The attack came slightly sooner than any of them expected. Lance hadn't even begun to move onto ships when sure enough that's what appeared in the sky.
"What is that thing?" Fury demanded as he gripped the podium of the helicarrier.
Lance glared at the screen. "That's a Galran cruiser."
"A what?" Hill asked tilting her head to look at him.
"It's from my universe." Lance explained stepping forward. "Activate your cannons, if you have any shielding left get it up, those ion cannons aren't pretty."
"Lan-"
"Get your fighters in the air, we're about to have company." Lance said as the lions appeared with him. "They'll launch the fighters once they realise that you've got shields."
"Kiddo, this isn't the same as some of your tech back home." Tony reminded. "The shields are damaged anyway."
"Then let me out there to fight." Lance said firmly as he turned to them. "This is my job, this is why I'm here."
"We know it is." Tony assured. "And we're ready to follow your lead."
Lance blinked at him twice then smiled. "Okay, Tony get the shields back online, Steve I need you and Natasha to come with me. Clint I'm gonna need you to watch the fighters, they'll be coming in fast, okay?"
"Right. Am I taking them down?" Clint asked tilting his head.
"Yeah, Thor and Bruce, I'm gonna need you to keep the helicarrier in the air, lighting power it up and Hulk's gonna need to steer."
"You got it." Bruce nodded. "Anything else you want us to do?"
"Hope this works." Lance mumbled as Blue purred in his mind. "Alright let's go."
~~~
Launching in Blue to fly across to the cruiser was a strange feeling.
Lance had to remind hismelf not to start talking to the other paladins, they weren't here.
As fire opened upon him he swerved Blue into position. With a few quick blasts the cannons were frozen and Blue's jaw blade was making an entrance for them.
Lance stepped through the gap startling a Galran. "Sup." He smirked before using the butt of his blaster to knock them out.
"Okay, why aren't we just destroying this?" Natasha asked quietly.
"Because Axca is here and I think she knows more than she is letting on." Lance explained as Pidge's Bayard came to his hand. "That and I want to see if we can get any info from their computers."
"Alright then. Let's get to it." Steve nodded.
Lance shot the door controls and slipped into one of the maintenance rooms. He tapped quickly on the control panel.
"They've got prisoners." Lance realised. "We need to go and get them."
Steve nodded. "Do you know the way?"
Lance smirked and cut the panel for the vents open. "I know a shortcut."
Landing on the prison deck startled the two Galran's next to him but Steve landed ontop of one and knocked the other out.
Lance offered him a nod.
"How do we open these cells?"
Lance let Keith's sword form and slashed through the control panel, the doors all began opening and hesitant prisoners stepped out.
"It's a paladin."
"We're saved."
"Paladin." A firm voice said from behind them.
Lance glanced back looking at two Galran's.
"Hi." Lance nodded not sure if he could trust them.
"My name is Kolivan." The Galran explained his voice void of emotions. "And this is Krolia, we have been searching for you to join you in this fight."
"But I-"
"It's true you've been missing." Krolia said stepping forwards, she offered a slight smile. "But we knew that you had to be alive somewhere."
"How?"
"Thace, one of our friends saw you escape from Haggar's ship that day." Krolia explained. "We have been searching ever since."
"Do you have the lions?" Kolivan demanded.
The red lion formed between them and roared.
Lance tilted his head. "No, the lions have me."
"We need to keep moving." Natasha reminded offering Lance a blank stare.
"Yeah, yeah, alright. Let's go." He said as he pushed past Kolivan and Krolia heading toward the doors. "Let's stop Axca."
~~~
There was a multitude of fighter craft in the air.
Thor frowned and launched several veins of lightning at them. They danced around it but some of them fell.
"Keep it up Thor." Clint's voice called over as an arrow took down three in one go. "We've just got to give Tony time to get the helicarrier away from the city."
"Stupid city." Hulk grumbled.
Clint rolled his eyes. "The city was here before we were, we're the ones that need to move."
"Then move." Hulk huffed. "I wanna smash."
One of the fighter jets landed on the landing strip of the helicarrier and it's doors opened.
About 100 sentries piled out.
Clint readied his bow. "Hulk, smash."
With a deafening roar Hulk launched toward the attackers.
"Barton, we've got the shielding back online. Keep them distracted, we're going to start moving away from the city hopefully drawing their fire."
"Copy that." Clint nodded.
One of the fighter jets twisted mid air and Clint clocked it.
"Thor, incoming!" He shouted.
Thor's eyes lifted to the jet, it wasn't piloting with control, it was doing a crash dive, aiming right for the engine.
Thor launched into the air and crashed into the ship throwing it off course but another was right behind it.
Clint's explosive arrow sent the hull rolling toward the landing pad where Hulk had finished the sentries off.
The shrapnel of the wings caught the blades and shattered sending splinters into the battle field.
Thor landed heavily next to Clint.
"You good?" He asked watching the Asgardian with a quick sideglance.
"I will be." Thor grunted. "They are trying to knock us out of the sky. Why?"
Hulk threw a half destroyed sentry toward them. Thor batted its head off and Clint stabbed an arrow into it.
"Time to find out." He smiled. "Watch the sky guys, I'll get on to this."
"We've got a problem." Tony warned as he landed by their side. "We've got about 300 more of these fighters coming here to destroy us."
"We can handle them." Hulk huffed.
"What have you got Hawkeye?" Thor asked.
"They want to destroy the castle." Clint frowned as he lifted his gaze. "What castle?"
"Kiddo, I've got a question."
"Okay, better make it quick." Lance replied.
"Does the castle mean anything to you?" Clint asked.
Lance's silence was heavy for a moment. "It was my home." He answered quietly. "The Altean castle was where the paladins lived."
"But it's not here, why would that be their objective."
"The helicarrier is the equivalent of the castle, you guys have to get out of there." Lance warned.
"We are, were almost-"
~~~
"No!" Natasha's scream echoed through the air as the helicarrier started to fall, smoke drifted from the engines as they all started to fail.
Lance blinked hazily. He had been talking to the others when his ears were assaulted by a harsh explosion and a high ringing sound.
Something had exploded far too close to the others.
"Guys!" Lance called heart hammering in his chest. "Guys answer us."
"Here." Clint winced.
"It'll crush the city!" Steve called over the coms. "Tony! Tony you've-"
"There's not much we can do, Cap."
"We're not out of this fight yet." Fury added with a grunt. "You deal with that cruiser we'll focus on things here."
"But-"
"Nat." Clint said firmly. "Don't worry about us."
"That's not how we do things." Lance snapped as he squeezed his eyes shut even as a blast hit just next to him. "We don't let people fall."
"Kiddo, you've got a job to do." Tony reminded. "Focus on that."
"I can't." Lance breathed. "I won't."
~~~
Clint squeezed his eyes shut waiting for the impact.
It came, but it didn't shake him to his core.
He caught ahold of Thor's arm to keep himself upright.
"That didn't feel like a crash." Thor admitted his eyes squinting.
"That's because you're not falling anymore." Tony answered breathlessly.
"What done?" Hulk grumbled.
"It's not me." Tony explained faintly. "Look."
The screens flickered and on then appeared a giant robot.
Bright yellow eyes glimmered in the fading light as it's giant metal hands lifted the helicarrier. From its feet came jets of blue fire.
Across its chest was a bright, glowing blue v shape.
Clint's jaw dropped. "Is that-"