AN: Alright, so now comes Hunter's debut into the story. I probably should have fit him into the first, seeing how he's the main character, but there was already too much else going on.

Ch2-

Corona, Lumen, Igneous and their spiders found themselves lying on the floor of a temple. Notably, a different temple than the one they had entered.

"What happened?" Corona wondered. As she tried to stand up, her body felt sore. Although it was fairly dark, she could tell she was a bit bruised up.

"I have no idea," replied Igneous, who was likewise mildly injured. "But it appears the Insectors are gone."

"Well, most of them," Lumen added. He pointed to where some Insector soldiers laid on the floor a distance away. They appeared to be unconscious.

"They're not the only ones who are gone," Venus said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Corona asked, glancing around. But then she realized. "Shadow! Where did he go?"

"We can find him later," Igneous spoke. "For now, let's get out of here. Waiting around is useless in a situation like this."

"If we must," Lumen replied.

When they stepped outside, all of them were only further shocked. They appeared to be in a mountainous area, surrounded by woods. But that much was reasonable. The Inner World itself had mountains, and plenty of trees. The immediate problem was the sky.

"Th-the sun… it's…" Igneous stuttered.

"And a blue sky?" Corona wondered.

"Perhaps we're dead," Lumen suggested. "But I always thought the afterlife would be full of cute girls."

"This isn't the afterlife!" Igneous argued. Or at least, he doubted it. It wasn't like any of them had any idea what it was.

Most of the Insectors were gathered further off in the mountains. Mantid was there with them now, having arrived after as he planned.

"So the Spider Riders followed us here," Mantid spoke. "A setback, but not one which can't be handled."

"But how could they have found out?" Buguese asked, clearly irritated.

"That I do not know," answered Mantid. "But we will not be dealing with them just yet. They are injured, and there is somewhere we must head. A base, which has been prepared for us."

"You prepared a base already? How?" Grasshop asked. Others were curious too, but unwilling to speak out against Mantid.

"My wisdom far exceeds your own, Grasshop," he replied. "Now, we must hurry and reach it before any unwanted humans appear, be they Spider Riders or Earthens."

"Oh man! What was that?" Shadow was rushing through the woods, as quickly as he could manage. He was tired, but couldn't let that hold him back.

Just as soon as they had entered the temple, there was a large blast. It was definitely an intentional attack. Insectors were quickly running from the scene. They must have known about it. But Shadow and the Spider Riders were right in its range. Although he was as stunned as the rest, Shadow was the only one who made it out. He did hope those others were alright, but didn't feel the need to stick around. It wasn't like they were his friends.

'I don't even have a clue where I am,' he thought to himself. That was the larger problem.

Ugh. Another boring day of school. Those were the thoughts in Hunter Steele's mind. That morning, he left the house at usual, his grandfather's journal clutched in his arms.

'One day…' he thought to himself. 'One day, I'll find the Inner World. I'll prove you were right, Gramps!'

His grandfather may have died, but not Hunter's memories of him, or of the stories about that strange underground world he once lived in. The journal Trigger Steele left behind was the last piece of evidence that all of it was real. But no one was willing to believe it. Not Hunter's peers, not even his own parents. He was all alone in this endeavor.

His feet dragged as he made his way towards the school building. He really didn't feel like attending, even more than usual.

'Maybe I'll just take a little detour,' he decided. The boy instead turned for the nearby woods. 'If I'm late, I'll just say I overslept.' Not that he was proud to admit it, but that had happened before. His first period teacher would believe it.

"It'll be alright," Hunter commented out loud, as he walked through the woods. "…Ow! Or not."

Hunter had tripped over something hard, and ended up on the floor.

'Probably a root,' he thought to himself, but he looked at the offending object anyway.

"Huh?" What he saw was round like a root, but it was also silver and shiny. "I wonder what this is."

Hunter kneeled down next to it, and started digging with his hands.

'Hmm… this is pretty weird. It looks ancient.' He held the object, which he deducted to be an oversized bracelet, in his hand. 'Well if it's jewelry, I guess I don't really need it.'

Just as he was about to put it down, the bracelet opened up, and latched itself onto his arm.

"Huh? Hey!" Hunter grabbed at it, struggling to pull it off. "It won't open!"

"What?" Corona gasped. A weird feeling came over her, like nothing she'd experienced before.

"Are you alright?" Igneous asked, surprised by how startled she sounded.

"Yeah," she answered. "But something just happened. I'm going to find out what. Wait here!" At that, she ran off abruptly.

"Prince, we're going after her," Igneous decided. "This is surprisingly rash behavior for Corona, so it must be serious."

"No, let's wait here," Lumen said.

"Why?" asked Igneous, though he didn't desire disobeying his prince.

"Corona will contact us if something happens. I'm sure," Lumen answered. "Besides, we don't know where we are. It's best if all of us don't end up getting completely lost here."

Aqune, too, felt a reaction.

"Something's awakened," she spoke.

"What?" Buguese glanced at her, curiously.

"A new Spider Rider…" Aqune continued. She could clearly feel it.

Obviously, as Buguese and Aqune were near him, Mantid overheard.

"It seems Spirit Oracle will do anything in her power to stop us," Mantid said. "Even giving her power to an Earthen."

"An Earthen?" asked Buguese.

"Who else could it have been? It would be difficult for even Aqune to sense such an occurrence, unless it happened in this world," Mantid answered. "Now, Grasshop…" He pointed to the bug.

"Yes, Mantid-sama?" he answered.

"Go and find this new Spider Rider, and be rid of him. He can't be very skilled."

"Yes, of course!" Grasshop said, glad to be chosen for something important. "But… where do I find him?"

"Aqune, tell us where you sensed this," ordered Mantid.

Although she felt uneasy about it, Aqune realized she wasn't in any position to object.

"I don't know exactly, but… down this way," she pointed. "I think… in the forest." That was a sort of vague answer, but it was hard for her to actually pinpoint the location on the spot. Normally, she would have to chant for a while and concentrate on a presence.

It didn't take long for Hunter to lose interest in the strange bracelet on his arm, as he was struck with a much bigger concern. A huge blue spider was running in his direction.

"Maybe I should have gone to school today," he mumbled to himself, and then took off in the opposite direction. Or, he tried to. But he had run into a much thicker part of the forest. He was basically cornered.

"Never give up!" the boy reminded himself. He couldn't become helpless.

On the floor, he saw a large branch, which he grabbed.

"I'm not afraid of you, Spider!" Not entirely true, but he wasn't going to let the spider know that.

Hunter charged at the spider with the stick. However, Shadow grabbed it in his webs, ripping it right from Hunter's hand.

"Seriously?" Hunter sighed, as he tried to think quickly. "Well, you are a bug. Maybe you squash!" He jumped up, landing on Shadow's enormous back. However, it was much too hard to be at all affected by Hunter's body weight. He was more likely the one to be crushed to death by the size of Shadow, if he wasn't careful.

"How dare you board me?!" Shadow yelled. He easily shook the boy off of him. But as Hunter fell, Shadow took note of just what was on his arm. It was the last thing he was expecting to encounter. "You wear a manacle?"

"Yeah!" Hunter shouted. He was annoyed, and wanted to keep sounding tough before this enemy. "Wait. What's a manacle?"

"That bracelet you're wearing!" Shadow replied, glaring. "Everyone knows what a manacle is! It means you're a Spider Rider."

"A Spider Rider… Wait!" It was finally then when the biggest elephant in the room hit him. "Why is a spider talking?"

"What's wrong with that?" Shadow asked.

"Well… I've never seen a spider talk before!" Hunter shot back. "Nor have I seen one as big as you."

"If you don't know anything, it's clear that you're not a real Spider Rider!" Shadow declared. "Just some imposter! So it's my duty to defeat you."

"Shadow, stop!"

Corona ran towards the two. By the same weird feeling she had gotten before, she somehow knew exactly where to find them.

"Who's she?" Hunter wondered. She seemed kind of pretty, he thought, not that he was into that sort of stuff.

"A real Spider Rider!" Shadow answered. "Not some imposter like you!"

Before Hunter could say anything to argue (which he certainly wanted to do), Corona spoke again.

"Hey, who are you?" she asked.

"Uhh… Hunter Steele is my name," he replied. "But this is getting too weird. What's a Spider Rider anyway?"

"Spider Riders are heroes," Corona said. She too was a bit puzzled that Hunter didn't know. Then again, she also acknowledged that they were in some strange place now, which certainly wasn't Arachna. "Hunter, can you tell us where we are?" she added.

"Uh… in the woods." He looked at them, still totally confused.

"Of course we're in the woods," said Shadow, annoyed. "Can you tell us more? Because clearly, this is not like any place I've seen in the Inner World."

"The Inner World?!" Hunter almost fell from the shock of hearing those words. "You know about it?!"

"Obviously," Shadow replied. "We're from it."

"Th-then… it's real?!" Hunter wasn't even sure how to put his excitement into words. Of course he always believed it was real, but this was actual proof.

"Of course it's real, Hunter," said Corona. "If you don't know about it… could you be an Earthen?" Corona wasn't sure what the surface world was like, but it was the only other world she'd heard about.

"An Earthen?!" Shadow yelled. "Then this could definitely be a problem." There was that nasty little prophecy about an Earthen bringing calamity to the Inner World. Because of that, Shadow distrusted them as a whole, even if he'd never met one.

"I'm not a problem," Hunter said. "Yeah, this is Earth. But… please take me to the Inner World!"

"Sadly, I don't know if that's possible," replied Corona. "We were following Insectors, and we suddenly found ourselves transported here."

"I see," replied Hunter, even though he still didn't totally see. He was almost disappointed, but that only lasted for a moment.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't go to school today! Now I know it's real for sure. Gramps was right! And I get to be a hero?!" He was practically glowing.

"Mhm," said Corona. She found his excitement a bit curious, but endearing.

"You're no hero," said Shadow.

"What do you mean?!" argued Hunter. "She said Spider Riders are heroes!"

"Sector!" Battle cries could be heard in the distance, as enemies drew closer.

"Oh no! Insectors!" Corona yelled. "Venus, are you ready?"

"Yes," replied the spider.

"Oracle's Soul!" Hunter could only watch in awe as Corona was transformed to full battle armor. She even had tiny wings.

"I found you, Spider Riders!" Grasshop declared. The coward he was, he was at the rear of his group.

"What are you Insectors doing in this world?!" Corona demanded, as she fired her arrows, taking out several of the approaching soldiers.

"You're so unwelcoming," commented Grasshop. "But don't worry. I was polite enough to bring a gift. Come, Machine-Sector!"

Out from a small orb, a giant mechanical bug emerged. It was much bigger than even Shadow, to Hunter's surprise. Then again, everything that had been happening in the last several minutes was surprising to him.

"You guys can fight too!" Corona called, a bit nervous herself from the size of it.

"What do you mean?" Hunter asked.

Before answering, Corona had to fire at more grunts. At least she'd finally gotten them out of the way.

"Hunter, you're a new Spider Rider, and Shadow, you don't have a partner. To be real Spider Riders, you have to come together."

"With him?!" both replied in unison, a bit disturbed by the idea.

"You respond together. You're a perfect pair," Corona said.

"This is easier than I thought," Grasshop commented out loud. "They're just gonna get crushed while they fight each other."

The machine made its way in their direction. Corona fired at it from a distance, but it simply kept moving.

Hunter braced himself. He wasn't going to give up, but he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do.

"Yell 'Oracle's Power'," said Shadow, grudgingly. "Then get on my back."