Author's Note: In the previous chapter, I promised action, and I'm going to deliver. This chapter in particular is a beginning for a big fight scene I'm planning, and hopefully it lives to your expectations. Please enjoy.

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 23: Confrontation of Enemies

"All set?" Helga asked Nadine.

Nadine tightened her belt a little bit and showed her the thumbs up. "I'm ready to go." She replied. Rhonda clamped her hands together to lift her best friend into the ventilation shaft. Nadine stepped on her hands, removed the grate and quickly jumped in. Rhonda was glad that Nadine made it, but was in dismay to see her lovely hands and fingers turned dirty and grimy and eewww…

With the small flashlight that she got from Rhonda in her mouth to aid her, she began to journey though the dusty, musty and dirty ventilation shaft, which thank God, didn't end with a 'ty'. With every passing breath, she could hear them echoing through the rusty, confined space. Somehow, she was compelled to say "I, am your father," but she shrugged it off since she didn't have a man's voice and wasn't a member of the opposite gender, she wasn't burnt to crisp, and it might alert the guards.

She arrived at a junction, where one led to the left and the other one led forward. She chose to go to the left. She continued forward until she encountered a large, ugly and disgusting spider hindering her way. Of course, since this was Nadine we were talking about, she just sighed admirably at the critter, said some wonderful words to the ugly thing, and finally she picked it up with her bare hands and put it away someplace else. She then cut the spider web with her hands. After she went though it, she then rebuilt the web all by herself as a compensation for the damage she had done. How did she manage to rebuild it? Don't ask.

She saw a light shining through a grate not far from her. She quickened her pace while still trying to keep quiet. Slowly she lifted the grate up, put it aside and poked her head out a bit to scan the area around. Back at the door, all the agents were looking at Phoebe's PDA to monitor Nadine's progress. The small, blurry screen could capture a glimpse, unclear silhouette of Nadine's as she jumped down and rolled over behind a stack of crates.

Rhonda sighed in relief, "She made it." she said as she put a hand on her chest.

"Okay." Helga said, "When she disables the power supply, we go in and take the guards by surprise. Don't make any sound whatsoever. We move decisively and stealthily. We have approximately less than two minutes before they reroute the power back on."

Everybody nodded.

"Okay. Now we just wait until the power goes off. Have your night-vision ready. Gino, until we say it's safe for you to come out, you stay here on this spot." Though Helga didn't notice it, she was showing her leadership qualities, a merit that Olga noticed while observing her.

Felt that the sound he heard was just his imagination, the guard just shrugged it off and turned around to resume his post. Nadine let out a deep, long sigh of relief as she put a hand on her chest. She then slowly got out from the box she was hiding in, and walked hastily to the electric box behind some crates.

"Get ready." Phoebe said, "She's at the objective now."

Nadine opened the box up and to her surprise the on/off switch was broken. If she wanted to cut the power off then she had to use the pocketknife that Sid gave to her earlier. She took the knife out of her pocket and gazed at it, deep in thought. She promised herself that she wouldn't use it, but under these circumstances, would she?

"Why is she hesitating?" Helga asked impatiently.

After contemplating about it, she made her mind, and put the knife back in her pocket. She then stared at the box nervously. Her hand began to tingle. Her instincts shouted to her to go for it. She began to sweat. And with a great amount of reluctance, she forced herself to grab the wires in a fistful, and yanked it out violently. She felt a bit of electrical jolt flowed through her body and large amount of sparks flew from the box. The power was finally cut off.

"It's out! Let's go!"

The agents slowly opened the door and crept into the darkness with their night-visions on. Moments later, the arena was filled with muffled noises, thuds and screams of pain. The imprisoned agents were baffled, stunned and some were scared upon hearing the noise. Up at the control room at the security room, someone was raising an eyebrow at a blank monitor screen.

"Hey boss." He called Michael. He groaned exasperatedly and walked over to him.

"What?" he replied bitterly, "I'm very busy right now."

"But you were just standing around and did nothing." The guy answered back, looking at him quizzically.

Michael smacked him, "Silence, monitor slave! I didn't pay you to criticize me dammit!"

"All right! All right! Sheesh!" he turned around and pointed the blank monitor screen. "This cam is out."

Michael raised an eyebrow in alarm, "Where is it at?"

"At the training area. From the looks of it, the camera is either destroyed or there's no power down there."

"Can you reroute the power back?" He asked again.

"It's gonna be tough…" he sighed and started to type on the keyboard, looking for an alternative route to power the training arena back on. After a few trials and errors, the hacker managed to restore the power back. The image on the monitor sizzled, unclear, blurred and grainy, but the picture got considerably better in the end and they could see the agents were being freed from their imprisonment and they could see the agents were tying the guards up on a support pillar. The anger in Michael raged. He was furious, enraged and exploding with anger, and finally he let out a loud "NOOooooOOOooooOO!" which was multiple times better than Darth Vader's.

"SEND ALL OF OUR PEOPLE DOWNSTAIRS! EVEN THE GUYS WHO ARE GUARDING OUTSIDE THE BASE! I WANT EVERY AGENT IN THAT HALL TO BE ELIMINATED!"

---

"Nadine! Nadine! Please say something!" Rhonda shouted worriedly at her electrocuted friend, lying on the floor with smoke rising up from her. Her hair stood up like those wacky Super Saiyan people and little parts of her uniform was burnt. Nadine slowly opened her eyes and saw all of her friends looking at her. They were all smiling.

"Oh, Nadine! You're all right!" Rhonda said joyfully and hugged her friend. Nadine seemed to be startled by it, but was happy to see that all of her friends, especially her best friend were concerned about her.

"Yeah. Yeah, Rhonda." She replied back to calm her friend down as Rhonda released her grasp. "I'm okay. I'm okay. It's just that I'm feeling very jolty right now…" she informed them as she got up. She jerked a bit twice as a result from the shock, but nothing serious occurred. "Now I know how exactly my mom's roast beef feels like…"

Olga, for some reason, began to feel uncomfortable, for she saw many eyes looking at her in disbelief, and in surprise. Whispers migrated and circulated amongst the crowd. She could hear some of the agents doubting that it was really her, the legendary Olga. "Is that Olga?" one asked, "It can't be…" replied another. "Is that the Olga everyone's been talking about?" asked another. It made her nervous. She never knew that she was this big of a legend in the agency. Helga on the other hand, became irritated and jealous that her sister suddenly became the center of attention as she glared at her with narrowed eyes in detest. Her affection and warmth towards her were suddenly lost in a pile of anger, jealousy and resentment. She was eclipsed by her sister again once more, but not in their own household, but amongst friends and allies.

In the sea of people, Olga could see someone walking towards her. It was a welcoming sight. It was her former apprentice, Bridget. She smiled at her. Olga smiled back. It was as though two friends who never seen each other in a long time. Well yeah, they did, since the last time they saw each other was during Olga's retirement.

"Bridget." Olga said warmly.

Bridget replied back with a smile, "It's good to see you again, Olga." And they hugged one another.

"So you're here because of Order 28602 huh?" Bridget asked, after they released each other's grasp. Order 28602 as mentioned by Bridget and earlier by Olga, is an order where former agents such as Olga, is obligated to help the agency even when she is in retirement.

"Not exactly." Olga replied, which made Bridget raise her eyebrow, "I'm here because of my sister. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here with you right now. She's the one who gives me the strength and the will to come here." Helga was indeed surprised at her sister's remark. She couldn't believe that she was the one who motivated her own sister, despite being indifferent at her. The remark made Helga smiled appreciatively and in confidence.

"That's not the only thing she does." Rhonda said, as she stepped forward. "She's actually very logical in her thinking and because of her we managed to get out from our predicament at the Ravenholm Dockyards." Helga was shocked to see her bitterest of rival said words of praise of her. "Helga came up with the plan of helping us to escape and the plan to free you all." Rhonda said approvingly.

"And despite of her somewhat contemptuous behavior – no offence Helga." Phoebe said to her.

"None taken." Helga replied back coolly.

"She's caring and thoughtful enough to be my best friend." She said smiling. "Wait a minute, did you just shrug off my criticism of you?"

"I've learned my lesson, Pheebs. From now on, I'll try to be nicer to you, heck, to all of you." She spread her arm wide to her friends.

"And she's the first one who actually stood up against me!"

"Linda?" Helga said in disbelief, smiling at her.

"For too long I've waited for someone to stand up against me, and you are the first one that I encountered. You're a rebel. You think differently. And you got spunk. I like spunk. You're okay in my book, kid. God, I sound a lot like my dad…"

And the training area suddenly became noisy with chatters and talk about Helga. She was in disbelief, and yet extremely flattered about all the statements made by her sister, friends and allies. Probably this was the attention she was looking for so long. Her smile widened. She was proud of her accomplishments. Now she was the center of attention. Her mentor, sister, and close friends came to her and said lots of words of praise of her. She was grateful.

"But, lest we forgot, I have to mention Nadine and Lila." Phoebe said. "Nadine was the one who came up with the plan to free us from the mansion and Lila helped us apprehending the sniper."

But Nadine quickly replied, "In comparison to Helga's accomplishments, I think I only contribute a little bit." She replied in modesty.

"Likewise." Lila concurred. The whole arena was filled with soft laughter.

"So, how are your teams fairing right now?" Bridget asked in curiosity.

"As you may've probably known," Phoebe replied, "we were caught in a terrible predicament. But thankfully we managed to escape and the mission continues to proceed as planned. We were sent here by our team leaders as runners to report the incident."

"We on the other hand," Rhonda said, "had to act on instinct to go back to the base since our orders right now are to inform you of our status, but unfortunately the network is down, so we had to come here."

"Good. You performed just like when you were trained." Bridget suddenly felt a flare of enthusiasm raged in her heart, "Now, we shall take back our base back!" she shouted to all of the agents, with her fist high in the air. Everybody shared her enthusiasm, as they shouted a battle cry along with her.

In the midst of the shouts and hollers, they could hear a sound of a metallic screech getting louder and louder. The battle cry dimmed and the training arena became silent once more, with the exception of the noise. Not a moment too soon, they could hear a clanking march descending down the emergency stairs in unison. Sounded like its numbers were about even, if not less with the freed agents. The elevator finally arrived, the door opened, revealing the agents' most hated adversary, and the antagonist of this little story. He was flanked by two of his female cohorts, the ever so deadly Pet Shop Girl and the loathsome betrayer, Cady. All of Michael's gang members came out from the doors next to the elevators. All of them are wielding melee weapons like baseball bats, knives and brass knuckles but none of them carried guns since the bullets were spent on shooting the sky when they were celebrating their victory earlier. Yes, they are stupid.

"Well, ain't this a cheerful bunch?" Michael said with a smirk. He noticed his little brother in the crowd, "And look, it seems like my little brother is here to join the party." Michael walked out from the elevator and strode in front of them whilst being guarded by the girls behind him. (Guarded by girls…?)

"You won't get away with this, Mikey." Somebody said to him.

"Who said that awful and clichéd hero line?" he shot back spitefully.

"I did." She emerged out from the crowd. It was Olga.

"Oh, God." He said in total shock, "Not you…"

"Yes, it's me." She replied back. "You shouldn't come here. Didn't life in prison teach you anything?"

"Yes it did. It taught me that I should be more careful, and not to drop the soap." Some of the agents giggled and chuckled softly, "And I learned martial arts too, to prepare for something like this to happen." He smiled at Olga. He then looked at his brother and said, "Go home, little bro. You don't belong here."

"I hate you, Michael." He said brokenly. "I hate you."

"And take that crying someplace else! What are you, a man or what?" he shouted back.

"No Michael. This is where I make my stand." He said defiantly. "I can no longer stand of seeing you bringing plague to our family. Ma is sick because you made her worry about you, pops is in jail because of you—"

"It's because pops is weak, you fool!" he shouted back viciously, "Can't you see it, Gino? Are you really blind from the truth? Pops' organization was already crumbling even before I came in. I had to save our family business from that senile old man! Why can't you ACCEPT THAT DAD ISN'T FIT ENOUGH TO RUN IT?"

"YOU'RE WRONG!" Gino shouted back, "When pops was the leader, other families respected us. At least dignity and pride was with our family's name when pops was running it. And look what happen to us now. Nothing but a bunch of petty thieves and robbers…" he said melancholically. "Look at us, we're at the lowest of low and nobody respects us anymore. No other family will help us… all because of YOU!"

"Listen to yourself!" Michael scoffed back, "You sound just like the old man! Weak and pathetic!"

"You're wrong, dear brother!" Gino replied back angrily, pointing his finger at him. "And I'm going to prove you wrong!"

"Then come on! Prove me your worth!" he inflamed him provokingly.

"DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he ran over to him, made his hand into a fist and punched him, but Michael managed to catch it with his own bare hand. He smiled devilishly at his own brother and said, "You're weak." He slowly twisted Gino's arm, making him to cry in pain. Gino tried to fight back by throwing him another punch, but it was deflected easily by his brother. Michael laughed devilishly, and punched his brother in the stomach. Gino tried desperately to hold back his pain on the stomach and on his arm. By now, all agents were shocked and horrified of what Michael did to his brother. They couldn't do anything to stop him.

Michael then proceeded to punch his brother on the face twice before he let lose of his grip on Gino and he fell to the floor. Still feeling greatly in pain, Gino tried to get up. A few of the agents tried to help him. "No!" he shouted to them, "this is my fight! Not yours!" he hacked a bit and spitted a wad of blood out from his mouth. Michael paced around amused by his little brother's defiance. Yet, he wouldn't want him to spoil his fun. Gino tried to get up, but he got kicked on the side of his body hard by his own brother. He couldn't get up anymore. He was unconscious.

"How could you do that to your own brother?" Olga shouted resentfully in disbelief what she just saw.

"You really are a sick freak, you know that!" Helga added in addition to her sister's comments.

"That's one of the privileges of being an older brother." He chuckled, "I can do anything to him."

"I was right to dump you, Michael!" Olga shot back, "Look at you, you treated your brother as if he's a stray dog! I would never, ever do a thing like that to my sister, even when she made me angry!"

"You are the worst sibling, ever!" Helga concurred with her sister, "Even though my sister annoyed the hell out of me, I'd never do anything to hurt her like the way you did to your brother!"

Helga's and Olga's statements were pretty much agreed unanimously by all agents who had brothers or sisters. Though siblings can be quite annoying, obnoxious and drives you up the wall sometimes, they are a part of family, and they needed as much care and love to know that you were always with them, regardless the situation. Heh, that's quite of a moral lesson there.

After ordering some paramedics to help Gino, Bridget came forward and confronted the enemy. "You party ends here." She said. "Our forces are very well trained and outnumbered yours. You can't possibly beat us."

"On the contrary." Michael replied back, "My gang is armed and they can destroy yours easily."

"Hah! Don't intimidate us, Mikey. They can't! They just can't!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"God, are we still in kindergarten or something?" Helga snapped back to break up the immature fight. And with that Bridget stuck her tongue out at Michael and he responded with the same.

"I'll take on Michael." Olga said to her sister. "We still have our personal differences to settle."

"I'll help you." Helga said.

"No." Olga replied back. "You're still inexperienced."

Helga rolled her eyes, "Don't be so overprotective Olga. Remember that I was the only one who defeated Linda?"

But still, Olga was defiant. She didn't want her sister to get hurt. "Barely." She replied back.

"But what about 'sisters helping each other' huh?" Helga replied back, getting angry, "Besides, you're skills are rusty. You need help."

Helga was right. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't shrug the facts that she was in the vulnerable spot. Reluctantly, she had to accept for a while. "Stay close."

"Cady, I'm calling you out, traitor." Bridget called, and Cady walked out from the villain crowd.

"Traitor?" Lila whispered to herself in disbelief, and it was heard by Bridget.

"Yes Lila. Your former mentor is a traitor who backstabbed and betrayed us." Bridget replied. "She must pay for all the things she has done to us."

"I-I… don't understand…"

"You don't understand shit!" Cady said to Lila, smiling, "Look at you. So gullible and naïve, no wonder you're so timid."

"What…?" Lila replied in disbelief.

"See, she's so dumb, that she hardly understands what's happening!" She began to laugh.

"Will you…" her eyes started to become all teary, "ever so please to stop…"

Cady laughed hysterically as well as evilly, "And polite too, even when I practically insulted the shit out of her!"

"I SAID SHUT UP YOU FU—" and string of expletives, foul words, and curses were being said by her, in languages that were understandable and incomprehensible to some. The colorful languages that Lila said were so foul, so disgusting, so degrading and so demeaning; that the author wouldn't dare to write them in this chapter of fears that the inbox would be bombed by soccer moms. There was a moment of strange, awkward silence passing thru the arena, as everybody looked at her in shocked disbelief. Cady was totally humiliated by Lila's remark.

"Oh my virgin ears…" Helga said, stunned as she put her hands on her ears.

Lila smiled a bit. She felt good though after saying those words, since she wanted it clear out of her chest for holding them in for so long. She also needed to go to a confession after this fiasco.

"You shall pay for your inappropriate use of dialogue!" Cady shouted back. "AARRGGHH!"

"KILL!" Michael shouted, and his gang obliged. "Do not hesitate just because they're girls! Show no mercy!"

"DESTROY THEM ALL!" Bridget hollered, and the agents replied with a battle cry. In the training arena, a full scale battle had just begun between good and evil.

---

Elsewhere…

In traffic jam, inside a blue muscle car, sat Gerald, Sid and Stinky, bored out of their skulls as they waited the car in front of them to move.

"Told you, you shouldn't take the 405…" Sid said bitterly.

"Shut up Sid. Just shut up." Gerald said angrily through his clenched teeth.

If you have a brother or sister, you'd understand, and to further extend, can relate to what I'm trying to say about Helga and Olga. I'm basing their relationship from my relationship with my brother. Bittersweet, and yet still nice to each other. Uh... I think I shouldn't mention that. I'm trying to portray Michael as a sibling from hell and the ultimate worst person to have as a brother, and poor Gino got the short end of the stick. Poor guy... And with that, I consider this chapter to be over. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review.