Author's Note: I'mma be honest about this. Updates for this story will be sporadic at best, and pretty much whenever I finish writing a chapter. Going to do my best to make sure no more than two weeks passes between updates, what with school and work kicking my butt now. Enjoy this story, which was actually inspired by one of my favorite movies. See if you can figure it out.

Running for their lives was not how the gang expected summer vacation to begin.

Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates checked over their shoulders to see if the giant creature was still behind them. It was a gigantic charcoal black being blood red eyes and fire spewing from its nostrils, suggesting that it would probably breathe fire at some point, but it hadn't yet. It was a possibility that they were entirely okay with never dealing with.

They pelted up the sidewalk towards Calvin's house with utmost determination. They had only meant to go to the general store to stock up on snack food for their upcoming journey. Imagine their surprise when they'd found themselves confronted with a great swirly thing in midair that spat the monster out. The MTM had identified it as a void jumper that could leap from universe to universe simply through mental engineering. It'd be fascinating if it hadn't been trying to kill them in that precise moment.

The house loomed before them, and Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates pelted down the walkway to the backyard, making sure the creature didn't damage any of their property as they did. Calvin knew his parents would have a fit if anything got damaged, and he also knew they'd never believe his story in a million years. They made it into the yard where a familiar red wagon was waiting. They piled into it, using the momentum to send them rolling down the slope towards Sneer Hill. The monster bounded after them.

The idea was to lure the creature away from the town into the secluded forest. They had a pretty good idea of how they were going to vanquish the creature, but they needed to make sure they were in a good location first.

They ducked and weaved the creature through the trees, tripping it several times as they bounded over bumps and rocks. They weren't sure why it had shown up now of all times. It just wasn't a simple coincidence. They were getting ready for a trip into space with the rest of their team, and they knew that they would be gone for some time. How odd that on the day they were leaving that this thing was chasing after them!

The reason they were making this trip into space was because they had to run away as fast as they could. They received notice that some sort of intergalactic bounty hunters were on their tails – even those that didn't have tails. They didn't know how or why. Someone had put out a warrant for their arrest, and it involved traveling across entire galaxies to find out. They didn't know who had done it or what they had been charged with, but Galaxoid and Nebular had confirmed it through their various interlopers throughout the galaxy.

The creature was baring down on them, so Calvin steered them down another pathway they hardly ever used except in emergencies – which was actually fairly frequent. There was a low hanging branch over a steep drop off. As soon as they were on it, all three of them raised their arms – Calvin grabbing the lower part while Hobbes and Socrates grabbed the higher part – and they swung up into the trees, leaving the wagon to continue down the hill with the creature still chasing after it, momentarily fooled before it registered what had happened and turning back.

Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates climbed up into the sturdy trees. They were very familiar with the layout of the forest and knew which ones were safe to climb on. Calvin grabbed onto Hobbes's back, and they leapfrogged from one tree to another. The creature watched from below, still chasing after them, but it was so busy looking straight up that it proceeded to collide with the tree trunks in its path.

Taking advantage of its momentary confusion, they found the one tree that they needed. It was an old tree that had fallen years ago but was still propped up diagonally by some of the others. Hobbes and Socrates, still carrying Calvin, bounded along the branches until they reached it, and then, with claws fully extended, slid down like firemen down a pole and thudded onto the ground, running further into the woods. The creature rubbed its sore noggin and picked up their scent.

As they ran, they reflected on why Andy and Sherman hadn't joined them that morning. They had explained that someone was coming with them on the trip. It seemed a little odd that they would bring along a friend during their journey through space while on the run from murderous bounty hunters, but Sherman had been rather insistent. They had simply shrugged and hoped he wouldn't take up too much room. They were going to meet them at the spaceship in a few minutes anyway.

They soon found themselves up against a boulder. It was large and seemingly too big to run around. They stopped to catch their breath, and then they leaned against it in apparent terror when they heard the creature bounding down the hill toward them. It saw them cornered. If it had human emotions, it would've smirked at how easy its prey had just become. No more running away. They were trapped. It was time for ramming speed. It galloped like a herd of buffalo in their direction, all set to squash them and then gobble down the remains.

Calvin checked his watch while still pretending to look frightened. Any second now…

Then, there was a metallic clanking sound thundering from the slope to their right. The trio looked up and saw the wagon, still rolling on its own, rattling along the rocks and dirt in their direction. With only seconds before the beast was on them again, they timed their moment, and then all three of them jumped into the wagon as it passed, riding it down the rest of the hill, while the creature collided with the boulder, putting a nasty crack down the center of it.

Back on track, Calvin steered the wagon in the direction of a slope that would take them to their destination. They bucked and bounced along it, flew across a deep chasm, and rattled down the path towards a nearby clearing that had what they were looking for in it. It was their ticket out of here.

The spaceship was parked in the large clearing, all set to take them away.

Andy was already out front, chucking suitcases and duffle bags into a dull green beam of light that was picking everything up and putting it away in vacuum storage. Calvin had offered to put all their belongings into his hypercube, but Andy felt it would do them a world of good to keep their clothes and various other paraphernalia separate. He looked over his shoulder at the metallic rattling – he'd heard the heavy footsteps thirty minutes ago but it hadn't fazed him – and he waved them in his direction. He chucked the last suitcase into the green beam, allowing it to disappear, and then he snapped his fingers up to the spaceship, and a blue beam came down and took him away.

Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates were determined to make it to the spaceship, but they were equally determined to make their arrival as cool as possible with the giant creature on their heels. They aimed for the spot Andy had been standing, but in the process, they hit a rock that sent them flying through the air. They all went tumbling end-over-end a couple times before they enter another blue beam, and they and the wagon vanished into thin air.

The creature was just coming up the hill to deal with its prey, only to come face-to-face with a red beam of light. It skidded to a halt just in front of it, startled, and as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared, and then it looked down to see Galaxoid and Nebular were standing in front of it, and they were both holding heavy-duty guns of some sort that were aimed right it. The two smaller aliens locked and loaded, and then they fired some sort of energy beam into the air behind the creature.

Space and time warped for a few seconds before a portal opened up, and the creature felt something grip its entire body like a vice. It clawed at the air helplessly as the suction picked it up and hauled it inside, back to the plane of interdimensional travel and away from our heroes. A few seconds later, the portal resealed itself shut, and it was though it had never existed.

Galaxoid and Nebular nodded with satisfaction and pressed a button on their uniforms, and the blue beam came down and took them into the ship.

Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates picked themselves off the floor of the spaceship. They hadn't even hit the floor. They just appeared on it in the last positions they had been in – which was awkward for Socrates, as he'd been upside-down. The beam had transformed the energy of their momentum into realized energy, such as heat and light, so they had been able to cease traveling without having to injure themselves in the process.

Calvin dusted himself off. "I really need to get one of these energy converters for the wagon," he said pleasantly.

"And then one for your parents' car when you turn sixteen," Hobbes agreed.

Andy entered the room with Sherman on his shoulder. "Where'd your friend come from?" he asked.

"Portal outside the general store," Socrates replied. "The manager really needs to screen his customers."

"We'd never get in, otherwise," Sherman quipped.

"Does this mean you didn't get the gummy worms?" Andy asked.

Calvin reached into his pocket and tossed a bag of artificially flavored gummy candies that resembled worms to his friend. "One day, we'll figure out the connection between bears and worms and why they were chosen to be gummy."

Galaxoid and Nebular slithered into the room, having put the big guns away and preparing themselves to play the role of tour guide. They had been the ones to intercept the message in the first place, and they felt a need to protect their Earth pals. "Right then," Galaxoid announced. "We're boosting into hyperspace. We'll be outside the Milky Way within the hour, and then we'll park in the orbiting garage on the galaxy-limits."

"We're going to meet up with another ship and get onboard the SSS Bragnorfoloff and travel to the planet Flargnong at a relief center for refugees."

Everyone stared at them. Calvin broke silence with, "Ragnorfoloff?"

Galaxoid shrugged. "That's as close to English as we could translate it."

"So we'll be to our new ship in an hour?" Socrates asked. "What kind of place is it?"

"Standard relaxation cruiser," Nebular replied. "We'll have compartment. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a private one, so we'll have to share it with someone. Still, with eight of us and one of them, it should be fairly tolerable."

"As long as aliens don't eat beans," Sherman muttered.

Hobbes did a brief headcount. "Eight? There're only seven of us."

"Yeah, well, you've yet to meet our extra passenger," Andy sighed.

"Who is it? What's the big mystery?" Calvin asked.

"Come on," Sherman said. "He's in the baggage compartment."

Andy and Sherman set off ahead of them, leaving Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates to briefly look at each other in confusion. Their extra passenger was in the baggage compartment. Still, they shrugged and headed in that direction to see who it was.

The baggage compartment wasn't all that crowded, and they pushed a few bags away to find themselves looking into a pair of beady little eyes. Before them was a small cage that resembled the one Sherman slept inside of when he wasn't out and about. That's right, it was a hamster cage. And inside it was a hamster.

It was an elderly hamster with white fur that had clearly once been brown like Sherman's. He still looked wiry and energetic, without a hint of lethargy to be found. He glared up at them with utter contempt. It put Calvin in mind of Sherman when they'd first met him, before he'd mellowed over the years and gotten used to them.

"To think my own grandson would put me behind bars!" the elderly hamster snapped.

Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates double took a couple of times, and then looked between the two hamsters – one young, one old, both similar in a few ways.

"Grandson?!" Calvin exclaimed.

"Wait…," Socrates said, holding up his paws in confusion before addressing Sherman. "Is he talking about you?"

"No, he's my grandfather," Andy said suddenly. "I'm the result of a bizarre genetic experiment. Of course he's talking about Sherman!"

Sherman shook his head. "He's my grandfather, yes."

Hobbes looked thoughtful. "It never occurred to me that hamsters had grandparents. Seems so obvious now…"

"What's he doing here?" Calvin asked.

"Oh, he's brokenhearted," said Sherman dismissively. "His wife ran off with some guy. Mother thinks it was his pastry. Anyway, she told me to take him out for a bit, and it coincided with our run from intergalactic law, so here we are."

The story didn't make a lick of sense, so they didn't bother to question it. As far as our heroes were concerned, they were so often bombarded with patently ridiculous situations on a daily basis, and the idea of rodent infidelity didn't register very high on their 'weirdness scale' at the point. Maybe it would've a few years ago, but now it was a bit too domestic to be strange.

They took in the older hamster – who they decided silently they would refer to as "Grandfather" for simplicity's sake – and decided that he was all right. He was looking at them with a neutral expression that concerned them, but for now, they were content that he was just sitting there.

Socrates decided to be amiable and went over to the cage. "Hello, Grandfather," he said pleasantly.

"Hello," Grandfather replied sourly.

This delighted Socrates to no end as he glanced over at Sherman. "He can talk?"

"Of course he can talk! Why wouldn't he be able to talk?" Sherman asked indignantly, as if it were a foolish question that a hamster should be able to talk.

"Why's he locked up?" Calvin asked.

"Because he's a troublemaker," Sherman groused. "A true old rabble-rouser."

"That's a lie," Grandfather replied evenly. "I've never roused a rabble in my entire life. I'm locked in here because this grandson of mine can't accept that I'm a free spirit!"

"Since when does being engaged to three different women constitute being a 'free spirit'?"

Hobbes accidentally let his eyebrows spring up over his face in a moment of surprise. "Three?"

"It was a time of peace and love and tenderness…," Grandfather said in a wistful tone.

"It was last month," Sherman grunted.

"Doesn't waste any time, does he?" Socrates chuckled.

Calvin nodded, observing the older hamster thoughtfully. "Very clean, though, isn't he? I take it we're looking after him as well as ourselves."

"Don't trouble yourself, kid," Grandfather grumbled, pouting in a manner that reminded them of Sherman when he was having a sulk. "I'll look after myself. No bounty hunters are going to lay their grubby mitts on me."

"He'd probably bite them," Andy muttered.

Grandfather sneered in Andy's direction, and that act alone made the boy feel eight inches tall. It would've been three inches, but he was trying to be generous to himself. Something about that disapproving gaze was able to knock a few blocks off his self-esteem and question his very existence. It didn't happen to him very often. Andy was often regarded as a very easygoing kid who enjoyed relaxation, but sometimes, he let his sarcasm and sanity slip momentarily in favor of uncertainty and worry.

Calvin checked his watch. "It's going to be time to switch to the cruiser soon," he announced. "What say we leave Grandfather to stew and catch a glimpse of the Milky Way in fast forward?"

"Sounds good to me," Hobbes said. "After all, how often do we get up here?"

"Twice a month, usually," Sherman deadpanned, but he agreed all the same.

They all turned to leave, but Grandfather's gruff voice echoed behind them.

"That's right. Leave the elderly behind. I'll just sit in the dark then."

They all stopped turning to leave and glanced at him.

Sherman cleared his throat. "Grandfather, you know why you're down here."

"Fascist!"

"That, too."

Without another word, the five exited the cargo hold to prepare for the rest of their journey.