Story Summary: (PG just in case) Basically I took a lot of material from the strip — particularly the storyline about alien visitors — as the basis for my story and punched it up a little; I twisted it around and sort of made it mine. :)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Calvin and Hobbes; I have no intention of infringement. I’m not trying to do this for a profit or anything; I’m just trying to write a tribute to one of the greatest comic strips ever. I hope you enjoy it; but please don't be quick to judge, as this is my first fanfic. :-)

Strange Encounter

Select material taken from various “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips by Bill Watterson. Unauthorized. All rights reserved.

“Boy, I hate school assignments! Miss Wormwood is out to destroy my life!”

A short, blond-haired boy wearing a red and black-striped T-shirt and short, black pants thrust his school books on the floor and groaned.

“Your first-grade teacher?” a voice asked. The boy turned around and saw a tall tiger, walking upright, approaching him. At least, that’s how it seemed to the boy; the way this tiger appeared to everyone else was as a stuffed animal. “What do you have to do?” the tiger asked.

“Make a leaf collection! What a dumb waste of time!” the boy yelled.

“Well, let’s figure this out, Calvin. How many leaves do you need?”

“50! I gotta collect fifty leaves! And, Hobbes, just when I thought of a loophole, the teacher said every leaf has to be a different kind.”

“She’s got your number,” the tiger Hobbes said thoughtfully. “When do you need to present your leaf collection?”

“In two weeks,” Calvin said, heading outside. Hobbes followed.

“That’s not so bad,” Hobbes replied cheerfully. “You just need three or four leaves a day.”

“I’m not working on weekends.”

“Okay, five leaves a day.”

“And my weekdays are booked until next Thursday at 6 P. M.!”

“So you need fifty leaves an hour,” Hobbes concluded sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“See?? It’s impossible!” Calvin yelled.

-----

“Susie,” Calvin said to his brown-haired, next-door neighbor at the bus stop three days later, “have you started your leaf collection yet? I’ve been visualizing the conceptualization process. That’s the hard part.”

“I’m almost done. Isn’t it fun? It’s like a treasure hunt!” Susie exclaimed. “See, I make it a game. I pretend it’s a contest to see how many leaves I can find each day. That way, it’s not an assignment, it’s fun!”

“She’s a hopeless dweeb,” Calvin said to himself. Out loud, he said, “Uh, Susie ... you wouldn’t happen to have any extra leaves, would you?” He looked at Susie hopefully.

Susie just looked at him, shaking her head. “I thought you detested girls, Calvin.”

“I do!”

“Okay, then I’m not giving you any leaves.”

“Forget it.”

-----

It was a week and a half later, and Calvin’s leaf collection was due in one day. He approached his mom hopefully, praying that this idea would work.

“Mom, I need to collect leaves for a school project. Could we go to the arboretum sometime?”

“Sure,” his mom replied. “How about this weekend?”

“Um — ” Calvin stammered nervously. “It would be better to do it a little sooner.”

“When is this due?”

“Well, my notebook’s in the car,” Calvin stuttered, gesturing, “and the park closes in twenty minutes.”

“Calvin, I’m fixing dinner!” his mom yelled. “Now get outside and start collecting!”

-----

“My leaf collection is doomed! I can’t believe mom wouldn’t take me to the arboretum. No wonder I get bad grades!” Calvin exclaimed, hastily collecting as many leaves as he could. Hobbes was at his side, helping.

“Well, at least we live in the country. And you did spring the idea on her at the last second,” Hobbes replied.

“That’s when I thought of it! The problem is that Mom’s not flexible. What a stupid waste of time this is! I wish there was some way out of this assignment,” Calvin sighed.

Suddenly, overhead, the duo heard a faint “Wummwummwumm...”

They whirled around — and saw a strange, circular contraption extend three triangular legs and touch down lightly on the ground in front of them. There were black, ovular wings extending outward of the craft, and strange, weird-looking gadgets encircled the exterior.

“A UFO!!” Calvin and Hobbes screamed.

A hatch opened up ominously on the ship, and two beings descended downward.

These beings had no arms, legs like a crab’s, and small, triangular bodes covered in robes. Their circular heads, which had no nose and only one eye each, also had a matching hat on them.

“Take us to the supreme earthling potentate,” the beings said.

Calvin, who was so shocked he could only sputter, said, “Um ...
well ... — ” Then he regained his senses. “Speaking,” he said, pointing to himself pompously.

“Ah! What luck,” one said.

“It was I who chose the landing site. Kudos for Navigator Nebular!” the second cried.

“So, uh, what can I do for you?” Calvin asked nervously.

“We are taking over your world,” the aliens replied.

“You are?? What for??”

“Earth is prime real estate. Location, location, location.”

“I guess I hadn’t though about that,” Calvin murmured thoughtfully.

“Charm, atmosphere, quiet galaxy...”

“Actually,” Hobbes interrupted, “the atmosphere needs cleaning.”

“A good fixer upper,” the aliens said, ignoring Hobbes’ comment.

“Well, um, as supreme earthling potentate, I’m afraid I can’t let you just come in and take over the planet,” Calvin replied.

“You make this difficult. Prepare for war,” the aliens responded.

“Let’s not be hasty,” Calvin cried. He had suddenly had an idea. “I’ll trade you earth ... for fifty alien tree leaves. I need them by 8:00 tonight, and they have to be properly identified and labeled.”

“Psst!” one alien whispered. “These primitive fools must use leaves as currency!”

“IT’S A DEAL!” the other responded. “Hurry, Nebular! At light speed, we can just make it!”

“Our leader will be most pleased.”

-----

As Calvin went to bed that night, the aliens hadn’t come back. “What are we going to do, Hobbes?? I’ve got to turn in my leaf collection tomorrow!” he cried. Then he grew angry. “I’ll bet those dumb aliens got back to their planet and procrastinated! I’ll bet they have no respect for deadlines! I bet they put everything off and are doing a lousy job at the last second!”

“How could anyone be so irresponsible?” Hobbes asked, rolling his eyes. Then he suddenly sat up in his bed. “Look! I see headlights coming over the trees!”

“The aliens are back!” Calvin cried, jumping out of bed and running down the stairs and out the door. Hobbes followed. “C’mon, let’s go get my leaf collection!”

-----

It was one week later. And Calvin was crushed. He went for a ride in his trusty red wagon, Hobbes behind him.

“When I turned my leaf collection in, Miss Wormwood didn’t believe my leaves were from an alien planet. She said it was obvious I did the whole thing the night before and made a mockery out of the assignment.”

“Well, they were alien leaves,” Hobbes said. “It looked like you took 50 maple leaves and cut them into weird shapes.”

“Thanks for the support, friend. Who cares about leaves?! What useless knowledge,” Calvin growled, looking back and inadvertently pitching his wagon over a cliff. Luckily, he and Hobbes landed softly in a tree before tumbling to the ground.

Hobbes raised himself off the dirt, brushing his arms off. “I believe that’s poison sumac we just fell through.”

“What, this?” Calvin said, peeling a leaf off the tree. “What makes you say that?”

-----

It was winter, two days before Christmas, four months later. Calvin was sad to see summer go, since it meant even more school, but was glad to wake up to the six-inch deep snow. Calvin had forgotten all about his leaf collection ... but the aliens had not forgotten about him.

“Oh boy,” Calvin cried on a Saturday, peering out the window. “Look at all the snow! Christmas is coming! Finally! This will be perfect for sledding or making snowballs or ...”

The doorbell rang. Again. Again and again and again.

“All right, all right! I’m coming! I’m coming!” Calvin yelled, opening the door.

“What the heck is wrong with the planet you sold us?!?” a voice cried.

“Galaxoid and Nebular!” Calvin cried. “The aliens!”

“This cold white glop covers us and freezes our innards,” one alien said. “You did not tell us that this planet’s axis would tilt us away from the sun.”

“I’m sorry, but you didn’t ask,” Calvin replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “This ‘stuff’ is snow. You’d better get used to it, ’cause we get it every winter.”

“We paid fifty leaves for this planet!” the other alien cried.

“Arrgh! I threw them away when they got such a bad grade! Now I can’t trade you back,” Calvin grumbled, clutching his forehead.

“Then we demand that you bring this planet up to code! We will not leave this planet until it is fixed!” the aliens cried. Their response was the door slamming in their face, as Calvin ran to tell Hobbes what had just happened.

“DO NOT TRIFLE WITH US, EARTH LEADER!” the aliens shouted through the door.

-----

Calvin didn’t know it, but his faulty salesmanship skills would hold far more consequences than he imagined. Quietly, during the night, the aliens climbed into their warm spaceship and powered it up. They flew low over Calvin’s house.

“Now,” one said, “all we have to do is get the Earth leader to adjust to our views and tilt this planet’s axis back toward the sun.”

“Can we do that?” asked the other.

“Why not? We can.”

Stealthily, quickly, the spaceship hovered over the sleeping Calvin’s bedroom.

A bright green ray shot out.

-----

Hobbes was asleep. Calvin, on the other hand, was staying up late reading dinosaur comics.

“Ugh, I’m glad Rosalyn, the baby-sitter from the Black Lagoon, is gone,” Calvin said. “She was a tyrant! She made me go to bed at six! I was terrified of the monsters under my bed! But now I can stay up late with the light on. What do you think, Hobbes?”

“Zzzzzzzzz...”

“Oh, forget it.”

The snoring sound did not come from Hobbes, though, but from the spaceship overhead. Calvin, still unaware of this, kept reading comics, switching to space explorer graphic novels and then superhero action.

ZAP!

A brilliant, bright, green light bathed Calvin, making his skin glow eerily. “Hey! — ” Calvin cried.

And then his senses slowly stilled. Calvin dropped the comic, raised his arms in front of him like a robot, and as he did so, his eyes — his bright blue eyes — became green, a hypnotic green that left Calvin’s eyes wide and staring. It was funny how he no longer seemed to need to blink.

Calvin fell asleep, eyes wide open, muttering, “Must destroy winter ... must rotate Earth ... must rotate Earth’s axis ...”

-----

The next morning — Christmas Eve — Hobbes was jolted awake by a loud crash. “What the — ”

Hobbes ran to the window and saw Calvin lying in the rose bushes, a purple hood and cape on his head. He appeared dazed, but immediately jumped back up and began climbing up the rain gutter.

“Calvin? What are you DOING?” Hobbes shouted.

“Winter must be destroyed!” Calvin chanted back. “Impossible for most people. But not for ... STUPENDOUS MAN!!!”

“What? That superhero you pretend to be?” Hobbes yelled. “Calvin, no! You can’t fly!”

“Calvin can’t,” Calvin replied, reaching the roof. He stood on the edge and braced himself. “But Stupendous Man can!”

He leapt into the air — and fell into the rose bushes again.

Hobbes ran outside and pulled the dazed and groggy Calvin up. “Calvin? You all right?”

“Oooh ... Auntie Em?” Calvin asked, eyes glazed. “Is that you?” Then suddenly his eyes glowed bright green once more. “NO, it is not. It is STUPENDOUS MAN!!!”

“Calvin, what are you talking about?” Hobbes cried. “You are not Stupendous Man. You can’t fly. What’s gotten into you??”

“Hmmm...” Calvin said, ignoring Hobbes’ last question, “Maybe Stupendous Man can’t fly. But SPACEMAN SPIFF CAN!!!”

“Excuse me?!?”

Calvin ran back inside and came out, minutes later, with a funny blue space suit on and matching goggles.

“Spaceman Spiff! Explorer of the unknown! Encounterer of the third kind! Rotator of the axis!”

“Calvin, what on Earth are you talking about?” Hobbes yelled. The phrase he used stirred something in Hobbes’ memory. “Hang on — this isn’t about the problem the aliens came to us about yesterday, is it?”

“Winter must be destroyed!” Calvin chanted.

Hobbes grabbed Calvin by the shoulders and shook him. Hard. “Calvin, what’s — ”

Then Hobbes noticed Calvin’s eyes.

“...wrong ..53 days 3 hours, 29 minutes, 49 seconds. with ... you ... ” he finished, his voice trailing off.

“MUST DESTROY WINTER!” Calvin bellowed.

“Uh — I — ” Hobbes stuttered nervously, watching Calvin shimmy up the rain gutter again, “I — I’ll go get some help!”

Hobbes ran into the house, ignoring the resounding crunching noises coming from the side of the house. “His mom’s going to have a fit about those rose bushes,” Hobbes muttered. “And speaking of which — where are Calvin’s parents?”

And then he saw the note stuck to the refrigerator.


Calvin —

Your dad had to go on an emergency business trip this morning, so I had to drive him to the airport. I should be back in a couple of hours. Stay safe this morning, and please don’t blow up the house. You and Hobbes just watch TV and be good, okay? Thanks.

Love, Mom

“WHAT?” Hobbes shouted.

-----

“I know you’re Calvin,” Hobbes muttered, back up in Calvin’s room, ten minutes later. “And you do too. At least, you did, initially. What happened?”

“Must ... rotate ... planet’s ... axis ...” Calvin muttered in response, struggling, furiously, against the ropes binding him to his chair. Calvin had his Stupendous Man costume back on, complete with purple cape and hood.

“The aliens must have done something to you ... something to hypnotize you into this ... question is, how do we reverse it?” Hobbes asked himself, oblivious to Calvin struggling so hard that he flipped the chair over and bonked his head on the hardwood floor.

“Ow,” Calvin said.

“The aliens didn’t know about winter ... we can’t offer a refund ... hmm ... well, we should at least help them stay warm then. But what could they wear? They don’t even have arms! They need, huge socks or something!”

“Rrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhh,” Calvin groaned, still struggling against the ropes and doing an awkward sort of headstand.

Suddenly, Hobbes snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it!”

-----

His and Calvin’s Christmas stockings in hand (with large holes cut in them as well), Hobbes set off to find the alien spaceship. Fearing that Calvin might suffer permanent brain damage if Hobbes left him in his room like that, Hobbes had removed the Stupendous Man cape and tied Calvin to the one place he was so eager to be at that morning: the rain gutter.

“I’ll be back soon!” Hobbes called back in a falsely cheery voice. Calvin wrestled furiously with the ropes.

Thinking that a sheltered place would be the best spot for the ship, Hobbes headed into the small woods behind Calvin’s house.

Bad idea. Night had fallen, and the forest was full of the rustling, creaking, hooting, and chirping of mysterious little creatures.

Trying not to think about his bad experiences as a Tiger Cub,
Hobbes pressed on.

Rustle ... creak ... hoot ... howl ... clank.

“Hey, that last sound didn’t come from the — ”

WHUMP.

A large force rippled toward Hobbes, and he was knocked off his feet as a large, yellow glow illuminated the trees in front of him.

HISS.

Hobbes gathered up the Christmas stockings and ran toward the glow.

He pushed aside some branches and —

“What do you want?”

Galaxoid and Nebular stood above a large ramp extending from the spaceship, their bodies glowing ominously in the yellow glare that surrounded the clearing. This would have created a perfectly intimidating illusion had their bodies not been pale and shivering from the cold.

“GAH!” Hobbes shrieked, shrinking back anyway.

“Come again?”

“I — uh — am a — friend — of the — uh — Earth leader,” Hobbes stammered.

The extraterrestrial duo moved slowly down the ramp and faced Hobbes.

“And?”

“And I — uh — came to you, in the hopes that you would dehypnotize him.”

The aliens just stared at him.

“Sorry,” they finally said, and quickly headed back into the ship.

“But — wait — ” Hobbes cried, holding out the stockings, “ — I — ”

The aliens did not hear him, as was evident when the ramp slid in, the hatch closed, and suddenly, with an enormous roaring sound, the spaceship shot into the air.

“WAIT!” Hobbes shouted. “I have — ”

And the bright green ray shot out again.

Unlike Calvin, however, Hobbes knew what to expect. He dived, avoiding the ray, and crashed headlong into a bunch of bushes.

The aliens did not give up. The ray swept toward Hobbes again, and Hobbes did an awkward kind of backward roll into a clearing, away from the ray.

Hobbes gasped, dodging again and again as the ray barreled toward him over and over, finally ending up in a tangle of tree branches, twigs, leaves, and bushes.

Hobbes checked the stockings over, panting. Since he had shielded them with his body, they remained untorn.

This distraction was all the aliens needed. The ray enveloped Hobbes — and Hobbes resisted.

Raising his hand in a hopeless attempt to stop the ray from reaching him, Hobbes ran. He ran with all his might, but the beam was locked onto him now and followed him easily.

Hobbes knew it was hopeless. He was already beginning to weaken.

In a last, desperate effort, Hobbes held up the stockings, toward the spaceship, where he hoped the aliens were watching.

“A peace offering!” he called weakly.

For a moment, nothing. Then —

The ray turned off.

The spaceship descended.

The three legs touched lightly onto the ground.

The hatch opened, and the ramp extended.

“A peace offering?” the aliens asked incredulously, looking at the stockings. “What do you take us for, fools?”

Hobbes decided not to answer that question. Instead, he forced the two stockings, openings down, over the aliens’ shivering, pale bodies.

“Hey — ” the aliens cried. Then, they suddenly relaxed, looking extremely content.

“Ooh, this is toasty,” said one.

“Thank you, friend of the Earth leader!” said the other.

Hobbes relaxed too. “You’re welcome.”

“Your selflessness is the hope to mankind everywhere,” said the first.

Deciding not to point out that he was a tiger, Hobbes asked, “Now will you please dehypnotise the — uh — Earth leader?”

The aliens considered. “All right,” they finally decided.

-----

And so, as Hobbes headed back to Calvin’s house, the spaceship flew low ahead of him, humming quietly.

And as Hobbes reached the clearing where the house was, he saw another beam — this time orange — shoot out of the ship and envelope the struggling Calvin.

As the beam swept over him, Calvin went limp, eyes dilated and his tongue hanging out.

Calvin’s eyes turned back to blue.

He awoke.

The ray turned off, and the spaceship swept away, deep into the night.

-----

It was the next day — Christmas — and Calvin had just been told how Hobbes had dealt with the aliens. “You’re the best, Hobbes ol’ buddy! Thanks!” Calvin exclaimed, hugging his friend tight. Then his face fell as he remembered something else.

“Uh, Hobbes? ... I forgot to get you a present. I didn’t even make you a card ... I’m sorry, Hobbes,” Calvin said, looking up very guiltily. “I didn’t mean to forget.”

“It’s okay, little buddy; we were pretty busy,” Hobbes replied gently. “I didn’t get you anything either.” Then he suddenly smiled and lifted Calvin up off the ground, wrapping his arms around him. “But here’s a tiger hug for being my best friend.”

Calvin blinked. “Not so hard, you big sissy,” Calvin choked jokingly. “You squeeze my tears out.”

Hobbes grinned. “Merry Christmas.”

The End

Well, that's all. For now. So I'll be seeing yas!

P. S. Questions? Comments? Input on the story? You can contact me at jeffaplus@mugglepost.com. However, be warned: I am normally a pretty nice guy, but if you send me anything inappropriate and/or offensive (i.e. spam), I will personally put your e-mail address on a mailing list for YOUR VERY OWN spam.

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