Danville, mid July, a luxurious bedroom, and at 10:25 am, Phineas Flynn was just waking up. "You know, Ferb. Nothing like sleeping so well in."

Ferb wasted no time, giving his near and dear stepbrother a thumbs up. But as soon as he did. He heard interesting news coverage coming from downstairs and hopped out of bed in a flash.

"I wonder what's going on down there," remarked Phineas and quickly followed Ferb down to the living room, where Candace was on the couch, already watching it.

Phineas, Candace, and their stepbrother leaned in and listened hard the latest news coverage. "Hefty training, serious dieting, big medals, and even bigger gold medal cash prizes of up to $500,000, but we're not talking about the summer Olympics. This is instead, a zooathlon, the first of its kind. Anyone but humans can compete."

Megavolt came on screen for an interview. "The toughest part for me is having to drain my electrical superpower, so it won't be a high voltage hazard when I hit the water."

The next on camera interview was with Don Karnage. (Karr-naj) "Megavolt is my only friend in all of this, so he and I are out to take down everyone, even as individuals."

The news narration continued. "It's all individual events, consisting of five rounds of roller blading, five rounds of whitewater tubing, five rounds of air racing, five rounds of paintball, five rounds of swimming, five rounds of drifting, five rounds of moose hunting, and finally, five rounds of bobsledding. Finish a round in first place, and you win a gold medal. Finish a round in last place, and you're out." And the reporter came on screen with his microphone in hand to continue. "This whole event is scheduled to start tomorrow at 8:30 am, Danville time. If you can't make it in person, we'll be streaming it live on our YouTube channel. Reporting live from the Tri-State Area."

With that, the bright idea of the day came along. "Ferb," said Phineas. "I know what we're gonna do today." So the two brothers went to the garage to put together a platypus sized treadmill, complete with not only adjustable speed, but also an adjustable incline feature. It only took them two minutes to finish. And as soon as they did, Phineas carried out the news. "Perry, Ferb and I have something for you."

Perry looked up to see just what his owners had made for him and growled.

"Don't worry, Perry," Phineas assured him, setting the treadmill down. "This will get you in shape for tomorrow's zooathlon. Get on."

Perry got on his new treadmill. Ferb switched it on. And Perry ran on it on all fours, just as expected.

"Phineas and Ferb," Candace insisted. "you're gonna be totally busted for animal abuse."

"It's not abuse," said Phineas. "It's competitive fitness."

Candace snapped a photo of Perry on the treadmill and made her next big announcement. "I'm taking this photo straight to the cops." And with that, she was straight out the door.

Phineas and Ferb began to get worried, so they discreetly followed Candace out to the street, and as soon as they were out the door, Perry made his move. He got off the treadmill, put on his fedora, and made his way through the top secret passage, in the back of the fireplace, to his secret lair, where he hit the button on the counter. And Major Monogram came on the monitor with Perry's assignment. "Agent P, thank goodness you made it. Megavolt has been making a lot of preparations to take part in tomorrow's zooathlon. Figure out what he has in mind as a plan of attack and put a stop to it." And the monitor went blank. But Perry wasted no time, taking off for Megavolt's whereabouts, programmed into his GPS.

When he landed in Megavolt's hotel room, he tiptoed around to figure out a good plan of attack. But next thing he knew, he was chained to the couch. And right in walked Megavolt. "Ahhh. Perry the Platypus. I'm pretty suspicious that you want to ruin my big plan for tomorrow's zooathlon. Well, you're out of luck, because my master plan is simply to win the $1,500,000 cash prize. So being disqualified is just not an option. And if you brought along Darkwing Duck, I'll have him sniffed out by my BFF before he can cause us any trouble."

Megavolt's BFF walked right in, and it turned out to be none other than the envied aerobatic pilot, Don Karnage. "I see Megavolt and I have caught you before. And if you're here to stop either of us from tomorrow's zooathlon, you're in huge trouble. And just for proper measure, I'm gonna sniff this entire building for Darkwing Duck or whoever you might have brought along with you." And he wasted no time. He started with the room that he and Megavolt had checked into, but Perry and Megavolt were the only two smells of warm blooded beings. He continued with the hallway right outside the room but smelled the flesh of no one but relaxed human beings.

Candace showed the incriminating photo to a police officer she had waved down, but the officer was less than convinced. "That platypus doesn't look like he's being abused."

"What?" questioned Candace, still annoyed.

"That little guy looks like he's training for tomorrow's zooathlon," answered the officer.

"Tomorrow's zooathlon just what we're up to," added Ferb.

"I just can't believe it!" remarked Candace. "No one believes me about what you boys are up to! No one at all!"

Phineas, Candace, and Ferb came home to find Perry's new treadmill running with no one on it. "Hey," remarked Phineas. "Where's Perry."

"He clearly ran away," remarked Candace. "I told you it was animal abuse to make him run for so long."