Surprise! In spite of my usual erratic update schedule, I've managed to get this chapter up (moderately) quickly. I'm going to try to hold to a quicker schedule from here on out, but I'm not making any promises.

Anyway, I realize this is an awfully long chapter, but I think it's among my best so far, and I'd appreciate any feedback. I've heard... good things about it so far.

/evil chuckle/

Phineas

Day 62

It was about five in the morning when Phineas decided it was time to get up.

This decision had nothing to do with sleep, of course- he hadn't done any of that last night. It was just that he'd been lying morosely in bed since about midnight, and he decided that it was time to get up and do something.

The first idea to occur to him was to go talk to Candace about the night before- her explanation had been rather short, and he was still lacking in the details. He was about to get up to do so before he looked at his alarm clock and realized that it was five in the morning- the odds were against anyone besides him being up yet.

So he stood there morosely for a moment, not sure what to do, before just walking over to the window to look at the sunset. The sun was casting beautiful reds and purples through the window, as well as long shadows of the same.

He turned and placed his back to the wall, then slid down with a sigh. He remembered the time he first saw a sunset (to the best of his memory, anyway), when he was about five, and he'd asked his mother what caused it. She'd smiled and told him it was "the sun's magic," and he'd gone to bed that night with an intense sense of wonder at that yellow ball in the sky.

Now, of course, he liked to think he was a fair sight more learned than he had been then. He knew about the mechanisms of solar fusion, about the composition of the atmosphere, and the hundred other factors in the formation of sunsets. But his increased understanding of the world had never seemed to undermine his wonder at and appreciation of it. Quite the contrary in fact. No matter how much he learned, that sense of wonder had never left him- until now.

Now he could see that the world's capability for depravity was as boundless as its capability for beauty- that it could create an entity like the Slender Man as easily as it could create a sunset. And now, whether or not the Slender Man ever left, or was destroyed, or what have you, he didn't think that sense of wonder would ever return. Now there was only fear of what the world could do to him if it wished, and of what it had already done to Isabella.

He gingerly laid a hand on the window behind him. He could almost feel his sense of innocent wonderment leaving, like a scrap of singed paper carried away by a fire.

Of course, the most likely explanation for all of this, and the one that most appealed to the scientist in him, was that they had all suffered some sort of mass insanity, brought on by the stress of Isabella's disappearance. It was certainly more reasonable than the alternative- that a faceless, tentacled urban legend had snatched Isabella and, according to Candace, was now after him.

Unfortunately, in spite of all reason against it, Phineas knew, deep within, that it was true. Whatever had happened last night (he still couldn't remember anything, other than a vague impression of terror), he knew he'd touched on something primal, a force that was likely beyond his ability to constrain.

But for his sake, and Isabella's, and everyone else's, he knew he had to try.

He let his hand drop from the window and looked back up, only to see his brother watching from his bed.

"Hey, Ferb," he said with a smile that felt tacked-on. "Crazy night, huh?"

After a moment, he sighed sadly and looked back down at the floor, his arms folded over his legs.

"God, I still can't believe this is real. It's all so sudden, and just... so insane. I mean, any neutral observer would think we're all insane."

He sighed.

"Isabella would have known what to do."

He sniffed at the memory. Then he felt tears begin to form, and, after a moment of restraint, they began to morph into sobs.

Ferb, realizing what was about to happen, got up from the bed and put his brother in a comforting embrace. Phineas almost seemed not to notice- he was too busy trying not to fall apart.

His sobs began to grow harder and harsher. The tears began to flow thicker, until finally he broke out sobbing and collapsed onto his brother.

"Oh, Ferb," he choked out between sobs. "I miss her. Oh, my god, I miss her. She would have known how to handle this; she would've kept her head. She could stand up to anything, and now she's gone!"

Ferb didn't respond, except to tighten his embrace on his brother. Had someone been looking extremely carefully, they might have noticed the very beginnings of a frown forming on his brow.

I think I know where this is heading, he thought to himself, in what would have been a concerned tone if spoken aloud. And I'm not sure I like it.

Phineas seemed more or less oblivious to his brother's concern- he was too busy sobbing himself dry.

"It's just..." he began between sobs. "She'd always been the best of us at standing up to danger, no matter what it was. If this thing was bad enough it could scare her and then pluck her off the face of the earth... it can't be good, whatever's happened to her."

He sniffed once and then sat up a bit again, a little away from Ferb's embrace. For a moment, Ferb began to relax a little- it seemed his first impression had been wrong.

"But... I feel like it's something more than that- like a piece of myself is gone. I keep thinking of that time a few years ago when we decided to fly around the world. We were stranded on that island, and I just... gave up. I felt hopeless, and she managed to get me on my feet again.

"And I... I keep expecting her to do the same thing right now. I keep looking around and expecting her to tell me to keep going, to tell me I can pull through. And then I remember that she's gone, and..."

He stopped, tried to regain his composure for a moment, and then fell apart again, sobbing with a renewed force.

... Never mind, Ferb thought to himself. It's worse than I thought.

Perhaps wisely, he chose not to voice his thoughts to Phineas, instead putting his arms around him again and supporting his newly-renewed sobbing.

But however all this was resolved, he didn't think things would ever be the same again.

Suddenly, he felt a sense that something was out of place. Without releasing his embrace on his sobbing brother, he turned to look around the room. After a moment, he froze, suddenly realizing what was wrong.

Where was Perry?

Perry

After a quick check of the living room, Perry unhinged one of the couch cushions and leaped into the tube beneath it. On the way down, he reviewed what he'd discovered so far. It was a short list.

First of all, there apparently was some sort of government agency interested in Isabella's disappearance- they'd called themselves the "Bureau of Special Investigations," but they could easily have been lying. For that matter, they could have been lying about working for the government, though if they were, Perry couldn't for the life of him imagine who they were.

Secondly, Doofenshmirtz' family had apparently been involved with the O.W.C.A. in some way, though the files hadn't been especially clear on how much. Perry's host family wasn't allowed to know about his agent status, but he knew there were some families with a greater involvement- mostly hosts who already had espionage careers. He doubted that had been the case with Agent Arndt and Doofenshmirtz' cousin Eloise, but he could be wrong.

And third, he had the feeling the two were connected, but just how, he couldn't for the life of him say.

He landed in his chair, and the big screen in front of him automatically activated. He could tell he'd caught Monogram off guard, since he was sitting in his office instead of in front of the gray screen used for briefings.

"Oh, Agent P!" he exclaimed as soon as he saw Perry. "Carl, cut to close-up."

The image, which had been in a wider shot, cut to an image of just Monogram's face.

"If you're here to ask about the Bureau of Special Investigations, I'm afraid we haven't found much," he began. "As far as we can tell, it's nothing but a tax agency of some sort. We're not sure if it's a cover, another agency that happens to have the same name, or that the agents were simply lying about who they were working for.

"However, Carl has found some intriguing rumors on the blogosphere. I was a bit skeptical at first, and in fact I still am, a little-" He shot a glance off-screen, presumably at Carl. "But Carl assures me that he has found evidence from reliable sources.

"Apparently, for years there have been rumors of a secretive government agency- not just the usual conspiracy ravings, but actual evidence of some sort of hidden agency. Just what it does is not clear, but it seems to have something to do with mysterious disappearances. Agents show up after someone disappears under mysterious circumstances, ask a series of strange questions, and..." He shrugged. "That's it. No one can name anything else these agents do, or the agency they may or may not work for. They don't even give a consistent name for their agency; the Bureau of Special Investigations seems to be the most common, but there seems to an almost limitless supply of others. However, as far as Carl can tell, these agents aren't present outside of the United States, so if they do work for a government agency, it's virtually certain it's American.

"As for the info you brought us on Doofenshmirtz' family, well... we haven't made as much progress on that count. However, Carl will be working on digitizing the basement archives today-"

The mention of the place sent a shiver down Perry's spine.

"And in the meantime, I've called in a few favors and gotten us access to some old German archives," Monogram continued, oblivious to Perry's discomfort. "Carl will be busy with the stuff in our basement, but if you want you could look through the German files.

"If not, we've dispatched a replacement agent to thwart Doofenshmirtz today, I can find someone else to look through the German archives and... I guess you have the day off.

Ferb

About noon

"... You've gotta be kidding me," Buford said when Ferb was finished.

"I'm afraid not," he replied. "I agree that the timing is... inconvenient, but it was unmistakable."

"I don't believe this," Adyson exclaimed angrily. "He leaves her hanging for six years, and then he starts reciprocating the day after she disappears?"

"I do not think you are being completely fair," Baljeet said. "It is not reasonable to blame Phineas for never reciprocating Isabella's emotions if she never fully expressed them."

"Yeah?" Adyson asked sarcastically. "Well, if that's the case, then he certainly could have-"

"GUYS!" Ferb shouted, instantly bringing the room to silence- no one in there had ever heard him raise his voice before. He let his exclamation echo around the room for a moment before continuing. "We can argue about whose fault this is later. Right now, there's only one thing we need to decide- should we tell him?"

No one had to ask what he meant.

The room was quiet for a moment; all the disparate conversations and arguments falling into silence. No one seemed to want to be the first to break the veil of silence.

"Please hurry up and decide," Ferb said eventually, his voice strained, though back to its usual volume. "Candace is keeping Phineas distracted with an explanation right now, but she won't be able to keep him outside forever."

Another moment of silence followed, before Buford finally said "Phineas is a big kid. He can handle it."

"Yeah, tell him," Adyson agreed. "He didn't pay any attention to her when she was still here; he should own up to that now."

"Noted," Ferb replied. "Is anyone against it?"

"I am," Baljeet said. "Phineas is distraught enough already- we can tell him once he's not absolutely falling apart."

"I think you're being a little harsh, Adyson," said Molly. "Phineas is just as torn up as all of us about this, and tearing him up even more isn't going to make it any better."

"Well, if it took him this long to realize he likes her back, maybe this is something he needs to know!"

The debate began, once again, to descend into argument, before Ferb, in his second out-of-character moment in as many minutes, yelled again.

"ENOUGH!" he exclaimed, bringing the room to silence once again. "We don't have much time. So before Candace and Phineas get back, a show of hands- who thinks we should tell him?"

Buford and Adyson raised their hands. Adyson looked around at the other Fireside Girls, then glared before putting her hand down.

"And everyone opposed?"

Everyone else present raised their hands- Ferb himself, Baljeet, and the other Fireside Girls.

"Alright, then it's decided- we wait."

"You can't keep this from him forever," Adyson said icily. "If he has finally come around, it's only a matter of time before he figures it out. I mean, did you see that picture he gave Baljeet? She'd drawn little hearts around his face, for crying out loud!"

"We'll tell him," he assured her. "But not yet. He needs time. Give us... a week. We'll think of something by then."

Adyson started to reply, but was cut off by Ferb.

"Wait a second..." he murmured. "The picture. Do you still have it, Baljeet?"

Baljeet stuck a hand in his pocket and ruffled around for a moment before pulling out a neatly-folded photograph. Ferb, possessed with a fervor bordering on mania, pulled it out of Baljeet's hands, examined it for a moment, and then turned it so everyone else could see it.

"Look at the part Isabella circled," he said. "The blurry white patch with the blurry black patch under it."

"You know you showed us this last night, right?" Buford replied. "It's creepy, yeah, but we've all already seen it."

"I know," Ferb said. "But does this look like anything else you've seen?"

No one seemed to. The room was silent once again, until suddenly Baljeet let out a gasp.

"The picture from last night!" he exclaimed. "The one that Phineas flipped out over!"

"Exactly!" Ferb said. "It's blurry, so you can't really tell, but it has about the same proportions- white head, long black body that might have a suit on it."

He turned the picture around to face himself and squinted.

"And I think there might be tentacles coming out of it."

Now everyone wanted to see the photograph. They clustered around Ferb, all trying to grab it away to see for themselves.

Then Candace walked in with Phineas.

"... What's going on here?" she asked. The room quieted down (again) and Ferb shoved the photograph under Candace's nose.

"Look at this," he said, pointing to the spot of distortion. "Is this the Slender Man?"

A bit taken aback at his abruptness, Candace took the photo and examined it for a moment. Then her expression changed from one of bewilderment to one of shock.

"Oh, my god," she said. "That's him. Yeah, the photo distortion is classic Slender Man. And the Operator Symbol drawn over his face- or whatever he has on the front of his head..."

"Wait, 'Operator Symbol?'" Ferb asked. "Wasn't that on the flashlight the police found?"

"I'm telling you, it is the tensor product of-" Baljeet began, but was cut off by a hand-wave of Ferb's.

Candace nodded, ignoring Baljeet.

"I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. It shows up a lot among victims of Slender stalking. Which reminds me..."

She turned back to Phineas, who had remained silent through this whole exchange, and pulled a metal pendant from her pocket- the same circled "x' symbol as on the photograph and Isabella's flashlight.

"I want you to wear this," she said, holding it out to Phineas. "It might provide some protection against him."

Phineas raised an eyebrow.

"'Might?'" he asked skeptically. Candace shifted her gaze a little, seeming not to want to make eye contact.

"Well, there is some disagreement as to exactly what it does," she admitted. "While some sources say it provides some protection from him, others say he uses it to spy on people, or to teleport through."

Phineas' eyes widened in apparent fear, and he took a fearful step backward.

Candace rolled her eyes.

"Look, against the Slender Man, 'might' is about the best I can offer you. You're going to wear it."

Then she pulled another pendant from her pocket, a diagonal line with five smaller lines branching off, three on top and two below.

"This might also provide some protection, but it's less certain. Now put them on."

With obvious reluctance, Phineas took the two pendants and slipped them over his neck, tucking the metal parts beneath his shirt.

Suddenly, Candace looked back at the photograph, now held by Ferb at his side.

"Lemme see that again," she said, and Ferb complied. After a moment, she asked "This is the giant bubble project, right?"

Ferb nodded. Candace looked back down at the photo and sighed.

"How many years ago was that? Three? Four?"

Yet another aura of silence fell over the room.

"You mean..." Baljeet began. "Are you saying that he has been stalking Isabella for four years?"

"Yeah," Candace said despondently, passing the photo back to Ferb. "Maybe longer. Some people have been stalked by him their whole lives."

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, obviously stressed.

"Anyway, you guys are long overdue for an explanation," she said. "I started last night, but I didn't get very far before the parents got home.

"First off, like I said before, very little is definitively known about him. However, there are a few common elements that are present in most accounts of him. He's commonly depicted as a tall, faceless man in a formal suit, sometimes with tentacles coming out of his back. Electronics tend to get messed up when he's around, and he can apparently teleport at will- anywhere he pleases, as far as can be told.

"He also seriously messes up whoever he's after. They often become paranoid, schizophrenic, hallucinatory- practically a psychology textbook in one person. Oh, and signs of radiation poisoning. Long-term victims of his often have severe coughs, nosebleeds, and, presumably, higher cancer rates if any of them live long enough for that to matter-"

"Okay," Buford interrupted. "This has gone far enough."

"Buford, I realize you are skeptical," Baljeet said. "But if you could just be silent long enough for Candace to give an explanation-"

"No, you be quiet," Buford retorted. "You have forced me to be the voice of reason, and I am going to damn well do so.

"Just stop and look at yourselves, people," he said, waving at everyone else in the room. "You have convinced yourselves, on the basis of a blurry photograph, a bit of teenage stress, and internet rumors, that Isabella has been kidnapped by a faceless supernatural figure. Just stop and think about this for a second!"

The barest hint of a smirk went across Candace's face.

"Oh, you want evidence?" she asked sarcastically. "There is historical evidence for him going back thousands of years- Egypt, Assyria, Native American empires- there are tales of a being like the Slender Man in virtually every human culture ever to exist.

Buford rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please. If you stick enough folktales together, eventually you'll find at least a couple that resemble each other- especially if the folktales in question come from barely literate, pre-scientific societies. Have you considered the possibility that they, I dunno, just made stuff up that happened to resemble other stuff?"

"Since when are you anything of an intellectual?" Baljeet asked.

"Like I said, you forced me into this role."

Candace waved a hand dismissively.

"Fine, then," she said, and strode over to her computer. "I have detailed notes on just about everything about the Slender Man. I can easily-"

Her voice suddenly went slack. She stared at the computer screen like it had just grown arms and legs and started a tap dance routine.

She raised a trembling finger to the screen.

"That," she said in a shaky, breathless voice. "Is not supposed to be there."

Everyone crammed in around the screen to see what had so unnerved Candace. Ferb was at the front of the group, and he could see it easily-

A text file on her desktop, simply titled "A Greeting."

"Open it," he said. His request was taken up by Baljeet and then quickly by everyone else. It only took Candace a second, barely seeming to hear anyone else, to do so.

It was short and to the point- barely two paragraphs.

"Hello," it began. "I see you've started to put the pieces together, just as quickly as your friend Isabella did. I'm impressed; most people I work with don't get this far this fast. Sometimes they don't even figure out what's going on before my well-dressed friend nabs them.

"But I'm not here to congratulate you, as much as it might be in order. You see, some of you seem to be feeling rather confident right now, in spite of your recent undesirable experiences (except you, Candace; you seem too smart for that). This is simply incorrect. I'm just here to assure you that when the time comes, there will be nothing you can do to save yourselves.

"I'll be watching.

"Signed, AM."

And on that pleasant note, I leave you until the next chapter.

Thanks to you all for reviewing:

Art n' Music: Hope this was quick enough!

gamelover41592: Oh, you ain't seen NOTHING yet.

EDD17SP: Well, here it is, and in a semi-timely manner to boot!

Sleeping Kangaroo: Oh, don't worry, I won't kill them... both.

TheNargana: ... It depends what you mean by "fine."

Marissa Flynn: Don't forget "poor everyone else," for having to watch Phineas go through all this.

AuthorD: Hooray! More writing is always good!