"So, giant arcade," Stacy said, sitting cross-legged on the Flynn-Fletcher backyard lawn.
"Well, I do believe the adjective 'gargantuan' would better suit the structure, but yes, it is a large arcade," Baljeet replied.
"It sure is big, that's what it is," Buford said gruffly.
"And… Why are you two sitting outside it, again? I mean, you guys would usually be playing around inside, right?" Stacy asked.
"It is a ploy to induce romantic affection between two of our friends, so we are waiting until after they have succeeded in establishing a more affectionate relationship. You know the saying, 'three is a crowd, five is frankly just excessive,'" Baljeet told her.
This was around the time Stacy started going 'wait a second,' and remembered that one forum post she replied to the day before.
In hindsight, it should have been obvious. Who would flyfletchboy1 be if not the older Flynn-Fletcher brother?
Stacy had to give Ferb credit though, this was a great way of getting people together-
"Hopefully Phineas is coming out soon, I'm gettin' bored out here."
"Wait, what?" Stacy asked, before Phineas ran out the doors of the giant arcade, pulled out an aerosol can, and started spraying the door.
"Guys, I'm gonna need more fancy cheese spray!" Phineas screamed, prompting Buford and Baljeet to get up and help him. With their own… aerosol cans of spray cheese.
Stacy got up to follow them, asking, "uh, what's this?"
"Oh, hi Stacy," Phineas greeted her cheerfully, as if he and two other boys were not spraying a pair of doors shut with cheese. "We're trying to get Ferb and Isabella to go on a date."
"...huh," Stacy said flatly, wondering if Isabella still had that crush on Phineas, and, more importantly, if Phineas knew of said crush. At all.
At her look of mild confusion, Baljeet sighed.
"Trust us, we do not know what he is doing either."
"Yeah, we keep tellin' him that Isabella likes him, but he won't listen."
"Oh no, that's because she doesn't," Phineas said, in such a casual tone of voice that he could have been commenting on the weather. "She's completely head-over-heels for Ferb."
"And… why do you think that, exactly?" Stacy asked, making Buford and Baljeet groan.
"Here we go again," Buford said with a sigh.
"It's obvious!" Phineas exclaimed, pausing in his cheese-spraying to rummage through his pockets. He handed Stacy a USB, saying, "here, photographic and video evidence that the two of them like each other. It's three hours long, so you better get comfortable before watching it."
Stacy was filled with the urge to ask 'why do you have this?' but didn't follow through on it, because, honestly? She had been friends with Candace for way too long to question things like that. Instead she let out an "ooooooookay then," and announced that she was going inside.
Phineas waved her off with a "see ya!" while the other two boys looked on at their cheesy handiwork.
"So, how long do you think that's gonna last?" Buford wondered.
"Given the viscosity of the cheese combined with the speed at which it is hardening, I would say three hours, give or take, provided that no one starts eating the- Buford! Get that out of your mouth!" Baljeet yelled.
"What!? No one else was gonna eat it!"
"Now, relax," Jenny ordered, seated on the Flynn-Fletcher living room carpet. "You're already the best student in your law program. You just take this break to recharge and not think of anything, alright?"
"Yeahhhh," Candace said as she continued stretching out her leg. "Forget all about school and busting and law… just gotta re-lax."
"Hey Candace, you mind if I borrow your laptop?" Stacy asked.
"Yeah, sure, knock yourself right out," Candace answered.
Stacy grinned as she went up to Candace's room, prepping to watch a three hour long video presentation on why Phineas thought Ferb and Isabella liked each other.
Except when she plugged in the USB, she instantly got a weird program calling her Agent P and scanned Candace's laptop to determine its evil level, and Stacy realized there had been a mistake.
'Oh. I sure hope Perry didn't need this.'
Perry, at the time, had been crossing his arms at the former evil scientist before him.
"Perry the Platypus, you don't need to be here! I am doing good, because I promised my daughter I'd be good, so she could still live with me as she's doing her internship at O.W.C.A.! There's no evil to be thwarted here!"
Perry pointed at the device behind the man.
"What?" the brunette asked defensively. "It's a good Inator! Well, it's not literally a Good-inator, but… you know what, it'll be easier if we just behold this. Behold, Perry the Platypus, the Bouncy-inator! With this, I can... well, it's in the name, really. I don't have to spell it out for you, do I?"
Perry shook his head.
"Oh, alright, good," the scientist said, before clearing his throat and continuing. "Bouncy things are fun! And fun is obviously good! Which means that this is a good Inator, making your services unnecessary."
Perry then pointed at the giant ominous skull laser thing over to the side.
"A-alright, I understand that this looks pretty evil, but…" he sighed, before putting on a smile and doing the beholding again. "Also, behold the Arcade-game-explodey-inator!"
At Perry's confused stare, he added, "What? Yes, I have two inators today. I had a high school reunion yesterday so I wasn't able to pull off yesterday's scheme. It was just awful, since it was on such short notice so I had to run to the dry-cleaner to get some clothes and... then the people… I had to keep explaining that I wasn't evil anymore, because internship, and then..."
Realizing he had gotten off-track, Doofenshmirtz said, "anyways, I loathe arcade games. Other games, you only have to pay for them once. ONCE! Yet arcade games insist on taking payment each and every time, taunting you with your failures... emptying out your pockets… It's a double whammy of pain and mockery, really. But with this, I will destroy every arcade in the entire Tri-state Area with a wonderful, glorious KABOOM!"
At Perry's continued glare, Doofenshmirtz added, "normally, exploding things is evil. But, if it's exploding evil things, it's a good deed done by eliminating bad things! Two wrongs make a right, so it's a good deed!"
Perry sighed. It would be a long day.
Meanwhile, inside the giant arcade…
"Yes!" Isabella exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air in delight. "I won! Woohoo!"
Ferb was smiling at her as the foosball table's score counter reset.
"I thought I wouldn't be able to beat you in anything, since you're obviously gonna be great at the racing games and you're good at fighting games and dancing games are practically a cakewalk for you, but I won!" Isabella repeated, before giving Ferb an odd expression. "You didn't let me win, did you?"
Ferb shook his head, causing Isabella to start smiling again.
"Then I destroyed you, fair and square!" She said between bouts of laughter. "Come on! Let's go again!"
Ferb made a show of pulling his pockets inside out, gathering nothing but some lint.
"Ohhh, you're out of tokens, aren't you?" Isabella asked.
Ferb nodded.
"I think I still have some..." Isabella muttered, patting at her pockets to check.
She was distracted when Ferb tapped at her shoulder, looking up with a "huh?"
She barely had time to register his grin, before he pulled a golden coin from behind her ear.
"Ferb! You had that the entire time, didn't you?!" Isabella demanded, though she wasn't mad. She still had a huge smile plastered on her face.
"A magician never reveals his tricks," Ferb replied.
"Of course they don't," Isabella said, before she realized something. "Hey, where's everyone?"
She and Ferb looked around, to no avail.
"Darn, we must've gotten separated from them! Let's go find them!"
Ferb nodded, following behind Isabella as she went to retrace their steps.
"I bet they're still at the food court," Isabella said. "Buford was totally eyeing the hot dogs."
Ferb let out another silent laugh in agreement, but, well, they were proven wrong when they actually got to the food court. The other three boys were nowhere to be found amoungst the umbrella-adorned cafeteria tables.
"Weird… maybe they're playing on another floor?" Isabella wondered aloud. "Ferb, what do you think?"
"I think Buford was right. These hot dogs do look good," Ferb answered, staring at the menu.
"We can grab something after we find everyone," Isabella promised.
Ferb almost seemed dejected, but they kept looking.
"What, you need to scan my Inators for evilness?!" Doofenshmirtz demanded in exasperation.
Perry brandished the USB at him with a glare.
"Alright, fine, but don't blame me when it finds nothing," he said as Perry trodded over to the Arcade-game-explodey-inator. "You're wasting your time, Perry the Platypus!"
Perry just plugged in the USB.
And then, out of the giant laser machine came a voice.
"For as long as humans have existed, we have been trying to define 'love,'" Phineas Flynn's voice started off dramatically. "What is it? How is it formed? Why do we do it? Well, I don't know the answer to those, but I do know that my brother and one of my best friends are totally head-over-heels for each other! Just listen!"
Perry stumbled at the voice, suddenly tripping into a wall. Doofenshmirtz looked at the platypus, then at the inator, which was suddenly emitting a catchy tune with lyrics on love, then back at the platypus, all with a look of confusion on his face.
"Perry the Platypus, why did you upload that? Was that intentional or—" he was distracted by his front door, "oh wait, hold on, my doorbell's ringing. Just wait here please."
And Perry did. He was standing around awkwardly as Doofenshmirtz opened the door, prepared to revert to pet mode at any instant.
"Hello?"
Stacy was standing in front of the door.
"Hey there, Mr. Evil Scientist Dude," Stacy said. "Is Perry here?"
"Yyyyyess...?"
Perry waved at the woman behind Doofenshmirtz's back.
"Yeah, he mixed up this USB with another one," Stacy stated, holding up the O.W.C.A USB. Perry walked over with a polite smile as Stacy knelt to hand it to him. "Here you go, Perry."
She stood, before turning and waving to the two. "Anyways, have fun!"
The door closed behind her.
"What a nice young lady," Doofenshmirtz said as Stacy shut the door and went to read magazines in the lobby.
Perry went over and plugged in the O.W.C.A. USB, causing the O.W.C.A. program to run. Predictably, it concluded that the machine made to make arcade games explode was pretty darn evil and made it go haywire. In this case, haywire meant shooting the Bouncy-inator beside it.
The scientist looked on in horror as one inator shot the other, but no explosion came. Instead, the Bouncy-inator shot off one beam, before starting to send off sparks.
"Hm, maybe I should rename it to the Arcade-game-fritz-inator-" Doofenshmirtz mused, before the Bouncy-inator exploded, taking the Arcade-game-explodey-inator with it. "No, never mind, the name still fits."
And then the flaming wreckage of his Bouncy-inator went flying towards him, sending him through the wall.
"CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!" he screamed, only his shaking fist visible through the hole in the wall. "I WILL BE GOOD, JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE!"
Perry sighed again, before helping the man out of the new hole in his wall.
Again, long day.
Though Ferb and Isabella couldn't see it, a laser beam hit the giant arcade just then, rendering every surface inside it bouncier than a trampoline.
Isabella immediately started laughing as she and Ferb began, quite literally, bouncing off the wall. She asked Ferb if the arcade was supposed to have a bouncy mode. He didn't answer, because just then, they bounced out the window.
"Oh, this was probably not in the plans," Isabella said as they started plummeting towards the ground.
Ferb immediately grabbed Isabella into a one-armed bridal carry, using his other hand to pull out an umbrella to slow their descent.
"Woo! Go Ferb!" Isabella cheered, before noticing something. "Ferb, is that one of the umbrellas from the food court!? I thought we said we wouldn't grab anything until we found the others!"
Ferb gave her a flat stare.
"You are right that it isn't food, though…" Isabella admitted, before Ferb rolled his eyes. "What?"
Ferb, having both his hands occupied, had to use his head to gesture towards the ground still so far beneath their feet.
"Oh, right, right, now's not the time," Isabella said. "But we will talk about this later, mister."
Ferb conceded her point.
A few seconds passed, before Isabella spoke up with concern on her face.
"The others… aren't still inside the bouncing arcade, right?"
Ferb's response was to look down, prompting Isabella to do the same.
"Oh, there you are, guys!" Isabella exclaimed as the two of them landed on the lawn. "We were looking all over for you!"
"We stepped out to get some fresh air," Phineas claimed, scratching at his ear.
"And cheese," Buford added, causing Baljeet to groan.
"Yep, fresh air and cheese," Phineas concluded as Buford reached to pry more of the cheese spray off of the arcade's front doors.
The cheese was rather sticky, though that wasn't a problem for Buford. What was a problem was that, unlike five minutes before, the arcade doors themselves were much springier than they were before, so when Buford pulled, the arcade moved with him.
The others watched as Buford struggled, digging his heels into the dirt and putting all his strength into pulling back, until-
The tension got to be too much for the ex-bully, and he fell on his tush. The arcade snapped back with so much force that it flung itself into the air with a 'sproing.'
(Somewhere in downtown Danville, there was a woman berating her farmer husband for trying to start an arcade without a building or a single arcade game.)
Phineas tried to ask Isabella and Ferb how their romantic date-like time alone with each other went, but Isabella started talking.
"Well, that was fun," Isabella said, "but I think I'll be heading home."
She kissed Ferb on the cheek, saying, "thanks for saving my life, Ferb!" with the same amount of casualness one would use to talk about grass clippings, before turning to the others and saying, "see you guys tomorrow!"
And then she left, just in time for Phineas to let out a high-pitched squealing noise that left the other boys clutching at their ears.
"PHINEAS! KEEP IT DOWN! I'M TRYING TO RELAX!" Candace ordered from the living room.
"SORRY CANDACE!" Phineas answered.
Phineas was smiling so wide his cheeks crinkled, his body shaking from his attempt to resist squealing again.
Ferb looked mildly disturbed by that, looking to Buford and Baljeet for answers on what was wrong with his brother. Baljeet sighed, while Buford shook his head in refusal to say.
The green-haired boy went to get Phineas some water for his throat, just as Stacy returned with Perry.
"Oh there you are, Stacy, Perry," Baljeet said.
"Hey," Stacy said in return, before awkwardly turning to Phineas. "So, uh, your USB kinda exploded-"
She cut herself off at the horrifying scene of Phineas letting out a very Candace-like evil laugh.
"Maybe, maybe a giant ferris wheel next, no, already did that, or maybe, a chocolate store, or, or, SPEED DATING!" Phineas exclaimed while cackling.
"Phineas…?" Stacy said slowly. "You're beginning to worry me."
"He's your problem now," Buford told Stacy, before tossing Baljeet over his shoulder and leaving.
Stacy looked back to the redhead, who had gotten himself out of breath. She was about to ask if he was okay, before he got another idea and ran back towards the house, bumping into Ferb and causing the glass of water to spill all over the two of them. Phineas apologized, before continuing on inside.
Ferb, still flat on his butt with a broken glass and water everywhere, looked to Stacy in confusion. But Stacy had no idea what Phineas was doing either.
Vanessa got back to her computer with a soda in one hand.
She checked through her list of default sites, stopping on the Danville forum she had recently gotten herself reacquainted with.
flyfletchboy1: Leaving them alone in the most fun, date-like location I could think of worked! But they're still not officially dating yet. Does anyone have any other ideas?
"Oh Ferb, little buddy," Vanessa whispered under her breath as she started to type, "don't worry. I'll help you out of this mess. Just trust me."
Unfortunately, Vanessa was misunderstanding many things here and was probably going to make things worse.