8.
"You ran outta memory, eh?" Rick scoffed. Maybe her overloaded memory card caused her headaches… he thought. Iris shrieked, sitting up. Her hands were covered with black grease, and her hair was a mess.
"It's none of your business, old man!" Iris shouted. She was so screwed. Her mind raced for an idea, a way to escape.
"It is so my b-b-business. Besides, isn't that my screwdriver you're using?" Rick shouted, snatching the tool from her tiny hand. The redheaded girl smirked, drawing her portal gun and shooting a portal. She jumped into it, leaving Rick alone. He inhaled sharply before taking a swig from his flask. He could easily find and corner her, but he decided to wait until her gun lost all its charge.
Iris sprinted through the forest-like dimension. She figured to repair it there, where no one could find her. Damn, that guy was smart. Iris wished she could just kill him, but she knew that would be a terrible idea. He was probably following her. Her whole life was spent running, hiding, spying, and praying. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold up this charade for long, but Iris milked it for all it was worth. She easily passed as a human, but with flesh and a metal skeleton underneath, who wouldn't? One thing her mother was great at was disguising her inventions as normal things.
Rick decided it was time to go hunting for the girl, as it had been half and hour. She was probably jumping from portal to portal, hoping and praying that he was nowhere near her. Rick chuckled at the thought of that. He grabbed his freeze-ray gun, stepping into a portal. He ended up in a dimension that was overrun by trees and greenery. There was an obvious trail of flattened leaves and sticks, but he knew Iris was smarter than that, to leave a trail for him to follow her. Regardless, he looked down the path. Iris was tinkering with something, about twenty feet away. As much as Rick wanted to taunt the girl, he held it all back. Instead, he watched her. She held her breath, pressing something on the nape of her neck. Then, she forced something into the back of her head. Rick tried to get closer. A twig broke beneath his shoe, making a small crack. Iris hastily finished what she was doing, and looked around. Rick wasn't camouflaged at all, so she spotted him almost instantly. Iris's eyes widened. She sucked in a breath and shot out another portal. Rick was starting to get annoyed.
The world was frozen. Snow was everywhere, with not a single footprint in it. Iris took a deep breath of the icy air, and almost forgot about how she was probably going to die in a few minutes. She snapped herself out of it, running once more. Rick's trademark green portal opened up a few feet behind her. Iris tried to run faster. Rick's shoes crunched through the white blanket of snow not too far behind her. Suddenly, She tripped on a huge rock. The metal skeleton in her leg snapped, causing her to scream. The 'bone' was completely destroyed, being in two pieces. Even if Iris did escape from Rick, she would have to find someone as smart or smarter than him. Iris closed her eyes and thought. The only solution would be to return back to her home. SHIT! She shuddered, shooting out a portal regardless. Iris crawled into the portal, knowing that this was the last time she ever would.