"The bayard is the weapon of the paladin. We made it with the help of the Olkari and a very rare substance that they found. It is very powerful and dangerous, and will take skill to learn how to use." Coran said.
"Are you sure about that?" Lance glanced dubiously at his bayard. "Because it just looks like a bracelet to me."
"Yeah, this doesn't really look very effective," Hunk squinted at his. Lance wasn't wrong when he said it looked like a bracelet. A white, circular, band of metal, with a different colored stone for each paladin in the center, the bayard looked more like an accessory than a lethal weapon. "Are we supposed to like, beat people to death with the bracelet?"
"If you let me finish my explanation, it'll make sense." Coran huffed. "Each paladin will get a bayard, respective of their lion. The bayard will morph into a different weapon for each paladin depending on how they fight. To activate it, swipe downwards on the stone. The more you use it, the easier it becomes to access up to the point that you'll be able to summon your weapon with just your mind."
As each paladin swiped down on their bayard stone, Coran made his way to stand beside Shiro. "Apologies that we don't have the black bayard. The previous paladin took it with him."
Shiro gave a wry smile. "I think I can manage with this." He lifted his right arm and his hand began to glow purple. "Galra prosthetic. I may have lost my arm to them, but I can at least use their tech against them."
Coran started to inspect Shiro's hand from all angles. "Absolutely fascinating!"
"Dude check this out!"
Coran and Shiro both turned to see what Lance was shouting about. His bayard had formed a blue long range rifle. Hunk's bayard had shifted into a yellow mix of a grenade launcher and a machine gun, and it was taking both of his hands to keep it off the ground. Keith was sporting a red double sided sword, and Pidge had a green futuristic looking handheld weapon. Lance pointed his gun at Pidge's weapon. "What is that supposed to be?"
Hit him with it, Green said in her head. I wanna see what happens.
Pidge shrugged. "Ok."
Before Lance could finish asking, "ok, what?" she had flicked out her bayard letting the pointed end wrap around his ankle and send a shock through his leg. "OW!"
Hahaha. Ah, that was funny.
Pidge grinned and winked at her lion.
"Ah! Before I forget, we also have armor for you, and a shield bayard." Coran scanned his hand over a panel in the wall and let the room open up to show five suits of sleek, formfitting armor. "The armor is also a gift from the Olkari. It's meant to be lightweight but protective so you can move easily in the bulk of battle but still be well protected. The shield bayards are built into the armor. They, like the bayards, form a shield when prompted. Well, go on and suit up!" he said when none of the paladins had moved.
"It's just that," Hunk started, "putting on the armor makes it so much more real. I don't know if I'm ready for that."
"In case Princess Allura didn't make it clear, you don't really have a choice, so you may as well put on the armor now so that you have more time to train so that you're less likely to die while fighting!"
Hunk sighed and trudged over to where the yellow paladin armor lay. White with gold-yellow accents, it was like climbing into a full bodysuit. He felt it adjust to cover his stomach and adjust to his height. Smart armor. Pretty cool.
Isn't it, Yellow thought back. They once tried to make armor for us, but it didn't go so well. Since we don't always stay the same body size, the armor they tried to make didn't fit after one or two battles, and the Olkari didn't have any more of the substance they found to make armor for us.
Isn't it dangerous out there for you though?
We all have rapid healing and increased durability to wounds. Factors that'll be shared with you once our bond gets stronger.
So let me get this straight- you're pretty much invincible and the closer we get, the stronger I get?
Yep!
That's awesome! Hey, if we have time, do you want to have a movie night tonight?
Can I help you make popcorn?
"Definitely," he said aloud. He picked up his helmet and pushed aside the darkened sliding door that had given him privacy to change. The others were all dressed in their armor, but Pidge was waiting for her helmet to adjust to it's proper size. "How big was the person before me? This helmet covers my entire face!"
"The previous green paladin was quite small actually- I believe that your helmet is only that large because the last head it was on was Yellow's," Coran said stroking his mustache.
"Why was my helmet on Yellow's head?" Pidge asked as her helmet changed to fit her head.
"I believe the previous paladins were trying to see how large the helmets could get," Coran chuckled. "They were quite the mischievous bunch."
Keith narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean were?"
"I simply mean that they're not the paladins anymore," Coran said a bit too quickly for Keith's preference. "Now that you have your armor, should we get going? You aren't going to train yourselves by standing around here!"
Lance ducked the laser blast. "I thought you said you weren't going to kill us!"
"We aren't trying to kill you! We're training you!" Coran shouted cheerfully from behind the window above them. "Keep moving now!"
"You and I must have very different definitions of the word 'training'!" Lance shouted back.
Allura walked up beside Coran. "So. How's it going?"
Coran stroked his mustache. "Well they're all still alive. Whether or not they'll stay that way when going against Zarkon with technique like this, that's debatable."
"What do you mean 'technique like this'? They can't be that bad can they?"
Coran pulled up the reports from the training simulations that the new paladins had been going through for the past few hours. "Well they can't fight as a team, or trust each other despite knowing each other. The only ones who can somewhat hold their own in a fight is Mr. Keith and Mr. Shiro, but even then the bot was at too high a level for them."
"And the lions can't help them until they've grown out of their cub state," Allura finished looking over to where the cubs sat in a line against the wall. Shouts brought her attention back to the paladins where Keith and Lance were facing off. Coran followed her gaze. "And that's the fourth time that that's happened."
Allura sighed. "I suppose we should go talk to them."
When the two Alteans reached the paladins, Keith and Lance were still arguing. "I'll stick you in a wormhole!"
"Cool it you two!" Shiro snapped, stepping between them. "I know you're both tired and frustrated, but taking it out on each other isn't going to help us."
"Maybe what you need is a good meal and a good night's sleep," Coran suggested. "You've all been working very hard today."
"But-" Allura started before a nudge from Coran had her looking at the paladins. Pidge and Hunk were both on the floor, Pidge leaning against the wall and Hunk almost passed out on his back. Lance was glaring at Keith over Shiro's shoulder with his arms crossed, but Allura could see that the boy was tired. Shiro was still standing between Keith and Lance, looking at her for directions. Allura glanced away quickly, feeling her face heat up a bit. She sighed.
"Coran is right," she started. "While I'd love to have you train more, pushing you while you're tired will only make your results worse. Besides, you can't even practice with your lions yet. If you follow us, we'll show you your rooms so you can change and then come to the kitchen for some food."
Once all the paladins had changed, and met in the kitchen Allura made her way to Coran. "I know I said no more training, but they have to learn how to work as a team."
"Fear not princess! I was thinking the exact same thing." He held up a small remote between them with a proud smile. "Ah, paladins! Before you begin to eat, could everyone please place their hands down on the armrests? It's an, ah- an Altean tradition!"
"Sure thing Coran," Shiro said, placing his hands down. "After all, we are in your castle." The others followed Shiro's example. When all of their hands were down, Coran pressed a button on his remote. Blue and white handcuffs appeared around each paladins' wrist and connected to each other. "Haha! Success! Now, before you ask what's going on, allow me to explain!" Coran set the remote down and picked up an Altean fruit. "You all have trust issues, so the princess and I figured that you could build it by feeding each other!"
"I thought you said no more training," Lance groaned.
"This isn't training! It's a game!"
"It is not a game when it interferes with my food," Hunk huffed.
Before Coran could respond, Allura had grabbed the fruit out of his hand and chucked it upwards. There was a loud series of beeps from where the fruit had hit Green and her drone. The lion cub fell onto Yellow who was trying to get to the remote as well. "Nice try, attempting to use your lions to reach the re-GAH!" Allura put a hand to her head where green food goo was sitting in her white hair. She glared at Keith and Pidge who had a bowl of food goo and a spoon held between the two of them.
"Keith! Pidge!" Shiro groaned. "What are you doing?"
He never got an answer. Coran had grabbed his own spoon and was flinging a pink tinted paste at Keith's head. Keith ducked, but dragged Lance- who was sitting to his left- along with him, causing the blue paladin to get hit. From then on, a full on food fight ensued. Even the lions got in, taking hits to protect the paladins or ambushing Allura and Coran from behind.
When all the food was gone, Allura threw back her head laughing. "You're finally working as a team!"
The paladins looked at each other and began laughing too. Everyone was covered in multicolored goo and paste. The lions were shaking food out of their ears and whiskers, and licking some off the walls. Coran picked up his remote and uncuffed the paladins. "Allow me to go and get some more food."
Once Coran had brought out the extra meal he had prepared, the paladins sat down and ate, happily enjoying the Altean cuisine. Allura left to go clean out her hair. When she went to wipe down the walls, she had to insist to Shiro that she did it herself. After they had all left to go to their rooms for the night, Allura sat down beside Coran. "There may be hope for them after all Coran."
"Are you sure you don't want to come watch movies with us?" Lance looked down at Pidge. "Hunk and Yellow are making popcorn!"
"How do you even have the energy?" She grumbled. "Look, you two have fun, but I'm going to get some sleep."
"And by sleep you mean trying to hack into one of the Altean practice drones so you can download and look at their code?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow. "Oh yeah. Hunk told me all about your little tricks."
"Whatever Lance. Tell Hunk I said goodnight." She let the door slide shut. Lance sighed. "C'mon Blue. Let's go see if Yellow and Hunk are done with the popcorn."
They found the pair in Hunk's room with a bowl of what looked like pink marshmallows. "So they didn't have anything in English, but through deductive reasoning and some help from Yellow, I found the closest thing to popcorn."
"Wait a second," Lance said, picking up one of the marshmallows. "If all the ingredients are in Altean, are they going to have any movies in English?"
No, probably not. Alteans didn't get many visitors from Terraria, so there wasn't much of a point in having things in any of your languages, Blue stated. Hunk shook his head. "Yellow just told me no."
"Blue said the same. Guess we can do that thing where we make up words for what we think they're saying."
They made it through half a movie before they got too tired to keep going. Blue and Lance said goodnight and left for their own room. Lance changed into his robe put on his nightly facemask while in the bathroom. When he came out, Blue was digging under his bed. "What're you looking for girl?"
She wiggled back with a pair of blue lion slippers in her mouth. These. Try them on!
Lance slid on the slippers and lay down on the bed. Blue flopped down on his chest and looked at him. Are you ok?
"Yeah, this is all just so," he waved his hand around, looking for the word.
Different?
"Exactly."
It's hard for everyone. You just have to keep pushing. I know you're strong enough to do this- otherwise I wouldn't have picked you!
"Good point." He smiled. "Night Blue."
Night Lancey-Lance.
When he woke up that morning, Lance couldn't breathe.
Groggily moving his arm, he pulled off his night mask to look at what was crushing his chest. All he saw was blue. "Hey Blue, where are you?"
The large blob of blue he saw in front of him shifted around until a pair of familiar sapphire eyes were staring down at him. What do you mean?
"Blue."
Yes?
"I can't breathe."
Oops. She rolled off his chest and lay beside him. Lance took in the view.
Overnight Blue had gone from being a lion cub to being a full grown lioness. Her fur was a richer shade of blue and thicker now. Not only was she heavier, but she was a lot larger. Stretched out with her front paws by his head, her back paws touched just below his knees. Her tail lay across his ankles. When she yawned, her claws extended, looking a lot sharper than normal cat claws.
Blue looked at him. Why are you so confused?
"When you said you grew quickly, I didn't imagine you meant this fast!"
Surprise. Should we go see the others?
"Have their lions grown as well?"
Probably. Though I doubt Green will look very different. She's always been tiny.
"Like paladin like lion I guess. Let's go see the others."
A bit of a filler chapter, but now the lions have grown! Next chapter will probably be based off of 'Return of the Gladiator' and 'Fall of the Castle of Lions' or episodes 3 and 4 from Season 1. Hope you liked the chapter! Read and Review! 3 3
