Beeeeep. Beeeeep.

Ferb grinned as he hit the alarm with his hand. At 6 o clock each morning, he and Phineas had an on-going competition on who could hit the alarm first. Phineas won almost every time, so Ferb savoured the rare victory over his brother. Until he noticed his brother's bed was already empty.

Ferb simply presumed that Phineas had already made an early start that day. Most likely another of his big ideas. So Ferb got dressed then made his way downstairs for breakfast, accompanied by a groggy semi-aquatic mammal.

Perry yawned and followed Ferb downstairs, hungry. He had an uneasy feeling in his stomach, that was something was wrong, but simply dismissed it as hunger. He chattered impatiently as his owner prepared his breakfast.

"Calm down Perry, give me a second,"

Perry frowned when he was certain nobody would see him. He chattered again as Ferb placed his food bowl on the floor with a clang. Perry strolled over whilst his owner prepared his own meal, and wolfed down his food.

"Hmm. Phineas isn't here. Where could he be, eh Perry?" the green-haired teenager questioned.

Perry looked up at his owner mindlessly, but it was tugging on his mind as well. 'Where could he be if he's not down here?' the platypus wondered. He decided after he'd finished eating, he'd have a look for him. Phineas would probably turn up in the garage, tinkering with some invention, or scrawling his ideas down on a blueprint somewhere.

Ferb frowned. Phineas would've left him a note on the table if he'd gone off somewhere, so as to not worry his family. And he certainly wasn't in the bedroom, or downstairs. Ferb gave up eating his breakfast, pushing the bowl across the breakfast counter. He stood up, and walked off to the garage. Perry followed suite, just as curious as Ferb to what Phineas could be doing that required him to awake so early.

Nothing.

He wasn't in the garage, and nothing had been moved from where they had left it the previous, suggesting Phineas hadn't been in there. Ferb frowned again. He pulled out his cell phone and flicked down the contacts list until he came across Isabella's name. He quickly typed out a rough text to her and sent it.

Hey Izzy, Phineas isnt with u is he?

Ferb had barely put the phone back in his pocket when the phone beeped at him.

No, why?

Ferb looked at the screen for a second, flummoxed as to where Phineas had gotten off to, if he wasn't at home and he wasn't with Isabella.

I cant find him anywere. He didn't say if he was going to a convention today did he?

Instead of slipping the phone back in his pocket, Ferb simply held it out in front, he figured if Isabella's previous speed was anything to go on, there would be no point in the action. His phone beeped again.

No, he hasn't said anything to me. Ill keep an eye out for him, k?

He quickly tapped on the phone keys once more, then slid his phone back into his pocket.

Thanks Izzy, Ill tell you if I find him.

Perry, meanwhile, decided to act upon the bad feeling in his stomach. He ventured back up to the boys bedroom to search for clues. Having a trained eye, he could probably spot things that Ferb couldn't. He needn't have put that skill into action though, because lying atop Phineas' bed in plain sight, was a ransom note.

Perry's heart jumped a little as he read it and he kicked himself for not spotting it earlier, but thanked whatever looked over semi-aquatic secret agents for allowing him to spot it before Ferb. Because if Ferb read it, it would've broke his heart.

He pulled his fedora from no-where, and stuffed the ransom note under his hat, before making off to his OWCA base to report the emergency to Major Monogram. He tried to banish the words from his head, but those damned words just lingered in his mind.

Quit the inventing, Ferb Fletcher,
or your precious little brother and sweet little girlfriend will die.
You've been warned.

Don't try pulling anything Agent P,
I know who you are.


Heinz's stretched his arms out as he rose for from his bed. Despite the fact that him and Perry fought every day for the past however many years, he still woke up aching each day. He yawned, and strolled out to grab a snack before running over today's plan.

"Vanessa honey, would you like to help me check my plan?" He called out across the penthouse while rubbing his eyes. Heinz opened the cupboard, looking for something that didn't taste disgusting. Maybe that's what he could do tomorrow. Make a Turn-everything-into-a-cake-inator. It wasn't exactly evil, but it was purely to benefit him, so Heinz figured it wasn't exactly good either.

"I will, dad!" replied his robotic servant/friend Norm, optimistic as ever. Heinz groaned and face-palmed. He couldn't understand why Norm saw him as a father; robots didn't have dads as far as Heinz was concerned.

"Norm, we've been over this before! I. AM. NOT. YOUR. DAD!" he shouted back. "Vanessa darling, are you okay? Do you want pancakes for breakfast?"

No reply.

"Vanessa?" Heinz walked over to the spare room where his daughter stayed on her weekends around. He knocked on the door lightly, then again, harder than before.

"Vanessa?" He was starting to get concerned. It was half past 6 now; he was more than certain she would be up by now. He knocked on the door again, quicker and harder.

"Vanessa! I'm coming in!" Heinz shouted. He pushed down on the door handle, to be greeted by an empty room, and a made bed, with a small folded piece of paper lying atop it.

"Hmm, she must've gone out somewhere. Nooorm?" He shouted, drawing his robot's name out.

"Yes, dad?" Heinz sighed as he was fed up of correcting Norm. What harm could it do to him anyway to allow the robot to go on calling him dad?

"Did Vanessa leave earlier?"

"At about midnight. With a bunch of strange men!" Norm replied, rather optimistically. Heinz's eyes widened as he dove frantically at the note left on Vanessa's bed, unfolding it with trembling fingers.

Pack in the inventing game, Heinz,
or your little girl will get it.