Chapter Two

The large, two story room was almost pitch black. Pitch black and silent. Black pillars of various shapes and sizes stood scattered throughout making pathways. Ramps to a second story were interspersed in two random places and one at each of the room's four corners. Near the corner ramps were small caves with a flashing light in each of them, a flashing light that must be protected at all cost. The second floor was relatively empty, a wide pathway on the walls had two feet tall walls on each side. At the halfway point of each wall on the second story a very narrow hall connected to a tower in the middle. This divided the room into four sectors. The sectors were the center of operations for the four teams, their teams color flashing on the thin neon strips on the walls and pillars providing very little light for the players to see. Phineas had brought Ferb, Isabella, and Emily to the local laser tag arcade to avoid the frigid air outside, despite Emily's pleas of being too old to play laser tag.

Isabella stood guard at the pink base, making sure that nobody, especially Phineas, could take out her teams base and the two thousand points that came along with it. Why Phineas had insisted that each of the young adults be on separate teams was beyond her. Ever since puberty, she had lost that edge young girls have over boys. No, she only lost her athletic edge. She could wrap any man around her finger now with her looks if she wanted to now. As Isabella paced back and forth, lost in thought, she saw an orange flash go by one of the windows in the wall. Normally, that would be Phineas but tonight he was on the blue team. Suddenly her vest started beep, then flashing, then finally shut down. Someone had shot her. Turning around she saw a blonde haired girl about her age twirling her gun on her right index finger.

"I believe," she began, her British accent thick as fog on a humid morning," that the American term for that would be gotcha'!"

"And to think that you were the one who didn't want to go here in the first place. What is this? The third time you've gotten me now?" Isabella asked, half in humor and half annoyed. She hadn't lost her competitive side.

"Fifth." Emily answered coolly as she pulled her trigger four times while aiming at the flashing light which went out similarly to Isabella's vest. With that she walked off.

Emily took the ramp to the second floor, hoping to sneak into the tower and snipe out her beloved before he could reach her. She ran the distance to the narrow hallway making the left turn as quickly as she could. Not noticing the blue light illuminating from atop the ten foot wall that covered the pathway. If she hadn't been giggling she might have hear the chuckle that escaped Phineas's lips as he prepared follow his next victim. Blissfully ignorant, Emily made it to the tower as and began to seek out Ferb's silhouette. She found him, sneaking out of the green base, unaware that he was being hunted from above. Emily lined up her aim, looking down each pathway for threats, and prepared.

"Sorry Ferb but I want to win this." Emily said to herself. She went to pull the trigger when her vest started flashing, the trigger locking. "Wha. . . who got me?"

"I did!" Phineas exclaimed. He revealed himself by jumping in from the canopy that covered the tower.

Emily face palmed herself. Of all people to get her, it had to be him. It wasn't that she dislike Phineas, he had become like a brother to her in the time that she had been dating Ferb. In fact, that was the exact reason that she couldn't stand losing to him. He was her little brother, even if he was a good fifty pounds heavier than her, six inches taller than her, and five months older. His immaturity made him like her little brother. "Isn't climbing up the walls against the rules?" She asked, her hand still covering her face.

"Yes, yes it is. That's why I jumped up that." He state nonchalantly. He pointed to his shoes, which he had made specifically to allow him to jump higher. Jump higher, and cheat at laser tag. Then, as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared down the corridor he had come from the top of, shooting a member of Ferb's team on the way down before jumping over them.

Phineas made his way to the pink base expecting to see Isabella guarding the light. He was right. She stood perfectly still, as if she was disinterested, uncharacteristic of Isabella. He saw that the pink lights were lit up again, meaning enough time had passed for her gun to reactivate. Phineas smiled from ear to ear. Now he had the chance to take out Isabella. He pulled the trigger hitting a perfect shot on her shoulder, since the shoulders were worth the most points. Instead of Isabella's vest flashing before deactivating, her entire body flickered out of existence. At first Phineas was confused, until he saw a grey circle on the floor. Not just any grey circle either, his hologram projector. This could only mean one thing. Quickly he turned around, but it was too late his vest began flashing before finally going blank. In front of him stood a beaming Isabella.

"No fair. I gave that to you so that we could go to the tree house with anyone getting suspicious." He pseudo-complained as he walked up to his girlfriend and gave her a quick peck on the forehead.

"And using your shoes to skirt around the rules is?" Isabella laughed in response.

"Touché."

The lights came on as Phineas began walking out of the pink cave. The game was over. He turned back and grabbed Isabella's hand as they walked out together, meeting Ferb and Emily at the double door that led out to the lobby. In the lobby they handed in their vests and received a score card. Phineas was excited to see that he had beaten Isabella by leaps and bounds, forty -two thousand five hundred to ten thousand. The two of them had become extremely, but playfully, competitive since they started dating. What fun would dating be if they couldn't be playful? Emily had scored the least with only eight thousand points. Ferb had scored the most, a whopping fifty-six thousand.

"Ferb how did you rack up that many points? I don't think I even saw you once." Phineas questioned when they reached their respective cars as he held open his passenger side for Isabella.

"I walked around shooting bases and unskilled players." Ferb answered as he did the same for Emily in his car. When he finished answering he got in the driver's side and drove off into the night. Most likely to Emily's grandmother's house. She had moved to America seeking employment in two thousand ten when jobs in Britain were becoming scarce.

Phineas did the same thing pushing the button to activate the wings of his car as he closed the door. He turned to Isabella and smiled as he took in her beauty. "You have fun tonight?" He asked.

"Yea, I guess so. But why couldn't we have been on the same team? Then I could have at least spent a little more time with you."

"Where would the fun in that be though? Plus, it's not like we could have stuck together, we would be one huge target."

Isabella sighed, knowing that she was unable to beat his logic and proceeded to look out the window. She noticed that they were flying over top of a forest. Not only that but there was a lake in the distance. "Phineas. . . ?" she began but was interrupted when the sound of turbines lowering them.

They landed atop the roof of a building. And Phineas stepped out of the car making his way over the passenger side door to let out Isabella, offering her his hand to help her up. When both were out of the car, Phineas walked over to the tree, hand in hand with Isabella, and placed his right hand on the tree. A "ping" was heard and the two began to ascend into the tree house. When they touched the ground, all the lights turned on revealing the same grand layout Phineas had shown Isabella earlier that year. Phineas pointed Isabella towards the couch by the fire pit was he went into the kitchen to grab a match to light the wood and to dim the lights. With his endeavors accomplished, he walked over to Isabella, lit the match and threw it into the firewood and laid side by side with Isabella as the flames began to heat and illuminate the tree house.

Hours went by without the two talking much, just enjoying the other's company when a rustling noise came from where Phineas hid the remote. It made Isabella jump but Phineas just ignored it, he knew what was coming next. The sound of plastic falling on the floor followed. The TV turned on and was scrolling through the DVR. The only thing recorded on there was Perry's soaps. Phineas's eye began to twitch. "Perry, can't I ever have privacy here without having to worry about you using my TV as a way to get one over on Dad when he doesn't let you watch your shows?" Phineas's only response was and angry chatter from his monotreme pet. Knowing that their time alone was done, Phineas doused the fire and took Isabella's hand and guided her to the bedroom. The bedroom was one of the few things that had changed. Rather than the two individual beds being present, a queen sized bed now took their place. Phineas and Isabella each placed their hands in their respective drawers and pulled out the pajamas each had left there. Isabella took hers into the bathroom connect to their room while Phineas simply took off his shirt and pulled on some pajama pants. Five minutes after going in, Isabella emerged from the bathroom in a revealing silk night gown that made Phineas gawk. She walked over to the bed and pulled down the sheets, bring Phineas down with her. She put the covers back on top of them, snapping her fingers to dim the lights. A koi smile graced her lips as she brought Phineas in for a passionate kiss. Pulling away after a minute, she lay seductive kisses up his jawline, up to his ear and whispered "I love you " into his ear.

A/N: I want to thank Lil Miss Kandy Kane for the laser idea. I hope I did the chapter of Alphabet Soup that gave me the idea justice. Forgive any formatting errors in the last paragraph and the author's note, they were typed on my iPhone. I'll correct them as soon as possible. I know that there is no connection to the last chapter here but, I will connect chaps 1 & 2 next time. Sorry it was short, I did this in one night since I haven't updated in awhile. Read and review.