A/N: Hey, everyone! I do apologize if this chapter was a little late! But if you've been following my profile updates, then you'll know that I have been preoccupied with another fic of mine. It was a project that I had been planning and hoping to write for about five years, and I finally found the opportunity to begin serious work on it and publish it. I am still not entirely sure how much of an effect that fic will have on my update schedules for this story and others, because I intend to update that one around three times a month (don't worry about me getting swamped by the heavy workload; I write its chapters well in advance). I was hoping that my updates for this fic and a couple of others would become a bit more regular heading into 2021, but now I'm not too sure. I will keep you all in the loop through future updates to my profile.

Also, in the wake of the Halloween bug that affected the visibility of new updates to fics and accounts, as well as newly-posted stories, I just wanted to remind you all that, if this site goes down for good, I will still remain active elsewhere, so there's no need to worry. For those of you who do not know, I have my alternate accounts listed at my profile, and their usernames are 100 percent accurate. It should NOT be hard to find me there. Go to my profile, and make sure you have the usernames and the websites all memorized. Capieche?

Alright, enough of this rambling! On with the long-awaited chapter. ENJOY!

P.S.: Due to the ever-worsening situation regarding the coronavirus outbreak, I'm going to have to remind you all about the basic steps you should take if you want to stay healthy, courtesy of my university's reminder emails:

-Wash hands often with soap and water for 20-30 seconds at a time, and/or use hand sanitizer
-Avoid close contact with people who are sick
-Keep your hands away from nose, eyes, and mouth (I can't imagine how difficult this part is probably going to be)
-Eat well, get adequate rest, and exercise regularly
-Get a flu shot if you haven't already and are able to

And if you ARE sick (I hope you get better if you are), please be a good sport and save other folks the trouble of getting sick. You can do this by:

-Covering your mouth and nose with your sleeve, elbow, or a tissue whenever you sneeze or cough
-Not sharing food and drinks with others
-Avoiding touching your mouth, nose, and eyes (Again, I understand this is probably going to be difficult)
-Avoiding close contact with others
-Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and objects
-Staying at home if you're unwell (PRIORITY NUMBER ONE!)
-Staying calm and keeping yourself well-informed (My personal advice)

If you already know this, then great! If you didn't know any of this beforehand, please keep that information in mind as we all go through this trying time. It's a realm of unknowns at this point, and I wish myself and all of humanity well.

Original A/N: Finally, the moment everyone's been waiting for: THE REVIVAL OF THE ORIGINAL "EVIL PHINEAS"!

ENJOY!

Chapter 28 Summary: The Shadow explains to Perry how he came back, and his new plan to seek revenge against the one who stood in his way last time: Phineas Flynn.

Perry chattered angrily and ran forward towards the Shadow, intending to attack him, but all of a sudden, robotic arms appeared from the darkness and ensnared the agent's limbs and tail, while a final one removed his fedora and tossed it to the other side of the room, removing all means of escape. The Shadow chuckled maliciously as he stalked towards Perry, his burning, green eyes alive with evil and sadism.

"Surprised, little platypus?" he asked. "I'm betting you are. You're obviously wondering how I managed to make a surprising return like this."

"Yeah, give Perry the Platypus the backstory!" encouraged Doofenshmirtz, but the Shadow looked at him with a glare of annoyance and hatred that silenced the evil scientist. Grinning with relief, the Shadow then faced Perry again.

"See, platypus," the Shadow explained, "while I knew my chances of succeeding in my plot to conquer the multiverse were high, I concocted a backup plan in case my scheme was thwarted by resistance. Using the least likely thing to resurrect a villain, the Turn-Everything-Evil-Inator, I modified it to store data about myself. My memories, DNA (if there was anything), capabilities of evil, everything. All of that will then be projected into a duplicate through the modifications to the device. All it took was to convince this dim-witted scientist-" This comment earned a "HEY!" from Doofenshmirtz. "-to flick the switch, and BAM! Here I am. So technically, I'm not the Shadow, I'm just a duplicate. A duplicate that shares his creator's attributes, however, including his desire to conquer.

"But I do not plan to put this glorious plan in motion, not just yet. You see, my primary objective at the moment is to get rid of everything standing in my way, so then the problems that plagued my original will not bother me the moment I put a kick-start to my invasion forces. And those problems are called your owners and their miserable friends! It'll be foolproof, and this time, there'll be NO way I will be thwarted!"

Perry's eyes widened. This couldn't be happened again! The platypus struggled against his bonds, but unfortunately, they refused to tear and break. The struggle earned a malicious cackle from the Shadow.

"HA! You think resisting's gonna be repaid with escape? Think again! ...You know, I could destroy you right here, right now. But no, I shall not do that. Not yet. I have a better plan for you right now. And it takes only one word to describe your function for me: bait."

Perry chattered loudly and with ferocity before struggling against the robotic arms again. Doofenshmirtz raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, kiddo?" he asked.

"What, Doofenshmirtz?!" demanded the Shadow.

"Maybe we should put Perry the Platypus in a better trap-"

"NO! Robotic arms are good enough for this meddling animal! D'you wanna get thwarted again, or not?"

Doofenshmirtz sighed. "No," he replied. Perry's eyes softened; obviously, since the villain was zapped by the Amnesia-Inator, he couldn't remember the warning signs for working with an over-the-top villain like the Shadow, who had now obviously convinced him to join his side again.

"Good." The Shadow then placed a small chip on Perry's collar, with some difficulty due to the agent's resisting. "Here, platypus. This is a tracking chip. You will bring Phineas Flynn, Ferb Fletcher, and all of their friends and family here to DEI. I cannot do that myself, for I do not wanna raise the attention of the OWCA. How you will bring everyone's attention is up to you.

"However, if this tracking chip shows that you are going somewhere other than 2308 Maple Drive, I will detonate it. Yes, this gadget's also an explosive. And if you try to remove it, all you will get is the shock of your life. And don't think about signaling anyone; this thing also has a camera on it. By the way, when I detonate that baby, not only will it take you, but anyone near you. You'd never imagine how much boom juice you can fit into a small chip like that. And you don't want that kind of blood on your hands, now would you? Agent?"

Perry chattered angrily, but his eyes then softened and he bowed down his head in defeat. The Shadow smiled triumphantly as Doofenshmirtz pressed a button on the wall, causing the robotic arms to retract into the darkness and releasing Perry.

"Now, go platypus!" the Shadow ordered. "And don't come back without your owners!"

Perry let out one last chatter of hatred at the Shadow before summoning his hover-jet, which he jumped into and commandeered to fly away.

Inside the hover-jet, the gears in Perry's mind were whirring at fast speeds. He needed to find a way to warn Phineas and Ferb and also follow the Shadow's orders without goading the villain into detonating the chip on his collar. But how?

Original A/N: I know, short chapter is short. But it still sets the tone for what happens next. Now, we go back to the rest of the gang.

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!

New A/N: Indeed, short chapter IS short. According to my word count, it's less than 1,000 frigging words, if you do not count the Author's Notes. Knowing my writing style nowadays, I'm confident that I could do a whole lot better than that. A chapter that's less than 1,000 words is child's play for me. XD XD XD

Anyway, this is a chapter literally dedicated to the long, old cliché of the villain rambling and providing exposition on his dastardly evil scheme. It's a little chapter that would make Doofenshmirtz proud. :P Anyway, it looks like the Shadow has started to learn from his original incarnation's mistakes and is intent on addressing them first before he initiates his own scheme of world domination. And it also looks like Doofenshmirtz, even while under the effects of his Amnesia-Inator, is already starting to sound his inner alarm bells when it comes to working with the Shadow.

Also, for all of the new readers, let's see how Perry gets himself out of THIS pickle. ;D

Anyway, I'd like to thank the following for reviewing:

-Gamelover41592:

1) Indeed, it could've gone a little bit better, at the very least.

2) If I remember correctly, it was because Katie was one of the Fireside Girls (the other being Milly) who tended to visit Doofenshmirtz to sell him cupcakes, which motivated him to concoct an evil scheme that had something to do with that. I forgot which episode that was shown in, but I thought it was a pretty convenient excuse for OWCA to dispatch spies to monitor his movements. And what better way to go under the radar in plain sight than be a Fireside Girl? And as for why I chose Katie, specifically, well, that was more of a random thing.

3) Uh-oh, indeed! :O :O :O

-PhinabellaForLife22:

1) Yeah, that Frank subplot could've used a lot more segueing and foreshadowing beforehand prior to the real thing.

2) Well, like I said above, there's certainly some context behind the whole Katie-is-a-secret-OWCA-agent thing. Though I guess that could've used some more development beforehand too. :P

-Air-Crafter:

1) Well, this is obviously no dream. :O

2) Yep! That's the point of a twist. XP XP XP

-Fox Keyblader Illusions Angel:

1) Yeah, you didn't leave a review as far as I can recall. Otherwise I would've recognized your username and/or writing style.

2) Yeah, I should've developed that redemption arc more beforehand, or not go through with it after all. Sometimes I do still wonder why I decided to take it to that point.

3) But there's no other way all the characters would've avoided having their mind wiped at that point in the story. After all, it goes against OWCA rules and policies.

4) Trust me, sometimes I still think about if I should re-post "Midsummer Tragedy" or not. I still have the salvaged story in my files, and while I haven't gone through them yet, I DO still remember how that story went down. Even if I tackled a pretty dark topic in a manner that I thought was respectable, I do feel, in hindsight, that I did not do so well at it back then. If I am ever going to re-post that story (and it probably won't be on here, just for the sake of trimming down the chances of a survivor coming across the fic and somehow getting re-traumatized), it will likely be drastically rewritten to match the times, and to address all of the failing points that I remember. And yes, I am well aware of those people that you're talking about. At this point in time, I've become so jaded with humanity that I'm not really surprised anymore by them.

-Agent P (guest reviewer): That's right, BE scared! Be VERY scared! MWAHAHAHA! And a belated Happy New Year's to you too!

-Guest reviewer: Right now, it's just all of my "Evil Phineas"-related materials. I'm still considering the possibility of a re-post of other materials too, but don't count on it just yet.

Well, hope you enjoyed this late chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!