Despicable Me: Tag Along
Part one of the 'Fateful' series
Hey everyone, welcome to my brand-new Despicable Me fic series!
I haven't written a story mainly focusing on Gru & Edith's relationship in a VERY long time, and I recently realized how much I've missed that dynamic. Watching the first Despicable Me again kind of highlighted that for me. So yeah, this story does spend a lot of time with them, but as usual with anything I write, the whole Gru family will 100% be involved!
And yes, this will be a series! As I've mentioned, this entry mainly revolves around Gru and Edith, then the next will be Lucy and Edith, and then the final entry will be something completely brand new that I've never tried before! I'm honestly so excited to begin sharing what I have in store!
Hope you enjoy :)
Chapter One:
A Stupid Bit of Rubble
"No Gru, this is not hunky-dory! And can you stop talking like that!?"
Lucy tossed her husband's odd attempts at consolation right back at him. She was currently limping back into the kitchen with an expression built of venom, one arm frustratedly draped around Gru's shoulders for support. Her leg was wrapped up in an AVL embroidered bandage, where each step that was trodden sent a fierce bolt of pain through her foot.
"In all my years on the field, how was that the first time I hurt myself!?" She angrily commented. Gru gently helped her sit down at the table, where she instantly sulked her head into the palm of her right hand. "I feel like an idiot right now…"
"Yes, yes…I can understand." Gru sorrowfully sat opposite her. She'd been like this from the moment they departed the AVL medical department, yelling her frustrations at the world. Though he'd been doing his best to lighten the mood, he really had no idea what else to say. It had been a while since he'd seen her so irritated. "But I am sure things will be fine and dandy soon! Maybe even peachy keen if we are lucky!"
He emitted a bright smile as he exclaimed those last two sentences. Lucy responded with such a fiercely deadpan look that, for a moment, Gru thought her entire face had been paused with a television remote.
"U-Uhh…but anyway…" Rubbing the back of his neck, he swiftly moved on. "Like I said earlier, that fall could have been worse. Much, much worse..."
"Hmph…" Lucy shook her head side-to-side, suppressing the myriad of unpleasant words at the tip of her tongue. "I need a big mission after this, Gru. A BIG one! We need to find a villain, any villain, and punch their stupid, evil faces in until their nose is sticking out the back of their heads."
"Yes, that will…definitely be happening…" Gru edged across the seat to place a soothing hand on her leg, just above the bandage. "But let's just focus on getting some rest first, hmm?"
"Pfft, rest." Lucy snarled. "I ain't a resting kind of girl, Gru."
"I know." He offered a reassuring grin. "But at least yoo have me to keep yoo company, right?"
Lucy looked sideways at her spouse. On any other day, she would've met his corny attempts at being positive with her own significantly cornier comebacks. This was one of those rare occasions where she was far from in the right mood. She'd just been informed that she needed to take a mandatory break from work, how could she possibly not be? Though she knew he had good intentions, she couldn't help but find Gru to be somewhat condescending so far.
Regardless, the moment he gave her that delicate smile, he finally succeeded in sapping her anger away.
"Yeah…I guess that's a plus." Returning the smile, she playfully bopped him on the arm. "As long as you quit it with all that lame slang."
"Oh my gosh!"
A young voice at the kitchen entrance made the couple turn around in unison. Agnes stood in the center of the doorway, her eldest sister and her blonde uncle at each side. Brown-colored eyes exchanged worried glances between her mother's face and leg, before she raced over to her side.
"Are you okay, mom!?"
Margo shortly followed, equally worried. "What happened?"
"Oh, it's nothing, girls…" Lucy paused to conjure a more positive expression. She wasn't about to sit here and mope in front of her daughters. "It's just a bump, that's all. I tripped over a bit of rubble while we were out on a mission." When she remembered the exact moment she fell, that positive look didn't survive much longer. "A stupid bit of rubble."
"De AVL doctors said that she sprained her ankle. They said she needs a few days of recovery and then…" Gru joyfully punched the air. "Your mom will be tickety-boo!"
Margo and Agnes responded with blank stares, evidently confused by what in the heck he'd just said. He expectantly glanced between them both, but when he felt Lucy's eyes boring into the side of his temple like a laser, he huffed and slumped back in his seat.
"Okay, okay, I am stopping…"
All of a sudden, Dru came strutting over to pose theatrically in the center of the room, with his head held high and his eyes closed.
"A few days, hmm? I guess there's no one to stop my big crime spree tomorrow then! Unless Gru tries to without yoo, and yoo just stay at home and watch daytime TV!" He laughed to himself as he shouted what he thought were some playfully humorous jabs, but when a period of uncomfortable silence was all that followed, he gradually reopened his eyes. The couple were ripping through him with irate glares, an observation that quickly killed his theatrical pose. "Shall I be quiet?"
Lucy gave a single nod. "Yes."
Edith's eyes were narrowed half-shut, her tongue poking out the side of her mouth. She had been consumed in a trance-like state for a while now, harnessing all the power necessary to focus entirely on the center of the target. It was the only thing that existed. There was nothing else around her. That red circle was all that remained. A hushed set of whispers emerged from beneath her breath.
"Three…two…one…"
Jolting her wrist forward, she launched the ninja star in her grip. The shuriken shot through the air and pierced directly through the crudely drawn target's bullseye, which was atop a piece of A4 paper that had been strapped to the wall with duct tape. All remnants of her trance exploded into joy the moment she'd made the all-important throw.
"Booyah!" Edith elatedly right-hooked the air. "And the legendary ninja Edith has done it again! The crowd goes crazy!" Hopping on the spot, she spun her gaze around like she was addressing the surrounding audience, which she imitated in unison. "Rahhhhh! Yesssss! Go, Edith!"
The door to the living room slowly opened and Gru came trudging in, a defeated sigh in his wake. He promptly paused for a few beats to thoroughly rub his weary eyes, a cope to relax his strained mind. However, when he reopened them to find his blonde daughter holding several of her ninja stars, his gaze hurled itself at the wall like a stressed lightning bolt.
"Hey, dad!" She smiled and pointed at the target. "Look, I've hit the bullseye five times in a row! Ain't that awesome!?"
"Edith, for de love of-" He marched over and roughly lifted the paper off the wall, causing the ninja stars to topple to the ground with a loud clang. He threw his hand towards the five ugly gashes that now decorated the wallpaper. "Do I need to tell yoo in Japanese to stop throwing de ninja stars indoors before yoo will listen?"
Edith, with her teeth gritted, owlishly observed the damage she'd caused. "Oh. Whoops."
"Ugh!" Exhausted, Gru threw up a hand and stormed off towards the crocodile couch. He collapsed upon it and latched two fingers on the bridge of his nose, his eyes firmly clamping shut again. This had to be up there with one of the most frustrating days of recent times.
They'd agreed to take on today's mission on a whim, as another agent apparently couldn't make it into work. It wasn't a very difficult one; they'd been tasked with searching an abandoned office building that AVL intelligence believed was housing an on-the-run villainess. After an hour of carefully skulking through dark derelict rooms, it became clear that intelligence had made a slight blunder. There was absolutely no one inside.
That's what made Lucy's injury all the more annoying. It could have easily been avoided if the AVL had gotten their darn information correct. Furthermore, it was fortunate that she escaped the place with only a sprained ankle. The drop over the half-destroyed wall was far enough to cause severe injury. It hurt Gru's heart to remember that she'd landed only a few inches away from that drop, so you can imagine how he'd felt when he saw her trip and topple towards it. That thought snatched a guttural sigh from Gru.
Edith's attention was caught by such a defeated sound as she lazily picked up her ninja stars. Peering over, she studied his irate demeanor, before her now saddened eyes landed on the weapons in her hand. She'd been practicing pretty hard these past few days to improve her aim, and it was evident that she'd succeeded. The crowd inside her head had acknowledged that improvement.
It would've been nice if someone real could too.
She sighed and placed the sharp silver ninja stars back in the toy pile, beside a fairy doll and a board game. Naturally, the exact kind of place they belonged. That's when the pink mat on the floor, surrounded by several of Agnes's teddy bears, caught in her gaze. That's right! She'd been intending all day to ask him this the moment he returned home. Glancing at her father again, excitement burst from her expression, and she jogged across to pick up a few of the items that sat atop it.
Gru had planned to sit and wallow with his eyes shut for at least ten minutes, if it hadn't been for his sixth sense detecting someone directly in front of him. He tiredly blinked them open to find Edith lightly smiling, her right hand presenting forward. Two toy cups were sat in her palm.
He rose a perplexed eyebrow. "What is this?"
"Do you, uh…wanna clink?" She awkwardly shuffled on the spot, feet dragging across the hardwood floor. "We haven't done that in a while."
Gru silently observed the girl for a second or two longer, before once again looking down at the cups. She was right, they hadn't 'clinked' in months. He'd honestly forgotten about that little game. Clearly, someone hadn't. Smirking, he chuckled and took one for himself.
"Uh, sure?"
The moment he'd agreed, her smile multiplied, and she eagerly leaped forward to sit beside him. Gru continued to gawk down at her, unable to keep the befuddlement from his face. She locked a finger around the cup's handle and promptly began beaming up at him expectantly, but after they fell into a long silence, her head cocked to the side in an impatient manner. It took another moment for the man to realize what her blue eyes were desperately anticipating.
The instructions that she must've heard over a dozen times before.
"Right, umm, so…" Clearing his throat, he put a finger through the handle of his own cup. "When we put our cups together, we will make de clink sound with our mouths…" He paused for a moment to process the overly excited, toothy smile on Edith's face. "U-Uhhh, ready?"
Edith speedily nodded. They tapped the cups.
Clink!
The moment they made the sound, Gru's face also lit up in the exact same way as Edith's, every ounce of his earlier frustration evaporated.
"There we go! Now we-"
BZZZZTT—BZZZZTT!
Gru's mobile phone interrupted the moment with impeccably bothersome timing. He fished it out of his pocket and released the heaviest of sighs yet when he found the AVL's name listed on the caller ID. A finger hovered over the alluring dismiss button, but with reluctance, he violently slammed it on the accept one.
"I swear, I swear to de heavenly heavens above!" He pushed the phone directly against his ear. "If yoo are about to give me another mission..."
"Agent Davis still can't make it." The AVL higher-up was balancing the phone on his shoulder as he drearily swiveled around in the office chair, a finger tapping his desk absentmindedly. "This one is important, Gru."
"Yoo said that last time and we spent an hour traipsing around an empty building filled with de rats and cockroaches!" He spat. "Besides, did yoo not hear what happened to Lucy?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. Yes, I am fine."
The man stopped swiveling and frowned down the phone. "Then how is that relevant?"
Gru's fist clenched at his side. He compulsively let loose a growl over the speaker, as if he'd briefly transformed into a rabid animal.
"It is relevant because she is my wife and partner." He retorted. "If she is out of action, then consider me de same!"
"Hmm, yes, that is definitely going to go down well with Da Vinci." The higher-up couldn't help but roll his eyes. "I am sure you will still have a job at the end of this brilliant decision."
"Oh, come on! She is not going to be firing me." Despite not being able to see him, Gru countered the sarcasm by also rolling his eyes. "Why would she take such extreme action over one mission?"
The employee let the thick silence that followed answer that question for him. Gru's confident and resolute demeanor, which initially looked impenetrable as he issued that rebuttal, began to drain away more and more with each passing second. Eventually, his shoulders deflated.
"When do yoo need me...?"
The higher-up smirked. "Tomorrow, 10 AM. We'll brief you at the headquarters."
Gru avoided any polite end to the conversation by hanging up without another word. Shoving it back in his pocket, he stood from the couch and made for the door, all while mumbling a collection of insults at the AVL and Valerie Da Vinci under his breath. Lucy certainly is going to be pleased when she hears about this. The one time she gets injured, and he can't even be here to take care of her! One thing was certain, sheep's butt wouldn't have stood for this.
Edith watched him leave with her mouth slightly ajar, the sheer hurt and disappointment putting her voice box out of operation. Just as he entered the hallway, she went to call out, but the slam of the door being shut behind him killed the words in her throat. She frowned and dropped the cup to the floor, a violent huff escaping her.
Marching through the room, she grabbed one of the ninja stars from the toy pile again. She messily stuck the target back to the wall, and this time, spent barely a second focusing her aim before she threw it. The weapon stuck directly into the wall, a whole four inches away from the paper; her worst miss yet. She growled and stomped her foot in frustration.
That frustration gradually morphed into sadness, and she dropped her head to quietly stew.
Three hours earlier...
The villainess, grapple hook in hand, chose to escape the hazardous abandoned office building the very moment she'd heard distant, unknown voices. It sounded like a male and a female. She'd momentarily debated confronting them but thought better of it when she considered what was at stake. So, she instead snuck to a nearby window and grappled down to one of the many trees; a benefit of choosing a hiding place next to a forest. The moment she landed on the cold grass and began her sprint through the foliage, her hand reached into the pockets of her flamboyant purple dress to fish out a two-way radio, which branded an odd marble casing.
"I've been found." She stated across the speaker. "We have to do this now."
"Now?" A flabbergasted male voice replied. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. The AVL are onto me. They must've found the tomb." She hopped over a small stream with ease and continued her dash toward the nearby hill. "Meet me at the vantage point. It's go time."
Twenty minutes later, somewhere across the other side of the country, a black car drove past a group of yellow-suited archeologists, all of whom took a moment to inspect the tinted windows. It slowly came to a halt as they approached the small cave entrance positioned inside a mountain, where one of the more important members of the archeologist crew was waiting, made evident by his glowing red attire and dark shades. The vehicle's door opened, and a brunette stepped out to approach the man.
She immediately threw up her AVL badge. "Agent Lynn. I'm here about the tomb."
"Naturally." The man removed his glasses and used his narrowed eyes to issue a sterner look. "We've been waiting for you."
Despite only just meeting, the agent could already tell that he thought highly of himself, based purely on the confident aura he was emitting. Besides, she'd instructed the driver to push on the accelerator as much as legally possible, what exactly had they been 'waiting' for? Did he expect her to teleport here?
"Have you found it?" She brusquely inquired, choosing to ignore the comment.
"We believe so. That is if the engravings are anything to go by." He turned away towards the cave, a hand motioning for her to follow. "Come. I'll take you to it. We haven't yet opened the door."
"Wait!" Agent Lynn immediately grabbed his shoulder and halted him. "We shouldn't go in yet. It's important that we have someone keeping a watch out here."
The man turned back towards her; a deadpan look used to question whether she was being serious. After a momentary glance at the dozens of other archeologists studying the surrounding area around them, he sighed.
"Uh, well...I doubt that's a concern." He grumbled. "I'm sure one of these will shout to us if she shows her fac-"
"OH MY GOD!"
The scream of one of those yellow-suited men caused them both to turn with perfect timing, just as the swiftly approaching helicopter shot out two missiles. They struck the mountain, creating a set of ear-ringing explosions that hurled several chunks of rock to the floor beneath.
BANG! CRASH!
The very moment one of those rocks landed a mere foot from Agent Lynn and the red-suited man, the fierce shake that shuddered through the floor caused them both to lose their footing and tumble to the ground. She needed a few seconds to fully process what had happened, where in that time, the archeologist screamed and jumped to his feet.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
Still sitting on the floor, Lynn turned her head around to find everyone sprinting down the road behind her, as the hovering aircraft caused various leaves and blades of grass to speed through the air like shooting stars. She looked back in time for the helicopter to land just ahead of her, blocking her path to the cave entrance. A woman in a purple dress, with matching color highlights in her black hair, stepped out and approached, along with several other men in similar orange robes.
"Well…" She smirked when she spied the AVL badge at her side. "What do we have here?"
The agent's arm instantly reached into her suit pockets, desperately trying to locate her taser. Just as she found it and went to aim for the villainess, one of her guards kicked the stun weapon from her grasp, launching it far into the wilderness. The rest of them then circled around her back. She was surrounded.
The purple woman slowly crouched to the agent's level. "What's your name, dear?"
"L-Lynn." She was trying to respond in an unfazed manner, but the aggressive thump of her heart made such a task highly difficult. "A-Anna Lynn."
"Hmm, that's a pretty name." She offered her a gentle smile. That only served to heighten her fear. "It's nice to meet you, Anna. My name's Pandora…"
She grabbed the agent's collar and yanked her closer to her now very aggressive face.
"And that box is MINE."
There's the first chapter! I hope it was a good read!
I'll be looking to get the next one out extremely soon :)
