Miniforce: The Return of the Dark Energy (Fanfiction)

Chapter 8 - Arrival

Max was jolted awake by the vague sensation of being shaken by the shoulders. On instinct, he turned onto his side with a semi-conscious mumble. The hands drew away for a few seconds before Max was knocked sharply across the side of his head, not hard as to to seriously injure him, but enough to snap his languid senses into focus.

Bouncing up in a hurry and blinking open his eyes, Max found himself meeting Ray's evidently irritated gaze. A wave of awkwardness swept through him as he realized how long Ray must have had to shake him until he received the slightest sign of life.

"We've arrived." Ray said shortly, turning away and elbowing awake a dozing Sammy. Max had a limited view of Hawk shaking Volt to life over the top of the row of seats before him - or trying to. With a grumble of protest, Volt slapped Hawk's hand away. Helpless blowing out a breath, Hawk gave up on the blue ranger and turned, lightly tapping Lucy on the shoulder and instantly rousing the pink ranger. Hawk twisted his head back and glared at Volt over his shoulder as if to say 'see how easy that is?'

"Great..." Max yawned, plopping himself back onto the seats face-down as the rest of his sleeping colleagues were awoken from their much-needed rest.

"How long have we been out?" Volt groaned, finally deciding to follow Lucy's example. He leaned against a seat backrest as he propelled himself up.

"Approximately 5 hours." Ray informed him flatly.

"How did you know?" Sammy asked skeptically, setting his weight on one leg as he stood with difficulty. "You've been awake the whole time?"

"Aren't you nocturnal or something?" Volt muttered. Ray ignored him and handed Sammy a pair of crutches.

While the three of them spoke, Lucy and Hawk had forcefully dragged the drowsy Max from his attempted trip back to dreamland. The three of them now stood at the exit, staring back expectantly at their remaining colleagues.

Joined by Ray, Sammy, and Volt, the team squeezed through the curved door of the small plane and stepped out into the golden morning light.

The six rangers found themselves standing upon a piece of the steep cliffs where the magnificent headquarters was built into. The wonder of the structure temporarily drove the distress from their minds.

A gigantic edifice of cerulean and white segments, constructed into the shape of a majestic beast head, was built directly beneath the edge and into the cliffside of a semicircle of precipitous cliff ranges. Cerulean iron, elaborated with white details, wrapped in voguish folds around the beast head like a lion's mane. It's azure eyes glowed blindingly, demanding respect, yet also radiating a sense of gentleness and righteousness, just like the Miniforce faction. A misty cone of water sprayed from it's jaws like a waterfall, the rushing of water filled the ears of the awed team.

Two horizontal wheels of blue iron lined the cliff's edge at either side of the beast head. Boxes of white steel large enough to fit trucks were affixed to the wheel in lines, acting as entrances for transportation.

And if the revealed portion wasn't massive enough, the majority of the headquarters was hidden within the cliffs. Beams of morning light skimmed across the angles of the structure, casting vague shadows across the cliffside and the shamrock-green moss that patched the sandy rocks in uneven thickness.

Staring up at such a powerful structure, small flames of hope flickered within the group's chests.

Being the first to steer his gaze from the incredible view, Ray took off along the cliffs and towards the headquarters, moving at a speed slow enough for the injured agents to keep up. The group quickly followed.

"Why did we land here, anyway?" Volt muttered, reluctantly breaking his gaze from the nearing headquarters to focus on his footing amongst the cliff edges. "Wouldn't it be easier if we just enter the airports on the plane?"