CHAPTER 10-Here we go! Told you I would be busy! I barely managed to get this up today!

All right, go on and read!

With that, he pressed the green button and he and Vanessa flashed out, leaving their empty seats and a very bewildered stewardess behind…as well as all of their luggage.

GENERAL POV

Phineas snatched a piece of paper from the side of the table and began jotting down the address that had appeared on the screen in front of him. He glanced up briefly, and then looked back down at the paper, talking the whole time.

"OK, Candace and Holly, you guys should probably grab a map or something and find out the shortest way to get there. Isabella, I need you to find something that might be able in the slightest to stop that ghost. Ferb, I wondered if you could maybe get like a reading on Scott or something. I'm going to see what I can find out about Maryellen." Phineas looked up at everyone still standing there, and he raised his eyebrows. They all scattered in different directions immediately, leaving Phineas to his search.

Candace and Holly sprinted for the den and Isabella darted to the basement, where Phineas and Ferb kept most of the inventions that didn't disappear on them. Ferb, meanwhile, headed into the living room and sat on the couch. He had already tried to get something on Scott, but it hadn't worked.

He sighed and leaned on his knees, looking around the house. If only he wasn't the only one able to see the ghosts. If he had someone who could….

Ferb sat straight up and grinned. He did have one friend who could help. He pulled out his phone, praying he still had the number. The second he found it, he turned his phone on and pulled it to his ear.

OUTSIDE OWCA HEADQUARTERS

"Ouch!" Vanessa cried as her bottom hit a tree root. She stood up slowly, rubbing her backside gingerly before turning to help her father up. "Dad, couldn't you have gotten us a softer landing?"

Dr. D opened his mouth to respond, but Vanessa's ringing cell phone cut him off. She held up a finger and pulled the cell out of her pocket. As she examined the caller ID, she realized that she didn't know the number. She answered anyway.

"Hello? Who is this?" She asked, rubbing her knee where she had hit it on a rock.

"Is this Vanessa?"

Vanessa frowned. The voice sounded all too familiar. British, soft, quiet….but she still couldn't place it. She frowned at her father, who was reading the very obvious sign situated outside the front of the building, and then turned back to the caller.

"Yeah, this is Vanessa. Who is this?"

On the other end of the line, Ferb blinked in surprise. How many British people could she possibly know?

"This is Ferb."

Vanessa felt a small smile inch its way onto her face. "Ferb! Hey, how's it going?"

He cleared his throat quietly. "Not good. Listen, your father, he's a scientist, right?"

Vanessa scrunched her eyebrows together. She had never told Ferb that. "Yeah. How'd you-"

"No time to explain. Look, here's the short story. Perry's been kidnapped, and I need your father to make us four pairs of ghost-seeing goggles…or glasses or whatever."

Vanessa raised her eyebrow. "Why? Wait, how do you know Perry?"

Ferb sighed. "Again, no time. Tell him to leave them at the corner of River Road and Mattanakuk Drive. Please? And hurry! Perry's life is at stake!"

Vanessa gasped in surprise as the dial tone rang in her ear. She studied the phone for a moment, and then shoved it into her pocket before sprinting over to her dad. She grabbed his arm and stopped him from entering the front door of headquarters.

"Dad, I need your help!"

Doof turned in surprise. "You do? With what?"

Vanessa sighed. "Actually, Perry needs help. He was taken, Dad. And my one friend, for some odd reason, needs you to make him four pairs of ghost seeing glasses. You have to!"

Dr. D held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say that Perry the Platypus was kidnapped?"

Vanessa nodded energetically, and Doof scowled. "No one hurts my nemesis but me! Come on sweetie; let's get back to the lab!"

Vanessa frowned. "But Dad, the lab is all the way across-oh no."

Before the Goth could protest, Doof had entered the address and zapped them both to DEI. Vanessa groaned as she hit the floor hard, and then stood up as her father began running around in a whirlwind of blueprints, sunglasses, and liquid nitrogen.

Vanessa glanced down at the smoky substance and then up at her father, who was now wearing a top hat and holding a microphone.

"Oh! When there's something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? Ghost-"

"Dad!" Vanessa cried. Dr. D lowered the microphone and looked at her. The backup dancers paused with their legs in mid kick. "What?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "No time for a musical number Dad! We gotta get going!"

"Oh, right. Sorry ladies. Maybe tomorrow," Doof said, as Vanessa began shoving the dancers out the door.

He turned to his work table and began mixing chemicals that Vanessa couldn't identify, except for some hydrogen and aluminum. Vanessa sighed, and then sat down on the couch. She had only been there for about 5 minutes when Doofenshmirtz yelled out triumphantly "Done!"

Vanessa looked up in surprise at her father, who was holding four pairs of steaming sunglasses in his hands. "Wha- How did you do that so fast?" she cried holding up one finger in disbelief.

Doof shrugged. "I got mad skill, baby. Now, want me to take them there?"

Vanessa shook her head. "No, I can do it. Thanks Dad. And, I won't tell Perry that you did this for him."

Dr. D handed Vanessa the glasses and then pulled out the transport-inator. Vanessa held up a hand quickly. "I think I'll take a cab."

PHINEAS AND FERB

"OK, gang. Are we ready?" Phineas asked as he tucked the paper into his pocket.

Everyone in the room nodded. Holly and Candace walked to the front of the group holding the instructions on how to get there in their hands. Isabella had found nothing that would be of much use to them, but she was holding a baseball bat, just in case. Ferb was standing next to Phineas, silently praying that Vanessa had gotten her Dad to cooperate.

"Then let's go!" Phineas yelled. He charged out of the yard, everyone following closely. "To the right!"

"Actually, it is the other way!" Holly piped up.

"To the other right!" Phineas cried, reversing his direction. Ferb almost smiled, and he sprinted after his brother.

They followed Holly and Candace's shouted directions easily, having no problems until they came to a busy intersection. Phineas, still in front, screeched to a halt, causing Ferb to run directly into him. "Shoot!" the boy yelled.

Ferb stepped in front of his brother and glanced in both directions at the dozens of cars speeding by. He bit his lip and threw his hand up into the air. Every single car came to a standstill, drivers pressing down on the gas as hard as they could. "Go!" the Brit cried.

The other four darted across the street and Ferb followed only after they were all on the sidewalk. The second he hit the curb his arm went down and he collapsed to the pavement, breathing heavily and exhausted. Phineas knelt and grabbed his arm.

"Whoa, Ferb buddy, you OK?"

Ferb nodded and managed to stand up without passing out. He caught sight of Candace's face and grinned. Her mouth was agape and she was staring at him.

"How…how did you…"she stammered, unable to finish her thought.

Phineas looked at her and smiled. "So…I take it you didn't know everything."

"Apparently not," the girl grumbled.

"Guys, come on!" Isabella cried. "Only one more block!"

The two Fireside Girls took the lead, and they turned the corner, passing a taxi on the way that almost sprayed them all with water from a collected puddle on the side of the street. Ferb flung an arm up to keep the water from hitting them, and then they continued down the street, stopping in front of the house number marked on Phineas' paper.

The kids stepped up onto the porch, breathing heavily, and Phineas rang the doorbell. Seconds later, a woman with graying hair and sparkling green eyes answered the door, and she spoke to them with a light Irish lilt.

"Good afternoon. Can I help ya?" she asked, smiling down at the kids. Ferb stepped forward. "May we come in, Ma'am?" he asked.

"Of course ya may! 'Tis not much, but it's a bit better than what I used to have…trailers aren't the best place to live, lad."

Ferb smiled and the kids followed the woman inside. Ferb stood back and poked his head out the door after Isabella had passed him. He glanced down the street and smiled. Sitting on the curb was a plastic bag with his name written on it in giant letters. He looked up and down the street and cocked his finger. The bag flew into the air and over to him. He gathered it in his arms and shut the door behind him.

Vanessa stepped out of her hiding place, her jaw slack. First the collected hose water, now the bag. What was going on? The girl shook her head, sending her black hair swinging, and she decided to worry about it later.

Ferb walked inside and placed the bag on the table that everyone was sitting at. Though they all looked at it in curiosity, Phineas kept his focus on Mrs. Gary.

"So, your son Scott…what was he like?"

The woman sighed and looked down at the table. "He was a good lad, mostly. Then, about 2 weeks before his death, his girlfriend broke up with him. He took it hard, and he started drinking. That was what he was doin' the night before he died. He called me to tell me he was coming home, and I knew he had been drinking too much. I-I should've gone to get him myself, but I didn't. Never heard from the lad again."

Holly and Isabella looked at each other, their lower lips trebling. "That's awful," the latter whispered, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. She glanced at Ferb and smiled sheepishly, but honestly, Ferb felt bad as well.

"Sooo…"Phineas said, tapping his fingers on the table, "did it ever occur to you that Scott could still be here?"

Ferb looked at his brother sharply, shaking his head and sending him a silent warning. Mrs. Gary frowned. "No. of course not. He died."

She glanced around at the kids sitting at her table and something about the expressions on their faces made her hesitate. "Right?"

Phineas opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted by a sound like shattering glass from the basement.

DOWNSTAIRS

Perry yelped as Scott chucked the vase at his head. It was only because of his agent skills that he was able to avoid it at all. It smashed against the wall and landed on the floor in a heap of glass and dead flowers.

He shivered violently as Scott approached him and tightened the metal straps pressing his arms to his sides. The ghost pressed a hand tightly to Perry's throat and leaned over menacingly. "You know they aren't coming, right?" he hissed in the monotreme's ear.

"Guess again, Scott," growled a British voice from the doorway.

Perry looked up and chattered in relief at the sight of Ferb and the other kids standing in the door.

Ferb scowled, and took his hands away from his hips. He raised them into the air and the glass on the floor went up as well.

"You don't touch my platypus," he snarled. "This ends here."

So, they found Perry and got help from an unlikely source.

Anyone else like my reference to Ghost Busters, which I don't own?

R and R!