Archive of Our Own ^beta

Veronica, Matt, and Shiro were incredibly proud of their work. They had been assigned together for a semester long project. It was their final exam. They had to create a working robot that could be demonstrated in front of the class.

Theirs had turned out great. The three of them had created a thing called a Microbot. It was a small small robot that could be directed by a headband the person was wearing and connect with other Microbots. The three of them had all demonstrated with the Microbots and had gotten some volunteers.

They had been well received. They had become patented and been shown in the news, all the way across the world. Everyone knew what they had done with the Microbots. It was incredible. The three of them walked to their siblings.

Shiro ruffled Keith’s hair and they hugged. Keith grinned proudly at him. Shiro had been working on the idea with Matt since the two of them had been young. Matt’s classes on biology and extensive research had certainly helped. As had Veronica’s knowledge of prosthetics.

The three of them had done something incredible! It would never be forgotten. They would show their Microbots to the whole world.

Matt and Veronica walked over to their families. They had been watching from the reserved seats. Matt jumped off the stage and crushed Katie in his arms. She squeaked, but hugged him back.

Veronica’s whole family had come to cheer her on. Marco and Lisa had brought their children, Naida and Sylvio with them. Marisol, Marco's twin and Jax had also brought their two children, Mark and May. Her sister Rachel had brought her husband, Parker, and their infant, Allie. Luis brought his fiance, Anne. Leo, Lance, Jacob, Dannielle, and Dominic were also there. Her grandparents had flown in and even three of her cousins, Valeria, Luke, and Grant came to watch the presentation.

Lance would be graduating from high school the next week, and he was incredibly fascinated by what she had done. He had come to work on it with them, like Katie and even Keith on occasion. He was very invested in their project. He had also been accepted into Garrison University and was excited to get into chemical engineering and other sciences.

Veronica was proud of her brother. She knew the others felt the same way about their siblings. She was looking forward to his success in his fields.

She waved to Matt. “Hey, see you tomorrow.”

He turned to face her, arm still around his younger sister who would be graduating the next year. “Yeah, see you. Oh! Lance, you can come, too! We’re having a dance-off with the Microbots. I’ll warn you, I’m gonna win.”

Lance snorted. “Matt, you suck at dancing. I’ve seen you. Do you really think you have a chance against me, the school voted best dancer?” he struck a small pose at that.

Katie rolled her eyes. “Please, Lance. You won because only three people participated in the vote. One of them was Hunk, and his vote doesn’t count on this.”

The person in question had wandered over at that exact moment. He looked hurt. “Why does my vote not count? What did I do?”

Matt patted his shoulder. “Your vote counts, buddy, Pidge here is just salty Lance can dance better than she can.”

“Excuse me!” Katie squawked indignantly. “I am not jealous of Lance’s nonexistent dance prowess, nor am I a pigeon. We have been over this, Matt. I am a sophisticated young lady who can hack better than the rest of you combined.”

“Really?” Lance purred. “I think you’re just jealous. See my greatness?” he then twirled in a perfect pirouette, which he had learned when he took ballet with Veronica, Rachel, and Leo when they had been younger.

Shiro dragged Keith over there. He awkwardly waved and moved to stand behind Shiro. Veronica and Matt still thought it was funny every time they saw it.

Her grandma started calling, though. “Vamonos, chicos.”

“Coming, Abuela,” Veronica replied. They were going to have a big barbeque with even more relatives at their house. It would be unfortunate to be late.

“Of, course, Abuela. We’re coming. Adios, amigos. See you later.” He shot a little finger gun pose and wiggled his eyebrows before marching off.

Veronica gave a quick hug to Matt and Shiro. “It was really nice working with you two,” she said as she walked to her family. One of her nieces, May, had started clinging to her leg, so Veronica picked her up.

She and Lance waved as they walked out to the parking lot filled with cars. They split up after sorting who would go in what car (Veronica was in high demand, as she was the current awesomest aunt ™ ). Naida, Sylvio, and Mark had weasled their way into a car with her, Dominic, Dannielle, and Leo, who was driving. Lance had been upset and pouted, but she pointed out that the drive home was less than thirty minutes and he was being a baby. Miraculously, he shut up after that.

She ended up telling stories about Microbots the whole way home. Her family loved them. She was happy about how that project had turned out.

~

“Are you excited?” Keith asked. Shiro turned to face him, breaking out of his thoughts.

“Hmm? I wasn’t listening. What did you say?”

“I was wondering if you were excited.”

Shiro grinned. “Definitely. I still can’t believe they picked me, Matt, and Sam to be the people who get to test this. Can you believe it, the first people in the other dimension! This is incredible! We’re teleporting!”

“Yeah, don’t forget to come back, though. The new dimension can’t be that much better than ours,” he replied. Shiro ruffled his hair, a go to response.

“Of course I’ll come back. After all, I have a brother to groom and a fiance to marry. I can’t very well leave, can I?”

Keith smiled. “No, not really. You’re stuck with us. Have fun in a new dimension.”

“Okay. Don’t get in trouble while I’m gone.”

Keith frowned, “You’ll only be gone for six minutes. How could I get in trouble?”

Shiro gave him a flat look. “Keith, I have known you for nearly a decade. It takes three seconds without supervision before you start getting in trouble.”

“Fine, I’ll leave the knife.”

“Thank you.”

Shiro walked over to his fiance, Adam, and kissed him goodbye. He then walked to get his space suit on and meet up with Commander Holt and Matt. They had five hours until launch.

Shiro did all his stretches that could be done in his suit and walked to stand by Sam and Matt. They would be walking to the small vessel in ten minutes.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

Matt shrugged. “Eh, not really. It’s not going to stop me, though.”

Sam nodded. “I don’t think this is something anyone can be fully ready for. This is an amazing experience.”

The younger men nodded along with that. There didn’t seem to be anything they could add to the statement. They gave each other a high five before they were called to climb into the shuttle. Sam would go in first, then Shiro, and Matt would be last.

As he walked along the bridge to the shuttle, he waved at everyone. He spotted Keith next to Katie and Mrs. Colleen. He waved, Matt and Sam noticing and following in his actions. The three waved beck, smiling. The three of them gave a thumbs up to the men boarding the shuttle that would be going to Dimension A, Balmera.

Shiro smiled at the three of them, but he was sure they couldn’t see. He and Matt sent a thumbs up back and Sam joined right after. They reached the shuttle and Sam climbed in slowly. Shiro followed him after a minute, like they had practiced. Matt climbed in a minute after him and they took their seats.

“We have four hours until launch,” Matt stated.

“Yes. What are you thinking about, Son?” Sam asked.

“Please don’t suggest something stupid, there are cameras,” Shiro added.

Though they couldn’t see it, they could feel his pout. “Do you not trust me? I feel so betrayed! My own father! Inconceivable!”

Shiro smirked. “I do not think that word means what you think it means,” he replied in a fake spanish accent.

“Just for the record, I don’t think I can survive four hours of you two making puns and movie references,” Sam protested.

“You could join us, Dad,” Matt suggested in an innocent tone. Shiro nearly groaned. Those two knew so many quotes and puns it was scary. It was also incredibly hard to get one by them without them noticing.

Shiro supposed he had a goal until the launch. For the next three hours they tried to get their references and quotes by each other. Shiro had failed.

“T-1 hour until launch.”

The next hour went much faster. Shiro finally got his reference by Matt and Sam. He was very proud about that. He had been saving it for months. It was from an old movie called Go Lion. He had loved that show growing up.

He even dreamed about it. That one was more strange. In the dream, he distinctly remembered the Green paladin being Katie. He hadn’t recognized any of the others, then, but he did now. The Red Paladin was Keith, who he hadn’t met when he had the dream. Veronica’s younger brother who had helped them out frequently, Lance, had been the Blue Paladin. His friend who Shiro didn’t remember the name of had been the Yellow Paladin.

He even remembered that there was a lady with white hair and dark skin in the place of the princess. She had pink marks on her cheeks, which probably made her an Altean. He had yet to meet many of them. There was an older man with vibrant orange hair behind her.

He loved that dream. It was comforting and reassuring. He loved the feeling of being in control and being surrounded by those other people.

“T-10 minutes until launch,” he heard.

Shiro was getting excited. “I can’t wait! I know we’ll just be sitting there, strapped in during the trip, but it’s all so exciting!”

Matt squeaked. “I know! We’re going to another dimension! This is incredible! We get to be the first ones, too!”

“I’m glad they picked us,” Sam said.

“Well, you did do most of the research on the dimension and Colleen was the one who discovered it. It’s really not surprising you were picked.”

“Well, you boys created those Microbots with Veronica, and they were a huge help in making the shuttle. It was thanks to them we can even fly.”

“Yeah, I am glad we could do this,” Matt announced.

They waited more, time finally stretching out into unbearable lengths. “T-5 minutes.”

“T-1 minute.”

“T-30 seconds.”

They started counting in the shuttle.

Matt started, “29!”

Shiro and Sam joined in. “28! 27! 26! 25! 24! 23! 22! 21! 20! 19! 18! 17! 16! 15! 14! 13! 12! 11! TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!”

They felt the g-forces increasing and they were shot into the portal.

“Whoo!” Shiro shouted.

“Dimension Balmera, here we come!” Matt cried as they saw the new place.

It was incredible. There seemed to be clouds swirling around, but there was no obvious gravity. The clouds were different colors and looked like they were full of stars. He assumed they weren’t, because the three of them were still alive.

“This is incredible,” Sam whispered.

“A nice way to spend the next five minutes,” Shiro agreed.

“Just look! It’s just amazing! How does it work? How are the clouds swirling? Why does it look like stars? Are they dangerous?” Matt started asking question after question. It was nice to listen to him as they passed through the scenery.

Shiro noticed something, though. “The computer shouldn’t be doing that.”

Sam and Matt immediately looked, shocked at what they found. It was flashing red, but no emergency sounds were screaming. That was bad. He looked at the board to see what the cause could be.

He had no idea. Matt started typing furiously and Sam attempted to hail the base. “The ship’s about to self-destruct! Get to the emergency pods, quick!” Matt shouted.

“Okay, how long?” Shiro said as he, Matt, and Sam unstrapped themselves.

“A minute.”

“F*ck,” Sam replied.

“F*ck,” Shiro and Matt agreed.

They each clambered into a pod and strapped in the minimal amount before ejecting. Shiro’s pod left the ship first, followed by Sam’s and then Matt. They hailed each other over their helmets’ communication devices.

“What now?”

“Yeah, Dad, what do we do?”

“I guess we’ll just head toward the portal. We’ll see if we can still get out.”

“Won’t we crash?”

“Shiro, if we don’t crash, we’ll be stranded in another dimension,” Matt stated.

“You know, this really sucks.”

“Yeah, but we need to try and make the best of it. Time to go home.”

“So, anyone else know how to pilot these? Because I’m pretty sure you two only got the basic lessons that were mandatory.”

Sam and Matt both sighed. “No, unfortunately.”

“They didn’t think it was necessary,” Matt added dryly.

“Well, you seem to be doing fine. Just keep aiming for the portal. Hopefully we make it.”

“Okay. Just keep going,” Matt summarized.

“Just keep going.”

~

As soon as Katie heard Shiro say that, she knew something was wrong. The computer should never do something it wasn’t supposed to. The people around leaned closer trying to see what was happening.

Her mom was biting her lip nervously and straining to listen. Keith looked pale. All three of them were concerned. The next thing she heard was right after the video feed cut off.

It was Matt! “The ship’s about to self-!”

The audio cut out as well. From the panicked tone and the word choice, Katie felt she knew what he was saying. The ship was about to self destruct.

Her world came crashing to a stop. She didn’t feel anything. Her emotions were dead. She felt empty. The ship her brother was on was about to explode. Her dad would be caught in an explosion. Shiro would die in another dimension.

Keith growled. “Open the portal!” he yelled, as if it would make it happen. Katie knew that wouldn’t work. The ship would just blow up in the building, then.

She stared at the portal. Her brother, father, and friend were supposed to land there in four and a half minutes. She felt a rush of anger.

There was no way they would die! They weren’t allowed to! They had escape pods and training. They could last there for a couple days.

She would get them out. “They have escape pods,” she said, her voice flat. “We have to get them out of that new dimension.”

“Maybe the Garrison will.” Keith’s reply was less heated than his last one but not hopeful. They had both realized that the Garrison was not likely to risk opening the portal after that.

“What happened?” people started asking.

“Will they be okay?” others questioned.

“Did the mission fail?” was another question.

“They have to be fine,” her mom whispered. “They have to. You’re right, they have escape pods. I’ll go talk to the people in charge.”

Katie hugged her mom. “Okay.”

“I’ll get them to open that portal,” Colleen said, determined.

~

Katie took the next two weeks off of school. She spent the next two days, Sunday and Monday, trying to figure out how to get the Garrison to open the portal again. She even hacked into the servers thrice, but the portal had been dismantled.

By Tuesday, she wondered if they had died. She knew the flight was only supposed to take six minutes. They wouldn’t have brought much rations. However, Keith told her that they were mandatory in escape pods.

They had researched how long someone could survive on those rations. Keith had directed her to the specifics and she had done the hacking. They figured that their family had six days to live in space.

They had presented case after case to the Garrison, begging them to open the portal. They finally agreed… on the seventh day. They sent a probe and found the ship crashed into the surface of a planet, blown up.

They had discovered that the escape pods were deployed. Well, Keith and Pidge had... after hacking into their computers after hearing the maddening news report. They would not accept that as an answer.

The Garrison had sent out a report after investigating the explosion of the Kerberos Shuttle. It had been a public news report. Katie had been hacking into the plans for the mission when Keith knocked on the door.

Their mother had let them in. He pulled out Shiro’s tablet, and showed something to them. Everyone in the house politely pretended that the others were not complete wrecks. They pretended that Katie’s hair had been brushed since the mission. They pretended that her lips were not covered in blood from chewing on them so much. They pretended that she was just trying to annoy Matt by wearing his shirt.

They pretended that her mother wasn’t shaking. They pretended that her hair didn’t look matted. They pretended that her eyes were not red and swollen. They pretended that Keith didn’t look too pale. They pretended that his fists weren’t clenched around Shiro’s watch.

They pretended that they were functioning people and that their lives were just like normal. Then Keith showed them the video. It was a news report made earlier that day.

The news report was from the Garrison’s Space Program, the one their family had gone on the mission for. Katie and her mom watched. They were addressing the explosion and crash. Commander Iverson finally stood up to speak after the others explained what happened.

“This is a tragedy. Nothing can make up for the lives that were lost. We will remember this failure in the future. We will make sure this never happens again.”

Admiral Sanda followed him. She stood in perfect military precision. “We regret to inform the human race that while this is a tragedy, this is to be seen as pilot error. Takashi Shirogane has made grave errors and ultimately caused the crash of the shuttle. The decisions caused the engine to become unstable and explode upon contact with the object. All three crew members on the Kerberos shuttle are believed to have died in the explosion as none of the escape pods were deployed.”

Keith paused the video with shaking hands. Katie’s mom reached a hand out and pulled him into a hug with one arm. She pulled Katie in with her other. They sat there for a second.

Then they quit pretending. Their worlds had fallen apart. They cried. The three adults clung to each other and cried.

“M-Matt said he was going to build a celebration robot with me,” Katie muttered through her sobs. Her mom held her tighter.

“My baby! He said he was going to ask a girl out from his Chemistry class. He told me some of the pickup lines he was going to use. They were terrible, but I thought they might work,” her mom said.

Katie sniffed. “He told me about her. He said we could go on a double date if I could get someone to go with me,” she replied. The girls started crying harder.

“Shiro said… he would never leave.”

They hugged him tighter.

“He said he would come back because he had to take care of me. He said that Matt and I would have to fight over who could be the best man at his wedding.”

Katie tried to hug him too. “Matt said that he thought he would lose. He complained that he would have to be the flower boy. I told him the job was already taken.”

“I just want him to come back!” Keith finally voiced.

The three of them leaned closer to each other and cried until they could shed no more tears. They sat there after, until their legs felt as numb as their hearts.

~

There were three weeks left in the semester. It was Katie’s second year in college and Keith’s last. Veronica had called them and been over a few times. She checked that they were functioning enough.

She brought Lance and Hunk over to the Holts’ house. They helped her on the project she was working on and kept her relatively distracted. It was thanks to them that she could even finish the school year.

She watched Keith graduate with Hunk and Lance. Katie wondered briefly how he was doing. She decided that she would go talk to him over the summer.

Suddenly, she was overwhelmed again. She had seven classes over the summer and homework for all of them. She lived through her days in a hazy blur. Matt’s death didn’t seem real. Her father’s death didn’t seem real.

She turned to hacking into the Garrison files when she needed a break. It proved to be a soothing method. Then she found something. It turned out that the Garrison had more information it wasn’t showing to the public.

Not only had the escape pods been deployed, but footage showed one of them reaching the portal destination. The camera was shut off immediately after that, but Katie thought that all three of them had made it.

So they had made it to the meetup place after the seven days. It was crazy. She also learned that they were doing research on that dimension. She showed it to her mother, who put in a request to become part of the research team after seeing that.

There were asteroids with breathable atmospheres there. There were asteroids that had water on them. There was a large one with animals on it that were edible for humans.

They could survive out there.

Her family could be alive.

She just had to figure out how to save them.

She felt a rush of energy the next day. Her grades rose from the 95s they had been. She paid attention in classes and excelled. She pushed herself harder. She looked for Keith to tell him of her findings.

Katie Holt was going to get her brother, father, and friend out of Dimension A Balmera.

~

Due to the classes Katie took over the summer, Lance had a few classes with her in his year. He was impressed by her drive. He was proud of how she handled Matt’s death. He sure wouldn’t have handled his sister’s that well.

They actually had robotics together, which was interesting. He was taking that class as his sixth, he was interested in it and knew enough about it to keep up. He wasn’t going to major in it, or anything, but it did technically fall under the realm of subjects he could pick for Chemical Engineering.

Plus, those Microbots were awesome. He wanted to learn to do stuff like that. His sister was a genius and all, but that was seriously impressive. Considering he had the class with Katie frickin’ Holt and Hunk Garret, otherwise known as his best friend and roommate, it would be awesome. There was no way this class could be boring.

One thing that was interesting was that the three of them, Katie, Hunk, and him, were working under James Griffin on his graduate project. Since they were undergrads, they couldn’t do much more than help, but it would be great. They were going to make a new fighter jet, Mecha-Flex-Ero, or MFE jets.

They would be meeting up with employees of different fighter pilot companies and other engineering groups. Lance had heard they had definite yesses from both Castle of Altea and Marmora Engineering. Empire Industries had yet to give an informative answer. They were sort of working under the Galaxy Garrison, but that was another whole confusing mess.

That was fine. They had plans and their project seemed to be going great. Lance was doing some side projects in his free time. He had created a little thing he had yet to name. It was in a little ball, but if you threw it and it hit something, it caused a chemical reaction.

The interesting part was what the chemical reaction did. It was similar to Devil’s Toothpaste, which was created by some famous scientist, Mark Rober. It expanded within milliseconds. There were several different ways he had made it.

The first one was incredibly unstable and quite probably too dangerous to be doing at home. He made sure he was in the backyard when testing it.

… He had still set the yard on fire once. The fire extinguisher didn’t help. Neither did water. Then his mom put flour on it. That really hadn’t worked out.

The powder was kept in a little case so it wouldn’t react with anything in the air. That would be terrible and mess up their hypothesis. When thrown, it would either expand in a two foot radius in a very hot gel like substance or explode outward in a shockwave of matter that was around 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

The second was not nearly as dangerous or unstable. When it was thrown, it expanded in a two foot radius but the gel was a lot cooler. It was almost cold, which was nice. It was also very sticky. That was interesting. He was thinking about things it could be used for.

The third was similar to the first two. When thrown, it expanded in a two foot radius. Unlike the others, it was not an extreme temperature. It also started hardening soon after it reached four feet wide.

Since Lance knew the solution, he could break it down. It wasn’t that difficult. It was, however, a pain to clean up. He avoided making it for that reason. It just took forever to clean up. None of the ingredients were very toxic, but he wasn’t about to let his niblings play in a yard full of questionably safe matter. That would set a bad example.

He had yet to find a use for those in actual life, so he hadn’t announced what he had made. He might expand further on that when he went back to school for graduate school. He told Hunk and Katie, though.

It was when he told them about his side project that he learned about theirs. Hunk had been cooking recently and had invented an interesting knife. It could slice things into incredibly thin slices. It was actually a laser.

Lance thought that was super cool. He also thought that only people who were literally master cooks would buy that, but he encouraged his friend to bring that idea out to light. He convinced him to at least show James, because he might find that tool’s precision to be great when working on a new model of fighter jet.

Katie told them things she learned about what had been going on in both the Galaxy Garrison and Garrison University. More specifically, she was researching the crash and Dimension A Balmera.

Apparently there were mini-planets there? That people could live on? Why was that not public knowledge? That was serious stuff. It was also super impressive how she got that. How did Katie even get to that information?

There was a possibility that Takashi Shirogane, Lance’s idol who had been on the Kerberos shuttle, and Katie’s brother and father were still alive.

That was shocking. She presented piece after piece of evidence, no matter how small it could be. Lance found himself believing her. At the very least, he hoped she was correct and that they could find her family.

~

Hunk thought that Lance was a little bit crazy. They may have been friends and had known each other from the age of seven, but Hunk was not delusional. He was well aware his friend was strange. He was also aware that most of his ideas fell under the category of either concerning or strange. Several fell under both.

One great example of this was his long term side project he had been working on for over a year. They were little balls of powder that had intense chemical reactions when shook. One of which might just start a house fire.

Hunk felt that definitely fell under both strange and concerning. That was okay. He didn’t mind, but still. He made sure to check in on Lance’s projects.

Katie, on the other hand, was a little tornado. He tried going into her room to find a wrench once and nearly lost an eye that day. He still had the scar. Her project space was kept clean and orderly, but nothing else was.

She explained what she was doing in nothing but extreme doses of technical jargon. Now, Hunk was training to be a mechanical engineer. He was well versed in the language of tech. He was not, however, prepared for the sheer force that was Katie. After visiting her, he generally went home to take a nap.

It took a lot to track a conversation with her. Seriously, a lot of energy was required. He needed 99% of his brainpower to keep up with her words. She spoke at a mile a minute, as if she would never get them out otherwise. Unfortunately, he also needed 20% of his brainpower to do whatever she had conscripted him into doing at the moment.

It just took a lot of energy. Thankfully, she kept her conversations at school to a level that could be understood by the general populous… of engineers. Normal people wouldn’t stand a chance in the room with her.

They had made major headway on their project and would have a good draft by the end of the semester. Their work would then be mostly done and James would be required to build it with a company of his choice. They had ended up getting the support of the Galaxy Garrison, so they assumed he would choose them.

They would be required to help a bit, but would also have other things to do for school. Their senior project would be counted as that and then they could graduate. Well, that was how it would work for him and Lance. Katie would still have to do a senior project the next year.

He was hanging out with Katie and Lance after work. He worked at one of the bakeries on campus. It paid surprisingly well, probably because it was so well known. It was actually a family tradition to work there. Both of his parents had worked there and three of his grandparents had. Two of his great-grandparents had started working for it after it had opened. His brother had taken a few semesters there, and Hunk hoped that his sister, Alice, would as well.

Actually, that bakery was where his parents had met. They had been working together on an evening shift for months before his mom asked Angela, his stepmom, out. He and John gained a sister and they couldn’t be happier. That bakery held plenty of memories for his family.

Katie only worked as a tutor, because she spent so much time working on finding her family. It was a well paying job and her students usually benefited greatly. Hunk and Lance had actually gotten a few sessions on discount, which were actually really helpful.

Lance actually worked two jobs. He was a pool lifeguard and worked at the reception center of a gym in the middle of town. He had practically been raised in the water, was minoring in biology, and had been in shape his whole life. He really was a great candidate to be a lifeguard and he took that job seriously. He told Hunk that he had a rule: no flirting while on job. Hunk was impressed by his commitment.

Due to that, Lance actually had one of the busiest schedules. He used the money he earned to pay off debt, his car, and their rent. He was head and shoulders above the usual college student, but that left him without many free hours.

He used those few free hours to go to his parents’ house. He visited his siblings that still lived there frequently. Jacob, Dannielle, and Dominic stayed in touch with him for that, and he loved it. Veronica also frequently popped in, so he could see her occasionally.

Leo had been bringing his girlfriend around and his older siblings had a total of ten children. Lance and Veronica had been strongly encouraged to go out by their parents. Even Jacob had a girlfriend and Danniele and Dominic were not going to be single for long once they were allowed to date.

Hunk had reassured him that it was okay and in return, Lance encouraged him to flirt with the girl in his geology class, Shay Balmerian. Of course, that was awkward. Hunk sometimes wished he hadn’t told him about that, but Lance was never mean about it, just encouraging. Hunk still blushed whenever Lance brought it up.

But still, the three of them were lounging on Katie and her mom’s couch working on their spare projects in the same room. Lance was jamming out to some music, probably Shakira. Pidge was on a computer, her recently cut hair pushed back from her face.

Hunk was baking in the kitchen with Colleen. It was weird being an adult. Calling your friend’s mom by her first name was weird, but so was calling her anything else. He couldn’t call her Mom, he already had two of those, which had also been hard enough to figure out.

Like, he already had Mom, but he wouldn't call his stepmom Angela. He couldn’t call her Mom, even though Alice did, because that was already taken, also, that would be weird. He also didn’t like to call her his stepmom, because that was also just weird. Mama sounded the worst of them all, so eventually, he settled for Mum.

Hunk decided that sounding Altean was an acceptable bargain for giving Mum a name. She deserved one. Mum was awesome. So was Mom. His whole family was great, and so were his friends’ families. He had learned everyone's names and had met a few cousins.

And Lance’s family was huge, so that was a big deal. Hunk gave himself some pats on the back for that. He could tell most of Lance’s family apart by voice and knew not only all the siblings' names, but all the sibling in laws’ names and all the nieces’ names and all the nephews’ names. He knew about twelve cousins and eight or nine aunts and uncles, too.

He had met Matt a few times, but Hunk knew Katie’s family a lot less than Lance’s. Colleen, who insisted she be called that, was very nice. She never minded when they came over and loved whatever he cooked. She invited them over with open arms and made their visits feel happy. Also, her rolls were to die for.

“So, you guys remember Shiro?” Katie asked.

They nodded. Hunk had met him once, and thought he was a pretty great guy. Lance hummed. Hunk remembered how Lance told him about Shiro after meeting up with them in high school. Lance had gushed about him for hours.

“His little brother texted me. He’ll be over in ten minutes.”

Hunk took a minute to process that. Lance must have registered that before he did. “What!?” he cried. “Shiro has a brother!?”

Katie blinked at him. “We went to his graduation last year. You know, Keith Kogane. Your ‘Rival’. You complain about him to me frequently.”

“He’s Shiro’s brother?”

“Katie shrugged. “Yeah. Well, not legally or biologically, but he’s definitely Shiro’s little brother. Do you remember the Microbot presentation?”

Lance tried to think back to then. Hunk followed. He remembered following Lance to get invited to a dance party with Matt, Veronica, and Shiro. He thought harder and saw… Keith standing behind Shiro. Huh.

“Oh, he’s coming?” Colleen asked.

Katie shrugged. “He said, so I don’t think he’ll miss it. He should be off work right now and he’s not working on that project he’s been sending me that data for.”

“Wait,” Lance interrupted, ”he’s your informat? He’s the dude who keeps sending you the data?”

Katie nodded. “Yeah, I really thought I told you guys this. Are you sure you didn’t forget?”

Hunk nodded. “I would remember this, Katie. You definitely forgot to tell us. We were just not sure it was that important we were told and let it go.”

“All right, I will go make some hot chocolate and see if I can convince him to stay longer. You three behave. I have been trying to get him to be comfortable around me for over four years. Don’t scare him away now.”

Katie blinked at her. “You sound like you’re describing a cat, Mom. This is Keith we’re talking about. If he was that easily scared, I would have threatened him away years ago.”

Colleen adjusted her glasses. “Why do you think it took him so long to warm up to me, dear?” she asked drily.

Katie looked almost offended and Lance was cackling. Hunk wasn’t sure how to react. Everything he knew about Keith pointed this in a different direction, but Katie was scary. That was not an opinion. That was a fact. One did not cross Katie Holt.

They continued working on their projects and Hunk stuck his cinnamon rolls in the oven. The dough had been made a different day, but he really didn’t have the time to do it all at once. College took time and way too much energy.

They were interrupted by a knick on the door. Colleen grabbed a mug and poured the still boiling hot chocolate in it. She grabbed some spices from the spice cupboard and shook them in as well. “Come in, Keith!” she called.

The door opened to reveal Keith, which was not surprising. What was surprising was the sheer amount of tech he had. Well, it was surprising to him, but apparently not to Colleen and Katie.

Keith stared at him and Lance. “If you’re busy, I’ll just go…” he said and started to turn around. Hunk saw what was coming before it happened.

Katie launched herself at him and dragged him to the couch, careful only because of the technology in his hands. She then stole the tech. Colleen walked over and placed the mug in his hands. “You're not interrupting anything Keith. Stay.”

Faced with the stubborn wall that was the Holt females, Keith backed down. Okay, fine, I’ll stay. Is this-”

Colleen rolled her eyes before interrupting him. “Hot chocolate with a shake of cinnamon and three shakes of pumpkin spice flavoring.”

Keith sighed before sipping the burning liquid. “Okay, okay. Fine. Whatever. Who are they?” he pointed to Hunk and Lance.

Hunk walked over. “I am Hunk Garret, Katie’s friend. Lance brought me to the dance off.”

Keith nodded, but still looked confused. Hunk let it slide.

“Ugh! You don’t remember me!? I’m Lance! We were rivals!”

Keith looked startled and stared at Lance. He glanced at Katie who shrugged. He narrowed his eyes at her before looking back at Lance. “I’m sorry, but I…” he shrugged.

Lance gave him a flat look. “You know, Keith and Lance, neck and neck.”

He shrugged again before having a realization. “Oh, we had Chemistry together! You were that kid who set the lab on fire with your invention!”

Hunk laughed but smothered the chuckles after seeing Lances glare. “Okay, that was one time, all right!”

“You set the lab on fire and didn’t tell me!?” Katie cried indignantly.

Keith poked her with his foot. “You would have blackmail on him for months. Who on Earth would tell you something like that if they had the chance not to?”

Despite Lance’s claims that he hated Keith, he agreed. “Yeah, why would I give you blackmail? You already have enough.”

Katie pouted. “I never have enough, you should know this.”

“Thankfully, I know,” she spat the word out like an accusation, “that none of you will be doing anything illegal without my permission.”

“I’m not promising anything,” Keith reponded.

“At least he’s honest,” Katie commented.

“What would you be doing that’s not legal?” Lance asked.

Hunk stared at him. He gestured to Katie’s project.

“Right. You make a good point, Hunk. That’s definitely not legal.”

“So, why are you here?” Katie asked.

“Oh, you don’t want me. I’ll leave. Goodbye, Pidge.”

Colleen snorted and Hunk glanced between them. What was he missing? Like seriously, what? And why was Katie being called Pidge?

“Nu-uh. Nope. You can’t leave. You have to tell me why you actually showed your freakishly pale face in my glorious presence.”

“Can we call you Pidge, too?” Lance asked. Hunk realized he had a collection of nicknames for people. His real name was Tsuyoshi, but Lance had been calling him Hunk since they met. Most of his siblings had official nicknames and so did several of his niephews. (That was another nickname he had come up with.)

Katie blinked at him. “Uh, sure? I mean, I guess? If you want to, you can.”

Lance squealed and jumped up and down. “Wonderful! I finally have a name for you!”

“That’s wonderful, Lance, but Ka-Pidge is trying to ask something.”

“Yes,” she whispered into his ear, causing him to jump and spill a few drops of hot chocolate. “Keith, answer me,” She poked him.

He glared at her and moved to a different couch. “I saw some weird signals, have a look at them. I can’t quite think of what they remind me of, but it’s important. I’m sure of it.”

“Got it,” she replied and pulled another app on her computer up. He told her how he got the data and Pidge pulled it up.

“Hey, you two, get over here,” Pidge said, pointing at him and Lance. “What does it look like? It’s familiar.”

The other three young adults looked each other in the eyes at the same moment. “Microbots!” the exclaimed.

“Wait, like the super cool tiny robots your siblings made?” Hunk asked for clarification.

They nodded. “They don’t have authorization to use them,” Keith said.

“What do you mean by that?” Hunk asked.

“There are two companies that are allowed to utilize Microbots, and only in small quantities. Those companies are Castle of Altea and the Galaxy Garrison. Marmora Engineering is trying to get access, but so far there’s no luck.”

“This isn’t property owned by either of those companies,” Pidge added. This is near Empire Industries land. Actually, it’s close to Keith’s house.”

“So we think that someone who isn’t supposed to has Microbots?” Hunk asked.

“This relates to Dimension A Balmera?” Lance asked.

“This is mixed in with signals that have been scientifically proven to be from Dimension A Balmera. I think this might be a transmission from Dimension A Balmera. This might be Shiro, Matt or Mr. Holt,” Keith said.

“Now that we know it’s Microbots, you need to figure out how they got there. I’ll go try and make the transmission make sense. It's a mess,” Pidge said.

Keith nodded, “Okay. Got it, I’ll do some research. I’ll get back to you tomorrow.”

He finished the last of his hot chocolate and washed the cup out. He gave Colleen a small hug and ruffled Pidge’s hair before taking some of his tech and leaving. “Keep the rest!” he shouted over his shoulder as he shut the door.

They heard the car door shut a few seconds later. The car started and he drove away.

“So, does this happen a lot?” Lance asked.

Pidge shrugged. “Ehh. Sorta. I got work to do, gimme three feet of space.”

~

“Are you sure this will work?” Hunk asked Pidge.

Lance shushed him and Pidge rolled her eyes at him. “No,” she whispered. “Of course not. This is a test run, after all. We are gathering data.”

“Okay, fine, fine. Just asking,” he replied.

“Well, you’ve been asking a lot,” Lance commented.

Hunk looked a bit hurt. “That was rude.”

“That was true,” Pidge corrected. “Now hush, we need to watch what’s going on.”

Suddenly, a portal opened up. “Holy Crow! Is that a portal!?” Lance recognized this portal. He and Veronica had been among those who paid to go watch the launch of the Kerberos shuttle. This should go to Dimension A Balmera.

“Whoa! It’s so pretty! Is this what it should look like? Wait, should it be vibrating like that? I don't think so. Should it? I don’t know! Someone! Should the portal be vibrating like that?”

“Hunk, you have two seconds before I shut you up. With a knife,” Pidge added.

Lance and Hunk turned to stare at her. “What.”

Pidge shrugged at Lance. “I mean, it’s not mine, but it worked, didn’t it? And no, I don’t think the portal should be doing that.”

“Got it. The portal should not be vibrating like that. But it is. That’s bad right?”

Pidge and Lance groaned in unison. “Hunk, buddy, I love you. Please be quiet. For me? We are on grounds we are not supposed to be on. This is breaking and entering. Let’s not get caught. Do you get what I mean?”

“Okay, Lance. I do. But we are doing something illegal. I have never done something like this. I’m pretty sure you two are a bad influence on my life choices.”

“I’m pretty sure no one who is actually awesome got through their life without breaking at least a few minor laws,” Pidge voiced.

“Well, maybe I didn’t want to be awesome. Maybe I just wanted to avoid going to jail? Ever thought about that?”

“Sure did. In second grade. I then decided it wasn’t worth it and broke another kid’s nose.”

“Have I ever mentioned how friggin’ terrifying you are, Pidge? Because these are the times I think it needs to be said. Please don’t hurt me.”

Pidge shrugged. “I mean, he insulted my mom and said I was weak because I was wearing a dress, so no one in my family cared, but I did break his nose.”

Hunk sighed in relief. “Oh, thank goodness, I thought you broke his nose just because you wanted to break someone’s nose.”

Pidge grinned, an erie grin that reminded him of a shark. “That was seventh grade. I got suspended for that.”

“Okay, I did not know that about you,” Lance heard from behind him.

Lance jumped. He looked and saw Keith. When did he get there? He thought Keith would be another five minutes. “Aagh! When did you get here!?” he squeaked in a very manly tone.

Hunk and Pidge blinked in shock as well, the latter recovering far before the first. Lance and Hunk looked into each others’ eyes. What kind of demon spawn had their siblings raised? Matt and Shiro must have done something, because that was not normal.

Speaking of them, they looked at the portal again. Keith pulled a bandana up over his nose. It looked like one of those masks a game protagonist would wear. That meant it looked stupid. That was normal, though, because Keith looked stupid in general.

The portal started vibrating more and the four of them shared some glances. Not good. At all. That did not look safe.

“Oh, man! What do you think is going to h-APPEN!” Hunk screamed the last part as something came crashing through the portal.

Against all common sense and logical thinking, Keith lunged forward. Forward was the direction closer to the object. Lance could see lunging backwards, Hunk had done that, actually, but forward? What? No?

He then pulled out a knife. What the actual heck. Why did he have a knife?
Never mind. That wasn’t important. Well, it probably was. Whatever. It could be discussed at a later point in time. Lance stared as he… stabbed the object.

Wow. Lance was at a loss for words. He and Pidge stood up, glancing at each other. He shrugged. Whatever, he was going to go investigate that object.

Wait… that object looked like the shuttle. Oh. Wow. This was an escape pod.

“It’s an escape pod!” he and Pidge yelled in unison.

They raced forward and Hunk followed. Lance mentally applauded him. That guy never got credit. This was some creepy stuff that they were doing. Hunk was coping rather well.

Keith continued stabbing the escape pod. He then pulled a door-like shape out and Lance realized he must have been stabbing strategically. He must have cut the hinges or something.

Well, that was cool. Not that he would ever tell Keith that. He watched as Pidge scrambled up next to him. “Can you tell who it is?” she asked.

“No. I’m going in,” he replied. He then pulled himself into the hole and dropped into the escape pod.

“Can you tell now?” Pidge yelled. “Here, I’ll pass a flashlight!” Pidge tossed a flashlight that she had just turned on into the hole. Lance thought he saw it hit Keith in the head.

“Ow, that was my face, Katie,” he replied.

Lance smirked. He had been right. However, he was a mature adult in a mature situation. He had enough self control not to laugh. He could still take pleasure in it hitting Keith. There couldn’t be anything wrong with that.

He heard a crash. It sounded like metal hitting the floor. It echoed, Lance and Pidge were straining to hear whatever Keith would say and he was being silent. “Who is it?” Hunk asked.

They heard a whisper, but couldn’t distinguish what was said. Pidge climbed in the hole to get a better look. They heard her gasp.

“It’s Shiro!” she called.

They stared at each other. Shiro was here. Lance wondered why they couldn’t see or hear him. Then realized that he might be dead.

Lance hoped he wasn’t dead.

Pidge dropped herself down the hole. Lance waited. He heard loud crashing noises and whispering. He assumed they were trying to pick up Shiro.

“Hunk! Lance!” Pidge yelled. “We need you to catch Shiro!”

“Got it!” Lance yelled back and stood by the hole. It was about his head level, so it would be complicated to get a full grown man out. Thankfully, Hunk was there to catch him. Lance wasn’t too sure he could catch a 200 pound adult aided by gravity without help.

They saw someone’s legs and helped to lift him out of the escape pod. For having been in another dimension for over six months, this dude was pretty solid. Pidge was gently holding his head (which was almost terrifying) and had been lifted up to lean over the edge. Lance and Hunk lowered Shiro to the ground.

Oh, sh*t. They had broken into government property. They had actually done something illegal. There was no possible way this could be legal. They had a man who was, according to the news, dead laying on the floor. What were they even going to do with Shiro?

Hunk helped Pidge down and Keith hopped out of the escape pod. “We should probably leave,” Keith said.

Lance looked at the escape pod with a metal door lying next to it. He looked at Keith (who no longer had the bandana on over his nose, what was the point of wearing it, then?) and then at Shiro. “You know,” he started, “I think you may be right.”

~

They were taking Shiro back to Keith’s house, so Lance and Hunk were tagging along. What were they even going to do with Shiro? How would they release this information?

Why did adulting have to be so hard?

Katie wiped those thoughts away and stared at Keith, who was protectively clinging to Shiro. She ignored the jealousy that rose in her. Keith deserved to find his family, too. Plus, Shiro probably knew what happened to her family. He could help her find them.

She just hoped they had survived. What was she thinking? Of course they survived. Her father and brother were Holts! They could survive anything.

They had better survive that dimension, or she would resurrect them just so she could kill them herself. She would work the details on that out later.

“So, Mullet,” Keith gave an indignant squawk and Katie laughed, “what are we going to do with your brother here?” Lance asked.

“And how are we going to get him to actual medical help? Because we are not qualified for this,” Hunk added.

“I don’t know,” he said.

They all turned to look at Katie. “What? I didn’t think Shiro would come crashing through that small disturbance the size of a ping pong ball. I thought we were just gathering data. The portal was not expected.”

“You make the plans here,” Lance announced.

“I'm the youngest one here. Why should I be making the plans?”

“You’re the smartest,” Lance replied.

Okay, that might have been true. Dang flattery. It always made her feel proud. “I’ll call my mom over and think of a plan while we wait,” she decided.

Keith nodded. Hunk did as well but continued driving the car to Keith’s house. Keith called out directions and he followed.

There was a beeping noise. Pidge ducked and Keith followed. She had been in the science labs far too long for any other reaction. Lance noticed and ducked his head as well. The glass in Keith’s window exploded. Little black things flew into the car.

“What is going on!” Hunk yelled. He slowed to a stop for a red traffic light.

“Move!” Keith yelled. “We do not have time to follow traffic laws!”

Hunk squeaked and opened the door. He climbed into the back with Katie and Keith leaped over the seat and started driving as soon as the door was closed. Shiro was still asleep, but now had glass on him. Hunk worked on brushing that off.

Meanwhile, Katie was typing away. She had pulled out a cord that attached to Microbots (specifically designed by Matt) and started rewriting the code. Hopefully, it could just infect the others with a virus she had created.

Keith started driving again. Unlike Hunk, he was not following the traffic laws. They were definitely speeding and it was illegal to change lanes without going a hundred feet between them. It was also illegal to run a red light, but those didn’t stop them either. This proved to be useful when the beeping noise happened again.

The next window that exploded was Katie’s. She had avoided major injury, but there were definitely a few cuts made by glass. She was almost done with the little bot.

Ah ha! She sent it flying at the others. Once it touched them, her virus rewrote their code and had them search for other Microbots. She could find the neurotransmitter later so she could actually control them. For now, not dying was the goal.

She looked up to see Lance fighting off some Microbots with his shoe. Keith was currently running a red light and was swerving dangerously. They were definitely going in a new direction.

“Where are we going!?” she yelled.

“Back way!” he called back. Katie was unsure what that meant. At least he had a destination in mind. They continued driving, now buckled in tightly. She and Hunk worked on buckling Shiro and held onto him. They weren’t going to let him get hurt because of Keith’s crazy driving. Keith would probably kill them for that.

Keith continued his reckless driving. Oh, crap. That was a cliff. Knowing Keith, he would be taking a dangerous turn along the cliff.

She heard a beeping noise again and sent some microbots flying in that direction. She grabbed onto Shiro.

“Guys! Uh-du-du-du-dut! Is that a cliff up ahead!?” Hunk screamed.

“Yep,” Keith replied, confident as ever. If Katie wasn’t mistaken, and she really hoped that she was, that was his smirking tone. That was probably bad. Why on earth did she trust this insane dude?

“Hecking Snickerdoodle! We’re gonna die!” Lance yelled.

Pidge groaned and hugged Shiro tighter. “Shut up and trust me,” he called. And then they were falling. Off of a cliff. Katie looked outside and realized that they weren’t actually falling. They were still driving, but it was just really steep. That didn’t help, actually.

She noticed that the ground leveled out… sort of… up ahead. Hopefully, no one else would be as friggin’ crazy as Keith. Seriously, that was probably their only chance now.

Hunk suddenly grabbed the window of the car, not caring about the glass. He leaned out into the rapidly vanishing scenery. He threw up.

Katie wondered if she was going to follow. She decided that was too gross. She forbade herself from throwing up.

“How on Earth! What! How are we alive!? When did you learn that!? Who taught you that? Did you test that out for the first time now!?” Lance screamed question after question.

Keith ignored Lance, quite probably the most useful option, and they continued trying to process what had happened. Somehow, Shiro was still asleep. She would need to run some tests to see if he was actually okay.

Well, maybe Hunk was right. They should get him to a hospital to be checked on. She didn’t know enough to diagnose him with anything and she definitely couldn’t safely prescribe anything to him. She was an Engineer, not a Nurse.

They continued driving through the forest. Keith suddenly parked and had them get out. He helped them get Shiro on a hoverbike and they started traveling through the rough terrain to his house.

Keith’s house was in the weird space between the forest, the city, and the desert. There were no other houses nearby, but it was technically within Plaht City Limits. They laid Shiro down on Keith’s couch so they could keep an eye on him.

Katie quickly checked in with the microbots to see if they were still being chased. Through plenty of hacking, she discovered that they weren’t the original target. It turned out that someone had been held captive there and had broken out.

“Guys, they’re looking for someone. It’s not us. They call them Prisoner 113 and they just escaped. We need to help them.”

“What did you figure out?” Keith asked.

“That’s about it. They’re chasing a prisoner through the woods. They have escaped and the people want them back, at any cost. They are using the Microbots to track ‘em, somehow,” she explained.

At that moment, Shiro stirred. “ ‘f som’ne needs help, help ‘em,” he mumbled.

Katie stared in shock. They had gone through a car chase and had broken at least twelve laws, had been attacked by robots, and had driven off a cliff, but Shiro wakes up at the mention of someone needing help? Never mind, it fit perfectly.

Keith got a soft smile on his face. “Okay, we’ll help. You sleep,” he ordered.

“Uhh, what just happened?” Lance asked.

“We have an escaped prisoner to find, Lance. Get ready for more law breaking. And please, let me come up with a censored version of what happened before my mother gets here.”

~

With Katie (and Matt’s) mom watching over Shiro, Keith decided that he could go with them. Shiro wanted them to rescue the prisoner. They would need someone who could drive. They would also need someone who knew how to fight.

He checked that his mother’s knife was in its spot three times, then grabbed two pocket knives, and finally decided he was plenty armed for a casual stroll through the woods. It wouldn’t be good to look suspicious, after all.

He checked on Shiro and found Mrs. Colleen force feeding him. Keith nodded and bid them goodbye, avoiding any pleas for help. He was not going to cross Colleen Holt, not when he had a plan. Katie told her that they were investigating some Microbot signals that seemed to have similar data to the portal that Shiro fell through.

Technically, that was true. If Katie’s mom looked, she would see that the Microbot signals were similar to the ones that the portal Shiro came through had given off. The excuse would work for a few days until Mrs. Colleen got involved.

Of course, then they would be screwed. They had better have found the prisoner by then or they would all be grounded. They would probably also have to take the escapee to his house. Keith really hoped they weren’t annoying or bothersome.

He also figured that the Holts would be staying over until they figured out what to do with the fact Shiro just appeared out of nowhere. Sometimes, Keith was glad his old little shack had three rooms. He did not want to share with someone who was probably dangerous.

Keith gathered with the others in front of his house. They looked a little worse for wear, everyone had at least a few cuts. Katie was passing out band-aids, likely due to Mrs. Colleen’s foresight to bring a pack with her at all times.

“All right, we have to find this prisoner, convince them to come with us, and bring them back here,” Lance clarified. “Any objections?”

Hunk raised his hand. “This guy just escaped from Empire Industries. They could be dangerous. This is a big deal.”

“No offense, but Empire Industries is not legally allowed to take prisoners. Whoever was there had to have been held against their will,” Keith looked up from picking the glass off his arms.

“Hunk’s got a point, though. We have no idea who this person even is,” Lance responded.

“Agreed,” Keith sighed. “Look, I don’t want some stranger in my house any more than the rest of you do, but they clearly need help. Plus, Shiro asked,” he shrugged, “and I’ll do it if he wants me to.”

“Hmm. I’ll figure out a little more while we head back to the woods,” Pidge announced.

Keith nodded. “Good. Hunk, you don’t have to come. You either, Lance.”

Hunk hummed nervously, but Lance shrugged. “I said I wanted to be the cool Uncle. I’m not stopping now. Plus, I haven’t done as much illegal activity as I expected over College. Seems like a good opportunity to get caught up.”

“Okay, well, get on the bike. We’ve got a prisoner to save.”

The four of them fit better without Shiro, which led Keith to believe that it would be a struggle to get the prisoner back. That would be unfortunate, but they had to actually rescue said prisoner before that became a concern.

“Pidge, got anything?”

“No, not yet. Gimme a minute,” she said.

Keith turned to glance at her for a second. She had a tablet in front of her, typing away on the attached keyboards. He thought it was hilarious how she could be riding on a hoverbike, going 30 miles an hour, and spend all her energy typing. He was a bit concerned that she would fall off if any turns happened, but she was sandwiched in between him and Lance, so he hoped she would be fine.

“So, Katie- Pidge, you got anything now?” Hunk asked.

“Her name is Allura Kingsley, she’s 23, she’s the heir to Castle of Altea, and she disappeared 7 years ago, along with her father, Alfor Kingsley, and financial advisor, Coran Smythe,” she all but shouted so everyone could hear.

Huh, this was the missing heir Kolivan told him about. It was becoming clear that something was up with Empire Industries. “Look up their rivalry!” he shouted back.

By the time they reached the trees, Katie had more answers. “Apparently, around 20 years ago, they were close, but they drifted apart. Zarkon Diabazaal is suspected of kidnapping them, but it was never proven. Similarly, Castle of Altea is suspected to have something to do with the disappearance of Honerva Diabazaal.”

“Wow, I never knew Engineers had such bad issues with politics. You would think they were fighting over a country,” Lance replied.

“Wait, she’s been missing for 7 years? Oh, that poor woman. We need to get her home,” Hunk caught.

“Um, she’s not alone! She broke out Coran Smythe and they both escaped. Got room for another person?” Katie called.

“No,” Keith grumbled, “but we’ll bring him.”

They neared the predicted path of the Alteans. Lance was checking for them by sight, Pidge was trying to track them online, Keith was avoiding debris, and Hunk was trying to avoid throwing up Keith’s bike, which he appreciated. The smell of vomit took forever to get rid of.

“Guys! I think I see something!” Lance called. He pointed to the left, so Keith veered the hoverbike over. Sure enough, there were few broken tree branches.

Now they had to cover their tracks, or something. It struck Keith that he had no idea what he was doing. He had never done anything like this before. Especially not with three tagalong college students.

It had just occurred to him that maybe chasing escapee prisoners through the woods while they were on the run was probably a bad idea when he heard something. “Lance, what’s that. Pidge, got the tracker?”

“I’m not sure!” Lance called back.

Keith refrained from swearing. That could wait. He needed to find out if that was the Alteans or their captors. “Pidge!”

“Aagh! I’m trying! Gimme a few more- hah! I got it! They’re about, uh, 500 feet to the left, moving fast!”

Good, they had the Alteans. Unfortunately, that meant the noise wasn't them. “Guys, is that a- Oh My- That’s A GUN!” Hunk yelled.

Keith did not stop himself from swearing. He gunned the ignition again and sent them speeding faster. “Pidge, use the Microbots!”

“I don’t have the headband!”

“What!? Aagh! Can you try anyway!?”

“Maybe!”

Their screaming match continued while Pidge desperately tried to stop them from getting killed. Hunk and Lance were just screaming. They had probably nullified any hope of surprise at this point, so Keith just tried to keep the hoverbike going faster. Getting caught would be very bad.

“Did they follow us?” Lance yelled.

“Probably!”

“I think I got the Microbots working!”

“Thank you Katie, you saved us!” Hunk cried.

The others chose not to respond to that nonsense. They were definitely not safe. Hunk could dream that, though. It would do him some good.

“I think that’s them!” Lance called. He pointed to a flash in the distance. Keith moved to follow it. Hopefully they could just pick them up and leave. Keith was regretting his failure to plan out the adventure.

Sure enough, there were two figures. “Hello?” Hunk called, before pausing to avoid throwing up. “Miss Allura, mister Coran! We came to help you get away!”

“Hop on the bike! I have a house where you can rest,” Keith called.

The two walked out, but did not look like they were ready to join them. The man was middle aged and had impressively orange hair. He was twirling his mustache through his fingers and frowning. The woman was glaring at them.

“How did you find us? Why are you here?” she demanded.

“It would be a shame to leave you in a place like this,” Lance replied flirtatiously.

Keith groaned, resting his hand on his forehead. “Lance,” Katie sighed, “I thought you didn’t flirt while on job.”

“I’m not on job, Pidge! It’s after work and I did this with my free time!”

“Um,” Hunk started, trying to answer the woman, Allura’s, questions, “Pidge did some hacking-” Pidge hissed at him, “and discovered some weird wormhole? portal? thing. We decided to go check it out and found my friend’s? not-dead brother.”

They did not seem satisfied by the answer. “Empire Industries had suspicious signals, we investigated, and we got attacked. Turns out they were looking for you, not us, but Shiro said to help you,” Keith answered.

“Princess, they might be able to help,” the man said.

She turned her glare on him. “How do you know they won’t send us back?”

“Miss Allura, we can help you get back to Altea,” Hunk offered.

“They’re coming!” Katie snapped. “Climb on, or don’t, but they’re coming after all of us, and they have weapons.”

With that, they climbed on. Keith started the hoverbike again. It took a few seconds, what with the extra weight, but it started. They were off.

Thankfully, they hadn’t been trespassing that time, so they couldn’t get charged with anything. Tickets sucked and going to Court to contest them sucked more. It was a mess that Keith was glad to avoid.

Avoiding it wouldn’t do much if they were all dead, though.

Keith avoided the city altogether, using the access roads when convenient and making his own path when not. They just needed to get to the house. Then they could lock up and keep everyone safe. It would be great if they could get home without any incidents.

~

The Universe, Katie decided, officially hated them. More specifically, The Universe hated her. They had been riding back to Keith’s house with 2 Alteans. It had been going fine.

It had stopped going fine.

Because another Microbot attack happened.

Katie officially decided never to leave her house- anywhere, really- without the neurotransmitter that could control them. It would have made the last few hours much less stressful, even if she did still have to hack into the bots to get access. Also, it was a lot easier to control them with your mind than it was to input code into the tiny demons.

For one, they were programmed well. And they were programmed to attack them. That made it hard to get any of them still long enough to do anything. Also, she was riding on a hoverbike, squashed between two guys and going about 60 mph. Not much working space, there.

All in all, not a good combination. Of course, it was then Hunk decided to throw up, somehow getting vomit on the back of her shirt. She loved the dude, really, but she didn’t want his vomit on her clothes.

Did she need to mention that there were two Alteans on the hoverbike with them? Because that seemed like a good thing to mention. There were two strangers right behind her. (They were actually behind Hunk, who was seated behind Lance, who was squishing her up to Keith, but whatever.)

Katie looked back down at her little datapad. That thing had been with her for years, all throughout High School and College. She really didn’t want it to break. Especially not with all the new data readings it could have gotten in the last few hours.

Holy Crow. It had only been, what, 4 hours since they had saved Shiro. Oh. They had found Shiro. Whoa.

Katie tuned out the screaming of the passengers, mostly Hunk, and the humming of the hoverbike. They had found Shiro. He had been in Dimension A Balmera for 6 months, since April 29.

Shiro had been there for 6 months and was fine. Well, he had a few new scars, but he was alive! Shiro was alive!

She felt horrible for that jealousy she felt earlier: Shiro was like a brother to her, too. She couldn’t remember not knowing him. He was just over a year older than Matt and another 6 years older than she was. The two had met in a summer camp, right before Matt skipped 2nd grade. The two had become great friends.

The first time she had met Shiro, she was only three. She didn’t remember it, but Matt did. He told her about how she had clung to his leg and hid from Shiro for a good hour. He told her about how she had glared at him when he offered her the coloring book and crayons.

He told her about how they colored together for the rest of that evening. He told her about how every time after that, she would find her coloring supplies and sit by him when they visited, never minding that he was playing with Matt.

He told her about the time he picked her up and twirled her around in the air for the first time. When he said it, Katie remembered it. She cherished that memory. Shiro had still been small then, only 11, but he picked her up and twirled her in the air.

She remembered feeling so happy, so safe. Katie had all sorts of memories like that about Shiro. It wasn’t right to be jealous that he got back first.

Especially since she wasn’t giving up. She was going to get Matt back, too. She was going to bring Dad back from A Balmera, even if she had to drag him home herself.

And it was nice to have Shiro back.

After her nice break of self reflection, they pulled into Keith’s driveway. Hunk was the first one off the hoverbike, all but leaping to solid ground as soon as the engine stopped. He raced inside. Katie assumed that he was throwing up.

Again. Uugh.

Lance climbed down and offered a hand to the Alteans. Coran took it and he escorted him into the house. She was grateful he hadn’t put up a fuss.

Since she was no longer squished up into Keith, she hopped down. She went to stand by Allura. She was shaking. Katie didn’t know what to feel at that. Hopefully it was the adrenaline, because she had no idea how to deal with a mental breakdown.

Keith led them into the house and they were immediately crushed in a hug. Katie let out a little wheeze, because she was not expecting that from her mother. Oh, wow.

She must have realized she was hugging a stranger, because she released Allura early. Katie felt a little envious. She tried to squirm away, but her mom squeezed tighter. “If you think you’re leaving my sight until you have class again, you’re wrong.”

“Yes, Mom,” Katie agreed.

“Keith, you too.”

“I have work tomorrow,” he protested.

“You’re calling in sick. Plus, do you really expect me to believe that you’re leaving Shiro?”

He wisely did not answer. Were she not in the same predicament as he was, Katie would have laughed at him. However, she was, so she kept her amusement to herself.

“Excuse me, I am Allura Kingsley. I was told that Coran and I could rest here and return to Altea.”

“I am Colleen Holt, Katie’s mother,” she said, finally releasing them from her crushing hug. “I don’t live here, so you will have to ask Keith about that. But, Allura, if you need to get home, I will make sure you get home.”

Katie smiled at her mom. She had no idea who this lady was, and she was helping her. She felt like their plans would go a lot smoother as long as they had her to help. Colleen Holt was a force of nature.

“Thank you, Miss Holt. If you could show me to Coran, I would appreciate it greatly.”

“Sure, let’s go see what they’ve managed to do to my house in the last few minutes. Katie, would you mind explaining what just happened?”

“Yes, Katie, an explanation would be nice.”

Keith smirked as he led Allura into the house. She stuck her tongue out at him. Jerk. He threw her under the bus without a minute’s notice. Oh well, Katie supposed she might as well tell her mom exactly what had happened.

“How did you find him, Katie?”

She bit her lip. “Well, we used the data Keith has been gathering for a few months, but there was a spike of energy a few miles away, over by Empire Industries. Lance, Keith, and I recognized Microbot signals mixed in with the Balmera data. So we went to investigate.”

Her mom moved closer and rested a hand on her shoulder.

“A portal appeared, which was super strange. Then, it started vibrating and an escape pod crashed down. I didn’t even realize what that meant for a bit, and I don’t think the others did either. And then Keith just froze, so I climbed in after him and Shiro-” she was crying, stupid addrennaline.

Her mom was hugging her again. “Mom, Shiro’s alive! He’s here! Shiro’s safe!”

“My brave Katie,” she whispered. “Good job. Now, come on, let’s go. We’ve got some catching up to do.”

~

Sleeping arrangements were chaotic at best. Keith lived alone, so the house was not prepared for 8 people to sleep there at once. There were three rooms, each with one bed, a couch, a large chair, and an air mattress.

It had been decided that Allura and Coran would get to stay together in the smallest room. They had agreed to that. Keith dragged the chair in there so that they wouldn’t have to sleep in the same bed.

Colleen and Katie got one of the other bedrooms. It was clearly the most used. It also had the smallest bed, but they didn’t really mind. Keith and Shiro were in the last bedroom.

Hunk got the couch. He was cool with that. It was a little small, but he could survive for the night. Plus, he was right next to Lance, so that was a bonus. Lance had the air mattress and was on the living room floor.

When Hunk woke up, the sleeping arrangements were different. He walked into Katie and Colleen’s room to find them. They were gone.

He ran back to the living room to freak out at Lance, who had gone back to sleep. “Lance! Lance! They’re gone!”

He rolled over and blinked at him. “Nnygh?”

“Katie! Colleen! They’re gone!”

Lance blinked at him again. “‘s too early for this. Go to sleep.”

“Lance!” he cried, grabbing his shoulders. “Katie’s gone! She's not in the room! Oh, man! I knew this was a bad idea. The Alteans must have kidnapped her in her sleep. Lance, we have to do something! They took Katie! They took Colleen!”

Lance continued blinking. “Did you check with Shiro?”

That hit Hunk like a brick. “Oh. No, I didn’t. Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. Now let me sleep. I have bruises in places I didn’t know could bruise.”

With that, he went to go check in the third bedroom. He opened the door. There were four people crammed onto the bed.

Hunk did not coo or gush at how adorable that was. He attempted to be very quiet so he did not wake anyone up. He examined the sight before him. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a picture to show to Katie later.

Shiro was in the center of the bed, surrounded on all sides. Katie had claimed one of his arms and was wrapped around it. Colleen was behind her, one arm on Katie and the other on Shiro’s shoulder. Keith had Shiro’s other side.

So Hunk took a few more pictures. He downloaded three right there, just in case Katie found his phone while he wasn’t looking. He wouldn’t put it past her, and it wouldn’t do much to stop her, but it was better than nothing. He then texted Lance his favorite.

Seeing that the majority of the house was fast asleep, Hunk decided to try to make breakfast. He opened the fridge to find it nearly empty. There were a dozen eggs and half a gallon of almond milk, so he decided to make omelettes. Upon further investigation, he found salsa ready tomatoes and frozen tater tots.

Yes! He could make a meal with this! Now to find pans. He started searching through the cupboards. It took multiple attempts, but he found pans, along with microwave-safe bowls.

Hunk wanted to feed 8 people. He was not above using the microwave to do so. There were reasons those were made, and, even if he didn’t like them, microwaves had their uses. One of those uses was defrosting tater tots in a short amount of time.

He turned both pans on to medium and poured a little oil in them, spreading it all over the bottom. He washed the eggs, a habit, more than a necessity. He dumped half the tater tots in each pan and started stabbing them with the spatula, separating them. He found the garlic salt from the cupboard and sprinkled it in.

Hunk stirred the tater tots. He waited a few more seconds before breaking three eggs in each pan. He stirred until there weren’t egg whites sticking to the pan. He started microwaving the second batch of tater tots.

With the next batch started, he could focus on stirring. He poured the salsa ready tomatoes in, they added a nice flavor. He turned the pans off when they were finished. They would still cook for a bit, as the pans were cast iron, good quality, but he had time to go get people.

He walked into the living room to see Lance curled up into a ball on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. He was staring at Hunk creepily, like every morning. Hunk rolled his eyes. “Breakfast is ready, Sleeping Beauty.”

“Nyyyg,” he replied, probably translating to, “Her name’s Aurora,” or something equally snippy.

“Go find plates for everyone, utensils, too. It doesn’t matter which.”

Lance blinked slowly at him before rising up off the couch. With the blanket. Normally, he wouldn’t care, but it wasn’t their house. Or their blanket, for that matter. His gaze on the blanket or the unfamiliar house must have caused that to connect with Lance, because he set the blanket down, grumbling.

Hunk walked to the room with the Alteans next. They were mumbling, so they were probably awake. He knocked on the door. “I made food, would you like to come to the kitchen to eat?”

“Yes, we are coming,” Allura replied.

With that, he headed to the other room to wake everyone up. He knocked on the door loudly before poking his head in. Katie blinked at him, similar to the way Lance did. He decided to think and laugh about that latter.

“I made breakfast,” he announced. Colleen shot up and stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. Shiro and Keith seemed to already have been awake.

“Oh, thank you,” Keith said. He looked confused.

“Just wanted to let you know, the food’s ready,” he said as he shut the door again. He walked back to the kitchen, humming as he walked. He found that Lance had set a stack of plates and bowls by the utensils.

Hunk started dishing up the food. Allura and Coran entered the kitchen. “Would your cooking happen to include any nightshades, Number 2?” Coran asked.

“Um, I’m Hunk. I cooked. Am I the one you’re talking to?”

“Yes, yes, I seem to have misplaced your names. I have you ranked by height, you see. The blue one is Number one, as he seems to be the tallest. The small one is Number 5, but I’m afraid I can’t really tell the difference in height between the other two.”

“Oh, good point. Well, The one with white hair is Shiro and the skinny one is Keith.”

“Thank you, my boy. You have been most helpful.”

“Nightshades,” Allura reminded them.

“Oh! Yes, I used both tomatoes and potatoes in this batch. Oh, no! I’m so sorry! I must not have been thinking! I forgot how much worse Alteans react to them!” Hunk cried, panicking.

“Hunk, do not worry, we can find something to eat,” Allura consoled him.

“I’m so sorry, I’ll find something.”

“Really,” Allura said, “It’s okay.” Her hand was on his shoulder, consoling him.

“If I wash this pan several times, will you be able to eat out of it?”

Coran twirled his mustache, “Yes, we could eat from that if it were washed.”

Hunk sighed in relief. He still had some eggs left and there was the almond milk. “Are you allergic to eggs or anything in almond milk? What about garlic?”

They shook their heads. “Nope,” Coran called. “Other than the nightshades and things related to peaches, I’m as resistant to these awful allergies as a Gnarflewarfle!”

Hunk had no idea what a Gnarflewarfle was. “Wonderful! I can whip something up for you!”

The others slowly trickled in the kitchen. Lance appeared in a chair between when he cracked the eggs in a bowl to make the omelette and put the lid on the pan. Hunk watched as Katie tried to register when that happened and failed.

There were only 4 chairs, so Hunk served up the food to the people who were there first. Lance, Katie, and Colleen got the first servings and Hunk ate while he waited for Keith and Shiro to come over and the rest of the food to cook.

The Alteans were served their allergy friendly omelettes and the last batch of knockoff huevos rancheros was finished. Keith and Shiro finally walked into the kitchen to eat and were given food.

Hunk announced their need for groceries, among other concerns. They set out a plan for the next few days, things like where they would be staying, what food they would be eating, who would be going to the store, and how to fix Keith’s car.

Finally, the topic of what to do with a legally dead person came up. They included Shiro in much of that one, because, well, he was the legally dead person.

It was decided, with flat looks from everyone and dissappointed sighs, that Keith would take Shiro into the hospital and call his grandmother while he was being looked over. The news would get out fast after that, so they would have a whole lot of stuff to do then.

Allura and Coran decided to get in contact with Melenor Kingsley through Castle of Altea. They were going to book a flight as soon as possible. It would probably take about a month, as they would need passports and to be marked as found.

Then, of course, they would have to deal with reporters. Hunk really hoped they wouldn’t be asking them anything. He didn’t want to talk about all the rules he had broken, all the laws he had completely disregarded.

All the red lights they had run. (Oh, goodness, even thinking about that made his stomach hurt.) The breaking and entering.

He could go to jail.

Disregarding all negative thoughts, Hunk focused on the positives. After all, they had a lot of work to do. He might as well be on his game.

~

Somehow, it didn’t seem real. Shiro was standing, well, that was a strong term for the wobbled leaning he was actually doing, in front of him. Shiro was alive.

Keith had thought he was dead for a while. He was certain that there was no way he could have survived. But Katie had found the information to prove that he could live there. Katie had found the information to rescue him.

Katie had found him. Just like she said she would.

After he realized that Shiro’s wobbling was getting worse, he moved closer to help support him. He lifted his right arm to place it over his shoulder. He was interrupted with a hiss. He whipped around to look at Shiro. “A-”

“I’m fine,” he grumbled. Shiro didn’t look him in the eyes. Even without that, Keith could easily tell he was lying.

It was his right arm, after all. Keith felt a twang of guilt for hurting him, but Shiro still needed help. He helped him into Miss Colleen’s car. She would be driving them to the hospital to get Shiro checked over.
Katie was coming with them, because Miss Colleen had not been joking about letting them out of her sight. The hospital was a 25 minute drive away. It was actually pretty close to where Adam lived.

It occured to Keith that Adam should know that his fiancee was alive.

“Hey, Shiro?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to call Adam?”

It must have dawned on Shiro that Adam had thought he was dead for the last few months, because he paled dramatically. “Yes,” he answered weakly. Keith would have teased him if he hadn’t known the man.

Keith pulled out his phone and pressed on Adam’s number. This would be interesting, at the least.

~

Allura had gotten in contact with Castle of Altea five minutes before. She had politely requested to speak with the CEO, Melenor Kingsley. When they told her she was unavailable, Allura politely told them she would wait. Along with the phrase that meant to interrupt whatever was going on to get her there.

Coran was standing next to her, hand on her shoulder. She was incredibly grateful for his presence. He had been with her for what felt like forever. He had constantly reminded her of all the little details of Altea just so she wouldn’t forget them.

He was a member of her family. Maybe not biologically. Maybe not even legally. However, Coran Heironimus Wimbleton Smythe was an Uncle to her, and that would never change. She wanted him to hear Mother, too.

She was getting nervous. It had been a long wait. She hoped her mother would get there soon. She wanted to get home. She wanted to go back to Altea.

She hadn’t seen her parents in seven years. She had been locked in a cage and kept from them. It didn’t matter that she was never hurt. It didn’t matter that they had Coran stay with her. It didn’t even matter that she had been allowed to call her mother on her birthday.

Allura would never forgive Zarkon. He had taken her from her home. He had taken her father and hid him from her. He had trapped her in Terra, so far from home.

And she had trusted him. She had loved him. He was her uncle, after all. Did he not understand that they loved Aunt Honerva, too? Did he not understand that they would not sabotage her ship? Did he not understand that they grieved her loss.

That her mother had been broken. The loss of her older sister crushed her. Despite their distance, they had loved each other. They had different interests, but they were sisters. They loved each other.

Her father had grown up with Aunt Honerva. Why would he do anything to harm her? It was an accident!

It had been an accident! Zarkon had… had kidnapped her for a stupid accident! He held her father captive because of an accident! He took Coran, ripped him from his family, because of an ACCIDENT!

Allura would never forgive him for that. For you can never hate someone as much as someone you loved. And Allura had loved her uncle dearly. She had loved him while he was hurting. She had loved him while he hurt her.

She still loved him.

But she hated him.

Allura would never forgive him for what he had done. She would never forget it, either. But she didn’t think she could stop loving him. She didn’t even know if she wanted to.

It was then that she heard a sound from the other side of the phone. It was her mother! She felt tears come to her eyes.

“Allura, is it you?”

“Yes, Mum, it’s me,” she replied, voice hoarse. “Coran and I are free.”

~

Katie had been allowed to go back to school on Monday, so she took a few hours convincing herself to go. Shiro was still in the hospital, awaiting surgery. Melenor Kingsley, Filmina Smythe, and three kids had flown out as soon as they got the call.

Really, there was nothing else to do. They were already trying to get passports for Allura and Coran, which they needed in order to go back to Altea. Shiro was at the hospital and would be for another four days. He would be undergoing several tests and be under watch of the doctors until then.

Keith and Adam had already taken off some time to be with him. Her mom had Wednesday off, so she would be with him then. Katie would be visiting a couple times after school.

But there were only so many hours she could sit and watch Shiro in the hospital. She had work to do. She had projects to finish. She had classes to attend.

So she trudged through them. It was incredibly boring and she didn’t want to be there, but she pulled through her classes. She worked on her projects and stayed out of trouble.

Time passed, somehow both slower than she wanted it too and way too fast to make sense. Shiro’s arm was amputated. Allura and Coran went back to Altea. Lance got to meet his newest nephew, dragging them along a few weeks later.

Shiro was readjusting. It wasn’t a smooth process, but they found themselves falling into old routines. Until they were all harshly awakened to the fact that Matt was still out there, that her dad was still missing.

Katie looked for them. She had more data, due to her wonderful data-pad that she decided to upgrade. She had plenty of tech to help her. She had even asked Shiro what he remembered from there, to see if he knew where they were.

He had gotten an empty look in his eyes. It sent a wave of guilt rushing through her. Shiro told her he couldn’t remember much, Not after they arrived at the portal and found it closed.

Over Thanksgiving Break, which was still disappointingly short, even in her third year of college, Allura called. She informed them that her father was still there. She asked if they would be willing to meet up with her to get him out.

Katie thought about it. Searching for Allura’s father would mean she wouldn’t be searching for hers. It was a cruel thought, but it was true. If she searched for Alfor Kingsley, she wouldn’t be searching for Samuel Holt.

However, there was a good chance she would be able to find him.

They had already found Allura. They knew that Empire Industries was the one who had him. They just needed to locate him and break him out of wherever it was.

Which would be actually illegal, not just probably illegal. Trespassing, breaking and entering, property assault, Katie was sure they would be charged if found out.

Also, Empire Industries almost certainly had a lot of lawyers. She really hoped that they wouldn’t get caught for what they had already done. They would need to be sneaky if they wanted to get Alfor out of Empire Industries.

She had called her back to inform Allura that she would help. Her gratitude gave her the determination she needed to keep going. She would find him, she would not let Allura suffer any longer. Not when she knew that pain.

Not when she could stop it.

~

Shiro was generally a calm person. He took things in stride, patiently accepting whatever was thrown at him. He reacted quickly and as the situation demanded. It was one of the reasons he flourished in the Galaxy Garrison, a military institute.

He had been on a sabotaged flight? Okay, get to the escape pods.

He had arrived at the pickup spot to find that he and his comrades were trapped in a completely different dimension than he should be in? Let’s find something so we can survive.

He crash landed back on Earth without 6 months worth of memories? He could deal with that!

His stupid arm needed to be amputated? Well, it wasn’t like it was unexpected. Okay, it was. But only a little.

You see, Shiro was a generally calm and accepting man. He was not prepared for Coran, more specifically his suggestions. He had a feeling that no one was or would ever be.

“Ah, Lad! Good to see you again! I am quite enthused to hear that you will be joining the search for my old buddy, Alfor! What costume have you decided on?”

What did costumes have to do with anything? “Good to see you, Coran. It is my pleasure to search for Alfor. And, um, what do you mean by costumes?”

“You are becoming Superheroes, are you not?”

Shiro blinked at him. What?

Coran looked confused at his confusion. Considering his assumptions, Shiro did not feel sorry for him. “Number 1,” Lance, Shiro’s brain supplied, “has shown me all about your Terran Superheroes. That seems to be what your plan entails, does it not?”

Upon further consideration, it looked like Coran was right.

Shiro blinked. What had his life even come to? At least there weren’t aliens yet. (Shiro made sure to include the yet. With the way things were going, it might be necessary.)

He briefly thought about his prosthetic arm that was being made. It was to be engineered with every possibility thought through. It had a few storage containers, meant for small things. He had a box of bandaids and some neosporin set aside for it.

It was going to be made of a durable metal so that it wouldn’t break while they were committing felonies. That was another thing that concerned Shiro, just a bit. He hadn’t gotten to be the Galaxy Garrison’s top pilot by breaking the law every other day. He had a reputation for being a goody-two-shoes, and they weren’t far off.

The idea of purposely breaking the law stressed him out a little. There were so many ways it could go wrong, so many things that could happen. Very few of them were good.

But leaving someone to be hurt was not something he could get by. He would help them get Alfor out of Empire Industries, even though he still thought it might be a better idea to inform the police. He would not leave him behind.

Besides, he had already crash landed onto private property. It wasn’t like it was the first time he would be breaking and entering. Just his first time doing it on purpose.

Uugh, it looked like they really were doing what the superheroes did. “I guess you’re right Coran. We are going to be superheroes.”

“Then you should come with me,” he said, leading Shiro to the others. “After all, a team of superheroes needs a name.”

~

Lance was feeling a bit giddy. The suits they had been working on since November were ready! They had worked their projects into their suits, because they were just that awesome.

They had gone for a themed approach, which made sense. They all had a suit of armor that was mostly white. Lance had pointed out that they would get stained easily. Having grown up with 9 siblings, he was well aware of how easily white stained.

Shiro’s answering scowl spoke for itself. He informed them that if the suits weren’t worn, they wouldn’t stain. Hunk, the traitor, agreed.

Now, Lance wasn’t upset at them for wanting to follow the laws. He liked following laws. Sure, there were times when the laws were inconvenient, but he didn’t want to get in trouble for breaking them.

But still, they were literally becoming superheroes! One should be excited about that! Yes, there was the whole “With great power, comes great responsibility,” thing, but there was no need to be so glum about becoming a superhero, especially since they were making the suits themselves.

Lance thought that his was the best, but there was a possibility that he was biased. His suit had blue on it, his favorite color. The suit had been fairly easy to make, they made the undersuit themselves and printed the armor with the 3D printers that were available.

The hardest part was the weapons. It was, after all, illegal to carry weapons in most places (except Texas. It made him rather fond of the state). That required some creative engineering.

Really, the Microbot technology was what made it feasible. They needed to have it respond to neurological commands and be able to respond quickly. They were also able to respond to what was intended rather than what was said, due to having the brain’s electrical impulses.

Anyway, they had made what they coined “Bayards.” They were rather small, a little larger than their hands. Lance’s was blue, like his armor. They had the intelligence of the Microbots and a similar control system.

Along with the Bayards were the Lions. They were robots specifically made to help them. They were programmed to be catlike, so they would be able to pass as some type of school project. Along with their catlike quirks, they were also programmed to fight. They really were an impressive group of robots.

And, like everything else, they were color coded. The Blue Lion, who Lance just called Blue, was clearly the best. She, because they had unintentionally unanimously decided that they were lionesses, had all the coolest features, pun intended.

Since the Lions would be working with their partner, they got to be outfitted with tech and ideas from said partner. That meant that Blue could shoot the chem-balls, which Lance really needed a better name for, at what she was directed at.

Lance had done quite a bit more experimenting after learning that his chem-balls were going to be his superpowers. He worked on them frequently and managed to perfect the formulas. He’d gotten four types ready, his first three and one that spread out in a sheet of ice.

Unlike the rest of them, Allura had forgone a Lion. She had crafted four mice in its place. Their names were Platt, Chulechule, Plachu, and Chulatt. They were mouse sized, but surprisingly effective. They were great at getting things done that required small hands and precision, what with their mental bond to Allura.

They were ready, prepared for anything. All they had to do was go get Alfor. That, of course, would be easier said than done, as they had yet to find his whereabouts.

Pidge had announced the other day that she should have them by the end of the week. That had made Allura understandably antsy. Unfortunately, when she got antsy, training left them all sore in places they didn’t even know they had.

Which led him to his current predicament. “Huuuuuuunk!” he whined.

Hunk rolled over in his bed, “What, Lance?”

“My toes are sore,” he continued. Blue headbutted him. She really was catlike. Unfortunately, she was also metal.

“What do you want me to do about it? Chop them off?” Hunk got a bit sarcastic when in pain. That didn’t bother Lance, though. He knew he got a bit whiny.

“Nothing, I just want to complain.”

“Nyyyg,” Hunk replied, which was probably an “I don’t care, leave me alone,” Nyyyg.

“Like, why are my toes sore? Toes shouldn’t be sore! We walk on them every day, so it’s not like they don’t get a workout!”

“You done?”

“No. The rest of me isn’t really that sore, either, which makes it worse.”

“I thought you said your jaw hurt.” With that, Lance was reminded that his jaw did, in fact, hurt. He was incredibly grateful that he had been wearing a helmet and mouthpiece at the time, because he rather liked having all of his teeth.

“It does, but less than yesterday. I can talk now. Well, without it hurting too much.”

“I can hear that,” Hunk muttered drily.

Like he said, Hunk got a bit sarcastic when he was in pain. “I know, and Allura just doesn’t get that Terrans aren’t as mucsley as Alteans, or whatever.”

“Take one look at Shiro and say that again.”

“You do make a fair point. Also, that’s so not fair. The dude spent six months in what is effectively space and came out in perfect physical condition! I have been working out for a decade and have yet to get those biceps. Not fair, man!”

“You did dance, buddy. He lifted weights.”

“Yeah, so? I will have you know that ballet works a ton of muscles. If you do it right, you should be feeling it for days.”

“He did Tung Tsu Do.”

“Okay, fine, I can see why he’s unfairly muscled, but still. How did he spend six months in space and come back with the same amount of muscles!?”

“Hey man, if you wanna know so badly, go ask him. I’m hiding until I decide to order takeout. I’m not doing anything today.”

“You have cooking club tonight,” Lance replied cheekily.

Hunk mumbled something that would have gotten him sent to wash his mouth out with soap if Lance’s mother had heard. She had a bar of soap for each person, set on a shelf with their name on it. There had to be a total of over 30 bars.

Adults were not exempt from these bars of soap, as Lance had learned early on. Marco had quite the potty mouth when Lance was younger, thinking that their mom wouldn't wash his mouth out with those terribly flavored soaps once he was over 18. He thought wrong.

But not before teaching Veronica how to swear. She was well educated in the expletives of many languages, including English, Spanish, Latin, German, and Czech. Her bar of soap was the only one that had ever been replaced.

Hunk swore more than one would think. He only did it around people he was truly comfortable with, usually, so it was a shock when Lance’s mother had swooped in from the other room and directed him to the bathroom for the first time, presenting him with a brand new bar of soap.

They had been 13 at the time. Hunk had only made that mistake twice since then. Lance still thought it was funny, almost 10 years later.

And, wow, it was crazy how long he and Hunk had been friends. He thought back to when they were in Elementary School. He thought about their hopes and dreams.

He told Hunk that they would be Best Friends Forever, and, well, it sure looked that way. There was nothing that would bring him and Hunk apart.

He remembered their declaration that they would become Superheroes. Apparently, that was coming true, as well. He had given up on that years ago, but hey, Lance supposed there were worse things to be proven wrong about.

“I guess all our dreams are coming true. We’re best friends and Superheroes. You’re working at the family bakery. We’re roommates.”

“I made the coolest knife ever.”

“I got a robot cat.”

“Yeah, we’re doing pretty good, Lance.”

“Guess we need some more dreams, eh?”

“Not so fast,” Hunk replied, Lance could hear his smugness. “You haven’t gotten a girlfriend yet!”

“There was Nyma!” Lance cried.

“Nyma doesn’t count,” Hunk replied, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Lance thought about it. “Okay, fine. Nyma doesn’t count,” he agreed.

“And you haven’t kissed someone on the lips under the full moon,” he pointed out.

“I was eight, Hunk! Not all of those were actually dreams!”

“But that one was!”

“Was not!”

“Dude, you talk in your sleep. Do you even know how many times you’ve told me how beautiful Allura is? I had to listen to you invite her on a date to a moonlit pond three times, Lance! Three times!”

“Can you blame me though? Her eyes, Hunk! And her arms, man. How does one make muscles look graceful?”

“I’m well aware of your type, buddy. I’m also well aware of how she completely destroys you in anything you compete in.”

“Not true, I’m still the best shot.”

“Yeah, but she can bench more than Shiro, keep Keith in a headlock for more than 5 seconds, and do some crazy gymnastics. Also, you know, she can code in at least 3 languages as well as Pidge.”

“And you wonder why I think she’s hot.”

“No, I don’t. And I really don’t want to know more.”

“Hey, I have to listen to you talk about Shay all the time. This is payback. Also, she invited me out for lemonade, so, like, I’ve got a chance.”

“What actually happened?”

“Well, you see..”

~

They were all lined up in their armor, their Lions (and Mice) ready to go. Shiro stood at the front, Keith on his right and Pidge at his left. Lance was standing by Keith and Hunk stood by Pidge. Allura stood before them.

“All right, Let’s go over the plan, once more. Shiro, how will we be getting into the building?” Allura asked.

“We will be driving in two cars, one driven by me and the other driven by Keith. We will meet up at the rendezvous to check in.”

“Good. Lance, who will be going in which car?”

“Hunk and I will ride in with Shiro, while you and Pidge ride with Keith.”

“Yes, what will the two groups be doing?”

“Lance, Shiro, and I will be the distraction,” Hunk started. “We will be breaking in to somewhere that doesn’t hold Alfor and gathering as much data as possible. You, Keith, and Pidge will break in to find Alfor subtly.”

“Thank you, Hunk. Pidge, how will we get Alfor out?”

“We’ll hack into his cell, because it will likely have security measures, and open it. Keith will bring lockpicks, just in case, and the Mice may be able to help if we need it. After getting him out, we will head back to the rendezvous and leave, Alfor joining us in Keith’s car.”

“Yes, then what?”

“Keith, where will we be driving to, in different courses?”

“We’re meeting back at my house, which has been stocked with food and the guest rooms ready.”

“Wonderful,” Allura clapped her hands together. “It seems that everyone understands the plan, time to see if it all goes well. And please, for the sake of my sanity, don’t let anyone see your face.”

A chorus of “Yes, Princess,” rang through the room, the friends having caught on to Coran’s nickname.

“Indeed, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Now, Paladins, suit up,” Coran ordered.

~

Katie looked down at her armor again. And wow, was that weird. She was wearing armor, like some sort of fairy tale, some sort of Knight. It was crazy.

It was awesome. How many people could say they had broken into a secure facility while wearing armor? Not many, for sure.

Also, it looked pretty awesome. The majority of it was white, like everyone else’s, but she had green details. Everyone had gotten their favorite colors for their detail. Lance was in blue, Hunk was in yellow, Allura was dressed in pink, Shiro was in black, Keith was in red, and she was in green.

Their Lions were with them. Greenie, because Green was too informal for her precious kitty, was perched on her shoulder. Katie was incredibly proud of her work on the Lions. They had all the best qualities of cats, but none of the bad ones.

Katie never had to feed Greenie, for one. That was great, because she had seen what was in cat food and was rightly horrified by what she saw. She didn’t want to put the time and effort into making her cat food in the morning and evening when half the time she didn’t eat either, but there was no way she would be feeding a cat the cheap store bought foods again.

So yeah, she was glad Greenie didn’t have to eat. Another bonus that came with that was that Katie didn’t need to clean any litterboxes. Ammonia sucked, and litterboxes sucked, too.

Really, everyone should have robotic pets. They were the best. Not only did they bypass the inconvenient body functions of eating and waste excretion, they could learn anything. They were computers, for Pete’s sake!

Along with Greenie, she had Rover. Rover wasn’t exactly a single entity, as he was a collection of 275 Microbots. They were all a single working unit that responded to her commands, though, so they got one name: Rover. Hopefully, Rover would be able to fool the other Microbots into letting them pass. If that didn’t work though, well, she had viruses up her sleeve. Nasty ones.

She walked to the car where Keith, Alura, and their companions were waiting, Greenie resting on her shoulder and Rover floating alongside her. They were ready. They were going to save Allura’s father.

She had her helmet in her arms, not quite ready to put it on. This was big. She couldn’t turn back from it, no matter what happened. She took a deep breath. She could do it.

Keith nodded at her and Allura turned to her. “Let’s get in,” he said. “No point wasting time.”

They climbed into the car, Keith’s car. It had been fixed since their last adventure, three months before. Another wave of determination washed over her at that realization. It had been nine months since her dad and Matt had gone through the portal, and she was going to get them out. She wasn’t going to let anyone stop her, even if she had to tear the government apart herself.

Her determination fueled her, settled her, grounded her. She was stable. She was ready. She was going to get Alfor Kingsley out alive. Then she was going to drag her family out of A Balmera. She was getting them back.

The ride was tense and quiet, but Keith and Shiro checked in about halfway through. Everything was going well on both sides. They hadn’t been discovered.

Allure placed her helmet on after that, so Katie followed her example. Allura pulled her bayard out of the pocket in her suit and activated it, fidgeting with the weapon. The Mice crawled out and started nuzzling her.

Katie looked at her bayard. It was small, but it could kill someone, she knew. Now, she wasn’t expecting anyone to die. She didn’t think that anyone would be killed on this mission. Her weapon was set to taze, after all, and it would knock any attackers out, but hopefully not kill anyone.

She could tell she was getting an adrenaline rush, so she was glad when they pulled up. They had to wait two minutes for the others to show up, which was an agonizingly long wait.

“Let’s go,” Shiro said. They nodded and split up. They walked to their entrances. “All right, head in,” Shiro called once they were in place.

They walked into the building. It’s walls were an oppressive purple that had everyone's eyes flicking around. The hallways seemed too dark and threatening.

Katie told herself it was her overactive imagination. She was doing something illegal, after all. It wasn’t like the company tried to make their buildings creepy. She certainly hadn’t thought they were creepy before.

Through all her research (hacking), Katie had found where Alfor would be. He would be on the third floor of the building, close enough to the vault that a few guards wouldn’t seem suspicious, but far enough that he wouldn’t escape.

On his own, Katie thought they should clarify. They were getting him out, so he would definitely be escaping.

They continued on to the third floor, Rover already having removed them from the video cameras. All they needed to do to stay hidden was to avoid physical people, and they would be fine. Well, Katie hoped they would be. There wasn’t any reason for them to be found otherwise.

They reached the third floor, traveling in a tight formation. Keith was to the right of Allura and Pidge was to her left. Greenie and Red were by their owners.

They marched to the door he should be behind to find that it wasn’t guarded. Katie had looked at the guard rotation before, so she knew they shouldn’t be there for another six minutes. They just had to get Alfor out and lock the door by then and they would be fine.

Katie examined the lock. It needed a key, not a code, so she stepped aside to let Keith deal with it. He fiddled with it for about a minute and a half before it opened to another lock. While unsurprising, it was inconvenient. It was definitely going to be hard to get that one open, as it required a code.

“Once we open this lock, let's back up. They can’t find us before we get to him,” she suggested. Keith grunted in acknowledgment.

Allura humphed. “Are you sure?” She sounded angry, which Katie understood.

“We’ll know the patterns, but I don’t want to cut it that close. We can get him out in a few minutes, but not if we’re caught.”

“Fine,” was her curt reply.

Her relief was practically tangible. She was glad that Allura had agreed. It would be rather hard to find her brother from jail, after all.

She started hacking into the second lock. It would take a while, but she had Rover to help the process. It took 6973 code attempts and another three minutes, but the door opened. To another lock. It was a combination lock, and it would honestly just be easiest to cut it off and weld it on again after they dragged Alfor out.

“Hide,” Keith whispered. At their alarmed looks, he elaborated, “They’re not here yet, but they will be soon.”

They backed up and reset the locks, which took longer than Keith would have licked, if his twitchieness was any clue. They backed off quietly and heard footsteps by the time they weren’t visible. They quickly scattered into hiding spots.

Katie had walked to the bathroom, which was close to the door, but not easy to be spotted in. It reminded Katie of the elementary, middle, and high school bathrooms. She took a small nostalgia trip while remaining aalert of her surroundings and rightfully horrified that anyone would want their company bathrooms to look like somewhere middle schools attempted to smoke.

Allura had gone across the hall into the men’s bathrooms, which was an acceptable hiding place. Keith… was up on the wall, touching the ceiling. Katie wasn’t sure she wanted to know how he got there. Or how his prickly cat wasn’t falling. But it worked, so she didn’t point anything out. It would really suck to get caught, because, you know, jail!

With the footsteps, came voices. After those faded and the footsteps stopped sounding, Katie walked out. Allura followed her and Keith shimmied down the wall. They briefly paused to stare at him incredulously before continuing to the door again.

Getting through the locks was easier the second time and only took a total of a miute. The third lock was simple, too. Keith just pulled an impressive knife out and sawed at it until it broke. There weren’t any more locks, so the third door opened to a room. It had no windows, but it did have light.

Keith stepped in first. And threw himself to the floor. A knife lodged itself in the wall.

Katie blinked at it. What.

Red and Green jumped forward, growling. Allura stepped forward, too. She was not growling.

“Father!” she called.

“Allura?” came a reply, presumably from Alfor. Keith motioned for her to come in closer, so she did. There was a man who looked simultaneously older than her father and younger than her father sitting in a chair.

He had white hair and a few creased lined around his eyes. He had blue Altean markings on his cheeks. His skin was the same shade as Allura’s. He had to be Alfor.

“Father!” she crie. Allura raced to him and hugged him. “Are you all right? Can you walk? We’re escaping, are you ready?”

She asked question after question. Keith pulled the knife out of the wall, which had Katie pause again, just at the strangeness of it. They started walking back to the car.

Allura held on to Alfor’s arm, leading him. Keith pulled the first door shut and held the lock together. Red set it on fire. After an agonizingly long time, he took a step back and closed the second and third doors.

They raced out. “Shiro, we’re heading out, we’ll meet up at the rendezvous point,” Keith announced into the comms.

“We’ll be out in five, meet you there,” came Shiro's reply.

Surprisingly, the trip back was uneventful. No guards. No Microbots. No police officers. They got to the car and headed out.

The trip back was twice as stressful as the trip there. Katie was looking around frantically, trying not to look suspicious, but trying to look at everything.

Allura looked more relaxed than Katie had ever seen her. She knew this was due to her father being with her. It was incredible to see.

But stressful, because they could be being chased.

Keith, at least, seemed to be as tense as she was. Eventually, her fidgeting got to him, too. “Okay, Katie, stop. It’s driving me crazy.”

At that point, she realized that the rapid tapping was her hands vibrating and her lip was bleeding from chewing on it for so long. Neither of those were new developments, but clearly Keith got grumpy when stressed.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop.”

It worked. For a few seconds. She then started biting her nails. Keith gave her a disgusted look when she dropped the fingernail onto the floor of the passenger seat. She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Ah, It occurs to me that I do not know your names. I am Alfor Kingsley, as you no doubt already know, who might you two be?”

Katie turned around to face him. “I’m Katie Holt, feel free to call me Pidge. Can I call you Alfor?”

“Yes, indeed you may. It has been a pleasure to meet you, Pidge. Thank you for the assistance in getting me out and for helping my daughter. I will forever be in your debt.”

Pidge laughed, “Aw, don’t worry about it. I’m glad I could help.”

He smiled at her, all featherly. It reminded her of her dad, and sent another little pang through her heart. She really missed him, after being away from him so long. “Thank you, Pidge, really. Who might you be?” the question obviously being directed at Keith.

“I’m Keith. It’s good to see you’re all right,” he replied.

Alfor smiled again. Well, I have you to thank for that, Keith. I apologize for throwing that knife at you. I was very surprised to see you.”

“I suppose that it made quite the impression.”

Katie wheezed. He stared at her for a second and it took her a bit to realize that he didn’t actually intend to make a joke. It was crazy how all his best jokes were completely unintentional.

Alfor and Allura started laughing at that, too. “It certainly did.”

After their introduction, Katie found herself feeling lighter. They made it to Keith’s house without any incidents. They walked inside to find Melenor standing there.

She and Alfor immediately hugged and pulled Allura into it. Coran joined a second later with the rest of his family. It was heartwarming to see.

But it still ached a little. Matt wasn’t there to hug her or ruffle her hair, despite her protests. Her dad wasn’t trying to cook frozen peas with every meal.

Allura had her family now. It was nice to see. But she wanted her family.

She was going to find her family.

A hand on her shoulder had her turn to see a small smile on Keith's face. “You’ll find them,” he said.

She tried to hold back her tears. She gave in once Shiro and the others got back, all gathering around her for a hug. Even Allura joined in.

She might not have her brother or father with her, but she wasn’t giving up on them. She was going to find them, and she had help.

Katie Holt was going to save her family.