Since it's Phineas' birthday in my book in about a day or so Shadow Chronicles time, plus Phineas is having his b-day on Disney Channel, I'm going to grant a wish! That's right. First person to review this chapter with a wish gets it granted in the story. Here are the rules:

Number Eins/One/Uno/Whatever-one-is-in-languages-I-don't-speak: It must pertain to the story in question, aka Painful Truth.

Number 2: It can't prematurely end the book.

Number 3: No meddling in ROMANTIC relationships.

Number 4: You can't bring anyone back from the dead or kill anyone. (You can, however, mortally injure them, and I MIGHT forget to heal them.)

Number 5: You can't add characters (I was just cleaning house, I don't want to mess it up again.)

Number 6: It can't have anything to do with me. (Not that any of you care what part I have in the book, I just wanted to make that clear in case anyone wants to mess with me.)

Other than that, I think it's good. Have fun!

Dystopian's pov

It was all very clear. Phineas about to go nuclear on his dad's mind-wiped attack team, everyone else ready to back him up, probably getting themselves killed in the process, the assassins surrounding us with various deadly weapons, my mind going at a hundred miles an hour trying to think up a plan so we wouldn't lose anyone…

And then it was all gone.

Okay, not necessarily gone. It was more like everything and everyone was frozen. Completely frozen, but not in ice or anything. In time. Someone had stopped time itself. I looked around expectantly, and saw Beovulph doing the same thing. Our eyes scanned the chamber. Nothing would've gotten in or out without us knowing.

"Hey guys." We jumped about a foot in the air.

"Hi ktag." Beovulph said, recovering. I glared at the tiny cat behind us. Its fur was jet black, its eyes bright red.

"Why a cat?" I asked irritantly.

"I like cats." The cat/ktag said matter-of-factly. "Anyway, I needed to talk to you guys."

"Us?" Beovulph asked.

"All of you guys." Ktag said, motioning to a passageway that opened up in the wall. Two figures emerged from it almost silently. My anger flared when I saw one of them.

"Stephanie! What are you doing here?" I snapped.

"Oh would you relax, you big baby? I get to be here because I'm an outer-oc just like you." She said, skipping lightly over rocks and assassins lying down like she was in a dance class. I turned to ktag.

"What is going on here?" I asked. The cat purred lightly and licked its paw, then curled up in a tight ball of fur.

"Being a cat is so fun. My spine feels like it's made of rubber." Ktag said. Amber flicked her hair over her shoulder.

"Hi Dystopian. You must be Beovulph – I'm Amber." She said, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you." He said.

"Ktag? You're stalling." I said. ktag sighed.

"I guess I might as well tell you, right?" the cat stood up and morphed smoothly into a cloaked figure. "I had to call a meeting in the middle of a crisis because I wanted to tell you something. This doesn't concern Emma, Elina, and Sammy so don't ask. What I need to tell you is I'm thinking of taking you out of the book until the climax is over."

"What?" We chorused.

"You heard me." Ktag said. "I know you did because I created you."

"Phinbella Fan 13, irken24, the high lord of terra, and Oh For The Love Of Phineas helped. A lot." I pointed out. Ktag shrugged, the cloaked shoulders going up and down like waves.

"Whatever. They won't mind. They know it's my story anyway." I looked around.

"Hey where's – " I began.

"She might not fully join us until the next book. I'm close to the end here and I don't know how many new people I can introduce this close to the end." Ktag interrupted.

"Whatever. I'm not leaving." I said. ktag turned a cloaked head towards me.

"What did you say?" ktag's voice was low and deathly calm. I felt acutely aware that I was toying with someone who could erase from this world all memory of my existence, but I gulped and went on.

"I'm not leaving." I said. "I'm staying here. With Phineas and the others. I'm going to help them."

"If he's staying, I'm staying." Beovulph said loyally. "I'm not leaving Isa- I mean, the kids." I smirked. Ktag, on the other hand, was in no mood for smirking.

"Are you disobeying my orders?" ktag asked in disbelief.

"I believe so, Shadow Master." Beovulph said. "And with all due respect, you're not going to stop us."

"I'm not?" ktag asked, the words hanging in the air. "Are you sure?"

"Hey, I'm one of the main antagonists in this book, I'm staying too. You know, just to screw everything up and ruin all life as we know it." Stephanie said. ktag pulled back the hood and I saw an expression of disbelief and anger on our creator's face. No, not anger. Fury.

"You're disobeying me too?" ktag asked.

"Oh! Oh! So am I!" Amber squealed. "I'm so not missing out on all the fun!" Fury took the place of disbelief on ktag's face and I gulped, realizing that that might not have been the best thing for Amber to have said.

"You think testing my power and disobeying a direct order from the creator of your realm of being is fun?" ktag shouted, the voice twisted with rage.

"Um, let me think about it…yeah." Amber said. I gaped at her. Did she not know what angering ktag could result in?

"Will you grow a brain?" I hissed at her. "You're going to get us all killed!" Amber finally got the point – from what I said or from the angry sparks racing up and down what we could see of ktag's skin – and shut up, her smile dissolving. Ktag looked between us, at a loss for words. There was a long, tense silence as the author fumed, hands clutching at nothing, occasionally drawing multicolored and dangerous-looking sparks from the air.

"Fine." Ktag finally said. I was frozen for a moment in disbelief, as were the others. When we could move again we exchanged looks of amazement.

"Fine?" I choked out. "You're just going to let us get away with – " ktag raised an eyebrow and I bit my tongue, quickly redirecting my sentence. "I mean, you're not going to do something horrible to us?"

"I never said that." Ktag said.

"I knew it." Beovulph muttered. "I knew we couldn't just get off Scott-free."

"And you were right!" ktag exclaimed, in control – literally – once again. "Because you made me very angry, there will be consequences." Stephanie edged closer to the creator.

"What kind of consequences?" She asked.

"Power-related consequences." Ktag told her. "I am limiting and cutting your powers. You can't take any power you choose anymore. Just your natural power – and by that I mean the power your other creator originally chose." Ktag turned to Beovulph. "You're immortal, for the moment, until you manage to find true love and rid yourself of the curse of that little ember you ticked off two hundred years ago and blah, blah, blah, you know the drill. But you're going to lose your invulnerability for three weeks. Which just happen to be the three weeks you'll be getting shot at the most, so, good luck with that. Hope I don't kill you." Ktag swiveled to face Stephanie. "You are going to completely lose control of your mind for the remainder of this book and possibly the next, for my personal enjoyment and everyone else's complete and total horror. You'll wake up after that with a migraine and absolutely no idea of how you spent the last week and/or month."

"And/or month?" Stephanie screeched. Ktag ignored her, turning to Amber.

"Your powers will be of no use during the next few scenes as all of the assassins you fight will be wearing fireproof armor. You will also have to watch the boy you love suffer a fatal wound." Amber looked confused.

"The who?" She asked. Ktag smiled wolfishly.

"Yeah, that too." Ktag turned to me finally. "You're immortal." She said. "Invulnerable. And you started all of this. How do I punish you for what you've done?" ktag rose in the air, fingers moving in threatening motions as if rehearsing wringing my neck. I stared into the eyes of the shadow master, feeling no fear. It occurred to me that might have been what ktag wanted, like how with some poisons you feel happy as you die. But fearless felt good.

"What to do? What to do?" ktag circled faster, faster around me, finally stopping and landing in front of me. "I know." Ktag said. "I'll give you the worst one. You can feel the fear of not knowing."

"Not knowing." I repeated. Of course. Ktag would make me wait. Somewhere in the back of my mind it dawned on me that ktag had also just given me full invulnerability, but that part was small compared to the part that wished I could just know what would happen to me like the others.

"Yes. I'll get you someday, somehow. But I'll take my time about it." Ktag's face suddenly appeared eerie, distorted. "You won't see me coming. None of you will see me coming ever again."

And then the shadow master was gone, as quickly as they'd appeared.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. In the end, we were all really glad ktag was gone. If you haven't noticed, they're not one of the best people to hang around. Suddenly, Beovulph touched his ear.

"My earpiece." He said. "It's gone."

"Ktag must have taken it." I said. I looked over at Stephanie and Amber…who weren't there. Of course not. My attention was soon drawn away from their absence by a bigger problem. The people around me were moving again, as if in slow motion. But they were speeding up.

"Get ready." I said. "We are going to need all our concentration for this next stunt." Beovulph nodded.

"The odds were looking a lot better when the author of this story wasn't mad at us." He pointed out.

"Yeah." I agreed, then focused all my thoughts on how the heck we were going to get out of this.

Okay I was going to do some stuff with Phineas' group in this chapter, but I decided to leave you guys another window of opportunity open for the wish thing. Any-way. Do something good guys, I have a high expectation for you. Don't disappoint me. Now REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!