Sorry it had to be later this week guys, the next update will be Friday! I hope you all had a good Valentine's day! I did :)

Chapter 3: Missing

It was just a regular day. Packing for a traditional camping trip. Not the most exciting of adventures, but necessary nonetheless. No big deal, right? Wrong.

Ferb stood rigid, all his hair standing edge, as he watched his two best friends collapse on the ground, convulsing violently. Isabella let out a shrill, piercing scream, her arms tightly pressed against her ears. They had just been flirting, stealing glances at one another as always, and now they were having a mutual seizure on the ground. He didn't understand what was happening, his mind was drawing a blank. This didn't make any sense, what was going on?!

Something finally snapped in his brain, and Ferb ran towards them with all his might. Only moments before he had been feeding poles through tent riggings, and now his mind was pulled into hyper drive. He had nearly reached them, completely at a loss of what to do, when they vanished. Dissipated into thin air, right in front of him. The scream was cut off, severed, and the air was once again filled with the chirping of little birds.

Ferb was so perplexed that he nearly ran into the fence. He looked around frantically, but all he could see were piles of equipment and the backyard whirled around and his eyes bore into the place they had just been shaking, writhing. Had he somehow zoned out at the worst moment, could they have snuck out the yard or vamoosed into the house for some lemonade?

Ferb grabbed his head and lightly shook it, trying to clear his deranged thoughts. I just imagined that, he thought fervently, It's the sun. The heat of the sun is playing with my mind. His eyes shot open again, but there was still no sign of Phineas nor Isabella. They just went inside to get a drink. They didn't disappear.

The gate door suddenly burst open and Buford, Ginger, and Adyson briskly walked in, looking on edge. Baljeet stood near them, clutching a clipboard tightly and staring just as wide-eyed at the ground as Ferb was. Apparently he had witnessed the scene as well but had been too flabbergasted to act.

"What's wrong?" asked Adyson, surveying the yard just as Ferb had done moments before.

"We heard girly scream," Buford added gruffly. He eyed Ferb apprehensively, as if expecting a response.

Ferb's eye twitched, and he felt as though his brain had suffered a fatal system crash. Had he actually just witnessed two of his best friends disappearing into thin air? He, for the first time this summer, was confused. He took a few steps forward to the spot where Phineas and Isabella had been seemingly writhing, almost expecting them to reappear, but they did not.

Buford grunted impatiently, still waiting for a reply, but Ferb wished he could use gestures rather than being restricted to inferior speech. Only Phineas could fully understand him, however.

"Neither of you would believe me," he finally muttered, his voice weak. Baljeet couldn't even mutter his assent; he was still white-faced and catatonic.

"Just spit it out," Adyson said, raising an eyebrow. Just then, the house door opened and Gretchen came out, carrying packages of water bottles. She joined the circle in confusion as to what was happening.

"Phineas and Isabella—they just disappeared. Right here."

"Inside, maybe?" Ginger offered, not understanding.

"No," Ferb tried to explain, with an almost imperceptible tone of agitation. "They didn't leave. They were shaking on the ground, most certainly in pain, when they vanished into thin air." Everyone stared at him.

Ferb tried several more times to explain the impossible extent of the situation, but nobody really understood. Gretchen looked concerned, but more for the wellbeing of him than his friends; Baljeet was utterly bewildered despite having witnessed the event as well; Ginger was now watching a butterfly flutter aimlessly through the air; and Buford and Adyson were just deviating towards crude humor, a recent, but favorite pastime of theirs. Had they already forgotten Isabella's blood curdling scream?

"Maybe they eloped," Adyson muttered casually, earning a snigger out of Buford.

"That's ridiculous, we're still in high school," Ginger commented, rolling her eyes, "And they aren't even dating yet... officially."

"I dunno, Addy sounded pretty spot-on to me," Buford grunted, nudging her in the side with a little more force than necessary. She punched him in the shoulder in friendly retaliation, then they began firing off more hollow jokes on the whereabouts of Phineas and Isabella.

"Are you sure you haven't just been working too hard, Ferb?" Gretchen asked politely over Buford's current jabbering of "Isabella's probably picking out her wedding ring right now". Ferb shook his head stubbornly, his face set. He couldn't have imagined it. He didn't imagine it. They had vaporized, right before his eyes.

Gretchen's face suddenly became alit with an idea. "How about we find them with that teleporting phone," she said, "and then we can go to wherever they're hiding."

Ferb felt reluctant to test her theory, seeing as it would prove him wrong and make him look foolish, but at the same time, teleporting to Phineas and Isabella would be the best way to make sure they weren't in danger. He nodded slowly and went inside to retrieve Candace's old phone. Moments later he returned, quieted everyone else, and spoke in a firm voice, "Go to Phineas."

Nothing happened. Seconds later, a message appeared on the phone screen.

Error 2x9A. Target does not exist.

Nobody moved. "Go to Isabella," Ferb tried again. The message displayed itself once more.

"Go to Isabella Garcia-Shapiro and Phineas Flynn."

Error 2x9A. Target does not exist.

Adyson and Buford weren't joking anymore. They looked surprised, not understanding why Phineas and Ferb's technology had for once failed them.

"M-Maybe the app's got a bug," Ginger stuttered, looking slightly disconcerted as well. "Maybe the phone's getting too old and won't teleport anymore."

"Go to Ginger," Ferb spoke again in his British accent. He instantly disappeared and popped up inches from Ginger's startled face, then quickly stepped back for space.

"Go to Phineas." The error displayed.

Ferb shook his head, annoyed. He felt a sliver of defiance, rashness that he had been right, but much larger was a growing hole of fear. He opened up the internals of the phone, tampered with the settings, and tried again, but nothing worked.

"Now do you believe me?" he asked them all.

"They're probably just pulling a prank on us," Baljeet finally said, clearly trying to sound strong. "Maybe they've gone back in time, maybe even in a different dimension. Are those variables tested in the program?"

Thirty minutes later, Baljeet and Ferb had reprogrammed the app to account for both time and dimensions. The others had gone back to packing for the trip, as if nothing were amiss, but all friendly conversations had been halted. Ferb knew that the chances of locating them were much higher in this case, but he still felt haunted by the loss of his friends.

"Okay. Go to Phineas Flynn." Baljeet stated, holding the phone up to his mouth.

Error 2x9A. Target does not exist.

"How is that possible?!" Baljeet exclaimed, gawking at the phone in a frenzy. "There is no way to explain this! It searches everywhere and everywhen in the entire universe! I mean, even if they were—" He stopped himself, modifying his choice of words. "Even if they hadn't … survived, we'd still be able to find their … bodies."

Ferb generally had a better hold on his emotions, but he was feeling exactly the same. They weren't on a different continent or planet, weren't in the past or the future, weren't in a different dimension, weren't—he hated to think it—dead, but there was still no sign of them.

Ferb felt like a part of him had been ripped away, leaving him bleeding and confused. He didn't feel right, didn't feel quite complete without his brother and best friend beside him. Phineas always stuck up for him, expressed his opinions when he was uncomfortable with speaking, but now he was gone.

Just when you thought it couldn't get more complicated ;) Please review if you liked it or thought anything could have been written better, they are very important and make me happy :D Even just a one word "awesome" is okay!

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~Word of the Week~

Vamoose • sounds like 'caboose' • Verb

- to leave hurriedly or quickly.

In order to escape, prisoners must vamoose from the jail, thereby leaving very quickly. Vamoose is somewhat informal, but I sometimes use it in proper contexts as well. From the story: "Had [Ferb] somehow zoned out at the worst moment, could they have ... vamoosed into the house for some lemonade?" Ferb was wondering if Phineas and Isabella had (extremely) quickly ran into the house to get a glass of lemonade. In other words, he believed that they had vamoosed into the house so fast that he couldn't see them.

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Guest Review Responses:

Quest: You actually did review once before, but I have to approve it so it usually won't show up right away. I don't know if that exact situation will come up (as it already has in my story Christmas Bliss ;) but who knows?