Joy Buzzer: Part Three
So, this took me a while to write(whoops), mostly because I was trying to figure out how to do a fight scene. I’m still trying to figure that kind of thing out, but hey, it’s my first time. So, sorry, it’s not the best. I tried. Enjoy, y’all. I might write a part 4. eventually.
Word count: 1520
Tags: Lance whump, Langst?, violence, Lance gets beat up, like bad, Keith cares.
Part 1 (x) Part 2 (x)
Lance runs as he watches as the cannon power up, the light pulsing a glowing pink. The energy expands and dashes forward, reminding Lance of a scene from an old movie about space he had watched with his family when he was younger. As the light grows and begins to cover Lance’s field of vision, the hairs on his arms prick up.
The world is spinning. It feels like an old ride from a carnival his family went to when he was younger. A ride that spun round and round, glueing him to the wall. Small pieces of detritus ram into his body as he’s tossed and thrown. Lance feels the wind blasting against his face as well as chunks of dirt before he crashes into what he thinks is one of the buildings on the perimeter of the square. The remains of the razed building seem to blow inwards with him and everything stills as it falls to the ground.
His body is throbbing stronger now. The waves of pain beginning in his chest and rolling outwards through his limbs. The cacophony of pain is felt through every individual injury, sharp as a whip. The ringing in his ears fades away to coughing and moaning through the wrecked square.
Static blares in his ear as Keith’s voice filters in right next to him. “Lance? Lance! I need you to answer me.” Oh, when did Keith get here? He’s pulling a beam off of Lance and tossing it to the side before rushing in to help.
He manages to roll over into his hands and knees, the pain peaking momentarily before dulling, slightly. Keith is right there, crouching down, waiting to help if needed. The tumble of rubble sounds out as the debris settles around him.
“I think I’m good.” Lance is almost shocked at how rough his voice sounds. It’s rough like he ate a cinder block. “Just a little banged up.” That is, if ‘just a little banged up’ was code for ‘my limbs feel kind of tingly, my head is spinning, and I feel like an elephant decided I was its chair’.
“Lance.” It’s said tersely, in a way of Keith warning Lance to stay down for now. But, he just simply ignores it.
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
Lance manages to brush off the rest of the rubble, with Keith’s help, to peer around the smoking remains of the Jiang square. It looks as if some of the officials were hit by pieces of flying debris, as they lay scattered around intemingled with the broken remnants of the buildings. Allura seems to have escaped the carnage. She supports one of the diplomats, the village chief, he thinks, as she struggles to get to her feet. Their eyes meet across the square as she walks towards them, seeming to ask the same question without the need for words. “Are you okay?”
“You’ve got more ships headed towards you.” Shiro calls over the coms. Great. “We’re on our way to help, but it’s going to be a few dobashes.”
“Then, we’ll just have knock ‘em out ourselves,” Lance quips. Shouldn’t be too hard. Right? All they had to do was keep the attention on them and protect Allura and the villagers. “How long until they get here?”
“Thirty ticks at most.”
Huffing out a breath of air, Lance stumbles to his feet. All the while, trying his best to avoid the looks he’s getting from Keith. They need to focus on the mission. He hands Allura the relic and sends her back to the other villagers to do the ceremony before turning to Keith, to silence his protests. “Keith, I’m fine. We need to focus on the mission and keep people safe. Let’s get back to our Lions and stop the next wave.”
They barely get their Lions up in the air by the time the first fighter can be seen. They fly out to meet the ship away from the village, to prevent any further damage. Lance and Keith set to work, taking down the ships speedily. Lance can feel the tingling getting worse. I guess being blown through a wall will have that effect. His mind is running on autopilot, with major support from Blue keeping him present enough to press a few buttons here and there, but it’s getting harder to concentrate. The waves of pain are back now, radiating from his chest to his finger tips and toes, up to his head. With every jolting blast near Blue, the pain spikes before returning to the level before.
Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge are here now. Lance only registers flashes of Green, Yellow, and Black across his vision, intermingled with blasts and explosions. Waves of concern are coming from Blue, as well as a calm feeling that brings a moment of clarity to Lance’s swirling head. A moment to see a stray plane headed back towards the village. A stray plane, almost like the one with the canon. No one else seems to have noticed it. Lance turns Blue towards the village, speeding after the lone fighter plane.
Lance shoots from the tail laser, pinpointing the plane, yet only chipping it. The plane spiral before crashing just short of the village. The pilot crawls out of the cockpit right as Lance gets there with Blue.
“Lance, where are you? We’re almost done with the fleet of fighters,” Hunk asks as Lance begins to exit Blue. He draws out his bayard as he nears the fallen pilot, aiming the barrel of the gun at him.
“I went after a ship that was headed towards the village. I’ve got it covered, you guys clean up.” He tries to hide the roughness and pain of his voice, and, when no one pushes to comment on it, assumes the attempt was at least partly successful.
As he nears, the grounded pilot is rising to his feet, wiping blood from a cut above his eye. It’s not even a tick before the fighter lets out a growl and lurches forward to tackle Lance. His bayard goes off, firing a shot into the sky before Lance’s body smacks into the ground, head first. A fist plows into Lance’s face.He can feel the bruise forming on his cheekbone. Lance raises the gun enough to smack it back into the head of the Galran, knocking him off of Lance and to the side. The Galran rams back into Lance, reaching for the bayard. He grabs a hold of the gun in an attempt to pull it from Lance’s grasp. He the fighter brings it back down, right into his left eye. A hand flies up on instinct to cover the eye, allowing the Galran to tug the bayard out of his grasp. The fighter rises, keeping a foot on Lance’s chest to keep him down. Lance is staring down the barrel of the gun. Bringing a leg up, Lance wraps it up and around the pilot’s hips, pushing back. The effect is instantaneous as him and the gun fall backwards. Effectively tossing his bayard far out of reach. Lance jumps forward, attempting to hold his foe down. Both roll on the ground, grappling to be on top. To be in control of the fight. But, they roll apart.
It’s only a moment before both fighters are back on their feet, jumping into fighting stances. His head is starting to throb. His limbs are tingling again. All he has to do, is take down this guy. Then, he can get in a healing pod. He knows that he’s tilting slightly. He knows that his opponent has probably also noticed it.
Taking advantage of Lance’s injured state, the Galran moves forward, bringing a leg up in a roundhouse kick. He doesn’t even feel the impact of the blow. He feels the hard dirt underneath his body.
The world is swirling around him as he looks at the sky. Sound fades in and out as his vision comes in and out of focus. He hears a grunt of pain above him, and a thud as a body hits the ground.
“Lance?” Is that Keith? “Shiro, Lance is down.”
A blurry form enters his vision, which he thinks is Keith, judging by the outline of the mullet. He looks worried. He arms around his back and under his legs, and then the ground is gone.
“Hang in, Lance. We’re going to get you to a pod.” The sky disappears and is replaced by a glowing red. What happened to the sky? Maybe it’s night time. Time to sleep. He’s so sleepy.
He opens his eyes. The world is shaking. Why is it shaking? “Lance, you need to stay awake. You did a good job, but we’re not done yet.” Keith sounds so serious and worried. That means he must be pouting. He can see it. The pouty eyes, downturned lips, and mullet to tie it together. The angsty combo. He doesn’t like that look on Keith.
“Hmm, w’did a g’d job,” he slurs. “W’r a good team.” He feels himself go limp as the darkness creeps in.