A/N: Yes, it is indeed chapter two this time, not some stupid messed-up author's note. The Flynn-Fletcher boys are about to try out their new machine, but remember: Doof's Speak Up-Inator ray is flying right towards them! Ooh, the suspense of it all...
Disclaimer: I have not magically acquired the rights to Phineas and Ferb since yesterday. Sadly, they still belong to Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh.
Chapter Two—A Design Flaw
"Perfect, Ferb!" I exclaimed as we stepped back to admire our work on the machine. The device was composed of a see-through computer screen that we could input commands on, and two attached helmets to let me read Perry's mind. We called it the Voyage to the center of a Platy-mind, a name that Ferb had come up with in the middle of building.
"Grrk-rrk-rrk-rrk-rrk," I heard as Perry walked in the gate to our backyard on all four, chattering like the mindless platypus he was. I know we could've probably trained him when he was little or something, but hey; he's a platypus. They don't do much.
"Oh there you are, Perry!" I said happily. "You're right on time for us to read your mind! Okay, Ferb?" I looked at my step-brother. "You put Perry by the machine. I'll go ahead and put my helmet on, and then you can attach Perry's." The helmets, both mine and Perry's, were connected to the machine and would hopefully allow us to hear each other's thoughts. I slipped the silver, dome-shaped helmet onto my head and waited patiently for Ferb to put it onto Perry too. But when Perry's helmet was still touching only the open air, a strange jet of green light came from nowhere and hit the machine, and by extension, hit me. "U-u-u-u-u-u-u-gh F-e-e-e-e-e-e-erb please make it s-t-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-p!" I yelled, electricity coursing through me, and although it was painless, it was very, for lack of a better word, uncomfortable. Like I had been sitting in a massage chair on super high for hours on end, all at once.
"Hold on, Phineas!" Ferb ran over and hit the power switch, turning off the machine for good. When I finally stopped shaking, I grabbed my temples to help clear my head. Perry looked almost worried, which was strange, because he usually only looked slightly cross-eyed.
"I wonder if it worked." I said weakly, still recovering from the electric shock. I focused my eyes on Perry, who looked normal again, and concentrated my hardest. But I couldn't hear a thing.
"I guess that beam of light fried it," Ferb said quietly.
"Yeah, I guess so," I agreed, and went back to massaging my head. But I felt Ferb tense beside me.
"Phineas," The Brit said slowly. "I didn't say anything."
"Of course you did, Ferb," I brushed him off. "You said 'I guess that beam of light fried it'."
"No, Phineas," Ferb was starting to look nervous. "I thought that. I never said it." We both stood stock-still for a moment, and then reacted at the exact same moment.
"Cool!" I yelled. "I can read minds now!"
"Oh no," Ferb moaned simultaneously to my cheers. "You can read minds!"
"Hey!" I protested. "What's wrong with me reading minds?"
"Phineas, you already talk so much," Ferb explained with a wince. "You could only answer faster if you could tell what people were going to say. And honestly, some people do like to have a bit of privacy, and you're taking that away from them without their permission."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I admitted. "We should probably try to fix this…" But my mind was suddenly bombarded with whispers of thoughts that weren't my own.
I cannot wait to see what my good companions Phineas and Ferb have built today! Maybe later I can calculate some more digits of pi. Ouch, this is a tight wedgie; Buford please let me down soon…
Tough Gum sure is tough. Like me. Ugh, the nerd won't shut up. Be quiet, Baljeet, I'm way tougher than you. Hmm, I just remembered; I still need to get up the courage to ask about floating around like little woodland pixies again. Maybe I could phrase it a little differently, though…
"Ferb!" I cried. "Quick, warn Baljeet and Buford not to think anything private! They're about to walk in, I can hear their thoughts!" Ferb dashed for the gate and sure enough, Buford was outside holding Baljeet in a tight wedgie, about to push open the gate and chomping on Tough Gum.
"Ferb?" Buford asked in confusion. Ferb quickly relayed the situation to them.
"Wait, Phineas could hear what I was thinking about a second ago?" Baljeet asked.
"Yup," I replied. "It was something about a tight wedgie and the digits of pi."
"You didn't hear anything, um, private of mine, did you Dinner Bell?" Buford asked menacingly, trying to hide his fear that Phineas had heard his "un-tough" thought.
"Um, no," I said quickly. I held my arm down to keep from scratching my ear, something I do when I lie.
"Good." Buford said gruffly. "Hold on, you can tell what everyone's thinking, right Pointy?"
"Yeah, we established that," I said, slightly annoyed.
"Oh boy," Buford looked at Baljeet and Ferb and started laughing. "This is gonna be hilarious when Isabella gets here. You'd better go warn her before he gets into her head…"
"What wrong with me hearing Isabella's thoughts?" I asked, confused. I immediately started trying to look into their minds, but just as I was getting close…
"Nothing," They all answered at once, and the subject was suddenly closed in their minds like a shut door, to my disappointment. "It's just," Ferb began. "Um…she is a girl. Yeah, that's why. Do you really want to invade the privacy of a girl's mind, Phineas? Especially a fifteen year old Isabella?"
"Oh, geez, you're right," I realized, imagining Isabella's anger at me reading her mind. Suddenly, a sweet, melodic voice filled my brain.
I wonder what Phineas is going to do today…maybe he'll help me and the Fireside Girls earn patches! Or maybe he'll finally notice—
I grabbed my head to cut off the thought. NO Phineas, think of something ELSE! I mentally screamed. But I wouldn't be able to hold down my curiosity for long…"Warn her!" I gasped out, squeezing my temples. The others quickly ran to the gate, and I saw them cut her off at the sidewalk in front of our house. They were explaining something, I didn't know what; I was blocking out any thoughts that weren't my own to the best of my abilities. But little bits broke through…
Look, Girly, Din…Bell can…minds now. Watch…
Yes, Isab…after Buford gave me…wedgie…we found out…
Just watch wha…you think. Be care…he might be abl…to hear…now…
Oh gosh, I'd better…cautious around…today…thanks, boys…
That's when the guys and Isabella walked back in the gate. I turned to look at them, but I was momentarily stunned at the sight of Isabella.
Unlike Buford and Baljeet, who's clothing hadn't changed much since we were young (although Baljeet wore jeans now), Isabella's outfit had morphed over the years like Ferb and I's had.
She wore a light pink modest tank top, along with a white short-sleeved jacket that went slightly below her ribs. The jacket did have sleeves, but they didn't cover her shoulders—they were almost like rings connecting her arms to the side of her shirt at her armpits, if that makes any sense. She also wore denim skinny jeans. Dark leather moccasins completed her look, along with some pale pink highlights in her hair, complementing the natural blue ones her hair already had—the bow on the top of her head had been deemed childish at age thirteen. Isabella only wore slight makeup, being the self-confident and naturally radiant girl she was, but her sparingly-applied black mascara made her sparkling blue eyes pop, and a hint of pink on her lips certainly didn't hurt.
She was beautiful, no doubt about it. I always seemed to notice that around her. It's like…everything else suddenly gets dimmer when she walks in, and today was no exception. I put all of my energy into blocking everyone's thoughts—which took a lot of energy—but I couldn't stop the routine flurry of butterflies in my stomach when I saw her face, something that had been confusing me greatly since age eleven.
"Um…Phineas?" Isabella asked hesitantly. I suddenly realized I was still staring at her, and quickly tried to look busy blocking out thoughts.
"Sorry, I'm trying not to hear anything," I winced, the exhaustion of blocking their minds out catching up with me now that I was no longer…distracted.
"Uh, yeah…" Isabella seemed to be putting as much work into thinking absolutely nothing as I was not to hear her. "So, anyway," she turned to Ferb. "Can you, I don't know, until you fix this, can you make something to block our thoughts from Phineas?"
Wordlessly, Ferb whipped out four little plain-looking black boxes from his pocket. "What're those?" Buford grunted.
"Something I made to keep our currently not-so-private-minds private," Ferb answered.
"When did you make those?" Baljeet asked. "Phineas has only been a mind reader for like seven minutes!"
Ferb only raised his eyebrows and continued. "Stick it in your pocket. It will surround your body with a field of invisible energy that should mostly keep our thoughts inside our heads. Phineas might be able to hear a few things every once in a while though—it depends on how strong his mind-reading skills are."
"Cool!" I shouted. They all stared at me. "I'm an official mind reader now!" I explained happily. No one had taken any of the devices from Ferb yet, and as hard as I was trying to think of other things, I suddenly heard snatches of their thoughts now that I wasn't occupied by other things.
Ugh, Phineas… That one had a British accent, even in my head, so I assumed it was Ferb—unless one of my other friends secretly thinks as a Brit, which would be cool.
Dinner Bell sure is gettin' annoyin' fast with this mind-reading thing… Yeah, that was Buford. I still didn't understand the whole "Dinner Bell" thing…oh, my triangle shaped head! Wow, that was more obvious than I thought.
This is a very strange phenomenon… That one was definitely Baljeet. I'm pretty sure that 'phenomenon' is one of those words that only Ferb, Baljeet, and I use.
Oh gosh, this is weird. But maybe I can get my Fireside Girl 'Help out a mind-reader' patch for this… I'm pretty sure Isabella was the only Fireside Girl here; she had been since age eight, so that one must be hers. I figured that was it, but some thought, one of which I couldn't place its owner, flashed through my mind right as I tried to open my mouth to speak…
I just love him so much…
"Who said that?" I blurted. They all looked at me like I was crazy; all these thoughts had run through my mind in less than two seconds—no one had done anything but pocket Ferb's mind blocker things, so I couldn't try to figure it out on my own. "I meant who thought that," I explained.
"Thought what?" Baljeet inquired.
"Somebody here loves me, a lot," They all reacted differently to this comment, although I could swear the boys all flashed Isabella glances for some reason.
Buford just looked bored. "It ain't me, Pointy," he growled, raising his eyebrows slightly in the direction of Isabella. I didn't know why, but she looked down.
"Nor me, Phineas," Baljeet added, looking meaningfully at, you guessed it, Isabella, as she half smiled nervously, her eyes not even betraying actual happiness. More like growing terror.
Ferb just shook his head. My neck swiveled towards Isabella, and I felt an unexplainable sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, it had been her thought. But why would I even care? She's only my best friend… "Nuh uh," Isabella replied, looking down and unintentionally crushing my hopes. I felt strangely saddened her answer, but I didn't say anything. It was probably…I don't know, maybe I had some bad shrimp last night? "Maybe Irving's hiding in the bushes," Isabella suggested helpfully, although, for seemingly no reason, her cheeks were turning redder by the second.
"Yeah, that must be it," I answered. "Hey, are you all right?" I questioned her.
"What do you mean?" She said quickly and nervously. She was getting pink cheeks again…
"You look like you're getting a sun burn on your cheeks," I clarified, referring to her rapidly reddening face. "Do you need to borrow some sun block?"
Isabella just looked at me for a second before face-palming. "Oh, Phineas," she shook her head, hand over her eyes. All the guys groaned.
"What?" I asked, looking around. I had no idea what was going on.
"Never mind," Isabella sighed. "No Phineas, I don't need any sun block, my cheeks are just, um…naturally rosy."
"Oh, that makes sense," I agreed. "So anyway," I turned to Ferb. "Now that you have that device in your pocket, all I can hear are random little bits of thought from you. But I can tell you have some sort of plan to fix me. Could you explain?"
"Well," Ferb began. Everyone turned to him; he definitely talked more since we were young, but it was still an event when he did. "I was thinking about what happened. Right before you got your, um, skills—"
"That random blast of green light hit the machine!" I exclaimed, finishing his thought.
"Exactly, Phineas. So we need to find out what that light was."
A/N: Yups, that was chapter two. Phineas, you idiot: you can literally read minds and Isabella's love still flies right over your pointy head! Ugh, maybe he'll pull his head out of the oblivious hole soon...
Anyway, I want to thank my amazing reviewers!
Sabrina06: Well, now you know where it's going...at least a little. And thank you so much for your help with the ratings on "He was enough for her"!
14AmyChan: You like my -inator? I had a heck of a time finding one to match my plot :D. And I just enjoy making up Doof's insults for Perry: he's like a big, evil preschooler!
Random9747649: Yeah, the second chapter took some help, but I figured it out eventually, thanks to a friend. And the storyline is just getting started...
Guest: I totally get the stuck with your phone think. it drives me crazy because I can't post from it. All I can do is answer PMs. And I'm sorry, a lot of the story is Phineas trying to block out Izzy's thoughts. But I do have another story partially written where Izzy and Phin switch minds like in Mind Share Vacation (I started writing it before I even knew the episode was going to exist; weird, right?), and Phineas can hear most of Isabella's deepest instincts, although not her thoughts themselves.
Okay, Ciao everyone!
-Cutie
