The next day, Phineas and Ferb were in the backyard with Buford and Baljeet, constructing things with a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts. At the moment, Isabella came in through the fence.
"Hey Phineas!", she said, putting on her cutie-act. "Whatcha dooin?"
"Hey! We're making a cool machine that'll make us witness all sorts of crazy illusions!", Phineas said as he smiled back at her.
"Really? Why?"
"Cause, according to Candace, they sound really cool to have!"
"Candace?", she asked pausing for a moment.
"Yeah. Apparently when we visited our grandparents, she got into some moss and started seeing weird zebras and stuff. So Ferb and I thought it'd be cool to see what our subconsciousness would produce. Maybe we'll get an idea for tomorrow's activities!"
"Oh. That's cool!", she brightened up but then looked around, puzzled. "Hey, where's Perry?"
"I dunno. He never came back.", he shrugged.
"Really? I thought for sure he'd come back before you guys went to bed...", she said, looking worriedly at Phineas.
"Nah. I guess he's just gone.", he replied, turning back to conitnue working on the project.
"...And you're fine with that?"
"Yeah. If he ran away and he's happy about it, so are we. Right Ferb?", he looked over and Ferb came up from behind a metal wall.
Ferb only nodded.
"Wow.. You guys are handling this a lot better than I thought.", she simply said.
"Well anyway, Isabella, would you mind tightening this up for me while Ferb and I go get some more supplies inside?"
"Sure thing!", she smiled and began to work.
"Come on Ferb.", Phineas beckoned and the two went into the garage and as soon as Phineas closed the door behind him, he paused for a moment before suddenly breaking down into a fit of tears over his lost pet. Ferb placed a reassuring hand on his step-brother's slumped shoulder.
"Ferb.. What if he's hurt? What if... we never saw Perry ever again?", Phineas sobbed. "Sorry for acting like I didn't really care.. I didn't want Isabella to worry. Just...", he turned around worriedly to his step-brother. "Ferb what if he got taken to the pound? Or killed? It doesn't make any sense of why he didn't come back home..."
Ferb handed him a tissue and he wiped up his tears. Ferb then handed him a monkey wrench which he glumly took as Ferb picked up a toolbox.
"You're right. The best we could do is move on..", he said softly.
"Perhaps someday, we'll know what happened.", Ferb replied.
They walked back out into the backyard with a fake smile on their faces, just in time for Vanessa to walk in through the gate. She seemed a bit out of breath but she walked over in a hurry once she saw the boys.
"Oh there you guys are!", she said, panting.
As she walked, she pulled something out of her purse and held it up to Phineas and Ferb. It was their lost-posters for Perry and Phineas's eyes instantly grew wide at the sight of it.
"I know where he is.", she said.
Instantly Phineas looked up at her, eyes wide with hope and slight panic.
"You know where Perry is? Is he okay? What's happened to him?", Phineas began wildly asking which slightly freaked Vanessa out as she took a few steps back from him to keep distance. "He's doing okay, right? Where is he?"
"Whoa whoa calm down Phineas! P-perry's fine!", Vanessa said hoping it would help him calm down a bit.
Just then Candace came out with her normal busting attitude.
"I gotcha now! You boys are SOO bust- oh! Hey Vanessa.", she said, acknowledging the other's presence.
"Candace! Vanessa knows where Perry is!", Phineas said joyfully to his older sister who only returned with an eye-roll.
"Oh.. Great...", she said sarcastically.
"So where is he?", Buford asked while everyone came up to Vanessa.
"Well.. Uh...", Vanessa started to say, unsure of where to begin. "Heh, it's funny you say 'he'...Sh- He-", she sighed rolling her eyes. "PERRY...is actually...not who you really think he is.. Listen guys, for a long time now Perry's been a..secret agent who..fights my dad.."
Everyone was silent for a moment and Vanessa was worried she just sounded like a complete lunatic. But before she had much time to react, Phineas had snapped again and was being held back by the other kids while he was trying to grab Vanessa and shake her hard by her shoulders.
"QUIT MESSING WITH MY MIND WOMAN!", he yelled at her while struggling against his friends and Ferb. "WHAT HAPPENED TO PERRY? TELL ME! WHERE'S PERRY?"
Candace sighed expectantly and pulled him back by his shirt collar and unceremoniously plopped him on the ground. Vanessa stared for a moment before finally snapping out of the shock.
"Uh.. Phineas, I'm not trying to mess with ya. I'm serious. Every time I see my dad, Perry would come in and destroy his inventions."
"Why would Perry do that?", Isabella asked.
"Cause my dad's evil.", Vanessa shrugged while everyone stared at her for a moment with raised eyebrows and a whole, "Your DAD?" attitude. "Not that I'm evil! I try to bust him!"
"Hey wait, how do we know you're not making this up?", Baljeet asked suspiciously.
Vanessa only raised a large black bag, sighed, and pulled out her laptop. She opened it up and soon pulled up live shots of Perry and Doofenshmirtz fighting.
"Ohhhh!", everyone said in unison, understandingly.
"You know it's kinda obvious in retrospect.", Buford remarked.
"Wait, why didn't Perry tell us this? Doesn't he trust us?", Phineas asked with concern.
"No I'm sure he does.", Vanessa said quickly. "But, I think it's his job. When I learned, there was a huge fight of whether or not I could still see Dad cause Perry's boss was worried that I would blab about the organization to all sorts of people. Fortunately I didn't become so much of a threat anymore after they saw that I didn't really care about what my dad was doing with Perry. So if you found out, Perry would probably have to be sent away to keep you guys safe.."
"Oh... So.. His job's holding him up?", Phineas pressed.
"Kind of. See my dad made a machine that turned Perry into a human. Since Perry didn't want you guys to find out, he's been staying at Dad's waiting for him to change him back. But when Dad tried he...kinda...sorta...turned Perry into a...girl."
Everyone stared at her for a moment before Ferb fell over unconscious at the thought of his pet being a woman.
"...WOW... Uh... O-kaaayyy...", Phineas said. "I'm... I'm not sure how to respond to that... Why are you telling us though?"
"Cause my dad's so predictable, I knew he'd fall in love with her. But I also knew he'd mess it up and now they're in a huge fight. I want your guys' help to get them back together. This is probably the only real chance they'd have at love."
"So.. You dad likes Perry?", Isabella asked.
"Yeah."
"But... Perry doesn't like him back?", Phineas pressed on.
"Yeah. Well.. She's kinda arguing with herself. I think she likes him, but she's so used to hating him so much, it's kinda confusing."
"Oh. That's sad...", Phineas said glumly. His expression suddenly turned into a smile and he turned to Ferb. "Ferb! I know what we're going to do, toNIGHT! We could use the End of Summer City-Wide Bash to bring them together!"
"Hey wait, isn't it a little late for you guys to sign up to host it? What if the host doesn't do anything that would hook them up?", Candace remarked.
"I already got it covered.", Vanessa said. "I signed Candace up for it a few days ago."
"Wait, why me?", Candace asked nervously.
"Well Johnny told me you threw the greatest party last year.", Vanessa replied.
"...Good point.", was all Candace could say.
"Awesome! Ferb, you start calling up the bands. See if you can get Love Handle. Isabella, can you handle refreshments?", Phineas said, turning to her.
"You got it, Phineas!", she replied with a smile.
"Oh! And make sure the punch has lemons.", Phineas said with a wide smile.
"Lemons?"
"Yeah! Perry loves lemons!"
"Oh! We may wanna make sure my uncle doesn't pop up. My dad has a few...issues with him... Girl-Related issues."
"Okay sure. Who's you're uncle?", Phineas asked.
"Roger Doofenshmirtz.", Vanessa simply said with a slight sigh.