Chapter Eighteen: The Lost Battle
"CLOSE THE SAFE!" Calvin shouted. "CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT!"
Calvin and Hobbes were frantically pushing on the safe, but before they could get it to budge, the door was flung open with no effort put behind it, sending Calvin and Hobbes flying into a wall.
"I need to learn my crash landings" Hobbes told himself as he sat up rubbing the back of is head.
He looked over at Calvin, who was staring back at the safe with eyes wider than dinner plates. Hobbes looked at the safe as well to see one of the most hideous creatures to ever exist on the planet. It was some monster that looked like it had two figures to it. One side appeared to have purple skin that had a human-like figure to it. The other half had yellow fur and it almost looked like a star-fish. The monster was indeed glaring at them, licking its chomps.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING?" Calvin screamed with terror.
"I don't know, but I don't think it wants to play," Hobbes replied, sounding just as scared.
The monster lunged forward at the two friends, who immediately got out of the way before its gigantic head could ram them into the wall. The monster's head collided with the wall at full speed, knocking it senseless.
"HA! DON'T MESS WITH US, YOU STUPID OTH!" Calvin teased.
The monster, however, recovered immediately and turned towards Calvin and Hobbes again.
"Let's split up!" Hobbes suggested, running left. Calvin agreed and ran to the right.
While running, Hobbes heard giant footsteps behind him. He turned around to be greeted by a purple fist, pounding his body and sending through a wall. Hobbes shook off the attack and prepared for battle. He began to focus on a spell.
The creature was about to charge again when he felt instant pain in his back in three different spots. It turned around to see Calvin, who had fired three shots from his dart gun that were juiced up by his deathblow materia.
Meanwhile, Hobbes had conjured up a spell and was ready to cast it.
"QUAKE!"
Before the monster got a chance to get its revenge on Calvin, he felt the ground underneath open up. He sank in where the sand trap had suddenly appeared. Before he knew what to do next, the sand trap had closed back up, trapping the monsters feet where the trap once was into the floor.
"ALL RIGHT!" Calvin shouted. "Who wants free shots at the butt-ugly monster?" with that statement, he began to fire numerous darts at the monster, each of them powered up from the deathblow materia.
The monster did not stay stuck for long as it easily pulled its feet out of the floor and charged Calvin and Hobbes again.
Calvin managed to get out of the way by rolling through the monsters legs, but Hobbes was not so lucky. With its one fist, the monster punched Hobbes and sent him flying into the safe the monster had been locked in.
Headache and all, Hobbes managed to get back to his feet and was about to run at the monster again, but something on the ground caught his eye. It was round and had a red shine.
"MATERIA!" Hobbes shouted.
He quickly picked it up and recognized it to be summoning materia. Closing his eyes, he focused, trying to figure out what mysterious power was within the materia. After a minute, the voices of the Ancients came to his head, answering his question.
"Warrior of Darkness…Zantetzuken…Odin"
"Sounds powerful," Hobbes said in awe at the sight of the orb.
"HOBBES! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?" Calvin demanded as he ran by the safe, firing darts as fast as he could at the monster, which was right behind him in pursuit.
The monster suddenly stopped dead in its tracks and appeared to be catching its breath. Calvin stopped running as well, looking at the monster.
'Should I charge?' Calvin thought to himself.
"No…I'll use a magic spell…I can do it as long as that looser is standing still," he smirked as he began to concentrate.
As he focused, he felt an aura suddenly arouse him; much like the one he felt when he had summoned the lightning spell. In fact, it felt like the lightning spell itself. What Calvin didn't know was that the monster had summoned a magic attack of his own as Calvin was struck by a massive lightning spell, knocking him off his feet and landing in a pile of rubble. When Calvin finally found the energy to open his eyes, he saw that the monster was a mere three feet away from him. He was too weak to shout for help, so he closed his eyes and waited for the end to come.
As the monster was finally upon Calvin, it lifted its massive fist to finish him off. As he slammed his fist down, it came into contact with what appeared to be a magical barrier surrounding Calvin. It tried to hit him again, but no matter how hard he hit the barrier, it would not break. Calvin was just as confused about the barrier as the monster was.
Suddenly, like magic, it started raining inside the mansion as dark, stormy clouds appeared out of nowhere. They soon became so thick that neither Calvin nor the monster could see anything. However, the strange barrier was protecting Calvin from the rain and the lightning flashes that were appearing in the sky.
A mere five feet from the monster, a large black hole had conjured up as the monster studied it with curiosity. Then, like magic, something emerged from the black hole. It appeared to be a warrior riding on a horse that had four front feet and two hind legs. The creature riding the horse looked human and one could have mistaken it for a human had it not been for the horns sticking out of its head.
The horse then stood on its hind legs as the creature riding the horse began to aim its mighty sword at the sky. Once it found the perfect angle, it lunged the sword with all of its strength and watched it as it flew up into the clouds above, causing the clouds to depart from one another as though something had just fallen through them. A strange light was surrounding the monster as it just looked at the monster before it, oblivious of what was going on. Before the monster even had a chance to blink, it felt a sharp pain arouse within it as the same sword that had been flung into the air came down and pierced right through the deranged monster.
Once that happened, the monster that appeared from the black hole disappeared along with the sword and the rain. Calvin's barrier disappeared as well. He managed to sit up, starting in awe at the monster, which was still too stunned to move, but unfortunately alive nonetheless.
"NO WAY! I thought for sure that would kill it!" a voice from behind Calvin shouted.
Calvin turned around to see, much to his relief, Hobbes.
"What do you mean 'I thought that would kill it'?" Calvin demanded.
That monster I summoned…Odin is its name…I thought for sure that would kill it! How strong IS this thing?"
"Wait a minute…YOU called that monster? HOW?"
Before Hobbes could answer, there was a vibration that knocked Calvin and Hobbes to the ground. The monster had made it back to its feet and was shaking violently. After a few seconds, its orange hair had fallen off and it revealed to be a purple monster and it was not smiling.
"WHAT DO WE DO NOW?" Calvin panicked.
"We fight it," Hobbes bravely replied as he charged for the monster.
"HOBBESS! COME BACK!" Calvin pleaded, but Hobbes wasn't listening. He was too focused on the monster.
Hobbes fired an ice spell at the monster as he dove through its legs. The spell hit, but did not appear to stun the monster too much. Hobbes then sliced at the monster with his Tiger Claw fists, damaging the monster more.
"A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!" Hobbes shouted to Calvin.
Calvin snapped out of his state of fear and began firing deathblow shots from his dart gun. These also stunned the monster, but it didn't look like it was doing as much damage as it was before.
"WHAT'S WITH THIS MONSTER?" Calvin shouted. "I CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO HURT IT!"
"ITS DEFENSE MUST HAVE GOTTEN STRONGER WHEN IT CHANGED!"
Before Hobbes could say anything else, the monster used both of its fists and hit Hobbes on the head with a double-axe handle slam, knocking Hobbes into the dream world.
"HOBBES!" Calvin shrieked.
At this point, the monster was about to step on Hobbes and finish him off, but a bright red light filled the room which distracted the monster. The light was coming from Calvin as he unleashed a limit break. Once again, the light engulfed him, lifting him in the air, casing him to change form. When he landed on the ground, he was wearing safari clothes and wielding a sword.
"Good day mate," Calvin spoke. "Safari Al, at yer service."
The monster became intrigued by the new form Calvin. It shifted its attention to him and charged.
"Now this 'ere bloat is a creature we call a "Lost Number". Ugly brute, ain't he? Now what I'm gonna do 'ere is I'm gonna fight this bloke with me sword. It won't know wot hit 'im! Watch carefully now!"
As the monster swung its heavy fists at Calvin, Calvin jumped into the air with ease and sliced the monster, which we have learned by now is the Lost Number, contacting with it all three times. He had cut it deep too.
"That got 'im," Calvin shouted enthusiastically. "But it didn't finish 'im. Looks like I'm gonna 'ave ta do it again 'cause 'ere it comes!"
Just like before, the Lost Number swung its fists at Calvin, but it could not keep up with his newfound speed. Calvin slid under the creature, slicing its legs.
"Look at 'im! He's raging in pain, he is! I guess he's learnin' the 'ard was that ya can't mess with Safari Al! But he's still standin'…his defense is tough, it is, folks. But play time's over. I'm gonna hafta call in the big guns, and by that, I mean my animal friends!"
Calvin leaped up on top of a lighting that was hanging from the ceiling where the Lost Number couldn't get him. He then cupped his hands over his mouth and made a whistling, flute sound.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently once more. This time, though, the Lost Number was knocked to its feet.
Hobbes awoke from the shaking and saw that the world around was vibrating. Soon, a rumble could be heard from the distance. Hobbes turned around to see that a heard of jungle animals was stampeding towards them. This herd consisted of all kinds of animals from lions to zebras to elephants to ostriches…and they were not slowing down for anyone. Hobbes closed his eyes and waited for the impact, but it didn't come. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the animals were paying no attention to him and just going around him and heading straight for the Lost Number.
The Lost Number was trying to fight off the animals as they approached it. It fought off the first wave successfully, but the next couple waves were too powerful for it. The lions were pouncing and tearing at the flesh, the giraffes were smashing it with their heads, the elephants were stomping on it after it had been taken down…every animal did something. Finally, the stampede was over and when the dust cleared, there was nothing left of the monster.
Hobbes was confused. He had no idea where the animals had come from and when he saw Calvin, he thought he was a total stranger at first because of the fact he had been knocked out.
"Who are you?" Hobbes asked, "and where's Calvin?"
"Calvin? Don't know any bloat named Calvin. But my name's Safari Al and my, what a fine specimen you are, little fella."
On this note, the red light surrounded Calvin once more as it changed him back to his normal self.
"Uh…what happened…where's the monster?" Calvin asked upon returning.
"WHAT? HOW DID YOU…"
"What are you shouting for, Hobbes? I'm right here."
"But…you…the monster…the animals…"
"What animals? What are you talking about? And where's the monster?"
"Dead…but you…"
"Dead? How? Ah, well, I guess it doesn't matter. As long as that ugly brute's gone forever."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Hey, look!"
Calvin pointed to the safe. There was something glowing in it.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. School work's been getting to me and I've been working on other stories. Read and Review as always, please. Next chapter, Calvin and Hobbes meet…VINCENT and someone else.