Hello, everyone. It's cool to be back here with a new story. And, as usual, I have an assistant to help me introduce the story; this time, is... Phoebe, from 'Hey, Arnold!'. (Konichiwa, Ramiro, and again, I appreciate that you selected me to assist you here.) You're welcome, Pheebs, and besides, it's appropriate that you're the one assisting me because, even if this is a crossover, the main series is the one you're coming from. (Indeed.)

(Okay, as Ramiro already mentioned, this story will be a crossover, involving several series, most of them Nicktoons, in a 'Wizard of Oz' setting. As always, Ramiro claims no copyright possession on any of us, and same applies to the original story.) Thanks, Phoebe. Also, about the story, I'm basing it mostly on the original book rather than the movies. (So don't be surprised if you see scenes or situations that hadn't been portrayed in film or some other media, even if Ramiro will surely include references to the movies as well. We'll also display some extra information at the end of each chapter if necessary.)

I think that's all for now. Okay, Phoebe, you can say it now. (Saying. - clears her throat - On with the show!)

The Wonderful Wizard of Nick.

(crossover-fanmake by Acosta Perez Jose Ramiro)

Chapter 1 - Little Lost Dog

"Come on, Miss Perfect, stop staring at the butterflies. We're playing here."

"Oh, I'm ever so sorry, Helga. Okay, I'm ready now." Lila apologized to Helga and got her attention back on the baseball game the whole class was playing at Gerald Field. Despite Helga still not feeling a lot of sympathy for Lila, due to a certain Football Head's old feelings for her, the Pataki girl often chose the redhead to play on her team, since Lila was a decent player when focusing, and Helga not wanting her to be on Arnold's team.

Said boy was currently getting ready to bat, while Helga directed her teammates from her catcher's position. Harold, as usual, was playing pitcher for her team.

"Okay, Pink Boy, try to do it right this time!" Helga yelled at Harold before smirking at Arnold. "And please, if you hit it, don't send all the players to the infirmary, can you, Arnold-o?"

"Whatever you say, Helga," Arnold rolled his eyes yet smiled at the girl, and once he got his whole attention back to the game, Helga allowed herself to smile and sigh happily for a moment, even if still covering her face so the rest of their classmates wouldn't notice this.

Harold managed to score two strikes on Arnold, but the blonde boy managed to hit the ball on the third try, and sent it out of Gerald Field and over a few houses. Lila offered herself to go find the ball.

Lila had to run a bit now, since the ball had landed much further than she expected. When she finally found it, she sighed; it was right behind a parked car, and under a window with a cracked plant pot; as usual, Arnold was a terrific batter, but his hits tended to break things and/or injure people.

"At least this time he didn't hurt anyone." Lila smiled but then gasped when getting closer to grab the ball, and finally seeing a little white dog, with a large black spot on his back, right next to the car and at short distance from the ball. The canine had a large lump on his head and his eyes were quite dizzy; apparently, this time Arnold got an animal instead of a person. Lila also noticed the street was mostly alone, so this dog was by his own.

"Oh, poor little guy." Lila carried the still unconscious animal and then placed the ball in her dress' pocket before returning to Gerald Field. While walking back, Lila noticed the dog had a collar with a name tag.

"Spunky… nice name." Lila smiled but then frowned a bit. The tag had the dog's name but the address wasn't clear, as it had been erased by time and the dog's activities, so it wouldn't be easy to find his owner. She made a mental note about asking later on the houses close to where she had found Spunky.

Not surprisingly, when Lila arrived and Arnold saw what he had done, he felt quite guilty, and he offered to attend Spunky; even if obviously not a veterinary, Arnold had enough experience attending Abner and the many animals his grandma often took to the boarder house. Helga decided to go with them, since the game was pretty much over by now and, of course, she didn't want Arnold and Lila to be alone; her excuse to be there was that she was good with first aids and could help Arnold at attending Spunky, and 'We don't need Miss Perfect and Arnold-o to get a guilty conscience and stop playing for good', an excuse most of the class accepted.

"Well, he seems to be better now." Arnold commented while bandaging the now conscious Spunky. "I'm glad the ball didn't hurt him that badly."

"Oh, I'm ever so glad he's okay." Lila, smiling, petted Spunky, who gave her a happy, dumb expression and started licking her hand. "Aw, he's adorable."

"Yeah, probably to compensate for the dummy face," Helga rolled her eyes yet smiled a bit. "Okay, the mutt is fine, so better take him back to his place."

"But we don't know where he lives, Helga." Lila reminded her.

"Well, you can ask on the street you found him, or make flyers or whatever." Helga frowned. "Come on, Lila, you can't expect Arnold-o and I to solve your life."

"Helga, that's…" Arnold was gently interrupted by Lila.

"Helga is right, Arnold. I found Spunky so I'm responsible for him until I find the owner." Lila got back to petting the dog. "I think my dad will be ever-so understanding and let me have Spunky at home for a while until I find the owners."

"Well, I was the one who hit Spunky, so please let me give you a hand." Arnold offered.

"Fine, if you two are gonna put your world on hold until you found the mutt's family, I'm better helping too so we can finish with this as soon as possible." Helga groaned a bit but then got a surprised expression at the little smiles Arnold and Lila were giving her. "Hey, I'm not saying this because I wanna help or something, it's just that I don't want our moronic classmates to make me responsible in case you two stop playing."

Lila and Arnold didn't press the issue, as they both knew Helga was a much better person than she showed in public. Lila also knew of the Pataki girl's true feelings for Arnold, and she was actually happy to contribute at Arnold seeing a bit more of Helga's good side, expecting they'd eventually become a couple.

The next couple of days, Lila started searching for Spunky's family; nobody on the nearby streets had seen the dog before, so she had extended the search to other neighborhoods. Arnold and Helga and, by extension, Gerald and Phoebe, had started searching as well, but their luck wasn't any better. Lila, however, remained as optimistic as usual and in fact liked having Spunky around; the only 'but' she could find on the dog was that he seemed to have the canine's equivalent of Attention Deficit Syndrome, and many times wandered away when something got his attention; not to mention he had a tendency to try eating definitely unhealthy stuff, like candy wraps and old tires. Arnold suggested her to get Spunky on a leash, but Lila had some issues about that, fearing she'd hurt Spunky by accident or that he'd try to eat the leash, so most of the time she allowed him to move aside her; luckily, Spunky had a liking for her so most of the time he stayed close to the girl.

After three days of searching, Lila thought that, being a curious, easily distracted dog, it was possible that Spunky's family lived downtown or at some street quite far from her own, so she made another plan; that day, she took the bus to the docks, along with Spunky (luckily, her nice attitude and gentle nature convinced the driver to let her travel with an animal), as it was quite far from her neighborhood but still close enough to get back on foot, so Lila could search and try to find the dog's family while walking back home, and even if it didn't work, she could still stick some flyers on her way back. The girl was so optimistic that day that she didn't notice the storm clouds slowly forming in the sky.

Shortly after arriving to the docks, Lila found Earl, Sheena's uncle, securing his boat.

"Hello, Sir; do you remember me?"

"Oh, right, you're one of Sheena's classmates, right?" Earl looked at the girl and then at Spunky. "Nice pup. He's yours?"

"No, and I'm actually trying to find his owner. Do you know if any of your sailor friends had lost a dog lately?"

"Mmm… no, sorry, not that I know. Anyway, if you're going to search around here, better do it fast, and get back home as soon as you can. The weather's report said that we're getting heavy rain today; in fact,¦ I'm pretty sure it will be quite a storm."

Lila looked up and realized the man was right; she had seen similar clouds more than once from her early childhood in the country, and it wouldn't be too long before it started to rain as much as the old man said. Lila thanked him, and then she and Spunky started a quick search; since now Lila knew she had little time left, she moved in a hurry, and didn't lose time sticking the flyers to any wall or post, knowing the rain would probably ruin them.

"Sorry, Spunky, but I think we must leave...¦" Lila looked down and gasped when not seeing the dog. "Spunky? Spunky, where are you?"

Lila looked around and finally saw Spunky sniffing a garbage can. Lila sighed, knowing the dog would probably try to eat something from it if he hadn't already done it; and a few moments later, Spunky was taking out what seemed to be the remains of a large fish.

"Ugh. That's ever so smelly." Lila cringed at the sight of Spunky chewing the fish, and got second thoughts about Arnold's suggestion of keeping the dog on a leash. Then, when the redhead approached to get the dog, a huge pelican appeared out of nowhere and, obviously trying to get the fish as well, flew away carrying both the Spunky and the fish.

"SPUNKY!" Lila, in fear and surprise, started running after the pelican, hoping she wouldn't miss him, or worse, that the bird decided to drop Spunky from such a large height. "Nnngh… now I know why Helga is ever-so hostile towards birds!"

Meanwhile, Spunky had partially recovered from the shock of being grabbed by the pelican, and started struggling. The huge bird, now getting annoyed at the dog's antics, flied a bit lower, and dropped the dog on a rooftop. Lila, in anguish, started looking for a way to get up there and save Spunky; she also tried to get some help but, due to the impending rain (and Lila was already feeling the first drops on her face) the docks were mostly desert by now.

The building where Spunky had landed gave Lila a very bad feeling. It was a small warehouse, and judging by its general state, it hadn't been used in a long time now. In fact, it was so old and ruined that the walls and rooftop already had several holes on them, most covered with random planks and some old clothes, probably tarp or sailcloth. Lila was now afraid about entering the building, but she knew it was the only way she'd get to the rooftop; the girl found a big enough hole for her, only partially covered with a plank, and got in, gulping a bit when hearing the floor creaking under her feet. However, once she advanced a little more, she realized that, even if the place was in desperate need of a clean-up and several repairs, it was mostly solid, so Lila could walk around without fear of the ceiling falling on her. Still, she knew she had to hurry up; while searching for a stairway, she immediately got slightly envious of Arnold and Helga's courage; they wouldn't be half as afraid as she was now, especially with the very little light inside the warehouse that made harder to find any stairway despite not being a big building. She then jumped in fear when lightning and thunder stroke outside.

"I'm better hurrying up…¦ this storm is going to be ever so heavy… oh, and poor Spunky is still up there, out in the rain and… " Lila's out-loud thinking was interrupted by Spunky's barking. The little dog found his way down through one hole in the rooftop, and then finding an old stairway.

"Spunky, I'm ever so glad you're okay!" Lila hugged the dog and then got thoughtful. "Maybe we'll need to stay here for a while until the storm is over. I didn't even bring my umbrella today."

As Lila said this, the storm worsened, and in a few minutes, it had hurricane-like winds. The girl, hearing the thunderous weather, grabbed Spunky and walked to what seemed to be the strongest, safest spot in the warehouse, away from the walls and with a floor solid enough under her feet. She also found a large, old tent all rolled up, and she and Spunky covered themselves with it, improvising both a cushion and a blanket; even if it was very dusty and smelly, it was still better than waiting on the cold.

"Don't worry, Spunky, we'll be okay… we'll be okay… we'll be...¦"

Both Lila and Spunky yelped when the mighty wind shook the whole warehouse, and then something incredible happened; the construction started trembling, and then, with a mighty, final yank, it got ripped from the base up, the wind lifting it with relative ease as the many clothes covering the warehouse's holes acted as sails, catching the wind and carrying the house up. Luckily, the clothes were very firmly secured, so the warehouse didn't fall down; unfortunately, it also meant it was flying up and away, spinning at impossible speeds.

"AND I CAN'T EVEN STAND THE MERRY-GO-ROUND!" Lila thought in a panic yet unable to move at all due to shock. The girl just hugged Spunky and stayed on her spot, fearing the moment the wind would stop blowing and the warehouse would go down. After a while, the warehouse stopped spinning but it still moved, rocked by the winds, and Lila had to cover her mouth and take deep breaths since her breakfast was at risk of returning with a vengeance.

Time seemed to stop for Lila, as she didn't know if she had been inside the warehouse for a few minutes or hours, before tiredness finally made her fall asleep.

XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX

(For those who doesn't know it, Spunky is from 'Rocko's Modern Life', and, in this fanmake, he's obviously playing the role of Toto.)