Summary: The Lotus Ninjas discover the source of the Nanocats robots that attacked Donatella: Dr. Sage Lincoln - a brilliant technological inventor who tries to pass off the Nanocats as a means to capture the city's magical activities.
At Eastman High School, a male teacher started addressing her announcement in world history classroom.
"Your today's assignment is the same as yesterday. You all have list the political and cultural characteristics of China's Zhou Dynasty." The male teacher announced. "I'm sure some of you have already finished your homework early."
Donna stared at her small violet sketchbook with a proud smile, knowing what his teacher meant.
In the hallway, Donna leaned her back against her locker.
"So, I assume you finished your world history assignment?" Irma asked with a smile as she pulled out a textbook from her locker.
"You know it." Ellie said. She slung her right arm around Donna's shoulders. "This is Donna you're talking about. She got mad IQ skills."
"That's why she's our straight A sister." Lee grinned.
"Her nerdiness will blow everyone's mind." Ella added.
"But now, I'm starving." Ellie said.
"I'll meet you girls there." Donna said. "I left my sketchbook back in world history. Be right back."
Donna sped off.
"Alright, but make it snappy!" Ellie shouted. "Chicken patties are on today and I'm ain't missing it!"
Back in the world history classroom, Donna walked towards her desk and grabbed her sketchbook. But she wasn't completely aware that something was stalking her from behind. As she turned around towards the door, something blocked her path. It was a metallic silver cat-like robot with glowing red eyes.
"What the?!" Donna exclaimed.
The feline robot meowed violently and sprang forward to attack Donna with its razor-sharp claws. But Donna quickly evaded and flipped onto the teacher's desk. The feline robot turned around and ran straight towards Donna at quick speed. Donna extended her purple glowing hand forward and released a cyclone of glowing light purple petals towards the feline robot, hitting it in one strike. She then lifted her other glowing hand and brought two light purple vines from underneath the feline robot, ensnaring it tightly in place and shutting it down.
Donna hopped off the desk and walked over to examine the feline robot carefully.
"I don't know what you are." Donna said. "But I'm gonna find out."
Donna contained the feline robot in a purple bubble. She tapped the top of the bubble and teleported it to its homing destination.
Later that night, the Lotus Ninjas gathered together inside Donna's lab. Donna was rewiring the feline robot on the desk with her magic.
"So, let me get this straight. This robot kitten attacked you when you went after your sketchbook?" Ellie asked.
"Yup." Donna answered as she already went on fixing the robot. "As soon as I can reconfigure the wire, it could lead us back to its source in seconds. Even though it's completely inactive, I will eventually know what makes it tick."
"Leave the art of robotics to the nerd." Ella said with a smirk.
In quick seconds, Donna finished fixing the robot. The robot suddenly started projecting a beam of light from its eyes. Donna, Lee, Ella, and Ellie watched as a holographic image of a tall, slender African American woman appeared before them. She has chin-length black hair that is styled in a bob-cut and hazel eyes. She wore a silver-grey dress jacket, silver-grey pants, and black medium-heeled shoes.
"Greetings! I'm Doctor Sage Lincoln!" A woman said. "After achieving and successfully combining advanced technology and magic, I give you the Nanocat."
Sage was replaced by a descripting image of a short metallic silver cat-like robot with large ears, red pupil-less eyes, and a thin, forked tail.
Donna, Lee, Ella, and Ellie gasped collectively.
"See? That's the same robot I was telling you girls about." Donna said as she pointed her finger at the holographic Nanocat. "The very same one that attacked me."
"Any idea who's this woman is, Donna?" Lee asked Donna.
"She's a famous scientist that runs Vortex Technologies." Donna explained. "I can't believe that she was able to use magic to create this feline robot as a hunting weapon. But the question is why? Isn't possible she could be a mystic just like us?"
"As part of my research, my Nanocats was specifically designed to seek out and absorb any magical energies preventively upon first contact." Sage continued.
An image of Sage appeared in front of the girls again.
"Thanks to my scientific knowledge into magic, this technomagical machinery instantly homes in on the nearest or farthest mystical activities and initiates action, leaving anything or anyone nowhere to hide." Sage explained. "That concludes this presentation."
Then, the hologram disappeared.
"I say we head over to Sage's hideout and kick some metal butt." Ella said.
"Already on it." Donna said. She lifted her glowing hands in front of the Nanocat. "Hōmingu nanokyatto."
Purple energy surrounded the Nanocat, making its eyes glow bright purple. The Nanocats jumped off the desk and ran out of Donna's lab.
"Whoa. What kind of spell is that?" Ellie asked.
"A sensory tracking spell." Donna said confidently. "I've created it last summer. With this spell, we can track down to the whereabouts of its source to find out what Sage's really using them for."
"Let's roll, girls." Lee said.
The Lotus Ninjas ran out of the lab and followed the Nanocat.
At Vortex Technologies, Sage was petting her Nanocat from her desk inside her office.
"My Nanocats have worked perfectly." Sage said. "Even though the first field test was a success, despite its surprising inactivation, they will perform flawlessly for the next phase of my plan."
Another Nanocat hopped up on the desk, pulling up a holographic image of Eastman High School.
"And to think, the source of magical energy is located at a local high school." Sage said. She grew a sinister smile on her face. "How delightful."
Unbeknownst to Sage, Irma was recording Sage's sinister motives on her phone.
"Whoa." Irma muttered. "And now this is a scoop."
As Irma continued recording, one of the Nanocats noticed her presence from the desk. It meowed dangerously, sending out a high alarm to capture Sage's attention. Irma quickly hid her phone into her pocket before Sage turned her head to the high schooler.
"Well, well, well." Sage said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know who you are, but I can't let some high school girl exposing my plans to the press."
"But you're a rich woman who runs a powerful company that rivals Stocktronic Industries. Why do you need your Nanocats for a heinous crime?" Irma questioned as she placed her hand on her hips.
"True, my company has its head-to-head moments with Stocktronic Industries. But with the magical stone I've found, my technologies will go beyond limitations." Sage grinned. "And I will eliminate anyone who tries to exploit my secret…starting with you."
Sage snapped her fingers, assembling a squad of Nanocats springing from the opening walls.
"Sic her!" Sage commanded.
The Nanocats hissed dangerously.
Irma yelped and ran away, allowing the Nanocats to give chase. She took out two yellow marble balls out of her pocket and threw them to release extreme electrical current, shocking and destroying two Nanocats at the same time.
"Yes!" Irma cheered with a fist pump.
But the rest of the Nanocats charged at Irma. Irma tried to throw more electrical marbles, but more Nanocats kept on coming. With no more electrical marbles left, Irma continued running as fast as she can.
"Run all you want, but my Nanocats will find you!" Sage called out from the intercom speakers.
Irma managed to locate the back door and exited out of the company building. She kept running forward into an alleyway as the Nanocats dashed after her from behind.
"Those robots just don't give up, do they?" Irma groaned.
Outside, the Nanocat was moving across the building rooftops. The Lotus Ninjas managed to catch up with the feline robot.
But they immediately stopped on the highest rooftop when they heard a familiar scream. Ellie stared down at the alleyway in surprise.
"Whoa. Is that…Irma?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah, and it looks like she's not alone." Ella said, pointing her finger forward.
Ellie, Lee, and Donna collectively followed Ella's pointing finger to see a squad of Nanocats racing after Irma from behind.
"She's in trouble. We have to help her." Donna exclaimed.
"But we can't expose our magic. Mother's orders." Lee reminded.
"What choice do we have?" Ella questioned. "She's gonna find out about our powers eventually. We can't hide them from her forever no matter how long we try."
Lee thought hard and sighed.
"Alright, let's go." Lee said. She pointed her finger at Ella with a serious face. "But you're answering to mother when this is over."
The Lotus Ninjas descended down from the rooftop.
As Irma kept running, she found herself heading to a dead end. She spun around and watched as the Nanocats are closing in for a strike.
Irma closed her eyes and screamed.
Before the Nanocats can strike their target, the Lotus Ninjas landed in front of them. Donna slammed her hands onto the ground, summoning large roots with spikes on them and striking the charging Nanocats. Lee jumped forward and launched a massive stream of water from her hands at the other squad of Nanocats as Ellie danced around and fired multiple light orange glowing blades of air energy at the rest of the Nanocats. Ella then released a red-orange stream of fire from both hands that melted all the Nanocats into a massive pile of metallic liquid.
"Well, that's done." Ellie said confidently.
"But we've lost one robot that was supposed to lead us to Sage's company." Donna pointed out.
When the Lotus Ninjas turned around, they noticed that Irma watched the whole thing with her eyes open.
"Oh, uh, hi, Irma." Ellie said with a sheepish smile as she waved at Irma in a nervous manner.
"I want answers! What the heck…just happened?!" Irma demanded in shock.
Note: Hōmingu nanokyatto – Japanese for Homing Nanocats
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