Hunk, Pidge and both Alteans took off with Elane in the direction of the Mayor's home. Pidge and Hunk activated their bayards as they all took to surrounding Elane to shield her from harm.
"I don't have a lot," she explained. "But the journals, I need to get the journals."
Meanwhile, Shiro, Lance and Keith prepared to square off against the Mayor. He was definitely middle aged, but with four arms and standing a good head above Shiro, he wasn't anyone to take lightly.
"Where's my daughter?" the Mayor demanded.
"She's not your daughter." Lance replied. "And you're not getting her back."
"What are you talking about?" he hissed. "She's mine!" He lunged at Lance with his left two fists, and the lanky paladin was able to jump out of the way, but lost his balance in the process.
The crowd scattered, older Taksgarrians grabbing children and siblings to run. Lance landed on his back ungracefully, and he winced as a rock tore into his lower back. The black parts of the armor were softer than the rest, and he mentally cursed the Altean designer. Where did Alteans keep their vital organs, the legs?
No longer buffeted by the surging crowd, the Mayor raced to Lance again to pound his skull into the ground. Lance struggled to get up as Keith's sword intercepted a fist that would have connected with his face. The Mayor moved to throw another fist. Blocked by Keith's shield.
He went to throw a third.
"Lance, get up!" Keith demanded, preparing to dive away.
Lance mumbled something affirmative, shakily getting to his feet.
Keith dove, breaking his fall with a roll to the Mayor's left, distracting him.
That was Shiro's window. With a grunt, Shiro connected his shield with the Mayor's side, throwing him off balance.
Lance fired off a shot into the Mayor, striking him in the shoulder. His upper right arm now immobile, he became angrier.
"She's mine!" He roared, swiping again at Keith, who dodged, but the Mayor grabbed at his sword, throwing Keith with it into Shiro, who tumbled.
Elane grabbed a cloth bag and began to take books from the shelf, examining their covers before putting them in.
"What else do you want to bring?" Hunk asked. "We can help."
"My... supplies." she decided. "They're in the infirmary room." A cold look crossed her eyes. "I collected those. I don't want him using them."
Hunk nodded. "I'll get them."
Pidge volunteered to help, grabbing a bag as well. Allura and Coran offered to help with books.
Elane carefully handed Coran the now full, sack of books. Tears pricked at her eyes. "Thank you."
Coran smiled. "It's no problem, Ms. Elane. We're just happy to get you out of here."
Lance fired again, running to take cover behind the carnival booth game. He fired off a few more shots, managing to hit the Mayor with two more.
The Mayor stalked over to Shiro and Keith, picking up Shiro by the neck. "Where. is. She." he demanded.
Keith swept his sword at the Mayor's ankles. It sliced his flesh, causing the Mayor to scream and drop Shiro. Recovering quickly, Shiro tackled him to the ground. With three arms out of service, the Mayor was forced down. Shiro planted a boot firmly in his back. Keith and Lance ran to assist, pointing their weapons at the Mayor.
"She was never your daughter." Shiro repeated. "She was never a part of your family." His boot dug deeper. "No father would hit his child."
"She needs me, she'll be back." the Mayor spat.
"You hit her." Keith repeated.
"I had to keep her in line!" the Mayor reasoned.
Shiro said nothing, hitting a button on his gauntlet. "Got it." He looked to his teammates. "That was practically a confession. With this recording and whatever Pidge and Hunk can find, that should be enough evidence to incriminate him. No matter where we are, that's unacceptable."
Hunk and Pidge returned from the infirmary, jars balanced in Pidge's arms and small packets of herbs and seeds in the larger bag in Hunk's arms. Coran and Allura held about 7 or 8 books, with Elane holding a smaller bag containing her clothes, a brush and some small nicknacks she'd acquired.
All in all, it wasn't much. And most of it were consumable items, like the herbs and seeds that Pidge was trying desperately to decrypt the labels on.
"There's a town a few days from here. This should all fit on the Mayor's Valent." Elane was wringing her hands, still anxious. "I can take her with me."
"Whoa, wait." Hunk shifted the bag onto one hip. "I don't know what a Valent is, some kind of animal?" -Elane nodded at this- "But we need to make sure you'll be somewhere safe."
The Taksgarrian police were slow to arrive to the scene, but arrived nonetheless. They chuckled at the state of the Mayor, before turning to Shiro, Lance and Keith.
"So," the (presumably) captain of the group asked. "What started this?"
"We're protecting E-" Shiro stopped himself. "His daughter-" The words tasted bitter in his mouth - "from him."
"He was going to beat her." Keith added.
"Yeah, and he attacked us!" Lance tacked on, still holding a hand to where the stone had bruised and torn at his back.
"He's beating that human daughter of his?" The officer clarified.
"We have evidence." Shiro insisted.
"I'm more concerned with the fact that you're holding his daughter. Return her."
All three paladins immediately shot back cries of "no." Keith might have even swore.
The officer's face crumpled into a scowl. "Get off my planet. We never asked for you paladins, or for you to come here and start taking our property."
"Property? She's a girl!" Shiro was burning with a righteous fury, and his hand began to glow.
"Shiro." Keith stopped him. "We know Elane's safe right now. Let's go." He gave the Taksgarrians a dirty look before turning.
"We're all worried you won't be safe there." Pidge expressed. "What if the Mayor comes for you?"
"It's my only choice." Elane admitted. "I can't live on my own out here."
Allura looked to Coran, who nodded. "Elane, would you like to come with us?"
Elane blinked. "I... I don't know."
"Coran myself and the Paladins don't believe it's chance we were led here. You're part of something important, and we'd like to figure it out." Allura explained.
Coran winked. "Plus, I'm a little tired of being the Chief Medical Officer without any other staff."
"Medical staff? Are you warriors?" Elane's voice was laced with confusion, but excitement.
"We can show you." Hunk offered. "We have a castle and everything."
"A castle?"
"Will you come with us?" Allura repeated.
Shouts were heard from outside the house, and Elane let out a little cry, before realizing it was Lance's voice, coming from the Paladin's helmets and the internal com. "We gotta go! The police are probably headed to the house right now."
"What? But we're the good guys!" Hunk groaned.
"Get to the castle. Try to lay low." Shiro ordered.
Elane shouldered her bag. "Yeah."
"What?" Hunk looked at her.
"I said yes." she smiled softly, and Hunk felt a silly grin spreading over his face too. "I'll go with you."
...
A/N: Hey there! Sorry about the break in-between these past two chapters, I've been swamped with homework and with my school's musical. Which is this weekend, so next week should begin more frequent updates to this story. Thank you for your likes and follows, and Mae as always for her reviews. Reviews are what fuel me, so maybe take a moment to type in that little box?