Ever since this past April Fool's Day, I've had this story in my head, but I didn't want to wait until next April Fool's to release it, so with Halloween just around the corner, why not publish it now? I thought of something similar to April Fool's on Arus and decided to call it "Arus Fool's" instead. Enjoy!
I do not own Voltron or any of its characters, nor do I make money off of this story. Any OC's in here, I have created.
All it took was one glance at the holocalendar on Daniel's wall that morning and suddenly his heartbeat soared into the stratosphere. Today there would be so much to plan and he had to find his teammates. While his breaths expelled out in short, rapid bursts, Daniel sprinted down the hallway, a huge grin of relief on his face when he spotted Lance on duty in the control room with Coran. Abruptly, he stopped to catch a glimpse out of one of the castle windows and spied Allura and Keith holding hands as they walked through the rose garden. He leaped for joy and raised his fist in the air as he had been hoping they would be occupied. Desperate, yet excited to find the others, he continued his run through the castle. To the gym! he told himself. When he finally arrived there, he had inadvertently activated the door's security panel causing the door to slam shut behind him and stunning his friends into silence. The door to the gym never was closed, ever, and Daniel stood serious, yet silent among all of them.
A loud thud was heard as Vince nearly dropped his kettlebell on his foot and Larmina who had been furiously doing push-ups, fell on her face with a loud "Ow!" followed by a muffled curse while her auburn ponytail flung over her head. Hunk and Pidge were passing a medicine ball between each other and upon Daniel's presentation, Pidge accidentally threw the ball to Hunk hitting him in the groin. "Uumph!," Hunk cried out in agony, a spasm of pain shot across his face. Gaining some composure, yet still sulking in humiliation, everyone waited for Daniel to explain why he slammed the door shut.
"Listen up everyone! Tomorrow is Arus Fool's Day!" Daniel burst out as he looked around at each his friends as their faces were mixed with confusion, shock, but then eagerness for his explanation. A moment later, he stated, "What that means is Lance is going to play bad jokes on us again. We've got to get back at him. Think of all the jokes he's played on all of us. Don't you think it's payback time?"
Everyone remained silent until Pidge spoke up as he wiped his hands on his sweat-soaked tank top. "I have two questions. Are you absolutely sure tomorrow is Arus Fool's Day? Second, how can we get back at Lance without him finding out?"
"It's on the calendar. See for yourself!" Daniel emphasized. "We need to figure something out together. He's such a prankster."
"Yeah, and so are YOU." Larmina responded sharply. "You're just as big a troublemaker."
"Yeah, but Lance can get away with so much more," Daniel said.
Larmina thought for a moment before her eyes narrowed as she thought of an embarrassing joke Lance pulled on her. "I remember last year when he put cellophane on my toilet seat and I sat down on it and went! Ugh!" she said making a sour face.
"Oh yeah! I remember that one. That was genius!" Daniel laughed until he saw the furiosity in Larmina's eyes.
"How about my foot up your ass?" she warned and he grinned back like a Cheshire cat before putting his arm around her.
"He's always telling and pulling stupid jokes. We gotta get back at him. What could we do?" Vince asked putting the kettle ball back in its place.
"Let's be really nasty and put something in his coffee, so he'll be running to the bathroom all day. I would die laughing at him messing his flight suit or Red." Daniel exclaimed clapping his hands together while laughing.
"Yeah, then who's he going to make clean his suit AND Red." Larmina asked raising her eyebrows and Daniel only shrugged in response.
"Too bad we can't get him in an elevator. You know how he hates those!" Vince said resting his chin on his fist and in deep thought.
Pidge pondered for a few moments until he brought up one awful prank Lance pulled on them some time ago. "I still won't forget when we ate that pizza and Lance had put that awful hot sauce on top without us knowing," he said making a grimace and squirming.
"Yeah, I had some of that. It burned my throat like fire and it felt just as bad coming out the other end." Daniel said quickly shaking his head while Larmina stared with her mouth gaping.
"That sauce was made from ghost peppers and they are some of the hottest peppers you'll find on Earth..." Hunk started to explain until Pidge jerked up suddenly, his eyes wide at the mention of 'ghost.'
"That's it! Ghosts! Lance is afraid of ghosts. Remember we were just on that ship and he was freaking out about ghosts! We can get him back by haunting him!" yelled holding his arms out.
"Huh?" Hunk asked, his brown eyes wide with perplexity and then suddenly he remembered. Opening his eyes wide with excitement, he added "Oh yeah! Lance did freak out!" and then he laughed.
"Ghosts?" Daniel asked, a hint of skepticism in his voice as he walked closer to Pidge. "How are we gonna pull that one off?"
"Let me tell you what I can do," Pidge stated and he motioned with his arms to gather them together in a circle. Pidge's plan consisted of setting up cameras in a storage shed and projecting holograms of ghostly figures that would frighten Lance. All that had to happen to lure Lance in the shed, was to get him to retrieve some parts for his lion, so Hunk could complete a few upgrades on it. Clever and sneaky smiles on all their faces brightened as they began to think this would work, but then Pidge also brought up Daniel's suggestion of putting something in Lance's coffee to make his bowels as he put it "active." At the mention of that plan, laughter filled the entire gym, but was quickly interrupted when once again the door to the gym flung open and there standing in the entryway was Keith and Allura holding hands.
"Hey Team!" Keith called to all of them with a cheerful smile, his blue eyes shining. "Working hard or hardly working?" he asked with a snicker. Allura laughed at his silly quip and squeezed his hand.
"Hey Keith! We were just talking about tomorrow being..." Vince started, but before he could finish, Larmina had jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, a sign to shut his mouth.
"We're always working hard. Come on Keith. We are the Voltron Force," Daniel replied with a smug tone to his voice.
"Okay, it's just odd that the door is closed. We thought you all were gossiping," Allura replied, her eyes narrowed as she tilted her head to the side.
"About what?" Larmina demanded. "The next robeast attack?"
"No, not that, just well, any good rumours or who's dating who?" Allura asked casually squirming a bit as though she was feeling coy.
"You mean like Coran with one of the maids?" Larmina asked jokingly with a giggle.
"Oh no! That's crazy Larmina! Never mind," Allura finally said in a perturbed voice as she and Keith turned to leave and the door closed once again.
Brief silence followed until Hunk began to sing, "Love is in the air.." Then, the conversation quickly turned onto a different plane.
"Yeah, those two have been spending a lot of time together. Maybe, they thought we were talking about them?" Vince suggested.
"I've seen them holding hands, all the time," Daniel said, his voice quiet as though being secretive.
"Could Keith become king? I mean he just learned he has Arusian heritage," Pidge asked.
"Yeah, and maybe they'll get married," Daniel responded and then gave a laugh.
"Oh! Enough of those two! We've got pranks to plan!" Larmina snapped. "We can't let them find out our plans for Lance. You know, they'll tell him about it!" Then approaching Daniel and Pidge, she looked from one to the other and poked her finger at Pidge's chest. "This better work!"
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Morning came quickly when the team awoke to their voltcom alarms chiming. It was a morning like any morning and Hunk yawned and stretched before stumbling out his bedroom door. As he met Pidge, Daniel, Vince and Larmina in the hallway, they headed to the dining hall. Each one agreed that they seemed unusally tired that morning, but couldn't understand why. Their voltcom alarms always chimed at the same each morning.
Sitting down at the breakfast table, they waited for the cook to take their orders as usual. Hunk couldn't wait for coffee and he was sure that he would order it extra strong. Larmina yawned and Vince did the same while Daniel nodded off for a moment. Pidge couldn't understand why the kitchen staff kept staring at them as though confused.
"You're up early guys," Maurice, the big burly cook with a walrus mustache remarked as he looked at all of them in a perplexed way before setting down orange juice and bacon. Hunk immediately reached for a piece of bacon and slowly began chewing it all the while looking from one team member to another.
"What time do YOU have?" Pidge asked as he turned his head towards Maurice. His hopes were that the kitchen clocks were off, but that nagging feeling in his core told him otherwise.
"Almost half past 0600." Maurice replied. "Anyway, I can hook you up with the early-bird special-two eggs anyway you want them, hashbrowns, coffee..looks like all of you are gonna need," He waited for them to order while he held his writing stencil on his electronic order pad.
"Give us just a moment," Pidge replied after taking a slow, deep breath and with that Maurice nodded before he ambled casually back to the kitchen.
"Is he serious? Our voltcoms say half-past seven!" Daniel exclaimed slamming his arm down on the table. He got up and began to look around the dining hall and noticed that all of the clocks said the same time as Maurice's did including a couple of castle guards whose watches said the very same thing.
"Something's not right here," Pidge said shaking his head, "and I'm going to the control room to see if I can figure it out. Order me the early bird special, I'll be right back." Having said that Pidge dashed out of the dining hall on his way to the control room.
Several minutes past and the others were half-way through their breakfasts as Pidge's sat their at the table getting cold. Hunk was contemplating getting a to-go box for Pidge until they saw him rushing back towards their table.
"Alright guys, I've got it figured out and I knew this was a prank! I just knew it!" he exlaimed firmly as he looked at each of them. They eached leaned in to listen to his explanation. "I checked into the voltcom system and sure enough someone hacked into the main computer system and set back our internal voltcom clocks one hour back."
"See! I told you guys! I know it's Lance!" Daniel yelled as he pounded his fist down on the table.
"You're absolutely right Daniel. I did a search of passwords and usernames and I managed to track down the username. "LLL," Pidge said pushing back his glasses.
"What does 'LLL' mean?" Hunk asked his eyes puzzled.
"Ladies love Lance," Pidge replied rolling his eyes.
"You got that right," a voice called from just a few feet away. There was Lance standing next to them holding a tray of powdered donuts. "Wow! You all are up early and you've breakfast already?" he remarked before bursting into laughter upon viewing their tired, cranky expressions.
"Yeah, thanks a lot Lance!" Larmina snapped. "We know you messed with our alarms."
"Yes, you found me out. I'm sorry and I knew you would figure it out, so I brought you all some donuts to make up for my bad prank. Enjoy," he said as sincerely as he could before setting the platter of donuts on the table and then leaving the dining hall chuckling to himself.
Everyone was quietly eyeing the donuts on the platter. Hunk's mouth was watering as powdered donuts were his favorite. They were always moist and soft to bite into and the best part was that sweet powdered coating that they were dredged in. All he had to do was reach out his hand to the platter and pick one up. Larmina had only a bite of bacon and a few bites of egg for breakfast, but she thought a donut would really satisfy her. She too craved one as did Pidge and Daniel.
"Wait everyone!" Vince abruptly exclaimed. "How do we know these aren't a prank as well?"
"But, they're just donuts," Hunk replied innocently overcome by the delicious sight in front of him. "What could possibly be wrong with them?"
"He's right Hunk. I bet anything Lance has done something to these. I've got an idea. Why don't we each grab one and on the count of three, we'll bite into it." Daniel offered. They all agreed and each picked up a donut.
"Okay, 1, 2,3," Pidge started the count and on "3" they all took a bite out of their donuts.
After biting and starting to chew the donut, Hunk then stopped in mid-chew with donut still in his mouth. Pidge made a face as did Larmina after trying theirs. Vince puffed out a cloud of white dust before spitting his bite out on the plate. His lips were stark white in comparison to his black complexion. Daniel too spit his out before exclaiming, "Ugh! What is that coating? It's can't be powdered sugar!"
Hunk set down the donut before replying calmly, "Baking powder."
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First it was the early morning rude awakening and now the awful baking powder-coated donuts. Lance had fooled the team, not once, but twice and Daniel's intensity for revenge against Lance was even more fueled.
After grabbing a large cup from the kitchen, he planned a door ambush. When Lance opened wide a door that was ajar, a cup of water would fall and splash soaking him wet. But, instead of water, Daniel filled the cup with bright, orange paint.
"How do you know Lance is going to come through that door?" Larmina asked skeptically while her arms were crossed.
"Because he takes this stairwell everyday on the way to the control room. He has the one hour duty while Pidge takes a break," Daniel replied confidentally as he carefully placed the cup with the paint on top of the door frame.
"Hmmm, I think we'll be here forever," she mumbled as she turned away from him.
"No, we won't. Lance will be on his way," Daniel replied while peaking from beyond the door. Several moments passed as Larmina grew impatient and in true ninja-style, she began scaling the wall while Daniel stood waiting for any sign of Lance. "Oh, here he comes!" Daniel gasped eagerly and Larmina peaked with excitement and leaped down, her turquoise eyes bright as now she believed they were going to pull the prank off.
But, what Daniel and she didn't know was that Coran was right behind Lance and had now met up beside him. Before Daniel and Larmina even figured it out, it was Coran who had pushed the door open and with a crash bright orange paint splat on Daniel's feet and suit, then onto Coran.
"What on Arus!" Coran demanded, his brown eyes dark with anger as orange paint was splotched onto his brown coat and flecks of orange scattered in his mustache.
"Dan-man," Lance said as he approached Daniel and upon placing his hands on his shoulders, said, "You should've gotten out of the way," then gave him a cocky grin before demeaning him further, "You'll never outsmart me or my jokes little toad."
"Aargh!" Daniel yelled at the top of his lungs as he tore out of the stairwell with Larmina close behind.