Today is Gonna Be a Great Day

6:37 AM

"All outputs are connected to the city power grid," Baljeet called out after making the final connection from the reactor to the transformers.

"Fuel rods are stable and ready to go," Irving called back as he monitored things from his control panel.

"How is our pressure looking?" Baljeet asked as he ran up the catwalk to where Irving was, his flashlight pointing all around as he looked things over on his way.

"It's just a bit above normal, but we're within the safe range," Irving told him.

"Vent it if you're at all wary of it," Baljeet told him.

"Dude, it's only point zero three above the normal range," Irving said, shaking his head at him.

"Do you want to be responsible for replacing the Tri-State Area with a crater that would make the Grand Canyon look like a sidewalk crack?"

"Well no, but-"

"Then vent the pressure."

"Alright! Sheesh."

Irving entered a few commands and, moments later, the pressure went back down into the normal range. Baljeet looked over another panel for some final checks before he moved to stand over a keyhole located in the middle of his console. Irving stood over a similar keyhole in his. They both produced identical keys from their pockets and inserted them into the keyholes.

"We have to do this at the same time for the reactor to come online properly," Baljeet told Irving. "Do not hesitate. I'll count to three, and then we turn."

"Wait, are we turning on three or after three?" Irving asked, suddenly confused.

"There's a difference?" Baljeet asked back.

"Of course there is! If you say 'three' and I turn but you don't, we'll throw the whole system off!"

"Irving…"

"I mean seriously, after getting on my case about the pressure now you're going to let such an important detail slide without describing it to the letter?"

"Irving?"

"The fate of Candace's wedding, not to mention the entire Tri-State Area rests in our hands! We can't afford to screw up!"

"IRVING!"

"WHAT?"

"TURN NOW!"

On Baljeet's command, they both turned their keys in perfect unison. The reactor emitted a low hum as it came to life and in mere moments the reactor room's lights flashed to life, momentarily blinding the two teenage boys. Once his eyes adjusted, Irving checked his control panel again.

"All values are in the green," he told Baljeet with a giant grin on his face. "We're online and supplying power to the grid!"

"All that's left to us is to keep an eye on things, then," Baljeet said as he sat down unceremoniously in one of the available chairs. "The rest is up to Phineas, Ferb and the gang."

Irving took a seat as well, folding his hands behind his head. "Yup. Our work is done. Nothing left to do but just bask in the glow of a job well done. Well, that and the glow provided by a reactor powered by nuclear fusion on a level that should be impossible according to all known laws of physics."

Both of them fell silent as they began their watch over the reactor's various settings and values. Only the hum of the reactor filled the room.

"So…" Irving said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "You gonna go see the new Space Adventure movie next week?"

"Our hometown was almost leveled by an F2 tornado yesterday and all you can think about is Space Adventure?" Baljeet asked incredulously.

"Well…yeah," Irving said rather nonchalantly. "So? Are you going?"

Baljeet forced himself to resist an incredibly strong urge to break into a rant at Irving for being so fantastically insensitive towards what had just happened to them not even twelve hours ago. He calmed himself by thinking that perhaps there was something poignant about what Irving had said and that perhaps it was better to simply move on with life instead of dwelling on what had occurred. He then wiped that idea out of his head since, after all, this was Irving he was considering and profundity was not among his better qualities. Still, talking about Space Adventure was better than what was sure to become a maddening silence between them.

"I already have tickets to the midnight showing lined up," Baljeet admitted, which elicited an excited squeal from Irving. It was immediately followed by a rapid-fire series of speculations from Irving about the contents of the movie.

Baljeet sighed and immediately regretted having answered him at all. Perhaps maddening silence would have indeed been preferable after all.

7:25 AM

Stacy shook her head vigorously as she tried to keep herself from yawning. A second cup of coffee was definitely going to be in order if she was going to be awake at what was an ungodly hour for her. She and Jenny had arrived just minutes earlier as Isabella's house and, after being promised by Vivian that coffee would definitely be on the way, the two had proceeded to Isabella's room where they found the Mexican-Jewish teen moving some of her furniture around.

"Kind of an odd time to be rearranging your room, isn't it?" Stacy asked as she stepped into the room.

"Oh, I'm just making room for everything we're going to need," Isabella replied as she pushed her desk up to the wall. "Especially gotta make sure we have room for the sewing machine."

"I really don't mean to be a downer," Jenny said, sounding uncharacteristically skeptical, "but unless this sewing machine Phineas and Ferb made for you can read minds, I don't see how we're going to pull off perfectly re-creating our bridesmaid dresses. Nevermind Candace's wedding dress."

Isabella merely smirked at Jenny as she finished moving her bed out of the way. Under her bed was a small green button, which she immediately stepped on. A large section of her floor quickly opened, allowing the super sewing machine to rise dramatically into view. The machine was shaped somewhat like a doorway, in the middle of which a dress stand was located. Several sewing needles pointed down at the dress stand, all threaded and ready to go. The most intriguing part was what looked like an array of electrodes that hung from one side of the machine.

"Ladies, say hello to the Dream Dress Designer," Isabella told them proudly. "All you have to do is provide the fabric you want to use and, after placing the electrodes on your head, imagine what you want your dress to look like. The machine will then read your thoughts and create the dress exactly how you want it to look."

"Holy moly," Stacy said, positively enchanted by the machine. "I'll bet you never have to pay for clothes ever again with this bad boy!"

"Unfortunately it only makes dresses," Isabella said after shaking her head at Stacy. "Really fancy ones at that. Much as I do enjoy dressing up, I couldn't stand doing it all the time."

"It's still an amazing machine," Jenny said in amazement. "And with Stacy's freaky knowledge of all the dresses, we should be able to get them all back together in no time."

"Are you sure you can handle this, Stacy?" Isabella asked as Stacy began inspecting the electrodes. "Jenny and I probably remember our dresses well enough. I wouldn't want to put you out here."

Stacy remained silent for a moment before looking back at both Jenny and Isabella. "I'll be honest here…I kind of feel like this is my fault."

"Stacy, don't be silly," Jenny told her. "Unless you believe in Chaos Theory there's no way you could be responsible for a tornado."

Stacy passed a hand over her face as Jenny had, once again, completely no concept of what she was talking about.

"I'm talking about the dresses, Jen," Stacy replied after curbing her irritation. "I'm the one who insisted to Candace that we set them up in her room on those stands. If it weren't for me and my stupid need to act like a fashionista all the damn time, our dresses and Candace's would've been hanging up safely in her closet and would probably still be perfectly fine."

"Stacy, there's still no way you could've known the tornado was going to happen," Isabella told her. "And even if you did, there was no way you could've known the tree was going to crash into Candace's room. There's no good reason for you to blame yourself for what happened."

"You're probably right," Stacy told the teenage girl. "But somehow, that still doesn't absolve me in my own mind. So let me do this, girls. Besides, I really do know the dresses inside and out."

"What're we supposed to do, then?" Isabella asked.

"Well when your dresses are finished you'll need to try them on so we can see if any more adjustments need to be made," Stacy told her as she began placing the electrodes on her head. "But until then, just…just hang around. And give me some support. This is gonna be hard."

"With your knowledge of sewing and the dresses, I doubt that," Isabella told her confidently. Isabella felt Jenny's hand on her shoulder and looked back at her to see she was shaking her head.

"That's not what she meant," Jenny told her as she stepped over to her longtime friend. "We'll be here for you, Stacy. Every step of the way."

Stacy nodded her thanks to Jenny and, after a long and deep breath, she closed her eyes and began to first envision Candace's wedding dress. As she did, the Dream Dress Designer sprang to life and began producing white, silken fabric that it hung over the dress stand and began sewing details into with astounding detail. With the sound of the machine as her background noise, all that was left for Stacy to do was to focus on her best friend's dress and try. Now was not the time for guilt. She would do her part to restore her best friend's wedding, no matter what it took.

10:01 AM

Django pushed the last giant block of ice into place as the delivery truck pulled away. He took several steps back, looking over his project area. Phineas and Ferb had gotten him set up at an empty warehouse that had at least a decent cooling system so the ice wouldn't melt too much. He also was given the phone number of a delivery service that had instructions to arrive at his location with a refrigerated truck as soon as he called to inform them of his completion. A grand total of eight blocks of ice stood before him, each one about six feet tall.

"You sure you don't need anything else, baby?" Adyson asked as she leaned against Katie's car, which was idling.

"Ideally I'd love to have you on hand for this as well,"Django told her with a half-smile. "But I know you're needed elsewhere."

"I know how you feel, but the guys are counting on me to keep things moving," Adyson told him. "I've got to go see about some more food supplies for Gretchen and Ginger to make use of next."

Django walked over to her, gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, and hugged her. "Go," he told her. "I'll see you later."

"Do you know what you're going to carve?" Adyson asked as she ducked into Katie's car.

"I think so," Django said as he turned to a table of tools that sat near the ice. It also had several old photographs of both Candace and Jeremy strewn across it. "Wish me luck, eh?"

"You won't need luck," Adyson told him, blowing a kiss to him. "You're a singularly talented artist."

"Thanks, but that's not what I wanted the luck for."

"Oh? What for, then?"

"So I don't accidentally cut off any of my limbs."

Before Adyson could ask what he meant, Django grabbed the pullstring of a chainsaw that sat on the table and yanked on it hard, bringing the menacing device to life. He revved it a few times as he stalked his way over towards the ice.

"Okay, I'm not gonna lie," Adyson said to Katie, though with her eyes fixed on Django. "That was ridiculously sexy just now. Katie, get us out of here before I go jump my boyfriend."

"Only you would somehow find a chainsaw-wielding guy sexy," Katie commented as she sped off, leaving the sound of Django beginning to carve the ice behind them.

"Only because it's Django," Adyson replied, settling down in her seat again.

"It sucks that this had to happen now of all times," Katie said while keeping her eyes on the road. "You guys don't have much time left, right?"

"Assuming power gets restored normally to the entire city in short order, Django and Jenny leave for home the day after tomorrow," Adyson said while dialing a phone number on her cell phone.

"What? Then what're you doing riding around with me, Addie? You should be with him!"

Adyson only shushed her friend as she put her phone to her ear. Katie bit her lip and swore to herself. She hated when Adyson did that to avoid talking about something right away. After several minutes, most of which was filled by Adyson berating the person on the other end of the line about the price of chicken thighs versus the price of chicken breasts, Adyson looked at Katie once again.

"Phin asked me to do this for him, Katie," Adyson told her. "He's been a friend of mine for a long time, longer than anyone as a matter of fact. He, Ferb and Candace mean a lot to me and I will not let them down."

"Even if it means giving up what little time you and Django have left?" Katie asked in a tone full of disbelief at what she was hearing.

"Yes!" Adyson shot back immediately. "I love Django; don't make any mistake about that. But we'll have other chances to be together. This is our one opportunity to give Candace something she has worked towards and yearned for for a really long time, and I will not just stand by and watch while everyone else is working themselves to the bone to make it happen."

"Okay! Sheesh!" Katie said, now eager to get Adyson off of her case. "I was just curious was all. We don't have a whole lot more left to arrange and deliver at this point, I could've taken care of it on my own."

"I'd rather see this through to the end personally," Adyson said as she calmed down. "Sorry for snapping."

"It's alright. We're all a bit on edge after yesterday."

"That's true. Has anyone heard from Milly since yesterday?"

Katie shook her head as they made a left turn. "I'm hesitant to call her for fear that she's busy and the last thing she needs right now is an interruption. I do know there's a soup kitchen she usually volunteers at, though. She's likely there helping with meals for people displaced from their homes by the storm."

"Maybe we can swing by there after we're done getting everything arranged and delivered. At least to check in on her and let her know we're thinking about her."

"I like that," Katie said, smiling at her best friend as they came to a stop at an intersection. "And I'm sure Milly would appreciate the visit too."

With their plan for the rest of the day resolved, the two switched topics and discussed what was left to line up and get delivered before they could call their portion of the project complete.

12:18 PM

With all of the other recovery efforts going on around the city, little attention was being paid to the all-but-demolished church where Candace's wedding was to take place. A line of yellow caution tape bordered the site, but beyond that nothing else had been done. Since no one had been in the church at the time of its destruction, it made it a low-priority site to divert any official attention for cleanup.

To this desolate site, two figures suddenly came streaking up at a speed no normal human was able to attain. They stopped just short of the warning tape and ducked underneath it, walking more casually up to the site.

"Man, Jeremy wasn't kidding," Phineas said, surveying the damage. "It's like that tornado came down with the intent of blowing this place away. You've got the blueprints we need, right Ferb?"

Ferb merely held up the rolled up blueprints as his answer.

"Excellent," Phineas told him. "Let's go over all our gear one more time before we get started."

Both boys looked themselves over, adjusting and securing things to make sure they were ready for their task. On their feet were the latest version of their super shoes, which had allowed them to arrive so quickly. Their legs had special braces strapped to them to improve their jumping capability. At their waists were multi-pocketed tool belts with all manner of tools and gadgets. On their hands they wore one of their more recent creations: super gloves that improved their strength in a similar manner as the shoes improved their speed. Both wore goggles that included heads-up displays for them to refer to information quickly. The only point where their gear differed was that across his back, Phineas had his beloved red left-handed flange tuner, which had been given to him by Candace many years ago as a birthday present.

"All set?" Phineas asked his brother, getting a nod in response. "Alright. Let's scan that blueprint."

Both boys pushed a button on the side of their goggles, causing a laser light to shoot from the goggles to the blueprint. Moments later, a full copy of the blueprint was visible on both of their heads-up displays. Ferb quickly folded the map down to a miniscule size and stored it in a pocket of his tool belt.

"Ready to do this?" Phineas asked Ferb, again getting a nod for his response. He turned to Ferb then and held his right hand up, which Ferb immediately grasped tightly as their eyes met. Determination burned behind their gazes. They were on a mission today, and failure was unacceptable.

"For Candace," Phineas said resolutely.

"For Candace," Ferb echoed in the same manner.

Phineas and Ferb then turned to face the destroyed church. Phineas grabbed his flange tuner while Ferb picked a drill and crescent wrench from his belt. Then, in the blink of an eye, both streaked off into the rubble and began the process of rebuilding the church.

2:50 PM

The high-pitched beeping coming from the large crane that was backing into the driveway of the Flynn-Fletcher home roused Candace from her nap. She rolled off of the couch and shuffled to the window to see the crane moving into position in order to lift the tree off of the house.

'At least the boys aren't here to see this,' she thought to herself. 'But then…where are they? I haven't seen them all day. Not that I've been looking for them, or anyone else for that matter.'

Candace walked back to the couch where she'd been napping and grabbed her cell phone from the coffee table across from it. A quick flip open showed no calls or text messages to her at all.

'I would've thought I'd at least hear from Stacy or Jenny,' she thought as she closed the phone again. 'On the other hand, they may just be being sensitive and not wanting to bug me. I guess that'd make sense.'

Candace continued wandering around the house, passing the front picture window as she went. She paused for a moment and looked out at the street, which was mostly cleaned up thanks to a concerted effort from the entire neighborhood. The lawn was free of debris, the street was clear, the sidewalks on both sides of the road were wide open, and Stacy's car sat in the driveway of the Garcia-Shapiro home across the way.

Candace was about to walk on when she paused and looked back across the street, rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't blearily seeing things that weren't actually there. There was no mistaking it; that was Stacy's car for certain. Candace quickly produced her phone again and speed dialed Stacy's phone.

"Hey kiddo, how're you feeling?" Stacy asked as she picked up Candace call.

"Still pretty wiped," Candace said as she exited her house and began walking across the street. "I'd take another nap if I could, but I think I'm topped off on sleep for a while."

"Well try to take it easy anyway, okay? You've had a rough time over the past twenty-four hours."

"Think you and Jenny will be by later just to hang out?"

"I'll see what we can do, but I'm kinda busy. I'm helping Coltrane and his folks clean up their yard from the storm."

"Right, gotcha. Hey, by the way, do you still have that CD I lent you a few days ago?"

"I think so, but it's in my car."

"Ah, okay. I see it. I can get it myself."

"Okay that's grea-…oh crap."

Candace waited patiently at the front door of Isabella's house as she heard quick footsteps approaching from inside. Stacy cracked the door open just enough to see outside and saw Candace just outside. Both of them still had their cell phones on and held up to their ears.

"Hey there!" Stacy said, feigning excitement at seeing her best friend.

"Stace, what're you up to?" Candace asked, skipping past all pleasantries and getting to the heart of the matter.

"Why would you think I'm up to anything?" Stacy asked innocently.

"Because you're still talking to me on your cell phone while looking at me from behind Isabella's front door."

"Well I do have a lot of rollover minutes, so it's not like this is costing me anything."

"Are you gonna let me inside?"

"Strictly speaking I can't since it's not my house. Hold on, let me conference Isabella in on our call."

Stacy hit a few buttons on her phone and, moments later, Isabella picked up.

"What's up, Stacy?" Isabella asked. "Oh, and hi Candace."

"Yeah, hi," Candace said, sounding even less amused now.

"Candace wants to know if she can come in," Stacy told Isabella.

"Candace, shouldn't you be taking it easy?" Isabella asked. "You did have a rough day yesterday."

"It's a little hard to relax knowing that my best friend decided to hang out with my brother's girlfriend today instead of coming to try and console me," Candace replied.

"I thought you wanted to be left alone today?" Stacy asked Candace.

"I did, but you know how it is," Candace told her. "You know, you say you wanna be alone but you really don't and then your friends come over and try to cheer you up anyway."

"Oh yeah, I totally get that," Stacy said, nodding in understanding. "Don't you, Isabella?"

"Oh yeah," Isabella added. "I get that from Gretchen all the time. That girl gets way too moody, especially when she goes without seeing Ferb for a couple days. Candace, could you tell Ferb he really needs to tell her to chill out some?"

"I haven't seen him yet today, but I'll keep it in-" Candace stopped herself as she suddenly realized they were trying to stall her. "WILL YOU TWO STOP CHANGING THE SUBJECT AND LET ME IN?"

"You sound awful cranky, Candace," Isabella said. "Why don't we go out for some lunch together? I'll bet you haven't had anything much to eat yet today."

"Will you tell me what you two are up to?" Candace asked.

"Only if you promise to calm down some," Isabella told her.

"Sure, whatever," Candace said begrudgingly. "I've been bossed around by Mother Nature for the past day so being bossed around by someone younger than me will just be the cherry on top of it all."

"I'll be right down," Isabella said cheerily. "Stacy, you come back up to my room and finish up. We don't have much more to do, right?"

"Just a few details, but yeah we're good," Stacy replied.

"Then that's that," Isabella said. "Oh, and one more thing ladies? Next time, let's just do this face to face. Using cell phones for this whole thing was just silly."

All three of them closed their cell phones and Stacy opened the door to the house the rest of the way, smiling sheepishly at Candace who continued to glare daggers at her. Isabella arrived moments later and ushered Candace towards her car while Stacy waved to them. As they drove off, she breathed a sigh of relief and headed back up to Isabella's room to hopefully finish the dresses with Jenny's help.

3:30 PM

Isabella was visibly impressed. Candace hadn't been hungry, she'd been downright ravenous. Two jumbo Slushy Dawgs, a large order of cheese fries and a jumbo vanilla Slushy shake later Candace was at least looking less grouchy and more energetic. Isabella munched on one of her own fries as Candace popped the top off of her shake to see if there was anything left to slurp up.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," Isabella said as she ate.

"I'm not hungry anymore," Candace said, correcting her. "I still feel horrible."

"You really shouldn't feel horrible. None of what happened is your fault, and it's not like it's going to stop you and Jeremy from getting married anyway."

"Isabella, you know exactly why I feel how I feel."

"I do. I know this is something you've been looking forward to and working towards for a long time. But all you have to do is be a little more patient and it'll happen anyway."

"I'm kind of tired being patient, you know? I exhausted a lot of patience over all those years when I was trying to bust my brothers for their stunts. I ran through even more my senior year of high school when I had next to no time with Jeremy because he was a freshman in college. Is it so wrong for me to want something, just one freakin' thing, to go right for me for once?"

Isabella could feel her will to maintain the charade fading in the face of Candace's utter despair. Fortunately, her cell phone rang giving her an opportunity to rally herself.

"Hello?" she said, flipping her phone open. "It is? You're done, really? Awesome!"

Candace sat and watched in both curiosity and confusion as Isabella then went through a series of phone calls as if she were checking on a number of things. The last phone call was the one that piqued her curiosity the most.

"Hey, it's me," Isabella said into her phone. "Everyone else is done. How about you guys? Uh huh. So could I bring her to see? Fantastic! See you in a bit!"

"Okay, what the blazes was that all about?" Candace asked after Isabella put her phone away.

"You're done eating, right?" Isabella asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"We need to go somewhere. Do you mind driving again?"

"Whatever. Where are we going this time?"

Isabella just smiled and giggled a little. "You'll see."

4:02 PM

Candace recognized the route Isabella had directed her along almost immediately. They were headed to the church she and Jeremy had been meant to be married at but that was now a crumbling ruin. She didn't know why they were going there now, but she had no will to do anything else. Going along with the whims of her brother's girlfriend was as good an idea to her as any.

As they approached, Candace noticed a group of people standing at the corner just down the street from the church. She recognized several of Phineas and Ferb's friends there, as well as Stacy and Jenny. She pulled to a stop alongside the road and got out to walk over to them. Isabella quickly joined the group as well.

"So what's the deal here?" Candace asked flatly. "Some kind of memorial to the church or something?"

"Oh we're just hanging out," Stacy told her. "But you should really head around the corner. Your brothers are waiting for you."

"This has something to do with what you were keeping from me earlier, doesn't it?" Candace asked with a sigh.

"Just go already, Candace," Stacy said, pushing her on her way.

Candace just shrugged and began walking. As she did she spotted her brothers lying on the lawn in front of the church. They both looked exhausted, but they picked themselves up as they heard her approaching. Candace was a breath away from asking them what was going on when she saw it. "Stunned" wasn't an appropriate enough word to describe her reaction.

The church had been perfectly restored, down to the last bit of mortar.

"Wha-…bu-…I…I don't understand…" Candace said, stammering as she tried to process what she was seeing.

"It was one of the trickiest builds we've ever done," Phineas told her. "But we managed to put it back together exactly as it was. And everyone else is pretty much done with their jobs as well."

"Other…jobs?" Candace asked. It was then that she became aware that the others had joined them in front of the church.

"It took me a full pot of coffee to wake up and stay awake," Stacy told her, "but with the help of Isabella's amazing sewing machine we re-created all the dresses, including yours. And I made sure everything was altered with them properly."

"Dinner preparation is all set," Gretchen added. "The chicken cordon bleu still needs to be cooked, but that won't be a thing."

"All the cupcakes are made and ready for tomorrow as well," Ginger said proudly. "Including the bigger one you wanted for you and Jeremy specially."

"The ice sculpture is all set and staying nice and cold," Django told her. "Though I'm still trying to thaw myself out now."

"And one last thing to check on," Ferb said as he dialed his cell phone. "Baljeet, shut it down. Time to see if we're good."

Moments later, the stop light just down the street blinked off for a split second before coming back to life. Phineas and Ferb high-fived as they saw that power had been properly restored.

"And that's that," Phineas said. "So, Candace…whadya think?"

Candace whirled around as she continued to fail to understand the situation. "I still don't get it…what's going on? Why did you do all this?" she asked.

"With so much that couldn't be fixed," Isabella told her, touching her arm gently, "we wanted to fix something that we could: your wedding."

"That is, if you still want to get married to Jeremy tomorrow," Phineas said jokingly.

"Phineas…Ferb…" Candace said their names as she turned to look at them again. She fell to her knees, tears welling in her eyes yet again but for a much different reason now. She felt her brothers hug her and she threw her arms around them as well, hugging them both fiercely as she thanked them over and over again. After several minutes, the boys helped her to her feet again.

"Now, why don't you call your beau?" Ferb suggested. "He doesn't know we did any of this after all."

"Oh really?" Candace asked, grinning madly. She quickly produced her phone, dialed Jeremy's number and waited for him to pick up. "Jeremy? Hey there, honey. Guess what? It. Is. ON!"

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