Susie Derkins

Susie Derkins is one of Calvin’s fellow classmates in school; she is well-mannered and studious, and always puts her education first. Susie finds Calvin exceptionally strange and difficult to deal with, often times being driven to frustration by his behavior. For this she sometimes pretends not to know him while around other children at school; on the other hand, she also attempts to engage Calvin in conversation or other activities now and then. When she finds herself drawn into the outrageous events of the “Dimension” saga, however, she witnesses firsthand some of the more “crazy” aspects of Calvin’s experiences, and consequently, she becomes conflicted as to how she must deal with them— given that they are quite unusual, in comparison to the life she knows.

THE WAR ABOVE EARTH
One winter day, Susie is outside building a snowman, when suddenly she catches a glimpse of something in the sky: what appears to be a giant, orbital space station. She becomes curious, and unsure of whether or not this is a hostile source—until she is attacked and abducted soon afterward, by a large floating robot, which clearly answers her question. Susie is helpless as she is taken and brought aboard said space station, as a hostage, in the company of a crazed evil doctor bent on world domination, evidently.

When she arrives, Susie suddenly realizes just who she is being held hostage for; she sees Calvin in the company of an entire group of strange beings, and grows more and more confused by the situation. When she tries to interject, however, her kidnapper electrocutes her in the back and prevents her from speaking again. Susie is then surprised when she sees Calvin angrily rush to her defense (only to be blasted backward), seeing as all of her experiences with him usually involved scorn and loathing; so while baffled and terrified, she cannot help but inwardly take Calvin's rare act of self-sacrifice into account. Thus, when a dark hedgehog suddenly bursts in and liberates Susie and the rest of the hostages, she is quick to rush to Calvin's side, concerned for his wellbeing.

However, more hostile creatures and robots appear shortly afterward, and it is at this moment that Calvin suddenly comes to (wearing a cape and hood, of all things) and tells Susie to stay back as he rushes into battle with the rest of his allies. She watches the ensuing fight with increasing alarm and worry, in that this is turning into a massive ordeal for her to fully take in—especially as the entire space station later starts to descend toward the planet. Everyone is eventually warped back down to the surface somehow, and they all witness the falling space station from an island. Susie then watches along with everyone else as the dark hedgehog from earlier takes the group of robots with him up into the sky, where they stop the station from reaching the planet and push it back out into space, disappearing along with it.

While so much has happened in so little time, Susie tries her best to cope with it all, as Calvin brings her up to speed, along with the rest of the ex-hostages; apparently he was involved in an "emerald" hunt, and fought many different foes along the way, as he made new friends from other dimensions. Susie figures that this will all blow over when they get back home, and hopefully things will be back to normal.

PRELIMINARY XEVIAN ATTACKS
Ultimately, Susie finds it hard to live with an obsessed Calvin who cannot let go of his past adventures in the alternate dimensions; as five years pass, she finds him still going on about it, even bringing it up during a school presentation. What truly makes it difficult, though, is having to side with her laughing fellow students, even though she knows deep down that it all really happened.

Susie is one day confronted by Calvin on the matter, while walking home. She tries to make it clear to him that it would look foolish if she were to suddenly go along with Calvin's mad tales, after publicly denying her very acquaintance with him for so long. Calvin continues to protest, and in the heat of the moment, Susie angrily gives the dark hedgehog all of the credit for saving the planet, stating that Calvin had nothing to do with it—before instantly regretting these words. Susie tries to take it back, but Calvin appears too insulted to listen, and understandably so; as he walks away (claiming that he had even been starting to like her until now), she becomes truly remorseful, hating herself for stooping to Calvin's old level. She returns home, deciding that tomorrow she will set things right with him.

However, the next day Calvin is gone, much to Susie's confusion. At first she decides that perhaps he's merely sick, or maybe so angry with her that he's refused to even come to school. But then, later in the afternoon an extraterrestrial invasion suddenly occurs, in which countless vessels sweep the town, towers emerge from the ground, and strange humanoid beings take over the populace. Susie realizes that this must be why Calvin disappeared: He is out fighting this new threat with his inter-dimensional allies.

Susie and the rest of her acquaintances at the school live in a horrific state of fear for a while—before everything abruptly powers down one day. The town is liberated, the invaders are gone, and the towers slowly but surely become torn down and dismantled. Before long, Calvin returns, much to Susie's delight. As they reunite, however, Susie cannot help but notice a sense of sadness in him, and inquires why; the answer, however, is heartbreaking. Calvin reveals to Susie that a good friend of his died in their struggle against the invaders.

THE "END REALITY" SCHEME
Things are more or less back to normal as the kids soon return to school following the invasion, though Susie cannot help but feel unable to do anything for a bitter and unsociable Calvin, who is clearly still forlorn over the loss of his friend. To make matters worse, the school bully Moe decides to pick on Calvin once again, and Susie inwardly wishes that Moe would get a taste of his own medicine for once; however, she seems to get her wish, when Calvin abruptly launches himself forward and kicks Moe to the floor, apparently having had enough torment lately. Thinking back to how capable Calvin was at waging battle aboard the space station in which they had been held, and how much trouble he'd be in if he displayed such violence now, Susie tries to stop him from fighting Moe—but fails to make herself noticed amidst the crowd of kids come to witness the fight themselves.

In spite of this, Miss Wormwood herself steps in and stops the two boys from seriously harming each other, allowing Susie to breathe a sigh of relief. Though when Calvin continues to act defiant and angry, even toward a teacher, Susie finds herself captivated by the scene, hardly daring to believe that this much insubordination could come even from Calvin, who then goes so far as to walk out the school doors and not come back when called. Susie decides to intervene, by approaching Miss Wormwood and explaining Calvin's emotional turmoil to her: that he is severely devastated by the loss of his friend, and is clearly in no condition to be receiving further punishment. Thankfully, Miss Wormwood heeds Susie's words.

ATTACK ON CALVIN'S HOME

 * "Susie! What're you doing here?" -Calvin

​After careful consideration, Susie decides to go to Calvin's house and check up on him, hoping to help him cope with his grief. However, as she approaches, something catches her eye that she had definitely not been expecting: a group of live killer snowmen in Calvin's front yard, attacking him along with a tiger. Thinking fast, Susie makes her way into Calvin's backyard, finds their garden hose along with his stash of balloons, and fills each of them up with water; then, as Calvin and two of the snowmen make their way into the backyard, she promptly throws one of her ready-made water balloons at a single snow monster, which instantly freezes. She urges Calvin to attack now, and as he leaps forward and punches the frozen snowman to pieces, Susie throws a second water balloon at the other creature, which Calvin then destroys as well.
 * "I suppose it's a combination of saving your life and wondering just how the heck a bunch of ugly snowmen could come alive like that." -Susie, after helping Calvin fight the Snow Goons

When Calvin questions Susie's presence, she replies that she came to help him, but also to find out why these grotesque snowmen are actually alive and hostile. Suddenly they both hear a cry for help, and Calvin responds to "Hobbes" that they are on their way—which leaves Susie bewildered. Upon returning to the front yard, she gets a second look at the live tiger, and becomes astonished as she puts two and two together; Hobbes, who had seemingly appeared as nothing more than a plain stuffed animal in the past, is now a truly living, sentient tiger, for some reason. Susie thinks back to when they were on the space station, and suddenly recalls seeing this tiger with Calvin back then, also, which causes her to wonder just how far back this phenomenon goes.

Regardless, the three of them now find themselves facing off against several more snow goons, and Susie begins throwing more and more water balloons at their enemies, as Calvin and Hobbes run toward their frozen forms and shatter them. Eventually, Susie finds that she is down to their last water balloon, but also sees that there is only one more snow creature to take care of; however, when said creature abruptly vanishes, and several alien life forms begin appearing in its place, one by one, Susie realizes that these surprises are only just beginning. Scared and confused now, she looks to Calvin for direction, and the three of them ultimately decide to seek shelter by running back into the house. Susie becomes even more frightened when the aliens reach the front porch and begin breaking down doors and shattering windows—one of which harms Calvin, much to Susie's despair. She and Hobbes attempt to fight back, kicking and punching one or two aliens back outside, but before long, they find themselves overrun; they make their way upstairs, only to suddenly be halted by the presence of Calvin's mother, who appears oblivious to all of the destruction happening all around them. Susie is perplexed and Calvin angry, but before much more can be said, they look up as the ceiling is ripped apart by a live tyrannosaurus rex. They all run away as debris falls from above, except for Calvin's mother, who stays where she is as a piece of the roof makes contact with her—only to pass right through her, revealing her to be a mere hologram.

The trio finds themselves cornered in the upstairs hallway, as the aliens approach slowly and menacingly. Susie is now beside herself with fear, but when Calvin appears to be coming up with a plan, she listens intently; as Calvin pretends to surrender, he suddenly gives her the signal, and she throws her last water balloon at the aliens. They all recoil and scatter, disorganized, as Susie, Calvin, and Hobbes make their way into Calvin's room, where he starts looking for something. He finally pulls out a wristwatch, which confuses Susie at first, but when the aliens appear once more in the doorway, she comes to understand the watch's true function, as their means of escape, via a bright light...

ONSLAUGHT ON YOSHI'S ISLAND Susie finds herself arriving with Calvin and Hobbes on an island—the same island that they had all been warped to from the falling space station. She sees Calvin starting to run, and tries to keep up with him and Hobbes as they attempt to put a good distance between themselves and the aliens. After a long while of running, they finally come to a stop when Hobbes points out to Calvin that they've gone ten miles already. Susie watches Calvin in wonder as he starts explaining some strange things that apparently happened to him while they were being attacked: namely, that time came to a standstill all around him as "some guy" appeared and told him that the home dimension that he has resided in is not actually his. Susie makes a sardonic remark that this is no surprise to her. However, she sees that Calvin is quite fixated on this revelation, even arguing with Hobbes about it.

All of a sudden, Susie finds herself being quietly abducted while Hobbes and Calvin are talking, as the tyrannosaurus rex grabs her; as it becomes clear to her that the aliens and monsters from earlier have caught up with them, she screams for help, and can only watch powerlessly as Calvin and Hobbes are forced to fight off the aliens below. Susie witnesses Calvin donning his cape and hood once again, as he flies forward to save her, but becomes horrified when the dinosaur unleashes fire from its own mouth and nearly incinerates Calvin several times. Finally, the dinosaur gets punched in the eye, but lets go of Susie in the process; she falls toward the ground, screaming, but becomes relieved when Calvin swoops in and rescues her. They both abandon the scene temporarily, as Calvin asks her if she is alright, to which she replies that she is. Susie is set back down on the ground as Calvin rejoins the battle, but out of her concern for his safety, she returns to the scene also.

She and Hobbes find themselves ambushed by more snow goons, along with the tyrannosaurus rex, but Hobbes manages to fight most of them off, while keeping Susie out of harm's way. After a while, both of them watch as the alien leader reveals that he has a hostage of his own—specifically, Moe, who is subsequently released and sent plunging into the water as the aliens resume their attack on Calvin. Susie and Hobbes realize that Moe is bound by the arms and cannot stay afloat, and so they start swimming toward him to help get him out of the water. By the time he is rescued, they discover back on land that the aliens have disappeared, with Calvin still alive. This confuses the four of them, seeing as the aliens had been winning.

Nevertheless, they all make their way back to the island and build a campfire as day turns to night. Taking pleasure in this moment of peace, Susie sits by the fire as Hobbes goes to sleep and Moe keeps watch in the forest. When Calvin sits beside her (having tried to fix the ruined wristwatch, but to no avail), Susie takes this time to thank him for saving her earlier. She also asks him openly why he did this, seeing as she was under the impression that he hated her; to her mild surprise, he reveals that he does not truly hate her, and that he cannot exactly account for why he's always treated her so poorly in the past. She listens as Calvin confides in her more, explaining how much these experiences he's had in the alternate dimensions have changed him, and how much he values being part of a cause and not acting like such a jerk anymore. Susie decides to make a confession of her own—each and every occasion in which Calvin had thrown a snowball or water balloon at her back home, she had forgiven him, despite how angry she appeared to be at the time; she also explains that when they first met, she knew full well how much of a challenge it would be to cope with Calvin's antics, but she accepted it and decided to try and be his friend anyway.

At this point, Moe enters and tells everyone that a plane is heading toward them, and Calvin realizes that these are allies of his; Susie joins the three of them as they climb up the provided rope ladder, and she meets Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Princess Peach firsthand. They are all flown back to their "Mushroom Kingdom" as night turns to morning, and Susie thanks the princess for rescuing them, while also gazing at their surroundings in awe—particularly the castle. As they enter, they come across two tall aliens waiting in a conference room, and Susie realizes that she had seen them once before, on the island after the space station had been sent away. The resultant meeting consists of conversations involving a threat by the name of "Zim," a planet called "Blorch," and the survival of the dark hedgehog and his robot allies—which Susie is particularly pleased to hear about, seeing as the hedgehog had once saved them aboard the space station. The time for celebration is brief, however, for the two tall aliens then discover that "Zim" is apparently bringing a devastating warship to Earth, intent on destroying them all. To make matters worse, Mario also suddenly collapses out of nowhere, with everyone crowded around him, trying to find out what sort of condition he is in.

DOGFIGHT AGAINST THE MASSIVE

 * "That ship— it's coming straight toward us!" -Susie, upon discovering the Massive descending toward Earth

Eventually, the massive warship reaches Earth, and Susie stays near the castle (along with Hobbes, Moe, and the Tallest) as the kingdom's air force flies up into space to combat the threat. When she hears that the plane piloted by Yoshi and Luigi has been destroyed, she becomes worried for their safety along with everyone else, and then her worry turns to fright as she spots the Massive later descending straight toward their location; luckily, the kingdom's two power cannons are able to push it back out of the atmosphere. Later on, however, they all hear that the cannons have fallen under attack, and after the princess and Calvin enter the scene, a random robot flying through abruptly turns and fires two missiles at Calvin, blowing him off his feet in an explosion—terrifying Susie and prompting her to rush to his side, making sure he is otherwise alright.

After the robot has quickly disappeared and much time has passed, Susie and the Tallest witness a failing counterattack and the slow approach of the Massive; she asks whether or not they should be taking cover, but Red states that Zim would find them anyway. After Mario returns to the scene, fully recovered, his arrival is followed by that of more inter-dimensional allies: a blue hedgehog, a two-tailed fox, a spike-fisted echidna, a pink hedgehog wielding a hammer, and a rabbit paired with a tiny round animal of some kind. Puzzled but relieved that more help has arrived, Susie watches as this group takes their jet plane up into space, and then she joins the others as they run back into the castle for shelter, pausing only to urge a hesitant Calvin to hurry.

The princess leads them to a secret path leading underground, and they all make a run for it—but not before the Tallest make a fuss over their snacks, for some reason, which annoys Susie slightly. After a long while of running, a gigantic laser blast from above and an explosion causes everyone to scatter, as they realize that the Massive has found them, in spite of the resistance's best efforts. Along with everyone else, Susie watches in terror and confusion as the colossal warship prepares to destroy them—but then is distracted by the appearance of a wormhole, which slowly begins to pull the Massive away. As a tractor beam is activated and tries to beam up the Tallest, Calvin and Moe find themselves being dragged upward instead, before the princess suddenly leaps forward and pushes them out of the tractor beam, allowing herself to be abducted in their place. Susie can only observe helplessly as both the warship and its captive are pulled into the wormhole, which then vanishes from the sky.

Aftermath As everyone else regroups, there is much despair when they learn what happened to Peach; Susie in particular is deeply saddened, since she had liked the princess very much. However, no one is nearly as distraught over the situation as Calvin, who loses his temper completely upon the suggestion that Peach might not have survived. When he runs off, supposedly trying to clear his head, Susie wonders what could be impacting him so heavily about her abduction—but her question is answered almost immediately, as Hobbes explains to the group that Calvin is under the impression that Peach could be his actual mother. Remembering what Calvin said about the supposed revelation he had received, regarding his true home, Susie agrees that he may simply be confused and stressed, especially considering all of the attacks they suffered from the alien horde; when inquired about these enemies of theirs by everyone else, she voices her thoughts that the aliens themselves might be figments of Calvin's imagination, somehow generated and brought into reality.

Suddenly, two figures come falling from the sky and crash on the ground near where they have all gathered; they turn out to be an undersized alien named Skoodge—who appears to be on their side—and the robot that had attacked Calvin earlier, now seemingly unconscious. They all return to the castle, with the robot in tow, and try to figure out what they ought to do next. Meanwhile, Susie and Hobbes are filled in by Sonic, Tails, and Mario on everything else that seems to be going on: namely, that a person named "Eggman Nega" has been altering reality itself, blatantly pushing it more and more towards the brink of obliteration, and that it was likely he who summoned the wormhole that took Peach & the Massive. Susie asks how Nega could possibly be able to perform such feats, but no one is certain. However, they learn that the hedgehog was actually offered a way out of this predicament, though it had to do with erasing everything that occurred between the alternate dimensions; Susie was never quite involved enough with the alliance to understand the impact this would have on them—but Calvin clearly knows full well, in that he becomes furious at the very idea of such a solution. She watches in astonishment as he screams at everyone, claiming that they have never had to go through the internal torment he has in his life, and that they are in no position to suggest that he return to that. While Susie now has a general idea of what Calvin is talking about, what catches her off-guard is his outright confession that she was the one girl he actually liked. She had come to suspect as much, but to hear him say it is no less surprising.

However, the moment is cut short as the robot abruptly wakes up and starts attacking everyone. The group scatters, some of them rushing forward to fight, while Susie is told to stay back, by Calvin. She watches anxiously as he, Luigi, and Sonic confront the robot, and when trying to talk him down proves useless, she sees Calvin put on his cape and hood once more and attempt to subdue him aggressively. Clearly the robot is more than a match for the alliance, however, as even the stronger and flight-prone Calvin has trouble battling his opponent; Susie runs forward after he is slammed against a tree, and her concern for him is perhaps more fervent than it had been before. Ultimately, however, Calvin is able to get up and continue fighting, much to her relief. As she stays back and observes the battle, the alliance slowly begins to gain an advantage, and after a while, the robot is in enough of a defeated state to be reasoned with—as seen when Cream the rabbit manages to revert it back to its normal behavior, after a minute or two of tension and uncertainty.

Susie is present for the group discussion that follows shortly afterward; they are contacted by someone who has gained access to what Eggman Nega has apparently been using to alter reality, and so they are in a position to reopen the wormhole that sent Peach away. To know that a rescue mission is now possible raises Susie's spirits, as well as everyone's, and she watches as Calvin & even Moe volunteer to embark on said quest. However, when the potential danger of having to bring the Massive and its pilot back out also is brought up, it becomes clear that a more substantial form of resistance will be needed when that time comes; as the Tallest decide to venture into space to seek out their armada, Calvin tells Susie to go with them. She hesitates, anxious about whether or not he will be alright—but in the end, the alliance divides itself evenly, so that both undertakings will have people backing each other up in the face of danger. In addition, each party is provided with powerful objects of some kind (delivered to them by a small moose), and the "elements" fall into the hands of the group Susie belongs to.

Soon, the time comes for each mission to begin, as the wormhole arrives to engulf its intended group; Susie joins her teammates, staring nervously as Calvin vanishes along with his allies—wondering if she will even be seeing him again.

............................. Accompanying her new allies into space aboard the Tallest's ship, Susie looks back and sees the planet they are departing from; never in her life had it crossed her mind that she would actually be in this position—venturing out across the universe and embarking on missions to save the lives of many. Susie thinks about her friends & family back on Earth, briefly feeling guilty about leaving them behind with no knowledge of where she is, or whether she is alright. However, she knows that this undertaking is very important, and that with reality on the brink of destruction, it is best that she help the group's efforts to save it, in any way that she can. She figures that her loved ones will ultimately understand, as bizarre as the story will undoubtedly seem to them at first.

After some time has passed, with most of the group having fallen asleep (clearly exhausted from the day they've had), Susie approaches the Tallest along with Tails, as they are attempting to locate their fleet. Though they seem to be having difficulty reaching anyone, it slowly dawns on Susie that the last time she had crossed paths with these people, there was another race of aliens involved with the defeat of Doctor Eggman and his Death Egg as well—and two of those aliens happened to be acquainted with Calvin & Hobbes, seeing as they had at one point referred to Calvin as the Earth's leader (much to Susie's confusion at the time). She suggests to the Tallest that perhaps these aliens could be of some help, and might even have a way to contact the armada themselves.

The group decides to go along with this idea, and upon locating what Tails and the others are able to identify as the Star-Moon Alliance's home planet, Susie is the one who makes contact with the two aliens who know Calvin; she explains to them via transmission that she is a friend of his, that they had all met once before on Earth, and that she and her allies have come seeking assistance. They allow Susie and the others to land on the planet surface, and she meets Galaxoid & Nebular in person, being able to introduce herself to them properly this time. She explains to them they have all fallen into a rather troubling state of affairs—but before she can elaborate further, the two aliens turn their attention to the Tallest, who, as Susie learns for the first time, had actually been responsible for a past invasion of this planet. For a moment, they refuse to associate themselves with anything having to do with the Tallest, despite being on good terms with everyone else, but some of the others manage to convince the Tallest to make amends with Galaxoid and Nebular, so that they can move forward and focus on the issue at hand.

Susie continues to tell Galaxoid & Nebular what their current predicament entails, and everyone else is able to fill in the blanks for her along the way. Soon, they are all being led to what the aliens claim to be a possible connection to the group's problem, and perhaps a link to its resolution. Whilst traversing the planet's terrain along with the rest of the group, Susie observes her surroundings and listens as Galaxoid and Nebular tell them all about how they have been able to recover since the last invasion, as well as how they have thought about perhaps coming back to Earth someday, even if it were only a visit. Susie's attention is caught by a nearby ship, docked on a large platform near the mountains, and she asks if this is what they wanted to show everybody; however, rather than being what Galaxoid & Nebular were talking about before, the ship is actually revealed as significant in another way—in that the others suddenly recall said vessel being a major reason for the Earth's liberation from the humanoid invaders that had attacked some time ago. Susie remembers the takeover well, and how she and her people were forced to live in fear for a short while. This is the first that Susie hears about how and why the invasion abruptly ended, and she learns that it was not only Sonic who was involved in the Xevians' final defeat, but this "Solvalou" ship as well, with Galaxoid and Nebular piloting.

Finally, the group reaches its destination, and Susie is caught by surprise at the sight of the frozen creature which lies before them all. While she is slightly taken aback, everyone else appears quite shocked, seeing as this "Bowser" was evidently thought to be dead. After thinking about it, Susie does recall seeing this creature back aboard the Death Egg during the War Above Earth, and she remembers its apparent demise also: sent spiraling through space via gigantic fireball, courtesy of Mario. Now, however, Bowser appears simply frozen, having somehow landed on this planet. While no one is sure how this could have happened, Susie is more curious as to how Galaxoid & Nebular figure that this might connect to their reality-obliteration problem, to which they suggest that this could be one of the "returned enemies" associated with Nega's plot.

Though it seems that the only way to know this for sure—and to learn whether or not Bowser has information that can lead to the end of this crisis—is by awakening him, ultimately the decision no longer lies with the group, as the frozen form chooses now to abruptly begin thawing rapidly. Susie and the others react in bafflement and horror, as the creature soon wakes up and lets out a defeaning roar, terrifying those around him.

 (editing shall recommence soon)