The Sanchez Chemical Reaction

Chapter 9: Morty's Adventure

     "You have a friend?! And you say she's in the guest bedroom?" Beth's voice rings excitedly through the house. As if she's finally glad to have an opportunity into Rick's life.
"Yeah, but she's sick. So I'm helping her get better again. I'll have to ask if she can stay here."
"How long?" Jerry's voice skeptically asks.
"Indefinitely till I can figure out how to help her. Plus, I told her she could be my *clears throat* apprentice." Rick doesn't seem to be very thrilled he has to ask permission. But it seems like he thought it was necessary, or else he wouldn't have done it.
"We'll how sick are we talking here? Is she dying? I mean obviously she can stay! That's no problem dad, I just want to know."
"Is she contagious?" Jerry adds on.
"No she's not contagious. And technically she could die if I don't help."
"Okay okay, and one more thing...is she like...you're girlfriendddd or anyone of significance?" Beth really wants to be apart of Rick's life. I can tell by how little she seems to know his personality.
He groans annoyingly, "no she's not. She's just a friend and apprentice. Are we done? I've got some stuff to do."
"Sure dad! Thanks for letting us know about your friend. I hope we can meet her soon!"
I stumble out of bed and sneak out of my room to peek around the corner. I was just too curious to meet Rick's daughter! I bet she has a very similar personality once I get to know her.
"Excuse me?" I say softly, coming out from around the corner slowly. I see Jerry's mouth drop for a few moments before he quickly regains his composure. Surprisingly it seems Beth is just as shocked.
"Hi," I smile softly and go to shake their hands. "I'm sorry to cause an inconvenience to you all. And I hope you don't mind if I stay. I'll leave when I can I promise. My name is y/n by the way."
Beth stutters for a moment, looks at Rick, then back at me, before gaining her composure again. "Y-yeah ye-yeah no problem. You're welcome to stay as long as you want. No rush."
Jerry desperately joins the conversation, "sorry to hear you're not doing well. Hope you get better soon. After all you're so pretty-" Beth turns and gives him a look before he quickly corrects himself. "I-I mean young. You know...to be having health problems."
An awkward silence falls for a moment before Rick interrupts. "Okay enough of whatever this is. We got to get to work, so we'll see you later. Come on y/n." Rick ushers me to the garage with him. Jerry and Beth staring at us the whole way. But mostly me.
"Are they okay?" I ask after the door closes.
"They haven't really seen other aliens before. Especially you're type."
"My....type?" I feel a bit sad at his wording but choose not to take it personal.
He seems to realize his mistake and figure out a new wording. "Women on planet earth don't tend to be as eye catching as you. If that makes more sense."
"Oh, is that what their reaction was? Why did you not tell me I was so hideous? I could've better prepared myself. I hope I didn't scare them."
He turns to look at me, chuckle, and then turn back to his desk. "That's not quite what I meant."
I don't really know what he means but I walk over to see what he's working on. "So you meant what you said?"
"Bout what?"
"You'll fix me?"
"I've got an idea but I wouldn't say it'll fix you 100%."
I fall silent for a moment, worried I'll annoy him with more questions. "Is that what you're working on right now?"
He just nods and starts mending pieces together. I get the feeling he wanted me in here to watch him work. As if taking the mentour roll slightly more serious. Either that or he just wanted to keep an eye on me.
I still haven't regained a lot of strength, and my legs start to give, so I decide to sit down on a stool a few feet away. It's silent for about an hour before Rick decides to say something.
"How are you feeling? Better now?"
"Mm sort of. It's taking longer than usual for me to get back to normal. Even with this thing on my neck. And Im still rather tired."
"Yeah the collar only has enough power to keep you're strength above collapsing. The rest is up to you. But considering the strain on your body right now, it'll take awhile for you to go back to 'normal'."
I nod and glance at his collar, "Rick you're collar is a bit loose. Is that alright?"
He groans at the topic, "it's a long story. But to make a long story short, Morty and I switched collars since his was broken. You didn't have anything happen to you while you were in the room, right? You put on the other collar I gave you?"
I nod, itching at the two heavy collars on my neck. "Are you sure the second one is absolutely necessary?"
"Sounds like you are unsure of my advice. You definitely need to keep it on in that case."
I just nod and continue to watch his work. He eventually starts piecing these huge pieces of metal together that reach to the top of the ceiling.
After hours of work Rick sighs and sits down next to me, clearly pooped.
"Still got a ways to go, but that's definitely a start. I think I can take a break for a bit." He glances over at me. "Could you do me a favor and turn around? Move your hair too."
Without asking questions I swivel around, and bring my hair over my shoulder so he can see the back of my collar.
"Damn, you're killing me here. How fast do your powers generate? You were holding all of this in for how long? No wonder you spazzed out earlier. You were like a soda can ready to explode in a hot summer heat."
"Guess I just got used to putting it away. Why what's wrong?"
"Your meter back here is already almost more than halfway full. You're lucky I made second collar just in case I needed to buy time. I think you'll be alright to go on an adventure and back though."
Turning around, we make eye contact. "I'm sorry to cause you trouble. I know you're a busy man."
"Eh. I'm only busy because I keep myself busy. Doesn't hurt to do something different once in awhile from what I'm usually doing."
I smile and stick my hand out for a hand shake. "Would you do me the honor of giving me a hand shake?"
"You're so formal it's weird." He shakes my hand before standing up and announcing that it's time for an adventure.
He calls out for morty a few times before Beth yells back that he's at school. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Okay guess we gotta go pick up morty. Damn how long were we in the garage for?" He mumbles to himself as he paces around the room, grabbing various items we'll need.
"Are we going to pull him out of school right now?" I ask surprisingly.
"Time is of the essence. Let's just get his stupid adventure over with." He quickly makes a portal and hops through. I quickly follow afterward and fall onto the school cafeteria table. Everyone just stares at Rick and I. Then just at me.
"Come on Morty, let's do this adventure. Since you think you're so tough and know it all. Here," he hands the portal gun to Morty as I quickly scramble off the table.
I used to think before that everyone stared at me because they thought I was nice to look at. But after this morning I'm starting to think it's the opposite. Since apparently the women on this planet have the opposite appeal of me. At least according to Rick. I don't know. It's hard to understand sometimes.
"Hey y/n!" A student calls out to me. "Sick entrance! Those collars looks stylish. Didn't realize you were kinky like that! Right on!"
Some of the other male students join in, "yeah if I'd have known-"
"That party would've gone a lot differently-"
"-Such a babe!-"
"-Please be my girlfriend!-"
All the guys in the cafeteria start calling out to me at the same time. It's overwhelming to say the least. I back up a bit, almost tripping over myself before Rick encourages me into the portal. He walks through it just after me.
"Sheesh someone's popular with the male mudkips," he comments.
"Rick?" I turn to him feeling insecure. He can defiantly see it as his eyes widen slightly before answering.
"What's up?"
"What's kinky? And if I'm so hideous why do they all want my attention?"
Morty laughs to himself as we start walking in search of a village. "Kinky is a type of foreplay to sex. And this morning, I didn't mean you were hideous. I meant that you catch a lot of attention because you're good looking." It seemed like he was slightly embarrassed having to tell me that.
"Mm. I've never had a relationship so I wouldn't know any of that stuff. But it sounds intimidating."
Rick raises an eyebrow curiously intrigued. "So you've never had sex?"
"Nope. I have a basic understanding but that's about it."
Morty and Rick exchange glances before changing the subject. "Alright morty where is this lame, sucky, adventure taking us?"
"Can you at least TRY to enjoy this adventure? We've only been walking for a few minutes."
Rick rolls his eyes, "but what are we doing?"
Morty sighs, "we're rolling with the punches! And the first place im looking to start is a town. We are in need of a quest afterall."
Not long after he says that, we reach a clearing with an open field. From where we are standing, it's not big, but it's definitely a trade center for the folks. "See? Rolling with the punches! There's the town."
Rick only rolls his eyes as we make our way down to the town. It's rich with people, but the same cannot be said about the people.
Morty stands in the middle of town square calling for the attention of the townsfolk. Rick comments about how embarrassing that is. I just give Morty a thumbs up and encourage him to move forward.
"We are three humble hero's in need of a quest!" He announces.
"Oh great! Did you say you were hero's?"a man calls out from the crowd Morty's gathered.
"Why yes good sir I did!"
"There's a giant living in the clouds, who's got wealth way beyond us! If you could please bring us some riches so we may feed our families!"
Morty turns cockily toward Rick. "Oh what's that? You hear that Rick? There's a giant in the sky! Come on. Let's go!" Morty hurrily runs off to lead the way. Although I have no idea how he knows which way to go, I won't argue with it.
"Whatever, beginners luck." Rick stubbornly comments as we make our way to the castle. It takes about a whole day to get there. But we manage somehow.
Trying to get a better look around we climb up a nearby table that the giant has and begin to examine his items.
"So what's the plan Morty? You gonna kill this giant? Is that your genius plan?"
"Jesus Rick, could you try to go with the flow for a moment? Y-y-you know, you're really making this harder than it needs to be."
Rick rolls his eyes and leans against a giant glass cup. "Whatever."
As morty starts to do his own thing, I walk next to Rick. "Don't you think you're being a little hard on him? I mean all he ever does is follow you around on your adventures. This is his first. Cut him some slack, you know?" I try to get Rick to see Morty's side. But it's clear he won't budge.
"This is just a waste of time. Ive got other pending adventures."
"Maybe try to relax a little," I bump into him playfully as we follow behind morty. "I think you stress too much. Always so serious."
He sighs but doesn't say anything. Maybe because he's tired of the conversation or because he doesn't want to admit I'm right. Either way, we suddenly stop and hide as the giant we were looking for fumbles into the room.
Morty seemed to be sketching out a plan in his head, but just then the giant trips and falls...to his death. It was a bit anti-climatic to say the least. Climb all the way up there just for the giant to accidentally kill itself.
A moment later, his supposed wife goes into the room. Shouting and crying as she sees her messy scene of a husband on the floor. Her eyes travel up to us furiously, and before we know it she calls the cops on us and we are arrested.
Not too long after we end up in court, with a biased judge telling us he already considers us guilty before he hears us out. Morty starts to swear it's an accident but they don't listen.
"Oh great Morty. Just great. You know it'll be real easy for them t-to rape us if we drop the soap in there. You know that?"
"Oh jeez-"
Just then a giant Saul Goodman bursts through the door. Explaining that we were never read our rights. Meaning we were free figh to fo home. Nobody seemed to get the joke. Either that or it landed and no one thought it was funny. I felt kind of bad for him since he did just save us.
Soon enough we make it out of the court building and make it to the stairs. A long...long path down to say the least. Each step was massive and we'd have to scale down as if rock climbing.
"You know morty you can always just call it quits and we can go home." He waves his portal gun around tauntingly. I sigh at his inabilities to see Morty's side.
"O-oh yeah I bet you'd like that. Wouldn't you? Well I say, lend me a hand side kick." Morty adds sassily at the end. Rick groans but continues forward.
I look down the stair wall, seeing how far down it drops and shutter. I'm not really good with heights. Or at least the illusion of height. "R-Rick...do you have anything that will let me skip this part of the adventure?"
Morty seems sad that I even asked but I think he can see how uncomfortable I am with this height. Rick grumbles and looks for something.
He walks over to me and hands me some shoes. "Put those on. When you press the little button you'll be able to walk vertically." I nod and thank him as they start their descent down.
Quickly I slip the shoes on and walk down the stair case wall. I catch up to them pretty quickly and try my best to not walk ahead.
We go on for about 7 hours before we reach a small tavern built into the side of the staircase. It's a cute little rustic style bar with music, servers with big boobies, gambling, you name it.
Of course when we sit down, Rick still has got to kill Morty's party. And it seems Morty reaches his limit. After he orders 3 buloogies, he goes to the bathroom. Yelling at Rick, "if you won't lighten up, don't be here when I get back!"
Rick seems to back off after saying whatever and decides to listen to his grandson for once.
To say the least while Morty took his sweet time in the bathroom, Rick got very drunk very fast. He started playing some gambling games with a giant slug person and won a bunch of shmeckles. I just sat around watching. But mostly waiting for Morty since he seemed really upset when he left.
"Hey Rick, maybe you should go check on Morty. It's taking him awhile." I whisper to him as he plays his game.
"I'm sure he's fine. He just wants a breather from me probably." Rick shouts as he wins more money. I just sigh and go outside for a moment.
It's quiet compared to the outside, although we are so high up still that there aren't even any birds. I sit on the step, dangling my feet while taking in deep breaths of the fresh hair. All while a slight breeze blowing my hair backwards. It's peaceful... Just what I needed after the past couple of days. After a few moments I decided to lay down and just look up at the sky. Watching the clouds shift and turn. Some clouds racing past others, while some just start to dissipate into air. I end up closing my eyes for awhile and day dream different scenarios. Just to kill time.
Eventually I get the feeling to go inside and check up on everyone. As I enter I see Morty exiting the bathroom finally. Although he doesn't seem right. He's all scuffed up and on the verge of tears.
He gets to Rick before I do and I hear him begging Rick to take them home. That the adventure is over. I feel my heart break. I knew someone shoudlve gone in to check on him. I wish I knew what happened.
Just as I reach them, I see the bathroom door open again. A jelly bean looking dude stumbles out. Looking beat the fuck up. I instantly get the picture and pat Morty's shoulder.
Rick seems to be eyeing the dude as well before trying to comfort Morty. It's the first time I've seen him be genuinely nice to him. "Listen I just won a bunch of shmeckles. Why don't I pay this guy to give us a ride down. And then we can give the rest of the money to the villagers."
"Really?" He says wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Yeah, really." Rick smiles at him for once.
"O-okay..." Morty smiles back slightly and we make our way outside.
In no time we start making our way down the stairs. All the while Rick and I talk to Morty about various other things to get his mind off what just happened. It seems to work a bit, but I can tell it helps. Especially when we make it to the village and give them the coins. Villagers swarm us with filthy palms raised, hoping to catch at least one coin as they scattered through the air.
Morty laughs slightly proud of himself for finishing his adventure. At least, that is until the jelly bean dude from earlier is carried on a carriage toward us. He's waving to his loyal subjects, all the while they have no idea what a monster he truly is.
Morty quickly scrambles to make a portal and hop through it. Rick and I both make eye contact and agree to jump his ass. I pull a small knife from my shoe and press a button on the side. Causing it to expand, green quantum seeping venomously from the blade.
Rick just pulls out the classic ray gun before we both aim for the kill. I throw my blade as fast as Rick's bullet can burn a hole through their kings brain.
An outburst of devastation breaks out as we quickly ditch the dimension. Meeting morty on the other side who waves us goodbye. Saying he's going to take a shower and then bed. I can understand that. Especially after what he's just been through.
"Morty," I call to him before he goes. Feeling bad that he'd have to end the adventure the way he did.
He pauses in the hall and glances at me. "Hm?"
"You're a good kid," I smile gently at him and wave goodnight as he leaves the hall.