Hello, internet world!

I know that my readers wanted to know how Perry reacted to everything from the past two chapters, but this is a bit of a transitional chapter, going from the Flynn-Fletchers to the family pet. Don't worry; there will be plenty of Platyborg in the upcoming chapter. :)

In the meantime, enjoy some over-protective Candace.

God bless and have a great day (or night)!

ThePro-LifeCatholic

Disclaimer: Guess what I still don't own? The rights to any of these characters or the dimension they're in.

Candace was beyond angry; exasperation, as well as worry, was pushing her to her limits. Normally she tried to keep her temper in-check, especially around her family members. Right now, though, her family members (namely, two younger siblings) were only adding to the strain of anxiety. A strain of anxiety that had made its appearance as soon as the household pet had gone missing.

"Phineas! Ferb!" The only other time Candace could remember spitting out her brothers' names with such venom was the day they had unintentionally discovered the Resistance and become the most famous faces on the Doofen-Channel. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Said brothers froze in place. They had been scooting towards the front door as quietly as possible, and it was only by sheer luck that Candace caught them before they had headed outside.

"We're gonna look for Perry," Phineas said obstinately, crossing his arms. His words were still stained with that bitter, hurt tone that he had used when confronting the Resistance members.

"You guys can't just be wandering around Danville looking for him," Candace shot back. Ordinarily she wouldn't speak so harshly to Phineas and Ferb, but right now her thoughts were consumed with the stress brought about by Perry's disappearance and fear for her brothers' safety if they dared wander too far from the house. "I've got the other members of the Resistance scouring the city as we speak. If I feel it's necessary, I can get Major Monogram on the case. I can't just let you go gallivanting all over town without supervision ."

"See, Ferb?" Phineas turned to his brother, no bothering to address his sister, "I guess we're only Perry's owners a part of the time."

Candace didn't have a quick reply at the ready, and besides, she was too busy to devote her time to an argument with Phineas. Leaving them in the hallway, she marched into the kitchen to find her mom. Linda was just putting a chicken into the oven when her daughter entered.

"Any signs of Perry yet?" the teen asked. Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher shut the oven door and straightened up, shaking her head the whole time.

"Not yet, Sweetie," she said tiredly. Candace spun her staff in a circle, lost in thought. Finally she slammed it down onto the floor.

"I'm gonna have to go out there again and look!" she huffed. Linda jumped at the *thump* of the metal pole against white tile.

"Candace! You're going to crack the tile!" she reprimanded. Candace snorted in response, but her features quickly softened and she sighed.

"Sorry Mom. I'm just getting worried. Perry's gone missing before, but there are only so many places that he frequents. Usually I would've found him by now. And the boys want to help, but I don't want them just wandering out there. What if something happens? What if they got lost…or hit by a car…or had to take the bus to get somewhere?" She ran a hand through her orange hair, ruffling the top. "And all because Perry had to run off. Again. None of this would've happened if I hadn't-"

As Candace bemoaned her current situation, Linda's eyes grew wide as she struck a sudden realization. "Oh no," she murmured, breaking into her daughter's spiel, "You don't think he could have run off because I-"

Together the two finished their sentence simultaneously: "-Said those words."

"What?" Candace snapped, facing her mother sharply. "What did you say?"

"Well…I was talking to Lawrence about how dangerous he had been while serving…" here her voice dropped to a whisper, "You-know-who. You might think you're the only one who cares about the boys' safety, but I worry over the three of you constantly. I can't help it; Platyborg was designed to be a tyrant's slave!"

Candace's thoughts harkened to the short discussion she and her mother had the night before. Linda's fearful expression, her near-frantic concern for her children, her obvious discomfort whenever she saw Perry. A swift suspicion struck the teenager, causing her grip on the bo staff to tighten.

"Did you talk about getting rid of him?"

Linda didn't respond, but her gaze shifted and she fixed her attention on her black slacks. This was answer enough for Candace, who pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled loudly. Then she slipped her shades into place. If she stayed in the room much longer, her near-boiling temper was going to erupt.

"I'm going back out," she snapped, not even trying to smother the hot resentment which bubbled into her words. "Just make sure the boys don't leave the house. They've tried several times already."

Upon returning to the house about two hours later, Candace instantly knew something was off as soon as she opened the front door. A quick sweep of the city had proved fruitless; Perry was nowhere to be found, and the other Resistance members hadn't encountered much luck in their own searches. Frustration overpowered her fear for the platyborg's safety, and Candace was nearing the point where she simply wanted to throw in the towel. It wasn't like he wouldn't show up eventually.

These thoughts were pushed to the wayside, however, when she entered the front hallway. It was quiet: the only sounds she heard was her mother washing dishes in the kitchen. She would've expected Phineas and Ferb to be waiting on the couch for her return, or staring out the window at the backyard, as if that would bring their pet home any faster. Of course, they could be hiding in the bedroom, still too angry to confront her.

"Phineas?" Candace started up the stairs, two at a time. There was no response. "Ferb?" Her footsteps were quick and soon she was standing in front of their door. "Come on, you two. Stop sulking around…" She trailed off, letting the door swing open with a light creak. There were the two beds, nicely made; the dresser up against one wall, pajamas on the floor…

"MOM!" Candace was down the stairs and in the kitchen faster than either of her brothers could have raced. "Where are Phineas and Ferb?"

Linda dropped the pan she had been scrubbing; it sploshed into the sink, sending soapy water sloshing onto the counter and floor. "They were in the living room not ten minutes ago!" she testified. Her voice shot up an octave and she ran past Candace. "I told them that you had left to look for platyborg, and they insisted on waiting out there for you to get back." Linda froze in front of the entrance to the living room. She stared at the empty couch and then cast her gaze about the room, frantically scanning every nook and cranny.

"But…where…?!"

Candace might've felt angry beforehand, but now she was furious. "I know where they are," she said in a calm voice. It was that sort of calm that people had when they were so upset that it hardly mattered to express it, so a dull, sedated sort of temperament was shown instead. "They left to find Perry. Of course, that's the extent that I actually do know."

"You mean they're just wandering around Danville? Alone?" Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher went white. Her shaking hands flew to her mouth, stifling a barely audible gasp. At first, Candace was afraid her mom might collapse right then and there, but she managed to compose herself and take a deep breath.

"I'll find them, Mom," Candace reassured her. Linda leaned against her daughter, letting her weight sag a moment on Candace's shoulders. Then she straightened and took another breath.

"I know you will, Sweetie," she mused softly. She pulled Candace into a tight, albeit somewhat awkward, embrace. "Just stay safe, okay?" She staggered out of the room, a dazed look still plastered to her face. She was probably going to call Lawrence, telling him to come home from the park and keep his eyes out for the boys while he was driving. Speaking of calling…

Candace ran upstairs again, this time with a different destination in mind. Flinging open her own bedroom door, Candace crossed the floor and seated herself in front of the three-vanity mirror on her dresser. She glanced around the room, then picked up a discarded lightbulb and screwed it into place on the mirror. Her reflection vanished, replaced with grey-and-green static, and finally a blank screen that looked nothing like her bedroom. A man's head appeared on her vanity; an older man with a bushy white mustache and a stern expression.

"Come in, Major," Candace demanded. The portrait of the man moved, blinking and raising one side of his monobrow.

"Is everything alright, Candace?" he asked.

"No, no it's not. As it turns out, I'm in a bit of a situation, Monogram. Perry's gone missing, and we can't find him. On top of that, my brothers decided not too long ago that it would be an amazing idea to go and look for him themselves. I have no idea where they could be. I was hoping you could find some quick way to located them."

"Hmmm," Major Monogram scratched his chin thoughtfully, monobrow scrunching as he pondered. "Carl probably knows a thing or two about hacking into the live feed coming from the cameras set up around town. I'll talk to him about it and get back to you once we've found anything of importance."

"Thanks, Major."

Monogram must've caught the strain in the teen's voice, or noticed her worried countenance.

"Candace," he said, his usually-gruff voice softening, "Remember, these are your brothers we're talking about. The same ones who bypassed Doofenshmirtz's security grid and freed you. The same ones who were there in the forefront helping us take down Doofenshmirtz's regime. They'll be fine." He gave her a brisk salute, then fizzed out of view. A second later, Candace was staring at her own face. She turned away in disgust at the frazzled, wide-eyed teenager in her mirror and stomped out of her bedroom.

Only when she stepped into the living room, still deserted, did she give vent to her pent-up vexation.

"Stupid platyborg!" she fumed. She twisted the metal pole over her head, slamming it down on the couch cushions. One of them flew up into the air; Candace hoisted herself off of the ground (with the support of her bo staff) and kicked her foot out at the spinning cushion. She impacted it dead-center, sending the cushion flying towards the family photograph that hung above the couch. Dropping her staff, Candace rolled forward, barely managing to grab hold of the frame as the photo fell from its nail on the wall.

She examined the picture briefly. It had been a mandatory ordeal, getting a family picture taken every year. Mom and Dad were standing center-stage, Linda's hands folded together and a fearful expression plastered to her face. Lawrence didn't look too happy, either. Candace frowned at her own image; dark blue eyes brimming with barely contained disgust and resentment. She stood apart from the rest, her hands on her hips and her mouth turned down in a scowl. In fact, the only person in the picture who was smiling was Phineas. It seemed that the years of oppression hadn't broken him, nor Ferb, despite the latter's blank visage in the photo. But there was an empty spot that needed to be filled. The picture was missing someone…or rather, something.

"You know," she muttered at the unmoving people in the picture, "if Perry hadn't run off, then none of this would've happened. Phineas and Ferb wouldn't be missing, Mom, Dad, and I wouldn't be freaking out, and I wouldn't have needed to get the Resistance or OWCA involved!"

Wait. Backtrack a second.

Thoughts began to churn in Candace's mind. A glimmer of an idea, a small speculation that hadn't even occurred to her before as a possibility presented itself to her. Suddenly, Candace realized that she hadn't searched everywhere. Sure, she and the Resistance were performing a city-wide scan for Platyborg, scouring roadways and rooftops, but who was to say that he had even left the perimeters of his own house?

Still in the throes of her epiphany, Candace looked from the photograph to the blank patch of wall it had recently been hiding. Setting the image aside, she stood up and grabbed her bo staff. She held it vertically in her hands, bringing one end forward and lightly tapping the wall.

*thump, thump*

She frowned. The noise that greeted her ears was solid. Determined to follow her mental lead, Candace continued to strike against the wall, listening intently to the *thumps* that accompanied her constant knocking.

*thud*

She stopped, then tapped again.

*thud*

The noise was different than before: it had a hollow sound. Candace regarded this area silently, mulling over her next course of action. Twisting fingers tightly around the pole, she brought it level with the surface of the wall. She eyed her target for a moment, then rushed forward, letting all of her weight fall behind the end of her staff.

Plaster snapped and crackled; a cloud of white paint chips flew into the air and fluttered onto the couch. A web of cracks, starting from the point of impact, rippled outward and crept across the surface of the wall. A rather large dent had been made where the staff had come into contact with the living room wall, but this outcome didn't satisfy the Resistance leader. Candace leaned forward, muscles tensing. At the second attempt, chunks of plaster gave way, revealing what anyone else would've considered an exceedingly odd choice of room décor.

It was a hole, perfectly round, strategically placed in the exact location where a large mirror (or, in this case, a large family photograph) would be hung to tie the look of the room together. Its circular edge and inside was lined with metal plating, as well as bits of paint and drywall. There was also a small current of air; barely noticeable at first, but growing stronger with each passing second, coming out of the hole. Actually, to be more accurate, there was air being forced into the round passageway. The draft rushed past Candace's face and tugged at the ends of her hair, as if enticing her to squeeze through the hole and find out what lay on the other side.

Except, of course, Candace Flynn didn't have to wonder: she knew all too well where that tunnel led. Dropping her bo staff on the floor, Candace climbed onto the couch and examined the diameters of the portal intently. Only when she had convinced herself that she would be able to fit did she abandoned herself to the powerful suction of the tunnel's vacuum. The current grabbed her up, sucking the teenager off of the couch and out of the living room entirely. The only sign of her ever being there was the metal pole, which lay in the same place it had been discarded mere moments ago.

In case you couldn't tell, I was getting a bit lazy by the end of the chapter. Ah, well. I'm still satisfied.