Camilla slowly woke up with a groan. She blinked when she found herself in an empty cell room. The walls were made of pure ice that has no windows and there were no doors.
"Where am I?" Camilla muttered. She got up from the floor and looked around the cell. "And how in the world did I get here?"
Suddenly, the icy walls from all four sides slid themselves open and released strong gusts of icy wind that made the room colder.
"Uh no! It's just getting colder. There's no way out." Camilla said in panic.
Camilla began shivering and quickly collapsed herself to the cold floor, not reacting well to the cold very much. She cuddled herself and tried to make herself warm by rubbing her arms up and down with both her hands.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Six hours earlier, the mage family gathered together in Ariana's lab as the purple mage kunoichi was still experimenting on a negating formula.
"How's it going, Ariana?" Camilla asked.
"I was able to synthesize the neurotoxin from the mind collar serum based on each of our blood samples." Ariana replied.
"Do you think it'll work on Kuro?" Talia asked as he sat on a moving stool.
"It's gotta work." Kirana replied firmly as she crossed her arms over her chest. "For our older brother."
"Only one way to find out." Ariana said.
Ariana slowly added one small drop of four colored chemicals into four beakers of blue liquid and stared at them, hoping that the cure for the mind collar serum will be a successful desired solution for Kuro. But unfortunately, each beaker turned black as the liquid overflowed from the beakers. Ariana's best efforts to synthesize a mind serum antidote wasn't going well, making her understandably frustrated on failing experiment.
"What?! Are you kidding me?!" Ariana exclaimed.
Camilla and Kirana looked away from the beakers with sad faces.
"Ariana, it's okay. You tried your best." Talia said reassuringly as her hand touched her older sister's shoulder.
"It's useless!" Ariana yelled frustratedly. "I've spent days finding the antidote and I'm no way near close! This mind collar serum is definitely impossible. I...I can't do it."
"And we've even tried all of my spells." Ezra added, sadly. "None of those were working."
Ariana, Talia, Camilla, Ezra, and Kirana looked at Sage, who was looking away from them. The loss for Kuro has deeply affected the white mage very much.
"Mother, I'm so sorry. There's nothing Ezra and I can do." Ariana said sadly.
"I know how hard you and Ezra have tried, Ariana." Sage said calmly as she walked slowly towards the opening lab doors before stopping to give her daughters and younger son a tiny smile. "Even if I can't get my oldest son back, at least I have five wonderful children."
Sage exited out of the lab, leaving the four mage kunoichis and mage ninja deeply saddened for their mother.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, the K-5 are silently quiet in the living room. Kirana was watching some show on TV next to Camilla, who was reading one of her comic books. Ariana sat beside Talia, who was sitting on the floor upside down on her K-Phone. Ezra was on his laptop as he sat on his bean bag chair. Even watching TV wasn't enough to keep the blue mage kunoichi quiet.
"I know you can get this, Ariana." Kirana said as she turned to face Ariana. "You know how much the antidote means to mother."
"Kirana, I'm working as hard as I can." Ariana said as she wasn't look at her oldest sister from her clipboard.
"We can't just give up on our brother. He needs us to come home. So, work harder." Kirana ordered with a snap.
Camilla, Talia, and Ezra blinked in surprise at what Kirana just said, but that made Ariana extremely frustrated to the core.
"Work harder? Work harder?!" Ariana shouted angrily. "I've been working hard to find a way to save Kuro and you're telling me to work harder? I always have to find the solution to every problem! But when I can't figure out a problem, I can't do anything about it! And FYI Kirana, you're the team leader! You find the answer!" She then pointed her fast finger at Camilla. "Or here's the idea: ask Camilla for a change."
"I got the answer for you, Ariana!" Camilla snapped. She put her comic book down on the couch and went closer in front of Ariana with a glare. "Kuro will never be free from Shade's brainwashing! So there's your answer!"
"Don't you ever say that, Camilla! Don't ever say that!" Talia yelled in anger as she pushed Talia's chest with her hands.
"Come on, girls!" Ezra said, as he was trying to stop his sisters. "Calm down!"
The K-5 began arguing with loud yelling, creating boiling tensions between each other. Kirana and Talia wanted to let their siblings know that Kuro can still be saved, but Ariana and Camilla don't believe that there's no another way to save their brother. Not even a spell can break their brother free from the mind collar. Ezra gave a blank stare as no one was listening to him. He snapped his fingers to summon a pair of headphones and put them on, trying to cover up the argument.
Suddenly, Ariana's K-Phone began ringing from her waist belt that stopped the girls from arguing. Ariana took her cell phone out and answered it.
"Hi, Casey. This is not the best time to call me." Ariana said with a heavy sigh.
"Ariana, I really need to talk to you alone." Casey said. "It's very important. I need you to meet me in the city immediately."
"Okay." Ariana said with a nod.
"Shizukani!" Sage said. She walked into the living room and stood in front of her four daughters and younger son. "What's the problem here?"
"They started it." Ezra said, as he took out his headphones.
"Nothing, mother." Ariana said. She walked away from her sisters angrily and marched past her mother and younger brother. "I'm heading out to the city. Casey needs to see me."
"But we need you here now, Ariana." Kirana said.
"Forget it, Kirana. I've made up my mind about the antidote." Ariana snapped. "You wanted a genius, call Donnie. I'm sure he's a big help."
Ariana moved her finger in a circle and summoned her purple Magnolia Cycle towards the opening fortress exit.
"Ariana!" Kirana pleaded.
Ariana ignored her oldest sister and jumped into the Magnolia Cycle as she drove out of the flying fortress in the sky. The Magnolia Cycle slowly transformed into a purple futuristic flying jet to soar fast through the sky.
"Ariana!" Kirana shouted through the fortress exit.
Kirana stepped away from the fortress exit and watched it closing itself shut right in front of her eyes. She looked down at the floor in silence. Ezra frowned as he saw his sisters disappointed. Camilla and Talia walked away from each other in anger. Sage noticed this as she wasn't going to allow this.
"My children, you can't drive each other apart." Sage reminded with a warning tone. "In times like these, unity is important. Don't forget the most basic lesson: an effective team thinks as one."
Ezra shook his head at Kirana and went to his room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside, Ariana sped herself down on the city streets as she followed the directions she got from Casey on her K-Phone. She felt bad about her argument with her sisters about finding the cure for Kuro, but they can't keep frustrating her on her effort.
As Ariana arrived at the exact location, she parked her Magnolia Cycle against the wall and jumped off to walk down the alleyway. She quickly saw the back door of the building opened up right in front of her and detected Casey inside with pink light illuminating around him.
"Ariana, finally you're here." Casey said.
"Casey, what's going on?" Ariana asked.
"The Kraang are back." Casey replied.
"Well, we have to contact the others." Ariana said, taking out her K-Phone from her waist belt.
"There's no time and they're about to get away. We got to follow them." Casey said, running right into the pink light further ahead.
"Casey, wait for me!" Ariana shouted.
As Ariana ran after Casey, she entered the pink room and suddenly got herself wrapped up around on her limbs by the giant vines.
"What the heck?!" Ariana exclaimed.
Ariana looked at the source of the vines and screamed as the back door got slammed shut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the Crete Fortress, Kirana walked inside the dojo and found Sage mediating quietly on the floor.
"Mother, the antidote may not be a success as we thought, but I will not gonna give up on Kuro, no matter what." Kirana promised.
Sage levitated herself up from the floor and landed on her feet as if she was very fond of her oldest daughter's determination.
"Can the ancient scrolls maybe work on a positive effect on him?" Kirana asked.
"It could be possible." Sage responded. She conjured up a pale brown scroll in her hand and unrolled it up to read the spells in Japanese language. But she's unsure if she has enough skill to utilize it effectively for that purpose. "But I'm not certain that even I have that kind of ability to perfect it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, in Ezra's bedroom, the teal mage ninja was reading his book until he heard his laptop beeping. He looked at the computer and saw that Vee was trying to FaceTime him. He went to the computer and clicked answer. The camera showed Vee's face and Ezra smiled.
"Hey, Vee." Ezra smiled.
"Hey, Ezra." Vee smiled back.
"How's it going?" Ezra asked.
"Well..." Vee sighed. "I actually want to know what's going on with you."
"It's good." Ezra said. "Except, my sisters were fighting about Kuro. This whole thing with the mind control thing is crazy."
Vee looked down in sadness about that and Ezra seemed to notice.
"Hey, is everything okay?" Ezra asked, concerned.
"I just...Ezra, I'm not sure I'm fine with this." Vee admitted.
"What do you mean?" Ezra asked. "What's troubling you?"
"My brothers and I were arguing about Karai and it was all Leo's fault." Vee explained. "It's like...what is his problem?"
"Don't worry about that." Ezra reassured. "He's just upset and so are your brothers. That's just how they get."
"Ezra, we've been working like mad dogs trying to find a cure." Vee pointed out. "I know that it's scaring him, but he can't be so hard on himself."
"You can't blame yourselves for what happened, Vee." Ezra frowned. "We couldn't have known."
"I know." Vee frowned. "Shredder's goons kept saying these things to me and I'm worried that it might be true."
"What is it?" Ezra asked.
"Was I really a replacement for Splinter's daughter or will I become abandoned if she returns to our side?" Vee asked, as a tear fell down from her face.
"Vee, you know that's not true." Ezra reassured. "They're just insults that they'll throw at you. No one will ever think of you as a replacement and no one will ever leave you."
"Like who?" Vee asked.
Ezra blushed and Vee saw that with a blush.
"I'll be there for you, no matter what may happen." Ezra said, making Vee smile warmly.
"Thanks, Ezra." Vee said. "I always know who to go to if I'm depressed."
"Anytime, Vee." Ezra said.
Then the two hung up and shut their laptops. Ezra sighed but he was unaware that Kirana heard the entire conversation from his door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Talia sat on the kitchen table as she was playing a collectible card game called Planetrix with her pet Pink Hallow inside the kitchen. Ezra walked in to grab a soda. Talia put down a card that has a navy blue armored dragon-like humanoid creature on the table, but Pink Hallow beaten her to it when he put down a card that has a sea green armored whale-like creature on the table. Talia's eyes widened in shock as she realized that she's been beaten by her pet.
"No fair!" Talia whined. "How in the world did you get a rare Neptunian card?"
Pink Hallow used his sign language that said "I'll never tell" as he took his cards victoriously.
"You cheater! I wanna rematch!" Talia shouted.
Suddenly, Talia's K-Phone began ringing from her waist belt and she took out her cell phone that revealed Ariana's caller ID.
"Hey, Ariana. What's up?" Talia answered her cell phone.
"I'm at Murakami's." Ariana said.
"Why?" Talia asked.
"He made this special pizza gyoza that you got to try." Ariana replied. "But listen, you can't tell the others. Because he only has a special treat for you and me."
"Okay, see you there." Talia agreed.
Talia hung up her K-Phone and put it back in her waist belt.
"What was that about?" Ezra asked.
"I think Ariana needs me for something." Talia shrugged.
"Hmm. Maybe her thing with Casey already ended." Ezra said.
"Talia, Ezra, we're having a meeting in the dojo in an hour." Kirana said as she walked her feet into the kitchen. "I need you both there."
"Oh, I love to, but I can't. I got stuff to do, sis. Maybe next time, bye." Talia said quickly.
Talia immediately got off from the kitchen table and sped out of the kitchen, making Kirana lift an eyebrow in confusion.
"Sometimes being leader can be totally meaningless in so many levels." Kirana sighed.
Kirana turned to face Pink Hallow and saw him stealing some of Talia's cards behind the orange mage kunoichi's back. Pink Hallow looked up at Kirana with wide eyes, knowing that the blue mage kunoichi saw his sneaky motives.
"I won't say a word." Kirana said with a smile.
Pink Hallow smiled and gave Kirana a thumb-up. Kirana looked at Ezra and sighed.
"Ezra?" Kirana asked.
"Yeah?" Ezra responded.
"I, uh...Don't get upset with me, but I heard your call with Vee and I'm proud of you for helping her." Kirana smiled.
"You are?" Ezra asked, surprised.
"Yes." Kirana smiled, before she kneeled to his level. "But I don't want you to think that Kuro would replace you."
"I know, you and our sisters have always been there for me." Ezra said. "I'm just worried that Vee might be having a sibling life crisis."
"Well, the only person that I know can help her resolve her situation is you." Kirana reassured. "Just give her time and she'll be okay, I promise."
Ezra looked up and smiled at Kirana.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After jumping down from the building nearby, Talia had arrived at Murakami's restaurant in her casual outfit and started walking inside to see the blind chief making food in front of the stove.
"Hello, Mr. Murakami-san." Talia greeted.
"Greetings, Talia." Mr. Murakami greeted back sweetly. He set up a long plate of pizza gyoza in front of the orange mage kunoichi. "These are for you as I've requested. I'm sure you'll find the unique mixture of cheeses and delicate flavors fascinating."
"Oh, yeah." Talia cheered. She began devouring all of the pizza gyoza inside her mouth and shallowed them whole. "That was amazing, but I can almost taste the..."
Talia suddenly started to groan with dizziness swirling in her head, causing her to fall straight to the floor.
"What's happening to me?" Talia asked weakly.
"It's not poison, my dear." Mr. Murakami replied in a dark tone coming out of his voice as he stood above Talia, who was looking up at him. "Don't worry, Talia. It's just simple chemicals to let you have a nice, quiet nap."
"How could you...?" Talia said slowly.
Then, Talia quickly fell asleep unconsciously.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the Crete Fortress, Casey showed up in the living room with his gear as Leia and Kale followed behind him.
"Oh ladies and gentleman, Casey Jones has arrived." Casey said with a cocky smile.
"Sup, Casey." Camilla greeted as she and Kirana exited the dojo. "Hey, Leia. Hey, Kale."
Ezra and Norbit came out from the bedroom hallway and noticed something was missing.
"Where's Donna?" Kirana asked.
"I don't know. I just got here." Casey replied with a shrug.
"She told us that she was meeting you." Camilla said.
"Sorry, but I haven't spoken to her all day." Casey responded.
"We were with Casey at the hockey rink the whole time." Leia pointed out.
"Yeah." Kale agreed with a nod.
That made Kirana, Camilla, and Ezra suspicious. Ariana told them that Casey needed her on the phone and now Casey haven't spoken to her for a while. They both knew that something strange is going on.
"So if Ariana's not with you all, then where is she?" Ezra asked.
Just then, Kirana felt her K-Phone vibrating in her waist belt and took it out to receive a text message from Talia.
"Hey, it's from Talia." Kirana gasped as Camilla, Ezra, Norbit, Casey, Leia, and Kale looked over her shoulders to stare at the text. "She says she spotted a Kraang and trailed her back to an old warehouse on Hobard."
"What?" Casey gasped.
"No way." Camilla exclaimed.
"It must be a Kraang sleeper doing this to her." Kirana said.
"Or maybe it's a trap." Ezra suggested. "Ariana and Talia have been gone for a while."
"Ezra is right." Norbit said. "Ariana and Talia haven't responded back from their phones."
"Well, then let's punch their lights out for a good night knockout." Camilla declared as she punched her fist into her hand.
"This whole thing sounds weird to me." Leia said suspiciously.
"Leia is right." Sage concurred as she walked into the living room next to Selina. "If Casey didn't call Ariana, then who did?"
"I was thinking the same thing. It must be a trap." Kirana said.
"We have to be careful once we're out there." Ezra reminded.
"Casey, Leia, and Kale, you three are coming with us to get the bottom of this." Kirana said.
"Right." Casey, Leia, and Kale understood with a nod.
"Be diligent, everyone. I do sense something malevolent on the horizon." Sage warned.
With that, the team ran out of the living room straight for the fortress exit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the team arrived at the old warehouse from Talia's text message, they crouched on the second floor and quietly looked down at the first floor with wide eyes. They detected Ariana and Talia sitting on their knees on the floor with their arms chained behind their backs.
"Talia! Ariana!" Ezra whispered.
"Oh, thank goodness. Hurry up! Get us out of here!" Ariana whispered back.
"Hold on, sis. We're coming." Camilla said.
Kirana, Camilla, Ezra, Norbit, Casey, Leia, and Kale leapt down from the second floor. They ran quietly to the two hopeless mage kunoichis, but Norbit and Leia stopped running and knew that something's not right in the place.
"Wait, stop!" Leia cried.
Everyone stopped running and turned to face Leia, who signaled them with her hand signals. Kale understood his mage friend and slowly approached in front of Ariana to reach out her face with her hand. But when Kale touched Ariana's face, the purple mage kunoichi was nothing but a fake photographic recording. The heroes gasped in shock as Talia and Ariana disappeared in a puff of black mist.
"Even my aura sense couldn't sense that." Kirana gasped quietly.
"Well, I was expecting only Kirana to show up, but having the rest of you together will make this objective so much easier."
Kirana, Camilla, Ezra, Norbit, Casey, Leia, and Kale searched around the place for the source of Ariana's voice. They looked up at the second floor and their eyes widened in shockingly surprise when a familiar mage ninja revealed himself on a balcony from the shadows.
"Kuro?" Kirana said with a small gasp.
"It is Kuro." Norbit said.
"We know, tincan." Kale snapped.
"You tricked us, Kuro!" Ezra said, with a glare.
"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Kuro said with a sly smile.
Kuro snapped his fingers and four shadow clones had appeared on his side. The holographic Ariana and Talia were standing on the left side of Kuro while staring down sinisterly at the heroes while the holographic Casey and Mr. Murakami stood on the right side with casual looks on their faces.
"Thanks to the voice changing earpiece designed by Donna, you have been easily captured by me." Kuro commented as he pointed a black high-tech advanced microphone in his ear.
"How were you able to get our attention?" Kale asked.
"Donna successfully hacked into your K-Phone signal, but the shadow clones were my idea with new shadow tricks." Kuro explained.
Kuro snapped his fingers again and the four shadow clones disappeared in black mist.
"Now that all of you are here, Sage have the chance to fight me for your lives." Kuro continued.
"Free our sisters right now." Camilla demanded.
"I'm afraid that's not gonna happen, Camilla." Kuro refused.
"And why not?" Camilla snapped.
"Because my friends want to have some fun." Kuro replied with a sinister smile.
Kuro's eyes moved away from the heroes and stared at the darkness in a malevolent manner. Five mage mutants slowly came out of the shadows with evil laughter filling up the place. Jinx had her arms crossed over her chest, Crystallia cracked her neck side to side, Masque snickered evilly, Galva slammed her fist into her hand, and Tigress hissed dangerously.
"Now this is gonna be fun." Tigress said with an evil smile.
Kirana, Camilla, and Ezra summoned out their weapons, Norbit and Kale pulled out their weapons, Leia engulfed black magic in her fists, and Casey took out his hockey sticks. They huddled together in an offensive circle.
"Aw, great." Casey muttered.
The villainesses jumped down from the balcony and landed on the floor before charging forward to their enemies as the heroes charged forward to attack them. Kirana slashed Galva with her twin tessen in a quick elegant attack, but Galva quickly stretched out her right arm to grab the blue mage kunoichi and slammed her several times around herself before slamming Kirana hard to the floor. Camilla rapidly punched Masque with a flurry of strong punches and launched the ghostly mage kunoichi high into the air with the last punch, but Masque encased herself in white plasma energy and charged straight into the red mage kunoichi in a drill-like fashion. Leia jumped high into the air above Jinx and fired a hail of blazing black energy bolts down at her, but Jinx dashed around the place several times and fired several pink energy beams at the dark mage kunoichi from her hands from several directions. Kale unloaded a machine-gun barrage of black energy bolts from his gun at Crystallia while doing several mid-air cartwheels, but Crystallia dashed foward and slashed the alien several times with her left arm as a crystal blade before ending her with a final slash that sent Kale flying to the wall. Casey dropped a few exploding pucks out to the ground and expertly fired them straight to Tigress on his skates, but Tigress unleashed a lightning blast of burnt orange energy from her hand onto the ground that knocked the human vigilante straight to the wall.
The K-5 couldn't take that strength from their enemies when they huddled back together in an offensive line.
"Casey, you have to get out of here and warn mother." Kirana told Casey. "We'll hold them off for you."
"On it." Casey nodded.
"We'll help too." Ezra added. "Norbit!"
"I am coming, Ezra." Norbit said.
Ezra, Norbit, and Norbit ran away from the K-5, who charged back to fight against Shade's henchwomen with everything they got. They ran quickly to the warehouse door to make their escape. Casey's eyes caught the sight of Jinx and Crystallia coming in his way from side to side. With a smirk, Casey dodged the two mage mutants while sliding down on his knees that made both Jinx and Crystallia crashed together into each other. Ezra and Norbit made it the door and watched Casey catching up. Casey was almost close to the warehouse door, but he got kicked down to the floor by Kuro and looked up to glare at him.
"Well, well, well. It's the hockey skating vigilante, always trying to be one of the good guys." Kuro smirked sinisterly. "Makes me wanna puke."
Kuro swiftly kicked Casey hard to the floor, knocking the human vigilante out cold. Norbit charged forward to attack and Ezra helped him out.
"No! Casey!" Kirana shouted.
Kirana quickly got knocked out cold to the floor as Tigress swung her burnt orange energized fist at the blue mage kunoichi. Kale tried unleashing many dark energy bolts out of his gun and Galva punched the alien away. Leia leapt into the air and delivered a series of dark energy ripple-like waves down at Jinx, who lifted her hands out to shot out a powerful blast of pink lightning-like energy at the dark mage kunoichi that knocked her out to the floor. Norbit engaged full rocket fists at Kuro, who dodged the rockets and managed to use his magic to knock out the armored robot. Ezra and Kuro engaged in a fist fight, but Ezra managed to punch Kuro so hard that he spat out blood before he got the opportunity to use his magic to knock the shocked Ezra out cold. Camilla ran towards Masque to deliver a quick flurry of brutal punches at her, but Masque dodged each one and fired a beam of plasma energy from her palms at the red mage kunoichi that send Camilla crashing towards the floor. Kirana, Camilla, Ezra, Norbit, Casey, Leia, and Kale were completely defeated.
Kuro and the villainesses walked over to the unconscious heroes with victorious smiles on their faces.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Six hours later, Camilla was able to recall the events that got her imprison inside the cold, chilly cell in the first place.
"Oh, great. I remember now." Camilla groaned.
"Greetings, K-5."
Camilla's eyes widened wide and looked around to find the source of that familiar voice from the unseen speakers. It turned out that Kuro and the rest of the villainesses are standing inside at the middle of the large, compact laboratory that has a central computer stood right in front of them. They watched the four mage kunoichis and one mage ninja from the monitor as they stared at the video camera footage that have the K-5 in their individual room over the screen.
"You five are about to play a game today." Kuro announced through the microphone from his seat. "Each of you has been placed inside a cell room with an ultimate power outrage."
"Sounds more of Amora's style than yours, Kuro." Camilla remarked.
"Oh, the whole thing was actually Amora's idea in the first place." Kuro said. He turned his face to the ghost mage kunoichi with a grin. "Masque, care to explain your plan for Camilla?"
"I've planned the perfect cell trap just for you, Camilla." Masque said with a sly smile. "The element of fire always keeps your temper driven during our battles."
"Oh yeah? How so?" Camilla asked.
"Simple, Camilla." Kuro said tauntingly. "The first trap for you is the opposite of hot. Got chills yet?"
Camilla could feel the room getting colder and colder by the minute as if the place was lowering the temperature drastically of her surroundings that formed strong ice on the walls, making her drop on her knees to the ground and rubbing her arms to keep herself warm. Kuro and the villainesses shifted their stare on Kirana from the monitor. Kirana sat on the floor in a meditative position inside a cell with the walls made of hard stone that has also no windows and no doors.
"Hello, Kirana." Kuro spoke through the room on his microphone.
"Kuro?" Kirana gasped as she got up on her feet.
"So glad you're up to join the fun." Kuro said darkly. "If you want to save your siblings, you'll have to dodge the boiling fireballs as fast as possible without getting burn in the process."
Kirana looked around the corners of the room and watched the stone walls cracking itself into large fissures filled with molten fire that are infused with balls of fire, forcing the blue mage kunoichi to dodge each one coming in her way.
"So I cranked up the heat to maximum." Kuro added.
"Nice one, Kuro." Masque laughed.
Kuro and the villainesses shifted their stare on Ezra from the monitor. Ezra found himself in a very long chain attached to his feet to the floor in the cell with walls made of hard stone that has also no windows or doors.
"Welcome, Ezra." Kuro spoke through the room on his microphone. "Your trap was my design."
Suddenly, four bricks moved down and water began to pour in the cell, making Ezra gasp in surprise.
"The chains are long enough to get you to the roof once the cell floods." Kuro explained. "But the fun part is when we can see how long you can hold your breath."
"Kuro, your angry and I get it." Ezra tried to reason. "I know what it's like to lose a father you didn't have much time with, but you're making a mistake."
"It doesn't matter." Kuro denied. "You're my enemy, whether you may be right or wrong."
"Maybe you don't trust me, but I feel like you will soon." Ezra said, making Kuro widen his eyes but shook it off.
Kuro and the villainesses shifted their stare on Ariana from the monitor. Ariana found herself strapped in the dental exam chair with her eyes being completely concealed by a black visor with tons of wires while struggling to break free inside a cell with the brick walls that has also no windows and no doors.
"Ariana, let us see if you're smart enough to beat the Air Smasher." Kuro said cruelly.
Ariana gasped as she now found herself standing on a huge metallic saucer floating around the clear sky area as if her mind got transferred into a virtual reality world. Her eyes widened in shock when she looked up to see several huge white cloud balls with large, tooth-filled maws and yellow irises with red pupils hanging on the large cloud ceiling with chains attached to it.
"Avoid the chained balls as they drop to the ground." Kuro continued. "If you get hit many times, you get brain fried."
Ariana moved away from each dropping chained balls as quick as possible, but she suddenly got squashed by a quick chained ball in the virtual world that made her scream out loud in pain from her seat.
"Literally." Kuro said mockingly.
"Excellent pun, Kuro." Masque said with a smile. "Never thought you'll have the dark sense of humor."
"Shut your mouth, ghost girl." Galva said sternly.
Kuro and the villainesses shifted their stare on Talia from the monitor. Talia found herself trapped inside of a steel cage hanging over the gigantic pool of mutagen in the middle of the cell with the brick walls that has also no windows and no doors but it does have a huge clock on the left side of the room while struggling to break free with her whip.
"And last, we have the Drop of Doom." Kuro said wickedly. "The room is similar to the Drop Tower. When the timer hits to zero, the cage will dump down straight into the mutagen all over your poor, little Talia."
"Okay, first, gross." Talia said disgustingly. "And second, who came up with the name anyway?"
"Me and Crystallia." Jinx replied sassily. "It's a good name."
"Figures." Talia said as she rolled her eyes.
"Good luck, K-5." Kuro said sarcastically. "Because you're gonna need it."
"Let them go, Kuro!" Casey shouted.
Kuro turned his seat around and looked down at one human vigilante, one robot companion, one alien, and one dark mage kunoichi, who are chained with shackles around their wrists as they sat on the floor with their knees.
"Can't you see that you're under the control of the mind collar!" Kale cried.
"Shade's using you, Kuro!" Leia said.
"Don't waste your time with your lies!" Kuro snapped harshly. He got off of his seat and crouched down to their faces. "My mother raised me and took care of me years ago. And as long as I have the K-5 at my grasp, Sage will have to come rescue them before witnessing their demise."
"Ezra was telling the truth and so are we." Norbit said.
"It won't work, you all have lost." Kuro snapped.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the Crete Fortress, Sage sat on the floor near the tree in one of her deep meditation position.
Suddenly, a loud ring from her bedroom. She opened her eyes and turned to face her room entrance as she walked inside and picked up the phone when she used her magic to lift up the glass case that covered the phone.
"Hello?" Sage answered.
"Sage!" Casey cried out from the phone.
"Casey, what's wrong?" Sage asked cautiously.
"The K-5 are in a trap and so are you!" Casey shouted.
"Hello, Sage." Kuro greeted sinisterly.
"Shōri?" Sage gasped. "Kuro, answer me! Kuro!"
Then, Kuro hung up the call and Sage immediately ran out of the fortress to save her children.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the city, Sage sped for the tall, abandoned building and quietly snuck inside the entrance. As she peered through the glass hole she'd created, she was suddenly surrounded and confronted by Jinx and Crystallia. Sage easily defeated them by delivering several powerful white energized blows in rapid succession, knocking them unconsciously to the ground. As Sage approached the building second floor, she spotted both Kuro and Shade's minions are stationed down the first floor below. Before she can move, she quickly noticed that someone was standing sneakily behind her. It was Galva, who swung her stretchable arms down at the white mage. Sage dodged out of the way and blasting the goo mage mutant with her powerful white energy beam, sending Inque flying straight to the ceiling in a splat.
Then, Masque jumped high over Sage and unleashed her plasma energy bolts down at her. But Sage's left leg was engulfed in blazingly white energy and she swung her leg to deliver a strong swift kick that sent the plasma mage mutant straight down to the ground, creating a deep hole that knocked Masque out unconsciously.
Sage finally stood face to face against Kuro triumphantly.
"Kuro." Sage said firmly.
"Welcome, Sage." Kuro greeted darkly as his fists engulfed in dark energy. "It's been a while."
"I don't want to fight you, my son." Sage said as her eyes began to glow bright white.
"Don't you dare call me that!" Kuro snapped. "You have no choice but to fight me if you want to save your pathetic children."
Kuro charged forward and fired a drilling beam of dark energy at Sage, who moved out of the way and released a tornado of white light from her palms to attack her son. Kuro jumped high to avoid getting hit and waved his hands to unleash another drilling dark energy beam. Sage dodged away just in time to release tem homing beams of white light. Sage and Kuro took a few steps back and stared hard at each other.
"Shōri, listen to me!" Sage demanded. "I am your mother! Your father's love gave you life!"
"Don't you dare mention his name!" Kuro snapped. "Shade raised me and took care of me! I will destroy you!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, the K-5 are still trapped in their cell rooms. Kirana faced the fast tossing of fireballs, Talia was still trapped in a cage under the mutagen pool, Ezra was floating in the half full room of water as he tried kicking the walls for a way out, Ariana was still wired into a virtual reality game, and Camilla was still freezing in the cold room.
Then, the sound of Camilla groaning made Kirana gasp for a minute.
"Camilla! Can you hear me?" Kirana shouted.
"Yeah, loud and clear!" Camilla shouted back. "But it sounds like you're above me."
Suddenly, Kirana heard Ariana's screaming and noticed that her younger sister is coming from the left side of her cell room.
"Ariana!" Kirana gasped.
"Kirana!" Ariana gasped back. "I can hear you through the walls! I'm struck in some kind of trap!"
"Speak for yourselves!" Talia whimpered. "I'm hanging into a death trap here! I don't know where you guys are anymore!"
"I can barely hear any of you guys!" Ezra groaned. "The room is halfway full of water!"
Kirana suddenly realized that the cell rooms are close to each other in an adjustment position.
"We got to help each other out and work together." Kirana said.
"Kirana, do you have a plan?" Camilla asked.
"I can't find a way out." Ezra panted. "It's pitch black in the water."
"Ariana, we definitely need your scientific IQ right about now." Kirana said.
"Love to, but I can't think right now." Ariana replied firmly. "I've got to focus on the death balls. If I get crush again, I'm seriously gonna get electrocuted."
"And I'm going to get mutate for the first time! I'm gonna hurl just to think what I'm going to turn into!" Talia yelled. She imagined herself being mutated into a skinny blue-green blob with two long tentacle arms and two long tentacle legs. The thought of that made her slashing the bars with her whip in disgust and fear. "Someone get me out of here!"
"Forget it, guys!" Camilla said weakly as she curled herself with her knees close to her chest. "I'm done. I'm a frozen mage now."
"We can't give up, yet!" Ezra encouraged.
In the virtual world, Ariana got crushed again by the chained ball that made her electrocute again for the twelfth time in the real world, making the challenge particularly difficult for her to finish. Her eyes widened wide from the reality world when she realized that all of the trap cell rooms might be wired together.
"Alright, guys, listen up!" Ariana shouted. "I've figured out that all of the mechanical and electronic circuits of these traps are tied to each other!"
"Okay, I got it." Kirana said with a nod.
Kirana summoned out her twin tessen and spun herself around in rapid speed to turn into a piercing drill as she burrowed herself down to the ground in remarkable high speed that lead her down through the ceiling into Camilla's cell, where she saw the red mage kunoichi shivering narrowly onto her life. Kirana tossed one of her twin tessen like a boomerang to destroy the chilling controls within the icy walls, slicing an electrical cord inside and shutting off the cold in the cell room that restored the cell room back to normal body temperature. Then, Kirana ran up to her younger shivering sister.
"Camilla! Are you alright?" Kirana asked worryingly.
"I'm good." Camilla groaned with a thumb-up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sage and Kuro continued to fight each other for the K-5. Casey and Kale watched the battle while Leia silently tried to unlock the handcuffs with her dark magic.
"You can do it, Sage!" Casey shouted.
"Knock him off of his feet." Norbit tried to encourage.
"You might be getting it, tincan." Kale said.
Quickly, Sage chained Kuro down to the ground with her white magic.
"Please, do not make me fight you." Sage begged.
Kuro slowly transformed into his mutant wolf form and broke free from the white energy chains.
"You have no choice." Kuro snarled as he stood over the white mage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the cell rooms, Kirana sliced the walls with her twin tessen and managed to break right into Talia's cell room as Camilla slowly followed behind while trying to unfreeze herself with her magic.
"Talia!" Kirana shouted.
"Girls, thank goodness! Now, get me out!" Talia yelled.
Kirana looked up to see the timer have set to zero and watched the cage that contained her youngest sister inside being released to free-fall down in rapid heavy acceleration. Talia screamed in terror as she feared for her first mutation. Kirana quickly used her twin tessen to cut Talia out from the cage just as the orange mage kunoichi was about to get dropped down into the mutagen. Kirana, Camilla, and Talia hang themselves on to the chain that was still connected to the cage in the mutagen pool.
"What a relief." Talia sighed. "Thanks for the save, Kirana."
"No problem, Talia." Kirana said. "But we got to find to Ariana and Ezra!"
Kirana used her twin tessen to release a large wave of blue energy at the wall, breaking right into Ariana's cell room as the purple mage kunoichi was still straining in pain while continuing to get electrocuted in the process.
"Hang on, Ariana. I'll cut you out of there." Kirana said as she hold her twin tessen in the air.
"No, don't do it! The visor is totally wired into my mind. If you try to free me, you'll zap me." Ariana explained.
"My K-Phone got about 60 puzzle apps, so leave this to me." Talia said bravely.
Talia cracked her knuckles and walked over her older sister. She put her hands on each side of the visor and slowly removed it out from Ariana's eyes, causing herself to electrocute and rescuing the purple mage kunoichi from the deadly trap game. That brave action left Ariana completely awestruck.
"Thanks, Talia, you're awesome." Ariana smiled.
"Yeah." Talia smiled back with a weak cough. "It's what I totally do with my supreme awesomeness."
Talia then fell straight to the floor backwards as Ariana, Kirana, and Camilla watched with blank faces.
"Okay, now where's Ezra?" Camilla asked.
The K-5 sisters heard banging from the wall and saw a tiny leak of water coming in. That made the sisters gasp in shock and ran to the wall.
Meanwhile in the flooded room, Ezra was on the top of the roof as the room was nearly flooded. He heard a brick falling in another room and saw Kirana's face.
"Kirana!" Ezra smiled. "You gotta help me! I need to make a hole."
Kirana nodded and dove in the water. Ezra held his breath and dived down as well. Kirana and Ezra swam to the other wall and used their magic to make a huge hole in the wall. The room began to loose the water and both Kirana and Ezra held onto the chain to keep themselves close from the spill. Once the water was clear, the other mages rushed in and Camilla used her magic to disintegrate the chain on Ezra.
"That was too close." Ezra breathed out.
"Well, at least you're safe." Kirana panted.
The K-5 got together in a group hug, thankful to still be alive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back to the mystic fight, Sage ran forward and blocked Kuro's dark energy claws. Her eyes quickly caught the attention of her five children free from the deadly traps on a nearby monitor.
"Surrender now, my son." Sage pleaded firmly. "You are defeated. My children are free."
"I will never surrender to you, Sage!" Kuro snapped. "Not now, not never!"
A sudden portal made of dark energy was formed right behind Kuro, who immediately leaped right into it to perform an unexpected attack. Unknown to him, Sage had more enough time to prepare for the healing spell.
"Iyashi tengoku." Sage uttered. "Iyashi tengoku. Iyashi tengoku!"
Sage's hands suddenly glowed bright white and closed her eyes shut. Seven black portals surrounded Sage in a circle and Kuro came to attack her from each portal, forcing the white mage to dodge one by one while chanting her magic spell at the same time. Kuro finally jumped out of the last dark portal and attempted a drastic move on the white mage, but Sage swiftly striked the wolf mage mutant with two-fingered white magic while still chanting the spell mantra on her son. Before Sage could finish the spell, she stared at Kuro with a soft look on her face.
"I love you, Shōri." Sage said gently.
Sage charged forward and striked her two white energized fingers to Kuro's head. Kuro screamed painfully when the spell was starting to effect him greatly as a surge of white magic zapped the worm-like necklace on his neck, causing him to lose control and fell down into a dark energy portal on the floor. Sage immediately ran forward to catch her son, but she was too late after the portal closed. Casey, Norbit, Leia, and Kale quietly comforted the white mage as Sage's eyes began tearing up.
"Shōri! No!" Sage murmured.
"You should known that victory will always come at a price, Sage!" Tigress said slyly as she slowly emerged from the shadows.
Tigress slowly used her burnt orange energy to create two massive heavy guns from her hands. But before she can fire straight at Sage and three other teenagers, Norbit fired a tiny rocket at Tigress' jetpack.
"Aw rats." Tigress gulped.
Tigress screamed as she went out of control and flew away. The K-5 suddenly arrived in the scene.
Kirana, Camilla, Ariana, Talia, and Ezra immediately ran up to their mother and their allies.
"I trust that the five of you are all unharmed." Sage said sadly.
"Mother, what happened?" Ezra asked.
"Kuro forced me into battle, but the Healing Heaven should have help him." Sage explained. "I'm afraid that we will never see Shori again."
"You can never give up hope. You taught me that since I was a kid, mother. It was the greatest lesson that brought us all as a team." Kirana said softly as she put her hand on her mother's right shoulder.
Sage looked at Kirana and then looked at her children and her friends. They all smiled at her in agreement. Sage smiled back and got up from the ground to face them.
"Of course, let's head home." Sage said with a grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside, Kuro laid to the ground on the building rooftop. Because of Sage's Healing Heaven spell, Kuro's eyes became hazy as he could barely see his surroundings. As the rooftop area became clearer in his eyes, Kuro found himself on his knees and ripped the metallic worm-like necklace right out of his neck. He looked down to see pulsing yellow light on his left hand and pulsing black light on his right hand, knowing that he has possessed both light and dark magic within him. His eyes immediately caught the sight of the metallic worm, who was looking up at him with a loud screech.
With a dark glare on his face, Kuro slowly swiped his index and middle fingers forward to fire a strong ray of yellow light towards the metallic worm, blasting the creature into ashes effectively.