Despicable Me (8 page)

Gru’s rocket begins to glow, burning hotter as it reaches the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. Gru holds on for dear life as the rocket violently shakes and rumbles. The view through the cockpit window changes from blue to purple to
the blackness of space. Suddenly the shaking stops, and everything is still. Gru looks out the window at the moon in the starry distance. He smiles.

He maneuvers his rocket closer and powers down the engines. The ship silently hovers above the lunar surface. Gru pushes a button, and doors open. He holds the Shrink Ray in his hands and faces the enormous moon. Gru can’t believe how large it actually is. But it won’t be large for long!

ZZZZZZEEEET!
A bolt of energy fires from the Shrink Ray and engulfs the moon. Then slowly it begins to shrink. Gru reaches out to grab the tiny moon. It’s the size of a baseball!

“Ha! I’ve got it! I’ve got the moon!” he shouts. Not bogged down by gravity, Gru does a flip and floats around jubilantly in his space suit. Then his mood shifts and his smile fades. Somehow,
having the moon isn’t as satisfying as he thought it would be. Silently floating in the vastness of space, Gru feels small and alone.

Just then, something drifts out of his pocket. It’s the ticket to the dance recital. Gru stares at it and feels overwhelmed. He really wants to see the girls. He checks his watch. “I can make it,” he says with determination.

Back on Earth, the changes are immediate. Without the moon, surfers suddenly lose their waves. A werewolf howling at the moon changes back to a man.

Worse, however, is what happens in the lab. Dr. Nefario watches the rocket on his monitor and then turns to see the tiny minion that had suffered a blast from the Shrink Ray begin to grow! Within seconds the minion returns to its normal size! Uh-oh!

“Wait a minute. How…?” Dr. Nefario starts. He runs to a door and opens it. He sees that
the spaceship Vector shrunk is now back to its original size, too. “Oh, no.”

Dr. Nefario grabs the radio. “Gru? Gru, can you hear me? The Shrink Ray effects are only temporary!”

But Dr. Nefario hears only static. Gru’s ship has reached the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, and the radio isn’t working. Gru pushes hard on the throttle to try to get to the dance recital on time.

On the ground, Dr. Nefario thinks for a moment. “We’ve got to warn him! Let’s go!” he says to the minions, and they all rush out of the lab.

Decorations cover the entrance to the dance studio. Margo, Edith, and Agnes peer out from behind the curtain, dressed in their ballerina
costumes. Agnes sees the empty chair in the audience. “He’s still not here,” she says sadly to the other girls.

“Why would he come? He gave us up,” Margo points out.

“But he pinkie promised!” cries Agnes.

“Girls, places!” calls the dance teacher.

“No, we can’t start yet!” insists Edith. “We’re still expecting someone!”

Agnes looks up at the teacher with her best puppy dog eyes. “Can we just wait a few more minutes?”

The dance teacher sighs. “All right. But just a few more minutes.”

When she has left, Margo turns to the other girls. “He’s not coming, guys,” she says.

Edith and Agnes look shaken. Could it be true?

After a few minutes, the dance recital has to begin. The lights dim, and classical music plays
over the speakers. The curtains open and all the girls come out dancing. All the dancers wear big smiles except three girls at the far left—Margo, Edith, and Agnes. They look sad.

Everyone in the audience turns on a video camera. Except for one person: Vector.

“Sorry, buddy.
Show’s over.”

—A janitor

Gru looks down at the city below, trying to locate the dance studio. “Okay, okay, there’s the library… that’s Third Street, that’s the dance studio! There it is!”

With a final thrust, the spaceship touches down in the middle of the street. The tires screech and smoke as pedestrians dive out of the way. Gru slams on the brakes, and with a
thoomph
the brake parachute activates.

Gru unfastens his seat belt and races out of the ship and into the dance studio. He stops suddenly as he sees the empty hall.

“Sorry, buddy. Show’s over,” says a janitor who is taking down the folding chairs.

Gru can’t believe it. Then something catches his eye. He makes his way over to a chair in the front row and removes a sign taped to it. Written in a child’s handwriting, it says
MARGO, EDITH, AND AGNES’S DAD
.

Crushed, Gru stares at the paper. He flips
it over and discovers that Vector has left him a note. He turns and races out of the dance studio.

Gru makes his way as fast as possible to Vector’s fortress.

“Vector! Open up!” Gru demands, pounding on the front gate.

A huge TV monitor appears over the gate. Vector’s face ripples into view. “First give me the moon.
Then
we’ll talk,” he says.

Gru holds the shrunken moon up to the monitor.

A suction hose extends from the side of the monitor. It hovers in the air, waiting for the moon. Then from behind Vector, Agnes calls out, “Mr. Gru!”

“Zip it,” Vector tells her.

That’s all it takes. Gru’s heart lurches to hear someone be mean to Agnes. He places the moon near the end of the hose, and it gets sucked in.
The hose promptly retracts into the building. On the monitor, Gru watches as the hose delivers the moon to Vector.

“Now the girls,” demands Gru.

Vector grins wickedly. “Actually, I think I’ll hold on to them for a while longer.”

Gru sees the monitor retract back inside the building and disappear.

“No!” yells Gru. He grits his teeth and speaks into a security camera. “Listen closely, you little punk. You have no idea who you are messing with, and when I get in there, you are going to be in a world of pain!”

Inside, Vector stares at the monitor. “Oh, I’m really scared,” he says, laughing.

At that moment, Gru punches the camera so hard, the lens cracks. Vector jumps, which makes the girls smile.

Confidently, Gru begins his march to rescue the girls.
BAM!
He kicks down the gate.
POW!
A mechanical boxing glove aims for him. After a few of Gru’s best karate moves, the glove is worthless.
WHOOSH!
The shark jumps out of the water at him. With one punch, Gru knocks the beast back into the water.

Vector watches all of it on another monitor… and starts to panic.

Gru is about to kick down the final door when the entire fortress starts to rumble. Suddenly, the room lifts off, detaching itself from the rest of the building. It’s an escape pod! Gru grabs the side of the escape pod as it soars into the air.

“This time, good
triumphs. Who is this
mysterious hero?
And what will he
do next?”

—TV Newsman

Gru holds on as tight as he can while the escape pod flies through the sky. Gru is relieved when he soon sees Dr. Nefario piloting his own airship next to the pod, coming to Gru’s rescue.

Then it dawns on him. “The ship’s big again?”

“Not as big as the moon is going to be,” explains Dr. Nefario.

Gru looks out the cockpit window and sees Vector’s escape pod zooming away in the distance. “Oh, no, the girls!” They hurry after it.

Inside Vector’s pod, the scoundrel sticks Margo, Edith, and Agnes inside a giant glass bubble. Then he looks through the rearview mirror and sees Gru’s ship approaching. Vector pushes the throttle forward and tries to get away. He doesn’t notice the moon wobble and increase to the size of a beach ball.

After a few minutes, Vector checks the rearview mirror again, but he doesn’t see anything.

Vector doesn’t know that Dr. Nefario has positioned the ship directly
below
the escape pod.

“This is good,” Gru says to Dr. Nefario. Then Gru pushes a button. A grappling hook shoots out of the side of the ship and attaches itself to Vector’s pod. Now Vector can’t escape.

Inside the pod, the moon has grown to the size of a small car and rolls right toward Vector!

“Aaaaaah!” cries Vector.

The now giant moon is rolling toward the girls’ glass prison. Margo puts the other girls behind her to protect them.

CRASH!
The moon shatters the glass, sending water everywhere. The girls leap out of the way just in time to keep from being squashed by the massive ball of rock. The moon begins to roll all over the ship, destroying everything in its path. A giant hole rips open in the wall, and the wind rushes in. The girls scream…
until they see Gru’s ship below. They run to the opening.

“Mr. Gru! We’re up here!” shout the girls.

Gru stands on the wing of his ship and calls up to them. “Okay, girls. You’re going to have to jump!”

“Jump? Are you insane?” yells Agnes.

“Don’t worry. I will catch you!” Gru promises. He holds his arms out wide.

The girls exchange nervous looks, and then Agnes and Edith jump. They land safely in Gru’s arms, and he passes them down to Dr. Nefario.

“Margo, jump!” instructs Gru.

“You gave us back!” she shouts.

“I know,” Gru says with remorse. “And it was the worst mistake I ever made. Margo, I promise, if you jump, I will catch you. And I will never let you go again.”

Margo’s heart swells a bit. She takes off her glasses and jumps blindly to Gru. He reaches
out his arms and catches her, holding on tight. They’re all together again. They detach the grappling hook from Vector’s ship and zoom back to Earth.

Vector is on his own. The moon keeps expanding, crushing everything inside the escape pod. Vector holds on as the moon rockets into space.

Finally, the violent journey ends, and he opens his eyes. Vector realizes he’s all alone on the moon, which is now back to its full size. He scratches his head. “Did not see this coming.”

On that evening’s newscast, there is good news to report. “This time, good triumphs, and the moon has returned to its rightful place in the sky,” states the newscaster on television.

“But once again, law enforcement is baffled,
leaving the world to wonder: Who is this mysterious hero? And what will he do next?”