At Shade's fortress hideout, Viral began injecting a needle of synthetic mutagen straight into Lady Shade's left arm. Lady Shade slowly got up off of her bed as the full effects of the synthetic mutagen was beginning to kick in through her system. She put on her crowned mask as the synthetic mutagen released glowing green-black smoke to cover her entire body, mutating her completely into a powerful mystic mutant being. She has a very attractive and authoritarian appearance with flexible organic onyx black skin, long wavy silver hair with glowing green streaks, and glowing blue-green eyes. Her fingers have been replaced by five 12-inch long indestructible metallic claws replacing each finger of each hand. She now wore a maroon form-fitting dress with long sleeves and two high-cut leg slits that show off her legs, and maroon low-heeled boots. Lady Shade had successfully recovered her strength and power from the synthetic mutagen.
Then, Viral entered inside the lab for the results.
"How are you feeling today, Mistress Shade?" Viral asked.
"I feel better than ever, Donna." Lady Shade replied. "Your mutagen formula have greatly excelled my magic."
"Thank you." Viral said with a nod. "As your devoted doctor and scientist, I have the results of your new abilities. Thanks to the synthetic mutagen, your superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, durability, flight, and mystical powers have been increasing to maximum."
"You have done well, Donna." Lady Shade said. "Now, it's time to proceed my vengeance. Get Amora in the lab."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Crete Fortress, the K-5 are meditating with Sage in the dojo. The six mages sat on the floor in a circle while they are engulfed in fiery colored glow.
"Focus on your mind, body, and spirit. Let your imagination and thoughts disappear. Try to concentrate in the emptiness of the void." Sage said.
Suddenly, a flash vision of a mutated Lady Shade appeared inside Sage's mind. Her sense of fear washed over her when she saw herself falling to the unknown. That made her gasp sharply with wide, open eyes.
"That's enough for today." Sage said with a hint of fear in her voice. "We will finish this later."
"Wait, what?" Talia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you alright, mother? All of us have been meditating for six minutes." Ariana said in concern. "Is everything okay? You're worried about something, are you?"
Sage sighed as she stood up from the floor.
"Yes, I am not feeling very well." Sage explained hesitantly. "Last night, this dream I've been experiencing was very powerful that not even I can't shake it off my mind. I fell into a vast area, where I fought Lady Shade and...I didn't survive."
"But it was only just a dream. Right, mother?" Kirana asked with a worry face.
"Kirana's right. Everyone has bad dreams." Ezra said.
"You are right, Ezra. Do not fear, my children." Sage assured with a calm smile as she puts her hand on Kirana's shoulder. "I've earned master mage for all of my years of mystic training. I'm not going anywhere."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in Shade's fortress hideout, Amora came into the lab room and stood in front of Lady Shade next to Viral.
"Mother?" Amora gasped sharply. She turned to Viral with a menacing face. "What did you do to her?"
"Don't blame Donna, Amora." Lady Shade said calmly. "The synthetic mutagen she created was a true success. It made me ten times better than ever."
"What?" Amora said as her eyes widened wide in shock.
"But I've decided to allow Viral make more doses of her synthetic mutagen." Lady Shade continued.
"But you can't do this." Amora whined as she started to behave like a spoiled child and her face was scrunched up into anger. "You can't transform into a mutant freak like this. You can't transform me into being one like Kuro! I deserve to be powerful by your side!"
"Amora, silence yourself!" Lady Shade shouted fiercely.
Amora immediately closed her eyes and lowered her head in obedience while still containing her temper.
"Listen to me." Lady Shade explained. "This synthetic mutagen have made me stronger than ever before. Viral have made it very stable, so I won't lose control. Plus, I need you here to watch over the clan, it's a very important job that I can only entrust to you."
Amora looked up at her mother after she opened her eyes.
"Really?" Amora asked in disbelief.
"And for your loyalty, if any of my enemies have managed to defeat me in their hands, I've decided to declare you the new clan leader." Lady Shade said.
"Me? The clan leader?" Amora said suddenly with a happy face. "The title does sound appropriate. I truly accept it, mother."
"I knew you would, my daughter." Lady Shade replied. "Viral, go call Galva and Tigress. It is time to pay our friends a visit."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Tigress and Galva sat on their chairs while playing goldfish game together in a different room.
"Go fish." Tigress declared.
Galva picked up another card and placed it with the other cards in her hands.
"Now, do you have any...three's?" Tigress said with a grin.
"Yes, I do. How are you doing this?" Galva said as she tossed her cards onto the table. "You are the luckiest cat I know."
"Luck ain't got nothing to do with it." Tigress smiled proudly.
Then, Viral walked into the room from the opening door.
"Tigress, Galva, Lady Shade summoned you for an important mission." Viral stated.
Viral slithered out of the room.
"Two out of three when we come back?" Tigress asked with a grin.
"You're on." Galva grinned back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the Crete Fortress, three mages are sitting on the couch while watching another episode of Sarina Universe as Ezra and Norbit were on the laptop. They watched a scene where Sarina, Susan, and Lila engaged in a tough battle against a sinister time goddess Chrona in their super forms for a combined assault.
But Sage was walking somewhat weak in the living room that caught Kirana, Camilla, Talia, and Ezra's attention.
"Mom, are you okay?" Talia asked.
"You're feeling a little weak right now." Camilla said. "I'll get you a bag of ice."
"No, I'm alright." Sage said. "This dream is poisoning my body and mind all together."
"Mother, maybe you should rest for a few hours." Kirana suggested with a worry face. "I recommend that you should use..."
Suddenly, the power went out in the entire fortress that left the mages and Norbit in complete darkness.
"It is dark." Norbit said.
"What happened to the lights?" Ezra asked.
"Oh, man. What now?" Talia whined.
"It's just a power outage, Talia." Kirana said.
"I bet it's Ariana messing with some kind of experiment again." Camilla said as she got off the couch with her siblings and Norbit. "Let's go see what she's up to this time."
Kirana, Camilla, Talia, Ezra, Norbit, and Sage walked over into Ariana's lab as Ariana already knows what her family are thinking.
"No, it wasn't me." Ariana said as she began typing the keyboard without looking up at Norbit, her mother, and her siblings. "But I've found the reason of the power outage. There's a big one over nine square blocks all the way up to...Shade's old lair."
"Kuro!" Kirana exclaimed with a gasp.
"Go. See if he and his team are safe." Sage ordered.
"We're on it, mom." Ezra said with a nod.
"Let's hope nothing happened to him." Camilla said. "Besides, I already recorded an entire Sarina Universe marathon, so we can finish it after the mission is over."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At Kuro's lair, Gumko entered through the doors into the throne room with Kabocha as they approached Kuro, who was sitting on the throne room with Leia, Kale, and four Shadow Clan kunoichis standing behind him.
"Found anything about the power outage yet, Gumko?" Kale asked.
"No, but the whole neighborhood and Karai's Foot Clan are having some power outage problems as us." Gumko replied.
"That's suspicious." Leia muttered. "It has to be Lady Shade and her goons again."
"Double the guards and send them out to cover both ends of the street." Kuro ordered.
"Understood, Kuro. But it's just a power outage. I'm sure it's not a big deal." Gumko said.
Then, two Shadow Ninjas got knocked to the ground that caught everyone's attention as Tigress, Galva, and Amora entered the throne room.
"So, this is your best kunoichis you've got? How disappointing." Tigress grinned sinisterly.
"Tigress, Scarlett, and Amora?" Gumko smirked.
"Can't say I'm surprised." Leia remarked with an unimpressed face.
"Looks like you freaks got plenty more body for us to beat up!" Kuro snarled.
Kuro snapped his fingers and summoned five more Shadow Ninjas around him and his team.
"Not until we'll show you the headmaster of the loyal family clan." Galva said with a grin.
Suddenly, a dangerous mage mutant entered the throne room. Kuro, Leia, Kale, and Gumko's eyes widened wide in shock as they recognized the mage mutant.
"So, you finally turned yourself into something you hate more than Sage. A mage mutant!" Kuro snarled.
Lady Shade stood in front of the glaring mages.
"My son, you must understand. I did this for you. You will help me destroy our enemy who took your father's life. Shiroibara Sage." Lady Shade said.
"You're insane! You need to wake up from your fantasize dream!" Kuro screamed. "You kidnapped me from my family and raised me to become an assassin for your pathetic vendetta!"
"Silence, Kuro! You have no right to speak to me that way!" Lady Shade snapped. "All I ask is for you to fight on my side!"
"Do you really expect me to believe such pathetic nonsense?" Kuro spat.
"Let's take these crazy freaks down." Gumko smirked.
Tigress and Galva took a step forward, but Lady Shade lifted her hand to stop them.
"No! Kuro and his friend are mine." Lady Shade said. "Amora, take care of your former team members."
"Thought you never ask." Amora grinned as she walked next to Lady Shade.
Leia and Kale's eyes narrowed at Amora as they got into their fighting stances.
"Shadow clan, attack!" Kuro commanded.
The Shadow Ninjas sprang forward to attack two mage mutants, but Lady Shade and Amora easily took all of them out with their immense strength. Kuro, Leia, Kale, Gumko, and Kabocha charged forward to attack Lady Shade and Amora all at once, but the black mage mutants and her mage daughter knocked them to the ground.
"For everything you have done to Kuro and his friends, I'll put you freaks out of your misery myself!" Gumko shouted.
Gumko created five small sized pumpkin bombs in his hands and threw them at Lady Shade that hit her with small explosions, but Amora moved out of the way to face her sisters. Leia fired a massive beam of dark energy at Amora from the left and Kale fired several spheres of dark energy from his gun at Amora from the right, but Amora dodged away from the attacks and swiftly formed a large sphere of dark energy in her hands above her head to release a large dark energy beam at her former siblings that sent Leia and Kale into the glass windows.
Kuro slowly got up from the ground to see Leia and Kale knocked out by Amora.
"Leia...Kale..." Kuro whispered.
Kuro turned around to watch Lady Shade knocked Gumko over the head. He spotted Kabocha charging forward to strike the black mage mutant with her tentacles, but Lady Shade created an extremely large vertical explosion made of black magic that knocked Kabocha next to the unconscious Gumko. As Lady Shade was about to finish them off, Kuro transformed into his mutant form and began attacking Lady Shade with combos of slashes as his claws surrounded with a mix of light and dark energy. But Lady Shade grabbed Kuro's neck with her giant right claw and slammed him rapidly to the ground multiple times, causing Kuro to revert back in his mage form before Lady Shade lifted him off the ground.
"I will let your friends go as a promise of my love for you, my son." Lady Shade said as she started crushing Kuro's neck slowly. "But if you struggle, I will hunt them down and destroy them in seconds. Understood?"
Kuro growled in pain, but he closed his eyes in agony to accept his surrender.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside, Kuro was forced to follow Lady Shade as his arms were tied behind his back with thick steel chains.
"Hurry up and move it, wolf boy!" Tigress said as she shoved Kuro forward.
Suddenly, everyone quickly turned to see the Sonicruiser coming in their direction as the vehicle suddenly came to a stop. Camilla, Talia, Ezra, and Norbit gathered around Ariana to look at Lady Shade at the screen.
"It is another mage mutant." Norbit said.
"O. M. G!" Talia exclaimed. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah, Talia. It's Lady Shade herself." Ariana replied nervously. She looked over to Kirana from her station. "Looks like she's used the mutagen on herself. What do we do, Kirana?"
"Ram her down, obviously." Kirana replied with narrow eyes.
Kirana stepped hard on the gas pedal and the Sonicruiser sped forward to Lady Shade, who suddenly grabbed the vehicle and lifted it up in the air with both claws.
"I have a message for your mother." Lady Shade said. "Tell her I have my son back and come to the abandoned cathedral if she wishes to see him one last time."
With that, Lady Shade threw the Sonicruiser over across the street road. As Lady Shade trapped the vehicle in a sphere of black energy, the K-5 created a swirly yellow portal with their combined magic and escaped out of the Sonicruiser with Norbit. Lady Shade then closed her fist that caused the black energy to condense, crushing the Sonicruiser within into the flames.
Kuro looked at the vehicle in horror while Amora smiled slyly at her mother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the Crete Fortress, the K-5 sat on the couch while using their magic to recover themselves and Norbit.
"What happened?" Sage asked as she entered the living room.
"It's Shade. She used mutagen on herself and turned into a fearsome Lady Shadestrike." Talia explained. "She got a creepy body and huge claws."
"The mutagen seems to be in her bloodstream when I scanned her." Norbit said as he showed a picture of Lady Shadestrike with a blood pressure chart.
"With mutagen and her dark powers, she became a super mage mutant." Ezra added.
"She captured him, mother." Ariana said.
"Shori." Sage murmured.
"She said she wants to meet you in some abandoned cathedral." Kirana added.
"The Holy Trinity Cathedral." Sage said with a firm face. "Let's go and rescue your brother."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The K-5, Norbit, and Sage arrived at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. They ran close to the hallowed building entrance and stopped right in front of the doors. Ariana stomped her left foot on the ground again and picked up five mage mutants and one normal mage inside the cathedral through the vibrations.
"Lady Shade and her forces are inside." Ariana reported in alarm.
"Be ready, my children." Sage ordered. "Lady Shade is definitely leading us into a trap."
Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, and Ezra nodded their heads with serious faces. The five mages and one robot stepped inside the church and their eyes widened wide in shock with unnerved faces to see several large photographs of Lady Shade, Sage, and their past involving Caesar and Kuro hanged up on the white marble walls and large stained-glass windows.
"What the heck?" Ezra said slowly.
"There are pictures from the past." Norbit said as he scanned the pictures.
"Okay, she definitely has gone from weird to psycho." Talia commented.
"More like a creepy stalker." Kirana remarked.
"How did she get all of these photos?" Ariana questioned.
Sage gasped sharply as she looked at the photographs as if the memories of her past are coming back to her.
"Do all of these images look familiar to you, Sage?" Lady Shade's voice boomed inside the room. "You took the love of my life away from me and then I took your son as payback to raise him of my own!"
The church doors suddenly closed shut right behind the mages and robot. Camilla and Talia ran over to the doors as they tried to get them open.
"Then, you turned him against me! Kuro is my son!" Lady Shade's voice continued.
"Rōzu, show yourself!" Sage called out.
Suddenly, Kirana and Ariana looked up to see all the photographs exploded in some confetti.
"I swear, Shade! When I get free, you will tear you from limb from limb!" A familiar male voice shouted.
"Kuro!" Kirana exclaimed.
"Shori!" Sage yelled in a worry tone.
Sage began running off to the stairs with fast speed.
"Mother!" Kirana called out.
"Mother, wait up!" Ariana exclaimed.
Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, Ezra, and Norbit ran after Sage. But they immediately stopped when Galva, Masque, Viral, and Tigress came out of nowhere as they stood in front of them.
"Oh boy!" Camilla groaned.
Tigress smirked as she started blasting burnt orange energy slashes with her swift claws.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sage ran through the stairs and entered inside the catacomb, where she glanced around the broken ruins of the place and looked up to see Kuro tied up in chains on the ceiling above as he was struggling to get free.
"Mother, you shouldn't come here!" Kuro exclaimed. "It's a trap!"
"I won't leave you here!" Sage shouted determinedly.
"Look out! Behind you!" Kuro exclaimed.
Sage spun around to see a bizarre black light coming from Lady Shade, who was sitting on the throne made of black magic with a large field of sentient skulls around her as if she was patiently waiting for her. Sage gasped at Lady Shade's mutant form, making her hands engulf in blazing white energy as she got into her fighting stance.
"Rōzu? What have you done to yourself?" Sage asked in disbelief.
"The synthetic mutagen had made me more powerful than you ever be, witch. Now, you will know the true meaning of fear." Lady Shade replied.
"All I know is that you finally turned yourself into a monster both inside and out." Sage said firmly.
"I will not let you stop me from getting my son." Lady Shade said darkly. "He needs to know that I was the one who raised him after all these years. I sacrificed everything for him out of pure love!"
Lady Shade looked up at Kuro, who was glaring down at her.
"Mother's right. You have truly unleashed your monstrous side." Kuro snarled. "I let her pure love speak to me, not your poisonous words!"
Lady Shade continued to stare at Kuro with a sad expression and she charged forward to fight Sage, who gathered white light in her right hand and fired it at the black mage mutant. But that attack has no effect against Lady Shade at all. Lady Shade created a massive black orb in her left hand and threw it at Sage, knocking her into a nearby wall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ariana charged forward to attack Viral with swift kicks, but she got knocked back by Viral's tentacles. As Viral sprang high in the air to strike, Ariana lunged forward and spun herself in a cork-screw manner with her feet energized in purple psychic energy leading towards Viral before finishing her with a flying upward drill kick with both legs. Talia delivered a swift kick at Galva, but the goo mage mutant grabbed the orange mage kunoichi's leg and slammed her to the wall. But Norbit flew in to help her up and fired an electric rope to paralyze the goo mage mutant and Talia performed a swift backflip that knocked Galva into the air as she jumped up into the air with Galva's face in between her hands and unleashed streams of orange psychic energy before landing on her feet harmlessly while Galva fell on her back in defeat. Camilla summoned up a shield made of red psychic energy to defend herself against Masque's ghost white explosive energy rings. Masque created ten large-sized ghost white energy spheres in her hands and fired them at Camilla in fast speed motion, but Ezra rushed in to swiftly block each one coming in their way with his shield and both siblings began cartwheeling through the air with red and teal psychic energy emanating from their shoes that knocked Masque to the ground in defeat. Kirana was avoiding rapid burnt orange energy bolt coming from Tigress's feet. Tigress unleashed a sudden barrage of burnt orange bolts that made Kirana backflip away from the attack. Kirana defeated Tigress by flipping into a head stand while spinning her blue psychic energized legs like helicopter blades before slamming her legs down in front of her to hit the tiger mage mutant.
"Come on, team! Let's move!" Kirana ordered.
The K-5 and Norbit ran into the stairs that led them to the catacombs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sage and Lady Shade continued fighting each other intensely in the catacombs.
"Oh, Sage!" Lady Shade grinned as she fired rapid black energy orbs at Sage from her hands. "Do you really think you can defeat me? Now that I'm more powerful, you will be defeated."
"In your dreams, Rozu!" Sage said as she dodged several black energy orbs from Lady Shade.
"My dreams are your nightmares." Lady Shade snapped as she raised her arms apart with a dangerous look on her face.
As Lady Shade lifted her hands in the air, the loud sound of lightning and thunder bolted around the catacombs. Sage and Kuro looked around to find the entire catacombs transform into a skeletal battlefield. Several fragments of the floor loomed overhead as a full moon shone down onto the arena and the entire ground was formed into thick, bright black strands with skulls laced into them with several skulls were littering at the ground. Sage jumped up to prepare for an attack, but Lady Shade grabbed Sage's right leg with her left claw and slammed her hard to the floating platform ground. Sage was struggling to stand on both of her feet underneath Kuro, who was still tied up to a chuck of the ceiling with a shocked face as he was trying to break free of his restraints.
"It's time for my revenge to be complete." Lady Shade said.
Lady Shade leapt towards Sage with her extending claws, but Sage took out a black smoke bomb and threw it at Lady Shade's face before punching her to the wall.
The K-5 and Norbit arrived to stop at the edge of the catacomb entrance as they spotted Kuro struggling to get the chains off in his mutant form. Kirana lifted one glowing finger to take careful aim and shot a tiny blue psychic energy bolt at the chains, causing it to pop off. Norbit caught Kuro in his arms and landed next to the K-5 in his armor and Kuro reverted to his mage form.
"You okay, Kuro?" Ezra asked.
"Better now. Thank goodness, your guys are here. It's Lady Shade, she's just too powerful." Kuro said. "Even our mother couldn't fight her."
"We already aware of that. I can create a cure for Shade's new form, but it's gonna take two or three weeks for me to complete the retromutagen." Ariana explained.
"My scanner can identify where Lady Shadestrike is located." Norbit said. "Sage needs backup, quickly."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's help our mother out and fight that clawed freak." Camilla declared.
Suddenly, a squad of Elite Shadow Droids came out of nowhere as they stood in front of them on several floating platforms to keep the mages and robot isolated from Sage.
"Oh boy." Talia said with a low groan.
"Have a plan, Kirana?" Ariana asked Kirana.
"Just one. Fight!" Kirana replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Lady Shade swirled her claws around in front of herself and generated a miniature black hole that sucked Sage towards the black mage mutant before blowing the white mage away. Sage got back up on her feet and dashed forward to drill her white energy fists into Lady Shade, but Lady Shade moved out of the way and released a gigantic tornado made of black magic that drew Sage into it that sent her to the platform ground.
"It's such a pity Shori is not here to see how evil you truly have become." Sage said as she got back up on her feet.
Lady Shade's eyes narrowed dangerously as she attacked Sage with a rapid series of claw swipes and knocked the white mage hard to the ground with a claw drill attack. Sage was breathing slowly as Lady Shade loomed over her.
"Now, I can finally put an end to your pathetic existence right now!" Lady Shade declared.
"Finish me all you want, but my son Shori will live on with honor to the Magnolia Clan." Sage muttered.
The K-5, Norbit, and Kuro quickly finished off the Elite Shadow Droids with their magic.
"Man, I didn't expect these robots to be this tough." Ariana said exasperatingly.
"Yeah, no kidding." Camilla concurred.
"Come on! We have to save our mother!" Kirana exclaimed.
Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, Ezra, Norbit, and Kuro sprang high in the air as they began leaping onto every floating platform to Sage's aid. They finally saw that Lady Shade pinned Sage to the ground with her claws at the center of the large floating platform.
"Looks like Lady Shadestrike is winning!" Talia gasped.
"Come on! We have to help her!" Kirana exclaimed.
"Hang on, mother! We're on our way!" Kuro shouted.
"I will crush you like the vile insect you are." Lady Shade said with a dark smile. "And then, I'll do it again with your children."
Saldana slowly gathered white energy and released a large quantity of white light from her eyes, causing the entire floating platform to crumble and making Lady Shade and Sage fall at the same time.
"Mother!" Ariana shouted.
Lady Shade tried to spring into a nearby floating chunk, but Sage created a sphere of white energy in her hand and shot it at the black mage mutant that released several chains to wrap around Lady Shade.
"No, we die together, Rozu!" Sage screamed.
With that, Sage and Lady Shade vanished into the skeletal abyss.
"Sage!" Ezra cried.
"Mother!" Kuro shouted.
"No!" Kirana exclaimed.
The K-5, Norbit, and Kuro moved to the edge of the floating platform as they looked over at the broken floating platform that both Lady Shade and Sage have fell off from.
"I...I can't...believe this." Camilla muttered sadly.
"No, she has to be alive." Kirana said with a sad frown.
"But that drop is at least 2,000 feet down. Not even she could survive that fall." Ariana replied sadly. "I'm not even sure if your aura sense can't track her."
"So, what do we do now?" Talia asked.
"We have to keep going." Kuro declared. "For our mother."
Suddenly, the six mages and one robot turned around to see powered up Jinx and Crystallia standing on a nearby floating chunk.
"Oh, we're in big trouble now." Talia muttered.
"I agree." Norbit said.