Chapter 2 –Taking Shelter

Delta Command Base 2800

"This is the dining room, it's where we eat."

"Well duhh." Gale rolled her eyes. Her brother's fairly frequent stupidity often annoyed her.

"Uhh yeah. These are the stairs."

"WHY don't you show me something interesting Dale? Ugh!"

Dale cowered slightly. Dale had faced a ravenous lion and not flinched, been in the middle of a riot and not once cried for help, but his sister was probably the only thing he was afraid of. "Ummmm sure. I'll take you to the C-Squad quarters. I'll introduce you to Han, and Wendy might be around too."

"Lead the way." Gale grinned triumphantly as her brother became a human arrow, moving in the direction of the C-Squad quarters. She was about to follow, when alarms began to blare throughout the base.

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Dentraasi grinned as screams and shouts cleared the way for him. He advanced through the town square, knocking over tables. A massive sack on his back jingled, full of belongings and money that people had left behind when they ran away. This was his third raid here now, and it was proving highly successful once more. But now he had taken all the bags, coats and money in the area he grew bored.

Something caught his eye. A purple handbag lying on a chair some distance away, just waiting to be taken. He strode over and reached for it. Just before his spindly hand closed around the handbag, an irritated female voice called out "Hands off the bag!" Dentraasi growled and spun around, only to be faced by a tall girl dressed in pink with flowing silver hair.

"Who do you think you are, girl?" Dentraasi spat.

"I'm Beech, and that's my handbag." Beech took a step forward. Dentraasi raised a surprised eyebrow. "Oh, and one more thing," Beech continued, raising a badge. "SPD! You're under arrest for theft and causing havoc. SPD Emergency!"

Pink light burst out of the badge that she held high, forming a pink wire-frame net that covered all of her body except her head. She began to spin round at an impossible speed, drawing in energy from the surrounding area. As it met the wire-frame, it solidified into flexible neo-titanium armour. She snapped out of the spin, and, wearing a pink body suit, Beech spread her arms out and clenched her fists. Thick black armour formed over her chest, knees and shoulders. A large '5' appeared on her chest, glowing radiant pink. The wire-frame extended up to cover her head, leaving a gap in the area of her eyes. Then, with a flash of pink, the light pink armour had enveloped her head, with a pair of black and silver headlights sat neatly on her forehead. A shiny black visor slid down to cover the elliptical hole in the armour where her eyes were. The headlights turned on, emitting a glow of yellow light as Beech assumed her pose and called out "SPD 5! Pink!"

Dentraasi gave a howl of rage and surprise, dropping his swag-bag. He drew a long blue blade from no-where and pointed it at Beech. She rolled to the side and drew her weapon as a barrage of laser bolts from Dentaasi's sword tore up the concrete where she had been standing. "Why use a sword for ranged combat? You should use something more like Wind Fire!" At her command, the bow that Beech had drawn fired an array of energised pink arrows at the creature. Dentraasi groaned as they struck him in the chest, and stuck.

"You'll pay." Dentraasi warned as he ripped the arrows out of his chest, which proceeded to rapidly heal up, closing the holes. Faster than Beech would have thought possible of this large monster, Dentraasi swept past Beech delivering a crushing blow to her stomach with his sword, sending showers of pink sparks spinning into the air. The thick black outer armour absorbed most of the blow, but Beech still fell to the floor from the pain. Dentraasi laughed and held his sword high, in preparation to stab it through her faceplate. "Good-bye, Beech." He smirked and jabbed the sword down.