What Might Have Been - Act Your Age Continuation

by Phineas Garcia-Shapiro Flynn

A little story I came up with that continues what happened in Act Your Age that also ties up some loose ends from TftR:Btt2D.

7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Perry burst through the portal back into their own dimension, pulling Phineas right behind him. Hot on their heels came Nessa carrying Heinz, who was just now coming back to his senses and realizing where he was. Perry turned back and looked at the portal, which was still broadcasting the image of a rundown outer suburb of the second dimension, before motioning to Nessa to find a way to turn it off. Since neither Heinz nor Ferb were available now to know how the portal functioned, and Phineas was still in a state of shock, it was up to the young woman and the platypus to turn off the portal and stop the second dimension Doofenshmirtzes, who just now opened their door.

Panicking, the two of them rushed to the portal and searched for a control panel. Perry found it first as the Doofenshmirtzes noticed the portal and Vanessa made a run for the first dimension. Perry quickly jabbed the biggest, reddest button on the control panel, and was satisfied to see the green plasma curl up on itself and disappear, rendering the metal ring now inert with an image of a well-kept suburb…and no Doofenshmirtzes.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Perry sat down on the ground next to Phineas, his adrenaline fading and the bruises on his battered body quickly becoming apparent. Nessa stood ramrod straight next to him, her face the emotionless cold mask reminiscent of her teenage years. She's falling back into it as a form of emotional protection, Perry realized. Her father's been hurt, her boyfriend has been abducted, and she was attacked by two people who looked like her and her mother. He reached out and laid what he hoped was a comforting hand on her lower leg, causing her to look down at him. He gave her a wan look, but it was enough to break her out of her stupor.

Nessa sighed and helped Heinz stand up. "I'm going to take my father back to his building in my car. Can you handle taking Phineas back to your place in the microbus along with the portal?" she asked.

Perry chattered an affirmative; after all, he had previously driven an eighteen-wheeler through downtown with no issues, what was a slightly back-heavy microbus to him now? However, they had forgotten to consider there were only two of them to lift the portal now, and it took considerable straining and effort on their part, as well as the assistance of the liftgate on the flatbed microbus, to get the Other-Dimension-inator on board, securely stored and ready for transportation.

Luckily, they were able to get Phineas to stand on his own two feet again, though all the teenager did was mumble "Ferb" and "Isabella" constantly. Perry got his owner into the front passenger seat and buckled him in, before jumping across him and strapping himself into the driver's seat. Throwing on some sunglasses and a hat, which worked way too often as a disguise in Danville, Perry started the microbus and pulled away from the small town back towards the city, with Nessa trailing in the yellow sports car.

Forty-five minutes later (Perry may have gone slightly faster than the speed limit, but hey, he was worried about Phineas), the platypus pulled the microbus into the Flynn-Fletcher driveway. Looking over at Phineas, he noticed the redhead had fallen asleep sometime during their trip, although his body still shook constantly. Perry sighed and shook his head in sadness, cursing Doof all the while. Phineas needs to rest and convalesce today, he's not going to be able to go back there soon to get Ferb and Isabella, the monotreme thought to himself. I just hope he realizes it himself.

Bringing himself back to his current situation, Perry decided to quickly dip down into his lair to grab a remote-controlled propeller chair, since he didn't feel like waking up Phineas and attempting to help him out of the microbus and all the way upstairs to his bedroom. Exiting his lair with the chair behind him, Perry quickly moved it right up next to Phineas and unbuckled his seatbelt, then gently shifted the boy from the bus seat into his propeller seat. Perry grabbed the remote control again and walked the seat back up to the house, although he did make multiple furtive looks to see if anyone was around who would notice a platypus wearing a disguise walking on two legs holding a remote control for a propeller chair with a sleeping teenager in it. As was usual with Perry, though, there was no one else around to bat an eye at the incongruous setup, and Perry got Phineas up into his room before gently easing him out of the propeller chair and safely onto the S.S. Phineas.

After ensuring Phineas was still soundly asleep, Perry returned to his lair and grabbed some more of his O.W.C.A. gadgetry, some of which he never knew was going to be useful until today. Armed with all his erudite equipment, he returned to the street and worked on getting the Other-Dimension-inator off the microbus and into the garage. This time, one of the neighbors happened to look out at their porch for the morning newspaper, but since it was summer they must have gotten used to random deliveries at the Flynn-Fletcher household, because they made no visible signs of noticing Perry and just closed the door. Perry let out the breath he was holding as a sigh of relief and continued working.

It took him a lot longer to move the -inator by himself with only his tools for assistance than it had taken even just him and Nessa carrying it, but Perry finally managed to get it into the garage and shut the door behind him. Wiping his brow and letting out an explosive breath of air, Perry sat down on the ground to recover his energy for a bit, before heading back into the house and to Phineas. As he wearily climbed the stairs again, he reflected, I'm going to need this break too. Doof was right, I simply cannot hold my own in live combat situations like I used to do. Even if I take the rest of the day off from strenuous activity, I'll still not be 100% tomorrow, which is when I assume Phineas will want to go for Ferb and Isabella. Entering Phineas's and Ferb's bedroom, Perry laid down on Ferb's bed facing Phineas, ready to be there when he woke up. For all our sakes, Phineas, I hope your plan goes better than Ferb's did, was his last thought before getting some much-needed rest.

Phineas was running through the forest outside of Danville, Ferb on his left and Isabella on his right. There was SOMETHING coming up behind them, but Phineas dared not to look as the three of them continued to flee. If it reaches us, we're dead, he thought as his lungs heaved with the effort.

Suddenly, he tripped over an extended root he didn't see, falling flat on his face onto the ground. Ferb and Isabella abruptly stopped and screamed his name, but Phineas couldn't respond with his mouth suddenly full of the earthen soil of the forest. He felt a swipe at his legs at the same time as two arms pulled him forward, roughly throwing him about five feet in front of the arms' owners. Phineas turned back, just to see the eerie black shapes grab both Ferb and Isabella.

"Phineas!" Isabella shrieked. Ferb's eyes bored into him. He was trapped; he couldn't save both of them. Whomever he didn't choose wouldn't survive and would blame him for the rest of their short time.

Ferb's my brother. Phineas tried moving towards him. Isabella's my girlfriend. He attempted to switch directions. She's a Fireside Girl, they're strong in these situations. But Ferb knows martial arts. To his horror, he realized he couldn't move his legs. "Phineas, HELP!" Isabella shouted again. Help, brother, Ferb's eyes spoke. Phineas stood there, trapped, as he continued to waver on whom to save.

However, some of the black shapes began to ooze into the ground, while others took to the sky as a dark mist began to shroud the area. Phineas coughed and tried to peer into the inky blackness, but he could see nothing. As quickly as the fog appeared, it vanished. But so had Ferb and Isabella.

"Ferb! Isabella! NOOOO!" Phineas screamed as he woke up from his nightmare. His chest heaving, he wildly tore his eyes about the room searching for his brother, hoping against hope Ferb would be laying there in his bed, with his concerned eyes conveying all his thoughts to Phineas.

Instead, Perry was lying on the other bed in the room, looking alarmed at Phineas's outburst but quickly turning to sympathetic and forlorn as Phineas locked his gaze with the platypus. Ferb and Isabella. Gone. Doof has them. The thoughts hammered against Phineas's head, but one more thought entered as he stared at Perry, mirrored in the eyes of his pet. We've got to get them back. Doof is going to pay.

Phineas tried to swing his body around to stand up and get out of bed, but he realized how weak he still was when his legs barely moved from their current position except to shake. Sighing, Phineas looked down at his hands as they twitched as well, before reaching over to his bedside table and picking up his phone. Luckily, he had recovered enough fine motor control to send a text to Buford, Baljeet, and Adyson.

Phineas: Bufe, Jeet, Addy, please come by the house ASAP. Addy, get the rest of the girls as well. Need your help.

He didn't have to wait long for the replies, as all three shot back a message to him within a few minutes.

Baljeet: I will be there soon. Thankfully you caught me before I left for the university today.

Buford: As long as ya provide brunch, I'll be there.

Adyson: You betcha Phineas. Isabella too?

Phineas closed his eyes at her response. I've got to be able to do this. They did it for me, I can do it for them.

Phineas: No, I'll explain when everyone's here.

He put the phone down and closed his eyes again. Getting the entire gang together plus Perry and Nessa was a start. However, he definitely had created some blueprints in the other dimension which no one else would be able to decipher but Ferb could easily understand and be able to make. I hope he sees my modifications. Phineas shook his head. I wish he was here, I could bounce ideas off of him and see if they stick. He was pondering the thought when an idea hit him full-force.

He sat up straight and looked over at Perry, eyes wide open. "Please tell me we still have the Other-Dimension-inator with us."

Perry nodded his head and pointed downstairs towards the garage, but then he chattered dejectedly and pantomimed the city of Danville in one hand and a dome-shaped shield with the other one.

Phineas shook his head. "I disabled the inter-dimensional block this morning, sucking the power out of it starting sometime around 7 am in the other dimension. It's definitely down by now, unless they found out what happened and were able to destroy my energy-draining device I had stashed nearby."

Perry gaped at Phineas in horror as he realized just how close they were to being able to contact the other dimension, which would have stopped the entire unnecessary plan. Phineas, as usual, was oblivious to the inner turmoil of his pet as he continued. "We need to contact the other versions of us. Ferb told me to get them to help us, and since they know about Doof more than we do we should get the entire Resistance involved. Buford, Dr. Baljeet, the Firestorm Girls, etc."

Phineas stopped to take a breath and Perry sat back, calculating. Obviously, the stealthy strike team didn't work, as we left with less people than we entered. Doof will just be even stronger now, and with more leverage against us. We'll need the overwhelming support of numbers from both dimensions. We might even be able to get the other dimension's O.W.C.A. to help us out, stopping their Doofenshmirtzes would likely still be their number one priority. I guess this is why Phineas is the man with the plan, and Ferb is the man of action. We were all too anxious to go and didn't think straight.

Rolling his legs out to the side, Phineas managed to grab his bedside table and hoist himself to a standing position next to his bed. However, he began to feel extremely dizzy almost immediately and his legs began to give out, as they couldn't stably hold his full weight yet. Phineas fell back onto his bed, sighing.

"Well, I can't even stand up, much less walk downstairs for our meeting. Oh, wait, Perry, how did you even get me up here?"

Perry chattered and motioned to the propeller chair sitting off in one corner of the room. Phineas raised his eyebrow, but shrugged and said, "Well OK then, I guess I'm using the flying chair to get downstairs."

Giving Phineas the remote, Perry watched as the teenager swiftly moved the chair over to his bed so he could sit down in it. Phineas was able to quickly get the hang of the chair and was soon zooming around the room. "Man, Perry, I'm surprised we never built one of these, this would've been so fun."

Grinning, Perry chattered happily as his owner briefly lost himself in the happiness of the moment. Well, maybe later I'll tell him this was originally one of his ideas, which O.W.C.A. ended up copying. Most of the agency's gadgets are based off of P&F creations anyway, and they remember we have a cloning device to copy anything they make every summer, so I wouldn't be surprised if he figures it out.

The boy and the monotreme were quickly brought out of their respective stupors by the doorbell ringing down below. Phineas lost his smile and muttered, "Right, time to face the music." He flew over to the door, opened it, and then moved across the hallway and down the stairs. Finally, he reached the front door and opened it up.

"Phineas! What's wrong?" Adyson shouted as she took in his appearance, with Gretchen only staring wide-eyed at him from behind her. Phineas subconsciously rubbed his hands together as they noticed his twitching. It looks like I'm going to be saddled with this for a while. He sighed and gestured for them to come inside. Once they were all back in, he closed the door and turned to them.

"It's all part of the story, and I really don't feel like saying anything more than once, so I'd like to wait until everyone gets here."

"OK, but don't think you're getting out this, Flynn," Adyson warned, her eyes full of concern for the redheaded boyfriend of her best friend. Speaking of… "Why isn't Isabella coming to this?" she asked.

"Where's Ferb?" Gretchen suddenly spoke up, looking around the entranceway to the house and only seeing Perry in the corner.

Phineas's lack of an answer was saved by the doorbell ringing again, although he noticed both girls give him a calculating look before glancing back to each other. Sighing again, he opened the door.

"Ya got food?" Buford didn't even wait for an answer before he walked inside. "Nice hoverchair Dinnerbell," he added as an afterthought, before the implications of why Phineas was not standing on the ground hit him and he came to an abrupt halt. "Uhh, why are you shaking so much?"

"Oh my gosh, Phineas! You look like you have been electrocuted multiple times!" Baljeet cried as he entered behind Buford. Phineas set his mouth into a grim line as Ginger, Katie, and Milly filed in quietly behind the Indian prodigy.

"Yeah, I have been," he responded as he closed the door, ignoring the jaws dropping and the incredulous looks around him for the moment. "But I think all of you need to hear the entire story."

Phineas waited until they were all sitting down in the living room and facing him, before taking a deep breath and speaking. "So, you remember the evil version of Nessa's dad from the other dimension who caused the entire day where we lost our memories ten summers ago?" At the various nods and eye rolls (Buford) around the room, he continued. "Well, he figured out two nights ago how to open up a portal to our dimension, and his one remaining cyborg henchman kidnapped me from the backyard."

Baljeet gasped. "But the amount of energy required to open the portal to our dimension from the other side must be enormous in order for it to be stable! Just thinking off the top of my head here, it would take a generous amount of the Danville power plant's electricity generation capacity to do so."

"Really, nerd? That's the first thing ya think of?" Buford asked semi-facetiously. Turning back to Phineas, he said, "So what happened next?"

"Well, apparently he still has his family intact there, as his wife and their version of Vanessa were also evil. Oh, and Vanessa also married some other guy, I never really got his name. Anyway, they used me to design and create inventions, which they plan on using to retake their Tri-State Area. I tried to hinder their progress as much as possible, but they used electro-torture shocks on me whenever they felt I was lagging and locked me in a sensory-deprivation room at night."

At the shocked and sympathetic looks coming his way, Phineas paused before his voice became more ragged and emotional. "Ferb, Perry, and Isabella must have figured out I was taken to the other dimension yesterday at some point, probably with help from Nessa and Heinz, but the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz had put up a block on inter-dimensional travel centered around our house and his lab. I finally disabled it this morning, and a strike team of Ferb, Perry, Nessa, Heinz, and Isabella came to rescue me.

"Unfortunately, the teleportation device Ferb had modified to send multiple people at once and given to Isabella to get me out of there was destroyed by the cyborg, and she...she sacrificed herself to get me to Ferb using my single-person teleporter." Phineas had to stop to wipe away the tears as he gasped for more air. "However, sending me to Ferb ended up breaking the stalemate between the strike team and the evil Doofenshmirtzes, and Ferb also gave himself up so the rest of us could get away." Utterly spent, Phineas collapsed back onto the chair, his eyes no longer focused anywhere.

The entire group sat in silence for a while, sharing looks while Phineas's eyes continued to droop lower. Finally, Adyson spoke up. "Well…I think you need more sleep, Phineas. We'll all help you rescue Ferb and Isabella, but at this point we don't have enough information and you'd be more of a hindrance than an asset. Let's reconvene again later today or tomorrow, and we can spend the time searching for things or people to help us recover them." She walked over to Phineas, who barely recognized her standing in front of him until she put her hand on his chin and guided his face up to look at hers. "We will get them back, Phineas. I swear it to you. I'm sure this wasn't how they wanted their rescue mission to go, so they're going to want you to learn from what happened, and make sure it doesn't happen again. Now go get some more sleep, contact us when you're ready."

Phineas nodded as his eyes drooped even lower. Buford shrugged, walked over to Phineas, and carefully picked up the teenager out of the propeller chair. "Here ya go, buddy, let's get you sleeping upstairs."

By the time Buford had carried him to his room, Phineas had already fallen asleep again, still physically and now emotionally exhausted from the last day and a half. Milly and Katie made sure he was comfortable, while Gretchen, Adyson, Baljeet, and Ginger talked amongst themselves downstairs.

"I'll be there, through thick and thin. All of the Fireside Girls have stood by each other through everything, I'm not backing out now," Adyson said, the fire in her eyes returning as she imagined what might be happening to Isabella.

"You know I'm in, we need to get Ferb and Chief back," Gretchen added, putting her hand out for a small fist-bump, which Adyson returned.

"I'm in," Ginger chimed.

"I am in as well," Baljeet joined the conversation. "We will need to get them as soon as possible, preferably tomorrow."

The four of them looked at Buford, Katie, and Milly, who were just coming down the stairs at the moment, before Gretchen remembered Perry was still in the room. She said to the platypus, "We'll all be there whenever Phineas is awake and ready. He, Ferb, and Isabella will need all of us."

Perry chattered acceptingly to them and watched as they departed. Now to wait until Phineas wakes up again.

Phineas slowly returned to consciousness, memories swimming in front of his eyes before he cracked them open slowly. The angle of the sunlight entering his room suggested it was early evening and he had slept through lunch. Not as if I could've stomached much food anyway, Phineas thought as he fought down the bitter feeling in his stomach, both from his body continually shaking and the realization yet again of his stepbrother and girlfriend being in the clutches of an insane family from another dimension. Nobody other than my friends would believe me anyway. And O.W.C.A...Wait!

He looked around the room and saw Perry again watching over him from Ferb's bed. "Perry, can O.W.C.A. help us out?"

Perry shook his head at first, Phineas becoming crestfallen at the news. However, Perry reconsidered and then shrugged, before pulling over Phineas's phone from the table next to his bed. Quickly scrolling through the contacts until he reached "I", Perry selected "Irving Du Bois" and handed the phone to Phineas.

Confused, Phineas looked back at his pet. "Why would I call Irving? How do you even remember him?" Perry rolled his eyes and pointed to his wristwatch, and then saw Phineas's eyes light up in realization. "Oh, wait, he's an intern for O.W.C.A., isn't he? Which is why he couldn't tell us for whom he worked, we weren't supposed to remember it existed!" He quickly punched the dial button.

He didn't have to wait long for a response, Irving picked up just after the first ring. "Phineas my man! Long time no hear, how're you?"

"I've been better, Irving." Phineas replied, sighing as he couldn't quite keep a stutter out of his voice. "Listen, Perry told me you are the current O.W.C.A. intern? Is there any way we can get O.W.C.A.'s help?"

Again, Irving was silent on the line for a minute before he said, "I guess if he told Ferb he'd have told you as well. Good thing he's retired, otherwise we'd be moving him. Anyway, it's still the same situation here as yesterday. Got no assets other than myself and the retired agents available. What do you need O.W.C.A. for anyway?"

"Wait, Ferb didn't tell you why he needed O.W.C.A. assistance yesterday?" Phineas asked, confused.

"Nope, hung up on me before I was able to ask him what he wanted. What's going on out there?" Irving responded.

Phineas sighed again. Always a man of action, Ferb. "Well, long story short, look in your files or talk to Commander Carl about Second Dimension Doof. He escaped from prison in the other dimension at some point and kidnapped me to force me to work on inventions to get him back in control of their Tri-State Area. Ferb, Perry, Isabella, Heinz, and Nessa came to rescue me, but there was a skirmish and we had to leave Ferb and Isabella behind in order for any of us to make it out." Phineas choked back a sob, and there was nothing but silence on the other end of the phone.

"Oh no," Irving said finally. "I mean, if this other-dimensional Doofenshmirtz had power over there, then we'll need to stop him. I'll also have to alert Agent P due to the family emergency protocol-"

"But Perry already knows," interjected Phineas, puzzled at what the lanky teenager could mean. However, a lightbulb went off in his head. "Wait, Irving, is there by chance another Agent P in O.W.C.A.?"

"Yeah, there's a couple. You might have met Peter the Panda when you went to Seattle, he was in Colonel Capital's division. The one I'm thinking of is Pinky the Chihuahua, Isabella's dog, who worked for Admiral Acronym before she gave way to Captain Carla recently. Pinky is also retired now, like Perry."

"Great, so Pinky was an agent too. Was every animal in this neighborhood an agent? Was Biff Agent F or something?" Phineas complained. Perry slapped his forehead behind him, and immediately ran out of the room.

"Umm, none of our agents was given the name Biff, so I don't think so," Irving stammered.

Phineas rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I think Perry just ran off to get Pinky, so we'll get him in the loop about everything here."

"Great, saves me time over here. I'll let you know if I can get anything else here, but I gotta go, someone just came to the door." The line went dead, and Phineas dropped his cell phone back to his side. OK, well, O.W.C.A. is out. Anybody else I know who would have information on Doof? He also slapped himself when he realized the obvious connection. Right, time to fire up the portal again.

Phineas moved to stand up and was pleased with his legs actually cooperating this time. Taking small, still-shaky steps as his legs adjusted to carrying his weight again, Phineas made his way downstairs and into the garage, where the Other-Dimension-inator was still in the corner but facing the rest of the garage.

Firing up the portal, Phineas was met with the view of a slightly drabber and duller garage, but empty as well. He mentally berated himself when he realized it was unlikely he would be able to reach the other Phineas and Ferb from the garage. Phineas was preparing himself to step through when Perry the Platyborg stepped into the room and immediately noticed the portal. Phineas waved to the Platyborg, who scampered over, looking incredibly alarmed. He made his robotic chatter sound questioning.

"Hey there Perry, glad you recognize me after all these years," Phineas joked half-heartedly. Perry the Platyborg rolled his eyes but smiled slightly. "Are your Phineas and Ferb around? We have an inter-dimensional issue and I was hoping what remains of the Resistance could assist me."

The Platyborg chattered and shook his head, before pulling out a map of the Tri-State Area from the workbench behind him and circling "Marshwood" with the pencil. Phineas lifted an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

"They're at Tri-State State already? What are they doing there, getting a head start on their studies?"

Chattering again, the Platyborg left for a moment and returned with three pictures. He held up a picture of a buzz-cut Ferb shaking hands with Baljeet (Dr. Baljeet, Phineas reminded himself), and then separately held up two pictures of a buzz-cut Phineas and a stern, no-nonsense girl with raven tresses and a dark green beret. It took a double-take for Phineas to recognize the second picture as Isabella.

"So Ferb's working with Dr. Baljeet, and Phineas is with Isabella?" This time, Phineas was able to mostly hide his anguish at discussing his stepbrother and girlfriend, but the Platyborg still noticed.

However, he decided not to comment on it and instead chattered and held up another picture of Isabella staring sternly at something off-camera and Phineas looking longingly after her. Phineas was puzzled for a moment. It almost looks as if…oh, I get it now. Well, I guess this is inter-dimensional karma for the other me. Indeed, the pale and buzz-cut Phineas seemed to harbor a crush on his dimension's Isabella, and the latter seemed to be completely oblivious of the attention.

"Ah, I understand. For what it's worth, my Isabella and I…we just got together, so he should have hope." This time, Phineas knew he wasn't able to hide his sorrow and saw the Platyborg recognized it, but he plowed on anyway. "Well, listen, when is the earliest time you can get them back to Danville?"

Perry the Platyborg chattered decisively and held up a calendar with the current day circled. He pointed at the next day.

"OK, good. If you can, round up all the alumnae of the…Firestorm Girls, was it? We might need them as well."

Raising his only remaining eyebrow, Perry the Platyborg nodded and saluted Phineas, before turning around and heading back into the house. Sighing, Phineas cut the power to the portal and watched it dissolve.

At the same time, Perry the Platypus re-entered the garage, with Pinky the Chihuahua in tow. The small dog was shaking, as per usual, but his face was set in a grimace of anger and fear. Phineas subconsciously noted how the two of them must look similar with their trembling, but he dismissed it as he knelt down in front of the two pets. "Don't worry, Pinky, we'll get her back. You're in, right?"

Pinky gave a short yip and stared at Phineas, as if he was daring the teenager to try to stop him. Phineas just held his hands up in surrender and said, "Alright, good. We can always use the assistance of O.W.C.A.'s best agents."

The Chihuahua just barked at him again but seemed to accept the compliment. He nosed his way towards the portal, looking back at Phineas questioningly, who shook his head. "Sorry, Pinky, but none of us are in any possible fighting shape. I'm still recovering from what the other Doofenshmirtzes did to me, and I imagine Perry would need to rest after his scuffle. But you better believe we're going to be right there with you when we go to get Isabella and Ferb, and we'll be bringing as much help as we can."

Pinky whined softly but nodded his head in understanding. Phineas stood back up and added, "You're welcome to spend the night here, Pinky, unless you think Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro will be looking for you."

The Chihuahua seemed to think it over, before coming to a decision. He stood up on his hind legs, snapped off a salute to Phineas and Perry, and scampered back out the way he and Perry had come in.

Phineas sighed and looked to Perry. "Now we just have to rest."

Perry chattered and mimicked a phone call in his hand, and then stood over in a slouch before standing like a posh, unamused woman. Phineas bit back a laugh at Perry's imitation of Nessa and Heinz; it was very good. "OK, yeah, I'll call Nessa and see if she and Dr. D would be ready tomorrow."

Finding Nessa's contact in his phone, Phineas dialed the number, and she picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, Phineas, how are you feeling?" Her voice sounded stoic and devoid of emotion, almost as if she slipped back into her teen persona.

"I'm doing better now, but I can't quite stop the tremors through my body, even with rest. Maybe I have a nerve issue?" Phineas wondered out loud, but then refocused his thoughts. "How is your dad doing?"

"He's recovering from his concussion, he won't be able to come with us, but he might be able to provide base support."

Phineas looked at Perry, who nodded. "Sure, we'll take whatever we can get at this point," he replied. "I've talked with the rest of our friends, as well as Perry's counterpart in the other dimension. They're all in to help us whenever we're ready, so we should have the advantage of numbers this time."

A sigh came from the other end of the phone. "Yeah, more people would have definitely helped last time."

Blinking back tears yet again, Phineas shook his head and simply said, "We'll get them back. I promise."

Silence for a while, then a watery chuckle. "Shouldn't I be the one trying to comfort you in this situation?"

Phineas shrugged, then realized Nessa couldn't see him, so he made a noncommittal grunt into the phone. "At this point, we need to take solace in each other however we can find it, so we can get through this together."

"Good point," sighed Nessa. "Are we going to get them tomorrow?"

"I'd like to say yes, but Perry and I need to have recuperated enough for it to be worth us going. Let's plan on tomorrow unless we lose progress on recovery tonight. Sound good?" Phineas asked Nessa.

"Yeah, works for me. I'll bring Dad over with me tomorrow, and we can see if your doppelganger over there can help us."

"Sounds good," Phineas said, and ended the call. Frowning at the late time, but not feeling overly hungry, he went down to the kitchen and quickly microwaved some macaroni and cheese for dinner.

Afterwards, he plodded back upstairs, still drowsy. With Perry hovering behind him in the background, Phineas just decided to call it an early night, since the more sleep he got the better he would feel the next day. Perry jumped up onto Phineas's bed, and the boy cuddled the monotreme to his chest as they both attempted to fall asleep, knowing the next day would be climactic.

As soon as the first rays of light crept into the room, Perry the Platypus woke up and looked over at Phineas, hoping the boy had stopped shaking overnight. He was dismayed to see the covers next to him on the bed shivering of their own accord. Still, it did seem like they had dissipated somewhat.

As if thinking about him summoned his consciousness, Phineas woke up to see Perry gazing at him. Sitting up, he was pleased to find his body had mostly refilled its energy stores, and he was able to easily swing his legs around and stand up on his own accord. Wow, I recovered fast. Phineas idly noticed his hands were still shaking, and looking down, he confirmed his feet were as well, but he didn't feel as if his body was quite as tremulous as the previous day. Every little bit of recovery helps.

However, when he leaned over to pick up his cell phone, his blood ran cold. He had a video message come in – from Isabella.

Oh no… was Phineas's only thought. He was quite sure Isabella had brought her phone with her the previous day. However, he tried to rationalize his thoughts. OK, it's possible she didn't bring it, and…no, if it was found at Tri-State State nobody would just send me a video message about it. So, maybe she escaped?! Maybe she's out in D2 somewhere and needs me to open the portal to pick her, and maybe Ferb, up! Of course, the Doofs destroyed Ferb's phone, so he'd have to rely on Isabella to get through to me. Yeah, it could've happened! Regardless, Phineas didn't feel very comforted, knowing a video message wouldn't be the first form of communication they would've tried to reach him, and he had no idea if videos from Isabella's standard phone (assuming Ferb hadn't been forced to spice it up or something) would even be transmitted across dimensions. He motioned to Perry to join him, and then opened up the message and hit "Play".

The screen went black for a second, before showing what looked to be another basement-type area, with dark features and drab lighting. It looked vaguely familiar to Phineas, but he couldn't place it; Perry, however, gasped in shock and immediately went rigid in fear. Phineas was puzzled at Perry's reaction, until he noticed something on top of a pile of junk strewn across the corner of the floor: a jumpsuit with the letters "O.W.C.A." stitched onto it. But there's no way they'd be able to beat the good cyborgs of their O.W.C.A. without…oh, they didn't. They came here instead.

The camera zoomed out here and Doof (Phineas decided to use this shortened version of the name to describe the alternate Dr. Doofenshmirtz in his head) walked on screen. He focused his one good eye on the camera and gave a huge, leering grin, and Phineas's heart sank as his fears were confirmed.

"Hello Phineas Flynn and Perry the Platypus, I'm sure both of you are watching this." Doof's smile got even bigger. "It's time for my evil monologue, and neither of you can do anything to interrupt me, since I know you'll want to know what's happened to your little friends since you left them behind yesterday."

Perry chattered angrily at this, and Doof, almost as if in response, smirked as he waited a moment and looked around. "Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering, 'Doof, how did you manage to get from your dimension into ours? How did you take over O.W.C.A. so fast? Is there anything we can do to stop your evil maniacal reign?' The answer to the last one is no, by the way. You'll never be able to stop me."

Doof leaned in conspiratorially as his voice lowered. "But back to the questions at hand, you can thank your boy Ferb. Also, Ferb? Seriously? What kind of name is Ferb? Fffff-errrrrr-buh...huh, I guess it does kinda roll off the tongue pretty well. Ferb, Ferb, ferbity-Ferb. Hey, I kinda like it now!"

From behind the camera, Phineas and Perry could hear Vanessa sigh and say "Focus, Dad, evil monologue, remember?"

"Ah, right, thank you Vanessa," Doof looked back into the camera. "Ferb has been much more…cooperative, than you ever were, Phineas. But then again, maybe it's because he has someone to protect."

The video phone panned away from Doof here and focused in on the best-lit area in the room, over in a corner near a set of stairs heading upwards. In the center, immediately under the light bulb swinging gently overhead, was a large table with tons of metallic objects strewn around it. However, Phineas and Perry only had eyes for three things. One was the brand-new (and improved, Phineas knew) Normbot, standing motionless to the right of the table. However, the two of them disregarded the Normbot sentry almost immediately seeing the two people in the image.

Ferb was strapped down to the table at his wrists, ankles, torso, and forehead, which almost completely immobilized him. Wires ran from each of his immobilization points to a machine located somewhere behind the table, but it was out of the limited view of Isabella's phone camera.

On the floor to the left of the table was a large wooden crate with a metal grate across the front, which looked eerily similar to a large dog carrier. Inside the carrier, wrists chained together and pink bow conspicuously absent, was Isabella, with a cloth gag over her mouth and tear streaks running down her face.

Phineas and Perry were almost paralyzed with fear, but the video kept playing. Doof returned to the frame next to the Normbot holding a remote control; looking directly into the camera, he pressed a button on the control. Ferb began to writhe silently on the table, although the restraints kept him from moving much. Isabella cried out something muffled through the gag, with fresh tears emerging from her eyes. Please stop! Phineas cried in his head, although he knew Doof wouldn't heed him.

"You see, Phineas, you're actually the reason why Ferb's getting shocked right now, he's really done nothing to deserve it. He's been such a good boy," Doof said mockingly. However, he did seem to acknowledge Phineas's mental plea a second later and stopped Ferb's electro-torture. The green-haired teenager sank back down onto the table, remaining motionless but still looking towards the phone camera.

Doof then walked around the front of the table to the left side, still looking into the camera but all his previous congeniality gone. "Both of you are to come to O.W.C.A. now and give yourselves up. If you do, I promise you and your friends will be safe. Phineas, you and Ferb will be under my control, but I will be generous and let you keep your Perry the Platypus. After he's been turned into a Platyborg, of course." Perry growled at his statement, but Doof continued. "And who knows, Phineas, if you behave well enough you might get to keep seeing your little girlfriend as well."

Doof emphasized his last message with a kick to the dog carrier containing Isabella. She cried out again and shrank away from the entrance as she was jostled around. Doof regained his smile as he turned to the camera. "Well, within reason, I guess. Need to keep you motivated with something, after all."

Phineas looked despairingly at Ferb and Isabella in turn, and both of them were looking directly at the camera. Phineas was able to tell they were attempting to send him a message, and closely watched both of their eyes. It was the same message, and he was reading it loud and clear. We chose this to save you. Don't you dare just give yourself up and let him win. Come and rescue us instead.

Meanwhile, Doof unstrapped Ferb from the table, and the Normbot moved over and grabbed the boy's arms. "Right, Charlene is now ready for you, and O.W.C.A. is back to being full of borgs," Doof crowed happily. He started to walk off but paused at the door and looked back. "You have as long as you want to make your decisions, Phineas Flynn and Perry the Platypus, but every second you wait is another second you prolong the torture and suffering of your brother and friend. Do you really want their pain on your hands?" And with those parting words, the video message ended.

Perry and Phineas, still shell-shocked, turned to each other and saw the deep despair and realization in their eyes. O.W.C.A. is down. Commander Carl, Irving, all the agents are out of commission. However, Phineas snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "I talked to your counterpart last night, Perry! We can talk to him and get their O.W.C.A. to help us out! Come on, Perry!"

As one, the redheaded teenager and the platypus leaped off the bed and ran downstairs to the garage. Phineas fired up the Other-Dimension-inator, and sure enough, there waiting on the other side was Perry the Platyborg. He jumped up and ran over when he saw the portal appear in the garage, and he used his arms to indicate one hour before Phineas or Perry the Platypus could even say anything.

"OK, great. We do have another question for you, though. Any chance you could get O.W.C.A. on the line?" Phineas asked. "Our O.W.C.A. has fallen to Doof and all the agents have been turned to cyborgs. We'll need everything we can get to take them down. Oh, also, can you reach Candace or what remains of the Resistance?"

Perry the Platyborg chattered and reoriented his wrist communicator, pointing to the red-haired young woman with a black bandanna and sunglasses, wearing a green uniform with a purple "CC" emblazoned on the side.

"Commander Candace? Nice, congrats!" Phineas said.

"Thanks, Phineas. You'll get all the help we can muster. Just give us an hour to consolidate our position and then re-open the portal. We've got to stop Doof and his family, once and for all." Commander Candace responded, steel permeating through her voice, with the Platyborg nodding along emphatically.

Phineas almost broke down right there, but managed to hold himself together enough to say, "Thanks, sis. We'll open it up again in an hour," before shutting down the Other-Dimension-inator. He quickly pulled out his cell phone and reopened the group message from the previous day.

Phineas: Guys, I've alerted the artillery, and they're bringing the big guns. Get everyone over here in an hour. It's go time.