Chapter Text
Rick fumbled around in his garage, with Morty watching behind him. He didn’t really know what Rick was up to, just that he had this strange undermining movement. Whatever he was grabbing must have been important, especially considering Morty’s earlier fuck-up that he’d rather not talk about.
“Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do,” Rick grumbled, holding two blue cubes in his hands. “I’m going to ignore that you tried to synthesize your own portal fluid. I’m just going to rub these two together and hope for the best.”
Morty kept his shoulders tight, wanting to look at what he was doing but also trying to avoid looking into his eyes. Rick rubbed the cubes together, cyan sparks flying out and hitting Morty’s shoes. The sound was like laminated paper wobbling, both of them just standing there.
Morty blinked, clearing his throat. “So…what did that do?”
“It’s my fidget toy, Morty. I haven’t actually done anything yet.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Let me think for a moment, Jesus.”
Morty opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly, a portal manifested. It roared out, an eye-blinding pink portal splitting Rick in half as someone stepped out. Morty stepped back until he hit the bench behind him, seeing a young woman with a wolfcut, glasses, hoodie, and sweatpants step out of the portal.
“Hey! What’s—”
She looked down to her feet, seeing Rick’s body split in half like a filleted fish. She winced at the sight and rubbed her neck. “Oh…that’s gore. That’s gore of my friend’s comfort character…”
Morty had no idea what the fuck that could mean, but he needed to act. Now he had a fixed gaze, staring at this uncaring girl while his hand grabbed anything behind him that felt like a gun. He pointed it out and gulped.
“Stand back! A-A-Are you from the Citadel or something? Some weird psychotic Summer variant?”
She just raised a finger and pointed at Morty. “Uh, your caulk gun is on backwards.”
Morty moved his eyes down for just a second, realizing she was right. He quickly flipped it, ignoring that it wasn’t even a weapon. He had no idea how and why she was acting nonchalant, hoping that anything could ward her off. She continued talking, just gently twiddling her fingers as she looked around.
“Okay, I set the portal to be where Rick was, but I guess I set the coordinates to be right on top of him…”
Morty let out a pained whine, still gritting his teeth and holding the caulk gun like it would fire. She turned again, with him dropping it and scrambling to grab something else. So she needed to come up with something better, especially because she was unknowingly showing Morty a lesson in why you don’t fuck with portal travel.
“Wait wait wait! I’m here to uh, assemble a team!”
Morty turned back, now holding a gun that turns anything into prime steaks. He squinted, staring her down as she fidgeted with her glasses. She wasn’t begging or being outright malicious. But there was still his Rick split on the ground. It all felt like a bad dream, an omen with his own mind taunting him. He decided to bite. If this was bait, so be it.
“W-What do you mean you’re assembling a team?” His voice cracked, but he was growing more and more willing to pull the trigger.
The woman pointed down. “Okay, THIS? This wasn’t part of the plan. But yes, I needed to assemble a team of Mortys to uh, take down the Citadel of Ricks. They’re still alive here, right?”
“They die?”
“IN THEORY, IN THEORY!” She already said too much, waving her hands and trying to get Morty to not freak out any further. “That’s besides the point! I’m gonna recruit you as the first Morty. You’re pretty tough after all.”
She gently punched his shoulder, forcing out a smile as Morty frowned and asked a question he had in mind for a bit. “You’re like…not gonna kidnap and torture me for brainwaves, right?”
Well, that’s a way to start a convo. She just gave him a weird look, kind of grossed out. “If it makes you feel any better, if I can’t make proper portals or think of that, I’m already not that smart to begin with.”
That also wasn’t that assuring, but if this was all a mistake, then it wouldn’t be that bad. Still, he pocketed the gun just in case anything went south. He watched the girl pick up Rick’s bloody portal gun, opening a portal with relative ease. It pulsed a bright green, which reminded Morty even further about his little incident. Or accident. Same thing either way.
“Also, your dimension was going to have another 9/11 in 2 weeks.”
“WHAT?!”
She shoved Morty into the portal quickly, walking in after him. But hey, she still managed to capture her first Morty. Only like, infinite more to go.