~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Enraged at the sight of Phineas and Ferb with his nemesis, Perry ducked out of the building, hid in a corner, changed into his human self, and pulled open the front door with one dramatic swoop. He hadn't even bothered to pick the lock; he'd forced it open with a powerful punch.
The three characters in the room turned around to stare at him. Perry was sure he looked furious, but did his best to school his expression. Heinz Doofenshmirtz was the first to recover, waving at his nemesis. "Perry!" Heinz cried. "Come on in, I guess. Meet, uh.. What were you guy's names again? I'm sorry, I have a terrible memory at times.."
"No worries!" Phineas supplied immediately. "I'm Phineas, and this is my brother Ferb. We just wanted to help Dr. Doofenshmirtz with his new big adventure!"
How did they even find the man? What do they know?
Heinz, sensing Perry's tense expression, cringed and put down his tools. "Right. Well, this is my nemesis."
Phineas raised an eyebrow. "Your nemesis? Does he come and help him with inventions, too?"
Heinz and Perry met eyes for a quick second. Perry shook his head slightly, subtly warning the man to be careful what he said, because there would be hell to pay if it was the wrong thing. Heinz gulped, clearly getting the message. "Yeah, he comes over and helps. Uh, Perry, why don't you come in, and I'll show you what we're working on.."
"It's so awesome!" Phineas cried. "We're building a machine that can control the weather! Imagine, perfect, sunny days for the rest of summer!"
Perry gulped. Had the man brainwashed these children?
Calm, Perry. They're just kids. They have no idea what's going on. How could they? All that mattered, was that Perry get them to safety.
He wanted to march the boys right out of the building and call their mother, but the hopeful looks on the boy's faces was enough to keep his anger from overspilling. Despite the fact that Heinz was technically still evil, he was really harmless.
"I really wish I could let you boys stay." Perry finally sighed. "But building and testing machines like this can be really dangerous. I will have a word," At this, the man glanced up and glared at Heinz, "with my.. nemesis here about the situation. I'm sorry."
"But, we really can help." Phineas cried. "We.."
"I know." Perry sighed, kneeling down to the boy's level and putting a gentle hand on their shoulders. Looking into their eyes, he knew he would do anything he could to protect them. His boys. "You guys are Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher right? Those kids that have been making all kinds of cool, amazing things this summer?"
"Yeah! You know about those?"
Perry chuckled. "Of course. I saw the lemonade stands, and the giant aquarium, and the circus, and the rollercoaster. I know you are both amazing. I'm not doubting your abilities. I just know that your mother would be really worried if something were to happen to you both, that's all. We want you safe. So promise me you'll go straight home, okay?"
Phineas and Ferb had their heads hung. "Wait!" Phineas cried running over and digging something out of his toolbox. "Do you know who this might be? Or how my stepbrother and I have been seeing him in our dreams?"
Perry took the picture and held it up to the light. It was very blurry, but he could make out the picture of Doofenshmirtz. Wait, Doofenshmirtz in an eye patch. Perry's heart began to race. This was very bad. Were they remembering the second dimension? Was the affects of the machine slowly wearing off?
Now was the time to lie. He gave the picture back and let out a long sigh. "Look, about a month ago, we met once before."
The boy's eyes widened. "We did?"
"Yes. It's why I know you. You helped my.. nemesis and I build this awesome machine. But then something went horribly wrong, and you both got seriously hurt. So we had to rush you to the hospital. When you woke up, you didn't remember anyone or what had happened. And we decided just to keep it that way, so you didn't feel traumatized."
"Oh." Phineas took in the news with a puzzled expression. Perry could see his brain was trying desperately to understand the information and absorb it, and hoped that the lie would pass without too much doubt. "I guess I understand why we can't stay then." Phineas finally admitted.
"Wait," Heinz butt in. "I don't remember this happening at all. What scheme was this?"
Perry looked up and glared at Heinz. "I suppose you don't remember getting hurt either, do you? You, also, didn't remember a single thing. Which is good, because you absolutely looked ridiculous in that eye patch."
The boys couldn't help but let out a small giggle. Perry smiled, and stood back up. His heart began to calm just a tad bit. The boys promised that they would return to their backyard and work on their own projects. The platypus breathed a sigh of relief as they waved goodbye and walked out of the building. Perry watched out the window as they jumped into the sky on their flying car, and disappeared into the summer sun.
"Wait." Heinz continued, still completely puzzled. "Seriously, when did this happen? I mean, I've been hurt lots of times, but never enough to completely forget.."
Perry let out a low growl. The noise obviously scared the man, because he stopped rambling and looked at Perry with a slightly scared expression. But the agent was far passed empathy. He could feel his anger rising. He wanted answers now.
"WHAT were you thinking inviting two kids over to help you build that thing? Did you kidnap them? Did you brainwash them? WHAT DID YOU DO?"
Perry didn't realize that he had gained on the man, and was now right in face. Heinz had backed into a corner, his hands over his face, waiting for a punch in the eye. The sight was immediately sobering. Perry was briefly reminded of his father's own anger, and how he'd often been the one forced into the corner. He remembered Doofenshmirtz's backstories. He felt ashamed, and backed down. "I'm sorry." He sighed, trying to gain control again. "I'm sure it was a misunderstanding, I just.."
Heinz recovered from his initial shock and let out a frustrated noise. "For your information, I don't know how they found me. They just showed up one day with this weird picture of me and wanted to ask questions. I couldn't answer them, but told them they could visit another time. I didn't think they'd actually, you know, come back. Do you know them?"
Perry didn't answer. He was rubbing his forehead, which had suddenly started to ache.
"Are they.. are they your neighbors or something?"
"Something like that." Perry sighed.
"So who is the man with the eye patch? And why does he look so much like me? Because despite what you say, I have never worn an eye patch.."
"It was nothing. Just their overactive imagination." Perry snapped, still testy. "There was no explosion. No one was in the hospital. I just wanted to convince them to stop coming over here."
Doofenshmirtz crossed his arms impatiently. "Look, I know I'm evil and all, but I would never harm a child. Vanessa has always been safe with me!" He argued. "And anyway, I don't appreciate you just baring in like you did. It's very rude."
"I would appreciate if you would just stop being so damn irresponsible. Vanessa was never helping you build these crazy things. I'm surprised she hasn't been more seriously hurt from the amount of explosions that happen around here!"
"Hey, most of those explosions are your fault!" The doctor was now yelling.
"I don't care!" Perry snapped. He was so angry now, he could throw something. His face was probably extremely red, too. "I swear, you touch them, contact them, even so much as look at them again, you're dead."
Heinz had backed himself against the wall now, watching the man warily. Perry realized he was now full on screaming, and slammed his fist against the wall, trying to release all the energy he had built up. Heinz jumped from the thud. And then, the unthinkable happened. Perry started sobbing.
He had tried to keep it all in, but somehow, the tears just started pouring out, and he couldn't stop them. He was so worried, so worried about the boys, about Vanessa, about Lyla, about Danville, and he hated how he was so helpless, useless, worthless.. Not hero enough, not strong enough, not powerful enough..
He crumbled to the ground, his face turned away from his nemesis, and sobbed into his hands.
After a couple minutes, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, habitually expecting it to be a violent attack, but the hand didn't hurt him. Instead, it started rubbing his back, trying to comfort him.
Perry curled his hands into fists and began forcing his coping mechanisms to activate again, schooling his emotions to try and stop the tears. It took a few minutes, before he had finally stopped sobbing, and was left trying to get his body back in control.
He didn't look at Heinz, who he knew was now kneeling on the floor next to him. "I'm sorry." Perry whispered, like a small child. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I'm sorry.."
"Hey, hey." Doofenshmirtz replied softly. "It's okay, it's okay.."
The two stayed in that position, just until Perry had finally stopped sniffling and was calming down. The agent still didn't to turn around, mostly because embarrassment at his violent outburst of emotion had started to make him feel vulnerable. His nemesis had just seen him cry. And not just cry, but full on sob. How humiliating was that.
But Heinz had stopped rubbing his back and was now watching him, concerned. "You okay, Perry?"
Perry didn't respond, simply stood up, still not looking at his nemesis, and grabbed his fedora, which had fallen off in the agent's dramatic fall to the ground. He didn't say anything to the man. He couldn't. His entire body was screaming at him to run.
Danger, danger, danger.
So despite the doctor's quiet pleading, the platypus burst out the door and ran out of the building.