Chapter Nine

Calvinball But with Explosives and Killing People Part Two

Calvin at this point was just trying to survive. As soon as the charge started, he ducked into a nearby alleyway and hid underneath a barrel. Yutz followed him.

"Oh no you don't" Yutz cried as he picked up the barrel, "You're in this wither you like it or not!"

Calvin shook his head, "I just wanna live!" he screamed.

Yutz rolled his eyes and walked back out into the street, lifting the barrel over his head.

Yutz handed Calvin a bomb and lit it.

"You've got about ten seconds Calvin" Yutz said calmly, "Make it count."

Yutz broke a hole in the bottom of the barrel for Calvin's legs and the made holes for his eyes and arms. Yutz then set Calvin down as quickly as he could.

"Now run Calvin!" Yutz cried, "Run like you're life depends on it!"

Calvin huffed sarcastically, for his life really did depend on him running, so he did.

Hobbes and Charlie meanwhile were running as fast as they could, both of them with teeth sharpened and claws with bits of flesh and blood underneath them. They had abandoned all logical reasoning and thought; the only thing they knew how to do was kill anything that tried to get in their way, this unfortunately included Calvin, who Hobbes came for in confusion, rage and relying solely on animal tendencies. The only reason that Calvin stayed alive at all was because of the bomb he was holding, which he threw at the last second towards a decent sized group of X's men, which exploded almost on impact. The aftermath of this explosion, in addition to almost killing Calvin by blasting him down the street, brought Hobbes back to his senses, who caught Calvin at the last possible second.

Calvin turned to Hobbes, "If I die, I'm going to haunt you forever!"

Hobbes laughed and shook his head, "Hey if you do die, can I have your house...and your wife?"

Calvin glared menacingly at Hobbes.

"Kidding" Hobbes continued, "Now let's kill these bastards and end this thing."

Calvin nodded in agreement. Hobbes handed Calvin another bomb, Calvin pulled out a match and lit it, keeping the wick away until the proper time.

Hobbes smiled and embraced Calvin, "Make me proud kid."

Calvin was close to tearing up; Hobbes looked to his right and saw a large force come his way. Hobbes launched Calvin through the air, Walter, who was halfway to the castle at this point, continued propelling Calvin towards the castle by activating a large fan that he had set up for the occasion.

The group in front of Hobbes stopped for a moment, extremely confused as to what just happened. Hobbes took the opportunity to take a piece of paper and roll a cigarette. He then put his fedora back on his head and pulled out a Five Seven and a katana.

"Ladies and gentlemen" Hobbes declared, "Welcome to the School of Ass-Kicking. I am your instructor, Professor Hobbes, but you call me The Last Person You Will Ever See. Your first lesson, if you're smart is to run. I'll give you ten seconds."

They remained motionless.

"Okay then." Hobbes continued, "Your second lesson-"

Hobbes fired off a shot, killing one of the men instantly.

"Is to burn in Hell!"

Hobbes then rushed forward and began slashing and firing his gun as if he were in a Quentin Tarantino movie, laughing the entire time.

Yutz and Walter caught up to Calvin, who threw the bomb towards the castle gate, blowing it open.

"Alright here's the plan" Yutz began, "We get inside the castle and blow off their heads with the biggest thing we can find."

Calvin shook his head in disbelief, "That's it? We're just going to blindly start killing people having no idea what we're going to face. We don't have a better plan?"

Walter huffed as if he couldn't believe that Calvin was complaining, "It's not like we had time Calvin. The whole French thing kind of ruined it. We planned what we could and rolled with it the rest of the way. Now if you're so smart, why don't you come up with something and actually help us!"

Calvin looked around, in his pocket was a small bomb and a note from Hobbes. He quickly took it out and read it.

Here's for all the missed birthdays and the times I couldn't be there. Hopefully this makes up for it. You'll know when to use it.

-Hobbes

PS: When this is over I promise to leave you alone. You deserve that much.

Calvin shook his head, he had to focus if he was going to succeed. Calvin motioned to Walter, Yutz and Charlie.

"Alright here's the deal" Calvin began, "We have five minutes to get in this castle."

Calvin looked at his wristwatch that he remembered he had.

"If I'm right about this, my Mom should just be getting up. We have to end this before she gets in my room, freaks out and calls the police. That won't be good for anybody. So here's what we're going to do..."

Hobbes meanwhile cut down the last of the henchmen. Hobbes threw down the gun, for it was empty and pushed for the castle. Just as he was about to reach the front gate, he heard the casual flick of a Zippo. He turned to his right, in a dark alleyway the glow of a cigarette could be seen, the smoker was Zip.

"So who brought you back from the dead?" Zip said rhetorically.

"Don't you know?" Hobbes replied, "The good guys always come back."

Zip laughed, "Are you sure you're a good guy Hobbes? Think about what you're doing. Every person that you just killed was someone's friend. By my count that's at least 25 children without a friend in the world."

Hobbes shook his head, "You're wrong Zip, couldn't be further from the truth."

"Oh?" Zip continued as he pulled out a long sword, "And why is that?"

Hobbes laughed, "Because I'm the mailman. And every good mailman knows the people on his route."

Zip raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Hobbes shook his head again, "I'm not even going to bother explaining it to you. You wouldn't get it anyway. Such things are inconvincible to you right?"

Zip sighed, it was deep, almost regretful in nature.

"At one point in time" Zip answered, "I was just like you. I did everything I could to keep my kid safe. But don't you see? It's inevitable in the end. Eventually they grow up; they become what they always said they never would be."

Hobbes stopped for a moment; he pitied Zip for he had the same thing happen to him.

"Just because they grow" Hobbes replied, "doesn't mean that you can't be there for them."

Zip laughed, "Who do you think my kid is Hobbes? I've been with him this whole time, I've followed his orders to the letter. I never said that I liked it."

"Mister X" Hobbes exclaimed knowingly, "He's your kid isn't he?"

Zip nodded, "He is. This whole thing was his idea. I don't know why. But he believes that by taking the minds of children that he will create the greatest army the world has ever seen. For who in their right mind would attack children?"

Zip readied himself in an attack position. "The things we do for those we love" he concluded.

Hobbes closed his eyes and threw down his sword. "I won't fight you Zip. I can't."

Zip moved closer, "You have to Hobbes. For Calvin, you have to fight."

Hobbes shook his head, Zip hung his and charged forward. Just as Zip raised his sword, Hobbes wrapped his tail around the discarded katana and thrust it upward, running it clean through Zip's body.

"Good" Zip said as he dropped the sword and slid down to the ground, "Don't...kill him. Believe it or not, he was once a kid too."

Hobbes said nothing and raised the katana once more, for Zip was still alive when he hit the ground. Hobbes did the only thing he could do and gave a clean death by decapitation. Hobbes watched as Zip's head rolled towards the stream that ran in the middle of the street, the stream was now for the most part, a dark red, tainted by the blood of the fallen. By the end of this night, in the next five minutes, it would get darker and darker, until it was black and unrecognizable.