~o~o~o~o~o~o~
His apartment was in shambles. It was almost embarrassing bringing Lyla over. Life had slipped out the rug from underneath him, it seemed. Of course, Lyla being Lyla, said nothing, and instead helped him bring in his things.
Perry flipped on the lights and offered the girl a cup of tea, which she accepted. He grabbed a couple tea bags and two mugs and turned the tea kettle on.
Perry didn't spend much time in his apartment, which was why it was a cheap deal in the middle of busy Danville. He only used it as a safe house, or simply as a way to get away from everything for a day or two.
"Sorry I don't have much to eat." Perry shrugged sheepishly. "All I keep here are MRE's."
"No problem." Lyla laughed. "I don't usually visit for your lavish cooking."
Perry snorted and picked up the tea kettle. Lyla glanced about the room awkwardly, as if she was desperate to ask if he needed help, but she knew she'd get a scathing remark for such a comment. Regardless, Perry managed to pour two cups with only one arm and set them down on the kitchen table.
"Thanks, partner."
The two sat in silence, sipping their tea and listening to early morning Danville. Perry tapped his fingers against the table in an obsessive pattern as his mind raced through the events of the past two days.
"If you need sleep, Perry, don't mind me. You've had quite a night."
Perry cringed. "You really don't mind?"
"Nah. I'll be around town. Chinese take out sound good for later?"
Perry smiled. "You're the best, you know that."
"Yeah, I know!"
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
A week later, and Perry's arm had regained some of its strength. The muscles were still a bit sore, but the pain was nothing he couldn't handle. After basically mothering him for a few days, Lyla had returned to her agency, leaving Perry to return to the Flynn-Fletcher household.
It wasn't that he didn't like his family. He did; especially the boys. Phineas and Ferb were the only people he could say he truly loved, if only because his instinct kept convincing him their affection was genuine. Of all the Flynn-Fletchers, only the boys really loved him as family, despite the fact he was just their pet and nothing more.
However, Perry also couldn't help and miss the moments where the secrets and lies were non-existent. Even if they were fighting for their lives against an evil tyrant from another dimension, for a few moments, he had been the real him, and it hadn't mattered.
"Oh, there you are, Perry!" Phineas cried excitedly, bringing the platypus up to his chest and hugging him. "You're just in time for the biggest adventure of the summer!"
Perry glanced up at the huge ride, complete with robot animals, loopy-loops, and massive spouts of confetti. How the boys managed to create these contraptions in a matter of hours always left him breathless.
Phineas strapped him into a metal cart decorated to look like a platypus, and Perry held onto the boy as the ride began. All the kids shouted and yelped as the machine took them up and down, splattering them with confetti and streamers along the way.
"Watch out for the big finale!" Phineas screamed.
Perry's eyes bulged as the ride took them down a ridiculous drop, right into a metal jungle full of huge animated gorillas, elephants, and penguins, before it spun them around and around until the ride jolted to a stop. The kids cried encore as Phineas and Ferb took a bow.
Perry jumped down from the ride and laid underneath the boy's favorite tree, content to the watch the kids run around and make even more amazing adjustments.
"Phineas and Ferb! I'M TELLING MOM!"
Candace ran out of the backyard with cell phone in hand, scrambling like one of the metal hyenas. As always, the kids paid her no mind, continuing on with their games.
His wrist watch beeped. Lovely.
Perry ducked into a corner of the backyard, far from the kid's hearing range, and opened the call.
"Hello, Agent P." Major Monogram boomed. "I hope you are feeling well. We just received intel that Doofenshmirtz just bought up the city's supply of paint. We have no idea what he's planning to do with it, but whatever it is, it must be evil. What do you say? Feel up to it?"
Perry chattered reluctantly. He'd just gotten home, too. Hopefully the boys would forgive him.
"Excellent! Monogram out!"
As soon as the major disappeared, Perry rolled his eyes and popped through his lair to grab his jetpack. Pretty soon he was flying as top speed through in the sky, racing away to the familiar building.
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated popped into view like a bad eye sore. Perry could never understand why Doof, or his landlord for that matter, picked such a disgusting purple color.
He parked his jetpack on the roof and snuck in through one of the air vents. He would have simply crashed down the door, if he had the money for another repair.
Suddenly, the agent caught a light noise, almost like scratching, coming from behind him. He gyrated, grappling hook in hand, but was only met with the wind. His heart pounded out of his chest.
Calm, calm. It's just a tree branch. Focus.
Perry popped through an opening in the air vent and landed in the middle of Doof's lobby.
He had no time to react as a giant metal cage crashed on top of him. The bars sunk deep into the floor, stabilizing him there. With a sigh, the platypus sat back and prepared to suffer through yet another evil monologue.
"How nice of you top stop by Perry the Platypus. And when I say nice, I mean not very nice at all. But oh well. Now I can show you my new… amazingly evil… Paint-Splatter-Inator!
I bet you're wondering what it does, right? Well ever since I can remember, my brother would always play paintball with his friends, and bring me along. It was the only thing he ever did with me. But every time, it was just to humiliate me by assaulting me with paintballs! So, during his big speech today, I'm going to blast him with GIANT paintballs and see how HE likes it! Wuahahahah!"
Doofensmirtz pressed a bulging red button and the machine let out a long moan. Perry immediately began to feel around the cage, looking for an escape route, but not before Doofenshmirtz had begun blasting huge paintballs across the side of the building, causing the walls to cave and people to run screaming.
"On to city hall!" The doctor cackled. He pressed another button and the machine began to hover. "Sayonara, Perry the Platypus!"
Perry noticed the remote for the cage sitting upon the window ledge where Doofenshmirtz had left it, whether by intention or convenient coincidence, Perry would never guess. He quickly pulled out his grappling hook and aimed it towards the remote. It took three tries, but he finally managed to hit the button and the cage recoiled. With a whistle, his jetpack came speeding and he jumped out of a window in hot pursuit.
Beep. "Agent P, Doofenshmirtz has been spotted reigning terror downtown! The whole place is a mess! You have to stop him!"
"guyrururururururur."
It wasn't difficult to find Doofenshmirtz's paintball war. Shades of blue and green colored the streets of Danville and the doctor's laugh could be recognized from every corner. Perry kicked his jetpack into high gear and darted towards the machine. He jumped onto it's side and knocked Doofenshmirtz in the head with his beaver tail.
"Perry the Platypus? How did you get out of my trap? Ah well… You can't stop me!"
Doofenshmirtz plunged in an attempt to punch him, but Perry kicked him again in the knee, causing the doctor to grab his joint in pain. Perry crawled along the hood and began looking for any power wires he could pull. He ignored the searing pain shooting up his arm.
"Hey! Get off my Paint-Splatter-Inator!"
The doctor grabbed him and threw him against the side. Perry pushed more fuel through the jetpack. Now angry, he hovered it above the machine and blasted the inator with a heat ray gun. The machine began to vibrate with electricity.
"Nooo!"
Doofenshmirtz managed to jump off and land on a balcony before the machine exploded. With a job well done, Perry turned around and flew off.
"Curse you, Perry the Platypus!"
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Once home, he could feel little dots of blood running down his arm. It hurt like a bitch, but he used all the training he could muster to act as if nothing was wrong. He was grateful for the chance to run into the bathroom and wash off the blood. Standing on it was almost killing him.
Once to slight bleeding had stopped, Perry curled onto Phineas' bed, completely worn out, and let sleep wash over him. He didn't noticed the figure lurking in the background, watching through the bedroom window.