In the two-level fortress cube, Tigress was talking with Lady Shadestrike in her private room. The room was simply designed as the entire floor are made of dark brown polish marble with grey convergent lines on the light brown walls. Lady Shade had appeared on a holographic image screen though the Nanocat's eyes.
"Where is Kuro, Tigress?" Lady Shadestrike demanded. "We must find him now. I know he's out there somewhere in the city."
"Since he and Gumko has been staying in our old Shadow Clan headquarters, so I doubt he would stay with the K-5." Tigress said.
"We must not waste any more time." Lady Shadestrike said. "I already demand Viral to make stronger synthetic mutagen for my mutated state, so I can finally be ready to face Sage and the K-5 again."
Lady Shade signed off the transmission from the Nanocat. Then, Amora walked into the room.
"Amora, what brings you here?" Tigress asked. "I asked to see Masque and Galva."
"Sorry, Tigress. They got on guard duty along with Jinx and Crystallia." Amora replied. "So, you got me for the mission. Besides, I'm sick and tired of being bored. I'm in a mode of some fun in the city."
"Better you than Crystallia and Jinx." Tigress said. "Get your gear. We're moving out now."
Tigress gasped sharply as she suddenly see someone moving fast down the city streets. She concentrated on her telescopic vision to view that person in magnified scale and then saw a face of a cheetah mutant with grayish white eyes.
"Tigress, what's wrong?" Amora asked in worry as she ran over to help Tigress on her feet.
"So after all these years, the one who took my left eye has finally come to face me." Tigress said with a sinister grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Crete Fortress, the K-5, Norbit, and Carol surrounded Sage in a circle inside the dojo. Except for their new friend, who was leaning against the tree with a calm face. She has a slender though athletic build and a curvaceous body with long thick black hair, piercing green eyes, and black lips. She wore a skintight black long-sleeved leotard with neon green butterfly on the right side, green metallic elbow-length gloves, and green thigh-high boots.
"Mother, are you going to construct your magic today?" Kirana asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I will use my magic, but not as my weapon." Sage answered.
Sage twisted her right hand around in a circle and pointed her magic at herself that caused an explosion of smoke and light. The K-5 and Carol gasped collectively as they backed away from the explosion. As the smoke cleared away, Sage was now an eight years old girl. She has long black hair tied in pigtails and wore a long-sleeved white leotard with maroon cuffs at her wrists and white ruffled ankle boots with blackish-gray soles. The K-5 and Carol exchanged confused glances before looking back at Sage as they don't understand why she's transformed herself into a child.
"Do not let my appearance fool you. I may be cute as a button." Sage said with a sweet, innocent voice. She then formed a deceptive smile across her face. "But I'm ready for war."
Sage straighten herself in her fighting stance. Carol lunged forward at Sage, but the white mage moved out of the way and dodged the energy mage's quick jabs. Carol swung her right leg at the white mystic, but Sage jumped up and kicked Carol upward in the stomach that knocked her down to the floor. Camilla cracked her knuckles and charged forward to attack Sage with her fists, but Sage avoided every punches swiftly and extended her leg out to perform a powerful kick that sent Camilla flying onto Carol. Norbit charged towards Sage with his armor, but she jumped out of the way and piloted the armored robot to crash on the wall before she jumped off. Ezra summoned his shield and threw it to Sage, who easily caught it and threw it back at her youngest son that made him back up and the shield to get stuck on the tree with Ezra's sleeves to get stuck with the shield as well. Sage struck her tongue out at Talia and wiggled her fingers by her ears. Talia narrowed her eyes and charged forward at the white mage, but Sage levitated close into Talia's face and kicked the orange mage with her back foot at an upward angle that sent Talia flying against the tree. Ariana charged forward to swing her right leg at Sage, but the white mage ducked down and spun low towards the ground to attack Ariana with her legs. Ariana used her hands to balance her fall, but Sage planted her head on the ground and spun her body around to strike Ariana with her legs that sent the purple mage kunoichi crash into Talia. Sage turned around to see Kirana pointing her blue psychic energized hands at her. Kirana charged forward at Sage, but the white mage jumped over the blue mage and climbed on her. Kirana was struggling to keep her balance steady as Sage wrapped Kirana in white energy magic that took on the form of a huge yarn ball and spun her ball in rapid speed before throwing the blue mage kunoichi away. Sage sat in the middle of the room as Ariana, Camilla, Ezra, Norbit, Talia, Kirana, and Coral sat in front of her.
"Intuition is the key to outmaneuver all of the enemy's moves in any necessary unorthodox methods." Sage advised wisely. "All of you must learn how to hone your intuition. Kirana and Talia only have the strongest ability to sharpen their intuition. Ezra perfects his strategies with his newly developed powers. Camilla clouds her anger on her foresight too much. Ariana lets her rational mind become too grounded. Norbit's compassion drives him to better ways of fighting for others. Only Carol's intuition is becoming close to perfection."
Kirana, Ariana, Ezra, Norbit, Camilla, and Talia looked back at Carol, who was smiling shyly at them.
"Thank you, Sage. My parents taught me martial arts since I was five and I became a very fast learner that time." Carol said. She looked back at the girl leaning against the tree. "Oh, I like to introduce my big sister."
"Jade. Please to meet you." Carol's older sister introduced as she stepped forward to the mystics.
"So, Jade, what brings you to New York City?" Sage asked.
"Carol told me all about you guys on her trip in this city. But after seeing your ninjutsu arts against your sensei, I was very impress. You guys got skills." Jade answered with a grin.
"Well, we're gonna start searching for any new clues to search Lady Shadestrike's secret lair." Kirana said. "Wanna join us?"
"Sure." Jade replied with a smile. "Count me and my sister in."
"All right. Camilla, you're with Jade. Norbit, you're with Ezra. Talia, you're with me. Ariana, you're with Coral." Kirana said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside, Kirana and Talia are patrolling the city as they drove their Magnolia Cycles on the road.
"You know, Kirana, I still don't understand why Kuro doesn't stay with us in the fortress." Talia said.
"Well, Kuro didn't grow up with us in the fortress in this city." Kirana said. "He's now an independent mage. If he wants to create his destiny by his own rules, that's his choice."
Then, Talia and Kirana heard beeping on the scanners from their Magnolia Cycles that made them look down at it with wide eyes.
"Kirana, the scanners are picking up something moving fast." Talia said.
Suddenly, a cheetah mage mutant sped past the Magnolia Cycles and ran off as Kirana and Talia looked back with wide-eyed faces.
"Whoa!" Kirana exclaimed.
"What the heck was that?!" Talia cried.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Camilla and Jade sat on the Magnolia Cycles with bored faces until they hear Kirana's voice from the motorcycle's speaker.
"Camilla, Jade, unknown fast-moving mutant is heading your way!" Kirana shouted.
Then suddenly, the cheetah mage mutant sped past the mages on the rooftop above them.
"Whoa!" Jade gasped.
"Ariana, Carol, lock on my K-Phone signal to my coordinates now!" Camilla said.
"Wait, where are you guys going?" Ezra asked from his K-Phone, but Camilla ignored him.
Camilla drove away on her Magnolia Cycle to pursue the mysterious figure as Jade wrapped her arms around Ella's waist with an amusing smile on her face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tigress and Amora stood on a building rooftop as they waited for the K-5 to show up in the city.
"I'm sick of playing hide and seek with those mages." Amora said with a glare. "If they don't take us seriously, I'll have to kill them my way."
"They are fools to think they have what it takes to face Lady Shadestrike again when she reaches her full strength." Tigress said.
Tigress suddenly gasped when she saw a familiar glowing cheetah mage mutant was sprinting across on the building rooftops.
"Tigress, what's wrong?" Amora asked.
"Follow me." Tigress said. "There's someone I want you to meet."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, the glowing cheetah mage mutant sped across the building rooftops with fast speed. But a giant hand made out of bright green energy made her halt to a stop. The mage mutant stopped glowing and turned around to confront Camilla and Jade. The cheetah mage mutant has an athletic build with a slender curves and large hips. She has long black curly hair, catlike greyish white eyes, yellowish tan skin with black cheetah spots over her body, and long spotted tail. She also wore a traditional black Chinese vest with red vine patterns and golden trim held together with small metal fasteners and a waist wrap, red silk pants, and black ankle wraps with golden lining.
"Stop right there, mutant!" Camilla yelled.
"My name is Catania, ninja girl." The cheetah mage mutant spoke in a firm voice. "I have a mission to fulfill and I won't let neither of you stop me."
"Forget the chit-chat. Let's have some fun, shall we?" Jade grinned casually.
Jade formed massive spiked fists made out of bright green energy, but Catania was able to see the energy mage's incoming moves and dodged a barrage of rapid punches easily with remarkable speed as Jade charged forward at the cheetah mage mutant.
"Whoa." Camilla gasped in awe.
"Getting tired, huh?" Catania said to Jade with a smirk.
Catania charged forward and performed five spinning kicks at Jade's stomach level with fast speed before firing a large disk of green energy at her. As Jade was knocked down to the ground unconsciously, Catania turned to Camilla and watched the red mage charging forward towards her. Catania saw Camilla's incoming movements and started avoiding the attack when Camilla started unleashing red psychic energized nails all over her body to pierce Catania in every different direction. Catania then fired a stream of powerful dark orange plasma energy beams around Camilla that knocked her out in a huge explosion. Catania watched the beaten Camilla helping a semi-conscious Jade on her feet, but she suddenly gasped when she felt a familiar plasma aura close in the area.
"So, she's finally here." Catania said.
Catania left the two defeated mages and moved across the building rooftops until she arrived to the rooftop where Tigress stood on the edge of the rooftop and looked up in the sky.
"Tigress!" Catania shouted.
"Hello, Catania." Tigress greeted. "It's been a long time."
"This time, you're not going anywhere! Just you and me! One on one!" Catania yelled in an angry tone.
Tigress turned around to see Catania getting in her fighting stance.
"You know, I'm not gonna let you off easy, so go head." Tigress said with a ruthless smile. "Try and break me, but without your flash vision."
Tigress sprang high into the air and fired a burnt orange plasma energy bolt at Catania, but the cheetah mage mutant blocked the attack with quick speed. Tigress landed down on her feet and held a ball of burnt orange plasma energy in one palm before tossing it forward at the cheetah mage mutant. But Catania dodged the plasma energy ball and launched multiple spinning roundhouse plasma energized kicks that hit Tigress in the face, making the tiger mage mutant lose her balance by that attack.
"Ha ha ha, impressive." Tigress said with a grin. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to get me excited."
"Don't underestimate me!" Catania yelled angrily.
Catania sprinted forward to deliver a strong roundhouse kick at Tigress, but Amora came out of nowhere and blocked the attack with one dark energized leg. Catania gasped surprisingly with wide eyes and stood her position speechless when Amora jammed her boot hard to the cheetah mage mutant's stomach.
"Tigress isn't the only one who's good at the rough stuff." Amora said with a sadistic grin.
Amora then released a large dark energy explosion from her boot that sent Catania flying towards Tigress, who released a large powerful barrier of burnt orange plasma energy around her that hit Catania into the air and charged a massive sphere of burnt orange plasma energy with both hands to blast Catania into the rooftop door. Before Tigress and Amora move forward to the bruised cheetah mage mutant, Catania's body started glowing in dark orange plasma light.
"This isn't over yet, Tigress." Catania said weakly. "I will defeat you."
"You defeat me? A weakling like you? Don't make me laugh." Tigress said with a grin.
Catania narrowed her eyes with a glare and sprinted away from them across the building rooftops. Unknown to the villains, Ezra and Norbit had watched the whole fight from a rooftop and quickly escaped before they were seen.
"Catania?" Ezra wondered. "I wonder how she knows Tigress."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, the K-5 regrouped together with Norbit, Coral, and Jade in the dead end alley.
"What the heck was that?" Kirana demanded.
"Some kind of mutant cheetah with mage powers." Ezra answered.
"We have seen her fighting Tigress and Amora." Norbit said. "It appears she and Tigress have known each other a long time ago."
"Her name is Catania." Camilla said. "She even mentioned about her mission, but Jade and I don't know why."
Kirana, Camilla, Talia, Ezra, Norbit, and Jade turned around to see Ariana driving into the alley right in front of them on her Magnolia Cycle. They also saw an unconscious Catania lying behind Ariana and in front of Jade, who was securing Catania from falling.
"Hey, that's her." Jade said, pointing her index finger to the unconscious cheetah mage mutant.
"What happened to her?" Talia asked.
"Ariana and I found her lying in the alley when we saw her on the rooftops." Coral explained. "She needs medical help right now."
"Let's take her to the fortress for recovery." Kirana said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the Crete Fortress, Sage sat on the floor cross-legged in the dojo. She held her hands on either sides of Catania's head and closed her eyes as her hands enveloped with a strong glow of white energy. In fast seconds, Catania was fully healed thanks to Sage's white magic. Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, Ezra, Norbit, Coral, and Jade sat in front of them.
"How are you feeling?" Sage asked.
"I'm fine, thank you." Catania replied, rubbing her head and looked around the dojo room. "Where am I?"
"You're safe in the Crete Fortress." Sage answered calmly. "My children and their friends found you severely injured, so they brought you here for me to heal you."
"Look, Catania, we don't want to hurt you." Kirana said. "We just want to know about your mission."
"Very well." Catania said. "My mission is to take revenge on the mutant who ruined my life. My older sister...Tigress."
Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, and Ezra gasped collectively in shock.
"What?!" Kirana, Camilla, Talia, and Ezra cried.
"Tigress is your sister?" Ariana exclaimed.
"Yes." Catania said with a nod. She formed a dangerous look on her face. "She's the one who mutated us years ago and turned our lives into life of crime." She felt tears pouring from her eyes when she looked down at the dojo floor. "I don't want to do those things. Not anymore."
"Catania, our mother once told us revenge just leads to more pain within yourself." Kirana spoke calmly. "Let us help you, so you can move on."
Catania looked up at Kirana and wiped her tears before nodding her head in agreement.
"Okay." Catania said. "I've already decided. I will not seek revenge from my sister, but she and her friend will come after me."
"You mean Amora?" Talia asked.
"We should have known." Ariana said with a sigh
"Hey, let me take her on." Camilla grinned as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm in the mood to turn up the heat."
"As sneaky and cunning as she is, we won't stand a chance to face Tigress with Amora around." Kirana pointed out.
"So, how are we gonna take them down?" Coral asked.
"I have an idea that could work." Jade said with a smirk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Tigress and Amora sped across the building rooftops until they stopped on the edge of a building rooftop.
"Whatever happened back there must be pretty personal, isn't it?" Amora asked. "So, was that Catania you're trying to fight?"
"It's complicated, Amora. But if you wanna know, I'll tell you." Tigress answered with an emotionless look on her face. "It all started when we were little girls. A Kraang portal opened in our home and we entered when we thought it was a magic portal. The Kraang mutated on us into animal mutants, where we also subjected to an experiment to see how much plasma energy they could contain before expiring. But we were able to escape through a portal back to Earth after many months of hardships. But when we return home, our parents only became shunned by our mutant forms. So, we fled and found themselves top-level assassins in the criminal underworld because of our valuable skills were too notorious and feared to their needs. I deeply love to fight for the thrill of the battle. But my sister didn't and turned on me because of her strong sense of justice. So, we fought each other in a fierce battle only ended up slashing off my left eye. Although she escaped, I knew she will spend her years searching for me because she believes that I destroyed her life. And now, she has live long enough to have vengeance on me."
"Not anymore, Zessica."
Tigress and Amora immediately spun around to see Catania standing behind them.
"Aurelia, come back for round two?" Tigress asked.
"Let's talk, sister." Catania said calmly. "We don't have to do this. There's a chance to redeem yourself."
"Redeem myself? That's coming from a girl who has a vendetta against me." Tigress said with a glare. "I tried to protect you from a world that would never accept our mutant forms and you tried to strike me down like roadkill. You leave me no choice."
Suddenly, Coral and Jade captured Amora in a generated pink and green energy net as the K-5 arrived on the rooftop behind Catania with their psychic energy magic.
"It's just you and us, Tigress!" Camilla shouted. "You're not match without Amora at your side."
"So, the mage heroes finally come to the rescue." Amora said mockingly. "But is this really the best you girls can do?"
Amora formed a medium-sized orb of dark energy between her hands and unleashed a large eruption that knocked the two energy mage sisters down to the rooftop ground.
"Now, the real fight begins!" Tigress declared.
Talia dashed forward and swung blades of orange psychic energy at Amora in fast succession. Amora dodged out of the way with fast reflexes and shot rapid dark energy spheres at Talia from her palms. Kirana moved forward and rapidly kicked Amora with a flurry of blue psychic energized kicks before launching her into the air with the last kick. Amora quickly recovered from the attack and fired off several volleys of two large dark energy balls that collided together at Kirana's position. Norbit fired two missiles towards Amora, who dodged them both and blasted a black energy ball to knock the armored robot to the wall. Ariana flew spinning toward Amora while stabbing her multiple times with her purple psychic energized claws, but Amora avoided the claws in rapid speed and summoned numerous orbs of purple energy to surround her before launching them in different directions at Ariana one by one. Camilla cartwheeled herself through the air to hit Amora with red psychic energy emanating from her boots multiple times, but Amora dodged the attack and fired large dark energy fireballs at Camilla from her hands. Amora chuckled as she was now facing Ezra and summoned her dark magic in her hands. She charged forward to deliver rapid punches towards the teal mage ninja, who quickly summoned his shield to block the attacks until Amora managed to fling the shield away from Ezra and kick him towards his downed sisters.
Catania watched the K-5 losing the battle against Amora with wide eyes before turning back to Tigress.
"You will stop this nonsense right now, Tigress!" Catania demanded as she leaned close into Tigress's face.
"And what will you do if I don't?" Tigress asked as she leaned right back to Catania's face.
Tigress created a burnt orange plasma energy bolt in her right hand and blasted it into Catania that sent her tumbling to the rooftop ground.
"I always was the better fighter." Tigress said with a sadistic smile.
Catania swiftly got back up from the rooftop ground and stood on her feet with a bold face.
"Not anymore!" Catania yelled.
Tigress growled and unloaded a machine-gun barrage of burnt orange plasma energy bolts straight at Catania, who sped through all of them without getting hit thanks to her remarkable speed.
The K-5 got back up on their feet and immediately joined hands together in line and the great power of psychic energy began surging through their bodies, carrying them into the air with a ring of colorful energy circling around them. They closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating on their magic together. Bright yellow light began shining around the siblings' bodies and the light expanded itself to fill the mages to surround them, transforming them into the fusion entity right in front of Amora's surprising face. But Amora shook her head and began firing off various dark energy spheres at Ericka in fast speed. Ericka quickly attacked Amora in a flurry of yellow psychic energy slashes with her magic. Amora fired more dark energy spheres at Ericka with her hands. Ericka avoided the dark energy spheres with rapid backflips and then summoned yellow psychic energized katana sword on her right hand to deliver a series of fast slashes from multiple directions before kicking Amora into the ground.
That's when Norbit, Coral, and Jade joined the fight against Amora.
Jade fired a burst of green energy from her hands that hit Amora effectively and then formed multiple daggers out of green energy to fire them at Amora. Coral then formed three pink energy balls that surrounded Amora and converged them on her, causing an explosion that launches them into the air. Jade and Coral then gathered up green and pink energy into a condensed energy ball and combined it with Norbit's missile before firing it at Amora in a massive eruption of energy.
Ericka, Norbit, Coral, and Jade walked over to the defeated Amora before looking back to see Catania fighting against Tigress.
As Tigress continued barraging burnt orange plasma energy bolts at her younger sister one by one, Catania gathered herself for a crushing counterstrike and unleashed a large dark orange plasma energy bolt that fizzled Tigress's hand. Catania then pushed Tigress against the rooftop ground. They glared at each other for a second until Catania closed her eyes as if she remembered what Kirana told her before.
"You're the only family I have left, Tigress. I'm going to give you one last chance." Catania said firmly. "Walk away from your wicked path or face no mercy the next time we meet again."
Catania walked away from Tigress, but she came to a stop and saw her older sister's incoming attack and destroyed a massive ball of burnt orange plasma energy from her hand easily with just one hand as Tigress got back up from the rooftop ground with a smirk. Catania swiftly turned back around and slashed Tigress's eyes off with dark orange plasma energized claws. Ericka, Coral, and Jade gasped in shock for seeing that unexpected attack.
"Sorry, sister. Like you said before, I have no choice." Catania said. "Farewell, my friends. Although what I did to my sister was wrong, it was still very nice to meet you. We'll see each other soon."
With that, Catania sped away across the building rooftops.
Tigress continued screaming in pain as she covered her empty eyes with her hands. Amora immediately rushed over to aid the tiger mage mutant.
"Don't worry, Tigress. Donna will upgrade new set of bionic eyes just for you." Amora said as she helped Tigress to her feet.
Amora summoned a portal made of dark energy and descended into it out of sight along with Tigress.
"They're getting away." Coral said.
"Nah, let them go, sis. Tigress better watch her back if Catania come back for another brutal sisterly reunion." Jade said.
"Come on, team. Let's head home." Ericka said.
"I believe we might see Catania again soon." Norbit said as he looked at the rooftops.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elsewhere, Catania sprinted her way across the building as she knows that the K-5 will be there to help her and she will be there to help them when the need arises again.