Calvin made a daring jump past the Teacher Creatures. He managed to grab onto the helmet of the Imaginator, and he slammed it on his head. He hit the buttons like mad, turning it on.
Hobbes, Galaxoid and Nebular watched as he was surrounded by the fifteen Creatures.
"CALVIN, GET OUT OF THERE!" Hobbes shouted.
He needn't have worried, because as the Creatures had him surrounded, there was a KABLAM! The Creatures were sent hurtling away.
When the smoke cleared, Calvin was standing there, but he wasn't alone.
Standing beside him were Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, and Tracer Bullet!
"Oh, thank goodness!" Hobbes cried. "Some actual help!"
By now, the Teacher Creatures had regained themselves and were now moving back towards the team.
"Okay, here's the deal!" Calvin shouted. "Hobbes, Stupendous Man and Spiff, you all do some serious Creature Butt-Whoopin'! Tracer, Galaxoid and Nebular, follow me! Break!"
The two teams split up.
Hobbes pounced the first Creature that approached him. He knocked it to the ground and started to kick, bite and scratch.
Stupendous Man flew over the bunch, using stupendous strength to punch like never before.
Spiff was jumping and doing back flips as he fired his atomic blaster at a majority of the Creatures.
However, it seemed that whenever one Creature was taken out, several more would pop up.
Hobbes found this very confusing until he spotted something sitting nearby. It was the Duplicator, and several Teacher Creatures were coming out. Bob was supervising the whole thing.
"WE NEED TO GET THE DUPLICATOR!" he shouted.
Stupendous Man saluted and flew towards the old box, but Bob pulled out a blaster.
Hobbes worked fast and helped by leaning up on his hind legs and pouncing Bob, knocking the blaster from his hand.
Stupendous Man dove down and grabbed the box, shaking out whatever Creatures he could. He dropped it near Hobbes.
"Quick!" he yelled. "Get in!"
Spiff and Stupendous Man dove inside the box, and Hobbes pressed the button. The trademark "boink" was heard, and out tumbled at least fifty Spiffs and Stupendous Men.
The Teacher Creatures all froze in their tracks and gulped.
There was a long pause.
"Get 'em," said Hobbes.
Fifty Spiffs fired fifty atomic blasters, and fifty Stupendous Men punched like mad.
It wasn't long before a whole bunch of Creatures were running back into the Duplicator, and Hobbes hit the UNDO button.
Bob finally came to from his tiger attack. He saw all spacemen and superheroes glaring at him.
"If I run away now, will you let me live?" he asked.
"Fine, go ahead," Hobbes said.
"Thanks," and he left as fast as he could.
They all piled back into the Duplicator, and Hobbes undid it all. The originals walked out.
"Well," said Spiff, "that was fun."
"Right, now let's catch up with the rest," Hobbes decided.
Meanwhile, Calvin, Galaxoid and Nebular were walking behind Tracer, who was in the middle of searching for something.
"Ah, ha!" Tracer finally shouted. "I've found what I was looking for!"
Calvin looked up. "A restroom?"
"No!" He thought again. "Well, that's one. But look over there!"
They all looked ahead.
"What is it?" asked Calvin.
"It's one of Retro's transporters for his mind-control pills," said Galaxoid.
"Right," said Tracer. "It has a special machine gun up on top that fires pills at people, and that triggers the mind-control serum. If we can fire off the new pills, it'll reverse it all and turn the world back to normal, for the most part."
Calvin, Galaxoid and Nebular stared at him.
"How did you know that if you've never been here before?" asked Calvin.
"I'm the world's greatest detective," said Tracer. "I can find anything, and I know everything."
"Quick, let's load up," said Nebular.
They started to load up their crate of pills, and just as they opened the hatch, they found more Retro's mind-control army standing there waiting for him.
"I guess he didn't know that one," sneered Galaxoid.
Calvin recognized one of them.
"Uncle Max!" he cried.
A signal was sent through their brains, and the army reached for the four of them.
"Uh oh," said Calvin.
Suddenly, they heard a loud battle cry.
"YAHOOOO!"
They all looked up and saw Hobbes and Spiff were piloting the box straight towards them. They flew it straight into the army, knocking them down like bowling pins.
Uncle Max managed to stand up and glare down at them, his green eyes glowing.
Calvin ripped into the crate and pulled out a pill. "Uncle Max! Catch!" He hurled the pill at Max's head. The pill burst, disrupting the serum, and the green glow in his eyes went out.
Max's vision blurred for a moment, and then he saw Calvin, Hobbes, Galaxoid, Nebular, Spaceman Spiff and Tracer Bullet all looking up at him.
"What's going on?" he mumbled. "Calvin? What's happening?"
"Uncle Max," Calvin said, "you have just recovered from one of Retro's mind-control pills, which were hidden in your most recent food item. We just freed you from it with these pills here that reverse the effects. You are now standing in one of the freighters owned by Retro, who is one of my arch-enemies out to destroy me and Hobbes so that he can take over the world with his imagination."
Max looked down at his nephew in confusion, and just as he was about to dismiss this as nonsense, he noticed a tiger standing on his hind legs, a superhero, a detective, a spaceman, and two aliens.
"Well, it would appear I have no choice but to believe you," he said.
"You know, if you feel the urge to pass out on the floor in shock, feel free," said Hobbes.
"I think I will. Someone get behind me."
Hobbes, Stupendous Man and Nebular managed to catch him and get him into the freighter. Calvin and Spiff carried the crate up into the ship with Galaxoid and Tracer right behind them.
Once the hatch door was shut, Calvin stood on the crate.
"Okay, Galaxoid and Nebular, you two fly the ship. Hobbes, you keep an eye on Uncle Max. Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man, help me load the gun that'll fire the pills."
Galaxoid and Nebular scurried to the front of ship.
Hobbes helped Max into one of the cots in a bedroom.
Calvin, Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man went up to the top with the crate.
"Where do we set the coordinates?" asked Nebular.
"Set it for our hometown," said Hobbes. "We'll build up our own army and invade the island base!"
"Right!"
Up in the gun hatch, Stupendous Man hovered near the others and held up the crate. Spiff and Tracer had a lot of expertise with loading guns, so they were loading the pills. Calvin was holding the flashlight and pushing the pill trays around.
"Come on! We need to hurry!" he shouted.
"That's the last of them!" said Stupendous Man, taking them all back down.
Hobbes was sitting next to Max.
"So, you're saying tigers have a secret organization in Africa where they are secretly plotting to destroy all the antelope?" he asked.
"Well, that, and we plan to knock off the lions to take our rightful place as kings of the jungle," Hobbes said.
"SPIFF!" Calvin shouted. "Get to the front of the ship and help Galaxoid and Nebular! Stupendous Man, you go to the top of the ship. Take this."
He handed him an atomic blaster.
"What's this for?"
"Use it to destroy anyone that comes after us."
Stupendous Man saluted and ran up the stairs.
"What do I do?" asked Tracer.
"You stay on hand in case of emergency."
Tracer rolled his eyes and went to the back.
Spiff, Galaxoid and Nebular set the course, and the freighter took to the sky.
An hour later, the freighter loomed over the city. Everyone halted when they noticed they were covered by a shadow.
"We're above the city," said Galaxoid. "What do we do now?"
"We fire at will!" replied Calvin.
Spiff ran up and got in the cockpit of the firing machine.
Down below, one of the imaginary army men was waiting for further instruction when he spotted the freighter.
"Strange," he said. "They're not due for another hour."
Suddenly, a giant gun appeared on top of the ship.
The army man blew a whistle. "Line up for pill giving!" he shouted.
Everyone in the city stopped and got in line.
"They're in formation!" said Nebular.
"We're ready, Spiff!" shouted Hobbes.
Spiff hit some buttons and prepared to fire. He aimed the gun at the head of a citizen and hit FIRE.
The gun turned a shade of blue, rather than green, and a blast sent the pill's chemicals towards the person. A sparkling gas covered his head, which was inhaled, and it canceled out the mind-control pill. The green glow in his eyes went out like a light, and he went back to normal.
"What happened?" he asked.
"It's working!" shouted Stupendous Man.
"Keep firing, Spiff!" Calvin yelled.
Spiff turned the gun in all directions, blasting three more. Then he took out three heads with one blast.
Several of the imaginary army men came running up.
"What's happening?" they shouted.
Then Spiff then hit the RANDOM FIRE button, sending the gun spinning out of control, blasting Retro's power out of everyone's heads. Rows of people were freed from the pill's effects, including Calvin's parents, Susie, Moe, Miss Wormwood, Rosalyn and Mr. Spittle.
Uncle Max was impressed. "What 'til the guys at the office hear about this!" he laughed.
The leader of the army men reached into his pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie. "The boy's hijacked a freighter and he's ruining everything! We need backup, now!"
Hobbes gave Spiff a thumbs up, which told Spiff to turn the gun to they sky. There was a huge blast that sent an effect all over the world, and blasted anyone else who was green in the eye out of trouble.
Bob was running back to the island. For his convenience, a bridge had been put up between the rental shack to the island/command base.
"Retro!" he shouted.
Retro was standing at the highest point of the base and was smiling to himself.
"Retro, he's winning!" Bob yelled.
"What are you talking about?"
"Look!"
Retro looked at the security cameras and his eyes bugged out. He could see the freighter that held Calvin, Hobbes and their new crew.
"What do we do?" Bob asked frantically.
"You stay here and make sure everything works out," said Retro, running down the stairs. "I'll take care of the kid."
He hopped in the claw-car and drove off.
"I'll get you, ya little pest!" he roared over the engine.
He drove the car forward, only to fall into the lake.
"Sooner or later," he mumbled.
He used his claw to reach up onto the bridge and drive a bit more efficiently. He disappeared down the road and towards the town.
By now, everyone in town had been freed, and the freighter was touching down. Everyone stood near the entrance as the hatch doors fell open.
"Where's Calvin?" Mom asked Dad.
"I dunno. I couldn't find him in the crowd," Dad replied.
Steam poured from the freighter in that trademark way, and out walked someone with a spiky head.
"CALVIN!" everyone shouted.
Then everyone watched as several other figures came from behind Calvin. Hobbes, Galaxoid, Nebular, Spaceman Spiff, Stupendous Man, Tracer Bullet and Uncle Max.
"Max?" asked Dad. "What're you doing here?"
"Man, oh man, bro," Max chuckled, placing a hand on Dad's shoulder. "That's one talented kid you've got there."