"What… why are you here?" Prince demanded.

"I decided to tag along in case you couldn't do your job." Rex said, sticking his gun back in his belt. "Good thing I did."

Prince looked down at Perry. She couldn't react in front of Rex.

"Is that something you do, usually?" Rex asked. "Have little chats with the knowers? Tell them all our secrets?"

"He wouldn't have ratted us out." Prince said, in spite of herself.

"Sure he wouldn't have." Rex rolled his eyes.

"I trust him." Prince growled.

"You trusted him." Rex said, smiling cruelly.

Prince looked at Perry again. It couldn't be. Her eyes searched him, hoping desperately for some flicker of life.

"Shot him in the back of the neck." Rex said flatly. "Couldn't have survived."

Prince shook her head. It couldn't be. It just couldn't.

"Let me tell you a story, Prince." Rex said, staring into her eyes. "Long ago, when the Silencers were a group of many animals, not just a few, they were led by a creature named Vendetta. He was a tough, but fair, leader, and he warned the members of the Silencers not to converse with outsiders. The outsiders would only lead them astray."

He paused, watching Prince carefully. Prince put on a bored expression and pretended to inspect her claws.

"Vendetta was mostly worried about his son, Reckless. He had named him so because Reckless was careless in his actions and hardly ever listened to him. Vendetta didn't get along very well with his son, but he worried for him all the same. They were bound together as a family. Anyway, one day Reckless cast away his father's warning and fell in love with a beautiful girl. He put all his faith in her."
Perry was still limp on the ground. Prince's heart sank.

"She betrayed him." Rex said. "Nearly all the Silencers were killed, arrested. Vendetta did not survive. Only three Silencers got away safely." He paused again and took a deep breath. "Don't trust others, Prince. They're all traitors. Don't be reckless."

Prince stared at him hard. "I'm sorry you made a bad choice in girls, Rex. But Perry's a good creature. You really do make poor decisions."

"I do." Rex said. "I should have never decided to allow you in our gang."

"Enjoy being one of the two remaining Silencers." Prince said coldly. "Dane is gone."

"And you? I don't remember banning you."

"I will no longer keep you company." Prince said. She moved over to Perry and shook him carefully.

"That can't be helped, then." Rex said. He turned to leave.

"I'm sorry about your dad." Prince said. "That must have sucked."

"We weren't very close." Rex said.

He was gone in a moment.

"Come on, Perry." Prince whispered. "Come on. Please. Please. Don't die."

Two boys walked up to them. One had fiery red hair, the other one, neon green. Prince made a mental note to get a bottle of that color dye.

"Oh, there you are, Perry." The redhead said.

Perry stood up very slowly, pulled at the air around him, and as if taking off a jacket, removed the wound from his body.

He grinned. "Hey, boys. Sorry it took so long to get you that water."

Prince stared at him.
"That's what the jacket was for." Perry said, holding his jacket up, staring at the realistic gunshot wound near the hood. "Poor Phineas. Good thing I was wearing it."

"What is… how is…" Prince stammered.

Perry suddenly realized how it looked to Prince: A floating bullet wound in the air.

"Oh. Uh, this is an invisible jacket. Feel."

Prince tentatively poked the air above the bullet hole. Her eyes grew wide.

"My host boys, those two right there, made it." Perry explained, still marveling at it. "Now I know how it works. It absorbed the bullet and created a disgusting fake blood-coated hole around it to look real. They didn't want my attacker to know I was wearing a protective jacket, so they made it invisible… Smart kids…"

Phineas smiled. "I'm glad it worked. Ferb put some ketchup in the lining. And dark red food coloring. And water."

"Tomato ketchup." Ferb said. "Not ketchup ketchup."

Prince looked terrified. "You… I thought you were done for!"

"Sorry I worried you. I couldn't act alive in front of that trigger-happy alley cat." Perry placed the jacket over his arm and tugged the bullet out. The red wound faded back to invisibility. "Goodness, that looked real. Ferb really needs to stop watching those violent movies. At least it saved my neck."

"I had no idea he followed me here." Prince said. "Usually he leaves me alone."

"Gang critters are unpredictable." Perry said.

"How did you know he'd shot you?" Prince asked. "How did you react like that?"
"Training. Heard the shot and realized it was near, so I fell. Usually, if you play dead, people leave you alone." He handed the sippy cup from his pocket to Ferb. Ferb drank happily.

"I am so…" Prince swallowed. "Sorry. I shouldn't have tracked you."

"How were you supposed to know you were being followed yourself?"

"I… I just… I…" For the first time since Perry had met her, Prince was at a loss for words.

Perry smiled. "I forgive you. How's that?"

"I don't deserve that." Prince growled.

Pajamas appeared, flittering cheerfully above their heads.

"My friend, the red balloon!" He sang happily.

"Look at you, Pajamas. You're finally flying again." Perry smiled.

"We packed ice-cream sandwiches in Ferb's backpack." Phineas said.

"The real kind, not the kind mom makes." Ferb said.

"How many?" Perry asked.

"Um, I dunno. Twenty? We can eat them on the swings."

Perry followed his owners. He looked at Prince and jerked his head toward them. "Come on."

"Picnic with all the little children." Prince said sarcastically. "Exciting."

"All the little chil-dren, all the little chil-dren!" Pajamas sang.

They all sat by the swingset, save for Pajamas who sat on top of it and chirped about used shoes.

"We should teach Pajamas a song." Perry said. "So he can sing something besides his usual strange compositions."

Phineas began to sing. "Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff…"

Ferb caught on. "That's a song we heard that time we watched Disney. Deep in the hundred-acre wood, where Christopher Robin plays…"

Pajamas watched them with interest, head cocked to the side to get a better idea of the lyrics.

"I don't remember… blah blah… neighborhood…" Phineas feebly supplied.

"Ant motht oth all wurny the purr." Perry said through his ice cream sandwich. He had meant to say "And most of all Winnie the Pooh" but doubted Phineas and Ferb were aware.

Phineas, however, started laughing. "Wurny the Purr!"

"Wurny the purr, wurny the purr, turby little curby all sturfed with flurf, Wurny the purr, wurny the purr, surly wurly nurly ald bar!" Ferb sang.

Perry started laughing. Prince and Pajamas looked on in confusion.

With renewed gusto, Perry and the boys began to sing their new version of "Winnie the Pooh". Pajamas had picked up on a little bit and was singing mixed parts of "Wurny the Purr" along with them.

"Turby little curby all sturfed with flurf…" Sang Pajamas when they had gotten back to the part about the hundred acre wood.

"Not that the original song isn't amazing." Perry told Pajamas. "You should sing that, too."

"Mommy?"

"I am here."

Perry dreamed he was a baby again, lying in his little cave in the zoo. His mother padded over to him.

"I am here, my magical platypus." She said. Pansy lay down next to him and he cuddled against her.

Baby Pablo climbed on top of Perry and sat on him.

"Perry? Perry?"

Perry jolted awake. Phineas was sitting on the edge of the bed. "You okay, Perry?"

"Fine."

"You kept calling for your mother."

"Weird dream." Perry said.

A storm was going on outside. Perry hoped Prince had gotten back to Danville all right.

"You remember your mom?"

"Of course. I see her a lot, you know. She's mindless. She took good care of me when I was little, though."

"I remember my mom."

"Of course you do. You only saw her, what, four hours ago? I think you're half-asleep again. Why are you in my room?"

"Ferb won't let me sleep. He keeps singing 'Wurny the Purr' and making me laugh."

"Make up another song and make him laugh. Revenge."

"Like what?"

"The Ducky Momo Alphabet Song."

Phineas looked confused.

"Like, you take every letter of the alphabet and sing to Ducky Momo. Like this, starting with J. Jucky Jo Jucky Jojo, jee's jour jery jest jiend."

"Oh, I see."

"Just make sure you always skip the letter F." Perry said. He rolled over and tried to sleep.

Unfortunately, Pajamas was in their condo that night.

"Jucky Jo Jucky Jojo!" Pajamas chirped.

"Ugh." Perry groaned. "Be quiet, Pajamas."

Pajamas was doing figure-eights around Perry's bed.

"Calm down, Pajamas." Phineas said.

Pajamas settled himself on the headboard of the bed.

"I thought Prince was going to stay longer." Phineas said.

Perry smiled and shook his head. "She had to get back home. If there was anything good about Rex showing up…"

"So, she's not in that gang anymore?"

"Nope."

Phineas smiled. "Good. She's too nice."

"Too NICE? Let me explain something to you…"

"My band-aid's kind of coming off." Phineas said, looking at his arm.

"I think you're inheriting my attention span."

Phineas poked at his bandage and winced. "It's not completely off yet."

"Use hot water." Perry looked up at the ceiling.

"Are you sad?"

"No. Just a little worried."

"About what?"

"I'm just a little antsy to be able to work again. I need to fight Doofenshmirtz. He hasn't seen me very recently."

"Perry… Monogram's got this new guy on his side, Thad, and I don't think I like him."

"How do you…" Perry sat up. "Phineas, I told you to lose the tape recorder."

"Perry, he's weird. He says he loves animals, but… I don't know. I just don't trust him."

"Phineas… just don't listen in anymore, okay? Promise me."

"I promise." Phineas said quietly. He curled up next to Perry and fell asleep.

Perry continued to stare up at the ceiling.

What was Thad doing at the agency? Was he assisting Monogram? Or helping him make decisions?

No matter how much thought he gave the subject, Perry could not understand why Monogram's old childhood friend would show up out of the blue.