A Familiar Face

"Uh…." Five looked down and saw a hand gripping the handle of a knife.

The knife that had found its way into his stomach.

Blood began to drain out from the wound and drip down to the floor. The scientists around him cowered back as far as they could.

"T-that's the high rank that got out! Subject 0305!" One of the scientists yelled out to Five, who was currently in a state of disbelief.

"What…what the hell man…" Five looked up at his assailant that wielded the knife. He had white hair that was spiky and stood straight up. He was very tall and had a slender frame. He looked to be around Two's age. There were various tattoos on his arms and legs, but the thing that caught Five's attention the most was all the stitch marks on his skin - there were a few on his face and others in various spots across his limbs and torso. He wore a pair of shorts but nothing else.

"W-wait…you're…you're a human?" Five stammered out as the pain was beginning to set in. He was afraid to try to pull away from the knife in fear of it making his wound worse.

The assailant stared at him and then grinned smugly. "Come onnnn, do you think I would be down here if I was just 'human'?"

He yanked the knife out of Five's chest. "AHHHH!" Five screamed out. The stranger then lifted one of his long legs and kicked Five away, causing him to slam into a terminal near the scientists.

He flipped the knife a few times in his hand and looked around. "I truly can't put into words how great it feels to be here with all of you right now. It really is quite amazing." He looked to Five who was busy trying to apply pressure to his stomach so he didn't bleed out. "You wouldn't understand since you get to run around on missions with all your little friends. I and some of my fine friends still locked up don't get to see nothing except the inside of our little cells. Well. Sometimes, if we're good, they take us to a different room where they perform even more exciting experiments on us. Painful. Very painful. But, exciting nonetheless."

"Who the hell….who are you?!" Five asked.

He looked at Five as if pondering whether he should actually answer or not.

"Oh I can't do that. It'll spoil the surprise! You can just call me….Leo."

"Ok…Leo." Five held out his hand. Leo suddenly looked down at his knife as he felt a weird tug on it.

Static shot off from the knife and caused Leo to let go of it. It flew across over to Zero's outstretched hand.

Leo looked from his hand to the Five who now held his weapon. "Oh. Nice trick."

Five sneered. "Yeah, I thought so. Sorry pal, I don't know what they've been doing to you down here, but you don't stand a chance against a hybrid like me."

Leo only smiled at Five's words.

"Wanna see my trick now?"

"Huh?"

Leo held up a single finger out in front of him. Five looked at him confused. What's he planning? He thought to himself.

That's when Five felt his ponytail brush against his back some. He ignored it at first but then it continued to happen. "What?" His jacket was also moving just a little as if there was a breeze.

That's impossible, he thought as he checked behind him. There's no wind coming in from outside down here. But what is making this breeze..

His eyes shot open and he turned his attention back to Leo.

"Hold on, are you-"

"Too late." Around Leo's finger was a tiny little ring of wind that was visible to the naked eye. He then raised it up high, his finger pointed towards the ceiling.

"Winds of Change."

*WHOOOOSHHHHHHHHHH!!*

A giant gust of wind erupted from around Leo and blew out in all directions. It was strong enough that Five was blown off his feet and thrown backwards.

Not far away, Three was blown sideways onto the ground. She had to lay flat to avoid being blown any further. "What is this?! Feels like a hurricane!"

Four hugged onto the door frame so that he didn't get thrown down into the stairwell.

Zero and Haji, who had just put a stop to another Reaper roaming around, were thrown forward onto the ground as the wind hit them from behind.

"What the hell?!" Zero yelled out as the wind drowned out any other noises in the room with its powerful gust.

Haji used his arms to protect his head. "This better not be what I think it is!'

After a brief interval the winds subsided. All the fires had been put out and the haze from the smoke was completely gone. Anything not welded to the floor had been knocked over and scattered everywhere.

The members of Midnight Squad picked themselves up from the ground. They could all now see each other with the wind clearing out the room.

Zero turned around and saw Leo standing further away in the room.

"Who is that guy?"

Three was also curious. "I have no clue…were they experimenting on civilians down here?"

Haji was the only one that didn't seem curious. If anything he seemed shocked.

"Wait, where did Five go?" Zero asked as he looked around the room.

A bloody hand reached up from behind the terminal near Leo and grasped the top of the table it sat upon. Five pulled himself up, now covered in a few new scratches. Behind him the scientists were laid out on the floor unconscious.

"Five!" Three called out as he made his appearance.

Leo smiled as Five made his way over the table. "Soooo. Did you like my surprise? Pretty cool right?"

"So, you're like…like us then?" Five said.

Zero's eyes widened as Five came into full view. "He's hurt." They could now all see his blood stained undershirt.

"Oh if only you knew the half of it, kid."

"Four!" Haji suddenly yelled out. "Shut him down, NOW!"

Four perked up and prepared himself.

"Not so fast there." Leo quickly raised his finger towards the weakened Five. "Anyone try to do whatever 'shut him down' means and I blow a hole right through your friend Five here."

Four stopped in his tracks before activating his ESP.

"Yeahhh that's more like it." Leo said. He then peeked over his shoulder behind him at Haji and Zero. "Well well. Sgt. Sadiki. Not exactly at the top of the list of faces I wanted to see when I got out of here."

"..."

Zero looked at the now silent Haji. Wait, Haji knows this guy? He thought. More importantly…was he the one that created that wind just now?

Leo looked back to Five. "Now, you're gonna be my insurance while I make my ascent out of this hell hole. Cool?" Five didn't respond.

Leo looked back over his shoulder at Haji. "We'll have to catch up another time-" He stopped as his eyes shifted around the area behind him.

"Wait a minute. Wasn't there another guy with you?"

Haji looked to his side and saw that Zero was gone.

"Bustershot!" Leo shot back to attention just in time to see Zero in front of him with his fist reared back.

How did he get in front of me?! Leo desperately thought. Right before Zero's fist hit him, Leo's eyes focused in on the number on Zero's jacket.

*BAM!!*

Zero's fist connected with the side of Leo's face and he was sent flying across the room and straight into a wall. *THUD*

Leo's eyes were chalk white as he rebounded off the wall and collapsed onto the floor.

Nobody said anything for a moment as the situation was being processed in everyone's mind.

Then Five let out a big sigh, "Phewww. Thanks for the save there, Z….ugh." Five fell to one knee.

"Five!" Zero turned around and ran to his fallen friend.

Five gave a weak smile. "No big deal. His knife didn't go too deep…but it still hurts pretty fucking bad."

Zero put his arm around Five and helped him back to his feet.

"Alright, we should probably make sure no one else can get out. Sgt?"

Haji hadn't moved from his spot. Quite the opposite actually - he had both his pistols at the ready and pointed towards Leo's body.

Three walked closer over to Haji. "What's going on here, sir? If he was the one that did all that just now…is he a hybrid like us?"

"We can talk another time. Right now, we need to seal off this room. Four, head upstairs and alert Two and One that we need them down here immediately."

Five chimed in, "But sir, Z here just leveled that guy. I don't think he's getting back up from that. At least not today."

"Oh, but I would disagree!" Leo called out happily as he looked up from the floor at everyone else.

"What?!" Zero yelled out. That was my strongest move and I could feel him take it. It's not like against the Major General. So how?? Zero thought to himself.

Leo got up on his hands and knees. "Oh, do believe that your little punch knocked me into next week. But its gonna take a bit more than that in my case."

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

Haji shot off several shots at Leo, using the special rounds that can penetrate even a Reaper's tough skin.

Leo quickly elevated himself off the ground using a gust of wind to avoid the bullets.

"So he is a hybrid!" Three exclaimed.

Leo then stood straight up while in the air, using his ability to keep him afloat as wind circled all around him. He looked down on all of them with a smug face.

"Well then. Now that I have your attention, who's going to tell me why that kid over there is wearing Zero's jacket?"