Part Two of: 'THE CHANGE GAME.' Trilogy:
*A part of this is actually based on something true that happened to me. If you want to know then ask I guess...
Song:
'I Need a Doctor.' by Eminem.
WARNING: Some cursing but it was absolutely necessary!
Thoughts? x3
The glass shattered and his body tensed in his office chair as he looked ahead, at someone he really didn't want to see. Ironically it wasn't Rodney, just someone who worked for him, but the danger varied and it was almost the same thing. Almost…
Alt. Doof's right hand slid to his lap where it stayed and he didn't move, just simply said. "I still have a few days. You shouldn't be here until Friday." He told him, every ounce of his voice as serious and stern as could be. If they were coming to collect it now…Well that just couldn't happen.
"I can be here if I'm ordered." The man said "He wants it or else he wants the collateral. Tonight."
"He said I had until the end of this week. Friday. So obviously you're mistaken, because it's only the beginning of the week. Sunday." The dictator said, being as blunt as possible. This was serious, as much as he wished it wasn't.
"So, I'm guessing it's the collateral then?"
"If you think for a second that you're even getting close to that collateral, then you're, for lack of a better word, an idiot. Because I'll fight for it, and I don't think you want that at all."
"Relax. Rodney doesn't even want your brats. It's just a scare. But if you don't have what is wanted then he'd gladly take what you have to offer. What room are those kids in?"
"You're not taking them. I had five more days. It was a deal. Don't tell me your faithful leader is going back on his word."
"That faithful leader is your owner and he doesn't like how you've been acting lately."
"He doesn't own me…"
"He did, once and whether you like it or not, he still does. The adoption papers are still legal, son."
Doofenshmirtz hand grasped the shiny surface of the gun that was taped underneath his desk, and he rubbed his thumb along the barrel. "You're not taking them." He repeated the line, not acknowledging what had been said to him.
The lackey just rolled his eyes. "The thing about signing contracts…" He started walking towards the door to the hallways of the apartment as he said the rest of his sentence. "I don't need your consent…" The safety of a gun clicked and the man turned, holding his hands up in the air, staring at the weapon in the nearing dictator's hands, which was pointed directly at him, the gloved finger on the trigger. He backed away, but the gun followed wherever he went.
Doofenshmirtz forced him away from the door by circling him and backing him to where he couldn't run out and there were no exits, in front of his desk. His glare could cut steel as he willed himself to do what he was about to do. His grip tightened on the gun just the slightest.
The guy didn't know how to quit, he just kept going. "What's daddy going to say when he hears that sonny boy is a murderer?"
"He isn't my father…" Alt. Doof growled.
"I don't see why you get so upset when people point out the resemblance. You're just like him…"
He pulled the trigger.
...
I'm about to lose my mind
You've been gone for so long,
I'm running out of time
I need a doctor,
Call me a doctor…
I need a doctor,
Doctor…
To bring me back to life…
...
Platyborg never thought Doof to be a murderer. The man took care of him, fed him and bathed him with all the love and attention he could ever want. He had never thought the man to be anything other than kind…
But now…as he stared at the pooling blood and the still body on the floor of the dictator's office, he- he really didn't know what to think. He was in bed when he heard a noise. It sounded like glass had broken and the cyborg just thought that Doof had dropped something and it broke. Doofenshmirtz was always up late at night, and always getting very minimal sleep. Platyborg hadn't thought much of it, he was a child so he only saw things in optimism. He had never once thought that the man had insomnia, or stayed up late working for important matters. He just figured that Doof didn't like sleeping and would rather be active late at night and on the scene than just lying down and resting.
After the sound of the glass shattering, the cyborg tried to get back to bed. He heard signs of struggling but again, he only assumed something natural. Maybe Doof was going through his closet or something…?
Then there were voices, two of them but they sounded far away and he couldn't make out voices. He thought that maybe….maybe Charlene had come in and the two were arguing about Vanessa again like they always did over the phone?
Deep down, he knew, he always knew something was wrong, but he couldn't deal with it, he refused to fathom it. He heard it, the rude awakening and an unmistakable pop of a bullet being fired. Then a dead silence. Platyborg's chest tightened and he threw the covers off, scrambling out of bed and down the hallway. He peeked into the crack in the slightly open door to the office.
Doof was standing there, and the man sighed. He walked over to a cabinet, pulling out a folded white sheet to gently lie over the body. He kneeled next to it and the cyborg could faintly hear the dictator ask himself. "What have I become…?"
"Doof?"
The man turned with a start, instinctively cocking the gun, his eye widened at the cyborg and he lowered the weapon, staring straight at the cyborg in a state of loss and disgust…for himself.
Platyborg stared back in the stilled silence, and said nothing, not even in the morning, when the police arrived to collect the body.
Vanessa sat on the couch, silently, next to her cybernetic sibling. Their relationship had grown back over some time and she couldn't even remember when it had stopped in the first place. She had her arm around him in an embrace as they both sat side by side on the red, nice, couch.
They watched the police wheel away the body of the burglar that had broken into their house last night. The guy had broken in and her father caught him, and saved his own life by shooting him. Apparently the dude had pulled a gun but Doofenshmirtz pulled his faster before he was shot. She was in shock now, and scared. What if her dad had been killed? When she was told what happened by him, she had yelled that he was stupid and what if he hadn't been faster?! He could have died!
He calmed her down and reassured them that everything was fine now. She didn't argue with him and just stopped talking. Vanessa felt worry, not only for her father almost being shot but for Platyborg. Apparently he saw what had happened and hadn't said a word since. And she had no idea what was going on in that mechanical head of his. Every once in a while, she'd offer him a sentence of reassurance, but he'd just blink at her. She took this as somewhat of a good sign. At least he knew she was talking to him…
Her father just stood there in the doorway, watching. He looked in his own world, eye wandering and searching apparently for something. Something that couldn't be placed.
After the police had gone and so was the body, the three were alone. The two still sitting on the couch, finally the dictator approached them, and she noticed her father had found something small, but not enough to fill the search completely.
"…I arranged for the two of you to go away for a few days." Alt. Doof told them, still lost in other thoughts. "The other me agreed to let you stay with him… Until this whole thing is straightened out…." He wasn't paying attention to his words, only focused on something else, perhaps those other thoughts, that she still couldn't read from him… "…I had a Normbot pack your things and they should be coming through a portal any minute…" He was pausing and unsure, that almost never happened.
Finally Vanessa had had enough. "No! We aren't going anywhere!"
"Vanessa…" He just stopped, not even continuing his sentence, and he coughed hoarsely, looking like he was trying to hold something in.
"You're almost killed and you expect us to just leave you by yourself?! What if he has friends and they come back?! You could have died! Don't you care about us?! At all?! Dad, answer me! Please! You killed someone! Was it even an accident?!" She cried to him. "And Platyborg saw the whole thing! What if he's traumatized from this?! He saw you shoot someone! And…from the way you've been acting…I don't think it was an accident!" Vanessa yelled and a throat cleared behind her. She turned to see her dad standing there in a white lab coat and two eyes, along with a non-metal version of Platyborg, a orange haired girl about her age and two small boys. All standing there awkwardly.
Her other dad had soft eyes, full of sorrow and concern. He spoke to her. "You must be Vanessa…well, the one that isn't mine that is…"
She couldn't believe he actually was able to make her smile. Maybe a few days away from her own father and with a new one…wouldn't be so-
The door opened and she couldn't fathom the sight of who was standing in the doorway. Her grandparents. It almost seemed too random… But when her grandfather started demanding her father why the building had been on the news and what all this talk about a murder was about, she knew it was apparent and actually happening...
...
"... You are a killer and you have always been a killer!" The elder, 2nd Dimension Doofenshmirtz' father yelled to his son, in front of everyone. "Schande! You are a disgrace to be my son!"
Alt. Doof exploded then, no longer taking the verbal abuse and fighting back, as everyone watched on, not butting in to the father and son's arguement. Candace-1 watched on in amusement that someone was getting 'busted', and Phineas-1 watched worriedly, glancing at his dimensions Dr. D for guidance, but the scientist was staring at his counterpart as he started to scream "...I'm a killer?! I'M A KILLER?! What about you?! I SAW what you did to her! I witnessed the whole thing! You can't deny it, because I SAW EVERYTHING!"
"Then why did you not stop it?" His father asked him.
"….What?"
"I said…" His father challenged "If you had saw the whole thing, why did you not try to stop me? Why did you just let it happen? Du bist kein richtiger Mann. It looks to me, that you wanted to take out the trash just as much as I did. She was weak! Ja! She deserved it…"
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Alt. Doof screamed, and stumbled when his father struck his face, holding it in stinging pain.
The 1st him gasped at the 2D version of his father, enraged quickly and shouting "You can't do that! That's assault, and Perry the Platypus can arrest you. That is, if the other me chooses to file charges that-"
The dictator shook his head no. It wasn't necessary and the scientist sighed. Perry put away the handcuffs he was holding.
Alt. Doof stood up, starting to cough, he ran out of the room. The dictator ran down the hallways, hastily making a turn and throwing open the public bathroom door. He got some pills out of his black pocket and opened it, popping down some green tablets, using the water from the sink to wash them down. He took one look in the mirror and something inside him lurched. He covered his mouth to hold it as he ran into a stall, kneeling, he threw up. It was red and thick, harshly burning his throat as he continued to empty his stomach.
Doof finally caught up, and it reminded him of how fit the other him was compared to him. Great, another thing he was better at then him. He panted as he entered the bathroom. It was empty, well that's what he thought until he heard the heaving and splashing coming from a closed stall. He winced at the violence of it. After waiting for another round to end, he talked when his counterpart started to calm down, only pants and breaths escaping his mouth now.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Alt Doof took shuddering breaths "Yeah...I'm fine..."
"Look I know you don't want to start problems with your father but he hit you pretty hard, and as a result you sound like you're puking your guts out in there! Why won't you press charges, and at the least, why didn't you just hit him back?"
"The truth?" Came the response from inside the stall.
"Yeah?"
"He's my father."
Doofenshmirtz didn't understand "Okaaay, he's my father too. What does that have to do with anything?"
"I stepped out of line and he disciplined me. There's nothing to it. It's just like grounding but quicker."
"Just like grounding but quick-...? Do you even hear yourself? He hit you so hard that you're puking and that's all you have to say?"
Alt. Doof was going to answer but his mouth closed quickly, not being able to keep it shut anymore as he went into a coughing fit. He wasn't done and he spewed into the white bowl, staining it immensely.
Doofenshmirtz listened to the disturbing sounds. Being curious and concerned, he entered a stall next door, standing on the seat and peering over. His eyes widened and he was horrified. His counterpart was throwing up blood. Crimson, gushy, clouds and gobs of fresh blood. It marked the toilet horribly as it erupted from his mouth, ceasing to cough and catch air, closing his eye in either relief or pain or both. The scientist didn't know.
"Oh my god!"
Alt Doof looked up at his dimwitted counterpart, scowling "This is a disturbance of privacy..." He heaved, pushing what was coming up, back down into his stomach. "I could...file charges against you for this..." He coughed, voice hoarse from stress. Alt Doof blinked at his counterpart's horrified expression, sighing "I'm fine…"
Doof looked peeved "I have said this a million times before...and I mean it over a million times now when I say: YOU...ARE NOT...FINE! What the hell's the matter with you?!" The scientist cursed, throwing the second back a bit. "You are COUGHING UP BLOOD! Does that really sound 'FINE' to you?!"
Alt Doofenshmirtz argued back "If it'll get you off my back then yes!"
"That's it. I'm taking you to a hospital!"
"You're not taking ME anywhere!" Alt. Doof said as he flushed the toilet, slamming the door shut as he stormed to the sink. The first him stormed out of the next stall.
"You're sick! Please let me get you help!"
"I don't need anyone's help and I definitely don't need yours!" Alt Doof told him, walking away.
The scientist sighed, going to let his counterpart leave before something caught his eyes. A orange bottle of prescribed pills sat on the sink. "Chemo Therapy Supplement?"
Alt Doof's eye widened, as he searched his clothes, slowly turning around to see his counterpart holding his pills. "Give me those!" He demanded, trying to get them out of his hands.
Doof held them away from reach "What are these for? Wait..." He frowned "Chemo...That means…"
"I'm terminally ill." The Alt. Doof admitted "There. Are you happy now?"
Doofenshmirtz wasn't in the least "Other me-"
"I'm bleeding internally and there's nothing they can do to stop it." Alt. Doof continued talking "They diagnosed me and I couldn't say anything. I didn't know HOW I could. There was nothing to say. Do you know how much longer they said I had?" The man laughed "They told me I have three years to live...-"
"That's great!" The scientist cheered. "Well, not GREAT but-"
"-They said that eight years ago."
"…What?"
Alt. Doof paced the bathroom as he talked, something he often did when he explained something. "They diagnosed me a week after I had Platyborg, and that's when I realized that thing's had to change now, at that very moment before it was too late and nothing could change at all. I had to get away from the very organization that raised me, and I had to get my kids away from it too. I packed my stuff and left without a trace. I went to my building and I took Platyborg with me and we hid until I built enough robots to have an army…"
"It must have been rough to build an army all on your own the way you did…"
"Platyborg helped me out. He couldn't speak yet but he passed me tools and stayed out of the way when I did the welding and fusion. He kept me going, just by looking at him I knew that I couldn't stop. In order to keep him safe I had to create a wall of protection, and the biggest wall of protection there is, is in government-"
"So THAT'S why you took over the Tri State Area!"
"Yes…it is…" The other him nodded solemnly and he didn't understand.
"Why are you unhappy about something like that? You RULE a part of the world!" Doof praised him "I've been trying to take over my Tri State Area for years, and look how far I've gotten! I don't have a son like you do, I don't rule anything, and I'm not as smart as you are if I can't even find a way to get any of these things! You should be proud of yourself for all you've accomplished!"
"Proud of myself for what? I shot someone last night. Do I deserve to be praised for my perfect headshot? I watched the bullet enter, watched his eyes roll back as he fell, the fresh blood pooling around his body. The color draining from his face and eyes as the life went away with it… He's right…" Alt. Doof whimpered "I'm just like him…"
"Whoa! No! What?!" Doofenshmirtz threw his arms forward in disbelief "You are NOTHING like our dad. Do you hear me? Don't ever say something like that! It's not true!"
"I didn't mean him…" The dictator said and walked to the door, pausing and resting his hand on the frame.
The scientist wondered just who his counterpart was referring to, but didn't really get a chance.
"Are you still taking them…?"
"Of course…"
"…Thanks." He said and went to leave.
"Ah!" Doof pulled him back by the shoulder, going out the door himself. "I'll take care of our parents…"
"You don't have to-"
"I do." He said, grabbing the other him's hand to shake it with a friendly smile, leaving the restroom.
The dictator blinked, sighing and walking back to the sink, looking in the mirror, the reflection staring back at him. But then…it changed, to something evil, he saw horrible things, his worst fears becoming a reality. In the glass, Platyborg lay unmoving, his daughter torn apart and breaking down, his grave, hanging in the balance and it all spun together to make one big picture. Metaphorically speaking that is, but what he did next was real. He didn't break the glass, he restrained his anger, turning away from the mirror, head down, refusing to look at it as he hunched over the sink in misery.
...
-Cuz, I'm about to lose my mind
You've been gone for so long,
I'm running out of time
I need a doctor,
Call me a doctor…
I need a doctor,
Doctor…
To bring me back to life…
...
Alt. Doof looked down at the cyborg, suddenly tugging on his sleeve. It blinked up at him and he didn't hesitate to scoop it up in his arms, blinking back at it and no words were said between the two. Platyborg sighed, wrapping the small arms it had around his neck. He held the thing close to him, closing his eye and finding peace in the heart-filled embrace.
As he peeked through the crack in the door, the five-dollar doctor smiled to himself.
Vanessa held her suitcase in hand, standing in front of the now open portal as those two, brightly colored boys- along with their non-cyborg platypus and sister- stepped through it and disappeared.
"Bye Dr. D!" The orange haired one called on his way out to her father. "Feel better!"
But her dad just blinked at the kid. She could distinctly see the green haired one roll his eyes as he also stepped through, a chatter from their animal as it too stepped into it, along with that girl. Now it was just her and Platyborg standing in front of the portal now, across from Alt. Doof who stared at them in a sulky stare. Even though she refused to meet his gaze, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and said her goodbye. Platyborg struggled and groaned, straining to pull his suitcase across the floor further to the rippling inter-dimensional gateway.
Her other dad, the one in the lab coat, picked the suitcase up for the cyborg, breaking the silence, both thankfully and ungratefully. "They can stay with me as long as they need. I have lots of stuff that they can do." The scientist said as he listed things on his fingers. "Board games, puzzles, internet-"
"Five days." Alt. Doof told him.
"Yes…right…" Doofenshmirtz looked down awkwardly, heading to the portal.
Platyborg gave one last look at the dictator before running through, looking to be in a hurry to leave. Alt. Doof almost went after him to confront him but his 1st self, reassured him…
"I'll have a talk with him."
Alt. Doof nodded and started slowly making his way out of the living room. The scientist stared after, concerned and he handed the other him's Vanessa, Platyborg's suitcase, squinting his eyes to see the other him better.
"You go ahead…" Doof told her. "I'll catch up…"
Vanessa-2 shrugged and stepped through the portal, after a few seconds it closed completely behind her.
Doofenshmirtz quietly followed the other him to his office where the dictator cautiously picked up a black suitcase, staring at it in regret for what seemed like a long time. Doof tilted his head in confusion before the other him sprang to life, dashing out of the office and through the hallways, down the stairs, and the scientist could have sworn the man was like a machine.
He ran after his counterpart, following him out of the building where the chase continued through the streets and long after that.