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The following is a story of Voltron I made up based on the T.V. cartoon Voltron by World Events Productions. I did not have World Events Productions' permission to do the story and therefore it does not have World Events Productions' endorsement.
The Voltron force was on their way back to Arus after successfully defending Earth and rescuing Keith's sister who had decided to go to Arus with them. Prince Lotor and Witch Hagar had a head start on Voltron, but Voltron soon surpassed them on the trip back to Arus. The forces of Doom had been thoroughly defeated and posed no threat if they were foolhardy enough to try attacking Earth again. Shortly after the Voltron force had begun the trip back, Keith contacted Coran on Planet Arus and also talked with Jeff, captain of Vehicle Voltron. Everyone was relieved to know that the Vehicle Voltron force had successfully protected Arus.
"We'll be waiting until you get here," assured Jeff.
"Thanks," said Keith. "We'll be there as soon as we can."
Aboard the yellow lion, the female Drule soldier Darah had just woken up. She had lost consciousness after Keith had shot her with a blaster set to stun. Her first reaction after finding herself conscious again was to demand her release, but quick thinking caused her to realize that although expressing her anger over her captivity would give her some emotional satisfaction, it might be wiser to wait and see if there was a way to use the element of surprise to her advantage.
She struggled against the tape binding her arms to no avail. She knew she had to find a way to somehow cut the tape if she was to escape. She searched her surroundings for something sharp, but found nothing. There was once place where she knew she would find something, and that would be off of Hunk’s belt. Getting anything from that was a problem.
Darah’s legs weren’t bound. She silently sat up quickly with enough momentum to get herself up on her feet. Stealthily she sneaked over to Hunk’s right side, and then extended her leg high enough to sidekick Hunk on the side of his helmet.
Hunk felt the heavy blow of the kick on the side of his head and then turned to face it.
“What the . . .” started Hunk. “Oh no, you again. Hey, watch it!”
Hunk started to block his face with his hands and at the same time was turning his head back to protect his face from another kick from Darah. He turned his head just in time, and Darah kicked his hands hard against the side of his helmet.
“Ohhhh,” responded Hunk woozily. Darah’s second blow had put him on the edge of passing out.
Darah took advantage of the situation and leaned forward, pressing against Hunk until her good hand was within reach to grab something from his belt. The first thing she grabbed was a flashlight, and she dropped it to the floor. Next she grabbed something containing a bunch of steel pegs. For her a knife would have been ideal, but she was determined to make one of the steel pegs work.
Besides that, she was short for time. The lion wasn’t a problem because it was on auto pilot and still connected with Voltron, but Hunk was quickly recovering. Darah backed away from Hunk and started poking and ripping at the tape from an awkward angle that having her hand restrained allowed.
“Hunk, what’s going on?” asked King Keith of black lion through lion to lion audio. There was no response so Keith forced a visual through.
“Hunk, are you OK?” asked the captain noticing Hunk’s disoriented look.
“I think she’s trying to get loose,” replied Hunk woozily.
“The Drule? She can’t. She’s tied up.”
Darah had just managed to get a tear through all the layers of tape.
“Oh yes I can!” she declared as she easily pulled her good arm to tear through the tape, but clenched her teeth upon feeling searing pain go through her injured right shoulder as her good arm pulled through.
Hunk pulled out the laser gun he had gotten from Pidge. He paused a moment to make sure it was set for stun, although they always automatically reset themselves for stun unless a temporary override was purposely done, and no one would have done that recently. Then he shot at Darah. She did a somersault under the beam and it missed. She popped up right beside Hunk and hit the laser gun away with her good arm. Then she thought fast. Her first reaction was to try to get the laser gun, but then a more surefire way to take control came to mind. Hunk made it easier for her by diving for the laser gun when he saw her hesitation. As soon as he had left his chair, Darah leaped over the side of it and sat down to take over the controls. The moment Hunk had the blaster, he turned over on the floor and had it pointed straight at Darah, ready to shoot. But he didn’t shoot. He saw where her hand was on the controls.
“What do you intend to do?” Keith asked Darah in an angry tone.
“Goodbye, Captain,” Darah merely replied and cut off the view screen and audio communications. “As for you,” she said turning toward Hunk. “Stand down and drop your weapon. You shoot me and I’ll activate the release plate and make sure this cat goes on manual, sending it into a free fall. Even if I’m unconscious, you’ll have to pry my fingers off to reset it. By that time you can count on it being too late.”
After what Hunk had seen Darah already do, he believed she could still hang on even if she was unconscious. He stood to his feet, dropped the laser gun, and stood back.
“Toss me something to cut this tape,” she ordered. Her injured arm was still snuggly taped to her waist.
Hunk tossed her a sheathed knife from his belt. Darah caught it and soon had her other arm free, carefully keeping an eye on Hunk all the while.
“What are you going to do now?” inquired Hunk.
“Use this cat to get out of here of course.” And having said that, she activated the release plate and switched over to manual drive.
“Ahhh!” she shrieked.
Electrifying pain went through her injured right arm, and the lion dropped off Voltron and began to plummet out of control. It was then that she realized she didn’t have the strength to control the lion manually, and auto pilot wouldn’t work until the lion was under control again.
Hunk picked up the laser gun, but didn’t shoot. It would be better if he could get her to let go of the controls so he put the gun away.
“Let got of the controls so I can pull us out of this,” said Hunk.
Darah didn’t answer. She was furious with herself for her weakness. Hunk rushed over to her and started to pry at her hands.
“You’ve got to let go of the controls!”
“Back off!” demanded Darah, and she hit him in the chest with the back of her good left hand. Though she wasn’t left-handed, it actually pushed him back a little. With her good arm off the controls, the lion began to plummet even more out of control. Darah screamed over the pain her injured arm felt as it was pulling alone for that brief time to gain control over the lion.
“Look, you’re hurt. We’re going to crash into that asteroid ahead if you don’t let me take over,” negotiated Hunk.
“I can do it!” she spat.
Hunk plainly knew time was running out, and the Drule’s strength was getting weaker.
“All right, that’s it!” declared Hunk. He cringed over what he needed to do, over the pain it would cause her. “Sorry I have to do this.”
Hunk grabbed her hands, wrenched them off the controls, and pulled her aside out of the chair.
“Ahhh!” Darah half screamed, half yelled in the sheer agony of her pain as she was forced out of the chair and fell to the floor. Tears began streaming down her cheeks, something completely uncharacteristic of her. Still, she soon stood to her feet, facing the oncoming sight of the asteroid they were about to slam into.
Hunk fought to get control of the lion. It jerked drastically in response to his efforts causing Darah to fall back to the floor. Her expression showed fear over the impending destruction, pain over the agony her arm was causing, and chagrin she was feeling over her failure to control the lion. But for once, the fear for her own life meant more to her than what the failure did to dishonor her as a Drule soldier.
Thanks to Hunk, the lion crash landed intact on the asteroid. Hunk looked back to check on Darah only to see her pointing the laser gun at him. It sure hadn’t taken her long to get her composure back after the crash and go straight for snatching the blaster right from his belt without Hunk even noticing.
“Not again,” complained Hunk. “Are you ever anything but trouble? I should have just let Pidge keep that thing."
“Are those your last words?”
“I give up. Look, if you’re gonna shoot me, shoot me. You’ve won, and I’m not battling you anymore. Never mind that I never did anything to hurt you.”
“Coward,” sneered Darah coldly.
She extended the laser gun in front of her a little further, ready to shoot on its deadly setting. But, when she began to pull the trigger, her hand and arm began to shake and then she was shaking all over. Sweat broke out on her forehead and tears were streaming from her eyes again. Suddenly the gun in her left hand went limp and was cradling back for forth on her index finger. Darah was struggling to stay conscious with an expression of hopelessness on her face. The gun slipped off her finger and fell to the floor. A moment later, Darah’s eyes went shut and she dropped to the floor as well. And, there she lay, passed out in a crumpled heap.
Hunk rushed over to her and caught her head in his arms, keeping it from hitting the floor. He wondered what had happened. Gently he let her head set on the floor and then took a blanket out of a compartment in the wall of yellow lion. He wanted to stay by with her until she recovered, but there wasn't time for that. Enough time had been lost in crashing the lion in the first place.
"Hunk, come in," said a voice.
"Pidge?" replied Hunk.
"Got him, Keith. I'll patch you through."
"Hunk, what's going on?" asked Keith.
Hunk undid the block Darah had on visual and what was left of the block on audio communications. After that, the visual to Keith was also on. Hunk was surprised how thorough the blocking she set up was.
"How'd you get through?" asked Hunk, flabbergasted.
"Ask Pidge. Is everything all right? Can you get outta there just fine?"
"Taking off now."
Yellow lion had no damage and easily departed from the asteroid. Hunk re-attached as Voltron's left leg and they were all on their way again.
A while later, Darah woke up. She was puzzled to see no tape on her anymore and her injured arm in a sling. Hunk had removed the tape and tended to her arm a while after yellow lion was reconnected to Voltron and engaged in autopilot again. She sat up from under the blanket and stared at the yellow lion pilot just a short distance from her and wondered to herself why she hadn't disposed of him. She had called him a coward because he hadn't disposed of her when he had the chance and because he had given up trying to fight her all together. Only a coward gives up. Yet she knew even before she said it that her label of him was misplaced. She feared for her life even above honor when the lion was falling out of control into an asteroid. Yet this pilot didn't fear for his life above honor when she was about to take it. Perhaps fighting for peace, although an oxymoron, does make more sense that fighting to conquer.
Darah was rediscovering values she forgot that she had ever had. There was a time when she was a very young child that she valued ideas of peace. But she lost that after her family was gone, killed by soldiers of her own people. And, Darah continued to wonder why she hadn't eliminated the Voltron pilot. There was more to it than simply that he had been brave. There was just something about him. It was like she felt some sort of connection. It was because of that, that she couldn't shoot him. Whenever he had looked at her, it felt as though he could see deep within her, and she had a sense that somehow she was seeing something deep within him.
Hunk looked back to check on her.
"Oh, you're finally awake," commented Hunk, and he faced forward again.
"Why'd you let me loose?"
Hunk continued to stare forward. "You're not my prisoner. If you attack me again I will defend myself, but I hope you won't. You don't have to stay, but I won't take you to just anywhere you want to go either. We need to get back to Arus, but if you want I'll drop you off somewhere along the way, and you can contact someone to pick you up from there."
Darah normally would have been disgusted by such niceness. But her attitude was changing and instead she was only puzzled with Hunk's behavior.
"I'll stay with you, if that's OK," she replied with some guarded hesitation.
"Fine," Hunk simply and unemotionally said.
A period of silence went by and then Hunk very matter-of-factly asked, "So what's your name anyway? This is gonna be a long trip so I may as well at least know your name."
She was a bit taken aback that he'd even care to ask, but she answered, "Darah. And, what's yours?"
"I'm Hunk. There. Now at least we know each other's names." Having said that, Hunk didn't initiate anymore conversation with Darah the whole trip back and just continued looking forward out the view screen as to where they were traveling.
Darah just sat there quietly on the floor with the blanket over her knees and her knees pulled up to her chest. She felt strangely humble in Hunk's presence and unworthy of initiating conversation with him. So as the left leg of Voltron, Hunk and Darah continued on their long journey together for Arus in silence.
Commentary: In the animated series, Allura flew blue lion even though she had an injured arm. Her argument was that because she could move her arm, she’d be able to fly the lion. In the story I wrote above I’ve created the information that if an arm is injured badly enough, such as Darah’s right shoulder, then the pilot is likely to not have enough strength to fly a lion on manual. Also, according to the animated series, I can’t think of a time that reveals as to whether the pilot must have control of the lion to switch from manual to auto pilot. But, in the story I wrote, I created the information that the pilot must have some control over the lion to switch back to auto pilot. Also I don’t know much according to the animated series as to how their blasters (laser guns) work. So I created the information that they can be set for stun or to kill and that they automatically reset themselves to stun unless purposely temporarily overridden not to. Don't know if the lions can be configured to block incoming communications, but figured that if it could be done, Pidge would find a way to get through it, just as I had happen in the story. Also don't know if the lions have a compartment in the cockpit that would have a blanket, but thought it to be a plausible so I used it. I used information from the animated episode about when Hunk wasn't staying attached as Voltron's leg during practice drills to create the part in this story about yellow lion dropping off as Voltron's leg.
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
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