Lost Identity - Part Five

Perry sat up.
He was in the medical wing. That was strange.
He tried and failed to remember what had happened the night before.
“What happened?” He asked a cat in the bed next to him. “Did I pass out in here or something?”
The cat shrugged. “I dunno. I just woke up a couple hours ago. All I know is that some guy that’s in here was rescued from a burning building. I’m guessing that wasn’t you, though. You don’t look like you’ve been near fire. No burns.”
“Thanks for the help.” Perry muttered. “It’s still November, right? I wasn’t asleep for like forever?”
“Yeah.” The cat nodded. “And I think it’s a holiday. I hear party music.”
Perry heard it, too. He climbed out of bed.
“Great. My least favorite holiday. Well… I feel okay, so I think I’m gonna go.”
“You can do that?” The cat asked.
“Probably not, but I am anyway.”
Perry left the medical room and headed toward the music. He’d stay at the party for a couple minutes, maybe longer if Terrence was there, and then head home. Parties wore him out.
Perry entered the main room.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” Monogram handed Perry a fake pilgrim hat. “Welcome to the O.W.C.A Thanksgiving party!”
Perry shook his head.
“More hats for me, then!” Monogram put the hat on top of the hat he was already wearing.
Thanksgiving always made Perry uncomfortable. He didn’t understand why Terrence was always fine with coming to these kinds of things. Especially when Monogram didn’t see anything wrong with having turkey available. Perry wasn’t sure why he still did that. None of the agents ever dared touch it.
Perry sat down in a chair next to the nearest window and watched the other agents eat and talk. He’d been around them for nearly four years now, and he didn’t know any of them very well.
“Where’s Terrence?” He asked Darren as he walked by.
Darren shrugged. “Who knows. He wasn’t here yesterday.”
“He’s the only way I can stand these things. I need him to talk to.”
“You can talk to other agents.”
“I don’t know them.”
“Well, maybe if you’d paid attention to anyone besides Terrence, you’d have more friends. You’re not very social, are you?”
“No, not really.”
Darren shrugged and went to talk to Carrie the cat. Perry got up and approached Monogram.
He tugged on the Major’s pant leg.
“Yes? What is it, Agent P?”
Perry pulled out a pad and scribbled on it with a pencil. Then he handed it to Monogram.
“Where’s Terrence?” Monogram read. “Uh… well…”
Perry folded his arms.
“I don’t want to ruin the festivities by telling you, but I suppose you should know.”
“They were already ruined.” Perry replied.
“Agent T is no longer in commission.” Monogram said.
Perry stared at him. “He quit?”
Monogram bent down next to Perry and explained. His voice became faded. The sounds of the other agents talking and laughing did as well. Everything began to gray out.
Perry felt a lump form in his throat.
No. It couldn’t be.
His only friend.
“Agent P.” Monogram’s voice sounded very far away. “I know this is hard. But rest assured, the agency will care for him as long as is needed. And hey, it could have been worse. It’s fortunate he was found when he was. He could have died.”
Died…
Images of fire and smoke played in Perry’s mind. That’s right… he’d seen it… he’d been there… he’d…
Perry shook the memories away. No. Those aren’t real. None of this is real.
“I’m sorry. We didn’t realize we had a breach… rest assured, we’re withdrawing all our undercover operatives until we can get things sorted out. Granted, that doesn’t really help Terrence. But try not to worry, Agent P. Just enjoy the festivities.”
Perry stared at Monogram in horror.
“Ah… oh. Unless you’d… rather not… celebrate today. Uh, we do have some… tofu in the back.”
Perry looked away, blinking back tears.
He still couldn’t process everything. It felt like a nightmare. He tried desperately to wake himself up.
But he was already awake. Awake and alone in the world.
No one else would ever understand him. Phineas and Ferb were his only friends.
And they had no idea that he was a secret agent.
“Are you okay, Agent P?”
Perry took a deep breath. The memories were trying to come back. He wouldn’t let them. He wouldn’t remember them.
He forced it all away again. Down into the deepest corner of his heart.
He still had a lump in his throat. But no tears were coming anymore.
He wasn’t going to let that pain in.
“Try and enjoy yourself.” Monogram said.
Enjoy yourself.
Perry sat down in his chair next to the window and covered his face with his hands. He pressed them against his face, harder and harder, until his arms were shaking.
The feelings were coming at him now, full-force.
The guilt was eating at him. Where had he been when Terrence needed him most? Could he have known somehow? Gone and saved him? Protected him?
It didn’t matter. He hadn’t known. He hadn’t been there to protect him. And now… because of it…
He didn’t know what to do… he wanted to go back in time… grab Terrence… hug him… talk to him again… laugh with him again…
He had always been afraid of losing things. Losing his mind. Losing the ability to just play and have fun. Losing his carefree lifestyle.
He had lost the one thing he had never thought of losing.
He had to protect himself from ever doing that again.
It was then that he decided growing fond of things was useless. He couldn’t afford to love something. It would only leave him. He wouldn’t like Doofenshmirtz. He wouldn’t talk to the other agents. He wouldn’t even interact with Carl unless he had to.
The only thing that was more important than the O.W.C.A was his family. He would only love them. No one else needed his friendship.
No one else mattered.
Perry drew his hands away from his face and stared into the window. His reflection glared back at him, cold and unfeeling.
It was the complete opposite of what he felt inside.
But it would have to do.
It would protect him from ever getting hurt again.

“Now you are too late!”
Perry watched as the roof of Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated slid open. Doofenshmirtz was crazy if he thought that he could actually reverse rotation of the Earth using tin foil and a giant magnet.
Perry watched the surveillance screen. The tin foil that Doofenshmirtz had stuck on random buildings was shaking.
“Quake in your boots and watch helplessly as the unimaginable electromagnetic forces pull the eastern seaboard, thereby reversing rotation of the-”
The tin foil ripped off of the buildings.
“Well.” Doofenshmirtz said. “That didn’t work.”
Perry and Doofenshmirtz stared at the screen. The tin foil wrapped itself into a ball.
“And now we have a two-ton ball of tin foil traveling TWO HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR DIRECTLY AT US! Quickly, we must separate the magnet from the magnifier before it is too late!”
Perry ran to the magnet and slammed his back against it, desperately trying to shove it away from the magnifier Doofenshmirtz had built. If the tinfoil ball hit the building, Perry knew it was over for both of them.
He started to think of Phineas and Ferb. Last he’d seen them, they were joking about building a roller coaster. What imaginations.
He hoped they wouldn’t be too upset when they found out he was gone.
Perry ran to the front of the magnet and shoved it with all his might.
“It’s no use!” Doofenshmirtz shouted. “It’s no use, we are doomed!”
Perry heard a noise above his head. He looked up at the sky. A helicopter was flying past.
Perry pulled out his grappling gun and shot the bottom of the helicopter. Then he tied it to the giant magnet.
He jumped onto the magnet. The helicopter pulled it into the air.
“You did it!” Perry heard Doofenshmirtz saying from below. “You saved us, Perry the platypus!”
Unfortunately, detaching the magnet hadn’t stopped the tinfoil ball. It slammed into the top of the building.
“CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUS!” Doofenshmirtz said as he bounced away in the silver ball.
Oops.
The magnet picked up the magnifier as the helicopter flew past. Perry watched as it stuck to a giant rollercoaster.
The helicopter spun around with the added weight, but it managed to yank the roller coaster from the ground. The whole structure had joined their party.
Perry was pretty sure that the helicopter wasn’t going to be able to hold all that weight for that long. He took out his cutter and cut the rope attached to the magnet.
The rollercoaster fell.
Perry let go of the rope. He’d been expecting to land on the magnet.
Instead he landed in a rollercoaster car. The car was going incredibly fast.
Perry pressed his back against the seat in terror, his eyes wide.
Instantly he recognized Phineas and Ferb in the front seat. He threw off his fedora and got down on all fours.
Phineas turned and smiled at him. “Oh, there you are, Perry.”
Perry chattered.
“Nice hat, Isabella.”
Perry looked to his right. His fedora had landed on Isabella’s head.
The ride got very bumpy. The car began sliding down the street. It soared up a ramp and caught onto a crane, where it flew through the air until it landed on an airplane.
“And I’m sure this is new.” Phineas said.
Perry covered his eyes with his paws. His heart was working overtime.
Perry felt the coaster flip a few more times and heard the continued screams of the passengers.
Then it was silent.
Perry opened his eyes.
All around them were stars. A satellite beeped as it passed them.
“You know, if that thing crashes into the house, Candace is in charge.” Phineas said.
Suddenly the car plunged downward. Flames formed on its tip. The passengers were screaming in terror again.
The tri-state area was below them.
“We should have charged more.” Phineas muttered.
The coaster slammed into a tree. Phineas, Ferb and Perry fell through the branches and landed on the ground.
They were home, in the backyard.
Perry lay down, trying to calm his nerves.
“Hi, boys!” Linda said. Candace was standing next to her, looking confused.
“Hi, mom.” Phineas said.
Linda dragged a protesting Candace away from the fence.
Soon, children came pouring out of the tree.
“Hey, Phineas, that was great!”
“Way too cool!”
“That was AWESOME! Can we do it again?”
“Sorry, only one ride per customer.” Phineas said.
Perry tried to process this. Phineas had built the coaster?
Phineas and Ferb?
“That was great, Phineas.” Said Isabella fondly. “So, what are you gonna do tomorrow?”
“Don’t know yet.”
“Maybe you could teach Perry some tricks.” Isabella stroked Perry’ back.
“Well, he is a platypus. They don’t do much.”
“They’re the only mammals to lay eggs.” Ferb said.
There was a moment of silence.
“Maybe he’ll lay an egg.” Phineas said.
“Cool!”
Perry snorted. Boy platypuses did not lay eggs.
Phineas began to talk to Ferb about what they would do the next day. Perry closed his eyes, still recovering from the coaster ride.
An entire rollercoaster? What was next?
Whatever it was… Perry couldn’t wait to see it.