Author's Notes: Surprise! I wrote this story originally back in 2004 with the burning question - what would happen if Calvin and his alter-egos actually met and could interact with each other? This is the story that started it all. Let us pause for a moment of respect, shall we?

...

Okay, enough that. Enjoy!

The snow was falling nice and thick across the deep woods. Everything was buried in a thick blanket of frozen rain, muffling out the usual sounds of the forest. All the animals were in deep hibernation, the birds had flown south for the winter, and the various members of mankind were hidden away in their precious suburbs, wrapped in blankets, watching television or playing music, blocking out the world around them.

All except one.

A small boy in his winter best was struggling along in the waist-high snow, marveling at everything around him like it was an alien world he had never been on before. Behind him carrying a wooden toboggan was a tiger who just happened to have opposable thumbs, the ability to speak, and a red scarf that went well with his yellow-ochre fur with black stripes.

They arrived at the top of a hill and marveled at what they saw.

"Wow, it really snowed last night!" Calvin cheered. "Isn't it wonderful?"

The tiger smiled in agreement. "Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand new!"

"A new year… A fresh, clean start!"

"It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!"

"A day full of possibilities!"

They laid out the toboggan and crawled on. Calvin took the helm while Hobbes got behind to push.

"It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy," Calvin declared as they set off down the hill. "Let's go exploring!"

And they raced down the hill, listening to the sound of the toboggan crunching along the snow as gravity pulled it along.

They bumped and bounced along, skidding around, leaning left and right to avoid trees and rocks, squealing from the adrenalin rush of zooming along to certain doom.

"Speaking of the New Year, did you make any resolutions this year?" Hobbes asked.

"I resolved to just wing it and see what happens. We talked about this yesterday, remember?"

"I was hoping you'd come up with another one."

"Why? What are you insinuating? Are you saying I need to change who I am?!"

"I was actually going to suggest you resolve to do something practical."

"Such as?"

"Installing seatbelts on this thing!"

"Oh! Well, we tried tying rope around our waists."

"We didn't tie it to the toboggan."

"Well, if we tied it to the toboggan, we wouldn't be able to bail out in a hurry."

"Hmmmm… I suppose bringing scissors would be a little dangerous."

"Probably."

"What about Velcro? We would only have to unstrap it from around ourselves."

"Where do you buy Velcro?"

"There must be a store somewhere."

"I'll ask Mom to buy some for us next time she goes grocery shopping so we can experiment."

"Good. Then you can resolve to install airbags."

"We tried bringing pillows along!"

"We held them in our faces the whole way down."

"Okay, okay, fine! Stop being such a sissy!"

Calvin leaned to the side so that the toboggan would turn left. Despite the inability to truly steer this thing, he had learned a few tricks over the years. He aimed them for a small incline that dropped suddenly on the other side. With the velocity they were achieving, they raced onwards until they hit the incline and soared through the air.

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" they cheered.

Of course, one thing Calvin failed to consider was the fact that if you go up at an angle, you come down at an equal and opposite angle, and it's very difficult to change directions in mid-air once your trajectory is set.

Calvin's jubilant smile vanished as the location of their landing revealed itself as being a great big frozen lake.

"Uh-oh. Hang on."

They both held onto both sides of the toboggan as they felt gravity reclaiming them, and they came down on top of the frozen lake, skidding along the ice, bouncing a bit as they went along. They skidded across the smooth surface until they finally reached the other side and bounced along onto the snow, continuing along their way down another valley.

Hobbes opened his eyes and looked around. "Oh! Well, we got out of that one."

"I know. I feel gypped."

They soared down the hill, which seemed to be getting steeper and steeper all the time. There were more rocks and trees, forcing Calvin to get very creative in avoiding them all. With each obstacle, he was constantly leaning left and right to avoid them all.

"Where'd all these trees and rocks come from?!" Hobbes shouted, hanging on as he was jerked around in the back.

"I don't know! I've never been down this way before!" Calvin replied.

"Oh joy. We're going to get lost and freeze death. How incredibly exciting."

Calvin ignored him and focused on the path ahead.

The trees around them seemed to be forming into walls, causing them to focus on what was just ahead, and just ahead was a narrow lane of trees and what appeared to be another slope leading downwards.

With no other choice, Calvin aimed for it. He slotted perfectly between the trees and sailed between them…

…straight off the edge of a huge cliff.

They looked down into the chasm below with growing dread.

"Do you want to mime taking off a seatbelt for practice?" Hobbes asked.

"Sure. Let's go."

They mimed fumbling with seatbelts for a few moments as gravity claimed them and started to bring them down. They jumped off of the toboggan and let it peel away from them, heading towards a gathering of sharp rocks.

By pushing off of the toboggan, they flew through the air and headed straight for a thicket of bushes. They curled up into balls before they hit, landing with a crunch as several branches proceeded to break their falls. They both yelped in pain as they fell, bouncing off of them before falling into a heap in the snow.

They weren't badly hurt. Calvin reached into his hair and proceeded to pull out twigs and branches before realizing his snowcap was missing. He found it dangling from a considerable distance from one of the few branches they hadn't broken.

Hobbes had landed on his feet and was trying to clean himself up. His fur was full of burs and bits of wood.

"Well!" he said irritably. "That was fun."

Calvin stretched a kink out of his neck before jumping up and snatching his cap out of the branches. He stretched it back over his spiky blonde hair and looked around. "Where are we?" he asked.

"Well, we came from that direction," Hobbes replied, pointing at the top of the cliff. "We can just go back the way we came, find the lake, and then we should be able to retrace our steps back to familiar territory by following the indentation the toboggan left behind." He thought for a moment. "Of course, we'll have to find a way to scale the side of the cliff."

"Darn. I forgot my grappling hook," Calvin deadpanned.

"Then we'll have to go around the hill."

"Great."

They gathered up the toboggan, which was scratched and had a busted corner, but otherwise was all right. They carried it between themselves and headed down the left side of the cliff face.

They trudged through the snow in silence for a while. They listened to the sound of the wind howling, the snow crunching beneath their feet and the steam escaping from their nostrils as they breathed in and out.

They enjoyed this companionable silence for some time. This was one of the times that they enjoyed the most about winter. They didn't have to stop and think about anything at all. They didn't have to worry about bugs biting them or homework due on Monday. They were totally at ease for the next few days.

School started again on the following Wednesday. Today was Sunday. As far as Calvin was concerned, any day where he was outside and not being forced to conform to the ideals of what a child should be to the public school system was a good day.

Nothing good awaited him at school. Just his teacher, who delighted in assigning massive amounts of homework on a nice weekend, just his tormentor, Moe, who delighted in picking on him just because he was bigger than he was. Just the other students, who were always disturbed by him and picking on him when they felt he wasn't conforming to their ideals of what was socially acceptable.

Yeah, he was in no hurry for it to be Wednesday.

They continued on in perfect silence for a few more minutes.

Then Hobbes made an announcement.

"Hey! What's that?"

Calvin followed the finger Hobbes was pointing with and saw something that took him by surprise.

In the side of the cliff face was a large opening.

"Cool! It's a cave!" Calvin cried, immediately dropping his half of the toboggan and running in that direction.

Hobbes took the toboggan under his arm and headed in that direction as well.

They ran up to the opening, and they looked deep inside. They were surprised to see how deeply into darkness the cave's depths plunged.

"Wow…," Calvin said quietly. "Let's take a closer look."

"What for?" Hobbes asked.

"As explorers, Hobbes! What other reason is there for doing this sort of thing?"

"Stupidity? Suicide?"

"Oh, stop it. Come on. I'll bet there's some sort of treasure or something at the end of this cave."

"Or, possibly, the skeletal remains of the last little kid who came back here."

"Cool! Come on!"

Calvin dashed into the darkness.

Hobbes shook his head, stashed the toboggan against the mouth of the café and followed him.

As they walked, they realized that something about this cave seemed really weird.

"Something about this cave doesn't seem right," Hobbes noted.

"What do you mean?" Calvin asked.

"Well, look at the walls. They're so smooth. It's almost like it's manmade."

"Who would want to build a cave out here?"

"I don't know. The same people who bulldozed the forest to build condos?"

"Oh, great! People can't get their kicks out of running out rabbits and deer? Now they want to kick out gophers and moles? Think of the innocent earthworms who are suddenly nomad!"

"Well, man doesn't like the idea of nature being more powerful than him. He has to keep doing things to ensure that his place in the world isn't threatened."

As they talked, they didn't realize they were still walking until a little bit later.

"This cave certainly goes on for a long way," Hobbes remarked.

"Yeah. I wonder if it's even a cave. Maybe it's a tunnel!" Calvin said excitedly.

They walked deeper and deeper into the cave or tunnel or whatever it was until they finally found the end of it.

They stared at what they had found.

It was a massive steel door reflected in the dim sunlight that could reach them.

"What's this doing here?" Calvin demanded.

"Maybe it's a country club," Hobbes suggested.

"A country club?"

"Sure. Maybe this is the new hideaway for all the rich people that live down here now."

Calvin stared at the door for a long moment before he saw a keypad on the wall. He walked over to the wall and looked up at it.

"I think you're right. It's got a keypad. We'll have to crack the code to get inside."

"What? Why?"

"So we can get inside! Duh!"

"Why do we need to get inside?"

"I wanna see the underground condos! Maybe I can convince Mom and Dad to live down here!"

"I doubt that would happen. A condo community tends to be very upstate, and everyone has plastic grass and nothing in their front lawns."

"So?"

"Plus, they live underground. They probably don't have any sun down there."

"They'll have an artificial sun! They'll have prepared for moving down here, Hobbes. They're not stupid! They're rich! They can't be stupid! They had to get all that money from somewhere!"

"But what if they don't approve of tigers? People who live underground strike me as being people who are afraid of something – in this case, the real world. They're a very sheltered people, clearly. Maybe having a wild animal such as myself wandering around might cause unnecessary alarm. Suppose they order one of their man servants to shoot me?"

"Then they'll have me to deal with. Now come on. Let's go inside."

Calvin attempted to reach the buttons on the keypad, but he was too short to reach adequately.

"Er, Hobbes? Would you mind?"

Hobbes sighed. "Okay, okay…"

The tiger walked over to the keypad and proceeded to press the buttons at random.

They watched the door, waiting a few moments for something to happen.

Suddenly, something dropped from the ceiling of the cave and hung in the air. It began to flash bright red.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"

Calvin and Hobbes jumped in shock, looking around.

"Boy, rich people really are a nervous bunch!" Calvin exclaimed.

"It's catching," Hobbes replied shakily, clutching his chest.

Then, only adding to their panic, more flashing red lights began to line the ceiling of the cave, and an alarm claxon sounded, forcing them to cover their ears.

"RUN!" Calvin shouted.

The two friends sprinted back up the tunnel. They ran as fast as they could from the hellish tunnel as flashes of red continued to line the path.

Finally, they emerged at the entrance, and they both tripped and fell into the snow. They looked back over their shoulders and watched as the lights continued to flash and the claxon continued to ring out, even though they weren't in there anymore.

"What do we do?!" Hobbes cried.

"We get out of here!" Calvin replied. "Grab the toboggan!"

They ran to where Hobbes had stashed their slightly scratched mode of transport. They flung it down on the ground and proceeded to get on, but they stopped when they noticed a new sound coming from the cavern. It was a loud roaring noise, but it sounded mechanical.

"What was that?!" Calvin yelled over the claxon,

Hobbes cupped his ear and listened carefully. "Sounds like a car engine starting!"

"Oh, great! They're sending their security cops after us! Let's get out of here!"

Calvin jumped onto the front of the toboggan, and Hobbes got behind and pushed, sending them down a slope, and he jumped onto the back.

They raced downhill, further and further from the cave, leaving the loud noises behind. They were relieved to see trees and bushes surrounding them as they flew faster and faster.

"That was close!" Hobbes exclaimed.

"I'll say! Who would've thought a bunch of underground rich people would be so paranoid! We weren't going to do anything to them!"

As they were riding along, racing through the woods, Hobbes' acute sense of hearing picked up the noise from earlier, and he realized it was getting louder. He looked over his shoulder and realized that it was coming in their direction. He was growing more and more certain that whatever was behind them was a vehicle of some sort.

Moments later, from around a corner something very large came plowing through the snow after them.

It looked like a fairground bumper car, but it had snow tires and a plow on the front surging through the thick snow. It was red in color with a blue stripe going straight between the headlights, and there seemed to be a man at the wheel.

What really unnerved Hobbes, however, was the gigantic mechanical set of steel jaws that were reaching for them, slowly extending while hissing and creaking awkwardly.

"I think we've got company," he said nervously.

Calvin looked back at the strange vehicle, tried to muffle a scream and gripped the toboggan tighter, trying to figure out how to handle the situation without coming across as panicky.

The vehicle was coming closer, with the claw reaching further and further.

Calvin saw that the trees were growing thicker, and he was pleased when he saw a narrow gap that they could just squeeze through. Aiming carefully, he leaned left and right, trying to line up the toboggan with the trees.

And they just made it.

Hobbes opened his eyes, having closed them beforehand. Looking panicky was okeydokey with him.

"We lost him!" Calvin cried triumphantly. "He won't be able to get out of there!"

But it wasn't to be. There was a sound of heavy wood splintering, and they looked back in time to see an entire tree being uprooted and tossed aside like a matchstick by the giant claw. Whoever was driving didn't even lose momentum. They just kept on coming.

"Hope nobody lived in that tree," Hobbes muttered.

The toboggan raced onwards.

Then Calvin saw something else just ahead.

It was a chasm. Two cliffs that were quite far apart from each other lined it. Anyone with normal functioning eyesight could tell that it would take one heck of a jump to make it across.

"What do you say, Hobbes, ol' buddy?" Calvin asked warily. "Should we chance it?"

"Why not?" Hobbes sighed. "I wasn't going to do anything else today."

Ignoring the sarcasm, Calvin kept them going straight ahead for the cliff.

Hobbes took a quick peek over his shoulder and came face-to-face with the sharp pointy teeth of the claw as it reached closer and closer.

Calvin leaned forward, hoping a little extra weight would give them some speed.

"Here we go!" he cried.

Hobbes crossed his fingers.

The claw was almost upon them.

The cliff was right underneath them for a tenth of a second.

They sailed through the air, heading straight for the other side, screaming all the way.

And not a short distance behind them, the giant claw car sailed through the air after them, making strange noises without any ground to tread on.

Screaming and hollering, Calvin and Hobbes saw the other side coming closer and closer, and for a brief moment they didn't think they were going to make it.

They landed in the snow with a thud, sending a shower of white powder into the air.

The claw car didn't quite make it. It landed halfway on the cliff before tilting backwards and sliding over the edge.

Calvin and Hobbes dug themselves out the snow in time to see the top half of a pair jagged metal teeth dig into the side of the cliff, stopping it from falling completely.

"Whoa…," Calvin breathed.

Warily, the two friends wandered over to the edge and peeked over.

There was indeed a man climbing out of the car, trying to climb up the long arm of the claw. They couldn't tell what he looked like as he was wearing a heavy jacket, a scarf around his face and a snowcap on his head.

Before they could even contemplate whether they should help him or not, the claw arm suddenly extended, resulting in the vehicle dropping several feet, taking the man with it. He yelped in surprise but kept a firm grip.

Calvin and Hobbes weren't certain of what to do.

The weight of the vehicle on the arm caused it to extend even further, and each time, the man went with it, dropping several feet until finally, it had reached the end, and the arm was fully extended.

For a long moment, no one did anything.

Then, suddenly, the ground Calvin and Hobbes were kneeling on suddenly dipped downwards. In an instant, they realized that claw car was too heavy for the cliff, and the whole thing was going to crumble away any second.

With no options left, the two friends were forced to leap to their feet and run away, with their movement proving to be the catalyst that caused the cliff to completely separate from the rest of the hill and crumble away into the chasm.

They didn't hear a scream. They just heard the sound of earth collapsing as the metal claw vanished from view, leaving them alone as it fell several feet before crashing into whatever lay below.

For a long time, the two friends just sat there, panting heavily with emotion.

Finally, Calvin found his voice. "I'm only six years old. I don't need this."

Hobbes nodded. "I have to say. When I got up this morning, I didn't expect this is how my day was going to go."

They slowly got to their feet and dug out the toboggan.

"Let's get out of here," Calvin said, slowly calming down. "Wait until Mom and Dad hear about this!"

And with that, trudged away, relieved that their little misadventure was over.

But as they were disappearing into the woods, they didn't notice a gloved hand grip the side of the cliff. It was shortly followed by another hand.

Struggling to get onto solid ground, the man feverishly made it to the top. He hauled himself up and over and into the snow the retreating friends had just vacated. He looked around, but there was no one around. The two intruders had vanished.

Breathing heavily from both exhaustion and fury, he got to his feet and walked forwards.

He was following their footprints in the snow.