-Danville, 1914-
Phineas was sat and ready to work. He came around to Rhode's office with a bright smile on his face. Rhode noticed and seemed slightly confused.
"Alright Morning Glory, what's the story?", he asked. "Why so happy all of a sudden?"
"Um..", his smile faltered a bit but it soon returned. "I'm just ready for another adventure is all!"
"Already? What artifact?", he asked.
"Um... I was... Well do you have any ideas?", Phineas asked, now feeling stupid for not having asked Ohio.
"Mm... Nope. But hopefully we'll-", he stopped as there was a knock at their door.
Getting up from his seat the two came to the front door where a tall, teenage girl with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a black coat, hat, and gloves, smiled down at Rhode.
"Are you Rhode Island Fletcher?", she asked, her voice sounding something familiar.
'...Vanessa?', Phineas searched his memory as Rhode quickly took off his hat in politeness and gave a nod, feeling too nervous for words.
The girl smiled and produced a small letter with a red ribbon and handed it over to him saying, "I was asked to give you this. See you around."
With that, she left and Rhode was still watching, holding the letter until it finally registered with him that she was out of sight. He snapped into reality, closed the door, and placed his hat back on, looking at the letter when he noticed Phineas smiling at him.
"...Shut up, Ohio.", he said before heading back to the office. "I don't have anything for her."
Phineas' smile disappeared as he saw Rhode head off and seemed rather puzzled.
"...I didn't say anything.", he called out.
"Yeah. Well. Don't.", Rhode warned before walking into his office.
Phineas simply shrugged and followed. The letter was opened and instantly the better smells of South Dakota wafted through the air. It was a neatly written letter with a sort of flow between the cursive letters. Phineas noted to himself how weird and rare it actually was to think of people no longer sending simple emails to one another.
"Dear Rhode Island Fletcher,
Forgive me for not staying for long but business had only spared me as much time as to give you this letter. My name is Vanessa. I have been ordered by my father, a lover of historical facts and genealogies, to ask of you two to recover an old relic that might help us trace our family's history to the 1600's. According to his records, the start of this journey will take place in England in an old two-story house out on the Western coast that belongs to a Prof. Phinneaus Meddleshmirtz. It is said that inside is the key to unlocking a large and terrible and metallic monster that Father believes to be true and wishes to examine and ultimately destroy it. In his history books, this monster is said to have terrorized many citizens and ultimately destroyed its creator. It was eventually stopped and hidden away somewhere else. Myths or Truths, my father was told only you and your partner liked to define the difference. If you succeed in this, each one will be greatly rewarded.
Vanessa"
Her lipstick was still left on the end of the letter and while Phineas was more curious about this "Meddleshmirtz", person, Rhode could only look skyward in silent thanks as his cheeks turned slightly pink. Since, after all, the letter was intended for him.
"Welp! There you go!", Phineas finally said, snatching the letter from Rhode's hands. "Rhode, I know what we're going to do today!"
When he saw the curious look from the partner, Phineas quickly corrected himself.
"Rhode, I know what we're going to dig up today!", he recovered. "Sorry. Slip of the tongue. Let's go!"
Rhode quickly grabbed a book on 1600's England and headed out. Once the plane was started up, Phineas looked about the controls in slight uncertainty. But they weren't too far off from the controls in the "Paper Pelican" and soon the duo were on their way to England.
For however long it took, they had made it to their destination. Getting out and looking about, Rhode consorted the book he had and they made their way to the possible town the mansion was rumored to be in. Asking a few of the locals after the house and getting a few sketchy guesses, they made their way to the older side of town. The buildings became more rural and as Phineas looked about, he almost felt himself walking through the time-line he saw while using the Time Machine. Eventually, Rhode nudged his shoulder and they looked over to a large gated area. The place was over-ran by over grown foliage but there wasn't a lock to the yard. Once actually concealed into the grass, it measured up to Phineas' eyes and he had to stand on his toes to see clearly. While pushing things aside and Rhode even having to hack down a few vines with his knife, they finally made their way to the front door. It was large and as Phineas tried the handle, locked.
"Hmm.. If it's locked.. how do we get in?", Phineas asked.
"...I would say break a window, but they're too high.", Rhode noticed, looking down the vine-covered walls.
"Nah. I don't think we should break in like thieves.", Phineas cringed some. "Sounds kinda...wrong."
"Never stopped us before.", Rhode noticed as he continued to look for some way to get in.
As Phineas examined the door he noticed something odd. There was vines up on the door but not actually ON the door. They were covering something. Phineas grabbed a hold of them and pulled back as hard as he could. After a bit of struggling, he'd managed in revealing part of a large gear. There were two gears. Both of which were responsible in moving some shafts that were plugged into the top of the door. The locks. It was a giant lock.
"Hey Rhode!", he called out. "Check it out!"
Rhode looked around the corner and came up as Phineas tried to figure it out. If there were gears, how could the gears move? There wasn't a handle bar or anything they could push or pull on. When Rhode examined it, noticed some of the rust, and then made a determination of the size, he simply shrugged it off.
"Alright, you found the lock. And? We can't open it. It's too big.", he said. "And the rust has it locked down."
"Not necessarily.", Phineas mentioned. Just because it's rusty, that doesn't mean it can't be used. It's just a little old."
"Alright. So how do we move the gears?", Rhode went on. "Again. It's too big to do by hand. And there aren't any handle bars."
"Well no. But there's gotta be someway.", Phineas began to ponder, tapping his shoe in thought.
That's when he noticed something. A funny thing about boots, is that there's a lot of string in them. A memory of just how stubborn string could be to break, often coupled together in Phineas' mind with the word. That's when something clicked together in his mind.
Rhode, naturally took a step back as he noticed "Ohio", bending down to his shoes and beginning to play with them. He sure was acting odd for that day, but this just topped the sunny-disposition.
"Um... Ohio?", he asked curiously.
"I just need your shoelaces. Hang on a sec.", Phineas said as he continued working.
Eventually he pulled them out and then got his own undone. He then took off the belt he was wearing and asked for Rhode's. When handed over, the 6 were tied together into something of a rope.
"Ohio, what are you doing?", Rhode asked, annoyed he had to stand there and hold up his pants as he watched.
"Just hang on a second.", Phineas said, tying one end to a tooth in the gear and wrapping the rest around it.
He came down, gave a piece to Rhode, and braced himself.
"Alright, now just pull!", he said as he began to tug at the make-shift rope.
Both of them pulled as hard as they could and with much struggling and grunting, the gear finally managed to turn. Which invariably began to turn the other. For as long as the belts were wrapped around the gear, it continued to turn. Phineas would stop and re-wrap it and finally after some work, they managed to open the door, slip the belts and shoelaces back on, and head inside.
The place was far from as dilapidated as the outside appeared. On the contrary, it seemed as if someone had lived in here for all the years, tending and keeping to the house, as if expecting guests. It was almost creepy because Phineas knew no one was supposed to live there. But they began their exploration. The long hallway they had entered lead out to 4 rooms, a living room, a kitchen, a workshop, and a bathroom and there was a flight of stairs leading to the rest of the house. As they walked along the hallways, looking about for clues to this "monster", Phineas saw a self-portrait of the previous person living here and gasped some seeing it. The man in the picture, who was titled as "Prof. Phinneaus Meddleshmirtz", had an uncanny resemblance to the boy himself. The bright red hair. The same shaped face. But he was older and had glasses. And while having a smile, he seemed more serious than Phineas himself. Rhode saw the portrait himself and looked between it and "Ohio" some before giving a jesting nudge to the boy's shoulder with a chuckle.
"There you go. You've found your family history.", he joked.
"That's not really funny, Rhode.", Phineas smiled some though he knew it was true. It had to be. How many inventors with that same face, could there be in history?
Taking a gander into the workshop, again, it was as if someone was still living there. Pieces of old machinery hung from the rafters or laid in corners, waiting to be completed. There was a bookshelf filled with journals that had rough sketches of inventions, maps, math, science, whatever an inventor needed to work with. Phineas almost felt like he had stepped into an old home that used to be his. It was almost perfect, aside from the older means of machinery. It also seemed that everything in the shop ran on either steam power or clock-work gears, including a rather odd piece sitting on a table with a pair of goggles next to it.
For a moment, Phineas had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing right or else his mind was playing a trick on him and conjuring up a figment of Phinneaus still standing there, screwing another bolt into the gadget. Looking again and finding no one there, Phineas came up closer to get a better look.