Perry stayed where he was on the couch. Peter was standing up, holding a cushion to shield himself.
Palmer had woken up and was staring intently at Dennis. He was aware something was wrong.
"Come on, Perry. I have a schedule to keep." Dennis hissed.
Perry clutched Palmer tighter and backed up a little. "You can't have him, Dennis."
"You've always been so stubborn." Dennis began to approach them. "I didn't want to use any force, you see… Seeing his father blow up would certainly scar the little one, wouldn't it?"
"You leave him alone, you hear? He's only a baby."
"I have no intention of hurting him, I've already told you that. I'm sure I did. You, however, I don't mind hurting."
Dennis leapt at him with a sudden burst of speed, knocked him down, and grabbed Palmer from him.
Palmer started to cry.
"Hush." Dennis cooed. "You'll be an amazing rogue."
Palmer continued to wail.
Perry felt anger building steadily and quickly in him. He'd only felt that once, when Platyborg had been about to hit Phineas and Ferb.
"You give him BACK, Dennis!"
"Why should I? You're just going to train him to love this place. He needs to learn the truth."
Perry charged at Dennis, who sidestepped at the last minute and tripped him. Perry landed on the hard floor.
The other agents ran to help.
"HEY!" Dennis shouted. He turned the raygun toward Perry. "Don't move. Any of you. Or I'll fry him."
The agents backed away.
"Fight him!" Perry urged. He tried to get up, but his head was still throbbing from the first blow.
The agents all shook their heads.
Dennis turned to leave. Palmer started howling.
"Oh, shut up." Dennis growled.
Perry jumped up and pulled Dennis over with strength he hadn't been aware of. Dennis fell over, releasing Palmer, who ran and hid underneath the card table.
Perry slammed Dennis against the wall.
"What…" Dennis gasped. "How did you…"
"You DON'T hurt Palmer, understand? He NEVER did anything to you!" Perry thrust him against the wall again, cracking the paint.
Palmer crawled out from under the table. "Dad-die." He said.
Perry turned to look at him.
Dennis took advantage of the distraction and punched Perry in the stomach. Perry flew back and hit his head on the table.
Palmer picked up his toy block and threw it at Dennis' head.
"Ack!" Dennis shouted. "Watch it, you little…"
Palmer began picking up bigger objects and throwing them. Then he started to throw some of the nearest agents, who were protesting greatly.
The agents and objects landed on Dennis. He shoved his way to the top of the pile.
"I'll be back." He snarled. "I'll get that little wretch. And I'll get all of YOU!"
He slipped on his jetpack and blasted out of the hole in the roof.
Palmer waddled over to Perry and licked his face.
"Good work." Perry said weakly.
Poppy arrived with the TV. She looked around the room in horror.
"We were attacked." Alan said.
"Perry, are you okay?" Poppy dropped the TV on the floor and ran to him.
Perry sat up, still a little dizzy. "Y… yeah. I'm fine."
"You're bleeding!"
"Huh?" Perry put a hand to his head. He drew it away and looked at it. It was stained red.
"You're hurt."
"I'm fine. Palmer actually saved me."
"Pimallie." Said Palmer.
"I'll get Monogram." Poppy stood up.
"I'm okay, Poppy. Honest. Just a little dizzy."
"Who hurt you?"
"Dennis." Said Devon. "He's after Palmer, for some reason."
Poppy looked over at Palmer. "Is he okay?"
Perry tried to look. "I think he's fine."
"Lie down." Poppy said.
"I'm okay."
"You're hurt. Lie down."
Perry sighed and lay back down. His head did hurt a lot.
Poppy picked up Palmer and stroked him. "Let's go find Monogram. Devon, make sure he stays lying down."
"Woopie dawin naw-tee." Said Palmer.
Perry closed his eyes. How did he actually manage to take on Dennis like that? He'd never been that strong, he was sure of it.
And now he was exhausted.
p***
Perry put Palmer down into his baby crib and handed him his bottle.
"Dad-die dad-die dad-die." Palmer said.
"Rest up, g'night, all that stuff." Perry said.
Palmer squeezed his bottle. It squirted on the wall.
"And milk goes inside Baby Palmer, okay? Not on the furniture."
"Blurbah." Palmer stuck his bottle in his mouth.
"You be good now. Daddy's going home. Mommy's asleep over there on the bed, kay?"
"Kai."
Perry went over to the elevator and rode it up.
His head was feeling much better now.
He jumped into his backyard, pulled off his hat, and went back to being a mindless pet.
Phineas was sitting under the tree, writing something.
Perry chattered and put a paw on his lap.
"Oh, there you are, Perry. Carlos better still be intact."
He was, but Perry wished he wasn't. He'd exploded Carlos the caring clown in the toilet before. The new Carlos was harder to rid of. Perry wasn't allowed in the bathroom anymore.
He'd tried everything. When Lawrence had been making cake, Perry had jumped up on a chair and plopped Carlos in the batter. Unfortunately when Lawrence mixed the batter, it had said, "You take such good care of me!" revealing Carlos' whereabouts.
"You hungry?" Phineas asked.
Perry chattered again.
"Okay." Phineas put his paper and pencil down and went inside.
Perry followed him into the kitchen.
Phineas started to spoon his food into his dish. "Ew. Ew. Ew. EWWW."
Perry didn't see what Phineas found so disgusting about mashed worms. They were delicious. But every time he fed Perry, he'd make a face.
Perry smiled a little, remembering the time when he was a younger and there wasn't already-mixed platypus food. Phineas REALLY didn't like having to mix it up himself.
"Here you go, boy." Phineas put the bowl on the ground.
Happily, Perry started eating. He had been really hungry all day. Usually Monogram kept Waldo the worm separate from Perry and Clara the chicken, but today they'd been in the same room for quite a while, and Perry had started to get a little antsy.
After Phineas left, Perry opened up the fridge to get out the chocolate syrup. He squirted it on top of his food and resumed eating.
That was a nice flavor.
Maybe for dessert, he'd eat the infamous Carlos the Caring Clown toy.
p***
Percy was bored.
The Danville zoo had been nice when he'd first moved there. But he hadn't been smart back then. He remembered when he used to think that each day was a miracle and that his offspring were magical.
The only things he had for entertainment were a small red ball, his mate, Pansy, and a whole litter of platypuses whose brains weren't exactly good at processing things.
"I wonder how Perry and Penny are doing." He muttered.
Pansy overheard. "I hope they are eating whipped cream."
"I hope Dennis is leaving them alone."
"The mean bunny had better not try and hurt my magical egg platypuses again." Pansy growled.
"Do you think I should call one of them?"
"They are very far away. Will they hear you?"
"On the phone, Pansy. You remember the phone."
"Yes. The magical box they are inside."
Percy sighed. He wished he could understand why Pansy had decided to give up her intelligence. She had said it was keeping her from being happy.
"Can we make pancakies?" Asked Pablo, ambling over to where Percy sat.
"We don't have any batter."
"No mooshy pancakie stuff?"
"Nope."
Pablo frowned. "Pancakies are yummy."
p***
Perry was trying to concentrate. He really was. But he had a few issues with his attention span.
"Agent P, focus!" Carl said. "I'm not very good with this thing." He adjusted the hold he had on the Electricitygun. "Monogram said you need to dodge at least thirty shots in a row before we're done."
"There's a butterfly outside." Perry insisted. But he turned back to Carl.
Dodging was what he did best. But if it wasn't in a life-or-death situation, his mind liked to wander.
"Okay." Carl aimed and fired a shot.
Perry leapt over the bolt, which hit the wall.
Carl fired some more. Perry dodged perfectly.
"You got a letter." Darren said, entering the room.
Perry ducked as a bolt sizzled over his head. "Who did?"
"You." Darren held out a thick envelope.
Perry took it and stared at it, then gave a yelp as electricity surged through his veins.
"Sorry, Agent P!" Carl said. "We'll have to start over."
Perry glared at Carl and tore open the envelope. He pulled out a sheet of paper and read.
DO YOU SMELL SMOKE?
Perry showed it to Darren, who shrugged. "Who would take the time to mail a letter with only four words that don't even seem to be saying anything important?"
Carrie rushed inside. "Fire!" she said.
"WHAT?" Darren and Perry shouted in unison.
"No, sorry, I mean fire! On the TV! Not here. Come look!"
They followed her into the main room. The television was turned onto the news. Almost all the agents were crowded around it.
"…Has anything this intense happened in Danville in a long time." The reporter was saying. "Firemen claim this fire was set on purpose."
"What's on fire?" Perry asked Peter the panda.
"Some school down in Danville." Peter said.
Perry stared at the image of the burning building. "Wait… isn't that…"
"I know that school." Darren said. "It's near Danville Park, isn't it?"
Perry glanced back down at his letter. Now he knew what it meant.
"Dennis sent this." He said quietly.
"Are you okay?" Darren asked. "You look really pale."
"I have to go." Perry dropped the letter and ran out the door.
p***
Perry was at the school a few minutes later.
Only a section of the building was gone.
Fearfully, he looked around in the crowd of children. Where were they? Were they okay?
Finally he caught sight of them. Phineas and Ferb were standing by Isabella, near the caution tape that surrounded the school.
They were okay.
Perry breathed a sigh of relief.
That had been close.
Too close.