Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took a bit longer to finish than the previous one. Anyways, this chapter is mostly dedicated to fleshing out my OCs that were introduced last chapter. It might be get take a while, but I think it's important that you get an idea of what they act like. I'm also going to introduce another counselor this chapter. He's going to be very important to the story, and so will a minor character that shows up in this chapter. Make of that as you will.

P.S. Please comment some more on this story so I can know what you think. That would be greatly appreciated.


Calvin, Hobbes, Nikola, and Sakura sat in a loose circle. Now that Calvin and Hobbes had finally stopped running around, they had started getting to know each other.

"So what are you into?' asked Hobbes, attempting to break the ice.

"I like science." said Sakura. "Especially nature. I've memorized about 150 species of sharks, all the big cats, a hundred amphibians..."

"So you've memorized all the big cats, eh?" said Hobbes. "So which one of them is the best?"

"I don't know." Sakura replied. "I don't have a way to test all of them in every category."

Hobbes snorted. "As a big cat myself, I'd like you to know that tigers are obviously superior in every way imaginable."

"Actually, cheetahs have been proven to be faster, so I don't think that would make tigers superior in every way imaginable." Sakura pointed out.

"Who do you trust more, a tiger or an observer?" asked Hobbes.

"If you're faster than a cheetah, then why don't you show us?" asked Nikola.

"Sorry, but I didn't bring my drag chute." Hobbes replied.

Everyone gave him a blank stare.

"What?" asked Hobbes.

"So what about you?" Calvin asked Nikola. "What are you into?"

"I'd say, but I doubt you'd understand anything that I mention." Nikola replied.

"It's true." Sakura interjected. "Sometimes even I don't understand what he's saying."

"That's because you're not old enough to see some of the things I like yet." Nikola responded. "I'm waiting until you're at least ten before I consider widening you're options."

"How about you just say a couple names and see if we recognize anything?" asked Hobbes.

"Okay then." Nikola said. "Kirby. That ring a bell?"

"No." replied Hobbes. "Do you recognize that name?"

Calvin shook his head.

"Metroid." Nikola tried again.

More head-shaking.

"Ultraman." Nikola tried a third time.

Even more head-shaking.

"Wow, quality entertainment is lost on you." Nikola muttered under his breath.

"Hmm?" asked Calvin. "Did you say something?"

"I said, 'Wow, quality entertainment is lost on you.'" Nikola said again.

"Does your 'quality entertainment' reduce thinking and melt your brain into mush?" asked Calvin.

Nikola just gave him an extra-blank stare. If there was a record for blankest stare ever, then the robot would have shattered it.

"So back to the previous topic," Hobbes said. "The superiority of tigers."

Nikola rolled his eyes. "Great." he muttered. "I'm stuck with two nimrods now."

"I heard that!" Hobbes snapped.

"Well, tigers are apex predators." Sakura pointed out. "But it's hard to compare them to other apex predators because each apex predator is adapted to their own environment, making it hard to have a fair comparison."

"Tigers are definitely better than lions, though." Hobbes insisted.

"I have a question." Calvin said, turning to Sakura.

"Yes?" asked Sakura.

"Where did your name come from?" Calvin asked. "I mean, who names their kid Sakura? It's like you're from a different planet!"

"Actually, it's a very common name from where she gets it." Nikola said. "It's from a country called Japan. Look it up."

"So it's a Japanese name?" asked Hobbes.

Sakura nodded. "I get it from my mom. She met my dad in when she moved to America, but I never got to meet him." She sighed.

"Well, at least your dad doesn't drag you on trips to barren islands in the middle of nowhere and ride his bike at 6:00 in the morning in the snow on the basis that it 'builds character.'" Calvin pointed out.

Nikola and Sakura gave Calvin looks of alarm.

"What?" asked Calvin. "It's true!"

"I can confirm this." Hobbes added. "Especially the camping trips."

"Were they really that bad?" Sakura asked.

"No, they were fine." said Calvin. "I just had to sit on a barren, lifeless rock, where the only way you can feed yourself is either packing cold, canned ravioli, or beheading and gutting a thrashing, gasping, slimy fish. And if that loveliness isn't enough, I had to deal with either Dad getting mad at me for dropping the luggage and causing him to lose his glasses, having it rain for the entire week, and, worst of all, getting eaten alive by NUCLEAR MOSQUITOES!"

"Ah." Nikola stated. "I see. Sounds painful."

"So what's going on with her eye?" asked Hobbes, pointing to Sakura. He didn't want Calvin to launch into another rant about the horrors of camping.

"I told you before," Nikola replied. "we don't know."

"My knowledge of genetics tell me that the only logical explanation for either eye color is some sort of genetic mutation." Sakura added.

"So you're a mutant?" asked Calvin, who appeared to be very interested now. "What can you do? Do you have psychic powers? Flight? Talking to animals?"

"Not that kind of mutation, dingus." Nikola said. "She just means that something happened in the womb and her inherited traits were altered slightly when she was born. At least, that's what I can garner from what she's told me."

"Yeah, he explained it pretty well." Sakura said. "I don't have any special powers, but I do bring a parasol with me wherever I go." She opened a little black parasol she had been carrying. Somehow, nobody had noticed it until now. "It's closer to an umbrella, really." she admitted.

Hobbes arched his eyebrow. "A parasol?" he asked. "Why?"

"It's kind of like a good luck charm." Sakura replied. "It also helps block things that might hurt me, like balls that someone threw."

"Fair point." Hobbes said. "Where do you think I could get one of those? It would really help with surviving Mr. Doom here."

He motioned to Calvin, who responded with an indignant "Hey!"

Sakura shrugged. "I don't know. My mom just told me that it's mine a couple years ago, and I've just been bringing it where ever I go when I decided that it would help to have some protection."

Suddenly, Mr. Bill's voice sounded out across the area, interrupting the chattering campers. "Alright, now that you're all acquainted, it's time to introduce you to the counselors of this camp. Follow us to the camp cafeteria!"


Everyone had assembled in the camp's cafeteria. Mr. Bill stood at the front. "Now, I'm sure many of you have been here before, back when we were Camp Grizzly, so you should know some of us. This year, however, we also have a new counselor. Please give a warm welcome to the newest member of the camp staff, Frank M.A.D. Mann!"

As soon as he said that, a man with spiky white hair burst into the room.

Calvin looked up at the man. He certainly looked more... interesting than Mr. Bill.

Mr. Frank waved. "Hiya, kids!" he said in a German accent so utterly exaggerated it just had to be faked. "I'm your cool new camp counselor, and definitely not some crazy evil scientist dude with an evil plan of world domination!"

"Welp, that certainly doesn't sound suspicious." Nikola muttered.

"I'm also pretty sure he took that line from a movie and changed it a little so it didn't sound the same." Sakura added.

"Mr. Frank, as he prefers to be called, has bought our camp, and is also the reason it has been renamed Camp Scientist." said Mr. Bill, who then added, "Not that I approve of it." under his breath. "Please don't ask about his three middle names. We've already gotten a lot of letters from your parents about that."

"I was also in charge of deciding your partners!" Mr. Frank added. "I gathered at much information from your parents as possible so I could give you all the best matches possible, and totally didn't just draw sticks randomly!"

Mr. Bill secretly rolled his eyes behind Mr. Frank's back.

"How very reassuring." Nikola snarked, clearly not buying Mr. Frank's excuse for a moment.

Calvin inhaled sharply and shuddered, realizing that Mr. Frank was probably lying and he could have ended up with someone like Susie.

"Now, allow us to introduce the other members of the camp staff." Mr. Bill said.

Calvin zoned out has Mr. Bill introduced Mr. Rob, Mr. Sam, Ms. Alex, blah blah blah...

As Mr. Bill finished the introductions and dismissed the campers to relax and explore the campus, Hobbes realized something.

"Wait," he said. "Why do they all go by their first names? Doesn't the usual layout have their last names instead?"

Calvin jumped out of his seat with a yelp. As he caught his breath, Sakura explained, "The pamphlet says they prefer to use their first names because they want the kids at the camp to feel like their surrounded by friends. At least, I think that's what it said."

"Ah. That explains it." Hobbes replied.

As Sakura and Nikola joined the mass of campers leaving the cafeteria, Calvin whispered to Hobbes, "We need to hold a G.R.O.S.S meeting, pronto."


"This emergency meeting of G.R.O.S.S. will come to order!" said Calvin.

He and Hobbes had put on some newspaper hats, and were currently in some sort of unspecified dark place. G.R.O.S.S. was a club Calvin made, consisting of himself and Hobbes. The acronym stood for Get Rid Of Slimy girlS (Calvin said it wouldn't make sense otherwise). Their main target was Susie, and, despite their many attempts, most of their missions ended in failure.

"Dictator-for-Life Calvin and President and First Tiger Hobbes present!" replied Hobbes. "Now, shall we get down to business?"

"Immediately." said Calvin. "Dictator-for-Life Calvin's parents have shipped him off to the infamous prison known as 'Summer Camp', where I am told I shall be trapped for a week. However, my knowledge of my parents tells me that they most likely are intending to keep me here forever, never to bother them again. Evidently, we must find some way to escape."

"How should we do that?" asked Hobbes.

"Hmm..." Calvin mulled over the available options. "We took a bus here today. Perhaps it'll go back again to bring more children here."

"Unlikely." Hobbes shot down the suggestion. "The bus probably only comes here to bring children once, then it'll come back at the end of the week to bring them all home."

"Darn it." Calvin muttered. "We could potentially turn to Sakura and Nikola for help."

"But isn't Sakura a girl?" asked Hobbes. "Doesn't the G.R.O.S.S. Rulebook say that we can't ally with girls or we'll be deemed a traitor?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Calvin muttered grimly. "Besides, a robot on our side would certainly help, and we need all the help we can get."

"So what should we do once we get them to help us?" asked Hobbes.

"Have you brought the G.R.O.S.S. Handbook of Survival Strategies?" asked Calvin.

"Well, I found it in you backpack, along with the entire contents of your room." Hobbes held up a red notebook, rather thick due to the amount of pages in it. Written on it, in big, sloppy letters, was the words "TOP-SECRET G.R.O.S.S. FILES".

"Good, good." Calvin said, taking the notebook and flipping to a random page. "Now, this is a plan!"

Hobbes leaned over to see what Calvin was so excited about.

"Plan No. 1974:" Calvin said, grinning madly. "We jump into a giant robot dinosaur and blast everything in sight with a mind-boggling amount of rocket missiles!"

"There's two problems with that." Hobbes pointed out. "One: Our technology isn't advanced enough to make a gigantic, heavily armed robot dinosaur. Two: Rocket missiles are redundant."

Calvin's smile dropped. "Rats." he muttered. "That plan was made with the assumption that I would be a multi-trillionaire with the materials to make a giant dino-bot by the time we had to put it to use."

Hobbes rolled his eyes. Calvin, either not seeing it through the darkness, being too focused on the G.R.O.S.S. Handbook of Survival Strategies, or simply ignoring it, didn't respond. he flipped through the book, before settling on a plan he liked.

"Aha!" Calvin exclaimed. "How about Strategy No. 2018?"

Hobbes looked at the page Calvin had flipped to. "Well, we don't seem to have a jetpack readily available." he pointed out.

"Dang it. Strategy No. 64?"

"It would probably take years to dig a tunnel from here to home."

"Strategy No. 1992?"

"How would we summon an angry, fire-breathing dragon? Where would we find an angry, fire-breathing dragon in the first place?"

"STRATEGY NO. 10?!"

Hobbes winced. "Geez, you don't have to shout. Besides, we don't have any microphones nearby anyways."

Calvin's expression turned grim.

"Well, guess we have no choice other than Strategy No. 1." he said darkly.

"You mean assaulting our foes with water balloons?" Hobbes asked, checking the book.

"Exactly." Calvin replied, his voice devoid of any humor. "Any questions?"

"Yeah." said Hobbes. "Would it kill to poke some air holes in here?"

"No!" replied Calvin sharply. "The Box of Security must remain secure!"

Yes, they were in a box this whole time. Said box was positioned directly behind the camp cafeteria, behind a cluster of bushes.

"We seem to go through this conversation a lot." Hobbes noted from within the box. "Could we at least get some air conditioning? It get's really stuffy in here."

"We must make sacrifices for the greater good." Calvin muttered grimly. "Now, on to victory!"

Hobbes rolled his eyes as they emerged from the cardboard box. He was tempted to say something, but at the moment he didn't feel like getting an earful from the spiky-haired six-year-old.


It was a very dark night in the big, unspecified city. The many tall buildings cast shadows across the dimly lit streets below. All was silent, until…

WHOOSH!

"A crimson bolt streaks through the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a three-headed golden space dragon of death that's come to destroy us all? NO! It's STUPENDOUS MAN!"

The red blur landed on an exceptionally tall building, revealing a rather short individual, wearing a red mask that covered his face and the top of his head, and equally red cape.

"Defender of freedom and liberty! Enemy of evil and oppression! Sensing the evil that lurks within the city, Stupendous Man takes off!"

A loud BOOM resounded through the air as Stupendous Man flew off of the building. Quickly, his stupendous speed carried him to a specific spot in the air above the unspecified city, where, with his stupendous vision allowed him to spot something happening in the streets below.

"Great moons of Neptune!" the masked superhero exclaimed. "It's Stupendous Man's arch-nemesis, the evil COUNSELOR-KING! Stupendous Man flies into action!"


Sakura and Nikola sat together in the shade of one of the cabin's shadow, relaxing. Sakura was reading a book, and Nikola had brought out some sort of gaming console and was playing on it. A compartment had been opened in his chest, with a cable sticking out of it. The cable had been plugged into the handheld console, acting as a built-in set of headphones for the robot.

Technically, the campers weren't supposed to bring any game consoles with them, but Nikola and Sakura had agreed that since Nikola wasn't actually signed up for camp and just deciding to accompany her, it should be okay if he brought it to play with.

A couple feet away from them, some of the other kids were playing soccer, baseball, arts and crafts, or just reading, as Sakura was doing. Mr. Bill and Mr. Frank watched them all play. Overall, everything was peaceful. Suddenly, a shout cut through the air.

"YOUR TIME IS UP, VILE FIEND!"

Everyone's heads turned to watch as Calvin skidded to a halt, wearing a rather silly-looking superhero costume. Behind him was a bucket of water balloons. Fot a moment, nobody said anything.

Sakura leaned over to Susie, who had sat down a couple feet away from her to read a book of her own, and asked, "Is he always like this?"

Susie sighed. "Unfortunately, yes."

"COUNSELOR-KING!" Calvin continued to shout. "You cannot escape the wrath of STUPENDOUS MAN and his loyal sidekick, FANGED TIGER! GIVE UP!"

"Huh." Susie noted. "I don't think he's ever brought his tiger into his superhero fantasies."

"NOW, ANY LAST… WORDS… Wait a minute…" Calvin trailed off upon realizing that Hobbes wasn't with him. He looked around, and grumbled. "Ah, forget it."

And with that, Calvin leaped at Mr. Bill... and missed. The counselor grabbed him by the back of his collar as his stumbled around, trying to regain his balance. Calvin flailed around ineffectively-And rather pathetically, I must add.

"Stupendous Man has the strength of a million mortal men!" Calvin shouted. "Give up!"

Mr. Bill gave the watching kids a glance. They all shrugged simultaneously.

"GREAT MOONS OF NEPTUNE!" Calvin kept shouting. "Counselor-King must have super-strength too!"

Mr. Bill dropped Calvin, allowing him to run over to the water balloons, and threw them, shouting, "Channeling all of his inner stupendous power, Stupendous Man throws a barrage of STUPENDOUS FIREBALLS!"

The water balloons hit Mr. Bill and the surrounding kids, soaking them all. Sakura brought out her parasol, protecting both her and Nikola.

Everyone stared at Calvin, soaking wet.

"Watch the kids for me." Mr. Bill told Mr. Frank, slowly advancing towards Calvin.

Calvin's eyes bulged with terror. "The Stupendous Fireballs have no effect! Stupendous Man has no choice but to flee!"

And with that, the ran off-Only to trip on a rock, causing him to fall to the ground. Unfortunately for Calvin, that specific area was slanted downwards, causing him to roll downwards. Calvin's misfortune only increased as he splashed into the lake at the end of the slope.

Everybody watching facepalmed simultaneously.

As Calvin dragged himself out of the water, completely drenched and muttering something indecipherable, Hobbes slid up to Nikola and Sakura, who had gone back to their respective activities.

"Hello." he said.

"Hey." Nikola said back, mostly focused on his game.

"What's this?" Hobbes inquired, looking at Nikola's two-screened game device. On it's top screen, a pink blob with a hammer was currently in the process of swinging it's large wooden melee weapon to pummel a large, reddish frog-like blob into oblivion.

"This?" Nikola replied, apparently having performed his equivalent to lifting off one half of the headphones from his ear. "This is Kirby: Triple Deluxe. To put it simply, it's about a pink puffball named Kirby going on a happy adventure to save his fat penguin friend Dedede from a spider. It ends with Kirby saving the planet from a giant flower-bee-thing that's trying to become a god."

Hobbes blinked. "Well, that was certainly a twist ending." he said.

"It happens a lot in this series." Nikola pointed out. "You start off all happy and then you discover that the final boss is literally Space Satan and his fanatic space cult. You should probably get used to that kind of thing happening from these kinds of games."

Hobbes blinked. He was at a loss of words.

"If it helps, I had the same reaction when I got the the final boss myself." Sakura said.

"There was also that one Kirby game where you fought a white circle that shot blood at you and ripped it's own eyeball out of it's body in a last ditch attempt to kill you." Nikola added. "The game itself was rated E for Everyone."

"All the kid's stuff seems to be really violent these days." Hobbes noted.

"Welcome to gaming." Nikola said flatly.

"So what was the thing with Calvin all about?" asked Sakura. "Susie says this is normal for him."

"Yeah, it is." Hobbes said. "It's part of this club he made called G.R.O.S.S.-Get Rid Of Slimy girlS. But don't worry, Calvin said you two might be potential allies, so I don't think he'd go after you. Then again, that might be even worse."

"Might be worse?" Nikola echoed sarcastically.

Just as the robot finished his sentence, Calvin trudged over to them, having finished his lecture from Mr. Bill. He was still soaked.

"Some help you were." Calvin growled at Hobbes. "You were supposed to throw water balloons from behind and confuse everyone!"

"Really?" asked Hobbes innocently. "I thought Strategy No. 1 was just throwing water balloons at random. As a result, I felt that one person would be able to carry it out just fine on their own."

"LIES!" Calvin spat. "You abandoned your post when you were most needed! I out to demote to the official Club Welcome Mat!"

"In that case, you're Club Janitor." Hobbes shot back.

"You dare to challenge my authority?!" Calvin demanded threateningly.

"You don't look like someone of authority." Nikola pointed out. "You don't act like one, either."

"You stay out of this!" Calvin shouted. "This is club matters, and club matters only!"

"Now, now, Calvin," Hobbes said, patting Calvin on the head. "That's no way to speak to potential allies, now, is it?"

"RAAAUGH!" Calvin tackled Hobbes, and the two rolled around of the ground, clawing and scratching at each other.

Nikola and Sakura watched as the two loons fought.

"Yeah." Nikola said, turning back to his game. "I think being an ally to those two is worse than being a target."


Quite some time had passed, and it was now getting dark. Mr. Bill had the kids gathered in a series of semicircular seats, with a circle of flat ground in the center, forming a sort of theater. Mr. Bill and the counselors were currently putting on a series of plays.

Calvin yawned. "When will this be over?"

"Shhh." Sakura shushed him. "I want to watch this."

"You want to watch this junk?!" Calvin demanded. "It's just a bunch of guys making fools out of themselves!"

"Like you?" Hobbes pointed out.

Nikola clocked the two buffoons on the head to shut them up before things got out of hand.

"And now," Mr. Bill began, reaching into a box. "Allow me to reintroduce our old friend, Mr. Grizz!"

The man pulled out a large stuffed grizzly bear out of a box, causing a surprising amount of cheers to come from the watching campers.

"Hoo boy." Calvin muttered. "I wonder what's the backstory for this."

"Mr. Grizz is the camp mascot." Susie explained from a seat below theirs. "He gets brought out every year."

"Oh, so that's what Mr. Bill means by 'old friend.'" Sakura said.

"While we may have changed names, Mr. Grizz is here to stay!" Mr. Bill continued from his spot below.

Calvin grumbled. "Who cares?" he muttered under his breath, but nobody heard him.


After Mr. Bill had finished bringing Mr. Grizz around, he sent everyone to their respective cabins, where they would be sleeping for their stay at the camp. Apparently, Calvin would be staying in Cabin D.

"So this is where we'll be living for the week, huh?" said Hobbes, observing the cabin as they entered. "For a 'prison cell,' it's not that bad."

The place had twelve bunk beds, six on each wall, and light blue walls that looked as if it had been painted pretty recently. On the wall opposite to the door, there was a space for the kids to place their backpacks.

Calvin grumbled as he began to empty all of his essentials out of his bag. And by "essentials", I mean "a truckload of comic books."

"Hey, Calvin," asked Hobbes. "Did you, by any chance, bring any food?"

Right on cue, a few sandwiches, some eating utensils, a bowl, and a bag of Calvin's favorite cereal brand, Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs, tumbled out onto the already impressive pile of comics.

"I suppose that answers your question?" said Calvin.

Hobbes opened his mouth, about to ask about how Calvin had managed to cram so much into his backpack without even a slight bulge, then closed it and shrugged, remembering what Calvin had said about pocket dimension technology the day before.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I have some business to attend to." Calvin said, tossing his backpack on the already massive pile, causing it to topple over on top of Hobbes. Either Calvin didn't notice, or he just didn't care, because he didn't come back to help Hobbes pick it all back up.

"Some help you are." Hobbes muttered, digging himself out of the pile. While he didn't know what Calvin meant by business, he did know that it was most likely trouble, and he didn't want any part of it. It was around then that Hobbes realized that the pile of assorted stuff most likely would have made a decent hiding spot.

Before Hobbes could find a new place to hide, however, Calvin had already climbed up onto the top of his bunk bed, and loudly proclaimed, "ALRIGHT, YOU PEASANTS! LISTEN UP!"

Everybody in the cabin turned to look at him, confusion written across their faces.

"I, CALVIN, HAVE BEEN SENT HERE AGAINST MY WILL, SO I'M GOING TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT! FOR THIS WEEK, I AM YOUR RULER! KNEEL BEFORE ME PEASANTS! KNEEL!"

Everybody just stared at him. Suddenly, the door opened. Everybody, Calvin included, turned towards it.

Calvin's eyes went wide with horror. His conversation with Susie came rushing back to him. In his mind, he began to think of what he would write on his will.

It was Moe.

The big, hulking bully was staring straight at Calvin, an evil grin on his face.

"Hey, Twinky!" said the hulking bully in his deep, dull voice. "I didn't know you were here!"

"Me neither." said Calvin, who had begun to climb down from his perch on the bunk bed. "Well, about you being here." He chuckled nervously.

"I guess this'll be more fun than I thought!" Moe cracked his knuckles menacingly.

Calvin knew where this was going. He'd been through this many times before.

"You're going to ask me for my money, aren't you?" he asked, though it was closer to him stating a fact than a question.

"Or I could clobber you into the wall." Moe said, punching his left fist into his palm and slowly advancing menacingly upon Calvin.

"Thought so." replied Calvin. "Well, in that case…"

He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and began his speech, "Your aggressive behavior and overly muscular build for a six-year-old suggests a very diverse genetic background. I seem to detect hints of Australopithecus Afarensis, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, and Gigantopithecus blacki. If I am wrong, please correct me."

And with that, he tossed Moe a quarter. "There." he said simply. "That was worth my twenty-five cents. Goodnight."

As Calvin began getting ready for bed, he sighed. He was going to have to sleep in the same room as Moe, the hulking bully of doom. This was going to be a very, very long week.


Author's Note: So this chapter ended u being a bit longer than usual. Sorry if you found the last couple chapters a bit underwhelming. I'll try my best to increase the humor a bit more in the later chapters. I think a lot of the gags in this might work a bit better in animation, but I can't animate, I don't have any VA's on hand, and writing is just quicker, so here we are. If any of you have any pointers, I'll gladly accept them.