Chapter 9: Puzzled Cats

Sunlight broke through the closed curtains of the bedroom. Darkness consumed the bedroom in its soft embrace, like a soft blanket. All was quiet in the small shared bedroom, no one to be disturbed within. But yet there was only one individual inside still asleep. And to her, she was enjoying the needed sleep. But it didn't help her as the single beam of sunlight was directly on her face to make her groan and turn over in her slumber. Instead, she finally sat up tiredly in her bed to stifle a yawn and stretch herself out.

All seemed quiet for the samurai as she scanned around for Laurie, but she couldn't find the orange ninja around. She even couldn't hear any commotion happening on the upper deck with the guys. She had to shrug to it. Probably down at Dareth's to train. she wondered at turned to the clock to see the clock. But all she done was blink as it was almost noon. To that, she quickly scrambled out of her bed to throw the curtains open and rushed into the bathroom to run a shower.

And after the quick shower and fresh clothes on, Nya quickly rushed to her bedside table to find her bracelet, but couldn't find it anywhere. She looked under her bed and in her wardrobe, but couldn't find the piece of jewelry. But her eyes finally caught trace of a red gem underneath the covers of her bed to smile softly to quickly rush to it and moved the covers off. But her smile vanished to have her eyes enlarged to what she saw. Her jaw just dropped.

Laid all over her bed was nothing but jewelry she had never seen in her life. And she knew it wasn't even hers. Rings, bracelets, and necklaces, even a tiara sprawled all over her bed to make her panic and looked over her shoulder in case someone was to enter in, but no one came. She felt relieved but still, this was jewelry that wasn't hers and had to do something about it before Laurie, Jay, or one of the other ninjas, or even Sensei Wu enter in on her. Then she wouldn't know how to explain this one then.

Without wasting a breath, the samurai quickly raced out of the bedroom to grab a paper bag to begin filling it with the stolen jewelry. Her heart was racing as she was afraid one of her friends would enter in to quickly toss everything in the bag. But she stopped at the sight of a ring encrusted with sapphires to slip it onto her finger to stare at it in awe. I wonder if Jay will like to see me with this. she wondered. It has our favorite color. She quickly shook her head on the thought to take the ring off and toss it on the bag to then hear her bracelet blaring a bit and turned the gemstone to see a news update appear showing her an image of a jewelry store robbery.

She had to look at the bag and wondered if that's where the stolen jewelry came from.

Hazel eyes scanned every nook and cranny as he stood in the center of the robbed jewelry store to gaze up at the railed upper floors in the center to raise a brow. All he saw were holes in the marble columns as if someone was shooting for someone on the railings. Something didn't seem to make sense to him or his friends as they stood next to him. Why had the police called for their help? "So. . . What are we here for exactly?" he finally asked as the police and forensic team surveyed the store. He felt lost to be here and not fight any Serpentine crimes.

Dark blue eyes turned to him from the panel in his left arm as he was typing something into to close the panel. "Well from what the chief has told was that the robbers were ambushed by a single woman," Zane explained.

"Only by her?" Cole acquired with a bushy brow raised. But he just shrugged. "Well a woman can't say no to jewelry then to rob this place." He felt a sharp smack on the back of his head to wince and hold the back of his head as he turned to Laurie for she had smacked him with her weapon. "Ow! What did I say?" The red head just huffed and turned her back on him.

A small snicker escaped from the blue and green ninja on the black ninja's words to make Lucas rolled his eyes to the two and walked up to the white ninja as Cole and Laurie were arguing behind him. "So anything else did they say in the report about this . . . cat burglar?" he wondered.

"You know, that was the thing the intended robbers mentioned to the police." Zane said to turn to the others. "They said that she scaled along the railings, walls, and moved swiftly as a cat. Her speed and agility was too quick for them."

With that announced, they were left confused. A woman moving like a cat to rob the store and fight the robbers. For what, competition? "So we were called to investigate for a cat burglar?" Lloyd wondered after gazing away from a broken case. A small smile formed underneath his mask. "That actually sounds pretty cool. I wonder if she can fight against a ninja like you guys. Or what if she can turn into a big cat like a werewolf almost."

"Lloyd, this is serious right now," Laurie stated, but sighed as his smile remained. "Cat burglars aren't cool, this is serious." She turned to the nindroid. "Have we found any clues of her identity or where she came from? And does the police want us to catch her?"

"If the police called us, of course they want us to catch her," the blue ninja whined to turn on his heels to head for the door. The others followed behind him. "It's that obvious. I'd rather fight Serpentine or go against one of Garmadon's attack with the Mega-Weapon of his. Not catch a... thief?" He had paused to what stood in the middle of the foyer of the store.

All he could do was blink, along with the others, as they stared at a paper bag with elegant handwriting on the side. Sorry. The blue ninja remained still to this enigma to look over his shoulder if any of the police notice the bag as Lucas carefully walked to the bag to draw out a sai to open the bag. All of the Ninja blinked as it was the stolen jewelry from the store. The water ninja looked over the bag to see a box from a bakery behind it to use his weapon to open the lid to blink. "Cupcakes," Lucas said, puzzled with a small smile.

Jay raised his scarred brow to look away and think.

Silence surrounded the samurai as she stared at the large computer in the Destiny Bounty's bridge to tap her chin in wonder. After returning the stolen jewelry back at the store, Nya felt puzzled on where that jewelry had come from and had no memory of it. Had she stolen it? Or was she been accused? Either way, it confused her. She wanted answers of something, but she didn't know where to start. Her fingers tapped on the keys to ponder, but she felt her mind take control as they began to type on the keyboard. Cat Burglar.

The results she received astounded her to blink as she skimmed through them. Apparently Ninjago has had many cat burglars encounters to make her lose count on the many articles and links she searched up. But something caught her attention to have her raise a brow to the articles she read about cat burglars saying people or stealing from banks or stores, Cat woman. She had to wonder and typed in the word to receive new results to search through each link.

All she could was be amazed to what she read. Ancient tales of a woman as a cat goddess with cat-like abilities ruling in the Sea of Sands in Ninjago. In war against the Serpentine tribes in the past. Even the images she received puzzled her as they showed images of ancient Ninjago, noble women, princesses, female warriors. Even hieroglyphics in Serpentine language showing images of cats with snakes. But what surprised her was images of a familiar sandy colored fur coat with black specks running along its back. The same kind of cat she had seen before many times.

Rawn!

Speaking of which, the girl quickly turned on the tip of her toes to stare at the sandy furred cat that sat on the railing outside of the bridge to look at the images of the same cat to see a match form in her head. In hesitation, she quickly ran out to grab the cat as it greeted her while licking its paw. And around its neck, she noticed a collar and tag on it. "Alright you," she muttered to it as she looked for the tags address. "Who do you belong to?"

Knock knock knock

The door opened to have Nya greeted by a girl in which she looked like she was in her teen years, long black hair draping past her shoulder with green-grey eyes glistening in the sun. Nya tried to smile, but in a rush with everything happening around her while carrying a cat, it couldn't be formed. "Are you Dawn Mori!?" she asked hesitantly and held up the cat. "And is this your cat?"

The girl stared at the cat to smile past it to make eye contact with Nya to smile at her. "Oh Blossom," she said. "You brought home a friend." Nya raised a brow confused to her reaction and answer.

A friend?