Wild Surprise

by Helena Mayer

  Copyright © 2010 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690.

  Printed in the United States of America

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  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number on file.

  ISBN 978-1-4231-4161-7

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  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped” book.

  Table of Contents

  Part One

  Part One Chapter 1

  Part One Chapter 2

  Part One Chapter 3

  Part One Chapter 4

  Part One Chapter 5

  Part One Chapter 6

  Part One Chapter 7

  Part Two

  Part Two Chapter 1

  Part Two Chapter 2

  Part Two Chapter 3

  Part Two Chapter 4

  Part Two Chapter 5

  Part Two Chapter 6

  Thrill-o-rama! Preview

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Phineas Flynn popped up in bed, his eyes wide open.

  “Hey, Ferb!” Phineas tossed a pillow across the room, aiming for his brother, who was still fast asleep. Phineas didn’t get it. How could Ferb sleep on a day like this?

  After all, it wasn’t just any day.

  This was it, the big day. The day Phineas had been waiting for all summer long. “It’s Candace’s birthday!” he shouted, blasting Ferb out of dreamland. “We gotta do better than last year.”

  Last year’s birthday had started out okay. Candace had loved her cake. It was chocolate chocolate chip (her favorite) and covered in pink-and-white frosting (her double favorite).

  But it never occurred to Phineas that Candace was afraid of gorillas.

  Especially giant gorillas hiding inside birthday cakes.

  “Not our best work,” Phineas admitted. Ferb didn’t say anything, but Phineas could tell he agreed. “This time, it’s gotta be something huge!”

  This year, Phineas was determined to give his sister a birthday present that wouldn’t make her scream and run out of the room. And he knew just how to do it.

  This is the greatest birthday ever, Candace thought, settling back into her giant, gold birthday throne. A handsome man in a tuxedo stood on a stage shaped like a birthday cake. He sang a song written just for her.

  “She’s Candace,” he crooned. “Candace! Candace! Like the Venus de Milo. Except she’s not armless and handless. She’s got a big honkin’ truckload of ship-launching qualities, and this is the reason she bears no resemblance to a praying mantis.”

  Backup singers swarmed around Candace, handing her a bouquet of flowers and a heavy, golden birthday crown.

  “Candace!” they sang in harmony. “A name with seven letters.

  “Candace! Only wears designer sweaters.

  “Candace! She’s got an allergy to dairy.

  “Candace! That chick’s anything but ordinary!”

  It was everything she could have wanted in a birthday: music, cake, spotlights, dancing, Perry the Platypus—Perry the Platypus?!?

  It was all a dream. Candace scowled. Do I get a birthday wish? she thought sourly. Because I wish I were still asleep.

  Chapter 2

  Candace scooped up Perry and stormed down to the kitchen. She plopped the platypus into Phineas’s lap. “This is yours, I believe,” she snapped.

  “Happy birthday, Candace!” her mom trilled, carrying a plate of pancakes over toward the table. “I made you a special breakfast!”

  Ooh, pancakes! Candace thought. And not just pancakes. Extraspecial birthday pancakes, with a candle on top. Linda Flynn-Fletcher wasn’t the best cook, but she made excellent birthday pancakes. Candace brightened. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a putrid birthday after all.

  “And after that, we have a surprise,” Candace’s stepfather said, looking up from his bowl of oatmeal. Lawrence Fletcher was originally from England, and his British accent made a birthday surprise sound even better.

  “What is it?” Candace gasped. She loved surprises. Especially birthday surprises. (Unless they involved gorillas.) “What is it?”

  “We have to drive to it,” her dad said.

  “Ooh!” she clasped her hands together, trying not to squeal. If they were driving to her surprise, that meant it had to be good.

  Right?

  After breakfast, the whole family piled into the car.

  Candace asked her mother where they were going. But Linda wouldn’t say.

  So she asked her stepdad.

  No luck.

  She even asked Phineas and Ferb, but they kept their mouths shut.

  The car sped down the road. Wherever they were going, it was taking forever.

  “Is it the mall?” she guessed. Please let it be the mall, she thought. That would be the best birthday surprise ever. The mall. The mall. The mall.

  “No,” her mom said.

  “Okay.” Candace sighed. But then she had an idea: maybe fooling her was just part of the surprise. “But it’s the mall, right?” she asked hopefully.

  “No, it’s not the mall,” Lawrence said firmly.

  A moment later, he turned the car off the main road. They sped past a sign for Mount Rushmore.

  “Wait,” Candace said. She was starting to get a bad feeling. The kind of feeling you get when your family drags you to a totally boring national monument and tries to pretend it’s a fun birthday surprise. “Please don’t tell me we’re going to Mount Rushmore!”

  Linda twisted around to smile at her from the front seat. “Isn’t it great?” she gushed. “Four American presidents, carved into the side of a mountain.”

  “It was Phineas and Ferb’s idea!” her stepdad added.

  Candace sighed. Of course it was.

  Candace’s dad pulled up in front of the main entrance. “Okay, you lot go on ahead,” he said. “I’ll find a parking spot and meet you there.”

  “We’re going up to the monument,” Phineas announced as his stepdad drove away. He tugged at Ferb. “Come on, Perry.” Obedient as ever, the pet platypus lumbered after them, toward the mountain.

  “Okay, we’ll join you in a minute,” Linda called, waving good-bye to the boys. Then she led Candace straight for the gift shop. Candace gaped at the tables and shelves stuffed full of ugly Mount Rushmore souvenirs. “Okay, Candace, it’s your birthday. You can pick out anything you want.”

  “Ooh!” Her mom snatched up a plastic model of the monument. Four presidents’ heads wobbled on metal springs. “What about the Mount Rushmore bobble heads?”

  Candace rolled her eyes. In a store full of ugly, the bobble-head toys took the prize. Candace thought it might even have broken a world record for ugliness. “Mom, that’s lame!”

  Her mother moved on to an ugly stuffed president. “Okay, how about this cute CuddleMe Lincoln?”

  Candace decided it was time to explain to her mother the meaning of the word lame. And the fact that if you looked up lame in the dictionary, you’d probably find a picture of Cuddle-Me-Lincoln.

  But before she could speak, Candace got distracted by something much more important than her mother’s taste in souvenirs. She spotted
a Mr. Slushy Burger sign hanging on the other side of the gift shop—and then she spotted a cute blond boy standing beneath it. A very familiar cute blond boy, looking even cuter than usual in his Mr. Slushy Burger uniform.

  “Jeremy?” she squawked.

  Get it together, she told herself. You sound like a chicken.

  Candace batted her eyes. Stay calm, she thought. Cool and casual, that’s me. “Hi, Jeremy!” she said brightly as she bounced on her toes a little.

  Jeremy grinned. Candace really liked his grin.

  Could he hear her heart pounding in her chest?

  “Hey, Candace,” he said.

  She liked his voice about twenty times more than his grin!

  Candace tried to talk, but nothing came out. Ugh! Why was it so hard to think of something to say? Maybe because her brain was overloaded by the realization that she was actually talking to Jeremy!

  Or at least trying to talk to him.

  CALM DOWN! she warned herself, rather uncalmly.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked Jeremy, managing not to hyperventilate. Barely.

  “I’m just here on the Mr. Slushy Burger worker-exchange program,” he said.

  “Um . . .” Candace forgot what she was going to say next. She glanced behind her at a huge window. She noticed she could see Phineas and Ferb heading for the mountain—and carrying rock-climbing equipment. They were definitely up to something. But what? Candace fumed.

  Jeremy cleared his throat.

  Oh. Right. Jeremy.

  “Oh, well, it’s my birthday today,” she told him, “and I, uh—” Phineas and Ferb walked past the window again. This time, they were lugging jackhammers and pickaxes.

  What were they doing?

  Candace couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to know.

  Now.

  “I gotta check something,” she told Jeremy. “Back in a flash, ’kay?”

  She was gone before he could answer.

  Chapter 3

  Phineas and Ferb were gone by the time Candace made it outside. They had places to go, mountains to climb. They were on a mission.

  It wasn’t until he was dangling off the side of Mount Rushmore that Phineas realized someone was missing. “Hey, where’s Perry?”

  Perry was on a mission of his own.

  Or rather, Agent P was on a mission.

  Most of the time, Perry the Platypus went where Phineas told him to go. He ate when Phineas told him to eat. He slept when Phineas told him to sleep. He made funny noises and performed funny tricks and, every once in a while, produced funny smells.

  In other words, he acted like an ordinary pet platypus.

  Most of the time.

  But Perry wasn’t an ordinary pet platypus. He was a secret agent, sworn to protect the world from evil. That’s all evil, in general.

  But Perry the Platypus spent most of his time battling a very specific evil. A brilliant, demented, out-of-his-mind evil named Dr. Doofenshmirtz. And while he was lumbering after Phineas and Ferb, Perry had received a secret message from his boss, Major Monogram. Dr. Doofenshmirtz was about to strike again. And only Agent P could stop him.

  That meant it was time to ditch his cover as the mild-mannered pet platypus. It also meant getting back to his home base, ASAP.

  A secret passageway was hidden in one of the Mount Rushmore trash cans. As soon as Phineas’s back was turned, Perry activated the trapdoor and dove inside. He dropped into a network of underground tubes and whooshed toward his base. It was filled with high-tech equipment, and computer screens were broadcasting constant streams of data from all over the world. But Perry ignored them all, except for the large screen hanging in the middle of the room. He flicked it on. Major Monogram’s face beamed down at him.

  “Good morning, Agent P,” the major boomed, glad to see his best operative was ready to go. “Dr. Doofenshmirtz is up to no good again. We’ve just discovered his new hideout is located inside Lincoln’s head at Mount Rushmore.”

  Mount Rushmore?

  Agent P narrowed his eyes at his boss.

  The major squirmed. “I . . . I know, you were just there,” he admitted, a little embarrassed. “Poor planning on our part, actually. Sorry.”

  Sorry didn’t change the fact that Agent P now had to run out of his secret base, dive back into the system of underground tubes, and make it back to Mount Rushmore—all before Dr. Doofenshmirtz could complete his evil plan!

  Would he make it in time?

  As soon as he arrived back at the monument, Agent P retrieved the platypus-sized digging machine that Major Monogram had left for him. He positioned it on the top of George Washington’s head, then began to drill through the aged granite. Soon he was on his way down to the center of Mount Rushmore.

  The digging machine looked like an old tire with a bunch of tiny drills taped on—but it was effective. Soon Perry reached a giant hollow in the heart of the mountain. He dismounted the digging machine and took a deep breath. The air stank of dirt and evil. Perry knew this was it: the newest hidden lair of Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

  “Ah, Perry the Platypus,” the mad scientist cackled, emerging from the depths of the cave. “Your timing is impeccable. And by ‘impeccable,’ I mean completely peccable!” He pressed a button on his remote control, and a thick glass wall dropped down between him and his nemesis. Perry banged against the glass with his fists, but it was no use. Dr. Doofenshmirtz was beyond his reach.

  For now.

  “You are just in time to witness my latest scheme.” Dr. Doofenshmirtz stepped to the side, revealing a large vehicle. It looked like a rather odd-shaped truck with a sharp silver drill jutting out of its bumper. “Behold, my Drill-a-nator! I will bore a tunnel to China, build a toll highway, and make millions.” The evil scientist laughed an evil laugh. “So, as they say in China, arrivederci.”

  Perry pounded against the thick glass as Dr. Doofenshmirtz jumped into his Drill-a-nator. There was a thundering roar and, slowly but surely, the machine began tunneling through the floor of the hideaway and toward the center of the earth. Soon Dr. Doofenshmirtz was gone, and there was nothing Agent P could do to stop him.

  Or was there?

  Chapter 4

  Candace didn’t notice Perry the Platypus disappear into the trash can, and she didn’t notice him popping out again. She definitely didn’t notice him landing on top of Mount Rushmore and then drilling a tunnel into it. She was too busy searching for her brothers. But they were nowhere in sight.

  Candace stood at the edge of the observation platform that overlooked the mountain. Phineas and Ferb had to be somewhere, but where?

  That’s when she spotted the telescope. “Let me see that!” she cried, shoving the tourists out of the way.

  Candace pressed her face to the lens and gasped. Phineas and Ferb were climbing up Abraham Lincoln’s giant nose! It might have been the craziest thing her brothers had ever done. And this time, there was no way they’d weasel out of getting caught.

  Candace would make sure of it.

  “Mom!” she shrieked. “Mom, you’ve got to see this now!”

  Linda took an incredibly long time climbing up the steps to the observation platform. Candace hopped up and down, waiting and waiting . . . and waiting. Any minute now, Phineas and Ferb were going to get caught, once and for all. It would be the best birthday present, ever.

  Finally, her mother made it to the top of the stairs and joined Candace at the telescope. “Here,” Candace said, squashing her mother’s face against eyepiece. “Look!”

  But at this particular telescope, one quarter paid for five minutes of viewing time—and the five minutes were up. All Linda saw was black screen, with a single word written across it: EXPIRED.

  “Oops,” she said. “Ran out of time.”

  Frantic, Candace dug in her pocket for another coin. She dropped it into the telescope. “Here, look now!”

  Her mother peered through the eyepiece. But she didn’t see Phineas and Ferb on the mountain.

 
; She didn’t even see the mountain.

  All she saw was a gush of water, as the park’s famous geyser spewed into the air, blocking the view of Mount Rushmore. “Oh, it’s Old Reliable geyser. How exciting!” Linda exclaimed. She backed away from the telescope. “I’m just gonna go back to the gift shop.”

  There was nothing Candace could do to stop her.

  Hanging off the side of Mount Rushmore, Phineas gripped his safety line in one hand and his pickax in the other. He gazed up at the towering stretch of granite. “Now, where should we start?”

  Ferb swung from his own safety line, jackhammer in hand. But before he could answer, a familiar voice called to them from below.

  “Hi, Phineas!” their friend Isabella shouted. Phineas squinted. She was so far below them, she looked like an Isabella-shaped bug. “Whatcha doin’?”

  “It’s a surprise!” Phineas shouted back.

  “Can I help?” Isabella was always helpful when it came to Phineas and Ferb’s plans. And she always seemed to turn up at just the right moment. Her Fireside Girl friends could be helpful, too.

  Phineas thought for a second. “We could use a lookout,” he yelled, already turning his back to her. He had a masterpiece to finish.

  “You got it!” Isabella raced toward the tallest tree she could find. She scrambled up the trunk, pulling herself onto a high, sturdy branch. Her legs firmly planted on the bark, she pulled out her walkie-talkie and called her troop of Fireside Girls.

  Isabella was always prepared. For anything. Because when you were friends with Phineas, anything tended to happen a lot.

  Chapter 5

  Miles and miles beneath Isabella and her Fireside Girls, Perry the Platypus’s digging machine tunneled toward the center of the earth. Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s huge Drill-a-nator may have been fast, but Agent P was faster. As soon as he’d been left alone, Perry had gotten back into his drill and had taken off in hot pursuit of the evil scientist. Soon the platypus had closed the distance between them, and before Dr. D even knew he was being followed, Perry had drilled right through the roof of the Drill-a-nator. Catching the mad inventor by surprise, Agent P scrambled out of his own drill and lunged toward Dr. Doofenshmirtz.