The End is Just the Beginning (a Bad End Friends story)

Chapter 25

Morty walked along the road in the early Autumn afternoon's breeze with bags of groceries in his hands. It was his turn to make dinner, and since the only other person who cooked was Bipper, and he just summoned take out or anything he could think of, they had nothing to make a meal out of.

He reveled in the quietness of the empty street as he headed back to the noise and chaos of the Attack Shack.

Soon Morty realized it wasn't completely empty. He softened his footsteps on the pavement, but still heard the faint sound of shoes scrapping the concrete. They were not his.

The back of Morty's neck prickled as every instinct in him to duck.

So he did.

Over his head, a flash of blue light sailed by and disappeared into the forest lining the road.

Morty turned around to see four ominous people in blood red robes rush towards him.

One pushed ahead from the rest. They tried to press an obviously drugged rag to Morty's face, but he ducked again, swinging his heavy groceries and buckling the person's knees.

Morty stood up and turned to the rest after he kicked the person to make sure they stayed down.

Another flash of blue came out at him from a ray-gun one of them was holding.

Morty dodged it and threw himself into the fray.

He was doing fine until a fifth, giant member came from the shadows and pinned Morty to the ground.

"It is unseen," was all Morty heard before something connected with his head, and he blacked out.

___

Finn sat in the living room with his back to the armchair and his elbow digging into Wirt's side as he chowed down on the Chinese take-out Bipper conjured a few minutes before.

The lot of them were in their various spots in the room: Mabel in the armchair, Frisk on the arm of it, Finn leaning against the couch, Wirt next to him, Bipper sprawled on the floor, and Morty sitting beastly next to him.

But Morty wasn't there that night.

Finn thought nothing of it until Wirt frowned into his food. "Wasn't Morty supposed to cook tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah, where is he?" Finn asked, suddenly remembering what had happened that morning and their conversation of what was for dinner. "He went to the store and never came back."

"Maybe he got lost?" Mabel said hopefully.

"No," Bipper said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "Something happened."

"What does that mean, Bipper?" Wirt asked accusingly, which was valid since Bipper did get them into trouble often, but his yellow tinted eyes were filled with hard emotions and not the usual malicious glee.

"It means we get to go on an adventure," Bipper said as a grin spread across his face that didn't quite reach his eyes. "C'mon."

Bipper stood up and dusted himself off in his over dramatized way. He briefly glazed at Morty's spot before walking to the door.

"Come on!" He shouted without looking back, walking out the front door.

They all followed him out (Frisk still with their food) and onto the darkened road they took to get into town.

It didn't take long before Mabel, ahead of the rest, called out, "I found something!"

They gathered around a mess of plastic bags, spilled milk, and crushed food.