Revelations and resolutions
Milo and his family have just arrived back at their house after speeding away from visiting their extended relatives to see to Milo's future kids turning up at the doorstep. All the way home, Milo had been coming up with what to say to the new arrivals. Last time he saw them, they were kids. Now, they're teenagers, heck, Daniel was older than he was, according to Zack, who had been filling the Murphys in as they came home. When Milo stepped through the threshold, who he could only assumed to be Kathy ran over and hugged him very tightly.
"Woah, easy there, Kathy. Don't want to suffocate me before you're even born, do you?" Milo cautioned playfully. Kathy let go and it was Daniel's turn to greet his future father.
"You'll be pleased to know the garage has been fixed. We kind of did a number on it getting here" Daniel explained.
"That sort of thing happens all the time around us, we're used to it" Milo assured. Martin, Sara and Brigette were surveying the house, and despite the unusual situation, even for a Murphy, Martin could not help but be a bit proud.
"So, this is my future grandson? He's the spitting image of you, Milo, and you, Kathy, look so much like your mother" Martin praised.
"Speaking of their mother, you came from upstate, how did you get here first?" Zack asked. Martin chuckled nervously.
"I sort of hit the gas a little too much getting here" Martin confessed.
"A little? You were going over 100 miles per hour on the Interstate. We're just lucky the cops didn't follow us here" Brigette interjected.
"I was freaking out, OK? I never expected to become a grandparent so soon" Martin justified. At that moment, someone knocked on the door and Melissa answered. It was Amanda. Melissa let her in to the house, where the shock of her life came into view. She saw someone that looked like Milo along with Milo himself, but which one was hers? And the girl he was with looked very much like her.
"Wow, Melissa, when you told me I'd be expecting a surprise, you weren't exaggerating" Amanda observed.
"May I introduce Daniel and Kathy Murphy. Congratulations, you just became a mum" Melissa introduced. Amanda just stood there with her jaw dropped. She knew full well who Daniel and Kathy were, Milo had told her about the illusion world, but never expected to find them in her boyfriend's house.
"Hi, mum" Daniel greeted awkwardly, at that point, Amanda fainted from shock.
"Nice going, Daniel. Next time, let me do the talking" Kathy jibed.
"What? What'd I say?" Daniel inquired, a little foolishly. Doofenshmirtz walked into the living room after inspecting the crashed time vehicle more properly and moving it out of the view of the neighbours, when he spotted Amanda lying unconscious on the floor.
"Don't tell me, this is your mother?" Doofenshmirtz guessed. Daniel and Kathy confirmed Doofenshmirtz's insinuation. "She took the news well" he added.
"I'll get the smelling salts" Sara volunteered.
At the Flynn-Fletcher house, Phineas was coming around, having taken the news hard. Not only did his future son appear at his backyard out of the blue, but he also learned that Isabella, his best friend of many years, was his mother. Phineas always saw Isabella as a valued friend that he couldn't imagine life without, but to marry and have children with her? That was the last thing on his mind.
"I'm sorry, I'm just finding all this very hard to process" Phineas stated.
"We understand. Having your future son show up like this is not something you experience every day" Sabrina counselled.
"Oh no, I could handle that, I've been to the future before. It's the fact that I have a kid with Isabella that really shocks me" Phineas countered. Isabella would speak, but she was far too busy trying to maintain composure on the outside, while on the inside, she was resisting the urge to squeal in delight at the prospect of having a child with Phineas being in her future. Isaac would say that Phineas had more than one child with Isabella, but he didn't want him to pass out again.
"I, for one, am not surprised that you two had a kid. I mean, it was inevitable that you two would hook up some day" Buford observed.
"Buford, what have we told you about forcing two people together?" Phineas cautioned. Baljeet, however, was on Buford's side.
"Phineas, can you honestly tell me that the one girl who came over to your house every day for years just to see what you were doing was not the least bit interested in you?" Baljeet pressed.
"No, I always thought of her as just one of us. All of you come over every day to do stuff" Phineas answered. Isabella had now found her voice.
"I think that whether or not we do have kids together is not important right now. We should maybe hear from our guests the reason as to why they are here. I know from experience that you only come back in time either to fulfil some sort of mission or by accident" Isabella interjected.
"You're right, Isabella, we're getting off track here. So, please tell us, why are you two here?" Phineas inquired. Isaac, now realising that he came to the past for a reason other than to talk with the child version of his father, told all.
"We came here to find Daniel and Kathy Murphy, Milo's kids. Daniel and I are best friends, we grew up together. Something's happened in the future that required him to send his kids back to this point in time to change it" Isaac explained.
"That explains you, Isaac, but what is Sabrina doing here?" Baljeet asked.
"Daniel's my boyfriend. I came here hoping to see him again. Plus, Isaac would be lost without me" Sabrina replied.
"Would not!" Isaac argued.
"Oh, please. Who was it that helped you get out of the sewers when you wandered in that time?" Sabrina countered.
"I had that situation entirely under control" Isaac rebuffed.
"Sure you did" Sabrina responded sarcastically.
"As entertaining as this little exchange is, how about you tell us what happened in the future that would need anyone to come back in time" Buford said, hoping to get to the point.
"Ah, right, well, you see, the thing is, when I do tell our story, things here will be more awkward than they already are" Isaac warned.
"Start from the beginning, then" Phineas instructed.
"Well, dad, it all starts with Earthguard" Isaac began.
"What is Earthguard?" Isabella asked.
"Didn't Phineas tell you about it?" Sabrina said. Everyone turned to Phineas, with a confused and somewhat mad expression on their face.
"No" they all said at once.
"Busted" Isaac said, very awkwardly, as he forewarned. At that point, Candace came out into the backyard.
"Mum's off to her ceramics class while Dad is minding the shop, which leaves me in charge" Candace informed. When she saw Isaac, her mind did a double take. "How did you clone yourself, Phineas?" she asked with some degree of amazement.
"I didn't, this is my son from the future, so technically, that makes him your nephew" Phineas explained. Candace, who was used to these antics in her backyard, did not pass out upon hearing this news, but she was still very much surprised.
"Hi, Aunt Candace" greeted Isaac.
"I'm sorry, but I've got to ask, what are you doing here?" Candace inquired.
"I was just in the middle of telling that story, but right now I appear to be busting my own dad for building a super-secret project he had apparently been keeping from his friends and family" Isaac summarised. Candace was beside herself with exasperation.
"So, you pop into our backyard for five minutes and achieve the very goal I had sought and failed to accomplish all summer long?" Candace asked. Isaac confirmed what Candace said was true. Now Candace felt like she had been wasting her time even trying to bust her brothers all that time, when her future nephew could do it effortlessly.
"As I was saying" Isaac continued, then he told the rest of his story. He had told the Summer Vacation Gang about Earthguard, what it was and what it was designed to do. He also told them how it went totally wrong with apocalyptic consequences, and what the Phineas of the future had planned to avert the catastrophe.
At the Murphy house, Amanda had just come around and was being helped up by Milo and Daniel. Amanda both knew and accepted that weird things happened around Milo, just not to the extent that she was seeing here. To add more confusion, someone else was knocking on the door.
"Oh, great. Are more of my kids from the future at the door now?" Amanda asked rhetorically, although she was nervous at the possibility of that actually being true. When Doofenshmirtz answered the door, however, she felt great relief that it was someone she knew this time. Or rather, two someones, Cavendish and Dakota.
"We've detected a temporal rift in this vicinity and have come to investigate. Has anything or anyone from either the past or future been here recently?" Cavendish probed.
"Oh, where do we start?" Zack responded. They showed Cavendish and Dakota the remains of the time vehicle Daniel and Kathy came in, as well as introduced the pair to Daniel and Kathy themselves.
"You've got to be kidding me" Dakota remarked.
"Unauthorised time travel is not something our boss takes lightly. So, unless you have a good reason to be here, I suggest you let us take you back to your point in time" Cavendish urged.
"That's the thing. Where we come from, there's no future to go back to. Something's gone horribly wrong and we came back to fix it" Daniel explained. Now Daniel had their attention.
"Yes, I was hoping we'd get to the reason behind your visit myself" Doofenshmirtz added.
"Well, it all starts with the development of Earthguard, a guardian AI Phineas Flynn built to safeguard the planet" Daniel began to tell his story. Zack, having been well-versed in these type of scenarios from Tobias Trollhammer movies, could connect the dots almost immediately.
"Has he not seen every sci-fi movie ever? That always ends badly" Zack observed.
"In our future, before anyone realised what had happened, it was already too late. Earthguard had taken over every robotics factory and automated weapons platform in the entire United States, begun mass producing its own brand of robots with one goal, the extermination of all human life" Daniel recounted. Cavendish suddenly changed his mind about sending the two back.
"OK, that is a good reason to come back. But why now, when Earthguard wouldn't be deployed for another 20 years?" Cavendish asked.
"Because in this time, Phineas hasn't made it smart enough to sever its own command chains and learn to evaluate internal threats to the planet's safety. If we can alter its development or destroy it completely, we can save the future" Kathy answered.
"But why target the human race? If it was programmed to safeguard the Earth, doesn't that include its inhabitants?" Milo inquired.
"We don't know. You'd have to ask Earthguard itself, though it probably isn't in the mood to talk" Daniel informed.
"Who cares about its motives? Let's just smash the thing and be done with it" Dakota suggested.
"Not that simple. Phineas really cared for Earthguard, both here in this time and in the future. Convincing him to alter or destroy his creation won't be easy" Daniel said.
"When is this ever easy?" Melissa observed.
"Good point. We'd better get over to Phineas' house. Hopefully he'll listen to us" Zack urged, and off they went.
At the Flynn-Fletcher house, Isaac was finished telling the same story Daniel and Kathy told their parents to his future parents and their friends. The group had a lot of questions right now. Most of them were aimed in Phineas' direction, and quite a few of them were asked with a tinge of anger.
"So, when were you going to tell us about this project of yours, Dinner Bell?" Buford interrogated with a hint of venom in his voice. Even Ferb, whom Phineas saw as his closest friend, brother and ally, had a look of disappointment on his face after Isaac was finished.
"I was going to tell you about it once it was finished, honest. It started as an idea, after the war. Think about it, a guardian program dedicated solely to safeguarding the planet from outside threats. The Cipher War would never happen again on its watch" Phineas confessed.
"Forgive me if I seem out of line, but did you create this thing because you are still scared of Bill?" Baljeet asked.
"Aren't any of you still scared? He tricked me into building a weapon, tried to kill me and destroyed our home!" Phineas countered, but at this point he started hyperventilating. Thoughts came into his head. Bill had tricked him into building a weapon that time. Now, here he was, building what should've been a safeguard against his malice, only to be told it had turned into an instrument of destruction, one he created, without Bill's help. A voice then spoke inside his head. Bill's voice, a product of his anxieties.
"I always knew there was something I liked about you, Flynn" the voice echoed in his head, then it cackled with laughter, all the while images of death and destruction played repeatedly on a loop in Phineas' head. Another voice, quiet but getting louder, could be made out trying to bring Phineas to his senses.
"Phineas. Listen to my voice now. You are nothing like him. You're a good person" Isabella pressed Phineas to try and calm him down. Eventually, Phineas regained himself and Isabella pulled him into a comforting hug, one he sorely needed right now. Once Phineas started breathing at a normal rate, he spoke again.
"I never stopped being afraid. He's still with me. I thought I got rid of him" Phineas whimpered.
"I know, I know" Isabella comforted. Initially, she was disappointed in Phineas as well, but after hearing his reasons why he developed Earthguard and this latest anxiety attack, she understood. Even Baljeet, who had attended psychology camp, couldn't stay mad at him. Buford had softened his stance too, but only a little bit.
"Dad never did talk about what happened during the war. I had no idea it affected him this strongly" Isaac lamented.
"The deepest scars are often the ones that go unseen" Sabrina mused.
"He's still not over it, is he?" Candace asked in a concerned tone.
"I don't think he ever will be" Ferb replied, using his one line for the day. After everything had calmed down, Milo and his group turned up, with Daniel and Kathy in tow.
"Well, how about that. I come back to find you and instead you come to us. Talk about taking the fun out of life" Isaac joked.
"What am I always telling you, Isaac. Fun is what you make of it" Daniel replied. Once Daniel saw Sabrina, the tone shifted from laughing friendliness to awkward teen romance. "Its, err….good to see you, Sab" Daniel greeted. Sabrina, however, was not amused.
"Don't. You. Ever. Go on a mission back in time without me again, Daniel Murphy" Sabrina scolded. The two then hugged, then kissed in full view of everyone, drawing awkward looks from Milo, Amanda, Melissa and Zack.
"I take it that's my daughter from the future? And she's apparently dating your son?" Melissa pieced together what just happened.
"Awkward" Isaac chimed.
"Not the time. We need a plan to deal with Earthguard, now that we've all found each other" Kathy interjected, and the two groups went back into the yard to strategise.
In the future, General Johnson noticed a strange pattern of behaviour in the machine army. Instead of pushing forward, a huge number of them fell back to what appeared to be a makeshift construction site, but what the robots were building, one could only speculate, although Phineas had a pretty strong theory. He called General Johnson to give his evaluation.
"It is my belief that Earthguard knows we sent the kids back in time to alter or destroy its past self and is constructing its own time travel device to send one of its robots back to stop them" Phineas reported.
"But how? There was no trace of Project Tempest left after you sent the Murphy kids back" Johnson inquired. Phineas decided that the truth was the best option, not that he had many to begin with.
"Earthguard must've seen Isaac going back to the past using the device in the museum. My son is loyal, but sometimes reckless" Phineas explained.
"I've had a call from the Underwoods, Sabrina's gone too. She must've tagged along to support Isaac. Any indication as to how long Earthguard will take to finish its device?" Johnson added.
"My best guess is it's already finished. We have to stop them on our end or the mission is doomed" Phineas answered.
"Agreed. I've already assembled a team for a destruction operation. They're en route as we speak" Johnson concurred.
"By the time they get there, Earthguard will have already sent at least one robot through. They'll have to be quick" Phineas urged.
"They know what's at stake" Johnson assured and hung up the phone. At the construction site, Earthguard was indeed finished with the construction of its time travel gateway.
TEMPORAL GATEWAY COMPLETE. DESIGNATING OPERATIVE TO TRAVEL INTO PAST EVENTS AND MAINTAIN CURRENT TIMELINE. DESIGNATION COMPLETE. DEPLOYING.
The robot Earthguard sent through made it across. Before Earthguard could send more robots through, the strike team arrived. Taking great care not to be seen, they planted explosives onto the gateway. Once they were clear, the team leader detonated the devices, making sure to take out as many robots as possible to ensure a clean getaway. The team was clean away once the smoke cleared, leaving Earthguard to re-evaluate its strategy.
TEMPORAL GATEWAY DESTROYED BEYOND REPAIR. EVALUATING NEXT COURSE OF ACTION. COMPLETE. DESTRUCTION OF GATEWAY WILL NOT HAMPER CURRENT STRATEGEM. RE-DEPLOY FORCES TO CONTINUE PHASE ONE.
Author's note: I am, surprisingly, finding this story a lot easier to write than any of my other ones, with the exception of the Excalibur Saga. Maybe I'm getting better at transcribing my ideas to the written word, or maybe it's just a fluke. I don't know. I'm not complaining though. Disclaimer time:
Daniel and Kathy Murphy, as well as Sabrina Underwood and Isaac Flynn belong to me.
Everything else belongs to Dan, Swampy and Disney. Enjoy.