Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold or any of the characters. Hey Arnold is the property of Nickelodeon and Craig Bartlett.
A Trip Through Time
Chapter 2: Where are we? When are we?!
Arnold began to stir as he began to regain consciousness. He hissed as he felt a slight headache and winced when the sun light hit his eyes, bothering his vision.
"Wait? Sunlight?..." Arnold questioned out loud as began to run his eyes, finally coming back to the land of the awake.
He looked around to see that it was daytime, and not even dawn either, it looked like it was probably seven or eight. He turned to see Gerald still asleep on the ground, totally knocked out.
"Oh man, don't tell me we have been out all night?..." Arnold thought in alarm. His grandparents must be so worried! Not to mention Gerald's and the others.
'Others?..."Arnold said and then recalled that he and Gerald had not been alone, Helga and Phoebe were with them last night when...when...whatever that thing was appeared.
"Gerald, wake up!..." Arnold said as he tried to shake him awake. Unfortunately Gerald was a pretty heavy sleeper.
"Not now momma, five more minutes..." A still sleeping Gerald mumbled in his sleepy state.
Arnold blinked and then frowned at that. He had to wake him up!
"GERALD!..."He yelled as he began to start shaking harder, finally successfully waking his best friend.
"I'm up! I'm up!..." Gerald yelped as he blinked.
"Good..." Arnold said in a calmer tone.
"Man, what time is it?..." He asked as he yawned.
"Gerald, focus! It's morning and we're still near the woods..." Arnold said slowly, snapping his friend into listening.
"What? Oh man! Don't tell me we've been out all night!?..."Gerald pleaded.
"I'm afraid so..." Arnold sighed.
"Oh man, my mom is going to kill me..." He said in fear and dismay, knowing full well they crossed the line.
Arnold looked around and felt worried when he couldn't see either Helga or Phoebe anywhere in sight. He gulped, not liking this at all.
"We have bigger problems, I can't find Helga or Phoebe anywhere.." Arnold said.
"What? What the heck happened last night anyway? I remember coming here...and then that light thingy came and then...I can't remember anything else..." Gerald said in confusion.
"I can't remember anything either...Let's just find the girls and get out of here..." Arnold suggested and Gerald nodded as they went to search for their missing party members.
Wherever they might be.
"I hope Helga is alright...Phoebe too..." He thought to himself as he and his friend searched for the two girls.
Elsewhere
Helga G. Pataki had been sleeping and enjoying a wonderful dream of her one true love Arnold, where he finally returned her affection and swept her off her feet.
"Oh Arnold~...You dance divinely..." The sleep girl sighed happily before she hissed when she felt someone probing her, trying to force her out of her sleep and out of her beautiful dream.
"Leave me alone Olga, it's Saturday..." She mumbled as she tried to cling to her slumber, not wanting her sister to ruin her morning yet again.
"Helga?..." A voice that was most definitely not Olga's spoke and Helga immediately got up to see her best friend Phoebe.
'Phoebe, what are you doing here?..." Helga asked as she finally regained her consciousness.
"Helga, I just woke up here a moment ago..." Phoebe explained.
Helga, finally awake, got up and looked around and flinched at the implication. She wasn't in either her or Phoebe's bed room, they were outside...away from the civilized areas it seems as well.
"Criminy! Did we really spend the night out sleeping in the woods?..." Helga exclaimed in disbelief, not liking this at all.
"It would appear so..." Phoebe said with a panic...
"Oh perfect, Olga is probably having meltdown and bawling at Bob and Miriam to find me..." Helga thought with an eye roll and not wanting to admit that her sister would probably the only one to notice that she didn't come home and would nag her parents into noticing that she wasn't there as well.
That her own parents probably wouldn't even notice that she went missing over night without her sister there to point it out. Although they'll definitely notice when they yell at her for "worrying" her sister to death.
"Let's get out of here..." Helga ordered to her friend..."What exactly happened anyway?..." She asked.
"I'm not entirely sure Helga..." Phoebe confessed.
"Let's see, if my usually sharp memory serves me, we came across the Football Head and Tall Hair boy and we wanted to disprove some kind of story...we came to the woods and then...then something happened...I remember a bright light...some kind of light show and then blacking out..." Helga said to her friend until something clinked in her mind.
"Hey wait...Where's Arnold and Geraldo?...' Helga said as she looked around in hopes of finding her beloved.
"Oh my..." Phoebe said in concern.
"Oh where, oh where has my football-headed prince gone?..." Helga thought, love and concern flowing in her heart while she tried to keep a composed exterior. She turned to her friend Phoebe who was visibly worried for their friends, especially Gerald she figured.
"Let's go find them and get out of here, the longer we get home, the worse it'll be for us..." She sighed as she and her friend left the spot.
"What the heck happened last night anyway?...'She wondered as she and Phoebe went to search for the boys.
"Helga! Phoebe!..." Arnold yelled as he and Gerald searched for their friends.
"You guys around?..." Gerald yelled as well.
"Helga!..." Arnold called out again.
"Phoebe..." Gerald cried out.
"Gerald! FOOTBALL HEAD!..." Was heard and they turned to see Phoebe and Helga running up to them.
"Where the heck have you guys been?! We've been looking all over for you two..." Helga yelled to the boys.
"What? We've been looking all over for you guys..." Gerald shot to the blonde who sent him a nasty glare.
"Well, you found us...whoopty-doo..." The blonde girl said sarcastically while on the inside, her feelings were in overdrive... "Oh Arnold, thank heavens that you are unharmed..." She thought to herself.
"Calm down Helga..." Arnold said, trying to be peace maker.
"How can I be calm?!..." She yelled..." We're all in for huge trouble the second we get home and what excuse do we have... "I'm sorry mom and dad but me and the guys went out myth chasing and accidentally spend the night near the woods, anyway what's for breakfast?..." Helga said in a faux-innocent tone before glaring.
"I know, we better be heading back...Grandpa and Grandma probably have sent a search party by now..." Arnold said, feeling bad.
"How the heck did this happen? What the heck possessed me to go along with one of your crazy ideas..." Helga grumbled to herself but Arnold heard her and frowned.
"How the heck is this my fault?..." Arnold demanded, tired of her always blaming him for everything.
"It was your idea to come here in the first place..." She pointed out.
Arnold blinked at that...somewhat...kind of fair point but he still held his ground. She's always been on his case.
"Let's just get out of here..." He sighed.
"Finally...Maybe I'll be lucky and Bob and Miriam are still asleep if Olga hasn't woken them up yet... I can always sneak back in and make it seem like I was there all night..." Helga considered her options while Arnold merely shook his head.
"Come on..." Gerald said as the group of four decided to leave the area and head back home.
"I'm glad he/she is alright..." Two of the four children thought in sync, though they didn't know that the person they were thinking around...was thinking the exact same thing.
A few minutes later
The children has spent almost 15 minutes of endless walking, they should have reached familiar territory by now but everything seemed so out of place here.
"I can't believe you got us lost Geraldo!..." Helga's irritated voice shouted.
"Watch it Pataki!..." Gerald warned, though he was completely confused.
This was the same route they had used to get to the woods in the first place. He, as the Keeper of the Tales, knew the city like the back of his hand and he had a decent sense of direction but nothing here seemed familiar. The y had arrived to the shoreline that had the view of Elk Island. They passed by this place last night but nothing seemed familiar at all.
"Great...Out all night...slept on the grass...soon to be grounded for life and lost of all things...Just the cherry on top for the perfectly ruined weekend..." Helga complained under her breath, while on the inside her heart pound as she sent a quick glance at Arnold who was looking the other way.
"Although a few moments of suffering just for the chance to be with you is worth it, my beloved...Oh~..." She sighed internally before returning to her angry, worried thoughts.
"Helga, I have a very bad feeling about this..." Phoebe confessed.
"Doi! Didn't I just say that we're going to be grounded and lost at the same time..." Helga said sarcastically.
"Not that, about this place...I've been getting a strange feeling every since we woke up this morning..." The Asian girl explained.
Helga blinked at that. She had been getting a weird feeling too but she was more worried about finding Arnold and trying to avoid getting in trouble to pay it much mind. Before she could answer, Gerald spoke up.
"Don't worry babe...Gerald has got it all under control..." He said, trying to sound smooth.
"Oh sure, you are handling things so well..." The blonde girl said sarcastically.
"I say we go and ask for directions..." Arnold suggested and wasn't discouraged.
"From who?..." Helga said, gesturing to their surroundings, no one was there...
Arnold looked around, trying to find someone or something familiar and his eyes landed on something.
"Look over there..." He pointed. The other kids looked to where he was pointing at and they saw that it was one of the higher hills that had a good look of the city.
"I say we go over there, maybe getting a better view will help..." Arnold suggested.
The four kids walked up until they were on top of the hill but with what they have been through...and given that it was pretty steep, they got a little winded.
"Criminy..."Can this day get any worse?..." Helga grumbled but was ignored.
"Oh my!..." Phoebe squeaked.
Arnold, Gerald and Helga turned to her to see that her jaw was dropping, her eyes were wide as saucers and she looked like she was around to faint or something.
"Phoebe, are you okay?...Helga asked in concern as her friend was still in a zombie-like state... "What are you looking at anyway?..." Helga asked, ironically, turning her back to whatever her friend was looking at.
Phoebe, still somewhat frozen, somehow managed to nudge Helga to look behind her and once her friend did, she was in shock too, as were Gerald and Arnold with what was before them.
It was their home town...but it was different.
While their city was fairly big, with sky scrappers and everything, it wasn't like this. They knew that in this part of town, you got a good view of the town but everything was like it was out of place. New, bigger building and sky scrapper that weren't there yesterday were now present and Arnold finally saw one of the stores they passed on their way to the woods yesterday...It now had a shoe store that wasn't there yesterday. They also noticed that a bunch of other big things were either gone, replaced or upgraded and it was a big shock.
"What...the...heck?..." Helga mouthed while Phoebe was still like a statue.
"Is this a gag?..." Gerald said, wondering if he was either dreaming or losing it.
"T-T-This is I-I-mp-possible!..." Phoebe finally managed to stutter out, still petrified.
How on earth can an entire city change so much in one night?!
"Guy's...I don't think we're in Hillwood anymore..." Arnold said with a shaky voice as he pointed to the much larger city in place of their own home town. There was an uncomfortable silence as the four children were still stunned by this development.
"Actually, you guys are in Hillwood..." A new voice suddenly said.
The four children turned around and everyone's jaw dropped when they saw that it was a boy around their age.
A boy with a familiar looking foot-ball shaped head!
-To be continued-
Next time on A Trip Through Time
Another Football Head?
A/N: Uh oh...This is getting interesting! Now who is this mystery kid?
Find out next time on "A Trip Through Time".
AN(2): I didn't realize that my first chapter was similar to that story but I made little changes. As I said in the last chapter, I already have my own idea and direction for this fic, so stay tuned.
REPLIES to my loyal and totally awesome reviewers:
Miyasa: Thank you. You flatter me.
Guest(1): No, it is not a remade story.
metalheadrailfan: Thanks, so do I...There's just something so entertaining about them.
Invader Johnny : Yes, they are and more on the way.
Yali. Page, Nairobi-Harper and Ajay435 : I suppose there is a slight similarity but I am not a copycat and never will be.
Guest (2): Well given the vague time line in the Jungle movie, more or less, I have it sent sometime in the 2020's. You'll see more soon.
Guest (3) and thatamosgirl : I love that episode! A hey Arnold classic!
:) Till next time beautiful people, remember to read and review :)