Penny watched, biting the inside of her bill, as Perry vanished out the office door and slammed the door behind him. Major Monogram sighed, placing papers that were resting on his desk into a file.

The group sat in awkward silence for a moment longer before Jordan spoke up. "Sir... Is there anything else you wanted to tell us?"

"No, that was it. Let me know if Agent P gives you too much trouble, Agent J."

"Will do, sir."

After everyone put their chairs back and filed out of the office, Penny raced after Jordan, who was already heading down the hall. "J-Jordan?" He stopped and turned around. "That is..." Penny sighed. "I'm sorry, can I call you Jordan?"

"Absolutely." Jordan smiled. "What is it?"

"I... I'm really sorry about my brother."

"Oh, that." Jordan shook his head. "It's not your fault."

"I know, I just... He's not usually that bad, I promise."

"You sure about that?"

Penny frowned, cocking her head at him. "What do you mean?"

Jordan snorted. "I mean, that's basically the only way I've ever seen him. I guess I forgot he probably has other, more...likable...personality traits also."

"After that scene, I don't blame you." Penny sighed again. "But I'll go talk to him, okay?"

"Good luck." Jordan walked off before pausing and glancing back to her. "Oh, and Penny... I want us to have a meeting as a proper team tomorrow morning, so make sure to pass the message along, okay?"

Penny smiled and gave him a quick salute. "Absolutely, we'll be there."

"Thanks." With that, he vanished down the hallway.

Penny glanced around. Now to try and find where her brother had gotten to. Maybe he went home? So she ran down the hall, opposite the direction to Jordan, to look for Perry.

(...)

When she reached his host family's house, she hoped- and expected- to see her older brother resting underneath the tree in the backyard. She had learned previously that it was his favorite place to rest when the weather was right, and there was barely a cloud in the sky that day.

...But he wasn't there. Penny frowned and glanced around the whole yard- nope, not even somewhere else in the backyard.

Penny cautiously approached the house's back door. Theoretically, since it was the afternoon on a week day, his family should be gone, but she was scared to risk getting caught anyway. Carefully, she reached up and tried the doorknob. Of course it was locked, no one was home.

She noticed the pet door flap at the bottom of the door and got onto all fours, attempting to push her way through the flap. Nope, that was locked, too. Apparently.

Penny sighed. Well, hopefully he wasn't inside, then. She straightened, determined to find him and talk to him. His lair was around here somewhere- didn't he have entrances in the backyard?

Unfortunately she didn't know many of them, because she had only been in his lair once or twice. Typically, when they met in-person, it would be at OWCA, since Perry's family didn't know Penny existed. But she did know about one or two lair entrances in the backyard, one of which she could theoretically enter...

So Penny left her position by the house and made her way to the tree, beginning to feel around on the bark. There should be some kind of plate around here somewhere...

Within a couple moments, her paw slid into a hole as the "bark" pushed in on itself, revealing a hidden passage in the tree. She grinned. There it was. Now Perry just had to be down there.

She stepped inside and waited as the elevator took her underground, peeking out through the green glass tube as she entered into Perry's lair.

Sure enough, there he was, sitting at his desk,

Penny had been hoping to surprise him by sneaking up to him, but he must have heard the elevator coming down because he whirled around. "Penny? What are you doing here?"

Penny stepped out of the elevator and made her way over to him, rubbing her arm awkwardly. "You...didn't exactly make the best exit earlier. I wanted to check on you."

Perry sighed and turned back to face his computer monitor, crossing his arms. "And to tell me how inappropriately I acted earlier, right? That I need to clean up my act and work with those idiots?"

"Well..."

He snorted. "Don't worry, I already know all that."

Penny sat down on the floor next to his chair. "You know and just don't care?"

Silence.

Penny glanced up at him, frowning. "You're...not really going to leave OWCA, are you? That- That was just a bluff?"

Penny had been hoping for a simple, "Yes," but instead Perry was quiet for way longer than she had hoped. "P-Per?"

"I don't know," he said finally. "I don't think I can stress enough how much I hate this change of plans, but... I do like working at OWCA." Penny opened her mouth to say something, but he kept going. "I'm just... At this rate, there's not much left for me to lose if I do quit. I have my family, and Doofenshmirtz, well-" He snorted. "Doof isn't even an evil scientist anymore, so I'll still be able to visit with him."

"But... But you can't just leave...!" Penny felt tears begin to prick at the back of her eyes.

Perry glanced down at her, frowning. "Pen, I probably won't. It's a possibility, but not a large one."

Despite his words of reassurance, if it could be called that, Penny felt the tears still threatening. She squeezed her eyes shut to hold them back, but all that did was allow them the pressure needed to escape, and that opened the flood gates. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly as tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

"Penny?" Penny caught a glimpse of Perry's movement out of the corner of her eye, and a moment later she felt him wrap his arms around her as he settled on the floor next to her. "Pen, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry..." Penny sniffled. "I-It's just... One of my favorite things about OWCA is that...you're always there. I can always count on you to be there for me." She shut her eyes tightly and leaned her head against her brother's chest. "But if you leave, that could be gone."

"Penny..." She felt her brother inhale deeply, most likely considering his words. "This is about more than what I said earlier, isn't it?"

"N-No one else pays any attention to me," Penny choked out through her tears. "No one. You were at my ceremony earlier... No one else was. You saw it. I even invited someone- she didn't show up. T-That's the way it's always been there. I... I want to be an agent, I really do, but it's discouraging when the only one who seems to support me is my own brother."

"Penny, if I did leave, I'd still support you from the sidelines. I wouldn't just stop paying attention to you."

"But it wouldn't be the same," she whispered.

She fell silent, curled in her brother's arms as she felt her tears slowly begin to dry. Perry was silent too- he probably didn't know what to say in response to her random breakdown.

After a few minutes of silence, Penny felt her sadness transforming into exhaustion. Reluctantly, she pulled herself out of her brother's arms and rubbed her eyes. "Sorry..."

"It's okay." Perry smiled warmly. "That was probably weighing on you for a while, wasn't it?" He gently rubbed the top of her head, tilting her fedora in the process. "I'm always here for you, Pen. Have been ever since our parents died."

Penny returned his smile to the best of her ability, adjusting her hat and inhaling deeply. "Just give the team a chance, okay? Please? Maybe it won't be as bad as you think."

Perry snorted. "It probably will be." He met Penny's pleading gaze, and he sighed. "But I'll try."

"Great!" The last of her sadness soaked up by that hopeful sponge, Penny jumped to her feet. "Oh, and, by the way, Jordan wants us to meet up as a proper team tomorrow morning."

"Wonderful." Perry stood up as well, crossing his arms. "Can't wait for that."

Penny rolled her eyes. "Can you at least tone down the sarcasm a little?"

"Definitely not." He smirked. "I'm gonna try and work with the team- that doesn't mean I can't complain about it the whole time."

She whacked him in the arm. "Jerk."

Perry just laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, okay?"

Penny's playful glare relaxed into a smile. "Absolutely."

(...)

The next morning, Penny awoke to a beeping in her ear. She groaned and rolled over to shut the alarm off, before realization suddenly hit her, making her practically jump up in bed. Today was her first full day as an OWCA agent! Not only that, but it was only- she glanced at the clock- an hour before her first proper meeting with her first team!

Penny grinned and tore the covers off, hopping out of bed. This was it. She could show off her skills to her team and prove that she was a useful addition to OWCA. She'd finally get some recognition!

Her hopes plummeted slightly as her brother came to mind, but Penny forced the negative thoughts out of her head. No, Perry said he was going to try and give the team a chance. And he really was a great agent. If anything, this meeting was more likely to give her reasons to be proud of him than frustrated with him. Besides, there was no reason for anything he did to reflect on her- Jordan hadn't shown any signs of projecting Perry's attitude onto her the day before, when she had had that brief conversation with him.

...But it had been pretty short...

Stop it, Penny scolded herself. You're going to think positive and only think positive. She pulled her attention out of her mind and to the world around her, glancing in her mirror. Her light blue fur was slightly ruffled, so smoothing it out would probably only take a few minutes. Then she could relax at breakfast until the meeting started.

Let's do this.

(...)

When she made it to OWCA's gym- where Jordan had told the team he wanted to meet the evening before- she was somewhat surprised to see that the only one there was...Perry. But it was only a few minutes until the meeting was supposed to start. He was lying on the floor, clearly bored, while he presumably waited for everyone else to show up.

"Perry?" Penny jogged over to him and sat down on the floor next to him.

"Hey, Pen." Perry sat up and smiled at her. "You sound awfully surprised."

"I...am," Penny confessed. "I thought at least Jordan would be here by now. And, well... I wasn't expecting you to..." She broke off. "Nevermind."

Perry's smile morphed into a smirk, and he crossed his arms. "Let me guess... You weren't expecting me to be on time?"

"Maybe..." Penny flushed and rubbed her arm sheepishly. "Sorry, though, I guess that was rude."

Perry just chuckled. "Nah, don't blame you. Honestly, I was debating whether I should be late or not- my choices were either give the team a big middle finger or do my best to leave a better impression after yesterday."

Penny couldn't stop the grin from overtaking her face. "Assuming I know which decision you went with, I'm so proud of you!" She hugged him tightly. "So you really are trying?"

"Hey, I'm your older sibling, I'm the one who's supposed to be proud of you for things." Perry laughed. "But of course I am; I told you I would, after all."

Penny let go of him just in time to see his smile turn into more of an annoyed frown. "Unfortunately, right now the team isn't exactly fulfilling my efforts the way I had hoped." He pulled the air quotes out. "Our 'perfectly fit leader' isn't even here yet, and it's less than a minute till the meeting's supposed to start." He rolled his eyes. "I shouldn't be surprised. It's Jordan."

Penny sighed. "Maybe he's just having a rough morning, Perry. What do you have against him so much?"

"Well, let me tell you something." Perry leaned closer as if he was about to share a secret, so Penny leaned forward to, curious to what he was going to say. "There's this thing that happens sometimes, where you just don't like people for reasons you can't really pin down."

Penny frowned. "Really? That's the whole reason why you're so antagonistic towards him?"

"Nope." Perry smirked, backing away. "That's not why I don't like him. I said that happens sometimes, but it's not what's happened this time. I don't like him because I don't like stuck-up assholes who trick everyone else into thinking they're saints."

Penny opened her mouth to scold him, but a different female voice filled the following silence instead. "You have such a fluent way with words, Perry. It's incredibly admirable."

Penny glanced to the entrance to see Astrid entering the gym, making her way toward them.

Perry snorted. "Were you being sarcastic there? Couldn't tell."

Astrid rolled her eyes and sat down a solid two feet away from where the siblings were settled. "Whatever makes you feel better, Agent 'Way-Too-Good-To-Work-With-Anyone-Who-Might-Possibly-Be-Beneath-Him.'"

"I hate to break it to you, but I think that's a bit too long for a codename."

Penny spotted movement behind Astrid and looked over to see Maxwell coming to them. "Besides, Astrid, just because he doesn't want to work with a team doesn't mean he's arrogant. I don't prefer the idea of being on a team myself."

Astrid sighed. "It's not about the fact that he doesn't want to be on the team. Quite frankly, I have mixed feelings myself. It's that he's being such a...brat about it. Neither of us are treating the idea with the same unprofessionalism and cynicality that he is."

Perry rolled his eyes. "Y'know, Astrid, your insults keep getting worse the longer you're here."

Maxwell sat down next to him, and Penny watched him, curious if he was going to help keep Astrid and Perry from tearing each other's throats out.

"It's a good thing I wasn't trying to insult you, then," Astrid shot back. "I was just stating what you are."

Penny frowned. Silence from Maxwell. Nope, apparently he wasn't going to help. "Can you guys please calm down? To be a team, we need to be able to have civil conversations with each other."

"I am calm," Astrid said, scowling at her.

Perry snorted. "Yeah, you're calmly stating that you hate my guts. How civil."

Penny shot him a glare, and he raised his paws in defense. "Sorry, sorry. I'll shut up."

"It's a miracle," Astrid mumbled. "For someone who really doesn't like working with others or even being around other people, you talk an awful lot."

Perry scowled, opening his mouth to snap back with a biting retort, but Penny placed her paw on his and gave him a pleading stare. Perry sighed and crossed his arms, not saying anything in response to Astrid.

Maxwell grinned. "Wow, Penny actually gets on his good side."

Perry glanced over at him. "Yeah, her and the rest of my family." He smirked. "Sometimes I think they're the only people I can stand."

A chuckle bubbled out of Maxwell's throat alongside his grin. "You and me both, honestly. I'm okay without anyone else in my life, but I don't know what I'd do without the Bridges."

Penny pulled her knees to her chest and glanced at Astrid, who sighed. "I suppose my family means a lot to me, too. Although I told myself not to get attached to them when I was first adopted."

Penny giggled. "Well, I guess if even Astrid is saying good things about it, having a host family must really be pretty great."

Astrid rolled her eyes while the two guys chuckled. Maxwell glanced at Penny and cocked his head. "Oh, yeah... You don't have a host family, do you, Penny?"

"I... Well..." Penny hung her head. "I..."

"Maxwell, I don't think it's really any of our business." A red shape flashed in the corner of Penny's vision, and she looked up to see Jordan sit down in between Astrid and Maxwell in the circle. "Sorry I'm late, guys. I was about to head to OWCA when Elliott caught me. They hadn't left for school yet and wanted to hug me before leaving." He grinned. "And then that hug turned into a death grip as they tried to beg Deana to let them take me to school for show-and-tell. You know how it is."

Astrid frowned. "I understand. Although I've never personally experienced a situation like that- Mabel's almost 18, and she was a teenager before I joined the Jennings' household."

"Well, I get it." Maxwell grinned. "That sounds almost exactly like Angie. When her family first adopted me, I don't think she let me out of her arms for a week."

"That's so cute." Penny giggled. "How old is she?"

"She and Andie are 10. But they were only about five when the Bridges adopted me." Maxwell glanced over at Perry. "You have kids about the same age, right?"

"They're about the same age, but Phineas and Ferb are a couple years older. Ferb just turned 12 a couple months ago, and Phineas is following in a few months. Angie and Andie are...twins, right?"

Maxwell nodded. "Yep, identical twins. Their birthday's in October."

Jordan held his paw up. "This conversation is surprisingly sweet, and I hate to break it up, but the meeting's already starting ten minutes late. We need to figure out our game plan for this team, and the Major's already given us an assignment to complete today, so we have a mission to go finish after this."

"I don't think it's really fair to break up our conversation when you're the one who gave us a delay in the first place." Penny gave her brother a quick glare, and Perry sighed, crossing his arms. "Fine. What do you want us to talk about?"

"Right. Okay." Jordan sat up straighter. "So all five-" he glanced over at Penny, "-four of us have experience with the typical system OWCA's worked with for years: fighting our nemesis, a member of LOVEMUFFIN, however often they create a scheme and temporarily taking them down until they strike again. We've gotten used to that, and it's still the model that every other agent follows.

"However, the Major stated that he specifically wants us to drop that. Thus..." He began to look around the group. "Maxwell, Astrid, the three of us aren't really going to be fighting our old nemeses at all anymore, I don't think. Other agents will fill in for us."

Jordan paused and met Perry's gaze. "Now, your nemesis, Doofenshmirtz, left LOVEMUFFIN almost a year ago, so you've gone practically a year without following the nemesis model. I know you don't want to be part of this team, but it might even be easier for you than the three of us because you've had a longer break from the typical grind."

Perry laughed bitterly. "If that's your roundabout way of saying that I should suck it up and assume I have it easier, you're sorely mistaken. Unfortunately, trying to keep Doof from blowing up the world around him while trying to be good has been just as hard and time-consuming as it was when he was evil."

"Fine." Jordan sighed. "Whatever. Now, OWCA doesn't really have much information on this DANGER, just the pieces that the Major told us yesterday. Since taking down this organization is going to be our job, that means reconnaissance is going to be just as important. Until we know more about DANGER, we can't plan out much of what we're going to do."

Penny bit the inside of her bill. "Does OWCA know the general location of their headquarters? Or do they meet up in different locations, like LOVEMUFFIN?"

Jordan glanced at her. "We're...not positive," he admitted. "All we know to help us locate them is that Rodrigo is involved." Jordan turned his attention back to her older brother. "Perry, you've done a good job locating those hard to find over the years. We're hoping you'll be a valuable asset in this part of the mission."

Ouch. Penny flinched. Hopefully that wasn't intended to be an attack, although it sounded a bit like one, based on his tone. She reluctantly glanced at her brother, who scowled. "Listen, I'm giving this team a chance. Don't push it by acting like you're any better than me."

"Like you're one to speak," Astrid snapped. "All you've been doing since yesterday is badmouthing the rest of us. Jordan should be allowed to clap back occasionally."

Perry rolled his eyes. "I thought you were Miss Professional. Allowing the team leader to insult me because of a petty grudge isn't exactly professional, as far as I'm aware. No matter how insufferable I may be."

Jordan cleared his throat awkwardly, pulling everyone's attention back to him. "I'm sorry if that sounded like I intended for it to be an insult," he said, not meeting anyone's gaze. "Perry, I simply meant that this will be a part of our mission that you'll be incredibly valuable for."

"Sure you did," Perry muttered under his breath, barely loud enough for Penny to hear. She glanced over at him, only to catch Maxwell also frowning in his direction. Apparently he heard, too.

Jordan just kept talking. "To continue what I was saying previously, the Major wants us to focus the rest of today on trying to begin locating DANGER, whether they are a migrating group like LOVEMUFFIN or setting up their own headquarters. So we need to start by trying to find Rodrigo and see where we can go from there."

Everyone turned to Perry, who was staring into the distance and only looked up when a solid 20 seconds had passed. Jordan frowned. "I hope you heard what I was saying."

Perry scowled. "Of course I did, there's no need to patronize me like I'm still a Trainee. We need to locate DANGER, and our first step is to find Rodrigo. I was just waiting to see if anyone else had any suggestions before relying on me."

Maxwell sighed. "I think you're the only one who's met him before, so no one else is positive what approach to take."

"Right, okay." Perry straightened up and began to glance around the group. "I only met him once, and it was early August last year, so I'm not expert on him or anything. But at the time, Doof was mentoring him, which meant that originally he was under LOVEMUFFIN's guidance."

"Which means LOVEMUFFIN should have files on him somewhere?" Penny guessed, staring hopefully at her brother.

He grinned back. "Exactly. So all we need to do is access LOVEMUFFIN's database, and it should give us the head start we need."

Astrid cocked her head thoughtfully. "I think I might be able to access OWCA's supercomputer and see what we have about LOVEMUFFIN on there."

"I'll go talk to Doof and see what he can tell me." Perry hopped to his feet. "He might still know how to access LOVEMUFFIN's information, and even if he can't he might have enough knowledge about Rodrigo for us to work with."

Jordan nodded, and everyone else began to follow Perry's lead, standing up. "You two go take care of that. As soon as you've got something, contact the group and we'll meet back here."

Penny hesitated. "What about the three of us?"

"Do you want to come with me?" Astrid offered, turning to look at her. Penny blinked, surprised to see a smile playing at Astrid's bill. "Since you're so recently graduated, learning how to use our mainframe might be handy."

"Sounds good." Jordan turned to look at Maxwell. "Maxwell, do you want to go with Perry?"

Perry held up his paws. "Hold on, I never said anything about partnering off for this. I literally only need to talk to someone I've known for six years now."

Jordan sighed. "I get you want to work alone still. Really, I do. But if we're going to be a team and really cooperate, we need to start by getting used to working together on the little things. Then teamwork on larger, more important missions will be easier. Besides, you and Maxwell seem to understand each other a bit better than the rest of us." He glanced between Perry and Maxwell, who were both frowning at the ground, Perry with his arms crossed and Maxwell with his arms behind his back. "Hopefully you understand."

"So I don't really have a choice?" Maxwell asked, not even looking up. "Neither of us?"

"If you really don't want to, do whatever you want. I just think it would be a good start. Whatever you do, meet back here later." Jordan walked off.

"Ready to go?" Astrid smiled over at Penny.

Penny hesitated, glancing at Perry. "Give me a second." Quickly, she left Astrid's side and approached her brother. "Hey, you gonna be okay?"

Perry smiled and rolled his eyes. "Pen, I'm fine. Jordan's bossiness is just annoying, per usual. Go learn things with Astrid." He gave her a gentle shove back towards the white platypus.

"Alright." Penny grinned and backed away, waving as she left. "See you later today!"