Pidge's POV
Hunk, Lance, and I were exhausted when we finally got to the crash site, but the thought of seeing an actual alien ship made us keep going. Since the Garrison had gotten their first, they had the area quarantined while the three of us managed to get to a little cliff overlooking the site without getting spotted. I handed Lance my binoculars while I set us my other equipment in the hope of hacking into their feeds.
"Woah! What the heck is that thing?" I heard Lance comment before I looked over to see him looking at something… or someone else. "And who the heck is she?"
"Lance!" I quickly smacked my girl-crazy friend, earning an 'Ow!' from him.
"Right, alien ship." Lance lowered the binoculars, "Man, we'll never get past all of those guards to get a look."
"Aw, man." Hunk said disappointedly, "Yeah, yeah, I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?"
Hunk's POV
I got up, and was about to leave when Pidge quickly stopped us.
"Wait." He said, "They set up a camera in there and I grabbed its feed. Look!"
Lance and I looked over Pidge's shoulders to see the screen, witnessing the inside of the tent. There were three people in hazmat suits examining a human strapped down on the table.
"Hey! What are you doing?" the human said, sounding a little panicked.
"Calm down, Shiro." Commander Iverson's voice spoke up from one of the hazmat suits, "We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests."
Shiro then struggled against his restraints, "You have to listen to me! They destroy worlds! Aliens are coming!"
Lance's POV
"That's Shiro! The pilot of the Kerberos Mission!" I pointed to the screen as I recognized the strapped human, "That guy's my hero!"
"Guess he's not dead in space, after all." Hunk commented before Pidge looked at the screen with a raised brow.
"Where's the rest of the crew?" He wondered out loud before the three of us continued to watch and listen.
"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Commander Iverson asked.
"I don't know. Months? Years?" Shiro answered, "Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way. They'll destroy us. We need to find Voltron."
The three of us looked at each other in surprise, Pidge have mentioned hearing 'Voltron' in the alien radio chatter before this.
Hunk's POV
"Sir, take a look at this."
The three of us look back at the screen when we heard a different voice speaking up, "It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic."
"Put him under until we know what that thing can do." Commander Iverson ordered, causing Shiro to panic.
"No, no, no. Don't put me under! No! There's no time! Let me go!"
"They didn't ask about the rest of the crew." Pidge commented.
"What are they doing? The guy's a legend. They aren't even gonna listen to him?" Lance asked, causing Pidge to glance at him. "We have to get him out."
I don't like where this is going… "Uh, I hate to be the voice of reason here, always, but weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?"
"That was before we were properly motivated. We've just gotta think." Lance replied before looking back at the crash site, "Could we tunnel in?"
"Maybe we could get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs." Pidge brainstormed, sounding pleased with his idea.
Pidge's POV
"Or we dress up like cooks, head back to the dorms, sneak into the commissary– little late-night snack." Hunk suggested, causing Lance and I to look at him.
"No." Lance said, "What we need is a distraction."
As if on cue, a chain explosion went off in the distance, and startled us in the process.
"Is that the aliens? Is that the aliens? Are they here? They got here so quick!" Hunk panicked as I spotted something from the corner of my eye. It looks like one of the hover-cycles that the Garrison would sometime uses, if the rider had something to do with the explosion…
"No, those explosions were a distraction, for him." I calmed the boys down before pointing to the hover-cycle and its rider, "The Garrison's headed toward the blast, and he's sneaking in from the other side."
"No way! Oh, he is not gonna beat us in there!" Lance spoke up when he used the binoculars to get a closer look, "That guy is always trying to one-up me!" and with that, took off toward the tent. Apparently he knows the rider.
"Who is it?" Hunk asked, prompting Lance to shout over his shoulder "Keith!"
"Who?" I couldn't stop thinking that I may have heard that name before, only for Hunk to run after Lance asking if he was sure.
"Oh, I'd recognize that mullet anywhere!" Lance replied as I blinked out of confusion before fixing my backpack.
"Who's Keith?" I called out as I ran after the two boys, still trying to figure out where I heard that name before. We slid down the cliffside before proceeding toward the tent. Thankfully they were no guards, and the tent's entrance is still open. When we finally caught up to 'Keith', we saw him trying to sling one of Shiro's arms over his shoulders. And it was then I realized why I heard his name before– Keith is Shiro's younger brother! He even helped me get into the Garrison as Katie Holt when he got 'expelled' from there.
Keith's POV
"Nope. No, you–" I looked up to see three boys around my age with one of them approaching me, "No, no, no. No, you don't. I'm saving Shiro." The boy then pushed the examination table and hoisted my brother's other arm over his shoulder.
"Who are you?" I asked him.
"Who am I?" The boy replied, "Uh, the name's Lance."
I stared at him blankly, "We were in the same class at the Garrison."
"Really?" I asked, trying to pinpoint Lance's familiarity. "Are you an engineer?"
"No, I'm a pilot!" He insisted, "We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck."
When Lance said that is when it all clicked, "Oh, wait. I remember you. You're a cargo pilot."
"Well, not anymore. I'm fighter class now, thanks to you washing out." Lance really had to rub in my 'expulsion'... but getting Shiro out of here comes first.
"Well, congratulations." I deadpanned as the two of us had to work together carrying my brother.
Normal POV
"Oh, man. They're coming back and they do not look happy." Hunk called out to Lance and Keith before he and Pidge ran to catches up to them, "We've gotta go."
"Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?" Hunk asked Keith as Pidge climbed on first as Keith got himself into the driver's seat, Lance dragged the unconscious Shiro around and was about to let Pidge help when Hunk climbed onto the tail end; upsetting the balance a bit.
"Is this thing gonna be big enough for all of us?" Pidge asked while looking around uncertainly.
"No." was all Keith could reply before noticing the Garrison's vehicles heading their way. Thinking quickly, he roared the engine to life and sped out of there.
Lance's POV
"Why am I holding this guy?" Pidge complained as I entrust him to hang on to Shiro before balancing myself on the port wing.
"Hey, we did all fit." Hunk commented before I looked back, only to find that the Garrison are still on our tail.
"Can't this thing go any faster?"
"We could toss out some non-essential weight." Keith suggested, why didn't I think of that? I looked around and realize that the only weight are the five of us.
"Okay, so that was an insult. I get it."
Keith's POV
With how the five of us are positioned, what if I…
"Big man, lean left!" I called out the the boy sitting on the hover-cycle's tail, not knowing his name. Thankfully he knows that I was referring to him and did what he said as I proceed to turn left. Just as I expected, by using the weight to my advantage, we could make sharper turns.
"Aw, man! Mr. Harris just wiped out Professor Montgomery! No, no. He's fine." The boy commented before noticing a little ramp over a chasm.
"Big man, lean right!"
I veered hard right as we jumped the chasm and drifted around the turn, with my three passengers screaming their heads off.
"Guys? Is that a cliff up ahead?" The boy stammered, causing his two friends to panic.
"Yep." I smirked as I sped up, an idea formed in my head. It was a trick that I've seen Shiro do before, and there's no way the Garrison will be foolish enough to try and follow. The hover-cycle sailed off and begin to plummet toward the ground.
"What are you doing? You're gonna kill us all!" Lance demanded.
"Shut up and trust me!" I quickly revved the engine and pull up, creating the lift to straighten the hover-cycle and keep going with none of us receiving a scratch. If only my brother could see that… but then again, he wouldn't believe me if I told him.