As Astrid and his little sister left the gym, Perry turned to Maxwell, who refused to meet his gaze. "So what do you think? We working together or doing our own things?"

Maxwell was silent for a solid minute before sighing and meeting Perry's gaze. The olive green platypus' silver eyes echoed implications of frustration, although his following sentence revealed none of that. "I suppose Jordan makes a good point. We'll never be able to cooperate for larger missions if we can't even do tiny things together. If you don't mind, I..." He sighed again. "I guess I'll come along."

"Alright, then." Perry began to head towards the gym's entrance. He glanced over at Maxwell to make sure his fellow platypus agent was following him, and, as a matter of fact, he wasn't. "What's up?"

"Sorry, just..." Maxwell shook his head to clear it and caught up to him. "You just seem much more okay with this than I expected."

Perry shrugged. "You're not annoying like the other two. You don't seem fake like Jordan, and you certainly aren't a prick like Astrid."

Maxwell cocked his head. "You really don't like them, do you?"

"How could you tell?" Perry asked dryly. "And no, I haven't since I met them and we trained together."

"It's just... I remember when we were all in training together. You didn't even treat them this..." he hesitated, "this passionately back then, even though your hate for them did apparently root there."

Perry frowned. Well, crap. "So what? They did the opposite of grow on me. Plus I still hate that I have to be on a team with them from now on."

"I hate it, too." Maxwell studied him with an expression that made Perry want to curl up and hide under a rock. His silver eyes examined him so closely that it felt like he'd burn a hole through him, making the skin under his pelt tingle. "And I don't exactly have a soft spot for them, either. But you still treat them completely differently."

Perry cleared his throat and focused on the hall in front of him as they walked, refusing to look back at Maxwell and risk giving anything away. "I'm also much more talkative than you. You've always tended to stay quiet and keep out of things."

"I suppose..." Maxwell fell silent.

After a few moments, Perry risked glancing over at him again. Maxwell didn't seem to be watching him anymore. Maybe he had completely dropped the conversation?

Maxwell glanced back at him, and Perry caught his gaze unintentionally. He didn't seem suspicious, like Perry had feared, but his silver eyes did sparkle with something else. Curiosity? And a hint of another emotion. It almost seemed like the same sort of emotion Penny would watch him with sometimes...

Perry shook his head to clear it and pulled his eyes away from Maxwell, feeling a tingle return to his body. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Maxwell do the same, but for some reason the tingle remained.

(...)

The silence between them lasted until they were riding to Doofenshmirtz's building in Perry's hovercar. He couldn't tell if it was an awkward silence or not- it didn't feel quite pleasant, but he usually wasn't a fan of silence and did sort of like it for a change. Finally, though, he inhaled deeply, too tired of it to keep it going. "So have you met Doof before?"

"No." Maxwell shook his head. "But I have heard a ton about him. Last year he was one of the top three public enemies that OWCA had declared, right?"

Perry grinned. "Yep, right before he decided to give up evil and join the good side instead."

He heard Maxwell chuckle. "I wonder if he would have changed if he knew he was so high on the list or not."

"Honestly, I don't think so," Perry said. "I'm not sure exactly why he decided to change sides, actually, but he had such a strong conviction about it that I don't think it would have swayed him."

"Really? How do you not know why he decided to change?"

Perry shrugged. "I think there was some kind of time-space loop thing going on, but he said that he was outside it, so he was basically the only person who had seen the days repeat."

"Huh." Perry risked a glance over at Maxwell to see him stare thoughtfully at the sky. "I certainly don't remember that."

"If you had been outside the loop I would have been surprised." Perry's grin returned. "I helped Doof stop it... So I thought. Then I got home and learned that my host family and their friends had somehow wound up outside of the loop and had actually been the ones to fix everything."

"That makes sense." Maxwell paused. "I've never met Phineas and Ferb, but I've heard the girls talk about them a lot. They've always heard stories about their inventions at school and wish they could stop by sometime."

"Understandably." Perry nodded in agreement. "The stuff they make is pretty impressive." He chuckled. "It's second-nature to them. They're so smart and talented... I'm really proud of them." He pulled the hovercar out of the air and parked on the side of the road.

"I can tell." Perry turned and saw Maxwell grinning at him with his arms crossed. "Y'know, on the drive over just now, I think you smiled more than I've ever seen you smile at once the rest of the time I've known you. There's no way that's a coincidence, is there?"

"What can I say? Doof and my host family are the people I care the most about- Penny, too." Perry hopped out of the car. "I just don't get to see them when I'm forced to work with a team I don't want to be part of."

He glanced behind him to make sure Maxwell was following, and together they walked into Doof's apartment building and headed for the elevator. Maxwell was looking around as they went. "Pretty nice place. I guess he's pretty rich?"

"Not really." Perry grinned as they stepped inside the elevator and waited for it to take them to the right floor. "He doesn't make his own sustainable profit for this type of life, if that's what you mean. Most of it is alimony from his ex."

"Huh."

Yet again, they fell into a silence, until they eventually made it to Doof's door. Perry reached out and knocked on it. "So are we going to have to communicate nonverbally?" Maxwell asked as they waited for Doof to get the door.

"Nope. After OWCA designed those in-ear translators a few months ago, they let Doof have one also."

At that moment, the door opened. The Drusselstinian scientist, wearing his standard black shirt, gray pants, and lab coat, stared down at them, his eyes widening. "Oh, Perry the Platypus!" He glanced over at Maxwell. "...And friend. What an unexpected surprise. And by unexpected, I mean...completely unexpected." Doof frowned. "What are you doing here?"

Perry sidestepped the scientist and entered his apartment. "We needed to talk to you about something for OWCA."

"Ooh, goodie!" Doofenshmirtz closed the door as Maxwell hesitantly entered behind his teammate. "Unless I'm in trouble. I didn't accidentally damage OWCA property again, did I?"

"Did you do something that might have damaged OWCA property?" Perry crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow at the scientist.

"...No." Doofenshmirtz cleared his throat. "So then why does OWCA need me? They do know I'm not a Trainee there anymore, right?"

Perry sighed. "Of course they don't, Doof, you haven't been for half a year. Actually, they-"

"And who's this platypus?" Doof turned his attention to Maxwell, who was standing awkwardly a ways behind him.

"This is Maxwell," Perry said, resting the urge to bury his head in his paws. After the meeting earlier, he found himself slightly more annoyed with the scientist than usual, no matter how much he cared about him. "He's been an agent at OWCA for years, and he's here with me because he's my...new teammate."

"Teammate?" Doof glanced at him again. "But he's not a Trainee? Oh, you must hate that, Perry the Platypus."

"Anyway," Perry said through gritted teeth, "we're here because of a new organization that's becoming a threat. Have you heard anything about DANGER?"

Doof frowned. "Absolutely, why wouldn't I?"

"Really?" Perry felt his scowl relax. "Because we really need-"

"I mean, I've managed to survive on the brink of danger for years, thanks to my own little Murphy's law. Not to mention that I actually lived around the Murphys until a month ago. You remember that, right, Perry the Platypus?" Doof looked down at Maxwell. "I don't know if you've heard of them, but they're this family-"

"Doof, please, focus." Perry sighed. "I don't mean the kind of danger you're thinking of. I take it, since that was what came to your mind, you haven't heard of the organization named DANGER?"

"Oh." Doof shook his head. "No, I haven't. Are they like LOVEMUFFIN?"

"We think so. In fact, we're worried they might be worse than LOVEMUFFIN. LOVEMUFFIN, we've been able to handle with no issue. DANGER hasn't done anything yet, as far as we're aware, but we learned who one of its founders is, and that's what concerns us." Perry relaxed his arms, letting them fall to his sides. "That's why we need to talk to you."

"Well... Alright. Who is this founder?"

"Someone you helped mentor once." Perry cocked his head. "Remember Rodrigo? From last summer?"

Doof paused, stared into some void for a few seconds, then developed a scowl and turned back to Perry. "You mean that guy who trapped me, you, and Vanessa and tried to destroy the Tri-State Area?"

"Yeah, that guy."

Doof frowned. "Well, no wonder you're worried about this, then."

"So do you know anything that might help us? Like, have you had any other contact with Rodrigo that might tell us something more about DANGER?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Doof thoughtfully put his chin in his hand and fell silent for another moment, before his eyes lit up and he held a finger in the air. "Wait a minute! Rodrigo might not have told me anything himself, but Rodney took over mentoring him after what happened between us."

He scowled. "Typical Rodney couldn't resist rubbing it in my face, but it didn't matter because I became a good guy about a month later. He said that he was going to...help Rodrigo go places that I couldn't help with, or something. Like they had some big crazy plan, and when Rodrigo got strong enough Rodney'd send him off on his own to launch the scheme."

Perry couldn't help the hope from welling inside him. "Yeah, that sounds like DANGER! Did he say anything else about it?"

"He... He said..." Doof grew quiet again, and Perry could practically see and hear the wheels turning in his brain. "He said that he wouldn't tell me anything else, but when the time came he'd post all about it on the LOVEMUFFIN blog."

"That would be awfully helpful," Maxwell broke in, "if the LOVEMUFFIN blog wasn't protected. And you don't have access there anymore, do you?"

Doof sighed. "No. No, I don't." His face lit up. "On the bright side, I haven't had to see the arrogant jerk brag about anything in months!"

Perry barely heard his last remark- he was too busy calling up Penny on his watch. He tapped his foot, waiting for her to eventually pick up. Thankfully, after what felt like hours- but was probably only a couple minutes- he heard her higher voice ring out through the watch. "Perry? What is it?"

"We got intel from Doof that might help you and Astrid. Can you use the supercomputer to hack into LOVEMUFFIN's blog?"

Astrid's voice came on the other end. "Their blog? Why the hell do we-"

"Please, just trust me."

Penny turned away from the screen. "I'm sure he knows what he's doing, Astrid. Can you access it?"

Astrid mumbled something back, but Perry struggled to hear it because Doof was suddenly at his side. "Perry the Platypus, who is that?"

Personal space, please. Perry held his paw up, signaling for Doof to stay back. "It's my sister. Astrid, what did you say?"

Doof gasped. "Perry the Platypus, you have a sister? Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Penny giggled. "I'm guessing you didn't hear what she said that time, either?"

"No." Perry sighed, shooting a scowl at his old nemesis.

"She can do it. She's accessing it right now."

"Awesome. Tell her to look for..." Perry paused. "Wait, Rodney isn't his real name, is it? What's his full name?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Perry shot Doof a glare, and he sighed. "I think there's a Von Rodenstein somewhere in there, but I'm not sure."

"Better than nothing, I guess. Tell her to look for Rodney von Rodenstein or something."

Finally, he heard Astrid's voice echo through the screen again. "Got it. Anything else you want to let us know?"

"I think that's the only thing we really have to work with right now. See what his blog says. Maxwell and I'll come back to HQ in a bit."

"No prob." Penny grinned. "See you soon."

"See you." Perry hung up and looked over at Maxwell. "I think we're one step closer to solving this mission."

Maxwell smiled, but Doof suddenly stuck himself in between the two of them and blocked Perry's vision. "Perry the Platypus, you need to explain yourself. You have a sister?"

"Yes, Doof, I-" Perry paused, feeling his phone go off. "One sec."

Perry pulled out his phone and saw that Penny had sent a text to their team's new group chat. Hey, Jordan, I think we'll be ready to meet up again in abt 20 mins.

He put his phone away. "Sorry, I don't have time to explain all that right now."

Doof sighed. "Do you have time to listen to me? I need some advice."

"I really don't, Doof." Perry frowned. "Sorry. If you'd like, we could probably meet up tomorrow."

"Yay!" His face brightened. "Coffee?"

Perry rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the smile. "Sure, coffee. Just not at a shop, they don't exactly service animals."

"No problem! I'll pick up the drinks and we can go to the park or something."

"Great." Perry headed for the door, making eye contact with Maxwell along the way. "Come on, we need to get back to HQ."

Maxwell nodded and began to follow him out the door. "Goodbye, Perry the Platypus! And friend!" Perry heard Doof call out after them.

Once they were gone and walking down the hallway, Maxwell chuckled. "Well, that was chaotic."

"No kidding." Perry smirked over at him. "Welcome to every single moment of my time spent with him."

Maxwell grinned back. "It's pretty impressive that you've put up with that for over five years and still care about him."

"I..." Perry's smirk turned into a more genuine smile. "Thanks."

(...)

Back at HQ, Perry found himself sitting back in a circle on the gym floor with the rest of his new team. Astrid was busy saying, "Can we please find a new meeting place soon? This just makes me feel like a Trainee sitting through a basic breathing exercise again."

Jordan sighed. "Unfortunately, Astrid, that's not our priority right now." He shot a look at Perry. "We'll think about that when things have calmed down and we've all started getting along."

"So we're never moving, then?" Perry couldn't help a smirk from coming to his face.

He felt Penny elbow him and inhaled sharply, not expecting the mild pain that came with it. "Sorry."

Astrid shook her head. "I hate not being able to tell whether you're serious or not."

Perry shrugged. "It's the way I am, I guess."

Jordan cleared his throat. "Anyway, to move on to the important matters... Astrid, Penny, what did you guys find?"

"Well, we weren't sure exactly where to look to begin with," Penny confessed. "We started by just looking at OWCA's files on everyone in LOVEMUFFIN. Unfortunately, that didn't really help." She gestured to Perry. "Then he called us and told us he and Maxwell found a lead they needed us to follow. We did, and we ended up finding ourselves on the blog of some guy called Aloyse...Everheart..."

Perry chuckled. "Just call him Rodney, Pen. That's all the rest of us do. His 'friends' included."

"Alright then." Penny giggled. "Rodney."

"Once on there," Astrid spoke, her voice sharp, "we found a post where he bragged all about how his mentee, Rodrigo, was graduating and starting his own evil organization. He also asked if any LOVEMUFFIN scientist was interested in joining."

Jordan leaned forward. "That could be important. Who responded?"

Astrid smirked, her blue eyes glinting with...something. Perry couldn't quite pin what. "No one except Rodrigo himself, who said that he didn't want any LOVEMUFFIN idiots in his new organization."

"At least he's self-aware." Perry snorted. "We all knew LOVEMUFFIN wasn't the brightest."

Jordan sighed. "As funny as that may or may not be, it's unfortunately not very helpful. Were there any clues as to how we could find DANGER? Or even just Rodney?"

Perry glanced between Astrid and Penny as silence overtook the room. They both looked lost in thought, as if they were trying to remember something but couldn't quite. "I think..." Penny sighed. "I'm not quite sure. There was one thing he said..."

Astrid suddenly snapped her fingers, nearly causing Perry to jump as his attention got pulled from his sister. "That's right! He said that OWCA would never guess where DANGER was because they'd never suspect DANGER to follow their own rules."

Jordan cocked his head. "That...that's the big clue?" He groaned. "How helpful. It's a private blog that they think OWCA can't access, and he still didn't reveal exact details."

Perry shrugged. "I don't know, to me that seems pretty obvious."

Everyone turned to look at him. "What do you mean?" Maxwell frowned.

"Well, if what Astrid said is the same as what Rodney said on his blog..." Perry glanced at Astrid for confirmation. She nodded. "Then that means DANGER is doing something similar to OWCA, most likely something LOVEMUFFIN hasn't done. If this ties into our biggest current concern, location, then what do we do that LOVEMUFFIN doesn't?"

"We have a headquarters?" Penny suggested.

Perry grinned at her. "Exactly. It might mean DANGER's going to have a main HQ where they'll be centralized. If we can find that right off the bat, taking them down should be way easier than we originally thought. Especially if DANGER is still recruiting."

He glanced around the group in time to see Maxwell cock his head. "Is this why you're considered OWCA's top agent?"

Perry couldn't prevent a smirk from developing. "I like to think it's one of the reasons."

"Please don't boost his ego, Maxwell." Astrid stood up. "He already refuses to cooperate with 'underlings' like ourselves."

Perry's smirk immediately fell into a scowl. "I don't like you personally and I don't want to work with anyone. That doesn't mean I look down on your skills as an agent."

"Sure."

Jordan sighed. "Astrid, where are you going?"

"Back to the computer to try and find a lead as to where DANGER's HQ might be located." She glared back at Perry, her blue eyes shining with distaste. "It doesn't sass me or disrespect my skills."

Perry blinked. "I haven't done anything! You just got angry for no reason!"

Astrid ignored him. "You guys keep working to try and find a lead through...other methods." With that, she walked off.

Perry glanced at his sister. "Pen, I don't know what caused that outburst, but if I did do something I didn't-"

"You didn't do anything." Penny frowned. "Not during this meeting, anyway. She might just be touchy, since she's been putting up with that general treatment from you for the past 24 hours."

"I guess." Perry sighed.

"Why do you care?" Jordan scowled. "You've been nothing but nasty to us anyway. You've barely even been a help to the team."

"Hey, listen." Perry glared back. "You're getting a ton of perks out of this team-up. You don't get to act like the victim here."

"Oh, but you do? You are the victim? That's what you think, isn't it?"

"Well, I sure as hell don't enjoy anything about this situation." His glare turned into a scowl. "My life was pretty great up until I walked into Monogram's office yesterday."

"Perry," Penny murmured.

Jordan's black eyes shimmered dangerously. "But the rest of us have been having the time of our lives? Thanks to your attitude, I don't think any of us are enjoying ourselves. All you're doing is whining and bringing the rest of the team down with you. The only person you seem to listen to is Penny, the agent who just graduated!"

"Yeah, because I trust her way more than you." Perry got to his feet, his glare never leaving Jordan. "Forgive me for caring more about my little sister than the agent that I've never liked."

He saw Penny stand up out of the corner of his eye. "Perry, calm down."

"Unfortunately, it's too bad that you don't like me." Refusing to be looked down on, Jordan stood as well. "Because I am your leader and you have to listen to me, whether you like it or not."

"I have been listening to you!" Perry snapped. "What, do you think I went to talk to Doofenshmirtz about Rodrigo out of my own volition? You told me to go, and I did. I even took Maxwell like you said."

He thought he heard Penny say something else, but he was too focused on Jordan to catch what she was saying. "Listening, but making it obvious that you hate me with every breath in your lungs. As your team leader, I think I deserve at least a bit of respect. I've been putting up with your bullshit for a full day now, and I want things to change!"

"There's no way I'm going to respect you anytime soon! If you want to work with Monogram to ruin my life, the least you could do is give me time instead of immediately forcing me to worship you like you're some god!"

"That's not what I'm asking for! And if I just give you a free pass, you're going to use it as an excuse to keep insulting everyone here forever!"

"You're right, I will." Perry crossed his arms. "Because that's all murderous families like yours deserve!"

Clearly that caught Jordan off-guard. The red platypus stumbled backward slightly, the anger on his face briefly morphing into fear before allowing the anger to return. "An orphan like you has no reason to insult my family life," he snarled. Before Perry could retort, Jordan whirled around and stormed off.

Perry immediately turned his glare onto his little sister. "Can you believe him?"

He was surprised to see Penny mirroring his glare, her chocolate brown eyes sparkling with anger. "Well, I sure can't believe you!"

Perry's glare turned into a frown. "Penny, I... He-"

"You said you'd try and get along, Perry! That sure didn't look like trying to me!"

"He's the one who started it! I was just defending myself...!" Even as he said it, Perry knew that wasn't true. But... What else could he say? There was no way in hell he was going to apologize to Jordan anytime soon. He meant every word.

"That's definitely not the case," he heard Maxwell mumble behind him. Perry flinched. He had forgotten Maxwell was still there.

Penny crossed her arms. "Even if he did start that argument, he had good reason to. I can't believe you, Perry! I just can't! After consistently treating him like garbage, you're upset that he insulted you?" The anger in her eyes was replaced by sadness. "You're never like this, Per. I've never seen this side of you." And just like that, the anger was back. "But apparently, that's all the rest of them have seen!"

"Pen, just-"

"Just what? Just calm down? Just give you a chance? That's all I've been doing, Perry! But Jordan's right. If I forgive you now, you'll keep taking advantage of it to keep treating them horribly!" Her arms fell to her sides, and Perry couldn't help but notice her ball her paws into fists. "This isn't just about you, Perry! It's not just about them, either! I just graduated. Major Monogram put me on this team with you guys because he thinks I can do it! He thinks we could be a great team, and that I could be a great part of it!"

Perry frowned. This wasn't good, Penny never got this angry. At worst, she only yelled a couple sentences at him before storming off. "Not only that," his little sister was continuing, "but I get to be on a team with you! OWCA's best agent! Jordan, OWCA's most popular agent! No one ever paid attention to me before, but if we became a great team, they'd finally start noticing me! I could prove myself and show that I am a good agent, that I do deserve to be on a team with you, and show Major Monogram that he didn't make a mistake when recruiting me!"

Perry held his paws out. "Pen... Penny, you need to-"

"Don't talk to me!" Penny snapped, pulling her paws up. Suddenly, she shoved him hard, nearly sending him backwards into the wall.

He felt Maxwell catch him and prevent that impact from being made. Just as quickly, Maxwell moved out from behind him and stepped closer to Penny, his own paws raised. "Penny, calm down. I don't think you're thinking straight."

Perry bit the inside of his beak, watching his sister nervously. She scowled at Maxwell before realization seemed to hit her. She stared down at her paws, then behind Maxwell to wear Perry was watching, his heart pounding. Her eyes widened. "I..."

Before anyone could say anything, she ran out of the gym.

Maxwell sighed and turned to face Perry. "You okay?"

"I..." Perry glanced down at his paws. They were a bit shaky. He inhaled deeply to slow his adrenaline and cleared his throat. "Yeah."

"So what was that?"

"I..." Perry frowned, staring out the door that his little sister had just run through. "I don't know. For... For an OWCA agent, typically she wouldn't even hurt a fly."

"She and Jordan were both pretty true, though." Maxwell crossed his arms. "You haven't exactly been delightful."

"I know." Perry leaned against the wall and slid down it, sitting on the floor. "But I didn't realize it was bugging everyone this much." He took another deep breath, feeling his pounding heart slowly calm. "I hate to say it, but..." He frowned. "I guess I should tone it down a bit."

Maxwell chuckled. "Understatement of the century. But I get it." He sat down next to Perry. "I don't really like them, either. Although that murder card that you pulled on Jordan was definitely overkill."

Perry shrugged. "It's true, though."

"Actually, it was never proven." Just like that, Maxwell stood up again. "I don't know where Jordan went, but I'm going to go let Major Monogram know that we're done for the day. Everyone should cool off, and then... Well, I don't know what the plan is for tomorrow. Maybe...patch things up with Jordan?"

Perry just snorted.

"Fine, make things with Jordan good enough so that you can work together again." Maxwell gave him a quick wave. "See you."

"See ya."