~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Vanessa kept her hands in her pockets. As she and Lacie drove down to the junkyard, it seemed to burn a hole against her skin.
Perry the Platypus was clever. But Vanessa Doofenshmirtz prided herself in her ability to always stay one step ahead. Maybe she did have something of an "evil genius" streak after all.
Orville and his gang greeted them as always. They lounged on old cardboard boxes and discarded metal tins, with large rolls of blueprints laid out before them.
"So, did you get it?"
Vanessa sighed, but flung the keycard in his direction. Grabbing it from Perry's hat had been easier that she'd thought, now that she knew he was human. The other evil scientist kids oohed and awed as Orville held up the prize.
"Not bad for a girl." He smirked. "Now that we have access into O.W.C.A.'s headquarters, we can start our plan of revenge, and finally give all our parents the victories they deserve."
Todd, a short, young man with piercings all along his face, let out a low chuckle. "Please, we all know you're just trying to impress your daddy. Think he's going to make you king of the world one day or something?"
"Shut up, you blockhead." Orville snapped, readjusting his glasses. "This is our chance to prove that evil scientists are not ones to be messed with! Who's with me?"
Vanessa didn't say much through the rest of their scheming. In all honestly, she'd joined this group of friends to get away from all this nonsense. Now, they were walking her right into the middle of it.
But Orville's thinly veiled threats echoed in her head and she kept her mouth shut. She had to find a way out of this mess, without Perry finding out, else her whole secret would be blown.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Perry and Lyla decided to meet early in the evening at a bar in downtown Danville to review his laptop. They didn't say much as Lyla began attacking the code, attempting to hack through.
The platypus sat, beer in hand, and watched as she worked.
It didn't take long for the girl to give an excited yelp and tap his shoulder to pay attention. They watched together as video feed from a few days ago began to play, displaying a hooded figure installing the camera around two in the morning. The figure's mouth and chin were visible, but their face was covered, making their identity impossible to figure out.
"That's just plain freaky." Lyla muttered.
Perry watched himself entering his bedroom, noticing something was off, and scrambling through all his stuff to find the camera. The platypus frowned. There was no way they didn't suspect he had noticed it, even if he had made sure to be invisible to the camera when he inspected it.
"I'm sure they've abandoned the camera by now." Lyla shrugged. "Have you checked the tracker?"
"Yes. No movement yet."
Lyla put a hand on his shoulder and smiled sadly. "Are you sure you don't need anything, partner? Obviously there's someone out there that is willing to go great lengths to spy on you. They even know where you live. It's not safe.."
"I will be fine, Lyla." Perry snapped. "I'm not daft."
"I still think you should alert O.W.C.A."
"You know why I can't do that."
"Is it really such a bad thing that the agency knows you are actually human? What do you think they'll do, fire you? You're the best they got!"
If only you knew who I used to be, Lyla. Then you'd understand.
But Perry only stubbornly shook his head. "It is my wish to keep it this way, so I will. I don't know what other way to explain."
The Canadian agent frowned, but didn't push him any further. Perry breathed a sigh of relief. He just wanted to find the creep who installed the cameras and punch them a few times over.
"This data actually wasn't very hard to crack." The girl observed as an afterthought. "Even if we are dealing with a creep, I think they're a rookie at best, working on a very low budget. The question is, who would that be?"
Perry pondered over the idea for a moment, feeling very constricted and helpless all of a sudden, as he had no answer to give her.
Lyla didn't stay much longer, apologizing that she had to get to Florida the next day. Perry curtly thanked her for coming, which earned him a playful punch in the arm and a giant bear hug. The platypus never knew how to respond to her brash outbursts of affection, but tried to be nice and awkwardly hugged her back.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
The week flew by uneventfully. Perry had tried several times to bring up Vanessa's strange request to his nemesis, but every moment he picked, it just didn't seem right, or it was swept away by Heinz's apparent, never-ending energy.
Maybe he should just write him a letter. Or send a comment on his blog.
Nonetheless, the platypus kept the thought in the back of his mind. Friday rolled around quicker than he expected, and pretty soon, he was driving to Vintage Docks once more. However, he wasn't looking forward to this particular shift.
The platypus inwardly cringed at the way he'd acted in front of Doofenshmirtz last week. Baiting him might have been explainable, but paying for his dinner? Although he hadn't noticed it at the time, his actions were more than over-the-line, they were borderline flirtatious. It would be even more embarrassing if the man had interpreted it that way.
At least the scientist wasn't into other men.
The servers greeted him with a set of smiles and hellos. Apparently, the lunch crowd had been quite larger than normal, and the staff was wondering if they'd have an extra pop that night. Perry put on his apron, made sure his station was prepped for the evening, and waited for the crowd to arrive.
At about 6:30, right on cue, Doofenshmirtz walked in the door and sat at his usual table. The hostess approached him and claimed he had asked for "Michael" and she figured it was probably him. Thanking her, the agent decided to greet the man with the same "customer service" mask that he usually used on his tables.
The water and coffee were already in his hands as he approached the table.
"Thanks." Doofenshmirtz nodded as the platypus set his beverages down. Perry noticed the man also had no blueprints or novels with him. Interesting. Perhaps he only had time for a quick meal.
"Same as usual?"
The scientist nodded, and Perry briskly waltzed away to put in his order. He actions were rather cold and emotionless, but the agent didn't want the man to get the wrong idea.
He brought the scientist his food, asked him if he needed anything else, then disappeared to greet another table.
"You need anything, Perry?" Tammy asked him as he was grabbing a loaf of bread from the kitchen.
"Of course. Are you?" "Yeah." She smiled. "I just wondered. You seem distracted. And I can't help but notice that weird customer that keeps looking at you. Maybe he thinks you're cute." She beamed.
Perry groaned. He did not need this kind of observation. But Tammy was already walking away, still laughing, as he went to retort.
When Perry brought out the check, Doofenshmirtz finally spoke up. "Do you eat here often?"
"Pardon me?"
"Here. Do you usually eat here, between shifts?"
The platypus raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. I believe it's good food. Why do you ask? Getting tired of salmon?"
"No.. I just wondered if you'd ever tried the bar across the street. I heard they have really good hamburgers."
Now both of the agent's eyebrows were raised. He honestly wasn't sure how to respond, but reminded himself not to react. Shrugging, he said, "I haven't. I suppose it would be worth a try."
"Would you like to go with me sometime?"
Perry almost dropped the plates he was holding. What was the man getting at? Had Perry really given him the wrong signals?
Remember, the man is straight. There's no way.
So friends, then. But still, why did he want to be friends?
Perry opened his mouth to wriggle out some poor excuse, but the words got caught in his throat when he looked at the doctor's face. It was filled with such reservation, as if he was almost certain Perry would say no, but a small glimmer of hope shone through that made Perry's defense falter. Without thinking he replied, "Yeah. I'd like that."
Damn it. Why was he so stupid?
Beaming, the doctor wrote down his number and handed it to him. "Just let me know when. I'm open."
Perry took the piece of paper, and all but scurried back to the kitchen, certain he was red in the face. He dumped the dirty plates at dish and busied himself with other tables, hoping neither the doctor, nor the servers, would notice his anxiety.
Again, Doofenshmirtz left him a generous tip. But Perry no longer felt pride from receiving it.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
When Perry returned to the Flynn-Fletcher household, everyone was already in bed. Apparently, the parents had to head out early for an all-day trip across the state, and had begged their children to provide some quiet.
Perry smiled endearingly when he found the boys camped out in a homemade tent in their room. It spanned across the whole room, over their beds, and was supported by stacks of book and CDs. It seemed very basic for a Phineas and Ferb idea, but Perry decided it was probably for the sake of their parents.
The platypus wriggled underneath the blankets and let out his usual chatter.
"Oh, there you are, Perry. Like the tent?"
The platypus simply starred, but felt his emotions internally answer the question.
The boys had two computers open on the floor, and were typing away on a program that Perry couldn't understand. It seemed to be some kind of generated map of the whole globe.
"Baljeet was really nice to let us use this." Phineas commented offhandedly. "Any luck?"
Ferb simply shook his head. Perry noted the disappointed expression that crossed Phineas' face.
"We just have to keep looking. He has to be somewhere."
He?
The two boys sat in silence; the tapping of the keys became the only filler in the room. Perry watched them intensely, trying not to seem overly keen, but despite his best effort, couldn't make out what it was they were looking for. Any noise from the rest of the house- a creak, a thud, a whisper- made them flinch and turn to look at the door.
What are you up to, Phineas and Ferb?
After a couple of hours of useless results, the boys finally set their computers aside and moved to their beds to fall asleep. They didn't make any more comments on the subject, but Perry began to get an uneasy feeling. If they were intentionally hiding this from their parents, then it was something more dangerous than rollercoasters. Great, more children he had to keep an eye on.