Chapter 4: Voltron Scores Big!
"...And that's how I saved the day yet again," Lance finished his latest exaggerated boast.
"Oh my," Arus Allura gasped. "You've been through quite some adventures, haven't you? You're very brave to continue on despite such injuries."
"Please don't encourage him," Allura dryly commented.
"He didn't even do much," Pidge added as well.
"Hey, I did more work than anyone who wasn't you," Lance retorted.
"I did do most of the work."
Lance puts his hands out like he was about to chop something. "But we're a team, Pidge, and all of us contributed. Except Keith."
"He cradled you in his arms," Allura reminded him.
"So did my mom, but that doesn't mean she helped take back a flying space castle."
The frustration coming off Allura could be felt in waves. "We're here," she announced the obvious to keep herself from being bothered by Lance.
The doors slid open to the hanger showing the pair of blue lions. This close, it was easier to spot the differences, however minute they were (Lance's had a red pseudo-mane while Allura's had a red spot on the back; Lance's had a white tail against Allura's yellow). But the two blues were a lot more similar in appearance than the two greens. It was a good starting point to determine if there were any under-the-hood similarities.
"Hey," said Pidge as they headed inside, "do I have to get permission from your lion to begin running diagnostics?"
Arus Allura looked at her in confusion. "I'm not sure what you mean? I have the key right here." She pulled off the emblem on her left chest.
Right, this should have been the first question. "Allura, is your lion sentient?"
"Not that I'm aware of, no." she suddenly snapped. "I'm not sure if my father's ghost or emergency program would stop you, since you have good intentions."
Ghosts and AIs. As if the Lions weren't weird enough on their own. "Anything more concrete I won't have my interface fried tampering in your lion?
"Well, I only learned about the AI when we were fighting King Zarkon's Robeast, so he wasn't really there. Though, he didn't attempt anything when others piloted blue lion so it should be fine."
Looks like that's all I'm getting. Though that Zarkon Robeast is worrisome. If he could go toe-to-toe with a lion on foot he could easily be a match for Voltron in a Robeast.
Then why did he want Voltron?
Pidge filed away that for later. She had computers right now! "Alright, I'm gonna need access to both of your cockpits." She managed to get a cobbled together laptop to sync with the Altean systems so another universe wasn't out of the question.
"Hey," said Lance, "why didn't you ask me for permission to get in blue's head?"
Because your cockpit is open to any woman? "Are you really gonna say no? Besides, I've been inside before."
"Oh, yeah."
"You were just telling that story," Allura pointed out.
"Glad you were paying attention." He winked at Allura.
She looked away. From everyone.
"Right, let's head up." Pidge would hear the slap just fine through feet of… steel, or whatever metal or alloy the lions were made of.
Pidge wished she had a noise filter on her helmet as she and Arus Allura headed into the head of the second blue. The inside was a fair bit more different than the outside this time. The two of them stood up behind the pilot's seat as Pidge gauged the situation.
The Paladins' Lions had a massive monitor dominating their central view. It went from ceiling to floor and extended well beyond the peripherals. (Except for the screen covered up by their control decks.) Frankly it was way larger than the lion's eyes indicated, and maybe Altean tech had something to do with it, but Pidge didn't care much since it worked.
The Other Blue Lion which she stepped into had a large canopy taking center instead. Pidge presumed it'd have some sort of overlay once the lion was active, but for now it just showed the hanger and Lance's waving. From the size, she determined the output quality of the monitor had a lower resolution than her Green's. (She didn't even know how many pixels her monitor outputted at.)
That was the story as a whole here. Everything just looked worse. The flight controls for Other Blue were smaller and had individual monitors taking up valuable space instead of holographic pop-ups. The cockpit was less roomy (barely) and everything was sort of blocky instead of the smooth curves of the Paladins' Lions. On the other hand ,the seat for the Other Blue was wider and seemed a lot less likely to snap off from smashing into something as the lions were designed to do.
Kind of a grim joke that two universes thought putting cockpits in areas that constantly punched or kicked giant robots was a good idea. But that was the multiverse for you.
"Alright," said Pidge once she got her bearings, "could you turn her on for me?"
"Ok." Arus Allura stepped forward and pulled the emblem off her chest. She slotted it into a perfectly fitted socket above the flight controls. The emblem glowed brightly and the left half slide over the middle bars and formed into a perfect circle on the right, leaving the teeth of a king on the left. The teeth inserted left and dragged the rest behind. A five portioned star and the monitor lit up as a thrum of power ran through the machine.
"Thank you," said Pidge. She sat down in the seat as Arus Allura stepped aside and… "Where are the ports on this thing?" There was a whole bunch of switches on the console, but nothing she could plug into.
"I'm not sure what you mean?"
Right, wasn't logical to assume everyone was familiar with all the hows and whys of their machine. "If I want to check your lion's systems I need some way to access it with tech I'm familiar with. I can totally get the machines talking together, but I don't want to go prying off side panels if I can help it."
"I'm not one of the engineers or repair crew, but I think what you want is hidden in one of those panels. Father didn't want anyone getting easy access to the lions' systems."
If these lions could be hijacked it was smart to make it as difficult as possible. "Alright, I'm gonna start pulling off what I can, then."
"Let me help you."
Pidge had her eye on a pretty visible sheet sitting beneath some sort of side console. It didn't take long for the two of them to snap it off.
"Bingo," said Pidge as she checked inside. Some sort of USB port, instead of the light-and-laser systems Altea and Galra used. It looked pretty primitive, but Earth never managed giant robot cats, so this had to be more advanced than it seemed. And a good thing she'd rigged up a makeshift cable from various odds-and-ends.
She booted up and connected the two systems. Nothing was on fire, which was always a good start. She ran the diagnostic program she wrote to try and grab information out of the Paladins' Lions. It wasn't that effective on them, there was simply too much data for a makeshift system to handle. Not even getting into the language barriers and the crystals. Those were just beyond her much as she tried to learn from Allura and Coran. She felt like a neanderthal using fire without understanding the chemical reaction, or Lance with anything.
So hopefully the older look to these lions meant they were easier to understand.
She underestimated how easy.
Her makeshift laptop stripped all the information out in a few seconds. It was embarrassing how little there was, she had nail-drives with a larger capacity than what she pulled out. These lions were either extraordinarily efficient, or running harder on the magic-side of their tech.
As she shifted through the data, she grew inclined towards the latter. She thanked whoever invented "aliens speaking English" since the entire operating system ran off it. Didn't take her long to consume everything she wanted. Movement systems, weapon systems and energy management. All simple, but effective, but there were conspicuous holes in vital systems, like life support and the power source. It might be something specific to the blue lions, but she doubted it.
More importantly there was no sign of any AI she could find. Since Arus Allura claimed it existed, it had to be attuned to the crystal. If there was one. "Do your lions run off crystal-tech too?"
"Yes, they do."
Dang. "Then your father's AI is stored in it, I can't find any program in the stuff I do understand."
"That's quite unfortunate, then."
"Yeah, but I have what I need, let's go check out Lance's blue." If he could be dragged off Allura. They replaced the panel and turned off the lion before leaving.
Allura had Lance sorted back out when Pidge and Arus Allura got back to the hangar. He lethargically led her back into his blue while the Alluras stood outside.
Inside was as roomy and advanced as ever. "Hey Blue," said Lance, "Pidge here needs to root around for a real good reason so be a real good girl, okay?" He spent a moment paused before, "Who's a good lion? You are!" He looked back at her, "Have at it, but be gentle, okay?"
"Uh, sure…" Pidge doubted she could do damage if she tried. She lined up her gauntlet to Lance's lion and used it to filter out the information as she transferred over what she need to her laptop. Even though she knew what she was looking for on this end, the larger size of the data meant it took longer.
"Hey, Pidge," Lance piped up, "think I've got a shot with that Princess Allura?"
Why me? "Why are you asking me? You'll try anyway."
"It never hurts to get another opinion."
"You've been more obnoxious than usual about this," she said. What was the old saying? Familiar habits in danger? No, that's not it.
"I have never been obnoxious," he stated and crossed his arms defensively.
Pidge rolled her eyes and went back to sifting the numbers. There were some differences she expected between Green and Blue but sometimes even the similar programs had minor differences. Were each of the lions coded uniquely? She'd need a check-up on the others, but the whole sentient thing might point to yes…
But there was nothing she could claim were fragments of King Alfor's AI program. It might be stored on the crystal, like a good chunk of data, but it was just beyond her capabilities.
For now.
Everything in the lion shut off. "What?"
"Hey, Blue, what gives?" He waited for the answer to wash over him. "Oh, okay, let's go Pidge."
"Right…" Lance never talked about it but from how he acted with his lion he was probably big into pets.
The Paladins departed back to the chatting Alluras.
"Give me a moment to compare the data," Pidge said and got to work setting up her laptop and gauntlet. She projected the comparisons she pulled from the two blues into the air. "Alright, I've done a quick comparison between the systems of the two lions." Obviously. "The first thing to note is that the Paladin Lions are, simply put, a lot more advanced. Allura's lion just doesn't have the sheer volume of control programs and systems ours do."
"I don't think my lion is particularly weaker," said Arus Allura.
"Right, so either your lion's crystal handles a lot more of the balancing than I'm accustomed to, or I wasn't able to access all of the systems." Pidge singled out sections of code for both Lions. "Which is possible, I didn't even find life support in your lion, and it doesn't look like your pilot suits can sustain atmosphere."
"So, what did you find?" Allura asked.
Pidge tapped at two areas. "These sections right here are the closest in design. They're lines of code for the power distribution system, getting energy from the crystals to the lions' limbs. Allura's Lion's system is a bit more rudimentary, but they're essentially 90% the same."
"And that means, what?" the confused Lance questioned.
"Basically speaking, everything in the mechanics for these lions are close." Pidge took a deep breath. "Too close for coincidence, but I think being a group of five colored giant lion robots that form something called Voltron piloted by an 80% similar crew made that apparent."
"...and?"
"And…" Pidge frowned at him, "that means there's probably a 99% chance there is some fragment of King Alfor's AI residing in our lions, but I wasn't able to access it, or the AI in the other blue. From the circumstances, I'd theorize that Allura would need to become a pilot to activate the AI."
Lance looked up at his lion. "I'd love to help you out Princess, but Blue and I have a special bond."
"You do, and I can't sever that."
"Look you deserve it, I know—what wait?" Lance stood flabbergasted.
Allura looked at Lance, an expression of seriousness taking hold. "Severing the bond between Paladin and Lion is dangerous to both, and any prospective new Paladin. Were there any safe manner, such prospects would be entertained, but we shall simply have to let the matter rest, until then."
"Oh, um, sorry."
"If we could cut the link between Lion and Paladin easily we'd have done it to Zarkon," Allura pointed out.
"Why would Black ever want anything to do with a creep like Zarkon in the first place?" Lance asked.
Allura shook her head. "The Lions are drawn to their natural pair, sometimes even against their own will."
"Like you, and girls," Pidge grinned.
"Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Lance nodded. "Pretty grim though."
Yeah. "Given enough time," Pidge spoke up, "I might be able to figure something out. Maybe spoof some sort of signal to trigger any hidden AI program, but…" It was just a long shot. They needed a real Altean engineer here.
Or maybe something 99% close enough…? "Hey, um, Voltron Force Allura, did your father help construct your Voltron?"
"That's right."
Then this just might work. "You think you can get his AI program to show up? I might have a solution."
"I don't think I can call him at will. We were in dire straights the last time, that might be what we need."
"Perfect." Or as perfect as lives constantly in jeopardy could be.
"Alright!" Other Hunk brought out a huge brown paper bag from somewhere. "Time for some space burgers with our new friends!" He threw it on the lounge table and it spilled over from sheer size. The wonderful bounty of wax-wrapped burgers that covered the table was just waiting to be digested.
Hunk grabbed the closest one and peeled off the white wrapper. What looked him back was a simple pair of buns and patty. It almost brought a tear to his eye. Altean and alien food was still good, but sometimes you just got a craving for the old fast food. More when you couldn't get any.
"Hold on Hunk," Shiro cautioned him. "Is there anything we need to know about the ingredients?"
"Nope," Other Hunk said. "Made from 100% all natural space beef and space wheat."
"Is there any particular reason for the 'space' suffix?"
"Because they were grown in space?"
"Everything's in space!" Keith practically exploded. "You don't say space-Earth or Space-Human!"
"Hey, man," Hunk said, "calm down and just have a nice space burger." That smell alone! Mmmh! "Hey, got any space fries to go with this? Oh! Space ketchup too?"
"Man," other Lance spoke up, "no space cows? Your universe sure is weird."
"And why do your clothes keep changing?"
Huh? Hunk looked over at the Voltron Force. They were now in civ clothes despite never leaving the room. Huh. Well they brought space burgers so they're alright in my book. "Have to say, nice fashion sense, Hunk."
"Thanks Hunk. How're the burgers?"
Hunk took a bite. "Delicious!" Aw yeah, that's the stuff.
"Glad to hear it!" Other Hunk and Other Pidge started to dig in.
Hunk was halfway through his burger when he noticed Keith and Shiro weren't. "Come on guys, it's great!"
"I'll pass," Keith gave the expected answer.
Shiro hesitated for a moment. "It's been too long since I've had a good burger." He swiped the closest one and took a quick bit. "Oh, man, I've missed Earth food."
"No Alliance supply routes out here yet?" Other Keith said.
"Alliance?" Shiro stopped eating.
"Galaxy Alliance? You know, the multi-galactic union of planets with the expressed design for mutual protection and space exploration?"
That got even Hunk to stop eating. "Uhhh, not familiar with it"
That was the first time the members of the Voltron Force looked serious. "You're serious, aren't you?" Other Lance said. "Oh man, this is bad. Real bad."
"What about Galaxy Garrison?" Other Keith asked.
"Well, we have one of those," Shiro answered. "It's the solar system space exploration program on Earth."
"And not the center of military and exploratory efforts among the universe?" Other Keith leaned back. "That has to make things pretty tough for you guys. Good job holding out this long."
Shiro nodded. "It hasn't been easy, cut off from home, and burgers." He smirked a bit at that. "Fighting against the Galra's never easy, but knowing you guys cleared them up certainly makes it seem possible."
The Voltron Force exchanged glances with each other again.
That can't be good.
"Who the heck are the Galra?" Other Pidge asked.
"Galra are—" Shiro stopped himself for a moment, "our name, for Emperor Zarkon's forces."
Right, just like Shiro and Sven or Altea and Arus!
"Where we come from, King Zarkon's forces are part of the greater Drule Empire."
Drool should be saved for a nice hot meal. "So, you uh, beat these Drule guys too, right?"
"The conflict with the Drule Empire continues across the universe, unfortunately. Our defeat of King Zarkon and Planet Doom were victories, but war still rages on."
This nearly killed his appetite. Galra were bad enough, but alien-behind-the-alien?
"I don't think we'll have to deal with these Drules," Shiro proposed. "From the make of it, the Galra are our universe's version."
"I sure hope so," Hunk added.
"I agree with Shiro," Coran spoke up. Spooking Hunk, he'd completely forgot about him! "I've never heard of any race called 'the Drules'."
"It does give me an idea though," said Shiro. "Coran, the Alteans were diplomats, correct?"
Coran puffed his chest out. "Universe's best!"
"Any old allies happen to be laying around?"
Coran's bluster was replaced with a frown. "Unfortunately no, Emperor Zarkon was thorough in exterminating anyone who would dare stand against him."
"Well," said Hunk, "he missed you two. And the Balmerans are still around."
"You're suggesting others managed to hide? Hmmm, yeah, I can see it, maybe, but still, it's been ten thousand years, any old alliances would have crumbled away by now. Even the Eternats don't keep promises that long."
"But we have Voltron now!" Hunk exclaimed. "And like, taken planets back." Well, one.
"Zarkon, you, and the princess have all survived this long too," Shiro reminded him. "It wouldn't hurt to check in on anyone else that might be continuing the fight."
"I'll bring it up with the princess then," Coran agreed. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up."
Oh, gee wow, the family thing. "Hey, come on now, we've all survived run-ins with Galra, sure we had Voltron, but your folks had plenty of experience!" Hopefully.
"Experience didn't save the king."
"But it saved the lions," Shiro adamantly declared. "I got outta their pits and Pidge's family is still alive somewhere too. Someone will always be there to take up the fight, Voltron or not."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Other Hunk leaned forward. "Your Pidge's family is in the clutches of those dirty Galra guys!?"
Shiro nodded. "Pidge's father, brother and I were kidnapped on a mission to Pluto."
Other Pidge nearly leapt up on the table! "That's unforgivable!
That news sent the Other Keith forward too. "The Drules and Doom expanded pretty badly, but we never had trouble in our own solar system."
Hunk tried not to think about what Galra would do if they got to Earth. They were so close! Mom, dad—everyone! Did they take over Earth when they didn't grab the blue lion?
"I take it from the situation you're not in contact with your Earth, either?" Other Keith asked.
"The Lions might be able to get us back," said Shiro, "but if Earth's been ignored, we'd be painting a big target on their backs."
Hunk's eyes lit up! "Hey!" he exclaimed. "Pidge was able to get some sort of tracker for your escape and arrival! She and I might be able to rig something up."
"Good thought, but how would they receive it on their end?"
"Oh, oh, right." Not a lot of geniuses of Pidge's caliber back home. Maybe someone in the Garrison could pick up on it, they got to Shiro first after all, but then they'd all just get chewed out by Commander Iverson.
The Other Pidge started looking around. "Hey, wait, did I hear you guys right?" he asked. "You called your Pidge a girl!"
This was probably a question they all should have expected. "Yeah," Hunk answered.
"Huh." Other Pidge settled down. "Guess mom gave the name to my sister instead of me or Chip here. Or, I guess there might be no me or Chip here."
"Well," said Shiro, "Pidge chose the name herself to go undercover at Galaxy Garrison to try and get information about her missing family."
"She, Lance and I were a team!" Hunk added.
"That's the 'can-do' attitude a Voltron pilot needs!" Other Pidge cheered at them. "And it means we don't have to worry about anything weird with Princess."
I mean, you shouldn't assume… "That's really more Lance's thing anyway."
"What!?" Other Pidge leapt over the table to the door everyone else left through. "Wait for me Princess!" he yelled and ran off.
"Yeesh, he's real fired up," Other Lance said.
"Without King Zarkon to worry about he's sure free," said Other Keith.
The Other Lance looked the Paladins over. "So, those three were a team, and you were active duty, what's up with Mister Crossed Arms there?"
"I don't have to answer you," Keith didn't answer.
"Gotta add Mister Personality to that too."
"Listen," Keith stomped forward, "I don't trust you—any of you. This can still end up being some Galra trick, so I've got my eye on you."
"That why are you letting Pidge run around free?"
"He's got you there Keith," said Hunk.
"Look, Keith," said Shiro. "I appreciate the suspicion, but we also have to trust if we want to stop Zarkon."
"And who better to trust than an alternate universe version of ourselves?" Hunk added.
Keith looked everyone over like they were all idiots. Hurtful.
Yeesh, what's up with him? He's usually so more… not level-headed… but hot-headed isn't right either. I mean, he did try and rescue Shiro by himself, that is pretty hot-headed and he always seems ready to fight. Oh! "I think all this fighting's got you on edge Keith." More edge than usual, anyway. "Come on, a nice space burger will get your mind off things."
"No thanks," Keith practically spat and turned away. "I'm going to keep an eye on the fake Pidge. Find me when you all come to your senses." He hurried off after him.
First the princess and now Keith, who's turn next was it to be so abrasive? "Well, Keith's poor manners aside, these are some pretty delicious space burgers you got here!" Hunk finished his off just to prove the point. "His lose if he doesn't want any."
"I even got'em with the special sauce!" Other Hunk exclaimed.
"What's so special about it?" Coran asked.
"It's a mystery."
"Shouldn't it be a 'mystery sauce' than?"
Hunk shook his head. "It's special because it's a mystery. The answer you don't know is more memorable than what you do know."
Coran snapped his fingers. "I get it, just like the great Altean novel 'No One Knows'."
"What's it about?"
"No one knows. Its contents have changed with every reading and they're never the same twice."
"Whoa, freaky." Hunk grabbed another burger. "Do you have a copy on board?"
Coran shook his head. "The only known copy was back on Altea. I've got a couple personal knock-offs on the down-low, but between you and me and everyone else here, they're not quite as good."
Well that sucked. But, "Hey, what about an Altean cookbook? I'm always looking to expand my cuisine horizons." He should have thought of that earlier! But between all that terror and fear for their lives and the fighting and saving and bad things it'd skipped his mind.
"We don't really cook so much as select from prepared meals on the ship's computer."
That explains the hose. "Well, I think it's time we changed that. Can't fight on an empty stomach."
"Yeah!" Other Hunk agreed.
"Or with broken lions," he continued. "Gotta make sure they're in tip-top shape since we have someone to actually cover for us and all."
"Sure thing pal!"
"Hold on, Hunk," said Shiro. "We shouldn't go asking things of our guests."
"Gotta ask the princess too," Coran added.
"Voltron's the Defender no matter what universe," said Other Keith. "We'd be proud to stand alongside you and fight for peace across the galaxy."
Coran took a step forward. "What about your Coran's family?"
"It hurts, but lives in jeopardy are more important. Coran would understand."
"Yeah, yeah, that's what the pilots of Voltron have to do."
"And maybe when your Emperor Zarkon is defeated, and the universe at peace, you could help us look. Two Voltrons is good enough already, but three would be even better!"
"Uhhhh," Hunk droned, "what?" He had to exchange glances with Shiro and Coran at that. "Oh, I get it, hey, here, two is the number after one. Me and Shiro, would be two, just like our Voltrons would be two Voltrons." Sure, they looked the same, and were 80% them, but that 20% difference could be something as simple as math.
The Other guys all laughed in unison. Like, really in unison. End-of-comedy-everything's-all-wrapped-up unison. It was really creepy to hear.
"Two is two regardless of universe," said Other Keith. "Our Voltron is 'one', your Voltron is 'two' and the vehicle team is 'three'."
"Vehicle team?" Shiro asked.
"Earth's attempt to imitate Arus's Voltron. With planes and cars and submarines. Fifteen vehicles, fifteen pilots and one heckuva Voltron combine."
Man, they even had two Voltrons? "Well, our castle flies, does yours?"
"During our final assault on Planet Doom it did."
"Awwww man," Hunk slumped over. No Galra, two Voltrons and space burgers? Why couldn't he have been that universe's Hunk? But then again all the space burgers in the universe weren't worth losing out on Shay, or any of his other pals. And these guys were here now. "Alright, but do you guys have…" Hunk wracked his brain for something. "Space Mice?"
"They're Allura's best friends. Ahead of us even."
Ahead of Lance I could get, but everyone? "How about, uhhhh." Think, Hunk, think! "What about Balmerans? I bet you don't have any of them?" Please?
"Never heard the name before."
Yes! Why was he so relieved? Why was he so competitive? That wasn't like him. Huh. "And your Arusians are pretty different from ours too. And... " He spotted something obvious. "I don't think you guys have got bayards either."
"Bayards?"
"Is that how Keith got a sword out of nowhere?" Other Lance asked.
Hunk didn't feel the need to say he'd seen the Other guys change clothes between blinks. "Yeah, we got these fancy bayards that change into weapons if we just think hard enough."
"Pretty cool."
"And they help make weapons on Voltron."
"Huh, our weapons just appear. Kind of like your bayards, now that you mention it."
"So, if your guys don't have bayards, what do you fight with, on foot?"
Other Lance pulled out a genuine blaster. "More than capable of stunning any doombot that tries anything funny. Not that there's anything funny about'em, 'sides their looks."
"Wait," said Shiro, his face a mask of seriousness, "there's something super important I have to ask."
Everyone put aside their idle chat to listen to the severe matter.
"What do they sound like? Because it's totally 'blam blam blam', right?"
AN: These keep taking longer and longer to come out. Ha... Thanks for sticking with this, everyone.
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