Tyger, tyger.
A Calvin and Hobbes ficlet.
By Zombie Boy.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Calvin swallowed nervously as he knocked on the office door. He had reason to be- in his mind at least. Things had bee n going too well lately after he and Suzy had broken up. Not knowing what else to do, and definitely not wanting to go to college and subjecting himself to four more years of schooling like his father had been suggesting he do, Calvin had went down to the recruiters office and signed up for the Army.
Much to his surprise, he'd passed the ASVAB test with little trouble, and did very well in basic. Afterwards, he'd been even more surprised that his request for an MOS had gone through. 19K, M1 Armor crewman. So, after a visit home, where his mom had cried and gone on about how handsome he looked in uniform Calvin had then shipped out to Fort Knox, Kentucky, home of the US Army's Armor Training School.
Once there, he'd found that he and the M1 Abrams fit very well together, and his instructors were saying that he had the makings of becoming one of the best gunners that they had ever seen. Then, out of the blue, he'd been called to the base's administration building and told to report to this office.
"Who is it?" a male voice with an accent that sounded vaguely New Yorkish asked.
"PFC Machiavelli reporting as ordered." Calvin said, standing at attention even though he couldn't see who was on the other side of the door or what their rank was.
"Come in." the voice ordered.
Swallowing nervously again, Calvin opened the door and stepped inside. Inside the office, the decor was basic government beige, and the sole occupant of the room and thus owner of the voice turned out to be a Native American man in BDU's with his beret stuffed through the epaulets of his uniform and Sargent's chevrons on his sleeves.
Calvin immediately snapped to attention and saluted. "Sargent." he said, ramrod straight.
The man stood and returned Calvin's salute. "Private." he said. "Shut the door and sit down."
Calvin did so, but when he sat down, he noticed something odd. The man's branch insignia were the crossed muskets of the infantry, not the crossed swords and tank of armor.
"Uh, Sargent..." Calvin paused for a second to read the man's name tag "..uh, Evans, why does the Infantry want with me? I'm training to be a tanker."
Evans got an amused little smile on his face, which Calvin found to be somewhat unnerving, like the Sargent was expecting him to say that.
"That is a good question, private." he said, and took a manila file folder from his briefcase on the floor. "However, it's not the infantry in general that has an interest in you, just my unit."
"And what unit would that be, Sargent?" Calvin asked.
"I'll get to that in a bit." replied in Evans, deflecting Calvin's question. "first, I'd like to talk to you something that happened when you were fifteen."
Calvin nearly had a heart attack when Evans said that. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind as to which incident he was referring to. Moe and his buddies had decided to use him as an impromptu punching bag which had put him in the hospital with a nasty concussion.
Two days after that, Moe and his friends had disappeared, and parts of them hadn't been found until the next spring. Calvin hadn't come under suspicion for it, owing to the fact he'd been in the hospital when Moe and company had vanished. Some in the neighborhood and at school had whispered that he'd had a hand in it, but they'd only been whispers.
Calvin, however, did know who had did it, and why. It'd been Hobbes who had did it, being less than pleased with what had happened to his best friend yet again, and had decided to put an end to it once in for all.
He never would have asked his pantheistic friend go out and do something like that for him. Moe may have been a bully and a thug, but that didn't mean he deserved to be rendered limb from limb. Not that Calvin was going to shed any tears for him either.
"Sargent, I didn't have anything to do with that. I was in the hospital..." Calvin protested.
"We know that, Private." Evans said, and flipped open the folder. "It was your friend that did it. I believe his name is Hobbes?"
Calvin nearly swallowed his tongue in surprise. " S-Sarge?" he croaked. "What are you..."
"I'm talking about that tiger spirit friend of your's, the one who's been eating all of the tuna fish in the mess hall, that one?" Evans said, and flipped over a photo showing the paw prints of a tiger in snow. "The same one who apparently got tired of you being bullied and decided to put a stop to it?" he added, tapping the print.
Calvin swallowed and felt very, very, very uncomfortable. "Ahh... how-how do you know about him?" he asked, wondering just what was happening.
"A teacher of yours, Miss Wormwood? She told us about him and you." Evans answered. "We've been keeping an eye on you for a long time, Private Machiavelli."
Calvin's stomach tied itself further into knots when Evans said that, and he forced himself to look the Sargent in the eye. "S-so what do you want with me?" he asked.
Evans smiled again and leaned back in his chair. "To offer you a job, Private. Something more exciting and challenging than being a gunner, and just as vital to the defense of the Constitution and the Republic."
"I-I'm not in troubles?" Calvin asked, not believing what he was hearing.
Sargent Evans shook his head no. "No, not in the least." he said. "Neither one of you are particularly malign, and you have a deep and healthy respect for the core principals of our Republic."
"Well, all men are created equal, Sargent." Calvin replied. "And may I speak freely?" he asked.
The Sargent nodded his assent and Calvin continued.
"Just who the hell are you, and who do you work for?"Calvin asked.
"I'm a soldier." was Evans answer. "Living up to the oath I took when I joined the Army, just like you did." he continued. "That's the unclassified version. I can give you a much more accurate version if you agree to join us. And by the way, if you do join us, you;ll see and do things that make your trans morgifyer look tame in comparison."
"You know about that?" Calvin asked defensively.
"We know a lot of things." Evans replied. "Including somethings you've been wondering about all your life. You in?"
Calvin's brows creased for a moment as he thought about what Evans had said. "You're dangling one hell of a carrot in front of me." he said. "What's the stick? '
Evans got that same little pleased look on his face when Calvin asked that, and now he was beginning to find it slightly annoying and more than a little curious about the group the good Sargent represented, and how they could figure him out so well.
"The stick, Private, is that once you join us, there is no going back. Once you're in, you're in for life." Evans told him.
Calvin nodded slowly. "I see..." he said. "So, Miss Wormwood is a member of your group?"
Evans nodded. "Yes, yes she is. She's inactive status, but that doesn't mean she's not doing her job."
"Huh." was Calvin's response. "I always thought there was something sinister about her..." he mused. "So why did she decide to become a schoolteacher?" he asked. "I always thought she hated kids."
Evans snorted in amusement. "her? Hate kids? Hardly." he said. "I suspect you got that impression of her because you were an unholy terror to deal with."
Calvin thought about this for a second and found himself nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I was. "he admitted, then his expression sobered. "If I join up with you guys, what happens?" he asked.
"If you do join us, what happens is that you'll finish your MOS training and then officially, you'll be posted to duty assignment. In reality, you'll be sent to one of our postings where you will assume your duties with us."
"And I don't tell anyone about this, right?" Calvin asked.
"Not a gorramed word." Evans replied. "We'll have built a nice large cover story for you to use to keep up appearances, so you wont need to worry about that. So, what o you think?"
"Can I have a moment?" Calvin asked.
"Take all the time you need."Evans said. "This is a pretty big commitment I'm asking you to undertake."
"Okay." Calvin said, and began to ponder his options.
On the one hand, he could just say no and continue doing what he was doing... and on the other hand, he could say 'yes', and see what was down the rabbit hole. For several seconds he pondered these two options, and then had a realization which helped him make up his mind: If he said no, the question of 'what if' would be driving him crazy for the rest of his life.
"I'm in." Calvin said.
Evans smiled and extended his hand to Calvin. "Welcome to Gatekeeper." he said as they shook.
End.
Author's note; This is just a little one shot that hit me out of the blue and looked so good to me I had to get it down. I always wanted to explain how Calvin Machiavelli and his good buddy Hobbes ended up working for Gatekeeper and Evans, and this seemed like a good way to start off.
I plan on expanding on this with a series of one shots or a short story exploring Calvin's experiences growing up and to go more in depth as to why he joined the Army when I get the time for it.
-Zombie Boy.