"And we'll conclude our tour in the castle's control room," said Allura, guiding them into another room "Where all the Voltron missions are planned"
It wasn't like they imagined. In all honesty, Daniel had pictured a room with five colored door that would take them to the lions, but it wasn't like that, it looked more like the cockpit of a very big vessel.
"What about the lions?" asked Daniel, almost desperate to see the legendary machines "Can we see them?"
"All in good time" was the response she gave him "However, right now you'll be going through this door" she guided them to a door that almost seemed hidden "to your top secret classroom"
The door opened automatically, revealing a very… normal looking classroom, except for the fact that there were only three desks.
"Wow" he said sarcastically "Our top secret classroom looks a lot like… a classroom"
"It's equipped with just enough to suit its educating purposes"
"Sooo..." said Vince "There's a third desk?"
"Oh yay" said an altean girl while coming in "Classmates"
She had orange hair up on a ponytail with two bangs framing her face, her eyes were blue, just like the marks under her eyes and her skin was white, while still showing that she spent quite some time under the sun. Daniel smiled, Vince raised a brow.
"Well… she seems nice" noted Vince sarcastically.
"Yeah, real nice" said Daniel -tho he was referring more to her looks-.
Allura cleared her throat, bringing Daniel back to reality.
"Vince, Daniel. I'd like you to meet my niece, Larmina"
"Well played knuckleheads" greeted Lance.
Allura walked to the front, were there was a big touchscreen and the teacher's desk. She touched it and it showed a CGI picture of the yellow lion.
"As you all know" she started "the Voltron force is made up of five separate lions" the screen passed CGI models of the lions "that are strong individually but are much more powerful when they come together to form the mighty Voltron" the CGI lions fused to make Voltron "Unity is our core" she signaled them to come close, which they did.
From what seemed to be the teacher's desk appeared a small platform with three bracelets, black with clearer lined that laked color, the V-like symbol of Voltron's chest was on it. Allura gave each one.
"These are your Volt-coms" she explained "Over time you will learn all of their practical applications, but it is more than a mere tactical device. It is your link to the lions and more importantly, to each other. As I activate each of you with the power of the lions you're becoming part of a team, part of the Voltron legacy. I welcome you and turn you over to Lance" the mentioned greened from the entrance door "Who has the great responsibility of teaching you how to carry this honor"
"Thank you" he said when both crossed paths, he inside and she outside. "Well, now that we're all part of the Voltron Elite" he said almost mockingly "Let's begin our first class with… A pop quiz"
The three teens groaned loudly.
"Come on" complained Larmina.
"I thought this school was about piloting the Voltron lions" seconded Daniel.
"There's a lot more to being part of the Voltron Force than piloting the lions" Lance clicked something on his bracelet and the whole room changed, transforming to what seemed to be a training area.
Larmina stood up as the desks disappeared, letting both boys fall on their asses with a grunt.
"We're gonna test your hand to hand combat skills to see what we're working with. Who wants to go first?" Larmina raised her hand. "Which of you gentlemen would want to fight the lady?"
Daniel and Vince stared at each other.
"You should" said Vince.
"I'm not gonna fight a girl" retorted Daniel.
"I don't wan-" they were interrupted by Larmina hitting them on the back of their heads.
"I'll take you both on" she said unamused.
Daniel and Vince shared a look crouching to fighting position, trying to enclose the altean. Lance snorted. Both boys jumped to her, but Larmina took them down practically effortlessly.
"Wow" said Daniel, Vince groaned. Both stood up.
"You haven't been in a lot of fights have you?" commented Lance.
"No" said Vince.
Daniel was first to get ready again. Going for the same tactic, with same end results.
"Anytime you're ready to start" she taunted.
Daniel and Vince shared a look. Daniel nodded and stood fast to push Larmina, using Vince to make her fall. Vince got up and cheered.
"He! Cheap playground tricks" she said "That's all you got?"
"Hey" said Daniel standing to high five Vince "Who's the one on their but?"
Larmina got back up "You in about two seconds"
She and Daniel glared at each other, Lance got in between them, one hand on each of them.
"All right, let's just review your test results, shall we?"
"Wait, you graded that?" asked Daniel, almost indignated.
"Noo, your Voltcoms did. You guys have no idea how cool these things are, pretty soon you'll just think something and the Voltcom will automatically do it"
"It can read our minds?"
"Pshh no dude," chuckled Vince "It must be our body signals, muscle movement, adrenaline levels, blood pressure and associate those with specific Voltcom functions! probably some form of biometrics"
Daniel looked at Lance for an explanation.
Lance shrugged "Pidge and Hunk made them but I was just gonna say it's magic. It picks up on your natural talents and abilities and adapts to strengthen them, in this case I wanted to see what weapon it would pick for each of you based on your fighting abilities. Larmina, hit this button" he said pointing to a button under his wrist.
She did as told and with a soft pew it was on, creating what seemed like a pointless lance out of seemingly nothing.
"Nice… stick?" said Vince.
Excited, Larmina missed no time on trying it out, doing some trick with obvious practice then stretched it, turning it into nunchucks.
"I like my stick"
"Uhu" mused Lance "And how about you boys?"
Daniel clicked the button, and on his hands and feet appeared what seemed to be clawed gloves and shoes.
"What do I do with these?... Rawr" he motioned with his hands as if they were paws.
The claws projectiled themselves away, still connected to his gloves and dragged him to where they had sticked themselves to. Then, once on all four, his shoes reacted and threw him up away to where his body was inclined, making him crash to the wall.
"Ookay, we'll have to work on that one. Let's see what it has in store for you Vince"
Vince clicked the button "What is happening?" he exclaimed as it short circuited.
"Ahhh, Pidge will look into that" he put a hand on Vince's back for comfort.
Larmina snorted "Must've been impressed with your combat skills"
"Uhuh, I wouldn't talk to muc smack before your second period class, which is definitely more Vince's dojo" Lance clicked again something on his bracelet and the room changed again, showing four simulator pods.
"More simulators uh?" Daniel shared a look with Lance, unamused.
"OH, this is much more than a simulator," said Vince already in a pod "It's a lion simulator"
Daniel cheered while hoping into another pod. Larmina got into another reluctantly.
And they began.
"This is amazing!" cheered Vince
Daniel and Vince ran the lions with little to no problem while Larmina seemed unable to even keep her's on all four.
"It feels like the real deal," commented Daniel as if he had ever even gotten close to one of the lions "But there's really only one way to tell" he finally made to lion fly "AAAAAAWESOME"
"Well, I hate this tacky stuff" complained Larmina "I much rather be beating you up on in real l-" she shrieked losing control again.
Except it was Vince this time, pinning her emulated lion down.
"My dojo"
Lance, now with Allura's company, checked on them from the room above theirs.
"I really like these guns but, I don't get why you wanted me to bring them here now"
"Wiser forces than myself have set this in motion" she said not really explaining anything.
A video call opened automatically, showing Pidge's face.
"Allura, Lance! You guys there?"
"Pidge!" said Allura "Is everything okay?"
"No, you better see this" a second screen appeared in front of them, showing a picture of the universe making a weird shape "And this" they said making yet another screen appear, which showed a vessel.
"We need to step up the curriculum" announced Allura.
They had been called off the simulator.
"We believe a new evil is rising" explained Allura "We also believe that each of you will be a part of the force that defeats this evil"
"Why us?" mused Daniel.
"Because you have been chosen too -" the alarms blared, interrupting Allura "It's a robeast" gasped Allura when a big, circular, screen on the floor showed it to them.
"What?" choked Lance. "It can't be, we need to take the lions and investigate"
"Cool" exclaimed Daniel.
Allura and Lance stared at him baffled.
"No, not cool" scolded Lance "You guys stay here, are you cool with this?" he asked to Allura "Freeing and activating the lions will break strict Galaxy Alliance sanctions, Altea will face consequences"
"We have no choice"
Lance nodded in understanding. They took the keys and ran to their lion's doors.
The kids watched through the screen the blue and red lions trying to fight the robeast
"We can't just sit here" exclaimed Daniel.
"What can we do?" said Vince. The three of them looked at the two keys remaining. "No way Daniel, maybe the others are almost here"
"Then what can we do? We can't just do nothing!" argued Daniel.
Vince groaned. "Give me a minute" he said starting a video call. Which thankfully Pidge received "Pidge!" he greeted "What's your ETA?"
"Doing the best we can!" they answered mildly annoyed.
"Well hurry, Lance and Allura really need your help" he ended the call.
On the screen they could still see the lions struggling. Then the red lion was thrown away by the robeast, making it clash with the castle. Lance was unresponsive.
"That's it! We gotta do something!" declared Daniel, reaching for a key before running to a door (which was neither Lance and Allura had gone through).
Soon he found himself in front of the yellow lion. Who growled unhappily at him. Oh golly it was majestic, and it wasn't letting him in.
What? "What?"
He could almost feel as if the lion was studying him, maybe even looking down on him as if it wondered how dared he even show himself to it.
"What's with-? There's no time we need to go help Allura and Lance!" he snapped.
The lion moved, it opened it's massive jaw to let him in.
Wow. Daniel couldn't not get excited as he got in.
Flying out was easier -and way more exciting- than he imagined. And he made his way to where Allura and the robeast were, right outside the castle.
The lion roared as he jumped to the beast.
"Hunk?" questioned Allura when she saw the yellow lion.
"Huuu… Not exactly" said Daniel "Eat laser!" he clicked a button, it was not the laser "Uhhh, how about? Now?" that wasn't the laser either, but something else was launched and got in Allura's way. Who seemed to be trying to keep down some kind of crisis.
"Daniel" she scolded.
"I know, I know, sorry. I don't know the weapons, but I can still fight"
Lance gasped awake. Hanging upside down from his seat.
"Daniel? What are you -?"
With the yellow lion, Daniel dragged the red one away from the robeast. Which gave Allura time to reach them, and Lance to get the lion up.
"Lance, are you alright?" she asked.
"I think my arm is broken, but I still have some fight in me"
They go moving again, enclosing the robeast and firing missiles and lasers.
"If we keep working together we can keep this beast on it's heels!" said Allura.
"Yeah but does anyone has some ideas to get it off it's heels?" retorted Lance.
"Don't look at me for strategy, I only know cheap playground tricks"
"Daniel you're a genius!" said Lance "Allura keep your position! Daniel! Let's play"
Oh Daniel knew what he was thinking. He jumped to push the beast, succeding.
"Yeah"
"Nice" seconded Lance "Pin it!" he and Allura jumped on it too.
"We need another lion!" said Allura.
"Did somebody said another lion?" it was Vince.
"Wha-? Whatever. Come on guys!" called Allura.
Why was Larmina in the pilot seat? She stared at the controls in confusion.
"Here" said Vince "You control the jaws while I take the legs"
"Like this?" she moved something and the green lion bit the beast's hand.
"Yeah"
But they were thrown away easily.
Lance groaned "I can't get a shot without losing my grip. Come on guys, you!"
"We're losing him!" exclaimed Daniel.
Daniel and Larmina got back, jumping on the beast, helping pin it to the ground.
"We need our whole team!" complained Allura "Where's-!?"
They heard an explosion. Everyone looked up.
The black lion was crashing into Altea.
The robeast finally managed to get the lions off of itself and stood back up, roaring.
Then the black lion ripped it's head off as it crash landed next to the castle.
Everyone rushed off of their lions, as someone got off the black one, coughing.
"Keith!" Allura rushed to hug him.
"It's good to see you" greeted Lance, cradling his broken arm "Seems like the mullet is still intact" he joked.
"Where are Pidge and Hunk?" she asked.
"Did we get them?!" they heard Pidge from Allura's com.
"Pidge!" she greeted "You're okay! Yes, yes we did."
"Great! Now… wanna come get us?"
After getting Hunk and Pidge from space, treating Lance's arm and once everyone was in the control room hugs and greetings continued. Everyone hugging each other and taking crash Keith with their arms.
"You did real good out there Daniel" said Lance, ruffling his hair "Hey Keith!" he called, bringing Daniel with him "I wanna introduce you to my new hero"
Oh golly was Daniel excited.