A/N: Whew, hello everyone! This is by far the longest chapter I've posted so far. Sorry for the long delay; writing takes up a lot of time, and that is a resource I have been extremely short on, lately. But thankfully I have some exciting stuff planned for the rest of this fanfiction, and I'm going to update as much as I can! I hope you enjoy. Reviews are always awesome!
Chapter 10
For the next few weeks, Morty and Summer reconvened with the leaders of the rebellion, discussing, forming, and scratching ideas as to how they should go about freeing Rick. Frustration was forming among the Freedom Fighters and the Smith siblings; the former seemed to be spending way too much time arguing over why each other's ideas were stupid, instead of collaborating together to come up with a coherent plan.
After one of such said meetings, Morty found himself in Adalric's workplace, where he tended to stay when he didn't feel in the mood to talk with Summer or even Squanchy.
Morty liked Adalric; he was always so calm and collected, and always let Morty ask questions about things he didn't understand.
The workshop consisted of a long desk with a lot of spare metal pieces on it, most of them from wrecked spaceships. Morty had learned that Adalric's main job in the rebellion was repairing spaceship parts. He mindlessly picked up a piece of scrap metal left on the workbench, turning it over in his hands, lost in thought.
"What's on your mind, Morty?" Adalric said, turning in his chair to face the fifteen year old.
Morty set down the scrap metal, letting out a sigh. "I-I just…just wish Rick were here. He would know how to break somebody out. He would know what to do."
Adalric drummed his long fingers on the workbench. "We'll find him," he said, though Morty sensed a certain amount of half-heartedness in his statement. No, Aldaric had said that just to instill hope in Morty for the Freedom Fighters and their failing attempt to assemble a feasible strategy.
"If the stupid Federation hadn't taken Rick's stuff…h-he may have had something in there that we could have used!" Morty turned to Adalric. "I mean, we could have used the Meeseeks box, o-o-o-r his portal gun—oh, but that self-destructed at the Wedding…" Morty frowned. A rectangular, metal object had caught his eye. It had a handle and a lot of wires sticking out arbitrarily as it sat in the corner of the workbench, pushed off to the side. It looked familiar. "Hey, w-what's that?"
"Hm?" Adalric followed Morty's line of sight. "Oh, that." He leaned forward, picking it up and inspecting it with a look of trifling nature. "This was your grandfather's first portal gun."
Morty's heart jumped. "What?!" He snatched the crude portal gun out of Adalric's hands, gaping as he turned it over and over, the metal cool in his palms, the shape and feel of the gun familiar yet unfamiliar. "This was Rick's…first portal gun?"
"Yep. Made it when he was…oh, I dunno… twenty-one? Twenty-two? Somethin' like that," Adalric said nonchalantly. "He came to us long after he had already perfected the gun, though."
"Then why do you have it?"
"He left it here for Bird Person to use, but Bird Person didn't want to use it because he was worried that it would fall into the Fed's hands, so he refused to bring it anywhere when they went on missions. Your grandfather was pissed when Bird Person told him; Rick didn't believe that the Feds would be able to get it, if it was being cared for by the right person. Morty, don't get me wrong—Rick was—is—an extremely intelligent person, but…he was reckless with that portal gun."
Morty let out a sardonic laugh. "He still is."
Adalric smiled. "Doesn't surprise me. Though he's probably slowed down in his old age, right?" At Morty's silent shrug, he continued. "Anyway, he was pretty reckless. I mean, if it had been anyone else—and I mean anyone else using that portal gun the way he did—they would have gotten killed. Rick…he portalled in and out of Fed outposts and ships just to screw with them; once he even portalled into the goddamn headquarters just because he wanted to see if the Gromflomites really drank piss. And, no, they don't. He knew that," Adalric added at Morty's questioning look.
"Anyways, my point is that Rick was reckless. Smart, but irresponsible. The portal gun gave him access to the entire multiverse and all he did was muck around."
Morty didn't say anything. It didn't surprise him to hear that about his grandfather—hell, Rick was still like that. Morty turned the portal gun around in his hands again, his thumb tracing over the cool glass container that held the green portalling power. It was off.
"Wait, Adalric…" Morty suddenly said, a thought striking him. "Why can't we just use this portal gun to find Rick and get him out of jail?"
Adalric grimaced. "I'm not going to lie to you, Morty. I've thought about it, but the problem is—no one knows where Rick is. We don't know what high-end security prison Rick is at. You gotta know the coordinates in order to portal there. And," he added, "no one knows how to exactly, uh, work the portal gun. The only other person who knew how was Bird Person, but he's…"
"Dead. Yeah," Morty insipidly stated. He didn't defer, however. This portal gun was his only chance to get his grandfather back. He looked back up at Adalric, a quiet firmness in his voice. "I've seen Rick use it. I-I know how. Kind of," Morty said.
Adalric shrugged. "Feel free to take it. I'm not sure if it even still works, though—it's been years since the last time it was used." Adalric turned back to his workbench, his back to Morty. The conversation had clearly ended.
Without saying anything, Morty turned and left Adalric's workshop, going back out into the bright sunlight. He knew what the first thing he had to do was.
He had to find Summer.
!
"That was Grandpa Rick's first…portal gun?" Summer said in disbelief, staring down at the device.
Morty nodded. "Yep." He had relayed to her everything that Adalric had told him. "And, Summer, I-I have an idea."
Summer looked at him, putting her hands on her hips. "Let me guess—you want to portal back to Earth and get Grandpa Rick's stuff back, so that we can use his things to find him and break him out?"
Morty grinned. "Yes!"
Summer looked up into the bright sky. "Which of his inventions do you think would help us? I mean, like, I guess there's the Meeseeks box…" Summer said unassumingly, though Morty could see a small smile on her lips.
"Yeah! I say we, we take back all of Rick's stuff and then use it to find him!"
Summer looked back at him, a glint in her eye. "Doing something is better than nothing, right? I mean, the damn leaders haven't done anything for us except argue." She added bitterly. "And it's already been a few weeks. Time's running out."
Morty nodded. "Right! I say, I say w-we go tell them our plan and go through with it, no matter what they tell us!"
Summer nodded. "Let's go."
!
The siblings had made their way over to the council chambers; now they stood under the calculating looks of the Rebellion's leaders.
"We, um, want to propose something to everyone," Summer said.
Morty cleared his throat before speaking. "We have Rick's first portal gun, and we were thinking that we would portal back to Earth and find Rick's inventions—the ones that the Federation had taken—a-and bring them back here. Maybe sort through them, you know? A-and see if anything can help us find Rick."
"No one knows how to use it," said one councilmember—the one who had initially refused Morty and Summer.
"I do," said Morty indignantly. Kinda, he added to himself. "B-but I do know how to get back to Earth!"
"You do?" Summer muttered to him.
"Yeah, Rick made me memorize Earth's coordinates," Morty muttered back.
The council murmured amongst themselves. Most of them seemed to be nodding.
One stood up, his four arms behind his back. "We approve of your request. You can proceed whenever you feel fit to travel."
Morty looked at Summer, grinning. Their plan was going to work.
!
"Adalric—you wouldn't happen to know this planet's coordinates, would you? I need it, in order to portal back here." Morty asked. He had went back to Adalric's workshop to inform him of the good news. "This portal gun doesn't have the 'Last Location Visited' button, like it does on Rick's current one."
Adalric frowned, thinking. "Maybe. I want to say it's C-137-33-457-66-7-8897857…here, let me just double check." He swiveled in his chair and opened a drawer, rummaging through folders and folders of paperwork. Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, he pulled out a small paper that had a series of numbers printed on it. "C-137-33-457…yep, this is it!" He waved it around for a moment before handing it to Morty. "This will take you back here to Meria."
Morty grinned, reading over the numbers before stuffing the paper into his pocket. "Thank you, Adalric!" He said sincerely.
"No problem, kid."
With a hearty goodbye, Morty left the dingy workshop to go find his sister. He felt they were ready to go and retrieve Rick's inventions.
Morty entered back into the sunny outside world; he glanced around, his eyes searching for the ginger hair of his sister. He finally spotted her sitting underneath a purple-trunked tree with orange leaves.
Morty approached Summer, smiling. She stood up, knowing without his saying anything that they were ready to leave.
"Ready to go?" Morty asked her.
"Yeah." She watched her brother as he pulled out the portal gun. "Wait so—what did Grandpa Rick make you memorize?" Summer asked, staring at the glowing portal gun in her brother's hand.
"Our home coordinates, y'know, incase I ever got lost, or something. Oh jeez, I hope this thing still works-" he muttered as he flicked the "ON" switch, the portal gun more or less sputtering back to life. A feeling of elation rose through Morty at the green glow of the portalling power. "C-137-17-9-56-39.4- 2-46.2. And to get home, t-to our house, you then have to type in 38.0406-84.5037," Morty said slowly, as he typed in the appropriate numbers.
Summer stared in amazement at her brother. Though he was sometimes a pain and was extremely naïve, when it counted, Morty could definitely be depended upon. It was in these subtle moments that Summer could see where Rick had been rubbing off on Morty.
"Alright, and, now, we just aim…" Morty lifted up the portal gun, holding the trigger halfway down as it made a high-pitched sound as it warmed up, ready to release its energy, "and fire!"
Morty pulled the trigger. A green, swirling portal suddenly appeared before them.
The Smith siblings stared at the portal before staring at each other, grinning ear to ear, hearts lifting with elation.
"Let's go get Grandpa's stuff back."
Morty stepped through the portal first, the familiar tingling sensation-something he had not felt in a long time—encompassed him as he emerged on the other side.
He looked around; he was back in his living room. He was back home.
Summer emerged behind him, the portal disappearing after. "It's…our house!" Summer said. She spun around; the house was dark. "Where's Mom and Dad?"
Morty shrugged, already beginning to patrol around the house for anything useful he could find—though, he didn't have any particular item in mind. "M-maybe they went out, for the evening?" He glanced outside the front window, making a mental note of the empty driveway.
Summer pursed her lips, eyebrows knitted together in worry. "Morty, I think we should let them know we're okay, and that we're alive."
Morty turned to his sister, eyes wide. "We can't do that, Summer. No one can know we're here."
Realization dawned on Summer at her brother's words. She shifted her weight, sighing. "The Feds think we died when we crash-landed, don't they? And if they find out we're alive…"
"Then they'll really kill us."
Summer nodded. "Alright. Okay." She let out a deep breath. "Okay. So, what's the plan, Einstein?"
Morty scratched the back of his head. "Well, t-to be honest…"
Summer crossed her arms. "We don't have a plan, do we?" She said.
Morty shook his head, the portal gun suddenly feeling very heavy in his hand. He had had quixotic visions of them breaking into a government facility and stealing back Rick's inventions, but, now that they had arrived back at Earth, he finally realized the impracticality of the situation.
Unexpectedly, the doorknob on the front door started jiggling, a key being inserted into the lock—a clear indication that their parents were home.
Summer looked at Morty, his face white with terror. "Here, in the garage!" She hissed. The siblings quickly darted around the furniture and into the dark garage, Summer silently closing the door just as their parents came in through the front entryway.
The distinctive whiny voice of Morty's father was clearly heard through the garage door. "—and I just can't believe the audacity that government-shit insect had, telling us that I don't have the 'proper authorization' to access the higher level storage rooms…I'm a government employee! I should have some kind of right to go where I want, especially in the Confiscated Dangerous Items Department!"
"Jerry, just—stop, okay?" Beth sighed, exhaustion leaking through her every word. "You, you tried, okay? Thank you for trying, at least. But I highly doubt that they would allow someone with your low job level into a place like that. I mean, did you see the amount of guns those guards had? Even just at the entrance!"
"I told you we shouldn't have tried to go and get Rick's stuff back. Now the Federation thinks we're criminals like your dad-"
"We are not criminals, and neither was my dad!" Beth practically screamed. Even in the dark, sitting with his sister, Morty could visualize his mother spinning on her heels to face Jerry, the blood rushing to her cheeks. "I have every right to inherit his inventions; and, who knows...maybe…maybe one of his devices could help us find the kids."
Beth's voice broke at the mention of her missing children. That's when the sobbing began.
"Beth, I-" Jerry hesitated. "I know."
So badly did Summer want to rush out to her parents, to show them that she and Morty were alive, that they were planning to take back Rick's inventions and find Rick. But, instead, she found her brother's hand in the dark and squeezed it tightly.
After a half hour or so, Morty and Summer's parents finally made their way up the stairs to their bedroom. The siblings waited an extra fifteen minutes to be sure that they wouldn't come back down.
Morty reached up above Summer, flicking on the garage light. Fluorescent light suddenly filled the chilly room, revealing to Morty just how empty the garage was without Rick or his inventions. Morty thought of Rick with a pang. The only thing left in the garage was an overturned chair, now dusty since its disuse. Even the secret hatch to the underground laboratory had been revealed and opened; Morty assumed that the underground lab had been raided, too.
He turned to his sister, keeping his voice to a low murmur. "D-did you hear what Dad said? Rick's stuff is in the Confiscated Dangerous Items Department!"
Summer let herself smile. "And I know where that is, too. I overheard some of my classmates talking about the kind of stuff they think is held in there—it's over where the old military base used to be. Only, like, a forty-five minute walk over there."
Morty grinned. "I have a plan."
!
They had left quickly after ironing out the details of their plan. They snuck away through the front door, covered by the darkness of the night. The streets were quiet; only a stray cat and a homeless person crossed the siblings' path. It wasn't hard to find the old military base; a large metal fence surrounded the area, accompanied by large floodlights that swept slowly across the grounds.
Morty and Summer hid behind an abandoned car, about a hundred feet from the entrance to the gate that led to the large, gray building that surely held Rick's inventions.
Morty looked at his sister, the portal gun held tightly in his hand. The plan was to portal directly into the building. Morty knew they were going in blind, but worst case he knew he could portal them out of there quickly if things went awry.
Though he also knew they only had one real opportunity to get what they needed.
Summer had previously looked up on Google Maps the exact coordinates of the exact center of the building and wrote them down for her brother. Morty now entered the coordinates into the portal gun and fired it onto the side of the car, where none of the Federation workers could see the green glow.
Morty gave Summer one last look before stepping through the portal first, she following closely behind him.
The portal closed. The siblings found themselves in a long hallway, lit by overhead fluorescent lamps that gave the impression of some kind of morgue. On each side of the hallway were doors, the names of the people whose items were confiscated printed on each door.
Morty breathed out a small sigh of relief. He realized that, by portalling into this exact hallway, him and Summer had completely bypassed all of the security hoops they would have needed to jump through to enter this hallway. He quietly thanked a God he didn't believe in that they had been lucky enough to portal into the right location.
"C'mon, Summer," he whispered. "Rick's name will be in this hallway. We gotta find the door with his name on it!"
Summer nodded. They trotted down the long hall, glancing back and forth at the titles, muttering the names under their breaths.
"Safine, Saggorio, Salica, Samirez…Sanchez! Rick Sanchez! Here he is, Morty!" Summer stopped abruptly in front of the tall metal door, grabbing her brother's arm. Morty looked up and down the door, his heart racing. Was all of Rick's devices and inventions really behind this door?
He lifted the portal gun, turning one of its dials to "PASS THRU WALL". He aimed it at the door and fired, a green portal suddenly implanting itself on the door.
Morty hopped through, Summer right behind him. They found themselves on the other side of the door, inside of a large room that held piles and piles of inventions, many of which Morty recognized immediately. The Meeseeks Box, the interdimensional cable box, the transportation device he had accidentally broken when talking to Jessica during that party over a year ago-Morty suddenly felt a surge of excitement. The plan was working.
"C'mon, Morty! We gotta get moving! Quick, fire the portal!"
"Oh, r-right!" Morty clumsily pulled out the piece of paper that Adalric had given him, and entered the coordinates for Meria. He fired the portal gun once again into the air, another green portal appearing. Summer hopped through. Morty waited a moment his heart pounding, before Summer's hands reemerged in the portal. The fifteen year old scrambled for a moment before placing the first thing he saw- the Meeseeks Box—into Summer's waiting hands.
They began this small firemen-type line, with Morty handing inventions he could hold to Summer, and pushing the bigger ones through the portal with Summer's help. Finally, after about an hour of painstaking and careful work, they finished moving Rick's inventions through the portal back onto Meria.
Morty looked at Summer, a grin on his face. They had completely cleared out the room, it finally void of any wrongly-taken invention or device. "Alright, are, are we ready to head back?"
Summer nodded, smiling. "Absolutely."
Together, they jumped through the portal, it closing behind them.
A/N: Boy, Summer and Morty get stuff DONE! I hope you enjoyed. Next chapter coming soon; stay schwifty!