**Author's note: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender! **
The entire lion was a ship, the inside of the head containing a pilot's seat and a control panel. By the time the others had caught up to Lance, he had already seated himself in the solitary chair and the controls had been activated.
"All right!" he grinned as the front window screen glowed to life. "Very nice!"
"I've never seen tech this advanced before," Mari said, looking around at the mechanisms curiously. "It's awesome."
"Ah, finally impressed with me, are you?" Lance looked over his shoulder to give her a smirk and her eye twitched in annoyance.
"I'm impressed with the ship, not you," she replied coolly and Lance deflated a bit.
"Okay, guys, I feel the need to point out, just so we're all, you know, aware. We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now," Hunk spoke up nervously, hoping the others would acknowledge how strange and ridiculous their current situation was.
"Whoa, did you guys just hear that?" Lance suddenly exclaimed, looking at the others expectantly.
"Hear what?" Keith asked.
"I-I think it's talking to me," he said hesitantly. "Hmm…Um…"
Lance squinted closely at the controls before pressing a few buttons on the central panel. The lion stood up abruptly and let out a loud roar, startling everyone and prompting them to cautiously grab onto something stable so they wouldn't topple over. Clinging to the back of Lance's seat, Mari frowned in annoyance as she was uncomfortably smushed between her older brother and Keith.
"Why didn't they put more chairs in this thing?" she muttered to herself.
"Okay, got it," Lance grinned in excitement as he took ahold of the two control sticks. "Now, let's try this."
He suddenly thrust both gears forward and the blue lion shot out of the caves, breaking through several layers of rock until it burst out into the open air. It did several unannounced dips and spins, totally unconcerned that its passengers were screaming and clinging to each other for dear life so that they wouldn't be thrown about like rag dolls.
"Holy crow, Lance!" Mari shouted over the shrieks. "Get this thing under control!"
"I'm trying!" he promised just as the lion performed a nauseating flip in the air.
"You are—the worst—pilot—EVER!" Keith barely gasped through all the chaos.
After serval more dives and rolls, the lion returned to the ground, running at a steady pace along the canyon floor near the Garrison.
"Isn't this awesome?" Lance exclaimed, his glee like a kid's on Christmas.
"Make it stop!" Hunk begged, looking sick. "Make it stop!"
"I'm not making it do anything!" Lance grinned. "It's like it's on autopilot!"
"Well, that's no reason to be concerned," Mari commented sarcastically and Lance cast her an annoyed look.
Suddenly the lion shot into the sky, bursting straight through the clouds and preparing to enter the upper layers of the atmosphere.
"Where are you going?" Keith demanded.
"I just said it's on autopilot!" Lance retorted. "It says there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we're suppose to stop it."
"What did it say, exactly?" Pidge asked, frowning impatiently.
"Well, it's not like it's saying words," Lance rolled his eyes. "More like putting ideas into my brain…kind of."
"Why are we still letting you drive this thing?!" Mari exclaimed incredulously and she received another sour look from their pilot.
"Well if this is the weapon they're coming for, couldn't we just, I don't know, give it to them?" Hunk suggested fearfully. "Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, lion. Nothing personal."
"You don't understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path," Shiro spoke up in all seriousness. "There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."
Everyone frowned disapprovingly at Hunk and the big guy shrunk back sheepishly. "…Oh," he squeaked. "Never mind then."
As the blue lion broke through the final layer of Earth's atmosphere, Mari couldn't help but gawk at the scene laid out before her. Space: it was where she had wanted to go for so long now. She had never imagined that she would be experiencing her dream so soon, in a blue lion and surrounded by four strange guys and her brother no less. Gazing out at the dazzling stars and the vastness of it all, being so close she could almost touch it, Mari's heart skipped a beat.
"I…I'm actually here," she whispered out loud, her eyes glued to the front window, wide and full of excitement as she took in their surroundings.
"Welcome to space, Mari," Shiro said, and he couldn't help but smile as a grin lit up her face. But before they could appreciate the moment any further, a gigantic warship appeared in front of them.
"Holy crow, is that really an alien ship?!" Hunk cried out in fear.
"They found me," Shiro whispered, his dread apparent in his tone.
The alien aircraft immediately locked onto them and began to relentlessly fire purple laser blasts at the lion.
"Lance, get us out of here!" Mari urged, her joy fading in the blink of an eye as shots rained down on them. He immediately pulled back on the control sticks and the blue lion began to nimbly dodge the deadly beams.
"Okay, I think I know what to do!" Lance finally decided after enduring several minutes of lion laser tag.
"Be careful, man!" Pidge advised. "This isn't a simulator!"
"Well, that's good," Lance chuckled. "I always wreck the simulator."
"We're gonna die," Mari groaned.
"Oh, come on! Have a bit more faith in me, Mari," he said, dashingly beaming at her.
"Like heck I will until you figure out how to drive this thing properly!" she snapped back furiously, his charms having no effect on her whatsoever.
"Geez, okay, okay!" Lance huffed and he quickly moved into the proper position before pushing the left control stick forward. The lion fired a stunning blue blast of searing energy from its mouth, making a large and explosive gash in the side of the alien ship.
"Let's try this." Lance pulled down on the left stick this time. In response, the lion pounced on the craft, digging its claws into the metal and leaving another fiery slash in the hull of the hostile spacecraft.
"Nice job, Lance!" Shiro complimented and said pilot beamed proudly.
"Okay," he said, turning the lion around. "I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet."
Moving at an incredible speed, the blue beast flew deeper into outer space, the alien warship right on its tail.
"Oh, no!" Hunk exclaimed.
"They're gaining on us!" Pidge warned.
"It's weird," Lance frowned as he ignored them. "They're not trying to shoot us. They're just chasing."
"Okay, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?" Hunk groaned. "I am not on board with this new direction, guys!"
"Where are we?" Keith huffed in annoyance.
"Edge of the solar system," Shiro realized, peering out one of the side windows. "There's Kerberos."
"No way," Mari said, blinking in disbelief as they passed the celestial object. "We're already this far out?"
"It takes months for our ships to get out this far!" Pidge exclaimed. "We got out here in five seconds!"
Mari had seen images of Kerberos before, but those photographs paled in comparison to the real deal. The blue moon looked much more vivid and gorgeous up close an in person, and Mari couldn't help but gape at it until it was out of site.
"You're gonna catch flies," Keith muttered next to her, a small smirk forming on his face. Instantly snapping her mouth shut, Mari scowled at him, but before she could stomp on his foot to express her irritation with him, a large swirling portal materialized in front of the lion.
"What is that?" Hunk inquired suspiciously.
"This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there!" Lance answered, sounding a bit nervous himself.
"Where does it go?" Pidge asked.
"I-I don't know," Lance admitted unsurely. "Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?"
"Whatever's happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it," Shiro decided. He glanced at Mari standing next to him and she just frowned at him worriedly. Placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, Shiro added, "But we're a team now. We should decide together."
Everyone exchanged knowing looks before nodding to Lance in approval. Shrugging to himself, their pilot sighed, "All right. Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow."
With that, the lion surged forward and shot straight through the swirling void.
