Chapter 4: The Messenger

After Phineas finishes his story, minus Adyson's past, everyone stares at him in astonish. "So those people at the dance were vampires?" Ferb asked.

"Yeah. They were."

"And, she's also a vampire." He points to Anna, who is still shaking.

"Yes."

Buford says, "I knew I should've gone to that dance. I could've creamed every one of those bloodsuckers there."

"I highly doubt those were vampires." said Baljeet. "They were probably just the figment of your imagination from all that food and dancing. Everyone knows that vampires aren't real."

"Baljeet, we have living proof right here." The redhead said, pointing at Anna.

"Oh please. She probably doesn't get enough sun, and had a birth defect when she was born."

The vampire takes off her glasses, showing her crimson eyes. "Why are all brains so close-minded?"

"Hey!"

Buford states, "It's true."

"Guys, guys, whether you believe in them or not, let's go back to the situation we're in right now." Phineas interrupted. "What do we do with the Ruby Fang, Anna?"

"Well, since you found it, you must be the guardian in the legend." she answered. "So we go to Transylvania and find the mountain with the hidden cave if you want to defeat Dracula."

"Transylvania! I'm not going halfway around the world just to find a cave."

"But Phineas, you seem to be the One that shall bring the light back in my home. You have to come."

'Didn't you hear him, vampire?" Adyson asked. "He doesn't want to go. Now scram before I make you."

"Besides," added Isabella. "Dracula didn't cause any harmful trouble, so there's no need to go and defeat him."

"But what about my home?"

"You can live here in Danville. I'm sure the orphanage will accept you."

The vampire smiles at her and says, "I guess I can find somewhere to stay."

"I made lemonade." Linda walks out, carrying a tray of glasses and cookies. She stops when she sees the new people, says, "I'm gonna make some more." and walks back inside.

18 year old Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, wearing her usual Goth clothing with purple lipstick and space black nail polish, walks through the familiar halls of the Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. building. She stops at a door and takes out a key in her pocket, then unlocks it. The woman walks into the lab/room of her father's and walks around. "Dad, are you here, or at the hospital again?"

The Goth hears snoring, and turns to find Heinz Doofenshmirtz sleeping on the couch, empty chip bags and soda cans littered around. What have you been up to? She walks to the snoring mass and says, "Dad, wake up!"

The scientist wakes up, yelling, "I'm not a gnome!" He pats his head and finds hair, not a hat. "Oh right. Vanessa, what are you doing here?"

"I just came to show you something." She gives her father a piece of paper, and Heinz looks it over. "Vanessa Klera Doofenshmirtz, you have just won a free trip to…Transylvania?"

"Yeah. Keep reading."

The scientist continues scanning the paper. "You are allowed to take one friend, parent, guardian, or sibling of your choice. Okay, so why did you show me this?"

"I thought you would like to come with me to Transylvania."

"Why me? Why not your boyfriend Johnny?"

"He's at a family vacation."

"Your mother?"

"Doesn't do well on airplanes."

"Your sister, Brenna?"

"Same with mom. Right now, you're the only one that can come with me. Please, dad?" she asked, her eyes unusually large. Doofenshmirtz looks away, feeling overwhelmed. Finally, he says, "Alright, I'll go."

"Thanks dad. Didn't you say that you wanted to go to Transylvania anyway?"

"Well yeah, but only to test a new device I built that isn't really that evil."

"What is it?" Vanessa asked, curious.

"Here, let me get it." The evil scientist gets up and runs to a storage room, digging through all the junk. He throws a small mechanism over his head, and the Goth catches it. "What does this do?"

"I don't know. Something about changing from something to something else."

Vanessa points the device at a filing cabinet and presses a button. A red ray shoots out and envelops the cabinet, morphing it into a fruit bat. It flies away and out into the world, and the Goth hurls the ray gun away. Heinz exclaims in achievement, and takes out another gun device. "Here it is."

"Great. What is it?"

"I call it the Vampire-inator. It tracks down the nearest vampires in the country and leads me to them. It also has a stake fire action just in case I do run into one."

"The Vampire-inator?"

"Yes."

"Dad, why not call it something else besides inator at the end? It's starting to get old."

"Fine." he said, disappointed. "Guess I'll just call it a Vampire Tracker. Is that better?"

"Yes."

"Okay, so when are we leaving for the trip?"

"In two days. I suggest you start packing." She said, heading out the door.

"Yeah, I'll do that. Better write myself a note." Heinz grabs a sticky note and writes something down. He stares at it, then wrinkles the paper. "What am I doing? I'll just forget like I do with the Shrink-inator, which I still have to unplug. Better just start now." The scientist walks to his closet and takes out two suitcases. "This trip had better be worth it. I didn't have a great time the last time I been there."

Phineas looks at the blueprint in his hand, checking if everything's going as plan. "Buford, that panel goes over there."

"Oh, sorry." The bully takes the panel to its rightful place in the machine as Anna walks in, carrying a stack of beams in one hand. "I got the steel that you wanted. Where do you want me to put them?"

"Just put them by Baljeet."

"Okay." She throws the beams toward the brains, and Phineas flinches upon impact. He looks at his friend and finds him trapped in a steel cage, frozen to death. The redhead turns to the vampire, who is rubbing her arm. "Sorry about that."

"That's okay. You're new at this. But next time, just set it down gently."

"Got it."

"Phineas!" Linda walks out, carrying a case in her hand. "I got the game you wanted."

"Thanks mom." Phineas said, taking the game. Linda asks, "So what are you and your friends making today?"

"A building that instead of playing a videogame on a screen, the game is real life, like you get sucked into the adventure."

"Cool. I wonder why I never saw any other thing you built."

"Maybe because it always seems to vanish before you can see it. I don't know why though."

"Hmm. Well, have fun on your machine." She returns inside and Anna asks, "If that's your mother, then where's your father?"

"He's at an antique convention in California. Should be a week or two until he gets back."

"Why ask? You want some blood for your thirst?" Adyson taunts.

"Would you just give it a break, Adyson?"

The redhead rolls his eyes and strides to the pile of machine parts. Isabella puts a board on the roof when her foot slips. Phineas hears her screech and turns to see the fireside starting to lose her balance on the roof. He runs underneath her and catches Isabella in his arms. "Whoa. That was close."

The teen chuckles a little, then notices something. "Wait, weren't you just over there?" she asks, pointing to the pile of parts. The redhead looks at it and calculates the distance. "I guess the wind carried me." He puts Isabella down and walks to the machine. The fireside turns her head at Anna, who looks bewildered. She walks to her and asks, "Did you see what I'm thinking?"

"You mean he ran unusually fast?"

"Uh, yes. What do make of that?"

"I don't want to know."

Phineas puts the last wire in the device and walks back to admire their work. Standing before him is a circular building with one door, no windows, and wiring, buttons, and lights all around the outside. He says, "There. The Gamertron 3000 is all done. Who wants to give it a try?"

Everyone raises their hands and the redhead opens the disk slide, putting the game in. "Okay. Everyone head inside."

The eight friends enter the mechanical construction into the room with screens all around the inside. Phineas presses some buttons before entering himself, not seeing someone behind him in the shade. He watches the redhead teen go into the machine, when something speaks in his head. "Report Allen." Dracula ordered.

"Apparently, the kid and his friends like to build stuff way beyond the average teen. To me, very impressive."

"The boy!" Dracula yelled, stinging the vampire's whole head. "What is the boy's report?"

"Ow. Well, I think his other side is starting to break free, finally."

"Explanation?"

"He ran to save one of his friends from injury, and he seemed to turn into a blur. And some things he carried should've crushed him."

"Hmmm. Looks like it's time to bring him here. Kidnap someone he cares about and bring that person to my presence."

"Yes, your highness." Allen looks around for anything he can use to protect himself, when he spots a rock. He picks it up and looks at the machine, an idea opening in his head. The vampire throws the rock at the control panel, crushing it to bits. It sparks a little and starts smoking, useless.

Inside, the game the teens were playing disappears, black screens appearing. The emergency red light turns on, and everyone looks around with confused looks. "What happened?" Buford asked.

"I don't know. The game just shut off." answered Phineas. "Let's head outside."

The teens exit the ineffective contraption and the two brothers examine the control panel. "I think I found the problem." Phineas said. "The control panel is busted. And by something hard." He turns around and asks, "Did anyone throw something on this thing?"

Everyone says no, and the redhead looks around. All of a sudden, everything darkens, and Ferb looks up and sees dark clouds covering the once cleared sky. "Looks like it's gonna rain soon. We should head inside."

Perfect. Allen thought, a devilish smile creeping on his face. He flies out of his hiding spot and snatches the nearest adolescent: Katie. Her scream makes everyone turn from their spot and Ferb yells, "Katie!"

Phineas's eyes widen as the guy stops in midair, holding the blonde by the back of her shirt. Allen smiles at all their shocked faces, and says, "If you want to see this girl again, then come to the Mount Fang before midnight. If not, then she will be our main course."

Tears start falling out of Katie's eyes and she whimpers in fright. Phineas grabs a pole and throws it at the vampire, yelling, "Put her down!"

Allen bats the pole away, and says, "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to stop me."

"Then how about we even the odds?"

The vampire turns around and sees Anna floating a few feet from him. Her hat and glasses fell off, showing her bangs, which are pointed to the right. "Now put Katie down or else."

"Or else what, Anna?" he asked, spite floating in the word Anna.

She smiles and says, "I'm glad you asked." The teen does a flying kick, nailing Allen on the cheek. He hovers away from the teen, clutching his pained face. Looking up, he sees Anna flying for another attack, and quickly moves Katie in the way. The teen stops before she punches her friend, and Allen moves his captive and strikes the vampire down. Falling, she crashes into the ground, making a small crater. Allen grins and turns to the rest. "Mount Fang. Before midnight. If not, then your friend will be sleeping a dirt nap."

Katie whimpers and more tears fall out, and the vampire flies off back to his home, with his prisoner. Ferb starts to run after him, but Buford and Adyson force him back. Tears of distress fall out as he watches the vampire vanish. The teen pushes his friends away and walks to her brother, yelling, "Why didn't you do something? You had all this material and you just stand there watching! Why Phineas! Why just stand there when my girlfriend was in danger!"

Phineas slaps his brother across the face and grips his shoulders. "Keep it together, bro! I know you're distressed, but believe me, we'll get her back alive, okay?"

The brother says, "But we don't even know where Mount Fang is."

"We don't know where it is," Isabella cuts in. "But Anna probably does."

"Sorry, I don't." she answered, walking out of the crater, dirtied. The fireside flings her hands up and says, "Thanks for ruining my calming of words."

"So where do we find this mountain?" Buford asked, looking at Baljeet.

"I might know where it is." stated Adyson. Everyone looks at her, and she widens her eyes as she realizes what flew out. "Oops."

"What do you mean?" the brains asked.

Phineas grinds his teeth in worry and Isabella rubs her head. The hunter says, "Well, my family had a long history in…geology. So I learned to find all sorts of places…as well as some places not heard of."

"Oooohhh." everyone said, excluding the redhead, fireside, and vampire. Ferb asks desperately, "So where is it?"

"Uh, we'll need to stop by my house because I know I read it in a book."

"But we're pressed on time! If you haven't noticed," He points to the orange rays. "It's almost twilight. We have to get to the mountain before midnight."

"Don't worry. It won't take long for me to find the location. We just have to head to my house and look through the shelves."

"Then what are we waiting for, an invitation? Let's hurry!" He runs out of the yard, and Phineas says, "He sure is desperate to get her back." The gang runs after the British-American. Isabella walks by Adyson and asks, "Why didn't that vampire capture me?"

"You really want to be in peril with vampires all around you?"

"If it makes Phineas's true feelings appear, than it would be worth it."

The bunch enters Adyson's house and she leads them into another room. All around them are shelves full of books: Big, small, thick, thin, tall, short, yellow, orange, red, black, and gold. There are magazines, novels, bestsellers, non-fictions, and many others. Everyone stares in wonder at the library, and the hunter walks to one section. "The location should be around this part. Help me look for it."

Everyone starts picking out books and scanning through them, looking for 'Mount Fang' or 'vampire'. Whenever they find vampire, the teens search through the passage, but doesn't come with anything. After about two hours a searching, the sky turning from an orange shade to a purple, everyone falls on the chairs, exhausted. "I don't get it. I know I saw a passage of Mount Fang in one of these books."

"Yeah well, which one, geo girl?" Buford asked.

Phineas observes the different hardbacks, then gets an unreality idea. He walks to the edge and pushes it, enough so something fell. A book lands on its spine, a picture appearing with a page of text. The redhead picks it up and looks at the image's label. "Mount Fang". Smiling, he says, "Guys, I found it."

Adyson shoots up from her seat and asks, "How?"

"I just did what a cartoon would do. Bump onto the shelf and what you're looking for falls out."

The hunter stares at him in disbelief, but it quickly vanishes and rushes to Phineas, taking the book. She rapidly scans the paragraphs, and exclaims in triumph, alarming everyone. "Of course! I should've known!"

"Where is it?" Ferb asked hastily.

"The book said its east of here, and guessing from their distance in here, it is about…three hours."

"Three hours?"

"Bro, calm down." Phineas said.

"Why should I? My girlfriend is three hours away from here and by the time we get there, she'll be the entrée in the vampires' feast!"

His attitude scares everyone except his brother. He turns to the hunter and asks, "Is the three hours by foot, or vehicle?"

"Well, if we take a car, then we should get there thirty minutes before."

"Great. We'll just ask my mom to take us to the mountain and find Katie."

"So what?" Ferb asked. "Thirty minutes. Five minutes. What's the difference?"

"Ferb, thirty minutes can make the difference between a roast and garbage." the redhead said.

"But-"

Adyson cuts off, "Ferb, just think of the positive. We'll get to the mountain and save Katie from the vampires, and if we could, destroy as many of the bloodsuckers as I-we can."

On the dirt road, a red station wagon steers through the empty plains. Linda, the driver, asks, "Are you sure this is where your destination is?"

"Yes Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher." said Adyson.

"So where is this place?"

Ferb says, "We are going to M-" Anna quickly stomps on his foot, shutting him up. His face coils in pain and Phineas finishes, "We're just going to study a peculiar mountain out here in the plains."

"Oh. Then where's your epuipment?"

"Uh, we…left them by the mountain, and since we are getting pressed on time, I thought it would be faster if you took us."

"Okay. I think I see the mountain."

True to her word, a rocky point rises from the grass and grows. Soon, the car stop by the base of the mount and everyone hops off, walking to the large hill. Phineas turns back to his mother and says, "Thanks for the ride mom."

"No problem Phineas. And before you take off, just remember to not hold back."

The redhead is confused at her advice, but he closes the door and Linda drives back to the city. After watching, Phineas catches up to the pack and asks, "So how are we gonna get to the cave which is about…fifty feet from here?"

"Don't worry. I brought climbing gear." The hunter said, taking rope and gear out of her backpack she took. She whispers, "As well as my vampire equipment." After hooking everyone in their equipment, the group starts climbing up the mountain, most tripping on loose rocks, until they reach the alcove of a very large cave. After catching their breath from the dangerous climb, all seven teens head into the belly of the beast.