Under New Management

Chapter 10

Lucy piloted her husband's ship over the large expanse of ocean in front of her. Emily sat in the passenger seat next to her. She found herself increasingly thankful that Emily was there with her. She was extremely talented and resourceful. But, more than that, she was quickly becoming a friend to Lucy, something that she hadn't really had in a long time.

"We've been flying all night." Emily said. "You should get some rest. I'll drive for awhile."

"No." Lucy said. "I don't need it."

"Do you not trust me?" Emily asked. "I promise I'm only trying to help you."

"No, no." Lucy said. "It's not that. I just don't need to sleep."

"Yes, you do." Emily put her hand on Lucy's shoulder. "You need to be well-rested when you see your husband again."

Lucy sighed, and handed over the controls to her new friend.

"Hey, girls," Lucy radioed in. "Emily's taking over for a little bit. I'll be back soon."

Her daughters had been keeping up with her over radio waves. She tried to update them as regularly as possible, so that they wouldn't worry.

"Oh, thanks!" The girls said.

Lucy settled into the small cabin built into the back of the ship. It had a small cot, a toilet, and a pantry of dried food. She curled up on the cot, and fell asleep surprisingly quickly. She was exhausted.

Suddenly, Lucy sat up. Another nightmare. She looked for Gru, but then it came back to her. He wasn't here right now. It was just her. She walked back into the main cabin, and sat in the passenger's seat.

"How long was I asleep?" Lucy asked.

"A couple of hours. I was actually about to come wake you. We're pretty close." Emily replied.

"Oh, good." Lucy said. She wanted to be reunited with Gru as quickly as possible. She was still shaky from her dream.

"You are not welcome in this airspace. Leave immediately, or you and your aircraft will be blow out of the sky." Said a voice over their radio.

"It's them." Emily said. "They've spotted us."

"What do we do?" Lucy asked.

"We keep flying. I'll try to increase our speed." Emily said.

"You are not welcome in this airspace. Leave immediately, or you and your aircraft will be blow out of the sky." The voice repeated.

"That's not working." Lucy said, frantically. "What now?"

"Here," Emily handed Lucy a headset. "Talk to them. Distract them. Tell them that we're just passing by or something."

"What?" Lucy asked, incredulously. "Me?"

"Yes!" Emily cried. "And hurry!"

Gru stared at the couple in disbelief. How could this be happening?

"So, you sabotaged Lucy's simulation?" He asked.

"Oh, yes!" Carla said, gleefully. "We were going to fire her no matter what, but she was doing so well that we had to slow her down. She was about to complete it faster than we'd ever seen before, and we didn't think we could justify getting rid of her if she did that!"

"So, you sent in those, those things." He said, trying to grasp it all. This was so much bigger than he had realized.

"Yes. I am rather proud of those." Devin said. "They are of my own creation, you know."

"What?" Gru asked, shocked.

"You probably didn't know this, but my father used to work for the Anti-Villain League. He was a scientist, and a brilliant one at that. He was fired at the top of his game, because the agency thought that his experiments were getting out of hand. Too dangerous, they said." Devin smirked.

Gru looked back at Carla. She was re-applying her lipstick. Seriously, even as they were giving their evil shpeal, she couldn't leave her makeup alone?

"And can you guess what he specialized in?" Devin asked Gru.

Gru just looked back at him.

"Genetic mutation. Specifically on animals." He said.

Images of a giant cobra looming over himself flashed through his brain. The mission that had started all of this mess.

"That snake." Gru said. "That was you?"

"Absolutely!" Devin exclaimed. "With my father's passing, I inherited all of his research. Carla and I have been putting it to good use."

"What do you mean?" Gru asked.

"Well, now with the AVL out of the way, we can use our creations to get anything we want." Devin laughed. "And no one can stop us."

Gru saw on one of the screens behind Carla's head, a camera feed. It showed a room full of cages. He saw the giant cobra in one of them. Others held creatures that were strange colors, extra large, or just plain scary. There were so many! These two had an entire army!

Just then, a sensor started blinking.

"I've got it." Devin said to Carla.

Gru looked at the sensor. It was labeled: Airspace sensor.

"You are not welcome in this airspace. Leave immediately, or you and your aircraft will be blow out of the sky." Devin stated.

So, there was someone flying above the island, or, near it at least, Gru realized.

After awhile, Devin repeated his statement into the microphone. This time he had a response.

"Oh, pardon us. We're just flying though. We'll be out of your hair before you know it." A female voice said into the microphone, shakily.

Gru recognized this immediately as Lucy. His heart began to pound. He hoped that they wouldn't recognize her.

"Ah, so your darling has come to the rescue, has she?" Devin smirked. "Send in the missiles." He said to Carla.

"NO!!!!" Gru shouted. He tried to stop Carla, but Devin grabbed him, and held him back.

Emily looked out the front windshield, and saw three missiles coming towards them.

"Lucy, we've got company." She said.

Lucy looked up, and began frantically speaking Into the microphone again.

"Please, we don't mean any harm. We're just passing through." She lied, and cringed. It was a lame excuse, and she knew it. Oh, why hadn't she thought of a better story?

"They're not backing down." Emily said. The missiles were getting very close.

"Come on." Lucy said, pulling her friend with her to the escape hatch. The two of them dropped out of the ship, just before it collided with the missiles.