[C][AU] No Harm In Camping

"It's better to have two above, and two below, just in case we can't..." He trailed off when Amr appeared before them.

Can't get out ourselves, or got split up.

Safety in numbers, and good sense to have two people where they knew they could get out.

Fleck rolled his eyes skywards.

"...Lets just go see if there's something up ahead."

"What were you guys saying?"

Amr asked, quickly crawling after them.

Lucas promptly ignored him and made his way through the tunnel, just big enough for him to crawl through comfortably. It didn't take long to get through the small tunnel into a large opening. As with the rest of the cave, it was pitch black and difficult to pick out everything even as his eyes adjusted.

He shuffled out of the way to let Fleck and Amr through.

"Nothing."

Fleck wasn't so comfortable in this small tunnel as the other two, but he made it work, and was soon happily stood on two feet.

"Amr, the wall?"

Amr was acting as their flashlight at the moment.

Amr easily crawled his way through being longer than wide.

"Sure thing, Fleck."

He pressed his hand against the wall and the cave lit up.

"What the-"

Amr gapped. There, in the centre of the room, stood a giant blue robot lion.

"Are you guys seeing this too?"

Lucas simply pinched himself a couple of times.

"What is that..."

Fleck's voice was faint, but full of admiration.

That lion was beautiful. And if he wasn't so awed by it, he'd be scrambling for his sketchbook.

"I think it is pretty obvious to me. Pass me the walkie talkie."

He didn't even give Fleck a chance too as he took it out of his hands. This time the cave markings continued to glow.

"Aliens are real you need to come down and see this," He said over the walkie-talkie. Then in English: "Over."

It was nice to know using a walkie talkie was ticked off his bucket list the same day they came across a giant blue robot Lion.

Lucas continued down to the lion, hands moving over the forcefield that seemed to surround it.

"Might not be alien. Could be military?"

There was even doubt in his voice. It seemed too odd and crazy for the military to conceive this. Besides - it had shit camouflage.

"Yes, because the first thing the military things when building a weapon is, let's make it look like a big blue lion."

Fleck shook his head slowly after his comment.

The military weren't creative enough.

"Where do you think it came from?"

"Element of surprise? Pretty sure no one will expect that running at them," Lucas tried to reason, doubt still present.

"From space, obviously." Amr said, catching up with Lucas. "My bet is that it is from some far off galaxy - you know, something cool."

He lifted his hand next to Lucas'.

Images flashed across his vision; There wasn't just the blue lion, but there were four other lions; all unique; United, they came together to form a super giant humanoid robot.

Amr stumbled back as the force field melted away.

"Did you guys just see that?!"

Fleck was starting to believe that Amr was onto something.

"What the fuck is-"

He fell silent, and both he and Fleck went bolt-straight at the visions they were seeing.

"Amr, what the fuck?"

"Was 'that' four more of these things...?" Fleck asked almost hesitantly. This was a bit of an overwhelming situation.

And the situation only got worse when a loud crash sounded above them, and the rocky ceiling began to crumble.

Lucas grabbed Amr's shoulder.

"What did you do?! First, the cave markings, now this."

He waved his hand at the lion just as there was a crashing sound and the ceiling began to crumble.

"Is this you too?!"

Amr didn't listen to either of them. His eyes widened and he scrambled up.

"TIK!"

Tik reached out to Amr when he panicked, resting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We're okay."

They were okay.

"Okay, calm down!" Fleck yelled above the sudden panic. "We need to find out what that crash was, and get out of this cave before it collapses."

Amr flung his arms around his brother.

"Thank god," he pulled away, "Almost thought I had to crawl back through that tunnel to save you."

He laughed easily, eyebrows still pinched with concern.

"We might be too deep to climb out," replied Lucas, looking around himself to try and find a better exit.

"What about the lion?"

Lucas looked at Amr as if he was crazy.

"Like you would." He gave Amr a firm hug.

Fleck inhaled then exhaled slowly. He needed to keep a cool head.

"There's that force field...thing around the lion," he murmured, stepping forwards, next to Lucas. "If we were to use it to shield ourselves, how would we get to it?"

"Maybe I can bring it up again?"

Amr took a few steps towards the lion, then another three back with a yell. The lion was moving; resting itself on all four paws and opening its mouth.

"Are you kidding me?" Lucas yelled. Even after the vision, he didn't expect it to actually move. "What are you-"

Without a second thought, Lucas followed Amr as he pushed past them all and into the lion's jaw.

Amr stumbled back right into his brother, who steadied him then whacked the back of his head.

They were all jumpy around the new alien tech, and it was ridiculous.

"Okay, everyone in," Fleck ordered, guiding everyone into the lion's mouth, before stepping in himself.

"If we stay here like this, we'l just get buried alive. In the...vision, the lions moved. Can we try and get it moving? If it breaks free of the collapsed cave, we'll be fine."

Amr raced up through the lion. Then gapped.

"Guys, I know that a cave is probably about to collapse on us but this is so cool."

He settled in the seat. The dashboard lit up in front of him. He grinned, smoothing his hands over it.

"I think I can get it moving," He called over to Fleck. "It is like one of those simulation games."

"Can we decide whether its cool when we're not in a collapsing cave?" Fleck prompted, hand resting on the back of Amr's chair.

"Try and get it moving, Amr."

His eyes turned over the lit up dashboard of the lion's mechanism. How did it work...?

There was a moment's hesitation from Amr. Then he pressed a few buttons and gripped control wheel. The lion roared to life under him and stood again.

"Okay, so that did that so..."

Amr's fingers hovered over the keys again.

"Are you really sure you know what you are doing?" Hissed Lucas, gripping the seat with white knuckles.

"Sure I do! I mean, I can't explain it. But I just know that this," he pressed a button, "does this." He pulled on the control wheel again and the lion took off, running at full pelt before bursting through the crumbling cave.

Fleck gripped tight to the back of the seat, tensing as he tried to stay in place while the lion they were in (they were actually in a giant metal lion, and there were more like this) forced its way through stone.

Tik didn't have such a great time. When the lion shot forwards, Tik was thrown back, landing against the back wall with a thud and a sickening crack to his head.

He saw stars for a moment then groaned.

"Be fucking carefuly, Amr," he grunted, rubbing at his sore head.

Amr look over at Tik, sheepish guilt on his face.

"Sorry, you okay?"

Amr's head was forcefully swivelled forwards back to the control panel.

"Look forwards," Lucas grunted.

"Right right, looking forwards - wow."

They made their way through the rock and blasted out on the other side. They shot up in the air. Then to a gentle incline midair as Amr's grip on the control wheel went slack in shock.

"Okay, definitely not military," Lucas said softly Italian.

"Told you," Fleck muttered back distractedly.

There were ships that he'd never seen dotting the sky. Those definitely werent from Earth.

And then Fleck jerked back when a figure jumped up and scrambled over the lions head. She was a short woman and humanoid. But her skin was purple and when her eyes flickered at them through the vizor they were a glowing yellow colour.

She twisted, clinging to the lion and hissing at a handful of purple furred aliens that were tromping towards them. She fired a blaster at them, catching one of them in the shoulder.

Lucas swore as Amr jerked the control wheel up in surprise, steadying himself next to Fleck.

"What the fuck is that!" Lucas yelled.

"I keep saying - aliens! And they don't look friendly."

Amr jerked the lion again in hopes of shaking off the human looking one off.

"What should we do?!" He turned to look up at Fleck.

His head swiveled back to the front again by Lucas.

"Shoot the ones shooting us!"

The woman had great balance. She didn't even jitter as she held to the lion, even as it bucked. Her aim was true, and before the Galra could even get to the lion, they were all down.

Not out, though. Her aim wasn't perfect. She'd managed to kill two of the five, but the rest were just injured.

She crouched on the lion's muzzle and peered in at the humans.

"Let me in." her voice had a lilting quality to it, an accent that clearly wasn't from Earth.

Amr steadied the lion, transfixed on the humanoid alien on screen.

"As much as I want to say yes, she did just take out like five other aliens and - "

" - She could be dangerous," said Lucas. He frowned. It didn't seem like she attacking, but rather defending. "Can you hear us?" He called out.

She flinched when she heard alien yelling and pounded on the glass between them.

"I just got a vision of this thing, and right now if this lion is going to save my skin, I want inside it."

Fleck chewed on his lip, deliberating.

"Let her in," he decided. "If she causes trouble, there are four of us against her. I think we'll be okay."