KathDMD - We're coming up on the mid-season finale, so yeah, that was the beginning of the wind down. But an exciting wind down! I'm gonna start forshadowing the rest of the season, and let me tell you, you will get chills when you get to the end of this chapter!
cubbieberry - Even in this chaos, indeed, KA are going to earth. The message Allura needs to deliver is one of extreme importance!
selena devargo - With Lysette kidnapped, it's gonna get crazy! Some people think Lotor is involcved. You need to finish Deception so the record is set strait!
Author's Note - This half of the season is coming to a close soon, and these last 4 chapters are gonna be full of action and shock! But believe me, nothing will give you chills and make you think like the end of this one! Enjoy!
Theme Music : "G.U.Y." by Lady Gaga
Disclaimer - Voltron and all associated characters are the property of WEP. Space Marshall Lenora Hawkins and associated characters are the property of KathDMD. Lieutenant Lysette Fabrere and associated characters are the property of selena devargo.
Episode 62 : Under You
The cadets burst into the room, the veteran members of the vehicle team already present. Jeff raised his head to acknowledge them.
"Now that we're all here," he said, "I want to let you all know what's going on. As some of you may know, the Drules have set up a base of operations deep in the bay. We have been scouting it, but have not seen any activity until now. We have been keeping the information confidential to prevent everyone from freaking out." Jenny let out an exasperated sigh. "Now they have launched missiles aimed at the Garisson, as well as strategic points in New York. Commander Stormclaw has ordered robot fighters to try to take out the missiles, but they are being outnumbered. To make this brief, we need to get up there and stop them."
"But our ships," Krik said. "They are still under investigation?"
"Chip and his crew were able to get them all pieced together again. Some of the weapons systems in the Sea Team Vehicles are still touch and go, but the issues they were having with the systems have been eliminated, and given a clean bill of health. I would hold off this first test flight for a safer time, but if we don't help stop these missiles, they could not only strike the Garrison, but strike civilians. We can't let that happen."
"I agree one hundred percent," Cliff said. "You want us to launch now?"
"I want you all to get to the hangar and familiarize yourselves with the controls quickly," Jeff said. "I want the cadets to get their assignments from Tech Sergeant Stoker, and stay back from the others as a secondary line of defense should any of the missiles get through." He turned to Krik. "Krik, for now, I want you to take lead on this. The cadets will follow your orders. Dismissed. Go get 'em!"
"Yes sir!" They shouted, and ran from the room.
Daniel and the others ran into the Control Room and towards the chutes as they slowly rose. Keith and Marina ran to the master control and joined Pidge in watching.
"Where is it?" Keith asked.
"Less than a mile from here," Pidge replied. "If this were part of the same force that infiltrated the castle, they would have been on top of us by now. And honestly, if they were a distraction, we would have noticed them beforehand."
"Then what's going on?" Keith asked. "Are you saying the incidents are unrelated?"
"Whatever it is, it needs to be stopped," Marina replied.
"I'm in full agreement, Lieutenant," Keith said.
"The Lions are launching now," Pidge said. "Hopefully they can form Voltron and stop that thing before it reaches us. Not that we couldn't defend ourselves of course." Keith looked at Pidge sternly, and Pidge let out a small chuckle.
"Billy!" the woman shouted from the bathroom. "It's time for your bath!" A three-year-old voice came from another room.
"Can I bring my truck?" he asked. She laughed.
"Of course!" she shouted. "I'll run your water, and you get your truck, ok?" She turned on the water, and at first it only trickled. She worked the knobs, questioning herself. Then all of a sudden, the water came out forcefully and slammed into the tub, cracking it. It moved in a nearly solid mass, and the woman, scared out of her mind, ran from the room. She picked up her son, still holding his truck, and ran down the stairs and out of the house, screaming.
"Mommy, look!" the child squeaked. She turned, and all over, houses were seemingly flooded with water, but the water moved with a purpose, smashing homes, knocking down trees and power lines, but moving like a solid mass, not a flood, More people ran by, and joining them, they ran away from whatever it was that was causing this catastrophe.
Aidan came running into the control room, followed by the rest of the team. Kelly turned to them.
"What's going on?" Aidan asked. "Another attack?"
"We're not sure what it is," Kelly replied. She turned on the viewscreen, and showed the devastation, and the liquid masses all over the city. "Whatever it is is coming through the water supply and destroying homes and attacking people."
"Coming from the water supply?" David asked. "Seven hells!"
"Thank goodness I took my shower last night instead of this morning," Morgan replied.
"Has anyone been able to get a sample of the water?" Lisa asked.
"Not yet," Kelly replied, "but good thinking, Kaga. I actually want you and Taye to take Gamma out and try to get a sample. But there's even worse news."
"What could possibly be worse?" Taye asked.
"This," Kelly said as she switched the screen. The ocean nearby swelled higher and higher.
"What in seven hells…." David asked.
"I've never seen anything like it," Aidan said. He looked over at Kelly. "You're the boss. How are we handling this?"
"I want you and Rackens to go out there and investigate it," she replied. "Hopefully once Benton and Kaga return with the water sample, Professor Mizuki can make heads or tails of all this."
"Agreed," Aidan replied. "Everyone to the ships!" He ran for the hangar doors for the jets, followed by the rest of the team.
"Rah frickin' rah," Taye said as he and Lisa ran through the door to Jet Gamma.
"Give it all you got!" JC shouted as the ships flew in formation around the robeast. Within minutes, the lions arrived as well.
"Lieutenant Grend," Daniel said, "we're here to help."
"We're going to buy you some time while you form Voltron," JC replied. "Do what you gotta do."
"No time needed," Daniel said with a grin. "Everyone ready for Flash Form!" Danile connected his Voltron to the console. "Flash Form, GO!" The lions reconfigured in seconds and came together, head forming and eyes lighting up with power.
"Thoughts?" Lance said as Voltron grabbed the beast, thrying to wrestle it to the ground.
"Eh," Hunk replied, "looks like your standard run of the mill giant robot of the week."
"No time for jokes, guys!" Larmina shouted. "Let's just stop this thing!" It elbowed Voltron, then turned and fired a laser blast that knocked them off their feet. Vince shook off the impact.
"It's not haggarium powered," he said. "It's almost like there wasn't much thought put into it."
"There was enough thought put into it to knock us off our feet," Lance replied. "Let's just get back on our feet and stop this thing."
"Let's give it some speed," Daniel said.
"Mind the power levels, Daniel," Vince said.
"I never take my eye off it," Daniel said. "Form spinning laser blade!" Voltron held out its hand, and the blade appeared in his hand. Voltron charged it with power, then hurled it at the beast. Voltron reached out his hand and guided it. The beast tried to avoid it, but it was super fast, and sliced off its left arm…then the right one on the return trip.
"Let's give them a hand, guys," JC said. "Lightning Shot!"
"Plasma Cannon!" Roxy shouted as her cannon fired
"Ax Launcher!" Tails shouted as her ship fired.
"Frost Shot!" Seth shouted as bolts fired from his ship. The shots struck the beast directly, and caused him to stumble and fall forward.
"Form Blazing Sword!" Daniel shouted. Voltron's hands clanked together and pulled apart, the energy beam forming the Blazing Sword. Voltron ran at super speed, leaping into the air and stabbing the sword through the beast's back where the shots had weakened it. Voltron pulled the sword out and backed off as the beast exploded. At that moment, the ship that launched the beast turned and began to retreat.
"Should we pursue?" JC asked.
"As much as I'd like to," Daniel replied, "we better get back to the castle and try to find out what happened to Lieutenant Fabrere." He paused for a moment. "As unrelated as it is, I can't help feeling this was a distraction." Voltron separated, and all the ships returned to the castle.
The teams ran into the hangar, and Chip met them at the bottom of the steps to the control room.
"Guys," he said, "While the systems are ready, they haven't had a full test yet."
"So we've been told," Cliff said. "We have to stop those missiles though."
"Just be careful," Chip said. He motioned to the cadets. As they came over, he tossed something to Jenny. She looked at it and recognized it immediately. It was the key to the CJE, a round metal disk that slid together to present the portion that inserted into the lock. The front, emblazoned over the Arusian crest were the letters DXV. She looked up at Chip and nodded. "You will take the CJE. Cadet Hunter, you will ARC Blue." He tossed Ken the key.
"Advanced Recon Helicopter," Ken said. "Got it."
"Cadet Calla," Chip continued, "you will be flying the Falcon." He tossed her the key. "Cadet Islu, you will take Space Prober Red. Cadets Chester and Edward Keegan, you will take MWE Red and Yellow, respectively." He tossed them the keys, and the Keegan twins slapped each other five. "Be careful, and stay back. Familiarize yourselves with the controls." He turned to Krik. "Jeff said you're taking point on this. I'm holding you responsible if any of these ships or their pilots come back with so much as a scratch." Krik gulped.
"Sheesh!" Krik exclaimed. "They give you a promotion, and it's already going to your head!" Cliff laughed and patted Krik on the back.
"Been nice working with ya," he said laughing.
"Let's just get to the ships and get up there before one of those missiles goes rogue," Krik said. Cliff nodded, and everyone ran for the vehicles. Jenny sat in the cockpit of the CJE, and just like she did that day, placed the key into the console. It locked into place, and the systems powered on. She grabbed the controls, and looked around. Indeed everything in the cockpit was new since she had been there last, and even she had to quickly familiarize herself with the controls. Within moments, however, the hangar doors opened, and the vehicles filed one by one through the doors and out into the wild blue yonder.
"Do you see anything on the RadialTrac?" Krik asked.
"Faint readings to the east," Cliff replied. "The bad news is that it looks like most of the robot ships were destroyed."
"Is there something else out there besides the missiles?" Krik asked.
"I sure hope not," Rocky said. "We're not exactly prepared for a fight, if you know what I mean."
"One crisis at a time," Jenny said. "Captain Keats, I'd suggest sending the Land Team ahead of us as their team is still intact for the most part. They'll more than likely have the most success. I'll hang back as ordered with the rest of the cadets should anything make it past them or yourself."
"Agreed," Krik replied. "Cliff, take your team ahead and begin cleaning up those missiles. If you spot any other ships before we get there, alert myself and Commander Aki at once."
"You got it," Cliff replied, and the Land Team pulled ahead. "I'd feel a lot better if we weren't down one pilot."
"She's here with us in spirit," Modoch replied. "Let's just get this job done." The four members of the Land Team pressed on to stop the missile attack.
Gamma flew carefully over the city to where the destruction was. When it landed, List left her seat and headed to the ladder down.
"Where are you going?" Taye asked.
"To collect that water sample," Lisa replied.
"We should try and use Gamma to do that," he said. "We don't know how that thing is gonna react."
"I've got this," she replied. "I've been collecting and studying water samples for years on the Explorer. I can handle this."
"Just be careful," he said. She climbed down, and the left foot opened, allowing her to exit and walk out into the street. She looked around at the destruction, and was reminded of the floods that ravaged her hometown long ago. The sheer power of moving water….but this water had a mind of its own. She carefully walked up t one of the puddles, and unscrewed the cap on the sampling jar. Suddenly she turned, and a huge wave moving independently from everything else came at her. She turned and ran.
"Lisa!" Taye shouted over the com. "Run!" She ran as fast as she could back towards Gamma, but the wave was far faster than she was. Taye pulled the controls, and Gamma took off running towards them. Gamma dove and landed sideways on the ground, the wave hitting its back. Taye reached for the com again. "Lisa! Lisa, are you there? Speak to me?" The doors of the cockpit opened, and she climbed in, holding a jar of seemingly normal water.
"Thanks for the save," she said as she got herself strapped in. "Now let's get this sample back to the Professor to analyze." As they tried to take off, however, the wave reached up, like a hand, and grabbed gamma's leg, pulling it back down to the ground.
"What the hell?" Taye shouted.
"It….it grabbed us!" Lisa replied in shock.
"We need to get out of here and find out what this is," Taye said.
"Seems like that thing's not gonna let us," she replied. Gamma got to its feet, fists clenching.
Cinda's eyes popped open as the sound of explosions reached her ears. Her sixth sense began to perk up as everything around her became clearer and clearer. She felt a feeling of dread…that something was terribly wrong. As she slowly forced herself to sit up, she quickly realized what was going on. She watched in horror through the window as robot fighters did their best to fend off a missile attack from the bay just over a mile away from where she was.
"A Drule attack?" she asked herself, struggling to get to her feet. Her legs were still quite stiff from being bed ridden for as long as she had, and the casts made moving around nearly impossible. But she didn't even reach for the wheelchair, instead opting to hoist herself out of bed, leaning on a nearby chair, and staggering over to the window to get a better look. Her eyes widened at the sight.
"Cliff and the team are out there," she said to herself. "And here I am not even able to leave this room, let alone get behind the controls of my ship." She let out a defeated sigh. Suddenly, she heard her door open. "Look, if you're coming in to lecture me about being out of bed again, you can take your opinions and stick 'em…"
"Cinda," a voice softly said to her, "Jeff sent me to check on you." Cinda turned around and saw Christiane. She nodded her head.
"I'm doing better," Cinda replied, "but out there…"
"I know," Christiane replied. "The robot fighters are getting gunned down left and right. Jeff had no choice but to launch the teams, even with some of the weapons systems still offline." She looked into her eyes. "Even if you were out there with them, Chip hasn't found a way to get the vehicles to form Voltron again."
"I know, I know," Cinda replied. "I just feel helpless. At least if I was out there, as part of the team….I don't know." Cinda made her way back to the bed and slumped into it. Christiane walked over to the bed and sat next to her.
"The doctors are doing all they can to get you back to good heath again," she said. "The only thing I can offer is to listen, and do what I can." Cinda thought for a moment, then her eyes widened.
"I can't go out there," she said, "but you can."
"What are you saying?" Christiane asked.
"I'm saying this," Cinda said, reaching into a drawer on the side of her bed. She tossed something at Christiane, and she caught it. When she looked at it, it had an Arusian crest on it with DXV emblazoned across it. "It's the key to the RPC. Take that thing up there and help them."
"But I…I've never flown one of those…" Christiane started to say. Quickly, Cinda leaned forward and touched Christiane's cheek. Without warning, a flood of images and memories exchanged beweeen them. Reacting, Christiane backed off, startled.
"You've now seen me do it," she said. "Just do what I did." Christiane still had a look of dread on her face, but gripped the key tightly in her hand and nodded, then left the room. As she closed the door, she looked at the key once more, then stared off into space thinking.
I saw it all….she shouldn't even be alive.
In the darkness, a voice creeps through the night across three worlds. The voice echoes and is carried by the wind, yet only one pair of ears in the universe hears it.
Tick tock, the clock goes on,
Time moves on from dusk 'till dawn.
She knows not what the signs doth mean,
And simply stares into its sheen.
A memory of loved one lost,
Her family shall pay this cost.
For covered in tears she vainly wept,
The watch is where my secret's kept.