Chapter 8: Fighting Spirit (Part 1)
The broom that Mao Mao and Momo rode on streaked up over the final set of stairs directly connecting to the rooftop, where the ghost that stole Momo's book fled to. They both looked up to spot the ghost hovering far above the castle-like building, the book also in the air just a few inches from the ghost's gaze. The ghost momentarily turned its gaze away from the book to spot Momo and Mao Mao about to fly up towards it speedily but then concentrated on the book again, psychically opening it and turning several pages.
"It's trying to use the book!" Momo pointed. "We have to stop it!" The sheriff replied with a nod and affirmative huff, and both black cats brace themselves as Momo directed the broom upward and streaked at the ghost above as fast as she could fly it. As they flew, the ghost was droning out some unintelligible words while reading the book.
They had just gotten within inches of the book when the ghost stopped its reading, going completely silent for a second. While Mao Mao didn't quite understand what that entailed, Momo didn't need to think any further about what that meant, her eyes widening at the realization. She pulled up on the broom, trying to come to a stop and go back, which jostled Mao Mao behind her.
"Momo, what are you doing?" Mao Mao hissed, trying to grab on without touching Momo wrong. "What's happening?"
"The ghost just read something from the spell book! I don't know what, but it's going for something really powerful, for sure!" Momo kept her distance from the now glowing ghost, but stayed hovering in the air close enough to deal with whatever it planned to do immediately.
As she predicted, the ghost began to glow in a field of a luminous white light, getting brighter and stronger to the point that the stolen spell book floating in front of it dropped, falling through the air back down onto the castle bricks of the rooftop flooring. For a split-second, Momo thought of flying back down to retrieve the stolen book she had fought so hard to try and get back, but all of it was no longer important as she observed the boss ghost steadily accumulating magical energy.
Mao Mao wasn't planning on drawing out this gawk-show any longer. Making sure he was still balanced on the broomstick, he heaved the magical cannon in his hands to point it at an upward angle at the transforming ghost. "Take this, you foul specter!" he yelled before pulling the trigger. Just like it was before, a lightning-like beam of energy erupted out of the barrel and shot out towards the malevolent toothy spirit, and Mao Mao waited and watched earnestly for the beam to hit its mark despite his simultaneously growing impatience.
Unfortunately for him, right before the beam could make full contact with the ghost's corporeal being, a bubble of white light exploded from the spirit, travelling in every direction that knocked away both the beam and the two black cats riding on the flying broom. Momo squeezed her eyes shut and curled herself over the broomstick in order to stay on while Mao Mao wildly spun an arm forward when he felt himself being pushed backwards, putting the magic gun evenly in front to stay balanced.
Both of the black cats refocused their gazes at the ghost above to see a bigger and fiercer sight: the ghost was bigger now, much bigger than it used to be. In fact, the ghost was now easily the size of the Sheriff Department HQ, at least according to Mao Mao's assessment. The ghost's mouth looked toothier and there were three pairs of angular eyes, with all six leering directly at the two cats. As much as the sheriff hated to admit, the sight was enough to make him the slightest bit nervous despite his efforts to not let it show on his face.
"That ghost just went super-powered!" Mao Mao gritted his teeth. He kept a strong grip on his magic weapon.
"It probably was trying to get a particular spell," Momo chipped in. "Looks like it got what it wanted." She looked around to find another new problem. "We got company!"
Mao Mao looked at where Momo pointed to see that another horde of ghosts was closing in on their position, no doubt drawn out of the school by the bigger ghost's magically magnified calls. They drifted rapidly as they converged, and since Momo had her hands full keeping the broom steady, the sheriff immediately moved to try and cover her. Readying himself, Mao Mao tensed his muscles and bared his teeth. "Here they come!" he yelled.
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About a couple floors down, the two deputies Badgerclops and Adorabat were racing to find the final student they had not yet accounted for. Adorabat was streaking down the hall as fast as her flapping wings could carry her. Badgerclops followed closely behind her but not in the way one would usually think. While one would assume that the badger co-hero would be running on his own two feet despite his dislike for it or even use a feature in his mechanical arm for transport, he was doing neither of those things. Surprisingly, he was zipping through the air while riding on a broom, having snatched one from one of the main closet's racks for himself. He seemed to be having trouble though, as he most swerved in a zigzag path as he struggled to steer. He even couldn't help letting out several cracked hollers as he felt the jolts from all the sudden movements.
"Badgerclops, are you sure you know how to fly that?" Adorabat called out nervously to him from the front. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea!"
Badgerclops wasn't having any of the bat's doubts. "I can handle this! I just need practice!" When he said that, he meant it. It was no aerocycle, but at least for him, it flew just as well and had no need for any extra maintenance. He contemplated keeping the broom while throwing away the aerocycle, but reconsidered when remembering that Mao Mao wouldn't like that. He concluded that he and his partner could now have their own transport, so it was a win-win.
He resumed his hold on the broomstick, using more of his arm strength to keep it in a straight line. He kept the gadget in his arm active, making sure it continued to scan for the one remaining student. The scanner eventually pinged in confirmation of the student's location, prompting him to turn the flying broom in the needed direction while calling Adorabat to follow him. They followed the scans until they reached a window on one side of another lounge. Going to that window and peering through to the outside, they looked up to find the final student, a little golden retriever, hanging by his teeth from a horizontal flagpole attached to the outer brick wall.
"There he is!" Adorabat loudly pointed out.
"How'd he even…" Badgerclops quietly remarked in a sarcastic tone, his eyebrows furrowed.
Adorabat took the first initiative and flew up to where the little dog dangled precariously. She briefly looked the student over before snatching the dog's hood between her teeth. She then tried to pull him up by flapping her wings harder, but to her surprise, he turned out to be heavier than he looked. She managed to carefully release him back onto the flagpole since he still held on to it with his own teeth.
"Hang on, I got this," Badgerclops said. Readying himself, he pulled at his broom to go up a little bit and then reached up and extended his robot arm to grab the student. As soon as his fingers encircled the dog's waist, he tugged. The dog wouldn't let go of the flagpole, however, instead closing his jaw tighter around the metal. Now annoyed, Badgerclops tightened his grip on the dog and pulled harder. "Come on!" he growled, already feeling the stress. "Let! Go!" He got ready to do a full-on yank when he heard Adorabat alert him.
"More ghosts incoming!" she hollered. She immediately zipped back down to Badgerclops's side as the badger readied his arm cannon to deal with the onslaught one last time.
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Back on the rooftop, Mao Mao was not having a great start at all. He initially tried hard to point and shoot at approaching ghosts without falling off the broom, but was already finding it rapidly and increasingly difficult within the first few seconds of attempting it.
"You got 'em?" Momo called to him from the front.
"Still do!" Mao Mao loudly responded as positively as he could muster up despite his current hidden annoyance. Unfortunately for him, the next shot he fired forced him to grapple with the broomstick with both hands, the cannon nearly slipping from his grasp. He was sure that he jostled the broom even more this time.
In front of him, Momo had to grab on to the broom as tightly as she could thanks to the sheriff's struggling balance. As much as she wanted to draw out her wand and fight the gigantic ghost that floated patiently like the mastermind it was, she didn't want to impede the sheriff unnecessarily while he was fending off the smaller ones. When she looked at the giant super-powered ghost to see it not doing anything at all, she felt nervous. Her mind raced with questions as to what the ghost was going to do.
Momo's head swiveled to look behind to see the sheriff now pointing the cannon at the boss ghost, having finally fended off enough of the smaller ghosts to take a shot at the biggest threat.
"Ha! Is that all you got?" Mao Mao taunted the specter at the top of his lungs. "No more minions for you to hide behind, coward!" Narrowing his eyes at the giant spirit, he readily pushed a finger over the trigger to unleash what he hoped to be the last magic beam. At the same time, the giant ghost finally responded, opening its toothy jaws and unleashing a hurricane of sound, the cacophonic wind bulldozing through the air like a tsunami that quite literally capsized the two black cats on their broom. The magic energy beam that was supposed to land a hit instead got scattered away into nothing as well.
Momo and Mao Mao held on for dear life as they tumbled through the air back down to the school's rooftop floor, falling at terminal velocity in an unwilling somersault. While the younger black cat occupied herself with not letting go and falling off, she didn't notice that the sheriff riding with her wasn't so lucky. In the turbulence, Mao Mao had accidentally loosened his grip and slipped off the broom, ending up in a freefall of his own. Fortunately for him, he long already had the hero training for handling such a situation, and with no difficulty, rolled through the air and landed seamlessly on his feet with no injury.
"Stuck the landing!" Mao Mao congratulated himself with his hands on his hips, but the congratulation was short-lived when he heard a sudden loud crashing sound next to him, prompting him to do a jump turn to gaze down upon the shattered remains of the magical cannon. "Wha-!" he gasped. "No! Nonononono! Noooo!" He ran over and slid down on his knees before the remains, his hand trembling as he tried to examine the wreckage. His eyes widened in disbelief, he instantly realized what he had done: When he got knocked off the broom, he instantly focused on making sure he landed safely that he ended up getting distracted by the urge to do it in his signature heroic style, which then led to him forgetting to hold on to the magic gun to keep it safe that he unknowingly let it freefall onto the rooftop floor with a crash, smashing it into pieces.
Up above, Momo had successfully held on to the broom that she not only stayed on it but also kept the broom in flight. She briefly returned the giant ghost's piercing look with a mutual one of her own but looked down to see where the sheriff landed after falling. "Are you okay?" she yelled to him below.
Mao Mao's ear perked up at the sound of the younger student's voice. "Yeah!" he yelled back to her above. "But I…" he hesitated, feeling the blustery voice inside him dying down, "…can't say the same for my weapon." He squeezed his eyes shut from the emotional sting to his spirit. "I'm… powerless…"
Hearing what the older black cat said made Momo frown. Between them both, he was the best fighter since that was his profession, but he was powerless against magic-based threats like ghosts. It was why he had to rely on a provided weapon to keep fighting, and as long as he had one, he could do anything. But here he was, deprived of that weapon and as effective as any normal Sweetypie. Remembering that she still had her magic wand, Momo knew that she was the only one left able to stop the ghosts now. Wasting no time, she turned back to face the giant boss ghost with a forced gaze and with one hand, brandished her wand at the ready.
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Adorabat flew in rapid wide circles as she baited the ghosts into chasing her in the direction of Badgerclops's ghost-capturing beam fired from his modified mechanical arm. They unfortunately couldn't focus on the ghosts for too long since they still had to pay attention to the dog student who still hung from the flagpole. Badgerclops watched as each ghost he shot at dropped to the ground below like flies as the energy nets encasing them prevented them from flying. He could see that there were more ghosts converging than usual and he guessed that it had to do with the sudden loud roar he heard coming from above the school outside earlier. He looked back down at his robot arm, nervously examining the holographic interface screen after displaying it on command.
"Come on," he whispered harshly to himself. He furiously scrolled down the screen to look for some better option that would rescue the imperiled dog and hopefully take out the remaining ghosts on the side. He was sure he searched and researched the list several times already as he looked up to find himself, Adorabat, and the dog student being simultaneously swamped by an oncoming horde of ghosts. That made him nervously scroll even faster, even to the point that he was sweating like a half-cranked shower. "Nononono!" he squeaked before turning the arm cannon back to shooting the ghosts. Having no time, he tried to trap every present ghost with a rapid-fire from his weapon, hurriedly doing so before they touched either him, Adorabat, or the student.
He didn't happen to notice that as he was rapidly firing, the rate of fire was steadily climbing faster and faster. It took him hearing a staccato-less buzz coming from his robot arm for him to notice that his modified gadget has somehow upgraded itself. His eye widened upon seeing that the rapid energy pellets had now somehow fused into a single flexible beam of light. As the energy trailed, it seemed to entrap every ghost it hit in a chain of light-based nets, stringing each and every one of them along as they steadily were meshed together by the masses before drifting down to the ground like shrinking balloons. The badger, the bat, and the dog just stared wide-eyed at the sight soundlessly, their mouths agape.
"Wow! Badgerclops, did you do that!?" Adorabat shrieked in amazement once the silence dragged on long enough.
Badgerclops jumped slightly from Adorabat's sudden yelling and then tripped over his speech a bit before answering her. "Y-yeah, looks like I just did," he replied loudly with a fake-chuckle in his tone. His eye returned to the ghosts trapped inside the conjoined energy nets slowly floating downwards. He couldn't help but look at his ghost-catching robot arm with a little proud smile. He gave his mechanical arm an affectionate rub on the chassis. "Aww, look at you, all self-upgraded and better-performing. I'm so proud." He ended it with a kiss on a metal plate.
Adorabat watched him with slight perplexity before deciding to get the operation back on track. "Ahem!" she cleared her throat loudly and forcefully. "No ghosts, but…" she motioned with her head to point at the little canine student still gnawing on the flagpole high above the ground.
"Oh, right!" Badgerclops responded with surprise, sounding a little louder than he had in mind.
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Back above the school, Momo was furiously waving her wand at the giant three-eyed ghost, mustering up the needed amount of sufficiently powerful spells to defeat it, all while simultaneously fending off the other approaching ghosts that surrounded the bigger one to defend like minions. Fortunately for her, they moved slower than the other ghosts she had fought against up until that point. She had to hurry though. While the ghosts were slow, they still came at her together in amassed numbers and she was certain that the gigantic boss ghost wasn't going to sit back and let them have all the fun.
Down below on the rooftop itself, Mao Mao was struggling with himself on how to keep fighting the ghosts, if not solely to help Momo. He was still grappling with the fact that his only weapon for destroying the ghosts was destroyed, dropped and sent crashing down by his own recklessness. He briefly contemplated using his sword again but he instantly remembered how that turned out.
"Oh come on, come on," he clutched his head, wracking his brain for ideas. He briefly paced around on the brick floor even while taking glances up above to Mom riding on the broom and using her wand. He had to face it: he couldn't use magic, or at least not like Momo could. He tried to recall from his Hero's Code handbook the sports of techniques that would be best for such a magical situation. He thought, and he thought, and he thought…he dropped his arms and slumped his shoulders: he had no clue! He could feel the shame of his ancestors creeping in his chest the longer he saw the younger black cat girl continue to fight the ghosts without his help.
"What do I do now?" he thought desperately to himself. He scanned the structures of the school around him and then laid eyes on the pieces of the shattered magic cannon strewn across the brick floor. It was then that he spotted an odd-colored crystal lying among the detached metal eyes widened slightly as he hurried over to the gem-like thing. Scooping it up, he examined it in his paws, taking note of the slightly glowing luster in its facets lining the edges. "Could I-?" His ears flicked in a renewed sense of confidence.
Momo had just finished a series of wand-flourishing patterns on the small ghosts and was now moving in on the giant three-eyed ghost, the one that was the mastermind and the one that stole the book in the first place. Readying herself, she furiously began waving her wand again, drawing lines in the air to form a string of diverse geometric shapes. With every shaped form she drew, she could feel the magical energy building up, generating a strong aura that vibrated from within her wand enough to make her feel it in her arm. As soon as she readied her strike, she thrusted her wand forward, shooting out a benign but strong beam of sparkling magic that hit the giant ghost squarely in the center of its three eyes.
The monstrous spirit squinted its eyes and scrunched its toothy maw from the magic's impact, but it only backed away from Momo a little bit. "Okay, I think that hurt it somewhat," Momo asserted to herself. She allowed herself to rest a little, giving herself a bit of time to recuperate herself from the spellcasting while never taking her focus off the giant ghost. She saw the giant ghost slowly begin moving forward back in the cat's direction, its predatory grin having returned. She gritted her teeth, readying her wand again, but was distracted by the sounds of more smaller ghosts returning to protect their ringleader. Momo got nervous again as she didn't feel like she had enough juice to take care of both these issues at once.
"Hey! Yeah, you! Down here!"
Momo slightly jumped on her broom gasping, prompting her to take a glance down below to see the sheriff jumping up and down and waving his arms, yelling at the top of his lungs so hard and loudly that his head may as well have literally enlarged. From the way the ghosts were all looking at him instead of her, Momo could see that Mao Mao was trying to distract them from her while she fought the giant one. Upon seeing that some of the ghosts were slowly drifting down towards the sheriff, Momo felt more at ease, no longer minding having to do the same juggling again.
Mao Mao leapt and dashed across the rooftop, even jumping from the top of each partition as he kept baiting some of the small ghosts to follow him. "Haha! That's right!" he yelled at the oblivious spirits. "You call that flying?" he taunted. "I've flown faster on the aerocycle than you ever will!" He briefly waited for a ghost to get right up to him and take a bite and then jumped away at the last moment, all the while not letting go of the magic crystal in one of his hands.
From what he already observed, while his distraction strategy was effective, it didn't perfectly lure all the small ghosts away from Momo. He could see Momo still juggling between using her magic against a number of smaller ghosts and the giant three-eyed ghost. Not that he would admit it, but he had to acknowledge that the little black cat girl seemed to be multitasking so well, but alas he was still compelled by his duty as sheriff to lighten her load anyways.
He briefly considered the possible use of the gem he held. From the way it looked, he could already deduce that it was the power source for the magic cannon, in which its energy was extracted by the gadget's mechanisms for the beams that were shot out every time the trigger was pulled. The newest challenge was now figuring out how to do the same thing without the gem being in the cannon, since it was destroyed. "Alright, I don't know much, but if my powers of analysis serve me well, it should…"
Mao Mao curled his fingers around the gem, holding it tightly while making sure to expose the stone itself to the open air. As soon as he felt he sufficiently balled his hand into a fist, he skidded to a halt and dashed back in the opposite direction towards some approaching ghost. He let out a growling battle cry. He raised the hand holding the gem and with timed precision, swung it with lethal force at one ghost. The moment the gem made contact with the specter, the gem instantly glowed and the spirit was instantly blown away into a puff of vapor.
Mao Mao widened his eyes. It worked. He couldn't believe that his idea actually worked...and that he was right! He couldn't help expressing a confident grin, exposing his teeth, while letting out a chuckle. Without further hesitation, he let out an even louder battle cry and charged at the remaining ghosts surrounding him, brandishing the gem like a rock to bash their ghostly heads in, however crude it was. Sheriff Mao Mao was back in business!