A few years can really change someone. A tow- headed little boy, stuffed tiger in tow, once terrorized his whole neighborhood. At fifteen, he was an honor student, had a steady girlfriend and had a ton of friends. And now things had to change again.

"Mom," Calvin insisted, "We don't really have to leave, do we?"

"Yes, we do," she replied. "I know how much you like it here, but we have to move to Jump City."

Calvin gave in, eventually, but unknown to his parents, he packed one thing that they thought he'd gotten rid of years ago: Hobbes, his stuffed tiger.

-

It figures that the worst day of my life is the first day of attending a new school, Calvin thought grumpily. He'd gotten punched by three people and girls kept following him around. The only person he knew at all was Susie Derkins, his old neighbor. She'd moved to Jump City too, since their fathers worked for the same company. But they didn't have any of the same classes, so he only saw her at lunch, which was when the trouble began.

-

"Head him off," Robin roared into his communicator. The rest of the Teen Titans tried, but Cinder Block kept going, right into the local high school's cafeteria.

-

Calvin saw the wall cave in and realized that Susie's table was right in the monster's path. He ran toward Susie, but time seemed to slow down. Rage burbled up inside of him. He lunged forward, and an orange light flew out from his hands.