Now we finally get to the part I wanted to write for a really long time - to the bonding between Wild Knuckles and Gru. I'm not exactly sure if what Wild Knuckles proposes here is entirely healthy, but I thought this is the solution he would propose. And Gru goes into really dark places here, but the ending is worth it.
Please review!
Why me?
Wild Knuckles took Gru to the gym. But it wasn't just any gym – it was an underground supervillain gym with special equipment designed for customers with mutations and mechanical enhancements… or so the retired villain claimed because to Gru everything looked the same as in the gym he knew in the town.
Frankly, the kid didn't like the idea of working out in front of all those strangers, so he told Wild Knuckles:
"I didn't bring my gym clothes."
Granted, it was also because Wild Knuckled didn't tell him where they were going. If he did, Gru could prepare accordingly. However, his mentor did bring a large training bag, so maybe he did have some clothes for change.
"Don't worry. You won't need them." The older man said and turned to the counter where a muscular woman with an eyepatch was sitting. "Hello, Stella."
She gave him one unimpressed look and replied:
"Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
"Well, you know me, I can't be killed so easily."
Stella looked down at Gru and raised her eyebrows.
"And who is that?"
"Let's just say this is my grandson, Gru." Wild Knuckles introduced the boy proudly and even patted him on the shoulder.
Gru blinked with surprise. Grandson? They generally played grandpa and grandson during heists, but somehow this time it was different. It certainly felt different.
"I would like to show him some boxing moves." Wild Knuckles continued and drew out couple of dollars in his pockets (Gru couldn't say how much exactly). "Is the training room number four free?"
Stella looked into big book at the counter. Her eye moved quickly from left to right, before she turned to the older man and said:
"Yes, it's free." She took of one of the keys hooked on the board behind her and gave it to Wild Knuckles. "You have two hours. Someone booked it later."
"Thanks." He said and turned to Gru. "Come on, it will be fun."
Gru highly doubted that, nevertheless, he followed his mentor. First they left their jackets in the locker room, then they went through the main part with people working on exercise machines. Gru and Wild Knuckles entered a rather large room with old, wooden floor and front wall covered with mirrors. Three punching bags, separated by the distance of two meters were hanging from the ceiling on their left, while on their right were standing training dummies for martial arts. Over training mattresses neatly put on a pile next to the entrance, was hanging a poster with Bruce Lee.
"This is a special martial arts room. The best part is that it's soundproof. You can scream whatever you want and it won't leave this room." Wild Knuckles explained and dropped his bag on the floor.
"Why would I want to scream in here?" Gru asked.
"I've told you, we are going to blow off some steam." The old villain came closer to one of the punching bags and even patted it gently. "There's no better therapy than good, old-fashioned violence. Let out all your anger on one of those bad boys and you will feel slightly better."
"I don't know…" Gru started.
He didn't feel comfortable in this place. In fact, the mirrors on the other side made him sweat. He wasn't used to constantly seeing his reflection.
"First, you need to take off your sweater. You don't want to come back home smelling of sweat, do you?"
"I still will be smelling of sweat, when I put it back on me." Gru argued.
"No, because we will hit the showers, before we go home."
"You know, most of these problems could have been avoided if you told me to get my gym clothes." Gru said.
"Hurry up, kid, because," Wild Knuckles went up to his bag, opened it and drew small pair of boxing gloves, he threw at Gru's feet. "you will have to put these on too."
Gru finally decided to do as he was told. But then his eyes landed once again on his reflection and the boy froze. Under his black sweater he was wearing a white undershirt. Now, seeing himself in the mirror, he – once again – was made aware of his awkward physique.
"Don't worry. Nobody is going to judge you." Wild Knuckles said. When Gru turned to him, the old man smiled friendly. "It's an unwritten rule of the gym that one does not shame others for how they look. Besides," he grabbed the nearest punching bag by its sides. "it's your training time. The only important thing about training time is the training. And your fists have date with this handsome guy."
Gru couldn't help but chuckle at his mentor's metaphor. Still, when Gru's eyes landed once again on his own image in the glass surface, he felt ugly once again.
"See, kid, that's the problem right here." Wild Knuckles' words turned Gru's attention away from the mirror and the kid looked at him. His mentor kneeled down next to him and said: "Your classmates are ugly and awkward too. And even if they're not, they're going to be later, trust me. Puberty is a bitch."
Gru took a moment to ponder about what he just heard. Frankly, come to think of it, some of his classmates also weren't conventionally attractive, so maybe there was something to it. Still, there was one other thing…
"Then how come they pick up on me?" He asked and looked at Wild Knuckles.
His mentor saddened and put a reassuring hand on Gru's shoulders.
"Because even in elementary school some people want to feel powerful, kid. Many times it all comes down to this primate urge to be the boss. That is why we also need to work on your self-defense."
Gru didn't say anything to this. He just took his sweater off and put it on Wild Knuckles' bag. Right after that his mentor made him do a short warm-up – jumping jacks, arm exercises and a short run around the room.
"Normally the warm-up involves also boxing in place, but I need to teach you the proper punches, before you can do that." The old villain said, watching his pupil running.
Only when all of this was over, Wild Knuckles let Gru take one of the boxing gloves. The boy tried to put it on, but it proved to be harder than he thought – the glove was heavy and once he slipped his hand inside it, he realized there is a strap around the wrist. Wild Knuckles quickly came in to help him. Soon Gru's hands were armed with punching gloves and he felt like Rocky Balboa.
"And now," Wild Knuckles came back to one of the punching bags and got a hold of it. "we're going to the best part. Imagine that this bag is the asshole that made fun of you today. Get angry with it and punch it. You will feel better instantly."
Gru looked at the punching bag and frowned, imagining that Mason was standing in front of him, holding Gru's drawing. Immediately the boy remembered how he put so much effort into this drawing in hopes to later show it to doctor Nefario… and how Mason tore the drawing apart.
Give it back, Mason!
Why would I, fatso?
Gru felt fury rising inside of him and he gave the punching bag one hard hit.
"Not bad!" Wild Knuckles said. "But try to-"
Before he could say anything else, Gru punched the bag again.
Lisa's got gruties!
And again…
NASA isn't sanding monkeys anymore.
And again…
Normal supervillain would have already started to plan his revenge plot or something. You, on the other hand, just sit here like a loser.
And again.
And with every hit Gru felt how his anger was rising up. With every hit he had new reasons to punish the punching bag for the wrongs that were done to him. As he was hitting the bag, new tears started to spill, but he was too busy with punching the hard sack of leader and stuffing, to do anything about them (especially because he didn't know how to wipe them while wearing the boxing gloves). In this short moment there was just him, his fury at the world and the punching bag taking all the abuse without a peep.
So many times he wanted to punch his oppressors; to wipe their smiling faces off; to exact revenge for the humiliation he endured. He couldn't do it in school – most of his equipment would be confiscated and he would have to get into trouble of breaking it out from the teacher's room. Sometimes he managed to get even on others after school, in a subtle way. Like, for example, ruining the birthday party of Donna (the redhaired girl with braces who told everyone he has gruties) by filling up all her balloons with green paint and popping them just when the cake was going to drive in. But somehow it always cheered him up only for a limited amount of time. Then he was observing how his victim's friends and parents were comforting them, and he was reminded, once again, that life wasn't fair.
But this punching bag had no one to run crying to. So Gru was imagining his enemies broken, sad and alone, just like he was alone. That, for once, life was fair.
"And what will you do now?!" He screamed suddenly. He felt an immense urge to scream, as he was hitting the punching bag. "Ha, you're just a dumb muscle, Mason!"
Another hit.
"You can't even multiply by eight!"
Another hit.
"And you, Donna?! You can't even talk to Jackson without sweating like crazy and you're making fun of me!"
Another hit.
"Bunch of little troglodytes!" Hit. "Half-brains!" Hit. "Crybabies!" Hit.
Wild Knuckles wasn't saying anything. He was just holding the punching back still so the boy's target was easier to hit. The old man, however, did observe the whole thing with solemn expression and listened carefully.
But the boy was slowly feeling tiredness – he was sweating profoundly and his gloves started to become heavier, making his arms ache. Each new hit was harder to make and soon Gru realized that he was breathing heavily and swaying on his legs. Suddenly he stopped hitting and, still holding his gloved hands up, looked at the punching bag.
"Go cry to your mommies and daddies! Like bunch of weaklings that you are!" He screamed and hit the punching bag one last time, before falling on his back from exhaustion.
And then, as he was lying on the floor and breathing heavily, an image of happy kids leaving the school and meeting with their parents flashed before Gru's eyes. He started to cry again.
A moment later Wild Knuckles opened his training bag and took out a bottle of mineral water. He came closer to Gru, helped him sit up and poured some water into his mouth. Then he started to take off the boxing gloves from boy's hands and gave him the bottle.
"You need to be hydrated, kid. After every training, drink a lot of water." He said with a light smile, embracing the boy with one of his arms. Then he stopped smiling and with concerned look asked: "How are you now, Gru?"
For a moment Gru pondered the question. He was still shaken with emotions – rage, sadness, the feeling of unfairness… – but some of them were slowly calming down. Right now he realized he was really tired. He also realized that Wild Knuckles was still embracing him and it actually felt really nice.
Gru released a sob and buried his head into Wild Knuckles' red shirt. The old man hugged him tightly and petted the boy's hair. That felt nice too. Almost as if he had a dad. Gru turned his head to the mirrors and looked at his reflection.
"Why me?" He asked weakly.
"What do you mean, kid?" Wild Knuckles looked down and raised his eyebrows.
"Why everyone has parents that love them, but I don't?"
"How did we go from asshole classmates to parents?"
Gru felt warm and comfortable right there. So comfortable that, for a moment, he forgot he was talking to his idol, and opened up:
"Each day, ever since I started kindergarten, I was going back from school on my own. I've watched other kids being picked up by their parents, talking with them about their day, showing them their drawings and good grades… And every time when I saw it, I was remembering that I don't have that and I never will." Gru clenched his fist on Wild Knuckles' shirt and released another sob. "It's not fair."
There was a long moment of silence as probably his mentor was thinking about what to say. He petted the boy's head again and hugged him even tighter. Then Wild Knuckles finally spoke:
"Yes, it's not fair. But if you want me to, I will be picking you up from school. You know, as your grandpa."
Gru moved away a bit, breaking Wild Knuckle's embrace and looked at his mentor with surprise.
"You would really do that?"
The old villain smiled.
"In disguise, of course, but I would be happy to do that. We would have to convince your school that I'm not just some creepy man hanging at the front gate and looking at kids, but, hey, we will work it out somehow."
Gru felt as if something heavy was taken of off his shoulders. He wanted to dance, so happy he was. Wild Knuckles wasn't the boy's grandfather, but the perspective of him playing this part seemed really natural. Gru realized that some part of him wanted it to be true. He wanted to have a grandpa.
"And probably if you ask Nefario," Wild Knuckles continued. "he would be happy to play your dad."
"Oh no." Gru replied. "I could never ask him that. He's my mad scientist, not a babysitter."
Even though the idea of a dad seemed nice too. And doctor Nefario wasn't such a bad choice… Still it would be undignified of the scientist to be that, when he already had so much to do.
Wild Knuckled didn't say anything to what Gru said. After short moment of silence, he stood up and started to pack his bag.
"Well, I guess the training is over for today." He smiled to Gru and added: "How about you take a shower and then I will treat you to ice-cream?"
Gru's eyes lit like candles at the mere mention of ice-cream, and he also quickly stood up.
"Let's go!"
I plan one more chapter about this subplot (mainly - how Nefario would deal with the whole situation) and I will try to connect it somehow to the overall arc. Maybe when I finish it, I will have other ideas how to come back to Marlena.
Also tell me, how you would like some Christmas chapters thrown in.