Poptart Notes—Maya Serena: At the very least, they'll need a decent washing. If you were a little boy and all of a sudden there was a bank robbery in Serenity-Land, and you were smack dab in the middle, you'd be scared too!
Alright, readers, wherever you may be, I know you're out there! And wherever you may be, let it be known that I'm an attention-craving little nuisance! Reviews! Leave me some! I don't care if you're burning with pure apathy, or if you need to give me scathing criticism, I must haves it…
CHAPTER II: Fear
It was a long while before anybody even felt that it was remotely safe enough to venture out. It was only after the police had arrived and the clerk had begun explaining everything to them that the crowd began to thin.
"Irving. Irving, get up." Albert shook his little brother's shoulder. After a second or two, he looked up, with a face full of worry. "Are you alright?" Irving gave a weak nod as his brother helped him up from the floor. "Come on, we're leaving."
They didn't really have far to go. The minute they stepped out, an old blue minivan had pulled up front. It belonged to their mother, who rolled down the window and cried, "Irving! Albert! Get in the car, now!"
"I heard about it—it's already on the news—I was so scared—I am so scared!" She continued her babbling even as her sons were getting in the car. "I don't even believe it's happening. I know crime is a real thing, of course. I just never thought it could happen in Danville!"
/
It was the following afternoon when the doorbell to the Flynn-Fletcher residence was rung. There was no answer. Irving pushed the button again. Nothing. Albert began pounding on the door.
"Open up! It's just us! We couldn't hurt anybody if we tried!" At this, the mail slot in the door opened from the inside, revealing a pair of large blue eyes.
"So you admit that you'd try?" Candace asked dryly.
"Just open the door."
"Why? What are you here for?" Candace questioned. Albert sighed.
"We are here because my little brother has been sitting in his room for four days doing nothing but looking out his window and babbling about how he's watching for suspicious behavior and I'm fairly certain that your brothers can make him happy again and for Pete's sake woman open the door you are deepening his trauma!" He answered in a single breath.
There was the sound of a lock clicking before Candace swung the door open for them.
"Fair enough." She replied. Suddenly, a sharp yell rang out from the next room.
"CANDACE! Who did you just let in?" It demanded. The speaker walked into the room, hands on her hips.
"Mom, it's just Irving and Albert. Irving wants to see Phineas and Ferb." Linda relaxed to this just a slight bit.
"Oh. Alright." Irving turned and ran out of the room and up the stairs, though maybe not out of the anticipation of seeing his idols, but maybe out of general skittishness. Linda then turned to Albert and asked, "Well, what'll you be doing, then?" The boy shrugged.
"Loiter around the house?"
"Seems like a bit of a waste." Linda tried to make herself seem calm by chuckling. However, it still came off as a bit nervous. "Tell you what. I was in the middle of cleaning up the kitchen, but I have to go check on how the boys are doing. If you and Candace could take care of that for me, that'd be wonderful—you two can get better acquainted." And, without even waiting for a significant response, she darted up the stairs.
Candace sighed.
"Well, I'm stuck with you for the next forty or so minutes." She muttered.
"Hey, you're not the guy that just walked into someone else's house and instantly got assigned—" Albert suddenly broke his rant off short. "Forty minutes?"
"Yeah. She's been darting upstairs to check on them every eighteen seconds, and it's, like, an hour before she comes back down." Candace explained as they went into the kitchen.
"Uh, an hour is sixty minutes." Albert pointed out. As a response, a dishrag was thrown at his face. "What?"
"I don't think you grasp the issue here. After what happened yesterday, Mom is worried sick about those boys. You know what happens in Danville besides their shenanigans? Up until yesterday, zip. Her biggest fear is losing them."
"Oh, I don't grasp the issue!" Albert said indignantly as he began to rub down the counter. "Maybe you didn't know this, but I was at the bank yesterday! I had to pull my little brother away from a bunch of shattering glass! Pardon me, but it's not like I'm not worried. I know that nothing is supposed to happen here in Happy-Doo-Da-Ville! GOOD GRAVY, THIS LITTLE SPECK WILL NOT COME OFF!" He spontaneously yelled at the surface of the counter.
"Calm down, nerdy." Candace said. "I'm pretty sure that this incident caught all of Danville off guard."
"What makes you pretty sure?"
"Albert, they've been running the 'How to Properly Panic' emergency procedure on Channel Six for the past thirty-five hours. That's a pretty good sign they're shocked."
There was a brief moment of silence between the two.
"Uh, where's that platypus-type-thing that you've got around here?" Albert finally asked.
"Perry? I don't know where he goes every day."
/
Perry was in his underground lair, where, as we all know, he usually spent the majority of his day. However, today, he was getting the news that he wasn't going to be there for long.
"We're sorry, Agent P. But we're afraid that we won't be sending you out for the next few weeks. We won't risk losing a good agent to some dastardly criminals like the one that your fine city saw yesterday." Monogram shook his head. "Normally, we'd send you out after Doofenshmirtz if he was doing something but, well, let's face it—he's not really as dangerous as that other guy. Plus, we've got footage of what he's been doing all morning at his establishment. Take a look."
The footage cut over to the D.E.I building. There was a quick zoom in on one window, where the scientist could be seen darting at the window, with a bucket of nails, a hammer, some planks and a terrified facial expression. He nailed boards over the window at nearly the speed of light. The camera then cut back to Monogram.
"See? He's scared, too! Again, Agent P., we are truly and deeply sorry, but you have to continue to dwell as a mindless domestic pet for these few weeks. Dismissed." The platypus would've sighed if he could, but he couldn't, so he merely saluted his officer and returned to the elevator.
