CHAPTER 6
As one, the group of five turned and peered into the darkness, looking for the first glance of their nefarious foe. However, after waiting for a few seconds, nothing happened, and Perry and Heinz exchanged confused looks.
"Uhh, hello?" Heinz asked. "Alternate dimension me, weren't you going to do your huge dramatic reveal?"
"Wait, what's going on?" Suddenly, a man who looked extremely similar to Heinz but with an eye patch over his left eye and a curious scar over the eye patch seemingly materialized in front of the group, who all jumped back slightly in fright. At the same point, something in the man's pocket burst into flames.
"Yeowch!" Doof yelled, falling back and swatting heavily at his pants, before pulling out a flaming object and tossing it onto the tile floor before stamping on it. "Well, I guess I used to have an invisibility device, but not anymore. It's what I get for trying to make one myself, instead of letting the boy do it." He dusted off his hands, before turning to the group wearing a sinister smirk. "No matter, I now have everyone whom he cares most deeply for, plus alternate me and alternate Vanessa, all in one place. Once I capture you, all of you will be working for me and making my rule so much more expedient. Plus, your entire dimension will then be mine for the taking, and then I'll be able to rule both Tri-State Areas at the same time!" He cackled menacingly.
"I mean, you say all this, and believe me, I know all about gloating when you have the upper hand," Heinz commented warily as he continued to look around the room, "but I don't think you have the upper hand in this case. You're outnumbered five to one, and I know Perry the Platypus can defeat either of us handily. And since I'm you, even though I'm from another dimension, I know you are either way too overconfident for the situation or you have something else up your sleeve."
As the two Dr. Doofenshmirtzes were talking, Ferb tapped Isabella on the shoulder and gestured with his hand towards the darkness in the other direction from evil Doof. Isabella quirked her eyebrow once, and Ferb gave her a subtle "shoo" motion with his hand. Understanding dawned in her eyes, and she gave him a slight nod before turning to look at the verbally dueling doctors. Seeing Doof was still occupied with rolling his eyes at the rejoinder from Heinz, Isabella slowly turned and attempted to stealthily creep away from the group. She made it just into the shadows as Heinz finished speaking.
Doof sighed patronizingly as Heinz ended his rebuttal. "Well, I guess we don't have doctorate degrees for nothing, even if yours was bought online with your ex-wife's alimony checks," and here he stressed the word "ex", which caused both Heinz and Nessa to cock their heads slightly but Perry's eyes to narrow. "But yes, good on you for realizing you're not in the position of strength you thought you were. Now, you've walked into my trap!" Doof swings his eyes across the group, now noticing Isabella was missing. "Ah, it looks like the girl is going to save her boyfriend by herself. How noble of her, it evens the odds now. Hah, 'evens' the 'odds'. What a juxtaposition. I love that word. Jux-ta-po-si-tion." The remaining four chance a quick look around at each other, caught off guard by Doof's wandering mind. "Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes. The girl made the sides even now. Other-dimension travelers, allow me to introduce you to my family."
From the shadows where Doof had hidden emerged three more figures. Both of the first dimension Doofenshmirtzes and Ferb let out a light gasp when two of them materialized out of the shadows into the alternate versions of Charlene and Vanessa, both looking decidedly darker than their first-dimension counterparts. The third person was unknown to everyone except Nessa, who figured she might have vaguely recognized the man from her classes. However, whether it was from high school or college, she had no idea. She shook her head and refocused on the now even battle in front of her.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet my wife Charlene, my daughter Vanessa, and her husband Tony Marzulo." Doof made a sweeping motion with his arm, indicating each person he mentioned in turn. "Now, we have four on each side! Isn't this much more sporting? We can each fight one-on-one now."
Ferb and Perry glanced at each other, both thinking, I really hope Isabella can get Phineas out of the basement as soon as possible, we might need her to help out here. As if he was reading their minds, Doof interjected, "Oh, and before you think you can just wait it out until the girl comes back with the boy, you'll find she's going to be in for a little bit of a surprise. I'm sure you notice someone is missing?"
Perry's eyes widened as he realized the cyborg version of the best fighting agent he knew other than himself was not present and accounted for. By the sharp intake of breath behind him, he knew at least Heinz had also figured it out, and maybe the others had as well. Doof's evil grin only grew wider.
"Ah, yes, I think Peter the Pandaborg will be well equipped to handle any incursion attempt by the girl. He is a cyborg completely under our control, not like the attempted boyborg who faked us out when we captured our versions of you 10 years ago, right after my family broke me out." Doof remarked. "He will stop her, and then you'll have to fight us at a disadvantage, and with two of your party incapacitated."
Perry chattered angrily at Doof, and Ferb narrowed his eyes. "You seem to have high regard for this cyborg."
"Well, I mean, he acquitted himself nicely in the fight against O.W.C.A., the Resistance, and the Firestorm Girls, back when we made our escape a decade ago. He was even able to take down a Firestorm Girl in single combat, and I'm sure this Isabella would be no match for the Firestorm Girls, much less Peter the Pandaborg. Plus, with him being a cyborg, none of his reflexes have degraded with time, while I'm sure yours have, Perry the Platypus. After all, we non-cyborgs must all age and die eventually." Doof winked at Perry, although it only contained malice and no affection.
Perry growled, which caused everyone around him to turn their heads to look at him, surprised. No one had ever heard him make such a noise before. He pointed at Doof, then back at himself, giving the classic "you vs. me" signal. Perry figured he still had the upper hand against Doof, after his most recent time with Heinz, and if he was able to quickly take out Doof he thought he could most seriously affect the morale of the rest of his family, along with also now bringing their best fighter back into the main fight. Doof mockingly bowed to the platypus but shuffled sideways away from the rest of the fight, causing Perry to mimic his actions lest he show his back to the remainder of Doof's family.
"I'm sure you want to dispose of me quickly and get back into the fray, Perry the Platypus. However, I hope you will find me a bit more imposing than you previously thought. Are you sure you don't want to go help the others?" Doof asked, his bravado flickering slightly as he took in the monotreme's positively murderous countenance. Perry chattered low in his throat, before letting out another sound none of the people present had ever heard before: an ear-splitting, bone-chilling scream full of rage, grief, and malice funneled directly at Doof. The man barely had time to raise his defenses before Perry launched himself across the room at the evil genius, intent on tearing out his throat.
Heinz and Nessa winced as they saw the transformation take over Perry and were extremely glad Heinz had never been evil enough to trigger the animalistic rage the platypus now portrayed. Ferb's jaw dropped as the beloved Flynn-Fletcher pet snarled and bit at Doof, who had to constantly jump or roll away from Perry in order to avoid the frenzied attacks. The evil Doofs were also shocked at the events unfurling; however, they were able to refocus on the group in front of them first and quickly maneuvered themselves into their preferred solo fights against the first-dimension travelers.
Heinz finally tore his attention away from Perry and Doof, only to find Charlene advancing on him. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, before backing quickly away to the other side of the house, on the opposite side of the main group from the Perry and Doof fight. Charlene smirked as she moved in on the facsimile of the man she loved, albeit without all the evil she loved.
Ferb shook his head and his eyes slid over to the person stalking up to him. This version of Vanessa had different hair than his Nessa, and it seemed she never grew out of the Goth-like phase from her teenage years, as she was still all dressed in black with high heels and dark makeup. Ferb rubbed the back of his head as he took a solid defensive stance, looking around to make sure he had enough room to dodge and parry attacks, as he knew he could never attack Nessa – or her doppelganger.
Nessa took note of the other two solo fights setting up around her, and focused on the slightly-familiar man, the previously-mentioned Tony Marzulo, who was grinning salaciously at her. When she only raised an eyebrow at him disinterestedly, however, his confidence began to melt into confusion as he slightly lowered his guard. "Are you not married to me over in your world as well?" Tony asked Nessa.
"Man, I'm not sure we even know each other in our dimension, because I don't remember you well at all, but the whole evil thing kinda turns me off anyway," Nessa replied with an eye roll, causing Tony to shuffle away awkwardly, with Nessa stalking towards him in an attempt to begin and end the battle as quickly as possible. After the movement, all four of the fights took up one quadrant of the main floor of the house each, and on an unspoken signal the other three fights began simultaneously.
Isabella slipped away into the darkness, with the last thing she heard as she left being Doof mentioning something about online doctorate degrees, ex-wives, and alimony checks. As soon as she was sure she was away from the group, and hoping Doof hadn't sent his cyborg deputy to look for her, she pulled out Ferb's phone and opened up the tracking/teleportation app. Closing her eyes and praying for the best, Isabella whispered into it, "Go to the Phineas in the basement of 9246 Adjacent Dr."
When she opened her eyes, she was met with nothing but darkness. For some reason, the phone screen turned off after the teleportation completed, and it remained dark in the inky pitch-black nothingness surrounding her. Isabella fought down a scream threatening to erupt from her throat as she realized not only could she not see anything, but she could barely hear anything either. To her, it seemed like the room was threatening to swallow her whole and remove her existence, as if it had done the same to Phineas…Isabella shook her head violently to remove the thought, but it remained.
"Phineas!" she whisper-shouted into the room, but she received no response. Her heart hammering in her chest, Isabella fumbled with the phone she just remembered she had and managed to bring up the home screen. From there, she was able to turn on the back flashlight and point it around the room. However, what she saw almost made her thudding heart stop in her chest.
There, silhouetted in the harsh bluish-white light of the cell phone flashlight against what seemed to be a light fabric floor, was Phineas Flynn. A shaking, tied up, blindfolded, gagged, and ear-muffed Phineas Flynn, lying on the ground with no reaction to either Isabella or the light she produced to see him. Oh my gosh, they were torturing him with sensory deprivation. How could they do this to him?
Verbally, however, Isabella was only able to manage a short gasp as she began to fall to her knees, before suddenly a bright light streamed into the room from a rectangular opening. Shielding her eyes with one hand, Isabella was able to see a doorway leading out of the room before a small shape with a surprising amount of force behind it crashed into her. She could feel the brunt of the hits from both fur and cool metal as her self-defense instincts activated, and she was able to block the worst of the hits from Peter the Pandaborg as he attempted to bring her down with force.
Trying to find a spot to turn away from the light so she could see the cyborg panda, Isabella moved her feet around but tripped over the still-motionless form of Phineas on the ground. She swung her arms wildly in an attempt to maintain balance, but it was futile as she tipped over the boy and fell towards the ground. In an effort to save herself and Phineas from further injury, Isabella released her grip on Ferb's cell phone and landed softly on the weirdly untextured floor. This did end up helping alleviate the impact on her hands as she attempted to brace herself on the floor using them. Unfortunately, this also caused Ferb's phone to leave her hand and go flying across the room, skittering along the floor a couple of times before contacting the wall on the opposite side of the room.
Isabella was thankful to see Phineas moan through the gag and attempt to move around, although with his hands tied behind his back and Isabella laying on top of him combined with his twitching and general lack of strength, he was unable to do much more than slightly shift the girl on top of him. Still, she mentally prepared herself for the onslaught of blows sure to come momentarily from the cyborg.
The blows never came, and Isabella realized Peter the Pandaborg was moving across the room to the far side, where Ferb's phone was located. Cursing under her breath, she knew the cyborg panda had figured out the device was more than just a phone. Upset at losing the invention with the ability to teleport them both out of harm's way, Isabella still took full advantage of the Pandaborg's distraction and hefted Phineas over her shoulder, grunting from the effort and causing Phineas to also make a noise in confusion. Distressed at how much he still shook, Isabella hustled out of the sensory deprivation room and slammed the door shut with her foot as she passed.
The room she entered seemed more like a proper basement, which she could tell had been converted into a workshop for the Doof's dastardly schemes. Tons of inventions, both large and small, littered the floor and were lined up along the walls. With a grim satisfaction, Isabella was able to notice most of the devices seemed in disarray and nonoperational. She dropped behind the largest structure on the ground, which looked like something being constructed on its side, before carefully lowering Phineas off her shoulder and gently laying him on the ground as well, assessing his physical state.
Phineas kept quiet as Isabella quickly managed to roll him over and release his hand ties first. She then focused on getting the gag out of his mouth while he slowly reached up and pulled off his earmuffs. Once both of those were taken care of, Isabella pulled off the blindfold from over his eyes.
Phineas blinked rapidly multiple times, adjusting to the light again, before his eyes settled on Isabella. Even through the twitching, he managed to smile sadly at her, causing her heart to break at his condition. "I must be dying, because here is my angel come to bring me to heaven," he croaked out.
"No, Phineas, it's really me, it's Isabella!" Isabella cried out. "I'm really here, we're all here, and we came to rescue you!"
Phineas's eyes unfocused slightly as he tried to process the information. "What do you mean? Who is 'we'?"
"Ferb, Perry, Nessa, and her dad," Isabella got out through the tears threatening to fall down her face. "Ferb gave me his phone, which he had tinkered with to create teleportation able to send multiple people at once. I was supposed to use it to quickly grab you and teleport back to the portal to our dimension, which would have alerted Nessa and they would have all fallen back to cover our retreat."
"Where are they now?" Phineas asked.
"They're upstairs facing off against Doof," Isabella replied. "And he must have had something up his sleeve, since the Pandaborg was down here but they must not have been able to defeat him yet."
Phineas shook his head, fighting the shaking of his body. "I imagine he got his family to help him."
"Wait, you mean their version of Vanessa? Who else would he have?" Isabella queried, unsure of what he meant.
"Well, in this dimension apparently both Vanessa and her mother Charlene are evil, so Doof actually never divorced her," Phineas responded. "In addition, the Vanessa from here married a man named Tony Marzulo, who has been with them for 10 years since they broke Doof out of O.W.C.A.'s prison."
"Great," Isabella moaned. "So now they're fighting in equal numbers up there, but with this dimension's Doofs being more ruthless, I'm sure. I have no way of getting you out of here quickly without getting past the upstairs fight, and I'm sure the cyborg is going to reappear from the sensory deprivation torture room any minute now and I'll probably have to fight him to get him away from us."
Phineas paused as an idea came to mind. "Well, Ferb's phone is possibly gone, but my cell phone is still available to us! It's over there on the c-control panel," he paused for a moment and shivered slightly through his twitching, before indicating a setup on the other side of the room, beyond the door to the sensory deprivation room. "I never put constraints on the phone about teleporting multiple people, and I was never able to test it, but in theory it should work! We could at least teleport outside the basement and alert Ferb and Perry and all of them, so we can escape."
Isabella looked down at Phineas and noticed the hopeful look in his eyes, but she didn't have the heart to tell him Ferb had figured out the standard phone he assumed Phineas had made would not be able to send two people anywhere, unless there was a stroke of luck none of them had encountered since the two of them had gotten together. Nevertheless, she just nodded and started to move towards Phineas's phone.
However, she was stopped short when the door to the sensory deprivation room finally opened, and Peter the Pandaborg emerged from the darkness. In his metal hand he was holding the crushed remains of Ferb's cell phone, and Isabella's heart sank again when she realized there was now no easy way of getting both of them out of the basement. Well, here we go Isabella. Gotta get Phineas out of this place and back safe in our dimension, number one priority. Whatever it takes.
Peter the Pandaborg looked at Isabella, who tried to look nonchalant but alert for any sign of an attack from the cyborg panda. He started to slowly circle around the room, thankfully away from where Phineas was hiding but towards his cell phone, forcing Isabella to mimic his movements as they began the dangerous dance. He's just going to watch me, try to force me to make a mistake. And he has the capability to do it, Isabella thought grimly. Well, this is going to take a while. Hopefully I can distract him enough for Phineas to get to the phone when he's on the other side of the room.
Behind her back, she made some slight hand movements, hoping she was indicating to Phineas to slowly and quietly move towards the phone. I hope we're still enough in tune with each other for this to work. Of course, Ferb would probably be able to do this without using his hands. Regardless, Isabella also set about moving around, forcing the Pandaborg to stop his movements and regard her carefully. I can't fight him, he'd be too strong. Isabella conceded mentally. I need quick, sudden skirmishes and then to retreat. All right then, Mr. Peter the Pandaborg, let's dance!
Perry let out another soundless snarl as he nimbly dodged a punch from Doof and retaliated by rolling into a lunging kick. This time, finally, he was successful in landing a blow on the evil scientist, who had thus far been able to block every single attack from the enraged platypus, albeit barely. Here, though, Perry's webbed hind foot made solid contact with Doof's right kneecap, sending the man howling to the ground. A similar scream from elsewhere in the room distracted Perry slightly, keeping him from finishing the doppelganger of his nemesis, crumpled up on the floor.
Taking a risk, Perry leaped away from Doof slightly towards the center of the room and looked at the other three fights occurring in the area. He was just in time to see Nessa grab Tony Marzulo around the torso and launch him headfirst into the wall on the opposite side of the room. The man hit the wall hard, and while Perry couldn't hear the telltale sound of any bones breaking, Tony slid down the wall, unconscious. Nessa turned and met Perry's eye for a brief moment, before both looked in opposite directions at their family members still tied up in their own battles. Neither person was doing well at all, and both looked like they needed assistance as soon as possible.
The scream causing Perry to look around indeed came from Heinz, who now lay dazed but awake on the ground to Perry's right. As it turned out, he was ducking one of Charlene's high punches but was slow in recovering from the move, which allowed Charlene to roundhouse-kick him in the head while his guard was down. The pain and disorientation from the resulting blow had caused Heinz to stumble backwards until he banged the back of his head against the wall behind him. At this point, he crumpled to the floor as Charlene's predatory grin grew and she moved in for the final blow. Heinz could do nothing but watch wide-eyed in terror as a version of his wife attacked him.
However, he was saved by the presence of his daughter, who leaped across the distance separating the two of them and just managed to clip Charlene with a kick to the head as she came by. Nessa landed solidly on one knee and stood up as Charlene massaged her jaw from the hit. Both women entered a fighting stance, although Nessa's was much more unsure because she was now fighting an alternate version of her mother. Charlene grinned evilly at Nessa's discomfort and stalked forward.
Perry spared the time he didn't feel he had to glance over at Ferb's direction while Nessa leaped towards her father. Ferb had yet to make a move towards Vanessa, instead opting to constantly and artfully dodge the young woman's attacks. Ferb moved with a fluidity honed with years of practice dancing, and he had good instinctual reactions to Vanessa's movements, possibly due to his familiarity with her counterpart from his own dimension. This had frustrated Vanessa, who constantly growled at the teenager to stand still, but he had continued his dodging, ducking, dipping, and diving around the room.
However, when Perry turned his attention to Ferb, he finally made one misstep and got caught by a back-leg sweep from Vanessa, causing him to fall to the ground. Vanessa immediately upped the pressure of her attacks, not allowing Ferb any time to come to his feet as he constantly rolled and dove away, sometimes spinning on his hand or his cylindrical nose to stop his momentum as necessary.
Perry chattered and ran towards Vanessa, giving up on finishing Doof for the time being as Ferb needed his help. He jumped into the air, intending to kick Vanessa in the midsection, but she showed agility she must have inherited from her mother and bent backwards from the waist at the very last second. While doing so, she grabbed at Perry's trailing arm, which he quickly countered with his other arm and moved her hand just out of reach of his body. Landing quietly on his webbed feet, Perry took off again at Vanessa, but this time she was ready and spun to the side. As Perry flew past her, she shoved his body off balance, and he went flying further back towards his quadrant of the room. However, he had managed to distract Vanessa and grant Ferb enough of a reprieve to get back onto his feet as he moved into the empty quadrant where Nessa had dispatched of Tony Marzulo.
Righting his body, Perry landed on all fours and slid slightly across the room before coming to a stop and rising on his hind legs again. Doof had managed to stand up again but was clearly favoring his right leg. However, the evil gleam in his eyes suggested he was not out of the fight with the platypus just yet. Indeed, as he stood there, tiny black objects crawled up from the ground and surrounded his knee, taking the shape of a slightly restrictive yet supportive stabilizing brace.
"Nanobots! Amazing, aren't they?" Doof exclaimed as he sneered back at Perry. "These babies will basically create all the extra support I'll need without affecting my mobility. It's too bad you didn't finish me off when you could have. But no, you just had to make sure everyone else was OK, which will be your doom!" he snarked at the monotreme, who didn't respond audibly but jumped back into the fray.
With Tony Marzulo out cold in one part of the room and Heinz still unable to focus his eyes on anything, it now became a 3v3 battle. However, Perry was really the only one fighting back against his current opponent, as Ferb still tried to dance around his girlfriend's evil twin and Nessa solely focused on blocking and light jabs towards the alternate version of her mother which were easily countered.
However, the newly opened space in the floor did allow for more maneuverability, and both Ferb and Nessa took advantage of the situation for their benefit. Slowly but surely, the two of them moved towards the center of their side of the room, with Perry and Doof taking up the other side with their shenanigans. Finally, Ferb and Nessa were able to unite near the middle of the floor, and on an unspoken agreement immediately spun around each other to face the other fighter. Ferb now lined up on Charlene, while Nessa set her sights on a strikingly dissimilar version of what she saw in the mirror every morning. This caused Charlene and her daughter to narrow their eyes as they realized what Ferb and Nessa had done. Neither of them wanted to fight someone who closely physically resembled their girlfriend/mother, respectively, even if their personalities were completely different. So, the two of them simply traded spots. Charlene frowned and motioned to her daughter to join her; as the two of them moved, Ferb and Nessa also moved to counter them.
Soon, Ferb was standing next to Nessa and across from Charlene, who had her daughter next to her. Charlene feinted a jab towards Nessa, but Ferb stepped up for the block. Vanessa tried to take advantage of the opening Ferb had left by sweeping in from his flank, but Nessa attacked her from the other side and made her withdraw. More and more pokes from the second-dimension Doofenshmirtzes at the defenses of the first-dimension travelers as they circled tightly around led to continual blocks from Ferb and Nessa, with neither group able to gain the upper hand on the other.
Perry, who had just knocked Doof off his feet again at the price of being thrown into the other wall, stood up and glared over at Doof, who stood up again without showing any issues on his knee. The rest of his body, however, was not unscathed. Indeed, both fighters were battered, and Perry could feel his aching joints protesting their treatment. His energy and adrenaline reserves were running dangerously low, and he was forced to accept he would no longer able to stop Doof by himself unless Doof made a mistake. Perry growled under his breath and looked back towards the other four people uneasily watching each other, waiting for the other to move. Ferb silently looked over at Perry and made eye contact with the platypus. Staring at the unconsciously-enforced détente amongst the fighters, both Perry and Ferb simultaneously sent out one final mental plea. Isabella, I hope you can get away from Peter the Pandaborg and get Phineas out of here!
Isabella leaped backwards yet again as Peter the Pandaborg's metallic hand missed her by less than a foot. Closer than usual, still not the closest call yet, she subconsciously noted as she took stock of her situation. I'm glad soccer has really helped me gain the stamina required for this, because the only way I can win is to outlast him. And he's a secret agent trained to fight bad guys who was then forced into becoming one of said bad guys and now has metal body parts. She slipped away from his grasp again and spun to the right, putting more distance between the two of them again.
I feel the metal is actually his weakness. He's just as old as Perry, if not older, so I imagine the weight of the metal has got to make him get tired more easily. I just need to wait until he shows an opening, and then I need to hit him fast and hard, preferably enough to take him out for good. Isabella blocked his next incoming blow and flipped forward over the surprised short panda, landing gracefully on the balls of her feet as she turned yet again to face the cyborg panda. It feels like I've been doing this for an hour, but it's probably only been close to ten minutes, she realized.
She had only allowed brief skirmishes between herself and Peter the Pandaborg, knowing his strength in close quarters would only be paralleled by Perry the Platyborg or any of the other agents-turned-cyborgs-turned-agents-again. However, Isabella figured out she was the more flexible and agile one early in their standoffs, as the Pandaborg's metallic enhancements were still not his own body and encumbered his quick movements. Therefore, she needed to stay away from him and distract him.
Whenever he engaged on her, Isabella would block any blows and disengage acrobatically from any of his grabs. With the limited amount of space she had to work with in the basement, she was constantly moving back and forth in the room, but had managed to pull the fight mostly to the other side of the room from the control panel where Phineas's phone was located, and when the fight had to change locations she would push it towards the opening against the wall where the door to the sensory deprivation room stood, in order to keep the Pandaborg away from anywhere with cover.
Isabella ducked another wild swing from the Pandaborg and used her leg to sweep out his non-metallic leg, causing him to fall on his side as Isabella stepped up for a grab. However, Peter the Pandaborg reached out his metallic arm towards her ankle as she leaped backward again, which gave him the necessary time to roll away from her and stand up again. Isabella noted he was still relatively far enough away from both Phineas and his cell phone, and she resolved to keep him in this area of the room as much as possible. She stalked towards Peter the Pandaborg slightly, putting him on guard.
Phineas, although still shaken and slightly weak, was crawling around the room and ducking behind contraptions for cover, trying to move closer and closer to his cell phone. Whenever Peter the Pandaborg got too close to Phineas or the control panel with the phone on it, Isabella would jump in to distract him and keep him from discovering Phineas, who only moved whenever the two fighters briefly clashed.
Isabella jumped in first this time, landing a quick blow with her leg to the Pandaborg's left side before withdrawing as his metallic right arm snapped at her leg. Strangely enough, he didn't react at all with his left arm, and when he came swinging at her again, she noticed his left arm was hanging almost uselessly by his side. Finally, a weakness I can exploit! Isabella quickly moved so she was facing the side of the room away from the phone, where the largest and potentially most dangerous set of contraptions was located, as Peter the Pandaborg turned to face her. She let him come towards her again, watching for the slightest opening she could find. And…there!
As he came in, Isabella ducked and feinted to his right, causing him to retract his metallic arm and turn his body clockwise, opening his left arm to her. Smoothly turning away from the feint, she struck fast and grabbed hold of his arm before spinning in a circle with him extended, disorienting him and stopping him from successfully managing to grab her with his arm. Finally, as she returned to the direction she was originally facing, Isabella let go and threw the Pandaborg as hard as possible towards the other side of the room. He disappeared behind the large invention she and Phineas had originally hid behind, and a satisfying sound (to her) of falling debris signaled he had hit something loose hard enough to dislodge it and (hopefully) fall on him to incapacitate him.
Still, she had no time to check. Vaulting backwards, Isabella quickly closed the separation between her and the control panel containing Phineas's phone, before picking it up and heading over to the teenager, who was still on the ground but had managed to complete about two-thirds of the circuitous route.
Leaning down, she picked Phineas up and helped him steady himself on his feet, then handed him his phone. "Phineas, go! Get out of here! Get to Ferb! He'll be able to help you leave from here."
"No, we can both take it, I'm sure of it! We need to get out of here together!" Phineas cried. Behind them, and unnoticed by the two teenagers, the pile of rubble in the corner shifted and Peter the Pandaborg emerged, still no determinable expression on his black, white, and metallic gray face.
Isabella shook her head. "Ferb told me unless you upped the polarity from last time, it'll just scramble both of us together into one amorphous blob at the destination site." From Phineas's cowed look she could tell he hadn't done so, and she sighed. "Phineas, please go, I'll be right behind you."
"No, I can't just leave you here now!" Phineas exclaimed. Meanwhile, Peter the Pandaborg left his hiding spot and hurtled towards the teens, intent on stopping both of them from leaving at all costs.
She sighed, then clearly stated. "Phone, go to the closest Ferb," before she felt a heavy metal object ram into her from behind, throwing her directly towards Phineas as pain blossomed all across her back.
The last thing Isabella saw before hitting the ground and surrendering to unconsciousness was Phineas's horrified look as he screamed, "ISABELLA, NO!" and blinked away, just before she crashed into the space he had previously occupied.
Wheezing, Perry bent down to catch his breath. He had just flung Doof into the bookshelf sitting in the corner, and in a stroke of luck it managed to fall down on top of the man, keeping him from being able to stand up. Surveying the room, he saw Heinz had passed out from his delirium, Tony Marzulo was awake but not moving, and the other four were still pressed together in the middle of the room. Huffing, Perry started to make his way over to the other fight to hopefully tip the scales.
Suddenly, Phineas appeared right next to Ferb with his cell phone in his hand, knocking the green-haired teenager to the ground and shocking all the other fighters into standing still. The redhead wasn't in great shape, neither physically nor mentally, as he seemed to be in mental shock from recent events and his whole body was shaking noticeably. He was mumbling something under his breath as his eyes violently searched across the room, unaware of his immediate surroundings, but he had the presence of mind to place his cell phone back in his pocket.
Nessa was the first to react, grabbing hold of Phineas's hand and pulling him in the direction of Perry. Ferb was able to grab onto Phineas's other hand at the last second, which caused him to be jerked across the ground as Nessa strained with pulling two teenage boys across the room to Perry.
Perry jumped into action and grabbed Phineas from Nessa, who immediately turned away to hoist her father on top of her shoulders in a fireman's carry. However, at the same time Charlene had overcome her surprised stupor and launched herself across the room, grabbing Ferb's left leg and pulling hard. Perry groaned at the effort of holding on, and Phineas winced as both of his arms were being pulled in opposite directions by Ferb and Perry. Phineas looked down at the same time Ferb looked up, and as they locked eyes, they shared the non-verbal communication only the two of them had.
Where's Isabella?
Phineas shook his head. Your phone is gone, she forced me to use mine and couldn't come with me.
Ferb nodded slightly. Take care of yourself, and Nessa.
Wait, NO, FERB! NOT YOU TOO!
Can't afford to let them get all of us.
But I'm going to need you! WE'RE going to need you!
Go get this dimension's version of us. Don't worry, I'll make sure to take care of Isabella. Now GO!
Ferb let go of Phineas's hand and was dragged back by Charlene as Phineas croaked out "FERB!" Vanessa had also followed her mother and just missed grabbing onto Phineas's now empty hand as Perry yanked him back and steadied him on his feet. Nessa was already running for the door with Heinz over her shoulder, and Perry pulled Phineas into a run as they left the house. Strangely to them, no one followed them as they made their escape, but leaving behind both Ferb and Isabella.