"Hermit? Hermit!" Geno shook Hermit, who was frozen for multiple reasons. "What's going on? What did that guy say?"
"Must I repeat myself?" Hubert sighed. Even in the midst of a chaotic battle, he could keep his focus on multiple things at once. Now that he had Knight Gears in play, it was taking extra effort from the Eden's Zero, GIU, Elsie, and Ano to keep him at bay. He gave himself plenty of breathing room with his Plan B. "Hermit has been infected with a virus."
"How did you pull that off?" Sister growled.
"She did it to herself." Hubert shrugged his shoulders. "When we fought aboard your ship, she attempted to hack my Runeblade. While her attempt was successful, my weapon has fail safes for that as well. When you hack into something, you are creating an opening for the same to happen to you. While Hermit's opening was exceptionally small, my runeblade was able to initiate a counter hack."
"What did you do to her!?" Geno demanded to know, glaring at Hubert as Hermit continued to tremble.
"Kid, calm down!" Omega warned. He understood why Geno was upset, but he was letting his emotions get the best of him.
"It was a slow working virus. This virus works backwards, destroying a machine's memory from the very beginning. Over the course of the last few days, Hermit's memories have been getting deleted." Hubert explained. "If you are wondering why she failed to detect it, it is because it blended it as one of her systems."
"Just like the virus on Cynthia's ship?" Couchpo realized.
"Good story." Sister said callously, waving her hand to try and use her powers to heal Hermit. However, it didn't work. "Huh...?"
"Your power relies on clearing abnormalities from within. This is not considered an abnormality." Hubert stated with a slightly smug expression. "Hermit is the Mind of Eden's, is she not? That mind is slowly being erased."
"Damn...if Hermit goes down, we lose our plan..." Sister grit her teeth, then looked at Geno and Omega. "You have to save her!"
"I know! I'm going to." Geno nodded. With that, he and Omega transformed into Megaman. But before they could even begin their efforts to go inside of Hermit, an explosion shook the ship. "Gah!?"
"What now!?" Sister groaned.
From the smoke of the door to the bridge, a familiar android appeared: Waltz. Although his form was much larger than before, and his blazing sword was ignited. "So this is the Eden's Zero..."
"What!? You again!?" Sister's eyes were now wide in shock.
"Who is this?!" Geno asked.
"This is a stupid android we fought when we clashed with Jigan for the first time." Sister grit her teeth. "What the hell are you doing here?! How did you even get here!?"
"I followed you." Waltz stated calmly. "...No, that's not quite right. I followed my creator. He's here, on the Black Moon. I knew what happened in the Sakura Cosmos. My creator is about to achieve something glorious, and I've been searching for him for so many years."
"Your creator...?" Couchpo spoke from behind a few chairs.
"My creator: Alexei Alexandrite!" Waltz declared, his blazing sword shining with flames.
"What!? That guy made you...?" Hermit turned around slowly, wincing.
"He made me in his own image when he was younger...but he changed in the span of a single day. He abandoned me without a word, and left his world." Waltz said while closing his eyes. "I must not have been good enough for his vision. That's why I've devoted myself to getting stronger. He was the one who implemented the Ether Scanner into me. That's why, to absorb as many androids as possible, I can become something he is proud of! And luckily for me...two of the strongest androids in the cosmos are right here on this ship!"
"How many androids have you..." Sister began. Waltz was a lot smaller when they last saw him. He wasn't even that big on the Battle of Blue Garden.
"...Not enough." Waltz said with a sickening smile. He was eying Sister and Hermit.
"So that's why you came here..." Geno glared at Waltz, then glanced at Hermit. She was really struggling. "Sister, can you take this clown while I save Hermit?"
"Yeah, save her! You're the only one who can!" Sister said as she transformed into her Battle Dress. "I can take him. Ano! We've got a situation on the Eden's Zero. We really need you to hold off Hubert!"
"What? What's going on there?!" Ano asked over the communication line.
"Ah ah!" Waltz stabbed his sword into the ground, creating a ring of flame around himself, Sister, and Geno! "Nobody's going anywhere!"
Geno attempted to phase through the wall of flames, but he rebounded with a grunt of pain. "What the...!?"
"No radio waves go in and out of this circle." Waltz tilted his head, his smile growing even more manacling. Hermit was outside of the circle, gasping and panting heavily as she felt more and more of her memories deteriorating. "Right now, we're isolated from any and all technology! So sit tight as I turn your android friends into scrap pieces!"
"I...have to..." Hermit turned around to the console, trying to type. But she was forgetting what she had to do, losing her memories as time went on. "What was I...supposed to do...?"
"Hermit..." Geno clenched his hand into a fist. "You saved me once already...so I have to save you now!" He then turned to Waltz, eyes burning with determination. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!"
.
.
"Ano, what's going on with the Zero?" Elsie asked as they continued to fight Hubert. But with the sudden halt of the Eden's Zero, it was clear that something was wrong.
"I don't know!" Ano reported with a sweat drop. "I think something happened that they weren't expecting, so they're held up. Which means we have to deal with this guy a little longer than planned!"
"I wonder how long you were planning to hold out." Hubert spoke while adjusting his glasses. "I don't know what else happened within that ship, but it's clear that the tide of battle will continue to be in my favor. You have no hope of victory."
"The way this guy speaks is really irritating..." Victory grunted. Unfortunately, Hubert was in a position to back it up.
"The way things are going, we won't last long..." Ano said with a sweat drop. "Hermit and I were supposed hack Hubert together. If I try to hack him before she's recovered, it's all over. But can we last long enough for them to fix her...?" Ano was at a loss on what to do. If they couldn't stop Hubert, everything was going to collapse.
Feather was doing what she could to attack multiple ships and Knight Gears. Since her own personal ship was known as the fastest, it was extremely easy for her to maneuver around the enemies that tried to attack her. "Ano. You're hesitating. We don't have time for it. You have to adapt."
"Adapt...easy for you to say, but you're right!" Ano nodded. He couldn't hack Hubert directly, but he did have other means of attack!"
Meanwhile, Hubert was still in his own Knight Gear, doing combat with the Goldstones. Athena and Kamara, operating the Steel Sorcerous and the Warrior Maid attacked Hubert in unison. "We have multiple plans of attack for you anyway, Hubie!" Athena said, swinging the staff forward to release a blast of ice towards Hubert. Hubert dodged to the side, only to have to clash with the sword of the Warrior Maid.
"We will not fail this mission." Kamara stated bluntly, swinging her sword at Hubert over and over. They were met with clashes, sparks flying in space as neither side could overcome the other. They were pushed back, and Hubert extended his free hand forward.
"This is an Order! Attack with all your m-!" Hubert was planning to issue an attack order, but he was bombarded by missiles from Max piloting the Goldstone's ships. They struck directly, but it was unclear if the damage was significant or not. "Attack with all your might." He continued, unfazed.
"Don't act like you can brush this off!" Max exclaimed. But now, the Knight Gears suddenly grew more aggressive in their attacks, putting the Alliance on the backfoot.
"He's upping the intensity to try and overwhelm us." Holy crossed her arms. "I see he intends to make short work of us. But we are not going to be outdone that easily!" Holy was more than capable of pressing the attack to keep up. They had the ships and manpower to do it.
"Sorry I can't do much right now..." Eraser grunted. He was still on recharge. Hubert was able to repel his first shot of Erasure, so he had to recover and make sure the next one hit. While he may be lucky enough to get a second shot off, he knew for a fact there would be absolutely no time for a third.
"Just keep at it!" Cure exclaimed as his ships fired upon the enemy.
Suddenly, a bright streak of golden light shot out from the Skull Fairy. It was Elsie, entering her Overdrive. "We'll need all hands on deck for this. So I'm more than willing to get out there!"
"Princess!" Hyoga and Gowen exclaimed in worry.
"Oh? And just what do you think you're doing?" Hubert noticed Elsie in space, quirking a brow. "While the use of Overdrive can allow one to breathe in space, you run the risk of dying once your Ether runs out."
Before long, it was also Justice who emerged in his Overdrive. "You are well informed. Not many people know about that."
"James? I see you had the same idea." Elsie said with a grin, but Justice wasn't actually looking at her. So, she turned back to Hubert. "You're right. It would be a foolish move to do this under normal circumstances. But luckily for us...there's something with a massive Ether supply that we can supplement ourselves with."
"What?" Hubert was confused for just a moment, but then looked behind him. At that moment...
"STAR DRAIN: BLACK MOON!" Both Elsie and Justice exclaimed in unison. Because the Black Moon was so close, and exuded so much Ether, the two of them were able to absorb it. They donned their usual Star Drain appearances, only there were black lines adoring their outfits. Before Hubert could respond, Elsie and Justice flew through two separate Knight Gears, completely destroying them.
"Well, isn't that something? Cure noted.
"Interesting maneuver. I did not expect you to make that sort of move." Hubert had to praise their efforts. "But at best, you've only managed to buy yourselves a little time. It matters not if you can draw from the Black Moon."
"You sure like to talk a lot." Elsie said with an annoying smile. "As far as I'm concerned, this battle's only just beginning."
.
.
Shiki landed after a long fall. Shortly after he did, a wormhole opened and Casey appeared next to him. "Did it work?" Casey asked.
"Yeah. Everyone's split off and separated the Galactic Elites." Shiki nodded. The two of them then broke into a sprint, wasting no time in their efforts to catch up to Alexei.
"Good. My five minutes with Wormhole are up, so I won't be able to use it again unless I ever come close to Ziggy, but I doubt that." Casey said. He had plenty of other Ether copied at his disposal. He had to. "From this point on, it's you and me. We can't let him beat us again."
"He won't." Shiki said confidently. They couldn't afford to. As they ran forward, they immediately hit a road block. There were even more Galactic soldiers waiting for them, much to their surprise. "There are more...!?"
"Probably to slow us down." Casey said. "They probably had this planned in case we slipped past the Elites."
"They sure think of everything." Shiki said, gravity appearing on his fists. "But they're not going to slow us down even a second! Get out of the way, we're crushing you and Alexei!" No matter what happened, they had to make sure that Alexei's mad plan ended here, today!