Momo: Mages of Pure Heart

Chapter 5: Cats Outclassed

"It's not that," Mao Mao said back to her, easing his tone as he didn't intend on starting a fight now of all times. "I mean, I can see you're good at what you do. It's just..." He hesitated, not sure on how to finish that sentence.

His mind was partially drifting away, back to all the times in his past when he worked himself to the bone trying to become a legendary hero. He never had the advantages his father or sisters had, and he strived to remain honest and honorable in his endeavors. From his understanding, magic was a powerful force and tool, one that could be used to achieve great things but also had the potential to be easily and catastrophically misused. Also taking into account of how easily things came of using magic, it came across to Mao Mao as a cheap tool, an instant fix to whatever problem stood in one's way. Without really making an effort to solve the problem yourself, it could very well be cheating your way to legend. All these things were what Mao Mao thought as he talked to Momo, despite being aware that he was currently using a magic-powered weapon.

Neither Mao Mao or Momo had time to continue their talk as they had to deal with more ghosts coming into the classroom. As Mao Mao resumed shooting at the hostile ghosts, he tried to rationalize his use of the blaster in his hands as a desperate measure. He already tried defeating ghosts with his sword and he really did make an honest effort, but he couldn't no matter what angles he looked from. Plus, the weapon relied on a magical source from inside it, not from whoever held it, so anyone could use it, including him. Surely his ancestors would understand, right?

"Look, I don't know why you're having a hard time," Momo cut in, "but if something can help you do what you need to, then use it! No need to make a fuss!" She twirled her wand to charge up one more spell, unleashing another shower of lightning bolts to take out another cluster of ghosts. Immediately after, both black cats spotted a new ghost creeping from underneath one of the worktables, one that didn't look anything like the others. It was spherical and had four thin black limbs pointing out of it with a smaller orb on each end, making it physically resemble an orrery one might see in an esteemed researcher's private study. All five spheres that made the ghost's body had faces on them.

"What ghost is that? It looks nothing like the ones I've seen until now," Mao Mao gasped, stating the obvious.

"Just a boss ghost, alpha ghost, whatever you call it," said Momo. "Just needs more magic to take it down." She readied her wand, conjuring a spell composed of a longer string of forms. Just like with the last two boss ghosts she dealt with earlier, she had to repeat these lengthy spell strings more than once as that ghost kept rebounding from every hit. Mao Mao quickly joined her, firing at the ghost with the blaster. That was, until Momo looked to her side for a brief moment. "More ghosts!"

Mao Mao swung around to see that another batch of ghosts had entered the classroom and were closing in on the pair. He growled. "I'll take care of these guys!" he told Momo, turning the blaster in the other direction. "You take down that big ghost!"

"Whatever you say, Mr. Sheriff," Momo concurred. She turned back to the orb-ghost and continued shooting her magic at it. Mao Mao focused on the ghosts that were coming straight for Momo. He needed to keep their attention off her, so he readied the blaster, aimed, and fired at each one that got close. It worked like a charm as the ghosts noticed Mao Mao and turned away from Momo, heading straight for him. Mao Mao braced himself for the newest ghostly onslaught.

Back down at the workshops, Badgerclops had just finished putting in the last screws to a little gadget he put informally put together, partly thanks to Camille's instruction – however incoherent it sounded at times – and mostly thanks to a nearby instruction manual for an unrelated invention. Taking a moment to look it over and let Adorabat have a moment of ecstasy at witnessing this new creation, Badgerclops carefully turned it over in his hands to ensure there was nothing out of place. After deciding it was okay, he then opened a flap in his robot arm to place the new device into the available space for installation.

"Alright! Let's put this new baby to work!" He turned to race out the workshop and back up to the main floor, with Adorabat flying after him. Getting back into a main hallway, he scanned left and right for any ghosts he could try out his new upgrade on. So far, it was looking a bit empty. Badgerclops raised his mechanical arm closer to his face in a walkie-talkie pose. "Hey robo-arm, scan the whole building for ghosts."

"Scanning area for incorporeal lifeforms," the arm's automated voice chirped in response. Badgerclops and Adorabat waited, and the arm pointed in a direction which the two then followed. As soon as they got to a new room, they caught one of the students – a little frog – running out the door, yelling in fright with his hands flailing above his head. Seeing one ghost drifting out after the student, Badgerclops pointed his robotic arm at the specter and after carefully aiming and charging it up momentarily in an orb of glowing energy, fired. A warm-colored beam streamed out of the arm's cannon and hit the ghost.

"Yes! Direct hit!" Badgerclops cheered with a fist pump. The fired energy surrounded the formerly intangible spirit. The ghost trembled, its face denoting that of worried bewilderment. Adorabat and Badgerclops watched in anticipation. "Come on," Badgerclops whispered, "time to go poof!" The ghost shook some more and slowly began to implode. Adorabat jumped up and down on Badgerclops's shoulder, trying to contain her tension from handling the suspense. The ghost was suddenly enveloped in energy...and then harmlessly dropped to the floor with a little bounce upon landing, now crammed inside a netlike sphere of light.

Badgerclops and Adorabat blinked speechlessly. "Badgerclops, did you just catch the ghost?" Adorabat looked over to her friend. Badgerclops, on the other hand, seemed a little disappointed but also surprised in a good way.

"I guess I did?" Badgerclops answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was really going more with the whole 'turn-ghosts-into-dust-clouds'-thing like Mao Mao and Momo are doing, but...that works too, I guess."

Back in the classroom, Mao Mao tirelessly continued trying to fend off the attacking ghosts, all while defending Momo while she was dealing with the big sphere ghost that stood out from the rest of its kind. However, he was starting to feel himself tiring out, mostly due to how heavy the blaster he carried was. But he couldn't drop his guard now – he had to protect a fellow defender of the innocent while she did her work. The ghosts were getting dangerously close and by the time Mao Mao pulled up his blaster again for another recharge, he was confronted by one ghost having gotten directly into his face.

"Dah!" Mao Mao yelped, dropping the blaster from the surprise attack. In that same split-second, he drew out his sword again to slash at the hostile spirit, but it seemed that he had to relearn why Momo had to save his butt back at the library the hard way. The ghost, along with a few more, lunged at and bit into Mao Mao, who felt a pain similar to being punched in the gut and getting bruised.

Fortunately for him, Momo noticed, turning her head to see what just happened to the sheriff. "Mr. Mao Mao!" she cried. She turned back to the orb ghost which was significantly weakened while observing the ghosts swarming Mao Mao. Out of reflex, she grabbed a couple of vials from a worktable that were partly filled with a colored liquid potion. She swung around and threw both of them, one at the orb-ghost and the other at the ghosts dogpiling Mao Mao. They appeared to shatter upon impact, dousing the spirits with the potion that caused them to be stunned. With a final lift of her wand, she charged her energy and brought down another lightning strike that simultaneously took out the orb-ghost and the remaining others.

Mao Mao was lying on the ground, curled up slightly from the shockingly and numbingly painful injury he received from the ghosts he once thought were no more than pests. His eye caught Momo leaning down to offer her hand to him. Without any further hesitation, he took her hand into his own and allowed her to pull him up while he pushed himself on his feet at the same time. He brushed some dust off himself, his gaze turned away slightly from Momo. "Uh...thanks...for the save there...Momo," he said quietly with a hand behind his head, sounding rather solemn.

Momo seemed to have caught on to the sheriff's reluctant tone, turning away to start walking away. "Yeah, no problem," she replied just as quietly. She didn't wait for Mao Mao to follow her. She only kept walking towards the next room, her wand hanging limply by her side and her head hanging down.

"Momo?" said Mao Mao as he saw her leave, his concern for her dejected state evident on his face.