TESTING THE WEAPON
The next weekend was a rainy day. When the girls were off to their dance class, Gru got a call from Dr. Nefario. "Hello? Dis is Dr. Nefario?"
"Yeah, it's me. The prototype is finished!"
Gru's face enlightened. "Well, zat's wonderful! Today we should test eet out. vwe vwill send it to ze laboratory tomorrow for reviews. I'll be right down."
"OK, see you in a few." Nefario hung up the phone.
As Gru was putting on his coat to descend into the lab, Lucy walked in. "What's up?" she asked with the usual carefree look in her eye.
"I was going to ze lab to test out the new weapon. It's nearly feenished."
"Oh, cool. Mind if I come?"
"I was just about to ask you eef you wanted to join me." The couple entered the elevator and passed through the tunnel to the lab. A few minions waved as they passed by.
Gru looked around the lab. A memory flashed across his head of what it had been like back in his days as a villain. His life had changed so much in the last couple years. Gru finally felt like he was in a place where he belonged, and he wouldn't let anything ever change that.
Three minions were preparing themselves for testing. One minion would throw the bomb, the second minion would be the target, and the third minion's job was to be on standby with poison antidotes in case something went wrong. The bomb was supposed to be a reusable nontoxic sleeping-gas bomb used for neutralizing enemies quickly and painlessly.
Gru, Dr. Nefario, and Lucy took their places outside of the testing area where they could safely watch without inhaling the sleeping fumes.
The minion took his place from where he would throw, and conducted a baseball-style wind-up. He liked having the audience. The minion threw the bomb, which fell apart into several pieces and components, as it hit the ground near the target minion. It successfully caused the minion to pass out within 10 seconds.
The poison control minion checked his meter and said that the target minion would wake up in about 15 minutes unharmed.
Nefario frowned and sighed. "It wasn't supposed to break apart like that. I'd better check and see what went wrong. Nefario drove his buggy into the testing area.
Gru's mouth tightened into a strait line. He had a deadline to keep and they were already running a little later than he had hoped.
Lucy ran over to Nefario, who had just discovered that they were missing the pin.
"Want me to run over to the store and pick up a new pin?" Lucy offered.
"Naw, the piece was here earlier... It must be somewhere around the lab. I'll ask the minions to keep an eye out for it... But... Then again, it never hurts to have an extra one. It's probably best if you pick up a new piece."
"Great! What does the piece look like?"
"Well, it's kind of like... It's a... It's kind of hard to describe. It's a flat pricked piece designed for holding in the mesh of the hull."
Gru chimed in. "Eet looked sort of like a scrunched up hair-comb."
Lucy's eyes shifted. "I think I have an idea what happened to the piece..." She said to herself.
Gru and Nefario began collecting the pieces of the disassembled weapon so they wouldn't lose more pieces.
Lucy went up the elevator, grabbed her coat, and ran out the door into the rain. She came back in laughing at herself realizing that she had forgotten her keys and purse. She grabbed them and ran. She sat down in her blue compact car, and drove off to buy the replacement piece.