Schnitzel With Noodles

Chapter 1: Mission Start

The front door of the Flynn-Fletcher household flung right open, a pair of scurrying step-brothers racing upstairs to their room while their older, far more exhausted older sister slumped in, dead set on taking up residence on the couch. Candace winced as she heard the bombastic laughter of her brothers (or at least one of them), before she placed her butt onto the cushion, and leaned her body back, sighing as she carefully shut her eyes. Another twitch of agony raced up into her brain as she heard a victorious, "I WIN!" from up the stairs, along with a thud of some kind.

"Hey, Candace," the teen heard her mother's voice entering the room, her face peering over the couch, "How was school?"

"Can it be Summer again?" Candace asked, a begging tone laced in her voice, "Please?"

"Aw, don't worry sweetie," Linda smiled kindly as she went, carrying a basket of freshly dried clothes, "There are only two-hundred sixty more days till Summer Vacation starts up again. And that's not counting Winter Break coming in a few months," Candace took a mental note of her mother's words practically patting her on the head as if she were a dog, "The days will fly by like that. You'll see."

Candace scoffed. "Don't you dare give Phineas and Ferb any ideas," she gritted her teeth, "They'll probably build some time machine," she poked a finger into the air and spun it around, "Or a watch that makes time go by faster or something like that to speed things up," she shot her mother a strained look, "You know what they did at school today?"

"Had their first run-ins with fractions I'm assuming?" Linda asked, eye-rolling her daughter.

A pair of rushing footsteps came as Phineas halfway down the stairs, gripping the railing. "We built a GIANT trampoline during recess!" he laughed excitedly, "We reached the stratosphere!"

"Further, actually," Ferb stated as he reentered beside his younger brother, "Meap says hi, Candace. Misses your chats."

Candace motioned to the boys as she stared intently at their mother, who simply smiled as she went back to her chores. "That's nice, boys," Linda stated, hearing her daughter's frustrated groans - some things never changed, "Be sure to finish any homework you kids have tonight before you do anything else. Dinner will be ready in an hour."

"We will, mom," Phineas nodded joyfully, nudging Ferb, "We'll get it done in no time at all."

"You know, I'm surprised you're taking the whole school thing so well," Candace spat, folding her arms, "Considering how much you love Summer and all, I didn't paint you as someone who was INTO that kind of conformity."

It just so happened that their mother was well out of earshot when Phineas started laughing at Candace's retort, and said with the most forcefully optimistic vein, "Oh, Candace, you misunderstand," the tone in his voice shifted just slightly, as he stared down at her like a tower, "I'm completely dead inside as we speak. This whole thing hurts me way more than it hurts you."

Candace's body flinched as she shot her brother a look, Phineas' smile never wavering once even at his rather alarming statement. Ferb sighed and gave a simple shrug that spoke volumes over mere words: don't question it. Phineas will be back to normal come tomorrow. He always went through this state of being whenever school was involved, after all, especially during the beginning. Perhaps the inner meltdown would finish even sooner, Candace thought prayerfully as she noticed Phineas' eyes darted around curiously, in search of something important.

"Hey," Phineas spoke, starting to drift down the stairs more, arms still gripping the wooden railing, "Where's Perry?"

(~)

There was an unsettling amount of foreboding in that hallway, even with animal agents and human interns alike, big and small, pattering along. An odor akin to that of a barn filled the nostrils of all who entered the building, which honestly did not help the stress in any sort of way. If anything, Doofenshmirtz himself was feeling sick to his stomach in more ways than one, as he scratched the back of his neck resisting the urge to gag upon reflex. He did his best not to look at anyone, though he did dare to throw a glance at his small teal partner sitting right beside him.