Author's Note:
Okay, this chapter took longer than I expected. It's double the standard word count that I usually have which is 2000 words, so expect a pretty long chapter. On the other hand, I enjoyed writing it immensely, establishing some foundations and important memories about the characters (despite them being entirely borrowed, but it's the nature of fanfic to borrow characters). I'm gonna edit this another time, I'm too excited and I'm a bit tired of writing a 4000 word chapter haha (2 straight hours of 2000 words huhu).
Disclaimer: Anthony, PJ, and Jasmine Flynn belong to KicsterAsh and Kiki-Kit
Marie Flynn belongs to Sam-Ely-Ember
and the rest of the PnF characters belong to Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh.
Chapter 2
Unbelievable that guy! I mean, why does he have a grudge on me even until now?! And what is up with this attitude of trying to outdo other people?! He's arrogant, very very arrogant! Man! Okay, calm down, there has to be another way! Wait, how many times have I paced back and forth in the lab? Well, it helps me think, I mean, it's just my way of processing solutions in this situation, but in this case I got stuck on what happened earlier. This isn't like me at all, I even asked myself, whatever happened to moving forward? But that guy, I just... why?!
"Phineas?" Inquired Hammer.
The four of us, who are currently present, are all worried that we have a lot of weight on our backs. I appreciate that Hammer and the rest are concerned, but how am I going to break it to the rest of the team? Furthermore, the rest of the company! They're gonna want their own projects sped up so that they wouldn't have to work so excruciatingly hard, as much as we are happy to work on our own company, we're also getting exhausted. We've been so overworked lately, and hardly any of us had time to get back to the stuff we wanted to do! People are already talking about leaving.
I sighed, several paces later, and decided to sit down. This isn't the first time I felt at world's end, but this isn't the worst.
"Why don't we just look for another company?" Asked Welder.
"It might take a bit more time. It's quite a gamble." Explained Ferb.
"Ferb's right, unfortunately. Our company is already close to having a shortage of manpower, if we don't pay our folks fast. TnT was like the closest shot we had, or at least I thought it was... until that happened. If we apply to other companies, they might not be willing or available... unless... Hey! Why don't we try Stark Industries?"
"Isn't that a defense systems company?" asked Hammer.
"But we're Stark's old apprentices! We should at least give it a try."
Ferb, like the man of action he is, immediately calls Tony Stark himself. I'm pretty excited myself!
"I don't know Phineas." Doubted Welder. "Stark Industries is a pretty top-notched company. Do you think that in our current capacity we could really work with them?"
I chuckled kinda hard, I wasn't trying to be arrogant or anything. "What're you talking about?! We don't have to wait for tomorrow to be that kind of company, we can be like that now!"
The two co-workers looked at each other quite anxious and nervous. I know that look anywhere: self-doubt. They both kept their heads down afterwards as if they were undergoing self pity.
"Hey! Keep your heads up, when I'm talking to you guys! Come on, help me out here!"
Well, they were listening, but there was still that look of pity on their faces.
"I don't believe that you guys just came here just because you got lucky or you just came here to just get your daily dough so that you can be glorified as the family breadwinner. No! I believe that you guys made it passed our application process for a reason!"
Hammer sighed. "Phineas-! Sir, with all do respect-!"
"And, I am not finished, it is also the reason why other applicants were unfortunate enough to get rejected, and instead you guys are taking their places."
Hammer was about to continue despite being interrupted... but he gave it a thought, which is cool, I always liked the part where realism was wrong, and optimism was the key to victory.
"You guys are scientists and engineers! Stark Industries are a company of scientists and engineers! We, Ferb and I, are apprentices of thee Tony Stark! So practically we have as much aptitude as he is, to some degree at least, we can't be perfect. But even so, we have abilities that even he doesn't have, same concept applies with you people!"
Their eyes are glued on me now. I got em where I want em!
"Yes, we might be prodigies during our golden days, but even we are not perfect! I can be too ambitious sometimes that I may have lead the company to some pretty close to disasters, if not for the support of my colleagues and my fellow CEO here! And Ferb, he can be a little too quiet that he can't speak his mind if the situation becomes dire. So okay, we're not perfect! But that's why we have you guys, that's why we called for your help, and thank heavens you answered it that day! I mean look around you, see what we have accomplished!"
I forgot to tell you, this lab, this team, is where our success rate started to scale up, and where practically our cash came. It's practically a classroom and a museum at the same time with all the prototypes of our inventions lying around! The vacuum cleaner looks glorious beside the door, awaiting for it's next cleaning session. And several blueprints of our other successful inventions hang on the walls as relics. Also, well they might not have been successful, but far ahead at the end of the lab is a bench where all our other ideas and blueprints are either still on the works or scrapped, but they are still marks of our progress together.
"True, we are still practically new to this business, we have only been together for five years. But can you believe it?! Five years is a pretty short time to get all our masterpieces and babies out there serving mankind! Think about it, it's amazing... no it's more than amazing! It's... Super duper amazing, for a lack of a better term."
The two chuckled.
"So you see, I'm not being cocky or arrogant, I'm proving to you that you guys can do this, with us, with all the other teams in this company, working together! We can go bigger, and our partnership will work, I'm positive!"
They smiled, and looked at each other, with a large amount of confidence that I was looking for in my colleagues each day.
"Sir, how much optimism did your mother hammer into you when you still in that womb of hers?"
"And how much did she weld into making you a great leader?"
I laughed, quite flattered by the compliments of my fellows. "Hey, save those hammering and welding jokes when you get back to work. We still haven't finished that foundation."
"Yes sir!" They both said with esteem.
Well, I guess you can say that I did a job well done. A company never succeeds without its employees working together happily.
All of a sudden some buzzing sound followed by a song was heard.
"Watcha doin, Watcha doin... I really wanna know!"
"Whoops! Sorry that's mine!"
I picked my cellphone in my pocket and immediately answered the call. Thank you technology for customized ringtones for specific contacts.
"Hey! Watcha doin?" I asked.
"Hi... I'm watching Tony's game."
"Oh... wait what?!"
I could hear Isabella facepalm over the other side of the line.
"Honey, you promised!"
Gosh! I even facepalmed myself for forgetting. I double checked my personal tablet just to be sure I made some reminders. I really promised in the past that I would be there in Tony's soccer game, I even set up some reminders in my tablet and some alarms, it even popped up as one of my notifications in the lock screen.
"I'm on my way, I'm on my way."
I rushed off to my car without saying goodbye to my colleagues, they overheard me talking so hopefully they would understand. Isabella was luckily available for his game today, despite her busy work as a journalist. She's practically a celebrity ever since she had her own show in the news channel. It's practically a show where she interviews some of the people who have been rising to the top recently.
"Good morning people! Watcha doin'?" She would usually say in her morning show... I hope you don't mind but I'm gonna set this into flashback mode while I travel to my car.
"I'm here at the recently established company called PnF laboratories! I'm here today with Phineas Flynn, CEO and founder of the company, and we're going to ask him a few questions and hopefully we get a tour!"
"Oh, well, I'd be honored to be your escort in today's tour miss!"
She planned to be discrete about our relationship status in public because she wanted to earn her reputation without my help. My career spiked earlier than her's, like 3 years earlier, and it was her 2nd year as a journalist, but one of the first few days as a
Isabella chuckled. "Thank you so much honey! Ahh! I mean, Mr. Flynn! Jeez..."
Well... there goes our discreteness. "Honey" is frantically panicking in front of the camera, waving over the guy behind it to stop recording the footage. Unfortunately for her, some guy that was spectating over the news studio behind the news desk was broadcasting himself by the TV a short distance apart from us.
"Wait wait, Isabella, did you just say... honey?" He chuckled.
"No! No no no no no!" Isabella giggled. "I did not-!"
Well, I immediately took action. I kissed her in front of the camera, sending that guy by the camera smiling and the guy over the TV stunned like he just won a million dollars (for some reason we have that power over people whenever we are a tandem). Of course we completed the interview section of her show, the one where she asks "Watc'ha doin?", and then I finally gave her the tour. It was a complete win-win for both of us since it earned her fame and I got my company noticed, about a dozen more customers came and slowly and steadily it grew. Well, it landed me in the quality of life that I'm living right now, a decent house and well fed kids that had everything they ever wanted for Xmas practically (provided that it was something material).
Okay, made it! Okay, push the button to start the engine, then drive! Thank goodness for technological progress, I never would've survived if I lost my car keys at this moment, not that I needed them anyway thanks to push to start cars.
"I'm on the way! How's the game going?"
"Well, it's about to start." She informed. "They're already lined up face to face against each other, he's gonna see an empty bench right beside me any time now."
Ugh, perfect timing! I guess I'm gonna have to use that one.
"Okay, put me on hologram mode right beside you."
"Okay, just make it as fast as possible okay? You don't wanna get caught."
"I wo-aaaahh!"
Holy smokes! I can't believe I just beat a red light! I almost got hit by a car; the guy driving it was honking as he zipped in front of me, barely escaping. Fortunately none of us got hit... But now the cops are on my tail with their blairing siren. Great, just great.
"What's wrong honey?"
I groaned. "I'm... gonna take a few more minutes on the road. D-don't ask. It just isn't my lucky day now."
"...well, hologram mode is ready. Take off your coat."
I took off my coat, ready to take position to pretend I was actually in the game. How it works is that the phone projects an image of yourself to a certain location and it's supposed to look like that you're actually there, where actually you're somewhere too far that you can't reach the location in time. It's supposed to be for the luxury of talking to the person as if you're face to face instead of being on the phone, because the feel of face to face brings more life to the chat and it actually makes you look like you care for that person. In my case however, I have to make myself look like I'm part of the audience.
Great, just great. Today was the day I was supposed to fix everything with my kids. I've been so caught up with my inventions that I mispent my time til I had none left for them. Honey understands, she always understands... but the kids don't. I wouldn't blame them, but I fear the day that they would call me a terrible father. Someday they would understand that what I do, is ultimately for them... but now they need me, so I have to be there... speaking of the kids, where are-?
"Did you see that Ferrari parked over there? It looked soooo cool!"
Ah, Jasmine and her everlasting love for cars. I could also hear Marie chuckling.
"What did it look like?" Asked Marie.
"Wh-what did it-?!" Jasmine laughed. "It looked like a Ferrari obviously! You know, yellow with a black stripe in the middle, 2-seated, and an engine powerful enough to reach the velocity of 375 kilometers per hour by average? Well actually it depends on the model of the Ferrari, but still it's fast like vrrrooommm!"
Their voices came from my right, where the exit from the bleachers was. Ahh, my little mini us-es (as in Me and Isabella). I wish badly that I could see them in person, instead of from the car, but I wonder if the hologram was good enough to make the kids think that I'm actually here. They came up the steps to the lowest platform, which is 3 steps below from where "we" seated.
"Wow... where did you get that information?" Asked PJ
"Internet. Duh. But when I grow up, I'm gonna beat that velocity once I design my own car, then I'm gonna make it the standard vehicle of all racing! I'm going to be the future of cars people and nothing's gonna stop me!"
I smiled, overhearing the end of their conversation, as they climbed the steps with some popcorn and drinks.
Suddenly, someone tapped the glass by my window. Well, it's a police officer alright. I lowered my window in response.
"Good afternoon sir!" I greeted the officer.
"Oh! Mr. Flynn! It's you!"
"Why, yes! Yes it is!"
"How are we doing today sir?" He asked.
Wait, is he going to let me through? "I'm pretty good, how about you?"
"Yeah, same here as well! Uhh, I hope you don't mind."
He scribbles something in his notepad and then shows me a list of what looks like sections of an article, probably a police article.
"You're in violation of item four and six, which was overspeeding and beating the red light. Forgive me, but I'm gonna have to reorient you with the traffic rules, since this is your first warning."
I smiled politely. "Well, by all means, let's get this over with. I am very late for a game of my son though, but I understand, I have to let you do your job."
The security officer, Bill, according to his nametag, stood there stunned. Geez, is he okay? Did I say something? Was I rude... Or what I said made another violation in the traffic rules? Wait, that's not right, I'm sure I was being very polite that time! Hold on, is he crying?!
"Sir?! Are you okay?"
Well my voice called his attention, and he quickly scribbled something in his notepad and sniffed in a cold. I got the ticket, $5 it said. Wait is he serious?! He just gave me a 50% discount!
"Just, pay me the penalty and go." He said in the matter of a crying lady after watching a tragic romance movie.
Woah! I can't say no to that! I immediately reached for my wallet and then paid him the fine.
"Thank-!"
"Just! Go!"
After he cleared himself off the path for me, I immediately sped off. I then programmed the car to auto-pilot mode after selecting my destination in the GPS. Okay, it should be able to drive itself by now, but I'm not quite sure. It took a while for me to notice the independent movement of the steering wheel, and once it became more prominent, I slowly let it go while cautiously checking for any errors or malfunctions that would randomly occur. I can't be seen on the bleachers driving, else the trick would never work and Anthony would be disappointed.
Before the kids were a few steps from us, I quickly set my hands on my lap and sat down. Just in the nick of time, I saw Anthony waving with both hands at the both of us, then quickly resumed position in the team to avoid being noticed by the referee and coaches. Of course we waved back, like the proud parents we were, but I looked at Isabella with a cheeky grin and she smiled too, but I did notice a sense of anxiety in her face.
She practically said "What if this doesn't work?" without even vocalizing it. I'm pretty anxious too, but I didn't let that fear conquer me, and I kept my grin up.
"D-dad?!"
I looked to my right, and noticed PJ holding two buckets of popcorn between the two girls. Little Jasmine was below me legs looking at me with that cute innocent smile of hers. I really want to hug her, she's so irresistible right now, but I can't.
"Hey guys!" I waved.
Immediately Jasmine tried to grab my leg, but it caused my holographic image to flicker, much to her disappointment. I grinned, not out of joy but out of the guilt of being caught absent... yet again. Marie and PJ on the other hand just looked at me blankly, like it was typical of me to do such a thing.
"Look, I really tried. I really wanted to be here, so I came up with a backup plan instead, see? The champ won't notice a thing."
"I hope." Said PJ, a bit skeptic about the plan.
"Well, at least you're trying daddy." Said Marie sweetly.
Just in time, the game whistle blew to a start, and the ball was on the Danville Emu's side. Anthony was striker positioned somewhere in the front of the team, waiting for someone to pass the ball to him then take the shot. As soon as his teammate were running towards the goal, he made a run for their goal, and everyone in the bleachers on our side were cheering. Marie, PJ and Jasmine were so excited that they stood up, scattering some popcorn in the process. Honey just waved her hands in excitement and jumped up and down, while I was yelling words like "Come on champ you can do it! Run run!" I wanted to stand up so bad, but I couldn't since the car ceiling wasn't high enough (maybe I should install that whenever this situation happens again, but I have a feeling it would be impractical and dangerous). Eventually the ball was passed to my son, but someone from their defense intercepted it and it was the opposing team's ball. He snapped his fingers in front of him in frustration, he can get pretty hot-headed and competitive especially in the sport that he loves, but being in a competition always gets him confident and challenged. As he ran, he noticed him steal a very quick glance at us, and chased after the person with the ball, while maintaining his position. He tried doing some tricks such as dancing around the player and making some tricks to steal the ball back, but the player was good enough to avoid falling from them. Once the ball was out of his zone, Tony gave up the chase and watched his teammates attempt to defend. Unfortunately, the efforts of the opposing team were good enough to score a goal. Current standing was 0-1.
Honestly, I didn't really care if the other team was on the lead, I was just happy to see my son actually playing with passion, the game that even I used to enjoy when I was a kid. But it kinda breaks my heart too that I'm lying to him, that I'm deceiving him. But that's not important, what matters is that I'm there to support him. During the earlier years, before my work became very busy, and when Tony just graduated from Preschool and entering first grade, I watched him play with the soccer ball that Ferb gave him a few months before at Christmas. It was one of the happiest days of my life, me and my son just having a bonding moment with a game that I loved... and then something amazing happened! He was juggling the ball, I'm not even sure when he learned that or even practiced it (probably when I was away), but he kept it in the air several times before it hit his head and he fell down crying. After that day, I dedicated my free time to developing his talent further, giving him a book for soccer techniques and tactics for the game, gave him a few practice sessions (even if it was seldom), and gave him words of encouragement before going to work. It's really hard, but he wishes that I could do better, and I do wish that for myself too. But he knows how much effort and time I put for him, and this is pretty much enough, but all he wants me to do is watch him play, see how much he has learned, see how all his time and effort of developing his skills be put into play in every game, make me a proud father. All those memories flushed in as we locked our eyes on each other, while a few seconds was spent on the players to got in position for the next attack. I nodded, and he nodded back with a grin, he's ready for some action.
"Come on Baloney you can do it!" Yelled Marie.
"Beat em to a pulp big brother!" Yelled Jasmine.
The referee blew his whistle and the Emus are attacking once again. Tony's teammates do a good job at dodging some of the other players that tried to steal the ball from them, and eventually the ball was passed to my son. Now here comes the same defense player who intercepted him earlier. No, it ain't gonna happen again, I just know. Tony kicked the ball between his legs and danced around him quick enough to recover the ball.
"Yes!" I yelled out loud, but I was so excited that I hit my head on the ceiling of my car. Isabella thought it was so funny that she giggled. She's cute when he giggles, but it would've been cuter if I could pinch her nose the way she plays with mine. I managed to give the kids something to laugh about too. Gee, I can't believe this plan is working so well for everyone, I even completely forgot that the kids were disappointed in the first place!
But then the defence becomes tighter as he approaches, a big mistake for the enemy team! Tony makes a cross pass to his teammate and he makes it through the defence. I see the opposing goalkeeper is pretty nervous, and he runs to intercept the ball instead of defending the goal. That teammate then makes a cross pass back to Tony, giving him the opportunity score the wide open goal.
My heart couldn't take all this excitement, and I bet I would've been sent straight to the Emergency Room for having a heart attack if I was 80 years old and above. The crowd was wild, and my family was going crazy standing on the bleachers screaming Tony's name 'til their voiceboxes broke. And then finally... Goal! Everyone on our side cheered, even me; I also hit my head the second time on the ceiling.
Tony was so happy that he ran around with his shirt over his face, and his other teammates knocked him down and piled over him. The opposing goalkeeper however was so frustrated that he kicked the same ball flying. The referee blows his whistle.
"Hey! Technical foul number three!" Called PJ pointing at the goalie.
"Wow... Where did you learn all that stuff? And I thought you hated soccer."
"Internet. Duh. And since dad became occupied I decided to give Mr. Baloney some trivia and explanations about some concepts and tactics about the game. Of course I had to learn the basics first."
"Impressive, my genius nerdy baby brother." Marie messes up his hair with pride.
"Look out!" A random person spoke.
I didn't notice it until it was too late, the ball was already in my face and it went through me. Then the image of the field rippled into nothing. The call was still on however.
"Hello? Hello? What happened?"
"Dang it! The projector broke... and Tony saw it."
No! That was my only chance as of now, I'm still pretty far from the stadium. If only I installed some booster engines for this car, but Honey protested that it would be dangerous for a family car.
"I'm gonna cut the call. See ya later."
I'm dead, I'm so dead. I buried my face within my arms in frustration. How am I going to explain all of this to him?
I can't overspeed now either, I'm gonna get caught again. I'm gonna have to wait until I arrive, but it would be faster if I drove. I deactivated the auto-pilot and took the wheel just to release some of the stress I'm having. Please, please Tony, don't let your spirit die just because I'm not there anymore.
It took thirty minutes more of driving, but I finally arrived in front of the soccer field. I programmed the car to automatically drive to a vacant parking spot and rushed to the bleachers. Oddly, on the way it was quiet... very eerily quiet. When I arrived, the stadium was practically deserted except for a couple there who was making out "privately."
"Hey! Did you watch the last game?" I asked, to both of them, hoping either would answer.
"Well, yeah dude, it was cut short." Said the teenage guy.
"What?! Why?!"
"Oh right, you were that dad who was the hologram thingy that went off right?" Said the teenage girl.
"Yes! Yes I am, now can you please fill me in!"
The guy groaned. "Chill, dude. The Danville Emus won by disqualification. Some not cool dude broke the leg of their striker by stepping over it."
No! No! Not Tony! Not my son!
"Some said it was an accident, but it didn't look like that to me. They get angrier everytime the Emus scored a goal. The kid with the pointy nose was brought by a stretcher to an ambulance."
Then I remembered, earlier while I was driving about five minutes ago, an ambulance rushed past me going towards the opposite direction.
