As they walked around the town, attention was obviously noticed, what with Phineas' bright eyes and colors but so far, not a whole lot of attention was aroused.
"See? Nothing to worry about!", Phineas reassured. "And not wanting to rub anything in, but nothing is stained on us either. My skin's fine. Everyone's fine with it. We're just hanging out and looking around."
"Yeah.. I guess you got a point.", Heinz shrugged, looking at his reflection in a passing by store window. "Still looks pretty weird though."
"Uh, excuse me?", a young girl with black and red hair asked Phineas curiously. "Are you okay?"
"Wha-? Yeah! Why you ask?", he chuckled while Heinz face-palmed himself.
"Well.. Y-you're hair. Did someone spill paint on you?", she pointed out his hair.
"No! We built a recolor ray.", Phineas pulled it out to show. "It takes your average colors and recolors it to whatever you want."
"Really?", she asked.
"Yeah! I chose blue and yellow and my friend, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, chose black and green. Wanna try?", he asked.
"Dude! Set me up!", she nodded excitedly. "Can you make my brown eyes, violet?"
"Of course!", Phineas nodded and zapped her. "If you wanna go back to normal-"
"Oh no. I don't EVER wanna change this!", she said happily, looking at her eyes in a mirror she pulled out of her pocket. "Thank you!"
"No prob!", Phineas gave her a thumbs up. "Looks great on ya!"
"Thanks! I'm gonna go show my friends!", she ran off happily.
Phineas chuckled and as they continued to walk, some other people couldn't help but make remarks.
"Hey Phineas.", a random man said, waving happily. "New look?"
"New invention.", Phineas shrugged, holding it up. "Wanna try?"
"Sure thing, Dude. How about strawberry red hair?", he asked and was soon given it. "Thanks Phin!"
"Later Bro.", Phineas waved as they walked by.
"Who's that?", Heinz asked, staring back curiously.
"Absolutely no idea.", Phineas said, feeling a little unnerved by the thought. "I guess the name's kinda flown around town after so many things over the Summer and what not."
They turned a corner and walked down a busy street as cars waited along side of them to pass the red light. Stacey looked back behind her seat at Candace, who was curled up, staring out the window.
"Candace, you okay?", she asked, earning a slow shake.
"No...", her friend simple sighed. "I feel kinda sick..."
"That's probably her stress...", Stacey reassured Coltrane. "..if not car sickness."
Candace simply offered a sigh and looked at the passing by people out her window. She soon spotted Phineas and Heinz as they were just walking past the car and her eyes widened as she sat up and stared, unable to take her eyes off.
"Candace?", Stacey asked, seeing her friend's sudden actions.
"I... I could swear I'm seeing my brother!", Candace exclaimed, pressing her face to the window, trying harder to see as the two disappeared from sight. "But...", she thought about what she had saw and simply shook her head. "No no.. Phineas' hair is red and that kid's hair was blue."
Stacey sighed, "I'm sure we'll find him soon."
Candace only sighed again and flopped back into her seat and leaned her head to the window. As the duo walked about, something easily capture Phineas' attention.
"Phineas? Whatcha dooin?", Isabella asked, spotting him from behind.
"Isabella?", Phineas asked, turning around. "Hey!"
"Wow! I almost didn't recognize you with that hair!", she smiled, running to catch up.
"Oh yeah! Dr. D, this is my friend, Isabella.", Phineas introduced. "Isabella, this is Dr. Doofenshmirtz. He helped me win in the inventing contest earlier."
Heinz shook hands with her with a weak chuckle, "I didn't really do much."
"Wait, you helped him? Phineas, what about Ferb?", Isabella asked.
"Ferb had to go to England to help Grandpa Fletcher get his legs back to normal.", Phineas explained.
"Oh! Gotcha. So what, did you make a hair-dyeing machine or something?", she pointed to the hair.
"Oh no! That's our recolor ray!", Phineas chuckled. "Wanna try?"
"Nah. I'm good. Not anything against it, but I just kinda like my black hair.", she gave a dreamy sigh. "I think your blue hair looks great with your yellow eyes though."
"Thanks!", Phineas said, not catching a shred of her flirt. "Your hair looks great on you too!"
Heinz had to hold back laughter at seeing the sight of Phineas being as smart as he is and yet completely oblivious to Isabella's obvious affection.
'Oh my gosh. He really IS Linda's kid...', he thought to himself.
"So what was Dr. D's original colors?", Isabella asked.
"Brown hair and blue eyes.", Heinz shrugged. "No big difference."
"That's cool. So, Phineas, if you're here, is Candace in England too or what?", she asked.
"Actually, Candace is at a party with Jeremy. But I'm sure if she wanted to check up on me, she'd call.", he reassured.
"Oh okay. Well I better get back to my mom. Later!", Isabella waved as she ran off, back to her mom who waited a bit a ways.
"You know Phineas..", Heinz began to say as they continued to walk, unable to find it in him to resist the tease. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Isabella has a crush on YOU."
"What?", Phineas was shocked as his cheeks naturally turned a few shades more pink. "No no. Why on earth would you think that? We're just friends!"
"Come on Phineas. She hands you a big heaping pile of flirting and what do I get aside from a, 'what was this guy's colors?'. She OBVIOUSLY has something going for you.", he chuckled. "It's not like anyone's really noticed me or anything."
"Hey there.", a woman with long brown hair said as she passed by Heinz with a wink.
Heinz simply nodded and raised his hands with a shrug.
"Except for that psycho which...", he paused as he looked back at her. "..isn't necessarily a problem..."
"Do it.", Phineas urged with a smile.
Doof quickly took off to catch up and Phineas chuckled and leaned against a nearby lamp post before digging in his pocket and pulling out a heart-shaped picture of him and Isabella.
"Oh that was close.", he quietly said to himself, feeling relieved.
Back with Candace and Stacey, after giving the cops a description of what Phineas looked like and how they could contact Candace, the duo walked back out and down the street to where Coltrane parked.
"I'm sorry we can't find him.", Stacey said as they walked. "I'm sure the police will though."
"Yeah..", Candace sighed, not really believing what her friend said but instead feeling rather hopeless and a little pissed off at their failing attempts.
They walked in small silence for a while before Stacey couldn't help but notice something, "I have to admit Candace you're handling this pretty well, taking into account how you aren't even freaking out about how your mom will react."
"Oh Stacey, who gives a flip what Mom thinks?", Candace complained. "It's not like she ever card about what Phineas has done all Summer long when he WAS around!"
"I'm just saying. If your mom found out, she'd be pretty upset."
"Stacey be real. If I called Mom right now and told her Phineas had gone missing, I'd place my LIFE on the table confidentially saying that she wouldn't care ONE iota!", Candace argued.
"Hey! You know, you don't have to get all attitudinal on me just because you feel guilty for loosing your brother!", Stacey said, angry about the arising argument and turning around to face Candace.
"Oh so now it's MY fault?", Candace yelled.
"Candace, it's been your fault from the start! If you hadn't looked after Phineas like a GOOD big sister and been there with him at the competition, he wouldn't have gotten picked up and carried away by some freaky pervert!", Stacey retorted. "Instead, you decided to think about yourself and go spend time with your boyfriend who's probably not even really gonna be a part of a permanent relationship with you anyway! I mean seriously Candace, you don't have to try so hard with Jeremy! It's not like high school relationships last forever!
"Stacey, you don't have a single clue of what my life is like!", Candace fumed. "All day long I try like crazy, bending over backwards, losing all shards of dignity I spent so long to build up during the last school year, and looking like a complete psycho to everyone in the entire friggin' world just to keep MY little brothers safe from harm! I try to bust them not just so that I would have the honor and glory of being the older and smarter sister but because I CARE! I LOVE my brothers as hard as you would find that to believe! I love Phineas and I freak out because I love him! I couldn't care less for my mom. She's shown NO love for me AT. ALL! My dad's a moron and just so that way I could calm down and finally relax myself from my brothers, I TRY to give myself ONE day off and completely SHOVE them out of my mind, thinking that Phineas would just be at a harmless silly contest since obviously he's old enough to build roller coasters and go to conventions all by himself, so that way I would stop looking like a freak and actually act like a regular teenager! Now my brother's gone and you decided, of ALL times, to bring up the ONE person who would ABSOLUTELY, 100%, never in a million years, believe that I lost Phineas! But I guess being an only child, of COURSE you wouldn't understand the stress and pressure I'm underneath on a CONSTANT basis, let alone how I'm feeling right at this very moment! I'm about ready to start swearing whether I'm allowed to or not! But you don't know what it's like so you don't care!"
"Candace Gertrude Flynn you listen to me now!", Stacey said, equally on fire as Candace is at the moment. "I DO care! I HAVE been caring! I'm just as scared and upset as you are over the whole ordeal! Yet I'M trying to be like Phineas and keep the situation light! Of course I know your mom wouldn't care but I'm trying to derail your stubborn mind before you end up blowing chunks and sweating blood from stress! But I guess since you're obviously not like your mom, you're like you said your father was. MULE HEADED! If you wanna rot in this pit of yours, fine! I NEVER did anything to deserve being treated like this! Have fun in your pity party!"
With that she turned on her heels and began to march off, leaving off with one last thing to say in addition, "Have fun WALKING home, Flynn!"
As Candace stared after her friend, letting the words sink in, she suddenly felt very alone and very awake to the truth.
"...St-stacey?", Candace called out, causing Stacey to look back with a deep scowl. Candace simply hung her head in defeat and depression. "You're... You're right. I'm sorry.."
Stacey only stared at her longer before finally heaving a sigh, her expression softening. She walked back over and after a moment of staring at one another a bit longer, they embraced each other in a sisterly hug. While Candace cried out on her shoulder apology after apology, Stacey only gently patted her back and kept up the comfort as she let a few of her own tears down.
"It's alright...", Stacey said calmly. "I forgive you."
"Thank you..", Candace whimpered before finally breaking up a bit to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"You okay?"
"Yeah.."
"Alright. Come on let's head to your house. Maybe someone will call.", Stacey offered.
"Thanks. Yeah.", Candace nodded, taking shaky steps to the car with her friend. "Stacey?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
"No problem.", Stacey smiled a bit. "That's what friends do. They tell when the other's being a moron."
The two laughed at the joke and climbed into the car.
At City Hall, Roger leaned back in his chair with his feet up on his desk, throwing darts at a dart board. Something was still pestering his mind as he missed the bulls-eye with a couple.
"I don't get this Melany.", he was complaining. "Things like this had never bothered me before! I shouldn't have to care! Heinz is the older brother so he should take care of himself. Why on Earth would I be bothered with him getting that upset for a silly tease?"
"Well Sir, you did say you teased him a lot when you guys were kids.", Melany simply said as she typed away at the computer.
"Yes, I know but I never cared about it when he got upset then. Why should I start caring now? He's a grown man. Sure that song may have been a bit.. Violent.", he threw the dart, somewhere between the outer edges and the middle of it.
"You said it was talking about ripping someone apart.", Melany shrugged.
"But still, he shouldn't have to be such a baby over a silly tease. He HAS broken a lot of things over our childhoods. Even as young adults, I've seen him break lots of things. And besides, HE'S the one with a daughter. I should be the one upset around here! HE'S the one who's been married so why should HE get to throw a hissy fit over some small teases?", he threw a dart and missing the board by several inches.
"Well Sir, you have a successful job. Parents who love you. People adore what you do and you're an all around, swell and handsome guy where as your brother, though he may have had a wife and family, hasn't necessarily been the alpha male. But if it bothers you that badly, you should take a walk and think it over. It's the best choice I can offer you.", his secretary simply said.
"Hmm... A walk? Yeah I think I'll do that.", Roger said, thinking over the idea. "Maybe I'll get something. Take care of the bills and what not?"
"Of course. What else do I have to live for?", Melany sarcastically said.
He got up and threw another dart, hitting it dead on the bulls eye. He quickly took a swig from his coffee mug and walked out of the office and by Melany's desk.
"I'll be back in a while.", he said as he walked out.
"Sure thing, Boss.", Melany said, still typing away. After the door closed behind him, his secretary paused and looked about the room a bit, making sure she was alone before she pulled up a window on her computer and quietly, slowly, opened up her desk's drawer and pulled out a brush. Once feeling comfortable of being alone, she quickly got up and held the end of the brush to her mouth like a microphone, singing and slightly danceing to herself as she played one of Love Handel's hits on the computer.
"I'm gonna rip you up! I'm gonna break you down! Gonna take you to a chop shop down town. You know that you'll be dreading, this android Armageddon...", she sang to herself when she suddenly sat back down and turned off the song, pretending to look busy and bored as Roger came back into the room.
"Oh, I almost forgot my coat.", he said to himself.
'Darn it...', Melany thought to herself.