It's About Time! - Part Two

Like Doofenshmirtz, Doctor Wrenley Spellmeyer lived in the penthouse of a very tall and recognisable building. Mavis flew her jetpack up to the balcony and landed on it, letting the jetpack drop. She swallowed back her nerves as she approached the balcony door. This was her first solo mission. She couldn't afford to screw it up.

As it was her first time here, Mavis decided not to do any damage. Instead, she opened the unlocked balcony door and entered the room as quietly as she could.

She found a woman with dark skin and long black hair standing in the middle of the room. Like Doofenshmirtz, she wore a long white lab coat, over a black tank top and black denim trousers.

Wrenley Spellmeyer happened to turn as Mavis moved closer and spotted her. "Ah, you must be Agent Mavis, my new nemesis," she said, the slightest hint of a German accent in her voice. "Correct?"

"That's right," said Mavis as bravely as she could. "You can call me Agent M."

"I'll call you M actually. Sounds cooler."

"Alright... And what can I call you?"

Wrenley's eyebrow rose. "Doctor Spellmeyer."

"I'll call you Doc, actually. Sounds cooler," Mavis fired back.

After a moment, Wrenley laughed. "You're funny. You used to be Heinz Doofenshmirtz's nemesis, right?"

Mavis nodded.

"I went on a date with him once." Wrenley sniffed. "He's... bizarre."

"Oh my gosh, you're the one who told him you wanted to see him again as friends but you said it in German!" Mavis realised. "He told us about it the next day."

Wrenley snickered. "Cowardly, yeah, I know. But he was too weird for me. Anyway, are you here to stop me?"

"Well, that's generally what nemeses do," responded Mavis. "Are you up to anything evil?"

"Well, I created this." Wrenley took out a small pink laser gun from her pocket. "It's a special laser that, when fired directly at a person, will give them pins and needles in their elbows."

Mavis blinked. "Um... is that it? That doesn't seem evil."

"Think about it. You know when you hit your funny bone and it sends that horrible numbness all the way up your arm and it tingles like heck, but in, like, a painfully uncomfortable way? That's what this device will do to anyone it hits."

Mavis's eyes slowly widened. "Oh my gosh, you're a monster."

Wrenley inclined her head. "Thank you. So I don't have time to trap you, so what I'll do instead is just fire this little thing at y-."

Mavis reacted quickly and karate-kicked the laser gun out of Wrenley's hand.

"Hey!" Wrenley leapt to the side as Mavis tried to attack her. "Hang on, no fair! I wasn't ready!"

She scooped up the ray and fired it at Mavis, who forward-rolled to avoid it and swept Wrenley's legs out from under her. When the evil scientist landed on the floor with a grunt, Mavis snatched the ray gun out of her hand and aimed it at her.

Wrenley stared at her for a moment, before giving a slightly mocking chuckle. "I don't think you'll use that."

"I don't have to."

Mavis threw the ray onto the floor and smashed it with her foot.

"Nooooo!" yelped Wrenley, staring at the wreckage in horror. "I loved that colour..."

The secret agent frowned. "Yeah, why was it pink?"

"I love colours," Wrenley explained earnestly. "I only wear black and white so the colours of my weapons and inventions will show up better. My favourite colour is probably pink, though. Or orange. Or blue. Or... yellow. Or purple. OH, or that one shade of green that's really dark but not dark enough that it looks stupid. You know what I mean?"

"I have never been so certain in my entire life that I have no idea what you mean," replied Mavis.

Wrenley shrugged. "Oh well, you'll come around to the wonder of colours. Anyway, since you've already destroyed my invention, do you want to come to Doctor Feelbetter's show with me? I have a spare ticket for the audience."

"Oh?" Mavis cocked her head. "I've never heard of that show."

"Oh, it's most popular among the evil scientist crowd. But don't worry, there's a whole bunch of OWCA agents being invited too." Wrenley made a pleading face. "C'mon, I wanna tell all my friends that I finally have a nemesis too."

After a moment, Mavis shrugged. "Okay. Why not."

...

Less than two hours later, Mavis found herself sitting next to Wrenley in a TV studio, filled with animal agents sitting next to evil scientists. She clapped along with everyone else as the announcer said, "Today on Doctor Feelbetter, I want to be your nemesis again. And now, Doctor Feelbetter!"

The odd-looking doctor came onstage. As the lights brightened, Mavis spotted Doofenshmirtz sitting in a chair opposite Perry.

"Oh, I hope we can work this out," she murmured.

"Shh," hissed Wrenley next to her.

"You ever wonder what would happen if you lost your nemesis?" Doctor Feelbetter asked the crowd. "Well, that's what precisely happened to our first guest, Perry the Platypus." He crouched beside Perry's seat and offered him the microphone. "Perry the Platypus, share with us your thoughts."

There was a slightly awkward pause.

"Uh, I-I'm sorry, he doesn't actually talk," said Doofenshmirtz awkwardly.

"Ah, I see." Doctor Feelbetter stood up straight and addressed Doofenshmirtz. "Ah, I see. And this communication issue is what led you to replace Perry the Platypus?"

Mavis frowned. Of course not. He's always had me or Apollo to talk to.

"Of course not!" Doofenshmirtz echoed Mavis's thoughts. "Peter the Panda doesn't talk either, you know. He's a panda bear!"

"I see," said Doctor Feelbetter again. "Because they're animals, they don't talk."

Doofenshmirtz looked incredulous. "Of course not! What kind of an evil scientist are you?"

Doctor Feelbetter didn't appear to be fazed by this. "Right. Doctor, what if I were to tell you that Peter the Panda is backstage right now?"

The evil scientist immediately sat up straighter in his chair. "W-What? Peter the Panda is here?"

The crowd let out an "ooh" sound in unison, even Mavis, caught up in the heat of the moment.

"Perry the Platypus, I-I had no idea!" Doofenshmirtz said desperately to Perry.

Doctor Feelbetter stepped back and gestured to the entranceway. "Ladies and gentlemen, Peter the Panda!"

The crowd booed as Peter appeared on stage. Mavis frowned, not liking the fact that even the OWCA agents seemed to be reacting this way too.

"Peter the Panda, I..." Doofenshmirtz composed himself, then looked Peter directly in the eye. "I'm sorry, but we- we can't be nemeses anymore. Perry the Platypus is the only nemesis I want."

Peter stared blankly at Doofenshmirtz for a moment, before grabbing a chair on the stage and throwing it at Doofenshmirtz's head. The evil scientist squawked and ducked just in time. Peter spent the next minute or so throwing more chairs at Doofenshmirtz, who curled up in a ball on his own seat to avoid them.

Finally, Peter ran out of chairs.

Doctor Feelbetter, who really did seem completely unflappable, approached the panda. Thank you, Peter. I've been meaning to stack those chairs."

The panda dusted off his paws, then left the stage rather abruptly. Mavis watched him go, actually feeling rather sorry for him.

Doctor Feelbetter turned back to Doofenshmirtz. "Now, Doctor Doofenshmirtz, tell Perry the Platypus how you feel."

Doofenshmirtz got up off his chair and knelt down beside Perry's chair so that he could look the platypus in the eye. "Perry the Platypus, I'm so sorry I hurt you. When I wasn't actually trying to hurt you, I mean. If you give me another chance, I promise to hurt you in the right way. With cartoonish physical violence, and elaborate traps constructed out of strange things I purchased over the internet. What do you say?"

Mavis watched with baited breath. Come on, Perry...

After what seemed like forever, Perry grabbed his hat from nowhere and put it on his head, giving a tearful smile.

"Aww!" the crowd chorused.

Doofenshmirtz too was nearly in tears. "Oh, thank you, Perry the Platypus!"

Mavis smiled widely. She didn't even mind if she would no longer have missions with Perry and Doof; it was nice to see them both happy again. Their separation may have only lasted a few hours, but it was clear that both had been very upset by it.

But abruptly, Doofenshmirtz stood upright and, pressing a button on his remote, yelled, "NOW!"

Metal restraints came out of the arms of Perry's chair and clamped his wrists down. Before anyone could move, the same happened on every OWCA agent's chair in the room, including Mavis's. She let out a shocked yelp. "Hey!"

Next to her, Wrenley gave her a devious grin. "Sorry, M. Had to be done."

Mavis, stuck for a comeback, stuck her tongue out at Wrenley.

The evil scientist just gave an amused shrug.

Onstage, Doofenshmirtz was saying, "You know, Peter the Panda thought that he disassembled my Freeze-Inator ray, but that was just a decoy! Bring in the real one, boys!"

A group of evil scientists wheeled in the ray that Mavis had seen earlier at Doofenshmirtz's place. "You see, my plan was simple; assemble all the best secret agents in one room, and then turn them all into statues for my giant chess board!" Doofenshmirtz laughed maniacally. "Hit it!"

Doctor Feelbetter flipped the switch.

"Tool," muttered Mavis.

"Hm. You're not wrong," Wrenley said.

Back onstage, Doofenshmirtz had turned back to Perry. "Uh, Perry the Platypus, you don't mind if I say goodbye to Peter the Panda, do you? I-I just feel weird how everything happened." He turned back to Peter, who was sitting in his own chair with similar restraints. "Uh, Peter the Panda, I just wanted to let you know that uh, I feel- ow!"

Mavis snorted as Peter kicked Doofenshmirtz in the face.

Perry managed to flip over the back of the chair and push it into the Freeze-Inator ray, knocking it over and causing it to fire into the air.

"Wait, wait, where's my remote?!" yelped Doofenshmirtz.

Mavis spotted it first. "Perry!" she yelled, ignoring the evil scientists around her glaring at her. "On your left!"

Perry tipped the chair over and smashed the remote, releasing all the agents.

Chaos erupted. The animal agents immediately attacked the evil scientists they were sitting next to, throwing things and each other around the place.

Wrenley leapt out of her seat and dashed towards the exit, but Mavis body-slammed her to the side, knocking her over. The two wrestled for a few seconds, then Wrenley kicked Mavis aside.

As Wrenley tried to make a run for it, Mavis grabbed her foot, tripping her over. She rolled onto her front and took out her handcuffs, but Wrenley had already moved into a defensive position.

The two eyed each other for a moment.

"You know, you're impressive," Wrenley said, smirking. "For a little girl."

"And you're impressive for an old lady," Mavis shot back.

Wrenley's smirk turned into a scowl. "I'm thirty."

"And I'm sixteen, yet here we are."

After a further few seconds, Wrenley straightened up, glancing to her right at the chaos raging around them. "I guess we're not nemeses anymore?" she said.

"Well, if I get offered the opportunity to go back to Doof with Perry, I won't turn it down," Mavis responded carefully. "But for now, you're still my nemesis, so I need to defeat you."

"Technically, you've already done that. You destroyed my work of art earlier."

Mavis let out a sigh. "I guess. I just hoped we could fight a bit more."

"Hm."

Mavis hadn't realised that she had let her guard down until Wrenley moved lightning fast and body-slammed her into the row of chairs. Before Mavis could move, Wrenley had knocked over the chair, landing seat-down on top of Mavis, pinning her to the ground.

"Hey!"

"Next time we meet, you can pay me back for that," Wrenley said, giving Mavis a mischievous grin.

Mavis stared at Wrenley for a moment, but she couldn't help laughing. "You're on. I'll see you around, Doc."

Wrenley gave a casual wave. "See you 'round, M."

As soon as Wrenley disappeared into the crowd, Perry appeared by her side. The chaos in the room had subsided as all the evil scientists had either been captured or driven off. The platypus chattered concernedly as he tried to push the chair off her.

"I'm fine, buddy," she chuckled.

Perry blinked, apparently not expecting her upbeat tone. "Well... good."

With Perry's help, Mavis heaved the chair off her and sat up, rubbing her chest where the chair had hit her.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Perry asked.

"Yeah, definitely. Are you?"

"I think so. I think everything's going to be okay now."

Mavis beamed at her friend. "Good. I'm happy for you."

Perry gave her a look. "And you, right? You and Apollo are gonna come back to the Monoteam?"

"Definitely! As long as I'm invited."

"Of course you are!"

Perry hopped onto her leg and gave her a tight hug around her waist. Mavis hugged him back. "Love you, buddy."

"I love you too."

At that moment, Mavis felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Perry jumped aside as Mavis fished it out and frowned at it. "It's Apollo." She answered the call. "Hello?"

Apollo's voice came through the receiver: "Mavis, finally! I've been trying to call you all day. How did your mission go?"

After a brief pause, Mavis burst out laughing.

Boy, do I have a story for you.