Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Pidge quickly descended the scaffolding, Tali and Shay behind her, all three rushing to Hunk's side.
"Hunk, are you alright?" Pidge asked, falling to their knees beside Allura in front of Hunk, Coran sitting behind the Yellow Paladin and visually examining the wound.
"Well, yeah, all things considering," Hunk said, glancing over his shoulder at the piece of metal currently sticking out of his body.
"You are remarkably calm given the situation." Tali said, her own voice tight as she tried to keep calm herself, trying to swallow back tears of fear, frustration and helplessness.
"Freaking out's only going to make it worse. And it doesn't hurt, really." Hunk said, then he frowned. He looked and sounded a little dazed. "Probably not a good thing. A nerve maybe got severed somewhere… But, like, I can still feel my toes and fingers and stuff so it's not the spine, at least, and it's probably adrenaline. Oh wow, I'm rambling, too, yeah, definitely adrenaline."
"We need to know how deep this went in and where it is," Coran said. "If there's an exit wound or not. Allura, help me unstrap the armor, but don't remove it yet; the metal may be stuck in the armor. Pidge, your hands are going to be the best for fitting between the armor and Hunk's chest, being the smallest."
Pidge nodded and quickly began stripping off the arm pieces of their own armor while Allura and Coran carefully undid the straps, loosening Hunk's armor. When Coran gave Pidge a nod, they took a deep breath and carefully slipped their hand under the chest-plate.
"Geez, Pidge, at least take me out to dinner before you start feeling me up," Hunk said teasingly, making Pidge smile in spite of the situation.
"I'll take you to a movie, too, while I'm at it. Whole night on the town, just for you." Pidge said, slipping their arm up a little further to get their hand up towards Hunk's shoulder. That was when they felt something hard, just beneath Hunk's collar-bone, and it definitely was not bone. There wasn't a tear in the under-suit, nor did it feel wet with blood, so Pidge said, "Okay, so, up at an angle, just under the collar bone, hasn't made a full exit."
"—Lura? Allura, what's going on?"
Allura jumped slightly at hearing Shiro's voice, took a deep breath, then said,
"There has been… An accident. Hunk fell from some scaffolding and… landed in some debris… And, well… There is this piece of metal that is currently in Hunk's upper body."
"WHAT?" Was the response, loud enough to be heard from Allura's earrings (which made her wince) as well as the echoes from the abandoned helmets up above.
"I'm fine!" Hunk said, trying to make his voice loud enough so that Shiro, Lance and Keith could hear.
"English may be my second language, but I'm pretty sure that this is not the definition of 'fine'." Shinji said as he helped Coran gently remove the chest plate.
"Then we have even more problems than we thought," Shiro said grimly. "Zarkon and Haggar must have figured out we're here, because we have a Robeast situation."
"And we need to form Voltron," Allura finished. She took another deep breath and nodded. "Pidge and I will be there shortly."
Pidge nodded and went looking for their helmet.
"Wait, but Yellow's protecting the baby Balmera!" Hunk said, Coran and Shinji's hands quickly coming down on his shoulders as he tried to move.
"But if Voltron can't be formed, the baby will be in even more danger," Coran said. Hunk nodded, then reached for his bayard, holding it out to Allura.
"Hunk, piloting the Lions is one thing, but I cannot activate any of the bayards," Allura said.
"Maybe not, but Yellow's got a shoulder canon that is pretty useful, and this is the only way to get that," Hunk said. "You may not be her Paladin, but Yellow knows how many people are relying on her, relying on Voltron. She'll let you use the cannon if you need it."
Allura hesitated, but then accepted the bayard.
"Alright," She said. "I will… I will do my best, as I know the Yellow Lion will do her best."
"And we'll do our best here," Lani said, crawling across the floor in order to take Hunk's hand.
Allura nodded, and then grabbed Pidge, the two running back towards the Lions.
"Alright, first we should cut down on material to work with," Tali said, gently putting a hand on Hunk's back as she examined where the metal piece entered.
"Should've asked Pidge to use their bayard to cut it before they left," Hunk said. His voice had started to become sleepy, which alarmed the humans, Coran, and Shay.
"Hunk, we need you to stay awake now," Coran said.
"Right, got it. Sorry." Hunk said, blinking a few times.
"I think I can use my gloves to get through the metal to cut it down, but I don't know how fast it would be or how fast it would heat up the rest of it," Shinji said.
"Do not worry about the latter," Shay said. She held up her own hands, palms out. "Heat does not bother Balmerans like it does humans."
"An insulator, perfect," Tali said. "Plus, a way to help keep it steady." Suddenly, she saw something on the ground. "Oh, Pidge didn't put their arm plates back on…"
"That is a good thing," Coran said. "Pidge has modified the armor to include a scanner that they say works as an 'x-ray' as they call it. I'd rather have a more exact idea of what we're dealing with and where it is before we start."
Tali nodded and quickly grabbed up the armor pieces, handing them to Coran, who had a much better understanding of how it worked.
While Coran was activating the scanner, Lani noticed that the hand she was holding was beginning to shake. Her eyes widened as she went to put her fingers at the pulse point on Hunk's wrist, only to be met with the hard armor.
"Quiznak…" She muttered, giving up on any idea of figuring out how to take off the arm plates and reached up to put her fingers on the side of Hunk's neck.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no…" She whispered.
"Hmm?" Hunk hummed shakily, giving her an odd look. "What's wrong?"
"Listen to me, Hunk, you've really got to try and stay awake, okay?" Lani said, moving her fingers from his neck to his cheek, making him look at her. "I think you're going into shock."
"Oh, good, you've got the same diagnosis I got…" Hunk said. "I'm bleeding somewhere… The pods can fix it…"
"Yeah, but we still have to get you to the pods," Lani said. "And I may not be an expert in magic space medicine, but I don't think it's going to get this metal out."
"No, but before we remove it, we need to get some fluids running," Coran said. "Lani, move over for just a second. Shay, Shinji, help her hold Hunk still for the scan."
Lani held her breath until Coran indicated that the scan was over.
"Wanna see…" Hunk mumbled. Lani gasped when Coran did show Hunk the scan. The metal was evident, as were all the bones. The metal had entered just under where Hunk's chest-plate ended, cracking several ribs as it went up, going mostly through the abundant muscle of Hunk's upper body.
She did not want to think about how much blood there would be, how much blood the pressure of the metal was preventing from gushing out.
She also did not want to think about how this was her fault. That he wouldn't be sitting here, breathing shallowly, if she hadn't been more careful.
Hunk just simply nodded at the scan.
"Doesn't look like there's any ridges or sharp areas on the metal we need to be concerned about, other than making sure we don't do more damage to your ribcage," Coran said. "I'm going to get a stretcher, some fluids and medication for you while Shinji, Shay and Tali cut this down some."
Hunk nodded again, swaying some.
"Okay, can't have that," Lani said. She scooted as close to Hunk as she could, folded her legs in a criss-cross in front of her, then carefully wrapped her arms around Hunk's waist, gently pulling him forward so that his head rested on her shoulder. He settled there for a moment, then raised his head at hearing noise from one of the cavern's entrances.
Lani looked over to see Rax leading the Balmerans and their crystal into the cavern, the Balmerans whispering in confusion at seeing part of the Voltron team huddled on the floor. Rax ran over and Lani saw the horror in his yellow eyes.
"What happened?" He asked.
"We learned that the Galra really need to have better workplace safety standards," Hunk said. He chuckled slightly, weakly. "Do you think we can sue? Which do you think could take down Zarkon first, a battle in space with Voltron or a battle in the courtroom with Pidge's mom?"
"I don't know whether I should tell you to be quiet or keep talking," Lani said.
"Give us a few minutes to get Hunk out of here, then I'll help with the machine up there," Tali said.
"No, wait!" Hunk said, suddenly sitting up and only Shay's hands stopped him from toppling backwards onto the metal, which did get jostled, causing him to wince and grimace. "No, better idea!"
"What are you talking about?" Shinji asked.
"The Balmera!" Hunk exclaimed, gasping slightly. "Better idea… Less damage… Still need crystal, but it can be cut down… Just need heat, lots of it… Oh, need Keith…"
"Hunk, we know not what you are talking about," Shay said gently.
"Got idea… Shinji's gonna melt the metal to cut it down to get me to the Castle, right?" Hunk said.
"Yeah?" Lani prompted when Hunk paused to take a shaky breath.
"Then… Then that machine is all metal… We just need to melt it down…" Hunk said. "Gloves or Shiro's or Tali's lightsaber arm won't work on such a big machine. But the Red Lion has literal firepower. Keith can have her melt it in just a few minutes. The gap won't be as big, and really metal is sort of natural, it comes from the ground, so if it all can't be removed, no big deal, right?"
"That would work…" Rax said. "I will confirm with the Elders. It took a great deal to convince them of the original plan."
"The only thing I don't like is that this plan is heavily reliant on Voltron defeating that Robeast up there, and fast." Tali said.
"They'll be alright," Hunk said, lowering his head against Lani's shoulder again as she gently rubbed his lower back. "They've got this…"
Pidge and Allura flew the Lions out and quickly found the other three dodging what appeared to be sonic booms coming from a Robeast.
"Be careful!" Shiro called out. "One of those blasts hit Blue, and she was down for a full sixty ticks before coming back online."
"Fortunately before we hit the ground," Lance added.
"Alright, sonic booms, that's new. And actually quite interesting, the science and physics behind it." Pidge said, dodging one of the blasts. "And as cool as this latest creation of the Witch is, it's going down because I'm ninety-nine point nine percent sure that this thing hit the Balmera, right? About, oh, five point three minutes ago?"
"How'd you know?" Keith asked with a grunt as he pulled Red up.
"Because that is the exact length of time it has been since Hunk got hurt," Allura said.
"Well, then, let's stop waiting around and FORM VOLTRON!" Shiro said.
Seconds later, Voltron was formed, shield up and ready.
"Keith, sword!" Shiro said.
Voltron's sword appeared between Red and Green, and Voltron charged the Robeast, who issue a sonic boom that sent the robot flying.
"The systems are going haywire!" Allura shouted.
"Blue's almost done with a reboot," Lance reported. "Hang on!"
Lance threw Voltron's right leg back and activated Blue's thrusters, which gave enough resistance for them to stay in the air.
"Systems online!" Pidge reported, sticking out Voltron's left arm and had Green send out a blast to help Lance keep them in the air.
"The Yellow Lion is back up, too," Allura said, also helping in the not-crash-into-the-Balmera task.
"Come on, Red," Keith mumbled as Red's cockpit tried to spark to life again. "You can do it…"
"Black still needs a second," Shiro reported.
"Black and Red took the brunt of it, that's probably why the other three Lions recovered faster," Pidge said. Their eyes widened. "Uh, guys, speaking of fast recovery time!"
"Allura, up!" Lance said, and he and Allura quickly pulled the Lions up into the atmosphere some as the boom went past.
"Okay, sonic booms, what do we know about sonic booms?" Shiro said.
"Uh, sound! It has to do with breaking the sound barrier!" Pidge said. "So, we could muffle the sound? Dampen it or something…"
"We've got a shield, a sword, and a cannon. How are we going to make that work?" Keith asked.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw something flash and he immediately turned to it, afraid that it was an emergency warning. He immediately sucked in a breath as a panel slid open.
"Um, guys… I'm going to try something…" Lance said.
"Something as in?" Shiro asked, mentally sighing in relief as Black came fully online again.
"Something as in 'stick my bayard in this panel and hope for the best'." Lance said, glancing at said bayard in his hand.
"Do it if you're going to, because this thing's aiming at us!" Pidge yelled, eyes widening as the Robeast prepared to strike again.
Lance quickly thrust the bayard in just as the Robeast began to let out a sonic boom.
But the magic of Voltron was faster, and the giant robot was holding another cannon, slightly smaller than the one that Voltron had when using the yellow bayard.
The cannon shot at the Robeast, a frozen blast resembling an icicle hitting the Robeast and spinning it off-balance.
"Nice shot!" Shiro said.
"Yeah, it was really 'cool'!" Pidge said, smirking. At the groans that came in response, Pidge said, "Hey, someone has to make the puns in Hunk's absence!"
"Robeast now, puns later. Fire again!" Shiro said.
"Can it really be 'fired' since it's ice?" Lance said as he used his bayard to trigger the cannon again. However, this time, the cannon did something different, right as the Robeast opened its mouth.
Instead of being hit with ice, the Robeast was blasted with a massive jet of water.
"Huh." Lance said. "I guess Blue took you seriously when you said we needed to 'dampen' the Robeast somehow, Pidge."
"Great. We now have the Lions making bad puns…" Keith said.
"While it is incapacitated, let's get it into space!" Allura said.
"She's right, there is no sound in space, it'll be totally defenseless!" Shiro said.
From there it was a simple toss of the Robeast into the air and Voltron following. A slash with the sword later, and the battle was over.
As soon as the Robeast was finished off, however, something unexpected happened: Voltron fell apart without any of the pilots' awareness.
"What the quiznak?" Keith said, struggling to steady the Red Lion.
Allura gasped as the controls disappeared out from beneath her hands, but the Yellow Lion began moving.
"I… I think it was the Yellow Lion who disbanded us…" Allura said, her voice shaky as the Lion took her towards the planet, a display showing her that the Lion was headed for the Castle.
"Where is she going?" Lance said.
Then, all five answered the question at the same time: "Hunk."
"Ready?" Shinji asked, biting his lower lip as he looked over at Shay, then at Lani, who still had Hunk's head leaning against her shoulder.
"Yes." Shay said.
Lani nodded.
"Yeah…" Hunk said weakly.
"Okay, here we go…" Shinji said, brushing his thumb across his fingers.
"Do you feel anything?" Lani asked Hunk as Shinji put his hand on the metal.
"It's a little bit of pressure? But not bad…" Hunk said. Lani's eyes widened as Hunk's eyes slid shut.
"Oh, no, no, you don't, Hunk, you open your eyes right now and keep talking to me, okay?" She said.
"Hmm?" He mumbled, eyes remaining shut, his body getting more and more slack against hers. Her heart was racing and she said,
"Pika, talk to me, please…"
That got his attention, and he shifted his head to look up at her.
"Pika…" He repeated, sounding out his own name, smiling softly. "Been a while since I've been called that…"
"Yeah, well, it's been a while since you last talked to your Mom and Lulu and Lea…" Lani said. "You know, we should call them. I know you've been e-mailing, but can you figure out how to actually make Skype work out here? Let's do that when you're out of the pod…"
"Not what I meant," Hunk whispered. "Been a while since I've been called that… by you. You haven't called me Pika in years…"
Lani quickly licked her lips.
"Yeah, well…" She said. "You're the one who suddenly changed their name on all of their social media within a week at fancy smarty-pants space school, so I wasn't quite sure if you still wanted to be called by your real name."
"You could have asked," Hunk pointed out. "Just a nickname at school… Not one to be used at home…"
"I didn't know that," Lani whispered. "I'm sorry."
"Eh. Could've told you."
"No, I'm sorry because I was kind of bitter about it? And I never actually talked to you about it like a mature person and stuff… That was a mistake, and I'm so sorry…"
"You were bitter?" Hunk said, voice tinged with confusion.
"I was jealous. That you left to go to the Garrison. I wanted to leave home so badly, and you did it before me even though you kept saying you never wanted to." Lani admitted. "I thought that's why you never told me you applied to the Garrison."
"I never applied," Hunk said softly. "They recruited me. I took the offer because I wasn't sure I'd ever get a deal like the one they had again, when it came time for college. So I took it."
Lani wasn't sure if she could feel any worse emotionally that day, but the universe sure was trying hard.
"Hokulani," Hunk whispered. "I'm sorry…"
"Pika, you shouldn't be apologizing." Lani said, gently rubbing her fingers in circles against Hunk's lower back. "This has been all my fault…"
"Not… What I… Sorry…" Hunk mumbled as his eyes closed again.
"No," Lani whispered, her own eyes widening. She looked up at Shinji. "How much longer?"
"Just a minute, I'm sorry, this stuff is more durable than I thought…" Shinji said, grimacing.
"Come on, Pika," Lani said. "You need to open your eyes now. Come on, stay awake, I know you can…"
But he didn't. Her heart was in her throat and her eyes burned with tears.
"Pika, please!" She begged, the tears spilling. "Wake up!"
"Hunk, please awaken!" Shay begged, moving one hand over Hunk's heart.
"Hunk!" Coran said, dropping to his knees beside Lani. "Come on, my boy, this isn't good for you even though it feels like it should be…"
Suddenly, they watched as Hunk's eyes did open, with a flash of gold going across his eyes as they opened.
To Lani, Shay and Shinji's utter surprise, a low, purring grumble came out of Hunk's mouth as he rested his chin on Lani's shoulder, eyes vacant.
"Ah," Coran said, voice not reflecting any surprise, painfully calm. "It's good to see you, Yellow Lion."
The purring sound continued.
Coran looked up at Shinji.
"Let's finish this up, shall we?" Coran said, opening up the medical kit he had brought with him. Shinji nodded and went back to cutting the metal.
"Yellow?" Lani whispered. She looked at Coran, who was working to get the armor off of Hunk's arms. "How long can Yellow do this?"
"I don't know," Coran said. "So there is not a moment to waste."
There was the clang of metal hitting the dirt and Shinji grinned triumphantly. Shay brushed her hands off on her tunic and turned to Coran.
"How can we assist now?" She asked.
"We need to get the undersuit off enough so that I can get some fluids going," Coran said. He handed a knife up to Shinji. "Cut around where the metal is, and try to get it away from the injury as fast as possible or else the fabric will repair itself and make your job harder."
Shay and Shinji got to work quickly, carefully peeling the undersuit off Hunk to his waist. As soon as one arm was free, Coran started searching for a vein, Yellow watching him the entire time, making small inquisitive noises.
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing," Coran said as he inserted an IV needle. "Giving him fluids and starting him on blood-thickeners and painkillers and some heavy-duty antibiotics. Get them flowing through your Paladin's system before we get him back to the Castle and into a pod."
Lani looked up to see Allura and the other Paladins arrive. Tali immediately went and intercepted Keith and explained the plan, while the rest came towards them.
"Hunk, how are you feeling?" Shiro asked, crouching down beside Hunk.
"Unfortunately, Shiro, you are currently asking the wrong sentient being that question," Coran said as he squinted in the low light to double-check a dosage in a syringe before administering it. "It is the Yellow Lion to whom you are speaking."
"Are you serious?" Lance said, eyes wide.
"Yes, and impeccable timing you all have going on," Coran said. "Let's get our patient back to the Castle, shall we?"