Phineas and Ferb
Dark Ages
Chapter 1: Attachment
Disclaimer: Phineas and Ferb is not mine; it belongs to Dan Povenmire & Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Spiderman is also not mine.
The sun was now up, and everybody was going about their business. At the Flynn-Fletcher home, everybody was eating breakfast except for Phineas and Candace.
"Ferb, where's your brother?" Linda asked her stepson. "It's not like him to sleep in." She pointed out that it was already 7:20, and Phineas usually was up before 7.
"Hon, is it really that big of a deal that Phineas decided for once to catch a little extra shut-eye?" Lawrence asked. "Perhaps he just didn't sleep well last night."
"Yeah, you're probably right. It's just weird since Phineas always gets up before us."
Her worries about her son were soon dashed when Phineas came into the kitchen. But something was different about him, and it wasn't the fact that Phineas looked a bit more fatigued than usual with his hair down and his eyes half closed. No, it was more of what he was wearing. He appeared to be wearing his trademark shorts & T-shirt, except instead of their usual blue & oragne color, both of them were jet-black. His shirt had black & white strips & his shorts were all black. Even his shoes were totally black. The whole family stared in surprised at what the boy was wearing.
"Phineas? Is that you?" His mother asked as he looked up, sheepishly grinning.
"Uh, yeah. Who else could it be?"
"Well, honey, uh, you look...different."
"What do you mean?"
"Your clothes. They're...black. What happened to your regular orange shirt & blue shorts?"
"Well I did want to wear them today. But when I woke up, I saw I was wearing these black clothes, and I thought "Eh, what the heck?" Is there a problem?"
"No, no problem at all."
"By the way, Mom, where's Candace?" Phineas asked, noticing that there was a stunning lack of loud, obnoxious voices in the room.
"I don't know, sweetheart. I'm not even sure she came home last night."
"Maybe she went and stayed at Jeremy's for the night." Lawrence pointed out that possibility.
"Then why didn't she call us?"
"Don't worry, Mom." Phineas tried to reassure her. "I'm sure Candace is fine. She's probably over at Jeremy's and having a good time. I'm positive she'll be home before we know it."
After breakfast, Phineas and Ferb went outside to think of an activity to do for the day, while Linda & Lawrence stayed inside to do some housework. They decided to wait for a couple of hours for Candace, thinking she was at Jeremy's house having some breakfast and enjoying herself.
Sadly, though, that was not the case. By 9:39 A.M, Candace was still where she was the night before: asleep on the ground in front of the movie theater, snoring very loudly and drooling on the cement. Lying in a puddle of her own saliva, people who walked by the movie theater gave into the temptation of pointing at her and laughing. Her sleep was so deep that she didn't even hear the laughs and the mockery. It took the yelling of the manager of the movie theater, who had just arrived to open up, to wake her up.
"Wake up!" He shouted loudly. She snorted loudly and opened her eyes, and then spilled over to get up off the floor, wiping some drool off her cheek.
"What do ya want?" She said, her voice still so groggy from sleep it sounded masculine.
"Listen to me. It is 9:30 in the morning. You have been out here for over 12 hours. Clean yourself up and go home!" He said angrily as he stepped over her and went to unlock the front door. Candace stood up, wiped the rest of the drool off her face, dusted herself off and started walking home.
Man, last night was horrible. I was paranoid, loud, and obnoxious, and I think I remember some guy hitting me in the head with a stick. Candace thought to herself during her walk home. All because I was thinking about what my brothers were doing. I mean, why do I even care in the first place! It's not my business what they do during the day unless it directly affects me and my plans, which it rarely does. So then, why do I even care? It doesn't make sense!
She was coming up on her street. I mean, every single day, Phineas and Ferb do some outlandish, and crazy activity like building a rollercoaster or a vehicle that can drive on all kinds of terrain. Normal kids don't do that. Normal kids would stay inside and read a book or surf the web or watch TV. They're not normal kids. Ye they never seem to see that I'm always out there to bust them to Mom. And Mom...she never believes me about them. She thinks I'm exaggerating. Well what if a real emergency came up and she didn't believe me then? Oh, she would just feel miserable! Then I'd have that fat-butt idiot and those two dweebs by the - wait a minute! What am I saying? Rather, what am I thinking?
She stopped in her tracks immediately, and began to reflect. Maybe everybody's right. Maybe I am letting this whole "busting" thing take over my life. I mean, I blame them for all my problems! They're not the cause of all of my problems. Just some of them. She finally approached her house, turned the knob, and trudged right in. Her mother was waiting patiently for her on the couch, reading a magazine.
"Uh, hi Mom." Candace said sheepishly, waiting for her mother to look up.
"Hello, Candace." She said, not looking up from her book. Candace wasn't sure as to why, so she decided to ask.
"Aren't you going to ask me where I've been?"
"No. I already know."
"Wait, you do?"
"I called Jeremy this morning to ask where you were, and he told me what happened last night and that you were still unconscious at the movie theater. Plus, some podestrians took cellphone pics of you while you were sleeping and posted them on the internet." Candace's face fell as she slowly approached her mother.
"And you didn't even bother to come get me?"
"Well I figured you would probably still be in a grouchy mood and snap at anybody who tried to come near you."
She sheepishly chuckled, knowing that she was absolutely right. But she wasn't happy about that. "That's not true."
"Candace, you've been snapping at everybody lately. The movie manager, the mall manager, Jeremy, even your own parents," Candace remembered that a few weeks back, she had yelled at her mother over her 'busting' obsession, and it ended with Candace calling Linda a "stupid and big-headed loser!". Ever since then, her mother and her had been on thin ice with each other. "And let's not forget your brothers."
"What about them?"
"Well, you harp on them every single day, and think that just because you're older, that makes you superior to them."
"But it does!"
"No, it doesn't."
"Oh please, Mom! You don't know what the heck you're talking about. Come on, every single day those guys do something wild and crazy and it interferes with my perfect day!"
"See, that's where I have to disagree."
"Huh!"
"They don't ruin it. You ruin it for yourself."
"What? How?"
"You decide to get involved with their "best day ever" all the time, and that's how you ruin it. You get so stressed out and wrapped up in their activity that you forget to have fun in the meantime." Candace was going to retaliate to that, but she knew that her mother was right. "I mean, every day it's the same darn thing. I go out to run errands, you call me on your cellphone to complain about their "mysterious" activities, I rush home to find absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. And the cycle just repeats." By now, Candace was getting really angry.
"You left out the part where you make fun of me behind my back to all of your friends." She said firmly, surprising Linda.
"What?"
"Oh don't try to deny it, mother. I'm no idiot! What if a real emergency were to happen and you didn't believe me? You'd feel lousy about it!"
"Candace, I think I would be able to distinguish the difference between fact and fiction. And I don't make fun of you behind your back to all of my friends."
"You don't? Well then how come Stacy told me the other day that she heard from Jenny who heard from Wendy who heard from Coltrane who heard from his mother who talked to you saying that you thought I was crazy!"
"Huh?"
"Answer the question, woman!"
But Linda held her head up high, and refused to answer her. "Candace, I'm not talking to you when you're like this."
Candace leaned in real close to her and made Linda begin to flinch. "Stop denying it, Mom. I know you think I'm crazy. Just admit it. I'll think more of you for admitting it." Still, she refused to answer. She scoffed. "Just as I thought. Pathetic." She stood up and started to head outside.
"Candace, where are you going?" She asked, standing up. Before heading out the door, her daughter turned around and gave her a death glare.
"Outside. To go visit Stacy. But before I do, I'm going to see what my brothers are up to, so I can call you in. But by the time you get your big, lazy butt off of that couch, whatever they're working will already be gone, and once again, you'll think I'm crazy."
Unfortunately, Linda only heard "lazy butt". "Whose butt are you calling lazy?"
"YOURS! I'm calling YOUR butt lazy, alright?" Candace finally roared. "OK, every time I try to prove to you that I'm right about Phineas and Ferb, you don't seem to care! I try desperately, but you never take me seriously. You walk outside like there's no freakin' tomorrow!"
"Candace..."
"No, shut up, Mom! I'm going out. Maybe this time I'll get lucky and when I call you - if I choose to call you - you'll move fast enough to see it. Good day to you, sir!" And with that, Candace slammed the door, nearing knocking something off the shelves. Linda was left to ponder on why Candace was acting so viciously. But the answer was clear as day (well, at least to you guys it will be)
A small piece of the black alien lifeform that overtook Phineas's clothes broke off the night he was infected, and had crawled its way to Candace's room. Attaching itself to Candace's ankles, it waited for the right time to begin to overtake her. It remained hidden for all of the previous night up to now, but with Candace's anger and fury growing, it saw a perfect opportunity to cease her under its control. The angry girl ignored her brothers and went right to her best friend's house while the alien slowly began covering her legs from the bottom up.
Meanwhile, back in the backyard of the home, Phineas & Ferb were hard at work on their newest project: A pair of speed shoes that would allow the wearer to travel on foot at speeds up to 263 miles per hour. Phineas was beginning to enjoy himself in his new black clothing, but Ferb was a bit uneasy with it, and Isabella was as well as soon as she walked into the backyard.
"Hey Phineas! Hey Ferb..." Her voice trailed off as soon as she saw her crush in a black shirt, black shorts, and wearing black shoes. "Phineas?"
"Oh hey Isabella." Phineas still sounded like his sweet, happy-go-lucky self, but the alien was slowly beginning to take hold. His attitude and personality would begin to change.
"Um...what'cha wearin'?"
"What do you mean? Oh this? Yeah, long story about that."
"Where'd you get it?"
"I don't know. I woke up this morning and I was wearing it."
Isabella seemed confused. "Alright...well, what are you doing today?"
"Today, we're working on shoes that give the wearer the ability to run at speeds of 263 miles an hour. That way you could get whatever errands you need done at the speed of light."
"Sounds like fun. Can I help?"
"Sure. The more the merrier I say."
And so Isabella, Phineas, and Ferb continued to work on the day's project. For a while, everything seemed to be fine. Phineas didn't act any differently than he usually did, at least to Isabella. But once the shoes were complete and it was time for testing, things began to go bad. "OK, now that the shoes are done. It's time to test them."
"Cool. Can I do it?" Isabella asked reaching for the shoes. But Phineas quickly snatched them away.
"No!" But he caught himself before he yelled. "I mean, this might be dangerous. I wouldn't want you to get hurt." He assured her, as he put the shoes on over his new black shoes. "Or put skid marks on them."
Isabella was taken slightly aback by this statement, as Phineas sounded just a little bit cocky. "Um...OK."
He tied the shoelaces tight, and then took off at light speed, showing off the newest creation. Isabella and Ferb were both immediately impressed, as were some onlookers. Sadly, though, what they didn't see was what began to happen. The alien that was attached to Phineas's clothes began to crawl up his ankles, and attached itself to the speed shoes, slowly turning them black. A little "known" fact about the alien is that the more parts of a human's body it's bonded to, and the longer it is bonded to a host, the more it amplifies the negative emotions in the host. This would only spell disaster for Phineas if he continued to keep his black clothes on.
Meanwhile, over at Stacy's house, her and Candace were hanging out in the former's bedroom, reading magazines.
"Gee, I wonder what I'd look like without "Flawless Girl cosmetics"." Candace said flipping through the pages.
"I heard that there was this one girl who was using that stuff for a year and then decided to go cold turkey. After about a week, the circus came a recruited her." Stacy said, also flipping through pages.
"Yeesh."
"I know, huh? Poor Wendy hasn't been the same since then. But if you ask me, people get way too involved with their looks. I mean, these Flawless Girls Cosmetics do nothing for you but make other people feel bad about themselves." While Stacy was busying talking, the alien lifeform was slowly crawling up Candace's legs, now making its way towards her knees. Near the end of her speech, Stacy noticed this, but assumed that it was just a poor fashion choice on Candace's behalf. "Hey Candace, nice leg warmers."
"Leg warmers? Stacy, I think you've lost your - AH!" She looked down and noticed the "leg warmers". "Wait a second. I don't remember putting leg warmers on this morning. And why would I need to? It's 88 degrees outside."
"Uh, Candace?"
"And what kind of fashion moron would put black leg warmers on? That is sound five months ago!"
"Candace..."
"What?"
"I think your leg warmers are moving." Stacy pointed to the alien, which was still attaching itself to as much of Candace's body as it could. Candace and Stacy both screamed as the former jumped off of the bed. Her screams seemed to temporarily stop the alien's movement. "Ahh! What is that thing!"
"How should I know? Do I look like the kind of person that would know about something like this?" Candace shrieked, and then began to formulate an idea. "But I bet Phineas and Ferb are behind this."
"How do you figure?"
"I don't know! They're always behind it!" She started to raise her voice, which caused the alien to slow down, and eventually even come to a screeching halt. "They're always out to make me miserable! They're always out to make me look like an ugly fool!" The screaming had become so loud and vibrant that the alien could not stand it, and it was forced to retreat off of her body. It quickly peeled off, delighting, and confusing, the two girls. "Hey look."
"Yeah. It's detaching itself off of you." Stacy pointed out. "Maybe it doesn't like your voice."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just saying you yell a lot, and obviously, whatever it is, it doesn't like it."
The alien completely rid itself of Candace, and crawled out under the door, and made its way out of the house into the streets of Danville. "Whoa, that was too close for comfort."
"Hey, don't you think you should go after it? You know, it bring back to your brothers...so they could run some tests on it?"
"Nah, I don't think that's really necessary. As far as I know, I don't wanna lay my eyes on anything crazy or suspicious for the rest of the day. I don't even wanna hear about anything crazy or suspicious. Not after the talk I had with my Mom."
"Oh no. What happened? And speaking of which, what happened on your date with Jeremy? You're all over the web!"
"I don't know. I went to the movies with him, and then I started thinking about my brothers, and then I got in an argument with the manager, and the next thing I know, I'm asleep on the ground."
"Uh, yeah. It's all over the web." Stacy held up her cellphone, showing a picture of Candace asleep on the pavement, lying in her own drool.
"Gross."
"Hey, you don't suppose that mysterious...whatever that was on you had anything to do with your mood swings, do you?"
"I don't think so. I mean, I'm always moody and aggressive, at least according to Mom. But then, what does she know?"
"OK..."
"I'm just gonna go home, relax, and not think about anything having to do with my family." She stood up, stretched herself, and walked out of Stacy's bedroom with a clear mind & conscience.
Back at home, Phineas was returning from his 263-mile-a-hour-run around the city, and was slowly walking into the backyard having taken his speed shoes off so they wouldn't take off. What he failed to notice about them, though, was that they had turned jet black, having been overtaken by the black alien, which will now be referred to as a "Symbiote".
"Hey Phineas." Isabella said, running over to him, and then noticing the black shoes he was holding. "Whoa, what happened to the shoes?"
"What do you mean "What happened to the shoes"? They're-" He was starting to sound a bit more cocky than before, but it faded away immediately when he looked down at the shoes. "Hey, wait! What happened? When I left they were angel white. Now they're completely jet black. It almost looks goth!"
"You mean like you?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Isabella. Still, it's totally bizzare how this happened." They walked over to the tree and set the shoes down. "Hmm...maybe, you know, just to be safe, we should run some more tests on that meteorite that crashed into our frontyard."
"That might be a good idea." Isabella said. "Then maybe we can figure out what happened to your clothes."
"Jeez, on and on about the stupid black clothes. What's the matter with you! You sound like my wife." The Symbiote was beginning to strengthen its grasp on the boy. His voice began to sound more vicious, his attitude began to become grimmer, and is eyes looked sinster & dark as they glared at Isabella. It wasn't too much of a glare yet, but it did concern his friend.
"Phineas? Are you feeling OK?"
"Yeah, I feel fine. Jeez, can you stay off my back for five seconds? Come on, let's go look at that meteorite." The three friends went into the backyard towards the meteorite with the hopes of being able to find some answers as to what was happening to Phineas and what was with the meteorite in the first place.
End of Chapter 1.
I promise as the story goes on, it's gonna get better.
Next Time: The Symbiote's bond on Phineas continues to strengthen, as he begins to experience a change in his behavior, as did Candace.
Expected Update: Don't quote me on this, but I hope to get the next chapter up before June 25th, my last day of school.