NOVEL NEXT It’s not over yet.
[Paradise Mall, 1000 Hours]
Gru entered the mall with upbeat songs playing in his mind. He was happy and the reason for that was the last night.
[Song: Happy // By Pharrell Williams]
What happened last night was that he got into a date with a bimbo who was sent by a 'matchmaker' who constantly pesters Gru to marry quickly.
The date went from awkward to terrible within 5 minutes. What Gru did was, he wore a wig that he bought from Eagle Hair Club - to strike a conversation with Floyd Eaglesan - and Shannon, the Bimbo Date, discovered it. So she, in revenge was about to remove the wig in front of all the guests present in the restaurant to humiliate him.
But Lucy, who coincidentally in the restaurant to pick her takeaway from the restaurant. She saw the commotion and stealthily knocked Shannon out by shooting her with a Mild Moose Tranquilizer dart. And this is how she saved Gru from the imminent humiliation that he was about to face.
But the new problem was that they had to drop Shannon at her house as they cannot just leave her unconscious here. So they dropped her, literally dropped her from the roof of the car to her house.
After that, they talked about how disastrous their past dates went. But the talk became a bit awkward as they started to not look at each other. And at the end, Lucy complimented Gru.
"Just between you and me... You look much better bald."
And gave a peck on his cheek.
And now fast forward to now.
Gru entered the mall, dancing to some upbeat song playing in his mind. But there was a commotion going on on the second floor of the mall. He went to look at what was happening.
When he arrived on the second floor, he saw the entire vicinity of the Eagle hair Club has been covered by police tapes, signifying it as a prohibited area as the investigation is under progress. But he saw Ramsbottom giving orders to some agents inside the shop and Iwao Oguro standing next to him, so he entered the area behind the tape and nobody stopped him.
"Oh, Mr. Gru. Great Timing. Now since you and Mr. Oguro are here we can talk about the rewards. Here." Ramsbottom gave two cheques to Knuckleduster and Gru.
"This is a cheque of $10,000 and another $10,000 has already been sent to your respective bank accounts. So $20,000 each, equivalent to your contribution in the investigation."
Gru and Knuckleduster took the cheque dumbfoundedly.
"What is this for?" Gru asked.
"The investigation is over. We have captured the culprit and now you can go to your own respective business. Especially you Mr. Gru. You now can return to your business of 'delicious' Jams and Jellies." Ramsbottom snickered as he made a snarky remark.
"The investigation is over? You cannot do this Ramsbottom. I told you to wait a few more days so we can locate the lab and the stock of the serum. You had to wait a few more days." Knuckleduster argued with Ramsbottom.
"As you can see I am doing it right now. And wait for what? We had our suspect and now we have evidence to prove that he is guilty so why cannot we take action against him. About the lab and the rest of the serum, I believe our interrogation methods will bring out the answers from his mouth pretty soon. So waiting for a few days would've been a less efficient way of doing things." Ramsbottom explained to Knuckleduster.
"But you agreed when I asked you to follow my plan." Knuckleduster brought Ramsbottom's agreement to his plan into the conversation.
"Yes. I did that back then but I changed my decision."
"In a day?" Knuckleduster asked sarcastically.
"Indeed," Ramsbottom also replied sarcastically.
"Mr. Ramsbottom... Ummm... Where's Lucy?" Gru entered the conversation of Knuckleduster and Ramsbottom.
"Agent Wilde will be transferring to our Australian Branch," Ramsbottom said and left the two.
"At least give me what I want as a reward. I want information about the Underworld." Knuckleduster grasped Ramsbottom's shoulder and stopped him, he asked what he wanted for Giran's mission.
"It seems you are forgetting something Mr. Oguro. We threatened you to join this investigation which means we have the upper hand. So you better be happy with what is given to you rather than asking for more as you are getting nothing more than what is already given." Ramsbottom shirked Knuckleduster's hands off his shoulder and went inside.
Knuckleduster was angry. Very Angry. He agreed to do this mission to prevent AVL take action on Night Slash and take information about Underworld for Giran's mission as the reward for cooperating. Now he has achieved none of this. Ramsbottom ultimately used him from the start.
In Frustration Knuckleduster left the mall and went to the house that he rented just next door to Gru's house.
...
Gru watched Knuckleduster leaving Paradise Mall in frustration. But he quickly turned around when he felt someone tapping on his back.
"Hey there" Lucy greeted Gru with a smile.
"Hey..." Gru responded.
"We got him."
"Yay~!! That's great... and now you are going to Australia?" Gru asked Lucy, even if he knew. He just wanted to hear it from Lucy.
"Well, it's not definite yet. Still figuring it out. I've already been working on my accent. Voilaby (Wallaby)... Hugh Jeckmen (Hugh Jackman)... Hehehe... So umm... pretty excited."
"Great... Good luck." Gru looked around but he didn't look at Lucy's face.
"Thanks... You too... Oh, here I wanted to give you this." Lucy took out a lipstick from her handbag.
"Your Lipstick Taser?"
"Yeah... A Memento... You know from the first time we met."
"Oh Thank you, Lucy." Gru thanked Lucy and put the lipstick taser in his pocket.
"...Agent Wilde..." Ramsbottom called Lucy from inside the shop.
"Looks like they need you..."
"Yeah... I better go... So bye Gru" Lucy said goodbye and went inside the shop.
Gru looked at her back for some time and then he turned back and left the mall.
_______________
[Eduardo's Residence. 1830 Hours]
A large, rocket-powered vehicle made its way towards Eduardo's Cinco de Mayo Party. Inside the cockpit of the car, Margo, Edith, and Agnes were dancing to Mariachi music but Gru was driving the car grumpily.
Even though he was sad because of Lucy's transfer, he didn't let that come to his face as he didn't want to ruin his daughters' party mood. He just maintained a dissatisfied expression on his face as he was still against going to Eduardo's party.
The Grumobile took a spot in the parking by crashing other cars down the cliff. The girls quickly came outside the car and entered the party with excitement clear on their faces. Gru quickly locked the car and ran after the girls and stopped them.
"Look. Before we enter the party, I want you to listen to some rules because what's the fun without the rules. Ha Ha
So Agnes, go easy with the Churros. Edith, Don't kill anyone. And Margo, Keep your distance from boys... Margo" Gru said the instructions but Margo was nowhere to be found. He turned to look for Margo only to find her in the arms of the Devilish son of Eduardo and the current main antagonist of this party arc (For Gru), Antonio Perez.
"You are funny, Mr. Gru" Antonio stated.
"Margo. Keep 6 ft distance from boys. Especially this one." Gru separated the two. He then turned to look at Margo, again finding her in the arms of Antonio.
"There is only rule that there is no rule, Mr. Gru. Enjoy the party." Antonio said and took Margo to the dance floor.
Gru tried several times to separate the two but failed every single time.
At last, he stopped his attempts to separate them and sat on a chair in the corner with a nacho chip hat with guacamole in it. Eating from the chip hat and thinking about his life in the past few days.
Dr. Nefario left, Joined the investigation to prove Knuckleduster wrong that he was not useless, Got in touch with Lucy, It soon turned from partners for a job to like each other but he didn't act on it quickly, Now the investigation is over and she is sent to Australia by the AVL.
He was like this since the morning after Lucy's transfer but now got the time to feel sad. Actually, he tried to call her and tell her to stop but couldn't gather the courage to talk to her so he hung up the call. He took out the Lipstick Taser that Lucy gave him and looked at it with complicated feelings.
Now he was sitting in the corner of the party alone with a chip hat with guacamole.
"So glad you could make it, mi compadre!" Eduardo enthusiastically welcomed Gru but he saw him sad.
"Hey... What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. Nothing is wrong. I am just chilling with the guac... from my chip hat."
"Gru please, I know that look all too well. It is the look of a broken heart." Eduardo patted Gru's back.
"How did you know?"
"Believe me, my friend. I too have spent many nights, trying to drown my sorrows in guacamole," Eduardo took a seat in front of Gru.
"You?"
"Yes. But we are survivors. There's much more to us than meets the eye, hmm? Enjoy the party," Saying that Eduardo left the seat and cautiously entered a room but not before checking if someone was following him.
Looking at his suspicious behavior, Gru followed Eduardo to the room.
_____________________________
Knuckleduster woke up groggily and looked at the clock. It was 7.00 PM.
After arguing with Ramsbottom, he left the mall and went to his rented house.
Here, he just chugged down cans of beer. He was frustrated because he was sent to America earlier than everybody in the team to make a base and get some connection of Giran to work. But now his hands are completely empty. He is at square one, exactly the same state where he started. Now the team has left for America and there is no base or connections to pull for help.
But the situation was also complicated. He was threatened by Ramsbottom to join the investigation. So instead of thinking a lot about it, he decided to sleep off the entire day.
Now that he woke up, he picked up the Night Raid Phone and called Night Slash. He has done what he was supposed to do. It was Night Slash that approved him to delay Giran's mission and cooperate with AVL. So the aftermath should also be faced by him.
He took a can of beer, took a sip, and held the phone waiting for it to connect. After some rings, the call connected.
Night Slash - :: Hello::
Knuckleduster gargled and drank the beer.
Night Slash -:: Hello... Old Man::
"It's over."
Night Slash -:: What's over?::
"The investigation... It's over" Knuckleduster said
Night Slash -:: Explain::
"I found the culprit but told them a plan to delay the mission for 3-4 more days so that you guys can make an entry in the investigation. Ramsbottom initially agreed but did the opposite in the end. He..."
Night Slash -:: Stop stop stop!!! What did you say?::
"He initially agreed but..." He was interrupted again.
Night Slash -:: Not this. The name. ::
"Ramsbottom."
Night Slash -:: Yeah... Is he the director of AVL you mentioned? Describe his looks to me::
"Yeah... An obese, brown-haired man and has an English accent." Knuckleduster explained to Night Slash.
Night Slash -:: You found any funny looking creature around?::
"Short Yellow creatures with big funny eyes..."
Night Slash -:: Minions?::
"Yes..."
Night Slash -:: That means... the serum is PX-41, and your partner is someone named Gru. And what happened today is that the investigation case was stopped by Ramsbottom as they captured their culprit and Lucy Wilde is now being transferred to the AVL's Australian Base?::
Night Slash like a recorded tape started speaking the details quickly.
Knuckleduster flinched and was extremely confused as to how Night Slash knows every single detail of what happened here.
"Yeah... Everything you said is correct. But how do you know these things? I never mentioned these details to you. And the last part just happened hours ago and was top secret. How were you able to get your hands on these details."
Night Slash -:: That's not the important thing. The important thing is that this investigation... It's not over yet::