Summary: People in Calvin's town begin acting strangely.

And now back to Calvin and Hobbes: The Series
Part one written by Garfieldodie

Electronic Invasion

Alright then, rather than starting with Calvin and Hobbes, we're going to start with Andy and Sherman. They live in the house with the fancy satellite dish that's a little further down the street from Calvin and Hobbes.

Sherman was in the living room fiddling with some components while watching TV.

As he worked, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Andy, where've you been? It's almost noon," Sherman said, not looking up.

There was no reply.

Sherman continued to fiddle with the machine for a while before he noticed.

"Andy?" he asked.

Still no reply could be heard.

"Andy?" Sherman repeated, turning around.

Andy was there, alright. He was standing there, staring off into space, not really doing anything.

Sherman watched him for a long time.

"Er, buenos tardes," he said.

Andy finally looked up.

"Hello, Sherman," he said in a monotone voice. "How are you on this fine day?"

Sherman arched an eyebrow before replying.

"Uh, well, I've been working on my new proton accelerator actually. I've been trying to—"

"That is nice, Sherman," Andy interrupted. "I am off to have a breakfast meal."

Sherman stared at Andy as he walked away.

"Uh…you do that," Sherman said, looking away.

As he listened to Andy in the next room, Sherman felt more and more uneasy.

Just then, the phone rang.

Andy picked it up.

"Hello. This is Andy. How may I be of service to you?" he asked.

Sherman looked up.

Calvin was on the phone.

"Hey, Andy, I need you and Sherman over here right away. I've got a new bunch of supplies for a bigger game of Calvinball!" Calvin said excitedly.

"That sounds interesting, Calvin," Andy said monotonously. "We shall join you. Good bye."

Andy hung up.

Sherman watched him approach him.

"Uh…are we going out?" he asked, putting his invention down.

"Yes, Sherman, we are going out," Andy replied, scooping Sherman up and putting him in his pocket.

Sherman couldn't help but notice the stiffness in how Andy was moving his arms.

"Are you okay, Andy?" Sherman asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I am perfectly well, Sherman," Andy replied.

Andy walked straight forward and out the door.

As they walked, Sherman noticed something.

"Why are all the streetlights flickering?" he asked.

"I do not know, Sherman," Andy replied.

Sherman watched the streetlights blink on and off repeatedly all the way to Calvin's house.

Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates were sitting in the backyard waiting for Andy and Sherman.

As they waited, Socrates was listening to the radio.

However, in the middle of one of the songs, there was suddenly a lot of static filling the speakers.

Socrates looked at it.

"Huh. That's odd," he commented.

He began hitting it, hoping to get it working right again.

It took a few goes, but finally he managed to clear it up.

"That was weird," he muttered.

Just then, Andy and Sherman arrived.

"Ah, there you boys are!" said Calvin. "Are you ready for some Calvinball?"

"Yes, I am ready for Calvinball, Calvin, Hobbes and Socrates," Andy said.

Everyone looked at him strangely.

"Uh…right," said Calvin. "Anyway, here are the masks."

Calvin handed masks out to everyone.

Andy just stared at his.

Hobbes noticed.

"Uh, Andy, you put it on," Hobbes said, putting his on.

"Of course," Andy said, putting his mask on.

Then he just stood there, staring at them with unblinking eyes.

"And now we play!" said Calvin, picking up a basketball and a volleyball.

They quickly hightailed it over to the field.

Calvin quickly tossed Hobbes the basketball.

"Okay!" he said. "I'm currently in the Room of Repose!"

"What's that mean?" asked Hobbes.

"It means I get to lie here until someone finds the Box of Coffee!" Calvin said, tossing the volleyball to Socrates.

"Right!" said Socrates. "I'll find it, and once I do, I get to throw a water balloon into the air, and whoever gets hit with it has to plant the red flag in the Tree Fortress!"

"Let's hit it!" said Hobbes.

Calvin lied down on the ground and waited while Hobbes and Socrates started to run around the world.

Andy simply looked confused.

Sherman, who was the only one not participating, looked at him.

"Aren't you going to look?" he asked.

"I am afraid that I am most confused," Andy replied.

"So am I, but that's never stopped you before."

Andy simply shrugged and walked around in circles.

Sherman was confused by this. He scurried over to Calvin.

"Calvin, have you got a moment?"

"Only until the Coffee Box is found," Calvin replied, looking up. "Why?"

"Andy is acting very strange," Sherman explained. "Look at him! He's usually the one with at least half a clue!"

Calvin glanced at Andy.

The poor boy was just making a groove in the field.

"Huh," Calvin commented. "What'd he eat for breakfast this morning? Carnation Instant Bland?"

Sherman let out a short chuckle, but nothing more.

The next day, Calvin and Hobbes were traveling with Mom at the grocery store.

"Calvin, I really wish you'd stop trying to sneak boxes of cereal and cookies into the cart," Mom sighed, putting something back.

"Mom, stop doing that!" Calvin complained. "You'll offend the groceries!"

Mom sighed and continued on.

Calvin and Hobbes trudged behind.

"Hobbes, do you think Andy's been acting a little different as of late?" Calvin asked.

"How do you mean?" Hobbes asked, looking around the store.

"I dunno. I mean, he's been acting really boring, he's just staring into space, he barely says anything remotely interesting…"

"Calvin, Andy's always been like that," Hobbes reminded him.

"Yeah, but now he's a bit more… I dunno… stupid bland. I mean, it's like we have to reteach him everything! Sherman said that last night he tried to brush his teeth with toilet paper!" Calvin said.

"Ick," said Hobbes. "I hate to think what he did with his toothbrush."

They had soon gone through the checkout line and were exiting the grocery store.

As they walked, they didn't notice the neon sign above them of the store's name suddenly flickered.

Then, an odd thing happened.

BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ!

Lights flashed and sirens went off.

"ACK! WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!" Calvin cried, running off and crashing into the cart.

"Wrong show," Hobbes reminded him.

"Oh," said Calvin, looking around.

It was a car alarm going off.

"That's strange," Mom said. "No one went near that car."

WHIRP! WHIRP! WHIRP! WHIRP! WHIRP!

They whipped around as another car alarm went off.

"…or that one," Mom commented.

WHOP! WHOP! WHOP! WHOP!

"Did everyone in this city buy an American car or something?" Calvin asked.

Hobbes shrugged and covered his ears.

Mom quickly started to unload the groceries into the car, but as she did, more and more car alarms started to go off.

Calvin and Hobbes covered their ears and watched as people went to cars in absolute confusion, trying to shut off the alarms.

WHIRP! WHIRP!

WEEE-WOOO! WEEE-WOOO! WEEE-WOOO!

WHOP! WHOP! WHOP!

HONK-HONK-HONK! HONK-HONK-HONK! HONK-HONK-HONK!

PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THE VE-HIC-LE!

Mom quickly locked the trunk, kicked the cart out of the way, jammed Calvin and Hobbes into the backseat and jumped into the car, quickly starting it, pulling out and hurrying away.

Calvin and Hobbes watched as the grocery store faded away into the distance.

"Wow," said Calvin. "That was weird."

"Yes," said Mom. "It's strange that my car was the only one that didn't go off."

Calvin and Hobbes exchanged glances.

"You don't suppose someone's up to something do you?" Calvin asked.

"When are any of our enemies not up to something?" Hobbes sighed, picking up a magazine.

Calvin's brow furrowed in confusion and annoyance.

"Things just get stranger and stranger around here," he sighed.

As they drove through town, a traffic light suddenly began blinking its lights randomly.

Cars became stuck behind it for quite a while.

Once they got the whole thing sorted out, they continued on through town.

Calvin and Hobbes became confused by lights blinking on and off all over the place.

"It's like a really weird '80s music video around here," Hobbes commented.

Once they got home, Calvin and Hobbes immediately went up to their bedroom, but once getting there, they discovered the box was sitting in the middle of the room, bottom side down.

"Huh," said Calvin. "What's the Duplicator doing here?"

BOINK!

They stared.

"Duplicating, apparently," said Hobbes.

BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK!

Calvin and Hobbes suddenly began panicking.

"What's it duplicating?!" Calvin cried.

"Who cares?! Turn it off!" Hobbes shouted.

Calvin and Hobbes searched the box in vain to find a way of stopping it.

BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK! BOINK!

Finally, Calvin found a black magic marker and quickly wrote on the side "TURN OFF BOX" and drew a button on the side. Then he pressed it.

BAMP! SHOOOOOMM!

The box finally died down.

Calvin and Hobbes sighed with relief and leaned against it.

Then, Calvin decided to see what had happened. He lifted the box up and tons of alarm clocks came tumbling out.

"Huh," said Hobbes. "I have a feeling that we may never have a right to lose track of the time now, huh?"

Calvin rolled his eyes and quickly unmade all the extra clocks.

UN-BOINK!

"Well, this has been a weird day," Calvin commented, rubbing his head.

"I'm going to bed," Hobbes decided, crawling under the bed sheets.

"Hobbes, it's four o'clock."

"It doesn't matter to a tiger."

Calvin rolled his eyes and began to inspect the box.

The next day, Socrates was walking down the streets singing a random song like he always does.

As he walked, he passed by Andy and Sherman's house.

In fact, Andy and Sherman were both standing in the front lawn.

"Hello, Andrew! Hello, Vermin!" Socrates said cheerfully, waving to them.

Andy and Sherman continued to stare ahead.

"Hello, Socrates," they both said together. "It is a pleasure to see you."

Socrates stopped walking and stared at them.

"Hello…," he said.

There was a pause as they all stared at each other.

"Would you like to come in?" Andy asked.

Socrates was now really confused and wanted to know what was going on.

"Uh, sure," he said, following them into the house nervously.

As they entered the house, the telephone lines suddenly started to sway in the wind.

Socrates noticed this as he entered the house.

"Huh," he said. "That's weird. There's no wind."

Shrugging it off, Socrates followed Andy and Sherman through the door.

At school, Calvin was sitting in class, ignoring whatever was going on as usual.

Miss Wormwood entered the room.

"Good morning, class," she said, staring ahead and not blinking. "I am here, and it is time to begin our class of the day."

Calvin rolled his eyes and doodled in his notebook.

"If everyone will please take your homework and pass it to the front of the classroom then I shall collect it and put it away," she said in a monotonous voice.

Calvin reached into his backpack and looked his homework over.

It was a history essay about the pilgrims, and he had written that they had come to Earth on a giant escalator from Mars. He collected the homework behind him and tried to pass it forward to Susie.

Susie didn't seem to notice him.

"Hey, Susie!" he called. "Here's the homework! Pass it forward, you stupid girl!"

Susie didn't react for a bit.

Suddenly, there was a spark of electricity that emitted from the intercom above Calvin.

Calvin seemed to be the only one who noticed.

Strangely enough, once it was over, Susie promptly turned around and collected the homework.

"Thank you, Calvin," she said in a voice similar to Miss Wormwood's. "I shall collect the homework and pass it forward with my own."

Calvin arched an eyebrow.

"Uh…right," Calvin said unsurely.

Once Susie had turned around again, Calvin resumed what he was doing, but every once in a while, he stole a glance at the intercom.

At the house, Hobbes was in the bedroom reading a comic book.

As he sat there, MTM spoke up.

"You're getting a call," MTM said.

"Thanks," Hobbes said, picking him up and opening the CD player. "Hello, you reached the house of Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin's not here right now. Who is it?" he asked.

"Hobbo, it's Socrates," Socrates said in a hushed voice on the other line.

"Hey, Crateso, what's up? Got any prank ideas?"

"No, none right now. I've called to place an urgent warning."

"What's that?"

"It's Andy and Sherman. I'm at their house right now. They're just sitting at the TV doing nothing!"

"Isn't that what Andy usually does?" Hobbes asked.

"Yes, but this time, there's no video game!" Socrates hissed. "And Sherman hasn't insulted me in over fifteen minutes! I'm beginning to worry!"

"You show worry for somebody else? Goodness, Socrates! This must be serious!" Hobbes said sarcastically.

"Whatever," Socrates muttered. "I'm just giving you a heads up. I've gotta go. I'm going to experiment."

"Just don't get Home Land Security involved," Hobbes replied, and he snapped the MTM shut.

Socrates gently set the phone down and turned to face Andy and Sherman.

They were still sitting at the TV.

Socrates approached them.

"Hey, Andy, I have an idea!" he said.

"What is that?" asked Andy, not facing him.

"Let's have a staring contest!"

"What is a staring contest?" Andy asked.

Socrates looked at him.

"You're…you're kidding me, right?" he asked.

"No, I am not kidding you, Socrates," Andy said. "What is a staring contest?"

"Uh…well, two people stare at each other for a long time, and they try to stare for the longest without blinking. First one to blink loses."

"Very well, Socrates. Let us have a staring contest," Andy said.

"Alright, starting…now!"

Socrates opened his eyes wide and stared at Andy with all his might.

Andy just sat there, expression unchanged.

This went on for several seconds.

"I must warn you," Socrates said. "A cat can outstare anything."

The silence waged on.

Socrates felt his eyes begin to water from the strain.

Finally, he had to concede defeat, and his eyes snapped shut.

"Wow!" he said, rubbing his eyes. "How the heck did you last that long?"

"Because I could," Andy replied.

"Because he could," Sherman added.

Socrates began to look between the two of them. He suddenly felt a need to get away from them.

Why? Well the fact that he had just seen some sparks of electricity spark through them was part of it.

Suddenly, they attacked him.

Calvin came home from school later that day after a lot of confusion. He got off the bus and opened the door to his house.

"I'M HOME!"

WHAM!

Hobbes pounced Calvin straight through the air and into the yard.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUGGGHH!!" Calvin screamed.

"Whoo!" Hobbes cheered, dusting himself off. "I swear, the longer I wait, the more wound up I get!"

Calvin got up and stretched until his spine snapped back into place.

"Yeah, so that means you've been waiting since a week ago Thursday," he said.

Hobbes simply grinned sweetly.

"Where're Mom and Dad?" Calvin asked.

"I dunno. They've been gone all day."

Calvin and Hobbes entered the house and looked around.

It was eerily empty.

"You sure? They didn't say anything to you, did they?" Calvin asked.

"Never did, never will," Hobbes replied.

Calvin thought for a bit, and then went into the kitchen. As he prepared to eat some cookies, he heard the car pull up.

"Oop! They're home! Abort mission!" he cried, putting the cookies back.

The door opened.

Mom and Dad stood in the doorway. They were staring off into space much like everyone else had been.

"Hello, Calvin," Dad said monotonously. "We have just returned from building lots of character."

"Yes," Mom said. "Lots and lots of character."

Calvin stared at them.

"Dad, what are you doing home?" he asked. "You don't get home until five thirty!"

"I decided to come home early because coming home early builds character," Dad said.

Calvin looked very confused.

Suddenly, the lights flickered in the kitchen.

Then, the ceiling fan started to spin, slowly at first, and then faster and faster.

Soon, it was like a tornado right there in the kitchen!

Papers were flying everywhere, and things were being blown over!

"ACK!" Calvin cried, running from the room. "HELP! MY KITCHEN IS BEING ATTACKED!"

He soon left.

Hobbes watched him leave. Then he watched Mom and Dad enter the living room where they promptly sat down and stared into space.

"Huh," he said. "That was weird."

Deciding that it was too weird, Hobbes immediately began to leave the house.

"I think I'll go see what's up at Andy's house," he muttered. "Maybe it's less crazy over there."

As he left the house, he was disturbed by something.

DING-DONG!

Hobbes looked up.

It was the doorbell.

"Strange," Hobbes commented, looking around. "Nobody's here."

DING-DONG!

Hobbes looked at the doorbell again.

"What do you want?" he asked it.

DING-DONG!

"What do you want?" Hobbes asked again, getting annoyed.

DING-DONG!

Hobbes began to growl.

"Stop it!" he ordered.

DING-DONG!

"STOP IT!" Hobbes shouted.

There was a pause.

Hobbes waited before smirking triumphantly.

But just as he started to walk away…

DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG! DING-DONG!

Hobbes stared at the doorbell in absolute annoyance.

Finally, he picked up a hammer and smashed it.

WHAM!

It finally stopped.

"There, that'll teach you," Hobbes said sternly, tossing the hammer aside and walking away.

DING-DONG!

Hobbes whipped around and glared at it before finally walking away in a huff.

Hobbes arrived at Andy and Sherman's house. He refrained from ringing their doorbell.

"Andy? It's me, Hobbes!" he called.

After a brief pause, the door opened.

Andy, Sherman and Socrates were standing there.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" he asked.

"Hello, Hobbes," they all said at once. "What is up?"

Hobbes stared at them for a bit.

"Well, I just got in a political argument with my doorbell. How about you?" he asked.

"We are fine," said Andy.

"Absolutely happy," said Sherman.

"We have made tea," said Socrates.

It creeped Hobbes out that they were all speaking in that monotonous voice.

"Are you all going to become Ben Stine stand-ins?" he asked, backing away.

"Do come in, Hobbes," Andy said. "We would be most pleased."

Hobbes noticed a blink of electricity shoot through their eyes.

Becoming nervous, he continued to back away.

"Uh, maybe another time," he said. "I've, er, got something to do back at home. I left some muffins in the oven…"

Suddenly, Andy and Socrates reached for him.

"EEP!" Hobbes squeaked, and he turned to run.

Well, he turned, but he couldn't run.

He immediately crashed into a pair of legs.

Nervously, he looked up.

It was Rosalyn.

"Hello, Hobbes," she said, looking straight ahead and sounding bored. "Would you come with me please?"

"ACK!" Hobbes cried, and he tried to run another way.

But Susie and Candace were blocking his way. They both reached out for him.

"STOP IT!" Hobbes shouted.

He immediately pounced over them, but soon found that there were more people just like them, all staring ahead and reaching out for him.

"ACK! CALVIN! HELP!" Hobbes wailed.

Hobbes suddenly found himself trapped by a crowd of people, stuck in a circle that was growing smaller.

"AAAAAAAAUUUGHH!" Hobbes screamed, covering his head.

Back at the house, Calvin was having troubles of his own.

All his inventions were going crazy. The Transmogrifier Gun was firing at random objects, the Mini-Duplicator was making copies of everything, the Atomic Freezer was grabbing random objects and freezing them, the box was flying all around the house, and Mega-Shrinker 5000 was shrinking and enlarging several toys.

The only one that seemed to have any self-control was the MTM.

"This is getting impossible!" Calvin moaned. "What's going on around here?!"

"I'm sensing lots of electrical surges coming from an unknown area," said MTM. "I'm not sure what's causing it, though."

"Would that explain all those car alarms going off, and the ceiling fan going insane?"

"Possibly. I've been feeling these surges for the last few days."

Calvin quickly sat down to think.

"Something weird is going on," he muttered.

"Really? What was your first clue, Professor?" MTM snorted.

Calvin glared at him.

"It's not just this! All the people are acting really weird too! I don't get why all of this is happening!"

CRASH!

Calvin looked up.

"What was that?!" he cried.

"A crash, I'd reckon," MTM replied.

Calvin ignored him and ran downstairs.

MTM grumbled.

"That's right. Leave me here with the freaks," he said, watching the other inventions fly around the room.

Calvin ran downstairs.

"Alright, what's going on in here?!" he shouted.

The house was a mess. Things had been knocked over.

And then Calvin gasped at what he saw.

He saw…himself?

To Be Continued...