PROLOGUE
The following prologue is a written adaptation of Arnold's birth sequence in 'The Journal, Part 2'. The plot and original dialogue is written by Craig Bartlett, Michelle Lamoreaux, and/or Joseph Purdy and been adapted for paper with new dialogue by DevilBoy216. This portion of the show has been adapted to this story to provide a better chronological flow for readers.
Note that this is not the kind of traditional superhero story in which one would expect many thrills and action as one would find in any recent Marvel movie. While you are definitely in for what I hope you will find to be some exciting scenes, the story has many other important aspects to focus on. The life of a superhero is not all adventure and excitement. Superheroes are still ordinary people and, as such, have ordinary lives and ordinary problems. They are people with feelings and passions, loves and hatreds, spirits and demons. A well-written character is a well-rounded character.
So, to Craig Bartlett, Nickelodeon and Viacom, please don't sue me. I just want to entertain people.
Without further ado, enjoy the ride.
A long time ago, in a jungle far, far away...
In the humid lands of South America, there lies a small and obscure country known as San Lorenzo, sandwiched between the nations of Belize and Guatemala. Despite a developed capital city of Puerto Clara, the majority of the country consists of jungle, holding some of the most untamed and wildest flora and fauna the planet Earth has to offer after billions of years of evolution.
Within these jungles lie three friends, trekking across the jungle to reach the nearest town. The reason for this trek is simple:
One of these friends carries a child inside her. On this day the child's arrival has come.
And on with birth the world as we know will change forever.
The one carrying the child is a botanist and doctor by the name of Stella Shortman. She rides atop a hammock carried by two men: Miles Shortman, her husband, and Eduardo, the best friend of the two. Despite the best efforts of the men to keep her comfortable, she struggles to hold on with all her breath; her body contracting and moving against her will.
With a pressing and empirical task as bringing forth the life of a child into the world, the group trekked across the harsh jungle, enduring vicious blood-sucking mosquitoes, the vast humidity in the air, and the hot South American sun beating down on their backs.
The walk they face is little more than a road to hell, but the reward they face at the end shows all the promise of heaven, which is more than enough to push them on.
After a long walk into their trip, the group had come to notice a billow of smoke rising into the sky. Believing that the three had reached the end of their trek, the men took in a new surge of enthusiasm from the sight, finally seeing the rewards to their efforts.
"Look, smoke! That must be the town!" Stella said.
Miles, exhausted from carrying his wife all the time, gave a sigh of relief when hearing the news.
"Good, we're nearly there." Miles said.
"Friends, I'm afraid that I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the hospital is just around that mountain." Eduardo said.
"And the bad news?" Stella asked.
"The mountain... is a volcano."
Continuing to move down the path, the trio arrived before a towering mountain filled with deadly, boiling lava. The brewing molten rock within gave off a blistering heat just from the distance the group had, signalling perfectly clear to the lot that what lied before them was not just a mountain.
The obstacle before them was a volcano.
"It's called Volcán Terriblé. The Terrible Volcano." Eduardo explained.
"'The Terrible Volcano'? You led us into town through the path of an active volcano?" Stella asked.
"Don't worry, we should be fine heading through here."
"But it's smoking! Doesn't that mean something?"
"Volcanos smoke all the time, I'm sure that's all it'll do."
Despite Eduardo's sure response about the volcano, he was instantly proven wrong as a huge blast of lava erupted from the volcano, as if some kind of practical joke by all forces of nature at his statement. Its blast began dispersing several animals in a terrified frenzy, now placing the group in immediate danger.
"'That's all it'll do'? It's erupting!" Miles said.
"And so am I! What do we do?" Stella shouted.
The volcano's eruption continued its harsh blast upon the Earth; its fiery and deadly lava devouring everything in its path. Mighty fields of trees and many shades of green melted away under its destructive force, leaving only black reminders of what once stood in their places.
As fireballs rained from the sky, the ground trembled and quaked with the wrath of the very Earth itself, the entire world around the group began to rattle them to their core sense of reality from the sheer shock of it all. The spectacle they were in was little more in their minds than the apocalypse itself.
If the group did not move themselves to safety, it might just as well have been.
Once again taking back to carrying their precious cargo, the two men, still holding the woman in labor above their heads, rushed away from the wrath of the volcano to complete their task. Desperately and just barely dodging fireballs and all other dangerous debris, feeling the intense heat singe the hairs of their arms off, the troubles that they had with the trail as of before were long gone now.
Still rushing to find safety, the group found themselves at a dead end with two rivers of lava conjoining, seemingly blocking their escape. Needing to lighten the load and pick up their speed, the two men dropped the portable hammock that once held Stella, abandoning it to carry on Stella herself, just barely in time before the lava consumed their hammock.
Trying to continue their pace on foot, the group's seemingly hasty retreat came to a halt, brought upon by the very person they were trying to save.
"Need to lay down... Right now..." Stella said.
Despite Stella's need to deliver the child, a river of lava flowed down behind them and began heading straight for the group, making any attempts to stop suicidal at best.
"Madre de dios! What do we do now?!" Eduardo exclaimed.
Unable to allow any danger to come to his wife and soon-to-be-born son, Miles hastily scanned his surroundings, trying to make the best decision with what few options he had. Desperation and panic drove his mind into overdrive, putting his eyes to work more than before on the task of trying to locate shelter from the storm.
As if an answer to his prayer, a new option presented itself.
In the distance, a trail of green smoke came to the sky, giving them a signal to follow. With the particular choice of color in this portion of the jungle in the land of San Lorenzo, Miles knew in an instant who these saviors were, pointing to the smoke and leading the group to the shelter left by...
"The Green-Eyed People! That way!" He said.
Following Miles' lead, Eduardo once again helped him carry Stella to safety, bringing the laboring woman down to their place of shelter.
Recalling their past efforts to help the people of San Lorenzo and locate the mysterious Green-Eyed People, the group could not help but doubt their existence during select times in their lives. Seeing their help paid off with a new place to rest, having been led to a large temple made of brick and mortar, the skepticism they once had could now be put to rest.
As they arrived inside the temple, the group found a bed awaiting them in the center of the room, sufficient enough for the needs they had. Wasting no time with questions or worrying, the two immediately laid Stella down, hoping that their mysterious protectors' aid would pay off.
Stella, the most conscious of the life she had taken 9 months to grow and gestate inside her, still held some degree of skepticism over their place to stop. Her own desires for her son to be born safely and be given all the correct medical care could not be met in an environment such as this, and her own distress from the erupting volcano made the environment less than suitable to bring her child in.
Despite her own desire to hold off and move on, she had no choice but to do what her body was telling her to do, laying down to let nature take its course.
It was time for the child to arrive.
Another contraction came from her womb, moving to push out the life that grew in her belly to be brought into the world at last. Just as departure from the world is a painful one, arrival into it is just as agonizing to move through. Barely able to take the pain of giving life, Stella screamed, having no other way to express her emotions than to yell out the agony.
Miles, taking a bowl of water and a washcloth, patted down Stella's forehead to keep her cool under the hot conditions of the eruption. Doing his best to provide his aid as a husband, he felt less than useful under the conditions of the scenario, fearing that his own efforts would all be for naught.
Stella again screamed in pain.
Eduardo, watching the storm outside, grew weary as he saw the lava approach closer and closer to the temple, sharing Miles' concerns about their fates. To his surprise, the lava merely flowed past the walls of the temple, as if the liquid that passed them was little more than water. Giving a sigh of relief, he knows that the Green-Eyed People have provided for them.
Stella again screamed in pain.
The force of the volcano erupted with even more power, knocking Eduardo back several feet and causing the ground to shake on par with the impact of a thousand of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This place was no longer a mere jungle. This was hell, and they were all standing right in the middle of it in full view of the holocaust.
Stella again screamed in pain.
With her mind unable to hold against the torture that she was going through, Stella began to feel her very consciousness began to slip away, as if fading in to black from the pure stress placed on her. The destruction of the world around her could not be any suitable place to bring a child, and the very idea of any life coming to this place is nothing short of laughable at the moment.
Stella again screamed in pain.
Nonetheless, Stella did not allow herself to give in to hopelessness and despair. Having felt the life in her grow for almost a year, there is no way she can permit herself to give in here and now. Moving her focus to her womb, she feels it contract and relax, pushing out the life in her to give it to the world at last.
She will not give up until she feels him in her arms.
Stella again screamed in pain.
Then, out of the dark, a cry is heard.
The child is here.
As if in response to the new life brought upon the Earth, the volcano stopped its eruption in an instant, with the clouds began to retract. Letting the sun touch this scorched Earth yet again, its warm rays and light began turning the black and vengeful storm that once was to a peaceful and serene blue sky.
The panicking animals stopped in an instant, feeling pacified after the maelstrom of the volcano. Anarchy and chaos that was the only rule of the jungle turned to one short and brief utopia among the animal kingdom, prompting them to head forward to the source of this peace.
The cry continues, and all living things come to wonder at this new child and the touch that his arrival had brought. Across all of nature, all life seemed to collectively understand that this was no ordinary human child; this was one of great meaning and one of great power.
With the disaster over at last and a sense of calm brought back to the jungle, Miles and Stella sit Inside the temple with their newborn child, cradling him together. His painful cries from joining the planet Earth turn to playful and joyful coos and babbles as he observes this new world he has entered, greeted to it by the caring arms of the selfsame people that brought him to existence.
"I... I do not believe it. He has silenced all of nature." Eduardo said.
"A miracle baby if I've ever seen one. A baby named Arnold." Stella said.
"Arnold? That's his name?"
"It was my dad's name. He always wanted a grandson."
Hearing the child's name spoken, Eduardo smiled, feeling connected closer to the Shortmans to their first begotten son.
"Arnold. He is a good-looking boy, no?" Eduardo asked.
"He is. He really is. Thank you, Eduardo." Miles said.
"Thank me?"
"We couldn't have made it without you. Thank you for everything." Stella said.
Humbled from the compliment, Eduardo lowered his head in gratitude to the newly-made mother.
Eager to see the fruit of his labor outside the womb at last, Miles held his new son in joy and happiness, knowing that he has finally started his own family. Gently rubbing his nose with his hand, he playfully teased the baby boy, gaining some happy giggles from the infant.
"Hey Arnold. I'm your dad, and this is your mom." Miles said.
Welcomed to the world and his parents, Arnold gave a smile and a happy babble as his father held him high.
At last relieved of the madness of Arnold's delivery and the volcano's eruption, the group walked outside to enjoy the new peaceful serene that became the land after the destruction, appreciating the view and all its glory. With the end of what was once here, they know that what will follow will be something new.
"We have a miracle baby named Arnold." Miles said.
In the bushes far away, there a member of the mysterious beings known as the Green-Eyed People observing the event from afar by the name of Luz. Laying his eyes on the baby Arnold, he recognized the power within him, especially foretold by the distinctive football shape of his head.
Seeing the child, he knows that Arnold will not only his peoples' messiah, but the savior of the world to come.
"Arnold..." Luz whispered.