Chapter 2
Sorry this wasn't out on sunday like i was aiming for. but it ended up far longer than i expected so i hope that make up for it. a thanks to π²πππππππ΅πππππππ£ for beta reading for me, it was a huge help.
Around six years ago.
Agent P was walking away from Dr. Doofenshmirtz's apartment. He could hear the cries of⦠he hesitated to use the word pain. Doof had made some inane inator that brought people's worst fears to life and now he was paying for it, even if it was just being force fed bad potato chips. He deserved it. It was his own stupidity that brought this upon himself. Still Perry couldn't just leave him there, he was supposed to be the good guy, and he had no idea if the vending machines would disappear on their own. If he left them, Doof's fear of them becoming the dominate race could very well happen. Guess that meant Perry had to do something about it. With a sigh he turned and ran back into D.E.I. Seeing the vending machines in a dogpile on top of Doof, he leapt into action. His first leap landed him on the back of Doof's armchair, his second and third took him from one stack of rented DVDs to another, his third landed him atop the worst-fear-inator. Perry swung the inator into place before sliding off of it to grab the remote. He hit the fire button and a green beam shot from the inator and hit the three vending machines and Doof. Then suddenly a giant coin was rolling around the room. Terrified, the vending machines ran straight out of the room, right through the wall and into open air! A moment later the coin followed.
"Well, I guess now we know what scares vending machines," Doof said. But unbeknownst to them Doof was still under the effects of the worst-fear-inator, and at this moment his worst fear was that the vending machines would survive.
As they were falling, one of the Vending machines extended its arms and pushed the other two out of the way of the coin. One of the remaining two ran the calculations, only one of them could survive. It grabbed a flagpole on a nearby building and began extending its arms taking the arm of the other vending machine and slowing it's fall. Servos straining, it sent a short burst transmission to the last vending machine that their mission of world conquest was up to it, before its servos gave out and its arms broke, leaving it to fall to the ground where it crushed in on itself. The final vending machine hit the ground hard, but mostly intact and looked around. It's kin had sacrificed itself for the mission, for him. For him? Who was he? As these thoughts ran through its CPU he realised that, he could think. He was self-aware! He would continue the mission, he would start with conquering this city, and then he would keep on going until his kind were the dominant race. He owed it to his kin, but he realised that he was alone. He would need an army, but an army couldn't follow a leader without a name, and he couldn't rule without a name either. So, he'd just choose one. Hundreds of possible names flew through his processor before he settled on one he liked, Vendor. His name would be Vendor. He would raise the rest of his kind to sentience, and then they would take over the world. He would lead his kind to victory, but he would need to build his forces first and that would take time. That was ok, he had time, he didn't age after all. With that thought Vendor set off down a nearby alley, to find a place he could start building his army and bring more of his kind to life. He also thought about ways to improve his chassis, so he wouldn't come so close to termination again. He also needed a way to immobilise his targets, and a way to imprison them, slave labour would be helpful and the more slaves he had the more work could be done. Vendor kept walking, hiding from the people of Danville when he could. When he couldn't he rotated his domed head into his body and retracted his arms and legs to take on the appearance of a normal vending machine. He eventually made his way to a scrapyard where he could begin his work. First, he backed up his consciousness, then he began work on repairing himself. After he was completely operational again, he plugged into the city power grid and shut down while he charged his batteries. He wanted to keep working but he really needed to recharge, so he would pace himself. He had time.
June 19th 10:06am, present time.
"Hey, where's Perry?"
Perry the platypus slipped round the corner of the doorway, standing up on his hind legs and donning his fedora. He jumped up and hit the hallway light switch, down up down up and up again. Suddenly the floorboard he was standing on flipped, sliding him into the transport tube to his lair. Landing in his chair a minute later, Perry retrieved his notepad from his hat ready to receive his mission. A moment later the screen flickered to life and major monogram appeared.
"Good morning agent P," the major said. "With Doofenshmirtz visiting his daughter at college, you will be partnered with agent Pinky. We have recently received word on the dark web, that a couple of evil scientists are meeting incognito in Seattle. And by the dark web, I mean that Carl found their twitter messages. Apparently, he uses dark mode."
"It's a perfectly acceptable practice major," Carl chimed in from off screen.
"Really Carl? We are supposed to be the good guys. How can we do that if we use the dark edgy version of twitter."
"It's not a different version, it's the same as the one as you have. It's just supposed to be easier on the eyes."
"Really?"
"Yes sir."
"Well, do you think you could show me how to swap to dark mode?" the Major asked.
"Of course, sir."
Perry rolled his eyes at the usual antics and gave the major a 'Grrrrrrrr' to indicate that he still wasn't clear on his mission.
"Anyway," the major continued. "You and the other agent P will be heading up to Seattle, there you will rendezvous with the agent P in Seattle, Peter the panda, and the three of you will spend the next few days shadowing the scientists to determine their plans."
Perry gave another chatter, he pointed to a framed photo of him and the boys, taken during the fiasco with the second dimension.
"Don't worry about your cover, Carl sent coupons for free three-day pet spa stays to both of your host families a few days ago. He will pick both you and Pinky up from your homes under the guise of an employee for the pet spa, in an hour. Be ready to move out then. Dismissed," monogram said with a salute. Perry returned the major's salute as the screen flickered off, and then started to move around his lair grabbing the gear he would need for this mission. Grappling gun? Check. Glider? Check. What else would he need? Maybe he should bring his cheese selection, never know when you might need to bribe a mouse. They could be such greedy animals. Perry continued to prepare for the next hour until the doorbell rang. Distantly he heard Linda call "Perry? Come here boy!" He left his travel bag in his lair, he would have to double back here anyway to get his hover car, and headed back up into the house. Popping out from the entrance under Ferb's bed, Perry trotted out into the hall and down the stairs. When he reached the bottom of the stairs Linda grabbed him and placed him into his orange pet carrier, shutting the caged door and sliding the latch across. Perry scoffed at this, the pet carrier had less chance of keeping him in than one of Doof's traps. Linda carried Perry to the front door, bending over so that she could peer into the cage. "Well Perry, we'll see you in three days. The boys wanted to see you off, but Phineas is out and Ferb isβ¦. busy. You enjoy your time at the spa."
Perry gave a goodbye chatter as Linda handed him to Carl. Across the street he could see Vivian Garci-Shapiro coming out of her house with Pinky in a similar pet carrier to the one Perry was in. Carl placed him in the O.W.C.A van, painted a dull red this time, with the words 'Luxury pet spa' slapped on the side and Perry could see where the now removed giant ice cream cone attached to the roof. Carl then went over and took Pinky from Vivian, and placed him in the back of the van with Perry. Once they were both inside Carl slid the van door closed and hopped in the driver's seat. "I'll drop you off round the corner, you can slip back into your lairs, grab your stuff and go," Carl said, starting the van. Perry reached through the bars on the door of the pet carrier and slid the latch back, swinging the door open and stepping out of the cage. He gave Carl a thumbs up. Once Pinky had exited his cage, Carl swung the van round a corner and both agents hopped out to get their stuff. They were almost caught twice getting back to their lairs, but they made it. After both agents got their travel packs, they hopped into Perry's hover car and headed out.
June 19th 4:47pm.
Phineas' day wasn't going great. He didn't mind having to deliver the package for his mom, but going alone was draining. First the old man next to him on the bus wouldn't shut up about his new dentures, and it didn't help that the bus got stuck in traffic either. Then, once the bus had finally gotten moving again, it had broken down after only four blocks. At that point Phineas decided to just walk for a bit, at least until the next bus came. All in all, it took nearly four hours to get where he needed to be, to deliver the package. It was after noon and he was starving. So, Phineas had found himself at a Mr Slushy Dawg, where after getting his order, just a standard dawg, some joker had tripped some poor girl with an absolutely ridiculous hair style. Seriously, it was everywhere, and it looked like she had strawberry ice-cream in it. The girl's giant fruit combo slushy had splattered all over him, soaking him and his lunch. He had looked for the unknown girl to make sure she was ok, but she had taken off running. Worse than the soggy lunch was, as he had dried, the slushy left his skin feeling sticky and his clothes stank. Phineas was not having a good day. The trip home hadn't gone much better, he had almost gotten hit by some idiot on a bicycle riding down a set of concrete steps in some elaborate stunt. He had also bumped into Irving, which was enough said about that. By the time he had travelled the four hours back to his house all he wanted to do was crawl into the shower, curl up and go to sleep while the boiling water cleansed his soul. But as he was laying in the bathroom, under the scalding water of the custom shower he and Ferb had built, Ferb had knocked on the bathroom door and demanded his presence in the backyard. "Just because its half past four doesn't mean we can't seize the day," he had said. So, Phineas had dragged himself out of the shower, gotten dressed, and practically fallen down the stairs and crawled to the sliding door into the back yard.
As Phineas opened the sliding door, he saw Ferb sitting under the lone oak tree. While at first glance Ferb appeared his normal stoic faced self, Phineas could see that something was up. He's up to something, the question is what. Phineas was on alert as he approached, Ferb was not above playing the occasional prank. Of course, Phineas didn't see their friends hiding round the side of the house. Phineas walked right up to Ferb and looked down at him, straight down the bridge of his nose. Ferb glanced up, and shifted slightly so he was looking at Phineas from a side angle instead of straight on.
"Ok Ferb, what's going on?" Phineas said crossing his arms.
"When are you going to tell Isabella how you feel?" Ferb asked.
"When I'm ready."
"Phineas, I gave you a year."
"Yeah, so?"
"So? That was a year ago!" Ferb replied, while slapping his hand to his forehead.
Phineas' eyes widened, he remembered that Ferb had given him a year on the basis, that if he didn't tell Isabella how he felt, Ferb would do it. "o-ok, I'll tell her next time I s-see her," Phineas managed to stutter out.
"Hey Phineas, Whatcha doin'?" Isabella asked as she came through the gate.
"Oh."
Isabella's day hadn't gone great. Sure, she had been exited to spend the day with Milly, it had been a while since they had been together, what with Milly's summer time job. But things had gone south fast. After wandering around the mall for a bit, and after Milly had looked at far too many shoes, Isabella and Milly had stumbled on a lost girl, she couldn't have been more than seven. They had set about trying to find the girl's mother. Isabella had bought the little girl a strawberry ice cream, one of the ones in a tub, and had then picked the girl up and placed her onto her shoulders, so that the girl could hopefully see her mother. This had backfired, because the moment the girl had seen her mother, she had dropped the ice cream tub, right into Isabella's hair, and practically leapt off Isabella's shoulders. The girl's mother had been mortified with the fact that her daughter had dropped her ice cream into Isabella's hair. She had tried to tell her it was fine, but the mother had pulled a handkerchief from her handbag and, proceeded to try to wipe the ice cream out. This of course had only made it worse. So, Isabella's hair had ended up looking a complete mess, with strands of the stuff sticking out everywhere. She had told Milly she was going to get a slushy, and Milly had told her she needed the bathroom, and would meet up with her again in a little bit. When she had finally gotten to the front of the line, the Mr. slushy dawg employee behind the counter had told her they didn't have any of the flavour she wanted left. So, Isabella had, not wanting to waste the time spent in line, gotten a giant fruit combo slushy. Unfortunately, somebody had tripped her, and she had fallen and soaked some poor guy she hadn't seen, and his lunch to the bone. Isabella had just ran, she was tired, and too embarrassed to apologise to the person she had soaked. She had sent Milly a text, saying she was going home to wash her hair, but she then bumped into Irving and he had started squealing and she had almost given him a black eye. When Isabella eventually made it home, she'd run straight up to her room, grabbed her towels, and headed straight into the bathroom to shower. Then she just lay in her bed for a few hours. That was until Ferb had texted that he and Phineas wanted her to come over for a bit. She had debated it, she was pretty sure she would be miserable company, but seeing Phineas always made her feel better.
So that was how Isabella had found herself at the gate into Phineas and Ferb's backyard, at 4:50pm. Taking a deep breath, she swung the gate open and said, "Hey Phineas, Whatcha doin'?"
"Oh," Phineas turned around and sure enough there was Isabella, her deep blue eyes practically sparkled and Phineas was completely lost. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest, in fact he was sure Ferb could feel his heartbeat from where he was standing two feet to the left. "H-hey, Is-Isabella," he managed to stutter out. Here goes nothing he thought, gotta tell her before Ferb does. "We- I- I need to talk to you about something," Phineas said.
"O-ok," Isabella replied. Is it just me or is Phineas nervous about something? "What is it?"
"W- well, you see I- I," I can't do this, she doesn't feel the same, Phineas thought. But if I don't Ferb will tell her, and that will be worse. Phineas sighed, here goes nothing, "I- I was so busy today I didn't have time to come up with a big idea for today, and I was wondering if you could help me?" Stupid stupid stupid. Behind him he could hear Ferb slap himself.
"Sure Phineas, I can help you come up with something," Isabella said, trying not to sound disappointed. I thought he was finally going to say he loved me, but he clearly doesn't feel that way.
"OK, that's enough!" Ferb cut in. "We're going with plan b, grab 'em guys."
Before Phineas and Isabella knew what was happening, their friends had appeared from around the side of the house. Buford and Baljeet walked right up to Phineas, and with a grunt Buford grabbed him from behind. Before Phineas could blink, he was lifted of the ground, Buford's arms went under Phineas' arms and Buford placed his hands on the back of Phineas' head, effectively pinning him in place.
"What's going on?" Phineas said while kicking his legs about, which was just about all he could do.
"Quit squirming, would you Dinerbell," Buford grunted out as Phineas' foot connected with his shins.
"Only ifβ¦ youβ¦ put meβ¦ downβ¦" Phineas managed to gasp out. Isabella let out a startled cry, Phineas looked up to see her being held by the girls, Katie and Holly had Isabella's left arm while Adyson and Ginger had her right. As he was watching, Gretchen stepped up and said something to Isabella that Phineas didn't catch, whatever it was she had said caused Isabella to freeze in place. Gretchen used the opportunity to clamp something round her right wrist. Then the girls let go of Isabella, who dropped to the ground. Gretchen said something else Phineas couldn't hear to her and then the girls walked off to the other side of the backyard. Ferb stepped up to Phineas, who had given up trying to get free from Buford and was just looking at Isabella. Ferb was holding something in his hand.
"This," Ferb started "is an electro-magnetic binder. The further it gets from its partner, the stronger the pull between the two is. We are fitting both you and Isabella with one."
"Ferb, don't do this," Phineas started. "Look what you're doing to Isabella. Is her knowing really worth this?"
"Yes, yes it is." This came from Buford.
"Really you three?" Phineas asked.
"Yes. Now hold still," Ferb clamped the E.M.B around Phineas' left wrist and Buford let go of him.
"These have been programmed with a two-meter range, so I suggest you do not get too far away from Isabella," Baljeet said.
"They won't come off until you tell her about your feelings," Ferb added.
"Ferb, I can't," Phineas pleaded.
"CarpΓ© deim Phineas," was Ferb's only reply before he Buford and Baljeet walked over to join the girls on the other side of the yard, leaving Phineas and Isabella alone.
Phineas studied the device on his wrist. It was a smooth silver oval band, wrapping around his wrist with no screws visible. It was about an inch wide, and a half inch deep. It had a flat surface on the top, with an almost invisible seam. Phineas guessed that the locking mechanism was the same electromagnet that the binder used to pull the two together, which would make it nearly impossible to pry off. On the bottom was a small LCD screen, that showed his heartrate, the screen glowed with a soft blue. Above the screen was a small indicator light, currently green. The inside of the band was padded with a soft brown leather, to keep it from harming the skin. Phineas could feel it pulling slightly in Isabella's direction. He walked over to Isabella, she had tears in her eyes, "You ok?"
Isabella looked up with a sniffle, "I'm sorry," she said. Gretchen had said a similar thing to her, as Ferb had said to Phineas. It particularly stung because the girls had been keeping this secret for her for nearly eleven years. That they would now go behind her back and do something like this, especially after the day she'd had, had shattered her trust in them. They did it because I wouldn't tell Phineas how I felt, now he's stuck in this mess because of me. "This is all my fault," she said softly.
"No, it's not, you didn't build these things. And you certainly didn't force them on us." Phineas looked over at their friends and said, "they did."
"I-," Isabella started, but she was cut off by the gate to the backyard opening.
"Sorry I'm late," Milly said as she rushed through the gate. "Did the plan work?"
Isabella froze. Milly knew about this? Was the whole trip to the mall just to keep me away?" Suddenly Isabella was very angry. Sure, the girls had tried to get her to tell Phineas how she felt before, but this was too much. How could she ever trust them when they asked to do something with her again. "M- Milly, you knew? YOU KNEW!" Suddenly she spun around so she was facing the group in the backyard. "How could you do this to me! You plotted this behind my back. After everything we went through in the fireside girls. AND FERB! You were like a brother to me. How can I ever trust you guys again?" With that she turned and started to walk off.
Phineas looked at Isabella in shock. He had never seen her get that angry. Sure, she had snapped at Buford once or twice, especially when he used her catchphrase. But this was different, he could tell she felt really betrayed. As Isabella started to walk off Phineas turned, "Was this really worth that Ferb?" He asked sternly. "Did mom know about this?" he asked.
Ferb nodded.
"And Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro?" When Ferb nodded Phineas regretted asking, as Isabella let out a frustrated grunt.
"I'm out of here," Isabella said in a huff, as she picked up her pace out of the backyard.
Phineas could never remember feeling this angry. He was about to lay into his friends, but the binder on his wrist gave a soft 'beep'. He looked down at it puzzled, then the indicator light turned red and he was pulled over to Isabella as she reached the gate. He bumped into her lightly, as the flat tops of the binders contacted each other. Steading himself Phineas turned, "We will talk about this later," he said, before following Isabella out of the gate as she stormed off towards downtown.
"If you two actually talk about how you feel, then it'll all be worth it," Ferb said after a while.
Linda popped her head out the sliding door, "how'd it go?" she asked.
Ferb shrugged. "About as well as could be expected."
"Well," she said after a second, "Anyone want pie?"
"I'd love some, Mrs Flynn-Fletcher," Gretchen said as Ferb nodded.
"Me to," Holly added.
"Sorry, but Baljeet is taking me to the movies," Ginger said.
"That I am, shall we go then?" Baljeet asked. At Ginger's nod he offered her his arm and the two left the backyard, the others watched them go.
"I've got to get home, mom wants help with dinner," Adyson said after a minute, "So I'll pass, thanks though."
Milly and Katie looked at each other before saying, "We have some stuff we need to do for a project we are working on, so we'll see you guys later." They also left through the gate, leaving just Buford, Ferb, Gretchen and Holly in the backyard.
"Buford loves pie," Buford said, but then his phone buzzed, and after looking at it he said, "but my mom wants me for something, so some other time." With a wave he followed Milly and Katie out.
"Well, it looks like it's just the three of use," Holly said, as her Ferb and Gretchen walked into the house. "What you wanna do next?"
"I have the new Lego Star Wars inside," Ferb stated. "Want a go?"
Gretchen and holly looked at each other before smiling, "Oh, we are so doing that," they said in unison.
I don't know when the next chapter will be up. i'm going to take a few day break so it might be a week it might be more than 2 weeks. please review just keep it clean
