"What is this, the rapture?"
Dr. Doofenshmirtz stared out discontentedly at the stormy horizon from his balcony. The weather had taken both a turn for the worse and the weather forecasters by surprise today, the shadow of a particularly large and threatening-looking cumulonimbus cloud looming over Danville.
Doofenshmirtz jumped reflexively as an arc of lightning shot down from the cloud and struck somewhere in the suburbs area of Danville, the accompanying crash of thunder vibrating against the scientist's eardrums.
"Whoa! I didn't think any place could have storms as bad as Drusselstein's."
He paused thoughtfully for a moment.
"Well, ALMOST as bad."
Another bolt of lightning crackled against the skyline, this time a bit closer to the D.E.I. skyscraper. Doofenshmirtz frowned deeply, rubbing the spots where his titanium arms connected to his flesh. They always started tingling whenever lightning storms came around, which, thankfully, wasn't too often in Danville.
Doofenshmirtz sighed unconsciously, the sound lost to the whistling of the wind as it began to increase.
"SIR, SIR, I THINK YOU SHOULD COME INSIDE, NOW!"
"I was just about to, Norm," Doofenshmirtz replied, turning away from the gloom to face the robot. "It's not like I want to get struck by lightning, y'know, AGAIN."
"YES, THAT WOULD BE BAD." Norm agreed cheerfully as the pair retreated back into the main laboratory. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'D DO IF I LOST YOU, DAD."
"Yeah, yeah, I love you, too, junkpile," Doofenshmirtz replied distractedly, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to fix its state of disarray from the stormy conditions outside.
"SAY, DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD TELL PERRY THE PLATYPUS NOT TO COME OVER TODAY?"
"What was that?"
Doofenshmirtz gave his hair a final pat, satisfied that he'd managed to return it to his usual style.
"WHAT WAS WHAT, SIR?"
"No, I mean what did you SAY before?"
"I SAID, DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD TELL PERRY THE PLATYPUS NOT TO COME OVER TODAY?"
"What, but it's BOWLING night!"
"BUT WHAT IF HE GETS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING FLYING OVER HERE? I WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO IF I LOST MY OTHER DAD, EITHER."
The scientist frowned questioningly for a second, then sputtered as the implications of Norm's statement sank in.
"H-he is NOT my husb–I mean, your father! Besides, I think Perry the Platypus can handle a little storm."
"BUT–"
"I'm done with this conversation, Norm! I have to go grade some tests, anyway."
Doofenshmirtz pushed past the robot, intent on heading back to the kitchen where he'd left the stack of tests earlier.
"OKAY, HAVE FUN GRADING!"
"Yeah, FUN, sure…"
While his position as the newly appointed Science teacher at Danville High School was rewarding during class time, Doofenshmirtz found the act of grading countless tests and essays to be tedious and, oftentimes, frustrating. He'd been out on the balcony in the first place as a break from grading his students' most recent tests.
Putting on his reading glasses, Doofenshmirtz scooted his chair closer to the table and began his task anew.
"Now, where did I leave off? Oh, right, Johnny's."
"Which molecule is primarily located in the cell nucleus and is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases….RNA?"
The scientist facepalmed, dragging his hand down his face as he stared in disbelief at Johnny's answer.
"Oh, C'MON, Johnny! You'd think he'd at least remember what DNA is after that whole gorilla-lizard thing."
Grumbling, the scientist returned to grading, huffing whenever a student got what he considered to be an easy question wrong and nodding in acknowledgement whenever someone answered a particularly difficult question correctly.
—–
Roughly an hour passed in that manner, and Doofenshmirtz was feeling increasingly frazzled.
There were no clocks in the kitchen–he'd been meaning to install one, but just hadn't found the time–so Doofenshmirtz opted for the option that would allow him to remain stationary for the moment.
"NORM, WHAT TIME IS IT?"
"IT'S FOUR-FIFTY, SIR!"
"Perry the Platypus is late…" Doofenshmirtz muttered, pensively tapping an index finger against his chin as he placed his glasses onto the table.
Norm couldn't have been right about that whole lightning nonsense…right?
Without warning, the lights went out, plunging the penthouse into relative darkness.
Though he had a feeling it was futile, Doofenshmirtz got up and tried flicking the wall switch in the kitchen on and off.
No luck.
"OH, NO, IT LOOKS LIKE I'VE GONE BLIND!"
"It's just a power outage, Norm! The wind must've blown down some power lines."
The dense cloud coverage appeared to have blocked out most of the sunlight that would normally stream in through the penthouse's windows and, from the sound of it, it had begun to rain fairly heavily outside.
Not bothering to wait for his eyes to adjust, Doofenshmirtz made a beeline for the living room, feeling alongside the walls to guide himself forward. Unfortunately, the walls only allowed him to reach the edge of the room, whereas the object of his mission was located within the room.
After accidentally stumbling into an armchair, the scientist's eyes began to adjust enough to see vague outlines in the dim light of the room.
Finally, Doofenshmirtz found what he was looking for: the table that he'd left his cellphone on. Turning it on, he hit #2 on his speed dial and waited.
"No service?!"
Doofenshmirtz resisted the urge to throw his phone against the wall, instead sinking down into a nearby armchair.
Was Perry the Platypus okay?
Was this his fault?
After he was officially pending as a teacher after agreeing to give up evil, Perry had been one of the first in his agency to commend him. Doofenshmirtz had glowed with pride, then wondered briefly what Perry would be doing if he wasn't doing evil anymore–would he be assigned to a new nemesis?
The thought definitely hadn't burned a hole in his mind during the processing procedures for his new job, and when he learned that Perry had requested to be transferred to recruit-training the news definitely didn't feel like a weight had been removed off his chest. Yet…
Best of friends they were, he and Perry wouldn't be, by definition, nemeses anymore.
Although he knew they wouldn't never see each other again, they definitely wouldn't be meeting every day for their tête-à-têtes anymore.
He'd been the one to suggest they get together every Thursday and participate in downtown Danville's open-invite roller derby night, Perry having hurriedly convinced him to switch to bowling instead.
If he hadn't asked Perry in the first place, he wouldn't be in this situation now.
A flash of lightning briefly lit up the room, jolting the scientist from his thoughts. The expected roll of thunder, however, sounded slightly off.
Doofenshmirtz had begun to think he had just imagined it when he heard again what had altered the sound of the usual booming thunder: a knocking at his door.
Stumbling into an armchair–again–in his haste, Doofenshmirtz scrambled for the door.
There stood Perry the Platypus, soaking wet but wonderfully free from electrocution.
"Perry the Platypus! Come in, come in! I know you're semi-aquatic, but you're looking a lot more 'aquatic' than 'semi' right now."
Perry held up a hand against Doofenshmirtz's ushering, then gestured towards the rather large puddle he was beginning to drip onto the floor directly in front of the penthouse's threshold.
"Oh, that? It's just a little water; I can always have Norm mop up."
Perry shook his head and mimed a toweling-off motion.
"You want to…dance? …Oh, OH, you want a towel? Okay, sure, hold on a sec!"
After some more scrambling, Doofenshmirtz finally procured a towel and brought it back to Perry. Once Perry had deemed himself sufficiently dry, he handed back the towel and stepped into the apartment.
Excusing himself to the laundry room after suggesting that Perry wait for him in the living room, as Doofenshmirtz hung up the wet towel he realized that Perry hadn't had his usual bowling bag with him.
Doofenshmirtz peeked into the living room.
Perry was sitting on an armchair, apparently checking his communicator watch for rain damage.
Entranced at how absorbed Perry was in his task, Doofenshmirtz stared at the monotreme for a few more seconds before entering the room. Perry paused his inspection of his communicator and looked up at him.
"Hey, that's some storm out there, huh? I thought El Niño was a West Coast thing, am I right?"
Perry nodded in agreement, then pointed at the lights and gestured towards the window.
"You mean the power's out for the entire city?"
Perry nodded again.
"Wow, I haven't seen a storm like this since I was a child, back in Drusselstein. Whenever it was the stormy season, my mother would always make Drusselsteinian mousse for Roger as a treat. She never let me have any, of course, but i'm actually glad she didn't because Drusselsteinian mousse is TERRIBLE. In fact, yesterday I tried out this new neapolitan mousse cake recipe and it–"
Doofenshmirtz paused in his rambling, eliciting a concerned look from Perry as the scientist's expression morphed into one of abject horror.
"Oh NO, I bet it SPOILED! I was saving half for you to try today–y'know, to get a second opinion and everything–before we left for the lanes, but now with this blackout the bowling alley probably isn't even open, is it?"
Perry shook his head that, indeed, the bowling alley was most likely closed due to its inability to function without power.
The older man sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I bet you knew that already, right, Perry the Platypus? I-I noticed you didn't bring your bowling bag with you, so why–"
Perry interrupted Doofenshmirtz this time, waving emphatically to get the scientist to pay attention.
The agent gestured towards the windows and lights again, then pointed at Doofenshmirtz.
"You…wanted to make sure I was okay?"
Perry nodded in confirmation.
"Oh, well, thank you, Perry the Platypus! I'm touched! …Uh, since you're here and it looks pretty bad outside and all, why don't you stay for a while and we can…."
Doofenshmirtz struggled to think of an activity for them to do in the dark with no power.
Perry tapped his wrist communicator, then pointed at the lights and mimed eating.
"The power hasn't been out long enough for the mousse cake to spoil?"
Another nod.
"I guess you can try it, after all! That's great!"
Perry smiled and gave Doofenshmirtz a thumbs up.
"Before that, I think I have some candles lying around that we can set up! Let me just grab them really quick and you can meet me in the kitchen, okay?"
—
The storm continued to rage on outside, but the pair inside weren't bothered by it.