WWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I GOT A NEW KEYBOARD!!! NOW I CAN CONTINUE MY FICS!!! Although now I'm not going to get allowance for 3 weeks - -;;;
Thank you soooo much for the reviews!! I really appreciate it!!! And hopefully one day more and more people will review. But if they don't then that's okay because I like writing this fic.
P.S. From now on I AM not going to put an end note like I usually do. From now on it'll be blank so that when you finished reading, you can be left with whatever feeling you have by the end of the chapter. I found this quite effective. When you read and are shocked by something, but then read the end note, the feeling goes away. So from now on there is NO end note. Thank you!!
Oops! I forgot to mention Raln in this chapter. I'm sorry. I usually forget about him. I'll try and work him into the next chapter for those who have grown to like the "I hate Arnold" chocobo. It was too late to redo this chapter just so I forgot to fit him in. Let's just say that he was taken to a stall and kept there k?
NOTE: "Iko" means "orphanage" in Japanese so you'll find out where I got the name for the town.
Now on with the fic!!!!
"Come to me, my love…I'll protect you forever…I promise…"
The Adventure of a Lifetime
"Those children will suffer in the same way the other children suffered…"
By Inuyasha-loves-Kagome (A.K.A. Inu-chan)
Guide to write style:
"…" = dialogue
[…] = thoughts
(…) = notes by me
{…} = noises (not too frequent)
Italics = dream conversations
Disclaimer: In Inu-chan's dreams, she owned Hey Arnold…but this is the real world and sadly, she owns nothing except her anime collection and computer. Craig Bartlett owns Hey Arnold. "Hey Craig! I'll buy Hey Arnold off you! Oh! And I can't wait for the movie! You'd better not disappoint us in the "Helga confesses to Arnold" thing!"
Fic dedication (I TOLD YOU I WOULD!!): Poisony Ivy!
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Episode 3: Problem at the orphanage
In the morning everyone set off for Ikomo. It was during this trip that Helga, Arnold, Ray, and Darlene got to know each other. They shared the types of things they did in their childhood, although they were still children (^^). Arnold even shared a certain incident to Ray concerning a certain blond-haired girl who stole his heart during Valentine's Day (and they were quite a distance away from Helga and Darlene)
"And so she just…disappeared?" Ray questioned, totally surprised that a girl would act that way. [Whom could she have been to do that to Arnold?]
Arnold nodded, confirming Ray's suspicions. "I never saw her again after that." He looked up at Ray with slightly pleading eyes. "What do you think I should do?"
Ray paused for a bit, considering this deeply. He had never really dealed with girls or given anyone advice on the matter in his life, but that didn't stop him from trying to help Arnold. He seemed like a really troubled boy who needed advice on this and fast. "Well Arnold, I guess what you could do was…uh…" he stopped there and didn't bother to continue because he seriously didn't have any idea what to tell him.
Arnold sighed heavily. Was there no one who could help him with this problem? He decided instead to tell him about Lila. Maybe he could help with that. "But then there's this other girl at my school name Lila who I like-like. But she doesn't like-like me. She only likes me."
Ray's head swam with Arnold just told him. NOW he was confused. [Didn't he just tell me he liked that girl who disappeared? How can he like both? It doesn't make any sense.] He snuck a peak at Helga from the corner of his eye. [Then I thought he liked Helga. But I don't think he likes her in THAT way. Too bad too because I think they look cute together] He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Arnold's hand in front of his face. He blinked and looked back at him.
"Are you okay?" Arnold asked, wondering what had caused him to space out.
"Yeah," Ray responded, suddenly embarrassed that he had been caught in that state. "I was just thinking about what you told me. I was actually a bit…confused."
"Confused?" he asked, puzzled. "Why?"
Ray paused before he continued. "Well, you were just telling me that you like the girl who pretended to be 'Cecile', but now you're telling me that you like some girl named Lila."
Arnold blushed and looked away. "Well, I guess I never thought about it before." He stopped there because he had no idea how to continue.
Meanwhile with Darlene and Helga, they had been talking about Darlene's life but she was getting curious about Helga and her childhood. She hadn't mentioned one thing about it.
"And when I was five," Darlene said, "I remember what a brat I was. I made my brother dress in girl's clothes and parade around the palace."
It was too funny for Helga NOT to laugh. "I can't believe the control you had over him! That's rich!"
"Helga…?" Darlene started, wondering if it was okay to ask.
Helga saw that she was getting ready to do something she didn't like and got defensive. It was like a sixth sense she had. "What is it?" she asked hesitantly. If it WAS what she was thinking, then Helga would go right back to the mean bully that everyone back home knew.
"Why haven't you told me about YOUR childhood?" How she hoped she wasn't being too forward.
Helga took a deep breath that was actually a sigh for her. She was thinking that she was going to ask about THAT if you know what I mean. But it wasn't so it was okay. She shrugged her shoulders. "It was okay," she said simply.
Darlene eyebrows furrowed. "Just okay? You didn't do anything worth mentioning?"
Helga became even more defensive with that. [How dare she say that! She has no idea about me and my life!] "Not all of use did interesting things princess," she said, putting a bit more emphasism and nastiness on the word 'princess'.
Darlene huffed and looked away. [Well, this is weird. First we're talking like we're good friends but now we're in an argument.] Her face softened when an idea of what caused this fight came to her. [But I guess I shouldn't have tried to pry into her life unless she wanted me to] She turned back to look at Helga and her face was now apologetic. "I'm sorry Helga. I should never have tried to pry into your life like that. I hope you can forgive me."
Helga blinked, actually shocked by someone. No one had ever said they were sorry to her (save Arnold who didn't really count because he said that to everybody). [Is this girl for real? One minute she's mad and the next she's apologizing. Is it just me, or is this world full of Arnold's?] "Uh, no problem, I guess."
Darlene smiled a little shyly at her. "So we're good?"
Helga eventually nodded, then smiled.
They kept to it that way for the rest of the trip to Ikomo.
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When they arrived in Ikomo, things looked pretty normal so far. The only difference was that everyone dressed elegantly and there seemed to be nothing but large mansions as far as the eye could see. Helga and Arnold had certainly never seen anything like it. They blinked several times as an old woman wearing the flowiest gown passed by them. She wore jewelry of every type and even wore a small diamond tiara on her head.
"What is this?" Helga questioned, wondering how that woman could possibly wear so much and not be hot. How could anyone?
Darlene chuckled a bit nervously. "Well, uh, we forgot to tell you that Ikomo is the capital of the nobles. In fact, every town here in Rorome is a capital of something."
Arnold looked around, expecting for there to be something out of the ordinary, but finding that all the people of the town looked normal as they went on with their daily business. "Ray," he whispered to the boy beside him, who was looking around like him, "I thought you said that there were people blaming each other?"
"There are," Ray responded, wondering if maybe what he and Darlene had seen was just an illusion. "We saw how some nobles went around blaming each other. Me and Darlene were blamed by those minions of Trinidad so we had to leave. I wonder what's going on."
Arnold knew that since this was obviously something caused by Trinidad, they would need to stay and see what they could investigate. He reached over into the bag Ardine had give them (one for him and one for Helga which she's carrying) and pulled out some money. "Well, let's go stay at the hotel and see what happens," he spoke to everyone. "If nothing happens after a while, then we leave."
Everyone nodded and followed Arnold to the large hotel. To Arnold and Helga, it looked like something out of "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." The ceiling was elegantly decorated with a HUGE chandelier and designs in rich colors. Rather than being lit by bulbs, the whole place was lit by candles, giving it an even more elegant look and feel to it. But rather than have many receptionists, there was only one: An old lady who stood up straight with a regal manner and had her hair tied up into a twist at the top of her head. She looked like someone that you didn't want to mess with.
So it was quite a surprise when she smiled in a friendly manner. "Hello. Welcome to Ikomo hotel. Would you like a room?"
Arnold was beginning to doubt whether or not they could afford something like this. "Um, how much does it cost to stay here?"
"100 gazoos each person," she responded firmly, yet nicely. (Note: 2 gazoos equals an American dollar so that means it costs $50 dollars each. A fair deal for a nice hotel like that, don't you think? ^^)
Arnold and Helga would have yelled out like Ray and Darlene, had they known how expensive 100 gazoos was. Darlene turned to Arnold and shook her head. "I don't think you have enough for that Arnold. We should probably go camp out outside better. You need to save that money for emergencies."
Seeing that they weren't going to stay unless she did something, the woman called out to them as they turned around to walk out of the hotel. "How about instead I give you a room with meal, if you help around with cleaning?"
They were all a bit hesitant at first, but eventually accepted, seeing that it was a pretty good deal.
As the woman was leading them towards their room before leading them to what work they were going to do, Helga saw something move out of the corner of her eye. However, before she was able to see what it was, it disappeared just as fast.
[I'm going to have to keep a good eye out at this place] she thought as she followed everyone.
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Arnold thought it was a fair deal. All they had to do was wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. The room the woman had given them had two king-sized canopy beds with velvet cushions and it even had a refrigerator with some candy and food. All of that, and all they had to do was clean. Was this place really that rich? Where did they get all of their money?
Arnold and Helga were mopping while Ray and Darlene washed the dishes. It was actually quite funny to see a prince and a princess try to do something they had never done in their lives. Darlene held the bar of soap like it was poisonous, and softly scrubbed the large pot that had something burned onto it. Leftover food, she supposed, that had burned during the cooking.
Meanwhile, Ray was just waiting patiently for Darlene to finish with the pot because he was given the job of drying. However, since she was taking so long with one pot, he just sat there lazily, trying to figure out what was going on in this town.
As Helga mopped, she saw again the figure out of the corner of her eye. It was standing off near a table far away and hiding quite well. Helga wanted to go over there and confront it, but if it knew that she was watching, it would run away again.
"HEY!" a loud voice yelled, making Darlene drop the pot, Ray drop his head so that it hit the table with a loud CLANK, and Arnold and Helga to jump up into the air and drop their brooms. They all looked at who had made the voice and saw that it was just a small child of about 3. It was a boy, with the largest dark eyes they had ever seen, and no hair. He was smiling, but there was something about that smile that made Helga's spine tingle.
"What're ya doin'?" he asked in an innocent tone.
"Washing," Darlene answered kindly, walking over to him and kneeling so that she was level to level with him. "Are you lost little boy?"
He nodded slowly. "I was wif my friends but I sau the bak door open so I came in." (Don't know how to type the conversation of a 3 year old ^^;;)
Darlene stood up and offered her hand. "Why don't I take you to them then? I'm sure they're worried about you."
He looked at her and her hand, then his gaze traveled to Helga who was looking at the kid suspiciously. He smiled and ran over to them. "You take me!" he demanded with large eyes.
"Me?" Helga blinked, pointing at herself. Not only did she not want to leave, but she also didn't want to be alone with this kid. He may have looked innocent, but the truth was that he was giving her the creeps.
"Go on Helga," Arnold urged, giving her one of those million dollar smiles that always made her melt. How could she say no to that?
She frowned and rolled her eyes. "Fine," she muttered, then went over and took the little kid's hand.
They walked out and began to walk down the street. While Helga was looking around for a large group of kids, the little boy was looking up at her and smiling. If one looked well enough, you could see that he wasn't looking at Helga's face, and he wasn't smiling sweetly.
When Helga spotted the kids, she let his hand go and watched as he ran to them. The woman who Helga supposed was in charge, smiled and bowed to her as a thank you.
Helga didn't bother to wave back to who that it was no big deal because it WAS a big deal. That kid had creeped her out a great deal.
Meanwhile behind her, the kid looked at her retreating form and smiled smugly.
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That night they all slept peacefully, totally unaware of the dark shadow that invaded their room. It proceeded over to where Helga slept, looked leeringly at the stand next to the bed, and picked up a certain large jewel that Helga had taken off because it hurt her at night.
With it in hand, it crawled out into the darkness of the night and left.
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Helga was in a panic in the morning. She had woken up to discover the Angel Crystal gone. She searched for it as everyone got ready for another day of working so that they wouldn't ask what she was doing. But when they came back out again, she laughed it off and excused herself, saying that she needed to go do something.
As she walked through the streets, things seemed different. When they had arrived, no one was blaming anyone about stuff being stolen, but now wherever she went, there was someone blowing their top off and accusing each other of something they most likely didn't do.
"I saw you last night taking off with it!" an aristocratic man accused another one like him.
"I did nothing of the sort!" he yelled back in defense.
They were all invading each other's houses, searching, but all of them coming back empty handed. When had all of this started?
Helga stopped a woman who still looked sane. "Excuse me ma'am. When did this start?"
"This morning. People just starting tearing down each other's doors saying that they saw someone stealing something of theirs," she replied kindly. "Of course the only place that I've seen that hasn't complained yet is the Ikomo orphanage."
"Orphanage?" Helga repeated. And idea struck her when she remembered yesterday. "Was that group of kids that was exploring the town yesterday from the orphanage?"
When the lady nodded, Helga had no more doubt. She asked the woman where the building was located and the woman gave her directions. She thanked her and was off.
[I knew it] she thought as she avoided being seen by anyone. The way things were going, if she was seen, she probably would have been blamed for anything. [That kid always gave me that feeling like I got 2 days ago like when we were attacked by those two minions.]
She stopped near a bush next to the orphanage and looked around for anyone that could see her. When she was sure the coast was clear, she walked along the side and looked around for any sort of entrance.
[Bingo!] she shouted in her mind triumphantly when she saw a small opening with a screen. She tried to pry it open with her hands but it seemed to be bolted down.
Suddenly, a knife cut through the screen, making a sleek cut down the middle and making Helga yelp and fall backward on her butt.
"Sorry Helga," a familiar voice apologized. She looked up and saw Arnold with his usual apologetic look. He re-sheathed his sword and offered her his hand. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"Stupid Football Head," Helga muttered when she was finally up. He didn't hear that but she went ahead and questioned him. "What are you doing here?"
"I saw the troubled look you had so I followed you and made sure you were okay."
Helga was touched, but she decided not to show it. "Well you shouldn't have. I can take care of myself."
Arnold ignored that and instead kneeled down so that he could look inside the hole. "So why are you here?"
Helga wondered if he really was that dense. "Isn't it obvious? Didn't you see the way people are acting all of a sudden? It's just like Ray and Darlene said! Everyone's blaming each other, but so far from what a woman told me, the orphanage is the only place that hasn't been blamed."
He stood up after seeing that there was no way he could see inside without light. He gave Helga a questioning look. "Are you telling me that you suspect a bunch of kids?"
"Yes! But I don't suspect all of them. That kid that appeared to us yesterday who said he was lost, he gave me the weirdest feeling. I didn't care that he was a kid. I don't trust him."
Without waiting for further arguments from him, Helga slipped down the hole that was large enough for her to get through. Since it was so dark, she took out a card. "Light!" she yelled. The card glowed and let Helga see what the basement had to offer.
She gasped. She was standing in the basement, surrounded by many exquisite things. There were vases of porcelain, expensive dolls, sheets of silk and soft cotton, clothes, jewelry, etc. Everything made out the finest gold or silver.
Helga ran back to where Arnold was and whispered at him. "Go get Darlene and Ray! Everything that's been stolen is here! Shout it out for the town to know!"
He nodded and went off to do what she asked. Had he stayed a bit longer, he would have seen Helga as a mouth clamped over her mouth, making her gasp in surprise and wriggle out of the grip.
The person holding her dragged her away from the basement and towards the main room, where Helga saw all of the children on the floor as the small child she had helped yesterday stood over them, an evil smile plastered on his face. "So you finally figured out my secret eh, Legendary Hero?"
The person holding her pushed her onto the floor, the light card still in her hand and glowing brightly. She propped herself up on the palms of her hands and glared up at the kid. "I should have know that you caused all of this. And I also should have known that you're one of Trinidad's servants!"
He smiled again before his began to transform before Helga's eyes. His clothes turned into a black trench coat and his body stretched. He was still bald by the time the transformation was complete and his eyes were still large (though they didn't hold an ounce of innocence), but he now also had 5 o'clock shadow. "Since you know my secret, I'm afraid you're going to have to die."
But Helga was quicker. Taking out a card with her light one, she combined the two. "Sword!" The card transformed into a sword and with the light card, a ray of light shot out and hit Trinidad's servant.
She looked behind her to take down the one who had grabbed her, and found out that there was only a little girl lying there like the rest of the children. She was still dressed in a white summer dress like she had been yesterday so she guessed that he had switched ages with her and manipulated her mind.
She ran out and was greeted with the sight of Arnold, Ray, and Darlene running towards her. All of the people were just standing there, watching.
"I was right!" Helga yelled. "That kid is one of Trinidad's servants!"
No one was given the time to react as he came out of the orphanage and a blast of power sent everyone flying backwards. Helga accidentally landed on Arnold and both of them blushed and stood up.
"Fools!" he yelled in half anger and half triumph. "You won't be able to stop me! Not as long as I have the power of the Angel Crystal!" He held it out for everyone to see. Helga's eyes went wide along with her companions and people who knew the legend of the Legendary Heroes, as the rest of the people who didn't just stood there, puzzling over what was going on.
"Give it back!" Helga yelled, a new card ready. She lifted it up. "Rope!" Rope appeared from the card and tied itself around him.
"Darlene!" Ray ordered. "Get the crystal!"
She used a barrier card on herself as she ran forward to snatch the jewel from his neck. When she reached out to touch it, she was sent back flying.
"I think only Helga can touch the crystal!" Arnold shouted at them, wondering why this was so.
Helga looked determined. [I failed everyone once when I let it get stolen. I won't let it happen again!] She also called upon the power of the barrier card and ran forward to take the jewel. She knew she had to act quick because the rope spell she cast was beginning to fade away.
With a quick lunge, just as the rope disappeared completely, she grabbed the crystal from around his neck and rolled away, landing ungracefully on the ground in a heap. She stood up and quickly put the jewel back around her neck.
The man growled and made another lunge for her, but was again wrapped in rope, this time by Darlene. "Finish him off Helga!" Darlene yelled.
Helga was more than happy to oblige. She was about to blink when she remembered about the tattoo's. "I can't attack without knowing his weakness!"
Darlene realized this too and ordered Ray and Arnold to run forward and tear at his clothes. Luckily, although there was the rope blocking them, it wouldn't be cu by them. The rope only affected the person it was cast on.
They both sliced and diced until Ray called out that he had found it and that it was blue.
Helga knew that either meant "sadness", "ice", or "water". She took out the fire card first since there was a 2/3 possibility that it was something affected by it. She held it up high. "Fire!" she yelled, and watched as it shot out like a flame-thrower.
The minion screamed in pain as the fire consumed him, and soon, all that was left was the rope and his soul floating in the air. Helga ran forward and sucked up his soul into the crystal. It gleamed in her hand.
There was a sudden movement coming from the main doors of the orphanage as the children all came out. They looked a bit dazed, but okay.
"Thank you Legendary Heroes," said someone from the audience of people that had surrounded them. They looked all around and found them all smiling. The lady from the hotel stepped out into the opening. "As a thank you for saving our town, we want to give you some money for your journeys, for helping out in the hotel, for saving the children, but most of all for saving us."
There was a large glow coming from the people and everyone except the children and the people knew what it was. The love of the people for Rorome was being sucked into the crystal. A thought then occurred to Helga. If their love was being sucked into the crystal, did that mean that they would hate it after? Helga frowned at the thought. [What a stupid question! I doubt that the crystal would suck up ALL of their love for this world]
Her suspicions were confirmed when the people stopped glowing. They were still smiling.
The hotel lady gave them the money and thanked them again. She told them that whenever they wanted, they could come and stay at the hotel again for free.
Once it was all over, they went to get Raln.
Helga looked at Arnold as she untied him. Raln, meanwhile, was nuzzling her. "Where to now Football Head?"
Arnold looked at the map and a line of dots appeared until they stopped at a town marked "Biyon". "Looks like we're heading for Biyon."
Darlene nodded knowingly while Ray blanched. No one seemed to notice though. "That town was built to help people get to the other continent. It's small compared to the other dock town called "Nuryo". It's a boat central."
Darlene knew what was wrong with Ray so she turned to him and smirked, using a teasing tone. "What's the matter Ray? Afraid the boat will sink?" She turned to the others who were looking at her weirdly. "He's afraid to travel by boat. He absolutely hates it!"
"Shut up!" Ray ordered, trying to forget about the rocking of the boat and the possibility that it would sink during their journey.
Darlene laughed and mouthed at Helga "I'll tell you later."
Helga nodded.
Without further arguments from Ray and Darlene, they left the stalls and headed for Biyon.
To be continued in part 4…