The OWCA was a cubicle farm, in short 95% of the building was made of separate office spaces compromised of three walls that connected to the backs of other walls of other office spaces that came to be known as cubicles. Floor after floor was bland, grey and computer noise. The secret lairs, the fast traveling tube transportation systems and the big conference rooms that looked like the Bat-Cave were all underground and miles away from the main building, which recently had to undergo some major renovations, most notably, seven floors of cubicle farms.

Sitting at his desk trying not to think, Perry the Platypus was busy doing the main portion of his job. For five hours every day, Noon to 5, Perry was, for better or worse, a bureaucrat, a self functioning, rule following member of the often criticized and shunned system known as a bureaucracy in which other bureaucrats, in this case agents of the OWCA, worked to breathe and breathed to work. More specifically, Perry was a number cruncher, his job had three main functions- manage the agency's funds, monitor the agent's earnings including but not limited to pay, hours, vacation time and finally, Monogram's personal secretary when the need arose, which unfortunately was often.

As he entered in numbers and made otherwise meaningless calculations, Perry noticed that the air around the office was different. Peering out from the walls of safety, Perry looked up and down the aisle, it was empty, everyone within the walls of their personal cubicle where it was safe, humble and private. Ironically, this was part of the job that Perry actually enjoyed. In addition to the low risk factor Perry found that in an office setting, he was more inclined, at least in theory, to be open and friendly with colleagues than he was out in the field. The platypus attributed this to the high stress level that field work often caused, in turn causing him to be short, sarcastic and a jackass to those were not accustomed or were haphazardly careless.

Moving back to his desk, Perry stared at the blue computer screen, the blinking cursor taunting him, telling him to continue despite himself. He then looked to his right where his best friend and close confidant, Pinky the Chihuahua, was casually drinking coffee as if he had nothing better to do. Perry personally thought it was hilarious that Pinky was drinking coffee when he obviously had a shaking problem. He wondered if the dog cut down on his caffeine intake, if the shaking would stop. Perry kept these thoughts to himself, remembering Monogram's rule on conversation about lives outside the workplace and simply returned to his work.

At that moment the bell at the head of the room went off, signifying the daily lunch break. The agents simultaneously stood up, turned towards the front of their respective aisles and marched in step for a total of five seconds before moving in unison to the cafeteria. This military style of movement was unorthodox and completely insane in the minds of most, but to Perry, who had experienced this every day, it was normal.

The cafeteria was standard in design, located on the top floor of the building and taking up all available space, the room was a large rectangle. On the right side of the room, the side closest to the doors, was the buffet style line that is common in the standard American public school system with the various food groups, minus the fats and oils, represented- meat being first and grains at the end. The rest of the room was taken up with tables and chairs scattered about in random order. Surrounding the perimeter of the cafeteria, with obvious space for the food line and the door, were several booths.

Taking one of the smaller two person tables, Perry sat down with full intention of eating alone like he always did, for the platypus did not have much in the way of friends at the agency and was in all respects, an isolate, non social being. In other words, the extreme introvert. Almost as soon as he sat down, Perry immediately began hating himself for being alone. Looking around, Perry saw that this was the time that the agents socialized, the only place where Monogram's rules were lifted. He could hear Pinky and another dog, a German Sheppard, whose name was Sheppard, talking about their respective owners as if they had always done so.

"Isabella's family is talking about moving to Atlanta" Pinky began

"That's a big change" Sheppard replied, "Think they'll do it?"

Pinky laughed in disbelief, "Not a chance. Dan and Marsh wouldn't allow it. She's a main character, besides you have all those Phinabella people out there."

Sheppard nodded in agreement, "Ridiculous, all of it."

Pinky laughed, he too finding the notion a complete waste of time. "So how's it going with you?" Pinky asked curiously.

Sheppard shrugged indifferently, "As good as it can be Shakes. Mary and I are thinking about having some kids of our own. We've been trying, but you know what they say, you have to be in the mood for those sorts of things."

"That's great!" Pinky exclaimed excitedly, "Parenthood's a big commitment. You should go for it Shep, I bet you'd be real good at it."

Sheppard shook his head, "I'm not so sure" he said worriedly, "I just don't think with where I'm at right now, where she's at right now and where the host family's at right now, it would be good to add a litter or two."

Pinky huffed in disappointment, "You worry too much. Besides it's not like the hosts will care."

Sheppard rolled his eyes, for obviously Pinky did not know his host family to know if that information was accurate or not.

"They have kids too idiot" Sheppard explained, "It's already hard enough with two dogs in the family, they don't need what they don't ask for, even if it means sacrificing my happiness. First rule in the agency- The host family is the most important thing."

Pinky scratched his head in confusion, "I thought it was the job is the most important thing."

"You're reading the wrong book then" Sheppard declared as he walked away.

Pinky and Sheppard moved towards Perry's table, the platypus in turn looked down at his food, trying to stay out of their conversation. Inevitably, upon sitting down, both dogs turned to the platypus in greeting.

"What's up duck?" Pinky said jokingly at the same time intimating Bugs Bunny, "Anything new?"

Perry shrugged, there was nothing about his life that was worth talking about, or at least anything that he wanted to talk about. Perry was more of a listener than a talker to begin with, being a platypus, but that still didn't mean that he liked getting into personal matters, this was especially true at work.

"Come on Perry" Sheppard continued, "What's eating yah?"

Perry rolled his eyes and pulled out the OWCA Rules and Regulations, turning to page 378, Article 12 Section 2B which stated that agents are forbidden to speak about matters not involving the workplace at the workplace. The rule continues to restrict the agent's speaking in general to a grand total of one hour per day, as a result of this most of the building was quiet and loud at the same time, the various agents speaking in their native animal languages and refraining from using English as much as possible. Perry then turned to the next page, on the same subject, which talked about human society and how it would be difficult for humans to accept the concept of talking animals and the consequences of them finding that information out.

"You and your rules Perry" Pinky exclaimed, "When are you going to start living?"

Perry shook his head and said nothing. At that moment the bell rang ending the lunch session, upon which the agents stood, resumed formation and exited the room the same way they came only to sit down once again at their cubicles and resume their work for three more hours.

Sitting down at his desk, Perry looked around casually, his eyes scanning the various pictures that adorned the surface. Most of them were of Phineas and Ferb building their various inventions, one of them was of Candace, it was this picture that Perry stopped upon, carefully observing it in detail. The picture itself was simple; Candace was sitting in the chair in front of the window that looked out into the backyard, the sun's morning rays were piercing the large oak tree and casually hitting the top of Candace's head giving her a halo effect just as the picture was taken. Candace's face was tranquil, peaceful in nature; Perry could tell that she wasn't thinking about busting her brothers or Jeremy like she normally was. Instead Perry guessed that she was thinking about the future, for her eyes had a soul searching look to them, as if she were nitpicking at everything that she believed herself to be and upon finding those things, hating herself for it.

"A reason to live" Perry thought to himself, "A reason to die. Reasons to get up in the morning, to face the day and to have the strength to continue despite yourself, to lie constantly to protect yourself and the people you care about."

Perry began his number crunching; he had just finished going over the agency funds and was now entering the personal information of his clients, most of them entry level agents.

"That is the sole searching journey" Perry continued, "The one I have taken every day since I came here and the one I will continue to take until the day I finally die."

The platypus stopped for a moment, took a drink of a Mountain Dew he had picked up earlier and did himself, Pinky and the Sheppard a personal favor and entered in their information before continuing with the clients.

"For every day is a new battle, a new struggle. The real enemy you face is not the guy pointing a death machine at your house, but yourself, because you have to find reason enough to do something about it."

Sheppard, who was two cubicles behind Pinky, threw a chew toy in Perrys' direction, hitting the platypus in the back causing him to turn around. Perry scratched his neck annoyingly, for it had been itching for quite some time and after doing so continued to work as if nothing had happened. Sheppard rolled his eyes and daringly stepped out of his cubicle, immediately triggering the alarm system Monogram had installed, causing a flying robot with a screen for a face with tiny machine gun underneath to appear.

"State your business Agent" the robot yelled as it reached him.

Sheppard lifted his paws innocently into the air, standing on his hind legs showing that he was being compliant.

"Will you guys relax?" Sheppard answered nonchalantly, "I'm just going to say hi to a friend of mine. You know converse, chat, mingle..."

The robot stared at Sheppard as if it had no idea what it was talking about. Sheppard laughed and slowly made his way forward to Perry's desk.

"Maybe you don't speak English" Sheppard continued, "Or are you just hard of hearing?"

Sheppard casually pulled down the machine and tapped on the screen obviously daring the robot to retaliate.

"Hello" Sheppard said putting extra emphasis on the vowels, "Anyone home? Paging Major Frankie Unibrow, calling collect!"

The sound of a bullet entering a chamber could clearly be heard, the sound resonating throughout the room sending a death knell to anyone who heard it. Perry and Pinky, both of whom were paying attention at this point, froze in fear, their blood turning to ice the moment it had passed their ears.

"Shep" Pinky began nervously, his shaking becoming increasingly violent, "Don't do anything stupid, just calmly and quietly return to your desk."

Sheppard laughed and shook his head, "I'll go back when the platypus joins the land of the living Shakes."

Sheppard calmly turned towards Perry, his eyes confident and gleaming with hope. Perry shook his head, begging for the dog to follow the rules and simply return to his space. Sheppard caught this and closed his eyes as he waited for death.

"Tell my family I love them Perry" Sheppard exclaimed, "You think you can do that? You think you can tell them that I died because of you, that I'll never get to hold them again because you decided to keep quiet?"

Pinky began crying, for the last thing that he wanted was to end the day before his three week vacation erasing memories, making funeral arrangements and going through the normal procedures after the death of agent. The process itself was bad enough, it made it even worse that it would be one of his closest friends and that was something that Pinky, if such an event happened, wouldn't be able to live with.

"Perry" Pinky pleaded, "Please...say something. Anything damn it, for Shep!"

Sheppard nodded in agreement as a steady flow of tears ran down his cheeks, the heat of the barrel against his chest was starting to singe, in seconds there would only be two options: Sheppard would back off and leap into Pinky's desk or he would be dead before he hit the ground.

"Ironic isn't it?" Sheppard exclaimed, choosing his last words carefully, "Perry the Platypus, the calm and headstrong take charge type of guy, is a weak and spineless fool who refuses to do the simplest of things to save his friend for the sake of a rule that ultimately means nothing."

Perry swallowed hard and wiped his eyes, "That's enough Shep" Perry said finally, his voice soft and sad, "Now please, back off."

Sheppard did nothing and braced himself. Perry stared at the floor, unable to look at anything expect the floor.

"You're a good friend" Perry declared, "A very good friend."

Sheppard nodded and turned towards the robot, he then let out a single solitary bark causing the robot to power down, for Pinky to hang his head in shame and for Perry to have a confused look on his face.

"What just happened?" the platypus asked as Sheppard returned his cubicle and the robot to its station.

"It was a setup genius" Pinky replied, "We were trying to get you to say more than two words today, looks like we got a new record to beat- 15."

Perry turned towards Sheppard; he couldn't help but feel guilty and a little ashamed of himself. The mere fact that Sheppard was seemingly willing to die over something as simple as hearing his voice was more than a reality check, it was an entirely different outlook on the OWCA.

"You couldn't do it" Sheppard said as he sat down, fighting back tears, "Not even for me? I never asked you to return any favors and yet when my life was in danger you stood there and did nothing. You were going to let me die. You were going to let me die and then you were to play it off as if it didn't happen."

Perry shook his head in denial, Pinky, in response, leapt across the room tackling Perry to the ground and standing the platypus up forcing him to look at Sheppard wither he wanted to or not.

"You look at him when he's talking to you!" Pinky screamed.

"You would erase my family's memory, have a nice funeral service and then continue number crunching like you've been doing for the past decade." Sheppard continued solemnly, still in shock and disbelief, "And during all that time not once would you think about me or my family and what you could have prevented by doing something so simple that anyone with a brain would do it without a second thought."

Pinky shoved Perry off, the dog then moved back to his cubicle and spat in the platypus' direction, disgusted that he was even in Perry's presence.

Perry sighed, taking in Sheppard's words and Pinky's actions. "At least it wasn't real" he said optimistically.

Sheppard huffed, understandably insulted by the remark, "As if it matters?" he replied.

"You thought it was real" Pinky added on, "You would have stood there, saying nothing as he died for you. How does that make you feel?"

Perry had no answer for this, which was their guess as to what his response would be.

"Exactly" Pinky continued, "You're a robot Perry. Just another part in this well oiled machine. I know I'm guilty of it, I do it too, but at least I have a mind of my own outside of this building. You might as well not even have a home."

Sheppard walked back to his cubicle "Think about that tonight before you go to sleep" he exclaimed, "You might find something about yourself."

The bell rang signifying the end of the day. The agents, once again in unison, gathered their things and made their way to the door heading to their respective homes.