Disclaimer: I own nothing about Super Heroine Chronicle, any of the represented series or Kamen Rider. The only original character I own is Sasaki Motoharu. All other original characters belong to their respective creators.

Thirtieth Show (Route B): Return of the Backstabbed

Shun made up his mind and took the Mashin Chaser Lockseed. Using Hakaider's power was far too risky and if he got the Destroy Circuit in his mind, then he could go berserk and begin hurting everyone against his will. The Lockseed he held seemed to be slightly safer.

Key words there: seemed and slightly.

"That one, huh?" chirped Riko.

"Honestly, having to do this hurts my pride as a man and as a warrior. If Yamato were here, he probably wouldn't have been forced into this situation. But…" He trailed off as he clutched his newly borrowed power. "Pride alone can't win battles. I won't be able to protect anything if my feelings are the only weapon I have. And if I keep letting my pride dictate my actions, I'll end up regretting it while accomplishing nothing."

"Mieux vaut faire, et se repentir, que se repentir, et rien faire."

"Sorry, what was that?" He knew that it was French but that was it.

The French girl placed away the other Lockseed before responding. "It's a saying that it's better to do something and regret it than to regret and do nothing."

"That's true. I just hope this guy doesn't turn out to be worse than Hakaider." Taking a deep breath, he activated the new Lockseed.

MASHIN CHASER!

He nearly jumped out of his skin upon hearing that low guttural voice from the newly opened Lockseed. It definitely sounded like it belonged to a total badass but also by the tone, it also sounded like something that would likely be a villain. "Is this guy really less evil than Hakaider? Man, I hope this doesn't bite me in the ass."

LOCK ON!

As soon as he inserted it into his Driver, his Rider Indicator changed with the predominant red colour changing to purple and the lighter yellowish colours changing to black. And rather than his usual trumpet standby theme, the Driver began playing a heavy metal standby theme which sounded awesome to Shun's ears. It was even better than the rock music used by Bravo's Sengoku Driver. "Well… here goes nothing."

He tapped the Cutting Blade…

COME ON!

… before the device opened, revealing a logo consisting of a skull backed by mechanical wings in the lock along with the number 000 right beneath the logo. On the bottom portion of the Lockseed was a picture of the Arms weapon that looked like a combination of a firearm and a knuckle duster, known as the Break Gunner.

The Ride wear appeared over Shun's body with the red replaced by purple and the grey replaced by black. His upper torso armour consisted of a mounted engine on the right shoulder, a purple shoulder pad covering the left shoulder with the skull and wing logo, and finally some purple plating at the upper chest that had wires connected to the back armour which only had a simple black and purple plate with a circle sticking out slightly. His helmet virtually resembled the helmet of Mashin Chaser except with his optics still maintaining the default shape that Baron typically used. And in his right hand was the Arms weapon, the Break Gunner. What made this slightly different from the one used in the actual TV program is that the opening at the top was wider to allow a Lockseed to fit in rather than one of those smaller Shift Cars or Viral Cores.

MASHIN CHASER ARMS! SHINIGAMI ON THE HUNT!

As the announcement played, the Driver played one last metal theme, ending with a powerful guitar riff and getting Riko all excited. "So this is…?"

"Che…!" Houki found herself backing off as her last exchange of blows didn't end up with any results. What's worse is that Souji seemed to be slowly adjusting to her movements and hardly seemed to be slowing down at all. "What do I do here?"

"Move."

The single cold command from Shun startled the girl. All she could do was stare at him as he walked past her without sparing a glance. "Wait, what?"

"Ho-chan, let Shun-shun do his thing!" called out Riko from behind while the newly transformed Rider stopped in front of New Generation Rider Baron.

"You again?!" growled Souji before noticing the complete change that the Baron fake had underwent. 'What's with that purple and black combination? Even his Rider indicator has changed.'

"Don't worry. This will be our last battle," replied Shun in a mechanical tone while pressing his palm into his weapon's spring like button, otherwise known as the Destruction Muzzle, to activate one of the attack modes.

GUN!

Souji had no time to think at all as his enemy began opening fire on him.

"You know Nagata, this is one of those times that your Kamen Rider knowledge should have come in handy," noted Sasaki as the party roamed around some of the office corridors filled with plant life.

"Shut up! The TV producers never included a full, clear directory and interior map of Yggdrasil Tower!" snapped Nagata while brushing away a vine from his orange visor.

"Ara… someone's rather volatile!" said Noel with a smile.

Kan'u had been about to give the magician girl a piece of her mind when Claude spoke up. "Well, we should just be thankful that Yuri's search magic is helping us look for the laboratory and the area where the Drivers are built. It's also letting us know which areas are filled with Inves so we can avoid unnecessary battles."

"Indeed. She's very handy," echoed Sachiko while the small blonde girl laughed sheepishly, embarrassed at all the praise.

"Hehehe..." Yuri's laugh was cut short as the group heard an unusual noise of a telephone ringing. It came from an open office just shortly ahead of them which got Kan'u unsettled.

"What is that?"

"Someone's making a call… but who could it be? Isn't this place abandoned?" This puzzled Noel. "Should we answer it?"

"What if it's a trap?" asked Nagata.

Motoharu gave an annoyed grunt. "Look, we're not going to get any answers by standing here and arguing. Let's just answer the phone and see what happens. Yuri, please be on standby to bail me out in case things get hairy."

"Roger!" With that settled, Bujin Gaim went on ahead and just as he picked up the phone inside the office, a loud voice boomed from the other side where everyone outside could hear.

"Hello, hello? Please tell me that I got someone intelligent and not a mindless Inves."

Thank goodness that the voice spoke as soon as he lifted the receiver only a little bit. Otherwise, his ears might have been blown out. "… uh, who are you?"

"Oh, thank goodness! Wait right there!"

Just as soon as the voice said that, the phone line went dead and specks of light erupted from the top of the receiver and reassembled themselves into a body right in front of the other party members. Once the light died down, they could all see his form.

This guy looked like an android of sorts. He had a blue 'bodysuit' with grey armour that covered certain areas like a Metal Heroes costume. There were parts that covered the feet, the shins, the thighs, the pelvis, the upper torso, the hands and the arms. Golden lines were running along those armour bits like the Photon Blood paths used in the Faiz suits. As for his head, it definitely had an alien shape and was longer at the end, somewhat resembling the Roswell alien. It too was covered by the grey armour and had golden lines running along the side with the occasional pink stone to serve as a conduit. Finally, his eyes consisted of blue optics while his face mask seemed to have a permanent smile on it.

"That was definitely magic there," murmured Yuri as Sasaki came up behind her and rejoined the team. "Who exactly are you?"

"The name's Zan'el. You're a fellow magic user too, little missy? Then let's get along!"

'Zan'el… why is that name kinda familiar?' thought Nagata to himself.

The alien began to pace around. "Anyways, I would rather not waste any time here. I would like to ask all of you for a favour. You see, I have some new shells I want to test out and with your assistance, I can get some proper evaluation results!"

"Shells…? What do you mean by that? What are you looking to have us do?" asked Sachiko, feeling a bit weary of this being.

"Hm… we have a total of seven people here and that means some excess," muttered Zan'el to himself before clapping his hands once. "Okay, this is how we're going to do this."

"Are you even listening?!" exclaimed Kan'u, annoyed that her offspring was ignored.

"Not really. Now, you two Chinese busty ladies and orange guy there can be one unit. After all, a family that fights together stays together." Just as he said that, he snapped his fingers, causing orbs of light to circle around the trio before they vanished from sight, much to Claude's shock.

"Where did they go?!" He began digging out for his own Teleport Ring while Zan'el continued.

"The blood orange guy and his magical loli girlfriend-"

Yuri blushed at the idea while Sasaki shouted angrily. "I'M AN ACCOUNTANT, NOT A PEDOPHILE!"

"Yeah, whatever. You two will work fine together for the other shell." In a flash, Zan'el teleported the two elsewhere before the smaller girl could react quickly and counter his spell with her own magic. He then turned towards Noel and Claude. "As for you two…"

Both of them stiffened, ready for battle.

"You just need to wait outside until the tests are finished. Seriously, don't try getting back in here for a while because I'll know and I'll have to throw you out again." Before they could move, he snapped his fingers and they found their surroundings changed from standing in an office corridor to crashing against solid pavement.

"Ugh…" Claude groaned once as his vision came back to him. As soon as he got up, he spotted Noel since she was obviously the only one beside him at the moment. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," replied the magician girl while looking aroun, seeing that they were now in an empty parking lot in front of a plant infested warehouse. They could spot the Tower they were previously at in the distance. "Damn… looks like we have to make our way back. And without being detected by that Zan'el jerk from earlier!"

"Zan'el? That's a name I haven't heard from in a while," said a male voice from behind the duo. They both turned around to see a figure exiting the plant infested warehouse, looking awfully similar to the Kamen Rider Fifteen form Sasaki took earlier when sparring against Claude during the first visit to that store. He even wielded a similar looking weapon. The difference was his colour scheme and the fact that he had a cape on his back.

"You are…?" Sorcerer kept up his guard, just in case.

"Kamen Rider Maja," came the reply as he stuck his sword in the ground so he could have both hands available for gesturing. "You must be Claude… and you are Noel. Old friends of Adam's, right?"

The young lady looked shocked at how the stranger knew her. "How do you know about us?"

"Because I'm right here," chimed in another male voice as he emerged from behind Maja.

"Adam?! You look…!" There wasn't a word that came to Noel's mind to describe the appearance of the male in front of her. His physical build more or less remained the same and he wore the same civilian clothes but his complexion seemed far less healthy. His skin was paler than his normal colour and his hair was out of place while there were dark blemishes located under his eyes. As for the eyes themselves, red rings were spreading out from around the cornea, topping his deranged look.

"You two are by yourselves? Where are the other two girls?"

"They're… elsewhere," said Claude, now feeling more apprehensive about things.

"Ah… I guess this works out," quietly mumbled the unhealthy looking young male.

"So what are you going to do? If I'm not mistaken, you used to be a travelling companion of theirs. Will you fight them? They can probably prove to be a better test compared to those Inves earlier," mentioned the skeletal Rider while Adam reached in his pocket and retrieved a blue object before putting it against his waist and letting it strap on automatically. At the front was an opening that could allow a small object to be fitted in while a stylish looking 'R' was located at the central section of the buckle.

"Unlike that Symbolic Joker, they didn't abandon me by choice. That's why I won't draw this test out more than I have to."

This earned a brief chuckle from Adam's companion. "Heh… it's your call."

"What happened to your original gear?" asked Claude while wondering what was with that new piece of equipment.

"It became useless. You see, the Zeronos cards draw power from the memories of those who knew the future Adam in that one particular timeline and story," explained Maja, turning his attention back to the pair. "When that timeline's author declared the story dead, time could no longer move forward naturally in that world. The dead timeline came to the attention of a Sweeper who moved forward to destroy it. Now, there are virtually no timeline memories of Adam for him to use the Zeronos cards and transform properly with the Zeronos belt. Hell, if you want to be technical, there are virtually no memories on the other side to sustain this character's original incarnation."

"W-what?" This was all very confusing to Noel.

"To be fair though, some memories still linger in the original author's mind but those will get shoved aside and forgotten as he makes new memories based on his current interests."

None of what Maja just said made any sense to Sorcerer. All he could do at this moment was to try and understand things one step at a time. "Sweepers? I… I don't get it."

"Sweepers are what I refer to as a natural destructive force that destroys worlds forgotten by the audience on the other side. But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about treasure instead… specifically, Adam's brand new trinket we found in the former America when we dug around this world a bit." The glee could clearly be picked up from Maja's tone.

"Treasure? You call that treasure?!" To Noel, treasure was gold, diamonds and jewels. The stuff found in a pirate's treasure chest.

"Indeed. It was located in a secret lab of some gaijin scientist named Harley Hendrickson. I honestly thought that this would have been detected by the guardians of this Forest and confiscated for safe keeping."

"Guess they were too focused on what was in the Tower," murmured Noel to herself.

"Oh, well." Maja gave a shrug before continuing. "The Driver was already mostly completed along with the Bikes. All it needed was a tweaking to be fully useable. Thankfully for us, Lady DIVA was kind enough to do from long distance."

"And the best part is that this particular Driver is one of my author's current interests from what I was told." Adam shifted the panel on the right side of his belt upwards to allow insertion of an object, causing a standby tune to start playing. "Since I doubt I will have a chance to truly confront that Joker bastard face to face, I'll have to settle for this."

"What do you mean?" asked Claude quietly.

"Searching and destroying everything in these universes that made Joker happy." The other male simply held up a small white motorcycle key in his hand before inserting it inside. "Done at Mach speed of course."

SIGNAL BIKE!

The theme music from the belt changed to a livelier circus song before Adam spoke again...

"Henshin."

… and pushed down the panel.

RIDER: MACH!

With that, the transformation started while a final riff started playing from the Driver. A ring of energy formed around him before forming a mainly white and black bodysuit resembling what a motorcyclist would wear with blue panels on the legs. There were red stripes that went up the middle-left portion of his suit, and on the centre of his Innovate Visor faceplate for his V-Helm. His right arm resembled a motorcycle. There was also a small miniature tire, which had a blank white rim that rested on his right shoulder. A gold stamp that contained the same stylish "R" logo in black was stamped on top of his stripes.

Maja grabbed his sword from the ground while Claude and Noel readied themselves for a battle. "Let's get this little test started… Kamen Rider Mach!"

"… Roger that."

So Adam is back but not quite the same as before. If you want to blame someone, blame Symbolic Joker for dropping his Monster Girl crossover :P

Another Compati Hero villain gets the intro. This time, it's Zan-el, the final boss from Great Battle II. A snapshot of his head is posted at...

Photobucket Dot Com

user/nemesisalpha1/media/zan-el_ .html?sort=3&o=0