The Secret
By Cybra
A/N: We're entering the final chapters of our story, folks! Then I shall be posting a few things before my next big series! Yippie skippie! :::rolls eyes at her own dorkiness:::
Briana LuvsFBH – No, Maya definitely doesn't have a clue. Joe has only vague ideas about what's going on, but he's on Arnold's side. Also, I finished "He's Gone"! You like? :)
Dark Memory – Hmm…Interesting idea. Maybe I'll do an alternate ending, I dunno. I'll think about it! ^^ Thanks for the idea!
Arana Mai – Don't give yourself a hernia! Hernias are bad!
Almaseti – Of course I mentioned you! How could I not? I always try to answer people who have questions or statements other than simply "great job"! ;) And, yes, Arnold did say something about his "final solution" before in the past.
rookee alding – Sorry, but while Helga is a part of the story, the story's on Arnold. Not her. She has to step out of the spotlight. Sorry, man.
The J.A.M. – What the heck's an "endoslung"?! Anyway, thanks!
Jaha Canon – Welcome to the club of impatient people! :::laughs:::
kitkatkidd2004 – Leaving you on the edge of your seat, eh? I must be doing my job, then! ^^
joe mama – As I've mentioned before, no Helga is not one of the three Empaths. The other two are a pair of unknown kids known only by their names of "Mary" and "Steve".
Disclaimer: Question. If Hey Arnold! wasn't mine before, what makes you think it's mine now?!
Chapter 14: Rescue Attempt"Kill himself?!" shrieked Rhonda, asking the question no one dared ask.
Dr. Bliss stared at the blonde boy's grandfather, not wanting to believe what she heard. Or was she not wanting to believe that an observation she had made about him was right? "He's suicidal?"
Phil looked down at the letter, trying his best not to lose control. "Only if it'll help someone. Believes strongly in that 'needs of the many' stuff, like in that Star Trek movie." He put a hand to his forehead. "Cheezits, I didn't want to believe him when he first said told me about his 'final solution'."
"He's talked about this before?" Dr. Bliss pressed, still a bit in shock that someone Arnold's age could even bring himself to think about ending his own life.
"Oh, yes. He read in one of my books on World War II about the military strategy of destroying a weapon before it fell into enemy hands. That was a year and a half ago." Arnold's grandpa shivered as if the room's temperature lurked somewhere below zero. "Made me proud when he told me that he'd figured out a plan to stop someone from using him like a weapon but scared me to death when he told me his plan. He called it his 'final solution', a very last resort if nothing else could be done."
"So we rescue him," Gertie broke in, rushing to the hall closet. "We'll save our comrade if it's the last thing we do!"
Everyone gaped as she closed herself into the closet, then leaped out a few minutes later in full guerrilla uniform.
"Who's with me?!" the crazy yet brave woman called.
"I'm with ya, Pookie!" Grandpa threw in.
Mr. Potts and Mr. Hyunh were next, valiantly volunteering to go to the aid of the youngest member of their strange family.
Suzie shook her head. "I'll stay here and call the police. That way if something goes wrong, you all have some sort of backup."
Dr. Bliss nodded her head in agreement. "I'd be pretty much useless on the front line, so I guess I'll stay here with Suzie."
"And I shall stay as well," Oskar said. "To…uh…protect them! Eh heh heh!"
Despite the dirty looks the three other men gave the man, there was no reaction to Oskar's statement.
"I'm goin', too," Helga stated, stepping forward.
"If my buddy's in trouble, I'm there," Gerald announced, stepping forward next to Helga.
Even Phoebe stepped forward. "Perhaps I can help us break in or something. I know a few things about alarms."
"No way! Not you kids!" Ernie protested.
"The loony's right," Phil agreed. "We can't put you kids in danger."
"You'll need our help. Four of you versus an entire building full of people who are most likely willing to kill those who try to get in the way are not very good odds," Phoebe logically pointed out.
"And the more people helpin' Arnold get out, the better," Stinky agreed, crossing his arms and stepping forward next to Phoebe.
The adults gaped at the children before them.
"I can't go," Rhonda whispered quietly. "As much as I'd like to, I'm not going to be of any help. I don't know anything about fighting or alarms or anything."
"Same here," Nadine agreed.
Other than the four standing defiantly in front of the adults, the rest of the children agreed with Rhonda. They, too, had nothing to offer even though they would if they could.
Phil stared for a little longer before sighing. "I just hope we don't regret this."
~@~
Arnold never thought that escape could be so ridiculously easy.
Over the past few nights, he had been carefully planning an escape route. While feigning sleep, he had reached out and invisibly touched the minds of the guards (or rather, soldiers) that resided there. He had carefully wrapped a web of fear loosely around their minds, allowing him to simply "yank" on the web in order to snap it over the minds of his enemies and bring crippling fear to the hearts and minds of the soldiers.
The best part was that since most of the work was finished, it took very little energy to get it done. His resources – carefully trained under Dr. Bliss' and the boardinghouse members' careful eyes – remained mostly full. In the event of trouble, he would be able to draw on an ample amount of power.
He and Joe walked past a guard who had curled up into a small ball on the floor, whimpering pathetically about how spiders were overrunning the place. The guard would see and hear nothing but the fear that held him petrified to the spot, his mind playing tricks on him due to the fear.
Ordinarily, Arnold would've felt guilty for doing such a cruel thing. He didn't know how long the fear would hold this man or the others to their spots or what effects it may have on them in the future. Still, however difficult it was, Arnold had hardened his heart and focused on the task at hand: escape. This same man who lay curled up in a fetal position would've prevented his escape.
And escape was vastly more important than a guilty conscience.
Especially when the threat of civil war lay on the horizon.
'We should've run into trouble by now,' Arnold fretted for the fifth time in thirty seconds. 'This is too easy. True, they weren't expecting it, but it's too easy. It's like I'm being handed my escape on a silver platter.'
And if there was only one thing he had learned from his grandpa, it was "never trust a silver platter".
That's when the obstacle came walking towards him.
"Arnold?" the McMillan girl asked. Before he could respond, Maya stared at the guard lying curled up on the floor. She kneeled toward him, eyes wide with horror. "What happened to him?!"
"I had to do it, Maya," Arnold stated, glancing at Joe who nodded and turned to make sure no one snuck up from behind them.
Maya had never truly experienced life outside of the building she called home. Concepts that would've made sense to anyone who lived in the real world (like using whatever advantages you had to overcome the other guy) didn't register with her. She had been shielded for most of her life from the unpleasantness of the outside world.
Therefore, she didn't understand why Arnold thought he had to emotionally attack anyone.
"Why?!" she demanded, staring at the boy she admired so much. She looked pleadingly at Joe. "And why are you helping him?!"
She turned her foot as if going to go rush for help, but Arnold quickly covered the distance between the two of them. He grabbed her shoulders as she tried to squirm away.
He forced her to look him in the eye, her eyes wide with fear as if afraid he had gone mad and would harm her. "Because your father is planning to do something incredibly stupid that will get a lot of people killed." When she tried again to pull away, he kept a firm grip on her. "Don't you think the whole situation's a little too strange, Maya? These men train like they're part of an army, your dad's willing to kidnap me who happens to be a Level 5, and you're a Level 1."
"Stop it!" she whimpered, closing her eyes and shaking her head as if to rid her mind of his voice.
But Arnold pressed on. It was time for her to face the facts. She didn't deserve to live in the dark anymore.
"And the two of us are a matched set of Odd Empaths. If your father's plan succeeds, he needs something to back him when he takes control. What better way than Empath-induced terror?"
'Stop it!"
"And how else could he ensure that future generations would still have a minority ruling the majority than by making sure he had two Empaths, one male and one female?"
"Stop it, please!"
Here he shook her, making her open her innocent brown eyes to look into his intense and more worldly knowledgeable green ones. "It's like a breeding program, Maya! It's too perfect! If the two of us grew up, got married, and had kids, what would happen if Empathy could be passed on, hmm? Then our children could be used to maintain control long after you and I are dead. Then if they can find other Odd Empaths for husbands or wives, the whole cycle continues again."
"He wouldn't!"
"He's doing it now, Maya! I hate to do this to you, but it's time you wake up and take a good look at the evidence all around you!"
An alarm went off. Joe spun around to face the two children. Arnold jerked in surprise and almost released his prisoner, but Maya didn't notice as what Arnold told her sank in.
She didn't want to believe it…
…but Arnold's eyes told her that he was not lying and had not gone insane.
The guard's radio crackled to life.
"Thompson! We have intruders in Sector 5! Requesting backup! Over!"
Joe raised his eyebrows and leaned down to grab the radio. He did his best imitation of the clipped voice of a well-trained soldier. "Thompson here! I'll be there shortly! Over!"
"Roger! Will keep you posted! Over!"
"Roger! Over and out!" Joe looked Arnold in the eye. "Seems like your family's tryin' to take you back."
"I never thought I'd say this, but I honestly hope not. Cheezits, this complicates things!" Arnold muttered. "They weren't supposed to come get me!"
None of the trio in the hall moved an inch, temporarily lost in their own thoughts and fears.
A few minutes later, the radio crackled again. "Thompson! Intruders have been captured and being taken to the office! Return to your post! Over!"
"Roger!" Joe responded using his improvised "soldier" voice. Fortunately, the man on the other end didn't seem to notice that "Thompson" sounded a little different than normal. "Uh, sir? Requesting information on intruders. Over."
"One old lady, an old man, a short guy, a Vietnamese man, and four children. Over."
The series of curses that flew into Arnold's head were highly imaginative and more than just a little obscene. He bit his tongue to keep from speaking these curses aloud.
"Roger. Over and out."
Maya stared at Arnold. "Friends of yours?"
"My grandparents, Ernie, Mr. Hyunh, and a few of my friends from school. Cheese and rice, this really complicates things!"
Arnold paced back and forth across the hallway, resisting the sudden urge to take out his frustration on the sniveling man on the floor. It would've been so easy to just lash out in anger at one of the men who had caused him so much grief. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, seething at the universe for dumping this situation into his lap.
Still, it was not in his nature to needlessly harm someone, and he was able to restrain himself from acting on his first impulse.
His mind ran through dozens of possibilities until he sighed and turned to face Joe and Maya. "It looks like I have only one choice. This escape attempt is now a rescue mission." He looked up into Joe's eyes. "Joe, you've been a big help to me, but I have to ask you to go no further. What I'm going to do will most likely get anyone with me shot."
"I've come this far," Joe valiantly began, eyes turning to steel, "and I'm gonna go that much farther. Besides, an old buzzard like me's gotta meet his end somehow. If I haveta die, I want to die doin' what's right for my own grandchildren."
"And they won't shoot if I'm with you," Maya's timid voice whispered, shocking both Joe and Arnold. Brown eyes, perhaps a bit less innocent than before, met the gaze of the two male Odds before her. "I have to know if Dad's really doing this. And the only way I'm going to find out is by going with you."
Arnold gave pleading looks to his two friends and allies but sighed, giving in to their demands. "Then I guess we'd better get moving. I don't know how long my little webs of fear will hold, and I'd rather we meet your father without all his soldiers, Maya."