If Wishes were Cheap-Shots

Chapter One

"Ramaraffe, c'mon, girl! Let's show 'em the upgrade!" shouted Boss Hosstrich.

"Oh, boy! My new ultimate attack!" said Ramaraffe happy to be of use as Hosstrich grabbed her head and started firing machine-gun-like pellets out of her mouth while he pulled on her ears.

The battle raged. Emotions were high in a struggle of sweat and strife.

...Or at least, for one side this was true. For Mao Mao and his friends it was just a slightly longer exercise with the Sky Pirates.

"Let's see..." mused Badgerclops coming to a stop once he had blasted Ratarang, Ramaraffe, and Boss Hosstrich up into the air.

After a crash in the distance behind the woodland, there echoed a faint call, "We're okay!" but Badgerclops did not seem to hear them.

"Either my robo-arm's clock is a little off today or those three lasted about thirty-nine seconds longer than usual," Badgerclops finished with a careless shrug.

Hovering near him suddenly, Adorabat cried, "Does that mean we're losing edge?"

"Nah, just means the Sky Pirates are more on edge today," said Badgerclops.

"More like edgier!" remarked Orangusnake brightly suddenly breaking off from fighting Mao Mao.

"Mmm, maybe..." Badgerclops said with a shrug. "But I think y'all are more on edge. Maybe you guys need a break or something."

"Oh! They're just over the edge in more ways than one!"

This was Mao Mao, and he was just coming in on a wonderfully agile swoop with katana singing sweetly through the air— ah! that sound of wind and metal.

The edge of a cliff was just on hand, and understanding exactly what Mao Mao meant to do, Orangusnake let out a shriek and held up his laser-axe more for defense than to fight him back. He cowered under the axe like a person with hydrophobia under an umbrella during a rain storm.

It was enough to block the blow to save him from flying, but it was not enough to save him from being knocked to the ground through Mao Mao's powerful skills that made him stronger than Orangusnake despite the cat being quite smaller.

On top of the sky pirate now, Mao Mao no longer looked cheeky. What had begun as fun had turned out tedious. In the end, he just really wished that those Sky Pirates and their lame psychotic villainy would never return to the valley after this fight. But for the moment he and Orangusnake's weapons were locked.

"GO, MAO MAO!" cried Adorabat at the top of her lungs.

Badgerclops right next to her winced a little.

But although Orangusnake was on his back, he could not be flipped just yet.

Both hero and villain clenched their teeth and slowly turned their heads with concentration and irritation, but neither would let up. Suddenly Orangusnake opened his eyes to see how close he really was to the edge of the cliff. The shoulder plates of his armor were skidding little stones into the empty air where his head hovered above the brink.

He gasped and the lock of weapons was broken. The combatants spun around as they did. Orangusnake was on his feet.

Oh, if only Mao Mao would leave and never come back! he thought.

They were astride the cliff now. If both had been equally matched as fighters it could have been either one of them thrown from the cliff by his adversary. But they were not equally matched, and Orangusnake knew it. Sweat dripped from his face. Moist palms made his grip on the axe handle like glue