Calvin and Hobbes climbed down from the window.
They landed on a desk. Well, they thought it was a desk. They couldn't really tell it was covered with so much stuff.
Shall I list off what was on the desk?
Three dirty socks, yesterday's newspaper, two whoopee cushions, a glove, a half eaten tuna sandwich, a fake dollar bill, a pile of papers, a cup with pencils in it, a CD player, a watch, two erasers, a blue plastic bowl, a pair of headphones, a printer cartridge, a lid, lip stick, a whistle, a coffee mug, a unmarked VHS, two wires, a pocket watch, a half eaten blueberry muffin, a pair of scissors, and a rock.
And that was only the first layer.
Calvin and Hobbes climbed down the string, and fell onto the desk.
"Oo-kay." Hobbes said. "Now what?"
Calvin jumped onto the chair, then onto the floor.
Hobbes followed suit.
The floor, unlike the desk was very clean.
And whoever owned this house must have been very rich.
Sitting on the floor next to them, was a huge canopy bed. On this canopy bed, there was a pile of comic books. One of them was open, and on the bed.
There appeared to be a very expensive carpet on the floor where they now stood. It was very fancy. And yet, weird. Do you know why? It started out red, then went to blue, then green, then yellow, then orange, then white. OK, now, hands up, how many people do you know have multi-colored carpets like that? I didn't think so.
There were also a complete entertainment center in the middle of the room! No kidding! There was a HD plasma television, surround sound, a DVD/VHS/CD player, and all of them were a sleek advanced silver color.
Calvin was overwhelmed.
"Why don't I live like this!" He whined. "This place is perfect!"
"Gee, we must have landed in a rich guy's house." Hobbes said.
At that very moment, the sound of footsteps reached Calvin and Hobbes' ears.
They panicked.
"SOMEONE'S COMING!" Calvin screamed.
"I KNOW THAT!" Hobbes yelled back.
"UNDER THE BED!"
Calvin and Hobbes darted under the bed, as the doorknob rattled, and whoever it was came in.
Calvin and Hobbes back to the very back into the darkest corner of the room under the bed.
They watched a pair of white sneakers walk across the room, then leap onto the bed with a loud BOING!
Calvin and Hobbes exchanged glances.
Then the whoever spoke. Actually, he was humming to himself.
"Mm-hmmhmm mmm hhmm hmmm hhmmm. Hmmmmm mmmm hmmm."
Hobbes recognized that voice.
"Calvin!" He yelled. "That's Socrates' voice!"
"When did Socrates start wearing white sneakers?" Calvin asked.
"Those weren't sneakers. Those were his feet. They just looked like sneakers."
"Ah." Calvin said.
"This is great, Calvin!" Hobbes said, excitedly. "We're in Socrates' house."
"Why does Socrates get a cool entertainment center?" Calvin complained.
"Who cares!" Hobbes yelled in glee. "Let's go get him!"
Hobbes rushed towards the end of the bed.
Calvin muttered and grumbled, and followed.
When they both reached the edge of the bed, they started yelling.
"SOCRATES! SOCRATES, LOOK DOWN! IT'S CALVIN AND HOBBES! WE'VE BEEN SHRUNK! THERE ARE A BUNCH OF DERANGED ALIENS AFTER US! HELP!"
Socrates didn't even hear them. He was too busy humming his masterpiece.
"SOCRATES!" Calvin and Hobbes screamed in unison.
Still no response.
"This is hopeless." Panted Calvin. "That dumb tiger's not going to get up."
"Hold on a minute..." Hobbes thought out loud. "Empty your pockets."
Calvin pulled out his MTM.
"Hobbes, this wont work." he said. "The MTM doesn't operate at all."
"Let me see it."
Hobbes pushed the Main Menu button.
A wavy hologram shot out.
W C
That's all that was on the hologram.
Hobbes closed the Main Menu down. Goody, goody it worked.
Hobbes set his mouth to the end of the MTM.
Calvin stared at him.
Hobbes took a deep breath in, and screamed, "SOC-RA-TE-E-E-E-E-E-E-ES!"
The MTM magnified Hobbes' voice to an insane level.
Socrates leaped six feet into the air, bumped his head on the canopy, and landed on the floor, his head three feet from Calvin and Hobbes.
Hobbes handed Calvin his MTM.
"There ya go." He said.
When Socrates' eyes came into focus, they fixed on Calvin and Hobbes.
He stared at them.
"Uh..." He started. "Well. This is new."
"Socrates!" Hobbes called. "It's us! Calvin's used another one of his Death Trap inventions to shrink us!"
"What?" Socrates asked, sitting up.
"Long story short." Calvin shouted. "I make Shrink Ray. Rupert and Earl discover shrink ray, alien crew shrinks us and them. We're in trouble. They have jet packs. We don't. Please help us."
Socrates blinked, several times.
Then, he finally came to the realization to what happened.
A wide mischievous grin spread across his face.
"Hey!" he yelled. "Calvin! I can take the pranks I pulled on some ants yesterday, and do them to you!"
Calvin's eyes popped open.
"WHAT!" Calvin screamed.
"Plus, I can use you as an action figure!"
Socrates bent down, and studied Calvin.
"You don't have much of the action figure style." He decided. "Do you think you could shrink a Kleenex, and tie it around your neck you it looks like a cape?"
"Socrates! This is serious!" Calvin yelled. "The world is in danger!"
"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?" Socrates asked.
"If you can carry us to our house, and take us to the attic, then you get the Mega-Shrinker 5000, and unshrink us."
"I see." Socrates said, rubbing his chin. "And, what's in this for me?"
Calvin blinked.
"Nothing!" he said, finally. "If you don't help us, then Rupert and Earl will kill us, and you won't have anyone to prank anymore!"
That got Socrates' attention.
His ears shot up, his eyes popped open, his tail stiffened, and his mouth dropped three inches.
Then he regained himself, and bent down to Calvin and Hobbes' levels. Which wasn't easy, by the way, since they were below Socrates' chin.
"Where did you say this Mega Shrinker thing was?" he asked, scooping them up in his white paws.
"The attic!" Hobbes called. "And let's hurry before Rupert and Earl get to it!"
"Very well." Socrates said. "Hang on."
"To what?" Calvin asked. "Your fingers?"
Socrates didn't reply.
He drew a foot back, and raced forward, towards the door.
"YAAAAAH!" Calvin and Hobbes screamed tumbling down Socrates' palm, and finally grabbing hold of his thumbs.
"Wait!" Hobbes yelled. "Rupert and Earl are waiting out at the front! We have to go out the back!"
"Yes, sir." Socrates said.
He made a detour around the livingroom, and raced into the utility room.
He kicked the door open, and raced out.
Meanwhile, Rupert, Earl, and the crew were waiting outside behind the front door.
The crew was getting bored.
"Why couldn't we just take over another planet?" Erne moaned.
"I dunno, maybe Rupert and Earl like the animal life." Dave replied.
"Will you shut up, already!" Earl yelled.
"Sure thing, Earl." Danny said. "except I didn't say anything."
Earl growled and turned away from his lunatic crew.
"Have you found a way in, yet, Luke?" Rupert demanded.
Luke the alien floated up.
"Well, there's a little crack thingy at the bottom of the door."
"Good. Let's go." Rupert gritted.
He blasted towards the crack between the door and the ground.
CRASH!
Earl and the crew stared at their king.
Luke shrugged.
"I never said we could fit down it." He said.
Rupert rose back up to Luke's level, and pulled a ray gun out of his pocket.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!
"YAAAH!"
Luke screamed, and dove back into the crowd.
Rupert and Earl held their breath, expecting the crew to totally loose control, again, however, this time, they were able to keep control.
That needs to go into the record books.
Just then, Earl spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
He looked around and spotted Socrates running down the sidewalk, Calvin and Hobbes sitting in his palm.
"The red tailed tiger has them!" Earl screamed pointing at Socrates.
Rupert and the crew spun around.
"He's helping them." Rupert growled. "Come on!"
There was a blast of fire and smoke, and Rupert and Earl blasted after Socrates.
The crew stared at Socrates.
"Gee whiz, the tiger's gotten larger since last I've seen them." Jack said.
"No, I think it's another tiger." Bill said, in a dull voice.
"Yeah, I think so." Alfred said. "I can see the red tail."
"That's red?" Alex asked. "Looks like orange to me."
"No, your looking at the other part of the tail." Lenny said. "See? The stripes are orange. The rest of the tail is red."
"No, he's an orange tiger with red stripes!" Erne interjected.
"NO! He's a red tiger with orange stripes!"
At that very moment, Earl flew back up to his crew.
"What are you morons doing!" He screamed.
"Earl!" Lenny yelled, floating up to his captain. "Is he a red tiger with orange stripes or an orange tiger with red stripes!"
Earl's eyes rolled into the back of his head.
"How am I supposed to know!" He yelled. "Get over there, and attack them! They're escaping!"
And with that, he blasted off, again.
The crew paused for a moment.
Then they followed.
"I still say it's red with orange stripes." Lenny muttered.