For Once
Cezille07
A/N: And now for the all-important backstory—one we already know from "Chez Platypus.";D
Chapter 2. Mine.
Perry sat across the sulking man on the other end of the dining table, both of them sipping hot chocolate. Doofenshmirtz looked at his nemesis and lowered his mug to begin the story.
"Remember yesterday, when I made this device that eliminates people's feelings of love? I was wrong to let you destroy the remote. Could you believe it? That woman left me after I surrendered my emotional stability! There were a million things I should have done: fire that Delovinator when I got the chance, for one. I should have been more selfish—what?" he stopped, retracting from Perry's glower. Frowning, he took a large gulp of the chocolate, and spat the boiling liquid at first contact with his tongue. "That was my mistake. Yes, the chocolate and the girl. I was too excited, see, because I thought she was going to be the one. You know...the one?"
Perry remained blank, hardly able to believe he was worried about the doctor for this.
"Of course, I forget you're a platypus. You wouldn't know love as we humans do," muttered Heinz. "But if only you did, you would agree that I've been betrayed beyond possible betrayal. A piece of me is now missing, and I intend to have it back!"
Okay, this visit might be worth something... thought the platypus. He sipped a little of the hot chocolate and waited for the scientist to continue.
"The only limit to the Delovinator is its orbit capacity, and the number of feelings it can constrain. Now if I, for example, decide to create a version of it that can influence the entire Tri-state area's full emotional spectrum, I would be the sole, rational thinker of all! I would be as priceless as the Mayor! Or the President! And better yet...I can have that Michelle whimpering at my feet 24/7, just because I feel like it!"
Doofenshmirtz had regained that goofy, spirited grin. He stood to refill his own mug with hot chocolate and turned to Perry. "In any case, I haven't begun working on it yet, and I'm going to need your help tracking her down," he explained, gulping and spitting out another mouthful of the drink. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want a refill too?"
She looked left and right. Then up above, then at her feet. The street was empty, save for the lone pawnshop at the corner. The only worker in that shop by this time was a pimply high school lad, whose boss had better things to handle than profits and his wages. Slowly, Michelle crept toward the door. She pushed it open, and it creaked at the slightest touch. There was the boy asleep by the counter. Perfect! Now it was just a matter of taking a foreign-looking coin and chucking it at his blemished forehead, yelling, "EVIL!"
"Hey, lady, what gives?" he called, but Michelle was already halfway across the deserted street laughing her lungs out.
...Okay, but now what?
"Something's wrong, I used to be more evil," she said to herself, pocketing her hands. She found the shortcut to her apartment and proceeded there by kicking dust into passers-by's feet. Several raised eyebrows at her, and several more raised fists. But she only had to hint on the presence of a gun under her shirt, and that ended all dispute. "If only guns came in large varieties that do whatever you want..."
She's heading this way...
Perry gulped from behind a brick wall. He replaced his agent hat after retrieving from within it the photo Doofenshmirtz handed him before he left. I can NOT believe I'm doing this. He had seen Michelle before, last night to be precise, but all the same, he double-checked the tall, curvaceous woman—did that description come from him?—against the picture. Surely there's a bigger reason he's head over heels about her...
"Focus, Perry the platypus," a voice demanded from his computer watch. It should have been Monogram commanding him, not his nemesis. But now that he thought about it, the hot chocolate was probably more than an innocent, warm-up beverage. And to think Doofenshmirtz looked a little too distressed that morning to even make himself presentable to Perry.
He paused before brandishing the large sack and masking tape.
It just may be love. If it's for love, then...
