not an animal!" harley's head turned with the waves of anger that flooded his brain.
"i get that." she said, "but we can't just jump in there. we need a distraction."
"uhm," bruce's voice interrupted him, eyes wide and pointing at a far off corner, "is that a distraction?"
natasha and harley watched as a figure in black peaked around a bottom cliff to the left, before explosions rocked a nearby valley. the soldiers scrambled to mount their vehicles and go investigate, before the figure dashed forward into the laboratory.
without another word spoken, natasha leaped over the edge and slid down, harley rushing to copy her and bruce tripping down behind them.
inside, a fast sequence of events occurred. the figure, who'd taken out the remaining scientists inside, had readied for a fight against them but balked at their faces. removing their helmet, it turned out to be michelle jones, student at the galaxy garrison and daughter of kerberos mission specialist jones. she had shared a safe house her father had set up in the desert and promptly left on her own hoverbike. natasha drove and outmaneuvered whoever gave chase from the garrison, before all three decided it was best to take steve, unconcious and draped over harley, to the safehouse.
the morning after, steve awoke and seemed fine, if unsettled at being back on earth. michelle's walls were covered in maps, and she spoke of a strange energy that had called to her. with her father missing and no other ties to the garrison, she went to research it.
harley could barely stand her repressed and passive-aggressive way of talking, while michelle claimed she wasn't the one on the verge of flunking out. this saddened steve to hear, and he'd offered a disappointed "we'll talk about it later.", which immediately placed michelle on harley's most hated list.
steve spoke of missing memories, of a voice that repeated "voltron" and a weapon highly coveted by aliens. harley had barely wrapped his head around the concept of life outside of earth, but bruce pushed forward, sharing he'd been researching weird radio signals with natasha, and thought the energy in the desert might coincide with the alien messages. [ngl i can't explain the science from the original episode here, i think it's spectroscopy but i might be wrong]
after bruce builds a geiger counter, all five are led to a deep cave, where carvings on the wall glow blue in response to bruce's touch and a sudden tunnel opens up underneath them, dropping them into another cavern in the form of a slide.
here, shallow water litters the floor, and in front of them, a mechanical beast, a blue engineered lion, stands surrounded by a forcefield. bruce with a soft, inquisitive hand touches it, and it disappears. the lion shifts, and all stand cautious as it lowers its head and opens its mouth.
"it's talking in my head..." bruce whispers tentatively. "oh my god, she's invaded my head..."
"well, what's she saying?" asked michelle.
"i think it wants us to get on..."
"in there?" harley guffawed. "in the lion? it's asking us to go into its mouth?"
bruce, the least anxious harley has ever seen him since they've met, takes unhurried steps towards the machine, and waits for none of them as he slips inside.
natasha sighs, and follows. michelle jogs to catch up, sending them a questioning look over her shoulder.
steve and harley stand for a moment, before exchanging glances. harley still has trouble taking in his changed appearance.
"well..." steve trails off, "guess there's nothing else to do." he begins trekking forward, and harley startles into movement, walking behind him.
what follows is this: bruce, who's never piloted a thing in his life, sits in the cockpit and the beast blares to life, shooting up and into the various chasms and crawl-ways underground. they all cling to the small walls around them as they stand behind his chair and are unbalanced by the movement. natasha's urging him in a stern voice to park the damn thing, steve is trying to guide him, michelle is cursing at everything and nothing in particular, harley's barely clinging on to the backwall, and bruce is blabbering about making it stop as he jerks the controls around.
they reach earth's orbit, where, in the distance, an alien spaceship, enormous in size, trawls towards the planet like a looming threat. steve recounts that this lion must be what they were looking for, and to give it up meant great peril to earth. they agree to lead the spaceship away, and in a moment of grand confusion, a wormhole swallows them up.
on the other side, a planet greatly mirroring earth waits for them. the stars in the distance don't resemble the milky way at all. the blue lion pilots itself closer and docks inside a tall castle that stands amongst the green fields. the blue lion opens her mouth and remains unresponsive, so they follow the lighted path down hallways and through arching rooms that seem technologically advanced and distinct.
in a circular viewing room, two pods ascend from the floor with a burst of cold air. one of the pods slides open with a hydraulic hiss, and out tumbles a man into michelle's arms. he's got refined clothing in dark blues and soft whites, and looks fairly human, if one could ignore the pointed ears or the crescent moon marks on his cheekbones. his eyes flutter as they try to open, and his knees buckle until michelle gently lowers him to the ground.
the girl, despite her sweet demeanor, grunts and speaks, "jesus! you good, old man?"
he looks to her, stare slowly growing alarmed, "who the fuck are you?"
the man's eyes sweep behind michelle, and takes in their cluster. his hand, quick, quicker than one would expect from someone who's just woken up, reaches to his hip, where a sword's hilt (a sword! harley thought) lay waiting.
steve, alarmed, steps in. "wait, wait! we didn't come for a fight." as steve steps closer, michelle shuffles back and to a safe distance, and the group watches as steve assuages the man. "we were brought here. by, uh, a blue lion."
the man blinked rapidly. he frowned in confusion and his hand stayed at his sword, shoulders tense. "why would you have the blue lion?" he snarled, "if you've come on behalf of the galra, you're sorely mistaken."
"nope! no, uh," steve laughed, unsure, "we definitely did not come with the... gaulra?"
the man squinted, expression flickering between tense and unsure, before the whole group's attention was diverted by the hiss of another door.
harley looked behind him, as he stood closest to the second pod, and stepped back as it revealed the body inside with a gust of cold air. without a chance to take in the figure's features, it slumped forward, and harley darted to catch it.
in his arms, harley crinkled his nose as brown hair, light and soft, tickled his jaw. the figure was slimmer than him, and a bit shorter, yet a strong grip clutched onto his forearms. slowly, the face tilted up, until harley was met with eyes the color of marbles - honey like in color and warm in gaze.
unbidden, a blush tore up harley's cheeks as he confronted the boy in front of him. pointed ears, blue cheek marks, a delicate gold circlet, and a face as young as his own. the boy blinked long lashes at him, before raising a gentle hand and whispering, slurred and out of it, "wha's wrong wi'f your ears?..."
harley stammered, unsure how to answer. "uhm, what's- what's wrong with yours?!" despite his defensive words, he lowered the boy onto the ground, kneeling with him and keeping their arms connected.
the man from before called a frantic, "peter!", and his steps could be heard rushing forward until he appeared beside harley, kneeling down to give the boy a once-over.
"father?... wait, what's going on?..." like his dad, harley assumed, the boy's, peter's, gaze slowly took on life.
both helped peter stand and tony - harley would later come to learn - stared at him with a glimpse of suspicion.
the situation, it turned out, was much more perilous than they feared. an intergalactic conquering of the universe was being carried out by a group of aliens called the galra, stemming back 10,000 years. tony and peter, king and prince of altea, an extinct species and planet, were saved from their invasion by being sent into sleep chambers. now, their last hope was a powerful piloted mechanical suit called voltron, built by combining five lions together.
tony spoke with a conflicted face, brow furrowed and stare averted, "a failure of a king i must be, to allow this to happen."
peter stepped up then, stare determined and stance regal. for a singular moment, harley thought him the strongest silhouette there. "our past cannot be changed. but if it is as they say, father, then the galra must be stopped. the lions chose you, all of you," his gaze swept all five of them, "each of you was brought here for a purpose and the universe needs you now. i ask that you please join our fight."
staring at the others and finding their determined gazes, harley thought piloting a lion didn't sound that bad.
---
extras cause i'm a uni student with no time to write more:
harley is the red lion, bruce is the blue lion, natasha is the yellow lion, michelle is the green lion, steve is the black lion
i thought since blue nurtures potential in its pilot, bruce needed to find his confidence. green, the most obvious choice for him, is described as need a daring pilot, and i thought michelle was more headstrong. natasha takes the hits while also caring for everyone.
later on, i like the idea of peter piloting the black lion. his father is king and while he runs the ship and dictates most of the missions + alliances, peter has a stronger reign on quintessence and would slowly grow disquieted with sitting still on the ship.
steve and peter also have similar qualities that would attract the black lion.
steve and tony would butt heads a lot but mutual respect and even friendship.
tony would take on a gentler yet firm relationship with harley and michelle as he's used to dealing with young soldiers in the military (although perhaps he'd grow closer to harley when peter starts showing signs of being in love).
michelle and bruce are a pairing i love, "anxious but hope-core" dad with "emo and brutally honest" daughter.
natasha from the get go has a close friendship with steve, and would grow closer with tony as their banter reminds her of kerberos pilot and her half brother, clint barton.
i envision parkner to have a sweet puppy love that's turned angst because of the war around them. harley has a family that's waiting for him on earth, so he's immensely scared of dying in battle and never seeing them again. he also grapples with the fact that space, what he loved and dreamed of as a kid, is being tainted by the battles left and right that face them.
peter is handling a grieving father who's trying to be strong but is distant, the weight of a civilization and everyone he knew now dead, and the idea that harley might die too.
i might add more idk