The Auspicious Cantercorn
Chapter One
Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella were in the backyard one day when Isabella heard a sound from within the tree.
"Do you have a woodpecker in there?" she asked.
"Sounds more like scientific equipment to me," Phineas said, after listening.
There's a knoll in the tree," Ferb said, pointing it out.
They went over to look at it. And inside the tree they saw into a laboratory…but how it had gotten there, none of them seemed to know.
"Did you work on some project unbeknownst to me, like the time you made that secret lair?"
"I didn't make any secret lair," Ferb said.
"Yeah you did, that time that—"
But Phineas ceased speaking when they heard a burrowing sound from below.
A creature that looked like a gray rabbit with buck teeth poked its head out of the soil.
"Oh, a sweet little bunny!" Isabella said.
Then they all three felt a gale rise around them and they saw that it was directing them toward the tree…but they were shrinking…and now they could fit into the hole, and into this aperture the wind sent them.
Pipes, trash bags with eyes, white balls with red on bottom, red balls with white on bottom, a songnote with physicality, jumping off a page, thunder raging around all three of them. And a beast with three heads, quite frightening to behold…Phineas thought he was in a nightmare…
Suddenly they landed on the base of the laboratory, presumably returned to their proper size.
"This laboratory is really intricate, Ferb," Phineas said.
"I didn't build it!"
"Sure you did. Though how is a mystery. No, no, don't tell me…I want to figure it out of my own."
"Come here a few years early, have you?" asked a man with a gray beard, who had approached them.
"Oh, and workers too. Really intricate, Ferb!"
"I didn't—"
"I'm sure Professor Yew will allow you to have starter Pokemon after all. The two Fennekin, Froakie, and Chespin that recently hatched need trainers, and we mustn't wait until the children of Thrakthrose City turn fifteen. By then these Pokemon could be a lot stronger than they are now."
"What is Thrakthrose Town?"
"The nearby city where people live and the most likely place to drop off new trainers of this laboratory."
"You know I don't like it when you refer to the action of coming here for new Pokemon by prospective trainers as 'dropping off', Cornelius."
A man with blue wavy hair had entered the area.
"Professor Yew! I was just asking these kids if they'd like to pick from the new Pokemon."
"They'd better like it, because if they don't, we'll have to put them to sleep."
The man with a gray beard looked horrified. But Professor Yew seemed to have itended it only as a joke.
"So, where are you from?"
"We live in Danville," Phineas said.
"Vanville? So you're from Kalos? Glad to see you've come so far."
"Not Vanille—"
But the professor was clapping Phneas on the back. Isabella saw a strand of his blue hair on the floor and felt a revulsion for it enter her heart, though she didn't know why.
"So what are your names, kids?"
"I'm Phineas, that's Ferb, and she's Isabella."
"Nice names. El nombre 'Bella' has been outlawed for a couple of centuries. But I suppose Isabella is fine."
Isabella scowled. She liked this man even less now than she had formerly.
"Well, here in the Regigo Region, we usually require one to be at least fifteen to acquire a Pokemon license. In other places, licenses are doled out to people at an earlier age, but Regigo has different standards from those regions.""
"That's okay. Ferb and I can make our own Pokeballs. All we need is a little bit of metal and some corkscrews."
"Aren't you two a little young to be Pokeball engineers?"
"We might be," Phineas said.
"Whatever place you came from, you must follow different laws than us."
"When someone comes to a new place, isn't that always the way it is?" Isabella asked.
"You know what? I feel inclined to offer you starter Pokemon, anyway. You three are rather interesting for kids your age."
Professor Yew clapped his hands. "Moriarty! Bring in the newly hatched starter Pokemon."
"All four, sir?"
"No, just three. Leave the extra Froakie for the next trainer who comes along."
"You're going to make the next trainer take Froakie even if they don't want it?"
"That's what happens when people come late."
"Um, Ferb," Phineas said, where Professor Yew couldn't hear, "Isn't Moriarty the villain from Sherlock Holmes?"
"Dr. Moriarty, yes."
"I wonder why the assistant here is called that."
"And why he looks like Frankenstein without green skin."
Phineas followed Ferb's gaze and saw a man with flat hair and broad shoulders enter with three Pokeballs. He set them on a machine, before walking out, glancing back at the kids at one point.
"Now I have here the three starter POkemon of the Regigo Region," Professor Yew said. "First, there is the Grass Pokemon, Chespin."
He picked up a Pokeball and out popped a creature that looked like a crossover between an own and a beaver with a set of thorns on its head.
"Then there's the fire Pokemon, Fennekin."
A fox with orange tufts coming out of its ears emerged from the Pokeball. Isabella bent down on her knees, petting its ears. "Isn't it the cutest thing you ever saw?"
"And finally, the water type, Froakie."
A creature that looked like a blue frog with a cat nose and white hair running down the back of its head appeared.
"I think the Fennekin likes Isabella," Phineas said. "So she should have it."
"Really? Do you want to be mine?" Isabella asked, looking into the Fire Pokemon's eyes. Ferb grimaced because he knew the words could easily have been meant for Phineas. Isabella wouldn't ask him if he wanted to be hers…at least not yet, and it could take a lot of risk to try to woo her…
The fox licked her face, which they all took as acceptance.
"That settles it, then. Which only leaves the one you and I will choose," Phineas said. "Which do you like better, Froakie or Chespin?"
"It is not a question of which one is more palatable to one's idiosyncratic tastes," Ferb said, "but which one is more likely to be a suitable partner. That said, I think Chespin works better for my standards, and Froakie for yours."
"Excellent. I'll take the frog then."
Professor Yew handed them the appropriate Pokeballs. "Now I must give all of you the Regigo Region Pokedex."
He handed them all electronic devices, Ferb's being green, Isabella's pink, and Phineas' red.
"These will tell you about any Pokemon you encounter. Who knows? You might be the three Trainers spoken about in legend, who will awaken the Lightning Trio."
"Professor Yew is just trying to frighten you," a teenager girl who looked to be just a few years older than Candace said.
"You come at an appropriate time, Ashley. I just gave these people their Pokemon."
"Starters?"
Professor Yew nodded.
"From the freshly hatched batch?"
Another nod.
"None of them got Feenekin, right?"
"I did," Isabella said, patting the Fire Pokemon beside her.
"I wanted Fennekin!" the girl screamed, beating her fists on the ground.
"Ashley, if you had come here a month ago and gotten your license like you were told to, this wouldn't have happened."
"So what's left? Please tell me Chespin is still available."
"Given to young master Ferb here."
"So all that's left is…"
"Froakie!" said Phineas' new Pokemon.
"I don't want a Froakie!" Ashley screamed.
"Then you can wait another month to come get your Pokemon, because it will take that long to hatch another batch of eggs, seeing as there are no Flame Body Pokemon in this laboratory."
"Ashley, it's okay…Froakie is an awesome Pokemon. I think it's cool, anyway."
The teenage girl looked at Phineas, then at the Pokemon by his side.. She got up, dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief, and ran out of the laboratory.
"My niece is rather jittery. Once she begins her Pokemon journey, I'm sure she'll be all right, but she's been delaying it for four months now. One thing and another dissuades her…"
"Maybe we can help," Phineas said.
"Yeah," said Isabella. "We may be new to this, but if that girl just gets a push in the right direction, she'll be fine, rather than the broken mess we saw a minute ago."
"Ditto that," Ferb said, which was a phrase he hoped would make Isabella wonder about him. But she didn't even glance his way. The fact was, he wouldn't have said it in remark to anything other than something Isabella said, because he wanted her to think he agreed with her so that she could start considering him as possibly, slightly more than a friend…
"I'll tell you what. If you three can get Ashley to take the Froakie that is twin brother to this one, I will make the start of your journey even easier by providing you with potions, Pokeballs, and the appropriate berries you might be needing."
"Don't worry…Ashley will take that Froakie," Phineas said. "Come on, guys. Operation Persuasion begins now."
And with that, all three of them marched out of the laboratory.