After the two left Phineas' smile fell into a tight glare as he turned back to his invention.
"Ugh, I swear. What people are like sometimes! Every time he gets worse and worse.", he mumbled to himself. "I wish he could just get along and stop making a fun event some sorta major, life-or-death contest."
Heinz looked down curiously at the young boy. It was odd to think that even an extreme optimist like himself was feeling upset like this.
"Phineas? Are you okay?", he asked.
"Hm? Oh yeah yeah.. I..", he sighed. "Sorry. I don't mean to get uptight or anything. I just hate it when people take all the fun out of stuff and all Thaddeus ever tries to do is top me. He never tries to ever just relax and have fun. It's kinda nerve-wracking to deal with sometimes and with my grandpa already sick and Ferb not here, I really don't wanna deal with it today."
"Oh man I know how that is.", Heinz chuckled and rolled his eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah. There's days a plenty where my daughter, Vanessa, would be mad at me for some reason. My projects would be running late. My annoying younger brother, Roger, would be calling me on the phone non-stop. And to top it all off my nemesis would have to just BUST a wall down and burst on in on whatever I'd be doing and make my inventions blow-up in my face.", he sighed. "And by 'days a plenty', I mean almost every day."
"Wow... Everyday?", Phineas asked.
"Well almost. Vanessa visits on the weekends. But Roger...", he rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah. But enough of that. Let's just get this done, eh?"
Phineas gave a nod and the two worked hard and soon were complete. Phineas smiled down at their project.
"Wow! We finished that faster than anything I've ever built.", Phineas smiled down at their invention. "Now all we need to do is download the music and test it out!"
"Alright! I have my walkman right here!", Doof smiled and held it out.
"Awesome. And I have my ipod! ", Phineas pulled his out.
He sat it on the table and pulled out a small plug-in from the invention and plugged it into where he would plug in his headphones.
"It should only take a moment. Should we both use our music?", Phineas asked.
"Well... To be perfectly honest it's not like I have a whole lot of... How should I say... FUN songs.", Heinz sighed a bit.
"Well that's okay!", Phineas smiled. "All I have is fun, happy songs! And this is supposed to be for both happy AND unhappy people, right?"
"Well alright then.", he smiled a bit and after Phineas was done, plugged in his own music.
After they finished plugging in their music, Phineas sat it up on himself. It wore like a necklace with small circular speakers on the sides except for a small cord that hung down with something that looked like a small cellphone minus all the buttons. Instead a small diamond-shaped button was there with arrows drawn on it. Two triangular buttons were diagonally across from each other and in the middle of the diamond was a smaller circular button with the play and pause symbol on it. Above the triangular buttons was written "options" and "back". It had a small screen above it and a small switch on the side to turn it on and off with a small dial on the other side to mess with the volume. Phineas pulled up the small rectangle and flipped the switch on. Nothing appeared on the screen and he looked curiously at it.
"...That's weird. The batteries should be just fine.", Phineas commented.
"It can't be broken already, can it?", Doofenshmirtz asked, looking over his shoulder.
Phineas looked about it and soon found the problem.
"Here it is! It's all wired through this silly self-destruct button. Dr. D, did you do that?", he asked, looking up at the man.
"Well of course! When you left to use the bathroom I saw you forgot to install one. I mean isn't that what every invention should have?", he asked.
"Uh.. No. You don't really need it do you?", he asked as he began to rewire it.
Doofenshmirtz opened his mouth to argue but as Phineas' words sunk in he suddenly realized that.
"...No.. No actually I don't! Is.. Am I really that insane that I always install one? No wonder my nemesis always defeats me! Dumm kopf!", he smacked his head.
"Well that's cool. I've already got it readjusted.", he smiled and tossed the button aside. "And just in time too! Check out. The judges are coming over."
Doofenshmirtz's face soon crumbled into worry.
"R-really? Already?", he asked, wringing his hands together nervously.
"Hey, Dr. D. It's alright! I'm sure our inveniton's gonna work great!", Phineas said cheerfully.
Heinz mentally snorted.
'Yeah. Keep up the enthusiasm kid. Just wait until you hear we're disqualified for whatever stupid governmental reason...', he thought to himself. 'One kid who's as happy as a clam and I'm gonna drag them down with my bad luck.'
But as the judges came over Heinz's misery only turned into exasperation as his younger and more successful brother, Roger, came by as well.
"Heinz?", Roger said in slight astonishment before putting on his cheesy smile. "Well look what we have here!"
"Rr.. Hello Roger.", Doofenshmirtz mumbled, folding his arms across his chest.
"I see you finally have a REAL partner for once. Phineas Flynn, how are you?", he went on, shaking Phineas' hand.
"Oh not to bad Mayor. I didn't know you knew my partner."
"Know him? Ha! He's my older brother.", he chuckled. "Speaking of, where's yours? Couldn't possibly have hoped to win without him, right?"
"Oh no! Mr. Heinz is a very great substitute!", Phineas smiled. "In fact, I wish he didn't live so far into town. Ferb and I could really make the most out of Summer if he was around more often."
Heinz smiled a bit to himself, feeling a bit encouraged by the kind words. Another judge came up to inspect the invention, seeming to be unimpressed.
"And what exactly have you created?", he asked.
"Oh. Well we haven't exactly come up with a name for it yet. But I guess you can call it uh...", Phineas looked down at it in slight confusion. "..Hmm... I guess I'm drawing a blank for a title. Dr. D?"
"Uh... The first thing that comes to my mind is 'E-M-P-inator'.", Heinz shrugged.
"'E-M-P'?", the judge asked, looking up at him curiously.
"Yeah the Emotional-Music-Playerinator.", he explained. "Or 'emp' for short I guess."
Phineas gave a nod and turned the machine on.
"You see what it does is that it plays all your favorite kinds of music in time to your mood depending on what kind of heat you give off. Like how a mood-ring works but in this case, it plays music.", Phineas explained as he pressed buttons to go into his music files. "It also takes and holds pictures and videos too so when you're happy or upset you can watch or look at that too. I'll start with something happy and try to change my moods for the demo here."
He finally pressed play and soon a good song began to play from the speakers as the ban around his neck changed color to yellow.
"Bow chika bow wow",
That's what my baby says.
"Mow mow mow",
And my hearts starts pumpin...
The judges smiled a bit and no one could help but bob their heads to the song as it played.
"Kay. Now let's try something... Uh... Well I guess I could try fear next.", he paused for a moment and the song faded to silence and the ban turned black as he pondered the thought. 'What's scary to me?'
After a moment the band on his neck turned into a dark blue as a look of absolute terror crossed the young boys' expressions.
Wanna be creative but the man won't hear it.
That big boss man, trying to crush my spirit.
Got these chains on me!
They won't let me fly,
Got these chains on me!
Won't tell me why.
Phineas quickly took off the empinator in fear and tried hard to calm himself back down. The band turned to black and was quickly silent.
"Phineas, you okay?", Doofenshmirtz asked.
"Yeah.. Sorry, I.. I really can't stand the thought of not being able to do anything fun, y'know?", Phineas explained and then held it out at him. "Here, Dr. D.. Why not you give it a shot?"
Heinz stared at it, at first hesitant but then decided to give it a try and put it on.
"Yes, Heinz. Let's go ahead and see you break even more things.", Roger said with a smirk.
Heinz gave a death-glare at him as he put it on and instantly the ban turned bright red as a loud song came out.
I'm gonna rip you up.
I'm gonna break you down.
I'm gonna take you to a chop shop downtown.
Everyone stared in shock as Heinz only scowled at his younger brother.
'Why does Roger always have to make me look bad? Every time! You'd think he'd learn to keep his mouth shut!', he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried to keep himself calmed. 'Relax Heinz. No need to get into a frenzy. Besides, at least it's working. I'd just LOVE to hear the thoughts Roger was thinking of right now.'
Heinz couldn't help but smirk as the band turned green and the song changed.
Well my goody-two-shoes brother!
The favorite of my mother!
He's the one I want to smother-
Heinz quickly felt his cheeks become hot as his heart leapt into his throat at the song. He quickly ripped off the invention off and looked back at the judges in slight embarrassment.
"Er.. Ha ha!", he managed weakly. "I uh.. I guess it had a slight glitch there. Heh heh."
There was an awkward moment of silence till Heinz offered it to Roger.
"H-here, Roger. You try it.", he offered.
Roger shrugged and put it on, though his mind seemed to be elsewhere. The ban turned purple as Roger continued in his thoughts.
'That was weird. Does Heinz really have a problem with me? I mean I was only teasing him. Isn't that what brothers are supposed to do?', he was thinking to himself.
Going deep into your mind.
Never know what we will find.
The song continued to play, though Roger paid no attention to it. Phineas chuckled and smiled at Heinz.
"He must be deep in thought.", he noted.
"Well this is a first.", Heinz simply said as he placed his arms across his chest.
"So exactly how is it that it matches to your moods?", a female judge asked.
"Oh! Well it takes in the amount of heat you give off, much like a mood ring, and uses that information to determine your emotions and what song would best match up to it. It also has a small sphere on the back that picks up thoughts and mental waves the living being normally gives off.", Phineas explained as Roger took it off. "So when you think you wanna listen to a specific song, it'll automatically play it for ya!"
"May I?", the female judge asked.
Roger handed it over and the judge put it on. After a moment the ban's color didn't change but instead, Love Handel's "Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart" began to play. The judges all looked at one another and they handed back the invention.
"Well done, boys. It's a rather impressive machine.", the first judge commented. "We'll let you know when we announce the winners."
"Awesome! See ya then!", Phineas waved good-bye.
As the judges left, Roger trailed behind and looked back at Heinz for a moment, his mind still churning. He gave a shrug and walked away though, not giving things a second thought. There was a moment of silence between the two inventors before Heinz groaned and banged his head on the table. The sudden action startled Phineas who jumped back.
"Dr. D.?", he asked.
"Oh man I am SUCH an idiot...", Heinz groaned. "Of all the men in the world I have to be one that can't keep a better hold on my emotions..."
"What? Dr. D., what's wrong?", Phineas asked.
"I'm sorry Phineas. We're probably gonna fail.", he continued. "I really must have messed up with anger and cock being my first moods. Now Roger's gonna go get on the other judges' good sides and we're gonna fail."
He only sighed and banged his head a couple more times before Phineas quickly stopped him saying, "Whoa whoa whoa! I don't think you made us fail."
Heinz looked back at the boy as if just saying by his look that the cheer up was hopeless.
"Trust me. I'm pretty sure the judges were really impressed with our invention! Okay? I mean come on, how many other people come up with empinators?", he tried, offering a smile.
Heinz only sighed and hung his head.
"Only idiots like me...", he groaned, leaning his head into his hand.
"NO. Only geniuses like you.", Phineas corrected. "Mr. Doofenshmirtz, you gotta trust me on this. The empinator is a great title for it, the moods you demonstrated were perfect examples of what it does, and the piece with the brain-wave scans? That was brilliant! You gotta believe that it'll win!"
"Sorry Phineas but all my inventions fail me. Even my giant robot man and he's the only one who hasn't exploded...", Heinz slouched further.
"...Well did you really think you'd win with me?", Phineas asked.
"Well you have impressive blueprints. But...", Heinz shrugged. "I didn't necessarily came into the park thinkin' I'd take a trophy home."
"Well come on. Give me one good reason of why it should fail. Why can't we win?", Phineas went on.
"Uh.. Cause it's my bad luck?"
"There's no such thing as bad luck.", Phineas retorted.
"Well how about the fact that I've had an incredibly long history of losing contests and science fairs and such?", Doof went on. "That failure itself has come to be a close companion to me in a sense that I can always rely on it being there whether I want it or not?"
"Well Dr. D, it's high-time you found out what a great friend winning is!", Phineas smiled. "There shouldn't be any reason we can't come in first! I mean, unless there really is someone out there who's a bit better than us. But come on! You have to at least HOPE you can win! If you go around looking for trouble, you'll only find trouble, right?"
Doofenshmirtz only stared at the boy. It's like you could throw knives at him and he'd still be able to smile. Even if he DIED he'd smile. Always. A permanent ingraining on his face of a smile. Heinz raised an eyebrow in slight curiosity of whether or not he was really talking to an actual human being.
"...Phineas Flynn...", Heinz started to say. "You are probably one of the freakiest people I have EVER met in my entire life. And I know whack-jobs."
Phineas only laughed and thanked for the compliment. Heinz simply shook his head with a smile and a chuckle.
"Maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas.", he joked.
"Ha ha! Well it's gotta be worse than an empinator, right?", Phineas shrugged.
"Heh, maybe.", Doofenshmirtz chuckled and then shrugged. "I dunno, maybe you're right Phin. Maybe we do have a chance at winning."
"That's the spirit!", Phineas smile only brightened.
"Is there anything that gets you down?", Doofenshmirtz asked. "I mean what's that all about? Nothing's made you really upset. Even in front of that Thaddeus guy."
"What do you mean?", Phineas asked. "I was mad at him."
"Ha! Hardly!", Heinz leaned back on the table. "If you were my father, people would be wondering why you were in such a good mood with how you reacted to him."
"Really?", Phineas asked.
"Oh yeah.", Heinz rolled his eyes. "Wheew! You shoulda seen the look on his face when he got MAD! Not angry. Not enraged. No. MAD alone would make you cower in fear."
"What would happen if he was past mad?", Phineas asked.
Doofenshmirtz was suddenly quiet as his face fell into a ghastly stare into his past. His eyes grew wide with the memories and seemed to have permanently frozen there. After a moment, he gingerly picked up the empinator and pressed it to his throat. The ban stayed black but the blood-curdling woman's scream was enough to define what he was thinking. Phineas flinched hearing the scream but got the idea none the less. Heinz finally blinked and then soon tried to calm himself down, rubbing his eyes as he cleared his mind of the images.
"Wow...", he said after he removed his hands from his ears. "That bad?"
"Oooohhh yeah... The beat- I-I mean the-", he sighed. "I just can't even start on THAT emotionally scarring back story."
"'THAT emotionally scarring back story'? What you mean there's MORE?", Phineas asked.
"Oh plenty.", Heinz said, finally looking back through the park. "I could probably write a pretty thick book of them."
"Wow... Like what? If you don't mind me asking."
"No it's okay. I normally tell my nemesis about it. But things like, when I was young and in Gimmleschtump, my family had lost their lawn gnome and I was forced to stay out in the yard. Day and night all year around. I lost my friend, Balloony, during this and then later when I was finally a bit too big to be a gnome, my mom was expecting a baby girl and was knitting dresses but then we got a boy, my brother Roger, and I was forced to wear the dresses for the whole year while Roger had my hand-me-downs.", he explained. "I don't normally talk about my parents as much as I just talk about what I've personally been through."
"Wow. You really had to do all that? That dress-thing must have been horrible!", Phineas commented.
"Yeah but by the 3rd year after wards, the laughter finally died down."
"Ouch..", Phineas winced.
"Typical.", Heinz shrugged.