Candace Flynn had a dream.
Well, to be fair she had MANY goals and dreams, but this one was somewhat concerning due to how it had escalated over the years, a simple and basic desire that had grown in perceived importance due to years of being denied victory.
She wished to tell her mom about the crazy stuff her younger brothers got up to.
Initially? It was from a very basic and simple place. They were doing things that they were not old enough, according to society, to do safely and without risk.
But as impossible things kept removing evidence, substituting lesser 'activities' for the insane madness those two children continuously unleashed, and generally making her seem to be overreacting and unreasonable?
Her desire to be validated grew.
It would be less frustrating if her brothers were doing this on purpose. If this was some sort of mean spirited torment or ongoing plot that could be combated and overcome!
But they weren't.
They were nice to her. Polite. They were willing to let her join in and see what they were up to, allowing her full access to any and every aspect of each situation... And it didn't matter.
A helicopter with an impossibly large magnet would take the massive theme park away. A huge crab would escape the sea and steal the newly designed 'world largest ball of twine'. TRAPPED ON ANOTHER PLANET WITH ALIENS!
...Although it had been fun to be the Queen of Mars for a while.
Still!
Even THEY didn't know why such things always cleaned up their messes, dispersed the cheering crowds and bustling groupies that gathered at their parties and concerts and plays and such, etc.
It just happened.
And it became more and more of an issue for Candace to accept as time progressed.
The initial minute annoyance became an ongoing feeling of failure. Just the fact that it was IMPOSSIBLE to bust the boys no matter WHAT actions they took began to grate at her... Even if the actual actions started to matter less and less.
After all, by this point? She knew that Phineas and Ferb WERE capable of doing these crazy things safely. That they were likely more prepared and professional to handle any issues that could come up than the many professional workers that inexplicably followed her brother's whims.
It didn't matter: She just wanted to succeed. Just once.
Sure, on some unconscious level she also understood that if she HAD managed to bust the boys, she'd be like a dog that had finally caught his own tail and became confused about what to do next.
After all, she didn't want her brothers to be arrested or anything. And the city clearly knew about their activities considering the event locations they happily rented to the boys and the never ending construction crews and material delivery shipments.
But... But she wanted Mom to know that she was right. That these crazy things weren't just pretend or silly stories, but actual events!
Her brothers didn't mind telling her parents either, but what Mom or Dad would simply accept 'We built a multistory tall robot today' without doubt or a massive amount of evidence? Even with her brothers attempting to help, Mom would just assume her younger siblings were humoring her.
But that fire, that desire to be proven right never really went away. And over time, it grew.
So when she found herself with access to an impossible neighbor, one that could fundamentally do impossible things RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE... Her mind latched onto that same ongoing desire that had grown over time.
This could be it! PROOF that her brothers could do impossible things!
Oh, anything they built would probably roll away or get evaporated or shrunken or teleported or something, but this was a PERSON! One she could just visit down the street! HE couldn't vanish as well before Mom saw, right? RIGHT!?
She waited until her siblings were in between tests, most of the other kids gone and Isabella still to one side confused. "Excuse me, John?"
An average looking child, John smiled! "Yes?"
Right. You can do this Candace! "That stuff you were saying earlier, about being an alien or something? What was that about?"
John blinked, and then tilted his head. "Huh... I mean, alien is close enough I suppose? But technically I am an out of context existence who dimensionally traveled here during dire circumstances. Not a traditional alien, not from this universe at least."
Not even a hint of concern or fear that she would tell anyone... Or that he would even care. "How are you different from an alien then?"
His body seemed to flicker for a moment as he waved an arm. "Well, for one thing I am organically a human from an Earth, specifically an American depending on how you define 'birth' and 'natural born' and all that. Most aliens are either from other regions of the planet, and thus 'alien' to your local area, or from other planets entirely which is more commonly assumed in this context."
They both ignored the strange noises, sounds, and clouds of smoke from the children behind them modifying hardware for more advanced scanning as John continued. "For another? I don't think I entirely exist in one place."
Uh. "I don't understand."
John nodded and absently took another bite of a spoon fragment he had been devouring earlier. "Well, my abilities don't rely on genetics or my Soul or my mind. I'm basically elsewhere and just project my everything where I seem to be, and if anything goes wrong I can restore whatever had been damaged at a later point."
He waved an arm and... There seemed to be three of them? Half? Two? "I'm still hurt though, so as I get closer and closer to recovery the discrepancies become more and more obvious. I won't be able to seamlessly seem 'normal' for quite a while yet, which is annoying... But yeah, that's also something that 'normal' aliens don't have a problem with, as far as I know."
Huh. "Do you mind if I parade you in front of my Mom as evidence that impossible things exist and that my brothers are literally accomplishing unbelievable acts on a daily basis?"
John paused, mid arm wave. "I... Uh. No? I mean, I guess I don't mind?"
Her grin actually hurt a little bit. "Perfect. Come with me. MOM! MOM!"
And they were off!
~~~Pocket System~~~
Linda Flynn-Fletcher gave her beloved (but sometimes exasperating) daughter a wry look. "So the new neighborhood boy is a reality warping practically immortal dimensional traveler that may actually be a fictional construct projected from a conceptual storage space outside of logic and physics: One who was recently involved with the boy's most recent… What did you say they had been up to?"
Candace waved that off. "Constructing a skyscraper tall support tower to launch bouncy ball variations of kid sized hamster balls with AI assisted guidance and all their various safety protocols."
Oh honestly. Still, she'd not ignore this out of hand, not like her own mother. Not when her daughter clearly cared about the topic. "Alright then. Where is he? When we went and visited the Doe's earlier this week, that boy had seemed pretty bedridden and clearly needed time to recover from whatever bug he had picked up."
They both blinked when from another room a boy spoke up. "Sorry! I was just examining the pneumatic tubing installed in your laundry room!"
Something felt off. Like reality itself had suddenly scratched the record, or fundamental facts of existence had shifted.
Candace blinked. "Wait, he didn't go 'poof' like all those other times I tried to show you something!?"
Then her face broke out into a beautiful smile! "He didn't go poof! MOM! Come on!"
And she was being pulled into the other room where… Yes, that was the same unwell young man she had visited last Monday.
A young man with an arm half inserted into a large mechanical section of her laundry room wall that she had been COMPLETELY UNAWARE could unfold like that, with mechanical devices and equipment she was POSITIVE hadn't been in the walkthrough or schematics of this home when they bought it.
John grinned at her daughter! "These things are AMAZING! Do you have any idea how hard it is to embed dimensionally collapsable transportation tubes into a three dimensional surface like this?"
He tugged something unseen in the wall and quickly withdrew as the entire opening folded away into nothingness. "It's not inside the insulation either, the entire structure is sort of layered between the drywall and the surface layers of paint. I'm SO going to use this technologic shenanigans on future projects!"
Candace however was still too hyped up! "You haven't gone 'poof'!" And then suspicious. "WHY haven't you gone 'poof'?"
And John paused, confused. "Uh… I haven't hit puberty yet? Plus, until I get hormones and stuff, I probably won't have ANY actual sexual preferences… Probably."
Again, that odd feeling of reality getting confused for a moment washed by.
Candace looked confused… Then blushed. "No! No no no, I mean, I expected you to disappear and vanish like all the other things I try to show Mom."
Memories of her daughter talking about her boys building massive roller coasters, famous restaurants, organizing massive events…
John blinked. "Oh! Yeah, that might still happen."
Her daughter wilted. "What?"
He nodded! "Yeah, I need to eventually get my older sister home! Big sis Jessica got brought along when I helped us both escape the ambush/kidnapping/assassination attempt, and she eventually needs to go back. To file appropriate paperwork, if nothing else."
John began… Projecting holograms in the air? "But either way, reality itself is a bit flexible here. It tries to keep everyone safe and sound, even if that is only mentally… You of course have easily enough adapted to how impossible and talented your younger siblings are, and to some degree so has your father… But to your mom? Well, you three are her little darling babies, and of COURSE you wouldn't go skydiving or exploring the oceans or whatever you all get up to each day."
Something in her heart clenched at the very thought!
Candace seemed to weaken. "But… But she's right here, right? She can see us!"
John waved at himself as the (Magical? Holographic?) images vanished. "I am not of this reality, the safeguards that would have hidden me away or prevented us from meeting like this can't handle that. Plus, I have certain defenses and stuff, so at BEST it can sort of poke my mind and whine a bit about me being a big meanie jerk and stuff."
Linda felt caught flat footed. "I'm sorry… Are you saying that my daughter has been trying to tell me things but life itself has been attempting to 'protect me' by preventing my little girl from succeeding?"
The child/alien/Eldritch Creature?/boy wiggled a hand. "Sort of? But it's not just some sort of sick practical joke or anything like that. It also makes sure people survive accidents that would have severely injured or killed them, that illnesses and stuff put you down for a week or so of recovery rather than crippling or killing the patient, and all that jazz."
But… What about? She thought about her daughter's horrific allergies to parsnips. "But I've seen people get pretty sick before…" A whole couple of days with a messed up voice was pretty convincing that her girl was reacting poorly, after all.
John shrugged. "Then in any other place, they would have died instead. Getting a scrape here is like breaking bones elsewhere, getting a cold is like being hospitalized for a month or more, and any ACTUAL symptoms that don't clear up in a day? Lethal."
He missed her growing horror as she realized how many times her daughter and husband had gotten 'a bit of a tummy ache' or 'a bit off', as she remembered how dangerous Phineas's birth had been and how it had been far too 'close' to…
Candace missed it all too, thank goodness. "But so WHAT!? She HAS seen you!"
John shrugged. "When I leave, either today or this reality, how much she can remember will be up to her. If she can't handle facing facts, then she will forget them. If the truth is 'too harsh', then it will be hidden. Not everyone can handle the kind of crazy stuff that is possible in this world, after all."
For a brief moment, she weighed the heart chilling truth and the growing terror of all it implied… But against the look in her daughter's eyes right now? That defeat?
It wasn't even worth considering.
She pulled her little one into a hug. "If 'reality no longer making sense' is the cost for my little girl and my boys being able to come to me and feel accepted and trusted, then that is a small 'price' to pay. I'm an adult, and it is my JOB to handle stuff that isn't easy."
Though once she got a full rundown of what was going on, clearly the house rules would need to be VASTLY updated.
Still, talk first. She wasn't going to be like HER parents and just ignore her kids to push arbitrary rules and restrictions on them. Not if her boy is ACTUALLY as incredibly talented as those endless stories Candace told were even close to accurate.
She blinked. "Wait, does your father know?"
Candace shrugged in her hug. "I mean, maybe? He always seems laid back and just rolls with whatever craziness crops up all the time."
Dang it Lawrence, this his British side acting up again, she just knew it. 'Oh, you DIDN'T know that our little ones were constructing massive robots? Oh dear!'