Chapter 1 - The Big DNA Change
"Yeah... don't worry, Jeremy, I'm fine. Thanks for caring. See you later? Cool. Bye; love you." Candace smiled slightly before hanging off. Usually, chatting with Jeremy made wonders with her mood, but this time she wasn't nearly half as happy as normally, and this wasn't new but something she had been suffering for some days now.
The reason was a very serious 'BFAS", or, as Ferb translated it, Best Friend Abandonment Syndrome. Stacy had moved to another city, and despite Candace trying to stay in contact with her through e-mail, phone, smoke signals and messenger pigeons, it was still hard to have conversations with someone living on the other side of the world. Stacy's mother had got a promotion, getting an important position at the Psychiatric Ward of a Japanese hospital, and despite the advancements in long-distance communication, the time zones' difference was a big obstacle; by the time Candace woke up to call her first thing in the morning, Stacy was already having dinner and getting ready to go to sleep.
Due to now lacking her best friend and teen peer besides Jeremy, Candace was now having a very nasty case of abandonment feelings. She knew it wasn't Stacy's fault, and she was now hanging around with Mindy a bit more, but nobody would be able to replace Stacy, and even Jeremy, Candace's soulmate, couldn't completely fill up this emptiness; after all, Jeremy, as great as he was, he wasn't a girl (something Candace was thankful) and therefore Candace couldn't have 'girl time' with him.
"And I can't ask Jeremy to help me bust my brothers; he likes their inventions." Candace talked to her favorite Ducky Momo plushy. "Not that Stacy would be that eager to help me either, but still... it would be better than talking with a stuffed duck. No offense."
Candace groaned at this. Even before moving away, she had started having some problems with Stacy due to her obsession at trying to bust Phineas and Ferb, since Stacy actually liked many of the boys' inventions and adventures as well and didn't see anything wrong with them having fun. In fact, Candace was actually proud and frequently impressed at her younger brothers' intelligence and resources, but she often feared they'd get hurt someday, and Candace would prefer her mother grounding the boys for a week than having to visit one or both of them at the hospital for a month.
"Still... busting them might not be the best idea, you know?" Candace continued 'chatting' with Momo. "I mean, they're doing quite cool stuff; they might even win the Nobel Prize someday! Maybe even before finishing High School... what am I saying? They are smart enough to win it already."
Candace then got a little grin. Maybe busting the boys wasn't the best approach to this problem; if keeping them safe was her priority, maybe joining them, and REALLY act like their older sister, protecting them and setting a few limits for safety's sake, would be much easier, plus she'd have fun in the process.
"But if Mom ever finds out I'd supported them at dangerous adventures..." Candace paused while looking at Momo's face. "Heh. You're right. She never finds out! That's precisely my problem when trying to bust them. Well, better go see what they're up for today; thanks, Momo, you're a good confident."
Candace then noticed Perry was at the door, giving her his usual mindless look.
"Don't judge me, Perry; you're a platypus; you don't do that much either." Candace said to him while walking out of the room, not noticing Perry changing his expression for a moment to frown a bit and roll his eyes.
Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb were looking for inspiration for their next invention; in other words, watching the news.
"And the mystery heroes left as mysteriously as they mysteriously arrived, remaining as mysterious as usual." The anchorman said. "Who are these mystery heroes that, mysteriously, look like anthro dogs? Are they mutants? Are they aliens? Or they're guys in dog disguises? And, whatever the case, are they house trained? Nobody knows. Annoying, isn't it?"
"Whoa. Anthro canine heroes." Phineas commented while Ferb was still looking at the screen. "Wonder how that's possible; mutating an animal to get humanlike features, or mutating a human to make him an anthro. Mmm... Ferb, I know what we're doing today."
Ferb got a little grin and nodded at his little brother.
"Okay, let's get to work. And, where's Perry?"
"I saw him in my room a moment ago." Candace answered.
"Nice timing, Candace. Thanks." Phineas smiled at his sister while he and Ferb stood from the couch and started leaving the room.
"You're welcome... and... as Isabella would say... whatcha doin?"
At the Garcia-Shappiro home, Isabella tensed and frowned a bit.
"Somebody will pay for that... once I find out who said it."
Back with Phineas, Ferb and Candace...
"We're gonna invent a DNA Trans-Mutator, Candace. It will allow us to give humanlike characteristics to any animal, or give animal features to a human."
"The things you guys do for fun, uh?" Candace rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine, I'm going with you guys."
"Really? You want to help us?" Phineas was visibly happy; it wasn't usual that Candace joined them in their adventures.
"Yeah... But, just to make things clear, I hope you guys are careful with your experiment. And even if I'm gonna cooperate with this, if I say something is getting too dangerous and weird, we stop, got it?"
Phineas and Ferb shared a look and shrugged. It was a reasonable condition.
"Sure, let's do that."
Candace smiled a bit and went after the boys, actually feeling completely happy for the first time since Stacy left.
Unknown to them, at a certain place...
"DOOFENSHMIRTZ. EVIL. INCORPORATEEEED."
"You really need that chorus, Dad?" Vanessa said to her father, as he continued working on his new invention.
"Vanessa, 'evil' isn't just a state of mind; it's a way of life. And every good villain has some trademark thing, like, you know, an evil laugh, a characteristic of clothing or whatever, I mean, if The Regurgitator can have that thunder sound whenever he wants, why can't I have my chorus?"
"If it makes you happy. See you later." Vanessa kissed his cheek and started walking out of the lab.
"See you later, Vanessa. Oh, and if you see Perry The Platypus on your way out, tell him to wait five minutes. I'm still working on the new trap to catch him, and I'm also rehearsing the exposition of my new evil plan."
"Good luck with that." Vanessa rolled her eyes and finally left, hoping her dad didn't destroy the whole building in his new doomed plan; luckily, they had a very good insurance policy.
Meanwhile, Phineas, Ferb, Candace, and the usual crew, were working on the DNA Trans-Mutator. Basically, it looked like a very large chamber connected to a computer that stored the genetic data of dozens of species.
"So, what animal are we working with the first?" Baljeet asked the brothers.
"Let's go for the classics; a Wolfman." Buford suggested.
"Can we create a unicorn?" Isabella asked, making the rest of the Campfire Girls to get hopeful looks.
"Please, unicorns are for..." Everyone gave Buford a slight glare. "Uh... eh... fine, I like them too. Gee, since ponies became popular, I can't badmouth any girly animal."
"Actually, Buford, since this machine is focused on humanizing animals, or mixing human and animal genes, at first we'll just be able to work with already existing species, like the wolf you suggested." Phineas explained while Ferb made some adjustments to the computer. "In fact, since dogs are basically mutated wolves, Ferb is working on Wolf DNA Information, with the many variations needed to create any dog breed, from Chihuahua to Saint Bernard, and with every single Dog Group, from Working Breeds like Doberman and Mastiff to the Hunting ones like Bloodhound and Pointer."
"You mean, we can evolve Pinky and make him humanlike?" Isabella asked, quite happy. Making her Chihuahua a talking, smart, anthropomorphic being was almost as good as getting an unicorn.
"Okay, first Big Sister Restriction." Candace raised her voice a bit. "Before working on live animals, or people, we should work with, I don't know, computer simulations or blood samples or whatever. Even the shampoos are no longer tested in live animals."
"Mmm... yeah, that's a good point, Candace. Okay, we'll work with hair or blood samples at first, and we'll not move to changing a full animal or person until we're sure it's safe." Phineas agreed.
"Great; now she's gonna ruin the fun." Buford frowned a bit but stopped complaining when Candace frowned at him.
"You know, Buford, maybe I can't bust my brothers (no matter how much I try) but I'm pretty sure I can tell your parents how you treat Baljeet, and they'd not be happy."
Buford sighed while Baljeet grinned a bit, happy that Candace's presence was keeping his bullying at bay.
And now, cut to Doofenshmirtz's lab, where...
"Hah! You didn't see that coming, uh, Perry The Platypus?" Heinz grinned while looking at Perry, currently trapped in rubber bands. "Would you believe I did those rubber bands myself? I changed my old hula-hulas into those. And yes, I used to dance with hula-hulas; don't judge me."
Perry groaned at this while still trying to escape.
"Anyway, you know how I transformed the hula-hulas into rubber? Well, don't question yourself any longer... admire, The Rubber-Inator!" The mad scientist (emphasis in 'mad') pointed at his new ridiculously big and complex ray-like weapon. "One shot from this, and any substance gets rubbery characteristics. And you'd ask yourself, why creating this thing when I can get cheap rubber from the junkyard. I mean, there are lots of old tires in that place, and, well, anyway, here's the explanation..."
While Heinz exposed his reasons, Perry rolled slightly, getting closer to another of Doofenshmirtz's inventions, an old laser he used for security purposes. He then hit the laser with his beavery tail, activating it.
"... and that's when the monkey drove me crazy, and that's why I invented the Rubber-Inator... wait, are you listening?" Heinz growled at this. "I worked so hard on this exposition, I mean, I practiced it in front of the mirror! I know, it would be better with a multimedia presentation, but Norm had been using the Powerpoint all day, and I didn't have time to go to a cyber-cafe and use another computer, I mean, I had to create the Rubber-Inator, and..."
At that moment, the laser finally cut the rubbery restraints, and Perry was free to attack Doof, cutting his rant with a roundhouse kick. The scientist growled at this.
"Okay, that's it; no more nice Evil Genius." Heinz moved behind his Rubber-Inator and started aiming at Perry. "Let's see how well do you move when you get rubbery legs, Perry The Platypus!"
Perry started jumping around to dodge the shots, that were changing everything they touched into rubber-like stuff, including computers, lab equipment, and an ancient jar.
"Hey, don't touch that jar, you're gonna break it!" Heinz snapped at the platypus when he grabbed the jar and used it as a weapon, hitting Heinz right in the face. "Ungh! Hey, it didn't break, it bounced. That's good, because this is a very ancient stuff and... NNGH! Don't throw the computers!"
At the Flynn-Fletcher backyard, the group was finally testing the machine. Basically, using samples of Candace's hair.
"Okay, let's put a bit of your hair here." Phineas said to his sister while taking a very little cut of her hairdo and placing it inside the chamber. "And we activate the machine."
Ferb introduced a series of commands on the machine, and soon gleamed with transmutating energy. A moment later, the hair sample was curly and with a different consistence.
"French Poodle fur." Phineas grinned while showing everyone the fur/hair. "Now, let's try with other dog breeds, and then we try with other species."
"And then we can try with a whole living animal?" Buford asked. "I want to see a Wolfman."
"Sure, why not?" Phineas chuckled. "Candace, can you put a bit more of your hair, please?"
"Okay." Candace cut a bit of her hair and entered the chamber to place it.
At that very same moment, with Doofenshmirtz and Perry, the battle was reaching its climax, with Perry hitting the Rubber-Inator with some tools that Heinz had transformed, and damaging it enough to start the self-destruct sequence.
"Argh, this thing is gonna explode!" Heinz gasped and ran out of the lab, while Perry did his usual 'jump out of the window and glide to safety' escape. "CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUS!"
The Rubber-Inator shot one last, huge blast out of the building before exploding, turning pretty much everything inside Doof's lab into rubber.
Perry, using his glider, saw the final blast before the final explosion, and gulped a bit. The platypus realized where it would hit.
"Now, Ferb, set the Trans-Mutator to 'Doberman', and..." Phineas didn't finish the phrase because their invention got hit by the missing blast at that moment, activating the device and making the computer to short-circuit. "Hey, what's going on?"
Candace, realizing something was wrong, tried to get out of the chamber, but it closed, securing her inside. The girl, despite not being a scientific genius like her brothers, had been around them long enough to know when one invention wasn't working correctly.
"Phineas, Ferb, take everyone out to the backyard! This thing is gonna explode!"
The machine was now making such loud noises that the whole neighborhood was hearing them, including Mindy, who was on her way to visit Candace at that moment, and Vanessa, who had decided to go visit Ferb (the boy had given her his address in Danville the last time they saw each other).
"That sounds like one of Dad's inventions when it's about to explode." Vanessa gasped and, knowing Ferb and his brother were inventors as well, dashed to the backyard in a hurry, fearing they'd be the cause of this noise and the possible future victims of an invention's malfunction.
"Whoa. What are Phineas and Ferb doing today?" Mindy asked herself while entering the backyard from the opposite side. Soon, she and Vanessa were next to the Trans-Mutator, with Candace yelling at them from the inside.
"DUCK AND COVER! DUCK AND COVER!"
"What is..." Vanessa and Mindy chorused while Phineas, abandoning his secure position behind a fence, yelled at them.
"Girls, that invention is gonna explode! Protect yourselveeeEEES!" Ferb interrupted him while pulling his brother back to safety.
BOOOOM!
The explosion covered the backyard with glowing energy for almost a whole minute. After this, Ferb took out a detector, similar to a Geiger Counter, and gave everyone the 'thumbs up', indicating it was secure to get back to the yard.
"Whoa, that was a cool explosion." Buford grinned while he and the other kids went to check on Candace, Vanessa and Mindy.
"I hope the girls... are... al.. right..." Phineas stopped talking while he and the others looked at the result of the explosion.
Candace, Vanessa and Mindy's hairdos were unchanged... and that was the only thing that remained the same. The three teenagers were now anthro Dobermans! They were all fur covered; while Candace and Mindy had brown one, Candace's a bit darker than Mindy's, Vanessa's was black. The girls' shoes were destroyed, not by the explosion, but because their feet had turned into paws, too big for a normal shoe, and their hands were now a mix of human and canine, with short claws instead of fingernails. Their human faces now had canine muzzles, with fangs and all, and their ears were long and pointy, plus all of them had now short tails.
"We're... bi..." Mindy was cut by Vanessa.
"Call ourselves 'female dogs', please... the formal title sounds like a censorable word."
"Phineas, what happened?" Candace snapped at her brother.
"Well, somehow, an external force made our DNA Trans-Mutator to explode... and now the three of you are canine anthros." Phineas paused. "Plus, you're grabbing me from a 15 foot distance."
Candace gasped when realizing that, despite her being at the same site she was during the explosion, in the middle of the backyard, and Phineas being close to the fence and near the house, she had extended her arms to grab him by the shoulders. Vanessa and Mindy wide opened their eyes and looked at themselves before enlarging their hands by a conscious effort, realizing they had the same ability as Candace.
"Okay... nobody panic..." Candace gulped while her hands returned to normal. "I know my brothers. They'll fix this before..."
"AAAAH! WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!"
"... my mom arrives." Candace groaned while looking at her mother, who had just arrived and looking at them while trying to stop herself from fainting. The redhead then looked up at the sky and sighed.
"You hate me, right, Universe?"
