Garmadon wrapped his arms around his wife's waist and pulled her on top of him. "Two days and dad hasn't found us," he laughed at their little victory, jokingly.
Misako kissed his forehead, "Well… I still want to get actual furniture eventually…"
He sat up, "Hey… we have a table and couch, don't we?"
She laughed and shook her head, "Well… I don't mind your little blanket nests for a bed…" she sat next to him on the couch, holding his hand. "Oh… did I tell you? I got the job…" she smiled.
"At the museum?" he blinked. She nodded, smiling brightly. "That's great," he kissed her again.
"Tomorrow I start my first day as record filer at the Ninjago Natural History Museum!" She had been eyeing the position since just before they were married. Yea she was well off, but she put almost all of the money her parents left her into the wedding and the house alone.
"File keeper? Seems below you…" he raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged, "Yea well, I'll eventually get out of the step above intern…" she laughed. "Believe it or not, they pay really well for their interns".
There was a knock at their door. Misako got up first. She didn't look through the peep hole so she was quite surprised when Namiko, Kasai, and Wu were on her doorstep.
She jumped upon seeing them, "I never gave your our address!" she rubbed her forehead, sighing, "How did you find us?"
"Easy; Garmadon posted a "Stay out we're ninja" sign on the gate to the back yard…" Wu stated in a matter of fact tone. He pointed to the gate.
Misako's green eyes went wide as she rushed out to the gate and sighed loudly, "That man…" she tore it down. "Please tell me Masuta doesn't know we're here yet?"
"Don't worry, we're here because he can't find you and there's been a robbery at the Museum," Kasai folded his arms.
The older woman ran back inside, past Garmadon who jumped to his feet, "Where's the fire!? Who was that?! Was it my dad?!" he followed her into the next room and saw her removing her scythe from the wall rack. "What's that for?"
"I may be a secretary but I'm still a ninja…" she tossed him his gold sword which he fumbled in catching, having it clatter on the hard wood floor.
He picked it up quickly; "Still not following…" he looked the sword over, making sure there weren't any marks.
"That was the others," she ran out again, "We have a thief to catch!" She said it with child-like excitement. Things had gotten pretty slow since the Tosho incident and them moving out.
He quickly followed her out and caught up with the others, "So where are we going exactly?" He looked to his younger brother who was in front of him.
"We're meeting up with Tanaka at the museum!" Wu huffed as he boots hit the sidewalk. "He knows what was taken apparently…"
The five young ninja ran six more, big blocks until they reached the large structure that took up half the block on the main road. The sign above the big, brown doors read "Ninjago Museum of Natural History" and they stepped inside to see Tanaka awaiting them.
"It was this…" Tanaka pointed to the exhibit picture, "A Naginata from the dark ages of Ninjago…" he pressed his pale lips together.
Misako pushed through, almost excited for the fact that an old relic was stolen, "I read all about them at the library back at the monastery," she spoke, "This was a shadow clan that was wiped out completely… or well, at least the whole cult of it… there are still some survivors!"
"Cult?" Namiko squeaked slumping. "Survivors?!"
Misako nodded, "They sacrificed their prisoners to the Overlord before Ninjago was divided… and even after that, they believed if they kept it up, he'd come back to the mainland… they used these and several other types of pole armed weapons… they had that flashy, fake magic… nothing really real… all demonic of course…"
"Well who would want this? I mean… it looks dangerous unless you know how to use it…" Wu scratched the back of his head, curious.
The museum director; and Misako's boss came out, "Well, they most likely was going to steal something else… but the security guards got out of here in time… they may be back again…" he quickly informed them. "I would very much like to have that Naginata back… it was priceless".
The six exchanged glances, "So what? We wait it out until they come back tonight?" Kasai asked.
Garmadon couldn't help but let out a groan. The last thing he wanted was to wait around for a petty thief to try and steal something else dark and foreign, yet there he was, hours later, hiding behind the information desk, ten to one in the morning.
"Holding up okay?" Misako ducked down and winked. "You look tired," she kissed his cheek. He shot her a look but she plopped down next to him on the floor. "Nah… I know what you wanted to do tonight," she turned her body more to him and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't tempt me," he tugged on her braid.
She laughed and shook her head. "You know… you need to learn some self control," she kissed his cheek quickly. "But don't worry, I'll keep yu company behind this lonely desk".
"Where's Misako?" Wu poked his head up from behind the glass cases, groaning obnoxiously. "This is boring…"
Namiko clicked her teeth together and looked around, "I might have a clue-" a loud clatter and the sound of shattering glass was heard, making everybody jump to their feet, and ran to where the sound came from.
Garmadon banged his head on the low shelf in the circular front desk cubicle. "OUCH!" he hissed. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know but grab you weapon," she was the first to roll out, tightening her green belt. She pressed her back against the wall, waiting for Garmadon to silently join her. They both raised the masks over their mouths and flipped their hoods up.
The leader poked one eye around the corner and saw Wu and the others, waiting for her signal. She held a fist up and then moved her hand down, signaling to go.
At one of the displays, shattered glass covered the tiled floor surrounding it. A curvy figure in a black cat suit was picking up a spear with carvings along the wooden shaft with silver ornaments dangling off of it. Misako registered the weapon already on her back was the stolen Naginata. In fact, it was a matching pair of weapons.
"Okay, drop the spear," Misako drew her gold scythe. "We wanna do this the easy way…"
The woman in the cat suit turned her head and laughed, "Sorry? What was that?" she removed her hair cap. Her hair ran down to the back of her knees in black curls, making the boys of the group wonder how all that hair could be pinned up.
From the lighting, the woman's skin looked white and there was a pinkish glint to her cat like eyes.
"Who are you?" Tanaka spun the gold shurakin in his hand.
Her black lips tugged up in a smile, "I'm actually a descendant of this cult… it belongs to me, not a museum!"
"We have these so they don't get used for the intended purposes…" Misako raised an eyebrow. "What's your name?"
"Hatsu… Hatsu Minoko…" she tucked her hair behind her ears, tying it into a ponytail. "I'm just a small time thief right now… maybe you heard of the Black Angel? I derived it from the cult name… Hei Titanshi".
"That means your clan is women dominated right? Titanshi believed that one would be chosen as a bride for the Overlord… your clan thought they could rule with him?" Misako scoffed. It was more rhetorical.
"Well then what are you going to do to us Hatsu? Some of your black magic?" Kasai mocked with a bit of a laugh.
She smirked and her eyes were a bright pink. "You asked for it". She whipped out the Naginata. "Do you know why I am the Black Angel?" she smiled eerily. "If you don't, you'll find out…"
Kasai was the first, his brown eyes glowed the same shade as Hatsu's. It looked like the young ninja was losing control of his body. "I pull his strings… for he thinks I'm someone he trusts… he sees you as the enemy… he cannot see, but he registers your auras as evil…" she laughed, "The Hei Titanshi are the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing".
"Witchcraft…" Garmadon muttered.
Hatsu looked in his direction and smiled, "Yum…" she walked over, "I'd love to put my spell on you," the attractive thief had a strange look in her cerise eyes. "You have the eyes of the cursed… we'd make some set of partners…"
Garmadon didn't know how to respond to that one. "Why has almost every foe we met told me this?"
Misako planted her scythe handle in the ground and used it as her anchor point for the kick that connected to the beautiful girl's temple. She was knocked into the nearest wall, creating an impression on the beige stucko.
The others looked at Misako in surprise at what she had done. The light haired ninja looked surprised herself. Masuta did say that the scythe choose the one with the strongest will, she guessed it brought out some physical strength as well.
After the initial shock she turned her mad face on again, "Stay away from my husband!" she snapped.
Tanaka quickly black flipped, away from Kasai, "Glad she chose one of the weakest of us to attack…" The sharp blades of his shurakins reflected the strong steel katana.
Hatsu was charging back over and Misako charged first before the others could get the chance. She dodged the jab of the spear like weapon and tackled her. "You're not very good…" she scoffed.
"You're husband will be an easy one to control… he has the great venom in his blood… he is the most vulnerable…"she smiled, "And surprisingly the strongest… though you are the master of earth…" The screeching of the spear head on the gold scythe made everyone's ears sting. A pair of small black wings materialized behind her.
The hairs on the back of Misako's neck stood up before the others could scream her name. She dodged and rolled into a standing position, "Garmadon!" she shouted at him.
"The two lover boys are the easiest it seems…" she got up and stretched her back muscles while the others were occupied with Kasai and Garmadon.
Tanaka and Namiko handled Kasai no problem. The other black haired ninja in white and lavender pinned the one in the red orange one down, restraining every movement.
Wu and Misako circled on both sides of the ninja with the gold sword with the savage cerise eyes. Wu took the next charge while Misako hesitated, looking at Hatsu who picked up the spear and started backing away. She looked at Wu and bit her lip, "Go after Hatsu! She's the controller!"
Namiko hesitated, looking down at Kasai and went with him. Knowing Hatsu would surely use Garmadon to defender her, she'd have to distract her husband. Misako rolled her head back, hearing her bones cracking, "Okay sweetie… sorry if I break something…" She used the handle end of the scythe, sure not to hit him with the blade end.
In the meantime, Wu and Namiko used their nunchucks and fans to strike high and low, tiring the thief woman out. She finally was sliced by Namiko's fans across her calves and fell face first to the ground. "Release them," She planted her small foot on her back.
Misako performed a handless cartwheel and back spring, out of the way of the sword swipe by a hair and smacked him across his back twice with the blunt end of the Scythe of Quakes. Hatsu's glowing eyes dulled and the two male ninja under her control collapsed.
"Unconscious…" Tanaka observed.
"She probably won't be able to walk again…" Namiko folded her arms with a proud smile. Hatus whimpered in pain, "Oh don't worry about it, you'll be fine in a year or something".
Namiko's insides were crawling though because of what she did to disable the thief. It had to be done though if she wanted to help Kasai and Garmadon. She shut her fan with a loud 'shing' and walked out first while Misako and Wu tied Hatsu up.
Hatsu is of my own invention because we seriously need more female villains so I figured Hatsu would be a suitable minor villain. I may even have her hook up with Sigan the Time Ninja in the future because "hey let's have some villain fun"
Wow this is about halfway into what I have written already... the next couple of chapters needs some work actually so I might post another in a couple of days depending if I get stuck or not...
~Mar