Author's Note: Hey, I think that dumb Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie stole some stuff from my fanfic. -.- But what can lil' ol' me do to fight a large, capitalistic movie empire? Uh... this chapter also happens to be the longest of all chapters in this fic, mostly because it's the climax of this story. This chapter also seems to be pretty dark compared to the light-hearted theme of others, but like always, I'm doing a balancing act so the chapter won't be labelled as such. Well, that's about it. Enjoy the read!
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 26: Kick, Punch. It's all in the Mind.
The battle still raged at the headquarters and both sides already began to show signs of weariness. But fortunately, the winning tide seemed to be on the agents' side. But despite of that, there were fallen comrades who were beaten down by the clutches of the opponents. They were quickly removed from the battle arena and put into a safe spot where the paramedics could attend to their injury. Michael's people weren't doing so hot either, some of them had fled and the defeated were carried away and put into the small rooms that the agents were imprisoned earlier on. They were put into the room so the cops could arrest them later after the fight was over, and LES triumphed over them. Hopefully.
Rhonda and Nadine were still struggling with that burly guy at a certain location inside the training area. And they were nearing the obstacle courses as they fought each other furiously without showing any sign of tiredness.
"Holy crap you fight well!" Rhonda shouted at him as she blocked his punch.
"That's because I work in the perfume department!" he shouted back at her as he threw Rhonda another punch. She evaded it by darting her head away. Nadine helped, but like Rhonda she didn't have any luck of hurting him. But one thing the both of them managed to overpower him that he had to back away because the Rhonda and Nadine combination was too powerful. They arrived at the obstacle course, nearing on one of the swinging practice thingy place with a rope on the side. The burly guy grabbed the rope and swung it to the other side. But Nadine and Rhonda just jumped over the moat and managed to get to the other side of the course.
They resumed fighting. They fight. Then they fight some more. Afterwards, they did some more fighting. Then there was another fight, a little fight, and finally a fight. The author really didn't know how to end this fight so just assume Rhonda and Nadine won after they kicked the guy out of the window into the river even though they were fighting in the lower ground floor at the training area in the first place. So, just assume that they managed to get to the top floor and dropped the guy to his watery… uh, no killings right? So just assume the guy was safe and sound, but very, very wet. My, was that a cop-out. Rhonda walked cautiously to the shattered window and looked down below to inspect it. The only thing she saw was a splash impact and the guy who was gasping for air.
"You guys win!" he shouted at them, "Thank you for getting me out of here!"
Rhonda raised an eyebrow in confusion. Nadine came and stood next to her, as Rhonda looked at her friend with a confused look. "I… I-I don't understand. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Rhonda asked him back.
"Good for the both of us!" he shouted back, "You see, I'm in this thing just because I desperately need the money. That liar Mikey said I was just going to do some odd jobs around the office, but he never told me that I'm going to hurt someone!"
"But why did you fight with us then?" Nadine asked him.
"Well…" he replied back, trying to contemplate for an answer, "I was defending myself!"
"But you provoked us into fighting against you!" Rhonda shouted at him.
The burly guy was stunned, and felt that Rhonda was right after all. He nodded in defeat and said, "Well, I guess you're right. Maybe it was because it was the spur of the moment thing, since everyone is fighting and all… and we're all pumped up and stuff."
Rhonda and Nadine looked at each other and they would agree with him. Yes they did. With a somewhat reluctant nod, Rhonda replied to him, "Yeah… I guess you're right. So… uh…" they began to feel awkward. Should they help him out of the river? "Can you swim?" Nadine asked.
"Yeah, don't worry. I'm not going to drown or anything."
"Okay then…" Rhonda replied back unsurely. "So, uh… there's an embankment over there—" she pointed to some place, "— where you can get out from the river and uh… go back home… and dry yourself… and stuff. You're not cold or anything down there?"
"A little bit, but thanks for the concern. So I'll just head that way, huh?" he said, pointing to the place where Rhonda just specified.
"Uh… yeah." She nodded back.
"Okay…" the burly guy replied, "If you just so happened to shop in an upscale, trendy mall called Bloodydales in one of the classiest parts of the city… be sure to come and see me."
"Omigod!" Rhonda exclaimed, "You actually work there? I, like, shop there like almost every day!"
Nadine slapped her forehead in disbelief. How did the fight managed to get diverted into a casual, friendly talk all of the sudden?
"I work in the perfume department! We have a really good selection of—"
"Uh, Rhonda…" Nadine interjected as she pulled Rhonda's arm. "Don't you think we should go downstairs and help our friends?" she glared at her.
"Oh, yeah… sorry." Rhonda giggled embarrassedly. "Will you be there on the weekends?" she said to him. Nadine was beginning to become impatient and she already began to pull Rhonda's arm harder as an effort to pull her away into the battle again.
"Yeah!" the guy replied back. "I need the extra money, you know!"
"COME. ON. RHONDA!" Nadine scolded her as she continued to pull her away from the window.
"See you there!" Rhonda replied back as she gave him a wave, and she finally ran along with Nadine back to the training area downstairs.
"Wait… how did we end up here while we were supposed to be downstairs?" Rhonda asked.
"I dunno…" Nadine replied, just as quizzical as her friend. "It just… happen…"
---
Back inside the training area, it was still frenetic as ever. Phoebe was still fighting with the Pet Shop Girl, swords crossed and all. And still exchanging insults to each other too. The locked their blades together, while looking at each other face-to-face. Neither one of them show any signs of weakness at all.
"Coming face-to-face with me must leave you petrified!" Phoebe insulted her.
But Pet Shop Girl swiftly made a comeback, "Is that your face? I thought it was your backside!" PSG then pushed Phoebe away by shoving her sword towards her, and she recoiled, almost falling on her back. But Phoebe managed to regain her balance back and managed to block a swipe from the Pet Shop Girl in a nick of time. The fought again for some time until they locked each other's swords again. This time, it was the Pet Shop Girl's turn to make an insult.
"You're no match for my brains, you poor fool!"
"I'd be in real trouble if you ever used them!" Phoebe smirked at her, and they fight again. As they swiped and slashed each other, and with the success of deflecting them away, they suddenly began to have a flashback, back when they were fighting against each other a year ago at the Olympics qualification in the Civic center. The flashback was short, and straight to the point, unlike a certain crappy anime about ninjas that apparently had an extremely long useless, unnecessary flashback that did not justify any focal plot point at all. The flashback started something like this:
They both fight. Rules and guidelines of the match stated that attacks are allowed only by using swords, not with anything else. Phoebe was totally overwhelmed by the Pet Shop Girl. After a barrage of intense attacks, Phoebe lost grasp of her fencing sword and left her totally defenseless. Still in berserk, the Pet Shop Girl smirked at her and kicked her in the stomach. The judges immediately call for her disqualification, and thusly made Phoebe the winner instantly. But the Pet Shop Girl was aghast and infuriated by the decision and she started to shout torrents of insults and profanities at the judges asking why she got disqualified. Disgusted by her attitude and the lack of sportsmanship that she displayed, she was instantly barred from entering any qualification events for five years.
That made The Pet Shop Girl angrier, and instantly she ran to the judges with furious rage, jumped up on the table the judges were using and tried to stab one of them in front of her. Fortunately, Sal, who was there among the audience managed to save the judge in time by pushing her away from them and she quickly grabbed the sword that the Pet Shop Girl was using and pointed it at her. At that time, security personnel rushed to the scene and detained PSG. Sal walked over to Phoebe and asked whether she was all right as she was being attended by the paramedics. With the sword still in her grasp, Sal sensed that there was a disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Oh wait… she just felt that the sword she was handling was particularly light. She swung it around and around for a while to get a feel for it. She also checked the sharpness of the edge.
She then complained to the judges that the sword did not follow the Olympics' standard guidelines. With the new evidence in their hands, the judges made changes to their decision that the Pet Shop Girl was barred from entering any qualifications competition forever, and ever and ever and ever and ever. Eh, still the flashback is shorter than that crappy anime. Sal was Phoebe's sparring partner when she was in training.
The flashback angered and infuriated The Pet Shop Girl as she reminisce every painful memory about that match that supposed to be a turning point of her life. But because of that unfortunate incident, she had no choice but to return back to the crappy Pet Shop where she could get bit, pooped on, pissed on, answer a dumb customer without being sarcastic or rolling her eyes when he asked "Is this a bird seed?" when 'BIRD SEED' was PRINTED ON THE PACKAGE FOR HIS CONVINIENCE and being laughed at by that stupid goddamn annoying parrot that she always had an urge to choke it to death. What a miserable job.
The rage seemed to make her stronger and stronger as she continuously barraged her with a lot of constant, intense attack. But similar to her last fight with PSG, Phoebe unfortunately let her sword flung out from her hand and she was again, defenseless against her opponent. Déjà vu.
"Well, well. Now this is all very familiar…" Pet Shop Girl said to herself, as she walked to Phoebe to intimidate her. Phoebe could not do anything but she had to back away from her. "Ohhh yes, now I remember." She laughed maliciously. She then gave her a kick in the stomach and Phoebe instantly fell down to the floor. She coughed a bit and fear started to become more and more intense. "And since there are no judges for me to stab here…" she said as she smiled evilly at her. Phoebe was scared, but she couldn't get up and run as the tip of the Pet Shop Girl's sword was at her throat, and the only thing she could do was to move backwards slowly while looking at the sword with her fearful eyes. Pet Shop Girl lifted her sword in a thrusting like position, aiming for her heart. Could be this be end for our beloved Phoebe Hyerdahl?
Clang!
Phoebe slowly opened her eyes, and saw two blades of sword in front of her. She was quite surprised, and looked upwards. Sal saved her life by blocking the thrusting maneuver just in time with her sword. Both and Sal and PSG looked at each other with hateful eyes. Sal began to smirk and said to her adversary, "Just like last year, right? And again, you are unsuccessful at the attempt!"
They both released each other's lock and went away from each other. Sal quickly helped Phoebe up to her feet again and put her behind her to guard her.
"Thanks, Sal." Phoebe said to her. "I was nearly a goner there."
"No prob. Here, take this sword and help me fight her." she said, referring the sword that she hung on her waist. It was the same sword that Phoebe used to defeat her. Phoebe smiled at her and took the sword away from her. The sword which was wielding right now was called a rapier. She then pointed it at Pet Shop Girl. Sal then continued, "With our combined strength, we shall overpower her as… uh… comrades… yeah, comrades."
Pet Shop Girl went back to her ready stance again. Two against one. This could get interesting…
---
Onward to Lila, Bridget and Cady, fighting furiously. To Bridget's surprise, Cady was still in good condition to block herself from the onslaught of attacks from herself and Lila, even though she was outnumbered two against one. Lila, who had been reluctant to get into a fight, had suddenly developed a taste for one. The sweet, prude girl suddenly became a complete opposite of herself. But try as she may, she wasn't as strong as Bridget and Cady. Still, her attacks made Cady fumbled around a bit and couldn't block some of the attacks being thrown by her opponents. Cady knew that if she stayed in this spot any longer, she would be in deep trouble. The fight continued until they reached the place where Phoebe put her wooden quarterstaff earlier.
Cady saw the staff, and smiled to herself. The staff would even the odds a lot. So after the last punch from Lila, which Cady successfully deflected it, she dropped herself on her back to the ground and tackled the girls down to the floor. She then jumped over them, successfully grabbed the staff, rolled over a few times and went up on her feet again. Lila and Bridget quickly got up, but to their surprise, Cady was wielding the staff proudly, doing twirls and whatnot to intimidate them. But neither girl was in any way impressed or intimidated by her actions. So they decided to resume fighting, by running to her to fight again.
But Bridget and Lila of all people should know that it was unwise to directly charge towards a person who was armed. Cady was ready for them, and immediately she thrust her staff onto Lila, sidestepped to the left and use the other end of the staff to knock her down. Another violent blow was planted on Bridget's backside and she smacked her on the head.
Cady did a couple of somersaults jumps to go further from them. She would've finished them now, but she liked to take things little by little and step by step, to torture and to humiliate her hateful opponents. Humiliation was done by insulting them, to lower their spirits.
"Pathetic. Simply pathetic." She laughed at them as she watched them tried to get up. Both Bridget and Lila were weakening, and their arms could be seen visibly shaken as they tried to get up. Through her messy red hair, Lila spotted something in front of her; a box of shurikens seemed to have fallen down from a table near her, possibly when she collapsed from the attack that she got from Cady. She lifted her hair back and looked at the shurikens (stereotypically named as ninja stars) again. After a lot of contemplation, she grabbed one with determination, and she immediately threw it to Cady while she was completely unprepared.
But her reflex were just as fast and quick as lightning, and she quickly use her staff to defend herself. The shuriken struck the staff, which originally aimed her head, right between the eyes. She was stunned at Lila's hand-eye coordination skills. Bridget was also surprised. "Again. Again! Do it again!" she shouted at her. Lila nodded, and she took all of the weapons and began to throw it to Cady one-by-one.
Cady was completely stunned and unprepared by this, as she desperately tried to defend herself from the attacks with her staff. She tried to smacked them away, blocked them from hitting her and tried to dodge them as she moved away back slowly from her adversaries, until she hit a pillar behind her. Lila, with only four shurikens in her hands threw them at the specific places she was aiming. Two on her arms and two on her legs. They all scored a near miss; they only hit the clothes and not the flesh, thus making Cady immobile and prone to attacks. The staff fell from her hands.
Bridget held a hand to Lila to ask her to stop. She then went over to Cady as Lila followed her from behind. Bridget said to her, "There's no amnesty for a traitor like you. You're going to pay the price for what you have done." She slapped her in the face. Still, Cady glared at her in defiance and spat her back on the face.
"I'm ever so grateful of what you've taught me, but turning your back against us is not what I would call a smart choice!" she then slapped her across the face. Lila felt a bit guilty by doing that to her, but a traitor must be punished. Also she avoided using profanities this time.
Bridget slapped her again, in anger and spite. After she wiped the spit and sweat off her face, she said to Lila, "Let's put her into one of those rooms there." Bridget pointed to one of the small rooms where she was held prisoner earlier, "This fight is gonna end soon."
---
Sal fell down sliding away from the kick she just received from the Pet Shop Girl, leaving Phoebe alone to fend herself. Groaning from the pain, and without any hesitation, she jumped back into action, helping Phoebe. The weapons that her enemies were wielding proved too overbearing for Pet Shop Girl. As they fight, PSG saw a couple of swords inside a basket near her. She had to get one of them to even the odds a little bit. Phoebe noticed what she was planning. After the last clang from Phoebe's sword, she quickly pushed her away and ran to the basket to get the sword.
As just as she was about to grab one, she was tackled down by Sal, and they both fell down to the ground. The sword she was holding was hurled out from her grasp, fell on the floor and spun away from her. Not getting her determination down, the Pet Shop Girl still persisted on getting her hand on that sword as Sal struggled hard not to let her escape from her clutches. Phoebe quickly sprung into action, jumped over the girls and kicked the basket away. Phoebe then turned around and pointed her sword at her.
"You're clumsy." Phoebe said spitefully, as the Pet Shop Girl glared at her back. She did not want to lose. In desperation, PSG grabbed Phoebe's sword by its blade and yanked it out from her hand. With her bleeding hand, she then pointed the rapier back at Phoebe, slightly piercing her body. If she had pushed the sword slightly more, Phoebe would be seriously injured.
"Back away, now." She threatened her, "Before I impale you further." She then turned to her back and said to Sal, "and you, release me, now." Sal caved in, and did as she ordered. She slowly released her arms away from her grasp and got up. The Pet Shop Girl too got up, but still maintaining the sword on Phoebe. Then PSG quickly pulled the sword out and Phoebe screamed a short, painful shriek as she put her hands onto the injury to hold the pain down. But still PSG pointed her sword at her as she circled around Phoebe, glaring at her murderously. Afterwards she walked back slowly and Sal quickly came to Phoebe's aid as she inspected the injury.
She was too tired. She had to retreat. Two against one was too overwhelming for her. She shall flee to fight on another day. "This isn't over yet." She said threateningly. The Pet Shop Girl then hung her weapon on her waist and ran away trying to disappear through the crowd. But to Sal, it wasn't over yet.
She asked Phoebe, "Can you run, just a little bit?"
"Yeah…" she replied, trying to bear the pain, "Yes, I can."
And without any further delay, Sal kicked the sword on the floor up to her hands and targeted it at the fleeing Pet Shop Girl. Phoebe understood of her plan, as she began running. She threw the sword, and it hit directly on PSG's sword, causing it to fall down. PSG turned around to go after it, as Phoebe dashed through the fighting crowd, desperately trying to bear down the pain. Phoebe jumped to the sword and fortunately she reached it first. Phoebe grabbed it, slid on the floor and stopped just right in front of the Pet Shop Girl. Phoebe then quickly put the blade onto her throat. Pet Shop Girl couldn't do anything but to admit defeat.
Sal let a sigh of relief, and walked over wearily to them. She smiled at Phoebe, and glared at PSG. She said to her, "You could be a valuable asset to us, but sadly you use your skills for the wrong reason."
In defiance, PSG replied back, "Like I said, this isn't over yet." Out of nowhere she pulled a dagger out from a hidden pocket in her jumpsuit. Realizing that both of their lives could be in danger, they quickly darted away from her. The target was Phoebe, but she missed. It was merely a distraction. Phoebe quickly turned around, and the Pet Shop Girl was nowhere in sight. They were safe, for the moment.
Phoebe then fell to her knees, groaning as she held her pain. Sal quickly came to inspect her. The cut was not deep thankfully, and a few bandages, suturing, disinfectant and a styptic drug would do the trick to heal her back. "C'mon, let's get you to the paramedic, Slayer." Sal said to her, smiling. She finally found a person to pass her 'Slayer' status down.
---
The three-way melee fight was furious among Helga, Olga and Michael. It was rapid, yet elegant, ferocious and yet, graceful. It was like ballet in the sky, except people were beating the shit out of each other. And it seemed Michael overestimated the Pataki sisters. Even the two of them fighting against him, they weren't making any progress at all. Helga was too clumsy and reckless with her attacks, while Olga left too much opportunity and chance for Michael to strike. But in spite of it all, they were still willing to fight him to the end. Michael had done so much damage that they wouldn't let him proceed with his plans, or ran away.
But once in a while, Michael was sometimes careless himself. He let his chest unguarded. Helga saw it and she quickly performed a flying kick and sent him flying across the place and landed on his back as he slid away. The blow Helga gave him was too powerful that he was unconscious for a second or two. He then woke up, groaning from the pain. Still bewildered, he looked around his surroundings to get his conscious restarted again. To his shock, and delight, he saw a staff conveniently located next to him, with some shuriken impaled on it. He quickly grabbed the quarterstaff, pulled the shurikens out and chucked them to the sisters. They quickly dodged away successfully but they were shocked that he could throw them all in perfect precision even when he was in his bewildered state.
"Impossible!" Helga blurted, "The kick should've knocked you out cold!"
"Now that you mention it, I think I'm bleeding inside my chest." He said back, smiling. He twirled the staff around and around, and held it tightly as he prepared for another fight. The staff would give him more advantage, to make the situation even more unfair. Yet even with the new weapon in his hands, Olga and Helga's determination did not dampen. They still wanted to crush him. They looked at each other, and smiled.
"Still wanna keep going?" Olga asked her little sister.
"You bet your ass I am." Helga replied to her older sister. Finally they had something that they can agree with each other.
And so they ran to Michael, and the fight resumed. They kick and they punch to attack, dodging and evading from the ferocious assault, throwing and shoving each other, hitting and smacking one another, and jumping and ducking to elude. All three of them never fought a fight this frenetic before, thusly making this was one of the battles that they would never forget in their entire life. The three of them were beginning to be weakened from the prolonged, frenzied fight. They began to show signs of weariness. Michael looked the worst of them all. He was fighting two people that finally overwhelmed him, and he couldn't concentrate well. Hits on him became more and more frequent as he was unable to block the attacks. He was exhausted. He put the staff in front him in a feeble attempt to block their attacks. But Helga gave him yet another kick and shattered the staff in pieces.
"And this is for being stupid!" Olga punched him on the face, and he collapsed to the floor. And with that punch it marked the final attack. Olga and Helga looked at each other, smiled and gave each other a hug to celebrate their accomplishment. The celebration was about them defeating their adversary, but mainly it was about the two of them working as sisters together for the first time in their entire life. It was something that they would never imagine of doing together.
They then released each other and looked around the training arena. Most of Michael's gang was defeated, broken, and in disarray. Most of them were caught and was put into the rooms while others tried to make a pathetic attempt to escape. They looked back at Michael. He was breathing heavily, gasping for breath.
"Should we leave him here?" Helga asked her sister.
"I think we should bring him to the rooms over there." She pointed to the rooms mentioned earlier.
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"If I play my cards correctly, your friends should be here with the reinforcements from the police department any minute now. They know how to settle these things up."
The elevator door dinged. It opened, and Nadine and Rhonda were shocked at the scene being unfolded before them.
"Aww, man…" Nadine sighed in disappointment, "The party's already over."
"Damn, and here I am thinking that I could've kick some more ass today…"
"Oh well…" Nadine said as she took Sid's pocketknife out from her pocket and gazed at it, "at least I won't have the chance to use this…"
"Hey… Helga and her sister are there." Rhonda pointed to them. And they walked over to the sisters. Upon arrival, they looked at Michael, and they gasped in horror.
"Whoa…" Rhonda gasped, "What the hell happened here?"
Michael slowly opened his eyes. In his blurry eyesight, he saw somebody was holding a knife on her hand…
"Well, if you must know Princess Lloyd," Helga said to her, "My sister and I took him down all by ourselves."
"C'mon, let's not wait any longer." Olga said to them all, "help us put him—"
Suddenly, Michael sprung up all of the sudden, grabbed the knife away from Nadine's hand and put it on her throat as he locked her hands behind her back. It was too fast and too unexpected for Nadine to make any move to counter it.
"NADINE!" Rhonda screamed, fearing for her friend. The scream echoed through the arena, and it could be heard by everyone. Phoebe, Lila, Nadine's former mentor Natalie and Bridget quickly ran to the source of the scream.
"You coward!" Olga shouted at him. "Let her go right now!"
"So what if I'm a coward?" he replied back, in a tense, desperate and somewhat psychotic tone. "I'm not gonna let myself captured by the likes of you! You… you… bitches! He… he… hehehehehe…"
Natalie carefully made a step forward. But Michael saw it and he pushed the knife deeper onto Nadine's throat, cutting her a bit. She felt chocked and coughed up a bit.
"Stay back! All of you!" he replied back fearfully. "One more move and I'll slice her throat out!" He then looked behind him and saw the elevator. He slowly made his way there while still holding Nadine as hostage. His enemies followed closely after him. Tears flowed from Nadine's eyes in fear, hoping for her friends to help her out. But with Michael acting unstably deranged, and unpredictably, any sudden move would spell doom for Nadine.
Michael, pushed the elevator button repeatedly in desperation. He thought that Nadine would slow him down if he took her with him, so it'd be the most logical that he set her free afterwards after the elevator arrived. The elevator doors opened, and Michael violently shoved Nadine away from him and quickly he went into the elevator to escape. Natalie caught Nadine in time before she fell to the floor and Rhonda quickly came to her to help her friend.
"Hang on, Nadine!" Rhonda said concernedly, "You're gonna be fine. Bring her to the medic!"
"He's going to the command room!" Helga shouted, "We can't let him escape!"
"We use the emergency stairs!" Bridget said in a panicky tone. "Rhonda and Natalie - go and help Nadine. The rest of us we'll go after him!"
Michael felt now that he was in the clear. He'll go back here again to claim what's his after he amassed a new gang. As soon the elevator door opened to the command room, lights were shone on him, with a shout of:
"Hillwood PD! This is the police!" shouted Detective Pudney as she and several other policewomen pointed their guns at him. "Hands behind your head NOW!"
But Michael didn't want to give up just yet. He saw a button on the elevator that leaded to the roof. He quickly pushed it and the door closed again. He desperately did not want to be captured.
Phoebe's fight has always been my favorite, and I really enjoyed writing her scene in this chapter. Maybe because it's the awesomeness of swordfight that makes me to love it. Nadine is not seriously injured, just so you know. Stay tune for the next chapter, where a chase scene is being contemplated. Until then, thank you for reading and please leave a review!