This is the last chapter before school starts up again, so I don't know when I'll be able to update :( It's a lot shorter than the other chapters, but that's because it's… Well you'll find out :p Enjoy!
Perry POV
It hurts. Oh my God it hurts.
Everything. Everything is on fire. White hot, searing pain.
I've only felt this much pain once before, but at least I was able to black out then. Why am I not blacking out? Make it stop. Please someone make it stop…
Phineas, this is not one of your better ideas.
What on earth was he thinking anyway? I was so comfortable inside; you know, where I wasn't in pain. Why couldn't he have chosen some other animal to torture? Why me!?
I know he's not torturing me. Not really. Whatever happened wasn't his fault. He didn't mean to put me in pain. Actually, 'pain' is too nice of word. Agony? Not good enough. Excruciating? I suppose it's a very good adjective. Unbearable, piercing, insufferable? All of those work.
Imagine your bones cracking. I don't mean the sound they make when you twist a certain why and your back pops. I mean cracking; like your bones are physically breaking right underneath your skin. And then they begin to reform; as in actually forming a new skeletal frame. It's a weird experience, feeling your bones shift positions and elongate or shorten or disappear altogether. But you don't have time to dwell on that strange fact because it feels like your flesh is on fire. Someone poured lava on you. It bubbles and burns. Your skin is melting off. But then you feel a new substance, one that I'm vaguely familiar with. (Though I can't seem to recall what the new material is or why it's familiar to me.) Something escapes my mouth. It felt like… A groan? But I can't groan; I'm a platypus. My head pounds. I can't think for too long for fear that my brain might actually blow up. Is that even possible? I'm loosely aware of the grass beneath my skin or the wind gently pushing through my hair.
(Wait something's wrong…)
I hear someone, someone familiar. She's close. So achingly close. My body disobeys me and lets out a whimper. Curse you! You're supposed to be strong! But I'm not strong. I'm so very weak. Of course I whimper like a frightened kid at her voice; not being able to be near her broke me. Not completely, but something inside of me broke that day… That day long ago…
(What am I doing? I'm pushing myself up. How am I pushing myself up?)
Smoke. There's smoke all around me. Where did the smoke… Oh. Oh right. The machine. It blew up. It blew up… That doesn't normally happen with Phineas and Ferb's inventions… Doofenshmirtz's sure, but the daft bugger always adds a self-destruct button (not that I'm complaining– it sure makes things easier).
As the smoke slowly clears, the pain slowly disappears. What had happened? Did a piece of the machine hit me? Is that why I'm in pain? I think back, trying to remember if I was hit by a stray bolt or wire. Nothing comes to mind; nothing but a throbbing headache. The wind blows and I shiver.
(Shivering… I've never shivered before. Not while I was a platypus…)
I hear a voice. It's female. She's asking a question. But it's not her voice. It's… It's Candace's, right? It hurts to think, but I try anyway. Right, that voice is Candace's. She asked… What was going on. She wants to know what's going on. Well she wasn't the only one.
(I'm sitting up. Something's on my head. I'm sitting up. It feels wrong. It feels different. I'm cold. I'm never cold; my fur keeps me warm. The wind blows harder and I wrap my arms around myself. No that shouldn't be possible. That shouldn't be possible…)
While my body wasn't in pain anymore, my mind was scattered and spinning. There was something wrong, but I couldn't tell what. I felt like I should know what was wrong, but every time I thought I had the answer, it would just disappear from my mind. I had nothing, but a splitting headache. Curling in on myself, I grabbed the side of my head, hoping that if I pulled hard enough on my hair, I would forget about my throbbing head.
(I grabbed…my hair…?)
A weight suddenly presented itself on my shoulders. Immediately, my fingers left my hair and reached for the newly-found pressure. As I curled my fingers around the fabric, I realized it was a blanket. Someone gave me a blanket. I looked up, wondering who it was, and realized my vision was burry. Oh God, had I been crying?
(...But platypi...can't...cry...)
Wiping away the tears with the back of my hand, I look up again to see Ferb. Ferb gave me the blanket. His expression looks conflicting. There are so many emotions going through that normally stoic face that I can't keep track of them all. There was fear, then confusion, then worry, then-
I reach up, hoping to comfort him, but then I stop quickly.
I reach up. I reach up… I can't reach up! I'm not supposed to be able to reach up!
A hand. No, my hand. I see my hand. My human hand. Everything clicks into place.
"Oh," I breath. It all makes sense.
"I'm human again."
