Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has read this story, and thank you to those who have taken the time to leave a review! Not to trouble anyone for more of their time, but I've created a poll to help me with a decision that could possibly affect "In the Dark," and I would really like some input on the matter. Thanks in advance!
Also, I have been in a mood to read fanfiction, so I figured that the best place to start would be from my own reader's recommendations. If you know of or have a story that you would like me to take a look at, simple leave the title and author in a review or PM, and I will definitely take a look at it and provide some feedback! Thanks again!
Chapter Eleven: Multiple Conspirators
Vanessa glossed over the handmade map; geography had never been a strong suit of hers, and combining it with her father's meticulous, chaotically done portrayal of his utopic Tri-State Area was convincing her that it never would be. Thousands of numbers were scattered throughout the map and some of them overlapped one another. A small part of the outskirts of the map also contained a smudge on it, making the numbers held within it impossible to read. Finding the thirty-second building was not a conceivable task given the circumstance.
The young Indian boy, Baljeet, vocally complained about the condition of the map, wondering who would seriously put so much effort into detailing everything to such an extent. Obviously her father would, but she knew that the kid didn't understand how much of an evil lunatic her father could be sometimes as she did. Another thing that he couldn't understand was the extreme amount of narcissism and egotistical titles and names found throughout the map. Vanessa figured most evil scientists were obsessed with leaving their mark, so she just shrugged her father's bigheadedness off.
After many unsuccessful minutes, Baljeet had gotten frustrated with trying to decipher the map and instead opted to search through her father's desk for a "key" or something. Vanessa wasn't really sure if he would find one since it would not be difficult to believe that her father simply memorized the entire map and knew what everything meant. He managed to come across a stack of papers with numbers and words listed on each page, though, causing the young boy to let out a sigh of relief.
"I found it!" Vanessa's tired blue eyes tore away from the chaotic map, staring at the paper held in Baljeet's hands. She watched as he flipped through the pages, his eyes skimming over the words at the speed she imagined a computer would use, but suddenly did a double take a few pages in.
"What is it?" Vanessa asked while trying to read the words on the page Baljeet was stumped on. She tilted her head to alleviate the stress of trying to read the words upside down.
Baljeet furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head as he continued to read over something before he answered her. "My family is on here!" He looked up at Vanessa, looking a tad shaken. "Your father planned on enslaving my family? Why!"
The sixteen-year-old brunette audibly sighed, but kept her expression sympathetic. Why couldn't her father be like normal dads in Danville? "Yeah, he wants to take over the Tri-State Area, but he'll never succeed. It's nothing to worry about." She tried to brush off Baljeet's reasonable concern over the matter, but she had a feeling that the crazy look the Indian boy was giving her meant that her words held no significance to him. "Really, Perry the Platypus thwarts him every day. There's absolutely nothing to worry about."
"Yeah, about that," Baljeet started, changing the topic much to Vanessa's relief. "Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus battles your father, correct?" He didn't wait for Vanessa to confirm this fact. "Then why is your father so concerned with helping him? Aren't they enemies?"
This was a matter that not even Vanessa ever fully comprehended. The relationship between the platypus and her dad was an odd one, to say the very least. There was definitely a mutual dislike between them, perhaps even hate, but on the flipside, they were very quick to join alliances whenever one or the other went over to the other's side for the time being. She supposed it was possible for them to respect one another, but that didn't explain their willingness to help one another.
"Well..." Vanessa paused, still not sure of what to tell the boy. "Uh-"
"Hey, ladies!"
Saved by the bell, Vanessa thought to herself, smiling as she turned to see who had greeted them. She quickly retracted her thought. Or saved by the stereotypical schoolyard bully.
"Buford," Baljeet began with some agitation in his voice. "We have been through the concepts of gender before, and using "lady" as a derogatory term is not acceptable in this generation."
"Whatever," the pale boy with a brown-haired buzz cut replied, casually walking over to them. He pretty much ignored Vanessa in favor of directing his attention to Baljeet. "So, have you found out the location yet or are you two havin' a heart-to-heart instead?"
A vein seemed to throb in Baljeet's forehead. "This map was created by a complete lunatic—" he looked up at Vanessa to make sure that she was not offended, and Vanessa motioned for him to continue, completely not offended "—and it's nearly impossible to read! Even I need a few minutes to decipher all of this!"
"Buford isn't looking for excuses; he wants results," Buford said, switching into the third-person for some reason.
Vanessa decided to step in before an argument ensued between the two preteens. "Dad's map is hard to read, but Baljeet found a key to go along with the list of numbers on the map. I guess we're trying to find a name that we can look up."
Buford eyed the stack of papers before giving it a scowl. "Nerdy here must be having a blast with all those pages."
"What do you want, Buford?" Baljeet asked tiredly, not in the mood to argue with his bully. He resumed searching through the papers as he waited for Buford to reply.
"Buford doesn't want much," the bully began in the third-person once more. "In fact, he wants nothin'. Maybe a sandwich. It is dinnertime." He glanced at Vanessa, hinting for her to offer to get him some grub since this was her home, but she just gave him a neutrally bored look before wandering back over to the map. "Meh, whatever. Isabella wants you to look over a blueprint when you're finished."
"Blueprint?" Baljeet repeated, not looking up from the papers. "What are they making?"
"Who knows?" Buford shrugged. "Just hurry it up, will ya?"
"Yes, I will. Just give me a few more minutes."
There was a noticeable change in Baljeet's tone, going from preoccupied and busy to timid and quiet. Buford definitely noticed, as he gave the smaller boy a sideways glance, but Baljeet didn't look up from the page he was on, so he just shrugged it off and walked back over to the others. Vanessa tilted her head a bit, giving Baljeet a confused look, but he continued to stare down at the page.
After a long moment of silence, Baljeet finally spoke. "I always wondered about this..."
"Wondered about what?" Vanessa leaned against the desk that they were working on, crossing her arms over her chest.
Baljeet looked up at her, but then looked over to wear Buford was. He stared at the larger boy for a moment before turning back to Vanessa.
"It's just... Buford always mentions his mother whenever he refers to his family, but never his father." Baljeet brought the paper closer to his face, examining the contents on it. "If this is correct, then that means it's because Buford does not have a father. Only he and his mother are listed on this page."
Vanessa wasn't that young when her parents had gotten divorced. Fortunately for her, both of her parents made sure to reiterate the fact that while they both loved her, they no longer felt the same for each other, and they didn't want to fight anymore. Still, it had been hard growing up with only one parent in the household. It felt...weird not seeing her father and mother both eating at the dinner table. Her father's interests made it even harder for her to adapt to her new type of home life, so her parents agreed to put her in counseling until she was more comfortable with the change.
In counseling, after many sessions, her counselor admitted to her that many children act out when their parents get divorced because they feel that the divorce was somehow their fault or that they could have done something to prevent their parents' relationship from falling apart. They acted out in different ways, but one way was to become more aggressive and push people away before they got too close to prevent any more disappointments.
"Does he bully you?" Vanessa asked outright. Instead of looking shocked or appalled at the question, Baljeet simply gave her a deadpanned look.
"Of course!" he answered. "He's a bully! That's what bullies do; they bully nerds like me."
Vanessa shrugged. It was not as though she cared that Baljeet was being bullied, and it seemed as if he did not care that much either. This just helped her to confirm that the large, pale boy acted out because of his insecurities.
Many people thought Vanessa "acted" goth because she wanted to protect herself and hide her own shortcomings. Neither was true. Vanessa was goth because she enjoyed the lifestyle, and she enjoyed the friends she had made who shared her viewpoint. Her insecurities hardly existed not because of her style in life, but because of whom she was.
"And you're still friends with him."
Vanessa's statement seemed to momentarily leave the little Indian boy speechless. He blinked, deciding if Vanessa had really stated this or if she was really asking some sort of question.
"Yes..." he answered slowly, trying his best to respond correctly to the older girl's words. "We're friends...of some sort."
Vanessa nodded. "Well, that's pretty much how my dad and Perry are with each other—except with more fighting."
Maybe her dad's relationship with Perry wasn't exactly like Baljeet's relationship with Buford, but it was the closest comparison the brunette could make that the younger boy would comprehend. Her dad and Perry were more...enemies with a friendly demeanor, if that made any sense whatsoever. It probably didn't, but she blamed her father for that. He was definitely not like normal dads.
Baljeet stared back down at the papers, silent. At first, Vanessa didn't think that he had heard her, so she was just about to repeat herself when Baljeet suddenly put the stack of papers on the table, pointing to an inked mark on the page.
"Indentured Servant 3650 is here!" he exclaimed. Vanessa immediately went over to him and looked over the top of his curly, black-haired head to read the name of the suspect.
She frowned deeply. "Yeah, but... His name is all marked out."
There was a collective frown between them until Vanessa remembered something about the map they had been looking at. She had remarked on how hard it was to read because of the endless amount of numbers strewn across the area, but there was also a tiny portion of the map that contain a smudge.
"Baljeet, check to see if that smudge on the map contains any of the numbers that look like 32 or 3650."
He obeyed, quickly picking up on what Vanessa was hinting at. Moving from the desk over to the map, he scanned the zone where he remembered the smudge being. When he found it, he brought himself closer to the smudge, attempting to make out any sort of number from it. Tense seconds rolled by as he examined the smudge, and Vanessa made sure to remain a few steps from him so that he could concentrate on the spot without her interfering.
"There are three dots in a vertical line," Baljeet murmured, still examining the spot. "It could a part of the number three."
"It's better than nothing," Vanessa said, stepping next to him now. "How can we tell where this is in Danville?"
"Easy," Baljeet piped up, pointing over to the papers that contained the key for the map. "We look up the numbers around the area and see if we recognize one of them. Then we'll get a real map of Danville, or a GPS, and go to the location that correlates with the smudge."
"Perfect." Vanessa smirked. Ferb and her father were definitely going to be all right.
"Yes! This is perfect!" Candace cheered, looking over the makeshift blueprint that they had finished. Baljeet still needed to look over it for mechanical reasons, but the implied design seemed like the ideal search, terminate, and rescue machine. It had everything that was physically possible to put on one machine, plus some that Candace considered only Phineas-and-Ferb-possible to add on.
Everyone had really come together over this to help create the ultimate fighter-robot-machine-thingy, as Candace occasionally referred to it as. Jeremy had made a wonderful suggestion for the robot to be able to shoot lasers from its hands or wrists, leading his contribution to turn into miniature laser cannons in the robot's wrists. According to him, the robot needed something that would allow it to easily terminate those tripods.
Buford, who wasn't great with actually drawing out a part of the blueprint, simply made a monumental suggestion, though it was more so a demand, of the robot having an impenetrable exterior so that the robot would not crumble after a "wussy shot from one of those other robot-thingies." It took awhile, but the group finally figured out a way to make that possible with some pure tungsten steel. This goth chick's father certainly had a lot of stuff that not even Phineas and Ferb would be able to get their hands on.
Irving and Isabella seemed to be the ones with the most contributions to the robot. They had brainstormed so many ideas from past inventions that Phineas and Ferb had made. Irving, who had been rather desolate through the entire ordeal, seemed to be in higher spirits now that his area of expertise was being utilized. It was easy for Candace to scoff at the weird kid; he never was close to her brothers like the others were. Watching him pull out pictures from his photo album, pointing to certain features and functions of various projects changed her mind drastically.
Irving just needed to fit in; he needed to be a part of the group. Without Phineas and Ferb, without what was familiar to him, he was even more lost and destitute than any of them were. Isabella seemed to pick up on that faster than any of them were able to, and when she realized that coming up with ideas for the robot would be easier with Irving's scrapbook, she immediately involved the weird kid in their newest project.
Together, they came up with rocket-powered feet that allowed flight for the robot, seeing as how Danville had many tall apartment buildings that the kidnapper could be from. They also came up with the idea of providing the robot with superior strength in its arms and legs. Most importantly, they came up with designing the robot much like the Beak was designed, allowing for different people to control different parts of the robot so that there could be a focus point for each motion, making it easier to concentrate on designing the machine to function to the best of its abilities since only certain areas had to be concentrated on at a time.
"It also needs to be fast," Candace added in, watching as one of the Fireside Girls looked up from the blueprint, holding a colored pencil over the robot's design. "Phineas and Ferb made these shoes that allowed for super-fast speed, and time is of the essence people!"
Jeremy chuckled slightly. "Oh, yeah. I remember those. You managed to bring Annabelle back to the family at our picnic because of them."
Candace smiled shyly at the memory, also recalling how she had managed to destroy the picnic singlehandedly all while keeping undercover from both Jeremy and her mother as to where she really was running off every time she made an excuse to leave their sight or have them leave her sight.
The memory spiked another memory, causing Candace to check her pocket for her cellphone. She casually flipped the pink phone open, noticing that she had a dozen missed calls. Most of them were from her mother, a couple from Stacy, and even one from Jenny. She dialed her voice mail, deciding to check it, and held the phone up to her ear.
"Candace, it's Mom. Where are you? Why aren't you answering your phone? Please call me back."
Okay, so her Mom didn't sound too worried here. Yes, it was rather strange that Candace did not answer her phone for her mother, as Candace always answered her phone, but she was confident that her mother wasn't bothered too much by her lack of response. She always had a level head.
Candace convinced herself of this and listened to the next message.
"Candace, this isn't funny. Answer your phone now, young lady, or I swear I will ground you from it until you're thirty!"
Now Candace grimaced, realizing that maybe, given the circumstances, that her mother was freaking out a bit. That threat didn't sound very serious—her mother couldn't ban her from having a cellphone until she was thirty. That was just absurd! Maybe as long as she lived under her mother's roof, but Candace was not about to suggest that to her frantic mother.
"Honey, please answer your phone! Most of the neighborhood kids are missing! I need to know if you're all right. Is Ferb with you? Is anyone with you? Please call me back."
Worry continued to etch itself into Candace's expression. Desperation had entered her mother's tone, meaning that whatever was happening on her mother's end could not have been good. They couldn't possible think that something bad had happened to all of them...could they? Well, Ferb had been kidnapped. That was bad, Candace admitted to herself, but there was no way she could tell her mother that, right? That might be the thing that would send her mother over the edge.
"Hey, Candace. It's Stacy. Your mom just called looking for you. Where are you, girl? Call me back when you can, but make sure to call your mom first. She sounded really worried."
Her mother had called Stacy? Okay, even if her spacey best friend thought her mother sounded worried, then that meant that things were serious now. Candace had to call her mother to let her know what was going on.
With the heavy feeling of dread, Candace continued listening to the messages on her phone.
"Candace, I called the police. Please tell me where you are. Please..."
Candace nearly dropped her phone. Her eyes widened, staring out into nothing in particular. The police? Her mother had called the police? Her mother had called the police. Her mother had called the police!
What was she supposed to do now? Would she get in trouble if she called her mom back now? Would the police want to speak to her? Would they still be able to go on their mission to save Ferb and, hopefully, Phineas? Just what was she supposed to do?
Minutely, Candace continued to listen to the rest of her messages, too wrapped up in her thoughts to put her cellphone down.
"Hey, it's Jenny. Word's going around that you, your brother, Jeremy, and some other kids are missing. Are you okay? Call me when you can."
Word had travelled that fast? Well, the police were probably questioning people... How did things get so out of hand?
"Stacy again. You need to call your mom or me! You guys are going to be on national news soon, and not in the good way. Please Candace! Answer your phone or at least come back safe! The police will find Phineas, really! It's their job, not yours."
Stacy's last sentence echoed through Candace's head. Not her job to find her brothers? Sure, Candace made it her mission in life to bust her brothers, but only because she wanted them to always be safe and sound deep down. It was her job to protect her brothers in any way that she could. How could taking a seat back to everything possibly be considered protecting her brothers?
A cold, harsh thought crossed her mind: Ferb wouldn't have been kidnapped. She wouldn't have lost both of her brothers if she let the police handle everything.
"Candace, we can't get a hold of anyone. You need to call me back. I love you."
Candace looked around at the group of kids and Jeremy working on the blueprint and sorting out which supplies and materials they would need for the robot. They were going to have to call off their plan, weren't they? They couldn't go on, leaving everyone in the dark about their whereabouts and plans. That was too cruel. That was not the responsible thing to do.
Instead of closing her cell, Candace listened to one last message. Instead of a female voice leaving a message, a nasally male one did.
"Candace! You tell me where my brother is right now! If anything happens to Irving, I'll hold you responsible!"
Candace's jaw dropped slightly, not expecting Irving's brother, Albert, to leave her such a message. From what she remembered, Albert and Irving did not get along very well, as he was more than happy to bust Phineas and Ferb with her even if it meant busting his brother, too, who made it evident to everyone that he was obsessed with Phineas and Ferb's projects.
Something he also said upset her, though. Did everyone blame her for the disappearance of their kids? Were they all just as angry with her as Albert was?
Candace closed her cellphone and put it back in her pocket. She had to think. She had to come up with something to do to make things right.
"Oh, no..." Candace whimpered, bringing her hands to cover her face. She just wanted to cry. What had she gotten everyone into?
"Candace?" Jeremy's voice caused her to peak through her fingers at him. "What's wrong?"
He rested a hand on her shoulder, and his touch managed to keep Candace from becoming a blabbering mess. She looked at him with tears in her eyes, causing Jeremy to look at her with more concern.
"My mom called the police because everyone in the neighborhood doesn't know where we are," she told him, causing a few gasps from the other children that overheard her. "We have to let them know we're okay."
"B-But then that means that we can't save Phineas and Ferb!" Surprisingly, it was Irving that pointed this out. He stood up from where Isabella and he were sitting on the floor to look over his photo album. "The police will just make us go home, and-and then who knows how long it will take them to get to Phineas and Ferb, and they can't handle those tripods!"
"Your brother called," Candace told him with a forlorn voice. "He's really worried."
Irving opened his mouth to respond, but the confession had left him speechless. His brother never showed much concern for him, maybe contempt, but not concern.
"Irving's right, though," Gretchen hesitantly said. She kept her gaze down on the blueprint. "The police don't have the training or technology to deal with something that compares with an enemy that's straight out of science fiction. Our best hope is this robot."
"But what about our parents?" Ginger asked her fellow Fireside Girl member. "If the police are involved, then won't we just cause more trouble for them?"
"They'll be fine." Everyone turned towards the new speaker, Buford. His nonchalance never wavered, not even when Candace mentioned to them that the police had become involved. "It'll just be for a few more hours, right? It won't kill them. And then we'll have a late supper once we get home."
Candace opened her mouth to reply, but Isabella beat her to the punch.
"Buford's right," Isabella said, standing up next to Irving. "We need to focus on the task at hand! Our parents may be upset with us, but Phineas and Ferb are counting on us! We will not let them down! C'mon girls, what troop are we?"
"Troop 46321!" all of the Fireside Girls responded in unison.
"Right! Now let's finish this blueprint and build this robot!" Isabella ordered, causing the girls to salute her and begin finding the rest of the materials that they were going to need.
Candace allowed a small grin of relief to surface. Jeremy squeezed her shoulder for one last gesture of comfort before joining the others in working at a faster pace. Candace was just about to join them when a small tug on the side of her red, sleeveless shirt prompted her to look down. Irving let go of the fabric of her shirt.
"Um, can I use your phone?" he asked.
"Uh, why? We agreed to not involve our parents," Candace pointed out to him.
Irving shook his head. "No, I know that. I just... I just want to call my brother." He looked up at Candace, who continued to give him a skeptical look. "He's good with science and robots, so I think he could really help us out."
"True... Yeah, tell him to come help us out." Candace dug in her pocket for her cellphone. Before she handed it to Irving, she told him one more crucial thing, "And tell him to not tell anyone about what's going on. They'll just try to stop us."
"Right," Irving said, accepting the phone from the teenaged girl that his brother had a crush on. He then went about dialing his brother's number and holding the phone close to his ear. Albert's phone barely rang once when he picked up.
"Candace! Where's my brother! You tell me now or else I'll make it my nerd's promise to avenge him!"
Irving swallowed, not used to hearing his brother act so protective towards him. He guessed if Candace acted protective over Phineas and Ferb despite always wanting to bust them that maybe his brother was the same way.
"Albert, i-it's me," Irving said into the phone, though his voice wavered a bit.
"Irving? Irving! Are you all right? Where are you? Are you hurt? Is Candace with you?"
"Albert!" Irving used his annoyed tone to get his brother to calm down. He had a feeling that his older brother would just panic more if Irving treated him with an equally unusual and uncharacteristic tone. "I'm fine! I'm with Candace and everyone. We're trying to build a robot to save Phineas and Ferb, and we could really use your help, Albert."
There was a short pause on the other line as his brother digested this information. "My help? Robot? Just what are you talking about, Irving—wait, did you say that you're going to save Ferb?"
"Yes, Albert. Ferb was just kidnapped by a tripod, so in order to save him, we're building the ultimate fighting machine," Irving explained. "We really need your expertise, but you can't tell anyone what we're doing."
"Irving, are you crazy? This is too dangerous for little kids to be doing! Tell me where you are so that I can bring you home! Mother and Father are worried sick!"
"Albert, I can't abandon my friends. Please. Please help us."
At first, Albert didn't respond, leaving Irving to believe that his older brother didn't care about Irving's need to help his first group of friends, but a sigh broke through on the other line.
"Fine," Albert agreed. "Just give me your coordinates and I'll come help you guys."
"Thanks, Albert," Irving said with a small smile. "Make sure that no one knows where you are going."
Irving gave his brother the address and a few directions to help him find his way to the apartment. Afterwards, he returned the phone to Candace, explaining to her how his brother was coming up to help them. Candace re-pocketed her phone, and though she faked a bit of a smile for Irving, the fellow orange-haired kid sensed that something was wrong.
"...is he mad at me?" Candace asked, looking sheepish for doing so. "He sounded it in the message he left..."
"No," Irving told her, trying to be honest. "He just sounded worried, like you said. I don't think he's really mad at you. You know how uptight my brother can be."
Candace nodded, unconvinced, but she accepted his explanation without further question. "Okay. Well, let's get back to work then."
"Hey! Everyone!" an Indian-accented voice shouted, and they all looked to Baljeet as he came running over to them with Vanessa in tow. "We know where the magazine came from!"
There was almost a rush to circle Baljeet and Vanessa as everyone held their breath, waiting for the great reveal. Baljeet looked up Vanessa, wondering if she wanted to explain it to them.
"Well," Vanessa began, "we figured out where the location is around. Strangely, it's on the far side of the map, which isn't really the Tri-State Area."
"What do you mean?" Isabella asked, voicing the question that everyone aside from Vanessa and Baljeet had in their head.
Baljeet took over for the older girl. "According to the coordination we have discovered, part of the map was newly added, but something in it was scratched out. After looking up locations around the smudge, we discovered that the place is not located in the Tri-State Area at all, but the Quad-State Area."
"The Quad-State Area?" Candace repeated, thinking to herself for a moment. "That's where my family took a road trip one time. There's nothing but desert and truck stops and a few rundown motels."
Vanessa shrugged. "It's the only lead we have."
This just served to confused Candace even more. It would make sense for someone from the Tri-State Area to have kidnapped Phineas and Ferb, but someone from the Quad-State Area? Sure, it was close enough to the Tri-State Area, but besides those truckers that they met at the truck stop that Phineas and Ferb had built on top of their RV, Candace couldn't think of anyone from the area that knew Phineas and Ferb and hated them for their projects. They had to be dealing with a complete stranger here.
"Baljeet," Isabella addressed her friend. "Can you look over our blueprint?"
"Of course," Baljeet responded, walking over to her. "What have you got so far?"
"Relax, Candace," Jeremy spoke, returning to his girlfriend's side once more. "Just take things one step at a time."
It was easier said than done, but Candace knew that standing around doing nothing was not going to help Phineas and Ferb. "Right."
The sound of nails tapping against the tiled floor echoed throughout the lair, causing Candace and Jeremy to turn towards the sound. The others heard it, too, but it was Isabella who recognized the sound.
"Pinky?" she questioned as the Chihuahua came closer into view. "What are you doing here? And why are you wearing that...hat... And is that a panda?"
The word shook through Perry's frame bringing about a cold, unnatural feeling that the platypus had never experienced before. A chill shot down his spine, but Perry felt too cold to even physically shiver. His mind refused to accept it even though his body had already reacted to the vile word. Unable to stop the impulse, he threw himself forward, intent on acting upon the animalistic rage that O.W.C.A. had tried to rid him of, all the while repeating the dreaded word in his head: Dead, dead, dead.
Small, sturdy hands grabbed his tail, sending a jolt of pain up Perry's tailbone as his jump was halted midair, and he found himself returning back to the ground. He looked behind him, breathing heavily and barely containing a feral growl, trying to comprehend why Ferb was keeping him from ripping apart the old woman.
Ferb let go of Perry's tail and grabbed his pet platypus around his middle, lifting Perry into his arms. Perry's body moved up and down, keeping up with his frantic breathing. Ferb suspected that his beloved pet was not used to feeling such raw emotion, and thus was not able to control it very well. In order to keep Perry from doing something irreversible, Ferb held him in a rather tight embrace, pressing Perry's back to his front. Perry squirmed a bit, but Ferb knew that he was purposefully not using his full strength to escape Ferb.
Looking up at the old woman, Ferb made sure to keep his stare even with his voice. "I don't know who you are, but you're lying."
Doofenshmirtz looked back-and-forth from the old woman to Ferb. He looked as if he didn't know whom to believe.
"Maybe," she offhandedly commented, placing her hand on her hip. Ferb tightened his grip on Perry as he felt the platypus stiffen and then try to lurch himself forward. The old woman paid the platypus' aggression no attention, though. "I couldn't imagine him living much longer with his disobedience."
"What are you talking about?" Doofenshmirtz demanded to know, sick of feeling confused and sick of being in this creepy, old, old woman's presence. She must have walked among the dinosaurs or something.
"Now that would be telling," the cruel, old woman stated with a coy grin, or at least as coy as her rigid facial muscles would allow. "As for who I am: My name is Professor Poofenplotz, future co-ruled of the Tri-State Area."
That seemed to tell enough, as Doofenshmirtz immediately changed his irritated expression to an enraged one. "Hey! The Tri-State Area is mine to conquer! You wouldn't even live that long to effectively rule it with an iron fist!"
"You know, you're going to be my age one day too," Professor Poofenplotz drawly remarked. She lifted her head high. "My co-ruler's orders have been clear enough, though. The boy is to be brought to him." She looked over at Doofenshmirtz. "You and your nemesis, though, can share a humiliating death together. Die while knowing that you will never take over the Tri-State Area," she turned to Perry, "and die knowing that your owners are in our hands."
"Like Hell," Doofenshmirtz spat. He then did something that Perry only longed to do; he launched himself at the old woman, preparing to tackle her to the ground and break both of her brittle hips. Perry would have joined his nemesis in a heartbeat if Ferb hadn't kept his grip on him and turned to face a new enemy. Doofenshmirtz didn't stand a chance before being knocked to the ground by the new arrival.
"Oh, Heinz, attacking a lady? Look at how far you have fallen, you disgusting dog." A bald man with thick glasses snidely remarked. Perry recognized the man as being from the evil group, L.O.V.E. M.U.F.F.I.N.
Doofenshmirtz found himself sprawled out on the ground in a good amount of pain in his side where he had been struck by his rival and group member. To his knowledge, Rodney was not that strong, so he blinked up at his fellow L.O.V.E. M.U.F.F.I.N. member.
"Rodney?" he questioned, making sure that this was the Rodney that he knew and not some freakishly strong lookalike.
The bald man glared down at him. "That's Aloyse Everheart Elizabeth Otto Wolfgang Hypatia Gunther Galen Gary Cooper von Roddenstein to you, you hopeless failure."
Ferb suddenly let go of Perry, allowing the platypus to gently drop to the floor in front of him. Perry looked over his shoulder questionably, but Ferb just pointed at the retreating form of Professor Poofenplotz. Perry didn't need any more encouragement to go after her.
As Perry headed after the old woman, Doofenshmirtz shakily brought himself to his feet, still regarding Rodney with some confusion. "You're in on this too? Is everyone after these two boys?"
Rodney smirked. "After our utter failure at that stupid dance competition, I discovered a creepy-looking exoskeleton that allowed the human body to mimic its movements." He took a step closer to Doofenshmirtz, who reflexively took a step back from his, well, what he figured was his ex-teammate now. "I tapped into its electrical input and output center to make it so that it could allow the body to maximize its adrenaline and accomplish moves and strength only dreamed of." He grinned, obviously reflecting on the creation's success. "Later I watched some of the tapes from the studio to discover who created this mechanism in the first place, leading me to discover that it had been created by none other than your nemesis' owners."
Doofenshmirtz looked over at the green-haired boy, secretly impressed. Of course Perry's owners would be young geniuses while he struggled to make just one of his inators work.
"Which," Rodney continued, "led me to meet Professor Poofenplotz, who also knew of your nemesis' owners accomplishments. We decided, along with our leader, that those boys' talent would best be served under us."
"So...what does that mean for me?" Doofenshmirtz asked, getting straight to the point. He backed himself up a bit, preparing to make a run for it with the green-haired boy. Their best bet was to have Perry take care of these freaks.
Rodney grinned. "I was hoping you would ask that."
In the blink of an eye, Doofenshmirtz found himself thrown off the landing he was on and onto the floor below. He rolled from the sheer force of the punch and found himself slamming into a small body.
Ferb, unable to execute an inhuman speed that would allow him to dodge the German-accented scientist, tensed up as Dr. Doofenshmirtz slammed into him, sending them both to the ground. Doofenshmirtz remained halfway on top of him, trying to recover from the blow that he had just received. Ferb was appalled to have learned that this "Rodney" person had tampered with one of his inventions for the purpose of evil. It was against all the Ferb's creations stood for, and he wondered if Phineas had learned of this and reacted with as much of an outcry as Ferb wanted to react with.
"Oops, sorry ickle boy," Rodney said, not sounding apologetic in the least bit as he hopped off the landing and headed towards them. "I didn't mean to hit you there. Here, let me help you up."
Surprisingly, Ferb found himself being lifted into the air as Doofenshmirtz brought himself to his feet, gathering Ferb under one of his arms as he did so. He then slung Ferb a bit over his shoulder, much as a person would carry a sack, leaving Ferb facing behind Doofenshmirtz at a surprised Rodney. With what remained of his energy, Doofenshmirtz bolted in the direction that Perry went off in, carrying Ferb to the best of his ability.
"Screw off, Rodney!" Doofenshmirtz shouted, not in the mood for dealing with his infuriating rival.
It took a second for Rodney to get over the shock of Doofensmirtz's actions before he began chasing after the other evil scientist. "Give him to me, Heinz! Just give up!"
Doofenshmirtz forced himself to run faster, cursing himself for not wearing his running shoes. Ferb was just impressed that the middle-aged man managed to run at such a speed while carrying him. It seemed as though the two evil scientists were using their adrenaline against each other, though in this situation it would be the pseudo-adrenaline of a machine versus the real adrenaline of a human being.
He hoped Perry was having more luck than he was.