(Perry's POV)
I couldn't easily get back to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, the image of the two platypuses, lying there ripped apart, amidst all that blood, haunted me. Priya was amazing though. Every time she felt me twist in our bed, she cuddled closer to me. It helped ease the pain but let me tell you: when the alarm rang in the morning, for the first time in my life I was glad to hear it.
Breakfast had always been a time for thinking, and as I slowly ate my cereal, I reflected on my dream. I definitely saw myself in the dream. There was no mistaking that that tiny platypus in the bush was me. And I had been about to shout, "Mom! Dad!" Both platypuses used to have teal fur, that much was obvious. My dad Patrick had teal fur. Yet neither platypus had had yellow fur, which was my mom Pearl's fur colour. If this dream had come straight from my imagination, one of the platypuses would have had yellow fur. However, both had been teal coloured. So who were those platypuses and why did I think they were my parents? And why did I feel such an emotional attachment to them?
My children were being unusually quiet. I barely noticed until we were nearly finished our meals-I was focusing on my dream-but once I did notice, I was slightly worried by it.
"Kids, is everything okay?" I asked.
"Why don't you ask Hazel?" grumbled Teddy into his cereal. "She's perfectly happy to talk about other people."
"Oh, this again?" Hazel threw her hands into the air with frustration. "I said I was sorry!"
"You told Parker I was a horrible big brother!" Teddy snapped.
"I was trying to impress him!" Hazel defended herself. "I didn't mean anything by it!"
"Why would you try and impress Parker by talking badly about me?"
"He was complaining about his sibling!" Hazel snapped. "I didn't want to be left out!"
Teddy punched Hazel in the arm. "Ow!" snapped Hazel.
"Teddy, don't hit your sister!" Priya reproached.
"Unbelievable!" snapped Teddy. "You sat there and heard her say she talked badly about me behind my back to her friend but when I simply hit her, you tell ME off?"
"Teddy, watch your tone!" I told off my son.
Teddy scraped his chair back noisily and stormed out of the room. Priya immediately got up and followed. "Teddy, come back!"
Distantly, Hazel and I heard Teddy yell, "it's because she's the youngest!"
I heard Hazel chuckling into her cereal. "You're not off the hook, young lady," I told her sternly.
"Oops."
"Why did you talk about Teddy behind his back?"
"I was trying to impress Parker," sighed Hazel. "I know it's stupid now but at the time it seemed fine."
"Being mean about your brother is never fine," I scolded her.
"I know, I know."
I took a look at the clock and nearly had a heart attack. "Oh, man! I need to go into work in ten minutes!"
(Ridelle's POV)
Being a meerkat sometimes had its disadvantages. The automatic instinct to hide made me late for work almost every day. So it came as no surprise one day when I found myself hiding from every car that passed me. I never took the tram: I was always too nervous; being a meerkat meant I was scared of pretty much everything.
I skittered towards the OWCA building, late as usual. However, before I could enter, I felt myself be grabbed by the waist. I let out a yowl and scrabbled with my claws. The person holding me didn't let me go, no matter how much I tried to scratch.
I heard a male drawling voice say, "Poor little meerkat. Don't worry, it'll be over soon."
I panicked. Was this guy going to KILL me?! This was too much for my scared little brain to handle.
He took hold of me by the scruff of my neck with one hand. Then he took out a very long ladder and climbed to the roof of the building opposite OWCA HQ. He held me out over the drop. It was about fifteen storeys high, and I was so terrified I couldn't even struggle.
When I next heard the drawling voice, it was magnified and also not talking to me. "Major Monogram! I have your agent!"
Me?! What the heck was going on?!
"Surrender or I will drop him!"
That really insulted me because I was a girl, but the guy just shook me. "I mean it!"
Far below me, I saw Major Monogram and Carl come running out onto the grass between the two buildings. Monogram too had a bullhorn. "Rodney! Well, for one thing, Agent Ridelle is a girl."
"That's irrelevant," Rodney shouted into the bullhorn.
"And for another," added Carl through the bullhorn. "You do know if you drop Agent R then we can just catch her, right?"
"Maybe so," leered Rodney. "But I have a gun. So unless you'd like to be catching this rodent's dead body, I suggest you surrender OWCA to me."
"She's not a rodent," called Major Monogram. "Meerkats are mammals."
Frankly, that was better than Monogram saying something like, "she's just one agent, I'm not going to surrender all of OWCA for her."
"That's it!" Rodney howled. "Say goodbye to your little mammal agent!"
With that, he dropped me off the edge of the building.
(Perry's POV)
I arrived in time to witness everything. I saw Ridelle fall. I heard her scream.
I snatched up a large stick from the tree nearby and readied it. When Ridelle was in place, I ran and pole vaulted to meet her in mid air, hitting into her. I caught hold of her body and hit the wall of the building, clinging onto the metal fire escape on the outside of the building, Ridelle safely in my other hand.
"This is so much worse than hitting the ground!" shrieked Ridelle.
I wasn't insulted by that. I knew that being a meerkat, Ridelle was scared of everything.
We were only ten feet off the ground so I let go, letting us tumble down onto the ground. The wind was knocked out of me and I could hear Ridelle let out a yelp as she too hit the ground.
Immediately, I felt someone come to my side. "Perry!"
It was Priya. I rolled onto my stomach and faced my mate. "I'm fine, Priy-"
She tackled me into a hug. "That was amazing, Perry!"
"Th-thanks."
Ridelle was being checked over by Carl. She turned her head to look at me, her features still contorted in fear, but less so now. She gave me a weak smile, the closest thing to a "thank you" that I was going to get out of her. I nodded back to her.
Then I looked up. An eagle agent had managed to ensnare Rodney as the evil scientist tried to escape. I silently fist pumped the air. We had finally captured Rodney!