Author's Notes.

Happy Monday around the world. Happy long weekend in USA. And waves hello to Voltron fans in Canada who are snowed in, with their epic / record snow falls.

Thank you for reviews and thank you to aussie editor, Emily. *blows kisses*

After the Valentine's Day / Week / Weekend, Here's a non-mushy chapter (Yes, cubbie can write something without mush in a fanfic chapter) to sate your KA fanfic appetites.

Voltron and Voltron Force is owed by World Events Productions (WEP).

Chapter 5 – Panic Room

Walking along the hallways, Hunk rubbed the back of his head, "Didn't you say we're having a meeting in the Control Room?"

"This is part of the meeting," Pidge replied.

"Walking meeting? Good one, squirt." Lance grinned, messing up Pidge's hair.

Pidge shot him an annoyed look. He was seriously considering getting a haircut so that Lance would stop messing up his hair. "Seriously people, don't you read my meeting notes on the meeting invite software I created?"

Allura placed her hand on Pidge's shoulder. "Don't mind them, Pidge."

Stopping outside a nondescript hallway, somewhere between their residential wing and the Control Room, Pidge raised his hand on to a metal wall. "Remember the last time the Castle was breached? We are now making sure that that won't happen again. But if it does happen again in the future, and I say if and not when, we now have this…" A thick, blast-proof, pressurised door hissed open in front of him. "Welcome to the Panic Room."

Allura stared in awe, as they stepped into the secret room that was just slightly bigger than their meeting room. Sweeping her gaze from right side of room, she noticed a conference table, an emergency supplies locker, fully-stocked kitchen and pantry and a complete array of consoles to operate the Castle defences remotely. "Wow, you guys thought of everything."

Keith squeezed Allura's hand. "If something happens, we all know you'd be safe in here."

Pidge sat behind the console and switched on the operating panels. "If the castle is compromised, you can remotely run the castle from in here."

Keith nodded. "This room was built to be self-sustaining. We got sleeping bags and a small bathroom. There's food, drinking water for five to six people that will last for a week until help arrives."

Finding their seats on the oval-shaped table, Allura beamed at them proudly, "Gentlemen, I'm very impressed. This is all amazing. Thank you for help in rebuilding the Castle of Lions from the ground up. Almost every aspect of our new home has had all your inputs."

"Well, there's more we need to discuss today. We can continue our meeting here, if you like?" Pidge asked.

"Or would you rather continue your 'walking' meeting?" Lance plonked his booted feet on the table and placed his hands behind his head.

"We'll stay here. Some of the things Pidge will discuss are confidential," Keith replied.

Pidge glanced at his datapad, then faced Allura, "Did Coran mention we had meetings with him when you were away? He raised some concerns and looks like we found some answers to his queries."

"What concerns?" Allura raised a brow. She wasn't aware of any concerns. Should I be concerned?

Keith covered her hand with his, reassuring her, "With the new peace, staff members from all departments have either requested an extended leave of absence, while some have resigned all together."

"Yeah, lots of them wanted to go back and help rebuild their villages, find their lost family members and friends," Hunk added.

"And that's okay because we only need a minimal staff to run this castle." Pidge raised a holo-screen of the castle's three-dimensional image.

Allura furrowed her brows. "How come?"

"We've streamlined, automated, and computerised things. For example, dusting and cleaning. We have installed sensors that could easily detect surface dust and we have cleaning robots for dusting, sweeping, you know, doing the mundane tasks. We also automated the laundry system as well." Pidge raised a holo-screen, showing how it was easy for robots to do the task of changing bed linen and running the automated laundry system with minimal housekeeping staff.

Lance laughed, "Pidge, you had me at laundry. Man, this is hilarious. What's next, tweak mice to do your bidding?"

"Laugh all you want, Lance. Though I've scanned one, I have yet to capture and replicate a few space mice. I'm keen tweak them and program each one for a specific task. You know…like getting in to tight spots inside our robot lion structures, getting behind mainframe computers, and even reconnaissance. The applications are endless!" Pidge enthused, flailing his arms, practically looming over the Red Lion pilot.

"Calm down, Wonderboy. Geez. Don't work up a sweat on your presentation." Lance rolled his eyes.

"Lance, stop taunting him." Allura punched Lance on the shoulder, annoyed at his constant swipes at Pidge.

"Ow! That hurts! When did you get to punch like that? You're supposed to punch like a girl." Lance rubbed his shoulder.

"Just quit it, Lance. I mean it." Allura growled. Lance's antics were eventually getting on Allura's nerves as well.

"Yes, Missus Fearless." Lance pouted, sounding chastised. Being told off by the princess herself? That wasn't good. Not only was she the owner of the castle, Allura was planetary ruler after all.

Keith smirked, rolling his eyes. Allura was a very patient individual. To get her all riled up, defending Pidge, meant Lance was really pushing people's buttons today. "What's next, Pidge?"

"Well, there's my other project, and it's still a prototype," Pidge began, showing a three-dimensional holo-image of a wrist device that had a face of a calm lion. "I'm still working on a few bugs right now and I hope to have version-one-point-oh ready in a few days or a week."

"What do you call it?" Hunk asked.

"Well, it's a wrist-slash-forearm device that can expand or shrink; the power source is the same one that powers our lions. So, I decided to initially name the device as Voltcom." Pidge sent holo-images to each of his team mates where they could hold and manipulate the three-dimensional image.

"Does it come in sizes? It looks heavy." Allura furrowed her brows.

"It's supposed to shrink into a size of a large wrist watch." Pidge turned the 3D holo-image and pressed a button to demonstrate what the device would look like in a smaller format.

"What can it do for us?" Keith asked.

"The voltcom would shave off precious seconds as it bypasses the standard starting sequence with our lions."

"Cool, 'lil buddy! That is all kinds of awesome!" Hunk boomed.

"Well, I'm still ironing the kinks like charging, battery life, and possible armour and weapons combination." Pidge showed screen samples that the other components used for their new device.

"Sounds like tech magic with the power of lions." Allura looked very impressed.

"Something like that. Which reminds me, there's one final item of my meeting." Pidge stood up, grabbed a stack of boxes from one corner of the room, and passed the boxes to his team mates. "Uniforms that would work compatible with the Voltcom."

"Ah yes, colours that would match our lions." Lance chortled, reaching for the box that was labelled 'Red Lion'

"And no pink," Allura added seriously, reaching for her box that simply said 'Blue Lion'

"And no white either." Keith smirked as he grabbed his box and passed on the last box to Hunk who was seated at the other end of the oval table.

"I've brought one for each of us to wear before we head off for dinner." Pidge said, slightly louder, amidst all the oohhs and ahhhhs of his team mates as they began opening the boxes. "The measurements are based from last week's body scans and if you find everything satisfactory, we can have our uniform 3D printed straightaway at the new facility we've added over at housekeeping."

"What do our uniforms have to do with the Voltcoms?" Allura asked, raising the garment that had a matte black finish with a slight glossy feel on the blue side of her new uniform.

"The special fabric is conductive and compatible with the Voltcom. The special conductivity property on the uniform to helps transform into environment suits or exosuits." Pidge shifted the holo-screen to show what the environment suits would look like.

"So, you want us to fit this before we head for dinner?" Allura asked, glancing at Keith's uniform that looked dark black on greyish-black.

"Yes, grab your box and meet up in fifteen minutes at the control room."

Lance lifted his uniform and grumbled, "Pidge, what the hell is this? This is too plain for my taste."

"Whatever, Lance." Pidge tucked his box under his arm and waved Lance off, leaving him behind inside the Panic Room.

"It's a good idea we're trying these before dinner. 'Cos the chefs are cooking pot pies tonight, I doubt I'd fit in the uniform after dinner." Hunk said matter-of-factly.

(TO BE CONTINUED)