TW: Non-graphic illness, characters getting arrested
Perry has experienced a lot of unpleasant feelings in his life. Most of them at the hands of the evil Doctor Doofenshmirtz, and most of them extremely painful. (Amputations without anesthetic- not fun.)
This, however, is less painful and more just unpleasant in an extremely weird way. Parts of him are squishing and stretching somehow simultaneously. He can practically feel the metal enhancements in his spinal column short-circuiting- or maybe that's his natural nervous system sending shivers down his back. It's hard to tell, although he hopes it's just his nervous system. (Fixing any of the enhancements under his skin is a pain- usually literally.)
Not to mention, he's cramped into a refrigerator. A dark refrigerator. With a platypus.
And here he thought he would never see the platypus version of himself ever again.
Finally, after what seems like hours of weirdness, the light in the refrigerator goes on. They must have arrived in their designated time- the third of May, seven PM, 2538.
Perry pushes open the door of the refrigerator, nearly falling over as he steps out. This is the first look at the future- this is what 2538 is going to be like.
And it looks like the inside of an empty, slightly mildewy studio apartment. Everything is gray, with the air slightly damp in a mildly unpleasant way.
Perry walks over to the window, his steps disturbing what's probably a couple year's worth of dust. The window is clouded over with something unidentifiable, so he undoes the latch and opens it.
His human eye goes wide as he drinks in the scenery. If this is 2538, it's absolutely incredible.
It seems like this cramped apartment is several dozen stories in the air, looking out onto an absolutely massive city. Gray buildings as far as the eye can see, their spires blending into the dark gray sky. But the city doesn't feel dark, not with the bright neon signs advertising almost anything one can think of on every available surface. Right below the window is a bright yellow sign, right above is an electric blue one.
But this city doesn't look to be an entirely perfect utopia. Floating vehicles of some sort criss-cross the sky, not in the neat pseudo-roads of science fiction, but twisting and diving all over the place. Two of the vehicles crash into each other barely six feet from Perry's window and spiral to the ground in a blaze of neon and flames.
Perry looks down, past the neon yellow sign. The ground is so far away, it's almost out of his field of vision. His mechanical eye zooms in, causing him to close his real one before he gets too disconcerted.
On the city streets below, hundreds of red-tinted humanoids move about. Some of them have brighter-glowing patches on their arms and legs, signifying metal parts.
The other Doofenshmirtz was right- him and his metal replacements will blend right in.
Speaking of his metal parts, he should make sure that the artifact finding gadget the other Doofenshmirtz made him actually works. He reaches up to adjust his eye back to normal, then turns his attention to his left arm. It's the one that's less finicky- takes less adjusting to deal with updates to hardware or software- and thus the one with the new gadget attached to it.
An artifact finder. It should pinpoint a decently close longitude and latitude of...whatever the hell the artifact actually is.
Hopefully, it'll fit into a fridge. There's not a whole lot of room left after both he and the platypus fit in. He feels sorry for the other Perrys, who have to squish two humans into the fridge.
Behind him, the platypus makes some noises that sound like he's throwing up a lung. Perry turns around to see him gagging into the studio apartment's tiny sink.
After a brief moment of panic, he goes to the platypus and pats his back in some hope of comforting him. The poor platypus is shaking, and the temperature sensors in Perry's hand register an abnormally high body temperature.
That's not good. In fact, that's really not good. Platypus Perry was perfectly fine earlier- strange that he's sick now.
Could it be some side effect of time travel? There were some really strange sensations as they traveled- a smaller life form might have more adverse reactions. Now that he thinks about it, he's feeling a little nauseous right now- that's probably the reason why.
Well, they need to go find the artifact anyway. Hopefully there's some sort of veterinarian in the year 2358. If not- well, hopefully the artifact isn't too hard to find.
Perry fiddles with the device on his arm, finally configuring it to the proper time settings. With the press of a button, the latitude and longitude coordinates pop up on the little window on his wrist.
Hmm. About forty miles from their time machine, on what looks like the other side of the city.
Well, it'll be a little bit of a pain to get there, but they've really got all the time in the world. As long as they don't lose their time machine, or die (a real possibility considering the way people seem to drive), they can just pop right back to Danville in 2021. Even if it takes them a year to get the...whatever it is.
Again, here's hoping it isn't some huge statue, or a big chunk of osmium, or something like that. Dragging that back to the time machine-refrigerator would be a pain. Yes, he has enhanced physical strength, but it does have a limit. (As he found out the hard way.)
He's tempted to leave the platypus here and search for the artifact on his own, but the other Perry looks so miserable that he can't stand to leave him alone like that. Besides, one glance at the door of the apartment they're in reveals no visible lock (probably why there's nobody home), so he's not exactly confident in leaving anything here.
Unfortunately, the time machine is still a refrigerator, and sized accordingly, so it will have to be left behind. Hopefully it blends in enough to be completely unremarkable. It's even still a little dusty on top.
Perry picks up the platypus (who miraculously doesn't complain) and leaves the apartment via its surprisingly heavy front door.
The hall outside this apartment is almost exactly the same as the one outside his own apartment back in his dimensions- so much so that it's almost eerie. Right down to the fact that it's completely empty. Except Perry gets the strange feeling that the emptiness is not due to everybody being still a little freaked out about talking to their neighbors (ah, the long-lasting consequences of living under a totalitarian regime), but instead being a result of an empty building.
This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Thankfully, stairs seem to exist in the future, given how there's a stairwell that seems to be in decent repair, so Perry heads down the stairs. There are plenty of people out on the street, as he saw earlier. One of them probably knows where a veterinarian or something is.
Down on ground level, things are even weirder than they seemed. People are running, some are rollerblading, a couple are on hoverboards. Robots of all shapes and sizes weave around the pedestrians, only adding to the utter chaos. Everything is brightly colored, standing out intensely against the gray of the buildings around but blending into a wild, rainbow blur.
Most of the cybernetic parts Perry can see meld into the wearer's skin nearly seamlessly, making him self-conscious about the thick scars around where his metal limbs connect to his body. He shifts the platypus in his arms, wanting to do something to hide the disfigurement.
Perry walks up to someone who's standing somewhat out of the way, and who looks like they shouldn't give them too many issues.
"Excuse me," he says, tapping the boy on the shoulder to get his attention, but that's as far as he gets before the boy is talking to him.
"Oh, hi! Nice to meet you," the boy says. "My name's Freesia. Freesia Wakadoo. What's yours?"
For a moment, Perry is very confused. Usually, people don't tend to introduce themselves to absolute strangers (especially not him), but maybe things work differently in the future. They certainly move a lot faster.
"Perry," Perry says simply, choosing to leave his last name off. Even after three years of being back in the Flynn-Fletcher family, it still feels a little wrong to say he's one of them.
"Ooh, retro," Freesia says. "Your parents must love the twenty-second century."
Perry nods, not exactly knowing how to respond to that. Again, parents are one of those things he doesn't really think about much.
"So where did you get all those implants? Full sleeves and a faceplate- that's kinda sick." Freesia asks, not giving Perry any room to ask his own questions.
Perry gulps, looking down. Dang, they have conversations quickly in the future. Must be a side effect of everything else moving so damn fast.
"They're- um, they're custom," he says after a moment. Maybe custom isn't the right word, but as far as he knows (and honestly hopes, he can only guess that Heinz didn't experiment on anybody else in the same way), they're one of a kind.
"Custom? Badass!" He grins. "When did you get them? Did it hurt that bad?"
It did- a lot. Even remembering it makes his blood run cold. "A while ago, and yeah. It- it hurt." His voice breaks a bit as he really, really tries to avoid thinking about just what happened to him.
In his arms, the platypus squirms a little, reminding him of his current objective. "Is there a veterinarian or something near here?" he asks.
"A veterinarian? Yeah, there should be one on Thirty-Fifth street, can't miss it. Hey, what type of animal is that, anyway?"
Perry looks down at the Perry in his arms. "It's a platypus." A bright teal platypus, that also happens to be a highly competent secret agent, but still a platypus.
"A platypus, huh?" He hesitates. "I thought those went extinct years ago. Like zebras and...oh, what were the jumpy ones? Kangaroos."
Perry shrugs one shoulder. "I dunno, maybe it's not a platypus. But it kinda looks like one."
Freesia's eyes narrow. "Vintage name, old cybernetics, a platypus...I know what you are. You're time travelers!"
For a moment, Perry considers saying that yes, yes they are, but his tone is oddly accusatory. Around them, other people stop and turn their heads to stare, a couple of them starting to whisper behind their hands.
A few of the others around them start to approach, glaring. One of them punches their fist into their open palm.
Perry gets the feeling that time travelers aren't exactly accepted in this time period. He turns around, fully intending to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction, but more people block the way.
On his left, a pair of police officers walk over, parting the crowd.
Maybe cops in the future are helpful? Perry shifts the platypus to his left hand, holding his open right hand in the air as a gesture of surrender.
The cop walks right up to him and plucks the platypus right out of his arm, then his partner yanks Perry's arm down and around, sticking a pair of handcuffs around Perry's wrists, all without so much as a word of explanation.
...Never mind. They're exactly the same.
Although they can't be going to jail for the mere crime of being time travelers, can they? Why would time travel be illegal? There must be some mistake.
A thoroughly disorienting ride in the back of a flying police car later, in which Perry's sure they nearly crash, multiple times, it becomes clear that there was no mistake. Time travel, in this time period, happens to be illegal.
What a roller coaster of a day.
The platypus turns and retches into the toilet in their cell, clearly still suffering from the effects of their time travelling.
How the hell are they going to get out of this one?