Chapter 11: Catwoman
The dark sky loomed over Ninjago City with the crescent moon casted high above. All was quiet within the city, mainly the northern part of the city. Downtown Ninjago City was bustling with people seeking for a night out. But it didn't seem all too quiet for one individual. For she had a mission, to seek for the one who had murdered her to become a new person. And she knew where to start.
Nya gazed at the half cat mask, with its ear protruding from the velvet case and lower mouth piece removed, in her hands to smile softly as she slipped it over her face to have it feel like a masquerade mask. It felt like it was made for her. The girl stared at the mirror of her suit she had made for herself for being Catwoman, compromised of a light black leather unitard to allow mobility with boots that reached up to her knees, a black utility belt, and gloves that climbed to her elbows with retractable claws. Thanks to Dawn's help creating the suit, she was Catwoman now and was ready to find out who had killed her to be this. Or take a stroll to see what museums had jewels on display. Either way, the samurai was ready to head out.
The girl stepped into cool night of the city while closing her bedroom window softly to not disturb Laurie as she slept and used her cat-like abilities to jump to a higher building to gaze around her surroundings. All seemed quiet for her, which she felt humble for to begin her investigation to have her head turned towards the place where she died at. "Okay, Nya..." she said to herself. "Let's see what we can find that the cops couldn't." She drew in a deep breath with her arms spread as she fell forward.
The air brushed past her face as she done this, but quickly drew out the whip attached to her belt to quickly lash it out and attach to the pipes of a water tower and pulled to launch herself to the building's side. Thankful her claws helped become attached to the wall and gracefully help climb up the ledge and began sprinting across the rooftops. The girl jumped over the air ducts that stood in her path, leaped across the rooftops, and even moved on her hands and legs to move as a cat. All of this amazed the girl as she ran, she didn't even realize she had run to her destination rather quickly than she thought.
Nya stopped on a rooftop next to the burnt conservatory to have her eyes enhanced on the remains to see if anyone was around and quickly jumped down to land softly from the high story building without breaking any bones in her legs. Land gracefully like a cat would. She had to purr lightly in her throat for that.
The smoldering smell of ash and smoke still lingered in the air days after the fire. The girl sighed softly to herself as she was familiar with the smell from years in the blacksmith shop her brother and parents lived in. It brought nostalgia to her. In ways, she missed Four Weapons, managing the shop while her brother worked on making weapons. But she still like being the samurai while her brother was a ninja, but she was now Catwoman.
The samurai finally shook her thoughts away to begin her investigation without any distractions. But yet, she didn't know where to start. In her mind, she began to reinvision the building on how it was before the fire and darted her eyes to the alley from where she followed Blossom to. She shrugged as it was a start and carefully began to walk on the blackened wooden floors, ensuring they wouldn't collapse to let her fall into the basement. To point out a visualation, she retraced her footsteps from where the stairs were that lead from the basement to the skylight room. She began to feel that it was starting to become pointless as everything was ruined as she walked to revision everything in her mind, exactly where everything was. But she finally stopped as she came to where the office was. Everything began to come back to her on the incident.
Her brown eyes glanced around the large empty area to see where the desk and filing cabinets were. But her eyes focused to where two doors stood to another room that had two people bickering with a board tacking on people that had to be killed off. Even if it was her brother and friends. She quickly glanced to the area to search around in the ashes and finally felt something hard to quickly pull the gun she had seen being pointed at someone, but to only scoff as it was damage and most likely the evidence was destroyed. She sighed, but her eyes glanced to the hole in the floor to carefully crept to it and peer over to gasp quietly to what she saw.
She only blinked to what she saw to pinch herself to ensure she wasn't imagining to it. But she did wince to her claws on her skin as it was true. A large pink flower blooming in the basement of the conservatory. She felt baffled to how such a thing could grow in size. Or even survive from the fire. Something didn't feel right to the girl. She couldn't put her finger on it.
Her ears perked to the sound of approaching footsteps to feel her heart beat rapidly to quickly turn away and jumped high up onto a building roof, but still peered over the edge to see who was coming. A man was approaching to the ashen remains of the conservatory to have Nya suspicious on why he was there at this hour in the night. But the thing she kept getting distracted from was his bright green hair to have her lean forward more to enhance her eyes to view closely on him. Her eyes widen as he looked familiar to her as he was the one in the conservatory. Could this be the one that killed me? she wondered. But yet, why come back here? Nothing survived.
Nya kept studying the man as he was searching around the rubble, but only heard him scream in frustration to have her become curious on him. The green haired man threw fallen bricks into the rubble around to vent his anger and threw a brick high to almost hit Nya on the roof ledge. The girl knew he had some answers she needed. But she had to wait for him to move and corner him. The man finally stopped to scoff away into an alley. Nya found the moment to quietly follow after across the rooftops.
Silence surrounded the green haired man as he walked down the narrow alley to huff to himself as everything he had was ruined and gone. Unaware of the girl in black quietly following him. His footsteps echoed along the dirt path to kick dusts clouds onto his shoes as he walked to try and clear his head, figuring now on what to do for his goal. But he quickly stopped in his tracks to the sound of soft footsteps behind him to quickly turn on his heels to see nothing behind him. He shrugged his shoulders as he probably thought it was his imagination to turn back, but to quickly stop as a girl in black with a cat mask stood in front of him.
"Hello, big boy," Nya greeted him to roughly shove him against the wall. The man shook his head to wake himself on what was happening to push himself back up and quickly reached into his coat to pull out a gun. The samurai saw this to quickly grab her whip to crack it at the gun to wretch it from his hand and ducked his punch to plant her hands to the ground and swung her legs to strike his chest and his legs to cause him to fall to the ground. In the end, the girl sat on the man's chest to draw her right arm back to extend her claws. "I'm actually glad you came, otherwise I wouldn't cross paths with you."
The man underneath her felt petrified to her to see her claws to feel his mouth become dry to talk. Nya had to laugh to herself quietly to use her free hand to quickly reach into his mouth to pull out his tongue to make him squawk as he tried to talk. "What's the matter?" she teased. "Cat got your tongue?" She lets his tongue go free. "That fire over there, there was a little girl who got trapped in the blaze. She and her brother got out safely, but the girl died. And I've been sent to find out who started the fire. What do you know, I find you."
The man was shaking in fear to this. How could this person dressed as a cat know of anything of the fire? But it wasn't him who started it. His partner was the one who had the gun aimed at him and when she fired it at someone who was spying them, that's when the fire started. "I'm not the one who started the fire." he exclaimed. "It was my partner that fired that gun to cause the fire. I had nothing to do with it."
"And yet you wanted to kill politicians and even the Ninja besides the orange and green ninja." she retorted to make his eyes turn wide on his plans. "Then where is your partner?"
"She's dead." he smirked a little. "She and I wrestled for the gun and pushed her to where she fell and was never seen again. Most likely gone like the girl that you're avenging." Nya snarled at him to this to release her hold on him, but quickly slashed her claws across his cheek to hear him cry out loudly. After that, she got off of him to walk away.
Oak winced to the scratch across his right cheek to place his hand on his face to whimper to the tenderness of his marks. Luckily for him, faint trails of blood only appeared on his palm. He watched Nya walk away as he pulled himself to his feet to snort. "Crazy women these days." he grumbled. "They just want to kill you and claw you for the actions you've done." He scoffed at her once again and turned the other way.
Unknown the green haired man, pink mist blew from the grates of a sewer after he walked past it and slowly crept over to him. The man stopped in his tracks as he felt something brush across his skin and soon into his nose to feel his olfactory senses become warm. It smelled sweet, with lilacs and roses. But soon his heart was racing to feel his blood become warm to feel his body lose control. "Oak. . ." a quiet voice spoke softly. Nya stopped in her tracks to feel her ears perk to the sound of a voice to smell something plain to peer over her shoulder to see the green haired man standing still. "Follow my voice. . . Come to me. . . I missed you. . ."
Nya, hearing the voice as well, watched the man skeptically to watch him move like he didn't have any control of his body as he removed the nearest sewer cover and descended below ground. The samurai quickly rushed over to the sewer entrance to crinkle her nose to the foul smell of the sewer, but watched him as he was now gone from her sights. Curiously, she jumped down to landed softly on the solid ground to be encased in darkness. But her eyes lit up to see everything around her, like her own biological night vision. And she clearly saw the man walk down the long corridor of the sewer to quietly follow after him.
Quietness surrounded the girl as she followed him, but to her surprise she noticed how the man just walked as if he knew where to go. The sewers were a large maze after all. As she walked behind, she noticed long, leafy vines climb along the walls to raise a brow. A large clearing was coming into view to quickly hide behind a tangle of vines that hung from the ceiling to gasp quietly to the large fortress of vines and plants to become quiet as the vines at the center were moving as the man remained still. From the vines, a woman with green skin and bright red hair walked out of the tangle of vines to smile softly as she walked in front of the man.
The man remained still, but shook his head as he felt control of his body, but became startled to the sight of the woman in front of him. His eyes became wide as he recognized her. "I-Ivy?" he baffled. "I-I thought you were dead."
"So did I," the meta-human said as she walked around him. "But my plants saved me." She stared at her hand to conjure a vine to wrap around her arm to sprout a hibiscus flower to make the man become nervous. "My blood has been replaced by chlorophyll. I can produce a pheromone to make any man fall under my control. I can even conjure any plants to my control." She smiled softly to the man to see him become tense still. "Don't worry, you're safe. And I need your help with something. For me?"
Nya, hearing all, became tense to sight of the girl to become curious on her. This was the one that started the fire, but she too was killed by the man in front of her. She wanted to avenge her death onto her, but yet something made her not want to do it. Something in her head kept telling her that she looked innocent to her. Maybe to her, they could be allies, but yet what were her plans to use Oak's help? Instead of attacking the meta-human, Nya turned on her heels to walk away from the leafy fortress, vowing she'll return the next night to confront the girl.