He couldn't see a thing beyond the cold murky darkness. He could do little except sit, hoping that someone would come for him. As his vision began to adjust to the dark, he could make out the outlines of the cage he'd been trapped in. It was cold here, and he sat huddled in the corner to keep himself warm. He shivered. Well, he thought to himself, at least he wasn't alone. Zhalgo had been keeping him company for the past two days, and he was glad of that.
He wondered how Ferb was doing. He was probably fine. He kind of missed him. He thought about Candace, and whatever she was doing. She was probably out looking for him. He appreciated that. He wondered if Moon had heard about what had happened. Maybe she would come and save him again.
But somehow he doubted that. If the metal-man was right, she'd skipped town days ago, and she probably wouldn't be back. What would that make him, then, he wondered.
Probably dead.
He sighed.
-four days earlier-
"Mom! Come and see what Phineas and Ferb are doing!" Candace shouted from behind the gate. I liked how she was always so enthusiastic about what we did every day. She would always watch and try to guess what we were building (sometimes Ferb and I would give her hints). After she'd guessed what it was, she'd always go and show Mom. She must be so proud of us.
Well, it never really got to the showing Mom part. For one reason or another, everything we built always found a new home by the time Mom got back. That was fine with us. We didn't have enough space to keep everything anyway.
Sure enough, soon as Mom came into the backyard our new transmogrifier was gone.
Candace just stood there for a moment, but then sighed. "I'll be upstairs."
"Okay, Candace," Mom replied, then turning to Ferb and me.
"Hi, Mom!" I grinned, "How was work?"
Mom sighed. "Oh, just the boring same-old same-old. You boys want to come in for some snacks?"
"Okay," I followed Ferb inside and we joined Marissa at the kitchen table. She'd been sketching again, and the tabletop was littered with several sheets of notebook paper, little frilly edges sticking up where they'd been torn out of the book.
"Hey, boys," said Marissa, "What've you been doing today?"
"Does it matter?" Candace interrupted from the counter, "Mom didn't even see it."
"Oh, don't be like that, Candace," I sympathized, "You can have a turn on whatever we build tomorrow."
Candace only groaned, quickly disappearing upstairs.
"You boys have such active imaginations," was all Mom said before she went off to go say hi to Dad.
"Hey, Ferb, you wanna go and say hi to Moon?" I asked, "I think she's kind of lonely up there, you know?"
Ferb only nodded.
"Now hold on a minute," Marissa put in, "That Moon's dangerous. I'm not so sure you should be going out there by yourself."
"Well, why don't you come with us, then?" I turned to her, "Just maybe to hang out for a while."
Marissa faltered. "Well, that's not really what I meant-"
"Don't sweat it, Marissa," I encouraged, giving her a playful nudge with one elbow. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Moon wasn't home. That's what happened. All we found was a note on the door that had "back in five" scrawled in messy handwriting. Well, that was a little weird. Usually Moon would be home during the day, unless she'd found another place to sleep.
"Oh, well, Moon's not here. Come on, let's go," said Marissa, turning back down the rough dirt driveway that led into the woods.
"Oh, we'll just wait for her. Five minutes isn't long," I replied hopefully, taking her hand and tugging her back. "Come on, please?"
Marissa groaned. "Fine."
So we sat out on the front step until sundown. It was a little more than five minutes, but that was okay. It was dark by the time we got home, and soon as we came into the house Candace went bonkers. As it turned out she'd been watching a bunch of scary movies all in a row and was a little jittery.
I thought it was kind of funny.
I set my alarm a little early the next morning, hoping to catch Moon before she went to sleep. The sun wasn't up yet, although the sky had begun to turn a very morning-like shade of pink. Ferb and I dressed quickly, sneaking downstairs so we wouldn't wake Mom and Dad up. We'd probably be back before they woke up, anyway.
"Where do you two think you're going?"
We both froze. After a minute I turned to see Candace at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face. "If you think you're going off to build another one of your stupid machines that doesn't make any sense you are so busted-"
"We're going out to Moon's house," I told her, "She wasn't home last night."
"What?" Candace came down the stairs after us, her bare feet making a soft thud on each step, and stared down right into my eyes. "You know that Moon is a weirdo. Come on, just go back to bed."
"You want to come too?" I asked.
Candace shook her head. "You guys aren't going anywhere. Now come on."
"But, Candace-"
"Forget it, Phineas," she snapped, "Now go back up to bed or else I'm telling Mom."
There was silence for a moment as she glared at me, unwavering, but then I just sighed. "Okay. Come on, Ferb."
The two of us went back upstairs, with Candace following close behind, and we made sure that she was back in her room before hopping out the window and down the street. Moon's house was on the end of Aspen Street, only a couple of blocks away, and by the time we got there the sun was just poking up in between the houses on the edge of the forest. The two of us went quickly up the dirt driveway, leaving small dewey footprints that would probably disappear once the sun rose a little higher. Opening the front gate, I could see Khan sleeping out on the front step, her tail drooped over the edge. As we got closer she woke. First yawning and then stretching, she turned to us and chattered.
"Hi, Khan," I scooped her up and held her for a moment, giving her a little scratch just behind the head. It was the same place that made Perry's tail jump up, and I wondered if it was the same for her.
It wasn't.
That was fine. She seemed happy enough to see us. When I put her back down again she sat on Ferb's feet, encouraging him to sit on the step and pet her.
"Is Moon home?" I asked, "She wasn't home yesterday, and we kind of wanted to visit."
Khan shook her head - apparently Moon hadn't been home since two days ago.
"Hmm. That's a little weird," I speculated, "I wonder what happened."
Ferb looked up at me from petting Khan. "Phineas," he said, "I think she's gone."