Announcement: Hi everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that I recently posted a new Hey Arnold! story, called 'Helga vs Rodrigo'. This one follows what happens when Rodrigo Castile starts school at P.S. 118, but in the sixth grade, a few months after the event of TJM. This story is from a completely different setting and universe, do it does not relate at all with my other previous stories. Check it out and comment and review!
Responses to reviews:
Cre8ivelybankrupt87: Of course! Can't forget about Nick Vermicelli.
Phoebe is not immune to doing things that are morally blurry.
Really? You really think that Lorenzo is a shrimp? Well, I'm not going to say that he became overly muscular, but he did develop sufficient strength to be able to take on someone like Gerald.
Harold, being a sensitive person at heart, was never an aggressive person. But, it's fun to put him in a somewhat comical role. Given the amount of drama this story had, a little comedy is kind of needed.
Rosali Leon Huamani: Gracias! Lo aprecio!
"Move." Gerald sternly said to him.
"No." Lorenzo said. "Just leave."
Gerald didn't respond and began to look around to see if he can bypass him without getting physically confrontational.
Patty meanwhile, took up position in front of Curly, on the second corridor, where Harold was on the opposite side. The couple looked at each other with determined stares, waiting to see if anyone of them would flinch first.
Suddenly, Harold began to walk towards Patty, who in turn stood firmly still, waiting for the up and coming onslaught. Harold continued to walk towards Patty, getting closer and closer, even going so far as to speed up, almost as if he was charging right at her. Patty held firm and braced for the inevitable clash. Just as Harold was within a few feet away from her,
"Aw come on, Patty!" Harold then suddenly whined at her, "Can you please just move aside?"
"No." She firmly said to him.
"Awww!" Harold groaned. "Stop being so stubborn! I'm not going to hurt Curly. I'm not going to unplug his laptop."
"Not while I'm standing here." She said.
Harold just nervously looked at her, and then around her, trying to see how he can bypass her. Then, Harold suddenly started running away, back to where he was and then continued to run the other way, further away from Curly, towards the other corridor. Patty followed him and quickly made her way towards the other corridor, only to find that it was empty. Realizing what just happened, she quickly went back to her spot, where she saw, Harold hurriedly running across the corridor. Patty immediately blocked him, forcing Harold to stop.
"Nice try." She said with a smile, "But you're too slow."
"Aww!" Harold groaned.
Meanwhile, Lorenzo and Gerald were still squaring off, dancing around each other. Despite their determination to stop each other, they were still hesitant to getting confrontational. Suddenly, Gerald then made a quick dash towards an opening that he saw, but Lorenzo quickly blocked him, forcing Gerald to stop just a feet away from him. The African-American teen frowned, but then got a bit more aggressive and attempted to get past him, trying to push Lorenzo away. However, Lorenzo blocked him with his arms and tired to push Gerald away and back. Getting frustrated now, Gerald again attempted to get through, this time grabbing Lorenzo and trying to push him, but Lorenzo held on to him and soon, both held each other and tried to make the other either back off or push him down to the ground. With each second, both teens started getting more and more aggressive with each other. Pretty soon, whatever hesitation they had was quickly evaporating. They continued to lock horns and tried to push the other way, only for that person to then try to push the other.
Suddenly, Gerald quickly fell to the ground and while still grabbing on to Lorenzo and using his weight, threw him towards the other side, causing Lorenzo to roll and fall on his back. However, Lorenzo stubbornly held on to Gerald and using that same force, pulled him towards the ground, causing the African-American teen to also fall to the ground. Now, both teens wrestled with each other on the ground, trying to get the other off of him. After a little while, both teens then let go of each other and quickly got up to face each other again.
"I don't want to hurt you." Gerald said to him while breathing heavily.
"I don't either." Lorenzo responded back, also breathing heavily. "So leave."
Gerald didn't respond and just prepared for another physical confrontation with him when suddenly,
"No!" Curly angrily shouted as he banged on his laptop, forcing all four teens to stop their fight and look at him.
"What's wrong?" Rodrigo asked from outside.
"I've been blocked!" Curly angrily shouted. "Something or someone just blocked my program, so the scanning stopped. I can't continue!"
"Phoebe!" Gerald happily said out loud, prompting Lorenzo and Curly to look at him.
"So, your little girlfriend is the one behind this." Curly said with a frown. "Very well. If she wants to go head to head with the best, I will fry her!" Before Curly then started typing fast.
At the Cafe...
It took Phoebe a while, but she managed to create a digital program that allowed her to travel through the internet and into City Hall's security system without getting detected. Through this program, Phoebe found Curly's program and managed to block him.
"Gotcha ya!" Phoebe softly said with a grin as she continued to type. However, she didn't have time to savor her victory. As soon as she stopped him,
"Oh no!" She gasped as she saw that Curly managed to get around her blocking barrier. "Oh, you are good, Curly." She said. "But not good enough!"
Back at the computer data storage room...
"Grrr, again?!" Curly angrily cried out, but then managed to quickly calm himself down. "Fascinating." He said with an impressive smile. "I never took your girlfriend to be so knowledgeable in computer programming."
"How did you not?" Gerald asked confusingly. "She was the one who managed to create a communication device that allowed her to send that S.O.S. message to Helga's dad when we got kidnapped by Lasombra, remember?"
"That was child's play." Curly said dismissively. "What we are doing now, it's a titanic battle, fit only for Gods!"
Gerald just sighed and rolled his eyes. Seeing that Phoebe was handling it, Gerald saw no further point to fight Lorenzo and was now pretty much just standing there. Lorenzo too didn't see a point and made no attempt to charge against him, although he continued to keep his eye on him, just in case.
Patty and Harold also stopped fighting and were now looking at Curly, watching his battle with Phoebe.
"Ohohohohoh, you are good!" Curly said to himself with a smirk. "But not to good enough!"
"Ugh, dang it!" Phoebe groaned in frustration while still at the cafe. "He is better than I originally thought. But, he does have one fatal flaw; his hubris and like all egoist, they are destined to fall."
"You're girlfriend is sooo cute when she thinks she is winning, hehehehe." Curly taunted Gerald, but the African-American teen remained unfazed and just continued to look at him rather casually, if not unimpressed.
This went on for quite a bit, with both Phoebe and Curly attempting to best each other. One of them would lock the other person, while that person would immediately counter it and unlock himself and counter attack. As serious as this was, both teens couldn't help find this to be a bit thrilling. They didn't think this was a game, but it forced them to use all of their knowledge, experience and know-how in order to best their opponent, a fact that they rarely had to use. For the first time, both teens realized that they finally found someone who was in many ways, at their own level. Sure, Curly was a bit crazy and Phoebe still tended to be overly logical and analytic, two traits that each teen knew about the other and often didn't allow them to be close friends when they were growing up. But, it was precisely these unusual traits that each of them found to be impressive. And it was during this brief moment in time that both teens actually gained each other's respect.
As Phoebe and Curly continued with their cyber-battle, Gerald and Lorenzo continued to face off, only now looking seemingly more bored than keeping an eye on one another. Lorenzo had his arms crossed while looking at his nail as he yawned, while Gerald just looked at the time on his cell.
"So uh, how you been?" Gerald then just casually asked him.
"Pretty good." Lorenzo just casually responded back. "A bit tired though. How about you?"
"Eh, same old." Gerald just shrugged. "A bit tired as well and it's really boiling out."
"Oh ya, tell me about it." Lorenzo remarked.
"The force is strong with this one." Curly then remarked, drawing the two male teens' attention. "But not strong enough! It was good match, but I grow tired now."
And with that, Curly typed in a program code and quickly pressed 'Enter'.
"Goodbye, Phoebe, wuahahahahahah!" Curly exclaimed as he laughed maniacally.
Back at the Cafe...
While Phoebe was busy typing, her computer then suddenly started acting up. A series of windows started popping up at random, until the program that she in shut down completely.
"Oh no!" She exclaimed in shock.
She desperately tried to log back into the program, but to no avail. It just wouldn't start. Her computer still ran fine, but the program was not in virtual lock down.
Realized that she was now out of the game, Phoebe quickly picked up her phone and called Gerald.
Back at the computer data storage room…
Gerald's cell then suddenly started vibrating. He grabbed it from his pocket and picked up the call.
"Ya, babe?" He responded.
"Gerald, I'm unable to stop Curly from hacking into City Hall's computer security network." Phoebe frantically told her boyfriend. "He locked me out of my own program. I'm so sorry, but I'm afraid you'll just have to do it the old fashion way."
"What?!" Gerald exclaimed in shock, much to Curly's delight.
*sigh* "It's OK, babe. Thanks. I'll call you when I'm out." He said before then hanging up and frowned at Curly.
"Trouble in paradise?" Curly remarked with a smirk.
"Shut up, Curly." Gerald retorted back.
"Aww, don't get mad just your girlfriend wasn't good enough." Curly taunted him.
Gerald said nothing and now getting highly annoyed with Curly's eccentricities, began again to walk towards him, only for Lorenzo to once again block his path. Whatever boredom and fraternizing they just shared quickly went out the window. It was now back to reality.
"Lorenzo, I'm going to this only once more; move." He sternly said to him.
"And I'm going to tell you this only once more; leave." He responded back.
Gerald frowned at him and this time, no longer restraining himself, charged at Lorenzo, grabbed him and attempted to push him away so as to get to Curly and end this. Only Lorenzo swung around him, grabbed his torso and tried to bring him down to the floor, which he very nearly succeeded. Gerald then tried to freeing himself, but surprisingly, Lorenzo was much stronger than he anticipated.
Meanwhile, Patty and Harold resumed their own fight, albeit very reluctantly for Harold, who still did not wish to make this into something personal between them.
While Harold merely danced around with Patty, Gerald was still trying to free himself from Lorenzo's grasp.
"Let go of me!" Gerald angrily shouted at him, but Lorenzo just ignored him.
Finally, Gerald lost his patience and using his arm, hit Lorenzo right in the stomach with his elbow. However, Lorenzo incredibly did not let go of him, despite the pain and him groaning. Instead, now angered himself, he used his forehead to hit Gerald at the back of his head.
"Ow!" Gerald shouted in pain
The two teens continued to dance around like this, hitting each other whenever they could. At one point, Lorenzo kneed Gerald right on his spine, which he in turn kicked Lorenzo in the groin, almost forcing him to let go, but instead hit him again at the back of Gerald's head with his forehead, only for Gerald to then stomp on Lorenzo's foot. Then, Lorenzo then threw Gerald back to his starting point, away from Curly. Now, some feet away from each other, the two teens just glared at each other while panting. Whatever forms of sympathy, respect, kind and solidarity they once had, whatever friendship there was were, had now disappeared. All there was now was not hate, not yet anyways, but simply the goal, the mission to which each person had to strive to achieve, almost as if their lives depended on it...at any cost.
After resting a bit, Gerald then began to walk towards Lorenzo for another round when suddenly,
*Siren**Siren*
A series of loud sirens then began to blare out, causing everyone to suddenly stop what they were doing. The room, which was once a bit dark with a strong hit of blue, now became instantly red.
"We've been caught!" Curly shouted before he then faced Gerald and with an angry facial expression,
"What did you do, tall-hair boy?!"
"I didn't do anything!" He shouted back. It must have been you and your snooping around!"
"I was careful the whole time!" Curly angrily shouted back. "I touched nothing! Hey, pink boy, what did you touch?!"
"Huh? I didn't touch anything!" Harold responded back. "I was still standing here!"
Outside of City Hall…
Meanwhile, everyone that was outside of the building also began to hear the sirens. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked towards the building, curious, but with a strong sense of worry.
"Oh no, Gerald!" Arnold worryingly shouted, but realized he could do nothing.
Arnold then turned around to face his supporters, who were looking increasingly worried and anxious at what was happening and what was about to unfold.
"Everyone! Please stay calm!" Arnold shouted. "Everything's alright! We did nothing wrong!"
At the Mayor's office….
Mayor Dixie was by now, back at her desk, working when she was suddenly startled by the sirens and got up from her desk.
"Mayor Dixie!" Robert then suddenly burst into her office.
"Robert! What's going on?!" The Mayor demanded an explanation.
"Our Security alarm was triggered!" Robert explained. "This happens when the City Hall building is either broken into, or our security system is hacked!"
"What?!" Mayor Dixie said in utter shock. "How is that possible?!"
"That's what we are trying to figure out." Robert responded. "But right now we need to get you someplace safe while we put the entire building on lock down and disperse the protesters!"
"Is that really necessary?!" The Mayor shouted through the loud sirens. "To disperse the protesters?!"
"Yes, Mayor Dixie!" Robert firmly said back to her. "It's protocol and it's a safety measure, for your and theirs! Now, please, come with me!" He directed her.
Mayor Dixie didn't further argue with him and followed him towards the safe room.
Unbeknownst to the Mayor, Robert, while in contact with Nick Vermicelli, was instructed to hold off on sounding the alarm for a while. The task was allow as many kids as possible to break into the building and trap them, while ensuring that Arnold was not among them. Nick knew that it was mostly Arnold that held a strong influence in both his neighbourhood and the city. So, the last thing he wanted was to give the media or anyone supporting Arnold any more fuel for them to fight back. As for the rest of the kids, including Gerald, it was mostly a hit or miss, something that Nick was willing to risk.
After talking to Robert, Nick then went to the front of the building and spied on the teenagers, seeing what their reactions will be. Once it became clear to him that Arnold remained outside of the building, Nick waited for a bit in order to ensure that any kid trespassing was deeply inside, with very little way out. He then went back to the back of the building, called Robert again, and gave him the green light to sound the alarm.
Meanwhile, back inside the building…
Park was completely startled when he heard the sirens.
"Oh no!" He said to himself.
Not wasting any time, he quickly unplug everything, packed it all up, and then peaked outside to see if there were any guards out. Luckily for him, whatever few there were, they were preoccupied with heading to their stations or initiating safety protocols. Using the chaos to his advantage, Park quickly opened the door when the coast was clear, and then quickly made his way back to the computer data storage room and hoped he would not run into anyone.
Back at the computer data storage room…
"We gotta get out of here!" Harold cried out in a panic as he quickly grabbed Patty's hand and quickly attempted to climb back up on top of the computer that led back into the ventilating system.
Although still angry at Harold for his misogynist attitude, Patty made no effort argue and quickly followed him.
Curly frantically closed their laptops and tried to pack everything up, while Lorenzo unplugged everything from the computers and helped Curly. Gerald ran towards where Harold and Patty were heading.
The computer system was tall, so Harold had to bend and put his hand together in order to give Patty a boost. Using his strength, he lifted her up on top of the computer. Gerald then followed suit and Harold lifted him up.
Curly and Lorenzo ran up to them, threw their equipment on top of the computer, with Patty quickly grabbing them.
"Where's Park?!" Lorenzo shouted.
"Park's here?!" Gerald asked in shock.
"He was with me at the security office!" Patty informed them.
"Forget him!" Curly shouted. "He's a goner. We need to salvage what we can!"
"We're not going to abandon him!" Lorenzo shouted back at him. "You guys go on ahead! I'll see if I can find him!"
However, just as soon as Lorenzo was going to find him, Park then suddenly appeared.
"Park!" Lorenzo happily shouted. "You're OK!"
"Ya, but we won't be if we just continue to stand here!" Park said. "Let's get out of here!"
Acting as a united group for the first time, everyone helped each other out on getting out of there. Harold lifted Curly, Lorenzo and then Park up to the computer, while Patty and Gerald then bend down to grabbed on to Harold and pull him up. Given his size, they just barely managed to succeed. Once everyone was up, each person one by one then went back inside the ventilating system.
During this time, Gerald quickly called phoebe. After a few rings,
"Gerald! What's going on?! I heard sirens coming from City Hall." Phoebe worryingly said.
"We need to get out of here before we get caught!" Gerald frantically told her. "Can you direct us on how to get back from where we came?"
"Uhh, um, just give me a minute." Phoebe said almost in panic, as she attempted to find the blueprints for the building.
"We don't have a minute!" Gerald shouted as they climbed up into the ventilating system.
After his ascension, Curly then closed the exit by putting back the gate. It was just in the nick of time. Just as he closed it, two guards then suddenly burst into the room and began to scan around it. Curly saw them searching the room and just sighed in relief, but knew they were not yet out of danger.
Given the loud sirens, the two groups wasted no time in hurriedly crawling back out of the building. They initially traveled together, but then began to go their separate ways.
"Where are you going?!" Gerald asked when he said that Park, Curly, Lorenzo and Patty were going the opposite direction.
"From where we came!" Patty said to them.
"Patty, wait!" Harold frantically shouted at her as he tried to crawl to her. "Come with us!"
"We'll be fine. You guys just go!" She said back before then crawling towards her group.
"Harold, she's right." Gerald groaned as he tried to prevent Harold from following her. "She'll be fine, but we need to head back to the bathroom, or else that guard will be suspicious of us and may think that we broke into the building!"
Harold, despite his ever increasing worry, reluctantly relented and began to crawl the opposite direction.
"Phoebe, get us out of here!" Gerald firmly said to her.
"I got it!" Phoebe said with some optimism in her voice. "Just turn left when you make it to the end."
Phoebe calmly directed Gerald and Harold back to the bathroom. Unlike the first time, they quickly made their way back, regardless if their crawl was causing the ventilating system to bend and make noises. No one was able to hear them. Finally, they made it back into the bathroom, re-opened the gate, got out and they quickly put it back. They then ran out out the bathroom and attempted to get out of the building, but then both teens then felt a strong hand grip their shoulders.
"You too?!" It was the same guard the let them inside in the first place. "You both are still here?!"
"Uh, ya we are." Gerald said nervously as he desperately tried to think of something. "We needed to do number 2."
Harold played along and just nodded.
"Yeah! I ate way too much beans for brunch." He said with a nervous smile.
"Too much coffee for me." Gerald said with a nervous smile.
"Number 2?" The guard said suspiciously. "I thought you said you needed to empty your bladders."
"We did." Gerald responded. "But we mostly needed to do number 2. The latter was the emergency. That was why we couldn't hold it any longer. If it was only to pee, it would not have been a big deal. Sorry sir, we didn't mean to take that long, but you know when duty calls..."
"Oh whatever!" The guard retorted back with an almost disgusted look on his face. "Just get out of here before the building goes into lock down and I get into trouble."
"Lock down?" Gerald asked.
"Yes, lock down. Now Go!" The guard firmly said as he opened the door.
The two teens then quickly went out and ran toward Arnold.
"Gerald, Harold!" Arnold exclaimed happily. "Thank goodness you two are alright. What happened?"
"It's a long and very ugly story, Arnold." Gerald said. "But the short version is that we caught Lorenzo, Curly, Patty and Park inside. We tried to get them to stop, but they wouldn't budge and then I don't know, the alarm suddenly went off."
"Did you touch anything that might have triggered the alarm?" Arnold asked.
"No, nothing!" Gerald responded. "I was wrestling with Lorenzo a bit in order to get to Curly and stop him from hacking, but neither he nor I touched anything."
"What do you mean 'wrestled'? You were fighting with Lorenzo?" Arnold asked in surprise.
"Well, 'fighting' is such a harsh word, but ya, we were basically fighting." Gerald said as he rubbed the back of his head. "He wouldn't move, despite how many times I tried to reason with them, so I did what I had to do."
Arnold said nothing and just frowned in utter disappointment in sadness at just how serious and far down things have became between his friends. He never would have imagined them fighting among themselves, especially now. Although he tried not to, his mind slowly drifted to the one person who has been largely responsible for dividing his friends like this...
Meanwhile, at the back of the building…
Rodrigo, Stinky and Rhonda soon met up at the far side of the City Hall building, far away to not be detected, but close enough to see what was going on, and anxiously waited for their friends to get out. Outside, they witnessed people moving away from the building, while the guards that were still there, were directing people to go to the other side of the road while the building began to lock down.
Meanwhile, Sid was still in his position, unable to leave due to the guards still being too close to the dumpsters. However, he soon saw an opening when he peaked in and saw that the guards were no where near the dumpsters. Slowly, he petered out from it and after peaking his head out onto the street, made a dash for it while the guards had their backs towards the alleyway. After making his way to the other street on the other side of the road, he looked around to try and find his team. Sure enough, he saw them and made his way towards them.
"Rodrigo, what happened?" Sid asked him when he arrived.
"Sid, you're OK!" Rodrigo happily said when he saw him. "I don't know. Someone must have triggered the alarm, most likely Gerald."
"How long has it been since the alarm went off?" Sid asked.
"Long enough to not know if Curly and everyone else is going to make out alive." Stinky worryingly remarked.
"Oh how could this have happened?!" Rhonda dramatically asked. "Everything was going so smoothly. Why did Gerald have to sneak inside the building like that?"
"I don't know..." Rodrigo softly replied, but now growing more and more angrier at Arnold, who for sure must have ordered Gerald to go inside and stop him without at least approaching him and talking to him.
"What was Arnold thinking of sending Gerald to stop us like that?" Sid remarked in shock while also getting angry as his friend.
"My thoughts exactly." Rodrigo said.
How could he have been so reckless like that? Rodrigo furiously thought. Does he not care that he was putting his own friends in danger like that?
"Didn't Arnold know that he risked his own protest by sending Gerald inside?" Stinky pointed out. "I'm still surprised how he managed to gather that much support without Ms. Rhonda."
Rhonda looked at Stinky with wide eyes when he said that.
That's true. Rhonda thought. How did he manage to revive the online post so fast without me? None of our friends have that much popularity and influence to pull something like that so fast, not even Nadine...
And that's when it hit her.
"Nadine!" Rhonda yelled, prompting everyone to look at her in confusion.
"Nadine?" Sid asked.
"Yes! It must have been Nadine who went online and hijacked my account and posts, right under my nose, and posed as me online in order to get support for their cause. It must be her!" Rhonda exclaimed.
"That's a pretty pretty far fetched idea, Rhonda." Rodrigo remarked. "How do you know it was her?"
"Because Nadine and I have a special link online that connects both our accounts." Rhonda began to explain. "It doesn't allow us to hijack anyone's account, but we are able to post things on each other's account as if they came from the original user, make an event on each other's calendar, etc. It's a unique feature that this online network has, but it is highly restricted, with only a privileged few having access to that feature."
"And you didn't notice that she was using your own post?" Rodrigo asked.
"The feature alerts the user whenever the person whom you granted that special access to would post something on your own account." Rhonda explained. "Only this time, it did not. Every time I went online, I saw no activity on my account, expect for one area; the posts and blog that I originally created was receiving more and more positive comments. I thought I disabled and prevented everyone from posting any comments on it, so that got my attention when I first noticed it. However, I thought I simply forgot to disable it and at first, I didn't think much of it, but more and more kept on coming. It was becoming even more fishy that many of these comments were like responses, as if I was talking to them and they responded back. But, after our fiasco at the meeting with Von Scheck, I stopped responding to any comments days ago. Nadine is the only one who has that special access to my account, so I know it was her!"
Everyone else remained silent and shocked at this revelation.
"How could Nadine do something like this behind my back?!" Rhonda angrily shouted while glaring at her own iPhone.
"Whoa, whoa Rhonda, calm down." Rodrigo said. "How could Nadine have bypassed the alarming system of that online feature? Not to be rude, but I don't find her to be tech savvy enough to be able to do that."
"Think about it, Rodrigo." Rhonda said. "Who do you know that is tech savvy enough that is in Arnold's camp?"
After thinking about it for a second, Rodrigo knew who it was.
"Phoebe..." He responded with a disappointed look.
"Exactly." Rhonda said. "When I get my hands on those two, I'm going to rip them apart! No one forsakes my privacy and gets away with it! I trusted Nadine with this and she broke my trust!" She furiously shouted.
While everyone was still shocked and considering the consequences of Nadine's and Phoebe's actions, Sid was considering something else entirely, in a more paranoid kind of way.
"You're the mole!" She exclaimed as he pointed right at Rhonda.
"What?!" Rhonda exclaimed in shock. "Did you not just hear what I said, you little twerp?! Nadine and Phoebe hacked into my account and hijacked my post!"
"Hey, quit bickering and starting helping!" A voice suddenly said through their ear-piece.
"Curly? Is that you?" Rodrigo asked.
"No, it's Otto Von Bismarck. Of course it's me!" Curly exclaimed sarcastically. "Are we able to get down?
For the moment, everyone's attention then drew back to the most pressing issue; their friends who were still trapped inside.
"No. Those same guards are still there." Rodrigo said. "Hold on."
"Rhonda," Rodrigo then turned to face her, "can you distract the guards again while Curly and everyone else get down without being detected?"
"What? You want me to sink low again and flirt with a bunch of low level guards that are clearly well below my station?" Rhonda asked with a horrified look. "What do I look like to you?!"
"Rhonda!" Rodrigo pleaded. "Our friends need help to get down from that building and your the only one that can distract those guards long enough for them to get down. Please!"
"Ugh, fine." Rhonda groaned before then quickly making her way toward the direction from the museum.
As much as she hated to pretend to flirt with them, Rhonda knew there was no choice in the matter. Besides, she couldn't leave up to amateurs like Rodrigo or Stinky or Sid to distract them. But, she had to move quickly. It wasn't just the guards that were an issue. People that were walking by were stopping to view what all the commotion was about; a crowd was starting to gather. It was still very small, but Rhonda knew that it would eventually grow and if even anyone noticed a bunch of teenagers coming down from the building, any one of the pedestrians could alert the guards.
Once in position, Rhonda immediately began to 'walk back' towards where the guards were. She quickly replaced her irritated, glaring facial expression with a very concerned and worried look.
"Oh, excuse me, what is happening?" She then worryingly asked, with a southern accent, to one of the guards that was standing.
"Ms. Lloyd?" The guard asked when he saw her coming towards him. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I got a text message from one of my friends who was protesting, saying that an alarm suddenly went off and all hell broke loose." She said, pretending to pant. "I was just so worried about everyone's well being that I felt I needed to come back."
"Well, that's very kind of you Ms. Lloyd," the guard said, "But there is no need to worry. The protesters have remained calm throughout. So far, they haven't freaked out. The building is going to be on lock down and for everyone's safety, the protesters are going to be told to disperse."
"Ms. Lloyd?" The second guard said as he approached her, followed by the third guard. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, the little lady received a text from a friend of hers who is at the protest and getting worried, came by to make sure that everyone was safe." The first guard explained it.
"Took the word right out from my mouth, good sir." Rhonda said while giving the guard a flirtatious look.
Curly watched from above as the three guards became completely distracted by Rhonda. Once it was sure that the guard had their backs to the alleyway, Curly decided that it was time to get down.
"Quickly, while they are distracted." He said to everyone.
With their marks now completely off, one by one, the infiltration team descended down the fire emergency staircase. Due to the sirens that were still blaring, the team was able to quickly descend down, although each person had to make sure they didn't make too much noise. Despite how good Rhonda seemed to have been distracting them, the team was still nervous that at any moment, one of the guards would just look back and stop them. Their hearts were rapidly pounding, their hands were sweating due to being nervous and also the heat, which only made it worse for them to grab onto the bars. However, thankfully, none of the guards looked back and the team finally made it to the ground. They then quickly made their way by going to the opposite side of the building. Rhonda continued to distract the guards until the team was completely out of site and disappeared into the growing crowd.
"Well gentleman," Rhonda said to the guards, "I thank you very much for doing an excellent in ensuring that our fair City Hall remains secure for democracy to continue functioning. I do so hope you catch the scoundrels that tried to break in. But I'm afraid, I must be off, my friend and the children back in the museum are waiting for me."
"Thank you, Ms. Lloyd." One of the guards said with a smile.
"It was a pleasure talking to you, Ms. Lloyd." One of the guards said. "You have yourself a good day."
After saying their goodbyes, Rhonda then went 'around' the building to make it look like she was going to the front of the building to meet up with her 'friend'. However, she merely turned a corner, waited for a bit, crossed the road to make it to the other sidewalk and then made her way back to their rendezvous point, just as Curly and his team arrived.
"Guys, are you OK?" Rodrigo asked when they arrived.
"Ya, no thanks to Gerald and Harold." Patty groaned.
"Those two little tarts!" Curly furiously exclaimed. "They must have triggered the alarm while they were doing their little 'dance' with Lorenzo and Patty. We were nearly captured by the enemy. Had it not been for my sweet sugar, who knows if we would have been able to make it out."
"Don't call me that!" Rhonda snapped.
"What do you mean 'dance'?" Rodrigo asked curiously. "Did you guys ended up fighting them?"
"Well, 'fighting' is such a strong word," Curly began to cautiously say, "but I have no other way to say it, so yes, Gerald got into a brawl with Lorenzo and Patty with Harold."
"What?" Rodrigo exclaimed, horrified that it had gotten to that point.
"It's no big deal, Rodrigo." Curly said, not really grasping, or not really caring, the seriousness of the situation. "Lorenzo is OK and Harold was too much of a wimp to touch Patty."
"It's good that they are OK, but that's not the point!" Rodrigo countered. "Who started the fight?"
"I'm not really sure," Lorenzo said with a frown, "but I think Gerald may have started it. We initially didn't want to fight each other, but once it became clear that neither of us was backing down, Gerald began to get aggressive until we ended up throwing a few punches at each other."
Rodrigo could not believe what he was hearing. He was extremely shocked. This was absolutely the last thing he wanted to happen. It was one thing for the group to split up and initiate their own plans, but it was another thing for the other group to not only intervene, but come to blows! Rodrigo knew full well where all of this was descending to if they continued to be divided like this and he just had one person to blame for everything that just happened.
Grrr, Arnold! Rodrigo thought furiously. This is all his fault! If he hadn't sent Gerald and Harold to stop us, not only would we have succeeded, but our friends would have never fought against each other!
"Look Rodrigo," Patty said, taking notice of Rodrigo's rising anger, "it's no big deal. Lorenzo and Gerald just got into a little fight and Harold and I just danced around a bit. When the alarm rang, we even helped each other escape. Despite what happened, we're still friends."
That news made Rodrigo calm down a bit.
Lorenzo however, said nothing and frowned even more. Still feeling the pain in his body from his brawl with Gerald, he was crossed that the African-American teen would put his hands on him.
"I guess." Rodrigo said, although bit hesitatingly.
"Guys, we can't trust Gerald, or Arnold anymore!" Sid suddenly interjected. "They were the ones who planned a mole within our ranks and we just found out who it is."
"What?" Lorenzo gasped in shock.
"Huh?" Patty also gasped. "Who?"
"Rhonda!" Sid said as he pointed at her.
"My sweet sugar?" Curly said in shock.
"Are you serious, you little pipsqueak?!" Rhonda angrily exclaimed. "Are you actually accusing me of sabotaging our plan to save the neighbourhood?!"
"You damn right, I am." Sid retorted back. "We caught you red-handed."
"Listen here and you listen well." Rhonda angrily said with glaring eyes at Sid as she got within just a few millimetres from his face. "I am no rat, and I am certainly no a mole! You apparently have a case full of wax in your ears because you didn't hear a word I just said about how Nadine hijacked my account and used my popularity and connections to get people to support Arnold!"
"Pfft, you don't scare me, traitor!" Sid retorted back, unfazed by her aggresion.
"Hey, careful what you say to my cheri!" Curly angrily warned Sid, but the paranoid teen ignored him.
"Sid!" Rhonda angrily groaned, "if I was an actually mole, than why would I tell everyone about how my account was hijacked. Why would I expose myself like that, hmm?"
"That is precisely why you told us," Sid countered, "to cover your tracks by making it look like your account was hijacked by Nadine and Phoebe, when in actuality, you were working with them! Earlier, when we realized that we may have a possible mole among us, you got scared, afraid that we would be on to you. So, to cover your tracks, you came up with that elaborate story about Nadine and Phoebe hijacking your account and using your posts for their cause, just so you would continue to spy on us for Arnold."
"What?! Sid, that doesn't make any sense!" Rhonda shouted at him.
"Of course it does! You are just denying it because we caught you!" Sid shouted back. "You didn't need to tell us about Nadine and Phoebe hacking into your account; it was irrelevant to our mission."
"You are just twisting my words!" Rhonda angrily shouted, but now getting more and more worried that everyone else may buy into this crazy tale. "It was precisely why we thought we had a mole among us that I blared out that Nadine and Phoebe had hijacked my account in order to help Arnold gather enough people for his protest! I was trying to ensure to everyone that there was no such mole, and not to mention that I am so furious that one of my closest friends would actually do this behind my back that I just let it out!"
"Whoa, whoa whoa, back up here." Lorenzo said. "This doesn't make any sense. Rhonda, how did you find out that Nadine and Phoebe hacked into your social media account?"
"Well, the jist of it is is that Ms. Rhonda said that she noticed some activity on her posts that she created to help create awareness for our neighbourhood. She hadn't used it since the fiasco at the school meeting, but saw that people were still rallying behind it. She realized that due to some special feature in this social media network that allows her to grant some access onto her account with someone else, which just happens to be Ms. Nadine, who is in league with Arnold, had abused that privilege and got Ms. Heyerdahl to hack into her account and bypass any restrictions into using her account, posing as her on those posts." Stinky suddenly, but calmly interjected.
"Ohhh." Park said. "Now it all makes sense."
"Whoa, whoa, back up here." Curly then interjected. "Who's Ms. Heyerdahl?"
"That's Phoebe's last name, Curly." Rodrigo replied to this questions. "Gerald's girlfriend."
"Oh." Was all Curly said.
"Yeah, a made up story just to cover her role as the mole for Arnold." Sid continued on.
"Sid, I swear if you don't shut up about this conspiracy theory, I'm going to nail that disgusting green hat of your onto your head, permanently!" Rhonda growled at him.
"Threaten me all you want," Sid said defiantly, "but we caught you red handed. It's just like I said, you didn't need to tell us about this. In fact, you told us during the time when we were busy worrying about our friends trying to escape from the building, almost as if you were trying to distract us from trying to save them."
"Are you being serious, or were you always a moron?" Rhonda said, "Did you just see me flirt with those guards while Curly and his team climbed down from the building? If I was trying to distract you from trying to save them, why I would even bother to do that?"
"Only because you didn't want to get caught." Sid countered.
"UGGHHH!" Rhonda just growled, completely furious and finally losing her patience.
"Well, that does kind of make sense." Lorenzo then suddenly said, prompting everyone to look at him.
"What?" Park asked.
"I mean, Sid does have a point." Lorenzo explained. "Why would Rhonda just randomly blare out about Nadine hacking into her social media account at a time that was not called for, even if she was furious at her friend?
"You...have got...to be...joking..." Rhonda furiously said as her eye began to twitch.
"And why is she getting so angry at Sid?" Patty then said. "Unless she truly is hiding something. If she was innocent, she wouldn't need to get this angry."
By now, it was becoming clear that Sid's twisted and paranoid mind was convincing everyone. Rhonda could see her friends giving her a suspicious look and despite how angry she was getting, she couldn't help but feel not only isolated, but a bit desperate that her own friends were turning on her, all because of a random blaring out.
"I am angry because you guys are actually believing a person who has a history of paranoia and having ridiculous superstitious!" Rhonda angrily shouted.
"Enough talk!" Sid said. "I say we grab her, tie her up, and get her to confess!" Before he then began to walk towards her, ready to pounce on her.
Stinky, although hesitant to put his hands on a lady, nevertheless felt convinced that Sid may be right and began to walk towards Rhonda, followed by Patty.
Rhonda, despite glaring at them, was becoming increasingly concerned, if not frightened. She began to walk backwards until he literally had her back to the wall. She was now trapped.
"Hold it right there!" Curly then shouted as he quickly ran and came between Rhonda and Sid. "Any one of you troglodytes touch her, you'll have to answer to me!"
As much as Rhonda had always hated Curly for never respecting her personal space, this time, she was very thankful that at least someone sided with her. Unfortunately, that didn't make her situation any better.
"I knew it!" Sid said. "Curly is with Arnold too! He was the one that must have triggered the alarm. He's in on it!"
Curly said nothing to defend himself against Sid, Stinky and Patty who were coming at him, while Lorenzo and Park just watched, not intervening for either side, but having suspicious about Rhonda.
"Hold it!" Rodrigo then suddenly cried out, prompting everyone to stop and look toward him.
Rodrigo didn't say anything and just calmly walked towards Curly and Rhonda.
"Stay back, fiend!" Curly shouted with a warning tone.
"Relax, Curly." Rodrigo calmly said to him. "I just want to ask Rhonda a question."
He then gently put his hand on Curly's shoulder, which caused him to lower his defense. He then bypassed him, approached Rhonda, looked her straight at her dark brown eyes and asked,
"Did you really have nothing to do with Nadine and Phoebe using your online account to further their own cause?"
"Yes Rodrigo," Rhonda calmly responded back while looking right back into his eyes, "I had nothing to do with them using my account. They betrayed my trust."
Rodrigo continued looking at Rodrigo's eyes for a little while, as if trying to study her.
"OK then." He said before turning around to face his friends. "Rhonda is telling the truth. She had nothing do with trying to help Arnold's cause at our expense. Which means that Curly also had nothing to do with the alarm going off and even if it did, it was by accident."
"What!" Stinky exclaimed in shock
"Aw, come on Rod." Sid fiercely protested. "You can't possibly tell if a person is telling the truth just by looking into her eyes. She's guilty!"
"I appreciate you both trying to look out for the group," Rodrigo said to them, "but with all due respect, you guys were never really good in judging people. And I believe that Rhonda is telling the truth."
Stinky and Sid said nothing for a while and just thought about what Rodrigo had said. The implicit message was quite clear to both male both teens, especially for Sid. Given their history, they never really had that ability to accurately judge a person. They got suckered into Ludwig's cause back in the sixth grade and even with Helga, they never believed she could have a sweet and soft side to her, even when she dated Arnold. It took her dating Rodrigo and with the way she explicitly showed some form of affection for him to finally see that side of her, which surprised them.
"Hey, what a minute!" Sid then exclaimed. "How come you can easily forgive Rhonda, but you were tough on me, Patty and Stinky for what we did several years ago? You didn't trust us to help you stop Caesar because of that."
"Yea Rod, what gives?" Stinky said with a frown.
"Because when it came to you guys, I was being completely biased." Rodrigo confessed. "Before judging someone, I always tried to get the full story, beforehand. I did it with Helga, and many others. Only with you guys, I made the big mistake into only looking at what all three of you did several years ago at Gerald's field, but nothing else. I didn't take into consideration why you even chose to side with Ludwig in the first place, nor about all the good things you guys did before and after the fact. I never even bothered to ask any of you how you felt about what Caesar was doing. I just made a lot of poorly made assumptions and thought you guys still needed someone like Arnold in order to tell you what is right and wrong when in truth, that wasn't the case at all. Well, there was that and I didn't know if any of you even agreed with my plan to stop Caesar, but that's irrelevant."
"That mistake cost me big time." Rodrigo continued. "It was my fault and I paid the price for that mistake." He continued as he pointed to his still injured knee. "Had I focused more on the full story, instead of just focusing on one chapter in your lives, I would have trusted you guys with helping me stop Caesar. I already made that mistake once; I will not do it again."
Both Sid and Stinky said nothing. Despite what he just said, Rodrigo had already explained himself why he initially didn't trust them to ask for their help to stop Caesar. After being so easily manipulated by Ludwig to help him restate Trash Can day, Rodrigo had every reason to believe that they could be manipulated again by Caesar, even if both teens eventually defected to join Arnold to fight at Gerald's field, it was not enough for Rodrigo to trust them. Rodrigo in turn didn't ask them how they felt about what Caesar was doing because in retrospect, he didn't want to know. He was afraid that if they really were in league with Caesar, then he would have permanently terminated his friendship with them, a decision he really did not want to do. Apart from not trusting them, he also didn't trust himself with that he would have done to them.
For Patty, the message was also clear; not to judge others simply based on another person's opinion. Patty knew full well what that felt like and became enraged with herself for allowing to be duped like that again. But, she wasn't going to take out on Sid. No, this one was on her.
Both male teens already knew all of this and were pretty embarrassed that they had to be reminded again.
"Oh, well umm..." Sid attempted to explain himself.
"Well Rod, you see..." Stinky also attempted to also explain himself.
Patty said nothing and with a frown, just groaned.
"It's OK guys." Rodrigo said, cutting them off. "There's no need for any explanation, but I do think you guys owe Rhonda and Curly an apology."
"Oh OK." Sid said embarrassingly. "Sorry Rhonda for accusing you like that. You too, Curly."
"Ya, sorry Ms. Rhonda." Stinky said shamefully. "You too, Curly."
"Finally, some respect around here." Curly snobbishly said.
Rhonda however, said nothing, her face completely in shock with what Rodrigo had done. Although clearly wanting help just a few moments ago, she hadn't expected him to stand up for her at all. Actually, given how bad their friendship had soured, she wouldn't have been surprised if he joined in accusing her of treachery. Instead, he helped her. By all accounts, after giving him such a hard time these last few months, he was in no way obligated to help her. However, she soon shook off her shocking trance and address her former accusers.
"It's OK." She finally said to them. "But don't let it happen again!" She shouted at them with a frown. "I'll think about if I want to still continue inviting you Sid, to my parties."
"Yes, ma'am." Sid said shamefully as he looked down.
"Curly," Rhonda then turned to face him and with a smile, "thank you for standing up for me."
"No problem, ma sugar." Curly said as he gently grabbed her hand and placed a soft kiss on it.
Rhonda, in a very rare moment, allowed him to kiss her hand. He earned it. She then directed her attention toward Rodrigo and for a moment, just glanced at him with deep, emotional, grateful eyes. She was about to thank him, but Rodrigo, not noticing her staring at him, then spoke to the group.
"No more infighting. Let's get back to the main topic here. Curly, did you guys manage to get any data?" Rodrigo asked him.
"Hmm, not sure." Curly said. "I know we didn't even get a quarter of the data that was stored throughout the year. We'll have to head back and see what we managed to get."
"OK." Rodrigo said. "Let's head back before they find out it was us."
Meanwhile…
Back at the front of City Hall, between trying to calm the crowd and listening to Gerald, Arnold managed to get the full story about what happened between Gerald, Harold and Rodrigo's group. Phoebe soon arrived and was relieved to find Gerald safe and sound.
Arnold however, was furious about all of this. Blaming Rodrigo for almost getting his friends arrested for breaking and entering, he was beginning to lose his patience with the Latino kid's reckless behaviour.
How could he have put our friends at risk like that, my friends?! Arnold thought. I can't believe how irresponsible he is.
The protesters meanwhile had stopped their chanting and were curiously watching the building, waiting to see if anyone would approach them and inform them of what happened and when the sirens would stop blaring. Despite the sirens and the commotion going on around, the crowd had remained relatively calm.
Just then, a government official stepped out of the building and approached Arnold.
"Are you Arnold Shortman?" The official asked.
"Yes." Arnold calmly responded.
"Are you the one that organized this protest rally?" The official asked.
"Yes, sir." Arnold responded back.
"We've had a security breach at City Hall." The government official began to explain. "The building is on lock down at the moment. As safety protocol, I'm afraid that this protest can no longer continue. You will have to inform everyone that they are to calmly disperse and go home."
"What?!" Arnold exclaimed in shock. "You can't do that. I have a permit to hold this rally here."
"Yes, you do." The official agreed. "But I'm afraid that permit is now null and void. We cannot allow a protest rally to happen while the building remains on virtual lock down. It is for the safety of all working personnel, as well as for everyone else here."
"No!" Arnold exclaimed defiantly, shocking his friends.
"Excuse me?" The official asked, also surprised.
"We will not leave here!" Arnold stubbornly said. "We have a permit to hold this rally and we will continue to protest!"
"Mr. Shortman," The official began say, now with a more stern and warning-like tone, "Your permit is now null and void. It is no longer active. I don't need to remind you what happened the last time your permit was not approved when you attempted to hold that party in your neighbourhood a few years ago. The police are on their way and will be here soon. I do not wish to call upon them to disperse this crowd. Please, for everyone's sake, call them off."
Arnold however, despite the warning, or threat, had no intention of giving up. While glaring at the government official, he was about to speak out again when Gerald then softly grabbed his shoulder.
"Arnold," he said to his best friend, "we need to call this protest off. We do no one any good if we get sent to jail for trespassing. There's always tomorrow."
As much as Arnold wanted to protest, he knew his best friend was right. Very reluctantly, he relented.
"Can we at least hold the protest again tomorrow?" Arnold asked.
"I'm afraid not." The official said. "The permit that you have now is for today only. If you want to hold another protest, you will have to once again file for another permit."
Arnold was now on the verge of losing his patience. He knew that Von Scheck was somehow involved and had once again bested him. But he also didn't hesitate to blame Rodrigo for this, as Von Scheck must have used Curly and his team breaking into the building as an excuse to shut the entire building down and cancel the protest for the remainder of the day.
The rest of Arnold's friends were also bitterly disappointed that the protest had to be called off. None felt they could do anything to save it.
Nadine was especially distraught by the news. Having just taken a huge risk on using Rhonda's posts and blogs without her permission, she was utterly upset at the possible fact that her breaking her former best friend's trust and posing as her, it had all been in vain.
Oh, I really do hope Rhonda doesn't find out about this. Nadine very worryingly thought.
Despite Arnold's anger, he had to call off the protest, lest Von Scheck can use his defiance as an excuse to arrest him and his friends.
"OK." He eventually said to the official. "I'll call it off."
Arnold then turned around to address the crowd.
"Everyone!" He called out through the speaker. "I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming here today. But, as all of you may already be aware, there was an incident inside City Hall and had to force them to shut the entire building down. As a safety precaution, our permit to hold this protest has been canceled. Therefore, we have been told that we can no longer continue to protest for today."
Rumbling and grumblings were heard as the crowd began to talk among itself.
"This is only a small setback!" Arnold continued to speak. "We will try again! We will make our voices heard and one way or another, we will triumph over this. We will keep our homes. But for now, let us go home so the police can do their jobs and we can regroup. Please, go home for today. Everyone did a great job. Tomorrow is another fight."
And with that, Arnold leaped back to the ground while the crowd began to very slowly, yet sadly and disappointingly disperse.
"What do we do now?" Sheena asked.
"We rendezvous back to my place and regroup." Arnold said. "This fight is not over yet. But first, let's make sure everyone disperses and heads home or are at least far way from here."
While everyone began to direct everyone to head back home, Arnold was busy with his own thoughts, fuming over what just happened.
Grrr, Rodrigo! Arnold thought furiously. Before we regroup, I need to know why he did what he did. Why did he choose to follow up with his plan on the day when I was holding this protest? I have to confront him about this and get him to stop, before he hurts any one of our friends!
Meanwhile…
By the time Arnold and his group managed to direct everyone to go home, Rhonda, Patty, Lorenzo, Park, Curly, Sid, Stinky and Rodrigo were already on the train, heading back to Rhonda's mansion. Despite the earlier high tension and accusation, the group managed to find their solidarity groove once again, even going so far as to converse with each other.
Sid and Stinky, in particular Sid, continued to apologize to Rhonda for their accusation. Patty eventually also made her apology. Rhonda, despite known to be somewhat vindictive at times, allowed to let this one slide and accepted their apology. Following Arnold's trend, she understood that they were only looking out for the well being of the group, to some extent.
As the train continued to head back to the neighbourhood, Rodrigo was somewhat alone, deep in his thoughts. He wasn't conversing with any of his friends. Since hopping on the train, he sat a bit far from the group, remaining silent. Rhonda had been wanting to use that opportunity to approach him and thank him for standing up for her. To most, it may have been only a nice thing to do, but Rhonda took it as something far more bigger than that. However, she hesitated to approach him. She wasn't doubting if she should thank him for not. Rather, she was hesitating if she should now...perhaps...forgive him.
Was I being too hard on him? Rhonda thought with some concern. Maybe I was. I mean, I know that I can hold a grudge at times. Maybe I should just tell him why I am so angry at him for doing what he did...No! This is not the time or place to talk about this. I already made that mistake when I just blared out about Nadine hacking into my account without my permission. I'm not going to cause further chaos in this trip. I'll just thank him and be done with it.
With her mind decided, Rhonda then tried to get up from her seat so as to thank Rodrigo. Only, she couldn't. No, she wasn't stuck, more like something was preventing her from getting up. As grateful as she was, she was still angry at him for using her in order to stop Caesar. Now, to make matters worse, she was now furious at Nadine for her betrayal. Although she wasn't blaming Rodrigo at all for this, she was blaming him for now making her feeling more isolated and...alone. At this critical time of her life, she could really use a close friend. But, with now scrapping Nadine from that role, the second natural choice would have been Rodrigo, a fact that she could not trust him for that role either.
Rhonda just groaned in silence and just slumped back to her seat, disappointed and sadden that she couldn't bring herself to even thank Rodrigo for helping her. Despite the kind gesture, it was not enough for her to forgive him, let alone forget.
I can't just forgive and forget after what he did. Rhonda thought to herself. What he did was to personal...
However, she remained adamant and optimistic that after this was all over, she will try to reconcile with him. She was growing tired of this grudge and wanted to end it. But for now, she had another score to settle.