Status Quo
Chapter Six: The Asp Greets the Lion
by Kyence

Disclaimer: All Voltron characters are property of World Events Productions. There is also some curses in this chapter.

‘’ denote character thoughts.
 

A city of granite gods with clothes of glass pierced the sky. There was not a cloud to obscure the night; the years of air pollution have long since passed. The moguls that dwelled within these economic sentinels of Earth could look out and see green patches of protected forests and nature sanctuaries out of the city's reach. Granted, they were miles from the metropolitan area, but the perspective from floors that had three digits to name them provided an idyllic landscape.

Arjuna had never seen anything like it, even on Dhm. Everything was stacked so high he could not see the apex of the majority of the buildings. He had also never been around so many humans that were not slaves, or trying to kill him. He resisted punching the bellhop when she had held her hand out for a tip.

'Okay, Yudy stopped me.'

It was a couple of hours later that they had a special delivery in a cage. Sedated, it had seemed easy enough.

'Hmmph. Yeah, HAD seemed easy enough. I still don't get this.'

"Okay, so tell me WHAT exactly it is we're doing again?" Arjuna was sitting for hours trying to conjure up an answer, but without any despite his drive, resorted to asking his brother instead.

Yudishthira looked up from his brand new laptop computer. "Kidnapping and ransom."

"Uh-huh, kidnapping and ransom," Arjuna nodded. "For who, again?"

"For the man who gave you that shiny new gun of yours."

Arjuna looked at his new weapon with adoration. Its pieces were homogeneous in color and design. It had two barrels: the top one fired a particle beam, while the lower barrel was manually loaded with a large projectile piece. He had several loaded in the chamber, and was savoring the time he would finally be able to test its power. He picked it up in a loving embrace, nestling it on his temple. "I know that much, Yudy. But, I don't get why somebody would just show up at our door, you go outside, and next thing I know, I'm trekking with you in a spaceship so far away from Dhm I can't even find it in the damn sky anymore. Plus, giving us these cool little gadgets."

He regarded his gun and began stroking it with a lover's touch. "Yeah, who loves ya, baby? Oh yeah, I know you likes it, I know you do," he seduced in a raunchy voice. "What's that?" he raised the barrel of it to his ear. "You want me to pet you harder? Yeah, you like it rough, doncha, yes you do."

Yudishthira was staring at this frightening display of gun worship with his jaw dropping an extra centimeter for every additional blood-curdling word of love talk he heard. "If you start to take off your pants, I'm leaving."

"Did I just hear a witticism from Mister Goth?" Arjuna retorted as he held his free hand next to his ear.

"As if I don't have a reason to be depressed, right?" His brother frowned.

'I know a lot more than I can say, Arjuna. I have to keep you ignorant for this to work. I promise I'll tell you everything when the time is right,' he thought to himself. "So, what is your new plaything's name?" he queried with a smirk.

Arjuna rested the gun gently on the adjacent wall, clicking his tongue with disgust. He shook a finger at his fraternal brother with a patronizing tone. "Hey hey, she's not a plaything. We're equal partners, and she's fully capable of making a sprinkler out of you..."

"Fine, what's her name then? I know you. You name everything. You even have a name for you underwear."

"Now, what has Boo ever done to make you hate him so?" Arjuna whined at the mention of his hosiery.

"Smell."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I never noticed that Laundromat in town...oh wait, I forgot," he said with a chuckle, "there WAS a Laundromat in town, but it got bombed to oblivion," he retorted with a smack of his head. "Boo feels just awful about that...here," Arjuna pulled the waistband of his threadbare, old, odorous undergarment and walked to Yudishthira, offering it to him, "he wants to shake your hand, and put this whole misunderstanding behind."

Yudishthira shivered and recoiled as he quickly shook his hand to fan away the scent. "Uh...apology accepted, Boo."

"DAMN! You crazy douche bags are weird! Shit, I didn't know I was abducted by a damn freak show!"

"Oh look, the talking Tourette bird is insulting us again," Arjuna said nonchalantly. He walked up to the cage where their quarry was held captive.

"Who wants a cracker, ugly birdie? Who wants a crackerrrr?" he spoke in a way much like one would talk to a baby.

"I am not amused, buzzcut," the gray avian spat. Its wing digits grabbed hold of the cage's bars and began shaking them.

"Lemme the hell outta here! This is demeaning. I'm the CFO of the god-" the cage rocked backward from the shaking, "-damn-", only to rock forward, "Seer-", the cage rocked backward once more, "TechnologiAAIIIEEEEE," it squawked as the cage feel forward and off the table with the help of gravity.

"Am I free? Am I free?" it asked frantically with its eyes still shut from the fall. It felt around itself, and felt the bars still intact. It opened its gray eyes.

"Shit," it cursed.

"It's your turn to pick up the cage," Arjuna challenged with an annoyed snarl as he looked at his brother, who had once again immersed himself in his portable computer.

The tapping of fingers on the keyboard permeated the air as Yudishthira answered in a monotone that suggested he was not paying attention, "Can you pick that up, Arjuna?"

"Yeah, pick it up," the avian sneered.

"Screw it," Arjuna announced with an exasperated sweep of his arms across his torso. He pointed at the prisoner. "You are gonna sit your spoiled, materialistic, gray feathered ass on the floor until you learn some respect...ugly," he added with a triumphant smile as he turned his attention toward his equal partner again. He picked her up and resumed sweet-talking the piece of metal.

Saoche sighed to herself as she saw the eccentric alien petting the oversized pistol.

'How the FUCK do I end UP in these situations?'

"I'm not gray, I'm PEWTER, AR-GOON-A," she yelled at him.

Arjuna laughed to himself. He held up the gun. "Say hello to my big ass live-in companion...Hey-Zeus!" he declared as he aimed it at Saoche. "And she's about to blow your irritating little head off!"

"Calm down, Arjuna," Yudishthira ordered with a voice not to be disobeyed. Arjuna immediately ceased the lock-on and lowered Hey-Zeus onto his lap.

"Yeah, listen to your brother, bitch," Saoche laughed malevolently.

"As for you," Yudishthira continued as he placed his laptop aside and sat up.

"Yyyyyyyyyyyeeeessssss?" Saoche asked with a toothy grin and bright, innocent eyes as Arjuna glared in the distance.

He walked to the cage and picked it up, lifting it to his eye level.

"Shut...Up...," he commanded. His voice was even and authoritative despite lacking any malicious intent. The glowing eyes provided that.

'Damn, Egg Head's got a temper.'

Saoche cleared her throat and was about to announce her conceding, but when his eyes narrowed and glowed brighter, she decided to let silence be the loudest orator.

Yudishthira's grim face morphed into a surprisingly relieved and jovial visage as he meticulously lowered the cage back on to the table.

'Just my luck. Out of all the possible wardens, I get paired with Syd Vicious and Lithium-Boy.'

"So, what are you tappitty-tapping on that calculator of yours, Yudy?" Arjuna asked.

Yudishthira resumed his position on the comfortable chair and placed the laptop once again on his thighs.

"Do you know what IP addresses are?"

"Do I look like I do? Is that, like, something to do with the Internet?" Arjuna moaned. He had not had any online experience since he had undergone the pupal stage. It seemed like an eternity to him, but he could see that this was not the case with his triplet.

'Good ol' Yudy. He never forgets anything, no matter how trivial, or how long ago he learned it.'

"Every computer connected to the Internet has a unique IP address. Our visitor had given me this computer that has a wireless connection to the Internet...and with some tutorials stored on the encrypted disks provided, I have learned how to scramble and unscramble the IP signal at will."

"So, IP's another way of saying ID?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes; the ransom note I sent to Xiron has a label with this computer's IP on it. If I didn't disguise it, there is a way of finding out it came from this computer, with all the IGPS technology that's out there."

"So, you're disguising a ransom note from a computer that you could just move from place to place instead?" Arjuna pondered. "Or turn off?"

'Y'know, I never thought of it like that before. Overthinking has its downfalls, I suppose,' Yudishthira realized. He smiled at his brother.

"Well, it's just to LOOK like we don't want to be found out too easily.."

"But lemme guess...actually, we really do, by some plan that you can't tell me about..."

Yudishthira nodded.

"So, whaddowe get in return for this abuse?" Arjuna gestured to Saoche, who flipped him the bird at the assumption.

"Resources for Dhm. Resources." Yudishthira began to speak to his brother in the Dhm dialect so their captive could not understand them. "That raid we pulled on the Alliance Headquarters back on Dhm...remember the goods we were able to procure? The food and medicine we took out while Karna's spell on them kept them asleep? We killed who we could and were able to take everything out of there and hide it. Even the consequent Alliance searches about our region couldn't recover a thing. Well, if this pans out as I intend it to, Dhm will be so rich, the Alliance will have to beg us to join them. And that brings amnesty. And power. Think of it, we can demand reparations from even Planet Arus in return for our annexation!"

"I love the way you think, Yudy," Arjuna replied in the tongue with pride. "Your fighting style irks me, but I love the way you think," he added.

Yudishthira's face was inquisitive. "What's wrong with it?"

His brother sighed. "It's not the fact you prefer to slash with claws rather than shoot, but well..." he motioned his head over to his brother's weapons hanging on the wall. He got up and walked over to them. He pointed to them.

"Do you have to use the chopped off legs of the Vultures?!"

Yudishthira chuckled. "It's the psychology of it. Not only do the talons provide great slicing, but also the fact that I am using such a gruesome weapon scares the wits of my enemies even more than a shiny piece of metal. Besides that, the resulting infections in my prey are a sure factor of death if I am unable to kill them outright."

"Like I said, Mister Goth," Arjuna confirmed. His eyes brightened as though an incredible idea had suddenly entered his mind. He gingerly removed the smelly limbs by the leather straps that keep them bound to their bearer's forearms. He wrinkled his nose.

"And you say Boo smells, sheesh."

"What...what are you doing?" Saoche whispered with a twinge of fear.

Arjuna's ears twitched at the sound. With a giddy giggle, he rushed over to the cage, shaking the amputated legs next to it.

"OOOOOOOOOOO!" he moaned. "Scccaaarrrryyyy! Look at your cousin's legs! OOOOOOO!!!!!!"

"Stop it! Stop it! This is cruel and usual punishment!" Saoche wailed. "When I get out of here, I am kicking your ass, Arjuna!!!! AHHHHHHH!"

Yudishthira raised a finger with his mouth slightly open as though he were about to stop this farce. However, a look in his eyes shone that revealed he found this scene amusing. He picked himself up from his chair once again, shaking his head with a tiny grin. Courting his computer underneath his arm, he exited the room and into another two doors away.

'This is a suite, after all,' he thought as he chuckled to himself. 'Might as well use it while I can. The rescuers will be here soon enough.'

He thought about closing the curtains once he entered the room, but decided against it.

'No one even knows we're here.'

To further his point to himself, he sat at the table positioned next to the windows. He lifted the laptop's screen up, laughing a little at the commotion he heard in the distance. He stared at the screen, then through the window.

"Arjuna is right...Dhm isn't in the sky anymore," he agreed aloud. The stars were in patterns he could not recognize. They were not even the same stars. He was not even in the Denubian Galaxy.

"The Milky Way," he whispered incredulously. "My people are suffering in a completely different galaxy. We don't even look at the same sky. So far apart in body, but not in spirit." He saw the busy streets far below, and the other two levels of hovercrafts consisting the remainder of the traffic, all within a dazzling spectrum of twinkling lights and gases of neon and xenon. The buildings, dubbed "skyscrapers," seemed to do just that. This hotel seemed like a dwarf in comparison to the monoliths. He viewed the scraper to his right, which had a huge advertisement consisting of animated characters drinking some new flavor of carbonated beverage. He knew that the building probably had more tiny bulbs on its surface than Dhm had people, and he could only wish he could bring it home with him.

He closed his eyes and sighed as he placed his fingertips onto the pane. He tapped his forehead on the cool glass.

'I am torn,' he thought with shame. 'I hate this. I hate all of this.' He opened his eyes, and felt a tear creep onto his right cheek.

'I hate war. I hate poverty. I hate watching everything I love die around me. I hate having to fight like a savage. And for what? I will die before I see Dhm restored to its former glory.'

He focused on the moving ad with its sparkling subliminal suggestion.

'This is what Dhm needs. Business. Trade. We cannot conquer planets and take slaves to mine a bunch of rocks, so we can build ships to conquer more planets. What does that do? We have resources that the Universe would PAY us for, and do it willingly like a wonton strumpet. We could use our slaves to build factories, to manufacture products. We could create another class of people on Dhm. Warriors and businessmen. The former use swords and guns, the latter use pens and videophones, but both are cutthroat and demand success. Just a different battlefield, and one I am determined to create for all Dhmk.'

He pulled himself away from the view, and sat beside his laptop once more.

'You think so foolishly,' he heard his inner voice mumble. 'You know that the only way to start commerce on Dhm again is to FIGHT. Wage war, WIN war. Then commerce. Besides, you are not in this alone. Remember what he said.'

He tapped his fingers on the table, slumping in his seat as he scratched his chin with his other hand.

"If you are out there, like he said, please, do something soon..."

He was silent for one moment before finishing the statement, fearful that speaking would negate the possibility.

"...Grandfather..."

The Five Lions entered Earth's atmosphere as the sun began to rise over the Atlantic. This simple event had been done by the Voltron Force countless times, but never so far from Arus, and never on Earth. Keith sniffed in the cockpit air, and was sure it smelled like the summer breeze around his home where he grew up. A smile curved his lips at the nostalgia.

"It's great to be home, eh Keith?" Hunk announced on the intercom. He had seen the captain's face on the monitor, and felt he had to say it, lest it not be known.

Keith nodded. "Remember, team, we have to rescue..."

"Keith, I was talking directly to YOU. You're human. It's okay to like being on your home planet," Hunk reminded him in a strong, yet friendly tone.

"It's evolutionary," Pidge chuckled.

Keith's brows furrowed.

"Uh-oh, emotion alert, emotion alert," Lance joked. "Don't worry, Hunk, once we've done the rescuing bit, we'll force our good ol' captain to have a good time. You'll grab his legs, and I'll grab his arms. Pidge, Allura...you'll be the designated drivers."

'I have a false ID that says I'm 22,' Pidge thought with impish glee. He adjusted his monitor's channel to see Allura's reaction, which was her trademark laugh. She also had her right hand's middle finger extended in a manner that would put Nanny in a coma, but this was out of the monitor's view.

Keith conceded with a large grin. "I guess I have no choice. But, remember..."

"First things first. Rescue the CFO, then get blotto," Lance quickly cut in. "And by the way, Pidge better be right about this; I would not like to explain to Coran why we've been away from Arus for weeks for no good reason."

"The ransom was from here, I'd stake my mp7 collection on it," Pidge defended.

"But, how will we do this without making a scene?" Allura reminded everyone. "Xiron did not want anyone to know about the abduction, and the fact that the Lions are on Earth may be conspicuous enough for Galaxy Garrison and the media to get suspicious."

"You are right, Princess. We can't go in, guns blazing, especially where we're heading," Keith agreed. "We may have to land the Lions someplace and commute into the area."

"How will we disguise ourselves?" Pidge asked. His eyebrow arched as he tried to think of a credible solution.

Hunk's eyes brightened. "Hey! Why not say Princess Allura is taking a sabbatical, and we're her escorts? I'm sure Coran would verify it, right?"

"Sabbatical?" Lance repeated.

"It means 'vacation,'" Pidge defined the word for him.

"Oy, I know what it means, I've just never heard Hunk use the word before; remind me to hound you the next time I'm doing a crossword puzzle," Lance pointed at Hunk's visage in the monitor.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Hunk laughed heartily. "But, how's the plan sound? Good, so-so, not good?"

"It's brilliant, Hunk," Allura acknowledged. "It also allows a cover-up for the Lions. The kidnappers are unaware that the Voltron Force was sent to follow them, right?"

"That's true," Keith nodded, "But I still think it would be best to commute to the city, just to be safe."

"But what if there's a big commotion?" Lance wondered.

"Blasting with the Lions would do more harm than good in this situation. There are simply too many innocent people in this area that would be affected."

Pidge listened intently to the conversation, and almost did not hear the beeping of his tracking device.

"I've got the signal again, guys," Pidge announced.

"How long would commuting take?" Lance asked. "Pidge, anyway you can find out?"

"Already have," Pidge declared as he pushed sundry buttons at the console with dexterity.

"There's an express hoverail we can take. If we land outside the city, there's one every ten minutes, and it takes five to get there. Once we're on the ground, my GPS will take us directly to the spot. Just make sure you're ready for anything." Pidge frowned. "I've said this before, and I'll say it again that I think this was TOO easy. The addresses tended to repeat after a while, almost like an attempt to make a ruse obvious."

"Maybe they're stupid?" Lance suggested. "I mean, lets face it, most of the villains we've encountered could lose tic-tac-toe to a rock."

"That's true," Pidge admitted. "If you abduct someone with so much clout, why stay on the same planet? But maybe that's what they want us to think."

"We'll be prepared, don't worry," Keith assured everyone. "Now, let's do what we were sent to do."

'Hah, they're here.'

Yudishthira quietly walked to his slumbering brother. He pat his green mohawk to rouse him.

"Get ready," he whispered in his ear.

"Wh...huh?" Arjuna moaned. He rubbed his eyes and regarded his brother drowsily.

Yudishthira nodded. "It's time."

"Time? Really?!" Arjuna looked around. "ALL RIGHT! TIME TO KICK SOME ASS!" He sprang up with an elfin grace, picking up Hey-Zeus. He aimed his weapon at the door.

"Just say the word, and it's mushroom clouds for breakfast, Yudy."

Yudishthira shook his head. He walked to where his claws had been hung after Arjuna had toyed with them the night before. The movement startled Saoche, who assumed a desperate tone.

"What's goin' on?!"

"Your would-be rescuers are here," Yudishthira replied with a smile.

"Really? Shit, then, in that case..." she inhaled deeply, her feathers swelling at her bosom. "HEEELLLPPPP!! IN HERE! IN HERE! HEEELLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!" She flapped around in the cage, eventually knocking it down off the table.

"I REALLY have to stop doing dumb shit like that," Saoche grit her teeth as she rubbed her head.

Arjuna grew agitated. "Shut up!!! Bro, shut it up!" He looked at his brother, who simply shook his head. "Is this part of the 'mysterious plan' too?"

"Mhmm," was the answer.

The door to the suite was kicked open with a loud bang. Two young men rolled in, each to a different side of the area. They immediately assumed an aggressive stance with laser guns.

Arjuna and Yudishthira exchanged looks. "Tell me...tell me you knew about THIS," Arjuna sneered.

His brother smiled malevolently as he spoke, "Behold, the Voltron Force." He pointed his right claw at the human with red on his uniform.

"You are Captain Keith, I presume?"

Keith nodded. "And who are you?"

Yudishthira spat. He moved his arms in a rhythmic arc that allowed his enemies to see every nauseating angle of his arsenal.

"Your executioner. This is for Dhm. This is for MY...", his eyes glowed red as he paused from the power of his words and anger "...FAMILY!"

Arjuna fired.

Continued

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