Mia winced as she heard her best friend scream the ghost's name in what could only be pure rage.
She bolted out of her room and to Emma, who was currently stuffing her mouth with cheese.
"What happened?!" Mia asked as Annie walked into the kitchen.
Emma tore a piece of cheese off. "Morro's back on the sun!"
Mia blinked. "... I beg your pardon?"
Annie looked like she hadn't slept in three days. She rubbed her temples and mumbled, "Please tell me he's not doing jumping jacks again."
Emma stuffed more cheddar in her mouth and nodded gravely. "Jumping jacks. And yoga. And—" she held up her phone, "—he sent me a selfie. He wrote 'sun salutations from the actual sun.'"
Mia snatched the phone and stared at the picture. Sure enough, there was Morro, absolutely thriving in the blazing solar inferno—shirtless, glowing slightly green, and mid-handstand on what looked like a solar flare.
"...I didn't even know ghosts could get more unhinged," Mia muttered, handing the phone to Annie.
Annie squinted. "He... put sunscreen on."
Emma wiped a tear of disbelief from her eye. "SPF 400000. Said it's ghost-grade."
Mia stared at her best friend, then down at the phone, then back up again. "Okay. Okay. We need a plan."
Emma raised a brow. "A plan to what? Haul him off the sun?!"
Mia folded her arms, dead serious. "Yes. Because if we don't get him down, he's going to turn the entire galaxy into his yoga mat."
Annie groaned. "This is why I hate Thursdays."
Emma threw her arms in the air. "THIS IS WHY I HAVE CHEESE!"
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Ten minutes later, all the ninja were huddled around the main table in the monastery, looking extremely tired and increasingly concerned—partially because Morro was literally on the sun again, and partially because Emma had eaten an entire block of cheddar and was now halfway through a bag of shredded mozzarella.
Jay blinked at the empty wrappers in front of her. "...Do we need to stage an intervention?"
Emma, mid-chew, simply pointed at the hologram display showing Morro attempting a sun-based cartwheel. "I cope how I must."
Kai, arms crossed, muttered, "I still don't understand how he's not vaporized."
"Ghost," Zane said, completely calm. "Physics do not apply in the same way."
"Apparently neither does common sense," Nya added, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Mia, sitting cross-legged on the table with her elbows on her knees, pointed at the screen. "Okay. So Morro's doing cardio on the core of the solar system, and somehow we have to retrieve him before he tries pilates on Mercury."
Lloyd raised a hand slowly. "Can... ghosts get sunburns?"
Emma burst out laughing, snorted mozzarella up her nose, and promptly fell off her chair.
Cole deadpanned, "And that's what too much cheese looks like."
Jay sighed, leaning back. "So, what's the plan here? Use wind power to slingshot someone into space and hope they don't turn into ghost-flavored toast?"
Mia stood. "No. I'm going up there."
Everyone: "WHAT?!"
Emma, from the floor, gave a thumbs up. "Do iiiitttttt—"
Mia crossed her arms. "If anyone's dragging his ethereal body back to the planet, it's gonna be me."
Jay rubbed his face. "Why is it always our problem?!"
Annie popped her head in. "Because he's Emma's husband, and she has the diplomatic ability of a feral cat."
Emma, somehow now wrapped in a blanket like a cheese-gremlin, muttered, "Accurate."
Mia exhaled slowly. "Alright, people. Prep the ship. We're ghost-hunting. In space."
Kai groaned. "Can I bring sunscreen? Just in case?"
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Soon, the rocket shuddered slightly as it entered the outer atmosphere, the sun glowing impossibly large in the distance. Emma was munching popcorn now (because of course she packed popcorn), and the rest of the crew looked somewhere between "concerned" and "deep existential dread."
Zane checked the readings. "We should reach the sun's orbit in approximately twenty minutes. Adjusting trajectory now."
Suddenly, a ping echoed through the rocket's comm system.
Emma blinked at her phone. "...Guys?"
Mia looked up from where she was adjusting her mask. "Don't say it."
Emma held up her screen. "He posted again."
"Emma—" Nya started.
Emma read aloud. "'Hey babe, bad news—I got sucked into a black hole. Cool part: I reappeared through a white hole! Thought I was gone for good but nope, lol. Time is fake! See you soon?'"
Dead silence.
Jay lowered his goggles. "Okay but... what does that mean for us?"
Zane tilted his head. "Scientifically speaking, a black hole compresses all matter. A white hole ejects matter. If Morro went through both, he may have gained... new properties."
Emma blinked. "...Like?"
"Possibly time manipulation. Or mass instability. Or... glitter."
Mia stood up fast. "No. Nope. I am NOT fighting a time-glitter ghost on top of interstellar fire."
Cole groaned. "I didn't even want to leave the planet today."
Just then, another ping.
Emma: "He's sending selfies."
Lloyd facepalmed. "I hate everything."
Mia gritted her teeth. "Change of plans, everyone. New mission objective—find Morro, keep him from accidentally turning into a galaxy."
Kai sighed, tightening his harness. "I swear if he starts singing about space again, I'm ejecting myself."
