*1 week later*

Two and Zero stood in the center of the training room together.

Two had his arms crossed in a stern manner as he looked down at Zero, who wore a pair of shorts and his usual gray undershirt. He was drenched in sweat and his breathing was slightly labored.

"Huff..huff…huff…"

"You almost had it that time. Now, once more."

He's trying to kill me, Zero thought as he tried to regain his focus.

"Ok. Ok." Zero recomposed himself and took a deep breath.

A white aura began to emit around the top of his body and slowly spread to the rest of him.

"That's it..keep it going.." Two said as he watched on.

Zero could feel the vibrating sensation radiating throughout his entire body. It was akin to the sensation of when one of your legs fell asleep and was trying to wake back up. That's what his entire body felt like.

"Ok, I think I've got it." Zero said. He took controlled breaths while he kept his focus razor sharp. The aura now outlined his full body.

"Good. Let's move on to the next phase then." Two held up the remote that he had been holding in his hand. There were several buttons of various colors. He pressed the blue one.

*vnnnnnnnn*

A panel in one of the walls opened up. Suddenly a metal ball the size of someone's head quickly shot out and headed straight towards Zero.

"Keep your cool. Control it!" Two shouted.

The ball *whizzed* right past Two.

Zero held up a single palm as if to attempt to catch the ball. The ball slammed into his hand and then BOOM!

There was a bright flash of light and then an explosion of dispelled energy. Zero was sent flying backwards and skidded to a stop not far from the opposite wall.

Two stood with one arm shielding his face but remained in the center of the room.

As the dust settled, Two lowered his arm and saw Zero in the distance as he picked himself up slowly from the ground.

"Sigh. Well that makes failure number 15." Two stated.

"Damn it!" Zero punched the ground in frustration.

He's getting closer though, Two thought to himself. Sadiki and the Major General want him to develop the 'Bustershot' so that it covers his entire body. This would make for not only a formidable attack but a near perfect defense. But…as it stands the more of his body it spreads it to the more his control weakens. So once he touches something the whole thing just unravels. I just need to keep pushing him while he's weakened. If he can do it then, he can do it anytime. The perfect combination of offense and defense - The Distortion Cloak.

Ever since they returned from their mission, Two has taken Zero's training much more seriously. Haji saw the golden opportunity when Zero developed the Bustershot - a move that takes the time distortion and cloaks just part of his body allowing him for even higher levels of speed. Even Two realized that if Zero could manage to pull off the Distortion Cloak, he would be taking huge steps into entering a league of his own.

But that was still a ways off it seemed.

Two walked over to Zero. "How's your arm?"

He held up his arm and it was noticeably shaking. "It's not so bad right now. The shaking should go away soon."

Prior to practicing the Distortion Cloak, they had been testing out the limits of the Bustershot. Zero was able to successfully fire off two in a row before the side effects started setting in. The muscles in the arm he used would start cramping up and convulsing; that's when the shaking would set in and he would lose quite a bit of strength in that arm.

It was decided that two a day was his limit. Anything beyond that would potentially bring on even worse side effects. Or even permanent.

Up above in the balcony, Four sat out of view watching them train. Since the night they returned from the mission, Four and Zero hadn't spoken much since then. Not because Four held some type of grudge - more so that he was a super introvert that took a long time to warm up to someone. He was still interested to learn more about the new Zero however - so he took to snooping and spying instead of a conversation.

Meanwhile, One and Five were spending some time together outside the base.

One was surprisingly an avid archery enthusiast. As a favor, Haji had an archery course set up in a further out part of the abandoned city that surrounded Alpha Base within the walls. On downtime, One would often come out by himself and shoot for hours sometimes.

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Today however, he brought Five along with him.

One wore two arm braces to protect from any whiplash from the bow as well as a shoulder guard. On his back was his quiver that held all of his arrows.

He stood on the edge of a 5 story building that had been destroyed and the top half now laid sideways on the ground at a slant. He notched one of his arrows and pulled back on the bowstring. A low *beeping* sound could be heard coming from the notched arrow. Each one of One's arrows had a small device in the middle that emitted a beeping sound so that One could find and collect the arrows on his own when he was done.

Five was sitting behind him watching.

"You see Five, archery is not a sport of heightened emotions. It's about tranquility. Quieting your thoughts. A calm, quiet, fire burning within."

He pulled back just slightly more on the bow string.

"It's about being relaxed, yet remaining alert. Allow the mind to control the body and block out any distraction. With all your senses, visualize the arrow hitting the target. See, smell, hear and feel it. You have to feel the shot. Even without sight, I can sense the target in the darkest of voids."

One released the bow string and the arrow shot out with the most peculiar of sounds.

It split through the air and hit a target board with a *thump* that was set up on the ground level amidst a pile of rubble. The target was easily 50 yards away.

One smiled as he heard the all too familiar sound of the arrow sinking into the target. "And that's what you should be thinking about in your training. Not every ability is mastered with a heated mind and force of effort. Your skill, 'Lightning Round', is more complex than some of ours so you need to approach it with tranquility and not be afraid to surrender yourself over to it. Otherwise you'll never master it."

Five stood up and stretched. "I hear you, Captain. It's just…I'm not that kinda guy. I'm more of the pound away at it with blood, sweat, and tears until I have a breakthrough at the last minute! You know, basic hero stuff."

One sighed. "Well, everyone has their own way of doing things I suppose. But while the old school way of training till you puke is impressive, it's not always the best way. Take Two for example. He creates and manipulates fire. Someone would think that he's the hot head on the team."

"Literally speaking."

"But you would be wrong. Two is the ace because of his ability to remain calm in high stress situations. He's only as strong as he is because he worked so hard on his mental training. Otherwise he would've never controlled something as wild and untamed as fire."

Five rolled his eyes. "Alright, I get it Captain. I'll…be more on top of my mental training."

"Glad to hear it." One smiled. "Now, let's go retrieve that arrow and move on to the next target. We have to keep moving if we wanna get to the other 10 today."

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Up on the 4th floor of Alpha Base, Haji was busy frantically turning over everything in his office.

"Where the hell is it…"

He flipped over some folders on his desk and threw them on the ground when he didn't see what he was searching for. He went through each of his desk drawers and pulled out all of their contents. But still he couldn't find it.

*knock* *knock*

"Gimme a break…come in!"

The door swung open as Three walked into the office. "Bad time, sir?"

"No, just come in and shut the door behind you." He barked.

Three shut the door and walked further into the room. "You needed something?"

Haji was so rustled that he completely forgot that he called for Three as well as what he had even called her for. Anyways, he could use her help with something different.

"Um, yes. You haven't happened to see…my key card lying around have you?"

"The red one?"

"Yes, the only key card I have."

"Hmm. No, I haven't."

"Gah! How could I have lost it?! I never lose anything. I keep an amazing organization system to prevent this very thing from happening."

Three took a seat and decided to not try to stoke the flames. "Where was the last place you had it, Sgt?"

"I think like 2 days ago. No idea how I went without noticing until now."

"I can keep an eye out for it. I'll let the others know-"

"No!" Three jumped a little from Haji's raised voice. "No. You can't tell the others about this."

"But, sir..wouldn't it be easier with more eyes looking for it?"

"You don't understand, Three. That key card gives some high level access to the base. If someone were to find it and use it…let's just say that you guys wouldn't be seeing much of me 'round here anymore."

"O-ok. I won't tell anyone."

"Good. If you find it or hear anything about it, let me know ASAP. I don't care what time it is."

As the day waned on and night settled in, most soldiers not on duty were getting ready for a good night's sleep. An alarm could sound at any time of the night so it was always best to get early rest if possible.

The same goes for Midnight Squad. Most of their days were spent training or going on deadly missions, so they wasted no time in relaxing and getting rest at the end of the day. The common area and gym were clear - most everyone was in their room at this point.

Most.

There was one person walking briskly down the hall leading away from the bedrooms. The lights were off in the hallway so they were concealed by the darkness.

To get to different floors in Alpha Base you would need to use the elevator. It openly goes to most floors except for the 2 highest level floors and the 2 lowest sublevels. A person would need special access to access those floors.

However, there is also an emergency staircase.

If someone was to enter the stairwell, they could theoretically have free access to any floor since it spans to every level of the base. Due to this there is a security lock on the outside of every door leading to the stairwell on each floor. The only way to bypass it and access the stairs is to have high enough clearance.

The figure moving in the darkness was heading straight for the door leading to the stairs on the 2nd sublevel.

As they approached the security door, they reached in their pocket and put a card up to the scanner by the threshold. It changed from red to green and a small 'click' could be heard as it unlocked. The person quickly swooped into the door and quietly closed the door behind them.

They walked the length of the stairs up to the ground floor which fed into the lobby.

A soldier happened to be walking by as the door opened up. Seeing as this doesn't happen often, they walked over with their hand near the sidearm on their waist.

"Hey, who's in the stairwell?! It's only to be used in…" The door closed back but no one had come out. "What the?" The soldier walked over to the door and pressed his keycard to the scanner. He then pushed it open but found no one on the other side.

He peeked further down the stairwell. There were a few lights so that it wasn't hard to see if someone was there. But it was completely empty and quiet.

"Maybe a glitch in the system then?.."

What the soldier didn't notice was that the emergency exit on the other side of the ground floor had been opened up and closed back by the time they had come back out of the stair well. It was the only exit on the ground floor that didn't have a bio scanner in place due to needing special clearance to even open the door.

Outside the figure walked away from the base, checking over their shoulder every few steps. As they moved out of the shadow of the base, a bit of light from the moon illuminated their face.

A white mask shrouded within a hood with a crude question mark on it could be seen for a brief moment before the person suddenly vanished altogether from the area.