Chapter 8

Andy and Sherman's Turn To Shine!

"Wow." Andy said.

Town had been almost entirely wiped out. Houses were reduced to rubble. Buildings had been turned into what they originally had been – bricks and cement. There was a massive crack through the main roads. It went on for about a mile. Andy knelt down and took a look at it.

Sherman managed to wriggle out of the confines of Andy's pocket; and he too examined the damage.

Without looking at Sherman, Andy simply said, "Earthquake?"

"Impossble," Sherman scoffed; with that "Good Lord; how stupid can you fools be" look on his face that he often wore. "We would have felt the vibration back at our place."

"What WAS it caused by, then?" Andy asked; getting up.

Sherman jumped into Andy's rucksack; and came back out with a magnifying glass in his mouth. He placed it over the crack, and looked through the glass.

"It was caused by…unnatural causes…" Sherman concluded. "Take a look through the glass."

Andy knelt down again and peered through the glass. There appeared to be small pieces of silicon and electronic parts embedded in the tarmac.

Andy looked at Sherman.

Sherman looked at Andy.

They held their stare for a few good seconds.

"Duplicate," They both said in unison.

Calvin and Hobbes, however; weren't having much luck.

"This guy's a master of disguise!" Calvin panted. "There when you least need him, but never there when you want him!"

"Ditto," Hobbes replied.

"That is because the creator is not that stupid."

"Huh? What did you say?" asked Hobbes.

"What? I thought YOU said that." Calvin turned to face Hobbes; confused.

"I said that. And I'll say this as well: I'll deal with you later. I've been told to make your death painful…nothing would be more painful for you than watching that other older kid and his hamster die…"

Then, with no warning, there was amassive gust of wind; knocking Calvin and Hobbes off their feet. Hobbes managed to grab onto a streetlamp and cling on; but Calvin was sent reeling though town; down the street. He managed to stop at the end of the street.

The mini-tornado subsided; but the damage was done. One building had been halved; and trees had been separated from their roots. Cars were now nothing but mangled sheets of painted scrap metal. Hobbes ran up to where Calvin was.

"Are you OK?" asked Hobbes; picking Calvin up.

"Yeah, fine," Calvin replied. "But what was that?"

"Beats me," Calvin replied. "But it did say it was going after Andy and Sherman."

"Meh, they can handle themselves." Hobbes replied.

"But they don't have any inventions!" Calvin replied.

"Precisely." Hobbes replied.

"Oh, whatever." Calvin growled. "Let's just destroy this dupe and go home." Calvin walked onwards.

Andy and Sherman had finally finished scanning town. Thankfully, no injured people were around.

Primarily because they had all evacuated ages ago.

Andy picked up Sherman and said, "C'mon, let's go see Socrates and Mr. Brown. See if they're OK."

"You're getting smarter every day." Sherman commented.

"Meaning?" Andy inquired.

"That day I first met you I would've thought you were hopeless."

"Oh come on!" Andy shot back. "I wasn't that bad!"

"Yeah, OK, whatever," Sherman admitted. "Now let—"

CRICK. CRACK. SNAP.

"What was tha—"

BOOOOOMMMMM!

A massive, huge, about 150 foot robot with twelve eye-lights the size of dinner plates and three tentacles rose out of the ground. It said in a massive, booming, robotic tone,

"What on—" Andy started, but he didn't finish.

"Target detected. Recognized as Andy and Sherman. Launching annihilation procedure."

"I take it that means he's not going to give us candy, then?" Sherman asked Andy.

"Don't get smart! That dupe must have made this!" Andy replied.

Suddenly, the three eyes started glowing shades of rainbow, and fired a bolt of laser at Andy. Andy barely jumped over it.

"Geez, this dupe has seen that War Of The Worlds remake WAY too many times." Andy commented, wiping dust off his jeans. "How did they beat that thing?"

"Didn't the army kill the alien inside it, or something?" Sherman offered.

"Whatever," Andy replied, smacking his right fist into his left hand and clenching it. "I recommend we go on the offensive!"

"…and get killed," Sherman finished. "We have to assess the situation and think about this, Andy. …Andy?"

Andy was now running towards the tripod robot with a stick, screaming, "YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" He whacked it in one of the legs.

This being a supreme robotic piece of machinery, you'd expect that to do absolutely nothing.

Do you know what?

It smashed off that leg entirely, forcing the rest of the robot to collapse in a heap.

"Alright! Go Andy!" cheered Sherman. "I'll work on cutting the wires inside it!" Sherman crawled into Andy's rucksack, came back out with a pair of pliers, came back out from the rucksack, and scurried up the robot, and disappeared.

"You're pushing your luck, dimwits. Give up now and I'll make your deaths quick and painless." Warned the robot voice.

"Sorry, I'll just not take death as an option at all," Andy replied. He walked up to the robot and kicked it in one of the eyes.

"OW! Why you LITTLE—"

"'Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you," Andy started singing. He continued kicking it.

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH! THAT'S ENOUGH! YOU'VE PUSHED IT FAR ENOUGH!" the robot shouted.

A massive pipe suddenly rose from the center of the robot. It now looked like a flying saucer with a metal stick in the center.

"Give up now." The robot ordered. Inside the pipe was Sherman! "HELP!" He squeaked.

"SHERMAN!" Andy shouted. Andy ran towards the saucer, but it started paralyzing Sherman with electricity!

"The further you come, the more the voltage increases! Don't take another step!"

Andy stopped in his tracks. Then he said, simply, "Kill the rat. I always hated him."

"W-what! What did you say?" The robot stuttered.

Sherman couldn't believe it. Did Andy just say…he hated him? KILL him?

"I said," Andy repeated, walking towards the robot. "Kill the vermin. Turn up the voltage. DO IT!"

"I refuse! I will never do what you say!" the robot broke the pipe, and released Sherman.

"Buddy!" Andy cried, picking up Sherman.

SLAP!

Sherman hit Andy with his tail. "Why did you want me dead? WHAT DID I DO FOR THAT!" Sherman had tears in his eyes.

Then, Andy smiled at Sherman, and winked.

"Ah!" Sherman cheered up. "Now I get it! Good one, ol' pal! Let's hear it for…"

"REVERSE PSYCOLOGY!" The duo cheered.

The robot growled in anger.

"You think you can destroy my creator? You're crazy! Do you really think you have a chance?" the robot leered.

"To be honest, you've got nothing on us, you rusty piece of junk. Bring in on." Andy replied, taunting him with the 'come here' finger taunt.

The robot began firing lasers everywhere. Sherman dived into Andy's pocket, and Andy leaped from laser to laser, dodging them all. Finally, he got to one of the eyes, and—

SMASH!

Andy delivered a terrific kick to one of the eye-lights, smashing it in entirely. The glass shattered, and an electric current travel through the robot. This made the robot blind in two eyes.

"That does it! Where are you? I demand to know!" The robot screeched.

"Here!" Andy called.

CRUNCH! Andy threw a metal bumper from a broken car through the remaining eye, totally blinding it.

"RAAAAAAGHHHH!" The robot called out. "You'll never take me!"

The robot suddenly disconnected its legs, and began hovering in mid-air menacingly as a flying saucer.

"Why do I half-expect Rupert and Earl to suddenly come out of there?" Andy said.

"Because it's great equipment but they can't use it properly?" Sherman suggested.

"Yeah, that must be it," Andy said.

Then, without warning, the saucer deployed ANOTHER laser cannon, and began to charge it up. Lights from the saucer flashed as it built up energy.

"Huh boy, don't you have ANY other form of attack?" Sherman yawned. "You're so predictable."

"SHUT UP!" The robot retaliated. "You are nothing before the awesome might of THIS attack! AHHAHA HAH HAH HAHHH HAAAAAAAH---"

Clunk.

The laser cannon fell off, and landed to the ground; with Sherman on it, holding a screwdriver in one hand and some nuts and bolts in the other.

Sherman jumped off the cannon, and walked back over to Andy. "Dumb robot," He said, throwing the parts on the ground, scattering them.

"Grrrrrr…DARN YOU! You've reduced me to my last resort!" the saucer yelled.

The saucer then doubled in size; doubled again, and then tripled in size. It was now so big that its radius was big enough to crush town if it crash-landed into it. What are the chances of it doing that, though?

"I'm going to crash-land into town and crush it MWA HA HAAAAAAAH!"

Wow. Am I psychic or what?

Andy and Sherman could barely see a thing; the saucer's shadow was obscuring everything.

Not for long.

The saucer rose up into the air to gain height for the crash.

"I don't suppose he's going to use a parachute at the last minute and say "Psyche!", then?" Sherman asked.

Then, the saucer went into a nose-dive. It was speeding downwards at incredible speed!

"Goodbye, insignificant insects! MWA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA!"

Suddenly, Sherman jumped off Andy's shoulder and raced for the cannon.

"I do a lot of jumping in this movie, don't I?" Sherman commented. He grabbed the cannon with his paws, and shouted, "ANDY! GET OVER HERE AND AIM THIS THING!"

"Roger!" Andy shouted. He picked up the cannon, aimed at the saucer, and Sherman was about to put his foot on the trigger—

WHAM!

The saucer extended an arm and knocked the cannon away!

"That was our only chance!" Andy cried. "It's all over!"

"Hey guys," a familiar voice called. A silhouette walked over. "Need a hand?"

The silhouette became clear, and picked up the cannon.

"SOCRATES!" Andy and Sherman called. "AIM IT AT TH—"

"Relax," Socrates replied. He aimed the cannon and clutched the button.

"Arrivederci, Deadwood."

KA—BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

As the saucer fell to pieces of scrap and debris, it asked Socrates a final question,

"What in God's name are you? And your friends?"

"You and your "creator's" worst nightmare," Socrates replied. "You're both dead!"

From a distance away, Calvin and Hobbes saw the brilliant flash of light as the robot exploded.

"Told ya they'd be OK," Hobbes said.

"Yeah…good on 'em." Calvin said. "Make a prediction, Hobbes."

"Huh? What for?" Hobbes asked, scratching his head.

"So I can see if you have ESP," Calvin replied.

"OK, ummm," Hobbes covered his eyes, put a finger in his mouth, and said, "OK. You will fight a duplicate of yourself in the near future."

"Yeah, we know that," Calvin replied.

"I predict that you will…win?" Hobbes continued.

"I will? Cool! I WILL win, anyway! Let's go, ol' buddy!" Calvin whooped.

"Oooh! Wait wait! I have another prediction!" Hobbes said. He covered his eyes again with one paw. "You will have an irresistible attraction to a cold, wet, muddy river," Hobbes said, smiling.

Calvin only then just turned around and realised – there was a cold, wet, muddy river behind him!

"Ha ha," Calvin said, sarcastically. "You stay away from me," He continued, backing away.

"It's going to come true! I can feel it!" Hobbes said, with weird goggly eyes. He was now walking towards Calvin, pushing him nearer to the river.

No matter how many pranks they played on each other, Calvin and Hobbes were always great friends.

Back in the back yard base…

"Computer!" The duplicate ordered. "Give me communication to Saucer-S123!"

"Unable to communicate, master," the computer replied.

"What? WHY?" The dupe bellowed.

"The status of Saucer-S123 is "Destroyed due to burnt internal components." The computer specified. "It appears that…Andy, Sherman, and Socrates defeated it…"

"WHAT? GRRRRRRR!" The dupe was now boiling like a kettle with anger. "Send out Tiger-R.O.B.-HL82, and destroy Socrates!"

"Roger, master," The computer obeyed.