Chapter 5: Reality Hits, Agent S's Mission
The next morning, Linda had left to go to the antique store with Lawrence and Candace was still in bed, so it was just Phineas, Ferb, and me at the table, with Perry on the floor. We were eating their favorite cereal, Fruity Rainbow Flakes, when the doorbell rang. I volunteered to get it, knowing who it was.
When I opened the door, sure enough, there stood a rather irritated La-an.
"Se-ra, c'mon. You promised." He humphed, and crossed his arms.
"La-an, do you even know where you are?" I threw up my arms incredulously.
"No, and I don't care." He said, his hands on his hips.
"Doesn't this street look familiar to you? You're on Maple Drive." I gestured, but he ignored my pointing.
"No." He stated simply.
"This house?" I said hopefully.
"Nope." He replied, completely irritated.
I glanced to the backyard, where Phineas and Ferb were sitting now, having put their dishes away.
"How about the backyard?" I walked over to it, dragging him along with me.
He didn't look closely, and clearly and snappily, "No, Se-ra. Can we go?"
"One last thing. Come over here." I stepped over to the gate to the backyard and pushed it open. "Do you remember them?"
La-an glared at me, but followed me into the backyard and stood there, stock still for about two seconds and then fell flat on his back, still stiff as a board. He'd fainted.
By the time he regained consciousness, Isabella, Baljeet, and Buford had arrived for the day, and so in addition to Phineas and Ferb, they too stood over him. Perry crawled over to him and rested his head on La-an's left arm, and chattered gently, trying to be comforting.
"Are you okay?" Phineas asked him hopefully.
La-an only lay there, mumbling something incoherently.
"Do you think he'll be alright?" Phineas asked me in turn.
"Yeah," I said, helping my brother to his feet, and then helped him over to the shade under the tree.
"Well guys, meet Laanrah Greene, my brother. Well, I call him La-an."
"Se-ra, don't call me that."
"Well, what do you want us to call you?" Isabella spoke up.
"Call me Laan." He said "It's one syllable."
I always like to tease him about it, making his name two syllables instead.
"So's Sera, but you can't make it one, can ya?" I muttered incoherently under my breath, knowing full well he only called me Se-ra to make fun of the fact that I called him La-an.
The others agreed to La-an's statement, and I turned to Phineas and Ferb. "So, what were you planning on doing today?" I asked them, and Phineas looked at me curiously, noticing how carefully I had worded that sentence. "We weren't sure. We were wondering if maybe you had any ideas, Sera." I knew what he meant. He was stating without saying that he had always meant to include me in their fun. It made me smile. I couldn't be happier.
I shrugged my shoulders. I always had trouble when it came to writing my fanfiction what invention to give them to build.
It was La-an who spoke. "How about a machine that takes food you hate into something you can enjoy?"
I looked at him. With my eyebrow raised, I questioned, "I thought Phineas and Ferb were too young for you? I thought you wanted to go home."
"That was before I knew they were real. Why didn't you tell me earlier, Se-ra?" He stood up and glared at me.
"Like you would have believed me, La-an." I retaliated, and stood up to glare at him in return.
"Good point." He relented, bringing our argument to a halt—to my surprise.
"Are you sure you're alright, La-an? Did that passing out of yours mess up your brain? You don't even want to fight with me anymore." I put my arm around his shoulder.
"I'm fine, Se-ra. I just feel that this day is better spent doing other things." He shrugged off my comfort.
"That it is!" Phineas exclaimed, who I realized had been staring at the two of us, along with every other occupant of the yard.
Heh-heh, oops. I thought to myself.
"Well Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!" Phineas continued delightfully. He turned to my brother. "That idea of yours sounds great! I've always wondered what I could do so I could stop eating cabbage."
"I for one am not too keen on asparagus." Ferb put in.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" I exclaimed happily.
Then I heard it.
Beep Beep Beep…Beep.
I glanced over at Perry, while everyone else looked everywhere but him, including La-an. He was looking around as well, wondering where the sound had come from. Evidently it wasn't his watch.
Then I realized it was my own.
"Guys, phone call." I said, waving distractedly and walked out the gate to sit on the front porch, my beloved tote-bag on my arm.
I reached in and pulled out my fedora. Placing it on my head, I pushed the button on the side of my watch.
"Agent S," my superior called to me. "Your mission is simple. Assist Agent P in his next mission. He'll need an element of surprise to escape this one."
I saluted Paulina Password, the president of O.W.C.A. and my only superior, ready, and completely and utterly excited to be working with the organization's best animal agent (now that I knew that it was actually the O.W.C.A, and not just simply named after it, like I had assumed in the first place, having never seen any animal agents working there before). The hardest part would be getting him to trust me. Since the existence of a human agent was only a rumor on his side of the agency, getting in was going to be difficult. I guess I'd just have to keep an eye on him without him knowing it and sneak into his lair after him, like Lawrence before on accident, and Phineas and Ferb had stumbled upon his lair.
So I took off my agent hat, placed it inside my beloved tote, and walked back into the backyard, my bag on my arm. Phineas, Ferb, and La-an were taking advantage of such a large backyard and had pulled out a giant piece of blueprint paper, already working on the structural design. "Who was it?" La-an asked, half caring, half not. "Ana," I replied, knowing he didn't actually care. When the others looked at me curiously, I replied, "My best friend for all existence. Basically she's the Stacy to my Candace."
"Oh-h." Everyone replied, getting it.
I heard a slight buzzing noise that no one else seemed to catch. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Perry slink off to the side of the house. Not daring to follow quite yet, I took my time, and slipped carefully around the spot. Thankfully, the trap door was still open, and I slipped inside, careful to go in feet first, but not before I heard two people talking. One said, "Hey, where's Perry?" that was Phineas. The other said, "And where's Se-ra?" that was La-an. Funny, never thought I'd hear those two sentences in the same context.
I slid through many tubes, enjoying the ride. When I landed at the bottom, I hid behind Perry's hovercraft, knowing I would be safe, and listened carefully to Major Monogram's briefing, knowing that it was my briefing as well. "Dr. Doofenshmirtz has been seen digging through the dumpsters behind a different Slushy Burger every day. This cannot be good. Go and—"
Completely out of nowhere, a feather fell from above and landed in front of me, tickling my nose on the way down and causing me to sneeze. Major Monogram saw me for the first time. Startled, he called out, "Carl! There's a teenage girl in here!"
"A real teenage girl this time, Sir? Not like last time with Agent P dressed as one?" Carl said, running up to peer in to see me.
"No, Agent P is definitely here too."
I sighed and stood up, knowing my cover was blown. I stood up and walked over to them, my hips swaying. Carl looked as though he would cry. I took out my hat from the tote and placed it on my head, allowing it to be scanned by the machine.
"Agent S, Seraphina Greene accepted." The little mechanized voice sounded. The major pushed his intern out of the way.
"B-but, how?" Major Monogram looked alarmed.
"As you can see, Major, the name's Seraphina Greene. But if you're going to call me anything other than Agent S, please just call me Sera. I know you're wondering how I, a human, am standing here talking to you as a member of the O.W.C.A.," I leaned against the top of Perry's chair, "but if you've got a problem with it, you can talk to Paulina Password about it. She's the one who contacted me, and happens to be my only superior."
"Why are you here, then?"
"Paulina asked me to help Agent P on his mission. Apparently he's going to need an extra hand on this one."
Perry looked at me incredulously.
I smiled fondly and replied, "Hey, Perry, don't be that way. I never said that you're incapable. I don't quite understand how you need me here on this mission either, but I have to do what Paulina says, just like you've got to do what Monogram says, to some extent anyway."
"Well, off you go then," Monogram said, as he walked off screen, no doubt having to try and get a look of sheer shock off of Carl's face. The poor boy didn't get out enough.
Agent P got into his hovercraft, and motioned apologetically for me to climb aboard. I managed to scrunch in beside him and smiled. After we took off, I told him, "You know, I don't so much as mind the fact that we're scrunched in here. Unlike Double 0-0, I'm here to meet your needs, not mine. Besides, I'm often cramped in small places. It comes with the job, does it not?"
Perry only nodded in agreement. There was silence until we arrived at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, but it wasn't an awkward one. It was filled with anticipation, knowing that what we were going to do may be very important.