Not much to say on this one. Only thing of value would be to tell you to spot the references I've planted, and try to guess what song this chapter's musical number based on.

Enjoy the story!

It was early in the morning, and one could still feel the cool breeze of sunrise time blowing gently on their skin. None of this mattered to the girls, though; they were busy out hunting.

"Give me the numbers, Gretchen."

"67 percent, ma'am. I'd say a hundred, but we never actually did this kinda thing, so I got nothing to compare it to."

Isabella, Gretchen, and the rest of the Firestorm Girls were all hidden on separate bushes on the center of the New Danville Park, sights set upon a tree at the middle of them. Their eyes locked on to their target, comfortably perched under the shade on the tree.

"Time?"

"0700. We're ready."

"Perfect."

She squinted at the running bird that kept them up for two hours.

"We've waited long enough for this. Alright then, take aim... Fire!"

Hearing her signal, Katie pulled the trigger, knocking out the target cold from its spot on the tree, from which it fell with a small thump to the ground.

"Heh. Only something that small can make falling from that height pretty cute," Holly said.

While it was still wriggling around, smokes rose up faintly from it as the girls ran to check their success.

"Wait, smokes? Is that supposed to happen?"

Raising an eyebrow, Isabella took the small yellow canary on her hands, but winced as she almost dropped the bird, and would've too if not for her gloves.

"Ow, it's hot as a burnt cookie! Katie, how much shock did you put on that tazer?!"

"I don't know!" Katie turned the knob on the side of the gun all around with a dumbfounded look. "This is the first time I used a non-lethal weapon in years!"

"Ooh boy," Adyson chanted behind her. "Katie just made out the poor parrot! Katie just made out a poor parrot!"

"Shut up, Adyson! You're making me feel even worse!"

"Who says it's a parrot, anyhow?" Gretchen cut in. "It's a canary. Parrots are red. And they talk."

"Heh. I can already think of some words it'll use for Katie! One of them starts with a B."

"Pfft. In this case I agree with her," Isabella stood up, cradling the small canary on her palm. " 'Barf' would be a very appropriate word for you."

"Believe me, I'm already feeling like barfing right now, boss," Katie answered, putting a palm on her chest.

"So what do we do now, Isabella?" Gretchen asked, pointing at the X marks on where the bird's eyes were supposed to be.

She sighed. "...We'll bring it in to Dr. Baljeet. They didn't call these things 'non-lethal' for nothing. Maybe he can bring it back from not-dead death."

"And if he doesn't?"

"We'll just find another animal for the decor piece on the apartment's backyard," she responded dryly, leveling a cold glare at the blonde girl. "Preferably one that's not deep-fried."

"Oop, now you've pushed me past the...!"

Katie rushed off to the rear of a tree, desperately clutching her hand onto her lips.

"Yeah... Looks like that cake already creeped into some more than others."

"Do you guys ever listen to me?!"

She grabbed and shook the boys' cheeks, forcing a grim grin on them. "I said, I get first dibs on the penthouse's course today, darn it!"

"O-ok-kay, C-Can-dace, we're so-orr-y!"

With a chuckle, she let her brothers go, but not before giving them a ruffle on their heads.

"Gee Candace, we've never seen you so cheery before," Phineas said, scratching his left ear. "That picnic last night must've gone really well, huh?"

"First, it's actually an official meeting, and it will be referred to as such. Second... Yes, yes it did. So well, in fact, I ordered the Firestorm Girls to get the crown jewel of that meeting."

"Nope, there'll be no parrots today, Candace," Isabella interrupted behind her. "Well, at least not a living one."

"What the..." She ran to the girls and knelt to check the bird inside the cage. "What happened?"

"Ask 600-volt-girl over here. Knocked it out cold, but it doesn't look like it'll come back anytime soon. Or probably at all."

"You put 600 volts in a bird!? This is a bird, not a marathoner!"

Katie groaned. "Well, did anyone ever tell me how much the correct voltage is?"

Silence.

"...huh…" Candace pointed a vague finger at her. "She's... Yeah, that's a good point."

She handed back the caged bird to Isabella. "Bring it to Baljeet. Who knows, maybe we can get lucky and have a flying va-. Ugh, I mean bird…"

"Yep, already on it, boss. See ya."

As the girls went on the hallway, Candace slapped a palm on her head. "Dang it! Now what am I supposed to use tomorrow morning?"

"Candace, what's the bird for, anyway?"

She sighed. "Nothing. Not even a good reason; I just want a real bird to go with the hedges."

She pointed down to the hedges many floors down, which were cut in the shape of twice-sized figures of all twelve members of the Resistance, complete with name tags below them.

"Yeah, I guess the garden does need a bird to go along with the greeneries," Phineas said, looking down the huge window. "But Candace shouldn't we focus on more, uh… I don't know... practical pursuits?"

"What do you mean?"

"Candace, we got this penthouse from Charlene three months ago, but we found this course just last month. I mean, what if she hid something more than just a massive obstacle course behind these walls?"

"Fair point. But, superfluous. The OWCA agents sweeped the building twice after we found this obstacle course. They found nothing."

"Well, that's good news, I suppose… Hey, speaking of OWCA agents, where's Perry?"

"He's out. And I'm gonna run before you start giving me the puppy dog face and asking about more," she said sarcastically, pointing to each of their noses. "I'm late for a… reunion… party."

"Party?"

"Oop, I mean funeral! Stupid missed etymologies…" She grabbed the black cape from the drawers and wrapped it around herself. "It's for a… friend… of mine."

There was a twinge of silence as she looked away, almost as if something weighed too much on her mind, even to tell her brothers what it is. After what seems to be the longest five seconds of the day however, she shook her head to clear the thoughts.

"Oh. For once, don't follow me. Please."

"Good morning Agent P," Major Monogram greeted Perry. "What do you think of the old bughouse? Three months of repairment, and we're really rolling out the futuristics!"

He threw out his arms in the sky, showing the many, many cyborg agents working on the many holes, decays and destruction on the base, each with nothing more than the tools that were welded in place of their organic arms.

"Everybody's hard at work, and you know that we've been assigning you on some of the harder rooms to clean. But not for today, though. We have some other business set for you…"

They walked past the only operational automatic doors on the base leading to the Major's office. Although the room had some cheap knockoffs that tried to resemble plastic furniture, Perry was certain that none of those would support his metal bulk.

"Alright then Agent P, here's your mission. You know that Doofenshmirtz and his family escaped us three months ago, providing us with a second, much fancier base of operations. Frankly, I wanted to move out there, but then I have to pack the furniture, and the monitor, and pay ridiculously large transfer fees, not to mention finding a truck large enough to fit all of the stuff we're gonna have to move… you get it, it's easier just to repair the base."

Perry simply lowered his eyelid in response.

"Now, you also know that purple and grey colors become a very big no-no around town, what with those two being the former dictator's favorite colors. And just by coincidence, we found these conveniently placed, conveniently purple-and-grey painted warehouses popping up around Danville just two weeks ago.

The monitor displayed the aforementioned warehouse, on a quiet hill overlooking downtown Danville. "We know you've wanted to lay a good dose of revenge to him, and now we are giving you the chance. Good luck, Agent P!"

With a sharp salute, the agent rocketed off the launch hatch on the ceiling.

"Oh, and for you Carl." He took out a white envelope and gave it to the intern. "Your paycheck for the month."

"Yes! Thank you sir!" The intern did a cheer on his chair. "Now I can see that spaghetti place they've been going on so much! Wahoo!"

"And that, Buford, in a very minute detail, is the story from the play of William Shakespeare. All I am missing is the title…"

"Wow! The bad cop jumps off the bridge because the criminal he's chasing all these years saved his life, and then that criminal's daughter got sent off to the only surviving member of the movement…" Buford clapped his hands in excitement. "This is the best story ever!"

"Yes, yes. Now, may I have my 200 dollars fee, please?"

"Oh, alright. Here you go."

Baljeet chuckled as he waved the stack of paper given to him. "Easy money indeed… Oh, we appear to have guests."

The doors slid open, where the Firestorm Girls stepped inside the room, followed closely by Phineas and Ferb behind them.

"…ister's a changed girl, but she'll never lose that overprotective edge, no matter what happens!"

"Hmm. I don't know whether to be glad or afraid…"

She chuckled, patting him on the shoulder. "Be afraid, kid. Be afraid."

Isabella turned back to the young doctor. "Hey doc, we need your help."

"Ask, and it shall be given to you. What do you need?"

"Revival and awakening... Or burial processes," she said with a slight pause. "We don't really know. Check this thing out."

She passed the cage to him. The boy squinted with wonder to the subject lying unconscious inside it.

"This is a quite a beautiful bird. What happened?"

"600 volts administered with a taser gun. We think it's alive, but only because the gun's included in the non-lethal weapons bracket."

"600 volts!?" He suddenly yelled out. "This is a bird, not a marathoner!"

"Ha! That's what she said."

Everyone turned their heads with raised eyebrows at Buford's non sequitur.

Baljeet rolled his eyes and groaned. "Ugh. No, Buford, timing and context is still not right. And I already said you cannot use it without a clever spin! What kind of rating do you think we are using right now?"

"Huh. Good point."

"And do check the meaning of 'too soon' in the calendar," he said with annoyance. "So, continuing with our feathered friend here… I have never got the chance to treat avians often. Where do I begin…"

"Pfft. This is simple!" Buford grabbed a baton from his back pocket. "I've got a foolproof way of waking up people, no matter how deep under they are. If he ain't wakin' up after this, then he ain't wakin' up at all."

"Really? Hm. I expect your method to be highly unscientific."

"Yes, indeed. This certainly won't fly up your alley, but then again most of the practical world don't either. But hey! This teaching thing might go mutual after all."

He took the cage and lay it on the ground, but still kept a hard grip on the handle. "Alright then, step back and watch the miracle happen! …Oh, and cover your ears."

Everyone did… except Phineas.

"…Wait, is that part of the supposed clichéd line or is that—"

Without waiting, Buford swung the baton and beat down the cage with too much force to bear, causing ear-splitting clangs to bang all across the room. On the sixth hit, the bird jolted awake and flew at lightning speed, crashing its head on the bars of its newfound cage a dozen times before stopping to feel the concussion dawning on.

"There we go. Awake and living. Now you owe me 200 bucks."

"Heh. I'll forward the tab to Candace," Isabella said with a roll of her eyes. "Alright girls, let's put this in the hedge. I can't wait to see it already!"

She paused, looking down on Phineas' still twitching form.

"Oh, and someone get some cotton for him."

With that, the seven girls went out of the room, all conversing amongst themselves. Ferb helped Phineas up, who was still a bit woozy from the shock.

"So, uh, guys, what are you doing over here?"

"Well, Buford and I were searching for stories to help us with our backward mindsets," Baljeet replied, swiveling his chair back to the monitor. "To let us know what the rest of the world is thinking."

"And apparently, we missed a lot!" Buford pointed to the screen. "Did you know that in one show, some girl sculpted her face onto Mars, then went and fought in a giant treehouse robot the next day after? This is just pure gold!"

"Really? That sounds like a blast!"

"Yep. Here, I saved a song from another show. I plan to make a playlist, with stoneworks! Hah! That'll be even more glorious!"

He slid a disk down to the side of the monitor, and the faint sounds of music began to play through.

Perry landed on the grassfields of the hill overlooking the city, in front of the large purple and gray warehouse that was his target. He raised his eyebrow; not because there was a rustling in the bushes, or that there was a flash of black on the corner of his eye.

No, it was the gigantic label hung above the entrance, saying 'Doofenshmirtz Evil Hidden Warehouse'.

"Not even trying" was the first thought to collide with his brain.

But still, to ensure himself that there was nothing suspicious, he scanned the area with every vision modes known; x-ray, thermal, imaging, electronical, and approximately 200 others that cannot be pronounced by name.

Each and every one returned no results, in no small part because of the warehouse is impenetrable to every view. Having no options left, Perry braced himself as he opened the large doors.

The warehouse was completely blank, and frankly dusty. It was almost completely devoid of materials that were supposed to be the norm of the warehouses. Perry went in for a closer look, nerves as tense as a runny back.

It only took twelve footsteps before he triggered an infrared beam.

Before he could deal with the shock of the horribly loud alarm, he saw that the warehouse's walls began to slide down to the ground, Replacing it was the familiarly compact interior of a Doofenshmirtz Emergency Escape Pod, encircling around him as if almost to crush him flat. He tried to fly away, but a sensor picked this up, and a chain wrapped itself around his leg to prevent him escaping.

But as much as Perry thought that he was done for, the metal walls stopped one step short from crushing him. Instead, he can feel the ground rumbling on his feet. From underground, out came the metal floor, sealing him completely inside the escape pod.

But then he felt that rumbling again; it was launching fast.

Perry can only try to punch out a hole on the trap in vain as the pod began to lift off from the ground, as it took him away to the skies.

Tomorrow…
Comee-ees!

"Hahaha! Wahoo! That is a great tune!"

A gloved hand reached out to turn off the stereo. "Alright one-point-five, now you can start the jingle. Sheesh."

"Thank you for the clearance, sir! Initiating jingle."

A metal click was heard, before the signature jingle began to play.

Doofenshmirtz Secret Underwater Evil Lair!

The jingle also served to turn off the dramatic lighting, revealing in full view the form of former dictator Doofenshmirtz, and a brand new second man-bot standing behind him. The new robot has three distinct features on him; first, despite having the same head model with the safe mode of the other Normbots, his had no retraction feature; no second head. Second, he had an actual pair of legs instead of a hover model. Third, and the most distinguishing of all, his round-shaped body is painted in the model of a blue suit, with a red tie and a white shirt underneath.

"Alright, pack up the stage!" He clapped his hands, shooing away the curtains covering the stages. "We need to save the pyrotechnics for the real show. Which is in… ten minutes, if this new watch is to be believed," he said, squinting at the new, bright neon digital watch on his wrist. "Heck, it even has a stopwatch and a beeping feature! Where did you get this?"

"Nowhere, sir! I made it all on my own."

"Stop title-dropping songs, you piece of junk. I told Charlene she needed to tone up the References Overwatch thingamajig." He hunched his way to the viewing window, seeing nothing but blue but setting the perfect position for some evil sulking.

"Let me remind you, Normbot v1.5, you're only here until I can get Perry the Platyborg back to my side. Ah, I miss the guy already just by thinking about him. You know, all the executioning, torturing and brainwashing… It's just not the same without that small monotreme."

There was a long, long pause of silence.

…

"…sir? Sir?"

"Ooh!" He shook his head harshly, moving his mind away from the flashbacks. "Ugh, I get way caught up in flashback overruns sometimes. Don't mind that. Anyhoo, I do like people who try to slave themselves away to pieces in order to receive the approval of a higher being, and by that I mean me, despite being told that it's a useless effort… "

He pushed the button of a remote on his pocket, lighting up the projector screen in front of him.

"And credit where it's due, you did get me three ideas that are vital to my plan."

Flashes of a slide presentation began to form on the monitor, presenting a moving diagram of the evil doctor's plan.

"The Duplicatator-Inator, despite redundancies in naming, is spitting out 500 Normbots per minute! Now that's even more Normbots coming out than the arguments Charlene and I fought every weekend! How did you manage that?"

"Simple, sir. It was sitting around, smelling and being useless in your testing grounds. I simply gave it a renovation."

"And then there's the crowd… The crowd… Hey, how did you pick the right crowd for the job anyhow? I mean seriously, these people look like they really know their stuff!"

"Simple strong networking, sir."

Silence.

"…that's it? That's how you found near three thousand evil scientists scattered all around the world and brought them all in here?"

"Well sir, you did tell me once to let you do most of the talking. It's more efficient that way."

"Hm. Why yes, yes I did…."

He stepped down the stairs and read the monitors on the side of the room, displaying the stage's preparations. "Oh, and then there's also the thing with the song. Who knew the song that started the messiest rebellion ever on my rule, can actually be twisted to fit my evil bidding?"

"It's only a matter of rewriting the lyrics, sir. The Resistance won't even know we stole one of their most symbolic song. That is, until we play it endlessly on their execution camps!"

Doofenshmirtz snorted; soon enough, he was laughing helplessly, clutching the railing on the side to support himself.

"Hahahaha! Until they're on their... Hahaha! Man, who knew you can crack a joke?"

"Yes indeed, sir. Who knew indeed."

"Hahaha… Oh, and hey, tell Peter the Panda to watch for incomings. Perry the Platyborg should fall for that warehouse trap by now."

"Roger that, sir! It will be done."

Doofenshmirtz glanced at his watch and balked. "Ooh, I'm on the air in three minutes! Wish me luck."

"Good luck, sir!" he cheerfully replied.

"I told you, watch your references, dang it!"

Doofenshmirtz went up to the balcony overlooking the hall to see a sea of people, each conversing or bickering at each other in a chaotic ensemble. Highlights included someone with a lobster hand for his left hand, someone whose head is encased in a water tank, a robot that speaks Spanish, and a thirty-foot tall giant talking with someone else who possessed way too prominent cheekbones, who had to ride a floating platform to speak with him.

Doofenshmirtz lightly tapped his finger on the mic.

"Testing, testing, one, two, SILEEENCEEEE!"

The crowds' chatter immediately halted on account that they all were too busy ducking their heads and wincing, before stopping to give themselves auditory light scans from their glowing-pen like machines.

He silently muttered to himself, "Man, that trick never gets old."

After chuckling to himself, he then managed his opening lines.

"Alright then, evil scientists of the Tri-State Area, listen up! Now, you may wonder why is it that you suddenly found yourselves waking up in this underwater facility with no chance to escape…"

"Not exactly," the thirty-foot tall guy replied unenthusiastically. "We've kinda moved past the 'wondering' bit, and into the 'escape by any means necessary' bit."

"Huh, really? Did I l-"

"If you were the genius you seem to be, you'd have read the 'How to Kidnap Someone for Evil Scientists' manual, on the evil scientists version. It tells you exactly how to treat evil scientists in a hostage situation. Did you know that point number one is 'don't actually kidnap an evil scientist'?"

"Okay, I g—"

"In fact, we were just about to settle who's gonna lead the impromptu flash mob before you showed up. It was a tie between me and the David dude, by the way."

"Alright, that's a real smart mouth you got there, you tall tower of disrespectfulness," he said with a pointed glare. "I suggest pointing that attitude to someone more worth it… as in, hmm, I don't know... the people that now protect the Tri-State Area from future despotic tyrannies!?"

Doofenshmirtz pointed to the wall behind him, projecting an image of the entire cyborg OWCA agency, with all the Resistance children standing behind them. At the sight, everyone in the audience gasped in horror.

"Yes! I know you've known who these people are. The biggest threat to all evil scientists, since August 5th 2011!"

At this, one scientist gasped in horror again. "He said the exact premiere date of the Movie!"

"Darn it, Jonah!" Another one smacked that scientist on the head. "This is reality, not an El Matador de Amor behind-the-scenes screen! Act like it for once!"

"Nice ruining the moment over there, too. Better watch your heads, fella. You know that the good guys always go for the bumbling type," he said with a shake of his index finger. "Now, listen up! This is the part where you're supposed to pay attention. You all know that none of us can stand a chance against those people. To use a rather clichéd analogy, they will crush each one of us like ants."

The scientists gasped again, with some even drawing back their hands to their mouth.

"But! That's only with the 'each one' bit attached. You take out that each one out of the sentence, and you'll be left with 'of us'! …Which just made the sentence confusing and gramatically incorrect, but the point stands!"

Normbot v1.5, who was standing behind the stage, controlled the projector screen, presenting a show of the misery of what-would-be-Danville's citizens after their takeover, all bowing with a terrified frown to a stick figure in a labcoat holding a handheld ray gun.

"If we band together our minds, our skills, our Inators! We can take them out of the sentence for a change, and take the Tri-State Area back into our folds!"

Some cheered at the spirit of his speech; but most still bore the look of unconvinced people.

"Aah, those are the eyes of doubt, I see," Doofenshmirtz said with a haughty smirk. "Well, now would be a good time for you to listen to my cues; you've listened, now get ready to see!"

He pushed another button on the remote. The walls on the side of the hall opened up with loud cranks of turning gears and dramatic chanting, revealing behind them hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of the iconically menacing Normbots, rowed up tight almost as if they were shaping a black wall all by themselves.

"Did you really think I was stupid enough to take over the Tri-State Area without an army to a literal boot? Of course not, ingrates. Now see how our odds are stacked, people; thirty-something cyborg agents plus ten children, versus three thousand evil scientists and an infinite robot army. How does that sound?"

Seeing and hearing that there could be an actual shot at their lifelong dreams, all of the audience in that hall burst into the loudest cheer ever heard from any crowd in Danville.

"That's more like it. And as one last thing; as you know, per traditions of evil scientist groups of yore, there can be only one way of making an alliance group of evil scientists official. Come on, say it with me..."

All of the scientists raised their right hands and shouted, "A LARGE CROWD MUSICAL NUMBER!"

"And that's exactly what we're going to do. Hit it!"

Norm v1.5 saluted from behind the stage and turned around, popping a stick from under his arm to conduct the orchestra manned by the normal version Normbots.

Do you hear the scientist sing?
Singing the song of evil men.
It is the music of the scientists
who will not stand for freedom!
When the beating of your heart
echoes the beating of the drums,
There are tyrannies to start
when tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade,
who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the underwater, are there subjects you long to rule?
Then join in the fight,
that'll give you the right to dictate!

Do you hear the scientists sing?
Singing the song of evil men!
It is the music of the scientists
who will not stand for freedom!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums,
There are tyrannies to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you give all you can give,
So that our banner will advance?
Some will fall and some will live,
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The people will scream out in fear
As we paint out their fence!

Do you hear the scientists sing?
Singing the song of evil men.
It is the music of a scientist
who will not stand for freedom!
When the beating of your heart
echoes the beating of the drums,
There are tyrannies to start
When tomorrow…
Comeee-ees!

"Cheers!"

Two glasses clinked together in the air, before the owners drank their contents in stride.

"So what's this thing called?" Candace asked, peering into her glass of punch. "The glass-hitting, I mean."

"Oh, that?" Jeremy said, filling back his glass. "From what I hear from people, it's called a… a toast."

"A… toast?"

"Yep. And don't ask what a pair of glass has to do with burnt bread. I have no clue either."

The two laughed again, warm as the summer sun shining above them.

"Hey, speaking of missed etymologies, why do they call it a funeral when there's nobody dead around? I can't even see a coffin!"

"On that, you'll have to ask a friend of a friend of mine. Who's also serving as the second-rate Vice Party Instigator."

"Huh. Well where can I find this friend of yours?"

As soon as she finished that sentence, she heard a small quiet cheer, followed by tap on her shoulder.

"Hiya the—"

The girl interrupting Candace never finished her sentence, probably because she's already lying on the ground from her reflex suplex.

"Oow! That was a lot of kicking butt for a nice greeting."

"Oh my gosh! I-I'm so sorry!" Candace nervously helped her up. "Uh, you know what they say, old habits die hard, and you did, uh…"

"It's okay. I should've probably known better than trying to take an expert like you by surprise…"

She picked herself up from the ground, sweeping away grass from her black rubber suit. "And you're one to talk about old habits die hard; look at me! It's been 6 months since the war's relegated to the OWCA guys, and I'm still using my Resistance outfit! Hehehe!"

Candace raised an eyebrow at how chipper the girl is, and at how fast she was talking.

"Uh, yeah. I'm C—"

"Yes I know, you're Candace Flynn- heck, I think the whole town knows you're Candace Flynn! But I've known you for a bit more, ma'am, and let me just say, that I really am…"

She suddenly stopped herself by taking a big gasp of air, muttering to herself to calm down.

"Sorry about that, I tend to get nervous when I'm near my idol figure. Or at least that's what the books say; that it's normal for people to get nervous near their idol figures, but what the heck do I know, right? Hehehe!"

She stopped again, this time growling to herself. "Start with introductions, start with introductions, darn it… okay."

She took another large gasp, before extending a stiff arm to Candace.

"Candace, I would like to introduce you to… myself? Wait, that's when you're introducing someone else… Eh, you get what I mean." She shrugged her shoulders.

"My name is Stacy Hirano, from Western Sector Division 4623—No,thenumbersdon'tcountanymoredarnit. Anyway, uh, it's a pleasure being here near you ma'am, and I'd like to say that it is nice knowing you."

"Uh-huh… pleasure to know you too," she said, shaking the girl's hand a bit cautiously. "And, uh, I think it says 'nice to meet you' in the 426 manual."

"Really? Well, what the heck. Point's driven."

"Say, can I ask you a question? Uh, I don't want to sound a bit judging, but…"

"You're asking me why I was a bit hyper around you. Don't worry, my sister taught me drills, ma'am," she waved her hand away. "Well, that's because I am in awe with you! I don't know if there's a word for it, but you are my hero. My inspiration! I mean, can anyone name anyone else who can destroy that many Normbots in one minute? I don't think so!"

"Huh… so you're saying… that I actually managed to inspire someone with my skills?"

"Heh. 'Inspired' might be just a preety bit of an understatement, ma'am. Oh hey, do you mind if I get my camera? I gotta take a picture of this moment."

"Um… okay. Go ahead."

"Thank you! Be back in a minute. See you soon!"

As the girl with the blue bow ran to the front yard, Candace blew a short puff of air.

"Huh. Nobody's genuinely called me 'ma'am' for 6 months now. Actually, it felt kinda weird."

"Oh, be nice, Candace," Jeremy said. "You have a fan, a really nice one at that!"

"A fan? What's four rotors trapped in a cage got to do with an infatuated girl?"

He only chuckled in response.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing… Just wondering how you can know the meaning of the word 'infatuated', but not the word 'fan'."

"…Hm. Yeah, that is pretty weird..."

"Back again. So Gretchen, how much does that cage weigh now?"

"Hold on…" She took the cage and put it down on the digital scale. "Uh… 610 grams."

"Phew! thank goodness," Isabella said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I thought we need to go through that all over again because we missed two more grams. Alright girls, pack it up, we got a fancy backyard to visit."

As they put the scale back into the storehouse's shelf and went out the gate, Gretchen asked, "Why did we need to weigh the bird and the cage so many times, Isabella? And why did we chain it to its bar? I thought this was supposed to be just a décor piece."

"It is," she said back nonchalantly. "Or at least, that's what it's supposed to look like."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

She sighed again. "Looks like now is as good a time as any to tell you…"

She pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket, and showed it to the rest of the girls.

"What the… That's a...!"

"Yeah. A secret map to a secret room. It fell out of Candace's pocket when she ran past us to that party. It even came out with a mini mic. Why would she need that in a piece of paper? Anyway, that's not even the important part yet; check out the back piece of the paper."

She flipped the paper around, showing to the girls what can only be described as a jumbled mess of letters scratched and carelessly scrambled all around.

"Whoa! That's Candace's handwriting all right… but what the heck does it supposed to mean?"

"I visited Baljeet again back when I sent you girls to buy the weighted cage from the store. It says that Candace found the secret room last Monday, and she's been trying to find a way in ever since. She only found how to access the entrance just yesterday!"

"And I'm betting that way in would be a 610 gram object…" Adyson finished. "That's why you needed the parakeet in a cage weighing precisely 550 grams!"

"Exactly."

Isabella turned to the single hedge figure of four hummingbirds joining their beaks in the center of the formation. Growing from the adjoined beaks was a thick tendril of green vine, reaching exactly four feet downward.

She wrapped the vine to the handle on the top of the cage, and counted to three.

"One… two.."

Before she could finish, a large rumble was heard to her left as a section of the perfectly-trimmed grass slid out of place, revealing a hidden flight of stairs leading down to darkness.

"Alright then, ladies. Here we go…"

"Comfy, Perry the Platyborg? No, of course you aren't!" Doofenshmirtz snapped, kicking nonexistent sand underneath his boot. "I made that trap to be as claustrophobic as possible. You'd be sweating right now if you can actually feel something beneath your metal skin! Not that you can do anything about that, anyway."

Doofenshmirtz bent down to meet his former general's eye through the pod's window. "So let's get things straight. I've attempted to take over the Tri-State Area a couple hundred times now. I've seen your fellow cyborg co-workers trying to thwart me, I see humans sometimes binging in on the mix… but I never really got a fix on you. What's up with that, hmm?"

Perry rolled his eyes; the doctor has got the nastiest dose of delusional nostalgia ever. He was present in every single engagement against Doofenshmirtz, and apparently he decided to forget all about that just to gloat...

"I've thought about that, and I've already prepared a solution in hand to fix your absenting problem. Behold!"

He pushed another remote from his pocket, which revealed a gigantic laser turret dropping down menacingly from the ceiling, aimed squarely at Perry's trap.

"The Re-Indoctrination-Inator! Heh, of course, you know how this thing works much better than most, since you've actually pulled this exact lever on your human and animal friends before… heheh, I just got nostalgic again. But, just to be perfectly clear in case that part of your brain was fried too…"

He pointed to a tall section of mechanical CPU casings, bearing a large energy meter on it. "See, this thing takes up a lot of power in exchange for total and disquieting obedience. When the energy meter is fully charged, see that little meter over there? The Inator will blast a beam of pure pain and evil to you, making you fully loyal to me."

With an evil cackle, he pulled the lever attached next to the meter, charging up the Inator with a loud electrical beep.

"In 15 minutes, Perry the Platyborg! 15 minutes, and you will finally be my general yet again!"

He turned back to his subordinates. "Peter the Panda, get some Normbots and guard Perry the Platyborg until he's evil again."

The cyborg panda saluted and took off behind the stage, returning shortly with near three dozen Normbots primed for battle.

"Normbot v1.5, follow me. We need to examine our stocks. And by stocks, of course I mean armies. Come on!"

"Following you, sir!"

As soon as the doctor and the robot closed the door behind them, a sly smirk formed on Perry's bill. For all of his gloating, Doofenshmirtz still forgot far too many things.

Like the fact that all OWCA agents now have a standard-issue wrist GPS tracker/reinforcements caller.

Resisting the urge to let his smile grow too wide, he pressed the button on the side on his wristwatch.

And felt his smile fall like a rock when he saw the R-ETA timer set itself to 20 minutes.

"Isn't evil great?" one Normbot suddenly piped. "I already got 500 in salaries' count! And completely clean of muffin tops and chassis oil!"

Slumping in defeat, Perry slapped a palm to his head. If there's one thing the Normbots can do competently while waiting…

"So, what do you girls think will be inside this thing?" Isabella began, moving her flashlight around and seeing nothing but the clean white walls around the stairs. "Armors? Weapons? Self-destruct systems?"

"Come on Isabella! It's six-ten grams! Six-ten!" Katie answered her, making wide hand gestures. "It's obviously a flesh-and-meat station!"

"Ugh. I hope not," Holly said. "If it's anything like the flesh I've read in that horror story a couple weeks back…"

The descending flight of stairs finally ended, landing the girls back on level ground.

"Well we're here… And no meats in sight," she said, narrowing her eyes. "But I do see-"

The girls winced when a sudden booming alarm blared all across the dark facility. Before they could react properly however, they froze when they found several hundred laser pointers pointing to every inch of their foreheads.

"Warning. Heat signatures detected."

"Okay… this is a bad start to an introduction," Isabella started.

"Security protocol. State the pass phrase in ten seconds, or prepare for immediate vaporization."

"And now we're going to be killed for our troubles," she dropped back. "…To be honest, I'd be lying if I said I didn't see this coming."

"State the pass phrase in ten… nine… eight…"

"Isabella!" They simultaneously called out. "Anything on the pass phrase on that paper?!"

"Oh yeah! Right, here we go…"

She scanned the piece of paper with her eyes, hurriedly searching for any pass phrases mentioned.

"Ah! Here we go! Alright, extend your right arm… and point upwards with your index finger…"

"Five... four… three…"

"Isabella! Hurry up!"

"I am! Let's see, and then you yell out in the enclosed mic… I AM DIVORCED AND I AM FREAKIN' PROUD OF IT!"

The girls all held their breaths as the countdown abruptly stopped. Silence overtook the room, before finally the computerized voice began to speak up again.

"We know you are, Miss Charlene. Security protocol disabled. Please proceed to your Secret Weapons Vault."

The girls let out several large gasps of relief as the laser pointers disappeared from their heads. The lights above them flickered to life, forcing them to put their hands to block the far-too-bright light. After giving themselves time so their eyes can adjust to the light's intensity, they began to walk to the big entrance gate across the room.

On the way, Adyson crept up to Milly and whispered. "Hey Milly, did you—"

"Don't worry. We've found our next Denver!"

The two girls chuckled, but was soon silenced again by the sight that lay before them.

Petrified, all seven of them chanted a long "Whoa!" at the same time.

Without turning her paling face away from the contents of the Vault, Gretchen asked, "So, Isabella, do you want to call the rest of the guys now?"

A short silence followed.

"…Yeah. Sure, why not. Go ahead."

Cliffhanger!

Don't look at me like that. The story got so large I had to split it into two parts. The second part will hopefully be up next week.

Oh, and did you get what song I based the scientists' number of? Try looking up 'Do you hear the people sing' if you didn't.