Disclaimer
(Just so I won't get sued…)
All related characters and settings found below are strictly based on the TV series Hey Arnold! created by Craig Bartlett as seen on Nickelodeon. In addition, no copyright infringement of the comic and motion picture Spiderman is intended by the reference below.

6: Arnold's Maneuver

"You're crazy, Arnold! Crazy, you hear!" Shrieked Rex as Arnold tested the long rope that the four of them enjoined. "You took the fall for someone else, and now you'll risk your life!"

"We don't know how high up that window is," Arnold lassoed the middle bar of their getaway window. "If we're gonna scale down the building, I've got to check how many feet down we have to go."

"If you insist," Rex turned his nose up at his American rival. "But if you break your neck, I won't say I told you so!"

"Don't worry, you won't have to. Now let's pull as hard as we can."

The four briskly rubbed their hands together before taking firm hold of the long rope. Chocolate Boy even spat on his chocolate-smeared palms.

Arnold heaved a long sigh and braced himself. "One, two, three. PULL!"

The four captives yanked the rope as much as their strength allowed. The bars did not budge.

"PULL!" Arnold yelled again. All of them tugged again and the bars shook slightly.

"Just one more time, guys. Let's do this! PULL!"

Beads of sweat trickled down the four kids' faces as they gritted their teeth and pulled. They heard the wall crack, and in time the bars gave way and got off the window frame.

The three chafed their hands as Arnold took a deep breath. Snorting disdainfully, Ruth accommodated Arnold on her shoulders and the boy stepped onto the open window. Rex tossed the rope to Arnold, shaking his head. The intrepid boy was to descend down the wall of the building using the bars that came off as his ballast.

The three looked on in wonder and fear as Arnold stepped off the window and along the building wall, hanging on to the rope for dear life.

The fourth grader from P.S. 118 scaled down the building cautiously. He peered up and down and saw that they were kept hostage in the old warehouse along Main Street. He remembered his hat that he left close to one entrance of the warehouse and prayed that someone would find it, for even if he escaped this time; he planned to get back in and free the other hostages.

"I reckon this phone will never ring," sighed Stinky. He slumped his back against the glass wall of the payphone booth and sighed again.

"Stop movin'! We can hardly fit in here!" argued Harold. Both of them had been constricted inside the box booth for fifteen minutes straight.

"Y' suppose they already found Arnold?"

"How should I know? We've been stuck in here for ages!" Harold inhaled to compress his torso.

"I told you t' stay out of the phone booth, didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah. Now shut your pothole or I'll POUND you!"

Gerald and Sid stopped and caught their breaths upon reaching the only phone booth near the city warehouse. Both of them were gripping their knees in faint when the telephone in the cubicle rang.

"Uh, Gerald? Could you get that?" Panted Sid.

Gerald's eyes widened. He straightened up and looked at the resounding phone. "Sid, that's Helga!"

"Okay. Could you get that?"

"Mm, mm, mm!" Gerald shook his head and lifted the receiver.

Before he could say anything, Helga's voice rumbled on the other end. "Aw, cut the crap! Who is this and where are you?"

Gerald shook his head even more.

Watching him, Sid nodded. "Yup. Who else could it be?"

"It's us, Helga. Gerald and Sid. We're near the warehouse on Main Street." The Keeper of the Tale, as his companion dubs him, eyed the building a few meters away.

"Got it. Don't pull off any of your lame and useless hero stunts by yourselves, Geraldo! I'll call the other stooges and we'll be right there!"

Following Helga's command was an ear-piercing CLICK: she hung up on him.

Gerald continued to shake his head as he set the phone down. "Helga's one of the ladies, but she sure don't know how to talk on the phone!"

From three stories above the ground, Arnold saw that the rope was not long enough for his three fellow hostages to land safely on the ground. Letting go of the rope at the end of its tether would be tantamount to suicide. But where could I get more rope?

Then it struck him. He could use the sack to lengthen the rope a little more. That way, Ruth would be able to get to the floor with several scratches, but Rex and Chocolate Boy's landing might cause a one-way trip to the hospital. The rope had to be longer still.

Then another brain wave washed him away.

"Rex!" He called out to the window high above him. "Give me the sack! And your belt!"

"What?" Higgins yelled back.

"I said give me the sack and the belt!"

Following a short but excruciating moment of waiting while holding on to a rope at the side of a building (and Arnold was no Spiderman), the sugar sack floated to Arnold's head. Sighing, he peeled it off him and readied himself for the belt, which without a doubt would not float down to him and had to be caught.

He blinked and waited a whole minute. No belt and no sign of any coming.

"Where's the belt, you guys?"

After a brief pause, Rex shouted from inside. "You can have your precious sack, but not my lucky belt! I never take it off! This is my lucky gold-studded belt, a present from my grandfather! You wouldn't understand!"

Arnold groaned. Here we go again… "Rex! I need that belt!"

"Well, I need it too! In fact, I need it more than you do! It's my lucky belt! I just never take it off!"

Arnold's grip on the rope tightened as his blood pressure escalated. "If you hadn't noticed, I myself took my hat off as part of my plan to escape, Rex! And that hat was a present from my parents who, by the way, don't live in the same house with me like your grandpa does with you! That hat was their last legacy to me before they left me when I was just a baby! And I didn't want to, but I had to take it off!"

Appealing to the emotion was Arnold's strategy in jolting the Higgins boy's senses. It had always worked before. Hopefully it would work now and convince Rex to cooperate.

It did.

"Take it!"

Arnold saw the gold belt drop down and captured it.

"Grandfather may call it 'lucky' and all, but I got kidnapped wearing it anyway!"

Arnold smiled as he scaled further down the building with the sack and belt. When he reached the end of his rope, he fastened one end of the sack to it and knotted the belt to the other end of the bag. He climbed down the belt and jumped down, planting his feet firmly on the ground. The extension of the rope had successfully held his weight as he slid himself down; hence, it was as safe for the other captives as he could make it. He took cover among stacks of rubber tires and gave the others the signal.

One by one Ruth, Chocolate Boy, and Rex shinned down the window and onto the ground, joining Arnold amid the used tires. Rex detached his belt from the line and buckled it on him once more. Then he joined the others.

"We did it! Tell the police about the warehouse—that's where we and the other hostages're kept." Arnold pointed to the storehouse from where they came. "I'm breaking inside again for the others, just in case the cops don't pay any attention to you. They usually don't."

The third and sixth grader from P.S. 118 nodded with shrugs and walked away.

Higgins bid his adieu for his all-time rival-slash-friend. "You're bold and crazy, old bean. Bold, but mostly crazy."

Arnold smiled sheepishly as Rex Smythe-Higgins the Third turned his back and left.

Alone at long last and psyched up for his next act, Arnold crept towards the door to the warehouse not as a hostage, but a rescuer.

End of 6: Arnold's Maneuver

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Will the fourth grade Arnold Rescue Party find their bold and crazy classmate in time? Find out in chapter 7: Last Ditch.