Season 01, Episode 04: M-Night Shamyaliens
Up in space, a group of aliens in hooded cloaks laughed as they carried a bag through the corridors of the ship, eventually reaching the throne room, reaching their leader, who soon turned his chair around to face their followers. "Have you done your mission yet?" he asked.
"Yes, Rick Sanchez has been beamed into the ship. Shall we?"
The leader laughed, and so did his followers, who unfurled their hoods as the ship pulled itself from its orbit around Earth, rocketing out into space.
Marisa Kirisame woke up with the sun's light rising into her eyelids. "Gah… turn the lights off…" Since she arrived at the Smith Residence, she's taken to sleeping at their couch rather than any of their beds, more so since she's still setting up shop in the attic and, in all honesty, she slept in far worse places. Of course, Reimu attempted to get her to sleep in her bed, but for Marisa, she wasn't very comfortable with the idea. At least the couch was rather angelic compared to the old cots and the occasional part of the body she had dozed off in during survival training.
She woke up to the couch as usual, and began noticing something weird. Outside, there wasn't a drop of snow on the ground, and the leaves were all green and such. "What the? Spring was not supposed to be around for another few months, ze!" Marisa observed with a shocked expression on her face.
She soon heard footsteps and turned around to see Reimu, who was wearing her pajamas as well as her usual ribbon and hair tubes. She seemed just as confused as her friend. "I know, right? The weatherman said it was supposed to snow today. Even the air outside seems unusually warm for the season."
"Well, something has to be responsible for this, ze!" Marisa said, pointing at the area behind the window. "I mean, what the hell's happenin' here anyhow?"
Before Reimu could answer, they noticed someone else walk into the room. It was Jerry, but something was wrong about him. His steps were too even, his body movements were still and robotic, and his expression was blank. He carried a bowl of cereal, and was spilling milk onto the floor. "Hello, Reimu. Hello random blond girl. Good morning."
Both Reimu and Marisa looked at each other in confusion upon Jerry's broken, robotic tone. "Random blonde girl?" Marisa asked.
"I know you don't really know the Smiths, but at least they respond to you by- hey, wait, Jerry!" Reimu was interrupted when Jerry suddenly walked between them.
With a sickening snap, his head turned a hundred and eighty degrees as he looked right back at them with that same blank, lifeless stare. "I have to go to work today. Bye." He began walking into the door, obviously bumping into it as the two girls looked on in disbelief.
"Okay, that was definitely not normal." Marisa pointed out.
"I hope this isn't a prank set up by Grampa." Reimu said with a sigh.
"Speaking of which, where is he, anyway?" Marisa asked.
Meanwhile, Rick was dissecting a rat in his lab, looking at the innards with a look of disappointment plastered on his face. "Yeesh, sloppy craftsmanship." Rick stated. Upon dissecting a rat he found, he began to notice some very peculiar oddities. Not to mention, he found that the weather was rather unusual for winter.
Soon enough, Morty walked out and looked rather happy. Instead of the fresh remnants of a snowy blizzard, everything was somehow sunny and warm. However, he didn't seem to mind it, and actually took a big breath of air. "Hey, Rick. Boy, sure is really especially beautiful out there today, huh?"
"Oh, yes, Morty. It's almost unbelievable, isn't it?" Rick said. "F-for a second there, you'd be trying to convince me that it was still summer and winter had already gone by, huh?"
"Wait, what?" Morty asked, getting a confused expression on his face. "I wasn't saying it that way."
"Oh! Responsive, too! In real time, and with realistic expressions as well! I love it!" Rick implied.
Morty was still confused, but soon enough, Beth came out. Like the surrounding area, Beth was off, in her case she was acting stiff and robotic with a blank expression on her face. "Good morning, Morty. Good morning, Dad. Morty, time to go to school."
"Wait a minute, this isn't how Mom would act." Morty said, pointing at 'Beth'.
"Oh, what's with Mom? So, you're saying that she's acting weird? How soph-*urp* sophisticated." Rick immediately stopped dissecting the rat and shouted into the sky. "Careful, guys. You're gonna burn out the CPU with this one!"
"You know what? You're acting weird as well." Morty pointed out.
"Whatever, quote-on-quote 'Morty'." Rick sneered.
Morty just shrugged and proceeded to walk into the car, however, bonking his foot on something. "Ow! Oof! Ugh! Damn it! I'm alright! I'm okay." Morty quickly shook off the pain before walking away, leaving Rick to roll his eyes and look around the place.
Later on, Morty has made it towards his school, where Mister Goldenfold, who was pacing back and forth as he looked on at the classmates. The chalkboard behind the math teacher had nothing but a simple multiplication equation on it. "Alright, can anybody in this room tell me what five times nine is?" Various discussions were heard, but Goldenfold looked towards one particular person. "Morty?"
"Me!?" a shocked Morty asked.
"What is five times nine?" Goldenfold quizically asked.
"Well, you know, Reimu taught me and she said it was forty-five." Morty stated.
All the students clapped their hands as Goldenfold walked up towards Morty. "Correct! Five times nine is forty-five! Come here!" Morty walked up as the clapping intensified. "Hey everyone! This is the best student in the classroom, I want him to be the teacher today." With that, Goldenfold moved to the seat that Morty was previously sitting on. "Teach us, Morty."
Meanwhile, Rick was looking from the door outside, listening to the conversation. "Interesting..."
"Wait... what do you want me to teach you?" a confused Morty asked.
"Ooo! Ooo! I have something I want to learn!" Morty looked towards one of the students, an orange-haired jock with a blue and white varsity jacket. "How do you make concentrated dark matter?"
"Concentrated wha..." a confused Morty asked.
"Concentrated dark matter. The most efficient known fuel for accelerated space travel." Goldenfold said, describing the subject at hand. "Do you know how to make it or what?"
"What? No? I mean-" Morty stammered.
Soon enough, Jessica came out of her seat towards him, crawling down on all fours in a flirtatious manner before going up to him. "You surely have seen your grandfather make it. He is the mad scientist in your garage, after all." She leant towards him and shook her breasts at him. "If you do it for me, for the school, I'll be your girlfriend..."
Goldenfold leant towards Morty's side. "Now THAT's a fine deal, Morty."
"Oh... I don't know what to say- I mean..."
Before Morty could stammer any longer, Rick immediately went through the door and grabbed onto his grandson's arm. "Morty! Family emergency!"
As soon as he attempted to pull him away, Mister Goldenfold countered by grabbing onto Morty's remaining free arm. "Stop right there! If he leaves, I'm giving him an F!"
"We don't *urp* care!" Rick yelled as he dragged Morty away with him.
"Aw geez, Rick! You're dragging me on adventures again!? Did you even tell Reimu about this one?" Morty asked.
"That deal's still relevant, besides, we can't speak here." They immediately ran into the showers of the locker room as Rick proceeded to take his clothes off. "Morty, take off your clothes!"
"What!?" Morty asked in a panic.
"Take off your damn clothes, Morty! It's the only way to speak freely!" Rick yelled as he proceeded to strip his grandson naked. "Listen, I honored Reimu's deal, but I wasn't the one who dragged you into this mess. This is NOT your school, and those were NOT your classmates!"
"Rick, you're not making any sense!" Morty stammered.
"We've been abducted, Morty! We've been abducted. If we take a shower here, they won't be able to monitor us." Rick said as he turned the water on.
"Who?"
"Zigerion scammers, Morty." Rick stated. "They're the most ambitious, yet least successful con-artists in the galaxy. They're unnaturally uncomfortable with nudity."
"Rick, stop this! If you want me to be crazy, then at least let me be crazy with Jessica!" Morty attempted to get his clothes back, but Rick kept a strong grip as he attempted to keep Morty from getting his clothes back on.
Meanwhile, in the control room, aliens looked on in disgust. They were all the same species: a race of humanoids with giant heads, purple skin, and four arms, each with three fingers on them. Needless to say, they didn't care for what was happening and wanted it to end. Already, various Zigerions were looking away from the monitors in disgust, though their leader, Prince Nebulon, was able to withstand it, yet while he looked annoyed, he was still disgusted by it.
One Zigerion gagged at the scene before looking at his leader. "Oh, god, sir! They're still naked! Ugh!"
"Well, check every five quintons and tell me when they're not!" Nebulon demanded.
The Zigerion's look turned from one of disgust to a disgusting smirk. "I think we should make Kevin look, sir."
The affirmed Zigerion, who was lighter than his kin and wore thick glasses on his face, looked in shock. "What?! No! W-w-why would you even say that?" Kevin ranted.
Before any further conversation was interrupted when a Zigerion named Stu looked at the processor's statistics and found something that alerted him. "Uh, sir, we have a situation over here."
Prince Nebulon sighed. "If there's another weiner on that monitor, I swear to god, Stu."
"Something is drawing a lot of processing power." Stu exclaimed, looking at the statistics before finding out what the problem was. "Oh wait, no wonder." He pressed a button, revealing Reimu and Marisa walking around with confused and increasingly skeptical expressions on their faces. "There are two more real humans on the simulator."
"God… they keep staring at us…" a slightly insecure Marisa noted, her voice being heard from the monitor.
"What the hell!?" Prince Nebulon yelled. "The abductions department took two additional humans with him? Why are they here, anyhow?"
"Hey, man, 'Abductions' just follows the 'Acquisition' order." one Zigerion said.
Soon, another Zigerion spoke up. "Don't put this on 'Acquisitions'! We only acquire humans that haven't been simulated!"
Kevin decided to enter the conversation. "Well, 'Simulations' doesn't simulate anybody that's been abducted, so-"
Before Kevin could speak, Prince Nebulon interrupted him, intentionally even. "Oh, I see! Oh, oh! It was no one's fault. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Well then, problem solved. Oh, wait no. There's still two more humans in here! Who are they?"
One of the Zigerions checked the monitor. "Well, we know one of them. That's Rick's eldest granddaughter, Reimu Sanchez. The second one we don't have any data on, but Reimu keeps calling her 'Marisa'. Apparently, they're starting to find out that they're in a simulation. Not quite finding out yet, but they're still going in that general direction."
Prince Nebulon merely rolled her eyes. "Welp, we don't know much about the last one, but keep an eye on those two and keep the settings on auto, we'll deal with them later. Rick Sanchez is the target."
Back in the simulation, the two girls were looking around at the area. Everyone else seemed broken and robotic in their movements. "So, Reimu… do you think that Rick provoked someone or something that might make everyone act like this?"
Reimu couldn't help but to sigh. "I doubt it, Marisa. Look over there." She pointed towards the direction of three people. The first was an elderly man of European descent with a hunched back, a green shirt, and khakis. The second person was a young woman also of European descent, but she had long brown hair and a mole on her face and wore a long red dress with matching high heels and lipstick. The third person was an African-American man in a goatee and a postman outfit, complete with a bag for delivering mail. "Didn't we see those three before?"
"Slow down!" the old man warned.
"Lookin' good." the woman complimented.
"My man!" the postman cheered.
"Yeah, you're right." Marisa said. She looked to see another old man in a green shirt and khakis, a brunette woman in a red dress, and a postman exactly identical to the previous three. "Hey look, there's another set over there.
"Slow down!" the old man warned.
"Lookin' good." the woman complimented.
"My man!" the postman cheered.
"Okay, now I know that we're not in Seattle anymore." Reimu pointed out. She looked to see another set of people identical to the other two. "Who the hell's wise idea was it just to copy and paste the same three people all over again?"
"Slow down!" the old man warned.
"Lookin' good." the woman complimented.
"My man!" the postman cheered.
This time, however, they noticed that the postman started walking into a tree. The area they intersected was labeled by a glowing blue aura, and it appeared the postman started glitching, as well as the surrounding area. The two girls hesitantly walked towards the area, and Marisa looked towards Reimu. "Reimu, I think we're in the Matrix."
Reimu eyed the glitched-out postman, who was still walking in place in the tree. "Not exactly the Matrix, but I don't think you're far off about that. The question is: who did this and how do we get out of here?"
Meanwhile, Rick and Morty were walking amongst the street, still completely naked as Rick stuffed the remainder of their clothing into a random sewage hole. "Aw come on, man! Did you have to do that?" Morty attempted to cover his willy, but Rick grabbed his hands.
"Keep your hands off your ding dong, it's the only way we can speak freely!" Rick ordered. "Urgh, now I remember why I decided to go along with Reimu's deal. You're such a moron, Morty. You'd have to be an idiot not to notice all the sloppy details here." He gestured towards a nearby hot dog stand, where a man was making hot dogs THE WRONG WAY. "Look at that guy over there. He's selling a bun between two hot dogs!"
"I don't know, it happens all the time." Morty stammered.
"And look at that old lady, she's walking a cat on a leash!" Rick pointed out, turning Morty's gaze towards an old woman who was walking a fluffy white cat.
"I don't know, Ms. Spencer does it all the time." a still unconvinced Morty stated.
"I don't want to hear about Ms. Spencer, she's a weirdo." Rick stammered. He turned Morty's sight towards something else, where instead of a house, a giant toaster was built. A sentient Pop Tart walked out of it and went into his car, which was basically a smaller toaster on wheels. "Well, what's that?"
"You got me there. I mean, why would a pop tart want to live inside a toaster, i-i-i-it's like the scariest place for them to live." Morty answered.
"Pop tarts aren't even sapient, Morty! They're food! And does a car look like a smaller version of your house on wheels? No!" Rick stated.
As they walked across the street, sirens suddenly wailed, and an ambulance suddenly drove right in front of them. Soon enough, it opened to reveal two paramedics, one male and one female, with the female paramedic caring for a man lying on the bed. "We got the president of the United States in here! We need Ten CCs of concentrated dark matter, stat, or he'll die!" the male paramedic begged. Rick had none of it and closed the door.
"Concentrated dark matter? Isn't that what my class was talking about?" a confused Morty asked.
"Yeah, it's a special fuel I invented to travel through space faster than anybody else. These Zigerions are always trying to scam me out of my secrets, but they made a big mistake this time, Morty. They dragged a family member into this, now they're gonna pay!" Rick explained.
"Well, what are we gonna do?" Morty asked.
"We're gonna scam the scammers. And we're gonna take them for everything they've got."
Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa were still walking amongst the simulated landscape, slightly bored and with nothing but themselves to talk to. "So, this must be too primitive to be created by aliens, unless they're idiots. Is Grampa trying to play a prank on us or something?" Reimu asked.
"Who knows, Reimu. And besides, you already asked that question." Marisa answered and pointed out.
"Well, we don't have any leads, and I doubt that we can go around asking these people. They're simulated, and we might as well be making fools of ourselves if we try." Reimu added. As they were walking, Reimu and Marisa looked to see a seemingly generic playground. It was a simple square lot that was stationed next to a seemingly generic elementary school that composed of a red brick building with a bell on top of its shingled roof.
The playground itself had a swing set with a yellow slide attached to it, a simple merry-go-round, a set of monkey bars, a sandbox, and a large tree with a tire swing. All around it, children were playing around, and oddly enough, a group of sentient pop tarts that were dressed in hats and shoes, but nothing else. While they knew the playground was obviously fake, the two young women felt a tinge of nostalgia sprout up from memory.
"Hey Reimu, doesn't this look like the playground we met?" Marisa asked.
Reimu nodded. "It does feel a little like it. No sentient pop tarts, though, and the schoolhouse is definitely NOT the large elementary school we went to, but the layout is rather similar. Obviously, the sound of canned laughter can never compare." She stared off into the simulated sky. "Back then… I tried my damned hardest to take after my awesome sci-fi grandpa…"
SEVENTEEN YEARS PRIOR…
LOCATION: PRINCEVILLE ELEMENTARY, APPLETON, WISCONSIN
Four-year-old Reimu Sanchez looked back at the various students that were playing around on the playground. She looked at it in sadness, seeing everyone play without a care in the world. And here she was, cast out in the corner with nothing but one of her toy robots which she is in the process of rebuilding after a younger student chewed it apart and smashed it into pieces.
As it was for someone like her. The students never really got her. To them, she did things that were impossible, that were not normal for a kid. In truth, she was actually gifted, but the kids never really saw it. They just thought she was weird and didn't really want anything to do with her. "Why did Mom and Dad ever send me to that school again?" Reimu thought aloud, still depressed that she never got to make any new friends. "Is making friends… really that difficult?"
As she was busy repairing the robot, a voice spoke up from behind her. "Excuse me, but are you making that toy?"
Reimu looked back to see a blond girl a year older than her, yet obviously in the same grade. She had light blonde hair that went all the way down to her shins, all messy and knotted up on some locations. She studied her outfit, seeing that she had a whites striped T-shirt under a pair of blue overalls and a purple bandanna. Her yellow eyes studied the pieces of the robot that she was attempting to put together. "The correct term would be 'repairing' it."
"Re… pair… ing…" the girl asked. Reimu noticed that she had several teeth missing from her mouth, two premolars and a canine, to be exact. "What does that mean."
"Well… to fix… to put back together after something is broken…" Reimu remarked. "I thought that you wouldn't care about the thing… just like all the others… they think I'm weird."
The blonde was confused. "How so?"
"Well, what you're seeing right now. I guess it might be because I can see things other kids can't." Reimu answered. "If you're really interested, then my grandfather's a mad scientist, and I wanna be just like him when I grow up! Mommy and Daddy won't allow me near Grampa's chemicals, or the laundry stuff, so I just… do this…" She sighed. "But because I know all these big words like 'Constantinople', 'Hydrogen Peroxide' and 'Gashadokuro', people think I'm weird, or an alien for whatever odd reason." She didn't get an answer from Marisa, and nonchalantly sighed. "You don't really care, do you?"
Marisa tilted her head. "What are you talking about? If you can fix your toy, you can do anything!"
"You really mean that?" Reimu asked in disbelief. She honestly never thought that anyone else besides the teachers and her family would see something beyond a 'nerd' and a 'weirdo'.
"Yup!" The girl said with a smug grin, showcasing her missing teeth for Reimu to see. Suddenly, she dropped the proud pose with her hand outstretched towards her. "How did ya know all these big words? Did you make them up?"
Reimu shook her head at her potential new friend. "Not really. A lot of them, I read from books, and Mommy sometimes even taught me words like 'Kappa' and 'Kitsune'." She paused and looked at the girl. "Oh, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Reimu. What's your name?"
"Marisa!" The girl replied. Reimu's smile widened slightly. She had done it. Is this what a friend is like? Suddenly, Marisa grabbed Reimu's hand and ran off. "Hey! Let's go play with the swings!"
"Wait up!" Reimu yelled.
The memory ended as Reimu and Marisa finished recollecting it. "…and here we are now, having reunited under a month ago, having this conversation. Oh, how time flies, Marisa."
"Oh, how time flies indeed, Reimu." Before any of them could respond, they noticed a huge number of people being rendered by the simulation. It was abnormal, seeing lifeless, textureless grids manifest and bring forth textures for people in the simulated world. "What the hell is happenin', now, ze?"
"I don't know, but they all seem to be heading somewhere." Reimu pointed out. True to her word, the people that were being rendered were all walking towards a certain direction.
As more people start getting rendered and walking towards the direction the others were going, Marisa looked at Reimu and spoke. "You wanna follow them?"
"Well, I've been getting a little bored, so why not?" Reimu answered.
On a random stage, Rick was with Morty, both of which somehow regained their clothes with the former rearranging them to make them look messier. "Aw, geez, Rick. I-I don't know if I like this plan,you know? I mean, crowds, t-t-t-they have a tendency to make me really nervous." As Morty was complaining, Rick had disheveled his clothing and wrapped a gold medal around his neck.
"Morty, relax. It's just a bunch of ones and zeros out there. You're gonna be fine." Rick lowered his grandson's pants and put a sideways baseball cap on. "Just follow my lead." Rick and Morty fistbump as they walk towards the stage. "Yo, DJ. Drop that beat!" At Rick's word, hip-hop music began playing in the background as a small crowd came towards the group. "Uh oh, Morty. This crowd looks too small for one of our famous rap concerts. I don't think we can perform our new song, 'The Recipe for Concentrated Dark Matter', for a crowd this tiny!"
"Yeah, you got that right... Rick!" Morty added.
Soon enough, more people came into the crowd, coming in on the thousands. "Now that's more like it, Morty! Here we go." Rick said. Now that the stage was set, they began to enact their plan. "Let me hear everybody say 'hey-oh!' yeah!" The two were greeted with various cheers from the simulated people. "All the ladies scream 'yeah'!" What followed was a bunch of women screaming at the top of their lungs. "Everybody over thirty, do this with your hands! Everybody with a red shirt, jump up and down!"
With all the various commands given, the system was starting to overload, and the various simulated people were starting to glitch out like crazy.
As Reimu and Marisa followed the direction of the people, they immediately noticed that whatever glitches that were scattered about were going from few but obvious to many and even more obvious. "I ain't sure what's happenin' here, but I'm starting to doubt this would be a simple prank from your grandfather." Marisa stated.
"I'm starting to doubt it as well. Grampa may be a bit off, but this is well below his craftsmanship." Reimu observed.
"Ain't that obvious. Still, they're still goin' in a specific direction. Maybe it's our way out!" Marisa pointed out.
"I'm not trying to be too optimistic on possible escape, but I hope so too." Reimu answered. "Though, a part of me still thinks that Grampa's playing a prank on us, maybe he was drunk at the time, I'm not too sure."
As they continued walking, they noticed something strange in a nearby park. The glitching people were gathering around what looked like a stage, where already, the glitching mass was starting to show further mishaps, including a few people that were already floating. "What in the hell is happening there?" Marisa asked.
Reimu focused in for a better view, and then noticed two figures rapping to the crowd. She and Marisa walked closer, being careful not to get trapped in one of the glitching people. As they got closer, the two figures became more and more clear. Despite their change in attire, Reimu clearly recognized them. "Wait, wait, wait… Grampa… Morty?"
"Yo, everyone whose first name begins with an 'L' who isn't Hispanic, walk in a circle the same number of times as the square root of your age times ten!" By then, various objects and people were starting to float midair, and the simulation completely froze in place shortly afterward. "Run, Morty! Before the system reboots!"
Morty, seeing no other option, followed upon Rick's command, ready to be over with it. Seeing where they were running, the two girls eventually caught up to them, with Reimu giving Rick a stern look. "Grampa, what did you do?"
Rick looked back to see Reimu and Marisa running towards them. "What? Reimu? And that Marisa girl, too! When the hell did you get abducted?" He shook his head, not wanting to drill into it. "Screw it. It's not like you two were the first people that got dragged into this mess. Come on!"
"So, where are we runnin' to, anyway, da ze?" Marisa asked.
"Good question, Marisa." Rick complimented. As they ran past a group of sentient Pop-Tarts that were frozen in the middle of their game of basketball, Rick began to explain. "Normally, the simulation operates like a treadmill, with the virtual world disappearing behind us and rendering in front of us as we move. But while it's frozen, we can get to…" The two ran far enough to see the environment become more and more polygonal until it became a lifeless, textureless grid, with the true room being visible just beyond. "…the edge…"
Marisa whistled at the sight. "Man, that's trippy…"
"Here we go…" With one swift jump, Rick jumped off the virtual grid and onto the floor, landing harmlessly when he reached the bottom.
Morty hesitated, but decided to jump alongside Rick, and the two ran towards the doorway. Little did they know, they were being watched by the Zigerions, one of which told Prince Nebulon about the current situation at hand. "Sir, they went over the edge."
However, the expression that Prince Nebulon had on his face read something other than anger or disappointment. He appeared to be smug, as if this was all planned. "Yes, they are. Just as planned." he said, following it up with a moment of evil laughter, to which his subjects soon joined in. "Oh, this is going to be such a mindfuck!"
A few minutes later, Rick, Morty, Reimu, and Marisa were walking through a corridor, looking for any guards nearby. When there were no patrolling Zigerions in sight, the two proceeded to advance forwards. "Keep your eyes peeled for the central processing room, kids. That's how we're gonna scam these idiots."
"So run us through what's happening… I'm still lost…" Reimu said.
"Ugh, we've been abducted by alien scammers of the Zigerion race, they are trying to get my recipe for concentrated dark matter for themselves, and they've been attempting to scam me for years by now. Most ambitious, yet least successful con-artists, folks. Give 'em a hand." a reluctant Rick explained.
"Why won't those fools quit, anyway? If we're going by what you're sayin', then those Zigerions should've given up by now 'cause you outsmarted them so many times. Why are they persistent?" a skeptical Marisa asked.
"It's an obsession at this point. The Zigerions have been trying to outsmart me for years, Marisa, but I was always one step ahead of them." Rick answered. The two went into a gigantic room full of rocks that carried some strange crystalline chips. "Aha! Here we go." Almost immediately, Rick rushed in and grabbed every crystal he could find. "Grab as many processors as you can carry, kids. These guys aren't very good at much, but they're really good at making these chips."
Morty immediately nodded and proceeded to grab as many chips as he could and stuff them into his shirt, only for some of them to fall back down and shatter. "Aw geez, I dropped one!"
"Don't worry, there's plenty to go around. Now let's get as many of them as we can and get the hell back home." Rick stated.
"Well, now you're speakin' my language." a joyful Marisa stated as she grabbed several of the Zigerion chips and stuffed them in her shirt. Reimu said nothing, yet she decided to join in on their fun, though merely settling to stuffing her pockets instead of her entire shirt with Zigerion chips. Once they made it to the room with the escape pods, Rick threw a chip to distract the guards, and the two made their getaway in one of the shuttles, making their way towards Earth. "Well, what do you know? That was pretty easy."
"Totes malotes, dawg." Rick replied. "And once again, I'm flying away with everything I can carry, and the Zigerions got nothing of mine."
It took a while, but the Zigerion escape shuttle had made it to a snow-covered Seattle and parked right on the outside of the Smith Residence. Rick and Morty (still having their Zigerion chips stuffed into their shirts) walked into the strangely open garage, both of which had satisfied smiles on their faces, followed by Reimu and Marisa, the latter of which was satisfied that she got so much stuff with the former being happy that she's back home.
"Well, I'm glad you three came along and got the whole heap." a satisfied and excited Rick stated. "I'm gonna be able to use these processors to make some real important science stuff." Rick stated. He proceeded to type in the combination to his safe, but he soon found that it was incorrect. "Huh... I thought I entered the code right." Rick typed in the same code, albiet a little slower, and the same result.
Soon enough, the garage's texture vanished, being replaced by a wired grid before fading away. Prince Nebulon came in with a look of fake shock on his face. "Well, what's this? W-what could this possibly be?" he said, pretending to emulate their thoughts before gaining a confident smirk on his face. "Because it looks like you're inside a simulation…inside a simulation. You're still on the ship. Game-day bucket go boom!"
At this point, Reimu couldn't help but sigh. "This is gonna be a headache."
Soon enough, a female Zigerion with a clipboard came into view. "Sir, the, uh, doctor's appointment to examine the discoloration on your butthole flaps was-"
"Too loud, Cynthia." Prince Nebulon interrupted. "Too loud and too specific." Nebulon turned towards the four humans. "Anyway… we've known how to make concentrated dark matter for a long time. But now we also know the code to your fabled safe, Rick Sanchez! All your most valuable secrets will now be ours!" the prince shouted, going face to face with Rick.
"Uh, yeah, until I get home before you and change the combination, you bunch of idiots!" Rick shouted back.
"That is why you're never getting home. Get them!" the prince commanded.
The Zigerion guards tried to grab them, but Rick pulled Morty's pants down to reveal his nuts, causing the guards to reel back in disgust, and for Reimu to angrily turn towards him. "Run, you three!" Rick ordered, heading towards the corridor as Reimu and Marisa followed en suite, followed by Morty, who pulled his pants back up as he did.
"Don't ask why the Zigerions are like that, Reimu! They just can't stand nudity." Rick pointed out.
"Why him, of all people?" a still unsatisfied Reimu asked.
"Do I have to explain every little bit to you!? Run!" a disappointed Rick answered. As they ran across the ship, more and more guards started to chase the two. After a few short turns, Morty nearly ran into the next room before Rick grabbed the boy and got him to safety. The room they were in was filled to the brim with cells. Hexagonal structures made up the wall, some of which contained aliens that were contained in some sort of fluid.
Neither of them had time to process it as the guards continued their chase. It didn't matter, Rick soon activated a bridge so they could continue running. However, there wasn't much left to go, but Rick switched the gravity off, allowing them to float towards a higher sector. The moment they made it, Rick proceeded to turn the gravity back on, causing the guards to fall to their deaths.
As they ran across the corridor, a semi-overwhelmed Reimu began thinking towards herself. 'I came from an overseer of Grampa's adventures with Morty, and now, I got abducted by aliens? I always wanted to go on adventures, but not like this…' Reimu let out a long sigh as she continued following the group. 'Ah well. Hopefully, this will be over soon.'
The two took a sharp turn to the left, entering a door leading to a restricted area in the ship. Morty took a breather as he placed his hand on a device, only to see as it created a holographic version of himself right before his very eyes. They didn't have much time to recover when the Zigerion guards opened the door, causing them to run once more, going into a testing room, where Zigerions were busy making the items and objects for the simulation. The three jumped through one of them, causing a chair simulation to disassemble and the guards to be caught in a hot dog.
They ran through a room where two aliens were playing catch, causing them to look confused. There was a hallway filled with simulated clones of the postman saying 'My Man!' over and over again. The next room they went through was full of a strange, orange alien species playing catch on a desolate yellow moon. The three ran towards a nearby ship, knocking a guard out cold as they hijacked it.
Upon seeing the ship take off, the guy operating the doors saw what was happening and attempted to close it, but they went right through it. Guards went into their fighter planes to intercept them. Morty looked out the window and looked back to Rick. "Oh, man! They're hot on our tail, Rick!"
"I guess they really do have concentrated dark matter." Rick concluded.
"Grampa, if you know how to make it, then you better tell us. We don't have much time!" Reimu warned.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, check the engine room. We just need cesium, plutonic quarks, and bottled water." Rick stated.
Morty immediately went back to the back of the ship. A few seconds later, he came out with a large bucket, a tube of some purple liquid, a tube of green liquid, and a surprisingly generic bottle of water. "It was there all along?" a curious Marisa asked. "Man, we're lucky."
"Morty, grab that bucket." Rick instructed. Morty immediately obeyed and looked at Rick. "Okay, two parts Plutonic quarks, one part cesium."
Morty followed Rick's instructions and poured in the contents of the purple and green vials before mixing the two of them together. "Now what?"
Rick nodded at the comment. "Now empty the water bottle into the bucket and pour it all into the fuel tank so we can get the hell out of here!" Everyone expected Morty to do it, but he just stood there with a blank expression plastered onto his face. "What are you doing, Morty?! There's no time!"
Before anything could be said, the entire background faded away in that same lifeless grid from before, surprising everyone, excluding the fake Morty, of course. After said grid fell away, all of them fell down on their buts.
"Are you kidding me!?" an angered Marisa shouted.
"No!" Rick shouted.
The fake Morty started glitching out in a blue aura before vanishing into thin air. As soon as it did, the door opened, revealing a group of Zigerions riding towards them on a hover scooter, all laughing at the looks on their faces as they went towards the direction of the three humans. "Oh my god, Rick. How dumb are you? You're inside a simulation of a simulation…inside another giant simulation!" Zigerion guards restrained the three as Prince Nebulon further laughed at them and reveled in his victory. "W-we never had the recipe for concentrated dark matter. But we do now! We do now, sucka!"
"You simulated my grandson's genitalia?! Y-y-you bunch of diabolical sons of bitches!" Rick barked.
"Kevin fought real hard to supervise that project." a random Zigerion stated.
The Zigerion with glasses looked rather angered at that statement. "You said you weren't gonna tell anyone! I'm never gonna live this down, am I?"
"You had your fun, just send us home!" an angered and overwhelmed Reimu shouted.
"I don't know. Can you?" a random Zigerion asked.
Marisa merely spat in the direction of said Zigerion in defiance as he fistbumped Prince Nebulon. "Okay, okay. Show this gullible turd to his shuttle. I'm done with him." Before the guards could do so, he came back. "Oh, wait. Let me get a picture." Prince Nebulon posed with a joyous expression on his face as he took a selfie with his phone, looking at Rick's expression with glee. "Aww. Look at his face. He's trying to figure out if He's still in a simulation. Are you, Rick? Are you?"
"At this point, it ain't funny!" Reimu yelled.
Prince Nebulon mouthed Reimu's words before looking at the two. "I was kidding, you're not." Before they were loaded on, he let out one last remark to taunt them. "Or are you?" As they were herded to the tram, Prince Nebulon gave them one last remark. "Oh, a-and, by the way, I don't have discolored butthole flaps. That was part of the simulation."
Cynthia looked confused at that front. "Oh. Uh, sir, should I cancel that appointment, then?"
"Yeah! Of course you should!" Prince Nebulon boisterously spoke out before turning to his secretary. "No, keep it. Move it up, actually, if you can."
In the green and white Zigerion escape shuttle, Reimu and Marisa were both with Rick, the latter of which had a nonchalant look on his face.
Marisa, on the other hand, was angered. "This sucks ass! These guys need to be taught a lesson in respect!"
Rick looked at Marisa. "Trust me, I've been told the same thing by countless others."
Reimu looked at Rick, and so did a now curious Marisa. "You mean? This isn't-"
"The first time someone's been abducted with me, s-sure." Rick stated. "I mean, the Zigerions are the most ambitious, yet least successful con-artists, after all. If they lose a battle, they keep pursuing the target until they get what they want out of them. Trust me, several other poor sods had to endure the same tortue you two went through."
Reimu looked out in space, seeing her own reflection against the glass. "One thing still itches in my mind. Why was it so easy to make concentrated dark matter in the first place?"
Rick raised the side of his unibrow. "Pardon?"
"Yeah, two parts plutonic quarks, one part cesium, a bottle of water, and an entire bucket. I doubt it would be that easy to make the fastest fuel for space-time travel." Reimu pointed out. "What did you really give them?"
Rick smirked at his granddaughter. "You catch on fast, Reimu. But why spoil the surprise…"
Meanwhile, on the space station, the Zigerions were throwing a party, with streamers and confetti thrown everywhere while balloons were set up, and in the middle of it all, Prince Nebulon was near a giant pot, holding three chemicals and a spoon, to which he gently tapped one of the containers with to get everyone's attention. "Ladies, gentlemen, and assorted androgynous people! Today, we'll be making our very own concentrated dark matter!"
Everyone cheered, and two Zigerions even took a picture to celebrate the moment at hand.
Soon, Prince Nebulon began to pour the chemicals into the pot. "Two parts Plutonic quarks… One part cesium…" He paused for a moment to speak to his subjects and crew. "A-and listen, I'm sorry for shouting earlier. I-I couldn't ask for a better staff." He looked towards the pot and smirked. "And the final ingredient…"
The Zigerion ship was destroyed in a massive explosion, which sent a shockwave that rattled the green gas giant it was orbiting, as well as the Zigerion escape pod that Rick, Reimu, and Marisa were in.
Speaking of which, Reimu looked back to see the source of the explosion. "Gah! What was that!?"
"Why don't you ask the smartest people in the universe, kids? Oh, yeah. You can't. They blew up." Rick explained.
At this point, whatever anger Marisa had vanished, being replaced with pure confusion. "So let me get this straight. You knew that it was a simulation this whole time?"
Rick merely shrugged. "Well, yeah. If you've been abducted by them for as long as I have, then you'd be able to figure that out *urp* rather easily."
Rick activated the recliner of his chair while he started singing the saxophone motif of Baker Street, leaving Reimu and Marisa to their own thoughts. The two childhood friends turned their attention towards each other. "If it were up to me, I would've spared them… but if what Grampa said was true, then they would be better off gone…" a saddened Reimu lamented.
"Well, personally, I'm glad it's nearly over." Marisa said, smirking at Reimu. "Those Zigerions already sounded rather annoying and full of themselves. Those guys seemed to be rather idiotic, lookin' back at it. Seriously, they knew how to make simulations but can't get basic chemistry done… I bet they somehow stole that ship, ze!"
The other woman sighed, but smiled. "That I can believe." Her smile soon vanished, and Reimu looked towards Marisa. "What are we gonna tell my family?"
"Eh, they don't seem like the caring type to me." Marisa pointed out. "Why do you even live with 'em, anyway?"
"Because…" Reimu let out a long sigh. "I've got a lo-o-ong list of reasons."
Reimu and Marisa continued their discussion as the camera zoomed out to reveal the Zigerion escape pod, which was still floating out in space.
Marisa was with Reimu and Sanae at the shrine, the latter two were wearing their miko outfits as they sat on a snow-covered bench. All three of them were decked with scarves, mittens, and other winter gear as well, with Marisa's being in purple and black, Reimu's being yellow and red, and Sanae's being blue and white.
The three of them were sipping on hot cocoa, with Reimu being rather deep into her thoughts. The day before was rather interesting. After managing to get back in the Smith Residence, Rick drunkenly attacked poor Morty, still thinking he was in a simulation before passing out. She and Marisa then had to haul him up to his bedroom before the two went to Tsubaki Grand Shrine for the former's job as a shrine maiden.
Soon enough, Reimu's phone pinged, and she immediately sighed. "Jerry… you silly, silly man…"
"What of him?" a curious Sanae asked.
"He just got fired for a faulty advertisement." Reimu pointed out. "There's even laughing emojis on it."
"Who would put laughing emojis on that!?" an aggravated Marisa asked.
"Summer." Reimu said, still holding a deadpan tone, yet she was visibly aggravated. "I swear, trying to steer her and Morty from the path their parents threw them in is a job plus one. I've been trying to unravel the dysfunctionality of the Smiths, but to little success so far. They always seem to relapse in the end. And though Jerry might be a jerk, that is not an excuse to treat him like a punching bag."
"Maybe you just have to give it time." Sanae remarked. "It takes time for someone to achieve their goal, after all."
"Look at me. I'm still gettin' used to being in the outside world once more after spendin' basically my entire teenhood inside Ruben." Marisa remarked.
"And I guess I'm still getting used to Grampa's shenanigans. I don't trust him, but he's still family, and you have to take care of your family… like I'm doing…" Reimu lamented.
As she took one more sip from her cocoa, she looked towards Marisa and Sanae, who were casually watching pedestrians pass by while switching stories about with one another, causing her to smile. Thankfully, it was break time, so she and Sanae could rest a little, as well as think a little more about the next step of her agenda. But for now, she was going to spend time with her two friends. A childhood friend she reunited with, and a new friend she made during high school, she truly did come a long way.
She once again thought back to her adventure, how she and Marisa awoke in the Zigerion simulation, how they went with Rick in order to escape it, and the weird twists and turns that came about on their adventures. As a pair of crows settled themselves onto a tree, Reimu Sanchez began to think about Rick again. She did not want to kick him out of the family dynamic, but she also wanted to get Morty out of his adventures. One thought remained constant, though.
'What should I do next?'
To TestuChris: Yeah… sometimes, I doubt my writing, though. Thankfully, college provides me a lot of opportunities for the whole writing part. And yes, thinking back to it, Morty might be a little passive about it, but you should look out for a later episode, things will be explained there.
To Sonic245: Ain't really there yet, but I appreciate your enthusiasm, my friend.
To Singjon: Again, thanks for the support. I hope this episode is a display of it.
Well, here we are. The fourth episode, folks! Now, I might've been copying the homework of "Rick and the Loud House", but given the character I intend Reimu to have, she's not gonna be fooled by the Zigerion simulation, she's not like Jerry or Morty (Season 1 Morty, that is), so she'll immediately notice that something is wrong just by seeing someone act weird. Also, got a little lore tidbit as to how Reimu and Marisa first met, a little more in depth. Granted, it's not perfect, but I hope that it will make some level of sense for her character and backstory.
Anyways, as for the future of the story, I assure you, I have not forgotten about Sanae (as you saw in the chapter), and I haven't forgotten about Nitori, either. I have plans for the both of them as I said many times before. And again, as I said many times before as well, you'll just have to wait and see. Until then, I bid you farewell.