~o~o~o~o~o~o~
I have it.
Perry held the foreign cell phone in his hand, staring at it uneasily. This was the cell phone he'd picked up from the evil scientist's abandoned factory. It was almost midnight now, twenty-four hours before his deadline would be up.
The phone vibrated.
Meet at this address, tomorrow, noon.
He was sent a link. The address lead him somewhere completely outside of Danville. Perry sighed; hopefully this mess would be over soon, and at least the boys, and Lyla, were safe.
Last night hadn't stopped replaying in his mind, keeping him from catching any ounce of sleep. He wanted to be sick. Guilty memories and emotions were threatening to rise to his conscious and overthrow any feeling of normalcy, but Perry did his best to fight it.
He'd received an O.W.C.A.-wide message from Major Monogram, explaining the situation and how they were going to handle it. A specific team of agents were picked to surveil the crime scene and figure out who was behind the attack. Perry's heart tugged when he realized Agent Pinky had been chosen as one for the case. He hoped the little chihuahua still believed she'd done the right thing.
Perry's wristwatch beeped, and he sighed. He didn't want to get up and confront Doofenshmirtz. His mind was still swirling over the meeting he was going to have with Dr. Gevaarlijk later that day. But, the agent dutifully answered the major's call.
He landed in his lair was a thud and saluted as the man appeared on the screen. The major's eyes were red and swollen- it looked as if Monogram hadn't gotten any sleep either.
"Hello, Agent P. I know there's been a major attack on O.W.C.A., and normally you'd be one of the first on our list to work the case, but Dr. Doofenshmirtz has been exhibiting some strange activity recently, so we think you need to divert your attention to him for the time being."
Perry nodded in understanding, hoping they couldn't see how fast his heart was beating.
"Our sources have picked up a number of radioactive waves coming from the windows in his building, many more than usual. We want you to see what he's up to. Good luck, Agent P."
Perry saluted, grabbed his jetpack, and jumped into the air.
After a few minutes, Doofenshmirtz's apartment jumped into view. Perry felt a surge of anger flush through him, and decided he wanted to burst in and break down the door.
Perry landed outside of Doof's apartment, and kicked the door with all his might. It crashing down, filling Perry with a sense of amusement. But just as he looked up, a spool of rope dropped down from out of nowhere and grabbed him, tangling itself around him and throwing him upside down.
"Isn't that always the way? Right at the exciting part, that's when the doorbell rings. Or, y'know, a platypus breaks it down. Anyway, behold the Worst-Fear-inator!"
Doofenshmirtz had a stack of horror movies piled up beside his TV, and right beside that, a giant machine that looked like a part claw, part machine gun, and part robot. Perry stared at it, unsure what to think about it when all he could see was random parts because a popcorn machine was blocking his view.
"What?" Doof cried. "Oh, yeah. I guess from your point of view, it's a little difficult to see. Lemme just get this out of the way for you."
Doof pushed it a few feet to the right. "There we go. Now, in my never-ending pursuit of domination, I discovered that the best evil rulers used fear to keep people in line. So to get into the right headspace, I did what any logical evil scientist would do: rented all the scary movies in Danville for research. Even the lousy ones like Dead Batteries, which is actually better than its prequel, Batteries That Work, which was just a bunch of portable electronic devices functioning properly.."
Perry stared at the doctor, unamused.
"Basically, I shoot someone with the machine, and whatever they are afraid of actually appears in real life!" The doctor cried, raising his arms. "What do you say, Perry the Platypus? You like being a guinea pig? Actually, you'd look kinda cute as a guinea pig. I mean, I wonder if you'd be teal. I bet you would. I bet you'd be a cute little teal guinea pig. Something to think about for the future. Anyway, Perry the Platypus, let's fire this baby up and see what scares you!"
The platypus's eyes widened. He tried swinging his body in order to dodge the blast, but he was a second too late. The green beam hit him with full force.
Perry opened his eyes and tried to shut down his mind.
Pink elephant, pink elephant, pink elephant..
Suddenly, there was a tremendous crash. The whole building seemed to shake. Doofenshmirtz started laughing and waving his arms like a mad man. "Here it is, Perry the Platypus!" He screamed. "I hope you're quaking in fear!"
Perry struggled in the rope, finally breaking himself free with a swish of his pocketknife. He fell to the floor and immediately took a defensive position. The anxiety surging through his mind was almost blinding.
The apartment shook again. Perry heard the slight knock of a blaster being fired. He tried to grab Heinz, but he wasn't fast enough. A beam shot through the roof and hit Doofenshmirtz right in the chest.
"Owww.." He cried in pain, shaking. "Hey, what was that for? Who did that?"
Perry ran to help him, but was shot with another blast. It caught him in the arm, sending him to the ground. The platypus groaned.
Suddenly, a figure burst through the roof and landed in the middle of the room. His jet black hair, tanned skin, and black snakebites stood in stark contrast to the white lab coat he adorned. The man was smirking, and holding two identical blasters.
Perry's heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be.
"Well. This is shocking." The mysterious figure smirked. "Please tell me why I shouldn't just end the both of you right now?"
Heinz was working on standing up. He held onto the wall for balance. "Hello! Buddy! Mind telling a guy who you are and what you're doing here before you just come barging into his home?"
The figure chuckled. "Why, I believe I'm Perry the Platypus's worst fear."
"Really?" Heinz gasped. "So you're.. another evil scientist?"
This time, the figure laughed out loud. "I guess you could say so. But I'd rather see you make the connection in person. It would give me great pleasure to ruin this little agent's whole world."
Perry had initially recovered from his shock, and now held a blaster of his own, ready to pounce. He shot three beams consecutively, all which missed the figure by an inch. The figure purred. "Nice try."
He jumped up and kicked Perry, sending the agent across the room.
Doofenshmirtz seemed very confused, and almost a little hurt for some reason. He folded his arms, irritated. "Listen, you can't just come in and hurt my nemesis!"
But the figure wasn't paying attention anymore. He jumped up and sent a punch in Perry's direction, but the platypus managed to roll out of the way. The figure jumped on top of him, grabbing his arms and pinning them down. Perry was strong as a platypus, but not strong enough..
But he wouldn't change. He wouldn't.
The figure was reaching for his watch. Perry's heart raced, and he squirmed.
"Hey!" Doofenshmirtz yelled, swatting at the figure with a baseball bat. "What do you think you're doing?!"
The figure turned around and punched Heinz straight in the nose. The scientist slipped to the ground once more, crying in pain.
Perry had taken this opportunity to get away, but was once again grabbed and slammed against the wall. The figure held him by the neck, choking him. Perry struggled, but to no avail. The perpetrator grabbed his fedora and dumped its contents to the floor. The platypus watched in panic as the flash drive fell. The man picked it up.
"I don't think you'll be need this.." He smirked.
Perry growled, and pulled the microchip out of his watch. His platypus body transformed into that of a human. With newfound strength, he punched the figure in the face and tried to pin him to the ground.
He struggled, trying to pull the flash drive out of his hand.
The figure smirked. Perry looked deep into his face, a face that was exactly identical to his, except maybe a few years younger, and felt his anger begin to take over. Perry grabbed the man and threw him across the room.
His twin crashed, but all he did was laugh. He picked up one of his blasters and began shooting. Perry dodged the first two shots, but got hit by the third directly in the chest. He fell to the ground, cramping from pain.
Heinz was finally standing, looking back and forth between the two in complete shock.
The figure stood, brushed himself off, and held the blasters to their heads. "My name is Dr. Tecton, in case you were still wondering." He purred. "And this won't be the last of me."
Dr. Tecton, with rockets on the end of his boots, jumped up to the ceiling and disappeared to the sky, flash drive in hand. Perry managed to sit up, and watched him leave, unable to comprehend anything that had just happened.
Perry and Heinz sat in silence for a minute. It wasn't until reality began to set in that the two looked at each other.