Chapter 25: Red Paladin(Lance's POV)
A force field is preventing him from making it inside Blue. And he's tried everything, his best flirty line he can think of that relates to space.
And still Blue won't let him in.
"Roooooooaaaaarrrrrrrr!"
Lance sits up, startled, the roar seems to be coming from a different lion than Blue. Now he also has to switch lions. It sucks, but who else is Red calling for her pilot. No one else and Red chose him. It shocks him.
Reculancty, he heads over to Red's chambers, still in shock. It bugs Lance that he's not going to be able to fly Blue anymore. They've had some fun times, and his bond with her is deep. It might take a while for him to make such a bond with Red. As that lion has now had four paladins, the first paladin, Keith, Marinette and now Lance.
It scares him to think that he's going to have to get used to another lion. One that is faster than Blue.
He might make them lose the battle because he's going to be out of his element.
But it also makes Lacne feel honored that Red has chosen him to be Marinette's right hand. And it also makes him feel important. Someone the team needs, and it makes Lance feel that he's not just being the goofball like everyone makes him out to be.
Because he is always reminded that he is the least serious of the group in conversations, and the team doesn't listen to him very often.
Which Lance is kind of offended by, but hopefully being Marinette's right hand will help people's listening skills to him. Because he does have good ideas, they're just overshadowed or people think of the same idea and get all the credit for thinking of it.
But now is not the time to focus on his personal issues. Lance has a lion to fly.
"Lance, where are you!" Marinette shouts through the coms. "I'm on my way!" He shouts back and Marinette gives him a knowing smile. Does she know Red chose him? Could it be because the walls behind him are red? Lance grips the steering wheel sticks and flies out of the castle and onto the battlefield.
Although the Red lion goes faster than he expected as he rams into the Black lion, instead of stopping beside it. "Sorry!" Lance shouts into his intercom.
"It's fine Lance, this is new for the both of us. I have accidentally gotten shot with lasers because I was expecting Black to be fast enough to dodge them."
So he wasn't the only one having Lion troubles. It makes him feel calm to know that Marinette isn't used to her new lion yet.
"Marinette, are you sure we can't join you?" asks Hunk, worried.
Mairnette nods, "Yes, while me and Lance are getting used to Black and Red, you must watch the enemies reaction."
Hunk nods but still looks worried.
Lance steers away from incoming laser fire and bumps into the Green Lion before he can stop. Great, he bumped into something again. This needs to be fixed before the battle is over, otherwise he might not be able to help Marinette face off against the Galra ship.
He tries to aim fire at the ship, but ends up missing it entirely because he moved too far to the right of it.
It frustrates Lance, but he tries to keep his cool. He is new to this. And Marinette isn't expecting him to be perfect right off the bat. But everytime he bumps into something, or misfires into empty space, Lance's frustration returns.
Blue has already joined the fight, with Allura as her new paladin, and Allura is doing far better than he is.
Which only makes his frustration at himself and Red grow.
Lance does manage to hit a couple of shots before the enemy ship starts firing at Pidge and Hunk.
On instinct he immediately goes to block the laser fire from hitting his friends. Red takes the hits with stride, meaning he didn't cause any damage to Red for blocking the laser fire that was sent to hurt his friends.
With fury he unleashes Red's own laser blast directly at the ship, but the ship dodges it, making Lance even more angry. They had just tried to hurt his friends! They couldn't get away with that! He left his friends to fend for themselves as he went up to the Galra ship.
This time they wouldn't escape his laser beam.
Lotor's POV
Seems the Black, Red and Blue lions are weak. Which makes it the perfect time to enact his plan. He looks forward to when they can have a full fight. But now is not the time.
"Retreat!" Lotor orders his generals.
Zethrid, again, grumbles but pulls the ship out of the Red lion's view and line of sight anyway.
Lotor smiles, oh yes, fighting all the lions instead of the three will be most interesting. Especially when they form Voltron. But first he must find the comet, and complete his Syncline ships before they go tow to tow with the fully formed Voltron.
After all they have defeated fleets of Galarn ships and cruisers, and harmed his father severely to where he might die. A most potent enemy indeed. As they fly away, the Red lion stares at them before retreating.
Ah, the Red paladin must have wanted to get at him for firing on the Green and Yellow lions that did not participate in the fight. Lotor's smile widens, he gladly expects the Red paladin coming after him for revenge. After all, it should make their future fight all the more fun and intense.