Chapter 4

Ferb pulled out a compass and looked around. He led the both of them around. Every time he would decide which direction to take, he would take Vanessa's hand and pull her in the right direction. He tried to stay confident and positive for Vanessa although he wasn't even sure himself if his sense of direction would get them out.

In the mean time, Perry wandered through the maze aimlessly. He finally decided to stop waiting until he found Vanessa and just call his helicopter to come pick him up. Maybe he could still locate her and pick her up from above. Perry hovered his finger over his watch when all of a sudden he caught a glimpse of a slender, green-haired boy.

Perry pressed his back against a leafy wall and peered around the corner. He took out a pair of binoculars and zoomed in on the boy coming towards him. As he got closer, Perry lowered his binoculars and hid behind the corner. The boy had walked past where Perry was and stopped right on the other side of the hedge wall as the platypus. Perry peeked around the corner again.

The boy was Ferb. And he was with Vanessa! This completely threw Perry off. Now he couldn't call in his helicopter with Ferb there. He couldn't jump out and rescue Vanessa with Ferb there. And he couldn't just call his helicopter far away from them and leave Vanessa in the hedge maze. The platypus also knew that he had to keep them safe as well for who knows what Dr. Doofenshmirtz had hid in the labyrinth with them.

Perry watched as Ferb took Vanessa's hand again and pointed in front of them. They both walked off in that direction. Ferb did seem to know what he was doing. Perry thought up a new plan. He would just have to keep an eye on the two from a far away distance, but follow them. If anything bad were to come at them, he would just distract them somehow and fight whatever it would be off.

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Isabella tried her best to lead the group around for she did have a navigation patch. It sure made it a lot harder being inside a gigantic labyrinth.

"I'm pretty sure we've been here already! We're doomed!" cried Candace.

Stacy begged, "Oh please! Please, Candace! Don't start up your whole pessimistic speech again."

"How can you tell we've been here already? Everything looks the same," Phineas said.

"That's exactly it! Everything looks the same! Face it! We're lost for eternity!" Candace screamed. She hugged her scrapbook tightly to her chest as she wailed.

Isabella tapped her finger against her chin and then said, "You know. You're right. Everything looks the same. That's it! We need to make a path. Leave something behind to mark where we've been. We need to leave like a little trail of something."

"That's an excellent idea, Isabella!" Phineas praised.

"Yeah, like what!?" Candace exclaimed, "We don't have anything to leave a trail of!" The other three instantly all thought of the same thing and they dropped their eyes slowly towards the ten-pound book in Candace's arms.

Candace looked to where their eyes were aimed towards and she sharply turned her back to them.

"Oh no!" she said, "No! We are not dismantling my scrapbook!"

Phineas tried to reason with her and said, "Candace, I know that book means a lot to you and is full of special memories that no one in the world cares about except for you, but just think about it. Sit here, look back at the memories and wish you could go back and experience it again, or make room for creating new memories? It's great to look, back, but it's either the paper Jeremy or the real Jeremy. Take your pick."

There was an aggravating pause while Candace took the time to think about this, which made everyone get really ticked off with her when the answer was pretty obvious.

"I'll take the real Jeremy please," Candace said.

"Sounds like a plan," Phineas said.

Candace, with a trembling hand, tore out the first page of the scrapbook. She sobbed, "Good-bye. Forever!"

Stacy put the page on the ground and the group moved on leaving a trail of pages.

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Ferb and Vanessa stopped at a dead end again. Vanessa sat down and moaned, "Oh, my feet hurt so bad. I'm soooo tired. When I go back to my Mom's, I'm telling her everything my dad has done. I can't believe this. Why isn't my Dad looking for me right now?"

Ferb sat down next to her.

"Actually, he probably he is. He's probably just getting lost in his own trap as usual," Vanessa continued with a sigh.

"Well, enough about my life. What about you? You don't seem to talk much. Just shy?"

Ferb started, "Well, actually I-"

"Hold on a sec'. Do you feel the ground shaking or is it just me?" Vanessa interrupted.

Ferb looked down at the ground and saw the dirt and pebbles vibrating a bit. He stood up.

From around the corner, Perry could feel the vibrations too. Just then, a strange, hideous creature came out. It had one eye and a huge body. It looked like it was a robot designed to look like a Cyclops.

Ferb said, "I don't remember a Cyclops being in the labyrinth, but no matter. Either way, we'd still run."

Vanessa grabbed Ferb's arm and made a dash for it. She slipped past the creature and ran back the way they had come. Perry jumped as he saw them fly past him. The Cyclops followed them. It carried a club and made loud booming sounds like thunder with every step it took. Perry rubbed his eyes. Yep, this was all really happening. The platypus chased after the Cyclops. He honestly had no idea what he was going to do. At that moment, the only thing he could do now was to improvise.

The Cyclops chased the two, getting faster and faster. Vanessa had no idea where she was going, she just ran wherever. They reached a dead end once more and were cornered.

"Wait. You're just one of my dad's creations. I should be able to figure out how to turn you off," Vanessa said. "Stay here, kid!" Vanessa ran towards the Cyclops and through it's legs. Ferb watched in fear, though it didn't really show. Vanessa jumped up onto the robot's shoulders and pulled as hard as she could on its head. It lifted up, but there were still wires attached.

The robot spun around and Vanessa was knocked to the ground. The robot seemed to move a bit slower with its head hanging around loose. Vanessa took advantage of that, grabbed Ferb again, and ran. The head had swung around to face backwards and upside down, but its body kept moving towards the two.

The two continued running and running until they were sure the robot was gone.

"Phew! I think we lost it," Vanessa gasped. However, they actually didn't lose it. Perry had really jumped out after they took off again and the dangling head that had been faced in the other direction from the body, saw Perry and was led away from them.

The platypus, still being chased by the weird-headed robot, made a sharp turn causing the robot to fall face forward into a hedge wall. Perry ran over to it, pried the back off of it while it was down and shut the power off. The Cyclops was destroyed, but now Perry had lost sight of Vanessa and Ferb. They were now probably separated far away from him.

The platypus hopped off the robot and looked at the big U-shape the robot had left from falling into the hedge wall. That opened up a whole new path. That's when it hit him. Perry got a sudden flashback of what Dr. D had said before while explaining his evil plan, "It's like a never-ending maze. It's like one of those mazes you find in puzzle books or on the back of children's menus at a restaurant only you can't just draw your pen right through the wall and cheat, making your own path."

Or maybe he could make his own path. The platypus pulled out a samurai sword and began slicing his way through the hedge walls without needing to make any turns. He would still have to be careful though, just in case Ferb were to happen to see him chopping up the maze with a sword.