Chapter 10

A Precarious Visit

"I wanna shoot the guns now."

Gru was a tired individual, but he was upbeat and in a good mood. The evening had gone smoothly, and he enjoyed himself more than he thought he would. He even thought Joe was a good guy, something that surprised him seeing as he hated the man just minutes before they arrived to the diner. Perhaps he was changing again, much as he did when he adopted the girls.

"No Edith, we aren't goeeng to shoot anytheeng now. We have a guest." Gru wagged his finger at his middle child. She was terribly hyperactive; a combination of cola and chocolate cake had made her that way. In fact, all four of the girls were hyper, but he thought Margo was doing it just because she would get away with it. Although she was smart and more adult like than her age suggested, she was still only 11 and sometimes the child side of her erupted forth and gave Gru headaches and added to his exhaustion. Sometimes, he felt she did it just to wind him up.

In any case, Gru didn't mind, as they had a reason to be in a good mood, like he did. But he couldn't abide by Edith demanding to shoot his weapons with him in the lab, not with Holly around. So, he decided to let them throw toilet paper around instead, and get the minions to clean it up when he took the girls to bed.

"Aww but I wanna do it now." She insisted impatiently. She threw some toilet paper around in Gru's living room, and Gru threw one back at her, laughing as she ducked suddenly and threw Gru a dark frown.

"No Edith. Eet ees final." Gru said firmly. She crossed her arms in disappointment. He raised his hand to his mouth and whispered. "Holly ees here, now be quiet."

Edith nodded in realisation, and she playfully held her left index finger to her mouth and then pretended to zip her lips.

Gru clenched his fist and playfully wagged it at her.

"Charge!" Agnes suddenly shouted, and Holly ran with her and they began to pound Gru with toilet paper. Soon Margo and Edith joined in, and Gru laughed as he was pelted with rolls upon rolls of the stuff.

"Dat ees eet!" Gru shouted. "I am going to get all of yoo!" He grabbed armfuls of thrown toilet paper off of the floor, and ran after Agnes, who screamed happily as Gru tried to throw the pile on top of her.

"No, help me Margo!" she shrieked exitedly, and Margo threw an accurate shot at Gru's face and a roll pinged off of it. He gasped in surprise, and tumbled onto the wood floor with a thwack.

"Now!" Edith shouted crazily, and she leapt onto him. "Dog pile!"

Gru chuckled and pretended to struggle as the girls clambered onto his splayed body. "No no pleese!" he laughed.

The girls grabbed the pile of toilet paper he dropped and wrapped it around him, Margo overseeing the whole "operation" and directing the girls where best to wrap. Holly was screeching like Edith, and their husky voices echoed in the living room. Agnes was giggling to Margo, who smiled wrily at her.

"What are yoo doeeng?" Gru laughed, as he felt the weight of ever increasing amounts toilet paper on him.

"Making you look like a mummy." Margo said plainly. She was panting a little.

"A mummy?" Gru laughed. "I coold just reep out of dis papor easily."

Edith pounded a fist lightly onto Gru's chest and she shot him a "don't you dare" look.

"Quick, now do the face." Margo ordered, and Gru felt Agnes and Holly's little hands hold his face down. Edith stood over him, her face in a smile of mischief, and she held up some toilet paper.

"Hold still Mr Gru." She smiled deviously.

Gru nodded at her. "Do eet."

"I'll go get the camera." Margo announced, and she ran out of the room and Gru's vision suddenly went dark as Edith wrapped some paper around his face.

"His nose looks funny." Holly said, and Gru could not help but frown. His nose was not funny. Ever.

"Mr Gru, stand up and do a zombie pose." Her heard Margo laugh. He could hear the girls chuckling, and he struggled to stand up without ripping the paper. He managed to, eventually, and he stretched his arms out and pretended to walk like a mummy he had seen in an old movie once. He made muffled moaning sounds and wandered around the room. The girls made pretend frightful screams and he could hear them running around, and there was the sound of the camera clicking every so often.

"He looks funny!" Agnes shouted. Gru wandered around some more.

"I am goeeng to eet you all!" Gru moaned, and Edith screeched with mock terror. He ran towards the source of the girl's noise, but, unfortunately, she was standing just by his rhinoceros chair. When he made no indication of stopping his zombie like walk, she dodged his large figure and gasped as he bashed into it with a dull thud and he exhaled sharply. "Owww…" he slid down the arm of the chair. The room was silent, and he heard Margo gasp.

As Gru slid down onto the floor winded, he felt his chin hit the armrest. His eyes widened as he felt the big red base entrance button depress under his chin and in an instant, the machinery in his living room whirred into life.

He was violently shoved by the moving chair into the centre of his room, and he tore himself from the toilet paper and leapt to avoid the cannon lift device from near crushing him as it came down. He looked at the other half os his living room ascend towards the ceiling, and his panicked eyes flickered between each of his daughters. They all wore a similar worried expression, and each of them was completely silent. He then risked a glance at Holly. She stared at the movement, and her mouth was wide open in total awe.

Gru cringed as the machinery came to a stop, and after a big screeching noise, there was silence. Everyone was frozen in place, not daring to be the first to move. His face was still covered with the toilet paper mummy mask, and he removed it violently.

The silence lasted forever, it seemed. Until, that is, Holly spoke.

"Whoa…" she said, drawing in a deep breath and looking at the glowing blue light at the other end of the room, which was emanating from the lab entrance shaft.

Gru closed his eyes and shook his head. "I am dreeming, I am dreeming."

All he heard Margo say was "Umm…". He frowned, his oldest child, who was as smart as she was quick witted, could only manage to say that. It was perhaps her that punctuated the seriousness of the situation for Gru. He stood up and dusted himself off, and he clasped his hands together, trying to think of something, anything, to say.

Gru closed his eyes again, and then he heard a little giggle of joy. He opened his eyes and saw Holly standing in the cannon. "No-" he shouted, but by then it was too late. The metal and glass tube was hoisted onto the shaft lift, and in an instant, she was gone.

Gru frowned at his three girls, who all looked away from his furious gaze.

"Yoo shoold have stopped her from getting in de toobe!" he bellowed, pointing towards the blue glow of the shaft.

Margo opened her mouth to speak, but Gru held up his hand to silence her. It would be about ten minutes before the lift would return. He wanted total silence for that time, so he could consider his options.

xxxxx

Holly travelled downwards for about 30 seconds, and all she could see was a circular concrete shaft. Her mouth was still agape and she did her best to process what was going on. Seconds after her mouth closed, the concrete tube was gone. In its place was a vast metal cavern, and she could see tunnels, walkways, large round doors and staircases leading to different places. Her mouth dropped open again.

She tried to count how many walkways and doors there were, but she couldn't. She was only five, and by the time she reached thirty she replaced the number with "Lots" instead.

What was the most fascinating thing about her journey though, were the little yellow people who milled around. Some were grouped together, perhaps chatting, some were carrying these very odd looking pointed tubes of metal, and some drove funny looking cars. A couple noticed her, and they pointed. She couldn't hear anything, the glass tube encased her in silence as the descended. The little yellow men who did take notice of her looked panicky, and she saw them run around randomly and then disappear behind doors.

She took everything in, and processed it in the only way a child could. Her imagination was running wild. What was all of this? Just as a thought crept into her head, she felt a sudden jolt, and the lift stopped moving and all thought was out of her head. The glass slid open with a noise akin to air being sucked through a plastic straw, and she stepped, cautiously, onto the metal walkway that lay in front of her. She looked up, and all she could see was a dark long tube shaped shaft and walkways crisscrossing it. Where she was though, there was nothing, save for the walkway.

"Cool." She said as her foot made a metal pattering sound as she walked. She expected a lot of noise, but it was strangely quiet for such a busy place. The sounds of machinery and talking reached her ears and she tried to guess at what those machines were doing and what the voices were saying, but it all sounded distant.

She walked onwards for about five minutes. The walkway sunddely forked into three different pathways, each one had a sign over it that said something.

"Red… Blue… and White." She said to herself ponderingly. "Hmm."

On the floor were coloured striped, one red, one blue and one white. She walked down the centre path. The walkway she was on seemed, after a good fifty metres, to go off on random tangents and she felt strangely alone for the moment, and she walked on further. The place was strange, it was made out of shiny metal and there was not a single thing to see, apart from that the large lift shaft had become a horizontal tunnel. There was light at the end of it, so Holly made her way towards it.

What seemed like a moment later, she was at another corridor that had several large round metal doors lining it. Each one, like most other doors she had seen on her way down, had a sign above it. She couldn't understand most of the signs, as hard as she tried to read them. She read each one, and gave up and returned to the first door.

"My-nee-ons?" she said ponderingly. "Whats a myneeon?" She shrugged and decided to go through this door.

She knocked on the door politely, and each tap made virtually no noise, and her knuckles hurt a little from the solidity of the door. She waited for a moment, and no one answered. It was still very quiet, and she had not come across anyone or anything of note that she could play with.

She tapped the door again, this time firmer, and still nothing happened. She crossed her arms. "How rude." She huffed angrily. She was startled as the door slid open rapidly with a loud clunking noise out of nowhere, and she closed her eyes. She heard a little gasp, and she opened her eyes slowly. As her vision came into focus, she was stood face to face with one of the yellow people she had seen before.

The little yellow thing stood there and stared at her. His face looked human enough, and she could tell he was shocked and confused, and they eyed each other up for a few seconds. His eyes were big and friendly looking, and they had strange metal goggles covering them. He wore denim overalls with black boots, and little black rubber gloves covered strange looking three-fingered hands. He held them up as if recoiling in disgust when she stepped closer.

Holly smiled at the thing, and held out her hand. "Hi. I'm Holly. What's your name?"

The yellow creature looked at her hand and back at her face, and he seemed to settle down. "Kevin." He said, and he shook her hand carefully.

"What are you doing?" Holly asked innocently. Kevin looked totally out of his depth, and he regarded Holly desperately.

"Uhh…" he replied. "Me gar carry de bomba." He held up his arms to imitate carrying something heavy.

"I like you Kevin." Holly said sweetly and she grabbed his hand. "Let's explore!"

Kevin whimpered at the little blonde girl yanked him down towards a doorway and they disappeared behind it.

xxxxx

"So, what do we do?" Edith asked dismally. She glumly stood in the metal tube with her two sisters and Gru. It was quite crowded, and she struggled to stand comfortably. Gru's elbow occasionally knocked her head into the glass with a light thud when the lift shuddered, but, to her chagrin, he didn't seem to notice.

"Yoo and Margo will look in de Blue Zone, me and Agnes will look in de Red Zone." Gru said angrily to her.

"What about the White Zone?" Margo asked forebodingly. Agnes gasped quietly.

Gru frowned at her. "Eef she ees in de white zone… den I don't know." He said, sounding unsettled.

Margo looked up at him and she looked horrified. "What the… what do you mean?" she asked, both angry and shocked.

"Umm… nothing." Gru muttered, realising what he had just said.

The four of them stepped out of the tube, and Edith breathed in, relieved to be out of the cramped space. "Finally." She grumbled, stretching her legs.

"Remember, Blue Zone only." Gru pointed to Edith, and she nodded. "We weell meet in the lab eef we cannot find her."

"Yes, we know." Margo huffed and she and Edith made their way down the walkway. Agnes looked up to Gru and she looked worried.

"What's going to happen?" she asked him worriedly, and she clutched his hand for comfort.

"Notheeng, honey." Gru said. "She'll just end up in de lab weeth Nefario like yoo did when you forst trespassed."

"As long as she goes in de white zone at leest." He added, and he picked Agnes up and he paced down the tunnel towards the doorway just ahead.

They made their way after Margo and Edith and reached the 3 tunnelled fork in the route, and they made their way left, which was the Red Zone. The right walkway said Blue Zone. Gru ignored the centre route entirely, and he ushered Agnes away from it was she went to walk down it. The sign above read White Zone.

xxxxx

"Kevin, where am I?" Holly asked, still dragging the minion along. He did his best to resist her grip, but he failed. A five year olds grip could be vice like if they were determined enough, and she was. Exploration was her forte.

"Mek me gussa." He replied impishly.

Holly looked at him, confusedly. She giggled. "Speak properly." He poked him in the chest domineeringly. He looked at her exasperatedly and he shrugged.

"Eengleesh." He replied. "Fah. Pooka." He flailed his arms in nonchalant defeat, and pointed at a sign, and Holly followed it. "Lab. Lab. Regrad lab." He said repeatedly.

"Lab?" Holly considered. "Like… Dexter's Lab?" The cogs in the engine of her imagination were working overtime, and scenes from her favourite cartoon flashed in her mind. She smiled devilishly.

"Lab. Lab." Kevin repeated.

"Lets go!" she shouted. Kevin was now the leader, and he relished dragging her this time. He could run fast, and Holly struggled to maintain a similar speed, and Kevin laughed to himself at the turned tables.

Occasionally they would pass a cluster of other yellow people, who would all stop what they were doing and look at her, either shocked or confused.

"No Agnes mek Gru?" one asked her as they sped past. She looked confusedly at Kevin at the mentioning of Agnes's name. Kevin had a look of determination on his face, and he dragged her ever onwards, ignoring her prying stare.

She saw many interesting things on her way, she walked past what reminded her of her school canteen, she walked past a huge metal cavern that had monitors and desks everywhere, and more of the yellow things crowding the place. They tapped away at their big keyboards, and the cavern vanished again.

Kevin made them press on, as much as she tried to slow him so she could explore these new and interesting areas.

They reached a doorway, this one much bigger and more elaborate than Holly had seen before on her travels. She gasped at it, and Kevin let go of her hand. He looked at her for a moment, and he gulped, and he stood up to the door. A little beeping sound registered his presence, and Holly cringed as loud clunk sounded.

The doorway began to open, and the vibrations of unseen machinery moving the enormous metal door tickled her feet. The movement stopped with a harsh thud, and she could barely see, the light coming from the opened doorway was bright white. She squinted into the light and raised her arm to cover her eyes.

She felt Kevin's hand grab her free one, and she walked forward again, enveloped by the white incandescence.

She could hear bubbling noises, glass tapping sounds and footsteps. She opened her eyes and they adjusted to the light. She heard another gasp, much like she had done when she first met Kevin. This gasp though, was deeper, and whoever it was sounded old.

"What the?" she heard a croaky man's voice say. His accent was funny, like Gru's, but it was not the same accent she noticed. Her eyes began to focus, and she was greeted with the sight of an old man with whispy white hair, in an equally white lab coat. He stood very still, and his face was an impenetrable mask of indifference. "Who are you?" he asked calmly.

"Uhh…" Holly muttered. She sidestepped closer to Kevin, who she noticed was still next to her. The old man wore goggles like Kevin, though his were black and scary. She held Kevin's hand, and he recoiled from it slightly.

"Who is she?" He turned to Kevin, who whimpered.

"Ey not know." Kevin stuttered. The mans gaze was piercing. Holly gulped.

"I'm Holly." The old man snorted at her. "Are you Dexter?"

Nefario grunted loudly at her. "No." He answered indifferently.

"Then who are you? Why are you in Dexter's lab?" She asked innocently, but her confidence had risen and she felt she could stand up to him.

Nefario raised his eyebrow at the child. "Who am I?" Nefario chuckled at her insolence. "I am Doctor Nefario. I am not this Dexter person you speak of. Why are you in MY lab?"

"Um…" Holly considered. "I don't know." She shrugged and Nefario growled.

He reached up in the air and pulled down a microphone Holly hadn't even noticed was there, and a screen flickered to life on the wall. The screen showed the toilet paper strewn living room she was in moments ago, but it was deathly quiet quiet. She stood there completely still with Kevin, and she held his hand tightly for support. He winced.

"Gru? Come in Gru." The old man bellowed into the microphone. "We have… a trespasser."

Holly shuddered at that word, she didn't know what it meant, but it sounded ominous and serious.

There was no reply though, and Nefario sighed. "Gru… come in Gru." he said again, forcefully this time. Still no answer. "Great." He barked angrily.

Nefario let go of the horn shaped microphone and it sprung back into the air, bouncing a few times before settling. Nefario turned back to the still Holly, and he raised his eyebrow.

"Well now." He said calmly, while rubbing his chin, and he knelt down at Holly. "We could always use another test subject for the serum." He smiled, and Kevin looked at Holly with a flash of apprehension. Holly looked back at Nefario, and she frowned.

"I am not a test subject. I am a little girl." She said sassily, and she stomped her foot for effect and held her arms at her waist.

"Is that so?" Nefario chuckled. "I never would have guessed."

His sarcasm was lost on the five year old, and she grumbled.

"You are a meany." She chided.

Nefario ignored her and tapped on one of the bubbling glass orbs that hung from a myriad selection of pipes and metal brackets. Holly took the opportunity to wander to another part of the large circular room while his back was turned. She picked up a remote control, and it had a little wheel on it. She remembered once a few months ago playing with a remote control car in a toy store, and she guessed this was the same. She saw a cookie begin to move as she twisted the wheel. Holly dropped the control as if it was red hot, and she gasped. She looked at the cookie on the table just in front of her, it had little legs sprouted out of it, and it sat there, unmoving.

The red orb that extended from the top of it faced her, and she waved her hand in front of it. Nothing happened, and she plucked up the courage to pick up the control again. She carefully and slowly moved her hand to the wheel again, and she cringed and bit her bottom lip and turned it.

The cookie moved again, and she laughed. "Cool!"

She began to twist the wheel faster and the cookie responded similarly, and she began to giggle at the remote control cookie. For now, she didn't notice the red button on the top of the remote.

xxxxx

Margo and Edith asked every minion on their travels through the Blue Zone, but none had seen Holly. They asked Paul desperately if he had seen her. This particular minion was usually quite observant and attentive, and even he hadn't seen her, much to the girls disappointment. All of the minions they asked looked at them nonchalantly, as if they were being silly for asking if they had seen a little girl in the lab. They were little girls.

Margo sighed and she rubbed her head. "Well, we can't find her." She said to Edith, who had picked up a wrench and was swinging it around like a sword, obviously giving up entirely on the search.

Margo grabbed Edith's swinging arm and she pried the wrench from her. "This is serious Edith!"

Edith shrugged. "I know." She replied ignorantly.

"Then stop swinging stuff around like an ape and help me!" Margo ordered and Edith began to look in stupid places. They were currently in a mess hall, and the minions ignored them as they ate, the girls felt like they weren't even there. "Edith, she won't be in the dishwasher." Margo sighed.

"That's where I'd hide." Edith said indifferently. She moved to climb into it and Margo held her shoulder.

"Edith for goodness sake!" Margo spat. She was fast losing her patience, and all Edith did was smile at her fiendishly.

"Please just help me." Margo crossed her arms. "I don't want to have to tell Gru you cheated at eating the steak."

Edith frowned and cross her arms back. "Fine." She hissed. "I'll help properly."

Margo and Edith continued their search until they reached the end of the Blue Zone.

"Better head back, she might be in the Red Zone." Margo said dimly, giving up.

"I think we should just go to the White Zone." Edith mentioned casually shrugging her shoulders. "She might have ended up in the lab like we did."

Margo considered her options, and remembered the white zone was where they ended up on their first visit to the lab. The three of them had ignored most of the side paths and doorways and just walked forward, and eventually they ended up in Nefario's lab. Margo wondered why Gru was so worried about her going into the White Zone, since it didn't seem that dangerous to Margo.

Margo nodded. "Yeah, better just go to the lab then."

xxxxx

"No! Put that down!" Nefario bellowed, and he moved, quite rapidly for someone of his age, towards Holly and he snatched the remote off of her.

"Hey! That's mine!" she shouted with annoyance. Nefario help the remote out of her reach and she repeatedly hopped to try and grab it off of him.

Nefario smiled at her darkly as she angrily gave up trying to grab the remote off of him. "Meany." She said poking her tongue out at him.

Nefario made his way back to the chemistry table and carried on with whatever it was he was doing, blatantly ignoring Holly. She surveyed the room for more things to touch or play with but didn't see a lot. She looked back over to Nefario and trotted over to him.

"What are you doing?" she asked sweetly, making him jump. A bottle of bright green fluid flew into the air and Nefario grunted and clasped his chest, breathing heavily. He glanced up and saw the bottle tumbling in the air, and he gasped, stretching his arms out to grab it before it hit anything.

Nefario caught his breath, and Holly stifled a laugh. "Don't do that." He hissed.

"What are you doing?" she asked again, trying to sound adorable.

"I am doing important stuff. Now run along, annoying child." He said impatiently while trying to place the green bottle into a clasp. He assumed the girl was another child Gru adopted randomly, just like he did with the other girls, so he didn't think anything of her being in the lab.

Holly saw a different, smaller doorway that she hadn't noticed before and she smiled curiously.

'OK. Bye then mister!" she trotted over to the door vanished behind it. Nefario ignored her and carried on, until he stopped suddenly and gulped. He then looked up, suddenly aware of the doorway she had just gone through. Nefario read the sign above the door, and it said in ominous red lettering: "Bomb Factory and Disposal".

"Oh… great." He croaked. Kevin gasped too.

Nefario ran as fast as his old legs would carry him to the doorway, and he shouted "Wait! Come back!" desperately, and Kevin chased after the scientist, muttering unintelligible gibberish. Margo and Edith walked in just at this point, and they glanced at each other as the metal door closed sharply. Margo read the sign above the door.

"Bomb disposal area?" Margo shrieked in panic. "We gotta do something!"

Margo saw the microphone above her and she hopped to reach it, but it was too high for her. She looked for the red stool she remembered that was there on her first visit, but couldn't find it. Edith realised what Margo was trying to do and she clicked her fingers as a plan formed in her mind.

"Give me a boost!" she said, and Margo nodded hurriedly.

Edith clambered onto her bigger sisters back and grunted. "Wow Edith, you are heavy." She gasped.

"Shut up. Now lift." Edith ordered. Margo groaned as she tried to lift her sister up, who was sat on her shoulders. "I can…just…" Edith struggled.

The microphone just brushed her fingertips and she couldn't grip it. "Margo, stand on your toes." She strained, still trying to reach the microphone.

Margo nodded again, and she grunted and heaved onto her toes. "Got it!" Edith shouted in victory, and Margo collapsed onto the floor.

"Ow." She whined as Edith clambered off of her. "Give it here."

Edith handed her the horn and Margo flicked a button on it that said "Loudspeaker".

"Mr Gru? It's Margo." She could hear her voice echoing beyond the doorways and walls of the lab, and hoped that it meant her voice was playing on a base-wide loudspeaker system. "If you can hear me, Nefario has gone after Holly in the bomb disposal area and we are gonna go there too."

Margo's voice was strained and panicked, and Edith thumbed her up. "Hurry up!" Margo added and she let go of the microphone and grabbed Edith's hand.

"Come on!" she shouted and the two girls made their way to the doorway.

Elsewhere in the base, Gru and Agnes shared a panicked look as they heard the worried voice of Margo over the speaker just above their heads, and they made their way to the bomb disposal area. Luckily, Gru knew shortcuts, so they would be there quickly.

xxxxx

"Wow!"

Holly was greeted with a sight that would send most sane adults over the edge into insanity. There were bombs. Everywhere. Not that she knew this, of course, she was only five and just wandered around, awe inspired. She saw the strange things being carried by more minions or by metallic claws on hanging runners. The minions were so single minded in their tasks that they ignored her totally, the only attention they paid her was to tell her (from what she could guess at least) to move out of the way, which she did, only because the tubes they carried had a very sharp pointed end on them.

The place was huge, much bigger than anything she had seen so far, the circular cavern she was standing in was vast in width and height and she could only just make out the other side. She poked her head just over the metal railings that lined the walkway she was on and looked down to the floor. Huge vents were dotted on the floor, and in the centre there was a charred metal pedestal that was at least as big as the footprint of her apartment building, she thought. She looked up, and saw the cavern was dome shaped and tapered to a large circle in the centre, and there were large robotic arms holding the metal plate on the ceiling in place. Little did she know, just one month ago, Gru launched his rocket to the moon from this very room, but it was now a decent place to dispose of bombs and new walkways had been built over it to connect other parts of the base together for easier access.

She watched as some of the minions on walkways lower than hers lifted their pointed metal containers over the railing and throw them away. A whistling sound could be distantly heard, then she saw a flash of light and a dull concussive boom. Her eyes sparkled in the light, and she watched the occasional flares of light below her with astonishment.

She was suddenly snapped out of her hypnotised wonderment as she could hear echoed footsteps coming from the dimly lit corridor behind her. She placed her hand to her ear and listened intently, and she heard the glum old man from the lab shouting something, his voice was panicked and strained from lack of breath.

Holly giggled, and thought it was a game. She laughed playfully and began to run around in no particular direction, and the minions, now more aware of her, began to rush around to avoid her lest they dropped the bombs they carried. Holly laughed and shouted, "You'll never catch me!" just as Nefario came into view.

"I'm getting too old for this." Nefario breathed heavily. "Children and mad scientists do not mix."

"Ya." Kevin agreed with a nod.

Nefario and Kevin paused and slumped down to catch their breath. "I'm glad you minions can't breed." Nefario mentioned glumly. Kevin looked at him with confusion and Nefario waved him off and he stood up, and proceeded to follow Holly.

xxxxx

Margo and Edith appeared in the same spot just a few moments later, and they glanced around the cavern panicked.

"Looks like Gru's changed the rocket place to a bomb disposal place." Edith realised. "I didn't know that!

"Neither did I." Margo admitted, and her thoughts flashed with annoyance at Gru, who had neglected to tell them. "So that's why he was so worried about Holly going into the white zone, she might have ended up here..."

"There!" Edith shouted over her mutterings, and she pointed towards a strutted pathway above them.

Margo followed the direction of Edith's finger, and she could hear Holly playing and laughing and Nefario shouting for her to calm down. Margo saw Holly leap onto a bomb precariously perched on a ledge, and Nefario was very suddenly calm and slow moving. He begged desperately for the little girl to get down. The bomb was rocking dangerously, and Holly seemed unaware of its lethality and the perilous position she was in, and she was giggling hysterically and riding it like a cowgirl. The bomb looked like it had been dropped, and the walkway was slightly buckled underneath it. Margo also took note that this walkway had no railings. Her eyes were drawn to an access hatch that swung open further up the cavern.

"Its Mr Gru!" Margo bellowed and she pointed. Gru appeared from the access hatch and he clambered down a ladder with Agnes clinging to his collar.

"Mr Gru!" Margo shouted through cupped hands. "She's below you!"

She could see Gru looking down at Holly. "Get down from dere!" Gru shouted to her, but the little girl ignored him.

"Quick!" Margo shouted, noticing a minion car parked farther up on the walkway in front of them. Edith was just big enough to sit in the drivers seat. "You gotta drive this thing, Edith." Margo said apprehensively as they slid to a halt next to it.

In another occasion, Edith may have relished the opportunity, but now was a serious situation, and she clambered into the seat without thinking about it and started it up. Luckily for Edith, the most important functions of Gru's devices was usually activated by pressing a big red button, and in the case of starting the car it was no different. She wiped her forehead with relief as it chugged into life, thankful the thing didn't explode instead. Margo held onto the little pod that was suspended on a metal arm at the back of the minion car.

"Gru said they work with the wheel and the pedals. You turn the wheel in the direction you want to go." Margo explained as the machine shuddered under the power of its little engine. "The right pedal makes it move, and the left pedal slows it down."

Edith nodded and she hovered her foot over the right pedal.

Margo added, "Just don't push the right pedal too -AAAAAAAHHHHH." She screamed as the vehicle shot off down the walkway. Edith laughed, the thing was faster than she expected, she could hear her sister screeching, but she didn't want to slow down, it was too fun and they needed to get to Holly, fast.

"Edith! Slow dooooown!" Margo wailed with her eyes firmly closed, and she clung onto the pod for dear life. Edith looked at the speedometer and it read 15mph, and she slumped dimly.

"I'm going fifteen miles per hour Margo." She shouted from the drivers seat.

Margo opened her eyes, and realised they were in fact going quite slow. "Oh… right." She sniggered with embarrassment.

They reached a tunnel that had several intersections leading in different directions, and after a few wrong guesses and Edith trying to work out how to reverse the car, they managed to reach the same walkway that Holly and Nefario were on.

xxxxx

Gru considered leaving Agnes on the walkway he was on and using his incredible acrobatic skills to swing and leap to where Holly was.

He saw Nefario holding his hands up and trying to calm the girl, who had just realised the bomb she had climbed onto was dangerously perched on the ledge. She looked wild eyed at Nefario and held out her arms to him, making the bomb rock. The walkway creaked every few seconds, and he saw that the bomb was bending it out of shape with its weight. Eventually the bomb would slide off, taking Holly with it. He had to act, and fast.

"Agnes, wait here." He ordered the panicked little girl, and she nodded. "Take my lucky scarf. Hold onto eet very tight, and eef you doo eet weell breeng good luck and help me rescue Holly. OK?"

She nodded again silently, and he handed her the scarf. She snatched it off of him and held it tightly in both arms. Gru removed his thick leather jacket too, realising its weight would impede him. Minions had gathered near him and on other walkways, aghast at the escalated situation below them. A couple trotted over and comforted Agnes, and Gru nodded to them in gratitude.

Gru stood up straight, breathed in and cracked his knuckles. He prepared himself for the gruelling task of leaping from a dozen walkways and swinging himself to Holly's rescue. Dodging ultra fast missiles would be nothing compared to this, he thought.

He breathed in again and smiled to Agnes, who returned it sheepishly, and he leapt, prompting a little gasp from Agnes as he plummeted downwards disappearing out of sight. Gru flew down and held out his arms, and grabbed the first railing in reach. It creaked under the sudden extra weight, and Gru used his momentum to fling himself off of it to the next one, pushing himself off the base with his legs to increase his speed again. He grunted as the next one came within reach, and he grabbed it. Gru hurriedly lifted himself up and sprinted onwards, as the next walkway was too far for him to leap from where he landed. As he pressed on, the sound of Nefario's calming words and Holly's wild panicking became louder. Gru was only about three leaps from them when he saw the minion car from the tunnel at the end of Holly's walkway come into view. Gru's eyes widened, the extra weight of the minion car would surely tip the bomb off of the ledge. He gasped as he saw Margo holding onto the suspended pod and Edith's pink hatted head could be seen in the drivers seat, and he frowned in determination and he prepared himself for his next leap.

xxxxx

"I can't get down." Holly screamed in terror, clinging to the bomb. She whimpered and closed her eyes tightly.

"Just don't move." Nefario insisted calmly, his hands raised. "Try not to move, child."

"Girl met bomba! No!" Kevin bellowed in his chipmunk-esque voice as equally panic stricken as Holly.

Holly nodded slowly, and Nefario crept closer. Each step made the metal walkway groan and Holly would screech, making her fidget in panic and her movement would cause the bomb to tip a little more. Nefario stopped and considered his options. He hadn't noticed Margo or Edith in the minion car speeding towards them, or Gru leaping to her rescue, his attention was on the girl.

Nefario never usually had any interest in children or the situations they got themselves into, but for some reason Nefario was panicking and worried. Perhaps it was exposure to Gru's other daughters that led him to end up this way.

"Kevin, can you reach her?" Nefario asked quickly. Kevin nodded and he tiptoed slowly to the tilting bomb. He was light and each step didn't make the walkway shudder or groan like Nefario did.

"Kevin is going to grab you." Nefario announced to Holly, holding his hand up and gesturing to the girl who had just opened her eyes to look at him in fear. "Hold his hand, he is going to pull you off."

"No! I'm too scared." Holly croaked. She clung onto the bomb tighter as it rocked again, and it was dangerously close to falling.

"Kevin... I have an idea." Nefario whispered so that she wouldn't hear. "Tickle her."

Kevin looked at Nefario with shock, and he glanced at Holly and then back to Nefario. "Tickle met gorl? Nefario se booloo makaneka-!"

"No, just trust me." He shouted over the minions ramblings. "Tickling her will make her let go of the bomb and you can pull her off!" Nefario explained desperately. He saw the minion car in his peripheral vision and he glanced at it anxiously. It was about two hundred metres from him, and he inhaled sharply through his agape mouth. Like Gru, he realised the extra weight of the minion-mobile on the buckling walkway would send the bomb tumbling down, and he looked back at Kevin, who began to quake in his boots under the pressure of Nefario's orders.

"Now! Do it now!" Nefario ordered. He could feel the walkway buckling further as the minion car got closer.

"Kevin! Do eet!" Gru shouted from the walkway just above them as he clambered onto it. Gru realised he would either be too late, or the judder of his landing might exacerbate the bombs tilting, so he had to stay put.

Kevin gulped, he plucked up his courage and ran to the whimpering girl and began to tickle her. She didn't laugh, she schreeched louder as the bomb began to tip. "No don't!" she squeaked, but she couldn't help but loosen her grip. The bomb began to tip over more sharply and a loud metal groan echoed into the hallway and Kevin howled as he grabbed the little girl firmly as the bomb finally tipped over the edge.

Gru, Margo, Edith, Agnes, and Nefario watched in horror as the bomb disappeared off of the walkway, but Kevin grabbed Holly just in time as it fell and he leapt onto the walkway. The bomb whistled as it plummeted, and Holly held onto the minion tightly as he fainted and landed on the floor. Holly carried on holding the minion tightly, ignorant of his conscious state. The bomb struck a walkway on its way down and a harsh metal screech echoed in the vast chamber, but it didn't detonate.

Gru jumped down onto the walkway to join them and check Holly, and the bomb eventually exploded beneath them with a bright yellow flash which lit up the cavern brightly. The wind from the blast rushed past everyone for a few seconds until it died down. Margo and Edith hopped out of the minion car and darted to Holly and Kevin. Gru knelt beside them, and he put his hand on Holly's shoulder.

"Der der." he comforted her. She looked up at him. "Are yoo OK?" he asked kindly. Holly nodded.

"Dad said I wouldn't be very good at riding horses yet." she mumbled, out of breath. "But I rode one anyway, and these horses explode."

Gru chuckled heartily in relief, and Holly frowned. "What?" She asked with ire. It was as though the seriousness of the situation was beyond her.

"Dat was not a horse." Gru laughed, patting her on the head.

.

XXXXXX

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Authors notes

Whew, that was an intense chapter. I had a lot of fun writing this. The next update should be in the next few days/week or so as I have a few interviews for a new job so I won't have as much time to spend on it. This chapter didn't take me so long because I've had a bit of free time to do it. I hope you enjoyed it!

Amelie: Thank you for the very kind words! I'm glad you like the story so far, and I hope you like the rest of it as I update it! By the way, your English was perfect ^_^

Invader Daxx: Funny review :-). I'm glad you like it.

Massinvader: Thank you for your kind reviews! I'm glad you like the story so far. I base a lot of my own interpretations of Edith (using the movie as a foundation of course) on my 9 year old niece, who is so like the movie Edith its scary. She's mischievous, dastardly and loves icky stuff and extremely curious, but she's very sweet and kind too. I often call her Edith when she has little hissy fits because they remind me of Edith in the movie, and she gets even more annoyed at me for calling her Edith (since she knows how Edith acts). Its quite good that you relate to her so well, being able to relate to a character makes the story more interesting I think. I hope you like the rest of the story as it is updated! :-)