Chapter 20:
I Want A Lemon Meringue
Gru was sitting on one of the stools in the kitchen eyeing his mug bitterly and tapping his long fingers against the surface of the counter. After several minutes of this he straightened with a sigh and emptied the remainder of his cold coffee in the sink while casting a brief furtive look at the time.
The girls, meanwhile, were eating lunch. Margo watched her dad as he sat again. It was almost noon. Normally Ady was there by this time.
"Maybe she's just running late." Margo said. Gru cast her a look and then made an attempt to look as if he hadn't been concerned about the matter.
There was a whirring sound from the living room and after a few minutes Nefario appeared in the door.
"Morning Gru." Gru nodded to him absently while Margo gathered her sister's plates. Gru straightened and took them from her when she approached the sink.
"Does this mean you're not working today?" Edith asked.
"We will see. Go… go play gurls." He said wearily. Margo motioned her sisters towards the hall.
"It would appear that Miss Owens is not present." Nefario said as the girls disappeared around the corner.
"…I noticed." Gru said dismally as he turned the faucet on and rinsed the plates.
"I wonder why that is." Nefario persisted, oblivious to the hint of warning in Gru's voice.
"I don't know."
"Well…if you don't mind me saying…perhaps to a young women the attention of a fifty year old villain is not…entirely welcome."
"I…am not yet fifty and…Ees dere sometheen een particular dat you wanted…Dr. Nefario?" Gru continued in a low voice.
"I just wanted to ask you if you had any further idea of what you were going to do today."
"No."
"Well I wouldn't wait too much longer. I suspect Miss de Moleneaux is not the most patient of women." Gru opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted when the doorbell rang. He exchanged a look with the doctor.
"Oh…I hope dat ees Ady." He said below his breath as he dried his hands and headed towards the hall. It wasn't. Gry paled slightly after opening the door, and he took a step back.
Polina was dressed in a manner to impress on this occasion. She was wearing a long black dress, sleeveless, shoes with heels that would make anyone's eyes water as they imagined them going through the pad of their foot and so much fur that from a distance she might have resembled a small zoo of extinct animals. There was even a hat with peacock feathers over some exotic tails.
"Good morning, Gru. It was…getting somewhat late…I was eager to get sings moving." She said while extracting her cigarette holder from her lips, her eyes glittering. Gru swallowed.
"Uh…de uh…babysitter ees not here yet." He said weakly.
"And zis ez cause for delay? You might say we 'ave more important sings to do."
"But I…"
"I can loan you Doug for ze afternoon, if you like." Gru eyed the big man. "He ez probably an adequate nanny."
"No…I theenk…I will 'ave to decline…on dat." Nefario came up behind him, folding his hands behind his back.
"I think, on this one occasion I could possibly make an exception." He said. Polina gave him a brief smile.
"Zere, no more problem." She said with a smile. For a moment Gru looked slightly lost. "I assume your doctor Nefario will be working from your lab today zen?" Dr. Nefario nodded solemnly.
"I will leave a couple ove my henchmen to help you."
"I think we are sufficient in help. We have hundreds of minions after all."
"Yes…I ave seen zem. A bit more help, perhaps cannot hurt. Shall we get going zen?" She added, while turning to Gru.
"Uh, just geeve me one moment. I need to…get a few theengs." He said before carefully shutting the door.
"Does this mean you're going through with the plan?" Nefario asked.
"Well I don't 'ave much of a choice now do I." He hissed before pulling his phone out and heading towards the stairs. He dialed Ady's number on the way up and when he got to his room sat on the bed and waited, listening to the phone ring. After a while, when it was clear that no one was going to pick up, Gru shut his phone again and stood to look out the window, eyeing the limo sadly.
He swallowed in order to get rid of the dull pain bunching up in his throat and then took a deep breath and squared his shoulders before picking up his jacket and a belt of explosives, which he threw over one shoulder before covering them with the jacket and zipping it up so that they wouldn't be visible, and then he headed back into the hall.
XXX
Ady felt a sharp pain on the back of her head when she started to move it. She groaned and attempted to raise her hand to the place where the pain seemed to be coming from, this was accompanied by a lot of frantic whirring noises, which made her pause.
"If you move, you will die." A voice said casually from off to her right. Ady carefully lowered her hand again. After a moment she opened one of her eyes with apprehension and regretted it immediately when it met the machine gaze of one of the cookie bots. There were about a dozen others surrounding her, all motionless, but in a way that suggested alertness.
"I imagine zat zere are worse ways ove dying zen being blown to bits, but I can hardly be bozzered to sink ove zem right now." Ady tore her gaze away from the scope as the dark woman moved around so that she could see her, the click of her heels echoing slightly. When she was in view she leaned back against a long table covered in clutter and brought a cigarette to her lips, examining Ady for a moment. "I am not generally ze sort to bozzer wiz zis sort of common villainy."
Ady didn't say anything. She was still trying to figure out what was going on. Something had hit her on the back of the head. She remembered at least that much. And she remembered her apartment being destroyed by the big man with the gun.
"All ove zis ez so tired. But zen, more sophisticated methods would probably be wasted on you." she said while tapping the elegant cigarette holder on an ashtray.
The spinning in Ady's head started to settle a little and her thoughts were coming a little clearer.
"You…destroyed my apartment…you…bitch," she said hoarsely. Polina raised her perfect eyebrows and smiled a little.
"Usually I would 'ave just killed you immediately. Consider eet fortunate it was only zat heap ove rubbishz at ez en pieces…for now."
"What the…hell do you want?" Polina ignored her question. She was looking Ady up and down with something like disdain and perhaps, though it was exceedingly difficult to detect, a hint of jealousy.
"You are so…tacky." Polina said after a while. "But I suppose zere ez no accounting for taste."
Ady felt a dull anger boiling up inside her. She was afraid too, but it was hard not to be angry in the circumstances. This woman was standing in front of her acting so damn smug, she was confused and her head was pounding, she'd been forced out of bed by someone who had torn her apartment to shreds and perhaps not least she was angry because she was being threatened with a bunch of cookies with little military hats and that was just stupid.
"You're wearing a shag rug and you're calling me tacky?" Ady said haggardly. A smile crossed Polina's lips like a lizard skittering across a rock.
"Usually removing ze tongue ez a thing I do only wiz henchman, but en your case, I may endulge…just for ze pleasure of shutting you up." She brought her cigarette holder up at a swoop and caught Ady in the chin, raising her head and leaning over her so that Ady's green eyes met her dark gaze. "…I do not like competition," her voice was still soft and calm, but her eyes were stormy and filled with rage. "At least I 'ave ze curves to pull zese clothes off." Polina added softly. Ady swallowed with some difficulty.
"You look like a cross between Natasha from Rocky and bullwinkle and Cruella Deville," she said before she could stop herself.
"Kep talking. I would not hesitate to kill you now, even if it does spoil my fun." Ady could tell, as she looked into the woman's eyes, that she was telling the truth. She'd get rid of her with as much regret as someone might feel while breaking a cup. It wasn't like with Gru.
The woman pulled back, her cigarette holder withdrawn from Ady's throat. "And plez don't say somesing tiresome like Gru won't let you get away wiz zis, or just wait until he finds out, blah blah blah. I 'ave Gru, how you would say, twisted around my finger. He may 'ave his weaknesses but en ze end you cannot give him what he wants. I can."
"Yeah, what's that? Rabies?" Ady said quietly, while glaring forward.
"You see…" Polina continued, either not having heard Ady's words or, more likely choosing to ignore them. "En a few hours me and Gru will rule ze world. Zen, when zese plans 'ave come to fruition we will decide what to do wiz you."
She said while starting towards the door. She paused and indicated the computer screens.
"As long as you are living, you might as well watch wiz everyone else. At ze end ove ze day I will be ze most powerful woman en ze world and you will be even less significant zen you already are."
XXX
Nefario left the girls upstairs while he returned to the lab, but had made sure to keep the screen on so he could keep an eye on them. He'd also ordered them to stay in the living room, but so far this didn't seem to be working very well.
"Hey! Where's you sister?" Nefario asked after he happened to look up from a separate screen he was working on. Margo was helping Agnes color in a picture. She looked up from it and motioned vaguely to the television screen. Nefario frowned and raised his eyebrow. He opened his mouth to direct another question at them but didn't get a chance to because Edith, who was hiding under the tv out of view jumped up and made a face in the screen. Nefario recoiled and then glared at her.
"Would you please stop doing that? Stay away from the screen." He mumbled to himself as he returned to the other computer, which was much smaller. There was a G on the desktop and in the foreground of that the cookie bot program was loading. It was at 95%. He was also periodically checking the feed from the moon, waiting for the Whirl Machine to grow large again so that he could connect to it.
He jumped when one of Polina's henchmen tapped him on the shoulder and then carefully moved in front of the screen loading the cookie bots so that the big man couldn't see it.
"Look, there's really nothing much for you to do right now." The big man continued to stare. Nefario cleared his throat. They really were quite creepy.
"Uh, Phil, Kevil, take…um…our friend here over there to…to the water cooler until I need him."
The two minions had paused to stare at the big man and Kevin's mouth was open.
"Okay…" Kevin said after a moment before motioning towards the water cooler. "Kono yo ni," he added while pulling on the henchman's pant leg.
Nefario shook his head when the minions left and returned his gaze to the screen. It was finished loading. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting but this was not it. Polina had removed all of the cookie bots from their previous locations. They were not all in one place and showing the same thing.
"Oh…this isn't good."
XXX
Polina slipped her arm around Gru's, bringing him out of his thoughts. He had been standing on the platform by the large consol that controlled the mass atomizer and was staring down at the kidnapped men and Polina's associate, Henrick who was moving back and forth between the atomizer and a separate consol that was acting as a direct communication to the Whirl Maker, or would be as soon as it grew large. Strapped in the atomizer was the President of France who was clearly not happy and was in fact shouting all manner of curses and pleas in French.
"I 'ave been waiting for zis day for a long time," she said while moving her fingers up his forearm. "You 'ave been very helpful," she added as her fingers traveled to his chin and she pulled his head towards her. "I am very appreciative. Shall we make a start ove zis? Ze whirlmaker will be ready soon." Gru pulled away from her a little and nodded sullenly, wearing a stormy expression.
"All right zen." She raised a small mic. "Henrick, get me ze U.N." Gru watched as the figure broke away from the consol.
There was a sound from above as a large screen slowly lowered itself. It was probably a little bigger then even the jumbotron had been. When it stopped it flashed on, showing a massive room crowded with people. It was clear that Polina had interrupted whatever had previously been on the two massive television screens at U.N headquarters. It took a moment for everyone in the room the get up to speed and realize that the projected image of the president of the United States was replaced by a dark woman covered in various furs and a bald man with a hook nose and his hands folded behind his back.
"Bonjour." Polina said with a hint of a smile as she held her cigarette out to Gru. He eyed it wearily for a moment before searching his pockets for a lighter. Unfortunately because Nefario had added so many more of them he seemed to have some difficulty. Polina got impatient and waved him off.
"What is the meaning of this?" The president said after a moment.
"I merely wished to ease ze concern ove ze world in regards to zere missing leaders." Polina said while waving the cigarette holder towards Henrick, who nodded and switched the feed of one of the televisions so that it showed the men in the room. There was a moment of silence while the people in the U.N stared at the image.
"What do you want?" The president said weakly.
"Everysing. I want ze countries ove ze U.N to surrender leadership to me and my partner," she said, while motioning towards Gru, who was looking sort of distant again. The President raised his eyebrows and gave her the somewhat nervous grin of someone who is trying to appear confident in distressing circumstances.
"The loss of these great leaders has indeed been a tragedy, but with all due respect there are people, even now waiting to replace them. We can negotiate a price to set them free, but we must refuse your offer." Polina smiled in a manner of someone who was absolutely confident and did not find anything distressing with the circumstances at all.
"Well, I do hope your replacements are competent men. Zey will 'ave to be. Zey will 'ave a lot to deal wiz. Ze moon feed, please Henrick."
The screens flashed to the moon.
"I…don't see the correlation. What are we looking at?"
"Give it a moment, Mr. President." Polina said with a grin. "Sree, two, one." The people of the U.N watched in horror as the massive machine grew to its correct size. Some of the men who had been waiting on the moons surface had to clear away quickly, obviously not aware at how big the machine was going to get. One was launched back and rather ruined the moment by kicking desperately to try and return to his station. The associates that had recovered quicker snapped the plugs and wires in place.
"To zose of you not familiar wiz zis devise, it ez called ze Whirl Machine, recently acquired from area 51, capable of sending localize tornadoes and hurricanes at impressive distances and until now secretly used by ze U.S to crash test planes. I could send a wave ove devastation across zis half ove ze world, in anozzer 12 hours I can target ze ozzer half, zen again ze current position ove ze moon ez just about right so zat I can target you gentlemen I sink. Oh and do not bozzer to send people up to ze moon to retrieve or destroy it. I 'ave satellites en position to shoot down any foreign crafts."
The president had paled considerably during her speech. There were a lot of hushed conversations going on between the delegates from the various countries. Gru was eyeing the Whirl Machine but his thoughts were somewhere else. In fact, they were on the beach. He was thinking about the tide, the ground slipping away, Ady.
"Could we have…a moment to discuss this amongst ourselves?" The president asked nervously, his voice coming from a mile away.
"Certainly…alzough, you must understand zat I am in a bit ove a hurry. So, until you come to a decision…" She waved again to Henrick and the feed switched to the President of France, thrashing in the chair. "Zis…gentlemen ez ze mass atomizer. Every hour zat you remain undecided I will disintegrate one ove zese great men and I will demonstrate wiz zis one. Be so kind as to pull ze lever, Gru."
Gru's blue eyes flashed towards her briefly before returning to the screen, his thoughts abruptly back in the present again.
"I thought de mass atomizer was for a method ove persuasion," he said below his breath.
"Zis ez how I persuade. Don't embarrass me, pull ze lever." She hissed back, while still smiling at the men on the screen. He cleared his throat and unfolded his hands before stepping towards the panel and wrapping his slender fingers around the lever. He pulled it. There was an embarrassed silence.
"Uhh…what…what's it supposed to do?" The President asked, clearly frazzled incase the president of France was suffering some unseen horror. Polina glared at Gru. He shrugged. She made a cutting motion across her throat to Henrick who cut the feed.
"Why isn't et working?" She asked. All it had done was fizz a little and make the Presidents hair stand up.
"I don't know, eet was working fine before. Maybe one of de wires ees loose."
"Well go fix et!" She said angrily.
XXX
After a while Edith got tired of finding ways to scare Nefario, particularly because he'd gotten distracted by something and was now searching desperately through the piles of junk in his vicinity while talking to himself.
She lumbered over towards her sisters and flopped down on the couch.
"Why didn't Ady come today?" She asked finally.
"I don't know…" Margo answered while looking up from her and Agnes' picture. She'd been wondering the same thing. "Maybe something came up." She added uncertainly.
"Do you think she's going to come back?"
"I'm sure she wouldn't just leave." Margo said. Her younger sister rested her chin on her arm and stared dismally on the television screen for a while.
"We could call her." Agnes said. Margo nodded after a moment and cast a look at the screen as well. Nefario was clearly not paying attention.
"Come on," she said as she stood, taking Agnes' hand. Edith rolled off the couch and followed them.
Margo moved a stool over to the counter and climbed up onto it to locate the phone book before flipping through it to find Ady's number. Edith handed her the phone when she climbed back down again.
She dialed the number and waited. It rang twice before cutting into a mechanical voice.
"It says the number's been disconnected." Margo said hesitantly.
"Maybe she moved." Edith said.
"I doubt…she moved." Margo said, but carefully. Perhaps it had been a mistake to talk her father into going to dinner with Ady.
"Maybe daddy's a really bad kisser." Agnes added. Margo set the phone down.
"I'm sure everything's fine," she said in the special voice she used to reassure her sisters when she herself was uncertain. "Come on, let's get back to the living room before Uncle Nefario notices we're missing." She said as they headed back towards the hall. Unnoticed by them, a large shape detached from its place behind the door.
XXX
Dr. Nefario was going through a personal battle. On the one hand, if he sort of let this go, as he really would have liked to and Gru found out, he would be very upset. Nefario was too old to look for a new job. Also, it had occurred to him that this was almost certainly his fault. He frowned and then began looking through the metal drawers in the counter.
"Could just let her blow up…solve all of my problems but no…" he mumbled vaguely.
He found what he was looking for in the back of the bottom drawer on his right hand side. It was the original controller for the cookie bots. He moved back in front of the screen and pressed a few buttons on the keyboard so that it split and he could see the viewpoints from all of the bots.
"I am going to be sacked…if this doesn't work." He said before adjusting a few things on the controller.
XXX
Ady's arms and legs were getting stiff and her head was still killing her. Since the creepy lady had left she'd been experimenting with how much she could move her arms and legs before one of the bots started whirring. Hardly at all as it turned out. Eventually she gave up on this and instead stared at the screens in front of her. There were about five of them and they made her uncomfortable.
One of them was focused on an enclosed area of glass with a lot of distraught men in it. They were mostly uniformed or wearing suits, but they appeared to be either at the edge of sanity or in some cases seemed to have vaulted over it. Some of them looked quite foreign. Ady remembered vaguely hearing about a lot of important men being kidnapped on the news recently. She frowned.
Another screen showed a really nasty looking mechanism, also in a room of glass that vaguely looked like a modernized version of what Sweeny Todd might use for hair dryers in his hair salon if that play had taken place more recently. One of the important looking men was strapped into one of the chairs. He was looking very nervous.
The third screen showed the surface of what looked like the moon, which was strange and unsettling. There was something strapped to a lot of wires and men in space suits. Ady tore her gaze away from that with unease. She was thinking again of villains from cartoons. They always had some sort of doomsday device.
"How…did I get myself into this crap…" she said below her breath. Her green eyes settled on the fourth screen and stayed glued to it for a while. It showed a wide view of the area where both the mechanism and the smaller glass room with the men in it were. She could also see a series of platforms, several large men wandering around, Polina herself, who was standing at the edge of one of the platforms by a large panel that looked like something out of a government building or nuclear plant and then there was Gru, standing beside her.
She felt an unusual range of emotions while staring at him, but they eventually plateau'd to something like hate. There were other things like vague bewilderment and perhaps a bit of hurt, but mostly she ignored these and focused on the anger.
For a while Ady had a hard time deciphering what the fifth screen was. It showed the big glass room, but it was on a strange level and seemed to move around a lot. Eventually after looking back and forth between the fourth and last screen she decided the last camera or whatever it was, was actually attached to Gru. She wondered if he knew about it and then decided she didn't care.
She leaned back slightly and eyed the ceiling while wondering if she could get away from the ballistic cookies if she moved fast enough. The door was unguarded, apparently Polina didn't think it was necessary but it was probably locked, even so. Ady scowled and decided that if she were able to get a chance she was going to punch that woman in the nose. Come to think of it, if she saw Gru again she'd probably punch him in the face too.
Thinking like this made her feel better, like she had some control over the situation. She tried not to think about the fact that she was in a dark room, in a nightshirt, could probably explode any second and was at the hands of people trying to take over the world. What did that make her, the equivalent of those simpering girls screaming their heads off while being tied to the train tracks?
She made a vague sound of disgust and looked up at the screens again particularly the ones showing the kidnapped men and Gru and Polina.
Gru had done things to suggest that he was not a good person. He'd pointed a gun at her the first time they'd met, he'd threatened her several times and there was the thing with the meters and the big underground lab thing and the weird dog and the decorations in his house but…after a while all of that stuff…it had seemed like ornamentation, like everything horrible about him was just a cover for something…at least half decent…slightly psychotic, but decent. It was hard to look at those screens and still think that.
How can someone play tea party and make a book about unicorns and wear pink gingham aprons…how can that person also be this person?
Ady was brought out of her thoughts because one of the cookie bots had started whirring.
"Come on, I didn't even move that time." She said testily. It quivered briefly, much to Ady's alarm, then the scope started flashing. "Oh…damn…" She considered trying to throw it across the room, but before she could move, it stopped and the little scope on the bot turned from side to side as if trying to get a look at the room before it crawled off of her towards the door.
Ady raised her eyebrow and turned her head as the other bots around her did the same. When she was free of them she rubbed vaguely at her arms and legs and stared at the cookie bots with a frown.
"What the…"
One of them cut a small hole in the wall and moved up to it as if it were scoping out the room beyond. Then a few others began moving up the door, cutting through the wall as they did. Ady stood from the chair and watched them bewilderedly as the door fell off of its hinges. The remaining cookie bots began skittering out of the room.
"Oookay." She moved to the door cautiously and looked out. Beyond was another room similar to the one she was in. It was covered in a variety of plans and grids and models. Various maps were pinned up on the walls with foreign writing across them. There was another door in here. This door was unlike the one in the previous room. There was something immovable about it and there was a keypad embedded into the wall at one side. A couple of the cookie bots attempted to slice through the wall before sputtering and falling to the ground without making a dent.
Ady watched them wearily for a moment before picking up a random sheet strewn on one of the counters and eyeing it. She caught side of a small crude machine that looked a lot like an ancient laptop on the table and put the sheet down while she leaned over to look at it. It was showing the room she was currently in from a dozen different perspectives. She raised her eyebrow.
Ady shouted when she felt something crawling up her leg and looked down at the cookie bot.
"Hey!" She said as she made a swipe at it and missed as it skittered up her back and settled on her shoulder. She raised her hand to hit it off of her but paused when she heard a heavy sound from the metal door as a mechanism unlocked from the inside.
After a moment it slid open and a big man edged his way in, caught sight of her and made a sound of surprise, slightly muddled by his lack of tongue.
"Ah…crap."
He took an ominous step forward. On her shoulder the cookie bot rose and sent a brief burst of what looked like a laser, which burned into the big man's forehead. He shouted and stumbled back. As he did, two more of the bots tripped him up and he went crashing to the ground.
The bots skittered out of the door and started to climb up the walls and spread out. The one on her shoulder settled back down. She cast it a brief untrusting look before raising her hand to removed it again. It whirred angrily.
"All right, fine! Start flashing and I swear I'll pull all of those tiny metal legs off," she wasn't sure that this was a legitimate threat but at this point it hardly mattered.
Ady stepped over the fallen man carefully, wincing slightly as he groaned. Beyond was a glass floor, which felt almost like ice to her bare feet. After taking a few more steps the bot on her shoulder hopped down and started to skitter like an oddly shaped spider across the floor. It paused and the scope spun around to face her, waiting. Ady sighed.
"A cookie wants me to follow it. This is just…not normal," she said below her breath. Still, it wasn't like she had much of a choice.
The bot led her along the glass floor, moving behind things whenever one of Polina's huge minions were wondering around.
Ady moved cautiously through the glass hall, which emptied out into a much larger room, also predominantly made of glass, although the glass itself, at least the glass making up the outside of the big room wasn't transparent and in fact looked more like diamond.
It sort of looked like a warehouse. There were devices she couldn't identify, random doors, sweeping stairways leading up into an upper level made of a network of narrow raised platforms, the occasional sleek piece of furniture made up of a variety of furs looking quite out of place, there were screens embedded in the walls, showing images, maps and figures, and large modern looking computer consoles.
She was absorbed in this and therefore didn't notice that the bot had stopped until she nearly stepped on it. When she looked down the bot seemed to stutter a moment then the legs folded up and it clattered to the floor looking like just a regular cookie.
She continued to look at it for a moment before ducking behind one of the consoles. The reason she did this was because she saw Gru.
XXX
Nefario had pulled out his cell phone and was balancing it on his shoulder while operating the controller.
"Come on, Gru. Damn." He said as he set the cell phone down and focused again on the screen. "I'll just have to find him."
He'd spread out the remaining bots so that he could scope out the area and was trying to keep an eye on all of the screens.
Nefario was aware of someone tapping on his shoulder. He turned away from the computer.
"I told you, there's nothing for you to do right…" he stopped because he was aware that he was staring into the barrel of one of his own guns. The worlds 'Sleep Ray' were printed along the side.
"Oh blast," he said before the big man pulled the trigger. The old man crumpled to the floor. On the far side of the lab, the lift came to a rest and the girls dismounted.
XXX
Bitterly, Gru headed down the stairs to the lower level of the glass chasm. He stuffed his hands in his pockets as he reached the device and eyed the President of France with weariness.
"Me laisser aller s'il vous plaît!" The man said, wild eyed. Gru scoffed without much humor.
"Vous demandez la mauvaise personne." He responded dryly before he began to search his coat. He sighed after a while and, after casting a brief look up at the platform towards where Polina was, only to note that she had apparently stepped away, unzipped his jacket and shrugged it off of his shoulders so that he could get at some of the more questionably placed pockets. He set it down and after a brief search, found what he was looking for and went around to the back of the mass atomizer to remove a panel so he could get at the wires.
Ady watched him for a moment, her heart pounding.
Her eyes flashed briefly to Gru's coat and then scoped the area in order to see if there was anyone in a position to see her as she moved carefully towards it. She was already barefoot, so it was easy enough to keep quiet. She was also holding her breath.
She slipped her fingers under the fabric and pulled gently at something sticking out of one of the inner pockets, hoping, for once that it was something dangerous. It was.
It looked almost like a nerf gun, although toys were generally more colorful. Still the cylinder was massive and took up a good amount of the weapon and she also noted it had a G on the side. Ady moved a little closer to Gru, then after examining the strange gun for a moment, pushed what she assumed was the hammer down. There was a click and a small dart appeared in the barrel, it's nose coming to a sharp point.
Gru stopped what he had been doing, which was reattaching a qire that had fallen look and for a second just sat, as if trying to decide what to do next. After a moment he raised his hands very carefully, a small tool still held in one and the removed panel in the other. He began to stand.
"Eet ees a little unwise to be doeeng dis before you know eef de machine ees fixed," he said wearily before turning. Ady's fingers tightened on the gun. Gru's expression went from lethargy to comical surprise in a matter of seconds.
"Ady," He started, his face lighting up slightly as he began to lower his hands.
"Don't put you're hands down." Ady said. Gru paused, registered the dart gun and slowly raised his hands again, looking bewildered. This expression deepened as the situation dawned on him.
"What are you doeeng here?"
"That's a really good question Gru, what am I doing here?" Ady said as she blew a few stray hairs out of her eyes.
"I don't…understand."
"Well while you were apparently…trying to take over the world as it turns out, I was having my apartment destroyed. Then I was knocked out and I woke up in a room with a lot of exploding cookie things on me."
"What?" Gru replied, before his gaze returned to the platform, where Polina had been and his expression hardened as the anger boiled up like acid in his stomach.
"Now, is there any other confusing demented thing you would like to do to make my life complicated before I shoot you?" Ady said, getting his attention again. He eyed the gun.
"You are not goeeng to shoot me." Gru said while taking a step towards her and lowering his hands again. Ady took a step back.
"Bet?"
"You do not even know how to operate dat,"
"I can make an educated guess." He took another step forward, this time with an intent of grabbing at the weapon, it was fortunate that Gru had excellent reflexes and was therefore able to bring the panel he was still holding up to block the dart when she pulled the trigger. For a moment he stared at her with his mouth open.
"You…you just shot dat at me!" He said. "Did you even know what eet would do?" She pulled the hammer down again and there was another click as a dart slid into place. Gru frowned and slowly put his hands up again.
"It's been a really long morning Gr…" This time he got to her before she could pull the trigger, grabbing her wrist and pulling her arm up so that the gun wasn't aimed at him anymore. He pulled her towards him and still holding her wrist, and wrapped his other arm around her to keep her from getting away or hitting him.
"Let go." She said each word like bullets being loaded into a cartridge.
When the gun was in a position where it wouldn't do harm, Gru pulled the trigger so the dart went upward and then he wrenched it from her fingers. Ady struggled against him, but he'd spun her around so she couldn't get any effective kicks in and he had both of her arms in restraint.
"I will let you go aftor you stop acting completely out ove your mind!"
"Me? You're calling me crazy? You…you weird, despicable, horrible, confusing psycho!" She hissed back.
"Look, I had notheeng to do weeth your apartment," he said while casting a brief look up at the platform to make sure Polina still wasn't there. "I did not mean for dis to happen!" he added as he increased his grip on her and pulled her behind the panel.
"Yeah, well great, that makes me feel much better," she said angrily. She managed to get an arm free enough to elbow him in the stomach and slip out of his grip.
When Gru rose, slightly winded Ady clenched her fist. He raised his hand slightly.
"All right hold on. Obviously you are angry," he said, holding his stomach.
"That's an understatement Gru. The only reason I haven't shot you is because you took the gun away."
"Fine, whatever, very angry! But leestin, you will not geet out ove here weethout my help so you 'ave to stop heeting me and tryeeng to kill me for at least a leetle while so dat I can focus!" Ady glared at him for a moment. Finally she lowered her fist with a sigh.
"Fine!" She said in an angry whisper.
"All right. How deed you geet out here?" Gru said as he straightened.
"Through there. One of those…things got me out…" She said while motioning vaguely at the fallen cookie bot. "One of the cookies that blow up. She had them all over me and they just started freaking out and cutting through the walls." Ady added before crossing her arms.
Gru grabbed his coat and began searching the pockets. He frowned and searched briefly through his pant pockets too.
"I do not 'ave my phone, I can't geet een contact weeth Doctor Nefario." he said with a sigh before pulling his coat over his shoulders. "I will 'ave to take you out de front way. Let's go before she gets back."
He eyed the dart gun for a moment before shaking his head and pulling out the freeze ray.
"Here, I am not trusting you weeth sometheeng deadly." Ady eyed it before taking it from him bitterly. "Shoot anyone you see…anyone who ees not me."
Ady followed Gru carefully as he moved around the mass atomizer, eyeing the area beyond. He cast another look up at the platform. Gru could feel Ady's heated gaze on his back.
After a moment he cast a brief look at her.
"Eef I apologize, will you stop glareeng at me like dat," he said as they paused behind a computer consol near the stairs.
"Apologize for what, this morning? Last night? Or are we going all the way back to the day I met you." Ady whispered back. Gru sighed. "Why couldn't you just…leave me alone? Why did you have to…start acting human?" she added sullenly.
"Dis ees not just my fault." He said while motioning for her to follow him up the stairs.
"How…is this not your fault?" She said after a moment.
"You say theengs dat drive me crazy. I could not ignore you. I tried! Even when I thought I hated you, I could not geet you out ove my head! You theenk dat I like de fact dat you…make me feel so…awkward?"
"And you thought offering me expensive wine and trying to kiss me on the beach would solve that for you..."
"No! I deed dat because I wanted to! I wanted to talk to you dis morning and if dere was any chance dat I could 'ave you instead ove de world, I would 'ave taken eet!"
A brief look of surprise flashed in Ady's expression before it dissolved into alarm as a voice like syrup drifted over the platform.
"And what a poor exchange et would 'ave been." Gru turned with some horror as Polina's heels clicked over the glass.
Ady grunted as the barrel of a gun was shoved against her back as a couple of large men came up the stairs behind them. They were forced up the stairs the rest way by general shoving.
Gru scowled at Polina when they came to a stop on the platform.
"I am so disappointed en you Gru."
"You had no right to take hor," he said in a low voice.
"I saw her as a sreat to my plan. Am I mistaken en zis?" Still glaring, he raised the dart gun. Ady looked sideways at him and tightened her fingers around the freeze ray.
"I would drop et if I were you. You sink zis girl waz ze only sreat I saw?" Gru raised his eyebrow and then slowly a look of horror crossed his face.
"What are you…" Polina smiled.
"I always 'ave a back up plan," she said as she held her gloved hand out. Doug lumbered forward and placed a small item in her palm. She held it up. It was Margo's glasses. She tossed them so that they clattered to the floor and slid to a stop at Gru's polished shoe.
"No…" He said distantly. Ady stared at them for a moment before narrowing her eyes and looking up at the woman angrily. Her gaze shifted when Gru lunged forward. "You leave dem alone! I swear eef you touched dem…" The big men behind him grabbed him as he tried to bring the gun up level to the French woman again. Ady raised the freeze ray and shot at one of the men holding him before another grabbed her and restrained her. Still, Gru was able to shove his way out enough so that he could get a clear shot at the woman.
"Steady yourself," Polina said without concern as she put a cigarette in her mouth. "You shoot me zey will never get out ove here alive." Gru glared at her, shaking with rage. "Drop ze weapon. Or don't…" she added as he continued to glare at her. "One word from me and zey will be no more." Gru hissed through his teeth and dropped the gun. "You too," she added to Ady who dropped the freeze ray.
"You know, I am impressed at how much ove a fight zey put up. One ove my henchman was left twitching on ze floor ove your kitchen. Kick zat over here, Bernard." She said as the big henchman kicked the dart gun over to Polina. She picked it up and examined it for a few seconds.
"Zis ez anozzer common villain mistake. Underestimating your victims. Allowing zem to stand up for zemselves…or escape," she added as she cast a look at Ady, who gave her a look of pure hatred in return. "Well, I learn from my mistakes," she said brightly before raising the gun and shooting her.
Ady looked surprised for a moment before she gasped and folded up. The henchman who had been restraining her let go so that she fell to the glass floor.
"Poison darts." Polina said in the ensuing silence as Gru stared at the younger woman, exhaling sharply as if the wind had been knocked out of him again. "A little cliché…a bit old fashioned…but effective. To his knees." The henchmen increased their grip so that Gru was forced to his knees and a gun was pushed up against the back of his head. His blue eyes stayed fixed on Ady until Polina had moved to a position that was directly in front of him. The gaze shifted to her heels.
"What a shame. You had…promise. Take him to ze trepanning room. Remove his coat first and anysing else he has on him. Srow ze girl in wiz ze old man. She will be dead soon."
XXX
Nefario woke up in a room that made skilled hunters and poachers look like kids playing with a stick and would reduce a vegetarian to a whimpering puddle. It was covered in furs, heads, feathers, horns, tusks and teeth, many of them strange and exotic.
He was eyeing them glumly when Polina's henchmen dragged Ady in. Polina stood in the door and gave Nefario a smile.
"I see you are awake and admiring my trophies."
"What have you done with Gru?" Nefario asked while eyeing the younger woman out of the corner of his eye.
"I wouldn't worry about him. En an hour or so he will be very very compliant. I should sank you for all ove ze help you 'ave been," she added amusedly as she threw Gru's coat at the doctors feet. The door was shut behind her.
Nefario glared at the door for a while before it became a look of bitterness.
"I'm an old fool," he said below his breath as he picked up Gru's coat. All of the guns had been removed. He set it down with a sigh, before a thought occurred to him slowly.
He eyed Ady and after a moment picked up her wrist, testing her pulse before laying the coat down and going through all of the extra pockets he added, pulling out whatever was overlooked or left.
He found what he was looking for in one of the more questionably placed pockets near the hem. "Well, young lady, it's your lucky day…well…supposing this works…and there are no horrible side effects," he added as he pulled out a vial of amber liquid and the small syringe gun. He clicked the vial into place and after judging where a vein might be, a difficult thing when one generally works with minions and not humans, gave her the shot. "Best way to test something, I always thought."
Afterwards he searched his own pockets until he found his cell phone and flipped it open.
Ady's breathing became easier and after a few moments she opened her eyes and stared at the giant head of a Persian Tiger looming over her.
"Am I going to be unsettled by something every time I wake up now?" She muttered, through lips that were still half paralyzed.
"Say what you like, she does have style." Nefario said from somewhere beside her. "All extinct I shouldn't wonder." Ady struggled to a sitting position and swallowed. She felt like she was coming off of a bad flu or something.
"Oh damn, you're here too." She said.
"Hey, I didn't have to give you that shot." Nefario mumbled. Something occurred to Ady and she woke up a little more.
"That woman has the girls and Gru."
"I know."
"Well…what can we do?"
He eyed her briefly.
"In case you haven't noticed madam, we are in the middle of an evil fortress, weaponless and surrounded by large men with guns." He said while still eyeing his phone. "I am trying to map the place out, but this bloody thing barely gets any bars here." Ady sighed and looked vaguely at the phone.
"How are you going to map the place out?"
"Those cookie bots were built to retrieve an item from another villains vault. I installed them with…well it's sort of like sonic radar…only more advanced. They can give me a crude model of the house. I call it Nefario vision." He paused for the effect then cleared his throat as the girl eyed him with disinterest. "I've been trying to hack into the program connected to the Whirl Machine and the atomizer but she's changed all of the passwords."
"Why are they shaped like cookies?" Ady said while eyeing the stuff from Gru's coat that Nefario had set aside.
"Well…the villain had a sweet tooth."
"So what if he ate them…why not like…the box?" She said as she picked up a small cylinder that looked vaguely like a pen and pressed the button on the end, a pinpoint laser shot out and hit the tiger head which fell off of the wall smoking. Ady's eyes had widened slightly before she eyed the pen again with her eyebrows raised. She was wearing an expression not akin to what Edith might have in the same position.
"Look, it was Gru's idea, keep quiet so I can focus! There we are, program's loading." Ady peered over his shoulder again.
"You have windows 2.1x?" Nefario scowled.
"Yes, why?"
"That program was made in the 80's. There are like…twelve newer versions."
"This one works fine."
"I'm surprised it even runs the Internet." Nefario sighed heavily and there was silence as they watched the cookie bots program inch along. Finally it was loaded. Nefario pressed a few buttons while glaring vaguely at Ady. When the bots had been activated they began scanning the floor plan of Polina's house.
"All right, according to this, we are here…if I can just move the bots to where Gru and the girls are we can pinpoint their locations too…of course we still need to find a way out but…" He was interrupted because Ady brought the pen up again and pressed the button, dragging it along the side of the door with the hinges. After a moment the door fell in slowly.
"Yes well…I could have thought of that." He said testily.
XXX
Meanwhile, Margo Edith and Agnes were in another so-called trophy room. This one looked more like something Gru might have in his house. It was filled with various ancient weapons and sharp things. The girls themselves were tied down to a large bomb. They were in their socks, mainly because Edith kept kicking people and Margo was without her glasses because, after she tasered two henchmen they got the hint and wrestled them from her.
There was a screen attached to the wall and Polina had set it up so it showed the room where she'd taken Gru, who was strapped down to a chair with a very sharp drill near his head.
Margo had been trying to get loose for the last twenty minutes while also attempting to comfort her sisters, especially Agnes who was crying softly.
"It's going to be all right," she said, trying to reassure herself as well. "Guys, try to help me with these ropes."
"What's the point?" Edith said from one side of her.
"She's going to hurt daddy." Agnes said softly. Margo opened her mouth but paused when she saw a small square cut itself out of the wall. The cookie bot skittered in, looked around briefly and then died.
"What's that?" Edith said.
"I think it's one of Uncle Nefario's things…dad says they malfunction a lot." After she said this they jumped because the door was knocked off of its hinges. Ady carefully stepped over it. Nefario was behind her untangling a gun from a fallen henchman who was unlucky enough to be in the cookie bot's way.
"Ady!" Margo said, her voice picking up notes of confusion and happiness.
"Hey, you guys okay?" She asked as she began fiddling with the knots. She had pulled Gru's coat on and had tucked the laser pen back in one of the pockets.
"They took my boots." Edith said glumly.
"Were fine," Margo interrupted her. "But that woman has dad." Nefario had wondered in and was peering at the screen.
"Only a few of the bots are still working. Well I say working. One of them keeps spinning around in circles for some reason…"
Margo helped Ady with the ropes once her arms were free.
"Is this a giant bomb?" Ady asked, seemingly noticing it for the first time.
"Yeah, I think it's just for show though." Margo said. "She told us she was going to send us off to press wine or something."
When Agnes was free she threw her arms around Ady's neck.
"Don't let her hurt him," she said. Ady frowned.
"Uh…don't worry it'll be…fine." She said awkwardly as she picked the small girl up. Edith had jumped down from the bomb and was examining all of the sharp things in the room. She would have been doing this anyways, but she was doing it now with a determined expression.
"All right…I think I've got it." Nefario said. "The wall is too strong to cut through, but I'm pretty sure this is the room." He said while showing the phone to Ady, who had been watching the screen. Agnes was burying her face in her shoulder.
Ady examined the phone for a while and then cast a brief look behind her at Margo and Edith.
"Hey!" She said as she grabbed the sharp thing that Edith had picked up and examined it briefly.
"Looks like an ancient Chinese ring…those things are rare." Nefario said. Ady put it back on the table and pulled Edith away from it.
"Make sure she doesn't touch anything." She said to Nefario.
"Me? You're the babysitter." He said as Ady detached Agnes from her and set her gently down by Margo.
"So where is this room?"
"Oh you have to be joking. I happen to be the evil scientist here. I'll go rescue Gru, you stay put and watch the girls."
"Hey…" Margo started.
"You're like a hundred." Ady said, ignoring her.
"I am not a hundred. I'm eighty-seven, and I've been doing this sort of thing for nearly seventy years. What have you been doing, filling out orders at a burger joint?" Ady stared at him for a moment and then grabbed the gun he was holding and held it over her head so he couldn't reach it.
"Hey!" Nefario said.
"Guys!" Margo said getting both of their attention. "We're not staying here."
"Yeah, we wanna come too." Edith added.
"No way, too dangerous." Ady said while extending her arm again when Nefario almost got at the weapon.
"Yeah, but it's probably dangerous here too." Margo said.
"She has a point." Nefario said with some frustration. "We might as well all go."
"Fine, but you three stay close." Margo nodded as she grabbed Agnes's hand.
"And since we're all going, you give me back that gun." Nefario said testily.
"No." Ady replied while grabbing Edith's arm and pulling her, once again, away from the weapons. "I have seen the way you shoot."
"If you're talking about the anti gravity gun, that…was an entirely different circumstance. That gun was still in experimental stages."
"Yeah well, if I get shot at I want it to be from them."
"You…stupid twist." He hissed after her as he followed her and the girls. "Should have just let you blow up," he added more quietly to himself.
XXX
After ensuring that he was strapped in, Polina leaned over Gru, who was wearing an expression of fury and grief.
"All ove zis could 'ave been avoided if you would 'ave just done what I said. You know Gru, despite zis current state of affairs I did rather like you," she said while running a long fingernail across his chest.
"If I get out ove here, you are goeeng to be very sorry." Gru said in a quiet voice, laced with hatred. She chuckled, sending another burst of fury like white hot iron in his head.
"You know ze difference between us Gru? You allow yourself weakness. You would not be en zis position ozzerwise. But you gave me leverage. You, however, 'ave no leverage. I 'ave no weakness." She placed her hand on his cheek.
"Don't worry, when zis ez over, you will see zem again. You may not recognize zem…of course," she said with a smile before straightening. "When ze world ez mine, I will start ze trepanning process. You are a bit scrawny to be a henchman, but I am certain I will find somesing for you to do."
She headed towards the door, her feet clicking. When she left Gru lowered his head and glared at the floor. His arms and legs were bound in leather straps. Another one was draped across his chest. The drill was pressed against the back of his head. For a while he pulled at the straps in vain. When it was clear that this was a futile effort he stopped and let out a sigh, heavy with sadness and frustration.
He heard the door behind him open.
"Well Mr. Gru, it appears as if…" Henrick started before his sentence ended in a loud grunt and there was a heavy sound as he hit the floor. Gru raised his eyebrow.
"That is not how you use a gun!" Nefario hissed. Gru raised his head slightly and attempted to look behind him. This resulted in the point from the drill hitting him in the back of the ear. He hissed.
"Yeah, well, it still worked." Ady replied as she grabbed the big drill and pulled it back slightly.
"Ady…" Gru said in a whisper as she started working on the straps on one of his arms. "You are…all right?" Nefario came around the other side.
"Apparently." She said, while casting him a brief look.
"De gurls…" Gru started.
"They're fine. Hey!" Nefario snapped. "Don't touch that! Don't let her touch that!" He added, confirming this statement as Edith stepped away from a drill, looking innocent.
"Daddy, are you okay?" Agnes asked as she moved up to where he was sitting. His expression had dissolved that of immense relief.
"I am now," he said as he touched the side of her head when one of his hands were loose. Margo had wondered over, dragging Edith behind her. She started helping Ady and Nefario undo the straps.
"You know I'm all right too, thank you for asking." Nefario said testily.
"So how do we get out of here?" Margo asked, ignoring Nefario, as Ady worked on the last strap around Gru's chest.
"Well we can't just leave." Nefario said. "I'm sure not about to let that woman take over the world with my machinery."
"Can you geet eento our programs?" Gru asked while eyeing Ady's fingers, working at the buckle.
"She changed all of the passwords." Gru growled a little as the strap fell away and he stood.
"I told you dis would happen! Now what are we goeeng to do?"
"So…all of this stuff is yours and…you just kind of let her have it…" Ady said dully. "Wow…you guys…are really bad at this, aren't you?"
"All right all right. I was wrong. Now's not the best time for this!" Nefario said while glaring at Ady. "We'll have to access the machines manually. Unless she somehow found out about it there's still that panel at the back of the consol. You can override her passwords from there."
"All right. You stay here. If anyone approaches, shoot dem." Gru said as he started towards the door. Ady and Margo exchanged a look. Margo started to follow him and Ady grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.
"He can't just…go by himself."
Ady eyed Edith and Agnes and then sighed and stared in the direction Gru had left.
XXX
Gru jumped when he was touched on the shoulder from behind.
"What are you doeeng here!" He hissed as Ady drew level with him.
"Promised Margo I'd go with you…besides I don't fully trust you to do the right thing…you don't seem to have a knack for it."
"Go back to de room!" He said while looking around to make sure no one was around. He was standing in the opening to the large glass room.
"No." He turned towards her with frustration as she handed him the gun. He sighed.
"You should 'ave left dees." His voice was a little softer as he took it from her.
"I left that laser thing that was in your coat. Oh here." She started to take his coat off. He waved her back.
"Keep eet for now…you are…already…slightly underdressed." He said the last with some awkwardness.
"What are you going to do?" Ady said, slightly embarrassed as she pulled the coat back over her shoulders and tried to straighten her nightshirt so it covered more of her legs.
"Dere is a panel behind de G on de consol for de mass atomizer. Eef I can access eet I can switch all ove de passwords so she can't use eet anymore. Dat still leaves de Whirl Machine." He said the last more or less to himself. He was eyeing the consol that Henrick had been working on before, apparently being ordered into the room where Gru had been kept. "She ees talkeeng to de U.N again…" Gru said softly. Polina's voice was being carried across the glass walls. Gru scowled and made a decision. He pulled away from the wall.
"Wait, where are we going?"
"I am goeeng around. I'm goeeng to try to geet her from behind."
"Uhh, can you do that?"
"She ees standing at de consol for de mass atomizer. I can't get at eet weethout goeeng up dere. You stay here,"
"Hey," she said as she started to follow him. He stopped her by placing both hands on her shoulders. She shrugged his hands off. "Have I ever given you the impression that I'd do what you tell me to?" She added while blowing a bit of hair out of her eyes. He paused and then without any kind of warning, pulled her into his arms, catching her off guard.
"I am glad you are all right," he said and then before she could respond continued "Leestin, I need for you to stay down here. I am goeeng to geet hor attention. In de mean time, I need you to geet Dr. Nefario so dat he can jam de signal to de Whirl Maker on dat computer."
"Gru." She said as he let go and started towards the stairs.
"Stupid idiot!" She said before turning back towards the room where Nefario and the girls were.
XXX
Polina stood on the glass platform, her dark eyes on the men of the U.N, her smile bright, but with unpleasant undertones.
She'd been waiting for this day for a long time. Very very little was known about Polina's past. Anyone who had ever gotten close to her, for lack of a better word were either dead or, as it were, could not speak on the matter.
As a youth, a person like Polina must have either gotten everything she wanted, so that not getting something was unheard of, or else she got nothing and getting nothing for so long had made it so she wanted everything. Either way, it didn't matter now.
"I was 'aving some technical difficulties." She said through her silky cigarette smoke winding like fingers up to the ceiling. "Zey 'ave been resolved now. Would you like to see ze demonstration, or, 'ave you had enough time to sink sings over?"
"You won't get away with this." The President said. There was nothing much else for him to say. After he said it, it was clear by his expression that even he didn't think it was a good line.
"Such a wasteful, tired sing to say. Perhaps ze atomizer first zen." She reached for the lever only to pull back quickly when part of it blew up under her fingers. Doug, who was standing behind her, turned after Gru pulled the trigger. The big man started towards him. Unfortunately for Doug, Polina had reacted slightly faster; raising the dart gun she was still holding and shooting it. Gru ducked behind the big man who was hit with the dart.
Doug took a few more steps forward before a look of confusion settled in his expression and he fell over. Polina looked down at him for a moment, not so much with regret as frustration before turning the expression on Gru. She smiled a little.
"Well well…et seems I am making many misjudgments today," she said as he approached her, stepping over Doug.
She eyed the gun pointed at her as he approached and raised the dart gun in response while taking another drag from her cigarette.
"Put eet down…" Gru spat at her.
"Sir! Please! She has some…device on the moon…it's very dangerous. You must…!" The President said interrupting their locked gazes, as he was apparently under the impression that Gru was somehow on his side. Gru paused, momentarily bewildered before he scowled and shot at the screen cutting the president off.
While his attention was diverted Polina rushed forward, shoving him against the consol. He stumbled slightly, tried to raise the gun again but was unable to because she'd kicked him hard in the stomach with one of her sharp heels.
Gru wheezed and grabbed his stomach before Polina landed another kick on his ankle, which resulted in a loud and unpleasant crack. Without pause she brought the gun down hard on his wrist so that he'd drop his weapon. Gru slipped to the ground with a grunt, hissing through his teeth.
He inhaled sharply as Polina stepped down between his legs a quarter of an inch away from his groin and raised the gun level to his eyes.
"Zat screen was very expensive Gru," she said as she fingered the trigger. His blue eyes focused on it.
"Now I 'ave to get anozzer one. And how will I make my negotiations now?"
Apart from her voice, calm, but laced with venom, Gru was hearing another sound, distant, but persistent and irritating. It was a beeping noise.
His eyes fell on a small shape laying on the platform, Margo's glasses. Someone had bumped the screw on the side at some point. As he focused on these he saw movement out of the corner of his eyes and his gaze flickered to the doorway.
Polina noticed this and narrowed her eyes before she turned just as Ady was stepping over Doug. For a moment Polina looked slightly perplexed by Ady's presence, but this didn't stop her from pulling the trigger. Gru winced a little as the gun twanged. There was a sound akin to a rubber band snapping and part of the gun started oozing.
For a moment all three of them paused. Ady unglued first and punched the older woman in the nose.
Polina stumbled back, raising her perfectly manicured hand to her face. Perplexity became downright shock and this dissolved into rage.
"You…how dare you." She started, grabbing Gru's fallen gun as she rose.
Gru reacted quickly and grabbed the tiny glasses from off of the floor, bringing them up and in what was perhaps the oddest battle cry ever shouted;
"I want a lemon meringue!" The absurdity of this was emphasized by the fact that he had rose his voice a couple of octaves so that it sounded vaguely feminine and the glasses would register it. Polina jolted backwards as the tazer hit her. She stumbled briefly and before she could recover Ady punched her again, as hard as she could. The woman crumpled to the floor. Gru and Ady were quiet for a few moments, before their eyes met.
"I want a lemon meringue?" Ady asked. Another jolt went out of the glasses and hit Polina who fidgeted briefly on the ground. Ady raised her eyebrows.
"Eet ees sometheeng Dr. Nefario thought up. I told you to go back to de room." Gru said as he picked himself off of the ground with a grunt.
"Yeah, you looked like you were doing well…had everything under control. Besides the old guy's working on that whirl machine, whatever you called it."
"I 'ave plenty ove experience en dese matters." Gru said defensively, while rubbing at his stomach.
"She was going to shoot you."
"I could 'ave taken hor." He said as he picked up the dart gun and examined it. He sighed. "Thank god all ove our stuff malfunctions." He paused and then after a moment, very carefully placed Margo's glasses in his pocket.
XXX
Nefario pressed a few buttons on the computer on the lower level of the glass room. When he seemed satisfied he moved towards Gru, who was sitting on the side of a raised Platform examining his ankle. Ady and the girls were sitting near him.
"There, I've broken up the link between this place and the satellites and I jammed up the program. I imagine the government will take care of the rest…if they're good for anything." He nodded towards the mass atomizer. "What about that? I could probably get the ship down here and take it…"
"Just take eet apart." Gru said. Nefario paused for a moment and then nodded.
"And them?" Nefario added while nodding towards the glass room with the men in it. Gru looked up and after a moment met Margo's gaze. She was watching him. His eyes also flickered to Ady who eyed him briefly before looking away.
"Let dem out I guess…find a way to open de doors." He said in a sigh.
"I really hope this doesn't become a habit." Nefario said as he began searching the computer for a way to unlock the large glass room. "I mean, in the last three months we've saved the world twice…I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with that." Gru yawned.
"I do not theenk eet counts eef you put eet een danger een de forst place," he said before looking up and raising his eyebrow. "Dr. Nefario…"
"Hmm?"
"Why ees dat theeng following you?" Nefario turned. Doug, who had been looming near the computer, took a few steps toward him and stopped, wearing a slightly slack jawed expression.
"Well, I shot him with the antidote for the dart gun. Wanted to see if it traveled as fast in a body that size, general testing you know."
"Eesn't dat…kind ove risky?"
"Possibly. I keep telling him to go away…can't seem to shake him."
"We are not keeping him." Gru said as he pulled his pant leg down.
"Speaking of risky," Nefario said while motioning for Doug to hand him a tool so he could take the back off of the mass atomizer again. "What are we going to do with Miss de Molyneaux? We can't leave her. Even with this stuff shut down…she's not the sort of woman who will leave well enough alone."
They'd strapped her in one of the chairs connected to the drill. Gru stood and went to the doorway, eyeing her briefly. She was still unconscious. After Ady had punched her she'd hit her over the head with something for good measure.
Next to the chair that Polina was strapped into was a table with a very dangerous looking device on it. It looked as if slipped over one's head. There was a complicated blade mechanism about three quarters of the way down.
He moved towards it and picked it up, examining it before slipping it carefully over her head and standing back. He stared for a long moment. He was brought out of his thoughts when Agnes pulled on his pant leg.
"Daddy, can we go home." He nodded and picked her up.
"Yes, Agnes we can go home," he said as he headed out of the room again and closed the door, locking it behind him.
"What are we going to do?" Nefario asked.
"Leave hor."
"There are a lot of her henchmen around still." In fact they hadn't bothered them. A couple of them were keeping their distance. They didn't seem to know what to do when Polina wasn't giving orders.
"Do we still 'ave access to de Whirl Machine from our lab?" Gru asked.
"Now, certainly. Of course once the government does realize they can get to it we wont anymore."
"Dat ees all right den." Gru said. "Come on. Let's geet out ove here."
XXX
One of the important men, some Prime Minister who was still half sane had tried to thank Gru and offered to give him some kind of award or public commendation. He finally went away after Gru glared at him for a while.
Gru opened the tank and motioned for the girls and Dr. Nefario to proceed him. His gaze fell on Ady who was waving away the President of France, who was gabbling at her.
"Is there any way I can discourage you?" Nefario asked from behind him. Gru ignored him and approached her.
"Aller loin!" Gru said to the French man, who scowled at him but recoiled anyways, particularly when Gru drew the freeze ray, which he had retrieved, from Polina's lab from his coat. "Do you want a ride?" He added while turning to Ady and motioning towards the tank.
"I think I've had enough excitement for one day, thanks."
"I will go slowly." He said while moving a little closer to her and meeting her gaze. Ady felt her face grow warm again and she looked away.
"I guess I don't really have much of a choice…I don't think a cab will stop for me like this anyways," she said, before moving past him towards the tank.
It was even more crowded then it had been on the previous occasion. Agnes had crawled up on her lap and Nefario complained extensively because Edith kept jabbing him in the side.
Ady leaned back. Despite how fast her mind was reeling over everything that had happened, which would most likely result in night terrors for the next few years she was dozing off.
She felt Margo lean against her other arm and her gaze locked with Gru's as he eyed her in the rear view mirror. This of course meant that his eyes had left the road, but that probably didn't matter much to him.
Ady saw a very clear, slightly unsettling image of what the future might hold as butterflies rose in her stomach.
"Oh…boy," she said below her breath.
XXX
Meanwhile, a dark shape was looming overtop of Polina as well, but this was most certainly not metaphorical. She opened her eyes. Her makeup was slightly messy, which was a rare occurrence for her. She peered through the metal of the device she generally used to remove her minions' tongues.
Three henchmen were standing in front of her, watching her curiously.
"Don't just stand zere you idiots. Let me out ove here." She said in a hiss.
A look was exchanged between the henchmen.
One of them picked a jar from off of one of the tables, while another moved the big drill closer to the villainess.
"What are you doing? Undo zese straps." She said, her voice now carrying a note of uncertainty. The last henchman, who had just been watching her, began to mess with the device on her head.
They may have been stupid, but they knew how to operate the drill and the tongue removing device. They'd seen it done a hundred times on each other.
XXX
Translations:
President Of France: Let me go please!
Gru: You are asking the wrong person
Gru: Go away!
XXX
Mwahahahaha, lord, this chapter took forever! First I didn't have time, then it just…bah! Okay, anyways, I'm pleased to have finished it. The next one will be much easier to write. I had a lot of trouble with this so I hope it turned out all right.
Well there's one more chapter left. It won't be as long as this one...which I think...is the longest I've written so far. I'll have it up as soon as possible and I'll leave the details for the sequel like the title and when I think I'll have the first chapter up on the end of it.
Liloapril: Thank you ^^ I'm glad to hear you. One more chapter now, although I have decided to do a sequel so…yeah not over yet. Thanks for the review ^^
Flash37: Lol, well that is probably one of the better compliments I have received. Thank you very much and thanks for the review :)
Llalalala: Thanks, the next chapter will come sooner, I promise!
Roolsilver: Thank you very much. Ima totally sequelize it. This had been just too much fun to stop.
Wolfgrl1492: I love it when my writing makes people squeal with delight, glad to hear it ^^ I've decided that I will in fact do the sequel. Thanks for the review! ^^
Also, to those who reviewed the author's note (Even though I did kinda request for you not to): thanks for the sentiments. Hopefully this chapter did not disappoint.
Thank you very much for all of your patience. I hope you guys have a great evening!
XXX
Till next time