Under New Management

Chapter 13

Emily watched in horror as her new friend was dragged away from her. She prayed that Lucy would be alright, but right now, Emily had her own troubles knocking.

She had been dropped in front of Carla and Devin, who had promptly tied her to a chair. Dang it. Lucy would've been able to get out of these constraints in a heartbeat, but she had never learned how to do so, herself. She was better on a computer.

"What do you two want with us?" She asked. "If you only wanted us out of your way, we'd be dead already."

"Ha!" Carla cackled. "Like we'd tell you!"

"Why, do we even have her still here?" Carla asked Devin. "Why isn't she in a cell?"

"Currently, the only one still usable is occupied by the redhead and the bald one." Devin replied. "I was going to tie the redhead up with the blond, but I didn't want to risk her escape."

"Did the leak really take all of the other cells out?" Carla asked, exasperated.

Devin nodded.

Emily didn't really understand what they were talking about, but she didn't care. She still needed answers.

"What do you really want?" She asked.

"Well, my dear," he began. "I suppose that what I really want, is to take down the Anti-Villain League."

She stared at him.

"I want revenge on what you did to my father in the most painful way possible, by ripping you apart from the inside." He smirked. "And by using his experiments to do it."

"Your father?" She asked, and then it dawned on her. The gorilla. That was a theory from a former AVL agent. One who had been fired, because his experiments were cruel.

"I've been taking down the Anti Villain League for years. One agent at a time." He laughed. "I've been intercepting missions for years, getting rid of agents, and making it seem like an accident. Just like I'm going to do to you."

Lucy sat stunned after listening to Gru's explanation.

"I know." He said. "It's a lot to take in."

She nodded, slowly. Just yesterday Gru was leaving on his first big mission without her. Now, it had developed into so much more. The girls would be so-

"The girls!" She screeched, suddenly, causing Gru to jump. "Oh no, oh no."

"What?" He asked, panicked.

"The ship blew up, and they're still-"

"They were on the ship with you?" He exclaimed, feeling more and more distressed.

"No, no, no." She said. "I was radioing them, and then the ship blew up, and I haven't been able to radio them back. They must be so worried."

She began to wring her hands, worried. He tried to calm her down.

"At least they're safe." He said. "And, we're still alive. We'll find a way to contact them. It'll be ok."

She took a deep breath, and began to assess the situation. Gru stroked her hair. She could feel his hand, and his watch brushing her red curls.

"Your watch!" She exclaimed. "Does it still work?"

He nodded, confused.

"This is the one that I gave you, right?" She asked. "It's from the AVL, and it has communications capabilities!"

She took it off of his wrist, and began to turn the dial.

"I think I've got it." She said after awhile. "Girls? Girls, can you hear me?"

"Mom!" She heard. "Oh my gosh! We were so worried! Where are you?"

"I'm with your dad. I found him." She assured.

"But, we've been captured by the enemy." Gru said. "We just wanted you girls to know that we're alive. We can't dial in for awhile now. We don't want to lead them back to you girls."

Lucy nodded, sadly. She knew that her husband was right, but it felt really nice to hear her daughter's voices again. She hadn't realized how much she missed them.

"Ok." Margo said. "Stay safe."

The line went dead. The girls must have disconnected it.

Lucy sighed.

"It's ok." Gru said. "At least they know that we're alive. That's good."

He looked at his wife for her response, but didn't get to see it, because at that moment, all of the lights went out.

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile! I've been pretty busy! I just wanted to say that today is my one-month anniversary of my first day on Wattpad! So, today, I am finally going to go see Despicable Me 3!!!! (That's actually just a coincidence. I'm going for another reason, but while I'm there, I might as well celebrate!) I'm super excited to finally see it!!! I'm sure that I'll post something (or a lot of somethings) after I see it!! Thank you to all of you who have read, voted, and commented on my works so far! I hope that these will just be the first of many works!