Author Note: Hello Im back with a new chapter. This is a Christmas chapter that original was suppose to be posted on Christmas. Better late then never I suppose. This chapter is a breather episode with Morty and his friends enjoying Christmas, those there will be a adventure, the events of the last chapter, along with season 1 episode Anatomy Park will be mention. This chapter is set after the events of Anatomy Park. Also This chapter was work on by three different writers. The first part and ending was work on by my friend and reviewer of this story Vanessa Masters. The middle park was made by Lesbianerd from Tumblr. Finally, jc013 from DeviantArt made the finishing edited of this chapter.
Flashback
And now, the group was staring at the ashes of the Sins, which various female vampires were now sweeping up into decent sized urns.
"Man, this was some heavy dark stuff." Harold said in shock.
"I know, it's...stunning. One minute they're alive..." Kitty starts to say.
"They're Vampires, not alive, not dead either Girlie." Rick burped.
"And the NEXT." Kitty glares at Rick. "They're all dust, I mean...sure, they wanted to block out the sun. And that was a terrible thing."
"Y-yeah, because then they'd kill everyone, either through feeding on them, or death from no plants growing for food." Morty said sadly.
"And now, THEY'RE the ones gone, extinct." Harold sighed. "Undead man, woman, and child."
"Well, the Chosen are gone, not the good ones," Kitty stated. "I mean, Drake, Marsha, Angelica and Lydia ARE the good guys, right?"
"Well, as good as blood drinking, undead creatures can be, Sweetness." Lydia remarked.
"No arguments made, what happened with the Chosen is a terrible thing," Drake proclaimed. "But so was what they were going to do with their crazy plan to block out the sun."
"If there had been any other way, we would've taken that path instead," Angelica said as she shoveled some ash into a huge vase before looking to the side. "Do we have any more of the big vase's?"
"Believe us, Genocide was NOT what we wanted when trying to AVOID Genocide." Marsha proclaimed. Lydia suddenly sneezed some 'dusted' vampire Chosen into her face, causing Angelica to freak out and rush over with a handkerchief.
"We had hoped to convince them to take a more peaceful solution," Drake said with a heavy sigh as he watched the antics of the three vampiresses.
"But like those on, what you humans call "Twitter", they are a stubborn group, and in the end this fate was of their own making." Drake said.
"And now you can make fertilizer out uuuuuurp-of them!" Rick remarked.
"Rick!" Morty scolds.
"Wha-ack-t? It's true." Rick said. "Wo-hurk-st case scenario, the Chosen would've reached the limit of their 'immortality' and starved to death without the humans, WITHOUT actually dying."
"And spent eternity crazed from hunger, or ate each other." Harold chipped in.
"UGH! Harold, Gross!" Kitty gagged.
"He's not wrong. The fa-urp-ct is...urk. They were leading themselves into do-ooooo-hm either way," Rick pointed out. "Now, they aren't dragging anyone else with them in the process."
"Well, luckily, your common sense, and inner goodness won out over evil and greed." Kitty said in inspired manner.
"WOW, you still don't kn-errp- ow me, I didn't just do this to save the humans, Girlie." Rick brushed off. "No, Drake here promised me a sample of his own blood, You see, i was planning on marketing a serum that can provide those who are dying some... extra time, delay whatever's killing 'em so they have more time to spend with family, find the cure, blah-blah-blah"
"WHAT!?" Morty exclaimed in shock.
"AND a million other benefits i'm sure ain't registering in my head at the moment..." Rick began before a thought came to mind. "Well, not REALLY a million, more a dozen benefits if anything."
"All of this, you weren't helping the Forsaken for the sake of saving innocents?" Morty asked in upset.
"Of course not, Mor-ORP-ty it was a side project. And besides, the Forsaken aren't so 'uppity' about sharing their blood. Or Drake isn't." Rick gestured to the vampire. "In fact, he's cool with it, promised me a liter of his blood, and I would help take out the Chosen."
"A liter!?" Morty exclaimed.
"It needs to be a lot, Morty. It might be hit and miss, even if I only need one drop of blood." Rick said through his gagging, as he drunk from a wine bottle. "May as well have some extra on hand."
"How much is a liter?" Harold asked in shock.
"About eight gils?" Rick estimated.
"Yes, well, we can do that in my bed chambers, where I keep the dialysis machine," Drake said putting a arm around Rick. "Come, let us get that taken care of now."
Drake then guided Rick out of the room, and for good reason, seeing as how the three teens were glaring at Rick's backside.
"So, that was a horrible reveal." Kitty said as Lydia, Marsha and Angelica approached them.
"You'll find that horrible things relate a lot to the vampires," Angelica said as Marsha was adjusting her hair. "Or at least it would, but this is actually a GOOD outcome."
Marsha huffed.
"I just wish It didn't turn out with me getting dead Chosen in my face, but we all have to make sacrifices for greater good." Marsha sighed.
"Speaking of Good and Evil," Harold pipes up. "Mind explaining something to us, if you don't mind?"
"Sure, whatever you like, Diligence." Angelica stated.
"Yeah, that..." Harold points at her. "Where did we get these...nicknames, the Chosen called us a sin, and your calling us a virtue."
"Oh, that's easy enough to explain," Angelica stated. "Your virtues are what best define you as a person, your best, and worst feature."
Marsha points to Harold.
"You are diligent, due to your dedication and trying your best to accomplish stuff. You never give up." Marsha said as Harold listened. "But at the same time, your sin is Pride, and you have a tendency to look at yourself highly, thankfully your virtue sorta evens it out."
"What? No way, I am not prideful, I just know what I'm super good at." Harold proclaimed.
"That's Pride, Harold." Kitty points out.
"And our dear Kindness," Lydia cuts in, popping up behind said girl. "Your compassionate is stretched out to all beings, you even showed kindness to us Forsaken, even if we are blood drinkers."
"Well, I mean, it's only fair." Kitty said with a blush.
"Yet your sin is Lust, but not in the obvious way you would expect, sadly..." Lydia remarks, muttering that last part to herself, confusing Kitty before resuming. "No, your 'lust' is for life, to live it to the extreme and with wild abandon. Thou your extremes are 'positive', they are with little in the way of restraint, so... head's up."
Kitty blushed, but didn't deny what had been said about herself either.
"And last, but certainly not least is Mortimer." Angelica turned with a fanged smile. "Humility is his divine virtue, which also is a cocktail mixture of bravery, modesty, and reverence. You do not regard yourself highly, and have a high self-assurance of your being, no pride for you, Morty."
Angelica turned to look to the side with a wicked grin, chin resting on the back of her hand as she stared ahead.
"But your greatest virtue is also accompanied with a great Sin, WRATH." Angelica declared, which caught the three humans attention, especially Morty himself.
"It is a terrible sin, it injures both the possessor and those around them, both figurely and physically speaking." Angelica warned. "You come off as meek, and submissive, but all that, what's the term?... self-deprecation does no one any good, and leads to your rage and resentment to boil to the top."
She gestured out with wild wave of her arms.
"It is a blinding rage, which makes you lash out and cause pain to all others, regardless of any pain on you and if your friends are present. And in your special case, it's... OH, how do you put it Flair?" Angelica noted, looking behind Harold and Kitty.
A Forsaken, with a flowing mop of blonde hair, wearing a sparkling blue and silver robe with sunglasses popped out behind the two teens. "WWWOOO!" He let out loudly before vanishing, catching the two offguard.
Though both Kitty and Harold's attention turned back to Morty as they looked at him, startled by this statement, and which seems too out of place with their friend Morty.
"These are more then just attributes, they are things that will effect you dearly in the future, children." Lydia began before the other Forsaken followed suit. "One way, or the other." The three ladies said as one.
Everyone was chilled by this statement, and jumped when a voice called out.
"Ok-aaaaaay, losers and Kitty. Let's get a-going!" Rick said coming in from the next room.
(End flashback)
And with that, Rick left with the three teens, and that was the last they saw of the Vampire world. But it still heavily effected the trio, as the memory didn't disappear for several weeks, especially for Morty.
For one thing, there was the little adventure inside of that homeless guy, with the organ themed and made amusement park. Morty shivered.
"And then us getting in that 'Blumbus' dimension, and nearly getting screwed, killed and cooked."
Morty was laying on his bed in his bedroom as he contemplated the past events to himself.
The cell near Morty's bed rang, and he immediately picked it up.
"Hello?" Morty asked.
"Oh, hey, Morty. Just calling to ask if your still coming up to my Christmas party." Harold asked.
"Oh yeah, sure, totally." Morty said. 'Especially given how I was nearly killed by a God like being called Mr. Chimney, and come on by him...yeah, this party is a good idea." Morty began to explain. "See, I kinda had a weird experience, so this party is just the ticket to forget ALL about that."
Harold hummed on the other end.
"I'm just glad it didn't keep you away over Christmas, we all know how crazy your grandpa can be." Harold replied on his end of the phone call. "I mean, given how we were all nearly killed by vampires that time before and you went on TWO more nutso trips with your Grandpa?"
"I did, indeed." Morty sighed heavily.
"What happened exactly?" Harold asked.
"Oh, you know, I went to a amusement park inside of a hobo guy, that was weird... compared to the usual, especially with girl, who stayed behind to rebuild the place." Morty said matter of fact, remembering.
"And then we went to another Dimension where they were already celebrating their 'Christmas' which was Blumbus. A holiday where they bring in orphan boys off the street, and have sex with him before killing it to eat him."
"WHAT!? BRO, DID YOU GET YOUR V-BIRD PUNCHED!?" Harold asked quite loudly.
Morty held the cell away from his ear with a grimace.
"No! No...I mean, I did get a kiss from this one girl, Melody." Morty explained, the memory of her and what happened popping back into mind. "But I bolted out of there when she said I was going to be killed after 'intercourse."
"Oh wow, I don't think I'd have had the strength to run for my life," Harold said sadly. "I've been pent up so long, I don't think I value my life over my virginity, cause what's the point of living if your a virgin?"
Morty didn't know what to say about that, honestly, though the Forsaken's words started to come back into mind, only to shake it off.
"Look, I didn't have sex, but I did kiss Melody. As for Anne, appearently i dodged a bullet since Rick said she had a puffy vagina or something like that, regardless, I'd appreciate if you didn't tell Kitty any of what i just told you." Morty said. "I mean, Melody's dead anyway, since a 'Mr. Chimney', their Santa GOD, or whatever showed up to kill her and her family with a sonic scream."
Harold was silent on the other end.
"I survived, and Rick killed Mr. Chimney." Morty said on his end.
"Bro, you really DO need this party, STAT." Harold said in shock.
*Beep-Beep-Beep*
Morty jumped as his phone started to beep.
"Oh, oh man, that's Kitty now!" Morty said in surprise. "Harold, I got to take this. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Yeah, sure, man. See ya." Harold exclaimed.
"Bye." Morty then hung up on Harold, by pressing a button and pressed the other one to link in Harold.
"Hello, Kitty?" Morty asked.
"Hi, Morty. OH MY GOSH! I am Soooooo excited for Harold's party, aren't you?" Kitty asked.
"Yeah, totally, I was just talking to him." Morty said.
"Wow, total coincidence, huh?" Kitty gushed on her end.
"Yeah, amazing." Morty said blushing, glad Kitty couldn't see him. Hell, he's still amazed he was talking to a girl so casually.
"Look, I know I said my friends Devin and Carrie would be at the party, but sadly they can't come." Kitty said. "So, I'm afraid you'd have to see them another time."
"That's alright, but your still coming, right?" Morty asked.
"Oh, totally." Kitty said a huge smile in her voice. "Oh, by the way, my parents wanted to know, if they could meet YOUR parents."
Kitty said it quickly, and was sorta out of the blue, so Morty flailed out of his bed, barely keeping a hold of his cell.
"They want to...why?" Morty asked flabbergasted.
"Well, it's just a way of getting to know my best friend through his family," Kitty Explained. "My parents did it with all my friends, girl, or boy. There's no issue."
Morty gulped. "Well, when do they want to meet them?" He asked.
"Oh, maybe next Saturday, I think would be best for them." Kitty said.
"Oh alright, I'll ask and let you know, okay?" Morty asked.
"Yeah, that sounds good. Talk to you then, bye." Kitty said good-bye as she hung up.
Fortunately for Morty, his parents and Grandparents were still home, and he went down to speak to them in the kitchen, where they were gathered.
"Mom, Dad, can I ask you something?" Morty asked.
"What is it, Honey?" Beth asked.
"My friend Kitty's parents want to meet you and dad, and talk so to get a feel of the kind of family I come from." Morty explained. "And they can only meet up next Saturday."
"Oh, Bud, we'd love to." Jerry said. "But your moms got to attend a veterinarians convention that Saturday out of town, and I got to drive her there and back."
"Because there's NO WAY I'm staying on a bus with THOSE male chauvinist, Vet-Pigs, both literal, and figuratively, fuck those guys" Beth said heatedly, quickly muttering to herself so Jerry's parents couldn't hear.
"Well, now, it's not too difficult a problem," Joyce piped up. "Morty, Sweetheart, I'm sure they'll be fine if me and your Grandpa meet them. They must be understanding people if their daughter is your friend."
"And she must be a nice girl, the way you talk about her, Morty." Leonard teased. "So, your Grandmother and I would like to meet her and her family."
"Sure, I'll let Kitty know now." Morty said. "Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa."
Morty hurried on upstairs to tell Kitty, passing by his sister who was on the phone.
"Yeah, Lindsay, me and Dakota are excited to go to that Christmas party," Summer said, and looked over her shoulder as Morty passed by. "Merry Christmas, Morty!"
Morty waves back at his sister he hurries upstairs.
"Merry Christmas, Summer." Morty said in passing to his sister.
Harold carefully laid out board games on the coffee table. He set marshmallows, cinnamon sticks, and peppermints out for a build-your-own hot chocolate bar. He even dug out all the extra hats and scarves possible from every closet in the house, for what would hopefully be a truly amazing snowman building contest.
Today, he had invited all of his friends over for a Christmas party. Or Yule, as Dawn would put it, today was only the twenty-first, but it was never too early to get into the holiday spirit.
There was only one problem.
Harold peeked into the mixing bowl he had been fussing over for hours, as if fifteen minutes away would have sorted out the mess inside. No such luck.
He had been trying to make gingerbread. It would an awesome winter activity, to make cookies with his friends, have them all decorate them however they wanted, it would surely yield some awesome and hilarious results. Or so he had thought.
Instead, the mixture in the bowl looked less like gingerbread, and more like a lumpy, tri-colored mush. It was definitely not up to par.
He'd been having trouble with it from the start, he was supposed to mix the butter and sugar together, but they just weren't blending right. And then he'd thrown all the other ingredients in hopes that that would help. No such luck.
He was just contemplating running off to the store to buy a premade tube of dough, when the doorbell rang. Well, too late for that.
"Coming!" The nerd said, running over to the entry way and pulled the door open to reveal Dawn and Cody standing outside, laden with wrapped presents.
"Hey guys! Come on in!" Harold said.
The two shuffled inside.
"We may have gone overboard on the gifts." Cody said.
"Nonsense," Dawn replied, "you can never go overboard on showing your friends you care."
She set down her own stack of presents, dusted herself off, and gave Harold a hug.
"Now Harold," she said, pulling backward, "I can see from your aura that something is bothering you. What is it? If you'd like to say."
"Jeez, well, I guess you could say I'm having cookie issues.
The two followed Harold as he led them into the kitchen. Cody wrinkled his nose when he revealed the mixture to them.
"Hmm," Dawn murmured. "I can see how this would be dissatisfying."
"Dude, you didn't soften the butter enough." Cody gestured vaguely. "You've got to make it so everything can like, incorporate."
"Huh, I didn't think that through then, guess I should start over?"
Dawn clapped her hands. "Oh Yes! That would be fun! We could help you!"
They settle into the kitchen. Harold pulls out two new sticks of butter from the fridge, and sets them on the counter.
"Now what?"
"Should we microwave them a little bit?" Cody asks.
"Oh no!" Dawn exclaims, "The outcome of that would just be disastrous! Melted butter everywhere!"
Harold decides to take her word for it.
"So what should we do? Just leave them out for a while?"
"That is the safest course of action, yes."
Harold groans. "That's going to take forever! We don't have time!"
Almost as if to prove his point, the doorbell rings. "And i'm right!"
"Oh! It's Morty!" Dawn smiles. "Maybe he'll have some ideas."
Harold doesn't bother to ask how she knows who's at the door. By this point he's used to Dawn's somewhat unnerving abilities. He runs off to answer the door.
It turns out it is indeed Morty, along with his grandpa Rick, and Kitty.
"Hey! It's my adventure squad!"
Rick snorts derisively. "Okay Space Cadet, *urp* if you say so."
Harold ignores the comment and waves them inside.
"H-hey man," Morty says. "How are you?"
"Been better Morty my dude, we're having technical difficulties with the cookies."
Harold leads them to the kitchen, where Cody has unwrapped one of the sticks and started prodding it with a fork, an immensely bored expression on his face.
Dawn claps her hands when she sees them.
"Morty! It's good to see you!" She shifts her gaze to Rick and narrows her eyes. "And you must be Rick."
"The one and only, ignoring multiple universes and timelines. *urp*"
Kitty leans over the bowl containing Harold's first attempt at cookies and wrinkles her nose.
"Let me guess, cold butter?"
"Yes!" Harold says. "Damn, how does everyone seem to know how to make these except me?"
Kitty rests a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Harold, practice makes perfect! How about we do something else fun while we wait?"
The others agree and head over to the living room for board games.
"Well *urp* guess I'd better leave you kids to deal with your first world problems *urp* try not to lose too many brain cells in the process." Rick says, as he heads for the door.
Morty's PoV
Morty runs to stop Rick before he leaves the driveway. "Rick, wait!"
"What Morty, *urp* you ready to ditch those little cretins already?"
"No!" Morty pants. "Harold seemed really disappointed about those cookies, I know you can do something, please?"
"Listen Morty, *urp* I don't have time to make sure a bunch of kids get their daily overdose of sugar and butter, Morty."
"Oh come on!" Morty cries, getting frustrated. "I've helped you with so many things, so many times, without question! Why can't you do this one simple thing for me and my friends!"
Rick rolls his eyes. "Fine *urp* but only to stop your whining, Morty."
He pulls out his portal gun and opens up a swirling green portal. He steps inside and disappears for few minutes.
He returns, and shoves two sticks of room-temperature butter towards Morty.
"Here Morty *urp* you happy now?"
"Thanks! How'd you get them?"
"I went a few hours ahead in time, *urp* broke back into the house and took them out of the kitchen. It's not rocket science, Morty."
"You- oh, whatever. Thanks Rick!" Morty runs back inside.
Rick stood there, wondering if he should... nah, he'll keep it a surprise.
Morty finds Harold and the rest of the friends in the living room, where Harold seems to be explaining some sort of tabletop board game. He looks up when Morty comes in.
"Hey Man, do you want to play as- woah, is that what I think it is?"
Morty just nods, holding up the butter triumphantly.
Harold breaks out into a grin. "Wow Morty, You really came through!"
And with that the group moves to the kitchen for gingerbread making round two as both Zoey and Noah shown up soon after they started mixing ingredients, and joined in on the fun.
What started out as diligent cookie making soon devolved into an all-out flour war. Morty leaped and dodged fistfuls of the powder and accidentally bumped into a giggling Kitty, who was already covered in a light dusting that looked like snow. They both toppled over.
"S-sorry!"
Kitty grinned back at him as he helped her up. "That's okay, it comes with the territory! Help me get the rest of these guys!"
In spite of everything, they wound up with a sizable and tasty looking wad of gingerbread dough. It might not make Gordon Ramsey proud, but for the seven friends it was more than good enough.
Harold dug out a bag of cookie cutters for the others to choose from, while Cody started rolling out the dough.
Dawn dug through the cookie cutter bag, fishing out one that on closer inspection appeared to be the outline of one of the little alien dudes from toy story. She held it out to Morty.
"I have a feeling this will be the cookie shape you align with most, would you like it."
"Oh, uh, okay." Morty took the cookie cutter. He had to admit, it was pretty cute, even if Rick has said the Aliens from the film were consistered blackface to a race known as the Zaffin.
Kitty grabbed a cutter shaped like a velociraptor with glee.
"Where do you get these things, Harold?"
Harold looked over. "Oh, yeah, my family has kind of a tradition, we have to find the weirdest cookie cutters we can every winter and add them to our collection. I think there's even one shaped like Mexico in there."
They each get their cookies into the oven and head back to the living room for board games while Harold sets the timer.
After a brutal round of Uno, Marvel cinematic universe edition, that ended with an out-of-nowhere win from Zoey, Harold tried to get some more infomation from Morty about the Amusement Park adventure, though like a fool, he asked a little too loud, making the others want to hear the story to Morty's embarrassment. Thank whatever being out there Harold didn't bring up the Blumbus or Vampire adventures.
"Well, for some reason, Rick decided to, you know, make a amusment park inside some random hobo, like, think Disney and Jurrasic Park mixed together with the human body to make "Anatomy Park", trademarked by Rick by the way." Morty pointed out before resuming the story.
"But then one thing, like, happened, then another, soon enough, everything was trying to kill everyone working there, me and Rick. Turns out some guy was paid to do it, we had to leave behind the guy in charge, who turned out didn't wanna be left behind..."
"Hated that movie." Dawn muttered to herself, with Zoey being the only one to notice that.
"And so, me and Rick made it out alive, none worse for wear i guess." Morty finished.
"What about that Annie girl you mentioned?" Harold asked, Morty giving him a "REALLY?!" look on his face as everyone was too busy looking at the nerd to notice before regaining his composure.
"Who's Annie?" Kitty asked, curious about this girl who was just brought up now.
"Oh, her. No-nobody really." Morty started to sputter, getting back in control. "She worked there and was the only other survivor. She stayed behind to rebuild the park, haven't seen her since, but nice girl. Heh."
Giving that weak chuckle, Morty was glad he didn't mention the kiss to Harold, though he wished she wasn't brought up at all, especially with-
"RRINNGG!"
"Oh hey, cookies are done! Let go ice 'em!" Morty said, putting on a smile, rushing to the kitchen to take them out and to change the topic. "Ha, ice pun! Haha!"
As everyone grabbed their freshly made cookies, Cody tried to decorate his with icing, but after it immediately melts upon contact with the piping-hot cookie, while Morty went to ice his and accidently got some on Zoey's face, which she laughed off.
Harold then steered them all outside to the front yard to build snowmen while they waited for them to cool.
They split up into teams, Morty with Kitty and Noah, and Dawn with Zoey and Cody. Harold appointed himself Judge of the soon-to-be snowman building contest.
"Your snow-creatures will be judged on three categories!" Harold bellows in his best reality TV announcer voice.
"Firstly! Size. Any snow creature over six feet tall gets extra points! Second! Originality. We're not looking for regular old Frosty's here, though it would be cool if they came to life… Anyway!"
He gestures at the piles of winter clothing he'd left out on the porch.
"The third category is fashionability! You want to have the best looking snow critter on the block. The winners get first dibs at the hot chocolate bar, and the first round opening presents!"
"Well, let's get to it!" Kitty cried.
They start rolling snowballs. Morty got his as big and far as he could, then flopped over it, panting when he couldn't move it any further. Kitty jumped right in to help him at that point, and they pushed it until it reached a respectable size.
A glance at the other team's sculpture created a pit in Morty's stomach. Was that… A frickin' swan? It was clear they weren't going to win this off of artistic talent alone. It was go big or go home.
It's just a game, he reminded himself. What's most important is we have fun. Still, he wanted to make sure he and his team did the best they could.
All three of them started trying to lift the second largest snowball on top of the first, but after several minutes of trying they realized they couldn't, the lift was too far, the snow was too heavy, and they didn't have the strength for it. It was time to come up with a new plan.
"Okay, hear me out." Noah said as they held a group huddle. "We make a snow-caterpillar. Keep rolling snowballs, and those will be the different segments. Then we can focus on details like legs and eyes, whathaveyou, yeah?"
Morty and Kitty nodded in agreement.
They set to work with renewed vigor. The other teams swan was looking more elegant by the minute, but they had creative desperation on their side. As the clock was counting down- the clock being Harold counting the seconds in a bellowing announcer's voice- they put the finishing touches on their snow-caterpillar with a flourish.
"AND TIME!" Harold yelled.
They all stepped away from their snow sculptures, panting and grinning. Harold surveys them appraisingly.
"And we have some very excellent work here today! On my right, a lovely swan!"
"That was Dawn's idea!" Cody declared.
"And on my left, uh, it's…"
"A caterpillar!" Morty interjected.
"Of course! An absolutely smashing caterpillar. With scarves for legs. A nice touch."
He looks them over once again.
"Kay folks, i think it's a tie on originality. Can't say I've ever seen a snow swan, or a snow caterpillar before, so you both got me there, and size… Well, the caterpillar is objectively bigger, but neither team passed the six feet mark… oh whatever, Morty's team wins that one, and fashionability…"
He glanced from the caterpillar scarf legs, to the yellow gloves delicately tucked under the snow swan to mimic the appearance of feet.
"Both excellent uses for winter wear, but I think I'll have to hand it to team Caterpillar!"
Morty, Noah, and Kitty cheered loudly. The other team clapped appreciatively, and they ran over to check out their swan.
"It looks amazing!" Kitty said. "How did you get the neck to support the head like that? It's so thin!"
"Physics!" Zoey said, "And a few icicles. Whose idea was it with the legs for the caterpillar?"
"That was mine." Morty noted. "I mean, what use would a caterpillar have with a scarf? So, you know."
"Well, it's awfully smart of you Morty." Zoey smiled at him, which said boy appricated, though neither noticed the rather brief look of curiousity coming from Kitty at that.
"Who's ready for hot chocolate?!" Harold cried, breaking the (Be it brief) moment, and they filed back to the kitchen, laughing and chatting.
Morty was stirring his frothy hot chocolate with a peppermint stick, when he caught a flash of light through the kitchen window. He peered outside quizzically.
"Did you guys see that?"
Harold glanced over. "Hmm? What?"
"That, that green flash- Oh no."
Just then, a crash sounded from the entryway. Morty jumped, And Harold steadied him while instructing the rest to stay while he checked what it was. Just a second later, he ran back into the kitchen.
"Morty, your grandpa's back!"
'Damnit, not now...' Morty thought. He just new that the only reason Rick would come here is if something totally crazy happened, and he wasn't sure if he wanted the rest of his friends finding out what KIND of adventures he was offen dragged into.
Rick came staggering into the kitchen, smelling of singed fabric and… grape soda?
"Morty *urp* where are the cookies?"
"Wait, what?" Just a couple of hours ago he had made fun of them for wanting to make them, and now he wanted some? Go figure.
"No time to explain Morty! I gotta hold them off!"
"Hold them-" Morty was cut off when Rick spotted one of the cookie sheets on the stovetop and lunged for it, grabbing the whole thing and racing back for the entryway. Morty followed hastily.
What he saw in Harold's front yard created a lump in his throat. Two smoking spacecraft had formed craters in the driveway, and several pink and green aliens with multiple spindly limbs protruding from their torsos were milling about. Each of them were carrying weapons, and the looks on their faces, or what Morty assumed were their faces, didn't look friendly.
As if to prove the point, one of them pointed their… Gun? Harpoon? Laser Blaster?, at Morty, and fired. Morty dove out of the way as a ball of searing blue light crashed into the lampost he had been standing by and melted it instantly. Okay, E-Grade level laser blaster.
Rick started flinging ginger cookies at them and they recoiled, the cookies leaving angry purple marks wherever they made skin contact.
Rick used the last of the cookie ammo, then bolted back for the house Morty was right behind him.
They made it to the entryway, where the rest of the teens crowded together, staring at the scene outside. Cody, Noah, and Zoey looked lost and confused, the latter trying to paw at Morty's hand seemingly not on her own free will. Dawn was wide-eyed, but knowing. Harold and Kitty, however, were practically humming with excitement.
"This is so cool!" Harold whisper-shouted. "Do aliens come to earth often?"
"Cool?" Cody interjected, "What the hell are those things? They seem dangerous! Did you see what happened to that lamp post?"
"We're all gonna diiie!" Noah wailed.
"No, we're not Noah." Dawn reassured him.
Rick, who'd been pushing a chest of drawers towards the door, grunted derisively.
Morty was a nervous wreck. He wasn't expecting an alien attack in the middle of his friend's christmas party... well, he somewhat was, just not up to this scale! But this wasn't how he wanted the rest of his friends to find out about his… after school activities. But they were scared, well, with the exception of Harold and Kitty, and he would do anything he could to keep them safe.
"I-it's okay guys, this isn't really new to us, I'm sure we can handle it."
He gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile, and turned back to Rick, look of panic quickly plasured on that they couldn't see.
"Who are the hell are they, and why the fuck are they coming after you?" He whispered in a frantic way.
Rick groaned as he shoved the chest of drawers the last bit of the way against the doorway.
"I messed with the wrong folks Morty. Went to another dimension to grab something, *urp* you know, daily errand kind of thing, but apparently they want it too, the usual sort. And they're high tech Morty. They've been tailing me through seventeen-erp-EIGHTEEN dimensions already."
"That… doesn't sound awesome." Harold said.
"No crap! Will somebody please explain to me what's going on?" Cody interjected.
"There's no time, I'll fill you in later." Dawn hushed. "So, how do we stop them?"
"Can't you just give them back whatever you took?" Morty asked. "There's got to be more of it somewhere right?"
"Come on Morty, *urp* you know me, that's the quitter's way out. And they probably wouldn't leave it at that, after seeing all the *urp* tricks I have up my sleeve. I've got countless pieces of tech they'll want to get their hands on, Morty. Besides, I've got a plan."
Morty groaned internally. Did his plan have to involve leading a legion of technologically-advanced murderous aliens to his friend's Christmas party? But he decided to go with it anyway.
"Okay, what do we do?"
Rick, who was already striding towards the kitchen, shouted over his shoulder.
"Use your head Morty, *urp* get every ounce and variation of ginger you can find, ginger bread, ginger ale, gingerbread strapon dildos, ANYTHING GINGER in the kitchen. This is war!"
Morty and the other teens followed Rick to the kitchen.
"What do you know Ginger of all things harms them?" Dawn asked.
"*urp* I discovered their weakness by pure accident when I was trying to throw them off and crashed through an old earth spice market. They've a severe *urp* sensitivity to ginger, like deathly allergic reaction if they're exposed to too much of it, Here!" Rick tossed a cookie to Dawn and started shoveling more into his pockets, which Kitty and Harold followed suit with gusto.
Noah pulled open drawer after drawer of spices, seemingly unphased by the alien attack.
Not wanting to let his friends do all the work, Morty started grabbing stacks of cookies.
After Harold had dug out every ounce of ginger he could find, including a package of ginger candies and some packets of pickled ginger from sushi night, the ragtag alien defense crew crept back to the entryway.
Morty and Harold peered through a window, trying to assess the situation. Before they could see much, though, Rick pulled the dresser away from the door and threw it open.
Three aliens, who'd presumably been waiting for this, hissed and readied their weapons.
Rick let out a large belch.
"Charge!"
Pandemonium erupted. A few of the aliens fired their blasters and Morty and his friends had to dive out of the way. Morty and Kitty scrambled behind their snow caterpillar and peered out at the scene.
The aliens had formed a defensive cluster in the center of the yard. His friends could be seen chucking cookies at them, but they weren't able to throw them far, and every so often one of the aliens would fire their blaster and send them scattering. They needed some different strategies.
Morty began crushing up his cookies and mushing them in the snow, forming crumb-packed snow balls.
"What are you- Oh, that's brilliant!" Kitty cried.
"Follow Morty's lead!" Zoey pointed out, seeing it.
Together they built up an arsenal as quickly as they could. And not a moment too soon, because just as the emerged from their shelter they heard a loud yelp from Noah as one of the lasers missed him by inches, singing his jacket sleeve.
"H-hey!" Morty cried, drawing the aliens attention over to where they stood, before unleashing a barrage of snowballs onto them.
Several aliens were hit, and they hissed as angry welts appeared on their skin.
The rest just fired back and the teens were forced to retreat to the front porch, still chucking a variety of ginger products their way. Harold managed to clock one with a snowball covered in pickled ginger strips, and it's reaction was so bad it skittered right back to the ship and readied for take off. A few more followed and the ship hummed and blipped out of existence.
The rest just seemed more resolute and began advancing towards the porch.
"Hold the front lines!" Harold bellowed.
Morty looked around and groaned when he realized that Rick had disappeared. They had completely run out of cookies, and resorted to pelting the aliens with bits of candied ginger, but even that was running out fast, and while the aliens were definitely affected, it just wasn't enough.
Just as they were digging the last of pickled ginger out of their packets, Rick burst back out onto the porch from inside carrying what looked like a belt with several gizmos and wires duct taped to it, and a modified remote control. He immediately pulled Morty aside and started strapping the belt to him.
"Rick, what-?"
"Desperate times call for desperate improvised measures, Morty. *Urp*." Rick thrust two open containers of ground ginger into Morty's hands. "This belt will work with the earth's magnetic field to keep you *urp* suspended in the air Morty. Don't worry, I'll control it. Just be sure to knock 'em out with that ginger, Morty."
"Rick! wait I-"
But Rick had already started fiddling with the remote, and Morty could feel himself being lifted into the air.
"Woah Morty, that's AWESOME!" Harold yelled. Even the aliens were momentarily dumbfounded, but soon started to take aim and fire as Morty floated closer to them.
"Whoa!" Rick smashed some buttons on the remote and Morty was violently pulled to the side, narrowly missing two laser beams. "THAT ONE WAS MY BAD!"
Morty began to feel sick as he was jostled this way and that by the magnetic fields and Rick's piloting, but he steeled his nerves. He only had one chance. He couldn't mess this up.
Finally, he was in position, directly above the aliens. He flipped over the jars of ground ginger and shook them like his life depended on it, because honestly, it pretty much did.
The aliens hissed and scattered as the fine ginger powder settled on them. Rick franticly piloted Morty's magnet belt so he could stay above them while still avoiding the shots from their weapons. After several grueling minutes where Morty was sure he was on the verge of losing his cookies, literally, the aliens seemed to have had enough, and hurriedly piled into their spaceships and blipped away.
Rick lowered Morty to the ground, and his friends cheered and wrapped him in a giant hug.
"I am still not over the fact that aliens exist, but you did great out there!" Cody said.
"Oh man, my parents will not be happy about the yard, but that was so cool!" Said Harold.
Kitty just gave Morty a big hug. "That was close!"
Then to her surprise, Zoey joined in. "Very close, nice job!"
"Yeah, thanks guys!" Morty said. He turned to Rick. "What was it they wanted anyway?"
Rick grunted. "See, *urp* there was this movie your mom wanted to see years ago. The Incredible something something, whatever *urp* I never took her, she never really got over it, and there's hardly any remaining copies anywhere, so I thought 'Hey, why not do some dimension hopping and get it for her this year?' But obviously *urp*, those guys wanted it too. Hell if I know why. There's probably some serious information hidden in there like "Enemy of The State", only with a VHS instead of a computer card that somehow fit in a TurboExpress, or PC Engine GT in Japan. Probably why most of the copies were destroyed, but there you have it. *urp*"
"Wow Rick, that's... actually somewhat thoughtful." Morty said, bit surprised.
"Yeah, *urp* but don't gush about it."
Dawn narrowed her eyes at Rick. "So why would you lead them here and put your grandson and all of us in danger when you could have led the aliens to say, a ginger farm instead?"
Rick pondered for a second, actually thrown off. "Hmmpf, never thought of that, Lovegood. But Morty here *urp* can handle it."
He clapped Morty on the shoulder. "Well *urp* I should get going. Let you wild kids get back to your little party here."
And with that he pulled out his portal gun, opened a portal, and stepped through.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, all things considered. When Harold's parents came home they made up a story about a sudden intense lightning storm to explain the damage in the yard, and while they seemed skeptical, they weren't angry. They spent the rest of the night drinking hot chocolate, playing board games, and opening presents.
Dawn and Cody had picked out gifts for each of them. Morty's gift was a T-shirt that read 'I Want to Believe' with a little ufo on it, as if fate was being a dick to him.
The night wound down to a close, and Morty hugged his friends goodbye. When Kitty's mom came to pick her up, she offered Morty a ride too, which he was all too glad to accept.
As he was dropped off at his door, he turned back to see Kitty waving brightly at him.
"Merry Christmas Morty!"
He waved back, and smiled.
We find ourselves looking into a quaint lovely coffee shop, where only a few people were in, and in a far corner was a booth capable of seating five people. And in it was seated Kitty and Emma, who had brought Noah along, with two other adults with them.
One was a older woman, looking just like Emma, but with a fuller face, her hair longer and swept back and she wore glasses. She was dressed in a red sweater and black jeans. This was Jennifer Rosewood, Kitty and Emma's mother.
Next to her was her husband, a debonair, older, refined man. His hair slicked back, grey and black goatee trimmed and face was very chiseled, very handsome, and he had a calm, serene sorta look about him. David Rosewood was his name. Dressed in a black silk button up shirt, but he had the sleeves of a heavy winter coat tied around his waist.
"So, when did they say they'd get here, Kitten?" David asked Kitty.
"Oh, soon, Daddy. In fact they said they were parking up front when I got the text." Kitty said.
"Oh, I think I see them." Emma said as she saw Morty enter through the front door in winter gear with two older people, a man and a woman.
A elderly man, and a woman of equal age, with wrinkly skin and big hair. Her hair was blonde and dim and, very poofy and wavy. She wore a red turtleneck sweater and a white jacket. She also wore a light purple skirt with a black belt.
"Morty, over here!" Kitty called out, waving to Morty.
Morty waved back, and walked over with the other two, who smiled at the five in the booth.
"Hey, Kitty, Emma, good to see you again. Same with you Noah." Morty said as they got up from the booth.
Kitty hugged Morty with a giggle, causing Morty to blush, but return the hug.
"Yeah, I'm fine with a handshake." Emma teased as she shook Morty's hand.
"Good to see you again as well." Noah said, giving a nod to Morty as Emma walked over to where her parents and Morty's grandparents were.
"Hi." Jennifer greets the elder couple. "I'm Jennifer, and this my husband David."
"Hello, it's so nice to meet you," The woman greeted. "I'm Joyce, and this is Leonard, my husband." She shook Jennifer's hand warmly.
"A pleasure." Leonard said shaking David's hand. "We're Morty's grandparents, we apologize that his parents couldn't come, but we figured as long as you met some parental figures."
"Even if they were Grandparent figures." Joyce joked.
"Of course, and I think it's quite understandable," David said. "We were fortunate to get this time off, so we'll happily chat with you."
"Mom, is it alright if me, Emma, Noah and Morty catch up at another table while you too talk?" Kitty asked hesitantly.
Jennifer looked at her husband, who nods at her thoughtful expression.
"Of course, it'll give us more of a change to chat since we doubt you kids will want to be involved with the conversation." Jennifer said with a teasing wink at Morty.
Morty chuckled nervous, but Kitty patted his shoulder, Emma gave him a friendly nudge.
"Come on, Morty, help Kitty find a table, i'll be around in a bit." Emma said.
"Okay, we'll be over there, Grandma and Grandpa." Morty said to Joyce and Leonard.
"Okay, if you need anything just come over, Sweetie." Joyce said kissing Morty on the cheek.
Morty blushed, as Kitty giggled, the two heading off with Noah as Emma stayed behind, having her own reasons.
"He's such a shy thing." Joyce said with a small sigh.
"But he's improving." Leonard said as he sat at the booth, watching as the others sat down, and seeing the kids get a table not too far off.
"Oh yes, he used to be bad with stuttering," Joyce admits. "But he's come a long way from then, Leonard."
"I can still hear you!" Morty's voice rang out, having heard that embarrassing detail.
Jennifer, David and Emma glanced at each other.
"Yes, we heard he was..." Jennifer frowned trying to think of the proper words.
"Unsociable." David said in helpful manner.
"Yes, yes, but we believe that's your daughters work," Joyce said. "Kitty is a fantastic young girl from what we heard, and she and Emma are fine young ladies."
"Thank you Mrs. Smith." Emma smiled, hoping they get to some juicy info.
"Yep, Morty's told us how Kitty's been such a good friend to him, and a real positive influence." Leonard said with a happy smile.
"That is High Praise, Leonard." David said.
"But that does make us proud of Kitty." Jennifer said. "She's always been a sweet girl, friendly, and always bringing out the best in others."
"We were slightly worried, but if Kitty, Emma and Morty say they bring out the best in him. Then we can trust him." David said.
Leonard nods with Joyce.
"We understand, a boy getting so close to your child, it's understandable to be worried." Leonard said.
"But Morty is the best creature in the world, and would never hurt someone like your sweet daughters." Joyce said.
"We just never heard of him really socializing, and heard he didn't have any friends before the girls met him." Jennifer said in a apologetic tone.
"That is sad." Emma frowned, holding Joyce's hand.
"No, your right, he didn't really have any." Joyce said with a sad expression.
"Except for Rick, I don't think anyone else got him to get out of the house and do stuff." Leonard said.
"Rick is..." David asked with a furtive expression.
"Oh, Rick Sanchez, Morty's Maternal Grandfather." Leonard said.
"He and Morty hang out together a lot, Rick often takes him on trips..." Leonard trails off, rubbing his chin with a frown. "Well, lets say, out of town. On Business trips."
Jennifer noticed, but decided not to say anything about the slight delay.
"Well, they must be close then, but it's good to have friends outside of Family, of course." Jennifer said.
"We are glad our girls get on so well, but it's nice to know they're befriending Morty, and he them." David said.
"Yes, actually, we're kinda relieved." Joyce said.
"Relieved you say?" Emma asked, trying to bait some answers out of her about Rick.
"'Why?'" David asked. That's what Emma was looking for.
"Oh...well, nothing serious but.." Joyce looks at Leonard for help.
"It's just that Rick, tends not to be the most positive role model, and Morty himself often tries to avoid him if he's...not in the mood for Rick." Leonard said.
David and Jennifer exchanged worried stares. It sounded like they didn't have anything to worry about Morty, but the Grandfather Rick didn't sound promising.
"I mean, it's not easy since Rick now is living with Morty's family." Leonard said.
"But Rick's Mother insists on Morty spending time with his Grandfather," Joyce explains. "And really, before Kitty, there wasn't anyone else for Morty to hang out with. And Beth wants Rick and Morty to really bond, after Rick's being gone for Twenty years."
David and Jennifer looked alarmed.
"Rick hasn't been around his family in 20 years!?" David said incredulous.
"Please, don't misunderstand. I am positive that Jerry and Beth have things under control," Leonard said. "They wouldn't let Rick take Morty on those trips, if he abused their trust."
David and Jennifer looked at each other in surprise, but after a bit they nodded.
"Mom, dad?" Emma asked, noting their reaction.
"I suppose so, if they're anything like you two, or us." Jennifer said with acceptance in her voice.
"Oh, well, I don't know about that," Leonard laughed. "But they do care for their kids, and your children will be fine if they hang out with Morty."
"Of course. It would be cruel to tell them, they couldn't see each other." David said. "I mean, it's kinda moot since they're so close now."
"Which I think we both approve of." Jennifer states. "Morty..he's a calm, level headed young man. And our Kitten could use someone like him for a friend."
They all got a good laugh out of that, though Emma was hoping to get more out of them, but she had to play the part as the other teens over at the next table looked over in surprise.
"Well, they're laughing, that's a good thing." Morty said.
"Yeah." Kitty turned with a pout. "But I can't help feeling they're laughing at something involving me."
Noah laughed, and nudged Kitty's shoulder, trying to get her to focus, and Kitty looked to Morty.
"So, anything exciting happen to you lately?" Kitty asked Morty. "I mean, we've just been pretending to talk while trying to read our parents, and your grandparents lips."
Morty blushed, as Noah shook his head in amused exasperation.
"Well, not really...except..." Morty looked nervous. "You...uh, remember when it rained blood a while back, right?"
"Morty, are you serious?" Noah asked shocked. "The whole United States remembers things getting Biblical, I'm pretty sure it's gonna go down into the History books taught a hundred years from now!"
Morty twiddled his fingers nervously.
"Well, it kinda, maybe, possibly, totally was my Grandpa Rick's doing." Morty confessed.
Noah blinked incredulous, but Kitty gasped, not doubting Morty.
"Whaaaaaat. Your...I mean, do I even WANT to ask WHY, or HOW?" Kitty asked.
"Ummm...you don't want to know the HOW," Morty said with a grimace. "But basically, me and some others were trapped in a sorta tech-bubble miniaturized, and so Rick had to do something drastic to rescue me and them."
Noah was a tad dubious.
"I'd say your full of it." Noah frowned. "But given no one else came forward and Rick's reputation, I'd say this pretty much explains it. Yikes."
Kitty grimaced.
"Well, I'm very much glad your alright, Morty. But please, please, please DO NOT tell us 'how' and 'what' happened."
"Long as you don't mention any of this to your parents, I think we should be okay." Morty pointed out, laughter among the teens.
Author Note: I hope you enjoy the chapter, for those that are confuse about the metion of Melody and the Blumbus adventure, that from the Rick and Morty comics #8. For those of your that don't know, Rick and Morty has a comic book series that stars a Rick and Morty from an alternate dimension than their TV counterparts (Dimension C-132), in order to remove worries about continuity with the original show and to give more free reign to the writers. I love the comic series so much that I plan on using characters, contact, and elements from the comics in my story. I know it in a alternate dimension, but this is my story. This chapter is showing the aftermath of Harold and Kitty first dark adventure with Rick and Morty. It was to tie up some lose ends, Morty Harold and Kitty are dealing with the horrible implications of what Rick did. But true to the morally of the show I wanted to show Rick actions were the Lesser of the two evils, and the Chosen actions were going to destroy themselves along with there world, Rick my have to trick and destroy them, but if they success they would slowly destroy there world and themselves. But in typical Rick fashion, he has a selfish reason for his actions, something to profit from this adventure. For Morty paternal grandparents meeting Kitty parents, I wanted Kitty parents to be curious about Rick and step up a meeting to learn about him. Remember Emma in chapter 7 decide to investigate Rick and Morty, this will play into a future chapter.