A/N : I would like to clarify here that the boys are older than what they are now. So that will explain why Candace is going to college, and why OWCA has changed… You'll see that part later.

For the moment, I'm keeping their exact age vague.

The ball bounced against several objects on the humongous, long green table, and at the same time made several arcade-like sound effects accompanied with colourful bursts of simulated light.

Phineas and Ferb both watched it very keenly, eyes following its every move. Eventually, it slowed down and fell into a hole located at the extreme corner of the table.

The redheaded inventor pumped his fist into the air energetically. "Yes, it worked!"

The wooden door to the backyard burst open, and in walked Isabella. She took in the surroundings, including the giant table, and casually asked, "What'cha doin'?"

"Playing a game that we just thought of," announced Phineas proudly. "We call it poolball. I thought of it when Mom and Dad went out to play billiards with their friends."

"Like the previous 'S'winter', it's an amalgam of pool and pinball," Ferb interjected.

Phineas nodded at his brother, acknowledging his comment. "Yes, Ferb, thank you. Basically, we combine the elements of the classic game of billards, with that of the arcade game pinball, to create this more fun and challenging sport. And to make it more enjoyable, we made it bigger."

Isabella surveyed the giant table with interest. "Ooh, okay. That's really intelligent of you, Phineas." Suddenly noticing that she had unintentionally dropped a small hint, Isabella changed the subject, "So, what are we waiting for?"

"Us, of course!" Baljeet yelled from under Buford's arm.

Isabella snorted. "Buford, why are you still carrying Baljeet that way? I mean, aren't you and Baljeet too old to be doing that?"

Buford set the Indian boy down, and retorted, "Yes, yes we are."

Phineas, wishing to defuse the situation, stepped in. "So, well, Bufe and Jeet, today we're playing a game called poolball. It's simply..."

"A mixed game of pinball and pool. I know. Did I mention that I can hear your chatter a mile away?" Buford shot Phineas an unimpressed look.

"Well, okay, let's get started then. The cue sticks are too big to be handled by one person, even for Buford. So we've built these cranes that each one of us can use to hit the ball during our own turn."

"Remember, the main objective here would be to knock the ball into the four holes at each corner of the table. The more it collides with objects, the more points are awarded." Phineas smiled craftily. "And some, when collided with, can either give advantages or disadvantages."

"We're playing with a girl again?" Buford grunted. "That's no fun."

Isabella crossed her arms, unimpressed. "You never do learn, do you, Buford?"

Phineas grinned toothily. "Let's begin. Say, where's Perry?"

Hidden behind a bush, Perry smiled at his owners' crazy contraption. He then tapped the ground beneath him twice with his left foot, and the said bush split open into two, revealing a tube. Checking his surroundings again to ensure that no one was present or looking (he didn't want that Lawrence Fletcher situation to repeat itself); he jumped into the gaping hole.

The entrance promptly sealed above him, and the two halves of the bush slid back, and as usual, returned to their normal appearance.

Hanging on to his fedora for dear life, Perry was shot through a gigantic maze of seemingly unending tubes before being dumped unceremoniously on his chair. He managed to retain his stoic appearance, but on the inside he winced. They should really put more padding on these things.

"Good morning, Agent P." Monogram stated briskly. "Doctor Doofenshmirtz has definitely been participating in evil activity again. Our intelligence has reported him purchasing goods, namely parts for an unknown laser. He has also been doing research for circuitry."

Perry gave him a look.

Monogram shrugged. "What? Circuitry. There should be something evil about that. And… that's all we have. Good luck, Agent P."

Strapping on his jet pack, Perry blasted upwards through a hole above him, and after reaching open air, flew in the direction of Doofenshmirtz's Evil Incorporated. Judging on the amount of soot on him, he probably just went through the chimney.

He grunted, displeased. OWCA really has to work on the cleanliness of entrances and exits.

Carefully adjusting his joystick, Phineas positioned his cue stick so that it could hit the ball in the desired direction. Holding his breath, he pressed the 'power button', set the appropriate power and pressed 'Fire'.

The ball bounced against several obstacles, producing the all-familiar 'ding's, with bright flashes of colour corresponding to the object hit, and eventually landing in a corner hole.

Phineas grinned. "2000 bonus points! Awesome. Ferb, it's your turn now."

Ferb scrutinized the green table, and angled the cue stick so that it pointed directly towards a corner hole.

"How on earth... "muttered Buford as he watched the green-headed boy play with the controls. "He's not going to get any points playing that way."

Hearing that comment, Ferb smirked, positioned the power at the highest and fired the ball. Instead of the ball landing into the hole as everyone expected, it rebounded off the back of the hole and entered yet another smaller concealed opening.

"Wormhole!" exclaimed Phineas gleefully.

Reappearing from the other side of the table, the sphere then started ramming into uncountable objects at a speed so fast that it only appeared as a blur.

And astoundingly, every one of them gave only benefits.

Buford rubbed his eyes and sighed. "Well, he DID design the game..."

Phineas came running over. "Ferb! That was so cool! Man, you have some mad skills."

Ferb merely shrugged and looked down modestly.

The inventor referred back to his chart of scores. "So, now, Ferb's definitely won. Followed by me, then Isabella, Baljeet and Buford."

Isabella snickered. "So much for 'no fun', hm?"

Buford raised both hands in surrender frustratedly. "And by that, I meant that you'll always win!"

"Oh... So you did learn. I see."

"This is a game of accuracy, not brute strength," reminded Baljeet. Turning to the triangular-headed boy with a smile, he said, "That was really fun, was it not? Shall we have a second round?"

Phineas was about to enthusiastically agree, when a green laser was shot into their backyard, hitting the giant poolball table. Mechanisms began to vibrate uncontrollably, along with wild flickering lights and a mass of dying 'ding's.

All of a sudden, the machine simultaneously exploded into nothingness.

Baljeet peeked over his arm, which was covering his face in a gesture of protection. "Or maybe not."

The glass sliding doors burst open and Candace marched in. "Just look at that crazy thing, Mom. I don't even know what that is..." She surveyed the empty backyard and sighed. "Never mind. I would have thought that something would change since I'm, oh, I don't know, going off for college tomorrow… "

"Oh, hi kids." Linda walked out of the house to join them. "So, Candace, has it mysteriously disappeared again?"

"You could do without the sarcasm."

"I was just checking. Who wants granola bars? Just come on in."

With a chorus of "Thanks, Mom!" and "Thanks, Mrs Flynn!" the group trooped inside.

Back at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, Perry got out his hang glider and flew back in the direction of his owners' house, followed by Doof's "CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUS!"

Another mediocre, yet unusual day.

Suddenly, his digital watch started beeping. Perry groaned in platypus chatter and activated it. Monogram's face was shown onscreen, but this time he looked slightly concerned and frantic.

Perry didn't like this. Francis Monogram was rarely, if ever, frantic.

"Agent P, we have an emergency situation here."

The teal platypus chattered in annoyance again. Was this yet another Lawrence Fletcher situation, one that he purposely tried to avoid this very morning?

"It's regarding your host family."

Perry sighed inwardly. Of course it had to be.

The next thing shown on the screen, though, made his heart race and eyebrows to crease with worry.

It was a digital live feed of the area around his owners' house. And about five hundred metres away, two red dots appeared to be moving steadily towards the said house.

"Our surveillance has caught the action of these two entities. The red dots you are looking at are supposedly highly-advanced robots that are not of our doing. Get home quickly and protect your host family the best you can."

Back in the backyard, the two brothers were resting comfortably after all the others had left, leaning against their tree in the backyard whilst enjoying its shade.

"Another day seized, huh, Ferb?" Phineas commented.

The greenhead nodded while still concentrating on the book he was holding in his lap.

"What should we do tomorrow?"

Ferb looked up from his book, met his brother's gaze, shrugged, and returned to his book. Phineas took this to mean as, "Well, you're the creative one."

"Well, there's so many things that we could build, yet so few days of summer. I mean, there are those bioluminescent plants we thought of last week, and… "

Before Phineas could finish his inventing rant, though, a red laser zipped through the backyard and hit a root of the tree, right beside his leg.

Cliffhanger endings. Gotta love them too.