"El Macho is alive!!" *2 Gru and Knuckleduster said at the same time.
"Huh" *2
"How did you know about that?" * 2 Gru and Knuckleduster asked each other the same question at the same time.
"You say first!!" *2 The same thing happened again.
So to avoid further wastage of time, Knuckleduster went silent and gave a cue to Gru to start talking. Gru looked around and he saw his daughters listening attentively to the conversation, so he first sent them to their room and then came back to explain.
"I went to Eduardo's party and -" Gru filled in the details of what happened earlier in the party to Knuckleduster.
Knuckleduster keenly listened to whatever Gru said and had a contemplating look on his face. On the other hand, Gru was not feeling good as he thought that Knuckleduster will have a twisted and cringed expression on his face when he will learn that he was wrong, but Knuckleduster was just listening to him and the most confusing thing was that the man already knew El Macho was alive.
'But how? He was not at the party nor did he ever interact with Eduardo in the mall to my knowledge. Then how does he know that El Macho is alive?'
"---at the end, he told me that he wishes to rule the world and he wants me to join him." Gru ended his end of the explanation to Knuckleduster., "Now, You tell me how did you know that El Macho is alive?" Gru asked Knuckleduster. He was genuinely curious how he also knows about the secret that he recently uncovered.
"Night Slash told me." Knuckleduster just gave a single-line answer to Gru.
"Night who?"
"Night Slash. Team Leader of Night Raid. I am a part of the team."
Gru still not satisfied with the answer quickly took out his phone and searched for 'Night Slash' on the internet. He then started reading the search results.
'Night Slash... Criminal Vigilante... target of Nation-wide Manhunt... 'Villain-Slaughter Week'... 'Two-Explosion Incident of Hosu'... Endeavor No.2 Hero of Japan on his trail... Leader of Night Raid, a Vigilante Group... Called 'A Coward who only knows to hide' by the No.3 of Japan Hero Hawks.'
Gru quickly read through the important parts from the search results and from what he read an image of Night Slash started to form in his mind. In his mental image, Night Slash was ruthless, cold-blooded, and a dangerous man to be associated with. Gru made a mental note to avoid being involved with him at all cost as this Vigilante is a target of a hunt where top heroes of an entire country are the hunters.
He then raised his head and asked, "Then how does 'he' knows about El Macho's secret?" He wanted to know more but Knuckleduster again just gave a short answer with an indifferent expression on his face,
"He just knows."
Irritated by Knuckleduster's indifference and lack of seriousness towards the case, he stretched his hands towards Knuckleduster.
"Call him, I want to talk to your leader," Gru demanded.
"Why the sudden interest in finding more about this case? The Investigation is already over. Or are you going through a Midlife crisis so you want to do something adventurous?" Knuckleduster rested his head in his hands over his shoulders as he leaned back on the sofa.
"Are you kidding me??!! There is a serum capable of making indestructible soldiers and it is currently in the hands of a man whose ambition is to destroy the world to remake it in his own image. To make the situation worse, He has my Minions as his indestructible soldiers."
"How does it make it worse? From what I know they are useless anyway."
Hearing Knuckleduster slandering his minions, the minions that he grew up with, the minions that acted as his friends and his family when everyone ignored him including his mother, the minions who followed his every order without any question. Gru became angry. He took out the Freeze Ray and aimed at him,
"THEY ARE NOT USELESS!!! I AM NOT USELESS!! It is you who is useless! Made the AVL arrest Floyd when the real culprit was out there and your team leader already knew about El Macho's existence but you were oblivious and mocked me for speculating El Macho's involvement. So tell me who is useless? you or me?" Gru said as his finger rested on the trigger of the Freeze Ray.
Knuckleduster sighed and then a flash passed in front of Gru. When he looked around to find the flash that passed in front of him, he saw Knuckleduster standing with the Freeze Ray in his hands.
Gru, surprised by it, saw that the gun was not in his hands.
"I asked how does it make it worse if he has your minions as his soldiers? And the answer to your question is you. You are useless."
Gru sighed and put his hands in his pockets.
"My Minions are... how do I say this... They will become too hard to deal with if they are injected with PX-41 serum..." Gru constantly searched for words to clearly define what was the main problem with Minions becoming PX-41 mutated soldiers.
"Explain more clearly..."
"*Sigh* I will give the details you just connect the dots.
Minions have existed for 60 Million Years on the earth. They have undergone various adaptations during that period of time. Now Minions are more resilient, durable, and are more adaptive to their surroundings than humans and it is to the point that they can even survive without oxygen. Their durability is enough to resist most of the cold weapons and normal bullets. Their resilience is to the point that they are very hard to kill with conventional methods. Only one method is known to me that is killing them Inside Out but I have never tested it out on them.
Minions are simple-minded creatures, and if they are injected with PX-41 they show a response as if they've lost their sense of reason. That's what I saw in El Macho's lair. If released on a mass scale in a city, I don't think the city will stand for more than a few hours." Gru said with a grim face. As he listed all the characteristics of Minions, it apparently became clear how much of a threat the Evil Minions are to the world.
"But the most dangerous thing about them is not those that I mentioned..."
"What is it?"
"Minions are asexually reproducing organisms. They reproduce through something similar to Binary fission and budding that is One Minion gives rise to another Minion which detaches from its body. This process initiates when the body of a Minion is fully developed and has an excess of resources required to sustain the body.
The body first starts increasing the bulk and the Minion starts expanding, but that stays under a limit, after that, the Minion separates into two bodies. One of the bodies retains the parent characteristics and the other body becomes the offspring. The total duration of this process varies but mostly stays in the range of 1-2 Months. The reproduction in Minions can be controlled if the body is not allowed to accumulate the resources but that can be done within a limit. I have been limiting their reproduction process since the start but
Now Imagine if enough time is given, El Macho will have an exhausting amount of PX-41 soldiers. Even if the world finds a way to harm Evil Minions, I don't think they can fight those huge numbers of soldiers. So are you getting what mess we are in? That's why call your leader and let me talk to him. I want to know what more he knows. We have this case now in our hands as Ramsbottom will just take whatever I say as 'fake evidence' to prove my speculation." Gru finally ended his long explanation on Science of Minions.
"I have a question, Why do they follow your orders?" Knuckleduster asked,
"Minions have a natural instinct of following an Organism which is much more powerful than them and is considered Evil by them. That Organism is termed as 'Boss' by the Minions and then they start following its orders. This instinct was embedded into their beings from the start.
When they first reached the surface from the sea, they were weak in front of many predators who already inhabited the land before them. So instead of forming groups and hunting the predator down as the cavemen did, they started following the apex predators in the food chain and followed their commands. This continued for a long enough time which made it a natural instinct for them to follow such 'Bosses.' And after this, they gained their high resilience, durability, and adaptability.
Over the course of millions of years, they have changed a lot of bosses. And currently, I am their boss. So that's why they follow me. But I don't know one thing. There are a lot of Villains who are way more evil than me, then why do they still follow me?"
Knuckleduster after getting his answer picked an old-looking phone from the table.
"You heard that?" Knuckleduster said to the phone.
?? - :: Nice and Clear. Great class Gru. Learned a whole lot of things about the Minions. Thanks. But I also have a question that I wanted to ask you. What is your quirk?::
It turned out that someone else was already listening to their conversation through the phone.
"Umm... My quirk?" Gru hesitated a bit.
?? - :: Yeah... Oh! sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I am Night Slash, the leader of Night Raid. You wanted to talk to me right. So here I am::
"What more do you know about-" Gru tried to ask the question directly.
Night Slash - :: Answer my question first, then I will answer yours::
He interjected Gru mid-question and made the demand.
"My quirk... it is... I-"
Night Slash - :: Quirkless?:: He interjected Gru again.
"I... I am quirkless in the documents but I am really not quirkless... It's just... It's just that I don't know what it is," Gru mumbled.
:: Huh??!!:: + "Huh??!!" Knuckleduster and Night Slash both were dumbfounded by Gru's claims.
Night Slash - :: So~ you are quirkless but deny that you are quirkless::
"NO!! Just as I said I have a quirk but I don't know what it does..."
Night Slash - :: Weird it may be but there are a lot of different people in this world. You are just different than the rest. Now that you have answered my question. I will answer yours. So what is it? ::
"What more do you know about El Macho?"
:: I may not know more about him but I know one thing for sure and that is... Lucy is going to be kidnapped by El Macho... or should I say already been kidnapped by El Macho::
The revelation caused Gru to flinch as heard what Night Slash said,
"This is impossible. Lucy is on her flight to Australia. How come El Macho kidnapped her." Gru asked Night Slash but the TV in the hall turned on itself and showed the face of Dr. Nefario.
"Dr. Nefario?"
Dr. Nefario - :: Gru, Listen quickly. El Macho has kidnapped your partner. He now knows that you and your partner work for the AVL... It looks like he is calling me. Got to go::
The screen then turned black.
"How?" Gru asked on the phone.
Night Slash - :: Well it would be good if you listen it from her but what I can tell you is She voluntarily came to the party and the chicken took her AVL ID from her purse and gave it to El Macho. But the main thing is that Lucy is now in El Macho's hands::
"Not for long," Gru said and rushed towards his underground lair.