A/N: mentions of blood in this chapter

…

When Perry got into work the next day, Monty came to meet him. "Hey, Agent P. You haven't seen my dad about, have you?"

Perry shook his head, frowning. "No, sorry, I've only just arrived."

"I can't find him anywhere," Monty said, looking rather worried.

"Did you check at your house?"

"Well, no. It's not like him to be late, so I thought I'd check here first. But maybe I should check at home."

As Monty began walking off, Perry suddenly remembered why Major Monogram wasn't here. "Wait, Monty! Your dad has Sundays off now."

Monty slapped his forehead. "Oh yes! Gosh, I got all panicked over nothing. Thanks, Perry."

"No problem."

"I don't know why he gets Sundays off," Monty said, frowning. "He never used to. Especially since we're in the middle of a LOVEMUFFIN crisis."

"What?" Perry was confused. This was the first time he had heard of a crisis.

"We found out yesterday: Rodney and Rodrigo are working on some kind of death ray and we have no idea where to find them. Didn't my dad tell you?"

"Your dad is an expert at keeping secrets at the moment," Perry muttered.

Monty frowned at that but he didn't comment. "Okay, well, I'm going to go find the rest of the team. Take it easy today, Agent P. You deserve it." He walked off.

Perry sighed. He wished he could have told Monty about the conversation he had overheard but he knew that he should keep quiet until there was some definitive proof that the major was hiding something from him. The thought suddenly occurred to him that Monty might be in on it too. That made him feel both sad and angry at the same time.

He headed to his office and spent two boring hours checking through nearly a hundred unread emails.

Deciding to go for a walk, Perry stood up and stretched. He was just leaving his office when he bumped into Terry and Tallulah, who were chatting by the water cooler. He attempted to walk past them but Terry called, "Hey Perry! Is everything okay?"

Perry plastered a smile on his face and turned round. "Sure. Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know, you've just got that look on your face," Terry replied. "The one where you look both deep in thought and incredibly hurt at the same time."

"I do not have that look."

Tallulah scoffed. "You can't see your own face so you'll have to take our word for it, and our word says that you definitely do have that look."

"Okay," Perry sighed. "Whatever."

"Perry!" called a familiar female voice.

Perry turned to see Pansy coming down the corridor towards him. He smiled and went to meet her. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Pepper's turn to manage the radio so I just decided to come see you at work," Pansy beamed. "How's your day going so far?"

"Boring," grinned Perry. "Very boring."

All of a sudden, there was a loud crashing sound coming from outside. Perry, Pansy, Terry, and Tallulah all ran outside and saw a large metal box about the height of one of OWCA's floors on the lawn. More agents gathered around the box at a safe distance, when the front of it suddenly fell away, revealing a dark space inside.

All at once, dozens of various animals came pouring out of the metal box and began attacking the agents. Terry was tackled by a brown cat while Tallulah ran off to help a lizard agent who was being attacked by a large bear.

Pansy hid behind Perry in fright. "Go, quickly!" Perry said urgently to his girlfriend.

Pansy nodded fearfully and took off running. Perry hit away a rabbit that came too close to him, before he saw a dog agent pin Pansy to the ground. The orange platypus let out a scream. Perry leapt towards them and tackled the dog off his girlfriend. As they landed, the dog scrambled off. Perry whirled round for Pansy and found his girlfriend hiding behind the OWCA sign.

Just then, Peter appeared out of nowhere. His fedora was missing and he had a new cut above his eye. "Who on Earth are they?" he panted. "And why are they attacking us?"

Perry shrugged. "I don't know but we need to drive them back to wherever they came from."

Perry and Peter both ducked as an eagle soared over their heads. "Is he one of ours?" Peter asked.

"If he's wearing a fedora, then yes," Perry replied. "So you should probably find yours and put it back on."

"Good idea." Peter ran back into the battle.

Perry flew to attack a blue cat but the cat dodged using a move that was very familiar to Perry. He froze in alarm. "No…!"

"Perry!" yelled a voice.

Perry turned just in time to dodge out of the way of a barrelling rhino. Pinky, who had been the one to warn him, ran up to him. "What's the matter with you?" he demanded. "You're not usually this unfocused!"

"I-I don't know." Perry shook his head to clear it. "It won't happen again."

"Good, because the last thing we need is-."

Before Pinky could finish, a jaguar with razor sharp claws came flying at them. Perry only just managed to duck the swipe but the jaguar's claws caught Pinky and scored three cuts down his chest, causing the little Chihuahua to fall backwards with a whine of pain.

"Pinky!"

Perry quickly attacked the jaguar and kicked it away from his best friend. As he did, he suddenly saw a red scar on the jaguar's ear, causing him to freeze again. "Carlos?" he gasped.

The jaguar stared back at him for a moment, before he turned and ran off.

Perry shook himself out of his daze and bent down beside Pinky. The Chihuahua's wounds were leaking blood but since gravity was on their side, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Perry was sure that the wounds were not too deep. He picked up his best friend and carried him to where Pansy was still hiding behind the OWCA sign. "Look after him," he told his girlfriend, who nodded hurriedly.

Then he ran back into the fray, searching for anybody who needed help. He spotted Tallulah struggling under the weight of the bear that she had been fighting earlier. He had just begun to run over there to help her when something hit him in the back and sent him tumbling forwards. He rolled into a low battle stance and looked up at his assailant.

It was a darker teal platypus with a scar over her right eye. Her face was twisted in a sneer, and it was obvious that she had recognised Perry just as easily as he had recognised her. "No…" gasped Perry.

A half-bitter half-sardonic smile appeared on the platypus's face. "Hello Perry."

"P-Portia…"

Perry was so stunned that he wasn't able to move when Portia leapt at him and kicked him hard in the head, knocking him onto his side. The blow combined with the fact that his brain already felt dizzy made him pass out almost immediately.

…

*le gasp* whAT IS GOING ON?!