I do not own Despicable Me.

Thank you NovaBucker for the suggestion. The words the minions speak are backwards.

Sky High

Edith slumped on the couch, her arm dangling over the side with the remote hanging loosely between her fingers. Margo was sitting on the other side of the living room with Agnes, the eldest reading to the youngest a book about dinosaurs.

Boring, thought Edith.

Kyle came into the room and hopped onto the crocodile couch. He turned in a few circles and cuddled by her feet. Edith absentmindedly scratched his head and stared at the television. She changed the channel and came across probably the third documentary about dinosaurs.

"What is this, Dino Week?" she asked in annoyance.

A picture of a Pterodactyl flashed onto the screen along with a voiceover that explained facts about the extinct creature. Edith leaned forward a bit, blue-grey eyes scanning the vast wingspan of the prehistoric bird.

Hey…that gives me an idea!

The remote clattered to the floor and Kyle gave a growl of irritation when she jumped up in excitement. Margo paused in her storytelling and frowned. "Where are you going?"

"To find something to do," Edith replied innocently. "Why do you ask?"

Margo regarded the blonde for a moment before narrowing her eyes. "Don't do anything stupid."

"The faith you put in me is astounding," Edith said dryly and exited the living room. Margo watched her go and only returned to reading the story when Agnes pulled impatiently on her ponytail.

...

The blonde lugged an armful of newspapers to her bedroom and wiped the sweat off of her brow. "Phew. Glad Uncle Nefario collects these for the articles." Edith paused and clucked her tongue in thought. "Now where am I going to find glue?"

She went back into the corridor, down the stairs and entered the large cannon that would bring her to the lab. She pushed the buttons and grinned as the tube whizzed down, stopping in the vast lab. Metal guns lined the walls and many, many lab tables were scattered about the space. But the best part, in her opinion, were the thousands of yellow minions running around.

"Tim!" she called.

The minion named Tim stopped and glanced at her questioningly. "Haey?"

Edith used to wonder how her adoptive father could remember their names, but soon enough she learned quite a few. They had characteristics that told them apart from each other. As for the language, that took some practice and guesswork. "Do you know where I can find some glue?"

"Eulg? Yrros, ton erus erehw ti si." Tim shrugged apologetically and continued on his way. Edith sighed in disappointment. Her blue-grey eyes roamed her favourite room in the whole mansion and they fell upon Uncle Nefario.

He wasn't really their uncle, but he was still a really close friend to Gru that he might as well be an uncle. He protested at first when Agnes first called him that, but he started getting used to it. Although he would never admit, Edith was pretty sure he liked being called Uncle.

She hurried over to his table and climbed onto the metal stool. She braced her elbows on the steel table and watched as he twisted and connected a multitude of wires to a device. She learned a while ago that she should never interrupt him when he was working. He didn't like that, so she waited.

Nefario finally finished and he glanced up. "Can I help you with something?" he asked flatly.

"What's that?" Edith's curiosity got the better of her and she pointed at the strange ray he had just finished.

"That is a Clacker Ray."

Edith blinked. "Okay...what does it do?"

"I'll show you." Nefario picked up the device and aimed it at a passing minion. He pressed a button and two glowing red balls flew from the nozzle with a red chain attached between them. It struck the poor minion and wrapped tightly around him.

Mark shrieked in protest and wriggled around on the floor as his friends laughed hysterically.

Minions are terribly easy to amuse, she thought before glancing at the elderly man. She scratched her head and said, "Um...I though Dad wanted a Hacker Ray?"

Nefario blinked and stared at the gun he held in his hand. "Oh blast."

"It's still pretty cool! Can I have it?" Edith asked hopefully, hand inching across the lab table. She yelped and snatched it back when Nefario smacked her hand gently with his wrench.

"Are you mad? You'll have the entire house in ruins in mere minutes!"

"Aw, I'm not that good." Edith grinned mock-bashfully and was pretty sure Nefario rolled his eyes behind his goggles.

"I'm sure you didn't come down here to make small talk and I'm very busy. What do you want?"

"Glue," Edith answered.

"Why?"

Edith shrugged. "I just want some glue. Can't a girl ask for some glue without getting the third degree?"

Nefario stared at her for a moment before walking-extremely slowly-to the steel cabinets in the back. He opened a drawer and pulled out a red tube of glue. He came back over and handed it over. Edith eagerly grabbed it. "Thanks!"

She booked it from the lab and rode back up to the main floor. She rushed to her room and slammed the door shut behind her. She turned around and regarded the pile of newspapers with a grin.

"Let's get messy!"

...

A plastic tub of glue, flour and a bit of water all mixed together sat by her side . The hardwood floor was speckled with mushy newspaper bits and hardened glue. Two large wings were spread out in front of the seven-year-old, still wet and a bit lopsided. Edith pushed her loose blonde hair back into her hat and added another piece of newspaper to the growing layers.

"Whoever said papier-mâché was relaxing is insane!" she grumbled to herself.

She collapsed back on the floor with relief at finally finishing and sighed. Her glue-splattered pink sweatshirt was a mess, as well was the rest of her bedroom. "Maybe Stewart and Jerry will help clean up..."

Edith stood up and stretched. She had constructed her makeshift wings using papier-mâché and old branches gathered from the backyard. The girl opened her window and climbed out, dragging the wings behind her. With great skill she climbed the drainpipe with one hand and made it onto the roof.

Edith smiled in satisfaction. I knew all those years of escaping Miss Hattie's Home for Girls would pay off.

She fastened the two wings to her small arms. They were twice the size of her arms, and pretty light considering the amount of glue she used. The blonde tilted her head and tried to get a sense of where the breeze was. Though she couldn't tell the direction, she figured having a breeze was good enough.

"Here we go!" Edith cheered and dove off the roof. The breeze picked her up, strong enough to carry her higher and higher. She was not flying straight by any means, but the point was that she was flying, and that was enough for her.

"Sweet!" She managed to lift her head to see where she was headed and discovered that she was going right for the hydro power lines. "Not sweet!"

Edith shrieked and tried jerking herself way down, but the wings were stiff and not easy to steer. The wind twisted around her and she could feel her wool hat slowly being lifted from her head. "No! Not my hat! Anything but the hat!"

Suddenly something struck her, easily snapping the wings into hard, glue-encrusted pieces. Her head was inches from the electric lines when she fell to the ground and landed with a rather hard thump in the thorn bushes. "Ow...Ow."

Edith moaned and climbed from the prickly bushes. She yelped in surprise when she stumbled forward. "What the-?" She craned her neck and found her arms tied to her side with two glowing balls and a chain. "Oh sugar biscuits," she muttered.

"Are you insane?"

Edith tilted her head upwards and spotted Nefario shouting at her from the upstairs window. "Hi Uncle Nefario!"

"Don't give me that! I come upstairs to see if one of you little heathens stole my newspapers and I witness you jumping off the blasted roof, about to crash into the power lines! Are you mad?"

Edith sighed as Nefario continued to shout. She wiggled her way out of the bindings and gingerly pulled the thorns out of her flesh, wincing at the drops of blood.

"Get in here before you get an infection. I don't need Gru by your side every waking minute this week! We have jobs to do! Now where's that disinfectant..."

Edith shuffled up to the front doors with a scowl. "Looks like the Great Edith has failed this round...but fear not! She shall be back on her feet after Uncle Nefario puts the disinfectant on her deadly wounds!"

She entered the mansion and paused in the foyer. "Wait. Isn't disinfectant the stinging stuff?"