Avatar Voltron AU book one: the revolution

Chapter five: lions vs. ferrets part two

Keith felt worry bubble up inside him. "Shiro? What happened? Is he okay?" He asked frantically, needing to know if his brother was safe.
"Shiro is fine." Sygon said reassuringly. "Well... the rest of his unit not so much... maybe I should start from the beginning."
Hunk and Lance both watch with interest. They cared about Shiro too, and didn't want to see him in a hospital bed ever again.
"Here, come inside." Keith offered and opened the door for the officer. Hearing that Shiro was fine put him at ease slightly.
Sygon stepped in side and stood in front of the three probenders.
"Shiro's unit of the task force got a tip off about and equalist hide out." Sygon began. "But when they got there they were over run by chi blockers. Shiro, was the only one to get out... the others were captured by the equalists."
"no..." Lance whispered in disbelief.
"Oh my god..." Keith whispered. "Where is Shiro and where did the chi blockers take the other task force members?" He asked.
"Shiro is at the station with a healer receiving treatment for minor injuries." Sygon said, "and we don't know where the other officers have been taken." He admitted.
"But you're going to find them right?" Lance asked.
"Yeah, I mean how many places could they possibly hide?" Hunk added nervously. Keith looked at the time and sighed.
"I'm sorry officer, but we need to leave. I am very appreciative of you telling me about Shiro. Our pro-bending match starts soon and I don't want to be late."
"Go," Sygon said, "go win this one for those men, let's give them some good news to come home to."
"We will," Lance said standing up.
"Yeah." Hunk agreed. Keith got to his feet and grabbed the necklace that he always wore.
"Let's go, Lion Turtles!" He cheered.
"Woohoo!" Lance cheered in response.
"Let's win this thing! Victory is so close I can taste it!" Hunk shouted.
"Knock em dead you three!" Sygon shouted. He watched as the team made their way out onto the streets. Keith let everyone leave and locked the door behind him, and ran to catch up with his team. Lance ran as fast as he could hunk trailing behind like he always did. Both of them shouting to the whole street that the lion turtles were on their way to glory. The people in the apartments, shops, and food stands all knew the drill by now. Each person the three boys passed cheered and wished them luck. A man working a fruit stand even tossed each of the pro benders an apple, for good luck. Keith smiled, shouting right along with his team. He caught the apple that was tossed to him. He bit into it and hummed from the sweet flavor. They had this game in the bag. They had the whole tournament in the bag. Lance was energized by the cheers. He ate the apple to the core and threw it over head into a trash bin as they reached the arena. Hunk put his apple in his pocket for later; an after match power snack. Lance led his team mates into the training room. This was the night, the night they would win. Keith tossed the apple core away and followed Lance and Hunk.
"We got this one in the bag. We just have to remember that they'll probably be aiming at the parts we talked about eariler."
"Oh I remember." Lance said, he put on a false look of concern. "My pour, pour legs." He moaned in mock pain. Hunk chuckled.
"I wasn't lying about the strength of my gut... but you know I still get motion sick." He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Your poor legs and my poor arms of steel." Keith snickered and went to get in his uniform. "I think the look of our uniforms look the best color wise. Black and dark green is just plain cool."
"Yeah," hunk agreed, pulling on his own uniform. After that he put his helmet on and pulled the extensions of his headband from his shirt so they stuck out from under his helmet. Lance had changed too, rolling his sleeves up once. Keith got his helmet on, tucking his hair inside so none of it stuck out of the bottom. He left his bangs alone, because sure they could block his eyesight, but he didn't like tucking them back. He got the rest of his uniform on and wrapped his hands, just in case.
"Wow. They've really amped up the guard around this place." Lance said putting on his helmet. Two armored metal benders walked by the changing room their legs stiff.
"That's a good thing." Hunk said, "it'll make the equalists think twice." He gulped and added, "I hope."
"Well, with last night's attack, I'm not surprised if they have officers everywhere. I don't know if I like them being here. It makes me feel not as safe." Keith pointed out and finished getting ready. "Well, I'm set to go now."
"Yep all good." Lance said, he'd given up trying to straighten out his sleeves.
"You think Shiro is here? I mean the healer Sygon mentioned must have been done with him by now." Hunk said, giving Keith a thumbs up to tell him he was ready too.
"I don't know. I hope he went home and used the radio to listen to the match." Keith said honestly. "We can go see if he's at his normal spot though."
"I don't know guys..." Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "You heard what Sygon said. Shiro just lost his whole unit... he might be..." He paused as if he was searching for the right word. "Fragile..."
hunk's face fell. "Oh... right."
Keith walked out of their gym and turned to his team. "Yeah, I hope he's just using the radio this time." He said and looked behind him to see if he was about to run into anyone.
"Come on this is Shiro we're talking about. He'll bounce back from this... he's got to..." Lance didn't sound his usual confident self as they approached the platform. Hunk was fidgeting with his uniform as per usual.
"Oh Lance, don't forget the embarrassing dance you have to do." Keith reminded him with a grin. "Are you going to keep that promise?"
Lance sighed, "Yeah. I've got it covered." His cheeks darkened slightly as he blushed. Hunk clapped Lance on the back.
"You got this buddy." He said smiling. The platform shuddered and started to rise.
"Awe! Lance is blushing!" Keith teased and waited to see the dance Lance would have to do. He knew they had this match in the bag. He just had to focus and work on taking Mako out.
"Oh shut up Keith." Lance snapped, his blush only getting worse. Hunk looked like he was about to say something but was cut off as the platform rose to full hight exposing them to the cheering crowd.
"Introducing the Republic City Police Department Lion Turtles!" The announcer yelled in his usual stage voice. The crowd rippled with laughter, causing Lance and hunk to grimace. Keith shook his head and looked straight ahead, a serious and determined look in his eyes. He wouldn't loose this, and he knew it. "Focus guys."
"And their opponents! The Future Industries, Fire Ferrets!" The anouncer said to roaring cheers from the crowd. Lance growled in frustration as the other team got into their positions. They had to win this. If they won this match no one would ever laugh at their name again. Hunk ignored the laughter, the only thing on his mind was the match; whatever came after it would come in it's own time. Keith gritted his teeth and got ready for the bell to sound. He got ready to do his first attack; to launch as many fire balls at the whole team to distract them. The bell sounded, and all at once the ring became a torrent of earth, water and fire. Lance narrowly avoided a stone from Bolin, ducking just in time. In retaliation Lance shot a vortex of water at the earth bender knocking him to the second zone of the ring. Hunk was shooting rock after rock at the fire ferrets, making sure to stay firmly on his feet. Keith blasted Mako back with intense fire as water from Korra nearly knocked him out. The fire ferrets water bender then focused on Lance, trying to get him back. Lance did his best to redirect the water Korra had had sent his way; but he could feel his feet sliding on the floor of the platform.
"Ah! Hunk, a little help!" He shouted.
"On it buddy!" Hunk called, throwing a rock straight at Korra. It connected with the avatar and sent her right out of the ring and into the water below.
Keith smirked when Korra fell off the back. He focused on Mako and sent more back to back fire shots at his chest and hands. "You guys won't last long." Lance let out a triumphant cheer as he sent a blast of water at Bolin. At the same time hunk had sent a rock flying at the earth bender and the combined force knocked him over the end of the ring. This left Mako alone on the Fire Ferret's side. All they had to do was knock him over and the match was won. Keith smiled and made the fire more intense, blowing Mako farther and farther back. "Hunk, Lance, now!" He called and continued the fiery barrage until his team would come to assist him. It's okay. With Keith's order both Lance and hunk sent their elements flying at Mako. Though the fire bender tried he couldn't stay on his feet and flew over the edge of the ring.
"And it's a knock out!" The announcer cried, the crowd cheered loudly. "The Lion Turtles move on to the final match of the tournament!"
"We did it!" Hunk shouted. He pulled Lance and Keith into a group hug. Keith grinned and hugged Lance and Hunk back.
"Oh, Lance, remember what you have to do?" He asked with a sly smirk. Hunk let go of Lance. The water bender groaned.
"Way to kill the mood Keith..." Lance pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine I'll do it."
"Go ahead Lance. Don't forget to wave to the fans." Keith said, hearing the people chanting "Lion Turtles".
Lance sighed, his cheeks taking on color again. He took off his helmet and waved to the crowd, they all cheered. He was about to confuse everyone so badly. Lance gritted his teeth then started skipping around the bending ring like a three year old. "My name is Lance Maclean.
And I am here to say
I'm gonna make you smile, and I will brighten up your day-ay
It doesn't matter now
If you are sad or blue
'Cause cheering up my friends is just what Lance's here to do
'Cause I love to make you smile, smile, smile
Yes I do
It fills my heart with sunshine all the while
Yes it does
'Cause all I really need's a smile, smile, smile
From these happy friends of mine." While Lance sing he... well looked like an idiot. The crowd was laughing. When Lance stopped singing he ran at the edge of the ring and jumped into the water below. Keith, crossing his arms at the water bender, had an amused look.
"I didn't expect him to go that far. I think he made our team loom worse." He sighed and turned to go back to the platform. Hunk was too busy laughing to care what crowd thought. He followed Keith back to the changing room. Lance joined them a few minutes later he was soaked. Keith rolled his eyes and went to go change, pulling off his relatively undamaged clothes. Now that he thought about it, he didn't think that any one even went after him. He looked over at Lance. "Why didn't you dry off?"
"Because I wanted to do this." Lance said. He bended the water from his uniform right into the faces of his two teammates.
"Gah! Lance!" Hunk shook himself, water dripping from his hair. Keith growled, and the water that was thrown at him was starting to steam off.
"Lance...was that really a smart choice?" He asked in an annoyed tone and shot fire at his feet. Lance jumped up in the air to avoid the fire. "Hey! I was just playing. Calm down mullet."
Hunk sighed, changing into his regular clothes. "When we're done here are we crashing at your place again?" He asked Keith.
Keith got changed and shrugged. "I don't care. You know Shiro doesn't mind you guys staying over. We will probably have to be quiet though."
"Why?" Lance asked, his voice was muffled because he was putting on his normal clothes and they were covering his mouth. Hunk thought he knew why but he looked at Keith for confirmation.
"Because he probably doesn't want a lot of noise tonight. Remember what happened." Keith reminder them.
"Oh..." Lance emerged from his shirt collar looking a little ashamed. "Maybe you should... um... stay with him..." Lance suggested, picking his words carefully. Hunk stayed quiet, not wanting to get too involved in what he feared might become an argument.
"I'm going to be with him later, but you guys can still come over, just keep the noise down." Keith said and fixed his shirt.
"Don't worry." Lance said, "we'll be quiet."
"Yeah," hunk said, "I can't even imagine what he must be feeling right now..." he added in an undertone.
"Come on." Lance said, "let's get going."
Keith didn't speak about it again and walked out of the changing room, heading out to the street to go home. Lance walked in silence, they didn't need to get the whole street to start shouting. When they made it to the apartment the atmosphere felt heavy; the tension could have been cut with a knife.
"Something feels...wrong." Keith murmured and looked back at his friends. "I'm going to run ahead to see if something happened."
"Keith wait." Lance said, "I'm sure it's just us being overly worried and hopped it on Adrenalin." He put a hand on Keith's shoulder.
"I don't know Lance." Hunk said nervously, "something is definitely off."
Keith shook his head. "Come on." He said and took off running to his apartment. Something was wrong; he just hoped it wasn't something to do with Shiro.