Work Text:
“Whatcha doing?”
Hunk jumped. He turned around, and saw the lamplight glinting off of Pidge’s glasses. “Geez Pidge, can you give a guy a warning next time?”
Pidge smirked and took the seat at the work desk next to him. “Sure. I’ll wear a bell next time.”
Hunk turned back to the desk, and continued to fiddle with the machinery he had recently picked up. “Really?”
“No.”
“Thought so.” Hunk focused his attention on the hunk of metal again again. It was black and boxy, with various wires sticking out the side. One of the sides were shinier than the others. He wasn't sure what purpose it served exactly, and the gifter didn't do much to explain. He'd already taken it apart and put it together multiple times, but nothing would happen. No amount of poking and prodding he did could make it actually do anything, and he was a very good prodder. Yeah, sure, sometimes it buzzed and sparked and possibly flopped around helplessly, but that wasn’t exactly helpful. Unless its sole purpose is to buzz and spark, but he doubted that, like, 99%.
Maybe.
Okay, maybe it more like 86%, but still.
Pidge’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Hunk, seriously, what are you doing?”
Hunk clutched at his chest, wheezing. He'd forgotten that they were still here. “Pidge, I’m gonna die of a heart attack, and it’s gonna be all your fault.”
Pidge shrugged. “I’ll come to your funeral. But I’m serious, you’ve been messing with that for like the past two days since you’ve got it, and you haven’t told me anything about it.” They sidled up next to Hunk, getting a closer look at the intricate engineering. “I wanna know what it is, maybe I can help.”
Hunk put the piece down on the desk, and pushed himself away from the table. “Okay, so you remember the mission we just went on, right? The one with the sharks and stuff?”
Pidge grimaced. “Of course I remember. How could anyone forget those lovely sharks?”
The paladins had found a large water planet that had few scarce islands. It was filled to the brim with an intelligent species shark aliens ("Sharliens," Lance called them), and scans reported that there wasn’t a Galra influence yet. So, Allura had decided that it would be a wonderful idea if the planet became the next one in the Voltron Alliance, and commanded the paladins to go down and ask the sharliens to join. However, there were a few complications...
“Don’t blame me, the water obscured their legs very well!” Hunk cried. “How was I supposed to know they hated mammals?!”
Pidge rolled their eyes.
“Anyways, when we got split up while running for our lives, Yellow and I found-okay, more like crashed-into this crazy island right?”
“The one that jammed your comm signal and caused Lance to meltdown when you disappeared?”
Hunk nodded. “Yeah, that one!”
Hunk woke with a start.
How long had he been out? It couldn’t have been that long right? He took a quick glance at the clock.
5:02 pm. The last time he checked it, it was 5:00, so he wasn’t out for that long. Great!
He groaned, and then pulled himself heavily out of the pilot’s seat, sore all over. Crashing into an island definitely wasn’t one of his brightest ideas. Even though it wasn't his idea from the start, or really any sort of idea at all.
Stretching his arms above his head, he spoke into the comms. “Hey guys? I crashed, and I think I’m gonna need some help getting back up.”
No answer. Not even a snarky reply from Lance.
He furrowed his brows in confusion. Didn't somebody hear him? Are they doing the thing where everybody goes radio silent without saying they'll be radio silent? “Is anyone there?" he tried again. "I said I need help, and that I crashed. Does anyone care?”
Silence, with the occasional crackle of static.
“Alrighty then. I guess I’m all alone,” Hunk said. His words reverberated loudly inside Yellow, creating an eerie sort of feeling. It was dark inside, many of his panels having gone down, which only amplified the creepy feeling.
He ran some routine checks on Yellow, and everything seemed to be mostly ok. However, the lion was low on power and would take awhile to recharge. Great, it’s not like his friends were in mortal peril or anything! Just crash land on a random island with no communications, that sounds like a super idea.
His stomach grumbled, distracting him from his thoughts briefy.
And now he's hungry. Fantastic.
Thankfully, he could at least resolve one of his problems. He cracked open a panel, searching for his supplies. There were the standard things: med-kit, rope, poncho, the usual. If Hunk was craving a nice bit of rope with a garnish of plastic poncho, then all this stuff would be perfect, but he wasn’t in the mood, so he pushed all that stuff to the side.
Behind the supplies, Hunk found the food he had stashed beforehand. Nothing fancy, just a few packs of crackers and a couple of juice boxess the castle had lying around. He would've packed some food goo as well, but he found out the hard way that it went bad astonishingly fast, and the smell would take weeks to fade. He grabbed a juice box and cracker pack.
Nibbling on the food, he assessed the damage on Yellow. The lion was pretty much fine, but it spent a lot of energy cushioning Hunk from the impact. Hunk tested his comms once more, but nothing got through. The communications panel was fine, so Hunk had to assume that he was being jammed.
“Fantastic,” Hunk spoke sarcastically. “It’s not like any of my friends are in immediate grave danger. Really, this is just perfect.”
He hoisted himself out the top of the lion, and familiarized himself in his surroundings. Considering he never actually had a chance to take in the scenery when he was being chased by the Galra, he decided to take his time with this.
Everything was actually quite beautiful. The island was lush with vibrant flora, and Hunk could see sparkling water on the horizon. Gosh, if this place wasn’t full of murderous bipedal sharks, Hunk would consider coming here every once in a while on vacation.
He slid down the front leg of Yellow, and started to formulate a plan. Number one, he’d find the thing that was jamming his signal. Number two, he’d send a distress beacon, since Yellow was almost completely wiped out. After that, he’d just have to wait for someone to come and pick him and his lion up. Great, Hunk liked two step plans. Two step plans were easy and often better than other plans in every conceivable way.
Why can’t every plan be a two step, Hunk wondered, starting through the thick underbrush.
After a while, he was panting, sweaty, and exhausted. Why did the plants have to so thriving? They made everything so humid and fought him every step of the way. He considered just sitting down and taking a break, maybe a quick power nap, who knows?
However, he was a man on a mission. Stopping would put his friends in even more danger, and he knew that. So, he forged ahead, despite his exhaustion. He thought about summoning his bayard, and shooting through the plants to make it easier on him, but he decided against that. He could be blasting through a food source, and he’d never know it. He doubted that the sharliens came up to eat, but what did he know? Better just leave the plants alone.
Eventually, he came upon a cave. It was surprisingly well lit, and it looked like it was pretty big, considering he couldn't see the end of it.
“Hello?” he said, stepping slightly into the mouth. His words echoed, but he didn’t hear a response.
He cupped his hands together and shouted “Hellooo?!”
Silence. Not that was unexpected, of course. He’s been dealing with it all day. Silence, silence, silence.
He glanced at the light sources. Whatever it was hung on the wall at random interbals. It wasn't like a torch, but more like a glowy, ball shaped thing. The light was pleasent enough. However, Hunk hadn’t seen forms of life yet, and Yellow’s scans didn’t report an advanced enough race living on the island that could've made them, so Hunk assumed the worst, whatever the worst was.
He grabbed one of the balls of light near the cave entrance and made his way deeper. Thankfully, the cave didn't branch off into all sorts of weird paths that would've been impossible to follow, just very straight forward, almost like it was built in. The only time the cave turned was into a larger area. He poked his head inside to inspect, and couldn't believe what he saw.
“There was like, so many machines in there, and they were like all sentient, it was crazy." Hunk leaned in closer to Pidge, and whispered "But do you know what’s the kicker?”
Pidge followed suit, leaning closer. "What’s the kicker?”
Hunk’s voice came out in a whisper. “They were all fully functional.”
Pidge sat up abruptly, covering their mouth. “No way,” they gasped.
Hunk nodded serenely. “Way. I’m telling you, it was like make-believe. You know how many machine’s I’ve come across that were like, dead and destroyed?”
Dozens upon dozens of robots. Walking, talking (ok not talking, more like weird chirps, but still!). Some of them were even repairing each other! It was like a small robot civilization right in this cave.
Hunk felt engineering tears welling up in his eyes.
“Not now, Hunk,” he sniffed quietly, wiping at his eyes. “Be strong.”
His eyes stopped tearing up, and he walked inside to finally introduce himself.
And promptly knocked over a table.
All eyes turned to Hunk as he struggled to set the table up right.
He turned around, and waved at the robots awkwardly. “Hello, Hunk here. Well, I guess you already know I’m here ‘cause I knocked over your, uh, lovely table.” The robots didn’t respond, instead simply regarded him with what seemed like mechanical disdain.
He started to ramble nervously. “I’m a paladin of Voltron. The yellow one. I go around saving worlds and stuff from the Galra. I dunno if you’ve ever heard of Voltron, but basically I pilot one big cat robot that can sometimes become a bigger cat robot and yeah...” He trailed off.
After a large chunk of silence, Hunk, desperate to break it, twiddled his thumbs nervously and said “So, you guy’s have a nice establishment here.”
The robots still didn’t say anything, just parted as a robot that was slightly larger than the others came through the crowd of machines, making their way to Hunk. They stopped right in front of Hunk, and studied him for a long time.
Finally the robot spoke. “Hello Hunk. I’m unit 4-13. Welcome to our home.”
“Um, thank you for welcoming me into your home, 4-13.” Hunk looked around the room once more. The robot tried to make eye contact (visor contact?) with Hunk, but he avoid their gaze, instead looking around the cave.
On the second look around, none of the robots looked like the others. Some were tall, some were small, some were round and other’s rectangular. They didn’t really seem to be made of the same metals, either.
“Excuse me for asking, but are you all made by the same manufacturer?” Hunk asked.
4-13 chuckled, and shook their head. “No, we are not. We all simply found each other, and have made a safe haven for robots on the planet.”
Pidge interrupted. “Hunk, you gotta make a story believable. No caretaker? That’s just a bit farfetched for me.”
Hunk shook his head gravely. “Pidge, you gotta believe me. There was no caretaker! They’ve just been taking care of each other the whole time!”
Pidge shook their head. “That’s bullshit.”
“I agree!”
“You’re kidding me right?” Hunk asked bewilderedly. “No caretaker?”
The leader robot shook his head. “There is no caretaker. We repair ourselves when we get injured, and if the damage is too severe, we sacrifice ourselves so another unit may benefit.”
Hunk was getting suspicious. The robots just took care of each other?! Even though Hunk wanted to believe them, he just didn’t think it was plausible for robots to be a self sustaining society. There’s just somethings humans can do that robots can’t.
“Ok, that makes sense," Hunk lied. “Is it ok if I take a look around? Seeing all of this beautiful machinery makes me so curious, and I’d love to tinker around with it.” He betraying 4-13’s trust, but he needed to be as unsuspicious as possible,
4-13 nodded serenely. “Of course, Hunk. Take as much time as you please. However, I do ask that you stay away from the back wall, as we have some rogue units.”
Hunk nodded fervently. “Will do! I’m gonna totally stay away from the back area’s, and not invade your privacy. After all, that’s not what a paladin of Voltron would do, right?” He chuckled nervously, sweating bullets under the robot’s gaze, but then 4-13 left him alone, and Hunk exhaled a sigh of relief.
First, he went around and talked to some more robots. They confirmed that there was never a caretaker, and that they’ve been taking care of themselves.
This confirmed Hunk’s beliefs. The robots had a mechanical uprising and took out the caretaker, and then erased any existence of a human caretaker. Well, the robot uprising had to happen one day. Hunk excused himself, saying he needed to use the bathroom. He wasn’t sure if the robots even knew what a bathroom was, but he went with it, and snuck off to the back wall.
He found a large rectangular hole, blocked with rocks, obscuring it from the sight of the rest of the robots. It looked like it was deliberately cut out, and there was a long hallway that had light at the end. What could robots possibly be hiding? Perhaps more humans?
Whatever it was, Hunk resolved find out what.
However, just before he stepped in, a sentry walked around the corner. It didn’t possess any weapon, but the fact that they robots were trying to guard something made everything more suspicious.
Hunk made his down the hallways, avoiding the sentry robots, and had nearly made it to the end of the hallway when he was accosted by a robot.
“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here!” the sentry yelled, and kept yelling, so Hunk panicked, and did the thing that he thought was best.
He summoned his bayard and pulled the trigger.
Pidge quirked an eyebrow, disbelievingly. “You shot them?”
“I didn’t know what else to do! They were making me nervous, and that was my first instinct!”
“Hunk Garrett, the guy who wouldn’t kill the spider we found in the kitchen the other day?”
“Listen Pidge, that spider could’ve been an important spider ambassador! This is space we’re talking about!”
Pidge rolled their eyes, but seemed to believe Hunk.
The robot lay in a smoking heap. Hunk mourned the destruction of such a great machine, but he had a mission, and nothing, not even a beautifully crafted android could stop him. Hunk dragged the remains into a dark corner. He prayed that no one would find it, or at least, no one would find it today. He didn’t exactly want to damn that robot to an even worse state of disrepair. He just wanted it to stop yelling. Maybe when this was all over, he’d offer his services and help repair them.
Hunk continued down the hallway, more vigilant than ever. He reached the end of the hallway, and he wasn’t sure what he was expecting...
But he definitely wasn’t expecting a human.
“Hey-o!” The man called from a jail cell.
Hunk dropped his bayard in shock and yelled “Who are you!”
The man chuckled. He was old, with great white beard. He was also very skinny, and Hunk could very easily see the man’s ribcage. “Who do you think I am, sonny?” The man’s eyes twinkled in a peculiar way, considering it was actually quite dark down there.
“The caretaker,” Hunk whispered. Of course, it all makes sense, Hunk thought. The robots imprisoned him, and whenever they needed anything from him, they would come back here.
The old man nodded sagely. “Aye, sonny. They imprisoned me in this here cell,” he said, banging on the rock bars for emphasis. “I guess they didn’t like me very much."
“Well then, meet your savior!” Hunk brandished his gun and then shot out one of the bars in the cell, effectively making a gap large enough for the old man to squeeze through.
The man leapt out and danced around in joy. “I’m free! I’m free!” he cried. Then, he turned to face Hunk.
“You deserve some kind of reward,” he said.
Hunk smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Nah, it’s just what a paladin of Voltron does. No reward needed.”
The man took a step towards Hunk. “No, I insist.” He patted himself down, looking for something. When he found nothing, he looked disappointed. “Hmm, it doesn’t look like I have anything on me at the moment.”
“Really, sir, I don’t need a reward.”
The old man sighed. “I guess so.” Then he brightened, and said, “How about you take this instead?”
He swung hard, and hit Hunk into a painful unconsciousness..
He woke up in the prison cell a few moments, and then groaned in pain and embarrassment. How could he have been duped by an old guy!? And where did he get such a good left hook? And how did he get in the cell!
This was supposed to be a two step plan, and ever since Hunk deviated from it, all he experienced was pain and suffering. Never again.
He sat up, and looked around. The man and Hunk’s bayard was long gone. Hunk wasn’t even sure if the bayard would work for a non-paladin, but he didn’t want to test that out.
He swore under his breath, looking around for ways to get out. He considered the hole that he made for the old guy, but the old guy could barely get through that hole, and he was suffering from what was probably years of malnutrition.
However, the bars gave Hunk an idea.
He walked over and tested the integrity of the bars he’d blasted through earlier. They were very weak, and light tapping caused some of the rock to fall into dust.
He chuckled, and backed up a bit, and then rammed into the bars with his shoulders.
The bars gave away easily, but Hunk’s arm still hurt like hell.
"Owwwww,” he groaned. The movies always made it look so easy and painless! Well, now he knows he’s never doing that again.
He rotated his arm experimentally. It was still very sore, but usable, and that was all Hunk needed. He’s had worse. Like when Lance decided it would be a good idea to piss of a couple of very big dudes. Lance was bright and very intelligent, but in all honesty, he was dumb as fuck.
Making a mental note to never listen to Lance again, Hunk jogged down the hallway, trying to catch up to the old man. He hoped the other paladins were doing ok. He also hoped that they didn’t leave him alone on this island for forever. Not like they would, of course. His comms were still jammed, but Hunk had managed to pick up a few static-y messages here and there, and most of them seemed Hunk-oriented.
He reached the old man surprisingly fast. Hunk thought he would’ve been farther up, but since the man was well, old, he wasn’t very speedy. He was muttering something under his breath angrily, and Hunk was pretty sure that he picked up a few swears here and there. This man had a very impressive vocabulary, at the very least.
He slowed down to a jaunty walk to keep pace with the old man’s shuffling. “Why’d you knock me out dude?” he asked.
“I have some plans for this island, and I don’t need a goody-two shoes trying to stop me,” the old man croaked evilly. “However, those machines didn’t like them too much, so they threw me in that jail cell and left me to rot. Sure, they gave me two meals a day, but they’re robots, for chrissakes! They don’t have taste buds!”
The man continued to rant about whatever had happened to him, but Hunk didn’t really pay attention. He was busy formulating another plan. A two-step one, to be exact.
- Raise arms.
- Lower arms
He brought down his fists down on the old man’s head.
“Hunk, you’re getting more violent each and everyday.” Pidge deadpanned.
“I know! I couldn’t help it, it was like second nature or something!”
Hunk started to worry. Did he kill the guy? He didn’t mean to kill him, he just wanted to incapacitate him.
He stooped down close enough to get the old guy’s pulse, but far away enough to back away in case he was faking and tried to make a grab at Hunk. He wasn’t falling for another sucker punch. Not again.
Hunk caught a pulse, and he saw the man’s chest rise and lower, so he know he didn’t kill him. Hunk breathed a sigh of relief, and picked up the man’s arm, dragging him. He didn’t feel any remorse if the old man woke up with sore arms, because honestly, with all the pain he caused Hunk, he deserved it.
When he reached the rectangular opening again, a robot noticed him, and started screaming.
Hunk watched as the scene unfolded itself. As the one robot started to freak out, other robots started to flip their shit. Those AI’s caused other units to lose it, and so on and so forth until the whole cave was a screaming pandemonium. There were robots malfunctioning, smoking and sputtering. A few rocked back and forth, and Hunk was fairly certain he saw one explode. He tried to calm a few of them down, showing them that the old man wasn’t actually able to do them harm, but none of them listened.
The thing is, a robot screaming by itself is pretty funny. Its long, high pitched chirp is fun to record and post on the internet. However, many long, high-pitched chirps and wails are not funny, and are, as a matter of fact, painful to the ears.
Hunk’s ears were in pain. He was tired and exhausted, and stranded on a desert island for God knows how long. His friends were still in danger, and nobody was listening to him.
He’s had enough.
“QUIET!” he yelled angrily. The robots stopped immediately, turning to look at Hunk.
He breathed deeply. “Now that I have your attention, could you all please turn towards the old man?” He took one of the man’s arms and flailed it around.
“As you all can clearly see, this man is incapacitated. He can’t do anything, especially not to you. So, can you all please stop freaking the fuck out?” He gave them a curt nod. “Thank you.”
4-13 emerged, looking sheepish (how a robot looks sheepish, Hunk didn’t know). “I am sorry Hunk. Matter of fact, we are all sorry. Considering we are logical beings above human emotion, we should not have acted the way we did.”
Hunk nodded at him. “S’okay. I mean, I guess I would freak out too if my oppressor came back. What did he do to you guys?”
4-13 had a far away look in his eyes. “Long ago, that man held a name of Conrad Winchester, and he came to this planet with only a few units and the natives of this world were friendly to humans. He would take care of us. But after awhile, when he returned back from a routine meeting with the bipedal natives, he acted differently, and muttered quietly to himself, making plans.”
"So?" Hunk asked. "Maybe he had plans for island renovation? I mean, it's not like this place is some kinda resort or whatever."
4-13 shook his head sadly. "No, it wasn't plans for renovation. This planets core holds a very rare mineral that the natives of this planet protect. When Conrad caught wind of what was going down, he killed the leader of the natives to get to it. We tried to stop him, but it was difficult, and we lost many along the way."
"Whoa wait," Hunk interuppted. "He's just one guy! How could he take out so many of you guys?"
"He built a transmitter that managed to shut down the frequencies that our people are on," 4-13 answered. "Eventually it was shut down due to a power outage, and we managed to switch the frequencies. With the help of the natives, we managed to catch and imprison Conrad. Our people apologized for the harm he had caused, and now we help protect the planets core."
Hunk rubbed his face tiredly. "So why did you lie man? I mean, I would've understood if you just said 'Hey, that's one bad dude over there, so don't mess with him.'"
"I understand your frustration, Hunk, Paladin of Voltron," 4-13 said. "The reason we lied to you was because a unit from a Galran ship that landed here was left behind after they were chased out. After rehabilitation, it revealed that the Galra race was searching for an ancient weapon named Voltron. When you announced that you were from Voltron, you were like an answer to our prayers."
"How?" Hunk asked.
4-13 eyes twinkled in the dark cave, or they were just resetting themselves. Hunk didn't know which, and it would've been kinda weird if he just asked. "We needed someone to take Conrad away to a proper prison."
Hunk wheezed. "You could've literally just said that to my face." It was a miracle that he didn't just collapse on the floor from sheer exasperation. As much as he loved robots and machines, these guys obviously had a few wires loose. Probably all these years without a proper caretaker, but man. If he had time, Hunk would update their operating codes so that they'd be a little easier to deal with.
A smaller robot wheeled itself up to Hunk. Due to its smaller size, Hunk almost thought it was a baby, even though robots don't really have a concept of age, and a baby robot would be more like a freshly produced robot instead of a small robot. He didn't even know how long these units have been operating. For all he knew, he could be on the equivalent of a retirement home.
The machine stuck its arms up awkwardly. In one of it's pincers, it held a small box. One side was shinier than the others.
"We present to you a gift," 4-13 said. “Hunk, paladin of Voltron, we hope that this tool is very useful to you. We will accompany you to your lion, and make the appropriate repairs.”
A few hours later, Hunk waved goodbye to the robots as he flew off in his lion. He was eager to leave, as he had been stuck on that stupid island for what felt like hours, but he was glad to have helped them with their human drama. He glanced back at Conrad, who was still knocked out and bound in vines.
He turned back towards the controls, but he heard shuffling.
A very evil, bad guy kind of shuffling. A distinctive shuffle that could only mean one thing.
Hunk whipped his head back around towards Conrad. He was free of his vines, which Hunk guessed was pretty to bust out of, even for an old dude.
"What are you doing?" Hunk cried.
Conrad flashed him a toothless smile. "Boy, I'm getting free." He slammed his hand down, opened the shuttle door. Within seconds, he was sucked out, and Yellow automatically closed the shuttle door.
Hunk guessed he probably didn't survive the fall, but he felt it was best not to tell the others what happened. Best not to cause two panics in one day.
"Hey guys," Hunk said into the comms when he deemed he was far enough away from the island. "
"Hunk, buddy, you're alive!" Lance cried. "I mean, not like I didn't think you weren't or anything-"
"He was bawling into the comms," Keith interrupted. "God, you should've seen it."
Hunk chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I should've."
"Now that we've found you, we can finally get off this crazy-ass planet," Pidge said.
The castle ship came into view, and Hunk breathed a sigh of relief. He already knew that once he was out the lion, he was going to take a mother fuckin' nap.
Pidge’s eyes sparkled. “So that’s where you got that?”
Hunk nodded. "Yep." He glanced down at it again. "Pretty crazy, huh?"
"I mean, yeah," Pidge said. "You fought some crazy old dude and saved a bunch of weird robots. I'm pretty sure that counts for an insane story."
Hunk was about to reply, but the box crackled, and a hologram appeared. He dove for cover under the workdesk along with Pidge.
"Hunk, what did you do?" Pidge whispered fiercely.
Hunk made an 'I dunno sound', shrugging. "It never did that before!"
Slowly, he raised himself up to eye level with the desk. Looking up, he saw the image of Zarkon, crackling occasionally with static.
"Log Date 45523: I have never been closer to finding Voltron than now."