Weisz's encounter with a strange object led to him meeting Casey Aster of the Eclipse Ark. The two men did not introduce themselves properly to one another at all. Weisz detected a strange power from the fragment he found, and suddenly Casey appeared demanding what Weisz found. Weisz was no fool and he didn't trust this stranger at all. So a fight was inevitable, but Weisz was not expecting his Arsenal suit to be copied, so he stood in shock. "What the…?! Who the hell are you!?"

"Hand over the fragment and I'll tell you. Last chance." Casey said while assuming a stance. He was using this time to familiarize himself with the copied Arsenal suit.

"Not a chance. Hermit, we have…!" Weisz immediately realized the Eden Zero's coms were dead.

While Weisz was distracted, Casey rushed forward. The size of his mechanical forearm increased and he threw it at Weisz's armored chest. He completely copied the Metallica Explosion. It was a direct hit and Arsenal was sent flying back, but he landed in a crouched position after sustaining some damage. "Don't bother trying to call for backup. My crewmate has already cut your communications. It's just you and me."

"Alright then…" Weisz slowly picked himself up, smoke waving from his body after that explosion. So this guy wasn't working alone? Interesting. That was something for later. It was time to fight back. He reconfigured the forearm of his suit into a cannon. "Drum Buster!" From that cannon, an explosive blast shot forth towards Casey.

Casey used Arsenal's repertoire to his advantage. "Grandy-Ray!" He said while producing a laser from his forearm plating. The laser and the explosive blast met and erupted in a shockwave that created a thick cloud of smoke. With such a thick plume in front of him, Casey watched it carefully.

Weisz intentionally waited a few seconds before waiting his move. Before the smoke thinned out, he emerged directly in front of Casey with his forearm reared back, a blade-like wing appearing along his limb. "Grandee Wing!" He managed to land a slash across Casey's chest. The armored plating of the opposing Arsenal withstood the hit, but it was still scarred deeply. It was weird going against his own armor, but he knew its own shortcomings! Weisz turned around for a second hit, but his incoming elbow was held by Casey.

"This battle has only just begun, and I can see the type of fighter you are." Casey stated.

"You don't know anything about me, asshole!" Weisz grunted angrily. He was going to use his free hand to enact another Mortal Crash, but Casey grabbed his wrist with his free hand, keeping Weisz stuck in place.

"Your own physical ability is lacking, but you make up for it with this suit. Building something like this is impressive, but just like its creator…" Casey brought his knee into Weisz's stomach. Even though his armor, he felt that. In fact, the armor cracked and he doubled over slightly. "It's lacking." Casey returned the favor from earlier, enacting his own Mortal Crash to consume Weisz.

"GAH!" Weisz grunted while he was consumed by the explosion. The resulting damage was the upper left side of Arsenal being destroyed, exposing part of his body. "Damn….what the hell is going on…? Who is this guy..!?"

.

.

Ano got most of what he wanted from slithering through the Eden's Zero's network. He obtained some interesting files, but he was far from able to uncrack anything encrypted. As much as he hated to admit it, not only were those files near impossible access, the moment he tried he'd be spotted. So in the meantime, he was watching Casey's encounter with Weisz and grinning to himself. "Heh, the look on that guy's face is priceless." His yellow eyes gleamed with impish delight. "That's the same look everyone has when they encounter the Captain. His Ether Gear, Adaptability, lets him copy anything he can get his hands on. It allows for some interesting stuff, and that's why we call him the Adaptive Captain. There's no situation he can't get out of.…hey, Captain! Send me the specs of that suit! I'm curious."

"Sure." Casey replied mid fight. It wasn't as if he was having any difficulty with Weisz. It only took a few seconds anyway.

"Ooooh…" Ano rubbed his hands together. "Very nice… I like this. It doesn't look like anything super dangerous to you, but don't let your guard down. These guys at the Eden's Zero can Overdrive too!"

"That so? They won't be a problem then." Casey responded.

"Just make it quick, alright? I shut down their coms, but they're gonna notice a fight taking place. They're all on that planet, and while I'm sure you can take them…" Ano trailed off.

"We're not here to be spotted, I know. I'll be done in a few minutes." That was Casey's last transmission.

With his job done, Ano kicked back in his seat, reporting to the others among the ship. "Let's get ready to depart! The Captain will be back soon with the prize in tow! Wait…what?!" He suddenly jolted up from his seat in surprise. "They found me already!?"

Hermit appeared on the screen, giving an angry smile towards Ano. "I finally found you! You thought you could slither your way through the Eden's Zero and get away with it? I don't think so!"

"Hah?" Ivry was leaning over Hermit's shoulder, giving Ano a curious stare. "The one who tried to hack us is a kid? That's pretty naughty. And naughty boys like him need to be punished." The masochist android licked her lower lip.

"W-What the…?" Ano felt a chill crawl up his spine. That tone Ivry took was not a pleasant one. "Crap…" So much for relaxing.

"I found several of your snakes lurking in our network, so I took the liberty of deleting them." Hermit explained. As she said this, numerous dead serpents appeared in the network of the Eclipse Ark. "Tracing those snakes back to you is going to be really easy, you know."

"It'll only take her a few seconds~" Ivry's gaze was becoming more and more sadistic with each passing second. It was very clear she had some terrible ideas in store for Ano if she got her hands on him. "So why don't you be a good boy and fess up? I'll go easy on you!"

Ano quickly pushed himself back into his seat. "Not a chance, creep!" His eyes flashed as the serpentine lines appeared along his face again, sending more 'snakes' into the Eden's Zero's network to distract Hermit. "Damn, they're onto this! I didn't think they'd be able to find me so quickly! These guys really are dangerous…" Ano thought to himself. It was a good thing the others on the ship were already making preparations to leave. "Captain! We have a problem! They're onto us already!"

.

.

Weisz was still fighting Casey with everything he had, even if this battle wasn't in his favor. Weisz did have a slight advantage in his favor, but he would save that for his trump card. The two lunged at each other, Weisz having no choice but to use his right arm because the left side of Arsenal was damaged. He and Casey clashed with a few Grandee Wings, sparks flying in all directions. "You can still back down. I would recommend it." Casey said calmly.

"I'd rather lose." Weisz replied with a growing smirk. He jumped back, but he didn't expect Casey to pursue him.

"So be it." Casey said while manifesting a sword from the Arsenal suit he was using. He swung it down on Weisz, who used his armored right arm to block it. Still, that sword cut the armor and dug slightly into his flesh.

"You said it." Weisz's smirk widened and his right forearm increased in size. "Metallica Explosion!" With this range, he couldn't miss. There was another explosion when he forced his arm forward, catching Casey in the midst of it all. Casey was forced to slide backwards, the right side of his Arsenal helmet completed shattered and he had a few burns on his face. "Hah, wasn't expecting that were ya?"

"You're not bad. But I'm better." Casey admitted. At that moment, numerous ether marks appeared on Weisz's armor.

"What-!?" Weisz's eyes widened.

"Those blows we exchanged earlier. I put your trick to better use." Casey said while snapping his fingers. "Mortal Crash." Weisz lit up in a flurry of explosions, his Arsenal armor breaking apart in the process.

"GAAAAH!" Weisz exclaimed as he fell to a knee. Casey clearly had no intentions of killing him but subduing him. The machina maker wasn't sure if that stung worse than the loss…his body hurt so much he couldn't muster Overdrive at the moment.

He was prepared to put an end to this, but two things happened: first, he realized that Arsenal was absolutely terrible when it came to fuel economy, at least the way he was using it; secondly was when Ano frantically contacted him. "Tch…they found you? Alright. I have no choice…" Just as he said that, a rocket fist flew towards him. He was able to avoid it.

"Weisz!" Kleene exclaimed. She, Pino, Laguna, and Jinn were closing in, finally catching up to him. "Are you alright?"

"Just some wounded pride…" Weisz grunted.

"Who are you?" Jinn turned towards Casey, he and Laguna prepared to take action. A crew mate of theirs was hurt and they were ready to exact revenge.

"Answer quickly." Laguna said.

"…Casey Aster." Casey said as he let his Arsenal armor break apart and fall off. He was done with it. His gaze went towards the fragment that Weisz secured. How unfortunate. "And I don't have business here anymore."

"That's not for you to decide, considering the state of our friend here." Jinn stated with a glare.

"I think you have more important things to deal with right now. Ano, restore their communications." Casey said.

"Hey! Are you guys alright!?" Hermit asked, finally getting through to the others.

"We will be in just a second." Jinn prepared to strike Casey, but a beam of light shrouded the captain of the Eclipse Ark. In a split second, he was gone. "Damn…"

"He's gone, just like that…" Weisz grunted. Kleene helped him onto his feet. "Casey Aster? Who the hell was that guy."

"We can worry about that later. I need everyone to report in." Hermit said.

"We're here with Weisz!" Pino reported.

"I'm on my way back to the ship! Is everyone okay?" Shiki asked.

There was some silence…

"Rebecca and Homura aren't picking up…" Hermit said.

"Guys…we have a problem…!" Now that their coms were restored, Happy could finally panic about the situation they were in…

.

.

Everyone gathered back to the Eden's Zero to discuss and summarize the events that took place on Iceberg. Rebecca, Weisz, and Happy were being treated in the infirmary by Ivry. The others sat around the infirmary as well, waiting for Rebecca to eventually wake up. "Rebecca will be fine." Ivry said. "She just needs to sleep this off. She had a nasty bump on her and it knocked her unconscious."

"That's good…" Shiki was sitting by Rebecca's bedside, relieved that she was confirmed to wake up soon. He then turned to Weisz, who was wrapped in bandages. "Weisz, are you okay? What happened?" Shiki was pretty out of the loop due to his location on the planet at the time. It was as good a time as anyway to regroup.

"I found some strange black meteorite." Weisz said. "Some guy named Casey showed up and demanded it. I didn't think it was a good idea, so we had a fight and…" Weisz grit his teeth and shook his head. The result was pretty clear.

"Hermit is currently analyzing that fragment. It shouldn't be long until we find out what it is." Ivry said with a slight nod. "It also seems like whoever this Casey guy is, he was allied with the one who shut down our communication temporarily. Hermit managed to hack him back, of course, but they fled the scene before she could fully track them down. That kid wasn't half bad, I'll give him that. But I'd still love to get my hands on him."

"I feel a chill crawl up my spine when you say things like that…" Kleene shuddered. Ivry was a little scary sometimes. "But what about Homuran?"

"It was so sudden…" Everyone looked in Happy's direction when he spoke. "After we were done with the factory's core, an android named Waltz showed up. He was the one in charge of the planet, but he took out the skeleton army in charge and took his parts for himself. Homura and Rebecca fought so hard…they almost had him! But he turned the tables on all of us. Rebecca got knocked out and he just…walked off with Homura…I couldn't do anything…"

"What's going on here? Was this planned?" Laguna questioned. There were far too many questions.

Shiki placed his hand on Happy's head, giving him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Happy. We'll get Homura back." His tone was firm and resolute. Shiki also had many questions. They were able to succeed in liberating another planet, but so many things popped up in the process. Homura's kidnapping, the fragment Weisz found, Casey's appearance and the hacker. Were they all connected somehow, or was this merely all some sort of coincidence? Either way, one thing was clear. They had to get Homura back.

This was only just the beginning….