Hi there! Long-ish chapter today! You may notice I'm excited. Why? The new Pokémon games are coming out now! (*does fist pump*)
Review responses:
Phineas A: Hm... I don't really have a name for it. Sorry.
Dreadwing216: Thanks! And it might. Depending on how you define the word.
Guest v1.0.6: I'm not really sure what you mean by that about the POV story. And I mostly put the songs in to keep stories P&F-esque. Thank you for reviewing!
10/21/15: THIS CHAPTER WAS NOT FUN TO REVISE. That is all.
*A-gents V, S, J, L, M, and E!*
Stacy, Jenny, Lacie, Mandy, and Eliza all lined up on their spray-painted scooters at the foot of the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated building. Viewed from eye level, they peered out from behind Vanessa - who looked right at home on her jet-black motorbike - in a formation that resembled the lead agent's first initial.
"Stacy," Agent V commanded, the fedora she proudly sported giving her an air of authority she would not otherwise have. "You know what to do."
Agent S nodded and rode ahead of the others, dispensing from the back of her scooter a continuous mist of evaporated lemon juice; she formed a circle around the space in front of them. A faint line appeared on the ground, revealing invisible tire tracks.
"Invisible tire tracks?" Jenny wondered, "How can something still be invisible if it's been revealed?"
Jenny, of course, had always been rather confused; she often misheard things she understood, and misunderstood things she heard. In this case, it was what the word 'invisible' was describing. "No... Not tire tracks that are invisible," Lacie explained, slipping on a pair of sunglasses; her eyes had always been sensitive to the harsh summer light. "Tracks made by invisible tires."
"...Oh," Jenny realized, embarrassed, her face turning tomato-red. "...Right."
"Anyway…" Vanessa directed the girls' attention back to the task at hand. She pointed in the direction of the tracks. "Ferb went that way. Stacy, ride ahead of the rest of us and clear up this path."
Jenny's eyes widened. "Fear of witchcraft?"
The other six eyed her flatly. "What?"
Stacy rolled her eyes good-naturedly before following Vanessa's directions and speeding off. The rest powered up their motors and puttered close behind.
Dra. García-Shapiro and Isealia were told that Ferb would be helping them; that he would answer their questions; that they could depend on him. Instead, it seemed to be the other way around.
Nightfall had settled by now, and the ladies were well past asleep. They had shared a bed, letting Ferb take the other out of respect for the guest on the experiment's part and a slight but growing distrust of him on Vivian's. The boy silently opened the room's sliding glass door, leading to a small balcony. He grasped the railings with tired hands and closed his large, stoic eyes, taking in the beautiful summer night.
He wanted to sleep; he really did. He wanted at that point to go and slip under the covers and zonk out, letting his worn body slowly recuperate. Yet there was still work to be done. Slowly, he took a seat at a plastic deck chair and produced a logbook. He smiled at the pages as he flipped through the first half, which was filled with photos and two-dimensional memorabilia of all his adventures and inventions with Perfeneas and his friends. He briefly wondered if the experiment should be considered a part of that group; and if not, what he would be to Ferb. 'Friend' seemed so much less and so much more than their relationship at the same time. They were assigned to work and play together, but not whenever they wanted. Ferb always enjoyed his company, and while he did not know if Perfeneas was capable of processing his own emotions, Ferb was positive the redhead somehow felt the same. He slid two fingers along a picture of the boys next to each other and debated whether or not the smile on the triangle's face could be genuine.
Of course it was real! Ferb did not let himself doubt this for long. Only half of the pair knew it, but technically, Perfeneas and Ferb were brothers - stepbrothers, at that. Linda Flynn, the birthmother of Perfeneas and Cansummace, had eventually married Ferb's father; so they were brothers, and Cansummace was their sister. Only one of them was allowed to know.
The smile finally dissipated as this member of the trio flipped to the second half of his book, a passcode-protected section reserved for mission logs, classified information concerning Perfeneas, and other documents proving Ferb's OWCA status. Here was where the redhead was treated as an experiment, an item, not as a person; Ferb never agreed to that. He always considered Perfeneas a living being, an equal human with some physical advantages due to his origin, possessing his own thoughts, emotions, worries, and free will. Did he really have these? Possibly, but not as much as Ferb acted like he did. The British boy knew this, and did not care. He would treat his brother the way he would treat anyone else, within the restrictions of those controlling the experiment.
For now, that is.
He exhaled, adding to the night air the warmth of his tired breath. He recorded some things he learned about Isealia and discreetly closed the book.
Ferb stood up and made to go back inside when something on the ground outside caught his eyes: movement. Of people. His already alert heart stopped for a split second once he realised who these people were and he immediately flicked the outside light off. Ferb backed up against the wall, peered over the banister, and saw his suspicions confirmed.
Backlit by the headlights of her friends' motor scooters, Vanessa Whateverherlastnamewas and her determined expression could be seen clearly even as far away as Ferb's room's balcony. He practically sprinted inside, trying his hardest not to wake anyone, feeling a bit foolish for not considering the OWCA would not send a search party after him - and of all the agents they could have sent, it had to be the one for whom he harbored that weakness that was his crush!
He did not have time to think about this more thoroughly, however, as his efforts to be quiet had for once been in vain; he stopped when he saw Isealia's subtle figure standing in the faint light coming inside from the balcony. The ocean was calm tonight, but threatened to take someone under if they dared go out too far.
She spoke softly, with a voice that could be described no more accurately with any word other than 'pleasant'. "I thought you were asleep," she stated. "Is your bed uncomfortable? I can fix it for you."
Ferb shook his head quickly to decline, defensively throwing his hands up - and, in the process, dropping his book. It flew to the floor like a released fish flopping back into the sea, its pages ruffling open, landing faceup on the floor, the picture of the boys Ferb had reminisced over showing itself to the world. He scrambled to pick it back up.
Isealia slowly turned her head to the side and asked the obvious. "Who were you standing with in that picture?"
"It's... It's a secret," insisted Ferb, who was not nearly ready to divulge that information.
"I do not recognize the name Asecret." Isealia closed her eyes and shook her head gently at the floor.
Ferb was not sure Isealia actually believed that was the boy's name, but to prevent any unnecessary confusion he did not specify anything else. "Wait, why are you speaking English?" He inquired instead.
"I noticed your accent. You are not from Mexico at all, are you? You never said you were."
Ferb silently declined, and instructed her to go back to sleep. Casting a slightly worried glance out the back door, Ferb made sure the room was securely locked and did the same.
"Check it out. A hotel," Stacy observed, riding ahead, "Think we could crash there for a while?"
"Catch bare crocodiles?" Jenny misheard again; no one corrected her, however, so she followed along with the other five as they parked their vehicles outside and tracked the faintly glowing footsteps into the building.
"Well, look at this place. Eliza, do me a favor and see if you can get us a room, please," Vanessa requested with an air of respect, and Eliza left to do so. Vanessa's entire mien changed, however, when she made her second command: "Mandy. Lemon juice, stat."
Agent V accepted the bucket and began to slowly empty its contents onto the rug.
"Hey!"
The voice was female, and sounded like the scold a cat would receive for scratching up a wooden wall. Startled, Vanessa dropped the bucket and looked guiltily to its source: behind a concerned-looking Eliza, the owner of the hotel was fuming. "What are you doing with that?" She demanded, an accent Vanessa recognized as coming from New York bleeding into her voice.
"Oh, uh, my apologies. We're working for the O.W.C.A.," the agent introduced, holding up her identification. "We're looking for someone. You didn't see a green-haired British boy come in earlier today, have you?"
The manager crossed her arms.
"I didn't think so." Vanessa explained, "He was invisible when he came in and we're tracing his footsteps with this lemon juice. Watch this."
With that, the teen retrieved the bucket, flung its contents across the narrow rug, and waited.
...And waited...
...And waited longer.
When still nothing happened, the manager's rage began to build again. "If he walked on the carpet, they're supposed to show up. I don't get it." Vanessa furrowed her brow, not aware that Ferb had avoided the carpet upon his entry into the building.
"Of course it won't show up!" The owner had seemed reasonable at first, but now Vanessa could see how bad of an idea it was to get her mad as she received blow after blow of reprehension. "That wouldn't make sense - what, are we in some kind of sci-fi novel? I don't know what you think you teenagers're doing for this Polish sheep, but don't do it here." The owner pointed at the front door. "Get out!"
"But-"
"Now!"
Vanessa opened her mouth to speak again, but decided against it. "Okay." The six trudged out of the hotel and made their way to the vehicles, Vanessa to her bike and the rest to their respective scooters. Stacy powered hers on, with a hanging head, and out of the corner of her eye something grabbed her attention.
"Hey, look, guys!" She pointed to the still-glowing footprints leading away from the door. "He left the hotel. We can still find him!"