CHAPTER 8
Phineas looked over the group of people gathered before him inside Perry's lair under the big tree in their yard. On his left side sat his friends from his dimension: Buford, Baljeet, the Fireside Girls alumnae, Perry the Platypus, Pinky the Chihuahua, and finally Nessa and Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Across from them were most of their doppelgangers from the second dimension: Phineas, Ferb, Dr. Baljeet, Isabella and most of the Firestorm Girls, Perry the Platyborg, Pinky the Chihuahuaborg, and Commander Candace. The rest of the O.W.C.A. agents from the other dimension were currently on a reconnaissance mission, scouting out the O.W.C.A. headquarters from this dimension to glean any possible information about the evil Doofenshmirtzes' plans. Phineas had also informed the second-dimension travelers why his stepbrother and girlfriend were absent, and many tears and grim, determined faces were shared amongst everyone in the group.
Phineas from the first dimension frowned as he noticed something odd about the lineups in front of him, before he turned to his second-dimension counterpart and asked. "Where are your Buford and Adyson?"
Evidently, this question was the wrong thing to ask them, as their entire group cast downward looks or glared at Dr. Baljeet for some reason. "Whoa, I'm sorry for asking," Phineas interjected. "Touchy subject?"
"I mean, I don't know where the two of them are. Do you know where they are, Dr. Baljeet?" the other Phineas asked, almost snarling as he stared down Dr. Baljeet, who shied away from the look Phineas was giving him. Phineas from the first dimension idly realized, this could be interesting, I'm thinking about myself and a different version of me at the same time, and in the third person. Have to think of another way to describe the versions of us from the other dimension.
"I-I do not know!" Dr. Baljeet cried. "And I am telling the truth, I really do not know where they currently are."
Nessa frowned at his words. "But by your own words, you seem to have known at some point where they were."
Sighing, Dr. Baljeet admitted defeat. "Yes, the two of them volunteered to help with my research into inter-dimensional travel, and they wanted to go visit a different one than ours or yours, but their communicator malfunctioned, all contact was lost, and we were not able to follow them in the dimension they had entered. Some odd place, it seemed like a jungle filled with purple and pink flora and fauna. Nothing like the slightly alternate versions we see each other's dimensions as."
In the stunned silence from the second dimension's side following Dr. Baljeet's declaration, Phineas stood up again at the front of the group and regained everyone's attention. "Well, anyway, thank you all very much for coming to help. None of you were required to be here, yet you came anyway, to fight off the evil facing both of our dimensions, and to rescue our friends. Now, if you would all come this way, I think it is time for everyone to be outfitted with their gear." Phineas gestured over to Perry the Platypus, who nodded and placed their old locket inside the indentation with the same shape on the control panel. Behind him, a mechanism whirred to life and the side doors dropped to reveal the best creations made by Phineas and Ferb over the years. Of course, there were now 10 more years from which to choose, so Phineas and Perry had had to trim the selections slightly.
Grinning slightly at the childish yell of "Oh, yeah, BUFORD LOVES THIS!" as the large man-child made a beeline towards the same platy-posterior he had used 10 years before, Phineas walked over to his beloved remote-control platypus baseball and glove set. Pulling gently on the trigger, Phineas slowly moved the baseball around on the bench where it had previously been sitting, before putting it back into the glove. Hearing a light chatter behind him, he turned and saw Perry holding up the other one with a small smile on his duck-billed face. Man and monotreme faced each other solemnly and gave each other a fist bump, and then Phineas turned and surveyed the rest of the group as they went through their gear selections. Satisfied at what he saw, he spoke up again.
"OK, everyone, once you've made your decision, please head on over to our Dr. Doofenshmirtz and allow him to record your gear choice, he's going to be coordinating our efforts from here in Perry's lair." He grinned before continuing, "Just don't plan on using any of the more esoteric inventions as weapons. Like seriously, what were we thinking when we had the rollercoaster winding through downtown while we were fighting Normbots. It didn't make any sense whatsoever!"
The other Phineas then spoke up. "You know, I realized it is going to be pretty difficult for a bunch of us to communicate and coordinate our plans when there are two versions of most of us here. Therefore, I propose a system of nicknames or codenames or something to differentiate the people from separate dimensions." Seeing the nods he received from the others, he continued. "Since this dimension's Phineas is the head honcho around here, I'll offer up 'Phin' as my codename."
"Yeah, good idea, 'Phin'," Phineas replied. "Although you really didn't need to give up your own name, I appreciate it."
And so, the group from the second dimension quickly created nicknames for themselves. Ferb became "Fletch", and his apparent girlfriend Gretchen made a sly joke about "Fletch the Stretch" and sent an uncharacteristically brazen wink at him, causing him to raise an eyebrow (at least his reaction seemed usual) and the first dimension Gretchen to blush and look anywhere but at the couple or Nessa, who just grinned and shook her head at the teenagers' antics. She knew her relationship with her Ferb was safe.
Firestorm Isabella became, much to her consternation, "Izzy". She had vehemently tried to keep the rest of her group from using it, instead going by her previous Resistance moniker of Storm Leader, but her Firestorm Girl colleagues snickered and leaped at the ability to poke fun at their leader. Izzy would most likely even have been able to withstand them, but Phin finally turned to her and unleashed his puppy dog eyes on her. Phineas had to admit, Phin was better at those than he himself was, and briefly wondered why before dismissing it. Under the combined onslaught of all her friends, Izzy finally broke and said, "All right, but only until we get your Isabella back, and not a SECOND longer," before glaring at all her friends. It was completely ineffective.
Dr. Baljeet, even though he had mellowed in the ten years since the first dimension had last seen him, still insisted on using the title he had earned at age six in his codename. Phin suggested just shortening it to Doc, and Phineas was about to agree before he remembered he sometimes used Doc to refer to Heinz. Questioningly, he looked over to Nessa's dad, who only waved him on with a smile on his face. "Go ahead. You should totally use Doc as your name. Works for me, my doctorate was bought online anyway. You definitely earned yours, I can tell. Call me Heinz, if and when you need to talk to base. Or even Agent O, my codename when I was with O.W.C.A. because I was technically raised by ocelots." He cheerfully ignored all the raised eyebrows he received.
"Doc it is, then," Phin turned at this point to the rest of the Firestorm and Fireside Girls, who had huddled together to discuss their plan. "So, what are you going to do, girls? You're the largest set of overlap."
The second dimension Holly stood up crisply and said, "We're reinstating the Firestorm Girls mission codenames. I am Storm-3, Gretchen is Storm-4, Katie is Storm-5, and Milly is Storm-6." She paused for a second, before adding, "Adyson would've been Storm-2 had she been here. And of course, Izzy was Storm Leader, but the suggestion of using Izzy was too good for us to let go," her frown curling into a smirk as Izzy glared at her promising retribution once the mission was over.
"OK, works for me," Phineas said, getting a nod from Phin and Fletch when he glanced their way. Then, he remembered there were two versions of his and Isabella's pets also there. He glanced over at the four of them, who seemed to be in some form of nonverbal communication. "Hey, Perrys and Pinkys, would you terribly mind if we differentiated you based on previous borging? So, Perry and Platyborg, Pinky and Pinkyborg?" he asked the two platypuses and Chihuahuas.
All the pets looked at each other quickly before shaking their heads in approval, all in unison. Phineas smiled at them, and then looked over at Commander Candace. "I assume you and Nessa will be in charge of most of our communications, relaying back and forth with Nessa's dad when necessary?"
"Affirmative," Commander Candace replied, still wearing her shades even in the garage. "I'll coordinate the efforts of my agents, Nessa will take care of the rest." Right then, her communicator beeped, and she looked down at the message it provided. "Right, my agents have secured a perimeter and have located multiple hostiles but only one friendly. Isabella was seen through a second-story window, there's been no sign of Ferb. I recommend we prepare to move into attack positions."
"OK, let's do this," Phineas responded, eyes narrowing in focus. We're coming to get you back, Ferb and Isabella, and this time, no one is getting left behind. We'll stop Doof once and for all. I promise.
Suddenly, right in the middle of the garage next to the Other-Dimension-inator, a portal started forming. Alarmed, Phineas grabbed his platypus baseball remote control glove and sent a querying look over at Heinz, who shook his head in bewilderment as well. The Firestorm Girls quickly brandished their whips, while Commander Candace pulled out her beloved staff and strode to the front of the group right before the portal, with Perry, Platyborg, Pinky, and Pinkyborg arrayed next to her. Phin, Fletch, Nessa, and the Fireside Girls also moved to the other side of the portal in flanking positions.
Two bodies flung themselves through the portal, which closed automatically after their exit from a different dimension. The Stormwhips flew through the air and quickly had the two humanoids trussed up on the floor.
However, a familiar voice soon emanated from the larger body on the bottom. "Aw, man, I thought I was done resisting."
"BUFORD!" yelled Phin, Fletch, and Doc together as they rushed towards the now-identified person, just as the Firestorm Girls recognized the other figure and all shrieked "ADYSON!" nearly a second later.
Phineas stood back as the dimensional travelers reunited with their friends and updated each other on past travels and the current hostage situation. The second-dimension Buford wasn't going to go for a nickname, his resisting talents acting up again. So, the first-dimension Buford decided on using "Bufe" as his nickname. Adyson quickly decided to follow her counterparts in the Firestorm Girls and chose "Storm-2" for her alias, but first-dimension Adyson also spoke up and said she was fine going by "Addy", in case she wanted to use her name. Heinz outfitted the newcomers with communication headsets and other gear, and Izzy produced Adyson's own Stormwhip from their gear collection, which brought a tear to Adyson's eyes as she thanked Izzy profusely.
Soon enough, though, both groups had clambered into their transports, which included among their numbers both the Doofenshmirtz sports car and flatbed microbus, the souped-up Flynn-Fletcher station wagon, and even Meap's tricked-out spaceship. From the front seat of the station wagon, Phineas checked with Nessa in her car, Perry in the flatbed microbus, and Commander Candace over in Meap's ship. When all of them flashed a thumbs-up in his direction, Phineas slowly pulled out of the driveway and started on the course to O.W.C.A., where they would soon be in one final showdown with Doof. We're ending this, then and there. Never again will we have to worry about the evil insanity of the alternate dimension Doofenshmirtzes, Phineas thought determinedly as he focused on the road ahead of him, the others quickly swinging out of the Flynn-Fletcher yard and following him. We're coming, Ferb and Isabella. Just hang on a little bit longer.
It took nearly no time to reach O.W.C.A. headquarters, surprising Phineas slightly. Well, considering we're in vehicles designed to race professionally or travel interstellar distances, the speed at which we were going was downright pedestrian in comparison. Phineas laughed to himself for the first time in a long few days, before shaking his head and refocusing on the building in front of him.
He could see various second-dimension O.W.C.A. agentborgs around the perimeter, hidden from view from the building. Commander Candace checked in again and reported her agents had continued their surveillance and had still not seen any sign of Ferb, and Isabella had been moved from the room in which she had been seen. Phineas sighed, but he clambered out of the Flynn-Fletcher station wagon and joined Commander Candace and Nessa as they planned their assault on Doof.
"OK, the two best ways to enter O.W.C.A. headquarters are likely through the underground tunnels and the roof. It's too dangerous just to walk in the front or back door," Nessa started the conversation.
"Agreed," replied Commander Candace, before adding, "It's likely Doof has thought of pretty much every way for us to infiltrate, though. He's going to have traps and the like set up in every possible entrance."
"True, assuming he's had enough time. Then again," and here Nessa looked at Phineas a bit sorrowfully, "he does have Ferb's unique building skills at his command, and he's been here for almost a day now. I know what both of you are capable of in one day, so we have to be ready for anything."
Phineas nodded. "You're both right, and here is my opinion. Assuming the doors are out, and we're down to choosing between the roof and the tunnels, I would feel the tunnels are more dangerous. Doof could simply collapse them while we're down there and we're done. While it is more likely to surprise them, this brings me to my second point." Staring at Nessa to ensure she knew he meant no malice, he continued. "We really shouldn't try to surprise the Doofs, because it didn't work out last time, and they were able to flip the surprise on the strike team and get us into the situation we're in now. We just need an even playing field, and I'd say we're most likely to get it on the roof. They can't rig the roof to collapse, because it would fall in on them. It's our best bet to reach Ferb and Isabella, but I also would bet Doof knows and has amassed his creations there."
Commander Candace and Nessa shared a look before nodding at Phineas's assessment. "We'll get as even of a playing field as possible there," Nessa admitted. "Yeah, we should coordinate to get up there."
"My agents can get up there easily, what's the best way to get all of us onto the roof?" Commander Candace asked with a frown.
"Easy," Phineas answered, before turning to Meap's spaceship and pressing a button on the control panel. The ship sputtered and shook for a bit, before large platforms burst out of the side and the back transformed to resemble a military transport ship. There was now enough room for all the humans to comfortably fit on the sides and back, and they could easily drop off onto the roof, provided there was a pilot. It seemed Phineas had thought about their query before it could even be vocalized, because he pressed another button and a tinny, female-sounding voice echoed from the compartment. "Meap."
"Oh, whoops, forgot to incorporate the UMT," Phineas said sheepishly as he pulled out a fire-engine red curly mustache and affixed it to the front of the speaker. "Autopilot engaged," said the computer in a suddenly-male, heavily Irish-accented voice, much different than the previous one. Nessa and Commander Candace glanced at each other in confusion before shrugging simultaneously. They'd lived with Phineas and Ferb for years now, nothing shocked them anymore.
Grabbing their gear, the two groups of humans quickly mobilized into the alien military transport ship. Once everyone was safely onboard, the ship quickly flew up over the roof and hovered just above it, ready to let the humans easily drop off and arrange themselves on the roof. Meanwhile, the O.W.C.A. agentborgs activated their jetpacks and jumped up onto the roof as well, fanning out as they did so.
As expected, the Doofs knew they were planning on entering through the roof. All four of them were waiting near the door from the interior of the building to the roof this time, not hiding in the shadows. They were also armed with technologically advanced weaponry, and they were not alone on the roof.
Peter the Pandaborg stood at the head of a herd of first-dimension O.W.C.A. animal agents, including (strangely) another version of himself, all wearing fedoras. These agents, however, had also been biomechanically enhanced, and they were all glaring murderously at the newcomers. Out of the corner of his eye, Phineas saw Perry and Pinky both wince as they saw former comrades-in-arms turned against them, and they knew the fighting between the two groups of O.W.C.A. agents would be tough.
Standing alongside next to the first-dimension O.W.C.A. agents were a cadre of Normbots, a phalanx of redesigned Phinedroids and Ferbots, Rover the Giant Robot Dog with a positively murderous gleam in his red eyes, and a squadron of other automatons. Phineas stared at the army arrayed against them with a sinking feeling in his chest. I had specifically designed these to be hard to build in a fast manner, I didn't expect Ferb to have finished all of these in one evening, Phineas thought. Oh, I sure hope he was able to see the weak points and backdoors I built into these things, otherwise we're doomed. But I know Ferb, he…wait, where is he? And where's Isabella?
Before Phineas had another second to ponder the whereabouts of his stepbrother and his girlfriend, at an unseen signal from the Doofs the O.W.C.A. agents under his control let out various battle cries, screeches, and howls before charging at the previously-borged O.W.C.A. agents from the second dimension, plus Perry the Platypus and Pinky the Chihuahua. Due to all the cybernetic implants from the borging process, every single borged fighter were completely evenly matched in terms of physical ability. The O.W.C.A. agents fighting against Doof were outnumbered by one, since two members of the first-dimension O.W.C.A. were fighting against one member of the second-dimension O.W.C.A. However, Perry and Pinky had had their reflexes slightly dulled by old age and (in Perry's case much more acutely) the strain from previous battles, and their opponent was an extra borg in the form of the original Peter the Pandaborg. The one edge the second-dimension O.W.C.A. agents had was their free will, and they were able to fight more cohesively as a unit than the first-dimension O.W.C.A. agents commanded by Doof.
Almost simultaneous to the charge of the O.W.C.A. agents, the machines whirred to life and jumped into the air, flying towards the Meap transport ship intent on bringing it down before the rescue force could leave it.
"Drop, drop NOW!" yelled Phineas as he swung out of the transport, narrowly missing a rocket fired from a Normbot as he did so. Around him he could see the remainder of his human team quickly fall out of the ship, which exploded not a moment later as a volley of rockets impacted on the hull. Phineas was relieved to see everyone had made it out of the ship unscathed before its destruction, although Bufe had landed on top of Baljeet and Buford and Fletch had gotten tangled up.
Phineas rose up, holding both his and Perry's baseball launcher gloves at the ready in front of him. He had manipulated the controls to respond to movements of his eyes, recorded from a pair of glasses he slipped over the triangular end of his nose. Phineas launched a baseball from both of his gloves and zeroed in on the first Normbot coming his way, but before they came into contact the robot was knocked down by a Stormwhip. Phineas turned and saw the second-dimension Gretchen – no, Storm-4, he reminded himself - held the other end, with the remaining Fireside and Firestorm girls ranging behind her with all their Stormwhips and gadgets at the ready.
"Go stop the Doofs, we'll take care of the machines!" Storm-4 yelled as Holly and Storm-3 vaulted over him and took out two Normbots simultaneously who were converging unseen on Phineas, while Katie electrified Storm-5's whip as she lashed out at the Mark II Phinedroids targeting them.
Phineas nodded and ducked out of the way of the flying pieces of metal from the robots. Escaping the fray, he realized belatedly he had ended up next to Phin, who was sprawled out on the roof. He looked up at Phineas with a grim but determined look on his face. Phineas noticed Phin held no gadget so offered him a baseball launcher and his backup pair of glasses, which Phin took gratefully and stood up.
"Let's do this, for Isabella and Ferb", Phin said quietly as they calibrated the glasses to work the launchers separately. Phineas just nodded and looked towards the center of the roof, where the human-on-human fights were starting.
Tony, Charlene, and Vanessa had waded into the fight with their own augmented weaponry attached to their appendages, forcing the rest of Phineas's team to work back on the defensive. Strangely, there were no ranged weapons among the Doofs' expanded arsenal, as they seemed to unanimously prefer martial melee fights. How can I turn this to our advantage? Phineas thought furiously.
His concentration was shattered when he heard a high-pitched mocking voice yell out over the din of battle. "Oh, Phineas, so like your brother, aren't you? Charging in headfirst without a care for the other of you under my…hospitality," Doof laughed from his enhanced mechanical bio-suit, which seemed to be a hybrid between his old super-sized robot and The Beak suit. "But no matter. Now, you've sealed their fates…and all of yours as well." As the suit closed around Doof, he gave off one last warning. "Let's have this be a fair fight now, alright? Any tricks up your sleeve, and I'll be forced to tip my hand. Trust me, you won't like that, at all. None of you will."
Phineas's mind raced. Had he figured out the fail safes I put in for Ferb to build? Or is he just paranoid enough to assume we'd never fully cooperate with him? Well, either way, we'll have to go about this the hard way.
Phineas glanced over at Phin to see an identical look mirrored in his alternate-dimension counterpart. Together, they pushed through the rest of the crowd around them as they made their way towards Doof. On their way, Phineas glanced towards the O.W.C.A. battle and saw Perry and Platyborg launch each other and wrap themselves around the borged O.W.C.A.-1 Agent Silent G, taking him down just as Peter the Pandaborg kicked O.W.C.A.-2's Agent Silent G off the roof.
Charlene made to intercept the two of them, but she was shoved away by Bufe's platy-posterior tail right into Baljeet's enhanced thinking chair. Quickly, Baljeet pulled the helmet down on top of Charlene, but before he could activate the mental stimulation, she bashed in the helmet with her advanced brawling gloves and stood up, kicking the chair away from her. Bufe jumped up behind her, and Charlene was forced to divide her attention in two directions at once. Still, with her superior fighting materials, the three of them were effectively placed into a standoff stalemate.
Meanwhile, Nessa was bashing through tons of what was now just scrap metal and parts with cold and menacing calculation. As she destroyed yet another Normbot standing near Tony Marzulo, she found herself next to Fletch. Just as quiet as his dimensional counterpart, he only nodded his head once in her direction before launching himself at Tony Marzulo. However, the older man easily batted the young adult aside with an electrical shield he'd made. Fletch slowly stood up after sprawling on the roof, momentarily winded and shocked. Tony smirked, before realizing he'd lost his positional advantage as Nessa had taken the time to flank him and expose his side. Whirling, he barely managed to block her strike and vault backwards, still facing both opponents.
From behind a chimney, Doc and Buford peered at Vanessa, who was launching kicks in their direction with high-powered energy boots while fending off the animated nanobots Doc had taken from Phineas's stash. They were currently acting like a net to try to capture Vanessa, and every time she put a powerful foot through them, they dispersed quickly and tried to reform around her. However, her reactions were usually too quick, and in the rare event the nanobots were too close, Vanessa would jump through them and cause them to scatter, as they weren't strong enough to hold her.
Commander Candace danced across the ceiling, her staff whirling through the air and putting down each enemy it encountered. From helping the Fireside and Firestorm Girls to jumping into the borg fray to pitching assistance to the humans attacking the Doofs, she was a veritable damage machine and always seemed to be in the right spot to help whichever ally of hers was in a bind.
The Doofs did have the advantage of superior weaponry, as their enhancements were specifically designed for combat, but their opponents from both dimensions still had their own tricks up their sleeves with their own technology from Phineas and Ferb's previous summer adventures. Plus, they outnumbered the Doofs 2v1, and the tide of the borg battle was slowly turning towards the OWCA-2 agentborgs.
Sure enough, Fletch and Nessa linked up and performed a complex dance-fight-like maneuver that distracted Tony Marzulo enough for him to miss a well-timed whack from Commander Candace's staff. Dazed, he fell backward and bashed his head against the chimney, knocking him fully unconscious. Seeing this, Vanessa and Charlene disengage from their own pyrrhic fights and pull back to Doof, but the two groups of friends quickly follow their foes. The Doofs end up surrounded and now outnumbered 3v1, glaring murderously out at Phineas and his friends, who stand tired but seemingly triumphant.
Doof, strangely enough, had other ideas. He laughed, a chilling and high-pitched cackle that sent shivers through all the apparent victors. Doof's voice took on an extra hard note, sounding completely unhinged now. "Well, you've proven yourselves worthy adversaries. But, now it's time to show you my piece de resistance and my ace in the hole! Ferb my boy, Bella dear, please come out."
From the shadows of the far side of the roof of the OWCA building emerged two figures, walking somewhat stiffly towards the paused battle. As they enter the light, Phineas and Nessa gasped as they were revealed to be Ferb and Isabella, although they both looked much worse for wear. Ferb was emotionless, even more than usual, while Isabella's face remained almost as stoic. However, Phineas thought he saw her mien flicker to sad every now and then, usually when her eyes swept in the direction of Phineas.
Doof cackled maniacally. "I'm sure you remember the little device in your head, Phineas. Well, my Charlene was able to vastly improve upon that. As you can see, the two of them have no free will left, I control all of their actions." He paused, before adding, "Well, I must say, the girl is definitely strong-willed, she's still fighting it a little."
Ferb doesn't even recognize his own girlfriend and brother, Nessa thought, dismayed.
I know you're in there, Isabella. I know you see me, and I know you know what I mean to you. Please force him out! Phineas mentally pleaded with his girlfriend, even though he knew she couldn't hear his thoughts.
At this point, though, both Phineas and Nessa noticed Ferb's body seemed to be slightly thicker, as if his muscles had been buffed up (and quite quickly), and the pupil of his larger eye was red instead of black. Isabella's body looked normal aside from the slight modification to her head for the mind control device, which Phineas could see implanted just underneath the skin of her forehead.
Doof laughed hysterically again. "See, this is exactly how I had planned it to happen. You're all set up in one place, in this other dimension, leaving our dimension open for the taking once again. Once we get back, the portal we used to get here will be destroyed, and the dimensional interdiction field will be set up across the Tri-State Area! By the time you can figure out a way to get back, we'll already be in control again. No one can stop us!" Turning to Ferb, he said "Now, Ferb, my boy, please attack your family and friends. You must incapacitate them at the least, but please only maim them, not kill them."
Horrified, the two groups of friends watched as Ferb clearly struggled to avoid complying with his orders, but clunkily started moving towards them nonetheless. As Charlene and Vanessa moved to pick up Tony, Doof continued his monologue. "You see, if I tell him to straight up kill you, I might cause some sort of emotional overload, which we all know would destroy his brain. And I need him to be useful to me, so that we can turn you all into more borgs so you can be useful to me. Another reason not to kill you." Glancing over at Ferb and seeing him still slowly moving towards his friends, Doof added, "Quickly and smoothly please." Ferb's gait sped up and his limbs stopped jerking around, as he began to glide across the roof in a strangely hypnotic way.
Doc turned to Phineas and muttered under his breath, "I hypothesize Doof was bluffing, from my surface analysis I only think active resistance, not emotional overloads, would cause his brain to liquefy from the inside out."
Phineas shuddered at this image, but Doc continued. "Indeed, I posit an emotional overload would have an 85% chance of breaking the control, with an additional 5% chance of nothing happening."
"But what about the remaining 10%?" Phineas asked, quickly doing the math to find the missing amount.
Doc nervously shuffled before replying, "Well, it could cause the device to short-circuit, and then something might happen to the brain."
Phineas thought for a moment, but sighed and said, "Ferb would take those odds for me, he'd probably even figure out a way to game those odds."
Doc's eyes widened, but before he could say anything, Ferb reached them and began his attack. He took out Bufe and Baljeet with relative ease by smashing their heads together, knocking them to the ground dazedly. Doc yelled over to Phineas, "Use positive emotional overload!" as he moves Buford and Baljeet out of the way of the battle, looking over them in a sort of makeshift triage.
Doof made to advance in Ferb's path but were stopped short by the ex-Firestorm Girls, who had just finished destroying all the Normbots and circled around him, separating him from his family. Doof snarled and pulled out a two-sided shock baton to hold the girls at bay; another uneasy stalemate formed.
Doof grinned evilly and turned to Isabella, who had remained motionless and expressionless this entire time. Prodding her, he motioned to one side and said, "Why don't you go take a long walk off the short edge of the roof over by the borgs? Oh, and stop anyone who tries to keep you from doing so" Phineas's eyes widen in terror as Isabella begins to slowly walk towards the edge of the roof. Doof relished the sudden fear he saw in Phineas's eyes and smirked. "Ahh, yes, decisions, decisions, Phineas. Are you going to rescue your little girlfriend from her certain doom, or are you going to try to stop me? Which one will you live with, when you try to sleep at night?"
At that point, however, Phin ran over to Phineas, almost dragging a clearly recalcitrant Izzy with him. "We're with you Phineas, let's figure out a way to stop her." Noticing the clear and present danger, Pinky and Pinkyborg also disengaged from the borg battle after two quick take outs of Agent T and Agent F. Growling, they stood in front of Isabella in an attempt to block her path to the edge.
Phineas sprinted over to Isabella, Phin and Izzy trailing close behind. Isabella robotically picked up Pinky, who didn't have the heart to attack his owner, and threw him across the roof in the general direction of Pinkyborg, who managed to catch the flying Chihuahua and keep him from falling off. However, this cleared the path to the edge of the roof, and Isabella continued her slow, methodical walk.
Ferb reached the ex-Fireside Girls just as they finished off their cadre of enemies and turned to help stop the Doofs. His body moved fluidly and coldly, bringing them down one by one with harsh precision. Vanessa and Charlene ran interference, snapping and kicking at Fletch, Commander Candace, Nessa, and Bufe to keep them from linking up with the Firestorm Girls and overwhelming Doof.
Isabella reached the edge of the roof just as both Phineas and Phin reached her. Simultaneously, they attempted to pull Isabella's arms back to keep her from continuing, but her body seemed to be acting on autopilot while she stared at the two boys with unfeeling eyes. As they grasped her wrists, she utilized her martial arts training and spun them together, dodging Izzy's whip lasso at the same time. Izzy was so shocked Isabella had managed to evade everything she almost dropped her whip.
Looking at each other fearfully, Nessa and Fletch nodded as one and reversed direction to head towards the remaining Fireside Girls standing up and bravely attempting to take down Ferb, while Commander Candace and Bufe met eyes and moved in opposite directions to circle around Vanessa and Charlene.
Groggily, Phineas turned around from where he had been shoved as Phin dove across the roof and grabbed Isabella's leg. Pinky barked and jumped around her feet, distracting Isabella and slowing her down enough for Phineas to get in front of her while Pinkyborg used his cyborg legs and jumped at her face. "NOW, IZZY!" Both boys yelled, and Izzy didn't miss a second time. Her whip flew out and struck true, lassoing Isabella and immobilizing her on the ground, staring blankly up at the sky.
Fletch and Nessa leapt at Ferb, who had dispatched all the Fireside Girls except Adyson and Holly; together, the four of them warily boxed in Ferb. Whenever Ferb moved towards one of them, the two on either side would move to form a wall and push him back, without actually engaging him in melee range due to his superior strength. Using these guerrilla tactics similar to the ones Isabella had used against Peter the Pandaborg, they were able to keep Ferb from being able to gain the upper hand.
On the other side of the roof, Storm-2, Bufe, and Commander Candace were the only ones standing against Vanessa and Doof; Charlene was out cold along with the rest of the Firestorm Girls. In addition, Vanessa's boots were sparking and smoking, and she ripped them off to show her normal boots still underneath, with their razor-sharp stiletto heels. On an unspoken decision, Commander Candace launches herself across the roof to go toe-to-toe with Doof with her staff against his shock baton, while Storm-2 and Bufe attempted to grapple Vanessa and pin her down to the roof.
Phineas stared into Isabella's eyes, saddened at the lack of emotion in her sky blues as he tries to figure out what Doc meant by "use positive emotional overload." Izzy, fed up with the situation, attempted to move in to knock out Isabella, but Phin stopped her. Annoyed, she yelled at him, "What do you think you're doing?"
Phin simply replied, "This," and kisses her, shocking her to a standstill. So that's what we look like kissing, a small part of Phineas's brain idly wondered. That must be what everyone saw when…they…Right then, his brain triggered the memory of breaking the hold on his erased memories by kissing Isabella out in the road next to her car. Of course! This is what Doc meant by "positive emotional overload!" Maybe kissing her will help her break the hold the Doofs have on her!
Unbeknownst to the humans, the borg battle, which had been quieting down slowly, became suddenly quiet, as Peter the Pandaborg stood alone against Perry the Platypus and Perry the Platyborg; sensing the futility of fighting, he launched himself backward and joined the Doofs, picking off Bufe from Vanessa and giving her a reprieve
Not even paying attention to the chattering platypus and Platyborg as they sprinted across the roof, Phineas leaned down and lightly kissed Isabella, just as Phin released a shell-shocked Izzy. She could only repeatedly mutter "He likes me?" as Phin gave her a satisfied smirk, completely lost on her as she hadn't opened her eyes.
Phineas could feel Isabella tense her arms under him and he slowly broke the kiss. However, he kept his eyes closed, afraid to see if he failed. For a long moment there was nothing, but then Phineas heard Isabella teasingly whisper, "Wow, Phineas, I didn't know we'd gotten so far in our relationship for tying each other up".
Tears ran down his face as he opened his eyes and saw the same raw emotion pooled in Isabella's as they stared up at him, taking in everything and focusing directly on him instead of staring off into space. Burying his head into her hair, Phineas simply hugged her tightly, thankful they were able to break the control. Dimly, he was aware of Phin picking up Izzy's whip and untying Isabella.
After they both stood up, Phineas still clinging to Isabella, she looked over at the dazed Izzy before turning to Phin and raising an eyebrow. He smirked again and responded, "I finally let her know how I feel about her;" Isabella smirked as well. Ah, their love was reversed; HE was the one pining after HER all these years.
Meanwhile, Perry the Platypus and Perry the Platyborg joined forces with Fletch and Nessa to replace Adyson and Holly, who were almost dead on their feet with all the dodging and ducking. Together, the four of them continued to keep Ferb busy, not allowing him to face any of them alone. Phin and Izzy immediately ran over to join Fletch and Perry the Platyborg on one side of Ferb, while Phineas and Isabella jump up and come to the aid of Nessa and Perry the Platypus on the other.
Phineas murmured to Nessa, "We need to immobilize him, and you need to kiss him to break the hold the Doofs have on his mind." Nessa's eyes widened as she saw Isabella free from control, and she realized how they had done so.
Peter the Pandaborg knocked away Bufe towards Doc and his triage station, but at the same time Storm-2 took out Vanessa with a roundhouse kick. However, neither could find their way into the standoff between Doof and Commander Candace. The two of them whirled like dervishes across the rooftop, dodging blows from each other and all the incapacitated borgs strewn along the roof.
Ferb, his eyes dull and lifeless and surrounded by the group of eight, ducked under and jumped over simultaneous attacks by Perry the Platyborg and Phin. This left him in a vulnerable position, but he didn't realize it until it was too late. Ferb couldn't escape the accurate and trusty whip from Izzy and was tripped up; Fletch immediately jumped on top of him and immobilized him with a Vulcan nerve pinch.
Nessa kneeled down on top of him and Fletch maneuvered off, still holding Ferb. At Nessa's nod, Fletch let go of the pinch, and soon after Ferb came around. However, Nessa's mass on top of him kept him from moving, and before he was able to do much more than notice their position, Nessa leaned down and kissed him.
The group all waited with bated breath, but nothing seemed to happen for a long while. Ferb's body wasn't moving, and he didn't seem to be reacting at all. Finally, Nessa slowly pulled away, revealing Ferb's face and his closed eyes. After what felt like an eternity (but was only a few seconds), Ferb's eyes opened. He blearily looked around before focusing on Nessa sitting on top of him. Ferb gradually let his eyes trail up her body and onto her anxious face, before giving her a wink.
FERB IS BACK! Phineas crowed mentally. Jubilated, he turned and shouted across the roof, "HEY DOOF!"
"Whaaa-oooof?!" Doof was so surprised at Phineas's outburst he came up short in a parry against Commander Candace. As expected, she didn't miss the chance to exploit the opening, and cracked her staff hard against his ribs, knocking him down before jumping on him to restrain him. At the same time, Storm-2 got the jump on Peter the Pandaborg as he attempted to interfere and managed to hold him down.
Doof was pinned down to the roof and just happened to be looking towards Phineas and Ferb. Ferb stood up and glared at Doof through his mismatched eyes, and Isabella stood protectively at Phineas's side with no less a murderous look on her face. Around all of them were pieces of Normbots and unconscious O.W.C.A. agents, and the air seemed almost too quiet and still after all the fighting just recently occurring. Doof closed his eyes in despair, realizing he was completely defeated.