Calvin, Hobbes, Andy and Sherman sat on Socrates' couch while they waited and listened as the tiger shuffled and banged around upstairs.

After a few minutes, Socrates came down the stairs carrying a giant box. "Alright, I have my entire horror movie collection right here for our viewing pleasure!" he announced, dropping it in front of Calvin and the gang, causing a loud thump.

The group stared at it. "Are you sure it's a good idea to be watching horror movies right now?" Andy asked.

"Probably not, but it's either this or we go through my extensive Nicolas Cage collection."

Everyone sat there, weighing their options.

"Let's see what you got there," Hobbes said, motioning to the box.

Socrates grinned and started pulling DVDs out. "Alright so we have basically every single recent horror film that Calvin's parents won't allow him to watch…," he said, shuffling through them.

"Promising," Calvin remarked.

"We got our stereotypical possession movies, our haunted house movies, our 'found footage' movies, and wait a second…," Socrates paused and his brow furrowed as he stared into the box.

"What is it?" Hobbes asked.

"This is blasphemy! There's a VHS in here!" Socrates exclaimed, pulling a beaten-up-looking VHS tape out of the box.

"Do you even have a VCR?" Andy asked.

"Probably somewhere in storage, but seriously! This does not have the right to be in a box of not VHS stuff!" Socrates tossed the tape over his shoulder.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"We got our crazy murderer movies, our vampire movies, our overly jump scare filled movies…," Socrates continued until MTM cut him off.

"Hang on a second. Bring me that VHS."

"Why?" Socrates asked, looking over at the tape, sitting on the floor.

"There's something not right about it. What is it?"

Socrates sighed and stood up, picking the tape up. "I dunno. It's not labeled," he said, studying it. "What's wrong with it?"

"Let me scan it," MTM said, firmly.

Calvin and Hobbes exchanged glances, before Calvin held the CD player up to Socrates. A light shot out of MTM and scanned the VHS up and down for a brief second before retracting back inside. The machine beeped and buzzed for a moment, before he spoke again.

"Yeah that's not good."

"What is it?" Sherman asked.

"Bad things…," MTM said.

"Well, anyone could've guessed that," Calvin grumbled.

"It has a sort of low level amount of psychic energy connected to it. My dear feline, we need to get that VCR down here, right now."

"Am I going to get a phone call after we watch it and die in seven days by some random ghost chick in a well?" Socrates asked.

"No."

"Okay, I'll get the VCR." Socrates ran off.

There was a silence.

"Well maybe," MTM admitted.

Calvin, Hobbes, Andy and Sherman all sighed in perfect unison.

Brainstorm's rocket soared across the landscape as Jack raced to get back to Yellowstone. The robot continually checked the radar and other utilities to make sure Shadow wasn't following him.

Upon reentering the Wyoming / Montana area, he got onto the radio and called in to the lab.

"Come in Frank," he said, somewhat hurriedly. "You should open the bay doors… Or teleport me… or something… We kind of have something important going on."

He waited. There was no response from the other end of the radio.

"Frank?"

No response. Jack sighed.

"Come on, Franky boy, I know you're there."

"WHAT THE HECK DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

"I knew that'd get a response."

"I SWEAR IF I EVER HEAR YOU UTTER THOSE WORDS IN REFERENCE TO ME EVER AGAIN, I WILL DESTROY THE UNIVERSE!" Brainstorm shouted.

"Right. Can I come in, now?"

"I'M BUSY!"

"We kind of have something bad happening."

"I'LL SAY! I HAVEN'T SEEN DEBBIE FOREVER, AND SHE NEEDS TO BEGIN SORTING MY EQUIPMENT!"

"Well, when was the last time you saw her?"

"I told her to go clean the break room…," Brainstorm muttered. "About forty five minutes ago."

"We have a break room?" Jack asked.

"I PUT IT IN LAST WEEK! I TOLD YOU THAT!"

"What the heck is the point of a break room?"

"I DON'T KNOW, I'LL THINK OF SOMETHING LATER!"

"Back to the point, I want in, now."

"DID YOU ACQUIRE THE REQUIRED MATERIALS?!"

"The snow? Yeah, I kinda have something more important to tell you, though."

"I TOLD YOU TO GET ICE!"

"Crimeny, Frank, I just got into a fight with Shadow, can I come in now?"

There was a silence. "Oh okay. Of course, that's something I'd rather want to be filled in about," Brainstorm said.

"I would hope."

There was a moment of silence, before a blue light began surrounding the rocket, and Jack was teleported into the lab. He stretched and opened the pod door, reentering the lab, where he found Brainstorm busily typing on his computer.

"Right, now then," Jack said straightening himself up. "Where shall I start?"

"Give me one moment. I'll worry about it in a second," Brainstorm growled.

He pushed a button on his console and spoke into a microphone, and his voice rang out on the speakers in the lab.

"Debbie to the front," he announced.

He turned the intercom off and stared at Jack.

"Debbie's not here?" the robot asked.

"No. She's not," Brainstorm grumbled. "And I can't get her to shut up about her stupid kids… or her dog… and she repeats the same story to me over… and over… and over…" His eye began twitching. "…and over again."

"Sounds like a grand old time."

"Changing the subject…," Brainstorm grumbled, "what about the creepy scary robot thing?"

"He attacked me while I was getting your snow," Jack said. "Both he and Thunderstorm are alive."

"That's… not… FAIR!" Brainstorm screamed, stomping on the floor indignantly. "He blew up for crying out loud!"

"Thunderstorm isn't particularly around quite yet," Jack said. "He's frozen in a giant block of ice, which Shadow was thawing out. From the temperature in the room, I'd say he'll be completely thawed out in about another hour. He'll be awake and moving in another three hours. Shadow probably has the technology to do it."

Brainstorm tapped his chin in thought as he paced back and forth in front of his console. "So we have three hours to make our plans...," he considered.

"Okay, Frank, in all seriousness, I don't usually get involved in your plan-making," Jack said.

"Of course not, I'm a freaking genius, I NEED NO HELP FROM A ROBOT!"

"But Shadow knows us, and he's stupidly overpowered. Now that he's aware that we know about him, he's going to think up every possible thing that you would think up of, and prepare for when you do it. And considering your usual plan is a blind assault on whatever's bothering you, then it's not going to take that thing long to prepare for it."

Brainstorm stopped and considered that for a moment. "So what do you think we should do, then?" he grumbled at last.

Jack thought for a moment. "Bunk up? Wait for them to come to us, and hope we can defeat them."

"Hide? Is that what you're suggesting?" Brainstorm growled. "THE BRAINSTORM FAMILY HAS NEVER HID FROM ANYTHING AND THEY'RE NOT ABOUT TO START NOW! JACK! YOUR SUGGESTION IS VILE AND I DON'T LIKE IT! AS SOON AS DEBBIE GETS UP HERE, THAT'S ALL GOING STRAIGHT INTO YOUR REPORT AND – !"

"I didn't mean hiding here. Thunderstorm has a lab in the mountains. Reason says they'll be going there first to prepare. Why not stop them before they do?"

Brainstorm's expression changed from one of annoyed fury to being fairly impressed. "Wow Jack, never knew you had that kind of strategy hiding away in your mind."

"I already know how awesome I am," Jack shrugged. "I just don't brag about it too often."

"Right… Now where the heck is Debbie?! We need to inform her of the plan!" Brainstorm shouted, whirling around.

At that moment, Debbie came slowly waddling into the main room, holding a broom and dust pan, and wearing an apron. "You called?" she inquired.

"DEBBIE! JUST THE PERSON I WANTED TO SEE!" Brainstorm shrieked in a voice that could otherwise be mistaken for insane rage if one did not know the man. He jogged over to Debbie and patted her on the back. "Debbie, Jack and I are going on a top secret undercover mission to destroy our super arch enemies!" he whispered, looking back and forth as if someone were listening.

"Oh you mean that Calvin kid? I saw a picture of him. His hair reminds me of my son's mohawk, only I don't know if I would really call that a mohawk, it's a little like one, but – "

"Yeah, whatever," Brainstorm hurried her along. "And no, not them. They're my arch enemies; these are my super arch enemies."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Debbie, I have a very important job for you for when I am gone." Brainstorm said, putting his arm around Debbie's shoulder. "Jack and I will be equipped with a teleport device and a small pager. Thunderstorm is clever, and he's made the interior of his lab so that teleporters can't be activated from inside. I will activate the pager if things start going wrong, and if they do, an alarm will go off right there," he pointed at a small red light on the console. "If this happens, Debbie, you are in charge of the teleporter. Activate it and bring us back! As soon as it happens!"

"Okay. I still need to replace your hand sanitizer, though," Debbie said.

"Forget the hand sanitizer, Debbie! This is more important than you can possibly imagine!"

"How do I work the teleporter?"

"Glad you asked!" Brainstorm pointed at the button right next to the light. "You push that button. Not the one next to it. Not any other button. The one labeled 'teleport'. You push that button."

"Gotcha," Debbie nodded.

Jack shook his head. "We're doomed."

Brainstorm patted Debbie on the shoulder. "Excellent. JACK! PREPARE THE ROCKET!"

"Whatever."

"I SHALL ACQUIRE MY SERVANT RAY MARK II!"

"Use the first one, the Mark II explodes after you use it too much."

"WHATEVER, JACK! THE TIME HAS COME! WAR IS UPON US!"

"Calm the heck down, we still have three hours."

"JUST GET THE DARN ROCKET READY!"

Everyone gathered around Socrates' TV as the tiger inserted the VHS into the tape player. He then sat down beside Hobbes, clutching a bag of popcorn as the screen flickered to life.

"Alright, so here's the plan," Socrates said. "The second the power goes out, during or after the watching of this video, we break the window right there, and sprint to the nearest place of business. We don't go upstairs, we don't go downstairs, and we don't go to another house."

"What businesses did you outlaw?" Hobbes asked.

"Toy stores, hotels, offices and anything generally creepy," Socrates nodded. "If we could make our way to a crowded grocery store or some such, we should be good."

"I think you watch too many horror movies," Andy said.

There was brief moment of silence of nothing but blackness on the screen, and what seemed to be the distorted, distant sound of a song being played backwards, then a message appeared on the screen, still flickering and trembling slightly. All the 'o's had 'X's drawn through them

HELLOTHERE SOCRATES

Socrates' expression dropped.

The screen blacked out again and showed what appeared to be distorted, black and white footage of a country road. More words appeared on the screen.

YOUWILLCOMETOUS

The screen blacked out again and an eye appeared in the middle looking around in all directions.

ALONE

The choppy music continued. Several more distorted, still black and white, images flashed across the screen that were for the most part unrecognizable, before finally coming to a picture of what seemed to be a forest.

FOLLOWTHEPATH

A shot of a dripping facet appeared

ABANDON

Another shot of someone close up, licking their lips

SUCCUMB

The shot didn't change, but the person's nose started bleeding

SUBMIT

The shot then changed and showed video recording, still distorted and black and white, of Socrates skipping through his house. It appeared to have been recorded from the ceiling.

TIMEISRUNNINGOUT

Another shot appeared of Calvin and Hobbes playing Calvinball.

THEOTHERSCANNOTHELPYOU

A shot of Brainstorm's silhouette appeared.

THELOSTSCIENTIST

A pair of eyes opened in the silhouette, clearly not Brainstorm's, and looked all around.

TRAPPEDANDRETURNING

IRRELEVANT

IMPATIENT

Tentacles appeared from out from behind Brainstorm's back before cutting to another shot of a clock

TICKTOCK

The video then began reversing through everything that had been shown, prior.

More words appeared.

FINDUS

WATCHES

WAITS

Suddenly, the screen cut out completely, and the music stopped.

There was a silence.

Then the silhouette of the man in the suit appeared in the middle of the screen, staring out, accompanied by a loud screech

FORYOU

And with that the tape ended.

There was a long moment of silence as everyone stared at the TV.

"Okay, so we got that going for us," Calvin said, standing up. "Now what do we do?"

"Well… Instinctively, I think we should all huddle up in a corner and cry about our lives, but in the long run, I don't think that'll help," Hobbes replied.

"As appealing as it sounds, probably not, no."

"Realistically, I think we should look into that blinking red light that suddenly showed up on the MTM."

All eyes went to the CD player on the coffee table.

"What?" MTM asked. "Oh yeah, I was waiting for a better time to bring that up."

"What is it?" Sherman asked, jumping on the table. "What do we have to worry about now?"

"It's my alarm for technological irregularities," MTM explained. "My scanners have detected a form of manmade technology more advanced than anything else currently on the planet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Andy asked.

"It's probably nothing," Calvin said. "The government's probably trying to replicate alien tech again."

"The point of origin is the Antarctic area," MTM continued. "And whatever it is, is putting off a very strong signal, for me to be picking it up, so it's obviously very strong."

"How does this affect us?" Socrates said, starting to grow bored.

"Well, in all seriousness, it doesn't," MTM said, as if he were shrugging. "But this alarm has only gone off once before."

There was a silence.

"Do fill us in," Andy motioned.

"When Thunderstorm's robot chap came back to life that day we stopped Frank in his space station."

There was a long moment of silence.

"That's impossible," Calvin said.

"Simply stating the facts," MTM said.

"It can't be Shadow," Sherman said. "They were on that ship! It blew up!"

Calvin rubbed his chin in thought. "Unless…," he started.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Unless there was a teleport of some sort," he finished.

"It might be nothing," Hobbes said.

"It might not," Calvin agreed.

"Is it worth looking into?" MTM asked.

A giant grin spread across the child's face. "Ohhhh, yes."