Duplicates 2-6

Duplicates 2-6 are the main antagonists of the title storyline of the "Calvin and Hobbes" book "Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'!". They are Calvin's duplicates.

It all begins when because his mother wants him to clean his room, and yet, he wants to go play outside, Calvin goes into his box on its side called a duplicator (which makes a "real" duplicate instead of doing it on paper) to duplicate himself and have the duplicate do the work for him. However, when Calvin does duplicate himself, the duplicate refuses and runs outside. He then runs outside to play. Because of what he is saying the the original Calvin's mother, she thinks he is making up nonsense when he should be cleaning his room. He is then sent to "his" room when the original Calvin is out of the room. When the original Calvin is going outside, looking for the duplicate, his mother asks him if he didn't send him to clean up his room a while ago. Calvin says no, but his mother tells him he did too, and she begins to lose patience for this "game".

Calvin and Hobbes both run upstairs only to find that Number 2 made four more duplicates, much to Calvin's dismay. They would have made more, but the duplicator malfunctioned. The duplicates then begin to frame Calvin some more, such as by one of them about to eat cookies (something Calvin knows he isn't allowed to do before dinner), and especially one watching television. When Calvin's father comes home and the duplicates greet him individually, he thinks Calvin is repeating himself and gets annoyed. Unaware which is the real Calvin (or that there really are duplicates of him), his mother tells his father to have a talk with "him".

Calvin then decides to his duplicates on taking turns going to school and "no one will be the wiser", and decides on who gets the bed tonight (the former of which they agree to, and the latter of which they threaten to fight him for).

When Number 2 is waiting at the bus stop and explaining the turn-taking thing to Susie Derkins (who assumes he is Calvin), she thinks he is so weird that she's not even going to talk to him.

The next day, the teacher Miss Wormwood asks Number 5 (whom she also assumes is Calvin) to do a problem "he" was assigned yesterday. Number 5 tells her he wasn't there yesterday, and then that he isn't Calvin, but Duplicate Number 5, and that Duplicate Number 2 was there yesterday. He promises that Number 2 will be there next week and she can ask him to do the problem then. This, however, only lands him in Mr. Spittle's office.

The next day, Number 4 comes home, explaining that like Numbers 2 and 5, he got sent to the principal's office, much to the dismay of Calvin. He tells them they are making him look bad. A duplicate tells him that if he doesn't like their performance, he can go to school himself.

Calvin explains to Hobbes that everybody thinks he was doing all those rotten things when really it is a duplicate. He declares that he was framed by his own doubles. When Calvin's mother calls to search for him, Calvin hides his duplicates under the duplicator, which he eventually turns into a transmogrifier. He then transforms the duplicates into worms, much to their delight, because they want to gross someone out.

Calvin explains to his mother about his duplicates' behavior, but she doesn't seem to believe it. When he shows what he did to them, his mother screams at him, assuming he was carrying worms through the house. Later, angry at the duplicates for getting him in trouble again, he throws them outside, being sure he doesn't want to put them on his father's plate.

This proves that it's better to be unique than for there to be more than one of you.