I, Brobot

Mavis was very annoyed. Her father had promised her that she would have a free day today and she had been planning to spend it with Apollo. But here she was, in her and Perry's lair, waiting for the platypus agent to arrive so that she could get another mission.

She hadn't even had time to tell Apollo about the mission. He was probably waiting for her at his house right now.

Mavis glanced up as Perry stepped out of the elevator and came to sit down next to her. There was silence for a few seconds, then Mavis asked, "Chimney-vator?"

Perry nodded, looking unusually pleased.

"You like Santa, then?" Mavis asked slowly.

"Who doesn't?"

"I guess that's true…"

Then Major Monogram's face appeared onscreen. "Agents, Doctor Doofenshmirtz is up to his old tricks. He's made 57 phone calls in the past hour. We don't know to whom, or why."

Perry reached up and pointed towards the elevator he had just come from.

Mavis snorted. "I'm pretty sure he wasn't calling Santa, Perry."

"Agents, your mission is to find out what Dr. Doofenshmirtz is up to and stop him."

As Mavis got up and started following Perry over to the hovercar, she heard her father grumble behind her, "See, Carl, that's why I don't like using the chimney-vator. Besides, that guy totally owes me a pony from when I was five."

Mavis snorted again, rolling her eyes. Typical.

"Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!" came the familiar jingle.

"Are those guys ever going to quit it?" Mavis sighed as they got into the elevator.

Perry shook his head, giving her a look that said you'd better get used to it."

"Great…" Mavis rolled her eyes. "Maybe I'll learn to like it. But if I'm going to be hearing it every day for the rest of the summer, I don't know if that'll be possible."

When they got up to the top floor, they headed over to Doofenshmirtz's door.

"Are you going to break down the door again?" Mavis folded her arms.

Perry shook his head again and took out a key.

"Doofenshmirtz gave you a key to his apartment?" Mavis's eyebrow rose. "Seriously?"

Perry ignored her and unlocked the door, pushing it open to reveal Doofenshmirtz huddled in his chair, a landline phone pressed to his ear. He turned as they came in, sounding rather dejected. "Oh, hi, Perry the Platypus and Agent Mavis. Perry the Platypus, thank you for using the key I gave you. It's much more civilized than crashing through my ceiling, don't you think?"

"Civilised, yes," Mavis responded. "Weird? Also yes."

Doofenshmirtz just shrugged. "Anyway, I-I don't know why you guys are here, but you can tell Monogram that I'm not…uh…"up to anything.""

Mavis crossed her arms again, her eyebrow rising again. "You expect us to believe that?"

Doofenshmirtz scowled at her. "All I've been doing is calling my new girlfriend."

The human agent nearly choked. "YOU have a GIRLFRIEND?!"

"Yes!" Doofenshmirtz snapped defensively. "But we're having what I call a relationship bump. And now, she won't pick up the phone, and I'm tired of leaving messages. I'm tired! I've left, like, 57 messages and, I won't leave any more. It starts to look a little desperate."

"A LITTLE?" Mavis choked again to avoid bursting into laughter. "You have NO idea how to navigate a relationship, do you?"

As Doofenshmirtz opened his mouth to defend himself, Perry cleared his throat and, glaring at Doofenshmirtz, pointed towards a schematic on the evil scientist's computer of a giant magnet.

"What is THAT?" Mavis demanded.

"Hmm?" Doofenshmirtz looked up. "Oh, no, that's not an evil scheme. That's just a giant magnet. I'm going to wave it over my girlfriend's house and erase all the messages I left." He laughed sheepishly. "Because, some of them are long and rambly."

Mavis rolled her eyes. "You know there's an ordinance against that, right?"

"So what?" Doofenshmirtz growled. "Oh well, too bad for you!" He slammed a button on his phone, bringing down a net that scooped up the two agents and suspended them in the air. "Too bad you don't believe in love!" He rushed out the room, slammed the door, and a few seconds later, there was the sond of a truck engine revving. "Too bad!" came Doofenshmirtz's distant voice.

"He's such a weirdo," growled Mavis. "Don't worry, I got this."

She took out her penknife and cut through the rope net, releasing the two agents. "Ha! I saved us, for once!"

Perry tipped his hat briefly to her, before the two of them hopped back into the hovercar and flew after the truck.

As they were flying, Mavis glanced around the neighbourhood. "Is this where his girlfriend lives?"

"I guess so. Why?"

"Apollo lives round here too," Mavis replied. At Perry's look, she scowled at him. "I went to his house ONCE. Don't turn it into something it's not. And I was supposed to be there again today, but SOMEONE couldn't stop himself from being a pathetic "evil" scientist."

Perry quickly landed the hovercar nearby and rushed out into the road, holding out his spy badge to stop the truck in its tracks.

"Perry the Platypus!" Doofenshmirtz slammed on the brakes. "How did you escape my net?"

"Every girl should carry around a penknife," Mavis replied, holding up the aforementioned penknife as she stepped into place just behind Perry.

Doofenshmirtz stared at her. "How long have you had that?"

"Since the first day of summer. And with the way the summer's been going, I'm surprised I haven't had to use it before now."

"Mavis, there you are!" came Apollo's voice suddenly.

Mavis spun round to see Apollo himself coming running down the road, skidding to a halt beside her.

"What are you doing?" Mavis hissed.

"Looking for you," Apollo replied nervously, glancing up at the magnet. "THAT…is a giant magnet."

"No kidding!" Mavis gave him a shove. "Get out of here before you get hurt."

"Who's this?" Doofenshmirtz asked. "Your boyfriend?"

"What's it to you?" Apollo demanded.

"Shut up and go away!" snapped Mavis.

"ALL of you pesky agents get out of the way!" growled Doofenshmirtz. "Don't make me drop this giant magnet on you!"

Despite a sudden burst of fear, Mavis stood her ground, just like Perry did. She didn't dare look round for Apollo.

"Well, then, as a lazy tailor would say: suit yourself!"

He flipped a switch, and the magnet began to creak.

In the few seconds it was falling, Mavis and Apollo both dropped to their knees and clutched each other tightly.

But then there came a clanging noise and inexplicable Christmas-like music began playing. Mavis hesitantly opened her eyes and spotted a familiar sleigh carrying the magnet away.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Mavis gasped. "It's the middle of July!"

"Ho, ho, ho! I'm on a summer run!" Santa called over his shoulder, beaming and waving. "Farewell, Perry the Platypus!"

"Wow, invisible even to Santa," Mavis muttered under her breath.

"Bah, humbug," Doofenshmirtz sighed.

As Perry went up to the truck, Mavis and Apollo helped each other to their feet, aware that both of them were holding hands.

"I told you to leave," Mavis said reproachfully. "You could have died a minute ago."

"So could you," Apollo countered. "But we didn't."

"Yeah, THIS time."

"Hey." Perry hopped down from the truck and came to stand in front of the two teenagers. "I'll never let you get killed, Mavis." He eyed Apollo. "Or you, I guess."

Mavis chuckled. "Thanks, Perry."

"Wait, what did he say?" Apollo asked, frowning in confusion.

Chuckling again, Mavis patted him on the shoulder. "I'll teach you how to understand him sometime, okay?"

"Don't you dare," Perry protested.

Mavis smirked and ruffled his hat. "Love you, Perry."

"Mavis, if you teach Apollo how to understand me, I won't be able to talk about him when he's around."

"Okay, okay." Mavis squeezed Apollo's hand briefly. "Wanna go get ice cream? I'll buy."

"Absolutely. Thank you." Apollo smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Yes, please. That's very kind of you," Perry chimed in.

"Not you, Beaver Tail."

"Rude."