Aphrodite

Courageous Firefighter

You're from a whole 'nother world, a different dimension.
You open my eyes, and I'm ready to go, lead me into the light.

-

Apex Leo: the most desired, well refined and gorgeous, last level. This far up in the sky the levels below— visible through the sky-high windows throughout the transportation sector— appear as nothing but specks of light and color, glinting provocatively in the bright sunlight.

Lance can't help but emphasize with the lower levels and its unfortunate, unlucky inhabitants. He couldn't imagine a life without sunlight, without clear skies and star-filled nights. For as long as he can remember, he's been walking below the blazing sun, skipping through air and silken-soft clouds. It was what gave him his bronzed, caramel skin. Lance was living his best life, and for so many years he went about ignorant to the struggling inhabitants below his feet— ignorant to the treasures hidden between Panthera and Felis— which is why he developed a keen interest in the different Levels. That was how he met Pidge and Hunk for the first time, during a purely business-related trip down to AFHI headquarters in Felis.

He fell in love with the duo at first sight and they've been inseparable since.

Despite their class differences, the trio venture out into the world below together on a regular basis. Of course, nothing below Canis is allowed for Lance, but rules are made to be broken. Right?

This day was no different. As per usual, Lance had been called upon by Pidge who was screaming gibberish, frantically, over the communicator. Her animatic gesticulations and expressiveness was a surprise in and of itself, but he was no less shocked to hear what his favorite duo had scavenged this time.

-

"Remind me once more why you want to activate something that could potentially obliterate the entire planet? You said this thing was, what, immersed in nanbots?"

"Nanobots. And, yes, I wanna know what exactly it is." Pidge supplied, adjusting her glasses, "I doubt it'll obliterate anything, though. At least not until it's..." she trailed off and lifted one of the creature's limp arms, "fixed." she finished and dropped the dead weight back on the table. It landed with a loud thud.

Lance glanced back down at the thing and gawked once more at the sheer size of it. The creature was at least 7ft tall and must weight somewhere around 220 pounds, if not more. Simply put: gigantic and clearly not of this world. How it managed to wedge itself between two beams below the portal-rails in Panthera— without leaving a single trail of destruction behind from crash landing through the eight levels above— was a mystery.

"Have you... uh..." he started and mimicked Pidge's earlier arm-examination, "Have you tried touching it?"

"Have we what?"

"You know... like... touching it...."

Hunk choked on his sandwich in the background. Pidge spoke for the two, her face contorted into an expression of plain disgust, "I'm not keen on giving alien handjobs—"

"WHAT! No! No, no, no! I didn't—" heat rose to his face, just what exactly is she thinking, "I didn't mean it like that!" he tried clarifying in panic, "I mean it as in 'have you tried pressing on the armor of face or something'. You know, like, when you slap someone who's unconscious— WHAT THE FUCK, GUYS?"

He glared furiously at the duo, shocked at their filthy minds and even filthier image of him. Before they could add to the embarrassment, Lance turned and inspected the creature's head closer.