Axis21: Answering your questions in order:

1. Well, I don't know what you think they did. Sorry, I don't read minds. So, I'll take a guess what you think they did. No, they did not play Skiddley Whiffers. Candace probably took it with her when she moved out anyway.

2, 3, 4. If these aren't sufficiently covered below, please let me know.

5. Like I could really leave them stuck there.

6. Oh, you weren't thinking Skiddley Whiffers. Okay. No, they did not get into a pillow fight. Just not in the mood for it.

7. Not really a question, but...yes, it's certainly possible to get a good night's sleep sharing a twin bed (I've done it as well), but they're still new at spending the night together.

PianoMan5: They've been a bit busy the past few chapters, and haven't had much chance to act as a couple. I probably should have spelled that out better as we went along - not sure it came up between chapter 1 and the end of chapter 5.

14AmyChan: I know. Isn't it unbearable? I totally messed it up, too. The first scene of this chapter should have ended the previous one.

Axis21: ...oh, you meant karly05's Ferb-and-Vanessa-style Skiddley Whiffers. Now I get it. Um. Okay. To answer the question you were really asking: yes. Yes, they did.


Samuel was giving his wife a hug. Dr. Washington let out a deep breath as she sat down. The nurses started getting ready to cart things off.

Ferb spoke into the microphone, "Isabella, did it work?"

There was no answer.

"Isabella? Phineas? Are you there?"

Dr. Washington stood up again, walking over to the console.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm not getting a response. Boosting signal," he replied. Turning to the microphone again, he called for any response.

There was nothing.


A battery-powered emergency light flickered on, dimly illuminating the interior of the sub. Phineas looked over at Isabella, curled up in her seat hugging her legs.

"Isabella, are you okay?"

"No," she whispered. She appeared to be shaking in her seat.

He unbuckled from his seat and ran over to her. "Are you hurt?"

"No, just..." She looked at him with a panic-stricken look, and then grabbed onto him like a drowning man grabbing a life preserver.

He held her for a minute, feeling her shakes subside as she took some deep breaths. "Come on, let's go see what happened to the power cells."

She unbuckled herself with one hand, her other hand refusing to let go of his. Together, they carefully stepped toward the power room in the back.

Opening the hatch, they were confronted with the sharp smell of ozone. They found that the power cells had been knocked around in the impact. One had come loose from its bracket, disconnecting it from the circuit; the bracket itself had gone flying and briefly bridged the other seven power cells into a short circuit before it melted.

"Come on, let's see if there's any power left in any of these," he suggested.

Checking the meters on the cells, only the disconnected one had any power in it, and that one not much. "Help me put it back in place, Isabella," Phineas said. Dully, she nodded and helped him shove it back until it lined up with the power connectors. He grabbed some wire from the tool kit and repaired the broken circuit, causing the main lights to come on and beeping noises from the cockpit. "Let's go see if the radio's working," Phineas suggested.

Isabella hugged Phineas tightly and took a deep, calming breath before releasing him. "Okay, let's go," she said, grasping his hand again.


Ferb brought up the telemetry and superimposed it over the model of Vivian's liver. "So they were here when they fired the shot," he said, pointing to their location, "and then something hit them and pushed them into the wall." The model showed the impact, and then the sub vanished from the telemetry entirely. "And that's the last data we have."

Samuel and Dr. Washington looked at the model. "What could have caused it? The impact must have come from this loop of cancerous growth here, if the angle is right," Dr. Washington said.

Ferb sat back a moment in thought. "Yes, that would do it. As the echo pressure propagated, it would come into this loop from both sides and then the detonation at the junction would cause a pressure shock that could burst out and hit the sub. They were just in the wrong place."

Samuel looked at him. "So what happened to them?"

Faintly, Isabella's static-filled voice came over the radio. "Ferb? *zzz* hear me?"

Everyone swiveled toward the radio; Ferb dove for the microphone. "I hear you, Isabella," he said, his voice full of relief. "Are you okay?"

"We *zzz* blowback. No leaks, *zzz* power cells got shorted *zzz*-ing loose in the blood-*zzz* almost no power."

"Can you guide yourself in any way?"

"*zzz* drifting between blood vessels but *zzzz* control otherwise."

Ferb looked up at Dr. Washington. "Tell them to get to any orifice they can," she advised. "We'll get 'em out however we have to. If necessary, we can run dialysis to get them, although I have no idea how we're going to justify it to the insurance company."


Isabella turned off the radio to conserve what power they had left. Phineas was back among the power cells, seeing if he could find some more energy somewhere. The deep shadows from the emergency lighting seemed to flicker at the edge of her vision; they'd turned the main lighting off again as well.

Isabella stared at her useless controls. No, the walls are not closing in on me. They are not. It's just in my head. Phineas will find a way to get us out of this.

Phineas came back into the control room. "It looks like the other power cells are completely dead. The short circuit really did a number on them. We're lucky that that one got disconnected before the short."

Isabella closed her eyes. Phineas crossed the short distance to her chair to kneel beside it and give her a hug. "It'll be okay. Worst case, they do something like dialysis and filter us out that way."

"And how do we get back to full size? There isn't anywhere near enough power to unshrink us. And that's assuming we can keep life support running until they can start dialysis."

Phineas sat back on his heels. "Well...hm. I think our best bet would be to set up something to receive power wirelessly..." He stared off into space briefly. "Wait, that works. We can jury-rig a wireless power receiver that energizes off of X-rays, and then they can run another CT scan. They were going to have to do that anyway, this way we can get some juice out of it. Call up Ferb and let him know what we're going to need, I'll start working on the receiver."


"*zzz* X-rays to generate power. When I tell you *zzzzz* then run a CT scan," Isabella said faintly over the radio.

"Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. You're going to generate power from X-rays, so we should run a CT scan once you're set?" Ferb asked.

"Yes," Isabella answered. "Phineas wants *zzzzz* X-ray wavelength."

Dr. Washington said, "I'll call radiology and find out."

"We're checking," Ferb told Isabella.


"Phineas, he said the wavelength was one hundred picometers," she called back to the power banks.

"Okay. Converting to our current size, that's...about a tenth of a millimeter. Excellent. Charging antenna is set up. Tell them to fire at will."

She turned the radio back on. "We're ready, Ferb."

Faintly, her radio picked up his reply. "Activating in three...*zzzz*...one...now."

Her console blared a brief alarm as it rebooted, coming back up with power restored. "Ferb, we have one power cell at 20%," she reported.

Phineas ran back in and buckled himself into his seat. "Let's get out of here," he said. "Heading for the salivary glands. We've got enough juice to get there and unshrink."


Isabella climbed out of the submarine with great relief. "I don't think I ever want to get in a submarine again," she said to Phineas, exiting just after her. "Not even the ones at Disneyland."

"I can't say I blame you," he responded.

Isabella got off the ladder and was immediately swept up in a hug by her father. "You're back. You did it. Dr. Washington just got the CT results - no sign of any more tumors," he said.

Isabella started to cry into her father's shoulder, relief from the past week and the past hour combining to shatter her self-control. Samuel held her as she cried herself out and was able to catch her breath. Looking over his shoulder, she saw Dr. Washington escorting a nurse wheeling her mother out in a wheelchair. "Mom?" she said, incredulous at seeing her outside the building.

"Yes, Isa. The doctor says I need some rest for my system to process all the dead cells and clear out the toxins in my system, but I might be able to go home tomorrow. Thanks to you, and Ferb, and mi yerno."


Yay, resolution. Two more chapters to go - what can be in them? Wasn't there supposed to be a wedding coming up soon?