Canis Major | Keith Kogane

8

All five lions returned to the center spire of the castle. One by one, the lion's eyes lit up. Shiro stood, watching the large hangar door open up. The light shone on the magnificent Black Lion. The lion took a step back and gave a mighty roar. The other five lions returned the roar. It was a moment that felt of a true victory, only to be cut short by the sound of the castle's alarm.

The Paladins jumped into their respective lions as Allura informed of Sendak's arrival. Elle could feel the surge of adrenaline as she pulled on the handles and piloted her lion following Shiro's lead. 

Elle could see Sendak had already sent fighter ships to attack the particle barrier of the castle. As the paladins took a look at the battle before them an ion blast from Sendak's ship engulfed the particle barrier around the castle. Even from within her lion, Elle struggles to keep her balance in her lion.

"The barrier gets weaker with every blast!" Coran said on the comm. "Once the shield goes down, the castle will be defenseless!"

"I can give you cover with the castle defenses for a while!" Allura added. "But you have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!"

A second ion blast hit the particle barrier, significantly affecting the shield's integrity. All the paladins felt the blast from within their lions.

"This looks bad!" Elle said watching the fighters continue to attack the particle barrier. "Since I'm not a part of Voltron I'll see what I can do from the outside until you guys can figure out how to form Voltron!" she said, ready to take flight.

"No!" Shiro interjected. "We're a team and we can't let you get out there on your own! Especially not our first time against the Galra!" Shiro's passion for the team warmed Elle's heart. "We have to put our heads together and figure this out. The only way for us to succeed is to give it all we've got! This looks bad but we can do this! Are you with me?" Shiro's inspirational words made Elle smile. He barely knew most of the Paladins but he could easily inspire them to take charge.

"I'm nodding, is everyone else nodding?" Hunk asked.

"Yes," everyone else replied in unison.

"Let's do this!" Shiro said, leading the charge out of the particle barrier. The blasters from the fighter ships were hitting very close to the lions, but haven't managed to hit them yet.

"Uh, how?" Lance asked.

"Good question. Does anyone have any ideas on how to form Voltron?" Shiro asked.

"I don't see a combine into giant robot button on my dashboard." Hunk said. Elle wasn't sure if he meant it as a sarcastic comment or some sort of comic relief.

"You guys can't keep running in a straight line or you'll get shot!" Elle said, turning her lion around. "I'll take care of the fighters while you guys figure out how to form Voltron!" Elle could feel her lion communicating with her, telling her how to properly pilot it.

"Are you sure you can handle it? My sensors picked up more than twenty of these guys won't you need back up?" Lance asked as the other lions continued to run the opposite direction. Lance checked the panel on his dashboard to see what was happening at the rear. He could see Elle using a laser from her lion's tail to shoot at the fighters and flying about.

"Elle is kicking serious butt!" Hunk said happily as the fire raining down from the ships decreased.

Elle let go of the ship that was enclosed in her lion's jaws and looked towards the team. "There's more heading from your front, don't worry about it!" More fighters came close into the range and the rest of the lions split up to fend them off.