Hey there guys! Alright so in this chapter we're gonna be seeing the beginning of a kind of legend of San Lorenzo but the whole legend will be on the next chapter while this one will just be like the introduction to it and also there'll be a little surprise in it, so hope you enjoy it!
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Hey Arnold! It belongs to Craig Barlett
Chapter 5: Unexpected
As the green-eyed boy got off the cab he paid the driver for the ride though it was a bit expensive he had come prepared, after all he had learned from his mistake back when he and Gerald had went to that 6th grade dance with those girls Connie and Maria ,once he made it to the city's docks, Arnold made his way over to Bridget's HQ, he could remember very well were it was located and even though it was a little bit hidden within the docks he still could remember it's way, once he found the entrance he remembered that the only way to enter was "ringing the doorbell" and by this I mean pushing the "do not touch" red button that would activate the net trap that would lift him to the entrance (like it did on the first movie), gazing at the button Arnold let out a sigh.
-"Well, here it goes" he thought.
Arnold exhaled and then went to push the button, bracing himself for the net trap that would be activated at any minute as he did but when he pushed the button the net trap wasn't activated, Arnold just opened his green eyes and looked around but nothing happened.
-"Hmm" He thought scratching his chin, he figured that by now some kind of trap would've been activated but nothing had happened yet "weird" he said scratching his head and resting his left hand on his waist.
Suddenly the sounds of what seemed like something opening, like in those spy movies when a giant metallic door opens itself, started resonating in Arnold's ears he looked at the metal wall on the red bricked wall in front of him to see that it started sliding up to reveal a room with advanced technologic equipment and two rows of computers with some women working on the and at the end of the room was a woman behind a desk also working on a computer, Arnold just walked in and made his way over to the woman behind the desk.
-"Um, excuse me" Arnold said.
-The woman stopped her work on the computer and turned towards him "Yes, what can I help you with kid" she said.
-"I'm here to see Bridget" Arnold answered.
-"Bridget? Hmm, she didn't tell me that she was expecting somebody, wait a minute okay?" the women said and Arnold nodded.
The woman then turned on some sort of communicator she had on her ear and started speaking on it.
-"Boss?" the woman said
-There was a little pause before she said "there's a kid down here saying that he came to see you" the woman paused "yeah" the woman answered to whomever she was talking to before pausing again "yes" she paused yet again "yes" she paused again "Okay, wait a minute" the woman said.
-The woman turned towards Arnold and said "I need you to tell me your name kid".
-"It's Arnold, Arnold Crystal" He told her.
-"Okay" the woman said before turning away from Arnold again "Yes, his name is Arnold" she said through the communicator before pausing again "Alright boss".
With this the woman turned off her communicator and pushed a button that was on her desk to reveal, beneath her, a wall opening itself, sliding to a side and revealing an elevator, Arnold was amused by this and told himself to remind and ask Bridget just where does she gets all this stuff.
-"Okay Arnold, listen, just take the elevator to the second floor and when it opens just make your way over to the metallic door on the end of the room, that's the entrance to the equipment room, there's somebody waiting for you there, and don't worry about the workers up there, they won't bother you" the woman told him.
-"Thank you" Arnold said and proceeded to the elevator.
While in the elevator, Arnold just leaned casually against the wall listening to the chilly jazz background music that resonated in his ears, once the elevator stopped and the doors opened Arnold stepped out and now he was in a room were there was several technologic equipment and various computers in rows with women working on them, Arnold did as the woman told him and just smoothly made his way across the room, when he reached the metallic door he took a small breath, he knew that Bridget would be there but… also he figured that Eduardo and Marina would be there too, waiting for him… to tell him what could be something that would probably change the young boy's life.
Of course he had done some thinking about this last night too, he knew that whatever awaited him in that room, be it for the good or the bad, he had to be prepared, and he was prepared, for anything that they would tell him, maybe it was indeed wrong not telling his grandparents (or anyone else for that matter) about this, but he fully remembered what Mariana had told him yesterday and if she told him to keep it a secret, it was for a reason, Arnold was fully aware of that, but then again he didn't know what was it so important about the crystal core, yes he had seen it last week on the museum of the city, but if it comes to the terms that it was from San Lorenzo, how come he never heard of it?.
Ever since he found his father's journal he had been doing a lot of research about the country of San Lorenzo like it's cultures, beliefs, education system, ancient reliques, civilizations… but of course he had been doing most of hisresearch about the civilizations, and his main objective had always been the same… the Green Eyes.
The Green Eyes are a civilization that apparently is too secretive, not much is known about them and when he would always come close to finding out something more descriptive about them it would always say on the page or book he was reading that more information could only be found on their home country, San Lorenzo, since some of the information was just too descriptive or was either restricted to be published on countries outside of Central America, Arnold had also done a few trips to the library to collect some books about ancient history and cultures of Central America hoping to at least find some hints of the location of the Green Eyes within the jungles of San Lorenzo… but unfortunately for him that information was always restricted.
Everytime he would come close to finding out more about them, the information would always stop there and say that it could only be available on countries in Central America and a few selected states on other foreign lands, when Arnold came across this he would always just let out a frustrated sigh and would just go back to researching other things about the country of San Lorenzo… but then again if he had been doing that much research, how come he had never found anything about something called 'the crystal core', had he missed something?, or probably he just hadn't seen it yet?, he really didn't quite know but he was sure gonna find out right now.
-"Alright, let's do this" He though and glanced at the metallic door before pushing a button on the side of it, the door opened itself and he entered the room.
The room was a little bit dark but not too much because of the sun light entering through the windows on the wall in one of the ends of the room and because of that he could see the outlined shadow of a woman who was gazing casually at the city out the window, her back facing him, the almost dark room and the light coming from the window, not to mention the fact that he couldn't see her face, just her back and her brown brunette hair that reached her middle-back, gave her a really mysterious atmosphere, but for some reason Arnold was not even a bit nervous about this, but instead this just gave him a feeling of curiosity.
-"Hello Arnold… I've been expecting you" The mysterious woman said.
-This words made Arnold realize who the mysterious woman was, and he just smiled "wonder why" he said jokingly in a quiet voice.
The woman just snickered quietly and turned around to face the blonde boy, this made him get a much better image from her, even in the dark he could see her rare brown-purple eyes gazing down at him and because of the light coming from out the window he could catch a glimpse of blue color in her clothes.
-"It's good to see you again Arnold" the woman said.
-"Yeah… It's good to see you too… Bridget" Arnold said.
He could see her smirk a little through the darkness and suddenly the next thing that was heard in the room was the sound of her snapping her fingers, the sound echoing throughout the room, with this sound the lights of the room went on revealing the mysterious woman to be none other than Bridget, indeed, Arnold smiled once he saw her.
-"Well, if isn't my youngest recruit, how've you been neighborhood hero?" Bridget said jokingly in her smooth voice.
-Arnold chuckled "Ah, you know, just living my life" he said smiling.
-"As a secret kid agent or something" Bridget said snickering softly.
-"Aw, please Bridget" Arnold replied modestly.
-"C'mon Arnold, how does it feel to be admired by many of the city" Bridget said.
-"Oh, yeah, it feels great" Arnold replied sarcastically "But seriously, you know I didn't do it because of the glory".
-"I know Arnold, I know, but you should really be proud of yourself, not many kids can make it to the first page of the newspaper you know" Bridget said.
-Arnold shrugged "I don't care about the fame Bridget, I just care that my home and my family are safe" he said.
-"Alright, Arnold, now listen" her face turned a bit more serious "I would love to chat with you a little more but now we have to get right down to business, we're running a little low on time".
-Arnold nodded "Right".
-"Okay then, I suppose you already know the reason why you're here" Bridget said.
-Arnold nodded "Well… just part of it to be honest" he said.
-"Well if you want to know the rest of the story then take this and follow me" Bridget leaned her hand towards Arnold showing him what seemed to be some kind of a video casette.
-"And this is for?" Arnold asked.
-"You'll see soon, now follow me, there's someone here that's… just dying to meet you" Bridget said.
Arnold quickly realized who it was and just nodded and decided to leave the questions about the video cassette for later, while Bridget beckoned to him to follow her, Arnold did as told and they exited the equipment room, Bridget and Arnold made their way across the aisle and straight to the elevator, once inside the elevator and when the doors closed Bridget pushed the button for the third floor which was the last floor of the headquarters, while they were going up Bridget couldn't help but glance at Arnold who was just gazing at the casette she had given him, she smiled, she knew that thing was most surely going to help him a lot in… well, Bridget didn't want to think about that yet since they still had to complete the mission that awaited for them... she just knew that Arnold would be ready for whatever awaited him, if he could deal with FTi then he would be able to deal with this, of course he received help, much more help than she actually knew, but Bridget was sure that Arnold would be able to get through this… when he knew the prize he would get…
Oh yes, she knew the boy, she knew him far more than he himself knew, much more, after all everyone has to know very well their… family… otherwise she wouldn't be…
The sound of the doors opening suddenly resounded through both Bridget's and Arnold's ears, taking them both by surprise for a minute, they just passed it off and exited the elevator, the third floor of the building was not as the first and second, all you could see there would be just a dark hallway with a metallic door at the end of it, Bridget snapped her fingers and lights that were all lined up turned on one by one illuminating the once dark hallway, Bridget and Arnold made their way across the hallway with smooth, quite footsteps, the silence between them being a little uncomfortable, once they reached the metallic door Bridget was about to push the button to open it but suddenly stopped, she bowed her head a little and her eyes took on a 'thinking' look as if she was asking herself about doing something, Arnold, noticing the 'deep in thought' look on her face picked up on this.
-"Bridget?" Arnold called "are you okay?" he asked.
But Bridget didn't seemed to listen to Arnold as she still seemed to be lost in thoughts, the thoughtful look not once leaving her face. Arnold was growing a little worried by now so he tried again.
-"Bridget?" he called, "Bridget" he called a little more loudly but she still didn't listen.
-"Bridget!" he called this time reaching up his hand to touch her shoulder which seemed to have caught her attention this time.
-She finally shook her head "Oh, sorry Arnold I was just thinking about…" she suddenly paused as if she realized she was going to reveal something important "something".
-"Is something wrong?" Arnold asked.
-"No, everything's fine" Bridget assured him.
-"Really?, cause you looked like you were a little-" Arnold said.
-"Arnold…" Bridget interrupted not really sure if she should tell him just yet "look it's just…" she paused yet again.
-"What's wrong Bridget?" he asked "And don't say 'nothing' cause I know something's not okay" Arnold said firmly.
-"And how could you be so sure about that" she said trying to confuse him.
-Arnold's eyes then took on an almost hypnotic gaze at Bridget's eyes "your mouth may say that, but I can see your eyes say otherwise" he said simply.
Bridget was a little impressed by this answer, not many kids could actually say those words in a serious manner such as Arnold's, then again she already knew that Arnold was a bit more mature for his age, her naturally calm half-lidded eyes went slowly all the way down until they were fully closed and for several minutes there was only total silence in the hallway, that is until she let out a small sigh and pushed her brunette hair behind her ear.
-"Listen Arnold…" she began quietly.
She opened her eyes again slowly and then bent in her knees to look at him in the face her rare yet unique brown-purple eyes staring deep into his emerald green eyes, she looked a little bit unsure about this but decided to come with it anyway as she rested her right hand on his left shoulder.
-"Do you remember when I helped you and your friend to save your neighborhood? And that I gave you all what you needed to do it right?" Bridget said and Arnold nodded.
-"Well you see…" she sighed "Don't get me wrong with this, I did helped you and your friend so you could save the neighborhood too, but…" she paused.
-"But?..." Arnold asked growing more and more curious about where this was heading.
-"let's just say I had… other reasons... to help you" she said but Arnold was just growing more confused "one of those reasons was… well… it was mainly… you".
-Arnold blinked a bit surprised by this "me?" he asked innocently.
-"Yes you see… I am not supposed to telling you this… not right now, but…" she sighed.
-"What is it Bridget? Tell me" Arnold said growing even more confused and curious but being patient.
-"Look Arnold, I know that, you may think that to me you're only a kid who came to ask for my help once… but you're not" Bridget said.
-"Huh?" Arnold said in great confusion.
-Her purplish-brown eyes gazed even deeper into his green ones "to me you're more than that Arnold… much, much more" she said seriously.
By now, Arnold was at the highest point of confusion, he didn't had the slightest clue to were this was heading and this was making him a little frustrated but, sensing his confusion Bridget just decided to get it over with.
-"To me Arnold… you're…" she sighed once again "you're my fa-" her statement was interrupted at the last moment by the sudden sound of the metallic door in front of them were the tall and attractive figure of a woman stood with her hands on her hips, her golden eyes gazing down at Arnold and Bridget, they instantly came to recognize this figure and smiled but couldn't help but feel a little annoyed for interrupting them.
-"Well, there you are, what took you guys so long?" the golden-eyed woman said in her Spanish accent.
-"Hi, Aunt Mary" Arnold greeted smiling.
-"Sorry Mary, we just got hold up a little" Bridget said standing up.
-"It's alright, now enter, Eduardo has been impatient to see you all day!" Mariana said a little more directly to Arnold and smiling.
Arnold just chuckled and nodded
Mariana entered to the room and Bridget was about to enter when suddenly the football-headed kid's voice stopped her.
-"Um, Bridget, what about-" he was interrupted by Bridget putting a hand on his shoulder.
-"I'll tell you later, okay Arnold?, now let's go" she said patting his back and entering the room.
The green-eyed boy just stood there for a minute staring after her but then just sighed, shrugged and made his way into the room, a short aisle lead him into the actual room, in there he saw a desk in front of him and behind the desk a chair which had it's back facing him, Bridget and Mariana were standing on different corners of the room smiling expectantly at Arnold and the person that was sitting on the chair in front of the desk which Arnold couldn't get a clear view of since the chair's back was facing him, he started walking smoothly and slowly over to the desk, when he reached it, as if on cue, the chair started to slowly turn around and when it was all the way turned Arnold finally caught the glimpse of the man sitting before him.
The man stood up letting the boy before him get a better visage of him, his skin was tanned, his features looked to be Hispanic, his hair was dark, his eyes were light brown but not as light as Mariana's but still bright, he had a mustache and some facial under his chin, he was dressed in a white button-up shirt, blue jeans with a black belt that had a silver cowboy buckle, on his feet were a pair of cowboy black boots and resting on his head was cowboy hat, the man suddenly opened his arms widely and smiled at Arnold as if to welcome him.
-"Ah, it's good to see you again, after so many years" the man said.
The oblong-headed boy was a bit surprised by this words when it finally came to his mind the realization that the man before him was none other than his parents' dear friend Eduardo Galvan.
-"Eduardo?" Arnold asked innocently.
-Eduardo lowered his arms and smiled at Arnold "Welcome Arnold, it's so good to finally see you again" he said.
Bridget and Mariana just giggled while smiling at both Arnold and Eduardo from the corners of the room, Eduardo just stood there studying the boy he hadn't seen in 7 years, he could see that even though he had grown from that baby he was he still looked exactly the same as he did back then.
-"It's a pleasure to meet you Eduardo" Arnold said smiling brightly and extending his hand.
-"The pleasure is mine Arnold" Eduardo said taking his hand and shaking it, but in reality he was holding the urge to hug him, after all he hadn't seen him since he was a baby, and now seeing him 7 years later, it was just amazing.
They both released each other's hands and Eduardo sat back in his chair while Mariana and Bridget came from the corners of the room they were in and stood on each side Eduardo, while Arnold just remained there in front of them. The three adults in question were still a bit hesitant to tell Arnold their purpose of being there and the intention of bringing him into the mix after all he was a still a kid and they weren't completely sure if he could deal with this.
But after all remembering what Bridget had told them about the things he did only to prevent his neighborhood from being destroyed they realized what Bridget already knew…
Arnold was no average kid at all, Bridget had told them that when he was determined to do something that involved helping or advising someone or when he had his sights on stopping something he was sure wouldn't do any good… he would not give up for anything in the world, he would just think of someway to accomplish his goal and press on until he was sure it was all over, succeed or fail.
When Bridget had told them about Arnold's adventure to save his neighborhood from destruction , the FTi incident, Eduardo and Mariana had become really convinced about something.
Arnold was definitely the son of Miles and Stella, they both had an adventurer spirit that would always tell them that no matter how crazy the situation they were in was it would always push them until the end and they were pretty sure that it was that what had pushed Arnold during the whole thing, his own adventurer spirit, his own courage and determination he had inherited from both his parents…
That or it was also that he had probably been pushed by his will, something he would've probably picked up from his mother, after all Stella was a really determined, caring and strong woman, but sometimes when she would set her sights on something she wanted she would become really stubborn and would not give the boot for absolutely anything in the world, but after all they knew that's just what Miles loved about her.
But then again, Arnold took after Stella in his looks, but by what Bridget had said, Miles' attitude lived within Arnold, like his son, Miles had also always been the peacemaker, a really wise man, the one who never picked up a fight, the one who would always look out for someone else, Eduardo had seen that throughout his years in college with Miles, Miles was always one to give advice and seek out to help others who came to him not to mention he was quite smart since he always got really good grades.
But right now was not the time to bring up his parents… not just yet anyway.
The fact that Arnold had already dealed with his own (and probably just his first) adventure gave them the assurance that they didn't had to worry about him and that he would be of great help during this, of course it wasn't like he was going to be alone, he was going to get some help… oh and he sure was going to get a really good help at that.
-"Now Arnold." Eduardo started "I'm sure Bridget here told you about our… reason for coming here".
-"Yeah, she did" Arnold answered.
-"And you know that this has all got to remain a secret, right?" Eduardo said.
-"Well, yeah but, may I ask just why exactly" Arnold said.
-"You see, Arnold, this is a matter of great importance, we can't let anybody else besides you know about this" Eduardo said. "And you also have to understand that you cannot tell anyone about this, not your friends, not your grandparents, not your teachers, no one".
-"Okay, fine I won't tell anyone, not one soul" Arnold assured "but, would you mind caring to share the reason".
-"Actually, yes Arnold, because the reason is the exact same reason why we need you to help us" Eduardo said.
-"Okay, then, I'm all ears" Arnold said opening his arms for emphasis.
-"Alright Arnold" Eduardo said "I'm sure Mariana has already told you who sent us here" after Arnold nodded Eduardo continued "and I'm sure she has also told you what we are after" Arnold just nodded again.
-"But what she didn't tell you… is who we really are doing this for" Eduardo said.
-"Hmm, we're getting a little suspicious here" Arnold thought "okay, just focus on this now, leave the questioning for later" he thought again and then just nodded. "I just hope they're at least willing to tell me about-"
-"Listen Arnold, we're here because of some very special people" Eduardo said "people who have done so much for us… people who we really need to help".
The cornflower haired boy got snapped out of his thoughts as he heard what Eduardo said, by now a million things went through his mind and his memories went back to the journal, the people that saved his parents from the waterfall… the people who had saved both his parents and him when he was born… and also the people his parents went to save all those years ago.
The green eyes…
But they couldn't be talking about them… could they?
Gazing at the ´deep thinking´ look Arnold had on his face in the moment, Eduardo decided to just continue with the subject.
-"Arnold?" Eduardo said.
-This snapped Arnold out of his thoughts, he blinked and shook his head slowly "sorry for that" he said "I just tend to zone out sometimes but, can we please continue?".
-Eduardo nodded "alright, Arnold but, now, I need you to stay completely focused, what we're going to talk about here is not what 10-year-old kid would normally talk about okay?".
-"It's okay, and don't worry, you've got all my attention" Arnold said reassuringly.
-"Very well, then let us begin" Eduardo said "okay Arnold, as you may already know, we're here to recover a very important relique" he said and Arnold nodded "but you must know, this artifact we're looking for is no ordinary jewel".
-"It's not?" Arnold asked.
-"Not in the least" Bridget said "this artifact, Arnold, is much more than just a simple jewel" she stated.
-"much more..." as he played this again through his mind he suddenly recalled a part of his father's journal, but he decided not to jump to conclusions so soon, after all they weren't exactly talking about that "and why is that?" he asked just hoping if they would confirm his theory.
-"This artifact has averylarger history than any other has" Mariana said "that relique is really important to the people of our country, Arnold" she said.
-"Arnold, I think this is something that has to be explained by your relative, here" Eduardo said gesturing not to Mariana but to Bridget.
Just by seeing he meant Bridget when he said relative, Arnold's mind went in shock, his went wide with an incredulous look on his face, and he exchanged look between Eduardo and Bridget before he just finally settled his eyes on the woman-spy, he could see that the features on her face had taken on a 'you've-been-discovered' look. He really wanted to say something right now, but he didn't exactly knew how to clear this up so he just came up with the first word he thought of.
-"What?" he half-said half-whispered.
Eduardo now looked puzzled, why did Arnold looked like he was in shock? Why did he looked as if he had just discovered a surprise he didn't even know about? Unless…
-"You haven't told him, have you?" Eduardo asked giving Bridget an annoyed half-lidded look.
-Bridget closed her eyes and sighed pushing some locks of her brunette hair out of her face "I was about to…" she said a little quietly "until someone here interrupted us" she said now a little more loudly looking directly at the Hispanic woman.
-"What? I didn-" Mariana was about to defend herself when suddenly she remembered when she opened the doors of the room and found Bridget knelt in front of Arnold… so that's what took them so long "oh…" she trailed off when she realized the mistake she had made and cocked her head to the side sheepishly.
-"Bridget" Arnold said cutting-in "what did they mean by that?" He asked urgently, and after Bridget just had a 'deep-thinking' look on her face, he pressed on "just what did they mean by relative?".
-"Arnold, look…um" she said a bit hesitantly and with her eyes closed "I know that this must all come as a rush to you but… you we're gonna find out sooner or later anyway".
-"Just, what do you mean exactly?" Arnold said needing an explanation.
-"Just what you heard" Bridget said finally opening her eyes and looking at him "I'm your relative Arnold, you and I come from the same family" she finally said.
"Arnold was now feeling overwhelmed by the given information "from… the same…" he asked, a shocked expression on his face.
-"Well, not exactly form the same family since, I'm not a from your grandparents' family" Bridget said.
-"Wait a minute, if you're saying you're not from that side… then…" Arnold said suddenly completing the puzzle "you… you knew… her".
-"Yes Arnold… I knew your mother, because…" Bridget said.
The 10-year-old- boy just stood there waiting for the great revelation while the Hispanic pair in the room just looked at him with expectant eyes.
-"She is my cousin" Bridget finally said.
Author notes: Ha! Bet you didn't see that one coming… or maybe you did… but anyway, I'm sorry If may have taken too long on this it's just that I've been a little busy lately but here it is, at last!
So yeah, this was the little plot twist I added, sorry guys but It just came through my mind and I thought it was a good idea, Bridget and Arnold family… oh well, I may take a little while to post the next chapter but I'll do my best, and yes I think I did Bridget out-of-character in this chapter but next one I'll try to do it better.
Well thanks to anyone who's been reading this and review If you can, stay tunned! See ya!