Author's note: After four chapters of action sequences, I think it's time for a breather, don't you think so? A plot advancement and character development chapter, if you will. And that's why the guys are in this chapter. Yep, wierd name for a title, isn't it? I deliberately name it that way because I have no idea what to name this chapter, because it's all like, different scenes stuffed together in one big chapter. Wanted to name it After the Fight though, but it's too lame. Anyway, I must admit that I am weak in my tenses, and writing stories like this particular one, and reviews I get from you guys, really helps me in improving my grammar. About the LotR references, I actually prefer Ara- no wait, Arwen :). The Orlando Bloom thing was just an observation I made in my class: girls apparently like him. Whatever. And I'm surprised that nobody caught the 'cameo appearance' by the voice actors of the show! Oh, well. Oh, I've made few corrections on the previous chapter, as one reviewer pointed it out. Thanks! Helga and Arnold? Hmm...
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 9: Insert title here.
It was Friday, 2:00am in the morning. After the aftermath of the fight and Helga's treatment by the paramedics by putting bandages on the bruises, Phoebe and Bridget helped Helga by sneaking her in back into her house, supporting the weak Helga by propping her up. Bob and Miriam were already in bed, but the girls had to be careful not to wake them up. Using Helga's own key, they opened the front door and quickly, but carefully they brought her to her room, as Bridget closed the front door again. Typical, Helga thought, Miriam forgot to lock the door using the door chain again. They quickly lied her down in bed, as Phoebe took the blanket and tuck her in.
She should've gone before bedtime, but she didn't and because of that, her bladder was now full. Olga, with her eyes half closed, got up from her bed and wobbly made her way out from the room to the bathroom. Still in the dark, she made her way pass her little sister's unlocked room, and saw two human figures on each side of Helga's bed, as they talk to each other about something, almost whispering. She shrugged and continued her way to the 'disposal chamber'.
Two human figures on each side of Helga's bed?!
Olga's widened her eyes in shock at the thought of it. Her instincts told her that the situation was hostile, so she made a quick thought and grabbed a ceramic vase next to her and emptying it by pouring the rose and the water out. She leaned against the wall next to the door and stuck her head out a little bit to have a peek at the room. But nobody was there, except Helga, trying to sleep. Still being cautious, she held the vase tightly and ventured in. Olga scanned around, turned her head to the window, and saw it wide open, letting the wind in blowing the curtains away. Olga sighed in relief and went to the window and closed it.
Helga could hear the window being closed, turned her head at it and saw her sister there, "Olga? What are you doing in my room? Get the hell out!" Helga angrily said as quietly as possible while pointing to the door.
"I'm sorry, Helga!" she said quietly back to her, "I saw two people with you when you were asleep and I thought–"
"That was Phoebe and Bridget, you dolt!" Helga cut her off, "and I wasn't asleep! They brought me in here just now!"
"Oh! Oh…" Olga replied embarrassingly. "I thought it was somebody else…" and she put the vase down next to the laptop.
"Yeah right… like a bad guy would dare to come into the Pataki residence. Bob would snapped out and beat the shit out of that guy." Helga said as she got up. The moonlight revealed her face, heavily bruised with a shiner on her right eye.
"OH MY GOODNESS! What happened to you?!" Olga gasped shockingly, placing her hand over her mouth. She quickly came over to her and inspected the injury.
"Olga!" she yelled quietly, "What are you doing?! Get your hands away from me!!" she slapped and shoved Olga's hands away from her face.
Olga stopped, took the chair from the study table and sat on it, "Who did this to you?" as she asked concernedly.
"Linda…" Helga replied. "That fatass, jerk Linda."
Olga frowned, understood what her little sister was talking about, "You should know better than to pick a fight with her."
"Well she started it!" she whined back angrily. Then she sighed, knowing that whining wouldn't do any good, and went silent back, "…you know her, do you?"
"Yeah… and she's one of toughest agents we've ever recruited. It was her aggressiveness that made us decide to bring her into the organization."
"Oh…" Helga could only reply back.
"And don't you fret little sister. I'll make sure that mommy and daddy won't know about your little fight." She said back, tapping her index finger on her nose.
"What? You're saying you're going to lie to mom and dad? You? Lie? Olga Pataki lies? Is it even possible to use those words in one single sentence?" she asked doubtingly.
"I assure you that agents, retired or not, will stick together." She assured warmly, smiling. "Besides, we're sisters, remember?"
"Uh… yeah…" Helga replied embarrassedly, "I can't believe she's helping me..." scratching the back of her neck. "Heh… well, I'm tired and I really need some rest, so good night Olga."
"Good night, baby sister." She replied back, put the sit back, and left the room to go to her bedroom back.
"Oh dearest me, I forgot to pee." She went back to the opposite direction.
---
At school, lunch hour period. Monday.
Gerald was in the line in the school cafeteria as he watched the lunch lady plopped a spoonful of mashed potato onto his plate. The shape and the sound it made disgusted him as he stuck his tongue out a bit. The mashed potato was one of the daily school lunch components, served together with cafeteria burger, cafeteria apple, cafeteria pudding, and cafeteria milk. He would like to thank the bastard who thought up with the idea of serving this tasteless bland food to them. He shook his head, and walked over to the dining area, in searching for his friends. To the left side of the cafeteria, next to the window nearby a corner, Sid, Stinky and Harold were there exchanging idle conversations with each other. He then walked over to them.
"And then… ninjas! Hundreds of them!" Sid told the story enthusiastically, "They burst through the windows and doors and stuff, making a circle around that mofo chick, with swords in their hands, ready to beat the shit out of that chick."
"Is he still talking about that Helga and Rhonda bitchslap fight thing again?" Gerald intervened, asking Stinky as he took a seat next to him. "I'm so sick of hearing it because that damn thing happened WEEKS ago and it's so freaking old than when the dinosaurs died out!"
"Naw, he ain't. He's talkin' 'bout sum movie he saw on Cinemax last night." Stinky informed.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't interrupt me." Sid said to Gerald, and continue, "and then the chick was like, 'C'mon you bastards!' and then she pushed the detonator and the whole freakin' place freakin' exploded!!"
"So the girl died?" Harold inquired.
"Dude, no way. She was a mutant and stuff. After that, she went back to the island, kill the scientist who made her that way, the end and the credits rolled up. Man, what a satisfying ending!"
"Man, that's the stupidest movie I have ever heard." Gerald said scoffing, trying to pry open his milk carton.
"Hell no, dude!" Sid swiped his arm wide. "It had hot chicks, ninjas, and explosions. It was a great movie!"
"Your taste in movies suck, Sid." Gerald said back, smiling. "Speaking of movies, I just saw Curly beating the shit out of himself outside the cafeteria. It was insane man. Kinda like a Fight Club thing going on there."
"Well, Park did say he lent his DVD to him, and after that when the weekends came he watched the movie over and over again. So, any crazy thing he did today is 'justifiable', I guess." Harold said to them, making quotation marks on the word justifiable.
Suddenly, the double doors to the cafeteria opened up violently as Curly flew in landing on his back. Almost everyone in the cafeteria either jumped in shock or immediately turned their heads to the door. Curly was bleeding heavily on the nose and on the mouth area, with blood stains over his shirt, and his red glasses were broken. "No, please…" he pleaded weakly, waving his hand to nobody in protest. With the same hand, he made it into a fist and punched himself in the face repeatedly. Passerby's walked past him and said without a trail of sympathy to him:
"Freak."
"Moron."
"Psycho."
He then grabbed a hold of his own shirt collar and dragged himself out from the cafeteria. Everyone in the cafeteria went silent, blinked in perplexity at Curly, and resumed their activities. Stinky shook his head at Curly's idiotic display and said, "The feller needs therapy, fast. Otherwise he'll keep on hurtin' himself."
"Speaking of hurting oneself…" Gerald said, "Have you guys noticed the bruises on Helga's face?"
"I've yet to see her today." Stinky said, "But please do tell."
"Oh, man. It was freaky. I was at my Public Speaking class this morning and I saw her, and I was like, 'damn girl, what happened to you?'"
"And what did she say?" Harold inquired further.
"The classic Helga Pataki reply: It's none of your business, Geraldo! Now get away from me." He imitated her.
"It's creepy when you imitated her, Gerald." Sid replied with a smirk.
"Can the conversations you guys, here she comes." Harold said as he pointed to the door.
"Ho-lee sheeyet…" Stinky said in disbelief, dropping his spoon of lemon pudding to his plate.
"I think I know what happened to her." Sid said, motioning his index finger. "She probably got into a bitchslap fight with Rhonda again."
Gerald was now very fed up with his antics and glared at Sid, nearly exploding in anger, "say that again, Sid. Say that again! C'mon Sid, SAY IT!! I dare YOU, I DOUBLE DARE you motherf–"
"Hey… whoa, whoa… hey…" he cowered back with his arms stretched out, cutting Gerald off as he tried to defend himself, "You don't need to get medieval on my ass, dude!"
---
After school…
"Today sucks royally, Pheebs." Helga muttered to Phoebe as they walk together to the bus stop, "everyone has been staring at me and asking me the same stupid question: 'What happened to you?' GOD! If I hear someone asking me that stupid question again one more time I swear I'm gonna scream and smack that guy up so hard his own mother won't recognize him!"
"They most probably are concerned about you, Helga. Eventually, I'm sure people won't take notice of your misfortune sooner or later."
"Yeah, right." She scoffed. "I doubt any of those idiots are concerned about me Phoebe."
"Well, judging by Brainy's expression, he most certainly is." She said, pointing to Brainy behind Helga.
Helga rolled her eyes and gave him a smack in the face, like she did every time when he crept behind her. "He just won't give up, does he? Anyway, moving on to our agenda, has the date for the graduation day been confirmed yet? Bridget didn't seem to contact me these past few days, strangely. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually looking forward to it."
"Bridget is most probably busy with the preparations, and that could be a plausible reason why she didn't contact you. Anyway, Farrah said they will notify us tonight by sending carrier pigeons to us, courtesy of Pigeon Man. She said to me that she expects our graduation will be on this Wednesday. To be truthful, I'm in the same boat as you are Helga. I'm also in incredulity that I'm actually looking forward to our graduation. I guess by joining LES does make us be aware of our unexplored capabilities and unknown potentials within ourselves that have yet to be discovered."
"Ah… I'm just in so could prove to those people I'm better than Olga." They finally arrived at the stop.
Phoebe decided to ignore that remark, "One thing that perplexes me Helga, what did your parents said when they learned about your condition?"
"If you must know, Bob went ballistic and he immediately accused me of fighting with Rhonda again, which is justifiable I guess, if you still remember our fight several weeks ago."
Phoebe could remember it well, it was an extremely heated argument about a false rumor about Helga that been circulated around the school, but the perpetrator of the rumor was never found. Naturally, Helga would always lay the blame on Rhonda first, since she hated her so much. She remembered that Helga angrily stomped over to Rhonda's locker, saw her and gave her a big hard slap across the face. Argument ensues as people flocked around them and a fight proceeded after that. The fight was then quelled down by the Principal himself and they were both given a detention.
"Yes, I remember it quite clearly." Phoebe responded, nodding.
"I told him that I got into a scuffle with a mugger, but he didn't buy it. And then Olga came in and affirmed it to dad. And due to Bob's trust on Olga, he just nodded at it, gave me some lame advice to be careful next time and walked away."
"Olga said that? She lied to your father? I must say that I'm in shock…"
"Me too, Pheebs. Me too…"
Nightfall came. Ordinary night at the Pataki's residence, it seemed. Helga was using her laptop, proofreading her weekly email to Arnold. As she read the letter, she heard a cooing sound coming from the window. That must be carrier pigeon that Phoebe talked about that afternoon, she thought. She quickly got up and went to the window. Indeed, there was a pigeon with a note tied on her left leg. She untied the note, gave her some breadcrumbs to eat and the bird flew away. Helga opened the message up and read it.
Come Wednesday, you will become one of us. Be sure to come here at 10PM sharp. We hope that you have recovered from your injury.
LES
"Ah, the wonders of technology…" Helga thought, smirking.
---
Wednesday beckoned, night had befallen onto the city, and the potentials were at the base inside the training facility for the graduating ceremony. They were lining in front of Bridget with the mentors behind her, in formation that you would expect from a military graduation ceremony. Bridget was there, the mentors were there, and each and every one of the potentials was there and accounted for, except for one, Lila. Her mentor Cady was frustrated, Bridget was getting impatient, Helga and Phoebe were getting tired and bored, while Nadine and Rhonda again, placed bets whether Lila would come or not.
Groaning in frustration, Cady got out from the formation and went to the obstacle course control unit to call Lila. Bridget ordered Cady to get back in line but she ignored the order. After a few rings, someone finally picked it up.
"Sawyer's residence, Lila speaking." Cady then pushed the broadcast button on the phone so everyone there could hear their conversation.
"Lila, what are you doing? Did you get the message that we sent to you?"
"Cady?"
"Yes!" she replied angrily, "Answer me, Lila! Don't dodge the question."
"Well… about that…" she replied reluctantly, "I'm ever so sorry Cady… but I've come to a decision that I am not going to join the Sisterhood…"
"What?!" Bridget said in shock.
"What?!" the other mentors blurt in unison.
Helga grinned, while Phoebe widened her eyes in disbelief. Nadine gave her money to Rhonda because she lost the bet.
"WHAT?!" Cady shouted into the phone, she was the most shocked of them all.
"I'm ever so sorry…" Lila replied back sullenly.
"Now you hold on just a second Lila. You're being crazy here. You're not just going to throw away all those hard work we did in those past several weeks, are you?! And then what, Lila? Go on to your boring, mundane life prior joining the organization? C'mon Lila, we're like… like… like giving you an opportunity of a lifetime here! When else in your life it'll be just as exciting as joining this organization now?"
"But… it's too hard for me…" she tried to justify her decision, "I just couldn't bear to hurt another human being… even though they are bad…"
"Well, you see Lila, that's the whole point!" she shouted again, banging her fist onto the table, "Bad guys hurt other people, and we can't just let them get away with that all willy-nilly, can we? And that's why it's our job to uphold the law and bring those people to justice!" she argued back, using a clichéd line.
Lila felt she was being scolded by her, and begin to sob, "I'm sorry…" she could only say, "maybe I'm just not strong enough… I'm ever so sorry…"
With a long groaning, exasperating sigh through her clenched teeth, she felt that Lila couldn't be persuaded anymore with her current method, so Cady decided to use her backup plan, in hope that Lila would reconsider, "Think about the cute little puppies and kitties and the old ladies you can help."
She sniffed, "what?" she replied with a broken voice.
"I can't believe I'm going to say this…" she thought irately, "Wouldn't it be ever so nice if you could help an old lady cross the street or help a little kitty off a tree? Or how about helping a baby bird that fell down from her nest?"
"Well…" she stopped sobbing. A cheesy upbeat music started to play.
"Wouldn't the mommy bird be ever so thankful that you saved her widdle baby bird?" her voice became cuter.
"I guess…" her voice began to warm.
"And what about the children? You like kids, don't you? Wouldn't it be nice if you could help them bringing their ball back down from the roof?"
"That would be ever so nice thing to do…"
"Then come back, please! If you don't want to do it for me, than perhaps you could do it for all the little critters, children and the old ladies in this city!"
"Yeah…"
"I can't hear you! Say it loud and say it proud!" Cady encouraged more.
"Yeah… Yeah! YEAH!!" Lila shouted passionately through the phone, "I will do it for all the ever so cute little critters, children and the old ladies in this city!!" she replied back ecstatically.
"That's my girl! Now come back here and be graduated!!" she replied proudly.
"Yes! YES!! I'm coming!!" Lila said joyfully and hung up the phone.
Cady also hung up the phone, looked at them with an incredulous face as they looked at her back in stunned silence, with an expression that kind of looked like Japanese animation characters when they were in incredulity, the big sweat drop and the small narrowed eyes and all. "Don't. Say. A word." She said to all of them, waving her hand in disbelief to them as she rubbed her forehead in a fruitless attempt to nurse her headache. She then went to the nearest wall and banged her head onto it repeatedly. "Where's a gun when I need it badly?"
"Please allow me this opportunity to slip away and hang myself." Helga said sarcastically, feeling the same pain like Cady did.
"Can I be next in line?" Rhonda asked.
"Ah, what the hell, you go ahead. I can wait." Helga replied back.
"Hey Rhonda, before you go hang yourself, we have some business issues to talk about. Where's the bet money I win?" Nadine smirked at her, motioning her fingers for the moolah.
---
An hour later, Lila finally came to the ceremony, but was very tired because she ran all the way from her house to here so she wouldn't want them to wait any longer. After she apologized to everyone for being late, especially to Cady and Bridget, the ceremony finally commenced. Some few higher ranking officers came to witness the graduation. As before, the girls lined up in formation in front of Bridget as she recited the organization's pledge to them, and they repeated the words back. After it was over, Bridget strode to the side, stopped, turned around to face them and yelled:
"Will the mentors to their respective potentials come forward and present them with the official membership garment?"
The mentors came forward and presented them the light violet colored beret at them. They then put the headwear on their heads, brushed the dusts off a little bit, and adjusted so it would look right. They then took a step backward, turned around and march to their original spot.
"Ladies, you are now officially a part of a sisterhood. Today, all of you now are a member of the Ladies of Espionage Sisterhood Organization. You are now no longer at the bottom of the food chain, you can now stand equal and mighty like the rest of us, and you won't have to take any orders from your mentors anymore. Instead, you will work with them, not for them, as a team together. They've taught you everything you know, and you should be thankful to them. Say it!"
"We are grateful for everything that you've done for us, our mentors!" the girls shouted in unison.
"And now, for my retirement. I will now pass down my…" she began to stammer, "…m-my Leadership to…"
But suddenly, the ceremony was cut short by someone who, out of nowhere quickly ran to Bridget to inform her a shocking, unexpected news. "I'm sorry to interrupt the ceremony milady, but I come here to bear you this very dreadful news."
She then whispered the news to Bridget. She was taken aback and was very shocked at the news. She abruptly left the ceremony and followed the news bearer to the upper levels to the communications room. The agents she left look at each other in questioning of Bridget's sudden, abrupt action. Frantically, Bridget began to shout orders to almost every one of the operators there.
"Candice, I want you to trace where the signal originated! Jessie, I want you to record the conversation! Aishya and Michelle, I want you two to analyze and decipher the video for any hidden codes! And Wren, patch it to the big screen!"
"Yes, milady!" they all said in unison. Bridget took an idle communicator up and wore it as she watches the big screen. The screen was distorted and unclear for a while, but a few seconds later, it came clear showing a face that Bridget had known for so long. She hated that face. The face belonged to a person who was sitting on a leather seat behind a table with two people flanking that person to the left and right.
"Oh, no… not you again…"
"Hey, Bridge! Long time no see!" the person replied back with a mock joy, puffing a smoke out from the cigar.
Hooray for cliffhangers! And I promise some of the guys will play a larger role in this story. Well, anyway thanks for reading and as always, leave a review!