Omi's Eleven, Chapter Two

[lonewolfprincess]

A couple hours and a ticket purchase later, Omi wandered through the galleries, clad in a t-shirt and shorts a few years too young for him.

(“Oh hey, you finally look your height,” Raimundo had teased… two seconds before shouting “ow ow ow!” and hopping on one leg, courtesy of a deceptively light flick to the shin. Omi had grinned, not just smug, but pleased to have a bit of that old banter again.)

While the young monk genuinely appreciated the beautiful craftsmanship of the sculptures and paintings displayed here, his search was much more focused—ah! He schooled his steps towards the long display case along one wall. He saw many beautiful jade pieces displayed in a neat row. A small cameo in light green and white and gold, intricately shaped like a mountain. A more battered gray turtle with its shell carved in three sweeping spirals. An unhilted, single-edged dagger blade in deep pine green. A pale tiger in geometric lines, crouched deeply and waiting to pounce.

And next to a dark green brush-washing bowl carved into a detailed forest pool… a paintbrush. The black, pin-straight bristles were held in place by a long, thin handle in a soft, rich sea green, the color and sheen of the jade needing no further ornamentation.

Omi was tempted to bow in atonement for what he was about to do, but no, Kimiko had warned him of the security cameras, and there were one or two other visitors in the gallery. A deep breath, a soft glow of his dots… and with the barest flick of his finger, a lightning-strike crack a few inches long snaked into the side of the case. Omi smiled, then schooled his face into mild alarm to trot through the halls before finding a man with a dress shirt, slacks, and a badge.

“Pardon me, sir, but…” Omi twiddled his fingers shyly. “I believe one of the display cases is broken?”

“What?” The security guard followed the little kid to the gallery in question, prepared to assuage some childish worry, but nope… that was indeed a significant crack. “Oh crud, hold on.” He fumbled a walkie-talkie out of his belt. “We’ve got a case break in Gallery 13, case break in Gallery 13.”

The staff, after ferrying the case and its precious cargo away and asking if he knew what happened- which of course he didn’t- rewarded the little boy with an action figure based on Ming Dynasty armor from the gift shop for free.

Raimundo smiled with a firm nod as Omi dashed away from the museum to join the others.

“Okay, guys… time to get ready for phase two.”

Kimiko nodded, opening her backpack to unveil enough makeup, brushes, sprays, and hair-styling tools to rival a Hollywood stylist’s kit.

Tori grinned with dawning excitement. Mia… froze in place, looking like a cat about to run away from a bath.



A few hours more, and two young socialites and their bodyguard approached the museum’s steps.

“Still not too late for me to join you guys lab-side…” Mia mumbled into her earpiece as they walked.

Raimundo chuckled into his from an alley a block or two away. “Kimiko already bought the tickets, though,” he protested in mock disappointment. “Besides, the four of us have the hard part,” he said, Dojo perched on his shoulders, watching Kimiko adjust her lab coat and Omi stretch to warm up, wearing a black unitard that… honestly looked more like a toddler’s onesie on him, “but we’ll need those wolf eyes and the Sight of Hou Yi to spot changes to security and any bad guys in the crowd.”

Clay, of course, was there to provide the girls Wudai-level backup in case of trouble. Yup, totally Raimundo’s only motive for teaming the cowboy up with his not-at-all-obvious crush for the fancy-dress portion of the plan. (… Okay look, he needed some source of entertainment now that he had to be the responsible one all the time, right? He missed a good prank.)

“Oh, come on, Sis,” Tori gave Mia’s bare shoulder a light pat. “Kimiko did a killer job with our outfits and makeup, and we all look amazing! Now you just need to look confident!”

Mia smiled at her sister. Tori did, in fact, look amazing and confident. It was hard not to when she shone literally from head to toe: her fluffy, chin-length copper curls were left free, only lightly spritzed with glittery hairspray, shimmering gold eyeshadow and warm bronzer, coral lip gloss with a mirror shine, and even some body glitter on her Rubenesque tawny shoulders, bare save for the spaghetti straps of the gold lamé dress. The scoop neckline and empire waist flattered her generous curves, but more importantly, Kimiko had pointed out, the ankle-length skirt had enough flow around her body that Tori would be able to run and fight in an emergency, the reason why both girls wore strappy, easy-to-kick-off flat sandals instead of heels.

“Okay, fine,” Mia surrendered with a faint smile, secretly pleased with her makeover. “I guess I look less like a scarecrow in a theater curtain than I thought I would. Thanks again, Sempai.”

Clay lowered his sunglasses to give her a skeptical look from behind. She’d protested about being “too plain” to be a convincing socialite, begging to pose as another bodyguard or a caterer when her pleas to join the lab team fell through. While he’d be hard-pressed to call Mia the most beautiful girl in the world, her eyes and smile always shone with strength, intelligence, passion, even a rough-spun kindness in her more vulnerable moments.

Now… Kimiko had lifted and curled her usual ash brown ponytail to form a stream of beach waves down to the nape of her neck, her bangs left straight and swept across her forehead. The one-shoulder black dress had the hem slanted parallel to the neckline, and a very thin belt across her waist, giving definition to her wiry figure and leaving her sculpted arms, shoulders, and one tantalizing calf on display. While the heavy sapphire smoky eye and thick eyeliner weren’t his usual aesthetic, he couldn’t deny the way they drew him in to her already piercing gray eyes. The Crescent Fang and its black cord belt were Chopsticks-shrunk to form an avant-garde bracelet, much more security-check friendly but still… dangerous. That was the only word his mind could pick to properly capture this sharp, dark, agile beauty: dangerous.

“If you’re a scarecrow, then I’m Dorothy Gale…” the cowboy muttered… and then froze on the steps, whole head turning scarlet. What the heck did he just say? Over the earpieces for everyone to hear?

Mia whipped around to give him her own shocked look, taking in more of his disguise. It’d taken more effort to find a tuxedo capable of containing that mountain of muscle than to pick out their dresses, but the charcoal black suit and ivory dress shirt flattered his neatly combed flaxen hair and sapphire eyes. He clearly felt as comfortable about the dress code as she did, from the way he kept tugging at his cuffs or black bowtie, and his desperate negotiations to keep his hat had failed, but… dang, if he didn’t look cool. Take away the bodyguard’s sunglasses, and she could easily imagine him as a prince in a modern fairytale. And did he just… call her pretty in that dry wit of his?

She felt her cheeks burn under the heavy makeup, feeling everyone’s smirks on her like spotlights, even the ones out of sight getting ready to break into a museum. One hand rubbed the back of her neck while the other pointed a casual-if-it-wasn’t-so-shaky fingergun at the cowboy, nails painted a glossy black for the occasion.

“C-careful, Kansas. I still need to pick out a Halloween costume for this year, don’t give me ideas.”

… What was that? Mia turned on her heel and glued her gaze to the museum entrance, not wanting to see Clay’s stunned face or her sister’s Cheshire grin or hear any choked snickers over the comm. Two seconds into this mission, and she already wanted to jump into the nearest dumpster.

Thankfully, Tori was able to calm her delighted grin down to a charming smile for the usher, pulling three hot-off-the-presses tickets out of her sparkly golden clutch.

“Hey there!” Tori held out the tickets and donation receipt with shimmering rose gold fingertips. “I’m Keisha Holiday, this is my friend Ebony Ravenway, and our bodyguard…” Wait, does Clay need an alias crud crud crud pick something—

“Clark!” Mia piped up, a bit too loudly. “Clark Kent…sworth.” She shrugged sheepishly. “New hire.” She turned back to ‘Clark.’ “Did I get that right?”

Clay just… nodded quietly behind his sunglasses, arms folded stoically behind his back. Thank everything this role didn’t require much talking.

The usher rose an eyebrow… and flipped through the clipboard.

“Aaaare you sure you’re on the list, Miss?”

Tori nodded easily. “Should be at the very end.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “Don’t tell anyone, but we’re friends with Kimiko Tohomiko. She wanted to surprise us with a girls’ night for a good cause, but she got sick last-minute. I told her not to trust the airport food…” She shook her head for good measure. “Anyway, you don’t mind letting Clark have her ticket, right?”

The usher finally found “Kimiko Tohomiko +2” at the very end of the list… and the size of the very generous donations to the museum and to tonight’s cause courtesy of Tohomiko Electronics.

He nodded eagerly as a cash register rang in his head. “Have a lovely evening, ladies! And tell Miss Tohomiko to get well soon!”

Tori gave him a winning smile and sweet “thank you” as the trio made their way inside.

“… Clark Kentsworth?” Clay asked under his breath once they were out of the usher’s earshot.

Mia cleared her throat, redirecting the skepticism to Tori. “Ebony Ravenway?”

Tori just shrugged sweetly. “What, I thought you were leaning into the goth vibes.” The innocent smile turned devilish. “Should I have named you Lois Highway instead?”

“Clark” and “Ebony” both fought down surging blushes.

“Let’s just get inside…” Mia grumbled.



Raimundo had to mute his earpiece for a few seconds to cackle, pounding on the brick wall of the nearest building with a fist. Man, this was already going way better than he planned.

Kimiko pinched her nose over the bridge of her first disguise’s glasses. Dojo shook his head at the Shoku Warrior. Omi just looked confused, only catching about a third of the references in that conversation.

“You done, Cupid?” Kimiko asked, examining her crimson manicure. Okay, yes, it was funny, and she’d definitely get in on the teasing later, but they had a job to do first.

Raimundo took in a deep, sighing breath and wiped a tear from his dark green eye.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Raimundo cleared his throat as he stood up. Right, go time. He turned his earpiece back on. “We all ready?” At everyone’s nods… “Shroud of Shadows!”

All three teenagers and the tiny dragon vanished… Slowly and casually, the group ambled through the compact city streets up to the museum, tailing another group of gala guests through the main entrance. Weaving through the crowd funneling through the reception area… ducking under the velvet ropes cordoning off the entrances to the exhibits and especially… ah, right, that door. Still Shrouded, Kimiko pulled out the keycard and swiped the lock. Only their faint footsteps echoed through the cavernous concrete stairwell as they descended below the museum… one flight… two… and then the door leading to the conservation labs and the vaults. Another swipe of the key card, another subtle open and close of the door…

Or it would’ve been, if Dojo’s Shen Gong Wu sniffles hadn’t flared up, and he sneezed. Loudly. And Raimundo and Omi had to scramble to put out the flames singeing their jumpsuits.

One of the guards- playing a card game against his shift partner at a small table in one corner of the lab- looked up from his hand.

“Did you hear that?”

The quartet froze under the Shroud…

The two guards rose up from their table, approaching the stairwell door cautiously…

Standing there, a bit wide-eyed herself behind her black horn-rimmed glasses and sharp amethyst cat’s eye, was a petite young woman in a buttoned-up lab coat, her black hair pulled into a messy high bun held in place with two antique-looking kanzashi, her ballet flats a bit too dressy for a museum lab but at least they counted as close-toed.

“Oh hey!” The young lady announced, mildly surprised but quick to lapse to a mildly frazzled neutral. “Sorry… Professor Xing wanted me to check on some of the artifacts from the broken case earlier.” She sighed heavily. “So much for my weekend…”

She… definitely didn’t look familiar.

“Sorry but… who are you?” one guard asked.

“Ah, right.” She held out the perfectly shiny keycard- complete with her name and photo- for them to inspect. “Keiko Tanaka, I’m one of the summer interns.”

The guards looked at each other.

“Aren’t you a little… young to be an intern?”

“Keiko” glared at the guard stuffing his foot in his mouth, letting the silence grow louder and louder.

“Um, I mean… th-that is…”

“Are you serious…?” the intern ground out. “Short adults exist, buddy! I have a Bachelor’s in Art History that my parents kept hounding me to switch to ‘a real degree!’ I’m working a second job on top of this internship to pay for a shoebox apartment, I finally get a chance to have a single night off when my boss calls me in for the archaeological version of ‘hey, can you check if I left the stove on,’ and now I have to deal with some glorified mall cop calling me a child?!”

The other guard just glared at his coworker with arms crossed. (The trio still hiding under the Shroud also froze in place, as if trying to avoid the notice of a Jurassic Park T. rex.)

“… I am… so sorry, Miss Tanaka…” He looked like he was two seconds away from dropping into a dogeza. “We um… l-let us know if you need anything else, okay?”

Miss Tanaka took a slow, harsh breath through her nose. “Thank you…”

And with that, she stomped away towards the vaults.



Up above, Tori, Mia, and Clay all shook off the rant that just blasted their ears over the comms.

“Remind me never to make her mad…” Mia murmured.

“Yeah…” Tori nodded… but then her shock slid into awe. “And remind me to give Mayera more roleplay opportunities, that was amazing!”

Mia shook her head… her sister was too easily impressed.

Speaking of being impressed, though, she took in more of the ballroom they’d been ushered into. High ceilings and warm lighting to mimic the setting sun outside, light and soft piano and violin playing in one corner as guests mingled and took hors d’oeurves from waistcoated attendants, a few of the more capricious couples venturing to the center of the floor to dance. All along the warm stone walls, proudly displayed on long tables or easels or standing freely, were pieces from local artists for a silent auction, all proceeds funding a local art and music program for at-risk kids, which… that was a cause she could absolutely get behind.

“Ooh, look at this!” Tori squealed, grabbing Mia and Clay by the hands to lead them to a set of paintings. “Apparently the artist sets up canvases with non-toxic paint and lamination sheets and lets her cats walk over them! That sounds so cute!”

Mia and Clay gave the very abstract canvases amused smiles, trying to piece out which movements lead to which patterns in the paint.

“Yeah, the result is interesting. Very… Jackson Pawllock?” Mia asked with a smirk, which only grew at Tori and Clay’s chuckles.

“Ugh, spare me…” a voice groaned to their left. A very familiar voice…

The Dragons and the evil boy genius did double-takes at each other, suddenly side by side looking at cat paintings.

“Spicer?!” Mia and Clay shouted in unison.

“You guys?!” Jack shouted back.

Tori, meanwhile, only needed a blink before she made herself gasp in delight.

“SPICY~!” Everyone in the immediate vicinity blinked as the gold-covered girl glomped the pasty goth, on brand in a black tuxedo, black dress shirt, and red bowtie, red hair sleekly combed with a shine that suggested way too much hair gel was needed to wrangle those spikes. “Oh my gosh, it’s been ages, how are you doing?!”

Jack floundered in the tight embrace as if she’d sicced the Lasso Boa-Boa on him.

“Wh-what are you doing…?!”

“Aw, come on, Pumpkin Spice, it’s me, Keisha! And Lois is going by Ebony now, isn’t she just rocking the goth look?” She winked at him, as if expecting the evil boy genius to play along with the ruse instead of just, you know, start cackling and trying to steal things, or sic Jackbots on them, or turn them in to security. “How are you doing, I had no idea you’d wanna come here or we’d invite you to join our group, silly!”

“Okay…? Diiid I end up in a parallel universe?” Again?

Tori giggled as if that was the best joke she heard all night. “Oh, you card! Now come on, I could’ve sworn I saw that really cute waitress carrying little egg tarts!” And with that, she dashed off, one arm looped around Jack’s as he flailed after her like a windsock, the other cheerfully waving at her sister and “bodyguard.” “You two have fun~!”

Clay and Mia just… stared at the retreating duo… then at each other… and then busted out laughing.

“Well, that’ll keep him busy for a while!” Mia quipped after a hearty sigh.

“Whoo, ain’t that right!” Clay took a few chuckling breaths to calm himself down.

And then the two looked at each other again… and suddenly both of them were very aware they’d been left alone at a fancy party dressed to the nines.

Well played, Sis. Well played…

“Ah… I… guess we’re still on lookout duty, huh?” Mia asked, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Y-yeah, reckon so…” After a few awkward seconds, Clay cleared his throat. “Shall we uh… keep perusing, Miss Ravenway?”

Mia snorted back a chuckle. “Only if you promise to stop calling me Miss Ravenway. No idea what she was thinking…” This last sentence, of course, was a big fat lie.

Clay gasped in mock-scandal. “Miss Ebony then? Goodness gracious, the fellas at the agency would tan my hide if they found out!”

Mia laughed out loud, very gently swatting his shoulder with the back of her hand, which only got a bigger grin out of him.

“Come on, you dork. Think I saw some big wooden sculptures in the corner over there.”

This time Clay’s gasp was filled with genuine excitement.



Kimiko sighed in relief as she made her way over to the series of vault doors, tailed by her Three Dragons in an Invisible Bedsheet.

“Good, Tori’s keeping Jack distracted.”

Now for the hard part… She pulled a pair of plastic gloves from her coat pocket, and thanks to activating the Bubble Brain as she poured over the museum’s systems, she knew which vault stored jade and similar gemstone items, and she entered the code easily. She stepped into the vault, each artifact given its own little plexiglass drawer in the cool, dry room filled with fluorescent light.

Kimiko took her time looking for the brush’s resting place, even delicately looking over a few of the items before placing them back inside, to make her cover more convincing.

Dojo sniffed the room from under the Shroud… or tried to, given how bad this congestion was.

“Okay, a little more to the left…” Kimiko’s hand reached out to glide around the drawers. “A little further, down, aaand that one!”

Kimiko opened the drawer, and there, resting on a white silk cushion, was the Brush of Ma Liang.

The Dragon of Fire smiled as she removed the Brush from its resting place, inspecting it for a good long moment before handing it to the boys under the Shroud.

Raimundo pulled out Tori’s sketchbook, lent with gusto for this moment, and flipped it to a blank page for Omi, the best calligrapher of the monks, to work with.

“Brush of Ma Liang…!”

Omi’s eyes shone from the glow of the Shen Gong Wu and from wonder as his hand began to move across the page, the strokes already marking the page without any need for mortal ink.

“Most marvelous…!”

Okay, focus… a sharp triangle for the bristles, a soft bulb to hold them in place, and then a long, thin handle, Omi looking at his hand to make sure he matched the Brush’s dimensions.

One last stroke… and the glow of the Brush was mirrored in the silhouetted of the drawing, the lines slowly lifting, rounding, hardening, filling in with soft sea green and deep black… until a lovely, non-magical mirror of the Brush of Ma Liang rested neatly on top of the paper.

Raimundo grinned as he patted Omi on the head. “Nice job, bud!”

Kimiko smiled too as they handed her the new brush to place back in the drawer. She wished that she could’ve ducked under the Shroud to see for herself, but that would’ve blown their covers. She was sure they’d have plenty of opportunities to use it.

“Phew, okay…” Raimundo whispered. “Now let’s head back upstairs—”

“Third Arm Sash!”

The others barely had time to blink as the familiar sky blue fabric shot out, plucking the Shroud away from the trio and towards a tall, lithe figure in a black leather jumpsuit standing in the vault entrance.

“What’s the matter, Xiaolin Dorks? Cat got your tongue?”

“Katnappe!” Kimiko shouted.

“That’s my name,” Katnappe replied casually, examining the newly-swiped Shroud. “Thanks for dragging the cat in, by the way. My partner and I were already planning on raiding this place, but why waste the effort of planning a heist when someone else is doing it for you?”

Wait… what did she just say?

“Partner?”



Tori waved at the very cute waitress with her mousy blonde odango buns and shy hazel eyes as she and Jack got their egg tarts and she moved on to serve other patrons.

“Mm!” Tori hummed as she chewed and swallowed around the shatteringly flaky crust and lightly charred, creamy custard. “This is amazing, right? Awesome food, pretty art, even prettier people. I can’t believe you get to do this all the time!”

Jack was giving her a still-wary look, but now he just rolled his eyes as he popped the tart into his mouth.

“Yeah, sure, nothing beats being stuck in a horde of rich snobs twice our age who can’t hold a conversation about anything but their bank accounts and vacations, it’s the best…” He shook his head. “Drop the act, sunshine. I know you’re just trying to keep me distracted.”

Wuya had griped on the way there that the Shen Gong Wu was in the building, but she was currently hiding in his pocket watch to avoid causing mass hysteria (at least for now), while his mother had found her group of MLM moms to talk shop with and he’d slipped away the second she was distracted enough.

Tori shrugged. “Well, yeah, a little, but… well, clearly you’re off the clock right now,” she said, waving a hand at his outfit, “and honestly, aside from kidnapping my sister a few weeks ago- which we already kicked your butt about- you don’t seem that bad of a guy outside the whole ‘world domination mwahaha’ thing, so… why not get to know you a little more?”

Jack… actually began to smile a little at the idea of having someone besides Omi wanting to hang out with him—

“Besides,” she added, pointing over to where Clay and Mia were looking over a large, abstract wooden sculpture, Clay animated as he gushed over the details of the woodworking and Mia listening with a warm smile, “I’m hoping those two will start dancing with each other instead of just around each other, if you catch my drift.” She winked at Jack before shrugging and shaking her head. “That’s not gonna happen if I’m third-wheeling all night.”

Jack cocked his head at that. The cowboy, getting a girlfriend? (And before him?) He shuddered.

“There’s an image I didn’t need…”

“Oh, come on, Pumpkin Spice, they’re cute! The innocence of young love!”



“Aaaand done!” Mia grinned wickedly as she added the finishing touches to one of the bid sheets.

Clay rubbed his hands together with glee.

“Little lady, you are a genius!”

Mia flashed that devious grin at him, thankful that the heavy makeup hid her blush.

“Hey, all for a good cause, right?”

But then her ears perked up as the piano and violin duo finished their latest song, and the first few notes of a familiar waltz refrain floated through the crowd.

“No way!” she gasped. “A Kiss From a Rose cover, that’s awesome!” Too caught up in the rush to worry, she held out a hand to him. “We’ve gotta dance to this one!”

Clay froze. Was… she asking him to dance? To a slower song?

Apparently, he’d taken too long to speak, since Mia’s face fell in the silence.

“Oooor I could go dance alone…” Mia shrugged as she fought to keep her voice cool, casual, not at all ashamed or growing quieter by the word. “It’s cool, really, one of us needs to stay focused anyway, so…”

Argh, stop mumbling and walk away, you idiot—

“Th-then again!” Clay forced the words out, just as she was turning around. “Technically, you are my employer so…” he poked his fingers together shyly, unable to meet her gaze, “if you ordered me to dance, I couldn’t rightly refuse, could I?”

… Was that weird? Consarn it, that sounded weirder with every second he thought about it—

Mia blinked at him… and then- holding out her long, slender fingers, the other hand rested firmly on her hip- flashed him a smile with sharp lips and soft eyes.

“Dance with me.”

Blushing himself, Clay set his large, warm, calloused hand in hers and let her dash with him to an empty spot on the dance floor, pulling him into the waltz with a grin.



“We will not let you or your partner get your sticky cat claws on these priceless works, Katnappe!” Omi called out, pointing dramatically. “Now prepare for a most—!”

“Shroud of Shadows!” Katnappe called out, the newly-pilfered cloth glowing gold as the thief spun it around herself to turn invisible.

Dangit! Closed in a small space filled with fragile, valuable items and an invisible opponent, what now?

“Shoku Star—!”

Raimundo was cut off from tapping into his element- hoping to sense her movements against the hair of the room, her breath, her footsteps- by a high-heeled kick to the gut, sending him sprawling on the vault floor.

“Rai—!”

Kimiko suddenly felt her long black hair spill down her back as the Changing Chopsticks were plucked from her bun… half a second before another kick connected with her back, sending her flying into the boys like a bowling ball.

“Changing Chopsticks!” the disembodied voice called out.

All the artifacts in the vault glowed gold, the lights narrowing into pinpoints as they shrank. The drawers opened in a flurry as the miniaturized artworks vanished in thin air, almost faster than the Dragons’ eyes could track as a valley girl chortle rang out.

“Falcon’s Eye!”

Omi hastily pulled out the Shen Gong Wu and peered through it… just in time to see a clawed glove lash out with enough speed to send the Dragons flying again into the now-empty wall of drawers.

As they scrambled to stand, Katnappe pulled off the Shroud, now leaned smugly against the still-open door to the vault, holding a massive sack only half-way filled with rice-grain-sized treasures in one hand… while the Third Arm Sash twirled the Brush of Ma Liang in its fingers.

“This fight’s been fun, dorks, but my girl and I have a date. Catch you later~!”

And with that, she slammed the vault door, slashing the electronic lock with razor-sharp claws.

The Warriors ran up to the door, pounding against it as they heard voices through the thick metal door.

“Sound the alarm, we got a—” “Kitties, Attack!” Screeching hisses. “Ow, no no no, not the face!”

Kimiko growled, not sure if she could hack it or melt it, let alone before Katnappe ran off.

“We can’t let her get away!” she yelled, pounding a fist against the door.

“We will not!” Omi smiled confidently as he pulled a Shen Gong Wu from somewhere on his person, the others grinning as they grabbed on. “Serpent’s Tail!”

The Dragons and Dojo flew through the door out of the vault, only looking briefly at the guards being mauled by the swarm of genetically altered super-kittens before chasing after their mistress. Which… turned out to be a mistake, because with the guards thoroughly subdued, the Warriors running after their human activated their instincts and training, and they bounded after the Dragons like a pack of hunting dogs.

“Surrender, Katnappe!” Omi shouted, dramatically pointing even as they ran into and further down the stairwell. “Or suffer a most humi—EEYA!”

Unfortunately, one little kitten took this opportunity to lunge out of the mob and tackle the back of Omi’s shiny round head, and he tripped and fell down the stairs like a bowling ball. Katnappe barely had time to glance over her shoulder before the little monk slammed into her legs, and the three tumbled down the stairs like a boulder in a temple trap, landing at the foot of the stairs in a heap.

As Raimundo and Kimiko sprinted down the stairs after them, Omi sat up and shook his head.

“Aha, I have caught you, Katnappe! As I was saying, surrender or suffer a most—OH COME ON!” He shouted as the kitten regrouped and started mauling him again.

Katnappe chuckled as she slipped away from the carnage, sprinting towards one more door as Raimundo and Kimiko finally caught up, opening it and dashing inside only for the Dragons of Wind and Fire to block the doorway, Dojo perched on Raimundo’s shoulders. Between this being the only door, and most of the still-unlit room seemingly filled with a large machine, the thief was cornered.

“Well well well…” Raimundo smiled cooly. “Looks like you can herd cats after all.”

Katnappe… only smirked back. Why was she smirking?

“More like I’ve herded you,” she replied, pointing one razor sharp claw at the door.

Kimiko, Raimundo, and Dojo glanced at the writing… and paled.

Right above a “Caution: High Voltage” sign were the words… “Generator Room.”

“… Aw, crud…”

Katnappe flashed them a Cheshire grin, and with one insulated, razor-sharp glove, she sliced through the bulky machine in one clean swipe.