Disclaimer: I wish I did, but I do not own Calvin & Hobbes.
Author's Note: I haven't updated for... for a year? I must be out of my mind. Sorry about the short chapter.
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It was the fifth day since he had entered the base. His food and water supplies were nearly depleted. The red spot on the radar was closer to him than ever. Spiff guessed that his pursuer was no more than half a kilometer behind him. Spiff had not rested ever since he spotted them on his radar. He felt weary, and everything around him seemed to swim and shift shapes. His legs felt like lead from the constant running. He shook his head and finished the last of the coffee in the bottle. Now he had only water left.
Suddenly, Spiff skidded to a halt. He was at a dead end. The only thing in the dim room was a pipe sticking out of the west wall of the room, marked "Energy Generator Exhaust Pipe".
Spiff quickly rubbed his eyes. This was what he had been waiting for. He grabbed the pipe and lifted himself in. The tube was large enough for him to crawl into. Before he inhaled any of the exhaust fumes in, he grabbed his mask and put it on. Then he started. The pipe stretched on and on. The farther he went, the hotter it got. Soon, his hands were red from the heat of the pipe. Suddenly, a throbbing, mechanical noise became faintly audible. He was nearing the Energy Generator. The noise got larger as he went. Suddenly, the pipe slanted into a steep slope leading downwards. Thankfully, Spiff sat down and slid down the pipe. The pipe abruptly came to an end, and Spiff was thrown into a huge chamber lit with an eerie red glow.
This was the core of the Energy Generator. The chamber was circular, and the walls were all made of some sort of heat-resistant alloy. In the center of the room was a large, deep pit. Numerous pipes and wires led down to the bottom of the pit where they joined into a huge, spinning drill-like tube embedded deep below the crust of the planet into the dangerous gas layer below. This gas was the source of the red light in the room.
Spiff stared speechlessly for a while, but soon came back to himself and took out his last Demise-o-Bomb. He was about to throw it down into the shaft... when someone or something leaped at him from behind and knocked him to the hard floor. Spiff rolled over to see Rosalyn standing over him, hate burning in her eyes. "You fool," she said in a soft, deadly voice. "You really thought you could immobilize my base this easily?"
Spiff got on his feet and clipped the Demise-o-Bomb to his belt again, grabbing his blaster. He aimed and shot.
Rosalyn quickly deflected it with the flare shield that spurted from her blaster and shot back. Spiff ducked quickly enough. This went on until Rosalyn, exasperated, flung her blaster away and leaped at him again, sweeping his legs out from under him. As he fell, the Demise-o-Bomb fell from his belt and rolled away toward the pit. Oblivious, the two struggled.
The bomb seemed to stop at the brink, but a sudden spasm of the generator sent it rolling again. The bomb clinked down into the deep shaft, hitting against the wall occasionally.
Still, Spiff and Rosalyn took no notice.
Then, determined to destroy the Energy Generator, Spiff groped for his bomb on his belt. He only felt the plastic feel of the belt. Escaping the steel grip of Rosalyn on his collar, he ran towards the shaft. The red glow of the gas had turned yellow. Rosalyn grabbed her blaster again and shot at him. She barely missed.
Spiff turned toward her and attacked her again, his "Calvin" side winning over his sensible side. And all the time, the Energy Generator was slowly falling apart.
TO BE CONTINUED
R&R!!!!!
