Season 01, Episode 03: Anatomy Park
Reimu was in the Smith Residence once more, after the whole debacle with Summer's selfish desires, she has also directed more attention to Snuffles. Currently, she was in the living room, writing in her diary while Beth, Summer, and Morty were all on some sort of electronic device. However, today was another day, Christmastime. A fresh blanket of snow littered the ground outside, various Christmas decorations were placed on and in the house, but there wasn't any Christmas joy in the house. What a shame.
Even with that, the mood was peaceful as Reimu continued to write in her own personal journal. It was now winter, so snow had fallen, and Snuffles was busy snoozing on her lap. As she calmly and happily pet the terrier (or whatever breed he is supposed to be), she was just finishing with putting her thoughts into the journal.
Just as she closed her journal, she noticed Snuffles waking up and letting out a low growl. At first, she was going to speak, but looked to who Snuffles was growling at, and found that it was Jerry. Well, at least that explains some things. As for Jerry himself, he was angrily looking at the Smith family, including Reimu.. "Um, Merry Christmas?" He put his hands on his hips. "Helloooo? My parents are coming over for the first time in years! Can we stow the gadgets and look alive?"
"Alive? For your benefit?" Beth asked.
"Good one." Jerry said, snatching the tablet out of her hand.
"Hey, man! That wasn't funny!" an angered Beth yelled.
"You 'hey man', this holiday is about humanity." Jerry said.
"Well, it is many things." Reimu pointed out. "Nowadays, it's about some fat, jolly prowler who breaks into your house and leaves gifts for 'compensation'. Humanity really isn't what people think of when they think about Christmas."
"You know, I thought it was about being born half-God or something." Morty said.
Jerry couldn't help but to roll his eyes. "Okay, whatever. All electronic items are going in the stocking. Now."
At Jerry's demand, Morty quietly handed over his tablet, yet Summer was not so willing. "Dad, I'm not giving you my phone." she insisted, keeping her cell phone away from Jerry's prying arms.
"Put it in the stocking, Summer, or I'm joining Facebook." Jerry said with a knowing look on his face. Summer gasped while Reimu couldn't help but to roll her eyes. Jerry walked up to Reimu, who raised her eyebrow. "Your book."
Reimu rolled her eyes. "Why? It isn't even electronic."
"Give. It. To. Me. Now." Jerry attempted to snatch it from her, but Reimu grabbed Snuffles and stood straight and erect at her uncle and looked directly at him in the eye, causing him to yelp and cower back a little.
Before any more words could be said, Rick walked in with someone dressed as Santa Claus. However, the guy was disheveled, broken, and looked like he hadn't showered for months. "Ho ho ho, everybody." Rick lazily said.
"More like 'whoa whoa whoa'! What is this!? My parents are coming!" Jerry yelled.
"Calm down Jerry, this is Ruben, an old friend." Rick introduced.
"Pearl Harbor." Ruben randomly sputtered.
"So what are you doing with that guy, anyway? He doesn't look too good." Reimu asked.
"I check in on him once a year and give him a little *urp* medical *urp* evaluation." Rick answered.
"Aw, Dad... That is so sweet." Beth said.
"Yeah it is… I don't get it." Jerry said, glaring at the man.
"Korea." Ruben sputtered again, this time, earning a shrug from Reimu.
"Don't worry about your C-C-Christmas, Jerry. Ruben and I will be in my workshop while you have another day in Phil Collins' proverbial paradise." Rick ranted, leading Ruben into the garage.
"Huh. You think you know a guy." Jerry muttered. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. "Okay, there's my parents. Now remember, no TV, no phones, no laptops, and no napping on the holidays. We are connecting this Christmas, like old-school Jews on a Saturday." Jerry said before opening the door for an elderly couple, which Reimu recognized as Jerry's parents: Leonard and Joyce, and strangely enough, a young man that only Reimu noticed. "Hey, guys!"
"Merry Christmas, son." Leonard said.
At first, Jerry didn't notice the man, and he almost closed the door on him. "Oh, hi. Can I help you?"
As the man walked in, Joyce introduced him and held him by the arm. "Jerry, this is Jacob. Didn't you get our text message?"
"No!" Beth, Summer, and Morty said in unison, though Reimu shrugged.
Jacob walked towards Jerry. "You must be Jerry! That's a fine lookin' apron. William Sonoma?" he complimented.
Jerry couldn't help but to uncomfortably chuckle at the man. "I wish… but thank you." he said, quietly closing the door behind them. "So… you're a… friend of the family?"
"The way we see it, he's a part of the family." Leonard said.
"Wow!" Jerry replied, even Reimu couldn't help but to be surprised at that.
"After your father's brush with cancer and losing your uncle, we looked at life and wondered how have we spent it? And how do we spend the rest of it? What are we going to be when we die? A list of fears and questions, or a collection of real experiences?" Joyce explained.
"Holy crap, Joyce. That's amazing!" Beth applauded.
"Then Jacob came into our lives. We're learning to live again." Leonard said, finishing Joyce's explanation.
Jacob wrapped his arms around the two. "All three of us."
As they giggled, Jerry couldn't help but to be confused about the whole ordeal. "Cool…" he said, however snapping back to his senses shortly afterwards, ready to offer some Christmas dinner. "Eggnog?"
"Now we are talkin'! This man's got the apron and the eggnog, huh?" Jacob said.
Everyone let out a laugh, and soon, Rick came into the scene. "Hi Joyce, Leonard." He looked at Jacob, who nearly caught him by surprise. "Hello, there." Rick greeted.
"Merry Christmas, man." Jacob said.
Suddenly, Rick looked towards Morty. "Morty! A moment of your time?"
"Welp, that's my cue." Reimu said as she followed Rick and Morty. Upon entering the garage, she saw something that made her feel concerned. It was not about Morty or Rick, but Ruben. He was on a tennis table, wearing nothing but his Santa hat with a towel covering his willies. He was moving erratically, foaming in the mouth yet not able to move from the table he was in. "Good God, what happened to him!?"
"I'm trying to save him, that's what, Reimu!" Rick chastised. "Why are you here anyway?"
"Well, to check on you and Morty. I've started to get an itch on this whole thing." Reimu stated.
"Whatever, Morty and I are gonna have do some inside work." Rick began putting an earpiece and an air tank onto his youngest grandson as Reimu looked on in curiosity. She wished he would stop taking her cousin on adventures.
"So, what are you doing?" Reimu asked.
"I'm getting Morty inside Ruben." Rick answered.
"R-R-Ruben, Minnesota?" Morty asked. Reimu facepalmed.
"He means the guy in the Santa outfit!" Reimu corrected.
"Look, neither of us have time for you to wrap your little walnut around the whole ordeal." As Rick was saying this, he fastened a helmet onto Morty and hooked it up to the air tank. He placed a shrink ray in place and positioned Morty onto the pad. "Hold your breath until the process is over or your lungs WILL collapse."
"W-What proc-AHHHHH!" Morty's question quickly turned into a scream as he was shrunken down into a miniature capsule that was conveniently placed under there.
As Rick injected Morty into Ruben, Reimu looked at her grandfather. "Grampa? What are we gonna tell them?"
"Just *urp* tell them that me and Morty are running a couple of errands." Rick said.
"Okay, but again, I'm keeping tabs on this." Reimu mentioned. Before she got out, she looked towards Rick. "Call or text me if you need something. I'll be on the line as well, so do send responses, and I will do the same."
Morty was still screaming as he was injected into Ruben's body, As soon as he caught his breath, Rick spoke through the microphone on his helmet. "Morty! Can you hear me?"
"Rick... Where am I?" a stammered and scared Morty asked.
As he frantically looked around and wandered the area, Rick spoke to him. "Depending on my aim, you should be just south of the entrance."
As Morty walked, he soon saw some sort of light. "Entrance to what?"
"Welcome, Morty. Welcome to Anatomy Park!" Morty's expression turned to outright disbelief when he saw the gigantic amusement park out in the distance. It had a huge sign with a Jurassic Park-style logo branding the massive complex. Gathering his senses, Morty walked through the entrance, unsure of what to do next, but sure that this is gonna lead to his doom. "It's a little business venture I've been cookin' up on the side with Dr. Bloom. An amusement park inside a human body. Science isn't cheap, Morty. This should really help put a dent in the overhead."
"Man, Reimu would've loved this…" Morty stated. He began to inspect the various rides, starting with what looked like a weird train ride. "Spleen Mountain?" He looked to see another ride with a yellow liquid that made her face green every time she looked at it. "Bladder Falls?" The young boy looked to one ride that caught his attention, where the DNA helix-themed ride was going into a 'cave' where a decorative pirate skull was plastered onto the 'wall'. "Pirates of the Pancreas?"
"You got a problem with that one?" an offended Rick asked.
"No, I was just reading the signs." Morty stated. As he stopped by a bridge, looking at the rafts shaped like red blood cells as they float through the red liquid, he heard some rustling. He began walking past the carousel to see what the source of the sound was.
"Apologies for my outburst, it's just that, Pirates of the Pancreas was my baby, I got a lot of push-back when I pitched it, Morty." Rick stated. "I'm just a little defensive of that. Just… let's find Doctor Bloom, okay?"
Morty, however, was too busy focusing on the rustling sound to care. He found a sign that said 'One Thousand Facts About The Human Body' and proceeded to follow it. He ran towards the general direction and found himself at a set of large wooden doors and a marble wall from one of those Greek temples and such. Quickly, he opened it, ready to find whatever was causing this rustling.
Beyond the doors, he saw several different bookshelves, many of which were empty. "Rick? Are all those bookshelves supposed to be empty?" Morty asked.
"Morty, Bloom's in the liver, dammit!" Rick stated. "If the shelves are empty, that hoarder I put in a couple years ago must've had a field day today."
"Wait… hoarder?" Morty asked.
Before he could answer, he suddenly got pounced upon by a strange force. He soon found himself forced onto the ground as he was turned on his back. He saw… a girl… a human girl. She was clearly European in descent with her caucasian skin tone. Her honey yellow blonde hair was messy and unkempt, flowing down her back with one of her sidelocks done in a braid. Her yellow eyes glared down at her target, studying him. Her outfit, aside from the same gear Rick gave him, consisted of a white shirt, black fingerless gloves, a pair of jeans, and a pair of black shoes, all of which were in some sort of unkempt state. She also had a pair of breasts comparable to Reimu's, and if Morty wasn't ready to shit his pants again, he would've attempted to grope the girl. For one reason or another, Morty could've sworn he saw that girl before. Not in person, but on one of the pictures Reimu had in her room.
The girl looked down at him and scowled. "Who are ya, stranger? Friend or foe?"
Before Morty could answer, Rick's microphone popped out of his helmet. "Godammit, Marisa. Would it kill you to stop hoarding the books and pinning down strangers?" Rick asked.
At that point, the blonde relaxed her grip a bit, but still glared at Morty. "What be your purpose here, ze?"
"Mmm! M-M-My-my-my Grandpa Rick sent me!" Morty stammered.
"Th- you're sayin' that scientist guy's your grampa?" Marisa asked. She let Morty go, letting him get up. "I guess I can trust you with this, ze. Come on, Bloom's in the liver. I've been takin' some last minute preparations." She grabbed a nearby sack and hoisted it onto her shoulder before looking at Morty with a smirk. "Oh, as for names, I might as well say mine. The name's Marisa Kirisame, your average gal in the hobo's bod. Follow me if ya wanna meet Bloom."
"Oh…" Morty quickly followed her onto the train, and Marisa looked at the PA System.
"Set destination for the liver." Marisa stated.
ORDER CONFIRMED_
As the train moved, Morty stumbled a bit as his legs were caught by surprise with the momentum. He noticed Marisa casually holding onto the rail. She looked at him and smirked, still holding that sac of hers. "Nifty, huh? Staff members like me can direct the trains to desired courses with voice activation. Quite the perk, don't ya think?"
Morty, however, was focused on Marisa's breasts. "Um… do you… do you like games? Your hair… aw geez-"
Marisa raised a brow. "You tryin' to flirt with me? Dude, I'm twenty-two, and you're like, ten years younger than me. And what is with that bulge in your pants…" Marisa paused before she heard the computerized voice speak.
ARRIVING AT . . . LIVER_ MIND THE GAP_
As the car came to a stop, Marisa looked at Morty and shrugged. "Come on, Bloom's-a this way!" Without warning, Marisa grabbed Morty by the wrist, causing him to yelp as he was immediately rushed into a foggy, dark, and almost haunted area.
"Aw geez, do you have to hold on so tightly?" a fearful Morty asked.
The sound of a nearby roar made Morty scream as he struggled to let go of the blonde's iron grip. Marisa, however, looked to see a sentient blue amoeba run towards their direction, being accompanied by two human men, both of which seemed older than Marisa, who was a young adult herself. The first man was blonde and of European descent similar to Marisa, but he had hazel eyes and wore a brown jumpsuit. The second man was of African descent, had a bald had, brown eyes, a bushy black mustache, and looked like a stereotypical badass with the camo pants, a belt of bullets around his chest, and a gun in his hands as he shot… something.
"Marisa, thank God you are here, but did you really have to hoard at this time?" the amoeba chastised.
"Sorry, Bloom. I really didn't take into account that we might've had problems." Marisa awkwardly replied.
"Enough talking. The doctor's living museum has become a wild safari!" The burly man let out a shout as he began firing bullets at a gigantic, yellow monster with a large, clawed arms, a set of jaws full of sharp teeth, and a long, sharp tail. It roared at them as it started to chase them.
"It's Hepatitis A! Run!" Bloom yelled.
Meanwhile, Reimu was at the Smith family, busy eating dinner. Reimu herself had just finished up with telling the Smith family a joke she made up. "...and then, he found out that it wasn't even in there."
Everyone laughed at the joke, except Jerry, who awkwardly looked towards his parents and Jacob. "So… I heard you had a new friend in the form of that Jacob guy. Is he your caregiver… or…?"
"We can go into detail later, son." Joyce said.
"Now wait, there… there's no point to secrecy. Let's all live and die honestly. Your mother and I have shared forty years of each other, mind, body, and soul." Leonard explained, giving Jacob a smile. Jerry and Jacob too smile at each other, but when Jacob looks away, Jerry's happy expression becomes a hateful glare. "And when minds and souls are joined for eternity, and when eternity is at the door, it's an invitation to let go of the body, and an opportunity to share and experiment."
"Dad, please, what are you saying?" Jerry asked, still confused.
"Whatever it is, it's beautiful, Leonard." Beth proceeded to glare at Jerry for a moment. "...and whatever it is, it's beautiful."
"Speak for yourself! Because it, heheh, it sounds like you're about to say Jacob is your lover." Jerry said, almost holding back a laugh for a moment.
"No no no no." Jerry breathed a sigh of relief. "Jacob is your mother's lover." Leonard corrected, causing Jerry to become increasingly disturbed. "I watch them. Sometimes from a chair, sometimes from a closet. Almost always dressed as Superman."
Jacob and Joyce proceed to kiss as Jerry stares off with a brief look of anger. Reimu was more so slightly disgusted by the strange turn of events. "Okay, that's not really normal…" she muttered to herself. Fortunately, none of them have even noticed her concerned look. She was going to check on Rick after this.
Meanwhile, Jacob takes a bit out of the ham that Jerry made. "Jerry, this ham's got to be all you, right? It's in-cred-i-ble." he said, savoring the meaty ham.
"Happy human holiday, Dad." Summer said with a smug grin on her face. With everyone looking at him, Jerry appeared more despondent than ever.
At that time, the ragtag group was still inside Ruben, running away from Hepatitis A, running towards the direction Bloom was going. It was somewhere called the 'Alveoli Forest'. Morty didn't care, all he wanted right now was to get away from that kaiju wannabe.
Once Roger locked the door behind them, someone went through. The person was in a cartoonish dog suit that had its own little blue top hat and yellow bow tie. "Hey! Wait for me!" The man took off the costume's head to reveal himself as a bald man with a chiseled face.
"Put that back on!" Doctor Bloom yelled.
The man glared at Bloom before putting his costume back on. As that was happening, Marisa spoke. "Apologies if we were all introduced so early, but the guy in the dog suit is Alexander, he's our entertainer. The guy in the tracksuit is Roger, the mechanic and zookeeper, and the buff dude is Poncho. As for the amoeba, he's Doctor Xenon Bloom, one of two co-creators to this place."
After Marisa explained who the staff were, the blond man, Roger, tapped onto the glass of one of the gauges. "That's strange, the airflow is down twenty percent."
"So the brain isn't getting enough oxygen. That's why security is offline." Bloom pointed out.
Marisa looked upwards at the ever-expanding, ever-shrinking tree-like formations. "If we get up to the bronchial catwalk, it should be a cinch findin' out what happened." She smirked at the group. "Before any of ya vote, I've already got dibs on climbing this, ze!"
She dropped the sac she was holding and with incredible precision, she jumped onto one of the air sacs, gripping onto it tightly as it shrunk. As she hopped from frond to frond, Poncho looked up to her. "Don't be a hero, kid."
"It's fun, cut me some slack!" Marisa let out a howl of joy as she leapt towards the next frond.
To Morty, it reminded him of his own cousin's enthusiasm, even when he only knew her for under a year, he had noticed that she had an enthusiasm for visiting new places. He began to wonder to himself… did Beth forget to tell him about her existence? No, that can't be right. As he thought to himself, his hand pressed against something sticky, and he noticed that and jerked his hand away.
As he wiped the juice onto his shirt, Bloom walked out towards him. "It's alright, my boy. Nearly all human lungs contain a strain of that bacteria, but the scar tissue…" Bloom tapped his cane on one of the empty tissues. "...keeps them… dormant…" He looked up towards Marsia, who had just gotten onto the catwalk. "Marisa! Get down from here!"
"Wait, why?" the tomboy asked. By then, she noticed some green stuff came onto the catwalk, and Marisa looked up to see hundreds of black creatures with singular red eyes crawling down the lungs. "Oh." Marisa came running towards the stairs to go back down.
"Tuberculosis, coming in fast!" Bloom reported.
"Not faster than a bullet!" Poncho screamed, shooting multiple rounds of his gun at the tuberculosis horde, as well as popping the various fronds of alveoli in the lungs, causing a strong gust of air to come out, lifting everyone and the sac that Marisa took in. Outside, it was just a mere cough, to which Rick momentarily looked at.
"You meathead, did you know what you did!?" Marisa yelled.
"And not just that, Ruben's coughing! Quickly, get to the digestive tract!" Bloom motioned for the group to run towards the digestive tract. However, Ruben coughed once more, alerting everyone that they needed to get out.
During the ruckus, nearly everyone managed to escape. Everyone, but Alexander. Morty and Marisa were attempting to hold him down, but the wind was slowly taking their grip off. "Listen, if I die, tell me wife that I LOVE HEERRR!" His last words became screams of horror and pain as he was torn apart from the inside and outside.
Meanwhile, outside, Ruben, Rick coughed out a whole bunch of spittle, remains of Alexander included. Rick just casually brushed it off, oblivious to the fact he wiped the remains of a dead man off him. Soon enough, Reimu's voice came out from the radio he was speaking to them with. "Rick! Ruben's got tuberculosis!"
"Oh, great work, M-*urp*-uh Morty. I'm just gonna have to cure it and…" Rick pulled out a giant syringe, but before he could do so, Ruben's heart monitor immediately flatlines, causing the scientist to toss the syringe over his shoulder. "Okay. Well, I can't cure death…"
Meanwhile, Morty, Bloom, and the remaining Anatomy Park staff were walking across the food court, listening to the bad news that Rick was telling them. "This is bad, Morty. You're trapped in a dead man. Listen, if the situation keeps darkening, do yourself a favor and hop by Pirates of the Pancreas. Obviously I'm biased, but, I think it's great. It's a bunch of pirates runnin' around a-a-a-his pancreas. We don't whitewash it either. The pirates are really rapey." Rick exclaimed through the microphone.
"Oh, la dee da, he says that all the time." Marisa said as she rolled her eyes. "As if it's more valuable than our lives."
"Well if you have any more funny ideas, Miss Smarty Pants, then *urp* tell me." Rick said. "I'm gonna tell Reimu the bad news that… Ruben's dead and all, cause she always loves to make me do it, she loves to keep tabs. And yes, getting you guys out is the top priority here, but in case *urp* you can't, well, indulge yourselves."
As the group headed through the food court, Morty couldn't help but get a bad odor in his nostrils. "Geez, what's that horrible smell."
"The whole thing's goin' down, the body is beginning to constrict and fill in with gas. Well, it's fillin' with gas at the moment. We're inside a corpse, after all." Marisa explained. "Personally, I had a hunch that the guy was going to die any time due to his poor health, just didn't know when. Fortunately, we have an emergency exit route in the colon. It's gross, I know, but it's the emergency evacuation route, complete with a ray that can grow us back to our regular size." She looked back at the group. "Hey everyone! We're going to the colon, ze!"
At the gesture from Marisa, everyone followed her, however, Poncho looked in anger. "Now I'm taking orders from a gender-confused woman!?" he exclaimed in rage.
As Marisa rolled her eyes and went to the lead, Bloom walked up towards Morty. "Morty. The scar sacs containing the tuberculosis were sabotaged. This disaster was an inside job. Keep your eyes on Marisa. She was the first of my employees, knows the park inside and out, and has a nasty habit of hoarding anything she gets her hands on, mainly books, but you can't be too careful."
Meanwhile, Reimu was looking out at them as they were playing a board game with one another. She noticed that Joyce always seemed to sit in Jacob's lap, and she still felt creeped out about it. Jerry was glaring daggers at the affection showing between the two, and in all honesty, Reimu couldn't blame him.
Distracting herself, she pulled out her phone (which thankfully, Jerry didn't even notice) and noticed that Rick has sent her a text. She thanked herself with making sure he'd keep tabs on it. When she read it, her pupils shrunk and she almost let out a gasp.
*Ruben's dead. Currently getting them out of the emergency route.
She looked towards the group, and walked back into the garage with a worried expression on her face. Unlike last time, Ruben stood still, silent, lifeless. "No no no no no! You can't tell me-"
"Fortunately, it's not over yet. There's still the emergency evacuation route in the colon." Rick replied. "It's gross, but at least your precious deal will still be intact."
"Well, that's a relief, but still, I'm staying in the garage until this is over." Reimu reported. She gave a concerned look towards Ruben's corpse. "I hope they're alright." She heard sound from Rick's microphone, and noticed that some sort of song was playing. Curiosity got a hold of her as she got up and walked towards it, ready to listen.
A few hours later, the group of people were on a boat, going through the small intestines. It would've been a pretty pleasant ride, that is, if it wasn't decorated with digestion-related displays and an array of blue and purple humanoid animatronics that were joyfully singing in an endless, annoying tune. Needless to say, most of the people on board were not even having a good time.
It's a road of laughter,
...a trail of food.
It's a pathway
...that breaks up
..the fat in food.
It's a tube in the chest
...and it sends out the rest.
It's a small, small intestine!
Despite being inside a corpse, the joyful atmosphere kept playing the same annoying song over and over again, much to everyone's annoyance. "Dammit, Bloom! Ya just had to keep those annoying-ass animatronics there?" an angered, annoyed, and slightly overwhelmed Marisa rebutted.
"And you made them go on for miles." Roger added.
"Then we get to the large intestine!" Doctor Bloom added with eager glee.
"Seriously? If there are more singing animatronics there, I think I'm gonna be done with it all." Marisa replied, clearly tired of the pain and suffering they went through for the last hour.
"Thankfully, going out through the rear would be the only thing we'll have to face." Roger answered.
"Good. At least it will get that tune out of our heads." Marisa agreed.
"Shh." Poncho warned, shining a flashlight on the liquid they were sailing in. "I hear something."
Silence rang out for a second, but surely enough, a giant green entity rose from the liquid. It was covered in greenish-yellow skin, had six small, beady black eyes, four appendages ending in mace-like clubs, and a mouth full of razor sharp fangs. Everyone was frozen in fear over the monster, which eyed them hungrily.
"Don't move. Gonorrhea can't see us if we don't move." Bloom whispered. Unfortunately, the Gonorrhea monster had proved him wrong, ready to strike. "Wait! I was wrong! I was thinking of a T-rex!"
Gonorrhea smashed their boat into the liquid, forcing the crew to crawl to 'shore'. A voice came out from the microphone, but it wasn't Rick's. "What the heck is happening here?"
"We're sitting ducks, that's what!" Roger pointed out. "And who are you?"
"Reimu! We might be in a bit of trouble here." Morty stammered.
"Reimu!?" Marisa asked, sounding rather surprised.
"Marisa!?" Reimu sounded pretty surprised.
"There's no time for this! We need to deal with that thing over there!" Bloom pointed out.
At this point, Morty's mind flashed back to what Marisa said. "Marisa, didn't you say the body was filling up with gas?"
"You have a crazy plan?" Marisa asked.
"Crazy? That's genius!" Poncho pointed out.
"Are you mad!?" Bloom asked.
"Apparently, he is." Reimu replied through the microphone. "In case this goes south, I suggest you guys take cover."
After everyone got to safety, Poncho lit the match. "Hey Gonorrhea! How's this for a burning sensation?" He threw the match at Gonorrhea, which, after developing a confused expression, blew up in a fiery explosion, leaving only its charred husk in the distance, which harmlessly sunk into the stream. Seeing this, everyone started a small celebration before going towards the emergency route.
Back in the living room, Leonard, Summer, Joyce, Jacob, Beth, and Jerry sat in a semicircle on the carpet. As Jerry scowled and slumped onto the chair, Leonard was playing a set of bongos while Summer was singing to the beat.
Drummer, drum, drum, drum!
Drummer, drum, drum drum drum,
Christmas drums!
Christmas drums!
"Oh, Summer. Sing it! Haha." Leonard said.
Christmas drums being played by a boy!
Meanwhile, Beth was clapping along when she noticed Jerry sulking. She put an arm around him. "Jerry, come on. This is what you wanted." Beth said, trying to coax her husband.
"I get it, Beth. Be careful what you wish for. I'm being punished for taking your iPad." Jerry grumbled.
"What? Jerry, let that stuff go, okay? I'm sorry I was a bitch earlier. Let's just be here." Beth said.
Shortly afterwards, Ethan walked up to the sliding glass doors and went into the house. "Ugh... Summer!" he groaned, obviously angry at the redheaded girl for something.
Summer stood up. "Ethan, what are you doing here?"
"I've been texting you for hours. What the hell?!" Ethan asked, still enraged at her.
"I don't have my phone! I'm doing a human holiday!" Summer said, trying to coax him.
"Did you even consider how that might make me feel!?" Ethan rebutted.
"'How you feel!?' Why is everything always happening to you!?" Summer replied.
Jerry was the first to ask, more annoyed than confused. "Summer, do you have a boyfriend?"
"Yeah, do you, Summer?" Ethan replied.
"I don't know Ethan, do I?" Summer asked.
Jacob proceeded to stand up, putting a hand on Summer and Ethan's shoulders. "Jerry, no disrespect, but you really need to connect more with your family, man." he said, causing Jerry to look even more flabbergasted as his family let out a quick, hearty laugh.
It took a while, but everyone went to the colon. They were currently standing on a catwalk in the middle of the large tube down under, with the only things keeping them all company were the enlarging ray and a giant metal structure blocking the way deeper into the colon. "I should be able to access the backup generator to get the growth ray back online. If it works, we'll be regular-sized in a few minutes. I just hope Ruben's not in a room with white carpets or upholstery." Roger explained, currently busy with the ray.
"Well, there aren't any around here, so you're safe, I guess?" Reimu's voice added through the microphone.
A deep, rumbling sound went in the distance, and Poncho looked back to see the structure. "What the hell is that?"
"Oh, that." Bloom said, looking at the structure before them. "You see, we call this structure the sphincter dam. We built it when Ruben became incontinent, but it was not designed to hold a corpse-load." Bloom pinched the area where the bridge of his nose was and sighed. "In hindsight, I should've been more careful with how Anatomy Park was built."
Soon enough, a small black creature crawled out of Poncho's pocket, and everyone looked to see what exactly the burly man was carrying around. "That bubonic plague!" Bloom shouted. "What are you doing with that, Poncho!?"
"EVERYBODY GET BACK!" Poncho yelled, suddenly grabbing Marisa with one arm while holding a knife to her neck with the other.
"Poncho, you son of a bitch! You released the tuberculosis so you could steal from me?" a distressed Bloom asked.
Poncho couldn't help but laugh. "That's right, baby. A lot of people will pay top dollar to decimate the population. I'll take the highest bidder. Al-Qaeda. North Korea. Republicans! Shriners! Balding men that work out! People on the Internet that are only turned on by cartoons of Japanese teenagers!" However, his expression turned into a look of fiery rage when he glared at Bloom. "Anything is better than working for you, you pompous, negligent, iTunes Gift Card as a holiday bonus-giving-"
Before he could continue, Marisa used one of her arms to punch him in the groin, causing him to scream in pain and drop his knife. Marisa grabbed the knife and held it firmly in her hand. "You would do something for that? You're nothin' more than a madman!"
She went to strike, but Poncho parried with another knife he was holding and laughed. "That's coming from the person who commonly steals books from the library!"
Poncho pushed Marisa back and attempted to thrust her through, but the blonde rolled out of the way and got up. "I admit, I'm not the best, but I ain't gonna betray my friends like you, buddy!"
Poncho merely laughed evilly and drew out another knife. Before he could do so, however, the Black Death monster got out and bit him on the shoulder, causing him to scream and drop his weapons and stumble back. "Ah! Eh! Get! Get off!" Seeing her chance, Marisa pushed him off the ledge, causing him to fall to his doom. Before anyone else could say anything, they heard a rumbling sound come from the splinter dam.
"It's gonna burst, we have to go!" Marisa shouted, suddenly grabbing Morty as she went for the door, with Bloom following not too far behind.
Unfortunately, Roger was unable to escape, as his foot was jammed into the machine. "My foot is stuck!"
Marisa attempted to rescue him, but she was held back by Morty and Bloom. "Please! You can still make it!"
"This is okay! It's okay, just go! Tell my family I love them! They may be hard to find because my wife kept her last name and she made the kids take it too, so, I dunno, you could go-" Before he could finish, the sphincter dam finally gave in, causing a huge amount of liquid poop to rush forth, killing Roger as the door closed right behind them.
"No no no!" Marisa's voice sprung through the microphone.
Rick and Reimu were both stunned. Reimu regained her senses first and slammed her fist on the desk. "Dammit! We were so close to getting them out of here!" Tears started flowing down her eyes as she started to cry.
"I'll find a way, I swear, but…" Rick paused. "It's gonna take some time."
"I hope you can make it quick." Reimu answered.
Meanwhile, back at the living room, Joyce, Beth, and Morty were sitting on the couch, Leonard was setting up shop in the recliner, Jerry and Summer stood, the former with an angered expression, while Jacob was confronting Ethan about his anger problem. "Let me ask you something Ethan. Where's the anger coming from, man?" Jacob asked.
"From Summer being a total bitch!" Ethan shouted, not wanting to talk about it.
However, Jacob wasn't fazed, and took hold of Ethan's cheeks, forcing him to make eye contact. "Where's the anger coming from?" he asked, this time in a more stern, yet still comforting tone.
This time, Ethan gave in. "My brother… took me fishing once… in the bushes…" At this point, tears gave way as he started to cry. "I can't... I can't!" He started covering his eyes. "He made me feel like a girl!" Ethan finally broke out into full-on tears. "HE MADE ME A GIRL!"
Jacob looked at him and proceeded to help him to his feet, giving off a comforting smile. "He didn't make you anything, man. You are who you are." He gestured to Summer. "She is who she is." Summer watched on as a sympathetic expression plastered itself onto her face. "Now you go to her. Brand new."
Ethan walked over to Summer. "Come here right now!"
Summer replied in kind. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Ethan!" the two proceed to hug. "I love you!"
"I love you so much." Ethan replied.
The two then kissed, and most of them had pleased expressions, save for Jerry, who was trying to figure out what to say in this situation. "You did it again, cubby. Come here." Joyce said, and the two began to kiss.
Jerry looked at the recliner to see that Leonard was gone, and looked at the closet to see that he had gotten up and backed into the closet, unbuttoning his shirt to reveal a Superman costume underneath before eventually sealing himself inside, peeking from the door.
Eventually, Jerry decided to snap. "No! Stop! I hate this!" he yelled, hating the fact that it did not go his way.
Beth, Joyce, and Jacob glared at him. "Well, Christmas doesn't revolve around what you hate, son." Joyce informed.
"Well then, I hate Christmas! Enjoy being HUMAN! You guys are gross and lame!" Jerry roared, proceeding to leave the room and its occupants be. After a good silence, the two couples resumed kissing.
Back at the lab, a depressed Reimu was slumped onto the desk as she sat on a chair, her jacket already having a few spots soaked from her tears. As for Rick, he was attempting to figure another way to get the group out of there. As they were going about, Jerry walked into the room.
Reimu was the first to lift her head and speak. "J-Jerry…"
"I appreciate the company, but now, we both have much smaller fish to fry." Rick stated.
However, against his wishes, Jerry entered anyway. "I wanted to say I'm sorry I ever judged you." He proceeded to look at the corpse on the table. "Right now, you and Reimu are my sanest relatives."
Rick, who had been typing away, suddenly pauses, getting an idea. "Relative… That's it! Relative size! Jerry, hand me a scalpel and a bundle of dynamite!" Rick said. He then readied his microphone.
"You're gonna do another crazy plan?" Reimu asked.
Rick smirked. "Yep."
Back inside Ruben's corpse, the remaining people were inside a small theater with some assorted seats, and on the stage, an animatronic of Ruben sat. "My name's Ruben Ridley. You're inside me right now, but by the end of this journey, I'll be inside all of you." the quite possibly computerized voice of Ruben announced. "My story begins in the dot com crash in the early '90s…"
As the electronic voice spoke up, the three survivors were busy eating ice cream. From what Bloom said, this was a safe space where the employees could take their helmets off, and he was intending for everyone to be able to go very shortly. Morty was sitting next to Marisa, but not because of his own perverted desires. "So…" Morty said.
"So what?" Marisa asked.
"I was wondering how you knew Reimu, my cousin, I mean." Morty asked.
Marisa chuckled. "Well, to be fair, when we were itty bitty nuggets, the two of us were close. When I first met Reimu, she was shy, insecure, and very, very smart. We were four at the time, and she already had her mind open to things that normal kids just couldn't comprehend. While other kids thought she was weird and kept their distance, I thought she was super cool and decided to hang out with her. Thus began our close childhood friendship, and boy do I mention that we were close in our youth."
"Aw geez. I really wish I had friends like you." Morty answered. "But how are you in here? How long have you been here? Why are you in here?"
"Bud, I've been in here for my entire teen years." Marisa admitted with a frown. "When Reimu and I were nine, my parents got killed. They never found the murderer, but I was shipped off to my aunt in the neighboring town. She was not a nice person, she was cruel, strict, and quite conservative in her views. I ain't the makeup type of girl, I ain't into those frills and bows, now matter how much she tried to force me to it. I stood up to her, and what I got was being literally onto the streets with no food or water and nothing but another beating. Since then, I have despised that woman."
"Aw geez, she doesn't sound very nice." Morty replied.
"Aw geez, indeed. That woman had forced me to fend for myself, no home, no love, no care, nothing!" Marisa angrily slammed her first onto the armrest. "Fortunately, I got a hold of a strange flier looking for free employment. I thought that might have been a fluke, but I was desperate, so I called the person who sent out these flyers. It turned out that Reimu was right about her whole grandpa situation, and the next thing I knew, I was inside some homeless dude with nothing but an amoeba as company. As for the rest, well, it's history…"
"Well, thanks for telling me your story… I guess. Man, I need better friends." Morty slumped down onto his seat.
Before he could contemplate any further, the microphone came out, and Reimu's voice spoke up. "I heard everything you said, and Marisa… I'm sorry you wound up in this mess! I'll make it up, I promise! Look, Grampa Rick needs you, Morty, and Bloom to head to the left nipple. He's about to do something rather crazy!"
"Right, leave it to me!" Marisa got up and shouted to Bloom. "Yo, Doc! We need to get to the left nipple, ASAP!"
"Right, just let me…" Before Bloom could eat any more ice cream, the animatronic fizzled with electricity and short-circuited.. Everyone looked to see chunks of flesh fall from the ceiling. "The body is decaying! The arterial transit system is useless! We could try the surface shuttle. It's connected to the skeletal system. That's why we call it the bone train," Dr. Bloom explained, then he suddenly got a coy look on his face as he went towards Marisa. "Would you like to ride the Bone Train, miss?"
"Let's just get outta here!" Marisa grabbed Bloom by the arm and ran towards the direction of the Bone Train, with a scared and hopeful Morty in toe.
Meanwhile, back in the garage, Jerry looked to see Rick put in a small bundle of explosives inside of Ruben's corpse before lugging it towards the Space Cruiser. "Well, I can see that you're busy…" Jerry said, trying to put the pieces together. "Merry Christmas, Rick. Merry Christmas, Reimu."
"Merry Christmas to you too, Jerry." Reimu said as she and Rick put their own helmets on and rocketed into space. She looked towards Rick with concern. "I hope this works."
After a good way's trek, the group made it towards the Bone Train's station, which, thankfully enough, a large train was sitting dormant, waiting to be used. "There's no autopilot. One of us will have to stay here and operate it manually."
Morty merely blinked twice, and Marisa facepalmed. "Don't ya remember, Bloom? We installed an autopilot, and even tested it in case of emergencies."
Bloom realizes that he forgot and sighed. "Right, my bad." After Bloom tampered with the controls, everyone heard a scampering behind them. "E. coli outbreak. Hurry!" With the pull of a lever, the train started to move. Everyone immediately hopped on, looking to see hundreds of E. coli monsters swarming towards the train like flies. Ironically, they resembled bacteriophages, a type of virus that specializes in using bacteria as its host.
At first, they thought it was over, but they realized that the E. coli were still chasing them, and they were rather fast as well, managing to catch up to the train and chew through the doors. "They're chewing through the doors!" Marisa shouted, looking to see that various bacteria have managed to get in. Marisa used her stolen knife to stab the invading pathogens while Morty assists using a nearby fire extinguisher as a weapon.
"We're in the areola, Rick! Almost to the nipple! But we're also in a really bad situation!" Morty reported.
Meanwhile, Rick has ascended into the vacuum of space, spotting just out of the Earth's orbit before lighting the dynamite's fuse. "We're almost there, Morty! Hold on for a little longer." he said, with he and Reimu pushing Ruben's corpse out into space. He proceeded to ready his enlargement ray, striking the body as it grew in size, making a strong shadow over the Earth.
Meanwhile, across the continent, people were looking at the growing shadow, giving off various reactions, most of them were in shock or awe, with the occasional robber capitalizing it to get away with their crimes. On the news, a reporter spoke about the incident. "Reports are coming in from across the country about what appears to be a giant naked man over the continental United States. We now go to Tom Randolph in New York. Tom?"
Meanwhile, in New York, a reporter spoke out, standing under the shadow of Ruben's unkempt face. "Well, his eyes aren't twinkling, and his dimples aren't merry, but I'm standing under a nose like a seventy-mile cherry!" Tom reported, seemingly unfazed by the anomaly.
"Thank you, Tom. Let's go now to Eric McMan in Los Angeles."
Meanwhile, in California, another man looked at Ruben's unkempt feet floating in the heavens. Several helicopters were in the air as well. "We've got feet here on the West Coast, Bill! Giant feet, even relative to the giant man's size! And you know what they say about that!"
"Well, if the old adage is true, one can only wonder what is going down in the state of Kansas." Bill said.
Meanwhile, in a small town, a mother was with her three kids, who were playing in the snow when the former saw a suspicious-looking shadow descend from the heavens. "Get inside! Now!"
Meanwhile, back at the sky, Rick descended to the floating corpse, ready to pick his bounty.
Meanwhile, inside the train, the two ragtag teammates have finished fighting the ongoing horde of E. coli, with Marisa taking the last of the bacteria out of the area after stabbing its head clean off. Once they managed to finish off the remaining E. coli, they made it to the front, where Hepatitis A had been unfortunately waiting for them, and it apparently tore the track. "Hepatitis A again!? How did ya know we were going here anyhow!?" Marisa asked.
"It must've followed us!" Bloom suspected.
"Hold on, I'm gonna do something very crazy!" At once, Marisa pulled the breaks, causing the train to fall right off the wreckage of the tracks and into a wall of flesh, searing right through it before hitting a bump of rock-hard flesh, throwing the three out of the car, leaving them temporarily dazed. "Urgh, that smarts, ze…"
Marisa got up, followed by Morty, who gasped in awe. "Man, the view from the nipple hole is pretty."
"Indeed it is." Bloom agreed as he too got up.
"For sure." Marisa added. However, the beauty was short-lived when everyone heard a rumbling sound coming from the wreckage. They looked to see that Hepatitis A had burst from the engine as it roared. "You again!? You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Hepatitis A ran towards the group, only to be caught by a monster similar to it, only it was larger, had a green coloring to it, among other features. "Wow, it's Hepatitis C!" Marisa said, pointing towards the disease, which surprisingly gave the group a thumbs up before walking away. "Welp, at least it was on our side, or it might've already been satisfied with the prey it had."
Fortunately, they saw Rick's Space Cruiser fly out in the distance, landing right on the edge, with Reimu immediately coming out to hug them both. "There you guys are! I was so worried you didn't make it!"
"Well, save that lovey-dovey stuff for later. We got a body to leave." Rick pointed out.
Everyone collectively went into Rick's Space Cruiser, and once the last person was in, Rick immediately drove his vehicle towards the Earth. The corpse floated around in space for a few seconds before suddenly combusting, causing the head and limbs to fly out into space as minor chunks of it rained down on the Earth.
And speaking of our little blue marble, back on it, the Smiths aside from Jerry were busy bundling up for Christmas, dressing up so they could go outside and have fun in the snow. "Jerry doesn't know what he's missing." Beth said.
"He'll come around, Beth. Christmas is a special time. It has funny ways of bringing families together." Jacob replied.
Beth just sighed as they finished preparing for the snow."I dunno, Jacob. Jerry got an invitation to be alive today, and he rejected it. I don't know if our marriage will-" Before they can go outside, they saw chunks of red matter fall from the sky. Summer was the first to realize what that stuff was.
"It's raining blood!" Summer yelled.
"Listen, we must find Jerry!" Jacob said.
They all rushed to Jerry's den, where they found him casually sitting in a chair while watching the news with a surprisingly mundane look on his face. "Jerry!" Joyce yelled, rushing to hug him.
Jerry just stood up and responded in kind. "It's okay, the TV says there's nothing to worry about."
Meanwhile, on the news, Bill had finished reporting what he had seen. "The giant naked Sky Santa has exploded. Blood and chunks of viscera are raining down on the country. Everything should be fine." The family let out heavy sighs of relief, seeing that they weren't in terrible danger.
After a long silence, Summer spoke. "Dad, can I have my phone back?" she asked.
Jerry began to smile and pull out the stocking. "Sure, sweetie." he said, pulling Summer's phone and the two tablets out of the stocking. "Everybody, take a device. It'll help you relax." As everyone gathered their devices, Jerry smiled. "I guess we really learned something this Christmas, huh, gang?"
"No we didn't, Dad." a smiling Summer replied. "No, we didn't."
"Woah… that was TOTALLY WICKED!" Marisa chirped with happiness in her voice.
By now, the Space Cruiser has descended onto the Earth, and Reimu immediately hugged her friend. "Let me say again, I really missed you since that time. We have so much lost time to make up for." She released her hug to get a look at her old friend's current, disheveled appearance. "As well as some… drastic upgrades to your living conditions, starting with a shower and some new clothes."
"Yeah, I spent quite a lot of time in Ruben, it's making me think about things." Marisa looked towards Bloom. "Thanks for keepin' me company back in Ruben, but it's 'bout time I live with my old friend and get back on my feet."
Bloom nodded. "I understand, Marisa. Shame about the old park, though. I still can't believe one of my own employees would decide to up and betray me for some terrorist organization."
"Well, with the state of that old man, I don't think it would've lasted." Reimu pointed out. "Plus, you should've made some background checks so people like Poncho would not exploit the diseases."
"Yeah, and be sure to put a mental note on it, and an actual note, too." Marisa pointed out. "But first, why don't we all get some grub, I'm starving."
Everyone went to the living room, yet to a quite surprising twist, the whole family plus Ethan were all on the floor or on a chair, all fiddling with electronics. "Oh, unbelievable. We got a bunch of robot computer people sittin' around with their faces stuffed in computer screens." Rick said, trying to convince the family to get off their devices. "Do you realize Christ was born today? Jesus Christ our Savior was born today! A-A-A-Are you people even human? What kind of Christmas is this?"
After earning no response from the Smiths, Reimu put a hand on Rick's shoulder. "Grampa, let's let them be. It's their time that they're wasting, not ours. Besides, Leonard, Joyce, and that Jacob guy are not as comfortable with a giant amoeba sitting around while we're eating dinner as we are."
At this point, Rick nodded. "You know what, I'll go with your reasoning. Now let's grab some leftovers while we, Bloom, and that old friend of yours talk about our new and improved Anatomy Park."
A few nights have passed, and Reimu and Marisa were sitting in the former's room. Marisa's attire has now drastically improved, now consisting of a white shirt, a black vest, much better jeans and sneakers, as well as a black and white baseball cap. Her hair, while still messy, was also greatly improved, with her braid being tied together by a small white ribbon. She still wore her fingerless gloves, but they were in much better condition.
"So how was the visit to the shrine?" Reimu asked.
Marisa smiled. "Ya know, that Sanae girl was a really nice character, glad you have friends like her. I swear, you two are kinda like the shrine maiden version of Mario and Luigi with those colors of yours."
Reimu laughed. "We do get that comparison sometimes from various tourists. A lot of which are diehard Mario fans much like myself."
Marisa looked out in the window. "Y'know, I kinda hope that Doctor Bloom is okay. He was like the cool uncle I never had in a lot of ways, as well as a parental figure given what happened to Mom and Dad." She smiled as she took in some memories from the previous day. "Y'know, yesterday, Rick and I had a talk with Bloom. Apparently, he got some new employees, and Pirates of the Pancreas was going on swimmingly. One of the employees wanted to make changes, sayin' that the pancreas didn't make pirates, but Bloom reminded him that it ain't all literal, it's just for fun!"
"And speaking of fun, there's a lot we can do from now on. We still have so much to catch on to, and a lot of lost time to make up for." Reimu said. She too looked out the window to see the light falling of snow. "In just two short days, we'll have a brand new year, you'll have a brand new start in 2014." She looked towards Marisa with a smile on her face. "So what do you say? Are you in?"
Marisa couldn't help but to smile as well. "Oh, you bet I'm in."
To Singjon: Well, I suppose I have had my flaws. However, this episode was mainly for experimental purposes more than anything else. As for Nitori, she's not gonna be some random background character. Trust me, I have plans for what she's gonna be.
And that wraps up Anatomy Park, folks! While Morty is still Rick's main companion, Reimu is still involved big-time. And let's introduce Marisa Kirisame to the main cast, folks! In contrast to the preboot, where she and Marisa were strangers but like-minded, the two of them were close childhood friends that were separate for years for reasons neither one could control. Now that they're reunited, Marisa's gonna be a fully-fledged main character for the story. This chapter was not as long as I wished for it, but I hope that it is satisfactory. Anyways, I wish you luck as I write the next chapter. As always, see you guys next time.