The Fourth Cadet

Episode 1 - New School Defenders

It was another boring day at the Galaxy Alliance Flight Academy. Another day of listening the teachers drone on and on about stuff I already know, given that my father taught me everything I know about flying. I had even come up with my own moves, not that I ever got a chance to show them off. The simulators they made us do were nothing but lame. It wasn't real, which was what I came for when I first enrolled here. I thought we would be doing real flying, but instead, we're stuck here in these classrooms doing nothing. The teacher suddenly got my attention by asking the boy sitting in front of me, Daniel, I believe was his name, a question. I didn't hear the question, but I probably knew the answer anyways. I then saw a body out of the corner of my eye and turned my attention towards it, only to see that the person standing beside me was none other than Lance, the ex-pilot of the Red lion, one of the five lions that made up Voltron, the defender of the universe. Unfortunately, the Voltron Force wasn't doing much defending, since the lions had supposedly lost control and that led them to attacking the people during the victory celebration for the Force's victory against King Lotor, their greatest enemy. The pilots for the Red, Yellow and Green lions, the other two being Pidge and Hunk, had become apart of the Galaxy Alliance's army, the Blue lion pilot, Princess Alura, was currently on her home planet of Arus ruling, and Keith, the Black lion pilot and commander of the Voltron Force, was currently a wanted fugitive. All because the lions were sabotaged with. Yeah, that's right, sabotaged, by Wade himself. How did I know that? Simple, I'm not stupid, and, I hacked the government. It was actually quite simple. Anyways, getting off track. Daniel had somehow managed to answer the question correctly, and that's when Commander Lance decided to announce himself. The teacher welcomed him warmly, if not too enthusiastically. Commander Lance mentioned how he had wanted to meet the first term's newest recruits and how he wanted to know our faces for when we finally got to fly... on our third year. I inwardly groaned at that. Then the teacher asked if we had any questions for Commander Lance. That kid, Daniel, immediately jumped at the chance to ask more about the Voltron Force. "No offense, but why are you here teaching? Shouldn't you be out there defending the universe? What really happened with Voltron?" he asked, and this really peaked my interest. The teacher scolded Daniel for talking about Voltron, which was forbidden by Wade himself. He then attempted to apologize to Commander Lance who just waved it off. He then commenced to tell everyone about what his previous role was in the Voltron Force, and what the other members were doing now, which I knew all about. "How could you turn your backs on Commander Keith and Voltron?" Daniel asked, angrily, may I add. And to be honest, I was getting angry as well. "Protecting the universe is our main priority, and that is what the Galaxy Alliance does. Voltron was just a vehicle" said Commander Lance. At that, I stood up. "The lions were sabotaged! That's the only explanation for why they went berserk! And the fact that you gave up on Voltron sickens me. They are not just vehicles, not to me!" I said, looking him dead in the eyes. "Yeah!" said Daniel, backing me up. "Ok, that's it. You two, up. You're coming with me," he then looked at another kid, who's name I think is Vince. "You too," said Lance. "Me? Why?" asked Vince, shocked. "Guilty by association," said Lance. That's when it clicked. Vince was the one helping Daniel during class. We were then escorted to Wade's office. When we got there, Wade was arguing with the members of the Alliance about how Lotor was dead and was not coming back. He then personally threatened the ambassador from Arus, who got his information about Lotor from "the Den," a rebel group who was against Wade. Then he signed off from the conference and turned to us. "Commander Lance, I believe these are the troublesome cadets you called about?" said Wade. "Yes, sir," said Lance, pushing us forward. As he addressed us, the boys stood up straight, but I didn't. I had no respect for him, so why should I pretend to. I noticed his pet lion circling us, growling as he did so. I wasn't afraid though, I knew how to take care of myself thanks to my parents, who put me through self-defense lessons. I know every style of hand to hand combat, and knew how to use any weapon. And if I didn't, I usually learned to pretty quick. "Normally I don't like to concern myself with petty academy matters, but I take my no Voltron policy..." at these point he leaned over us, probably trying to seem intimidating, which seemed to work with the boys, but not me. "... very seriously," he finished. I just looked at him with a blank face. "You're invading my personal space..." I told him, still looking at him with a blank expression. He turned angry with rage at my disrespectful comment. I just smirked at him. "... Sir," I finished, still smirking, which only seemed to anger him more. "You're lucky your parents are such respected members of the community, cadet Veronica, or you would've already been kicked out of the academy," he told me. I just inwardly rolled my eyes. Daniel then tried to take the blame and get both me and Vince out of trouble, which didn't work. "Do not speak cadet, and don't play that silly nobility card either. It's a liability in combat. I need an army of obedient, ruthless fighting machines, not some saps who are going to hesitate to check their moral compass. Of course, that won't be a problem for you if you violate my policy again, because a second offense would mean expulsion. However, since this is your first, you'll receive the ultimate sentence, latrine duty, for the rest of the first term, and all of the second term as well. I'm hope this experience will teach you to scrub Voltron from your lives. Completely," he said. Then Lance stepped in. "I'm sure this experience will give them an entirely new perspective on Voltron, sir," he said, holding up three buckets with toilet cleaning stuff inside it. I inwardly groaned. Just our luck. "It already has," I heard Daniel whisper to himself. Then we were sent off to the toilets. Once inside I immediately started cleaning. I wanted to be done with this as soon as possible. Unlike the boys, I had to clean up by myself, which meant I would be a while here, no matter how fast I worked. About half an hour later, I heard the door across the hallway, the door to the boys' bathroom, open and close. I groaned, again, at that. I still wasn't finished, but I was close, just one more toilet. A few minutes later, I was finally done. I thoroughly washed my hands, then left the girls' bathroom. As I passed by the simulators, I noticed two of them were functioning. 'There is no way those two boys are actually dumb enough to get in after what happened' I thought to myself. 'Hmm, you know what? Lets do it. I would love to kick their asses,' I thought to myself. I then ran up to one of the simulators and jumped in. I immediately identified which two ships were the ones the boys were in. They were too busy destroying all the other ships to notice me. I smirked to myself. 'Perfect.' I then sped past them, destroying about five ships as I went. "Surprise boys," I said, destroying another two ships. "Hey! You're that girl!" I heard Daniel's voice say. "Veronica, was it?" I now heard Vince ask. "Yes. Now enough chit chat. Lets have some fun!" I called, speeding ahead, destroying more ships as I went. "Oh yeah!" I heard Daniel call, before the two of them sped up, trying to keep up with me. "Well, would you look here. It seems the simulator wants to feel more hurt," I heard Vince say. "Easy pickings," said Daniel. Then I heard an engine speed up, and all of a sudden, there was another ship next to mine. "What? Can't you boys keep up?" I heard the voice of Lance say. "Fuck," I said, mentally cursing some more. "Commander Lance?" I heard Daniel's surprised voice ask. "You just want to get expelled, don't ya?" said Lance. "Considering this is most likely your last act as GA cadets, lets see what you're made of. Hope your straps are on tight," he said, challenging us. I smirked at that. 'If I'm going down, I'm going down with a bang,' I thought to myself. I then sped up, with Lance keeping up with me with little difficulty, eventually getting us neck and neck. "Why? It's not like these simulators are going to rocket o-" he got cut off when the simulators suddenly 'did' start rocketing off. Vince was screaming, Daniel was cheering, and I was smiling like an idiot. "Might want to pull your emergency break right... now," said Lance, and I was quick to follow his advice, I didn't want to crash. The simulators finally came to a stop, and I quickly hopped out. I don't know how, but Vince's simulator ended up hanging by its parachute from a thick tube in the celling. The doors to the simulator suddenly opened. "Your simulator almost killed me," said Vince while jumping down to the ground. "Huh, and Voltron contraband to boot," said Lance, who was looking at an image he apparently got off Daniel, that showed the pilots of the five lions of the Voltron Force, with stuff drawn over them. "Wade would throw you in a secret holding cell to rot," he said angrily. Then he smirked at us. "Lucky for you, I'm not Wade," he said, walking, with us three in tow, towards an opening in the wall, which wasn't there five seconds ago. "Boys-" I coughed loudly at that. "-and girl..." he quickly added, "welcome to-" "the Den," someone else finished for him, and when I looked towards the source if the voice, I saw that it was Pidge, the Green lion pilot. "Cadets, I'd like you to meet-" Vince cut him off. "You're Pidge!" he said. "The Green lion pilot," Daniel unnecessarily clarified, everyone in the room knew who he was. Then we heard a machine turn on, and looked over to see Hunk, the Yellow lion pilot, using some type of tool, even though he wasn't doing anything with it. "That's Hunk, the Yellow lion," Daniel unnecessarily clarified, again. But I didn't say anything, since the boys were just as excited as I was, only I was less vocal about it. "What are you doing? You're not even welding anything?" I heard Pidge ask, and looked over to see him coming down to meet us, all the while looking at Hunk. "Yeah, but I wanted to make a cool entrance for these little dudes-" ai coughed again. "-and dudette," Hunk quickly finished. "Mission accomplished," said Lance, still smirking. Daniel then turned to Lance. "Is Keith here too?" he asked, and I looked around, but didn't see any sign of him, so I figured he wasn't here. I wouldn't, if I was a wanted fugitive. And I made a point of that. "Always with the Keith?" said Lance, sounding exasperated. "He's a wanted fugitive Daniel, I doubt he'll be at a place crawling with men loyal to Wade. They would've already found him if he was," I said, making a point. Lance turned to me at that. "Good point," he told me, smirking. I smirked back at him. Then Lance showed the other two members of the Voltron Force the image he got off Daniel, with them laughing soon after they saw it, while Daniel tried to explain himself, and failed. "Well, I better get back to duty..." said Hunk, looking at his wrist, even though he didn't have a watch on. "But I look forward to working with you clowns in the future," he finished. I gave him a salute, which he returned, before leaving. "Huh?" Me, Daniel and Vince said at the same time. Then Lance explained how they needed to keep up appearances in order to not make Wade suspicious, and what this place actually was. "It's been quite useful on helping Keith with his secret mission?" said Pidge. "What kind of secret mission?" asked Daniel. "The kind that's a secret," said Lance. "I doubt their going to tell us, we just got here and they don't know if they can trust us yet," I said, making another point. Lance and Pidge smiled at me for my comment. "Exactly," said Pidge. Daniel, on the other hand, just groaned in protest. "Alright, fine. But you still haven't explained why we're here. What does any of this have to do with us?" he asked. "Lets just say your talents have been noticed and we'd like to cultivate them. In fact, how would you like to take a very cultivating course right now, taught by... yours truly," said Lance. I eagerly nodded at that, while the boys smiled real big. "Totally! What's the course?" asked Vince, sounding very excited. "Toilet Scrubbing 101!" said Lance. At that, I stopped smiling, and looked at him as if he were crazy. "Oh, you're right. You already have a bit of experience. We'll call it 102," he said jokingly. I just looked at him with a blank face. "You're not funny," I said, still with a blank expression. "Okay, we can tell there's something cool going on here, but if it involves cleaning more toilets..." said Daniel. "Look, I'm gonna be asking you to do a lot of things in the future that won't seem to make sense, but there will always be a reason. The question is... after what you've seen, do you trust me?" asked Lance, looking at us seriously. 'I've got nothing to lose, so...' I thought. I then shrugged and said, "I'm in." Everyone turned to look at me, slightly surprised. "What? I've got nothing to lose," I said, looking at everyone. "Well, I think so, but why won't you just give us a straight answer about anything?" asked Daniel. "Now where would be the fun in that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as I smirked and crossed my arms. Lance smirked at my answer. "Partially, because you aren't ready to know, mostly because it's way more fun for me this way. So, I'll ask again... do you trust me?" he asked, now looking at the boys. "Cause if you don't, I can have Pidge erase this from you boys' memories," he said. I raised my eyebrows at that and looked over at Pidge with this look, that basically asked 'do you really think I'm that stupid?' That's just science fiction, he and I both knew that. He saw me looking at him, and he just smiled a winked in a teasing, secret way at me. I smirked and winked back, then turned back to the boys. "Okay, we're in," said Daniel, speaking for both himself and Vince. "Woo, that is a huge relief, because we do not have a memory erasing device. That's science fiction," he said, moving to sit on the chair in front of the giant computer. I just chuckled, which made the boys turn to look at me with confused faces. "I can't believe you guys didn't know that. Of course there isn't a memory erasing device," I told them, smiling. At that, they glared at him. "Why didn't you tell us, then?" asked Vince. I just shrugged my shoulders teasingly and turned to look at Lance and Pidge, who moved to be next to Lance. Then they had us three sit down in front of the computer. "School is in session," said Lance, smirking. "How much do you know about Sky Martial Wade?" he asked. "He's the head of the Galaxy Alliance's military division," said Vince. "And a snart who hates Voltron," added Daniel. "Actually, he's interested in Voltron's technology, so he made the public turn against Voltron so he'd have an excuse to lock up the lions, and in turn, study them," I said. They all looked at me surprised, again. "What? It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. The guy is obsessed with power," I said. They all snapped out of their surprise and looked back at the computer. "Okay, as for the boys, yes, it's true, but, as Veronica said, it's more complicated than that. Wade's been wanting control of the Alliance military for years, always claiming that Voltron was dangerous because the power within the lions is an ancient technology which isn't completely understood," said Pidge, looking at me, clearly impressed. "Although we can't prove it, we know he sabotaged Voltron to turn the public against it," added Lance. "I knew it!" said Daniel, leaning forward. "No you didn't," I said, looking at him. He turned to me, glaring, but I didn't even bat an eye. "Wade used this as an excuse to convince the Galaxy Alliance that Voltron's power isn't to be trusted. He got them to regulate the lions back to their storage chambers on Arus," continued Lance. "However, I believe, as Veronica mentioned, that he just wanted to study their technology," said Pidge, looking towards me, and I smiled back at him. "Well, I believe it's time to start your first class project," said Lance. Then he explained what the "project" was, which was to switch Wade's four stripe pin for a fake Pidge made. "Your master revenge plan is to switch out his favorite pin for a fake?" asked Daniel, disbelieving. "Yes. Remember our earlier conversation about trust?" asked Lance, smirking. Daniel then raised his eyebrow at him, also smirking. "Remember that you don't have a mind erasing device?" he said. "Touché, let's continue anyways, shall we?" asked Lance. He then explained how latrine duty was the only chance they had of getting the pin, so we were the only ones able to get it. "Um, question," I said, looking at Lance. He turned to look at me, raising an eyebrow. "What am I supposed to do? There is no way I'm going into a boys' bathroom. It would seem suspicious, not to mention that I don't want to," I said, looking at him with my arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "Simple, you're coming with me" he said. By then, we were back at the room with the simulators. "Ok then," I said, shrugging. Then the boys headed off, while I followed Lance. As we waited for the boys to get the pin, me and Lance walked around. There was total silence between us, that is, until he broke it. "So, mind explaining to me why you decided to join us so quickly?" he asked, looking down at me. "I already did," I said, not looking at him. I didn't want to elaborate. But just my luck, he kept insisting. "You and I both know that wasn't the real reason, so tell me, what is it?" he said, looking at me. I finally sighed, then looked up at him. "Well, for one, I hate it here, no real challenge. And there's also the fact that I want to escape my parents. They don't abuse me or anything, it's just that they never pay any real attention to me. Dad is too busy being a successful business man, while mom spends her time by working, shopping or going out with friends all the time. And I'm tired of that. I want to go to a place where I matter, and it seems like you guys want me in... whatever this is, so, I said yes. My parents wouldn't miss me anyways, so I can go wherever I want without them worrying, not that they would anyways," I said, looking forward. After a few minutes, he said, "I'm here if you need someone to talk to or to take your mind off things." He didn't say anything else after that, which I was thankful for. And I was grateful for his offer, and as I thought about it, I probably would take him up on it. A few minutes later, we found the boys. "Ah, there it is! Nice job boys. Piece of cake, right?" said Lance, with pin in hand. "More like piece of meat," muttered Vince, quietly, which made me believe they had a run in with Wade's lion. "Well, you did such a great job, I've decided to expel you from the Academy after all. Unless you'd rather stay and finish out your two terms of latrine? You are showing great promise in that field of study," said Lance teasingly. I was excited, same as the boys. I figured we wouldn't be staying here, and I was right, and very happy about it. "Go and pack your bags, we're taking a road trip," he said, and I was quick to go to my room and pack my bags before meeting Lance back at the landing terminal, which was currently empty except for us two. I noticed that he was wearing the clothes he wore while he was the pilot of the Red lion, and I smiled it that. "It suits you," I told him, gesturing to his clothes as I walked up to him. "Thanks," he said, smirking. We were silent for a few seconds after that, then I broke it. "Thank you, by the way," I told him. He turned to me, looking at me with a questioning look. "For the offer... while we were waiting for the boys," I clarified. He seemed to remember our talk, because he then said, "no problem, happy to help." That's when the boys finally arrive, and with that, we finally get on the ship and head off. "This is all happening so fast," said Vince at one point during our travels. "I often find fast is the best way," said Daniel. "Touché," I said, turning to look at the boys. Lance then put the ship on auto pilot and then stood up, turning to us. "So I think you guys have earned the right to know a bit more about Wade's pin... More like pins... And more like 'keys' than pins," he said, pulling apart the pin to show that it was in fact, not a pin, but four keys. "The keys to the lions," me and Daniel said at the same time, then looked between ourselves and Vince, the three of us excited for what will come in the future. A few minutes later we arrived at our destination, which, as I had guessed, was Arus. When the door of the ship opened, Princess Alura herself was outside to greet up. "Welcome to Arus, and welcome to the Castle of Lions," she said, gesturing to our left, where an awesome castle was situated. My smile was so big that it actually hurt my face, but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything at the moment except for the castle in front of me, and the possibilities it brought with it. "Where's the black key?" was what brought me back to reality. Obviously, it was with Commander Keith, wherever he was. "I assure you, it's in good wrists," said Lance, which confirmed my assumption that Keith had it in his possession. 'Oh, this is gonna be so much fun,' I thought to myself as we started walking in the direction of the castle.