Chapter 10 "Poke Dat Goozim Rayt"

"Okay okay I got it. There was a mad scientist who was very lonely that he wanted to have a child out of Doritos. His ingredients were positive energy and barbeque flavor and then viola emerged Phineas!"

"Then how did I end up with the Flynn family then?"

Blank, that was her follow up for her made up origin story of him and Phineas was enjoying his victory of this contest. Phineas stuck his tongue at her much to her annoyance, and she did the same back with a little more noise.

Phineas chuckled. "I guess that means my story of being rejected by Frito Lay wins!"

"No! It's too sad! Makes my heart break if that were true."

"Aww, but every once in a while everyone loves a good sad story. Besides, didn't you like the part that you were the one who brought me to the front door?"

Isabella smiled. "Does that mean I was the one who saved your life?"

"Well, yeah. I could've died without you there."

Isabella blushed. "Does that mean you couldn't... live without me?"

"That sounds too cheesy and dramatic. But, if you put it that way yeah!"

"I wish it were real then."

"Why?"

"Oh... nothing important."

"Well, could at least tell me then?"

Isabella chuckled. "It's a secret."

"How many more secrets from me do you have?"

"Err... That's why they're called secrets, because you can't tell them. I mean, I bet you have secrets that you're keeping from me too."

Phineas chuckled. "Yet again, Touche Isabella."

"Ooooh, you're making me curious Phineas Flynn."

"Oh be careful. Curiosity killed the cat once, you'll be dead by me when you even come close to them."

"Hmmm, maybe I can... cute my way out of your grasp once I got a hold of those juicy secrets." Isabella giggled.

"If it comes to that, I would have invented anti cutonium devices to backfire your strategy."

"So you do admit that I'm cute."

"The facts say it so practically I have no choice."

Bewilderedly Isabella looks at him while the latter sticks his tongue out at her. Out of annoyance and mischief, she snaps her right hand at his bandaged nose reenacting that of what happened with him and the baby crocodile.

"Hey!"

"What? You started it."

Throughout this entire conversation they were making their way to the barn on a high hill somewhere in the outskirts near the city. Isabella was bandaging Perry's tail because of an injury they found earlier, which frightened Phineas practically begging her if she could fix him up, and Phineas was busy being licked by Pinky. They were able to hitch a ride, sitting close together in the back of some pick up truck loaded with hay bales that was going to the same location. After their usual mediocre at each other, they decided to do some quiet sightseeing of the environment around them with their pets, not that their surroundings were totally new, they were just bored and unable to find something better. The outskirts were pretty much farm fields of the city of different crops such as wheat and corn, some were empty with the farmers ploughing and fertilizing the soil. Some were pasteurs filled with cows of different sizes roaming about the fields, but they were so attracted to the horses that they caught galloping freely in the fields that they were competing for the headspace required to see them, despite Isabella having a lot more than Phineas, who took the space beside the truck wall. The horses meant that they were near the ranch they were headed to. The truck went up the hill to a ranch with two red barns and a windmill. As soon as the driver parked the truck, they thanked him for giving them a ride and hopped off with their pets caressed on their arms. The last time they came to this place was when Phineas and Ferb decided to ride the horses in some lame horse round and Isabella accomplished her cow milking patch, but there wasn't any decorations of any festive flags tied around the barn and to the different wooden posts at the time. Together they looked around, curious as to what the special occassion was.

"The Goozim festival. Come and get a chance to poke a Goozim, Gimmelshtump's traditional endagered animals, today! Hurry before we ship them back! Well, looks like we're in the right place!" She read one of the flyers posted on one of the wooden posts.

"I wonder why they even consider this activity a sport? Heck, even a baby can do that."

"Shhh! We must respect their tradition, I mean, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye... I hope."

"But you agree with me right?"

"It's our secret."

Phineas chuckled. "And finally we have one that isn't kept against each other."

Isabella giggled at the serendipitous event. The place is quite crowded, and there were a lot of activities to choose from: Feed Zeh Goozim Wid Zeh Horze, which is a horse-back-riding-goozim-feeding relay, Shoot Zeh Goozim, which is an archery game where you have to shoot sticks with food at the tip into the Goozim's mouth, and finally the Poke Zeh Goozim Wid Zeh Stick, which is stationed at the barn where Vanessa, wearing a Goozim hat, is standing on the Podium, bored.

"Hey Vanessa! What are you doing here?" Asked Phineas politely as they approached her.

"Hey guys! Just, doing a job for Uncle Roger. He said that he'd pay me if I just manned the Goozim station for today. I couldn't refuse, I needed the money anyway." Vanessa chuckled. "I sound kinda gangstah now."

"Right you are, homie." Replied Phineas.

"Did you say you were manning the Goozim station?" Asked Isabella.

"Yeah, The goozim is right over here, inside. Do you wanna come in and poke it or do you want me to explain a little history first."

"We want to hear a little history." Said Isabella.

Vanessa sighed. "Okay, It all began back in the day when Gimmelshtump was still building its civilization... wow I think I sound like my dad now. The Doofenshmirtz-!"

Isabella burst out some laughter. "I was just kidding, nobody cares about that stuff!... U-unless of course...whoopsie."

Vanessa chuckled. "You're just lucky I agree, no one really cares about our history, sadly. I just know it because my mom and dad have told me that story hundreds of times. C'mon in and let's get this over with."

Relieved, Isabella wiped some sweat off her forehead and sighed while Phineas snickered at her screw up, causing her to poke his nose out of annoyance before following Vanessa inside. The Barn was practically empty, no people and no animals, except for some birds that managed to get inside and the Goozim that was asleep inside it's box cage until it woke up sensing someone come in. The Goozim growled and raged war against the cage that restrained him, with the cage still successful to do its job.

"Well, there he is, and here are the sticks. You wouldn't mind if I took a bathroom break would you?" Vanessa lended the sticks to them.

"Sure! We'll just be right here. You know, poking." Said Phineas.

Vanessa dashes out of the barn immediately because of her inability to control her bladder anymore.

"Poke." He poked Isabella's stomach with the stick he was holding.

Isabella chuckled. "Uhh, can we focus?"

"Hmph! Kill joy."

They walked closer to the Goozim in the center of the barn, along the way Isabella poked Phineas' stomach for revenge. The goozim growled as they approached, scaring Isabella a little that she stepped closer to Phineas instinctively. Phineas jumped as soon as she grabbed his hand. Isabella soon noticed too and she immediately took her hand back.

Phineas snickered. "Scared."

"Oh haha Phineas. I'm not scared, you are. I'm the brave girl who stepped closer to the Goozim."

"Yeah right. Just get over there and poke it already so we can get outta here."

Phineas activated ARChie from his pocket and the device flew across them to get a good shot of their faces. Isabella had her stick ready pointing at the Goozim but she's a little nervous as to poking the little monster. Carefully, she decided to go steady and slow when poking it. She could hear Phineas snickering in the back, but she ignored it and resumed inching her stick to the Goozim's skin.

"Almost... there... got Eeek!" She squealed two fingers poked both her hips

"Cheese!" Phineas smiled for the camera.

ARChie quickly took a shot of the entire moment. Afterwards, the device presented the hologram of Isabella succesfully poking the Goozim and Phineas successfully poking her. The boy snickered like a dork.

"Phineas you little big nose Dorito menacing nuisance little you!" She yelled as she grabbed hold of his nose and started pulling it up and down rapidly like some sort of water pump.

ARChie independently took shots of those moments too, in snapshot mode. Despite the minor pain, he just kept laughing and snickering in front of Isabella. He poked her again with her finger and she yanked his nose towards her while holding him back so that only his nose was pulled.

She chuckled and poked his nose. "Silly boy."

In the middle of their mischief though they heard a loud bang coming from the cage, making the both of them instinctively jump and bring their arms to their faces to protect themselves. They looked at the cage and noticed that the lock had been broken by some pebble that Phineas found on the floor.

"Oh shoot!" Yelled Isabella.

Immediately they both held the cage door to prevent the Goozim from escaping, but the animal was putting up a fight by jumping around and biting the cage. Pinky, who sat there behind with Perry earlier, chased a person who shut the door of the barn. A clicking sound was heard afterwards.

Isabella gasped. "Did someone just lock us inside the barn?"

Bewildered and horrified, they looked at each other for any answer to this problem. They strengthened their hold against the furious Goozim.

"Look for something to barricade the gate to this cage, I'll hold it off for as long as possible. Go!"

Isabella left Phineas to find something like a box or something to tie the gate with, then suddenly she remembered her sash, which unfortunately she cannot use if she wants to keep in intact for presentation tomorrow. Amongst the piles of hay bales stationed in the left side of the Barn was a rake.

"Isabella? Now would would be a good time!"

Sprinting for the rake, she grabbed it and ran back to the cage. Although the goozim was an exact fit in the cage, she forced the stem of the rake through the gate holes to the side of the cage, forcing the animal to adjust to it at the same time much to its discomfort.

"Phineas, pull the rake, let this baby do the job. I'll try to call for help."

Phineas pulled it so that the teeth of the rake would hold the cage shut, and it proved that it was much easier rather than putting your back onto it while the Goozim tried to bite your behind. Climbing the wooden ladder to the second floor, Isabella hurried to the nearest window and yelled for help.

Relieved after a bathroom break, Vanessa hurried back to the barn to check on how the two kids were handling themselves. When she arrived at the front, she saw a girl in a white fluffy skirt and two spiky pigtails locking the door to the barn with the key on her hand.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

The girl, frightened of the sudden voice, immediately ran away.

"Hey! Stop! Stop! Thief! Thief!"

A lot of people were able to hear Vanessa's shouts but they weren't able to block the way of the speedy, slippery girl on time.

"Oh, you're not getting away."

Rather than go through the crowd pointlessly just to lose sight of her in the end, she decided to take the rooftop of the barn by cutting the rope, with the use of a nearby axe, of a bell making it carry her up quickly. Fortunately there wasn't anyone below the bell so it crashed to the floor with a clang. On the wide flat ridge of the roof, she ran across to the other side of the barn, spotting the girl amongst the crowds along the way. There were two ropes tied to the other ridge of the barn arranged like two poles of the ladder. She jumps in between the ropes and uses her axe as some sort of handle bar that allows her to slide along the ropes down to the area where the Feed Zeh Goozim Wid Zeh Horse station was. The girl was heading towards the same direction fortunately. By a perfectly timed release, she lands on the girl, sitting on her back, but the girl drops the key in the process. Vanessa was about to pick up the key, since it was arm's reach, but a bunch of five other girls in Fireside uniform picked it up and scattered.

"Hey! Fireside girls?! What on earth?!"

"Ha! You'll never get the key missy! You won't save Isabella from this."

"Why you little girl. You need a time out!" Vanessa grabs her ear.

"Hey! Ow! Oww! What're you-!"

Vanessa forces her inside one of the toilet cubicles and barricades the exit with the axe.

"You stay!"

"Hey! Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! I demand that you let me out!" The girl continously ravaged inside the cubicle until it was too bent over, making it fall down. The girl shrieked of the sudden gravity. Water could be heard splashing on the inside. "Eeeeewwww!"

Roger Doofenshmirtz was about to announce something in the nearby stadium until Vanessa cuts in.

"Vanessa! What're you-!"

"Stop those Fireside girls! They stole the key to the Poke Zeh Goozim Exhibit and locked the kids inside!" She yelled at the microphone.

The rest of the audience caught sight of the scattering Fireside girls and immediately charged at them. Coincidentally Isabella was yelling for help on the window, convincing the audience. Two were caught near the Feed Zeh Goozim Wid Zeh Horse area, Two were caught near the Shoot Zeh Goozim area. Vanessa caught sight of one of them running to a departing pickup truck with an empty back and sprinted after her. The girl huffed as she finally grabbed hold one of the sides of the truck, holding the key on the other hand.

"I'll take that!"

Vanessa wasn't able to beat her to it but she was able to snatch the key back, leaving the girl empty handed while riding the way back to Danville.

"Noooo!" Yelled the girl.

Sassily, she played with the key in her hand. "Yeah, I'm me."

"Help! Help! Please, Somebody!"

Isabella could see total chaos in the area and there were a bunch of people trying to catch girls wearing Fireside uniforms. Isabella suddenly remembered, those were the girl scouts of Cheyenne's troop. Convinced that they were the ones behind this, she was satisfied that they were caught. Snap! Something broke behind her.

"Uhh, Isabella?! A little help!"

Phineas was about to run to the front gate of the cage to keep it sealed, but the Goozim was able to get out before Phineas could do so. He was sitting because he recoiled from the Goozim's sudden breakout, and he crawled backwards to avoid the Goozim. Pinky immediately pounced on the Goozim, starting a fight. Phineas looked for Perry, and he only saw him sitting down there mindlessly chattering.

"Oh, I forgot. He's a Platypus, he doesn't do much."

There was clicking coming from the door that Phineas could hear. A few seconds later he saw Vanessa holding a girl, Cheyenne, who was wet and... dirty. Vanessa gasped, ran inside with the girl, pushed her down telling her to stay where she is beside Phineas and brought out some sort of brown cube, which caught the attention of the Goozim. Although Pinky was busy biting its head, the Goozim ignored it and acted like a dog in front of Vanessa.

"Come here boy! Come on! Come on!"

Vanessa baited the Goozim back inside the cage by showing the food on the other side. The Goozim just followed and went back to the cage only to be immediately locked up by Vanessa who brought a new lock.

"Well, that takes care of that." Said Vanessa.

Seeing that it was already safe, Isabella went down the ladder and cupped Pinky in her arms. Her attention was suddenly diverted to a familiar face beside Phineas.

"Ch-cheyenne?!"

Phineas joined Isabella's side after he picked up Perry.

"Oh, it's you." Said Cheyenne venomously.

Isabella snickered. "You look pooped!"

Phineas looked at Isabella, recognizing the pun, and laughed hysterically with her and all Cheyenne could do was just watch.

-End of Chapter 10-