The New Paladin

68: Can You Feel It

Alarms blaring loudly to wake you up seemed like a forever reoccurring event.

Lance groaned rubbing his face before he stumbled to the door.

He made his way to the control room still struggling with his armour. He couldn't get his arm brace on.

"Paladins, Haggar has found us." Allura explained anxiously. "With one of the ships from the plans that Lance stole."

"Really?" Lance asked with a heavy frown. They hadn't much spoken about the plans Lance stole, mostly because they had them and they didn't think that the Galran's would be stupid enough to build a ship that their opposition knew the entire specs about.

It didn't really make sense.

Hunk stepped over snapping his armour into place.

"Thanks." He nodded.

"No time for dawdling." Allura said shooting a look to Lance, it made him smile. "We'll cover you."

"Oh boy, here we go." Lance said as the tubes dropped them towards their lions. "This is not going to end well."

"Lance." Shiro frowned.

"Just being honest." Lance shrugged to himself. "I mean we're up against Haggar as it would seem so this going to hurt no doubt."

"Really encouraging." Keith grumbled.

"And we've got to protect Allura and Coran, at least there's no planets nearby." Lance added as he climbed Blues ramp.

"Lance we get it." Hunk sighed.

"And usually when there is the a boss level you should power up all of your team before you enter and save your progress."

"What?" Pidge asked sounding confused.

"Video games." Lance hummed. "It's all just a video game."

"That not how real life works." Keith grumbled.

"Yeah I know." Lance nodded as he took his seat. "But it makes life like this easier to get on with."

"Alright team," Shiro said and he sounded tiredly amused, "let's do this."

~~~

"Watch your six." Lance warned taking down three fighters that were pursuing Hunk.

"Thanks Lance."

The ship that hovered weightlessly in space looked menacing and cruel, knowing that Haggar was probably at the helm made it even worse.

Lance hated this.

He really wasn't in the mood for this fight, not right now.

But his team seemed to be getting stressed again. He didn't like that. His job was always to lighten the mood. Even if the others didn't understand it seemed to chill them out a bit.

"So..." He said slowly as he narrowly dodged a shot. "What are we having for dinner?"

A laugh burst through Hunk's com. "Really Lance?"

"What I'm hungry?" Lance shrugged blasting several fighters while vines burst through the side of Haggar's ship.

"Nice shot Pidge." Shiro praised racing past. "Allura are you at a safe distance?"

"We are, but we're ready to assist you if necessary." Allura confirmed.

"It's charging up." Coran warned.

"Time for us to do the same, form Voltron!"

The surge of power that flooded the lions and ultimately the paladins made Lance almost light headed.

Voltron was an immense power. But only if they handled it precisely.

"Alright guys." Lance smirked. "Let's do this thing!"

"Keith sword, Pidge shield." Shiro ordered as Lance and Hunk stablised Voltron.

"Here we go." Hunk breathed.

Lance eyes the ship skeptically as the others battles.

He did his best to stablise them but something about the ship was strange.

Something wasn't right.

"Pidge?" He asked as he tightened his grip on Blue's controls. "What is that?"

"What- oh." The long hesitation didn't make Lance feel any better.

And the longer it was drawn out the more he started to worry.

"I don't know, my reading are unclear." Pidge informed. "Coran? Can you see what it is?"

"I'm picking up on some kind of creature." Coran explained. "It looks like one of Haggar's experiments."

"Oh no." Hunk mumbled. "Why does she have to mess with living things? Why?"

"For our enjoyment." Lance deadpanned.

"It is not for our enjoyment. I am not enjoying this." Hunk grumbled back.

"Steady guys, Shiro? What do you want us to do?" Keith asked.

"Our best." Shiro frowned. "Just stay focused on protecting eachother and the castle."

"Got it." Pidge sounded.

Lance shook his through a clear and diverted his attention to directing Voltron so that they could take critical shots and dodge getting hit at the same time.

There was a bright flash of blue from the creature that they had spotted, but then it was gone.

"Wow." Pidge sniggered. "Haggar failed on this one, huh?"

"I wouldn't be too sure." Shiro warned sounding anxious.

"Paladins, look out!" Allura shouted sharply over the coms.

Lance flinched at the way it rang through the coms, he hadn't expected the panic but now a blast had hit them sending Voltron into a tail spin.

"Easy!" Hunk called as he and Lance managed to synchronise their movements to slow them down and stabilise themselves.

Letting out a short breath, they needed to divert their attention back to that ship, back to taking it down. A sudden flash of blue had Lance jumping back in his chair. He looked up to see a scowling muzzle was glaring down at him.

Lance blinked eyes wide as he tried to get his Bayard free from the plug in. He couldn't, he was panicking. Panicking!

The wolf like creature launched and Lance knew he was dead, he was so dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.

But instead all he felt was the nauseous feeling of falling without gravity. If that was a thing.

The world around him, evaporating and then drifting away like smoke.

His whole body lit up with energy before he crashed into something and darkness took him completely.