Author's Note: No updates last week since I was totally geeked out with E3, next-gen consoles and most importantly, the premier of Revenge of the Sith, and that's where this chapter got its name. Isn't the Revolution kicks ass? ...What? Silence, you popular person.Uh, anyway... thanks for the compliments about Helga and Rhonda working together since I had a fear that they wouldn't work right. And the roaches idea was cool? All right, nice. So okay, here's the 22nd installment of this fanfic. Hope you'll enjoy it!
Legal junk: I don't own Hey Arnold, but Nickelodeon does and Mr. Craig Bartlett created it. But this fic belongs to me. Clear? Good.
Chapter 22: Revenge of the Agents
Olga floored the gas pedal and left the dockyards behind. She went back into traffic and drove as fast as she could, almost recklessly. It perplexed Helga as she had always thought that Olga was the most law-abiding (thus, annoying) driver around.
"Helga, tell your sister to slow down!" Rhonda screamed as she was in the edge of the seat, panicking.
"No time!" Olga said back as she went past a semi-truck with ludicrous speed, and drove into the elevated highway, nearly hitting another car. The car honked back and the driver shouted, "JACKASS!" out loud. Olga didn't care since she didn't hear it, and continued to drive on. It was almost as if she was reenacting scenes from the Dukes of Hazard show. She saw their exit, violently turned the steering wheel and almost crashed the car to the road barrier. Because the car went too fast, it jumped out from the onramp and flew in magnificent slow-motion to the street again. Everybody except Olga screamed. The car landed violently and almost hit an incoming car but Olga managed to control the car again. After a tense, hair-raising moment, all things calmed back once again and it opened an opportunity for a conversation.
"Where are we going?" Helga asked.
"All of us are going back to the headquarters to help the agency out." Olga replied.
"My brother apparently has your entire agency under his thumb. If we don't act soon, they'll be in danger." Gino said to them.
"What?" Helga and Rhonda shouted. "What do you mean? Tell us, Gino!" Rhonda said to him.
Gino nodded, and told them what he had told to Gerald and Sid previously. Each and every revelation shocked and horrified them as the listened to him attentively. Though they were in disbelief and somewhat skeptical, but after an assurance from Olga, they couldn't help but to admit things were looking pretty gloom. Though they would've gone back to the docks and asked for aid from their colleagues, but they felt that they could've already gone back to the base by the time they got there. Using the communicator was not an option because the main transmitter and network server was blocked, they assumed since they couldn't get any answer from the base.
"So how are we going to get in?" Helga asked, "If what you said is really true, then it's impossible to get inside."
"Not quite," Olga said as she hit a goat, but it managed to get away safely, "There's an old service tunnel that connects to the underground level of the base located not far from it. It's in a warehouse near the headquarters that stores old carnival rides." She informed them.
"How'd you know all this?" Rhonda asked her.
"Hey, I used to be Chief. I'm supposed to know everything and anything about the organization." she replied back affirmatively.
"So why the hell you're wearing your old suit? To live the glory days of how you used to be the best?" her little sister asked sarcastically.
"I'm helping you, Helga. You're my sister. Also, I have a score to settle with Michael, not to mention it is obligatory for all retired agents to help the agency whenever it's necessary."
---
"Now, now Gerald, we don't wanna go up the 405!" Sid reminded him.
"We're not going! We're not going!" he shouted back angrily, "Stop side-seat driving!"
"Whoa… whoa… okay… Wait, don't get on the onramp! Don't get on the onramp!"
He shouted again, "Where the hell you think I'm going?" Gerald zoomed through the road and saw the railroad crossing in front of him. The warning sound started to ding, and the gates lowered down.
Sid knew that if they were delayed, any chance of helping Bridget would be hopeless, "Faster, must go faster!" Sid said nervously. "GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!"
"ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH!" Gerald shouted edgily, and they victoriously made it pass the railroad crossing safe and sound, but leaving their passengers behind them frightened. "Yeah! Yeah!" Gerald shouted triumphantly, "Elvis has left the building!"
"Uh… thank you very much!" Sid said back in relief, doing his best Elvis impersonation. "Whoa… I love you, man!" Sid said and patted Gerald's shoulder.
"For future reference, please don't do that again!" Phoebe yelled angrily at them as she smacked the back of Gerald's head. He felt that he deserved it. "Yeah!" Nadine shouted, and slapped Sid's head. He felt he deserved it too.
"Wut they sayed!" Stinky slapped them together, since he always wanted to do that, not because he was angry at their stupid actions. He thought that the whole racing against the gates thing was cool. Lila was too timid to slap them, so she just sat down and did nothing.
"So where are you taking us?" Nadine asked them.
Sid turned around and replied back, "We're taking all of you back to your base." Sid couldn't help but to feel sorry for all them cramping at the back seat, since they barely had the space to move. "Michael just took over your base and holds the other agents captive."
"What?" Nadine and Lila shouted in shock.
"Are you for certain regarding this information?" Phoebe asked back.
"There ain't no denying it, the base belongs to him now." Gerald replied back, "unless we get you girls back to the base soon, we might not have the chance to rescue your teammates."
"But what about the others back at the mansion?" Lila asked, "We can't just leave them there!"
"Are they safe?" Stinky asked.
Lila contemplated for a while for an answer, "I'm ever so sure they can quite handle themselves."
"Then I don't see the problem." Stinky replied. "The gals can take care of demselves, and even if we turned around to get them, there ain't ruum in this 'ere car."
"Thank you for your insightful explanation, Stinky." Phoebe thought irately. "Let me see if I could get them through my PDA." She said as she took it out from her pocket. She tried to communicate with the base numerous times, even going to the extremes by hacking it, but to no avail.
"There's no use, Phoebe." Nadine said, "If the communicator and signals from third-party intervention doesn't work, then the network must be down."
"Then we have to continue our role to as runners." Phoebe replied back, "At least with Gerald and his friends here, we won't have to take the subway and only to see people staring at us." She shuddered. Suddenly, she felt that she was being stared at. And yes she was right, Sid and Stinky were staring at all of them, "Can I help you gentlemen?" she said in an annoyed tone.
Sid and Stinky snapped back, "Uh… oh… nothing." Sid said back nervously.
"We're almost there, guys." Gerald said as he made a turn to the left. After driving through the long, deserted road, they finally reached the headquarters of LES, located near the edge of the river, almost dark, but the dim streetlights and the full moon seemed to brighten the place up a bit, though not by much. Gerald stopped the car and switched the engine off. Everyone got out of the car.
"Hey, wait a minute." Nadine said, puzzled that the guys wanted to follow them. "Where do you think you guys are going?"
"We wanna help you." Gerald said.
"Yeah, what do all of you want us to do? Sit in the car and do nothing?" Sid asked.
The girls looked at each other and in unison they replied, "Yes."
"Look, we know all of you are worried about us and want to be our knight in shining armor," Phoebe said, "but you don't have the basics of all training and our adversaries is, well, tougher than you can imagine."
"She got us stumped thar." Stinky said. The guys looked at each other in defeat, and they all felt the same, and yet they were all reluctant the leave them, "Although I'm— we don't agree with you, but what you said is right." Gerald said, "We can't help you take those bastards out. But that's not saying we can't do anything. We have to help, one way or another. I'm thinking about calling the authorities—"
"No, no you can't!" The three girls opposed it greatly, since they knew that if the word got out, their vigilante organization will be outlawed.
"I think you think right." Someone said behind them, and they quickly turned around.
"Rhonda?" Nadine said in shock.
"Helga?" Phoebe said in shock.
"Olga?" Lila said in shock. Another wonderfully written context from the author.
"Oh great… Nobody mentioned me." Gino said sardonically to himself.
"Gino?" Stinky said in shock. He was pitiful of Gino for not being mentioned by the others.
"What do you mean?" Gerald asked Olga.
"After retirement, former agents like me are still bounded to the organization's code. In one of the codes there is written 'Even though an agent is retired from active duty, she is compelled and obligated to help their sisters who are in active duty.'"
"So what are you saying there are lots of former agents who are now with the police force?"
"Exactly." Olga said back, "That's why I want you to go to Precinct 42 Police Station. My former mentor Officer Pudney is there."
"Officer Pudney?" Sid said in a horrified tone, "As in Detective Pudney? No way, man!" he said nervously, "It's because of her I was put into probation! There's no way I'm ever going to see her again!"
"It's because of your own stupidity, Sid." Nadine interjected. Sid looked at her back in a guilt gaze, "Mugging is no excuse for getting money." She added more. The remark really did make him feel guilty since it came from a person he loved so much. Sid nodded nervously to admit his wrongdoing. Softly, he said, "Nadine… I know I can't be seen carrying this, so I just hope you could take this and utilize it for a good use."
He handed over his pocketknife to her. Nadine widened her eyes in shock. "Sid, what are you doing? I can't… I won't use it!" she refused furiously.
"Please, just take it," he pleaded, "It's not like I'm asking you to use it, but just keep it for safekeeping. Please Nadine, I beg you." The gaze pierced through her eyes, as much she hated to carry it, she had to so Sid wouldn't get into trouble. She reluctantly took it away from his hands with her trembling hands. With the knife in her possession, she wrapped her fingers around it and gazed back Sid. Sid did the same. Following their instinct, they moved towards each other and finally they kiss, as a sign of hope.
"Good luck…" Sid said to Nadine.
"You too." Nadine said back.
Rhonda looked at them and smiled, "Heh, I always have a feeling about them two…"
"Done?" Helga asked, "Okay, let's go!" she said as she slapped their hands together. And all of them, expect for Gerald, Sid and Stinky ran to the old warehouse that served as the base of their organization. The guys jumped back into their seats and Gerald quickly drove off to the police station as said by Helga's sister.
"So why is Gino with us?" Lila asked to Olga.
"It's a long story," Olga replied back, since she was too lazy to give an explanation to them right now. "And we're going to the wrong the way. If we just showed up on the front gate, we're gonna get captured for sure. We have to go to that warehouse over there." She pointed to a large, dark building beyond a small bay in front of them.
"Why? How will that help us get into the base?" Phoebe asked.
"There's an old service tunnel there that will link us directly to the training arena. Come on!" Rhonda said to all of them.
---
"WHY-WON'T-THIS-THING-OPEN?" Helga shouted as she yanked the large steel door repeatedly. And after the last attempt, she gave up and dropped down to the dusty floor, sighing frustratingly. "Yeah, Olga." She said bitterly, "Wonderful job at helping us!"
"I don't understand…" Olga said in a baffled tone, "The door should open once we turn the handle around." And everybody went silent, as they tried to think up of an idea on how they would open the large door up. Phoebe tried to consider a plan, as she leaned back against a wall, trying to think about it.
"Ow…" she quickly darted back since she felt that she leaned against something hard and pointy. She turned around, and saw an obscure rectangular thing. It was to dark to recognize it, "Rhonda, could you lend me your flashlight for a while?" she asked.
Rhonda then took a small flashlight from her pocket and lobbed it to Phoebe. She then switched it on and aimed it to the obscure rectangular thing. It was a password identification card slip. "Did you find anything?" Rhonda asked.
"I absolutely did." Phoebe replied, and she stepped aside to let Rhonda see it as the other came over to them see what the commotion was all about. "I think this is why the door won't open for us." She said positively.
"Hmm…" Nadine said, examining the device, "This is a Level-5 access door, which means it can only be accessed by a security administrator. Is there anyone here a security administrator?" Nadine asked to all of them.
"I am." Phoebe said, "I didn't get this PDA for nothing, you know." She then took out her PDA that had been hanging on her belt and switched it on. Using the stylus, she went into a folder titled 'Security Information' and into a text file named 'Passwords'. She then searched for the password for the service tunnel door. The password was 1138, so she punched the numbers on the security device after she swiped her administrator card on top of it. The brightly red colored text screen flashed 'Password Incorrect' at her. She raised an eyebrow, and thought she inputted the password wrongly. She tried again with the same password, and again it produced the same result. She rechecked the password again, but it was the correct one she inputted in. Then she felt there was only one conclusion:
"I can't get the password to work. It seemed that somebody at the base has changed it." Disappointment could only be felt by the agents. They felt they were unable to help them. But suddenly, Phoebe remembered something, "Nadine, can I borrow your cellphone for a while?"
"Um… yeah." Nadine replied back quizzically as she gave her the cellphone. "Who are you calling?"
"Eugene." She said as she took a screwdriver out from her utility belt and opened up the security device with it. She then proceeded to call the biggest computer geek she knew.
---
"Eugene!" his mom shouted from downstairs, "Your friend's calling!"
"Who is it?" he then sat upright. He had been slouching on his seat eating day old french-fries and drinking caffeine heavy beverage called Bolls while watching some animes that he downloaded through the internet.
"I don't know, some girl… Honestly Eugene, the phone is right in front of you, why don't you even bother picking it up?"
"And there she goes… yak yak yakkity yak…" he thought in annoyance, which also had nothing to do with that other cartoon show.
"And get out sometimes! You've been holing in your room for days already!" his mom ranted more.
"Talk to me." He said through the phone.
"Eugene, it's me, Phoebe. Is your wi-fi on?" she said as she attached a cable on her PDA and inside of the security device.
Eugene was stunned and he began to sweat nervously. He glanced at his wi-fi device and replied, "Yep, up and running. Listen, is this about the hack—"
"Oh, so you were the one who hacked my PDA this afternoon, weren't you?"
Burn. He thought that she already knew about it. "Uh… well, I-I did—" he stammered fearfully.
"Enough, we'll talk about this later. Something important is at hand. Eugene, I need you to find my PDA through wi-fi so I can send you a file."
"File? What file?" he said as he restarted his computer to boot to Linux.
It's a software from a security device. I need you to decipher this code I'm sending to you right now." She said as she clicked on the 'SEND' button. And a few moments later, Eugene received it, and opened it up.
"Heh, its Cisco based. Nothing that I can't handle." He said to himself, smirking.
"Well, quit boasting and help us." Phoebe replied back.
"What am I looking for?" Eugene replied back as he typed as series of commands.
"A four digit password. Please, make it quick." Phoebe said. Acknowledging that Phoebe was in a hurry judging from her tone, he furiously typed a series of commands on the prompt. About five minutes or so, he finally cracked the code.
"Password is: 1984." Eugene replied back.
Phoebe then punched the buttons on the numeral pad and the text screen displayed "Access Granted'. A clicking noise was heard, and the door opened by itself, making a rusty, mechanical noise.
"I'm impressed." Olga said, "Security has been improved a lot since my time." she then entered the door with the other agents into a long, narrowed and dark corridor. Hopefully what Olga said to them was right.
"Excellent, we're in! Thank you, Wade— I mean, Eugene!" Phoebe then ended the call and gave the cellphone back to Nadine. On the other side of the line, Eugene sat stunned, in disbelief at what Phoebe just called him.
"Who the heck is Wade?" he asked himself as he scratched his head and stared down at the receiver.
---
"This place is dark." Gino said, and his voice echoed through the corridor, making an eerie noise. The floor and the small water puddle that they stepped on echoed and made the agents more cautious since the noise they made would alert Michael's henchmen if they were at the end of the corridor. Rhonda took out her flashlight to aid their journey. Rats and other vile creatures scurried away when the light was switched on.
"Eew…" Rhonda said in disgust, "This place is so gross…"
"You haven't seen anything yet." Lila replied back as she accidentally stepped on a puddle.
"Yeah," Phoebe concurred, "We just saw Nadine handling some cockroaches to help us to escape…"
"Actually, I've seen grosser things that Nadine did…" Rhonda replied back, shuddering. "I actually fainted—"
"Yea! You fainted because you exaggerated!" Nadine retorted back.
"Shh… quiet!" Helga shushed them. "You want us to get captured again?"
The corridor eventually leaded them to a wooden door without any security devices for Phoebe to tinker. She thought the door that they passed through earlier only asked for the password if they wanted get in from the outside. Rhonda switched her flashlight off and light could be seen coming from the door's crack at the bottom.
"This door goes to the training area." Helga said, being cautious about it.
"So, let's go then!" Rhonda then reached for the handle, but only to be stopped by Helga.
"Are you crazy?" she yelled, "What if they were waiting for us behind that door? We'll be dead!" Rhonda scoffed back. As much as she wanted to retort back, Helga was right regarding this. She slowly lifted her hand away from the handle.
"Good girl." Helga said, smiling. She then turned to Phoebe, "Phoebe, do you have some sort of camera thing that we can slip through that crack?"
"I know what you mean, Helga." Phoebe said as she took out a cable out with a small camera in front of it. She attached the end of the wire with her PDA.
"What is that?" Lila asked.
"It's an optic cable. It's designed for spies to see behind a door so they can plan properly on their next move." She then slipped the camera tip through the crack and looked at her PDA. "I see ten people guarding the rooms where we keep the training equipments. And they have guns. Oh my God, I can see Bridget and those other agents in those rooms." she informed them nervously. Everyone looked at each other in disbelief and horror. Phoebe then panned the camera to the right and saw an electric box on the far side behind some boxes. A ventilation shaft exit could be seen on top of it.
"I see an electric box just next to the last room."
"I read ya." Helga said back, "Above us, there's a ventilation shaft that I know will lead to that box."
"How'd you know?" Rhonda asked skeptically.
"I guess being tortured by Linda does have its own advantage, after all." She shrugged, "Anyway, we need someone to go to that box and disable it. Once the lights are off, we barge in and hopefully, we'll catch them off guard."
"Gotcha." Everyone replied. "But who's going to crawl into the shaft?" Lila asked.
"I will." Nadine volunteered, "My stealth rating is the highest when we were in training and I did it just now when we were at the mansion."
"Okay." Helga nodded. "Good luck."
"Hopefully this will works…" Helga said softly to herself.
"At last we will get our reveal ourselves to Michael's gang. At last we will have revenge." Olga said optimistically, with her fist shaking.
"God, Olga. That is so lame…" Helga smacked her forehead.
"Wow…" Rhonda said sardonically, "Should we will call this an 'aggressive negotiations' then?"
"And I hate sand." Gino said, after lines of dialogue from other characters prevented him from saying anything.
Seriously, if I said Anakin's sand line to a chick she'd laugh at me. Man, it was really stupid. Sid and Nadine's relationship will progress in the future chapters, though I am willing to develop other's relationship as well. I'm sure you'll catch all the movie references, and there will be lots of action sequences in later chapters, I promise. Again, thanks for reading and leave a review. Man, I should trademark that line...