Oh Yeah, It's All Coming Together

Chapter 1: Blast Radius

Despite the turmoil that came with being a Paladin, Katie found that one of the worst parts was getting up at seven in the morning, as per Shiro's request (demand). The moment she clocked off her alarm, Katie immediately sprung from her bed and threw on her clothes with unimaginable haste. She tended to cut her "morning routine" real close to "training hours" with the team simply due to her owlish personality. Katie would argue that the Paladins, in general, should be allowed to sleep in due to the number of late-night emergencies they've had to address; however, no such attacks had occurred in the past two weeks and so the Castle of Lions was drifting in orbit around a small Balmera while the Paladins recharged—Galra, nowhere to be seen.

Katie, admittedly, should have taken the opportunity to chill on the late project obsessions, but she found her constant tinkering a solace to her worried thoughts. With a wrench in her hand and a semi-functional robot in front of her, she felt she could calmly channel such anxious energy without placing pressure on the team. She preferred to nap throughout the day, anyway.

When she popped her head into the training room, she sighed a took a seat on the floor towards the door, observing the other Paladins with tired eyes. Lance, decked out in the black-clad under armor, was lying flat in the middle of the room while Shiro stood over him, head in hands and looking quite exasperated. Hunk sat cross-legged in the opposite corner to Katie, pulling on his boots (he usually ran over to the deck in socks, for reasons unknown). Keith, predictably, began practicing sword-swings after a short round of stretching, while Coran ran his mouth to no one in particular about which training level to start on (Allura, whom he normally discussed such matters with, had wandered over to Shiro to see what exactly left Lance rolling on the floor).

"My legs hurt, Shiro," Lance crowed, grabbing his knee for effect. "The soreness—it's torture."

"You'll feel better once you get moving, Lance." Shiro grabbed the Blue Paladin by the shoulders and hoisted him up in one swift movement. "Coran! Can you grab the healing ointment from the kitchen? I'm sure everyone could use a dose after this session."

Katie paled. "How difficult do you plan on making this?"

Shiro grinned—a sadistic smile, no mercy in his eyes. "As difficult as possible."

Hunk, of course, adopted a mortified expression as Lance's complaints escalated; Keith stood silently in the corner, a smirk on his face. Allura merely grimaced in sympathy—she had her own training, in which she figured out new practical uses for her magic. She would be fine, so long as she didn't overdo it.

But the Paladins?

Shiro apparently had too much in store for them.

After going through nearly eight straight modes of robot-battles and one-on-ones, Katie could barely feel her feet. She might've pulled a back muscle during a tuck-and-roll, and she knew for certain that she bruised the top of her foot (Hunk stepped on it.) Shiro suggested continuing the one-on-ones for those who could go further—by which he meant Lance and Keith, who were never not neck-and-neck—and Katie gratefully stepped to the side to watch her two teammates duke it out.

Hunk sat to her right. "I'm pretty sure I just lost my will to live." .

"Right with you," Katie said. "I'm so hungry I could eat Kaltenecker."

"I wish—Space goo is not where it's at."

Katie grimaced. It's been almost a year, and the space goo concoction Coran called "delicacy" was getting very bland—and there was little even Hunk could do to save it. Hunk was struggling to come to terms with this.

Interested in the idle chatter, Katie shrugged and added her two cents. "I've been thinking about growing some plants here on the ship—I mean, the crystal's energy alone is enough to work with—but I don't know if that would ever get past Coran."