Calvin was feeling super proud. He was standing up on the stage, telling everyone about his adventure.

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" asked Dad.

Mom eyed Hobbes, who was standing next to Calvin.

"Oh, I think he might."

"So anyway," Calvin was saying, "I believe you all owe me an apology."

"An apology for what?" Susie shouted.

"For saying that I was an idiot running around claiming that there were kidnappings and an Imaginator and a guy whose name describes his hair!"

No one said anything.

"Oh come on! After all this, and you still don't believe me about Retro?"

"Sorry, Calvin," said Mom, "but we're gonna need better proof than that."

Suddenly, something burst through the stage. It was a metallic claw that Calvin and Hobbes recognized all too much. Calvin was knocked into Mom's arms.

"Guess what? I believe you," she said.

The claw was ripping the stage apart. Hobbes managed to jump out of the way before he was grabbed.

"Spiff! Stupendous Man! Tracer! Do something!" Calvin shouted.

But when everyone looked, they saw that the three imaginary friends were captured in a bag by the imaginary men. They had Galaxoid and Nebular as well.

By now, Retro had ripped through the entire stage, and he was standing in the ruins in front of the car.

"So," he said, "you saved everyone then, eh?"

"You bet we did!" Calvin yelled, jumping to the ground. "We stopped you from taking over the world! All the pills have been destroyed, and we have the Imaginator, so we won! HA!"

Retro chuckled quietly and shook his head, giving Calvin the basic idea that he was wrong.

"You may have ruined one part, but I can make a new Imaginator. I can make more pills. I have the technology, the know-how and the cool car. You may try to stop me, but you know you won't."

Calvin and Hobbes had the nerve to step forward. "Oh, yeah?" Calvin asked.

Before they knew what was happening, they'd been snatched up in the claw and were now in Retro's clutches!

"Yeah," Retro grinned.

Calvin and Hobbes grunted hard, but they couldn't wiggle free.

"HEY!" Dad shouted. "That's our son! Put him down!"

"Of all the times Dad could start caring," Calvin muttered.

During all this, Andy and Sherman were looking at the Imaginator.

"They didn't have anything like this at the University," Sherman was saying. "I can tell ya that."

Calvin had an idea. "Sherman, hit the yellow button!" he shouted.

Sherman jumped down for the button. "Sherman to the rescue!" he shouted. However, he missed and hit the pavement.

Andy covered his head in embarrassment and hit the button himself.

All at once, the new feature shot out of the Imaginator. A laser shot toward the claw. It blasted through a cable that was attached to it, and it snapped, hot boiling water pouring out.

The claw suddenly malfunctioned and sprang open. Calvin and Hobbes were tossed through the air, screaming the whole way.

"You humans never think things through," Sherman said to Andy.

Calvin and Hobbes sailed up and then down, straight towards a tree, which they landed safely in. It bent down to the ground from the force of the impact.

"This one isgoing in the GROSS Logbook," Calvin said, taking a branch out of his hair.

"He's not getting a star by his name," Hobbes agreed.

The tree suddenly flew back up again, and sent them flying straight back. They could see things weren't going very well.

Retro was desperately trying to repair the claw, but he found that it was beyond repair.

At that instant, Stupendous Man managed to kick the imaginary army men down, and they tore out of the net.

Stupendous Man flew through the air and managed to catch Calvin and Hobbes.

"He really is stupendous," Hobbes said.

Once they were back on the ground, they all turned to Retro and the army men.

Retro still didn't look worried.

"You don't get it, do you? I have my own Imaginator! I can do whatever I want with it. I'll destroy all of you, and the world will soon be mine!"

"What do we do now?" whispered Galaxoid.

Calvin's mind raced. Inside his head, a bunch of little Calvins were working hard.

"Analyzing the data!" said one.

"What could we possibly do?" asked another.

"I've got it!" said the Head Calvin. "Turn the eyes toward the Imaginator and type in the idea."

They all typed as fast as they could. Several things were flashing by. Sweat poured down their faces.

"Done!" they shouted.

Calvin blinked and grinned at the Imaginator. "You seem to be forgetting, Retro," he said, "that we have an Imaginator, too." He reached over and put the helmet on. He hit the think button and thought.

"What's he doing?" asked Andy.

"I think he's trying to burst a brain cell," replied Sherman.

Before Retro could retaliate, he noticed that steam was starting to cover the ground. It started to build up, and he couldn't see anything.

"What's going on here?" he choked.

Suddenly, the steam all disappeared, and so had Calvin, Hobbes, Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man, Galaxoid and Nebular.

Plus, the street looked very different too.

The crowd noticed that there was giant scaffolding above them, and Galaxoid and Nebular were standing on it. They had a giant spotlight that shone down on the stage.

Suddenly, it got very dark.

Retro ran around frantically, trying to find out what was going on.

There was loud murmuring from the crowd until Moe shouted, "It's Twinky!"

Everyone looked at the stage and saw that Calvin was standing on the stage, but everything was different. The stage was rebuilt, and the band was ready. Tracer stood behind an organ, Spiff and Stupendous Man held guitars, and Hobbes sat at a drum set. Calvin was wearing fancy-schmancy sunglasses and holding the microphone.

"What's going on now?" Retro demanded.

Suddenly, in a blast of sound, Calvin jumped up and started to sing over the band.

"I'm gonna build me a ship that can take me far away. Far from this stupid world! Calvin and Hobbes investigate! Just give me a chance to show you all existing love. Love with imperfection and you say that's not love at all. Now we know there's just too many things for you to hold on to. And for all the love your words can bring, I'll have all the loss you surely bring."

As they went into the guitar solo, Calvin started doing a weird dance across the stage. He did the worm, backwards, pumped, jumped, swung and basically got down with his bad self.

Everyone was holding lighters and waving them back and forth.

"I'm gonna have ships and things that can take me out of reality. No fumes and glooms and hostile words. Just give me a chance to show you all existing love. Love with imperfection and you say that's not love at all. Now we know there's just too many things for you to hold on to. And for all the love your words can bring, I'll have all the loss you surely bring."

Stupendous Man broke into a guitar solo again, but this time, Calvin did more than dance. He jumped up into the air and seemed to float upwards. Then he did a nosedive, jumping into his cardboard box, which suddenly flew up into the air. He did a double-backwards-summersault and dove back down to land.

Retro pointed at the army men. "Get him! Now!"

They all pulled out bazookas, but they weren't fast enough, for they didn't know that something mystical was going on.

In a musical blast, Calvin started to fire off his own gun! A blast of yellow came out and blasted the bazookas, causing them to disappear. The energy from them went into the Imaginator!

Then Calvin fired again, striking the army and changing them into the same form of energy, sending them back into the Imaginator!

"NOOOOO!" Retro shrieked.

The guitar got a bit softer as Calvin touched down again.

"I'm gonna build me a ship that can take me far away. Far from this stupid world. Calvin and Hobbes investigate. Just give me a chance to show you all existing love. Love with imperfection and you say that's not love at all."

Then Calvin started aim at the sky.

"No, that's not love at all."

He fired.

"Are you sure it's not love at all?"

They yellow light went all over the world, enveloping the planet in a ball of yellow. Several bursts of energy and electricity crackled and flew back to the Imaginator. All of Retro's destruction was removed from the earth and sent back to where it belonged.

Bob suddenly ran up. "Sir?" he said. "It would appear that we've been foiled."

"Yeah," Calvin laughed. "Just like the baked potatoes you're about to become."

He aimed the gun straight at them.

"Do you feel lucky?" Hobbes teased.

Retro scowled. "You wouldn't dare," he snarled.

"Try me," Calvin said.

Retro was tempted to beat this kid up, but then, Hobbes was by Calvin's side. Then Spiff. Then Stupendous Man and Tracer Bullet. Then Galaxoid, Nebular, Andy and Sherman. Then Mom, Dad, Susie, Uncle Max, Moe, Miss Wormwood, Mr. Spittle and Rosalyn.

Calvin raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Bob cowered behind Retro and covered his head.

Retro snarled at him. "Just bear in mind that I won't be gone completely. I'll still be alive. I'll just be energy floating in the box. All that energy will be stored in a special compartment that cannot be destroyed along with the rest of the machine. I can guarantee that I'll be back to kill you and rule the world yet again."

And with that, he burst into a maniacal laugh.

"This is getting creepy," said Nebular. "Can we just do away with him?"

Calvin nodded. He aimed and fired, turning Retro into energy, and it was all sent into the Imaginator.

Everyone stood over the machine. It wasn't moving.

"Well?" asked Hobbes.

"Well, what?" asked Calvin.

"What do we do now?"

Calvin grinned and ran back onto the stage. Hobbes followed.

"Okay, everyone!" he shouted. "After that particularly fantastic display, I bet you all have something to say to me!"

Everyone rolled their eyes and said, "You were right, and we were wrong."

"Thank you. Now then, Mom and Dad, I believe you two should apologize to me and Hobbes for getting us into this mess in the first place."

Mom and Dad were baffled. "Excuse me?" Dad demanded.

"If you hadn't of signed me up for that appointment with 'Dr. Griffin' a.k.a., Retro Griffin, we probably wouldn't have been in the mess. In fact, if you hadn't of sent us outside to play last May, we never would have met Retro to begin with!"

Mom stepped forward. "We do apologize for saying you had a deficient mind," she said. "In fact, based on what's just happened, I'd saw we couldn't have been more wrong."

"Now ye're talkin'!" Calvin approved.

"Right," said Dad. "We shouldn't have doubted you. It's just, you're not exactly very trustworthy."

Calvin's face fell.

"But keep in mind that nobody what happens, remember this: we love you."

And they gave Calvin a hug. Calvin squirmed at first, but he shrugged it off and hugged them back.

"Okay, okay, enough of the mushy stuff," said Hobbes. "Let's have some real summer fun, huh?"

"Yeeho!" Max shouted.

"Let's rock!" yelled Spiff.

They all started to jam on the instruments, playing songs well into the night.

For Calvin and Hobbes, it was the end of one adventure, and the beginning of a new one. They agreed that they would get rid of the Imaginator after Spiff, Tracer and Stupendous Man went back into Calvin's head, and to be extra safe, they'd give it to Galaxoid and Nebular, who would take it to the Planet Zok, a planet that was ninety percent lava.

"It's looking to be a great summer, Hobbes," said Calvin.

"Yeah," Hobbes agreed, "and the fun's just getting started!"

Epilogue

After the party was over and the three imaginary people were sent back into the Imaginator, Galaxoid and Nebular flew through the galaxies until they found the desired destination: Planet Zok.

"Are we ready?" asked Galaxoid.

"Bombs away!" replied Nebular.

They opened a hatch, and the Imaginator fell out. The two aliens flew off.

Planet Zok may be ninety percent lava, but there's a ten percent that isn't, and unfortunately, the Imaginator landed in the ten percent.

Was Retro gone for good, or was there a chance of him returning? Time will tell…