Part three written by garfieldodie
Calvin and Hobbes returned home, chuckling to themselves.
"What a good game," said Calvin. "Check out all this loot I won!"
Calvin emptied his pockets and piled it up on his desk.
"You were very impressive back there, Calvin," said Hobbes. "It's not often anyone can beat Socrates."
"Well, Socrates is a massive cheat covered in fur," said Calvin. "You have to be careful."
"What'd you win?" asked Hobbes.
Calvin looked over his stuff.
"Well, let's see. We have about seventy-one cents worth in pennies, a few paperclips, a dime, some hairpins, a pair of wire rim glasses and a packet of salt," he said.
"All-in-all, a successful night overall," Hobbes said happily. "Now, if you don't mind, I need a nap."
Hobbes jumped up on the bed and circled it several times before lying down in the middle of it.
"Why do you need to do that?" asked Calvin, annoyed.
"Sorry. Privileged information."
Calvin rolled his eyes and tossed his winnings into pocket again.
They didn't know they were being watched.
Down below outside the house, Electro was floating up near the window, looking inside.
"Okay, we'll start tomorrow morning when they've been properly rested," said Electro. "Okay?"
Retro didn't answer.
Electro looked down and saw him.
Retro was busy trying to untangle him from the phone lines, which had stretched down to him and coiled lovingly around his torso.
Electro glared at him.
"Keep going! I'm listening! I agree!" Retro shouted, looking at him for a brief moment.
"What is wrong with you?" Electro demanded.
"I can't help it," said Retro. "My light bee is attracting electric currents and its really getting annoying. I hope I don't get caught in a lightning storm anytime soon."
Electro grumbled quietly and pointed a finger at the cords, causing them to finally loosen and free Retro, and then they flew up back into place.
Retro dusted himself off.
"So your light bee is a static attracter," Electro sighed. "Fantastic."
Retro glared. "Hey, don't give me that look," he said.
The next day, Calvin and Hobbes were working on usual projects.
Calvin was improving his inventions, and Hobbes was hiding under the bed.
Electro and Retro were watching, excited.
"Perfect," Electro growled.
"Do your stuff," said Retro, who pulled a static-filled sock off of his face.
Retro disappeared.
Electro pointed through the window. A small electric shock lit from his fingertip.
Inside the house, the Mini-Duplicator slowly began to rise.
Then he pointed at the Mega-Shrinker 5000 and the Atomic Freezer.
They both began to rise.
Then he pointed at the Transmogrifier Gun, which also rose into the air.
Calvin was fiddling with the MTM.
"Do me a favor, will you, Hobbes?" Calvin asked.
"No thanks. I quite like having a head, thank you," said Hobbes from under the bed.
"Look, I just need the Transmogrifier Gun. I need to make a change in here."
The Transmogrifier Gun landed on the desk.
"Thank you."
"For what?" asked Hobbes.
"For this. You handed me the Gun, didn't you?" Calvin asked.
"No."
Calvin arched an eyebrow and turned around.
His eyes bugged out.
All his inventions were all floating and aiming themselves right at him.
"Um, Hobbes? Did gravity call in sick today?" he asked.
Hobbes poked his head out from under the bed and gawked at the floating inventions.
Suddenly, a lot of other things started to float.
His watch, his clock, his radio and his lamp began to float as well.
Calvin and Hobbes stared in horror.
"Something is going wrong here," said Calvin.
Suddenly, the light above them started grow brighter and brighter.
Calvin and Hobbes squinted at the light bulb as it started get more and more powerful.
"TAKE COVER!" shouted Hobbes.
They dove back under the bed.
The light bulb exploded.
BAM!
The lights went out.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Light bulbs burst all over the house!
BAM!
"Hey!" shouted Dad, who reading lamp suddenly exploded.
BAM!
"Ack!" shrieked Mom, as the overhead lamp in the kitchen burst from behind her.
"CALVIN!" they shouted.
They both stormed upstairs and saw Calvin hiding under the bed with a stuffed tiger at his side.
"Calvin, what on earth are you doing up here?!" demanded Dad, pulling him out.
"Nothing! I swear! I was just working on the MTM, and the next thing I new the lights exploded!" Calvin said, pointing at his CD player.
Mom and Dad stared at the red CD player, and then glared back at their son.
"We're getting to the bottom of this," said Dad. "In the meantime, you're buying new light bulbs. Go to the General Store!"
Calvin grabbed his stuffed tiger, and they ran downstairs.
"Great!" moaned Calvin as they went outside. "Now for some bizarre reason, we're being attacked by electric things, and now I have to spend good money on a bunch of light bulbs!"
"Hmmm," said Hobbes, thinking this over. "Being attacked by electric items… Haven't we done this before?"
Calvin paused to think.
"Uh, I think so, but I think that was months ago," he said.
"Well, what caused it?"
"I think it was the Demented TV," Calvin said. "But we banished him to somewhere else a long time ago."
"But every time we meet a villain, they usually come back for more," said Hobbes.
"Nonsense!" said Calvin. "Retro never came back."
"OH YEAH?" a familiar voice said.
Calvin and Hobbes, who were now at the sidewalk, whipped around in horror.
Retro, in all his hardlight glory, was standing there, glaring hard at them.
Calvin and Hobbes' eyes burst open.
"R-R-R-Re-Re-Ret-Ret-Ret-RETRO!!" they shrieked.
Retro grinned smugly at them.
"But… But how?" Calvin asked. "We handed you over to Galaxoid and Nebular! They said they'd keep hold of you!"
"And they are!" Retro said dramatically.
There was a long pause as Calvin and Hobbes looked at him.
"Then…how are you here?" asked Calvin.
"Yeah, and when did you get that H tattooed on your forehead?" asked Hobbes.
"The H stands for Hologram," said Retro. "An undesired side affect to my current status."
Calvin raised his eyebrows. "You're a hologram? Holograms are just computer images projected and composed entirely of light. How dangerous can you be?"
Retro simply responded by patting Calvin on the head.
Calvin and Hobbes stared at his hand horror.
"Calvin, my dear boy, thanks to the alien technology on your friends' planet, I'm a hardlight hologram. Hardlight means that the light has been bent in a way that solidifies it," said Retro, taking his hand back.
"So…hardened light?" asked Hobbes.
"Correct."
"Ah," said Calvin. "Then we should be afraid."
"Oh, I'd double your fear if I were you, Calvin."
"Why?"
"Because while I was here, I accidentally freed an old friend of yours. You know how all your light bulbs burst?"
"Uh…power surge?" asked Calvin, not wanting to admit the truth.
"Correct, and guess who it was that created that surge!"
Calvin and Hobbes looked at each other nervously.
"The…TV Man?" asked Hobbes.
"CORRECT!" shouted a loud voice.
Calvin and Hobbes looked into the sky and saw Electro.
Electro was laughing diabolically and shooting blasts of electricity into the air.
"Electro the Electric Man at you humble service," he said coyly to our trembling heroes.
Calvin and Hobbes stared at the two villains in shock.
"But how did you get out?" asked Calvin.
"Retro's light bee has another temporary side affect," Electro said. "It attracts any form of electricity. It pulled me from the telephone lines. And now, I think you two had better find a safe-haven to hide in, because now we'll have to kill you."
Calvin and Hobbes stared for a long time.
FOOM!
They were gone.
Retro looked at Electro.
"Call the inventions!" he ordered.
Electro raised a hand.
A cardboard box suddenly flew over them, followed by a pencil, a CD player, a water pistol, a clothespin, and a microphone.
Retro and Electro laughed evilly.
Socrates, Andy and Sherman were hanging out in Socrates' mansion.
They were watching television and enjoying a giant bowl of popcorn.
Suddenly, the TV picture quality got a bit staticy and the audio got scratchy.
"Uh-oh," said Andy. "Socrates, are you trying to watch the Antarctica Local Weather Report?"
"No," said Socrates. "A plug must have fallen loose. I'll see to it."
Socrates got up and reached for a plug.
ZZAP!
"Ouch!" Socrates shouted.
"What happened?" asked Sherman.
"It shocked me!"
Just then, a door slammed.
WHAM!
Andy, Sherman and Socrates looked back and saw Calvin and Hobbes holding the door back and panting heavily.
"Practicing for the one hundred yard dash?" asked Sherman.
Calvin and Hobbes shook their heads no.
"Giant cloud of poison enveloping the town?" asked Andy.
Calvin and Hobbes shook their heads no.
"Evil villains have teamed up and are out to kill you?" asked Socrates.
Calvin and Hobbes nodded their heads yes.
"Who teamed up? Rupert Chill and Dr Brainstorm?" asked Socrates.
"No," said Calvin. "We're saving that for next season. Remember the Demented Television we told you about?"
"Oh yeah," said Andy. "Seven months ago. None of even knew each other back then."
"Ah, good times," said Sherman wistfully.
"Shut up, Vermin," Hobbes growled.
"Well, who did the TV team up with?" asked Socrates.
"He's not in the TV anymore," said Calvin. "He's somehow emerged from the TV and become an electric being! He's a wrinkly-faced electric storm in a suede coat!"
"Nice," said Socrates. "Again, who did he team up with?"
Calvin and Hobbes exchanged glances.
"Ummm, it's a bit complicated, and you might not believe us at first," said Hobbes unsurely.
"Probably not, but try us," said Sherman.
"Retro."
Socrates, Andy and Sherman stared.
Suddenly, they felt a little uneasy.
"Uh, you don't say," said Andy, trying to avoid eye contact. "I thought you said he was on an alien planet being held prisoner."
"He still is!" said Calvin. "This is the incredible part! He's a hardlight hologram! A hologram that can touch things! Isn't that incredible?!"
Socrates gulped nervously.
"Um, yeah. Incredible."
Calvin and Hobbes noticed the nervous looks on their faces.
"Socrates? Andy? Sherman?" Calvin calmly said. "Do you guys have something to tell us?"
"I had a feeling this would come back to haunt us," Sherman whispered.
Andy nodded.
"What was that, Vermin? Is it something you'd like to share with us?" Hobbes asked, eyeing the genius hamster.
"Uhhh…," said Sherman, for the first time in his life blanking out.
"Crateso, how about you?" asked Calvin, glaring at Socrates hard.
Socrates waved a paw beside his head.
"Gee, it's getting warm in here," he said nervously. "I'll go turn the heat down."
He tried to leave, but Calvin grabbed his tail.
"Andrew, how about you?" said Hobbes, looking Andy square in the eye. "Got anything to say that Calvin and I don't know about?"
Andy gulped.
"Well, uh, remember when back in June, you guys went on a road trip with your parents to the Grand Canyon?"
Calvin nodded, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, we had a few visitors."
"Like who?" asked Calvin.
"Well," said Socrates, "First, it was Dr Brainstorm and Jack, then it was three aliens from Zok, then Retro showed up, and last was Rupert and Earl."
Calvin and Hobbes stared.
"I'm guessing they did some damage to the house," said Calvin.
"Hey, we fixed it all!" Socrates said pleadingly.
Calvin and Hobbes glared.
"Why didn't you tell us about this?!" shouted Calvin. "Now we've got Larry Fine's long lost brother chasing us!"
"We…didn't think you needed to know," said Andy sheepishly.
Calvin and Hobbes slapped their foreheads.
Just then, several objects came crashing through the windows.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Everyone ducked down a bunch of Calvin's inventions came flying through the air.
"What the heck…?" asked Sherman.
"Electro has the ability to control items electric," Calvin explained. "He's turned my inventions against me!"
"Just another ordinary day," said Hobbes.
BAM!
The door burst open.
Retro and Electro glared hard at them.
Hobbes leaned over to Socrates.
"How did you defeat Retro last time?" he asked.
"Well, Retro's projector couldn't go very far, so he couldn't reach us when the range ended," he said. "No doubt he's extended it."
So everyone ran away. They scurried up the stairs to the top floor.
Retro and Electro ran quickly after them.
But as they ran, Calvin realized that Retro was still able to follow them.
"Guys, I think Retro's working on something different this time. Something that allows him to go anywhere he wants! He said something about a light bee."
Sherman thought.
"Of course! Light bees are small projection units that buzz around in side of the hologram and go wherever the image wants to go," he said.
"Oh," said Socrates. "Well, a laser should destroy the hologram like last time."
"Not so," said Sherman. "The reason a laser destroyed him last time was because it was weakened by the distanced projection. Now that he's been projected from the inside rather than the inside, it has strengthened his hardlight, and therefore, now he's virtually indestructible!"
"Oh perfect!" Hobbes moaned.
Calvin, Hobbes, Socrates, Andy and Sherman dove into a hall closet and hid there.
"What'll we do?!" cried Andy.
"We're getting them out of here!" said Socrates. "They're destroying my home!"
BRZAAP!
The Transmogrifier Gun zapped the door and turned it into a giant slab of cheese.
Retro picked the cheese up and hurled it aside.
"Found him!" he said.
Electro grinned and then lowered the down Mega-Shrinker 5000.
Calvin gulped.
Everyone shoved Retro out of the air just as it fired.
ZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeepppp!
A few bottles of detergent were shrunk down, as well as a mop.
Electro watched them split up.
Then he lowered the Mini-Duplicator and aimed it at all the inventions.
BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK!
The inventions all split into five.
"Charge!" Electro ordered.
A bunch of dangerous objects immediately chased after each of them.
"HELP!" screamed Calvin.
