For Once

Cezille07

A/N: Can true, evil love save the day?

Chapter 3. Reset.

"Mmmmf, mmmf mmmmmmf!"

The gag on her mouth was impossibly tight. Strapped to a stool, Michelle tried to free her rope-bound arms, or at least her feet so she could deliver him a well-deserved kick in the arse. She groaned, a deathly look in her eyes, but all Heinz did to respond was reach for a chair and drag it in front of her.

"I'm so sorry that I have to kidnap you and all," said the doctor, in a menacingly earnest manner, "but you have something that belongs to me...my heart."

"Mmmf? Mmmmmf mmmmmf!"

"What's that? Did you want to know why I'm doing this?" he asked, a playful grin on his ugly face. Michelle's eyes were reduced to furious slits. "I was expecting that... Perry the platypus!"

The called animal emerged from a nearby door carrying a large stereo.

"I express myself best through song," winked Doofenshmirtz, "although...music has never liked me. Just...bear with me, okay? Cue music!"

The platypus pressed the play button, and a gloomy melody saturated the room.

"Delovinator ever after.
Goodbye love, hello disaster!
More of me and less of shallow,
Narrow fallacies.

"There's everything to hate-inator;
You hate me, so curse-inator!
But there's no such thing as fallen, solemn
Fantasies from me...

"The only piece of love I cradled
Broke the truth of holding hands...
Into the sorry sleep I bumble,
Lonely...in a duet's dance!"

Heinz forced out the last few syllables two octaves higher than the accompaniment, and he coughed after the last held note. He blushed at Perry's applause, but when he looked at his intended audience, Michelle was drooling asleep.

"What? I just wasted all that diaphragmatic effort and you fall asleep on me? That is evil!" he yelled, shaking her awake. Michelle laughed aloud at the word 'evil'. "Oh, so you were tricking me? True evil indeed! Argh!"

She just laughed through the restrictive cloth on her mouth. He was a pathetic fool, and the thought gratified her.

As much as Perry wanted to leave, that darn hot chocolate was still in effect. He carried the stereo back to the store room and placed himself inside the makeshift platypus cage Doofenshmirtz made with cardboard and wires. He swore that he was never taking drinks from the evil scientist, swore that he might as well jump off the DEI rooftop with none of his gadgets to survive rather than gladly succumb to the evil intents of his nemesis.

He sighed. Maybe it was the fact that he'd never been more sorry for the doctor. That girl was toying with none more genuine than Heinz's deep feelings—if that were possible. He could hear him yelling at her, or rather, begging. He imagined, successfully if he only knew, how Michelle taunted him with a complacent, I-think-you're-absolutely-ridiculous type of grin.

"Stop laughing!" yelled Doofenshmirtz. "I'll show you evil!" He balled his fists and tried not to slake that bubbling anger in his chest as he found the latest contraption he just built. "Behold..." he said, turning majestically to face her chair, "I have created the Mood Swing-inator!"

Michelle broke out laughing again.

"Darn! I told you to stop laughing!" Heinz scrolled down the Mood Swing-inator's palm-sized touch screen. "I command you to be quiet!" He aimed at her and pressed the red button at the gadget's base. At once, her mocking laugher fell to a painful halt. "My love, meet the Mood Swing-inator! It makes you feel whatever I want you to feel; for instance, you're under Pensive, and now you must think about what you have done to me. Brilliant, isn't it? After I have regained your love, we shall build a more powerful version that will control the Tri-State area!"

The doctor began pacing in front of her, toying with the list of emotions absently; Michelle's eyes followed his every step. "And then we shall still be together by the end of the day because I'm so done with orbiting satellites. Handheld devices are all the rage. Only, for a machine so tiny, the tradeoffs are taxing; the processors are so slow and battery gets drained so quickly. Oh, oh, it's like my heart..."

He scrolled to Love and offered her an excited grin. "So are you ready to love me?"

When she didn't respond, he gave the button another press, and Michelle went blank for a moment. Doofenshmirtz knelt in front of her; he carefully took out the gag and untied her hands and feet.

"Michelle?" He looked up at her passive face. "...Darling?"

Suddenly, she took his hands, pressed them to her chest, and got on her knees too. "Heinz, what are we doing here? We must be doing evil things to the world together, as we will for the rest of our lives! What are we waiting for?"

Heinz gazed into those emerald eyes of hers. "Is that really you?" he asked. Expectantly. And fearfully. "Do you...love me?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I do! You fired that thing at me, didn't you?"

Perry gripped the base of the platypus cage and released himself. Doofenshmirtz had stepped into the store room and banged the door behind him. He fumbled with the locks. "Don't look at me like that, Perry the platypus," the doctor whimpered, "I know it failed."

Perry approached his nemesis, and this time, he had anticipated whatever expression the doctor would have worn. And this time, it was utter defeat.

"She said she loved me because of the Mood Swing-inator. It occurred to me that I just made her do it, that I just imposed something she probably didn't want at all," he sighed, sitting against the door. He looked at the Mood Swing-inator. "I fired her with Reset and told her to leave."

That's brave, Heinz... Perry gripped Doofenshmirtz's shoulders. He chattered, and he hated that it was all he can do. If Heinz wanted to fire him with Supportive, he wouldn't have minded.

"Here, take this," said the doctor. He handed the Mood Swing-inator to Perry. "I've set it to Vegetable. I want you to fire it at me and then destroy it."

What's Vegetable? Perry cautiously took the device and saw the short description on the screen: 'Fries up emotion pathways like buttered vegetables.'

What? NO!

Heinz saw his hesitation and yelled, "Do it, Perry the platypus! Please? For me...?"

Perry shook his head, frowning.

"This is no time to be stubborn, just make me as numb and as dumb as a vegetable—" Doofenshmirtz was cut off by loud banging from the other side of the door. "I told you to leave, Michelle—!"

The door broke down, almost crushing Heinz in the process. It was Michelle who kicked it open; she found him under the rubble and embraced him. "Heinz, I'm so sorry!" She snatched the Mood Swing-inator from his hands and chucked it against the wall, shattering it. "I don't want you to become a vegetable! I don't want you to lose your humor...and sweetness...and your evil charm—"

"Nah, that's the Mood Swing-inator's fault," moaned Doofenshmirtz. He shook free of her grasp and sat up properly. "Get out and do your own evil stuff. I'm done with you. You don't 'love' me..."

"Oh Heinz...I do," Michelle said, looking into those pleading eyes of his. "Your Reset actually took back the effect of your previous Inator, the one that erased my love and superimposed apathy. I really do love you, Heinz. You're the half that completes my happiness. Don't turn yourself to a vegetable for a fake emotion," she added, brushing her hand through his messy brown hair.

The doctor finally returned a cheesy grin. "Michelle, you make me so happy," he whispered, and embraced her.

Now at last I learned to smile
Hand in hand to last a while
Now I'm as happy as can be
It's the age-old story:
How an evil boy meets an evil girl
We've got a love strong enough to rule the whole wide world!
We both maniacally laugh at all the same stuff,
You can't take back the girl I'll shower with my evil love
Forever in evil love :)

Perry smiled at the couple and prepared to leave.

"Shall we pick up where we left off?" Doofenshmirtz asked Michelle, who was locked in his arms. She returned a kiss and nodded her head. "Excellent. Our list of evil activities is far from over. And here's item number one right now in our custody, Perry the platypus!"

Perry froze in his tracks. Suddenly, supporting the doctor earlier didn't seem like a good idea anymore.

(-:END:-)

A/N: Yay, you finished reading it! Thanks! Now don't say you didn't like it, I know you loved it...there's that Review button waiting. I found the Mood Swing-inator and fixed it, so I can easily fire the Write-A-Review mood at you. ;)