Takes place after "Fatally Delicious Candy."
Force within Our Hearts
Chapter 1 - The Real Reason Why
"Stop that!"
The others were immediately taken aback by their owl friend's sudden outburst, as Sammy growled and clenched his right wing tightly. But what Volt, Max and Lucy didn't know was the true cause of Sammy's pain; during one of their latest battles with Pascal, the said evil Miniforce ranger somehow shot him with a beam from his spear.
And now, the energy of that beam still seemed to have affected the red owl, as he felt a painful twinge in his shoulder.
"Sammy, are you alright?" Max questioned with worry.
"What's wrong?" Volt inquired.
"Let me take a look at-."
"Don't touch me!" Lucy gasped and froze when Sammy once again lashed out on her, even though she was only trying to help.
"B-but…Sammy, I…" Lucy whimpered in shame.
"Dude, there's no need ta get so upset about it," Volt protested firmly, "She was just trying to help."
"Whatever. I'm outta here," Sammy grumbled and jumped out of the bathtub that used to be filled with bubbles and joy, but now there was only tension and confusion.
Sammy was usually very angsty, but never this angsty. Something was wrong…
That night, the Susie helped the Miniforce dry off from their bath with a gentle air-dry from her hairdryer. But no matter how hard Susie tried to keep the colorful animals in line, Volt, Max and Lucy constantly fought over who should be dried off first.
"Ok, guys, c'mon! Everyone will get a turn!" Susie reassured with a giggle, but then she saw Sammy at the edge of her bed, once again away from the crowd, "Here, Sammy, you should dry off."
"Nope. I'm fine," the red owl protested, turning away with his arms crossed.
"Suzy, do me first!" Volt begged.
"No, I think Sammy should go first." With that, the redheaded girl turned on the hairdryer and aimed it at the back of Sammy's head, instantly creating a dent in his crimson feathers…which he wasn't too fond of.
"I told you, I'm fine," Sammy warned, quickly peeking one eye open.
"Aw, c'mon! You'll feel much better once you're all warm and dry!" Susie argued with a smile, and continued to deliberately blow dry Sammy. But as the others waited for her to finish, Susie lowered the hot air down to the faint wound on Sammy's right wing.
"Ouch, damnit! That hurt!" Sammy scolded and jumped back.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Susie apologized and quickly pulled the hairdryer away.
"I told you I was fine! Why don't you listen to me?!" the red owl continued ranting angrily.
"Whoa, Sammy, calm down! What's with the attitude?" Volt boldly cut in, no longer tolerating his friend's outbursts.
"Yeah, she didn't mean ta do that," Max added.
"A-and there's no need for such profanity, either," Lucy pointed out sheepishly, still shocked from Sammy's cursing.
"Just forget it! I don't need any of you!" Sammy snapped and bolted out of the room, once again clutching his ailing wing close.
"Seriously, what's up with him? He's being even more of a black sheep than usual," Volt pondered aloud.
"Maybe he's sick?" Lucy suggested. But as the Miniforce rangers discussed their fellow teammate's strange behavior, Susie couldn't help but fear that there was something far worse behind all of this.
At the same time, Nine and his second in command Pascal were plotting yet another evil scheme, but the dark purple former Miniforce ranger had some rather interesting news for his master this time.
"Master Nine, do you recall the meteorite that crash landed just a few days ago?"
"Of course I do. My Zero Bots say that the compacted darkness it contains is beyond comprehension," Nine replied with a conniving grin.
"Precisely. I have extracted a fracture of that darkness into my spear, and I've managed to hit one of those pesky Miniforce brats with that same power. Think about it, Master Nine: Soon, he will no longer be able to resist the temptation of darkness…" Pascal explained darkly.
"And he'll join us at his own accord," Nine finished matter-of-factly, quite satisfied with what he was hearing, "Well done, Pascal. Very well done. With the power of another Miniforce ranger aiding us, we'll certainly be unstoppable."
"That's the plan, Master," Pascal informed smoothly.
The next day, the other Miniforce members and Susie still couldn't figure out what was wrong with their owl friend, and even Sammy himself couldn't find the real problem. So, Sammy went outside to go on a nice stroll and calm his nerves, but Susie's little brother, Louie, was also playing in the front yard with a boomerang.
"Here goes!" Louie laughed and flung his boomerang across the yard, running after it to try and catch up. But as he chased it into a U-turn, he finally realized it was heading right for Sammy, and he wasn't even paying attention.
"Sammy, look out!" The said red Miniforce ranger, though usually very quick and light on his feet, could not heed the boy's warning quickly enough this time, and Sammy was ultimately struck hard in the face with the boomerang.
The impact was so great, it sent Sammy flying back and landed square on his injured wing, only increasing the aching pain even more.
"Oh, my gosh! Are you ok, Sammy?" Louie called with great concerned, and even kneeled down to his help him back up.
"Don't touch me!" Sammy suddenly snapped, making Louie gasp and pull back from the scowling owl.
"Oh…Sammy, I'm so, so sorry!" Sammy only growled and quickly jumped up to walk away.
"Whether it's Susie or Louie, they're just such a bother," the red owl muttered under his breath, once again holding his aching wing, "I wish humans would just…all disappear."
Suddenly, Sammy's Force Gem alarm sounded, and no sooner had he took it out of his pocket had he heard Volt's voice from inside the house. "Sammy, c'mon, let's go!"
So, the red Miniforce ranger sprinted into the house and followed his other teammates down into the secret headquarters below, where they were met with the same hologram of Commander Chen in the middle.
"Pascal has gotten his hands on a mysterious meteorite's energy," the old white cat announced, and then his hologram turned into that of the same meteorite he was describing.
And the mere second he saw the holographic meteorite, something about felt strangely familiar to Sammy. "A meteorite, huh? What powers does it really have?"
"That meteorite came from a dark nebulas nearly fifteen hundred light years away from Earth. It consists of solid minute space particles, in which are made up of a vast amount of dark energy. If Pascal uses this dark energy, his evil will be greatly magnified and quite formidable. Move out immediately and stop Pascal!"
"Sir, yes, Sir!" the four Miniforce rangers saluted in unison.
Not long after their meeting with Commander Chen, the Miniforce quickly made their way to Pascal's location, where there was already a large group of defenseless animals fleeing in terror.
They quickly assembled their Force Bows and effortlessly took out the oncoming Zero Bots, but Pascal and his two brawny minions were still standing.
"So, you finally showed up? I was worried there wouldn't be anything to spice up this little party," Pascal taunted.
"Well, we're here ta crash your party!" Max warned.
"What're you planning this time, Pascal?!" Volt demanded.
"You think I'd just tell you?" Pascal scoffed, clutching his spear tightly and a bright light illuminating from the crest, "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."
As the light of Pascal's spear grew brighter, the pain in Sammy's wing quickly grew more immense, making him collapse to his knees and groan in agony.
"Yes, perfect," Pascal hissed gleefully.
"What are you talking about?" Lucy questioned with fear.
"Whatever it is, it's not good," Volt told his female teammate.
"Enough! Silence these Technicolor bastards NOW!" Pascal's two large henchmen quickly followed his orders, and suddenly activating secret jetpacks on their backs.
"You guys can't even fly!" one of the goonies laughed mockingly.
"And you think you can defeat us?!" the other taunted. Unfortunately, the very mentioning of being incapable of flight triggered something in Sammy. The red Miniforce ranger somehow ignored the growing pain in his right shoulder, and he pulled out his Force Bow again.
With all the strength he had left, Sammy pulled back and managed to hit both of the henchmens' jetpacks with a lucky single shot, sending them both flying away into the sky like hilariously deflating balloons.
"Useless waste of space," Pascal growled in disappointment, once again causing a great light to emit from his spear, "Fine. I'll just take care of you myself."
With that, an bright purple beam of powerful electricity was fired from Pascal's spear, but the Miniforce all managed to jump out of the way in time…all except one. Due to the pain in his shoulder, Sammy was much slower than usual, and he was hit directly in the chest with the electric beam. But the red ranger didn't collapse as quickly as Pascal had expected.
"Hmm, that wound may have made you immune to my light attacks—very well, then—I'll just use my stronger attacks!" Pascal shouted at the top of his lungs, twirling his spear above his head before firing an even larger beam than before at Sammy.
But lucky for Sammy, Lucy jumped in just in time to summon a magical pink shield, safely deflecting the electric attack.
"We can't keep waiting around like this! If you can't fight anymore, just say something, Sammy!" Volt ordered.
"N-no! I-I'm fine, I swear!" Sammy quickly protested and feebly stood back up with some more groans, but it seemed to be enough to convince the blue ranger anyway.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a weak link," Pascal chuckled darkly, "But you can use that, Sammy—I shall bid you all farewell! Until then, Sammy, take care!"
The dark purple former ranger then disappeared in a cloud of purple dust, leaving the real Miniforce in a state of confusion.
"What would he just flee like that? Something's up…a-and what's he talking about, Sammy?" Lucy asked with concern, but she didn't get a response, "Sammy? Sammy?!"
She and the others finally realized that their red friend had collapsed onto the ground once more, and he lay silent and motionless.
"Sammy! Sammy, wake up!" Max begged and leaned down, scooping his limp body into his arms to carry him back home.
Max carried Sammy back to Susie's house as quickly as he could, and Lucy and Volt helped him get the injured owl into bed afterwards. Soon, all of them, even Louie, were surrounding Susie's bed, where a dormant and sweating Sammy lay.
"How could he do this? Sammy's always secretive, but he's too smart to hide such an injury," Volt muttered with worry.
"Either way, we still don't know what's actually hurting him," Lucy pointed out, just as Susie gently reached out and raised Sammy's right wing, revealing the bright purple glowing wound.
"I-is it supposed ta be doing that?" Max questioned with a cocked brow.
Just then, the red owl meekly blinked his eyes open, and the first thing he saw was the face of his friends.
"I don't think he's doing so well, Susie," Louie whispered to his older sister.
"I know…it's so hard to see you like this, Sammy," the said owl's vision began to blur, as he started breathing rapidly, but he could still just barely hear Susie's worrisome voice, "You're the strongest guy we know, Sammy, but we know that you really need help this time. So, please, help us help you."
"Yeah, we're always here ta help you, no matter what!" Sammy's eyes meekly flinched over to Volt and the others at the edge of the bed, where their figures were even fuzzier.
His friends had all waited by his side all day and well into the night, falling asleep by the bed to stay with him the whole time. But poor Sammy wasn't able to sleep as peacefully, as he twitched in his sleep while recalling a vivid, horrid memory.
"You'll never catch me, Slow Poke!" a voice giggled, echoing gently in his head.
"Slow, eh?!"
Young Sammy then dive bombed into a small, soft sky blue object, sending them both careening into the limb of an old oak tree. The two young owls somehow landed safely enough without injuring themselves, despite their bumpy landing.
And after shaking many leaves down, they were both covered in a pile of leaves, and they couldn't help but laugh at the other. The sky blue owl with Sammy giggled even louder, especially when a couple of leaves formed a mustache on Sammy's beak.
"It's not funny!" Sammy protested and quickly brushed the leaves away.
"It is, too!" she protested with another hardy laugh.
"Oh, yeah?!" With that, the red owl lunged at his friend, once again letting gravity pull them down, and onto another larger branch farther down the tree. But despite lunging at her first, Sammy was somehow pinned down by the girl.
"Pinned ya," she chuckled boastfully.
"Alright, Sky, you win! Now lemme up!" Sammy whined and squired beneath her until she finally let go.
Suddenly, their fun was rudely interrupted when a rock blazed past them, just barely missing. They looked down to find a couple of little boys at the base of the tree, and one of them had a slingshot.
"Sky, get out of here!" Sammy demanded and quickly pushed the sky blue owl to the edge of the branch.
"What about you?" Sky protested in fear.
"Don't worry about me, just go!"
"But-!"
"NOW!"
Without another word, Sky quickly took flight to avoid the fire of the boy's slingshot. But it was not to be when the boy quickly reloaded with an even smaller rock, sending it flying even faster with a whip and it effortlessly struck her left wing.
"Bulls-eye!" the boy with the slingshot cheered.
Sky cried out in agony as she spiraled down to the earth, the canopy of the forest blocking the sight of her landing. But just seeing her plummet, most likely to her death, was enough to drive Sammy to tears.
He was about to fly after her himself when another rock was fired, successfully grazing his right wing.
"There it is! Get it!" the other boy called with a sneer, and the other boy quickly reloaded. Sammy managed to dodge the next rock by hiding higher in the tree, but he tested his luck when he peeked around the corner, allowing the boys to spot him again.
Ultimately, his right wing was hit once more, this time right at the joint, and the force of the impact pushed him out of the tree. And when Sammy landed on his already injured wing with a loud snap, he knew it was broken.
He could hear the boys laugh and high five before fleeing the area to avoid getting caught by authorities, but Sammy swore he would take care of them himself if he wasn't in so much pain.
Pain. Something he rarely felt and always denied, and now there was too much. He was uncertain if he would ever fly again…and he had also lost his best friend. All because of humans!
"Sammy!" The said young red owl turned his head when he heard his name was called, and he couldn't believe it when he saw none other than Pascal standing on a hilltop. How was he here, in his own memory?!
"For someone who has endured so much pain, why are you even making an effort to make peace with the humans?" Pascal explained firmly, "I mean, just look at you. Because of humans, you've not only lost your ability to fly—but also the only light of your life, right?"
Sammy looked down in disgust and terror, trying to use as much will power to ignore the temptation of Pascal…no matter how right he was.
"Join me, Sammy, and we will make all humans pay for what they've done to you. No one will ever hurt you again."
Another splitting headache and a flash of white light finally awoke Sammy from his terrible nightmare, as he shook his head and grabbed it tightly to ease the pain, but to no avail.
But Sammy could no longer deny it. He now knew this pain wasn't caused by the beam of Pascal's spear—it was caused by the anger and darkness in his heart.
Yes, this is a Miniforce fanfiction. For what it lacks in good English dubs, it makes up for in rather very pretty animation...that, and Sammy's just the bestX3
So, hope you enjoyed chapter one!
Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!