Lionhearted
Chapter One:
"Alright! Who can tell me what these three cadets did wrong?!"
The three cadets in question cringed as they glanced to their right, where their crowd of imposing classmates stood, hands in air.
"Ingerman!"
"Sir!" Cadet Ingerman yelled, addressing the ever-irritable Commander Goat. "The pilot crashed!"
"Why did he crash, cadet?" Goat growled.
"Unnecessary risks sir," Ingerman continued. "Tried to navigate the canyons instead of scouting from above,"
"Exactly!" The short officer yelled, again pointing at the cadets. "JORGENSON!"
"Despite her babe-licous looks, the mechanic's hair got in the way and she fell out of her chair," Snotlout said, grinning at the failed cadet team's mechanic.
"Merida… chill," The comms officer hissed. The redhead next to him huffed and blew a strand of her curly locks off her forehead.
"Right! That hair is not regulation cadet!" Goat yelled. "Hofferson!"
"Comms officer disregarded procedure and distracted his crewmates," The blonde girl said dryly. Goat nodded again.
"Right!" The commander yelled. "These types of mistakes have caused missions to go horribly wrong! The Kerberos crew knew this, and they forgot! Learn from their mistakes!"
This time, it was the pilot and mechanic restraining the angry comms officer.
"Hic - chill!" The pilot, a white haired boy named Jack hissed. "Don't get us in more trouble!"
"QUIET CADET!" The commander yelled. "Cadets, you are released for meals! Overland, Dunbroch, Haddock! Back to the dorms!"
"Yes sir," The three cadets muttered. They turned and marched over, only stopping to breathe once they were out of sight.
"Odin's crows we messed tha' up," Merida Dunbroch muttered. Like the others had pointed out, her bushy red hair was bursting out of its tie, escaping whatever braid or bun she'd attempted to put it in before.
"We?!" Jack Overland scoffed. "My flying was fine! You two idiots are the ones who couldn't handle it!"
Jack was the crew's pilot. He had (also anti regulation) dyed white hair and a bad habit of purposely breaking rules for fun. He was a decent single simulator pilot, but was completely hopeless when he had to fly in team missions.
"We couldnae handle it?!" Merida hissed. "You're tha' one with tha' fancy flyin' tha' almost killed us!"
"Me?!" Jack protested. "Oh come on! Hiccup, tell her that I- Hiccup?"
The comms officer was a small teen with shaggy auburn hair and green eyes that somehow always looked nervous. He wore a pair of large glasses that had a bad habit of catching the light, but his teammates had a theory that he didn't really need them. Currently, he was also edging out of the group, heading back towards his room.
"Where does he go every night?" Jack muttered. "He always sneaks out, but he's always back by morning,"
"Ah donae think he sleeps," Merida muttered. The redhead shrugged. "Ah'll meet you back in your dorm? Sneak in some sweets,"
Merida snuck back into the boys dorms, now dressed in her civvies - a loose set of cargo pants and a dark teal shirt - with a few bags of chips stuffed in her pockets. Jack met her at the door, now comfortably dressed in a blue sweatshirt instead of his stiff uniform.
"Hiccup's already gone?" Merida asked, ripping open her bag. Jack nodded. "Let's follow him,"
Jack's eyes sparkled.
"Oh yeah,"
The two cadets snuck out of the dorm, following the direction Jack often saw Hiccup take. They slipped quickly past the officers' mess, crawling under the long window. Jack performed a few somersaults, causing Merida to roll her eyes.
The duo quickly pressed their backs to the wall when they heard a new set of footsteps, but managed to sneak through a slightly ajar door.
It led up to the roof, where coincidentally, they found Hiccup.
"Come out here to rock out?" Jack asked, yanking Hiccup's headphones off his head as the other boy cried out.
"Jack! M-Merida!" Hiccup groaned. "What are you doing?"
"Finding out where you went," Merida said, crossing her arms. "Wot even is this stuff? Ah know tha's not Garrison issue,"
"I… built it," Hiccup said, a slight blush spreading across his face. "I tinker with stuff back home, so I modified- JACK STOP TOUCHING!"
"Wot are you doing up here then?" Merida asked, sitting down and poking at the computers herself.
"Scanning to the edges of the known galaxy," Hiccup smirked. "And picking up alien radio chatter,"
"Aliens exist?" Jack asked.
"Jack. You are in the space exploration program," Hiccup muttered. "Aliens exist!"
"Wot are they saying? Do they even speak our language!?" Merida asked excitedly.
"No, but they all have this one word in common - Voltron."
"What's Voltron?"
"I don't know!" Hiccup yelled. "And stop touching!"
"Wots that!" Merida yelped, leaping to her feet and pointing out into the desert.
"An asteroid?" Hiccup said, packing his tech into his bag. "Wait-"
"That's not an asteroid, that's a spaceship," Jack interrupted.
"That alien chatter is picking up!" Hiccup yelled, yanking his headphones off. "They know something about voltron!"
"Let's go then!" Merida yelled, grabbing Hiccup and Jack, tearing down the stairs. As they reached the door, a loud alarm started to blare inside the building, giving out a loud warning to all the students about a lockdown. The three ignored it, bursting out a side door and tearing towards the desert.
Merida pulled her hood up over her voluminous hair, gesturing for Jack and Hiccup to do the same. If they were going to sneak aboard, the last thing they needed was to be recognized.
In the short time between the ship crashing and the time it took to catch up, Garrison officials had already set up shop. They had hover cars and medical tents set up, and had started to ferry in scientific supplies for the lab crews.
The trio slipped inside when the sentries weren't looking, and Hiccup pushed ahead to lead the way. He'd already hacked into the Garrison computers and pulled up an evolving map, which led him to a hastily set up console.
"Come on," He muttered, opening up the cameras. "Wait a second!"
"Wot?" Merida asked.
"I… that was one of the scientists on the Kerberos mission!" Hiccup said excitedly, sowing the others the footage of a tall blonde man who was lying restrained on a bed. More Garrison doctors - all dressed in hazmat suits - were reassuring him. "But, where are the others?"
"This definitely isn't the Kerberos shuttle," Jack muttered, staring up around the strange purple and grey ceiling. "Okay, does anyone else hear whispering?"
"Actually, yes" Merida griped, peering around the corner anxiously.
"Wait - he's breaking free!" Hiccup yelped, watching as the man broke out of his cuffs and ran for the door.
"Wot?!" Merida yelled, grabbing the computer screen and looking. "Wot the hell is he doin'?!"
A loud crashing sound led to the mystery man tripping his way into the hall the three were hiding in. He locked eyes with the cadets, but they widened when he noticed Hiccup.
"Hiccup?" He asked.
"Bucket?" Hiccup asked. Merida and Jack flicked their eyes back and forth, surprise blooming across their faces.
"It is you!" Bucket cried, running towards the young cadet. "You've grown up!"
"Bucket, where are the others!?" Hiccup asked quickly. "What happened?!"
"Voltron!" The old astronaut cried, grabbing Hiccup by the shoulders. "You have to find Voltron! It's the only thing that can stop them!"
"Stop who?!" Hiccup stuttered. "Voltron? What is Voltron?"
"HEY!" The other Garrison soldiers had found them.
"Odin's crows!" Merida cursed. "We gotta go!"
"Bucket, come on!" Hiccup cried, stepping back. The blonde man shook his head and stepped back himself, putting his body between the Garrison and the cadets.
"Go." He said, demeanor clearing for a minute. "Find Voltron. Save us all,"
Hiccup's eyes widened as Jack grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away. The cadet stumbled, glasses tumbling to the ground forgotten, turning around joining his crew as they bolted out of the ship, officers close on their heels as Bucket did his best to delay them.
"This way!" Merida yelped, hurtling towards where the hover cars were parked. She leapt onto a hoverbike - colored the Garrison orange and white. She slammed her heel into a panel before the steering, popping it off and pulling out a bundle of wires as Jack and Hiccup caught up.
"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked.
"Why aren't we running?!" Jack added, looking nervously behind him as more officers were alerted to their presence.
"Success!" Merida shrieked as the hoverbike thrummed to life. Jack shoved her out of the way, grabbing the steering handles and kicking out the pedals.
"Lets go!" He yelled, shoving the steering forwards. The bike lurched up and out into the desert. They sped away from the crash site, seemingly home free until the familiar thrums of hover cars started to catch up.
"No!" Merida cried. "Go faster!"
Jack swerved to the side, almost knocking Hiccup and Merida off their positions on the bike.
"OI!" The redhead screamed, grabbing onto the hoverbikes arms. "Stop tryin' ta' kill us with your fancy flyin'!"
"Let me do my thing!" Jack yelled, a hint of panic in his voice. The garrison officers were getting closer, and with Jack's piloting, the trio's future wasn't looking particularly bright.
"Shove over!" Hiccup suddenly yelled, pushing Jack back and throwing himself into the seat. His hands and feet automatically adjusted to the control pedals, and he clicked the right one back - sending them rocketing forwards again.
"Hiccup!" Jack yelled. "What are you doing!?"
"Flying!" The brunette boy yelled back. He slammed the controls to the left, and the bike banked hard. A minute later, one of the Garrison cars smashed into the rocky outcroppings.
"But you aren't a pilooooooooooooot!" Jack shrieked. Merida whooped loudly next to him, obviously enjoying Hiccup's flight style.
"Just because I'm in the comms program doesn't mean I didn't want to be a pilot before!" Hiccup yelled over the wind, swinging the bike around again. Two more cars crashed behind them, leaving two in the chase. "How hold on!"
"Hold on?" Jack yelled, peering over Hiccup's shoulder. "THAT'S A CLIFF!"
"I know!" Hiccup smirked, and gunned the engine. They rocketed forwards, over the edge of the cliff as the last two cars skidded to a stop. The whoosh of air in their ears mixed with Merida's screams of joy. Jack had been scared at the beginning, but Merida and Hiccup's enthusiasm was infectious and he joined in.
"WOO!"
Hiccup yanked on the handlebars, clicking them back a notch. The thrusters rolled in a complete 180, safely bringing them to the ground. He clicked the handles back into place and they sped off, disappearing as a speck in the desert.
They kept riding until the sun began to creep up over the mountains. The hoverbike started to sputter. Merida concluded that it wasn't built for this much desert travel, so an excess of sand might have built up in the engines.
"What's that?" Jack interrupted, pointing towards the horizon. Hiccup and Merida looked over, squinting against the sun. "It looks like… a house,"
"No point in not trying," Hiccup muttered, restarting the hoverbike. The trio made their way towards the dark spot, the bike moving slowly as they went.
The dark spot was a house, but it wasn't a very good one. The old shack had dry, sand encrusted wood with windows that didn't line up quite right. Someone clearly lived there, but the house hadn't been professionally fixed in years. A few old painted potted plants sat around the door, drying vegetable stalks drooping in the heat.
And outside, stood a thin teenage girl with short dark hair, holding a frying pan threateningly as she stared down the cadets.
Notes: Welcome to Lionhearted! This is a Voltron Au, and will span ten chapters (I'll follow the posting schedule). If you're excited or have questions, please review! I love to see them!