49- The Battle of the Insector Shrine- Part 1

Hunter ran towards the castle, determined, the others following his lead. As they were approaching it though, the ground began to shake.

"Wh-what's going on?" Hunter asked nervously.

From under the ground emerged several Machine-sectors.

"It's another attack!" Igneous exclaimed.

"Look above you," added Brade. Several machines were descending from the sky as well.

"This is bad," said Hunter.

"But didn't we come here to fight?" asked Brade.

"Yeah," said Hunter. "And fighting is what we're going to do."

Buguese was watching the events unfold from out a window.

"Now is the time," he said. He walked away, towards a certain room, where his last secret weapon was being kept. It was a rather special Machine-Sector.

'While the Spider Riders are being kept busy, I will seize the Oracle Keys with you, Dark Opal,' he thought to himself. Of course, he wasn't entirely sure how he was going to get the one which Mantid kept in the orb. As he didn't have an Oracle handmaiden to help him anymore (and certainly did not want to drag Aqune back into this) it would be hard to get. But, he'd work on that after. Maybe it was uncharacteristic of him not to think this through completely, he realized, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

The Riders had divided their forces, as there were many opponents. No sense in all of them just going after one. These Machine-Sectors were naturally bigger and stronger than normal Insector soldiers. And it didn't help the Riders' case that they were a little tired from all the fighting they'd just been doing.

Hunter jumped at what looked like the biggest and toughest one. He was hit back by the machine, and sent flying. Fortunately, Shadow helped to break his fall.

"Thanks," said Hunter.

"It was nothing," replied Shadow. With Hunter on his back, the Spider leapt out at the giant machine. "Spider threads!" His web wrapped around one of the machine's arms. Hunter used this opportunity to get on top of it and strike the head. Or... that was the plan anyway.

Snap!

The Machine-Sector broke loose from the threads, and grabbed Hunter in its hand.

Shadow glared at it from the ground, trying to find the best way to approach the machine, and free his Rider.

"Hunter!" Corona yelled. She was dealing with a tough, but weaker machine. When she got an opening, she fired an arrow at the giant machine's hand, being careful not to hit Hunter. It released him, and Shadow caught Hunter with his web.

Hunter shot Corona a thumbs up, but was determined to get back to battling it. Now that its hand was cracked, it had to be weaker.

Aqune had already succeeded in taking one of the Machine-Sectors down. It was relatively easy for her, too. She rushed to the next one. It wasn't just Aqune who was a big help to the other Riders. Brade had already taken down two.

Igneous, Lumen and Magma were fighting to keep the rest away from Hunter. He didn't need any distractions while trying to take out that monstrosity. As for Sparkle, she and Grasshop had teamed up against one of them, and seemed to be winning.

"Arrow of light!" Corona finally knocked her opponent down. She was relieved, and also pleased with herself.

"Electro Whip!" Aqune violently struck down another machine, which exploded. She had no trouble going all out when it was just machines she was up against.

'Somehow I'll beat this thing,' Hunter thought to himself. But even though it was slightly crippled, it was still putting up quite a fight.

"Don't forget. We have three Oracle Keys," said Shadow.

"Right!" Hunter replied, wishing he'd thought of that sooner. He took out the three Keys. "Please, Spirit Oracle. Let me have the strength to fight this thing."

Once again, Hunter and Shadow achieved that stunning transformation. Hunter grinned, pleased that it worked.

"Okay, bug! You're going down now!" With incredible force, Hunter and Shadow blew the bug to bits. Witnessing this, the other Riders were amazed. Corona in particular was relieved to see that Hunter had succeeded.

After the attack was over, Hunter reverted back to his normal state, without the Keys.

"Thank you," he said, gazing at them.

"Hunter, look out!" Magma yelled.

A massive flying Machine-Sector came from behind him, knocking him to the ground. The Keys fell from his hand. As Hunter scrambled to grab them up again, the machine shot a blast of energy at him.

"Hunter!" yelled Corona, desperately hoping he would be okay. Then, the Machine-Sector grabbed the Keys, and flew away.

"Ugh…" Hunter got up, though he was definitely in pain. "The Keys… we have to get them back."

The remaining Machine-Sectors were firing at them, however.

"I don't think they'll let us pass so easily," Igneous commented, frustrated.

Buguese stepped out of the machine, after he had returned to the castle. He took the three Keys in his hand.

"At last!" he said. "They're mine!" He knew he didn't really have the time to stand around gloating, however. He was still missing one Key.

Mantid then appeared in the room, however.

"Good work," Mantid said. "You have the last three Oracle Keys." In Mantid's hand was the fourth Key.

"The Oracle Keys are mine!" declared Buguese. "I will use them to save the Insector world, and I will never hand them over to you!"

"No," Mantid said. "You will give those to me now."

Buguese felt a sharp pain in his head. He fell to his knees in pain.

"Wh-what… is going on?" he asked. His grip loosened on the three Keys, and he was helplessly unable to move as Mantid took them.

Mantid laughed in response.

"Buguese… you really never knew the truth. All these years, you never even tried to disobey my orders. But of course, you can't disobey me."

"What do you mean?" growled Buguese.

"Among all the Insectors, you're special," said Mantid. "You could say you were a bit of an experiment. My artificial creation, who could never disobey unless I allowed it."

"That's impossible!" Buguese exclaimed.

"Well, now I no longer need you," Mantid said. "So I don't care what you do anymore. I have the Keys, and I just need to unlock their power."

In the room, a strange looking girl appeared.

"What is that?!" demanded Buguese. "A doll?"

"Now, she's more like a doll," replied Mantid. "But she is very much real. Her name is Lorraine, and when I had the power of two Keys, I used them to temporarily animate her. Now, that energy within her will be released, and I can activate the last two Keys without Aqune's help."

And just as he said that, a light emerged from the girl. Power flowed rapidly into Mantid. A vibrant green color returned to his skin, and an aura of light emitted from his fully restored body. The doll, drained of its temporary power, fell to the ground. Mantid caused her body to teleport away, with his newfound power.

"Amazing!" he said. "All of Spirit Oracle's energy is mine!"

Both Aqune and Corona felt pain rush through them.

"Are you two okay?" Hunter asked, worried.

"I don't know," replied Corona. "Wh-what just happened?"

"Something terrible," Aqune replied. "The power of the Oracle Keys were taken." Aqune felt the Oracle's energy weakening. Spirit Oracle was her, somehow. So what would happen to her?

"I should tell you something, Buguese," said Mantid. "I never planned to restore your sunlight anyway. Your world will remain in darkness, which I cast on it long ago. And the human world will suffer the same fate. Every one of you worthless creatures will die!"

Buguese was shocked. Shocked enough that he couldn't even will himself to move.

'Aqune was right,' he realized. 'Mantid should have never gotten the Oracle Keys. And he was able to capture them, because of me? No, he counted on me to get the Keys for him all along.'

Now, anger flowed through him. He may have been created to serve Mantid. But now, Buguese swore to himself that he would destroy Mantid.

AN: A few things concerning this chapter. Firstly, I just had to include Dark Opal in this story. I adore it (and it saddens me that it will never appear in Super Robot Wars.) Next, the idea of animating Lorraine comes from a scene in ep.41 that was cut out of the dub, when Mantid was trying to do just that. In the anime, it only worked for a minute, but it was gloriously creepy. I wanted to make it actually work in this story.