~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Perry walked into the restaurant in a very sour mood. He was exhausted, and serving people was not his idea of a good night at the moment. He'd considered quitting the job more than on one occasion, but knew the company was short-staffed, and hated to dip out on them so suddenly.
The shift ran very smoothly, despite Perry's best efforts to keep his sarcasm under control. He was usually so good at forcing a smile, but the customers that day were really pushing his limits.
Why were people so picky about their food, anyway?
To Perry's surprise, Doofenshmirtz arrived at 6:30, dressed in his usual lab coat, with Vanessa trailing him. They sat down at Heinz's usual table. Vanessa immediately picked up the menu and began looking through the items.
Perry approached the table, feeling a little awkward for some reason.
"Well, this is a surprise." He laughed. "You're looking much better, Vanessa."
She giggled and winked at him. "Oh, you know me; I'm a strong woman."
Heinz was smiling too, but for reasons Perry could only guess. After a second of silence, Perry coughed. "Will it be the usual for you today?"
The doctor hesitated for a moment before shrugged. "You know what, I'm thinking of trying something new today. The crab cakes sound delicious. But I will take my usual decaf."
"I'll have a coke and the avocado shrimp salad."
Perry took their order and immediately began preparing their beverages. It was funny, seeing Doofenshmirtz and Vanessa together like this. He wondered how it had been like when Vanessa was just a little girl, maybe with Charlene in the picture too.
Perry felt a little jealous. He was already missing the feeling of being surrounded by Peter and his wife and kids. That stupid, homey feeling that he had never had growing up. He knew he was extremely lucky to have the people in his life that he did have, but still; to have a real family, who knew him for who he was and accepted him that way. That was something he was still searching for.
And had basically given up trying to find.
Perry set the drinks in front of the Doofenshmirtzs and promised their meals would be up shortly. By the time the food was delivered, it was already seven, and customers were beginning to thin out.
"Compliments to the chef." Vanessa smiled when Perry stopped by to ask how they were doing. "Are you going to eat all those crab cakes, Dad?" She grinned. "Hey, hands off my food!"
"Perry, do you get to eat here for free?" Vanessa asked, awe-struck.
"Sometimes. Employees always get half off, though."
"Hm, maybe I should come work here."
Perry shook his head endearingly, and left to refill their glasses.
By the time closing came around, Heinz and Vanessa were long gone, and Perry was extremely exhausted. His wished his coworkers and managed a good night, and trudged outside to take a breather before driving home.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
The next morning, he had a surprise call from the restaurant. Confused, Perry snuck away from Phineas and Ferb's bed to answer it.
It was hard to tell what his manager was saying. Obviously the man hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. But Perry basically gathered that customers had been calling in sick all night and the restaurant was being closed down for a couple days for a thorough inspection by the health department.
Odd. Perry knew for a fact that management was particular about the cleanliness of the restaurant and its employees. There was no way the hygiene could be that bad to warrant half their customers sick. Nonetheless, Perry told his manager to keep him updated and let him know if he could help somehow.
Phineas and Ferb were not in the backyard when Perry waltzed outside to check on them. That was definitely strange, but he knew that the kids liked to take their adventures around Danville sometimes. Maybe they traveled out, looking for some fun.
Just to be safe, Perry pulled out his watch and ran a tracker on their location. He breathed a sigh of relief. They were at the skate rink. Good.
His paranoia resolved, the agent jumped down a chute into his lair and activated his computer. There wasn't an assignment active for him yet, for which Perry was grateful. He wanted to see if he could get any leads on Dr. Gevaarlijk's location.
He spent the good portion of an hour looking through security feeds looking for any sign of her, or the other agents. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, nothing was popping up. The platypus was sitting there, frustrated, when a message appeared on the screen.
"Good morning, Agent P. I see you're trying to do some research. Trust me, our team has been working on Dr. Gevaarlijk's case for a good few days. The woman is a sneaky bitch, and is being very difficult to find."
"Language, Sir."
"Oh, you're so sensitive, Carl." The major scoffed. "Well, I'm sorry to disturb your research, but we have another mission for you. Dr. Doofenshmirtz was just seen buying a bulk supply of aluminum in the Tri-State-Area. See what he's up to, and put a stop to it."
Perry saluted, and headed out of the lair. He launched out of the house in his now repaired jetpack, and flew out to Doofenshmirtz's apartment.
He burst through one of the windows, ready to pounce and attack the man, when he stopped in his tracks, completely floored. Phineas and Ferb were standing there, talking to his nemesis, with a bucket full of tools surrounding them. Blueprints scattered the area. Were they actually.. building something together? What was Heinz doing with his boys?
~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Heinz woke up early that morning, feeling very inspired. He had a brilliant evil scheme, one that was really going to work this time, he just knew it.
Vanessa had asked if she could go to the mall with Charlene, who had promised a mother-daughter summer day. Heinz nodded. Despite the fact that it was Charlene, he felt better knowing his baby girl would be with an adult.
He had already grabbed all his tools and blueprints, and had them laid out on the floor, when his doorbell rang.
Now who could that be?
When he slammed the door open, he was met with two young kids that looked awfully familiar. Then he remembered; these had been the kids that had visited him a few days ago, asking him some weird questions. He had been mostly kidding about them coming back. They really wanted to spend the day with him?
"Hello, again." The boy with the triangle head smiled. "We just wondered what you were doing today, and if we could come over and help?"
Doofenshmirtz hesitated for a moment, pondering if they was a good idea or not. He really didn't want to play babysitter all day.
The green-haired boy lifted a complete tool box that he was carrying. The red-haired boy let out a huge grin. "We brought our entire toolbox!"
Maybe they could be of some help. Besides, the sooner he got his inator done, the sooner he could come up with ways to trap his nemesis. He really wanted this plan to work this time.
"Ah, what the heck. Come on in. You can put your stuff with mine."
Before too long, the boys were deep into his blueprints, and already asking questions about how he was planning on assembling the machine. Doofenshmirtz began to explain why he'd chosen a particular wiring, and the three went right to work.
"So what does it do?" The triangle-headed boy asked.
"Oh, well, I was going to wait for my nemesis to stop by before I revealed it, but I guess I can let you guys in on the secret, since you are helping me, and all. Well, I'm going to call it the Control-The-Weather-Inator. Basically, I can control the weather with a press of a button, by sending different amounts of water pressure into the clouds."
"Cool!" The red-haired cried. "That sounds awesome. Imagine the possibilities if you could control the weather."
"I know, right?" The evil scientist laughed. "Soon, the Tri-State-Area will be mine!"
The three continued on their work, putting together the metal parts and spooning together wires. Just as the Inator was finally taking shape, there was a dramatic thud at the front door. Doofenshmirtz glanced up to see Perry the.. Human? He had unlocked and burst through his front door, and did not look happy.
Doofenshmirtz gulped. What was going on?