Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of The Batman or Calvin and Hobbes. They are owned by Warner Brothers and Bill Watterson.
"Lurking in the shadows of the city, he leaps from roof top to roof top. The moon and stars are his light as his gaze falls on the populous below. Unconcerned, the go about their tranquil lives with ease as their protector moves on. Who is this protector of the innocent? None other than Stupendous Man!"
Screeching to a stop in the middle of his room, arms flexed to show his not so rippling biceps. A hood, a red blanket, cloaked his eyes that gave an eerie appearnce as the fly snapped in the breeze of a running fan. "Stupendous Man can see all and no mortal enemy can stand up to his might"
A voice from behind the bed announced, "Especially when he has his partner, Night Prowler" With that, Hobbes jumped onto the bed. With a mighty roar, he made his presense known. A glint of light caught his exposed teeth that made them shine like polished steel. Together, they were an unstoppable force that could be comparable to Batman and Robin. For the past week, our duo have been stirred in a comic book craze. Littered on the floor and bed were comics of their very own creation, "Stupendous Man" in large, bold font up top, with "Night Prowler" slightly smaller at the bottom. Their doodles were a fantasy, for their eyes only. Much of the story line made no sense with great, often feats of physics that could never be accomplished, but they relished the life where anything came come true.
"That's right ol' buddy," Stupedous Man said in a deep voice, "The two of us will protect the fine citizens of the city from crime, evil doers, and girls!" taking up a dramatic pose, the two stood proud for a moment, then a voice came from below.
"Calvin, let's go, I want to get to the bank before the line stretches all the way around the block."
That was mom. Today was a saturday, as well as the first of the month, so now hundreds of people were crowding in to cash their government checks.
Sigh. Calvin, disappointed that he was demoted back to his civilian life, removed his cape, folded, tucked under one arm, grabbed Hobbes and hustled down the stairs. Greeting him at the front door was mom, a purse hanging from a shoulder, and a upset look on her face. "I don't want to be late, Calvin, Dad needs to have these checks cashed by monday" she said.
"Sorry, Mom, but Hobbes and I were protecting the city from girls" Calvin smiled up.
"Oh? Then what about me? I'm a girl" she asked.
"You're a mom, that is different" he said.
"That's good to know" Mom said as she opened up the door and headed towards the car. Calvin raced out and climbed into the backseat, strapped Hobbes in his seat belt and began whispering stuff into his ears. When Mom sat in the driver's seat, she said to him, "Do you think I can trust you to wait in the car while I go into the bank?"
"Sure, mom" with a smile.
"I don't want a repeat of last time." she warned while looking in the rear view mirror.
"Honest, mom, Hobbes and I will guard the car with our lives."
Nodding in acceptance, Mom activated the car and the group began the trek into down town. It was a leasurely ride with the city abuzz in activity to clean up following the winter storm. The streets were plowed and salted, and school was out for vacation. Every business had a christmas theme decoration and lights pulsates in different bright neon colors that caught Calvin's eye each and every time. When they reached the bank at last, they found that it wasn't open yet, and to Mom's relief, there was no line at all. "Thank, God" she sighed as she eased into a parking spot behind the building.
"Now, wait here" she said, "I'll just be ten minutes. When I come back, we'll go for ice cream"
Holding up a smile, Calvin waved his mother farewell and watched as she disappeared towards the front of the red brick building.
"Great, with the absense of mom comes the presense of Stupendous Man!" Calvin exclaimed as he threw cape back one.
"Stupendous Man, there's a bank robbery downtown" Hobbes said as he climbed into the drivers seat.
"Night Prowler, take us to the bank and we'll catch the robbers"
Imitating driving at high speed, our duo went flying down roads, turning sharply, and reading from monitors that did not exist. "Do you think Batgirl will be there?" Hobbes childishly giggled.
"What?" Calvin yelled in surprise, "No girls! Remember? We are suppose to be fighting them."
"Aww, but she's so cute. Almost as cute as Susie" with a wide grin.
"I'll slap you" Calvin muttered as he folded his arms.
"Go ahead, girls dig scars"
While the two squabbled about, something sinister was taking place not too far away. While mom huddled amongst the group in his parka, several more outsiders began to form around them. And one of these was not looking to make a deposit, rather a large withdrawal. From behind, this man produced a lengthy knife and pushed his way rapidly through the crowd, threatening to cut those that tried to resist. "Give me your money" he demanded in a heavy voice. Without question, many patrons turned over their cash, seeing as how checks were useless in his hands. Greedily taking what he could, the man hustled away around the bank with several men in hot pursuit.
"Stop! Stop." they commanded, but the man did not obey. Light on his feet, he ducked between parked cars to dogged his pursuers. Hobbes took a glance through his side window and saw all this and alerted Calvin whom was pretending that he was using onboard laser cannons.
"Hey, look what's happening outside"
Taking a gander, Calvin was amazed to see the foot chase, but it was over in seconds, the good samaritans tackled the robber and subdued him. "Whoa, it's just like cops" Calvin said gleefully as the robber was taken back. "dude, that was so cool. too bad there wasn't a shootout."
"That would have been cool" Hobbes concured.
Their sentiments continued to be the same as an emotionally disturbed mother brought them home hours later. She had suceeded in depositing the much needed checks, but the moment of addrenalin, and the threat of painful injury hung in her mind as well as the safety of her child that tears were streaming down her face. What if the man wanted to take a hostage? Her son could have been it. When they returned home, Mom said next to nothing. After hanging up her parka on the coat rack, she choked out some words through her tears, "Stay close to home till Dad comes home" With that, she went upstairs and collasped on their bed, leaving Calvin to fend for himself for the rest of the afternoon outside. The whole incident transpired in just a few seconds, yet, it replayed in their minds over and over again. It fueled their desire to be what they desired the most, to be "super heroes".
Sitting in front of the television in the easy chair, Calvin turned to his buddy and said, "That was so cool. There was a news van, police, and everything"
"I know, I was there." Hobbes replied with a smirk.
"Oh, right. Too bad they didn't interview us." lowering his face, only to be jerked back up by Hobbes' comment.
"Right, we could have taken that goon down," slamming his fist into an open palm.
"Yes. what if he did? What if we could?
"What?" asked Hobbes.
"What if we were super heroes. We could protect Mom from danger, as well as the citizens of this city."
"That would be cool" Hobbes thought as his white paws stroked the bottom of his chin.
"When the sun goes down, the terror will rise. But when they do come out, they fear us, Stupendous Man and..."
"Night Prowler!"
"Stupendous Man, there's a bank robbery down town"
"I'll take flight." Calvin yelled, "You will take the Stupendous Car and meet me at the bank.
Saluting in compliance, Hobbes climbed back into the car and simulated in reving it's engine. Meanwhile, Calvin ran behind the house, arms thrusted forward, and fingers formed into fists. He was flying. In his mind, the image of the robber running by kept playing, "You won't escape" he yelled, spinning in circles. He was hot on the robber's tail. "Night Prowler, come quickly, I have our foe within my grasp"
Just as he said that, there came a mighty roar from up front. I did not sound like Hobbes, something bigger. Galloping back over his foot steps, Calvin came back to discover Night Prowler trapped inside the Stupendous Car with a Deranged Killer Mutant Monster Snow Goon rocking it back and forth.
"Not you!" exclaiming loudly.
The goon's attention drifted to Calvin and, with a roar, began to charge forth. This goon was remarkably different that those of the past, it was hidous with real eyes that burned with fire, a body that seemed to glisten like ice, and when Stupendous Man thrusted his fist into it's gut, he discovered that it also had bones of iron.
"Not good"
The goon back handed Stupendous Man and he sailed through the air like a toy, landing hard on the ice covered grass. Painfully lifting himself up, he looked about to find that Night Prowler had escaped from his soon to be tomb, and was at his side.
"I thought we took care of those things" Night Prowler said.
"Apparently not. But these ones are different. They don't look like the ones I built."
The goon charged again, flailing it's mighty arms that smashed both of them back into the hard earth. Recovering quickly, Prowler glared his teeth and lunged forth at his assailent, counter attacking with his claws that tore through armor and exposed it's iron bones. It wasn't enough, the goon continued to beat Hobbes. With every blow that Prowler would land, two more were dealt to him. Calvin had to do something to save his friend, but what? He was just a boy, and this was different that the war previously. Looking about for a weapon, a random thought entered his puny mind.
"Move out of the way!" Calvin said cupping his hands around his mouth, "Let me use my powers"
"What? You have no powers!" yelled Hobbes. Calvin must have gone stir crazy at the moment, his puny size and strength was no match to lift an entire car. "Just throw rocks at it's head" weezing through breaths as the grip grew tighter. He tried to kick his way free, but succeeded in only chipping away at ice armor. It was incredibly strong stuff. As for Calvin, he appeared to be uneffected in obeying Hobbes' order and made it all the way to the sedan. With no keys, how would he bear it as a weapon? A thought entered his mind at the snap of a finger, lift it.
"I'll save you, Night Prowler." he thought as he grasped the chilled metal bumper and, lifting with all of his might, began to lift the behemonth into the air until it was over his head.
"Da Da Da!" he sang in triumph.
Hearing this, the goon, still clunching Night Prowler in his mighty hands, looked over his shoulder and it's heart beat rapidly in aprehension at what it saw. A sedan sailing right for it. Before it could react, the sedan was parked ontop with Night Prowler resting dangerously close to one wheel. Painfully, he picked himself up. His temple throbbed with each pulsation. Holding his paws on his injury, Hobbes staggered over to Stupendous Man with a very concerned look on his long face.
"How did you do that?" panting for breath as he tore the severed hands clasped around his throat.
"I'm...I'm not sure" replied an equally cocerned Calvin, "I just had a thought, like a super hero. Next thing I knew, I was lifting a car." Both of them looked at the car, smashed on it's side with the skeleton of the goon pinned underneath.
"Do you think it's dead?" asked Hobbes looking down at a mound of unsifted snow.
"I'm not sure. These things are remarkably flexible. But the most important question is, where did it come from? Who made it?" Calvin replied.
Pushing together, they removed the car to show a skeleton buried underneth, not of bone but of metal.
Pointing at the unusual structure, Calvin asked the blantly obvious, "Is that natural?"
Shaking his head negatively, Hobbes did not answer. Instead, he squatted down and reached his paw into a small mound. Underneth, he could feel cold metal in the shape of a box. Slowly, he pulled it out. It was split wide open, but judging from the wires and it's position relative to the body, it must be a modem of sorts. A cluster of wires were connected to round eye balls that dangled on the end.
Calvin was taken aback, "Gross"
"Relax, they aren't real. We should take this inside this inside so the neighbors don't see. We need to judge for ourselves what we are dealing with."
Nodding in a agreement, Calvin peered around, there was a not a soul to be found. How could anyone not be drawn by the crash of a car is anyone's guess, but before asking anything further, Calvin quietly placed back the sedan while Hobbes gathered up the skeleton. "Where can we go?" he asked. "Your mom will freak if we take all this inside."
"How about the garage?"
Placing the car back in it's original spot, the two dragged the body back inside and barred all the doors to prevent mom from ease dropping. Placed on a table, Hobbes throughly looked over the skeleton as Calvin paced up and down behind him, throwing theories into the wind about how their arch nemisis could have returned from the grave.
"What if, the goons have evolved, began building themselves out of stronger material. No, or it's a secret government program that went awry. No, or it's an evil alien race bent on controlling the world."
Hobbes did not hear any of it. So wrapped up in his work was he on this one computer he first salvaged that all around him was a void. It was incredible materiel. Even though smashed up from the fight, it was still first rate, quality made stuff. Not refuge from dumps. A couch potato could not have come up with something like this. No. It had to be someone with the knowledge and experience, and a properly equipped shop to make something like this. If there was one, he thought, then there would be more. While Stupendous Man continued to rant, Hobbes pulled out key compoents from the goon's main frame and took them under a microscope. There had to be a serial number or a marking to tell where these parts came from. Perhaps then, they could find whom they sold the parts to. It was something at least.
"I think you can throw out your alien theory" Hobbes said gazing down onto the table.
"What do you mean?" Calvin replied freezing in his steps.
"While you were jabbering, I pulled out several components and began to look for serial numbers and such. And I think I found one."
Looking through a wide convex lense, they saw a piece of pipe that was once a bone, with an etching. It looked like the ace of spades.
"What does that mean?" Calvin asked as he pulled away from the glass.
Placing his own eye over it, Hobbes said, "It could mean a lot of things. The ace of spades is known as the death card. Could be a company trade mark or just a logo."
Looking down the steel spine, it was amazing to see how incredibly detailed it was. Survos, wire, all encased in steel plates that allowed it to flex and bend like a real spine does. A pelvis housed gyros and some sort of computer device unlike the controller at it's head. What moved it was the flexing movements of the pelvis, much like a snake moves with it's muscles. Impressive. After a few more minutes of examination, Hobbes turned to Calvin, "Best as I can figure it, these goons are better in many respects, but they lose one key advantage."
Calvin looked on quietly.
"They cannot reproduce more of themselves on the spot. These skeletons are the key to their being. Someone with a remote or computer programed them to do their bidding."
Rubbing his chin, Calvin said, "So an evil doer is at the wheel."
Hobbes nodded in agreement.
"Is there any way of tracking down where a remote signal is coming from?"
Looking at the components then back at Stupendous Man, "If there was, it's long gone when you slammed the car on him."
Shrugging his shoulders, Calvin asked with concern on his face, "Then what do we do now?"
"Well," Hobbes surmised, "If there is one, there are bound to be more. I mean, someone spent a lot of money on this goon, they are, or more of them will be around here looking for it. I say we drag it back outside and lay an ambush."
"Terrific!" clapping his hands together. "I'll grab some paper and we can draw out the plan."
With his friend rushing back into the house, Hobbes turned his gaze back down at the snow goon's skeleton, "I just hope this turns into the Alamo again."
