CHAPTER 4

A ray of light streamed into the front second floor bedroom of the Flynn-Fletcher house, waking up the quiet green-haired teenager who slept in the bed on the right side of the room. Ferb cracked open one eye and glanced at the alarm clock, which showed 7:24, six minutes before the 7:30 alarm he and Phineas had set for the summer. Looking over at the other bed, Ferb was slightly surprised to see it empty and messy. Phineas wasn't the best at making his bed, but it usually looked like he made some effort. Maybe he's just down getting breakfast, Ferb thought as he exited the room and walked downstairs.

However, Phineas was also not in the kitchen or living room, Ferb noticed as he made himself breakfast. Odd. He never said he was going anywhere last night, and I do remember him going to sleep early because he didn't get enough sleep the night before, making the teleporter for himself. After eating breakfast, Ferb looked around the house to see if he could find any sign of Phineas. The teen wasn't in the house at all, but neither were his shoes or his phone. Ferb thought a little before breaking out into a little smile. He's probably gone early to visit Isabella before her busy schedule makes it hard.

After taking a second for the thought to settle in, Ferb was a little surprised Phineas spending time with Isabella was the first assumption to which his mind went. However, he brushed the thought off. God knows the two of them deserve as much time together as possible, they've got 14 years to make up for.

Now knowing to where Phineas had disappeared and knowing how long he would likely take at his destination, Ferb decided to occupy his time thinking about his own upcoming move to college. Unlike Phineas, Ferb knew exactly what he wanted to study and where he wanted to go. He really enjoyed building things, like he had done every summer since coming to the States, and nano-engineering really called out to him.

Also, having been born in Great Britain and traveling back there a few times while growing up, Ferb knew about the prestige of Camford-on-Oxbury as the flagship university of the English education system, and one of the oldest and most historical institutions of higher learning in the world. And, as it just so happened, Camford-on-Oxbury had one of the best, if not the absolute best, departments of nano-engineering in the world. Adding everything up, it would provide the perfect school for him.

Ferb engrossed himself in browsing through the different research groups in the Camford-on-Oxbury nano-engineering department, as he had done multiple times throughout the summer. He knew some of the groups' work would be obsolete, if only he could recreate some of the work he and Phineas had done over the last decade-plus of their lives. However, there were just as many groups who were working on amazing and astounding projects. If they were able to be completed, of course.

Of course, if he had been able to work with Phineas, then it's possible all these projects could be completed. The two of them had yet to find an invention they couldn't make together, given enough time and materials. I bet if Phineas was at Camford-on-Oxbury with me, we could rewrite the textbooks and pioneer new fields in engineering. At this, Ferb realized Phineas, indeed, could be at Camford-on-Oxbury with him, using the new teleporter he had just built. Well, I can't force Phineas to travel from the Tri-State Area to England any time I want to work with him…but I can offer to join him in Marshwood whenever he wants. Looks like I know what I'm going to do today. After the thought came to him, Ferb looked around, almost subconsciously waiting for Phineas to pop out and say his catchphrase, before he remembered Phineas had gone. And I'll be doing it alone.

With the thought in mind, Ferb headed into the garage to tinker with his phone and add in the transportation functionality. It took him more than an hour and a half to do it, shorter than Phineas by himself since Ferb was quicker at building once he knew the blueprint, but still a good deal longer than it took the two of them together 10 years ago on Candace's phone. Looking at it, he realized he could add a bunch of new aspects to enhance the teleportation experience. Armed with the knowledge, Ferb spent the next couple of hours adding on some extra features.

Finally, right before lunch, Ferb finished with his expanded transportation device. He had turned off his phone to work on the teleporter, so he turned it back on to see if he had missed anything in the morning. Not surprisingly, he had missed a text message from Nessa. Surprisingly, though, he had both a new voicemail and a text from Isabella. Frowning, Ferb looked at Nessa's message first.

Nessa: Wanna go see a movie tonight? The latest in the Stumbleberry Finkbat reboot series is showing at Googolplex

Ferb smiled; his love for Stumbleberry Finkbat was legendary amongst his friend group, and while he knew Nessa wasn't really into the movie series, her wanting to go to see it with Ferb made him happy. And Nessa has definitely changed from the Goth-like teen back from when I met her. She would NEVER be caught dead seeing Stumbleberry Finkbat with someone like me back then.

He shot off a quick affirmative before backing out and opening up the one message from Isabella.

Bella: Hey Ferb, do you know if Phineas is planning on coming over in the morning or afternoon? He hasn't answered any of my texts, so I figured I'd ask you and see if you knew

Ferb's blood chilled. He had assumed Phineas was with Isabella, and Isabella had assumed Phineas was with him. This means…no one knew where Phineas had been, all morning. He quickly opened the voicemail.

"Hey Ferb," Isabella's voice came over the phone quietly. "I've tried reaching you and Phineas multiple times this morning, and I've got no response, so I'm just going to stop for now. I assume you guys are building something amazing, as usual." Here her voice seemed to get wistful, if Ferb was hearing it correctly. "I wish I could be there, to see it or help you build it or do whatever is necessary to make today just the best day ever. And, of course, you know I miss Phineas already." She got even quieter, and Ferb had to bump up the volume in order to hear her clearly. "I know I'm acting like I'm a young kid again, but I just can't help it. I want to be there with you guys when you invent, spend time with Phineas (and you!), and just doing whatever we possibly can to seize the day. Anyway, I hope you or Phineas can call me back soon, but I do have a debate club meeting after lunch from 1-3. Hope you guys have a great day. Thanks, goodbye."

She thinks Phineas's teleporter can transport her as well, Ferb realized. I actually have no idea if it can, but I doubt it, Phineas probably wanted it completed as soon as possible so he could get to sleep. Well, looks like I'm going to need to test it out myself, because I'm going to need Isabella here with me to help me find Phineas. And I don't think she'll mind missing her meetings if she hears about this. He quickly looked at the time, and realized it was just after noon. Time to get going.

Ferb picked up Perry, who was watching him with a semi-concerned look on his pet-mode face, and he said, "Go to The Nest."

Instantly, he resurfaced in the lair he and Phineas had built below the tree in their backyard when they played at being a superhero, The Beak. Perry looked around, surprised because he had never seen this before, but Ferb was just happy to see the dual-transportation mode working as planned.

Taking a deep breath, Ferb clutched Perry and almost whispered, "Go to Phineas." He wasn't really sure what he expected but staying still wasn't it. His phone chirped, and an automated woman's voice asked "Unable to locate Phineas Flynn. Would you like to locate another Phineas?"

Ferb dropped to the ground, stunned. This doesn't make any sense. Even if he was…well, if his DNA was on this planet, the transporter would be able to take me there. Of course, as soon as the thought hit him, he switched the phone over from "teleportation" mode to the new "location" mode he had installed. "Find Meap."

"Meap, found. He is on the planet Yorium, in the capital city of Meapville. Would you like to go there?"

"No thanks," Ferb instructed, even as he continued to struggle with the issue in his mind. OK, so I know the device can locate someone even when they're on a different planet, so I don't know what this means for Phineas…I gotta get Isabella. Setting Perry back on the ground, Ferb quickly sent off a message to her.

Ferb: You busy?

Bella: No, not at the moment, I'm just finishing lunch in my room. What's up?

Ferb shut his messages and stated, "Go to Isabella." Almost immediately, he materialized in Isabella's room at Tri-State State, nose-to-nose with Isabella.

"Ferb!" Isabella's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "What's going on, Ferb? Why are you here? Where's Phineas?"

Ferb declined to answer any of the questions, just grabbing Isabella's hand and stating, "Go to Perry."

The two of them quickly found themselves lying on the floor of The Nest on either side of Perry, who stood up and focused his eyes on Ferb, then glancing at Isabella meaningfully when Ferb looked his way.

Ferb just shook his head and turned to Isabella. "I'm not sure if Phineas's teleporter could take multiple people, but I doubt it. He would have had to address the polarity issues from 10 years ago, unless he wanted the two people traveling together to become fused together in some amorphous blob." Isabella looked slightly crestfallen at his explanation, but Ferb continued with only a slight pause. "Now, I haven't seen Phineas all morning. He was gone, along with his shoes and his phone, by the time I woke up around 7:30. I assumed he had gone to see you, but obviously he didn't."

Isabella's eyes were wide, and she was on the verge of tears. "So…he's gone? He's just…disappeared?"

"It's possible Phineas forgot to tell both of us he was leaving to go somewhere in the morning, but it's doubtful," Ferb replied. Just then, Perry tugged at his pant leg, then pantomimed a video camera when Ferb looked at him.

"Do you have video cameras up around the house, Ferb?" Isabella asked him, half-curious and half-alarmed.

Ferb shook his head, while Perry pointed to himself. "I think O.W.C.A. might," Ferb vocalized, with Perry nodding his head. Ferb showed Isabella and Perry how to get out of The Nest without using The Beak suit, and once they were back in the backyard proper Perry guided the two of them into his lair underneath their yard. As the three of them entered the dark room below the Flynn-Fletcher house, all of them had the same thought on their minds. I really hope Phineas is OK.

I am decidedly not OK, was Phineas's first thought when he woke up. He cracked open one eye, only to quickly shut it again. My head feels so…heavy, and everything is still spinning around. With his eyes closed, Phineas slowly felt around with his body as he tried to regain his senses. There wasn't much light in the room, he could tell through his closed eyelids. It was cool and slightly drafty. Phineas then realized he was lying on a well-worn solid flooring surface, likely concrete by the feel of it, and when he stretched out his fingers, he came into contact with solid vertical metal pipes, evenly spaced out at small intervals. Well, I guess it seems like I'm in some sort of cage…judging by the last thing I remember being seeing a cyborg panda O.W.C.A. agent (or I should say ex-agent now) in my backyard, I think I can piece together what happened to place me here.

Opening his eyes again, Phineas was relieved to see the world was no longer spinning, and he was able to sit up and take stock of his surroundings. As he expected, he found himself trapped in a metal cage in the corner of a dimly lit room, in what appeared to be someone's high-tech basement.

"Ahh, I see our visitor has awoken," came a high-pitched masculine voice from the gloom, with a sigh following shortly afterwards.

"Really? You used the exact same line when we got Doc in here. You're really losing your touch," came an unknown female voice.

"Well, it was on purpose! I mean, it is the classic line, and I felt like these situations call for the usage of the classic line!"

The two speakers chose then to reveal themselves, and Phineas couldn't help but twitch at the sight of the tall man with graying brown hair and beard wearing an eye patch with a scar over his left eye. The woman looked somewhat similar to someone he had met in his dimension, and if he had to guess it would likely be Mrs. Doofenshmirtz. So, they need me to invent stuff for evil Doof to take over the Tri-State Area again. I wonder why Mrs. Doofenshmirtz is still with him here…unless she's evil too.

"Hello, Phineas Flynn. So glad you could join us," Doof growled with a sneer, even as Charlene rolled her eyes in exasperation behind him. "I'm pretty sure you know why you're here, and what we want out of you."

"Umm, actually, I have no idea who you are and why I'm here," Phineas bluffed. "I've never seen anyone like you before, I'm sure." However, as he said the sentences, his head started feeling warm, and he realized something inside of his forehead was starting to heat up. He furtively rubbed at his head, but to no avail. After he stopped speaking, his head began to cool off.

"Ah, ah, ah," Charlene wagged her finger at Phineas. "You're trying to be naughty and lie to us. But as you noticed, Phineas, it wasn't a good idea. You just felt your forehead start to burn, didn't you?"

Phineas shook his head, then winced when his head began to burn again. "Yes," he quickly amended, and the heat vanished.

Charlene had a predatory smile on her face. "Yes, it's working perfectly. So, Phineas, how does it feel to know your mind isn't safe to you anymore? You see, you just tested out the first step of my boyborg process, the part where I train your brain to be controlled by my actions. I can attempt to control your actions whenever I want, and every time you resist my orders the device tries to exert my power on you, and it heats up as a result. If you have a weak will, then you will likely lose the battle before you get too hot. However, if you are able to continue to resist, you will essentially cook your own brain from the inside out. And while I would be interested to see how it turns out, I'm sure you don't want to test it yourself. The first control I tested was telling you not to lie to us. Therefore, when you lied to us, you began to feel the device trying to force you to tell the truth. However, as I imagine you have a strong mental constitution, you were able to overcome the compulsion for a short while. But, when you felt the heat from the device as you fought it, you realized what could happen. Now, are we on the same page about what we want out of you?"

Glowering, Phineas finally spoke up. "You want me to design and build things you can use to take over the Tri-State Area again."

"Good, I'm glad you understand," Doof snarled. "I'd love if you could start on a way to mass-produce Normbots again, but I won't be picky. If they work, of course. If they don't, I can definitely just jaunt back over to your dimension whenever I want and grab Ferb. I'm sure you would work then."

"Or maybe we'll grab someone else," Charlene added. As Phineas turned to her, she held up his cell phone and waved it in front of him. "Maybe it's your little girlfriend Isabella whom we'll kidnap instead, she seems to be someone who cares very much about you, and I would only assume it to be vice versa." She showed Phineas his call log and text messages, which were filled with multiple missed calls, voicemails, and messages, all from Isabella over approximately the last 4 hours.

Horrified, Phineas had no idea what to do but nod once, his eyes narrowed both in anger and in thought. I'll have to create a whole series of backdoor deactivations so myself or Ferb can sabotage them later. Of course, this assumes I'll ever get free, but I have faith in Ferb. And I guess in Isabella and Perry, the three of them will…but they probably won't know I'm not even in their dimension anymore! No, I have to assume they'll have some way of finding out I've been taken across dimensions. In any case, I doubt I'll be able to get back by myself, since I didn't make the teleporter able to withstand inter-dimensional travel, and I likely won't see my phone again anyway.

"You have already realized I have friends and family who won't stop until they find me, I assume. And knowing how resourceful they are, it shouldn't take too long," Phineas stated to the room at large, not really expecting an answer.

Doof, however, obliged to give him one. "Of course we do! Why does everyone constantly doubt my evil genius?"

"Maybe because giving you a toy train you misplaced as a youth disabled it?" Phineas smirked at the older man, taking a chance against the heat in his head to relish the opportunity of getting under the evil man's skin.

"Sheesh, why does everybody have to bring up Choo-choo? It's gone, over and done with, and I'm glad I'll never have to deal with it again!" Doof exclaimed angrily, and Charlene put her hand on his comfortingly.

"It's OK, honey. All they have is words, we have the power of actions," she soothed him. Looking back at Phineas, she added, "Yes, we're well aware of your group's ability to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. However, we have also been busy. We had Dr. Baljeet, a friend of our version of you if we're not mistaken, come over for a chat last week, and he gave us so much useful information. Not anything he would remember telling us now, of course. He was instrumental in helping us capture you, and by reverse-engineering the device he constructed we were able to figure out how to block inter-dimensional communication and transportation as well."

Phineas's eyebrows vanished into his hairline, causing Charlene to smirk. "What, did you just figure 'give it enough energy, and you can go anywhere'? Well it's not going to work anymore. We placed the block in the old Resistance HQ, which nobody has been in for years, and it keeps anyone within a certain radius from accessing other dimensions." She pointed over at an old-fashioned radio broadcast setup in the far corner. "The device unfortunately needs more power than we could get in the bunker, plus we would like to be able to monitor it from here. Therefore, we had to have a remote setup here, which you will not be tinkering with or touching, you hear me?"

Phineas just nodded, his brain whizzing as he tried to figure out a way he could stop it from happening. Looking at the setup, he noticed the readout parameters were stable and consistent, not changing much over time. If I create a special device to drain power from anything in its immediate area, with a hidden function of being able to loop any readouts from the drained power sources, and then just HAPPEN to leave it near the setup…I may be able to stop the block from working.

Looking up at the Doofs, he rattled his hands on the bars and said, "Well, if I'm going to invent stuff for you, I'm gonna need to be out of the cage and have access to blueprints and drawing materials."

"We'll get you the materials you need, but you're staying in there. We don't trust you to do what you say, and we don't want you testing the limits of the brain control device first thing," Doof replied.

Phineas shrugged helplessly. "I'm going to need to be able to build these things as well, and there's not much space in here."

"Start out by designing objects you could build in there, and once we get to the point where you need to be in a larger space, then we'll discuss it. Now get to work," Charlene said harshly, shoving some paper and pencils into the cage.

Sighing, Phineas started drawing out the blueprint for the power draining device, although he disguised the name as something completely different. Without feeling any heat in his head, he inferred it didn't technically constitute as lying, which was good news for him. After creating the plan for the device, he asked for materials with which to build it, and the Doofs brought him supplies.

For the most part, however, the Doofs mostly left him alone. Either Charlene or their version of Vanessa was in the room in case he needed anything, but they seemed to mostly leave him alone. This gave Phineas an idea. Once finished with the power draining device, he simply sat there and consciously decided to do nothing, just closing his eyes and holding his body still. It worked for about a minute.

Suddenly, Phineas shrieked as electricity exploded in his head and coursed through his body, feeling like he was on fire everywhere at once. Just as quickly as it came, however, it disappeared, and Phineas regained his senses of the world around him. He realized he had fallen over and curled up into the fetal position when the electricity hit, so he slowly started to unwind himself.

"Oh, I might've forgotten to mention something," Charlene spoke up from the corner with a grin. "You see, if you try to passively resist our orders by procrastination or some other way, it won't work. I'm also able to read the activity level of your brain through my boyborg setup, and if I can tell you aren't actively trying to think of or build inventions, then I'll shock you. You received a warning period this time, but I won't be so generous the next time I perceive you to be slacking off."

Phineas gaped at her incredulously. "You seriously expect me to work nonstop on these designs? You do know how creativity works, right? Plus, you know, I'm going to have to physically build some of these, which takes effort and energy. You think I can just work constantly and never stop?"

Charlene shrugged. "We figure we have a short period of time with you, based on our assumptions of the ingenuity of the rest of your group of friends. So, since you and your brother are probably the two best people we could use to create our new wonders of destruction and mayhem, AND you'll probably be the two people who can most effectively take us down, we'll need to work you ragged in order to make it so you're not able to do so. Sure, it will lower your effectiveness for us if you somehow stay here for a while, but at this point, we need everything you can give us."

A feeling of dread settled in the pit of Phineas's stomach. "So, you really don't care about your most valuable asset? You're just so evil you don't understand how to properly provide for your production?" He frowned and stopped his tinkering. "Well, if I'm going to be useless to you soon, I might as well do so now."

This time, the electricity lasted at least twice as long as the first time, and once Phineas came back to himself, he also felt the burning heat in his head, as he resisted the order they gave to work.

"Well, now you can see what happens to you if you don't work with us. You get shocked, and you internally burn your brain," Charlene shrugged again, and Phineas was appalled at her apathy. "If you work with us, we'll only wear you down, since we do need you. You'll be able to physically recover from the exhaustion, given enough rest and relaxation. Cross us, and you will face both physical and mental degradation, both of which could become permanent." She turned around and called for Vanessa to cover her shift, leaving the still-trembling Phineas to work in his cage.

In the short term, though, the damage was done. As he worked, Phineas noticed he couldn't stop his hands from shaking slightly. The one time he stopped in an attempt to massage them and perhaps reduce the amount of involuntary movement, Vanessa shocked him again, which just made the shaking worse. This was especially counterproductive for them, because in the power dynamic of Phineas and Ferb, Phineas was more of the idea guy, and he was much quicker at getting designs into his head and then on paper. Ferb was the "man of action", and therefore was quicker at building the inventions than Phineas. Now, adding on the uncontrollable shaking of Phineas's hands, he couldn't keep up with his speed standards, both in the sketching and building departments.

In the afternoon, roughly 5 hours after he had woken up, Phineas had only been able to finish the power drainer and a scale model of a second-generation Normbot, which he had been forced to upgrade via electrical shocks once his original plans were deemed "inadequate." At this point, Vanessa brought in food and allowed him a 10-minute break to eat but relayed a message from her parents. They were disappointed with his progress and insisted he switch priorities only to designing new inventions, as they would have Peter the Pandaborg and Tony Marzulo work on creating his designs. Phineas assumed those two were the most expendable to Doof, as they would be dealing directly with things he drew up, and he knew there was no trust between either party in this situation.

Over the remainder of the evening, Phineas was able to design another half-dozen inventions to possibly help the Doofs take over their Tri-State Area, while Tony and Peter the Pandaborg were able to create two of them. One was a copier similar to the one Phineas and Ferb had used to create the Phinedroids and Ferbots, and Doof was using this to create Normbots as fast as he could, although with the sparse materials they had laying around it was slow going. Finally, after what was to Phineas an indeterminate period of time, Doof walked back down and signaled for him to stop, while also telling the other two to finish whatever they were working on before stopping.

"Not as much as I had hoped, but not as bad as I had feared," Doof commented, looking around before focusing his one eye on Phineas again. "You've still proven your use to us. Congratulations, you can take a break for the rest of the day. However, because you were so insolent with us earlier, and because I've heard they are great for innovation, we've got a special room for you. Follow me."

The cage opened, and Phineas warily stepped out, his legs weak both from lack of space to stretch them in the cage and the four overall electrical shock periods. He tottered on his shaky legs behind Doof, only to stop and stare as the man opened a door on the far side of the basement to a completely dark room, with no features inside visible even with the light from the basement filtering in.

Doof shoved Phineas into the room, then tied his hands behind his back and placed a blindfold over his eyes and a gag in his mouth. "Now, we'll keep you in this state of sensory deprivation for the night and see how valuable you are to us in the morning. Oh, and before you get any ideas, this place has a thermal camera watching over it. We can see in, so don't try anything. Sweet dreams, sonny," Doof cackled, his voice sounding oddly quiet in the room. Phineas realized there must have been sound suppression in the materials of the room. Doof tied earmuffs over Phineas's triangular head, leaving the boy completely in the dark without able to see, hear, or touch anything with his hands. Phineas tried to get comfortable, but the feeling of disorientation stopped him from moving much other than lying down. The ground was neither hot nor cold, almost as if it was thermally regulated, and it was also neither soft nor particularly hard, although Phineas was unable to figure out upon what exact substance he was lying his head.

Ferb, Isabella, Perry, I really hope you come soon, Phineas pleaded to no one as he resigned himself to a long, torturous night.

The elevator dropped down the big tree in the Flynn-Fletcher backyard and came to a rest in Agent P's lair. Isabella took a moment to gaze around the lair, as she had never been down here before, but Ferb raced off with Perry to the control panel, having remembered the lair and its functionality from the previous jaunt to the second dimension. Perry opened up the video camera logs from the day before, starting around late afternoon, when Ferb knew Phineas had returned from Marshwood.

After narrowing in on the time he returned, Perry and Ferb see Phineas quickly pop in and out on the street in front of his house, before popping back onto the pavement again. Isabella joined them as they started to watch Phineas's conversation with Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro, albeit without audio. Once Phineas finished and re-entered the house, there was nothing unusual on the camera for a while. Fiddling with the controls, Perry sped up the recording while also having a video recognition software look for anything unusual. They saw Ferb take out the trash and Linda moving the car from the street to the garage as the sun quickly sank behind the horizon, and so the video continued into the night. A few minutes after midnight in the video, Isabella noticed something on the recording, which stopped automatically just a moment later due to the recognition software being alerted.

"Look there!" She pointed on the screen. A dark shape just entered the backyard, seemingly from nowhere. Perry rewound the recording, slowed it to half-speed, and enlarged and enhanced the contrast on the video. A hatch opened from the ground, and a cyborg panda appeared from the darkness. Perry and Ferb gasped silently, while Isabella just looked confused but fearful at their reactions. "What is that…thing?" she asked.

Perry paused the recording as Ferb slowly turned to look at her. "The confirmation of our worst nightmare," he responded quietly. "When we went to the second dimension, their version of Vanessa's dad had turned their Perry into a cyborg platypus. The other secret agents there were also missing, and the worst-case scenario meant all of them were turned cyborg as well." He pointed to the panda, which was now identified by the O.W.C.A. computers as a 63% match with Agent P, Peter the Panda.

Isabella quirked an eyebrow at Ferb's sudden talkativeness but disregarded it due to their combined worry for Phineas. "So, this cyborg was sent here by the other Dr. Doofenshmirtz, presumably to take Phineas?"

Ferb just gestured to Perry, and the video restarted again. Soon, the three of them saw the door to the kitchen open and Phineas poke his head out. He was wearing his pajamas but had his shoes on and his phone in his hand. Isabella started whispering to Phineas, telling him not to go out, but Phineas exited the house after only a moment's hesitation and approached the figure of the cyborg panda.

Isabella let out a small scream when the Pandaborg leaped at Phineas and incapacitated him with a Vulcan nerve pinch, then turned away letting out a little sob. Ferb and Perry continued to watch as Phineas was tossed into a large black bag and both boy and Pandaborg disappeared into the ground, only to reappear in an O.W.C.A. hovercar and blast away into the night, towards downtown.

Perry immediately closed the video recording and brought up an inventory of his stockpile of supplies, as well as the access log to his lair. He turned sadly to Ferb and nonverbally confirmed the loss of one hovercar, and the lair was accessed by O.W.C.A agent Peter the Panda, with outdated but still admissible credentials.

"OK," Ferb said as he pulled together a distraught Isabella and a composed but upset Perry. "The other dimension's Dr. Doof must have broken out of custody of the other O.W.C.A. and is using a cyborg-enhanced version of an O.W.C.A. agent to capture Phineas, likely for revenge for his defeat 10 years ago."

"Is there anything we can do?" Isabella cried out despairingly. "We can't just let him suffer over there!"

Ferb turned to Perry. "Can you get in touch with Major Monogram or whoever is running the O.W.C.A. now?"

Perry saluted and tried bringing up a channel of communication with a "Commander Carl" on the computer, but it only brought up static. Perry's eyes widened, and he relayed the issue to Ferb through hand signals.

"OK, no contact with O.W.C.A.," Ferb stated, aggravated. "Any idea if it's internal or external?"

Perry shrugged and relinquished control of the main station to Ferb as he headed out to check the communications system for any issues. Ferb, meanwhile, turned back to Isabella, who looked at him pleadingly.

"We'll have to contact the other versions of us to figure out what's happened in their dimension over the last 10 years."

Isabella looked slightly relieved, but then frowned. "How can we reach them, though? Can your phone reach the other dimension?"

Ferb shrugged. "Theoretically, the transmission signals of calls or texts would be able to, but the teleporter can't, I tried it with Phineas earlier. But no, I was hoping our Dr. Doofenshmirtz would be able to help us with the creation of another Other-Dimension-inator, since he had basically created the first one by himself."

"Well then what are we waiting for? We need to go get Phineas!" Isabella replied as she immediately began to head towards the lair entrance at which they had entered, only to be restrained by Ferb.

"Because if the other Doof is in power in their Tri-State Area and has Phineas, we're going to need to be on top of our game. Who knows what terrors he has been able to create over the past 10 years?" Ferb asked rhetorically.

Isabella stopped short as she imagined Phineas in the clutches of one of the tortuous TV villains she had seen recently, and then immediately tried to get the image out of her mind. Phineas needs me, and he needs the Troop Leader of Fireside Girls Troop 46231, not the lovesick girl stuck in Phineasland. Time to go. "Right," she said aloud. "Let's get Perry on our side, for sure, since he knows what's going on there. Do you think we should get Baljeet and Buford, or the girls?"

Ferb pondered the question for a while, but ultimately shook his head. "Buford would be a hindrance, Baljeet is already gone back to prepare for teaching, and I think having the girls might be too many people. We'll need enough to be able to get in and out with Phineas, but the stability of any portal we make this quickly would likely be low, so we can't have too many people go through and cause it to explode, or not be able to reach the other Dr. Doofenshmirtz before we're captured. Perry is a good idea, and I'm thinking of asking Vanessa and her dad to join us, since we know they work well under stress, and Nessa has O.W.C.A. experience. Once we get to the other side, I'm hoping the other versions of us will assist. They have much more experience with this sort of strike than we have."

Isabella sighed and nodded. "OK. You going to text Vanessa and ask if we can come over to build the device?"

"I'll call her and ask the two of them to come to us," Ferb answered. "We don't want to waltz right into the middle of Doofenshmirtz Evil, Incorporated in the other dimension, the other Doof would expect us to show up there and likely will be waiting for us with a trap. No, I think we should try to phase across from here and contact our counterparts before we do so to see how safe it is."

"Right, makes sense," Isabella sighed. "Sorry I'm not thinking too clearly right now, I promise I'll be better for the trip."

Ferb nodded. "I understand, I'm also near the same point. Don't worry, we WILL get him out of there and back home, safe and sound." He left her alone then and pulled out his phone. Nessa answered on the second ring.

"Nessa, we need you and your dad to come over as soon as possible and bring anything he has to help make an Other-Dimension-inator. Phineas was kidnapped from our yard last night by a cyborg panda, and we think he's affiliated with the evil version of your dad due to the similarities to their version of Perry."

"Oh, no! OK, I'll go pick him up and bring him over to you as quickly as possible!" she replied over the phone. "How is your family doing?"

Ferb blinked, realizing he hadn't told his parents. "Our parents don't actually know yet, I kinda forgot about them. We literally just figured this out a minute ago. Also, I still don't think they'd believe us, to be honest. And finally, they're not even in town at the moment, they left this morning to go to an antiques convention."

There was a pause, before Nessa asked, "Have you told Isabella?"

He sighed. "Yes, she figured out something was wrong pretty quickly. She's here with Perry, and we're hoping to form a strike group with you and your dad to rendezvous with the alternate versions of us and get Phineas back.

"Well, I'm in, and I'll get my dad to join as well. He also had O.W.C.A. training, and I'm sure it'll be put to good use. I'll see you soon."

Ferb returned to Isabella, and Perry dropped down from outside just about then. Ferb raised an eyebrow inquisitively and Perry shrugged, indicating he had no idea why there was no response from O.W.C.A. on their earlier attempt at communication. Stumped, Ferb thought for a minute before having a brainstorm.

"Perry, is Irving the new intern at O.W.C.A.? Everything would make sense now if he took over Carl's job."

Perry nodded furiously, so Ferb pulled out his phone again and called up Irving. He answered on the third ring. "Ferb, my man, thanks for calling! What can I do for you? Care to go for a ride in my new Mustang?"

"Irving, I was just alerted to your internship being at O.W.C.A. Perry and I need O.W.C.A.'s help, is Commander Carl in today?"

There was silence on the other end for a couple of seconds, before Irving sighed and responded. "I'm going to overlook you knowing all of this and focus on the issue at hand, but no, Commander Carl is not in. None of us are, L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. is having their annual trip to the Rocky Mountains, and all our active agents are there shadowing them. Commander Carl is at the mobile ops center, and we can't really provide any substantial assistance. I'm basically our only available asset right now. Well, myself and the other retired on-call agents. Maybe I can get Agent P on whatever you need?"

"OK, yeah, Perry's already on it. I'll let you know if we need you then," Ferb said, and then he hung up, stopping any possible rebuttal from Irving. "O.W.C.A. is stretched too thin, L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. is draining their resources right now. All they've really got for us is Irving."

Isabella shook her head. "He'd be good for mission control from our side, but not really for anything else."

Ferb nodded. "Let's head to the garage and start building what we can from what I remember of the Other-Dimension-inator. When Nessa and her dad get here, I'm sure the work will go much faster."

After about an hour of Ferb, Perry, and Isabella tinkering with the structural and dimensional stability components, Nessa and Heinz showed up with a bunch of old materials and a photo from Norm showing what the old Other-Dimension-inator looked like. With those aids, the team was able to build a new Other-Dimension-inator in about 3 hours, with many false starts and rebuilds necessary because Heinz didn't have a good blueprint and Phineas was the blueprint guy of their duo. However, right before dinnertime as the sun was setting, they finally had the Other-Dimension-inator built.

"OK, let's fire this bad baby up," Heinz shouted, before turning to Perry. "And this time Perry the Platypus won't be destroying it."

Perry and Ferb both rolled their eyes and Perry hit the "on" button on the side of the -inator. However, nothing happened.

"Dad, did you wire it through the self-destruct button again?" Nessa asked when the portal failed to appear.

"No, no, I swear I wired it correctly this time, see?" Heinz replied as he turned to the -inator and pulled out the wiring around the self-destruct button. "I don't have the self-destruct button wired to anything, it's just a decorative reminder of my -inator building days. There's no reason here why it wouldn't work."

Ferb pulled out his calculations and ran through them again, before giving Heinz a thumbs-up. "This should be working."

"Could the stability of the portal be disrupted from the other side?" Isabella asked. "Some sort of scrambling, perhaps?"

Heinz's eyes widened as Ferb started punching in more calculations. "Yes, it is theoretically possible to block inter-dimensional portals by…well, it's a complicated quantum principle dealing with uncertainty. But yes, someone in the other dimension could definitely be stopping any connections."

"Which means it's worse than we thought, and the other you can block this within a day of using it," Ferb added.

Isabella chewed on her lip as her mind raced. "How strong would it need to be to block here? Could it be a city-wide thing, or just localized?"

"Again, all I have are theoretical models, but I imagine it's likely to only be localized for one jammer. However, with the amount of power necessary to create a portal going back to this dimension, I imagine the other me has enough power to distribute these blocks all across the city," Heinz responded, downcast.

"So, we go outside the city and find our way in," Isabella shot back. "Once we get to the other dimension, we can find the other Phineas and Ferb and use them to get our Phineas out. And I imagine the other versions of me and the ex-Fireside Girls will probably be willing and able to help."

"Let's go!" Ferb exclaimed, and he, Isabella, and Perry immediately began to pack up all the extra stuff scattered around. "We're going to need your old flatbed truck, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, to carry this device out of the city."

"Hold your horses there, kiddos. And Perry," Heinz responded, and the three turned to look at him angrily. "It's been a long day," here he gestured to the mostly-set sun, "and none of you are operating at peak performance. You've been working non-stop for most of the day, and if we go now, you'd just be endangering the mission. Now, I figured this might have been an issue for you, so I'm going to leave some sleeping tablets here. I was able to strip the sleepy part of melatonin from the non-waking-up part and enhance it, so these things will get you to sleep right when you need it, and you will be able to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and ready. Besides, by then we will have an easier time reaching the other versions of you over there. Come on, Vanessa. You'll need your rest too."

"As much as I hate to admit it, guys, he's right," Vanessa told the downcast kids and platypus. "You, Phineas, and any available help we can get will be less effective now than in the morning. And who knows, maybe L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. will be done with their retreat by then and Commander Carl can provide us with more O.W.C.A. resources." She knelt down next to them. "I can't say I know how you feel right now, but I can imagine. But Phineas needs you to be at peak performance to rescue him."

Isabella looked over at Ferb, who set his mouth in a thin line but gave a thumbs-up, and then to Perry, who turned his beak down in a frown but shrugged acceptingly. "I guess so," she finally concluded, before another thought came to her and she turned back to Ferb. "But how are we going to explain this to your mom and dad?"

"Our parents are out at another antique convention, so I just won't notify them because we'll get Phineas back," Ferb answered. "Now, are you ready for me to take you back to Tri-State State for the night?"

"Umm…could I stay here? I really don't want to have to go back and be alone in Marshwood. This is more important," Isabella pleaded. Ferb just nodded and pointed towards Candace's old room, which had been left the same way since she had headed out to college 7 years ago. Isabella thanked him and prepared for bed as best she could, borrowing from Ferb or Candace's supply when needed. Before she took the modified melatonin, she made one last thought-prayer. Oh, Phineas, please be OK. I can't lose you now.