Author's Note: Now that we have established the macguffin and seen what our heroes had been doing since the last adventure, it's time for the plot to be set in motion.


Chapter 4. The Invasion Begins.

"CALVIN IT'S TIME TO GET UP!"

Calvin woke up for a moment, hearing the noise of his mother before drifting back to sleep.

"GET UP, GET DRESSED, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"

"This is going to be the first highlight of my day." Calvin grumbled.

Just then Calvin's mom burst into the room.

"COME ON, GET UP!" She yelled.

Calvin came out of bed in a sleepy matter.

He then climbed into the top drawer and closed it, with each drawer opening a little bit as he went down and he emerged from the bottom drawer in his usual clothing.

It was then he noticed something was off.

He checked the window to see if it was raining, and he was perplexed to find that it was still dark outside.

"Hobbes you need to see this."

Hobbes emerged from Calvin's bed, having noticed that Calvin was staring out the window intently. He joined Calvin into staring at the window.

"Huh, I thought daylight savings time ends in November." Hobbes remarked.

"Or maybe mom woke me extremely early again." Calvin said. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"CALVIN GET DOWN HERE AND GET BREAKFAST!" Mom shrieked.

"Well, better get down there so mom can stop yelling." Calvin said, exiting the room.

Hobbes watched as Calvin went down the stairs before going back to the room.

He checked the clock, it was half past 6.

Hobbes frowned. Normally the sun would have been out by now, and yet it was still dark as night outside.

Something strange was happening, and he had a feeling it was going to get worse.


Meanwhile, Ratchet and Clank were resting after finishing the test drive of the repaired universal warp drive.

Clank had told Ratchet about the voice he heard on the radio. Ratchet found this interesting, but said that it was probably some stray signal that the radio picked up.

When Ratchet woke up, he noticed that the sky was black, even though he only few rested for a few hours.

Clank came out, and noticed the black sky as well.

"Hmm that's odd, it was supposed to be daylight until around six." Clank said.

"I would say it's weird weather, but this sudden darkness has never happened before." Ratchet said.

Clank went over to the tv and turned it on.

On it was a news report.

"In other news, scientists still have no explanation of the black skies that have mysteriously appeared in planets of the solana galaxy. We will bring you updates as we get more info."

Clank changed the channel, and it was the same report.

"The sky's have mysteriously turned black, and some planets affected haven't been heard from yet."

*Click*

"Black Skies have mysteriously appeared over the last…"

*Click*

Every channel Clank changed, it was the same story. Black Skies have appeared, some have lost contact with nearby planets, and no one knows what's happening.

"Well at least we know we're not from the only planet affected by this?" Ratchet said watching the television.

"But it still doesn't explain the loss of communications with some of the planet's affected by this." Clank said. "What happened to them?"

Ratchet looked out and saw something that troubled him.

"I think we're about to find out." Ratchet said getting out his blaster.


In Calvin's room, the MTM was sitting on the desk, reading when it's phone began to ring.

"Hmm, wonder who that could be?" The MTM asked.

He then checked the caller id.

"Why would he call after all this time?" perplexed at the identity.


Meanwhile, Hobbes was watching a nature documentary on tigers. Calvin's mother was out of the house getting groceries.

Suddenly the phone began to rang.

Hobbes went over to answer it.

"If it's one of those automated phone calls again." Hobbes muttered.

He grabbed it and put it up to his ear.

"Hey Hobbes." Socrates said.

"Hey Socrates." Hobbes said. "What prank are you planning to do on Calvin this time."

"Oh i'm not planning anything." Socrates said innocently.

"Socrates, the last time you said that, Calvin got water balloons full of ranch. Though that was pretty funny."

"That's not gonna happen." Socrates said. "But I want you to invite you to my home to watch some movies."

"Just you and I?" Hobbes asked.

"Nah, I invited Andy and Sherman over as well." Socrates answered.

"Oh, so what movies are we watching."

Socrates began listing some movies, but Hobbes frowned at one.

"I don't know about that one Socrates." Hobbes said. "Calvin really want's to see that movie, and he said that if I saw it without me, he would shock me with the MTM."

"Just once?" Socrates said.

"10 times actually." Hobbes said.

"Well don't worry, I won't start the movies until you're there." Socrates said.

"Okay i'll see you there. Just make sure you skip that one."

"I make no promises."

With that Hobbes hung up, and went back to watching his nature documentary.

This went on for a few more minutes before the nature documentary was suddenly interrupted.

The screen now read BREAKING NEWS.

Annoyed, he went for the remote to change the channel, until he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Hobbes yelled.

This resulted in more knocking.

"I said who is this?"

Even more knocking happened.

"Okay i'm coming." Hobbes said annoyed.

He approached the door, and opened it.

He found a person who looked like it had claws, and glowing white eyes.

"Um, who are you?" Hobbes asked.

The creature slowly looked up.

"Something tells me you don't want to sell me something."

The creature then opened it's mouth, letting out a screech.

It then charged at Hobbes, who quickly got out of the way, causing the creature to crash in the wall.

This however didn't deter the creature, as it turned to Hobbes, charging towards him, and when it was close to him, began slashing wildly.

Hobbes managed to dodge the slashes of the creature, all the way into the kitchen.

While in the kitchen he grabbed cans of tuna and began tossing them at the creature. He managed to hit the creature a few times, however when he threw the last can of tuna, it flew into the creature's mouth, and after a few seconds burped.

"Sorry." Hobbes said smiling innocently.

The creature charged at him again. He ran into the dining room, flipping the table to delay the creature.

Hobbes then ran up the stairs, knowing that there were inventions in Calvins room.

The MTM noticed Hobbes sudden entrance.

"Hello there Hobbes." The MTM said in a casual tone "Judging by the speed and urgency you entered the room, I'm going to guess your in danger. Also, I received a message from Daxter saying..."

"Not now MTM, somethings trying to kill me and I need one of Calvin's inventions." Hobbes quickly said.

"Well if you say so."

He then shut the door hoping that it would buy him some time. The MTM used it's manipulator arms to throw the hypercube and Hobbes started digging through it.

"No, not that one." Hobbes muttered as he dug through the hypercube.

He heard banging on the door and eventually, the sound of wood breaking, A sign that the creature was coming. Hobbes quickened the search.

Eventually he found a water pistol.

"Yes, that's it." Hobbes said with a smile.

He then aimed the water pistol at the door at the door.

"Okay MTM, whatever comes in, i need you to stun it with your electric attack, then i'll fire the transmogrifier gun at it."

"Got it." The MTM said.

By then the creature had broken through the door, and was once again charging at him again. However Hobbes was ready.

"NOW!" Hobbes yelled and the MTM fired a beam of electricity. It hit the creature, causing it to stop and shake.

Hobbes then fired a laser at the creature.

The laser hit the creature and the creature stopped, before then melting in a pile of goo.

Hobbes took a moment to catch his breath before grabbing the MTM.

"MTM, can you analyze the goo so I can figure out what that creature was?" Hobbes asked.

"Certainly." The MTM said. "Just point me at the puddle of goo and i'll try to figure out what it is."

Hobbes did so, and the beam scanned the puddle of goo, and after about a minute the MTM beeped.

"Okay i've got it." The MTM said.

"So, what is it?" Hobbes asked.

The MTM paused before replying. "I have no idea. But I know that it's not from our universe, and that's not the only one."

Hobbes heart almost skipped a beat. "Wait, you mean there's even more of these?"

"Yes, and they're almost all over the world."

Hobbes then remembered Calvin was at school, and knew he had to get him.

Within a second, Hobbes had vanished from the room, and had grabbed a flashlight, he was now running to the school to get Calvin.


Meanwhile in Ratchet's universe, Ratchet was holding off the same type creature that Hobbes fought, however there were tons of them.

Ratchet was doing his best to hold the creatures off, but there were simply too many of them, and he was quickly running out of ammo.

Knowing he couldn't defeat all of them, Ratchet slowly backed away into his workshop, Clank was in there waiting to close the doors.

Eventually, Ratchet was close to the workshop, with the creatures rapidly approaching.

"Clank, close the door now!" Ratchet said.

Clank nodded and pressed the button that would close the doors.

The doors quickly closed, and Ratchet dived into the workshop just before it shut.

A creature managed to get part way through before having its leg getting trapped by the door. But despite this, the creature clawed at both Ratchet and Clank before Ratchet brought his wrench down on it, finishing it off.

They then stared at the door, which was already beginning to banging due to the creatures knocking on the door.

"Do you think this will hold?" Ratchet asked Clank.

"Not likely." Clank said. "But it should give us enough time to escape."

"Yeah, but how are we going to do that? We're nearly surrounded."

Clank looked around, and then noticed the aphelion, sitting there, and thought about something.

Ratchet noticed the aphelion as well and thought about the same thing as well.

"I have a feeling you're thinking what i'm thinking." Clank said.

Ratchet nodded confirming this.


In Calvin's universe, Calvin was at school and was about to have lunch.

He sat next to Susie, and got out his lunch.

"Hey Susie." Calvin said.

"Calvin, I don't want to hear about your lunch today." Susie said.

"Look Susie, it's just peanut butter and jelly, there's nothing on it." Calvin said. "Though the jelly came from a squid my mom found, and the peanut butter came from the bottom of a crocodile swamp."

Calvin noticed Susie was gone.

Calvin sighed. "Nobody wants to hear my stories on how I got my lunch."

He was eating for about a minute before noticing a flashing light out the window.

Intrigues he put down his sandwich and approached the window.

He looked out it, but noticed nothing.

Then the flashlight turned on again, revealing Hobbes making a scary face.

"AAAAAAAH." Calvin screamed, leaping a few feet back.

Everyone looked at Calvin for a moment, and then went back to their lunches.

Calvin looked at Hobbes again who looked normal.

"Hobbes what are you doing here?" Calvin asked.

"Get outside and i'll explain." Hobbes said.

Calvin opened the window, and crawled through it.

"So what is it that you want to explain to me?" Calvin asked crossing his arms.

"Calvin, those black skies aren't just a weird weather phenomenon, it's something is invading our world." Hobbes said.

Calvin raised an eyebrow. "How do you know this?"

Hobbes told him about the black creature that attacked him at the house.

"Hmm." Calvin said. "That does sound like something that would attack us. So what do these things look like?"

Hobbes then noticed something and his eyes widened.

"What is it Hobbes?" Calvin asked.

"To answer your previous question, they look like that." Hobbes said pointing behind Calvin.

Calvin turned as his eye's widened as well.

Two creatures, similar to the one that attacked Hobbes, were coming towards them.

Hobbes gave the transmogrifier gun to Calvin. "This seems to work well against them."

"Thanks." Calvin said before he aimed it at one of the creatures.

He fired, and hit the creature, which promptly turned into goo.

"Heh, they should be easily defeated." Calvin said with a smug smile.

However the other creature noticed the puddle of goo, and touched it.

The puddle was absorbed by the creature, and it began to change.

It grew taller, it's claws became sharper, and grew some spikes.

The now transformed creature turned towards the two, and roared, revealing it had sharp teeth.

"We should probably run now." Calvin said, no longer smiling.

Hobbes nodded, and the two ran away.

"What should we do?" Hobbes asked as they ran.

"We get Andy, Sherman, and Socrates. Then we get out of here." Calvin said.

"Where to?"

"If you said it's happened all over the world, we're gettin off this planet."

The two then ran in the direction of Socrates house.


At Socrates house, Andy and Sherman were sitting in front of the tv, while Socrates was getting a blu ray disc out. Or more accurately Andy was watching the tv, and Sherman was reading a book.

"Okay, it appears Hobbes isn't coming so i'm going to start the movie." Socrates said, about to press play.

"In case you're wondering, I'm not going to spoil whatever happens in the film to Calvin." Andy said.

"Me neither." Sherman said. "But i'm probably not going to pay attention to the film."

They then heard the door slam.

The three turned, and saw Calvin and Hobbes catching their breaths.

"Ah there you are Hobbes." Socrates said. "I was about to start the film, and I see you brought Calvin as well."

"No time Socrates." Hobbes said quickly. "We need to get out of here now."

Meanwhile Calvin was staring at the movie Socrates was about to watch.

"You weren't going to watch the new Star Wars movie without me were you?" Calvin asked while glaring at Socrates.

"Ummm, no." Socrates said straining a grin.

"Good because I would have shocked you with the MTM for watching it without me."

Hobbes stared at him confused. "I thought you were going to shock me."

"That is correct, but I was going to shock you for spoiling it for me."

"Oh." Hobbes said.

"Now then back to the business at hand." Calvin said turning back to the three. "You remember the black skies that appeared this morning."

Everyone Nodded.

"Well to give you the short version, creatures are invading the earth and can absorb the remains of the their own, and we need to get out of here."

"Wait, what creatures?" Andy asked.

Hobbes went over to the tv remote and changed it to a news report.

"The president has officially announced a state of emergency. These creatures are confirmed to become stronger when one of them are killed. We encourage you to stay in your homes until rescue operators you."

The channel then went offline.

Everyone stared at the tv in shock.

"Does that give you any more reason to go." Calvin asked.

Everyone nodded.

Everyone ran outside.

By then the invasion was in full force, creatures were almost everywhere, so they had to fight their way through.

By the time they reached Calvin's house, a hundred creatures were pursuing them.

As they went inside Calvin shot a few creatures despite the fact that some of the creatures.

Hobbes shut the door once everyone was in, and propped a chair against it.

However, it was clear that would only buy them some time, as the creatures began looking for other entrances inside, and found them by the windows, which they started banging on.

Knowing that the glass wouldn't hold, Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, and Socrates ran up the stairs.

They went into Calvin's room and went into the closet. While the rest waited, they heard the dreaded sound of glass breaking, a sign that the creatures were going to come in soon.

Finally, Calvin came out dragging a Cardboard box.

"Everyone get in." Calvin said.

Without hesitation everyone dived in the box, with Hobbes grabbing the MTM. Diving into the box all at once caused them to basically get jumbled together.

"Honestly, you could have waited, until I made the box bigger." Calvin said rolling his eyes.

"JUST GET US OUT OF HERE ALREADY!" Everyone yelled.

"Okay, Okay." Calvin said.

After a few seconds the box began to lift off and flew out of the window, with one of the Creature grabbing on to the box, beginning to climb it.

When it reached the top he was greeted by Hobbes.

"Sorry, you don't have ticket." he said.

He then pried the creature's fingers off of the box, causing it to presumably, fall to it's death.

Once they were high enough, Calvin stopped the box, and the five looked at the destruction that has happened so far.

The saw the buildings on fire, and people down below running in the street's.

"So what do we do now?" Andy asked.

Calvin considered his options. Going somewhere on Earth was out of the question because it this was happening everywhere.

However the MTM brought up an idea for his destination.

"Now that we have a moment to breathe, I'd like to share something I found out this morning." it said.

"What is it?" Calvin asked.

"Earlier this morning I got a call from Daxter, the first time i've heard from our friends in the other universes in months, he said he and Jak had found a mysterious artifact, as well as a warning about someone named the king of shadows."

"And i'm probably guessing that this is probably this kings handywork." Hobbes said as he surveyed the destruction.

"I'm guessing so because when I scanned the puddle of goo, I sensed a connection to something bigger."

"So Jak and Daxter must know something." Calvin said.

"Probably not, but it's our best shot."

"Okay, setting course for Jak and Daxter's Universe."

Calvin pushed buttons on the box, and the box began to fly into space. With a glass dome covering the box, sealing them in.

Once they were in space, they looked down at Earth, they almost missed it in the darkness in space because the planet seemed to have turned black.

After staring at it for half a minute, Calvin pressed a few buttons, and turned to the rest of the group.

"You may want to hang onto something." He said.

"But there's nothing to hold onto." Sherman pointed out.

"Well, just put your hands on the glass."

Everyone stretched their arms to the side and put their hands on the glass.

Just then a portal opened up, and the box went through it, gaining a burst of speed along the way.


Meanwhile, the creatures had finally broken through the door to Ratchet and Clank's workshop. However, the duo was nowhere to be found.

Unbeknownst to the creatures, Ratchet and Clank were hiding in the aphelion.

Ratchet's hand was on a button, waiting for the Clanks signal.

The plan was to wait until the creatures were close enough, and then fire the weapons at them, creating a path to escape.

Clank was peeking from the cockpit, and saw that the creatures were closing in on them.

He then looked at Ratchet.

"Do it." he said.

Ratchet pressed the button, but instead of firing the weapons, the radio began playing a song.

That got the creatures attention, and they began to close in faster.

"Wrong button." Ratchet said, with Clank shaking his head.

Ratchet then found the right button, and the weapons fired at the creatures, taking out several of them.

"Let's get out of here." Ratchet said.

He then began to steer the aphelion towards the now destroyed entrance, flying through it. As he did that, various creatures tried to grab the ship, some did but were soon pulled off by the speed.

Eventually the ship went into space, giving the duo a chance to rest.

"That was too close." Ratchet said.

"Agreed." Clank said. "Where do we go now?"

"Well going to another planet is out of the question." Ratchet said listing their options. "And we can't go to another galaxy, because the same thing is most likely happening to them."

"So i'd take it our only option is going to another universe." Clank said. "But which one?"

Ratchet then began to put coordinates in. "Let's go to Sonic's universe, we might as well start getting our friends from the other universes back together."

"That's a good idea." Clank said nodding.

"Let's just hope the universal hyperdrive manages to hold." Ratchet said.

About a minute later, the aphelion gained a burst of speed, before disappearing into space.