Author's note: The chapter that all of you have been waiting for! I hope it lives up to your expectations, and I hope it won't be too confusing. Well, I'm no martial artist, but I did asked my friends who delved into this things for some help and I did gain some help from videogames I played. See, videogames can be educational. Hey, it was really hard to make this chapter to be as descriptive as possible, since after all, it is very action oriented. Hope you'll enjoy it. Oh, and due to one reviewer's comment about the summary, I've been thinking about it, and I think I should give it a try, just to test it out.

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.

Chapter 8: Helga vs. Linda

And so Rhonda, Nadine, Phoebe and Lila were lounging in the common room, as they watch a really excellent fantasy movie based on a very enchanting novel. The movie itself received a lot of positive reviews from critics around the world due to its exciting story, their colorful characters and how they managed to faithfully captured the vision of the author. The scene in the movie was showing a lush, open grassland as the camera flew over it showing three characters as they bickered with one another. The dwarf constantly reminded to his other companions that his race could sprint very fast in short distances and could smite an ogre in just one blow. The elf, that Rhonda found very attractive, scanned around the area with his elf eyes while the human, the humble warrior in the movie, acting as the leader of the group.

"Ooh… Orlando Bloom is such a hottie!!" Rhonda exclaimed giddily.

"Hopefully I won't sound too elitist, because I personally prefer the books over the movie." Phoebe informed as she watched the movie. "Although one can't deny the director took insurmountable amount of effort to make this movie to be faithful to the books."

"I like the other book that the author wrote. It is ever so cute." Lila gave her opinion.

"Ah… I take Star Wars over this movie anytime." Nadine spoke, since she was a sci-fi fan and all, but still impressed of the movie she was watching. Suddenly somebody barged into the room, unbolting the door violently.

"Hey, you girls are still here?" Cady asked with puzzlement. "Have you guys heard it already?"

"What? What's going on?" Lila asked back.

"Linda's fighting Helga!" she cried out. The girls looked at each other for a moment in disbelief, and quickly they then scrambled over the chairs, couches and table to go watch. Cady widened her eyes in alert and quickly darted away from the door to avoid from being trampled on. The girls quickly ran to the elevator, but to their dismay, there were already a lot of people were there, waiting for it to show up. Cady took a peek at them, smirked and went into the common room. "Ah… finally some cigarette break. Jeez, look at those slobs, they don't even have the courtesy to switch off the – Oh my God, it's Orlando Bloom!"

---

It was the same situation at the control room too. Most agents abandoned their posts for a while to witness a fight that would only happen once in their lifetime. Linda actually was a force to be reckoned with. It was because of her many of the hardcore criminals got defeated and sent to prison. She was the organization's toughest agent, and the most hard bitten. She got her traits from her militaristic family in which each of her family members had at one time served in the army. Most of the agents wouldn't dare to mess with her due to her reputation, and nobody had ever won against her when sparring together. When they heard the news that a newbie defied and disobeyed her, they thought she was mad, insane, and gone totally lunatic. There was no way Linda would ever accept her apology now, but if… and only if, the newbie performed better against her in the fight.

"Sorry Frannie, I gotta go for a while!" an agent shouted through the communicator to her comrade.

"What? What's going on over there, Olli?" Francesca (Frannie) asked back.

"Linda's gonna fight that new potential kid!!"

"Oh my GOD! Tape it for me!!"

"Will do!" and Olivia (Olli) threw the communicator away and quickly made her way to the elevator.

"What? Taping what?" Frannie's partner asked her.

"Linda's going to beat the shit out of that newbie, Lauren! She's going to beat-the-shit out of her!" she said excitedly to Lauren as she pounded the back of her palm to her other palm.

And to the other side of the control room, there was a commotion going on through the mic as well.

"Ashley! You must save me a seating spot! I'm going back to the base as fast as I can!!"

"But, what about the smuggler, Anndi?" she asked.

"Screw 'em! I wouldn't miss this fight for the world!"

---

Many agents were now at the martial arts training arena, waiting for the show to start. They sat on the floor, making a circle around the arena to watch, and some even climbed up on the obstacle courses to get a better look at the arena. They exchanged chats, made commentaries about the upcoming fight and predicted on who will win the match. Mostly among the veteran members were unanimous about the match, saying that Linda will win. But they wouldn't forget that maybe Helga had some tricks in her sleeve, since she probably learned some traits from Olga, her sister, and the best agent the organization ever had. Linda hadn't show up yet, but Helga was there, doing some warm ups before the upcoming fight. Her friends squeezed themselves through the crowd as they moved their head from left to right in searching for a space to sit.

"Excuse me… excuse me…" they said as they carefully placed their steps so not to accidentally step on them. They found a place just in front of the arena, and sat down on the floor. As they watch Helga prepared herself, they could hear some of the comments made by the other members.

"She wouldn't live to see the day." One of them said, referring to Helga.

"She doesn't stand a chance against Linda." The other one said.

"She's going to get royally creamed."

"So… is like, Linda PMS-ing or something?" asked one of the younger members.

"If she is… then may God help Helga…" the veteran member replied.

Her friends were extremely worried, but Phoebe was the most nervous one among them. Suddenly, somebody in the crowd got up and shouted:

"10 bucks says that Linda's going to win this match!!"

"Make that 20!!" shouted the other.

"25!!" said another.

"50!!" Rhonda shouted as she got up showing a fifty dollar bill.

"Rhonda… what are you doing?" Nadine censured her through her clenched teeth.

"What? You heard the naysayers, there's no way Helga's going to win this match." She opposed their confidence in Helga. They glared back her angrily.

"Sheesh… you guys are no fun…" she sat back dismally, scoffing. The crowd was still alive with the sound of bet placing and pretend commentary about the fight. Then, the fiasco suddenly died down when Linda came into the arena, walking towards Helga as she glared at her in detest. Helga glared back, got up from her warming up session, as she cracked her neck and knuckles in preparation for the fight. Face-off. Bridget felt that she couldn't prevent the fight because she knew that once this thing goes on, there was nothing could stop it from happening. It was… inevitable. She could only observe them from the main control room two floors above so she wouldn't interfere in the personal fight.

"I thought you ran away." Helga began the taunt.

"From a scrawny, skinny kid like you?" she replied the insult back. Some of the crowd laughed.

"At least I don't have a fat ass to drag along with me." She smirked, insulting her body weight. The crowd gave a resounding "ooooohh…" at them.

A girl next to Phoebe chuckled softly and said, "She's asking for it." to her friend, and she nodded in agreement. Phoebe was very worried about the outcome of the match. She tried to be optimistic, but couldn't because of the crowd's reaction. Even one of her friend Rhonda made her doubt of Helga's capability to defeat Linda. For now, she could only pray that she would come victorious, or she wouldn't be beaten to a pulp much by her, if she was defeated.

Helga and Linda sidestepped and circled the ring as they glared at each other, observing weaknesses and which body part seemed to be vulnerable. Oh… yes, they remembered all the crap they've been through in these past few weeks…

---

Flashback…

Linda placed her face directly in front of Helga's and screamed at her, "YOU ARE THE BIGGEST SCUM IN THE UNIVERSE!! YOU ARE PATHETIC, WEAK AND DISOBEDIENT!! YOU SUCK AT LIFE!! YOU FAIL AT LIFE!! I WOULD'VE KILLED MYSELF FOR GIVING A BIRTH TO SUCH AN UGLY BABY LIKE YOU!!"

"Alright, I've had enough!" she thought, annoyed by her lame insults. She tightened her fist and landed a blow on Linda's nose. She recoiled back holding her nose trying to put up with the pain. Helga let out a soft smirk and stormed away from her, as her other friends looked at her in shock. Helga was proud of her Ol' Betsy as she rubbed the fist.

---

Both of the opponents stopped circling, and went to ready stance as they anticipate each other's attack. The whole complex went to silent as they observe those two, in hoping they gave a good 'performance'. The only people who were worried about those two were Linda's and Helga's respective friends and the paramedics who were waiting nearby. Actually those paramedics were just medical students in training.

Linda made the first move. She quickly lunged forward and punched her, but was deflected by Helga with her left arm. Helga quickly threw her a punch with her other arm, but was caught, and they got themselves into a lock. Helga tried to kick her stomach with her knee, but the movement was blocked by Linda's shin. They released their lock, and they kicked each other's shin by using their own shins again and again. It was painful, but it was a one of the tactic to weaken the foe. Helga couldn't bare the pain she felt, and tried a different approach. After the last shin attack, she quickly kicked her face by using her other leg. It hit her and sent Linda withdrew back, trying to balance her posture so she wouldn't fell down. The crowd gasped in shock at Helga, as she restarted her stance back into ready position.

"This is the all powerful Linda? She's more careless than I thought." Helga smirked, feeling that she could win this match, and became overconfident of her powers. Little that she knew, Linda wanted her to be overconfident so she would become reckless, in which would gave to her an advantage. Linda wiped the blood away from her mouth with her sleeve and resumed her stance once more. The crowd held their breath in anticipation of the next round of the match.

This time, it was Helga who made the first move. She performed a roundhouse (a move where it's being delivered with a sweeping kick movement) to the head but her leg was grabbed in the nick of time by Linda. Using her palm, she hit Helga's knee and stunned it so her leg would be ineffective temporarily as Helga screamed in pain at the blow. Helga quickly jumped up by using her other leg and kicked her stomach with that leg. Linda abruptly released her grip of Helga's other leg and was sent flying away from her and fell lying on her back. Helga landed on her feet, but then leaped into the air and bent her left leg so her knee would hit her on the stomach again. Linda anticipated for this move and she quickly darted away to the side from the attack, rendering Helga's move to be unsuccessful.

Linda quickly got up and kicked the side of her head and sent her flying, and landed on her back as she slid away. But Helga quickly pressed both of her hands downwards to bounce back up as she flipped her body and landed on her two feet again. Helga then quickly ran towards Linda and they both launched a torrent of punches and kicks to each other as they tried to block and repel each other's attack. But Helga repeated her mistake, she launched yet another roundhouse and again, Linda caught her leg. With all her strength, Linda pulled Helga's leg and made her lost her balance of her body and fell down. Still with the leg in her clutches, Linda spun her body around to gain momentum and threw Helga away from her and landed on the wooden bench, destroying it.

"OH NO!" Phoebe got up from her seat and ran quickly over to her poor friend, as Linda tried to catch her breath. Phoebe gently lifted her head up with one of her hand and with the other one tried to lift her body up. "Helga? Helga, speak to me… are you okay?" Phoebe said worriedly. Helga gave a bewildered moan to her and slowly she opened her eyes. She felt something was not right, she quickly darted her body to her side away from Phoebe and faced the floor. Seconds later, she coughed, letting some blood out. Phoebe gasped in horror, and said concernly, "Helga, please I beg you! Please stop fighting!"

"No, Pheebs…" she coughed a little, and resumed, "I won't stop." She got up and went inside the arena again as Linda smirked at her. Rhonda, Nadine and Lila became more restless, and Phoebe couldn't believe the stubbornness of her best friend. Soft whispers could be heard from the crowd. Bridget at the command room shook her head of Helga's stubbornness. They both went into ready stance again.

---

Another flashback…

"Again, that was another excellent performance from you Helga." Phoebe said encouragingly after she witnessed her sparring training.

"Ah, that's nothing. Wait 'til you see me use all of my strength. Man, I guess the extra-curricular activities I spent for the karate classes and the money I spend at Master Lee's dojo really paid off." She replied back as she took a towel from Phoebe to wipe herself off. After the incident with Big Patty in grade school, Helga vowed she will take martial arts training to defend herself incase anything should happen to her.

"I still say it's still weak." Linda abruptly interjected.

"What?"

"You heard me. Your stance is weak, your punches and kicks look too chaotic, and I swear there are a lot of openings that left unguarded."

"Hey, who asked you, anyway?"

---

"If I use all of my strength now, I won't have any energy left to continue this fight…" Helga contemplated carefully, "but what choice do I have, she's just as strong as a freaking ox… I'll have to take this gamble…" then it was decided. It was now or never, she had to use her full strength in order to defeat Linda. Helga threw a punch but was fended off. Helga threw another punch, but this time it wasn't deflected and it went straight to the chest, forcing Linda to step backwards, and left her vulnerable. Helga launched three punches, and all three of them hit on three different places. She proceeded to kick the side of Linda's body, twice. Linda began to weakened, but determined to fight back. She tried to punch Helga, but she ducked and grabbed the arm, twisting it and went to the side, still holding the arm.

Linda groaned in pain. But Helga wasn't finished with her yet, she used her other arm and pushed Linda's body upwards, as Helga released both of her grasp. Linda flew upwards over Helga and landed behind of her violently on her front. Still, she wasn't ready to admit defeat. Linda jumped back on her feet, glaring at Helga. By now the two opponents were in terrible shape; their hair was messy, parts of their clothes were torn, sweat enveloped them and trickle of blood flowed down from their mouth. They then charged at each other throwing another set of punches and kicks to each other, as words like "Argh!" and "Hyeah!" came out from them.

Helga noticed an opening that Linda seemed to neglect her feet. And when Linda tried to kick her on the head, Helga quickly ducked down and performed a foot sweep, making Linda fell down. But Helga quickly got up and kicked her while she was still in midair, throwing her away and landed rolling on the ground. Helga went back to ready position, anticipating for another round. But, Linda didn't get up. Helga was perplexed, went off guard, and walked over to her, but still being very cautious. Linda's body was still motionless. Everyone in the crowd held their breath. Linda lost the match? It can't be, they thought. Helga was in disbelief herself. Did she win the match?

---

Yet another flashback…

"You hate me, do you?" Helga asked Linda as she mopped the floor.

"Why? What makes you think that my sweet little muffin?" she replied sarcastically.

"You are a real jackass Linda. And someday I will prove to these other agents how big of an ass you are."

---

This was the perfect time for her to counterattack. Linda quickly got up and punched Helga in the face totally off guard. She gave an uppercut, and Helga was thrown back, but still standing. Linda continued to punch her repeatedly again and again. Phoebe couldn't bear to watch her friend in pain and averted her eyes away from the arena, closing them tightly as Lila tried to console her. Helga became considerably weaker by the second, but drawing no sympathy from Linda as she continued to deliver the punches. Nadine couldn't bear to watch it, and averted her eyes away. Rhonda grimaced as she watched Helga getting pounded. Even though she hated her, but she knew when enough's enough and when to stop. Linda's friend thought she had gone totally ballistic.

Helga was now very weak and stood wobbly on the ground. Linda stopped at her tracks. Without pity, she slapped Helga and she fell to the ground, making the crowd gasp in shock. The fight was over. But no, Helga got back up slowly, and punched her weakly, still in determination to fight back. Linda didn't felt anything from the punch and pushed Helga away from her and fell down again. But still Helga did not give up, she got back up and tried to punch her again.

"GOD, YOU JUST WON'T GIVE UP, DO YOU?!" Linda screamed, losing her mind. She made an uppercut, and Helga fell down to the ground violently. The crowd began to sympathize for Helga, and some of them became teary eyed.

"Linda… stop…" one of them pleaded.

"C'mon… she's just a kid. What are you doing?" a rational voice spoke.

"ENOUGGGGGHHH!!" Phoebe screamed loudly as she got up, echoing through the complex. Everybody took notice of her, "I will not stand by idly and see my friend get beaten up to a pulp by a…a-a," she tried to find a perfect word for it, "barbarian like you!!" Linda glared at Phoebe, who looked at her in defiance. Linda cracked her fists, and walked over to her. Phoebe stood her ground. She will not move. Linda raised her fist high in the air, but suddenly she felt someone grabbed her wrist.

"That's enough, Linda!" Bridget said warningly. And due to her own military ethics she wouldn't dare to fight back an higher ranking officer than her. She had no choice but to recoil. Bridget gazed at Phoebe for a moment, and turned her head to Helga, who was lying weakly on the ground. "Go check her up." Bridget said to Phoebe. She nodded and quickly ran to her friend. Linda stood attention before Bridget.

"You may've won the physical fight Linda, but the way I see it, Helga technically won the match. She didn't become berserk, she didn't use dirty tricks, and she made the crowd sympathies for her. And what did you do? Trying to attack a non-combatant? What's got into you?" Bridget said to her, referring to Phoebe, as Linda hung her head in shame. "I will see to it that you will have disciplinary action to be taken against you. Report to the disciplinary office immediately." In reluctance, Linda saluted her, and walked away, drawing jeers and glares from the crowd.

"We need the paramedics here." Bridget said pointing to Helga, and they scurry over to her. Rhonda, Nadine and Lila ran over to Helga while the rest of the crowd dispersed away. Phoebe helped her get back up as she being examined by the paramedics.

"Are you two sure you know what you're doing?" Rhonda asked the paramedics in doubt.

"Of course!" one of them replied back, "At least I didn't flunk out from my exams like her!" she said referring to the other paramedic.

"Hey!" she retorted back.

"Did… did I win?" Helga asked bewilderedly.

"You sure did, Helga. You sure did." Phoebe said proudly.

"Heh, heh…" she chuckled, "now the only thing I have to worry now is how should I explain these bruises and this black eye to Bob and Miriam…" she said weakly. And her friends laughed softly.

"You're gonna be fine, Helga. Don't worry about it." Nadine said in calm assurance, and Lila nodded at it.

"Due to Helga's condition, I think it's best to postpone the graduation to tomorrow, if she's getting better, of course. Otherwise, it'll have to be next week. Are you guys cool with it?" Bridget asked them.

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