Author's Note: Thank you all for the support :) I strive to improve my writings and to make you feel entertained. By the way, the sword that Phoebe used in the previous chapter is called a rapier.

Legal junk: I don't own Hey Arnold, but Nickelodeon does and Mr. Craig Bartlett created it. But this fic belongs to me. Clear? Good.

The Training Part IIa – Field

The alarm clock showed exactly at 9:40 PM. Helga who was at her room using the computer, felt she was ready to go. She switched her laptop off and changed to her uniform. Slowly, she opened the door and peeked outside to see whether if anybody was there. No soul was in sight. In relief, she got out and closed the door behind her softly. She then crept down the stairs, tiptoeing pass the living room as she watch Big Bob shouting at the TV, unaware of his daughter trying to sneak out from the house. She ventured forward but stopped at her tracks as she saw Miriam emerged from the kitchen door. Helga was fearful. Her heart was pounding hard. With her wearing that uniform, she was afraid that her mother might find out that she joined an underground vigilante organization.

"Heeey… Helga." Miriam said in her usual, intoxicated, stoned babble. "You look… mighty fine tonight." She said to her and walked wobbly to upstairs. It sounded like her Alcoholic Anonymous meeting wasn't going very well today. She let out a sigh of relief as she placed a hand on her chest, and paced forward quickly to get out. Just as soon as she opened the front door, she saw Olga, and they both jumped away shrieking in shock.

"What the hell is going on out there?!" Bob bellowed from the living room, not budging from his seat.

"Nothing, daddy!" Olga shouted back. "I just stumbled on Helga, that's all!" she pointed it out.

"Well, keep it down, will ya! I'm watching some 'rasslin over here!"

"Jeez, Olga! You scared the crap outta me! Where the hell have you been?" Helga yelled at her through her clenched teeth.

"Didn't I tell you last week I volunteered at the local hospital to take care of sick children, baby sister?"

"Huh? When?"

"Last Wednesday, have you forgotten about it?" she asked Helga back. Helga never really cared much what Olga said when the family's at the dinner table.

"Well, whatever." She replied back. "Now, outta my way, I'm late for something." She replied as she walked pass Olga and went out.

"Of course, Helga!" she said, noticing that light violet colored outfit Helga was wearing. "Send my regards to Bridget for me!" Olga shouted as she waved at her. Helga didn't look back, and clenched her teeth in irritation as she growl. "Yeah Olga, why don't you tell the world while you're at it?!"

---

Helga was the last one to arrive. Inside at the communications room, somebody pointed out to Helga that her friends were in a 'secret room'. She followed the directions, and found herself standing in front of a common room. Everybody was waiting inside the room. Nadine and Rhonda were watching a talk show. Phoebe was reading an old copy of Popular Science, and Lila was admiring the interior design of the room, which looked like a waiting room at a doctor's office, couch, tired looking decorative plants, TV, coffee table, and all. They were all uniformed. Helga thought she was late, but thankfully for her, she was five minutes earlier than expected.

"Man, I didn't know there was a common room in this place." She said as she slumped on the couch next to Nadine.

"Phoebe went adventuring when she got here, and found this room." Nadine replied.

"Quite accidentally," Phoebe interjected, and resumed reading the magazine.

"They planned to tell us about this room when we've fully completed our training or something like that, kind of a 'members only' thing going on here." She elaborated it further.

"So, why are they letting us use this room then?" Helga lifted her leg on the table.

"Because they saw Phoebe yesterday kicking Sal's behind, and they were ever so impressed by it." Lila intervened. Phoebe grinned at the remark.

"Get up, you slackers." Someone scolded at them. "Ten-hut!" Phoebe yelled, and they all stood on attention. Bridget let the door open and she walked into the middle of the room. "At ease." And they went to ease.

"Are you ladies ready for your first night out?"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" they all shouted in unison.

Bridget nodded. "Nadine, Rhonda, Phoebe, and Lila, your mentors are waiting outside the building. Make sure you listen to their every word, and try not to disobey them. You are now dismissed." And with that, they marched single file out from the room as Bridget watched them went away. She then turned at Helga, who was waiting for her instructions.

"Helga, you're coming with me."

---

"Oh, great…" Helga moaned frustratingly, "my first day on a field job and I'm stuck here on this roof waiting for someone that would never show up." She complained as she paced back and forth behind Bridget, who was carefully monitoring an alley below them. They were on a rooftop of a two storey store.

"In the industry we call it a stakeout." Bridget informed with smile.

"Sounds more like 'Sit on your ass and do nothing' to me," She retorted back, and stopped pacing. "When do we get to see some action?"

"Patience my young apprentice, you will get your reward soon enough." She said to her. "Now stop whining and come over here and help me."

With an exasperated groan, she walked over to her and looked down below. The only light there was coming from a dinghy looking backdoor, shining the alley revealing musty old boxes, crates, a dumpster, trashcans and few cats passing by.

Helga scanned the place around, and found nothing that interests her. With a long, groaning sigh, she asked Bridget, "Why are we here again?" in a bored tone.

"We received a tip-off from Fuzzy Slippers that something really big is going to happen here. He's usually right about these things."

"I don't see anything that would interest anybody here." She stretched her arm out to the alley below. "What's so special about this place?"

"You see that building over there?" she pointed in front of them at the red bricked building to the left. It was a stereo equipment store.

"Ohh… I guess I missed that one." Helga replied embarrassingly. Bridget could only smile at her. "Scan and take note of each and every environment you're on. They could be your greatest enemy, or your greatest ally."

Helga nodded, and they both went silent. Moments later, "Hey Bridge, can you tell me what's wrong with Linda? She looks like she hates me or something."

"Huh? What makes you say that?"

"I don't know, ever since the time when she sprayed in front of my face, we started to hate each other. There's something about her that makes me want to beat the crap out of her…"

"That's Linda to you." She replied as she cracked her knuckles to calm herself. "Just between us, she has this superiority complex thing going on, and kinda egotistical occasionally, and that's some of the lower traits that I've come to dislike about her. But, once you get past all that, she's a pretty cool girl."

"And that's showing that everyone has their own pros and cons, unlike my sister, Olga… who's perfect all the time."

Bridget was stunned at the statement, "What's wrong with Olga?" she asked quizzically. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Everybody loves Olga…"

"Oh… nothing." She decided to walk away from it. More silence between them. "Was she really your mentor?" Helga suddenly asked her.

"Yep, and I am proud to be her apprentice. She taught everything I know and I am greatly indebted to her. You must be lucky for having such a great sister like her." She said, oblivious of Helga's resentment towards Olga. Helga could only sigh in aggravation and decided to save her breath not to talk about her sister further.

11:33 PM. They heard a noise at the alley. They went on guard. They saw four silhouetted figures walking towards the stereo store. The backdoor light vaguely revealed their appearance, but Helga could recognize one of the figures.

"Frankie G?" Helga muttered to herself.

"You know that guy?" Bridget said softly to her.

"Sorta… he used to hangout with Arnold years ago. I heard he ended up in juvie for a break-in or something like that. Thank God Arnold was smart, or else he'd ended up in the same place with him."

"We caught him in the act… it seems like he haven't learn his lesson yet…"

"Should we go now?"

"Not yet… wait until he made his move…" Helga nodded, and they waited. Frankie and his cohorts were scanning around the place high and low, hoping that nobody was there to interrupt their operation. Bridget and Helga continued to monitor their movements. The overall atmosphere was tense, because Helga was never in a situation like this before. She looked at Bridget. She was absolutely calm, probably because from all the experience she had handling this kind of situation throughout the years: this would be a piece of cake. Still, she wouldn't let her guard down, at any time, she would strike.

And the expected happened: Frankie took out a crowbar from his jacket, and wedged it on the door lock. It could take some time to open it up. Bridget felt it was the right time to strike. She then took out her grappling hook out and threw it on the other side of the building. She motioned her hand to Helga to use the fire escape stairs to go down, find a hiding place and waited for her move. Helga did as she was instructed. Slowly she made her way down, trying not to make a noise. She hid behind a couple of trash cans, and she signaled her for a go, and Bridget went for it. She swung downward and kicked one of Frankie's friends, and he landed in the dumpster unconscious, and the dumpster's cover slammed down tight. Bridget released her grip, did a flip, and landed on top of it, glaring at the three men as her eyes narrowed. They were shocked, but they didn't expect a second adversary coming.

Helga ran towards them, jumped up and kicked another one of Frankie's unaware goons on the head and he landed violently to the ground. The blow was so hard that the guy spitted a tooth and blood out. Bewildered, he got back up, but only was greeted by a punch, courtesy of Helga Pataki. He stood wobbly, uttered some incoherent words, and dropped down to the floor. It all happened too fast and sudden, and Frankie and his other friend felt they were overpowered.

"Who the hell are these guys?!"

"What? You wanna stay here and find out?! Let's get outta here!" Frankie replied in panic.

Having no choice they had to retreat to their vehicle and fled. Bridget tried to run after them, but they were too fast for her to catch up. But Bridget could guess where they were heading to. She went back to the scene of the crime and saw Helga tying those two fallen thugs up. Helga looked up at her in a puzzlement gaze.

"Why won't you stop them?"

"They have a car. I don't have a proper vehicle to go after them."

"Then how are we supposed to catch them?" She asked as she kicked the two men down fiercely many times.

Bridget placed two fingers on her left ear and said, "Cady, be on a lookout for a tricked out, gray colored Mitsubishi sedan heading towards your location. Stop that car by any means necessary."

"Yes milady, I will." Cady replied. And she signed off.

"Oh my God," Helga said in shock. "You have those microphone earpieces thingy that the Secret Service uses. How come we don't get those things?"

"Because my dear, you're still in training."

Back at Cady, she was with Lila on a rooftop of a three storey rowhouse. She went to a ventilation shaft and stuck her hands in it and rummage through it. Lila was puzzled at her actions. Later, she took out a crossbow out and dusted it off. Lila was stunned.

"Lila, I want you to use this." She said as she handed to her the weapon.

"Huh…? I'm ever so sure that I'm not capable of using this weapon…" she tried to decline it down.

She scoffed at her answer. "What did Bridget said before she let you out?" she demanded an answer.

"Not… to disobey orders?"

"And what are you doing right now?"

Lila could only go silent, feeling guilty about it.

"Take it, go to the ledge and wait for my signal." She ordered.

Reluctantly, Lila took the weapon from her and went to the ledge with Cady following her from behind. Lila aimed the weapon at the nearby street, waiting for Cady's instructions.

"I saw your score results at the archery range Lila, I have full confidence in you. Don't tell me that you don't know how to use it."

Lila gulped in anticipation, as she looked at the street through the crosshair.

"Wait for a gray car to show up."

"I'm not sure I can do this… it's ever so hard for me to shoot a moving target…"

Cady and Lila could hear a car skidding from afar. They both turned their head to the sound and saw the said car drove recklessly through the street. Their first impression was the car was driven by a drunk driver, since it swerved from left to right violently, nearly hitting a mailbox and a fire hydrant.

"Aim for the wheels." Cady ordered, and Lila followed as instructed. "Wait for my signal."

"NOW!!"

With that yell, she pulled the trigger and the arrow was released. But unfortunately, it missed and hit the street.

"ARGH! Darn it!" Lila sighed in frustration as she frantically tried to reload the crossbow. That was the closest word she'd ever get to swear. She aimed at the car again as she breathed through her clenching teeth, in hoping for a hit. She pulled the trigger again.

"Why the hell did you leave them there?!" Frankie's comrade yelled at him in demand for an answer.

"And get our asses kicked? Are you nuts?!" he reasoned irrationally as he floored the gas pedal down, trying to concentrate on the road. "'Sides, I don't see you helping them!" In the midst of the chaos, they heard a loud bang at the back of the car. The wheel was blown up!

"What the hell?! What the hell?! What the hell?!" his friend panicked.

"OH, SHIT!!" Frankie felt he couldn't control the car anymore. He slammed the brake down. The car spun around twice, hit the curb, the car turned upside down and crashed to a lamp post nearby. The whole neighborhood was awakened from their slumber in shock. The once sleepy neighborhood was up in furor and lights from the houses were switched on, and the occupants got out from their houses to see what the commotion was all about. To their surprise, it was an accident occurring in front of their very eyes. Frankie G and his friend crawled out from the vehicle weakly and fell down to the sidewalk. Miraculously, they weren't injured that badly. Quickly, the neighbors came and help them out, not knowing what those two did just now. Human lives were important than all that. One of them went back inside his house, possibly to dial 911.

Lila looked at the chaotic scene below, and felt responsible for it. She was shivering in fright, afraid that she might've killed those two persons. She felt too weak to hold the weapon, and dropped it down to the floor. She gazed at her shivering hands, the hands that 'murdered' those people. She couldn't take it anymore, the guilt was too much for her to bear, she kneeled down and broke down crying with her hands clasping her face. Cady quickly came to her and comfort her down.

"Hey, hey… chill. Just chill…" she consoled her as she hugged.

"I'm… I'm a horrible monster…" she sobbed melancholically as she gripped Cady tightly.

Minutes later they heard sirens coming from the streets. Cady got up and went to the ledge to observe the area. An ambulance and two police cars came to the scene to inspect the situation. Frankie and his friend were treated by the paramedics as the policemen looked at them, trying to guess who they are.

"Francis Giuliani. This kid went to juvie six years ago." A policeman informed her, reading the information through the police database inside the squad car.

"And this other kid?" the detective asked back.

"We're trying to find out, Detective Pudney." Officer Pudney was given a promotion two years ago, and thus elevated her status as one of the most formidable police officer in the city.

"Detective, we've found two other guys bounded and gagged in an alley nearby Bartlett's Audio Store at the Roosevelt Precinct. It was a break-in attempt, but somebody managed to suppress them down. One of those guys mentioned his name," the policeman said as he pointed to Frankie. "Our guys are taking them away."

Detective Pudney pondered for a while, "Take these two into custody. We need to do some questioning."

"Damn it…" Frankie muttered under his breath as the paramedic applies some alcohol on his wound.

Cady scanned around, and saw Frankie and his comrade still alive, but weak. She let out a sigh of relief, and turned her head to Lila, who was still sobbing as she stared at the floor blankly with her reddened eye.

"You can rest easy now, they're alive." She said with a calming, assuring voice. Lila was glad about it, but she still felt scared, sobbing. "Please…Let's go back…" she pleaded. Cady nodded, and placed her finger on her ears to talk with Bridget through the communicator. "Mission accomplished. We're heading back to the base."

Meanwhile, Nadine and Natalie…

Stay tuned to the continuation of this chapter, where Nadine and the rest of the girls face their first action sequence!