Gru looked sympathetically at Clive, who was crying again. "I'm so sorry, Neenja, but I had no choice. Ze AVL said I either turned you een or I vould get fired from my job."
"You can't turn me in! They'll torture me and keep me there forever!" Clive sobbed.
"Look on ze bright side. Dru stole you a lolleepop!" Gru said, presenting the robot with a cheery-looking red lollipop.
Clive sniffled. "I can't even eat it."
Gru sighed. "I'm sorry, Neenja. Eet's all I've got."
Clive lowered his head. "Do I have to get in the car now?"
Gru nodded. Clive whimpered one last time, took the lollipop from Gru's hand, and rolled gloomily over to the car. Dru waved from the window. "Hello, leetle robot! Did you like de lollipop I stole for you? Eet's the second time I got one from zat truck and zey didn't even notice!"
Clive didn't say anything. Instead, he shuffled into the backseat and sat next to Dru. Dru didn't even seem to care about Clive's misery. Instead, he starting the Freedonian national anthem while licking his own lollipop.
"Dru! Can't you see that Ninja is upset?" Lucy scolded from the driver's seat.
"I can't help eet! Eet's my second biggest theft ever!" Dru defended himself.
"Why isn't Gru coming?" Clive asked, realizing that Gru was stepping back into the house.
"He said he couldn't bear to rat out his own brother," Lucy explained. "The AVL wanted info on the...ummm...new lollipop thief, and Dru said he'd give them some 'leads' so they wouldn't know it was him."
"Yeah! Zat 'cousin' of mine will totally fool them!" Dru agreed.
Clive rolled his eyes. "Do you really think they're that stupid?"
Lucy grinned sheepishly. "Well, we'll just have to try, won't we?"
"I guess," Clive said. He looked over at Dru, wondering if the guy even had any objective grasp of the reality they were about to face. He wondered if he should say something, but he hated to ruin Dru's good mood. Let the guy have his fun while he can. There are worse things he could be stealing. Or just doing in general. Then again, I'm not so sure the guy is smart enough to break out of prison like Bratt did…
Wait a minute. Bratt! "Lucy, I need to tell you something!" Clive blurted out.
"What?" Lucy asked.
"Since Bratt broke out of prison the last time they brought me to the AVL, did you catch him?"
Lucy slowed her driving. "I, uhh, guess we'll have to bring that up at the meeting, won't we?"
Clive slapped his forehead. "What is with you people?" he muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?" said Lucy.
Clive shook his head. "Nothing, ma'am."
Lucy pressed a button the car and squealed with glee. In a few moments, she drove the car off a dock. The car then proceeded to morph into a sub. It wasn't long before the three of them were at the headquarters of the AVL.
Valerie Da Vinci wrinkled her nose when Clive was brought in. "What is that piece of junk doing here?"
Clive quietly decided he hated the woman with every fiber of his body, but he didn't say anything. Better to let Lucy do the talking.
Lucy awkwardly cleared her throat and began to speak. "Ummm, so you said you wanted Bratt's robot brought in or you'd fire us. So here he is! Yay!"
Valerie frowned. "That man always had terrible taste. Well, I guess we'll start interrogating him."
Clive glanced over at Dru and had to choke back a giggle. Dru looked like he'd swallowed a lizard. "How dare she say Bratt has bad taste! What a deespicable voman!" Dru muttered under his breath.
Valerie turned her head. "What did you just say, Dru?"
Dru spit in shock. "N-n-notheeng!" he sputtered.
Valerie looked disdainfully at the spit droplets on her arm and wiped them off. "All right, bolt bucket," she said, addressing Clive. "Do you have any memory of your time with Bratt at all? Or did he erase your memory to cover his tracks?"
"I...don't know," Clive admitted. "I've got a few memories…"
He jumped as Valerie shoved her big nosy face into his. "Tell me about them. Now. With as much detail as possible. And if you lie…" She tapped at her wrist. Clive figured she was talking about the lie detector that had been used on him before. He gulped.
"Ummm, uhhh, he wasn't all that nice to me," Clive began. He frantically searched for another memory when he realized that that wasn't what Valerie wanted. "Uhh, he listened to terrible music, he put bubblegum on his pancakes, he wore the same set of clothes every day, and…"
Clive stopped when he heard laughter. Confused, he looked around the room and blushed deeply. The entire AVL, including Lucy and Dru, was laughing at him.
Valerie scowled in a way Clive didn't know was humanly possible. "Is that all you got? You have NOTHING of importance to say about Bratt?!" she snarled as she shook him.
"The only thing left," Clive said weakly,"is that he escaped from the AVL recently. He bust me out, too, and tried to take me with him. I don't know where he is now, but…"
Clive flinched as Valerie dropped him and swore loudly. "THAT'S ALL YOU CAN SAY?! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHICH DIRECTION HE WAS HEADING IN?!" Valerie screeched.
"Ummm, I guess west," Clive said with a fake smile.
Valerie exhaled in exasperation and rolled her eyes. "All right, metalhead, if that's all you've got, then you can go back to wherever you came from. HOWEVER-"-she turned to stare at Dru-"-I'll be keeping the blonde gentleman for questioning. Is that understood?"
"Yes, miss," Dru said weakly.
"And from now on, you are to call me MS. DA VINCI, not MISS," Valerie hissed.
Clive looked at Dru sympathetically. Dru gave a feeble smile back. "Sank you," he whispered before he returned his attention to the questioning.
Clive didn't really pay all that much attention to Dru's debriefing. He was more worried about Bratt's escape than anything. Was Bratt going to try to steal him again? What had Bratt said again about building another robot? What about his memory? Was he ever going to get that back? And who exactly was this Clive person Bratt kept talking about?
Finally, Dru slouched in his chair and groaned, "Thank peegs, it's over."
Clive snorted at Dru's rather Freedonian choice of expression before sitting up and checking to see if Dru was right. Valerie's arms were crossed, but she seemed willing enough to let them go. "That was terrible. We'll be seeing you at the same time next week, and this time, YOU BETTER HAVE SOME NEW INFORMATION FOR US," she growled.
"We will!" Dru and Clive replied in unison.
Valerie muttered something under her breath about the terrible people she worked with before leaving the room. Lucy looked over at Clive and Dru. "You boys ready to go home?" she said.
"Are ve EVER!" Dru replied.
"Couldn't have said it better," said Clive.
"All right then. Meet me at the car!" Lucy said, a little too cheerily. She trotted off towards the car, and Clive could've sworn he saw a flash of all-too-familiar purple beneath her dress.
Clive turned to Dru, who seemed just as confused. "Is it just me, or is Lucy acting a little weird?" Clive said.
Dru nodded, blinking in disbelief. "Yes, she ees. And I could have sworn dat she and Gru said zey vere going to play hooky and go to a fancy restaurant today."
Clive gasped. "Do you think that's Bratt in disguise? Gru told me once that he's disguised himself as Lucy before."
"I don't know. Vhy vould he take us here? Vhat vould he vant vith us?" Dru asked.
"Either way, we better stay out of that car and go find Valerie," Clive said.
Dru opened his mouth to agree, but before he could speak, he screamed and went down like a stone. Clive rushed to his side, alarmed. "Dru? Are you okay?"
Dru didn't respond. That was when a shadow fell over Clive. Horrified, Clive looked up and saw….a bunch of robots who were wearing the uniforms of AVL agents. And they looked exactly like Bratt, which made them even creepier.
One of the robots raised its fist. "You're coming with Bratt right now, or else we'll melt you down into metal," it hissed.
Clive shook with terror. "What did you do to Dru?"
Another robot stepped up and smirked. "Oh, him? We just karate-chopped him. Works every time. Now come with us or we'll do as we say."
Clive looked around in a panic, but to his horror, he realized that every possible route was blocked by Bratt-bots. Clive tried to swap out his arms for his hammer and drill, but the Bratt-bots just laughed at him. "Nice try. For every robot you knock down, we've got five thousand more," sneered one of the 'bots.
Clive scowled. "Fine, I'll go with you. Just promise not to hurt Dru. He's got no part of this. Understand?"
The Bratt-bots roared with laughter. Clive felt his temper rise, but he swallowed down the urge to rampage. Instead, he followed the Bratt-bots into a small room equipped with nothing but a carpet and a cord. "This is where you'll stay during the trip," explained one of the Bratt-bots. "If you even attempt to escape, well…" The Bratt-bot removed a laser gun from its coat pocket and held it to Clive's throat.
Clive shivered but stood his ground. "I promise."
"Good!" And with that, the Bratt-bots turned around, locked the door, and filed back into the depths of the submarine.
Clive sat down by the cord and plugged it into his rechargeable batteries. As he charged, he stared at the ceiling, wondering if he was ever going to see the Gru family ever again.
…
A couple of hours later, Clive heard Dru groaning loudly. Worried, Clive unplugged himself and rolled to the door, then pressed his ear (or where it would be, anyway) against it. He could hear a couple of the 'bots trying to interrogate Dru, but the poor guy was totally out of it and seemingly had no idea what was going on. After a couple minutes' worth of unsuccessful interrogation, the 'bots abandoned their attempt.
It wasn't long before the Bratt-bots were knocking at Clive's door. "Come in," Clive said, huffing with annoyance. What did they expect him to do? Open the door? They were the ones who had locked him in to begin with.
Eventually one of the 'bots kicked down the door itself. "We're there. Follow us and don't try anything funny," said one of the 'bots.
"Okay, but if Bratt is still playing the same music he's been playing for…" Clive trailed off as he realized, with horror, that he hadn't had any memory of how long Bratt had been listening to '80s music before. It seemed that, as time passed, old memories would pop into his head. He didn't know why, but judging by the glare of the Bratt-bots, he knew he'd have to be careful what he said from now on.
"We hate his music too, but there's nothing we can do about it," said one of the 'bots with an almost comical shrug.
Clive's electronic mouth formed into a toothy grimace. "Just take me there already," he growled.
"As you wish," said the Bratt-bots. With that, the 'bots surrounded Clive and began marching him towards a secret door in Bratt's home.
Clive noticed that Dru was just sitting on the ground behind him, rubbing his head and looking confused. "What are you going to do about Dru?" Clive asked nervously.
The 'bots smiled. "You'll see," said one of them.
Clive didn't trust them, but he knew better than to say so. Instead, he stared at the corridor ahead of him, trying not to think about how worried the Gru family must be and how he had the feeling that whatever was in store for Dru wasn't exactly pleasant.
…
"Oh my God, Gru! They're gone! Completely gone! Oh, I knew we should have gone to work today instead of going to Tortellini's!" Lucy said.
After a rather lovely date at the Italian restaurant, Lucy and Gru had come home to everyone panicking and frantically searching for Clive and Dru. Nobody could say what had happened, except that Dru and Clive had stepped into an unfamiliar car and been driven away by someone who looked like a clone of Lucy. Worse, the robot who had impersonated Gru was wreaking havoc in Nefario's lab, spilling chemicals and wrecking machines. Gru had a feeling his wallet would be quite light by the end of the month if the damage was anything to go by.
But the cost of the damage to Nefario's lab was the least of his problems. After reporting the incident to the police, Gru and Lucy had discovered that nobody had seen the person who'd kidnapped Dru and Clive. Furthermore, a hooded, masked man had snuck into a neighborhood power grid and totally destroyed it, leaving the police occupied with other matters while the kidnapper had gone unnoticed.
Gru felt sick. His brother was in terrible danger, and it was all his fault. Despite Lucy's attempts to reassure him, he knew that Clive and Dru weren't running off on a robbery-related lark or hanging out in town. Bratt had gotten them. He was sure of it.
"Gru, I'm sure he's fine! He wants to be a supervillain; he can take care of himself!" Lucy told Gru for the thousandth time as Gru sat dejectedly on the sofa, his head in his hands.
"Lucy, I know you mean vell," Gru said. "But you don't know vhat Dru ees like. He's like a child. He doesn't have ze experience zat I do. He could be killed for all I know!"
Edith sulked in a corner nearby. She was angry at Gru for losing her robot, and she hadn't said a word since Lucy and Gru had come home. Gru suspected she was partially blaming herself for the kidnapping. From what Gru could gather from Margo and Agnes, a tall robot resembling Bratt had trapped the girls in their room, threatening to blast them to pieces. Edith had valiantly tried to defend them using her ninja skills, but the robot had proven too much of a challenge for her, and it disappeared shortly after "Lucy" drove away with the kidnappees.
Gru got up and walked over to Edith. "Edith, it's not your fault," Gru said as he softly placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes it is! If the robot hadn't got away, then maybe Dru and Clive would still be here!"
"There's nothing you can do now, Edith," Lucy reassured. "All we can do now is wait for someone to find Dru and Clive and tell us where they are."
Edith slowly uncrossed her arms, and Gru could see that there were tears in her eyes. "Why can't we go after them? You guys are secret agents! You're supposed to help people who get captured by villains! We can't just sit around and wait for the police! They might not ever find them, and…"
Gru hugged her. "Ve don't want to put ourselves in danger, Edith. Besides, we only rescue people when ze AVl tells us to."
Edith frowned. "That's stupid! You guys went and stole a diamond even though the AVL didn't tell you to, but you won't even save your own family!"
Gru looked at Lucy, unsure of what to do. "Uh-oh," Gru muttered. Lucy's eyes were shining, and Gru figured that that meant trouble.
"You know, Gru, she's got a point," Lucy said.
"But Bratt could capture us too if ve go after zem," Gru protested. "Ve don't even have a plan of attack!"
"So? We can make one up as we go along!" Lucy said.
Gru groaned. There was no stopping Lucy at this point. "Okay, okay, I guess ve could go after zem," Gru said. He looked at Edith, who looked like she was going to pee her pants with excitement. "But no keeds. Zis meession ees going to be adults only."
Edith dropped her collection of samurai swords. "Why can't I come?"
"Eet's too dangerous! You could get hurt!" Gru said.
"But Nefario let us come along-" Edith started.
"Yes, and eet vas very eeresponseeble of him," Gru finished.
"Why can't the girls come along? I can keep an eye on them," Lucy asked.
Gru shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no! Zey vill stay behind vith Dr. Nefario, and zat's final."
Both Lucy and Edith looked disappointed, but they didn't protest. Gru stood up and turned in the direction of his secret lab. "Now eet's time for us to suit up."
Lucy trotted after him, grinning ear to ear. "Oooh, I wonder what weapons we're going to take along this time!"