Chapter 3: Facing Fate in France

Perry

After the Minotaur left the arena, I got in the ship and got into the cockpit. I looked around at the controls. Okay, how do I start this thing? I have a great ability to use technology, but this was different. It was like everything I knew could basically go out the window. I closed my eyes and remembered what Penelope had done to start the ship. I did this and it purred to a start. I smiled. I'm coming, Pen, don't worry.

Getting the ship in the air wasn't the problem. The problem was that I didn't know where to start. Wait... the Enigma said he was going to France. Yes. I will corner him and demand that he tell me where that creature took my wife. Keeping this in mind, I set coordinates for Paris, France's capital, where the Enigma would undoubtedly be.

Once in Paris, I looked around at the beautiful city. I remembered coming here when Doofenshmirtz was looking for his daughter. This memory made me wonder where the evil scientist was. He had been missing since just before Protocol P-1 was put into effect in the Tri-State Area. Penelope had not heard a word about his whereabouts, so she re-assigned me. I knew she didn't want to, but it was nice to have something to do. After all, if I didn't have a job, that would make her the one that "wears the pants" as it were. I rolled my eyes. Not gonna happen.

The sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful combination of color. Tears welled up in my eyes. I wish Penelope could see this. She would have loved it. I went back in my mind to our first date in the park. We had watched the sunset together and she had come up with a poem that described what she was seeing. I don't know when it was that I truly fell in love with her. I had said at our wedding that it was when she said she needed help. As I looked back though, I thought about all the other times that... I thought she was beautiful.

The first time I had seen her eyes change to violet after her dream. When she danced in her sleep and told me she loved me. When I first saw her in nothing but a towel. When we were kids and she had... such a life about her. She was so much more free as a child.

The deaths of our loved ones influenced her greatly. She would wake up in the night screaming, not from a vision, but from the memory. She would sometimes see or hear something and it would trigger that memory of that night. She was terrified of thunder, not because of the loud noise, like most small animals, but because it reminded her of the shotgun that killed them. I once got a cut in my arm from a mission and she almost fainted at the sight. She fixed my wound with alcohol and gauze, just like any other wound, but tears flowed from her eyes. She couldn't stop crying because my father had the same type of wound on his arm. It was clear to me today that the memory would never leave her. It would haunt her all the days of her life.

When I looked back on childhood, I remembered my time with Penelope. I remember playing and just simply... enjoying life... for all it was worth. I loved my mother, as did Penelope. My mother was kind and loved to do the things that women do. She loved sewing, baking, cleaning, anything that women do; she took it with a smile on her face. Penelope's mother never spoke often, but when it was, it was sharp and cutting. Penelope's mother, it was true, hated Penelope because Penelope wasn't wanted. She was an accident. Penelope's father, however, loved her with everything in him. She learned almost everything pertaining to science from him. She learned how to live. My father, on the other hand, was very strict. He was quick in his decisions and never usually thought twice about them. He was always nagging at me to be the best that I could be. Looking back now, I wonder if I met his expectations. I wonder if what I'm doing is good enough. Would he say I am doing everything I can do or would he say I needed to do better? That was always what he told me. " 'Son, you can do better. Do it again.' " The word "try" was not in my father's vocabulary. He never believed in "try" only "do." I think that influenced how I think today. Some part of me remembered my father's words. " 'Don't try, do.' "

"Hey, Perry," I heard Phineas's voice as he came into the cockpit.

"Hey, Phineas," I replied. I kept my eyes on the area outside the window, looking for a place to land.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I'm going to find Penelope. That's a promise."

"Just don't do anything you would regret."

"I know what I'm doing, Phineas."

"Really? It seems to me you're getting emotionally involved," said Ferb, coming in.

"I am not emotionally involved. I have made a mission in my mind. I am going to track down and capture the Enigma. I will force him to tell me where Penelope is. I will go to the place and if the Minotaur is there, I will kill it," I replied.

"What? Why?" asked Phineas.

"He is an animal. I am an animal. In nature, if an animal takes the mate of another animal, that other animal fights against it for rights. I don't care how big he is, he's going to be eating dirt when I'm done with him."

"Perry, killing him won't make things right. What will you have to gain? What would Penelope do?" asked Phineas.

I thought about his question a moment before answering. "Let me tell you a story. Penelope ran from the hunter for a long time, most of her life. After she grew older, she started tracking him down. She found him, in a cottage in England. He was weak, feeble, dying in a wheelchair from emphysema. She couldn't bring herself to shoot him. They talked it over and he apologized. He had turned away from his reckless ways and he was regretful of how much he hurt her. He told her that if she wanted to kill him, he would understand. She told him that she understood and that she forgave him. She left. She had given him the peace of mind that he was forgiven and he gave her the peace of mind that he was sorry for his actions. That is a scenario of man vs. animal."

"See? They made up, so why can't you...?" asked Phineas, but I interrupted.

"I'm not finished. Another time, when Penelope was more experienced as an ALPHA agent, she was sent after a wild animal that had been eating young animals. Not for fun, mind you, but for sick purposes, because he thought it was fun. Just like the hunter once thought killing was fun. She tracked this animal down and they fought. She tried to make peace with him, but he had another young animal in his sights. She killed him before he could get to the young animal. She had told me these same things and told me 'If anyone comes after our family for harm, I will attack. I understand if you don't do the same, but it will be strange if you don't. We can act civilized all we want, we're still animals, Perry. I would kill for my family.' I look back on what she said now, and I agree with her. That beast harmed her, and I must take care of this the way the animal kingdom would want me to. I must kill it."

"Two wrongs don't make a right," said Ferb.

"Taking the female away from the male makes the male venomous. Why do you think my ankle barbs have poison in them?" I asked. I found a place to land and cut everything but the basic power, which included lights inside, the cloaking mechanism, and the radar. "I will find the Enigma, and when I do, I will make him talk. That's a promise."

I had dozed for a while, waiting for the radar to pick up something. It gave a loud beep, which woke me up. It was night. The radar showed that the Enigma was close-by. I made sure to lock up the ship with the extra remote that Penelope had given me, and I headed to the coordinates.

The coordinates led me to just below the Eiffel Tower. It was quiet and vacant. The only light that could be seen for a long way was the light near the elevator. The small yellow bulb illuminated the entire base of the tower, but not much more. I looked around. He should be right here.

"Are you looking for me, platypus?" came a voice. It was the Enigma.

I turned in the direction of the voice, but I saw nothing. "Where are you?" I asked the darkness.

"Haven't you heard?" he asked. Once he said this, my remote beeped. The screen pulled up a picture of Europe and France, which had once been blue, turned red.

"Where's Penelope?"

"Oh, you mean the little Sheila? She is in good hands, if I do say so myself." He gave a deep-throated laugh.

"What do you want with her? Isn't taking over the world enough?"

"Ooh. Have I angered you, Maxwell... that is your name, isn't it? You see, about the only memories I have before my separation with Phillip have to do with times when he was feeling angry."

"My name is Perry."

"Touchy. Well, do you remember what I said when Penelope asked me what I wanted? I said that my world wasn't enough. What I meant by that was this, all of my OMEGA agents, even my creation, the first Minotaur in history since ancient Greece, are not enough. They are not the whole world. Did you know that sometimes Phillip and I share thoughts? It's strange to think about, isn't it? Someone so far from you in morality is inside of your head, imposing ideas. I have said that to say this, he has shown me how... happy you and Penelope are." He said "happy" with a tone of distaste, as if the emotion were poison to him. "I want your world, Perry. I want to live in it, be in it. I want your wife to be my wife. I want your job to be my job. I want your children to be my children. Do you understand me? Even though, in a way, I already have your job." He laughed at this.

"What did you do?"

"Oh. Has no one told you? I have your Doofenshmirtz. I kick his sorry hide in a way you never could before. You only tormented his body. I am tormenting his body and his mind. You and I are going to play a little game, platypus. The Minotaur loves his home, something I, out of the mercy of my heart, have re-built for him. If you know anything about Greek mythology, you already know where he is. You can go there and save your precious Penelope or..."

"Or what?"

He scoffed. "I have heard you are quite the force to reckon with, mate. If you are able to get me back with Phillip before the New Year, if you are able to capture me, I will call off all of the agents. I will return the world to normal. You will have your bosses back, you will have your wife back, and I will erase the memories of those who saw all of this. It will be like it never happened. Life can return to normal. If you can't... I don't think I need tell you what happens if you fail. It is time to face your fate, platypus, it is either your wife, or the world. Your choice." He laughed and his voice disappeared into the distance. I was about to go after him, but I felt a hit from behind and I blacked out.

When I woke up, I was lying on the same rooftop that the ship was on. I quickly went inside and found everything as I left it. Why didn't he do anything? He could have taken them all, yet he chose to spare them... and me. I heard a beeping coming from the cockpit. It was an incoming script message. I pressed the print button and a sheet of paper came out.

It said:

If you want to play my game, head east, P.

Where the Nazi was, so shall the beast be.

If not, it is only an order away

To send your wife Tartarus's way.

Yours truly not,

The Enigma.

I wrinkled the paper in my hands. He wanted me to play his game or he would kill my wife. Well, if that is how it's going to be, then let the games begin. I set a course for Germany and the ship zoomed on its way. Don't worry, Penelope. I'm coming.

All right! Perry's going to save the day! I know you guys probably hate the Enigma now, but if I didn't introduce this problem, I would have a very short book. I like long books. Please keep reading and reviewing, thanks :)