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“Dude, we’re being followed.”
Lance rolled his eyes as he dropped a gac into the fountain. “Hunk, for the last time, you’re being paranoid.”
“No, I’m serious,” Hunk said as he nervously glanced around and hugged himself. “I totally feel like someone’s watching us.”
Lance raised a skeptical eyebrow as he nonchalantly looked to the other ongoing alien shoppers around him. “Buddy, to be fair, we are in a giant space mall.” He tucked his hands into his pockets. “We are surrounded by shoppers, and considering we’re the only humans here, I imagine a few would be staring at us.”
Hunk shook his head unconvinced. “No, what I’m feeling isn’t a ‘Oh, what weird looking people are they’ feeling. It’s a legit ‘We are being followed’ feeling.” He placed a hand over his chest. “I swear, when we left the food court I saw someone dart out of the way as I turned around, and when we left that Earth store I’m positive someone was looking directly at us.”
Lance rubbed his neck. “Well…if you feel that certain we’ll mention it to Shiro when he gets here.” If he ever gets here. How long does it take a guy to find a parking space?
Hunk chewed his bottom lip and sighed. “Yeah, okay, I just hope it’s not a Galra spy or something after us.”
That Lance would agree with. They had enough trouble of trying to fight them with only four operational lions. They had the red lion, but no paladin to fly her. They had hoped that Allura would be chosen, but it proved it wasn’t the case.
She tried to hide it, but Allura had looked disappointed at the revelation. With no other options, all they could do was fly with four paladins until their fifth member could be found. Although, Lance began to dread they would never find him or her and he didn’t know how much longer they could last as a result. If something didn’t change so, they weren’t going to be able to keep fighting in this war.
Lance forced himself to stop pondering as he saw Pidge appeared and she did not look happy. “No luck getting the guy to lower the price?”
Pidge scowled. “No, and it makes no sense!” She tossed her hands up in the air. “That guy has like a dozen game consoles and it’s clear no one has been buying them! He should be jumping at the chance for me to buy one.”
Lance gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Well…maybe we can borrow some gac from Coran and we can buy-”
“THERE!” Hunk declared as he sprang up and pointed. “RIGHT THERE! I SEE HIM!”
Lance jumped until he saw where Hunk had pointed. Someone had taken a step back and sharply turned around to run away.
“Okay, that’s suspicious,” Lance commented.
“I totally caught him staring at us,” Hunk added.
“What’s going on?” Pidge asked, but Lance didn’t answer as he and Hunk gave chase.
“Explain later!” Lance exclaimed.
Shiro would probably tell them later they were reckless to give chase, but if Hunk was right they had to nip this in the bud. If they were wrong and it was just an innocent shopper, well..worse case they just got banned from the mall again. At least this time it wouldn’t be Coran’s fault for accidentally setting fire to a store.
The three teens ran, and quickly caught up, but Lance had to admit the guy was fast. The mysterious stranger hoped over a shopping cart and even tried to shove an alien shopper into their path.
Hunk caught the shopper, mumbled an apology as he set them aside and continued the chase. “We’re going to lose him at this rate.”
Lance thought and snapped his fingers. “He’s probably going to head to the exit,” Lance said as he headed towards the left. “You two keep after him and I’ll try to cut him off.”
Lance didn’t wait for a confirmation before he ran through a jewellery store, turned at the right corner and skidded to a halt as the entrance appeared. He spun around just in time to see the figure sprint towards them.
Lance smirked and without a second to lose, he sprang forward and pounced. The figure froze and tried to turn around only to be blocked by Pidge and Hunk. Lance tackled and cheered as he pinned the person face down.
“Ha! And this is why I always win tag at family reunions,” Lance cheered.
The person grunted under his dark blue and baggy clothing. “Let go!”
“Not until we get some answers, pal,” Hunk said as he squatted and lifted the person’s head. “Why were you-”
Hunk’s words vanished and he froze. He opened and shut his mouth, and to Lance’s confusion Pidge had the same reaction. They both looked as if they had swallowed dried food goo and were being offered a second helping.
“What’s wrong?” Lance asked as he forced the person on his back so he could see his face. “Is he ugly or-HOLY QUIZNACK! YOU’RE A HUMAN!”
The boy growled and squirmed under Lance’s hold. He couldn’t have been any older than they were and he looked ready to fight them all. “Thanks for stating the obvious, now get off.”
Lance got off and let the boy climb to his feet. The boy brushed the dust off his clothes and pulled back his hood revealing a long black braid. He rubbed his eyes. “Quiznack, Kolivan’s going to assign me extra training if he ever finds out about this.”
Lance shut his jaw as he forced himself to calm down. “Okay, who exactly are you?”
The boy narrowed his eyes. “I’m Keith.”
Silence followed and Lance raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“And what?”
“Is that all you’re going to say.”
“To a bunch of people that tackled me to the ground, yes.”
“Tackled?” Hunk argued. “Dude you were-”
Pidge let loose a sharp whistle that caused all the boys to cover their ears.
“Ow, that hurt,” Lance whined.
“Deal with it because I would like to know what is going on here,” Pidge said as she tossed her hands up in the air.
Hunk rubbed his neck. “Okay, this guy, Keith, has been spying on us all over the mall. I thought I was going crazy, but then I spotted him, Lance tackled him to the ground..and yeah that’s it.”
Keith blushed. “I wasn’t spying on you.”
“Staying hidden from us while you watch us and then trying to run when we see you sounds an awful like lot like spying, man,” Lance commented.
Keith shut his mouth. “I..okay, when you put it like that, it does sound like spying.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m..I’m sorry.” He turned his face away as the long bangs covered his eyes. “I’ve just never seen other humans before.”
Lance frowned. This guy has never seen another human before? That just raised more questions. “So, you got curious?”
Keith gave a sheepish nod.
“You could have just come talked to us,” Pidge asked as she crossed her arms. “Considering you’re the first human we’ve seen out here, we would have sought you out too if we saw you.”
“It’s not that simple,” Keith muttered. “I’m technically not suppose to leave the base..um..my home. If my family found out I was here-”
“You get grounded?” Hunk asked.
Keith tilted his head. “Grounded?”
“Earth term,” Pidge explained as she adjusted her glasses. “Basically means ordering you to stay in your room for a few days at least.”
Keith gave a slow nod. “Um..yeah, something like that.”
Lance crossed his arms. So, they found a human, who apparently was raised by aliens if his guess was correct and he wasn’t even suppose to be out here at the mall. Just who was this guy?
“I..I should go.” Keith began to pull away, but Lance caught his arm.
“Wait, look, we already met each other, so why not at least stick around until our other friend Shiro gets here.” Lance let go and offered a smile to encourage him. “He’ll definitely want to see you too.”
Keith seemed tempted and sighed. “I..I don’t know.”
“It won’t take long,” Hunk insisted, “and if you’re going to get in trouble anyway, you might as well go all the way right.” He pointed to Lance. “Trust me, I got enough experience by just hanging out with Lance alone to know that.”
Lance pouted, but then gave a nod. Yeah, he wasn’t wrong.
Keith eyed the door ahead, but then pulled his hood over his head. “Okay, but as long as it doesn’t take long. I need to get home soon.”
“Great,” Pidge said as she grabbed Keith’s arm and dragged him forward. “By the way, you any good at haggling? I’m trying to get this alien to lower his price.”
They all walked in unison as they re-entered the mall. Lance couldn’t explain it, but something told him they had just found a very important person.