Avatar Voltron AU book one: the revolution

Chapter one: the Lion Turtles

"Hey Keith. Nice work this morning." Lance said clapping his team mate on the back. "This next match is as good as ours. I can already hear the fans cheering."
Keith smiled and looked at Hunk and Lance. "Thanks man, how about we go get some food? I haven't eaten yet, and I'm sure you guys haven't either."
"See," hunk said wiping sweat from his forehead, "Lance I told you we should have eaten this morning. Keith gets it."
Lance laughed. "Alright you two. Let's go out and try to fill those bottomless pits of yours."
"Hey Keith, is Shiro still on security detail at the arena?" Hunk asked, "I know he likes to watch the matches."
Keith shrugged. "I don't know. He already left before I woke up, so I didn't get to ask him." He said and looked at Lance. "We have normal bodies that need to be fed every few hours unlike yours."
"Yeah Lance you're a bit of a twig." Hunk teased.
"Come on guys." Lance pouted, he ruffed his own hair, "I look fabulous." She said with a smirk.
"Yeah a fabulous twig." Hunk joked, Lance water bended in his face. "Aw, now my clothes are all wet..." hunk moaned.
Keith snickered and backed away from Lance, not wanting to get soaked. "Come on guys, we need to get some food." He said with a smile. "Last one out has to pay for it!"
"Hey no fair, mullet!" Lance raced after Keith, hunk panting close behind.
"Why does it have to be a race?!" The earth bender yelled after his teammates.
Keith shot fire at Lance's feet and sped up. "I think its very fair!" He called and continued to try to get Lance off balance.
"Woah! Hot! Hot! Hot!" Lance danced on his toes trying to avoid the flames. "Shiro!" He whined forgetting the cop wasn't there.
"Shiro's not here Lance!" Hunk called racing passed the off balance water bender.
Keith grinned and continued to sprint ahead. "Thank you for not being here today, Shiro." He said to himself, the stairs in sight.
"Hey Guys Wait!" Lance called trying to catch up with his team mates. There was no way he was letting that fire bender beat him at this.
"Good idea Keith," hunk complimented as they ran. "If Lance has to pay for it the food will taste so much better."
"You better be prepared to eat my fire, Lance!" Keith called and slid down the railing on the stairs. There was no way he would loose to either of them.
Hunk paused at the top of the stairs, he carefully speed walked down them.
"In your dreams mullet!" Lance called ahead pushing passed hunk as he ran down the stairs at full speed; he tripped, and fell all the way down landing with a thud.
Keith snickered when he heard Lance fall, but didn't have time to turn and look, he didn't have the money to pay for breakfast, so that's why he had to win.
Lance pulled himself up and staggered to run. He was a lot slower now. "Guys... I give... I'll pay... just stop running...." he called in between gasps for air.
Hunk had stopped just outside the gym. There was an equalist protester outside the doors yelling into a megaphone.
"Are you tired of living under the oppression of benders?!" The man was shouting. He had amassed quite a crowd.
Keith walked out of the gym and growled when he saw the equalist protester. "I'll be back guys." He told his friends and walked up to the protester. "Uh, how are benders oppressing non-benders?" He asked, trying to not snap at him.
"Umm Keith... maybe let's not get the equalist mad." Hunk suggested.
Lance caught up to them. "Yeah just leave it Keith,"
"Let me guess you're a bender." The protester said with a sneer. "Your time will be ending soon."
Keith growled and stared up at the equilist. "And what kind of threat is that?" He asked and stepped forward, ignoring his team.
Sirens sounded in the distance. A police car pulled up to the corner and Shiro stepped out in full uniform.
The crowd parted to let him through.
"Oh great. Shiro can sort this out." Hunk said to Lance.
"What's going on here?" Shiro asked, noticed Keith and sighed. "Go to your team. We'll talk about this later."
Keith sighed and walked back to his team. "Out of all the times he could have showed up, it had to be now.." He muttered.
"Hey I'm glad he showed up." Hunk said, "those equalists are dangerous."
"Yeah... I heard their leader can take a person's bending away. For good." Lance added as they walked.
"Like that's supposed to make me feel better about my brother being a police officer." Keith mumbled. "Do either of you have enough to pay rent this month?"
"Yeah last match should cover it," Lance said.
"Keith you're not worried about Shiro getting hurt on duty are you?"Hunk asked, "he can take care of himself. Sure there was the accident a year ago when his lost his arm-"
"Hunk not helping." Lance said cutting off the earth Bender's rant.
"Yeah, he lost his arm! It was all because I couldn't be there to help him.." Keith murmured and looked at the ground. "If he looses his bending.." His words trailed off, being too painful to finish.
"Hey don't worry." Lance put a hand on Keith's shoulder, "Shiro is a beat cop, he's hardly ever around the dangerous equalists."
"Besides doesn't he use metal bending to give himself a fake arm?" Hunk added.
"What happened wasn't your fault Keith. Shiro was doing his job and he saved so many people that day." Lance assured the fire bender.
Keith shook his head and kept walking. "Who are we playing tonight?" He asked to change the subject. "We need to focus on the game."
"This team of rookies, the Fire ferrets I think," Lance said glad for the subject change. "I've seen them before, their water bender is the weak link."
"Wait, wait, isn't their water bender the avatar?" Hunk asked.
"Yeah, at least my grand kids will know I did cool stuff," Lance said with a cocky smirk.
"We're facing that team? Oh great. I've heard their fire bender is really good." Keith groaned. "We need do do some more training when we get back." Keith told them and stopped in front of one food cart that smelled amazing.
"Alright I lost the race I'll pay." Lance said, "what do you guys want.
"Let's not push ourselves too hard." Hunk said, "we won't have any energy for the match if we do."
Keith ordered his food and looked at Hunk. "Don't worry, we'll do fine. I was thinking thirty minutes when we get back, and before the match, do a five minute warm up." He suggested.
Hunk and Lance ordered as well. Lance true to his word payed for it all.
"I'm down for that," Lance said.
"Yeah sounds good," hunk agreed. When they got back to the front of the gym the saw the protesters clearing out. Shiro was standing on the corner watching to make sure the rally packed up and moved on.
Keith walked up to Shiro and smiled. "Hey bro, you going to be at the match tonight?" He asked Shiro, smiling. "I heard we are going against the avatar."
Shiro's smile faded, "I'm sorry Keith, the chief just reassigned me this morning. Starting tonight I'm going to be a part of the new task force to help take down the equalists." He explained, "But I'll have my radio on all night to listen to your match."
Keith felt a pit in his stomach when he heard about the task force. "Oh..Okay. I understand." He hugged Shiro. "Be careful, okay? I can't have you get hurt again."
Shiro hugged Keith back, "Keith I'll be fine. I'm not afraid." He said, "I've been waiting for them to give me an assignment like this ever sense I recovered. I'm proud to do it if it means keeping you, your friends, and every one in the city safe."
Keith sighed. "Why are you always so selfless? Oh, can these two crash at our place for the night?" He asked, hope in his eyes.
Shiro looked at Lance and hunk who were smiling and waving at him.
"Of course," Shiro smiled, "but don't wait up too long for me when you get home. Late nights are going to become normal for me if this goes well."
"Thanks Shiro!" Lance called.
"Yeah you're the best!" Hunk said.
"You know I won't wait up for you. I always pass out after these matches." Keith said and smiled. "Well, we need to do some more training for tonight, I'll see you....sometime." He said and turned to walk back with his team.
Shiro smiled and watched the team go. "Stay out of trouble you three!" He called after them. He sighed got into his car and drove back to the station for briefing.
"Man your brother is so cool." Lance said, "all my older brothers did was tease and punch me. That's why I jumped on it and moved to the city."
Keith waved to Shiro then turned back to Lance. "It's probably because he's my only family member and he's more of a dad than anything."
"Still it must be nice. I mean he's got a cool job, and um... I guess some girls might find him attractive." Lance went on.
"Says the guy who flirts with every girl he sees," hunk teased.
"Yeah, I don't think I've seen a guy who's so straight." Keith teased and poked Lance. "Maybe I could poke him and he'd snap."
"Hey I wasn't flirting with him just making an observation!" Lance snapped. "Besides, he'd be too old even if I was interested. That and the whole straight thing."
"Alright Guys Maybe we should start training." Hunk suggested, "we're going to beat them or die trying."
"Yeah! woohoo go Lion Turtles!" Lance cheered jumping up in the air.
"Shiro is only six years older than me." Keith reminded Lance. "Besides, relationships are overrated." He said and followed behind them, a pleasant smile on his face.
"Oh come on Keith." Lance said playfully shoving the fire bender. "You're not going to be a lone wolf bat for the rest of your life are you?"
"Lance leave him be." Hunk said "we need to train. Don't you want the bragging rights that come with beating the avatar?" He knew appealing to lance's ego would get the ball rolling.
"Oh heck yes!" Lance cheered, rushing up the stairs ahead of the others to the gym.
Keith walked up the stairs next to Hunk. "Feeding his ego really isn't good for him or our sanity." He murmured as he watched the water bender run up the stairs.
"Yeah..." hunk sighed, "we did enough of that when we let him pick our team name. No one takes a lion turtle seriously." He groaned.
"You got that right. I still think the dragons sounded cooler. Is it too late to change it?" Keith asked the earth bender.
"Yeah, it's on all the boards and tickets, and it made the announcer laugh," hunk counted on his fingers.
"This name has really let us fly under the radar though. Did you see looks on the last team's faces when we mopped the floor with them?"
"You do have a good point. Lion turtles were really powerful creatures...before they all died out." Keith said quietly. "It is funny watching people get destroyed by the Lion Turtles."
"So you two got up here after all?" Lance said, he was busy battering a training dummy with hit after hit of water.
"We were just talking about our team name." Hunk said, moving to his area of the gym and starting to train as well.
"Oh come on guys lion turtles are cool! They gave people bending!" Lance pointed out.
"Yeah, but most people don't remember that. If we were called the dragons, then people would respect us, instead of laugh at us." Keith said and went to his part of the gym, blasting fire at the training dummy
"Well you guys let me pick. It's not my fault I grew up on old legends and fairytales." Lance said panting from exertion.
"Yeah well it's not our fault everyone laughs when we come into the arena and the announcer says our name. That's on you buddy." Hunk teased, shooting rock after rock into the net on the far wall. "I think if it weren't for Shiro pulling some strings and getting the police department to sponsor us we'd have zero street cred."
"You got that right Hunk." Keith said and shot faster, but smaller fire balls at the dummy. "How about a quick free for all match?" He offered.
"Come on Keith really?" Lance stopped what he was doing "last time we did one of those I twisted my wrist and hunk broke his tail bone. I'd like to not be injured before the match if I can help it."
"Hey Keith, don't you normally have the radio turned onto the police station?" Hunk asked noticing for the first time home quiet it was in the gym.
"Oh that's right!" Keith ran over to the radio and turned it on. He went back to training once it was on. He continued shooting repetitive fire blasts at the dummy.
The radio was static for a moment, then voices came through the white noise. Many people confirming location, arrests and other things hunk didn't understand but he knew it kept Keith at ease.
"Gah! Hunk why did you point that out?" Lance complained, "I was enjoying the lack of radio chatter. Keith why do you even listen to that?"
"Because I would know if something happens to Shiro. I would know where to go to find him." Keith snapped. "If that means having the radio on, then the radio stays on."
"Shiro can take care of himself..." Lance grumbled, returning to knock the tar out of the training dummy.
"I like having it on. You know Incase the equalists are close." Hunk said nervously.
"Hunk what would the equalists want with probenders?" Lance asked.
"What do you think they're going to stop at the Triads?" Hunk asked, "they want to get rid of every bender."
"If they took the Triads out so easily, I personally don't think any bender is safe. I wanted Shiro to back out of the task force." Keith mumbled and continues to shoot fire at his dummy.
"You can't stop him from doing his job." Lance pointed out. "You heard him he wants to do this. He's recovered from the accident and is ready to get back out there for real. Why aren't you happy for him?"
Hunk didn't speak the conversation was getting a little heated.
"I know he's a cop, but I'm just afraid one of these days...it won't be an arm or a leg that his job takes.." Keith's flames got weaker as he slowed down more and more.
"Keith..." hunk stopped and walked over to his friend. "I'm sure Shiro will be fine. He's a lot less reckless than he was back then. He knows when to back out."
"Yeah," Lance agreed, stopping too. "Sorry for giving you a hard time about the radio. I won't say anything about it again. I know it makes you feel better about him being out there."
Keith sighed and shook his head, clearing his head of his worries. "You guys are right. I need do stop worrying about Shiro.." He said and went to launch a massive fireball ar the dummy.
After a while Lance and hunk started to slow down. They had been training for a little over an hour and both were sweating.
"I think... we can call it for the day." Lance panted, "we need to rest up for the match."
"Yeah...." hunk agreed breathing hard. "Lance.. I need a drink." He opened his mouth and pointed to it. Lance huffed, and water bended from the cooler into his friend's mouth.
"You're weird. I hope you know that hunk." Lance teased, punching the earth bender playfully on the arm.
Keith stopped training, he was panting like the others. "Can I get some water over here Lance?" He asked and opened his mouth like Hunk did.
"Fine," Lance sighed, and bended water into the fire Bender's mouth. "I'm not a water dispenser. You guys know that right?"
"Yeah but you're better and more reliable then the one down stairs." Hunk pointed out.
"And the water here is colder than that one." Keith added. "I can't give anything because I don't think you guys want to eat fire."
"Yeah thanks buddy." Lance said.
"Hey do think Shiro will mind if I cook you guys something after the match?" Hunk asked, "Since we're going to be at your place I though I'd ask."
"Of course not, we just have to save him some leftovers." Keith smiled and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. "We can head back now if you want."
"Cool." Lance said, slinging a sweat towel over his shoulders. "Your place is way nicer than our apartment."
"Yeah and who's fault is that?" Hunk asked raising and eye brow. "You are the one who bought us that cheap wall clock. I went to check the time and a the numbers fell to the bottom."
"I told you not to let the sun hit it." Lance pointed out.
"I was actually saving up for something. I can tell you guys when we get to my apartment." Keith told them and went to walk out of the gym.
Lance and hunk followed Keith eager to get out of the gym and rest.
"Does Shiro know about it?" Hunk asked.
"Yeah, surely you've told your awesome big bro." Lance added, punching Keith playfully in the arm.
"Actually no, I was waiting to see what you two thought of it first." Keith said with a smile. "I was going to tell him the next time I see him at home."
"So spill. What is it?" Lance pressed as they reached the apartment building.
"Yeah Keith, I'm interested now. You never come to us first for stuff like this." Hunk said.
"Well, I'm saving money to get a big enough apartment for all four of us." Keith smiled. "It would be nice to have the extra company around when Shiro's gone."
"Aw..." Lance and hunk pulled Keith into a crushing hug.
"You do care." Lance teased.
"That's great Keith!" Hunk smiled wide. "It would be so cool!"
"Gah! Guys! I need to breathe.." Keith said. "If you don't let go, I won't let you move in." He threatened.
They both backed off. "Okay, okay backing off now," Lance said.
"Sorry." Hunk rubbed the back of his neck. "Just got a little excited. Don't know my own strength sometimes."
"Yeah I can feel that." Keith sighed. "Anyways, rent is expensive on this place as you can imagine. How much do you two pay for rent in a month?"
"About 300 yuans." Lance said, "our place is a dump though. The water presser sucks, the heat is always acting up, and there may or may no be rat squirrels living in the walls." Lance counted off the many problems on his fingers.
"Lance it's not Rat Squirrels, it's mice roaches." Hunk said.
"How do you know?" Lance asked.
"I got up in the middle of the night once and stepped on one." Hunk admitted a chill running down his spine.
"Oh so that's what the screaming was about." Lance said.
"Really? It costs that much? This place is 600 yuans a month. Between the four of us is around 200 yuans a month." Keith told them. "I'm surprised you two pay that much."
"Me too." Lance shrugged. "It used to be a lot nicer until the landloard let it fall to pieces."
"Yeah, we were looking for a new place but everything's been going up since the equalists Showed up" hunk explained.
"Well this place has four bedrooms, a really nice kitchen and a good sized living room. Its almost double the size of my apartment." Keith explained and unlocked the door.
"Sounds good, hunk and I are sharing a room right now." Lance said.
"Yeah. And I've been keeping this in but Lance you snore." Hunk said pointing an accusing finger at the water bender.
Keith chuckled and shook his head, walking into the apartment. "We having pasta again?" He asked the cooks. It was what they normally had before games like tonight.
"Uh heck yeah!" Hunk said, "I'll get cooking. Lance turn on the radio." He dashed off into the other room to get started.
"Hey Keith. I know you like have it on to keep an eye on Shiro, but could we change for two minutes to see what other teams are competing tonight?" Lance asked.
"Fine, but we're changing it back as soon as we know the other teams." Keith sighed and sat on the couch.
"Thanks buddy. You're the best." Lance said turning the radio on and adjusting the nob to find the right channel.
"Hey quick question. Dose Shiro know you listen to this when he's out?" Lance asked as he continued to search for the right station.
"Uh...I don't think he does." Keith admitted. "I never had the need to tell him." He shrugged and pulled his sketchbook out.
"Ah Ha!" Lance put his fist in the air and cried out in victory. He had found the probending channel. He turned up the volume is hunk would hear it in the kitchen.
"And it's shaping up to be an exciting night folks!" The announcer said in his usual cheery tone. "Tonight's line up brings the best of the best all under one roof. The future industries Fire Ferrets, the whit falls Wolf Bats, the golden temple Tiger-dilos, the Cabbage Corp buzzard wasps, and of course the under dogs of this season the Republic city police department Lion Turtles!"
Keith groaned when he heard some of the teams being called. "Why are the Wolf Bats there?! They're always so arrogant! Like, more than Lance is!"
"Um I'm right here Keith," Lance said indignantly. "I can't believe the buzzard wasps made it this far they've had a real bad season."
"I can't believe the fire ferrets got a sponsor." Hunk called from the kitchen.
"And it's Future Industries no less! They probably didn't have enough money to make it into the tournament." Keith said, ignoring what Lance had said.
"But we are backed by republic city's finest." Hunk pointed out, emerging from the kitchen with three steaming bowls of pasta.
"Yeah, the other teams can flash their cool names and sponsors, but we got the faith of the police department." Lance said changing radio back as Keith had told him to.
"Seems like our only threats are the Wolf Bats and maybe the Fire Ferrets. They've done really well so far." Keith pointed out and continued drawing.
"I don't know the tiger-dilos have a lot of experience." Lance pointed out. Hunk set the bowls down on the coffee table.
"Don't worry I left some in there for Shiro when he gets home." Hunk told Keith. "Guys if we keep going the way we are now we've got a real shot this year."
Keith put the book down and eagerly grabbed the bowl. "You're right. I think we can make it if we work hard enough." He smiled and got a forkful of pasta and raised it in the air. "To the Lion Turtles!"
Lance and hunk both smiled and did the same. "Lion Turtles!" They cheered.
"And to many more years with you guys!" Lance added, "you're the best teammates and friends anyone has and ever will have."
"I'll eat to that." Hunk said smiling wide.

Special thanks to @ValidDragon