Daria in Danville - Adventure and Trouble in Danville

 Part 5: Adventure and Trouble in Danville

Sam and Chris Griffin reached a small park within Danville’s eastern reaches and collapsed on a bench.

 

“Are we anywhere near Phineas and Ferb’s house?” Chris asked.

 

“Just a few more blocks, I need to catch my breath,” Sam replied.

 

“Not too long, dweeb.”

 

“Who are you calling dweeb? You suck!” Sam said as he rubbed the top of Chris’s head, ruffling his hair.

 

“No, you suck!” Chris complained, hitting back.

 

“I hope that they will be able to help us,” Sam said, with some hope in his voice, half a minute after their tussle.

 

“Of course they will.”

 

“This is nothing compared to their usual stuff.”

 

“I guess.”

 

“I mean they don’t usually rescue teenagers.”

 

 

After a few minutes rest, they set off again.

 

 

Ten minutes later, Sam and Chris approached the Flynn-Fletcher house.

 

 

The Griffin kids entered the yard and walked up to Phineas where he was directing the building project. “Hi,” he said in welcome.

 

“We need your help! Our sister was kidnapped by a robot!” Sam pleaded.

 

‘We can help,’ Phineas thought, and turned to his stepbrother. “Ferb, I know what else we’re doing today.”

 

“Excellent!”

 

 

Stacy Rowe looked out the window and saw Sam and Chris in the yard. “Wait a minute, Sandi’s brothers are here!” she stated. She then dashed out.

 

“Sandi’s brothers?” Jane asked as she finished a sketch of the stone skypad apartment.

 

“Yes, maybe they know more about where Sandi could be,” Daria reasoned.

 

 

 

Stacy, Daria, Jane and Candace came out into the yard as Sam finished telling Phineas about Norm’s abduction of Sandi. “What is happening?” Daria asked.

 

“Apparently a robot kidnapped Sandi,” Phineas said.

 

 “It came from Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated,” Sam asserted.

 

“Means nothing to me,” Jane said.

 

“Same here,” Daria stated.

 

“Actually, that’s Vanessa’s last name,” Stacy mentioned.

 

“Vanessa?” Daria asked.

 

“She’s a Goth,” Stacy answered.

 

“One of Andrea’s friends?” Jane asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I know it’s a company here in Danville, which is why we came here,” Sam added.

 

“Here in Danville?” Daria said in thought.

 

“You know what to do, don’t you?” Jane asked.

 

“All we have to do is find out where it is,” Daria stated. She turned to Candace. “Could you Google it?”

 

“Sure,” Candace affirmed. “I guess I’ll call my friend too.”

 

 

Candace opened her Mozilla (she didn’t know how others could stand using Internet Explorer) and Googled‘Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated’.

 

“OK, it has a website!” She pointed to the screen, where the URL read, “www.DoofEvilInc.com”

 

 

Stacy Hirano was reading from one of her favorite books when her cell phone rang. “Hi, Candace,” she said, already knowing who it was. She had been wondering why she hadn’t called yet that morning.

 

“Stacy, could you come over?” Candace asked.

 

“This doesn’t have anything to do with your brothers, does it?”

 

“Only partly.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘only partly,’?”

 

“I’ll explain when you get here.”

 

 

“OK, Stacy is on her way over here,” Candace stated as she came back to the group.

 

“Good,” Daria said.

 

“Now what does Candace’s Stacy have to do with DE Inc.?” Jane asked.

 

“We’ll need all the help we can get,” Daria explained.

 

Jane turned to Candace. “Just what did you find out about DE Inc?”

 

“That the CEO is some sort of crackpot inventor.”

 

“Oh.”

 

 

As Stacy Hirano approached the Flynn-Fletchers she could see the Jet-Stone buildings behind the house. ‘That’s interesting,’ she thought. She still wondered what Candace meant by ‘only partly’ when she was questioned about her brothers.

 

 

Daria saw Candace’s friend enter the yard. “Hi, you must be Stacy Hirano,” she said.

 

“That’s me. And you are?”

 

“Daria.”

 

“Quinn’s sister, right?”

 

“Don’t let her hear that.”

 

“So what are we doing?” Stacy asked.

 

“Once we’ve completed construction, we’ll take a vehicle and go to Doofensmirtz Evil Incorporated and look for Sandi,” Phineas replied.

 

“Sandi Griffin?” Stacy H. asked.

 

“Yes, she was kidnapped by a robot this morning,” Stacy R. said.

 

“A robot that Phineas and Ferb had nothing to do with,” Chris clarified.

 

“It came from that company Phineas mentioned,” Sam said.

 

“Ok, but will the vehicle be big enough?” Stacy H. wondered.

 

“Of course,” Phineas said.

 

“But we need someone to drive or fly it,” Stacy H. pointed out.

 

“Either our father or Jane’s brother could do that.”

 

“If Trent could be woken.”

 

“Oh, he will be.”

 

“You don’t know Trent.”

 

“How hard could it be?” Phineas asked.

 

 

At Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. the Evil Scientist had finished telling his daughter, nemesis and captive his back-story. “And now! I will activate the Popularity-Amplica-Transfer-Inator! Watch, as I become the most popular person in the TRI-STATE-AREA!”

 

“You cannot make yourself like, any more popular simply by firing some sort of beam at me!” Sandi objected, with her arms crossed.

 

“Oh, I am afraid he could,” Vanessa answered in a bored tone.

 

“The Inator will work, Ms. Griffin. Watch!” Heinz said. He picked up a remote and pointed it at the ‘Inator’, only for it to be kicked out of his hand by Agent P.

 

“Escape, will you!?”

 

“He’s not the only one!” Sandi challenged, swinging the door of her cage open with a kick.

 

Heinz knocked Perry back. “I know that Perry the Platypus is a regular escape artist, but how did you escape?!?”

 

“Simple. I used like, a hairpin!” Sandi countered as she jumped out of the cage. She landed next to the ‘Inator’. “You didn’t notice because you were too distracted telling us about your teen years in Drusselstein, or wherever!” Sandi then nodded, signaling Perry. The platypus then approached the Inator.

 

“Fortunately for me, Perry the Platypus, the self-destruct button is hidden so you can’t push it.”

 

“I will help him,” Sandi declared. She ran towards the machine...

 

“Vanessa! Stop her!”

 

“You’re on your own, Dad,” Vanessa countered.

 

“No, Vanessa!”

 

“You should not have kidnapped Sandi! That’s a new level of evil!”

 

“A new level?”

 

“Yes!” She left the lab.

 

“Wait!” Heinz demanded as he followed the other teen and his nemesis to his soon-to-be-doomed invention.

 

“Now, there like, has to be a loose panel, or something, somewhere,” Sandi said as she looked the Inator over.

 

“Oh, boy!” Heinz groused. He started trying to stop Perry and his sudden assistant from interfering with his Inator, without much success.

 

 

Back at the Flynn-Fletchers, fifteen minutes after Stacy Hirano had arrived; Ferb had put the finishing touches on the vehicle that they would be using to rescue Sandi. “So, before we rush to the rescue, would you like a tour?” Phineas asked.

 

“If it’s quick!” Stacy R. fretted.

 

“Of course,” Phineas opened the ground level door of the skypad apartment building.

 

“Cool elevator,” Jane attested, appreciating its design.

 

“You like it?” Phineas asked.

 

“Has that Pollock look,” Jane imparted, as she examined the decor more closely,

 

“Ah, an art aficionado.”

 

“Not just an aficionado.”

 

 

Back at DE Inc. Doofenshmirtz found the remote for the Inator. “Ah-ha!” He activated it. ‘Now, to point it at me and Sandi.’

 

Sandi noticed the Inator aiming at her. “Oh no you don’t!” she leapt out of the way, allowing the beam to go out of the building to somewhere else in Danville.

 

“Ugh! Will you stop moving, Ms. Griffin?!”

 

“No!” Sandi launched herself at Heinz, and started grappling with him for the remote.

 

“Uh! There isn’t a self-destruct button on the remote, you know!” Heinz pointed out after a few moments of grappling.

 

“No, but this will give Perry, like a chance to find it,” Sandi stated as she tried to pry Heinz’s fingers off the remote with her right hand.

 

“Oh, great, Ms. know it all!” Heinz moaned as he started slapping Sandi’s fingers away.

 

“You shouldn’t be trying to take other people’s popularity with like, weird inventions,” Sandi said as she rebuffed Heinz’s attempt to stop her gaining the remote.

 

“Is that all?” Heinz asked as he tried to tickle Sandi’s palm in an attempt to get her to let go.

 

“No! Of course not!” Sandi quipped as she tried to resist the tickling. She then slapped him on his left cheek.

 

They continued fighting, Sandi and Perry gaining the upper hand.

 

 

On the top level of the Stone Skypad apartment, Ferb revealed the vehicle that they would be using to the group.

 

“It looks like a stone and wood bus. But if I remember TheFlintstones correctly, their vehicles are powered either by humans or by animals. How are you powering this one?” Daria asked.

 

“Good that you asked that, Daria,” Phineas responded. He opened a panel on the side of the vehicle. “As you can see, we have some well-fed squirrels ready to help power the propellers and the flapping of the wings. There are also a large number of various types of birds tethered to the roof to help with the lift.”

 

“I don’t suppose you have a horse on a treadmill?” Jane wondered.

 

“Well, no, but some of us will be pedaling. Much like the chickens in their escape craft in Chicken Run.” Phineas remarked.

 

“Looks like we’ll be exerting ourselves after all,” Jane said to Daria.

 

“Oh, joy,” Daria stated, intending to leave the pedaling to others.

 

“I’m ready to do my best. I hope,” Stacy R. said.

 

“Who’s going to drive? Dad’s not here!” Candace commented.

 

“It will have to be Trent,” Phineas said.

 

“Or my Mom,” Isabella suggested.

 

“Sure, if Trent doesn’t want to do it,” Phineas said as he closed the hatch.

 

 

 

Jane, Daria, Phineas, Ferb, Candace and Buford entered the lounge room. Trent was still sleeping.

 

Jane shook Trent vigorously. He didn’t stir. “Told ya; hardly anything wakes him,”

 

“Let’s see about that,” Buford said. He leaned down next to Trent’s ear. “LA-ANE!!” he shouted in imitation of Mr.Spacely’s ‘JET-SON!!’

 

“AaaHhh!” Trent jumped, and fell to the floor. Once on the floor he fell asleep again.

 

“I guess that worked,” Jane conceded.

 

“But he’s asleep again,” Daria said.

 

“True.”

 

“Candace, you know where Mom keeps the coffee?” Phineas asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You’re going to need something a lot stronger than coffee,” Jane hinted.

 

“Ferb, we’re going to need Tabasco sauce, chili peppers, vinegar and garlic.”

 

Ferb gave a thumbs up and headed to the kitchen. “Sounds like one of my Dad’s concoctions,” Daria commented to Jane.

 

“Great!”

 

 

A couple of minutes later Ferb returned with a pureed mixture in a cup. “OK, Ferb, pour it down his gullet,” Phineas directed.

 

Ferb proceeded to open Trent’s mouth and poured the mixture down his throat, whilst holding his nostrils shut.

 

A moment later Trent leapt up “Whoa!”

 

“He’s up!” Phineas said.

 

“Ow, my throat! Janie! What’s going on?”

 

“We need you to drive us somewhere.”

 

“Oh, going somewhere else in Danville?”

 

“Yes, rescuing Quinn’s ‘friend’ Sandi,” Daria said.

 

“However there’s a catch,” Jane warned.

 

“What sort of catch?” Trent asked warily.

 

“We would like you to drive a flying wood and stone bus, like a combination of a Jetsons vehicle with Flintstones technology.”

 

“Oh,” Trent thought a moment. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to use my car?”

 

“The place where we’re going would be easier to see from the air,” Phineas maintained.

 

“OK. I’ll pilot that flying stone bus. Maybe it’ll inspire lyrics for the Spiral.”

 

“Very good, Trent,” Jane said.

 

 

Everyone had boarded the ‘Jetstone’ bus. “OK, everybody, buckle-in and put on the provided helmets. We’re about to leave,” Phineasinstructed.

 

“Wait, how am I supposed to direct this thing through the air?” Trent asked.

 

“Turning the steering wheel turns the vehicle to the left or right, like a normal ground vehicle, via turning the front wheels and the rudders,” Phineas replied.

 

“I get that.”

 

“Push it forwards to go down and pull it back to go up. And from side to side for the yaw, leaning to the side movements.”

 

“Got it.”

 

“And, the brake pedal to apply the brakes or deploy the parachutes.”

 

“Parachutes. Cool.”

 

“And the gear stick and accelerator pedal work as normal.”

 

“It’s an automatic?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Cool.”

 

‘I fail to see how these wood and grass helmets would be of any use if we fall out of the sky,’ Daria thought, as she put the helmet on.

 

“Ferb, is the catapult ready?”

 

Ferb gave a thumbs up.

 

“You ready, Trent?”

 

“As I’ll ever be.”

 

“Turn the key,” Phineas instructed.

 

Trent turned the key.

 

 

The food rewards became visible to the squirrels in the ‘engine compartment.’ They began to run, turning some of the drive shafts to the propellers.

 

 

“Pedal-ers, start pedaling,” Phineas said, as the sounds of the ‘engine’ became audible in the passenger compartment.

 

“OK!” Isabella said. She and her troop of Fireside Girls, whom she had invited over to help, began to pedal, therefore turning more drive shafts.

 

Trent shifted the gear stick into ‘Drive’. “Um, we’re not moving,” he pointed out.

 

“That’s because we’re still in the catapult,” Phineas said. “Ferb.”

 

Ferb pulled the lever next to his chair.

 

 

The Bus retracted into the floor of the parking garage and then sprang up...

 

 

As it exited the parking garage, Trent saw that it was on a collision course with the upper story of the Flynn-Fletcher house. “Whoa,” he uttered as he pulled back on the steering wheel, and pushed down on the accelerator. He could hear the clunk, clunk of the gearbox as the gears were changed.

 

“Extending wings,” Phineas said as he pulled another lever next his seat.

 

 

The wings were extended and the bus/plane, passed over the house with a meter to spare. “OK, Trent, DE Inc is downtown, that would be to the right,” Candace directed.

 

“Don’t forget to bank into the turn,” Phineas instructed.

 

“To the right, got it,” Trent turned the vehicle to the right, banking into the turn. He came out of the turn sluggishly, with a lean to the right.

 

“Whoa,” Daria said. Jane leaned against her.

 

“Level it off, Trent,” Jane admonished.

 

“Oops,” Trent said, as he brought it level. He glanced at the speedometer and saw that they were slowing down. He also saw that they were almost clipping a couple of houses, roofs. “Um, we’re slowing down.”

 

“We don’t have enough power. More people need to pedal,” Phineas concluded after a moment of thought.

 

“Also the birds,” Ferbresponded.

 

“Good point.”

 

Ferb pulled another lever, offering the birds on the roof food rewards. The flapping of their wings added to the lift.

 

Both Stacys began to pedal. “This is hard!” Stacy R. said.

 

“Not that hard!” Stacy H. replied.

 

“No, it isn’t,” Candace added as she started to pedal.

 

“We’re going faster again,” Trent noticed.

 

“Good,” Phineas affirmed.

 

“Very good,” Sam said.

 

 

Four minutes later, they saw Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated in the distance. “There, it is,” that purple building,” Candace pointed out.

 

“I see it, but where are we going to park?”

 

“Just land on the upper balcony,” Phineas decided.

 

“Is that such a good idea?” Daria asked.

 

“We’ll search the building from top to bottom,” Phineas answered.

 

“OK.”

 

“It’ll be fine, Daria,” Jane assured her.

 

“I guess so. If whoever owns the building is also the person who had Sandi kidnapped, then it won’t matter if we cause damage upon landing,” Daria reasoned.

 

“Come on, Daria, Trent’s a good driver,” Jane attested.

 

“But is he a good pilot? Could he land this thing correctly?” Daria asked.

 

Jane glanced around. “I hope so,” she whispered.

 

 

As the vehicle approached the DE Inc building, Trent pointed the front slightly downward so as to make a comfortable landing on the upper balcony.

 

 

Inside, Perry and Sandi were still trying to break the Inator– “If nothing else, Perry, it’s, like, well hidden.”

 

Perry nodded.

 

Doofenshmirtz had aimed the Inator again. “Ah-ha!”

 

For the umpteenth time, Sandi noticed the Inator aiming, and ducked again. The beam went out the door onto the balcony...

 

 

Trent saw the beam coming. “Whoa!” In trying to avoid the beam he sent the vehicle into a barrel roll...

 

“Trent!” Phineas called out as all the Fireside Girls screamed.

 

“Uh, oh!” Daria said.

 

Trent leveled the vehicle. “Sorry, there was this beam.” He then saw that they were very close to the building and were going much too fast. “Whoa!” He stamped on the brake pedal...

 

Perryopened his eyes wide in panic as he saw the vehicle coming and dashed into an out-of-the-way place.

 

 

The braking chutes deployed as the stone vehicle entered the lab... “What the!” Heinz blurted, before he dashed out of the room...