Summary: Azalea struggles to move up the ladder in the Shadow Clan.
In the dimly secret lair, the entire Shadow Clan are bowing to the sarcophagus coffin of Lady Shade while being surrounded by a hundred candles.
"In honor of your obedient service..." Nova spoke.
"We bestow upon you the most noble and dignified mark of the Shadow Clan." Luna said.
Luna opened her hand and sent out two glowing black butterflies in the air. One male and female twin trainees smiled smiling widely as the butterflies fused through their faces that made black clan symbols over their eyes.
"Oh yeah!" The twins cheered happily as they gave each other high-fives.
Several other trainees murmured with glory smiles and grins as the new members of the Shadow Clan.
But Azalea watched the clan ceremony with a scorn face.
"How pathetic." Azalea said. She turned Nova and Luna in annoyance. "I thought you made it clear when I was promised the Akuma Rings."
"And once we have retrieved them, the rings will be all yours." Luna said with narrow eyes. "According to the legends, only those who have proven their loyalty can wield the rings' full power."
"I'm fully aware of the legend and I will restore my dominance over those weakling humans!" Azalea said.
"Don't think for a second your threats will get you anywhere, bionic witch." Nova said. "You may be on our good side, but your arrogance won't lead to you conquest that easily."
With an angry glare, Azalea walked out of the lair.
Outside, Azalea sat near the window inside Coffee Le Gume as she was slipping on her coffee.
"So, you came here during your spare time?"
Azalea looked up to meet Shadow Recruit in his punkish civilian attire.
"Let me guess. Your bosses sent you here to keep an eye on me?" Azalea questioned.
"No, I came here to get away from them sometimes. Plus, this place got the best vanilla bean latte." Shadow Recruit informed. He took a seat in front of Azalea and started sipping his latte. "Listen, I have been training in the Shadow Clan since I was six. If you want to take on a full member, you must show commitment and patience. But at what point? Luna and Nova will never allow any one, not even me, to rank equal or higher than them."
"I see." Azalea said she took a sip her coffee. "Looks like we have something in common."
Azalea and Shadow Recruit then arrived back in the secret dimly lair. Nova was eating a chocolate candy bar near Luna, who noticed Shadow Recruit and Azalea's presences.
"Oh, you're back." Luna grinned. "And just in time too."
"We've got a retrieval mission tonight." Nova said.
"Finally, some action around here." Shadow Recruit said as he slowly swung his yoyo with glee.
Azalea and Shadow Recruit stood on a large mechanical hand floating in the air above the botanical garden.
"Are you kidding me?!" Shadow Recruit exclaimed in disbelief. "We're on lookout duty?!"
Azalea stared down at the Shadow Clan Squad with an irritate look on her face.
"This is absurd." Azalea said with narrow eyes. "I still failed to see how Nova and Luna are in charge of this clan! If anyone deserves the dominance of this clan, it's me."
"Heh, good luck with that." Shadow Recruit said with a chuckle. "You wanna take control of the Shadow Clan, then you gonna have to challenge Luna and Nova to do it. At least, that's what our laws said."
"Hmph, we shall see." Azalea said with a devious smile.
Luna, Nova, and their Shadow Clan Squad stood in front of the three statues that was set at the center of the area outside the garden.
"Our reading says the Akuma Ring is hidden in one of these statues." Luna said.
"You think Azalea can prove her worth to the clan?" Nova asked.
"As if." Luna smiled evilly. "No one, even Azalea, will ever surpass them no matter what threats she throws at us."
Luna summoned her mystical tessen fan and started scanning for the Akuma Ring, which she got nothing from the first statue.
Azalea watched the Shadow Clan Squad from afar until she turned her head to see unexpecting lights shining around from the other side of the greenhouse.
"What's going on there?" Azalea wondered.
Shadow Recruit took out his binoculars and viewed the Lotus Ninjas looking for something in the greenhouse.
"Well, what did you know? It's those Dragoness chicks." Shadow Recruit said. "Should we tell Luna and Nova?"
"That won't be necessary. We can handle this ourselves." Azalea replied.
As the mechanical hand soared over to the greenhouse, Azalea and Shadow Recruit jumped down to hide behind the large flower bush. Ellie, Ella, and Lee were taking selfies in front of the largest flower in the botanical garden while Donna was examining its properties.
"What are they doing?" Azalea asks slowly.
"Beats me." Shadow Recruit replied with a shrug.
"I still can't believe you drove us all the way out here for this." Lee said as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Listen, I need this flower to come up with my latest potions." Donna said. She was taking the petals off and placing them glass jar as she placed them into her purple digital purse. "You girls can do what you want here, but let me collect more flowers for my future work."
"As long as we go get some chinese food afterwards, I'm good." Ella said.
"I'm so trying those meat buns." Ellie grinned excitedly.
"Keep the girls distracted while I go get the Akuma Ring." Azalea said.
"Don't have to tell me twice." Shadow Recruit grinned evilly.
Shadow Recruit bursted out of the flower bush and sprinted towards the Lotus Ninjas.
"Sup, ladies! Miss me?" Shadow Recruit declared.
Shadow Recruit pulled out his yoyos and spun them around in fast circles. But Ella, Ellie, and Lee moved out of the way for Donna to throw a pink potion that hit Shadow Recruit's face. Shadow Recruit was covered with pink scent, making him shudder in disgust.
"Oh man. What is this?" Shadow Recruit asked.
"My stink bomb." Donna replied.
"Wait a minute. If he's here, does that mean...?" Ellie asked in realization.
Shadow Recruit charged his yoyos with kinetic energy and started lashing them out while chasing Ella around to strike her. Lee, Ellie, and Donna are chasing after Shadow Recruit with their magic.
Unknown to the Lotus Ninjas, Azalea moved into the shadows with a sinister grin as she proceeded her next motive.
Outside, Luna was still scanning for the Akuma Ring. Azalea observed the Shadow Clan Squad from above on her mechanical hand.
"Let's kick the search up a notch." Azalea said confidently.
Azalea summoned a large black magic circle from her hand and several robotic birds flew around that alerted the Shadow Clan and the slumbing groundskeepers.
"What the? Who set the alarm?" Nova asked in confusion.
"It's just a few groundskeepers." Luna said with a shrug. "Nothing our soldiers can handle."
Nova and Luna suddenly heard yelling that made them look to see the groundskeepers running towards them with readied weapons and vehicles.
"Get them!" Luna ordered.
The Shadow Ninjas took out katana swords in their hands and ultimately defeated all of the groundskeepers to the ground within seconds.
Meanwhile, Shadow Recruit kept swinging his kinetic energized yoyos at the Lotus Ninjas inside the greenhouse. But the Lotus Ninjas were protected by Ella's red psychic energized force field.
"You'll never stop us from collecting the Akuma Ring!" Shadow Recruit declared.
"Wait a minute, hold on, the Akuma Ring is here?" Lee asked in surprise.
Suddenly, a Shadow Ninja crashed into the greenhouse from outside and knocked straight into Shadow Recruit.
The Lotus Ninjas looked outside the broken window to see the Shadow Clan standing in front of the statue.
"Oh no. Let's go, girls." Ella said.
The Lotus Ninjas quickly rushed over to the statues. Shadow Recruit got up from the unconscious Shadow Ninja and followed after the mystic kunoichi. But he was being pulled away by Azalea's magic circle.
The Lotus Ninjas rushed and jumped into the botanical garden with their readied magic. Luna, Nova, and the Shadow Ninjas charged forward in a full-blown fight against the mystic kunoichis.
Ella swung her leg around to send spinning red psychic disc-like energy that knocked some Shadow Ninjas out. Donna delivered purple psychic energized spinning kicks from an upside down position that hit several Shadow Ninjas and then finished two Shadow Ninjas with a flying upward drill kick with both legs. Lee delivered Nova with a rapid flurry of blue psychic energy kicks and them launcher her into the air with the last kick that sent Nova crashing near Luna.
"Luna, can you hurry up already?!" Nova called out.
Luna scanned the last statue and detected the Akuma Ring right in the chest.
"I've found it! It's in this statue!" Luna shouted.
Ellie suddenly delivered a series of orange high-damage psychic energized somersaults to Luna, thrusting her away from the statue.
Azalea and Shadow Recruit watched as the Lotus Ninjas battled around several Shadow Ninjas without any problems.
"So, they finally found the Akuma Ring." Azalea said with an evil smile. "Took them long enough. It's time for my sister's descendants meet someone new in the family."
Azalea summoned a large black magic circle from her hand and a mysterious mystic came out flying towards the battle that caught everyone's attention. The mysterious mystic has pale white skin, long thick white curly hair that reaches to her waist, and violet eyes. She wore a sleeveless purple qipao dress with slits on both sides and black sleeves, and black high-heeled boots. She also wore pale purple lipstick, black mascara, black curved horns, and a black metal mask covering the right side of her face.
"Who the heck is she?" Lee questioned in shock. "The Shadow's secret weapon?"
The mysterious mystic formed a ball of black energy between her hands together and fired a beam of black energy from the orb at the Lotus Ninjas, who quickly dodged the attack with quick speed.
"Wow, that's some power!" Ellie commented.
"Must exterminate the Dragonesses!" The mysterious mystic spoke with a monotone voice.
The mysterious mystic's fingers glowed bright black and she charged forward to slash the Lotus Ninjas with them. But Ellie created an orange barrier of psychic energy that surrounded herself and her older sisters, protecting them from the mysterious mystic's rapid slashes.
"If anyone has any bright ideas, I'm all ears to hear it!" Ellie cried.
But it was too late for the Lotus Ninjas to come up with any plan once the mysterious mystic stopped slashing the barrier.
The mysterious mystic opened her hand and formed a spiraling sphere of black energy above her palm. She then threw the sphere in the air, causing it to expand into a miniature black hole. The Lotus Ninjas, Luna, Nova, and the Shadow Ninjas were instantly sucked into the black hole that shrunk into a much smaller size before exploding.
The mysterious mystic stared at the Lotus Ninjas, Luna, Nova the Shadow Ninjas, and the groundskeepers all passed out from the attack.
Azalea and Shadow Recruit floated over to the statue while ignoring the damage from the battle. The mechanical hand lifted Azalea and Shadow Recruit to the statue, where the green Akuma Ring laid inside the opening hole.
"Would you like to do the honors?" Azalea asked Shadow Recruit.
Shadow Recruit looked at Azalea with wide eyes and slowly formed a honorable smile.
"Gladly." Shadow Recruit replied.
Shadow Recruit threw his yoyo to wrap the Akuma Ring and snatched it.
Back at the Shadow Lair, the Shadow Ninjas bowed in front of Azalea. Luna and Nova are hovering in midair between Azalea as they are both tied up in black energy chains.
"So, you ladies thought that I don't have any potential in this clan." Azalea said to the anxious Luna and Nova. She placed her hand on Shadow Recruit's shoulder. "And thanks for your lovely assistant, I've accomplished something worthier than being partners."
"What?!" Nova exclaimed in shock. "You can't do that!"
"Without us, you won't be here!" Luna yelled.
Azalea snapped her fingers, causing the black energy chains to wrap around Nova and Luna's mouths.
"By the laws of the Shadow Clan, I am now your leader!" Azalea declared.
The entire Shadow Clan Ninjas cheered respectfully.