"The police refuse to leak more information concerning the huge explosion uptown this morning, but witnesses have mentioned seeing a large glowing object falling the sky and crashing. Could this be a new villain making their debut?"

It was a rare thing to see the entirety of class 1-A sitting on the couches in the lounge, all gawking at the TV like a bunch of little children witnessing a magic trick. Today, however, was one of those times. It almost looked like a huge sleepover – snacks, blankets, unhealthy amounts of soda, constant bickering over who gets the remote. All this over some stupid Saturday news report.

"The pro heroes won't have a problem defeating a villain with the quirk of being able to turn into a spaceship," Bakugou growled, shoving a handful of chips into his mouth.

Izuku decided it would be better to keep his opinion to himself in Bakugou's presence, no matter how interested he actually was in that flying object. The screen was now showing a picture of the scene after the explosion – it had caused huge damage, but there was no trace of a spaceship whatsoever. This villain's quirk wasn't necessarily flawlessly functional, but it was certainly fascinating.

"What if it's actually an alien and the flying thing was its spaceship?" Mina chimed in with a big grin on her face.

Iida was about to protest, but someone placed a hand in front of his mouth and pushed him back.

"She has a point, some civilians claim the thing looked like a metal creature," Kaminari added, holding up his phone with a news article about the events while Iida tried to push him off.

"A metal creature? What exactly?" Kirishima leaned over his friend's shoulder to read what the site had to say about the incident. "Ah, it doesn't even mention what it resembled! It just keeps talking about All Might saving all the civilians-"

"All Might was there? We could ask him about it!" Izuku exclaimed, already searching his pockets for his phone to text his mentor. A second later, he realized the pro heroes had to keep the confidential information a secret too, and promptly put his device back down.

"Maybe it was just an accident. Perhaps someone with a powerful quirk lost control of it?" Yaoyorozu stated, then got up from the carpet she had been sitting on. "It's pretty late anyway and we have school tomorrow. We should go to our dorms. It's just another villain attack at best, and the heroes are obviously capable to take care of it."

Most girls, as well as a few of the boys, followed her, and as the report ended, the others slowly left too. Izuku was the last.

He finally reached his room at around 10:45. Only then did he notice the unread message from All Might on his phone. His eyes widened and his fingers clumsily unlocked the phone before tapping the small icon of the messaging app.

All Might:
Midoriya my boy, can we have a talk tomorrow after school? There are some things I need to discuss with you.

Izuku frowned. What did All Might want to talk about? What was that important that he texted him this late at night? The thought that this perhaps had to do with that explosion today crossed his mind. Then again, why would his mentor want to involve Midoriya in it? From how the news has put it, it didn't seem like All For One was even partially responsible for this, yet there was still the possibility that the police just didn't want to worry the public.

He sighed and started typing, hands still shaky from the excitement that still hadn't subsided.

Midoriya Izuku:
I'll be there!

That would be enough, he hoped. A familiar feeling of nervousness and curiosity settled in his chest as he placed his phone on the nightstand and shifted in his bed to look at the dark ceiling.

"So you mean to tell me that you're from another reality?" Aizawa leaned over the desk, narrowed eyes observing every blink, every twitch, every single movement of the five teenagers in front of him. They had been wrapped in blankets and given something to drink, which they weren't exactly deserving of in his opinion. They had just destroyed a small part of the city, after all.

"Yes, Sir." The oldest one, who could've even been considered a young adult, replied. According to the police officers, he had claimed to be a certain Takashi Shirogane. The only one of the bunch with a Japanese name. He, just like the others, was dressed in some ridiculous color-coded armor over a black bodysuit – almost like a team of superheroes, Aizawa noted, though they all seemed to lack any support items or anything suiting their quirks.

Except that they were quirkless, at least that's what their examination a few hours prior indicated. There was no reason not to believe what they were saying, other than for the fact that it sounded absolutely unreasonable.

"Look, we were fighting this one evil alien witch who then opened a portal of some sorts and we got sucked in. We don't like being here either, and it's our highest priority to get back to our world. We've got a universe to defend, we don't have time to mess around with some grumpy superhero dudes." The talkative Latino started rambling again, only to stop once his friend in the red armor sent him another death glare.

"I see. It'd also be quite difficult to secretly build those robot lions, I admit." Aizawa sighed and got up, folding his arms over his chest, eyes still fixated on the 'paladins'. "Look, my time here is almost up. My colleagues and I are going to discuss what we could do with you five... While you weren't directly mentioned anywhere in the news, someone will get suspicious sooner or later and start playing detective. We want to avoid that. Please refrain from seeking attention." With that, he made his way to the door and left the room.

This was the first time in the last five hours that the paladins were left alone. Sure, there were security cameras in every corner of the room, but they had told the truth, they had nothing to hide. There was no way to escape anyway, the room was a plain white cube with one metal door on the side and no windows.

Lance turned to Shiro. "What are we going to do now?"

"We'll wait and see. They aren't exactly overjoyed about our arrival, but as long as we play along, we should be fine."

"It just feels… I don't know, kind of weird, I guess..." Hunk mumbled. "The thought of everyone here having powers… Man, I'm sure not everyone uses it for the right cause… And as the paladins, we have a kind of responsibility to do the right thing, but we have no idea how this society functions and I'm afraid we'll mess something up."

"Well, at least we're back on earth, I guess? I mean, I've wanted to return to earth ever since we left, but… Not like this. This isn't our earth." Lance said, burying his head in his hands.

Pidge spoke up after taking a sip of her drink. "On the bright side, they treat us like delusional teens instead of some potentially dangerous alien-kids. That's a silver lining, I suppose?"

"But we have to get back into our reality as soon as possible. Allura and Coran are still there, the universe is still in danger… But we can't just open a wormhole or something, we can't even look for a way without raising suspicion!" Keith groaned.

"Don't worry about that, we'll take care of everything." Suddenly, someone opened the door and a small rodent-like creature stepped into the room. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Nezu, the principal of one of the schools in this city: UA."

Lance raised his eyebrows. Were animals able to talk in this reality? Did they have typical human attributes like the animals in fables and such? He glanced at the others, who seemed to have similar thoughts running through their heads. Sure, they had seen all kinds of aliens during their time as paladins, but they normally didn't wear suits and acted this much like humans.

"Earlier this day, you five have been interrogated by an officer with a power that forces you to tell the truth – without you noticing it, of course. Anyways, we now know you're telling the truth, or at least what you think is the truth. We have your giant robot as evidence, anyway. To avoid that thing causing mass panic or you getting into any sorts of trouble, we've decided that we're going to help you by trying to find a way to get you back into your reality. In a way, you're heroes too, after all." The principal sat down at the same desk that Aizawa guy had used just a few minutes ago. His head was barely visible from behind it, but he didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by that fact. "Of course, we want to ensure your safety as well, and that's why we've decided to come up with something: You get enrolled in my school as first-year students. That way, we get to keep a close eye on you, and you get integrated into this society pretty fast. What do you say?"

"I'm sorry, we don't plan on staying that long-" Keith interrupted, his horrified expression showing just how much he was looking forward to going back to school once again.

"Oh, you wouldn't be staying for the whole school year, of course, just as long as it takes to figure out a method to traverse realities. That takes a while, though. A month or two, to be more precise. Think of it as being exchange students from another country."

"And what about the age difference? Surely, you couldn't pass me off as a high school student..." Shiro asked, a hint of genuine curiosity laced in his voice.

"Oh, that's no problem! We could blame it on your quirk, say you had to repeat a few grades, or easily make you look a few years younger." Nezu flashed a smile, then took out a stack of papers from a suitcase under the desk. "We'd be able to temporarily turn your robots into some sort of quirks. UA is a hero school, it'd be necessary for you to have powers... Though I have to say the procedure is a bit risky."

"That's fine with me. And you guys?" Pidge looked at the

others with a glint of enthusiasm in her eyes, as if simply the thought of being part of an experiment excited her.

After everyone agreed – some voluntarily, some not -, the white-furred creature handed all the papers over to them. "Alright then! Welcome to UA, paladins of Voltron."

"This feels so weird," Hunk mumbled, tilting his head as he looked at himself in the mirror. The school uniform didn't necessarily look bad on him, but he felt like it looked a bit odd, especially compared to the Garrison's uniforms. "Can you guys hear your lions in your heads too?"

"Yeah, and I hate it," Lance replied. He was eating cereal, and it was the seventh time he had accidentally activated his quirk, causing the milk to freeze in the bowl. Superhero-fruit loops didn't taste as good with chunks of ice in them. "You don't feel the ice when letting the blue lion freeze things over. But now I am partially the blue lion, and my hands are quiznakking cold."

"You'll get used to it." Pidge shrugged, trying to catch a glimpse of herself in the mirror while Hunk adjusted his tie. It's been a while since she last wore a skirt, but it made her kind of nostalgic, reminding her of the conversations on the roof with Matt. Gosh, she would have to wait even longer now to find her brother and dad. "By the way, do other versions of us exist in this reality?"

"Hm, good question… Even if they did, they would live on the other side of the world, right?" Keith stepped into the kitchen area of the small apartment they had gotten and grabbed one of the bags laying by the counter. "Besides, if they never became paladins, they wouldn't be able to understand what we're saying, most likely. What language are we even speaking right now, did our lions adjust and let us understand Japanese?"

"Most likely, yeah." Shiro sighed. He did indeed look a few years younger, probably around nineteen or so. Everyone still needed to get used to it, even he himself – the sight of a younger Shiro who had a white streak in his hair and the scar across his nose made feel out of place and mismatched. "C' mon, I don't think Aizawa would be happy about us running late on the first day. I'm sure he wants to introduce us to the class."

"Geez, right, we'll have to get along with a bunch of other teens… Do you think they'll be amazed by our powers?" Lance put a hand under his chin and smirked, wiggling his eyebrows obnoxiously.

"Lance, our classmates are probably used to such 'quirks', this is the top hero school in the country. And I don't think a Prince Charming is more important to them than their studies." Keith rolled his eyes and walked to the door where Shiro was waiting. Lance being such a flirt wasn't a new thing, sure, but he had hoped that at least in this reality, he would stop flirting with others and focus on working with the team instead.

"Alright, alright! You're just jealous, I get it." Lance laughed, finishing his cereal and hurriedly cleaning up after himself. That comment resulted in Keith rolling his eyes once more, something he seemed to be doing a lot more often lately. As if he didn't have the energy to reply to every stupid thing Lance said lately.

"Question: Are the lions in our heads able to telepathically communicate with each other?" Hunk asked to change the topic, though he was genuinely interested too. While the thought was super cool, it also raised the question if they would be able to do other things the lions could normally do, like forming Voltron. The image of the five of them merging shook him up and he quickly tried to forget about it.

Exactly fifteen minutes after the beginning of class, the door the classroom of 1-A slid open and their homeroom teacher finally stepped in. Everyone looked up from their desks, puzzled, confused expression plastered on their faces. What was Aizawa doing here during their English lesson?

Present Mic grinned and sat down, back leaned against the chalkboard he was sitting right in front of. "Eraserhead! You finally brought them here!"

Them? What was Mic talking about?

Izuku tried to stand up without getting noticed to take a better look at their homeroom teacher. He didn't seem to be holding anything, and he had been the only one to enter the room.

The rest of the class seemed to share Izuku's curiosity, which let him believe this was really something unannounced since he wasn't the only one to not remember it.

"Good morning, class," Aizawa said in his usual monotone voice, his cold stare meeting dozens of piercing eyes. "This is a bit sudden, but we have five students who are going to join this class for a while. Please treat them with respect." His voice was so lacking of emotion that it was clear that he only said that because of formalities. While he was still speaking, he opened the door once more and let a bunch of teens come in.

Silence settled in the room as the class stared at the five in bewilderment. And they had all right to – after all, it was the middle of the school year, and 1. the newbies seemed to be a bit older than first-years, just seemed to radiate an aura that practically screamed 'we're out of place here', not for the reason that not every one of them looked Japanese, but because two of them were whispering in a strange, unrecognizable language between each other. At least it seemed like that, but perhaps Izuku just didn't hear them quite right; they were whispering, after all.

"Thank you, Eraserhead! Now, kids, do you want to introduce yourself?" Present Mic asked with a smile, gently pushing them towards the class.

The five shared a look for a second, then the tallest one stepped forward, eyes looking through the crowd of students as if they were looking for a certain someone. Izuku couldn't quite explain it, but the boy somehow gave him the impression that he's been through a lot. He reminded him of All Might in a way, though he couldn't tell if it was the All Might in his muscular form or the All Might only a few knew about, the exhausted and not-all-that-powerful version of him.

"My name is Takashi Shirogane, but you can just call me Shiro. It's nice to meet you all. These are Keith Kogane, Pidge or Katie Holt, Lance McClain, and Hunk Garrett."

"Okay, thank you all," Present Mic gave Shiro a pat on the back, which was just a tiny bit awkward because of the height difference, then turned to the class. "Seems like we don't have enough seats. I'll get them for you, wait here!" With that, he stormed out the door and the class was left alone, the five new students still standing between the door and the teacher's desk awkwardly.

"Did you transfer from another hero school?" Kirishima was the first to speak up, flashing a bright smile to the transfers.

"Uhm… Yeah, we're from a school in the US that specializes on space-exploration mostly, but the cadets also get hero training there." Keith said matter-of-factly.

That, however, simply seemed to amaze some of the students, mainly Mina, who sprung up from her seat and rushed over to them. "How cool! Have you ever been to space, then?"

"Yeah, quite a few times, actually," Lance replied, rubbing the back of his neck with a grin. "We are actually- Ouch!" He gripped his side and shot Pidge a glare, who on the other hand showed no remorse for elbowing him.

"Are your quirks space-related too?" Sero joined in, observing the teens in front of him, trying to find out their quirks just by looking at them.

"Ehm, well, the-"

A small explosion on the side of the room managed to get the other's attention. It was, of course, none other than Bakugou, who had leaned forward and almost flipped over his desk, glaring daggers at the five teens before him. "Who cares. They're just some stupid exchange students who think they're special just because they've been to space. Space exploration is an easy thing to do compared to fighting superheroes. I bet the only reason they're here is that they're not good enough at fighting and have some catching up to do."

Izuku was about to turn around and attempt to tell Kacchan to calm down, but before he knew it, one of the new kids, the one in the red jacket, was already at Bakugou's desk, leaning on it and having a stare-down contest with Izuku's classmate.

"Quit it."

Izuku watched as Kacchan targeted Keith's chest with an explosion, the black haired boy stumbling back, almost falling on Izuku's desk.

"Keith, please don't!"

"Stop it, you two!"

Iida and Shiro spoke almost at the same time. Keith sighed and retreated, going back to his friends, while Bakugou turned to face Iida and started shouting about minding his own business.

Great. If Keith was another hothead like Bakugou… Izuku would've preferred not to think about what was coming in the following weeks.

Present Mic returned a few moments later, asking the five transfer students to follow him and help him carry the desks. In the few minutes they were gone, no one spoke a word, except for an occasional 'what do you think about the new kids?'.

They returned soon enough and sat down in the back of the class as if nothing had happened. They were quiet during the rest of the lesson, even though it was clear that they knew about the topic, it was an English lesson after all.

During lunch, the five decided to sit in the corner of the cafeteria, as if to avoid being noticed and having to talk to people. Izuku would be having none of that, though. He glanced at Uraraka and Iida, who both nodded as a response to his unvoiced question, then started making their way towards the table Shiro and the others were sitting at.