"Why isn't this just perfection, everyone?" trilled the voice of a curly-haired blonde in designer hiking boots and a leather jacket, "The way the sun meets the lake and the mountain air whipping in your face! It's the perfect day for a hike to Lake Kawaguchi!"

"If... you say so... Milly," coughed a lanky, dark-haired teen behind her, currently bending down on his knees, heaving large gasps of air.

"See Lulu? That is exactly why you shouldn't always be skipping out on gym class. What on earth will the ladies think of a man that isn't even strong enough to sweep them off their feet?" the blonde, Milly, teased with a quirky grin to the boy.

"Lelouch doesn't need the muscle," said another teen of seventeen years behind them. "While he may be frailer than a twig, he has the brains to compensate for it."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Suzaku!" Lelouch replied, glaring at the Japanese boy.

Almost all the Ashford Academy Student Council members were hiking by the magnificent Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, Nina couldn't attend as she had other plans, but she said that she hoped they had fun. They were trying to get to one of the beaches by Lake Kawaguchi to celebrate the new addition to the student council.

His name was Rai, a mysterious, tech-savvy, silver-blond-haired, seventeen-year-old young man that arrived at Ashford about two weeks ago. Milly and Lelouch had found him wandering around Ashford grounds in nothing but rags and sporting numerous injuries. After getting him fixed up at the nurse's office, Milly's grandfather, who owned the school, offered him a place to stay so long as he attended the school as a student. Rai agreed as he didn't have anywhere else to go.

Also accompanying them was Kallen Stadtfeld, the sickly daughter of a Britannian noble that often missed school due to illness.

Unbeknownst to all but Lelouch, however, Kallen's real name was Kallen Kozuki. She was really of both Britannian and Japanese descent and was also a current member of a Japanese resistance group her late brother had started after Japan was invaded. Until Japan was liberated, she was forced to play the role of a sickly Britannian nobleman's daughter that could barely seem to stand on her own two feet. A position that she hated with every fiber of her being.

The student council secretary, a blue-haired boy named Rivalz Cardemonde, was currently piggy-backing Kallen up the mountain path. He was a happy-go-lucky guy and was always willing to help others, especially girls. He took it upon himself to carry the 'crippled' student council member up to the mountain and was currently doing an excellent job, even though he was panting nearly as hard as Lelouch.

"Doing all right there, Rivalz?" laughed an orange-haired girl named Shirley Fenette, a fellow student council and school swim club member, at Rivalz's predicament.

"Yep! Yep! I'm good! Don't you worry about me!" the blue-haired boy smiled, "Don't worry, Kallen, the lake isn't that far from here!"

"Thank you…" Kallen muttered in her faked, timid voice. She hated the position she was in right now, but Kallen had to admit that deep down, she was pretty touched that Rivalz was willing to carry her all the way to the lake.

As everyone laughed at Rivalz's determination, no one noticed a green-haired, yellow-eyed woman following them not too far behind.

The lake water was crisp and clear as the crew found a spot to set up at the lakeside beach. Shirley was already in the water, floating on an inflatable water bed. Suzaku, Rai, and Rivalz had pulled out some water guns and were battling it out amongst themselves. At one point, they dragged a reluctant Lelouch in too, even though he seemed more interested in dodging the attacks to get out of the water than fighting back. Meanwhile, Milly and Kallen were on the shore tanning under an umbrella.

After about an hour of fun in the water, Rai returned to shore and emptied a heavy-looking backpack he had brought along with him. The items inside included a small satellite, headphones, a receiver, and what appeared to be a homemade Geiger counter. Adjusting the headphones on his head, Rai listened to a faint electronic beeping and multiple voices murmuring. They were all so muffled together that he could only pick out a few words he understood.

"Rocking out to something?"

Rai jumped with a gasp as he looked to see that Milly and everyone else in the group had left their activities and snuck over to see what all the equipment was about. Rai removed the headphones before speaking to them.

"It's nothing important," Rai responded, trying to sound casual.

"Why did you bring all this equipment out here, Rai?" Suzaku asked, eyeing it suspiciously. "It looks similar to the stuff the military uses."

"I didn't steal it if that's what you're thinking," Rai defended before smiling proudly, "I built them."

"You built all these?!" Rivalz asked in amazement before Rai swatted his hand away when he attempted to touch the satellite. "How? When?"

"I-I don't know," Rai admitted, scratching his head with a slight blush, "I've always had a knack for building things like this, but I can't seem to recall from where. Either way, though, I designed the satellite to reach as far as the edge of the Solar System, though it works a little better at night."

"You mean all the way out to Kerberos?" asked Kallen. "Why so far out?"

"Stop, Rivalz!" Rai exclaimed when Rivalz attempted to poke the Geiger counter this time.

Rivalz reeled back, pouting. He just wanted to have a look, was that asking too much?

"Now, Rai," Milly purred with a mischievous smirk on her face, "if you're going to remain a member of the student council, we can't be having any secrets now can we...?"

Rai sighed. Well, the cat's out of the bag now, he thought.

"Okay, fine… long story short, I've been picking up alien radio chatter."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Come again?" Kallen asked as everyone else stared at him like he just grew an extra set of eyes.

"...D-did you just say aliens?" Shirley asked tentatively.

"Okay, so you're a little cuckoo. I'll keep that in mind for the upcoming cross-dressing ball," Milly said with a playful shrug.

"No, I'm serious!" Rai protested as he pulled out a notepad with a large word written across on the top and child-like drawings of robots and aliens below it, "They all keep repeating one word: Voltron! I didn't know what it meant at first, so I did a scan of the surrounding land of Area 11, and this area," he pulled up a map on his laptop with several blinking points. The biggest one was where they were currently, right next to Lake Kawaguchi, "I've never seen a radiation spike like this, but when I saw that the lake wasn't closed off because of it, I figured it could maybe be this 'Voltron' thing."

"So that's why you wanted to come here to celebrate! So you could investigate further," Suzaku realized as he remembered that Rai insisted on going to Lake Kawaguchi to celebrate his addition to the student council.

"But that doesn't explain how you pinpointed the location of this radiation Rai," Lelouch said.

"That's where this Geiger counter comes in!" Rai explained, snatching it from Rivalz, who was holding it, causing him to pout again, "I noticed that the repeating series of numbers I keep hearing looked like a Fraunhofer line."

"Frown-what now?" Rivalz asked, confused.

"Fraunhofer line," Suzaku explained, "I learned about this during my military training in the Engineering Department. It's the number describing the emission spectrum of an element. The head of the department said that the military used to use this a few years ago when Area 11 was first established to locate the major sakuradite mines to use for the Knightmare Frames."

Everyone was too absorbed in Suzaku's explanation and Rai's story that they failed to notice the scowl Kallen shot Suzaku as he referred to their home as Area 11.

"Exactly! Thank you, Suzaku," Rai continued, "That's what I've been picking up, except this element doesn't exist on Earth; that's what led me to the conclusion that this could be the 'Voltron' thing I've heard in the chatter. So I built this Geiger counter that's specifically designed to locate it."

"Wow!" Shirley sounded impressed, "And here I thought Nina was the school's tech genius."

"It's pretty cool, really," Rai said, rummaging around in his bag again before pulling out a sheet of paper, "The wavelength looks like this."

"Rai, can I see that?" Lelouch asked as if realizing something. Rai handed the paper over, and Lelouch stood up and held the parchment so the wavelength was right in front of him. The others watched as the chess master glanced between the paper and the mountain range surrounding Lake Kawaguchi.

"Wha-What is this?" he whispered mostly to himself, though the others also heard him.

"What are you doing?" asked Kallen curiously.

"Guys, look at this," Lelouch expanded the reading to show them. "This reading matches the mountain range exactly."

"Holy Britannia, you're right!" Shirley exclaimed in realization. Everyone else shared various levels of surprise as well.

"So?" asked Rivalz, "What does it mean?"

"Rai," Milly asked, "how accurate is that counter thing of yours?"

"Um… I haven't tested it out yet, but it should be able to pick up right away. Why?"

Milly simply smirked one of those smirks, which could make the other student council members fear for their lives depending on the day.

"Everyone… who wants an adventure?"

Using Rai's surprisingly effective Geiger counter as a guide, the group soon found themselves deep within the forest surrounding Lake Kawaguchi. Milly seemed uncharacteristically determined to find out what Rai's Geiger counter was picking up. The only time she was as determined as she was now was when something outrageous was happening at the academy, and she decided to offer a kiss from a student council member as a prize. This happened far too often, much to the ire of the other members.

"How much further, Rai?" asked Milly. As Rai knew how to use the Geiger counter, he was leading the group. He had Rivalz hold the small satellite that went with it to pick up the reading.

"According to the readings… it's right around…" Rai stopped in his tracks as they came to the edge of a clearing. On the other side of the area was the opening to a cave.

"...Here."

"Inside that cave?" asked Rivalz.

"Well, where else would it be coming from?" Suzaku asked.

"Okay," Shirley said, shrugging her shoulders, "we found out where this 'Voltron' energy thing is coming from. Can we go back to the lake now?"

"No way, Shirley!" Milly exclaimed, "I know it's weird for me to say this, but we should check it out! Who knows what could be in there!"

"Exactly!" Shirley nearly shrieked, "What if there's some dangerous radioactive… stuff in there, and we end up getting infected?! I could get cancer or have one of my children be born without legs!"

"Shirley, calm down," Lelouch reassured the green-eyed girl, "There's nothing to worry about here. Besides, if this area were radioactive, it probably would have been closed off to the public for authorities to deal with it. Heck, the lake would be closed too for public safety."

This seemed to calm Shirley down, if only slightly, though she still seemed hesitant to explore a mysterious cave they happened to find in the middle of the forest.

"Look, Shirley, it could be nothing," Suzaku said, "we'll just have a look at the entrance. If there's nothing there, we can leave."

"Exactly!" Milly appraised. "Simple and clean curiosity, that's all."

"Well… okay, if you say so." Shirley finally relented.

"Well, come on! I want to see this!" Rivalz exclaimed, running toward the cave entrance, dragging the sickly Kallen behind him, who 'struggled' to keep up.

"Rivalz, slow down!" Milly called, running after him, Rai following close behind.

"Well, let's-"

"Whoa!" Rivalz's holler interrupted Suzaku, "Guys! Check this out!"

Alarmed by Rivalz's shout, Lelouch, Suzaku, and Shirley were quick to follow them into the cave.

What they saw made them freeze in awe.

On the walls of the cave were drawings. Drawings of a giant blue lion. It seemed every wall of the cave told a story about it. Some had images of people bowing and worshipping it, while others showed the lion performing acts of great heroism. It was stopping a meteor from crashing into the earth, spreading rain over fields of crops. It went on and on.

"What is all this?" asked Lelouch, looking at the drawings.

"It looks like… drawings of a lion goddess?" Kallen guessed.

"There aren't any lion gods, or goddesses, in Japanese mythology. Right, Suzaku?" asked Milly. Suzaku shook his head in denial.

Rivalz looked closer at the markings of the lion; he noticed one of the drawings had dust covering it, so he swiped his hand over it to get a better look. Suddenly all of the pictures started glowing a bright blue. Rivalz yelped and jumped back.

"Rivalz! What did you do?!" shouted Kallen in alarm.

"Nothing! I just touched it! That's all!" the boy defended in a panic.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them glowed bright blue in a circular shape and gave way. The group slid down a raging river, screaming at the top of their lungs. It ended in a waterfall that led to a shallow pool at the bottom. Everyone groaned as they picked themselves up, now soaked from head to toe. Rivalz groaned as he straightened and blinked. When his vision finally cleared, he was slack-jawed, as was everyone else.

"Lions are everywhere…" Rivalz muttered as the group stared at the glowing orb with a large mechanical lion inside.

AN: Well, this came out a little later than I anticipated. It was because I just went through a massive stack of midterms last week, and I was trying to do the entire first episode of Voltron first before I started posting this (I'm currently about 2/3 the way of getting it on paper), but let's say I lost my patience.

Anyway, for those of you who took the time and looked at my 'Story Ideas' page, you'll see that I have made a couple of changes, one of them being the absence of Nina. I'll be honest with everyone... I don't like Nina, and I know a large amount of the CG fanbase doesn't like her either. If you are familiar with the Code Geass series. But at first, I needed her for someone to fill in Pidge's techno-savvy shoes, so at first, I was going to torture myself into writing Nina's character, but then after doing some research on the Code Geass wiki, I stumbled across Rai.

For those who don't know who Rai is, he's the character you play in the Code Geass video game: Lost Colors. I have never played the game myself, so I don't know how to write the character. So sorry for those who have played the game and see Rai as a bit OOC, but I'll try my best (feel free to offer me behavior advice for him). Since the player technically is 'in his shoes' in the game, you develop his character depending on what path you take for him. I guess I'm making up another path for him, the 'tech-genius path.' Haha! But fasten your seatbelts, for the little I do know... I have some pretty big plans for him (evil laugh).

Anyway, I will stick to my promise when it comes to my other two stories. Once I've finished writing the pilot episode and chapters for Voltron, I'll be sure to publish another chapter for one or both of my other stories, so don't worry, they aren't dead, but remember, college will always come first for me.

So, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter; the next chapter will be posted in the next few days so I can pace it out until the 'episode' ends. R&R, and stay tuned!

Edited and revised 07/05/2022