Author's Note: The eleventh chapter is up, and I didn't expect this fic would go this long. Wow... thanks for the support guys. I'll try my best to keep up with the good work so not to disappoint all of you. In an unrelated rant, as a FireFox user, I find that the 2.0 version of Quickedit is very buggy and I have to result using the intolerable garbage that is Internet Explorer. Anyway, enjoy this chapter about the not-so-original oddcouple!

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 11: Trying to Get Along

"Excuse me, uh… um…" Phoebe didn't know what to call the Supervising Officer, who was monitoring the radar screen at that time, "milady…" she could only settle for that.

She quickly turned around to her and said, "No, no, no…" she motioned her index finger to wrong her, "Only Bridget is called milady around here. You address your Supervising Officers as 'ma'am'. Got that?" she asked her.

"Oh, my apologies ma'am for addressing you wrongly." Phoebe replied back, giving her paper slip to her.

"Ah, don't sweat it. You must be Phoebe, the new rookie right?" she said, examining the paper. Phoebe nodded softly.

"Yeah, Sal was pretty impressed of you. You should be grateful for that." She informed with a kind tone, which made Phoebe smile. "By the way, so like, is Bridget officially retired now?" she continued, giving the paper slip back to Phoebe. "Sure gonna miss the Ol' girl."

"No… she said to us that she decided to stay until this grave situation about Michael and his cohorts has been resolved."

"Well, that's a relief. Between you and me, I really don't want her deputy to be the chief right now. Under her, things tend to suck." She said to her, which stunned Phoebe since she wasn't informed that Bridget had a deputy before.

"If you don't mind I'm asking, who's her deputy?"

"Linda." The officer said whisperingly. "You know, the one who fought that crazy blonde girl… uh…" she tried to remember, as she twirl his right hand in front of her, "What's her name… Helga right?"

Phoebe was flabbergasted, "Linda? Linda's her deputy?!"

"Yeah, didn't Bridge tell you? Anyway, just take that empty computer terminal over there." She said, pointing to the computer terminal to the far left, next to Elaine. "And, welcome to the club," was the official warm welcome Phoebe received from her. She then went there and took a seat, wearing the communicator and booted the computer up. Elaine was also assigned as one of the communications operator that night.

"Hey Phoebe." Elaine, Rhonda's former mentor greeted her. "El gave you a desk job on your first day as a full-fledged agent?" she asked in curiosity, taking a small sip from her cup of coffee.

"Indeed she did. May I inquire that this job position is a bad thing or something?"

"Nah, it's just most of us prefer to be here than on the streets because it's not very… life threatening." She said, smiling widely. Phoebe could only manage to shot back a nervous smile at her. "Anyway, I just want to say: Congrats to you and I hope you'll do great job." She congratulated her and offered her to shake hands with her. Phoebe smiled and accepted the offer. "By the way, are Rhonda and Helga being paired together?"

Phoebe giggled softly, "Yes! It is quite humorous to see both of their faces when El told them."

Elaine chuckled, "Haha! Aw yeah!!" she slapped her knee, "Thank you El! Means I'm gonna return her the favor someday."

"Huh?"

"You see, me and Cady went over to El to ask her for a favor. We wanted her to pair them up, just so to see their reaction would be like!"

"Oh, you devil you!" Phoebe beamed, snickering.

---

On top of a roof of a two-storey shops at Madison Street, two recognizable silhouettes were there monitoring the said street for any peculiar activity. The moon was full tonight and very bright, and with the help from some dim streetlights, it brightened the place up, making the job easier for the assigned agents to perform their duty. Helga and Rhonda tried to ignore each other by forgetting their respective foes were there accompanying one another. No words were spoken between them since they arrived there until…

"What did I tell you about not to go two feet near me?!" Rhonda said exasperatedly to Helga as she monitored the streets below.

"It's a free country. I can go wherever hell I want. 'Sides, it's not like you have a restraining order or anything." Helga shot back spitefully.

"I might consider after this." She mumbled to herself. More silence between them, and was going on about a half hour. The overall feeling was tense, not because of the environment, but because of the aura between them that drove them nuts. It did not help either that both of them were uncomfortable with each other. Rhonda tried to tolerate the uncomfortable mood, but gradually it became more and more tense, and finally, she cracked.

"GOD…" she blurted through her clenched teeth, shaking her hands as if she wanted to strangle someone, "I am… going… INSANE… if I stay here for another second…" she pointed at Helga accusingly, "with YOU!!" Helga raised one half of her eyebrow at her in bafflement.

"Hey, it ain't no picnic for me either, princess! You think I like to get partnered with you?!" she then groaned exasperatedly.

"All right! All right!" she sighed, exasperatedly too. "Since we're both here and we can't just abandon our post just like that," she snapped her fingers, "why don't we at least try get along with each other? You cool with that?" she offered her hand to seal the deal.

Helga stared at Rhonda's hand for a moment with her eyes narrowed, thinking about it, "Fine, whatever." She scoffed, and reluctantly she shook her hand. And they then resumed monitoring the street below. More uncomfortable silences between them.

"So… what do you want to talk about?" Rhonda tried to break the ice.

Helga thought for a moment, "I don't know… what do you want to talk about?"

"All right, Helga, I want an apology from you for starting a fight with me—"

"Oh jeez, not this shit again!" Helga cut her off angrily. "Didn't I already apologize to you in front of the principle?! 'Sides, I was PMS-ing that day!"

"You weren't being sincere!!" she retorted back.

"What do you want me to do?! Write a formal apology in the papers?!"

"If it helps, then yes!!"

"Forget it Rhonda! That's the only apology you could get from me, and I'm not planning to do it again!"

Rhonda narrowed her eyes, pointing at Helga furiously, "Why you stuck up, arrogant, bit—"

"That's enough you two!" somebody said through their earpieces to quell the grown up kids down.

"Bridget?!" Helga blurted out. "How do you—"

"I saw you two through the cameras, girls! You two are supposed to help each other, not bickering with one another!!" Bridget scolded to calm them down.

But Helga and Rhonda went to their defensive side, whining back, "But she started—"

"ENOUGH, children!!" Bridget cut them both off. Soft snickers were heard in the background. "I don't want to hear a word from you two anymore! Either you shut your trap, or both of you will have to face disciplinary action after this!" She scolded both of them like a mother tried to quell her children down, shouting through the communicator. They both went silent. "Good." Bridget sighed with a relief. "Now keep it that way so I won't have to deal with you two anymore because you kids are driving-me-crazy!!" she yelled through her gritted teeth, threw the communicator on the table, and walked away. Some of the operators in the room tried to hide their laugher. But some did manage to throw some sarcastic teases to her.

"Milady, you would make a great mom!"

"Can you baby-sit my bratty little brother tomorrow?"

"Bridget!! She called me dummy head!!" An agent pointed to her friend, calling Bridget whiningly. And the whole room burst into laugher.

"Ha-ha…" She replied back in defeated tone, "Well, it ain't easy to baby-sit a bunch of whiny, squabbling little brats like all of you, you know." But the entire Communications Room was still in laughter, ignoring Bridget's mockery. Feeling that she had tolerated enough of their laughter, she exited the room, mumbling expletives under her breath.

---

Hour pressed forward, and Helga exhaled loudly in total boredom as she monitored the ongoing activity down on Madison Street. By ongoing, it meant void of activity. She thought to herself, of all the lame boring places in this sorry excuse for a city, those crooks had to pick up Madison Street, arguably the most rundown, dilapidated, and neglected part of the city. The abandoned shops were in shambles, and she doubted that the rooftop she stood on would hold them up any longer, especially when that fatass Rhonda was alongside her. There was nothing here that would interest anybody, except for those old steel beams that was still sturdy enough to hold the old buildings up, and one would make a fortune if one would sell them at a scrap dealer. In her mind, she was cursing at El for making her to go along with Rhonda, of all people.

Rhonda pondered as she gazed at the old buildings, the old relics from World War Two. Was the idea of her getting partnered with Helga was some kind of a sick, crazy joke from her former mentor, Elaine? She did tell her that it was a standard procedure that an agent would be partnered with an incompatible comrade so they could get to know each other and develop some sense of friendship together. But… the idea of getting partnered with Helga was completely uncalled for. Ever since grade school they could never get along with each other, and what difference would it make now? She, like Helga, seriously doubted that by getting partnered together they eventually would get along, even though teamwork was being stressed time and again. Only an hour left before their post was over, Rhonda prayed it would be over soon.

Suddenly, they heard a vehicle approaching the area, and they went on alert. They saw a small white truck pulling into a broken garage in an abandoned row house across the building they were on now. The lights from the truck were shut down, the engine stopped, and three men got out and went to the back of the truck. They exchanged some idle chats, but it was heard indistinctly by the two agents, something about a trivial matter. Then one of them opened the door to the container, and went into it. The agents were baffled, as they looked at each other. Helga then took out a small binocular from her utility belt and watched the thugs through it. The person who went into the truck earlier was now carrying a bomb with him.

"Oh my God…" Helga said grimly, lowering the binocular down.

"What? What's he holding?"

"A bomb…" she answered nervously as she looked through the binoculars back and saw those people went into the building. "But why would they want to bomb an old building like that?"

"You kidding? This place is designated as a city heritage site, pretty much like Arnold's neighborhood. Maybe it's a symbolic thing for them to bomb an old building like that. It's true what Bridget said, they really want to wreak havoc in this city."

"Assuming that you're talking about Michael, how do you know this is his doing?" Helga asked her demandingly.

"I just know. See that guy with the green shirt? He used to be Gino's bodyguard. You really need to brush up your childhood history, Helga."

Helga never really liked her childhood much, "Fine, whatever. Okay, shut up and listen," she put the binocular back, "here's what we are going to do."

"What? Hey, who died and made you the leader?" Rhonda shot back.

"Look, you want to stop them or not?"

"Of course I want to! But we're supposed to work like a team, not me taking orders from you!"

Helga groaned, "All right, fine! Give me ideas as I go along. First I'll approach them from the left." She indicated by pointing her pathway out to Rhonda.

"I'll start on that rooftop," she pointed. "I'll shoot my grappling look at that exhaust port over there—"

"Wait, hold on a second, that doesn't look safe." Helga protested.

"I thought you've always wanted me dead? Why the concern all the sudden?"

"If you're dead, then I won't have anyone for me to throw my insults at."

"Screw you. I'm sticking to my plan."

"What?! C'mon Rhonda! That looks dangerous, you could seriously hurt yourself! I mean, just look at it! The exhaust port is old and too loose!"

"Shut up Helga! You're not the boss of me!" Rhonda then took off, and went to higher ground to take aim at that exhaust port.

"Arrogant shithead…" she cursed in her mind, in frustration that Rhonda wouldn't listen to her. Fine, be that way. She shook her head, went to the other side of the building she was on to climb down the fire exit stairs. She then slowly sneak through the alleys and went across the street quickly and hid behind a wall as she watched the opened front door, pondering whether it was safe to go in.

Up above, Rhonda was aiming her grappling hook at the exhaust port. Perfect hit, she then tugged the rope to make sure it was strong. Feeling sure that the grip was tight, she then held the rope tightly and swung to the other side. But Helga was right: Rhonda was too heavy for the loose exhaust, and it detached from its original position and with Rhonda, fell down to the ground to some garbage bins below, breaking her fall, which coincidentally, alerted the three guys inside the building. "What's that?!" and they went out.

Helga slapped her forehead in aggravation of Rhonda's tomfoolery. It was too late for her to hide Rhonda from those goons now, since they were outside looking at the unconscious Rhonda.

"What's a chick doing here?" one of them asked.

"Michael did say be on a lookout for any girls dressing in some spy uniform. I guess that she's one of them." The other guy shrugged.

"So, what are we supposed to do? We can't just leave her here… she's out cold for crying out loud." Gino's former bodyguard said.

"Let's take her to the boss then. He'll know what to do. Remember, nobody must not interfere or know about our operation."

"Nobody but me, jerks!" was Helga's one-liner of the night, as she jump upwards, pouncing the three men. Two of them fell down except for one person, who was startled at her presence. But he quickly snapped back and fought with her, throwing some punches and kicks. The two thugs got back up, and came to their associate's aid. With three against one, the odds seemed impossible. As she parried, dodged, and blocked the attacks, she shouted for Rhonda's help.

"Rhonda!! RHONDA!! Wake up, WAKE UP!! Please WAKE UP!! Help me out here!!"

Rhonda finally opened her eyes slowly, moaning bewilderedly. Still weak, but thankfully did not suffer any injuries, she slowly woke up as she looked around her surroundings, with her vision still blurry. She finally recovered, and saw Helga fighting for her life against an overwhelming odd, getting punched and kicked from the thugs. Rhonda shook her head rapidly to make herself more alert, and joined in the massive brawl. Finally the odds were somewhat fair, if not even. Two trained agents against three untrained, inept goons sounded to be another victory for them. Still fighting, Rhonda made a swift punch across a thug's face and he landed on the garbage cans violently. He got back up and went back to rejoin the foray, but he suddenly stopped at his tracks when his cellphone in his pocket vibrated.

It was the signal.

"Guys!!" that thug called, and everybody stopped, looking at him. "Thirty seconds left! Let's amscray outta here!" And all of the goons abruptly left their foes and ran over to the truck as the agents chased them. They made safely inside the truck, locking the doors and fled away. Realizing that it was impossible to catch that truck by running after it, Rhonda took out a small black colored device out and threw it on the truck. It was the other tracking device, without the EMP device. It got attached to the back of the truck, making faint beeping noises and bleeping lights.

Helga and Rhonda looked at the truck as it swerved and veered through the road. Breathing heavily after the fight they were in, they looked at each other and Helga said:

"Didn't I tell you about the exhaust port?!" she yelled angrily.

"And what about you, huh?! Are you just gonna wait for the building to explode?!" she retorted back, shouting the top of her lungs. "Wait…" she realized something, saying 'wait' softly. They both turned their heads slowly at the building.

"THE BOMB!!" they both shouted loudly in unison. They ran away as far as they can, hoping to find a safe hiding spot before the building exploded. And fortunately they did, for they could find a safe hiding place behind a stoop at another building. They jumped in, and lowered their heads as low as they could get, bracing for the explosion. Seconds went pass by, they could felt it in their pounding heart. But… nothing happened. The building did not blow up.

Slowly, Rhonda and Helga got back up from their hiding, gazing at the building that supposed to explode. Nothing happened, and they were perplexed by it. Still being cautious, they went inside, searching for the bomb. Helga went to the second floor, while Rhonda searched for the explosive device downstairs. And Rhonda found something at the kitchen.

"Helga!" she shouted, and Helga heeded to her call. She then quickly went downstairs to the kitchen and saw Rhonda sighed out frustratingly, looking at a small green colored rectangular device bleeping a green light in front of him.

"It's a fake. It's not even A REAL BOMB!!" Rhonda shouted angrily as she picked the device up and threw it at the wall. Helga was frustrated too, as she pondered why would those goons do this to them. All those fighting, was for nothing.

"Rhonda, Helga. Can you hear me? Anyone of you, answer me." Bridget said irately through their earpieces. Both of them were reluctant to answer back. But they had to. In anticipation for a scolding, Helga closed her eyes tightly and put two fingers over the earpiece so it would enable her to answer back. "Yes… milady?"

"I want to see you back in the headquarters… NOW." That made her point.

Helga gazed at Rhonda grimly and said to her, "We're so in deep shit…"

---

"I can't believe it…" Bridget shook her head as she paced back and forth in front of Rhonda and Helga, "A month and two weeks of adequate training and both of you, still screwed up!" she scolded them exasperatedly. They both hung their head in shame, but Rhonda tried to retort back.

"Hey, it wasn't our fault that they sent inexperienced agents such as ourselves in the field!"

"Oh?" Bridget replied back sarcastically, "So, how did Lila and Nadine manage to perform a splendid job with their mission, huh? They successfully caught the criminals and they managed to save the bank from getting robbed as well."

The both went silent.

"And what did you do? You both fell on a trap. The whole bomb thing was a set-up. Didn't I tell you that Michael's a sneaky person?"

"A… a set-up?" Helga asked dimly in a quizzical tone.

"It's the oldest trick in the book. Their cohorts were actually only three blocks away from you two and yet both of you are still gullible enough to fall into their trap!!" Bridget yelled angrily at them.

"HEY!!" Helga shouted back, "at least we put a tracking device on their truck, so it's not a loss!"

"Not good enough." Bridget shot back, "Apparently they knew about it and threw tracking device into the river." She then relayed orders to the Communications Rooms via her communicator. "Wren, I want you to patch the video you recorded earlier to the Conference Room right now." She ordered with an indifferent voice.

Wren nodded and replied, "Yes milady, you may turn the screen on and change to AV1."

"Thank you." Bridget said, and grabbed the remote control to the television next to her. "Our cameras caught them on tape, breaking into a bank." She said, as she pressed a button to show them the video. "And because of your mishap, that bank was robbed." The video played fast-forward. A small truck went into an alley next to the bank, and minutes later, the truck went out again and the alarm rang.

"So? You have the evidence on tape. Why don't you send them to the cops?" Helga asked her.

"We can't. It won't prove anything since the video is in very poor quality and we don't want them to intervene in our organization. But that's not the point." She continued sternly. "The problem is between you two. What we have here is a failure to communicate. A communications breakdown, if you will. You two were too busy about your relentless trivial bickering that it actually managed to blind you two from your job. And I for one won't tolerate it."

They both gulped in dread. Who knows what punishment Bridget would give to them.

"Both of your patrol hours will be extended to three hours, no exceptions, and no excuses. Effective tomorrow night. Now go home, and think about you've just done."

Next chapter, it'll be all about the gang in school again, with the apperances from the guys as well, and it will be much more longer than Chapter 9's. God, I love to write about them when they're at school! And I'm considering a small subplot that I hope it will please Sid and Nadine fans here as well. Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you find any mistakes please tell me and leave a review.