Voltron: Legacy

Chapter 16

A few hours later, we were ready, and I could see our destination looming up outside the window, a waterworld planet dotted with islands of every size and shape.
“Karah?” Leilah asked.
“What?”
“Are we even going to be able to form Voltron underwater?”
I shrugged. “I figured we’d do it while we’re still out here in space. That way we’ll be coming in at full strength.”
She nodded, and then her eyes lit up. “Oh my god, I just thought of something! When we land, I want to make Voltron do a cannonball.”
“Which is?”
“It’s a human swimming thing.” Jason explained. “You tuck up into a ball, then dive in and try to make a really big splash. Leilah, why?”
“For fun, silly. Also, Voltron’s big enough that we might cause a tsunami, which would really help destroy the Archanai’s base.”
“That does sound pretty cool.” Xaroc admitted. “Come on, Karah. Please?”
I sighed.
“Oh, fine. But then you all have to focus on not getting us killed.”
“Got it.”
We were interrupted by Shiro’s voice over the speakers.
“Paladins, get to your lions! We’ve located the base and we’re about to head in.”
We got in our lions and took off, converging outside the Atlas.
“Everybody ready?” I asked.
“Red is good to go.”
“Blue here.”
“Yellow here.”
“JASON!!”
“I’m here too, quit yelling.”
“Okay, form Voltron!”
In a flash of light, we clicked together as one. Then we hurtled towards the planet, heading for the coordinates the scientists had sent us. I could almost hear Leilah smiling as she yelled, “Alright, who’s ready to make a splash?! Three, two, one, CANNONBALL!!”
We tucked Voltron’s knees up, wrapped its arms around them, and broke the water’s surface with a deafening splash and a whiteout of bubbles. When we uncurled, we were sinking through clear blue waves. We flew back up to the surface and into the air, scanning the area. There was nothing there. Just greenish-tinted ocean under a rapidly darkening sky, and the Atlas a few hundred feet overhead.
“This is weird.” Jason muttered. “According to our info, we should be right over the base, but I can’t see it anywhere.”
“Cloaking again?” I asked.
“No, the info we have said nothing about that. It could be-”
He was interrupted by Linnea’s yell. “Robeast!!”
We barely dodged to the side in time as the enemy robot rocketed up and out of the water underneath us. It was slightly taller than Voltron, with a gleaming black metal exterior that reminded me of the Archanai’s shells and huge bladed claws on both hands. Its head reminded me of a spider’s, small and rounded with a multitude of glowing purple orbs set into it. There was a huge matching orb in the middle of its chest plate.
“Those glowing balls work like guns!” Jason yelled. “If we can take them out, we’ll be half done!”
We didn’t have time to plan any further before the monster attacked. It was even faster than I’d expected, slashing out with its claws. They skidded along Voltron’s chest with a screech of metal on metal, then dug in before we could pull away. The robeast used its free hand to take another strike at us.
“Form sword!”
We got the sword up just in time, slicing off the monster’s hand. It let go of us and darted away, peppering us with shots from the smaller guns on its head. We dodged most of them at first, but this thing was just too agile.
“Shield!”
We got the shield up, protecting us for the moment, at least.
“What now?!”
I wasn’t sure which one of them had said it, but it didn’t really matter. We needed to do something.
“Split up.”
“Are you crazy?!” Leilah asked.
“Just do it!!”
With a flash of light, the lions sprang apart, darting around to avoid the robeast’s guns.
“Can everybody hear me okay?” I asked.
A chorus of panicked yesses from my friends.
“Good. Xaroc, Jason, Linnea. On my count, we fire on this thing with everything we’ve got. Leilah, the Blue lion’s supposed to be good underwater. Swim down there while we distract it and try to attack the legs.”
“What about the Atlas?” Jason asked. “They’re taking a beating from the other robeast!”
“Shiro can handle it, we’ve got our own problems. Plan starts on one, two, three, NOW!”
We opened fire with the lions’ mouth cannons, flying circles around the robeast. It was fast, but it couldn’t dodge all four of us at once. One by one, the eye-like guns on its head went dark as we destroyed them. Xaroc laughed. “Yeah! Take that, you spider-faced freak!”
“It’s firing up the chest cannon!” Jason yelled.
I looked, and sure enough the glowing spot on its chest was getting steadily brighter.
“Shit. Scatter!”
Just as the cannon’s beam hissed past us, the robeast stumbled, stumbled again, then fell into the water with a huge splash. Linnea whooped. “Go, Leilah!!”
The Blue lion flew up to join us. Leilah popped up on one of my screens, looking smug.
“Can’t stand too well with no ankles, can you, Mr. Monster?”
“Okay guys, let’s finish it while it’s down. Form Voltron!”
We joined together, and the now-familiar feeling of raw power raced through me. A few sword slashes and stomping kicks later, the robeast was nothing but a pile of scrap metal sinking through the waves. One piece, though, floated to the surface.
“That’s got to be the pilot’s getaway capsule. Xaroc, can you grab it?”
“Yep.” She said, fishing the small black pod out of the water. “We get a prisoner of war, huh?”
“Uh-huh. Jason, how’s the Atlas doing?”
“Their robeast is smashed too, but they’re in pretty bad shape. I think we’ll have to take out the base on our own.”
“Let’s drop off our prisoner and get to work, then.”
I opened communication to the Atlas.
“Shiro? You guys in any shape to handle our first prisoner? We’ve got the pilot from our robeast alive, we think.”
The former paladin gave a weary smile. “Yeah. That’s great. Just give us a minute to get ready.”
We left the little escape pod in Black’s hangar, then flew back out to deal with the base. Like we’d realized the hard way, it was completely underwater. We’d just landed near it on the ocean floor when a hatch in the roof opened and a sleek gun-like contraption slid out, hitting us with a ray of purplish light that at first, didn’t seem to do anything.
“What is that thing?” I muttered.
That was when I noticed the lights in my cab going dark, the rush of power we all got from forming Voltron fading unexpectedly fast.
“Guys, it’s draining our power somehow! We have to move!”
“I can’t!” Jason yelled.
“Me either!” Linnea sounded as panicked as I felt.
“Red’s not responding.”
“Blue’s down too!”
I closed my eyes, ignored the fact that we were slowly sinking, and felt for my connection with Black. It wasn’t working, but it was still there, like an electrical wire with no power running through it.
“Guys, I think I know what we need to do.”
“What?”
“We need to power Voltron up ourselves.”
“How the quiznack do we do that?!” Linnea demanded.
“We all have a connection to our lions and each other, right? So take your energy and funnel it through than connection. Focus on our bond, on our mission. You guys are my friends, and you’re some of the bravest, most amazing people I’ll ever hope to meet. I know we can do this, we just have to try.”
“Okay.”
We all closed our eyes, and I reached out with my mind, not just for Black, but for my teammates. My friends. My family, even though I didn’t know how to tell them that yet.
I could see them in my mind’s eye: Stoic, witty Xaroc, shy, sweet Linnea, distractible, quirky Jason, and Leilah, who was a lot deeper than the silly diva facade she showed to most people. While I was the Black paladin of this lion’s pride, I was not letting anything happen to them. Ever.
A fierce kind of joy rushed through me, and I shoved with every ounce of mental strength I had, feeling new power flow through the connection we all shared.
When I opened my eyes, the interior of the cab was fully lit up again. I sighed with relief as I heard the others exclaiming over what we’d just done.
“Okay, guys. Let’s finish this. Form sword!”
We got to our feet, pressing Voltron’s hands together and pulling them back apart, forming the sword. We swung it, chopping off the weird ray cannon that had drained our power. After that, it only took a few punches to smash the base to rubble. A few Archanai swam out, but we zapped them with a laser blast, and then finally, finally, it was over.

Several hours later, we were all lazing on the beach under a star-studded clear sky, enjoying the fresh sea breeze. I was also enjoying Mari’s delighted laughter as she and Orrys chased a group of bioluminescent orangey-red crabs across the sand. Linnea had commandeered the Atlas’s normal kitchen crew to help her make a victory feast for us. Judging by the amount of mouthwatering smells drifting our way from the huge bonfire, it was almost ready. I sighed contentedly, then hastily snapped to attention as Shiro walked over. After that I did a double-take and covered my mouth to keep from laughing, because instead of his usual uniform, he was wearing a pair of shorts and the most overwhelming, brightly-colored shirt I’d ever seen.
“What?” He asked.
I bit the inside of my cheek, unable to hide a grin.
“It’s the shirt, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Is it supposed to be, like, warning colors or something? Like those poison frogs we saw earlier?”
He shook his head, smiling.
“It’s kind of a human tradition in some places for people to wear shirts like this when they go to the beach. Do I really look that ridiculous?”
“Do you want me to be honest, sir?”
Shiro sat down on the sand a few feet away from me.
“Maybe? On second thought, I probably don’t.”
We sat in companionable silence for a moment, then he said, “We were pretty occupied during most of the battle, but I noticed that you were able to repower Voltron. It’s amazing that you five have managed to do that this soon.”
“Oh. Thanks.” I said, caught off guard by the compliment.
“Actually, most of what you’ve accomplished so far is pretty amazing.”
I shrugged. “We have a good teacher.”
I was about to say more when Mari ran over. “Karah, Mr. Shiro, come eat! Linnea made barbecue, and grilled fruit, and flatbreads with yummy sauce. Oh, and I caught a crab, but she won’t cook that for me.”
“Good, since I think they’re poisonous. Go put it back in the water, honey.”
She pouted, but went and dropped her glowing crab at the tideline before dragging us to the folding tables Linnea had set up near the bonfire. We all sat down to eat, laughing and talking. We were about halfway through dinner when Emma rushed up, panting.
“The prisoner. We’ve been keeping him in the med bay, but he just woke up and he’s talking. I mean, it’s mostly insults and threats, but that still counts as talking, right?”
I stood up from the table.
“Well, let’s go see if we can get anything more useful out of him. Guys, are you coming?”
“Only if I can bring my food.” Leilah said. “Linnea really outdid herself.”
Xaroc cracked her knuckles. “Insults and threats, huh? Two can definitely play at that game.”
I poked her. “Any threats had better just be bluffing, okay? I’m not going to let you torture people.”
“I wasn’t going to try!” She said indignantly. “Although if it comes down to it, there’s always the boiling pee trick.”
“The what trick?" Jason asked.
“Don’t ask, Jason.” Linnea pleaded. “I really, really don’t want to know.”