3.
Out of nowhere, the old guy burst through the cafeteria doors. He was Morty's grampa, right? He grabbed Morty, and they sprinted out the door. Morty struggled against his grasp, with no avail. Iris decided, again, to follow them. She watched as they stomped down the hall. Morty's grampa stopped and pulled out what looked like a price gun or something like that.
"Hey!" She shouted. He swiveled around, his face contorting to pure rage. Here we go.
"G-g-get away!" the old man snapped.
"No! Don't you tell me what to do!" Iris retorted, sliding her hand into her purse. The man drew another gun out and pointed it at her. Before he could shoot, she ripped out hers and pulled the trigger. Instead of a bullet, a red portal shot out. She held her breath and jumped through it. WHATTHEHELLWHATTHEHELLWHATTHEHELL. She landed on her butt, eyes still closed. She let out an audible "shit" and stared at the gun she held.
"So, you're tellin' me this doesn't even shoot bullets now?" She asked the gun. No reply.
"What the hell man!" She screamed at it, throwing it to the ground. She took in the world around her, and her heart sank. It was so familiar, yet so new. Plants and animals were barely recognizable. The world looked like someone barfed up skittles. Enough of this. Iris pointed the gun at the ground and shot. Another red portal sprung to life, and she jumped into it. The new world she was in was stranger than the last. Its only colors were black and white, with seemingly no life. The pounding began again. Oh, no. Not today, not now, NO! The ache was horrible. It throbbed in her skull, harder and harder. She grabbed her temples in an effort to keep her head from falling apart. She knew this would last for ten minutes at best. Her hand flailed around to find that damn gun. She grabbed it and pulled the trigger. Nothing. The pain was killing her, and now she's stuck in a monochrome world. Iris couldn't help herself. The tears began to stream down her small face like a river. Sobs burst from her chest. Suddenly, a green glow illuminated at her feet. Oh, no. Iris clutched the revolver and ran for her life. She tripped on a rock. Scrambling to get up and away from them, she realized something was wrapped around her calf.
"LET GO OF ME!" She screamed, unintentionally leading Rick and Morty to her. Rick looked down at the girl and smiled a little when she clawed at the earth beneath her.
"Don't you touch me, old man, or I swear to God…" Iris gasped.
"Yeah, yeah," he belched and untangled her from the vine. Iris tried to get away, but Rick held her in place.
"Where-where the hell did you get that?" He rasped, gesturing towards the gun.
"My mom gave it to my dad and I took it from him!" She cried," Now let me go!"
"Even if I LEEEETt you go you can't ge-escape from this dimension; your portal gun is out of charge," Rick explained. Iris looked at the ground and sighed, dejected.
"You're right," She frowned.
"Yeah, no shit."
Iris glared through her hair and stood.
"C-can we just leave? Like, go back to school?" She asked.
"No way; I sTTIIIIILL need to get some stuff for my in-invention," Rick shot out another portal and pushed Iris inside, following right behind her.
Iris felt like a dizzy, migraine-suffering Alice in Alice in Wonderland. She stared at the strange, new sights for a little too long, being pushed around here and there. The other dimensions could be anything from normal to ridiculously insane, but Iris didn't dare complain. In fact, she didn't say a word. Remember what I said about her being a fighter? Well, Iris decided it was best to be submissive for a while. If I just had a working gun… she thought. In the end, she ended up being the one who carried the whole load of junk Rick collected. Her arms began to ache and her back began to hunch over with the huge load she carried. Finally, Rick shot out a portal to home. ( Not her home, of course.) They ended up in a garage. A spaceship sat in the middle of the room, empty alcohol bottles littering the floor. Iris breathed in deep through her nose, the smell of whiskey tingling her nostrils. She suddenly remembered when she took a few swigs of her father's vodka; She threw up at least five times.
"Who's the alcoholic?" Iris asked nonchalantly.
"Guess. J-j-just taAAAAKKKEee a wild guess," Rick scowled.
"Whatever, you don't have to be an ass about it. At least you're not like my father," She sighed, gently putting the junk near the messy worktable.
"Do-don't you try to pull any sympathy outta me!" Iris glanced at Morty, as if to say, Is he always like this?, but he didn't quite get it.
"I gotta get home," she stated, pulling out her phone. She dialed a number in to be greeted with "You've reached the voicemail box of 4-0-4…" Iris hung up the phone. I guess dad's out again…
Sighing, she said," He didn't answer." As usual.
"I can't give you a ride or anything. I-I-I got stuff I gotta deal with," Rick hastily made an excuse; he really didn't want to deal with her anymore than he had to. Jerry could just drive her home later. Out of nowhere, Summer opened the garage door.
"Grandpa Rick, Are you-" she began, stopping herself when she saw Iris.
"What are you doing here?!" They asked in unison.
"It's a long story. Don't think about it too much," Iris said, combing her fingers through her now-messy hair. Summer and Iris had a complicated relationship. They were friends at school, but not close-enough friends to know anything too crazy about each other. Iris didn't even know Morty was related to Summer in any way. They made their way to Summer's room, chatting about the new, cute teacher and the hot new Iphone. OMGIWENTTOCRAZYNEWDIMENSIONSWITHYOURGRANDPAOMG! The little voice in Iris's head screamed. She silenced it with chat about how annoying some girls can be.
Iris stared out the window of Morty's father's stationwagon. She felt… different. Maybe it was a little more maturity, or maybe it was just all the new things she experienced that day. If her mother took her father places like that often, she understood why he drank. She would, too.
Sure, his place was a mess. Sure, he was an alcoholic, but she didn't have to point it out. What was she, the police? The police don't even care about alcoholics as long as they don't hurt anyone. It was true that Rick has caused a few deaths and injuries, but they were in a completely different dimension. Rick noticed something in the pile of intergalactic machinery parts. It was that girl's gun.
"My mother gave it to my father…" He remembered that girl saying to him. She reminded him of Morty and Beth, in a way. She was too scared to even speak! Morty straight out cried the first time they were on the other side of a portal. (Rick promised to never speak of it again) Rick picked up the gun and examined it. It was beautifully made, disguised as a real revolver. It might have even fooled Rick. The revolver-esque portal gun was completely drained of its concentrated dark matter, as expected. As much as he hated her, he decided to re-charge her gun. It wouldn't hurt anyone. Probably.