TONIGHT! IT ALL HAPPENS TONIGHT! BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! XDDD Alright everyone! So this is the first chapter of "Come Home Perry"! X3 Amber and I have been working hard on making this sound good so we really hope you all enjoy it and please, PLEASE! Leave reviews of your opinions. Please! ^^
"Candace?", little 3 year-old Phineas began as he carefully opened the door to his sister's bedroom.
8 year-old Candace looked up from her homework and looked over at her brother. She smiled a bit and sat down the pencil to give more attention as she turned around in the seat in front of her dresser.
"Yeah, Phineas?", she said, allowing him to come in.
"Um... What was Daddy like?", Phineas began, obviously a little hesitant.
Candace looked a bit puzzled by this question. Phineas hadn't asked anything about their dad before. In fact, he hadn't even known their dad. But Candace smiled a bit more as she entertained the thought of the man and she looked curiously up at the ceiling for a moment, as if trying to find the right words.
"Daddy was... Very funny.", she started with a giggle. "He loved to build things."
"Like houses?"
"No. No... More like... Like metal arms that would help you get dressed for school.", Candace said, earning a giggle from her brother.
"That sounds silly!", Phineas said.
"Yes. Yes it does.", Candace said with a nod. "Daddy used to love building them though. ...Until they blew up."
Phineas laughed a bit more and walked over to half-hug his sister.
"What else can you tell me?", he asked.
"Daddy loved us very much.", Candace said, a soft and gentle tone in her voice that trembled slightly, giving the understanding of her missing him. "...All of us. He always knew how to make me laugh."
"...And me?"
"...Daddy left before you could remember him...", Candace said, her voice growing more and more sorrowful.
After a moment's pause, Phineas looked up at her and asked in that childish, innocent voice, "Why did Daddy leave?"
"...I don't really know.", Candace said, not daring herself to look back as she tried to blink back the tears. "The last time I saw him... He... He said he had work he needed to do... He said he wanted to make Mommy very happy."
"...And he didn't come back?", Phineas asked, leaning his head onto his sister's shoulder.
"...No.", Candace said, finally looking back at her brother. After a moment, looking into those dark blue eyes that resembled so much of the man that Candace loved and missed terribly, she mustered a smile, that soon became genuine before she brushed past some of Phineas' hair and went on. "But he promised he'll come back. ...And he always kept his promises to me."
Phineas was only quiet as he looked up at her and listened, not sure of why his sister had tears in her eyes. He laid his head back onto her shoulder and thought it over carefully.
"...Candace?", Phineas began again.
"Yes?"
"...Can people come back from the dead?"
Candace was confused at hearing this. Why was he suddenly asking such a revolting question?
"No!", she said with a definite tone in her voice. "Why on earth would you ask something like that?"
"Well..", Phineas began, stepping back enough to look back at her. "YOU said Daddy was coming back. But MOMMY just told me Daddy was dead!"
Candace only stared, wide eyed and fearfully at her little brother. Was it true? That their dad was DEAD?
"Phineas...", Candace began, trying to keep calm so as not to alarm him. "What do you mean Mommy told you Daddy was dead?"
"Well...", Phineas began. "I was wanting to draw a picture of our family at the fun place Mommy takes me to before she goes to work. But then Mrs. Garcia asked me where my daddy was in the picture. So I asked Mommy about Daddy, and she said that Daddy died in a construction accident."
"A CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT?!", Candace exclaimed, unable to hide her shock now.
"That's right.", Phineas nodded, not knowing what all he was saying or the affect of his words. "A construction accident. Down town."
Candace only stared at her brother. It couldn't be true! Their dad? DEAD? Phineas was left to stare and watch in confusion as Candace tore out of the room and down the hall in a burst of tears with a deafening cry.
"MMOOOOOOOMM!"
7 years later...
"MMOOOOOOOMM!", Candace cried as she barged into the living room.
Linda sighed as she closed her book, "Your Schizophrenic Child and You". She turned as her fifteen year-old daughter marched into the room.
"Phineas and Ferb are making something SO bustable in the park!", Candace informed. "You've got to see it! NOW!"
"And what, dare I ask, is it this time?", Linda asked. "Normally, you tell me SOMETHING of what it's like. Huge? Dusty? Or are you just going to settle with dangerous?"
"No! I can't tell you! If I tell you, it might disappear!", Candace said, grabbing her mother's arm and trying to drag her out of the living room. "Come on! Come on! Come on!"
"Candace.", Linda began, pulling her arm back. "Does it ever come across your mind that you MAY be seeing things that aren't there?"
"YES. It's crossed my mind.", Candace said, rolling her eyes before picking up Linda's book. "You're NOT the only one who's reading this!"
"Then, do you think this is perhaps, NOT REAL?", Linda asked. "Just a figment of your over-active imagination?"
"But it IS real! I felt it myself! I was forced to be a part of it!", Candace said. "Mom! Does it ever come across YOUR mind that MAYBE I'm right?"
"YES. And every time I DO, I'm in the disappointment of finding out all of it wasn't in existence.", Linda said.
"Well why don't you ever try to believe in me?", Candace asked, not in a means of mad but in slight desperation. "...Dad would."
"Well of course Lawrence would.", Linda said with a shrug before picking her book up again. "He loves you very-"
"NO. DAD-Dad.", Candace said, her scowl returning.
Linda whipped her head around at this, her own scowl on her face.
"Candace Gertrude Flynn.", Linda began, standing up and looking down at her daughter. "I made it perfectly clear, to NEVER mention THAT man, in THIS house! LAWRENCE is your dad and no other!"
Candace was easily intimidated by this sudden change of attitude, but she's received it before. She sighed, her face in stern defeat.
"...Yes Mom.", she repeated obediently as she's done before, casting her eyes to the ground.
"Good. I'm glad we've re-established that.", Linda said before sitting back down. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'M going to read the rest of my book. Why don't YOU go enjoy the rest of your date with Jeremy?"
"...Yeah Mom.", Candace said, walking out of the house.
She walked out the door and Candace stopped as soon as she closed it behind her.
"...Dad would've believed me...", she said quietly to herself.
'Don't fool yourself, Candace.', her thoughts reminded her. 'No one ever does, really. If you could tell Dad about Phineas... Even he'll think you're crazy.'
Candace sighed and began walking back down the sidewalk. Back to her date with Jeremy. Back to TRYING to have a relaxing day. Back to shoving every hope she ever has about busting her brothers into the darkest corners of her mind.
Meanwhile, in the park, Phineas stopped in their daily projects to look around a bit.
"Hey, wait a minute you guys.", Phineas said. "Where's Perry?"
Perry was really sliding down a number of tubes into his secret hideout under the Flynn-Fletcher's backyard. He popped out into his chair and readjusted his fedora a bit. Soon Monogram's face appeared on the screen.
"Good afternoon, Agent P.", the major began in a very routine voice. "The evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz is up to NOTHING today. We need you to find out what he's plotting, and put a stop to it!"
Perry blinked a bit. Nothing? Heinz was doing NOTHING? With a scowl, Perry crossed his arms across his chest. Major Monogram was trying to make this sound as if he implanted a bomb into a subway station, though it didn't mask his words. But Perry didn't care if there WAS a bomb or not. If Doof was doing NOTHING, he was taking a day off. Which means PERRY should have the day off. Not run over there like a spastic girlfriend JUST to make sure he knew EVERYTHING Doofenshmirtz was doing! He HAD a family he loved. He HAD a few things in mind he'd LIKE to get around too. But every time he comes close, all of a sudden, some stupid mission like this one is brought up and he has to drop everything and run over to Doof's place. And it's not to say that Perry didn't like Doofenshmirtz, but when it really was nothing, Perry could think of things MUCH better to do.
Of course though, Perry didn't say a word of this to Monogram. He simply sat there, these thoughts already portrayed on his face.
"...Look we got an email from him. He said he was doing something REALLY evil. But our cameras have been showing nothing! He's just been sitting around on his couch!", Francis admitted, obviously as embarrassed as Perry was angry. "I don't know what's going on! Maybe it's a fake! I have NO clue. I'm sorry Agent P, but you gotta AT LEAST see if he's ACTUALLY gonna do anything evil. And even if it's not entirely evil, your job description already states, you gotta at least stop him from doing SOMETHING. I'm sorry. I know. You wanna spend time with your family. I really am sorry. But you gotta go over there."
Perry only heaved a sigh, having heard this all before. He knew his job description inside and out and even in Rune. Francis' little pep-talk isn't gonna change anything and that ESPECIALLY included his attitude as he saluted his boss and left to the hover car.
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorperateeed!
Perry came up into the room, not bothering with crashing through a window when he saw Heinz sitting on his couch, staring at the ceiling while he twiddled his thumbs. The man heard the door open and looked down to smile as he saw his nemesis.
"Oh! There you are, Perry the Platypus!", Doof said, a wide smile on his face. "Come. Sit. Don't feel like such a stranger."
He patted to a cushion next to him on the couch. Perry shrugged and walked over to sit down, wondering when a trap would spring. Surprisingly, no trap. Perry sat on the couch and actually found himself being able to relax into it while Doofenshmirtz continued sitting there, watching the platypus settle into his seat.
"So! you're probably wondering what it is I'm planning today, sitting around and not doing anything?", Heinz asked, leaning onto the arm of the couch casually. "Welp! I'll go ahead and tell ya! My plan for taking over the entire Tri-State Area is...to do NOTHING!"
Perry raised an eyebrow, waiting to hear the back story.
"...I'm serious.", Heinz said, not seeing the reaction he wanted. "I know. I know. It sounds kinda crazy. BUT. You know how before, I thought the reason why I failed was because it was called an 'inator' or because YOU'RE always getting in my way or something? Right. You remember. The Noninator, my multiple destroying inators to get rid of you. Jerry the Platypus. PENNY the Platypus. By the way, how is she?"
Perry gave a small shrug and a smile. Granted, Penny was still mad at him for willing to sacrifice the Tri-State Area instead of stopping Doofenshmirtz like he said he normally would, but he still loved her and she still hated him and she hadn't received any bad injuries yet or anything. If Perry recalled correctly, she was supposed to be expecting an adoption today.
Heinz seemed satisfied with a shrug and went on saying, "Well I've come to realize something. Now, call me crazy or a dumkoph, or even desperate. I don't care. But I've figured that if I built NOTHING, then there will be NOTHING for you to destroy. There will be NO fight. No triumph for you. Not even a trap or a back story! Well... Actually.. Suppose I already gave you a back story with going back over previous inventions, but either way. If we DON'T fight because there's NOTHING to fight over, then you WON'T win and on that technicality, I'LL win! See?"
Perry folded his arms across his chest with a skeptical look on his face.
"What? What, you DOUBT me?", Heinz asked. "You DARE to doubt my ingenious plot?!"
Perry offered a silent scoff with a nod. What was to be expected?
"You know, I find your lack of faith disturbing, Perry the Platypus!", the mad scientist snorted indignantly.
Perry simply rolled his eyes. In truth, he wasn't entirely sure if he did believe the scientist. It wasn't logical. To do NOTHING in order to earn SOMETHING, wasn't that the very sort of idea that was corrupting the country already? Well unless Heinz is jumping on that ban wagon on PURPOSE, Perry really only thought his nemesis was getting desperate and was waiting to hear that the evil scientist was in a slump.
But Heinz didn't say it. In fact, Doofenshmirtz seemed very assured that his plan would work. So Perry simply shrugged and nestled himself more into the couch, deciding to take it easy. In the thoughts of doing nothing in order to earn something, Perry had to admit, it was actually pretty evil of himself to let Owca continue to pay him what they did just to be around Doof like this.
The only hard part of Doof's plan, as the man continued to internally struggle with, was that he was promising to NOT build anything. No inators. No noninators. Nothing that Perry could blow up. But the itch, the urge, the overwhelming desire to make something complex was nagging him more and more. Like the sting from a terrible sunburn. He began to tap his foot in the air a bit, the internal itch getting worse and worse. He knew if he wasn't gonna do something to stop this, it was gonna ruin his plans. He couldn't help himself. It was like instinct. All he needed was a substitute. Something that is not involved with the Tri-State Area.
"THAT'S IT!", he suddenly shouted as he jumped to his feet.
Perry felt his heart leap into the throat at the sudden shout. It was so quiet in the room, he had almost dozed off! But now he was watching as Heinz zipped across the room, lab coat billowing behind him like a cape. Perry wandered after when the man was out of sight but was soon almost ran over as Heinz came back into the room with three cardboard boxes, stacked in his arms from biggest on bottom to smallest on top.
"YES!", he sniggered like a kid getting away with sneaking a video game to school. "Yes! I'm SOO glad I didn't throw this stuff away!"
Doofenshmirtz walked back to the couch and Perry soon flipped himself over the arm and back into his seat. He watched as Doofenshmirtz sat down and looked between the boxes curiously. He lifted one and then the other two he balanced in his hand as he turned attention between them both, as if trying to determine either which is heavier or which he wanted to use. They were very old boxes as Perry determined by the bents and tufts of cardboard and old packing tape that stuck to their sides. But Doof then made his decision, sat two on the floor beside him and the other on the coffee table. Eyes wide with excitement, the man quickly opened the box and dug around inside. He pulled out a bunch of brightly painted, colorful plastic sticks and small, shiny, metal balls. Some sticks were curved, some were straight, and a couple of them formed something like an oval without so much of a point as just another curve with small indentations into the side.
'Magnetix?', Perry questioned. 'What's so special about these?'
Heinz quickly sat to work, setting aside the more flexible or only curved ones and sorting out the straight and more stiff sticks and two rings. He quickly caught a metal ball before it rolled off the table and sat it carefully in his lap with the others.
"Now...", Heinz began, looking a bit confused at the pieces. "How did she do it...?"
His voice was very quiet, his demeanor, suddenly very different. Like he wasn't fully there. Or more like the world wasn't fully around him. He fashioned together a small square from the sticks and paused a moment, looking over his work.
"...No. No no.. Cause... Well..", he muttered.
Perry wondered briefly if Heinz often did this when he was scheming something. He had helped the man get supplies for his invention once, but otherwise, he hadn't entirely been around to actually SEE what all Doof did when he planned things. Either way, it was interesting to hear him speak so quietly. So intent and focused on what he was working on.
"...That's right!", Doofenshmirtz said with a nod as he understood his flaw. "It's supposed to be bigger than this."
He added another stick to each side of the square, connecting each stick with a ball between them. He then took the two ovals and managed to fit them together, using the indentations in the sides to hold them steadfast. After doing so, he sat the empty sphere aside and took four more sticks. One for each marble in the middle of the side of the square. After settling that up, he took two marbles, put one on two sticks on the side, and then carefully sat his circles up between the marbles. Perry raised a curious eyebrow as Heinz readjusted one of the free sticks and soon tapped the wheel down and caused it to spin by the force of the magnets' repel on the sides of the circle facing it.
Satisfied with his work, Doof sat back into the couch to watch them spin away while Perry only watched. It was interesting to see the thing spin as if by its own will, though he didn't entirely see the point of this. He looked back at his nemesis and chattered curiously.
"Hm? You're wondering why I have this?", Heinz asked, earning a nod. "Well it was...Vanessa's."
His casual and dorky smile suddenly disappeared for a moment as he stopped in his sentence before mentioning his daughter. And in that small span of time, Perry wasn't sure if he saw right, but it almost seemed like Heinz glanced down fearfully at him for the moment.
"Yeah. Vanessa's. When she was really little.", Doof continued before staring at the object, once again, as if the world around him disappeared. "She.. She was really good at these things. Loved them."
Perry watched him in slight confusion. Vanessa? Enjoying Magnetix? The platypus wasn't entirely convinced, but he wasn't sure he could get Heinz to admit the truth.
Heinz sighed momentarily, almost sorrowfully, before tapping the couch and moving on with projects. He reached down, pulled out another box, the largest one of the three, and reached inside. He pulled out several plastic pieces. Some with an opening in the end, some weaving back and forth, one with a little propeller in the middle of it, a large funnel, and one with a small round base and a door-shaped hold in the center tubing.
A marble track.
Heinz quickly began working, fitting pieces together and making it look complex. He picked up the marble from the bottom of the box and sat it at the top. Perry watched while the marble traveled across the tracks, through the patterns, across the propeller, and soon landing on the bottom. Heinz chuckled some watching this, happy with what he's done. He reached into the other box, the middle-sized one, and pulled out Tinker Toys.
Perry rolled his eyes at the sight of this. Were these Vanessa's toys or HIS toys? The platypus honestly couldn't tell and it was almost embarrassing that his adult, nemesis was insisting on playing with kiddie toys. But then again, as all of Owca knew and Perry reminded himself, Heinz Doofenshmirtz was the world's oldest kid. Immature in every way.
While Doof contended himself to start working with the tinker toys, Perry stared at everything else. He didn't wanna spend his day like this. He wanted to get home to his REAL inventors. And then an idea came to mind as Perry raised an eyebrow with a smirk.
He grabbed the marble from the bottom of the track, sat it back up at the top and once he let go of it, he took a piece of track off and turned it around.
"Perry the Platypus, what are you doing?", Doofenshmirtz asked curiously, seeing the agent "play" with the toys.
The marble went down its track, out the hole of the piece Perry had turned, hit one of the sticks of Heinz's magnetix structure, causing the magnet to flip in the air, as the marble rolled onto the floor, landing in the opposite direction, causing the wheel in the middle to draw to it, dislocating itself from the rest of the structure and causing one of the metal balls to go flying up and crash right into the the Tinker Toy tower Heinz was working on, destroying it thoroughly and leaving it in pieces once again.
"AH!", Doofenshmirtz shouted as he ducked to miss the ball.
Once he saw the damage Perry did and the proud smile on his face for it, Doofenshmirtz stood up slowly, looking around at it all, finally resting his sight on the remains of the magnetix. Perry was finally done for the day. He destroyed what Doofenshmirtz built, and was actually happy to see it turn out the way he planned. But what happened next, Perry wasn't fully expecting.
"L-LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!", Heinz shouted down at Perry, his face turning a bright shade of red from his anger.
Perry flinched, surprised at how angry the man was getting.
"WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!", Doof continued, though the platypus was speechless. "IT WASN'T EVEN AN INATOR YOU STUPID PLATYPUS!"
Perry blinked, his eyes wide with shock. No curse? STUPID? HIM? What got into his nemesis? It was only a bunch of toddler toys!
"WELL I HOPE YOUR HAPPY WITH YOURSELF!", Heinz continued, his anger still burning. "Go on! BEAT IT! You destroyed it!"
Perry was too much in shock. He could barely think a thought, let alone move. But the more he sat there, the angrier Heinz only got.
"I. SAID. BEAT IT!", he said, picking up the platypus and tossing him to the door. "Go on! Leave me alone already! Curse-you-Perry-the-Platypus, let's be done with that. GO!"
Perry was still dazed but finally gathered enough will power to catch himself as he fell and stand up. He gingerly left Doofenshmirtz, still unsure of what all gotten into him.
Heinz panted a bit, his breath lost from shouting. He felt his face cool off as he looked back at the magnetix. He lied to Perry. The set wasn't Vanessa's and they weren't entirely his either. What these simple toys were to him, meant a lot more than Perry could ever know.
And so, trying to calm himself back down, Heinz walked back over, and picked the pieces back up. He stopped to stare at his small reflection in one of the metal balls of the magnetix and sighed, tears daring to fall from his eyes.
"...Curse you, Perry the Platypus...", he whispered quietly.
By the time Perry had returned to his owners and they finished up the day's project, Heinz was stepping out of the elevator of the DEI. Before pursuing more of memory lane, he was actually pretty thirsty. Earlier that week, a brand new soda machine was installed into the first floor of the building. New soda, new machine, new company, even going with a sweepstakes just to help sell it off. Vanessa said she enjoyed it and Doof had only decided NOW to try it out He looked at it curiously as he came up to. It didn't look very special. There was only ONE kind of soda! But he didn't wanna argue the matter, even to himself, and simply inserted his dollar bill. Before he could press a button the soda came out.
*Thunk!*
A bit surprised by the quick service, Heinz picked it up and headed back to the apartment. By the time he reached his apartment again, he had already drank half the bottle. He sat on the couch, pondering what else he could do while he tried to do nothing.
Doofenshmirtz wasn't entirely sure how long he sat there. Half an hour, perhaps, when he noticed he was thumbing the bottle cap. For the silly sake of curiosity with this sweepstakes, he looked under the cap and felt his heart leap into his throat as he read it.
"YOU WON!"