The dry wind blew through Tyra's daily life like every other. It was a monotonous life, yet one that taught her several important lessons. Every day seemed to have the same routine, yet this was what made sure that the little aspects were the most important. For example, on a day that had begun like every other, midday had brought newcomers to the caverns that she called home.
Peering out from inside the cavern that she most commonly lived in, two figures stood looking down curiously into the pit. One, a short and thin being with what could be described as fluffy hair wearing navy blue shorts and a white and green jacket. The other much darker-skinned wearing an orange headband and brown trousers with a yellow shirt covered by a green vest. He seemed to be carrying a strange instrument that made odd sounds to Tyra's ears.
After being joined with two others, one with shoulder length black hair in the back and a red, white, and black jacket that she briefly recognized and another other with short brown hair and a white t-shirt covered by an olive-colored jacket, they proceeded to enter the proximity of the cave. Tyra immediately rushed into a side corridor to grab her weapon of choice, a short wooden pole with a sharp rock tied on at it's head. The newcomers did not seem particularly hostile but she would be damned if they were planning to take away the canyon's treasure.
Returning to the entrance to the main pathway, Tyra notices that the group seems to be in awe of the many markings on the walls. Truthfully, she did not know much about the exact origin of the wall paintings, however she did have some knowledge of their meaning.
"What are these?" questions the oldest of the five. His most defining feature was the streak of white through his otherwise black hair and what seemed to be an arm made completely out of metal.
"They tell a story that does not have anything to do with you," Tyra answers, stepping out from the side corridor to point her weapon at the intruders. They all looked agape at the girl and her rough appearance. Red choppy hair from being cut only by glass or metal found when exploring matched the rugged look of clothes found from several different sources. The ones worn now used to be worn by her father when he was alive, a loose, long-sleeved, brown jacket that had accumulated years of dirt and dust, no matter how much she washed it, along with dark blue jeans that were so long that she had sewed them at the ends to work as coverings for her heels.
"Who are you?" The male in red questioned suspiciously.
"What are you doing here?" She questions in return, gripping the weapon tighter.
"We came looking for something called a Voltron and we think he might be hidden somewhere in these canyons," the black one explained cautiously.
"I cannot let you take the treasure," Tyra reinforces, stepping forwards towards them.
"We do not want to fight," he attempts to pacify the angry girl. "Did you see the meteor last night?" Receiving only a nod, he continues, "There are aliens coming to this planet who seek to find what we're looking for and destroy us with it."
"Why should I trust you?" She questions, putting the weapon to her side to use as a staff.
"You can trust me with anything," the olive-jacketed one smirks. Simultaneously, everyone either groaned or sighed at his antics. It was really quite comical. Tyra practically growls at him, a wild and animalistic sound that brought everyone back to the problem at hand.
"We have to get through, even if by force," the red one mutters, stepping forward in an attempt to get the girl to back off.
"I will die fighting," she replies moving to point the spear at his neck.
"Wait, wait, wait," the yellow ones interrupts. "What if we just take her with us?" At the incredulous looks from his companions, he explains. "She obviously must live here or something so she probably knows something about this Voltron that we do not, plus she could help us when these guys attack."
"Hunk," the olive one mutters. "You're a genius."
"Is that really safe though?" The shortest speaks up. "She literally just said that she would die protecting whatever it is. Not to mention that she's dangerous."
With a sigh, the black one, who seemed to be the unofficial leader, made his decision. "What is your name?" He asked gently, motioning for Keith to step away from her.
Without letting her posture change, she answered honestly. "My name is Tyra."
"Tyra, you want to protect what we are looking for correct?"
"If that wasn't obvious by now, yes."
"Would it be alright if we pass on to find Voltron and you lead us? If anyone steps over their boundaries, we will leave immediately, but we must at least see what it looks like."
Several emotions flitted over Tyra's face while she tried to decide what course of action to take. His offer was tempting, but she was still uncertain. "Would you leave and never tell anyone about this place or what hides here?
"Of course."
With a controlled breath, she turns around and mutters, "Follow me," knowing if they would follow without having to look. Suddenly, a blue light fills the hall as the paintings on the wall glow.
"Woah," everyone, including Tyra, mutters in awe.
"They've never done that before," exclaims the red one just before the rock under them crumbles away and they fall through. In her haste, Tyra tries to grab onto some of the stable rock but to no avail. They slide down a stream of water, the one that Tyra used for drinking, until they reach the bottom, splashing into an underground pool.
The group all widen their eyes at the structure before them and she cannot help the slight smirk that comes to her face. "They are everywhere..." the blue one gasps, quickly standing up with everyone else.
"Is this it? Is this the Voltron?" The youngest questions.
"It must be," the leader nods.
The red one mutters, "This is what's been causing all of this crazy energy out here."
"What energy?" Tyra asks.
"Nothing," he dismisses, approaching the blue barrier surrounding the metal animal. "Looks like there's a force field around it."
Tyra joins the others as they too walk towards it, explaining that, "It's been there for as long as I can remember. Nothing I have found can penetrate it."
"Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?" The blue one questions, zig-zagging his way to it.
The leader gives a sigh, muttering, "No."
"Yeah," he mutters absentmindedly. "The eyes are totally following me."
"Maybe you look like it's next meal," Tyra mutters loud enough for everyone to hear in the echoing cavern. The green one lets out a chuckle and she couldn't help but grin at the quickly hidden smiles of the red one and the one named 'Hunk.'
The red one put his hands on the smooth and impenetrable surface of the sphere, thinking aloud. "I wonder how we can get through this."
The olive one leisurely walks up to the forcefield and thinks for a second. "Maybe you just have to knock," he suggests, tapping on the glassy surface.
A ripple spreads through the entire bubble as everyone takes a step back in panic. The animal's eyes glow with an unearthly yellow light as the field dissolves before their eyes and the symbols carved into the ground glow the same blue from before. In everyone's head, an image forms of five lions coming together as one. Standing proudly beside the figure was a white structure, resembling a lion but not quite the same shape or build.
Everyone stood in shock at what they had seen, slowly coming back into awareness and looking at the animal differently. "Uh," the olive one begins. "Did everyone just see that?"
"Voltron is a robot!" Hunk exclaims. "Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!"
"And this is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are?" The youngest questions.
"This is what they're looking for," the leader states.
"Incredible," mutters the red one.
"Indeed," she nods, mouth agape.
The lion slowly lowers its head down to the group and Tyra puts up her spear, not knowing if it might attack them for disturbing its slumber. Instead, the jaw opens, revealing a set of stairs leading up and into the beast. The one who had broken the field grinned, running right up the stairs and into the contraption to Tyra's dismay.
"Wait!" She calls, dashing past the red one and following the blue one up into the cockpit. She gets there in time to hear him shout in surprise as the chair that he is sitting on moves forwards and several displays come into view. The main one appears to be a camera-like view of what's going on outside the vehicle whereas the others seem to be either ways to make the lion move or status updates.
"Okay, guys and hostile girl, I feel the need to point out, just so that we're all, you know, aware. We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now," Hunk gushes animatedly. The driver seemed to be out of it for a moment as everyone else responded to him.
"Woah. Did you guys just hear that?" He questions, turning around to look at everyone excitedly.
"Hear what?" The red asks, pulling the words right from her head.
"I-I think it's talking to me."
"I would not be surprised," Tyra interjects. "There is evidence from other carvings that these animals were once functional, even if not completely, on their own will."
The olive one peruses his options over the control panel before finally hitting a series of holographic buttons, the lion responding readily to his demands. The small room shakes as Tyra, along with Hunk and the smallest one shout in surprise, nearly falling over as it roars loudly into the cavern.
"Okay," he smirks. "Got it. Now, let's try this." He grips two handles and pushes them all the way forwards, the lion bounding straight ahead to break through the rock and out into the sunlight. As it nears the ground, something on it's feet activates to slow their descent until it floats above the ground, only touching briefly before shooting up and into the sky.
The two most vocal of the group scream as the contraption spins this way and that, everyone trying to stay upright by either holding on to each other or the walls. Bracing herself, Tyra slips into the back hallway, using the smaller space to clench her feet and shoulders against while she works to untie the arrowhead from her spear. Having successfully completed that, she takes a second when they had righted themselves to wedge the hard wood between the walls in case something like that happened again.
"You are-" she hears the red one yelling. "The worst...pilot...ever!" And she could not have agreed more. She had barely an idea what had happened other than they were now flying in the sky in a metal lion and they were far away from where they had began. The screaming would not stop as a burst of speed sent her flying backwards, almost smacking into the door had she not grabbed her staff in time to stop her acceleration.
The ride got more bumpy, albeit staying on one plane, when they landed on the ground once more. Peaking her head around the open doorway, the driver was grinning in exhilaration while Hunk was begging him to, "Make if stop."
"I'm not making it do anything. It's like it's on autopilot," the driver rebuttals, his grin widening.
"Where are you going?" The red one complains when they lift off into the air again.
"I just said it's on autopilot!" He replies as if it were obvious. "It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we're supposed to stop it."
"What did it say, exactly?" The smallest, and probably smartest, of the group asked.
"Well it's not like it's saying words. It's more like feeding ideas into my brain, kind of."
"If this thing is the weapons they're coming for," Hunk suggests. "Why don't we just, like, I don't know, give it to them? Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, lion. Nothing personal."
"Absolutely not," Tyra cuts in, rage clear on her face as she returns to the room.
"You don't understand," the black one explains. "These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."
"I would die before I let anyone else have this in their hands," Tyra affirms.
"Oh," Hunk blinks, embarrassed under everyone's gaze. "Never mind then." From the image on the camera, it looks like they had left Earth's atmosphere entirely, and Tyra was starting to have second thoughts. A second away from expressing her discomfort, a purple ship soared into view, cutting her unsaid words off.
"Holy crow!" Hunk shouts nervously. "Is that an alien ship?" The lion flies over to the side of the ship, pausing as everyone gazed at it.
"They found me," the black one mutters apprehensively, Tyra's eyes darting suspiciously over to him.
She opened her mouth to question him but was immediately shut up as beams of light shot out of the enemy ship towards them. "We've got to get it out of here!" The youngest shouts in a panic.
"Hang on!" The pilot calls, pulling back on the controls as the lion starts attempting to dodge the malicious beams. "Alright. Okay, I think I know what to do."
"Be careful, man." The youngest warns. "This isn't a simulator."
"Well, that's good. I always wreck the simulator."
A beam of its own shoots out of the lion's mouth in retribution, tearing a line through the hull of this ship as explosions followed it. Confidently, the male mutters, "Let's try this," before pulling back on the controls once more, trailing the lion along the side of the ship and tearing the metal with its claws.
"Nice job, Lance," the red one congratulates who Tyra now knows to be Lance.
"Okay. I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet," he decides, shooting off into space.
Only a second later and Hunk notices the ship approaching, getting confirmation from the green boy.
"It's weird," Lance comments. "They're not trying to shoot us. They're just chasing."
"Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?! I am not on board with this new direction, guys." Hunk exclaims.
"Where are we?" The red one questions, glaring at Lance from behind.
The black one at his side answers the question with, "The edge of the solar system. There's Kerberos."
"It takes months for our ships to get out this far!" The green one exclaims. "We got out here in five seconds." Suddenly a very large glowing circle appeared directly in front of them.
"What is that?" Hunk asked, the question on everyone's mind.
"This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there," Lance exclaims.
"Where does it go?" The smallest questions quietly.
"I-I don't know," Lance stutters. "Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?"
The man in black answers, confirming that he was in fact the leader. "Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together."
One after the other, everyone looks at Lance and puts their hand on his shoulder for confirmation, everyone except Tyra. It had seemed that everyone had forgotten about her existence during the recent battle and its aftermath.
She remained quiet, barely breathing from her position in the doorway. "Alright," Lance decides, piloting the lion straight into the glowing circle. "Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow." Immediately, the velocity of the lion accelerates as they are pulled through the portal faster than before, everyone grabbing onto Lance's chair to hold them steady. Since there was no room, Tyra was pushed up against the wall, holding onto the end of her staff for dear life as she slowly slid up the cool metal.
With a burst, they finally came out on the other side, Tyra slipping to the floor quite ungracefully. "Woah," Lance begins. "That was-" Hunk interrupts him by vomiting off to the side, much to everyone's displeasure.
"I'm just surprised it took this long," the youngest shrugs, fixing their glasses without a care in the world.
"I don't recognize any of these constellations," Shiro comments, gazing out into space. "We must be a long, long, way from Earth."
A sudden wave of panic shoots through Tyra as she takes in the reality of their situation. They had just flown through thousands upon thousands of miles to reach his place, fought an alien ship, travelled through a portal, and now they sailed down to a new planet.
Coming back into the real world she hears Lance say that "I think it's going home," before they sail into it's atmosphere.