Chapter 2 - Busted at Last
"Off the couch..." Linda was interrupted by Candace.
"Mom, it's me, Candace, remember? The 'no pets on the couch' rule doesn't apply to me."
"Oh... yeah, I'm sorry... I... this is just too much." Linda rubbed her temples.
"No, really?" Vanessa frowned while sitting next to Candace. "Today I woke up as a human girl, and now I feel like howling at the moon, chewing the furniture, and start chasing the mailman."
"We're still sorry about that. Seriously, that was very unexpected; the chamber had no mechanical or cybernetic issues... it shouldn't have exploded." Phineas explained, he and Ferb still trying to find out why their invention had exploded.
"You didn't add a self-destruct button, right?" Vanessa arched an eyebrow at him.
"Of course not; what kind of sane scientist would want to destroy his own invention?"
Vanessa was about to reply, but the whole 'sane scientist' thing left her without arguments to defend her father.
"And also, about that invention..." Linda then looked back at her sons. "A chamber that... transforms people into dogs?"
"Technically, It supposed to transform any species into any other species... or it was supposed to; we didn't end the tests. And the elasticity powers weren't expected at all." Phineas pointed out.
"They're still useful." Mindy said while stretching her arm and grabbing a cookie from the kitchen. "Mmm... these are chocolate cookies; we're half-dog now... can we eat chocolate?"
"Hey, good idea. Ferb, we have to analyze that too." Phineas smiled at his brother, who started taking notes.
"That's not the point! Kids, you invent stuff like THIS all the time?" Linda was almost exploding at this point. "Candace isn't a disturbed teen in serious risk of a nervous breakdown?"
"Gee, thanks for the confidence boost, Mom." Candace rolled her eyes. "Oh, and I know this is gonna be very immature, but... I TOLD YOU SO!"
Due to Candace's canine features, the 'I told you so' was pretty much a loud growl. She noticed it too and covered her muzzle immediately.
"Sorry, Mom... but I had to get that out of my system."
"Apology accepted... and... hope you can accept mine too, Candace." Linda sighed sadly. "I... I should have paid more attention... it's just that... I thought... I mean... who would have imagined that any kid would be capable of inventing this kind of stuff?"
"Jimmy Neutron's parents?" Phineas shrugged.
"Phineas, this isn't a cartoon!" Linda groaned.
Ferb then arched an eyebrow and broke the fourth wall.
"I don't have the heart to tell her."
Candace stood up and placed a hand/paw on Linda's shoulder.
"Look, Mom, I know this is too much, but... well, for some irony, cosmic joke, or karma laughing in my face, I made peace with the whole 'my brothers are crazy geniuses' thing. No offense, guys."
"None taken." Phineas smiled while Ferb just nodded.
"And, well, if you think about it... you don't have ONE, but TWO genius kids! Really, these guys do more scientific advances in a summer than most certified scientists do their whole lives." Candace pointed out. "They just need... well... some rules. Having someone supervising them when they invent their things so they aren't alone if something weird happens; I don't like this transformation thing, but I'd rather be a Doberman and sleep in the doghouse for a lifetime than this same thing happening to my brothers and know I could have done something to prevent it."
"Whoa. That's a good defense." Mindy smiled.
"Heh... dog instincts combined with big sister's; defensive by default." Candace chuckled a bit while Phineas smiled at her.
"Thanks, Candace... and about the whole lifetime thing, don't worry. Ferb and I will rebuild the chamber and get you girls back to normal. Maybe we can even modify it a bit so you can get extra abilities; the whole 'elasticity' thing is a cool idea."
"Modify... you can do that?" Linda asked, still a bit stunned.
"Yes, yes, they can." The three anthro canines chorused.
"In the meantime, you should try to get comfortable and enjoy the transformation's benefits." Phineas proposed. At that moment, Isabella, Buford and Baljeet arrived, carrying bags with dog food, toys and similar.
"The pet shop gave us a special discount for big dog owners." Isabella said while placing the bags at the closest table.
"Great. Since the girls now have dog instincts, this will help them enjoy their current state until we find a way to reverse it." Phineas smiled.
"Okay... what would you like to eat?" Baljeet took a couple cans out. "Beef with bacon, or lamb and chicken?"
"Oh, give me the beef and bacon one." Buford grinned and grabbed the can, opening it right there to start eating; the others just stared at the guy. "What? This is high-protein food; very good for muscles."
"Mmmm... and smells REALLY good." Mindy said, sniffing a bit and smiling. Vanessa and Candace got similar looks... and then the 3 girls groaned a bit.
"Ugh... it's hard to wag your tail with your pants on." Vanessa moaned. "And I can't believe I said that out loud."
"Hmm... you girls'll need new clothing. Not just for the tails, but also something that can resist your elastic powers; normal clothes will rip off almost immediately." Phineas said while, again, he and Ferb started taking notes.
"Well... guess we'll need to adapt to this... and, Phineas, Ferb," Linda got the boys' attention again, "we'll need to work on those rules later. I... guess your sister is right... and having super smart geniuses in the family can be a good thing... but you really need to be more careful so this kind of accident doesn't repeat."
The boys nodded at her while Linda felt even guiltier now; it took a momentary, nearly catastrophic event for her to finally realize what their kids were capable of doing, and Candace and her friends were the ones suffering the consequences.
"Which reminds me..." Linda gasped. "We have to call Mindy and Vanessa's families."
"Ugh. Hope my parents don't make me use newspaper instead of the bathroom." Mindy groaned.
"Oh, I can't wait for my mom to see me now." Vanessa actually grinned a bit before getting an idea. "My dad is a scientist too... more or less; he bought a diploma on the Internet... not something I usually say out-loud."
"Well, you should call him. He'd surely want to take a look at our stuff." Phineas smiled at her.
"Let's just hope your dad isn't a cat person." Isabella pointed.
"Cat? Where?" The three canines got extremely alert and started looking around the room.
"This is gonna be a LONG day." Linda sighed while sitting next to the phone to start making some calls. Buford, in the meantime, got a sly grin.
"I have to do this." Buford then pointed at the distance. "SQUIRREL!"
"WHERE?" Again, the canines got alert and looked at the direction Buford was pointing at.
"Buford, that's not nice." Baljeet frowned at him.
"No, but it's funny." Buford paused before pointing at another direction. "A RABBIT!"
Cue alert canines looking at the distance.
"I can see this is gonna be a big problem." Candace groaned, realizing how she was acting.
"Yes, your canine instincts can be hard to control." Phineas frowned a bit. "Hmm... well, an obedience school would take too much time; we'll need to find a way to control this."
Phineas and Ferb started leaving the room to start working on the outfits and some sort of controller for the girls' new instincts when a certain someone entered the room.
"PLATYPUS!" Buford pointed again and this time the girls were glad that, at least, this time they got alert for something.
"Oh, there you are, Perry." Phineas petted Perry. "Hope you don't mind sharing the house with 3 other guests... well, technically 2 guests since Candace already lives here, but now they're all dogs."
Perry looked at the trio and, still with his usual 'mindless look', did his characteristic sound... to cover up a gasp. The platypus was pretty surprised at this, especially when recognizing Vanessa's outfit and hairdo.
"Perry?" Vanessa arched an eyebrow. "I didn't know it was a popular pet name for platypi."
Perry then walked past the canines, doing his best to keep up with the usual charade, but, once out of sight, the platypus started sweating cold; not just Phineas and Ferb, somehow, had turned three humans into dogs, but one of them was Vanessa Doofenshmirtz; if her new canine form granted her enhanced smell sense, she would probably realize he was the same Perry that battled her father on a regular basis. The agent lost no time to get back into his headquarters, via a hidden panel next to the stairways, both to wash up the scent from Heinz' laboratories (a smell Vanessa would surely identify) and to inform Major Monogram about this event.
A while later, Doctor Doofenshmirtz was present; he could have arrived before, but he was trapped under some debris at the time Linda called him.
"Okay... so, you got transformed into this dog-like thing by some 'Inator' of sorts?" Heinz looked at his daughter while rubbing his chin. "Mmm... wonder why I never did something like this before."
"Because you don't like animals in general, Dad." Vanessa frowned a bit.
"Oh, yeah... well, I like kittens; I find them cute." He noticed Vanessa tensed a bit when hearing him talking about 'kittens'. "Oops. Sorry. My bad. Look, I brought you something on my way here; at first I didn't believe you were an anthro canine with elastic powers, but I wanted to play it safe. Anyway, the guy at the pet shop said you'd like this." Heinz took something out of his lab robe's pocket.
"A rubber bone. How adequate." Vanessa sighed a bit but accepted the gift... and found some comfort on the 'squeaking' sound it made when she chewed it.
"Well, we came up with a way to help you girls control your animal instincts." Phineas and Ferb returned to the living room.
"About time; this is humiliating." Mindy groaned while Isabella scratched behind her ears. "Very likable, but humiliating."
"We designed these collars." The brothers took some innocent looking collars out of a box. "They use nanotechnology to send slight mind-stimulation waves directly to your brains; it will help you control your more primal instincts. Unless you wanna enjoy them."
They all looked back at Candace, who was stretching her neck to smell her own butt.
"I envy her." Buford sighed.
"Okay, I finished." Candace returned her neck to normal size and she and the other canine girls allowed the kids to put the collars on them. Almost instantly, their eyes started glowing; Candace in red, Mindy in blue and Vanessa in purple.
"Ah, nice invention, Kids. What do you call'em? The 'Collar-Inators'?" Heinz asked the brothers.
"We hadn't come up with a proper name yet. We can go with that if you want." Phineas replied.
"Uh... question; if all the collars are supposed to work with the same instincts (the dog ones) why do they all glow differently?" Linda, still trying to get used to all this science-fiction-like experience, asked her sons.
"Personalized Colors." Phineas and Ferb chorused.
Linda was about to reply to this when Candace silenced her with a slight head shaking. Besides, their eyes stopped glowing after a few seconds.
"Time for a test. Baljeet, Dad..." Phineas called his friend and father to return to the room.
"This is kinda humiliating." Baljeet's voice was heard.
"Sorry, but we can't experiment with a live animal." Phineas replied. A moment later, Lawrence entered the room, outfitted as a mailman, and Baljeet followed soon, with a kitten disguise.
"Special delivery." Mister Fletcher announced, obviously liking his role, while Baljeet just sighed and started meowing.
The three anthro canines got tense for a moment... but none growled or felt their predatory instincts kicking in.
"Hey, I think it worked." Candace smiled.
"Yeah, I don't wanna attack them." Mindy then stretched her arm to start pinching Baljeet's cheeks. "And this kitty is just sooooo cute!"
"Why you had to be a Doberman Pinscher?" Baljeet groaned, and then a rimshot was heard. He rolled his eyes to see Buford with a set of drums and cymbals.
"Heh. I knew I'd use this sooner or later."
"Well, this solves the whole 'sniffing our butts in public' issues," Vanessa commented. "But we still have to get our new outfits."
At this point, the girls' original clothes were already getting torn.
"I know. We are working on a rubbery material that will adapt to your body's changes. In fact, we have the suits made already, but we're yet to make a machine that will make them rubbery consistent."
"A machine that makes things rubber-like..." Vanessa heard Phineas explanation and then got a little grin. "Dad, maybe we can use that invention of yours after all."
"Hmm... yes, it would be a very useful 'Inator' now, but my arch-nemesis destroyed it before I came here." Heinz noticed the others staring at him. "Oh, come on, I have a nemesis, frenemy or whatever, okay? That doesn't make me a weirdo."
"No, it just adds." Mindy whispered to Candace. Of course, Vanessa could hear them perfectly, but couldn't rebuttled that.
"You still have the blueprints for that invention?" Phineas asked the adult scientist.
"Yes... and luckily, I carry a computer version here in my USB. Sorry it's not a multimedia presentation; I had no time for that... Thanks a lot, Norm." Heinz rolled his eyes and took the USB out of another pocket to give it to Phineas.
"Thanks... hmm... those robes are very useful." Phineas observed.
"It's more of a coat than a robe, but yeah, it's nice to have all these pockets... I wish they weren't white because you spend a lot of time washing them." Heinz shrugged. "And, you have the materials to rebuild it?"
Ferb then put the USB in his own portable computer (similar to a laptop but much smaller and advanced) and, after checking the information, gave everyone the thumbs up.
"Perfect. We don't even need to get new materials; we have enough spare parts." Phineas smiled.
"You... get the materials... delivered HERE?" Linda gasped at this new information.
"Yes, Linda, they get them by truck, or van, or whatever vehicle large enough to carry everything." Lawrence, who had already admitted to her that he knew all along about the boys' inventions, told Linda while he was still playing with the fake letters in his mailman's disguise.
"Trucks... coming... here... And I never noticed?"
"Yeah, you never did." Candace rolled her eyes and then got a thoughtful look. "You know, now I think about it, you're the only one who never, ever, noticed any of the boys' inventions and stuff."
Linda then looked back at Heinz, the guy shrugging at this.
"I think I still have the DVD with their band's song... oh, and I also bought some of their lemonade once. It was good."
Linda smacked her forehead at this; it seemed that even the guy she dated once, several years ago, and that was currently in her living room, knew about their son's' activities... even worse, it seemed that Linda was the only person IN THE WHOLE TOWN that never noticed.
"I must be the most... clueless mother ever." Linda groaned... and then noticed Isabella was taping her with a videocamera.
"Sorry, Candace's request." Isabella grinned.
"Heh... sorry, Mom; but, well, you know..." Candace was silenced by Linda.
"No problem. I deserve it."
A while later, the boys had finally finished rebuilding Heinz's invention, making it a portable version similar to a water gun.
"One shot of this and these suits will have the same elastic properties as the girls' canine bodies." Phineas explained.
"Whoa, you kids work quite fast. Aren't you a bit young to do this advanced weird science?" Heinz asked.
"Yes. Yes, we are." Phineas smirked a bit before telling Ferb to shoot the suits. A light blue beam emerged from the gun, covering the outfits.
A few minutes later, the girls were wearing their new outfits, and really enjoying them... and not just because of the small hole for the tail.
"I like this." Candace grinned while looking at her red and black outfit.
"Yeah, they fits us like gloves." Vanessa, who was wearing a purple and gray outfit, looked at herself.
"Even better; they have gloves!" Mindy, in a blue and white outfit, showed her gloves to the girls.
"Okay, we have the outfits, the collars... hmm... I think we need something to make you girls look a bit more human." Phineas said while eying the girls.
"How? With plastic surgery?" Candace rolled her eyes and cringed when the rimshot was heard. "Buford, stop that!"
"Oh, sure, whenever you guys want me to take out a weird instrument, it's fine, but once I use the instruments for my own amusement..." Buford frowned a bit.
"Fine, whatever. Anyway, Phineas, how are you gonna make us look human?"
"Yeah, I mean, no offense, but I don't wanna step in one of those transformation chambers of yours anytime soon." Mindy groaned.
"It's okay. We'll not rebuild the chamber until we make a close analysis of each bit of debris to find out why it failed, so we don't end transforming you into some other animal." Phineas assured them.
"We can give them some disguises." Heinz took out a set of 'Groucho Glasses' and put them on Vanessa's face. "Mmm... no, this isn't working."
"You made a stop at the 'Props and Gags Store' on your way here, didn't you, Dad?" Vanessa sighed.
"It was next to the pet shop." The man shrugged.
"I don't trust any store that accepts you as a customer."
Rimshot.
"What?" Buford grinned when everyone looked at him. "She modernized a classic Groucho quote. If I hadn't used the cue, you wouldn't even notice."
"Back to the main problem here..." Vanessa removed the glasses from her face.
"We can make holographic disguises for the three of you; that way, you'll be able to walk in public without attracting unwanted attention." Phineas suggested.
"Okay... wait, wait just a moment; you kids made a transformation chamber, collars with nanotechnology, a new version of one of my 'Inators', and now you're making holographic disguises?" Heinz looked at them in amazement. "How do you get the time for all this?"
"Summer vacation." Phineas and Ferb chorused.
"Ah... well, that explains everything." Heinz chuckled a bit.
"Speaking of 'explaining', Dad… who's gonna explain to Mom about this?" Vanessa arched an eyebrow at her father.
"Uh… eh… well… w-why don't you girls go play a bit with your new powers? See, I came up with a convenient topic change." Doof grinned, Linda arching an eyebrow now.
"Yes, it was convenient until you mentioned it out loud." Linda grinned while Doof face-palmed. "Don't worry, I can call her, and we'll all help you with the explanation."
"Thanks, I really don't know how to start explaining my 'ex' how our daughter got a body hair's issue that isn't puberty related…"
"Dad." Vanessa groaned.
"... or that I use the checks she gives me to pay for the parts I use to build my 'inators'."
"Hold on… she doesn't know you're a, well, a mad scientist?"
"She thinks I'm 'mad', but the 'scientist' part, well, she doesn't even know I have a doctorate… Or that she paid for it; I bought the title online." Heinz admitted.
"BLASPHEMY!" Baljeet yelled in shock at the last part. Buford, sighing, started calming him down.
"Well, at least I'll finally meet someone almost as clueless as myself." Linda sighed.
"Anyway, what your dad said makes sense." Candace said to Vanessa. "We need to start practicing these powers, both the animal ones and the elastic abilities."
"Yeah, according to most comic books I've read, elastic heroes can stretch, inflate, shape-shift and do many other funny things." Mindy added.
"You can practice them in the Test Chamber." Phineas commented.
"There's a Test Chamber?" Linda gasped.
"Yes, but only Phineas has the remote to open it. That's why I never tried to show it to you." Candace rolled her eyes while Phineas took out a remote control and activated a hidden door right in the middle of the living room.
"I'm… going to make that call…" Linda sighed while the dog girls entered the chamber. Phineas gave them an extra remote so they could get out whenever they wanted.
The test chamber was mostly an empty room with lots of free space, but it also had speakers and video cameras on the walls, so Phineas and whoever inside the chamber at that time could communicate, plus having a hidden extra room with assorted materials and objects that could be used for the tests. Once inside, the girls removed their collars and left them inside this extra room, to avoid damaging them if losing control of their powers through the tests.
"Okay, I admit I've never been a comic books' geek, so… what can elastic heroes do besides stretching a lot?" Vanessa asked the other two girls.
"Well, there are a few elastic superheroes… Reed Richards, Plastic Man, Elongated Man, Rubberband Man, Elastigirl, Rubberduck…" Candace was interrupted by Mindy.
"Rubberduck?"
"'Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew', classic comic from the 80s. I'm a geek for superhero stuff, so sue me. And you interrupted me before mentioning The Rubber Chicken, but he's just a one-shot character, so let's move on." Candace cleared her throat. "Even if all of them have elastic powers, they all have their limits; Plastic Man, for example, can take on any shape, while Elongated Man is mostly limited to just stretching and basic shape-shifting. So, I think that we can start by seeing how much we can really stretch without hurting ourselves."
Vanessa and Mindy nodded at the idea, and the trio moved to one extreme of the chamber. Then, they all stretched their arms, trying to touch the end of the room; considering Phineas and Ferb often tested vehicles in this chamber, it was as large as a stadium. Despite that, the three gals had little problem to touch the opposite wall, and they still felt no pain or stress.
"Hey, not bad." Vanessa grinned but then paused. "Mmm… can you girls see your hands? I can barely do it from this distance."
"I got it. Try this." Candace grinned while enlarging her eyes until they looked like an anime character. "It works! My eyesight improved a lot."
"Disgusting but impressive." Vanessa grinned while Mindy copied Candace's trick, and soon Vanessa was doing it as well. Unlike the limb stretching, however, the girls found out that enlarging the eyes like this was a bit tiring, so they could only keep it for a minute or so before returning them back to normal size. Then, they retracted their limbs back to normal as well.
The girls then repeated the test with their legs, and finally with their torsos. They were very surprised when realizing that they could stretch for several hundred yards without even feeling it.
"This is great. Our stretching capacity must be similar to Plastic Man's." Candace commented while doing some little inflation with her hand, making it as big as a bowling ball. "Okay, next test is… inflation."
"Let me try this one first." Mindy said while taking some little breaths; Candace and Vanessa moved a few steps back to give her some extra space.
Mindy took a very deep breath, and soon her belly was the size of a blimp. Then, she took a few more deep breaths to inflate the rest of her body, and, when finishing, she was at least twice the size of a zeppelin. Candace and Vanessa now had to stretch their legs and torsos to move around Mindy and see her in detail.
"Whoa… okay, this is much more than I expected." Candace commented.
"Yeah, I thought she'd get the size of a balloon, but not this big a balloon… Mindy, better return to normal before you explode; we don't need another Hindenburg in here." Vanessa, now visibly concerned, moved in front of Mindy's inflated head.
Mindy nodded as much as she could, since, obviously, her neck mobility was very limited now. The girl started expelling air, at first with such power that it almost sent Vanessa and Candace flying away, and the only reason it didn't happen was because both girls got a hold of Mindy's arms. After a minute or so, the air's exit was much lighter and easier to stand, and the girls released themselves from Mindy as she finally returned to normal size.
Vanessa and Candace then took turns to do the same trick, with similar results, except that, of course, now the girls knew what to expect and they didn't have problems with the air's exit.
After taking a few minutes to rest and recover from the 'super inflation' trick, Candace suggested to try a bouncing trick. She showed them how to do it, based on what she had seen in comic books and cartoons; first, she bounced Tigger-style, just making her arms and legs more flexible and spring-like, but then she morphed into a spherical shape, and started bouncing like a ball; as fun as this was, Candace realized the problem with this trick, to orientate herself while bouncing and keeping the ball shape. Mindy and Vanessa had to help her keep control so she wouldn't bounce non-stop, but after a couple of minutes Candace started getting a hold of the trick, and using her dog's ears for balance and orientation. Again, Vanessa and Mindy repeated this trick once Candace returned to normal.
"Mmm… you know, I think now I'm the one with an idea." Vanessa grinned before flexing one arm, and inflating the muscles until it looked like a bodybuilder's.
"Hey, cool trick." Mindy commented while copying it.
"Yeah… okay, let's try a full body change now." Candace suggested.
It took the girls some practice, but soon the three of them had huge, muscular sexy bodies that made them look like amazonian anthros. Candace then suggested to test the inflated muscles and see if they're as strong as they seemed.
The girls took some stuff from the hidden room, and used it to test their might. Candace chuckled while juggling several dumbbells, some weighing more than 100 pounds, while Vanessa bend a steel bar with her bare hands, and Mindy lifted a refrigerator, a stove and a taxi cab,. all piled together, over her head.
"Wonder why the boys were keeping these things in the room." Mindy commented, her voice moderately deeper now.
"Who knows? I'm glad they did… heh, and my voice sounds similar to how it sounds when I have my allergy attacks." Candace, who was now arm-wrestling a construction robot and winning, chuckled at this. "Maybe it's because now we have bigger lungs and our muscles are thicker."
"Good analysis." Vanessa smirked while hitting a punching bag… and sending it flying the other side of the very extensive room; the girl even managed to stretch her arm and catch the bag in mid-air to get it back to where she was standing.
The girls continued 'working out' for a while more before deciding to try some other trick.
"Mmm… well, I know this sounds like a lame joke, but, what about making ourselves some plastic surgery?" Candace proposed.
"Yeah, it does sound like a lame joke, but I think I know what you're talking about." Vanessa grinned.
"Yep; if we can change our looks, why not making us look sexier?" Candace grinned before looking down at her chest. "Seriously, I'm like a highway; no curves."
Candace focused on enlarging her breasts now; then, she toned her legs and got herself a thinner waist, which also made her butt to look a bit bigger; Candace then made it firmer and rounder.
"Whoa. If Miss Universe had a Mutated Gal's category, you'd win!" Mindy gasped in amazement. Vanessa grinned and nodded at Candace.
"Yeah, you look great, Candace."
"Thanks." Candace stretched her neck to move her head around her own body and admire it in detail. "Mmm… yeah, not bad at all."
"Let me try it myself." Vanessa then mimicked what Candace did… with the difference that Vanessa only needed a few seconds and minor adjustments, since she already had a very attractive body, and only needed to 'enhance' it a bit to be on Candace's level.
"Oh, my turn." Mindy grinned and took some deep breaths, getting ready for the transformation. Being shorter and her body, generally speaking, not being as conventionally attractive as her friends', she would need to make the most changes on herself.
Mindy mimicked Vanessa and Candace's technique, and started getting as curvy and tall as them. She also considered enlarging her hairdo to make it look just like the other girls, who didn't need to change their already long and pretty hairdos, and decided to leave them at their original length. Mindy's short, blonde hair grew larger until it covered half of her back.
"I look… pretty… Yeah, with a doggy face, but pretty!" Mindy was visibly impressed, loving both her new body and how the hair moved when she shook her head.
"Heh, too bad we can't get modeling jobs, uh?" Candace chuckled a bit.
The girls did some modeling poses for a while, just for fun, until they decided to try morphing into other animal forms; even if they'd still be dogs, they could try to resemble other species.
"Let's go for canines first; we're already dogs, so it wouldn't be that hard." Vanessa proposed.
"Okay then; let's be werewolves." Mindy grinned.
"Good idea." Candace nodded and started morphing her body; she made herself slightly bigger and with thicker limbs; slightly shortened her ears and muzzle, and made her fur thicker and a bit longer. To finish the job, Candace enlarged her tail and then made it thicker and very bushy.
"Heh… this would be a great halloween costume." Candace grinned while looking at herself.
Mindy and Vanessa did the same as Candace, and, again, Vanessa did it faster than her companions, since a black doberman was closer to a wolf's looks than a blonde and a redhead ones. Plus, Vanessa always had a liking for wolves, so she already had a good mental image of a wolf's looks.
"Hey, you're quite good at this, V." Mandy grinned at the black wolf gal.
"Thanks. You two are pretty good too." Vanessa said while looking at herself. "So.. what other trick are we trying now?"
"Let's try another shape. Mmm… okay, how about, we turn into foxes?" Candace proposed. "They're like wolves but much smaller and leaner."
To illustrate her point, Candace started morphing into a fox; she made herself much less voluptuous, and very lean, close to her normal body shape. She also made her tail much thicker and bushier, and made her muzzle a bit narrower and pointier even if still slightly smaller than her wolf's one. Candace then shortened herself a bit, ending almost the same size she was in human form.
"Okay, now I see the difference between Wolf and Fox." Mindy commented while giving her a good look.
"Let me try it now." Vanessa mimicked Candace now; unlike the wolf shape, this one was a bit hard for her, probably because, at a subconscious level, she disliked the idea of being small and weak, and, obviously, next to a wolf, a fox is a kinda fragile creature. While Vanessa did it, Mindy started changing as well, and she actually did a very good job; she finished the transformation almost a full minute before Vanessa did, even if the dark girl had started before her.
"Hey, I like this shape." Mindy grinned while wagging her tail and shaking her butt. "It's more agile and leaner than the wolf shape while still being stronger than the human one."
"So, our usual Doberman shape is in-between the Fox and Wolf ones." Vanessa commented while giving herself a good look, actually liking her foxy aspect.
"Okay, I think we did enough dog impressions for a while." Candace smirked. "Let's try some other animal. We are good at hopping and bouncing, so… what animal can do that? A rabbit?"
"Or better, a kangaroo!" Mindy grinned while starting the new shape. Mindy had always liked kangaroos and 'weird' animals in general, so, like Vanessa with the wolf shape, Mindy already had a good mental image of the animal she wanted to morph into.
Mindy started with the tail, making it much longer and thicker than the canine one. She then enlarged her feet/paws, and thickened her legs and hips, making them much stronger than before. Finally, Mindy could focus on her upper body and face; since kangaroos' ears were as long as a canine's, that part was quite easy. Then, she gave herself a good look and snapped her fingers, realizing she forgot her pouch, but that was easily fixed.
"Heh, this is very funny." Mindy grinned while she started to hop around, really enjoying this shape. "Does this Kangaroo form make my butt look big?"
"Yes, but it fits you. Besides, with that tail, you need a big butt and strong hips." Vanessa grinned as she started morphing herself, doing it almost as quickly and well as Mindy.
"You seem to know a lot about kangaroos too." Candace arched an eyebrow at Vanessa.
"Let's just say my dad and I are VERY familiar with Australian mammals."
"Heh, I know what you mean. My family has a pet platypus. Wonder why he hadn't been around all day… oh, well, he usually gets back home after a while." Candace shrugged and started morphing as well. She took a bit more time than Mindy and Vanessa, but still making a very decent work.
The trio then started hopping around the room, enjoying these shapes; being elastic beings, it seemed the girls now had a natural liking for bouncing and hopping, and the kangaroo shape worked perfectly for this. They liked it so much that they almost forgot about continuing practicing, and only remembered when Mindy decided to get a semi-quadrupedal position, the same she had seen zoo kangaroos moving like when they weren't hopping.
"Mmm… you know, we should try that too, learn how to move on four legs when we're in our 'normal' dog shapes." Candace commented. "That way, maybe we can even get out in public for a walk or something, if we look enough as normal dogs."
"Guess you're right." Vanessa said as she returned to her Doberman shape. The dark girl then looked at her paws/hands, and morphed them to make them fully paw-like; Vanessa then looked down at her feet and repeated the process. Vanessa then got on four, adapting her limbs' length and her back's flexibility so she could move comfortably. Thanks to all the practice the girls already had, the transformation was actually very easy to do.
"Hey, you're very good at this." Candace observed. "Now… try to shorten your hairdo, so you can look like a normal dog."
Vanessa did as said, and, once she was done, the girl really looked like a normal Doberman, even if a very large one.
"Guess that, if somebody asks, our families can always say we're a Doberman and Great Dane's mix." Mindy shrugged before starting her own transformation; Candace nodded and started changing as well.
This time, the one having the hardest time to look like a full, normal dog was Candace; Mindy had little problems since her normal hairdo was already short, so only took her a few seconds to get a normal dog head.
"This is good and all, but I think we should only hide our hairdos when we're outside." Candace commented. "Besides, I like my hair."
"Fair enough. Plus, making something too small to the point is hard to see it… it requires more concentration to keep that change." Vanessa replied as she grew her hairdo back to normal length, sighing in relief when she finished, and Mindy and Candace did the same. Shortening the hairdos and keeping them like this was like compressing a very elastic spring, ready to return to normal length the moment you stopped pressing it.
"Well, this is good and all, but I think now we'd try to change our outfits' shape and design too." Mindy commented as she returned her paws to their more human-like shape. "I mean, sure, the suits look cool, but I don't wanna use the same outfit the whole time."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes I felt as if I had been using my red shirt and white skirt combo my whole life." Candace commented before looking back at Vanessa. "And you didn't wear that black spy-like suit the whole time, right?"
"No, but I used it a lot. I like the design." Vanessa shrugged and, a moment later, her elastic suit morphed into a version of her old regular outfit. "How…"
"Whoa. How you did that?" Mindy looked closely at the new suit.
"I just… thought about my old suit, and the new one changed." Vanessa admitted.
"Mmm… well, the suits are supposed to be as elastic as ourselves… guess they also adapt to our thoughts or something." Candace guessed, as it was the only reason she could imagine at the time. "So, this probably means the suits can change into whatever we want without needing to shape our bodies to 'mold them' from the inside out."
"Hey, that's great. Let me try something." Vanessa closed her eyes and a moment later, the suit covered her whole body; then, it became much thicker and bulkier, forming a suit of armor, and then her face became visible again as the suit formed a helmet of sorts. Once she was finished, Vanessa was wearing a near-perfect replica of a medieval knight's armor.
"Heh, no defenseless damsel look for me; I'd rather be a 'princess knight'." Vanessa grinned.
"Very good one… but there's nothing wrong with looking like a princess once in a while." Candace grinned back and started morphing her suit as well, until it looked like Princess Peach's complete with a stylish tiara. "Mmmm… not bad at all."
"What about you, Mindy?" Vanessa turned at the other girl and chuckled slightly when seeing Mindy had already morphed her outfit to look like a court jester, complete with the hat and bells.
"Hey, if we're going for a medieval theme, the one good role left was the buffoon." Mindy grinned while doing some summersaults. She did such a good job with the outfit that the bells actually rang when she moved.
"Your Princess is satisfied with your performance, my Dear Jester." Candace spoke in a royal tone, making both Vanessa and Mindy to chuckle.
"And I swear loyalty to you both, My Princess." Vanessa, following with the game, kneeled in front of Candace in a respectful way before smirking at her. "But don't expect me to fight in any tournament until I get a decent horse, and somebody already break that stone and give me Excalibur."
Candace got a good laugh at this.
"Hey, I'm supposed to be the funny one." Mindy pouted mockingly.
"You all look very funny to me."
The girls looked up, seeing Phineas' face in one of the room's monitors; these were hidden inside the walls, and only appeared for external communication.
"Hey, Phineas, what's up?" Candace asked her brother as she changed her outfit back to normal.
"Could you, Vanessa and Mindy come back up here? Ferb and I finished making those ID masks for you." The redhead boy said while the exit door revealed itself. Vanessa and Mindy changed their outfits as well while they followed after Candace, who was already heading to the door.
"Thanks, Phineas. These powers are great, and we're already trying ways to be in public, but it would be nice to have our own original faces once in a while." Candace said to the boy as the girls exited the room.
"By the way, Phineas, I have a doubt. How come our outfits can change at will even if we aren't morphing the rest of our bodies?" Mindy asked the boy.
"Well, as we already told you, the outfits work as a second skin of sorts. While you wear them, the suit's fabric can be molded as easily as you girls can now change your skin, fur and overall body; that's why it can change with just a mental order, as you are morphing it just like you transform any part of your body." Phineas explained while he and Ferb handed the masks to the girls; the masks looked like simple domino ones, but, on a closer look, they had some small visible circuits at the side that was in contact with the wearer's face.
"Just put this over your face, and it will create a holographic disguise." Phineas explained. "It's also programmed to work with your original human faces, so, if you morph your face while wearing the mask, the hologram will stop working at that moment and reveal your canine aspect, so keep that in mind in case you need to use your powers in public. We couldn't adapt it to cover the dog face's changes since it would require extending the hologram as much as you change the face, and if you do that, the disguising is no longer necessary anyway."
Candace nodded, and, obviously, being the most familiar with her brothers' technology, tried her mask before the other girls. The mask adapted to her face with ease, being very comfortable, and sending a light electric current to her muscles, so it felt like a bit like a massage.
"Mmmm… this feels good."
"Well, considering you girls might need to wear the masks for an extended period of time, we wanted to make them as comfortable as possible." Phineas explained her. "Now, wait a moment for the mask to fully adjust to your face and recognize your DNA, and it will project the hologram."
Almost immediately after Phineas said this, Candace's mask vibrated slightly, and then her canine face was covered by a perfect image of her original human face. Ferb then handed her a mirror.
"Thanks, Ferb." Candace then admired herself, smiling at the result. "Why, hello, girl, how have you been?"
"Alright. Okay, Vanessa, Mindy, your turn." Phineas turned at the other girls.
Vanessa and Mindy did the same as Candace, and soon they got their own holographic disguises. The adults and the other kids joined them a moment later, praising Phineas and Ferb's work.
"Vanessa, this is great. You really look like your old self." Heinz grinned while touching his daughter's face. "Mmmm… curious, you feel as if you needed a shave."
"Dad, this is just a hologram, remember?"
"Oh, right, you're still a dog under the mask, with the fur and everything." Heinz then looked at Vanessa's outfit. "Uh, quick question, how are you gonna hide the suit, and the tail and everything?"
"We already practiced that." Vanessa grinned before changing her elastic outfit into a bikini-like clothing, plus making her tail much smaller. "This way, we can cover our bodies and the suits with normal clothing, or even change the outfits into normal civilian clothes."
"Wow. You girls really did a good training session, huh?" Linda commented while looking at Candace and Mindy doing similarly to Vanessa.
"Yeah, we can either cover our aspect with normal clothes, or change it overall to disguise ourselves. The only thing we can't change is our furs or the suits' colors; that's why we need the holographic masks." Mindy commented.
"Well… in another topic…" Heinz rubbed the back of his neck. "I… talked to your mother, Vanessa. She's coming in a while; and I think she didn't believe me when I confessed that I am a mad scientist with Tri-State Area's conquering dreams, and that you and your friends are now an elastic human and canine hybrid. And now I said it out loud, I can see her point… and why she asked me if I am on some medication."
"Heh, if that was the case, then it would be good if you were a pharmacist." Buford grinned.
"Or a real doctor." Baljeet frowned, obviously still a bit upset about the whole 'buying the title' issue.
"Of course; judge the fake doctor who dresses like a pharmacist and uses his intellect for evil." Heinz frowned and then sighed. "Wow. It really doesn't help my case when I say it out loud."
"Well, we'll now wait for your ex to arrive and we'll explain her everything. Hope she doesn't freak out." Linda rubbed her temples. "I almost did it myself."
As this conversation continued, and answering the eternal question of where's Perry, the platypus was hidden under a couch, wearing a body scent's covering device (actually just a pine-shaped car deodorant) in a necklace, and taping the whole thing with a special miniature camera, sending the images and sound to Major Monogram, who studied it in detail.
"Mmmm… it seems we no longer can delay this." Monogram sighed. "Carl…"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Call Professor Shephard, and get ready to meet the girls…"
"I'm always ready for that, Sir."
"Yeah, you want a girlfriend, you already told me that. Anyway, get everything by ready. It's time to reveal our cover to Agent P's family."
Carl nodded and got back to work, only pausing to…
"Sir, should we get them the 'Welcome to OWCA gift basket'?"
"Carl, this is an extremely serious issue."
Pause.
"Get three baskets. And add dog biscuits."
