Annie Auerbach - Despicable Me 2

As he heads for the door, Agnes announces, “I don’t think I should do this.”

Gru stops and turns around. “What do you mean? Why not?”

Agnes looks at the floor. “I don’t even have a mom.”

At that moment, Gru feels for her. He tries to cheer her up. “You don’t need one to do this show. I mean, you were in the Veterans Day pageant, and you haven’t been in combat.”

Agnes looks up at Gru. “This is different.”

“Okay, well, then maybe you can just use your imagination.”

“You mean pretend I have a mom?” asks Agnes.

“Yes, right,” replies Gru. “You can do that, can’t you?”

A smile crosses Agnes’s face. “Yeah! I do that all the time! Thanks, Gru!” She gives him a kiss and runs off.

Gru watches her for a moment and then heads off to find his Minions, so they can babysit. He takes two Minions with him and goes off to meet Lucy.

But after Gru leaves, something strange happens: A light shines down from the sky right on two other Minions in the backyard. Before they can scream, there is a whoosh, and the Minions are sucked up into the air. These Minions have been taken, too!

At the mall, the stores are closed, and the food court is empty. As soon as the lone security guard turns a corner, Gru peeks out from his hiding place under a floor tile. After making sure the coast is clear, he whispers, “We’re stealth ninjas. We make no sound.”

Lucy appears next to him, and the two of them climb into the mall and quietly sneak up to the front of Eduardo’s Salsa & Salsa Restaurant. Gru is about to kick down the door, but Lucy has a better idea.

“Nanobot Universal Key,” she says, holding up a high-tech key. “Microscopic particles automatically arrange to open any lock known to man.” She sticks the key in the door. It begins to make all kinds of weird high-tech noises!

Then it jams.

She jiggles the key, trying to get it to work.

Frustrated, Lucy just kicks in the door!

The pair walks inside. Gru is about to head toward the kitchen to look for the PX-41 serum, when Lucy stops him.

“Wait!” she calls. She whips out an aerosol can and sprays the air in front of her. “I’m checking for laser beam alarm triggers.”

“It’s a restaurant,” Gru points out, annoyed.

“You never know what kind of booby traps this guy could have set,” Lucy explains.

“There are no booby traps!” Gru insists as he takes a step, kicking a trip wire attached to a tiny bell. Ding-a-ling!

“Ha! Booby!” Lucy says triumphantly.

Gru and Lucy look terrified as the kitchen door begins to creak open, revealing…

A small chicken.

Lucy thinks it looks cute. “Are you lost, little guy? You must be lost.”

Gru laughs. “Ha! Some guard dog!”

Suddenly, the chicken leaps into the air and lands on Gru, pecking his bald head.

Gru runs in circles, trying to swat the chicken. “Aaaaaahhh! Get it off me! Get it off me!”

Lucy thinks fast and grabs a nearby tablecloth. She lunges and covers the chicken with it.

“I got it!” she says, tightening the tablecloth around Gru’s neck.

A muffled scream comes from under the tablecloth, and Lucy realizes what she’s done. She quickly removes the tablecloth and goes to karate chop the chicken. But the bird flies off, and instead Lucy hits Gru in the face.

The chicken clucks and attacks! Lucy presses a button on her watch, squirting foam onto the evil chicken. The foam instantly hardens like a concrete ball around the chicken, with only its head sticking out.

Lucy jokes, “Hey, that pollo es loco .” Then she sees that Gru is covered in scratches from the chicken and doesn’t find her remark as amusing. “Okay, let’s go.”

They step into the kitchen, and Lucy pulls out a high-tech scanning device. She aims it around the kitchen and reads the levels on the screen. “Very interesting…”

“What is it?” asks Gru.

“I’m getting extremely high traces of tortilla,” Lucy says. Gru rolls his eyes.

Lucy pulls out a pair of X-ray goggles and hands them to Gru to survey the kitchen.

Lucy comes into his field of vision. Gru freaks out because, with the X-ray goggles, she appears as just a skeleton. “Oh, that’s an image I’ll never get out of my brain!” He turns the other way and spots something behind a painting in the wall. It’s a hidden safe! And inside is a metal canister.

“I knew it!” Gru declares proudly. He removes the painting, revealing the locked safe to Lucy. “The PX-41 is in here!”

“Then let’s get it!” Lucy says.

Gru pulls out his own high-tech device and places it over the combination wheel. “This is going to be good!” he says gleefully.

CLICK. The safe opens, and a cold mist drifts out, revealing a metal canister with a label that reads EDUARDO’S SECRET RECIPE. Gru opens the canister. He sniffs inside and gets a concerned look on his face. He dips his finger in and licks it.

“Salsa?”

Meanwhile, Eduardo has returned to the restaurant. He senses something isn’t right and scowls. Then he spots the chicken in the ball of concrete and gasps. “Pollito! What did they do to you?”

“Bawk!” cries the chicken.

“Who would do this to such a sweet little chicken?” says Eduardo. His eyes darken. He realizes someone must be in his kitchen.

“I know you’re in here!” yells Eduardo.

Lucy and Gru, who are devouring the delicious salsa, immediately freeze.

“He’s coming! Hurry!” urges Lucy.

In the restaurant area, Eduardo grabs a knife. “You coming out? Or am I gonna go in?” he yells to the intruders.

Gru pulls a laser cutter out of his jacket and aims it toward the ceiling. The laser fires and cuts a hole in it.

Eduardo shoves open the kitchen door, ready for battle. He enters just in time to see a pair of legs disappear into the ceiling. “STOP!” he shouts.

Lucy quickly pops down and shoots him in the face with the foam from her watch.

Eduardo wails in pain. “My eyes!” He drops the chicken, cracking its concrete shell, and tries to wipe the foam out of his eyes.

Lucy and Gru quickly run through the mall. Gru pulls out a device and contacts his Minions, who have been waiting in the parking lot. “We’ve been spotted! Come get us!”

A few seconds later, there’s a huge crash! The Minions smash Lucy’s car through the glass doors and speed through the mall. Gru and Lucy watch from a balcony above as the car heads for the escalators. Lucy sees the wreckage.

“Subtle.”

They both run down the escalator toward the car.

“Over here, over here!” yells Gru.

But it’s no use. The Minions don’t hear him. They drive past them and back up the bumpy escalator stairs. The Minions are shaking and rattling. Once they reach the top, they make a left and start driving in circles. Gru pulls out a grappling hook and aims for the balcony railing.

“Hold tight,” he says, grabbing Lucy. They shoot up and land right back where they started, at Salsa & Salsa! When the Minions zoom by in the car, Gru sighs heavily.

Just then, Eduardo emerges from the restaurant, wheezing and still unable to see properly. He is holding a knife in one hand, and he is out for revenge.

Gru and Lucy duck behind a cactus.

Eduardo pulls out a few kitchen knives and heads closer to the cactus. “I have you now!”