Voltron: Next Generation
A Portentous Warning: III
Word Count: 2979
A/N: Season 1 finale!
The darkness of the room was lightened by the hallway lights outside the door. A dark head of hair brushed back behind their head, reflected the lights overhead. Whether the shininess was from oil or gel, it was hard to tell. Here's where the differences came.
One wore a black and white vest, with their long hair in a ponytail. The other dark head wore dark plated armor, with their hair not reaching longer than the nape of their neck. The person wearing the vest walked past gray and white walls, heading towards an elevator that led to the main floor. As the doors opened, the person who wore the dark plated armor strode forward. As he walked past underlings, they stiffened, some biting their lips and closing their eyes to hide their fear.
The doors to the bridge opened, and the man wearing the vest walked into the bridge, descending the staircase to the right to look out the large windows. The teens in the chairs didn't flinch. They ignored Keith as he walked past. Keith stared out into the darkness past the glass. The space was infinite and cold.
If only they had known that father and son were looking at the same star.
"Keith, are you okay?" The voice was distant, far away from anything in Keith's mind.
Kova stared at the man with a confused expression. Maybe she was also indignant that she had been ignored. The other teens looked up as Keith didn't answer.
"Allura forbid," Kova muttered.
"Keith. Keith!" Caleb said, hoping to get the man's attention.
"No one get up," Kova said, moving from her console. "I got it."
Keith didn't notice the footsteps, made purposefully loud. He didn't feel the presence of another person. Until a hand touched his shoulder. His body reacted before his mind caught up. Grabbing the other person's hand and twisting it behind their back, Keith tried pushing the person to the ground. Instead, Keith felt himself being lifted until his back met the floor and he was staring at the ceiling. Has that weird discolored plate always been there?
"I did nothing!" Kova yelled, holding her hands up in surrender. Heavier steps walked over to Keith, seeing Shiro's towering form.
"Keith," Shiro said, letting his robotic arm push Kova back towards her console. "Are you alright?"
"What happened?"
"Kova flipped you." Caleb was helpful at least. It seemed that Shiro didn't appreciate it as he turned his head to glare at the teen.
"He started it!" Cake yelled, standing from his console.
"Who started what?" Hunk asked, coming into the bridge. The room descended into chaos. Pidge argued with Liz and Cake, Hunk was asking Allie what had happened, Caleb was just shouting over everyone, and Kova and Shiro had matching expressions. Reaching a human hand out to Keith, Shiro stood the man up and turned to his daughter. Her face was the definition of 'May I?' and Shiro nodded his approval after a survey of the room.
"QUIET!" Kova yelled, louder than necessary, but effective nonetheless. The arguing ceased and Shiro's robotic arm had flown over to Caleb, covering his face completely. After a sigh, Kova looked at the struggling Caleb. "If you stop struggling, you'll get the hand off your face." After some more indignant struggling, Caleb finally relaxed in his chair.
"You're loud." Hunk stated.
"I took singing lessons." Kova looked at the chaotic bridge. "Right. So... we're going to go train in our Lions, and we'll figure out the rest from there." The adults tried to voice their opinions, but the teens were already filing out.
Hunk took a seat in Cake's chair, using his bent arm as chinrest. Pidge reluctantly sat down in Liz's chair, watching as Keith walked to Caleb's chair. Shiro sighed, making his way to Kova's console. The Lions filed out in backward order: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Or Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, and Black. When the Lions were in the air and flew in front of the Coeus's large windows, Kenny finally woke up from his quick nap.
"Oh," Kenny said, yawning his way through. "We're doing that today."
"Send the file to my console," Kova said over the intercom. Through yawns and stretches, Kenny complied. Shiro received a file aptly named, 'TRAINING FILE'. Sharing it to the main screen, Shiro pressed something to open the file code. Strings of random letters, numbers, and symbols were written across the screen, undesirable for the Colonel.
"Press the green button to launch the file and we'll be—" Kova said, getting interrupted
"Who, when, where, and why?" Pidge exclaimed. "This is super complicated!"
"Which teen?" Hunk asked, looking over the code as it scrolled by. "I don't know much about programming and it's been a while since I've stared it in the face, but," He let out a low whistle. "Whoever made this deserves a cookie. Maybe a cake."
"I think Kova likes cookies and cream cake," Kenny said, voice muffled by something. How were the teens supposed to know he was stuffing his face with leftovers. "Before you ask how I know it's Kova, it's called she is perfection personified."
Out in her Lion, Kova groaned, leaning her head back. 'Perfection personified'? Oh, boy.
"Are we private from the Coeus?" Allie asked, and with Kova likely out of commission, Liz checked.
"We're clear to rant." Liz leaned back without letting go of the controls. The other teens sighed in relief, chatting among themselves. Liz ranted about Pidge being super intrusive and petty. When they moved from Pidge to Keith, Allie said nothing bad about the man. She didn't say anything good either. In fact, she said nothing at all.
"Kova," Allie said, silencing everyone. "Are you okay?"
"I'm sure she's fine, Al," Caleb said. "She is 'perfection personified'."
"I'm not sure it's being interpreted the same way," Allie said. Kova sat up at the words.
"What do you mean by that?" Liz asked.
"Well, it sounds like a compliment, but it doesn't feel like a compliment."
"And she's right," Cake spoke up. "Remember when she got really torn up about the chem test?"
"Oh, yeah," Caleb said, looking off to the distance. "And the surprise pilot test."
"DIdn't you guys redo that one?" Liz.
"Yeah." Caleb stretched in his seat. "We still passed, but we felt better about it."
"Coeus to Lions," Shiro's booming voice came over their earpieces. "Training file is launching in 3, 2, 1, launch."
Each of the Lions received a different screen, explaining the long code. It took a second to recognize what happened, but it was made clear when the inner cameras appeared onscreen. The Blue Lion was on a frozen tundra, the Yellow Lion was in a howling desert, the Green Lion was in a rainforest, and the Red Lion was on an island. The Black Lion's screen didn't seem to change, still staring out into dark space, and Shiro thought that the file had malfunctioned or maybe Kenny sent the wrong version.
"Alright, Paladins," Kenny said, watching from the massive screen down in the engine room. "Each of you has received a custom training simulation based on your individual strengths and weaknesses. Locate the green exclamation point to begin your simulation. Oh, and, uh, good luck Paladins."
The simulations were created to spread the Lions apart from each other to prevent them from hurting the other. Everything else Kenny said was true.
For Allie and Blue, the tundra was a thick layer of ice on top of a large body of water. The green exclamation point gave her the mission of stopping an oil rig in the middle of the tundra, risking an oil spill in the clear, undisturbed water.
For Cake and Yellow, the howling desert's exclamation point gave him the mission of getting up close and personal with a town slowly being sucked under the sand.
For Liz and Green, the rainforest exclamation point revealed that farmers were cutting down trees to make way for their crops, driving the natives that lived there already.
For Caleb and Red, the island's exclamation point explained that a volcano on the island was set to erupt and Red had to follow the directions of a long-time resident because he was the only one who spoke both the native language of the island and English.
For Kova and Black, it hit a little too close to home. All Kova had to do was fly out for a few miles and down. The orange and white wreck was in flames, on the verge of explosion. Her mission was to assist the pilots onboard to escape pods. Kova had seen the ship in perfect condition too many times. It was the Achlys, and the pilots onboard would represent Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Uncle Lance.
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Vhix scoffed as he looked at the screen. Yorak had managed to hack into the Coeus's most recently opened file. The Lions were all out and exposed, and according to the training simulations in front of them, they were very distracted.
"She'll be playin as you," Vhix said with a smile, looking at his brother. Yorak didn't smile, didn't acknowledge Vhix, didn't even seem interested in a discussion with him. Yorak had been made a makeshift throne, made of cut black stone from the deepest parts of the Nether Region in sector IV.
"We can take the Black Paladin now." Vhix held himself up on one of the armrests, leaning over the Emperor. "Why wait to grab her?" A second, then a minute of silence passed before Yorak slowly turned his head to Vhix.
"Are you telling me what I want to hear or are you finally expressing your free thoughts?" Yorak asked, voice low. Vhix stood, hoping to shake off the chills that ran down his spine. He returned his eyes to the screen, showing the Paladins struggling with their missions. Yorak did the same after staring at the side of Vhix's head for a few seconds.
"Hack further into the code," Yorak ordered to a shaking underling. "Ensure the blanks are real people." The underling bowed their head and returned to work, furiously typing away. As the underling highlighted and deleted the strings of code that indicated the blanks' appearance, an alarm rang.
Every screen on Yorak's bridge had begun to turn red, flashing a warning sign over the middle of the screen. Every screen turned red, including the main one that had been used to look at the Paladins' progress through their Lions.
"What. Is. Happening." Yorak demanded, watching the screens now turning from red to black. As the main screen deactivated itself, Yorak and Vhix didn't have time to react.
The Yellow Lion had headbutted them straight-on.
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"Great job, Yellow!" Kova yelled, flying under the ship. "Fall back and assist."
"Roger that!" Cake said, moving Yellow away from the cracked glass. With a motion forward, Yellow joined Green in making long, deep scratches on the side of the ship, hoping to block off the escape pods.
Red and Blue hoped to do the same but were unlucky enough to receive the first few blows from smaller ships. With Blue's laser tail and Red's jaw blade, the three smaller ships imploded on themselves.
"Teleduv at 39% power, Paladins," Kenny said over the comms. The Black Lion had turned itself horizontally to make the best use of its dual-bladed jaw blade. It did almost run its wings into an engine, but likelihood said the engine was likely to become destroyed. Rationality said 'Don't quiznacking die'. As Black emerged from the underside of the massive ship, Kova flew straight up. With Red and Green to her right and left respectively, and Blue and Yellow to Red's right and to Green's left, Kova said the magic words.
"Form Voltron!"
"Yeah!"
The giant robot towered over Yorak's ship. Onboard, the alarms had begun to sound. Two servants had come to whisk Yorak and Vhix away, hoping to catch an escape pod. How were they to know the ones normally used were destroyed or blocked? Yorak had raised a hand to one of the servants when he was violently thrown off his feet. Voltron did the football player move again. Tackle and push. Grabbing Vhix by the collar, Yorak ran to the other side of the ship, where the smaller combat ships were located. It would be cramped but better than dying today.
With one last push, Voltron let go of the massive ship, watching it float away. At the same time, Cake inserted the Yellow bayard into the port, with an array of matching sparks. With the insertion, a yellow-plated shoulder cannon appeared on Voltron's shoulder. Taking aim, Cake fired. The recoil sent Voltron back a few feet, but what're a few feet in space?
"Teleduv at 89% power, Paladins," Kenny called again, warning the teens. Voltron wouldn't be able to watch the destruction then, as they turned away from the incoming explosion to fly back to the Coeus. Shiro, to his credit, managed to snap a picture of Voltron flying away from the explosion as it happened. The teens sure do know how to angle.
"Teleduv at 97% power," Kenny warned one more time. "Prepare for teleduv travel." Shiro hung onto the banister while the others put on the provided seatbelts.
The wormhole opened and the Coeus pushed itself through. Voltron wasn't far behind, hanging onto the tail end of the Coeus.
Within the hour, the teens were cheering, polishing their armor, and reviewing what they would say. Allie was running her hands on the gravel underneath her feet to calm her down. Liz was on the verge of squealing in excitement, shaking her fists with her helmet in her lap. Cake was speaking slowly to make sure all the words came out of his mouth correctly. Kova was working with Kenny to set up the bridge drone to record and broadcast their message while simultaneously brushing her hair and braiding it. Caleb was snapping pictures of the team, sitting around excitedly.
"I give up," Kova said. "Allura!" Kova made her way over to Allie, who was sitting on a log. How Kova could plop herself down on the gravel, was a true mystery. "Braid my hair." Demanding brat. Allie relented, taking Kova's dark hair and braiding her long bangs back in a side french braid ponytail. At least, that's what Allie thought it was called. Why couldn't all the countries on Earth be one united clump like their landmasses show them to be?
"Alright, get in positions, everyone!" Kenny yelled. "We're ready to telecast."
"One more minute!" Kova yelled back. Allie muttered something under her breath. "Two more minutes!"
"You get five because you haven't cleaned your armor yet."
"Are you calling me dirty?"
"I ain't calling you clean!" Kenny walked away just as Caleb walked up to Allie and Kova.
"Is my hair good?" Caleb asked, crouching down to be eye-level with Kova.
"I don't know," Kova said. Her eyes were closed, but a quick peek at Caleb was all she needed. "But your hair would be called 'Rat's Nest Chic'."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"Me? Nothing. Dad, on the other hand," Kova trailed off as Shiro appeared like a menacing villain behind Caleb, holding a brush in his human hand. While Caleb tried and failed to run away from Shiro and the threatening brush, Allie finished the braid and started helping Kova clean her armor. Kova did the same for Allie when the five minutes were up.
The Paladins stood in a line in descending order. Far behind them, the Lions were sitting proudly. With two stomps on the gravel ground, the teens stood straight and at attention. Behind the drone, Kenny held up his hand. Telecast started in five, four, three, two...
"My name is Kovalia Shirogane, and I am the Paladin of the Black Lion and leader of Voltron." Kova was confident, with her arms crossed behind her. The other teens had followed suit. "My team and I have been training relentlessly on the looming threat. With war on the horizon, we decided to announce Voltron's return to the universe as a united front. Yorak and his minions will have you believe we have hidden in fear rather than confront him directly. Earlier today, we proved him wrong." Behind the scenes, Kenny uploaded the footage of the earlier attack. "With a virus disguised as a training simulation designed by our engineer, we managed to attack and destroy the largest ship in Yorak's fleet. After defeating him today, we returned here, to Moilea. Voltron has never backed down from a fight, from a war, or the right side of peace. Myself, and my team," The teens spread further apart from each other to make themselves better seen by the camera when Kenny gave the signal. "Are prepared to take on any and every challenge thrown our way. I, Kova, am a second-generation half-Galra. My brother, Caleb Shirogane, and Paladin of the Red Lion is human. Paladin of the Green Lion, Eliza Griffin, is human as well. Issako Garrett, Paladin of the Yellow Lion, is a first-generation half-Balmeran. Allura Smythe, Paladin of the Blue Lion, is Altean. Together, we can not only unite the galaxy," As Kova spoke the teens reached down to grab their helmets, to either hold them in their hands or hold them between their hips and arms. "We can rid the world of doubts in the coming war." She turned her head to Caleb, who handed her the helmet for the Black Paladin suit. "Your move, Yorak," Kova said with a smile, with the teens looking at the camera as it zoomed out to show the teens and the Lions in the same frame.
With that and the setting sun over the Black Lion's head, the telecast ended.