I do not own Despicable Me. Credit goes where credit is due.
This chapter now has minor edits. Nothing really changed.
Chapter One
"Welcome back!" the grey-haired newscaster said dramatically as he leaned toward the camera, "Our next story is what has been on most everyone's mind for the past month: Who was the mysterious hero responsible for returning the moon? Who could have done the incredible, selfless act? Sources cannot say. Law enforcement remains baffled by both the theft and restoration of our beloved lunar satellite. Only one thing is for sure: The entireworld has the hero to than-"
"Hero? How can zey say I wuz responsible for that?" Gru declared dejectedly as he silenced the large television, "A hero?" he shook his head, "I am the wurld's greatest vyllain!" Slouching down slightly on his crocodile couch, he grumbled half-heartedly, "I stole the moon! I had no'sing to do with its return… It returned itself..." He grumpily snatched the remote back up, but before he pressed the power button, his inventor and old friend, Dr. Nefario, appeared on the screen.
"Ah, Gru, I'm glad I caught you," the aged inventor said, formally putting his hands behind his back. "There is a bit of an issue down here which needs your immediate attention."
Gru lifted an eyebrow inquisitively. He hadn't heard any explosions. There hadn't been any small or large earthquakes. He sniffed… no smell of smoke or melting rubber. All had actually been quite peaceful. Even the girls, who had been making arts and crafts, had been quiet…
His eyes widened and he jumped out of his seat.
"What eez wrong? What happened?" he asked suddenly fearing the worst. Grabbing his black jacket and striped scarf, he rushed towards the screen. "Are thee gorls –?"
"Yes, perfectly fine, Gru," Dr. Nefario interrupted sighing, "It's just a somewhat fatal mechanical mishap. The minions are doing their best to deal with it but it has become rather difficult to contain."
"Oh, o-kay." Gru heaved a relieved sigh. At Dr. Nefario's frown, Gru put on a serious expression and said, "I shall be down een a momunt."
A small alarm sounded somewhere to the left of the goggle-wearing senior who turned sharply at the noise.
"No no no! If you do that the whole house will catch fire!" Dr. Nefario shouted toward whichever unfortunate minion had caused the alarm to go off before the transmission was cut.
Pulling on his jacket and wrapping the scarf deftly around his neck, Gru had just about made it to the rhinoceros chair that served as the control of the secret entrance to his lair when he heard the ear-assaulting ring of the house telephone.
His shoulders slumping, he sighed in frustration and walked over to the phone next to a badly battered suit of armor, "What eez it now?"
He cleared his throat as he picked it up.
"Gru speeking," he said in a monotone rolling his blue eyes – the girls had a few friends from their dance class and had made Gru promise not to scare people on the phone anymore.
"Afternoon Mr. …" the sharp woman's voice paused.
"Eet's Gru." Gru said, impatiently rubbing his left temple.
"Mr. Gru…" the woman drawled indifferently, "I am Andrea Weiner with The Child Advocates Association working with Miss Hattie's Home for Girls. And –"
"What eez thees about?" Gru demanded, growing tense.
"Mr. Gru," the child advocate said stiffly, "Our office received an anonymous complaint that the girls," the sound of rustling paper filled the slight pause, "Margo, Edith, and Agnes, are living in an unsuitable environment and could possibly be at risk of injury."
"What?" Gru waved a hand in disbelief accidentally knocking an ancient Norse battle-ax out of the armor's gloved hand. "Ah!" he yelped, jumping to avoid the deadly weapon as it embedded itself in the wooden floor.
"What was that?" the woman's voice darkened.
"Ah! No, nothing! My… dog … knocked over a lar – no! – small statue. Not'ing to wurry about!" Gru lied as he tugged on the huge ax to no avail. Putting the phone down on the table as quietly as he could, he pressed the speaker button.
"–r. Gru," the woman repeated impatiently.
"I…" he started, giving the ax a hard tug without much change, "I don't understand. Who would say somet'ing like dat?"
"I'm not at liberty to say; there is a reason I said it was an anonymous complaint." Ms. Weiner sighed and Gru could almost hear her shaking her head.
Giving the ax one last straining tug he loosed it from the ground and swung it back to rest on his shoulder.
"Weell, whoev'r called did not know what they were ta'king about. There ez no safer place een the –"
"Gru!" Dr. Nefario's voice called from the TV room. "It is imperative that you get down here now! We could be looking at a possible catastrophe that could black out th–Ah no! That will make it explo–"
"Gah!" Gru dropped the ax, picked up the phone, and turned off the speaker. "As I was sayingk," he said loudly over the clattering weapon and the crackle of whatever had blown up, "Theere eez no safer place for the gorls to be, Ms. Whiner. They are veery happy here." He flinched as minions screamed in the distance.
"Uh huh," the woman's voice betrayed her obvious doubt, "I'm sure they are," she continued insincerely, "I will be coming by your home to evaluate their living conditions throughout this next week."
"Ah, but –"
"Goodbye, Mr. Gru." Ms. Weiner said. Then the line disconnected.
After a moment's hesitation, Gru slowly put the phone back on its hook and, stooping down to pick it up, did the same for the battle-ax.
Physically shaking himself, he put on a steely frown. He was the greatest villain on earth; he was the man who stole the moon. There was no reason to feel anxious about some little office worker coming to evaluate his home. She wanted safe; he'd show her safe. He'd have every defense mechanism at the ready. But now was not the time to think of such things.
He sat in the Chair and punched the entrance console. "I have a more impor'tant t'ings to attend to." He stated, as the elevator was placed on the drop platform. Zipping his jacket, he began the dark descent into his lair.
When the sliding glass door of the elevator opened, Gru wasn't quite sure if it had taken him all the way to the floor. Darkness surrounded him on all sides. Gingerly poking his foot out of the elevator, he felt for the floor. It was there just like it had always been.
"Ho-kaay," Gru said stepping out of the elevator and pinching the bridge of his nose, "Who turned off thee laights?"
With a blinding flash, all the lights turned on and a resounding "Surprise!" followed.
Blinking stars out of his eyes, Gru looked around. Surrounding him on all sides were his cheering minions throwing confetti and ribbons; a few minions floating on the ends of ropes shot off large bottle rockets – one of which being an actual rocket that somehow got tangled in the rope and dragged the minion who fired it into the distant wall.
"Wha-what ez going on?" Gru asked, perplexed.
"Happy Birthday!"
Looking down, Gru found the three… his three girls beaming up at him.
"It's your birthday, so we decided to throw you a party." Margo stated as she nudged her youngest sister forward, "It was Agnes' idea." A minion nearby cleared his throat, to which Margo pointed back to with her thumb, "We couldn't have done it without them."
"I," Gru awkwardly picked up the giggling Agnes, "I don't know what it eez I should be saying."
"Generally," Dr. Nefario said as he drove through the throngs of yellow minions on his scooter, "the response most used in these kinds of situations would be one of gratitude."
Gru furrowed his brows and gave the inventor a sideways frown, "I thought there was an emergency?"
Dr. Nefario chuckled a little, "Guilty. Though Jerry..." Clearing his throat, the inventor left the rest to be guessed as he gestured toward a group of blackened minions surrounding a very guilty looking one.
"But there is an emergency!" Edith spoke up with some urgency.
Gru blinked, taken aback by the change in attitude.
A tall, one-eyed minion pushed his way out of the crowd carrying what looked to Gru like a slightly malformed lump of blue, green, and pink icing covered… something.
"What eez that?" Gru asked cautiously.
"It's your cake!" Agnes exclaimed. She pointed to the messy lettering on the side of the lump.
Gru stooped down to look, "Happy Fiftieth Borthday… Dad," he read aloud. After looking at each girl in astonishment, he hesitantly asked, "You did this?" They each nodded; Margo and Agnes wore triumphant smiles. Gru knelt and wrapped his arms around his two remaining daughters, "…Thank you."
"Ah!" Edith groaned in frustration. Earning surprised looks from Gru and her older sister, she wiggled out of his hug and waved frantically at the 'cake.' "Greg lit the candles with a defective blowtorch!" she said dramatically and pulling her hat down, "If you don't hurry and blow them out, they'll melt all over the cake!"
"Ah yes!" Gru said with mock seriousness, blinking a bit of 'dust' out of his eyes. Standing tall, he walked over to the cake but he turned back to his little kittens with a small smile, "but I might need help blowing all ov zem out."
All beaming, Margo, Edith, and Agnes joined their father to blow out the quickly melting candles while his hundreds of minions sang a strange version of what sounded like 'Happy Birthday.'
A few hours later, the lump-cake was devoured, some minions were strewn about exhausted from helping the girls with a short performance based off of something from their collaborative imaginations, and those minions who weren't out cold were shuffling around and cleaning up. All in all, the surprise party had gone over well. The girls had suckered Dr. Nefario into making something up to get Gru into the lair – the accidental firework explosion kind of helped, though Dr. Nefario was still a little cross at Jerry -, the lights were turned off when the sounds of the elevator drifted down into the main chamber, and, as they hoped, Gru was surprised!
Margo had watched Edith and Agnes give their adoptive father the gift the three of them had made the day before: a slightly lopsided, paper-mache moon. She had jumped when Gru laughed and nearly fell off of his chair, but he smiled and, pulling embarrassed Edith's hat out from over her eyes, said that it was more impressive and more precious than the real moon. After saying that, Gru placed it in Dr. Nefario's glass anti-gravity chamber – much to the old man's silent chagrin - so it hung suspended in the vacuum like the real moon while minions 'ooh'ed and 'ah'ed. Agnes had been mystified by their suddenly 'magical' makeshift model.
"Margo?"
The accented call of her father roused her from her memories, only now she noticed she had been leaning heavily on his side. Abandoning his warmth and the softness of his grey turtleneck shirt, she slid out from under his arm and adjusted her glasses. Had she fallen asleep? Gru's awkward expression and her lightheadedness informed her she had.
"Eet seems you gorls need to be getting to bed." He stated, looking back at Edith and Agnes who had dozed off and were curled up between a sleeping minion and Agnes's large stuffed unicorn. Margo looked around, still trying to shake off some of her exhaustion. Apparently, her daze did not go unnoticed by her bald guardian, "Yep. Beddy-Bye time."
"But I'm not tired, Dad." Margo mumbled as her eyelids began drifting downward against her will. Gru blinked in surprise. Though Edith and Agnes had already taken to calling him 'dad,' Margo still often called him 'Mr. Gru.' There had only been a few, rare times when she had called him 'dad.'
"No no. Theere wyll be no 'buts' ov any vhariety. It is seeriously past your bedtime." He stated, smiling at his eldest daughter who began to nod off again. The smile faded slightly when he realized his girls probably wouldn't make it up to their room under their own power and what that meant for him.
After slinging his momentarily abandoned jacket and scarf over his shoulder, Gru pushed back his chair and stooped to pick Margo up. Then, after Margo wrapped her arms around his neck sleepily, he walked over to the spot where his other two daughters lay and bent down to scoop them both up in his remaining free ar-
BOOM!
The sound of the explosion shook the entire underground structure immediately jolting any who had been asleep back into consciousness. Gru held tightly onto his now alert girls as the rumbling died down.
"What was that!" Each girl asked with fear and uncertainly clear in their voices. Not answering, Gru stood looking towards the source of the sound.
"It's coming frum thee weapons vault." He murmured to himself. Running through the panicking mob of minions, he slid behind one of Dr. Nefario's work tables and put the girls down, "Lloyd, Dan!" the two frightened minions rushed over. Turning to and looking in each of his girls' eyes in turn, "Stay wyth theese two. They'll keep you safe," and Gru shot the two minions a look that said there would be terrible consequences if they didn't.
"Dr. Nefario!" Gru called as he rushed away toward the large side tunnel, "Why aren't thee alarms going off?"
"It could be nothing but it's possible an intruder disabled them." Dr. Nefario stated as he gave Gru his freeze ray as he passed him.
Pulling on his jacket, Gru frowned. "Then I will deal wyth thee intruder. Go manually override thee systems and activate thee vault defenses." Gru ordered, deactivating the newly installed safety hitch on the gun.
"Right. You two come with me." Dr. Nefario jogged away as fast as his bad knee would allow with two minions trailing behind.
"Daddy!" Agnes called.
"I'll be ryght back, gorls. Stay wyth thee minions." And with a last tug on the scarf around his neck, Gru disappeared down the tunnel.
Margo turned to her younger sisters; they shared the same determined expressions. All three of them dashed out from behind the desk and ran towards the side tunnel.
"Ah! Wapi er votede kwanda? Big boss damu sed!" Dan shivered fearfully.
"We have to help Daddy!" Agnes said, her brown eyes shining in earnest.
"But we're not leaving you." Edith explained, rolling her eyes.
"You're coming with us." Margo finished as she held Agnes' hand. She and Edith took the horrified minions by the wrists and dragged them into the tunnel where Gru had only just disappeared.
Gru turned the last equipment covered corner and finally ran into the weapons vault. Coughing, he swatted at the dust filled air to no avail. On the far side of the vault, light spilled from the gaping hole in the ceiling. The loud hum of a hovering craft's engine reverberated throughout the metal room. Looking around, he spotted a very familiar radiation charge shining through the smoke and ducked as the electric blue ray shot past him. Turning, he watched a once large cabinet shutter before shrinking into one rather miniscule.
"Hello Gru." An extremely familiar, nasally voice said as the small figure stepped out on top of a pile of rubble. "My little vacation on the moon was cut short, but that only left me with more time to plan for this!" The orange clad villain hefted the large shrink ray a little higher at his side. "Your vault really should have a better alarm system."
"What? Vector?" Gru sounded more confused than concerned… then the memories of his girls' kidnapping surfaced, "Vector. You should not have come heere." Gru finished in a dangerously low voice.
"Ooh! 'You should not have come here.'" Vector mocked, "I'm so scar-Ah!" Vector managed to scramble to the side as a freeze ray shot by, missing him by an inch. "Hey! I wasn't done sp- Ah! Ah! No!" Vector fell back behind the mound of rubble, attempting to dodge the onslaught of freeze rays. Then, clipping the shrink ray to a rappelling rope like the one attached to his belt, he swung out around the rubble and shot off his own volley of electric blue rays.
"Gah!" Gru jumped and ducked to avoid the beams as they arced dangerously close by. Sliding behind a tall display case, Gru readied the freeze gun for another go.
"Ha ha ha!" Vector laughed overdramatically, "Your time with those brats has really made you slow! Snails could have moved faster!"
Gru couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Dat eez wheere you are wrong," he said over his shoulder, "Kids reelly keep you on your toes!" Jumping out, he fired the freeze ray and successfully froze Vector's foot to the ground.
"Ah! Hey!" Vector shouted as he tugged on his foot-cicle in disbelief, "Tha-that's cheating!"
"Hmm," Gru shrugged and smiled a wicked, toothy grin, "Yes... You are probably right about that." Then he cocked his freeze gun for one last shot. Looking up, he aimed directly at the bespectacled villain's face but stopped short at the look of triumph on it. "What are you - ?" Gru tensed in confusion as Vector shot an overturned table near the vault entrance; however, when the table nearly disappeared, he was filled with dreadful realization.
Margo, Edith, Agnes, and their two terrified charges had been hiding behind that table. Stumbling back, they stared in horror at their shrunken protective barrier.
"Gorlz!" Gru twisted to look back at Vector who was charging the shrink ray for another shot.
"You wouldn't want me to shrink your brats, would you? How does six inches sound?" Vector taunted as he aimed at the frightened group.
"Gorlz! Run!" Gru yelled as he charged towards them.
"Too slow!" Vector said in a singsong voice.
"Ah!" Margo pushed her sisters forward as Lloyd quickly wheeled a tool chest in front of the bright ray giving them a little time as they dashed for the opening.
"Ho-hold still," Vector bit his tongue as he took careful aim again.
"You're almost there gorls!" Gru turned and shot the freeze ray but only clipped the rope above Vector's head.
"Hey!" Vector turned, shooting the shrink ray at Gru.
Gru ducked down and rolled quickly away. He frowned as he realized, dropping his freeze ray gun in surprise as it begin to distort in his hand, it had been nearly too late.
"Ha!" Vector attempted to jump in delight but failed due to his frozen foot, but, nonetheless, he laughed triumphantly, "You're unarmed! Try to freeze me now! Oh yeah!"
"Mr. Gru!" "Daddy!"
Gru jumped back up, abandoning his minimized weapon. "Go!" he shouted to the girls as he caught up to them. As they raced through the doorway, Gru hit the emergency release for the thick, plasma glass door.
"Too late!" Vector said as he pressed the trigger.
Theere's no time! Gru realized, eyes widening.
Turning his back to Vector, Gru knelt and pulled his girls together against his chest, shielding them from the blast.
"Dad? What are - ?"
Gru cringed as the shrink ray hit him square in the back with surprising force. Numbing tendrils of electric blue light raced from his back followed only too soon by crushing pressure. As quickly as it started, it stopped, leaving Gru dizzied and discombobulated. The sudden, booming thud of the door falling into place did not help stabilize him. Turning and stumbling backwards slightly, Gru rubbed his suddenly sore head.
"Dat wuz … unpleasant." Gru stated blinking stars out of his eyes and attempting not to think too hard about what he had let happened to him. Failing, he recalled Dr. Nefario's detailed analysis of the shrinking process; in short – forgive the pun – it was not exactly good for one's health if the outside shrunk faster than the inside.
A rather muffled but no less annoying voice tore Gru from his thoughts.
"Ha!" the owner of said annoying voice laughed in near disbelief, "I-I did it! That's what happens when you mess with the mighty Vector! Ahaha…ha? What the – ?" Ray guns, flame throwers, and an assortment of sharp stabbing objects slid out of slots in the vault walls and aimed directly at the jumpsuit wearing villain.
"Ah," Gru observed with some irritation, "Dr. Nefario got thee defense systems back up."
Before the weapons had a chance to fire, Vector activated the reverse on the rappelling rope, which strained to pull him up. The light shining through the ragged hole in the ceiling disappeared as Vector's airship began lifting away. With a loud crack, the ice around his foot finally broke and Vector was swept upwards as the defense weapons began firing.
"I'm not done with you yet, Gru!" Vector declared as he swung wildly to avoid the projectiles aimed at him, "I swear I'll be back for –" The semi-frozen portion of rope above his head suddenly broke off, leaving a thin string to support both Vector and the shrink ray's weight. Vector had only just disappeared through the hole before – snap!
"AAaaaaah!... Ouch!"
Gru nodded in satisfaction at the distant thump following Vector's plunging scream.
"Daddy's little." Gru heard Agnes whisper behind him.
Sighing, Gru turned only to jump slightly at the sheer change in perspective. Looking up at his little girls, he noticed their mixed displays of horror, disbelief, and – in Agnes's case- amazement.
"Are you gorls o-kay?" he asked, not quite sure whether children could be traumatized by drastic parent-shrinkage.
Agnes nodded, wide eyed. Edith followed suit while attempting to close her gaping mouth. Margo looked away, guilt written all over her face. Gru smiled in pity at her expression and gave a loud sigh.
"Weell… you didn't leave thee minions." Gru crossed his arms but the smile remained. "Margo." His eldest daughter flinched at the gentle call but, sitting on her knees, managed to look at him, "I saw how you pushed Edith and Agnes out ov de way. You did a good job protecting them …unlike thee two who were supposed to protect you!" He finished sternly, turning to look at Lloyd and Dan who shyly waved from behind the glass door. Gru looked at the mess of rubble and smiled wickedly, "You wyll be fixing that." Dan bowed his head while Lloyd punched his side, obviously blaming him for the punishment.
"It's not their fault!" Edith spoke up, "We made them come!"
"Yeah!" Agnes piped in, "We made 'um come. We were gunna help you…" she trailed off unsure what else she should say.
"Eez that so?" Gru asked, somewhat taken by their courageous efforts.
Margo opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Dr. Nefario and a stubby minion as they turned the corner.
"Well, I found the cause of the defective defense systems. It would seem somebody spilt coffee on controls. The explosion was proba – What happened to the weapons vault? Did someone actually – Where's Gru?" Dr. Nefario asked looking around.
Gru cleared his throat to shout but, much to his surprise and displeasure, he found himself suddenly lifted off the ground by his youngest and shown to the inventor at arms' length. It took a moment for Dr. Nefario to notice him, another to recognize him, and a half of one to realize exactly what had to have happened.
"How did –," he sighed, "I sincerely hope you're not going to say that the shrink ray was successfully stolen." Dr. Nefario stated, awkwardly bowing down to size up the captive Gru.
"You can put me down now, Agnes." Gru said patting her hand, fairly shaken by the need for such a sentence. Once he was securely on the ground, he made sure to speak loudly as he said, "Vector eez back. He came for the shrink ray and tried to shrink thee gorls."
"Well, I figured that much," Gru heard the inventor mumble as he straightened himself, then, "But are you telling me that that lunatic not only somehow got off the moon and shrunk you but is also running around with a powerful weapon of mass reduction?" Dr. Nefario asked, massaging his temples with a gloved hand.
"Dat … would about cover it, yes," Gru admitted, uneasily rubbing the back of his head, "but he fell somewhere around de house. He can't have gone far without his airship. Send out a few minions to search for him." Gru ordered, straightening his shoulders seriously.
Dr. Nefario nodded and, giving Gru a look that said 'this discussion isn't over,' left to assemble a search party.
"Ah, Marvin. You stay heere." Gru said to the minion. Marvin nodded, twiddling his thumbs. Something told Gru this was the 'somebody' Dr. Nefario was referring to.
"What should we do?" Edith asked, effectively keeping Gru from questioning the nervous minion.
"We wanna help!" Agnes jumped up, excitedly curling her hands into little fists.
"Nope!" Gru said turning back to his three girls, hoping the extreme discomfort of looking up did not show in his features, "It eez late and you are goingk to bed." Then, with an awkward throat clearing, he motioned for Margo, "Uuh, Margo, could you press thee green button theere on thee door panel."
Margo, biting her lip a little, stood and reached for the button but, even on the tips of her toes, she couldn't quite reach it.
"Heere," Gru said, trying to be encouraging, "just, uh, lift me up theere and I will get it." After some hesitation, Margo lowered a hand onto which Gru tentatively stepped. "O-kay, theere we go." Gru said as he punched the button.
With a sudden clank, the thick sliding door opened. Startled, Margo flinched back and, losing his footing, Gru pitched backwards. Before he could shout in surprise, Gru found himself held tightly against Margo's shoulder.
"Mar-," Gru stopped. Margo was shaking. Turning as best as he could and motioning to the minion, Gru softly said, "Take Edith and Agnes up to their room; wee'll be up een a momunt. So get your pee-jays on… and brush your teeth!"
Marvin took the two younger girls, who looked like they understood something was wrong with Margo, and led them away. Once they were out of earshot, Gru looked up into Margo's face and was hopelessly distraught when he found tears running down her cheeks. Before he could think of anything he could say to comfort her, Margo hastily wiped away the tears.
"I'm sorry," she said, trying to sound strong, "I shouldn't have made us come. You were going to beat him and then he… How can you catch us? It's my fault." The tears were back, though she tried so hard to fight them off.
Gru held back a pained groan when Margo squeezed him tighter, unknowingly pressing her collarbone into his spine. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and patted her arm, "Margo, this wuzn't your fault. Don't even think thees wuz your fault. And – Look at me Margo." Sniffling, Margo sat on her knees and awkwardly placed him on the ground. Grabbing her hand, Gru furrowed his brow seriously. "I wyll always catch you. Right now I'm just a-a little… shorter than I am used to, but not'ing changes," he promised.
Margo managed an embarrassed smile and, to Gru's not necessarily unpleasant surprise, scooped him back up in a tight embrace.
"Thanks for saving us again … Dad." Margo whispered. Then, "I love you."
"… Yeah." He said, voice cracking slightly as he was touched by her sincerity and all the air had been squeezed out of his lungs, "I love you too."
"Awww."
Both Gru and Margo tensed at the appearance of a crowd of minions; all were soft eyed and a few were holding each other. Margo quickly, but gently, placed Gru back on the floor.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Gru shouted severely, placing his fists against his sides, "That ceiling eesn't going to be fixingk eetself!" He waved at the rubble.
The minions jumped at his sudden anger and scrambled away jabbering nonsense.
"And briing me my freeze ray!" He finished, glad to see he was still intimidating regardless of his reduced stature. Nodding, Gru turned back to look at Margo who – he was surprised to find – was trying hard not to giggle. "What?" He asked, looking down at himself to see if he had grown a third arm.
Margo shook her head, but at Gru's inquisitive look she gave in.
"They called you 'Big Boss,'" and with that said, Margo burst into a shuttering fit of suppressed giggles.
Gru had to just stand there for a moment to process what she had said. After said moment, he attempted to smile wondering whether it was a good or bad thing that kids could recover so quickly. The stark contrast of her reddened eyes, still-wet tear tracks and her smile gave him his answer: Yes, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Gru walked quietly out of the girls' bedroom as Marvin pulled the door closed behind him with a soft click. If he thought he had been tired before, he was sadly mistaken. Trying to get his youngest girls to lie in bed, reading them a bedtime story, and kissing them all goodnight in his current state was shockingly exhausting. Sighing, he patted the side of the minion in thanks for chasing Agnes and Edith around the house until he came up with Margo.
"Gru," Dr. Nefario was waiting outside the door, "What happened back there?"
Gru folded his hands behind his back, "It eez as I said," he shrugged, "Vector broke into de vault to steel thee shrink ray; thee gorlz were theere and…" Gru stopped at Dr. Nefario's exasperated yet understanding look.
"Due to our financial struggles as of late and our focus on getting the labs back in running order, I haven't been able to reverse the shrinking technology. Without the shrink ray, it will take around seven days for the Nefario Principle to kick in and for you to regain your size." Gru nodded as Dr. Nefario began measuring Gru's dimensions with some kind of metal sliding utensil. Frowning, the inventor pocketed the device, "It's as I thought," he stated grimly, "You're just shy of seven inches in height, but you seem to be proportioned correctly." At Gru's sudden look of anxiety, he pressed, "It should only take a few days to reverse the technology once we have the shrink ray so –,"
"A week!" Gru exclaimed, slapping his hand against his forehead as a thought struck him, "Whiner!"
"What?"
"Dr. Nefario! There eez a woman who called and says she eez coming here thees week; some child advocate worker. Apparentlee she got some sort of complaaint and will be seeingk if thee gorlz are okay." Gru rubbed the side of his face in frantic thought.
Dr. Nefario stiffened and nodded, "Right," he said, "I'll take care of it."
"No no no." Gru shook his head, "We can't do that, as effective as eet eez," He mumbled the last bit, tapping a finger against his chin in thought, "No, I just need to get back to normal so I can deal wyth her myself."
"Oh, um… Very well." The inventor frowned in disappointment, "I'll see to the vault repair then," and he tottered away, mumbling under his breath about shrink rays and the piece of lab rubble stuck in his shoe.
As the old man turned the corner to the spiral staircase, Gru let his shoulders slump in exhaustion. "What am I going to do?" He sighed, frowning slightly as Marvin patted his back. He let it slide as he walked towards his bedroom at the end of the hall. He had nearly reached the door when he heard – and felt – quick footsteps work their way towards him. Waving back, he said, "Marvin, you can go now. I am perfectly capable ov – I-I don't need any more help."
"Oki – Daaahh! Big Bahss!"
Gru turned as the telltale blue light faded, leaving the extra small minion in a daze. Gru tensed as he found himself looking up at the soot covered Vector, who smiled triumphantly as a fishy smelling mist fell over Gru. He quickly waved it away but not before the effect of whatever it was took its toll. Woozy and suddenly weak at the knees, Gru stumbled backwards as he fought to stay conscious.
"I told you I wasn't through with you yet," was all Gru heard before the darkness overtook him.
So, I'm back. Editing this before moving on. It feels great to work on this again. Look forward to more updates in the future.
Thanks for your patience. Have a Despicable Day.
-BEA