Chapter Twenty-one: Thwarted

Slime chuckled, "What's the matter, Agent P? Don't like being beaten?"

He turned to the others, "Now then, as for my plan, it's strategically simple, and yet, maniacally evil at the same time. I've built a small model, over here, to demonstrate."

He walked over to a table, and gestured to a tower of rectangular wooden blocks.

Doof cried indignantly, "You call that a model? Where's the detail?"

Slime gave him a stare that was both pitying, and evil. Doof shuddered, "Wow you're good!"

Slime didn't comment on that, "This tower represents the worlds already fragile economy."

Annie took advantage of his distraction, and shook her wig loose, then used her neck to wing it over to Perry. He turned his blank stare to it, then looked up at Annie, a flicker of something in his eyes.

She nodded once, encouragingly, then turned her attention back to Slime.

"I've been studying the system for years! If just one, fragile block is removed, then the whole system will crumble!"

He reached, and pulled a block out. Nothing happened.

Doof gloated, "Aha! See? I told you detail was important! See how anticlimactic that was?"

Slime glared at him, "…and I'm going to stop talking now."

"…. the whole system will crumble!" He pulled out one of the two bottom blocks. Amazingly, the tower teetered, but balanced on the last block.

Doof grinned smugly as Slime gave up, and slammed his fist into the tower, "… you get the idea!"

Annie risked a glance at Perry, and her face fell when she saw he was still just sitting there. He looked up to catch her pleading gaze, but his only response was to push the wig aside with his foot.

Annie's face fell with it as it hit the floor. She looked up in confusion. This just wasn't like him. Sure he had a lot at stake, but… then she saw it. A quick, upward twitch of his beak, that was gone in an instant. He glanced at her, and she saw that familiar gleam.

She kept the relief from flooding her own face; he had a plan.

She turned her attention to Slime, "Alright, the economy is failing, what does that have to do with ninjas, or the OWCA, or any of us, or L.M. for that matter!"

Slime frowned, "L.M.?"

Doof stared at her in shock.

She clarified, "The League of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United for Frightening in Naughtiness."

Slime shrugged, "All your questions will be answered in due time. For instance, it has to do with L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. because we are going to pull out that last block…."

Annie asked smugly, "And hope it works better than your model?"

He glared at her, then continued, "- by duplicating this money in the U.S. mint with my Inflation-omatic!"

Annie deadpanned, "Is there some kind of new stupid L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. law that says you all have to have different suffixes for your inventions?"

He snapped, "The laws of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. will not be discussed here! … eh hem, As I was saying… We've been planning this for months, but we weren't able to communicate without anyone listening in on our conversations, until we discovered a private signal, in someone's back yard. Using that, we began to steal all the things that we needed to put the plan into motion!

"And now I will duplicate the money, making it worth less than the paper, or metal it's printed on! I'll do the same around the world, and the economy will crash! However, while the world is in mass hysteria, I will use my -omatic to copy other things, and use them to trade for all that worthless money! Then, once I am the only one in the world with money, the value will skyrocket, and I will be the wealthiest man in the world! All I need, is the one, final ingredient."

He laughed a villainous evil scientist laughed, that ended in a chuckle, "But first…"

He walked over to Perry, and pushed him down, "First I need to eliminate the one who stopped me from retrieving it… I haven't decided how yet. Laser beams, lava, pits, alligators…"

Doof protested, "How many times do I have to tell you that that's my nemesis, Silly!"

He started to push his hands into the claps… but, all of a sudden, Perry sprung into action. Using his tail as leverage, he kicked Slime in the face.

As they battled, Annie turned to Doof, "Why would you call him silly?"

Doof turned, "That's his name. I figured it out when I read his letter. He signed his name like an acronym. I was bored, so I built an inator to figure it out. Turns out, Slime isn't so evil a name after all, it stands for Silly Little Insignificant Melancholy Evildoer."

She blinked, "Seriously?"

Slime called from the floor, "NO My name is Slime! I am Slime!"

Annie stared coldly at him, still furious for what he'd done to Perry, "I'll agree to that."

He bellowed as Perry jumped to kick him in the face. For someone who was just threatening my family you're getting off easy pall!

As Annie and Doof cheered him on, he screeched, "Where are my ninjas?"

He managed to get one hit in, and raced to his giant lab computer. He pushed a button, and there, on the screen, were almost all of the agents fighting the ninjas.

Peter the Panda appeared on screen, and saluted.

Perry saluted back, then spun as the door was kicked down… by the ninjas that had beaten him…

He flipped, landing beside and quickly used a device in his hat to untie her. The both took and offensive stance.

"Hey, what about me?" Doof called. Candace was giggling something about Perry beating up a pharmacist.

Perry dove one ninja's face and punched him in the nose.

Annie turned to fight the other ninja, while Slime got to his feet behind him.

For the first time, Candace stopped laughing, "Look out Perry!"

He turned, and ducked just in time for the wrench Slime threw to his the ninja instead. He gave Candace a quick salute.

She beamed, and giggled, still thinking this was all some crazy dream.

Good old Candace. There for you when it counts, and then it's back to dreamland. Even when she never leaves dreamland…

He sighed as the ninja retaliated, and flipped onto his back. He risked a glance at Annie… she was holding her own, but so was the ninja. They were outnumbered.

All of a sudden, Annie picked up the fallen wrench, and threw it at the release switch, free Doof.

"Finally! I'll teach you to steel my nemesis!" He cried, lunging at Slime. Perry gave Annie a thumbs up, and swept his ninja's feet out from under him. Annie kicked hers, sending him flying back, tripping over his comrade.

Candace grabbed a crowbar that the rest of them had missed, and quickly whacked all three upside the head, knocking them out cold.

Perry, Annie, and Doof all turned to the teenager, who stared singing the Ducky Mo Mo theme song, hugging the crowbar. Doof whispered, "Anti-climatic."

Annie smacked her hands together, "Well, let's get these villains to jail…"

"Hey!"

She smiled, "Uh, except you… although… you did break rule number one."

He crossed his arms, "Only to help you! Put 'er there, Perry the platypus!"

Perry rolled his eyes, then gave the evil scientist a high five.

A/N: You mean after twenty one chapters, I still don't own anything unoriginal? No, no I don't.

Perry may be short, but he was able to high five Doof because he is also awesome!

I'm sorry about that fight… it was mostly humorous… but… I needed things to lighten up after seeing poor Perry so depressed. D,8

Just a few more loose ends to wrap up. (Don't be mean and stop reading just because I didn't do another cliffhanger! Almost done, I promise!)

Thanks for reading!