"Dad wake up!?" Rick jumped up, empty bottle the only weapon he had at the moment but he had survived with less. "Beth, baby girl you know better to wake me when im p-p-passed out drunk." With a loud burp he dropped the bottle and rubbed his eyes. The movement next to him caused him to go ridged.
"Who the hell is that?" Beth motioned to the women curled under a blanket next to her father. Her voice piercing the air made him want to cringe. "Fuck me." The ebony hair woman mumbled as she turned in her place but Beth was far from done, "You've missed breakfast for three mornings straight but not today." Before Rick could wrap his head around what she was saying she bolted out of the garage closing the door loudly behind her.
Scarlett sat up straight a yawn escaping her lips, "What was that all about?" Getting up Rick walked over to chair and grabbed his lab coat before putting it on, "Staying up for the last couple nights getting shit faced with you hasn't gone - urpp- unnoticed by my daughter. It's breakfast time." Scarlett's eyebrow cocked up. "Okay well have fun." She said knowing full well she didn't' want to be part of a family breakfast. This was the first time she had even seen anyone but Morty over the last couple days.
Rick held the door open, "Let's go. She makes amazing eggs." He said flatly waiting for the woman to get the hint. Blowing a huff of air out of her lungs she reluctantly got up. She ran her fingers feverishly through her hair as she followed him to the dining room. Everyone seated but Beth. Hesitating Scarlett took an empty seat between Rick and Morty. The smells tickling her nose, reminding her that she was pretty hungry.
"Good morning Scarlett."
"Hey kid. Good Morning." She flashed the boy a smile before picking up the glass of water in front of her and took a few satisfying gulps hoping she didn't reek of liquor. "Is no one going to ask who that is?"
"T-that's Grandpa Rick's friend Scarlett." She tipped her glass as a hello to the girl. Must be another one of Rick's grandkids. Jerry was so focused on his tablet she was sure that he didn't even notice her presence. Better that way, he was sort of dim in a way Scarlett was sure she would get annoyed with easily.
It wasn't long before Beth came out and put pancakes on everyone's plates and then bringing out plates of bacons and eggs that everyone was free to pass around. "So you're a friend of my Dads?" Scarlett looked over to the blonde; this was uncharted territory for her. "On some days." She said honestly a small smile on her lips. "Are you even human?" Summer asked leaning across the table to get a look at the woman. This was the first time they had met one of Grandpa Rick's 'friends'.
"That's really rude Summer. Why don't you just ask her how many nipples she's got?" Scarlett couldn't hold in her laughter at Rick's words. His eyes glanced over, lips pulled into a quick smirk before he started shoving pancakes down his throat. "I'm human" she offered up before Summer went back to her food. Beth on the other hand was still staring at her, calculating, trying to figure out where how long they might have known each other. "Dad did you have any more kids when you left mom?" Scarlett started to choke on her eggs.
Rick sighed heavily. His jealous daughter could be such a pain in the ass. "You're my one and only sweet heart." The tension in her shoulders almost completely disappeared with her father's words. With a few sips of orange juice and Morty patting her on the back Scarlett was finally able to get herself together a scowl on her face, "Im old enough to be your mother." She said earning herself a good glare from Rick while everyone on the table paused, looking toward her. Morty fidgeting in his seat.
"Who the heck are you?"
"Shut up Jerry. Dad?" Beth asked eyes about to fall out of their sockets. "L-l-look what you did now?" Scarlett elbowed the man, "How is this my fault? You're the ass hat taking about her great eggs. I just wanted to sleep." Pinching the bridge of his nose he was always the type to have his family on a need to know basis and usually they was no need for them to know. Rolling her eyes Scarlett faced Beth, "I was stuck in a cryo-chamber so I look young but according to my birth certificate im actually sixty five." She turned her attention to her pancakes now that that was out of the way but the silence proved otherwise.
"You're like, older then grandpa." At this Scarlett had a good laugh and it seemed for the moment everything was just accepted as another one of Rick's science things.
Being the decently good person she was Scarlett helped bring dirty dishes into the kitchen and in the sink. "You really don't have to do that. Any friend of my dad's is a guest in this house." It was strange how nice she was trying to be, almost trying to impress her. "So how long have you known him?" Beth was a little hesitant but for the life of her she always wanted to know more about her father.
Scarlett finished clearing the table and leaned against one of the counters. "Well we knew each other a long time ago, acquaintances really." Beth's eyes cast down wards, she was probably hoping for some intimate information about the man. "He just came back to our lives two years ago so im just trying my best to know him." The blond had started to wash the dishes. "Well if it means anything back then he was doing some amazing things all in the purist of freedom. You should be proud of that." She gave Beth's shoulder a squeeze before making her way back to the garage. Scarlett had enough bonding for one day.
The woman wasn't ashamed as she started looking at the man's book case seeing what he had. Little robots, machines and boxes all over the place. Before she could touch anything Rick and Morty had come in, "Yeah, Morty, if you like that, boy, you're you're really going to flip your lid over this one." She turned around to see him showing Morty a small device. "W-w-w-what is it?"
"It's a device, Morty, that when you put it in your ear, you can enter people's dreams, Morty. It's just like that movie that you keep crowing about." Making her way around the two she took a good look at whatever it was. "You talking about 'Inception'?"
She scrunched her nose not sure what they were talking about. "That's right, Morty. This is gonna be a lot like that, except, you know, it's gonna may -urpp- be make sense." The boy looked over at his grandpa with a frown, "Inception made sense." He replied dryly. "You don't have to try to impress me, Morty. Listen, tonight we're gonna go into the home of your math teacher, Mr. Goldenfold, and we're gonna incept the idea in his brain to give you A's in math, Morty. That way you can, you know, y-you're gonna help me with my science, Morty, all the time."
"What's inception?" she finally asked. The kid looked at her, jaw slacked. "You've never seen Inception?" This earned him a smack to the back of his head from Rick. "She just woke up, don't be a shit head." Morty looked at her with an apologetic look. "Don't worry about it. Guess I have to catch up on my movies." She mumbled looking back at the little ear pieces, picking one up in her hand. "You know in the time it took you to make this thing, couldn't you have just, you know, helped the kid with his homework?"
"Yea what the h-h-heck Rick?" This got them both a death glare, "Are you listening to me, Morty? Homework is stupid. The whole point is to get less of it." He snatched the piece from her hand and shoved it in his pocket along with a few more. "Come on, let's just get over there and deal with this thing. W-we're gonna incept your teacher. You're both frustrating me."
He started to stomp of to the space cruiser and all Morty and Scarlett could do was follow. "You guys do this stuff all the time?" She asked and the kid shook his head, "First time in someone's dreams b-b-but we go to adventures, you know to other places all the time." The idea intrigued her as they all got into the cruiser. Scarlett opted to sitting in the back between the two.
"Wow, Rick, I can't believe we're sitting around, standing around in Mr. Goldenfold's house. It's really weird." Scarlett was the last to get through the window; she looked around for only a moment before her eyes went back to Rick. "It's about to get a whole lot weirder, Morty." He jammed one of the devices in the teacher's ear before handing one to Scarlett, "Should I maybe stay awake, just in case it goes bad and you need someone to wake him up?" She thumbed over to Mr. Goldenfold. "You could, I don't know piss your pants or something if things go wrong."
Rick turned Morty's device on and he slumped to the floor, "Behave." He said playfully before sitting on his own bean bag and turning his device on. Scarlett was sure there was nothing she could even get into if she wanted to so she sat on the floor eating wheat thins and watching TV.
"Allahu –urrpp- Akbar! We're gonna take control of this plane! We're gonna 9/11 it unless Morty Smith gets better grades in math!" The two looked over to see Mr. Golden fold get up facing the two. "Hey! I said nobody move, buddy!" The smirk on his teachers face gave Morty a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "The name's not buddy. It's Goldenfold. Nice to wheat you!"
The two ducked when the wheat thins coming at them were more like ninja stars then snacks. This was not going the way Rick had planned it at all. "Take cover, Morty! Goldenfold's got more control here than I anticipated. I mean, the guy teaches high-school math. –urrp- I didn't take him for an active dreamer. We've got to take him out so he wakes up, Morty but we can't get killed. If you get killed in someone else's dream, you die for real, Morty." The kid's eyes went wide. "What?! Are you kidding me?! Ohhhhhh!"
Rick rolled his eyes at his grandson's dramatics, "Don't be a baby! You avoid getting shot in real life all the time, Morty. Just do the same thing here, and we'll be fine!"
Scarlett didn't realize how boring this was going to be. She placed the now empty bowl of wheat thins back on the sleeping man and roamed around his home finding nothing of interest around. "Damn it, I should have just gone." She mumbled to no one but herself. She moved the small device between her fingers remembering Rick's words before he left but Scarlett was far from the type to behave.
"Pee Morty. You got to pee yourself." He said as they sailed over to Mrs. Pancakes who had a parachute. "Im trying b-but I can't." There was no point even if Morty could pee his pants there was no sure way of knowing if he peed outside of the dream world. "Oh, no, Rick, look! Goldenfold landed the plane and he's created a mechanical arm to pluck Mrs. Pancakes out of the air while he lets us fall - into a giant vat of lava!" The two looked down for a moment. "Pretty concise, Morty. Looks like we've merely prolonged the inevitable. That's it, Morty! Prolonging the inevitable! Listen, if we go into Mrs. Pancakes' dream, everything will go 100 times slower, Morty. That'll buy us some time to figure this out!"
Rick whacked Mrs. Pancakes knocking her out and the two incepted her dream. "Oh, man, Rick, this is pretty weird." They were now in some strange S&M dungeon filled with obscure gooey, monstrous, alien-like creatures doing the nasty. Before Rick could open his mouth Scarlett appeared beside them. "What the hell?" She mumbled looking around at the scene in front of her. "What are you doing here?" He asked knowing that there was no way Goldenfold would be dreaming about her if he had never seen her.
"I got bored" she said shooing off a small gnome that want to take her top off. "Okay. All right, well Look, Mrs. Pancakes is right over there. I'll just go ask her to tell Goldenfold not to kill us when she wakes up." They all looked over to see the TV character whipping a strange alien like creature. "Whoa, whoa, Morty, the trick to incepting is making people think they came up with the idea. Listen to me. If we're gonna incept Mrs. Pancakes, we have to blend. I'll talk to you after lunch." Rick started to take his clothes off before running deep into the S&M scene before them. "I guess we should stick together unless you want to - you know." Morty glanced at her mortified. "N-No thank you." He said, his cheek pooling with heat.
She chuckled as the two walked around trying to avoid as many creatures as possible, Morty constantly hiding behind her. "Hey there sexy." Scarlett tried to maneuver around the large women wearing a bunny mask, a fly swatter in her hand. "Damn it." She said when she lost her top but at least got away with her dignity. Morty wouldn't look at her as they kept walking, her hands crossed tightly over her chest in an attempt to shield herself from the already self-conscious Morty. "Ooh!" the two looked up at a sexualized version of his sister. "Summer!?" He said, heart sinking into his stomach. "Hey, there, strangers. What do you think of these things?"
Scarlett knew this was no time to laugh at the kid probably being scared for life. "Ohh! Oh! Gross! Gross!" He turned trying not to puke. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's the matter with you, Morty? Calm down! You're kind of killing the vibe in here." He said eyes glancing over to see Scarlett missing a top. Her dark purple bra standing out against her pale smooth skin, Rick's fingers twitching at his side. "It's Summer! Aw, geez."
"Looks like Goldenfold has some predilections so shameful he buries them in the dreams of the people in his dreams, including a pervy attraction to your underage sister." Now that was a little gross. "Can you blame him? Come on, old man, little boy. Let's make an inter-generational sandwich." That sort of made Scarlett's stomach queez a little bit.
"Oh, my God. Put some clothes on for the love of God Summer! Put some - I'm gonna puke! I swear to God I'm gonna puke!"
"Oh, my God! Put some clothes on, for Pete's sake! This is disgusting! I can't take it, Rick!"
Looking around at all the attention they were getting, Scarlett tried to push the two away, "Sexual hang-ups in the pleasure chamber are punishable by death! Off with their heads!" A buff in charge looking centaur came out of nowhere. "Uh, you guys." She mumbled before Rick jumped up and put the creature into a sleeper hold. "Time to go another dream deep, Morty, Scarlett, turn your devices on." They didn't have to be told twice.
"What the actual Fuck." Looking around she wasn't sure how to make heads of tails of this place. "What the hell? Why would Mr. Goldenfold's dream version of Mrs. Pancakes' dream version of a Centaur be dreaming about a scary place like this, Rick?" The place did give Scarlett goosebumps, "Geez, I don't know, Morty. Wha-what do you want from me?"
"Welcome to your nightmare, bitch! RAAAAAWWWRRR!"
"Oh shit!" Scarlett was the first to start running, the other two hot on her trail. "Looks like some sort of legally safe knock-off of an '80s horror character with miniature swords for fingers instead of knives."
"I'm Scary Terry. You can run, but you can't hide, bitch!"
Scarlett didn't dare look back her feet moving taking her left and right avoiding Scary Terry where ever he kept popping out from. "Holy crap! We have to escape into someone else's dreams!"
"There is no one here but us Rick!" Scarlett tried to think, her brain going into over drive. Morty's screams jolt the woman and she couldn't help but stop to pull him out of harm's way. Scary Terry's mini swords slicing at her. With a small movement he missed skin and only gets her shirt, leaving a long slice up the front. "The little girl!" Up ahead Rick finds a little girl jump roping, singing some annoyingly ominous tune, knocking her out they turned on their devices.
"Are you kidding me? This again? Oh, man, it looks like we've hit dream bedrock here." Scarlett couldn't help but rub her face at the mess they were in. Maybe she would've been better off behaving. "Oh, geez, Rick. W-w-whoa, this isn't good."
"Nothing but fear from here on out, bitch!" In desperation Scarlett gave Morty a little push and they were off running again. "Holy crap, Morty. He can travel through dreams. He can travel through dreams! We're so screwed!" The trio wasn't sure just how much longer they could keep running.
"Look doors!" It was the only different thing they had scene besides these dark red hallways and they took it. Outside it was nighttime and everything looked decrepit. Scarlett's hair stood on end at the slight breeze outside and she crossed her hands over her chest to try and keep warm. "What are we here for again? Incepting? We're trying to incept—. " Scarlett flinched a bit, Rick's breath hitting the back of her neck, "We're trying to incept Morty to get an "A" in math, remember?" His eyebrow knitted together for a moment. "Oh Right."
"Rick a car c-come on." Getting inside it seemed for a moment things were finally starting to look up. They just needed time to figure out a plan "Buckle up, bitch!"
Screaming they all booked out it down the road. "Man, he sure says "bitch" a lot!" If this were any other situation Scarlett might have laughed. "You can run, but you can't hide, bitch!" His voice echoing down the street.
The ebony hair women stopped in her tracks. "Hold on, Morty, Rick. You know what? He keeps saying we can run but we can hide. I say we try hiding." She was officially over this creep. "But that's the opposite of what—." Rick was quick to cut him off.
"Well, since when are we taking this guy's advice on anything?" The three looked at one another for a moment. "Hey, you know what? You got a really good point there, Rick. Like, if the truth was that we could hide, it's not like he'd be sharing that information with us, you know? I-I-I think it's a good idea, Scarlett."
"Worst-case scenario we're back to running." Scarlett nodded; at least they were on the same page. "How about over here?" Rick led them over to abandoned house and the three hunkered down. She noticed the kid was weary at first but as the dream minutes turned to dream hours he passed out leaving the two adults to figure out their next steps. "Regretting not staying put?" Looking over at the man she couldn't help but smirk.
Her eyes shined the way they only did when she was out on an adventure. "This is the most fun I've had in over twenty five years." The sarcasm was light and playful. She watched Rick looking out between the boards that covered every window in the house. Crossing the room she slipped her hand in his lab coat, "H-hey now." He said turning toward her almost shocked at her bold actions only to roll his eyes when she pulled out his flask taking a sip before handing it back to him.
"Think we waited enough time no?" Scarlett said after what seemed like hours. Morty had already woken up and was staring outside on guard. "Wow, you know what? I mean, it looks like we could have just hid this whole time. Boy, Scarlett that was some good thinking." She couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, it's nice to be on the same page every once in a while." The three looked outside at the sight of Scary Terry. "You can run but you can't hide!" He opened a trash can and let out a loud yawn. This was it.
"Oh, this is perfect, Morty, Scarlett. Look at that. He's getting sleepy. Just a little bit longer before he calls it a day. That's when we make our move." It wasn't long before Scary Terry got into his car and went home. Scarlett was relieved that they could finally get moving, part of her wondering where something like Scary Terry would even live.
When they got to his house it wasn't what they thought it would be. He had a wife and kid and even through the little spat with his wife they made up. "This is perfect. After a little scary coitus, they should be fast asleep and then we'll incept him."
Rick was right on the money. It wasn't long before Scary Terry and his wife were fast asleep and they were ready to jump dreams again. "Looks like Scary Terry's having a nightmare." He said shoving a device in his ear. Scarlett cringed at the idea of what this guy could be afraid of. "Oh, boy, Rick. I can only imagine what horrible things must, you know scare Scary Terry." She nodded in agreement but they turned on their devices anyway. It was the only way they had any hope of escaping.
"Well that's just rude." She mumbled as they followed Scary Terry into a class room. His teacher really giving him the business and his bright red ass out for the world to see. "Oh, uh, um ... "Bitch." The class erupted in laughter. "Oh, come on, Terry, you can't think of a pun involving pumpkins, bitch?" Before Scarlett could say something Morty got up out of his chair, "Hey, leave him alone!"
"Yeah, this is a bunch of bull crap. Who cares what stupid pun you make when you kill someone? Why don't you let the poor guy say whatever he wants?" The teachers frazzled expression was hilarious and when Scarlett laughed he stormed out of the room. "You're putting too much pressure on yourself, Scary Terry. You know, I mean, y-you're perfectly scary enough as it is."
"Hey, yo, Scary T., don't even trip about your pants dawg. Here's a pair on us, fool." Scary Terry looked at us fondly. "Aww, bitch. I don't know what to say."
"You don't need to say anything. We got you, dawg." Morty put a hand on the guys shoulder, "You're our boy, dawg. Don't even trip." Rick smiled and the three looked over at Scarlett. "Yea being Scary Terry is more important than trying to be anyone else – uh dawg."
Scary Terry woke up and the three were jolted out of his dream, "Oh, hey, it's you guys!" She smiled and for a moment Scary Terry was kind of just Terry. They went down stairs and his wife made them all breakfast. "I haven't seen him this relaxed in years." Gulping down some OJ Scarlett wondered how the food tasted so real in a dream. "If you guys ever need anything, just say the word."
"As a matter of fact, Terry, there is something you could help us with." After explaining everything about the dream jumping they had been doing and their goals Scary Terry had the three jump on his back. He was surprising strong for a little guy but as a Scary Ass nightmare he could make himself whatever he wanted.
Blinking the weird little girl was in front of them, ""Q," "r," you won't get very far."
"I always hated that song!" Scary Terry ripped the girl to shreds and she woke up jumping the group back a dream. He was quick to find the centaur, "These halves don't belong together, bitch!" When killing him they all hoped another dream back to the S&M dungeon. "Sex is sacred!" He yelled before murdering Mrs. Pancakes jolting her awake and they were finally back to the original dream. "This is because you don't give Morty Smith good grades, bitch!"
Turning into a rocket Scary Terry took out Goldenfold and the trio woke up, quickly hiding behind the couch before Mr. Goldenfold shot up, "Holy crap! God damn! I know one thing for sure I'm giving Morty an "A" in math, and that's my idea. That is an original thought." Leaving to the bedroom Scarlett lunged for the window when he was completely out of site. She turned to see Rick and Morty fist bump before the kid turned to her, fist out. Without hesitation she bumped it and they were out of the house and back in the cruiser.
"Im exhausted." She mumbled leaning onto Rick's chair that was in front of her. For all the sleeping they did she felt like they hadn't slept at all. Morty yawned in the passenger seat, "Thanks for all your, your help Scarlett." He looked over at her, hands nervously twiddling in his lap. "Anytime. I love adventures!"