Summary: The Lotus Ninjas track their yokai ally to the location of the yokai coven after they were attacked by a mysterious, yet dangerous yokai.
On a foggy night, the Lotus Ninjas silently stood on the edge of a building rooftop.
"Shade may be gone. But no doubt her allies are still out there. Stay alert, girls." Lee said cautiously.
"You don't have to tell me twice." Ellie said as she placed her hands on her hips. "I can't believe I miss my Justice Force stories for this."
"And you wonder why we think you're annoying." Ella said as she rolled her eyes.
"Girls, come on. Now's not the time." Donna said.
"Ha! Did you really think I was gone?"
The echoing sound of Shade's voice made the Lotus Ninjas summon their magic. As they searched their surroundings for any sign of the Shadow Clan leader, a long chain out of black energy lashed forward and wrapped around Ellie's right arm. Ellie quickly noticed, but it was too late for her to react. The black energized chain lifted the screaming orange mystic kunoichi upwards and then dragged her off into the fog from below that caught her older sisters' attention.
"Ellie, no!" Ella cried.
Then suddenly, a giant, spectral Lady Shade rose from the mist and stood above Lee, Ella, and Donna with a sinister laugh.
With a yell, Ella charged forward with her fire-covered fists. But Lady Shade created a black energized whip to wrap the flaming fists together tightly and pulled the red mystic kunoichi close towards her. Lady Shade then delivered a powerful punch to Ella's face that sent her flying into the mist.
"Ella! Let's take her down, Donna!" Lee ordered.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Donna shouted.
Lee and Donna charged forward towards the Shadow Clan leader as they raced on the opposite side of the rooftop to strike an attack from Donna's earth magic and from Lee's water magic. Lady Shade countered with a brutal three punch combo that sent the blue mystic kunoichi flying to the ground away from her. Donna swiftly dove at Lady Shade with snake-like vines until the Shadow Clan leader delivered powerful quick jabs to the purple mystic kunoichi's chest and sent her final jab that was strong enough to send Donna flying into the mist. Lee could barely stand on her feet as she watched Lady Shade looming towards her with black energized steel claws with wide, terrifying eyes.
"Three down, one to go." Lady Shade said.
With that, Lady Shade swiftly attacked Lee with a quick slash.
Suddenly, Saldana instantly woke up from her devastating nightmare.
"Noooooo!" Saldana screamed.
While taking deep breaths, Saldana tried to get control of herself from her nightmare.
"That was some dream." Saldana muttered. "But it almost felt real."
Saldana walked out of the dojo and into the living room, where Phantom, Ekron, Ryoko, and Izuna ran up to check on her.
"It's alright." Saldana assured. "Just a bad dream. Perhaps, a cup of water will calm my mind."
Ekron and Ryoko nodded as they zoomed into the kitchen. Phantom carried Saldana to the couch in the living room just as Izuna sat onto the mystic's lap for comfort.
"I hope my daughters stay safe tonight." Saldana said, patting Izuna on the head.
At the NYC Arcade Center, the Lotus Ninjas surrounded the arcade machine. Ellie held onto the joystick and pressed buttons rapidly at the fighting game. Ella popped her bubblegum, Lee chomped onto her chocolate candy bar, and Donna was recording the gameplay on her phone as they watched their youngest sister play the game.
"I don't know why people find this game challenging. This is nothing." Ella said with a scoff.
"You got this, Ellie." Donna said with a smile.
With a determined grin, Ellie finished fighting the final boss and earned the highest score.
"Boom goes the dynamite!" Ellie cheered as she began typing her name on her new high score.
"The video game queen has done it again." Lee smiled.
Ellie, Ella, Lee, and Donna exited their way out of the venue.
"So, what do you girls wanna do next?" Lee asked.
"I'm so great you ask because I've got the perfect place to go!" Ellie smiled. She took out her phone and showed the screen to her older sisters. "Check. It. Out!"
Ella, Lee, and Donna looked at the phone that revealed a familiar location.
"Coney Island?" Ella said.
"We haven't been there since we were kids." Donna said.
"I don't mind going back there. The night is still young." Lee said.
"My thoughts exactly." Ellie said with a smile.
Ten minutes later, the Sonicruiser arrived and pulled into a parking spot. Lee got out of the vehicle. Ellie opened the door and she, Donna, and Ella hopped out. They all peered out through the door with excited eyes before coming out of the car. The girls strolled together as they walked by a booth that was selling cotton candy.
"Wooow! This place hasn't changed a bit!" Ellie beamed. "So, go check out the rides."
"But which one?" Ella asked with a smile.
"Let's enjoy every single one of them." Lee said. "Once you're done, let's meet together at the food stands."
"Roger!" Ellie, Ella, and Donna nodded.
Ellie, Ella, Donna, and Lee scattered away to search for amazing rides they can enjoy.
A cloaked yokai stood silently on a building rooftop. His eyes then turned to the vibrating scallop that caught his attention. He took it out and opened it to project a holographic image of three mystics in throne chairs.
"Mistress, you contact me?" The yokai spoke. "Is it urgent?"
"We have detected a rogue yokai hiding within Coney Island." The elderly mystic reported.
"This rogue yokai happens to be one of the most dangerous yokais in history." The child yokai said.
"We want you to investigate and contain it at all cost." The adult mystic ordered.
Donna and Ellie raced over to the roller coaster. They screamed wildly throughout two vertical loops, a banked turn, two non-inverting loops, and the cobra roll.
What the mystic sisters didn't notice as they enjoyed the ride was a mysterious black, shadow-like creature standing on top of the high tent. He was watching them with observing eyes. He has a tall, slender body with long flat arms that have three-fingered hands, three short spikes on his head, a dark gray zigzagging mouth, and a pair of bluish violet eyes with slit pupils.
"Looks like tonight's gonna be interesting." The creature muttered. "Normally, I've been feeding never-ending dreams and nightmares on humans for thousands of years. But now..." He let out a dark chuckle. "Mystics."
The creature disappeared in a puff of swirling smoke.
After Donna and Ellie got off, they laughed in amazement as they strolled through the crowd to find the next ride. The creature narrowed his eyes and quietly slithered towards the mystic sisters.
Then, Donna halted herself on the exit when she heard a small hissing in the area. She tapped her right foot on the ground, picking up any vibration activities throughout the park. In a quick second, she got the presence of a mysterious creature slithering straight in her direction.
"What's wrong, D?" Ellie asked, noticing the alerting look on Donna's face.
"Someone is watching us." Donna whispered in alarm. "Let's head to the parking lot."
Quickly, Donna and Ellie sped past the crowd as the mysterious creature continued slithering after them. They arrived at the parking lot and huddled close together as they drew out their magic while searching around the area. Donna and Ellie then turned around and found themselves face to face with the mysterious creature.
"So, you are mystics, after all. This night is going to be very delightful." The mysterious creature said with a grin.
Donna and Ellie's eyes widened wide in a mix of shock and surprise.
"What. The. Heck. Is. That?!" Ellie exclaimed.
"I don't know, but we're gonna have to fight it to find out." Donna replied.
The shadowy yokai stretched out his arms forward towards the mystic kunoichis. But Donna quickly created a wall of earth that deflected the yokai's attack. The shadowy yokai then charged two large spheres of reddish-black energy from his hands and tossed them at Donna and Ellie. Donna and Ellie backflipped, avoiding the large spheres from hitting them. Ellie lunged forward and created a long chain out of solid air that wrapped around the shadowy yokai and restrained him.
"Not bad, but not good enough." The shadowy yokai said with a smile. "I'll try the other two."
The shadowy yokai freed himself from Ellie's air chain and slithered away.
"Oh, no! He's going after Lee and Ella!" Ellie cried.
"We got to follow him." Donna said.
Lee and Ella enjoyed steering past other bumper cars. Ella kept trying to bump Lee, who raced away with a smile. After they got off, their eyes moved at the sight of the high striker game and exchanged competitive grins. Ella and Lee sped over and picked up the hammer. They glanced at each other with challenging smiles and then smashed down the hammer, hitting the puck up to the bell on top of the tower and causing the bell itself to break. The wide-eyed man stared at the broken bell as Lee and Ella high-fived with victorious smiles.
The shadowy yokai observed Lee and Ella on top of the ring toss game with a dark smile. He quietly slithered towards the mystic sisters and lifted his arms for the grab, but Lee and Ella immediately zoomed away. The shadowy yokai looked very confused. He shook it off with a growl and slithered after the mystic sisters, who were nowhere in his sights.
Once the shadowy yokai arrived at the beach area, a strong stream of water was shot out and attacked him in one strike, sending him to fall and crash onto the sand. He rose back up and caught Lee and Ella standing towards him while drawing out their magic.
"I don't know who you think you are, but trying to ruin our fun night and you're gonna pay." Ella said.
"Then, let's see if you two are more fun than the other two." The shadowy yokai grinned.
"Take him down." Lee said.
The shadowy yokai stretched out his arms forward towards the mystic kunoichis. But Lee and Ella quickly jumped in the air and fired their magic together into a large blast of water and fire that made the shadowy yokai evade quickly. The shadowy yokai then charged two large spheres of reddish-black energy from his hands and tossed them at Lee and Ella.
Out of nowhere, a cloaked yokai stood in front of Lee and Ella as he slashed the energy spheres in half with purple-cyan claws and destroyed them. He looked up at the shadowy yokai in a fighting stance.
"Another time then." The shadowy yokai said.
The shadowy yokai slithered away high in the sky.
"It's you." Lee said with a surprise expression.
"Do you know that creep?" Ella demanded.
"Yes." The yokai replied. "But he's none of your concern."
"In case you haven't noticed, that thing just attacked us!" Ella snapped. She stealthily placed a small tracker on the bottom of the yokai's cloak. "And like it or not, we need to know what he is and take him down if he attacks again!"
"Like I said, it's not your concern." The yokai said as he started walking away.
"Look, you called yourself our ally when we first met." Lee said. "The least you can do is tell us , so we can help each other."
"Sorry. I...can't." The yokai said.
With that, the yokai sprang into the sky and disappeared.
"That doesn't surprise me." Lee said with a sigh. She turned to her younger sister. "Ella?"
"Already did it." Ella grinned with a thumb up.
Then, Lee felt her phone vibrating from her pocket and took it out to answer the call.
"Ellie?" Lee answered.
"Lee! Thank goodness." Ellie said. "You're not gonna believe what happened."
"Let me guess. A strange creature attacked you as a creepy shadow?" Lee said.
"Yeah. How do you know?" Ellie asked.
"Ella and I just ran into him, but he's gone for now." Lee replied. "And tell Donna to activate the tracker right now. We'll explain everything once we find you."
Meanwhile, the cloaked yokai was running across the building rooftops at fast speed. Donna, Lee, Ella, and Ellie followed after him from rooftop to rooftop as they began using a tracking device to follow the signal of their tracker. The cloaked yokai leaped down to the grass and ran forward with swift stealth.
The Lotus Ninjas stopped on the highest building rooftop.
"Where did he go?" Lee asked.
"There." Donna replied, pointing her finger in front of her.
Lee, Ella, and Ellie followed Donna's gaze to a two-story mansion setting on an uninhabited island across the city. The mansion was built in a Victorian Gothic architecture with thirty Ionic and Corinthian fluted cypress columns, endless verandas, a regal stone and cast-iron front gate with lanterns, and elegant windows.
"Oh, wow." Ella gasped incredulously.
"You can say that again." Ellie agreed.
"No wonder why he doesn't want us to know more about him." Lee said. "But he needs to know that just because that creature attacked us doesn't mean we should stay out of it."
"And how do you suppose we get in?" Ellie asked. "We may be kunoichis, but it's obvious that he got who knows how many backups with him even if we do manage to sneak in."
"That's why I've created a spell for just a special occasion." Donna smiled. She raised her left arm with a glowing hand. "Shinshuku-shiki kabutomushi."
A small orb of purple energy was created over Donna's glowing hand and shaped itself into a scarab. It unfolded its wings and flew above the mystic kunoichis while staring at the mansion.
"With this spell, my scarab can spot and scan the mansion and anyone in it from a mile away." Donna explained to her sisters. "Once my spell is complete, we'll have anything we need for this mission."
Back in the Crete Fortress, the Lotus Ninjas, Irma, and Aaliyah looked at the holographic blueprints of the mysterious mansion. They began to concoct a plan to infiltrate the yokai's place of residence.
"What'cha got?" Lee asked Donna.
"My scarab successfully downloaded the entire mansion from top to bottom. Both the lower and middle floors are crawling with yokais, which it's all that I can tell." Donna explained.
"Yokais?" Ellie and Aaliyah repeated.
"Mysterious, supernatural beings that are often known to be called ghosts, demons, shapeshifters, tricksters in Japan." Lee clarified.
"So, what about the upper floor?" Ella asked.
"Well, that's gonna be a problem. The top floor is completely blank." Irma explained. "Whatever they built up there, they didn't want any non-yokais to know about it."
"Which means that's exactly where we're going." Donna said.
"First, we need to figure out how to get past security without being spotted." Lee said as she pointed her finger to the first floor on the blueprint.
"No problem." Ellie said. "Remember that invisibility spell I told you about when we snuck into Lady Shade's HQ?"
"That could work." Lee said.
"Aaliyah and I will stay with your mom for the time being." Irma said.
"Yeah, from what Phantom told us, she could have a bad fever from that dream she had earlier." Aaliyah said.
"Good idea." Lee nodded.
Later on, the Lotus Ninjas had stood on the highest tree and stared at the mansion across from what they are.
Donna, Lee, and Ella turned their heads to Ellie, who understood with a nod. Ellie waved her hand back and forth with a grabbing shape and pointed an orange wisp of magic in front of herself and her sisters, swirling around from top to bottom and turning them completely invisible in an instant.
"Alright, girls. We're going in." Lee said.
Lee, Ella, Donna, and Ellie jumped off with swift flips. They landed safely on the ground and dashed forward. They somersaulted over the gate that led them straight into the entrance.
The Lotus Ninjas stealthily made their way through the halls as they quietly moved past the oblivious yokais at every sight. They then arrived inside an elegant, glamor room that has a high-octane piano centered on a rug under the crystal chandelier.
"Oh wow. The yokais got class." Lee commented.
"So what's next, D?" Ella asked Donna.
Donna pressed both hands on the floor and closed her eyes. She started concentrating on seismic vibrations throughout the entire room, leading her to detect an unfamiliar technology located on the upper floor. Then, Donna opened her eyes and turned to her sisters.
"There's a secret room located on the third floor." Donna said.
"I'm on it." Ellie said as she looked up at the steel white sidewall shaft on the ceiling. "But first. Ella?"
Ella lifted her index finger, creating a small ball of fire at the tip. She took a careful aim and shot her tiny fireball at the shaft cover, causing it to melt into an opening.
Then, Ellie manifested a gust of wind around herself and her older sisters. She shaped the wind into a tornado as it carried the mystic sisters within and entered through the opening.
The yokai stepped into the room from the shadow and moved straight towards the mystic sitting on their thrones.
"Great empresses. You summoned me? Is there something wrong?" The yokai spoke.
"Enzo, since your return from your investigation, security had to remove a tracking device from you." The elderly mystic said.
"Which would seem it was planted on you without you being aware of it." The child mystic added.
Enzo sighed with a slight growl.
"I'll admit the Lotus Ninjas are extremely resourceful." Enzo said. "But I assure you they don't know anything about us nor our location."
A male masked Goryo yokai stepped into the room from the shadows.
"My empresses. We have detected four mystics infiltrating the mansion." The Goryo yokai reported. "They are heading their way to the sacred archive room."
Enzo growled in annoyance.
"This is very troublesome." The adult mystic said.
"All those centuries of remaining undetected from the human world." The child mystic added.
"We cannot risk everything we've worked so hard for." The elderly mystic.
"No matter what, find and capture them." The mystic empresses ordered.
Ellie's tornado bursted through the duct shaft and soared around before landing the mystic sisters to the ground and vaporizing out of thin air. The Lotus Ninjas looked around and found themselves inside a huge room that had a giant gridded white globe floating above the steel gray circular platform at the center.
"Whoa!" Lee, Ellie, and Ella said in awe.
Lee, Ellie, and Ella's eyes moved to Donna, who stared at the globe with lit-up eyes and quickly charged right in front of it at fast speed.
"Tech nerd strike again." Ellie and Ella said as they exchanged teasing grins.
Lee quietly shook her head with a smile.
"It's gorgeous!" Donna said with an excited smile. "It's glorious! It's beautiful! Where have you been all my life?"
"Uh, Donna. You can fantasize later. We have a mission to complete." Lee reminded.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Donna said with a sheepish smile.
Donna lifted her arm upwards and moved her index finger in a circle, swirling her magic around and creating a large pair of purple butterfly-shaped wings on her back. She flew up and touched the globe with her gentle hand.
"All I need is information on that yokai that attacked us on Coney Island." Donna said.
A glowing white sphere came out of the giant globe, making Donna back away with a shock gasp.
"There we go." Donna shouted to her sisters.
The glowing white sphere started projecting a huge projection of the shadowy creature that the Lotus Ninjas fought before. Lee, Ella, and Ellie took a big step away from the huge projection.
"Oh, man. That's huge." Ellie said as she fell on her butt on the floor.
"According to the info, the yokai that fought us is named Baku." Donna said.
"Baku?" Lee repeated.
"A dream yokai and a dangerous one too." Donna explained. "Throughout centuries, he traps his victims with either pleasant dreams or horrible nightmares before slowly draining their life energy at the same time."
"Oh, snap." Ellie said with a gulp. "Talk about scary."
"Also, he's only active during nights under the new moon." Donna added.
"And that's tonight out of all nights." Ella said.
Suddenly, Lee detected a hidden aura coming from behind. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the sight of a small bat-like yokai hiding on the ceiling above. She stealthily engulfed her hands with water magic. A glowing blue magic circle appeared underneath the bat yokai, wrapping it with two whips composed of water. Lee turned around and shot a blast of solid water that hit the bat yokai, sending the screeching creature to the floor. That caught Donna, Ella, and Ellie's quick attention.
"We've been spotted!" Lee said.
Suddenly, the loud sound of a ringing alarm startled the mystic kunoichis.
"Donna, download as much information as you can and hurry!" Lee ordered.
"I'm on it." Donna nodded. She lifted her arms forward. "Subete daunrōdo!"
At Donna's spell command, the information came out from the globe and transformed into a dark purple flash drive. The flash drive landed on Donna's hand and Donna flew down to her sisters just before her wings dematerialized.
"Got it." Donna said as she placed the flash drive in her waist belt.
"Now, let's get out of here." Ella said.
But then, a squad of cloaked yokais marched through the entrance. They aimed their laser blasters in their heads and started firing bluish-white energy lasers straight at the Lotus Ninjas. Donna slammed her boot and formed a large wall that instantly blocked incoming energy lasers from harming her and her sisters. Ella peeked over the wall and locked her fire magic onto multiple laser blasters, shooting out a barrage of fire bolts and causing the cloaked yokai to drop their melting weapons. Lee jumped on top of the wall and created a large sphere of water that trapped the cloaked yokai all at once. Then, Ellie sprang high in the air and created a large tornado that shot up underneath the water sphere with great force, turning it into solid ice and freezing the cloaked yokais inside.
"That was easy." Ellie said.
Then, Enzo reached the top floor and came running into the room. He noticed the frozen sphere that had his comrades trapped inside.
"What is the meaning of this?" Enzo asked in disbelief. "You shouldn't have come here."
"Listen, we're not here to fight." Lee assured.
"And we told you that we're not gonna sit on the sidelines while Baku's out there waiting to strike us down." Ella said.
"So, that's the yokai's name." Enzo said. He took out a white powder ball in his right hand. "I'm sorry...but I can't let you expose our scared home."
Enzo swiftly crushed the powder ball in his hand and blew out white shimmering powder straight towards the Lotus Ninjas, causing them to cover their mouth while coughing at the same time.
"Wait, don't do...!" Lee coughed.
But then, the Lotus Ninjas started to lose their consciousness. They fell to the floor and were instantly knocked out.
To be continued...
Shinshuku-shiki kabutomushi - Japanese for telescopic beetle
Subete daunrōdo - Japanese for download all
Enjoy and review.