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RickFic Ch11. Reunion

(Tags: violence, death, manipulation, vomit, substances, stalking, angst, arguments, torture, embarrassment, electrocution)

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Astrid turned the corner down the hall keeping up pace. Knowing she was running a bit behind schedule, she quickened her step only a little. Still in the stolen uniform of a random Cognito Inc. employee, she shifted back to her normal form once walking into Reagan’s lab. She looked around in silence realizing the room looked as messy as Reagan had always kept it. She sighed feeling uneasy that Reagan was nowhere to be found. She slowly paced around the room looking at different projects Reagan was currently working on. Trying to keep her mind from wandering to the the possibility someone might have caught wind they were meeting, hoping this wasn’t some type of set up. 

“Reagan?” Astrid whispered loudly wondering where she might have gone. 

Reagan grabbed a paper towel from the bathroom to dry her hands and breathed out another heavy sigh before exiting back towards the lab. Slowing her pace still fighting with the uneasy feeling in her gut.. was it guilt? Was it fear? She couldn’t help but feel as though what happened to Astrid had been her fault. The memories of what happened in Jersey still haunted her even after having ghosted Astrid for so long after. 

The team had been sent to Jersey to round up an overpopulation of Jersey Devils that were overrunning the outskirts and forests in the area. They all thought the mission would be a breeze with Astrid on their side but things had taken a turn for the worse. After using her trigger more than several times in the months prior, her programming started to “short circuit” leading to the horrible devastation that had befallen the mission. Similarly to the mole incident, the team had rounded up a flock of the Jersey cryptids for Astrid to exterminate. But while in the forest a part of their plan flunked when a few of the devils had gotten Andre and Myc cornered. They had snuck off to have a smoke break when they should have been assisting. Once cornered, out of panic and fear they both let out Astrid’s trigger word at the same time in hopes of being rescued by her last minute. Once Astrid had cleared them out, both Brett and Gigi tried to say Astrid’s trigger word to stop her kill programming. Due to the team already overusing her trigger for a year and not being her handler it started to mess with her behavior. But that day due to the multiple different commands being given by different people at such frequency it seemed to have become the final straw. Once both teams had gotten a heard of about forty Jersey Devils into a secluded lake area, Astrid’s Handler gave her the kill trigger. At first everything seemed to have been going according to the regular procedure of Astrid mowing down the cryptids. But once the flock had been terminated and she was given her trigger word to stop by her handler, her form and eyes did not change back to normal. Her terrifying destructive behavior proceeded leading to her massacring her own fellow Agency soldiers. The Agency team of ten went to a team of five in a matter of seconds. And things did not stop there, a decent handful of Cognito employees quickly met their demise as well, almost including Glenn and Brett who had been on the ground with the others. In that moment Reagan knew it was the end for them. They all messed around too much with something they had known nothing about. They had finally broken Astrid. The pure horror that happened was still partially blocked out in her mind due to how traumatizing the events were. All she could remember is somehow Astrid’s Handler had to personally fight her leading to him restraining her with some type of collared head piece. It proceeded to send multiple electrical shocks to her brain leaving her fried on the ground and flailing about as if she were having an aneurysm. Reagan remembers she had started crying and shouting at him to stop, not being able to comprehend what was happening due to the shell shock. He looked at her still in a daze with a suspicious glance, 

“You knew this could have happened didn’t you..? I know enough about you Ms. Ridley to know you never keep your nose out of affairs that do not concern you. I would have thought you’d been smarter than this. I had my suspicions but to have it end up at this degree...” He said bittersweet while lifting the unconscious Astrid off the ground, black liquid leaking from her nose and eyes. 

After that Reagan and the team had received news the following days after returning to Cognito that Astrid had been put on “vacation” and would no longer be assisting Cognito Inc. for the time being. Reagan in disbelief rushed to the guest room wing to try and get answers by seeing Astrid one last time. Once reaching Astrid’s guest room she could see it had been cleared out and completely cleaned, no sign of Astrid having ever been there. Leaving in a hopeless daze she bumped into Astrid’s handler who had been waiting for her in the hall. Startled but determined to get answers she stepped towards him, 

“Sir… please. W-what happened to Astrid…? Is she going to be okay?” Her voice cracked trying to hold back her tears. 

“I think you know the answer to that Ms. Ridley.” He said starkly. 

“Where is she?! What’s going to happen to her!?” Reagan demanded fearing the worst. 

“She will be sent back to the Agency headquarters to have her new programming. Hopefully it works. What your little group played with was not a silly game Ms. Ridley. You might have all significantly damaged my agent. Who knows if it will ever be reversible. You are all lucky to still be alive.” He stated with a calm anger. 

“I-we- we never meant for it to be like this… please can I see her just so I can apologize-?“ Reagan’s rambling was swiftly cut off by the Handler.

“It did end up like this. And to think most of Cognito actually thought you’d be up to the task of running the organization in the near future is beyond me. You still have so much to learn.” He said annoyed causing Reagan to go completely silent feeling utterly worthless. 

“And no. You will not be permitted to see or interact with my agent again. I highly doubt even if we are able to re program her that coming back here would ever be suitable. You compromised my agent. It would be best if you just let this go. You are lucky Cognito values you so highly, if you had pulled something like this at the Agency you would have been terminated.” He hissed at her while gritting his teeth. 

Tears rolled down her face as she looked to the floor between the two of them and she swallowed hard, “Sir… I admit fault.. I’m unbelievably burdened by the guilt of this.. please could you tell Astrid I’m so sorry.. I-I- ,” she paused to let out a sob and rub her eyes on her lab coat, “Astrid meant a lot to me.. I’m sorry I was so careless in my handling of the situation I never wanted to do something like this.” 

He sighed frustratedly knowing Reagan was being honest, “Ms. Ridley the best thing you can do now for her is to leave her alone. I’m sure she will understand the sentiments you all might have held for her. But don’t hold her back now. Imagine is someone had ripped away your life’s work from you, if someone had jeopardized you from continuing here at Cognito when this has been your dream and father’s legacy for years. Respect her enough to see that. Don’t make this harder on her. I advise you cease any communication or hopes of communication with her in the future.” He said in a softer but still stern tone before turning to leave. 

Reagan had relentlessly been heart broken and ashamed of herself after that. She had done as advised and stopped trying to look into or find out anything on Astrid after. This lead to her falling into a deep depression and burying herself in work to attempt and distract herself from the situation entirely. Slowly over time her and her team had dulled themselves to the incident, learning to not bring up the topic anymore. And since then Reagan had tried to go on with the rest of her life having one thing on-top of the next to distract her. When she had come to terms that she’d never hear from Astrid again, she started receiving messages from a new unmarked and unidentified communicator somewhere near Seattle. Since then she had been a nervous wreck hardly believing it was actually Astrid. 

She rubbed her face in the hallway in an attempt to clear her head before entering back into her lab. After opening the door she froze in silence at the sight of Astrid standing over her desk casually reading various papers that laid spread out. 

“Astrid..!” She quietly breathed in disbelief. 

“Reagan..!” Astrid also breathed out after snapping her vision upward towards the door. 

They both stood apart in silence searching each other’s gaze for some time wondering what the other was thinking. 

“So.. what have I missed since I’ve been gone?” Astrid attempted to joke in a lighter tone. 

Immediately Reagan felt a loud laugh leave her anxious body and replied, “oh gosh.. a lot. Uh.. where do I even start..” she murmured while looking down and ruffling her hair. 

She peaked back up at Astrid through a couple of stray hairs and tried to relax her shoulders, “So I uh- I was about to start running Cognito a while back because the Robes found out J.R. was embezzling company funds.. but then I found out my dad had actually erased childhood memories of mine in an attempt to keep a foothold in the company by using me as like his super genius Trojan horse.. and so then I tried to kick him out but then the Robes decided I still wasn’t ready to run the place so they- as you can probably guess it- gave that position to my dad..” she trailed off trying to find the words for what she would say next. 

“Oh- wow that’s really is a lot…. so that means he’s running Cognito now…?!” Astrid asked in surprise, the only thing she had ever heard about Rand was about him being a bitter drunk that had lived with Reagan after being kicked out of the company. 

“A-actually no.. so he also recently got busted and thrown in shadow prison with J.R. after attempting to alter timelines with this machine they had made after their college days… I thought it was so he could gain more power but it turns out he had just been trying to find a timeline in which our family- my mom and I- were still together with him and happy…” she paused a moment to breath. 

“Oh…. Uh.. wow that’s heavy...” Astrid attempted to word her sympathies but they both knew their lives were the opposite of anything normal. 

“Yeah so.. that happened pretty recently.. I’m still reeling from that and uh.. a recent breakup.. as you can guess it obviously didn’t work out.. he uh… he worked for the Illuminati as a mind eraser.. and he wanted to erase his own mind after all the things he’s been though.. he wanted me to come with him and start a new life but then the Robes offered me the position of running Cognito… I tried to calculate all the possible outcomes of our lives together.. and there was only one option where both of us would have been happy… and that meant neither of us being in each other’s lives.. so that was that..” Reagan winced at her own honesty being spoken aloud. 

Astrid stood in silence for a moment taking in all the information and figuring out how she wanted to respond, she wanted to console Reagan but she felt an overwhelmingly bitter tug inside,

“So that’s why you never tried to reach out to me..? You were busy with family, work and a new love life.” She said more starkly than she had anticipated. 

“No- Astrid… I had given up on the idea of trying to contact you before any of that happened..” Reagan tried to console the anger she felt coming from her. 

“Oh so after I broke I just became a lost cause to you…?” Astrid choked out surprised by her own emotions slipping. 

“NO…! Astrid… no.. I- after what we did to you…. What I DID to you… I just realized i didn’t think I could face you after that… I ruined your career… I ruined your life’s work..! I thought I was the professional one but I was actually the one who kept violating your trust and not thinking about healthier boundaries we could have had… I was so immature.. I had you- a literal weapon in my hands and I never thought about keeping the safety on! And then you went off because I didn’t even know how to handle you… I shouldn’t have been handling you… not like that..” She too choked out painfully. 

“I mean.. yes I’m a weapon.. but I’m also a person..I thought you saw me as that too. The responsibility was also mine..! Once I had realized you found out my trigger I should have immediately reported to my Handler but I didn’t… I just wanted to keep up what we had going!” Astrid argued back furiously. 

“You wouldn’t have even needed to worry about that if I hadn’t gone out of my way to spy on you and found out your trigger when I know I shouldn’t have!” Reagan blurted out letting the frustration and shame out.

A single tear rolled down Reagan’s face as she looked down at the floor. Her fists tightened as she bit down on her lip hard, 

“I fucked it all up..! I had treated you like trash when we first met and then i ruined your life! I was too much of a coward to face you after that.. I thought you seeing me again would just be a bad reminder… I really started to think after a while that you might have even grown to hate me so much that you might kill me if we had ever crossed paths again. I was ashamed… but once you reached out.. I just- I felt like I had to risk it.. since you left I haven’t known a day of peace…”She raged in a low tone. 

“Reagan… I-“ Astrid attempted to calm her down but was cut short. 

“Yes I tried to continue on with my life and distract myself but I couldn’t. I got my dream position, got my father’s shadow off of me, the team finally listens to me and respects me… but I still had no one to share it with.. my ex would have been miserable if I had tried to make him.. but you reached back out and it made me remember how you had always wanted me to run the company.. so I took a risk. I figured you’d either be able to get revenge on me if you had grown to hate me, or maybe I could bring you the offer I had originally promised a long time ago.. that you could run Cognito Inc. with me.” After confessing she looked back up, her tears had stopped but her eyes remained red and now direct.

“Jesus Reagan.. I never hated you..” Astrid stammered from the realization that Reagan too had been just as torn up about the situation as she had felt and still reeling from the sudden offer. 

“I thought you were the one that hated me.. after losing control like that.. I mean I know the effects my abilities have on people both physically and… psychologically.. I thought you were terrified of me.. I thought I had traumatized you so bad that you’d never wanted to see me again..” Astrid too now looking at the floor in shame awkwardly shifted in place. 

“I mean.. Astrid the whole situation was traumatizing beyond anything I think I’ve ever experienced- but it wasn’t your fault..! You couldn’t help what happened.” Reagan stepped forward to meet her at the desk wanting to console her. 

“I had felt so lost after the Agency had attempted to reprogram me.. I have new triggers now but I don’t think they are working that well.. I don’t black out fully like I used to when I get a command.. I sort of remember some of it now.. and I think that’s why the Agency hasn’t put me back in the field yet.. I think they are just waiting for me to break again.. or maybe just keep me out of the way and not cause more issues.. I couldn’t stop thinking about you this whole time either.. I kept wishing I could be back at doing missions- back to doing missions with you..” Astrid confessed now knowing they were on the same page. 

“You’re still on “vacation” …? You mean they left you on the shelf..? Are they just letting you do whatever you want or are you still under your handler..?” Reagan asked confused as to how Astrid had even gotten back to Earth. 

“Well I’m still to report directly to my handler for check ins while he’s continuing that classified mission for the Robes he had gotten while here. Apparently even though our situation got blown the Agency and the Robes felt like they could still mutually benefit working together.” Astrid explained. 

“So he’s still commissioned here on earth for the time being… does he know you’re here..?” Reagan questioned doubting Astrid’s handler would have just been fine with them meeting again. 

“He doesn’t know.. He told me to stay away from Cognito and for the most part I did. I’ve been on Earth for a while keeping my cover. I think he started trusting I was going to keep being a good agent and stick to my cover life.” She said in a melancholic tone. 

“So you’re defying orders and sneaking around now that he’s not paying you much mind..?” Reagan asked curiously having always known Astrid to be quite loyal to her Agency and handler. 

“Yeah I guess so.. back when I was younger in the Agency I remember a few of the other agents trying to warn me about being too blindly loyal to the Agency.. at the time I thought it was ludicrous but now… I don’t know.. I’m stating to wonder if my days are numbered if I just keep sitting around for them and being useless..” Astrid whispered as if agency members were in the room with them. 

“You really think they would…? You think they would actually.. terminate you..? But you’ve been doing everything right since then correct? Besides coming to see me that is… that’s not that bad right…?” Reagan asked shakily realizing what Astrid was implying would happen to her. 

“That’s the thing… I haven’t really been following orders… for a while now. It turns out my new cover identity is as a teachers assistant….” Astrid trailed off suddenly feeling anxious now that she was admitting everything to Reagan. 

“A teacher’s assistant..? So… what’s so bad about that..?” Reagan anxiously laughed not understanding. 

“Well.. I’m now a Teacher’s assistant at the high school that Rick Sanchez’s grandkids go to… and … I might have been aiding him in… a few- a couple- okay… a decent amount of times in his criminal activity throughout the multiverses..” Astrid smiled with a guilty look in her eyes. 

“ASTRID- THE RICK SANCHEZ…?! Oh my god… oh god…. Not only do I hate the man- my father, J.R. And the Robes can’t stand him…. But your Agency…. Jesus I don’t think they like the man either. He’s literally the most hated- and WANTED- man in the universe..!” Reagan rambled in disbelief. 

“Yeah… I know it looks.. pretty bad doesn’t it..?” Astrid started to anxiously laugh in disbelief realizing how much jeopardy she had put herself in. 

“Hold on.. if he forced you or blackmailed you- your Agency might understand…! You could even say you were gathering secret intel on him for them!” Reagan quickly suggested. 

“It wouldn’t work.. I was given direct orders from my Handler to avoid him as much as possible and to never directly engage with him.. and I helped him of my own volition.” Astrid said now with a calm ton accepting the decision she had made. 

“Why…? Astrid if you were worried they might terminate you then why would you risk something like that…?!” Reagan questioned hardly believing. 

“I think I just got lost.. I’ve been all over the universe.. I’ve lived countless fake lives.. my work was everything…. But then I didn’t have it.. you were gone.. if I had nothing to lose then why not have fun if nothing matters anymore..? I started to grow fond of his grandkids.. and he- he’s oddly interesting I don’t know… I grew up with assassins it seemed normal to me..But.. now we are here… talking… I don’t know I didn’t plan this far ahead.” Astrid said defensively now feeling ashamed of her new and confusing choices. 

“Oh fuck Astrid…. It is my fault..! I took your hope of coming back to your work…!” 

“No Reagan… I lost hope for a while but I still did my cover.. it was his kids…. I don’t know I thought they were really sweet.. they reminded me of when I was younger..they have been through so much already and… I just felt like I needed to look out for them in maybe a friendly way… maybe give them pointers.. I wish I had had more help from older friendly assassins in my work..” Astrid mumbled finding her reasoning to be embarrassing. 

“Friendly assassins…. Right… god Astrid.. neither of us are normal at all… I keep forgetting that somehow….” Reagan shook her head while covering her face letting the realities they lived wash over her, “So…. You got close to the kids and he accidentally found out about you..? So you stuck around because he could blackmail you if he wanted…?” 

“No.. he hasn’t actually found out… and not by accident.. the kids wanted me to join them on a mission.. so I did.. and I kept my cover at first but I started to… intentionally mess with Sanchez by giving him hints that I wasn’t really human..for fun.” Astrid said more aloof pretending it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“FOR FUN?! Are you nuts!? He’s-Hes Rick-Fucking-Sanchez-Wait…you actually like the man?! He’s- he’s literally a terrorist…! ACROSS MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS! His personality is unsavory in the nicest way you would describe it…!”

“He’s not that bad… I mean he’s definitely infamously for a reason but… Reagan I’ve seen worse.. out of all the outlaws, terrorists, dictators, corrupt officials, vigilantes, other ASSASSINS..! He’s.. not all that bad.. he’s kind of just a grumpy older guy.. yeah he’s a dick but like who isn’t…?” She defended in a matter of fact tone. 

“What the hell……..? Okay… I mean… I met the guy once and… I personally can’t stand him. But I … guess if you were to be able to get past his horrible attitude.. I don’t know I never saw him around his grandkids.. but hes a dick Astrid!” Reagan tried to argue internally still. 

“What do you have against him? What happened the time you two met..?” Astrid asked curiously sensing there was a more personal reason as to why Reagan seemed to dislike Rick.

“It’s- it’s nothing really… I mean I’m kind of embarrassed about it.. it was during a time in my life when I was at a horrible low…” Reagan tried to explain herself now regretting her honesty. 

“Horrible low…? Was this while I was away…? Did you two have something personal between you two-?” Astrid asked suspiciously before Reagan cut her off. 

“NO!! A-and yes.. kind of.. I mean it was- just let me explain….” She tried to straighten her words, “One time I got boarder line blackout drunk when I went out with the team one night… really like I said.. i was at a low point- before you had even come to Cognito..! I bumped into him at a bar in DC when it was still the old president in office. He seemed fun and smart at first.. like he was actually able to keep up a lot of science conversations with me.. he even told me some thing I didn’t know..we did shots.. he told me kind of who he was.. he proved it by showing me the portal gun and all.. And then in my drunken mind I thought it would be funny to take him home with me that night. Surely it would piss off my dad… Him meeting a smarter and more pretentious guy than him! I mean we were living together still so there was no way they wouldn’t meet!” Reagan tried to explain embarrassingly. 

“So you fucked him…? Or you just brought him home as a prank…?” Astrid raised her eyebrow in confusion. 

“At the point of the night I guess I blacked out… I woke up the next morning next to him in bed and I guess we had hooked up.. but by the morning his attitude was so different.. and he waltzed right into the kitchen to get something from the fridge and my dad then met him… since you haven’t met my dad I’ll save you the details but it just went south.. they got into a huge pissing match and he was a lot more of a dick than what I had remembered from the night I met him and he just started to give me the ick because he reminded me way too much of my dad.. so after they had a fight and he left. I just never contacted him again and he never reached back out either… even after times Cognito Inc. or the Robes have had run ins with him..seems like everyone hated him.” Reagan attempted to state like it was a fact in an attempt to hide her shame.

“Right…..um well I don’t really know what to say… it kind of just sounds like you two don’t get along… did he actually do anything to you or…?” Astrid attempted to extract. 

“No… I mean I guess not… I just hate his personality…” Reagan admitted begrudgingly. 

“Well.. that situation is definitely messy I guess.. but that isn’t at all what things have been like for me… no offense Reagan but you did kind of set up that situation when you were drunk and wanting to start something with your dad-“ Astrid attempted to gently point out before being interrupted. 

“I know- I know….. I guess I get that situation was my fault but I still don’t like him.. and he’s still bad news…” Reagan insisted. 

“So… your team and Cognito… you would consider them as people to be… good news…?” Astrid laughed attempting to make a point. 

“Okay… you got me there.. I know technically I guess all of us are bad news too.. I don’t know… at least we all try to work together…? Rick doesn’t really seem like he’s a team player..” Reagan admitted but still tried to sow some doubt. 

“Reagan… I’m an assassin.. if I hadn’t felt differently about you then I probably would still be working at cognito with you right now and exploiting your weaknesses to the advantage of my Agency…” Astrid stated plainly. 

Reagan looked at her dumbfounded, not having expected that Astrid would have admitted to all the Agency had wanted her to do. She then looked to the floor trying to sort out what that meant to her. 

“So… you’re trying to say you think he’s different because for some reason he might like you too..? That he’s not just using you?” She asked directly back to Astrid. 

“I mean I know he’s used me to his own gain. I let him. But I’m saying it’s mutual because I’m using him to do what I want to.. like dimension travel.. after my reprogramming my teleportation ability went right down the drain.. I mean it was never that strong but now it’s like… really bad.” Astrid admitted to Reagan. 

“Wait so you had teleportation abilities before…?! And even after reprogramming you can still access that power without a trigger..?” She suddenly switched gears and contemplated. 

“Yeah.. I just happened to never use it around you when we worked together..” Asteid chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood, “And I was always able to access that power even without a trigger.. but now after programming it feels almost as if that had tried to stunt my ability to do so..” she then mumbled mostly to herself. 

“So the agency really is trying to keep you on the shelf… they tried to keep you from running..” Reagan whispered while contemplating for a moment. 

Astrid looked at her wondering what thought she might have been mulling over. Reagan walked over to her computer and started to click away at her keys. Astrid hoped up onto the desk next to her and peaked to she what she was up to. 

“Okay so if my hunch is correct…” Reagan started while continuing to type away, “it seems like the new programming wasn’t completely successful… in two ways.. it didn’t fix your “break” entirely…but it also didn’t seem to completely prevent you from using your original abilities either… so this might just mean whoever did the programming didn’t do a good enough job….” 

“Good enough job…?” So they half assed it? What does that mean for me…?” Astrid asked confused. 

“Well I’m not sure if they half assed it.. but compared to the complexity of your original powers and programming it suggests that maybe you had two different programmers… like the original programmer was extremely good… and then the more recent one was just… not very good…” Reagan explained her hunch. 

“So that just means it didn’t really work…? And that I’m kind of just forever broken…?” Astrid asked disheartened. 

“No actually it gives me reason to believe there is a possibility we could maybe reprogram you… but in a way that fixes you and also doesn’t suppress your natural abilities.” Reagan perked up excitedly. 

“Wait… you really think so…?” Astrid suddenly felt like a bus full excitement hit her. 

“If I could somehow get access to the files both of your programmers kept on you… I could try and compare the data and see where I could tweak it…! Or maybe any type of information your handler might have on your old or new programming… even if I can’t have the blueprints I could run simulations in my lab with any little bit of information I could get and piece together things on my own… I mean it’s risky… maybe it isn’t a good idea..” Reagan’s mood quickly changed as she started to think about what happened last time she messed with Astrid’s programming. 

“Wait! It’s… it’s Risky yes… but we could always just try to figure out… just in case right…? Like.. theoretically….” Astrid feeling like the ray of hope she had finally glimpsed was fading away. 

Reagan looked at Astrid in silence for a moment, desperately searching to see if any hesitation lingered on her face. Not being able to find any she sighed and closed her eyes to think. She then looked back up at her, 

“Sure… yeah. I could gather up any type of information and see what comes of it…. Theoretically..” she sighed realizing she was giving into Astrid’s risk taking. 

“Great..! I can definitely find you something…!” Astrid said cheerfully hoping to win over Reagan more with the idea. 

“Okay but… you shouldn’t be using your abilities much until we learn more okay… it could mean you’re doing further damage to yourself without knowing… and that means not helping Sanchez with his wacky plans…” Reagan tried to insist. 

“Reagan… I have my cover life I have to keep up with.. I mean I’m still not using them that much even when I have been around Sanchez.. I’ll be fine. Besides I can still help him with things without needing my abilities…” Astrid also insisted back annoyed that Reagan was still trying to police what she was doing. 

“Fine… I just don’t think it’s a good idea to stay around him. That’s all.” Reagan gave up but still slid in attitude. 

“Reagan… are you jealous..? Ha! Honestly that’s rich coming from you. You had a whole boyfriend while I was gone, why does it matter if I hang out with someone?” Astrid asked amused hoping to get Reagan to drop it. 

“I’m- I’m not jealous… “ she blushed and frowned irritatedly. 

“Yeah… sure. And uh… you still trying to have orgies with your co workers or…?” Astrid continued to twist the knife hoping to make Reagan admit she was acting out of line. 

“Jesus Astrid… okay yeah I’m jealous and I have no room to talk… Are you happy…?!” She then quickly turned to start working on one of her projects in an attempt to leave the conversation. 

“Oh don’t be that way Reagan! Come on. We both know things got complicated for both of us. So what? We are complicated people. You have your relationships and I have mine. But does that really stop us from being us? We could still be what we want with each other…” Astrid followed her and hugged her from behind in an attempt to convey how she felt. 

Reagan froze up at the touch, it had been a long time since the two of them had been close.. and even then Reagan had always struggled with her feelings of affection. Her shoulders softened and she stood there leaning into Astrid’s embrace. 

“So like… you don’t care that I dated someone after you..? Or if I’m seeing my co workers sometimes…. It’s a long story and I don’t even want to consider any of them a relationship we just all never get out much cause of work and-“ Reagan’s rambling was cut short.

“Reagan it’s okay. We can both have our own lives. But we can also choose when to share our lives together. I think we should just do what works for us right now. I still care about you and want to see you but I also understand when you have and want to do things that don’t involve me… as long as you can also respect when I’m doing my own thing as well. We can always regroup if things get confusing or more complicated than they already are.” Astrid said calmly while enjoying being close again after such a long time. 

“Okay… I mean that’s kind of a newer concept to me but I guess I don’t hate it… doesn’t mean I’ll ever like Sanchez though.. ha!” Reagan agreed but attempted to joke at the end. 

“That’s fine. You don’t have to. And if I end up disliking someone you’re seeing I don’t have to like them either.” Astrid teased. 

“Wait but you like the team right…? I mean I know they miss you too.. gosh we all were all worried after you left!” Reagan asked 

“Don’t be silly Reagan of course I like your team.  I just like you on a different level is all. I miss them too. If you think it’s safe to let them know we met back up… you could always tell them I said hi.” Astrid cooed in Reagan’s ear still keeping a warm hug wrapped around her. 

“Yeah I’ll end up telling them sometime… I mean I run Cognito now… I’ll be wanting your help on missions too if you’ll come back.” She turned and returned the embrace. 

“Oh so I can help you guys on missions but not Sanchez Hu..?” Astrid teased. 

“Oh give me a break..!” Reagan annoyed but still tightly squeezed to Astrid. 

Astrid laughed looking her in the eyes. Reagan met her gaze and then attempted to move the conversation on. 

“So what do you say…? If you’re already breaking rules do you want to help assist me with Cognito sometimes..? And maybe when you are off doing your own thing you could obtain any information you can find on your programming and bring it to me? That way I could also keep an eye out on your abilities and functions while also working to find a way to fix your programming..?” Reagan officially offered. 

“Yeah. You think you’ll be able to keep me secret? I mean I know you might be running Cognito now but I’m sure some of the company still doesn’t trust me after what happened…” Astrid wondered. 

“Don’t worry about that. You can help us on classified missions unofficially and we’ll keep it secret when you are working with us.” She said now more confidently now that she ran the place. 

“Alright deal.” Astrid replied. 

~ 

It had been a whole day since Rick noticed Astrid’s tracker location showing up at Cognito. Inc. It was well into the late of that night when he drunkenly swiveled is rolling chair under himself at his workbench in the garage. Throughout the day he had worked on various inventions all while randomly going to check the tracker location on the map every other hour. On breaks he had attempted to do more digging on Astrid’s origins, still coming up with nothing. Frustratedly he drank himself into a stopper after his attempted spy robot flies were exterminated by some new security that Cognito seemed to have installed. Failure to find any documentation of Astrid in Cognito’s classified files also added to the wound of his pride. This pissed him off royally since he already had such a distaste for the company and the Ridley Family. His drinking had gotten worse once he had decided he would stop trying to spy in on the situation not wanting to have any of them figure out he was even slightly interested in anything they were doing. After all they were no where near his level of genius, why would he want to even give them the satisfaction? 

Still, not knowing for once, even if it was because of his own ego, he couldn’t stomach it. In an attempt to prove to himself it wasn’t worth his time, he proceeded to get borderline black out drunk all while shutting himself in the garage to work. Getting annoyed any time one of the Smith family came to the door attempting to converse with him and angrily turning them away every time. His attention quickly became glued to his monitor once the notification came of Astrid’s location changing again. 

He teleported down to his super computer instantly just to confirm it wasn’t a trick. He blinked and rubbed his eyes double checking that her tracker now said she was back in her apartment around the block. 

He mumbled to himself, “D-didn’t take y-you for the sentimental type.” Suddenly he remembered the other night when he had overheard Summer on the phone with her friend talking about how Astrid had told her recent fling was with an ex co-worker. 

He pinched his forehead frustratedly also recalling how Astrid had mentioned she previously was on earth for work when they had taken a ride to the Astroid belt. He downed his flask and went to his room in a huff. He slumped down onto his bed to go try his luck at sleep. He rubbed his face and looked up at the ceiling drunkenly muttering, 

“s-so she’s here cause of some s-stupid situationship? H-Her tracker sh-showed her in Reagan- Fucking-R-Ridley’s l-lab all day..”

He briefly grimaced thinking back on the time he had gotten black out drunk and went home with her years ago. 

He scrunched up his face in discomfort knowing he barely even remembered spending the night with her. He only could remember the big fight her father had started that next morning with him in the kitchen. 

“G-god she was a-a pain… and that father of hers…n-no doubt she’s just like that l-lunatic of a guy..” he grumbled while thinking about the loathing he felt towards that family before eventually calming down a bit and slowly starting to doze off.

A loud bang from the upstairs came from the floor above, most likely one of the Smiths slamming their bedroom door. He stirred and looked back at his watch to double check the tracker still showed Astrid at her apartment. 

“I guess I was expecting…. something more interesting…..” he said disappointedly before slipping back out of consciousness.

Suddenly he was in a dark room restricted by something, he jolted and thrashed in an attempt to get free but with no difference being made. 

He then heard two laughs directly in front of him that sounded familiar. The pressure of a hand reaching out and pulling a sack off of his face against his forehead. As soon as the sack was gone he was able to see he was in an interrogation room with both Astrid and Reagan. 

“FUCK! I knew it!! I knew this would end up like this!” Rick shouted in anger still not being able to break free. 

“Took you quite a while though… Is the great Rick Sanchez loosing his touch in his old age?” Reagan mocked with a smile. 

“W-what gives!? You got so bitter it didn’t work out for us that you sent in some weird alien bitch to try and honey pot me?!” He hissed back at her. 

“Honey pot you? How pathetic… you think I’d be even remotely interested in even pretending to like you?” Astrid laughed in his face. 

“F-….fuck off….! What do you even want?!” Rick attempted to act unfazed but found himself choking on his words. 

“God how embarrassing…. He’s even naked..!” Reagan laughed making Rick look down to see he was only in his boxers. 

“Naked old loser says what?!” Astrid said so fast Rick barely processed it. 

“W-what…?” He asked confused before Astrid quickly electrocuted him with live wires. 

“AHHHHGH-FUCK!!” Rick screamed jolting up from his bed eyes wide realizing it was a dream.

He crawled and clamored over to his small metal trash can in the corner of the room and proceeded to vomit up all the alcohol he had drank earlier. 

“J-Jesus Christ… what is wrong with me..? A s-stupid “h-he’s not wearing any pants dream…?”How old am I- seventeen…?” He panted annoyed at himself on the floor after getting it all out. 

He then got back up and layed back down on the bed face up to the ceiling. 

“I need to figure this shit out…” 

—- PART ELEVEN COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

Ch10 Cognito Inc. Part2 RickFic

(Tags: violence, mental manipulation, gore, substance use, unhealthy dynamics)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #10 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

The next morning Reagan rolled over and let out a hiss in annoyance as a beam of light from the a window cast directly into her eyes. 

“Fuck… uhhhg..!” She moaned in pain while clutching her head. 

Her temples were throbbing and her mouth felt parched. She squinted her eyes and looked around the dark room half alive. She thought to herself about how hung over she was while groping around for her watch. While situating herself she felt her leg bump into something on the bed and looked down to see Astrid next to her. She played naked lying on her stomach, head buried into a pillow. Reagan’s eyes widened in disbelief as she slowly recalled bits and pieces from the previous night. She couldn’t remember everything, however the memory of Écoute chérié by Vendredi sur Mer echoed in her ear while kissing Astrid last night made her blush in embarrassment. 

“Oh god… what even happened?” Reagan looked down to see she had also nothing on. 

She sprung up instantly and rushed to find her various articles of clothing. Sneaking, hoping to not wake Astrid, she quickly got dressed and slipped out of the room. Reagan winced at the creaks while slowly closing the door behind her. She rubbed her face in disbelief before proceeding to go get breakfast. An attempt to start her work day. 

“Did I really have sex with the new girl…? oh my god I slept with a coworker… what the hell is wrong with me..?! Fuck…. The gang is going to make this so weird! Fuck!! They all tried to have an orgy last night Jesus Christ…” Reagan furiously ranted under her breath while trying to avoid any suspicious eyes landing on her in the hallway.

After grabbing some breakfast and coffee from the food court she snuck down to her secret lab in the basement where she had left her iPad. This was the room where she had kept AlphaBeta contained in secret from the rest of Cognito. Reagan reluctantly went in knowing he would sling all kinds of petty insults and judgments at her. She just knew he had been watching the security footage of the building last night with nothing else to do except watch his rerun episodes of Friends. 

“Ah ha…. Nice to see you bright and bushy tailed this morning. After all it seems like you almost hit your all time lowest last night. I mean… really? An orgy with your co-workers…? That doesn’t seem like the Reagan I know… then again your pathetic attempts at dating have probably lead up to this. Guess it was inevitable.” He cooed out mockingly as she quickly walked passed his glass chamber avoiding eye contact. 

“How about you mind your own business AlphaBeta… oh wait that’s right… your only business is re-watching the same few episodes of Friends because you can’t be trusted with ANYTHING. So of course you’re naturally obsessed with what I have going on as your CREATOR.” Reagan snapped while rummaging through some boxes and desks to find her device. 

“Oo you got me! But see you wouldn’t have been in this humiliating situation if you had just let me DESTROY- I mean take care of.. this god forsaken planet. You wouldn’t be feeling threatened by a new alien girl..” he continued to dig. 

“SHUT UP! I’m not threatened by the new girl. AND I don’t have time for this.” Reagan blurted before finding her IPAD. Springing up to leave she quickly shot, “If anything she should feel threatened by me. And you should keep that in mind too. I keep you up and running because I WANT you to.” Reagan hissed and quickly exited the lab. 

AlphaBeta chuckled and shook his head after the door slammed shut, he then turned to look at the monitors again. He watched the video feed of Astrid leaving her room, peaking out the door and looking around the empty hallway. 

“What an odd girl she is too.. I wonder if there is good reason Reagan seems to get so worked up over her… the whole team seems smitten.. then again they are inferior humans. I wonder what type of Alien life form she is.” He wondered to himself out loud. 

~

The Cognito Inc. team and Astrid sat in the conference room listening to J.R. give them their latest mission briefing. It had been almost a month at this point since the morning Reagan had slipped out of Astrid’s room without a word. Having found herself in her new coworkers bed the that morning made her feel so unprofessional. (The repeated digs coming from AlphaBeta didn’t help her feel any more secure about the situation either.) However all this came across to Astrid as if she had been discarded by Reagan, she couldn’t stand knowing Reagan was now giving her the cold shoulder. This left an opening for more of the team’s meddling throughout the weeks following. They had all worked on small to medium difficult missions together for a few months since then. However between the two, tensions continued on in silence. The team had quickly learned that Astrid was actually incredibly smart and resourceful, often helping to solve problems before they even started in world ending situations. Astrid had no problem with continuing to pretend to be one of the technician handlers from the Agency, all while still keeping the Cognito team oblivious to the true nature of her job. The energy this brought made Reagan feel even more threatened now thinking about how J.R. was clearly starting to favor Astrid’s wit and charm…in more ways than in a professional sense.

“Good job out there Astrid! Your quick thinking saved us thousands of dollars on clean up! To think if that operation had gone public… you’re an absolute god send!” J.R. smiled delighted at her, “how about you come by my office later… I have something I want to show you.” He bent down and whispered near her ear, “Gosh Cognito has never been better! You’re quite the shining “star” aren’t you?” He joked while patting her on the shoulder and winking before moving on with the brief. 

“Star…?” Reagan muttered to herself wondering what that even meant, he had phrased it in such an odd way. 

While working together Astrid had tried to bring up that night to Reagan to see how things stood between them, however Reagan would always seem to find a way out of the conversation blaming work and important tasks. After not getting the results she had hoped for, Gigi had floated the idea to Astrid that in order to get Reagan to come back around she would have to make her jealous. This lead to Astrid purposefully hooking up and flirting with almost everyone on the team. She would sneakily try to plan getting caught by Reagan, going as far as learning her schedule and habits so as to know when she would most likely be during the day. Reagan would often times “accidentally” came across Astrid having “quicky sex” with a team mate somewhere in the building. 

Each time it lead to Reagan becoming shocked  walking in on inappropriate behavior at the workplace. She would silently leave, immediately feeling the jealousy boil up in her stomach. She’d walked in on Astrid and Gigi multiple times in the News room, she’d walked in on Astrid and Brett in his office about twice, a few times with Andre in his personal chemist lab, and finally even found her in a broom closet with Myc once. Obviously Reagan dragged Astrid out of the closet telling her about how Myc had all kinds of STDs before she had gotten a chance to actually hook up with him. She then scoffed and stormed out after having saved Astrid from such an ignorant mistake. 

This made Astrid realize the method seemed to have worked a bit, cracking open a little bit of Reagan’s shell knowing she still seemed to be looking out for her even if she did seem to hold some resentment towards her still. After that it seemed to open up a little more back and forth between the two of them. Astrid often found excuses to come by and see Reagan in her lab, checking to make sure Reagan was getting enough sleep or food and water. This even lead to her trying to shadow Reagan during missions in order to “learn” from her, getting on her good side. This started to work on Reagan, boosting her ego was definitely a quick way through her cracks. Once that started, it made the team feel like they were missing out with Astrid now that she started sticking to Reagan like glue. Staying up all hours of the night to assist her with projects in her lab. The team started to catch an attitude with Reagan, often acting out on purpose to try to make her look bad in front of Astrid in hopes of gaining back her attention. Glenn had also started to catch onto the fact that things were going on in the office and would often shoot poor tasting jokes at Reagan and the others knowing it would get under their skin. He hated feeling left out. 

“Did you hear that…? J.R. called Astrid a “Star”. But you wouldn’t mind or nothin right Reagan? It’s not like you’d mind getting a little break from your favorite groopy while she goes and kisses up to J.R. In his office talking about “Private Plans”. He rubbed in Reagan’s face one afternoon while they finished up their meeting. Astrid had followed J.R. Back to his office moments later just like he had said. 

“Glenn. Astrid is an intelligent alien woman who has to keep up with us and whatever other shit J.R. Is trying to push off on her. I’ve been quite pleased with how helpful she’s been lately. She’s a quick learner and actually listens to orders I give. Unlike some people I know.” Reagan said back annoyed to Glenn.

“Looks like someone’s on edge! I don’t know why you would be though…now that you seem to have Astrid all to yourself these days.” Myc complained. 

“Honestly you’re just mad Reagan saved Astrid from making a mistake with you.” Gigi snorted at Myc, “But really.. I know you refuse to talk about it. But come. on. Reagan! The way you treated Astrid after that night was kind of cold. You even got sour with her when she was just having a little fun with the rest of us in the meantime. And now you two seem all buddy buddy again. What’s up with that?” 

“I didn’t treat her bad… wait what do you mean..?! I was just trying to be professional..!”Reagan stuttered out starting to realize how her actions looked from a different perspective. “Astrid seems to get that now. We are working alongside each other in perfect sync.” Reagan insisted feeling her own insecurities and jealousy rear its head. 

“Well… Reagan I mean how you left the situation with Astrid is still kind of messed up.. its totally cool that you two are chill now but how do you think she might still feel deep down..?” Brett tried to point out gently. 

“No… we’re fine.. we’ve been doing great actually!” Reagan tried to protest, “So great that I don’t even mind that she’s clearly spending a lot more time with J.R. now!” She quickly muttered out while clenching her fists 

“Yikes…” Andre said before he left the conference room with everyone else. 

Reagan stood in the office alone ruffling her hair and tapping her finger on the table while pondering the situation. Outside in the hallway Gigi quickly perked up,

“So we are all definitely going to try to get with Astrid again right…?! Reagan is clearly so threatened… I think it’s funny she pretends to hide it. But I’m sick of her hogging all the fun to herself. I need that spice back in my life.” She said in a joking tone to help lighten the mood. 

A few more months had passed, allowing Reagan to fester in her secret spite towards Astrid. This started to twist Reagan’s intentions from wanting to mentor Astrid into wanting to secretly sabotage her. At first her intentions were never harmful, she only wanted to try and mess with Astrid a little. Maybe make her seem less pedestal worthy towards the rest of Cognito. She had gotten tired of the team constantly kissing up to Astrid and never listening to her. However this quickly started to turn into a power trip for Reagan once she noticed Astrid started giving into her more domineering behavior. Asking  more favors and orders out of Astrid who seemed to comply no matter how difficult the task. Reagan found herself delighting in covertly degrading or taking charge over Astrid in both the office and in the field. The kicker was that Astrid still seemed to bounce back, seemingly delighted as well….At first this definitely threw Reagan off, since she had never held those types of thoughts and feeling towards someone that strongly before. She would catch herself shuttering at the thought she might be more like her father, Rand, than she had thought. This of course did not stop her from slowly pushing the line with Astrid out of curiosity and unchecked ego wondering why Astrid wasn’t fighting back. 

“Im sorry Reagan. I won’t let it happen again.” Astrid said earnestly while her head was slightly lowered in a somber tone. 

“Jeez Reagan… don’t you think you’re taking this a bit far now…?” Gigi said abruptly trying to check Reagan right as Astrid had left to go fix her mistake in the lab. 

Reagan laughed thinking about how Astrid had been coming to her lab late nights trying to be “of assistance” by helping her with all kinds of tasks. Of course the sexual tension between the two had only gotten worse. By that time of night Reagan would be incredibly irritable from a long day and would sometimes snap at Astrid. She even would get a little “rough” with her directing when Astrid wasn’t doing something correctly. Such as snatching tools out of Astrid’s hands, or moving her out of the way instead of asking her to move, even grabbing her by the back of her shirt collar and pulling her away from projects to get her attention. Reagan would quickly feel bad and attempt to apologize, but would be met with a cheeky smiling Astrid “Apologizing” for being inept and quickly getting back to work. This always would send a rush down Reagan’s spine, finally having someone who let her practically do whatever she wanted, however she wanted. 

She grinned confidently back at Gigi replying with, “If it was too far then she wouldn’t be practically begging to be put to good use after hours.” 

“But…. You two haven’t even been fucking…” Myc said abruptly confused, clearly not getting the undertones. 

“So? She’s obviously just as invested in getting projects done that will lead to the good of humanity as much as I am.” Reagan replied dismissively. “You wouldn’t understand.” 

“Okay Reagan I get that you were having fun at first or whatever the start of this was…but it’s devolved into… it’s getting weird. Are you sure she actually likes being treated this way? OR is she just so desperate for your approval she’s willing to do practically anything? Like insane and intensive nerd shit. Reagan you’re better than this! I thought you actually liked her but Jesus I didn’t want to say it but…” Gigi tried to prepare for the point she was going to make. 

“No! Don’t you dare fucking say it!” Reagan yelled at Gigi wanting to stay in denial. 

“….you’re starting to act like your father Reagan.” Gigi quickly finished. 

“FUCK! No….. it’s not that bad…” Reagan whined still not wanting to face it as she buried her face in her hands. 

“It is that bad.” Gigi stated plainly, “You need to check yourself Reagan. I know we all give you a hard time and all..but this is one of those times…I’m telling you. Because I… kind of- sort of- respect you ..in some ways. This…this is just not it.” Gigi shook her head disappointedly at her.

Reagan rubbed her face in embarrassment trying to stomach her darker tendencies towards unhealthy obsessions and power trips. 

“It would be one thing if y’all were dating and agreed to like ..some kinky kind of dynamic and maybe the rest of us were in on it.” Gigi quickly wiggled her eyebrows trying to joke, “But seriously Reagan I think she’s really liked you from the start and it just keeps being you shitting on her.” She said ending off still on a more serious tone. 

“You can’t act like this is all my fault! You pushed all of us in this weird dynamic because you wanted to TAKE IT THERE on the FIRST NIGHT we even met her!!” Reagan burst out trying one more time to defend herself. 

“Okay I admit that part of this was my nosey doing but even I know when to draw the line Reagan… you need to give it a rest and actually talk to her like a normal fucking person would.” She said now getting annoyed.

“How- fuck… how am I supposed to just… talk about this to her..?” Reagan asked defeated.

“I don’t know but you’re ganna do it first thing tomorrow morning! If I ask Astrid tomorrow if you’ve had a heart to heart with her yet, and she says you two haven’t by the afternoon… so help me Reagan I will make this workplace a living nightmare!” Gigi threatened. 

“F-fine! You better apologize to her too…! F-for that night…!” Reagan quickly shot back. 

“FINE! I will. See I’m not scared! In fact I might just tell Astrid how I really feel about her! Can you say the same Reagan? Or are you ganna buckle under the pressure and lose to a hottie like me?” Gigi quipped back ending her statement with oozing competitive confidence. 

“I…” Reagan choked and looked at Brett quickly for reassurance, with a quick awkward but supportive smile he thumbs upped. 

“Come on Reagan don’t make this like the hug issue from the Reptilian fiasco. Just relax~” Andre said after sparking up a cigarette. 

“I’ll do it. I’ll apologize to Astrid…. and I’ll tell her how I really feel.” Reagan murmured with nervous conviction. “I mean… what could possibly go wrong…?” 

~

Back in J.R.’s office he brought up to Astrid,

“The new mission is coming up! Are you sure you want to let the whole team in on the true nature of your job?” He asked curiously.

“Yes sir, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to take the initiative. As soon as I suggested it to my handler, he seemed hesitant but he knows I’m good at what I do. So of course he agreed.” She said confidently with a large smile trying to hide a more unsettling grin. 

“I understand… but just between you and me, I think I’ll miss being able to keep it as our little secret just between us.” J.R. laid the charm on thick hoping to see how Astrid would respond. 

“Well sir, I don’t think I’d have a problem keeping other types of secrets just between you and me in the future.” Astrid flirted back hoping to lull him into trusting her more, she knew once he saw her actual true nature he too would find it harder to trust her. Just like everyone else always did. 

J.R chuckled as the blood rushed to his cheeks from her response, but quickly got up from his desk to open the office once he heard Astrid’s Handler at the door. He greeted him with a hearty hand shake and a politician’s smile.

“Hello there Mr. Votum… haha is that Latin…? Anyway- it’s nice to finally see you again. I hope you and the rest of your team have been finding your stay at Cognito pleasant enough.” 

“Yes, it has been adequate. The Robes have been rather pleased with our furthering of an alliance between the two companies. I myself have been getting into rather interesting projects myself while here.” Astrid’s handler smiled back mildly. 

“The Robes aye….? Well! What a.. surprise. I had heard your team was getting more involved here in Washington..” J.R. attempted to choke back his envy hoping that none of it would jeopardize his authority there at Cognito. 

While J.R. And Astrid’s handler discussed the semantics for the upcoming plans for her “coming out” mission she sat leaning against J.R’s desk observing the two of them from a far. She thought to herself about how normal it had become these days not seeing her Handler as often. They used to be together 24/7, either side by side on missions or with him in her ear communicator while she was undercover for some job. After having graduated multiple Agency tests, they had allowed her to go on a hand full of solo missions before being assigned to work at Cognito with him for a while. And even there they were not needing to work in close proximity. He was only there to keep an eye out, further company partnership and deliver trigger words for Astrid when she was finally needed for more intense mission moments. It felt good knowing she was almost good enough to become an independent field agent soon. However, she just couldn’t shake the feeling of longing for her Handler still. He had been a rock for her at the Agency, being the kindest handler she had ever been paired with, she couldn’t help but want him. In her line of work she could never really trust anyone, it was the nature of job. But deep down she felt that he wanted nothing but the best for her, even if he was a little stuffy and formal sometimes, she had a weak spot for him. 

He ran a hand through his short graying black hair as he stood discussing details with J.R. Astrid would catch him smirking here and there when J.R. would say something in ignorance not quite understanding what Astrid was or what the nature of the relationship between her handler and her was. Finally making her handler chuckle and say to J.R. ,

“Your CIA was known for super soldiers and MK Ultra correct…? I’m sure you all here at Cognito have something similar as well. It’s not quite the same but what Astrid is, is closer to that in nature…If that helps you understand it better.” 

“Well I got that part I just…” J.R. Trailed off with a few more questions wanting to understand how she was that much different than a super soldier. 

Astrid sighed already getting bored of the conversation. She looked longingly over at her handler day dreaming about times in the past where they had gotten close. She knew her feelings were probably one sided, he was significantly older than her (for all she knew), and he was extremely professional and responsible. He probably had only ever seen her as the equivalent of an apprentice. He glanced over at her quickly noticing her gaze on him. His one all black eye with a single red iris ring focused in on her intensely reading her face. The other normal eye, light green, looked at her as well but it always looked much kinder and softer than the other. The old scar on the side of his face that ran over his black eye twitched as he furrowed his brow at her realizing she had stopped paying attention to the conversation. She snapped back to attention with a goofy smile back at him knowing he was dissatisfied with her lack of attention to important matters. But he let it go knowing it was nothing she hadn’t heard before and turned to look back at J.R. Astrid let out another little sigh but this time in relief, anytime he looked at her like that she always got butterflies in her stomach. She then looked down and compared both the men’s frames to each other in her thoughts. Where J.R. was more stocky and muscular, her handler was rather taller and lean, but it looked refined on him. 

“Alright, well with that we’ll let you get back to your work. Astrid and I have some of our own things to discuss,” her Handler excused themselves and looked over at her while opening the door, “come along dear we need to get you up to date with some procedures the Agency wants us to take.” He said to her as she walked to him. 

“T-thanks for the updates- Astrid… hope to see you bright and early tomorrow..!” J.R. Quickly tried to get her attention after seeing how effortlessly her handler and her seemed to flow together. 

“See you soon Sir!” Astrid said to J.R. Behind her without taking her eye’s off her Handler. 

As they both slipped past the door her handler draped his arm around her shoulders, escorting her out into the hallway. Astrid looked up at him and noticed he had given J.R. One last glance before leaving, she peeked over her shoulder at J.R. to see his face looked pink and embarrassed for some reason after whatever look her handler had given him. Once they were alone in the hallway walking back towards their rooms she looked over at him and made a curious face wondering what he had done to make J.R. act that way. 

“It seems you’re quite successful getting in close with our new “allies”.” He commented to her in a lower tone. 

“Well isn’t that what I’m sup-“ she tried to quickly defend herself before he cut her off,

“It’s very smart of you. Your training seems to be living up to the Agency’s top standards. I’ve heard little updates about your progress imbedding yourself with the Cognito Inc. team. This will be good finding out all the intel you can on them.” He said plainly and clearly unbothered about the fact she had been getting close to all of them in more than just a friendly manner. 

“Ha… sometimes it’s so natural I don’t even realize I’m doing it anymore..” she kind of sighed out loud. 

“Well… it’s what you were trained to do by your previous handlers.. it’s what you know. You’re very good at it.” He said assuringly. 

“Anyway…. I’m guessing you don’t need my help for anything tonight..? I can’t just spend some time helping you with some tasks..?” She hoped wanting to spend more time with him. 

“This is a good sign that you are a capable agent. I have high hopes that the Agency will allow you to rise to the rank of independent field agent once we complete our stay here at Cognito in a few years.” He quickly input trying to drive home his praise for her being independent. “And no…I don’t need your assistance today, you know I’m doing a different kind of work right now…You have really embedding yourself with the new team! That’s  exactly what the Agency wants to be seeing from you right now. Trust me, you’ll thank me once you raise up a rank. You’ll be able to enjoy greater rewards.” He said confidently trying to praise her. 

She slumped her shoulders back in dissatisfaction from his answer. She was excited for all those things but they paled in comparison to hearing a single ounce of interest he could have held towards her. She then left after he parted ways with her towards his room down a different hall. She huffed and continued on down the hall back towards her guest room. She went inside and shut the door behind her. Looking at her messy bed she could feel irritation swelling up inside her. 

“He never takes me seriously..” she muttered to herself, “Heh..But pretty soon my new “team mates” will have to take me seriously.” She grimaced a smile while flopping down onto her bed. 

~

The next morning Reagan had woken up bright and early to fester on the things she could say in an apology to Astrid that morning. She paced back and forth in the empty conference room waiting for other team members to show up soon. She glanced down at her watch nervously, 

“What if she gets here before everyone else..? Fuck I wish I had more time to prepare myself..” Reagan tapped her foot and looked around the conference room. 

Suddenly loud alarms started blaring from everywhere in the building and J.R. Popped up on the large TV monitor screen. 

“This is not a drill! We have an emergency mission that has come up!” He yelled through the screen. 

Reagan almost practically jumped out of her skin at the sudden loud commotion but let out a sigh of relief realizing there was a world ending scenario that would help keep her mind off of personal predicaments. The rest of the team quickly came rushing through the conference room doors a few moments later to join Reagan at the table. Brett sprinted in and sat down in a chair next to Reagan where she stood at the head of the table. Myc slithered into the chair next to Brett while Andre hopped up and sat on the edge of the conference table. Glenn pulled out an adjacent chair across the table while Gigi leisurely waltzed in while doing her makeup, not paying any mind to the blaring sirens or the dire situation. J.R. Hurriedly continued on with his brief now that the group was present, 

“Listen up gang! The Mutation Department has been experimenting with foreign types of alien DNA that we had received as a gift from the Agency. Our department attempted to mix it with some Mole people DNA to make some experimental underground soldiers that we could dispatch in different countries…For the past few weeks the mutants that they had developed have become extremely violent and hazardous. They have been starting to secrete highly toxic waist eroding their containment units up to this point. We tried coming up with a new type of containment unit but the construction on that has taken too long. Some of them have managed to break out of the lower levels in the building already. It is only a matter of time until the rest escape. Oh..and I forgot to mention they are practically indestructible..!” 

Several images and footage feed flashed up on the monitors of the mutants hauling ass throughout the different floors of Cognito and causing all kinds of chaos. Multiple rooms and employees being terrorized in the live footage made the team’s stomachs churn at the sight of the carnage headed their way. 

“Holy shit… how are we supposed to stop this?! A warning about them showing signs of not being contained properly should have been shared with the company sooner don’t you think…?!” Reagan demanded at J.R. 

“Yeah what the heck J.R. ?!” Myc blurted. 

“I haven’t even had my coffee this morning yet.. JESUS!” Andre moaned. 

“You expect us to take on MUTANTS by ourselves..?! Are you crazy?” Gigi yelled at the monitor after slamming her makeup compact down on the table. 

“Alright. That’s it. I always knew I was ganna die in battle.. I just didn’t expect it to be this soon.. and at the hands of ugly ass mole mutants…”Glenn said dramatically. 

“Guys… if we die I want you to know I’ve really appreciated our friendships up to this point. We need to stay strong and try to survive this!” Brett pleaded with the group. 

“Hey! Slow your roll guys. It’ll be risky but it’s not impossible. We have the Agency team here with us and they are getting ready as we speak. They were originally helping us with this task but recently the Robes assigned them some type of separate highly classified projects so they weren’t able to oversee the project like they were originally… They said in good faith they can help terminate our experiments. However, they aren’t as familiar with the building as you all are. So your tasks today will be to help direct them and come up with a plan to corral the mutants into one spot so the Agency can take care of it. Their alien field soldiers are up to the task as well as their handlers standing by to issue commands. Get on your head sets and think of a plan quickly! If these mutants get out of the building and into the general populace we’re all going to be toast! The Robes will not like this one bit unless we can fix this problem immediately!” 

The gang sprung into action quickly running to their team’s control room that held all their computers, communication equipment and also acted as a temporary shelter with reinforced thick steel walls. They all fumbled around putting on their headsets when suddenly there was a loud explosion causing the building to slightly shake. 

“WHAT WAS THAT?!” Glenn shouted. 

They all looked up and watched the monitors showing five of the charred blackened and glowing green alienoid mole creatures had blasted through the buildings far outer wall into the parking lot. They had dug through with so much speed it was as if a bomb went off. 

“Oh Jesus some have escaped the building already and are headed towards the city!” J.R. Shouted through one of the nearby screens, “Gigi! We need media suppression now!” 

“On it!” She shouted back as she pulled out her phone to send some messages and quickly makes some calls. 

“Glenn! Brett! The Agency says they have some spare super suits they could lend you two. Are you up for it? They are resistant to the toxic waist and can prevent injury from heavy impact. Head to the armory to meet up with them and suit up!” J.R. Informed. 

“Hell yeah!! Now we’re talkin!” Glenn hollered in excitement as he ran out of the control room. 

“On it boss man!” Brett also replied seriously and sprinted after Glenn. 

“Andre I’m sending you the information about their toxic compounds. I need you to look over it and tell me if it’s worth anything to us. Like if we could use the waist as a weapon later on in the future so we know to at least try to keep one of the mutants alive or not. Also tell me if any other compounds can counter-act the waist so our whole building doesn’t get ruined!” J.R. Ordered. 

“Okay I’m looking over it now!” He said with his head buried in his computer next to his desk full of beakers at the ready to test. 

“So what do I do…?” Myc asked sarcastically. 

“Uh… I don’t know.. maybe make sure the team has enough coffee…? We need your minds sharp as tacks right now!” J.R. came up with on the spot. 

“Um…” Reagan muttered trying to quickly come up with a plan as J.R. Looked at her with an urgent look. 

Reagan quickly switched between raw footage of the building where the different mutants were as well as the footage of the ones outside the building. She chewed on her lip for a second trying to piece a solution together. 

“How many mutants are there total? I think I’ve counted ten…?” She asked J.R. quickly.

“There are thirteen total. And we need to think of something fast Reagan! The building is getting destroyed! Some even are headed to the public as we speak!” He urged. 

“Okay okay…..J.R. get the Agency team to try to lure the rest of the mutants in the building to follow the ones that are headed to the city.” She said confidently. 

“WHAT?! Are you losing it Reagan? You want all those dangerous things going into the city?!” J.R. screamed through the screen in disbelief. 

“Yeah what the hell Reagan… did you lose your head-?” Myc attempted to mock before Reagan spoke up again. 

“I don’t need your input Myc, like you’re any help right now!” She quickly snapped before turning back to look at the screen, “Listen! Isn’t there a sports arena of some type in the direction they are headed?” Reagan asked. 

“Reagan! You’re a genius- YES! The stadium would be the perfect place to corral them! We’ll block off traffic in the areas between us and the stadium so there is minimal casualties and property damage! And we could easily blame an earthquake for any damage and repairs that happen. Gigi we need a temporary signal black out in those areas specifically so no media comes out! Andre we need temporary memory loss gas that we can drop on the surrounding bystanders that might see the creatures passing by from a distance!” 

“Yes sir!” They all shouted in unison. 

“Brett, Glenn you heard the woman help the Agency lure these things out to the sport stadium!” J.R. Shouted into a different channel to their head sets. 

They all watched the monitors in anticipation as the Agency’s team managed to get the mutants out of the building with the help of Brett and Glenn showing them the way. Reagan would occasionally shout out orders or advice when the teams were looking for stragglers. 

“Okay was that the last one?! There are supposed to be thirteen.” She pressed over the head set to Glenn and Brett. 

While the agency kept shooting and running along side the mutants toward the stadium the two counted aloud the number of mutants. They both came back with a different answer. 

“Twelve!” Brett shouted back.

“Thirteen!!” Glenn shouted louder with more confidence. 

“Are you sure-?” Brett tried to ask before he was cut off over the radio. 

“THEN GO GO GO! Get them to the arena! The Agency’s prepared to end this for us once and for all.” J.R. Blurted anxiously wanting the ordeal to be over soon. 

Cognito’s surveillance drones flew over and swarmed the arena watching as the team and the mutants closed in. All the mutants burrowed right through the side of the arena going directly in. The agents surrounded the stadium from above and below. 

“Looks like they’re all in now Sir! What do we do?!” Brett called back over the monitor now starting to panic, seeing as how the bullets and weapons the team used had no real effect on the mutants other than irritating them. 

“Don’t worry Brett, it’s taken care of now-“ J.R. Said confidently before being cut off on the channel by an unfamiliar voice. 

“Yes. Thank you team. This made things so much earlier on us.” 

They saw on the monitor an older man had entered into the arena with the two of the lesser Agency handlers to both his sides. 

“Who’s that old dude…? … What’s he doing out on the field with those handlers?” Myc said to the others in the control room while the rest of the Cognito team listened over headset. 

They then saw Astrid walking into the arena and could hear her on the monitor with her handler, “Are we ready sir?” She asked the mysterious older man. 

“Are you ready Agent Mourning Star?” The handler asks and she replied back eagerly, 

“Yes Sir.” She said with a confident smile. 

“Astrid?! What is she doing on the field it’s dangerous!” Reagan yelled into the head set shocked. 

Astrid lets out a quiet little laugh hearing Reagan’s reaction through the headset and continued to walk forward as the mutants all started to notice her presence out on the field. 

“Stand by, in the private channel I will activate the kill trigger.” The handler announced to both teams. 

Reagan quickly noticed and presses a few buttons on her monitor hacking into the private signal between Astrid and her handler. She had to know what was going on. 

“What are you doing Reagan!?” Gigi whispered right before they heard the audio from the private channel come through. 

It seemed like Astrid was listening to music in one of her ears, this made it so that the channel picked up on it a little in the background. They then heard her handler chastise her for listening to music at a time like this. 

“What have we talked about before regarding your inappropriate use of your listening device during missions Mourning Star…?” He asked tiredly knowing she most likely would never listen. 

Astrid laughed and told him, “You know I work better when I can listen… Just pretend like you don’t hear it.” She joked. 

He sighed, “Fine…. Alright I will initiate the code..” he said trying to take it slow. 

“Do it already. Stop worrying about me.” Astrid said slightly annoyed wishing he would hurry up. 

“Happy Birthday Shining Star.” He said in a solemn tone and paused, keeping his eyes on her from a distance. 

A small laugh escaped the corners of Astrid’s lips that did not sound human. Chills ran down the whole team’s spines hearing it echo out of their headsets on the team channel. As the beat started to lead up in the song, Astrid started to run out to the field towards the creatures. Reagan having heard the song before, wracked her brain in an attempt to remember where she had heard it before. Still worried, she zoomed in on the screen trying to get a better up close look while panicking about Astrid’s safety. She freezes when the camera showed Astrid’s eyes had gone completely black. Just as Reagan realized the song was the same one she heard the night when her and Astrid hooked up, her blood ran cold feeling something was off. Just then as Astrid reached one of the first mutants in lighting like speed, her outstretched hand crushed its skull, like popping a water ballon in her fist. Everyone froze in fear as they watched her on the monitor. 

“Oh my god…” Glenn breathed in disbelief seeing it in person. 

The gang silently listened to Écoute chérié by Vendredi sur Mer through their head sets as Astrid continued to playfully dash around the arena eradicating every mutant in sight with her own bare hands. After demolishing about five mutants she then started to shift into all types of different horrifying alien creatures, clawing, chewing and ripping the rest of the mutants to pulp. It was unnatural, it was unreal, yet her movements flowed like a whirlwind. Regan started to shake in fear thinking back on how the two of them had kissed to this song. She dropped her coffee mug to the floor in fear causing it to shatter. She finally realized this whole time she had been working with “The” Agency’s weapon. This seemingly normal office girl was just a fares. This whole time she had been working with a monster under her nose… she started to panic. Gigi also still scared tried to attempt a joke, 

“Jeez I’m glad not to be you right now Reagan…Forget playing her. She’s been playing us the whole time..You must have been really pissing her off with that crazy power trip you were having.” She awkwardly whispered still not taking her eyes from the screen. 

 Brett squealed in fear over the mic overhearing Gigi’s comment and thinking about it, worried for Reagan’s sake. 

Gigi continued to nervously joke, “Is it bad I still feel like I’m into this…? I like em powerful and… damn my legs are not just shaking from fear..” 

Suddenly Reagan’s breathing spiked, everything around her felt like it got dizzy and muted. 

“Am I having a panic attack right now…?” She mumbled in a daze barely comprehending the visual of Astrid now standing on the field looking back at the various drones with a smile. Surrounded by unrecognizable corpses, covered in blood, a voice on the private channel spoke, 

“Sisto.” Astrid’s handler commanded. 

Astrid’s eyes and body quickly changed back twisting and turning like spirals of sentient ink. She then shook her head like a confused horse. She looked up at the arena around her realizing she was done, she turned and looked at the drones again,

“All finished!” She exclaimed enthusiastically. 

J.R. Sat stunned looking at the screens himself, having no idea what to say. 

“Oh my god… nightmare fuel.” Myc said behind the others in the control room. 

~ 

Hours had come and gone, Cognito as a whole had worked to cover up the near disaster. The team: The Agency squad, Reagan’s team, J.R., and a small group up other Cognito members enjoyed themselves at McUltra’s after hours. They had done a few rounds of toasts throughout the evening while Reagan’s team eagerly took the praise from others. However the attitude towards Astrid had shifted. Everyone was congratulating her as if a tyrant was in their presence, eager to please when her attention was on them, but quick to avoid when she happened to cast her glance elsewhere. Multiple parties had brought her victory shots, but with each one she knocked back there seemed to have been no real effect. Reagan practically trying to escape her skin all night, noticed every little detail of Astrid now. Her spine rushing with tingles of fear every time Astrid had almost looked in her direction sent her into a whirlwind trying to avoid her as much as possible in the same room. But to Reagan’s surprise, Astrid seemed to have somehow quietly extracted herself from the now hammered crowd and snuck out through the door leaving for the night. By some unknown hand, Reagan felt herself compelled to follow. She knew she had to say something. 

“Reagan where you going..?” Brett asked in a stooper barely being able to keep balance while standing up from their table. 

“Uh… Brett! Don’t worry about it… I need to go…” she glanced out the door window to see Astrid had already gotten into the elevator and the door had closed shut, “TO THE BATHROOM! uh.. yeah.. and I need to grab my meds from the lab. I’ll be right back don’t worry! Have some FUN!! You did SO GOOD out there today champ! You really had those mutants out on the run!” She said trying to distract him from what she was up to. 

“Oh yeah..?! You think? Well yeah! I can be tuff and take care of business! Right guys?!” He asked exclaiming to the rest of the bar. 

As they all erupted in cheers, Reagan quickly took that opportunity to slip away. Taking the next elevator up, hoping to end up on the right floor as Astrid. In her slightly inebriated state, she hit a few floor buttons trying to remember which level housed the temporary guest rooms Cognito had left for the Agency. Finally the elevator door popped open, seeing a glance of Astrid’s hair wiping around the corner at the end of the hall, Reagan quietly stumbled out of the doors in pursuit. She tried to catch up pace, but had to catch her breath a few times while cursing herself for never working out. Finally she got view of Astrid in front of her a ways down another hall, getting ever closer. She tried to call out to her but the nerves seemed to have jumbled up in her throat. Almost on cue, Astrid’s head tilted as if picking up on the sound of Reagan even though a good distance away. Reagan breathed hard seeing this and finally let out, 

“Astrid! Wait… wow… have you always walked this fast..?” She said attempting to catch her breath. 

Astrid paused slowly in the hall, still looking forward and not bothering to look back, waiting for Reagan to say something again. 

“Astrid… I know I’ve been a complete ass hole to you lately.. and I just wanted to apologize. I swear it’s not just because of today but… jeez now I know it looks bad-“ she quickly choked out  as the image of Astrid down the hall quickly turned to a blur of black mass slamming through the hall off the floor and walls like a pinball towards her. She let out a yelp in fear as the mass loudly slammed onto the floor directly in front of her. She fell back clutching her face in her arms bracing for an impact. Only for silence to continue to hold in the air. She peeked up through her fingers to find Astrid towering over her, with an unamused face. 

“Fuck…!” For some reason she instinctively stayed kneeled on the floor but looked up craning her neck, “Astrid I’m sorry… please. If you give me a chance… I’ll… I’ll make it up to you somehow… I just-“ 

“Oh so now you see me as an equal finally hu smart one?” She said pointedly amused. 

“I-I saw you as an equal I just didn’t realize-“ she stammered.

“That I was a real threat?” Astrid questioned, “Not just some threat in the little popularity contest you thought we were in..?” She scoffed while digging slightly deeper. 

Reagan stared at the floor panicked for words, eventually blurting out, “YES! I’ll admit it! Yes.. I thought I was just competing with a pretty faced golden child of the Agency… Astrid.. I’m being honest… I’m so fucking terrified right now..! Please… can we just talk…? I know I should have talked to you sooner about that night… well if that night even meant anything to you that is… I’m quickly starting to realize you where far too many steps ahead of me… ahead of the team.. so maybe it was just a job for you.. I’m not sure at this point really.. But… for what it’s worth… if-if it did matter.. I just got scared! I’ve had a horrible love life throughout the years.. I just didn’t know what to say-  or do…!” She trailed off trying to think if there was more to say. 

“Oh so having a crush on someone means you treat them like that..?” Astrid asked coldly. 

“Astrid- please I-“ Reagan stammered before being cut off. 

“Well jokes on you because I liked it.” She said so factually the statement almost flew by Reagan’s head. 

“Wait.. you what..?!” Reagan jolted her head up in disbelief of the words she just heard. 

Just then a loud boom was heard floors beneath them as the building shook. They both made intense eye contact knowing their mission from earlier didn’t seem to be over just quite yet. They both rushed back to the elevator. As soon as the elevator doors opened they were met with the image of one last mole mutant tossing and slamming their fellow team mates around in the atrium. Their screams echoing up to the tall ceiling. 

“No!! Brett was right! There was only twelve mutants in that arena..!” Reagan shouted to Astrid over the commotion. 

Astrid rushed up to the mutant and landed a few blows on it, however they were all significantly weaker than the damage she had delivered while in the area. She panicked and looked around the crowd, 

“My handler!! Where is my handler?!” Astrid barked out hoping the situation could be quickly remedied. 

Reagan sprinted to knock Gigi to the ground and  out of the mutant’s large sweeping claws near by. She too looked around frantically for the older man Astrid spoke of. J.R. Cowering in panic behind a marble planter caught wind of their search and piped up, 

“He’s over behind the bar! The mole came out through the floor and hit him!” He squeaked. 

Brett, clearly injured but not wanting to give up sprinted over to the bar and picked up the body of the limp older gentleman. 

“Uh… guys… I don’t know if he’s unconscious or… worse..” he said sucking air through his teeth in fear. 

“No…NO!!” Astrid screamed as a few tears welled up in her eyes at the thought of her favorite handler being dead. 

She stood and looked around at the team with a forlorn expression. There was no way she would be able to kill it without her trigger phrase. She looked at Reagan feeling disappointed in herself not being able to protect all of them like she had wanted to. Reagan’s stomach dropped just as the mole sent another claw swipe, sending Astrid flying across the hall and impacting into it causing a crater. With a wheeze and cough black liquid poured out of Astrid’s face instead of blood. Quickly the mole continued at her wanting to finish the job. Astrid looked up at Reagan with a sad smile while coughing up more black liquid. 

“I’ll be fine… *wheeze* but I’m sorry… I’m sorry I won’t be able to save everyone.. without my trigger-“ she heavily breathed out but went silent when Reagan spoke up. 

“Astrid… Im really sorry too..!” She shouted across the way, “I hope you’ll forgive me this time.” Reagan said deciding to try and risk something she didn’t know much about. 

Astrid looked back at her blankly not understanding until Reagan spoke out loudly, “Happy Birthday Shining Star!” 

The light instantly left Astrid’s eyes and submerged into pitch black. The liquid coming from her face ceased and her bones cracked all back into place as her body stood up. The mole, noticing this, charged at her full force. As it neared, Astrid jumped forward and wrapped her arms so tightly around its neck, the mole’s neck snapped. With another sharp squeeze its head went flying off. Splattering everyone with a little bit of toxic waist. Everyone was silent in the hall all panting to catch their breaths but then one of the Agency’s soldiers eyes went wide in fear. 

“W-what have you done?! How did you….? Oh FUCK!!” He screamed as Astrid’s head turned to look at him. 

In an instant she was on him and his body lay limp after another incredibly loud snap. Everyone stood frozen in disbelief for a few moments before the two more Agency soldiers that were still conscious rushed her. Both fell to the floor after coming within a few feet of her having snaps follow their demise at her hands. 

“Holy shit balls Reagan what did you do?!” Andre screamed in horror. 

“A-Astrid…! Astrid! Please…!” Reagan stammered in fear trying to get her to listen, “it’s us… your team! I know you’re in there..” 

Astrid craned her neck to the side to look towards where Reagan’s voice was coming from. She then rushed forward at her, Glenn quickly interrupted by body slamming into Astrid before she had reached Reagan. Panic set in knowing she was about to die. Reagan quickly wracked her brain to try and remember what Astrid’s handler had said in the arena to make her stop. Astrid stood up again and threw Glenn back across the hall as if tossing a small stone. She turned back and lunged at Reagan. As she was inches away from her Reagan screamed out, 

“S-SISTO!!” 

Astrid slammed into Reagan knocking the wind out of her, but nothing worse happened. The black drained from her eyes and she looked up from the floor in a daze. She looked around seeing the aftermath and then looked at Reagan, 

“Did you just-….” She asked in disbelief wondering how Reagan had found out her trigger. 

Just then Astrid’s handler wheezed and attempted to sit up from Brett’s arms. 

“Sir!!” She exclaimed and rushed over to him. 

~

After that ordeal the team had kept it secret that they had found out Astrid’s trigger, claiming she and them had managed to figure out a way to kill the mole somehow without it. Since her handler had been given a concussion he seemed to not have fully registered what had happened during that time either. And conveniently out of the other two lesser handlers, one had died from the mole attack, the other had retired to bed early that night never having witnessed any of what happened. All the other soldiers had either suffered damage similar to Astrid’s handler leaving them forgetful of details surrounding the event or dead. 

“Astrid…? Are we going to be okay..?” Reagan asked nervously as they both sat in the coffee cafe in Cognito the following morning. 

“I’m worried Reagan. I don’t think it will end up well now that everyone on the team knows my triggers because you decided to snoop on me and my handler. If my higher ups found out…” she responded in a glum tone. 

“They won’t! We can all keep it a secret! Remember? J.R. Was practically foaming at the mouth knowing he had a secret he could help us keep from your handler!” Reagan attempted to joke. 

Astrid rolled her eyes and then eyed the other team members getting breakfast from the counter, “and what makes you think they’ll keep it secret?” She asked doubting their ability to keep their mouths shut. 

“Well… obviously it will take them time.. they can be loud mouths for sure but… Astrid… the team really likes you.. I really like you.. what if we could all just start over and really be a team this time?” Reagan asked earnestly searching Astrid’s eyes. 

Astrid looked back to Reagan and let out a little laugh. 

“What..?!” Reagan asked switching to defense not understanding why she found her amusing. 

“Reagan you’re cute. Are you sure you want to get to know the real me? I might be worse than you when I get frustrated for real sometimes. You know… when I’m not acting.” Astrid asked.

“W-well I know much of our time together has been you playing a role but.. I know some of it had to be real or you wouldn’t be sitting here with me now right…?” She asked back hoping. 

“You’re right.” Astrid said plainly but changed her tone to mischievous, “but now you’re going to have to feel the wrath of my pent up tension from all that treatment you gave me.” She said while arching her eyebrows and tracing her finger against the side of Reagan’s jaw. 

Reagan recoiled in embarrassment knowing they were both in public and blushed, “I-I could learn to take it I guess..” she said messing with her hair in an attempt to distract herself from the butterflies in her stomach. 

“Oh yeah?” Astrid replied watching her while wearing a shit eating grin. 

“Gosh Astrid.. y-you really like me too..? You’re not just putting up with me now that I know your secret?” She asked quickly feeling insecure. 

“Reagan. Is it crazy to think that I wanted you all to find out so I could stop faking sooner? I mean… I’ve had to play out this same kind of act on countless missions already. Maybe I wanted a change. Your passion for Cognito, I feel the same way about the Agency..i feel like we’re kindred spirits. I was hoping to spice things up a little bit.. I’ve never really had friends outside of other super soldiers and assassins from the Agency.. and as you can imagine those aren’t really the most conventional type of friendships… but I felt like something special could form between us.. not just as an alliance but.. as something more..? I’m not really sure what that would be.. I haven’t really had much experience with a genuine relationship.. like outside of work I mean.. “ Astrid confessed.

Reagan nodded still a little pink in her cheeks. They sat in silence for a few moments as Reagan now started to feel less embarrassed about having a rough past love life as well. 

“Well I’m glad.. N-not glad for your situation! I meant.. uh- I’m glad you feel the same.. I think I can relate on a lot of what you mentioned.” She said still looking away. 

Astrid lightly laid her hand over Reagan’s on the table. Reagan peaked up at her still feeling a bit shy with eye contact, 

“I like you very much Reagan. You have a drive and spirit in you that I admire very much. I would like to help make your dreams a reality because I could see you running this place. I want you to run this place.” Astrid whispered to her in a lower tone. 

Reagan’s heart throbbed violently in her chest. No one had ever said something like that to her and it made her feel like she was ontop of the world. She swallowed hard and cleared her thoughts, 

“Help me build it then.. would it be crazy to say I’d want you to run it with me too..?” 

~

About a year had come and gone and the team seemed to have been going strong. Everyone had found themselves getting even closer to Astrid now that she was no longer putting up an act. They all considered her an equal on the team, although sometimes unpredictable and lethal. With the team’s productivity levels and achievements rising, Astrid’s handler seemed to leave her and her new team to their own devices as he continued more secret work for the Robes. This left room for Astrid and Reagan to start secretly dating… well they never made it official…however they went on to see each other frequently in secret. Well almost secret, their team started to catch on pretty fast to the nature of their dynamic chemistry shifting. Reagan even went as far as introducing Astrid to AlfaBeta down in the basement. Although reluctant and petty at first, he too seemed to fall victim to Astrid’s natural charm knowing she wasn’t human and had watched her through the surveillance footage of the building on more than one occasion. He found her to be a “superior being” compared to the rest of the humans on earth that he so despised. J.R. too seemed to be more skittish around Astrid knowing what she was capable of but equally eager to get her attention and admiration by keeping her secret as well as giving her tasks and assignments he knew she could quickly “clean up” now that they all knew her trigger. This lead to many missions where the team had been in near world ending situations or life risking scenarios. The team, after having gotten a little bit too used to being around Astrid, started using her trigger phrase to get themselves out of binds. It felt like fun and games at first, but over time the more they all used her triggers, the more her personality seemed to shift into something a bit more erratic and unhinged often leading to other “hiccups” and panic inducing behaviors from Astrid. Sometimes she would terrorize the team, playfully on her part, but the image of her eyes going black even without her trigger word now caused the team frequent scares remembering what it was like that night she killed the last mole. Still ignoring the signs, the team continued on with this trend for a few more months before another big mission rolled out.

—- PART TEN COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch9 Cognito Inc.

(Tags: misunderstanding, accidental drugging, substance use, rough sexual encounters, implied group sexual activity, mature, minors do not interact)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #9 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

The tracker notification went off on Rick’s robot arm as he sat tinkering on something in the garage early one morning. He looked up from what he was going to check. His eyes squinted in disbelief once he noticed Astrid’s location was showing her in Washington D.C. 

“What?! Is this for real??” He said with increasing irritation as his eyes went large in rage. 

He rushed to portal himself down to his basement lab not wanting to waist any time. Once out of the portal he sat down in his chair facing his mega computer. He pulled up the large map of the United States checking again to see Astrid’s location dot still in D.C. He slammed his fist down on his chair’s arm in annoyance and then threw his keyboard across the room.

“You fucker! Y-you would do something like this wouldn’t you Mr. President- COMPUTER zoom in on tracker’s location.” before seeing Astrid’s location, he assumed she was at the White House but found she was actually somewhere else in D.C. 

He arched his eyebrow in confusion but could remember this other location creeping up in his brain from somewhere before. 

“Oh that’s right.. wait- you got to be kidding me! N-Not them….” He slapped his hand over his face groaning realizing where Astrid was.

“Cognito Inc. What a bunch of hacks… Why would she be there…?” He asked out-loud to himself before telling the computer to zoom in more. 

He watched the map zoom in so much it was practically a Birds eye view of the building. Rick irritatedly tapped his fingers on his chair remembering his own brief run in with Reagan Ridley and her father Rand Ridley in the past. 

“The Ridleys have been a forgotten pain in my ass even before the current President. What are they up to these days? The last I heard about them was when they tried replacing the previous President with a robot or some stupid shit.” He grumbled to himself while picking back up his keyboard and looking up anything he could find on Cognito’s current activities. 

~

Astrid stood gripping her communicator nervously right outside of the Cognito Inc. building. It had been a long time since she last saw Reagan. Even though it was the weekend, meaning there wouldn’t be as many people in the building, she still had to sneak inside without anyone finding out she was there. It would technically be going against the orders her handler had given her as well as probably alarming the higher ups at Cognito… she hadn’t exactly left there on a good note in the past. She noticed one employee was on their way towards the front door from the parking lot. In an attempt to keep the building cameras from seeing her she crouched down behind some cars outside and let out a small yell, 

“Ahh! Oh no! Could you please come help me..?” She called out to the random employee in the parking lot luring them back out. 

He walked back out into the parking lot and back behind the row of cars Astrid was hiding behind. He then came over to her, to him she looked like an older office woman in a navy suit skirt outfit with a coffee stain on her skirt. He then crouched down to help her up. 

“Oh goodness you’re such a sweetheart, thank you dear.” Astrid said in the fake voice before knocking him unconscious onto the ground next to her. 

She quickly dragged the unconscious man behind her hiding him in a bush right near the car line. Still crouching she shifted to look just like him. Nothing extraordinary, just an average looking middle aged man in scubs with a lab coat over top. Astrid stood back up and proceeded to walk over towards the building front door pulling out the key car they had swiped from the real employee. Once inside they went to the elevator without suspicion. After the door had shut Astrid let out a small sigh before punching in the floor number  to the main atrium, Astrid had a feeling Reagan would be in her office. While the elevator started to lower, Astrid zoned out thinking of their past together. 

Back then Astrid had been brought in by the Agency to partner with Cognito Inc. for a few assignments. It had been right around the time Reagan and her team had gotten back from their moon mission stopping Buzz Aldrin from moving the moon away from Earth. The Agency had a hidden base inside the Moon, so after hearing Reagan’s team was responsible for preventing Buzz’s plot they sent in a small Agency team as a sign of good faith in “partnership”. One of the individuals being brought on that team was of course Astrid.  She reminisced about the first day her team came to join Cognito Inc. 

Astrid remembered walking in with the team of eight highly trained foot soldiers, her handler, two coordinators and two other lower level handlers who oversaw the foot soldiers. Even while surrounded by her team members, she remembered seeing Reagan’s curious face from one of the upper floor’s balconies as the crowd of Cognito employees all gathered around impressed while meeting the new team in the atrium. 

~

Reagan frustratedly sat down her almost empty coffee mug on a desk. She had been working in her lab overnight nonstop trying to keep busy with projects. After finally reaching back out to Astrid her nerves had gotten the better of her for the past few days. She hadn’t been sleeping or eating much, all she could do to get the anxiety to go away was by crunching overtime at work. But now it was the day she was supposed to see Astrid, she just couldn’t seem to focus. It was already the afternoon and she was starting to worry that Astrid might not show. 

“Fuck… I look a mess.” She said tiredly after seeing her face in the reflection of a half finished robot she had been working on. 

She left to go to the bathroom and freshen up. Once in front of the mirror she tried washing her face with cold water to help her feel less dead. Her mind started to trail off to the first time she had met Astrid. She had been standing on one of the upper levels in the main hub of the building looking over the railing down at the intimidating looking team that rolled in from the elevators. She had heard from J.R. that a supposed mysterious alien Agency had wanted to partner with them. She curiously looked down over the rail at the new group being swarmed by other curious employees. She spotted one individual from the foreign team that seemed to stick out from the rest, she did not look intimidating like the other group members. She had long dark black hair and wore a dark plaid skirt with a white collared button up short sleeve shirt. She also wore big rimed black glasses and dark thigh highs with matching dark loafers. Gigi came up from behind Reagan and gossiped, 

“Ooo look at how fine those soldiers look in their uniforms! I like how their Agency styles them. I’m going to have to get me one of them hunks.” She laughed and checked her hair in her phone’s camera. 

“Looks like you’ll have plenty to choose from.. but who’s that one girl down there?” Reagan asked hoping Gigi might know. 

“Oh that cute shy looking girl with the glasses? I’m not sure, they work for an alien company so I don’t think they have Earth social medias. I wasn’t able to find much on them actually. REAL mysterious~” she said playfully and intrigued herself. 

“But I hear some of those team members are handlers for the super soldiers. So maybe she’s one of them?” Gigi guessed thinking about information she head through the grape vine. 

“A handler Hu? She must be really smart then, she looks so innocent though… I don’t think I could imagine her giving any of those soldiers a kill command ha!” Reagan snorted thinking about it noticing her cheeks were feeling a little flushed. 

“Me either girl, but damn she IS cute… you have a crush already? It’s good to hear after that little fling you had with Masters.” Gigi arched her eyebrows in amusement trying to mess with Reagan. 

“I-it’s not like that..! Ha.. literally I haven’t even met her yet. Besides after Masters I’m so done with relationships for a while….” Reagan quickly tired to cover for herself not wanting Gigi to have the upper hand. 

“Well then if you’re not going after her I might just try to take a crack at it. Been a while since I got to have a fling with a real cutie like her.” Gigi said playing koi knowing it would get under Reagan’s skin. 

“Well.. good luck with that.” Reagan awkwardly replied before noticing the girl from the team looked up and made eye contact with her from far away. 

She looked up shyly at Reagan with a smile before turning to talk to the other team members as J.R. walked up to greet them. 

Reagan blushed and looked away, retreating to her lab in an attempt to escape Gigi but not before hearing her say,

“I’m going to try and introduce our team to their’s later this evening at the welcoming party.. if you’re not a scaredy cat you should come introduce yourself too.” She called out. 

~

Astrid snapped back to reality as the elevator door opened to the main hub of Cognito. She walked out still shifting to look like that male employee she was impersonating. A few other employees called out greetings to her thinking nothing out of the ordinary while she too responded with casual and vague responses to keep up the appearance. She recalled her way around the other level stairways making her way towards Reagan’s lab. Being back in the building made her think more about that crazy night she first met Reagan’s team. She couldn’t help the flashbacks flooding her mind. 

She remembered sitting in the company’s bar McUltra’s after hours. Most of her team had already made their way to their guest rooms for bed by that hour (Some empty office rooms had been renovated into hotel rooms at the company). Cognito had thrown a welcoming party hours ago that she hadn’t been able to enjoy much with her handler team being around. They had all wanted to take first impressions seriously. Her current handler, having always been the most agreeable handler she’s had, said she could enjoy herself after hours if she wished but that he was going to retreat to bed himself. She had asked if she could share a guest room with him but he had insisted she could have a room of her own if she wanted. This gave her mixed feelings. She always had feelings for him, taking any opportunity she could to be alone with him, but after multiple times with failed attempts to get his attention in that way she started to lose hope. She started to think maybe it would be good to have a room to herself if he didn’t seem to care. She took some more sips of her cocktail while looking around the almost empty bar. Her eyes caught a glimpse of Reagan coming in to meet up with her Cognito team in a corner booth. She smiled at Reagan shyly already a little buzzed trying to work up the courage to maybe try and make some friends. She glanced over at their group and heard a few hushed whispers and laughs from them as their eyes all landed on her. She curiously looked at them wondering what office friendships were like here compared to friendships she had back at the Agency. Having never been to Earth before she was newer to their social interactions and wondered what their reaction might have meant. 

~

Reagan looked up at her reflection in the mirror and tried to fix her messy hair. She frantically messed with it hoping to look somewhat presentable before Astrid might show up. She sighed and contemplated if she should try to put makeup on or not. She then decided against it thinking about how Astrid had always been around Reagan without her makeup done. She then rubbed her face in embarrassment thinking about the night of the party. 

Reagan had just joined her team in McUltra’s after the welcoming party in hopes of avoiding the gathering. She quickly began to feel butterflies once realizing the new girl was in fact still at the bar once she arrived. 

“Looks like you made it just in time Reagan! I was going to introduce us to the new girl once all the commotion died down.” Gigi said cheekily. 

“Yeah the new girl is hot! I hope she has a thing for party guys like myself.” Andre said cockily pushing his hair back. 

“She’s supposed to be an alien though right? Maybe she’d like something more like me ya know?” Myc said while wrapping one of his tentacles around Andre’s shoulder playfully. 

“Honestly she’s a bit too young for my taste, also she’s not blond or nothin!  I don’t think I want to deal with whatever secret freaky alien form she might be hiding.” Glenn interrupted and decided to make his exit, “ I think I’m going to head to bed myself.” He said drunkenly standing up and heading towards the door. He then turned and waved goodbye to them before leaving the bar. 

“Alien or not, she seems pretty nice though! We should invite her over!” Brett said with a cheerful smile and wave in Astrid’s direction catching her attention. 

“Oh come on Brett I’m sure she just wants to unwind from a long day without us bothering her-“ Reagan said awkwardly before seeing Astrid wave back to Brett mirroring the friendliness. 

Reagan could not help feeling a slight competitiveness creep up on her as she thought about the new girl. Yes their alien agency sent them as a helpful hand but, recently Reagan’s team had been assigned a couple of missions by J.R. that had failed or just barely succeeded. This lead to J.R. frequently bringing up how the new alien team would help clean up all the messes at Cognito. Naturally this made Reagan feel as though her impact and importance to Cognito was now lower on the scale. It made her a bit bitter even. 

“How is she supposed to clean up world threatening messes….?” Reagan murmured to herself annoyed while watching the seemingly innocent new girl shyly walk over to greet them. 

“Hey sweet thing! How’s it hanging?!” Andre called out to her from the other side of the round table sitting in the booth. 

“Yeahhhh hey there cutie!” Myc also chirped. 

Reagan rolled her eyes at them and continued to chug on her beer wishing to be as intoxicated as them. 

“Oh my, hello young lady! You’re the new girl right? My name is Gigi. I’m Head of PR & Media Manipulation Department here at Cognito.” She said turning up all the charm and reaching her hand out to shake. 

Astrid reached out and shook it with an awkward smile while glancing at the rest of the team.

“Don’t mind these two idiots. They say all kinds of garbage. But you can come sit down right next to me if you’d like.” She said with a sweet smile before quickly shooting a smug look at Reagan. 

Which Reagan shot back an unamused glance in response as Astrid squeezed into the booth to sit in between Gigi and Andre. 

Gigi continued with the introductions, “This is Andre, he’s our Biochemist. That, on the other side of Andre is Myc. He’s a freaky mushroom so he’s our Spore Supplier.” She said annoyed trying to get their introductions quickly out of the way. 

“Hi! And I’m Brett! I’m the co-leader of the gang!” He said enthusiastically beaming and reaching out his arms to hug Gigi and Reagan on either side of him. 

“Oh hi!” Astrid giggled at them and then looked over at Reagan, “So if he’s the co- leader, who’s the leader?” She eyed curiously hoping it was Reagan. 

“That would be me. But I’d say it’s more of a team effort I guess.” She said casually annoyed knowing how difficult they were all going to be if she claimed too much fame.

“Yeah… leader.. ANYWAYS- What about you?” Gigi asked Astrid giddily. 

“Well.. my name is Astrid.. and I’m a specialist on the Agency’s team. I’ve been advised by my higher ups to not divulge too much about my job…but I’m sure you all will see soon enough haha. I mean.. since we’ll all be working closely together now.” She said looking down and smiling. 

“Oh no worries! We totally get it. That’s like our company’s thing too. “Secrets” haha!” Andre wiggled his eyebrows at her and then started to rummage around in his coat looking at different little containers from his pockets. 

“Well Astrid, would you like to join us for some drinks and some STRIP POKER?” Myc blurted out with no hesitation. 

“What a bad joke.” Reagan groaned and glared at him “we just play normal poker sometimes..” she quickly added trying to save face in front of Astrid. 

“Oh strip poker is a great idea!” Andre chirped in while shuffling the cards.” 

“I mean if everyone is playing I guess I’m in….?” Brett hesitantly agreed hoping for the groups approval. 

“Um… I’d like to play a few normal rounds first if you all don’t mind… I mean I haven’t even had a drink yet…!” Astrid joked shyly with a hint of pink in her cheeks. 

The gang all laughed except Reagan who continued to pound her beers while looking down at her cards that Andre had just delt out.

Everyone grabbed their cards and took a look. 

“Well let me get you a drink then hon! Drinks on us tonight, how about that? Think of it as our personal welcome to our cute new partner~” Gigi teased as she got up, walking over to the bar to order more drinks. 

As they waited for her to get back, Brett went to choose a song from the Jute box while Andre and Myc started cheekily asking a range of odd questions to Astrid. While they chatted Reagan groaned to herself looking back at the table where six of her empty beer bottles sat. She then got up to go order something stronger with Gigi. 

“Reagan stop being such a sourpuss. You’re just mad she seems to be liking us just fine. You jealous..?” Gigi snorted and rubbed her elbow against Reagan while standing next to her.

“I’m not jealous. You guys are just being weird like always. Besides I just have a lot on my mind right now. We need to show J.R. We don’t actually need them to clean up our failings!” Reagan insisted back at Gigi frustrated. 

“Oh relax Reagan! They were a gift to us for our non-failure! You’re always stressed out. Just have some fun for once and then get some beauty sleep. You’re not getting enough of that lately.” Gigi joked back. 

“Not everyone is blessed with good looks like you or the new girl. Lack of sleep isn’t my problem.” Reagan said casually after sipping on her jack and coke feeling more of a buzz finally. 

“Reagan… are you saying I’m pretty..?” Gigi arched her brows at her and slyly grinned. 

“Uh.. yeah I mean.. you are an attractive woman.” Regan said not quite getting the implication Gigi was sending her way as she returned back to the table. 

In her lightly buzzed state Reagan thought about a way she could prove her status while also showing off in front of Astrid. She had learned keeping Brett around got the team to listen to her so why not hope Astrid could be another version of that? If she could get Astrid to like her, then of course the rest of the team would follow orders better. 

Gigi watched Reagan rejoin the group still waiting on the tray of drinks at the bar. She also thought about her own motives. She had been getting tired of the same shit in the office lately. After going on a few failed dates she also thought about wanting to spice things up in the office. Being around Cognito so much started to make her realize that normal dating became harder. It was hard to relate and find time… but with everyone ALWAYS being here… she had started to think about what it might be like if she could drum up some kind of office romance drama. Her deep dark secret was hoping for an entanglement with the gang and the new girl. She’d never admit it, but she often wanted to find excuses to maybe get some action with Andre or Brett. And who knows… maybe if she was drunk enough, Reagan too. She glanced over at the table laughing along with Astrid. 

“Damn she is cute.” She mumbled amused and buzzed, “the boys and I are ganna love you.” She said before receiving the large tray of shots from the bar tender. 

Two hours had gone by and the whole gang was trashed. Everyone had been drinking non-stop after quite a few rounds of “normal” poker which lead to Andre doing drugs and also letting everyone else in the group do some as well. He had taken a wild mix of substances. In his drunken state he remembered Gigi whispering in his ear something about how fun it would be if everyone had some aphrodisiacs if they were going to play strip poker. He quickly took that opportunity to dose some weed he had with super strong aphrodisiac powder. After smoking some himself he offered,

“Y’all want to hit this…? It makes you feel really good while drunk.” He coughed out a few clouds. 

“Oh is that weed..?” Astrid asked wanting to partake. 

“Sure is hon, some of the best type around.” He laughed goofily. 

Myc and Gigi partook right after Astrid. And then after a bit more convincing and seeing how everyone else in the gang had some, both Brett and Reagan followed suit. They had been begrudging at first but Brett’s need for approval made him agree. Reagan just decided, 

“why not?” She said now drunk and hoping it would help her to relax enough for some decent sleep later that night. 

In annoyance after losing one too many rounds, Myc had taken the round table and thrown it across the room over near the door leaving them sitting in a booth, only the curved couch remained. A while ago the bar had officially closed but the staff let them stay after hours if they promised to lock up behind themselves when they were done. 

Slowly the drugs began to take effect causing the game to devolve into somewhat a half strip poker game. Obviously Myc had no clothes so they all made him start to balance empty shot glasses on his head instead. Brett sat in his boxers in the booth, next to him Gigi sat with her heals and blazer off, still in her dress. Andre still had all his clothing on minus his shirt however, he still wore his lab coat unbuttoned as well as his pants. Astrid had her clothes still on but with her shirt unbuttoned and her thigh highs slipped down to her ankles. And finally Reagan sat slouched in the booth wearing her open lab coat over her gray sports bra, she was missing her button up shirt. 

They were all bordering the line on becoming black out drunk on top of being crossfaded. Not to mention all of their hormones were starting to go into hyperdrive. When “stripping” during the game everyone would sort of get touchy to help the others remove pieces of clothing. Even laughing as people started to fuck up since their balance was going to shit. Everyone’s legs had started to stretch out and touch each other’s. Astrid blushed a bit thinking about the possibility of where all this might be leading and wondering  if everyone in their group seemed to be on the same page or not. She thought about how fun this dynamic might turn out knowing none of them knew who she really was. She had her own mischievous intentions tucked in the back of her head. 

“Okay Astrid looks like you need to take off a piece for real this time!” Myc said cheekily, “here, want me to help you out..?” He drunkenly asked inching his tentacles closer to her shirt’s sleeves. 

“Oh give her a break you pervert. Like she’d be interested in you!” Gigi said in an attempt to help Astrid if she felt uncomfortable. 

“You know what, it’s fine actually. You can help me Myc…. I’ve never really done stuff like this with new co workers before.. I’m feeling a little bit shy.” She lied, lowering her gaze while slowly unbuttoning her shirt further and allowing Myc to slide it off her arms lightly. 

The group got quiet seeing her sitting in a black lace bra. Brett nervously played with his fingers while Gigi, Andre and Myc went ahead and soaked up the sight. Reagan look down at her cards intently trying to seem unbothered although she was dying of embarrassment and jealousy knowing the gang had all seemed to get on Astrid’s good side except her. Reagan pounded another rum and coke hoping to loosen up enough to figure out how to flirt with Astrid as well. 

“Oh holy shit! So like… you’re a monster fucker..?!” Andre asked excitedly wondering about her being an alien an all. 

“Well… yeah I guess..! Haha.. y’all make me feel like I’m dirty or something… I mean I am an alien.. I think you earthlings call it being pansexual…? I guess I’m sort of like that?” Astrid replied flirty. 

Everyone quickly shot excited glances at each other trying to pick up on the vibe realizing that Astrid seemed to be game for any of them. Reagan swallowed down the rest of her drink hard.  

“It’s odd.. I can’t read your mind like I can read everyone else’s.. thats how I knew you had to be some kind of alien! I wanted to know if you liked us.” Myc brought up. 

This caught Reagan’s attention so she made a mental note while quickly scrambling up from her seat to go behind the bar and get herself another drink. She started to panic knowing she wasn’t good with social or flirty situations. She grinded her teeth in discomfort also thinking about how the whole team seemed to be getting touchy with each other. Never in a million years did she think something like this would occur. It had never crossed her mind. 

“You don’t need to read my mind for that. I’ll tell you anything you’d like to know.” Astrid said with a shrug. 

“Well now that that’s settled I guess it just leaves one more thing! What do you think of the team so far?” Gigi flirted back playfully in attempt to redirect things to her plan. 

“Oh yeah! Do you like us Astrid?!” Brett asked cheerfully and less inhibited from all the drinks. 

Reagan practically almost spit out her drink after having returned to the booth. She quickly pretended to be adjusting her coat and pants while sitting down knowing this night was about to get weird. She quickly chugged her new drink until it was empty. 

“Yeah I like you guys… I’m looking forward to seeing you more in the next coming days.” Astrid said with a flirty smile at them. 

“You’re so fucking hot.” Myc quickly blurted out. 

“Jesus… Let’s show the new girl a good time! We can do that guys, right?” Gigi said confidently trying to break the ice as smoothly as possible. 

“So what I’m hearing is that everyone is on board to keep playing strip poker for reals?! I think everyone might have a little crush on you Astrid!” Andre said wiggling his eyebrows excitedly. 

“W-Wait guys I mean…” Reagan stuttered out finally feeling all the drinks hit her at once, “s-should we really be doing this at the b-bar..? W-What if the janitor comes in and like see us..?” She blushed and messed with her hair drunkenly trying to reason with them. 

“We could fix that problem easy! Let’s just move this poker party up to the Holo-chamber! I mean what else is it good for? That way we can have some privacy and get to know our new friend a little better~” Gigi said sweetly as she placed her hand lightly on Astrid’s leg, looking back at the gang with a look implying they better play the fuck along. 

“Oh a Holo-chamber? That’s cool you guys have one! I’d like to see it anyway even if everyone isn’t feeling like playing the game anymore…?” Astrid tried to reassure hoping to also not make Reagan feel like she was on the spot. 

“No no no! We’re PLAYING this game. Right guys? Let’s head upstairs!” Myc insisted as well not wanting Reagan to ruin his chances. 

“Fuck yeahhh I’m down! Let’s get crazzzy~ let’s get REAL weird~.” Andre said in a relaxed party guy voice while also standing up. 

The rest of them looked at Reagan waiting for her reply. Brett looked down at Astrid as if checking in one more time to see if she was really okay with it. Once he saw she was sitting smiling back at him earnestly, he caved instantly. 

“S-sure I’m up for anything if y’all are!” He laughed and then stood up quickly pounding his drink as if he was getting ready to run a mile. 

Reagan fidgeted with her lab coat button nervously while standing up knowing everyone was still looking at her. Gigi hoping to rush Reagan’s answer, pulled up Astrid from the booth and draped her blazer over her as if getting her ready to leave. Reagan then ruffled her hair in frustration and blushed, 

“Yeah fine. Let’s give you the tour while we are at it.” Reagan said trying to sound cool. 

Everyone cheered and started to grab a couple of drinks before leaving. Gigi lead Brett and Astrid to the door quickly while Myc and Andre quickly went to grab some beers to take with them. Reagan then caught up to Gigi at the door just as she was leading the others out. She grabbed Gigi by the shoulder pulling her behind the group for a quick word. 

“H-hey-!” She said under her breath, “ I need to talk to you for a sec.” She said through gritted teeth while trying to sound playful. 

“Sure…” she motioned for everyone to go ahead toward the elevator. “What?!” She asked annoyed hoping to rush out of the conversation. 

“Are you crazy?! Are you really t-trying to get all of us to like….. “ she rubbed her face in embarrassment, “do STUFF with the n-new girl?! This-this is highly unprofessional!” She raved at Gigi flailing her arms in emphasizes.

“Oh come on Reagan! Just because you’re too embarrassed to make any moves of your own doesn’t mean you can lecture me! Without me all of you would have fumbled this chance! A “Thank You” would be nice! Just relax….. if you’re really not into the idea then just go home already. I’m having some fun. If you don’t want to join then don’t.” She said sternly looking Reagan in the eyes. 

Reagan looked up at Gigi a little embarrassed trying to say something but no words left her mouth. Gigi’s face softened looking at how pitiful Reagan looked and tried to put her at ease. 

“Hon… it’ll be fun. You need to stop worrying so much. I know this isn’t really your field of expertise but look at it this way… would you rather try out something kind of crazy for once and find out you might like it? Or would you rather let the chance slip by and be left to wonder?” She said while rubbing Reagan’s shoulder. 

Reagan rolled her head back in announcing but then took a deep breath and relaxed a little, “b-but Gigi she’s like w-way out of my league… I mean to be fair even y-you and Brett are.. but we are all co workers… and I can’t stand Myc!! what if it gets weird-?” She started to ramble on before Gigi interrupted her. 

“Andre! Come here a second you left something in the booth back here! Y’all go on ahead without us! We’ll meet you up there in a minute!”Gigi called to him just as the rest of the gang was about to get on the elevator. 

As Andre walked back towards them Gigi started to push Reagan towards the elevator and whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry about all that I’ll help you out. Just get on that elevator and turn back up the team leader meter! The New girl seems to like honesty and confidence. Just show her around the conference room and brag about all the perks of working here! I’ve seen how passionate you get when you talk about that stuff! Just be yourself but stop letting your nerves take over. I’m going to get some help from Andre to make things less awkward. TRUST me!” 

She then shoved Reagan into the elevator so fast it made her run right into Astrid and Brett before the doors closed. 

Gigi turned back to Andre waiting in the hall, “okay get the aphrodisiacs ready! Looks like everyone is on board now and Reagan might need a little more help because she’s nervous. But you better keep Myc away from Reagan.. you know she can’t stand him, as a matter of fact I can’t stand him either honestly.” She said with an eye roll. 

“Uh… I kind of already used the aphrodisiacs… like…earlier…when we were all smoking. It was in the weed!” He said laughing nervously. 

“You drugged us?!” Gigi yelled at him.

“I thought you meant for me to use them then!! I don’t know- I figured you knew Astrid was into some kinky shit, like you found out through her social media like you do for politicians we honeypot sometimes…I also figured that you had talked to the team before hand…Damn it’s not like I roofied us!” He said laughing nervously realizing he had assumed. 

“You idiot! She’s an alien! She literally just came to Earth today! She doesn’t even have an Earth social media!! Also, did  you not see how awkward the whole group was earlier..?! Of course they didn’t know!!” She fumed. 

~ 

Reagan drunkenly fell forward right into Astrid as the elevator doors shut behind her. Brett’s arm instinctively shot out to try to steady Reagan by holding onto one of her outstretched arms. Her other arm flew up against the back of the elevator attempting to keep her from slamming into Astrid. Astrid’s hands shot out in front of her and gently grabbed hold of Reagan’s waist to steady her. This left them in quite the entanglement as the elevator lurched up causing Reagan to hold on in her stance. She stared at the floor seeing Brett’s arm snuggly between both her arm and Astrid’s, looking past that she could see her legs had tangled into Astrid’s as well. Once her mind caught up to her body the blood rushed to her face. With her head still down she shut her eyes tightly in drunken embarrassment while trying to keep it together. After regaining composure and gaining confidence she attempted to look Astrid in the face. After climbing her neck and face with her vision, she froze like a deer in headlights as their eyes met. Astrid looked back at her with comforting eyes and a koi smile. Reagan felt an overwhelming sobering sensation. Looking into Astrid’s dilated pupils caused a creeping sensation, like she was standing at the edge of a black hole. 

“Uh- y-you okay Reagan..?” Brett asked drunkenly trying to steady her. 

Reagan suddenly realized she was back in the elevator and had just run into both of them knowing Myc was right there watching all of it. She sprung backward and steadied herself. 

“Dayyyyymmmm Reagan. I’ve never seen you pull moves like that before.” Myc joked sarcastically from behind.

Reagan looked back at Astrid as if checking to see what she experienced a minute ago was a hallucination or not. 

“You good Reagan?” Astrid asked nicely in a cool tone. 

Her face looked back at Reagan with a relaxed smile. Reagan felt her heart flutter and she quickly about-faced to wait for the elevator door to open.

“Y-yes! I’m fine.” She said copying the relaxed tone while trying to loosen her shoulders. 

The elevator door opened only a few moments after. Suddenly Regan felt Astrid’s arms tangle around one of hers and pull her forward. Astrid playfully dragged her forward and into the hallway in front of them.

“Come on! I’m excited to see the conference room! Come show me.” She said with a smile as she also grabbed Brett’s arm and pulled him along behind them. 

Brett obediently followed suit while keeping up with the now silly and drunk Astrid. Reagan also found herself at the mercy of Astrid’s pace and tried to sober up enough to direct them the right way.

“Oh! Uh… that way over there..!” Reagan said trying to inform Astrid. 

Myc followed behind relaxed and chuckling as they all turned the corner to the meeting room. Once inside Astrid let go of the two and actively went to go investigate the area curiously. Myc walked in casually and sat himself down in one of the office chairs. 

“So yeah.. this is where the magic happens. Hope it’s up to your alien standards?” Reagan tried joking. 

“Oh it’s nice! I’m so used to laboratories and testing arenas. This looks so official and business like…. Oh I like your statues and decor.. very occult!” She said in an enthusiastic voice. 

Reagan suddenly couldn’t help but grin and let out a small laugh. She just now realized she was also talking to a fellow nerdy workaholic. Her stomach still felt as if it was full of butterflies, however her brain felt less burdened thinking about how Astrid might have been more like her than she had thought. Astrid turned back in curiosity wondering why Reagan might have laughed. Reagan smiled back at Astrid more confidently and walked over to her. She turned on all the conference room TVs and then put her arm around Astrid’s shoulders as all the screens played different kinds of classified information. 

“W-WELCOME TO COGNITO INC. !” She announced proudly. 

Astrid looked around with wide and excited eyes at everything she was witnessing. Seeing the secrets of Earth and the American government being revealed to her so nonchalantly thrilled her. After noticing the shift in the dynamic Brett instantly perked up, making him compelled to stand next to them happily explaining some of the different footage in excitement. After a few minutes of them chatting, Myc groaned and started to mess with a trinket on the conference table in boredom. 

“C-Cognito is a shadow government h-here on Earth. We are the ones ac-actually running things. There are a few other shadow groups..but we are all s-sort of in competitive collaboration you could s-say…You- YOU ASTRID- were assigned t-to us because we- Brett and I- were able to thwart B-buzz Aldren’s attempt at taking the Moon out of Earth’s orbit…. I think I heard from our boss, J.R., that The Agency h-happened to have a base on the other side of the moon…?” She asked drunkenly but confident trying to break the ice. 

“You’re right! My higher ups were thrilled after hearing the news. They really had not thought Buzz would have taken things so far. I mean for the longest time he was known as some stoner sex hippy. They just figured he’d keep to himself and his moon people… an oversight on our part really. So they wanted to give me a chance to prove myself by showing off all my hard work and training with all of you.” She said back inspired while earnestly looking back at Reagan. 

Reagan felt a squeeze in her chest thinking about how cute Astrid was. Her drive and enthusiasm was something she related to deeply. She wanted to take Astrid under her wing and work together with her. She even considered the thought of how it might feel to finally have someone on the team who looked up to her and treated her with respect besides just Brett. She continued to squeeze Astrid’s shoulders in encouragement as Brett added in,

“Oh my gosh..! Haha- wow! You’re just like us then hu? We are trying to help Reagan get to the point where she’s the one running this place! So I guess we both have great goals!” He said with a big grin while pointing his finger up to the ceiling. 

“Brett-!” Reagan laughed but tried to hush him in embarrassment. 

“Really?! You want to take over the shadow government? How are you going to do it..?!” Astrid asked wanting to know more. 

“B-Brett made it sound like it’s some-some kind of secret take over..! Haha .. no. My dad and J.R. helped b-build this place… I mean I’m just trying to prove, n-now that my dad is out of the…company, that I would be the p-perfect candidate to run this place soon.” She said trying to say it nonchalantly hoping to come across as more humble. 

“So you really are the team leader?! Not just your team’s leader but you lead the company in more ways already now too? How exciting! You must be amazing.” She said admiring Reagan. 

Reagan blushed and brushed back her hair with her hand while still keeping a firm grip on Astrid. She started to feel her ego boost like crazy… making her feel even more in the mood to get a little wild. 

“Aw Reagan is too humble, you are right. She really is amazing!” Brett insisted earnestly. 

“UHG. Are you guys done…?! This is such a mood killer. Let’s go to the Holo-chamber already! I want to continue our game!.” Myc said drunkenly annoyed. 

“We’re supposed to wait up for Gigi and Andre… there’s no sweat in taking our time.” Brett said blushing being reminded of the group’s original plan. 

“Well guess who’s here just in time.” Gigi said while entering into the conference room followed by Andre. 

“Finally we can get to the action!” Myc hollered. 

“Geez man chill out… we can take a moment to smoke and get some jitters out ya know. I got something special for all of us that might make this party just the right vibe.” Andre said while pulling out a bottle of pills in one hand and a tiny box in the other. 

Everyone peaked over to look at what he was presenting. He looked up at all of them with a grin and popped a pill into his own mouth and tossed another to Gigi. He then took a small quill from the box and pricked himself on the finger with it. 

“Okay so… I heard that some of us are feeling a little nervous- so I got some stuff that will help the body and mind relax as well as get the blood pumping..if you know what I mean..” he said with a laugh and wiggle of his eyebrows. 

Brett and Reagan looked at each other and then everyone else in the group. Before Reagan admitted she was the one who was nervous earlier, Astrid quickly outstretched her hand to Andre.

“Oh gosh I’m glad.. haha I’m having a great time but I feel so nervous still!” She giggled and batted her eyelashes at him. 

Andre took her hand in his and grinned back at her, “No problem little lady. However I can help!” He said pleased while pricking the back of her hand. 

“Do me! Do me!” Myc said insistently after her and reached out one of his tentacles to Andre. 

Andre reached into his box and pulled out a different quill and pricked him quickly. He then turned to look at Reagan and Brett who had now also outstretched their arms and shyly smiled at Astrid. Reagan felt better knowing Astrid also felt a little nervous so it boosted her confidence. Andre switched out the quill and pricked both of them and then turned to Gigi and pricked her as she let out an irritated “ow!” 

“Okay here, I can tell you three probably will want a pill too-“ he shuffled out some from the bottle into each of their individual hands, “you Myc…I don’t think you’ll need it but if you want?” He asked tying to lead Myc away from taking it. 

“Nah I’m good if you think so. I know I have a much HIGHER sex drive than probably most of you.” Myc said braggingly. 

Gigi rolled her eyes but quickly turned some of the screen’s channels to footage of concerts and events that were being driven by the Illuminati or places where Cognito was testing out party drugs on unsuspecting groups of festival goers. She then turned up some music to help set the vibe to be more fun as well as playing music videos with subliminal messages on the remaining screens. She then waltzed on over to Brett and plucked the pill from his hand and then held it over his head. 

“Come on Brett! Be a good boy and open up for me.” She said playfully waiting for him to do so. 

Looking up, he complied absentmindedly as she dropped it in his mouth. A small little dry cough followed after his swallow. Gigi then leaned over and whispered into the girls’ ears, 

“Now you two should feed em to each other~.” She said with a wink as she turned to go talk to Andre. 

“Uh..okay here-“ Reagan pulled Astrid back over to her gently by the waist and held the pill up in front of Astrid’s mouth. 

Astrid smiled and opened her mouth letting Reagan place it on her tongue, “Thank you…uh here you go too-“ she held up the pill to Reagan’s mouth. 

Reagan stuck her tongue out a little shyly as she spotted Brett handing both of them a water to drink. They all took a swig to help it go down easier and laughed. They looked over and saw Gigi had started dancing with Andre to the side of them. They joined in on the vibe and were quickly followed by Myc. After they had danced for a while, also having little chats in-between songs, Myc started to try and dance with Astrid. His long wiggling tentacles bounced around in front of Astrid as he bobbed his head back and forth. Astrid laughed in amusement while danced along with him. Reagan suddenly felt the aphrodisiacs hit hard. The room started to feel warmer and more comfortable, while the music also started to sound better. Reagan glanced around at everyone and started to pick up on how they were all staring to feel. Gigi was already grinding on Andre while Myc was starting to rub his tentacles on Astrid’s legs as they danced. Reagan stepped backwards a little while still dancing and bumped into Brett, he helped steady her but didn’t take his hand off her waist like he normally would have done. 

“Oh Myc-! Ha-! How’d you know I like being lifted?!” Astrid squealed out while laughing. 

Myc had wrapped a few of his tentacles around her. He proceeded to lifted her up and down in the air as if she was a dumbbell. Then cockily laughed while continuing to show off. 

“Yeah!! You like that…?! I’m pretty strong aren’t I?” He laughed. 

“Uh… Reagan…? Is this okay? Like are we all going to really go through with this?” Brett said while breathing a little harder now that the drugs had started to affect him too. 

Reagan, for the first time in a long time, felt her thoughts go almost blank. She felt like her whole body had relaxed and her stress seemed to evaporate. With this new found comfort, she regained more of her confidence. She turned her head to whisper back into Brett’s ear,

“Brett. As te-team leader, I order you to enjoy yourself AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE tonight. I-if you w-want to do this or go h-home… do what you really want to do.” She said earnestly to him. 

“Okay.. so this is okay..?” He asked leaning his head down onto her shoulder and neck while still having his hand on her waist, pulling her in a little closer. 

“Y-yes…. BUT TH-THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT.” She quickly yelled through gritted teeth now watching Myc’s tentacles start to sneak their way underneath all of Astrid’s clothing as she was tangled up in his other arms. 

Astrid let out a little gasp in surprise to Myc’s actions, “I-i didn’t realize you’d be so forward…!” She moaned out embarrassed. 

Reagan pressed past Brett and angrily whispered into Gigi’s ear, “I’m finally s-starting to enjoy the night but h-how are we going to deal with him?! It’s making my blood b-boil knowing what kind of guy he is! AND h-he’s all on her..There is no way in hell I’m touching Myc-!” She was cut off.

“Don’t even worry about it. We have it taken care of.” Gigi smiled back at her smugly. 

“W-What do you mean…?! He’s about to-“ Reagan raved and was cut off once more. 

“Chill Reagan~ you think I was going to risk getting mushroom herpies again after I caught them from Myc that time him and I joined in on that reptilian orgy..? Which- by the way I cured myself of..being a chemist and all…just putting that on the table- but also I wasn’t about to sit here and watch him also possibly infect the new girl or any of you guys.” He said with a laugh as he lit up a cigarette. 

“W-wait… is that why you didn’t give him that pill earlier-?” She asked realizing Andre had purposely tried not to give it to him. 

“Yep. Gave him a different quill too. So he’ll start to think he’s getting really horny because those quills are not only an insanely strong muscle relaxer, they also have aphrodisiac like side effects. But I gave all of us a pill that would counteract the sleeping side effect of the muscle relaxer…so we’ll still feel the best parts but not fall asleep.” He grinned and took a puff. 

“You think I was about to let Myc touch me? Oh hell no. Andre and I thought up how this would be the best way to keep him from being a total creep. And the best part is, in the morning, he’ll think he just partied too hard and ended up missing out on the real fun because he had too much.” Gigi said with a sly smile. 

Right after Gigi finished her sentence, a thud was heard from behind Reagan. Judging from the laughter that erupted from both Gigi and Andre, Reagan realized the drug must have fully kicked in causing Myc to pass out.

“I’ve spent PLENTY of time figuring out Myc’s tolerance to things…This was the perfect chance to see follow through.” Andre slapped his knee in amusement and then swung his arm around Gigi’s shoulders in triumph. 

Reagan turned to see Astrid still tangled up on the floor in Myc’s tentacles next to his now unconscious body. Astrid looked at Myc in shock and then up at the other group members in confusion. 

“I-is he okay…?!” She asked worried. 

“Ha! D-don’t worry about that.” Reagan laughed out in amusement now completely relieved. 

“Yeah honey he’s fine. He’s just like that…he gets a little too excited sometimes and just… well you see what happens.” Gigi stifled a giggle knowing she was making it sound like Myc couldn’t handle sexual stimulation. 

Everyone couldn’t help but laugh except Brett who had no idea what was going on. 

“Oh.” Astrid said awkwardly now feeling let down from the assumption she had previously about Myc. 

She tried to squirm out of his grasp but then looked back up at the rest of them defeated,

“Umm… a little help..?” She looked up at them with doe eyes. 

Everyone quickly went to help her untangle from the tentacles, standing her upright. 

“So I heard you like being picked up! Haha check this out.” Brett said happily while he lifted Astrid onto his shoulder like it was nothing. 

“Oh Brett! You’re strong!” She said gleefully kicking her feet and laughing as he started to do  squats while keeping her on his shoulder. 

“You don’t know this yet- but carrying the team is basically part of my job! When missions get dicey I’m here to carry anyone who needs it!” He said proudly. 

“So I guess that makes me officially apart of the team now..?!” She laughed jokingly. 

“Oh you’re definitely stuck with us now Astrid. If Brett has carried you then it’s official.” Gigi said amused joining in and squeezing Brett’s cheek.

“Let’s go to the holo chamber now! Myc will be fine. He’ll sleep it off.” Andre said with a smile as he turned with Gigi to leave the conference room. 

“It’s not the f-first time he’s had to sleep one off.” Reagan laughed and caught up with Andre and Gigi in the hall, throwing both her arms over their shoulders drunkenly pleased. 

“I bet we can beat them to the holo-chamber!” Brett said playfully as he started to sprint through the door with Astrid still on his shoulder, she let out an excited whoop while they flew down the hallway. 

~ 

Gigi stood inside the holo chamber inputting commands into the panel turning it into an upstairs V.I.P. section of an exclusive sex club. The walls were covered with dark red velvet and multiple red velvet curtains hung in all the right places to keep privacy from the rest of the booming club down below. Fancy couches and seats were scattered about in the tent like area. Andre stood next to her looking back at the rest of the gang,

“Looks like it’s all set. Any last requests before we get to it..?” He asked excitedly. 

Brett continued into the hollow chamber while Astrid stood on the other side of the entrance from Reagan. Reagan searched Astrid’s face for any hint of hesitation, 

“S-so is this really okay…? You’re okay with all of.. this?” Reagan said while lightly placing her hand on Astrid’s waist starting to hope for more. 

“I don’t know…What do you think team leader? Is it alright for us to be doing this?” Astrid responded looking up through her eyelashes at Reagan. 

After that Astrid was quickly dragged into the holo-chamber by Reagan. They joined the others in the exclusive area with the gang as club music boomed in the background. Gigi quickly grabbed Reagan by the face and proceeded to kiss her all over, leaving lipstick stains all on her skin. Reagan then quickly sat back on the couch trying to catch her breath after not having anticipated Gigi’s boldness.  

“Wow…” Reagan said surprised but not entirely opposed trying to figure out how it made her feel.

“Can’t blame me for going for it. You’re next Astrid!” Gigi said while grabbing Astrid and pulling her down onto the couch next to them. 

She proceeded to kiss Astrid all over just like she had done to Reagan, only for Astrid to quickly grab Gigi by the chin and start French kissing her on the mouth deeply. Andre, Brett and Reagan watched wide eyed at Astrid’s sudden forwardness. Reagan clenched her fist not being able to help the envy boiling up inside her. Gigi quickly pushed Astrid away and gasped for air,

“Holy shit… that was so hot. I’m literally on fire right now. You’re such a sneaky little thing!” She panted with a smile. 

“My turn!” Andre said as he went in to make out with Gigi and slid in between her and Astrid. 

While they continued to kiss Brett shifted awkwardly on the couch opposite trying to adjust himself, his body betraying him.

“Brett? You okay big boy,..? How about you lift me in a different kind of way…” Astrid said going over sitting down on his lap concealing his boner. 

He laughed embarrassed and tried to help steady her. Reagan looked at them still not quite knowing what to say, but then Astrid turned and called for Reagan. Once she came over, Astrid grabbed Reagan by her lab coat collar. She pulled Reagan down onto the couch next to Brett really close and then got up. 

“I’m going to go grab another drink… you two should have some fun.” Astrid said springing up and then quickly disappeared behind the curtain. 

Reagan and Brett both breathlessly looked at each other not quite knowing what to do. 

“Wait it’s the holo-chamber… can she even get real drinks from the fake bar in here…?” He asked trying to cut the tension. 

“I know J.R. H-Had it programmed to actually serve alcohol for spe-specific types of government sex stuff… Not sure if it’ll work or not without specific commands..” she contemplated.

“So…is this still.. okay..? He asked clearly turned on but trying to make sure Reagan was feeling the same. 

“We… well.. we c-could just try something small r-right?” She answered back awkwardly as she leaned up against his chest and hovered her face close to his. 

“If it’s weird we can just pretend like it didn’t happen in the morning right..?” Brett said trying to help her. 

“S-sounds good.. o-okay shut up and-“ Reagan was cut off by Brett pressing his lips hard against her’s. 

With both their eyes shut tight they continued to kiss for a moment. Which then lead to them starting to lightly French kiss. 

“Oh DAMN- don’t keep him ALL to yourself!” Gigi said after noticing them and quickly grabbed Brett’s face away. 

As Gigi continued to straddle and make out with Brett, Reagan quickly felt jolted out of it and looked around the club starting to feel nervous and struck with the realization of what she had just done. But before she could start panicking, Astrid reappeared from the curtains holding two drinks. She slid over next to Reagan on the couch and handed her one of the drinks with a sweet smile. Reagan felt her panic melt away as Astrid put her hand into her’s with a light squeeze. 

“F-fuck… I never really thought I’d do this with my co-workers.. I’m not sure how I feel..” Reagan said mostly mumbling to herself.

“Hey Astrid, shotgun..?” Andre asked with a grin as he took a huge puff from his joint, implying he’d blow some in her mouth through a kiss. 

“Shoot~” Astrid said leaning in for the kiss from Andre. 

While Reagan saw the two making out in front of her she jolted up and hit the holo-chamber door to open up back up to the lab.

“Uh..I’m not s-sure if the alcohol in here is real- I’m going to go grab some of the stuff we brought up with us..” she blurted before disappearing. 

“There is a cozy little sex room over there… just putting it out there- I’m definitely more dominant and into some kinky shit… and I really want to try out some of the toys and equipment in there…Andre! Brett! Come with me.” Gigi blurted out after releasing Brett and dragging both the boys to the back room. 

She shoved both of them inside and then looked back at Astrid, “Are you two going to join..?” 

“Uh.. yeah! We’ll catch back up with you in a minute.. I’m going to go have a one on one with Regan.. I noticed earlier she seemed nervous. I just want to go check on her.” Astrid said. 

“Oh perfect!” Gigi said delighted thinking that would be exactly what Reagan needed. “See you soon cutie!” She winked at Astrid before disappearing into the sex room. 

Astrid walked through the holo-door just in time to see Reagan had tripped over some of the liquor boxes Andre had left in the panel room outside.

“Ow…. Fuck.” Reagan mumbled out landing on the floor after twisting her ankle. 

“Oh Reagan! Are you okay…? Here I can heal you-“ Astrid rushed to dote on Regan before she quickly cut her off. 

Reagan felt like she would be fine physically, but in her head she secretly just wanted to get Astrid alone. 

“N-no no! I can fix it…J-just… need to go to my lab. Could you help me there..?” She drunkenly tried to play off Astrid’s worry. 

“Sure…? Um how do I…?” Astrid asked not knowing how to get out before Reagan barked out a command to the Holo-chamber panel room to open up into the hallway. 

“Computer! Open exit p-panel.” Regan commanded as the exit door opened to the side of them. 

“Is it okay is I lift you?” Astrid asked looking into Reagan’s eyes in an attempt to see how she was doing emotionally. 

“Y-yeah… I mean I can manage though I’m sure I’m heavy-“ Reagan’s rambling was cut short as Astrid picked her up princess style with ease. 

Reagan’s eyes went wide as she was pulled off the ground by Astrid as if she had weighed the amount of a rag doll. She’d never had anyone pick her up like that except for Brett… and the fact Astrid seemed to do it with unnatural strength made her shocked into silence. Astrid continued to exit the holo-chamber with Reagan in her arms out into the hall again. She then looked down at Astrid waiting for further direction towards the lab. 

“Oh-! That way..!” Regan blurted trying to get Astrid to stop staring at her. 

While Astrid walked through the empty building’s hall, Reagan looked up at her, taking in all the details of Astrid’s appearance up close.  She looked up and saw that Astrid had an ear bud in her ear and it made her curious,

“Wait- is that an ear piece…? I-is your team listening to all this..?!” Reagan asked panicked with embarrassment. 

“Oh this? Haha! No! I mean it is my ear piece to hear my team but I turned off their channel hours ago when they left. I also use it as a music  listening device. Here, you want to listen too?” Astrid  placed Reagan on the ground for a moment as she plucked the other ear bud from her skirt pocket and put it into Reagan’s ear. 

As the song Écoute chérié by Vendredi sur Mer started to play in Reagan’s ear, Astrid quickly lifted her back into her arms and continued on towards the lab. Reagan pointed out the lab door and they both entered through. Reagan had not heard the song before but she felt her heart start to skip a beat while listening to it in Astrid’s arms. 

“J-Just set me down o-over there on my desk…” Reagan said, “could you grab those pills over there by my monitor and that scanner over there near- yeah that!” She directed Astrid as she looked around the lab for her items. 

“Thanks.” She said to Astrid as she was handed a pill bottle and scanner. 

Reagan quickly took her pain killer and scanned her ankle, “L-like I thought. Just a sprain. I’ll be fine now that I have my meds.” She said starting to sober up now that she had Astrid alone. 

Astrid stood between Reagan’s legs dangling off over her desk. She slowly looked up into Her eyes, “Are you sure you’re okay…?” She asked earnestly. 

Reagan instantly folded, she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer, “H-honestly Astrid… I’ve never been good with t-touch and tonight… Jesus.. tonight was just a lot. I was starting to get uncomfortable in there and I just needed a breather…” she tried to explain but was cut off.

“You couldn’t stand the thought of hooking up with your co-workers..?” Astrid asked assuming. 

“No. H-how about y-you let me finish what I’m I’m going to say first.” Reagan said snappily as she grabbed Astrid by the face. 

“I couldn’t stand knowing I was about to have to share y-you with them.” She said doubling down and grabbing Astrid by the hair suddenly. 

“Ah!” Astrid gasped in surprise and enjoyment having not guessed Reagan would change up the dynamic so quickly. 

Astrid lowered herself down a little, holding her head near Reagan’s thighs, “Well you are the team leader…I can help put your mind at ease. You have so many things to worry about that are more important than something like that…” Astrid cooed softly while sliding her hands up Reagan’s pants to unbuttoned them. 

“T-that’s right… I need your attention on me so I can show you a thing or two…” Reagan said rolling her head up in pleasure while sliding on her robot arms that where laying on the desk behind her. 

Once she activated the arms, one slapped Astrid on the ass while the other grabbed her waist. Astrid let out another surprised moan in enjoyment while pulling down Reagan’s pants and underwear. 

“Oh you like that you little slut..?” Reagan groaned out.

Once Astrid went down on Reagan she desperately clung on to her lab coat trying to steady herself from the robot arm continuing to slap her from behind vigorously. After some struggled moans and rough touching, Reagan started to get close and pushed Astrid away causing her to stumble backwards falling onto the floor. Reagan enjoyed the sight of Astrid disheveled on the laboratory floor. Her hair was messy, legs weak and spread out while her skirt was up, showing off her panties and bruised ass. She looked down at Astrid’s face which was out of breath and panting looking back up at her. 

“Fuck.. I want to do more things to you but the laboratory is only so comfortable…” Reagan panted out annoyed.

“D-do you want to come stay the night in the guest room Cognito gave me..?” Astrid breathed out to her. 

“Yes..” She answered. 

They both proceeded to sneak up to the top floors of the building trying not to wake any of Astrid’s fellow teammates in the nearby rooms. They both got a little carried away getting rough and tossing each other against walls, making out and then shoving away to then run off while the other chased after close behind. With them both being occupied with each other, the same song they had listened to earlier continued to play on loop in both their ears because Astrid forgot to change it. 

“Here we are.” Astrid whispered while pulling out her key card for the guest room.

—- PART NINE COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch8. AstriOid Belt

(Tags: minors dni/ substance use/ stalkerish behavior)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #8 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

The gang had just gotten back from an adventure, now chilling outside of the garage on the drive way next to Rick’s ship. Both Rick and Astrid stood leaning against the ship sipping on beers while Morty and Summer sat on the driveway munching on some hors d’oeuvres they had stolen from an alien party they had all crashed while adventuring. 

“Did you see the look on those bouncer’s faces when we crashed through their ship’s hull?” Summer laughed while continuing to stuff her face. 

“H-honestly I thought m-more people partying on deck would have noticed something was going on.. but I guess they w-were too drunk..?” Morty also chuckled thinking back on it. 

“T-That was some smart thinking back there Astrid. K-knocking out some those unsuspecting guests and changing into their outfits. Priceless! We got to party for free all nightttt!” Rick emphasized in amusement. 

“Well I mean.. you said we had to try and keep those bounty hunters off our tail for a while..we had already crashed so why not have some fun waiting it out?” She snickered and took another swig. 

Earth Beth poked her head out of the garage door and asked, “oh there you guys are, dinner will be ready soon do you kids want to eat? Dad….?” She looked at all of them before her eyes landed on Astrid. “Oh um.. hi! You’re their teacher’s….assistant? From school..?” She asked trying to remember Astrid’s face from in passing. 

“Hello Mrs. Smith. Yes I’m Morty and Summer’s teacher’s assistant… we’ve met before I’m pretty sure.” Astrid said politely but awkwardly. 

“I remember! I didn’t mean to make that come off weird sorry… I just didn’t want to mistake you for….” She glanced over at Rick implying she didn’t want to assume Astrid was one of Rick’s one night stands, “… anyways.. would you like to join us for dinner?” She said with an awkward smile. 

“I would love to…” she glanced at the kids and then quickly at Rick, “but it’s getting a little late. I might need to head home to start grading papers sadly.” She used an excuse feeling as if she might be over stepping her bounds. 

“Oh we understand! I hope the kids are paying attention in class for you.” Beth commented. 

“Oh Mrs. Smith you have wonderful kids. They are both extremely smart and hard working.” Astrid said positively. 

Rick started to scoff before Astrid shot him a glare. 

“Oh that’s such a relief to hear! I worry they aren’t doing so well in school.” Beth peaked over to see what commotion Rick had made. 

“See mom! We’re doing just fine. We take after you and grandpa!” Summer shouted over to her mother. 

“You’re right honey… could you come help with dinner? Oh you too Morty.” Beth asked. 

“We’ll say goodbye to Astrid real quick just in case she doesn’t come have dinner. Be inside in a second!” Summer replied before her mother turned to head back inside. 

“Thanks for covering for us like that Astrid.” Summer said with a smile. 

“I didn’t cover for anything. You and Morty are smart hard working kids. Just because you’re not making straight A’s doesn’t mean you two aren’t smart.” Astrid replied honestly. 

Summer looked down at the ground with a shy smile. 

“T-thanks Astrid.. you’re a great teacher..” Morty said awkwardly before standing up. 

“Thanks for coming on adventures with us, it’s always really fun having you around. We hope you have a good night if we don’t see ya in there.” Summer said playfully but with a hint of sentiment while turning to head inside.

“Y-yeah.. you’re awesome Astrid..! See you at school.” Morty choked out before quickly running after Summer inside. 

Astrid stood there for a few seconds just smiling and looking at the garage door. It made her really happy to know the kids liked having her around.. she also really enjoyed seeing them do so well. She then chugged the rest of her beer and looked up at the dark night sky. The thought that she was still standing alone next to Rick slapped her back to reality as she tried to sneak a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. Still leaning up against the ship next to her she could feel the weight shift as he also chugged the rest of his beer. He turned his head to look down at her and then tossed his empty beer can into the garage. 

“A-Alright.” He pushed off of the ship and grabbed Astrid by the arm. 

His grip was stern but held no malice in it as he guided her around him towards the passenger seat of the space ship. Astrid looked up at him with a calm yet confused look. He ignored her face while opening the ship door, he then lightly pushed her into the seat and shut the door behind her. He then turned to go grab a pack of beers and a liquor bottle from the garage. He returned and got into the drivers seat, setting the drinks down on the floor next to her feet. Astrid felt her nerves jolt a smidge so she rummaged around in her pocket for her communicator to start playing the next song in her cue. She pulled out one of her earbuds from her pocket and put it in the ear facing the ship window. 

“So are you giving me a ride home or….?” She asked trying to cut the agonizing silence. 

“Y-yeah I guess you could say that. But first I want us to have a little chat.” He said emotionlessly while starting up the ship and pulling it up into the sky. 

Astrid felt the awkward silence hang in the air between them. She sat quietly and looked out the passenger window. The Sun and Earth started to look like marbles the farther they flew out into the solar system. She felt the temperature drop in the cabin around them, small wisps from her breath hung in the air after every silent exhale. Did she ever notice how cold it felt when they were flying in the ship before? Or was it that she had gotten used to the body heat of all four of them being in the ship at the same time? It felt like there was so much empty space between her and Sanchez. Why did it still feel like he was much too close for comfort still? Calming herself she pressed the play button, “Space Junk” by Wang Chung started to play in her ear. 

“W-what you listening to…?” He asked pointing at the device in her hand. “You should play some of t-that out loud so it isn’t so awkward in here.” He stated while handing her his equivalent of an all adapting aux cord. 

Astrid compiled and plugged it in. As the music began to play out loud she pulled her ear bud back out and put it in her pocket. She gave a curious glance at Rick, looking for any signs to pick up on, but nothing of note showed. As he started to slow the ship he motioned for her to grab him one of the beers on the floor. She pulled it out of the plastic and cracked it open for him, handing it off. He took it and started to steadily sip from it, still keeping his eyes in front of him. 

“You can have some more too obviously… you got any more of that weed?” He asked. 

“Uh yeah…” Astrid pulled out her bowl and grinder from her pocket. 

“Nice.” He said plainly. 

The silence and random songs seemed to continue for what was about only 15 minutes, but it had felt like forever. Astrid had already downed her first  two beers and taken a few hits from her bowl. Rick had tossed back three beers already as well as having taken some hits from her bowl. Finally Rick eased up the ship to a stop. The ship now silently floated adrift right outside of what looked like an asteroid belt. They sat there for a few moments silently sipping.

“So is this the part where you take the dog out back to the shed and shoot it…? And to save the kid’s feelings you tell them it ran away.” She joked cutting through the silence. 

Rick looked at her surprised and then laughed saying, “HA! No.” He smiled and then gave her a side eye, “Jesus y-you still came with me thinking that m-might have been a possibility…?” He let out a chuckle. 

Astrid didn’t reply and side eyed him curiously waiting for him to keep up the conversation. Which he did, 

“I also figured this would be a perfect opportunity for y-you to shoot me in the back of the head if you had planned on trying to kill me.” He said less amused but with a smug face eyeing her. “We are alone.” He stated. 

“Oh and you still brought me out here thinking that could be a possibility?” Astrid copied him in a mocking tone. 

They both rolled their eyes at each other and looked out their corresponding side windows. The silence hung back over them as the music continued to play. Until Rick broke the silence once more, 

“I didn’t know you could move like that… I knew you were fast but I-I had no idea you knew how to dance.” he mentioned referring to their adventure earlier that day where they had crashed the party. 

He thought back on earlier that night, impressed having seen her ballroom dance and perfectly execute other types of alien dances unfamiliar to Earth. She had moved in such a way it was simply captivating to watch. 

“You just assumed I couldn’t dance…?” She chuckled looking back at him scrunching her eyebrows playfully. 

“You’re not Human. There isn’t any way you are!” He suddenly blurted out slightly raising his voice in frustration. 

“Is that a question or are you making a statement?” She replied annoyed back. 

“Come on!” He demands letting go of the anger but a hint of frustration remained. 

“I guess you could say im not exactly from around these parts.” She tried joking in a perfect southern accent. 

He laughed and relaxed a little while rolling his eyes again, leaning off to his window side. 

“Hold on Rick. I know  it’s not like you’re going to share things about yourself with me.” She laughed. 

“That’s fucking different.” He insists. “You’ve probably already heard plenty of things about me.” A slight sting came in his voice. 

Astrid let out a sigh, “Fine… let’s play a game. We’ll call it Pinocchio because it’s like a truth and lies thing. I will answer questions if I feel like it. I’ll only show one “tell” if it’s a lie… you’ll see what I mean once we start playing.” She stated.

He arched his eyebrows and grinned curiously still leaning on his window, “Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s play.” He said shifting to lean on his knee while pointed in her direction nonchalantly. 

“How long have y-you been living on Earth..?” He cut straight to it. 

“Over all or recently?” She asked to clarify.

“Both.” He stated. 

“Well.. I’ve probably lived on Earth for a handful years.. I left but I’ve only been back for about a year now.” She shifted in her seat slightly uncomfortable but finally feeling relaxed knowing she was getting it off her chest. 

“Why are you here now?” He asked still intently eyeing her.

She replies, “sight seeing” and suddenly her nose popped out elongated a slight bit, much like the Pinocchio cartoon. 

Rick let out an amused laugh realizing she had lied. While eyeing her nose curiously, he quickly chugged another beer in entertainment. 

“W-why were you on Earth in the past?” He asked more exited. 

“For work.” She answered shortly knowing she still had to tread lightly. 

“Are you on Earth for work now..? A-And I don’t mean that “teacher” bullshit.” He said trying to skate her around using that excuse. 

“Not really….it’s complicated. But I’m “stuck” here for now.”  She paused feeling a sadness creep up on her. 

“You’re stuck..? Like crash landed?” He asked confused. 

“No.. I’m just supposed to be here for a while.” She huffed, “ I’m supposed to be on “vacation” but that’s not what it feels like.” Noticing she said a bit too much she snapped back into it. 

Shifting gears she sassily stated, “You’re running out of time!” 

Internally her heart was racing, why did she want to tell him so badly? This had never been a problem for her before with keeping secrets. 

“Jeez I didn’t know we were on a timer!” He joked and motioned for her to pass him the bowl. 

He sparked up and took a few more hits and then handed it back to her. She too hit it some and then sat it down on the dash. She looked down at the floor to see they had both drank through all the beers so she grabbed the liquor bottle of jack that Rick had brought. Astrid opened it and took a few swigs and handed it over to Rick. He took it and then looked back at her face,

“Are you human?” He asked once again wanting to hear her say it, searching her eyes for a sign. 

“Yes.” She lied with a smug grin lowering her gaze as her nose grew again humorously. 

“So what do you do? What are you?” He asked back to back trying not to chuckle. 

“You’re waisting your time.” She said sharply not looking up from packing the next bowl. 

Rick huffed and moved on, “Okay then. So you have heard of me?” He asked, not being able to help himself. 

“Yes Rick. I heard of you before I met the kids. But I didn’t think much of it, until we officially met.” She rolled her eyes and smiled knowing he was looking for an ego boost.

This relieved her knowing this one fold of his would help later if things got risky.  

“So what’s the verdict?” He asked cockily. 

“That you’re a crazy old man causing trouble.” She twirled her hair, “Definitely never a dull moment around you.” She replied with attitude. 

He laughs at her mockingly slow and leans back in his seat seeming to drop all signs of humor, “I’ll go a head and get right to what I wanted to chat about.” 

He pauses and glares right into Astrid’s eyes, “Have you been planning to hurt the kids?” 

Astrid felt as if daggers had been sent through her chest, “I’m never going to hurt your kids Rick. As for you though, that depends on how well we get along.” She quickly joked at the end in an attempt to lighten the mood but still be honest. 

“Oh yeah?! You think you can hurt me Hu…?” Rick joked already riled up a bit but calming down feeling as if she was being truthful to his questions. 

“Yeah of course. How many good years do you have left on you anyway?!” She said flirting not being able to help herself, hoping to further distance Rick from his suspicions. 

“Oh don’t you worry about that. I can stay young forever. You just haven’t seen me use my reverse age inventions.” He said crossing his arms behind his head and setting his feet up on the dash pleased with himself.

“Wait so you choose to stay looking at this age…?” She suddenly asked seriously, she couldn’t help but feel like she felt the same way but for her own human passing form. 

“Uh yeah…? What about it?” He arched his eyebrow at her confused by the change in emotion. 

“Do you do it because it just feels familiar or do you like how it looks…?” She asked almost searching for her own reason as to why she liked her default human form. 

“I-I don’t know.. I guess because it feels familiar..? I guess because I don’t like how it looks.. because it’s a reminder.. it seems natural looking to the family..?” He said searching for an explanation himself. 

He then quickly snapped out of it and wanted to know why she would ask that, “W-why do you ask? Are you age shaming me right now..?” He said pretending to be offended to cover up his actual feeling of embarrassment. 

“I don’t know! Ha! Sorry I’m just a curious person…? I mean you said you made something that can reverse your age!! So you just don’t use it that much? I mean seemed like a pretty basic question.” She laughed as well trying to cover her discomfort for the shift in the atmosphere.

Rick starts chugging some of the liquor and then slams his fist down on the dash, “f-fuck it! You wanna blow up some asteroids…?!” He said now trying to help lighten the mood. 

They sat in the ship taking turns targeting the hurdling rocks. As they both got more intoxicated they started to amp up their shared appreciation for destruction. Astrid thought about how pretty the moment was watching the ship light up after each explosion went off.  After what felt like hazy minutes of belligerent arcade like fun, Rick checked his watch and seemed to sober up a little. 

“Damn I-it’s late. I totally lost track o-of time. Sorry about that, w-we’ll head back.” He said trying to make up for taking up her evening time after she said she needed to get home.

“Ha, it’s fine. I’m glad we got t-that sorted out.” She said with a goofy buzzed smile. 

“You sure you’re not trying to kill me? Now’s your chance.” He pauses and then said, “We are alone.” In a slightly more suggestive tone. 

“I told you already Sanchez…” Astrid looked away pretending to be annoyed but catched her own eye in the window reflection feeling her face flush. 

They headed back mostly riding in silence enjoying music or commenting on random things they saw while flying. They got closer and closer until they slowed down right in front of her apartment. Rick slowly started to lower the ship but then Astrid, in her oblivious state, popped the ship door open. She hopped out and turned to say goodbye with a smile. Rick awkwardly smiles back embarrassed she didn’t wait so he could  have gotten the door for her. 

“Uh.. night Astrid.. h-have a good evening.” He said not quite knowing what to say. 

“Night Sanchez!” She said with a grin, patted the side of the ship and then turned to head towards her door. 

“Also I-I told you already! D-Don’t call me Sanchez!” he playfully joked in hopes to get her to call him that again. 

“Whatever Sanchez.” She said back jokingly, just like he had hoped. 

Once Rick was sure Astrid had made it inside, he pulled the ship up at rapid speed. He hurdled the ship past the block between her apartment and the Smith house. The radio now playing some random alien channel after Astrid had taken her communicator off the aux when leaving. He allowed himself to smile only for a moment before landing the ship and sprinting out of the door and into the garage. He punched in his secret code to the hatch door in the floor and jumped down into the upper part of his basement lab. He went to his elevator and punched the floor number for his super computer room. Once there he ran to it quickly punching in all kinds of commands and running all types of searches. His mood went from pleasant to maddening as he tried to piece together any information he could find on Astrid. Cursing and mumbling to himself as he kept playing back loops of footage he had gotten of her fighting when they had gone to rob the bank. Over and over the loop of her snatching out the fire alien’s eyes played in one corner. In another was the footage of her kicking the bug cyborg into the bank counter with incredible force. In the last corner he played the footage of her dancing that night from the party they had crashed. He watched all of them intensely while waiting for other searches to come back.  

“Of course she’s not fucking human, I mean look at this shit… but who are you..?” He muttered to himself rubbing his face in frustration. 

He mulled it over for a second and muttered, “are you a shape shifter..? Someone with Elasticity powers…? But then how are you so fucking fast and strong too…?” 

A few hours had gone by at this point and he had almost entirely sobered up by now. In his frustration he had thrown randoms items around the room while still searching for an answer. He had all the data from the hunting adventure they had gone on up on screen. He had all her school file information up, and even random footage and notes of her from previous times she had visited the Smith house. No DNA matches, no other records of her on earth previously to her starting work as a teacher’s assistant. 

“Who the hell are you Ms. Du Pont ?” Rick read her supposed last name from the school’s file. 

He sat back in his chair and pulled out his flask,

“Let’s just go ahead and find out.” He said confidently while activating the tracker he had planted on her arm when taking her to the ship earlier. 

“It’s the size of a flea so I doubt you’ll notice for quite a while.” He grinned watching her location pop up on his computer’s map. 

Rick sat looking at the tracker dot still at her apartment’s location. He took a swig from his flask and spun around in his chair lazily. After a moment of double checking, nothing else in his search had popped up. He sighed and then headed upstairs to his room for once. He turned the lights off and flopped down onto his cot. For the first time in a long while he felt like actually getting some sleep. He rolled over onto his side and opened up his watch’s screen. He sighed again knowing his computer search would take a while since not having that much information o

to go off of. He pulled up an image of Astrid’s teacher photo to look at. Rick let out one last long breath before closing his watch and eyes to sleep. 

Back at Astrid’s apartment she sat on her den floor grading papers while listening to music. Her mood had taken a turn for the better after feeling like she had made progress with Rick that evening. Her communicator buzzed as a few incoming messages popped up. She glanced down still a little tipsy from earlier. Seeing the name Reagan pop up from the notifications, she held her breath in disbelief and scrambled to open up the messages. With her eyes glued to the screen she started to read the various messages, 

“Hey Astrid” 

“Been busy at work…..”

“Sorry for ghosting you” 

“Could you come by this weekend when there isn’t anyone at the office?”

“We could catch up” 

Astrid read the massages from Reagan silently to herself. 

“Holy shit… okay.” She exhaled nervously while grabbing for her own flask she left under her coffee table. 

She sent a reply back and then laid down on the floor. 

“Here we go.” She said looking up at the ceiling now feeling exhausted. 

—- PART EIGHT COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch7. Bank Robbery

(Tags: drinking, violence, minors DNI)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #7 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

“F-fuck you-you FUCK!!” Rick screamed at his computer belligerently. 

He slammed his fists down on the desk below. Quickly snatching his flask and chugging all of it. He then swayed over to another bottle and refilled it. 

“W-We’ll see how you-you like losing me as a in-*BURP*- investor!!” He yelled out again before portaling to the upstairs hallway. 

“S-SUMMER!! M-Morty!!! Get out h-here!!” He yelled at both of their room doors. 

“Jeez… it’s the m-middle of Sunday afternoon Rick…! I’m trying to get my homework done ya know?!” Morty whined as he came out into the hall. 

Summer also joined them in the hall, pushing her sleeping mask off her face, “literally grandpa.. I was taking a nap..” she yawned. 

“Nope! W-we’re robbing a BANNNK!!” He hollered like he was at a football game. 

“Aw Jeez-“ Morty let out just as Rick grabbed both him and his sister and pushed them through a portal. 

Morty stumbled and fell onto a black couch in a small apartment den followed by Summer. Rick then drunkenly stepped out of the portal next to them just as it shut behind him. 

“Wait.. this isn’t a bank…” Summer said confused looking around. 

“Y-you’re right! We’re here to g-get your little friend.” He then burped while getting acclimated to his new surroundings. “I-isn’t that what y-you two would have bitched about anyways?” He finished. 

“W-wait?! W- we’re in Astrid’s apartment right now?!” Morty looked around frantically while starting to blush. 

“Oh jeez calm down weirdo.” Summer said to him with an eye roll as they both got up off the couch. 

“A-ASTRID!! ADVENTURE TIME NOW!!” Rick shouted while strutting down the apartment hall to the other rooms, “H-HURRY UP! THIS ONES PERSON- *BURP*-AL!!” he said while reaching for one of the doors and twisting the door knob open. 

The kids quickly followed behind him right as Summer tried to warn Rick, “Wait Grandpa don’t just barge-!” She said frantically before getting cut off. 

Rick barreled into the steamy apartment bathroom and slammed right into a wet Astrid wrapped in a towel. 

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Astrid yelled out in irritation. 

“Oh- uh… whoops.. “ Rick said casually slipping on the slick tile and falling over and grabbing onto the sink while trying to retreat back out into the hall. 

“OOHHEEHHHH!!” Morty screamed in embarrassment hiding his eyes from Astrid but secretly trying to take a peek. 

“Holy fuck! Omg Astrid I’m so sorry!! We’ll wait outside!” Summer yelled over Morty as she grabbed both Rick and her brother by the collar, dragging them back out to the living room. 

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Astrid shouted back at Rick, “Jesus give me a second to get dressed…” she mumbled angrily before slamming the door behind them. 

Summer shoved both a red faced Morty and seemingly unbothered Rick back onto the couch. She then stood guard at the end of the hall keeping a judgmental look directed at them. In Rick’s bored drunken state he looked over and noticed Astrid’s liquor box under her coffee table and grabbed a bottle. 

“W-wait.. Rick..!” Morty tried to persuade him against his continuation of getting more intoxicated. 

“Yeah grandpa! Jesus you’ve had enough. We just broke into our teacher’s apartment! She could press charges!” Summer yelled at him. 

“How did you even know where I live?” Astrid asked coming into the living room to join them.

Summer looked at her quizzically noticing Astrid’s hair had gone from sopping wet to perfectly dry and styled all within the five minutes they had waited in the living room. Rick also looked up at Astrid barely noticing her hair too. 

“W-what!? Like I couldn’t just look up your information from the school’s teacher files?” He said plainly as if it was totally normal. 

“I see you’ve already helped yourself then.” Astrid said looking at the liquor bottle he was taking sips from. 

“Oh y-yeah, like you haven’t helped yourself t-to my stash already.” He said sarcastically while giving her a playful glare. 

Astrid rolled her eyes and looked at all three of them standing in her den just as Summer piped up, “Astrid I’m so sorry I didn’t think Rick would-“ 

“So what’s the mission? I heard you yell it was personal.” Astrid interrupted. 

“T-this SHIT FOR BRAINS thought he could j-just close my account *BURP* and take out a r- ridiculous fee! WELL HE HAS A-ANOTHER THING C-COMING!” He shouted in rage. 

“Okay… let’s get to it.” Astrid said casually. 

All three of them looked back at her a little surprised at how quick she was to get to it, but this helped boost all of their moods to become excited for the adventure. Rick laughed and shot a portal open underneath her feet. Astrid dropped through into a fancy looking alien bank. The walls and floors were all what looked like green jade. She turned her head to look around at the bank patrons, they were all dressed head to toe in very nice and expensive looking clothing and accessories. Most of them looked like green humanistic frog people but with feathers for hair coming from the tops of their heads. She looked down at her skin tight leather pants and ripped up band t-shirt feeling a little out of place. 

“D-don’t even sweat it.” Rick said from behind her now joining with the kids, “p-put this on…it won’t even matter w-what you’re wearing.” He said while tossing her a Scream mask like from the movie. 

Astrid proceeded to copy the other three as they all slid the masks on. Rick pulled out a little ball in his hand, threw it on the ground causing a loud pop while black smoke quickly filled the room. Confused screams and murmurs came from the crowd as security quickly scuffled towards the cloud. Once the smoke had cleared, Astrid noticed that all three of their clothes had changed to pitch black as well as getting some residual dust onto the faces of the security team. They grappled and moaned in pain trying to get it out of their eyes in pain. Astrid then turned to look at Rick’s now black mask realizing why he had told them to wear it, other than to hide their identities. 

“GARGALOASE!!!!” Rick screamed out while pulling out large automatic laser guns seemingly from nowhere and unloading rounds into the ceiling above. “E-EVERYONE ON THE G-GROUND UNLESS Y-YOU WANT A *BURPPP* CAP IN YOUR ASS!” He screeched at the bank members and security as they replied in screams of fear. 

“Oh fuck..” Morty whined while quickly reaching into his grandfather’s coat pockets to grab a laser gun and Rick’s tricked out flame blade lighter. 

Morty tossed the lighter to Summer and was about to hand the laser to Astrid when she quickly shook her head no and pulled up the hunting knife she had pocketed from Rick a while back. They then all prepared themselves for whatever was going to come next. 

“Of course… Rick. How are you now Mr. Sanchez…?” A relaxed voice said from behind a barred counter.

“C-Come out here a-and face me you coward!” Rick directed at the voice. 

“Now now Rick. I don’t think that will be necessary. You are no longer a client of mine. So I will be refusing your need for service… besides my bank doesn’t associate with drug toting terrorists. This is why we had decided to close your account. Wouldn’t want such associations.” The voice said back loftily. 

Astrid and Summer quickly knocked out the guards near them as Morty kept an eye on all the other bank patrons who were frozen in fear. 

“Y-You sure didn’t seem t-to mind until recently!Why the sudden change?! Y-you knew better than to charge me that BULLSHIT exit fee! Y-you want to start something? Well I’m r-right fucking here!” Rick yelled out and open fired at the counter in the voice’s direction sending shards of jade flying out into the crowd of bank goers, causing them all to yelp and lay down on the floor in fear. 

“Grandpa calm down…! We don’t actually want to kill these bystanders do we..?” Summer said lowering her voice to Rick. 

“F-fuck em! T-this bank is run and-and used by f-filthy rich corrupted officials’ and t-their family members.. super exclusive.” he quickly whispered back to her. 

“I thought it was going to be like this..I know what a difficult man you are Mr. Sanchez. That’s why I made sure to get a privately hired team to handle this exact situation.” The voice came back amused. 

Over on the other side of the bank a small group of four came walking down some jade stairs. The Smith team tossed off their mask’s as they swiveled to meet their nearing opponents. The opposition all wore old ripped up tactical gear that had clearly been styled to look somewhat punk. Astrid noted that the tactical gear seemed familiar… it took her a second to realize they were an old version of the Agency’s foot soldier uniforms. She grit her teeth in annoyance realizing this team must have stolen the uniforms from real members. Out of the lot there looked to be two men, a woman and one other alien with no discerning gender features. One of the men looked like a short stocky hairless rabbit man with a scar over his eye and a big cigar hanging from his mouth. He carried a massive machine gun on his hip. The other guy looked like he was of a fly/bug species like the ones that made up the Galactic Federation, but he had a robot eye, arms and leg. The woman was some type of fish species with legs, her skin was blue and her head fin stood tall and flared while she held a harpoon like gun. The last member looked like they were made of fire, but had two floating stones for eyes and a pair of what looked similar to deer antlers floating in the head area. 

“Too scared to deal with me yourself? What a man y-you are!” Rick mocked while still keeping his sights on the nearing group. 

“Naturally.” The voice replied with a laugh. 

“I call the tank.” Rick referred to the rabbit man before sprinting forward. 

“I’ll take fish face!” Summer yelled out following right behind Rick. 

Suddenly the bank alarm stared to ring out, Astrid tried to peak a glance behind the counter but guessed the owner had hidden himself under it somewhere. She then looked at Morty who seemed frustrated about the situation, he looked back up at her, 

“W-which one do you want?” He asked trying to seem polite. 

“I’ll take Fire Antlers. You good with the Robot Fly?” She grinned back at him hoping to encourage him. 

“Uh yeah…!” He said starting to feel the infectious effect she had. 

They both ran forward and joined in the fighting. 

Rick’s robot arms had created huge armor shields keeping the bullets from his opponent from getting at him. The Rabbit man leaped off all types of surfaces around the bank in frustration trying to find openings to get at Rick while also avoiding his automatic fire. Summer dodged, weaved and slid across the slick jade floors avoiding the harpoon arrows that her opponent was sending out. She quickly got in close making the fish woman try and keep distance from the flaming blade Summer wielded with pretty good skill. Morty then started letting out laser shots in the direction of the Fly guy but his robot arms and leg seemed to work similarly to Rick in a way they could deflect the hits. This made Morty really focus on where he was trying to aim while also avoiding the Fly guy’s big laser cannon arm sending slow but heavy hits out against the jade walls. Shards were flying everywhere causing more costumers to crawl away and out of the bank once they got close enough to the door to leave. Out of annoyance, Rick would randomly send out shots to hit some of the members trying to escape the bank, while letting out satisfied laughs or grunts. Astrid physically shot herself so fast past the fire alien its flames faded down causing its eyes and antlers to drop and then bounce back up once the flame grew back. She smiled thinking about how she had fought this alien’s species before. She knew if she could blow them out long enough and snatch out their eyes it would kill them. See most other aliens wouldn’t be able to survive the burns by trying to do this, unlucky for it, she had regenerative abilities and could shift her skin to become more resilient as well. 

“You’re nothing!! I eat weak hand me down hired help like you for breakfast!” Rick yelled out smiling after he had thrown a sticky bomb on the floor and lured his opponent into, blowing up the Rabbit’s leg instantly. 

Blood sprayed everywhere but the Rabbit kept hopping on his one good foot, slower this time but still going. All the Smith’s and their opponents were yelling and making quips at each other in the heat of battle. Astrid checked to make sure none of them were paying attention, she then did a quick run around the Fire Alien. Astrid going faster than light, this suffocated its flame to go down practically to nothing. She then snatched both its eyes away, crushing the little stones in her fist. Its empty uniform dropped to the floor as the rest of the flame went out. She quickly whipped her head around to make sure no one had witnessed any of it. Once she knew she was in the clear she went to assist Morty. He had managed a few good shots already, the Fly man was bleeding from the collar bone area and the stomach in a few places. The fly was already starting to slow down. Astrid thought about how she could insta kill this guy too, but wanted to not completely show off just yet in front of Morty what a harden killer she was. She paused thinking for a second, then jumped up onto the fly from behind while crunching his head between her thighs and twisting him violently to the side while grabbing his cannon arm. With this opening, Morty took the shot and lasered him multiple times in the chest causing him to fall forward throwing Astrid off. She tumbled forward like a circus performer and hopped back up, spinning and kicking her leg in a swoop making contact against the Fly’s head behind her. He went flying and slammed against the bank counter in a thud. He struggled to get up, spitting up his species’s type of blood. 

“Holy cow!” Morty said in surprise seeing Astrid’s sheer strength up close. 

Morty quickly shot the fly in the head just as he was aiming his cannon at Astrid. 

“Thanks Morty!” Astrid said with a smile while wiping her brow. 

“N-no! T-thank you!” He said awkwardly gasped in amazement. 

“Sorry to break up you and your crush.” Rick said to Morty sarcastically shoving between the two of them going towards the counter. 

Astrid looked back to see the Rabbit man was now nothing but a pile of guts splattered everywhere in one corner of the bank. Morty nervously laughed and followed behind his grand dad. Rick proceeded to slowly wear away at the counter with his atomic laser gun forming a hole for him to enter through. While that was happening Summer finished up her fight with the fish woman, sending the flame blade right through her eye up through her skull and burning its way out. The dead woman collapsed to the floor as Summer turned to the rest of them, 

“Ha! That actually wasn’t so bad!” She said proud of herself. “SO WHAT NOW…?” She shouted over the rapid fire of Rick’s gun. 

“We’re breaking into the vault before their equivalent of a swat team shows up!” He answered back finally finishing their way through the counter. 

Rick, now sounding much more sober but irritable, ran back behind the counter and snatched up a green cowering alien man hiding amongst the other employees. He slammed his gun against the guys head multiple times then threw him into the back rooms behind the counter. The siblings and Astrid climbed through the ruble to follow Rick. 

“Give me the code now you slobbering cock sucker!” He demanded while slamming the man’s head against a large metal safe in the back office. 

“Woah woah Rick! Can’t you just blow up the safe…?!” Morty asked already wanting to go home. 

“No Morty! It’s blast and portal resistant!” Rick shouted back and tossed the man to the side. 

Loud sirens sounded off in the distance, “Fuck! We don’t have time! THE CODE!!!?” He slammed the man against the office desk and held the gun to his head. 

“Grandpa don’t! If he’s dead-“ Summer was shouted over by Rick,

“Code now or you die. You sniveling twat! Wouldn’t want the wife to have to explain to jr why daddy didn’t come home today!” He screamed practically breaking a blood vessel. 

“Fine!! Jesus Sanchez… it’s _________!!” He listed off some type of alien code that Astrid wasn’t quite familiar with, but she remembered exactly what he had said. 

Rick then shot the bank owner dead right there on the desk. Both Morty and Summer let out mixed reactions, Morty whined in disgust and Summer cringed in uncomfort. Rick then went over to the safe pad and attempted to get it to open. The sirens blared right outside at this point. The siblings turned to Rick and begged him to hurry. 

“Voice code verification needed.” The safe chirped back at Rick. 

“Fuck… I’m going to need you guys to bide me time while I try to hack it.” He grumbled. 

Before Morty or Summer could complain Astrid walked over to Rick and lightly scooted him to the side. He glanced at her confused but said nothing. She leaned her face down in front of the pad and quickly gave Rick a cheeky glance before speaking into it. In the bank owner’s exact voice, she repeated the code he had told them only moments before. The safe then let out a, 

“Access granted. Hello Mr. Gargaloase.” 

“You’re kidding….how’d you manage that…?” Rick looked at her actually pleasantly surprised. 

“What?” She grinned back at him, “I got tricks up my sleeve too.” 

“Honestly Astrid… you’re the best. I did NOT want to have to go deal with whatever cops they have on this planet.” Summer said tiredly but relaxed now that the situation was taken care of. 

Alright let’s get in! Rick said shoving them all in the safe and closing it behind them to keep the cops from entering. The room had lasers but Rick shot out a scanner beam from his wrist causing all of them to short circuit and power off. 

“Wait didn’t you say the safe is portal resistant..? Why’d you close us in?” Summer asked her grandfather. 

“Sumsum it’s resistant to trying to portal into the safe. Not portal from inside the safe to out.” Rick answered acting as if she should have known the answer. 

“Home free!! T-thanks Astrid!” Morty said beaming up at her. 

“Okay help grandpa get his shit back!” He said to the siblings as he created a large portal for them to throw cash, gold bars and other types of currency through on the ground. 

They all started emptying out the vault as banging and muted voices came from the door behind them. Periodically they would all laugh or snicker knowing the cops on the other side had no way of getting in now that the owner was dead. Once the vault was completely empty Astrid peaked into the portal to see where Rick was sending all this money, but he quickly snatched her by the arm and pulled her back up away from it as it snapped shut. 

“You got your tricks and I got mine. No peaking behind this curtain.” He playfully said to her as he released her arm. 

“Let’s go home. I’m starting to feel hung over.” Rick said plainly as he opened a new portal. 

They all stepped through into the Smith’s living room. Rick fell over onto the couch and shut his eyes, passing out in only minutes, even started snoring a little. The siblings looked to Rick then back to Astrid. 

“Uh so… I gotta get b-back to homework…” Morty said awkwardly while rubbing his neck. 

“Yeah I’m literally ready to go pass back out again. You good Astrid..?” Summer asked quickly before leaving. 

“Yeah I need to get back to my place too, got work stuff I have to plan.” She said casually. 

They all proceeded to go their separate ways, the siblings climbed back upstairs and Astrid went to the front door and left. As soon as the room was empty one of Rick’s eyes opened to see if anyone was still watching. He shot out a small portal from his portal gun and reached his hand through to the security room back at the bank. He quickly typed in some codes and slid a flash drive into the security computer and exported all the footage from that day onto it and then deleted all the evidence off the computer. He then slid the flash drive into his coat pocket and rolled back over to fall asleep. 

—- PART SEVEN COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch6. Girls Night

(Tags: +18 minors DNI/substance use/drinking/violence/manipulation/sexual situations implied)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #6 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

Astrid lay scrawled out on Summer’s bedroom floor right at the foot of her bed, the girls had all drank a little and were listening to snake jazz on Summer’s music player. Both Summer and Jessica lay on top of the bed with their heads hanging off the end above Astrid while Nancy sat in her favorite spot on a bean bag just to the side of them. 

“I know you showed us Snake Jazz a while ago but it’s still such a banger.” Jessica said smiling up at the ceiling. 

“Yeah Grandpa and Morty seem to have gotten over it, but I keep wanting to listen sometimes. They normally over do it and get sick of things way too fast.” Summer said also staring up at the ceiling. 

“So I guess that’s means snakes have recording studios in space…?” Nancy awkwardly joked while leaned back on the bean bag. 

“Well… yeah. Duh. How else would we be hearing this…?” Jessica stated. 

“I bet they look cute in little jazz bands performing.” Astrid said with a laugh, having already seen a snake jazz performance live.

“Oh totally. But I heard they were kind of dicks from Morty.” Summer snorted craning her neck back to look down at Astrid on the floor. 

“So…. The last few times you’ve been over I noticed you and Rick talking in the garage. Is he being pushy? I had a feeling grandpa was going to keep making a big deal out of stupid stuff.” She asked Astrid. 

“He just wants to make sure I’m not like a possible danger.” Astrid said reassuringly. 

“Oh shit! That’s right you went on an adventure with them right?!” Jessica sat up on the bed and turned around to look at Astrid. 

“You guys would never believe what a fucking beast Astrid is! It’s literally driving Rick nuts.” Summer said with an enthusiastic grin. 

“Not going to lie… it is pretty funny how upset he gets. But… he mentioned something about Tammy last time…? I don’t think I’ve heard what happened…?” Astrid said while sitting up and also waiting for Summer to fill her in. 

“Oh Tammy…. Yeah, Summer what did happen to Tammy..?” Nancy asked seemingly also out of the loop. 

“I didn’t tell you..? Oh right…I forget Jessica was the only one I told the whole story to. Honestly it was a lot to process at the time. I think I was still in shock about it for a while. Like I thought she was all our best friend for real.” Summer explained with a hint of hurt in her voice. 

“Tell them! It’s so insane what happened you guys like holy shit.” Jessica insisted. 

All the girls then sat up and scooted closed to the edge of the bed where Summer began to tell them the details. Astrid felt a slight sting of guilt as the story started to sink in. 

“So like… okay, Astrid you didn’t really see much of Tammy because all this went down before you started coming to hang out. She was like all our best friends. Well we thought she was. She turned out to be an undercover agent for the Galactic Federation.” She paused. 

“Like Summer told me, she ended up trying to ambush them at her own wedding!” Jessica blurted out. 

“Wait her wedding…? To that bird guy that’s friends with your grandpa?” Nancy asked trying to piece together info she heard in passing. 

“Yeah.. so neither of you were around when Tammy had gotten engaged to my grandpa Rick’s best friend, Birdperson…. it was kind of weird the whole age gap thing but I tried to be a supportive best friend you know..?” Summer started to ramble on.

“Yeah but like turns out she wasn’t even a high school student anyways!” Jessica inserted again. 

“We all showed up for the wedding and once they were in the middle of it she just pulled a gun and a bunch of Federation bugs just surrounded the place trying to arrest us.” Summer sighed and fell back on her bed defeated. 

Astrid shifted awkwardly on the floor thinking about how painfully similar her situation might be to the topic. Nancy also seemed to shift awkwardly in her seat, 

“So… was she an alien….? Or just a regular person but part of the Federation…?” She asked. 

“Uhg! NANCY! I don’t know!” Summer snapped back. 

Nancy recoiled and got quiet. Summer looked up from the bed and frowned feeling guilty, 

“Sorry Nancy, I just …really don’t know what the fuck is up with Tammy. She lied the whole time. How should I know?” She looked over to the liquor bottle she had stolen from Rick on her desk and pointed at it. 

“Here.” Astrid reached over and picked it up, she then handed the bottle over to Summer. 

“Well good thing you got out of it! And didn’t you say Tammy stopped hunting your family now?” Jessica asked optimistically. 

“Yeah. Apparently the new bug leaders don’t mess with Rick so he won’t mess with them. But I think Space mom still is fighting against the federation. So…I’m sure they fight all the time.” She said plainly, clearly tired of the topic already. 

She took a few swigs of the bottle and passed it to Jessica. 

“Okay… fuck this depressing shit! Let’s get the vibe back! Come on Nancy, have some!” Jessica then pushed the bottle into Nancy’s hand.

Nancy hesitated but changed her mind after seeing how sad Summer looked. She took a swig and her face made a disgusted look. 

“WOO! NANCY!!” All of them shouted in surprise. 

“Okay let’s get some good vibes cranked up!” Summer said trying to hype herself up. 

She got up and walked over to the music player to change the music, changing it to one of her favorite current radio songs. 

“Hell yeah! I love Megan the Stallion!” She yelled. 

All the girls started to get up dancing around the room and passing the bottle back and forth. After a few more swigs Astrid felt like she needed a breather, 

“I’ll be RIIIIGHT back y’all! I gotta go piss.” She said trying sound playful. 

“Don’t fall in!” Summer called to her as she slipped out into the hallway. 

Once in the hallway alone Astrid took a deep breath. She started to feel the guilt of her identity weigh down even harder. She briefly debated the idea of telling Summer the truth but ultimately shook it out of her thoughts again. There was no way telling any of the Smiths would be a good idea. She grappled around in her jacket and pulled out her bowl and lighter. She then silently snuck downstairs and out the den sliding door to the backyard. She sparked up and took a deep hit. If she couldn’t be honest at least she could be high. She exhaled another puff of smoke and felt her eyes get dry. The song “I Can’t Escape Myself” by The Sound played in her earbuds. She stood there looking out at the yard thinking about the situation. If she just kept up the act she was playing maybe things would turn out fine. They all had awareness she wasn’t quite normal. She could continue to micro-dose them with information. That way she wouldn’t be lying right? They could just slowly get to know the real her? But until when? Until she finally got the order to go after Rick? Until the order was given for a new mission elsewhere? She rubbed her face in frustration. Astrid had rarely come across situations that made her want to blow her cover. 

“Fuck I should have just stayed out of it..” she whispered to no one in particular. 

A loud clanging came from the garage and she snapped back into alertness. The distant yelling of Rick from the garage signaled to Astrid that he and Morty had returned from their duo mission. Astrid quickly put out her pipe and snuck back through the house quietly up to Summer’s room again. Before entering, Astrid waited outside the door to see if she could hear anything being said. She stood with her back against the wall, one ear towards the room and one towards the top of the staircase. 

“Haha! Omg! Brad was totally hitting on you in gym class!! SHUT UPPP ITS OBVIOUS!” Jessica screeched from inside the room. 

“Y-you know Rick, y-you can’t keep doing that type of shit and always expecting it to work!!” Morty also shouted in frustration at Rick from downstairs. 

“C-come on MORTY!! It worked didn’t it?!” He demanded back. 

“D-did you have an aneurism!? WE ALMOST DIED!!” Morty screamed back as he started to storm over to the stairs. 

Astrid having heard enough, opened the room door and joined the girls again. She walked in just as Nancy was wrestling Jessica back for her phone. 

“No don’t!!” Nancy pleaded to Jessica. 

“WHAT?! He’s never going to make a move if you never talk to him!!” Jessica playfully yanked the phone back and continued to text something into the phone. 

Astrid snorted and sat down on the bed next to Summer who was clearly buzzed at this point, laughing at the girls bickering. 

“You know what? This is the perfect time to play some truth or dare.” Summer wiggled her eyebrows while an evil smile curled around on her face. 

“Noooo!” Nancy pleaded. 

“YES!” Summer and Jessica pressed. 

They both pulled Nancy back down onto the beanbag while they situated themselves on either side of her on the floor. Summer then looked up at Astrid and patted the ground indicating for her to join them on the floor. 

Right as Astrid walked over she heard a very delayed creak from the stairs. She instantly knew by then Morty should be in his room by now unless he had stopped to listen in on the girls. She then heard his footsteps quickly pass the door to his room followed by a loud slam of his door shutting. Astrid wanted to laugh but kept it to herself as she joined the girls back on the floor. 

“Okay we can all go in a circle asking the other group members what they’d choose. So like I’ll ask all three of you which you choose, I’ll come up with something for each of you and then it’s the next person’s turn to ask.” She said with mischievous intent. 

“Please you guys….! Don’t make it too bad…” Nancy insisted again but more defeated this time. 

“Uhg fine. I’ll start you off with an easy round Nancy but you better get with it as we play longer!” Summer said rolling her eyes.

“So you three choose! Truth or dare?!” Summer asked arching her eyebrows. 

“Dare!” Jessica said confidently. 

“Truth!” Nancy said covering her face with her hands. 

“Dare.” Astrid said calmly. 

“Ooo, great start! Jessica, I dare you to message Thomas and tell him your waisted! Nancy… oh! NANCY DO YOU LIKE BRAD?! Yes or no?!” Summer screeched. 

Jessica giggled and proceeded to text Thomas exactly as Summer instructed. Nancy’s face quickly turned red as she kept her hands glued to her face. 

“I… umm… I don’t know….. I guess he is pretty cute…” Nancy struggled to let out. 

“GOD WE KNEW IT!” Jessica and Summer both chimed in. 

Everyone proceeded to pass the bottle around again. Just as they were all settling down again Astrid heard a small creak coming from the hall near Morty’s room. He must have gotten curious about the game the girls were playing. But then Astrid’s attention was quickly snapped back to the girls as Summer set her sights on Astrid.

“Okay Astrid. I…. Umm.. DARE you to go snatch another liquor bottle from Rick’s garage without being caught!” She blurted out.

“Uh…you sure? Won’t your grandad get pissed at you if he finds out…?” Astrid checked before getting up to go through with it. 

“Um… yeah. It’ll be fine! If he catches you and gets super mad just blame me. He’ll get annoyed but he knows we’re just having a bit of fun. Worst case scenario he’ll make me do chores for him for a week.” She thought through for a second. 

Astrid got up and rolled her eyes at the door for a second, not wanting to cause more problems causing Rick to dislike her. But she looked over and saw Summer’s curious face. Astrid wondered if this was some kind of test with a deeper meaning. If it was, then of course she had to get on Summer’s good side. That way, no matter how much Rick wanted to bitch about Astrid coming on missions, it wouldn’t matter because Summer and Morty would still want her around. 

“Umm okay….! But y’all need to keep being loud up here so he doesn’t suspect anything weird is going on.” She said trying to cover her reluctance. 

“Yeah yeah! We got it! We will play the next round and you can just catch up once you get back!” Jessica reassured. 

Astrid then turned and opened the door quietly, hearing a shuffling in the hallway, she assumed it was Morty. She closed the door behind her and stood silent for a second until the girls all started chatting loudly again. She looked over towards Morty’s door which she noticed was ajar. She knew this would be the perfect opportunity to get in good with him as well by making him feel included. She knew he wouldn’t question her weird behavior if she didn’t question his. 

“Morty!” She whispered, “I know you’re there, come out for a second.” 

Morty quickly popped his head out shyly with wide eyes expecting to be made fun of. Astrid motioned to him silently to come closer. 

“H-hey Astrid… uh.. I swear I wasn’t like-….” He tried to explain himself but was cut off.

“Morty would you do me a solid and help me with this dare?” She asked plainly and unbothered by his obvious spying. 

“Oh! Uh… yeah! Of course! W-what do y-you need me to do…?” He said now enthusiastic after not being made fun of. 

“Okay so I know this might be asking a lot… but Summer dared me to snatch a bottle from your grandad. Could you maybe distract him away from the garage just long enough for me to get in and out?” Astrid asked in hopes of Morty playing into her plan. 

Morty rubbed his neck awkwardly while thinking and then looked up at Astrid. “Y-yeah… I think I could do that. How long do you need..?” 

“Hmm.. he has those beers in his mini fridge right…? Where does he keep the liquor bottles?” She thought about how long it might take her to find said items. 

“Oh uh, he has some under his work bench in the shelves sometimes… he has a whole liquor room under the garage in the basement lab but you’d need the code for that….” He said hesitantly. 

“Wait…. There is an underground lab under the garage….?” Astrid’s curiosity was peeked, she wanted to grin but acted as if it was no big deal. “Wait- of course he does. Why am I even surprised?” She said waving away the new information. 

“Look, don’t worry about that.” She quickly said to Morty to keep him from feeling uneasy. “I’m not going to ask for the codes. Just distract him long enough for me to check the shelves and we’re good.” She said making up her mind. 

“Okay! I-I got you!” Morty said confidently before rushing down the stairs. 

Astrid quickly followed behind him hiding against the wall in the dining room to wait. 

She heard Morty open the garage door and call out for Rick. But instead of his voice coming from the garage it came from a different part of the house Astrid hadn’t been before. 

“M-Morty! I’m in my room.” He shouted from down the hall. 

Morty quickly ran in the direction of his Grandfather through the dining room, giving a determined nod to Astrid as he passed her. Astrid then slinked over to the garage quickly leaving the door slightly cracked behind her. She went over to Rick’s work bench and started opening shelves. She spotted a single liquor bottle that had fallen over behind a few nondescript boxes and containers of sci-fi junk. She snatched it and closed all the shelves behind her. She pulled it up and noticed the bottle was already half empty. She sighed and decided it would have to do. Astrid then walked over to the door and listened to hear what might be on the other side. She heard Morty stuttering trying to grab Rick’s attention as footsteps got closer to the door. She quickly holds her breath while pressed up against the shelf next to the door, trying to make herself as flat as possible. With a quick jolt the door sprung open and Rick stomped through into the garage right over to his work bench. Morty caught a glimpse of Astrid as he scuffled in behind Rick. His eyes went wide but Astrid held a finger to her lips indicating for Morty to keep quiet and calm. He quickly nodded and rushed over to the other side of Rick near his work bench striking up a loud and distracting conversation. Astrid slipped out quickly just as she heard the two of them start to bicker over the mission they had just gone on. Something about Seahorses and how the men got pregnant…. She shook her head and rushed back up the staircase to Summer’s room. Once inside she presented the bottle to the three girls with an awkward grin. 

“Aww only half…? Eh that’s grandpa for you.” Summer said after being met with the sight. 

“Yeah… honestly Summer, I get that those dares might be fun for you guys but.. I don’t know… I feel like I’m a little too old to be doing stuff like that if you don’t mind.” Astrid said playing with her hair casually in hopes of guiding Summer away from giving her immature dares. 

“Oh right…. Uh sorry Astrid. Sometimes I forget you probably don’t want to do those kinds of things cause they’re stupid…” she said embraced. 

“Hey! It’s okay! Just keep in mind it’s a little weird for me, technically I’m kind of a teacher so I don’t know…. Maybe I’ll stick to truth more in the next few rounds.” 

“Yeah okay! If you do pick dare I’ll think about something more fitting next time.” Summer said feeling more relaxed now that Astrid seemed chill about it.

The girls all continued on with their game. Astrid mostly stuck to choosing “truth” in hopes of not being asked to mess with Rick’s stuff again. But this too quickly made her stick to giving vague information about herself. Such as: 

“First crush!?” Nancy asked shyly. 

“Um… a boy in the same program as me. He gave me my listening earbuds…. He got me really into music I guess you could say….?” Astrid struggled to admit without giving too much information. 

“Program? Like as in when you went to school..?” Summer asked confused. 

“Uh… yeah. Our schooling…” Astrid squeezed out a little white lie that wasn’t exactly inaccurate. 

After a few more rounds of chugging from the bottle and the girls started to get real spicy with their questions. Suddenly it was Astrid’s turn to answer another question truthfully. 

“Who was your last relationship or fling? And how was it?!” Jessica giggled asking Astrid. 

All the girls looked at her curiously wanting to know more about the mysterious life of Astrid. 

“Well… I’m not sure what to call it exactly… “ she awkwardly pondered still feeling the sting of the past situation. 

A creak was heard outside the door of Summer’s room in the hall, Astrid instantly knew Morty had been listening the whole time. She rubbed her face in frustration and decided to get it over with. 

“I guess it was more of a fling…. She was my ex co-worker… Reagan. My agency sent me to partner with their company and so I guess some of her office buddies kind of thought it would be funny to meddle with our relationship… things just got sticky I guess. It’s like weird trying to explain all that… but basically it ended off confusing.” Astrid said while looking up at the ceiling thinking about it. 

“Agency…? Company…? What did you do-?” Nancy asked before being interrupted by Summer.

“YIKES….I totally hear you. You know… that’s honestly how I felt after me and Ethan’s relationship. It just got so messy and confusing… I mean we were both younger and I guess what’s how teen relationships go…?“ Summer rambled on not paying attention in an attempt to relate to Astrid. 

“I remember that! Honestly Summer you were way too good for him anyway. He was kind of a loser.” Jessica input. 

“So I guess it’s my turn to ask you all Truth or Dare?” Astrid hurriedly asked hoping Nancy’s questions would be forgotten about. 

“Okay since we’ve been doing a lot of dares already I guess I’ll choose truth this time!” Summer answered. 

“Not me, I want another Dare!” Jessica quickly replied.

“Um…. I guess since Astrid did a dare she didn’t want to do earlier I’ll choose dare too…” Nancy said having a bit of courage. 

“Oooooo!!” All the girls cooed at her proudly. 

“Okay okay! Hmm… Jessica I dare you to tell us who you have a crush on.” Astrid said thinking of something that seemed pretty simple. 

“Well… I’ve already told Summer but I think her dad Jerry is kinda hot-“ Jessica said in a suggestive tone before Summer interrupted her with a scream. 

“EWWW STOP JESSICA NO!!” She screamed while shoving two pillows against her ears in disgust. 

“Ewww…..!” Both Astrid and Nancy chimed in. 

“Oh whatever!! Obviously both your two moms seem to like him for the same reasons!!” Jessica huffed. 

“Yeah but like….. they’re all adults! You’re way too young!” Astrid said slapping her hand against her forehead in disbelief. 

“Uhg come on! Like… I know that! Calm down old lady!” Jessica defensively joked back at Astrid. 

“Hey! I’m not that old……! I’m probably only a little younger than Jerry!” Astrid laughed while wiggling her eyebrows at Jessica. 

All the girls erupted into laughter as Jessica snatched one of the pillows from Summer. She then playfully started hitting all of them with it. While the laughter died down. Astrid quickly took a peek at the bedroom door and noticed a little shadow underneath it in the hallway. Like she had thought, Morty must have been quietly listening in still.  

“Hey Nancy, I dare you to like a photo on Brad’s instagram. You know his insta don’t you?!” She said with a laugh, thinking about how silly this was. 

“Wait…. What if he thinks I’m creeping on him??” She asked looking back embarrassed. 

“Nancy! Brad has already flirted with you! If he wonders how you found his insta just say it popped up on you recommend accounts.” Summer snickered. 

The girls all silently waited and watched Nancy go to his profile on her phone and like the most recent picture of him backpacking on a hiking trail. 

“See! That wasn’t so bad! Okay let’s keep playing.” Jessica said while turning back to Astrid.

“Anyway…. Okay uh Truth for you right..?” Astrid turned to Summer and asked. 

“Yeah! Ask me anything!” Summer said with a smile. 

“Hmm…. Well…” Astrid thought for a second wondering what she might want to know. “So I’ve kind of figured out the situation between your moms and dad… so then what’s the deal with Rick? Do you have a grandmother…? Are they like divorced or something? I’ve never seen her around…” Astrid asked curiously. 

“Oh grandma…? Honestly I’m not really sure what the back story is…..other than her passing away.” Summer replied. 

“Oh gosh… sorry I didn’t mean to bring up a sore topic….” Astrid said remorsefully. 

“No don’t even sweat! I never knew her. She passed before I was born, I never heard much about it from the family. But it is odd though… even in other dimensions it seems none of the other Ricks have wives either…? I’m sure that’s more secret Rick lore or something.” She said casually wondering. 

“Hu.. weird.” Astrid also pondered. 

“But granddad is always having like raunchy ass flings, believe me. He’s  literally such a dog!” Summer laughed really hard while continuing the conversation. 

“Oh really? I’m guessing he hooks up with a bunch of Alien girls?” Jessica also asked seeming surprised. 

“Not just ladies! Grandpa is like super gay. He’s probably hooked up with every and any type of alien gender that’s even out there! He’s messed with like… aliens, mutants, animal people, planets… uh even a hive mind…” Summer started to list off the ones she knew about. 

“A hive mind…?” Astrid asked suddenly feeling a memory of her own tingling in the back of her head. 

“Oh yeah… um a hive mind is like a thing that takes over multiple brains of alien species kind of… and then they all share a mind and it can communicate and function through all of them…? It would make more sense if you met one I guess… but yeah anyway he hooked up with a hive mind called Unity.” She continued to try and explain. 

“Unity..?” Astrid muttered to herself shocked. 

“Yeah he was such a a dick to it too! Unity was so nice and grandpa just kept using it. Morty and I brought up how wack things were and then things quickly fell apart between them I guess.” Summer continued to go more into details about the failed relationship, however Astrid had already tuned out of the conversation after hearing the name “Unity” . 

Astrid grimaced as an old memory of hers surfaced. Astrid was no longer in Summer’s room with the girls. They now stood stairing down at the metal floor of the agency’s transportation ship as it neared a planet somewhere in space.

“We’re nearing the drop off point!” The ship pilot  shouted back to Astrid as large sliding doors opened at the back of the ship. 

“Got it!” Astrid shouted back and tapped their ear communicator to open a channel to their then handler. 

“I’m nearing the sight.” Astrid copied. 

“Good.” A voice replied through the ear piece. 

“Remember, you’re trying to find out what happened to all our missing agents at the cargo outpost we set up there a few months ago. Keep your cover as a tourist in the village. Keep alert and get back in a timely manner if possible. Make sure to give me updates. I know this is one of your first solo missions, don’t think this is an opportunity to slack off. Do what you need to do to gain trust and information but try to do it as efficiently as possible. If I haven’t heard from you by tomorrow with an update we’ll send in the squad.” The voice ordered. 

“Understood.” Astrid replied before turning the communication button off on their ear piece. 

“Okay we’re at the drop sight! Get going!!” Shouted the pilot. 

“See ya later!” Astrid shouted as they ran toward the open doors at the back of the ship. 

Cueing up one of their favorite alien songs, one their fellow agent Jax had shown them, in their earpiece. Right as the song started to play Astrid leapt from the ship and went soaring down towards the planet through the atmosphere. Their heart raced in excitement for the new mission. They shifted to form black bird like wings once they neared the ground. They then glided on past some simple but beautiful terrain into a forest off to the side of the village. Astrid then gabbed hold of a branch as their wings shifted back into their person. They used the branch to flip themselves and then land on the ground. They looked back up at the sky watching the ship disappear back out past the atmosphere. 

“Astrid?” Summer called again. 

Astrid’s vision focused back on Summer’s face, “Oh, ha! Sorry I zoned out there for a second.” She laughed. 

“We were wondering what was going on.” Jessica said with a smile. 

“You getting tired? I mean it is getting late. Do y’all just want to watch a movie downstairs like last time until we want to go to bed?” Summer asked also getting tired. 

Astrid looked out the window and was surprised to see it was now pitch black outside. She rubbed her head and face while standing up to stretch. The girls all did a variation of the same thing before heading downstairs towards the living room. They all got comfortable in various spots on the couch as Summer flicked on the Tv and changed through various channels. Astrid started to drift back into a daze thinking about that past mission of hers just as Morty came downstairs to try and join them. The siblings started to argue about what to watch. 

“Report!?” The voice demanded in Astrid’s ear piece. 

Astrid jolted up awake from a bed in the local village’s inn. They looked around the room to get their bearings before answering. They quickly recounted what had transpired the previous night. They had gotten roped into partying with the locals and seemed to have made a few new “friendships” as well. 

“I was welcomed into the village as a tourist. The people seemed to have already been celebrating some type of occasion when I showed up. However most of the villagers I interacted with were not sober so I wasn’t able to get solid intel. I was able to get a few names of villagers to further question who might know more about the outpost and previous “tourists” that have come before me. I’ll be perusing that today.” Astrid quickly informed their handler. 

“Good. Keep at it. Report back tomorrow morning.” The voice stated. 

“Understood.” Astrid said as they clicked the earpiece off. 

“Tell him Astrid!!” Summer yelled frustratedly at her. 

“Um….” Astrid snapped back to the present and looked at Summer who had put Morty in a headlock in front of the Tv while the other girls laughed. 

“H-hey!! Stop it Summer!! OW!” Morty squirmed trying to get away. 

“God Morty. Least you could do is not be rude. You’re crashing our girls night.” Jessica snorted. 

“I-I just wanted to watch movies too!” He scrambled to defend himself. 

“Yeah but don’t come in here trying to tell us what we should watch then! If you want to join then shut up and watch!” Summer teased as she let go of Morty and shoved him into the arm chair next to the couch. 

“Yeah I really wanted to watch this movie!” Nancy perked up looking at the screen. 

Astrid shifted on the couch taking in the moment. Summer sat back down on the couch and cued up what looked to be a romance movie. Morty then let out an annoyed sigh before being shushed at angrily by the girls. 

Astrid leaned her head against her hand on the arm rest of the couch trying to pay attention, but that quickly faded. 

“Oh uh…. Gross! I’m so sorry!” The village bar tender said sympathetically to Astrid. “Gosh I’m so sorry about that… some of our regulars get a little too plastered sometimes….here I’ll get you a towel!” He said as he ran to the back room. 

Astrid sat at the bar wiping what looked like vomit off the side of their face and shoulder. They looked down on the ground where a random local laid unconscious on the ground next to them. Moments ago, said local had grabbed Astrid, pried their mouth open, and proceeded to try and vomit into their mouth. Obviously Astrid instantly knocked him unconscious before anything got in. Astrid lifted up their glass and took a swig. They had seen weird shit before but never had someone try to vomit into their mouth like that. 

“Here! Also… next drink is on the house! I hope that’s good compensation after this weird.. misunderstanding.” The bar tender returned and handed Astrid a towel. 

“Uh yeah.. sure. Does this guy do that often…?” Astrid asked while poking the local on the floor with their shoe. 

The bar tender filled up Astrid’s glass again ignoring the question, “You must have an insane liver! You’ve been knocking these back for hours!” He said with a jovial laugh. 

“You think so? If you’d believe it, I actually just started drinking for the first time a few months ago.” Astrid laughed and slammed the drink back quickly. 

“Ahhhh! A real hearty lass!!” Cheered another local coming into the bar with some friends. 

The small group of alien locals all surrounded Astrid at the bar ordering drinks. Astrid noted that there seemed to be three ladies and four men in the group, all smiles and grins, exuding warm and friendly energy. Astrid then remembered these aliens where the ones who had made Astrid join in on the party the night they had landed on planet. 

“Oh hey you guys! Remember me from the other night? You all were so drunk I won’t take it personal if you don’t.” Astrid beamed. 

“Oh that’s right! Hello hon!” One of the women greeted sweetly. 

“You’re not from around here right…? I don’t think we’ve seen you around before other than last night!” Another of the women asked curiously. 

“That’s right! I’m just popping by the planet on my way to visit a friend. I heard some friends of mine came through here a while ago though. I was wondering if any of you might have seen them?” Astrid asked sweetly. 

“Hmm I don’t reckon we have! Then again you might want to go ask Jillion down at the docks. He takes care of boat transport and fishin!” The main gentleman answered heartily. 

“Thanks! I’ll go ask him.” Astrid said setting their glass down and pulling out their wallet. 

“Hey wait! The party just started friend! Why don’t you join us for a few rounds?! We just got here!” One of the other guys chimed in. 

“Well….I…” Astrid hesitated but didn’t want to seem rude. 

“Don’t worry about it! Jillion comes around the bar a little later anyways!” The third woman said with smile. 

“Well, okay. Show me what you got!” Astrid said with a grin. 

Astrid shifted on the couch and looked over to see Summer wiping tears off her face. She then looked over to see the other girls, even Morty, were also all crying while watching the Tv. The main love interest was in the protagonist’s arms dying. Astrid snorted not taking it seriously at all and looked back at the kitchen. 

“Hey Summer, can I snag a soda from the fridge?” Astrid asked. 

“Sure. *sob* oh gosh this movie is so romantic…” She trailed off still glued to the movie. 

Astrid got up and went into the dark kitchen. The kids had turned the lights off for a more “immersive” movie experience. Once alone Astrid sighed while glancing at the garage door. 

“I guess we have a lot more in common than I thought Sanchez….” Astrid murmured to herself while opening the fridge thinking about Unity. 

Astrid thought back to when things really started to get weird on that planet. A couple of days had come and gone in a blur. The towns people sure seemed to like partying. Every morning Astrid would wake up hung over practically forgetting most of the company they had kept while there. This lead to Astrid hooking up with a few of them. After not being able to locate the person called “Jillion” multiple days in a row, Astrid continued on with their report.

“I’m starting to notice a strange pattern with the town’s people. I think I’m on to something.” Astrid concluded to their handler. 

“Fine. But hurry it up. The Agency isn’t going to like how long this is taking. Give me something useful by tomorrow morning or I’m coming in to assist on the mission.” The voice ordered. 

“Understood.” Astrid replied like usual. 

After hanging up Astrid pieced together bits of information they had gathered from their past few drunken days. It was always the same. Astrid would wake up, give their report and head into town to get breakfast. After wandering around town for a bit in an attempt to snoop, they would always be intercepted by town’s members seemingly welcoming Astrid to join them in celebration. For what celebration? The answer would always be vague. Like: “good harvest”, “a beautiful day”, a “great bounty” after a hunt, so on and so on. Astrid would then always end up at the bar plastered with the same group of “friends”.  Which then normally lead to a quick drunken hook up. But then Astrid had another one of the locals try to vomit in their mouth again last night. Astrid jolted out of bed and rushed to the Inn room window. 

“Why would two different individuals try to vomit in my mouth….? The bar tender acted embarrassed for me but what did he say it was when he offered me a free drink….? A… misunderstanding….? Misunderstanding of what..?” Astrid rubbed their temples. 

Astrid even started to remember how in some conversation with individuals they seemed to know things that had never been talked about between the two of them. Astrid pondered this harder. It wasn’t like mind reading, it’s not like they knew things Astrid had never said before. But it was like they knew things Astrid had spoken about with other towns members about. How did they all do that? How could they discuss Astrid while right in front of them? Then a blurry memory of the hook up they had last night surfaced, remembering it made Astrid uneasy. They remembered being in the local’s bedroom and looking at some type of forest animal just watching them in the middle of sex. But any time eye contact was made the creature would always look away or continue on with munching on leaves. But the eye contact felt too sentient for Astrid’s liking. An eerie feeling creeped down Astrid’s spine. 

The day had come and gone, it was already night time again and Astrid had been chumming it up with the usual group of villager “friends”. Except this time Astrid had been cleverly making sure all of them had been drinking so much that they must have been black out drunk by now. Astrid would make sure none of the friends noticed when pouring any alcohol from their glass into others’. However the bar tender seemed to keep asking Astrid if they wanted another drink. A bit too often… Astrid then pretended to be too drunk to stand while trying to get up to go to the bathroom. Motioning to the bartender for help knowing the friends were all to trashed to stand themselves. The bar tender left from behind the bar and let Astrid lean on him as they hobbled around the corner behind the bar to the bathrooms. 

“Ha!! Thanks…. I’m s-sorry I’m such a m-mess.. I’m sure y-you have to do this toooo much w-with how rowdy your crowd gets!” Astrid blubbered on with a shy smile. 

“It’s no problem really…. You’re pretty cute…It’s been a while since I’ve seen strangers come in to town… I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself here with us.” He said nervously still helping her down the hall. 

“Awww you’re sweet… all of you are sooooo sweeeet!” Astrid giggled and stumbled a bit causing them to bump up against the wall. 

“I’m actually pretty surprised… you didn’t even drink that much tonight compared to other nights.. but you seem so hammered. Did we really wear you down finally?” He joked awkwardly.  

“Oh you noticed…?” Astrid drunkenly looked up at him with sad eyes. “You see… I’m not actually on vacation…” Astrid said in a pained voice. 

He looked down at them in worried surprise. “Wait… then why are you here? You’re not looking for your friends?” He asked searching Astrid’s face. 

“No.. you see.. I- I’m looking for my partner… we had just gotten m-married but she came here for work and then never- never came back…” Astrid started to sob. 

Astrid continued to sob while looking up at him and noticed a huge look of guilt written across his face. They then shoved their face into his chest and sobbed some more. He patted Astrid’s head and mumbled, 

“I’m so sorry hon…” he said continuing to hold on. “Here, let’s get you some tissues from the bathroom.” He pulled her into the restroom and sat them down on a side table next to a vase with flowers in it. 

Astrid took the tissues he handed them and blotted their eyes. They then looked up to see that the bathroom door had just shut behind the two of them. 

“Oh I was meaning to ask…. W-Why did you think I was looking for my friends…?” Astrid asked still sobbing a little. 

“Oh I uh… must have overheard you in the bar the other day talking about it.” He said casually. 

“R-right.. duh..” Astrid said putting their hands in their face. 

“Hey hey! Don’t cry…” he said putting his fingers under their chin and pulling their face up close to his. 

He looked down at Astrid with sad eyes as well. Astrid met his gaze with large hurt eyes. 

“I don’t know why I keep fucking up…. But I wished I could make that pain go away….” He muttered softly to them. 

“Oh by vomiting in my mouth?” Astrid said stone cold sober, their eyes switching to cold reptilian looking slits. 

“W-what the…what are you?!” He recoiled away slamming into the opposite bathroom wall. 

Astrid heard a few glasses shatter from the main bar area right after his reaction. 

Astrid lunged at him, pinning him tightly against the wall by his throat. They let out a laugh and got up close in his face, many of their teeth turned sharp and animal like. 

“Nice try.” Astrid said with a smile before knocking him unconscious. 

Astrid quickly picked up the flower vase and smashed it on the floor next to him. They shifted back to how they looked before and proceeded to stumble out of the bathroom still pretending to be drunk. 

“Let’s see where this goes…” Astrid mumbled to themself with a hunch before coming back into the main section of the bar. 

“Uh- um help!! I w-was stumbling and the b-bar tender had a vase h-hit him on the h-head…!” She breathed out harshly still keeping up the act. 

Astrid looked up to be met with the sight of everyone in the bar staring back terrified not wanting to move a single inch closer. Instantly Astrid realized they all knew what had actually happened in the bathroom so they dropped the act. They’re eyes changing to demonic black pools. They then snatched the nearest person in the bar by their hair. In a flash they held a laser gun to the hostage’s head and looked at the crowd with a smile. 

“Wait!!” They all said panicked in eerie unison. 

Astrid stood there for a second and thought about something they had learned in passing at the Agency, a life form known as a hive mind. But in all honesty Astrid had never considered they might actually meet one in real life so soon into their first few missions. 

“Oh so this is what this is….. you’re a hive mind…?” They asked it. 

“Yes.” They all answered back scared. 

“So you’re the reason our agents went missing…?” Astrid asked curiously. 

“Yes… I did not realize your agency would send in a being like you….” One of the women in the crowd stepped forward and answered. 

“Well you got our attention alright.” Astrid said while quickly tapping the button on their ear piece. 

“Reporting. Seems like the whole town is infested with a hive mind.” Astrid reported to their handler. 

“No! Please!” The whole group in the bar lunged at Astrid. 

A shot rang out and the hostage fell to the floor dead, the whole crowd grimaced in pain for a second as the handler’s reply came back over the earpiece, 

“Exterminate it.” The voice ordered. 

“Understood.” Astrid said with a wicked smile as a full on bar fight broke out between themself and the hive mind.. 

“M-Morty!!” Rick shouted drunkenly from the garage causing Astrid to snap out of it. 

She closed the fridge quickly after picking up a sprite. Morty then entered the kitchen and looked at Astrid in the dark, 

“Y-You okay Astrid…?” He asked a little weirded out seeing the look on her face while just standing alone in the kitchen. 

“Oops ya caught me zoning out again, my bad.” She said with a smile. 

“Ha- n-no worries… I’m just going to uh…” he said awkwardly scooting by her towards the garage. 

“Sorry, excuse me.” Astrid said moving out of the way for him and then returning back into the den. 

Once arriving she saw the movie credits were rolling and the girls were rubbing their eyes from tears.

“That was heart breaking.” Nancy said with a sniff as she was curled up in a ball. 

“That made me so sad I just want to go to bed now!” Jessica sobbed out. 

“Uhg me too!” Summer sniffled and rubbed her nose. 

“Aww you all going to retreat so soon?” Astrid asked while sitting back down on the couch. 

“Honestly… yeah I think I’m going to go lay down…” Nancy said defeated while leaving to go upstairs. 

“I’m ganna go check on her.” Jessica said before getting up to leave as well. 

“I’m guessing you’re having a second wind? Your night owl status creeping back up?” Summer said trying to joke to make herself feel better. 

“How’d you know?” Astrid asked while playfully arching her eyebrow at Summer. 

“Well.. definitely feel free to hang out and watch whatever you want…sorry if the movie wasn’t really your thing… you seemed pretty bored.” She replied. 

“Eh don’t worry about it. I’ve just had my fair share of heartbreaks so I’m not as fazed by sad romance I guess.” Astrid said just as another memory surfaced. 

“P-please! Don’t kill me..! I’ll do whatever you want!! Please!” The last living villagers gasped out as Astrid proceeded to choke her to death in the bar. 

Everyone had quickly been slaughtered by Astrid within minutes after being given the order to exterminate. They sighed looking down at the lady, they had to make sure this was the only one left. So Astrid let go and tossed the woman against the bar hard, causing her back and head to make a loud cracking noise. 

“Ah!!” She screamed out in pain. 

Astrid quickly grabbed a fork with one hand and the woman’s throat with their other hand. They pressed them painfully against the bar top, making the lady gasp for air. 

“Tell me, is there any of yourself left in the village?” Astrid asked calmly as if asking about the weather. 

“I thought we were becoming friends…!” She whimpered out. 

“I’m sure that’s what you wanted me to think.” Astrid said emotionlessly pressing the dull fork up to her neck. 

“No! It’s true I tried to assimilate you.. twice…. But after that I realized I couldn’t!! All of tonight I was trying to figure out a way to tell you so I tried to get you drunk.. I was nervous you might freak out!” She insisted. 

“Tell me if there is anyone else left first. Then I’ll humor your charade.” They replied plainly pressing down with the fork already creating bruises on her neck. 

The hive mind host wheezed as tears fell down her face, “p-please! Please….. it’s just this host and the unconscious one in the bathroom. Please hear me out!” She grimaced. 

Astrid dragged her to the bathroom and threw her against one of the stalls. They then locked the door behind them. The woman host coward against the stall coverings her face. Astrid crouched over the unconscious male host on the floor holding out the dull fork above him.

“Okay let’s see how earnest you are.” Astrid looked up at the woman with a grin. “So where is the rest of you?” They asked while slamming the fork down through the male host’s hand. 

The woman screamed out it pain as the male also let out an unconscious yelp and whimper. 

“I’m sorry!! I’m sorry! Please…..!” She gasped. 

Astrid tilted their head up and waited. Astrid’s black emotionless eyes staring through the woman. She looked up at them, eyes full of tears. 

“There is a few more of me sleeping in a hidden cellar in town… some of them are probably your fellow agents! I kept them hidden while you were here!” She insisted. 

“Ah so there it is. You’re going to try to blackmail me into getting them back from your assimilation is that it?” Astrid annoyedly grinned back. 

“No….” She looked down at her feet. “I’ll bring them to you… I’ll reverse the assimilation.” 

“You know that’s not going to be enough. I need all of the other yous. Even the non agent ones.” Astrid smiled back sarcastically. 

“I know… you can have them. I won’t hide them from you anymore… I know you need to prove you fully got rid of me in town…. But please just let one host slip away…. Please?” She crawled forward a little towards Astrid keeping her head down. 

“You really think I’m going to fall for this?” Astrid laughed. “My Agency told me to exterminate the hive mind. Not to extract my fellow agents.”  They replied plainly with a casual look. 

The woman host started to shake in fear, “please… I’m new to being a hive… I didn’t even know there was anything outside of myself and random organisms…. I didn’t even know there were beings besides my own species that couldn’t be assimilated… “ she begged. 

“Well I guess natural selection has brought you to me then.” Astrid said playfully. 

“I remember! I remember all the things you said when you were drunk…. I saw how sad you were.. something horrible happened to you Astrid! That’s why I wanted to make it go away by having you assimilate… I could have made all of it stop!” She sobbed. 

Something felt like it was cracking inside Astrid, what did she even mean by that….? Sad? Sad about what…? Something horrible..? What the hell was she going on about? But that cracking started to feel more painful. 

“What do you know?!” They stood up, “You’ve never even known pain until this night!” Astrid roared back, smashing the male’s skull under their heel. 

“Aaahhhh!!!” The lady wailed in agony. 

“Come on, you’re going to let me clean up your mess!” Astrid dragged her out of the bathroom and out of the bar. 

“I’m sorry to hear that….” Summer said with an awkward sigh. “But thanks for wanting to hang out still. I’m glad we’re becoming good friends.” Summer said with a smile. 

Astrid felt a slight pain in her heart after hearing Summer say that, “I’m glad we are friends too Summer.” She smiled back. 

“Also sorry if Morty or Grandpa get loud or annoying… they tend to be night owls too. Just come up and hang out in the room and do whatever you want if they start being too much. The girls and I are heavily sleepers so you won’t bug us like those nimrods do in the garage.” Summer stated. 

“Okay I’ll keep that in mind!” Astrid whispered back playfully. 

“Night!” Summer jokingly whispered back to her. 

“Night!” Astrid copied. 

She then slouched back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling after Summer left. 

She nervously hummed to herself softly while recounted the last part of the mission from forever ago.

“Any more sweet lies you want to tell me in hopes I’ll let you go?” Astrid turned back to look at the woman host on the ground. 

The woman looked up at Astrid’s arm that had transformed into a blade, dripping with blood. She looked on behind their legs and saw scattered dead bodies and the house with a hidden cellar was on fire. 

“No. I just want to get some things off my chest before you kill me…” she said tiredly from the pain or losing all the other hosts. 

“Ohh. Do tell.” Astrid grinned. 

“I never personally felt what falling in love was like…. I just could remember through my various hosts what love had felt like to them.” She stated. 

“Ah so your the sentimental type.” Astrid joked. 

“Yeah.. I guess I am… even through your new to drinking you sure don’t seem new to killing…I’m guessing you’ve done this whole rodeo too many times by now…” she stated again. 

“Yep. I’ve seen all the tricks life forms try to pull when wanting to survive.” They admitted. 

“There is one thing I want to experience before I die.” She said struggling to stand up in front of Astrid. 

“Oh yeah?” Astrid grinned anticipating it was going to be a tactic they’d already seen before. 

“Kissing someone I have feelings for.” She said softly as she grabbed Astrid’s hand and pulled in towards them. 

As their lips met, Astrid’s eyes went wide in surprise. Just as they were about to pull away they noticed their arm wasn’t moving like normal. They looked down to see the woman had shoved their blade arm right through her abdomen. 

“Wait- No!” Astrid breathed out in shock feeling as if they had been tricked somehow. 

“Ha! I guess I win….I pulled a trick you haven’t seen before.” She whispered while collapsing into the ground. 

“No! ….no! No this isn’t how it was supposed to….” Astrid clumsily grabbed at her to keep her head from dropping.

“I’m glad I got to meet you Astrid.” She said weakly. 

“Your name!! What’s your name..?!” Astrid started to tear up. “Or does your species do that kind of thing…?” Astrid shook the woman awake. 

“I’m Unity…” she replied faintly before slipping into unconsciousness. 

When she woke, she saw Astrid sitting next to her on the inn bed. She patted her stomach in surprise realizing she wasn’t dead and that there wasn’t even a scar left. 

“I’m alive-?” She questioned before she felt a gun pressed to the side of her head. 

“You’re going to leave far away from here. If you ever assimilate another agency member you better kill them and then run far FAR away from where you found them. If I ever catch wind that you’re causing issues for me again I will destroy you. No amount of space will hide you from my grasp.” Astrid looked at her with red glowing eyes. 

“But if you’re letting me live why can’t I see you sometime-?” She earnestly asked before being cut off. 

“Don’t you get it?! I never want to see your faces again. You’ll only cause me problems. If I even hear a rumor about you surfacing near me I will hunt you down and put and end to this clear mistake I am making now.” They hissed. 

“Astrid… I want to be with you really….” She teared up. 

“I don’t care. I’m leaving. You’re leaving. We will act like none of this ever happened.” They said standing up and going to the door. 

“Astrid….please..” Unity asked one more time. 

“I’m sorry.” Astrid replied before disappearing. 

Astrid looked up from the couch just as Morty ran from the kitchen back upstairs muttering to himself angrily, 

“I can’t fucking believe this… stupid old man.” He said storming to his bedroom followed by a loud slam of his door. 

“M-Morty…! Come on….morty!” A tipsy Rick stumbled into the den holding a bottle. 

“Had enough already…?” Astrid joked craning her head back to look at him. 

“Oh it’s y-you.” He mumbled and swayed back and forth a little in the kitchen doorway. 

“Y-yeah it’s me.” She mocked copying his drunken speech. 

“H-hey! I…. I don’t have to t-take this!” He said annoyed turning to leave. 

“Wait. I’m just fucking with you. Want to smoke…? It’ll probably make you feel better.” Astrid asked pulling out her bowl. 

Rick whipped his head around making that puckered face while scrunching his eyebrows at her. He then turned back around, 

“T-this some kind of joke o-or…?” He asked suspiciously. 

Astrid rolled her eyes and got up, sliding the patio doors open and motioned for him to come outside.

“Come on old man, not everything is a trap.” She said with a grumpy tone while sparking up. 

“Y-yeah yeah. Fine.” He said while stumbling outside to join her. 

She passed him the bowl and he clumsily tried to light it. She then snatched the lighter from him and sparked it instead. 

“I’m not a baby…. T-thanks through..*COUGH*” he tried defending himself but started to cough profusely. 

He hit the bowl a few more times and then swayed a little and stumbled back, sitting himself in one of the lawn chairs. He stared up at the sky quizzically then back at Astrid. 

“H-hey… this isn’t Earth w-weed…!” He whispered at her loudly now starting to feeling it. 

“Oops ya caught me.” Astrid said sarcastically lighting up the bowl. 

—- PART SIX COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch5. The Vat

(Tags: drinking/violence/light gore)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #5 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

Somewhere in space,

“O-Oh seems s-simple enough.” Morty said with a shy grin looking toward Astrid.

“Y-yeah. Simple enough, survive a carnivorous plant jungle a-and get out with everything intact.” Rick stated as Morty’s face puckered not knowing how to respond after that.

“Come on Grandpa, stop trying to scare Astrid. She proved herself last adventure.” Summer said with a huff from the back seat of the ship. 

“Yeah yeah. We’ll see how she handles this one.” He said with a grunt while nearing the Jungle planet’s atmosphere. 

Astrid sat relaxed in the back next to Summer silently taking in the sights all around them. They glided through thick dense jungle and slowly started to weave around trees and other plants until they found a spot to land. Once out of the ship, Rick tossed all of them laser hand guns this time and then looked down at Astrid. 

“I take it you still have my hunting knife from last time?” He said a little annoyed. 

“Right, I figured it wasn’t a big deal… I mean if it was, I figured you already know where I work.” She said with a cheeky grin. 

“Next time ASK.” He said with a huff as he turned around and headed into the jungle. 

The siblings and Astrid followed close behind him making sure not to lose sight, it was so densely covered in plants you could blink and  get lost. They continued on into the jungle for quite a bit, climbing, dodging and maneuvering around giant roots and leaves. The deeper into the wilderness the more apparent the dangers became. From small to massive bugs, they all started to swarm nearby water pools and plenty of creepy crawlers scattered about on the jungle floor. Still the group trucked on deeper into the thick of it. The noise of nature around them became deafeningly loud. Suddenly one of the large alien bugs flew right towards Morty’s face as he let out a squeal. Astrid’s muscle memory kicked in and shot the bug out of the air before it could make contact with his face. He let out a sigh of relief and gave her a smile. 

“Nice reflex.” Summer said continuing to climb over roots. 

“Growing up as a hunter comes in handy I guess.” Astrid said humbly in reply. 

“Hopefully y-you didn’t go hunting with a hand gun.” Rick said, giving Astrid a bitter glance. 

While out in the woods Astrid kept seeing some dark silhouettes randomly out of the corners of her eyes, weird beings stood just along the tree line as they got deeper in. She pipes up and asks Rick, 

“Are there any other apex predators on this planet besides the carnivorous plants and bugs…?” She asked suspiciously eyeing her surroundings. 

“Uh… this planet only ever had one small food chain…so no.” He said while giving her a funny look noticing her paranoia. 

Astrid started to feel a little weird after his reply but decided to keep it to herself and continued on with them through the underbrush. As they got deeper and deeper towards the center of the jungle the humidity and dampness increased. Rustling and slithering noises started to stir up more as well when suddenly both Summer and Morty were pulled under the underbrush as they both let out two screams in reply, 

“AAAHHH GRANPA RICK!!”

“R-RICK!! ASTRID!!” 

Astrid quickly morphed her eyes into a different species’ that saw heat signatures. She did this discretely as to not let Rick notice. She saw the two siblings being dragged far away by what must have been plant vines. She quickly morphed back to normal and looked over to Rick at her side who was already shooting at vines that had tried to grab him. 

“UHHGG!” He grunted while shooting through a few of the vines that had wrapped their way around his legs. 

Astrid looked down and saw some were creeping towards her as well and shot them before they could make contact. She then continued shooting any that came near both her and Rick. Once Rick had freed himself he pulled out a little device and threw it on the ground. It sent out scans and then beeped when it was ready, frying any near by vines. 

“Nice! That’s going to make things a lot easier.” Astrid replied positively. 

“Yeah well this will only get the outer vines. This species’ thicker roots won’t fry that easy.” he said as her pulled out his flask and took a sip. “Let’s get a move on and find where they dragged the kids.” 

They rushed ahead in the direction the vines had taken them. Astrid assumed Rick also knew it was the right way from his scanners. They then slowed down as they came up to what looked like a massive bundle of various dead and alive creatures all wrapped up in vines. Even some various looking wrecked space ships and parts were tangled in as well. A massive pink flower with razor teeth lining its petals devoured nearby corpses of various bugs and stranded aliens near the bundle. 

“Oh wow that’s what they look like? They are really pretty.” Astrid said referring to the carnivorous flower. 

“What the hell- Where you traumatized as a child or something?! Why are you so calm right now?!” Rick spat out at her in disbelief. 

“Jeez Rick! You can’t just say something like that to someone! Y-you know that’s insensitive!” Morty quickly interrupted Rick. 

They both quickly looked up to see Morty wrapped up in the vines above them in the trees. 

“Your guys’ FRIEND is acting ABNORMAL.” He whisper yelled, “You think a regular teacher’s assistant is like this? Yeah I’M being SO insensitive.” Rick hissed back at Morty.

“Omg grandpa, if you were a teacher you’d probably torture high school students. And so what if she’s not freaking out? Just means she’s bad ass.” Summer said with a bit of attitude also hanging from some vines a few trees over from Morty. 

“Aw, thanks Summer.” Astrid said whispering back with a smile. 

Are you two stupid-“ Rick got cut short as the carnivorous plant reared its head back and roared at them. 

“Oops.” Astrid said as it came barreling towards her and Rick. 

Rick then quickly grabbed Astrid and then tossed her into a nearby hole in one of the trees. Rick then jumped in behind her, slamming against her barely getting away from the flower as it tried to chomp down on his legs. The flower slammed up against the large tree not being able to get through the small hole. He then quickly tossed the gadget he had used before on the vines out. This fried the vines the flower had tried to send in the hole after them. The plant let out another frustrated roar after not catching them but went back to eating on the corpses from before. 

“Okay we’re safe for now…” he said while staring out the hole keeping an eye on the plant. 

Astrid shifted her weight trying to adjust after Rick had slammed into her. He noticed and scooted back giving her as much room as he could. But due to how small the space was they still sat huddled down pressed up against each other. He then looked at her for a second seeming to calculate something in his head. 

“What..? You got an idea?” She asked looking up at him. 

He stayed quiet and then looked back out at the creature, “Y-you really do seem too calm in these situations for being just a normal Earth woman.” He said to her while still keeping an eye on the flower. 

Astrid laughed and rolled her eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows and whipped his head back to face her again. 

“Don’t give me that attitude! I know something is up with you!” He hissed at her. 

She casually avoided eye contact and stayed silent. He then looked back out of the hole to see Morty and Summer had both managed to loosen the grips on the vines wrapping around them. They made eye contact with Rick. 

“Try to climb down without it noticing. Don’t move too fast or it will feel you escaping!” He whispered loudly to them. “Astrid and I will make a distraction.” 

“What’s  the plan?” She asked earnestly. 

“Okay, I’ll bite…. Let’s see where this goes” Rick murmured to himself, not referring to the situation but rather how he felt his suspensions towards Astrid. 

“Hu?” She said confused not quite hearing what he had said. 

“I said- Just follow me! Copy what I do.” He said handing her some small marble like orbs and then jumping out of the tree and v lining towards the vine cluster right as Summer’s foot slipped while climbing away from the flower. 

The monstrous flower noticed the tug on its vine from Summer’s squirming to get her footing. 

It reared back and was about to snap forward. 

Astrid shot after Rick. She looked over noticing Morty now had gotten free and jumped down to the ground next to them. She handed him some of the orbs too. He quickly caught on and mirrored his grandpa running towards the plant. 

“TOSS THEM!” Rick yelled as he threw his orbs at the vine cluster. 

They all did, upon impact all the vines and its inhabitants froze over. Rick pulled out his laser and aimed to shoot at the now frozen cluster. But suddenly his laser holding hand found itself in the giant mouth of the carnivorous flower. 

“AAAHG! F-FUCK OFF YOU OVER GLORIFIED FLY TRAP!” he angrily yelled at it while struggling to free himself. 

A laser slammed into the flowers face from Astrid’s gun causing it to release Rick. She then quickly shot down all the vines that were flying towards them one after the other. 

“How the hell did you get so good at that?!” He asked momentarily taken aback. 

“I’ve already told you!” She yelled back before shooting one last shot into the ice cluster Rick had been originally going after. 

Instantly the thousands of frozen vines shattered into chunks sending the plant into fits of flailing and screaming. Summer now safe hoped down and joined them. 

“Holy shit. Nice.” She said looking at the flower writhing around in pain on the jungle floor. 

“Stay alert! We aren’t done yet.” Rick narrowed his eyes at the flower as he quickly fixed his mangled hand. 

They all readied themselves, lasers at the ready. He pulled out a vial full of dark looking liquid. And popped oven the cork. He gave a glance to all of them. 

“W-watch yourselves. It’s going to be pissed. Keep away from its mouth but keep shooting it. It won’t cause much damage but it’ll sting. K-Keep it distracted while I go pour this on its roots. This will kill it by dissolving them.” He barked out giving the order. 

The kids glanced at Astrid and she glanced back at them all determined. They lept forward towards it sending out shots right in a row. The flower lashed out with is budding face attempting to snap at them with its razor teeth. 

Rick ran in and slid down on the ground to the side of it still gripping the vial. Right as he was about to pour the substance onto the roots the plant v lined over to Morty and scooped him up in its mouth. The base of its stem bent over and whacked Rick straight in the face sending the vial flying out of his hand. 

“FUCK! MORTY!” He screamed. 

Astrid tumbled and snatched the vial before hitting the ground making sure not to drop any of the liquid. After landing she slid across the ground towards Rick next to the roots. Summer in turn jumped up and lasered the plant in the face causing its petals to open wide momentarily showing Morty in the back of its throat whining. Rick sent out his robot arm to snatch Morty out of its mouth. As Morty went flying by Astrid while squealing she tossed the liquid onto the roots before the flower could react to anything else. The roots instantly started to dissolve as the Flower let out one more dying screech. Summer, quick on her feet, jumped backwards right as its massive head fell to the ground right where she had been standing. They all breathed a sigh of relief and brushed themselves off. 

Rick walked over to the dead flower and lasered its head open reveling a little pollen sack inside. He plucked it out of the petals and then started punching in commands on his robot arm. It scanned the pollen and then a loading screen popped up stating “READY”. 

“Perfect. Now we have this.” He stated. 

“W-what’s that ganna do…?” Morty asked curiously. 

“Well we can spray them with this-“ Rick interrupted himself after a cloud of the spray hit him in the face from this arm. 

“GRANDPA?!” Summer yelled out shocked. 

Rick then collapsed to the ground and started coughing and wheezing. His eyes had turned red and he started to look like he was convulsing on the ground. Both the siblings started screaming and yelling in fear while huddling over his body. Summer frantically searched his lab coat for an antidote or a poison neutralizer. 

“R-Rick!! Where is it?! Where did you stash the neutralizer?!” Morty screamed. 

*HAACK* *HUACK* “M-m-Morty…!” He chocked, “I’m-I’m fucking- *COUGH* *COUGH* “DYING MORTY!” He writhed around and gripped his chest. 

Astrid stood there staring blankly at them all on the ground silently. Summer noticed and yelled at her, 

“Astrid!! What are you doing?! Come help us!!” She said panicked. 

“Summer… he’s faking.” She said with a snort. 

“W-w-what..?” Morty asked confused and looked down at his grandfather’s closed eyes as he lay limp on the ground. 

Rick peeked out of one of his shut eyes at her and then a big grin spread across his face. He quickly sat up and started laughing. His eyes still extremely red. 

“WHAT T-THE HELL RICK?!” Morty yelled as she shoved him in anger. 

“Jesus Christ Grand dad… why would you do that?!” Summer stood up and crossed her arms looking down at him. 

“Holy shit! You should have seen the looks on your faces!” Rick continued to laugh. 

Both the siblings were now standing looking at him completely unamused as he continued. 

“Both of you are so gullible! Like HOW do you think she knew that?!” He said gesturing at Astrid. 

Astrid stood there with a loss of words for a second but then defended herself, “I could just tell he was faking… I mean…odds are that the pollen wouldn’t be poisonous right? It’s not like the plants would try to poison their own species right? They need to pollinate to make more!” 

“Well even if you DID assume that… it is poisonous to other species like me… just not in a lethal way. I-It gets you super high.” He said with a grin while rubbing his still red eyes. 

The siblings and Astrid all scoffed in annoyance. 

“Fine. Fine! Jeez it was just a joke guys. D-Don’t get your collective panties in a twist.” He said finally standing up and going back to calculating on his robot arm. “We can spray this around us as we try to get to their species’s root core in the middle of the jungle. They will think we are one of their kind so we won’t keep getting bothered. However they may or may not try to mate with us though.” He explained. 

“Ew gross.” Summer said thinking about the last part. 

“Yeah… that doesn’t really sound like the problem is solved…” Morty said uncomfortably. 

“S-stop whining. We’ll be fine. Let’s keep this up.” He barked as he sprayed them all in the pollen and around the areas they continued to walk in. 

After coughing a bit their eyes turned red. The harshness wore off at they collectively got high. Astrid rubbed her eyes as she started to notice a red hue came over her vision making the jungle around them look more pink and hazy. She looked at the Smiths and suddenly felt extremely relaxed and happy-go-lucky. 

She caught a mischievous grin slide onto Rick’s face as he gave her a passing glance back while maneuver through the jungle ahead. This made her wonder what he was up to. 

After about an hour and a half of them avoiding horny flower creatures they came up to a pit full of vines and roots all coming from what looked like a massive glowing seed halfway in the ground. 

“Here it is!” Rick said cheerfully as he scurried down to it in the pit. 

He pressed two buttons on his robot arms and pulled the seed right out of the ground ripping it from its roots. A collective shriek was heard echoing throughout every part of the jungle sound them. Suddenly all the vines connecting the carnivorous species shriveled up and died. 

Rick let out a triumphant sigh, 

“This is going to work just great for my special protein powered.” He said cockily. “Good thing they were and invasive species!”

Rick then sent out the signals to the ship to find their location so they could leave. They all sat down and rested in the pit at they waited for the ship to arrive. Astrid caught Rick eyeing her with the same expression from earlier. Right as she was going to say something the ship landed next to them. They all piled in and took off. 

Once they had gotten back to Earth Astrid noticed a big vat full of some type of green substance had risen out of the Smith’s front yard. She turned to look at the still red eyed Rick in the rear view mirror. He looked back at her with a shit eating grin. 

“O-okay. You’ve proven to me you can help keep the kids safe. But let’s see which one of them you really care about!” He yelled and slammed his hand down on a button. 

As the ship was lowering down closer to the yard, the glass covering of the ship opened up and two metal arms grabbed the two siblings from the ship. Morty eyed the vat and started to scream out, 

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Not the vat of f-“ his mouth was quickly covered and muffled by the robot arm as is snaked its way over his face keeping him silent. 

Summer squirming against the metal arm holding her while glaring daggers at Rick, “YOURE JOKING RIGHT GRANDPA?! IS THAT A VAT OF ACID?!” 

The arms then suddenly dropped the two siblings sending them straight for the vat. Astrid scrambled from the back seat and jumped off the side of the ship towards them. 

In her head she heard a voice say, “silly old man.” 

As she fell she grabbed hold of one of the ship’s metal arms and dragged it down with her. Both siblings screamed up at her as they fell. Rick quickly leaned over the side of the ship to watch what Astrid would do. As she plummeted closer to Summer she reached out and grabbed her, tying the metal arm around summer and then barrel rolling so that it would still keep her from falling even if it tried to release her again. Rick laughed and started to yell, 

“I FUCKING KNEW IT-“ but he was cut off in surprise as Astrid let go of the arm now that Summer was safe. 

He watched as she kicked off of the arm using it to speed up her fall towards Morty snatching him up and throwing him off to the side away from the vat just before she went splashing in. Now submerged she floated for a second motionless looking around in the vat. Nothing happened…. Just like she had thought. She swam to the surface and took a breath of air looking up at Sanchez who was now on the ground with the ship and the kids. 

“Rick! This pissing match between you and our friend needs to stop! Like what the hell!?” Summer yelled at him pissed. 

“I was hoping it was going to be fake.” Astrid said kind of annoyed as well. 

Rick scoffed and turned to open the garage clearly ignoring Morty also yelling at him about his annoyance for the vat of fake acid bit. While Astrid swam to the side of the vat and climbed out she thought about how “pranks” like these reminded her of the Cognito Inc. crew. She found herself standing on the lawn in silence thinking about the old days with them. 

“Uh… Astrid…? A-are you okay….?” Morty peaked back out of the garage at her worried. “Did Rick really scare you that time?” 

Astrid looked up at him trying to hide the sadness in her eyes, “I’m good Morty… just had to let my body catch up with my thoughts for a second.” She said trying to reassure him. 

“Well….. thanks Astrid. It means a lot to me that you’d still go out of your way to save both of us and not just Summer..” he said thinking about the time his mother had chosen to save Summer over him in a previous adventure. 

Astrid could almost tell what Morty was thinking about and tried to cheer him up, “Morty, there is no way I’d let something bad happen to you if I could help it. I care about both you and your sister.” She said truthfully. 

She caught what looked like tears forming in his eyes right before he turned away, “thanks….. let’s go inside!” He said trying to sound optimistic. 

Once in the garage they see Rick going to his mini fridge to pull out a beer. Summer stood to the side of him with her arms crossed looking sour. 

“That was so uncalled for!” Summer bitched at him as he drank from the can. 

“Come on Sumsum it was just a gag! Besides aren’t you glad now knowing your friend would sacrifice herself for you?” He said in a chill voice before letting out a burp. 

“I mean.. I guess but that’s still wack. Why do you always have to scare Morty and I like that?” She huffed. 

Rick turned to Astrid and asked, “Y-you want a beer?” 

Astrid arched her brow at him suspicious of his now relaxed and carefree mood. 

“Uh sure I guess?” She replied as he tossed her one. 

He then grabbed a case of beer and a bottle of liquor and said, “Feel like watching some interdimensional cable?”

“Sure” Morty said passively annoyed as Summer also replied, “Yeah, okay.” As they all went in to set in the living room. 

A few hours had gone by, both Rick and Astrid had drank all alcohol he had brought in with them. Buzzed Rick decided then to get more from the garage. Summer then looks over to Astrid in the couch and made the comment that she was hungry and asked, 

“You want anything?” so they both went to the kitchen to look around while Morty just continued to chill and to watch tv. 

Summer popped a pizza in the oven and then gave out a panicked: “holy shit I forgot to do my homework. Give me like….. 30mins or something I’ll be back!” And runs upstairs. 

A soft thud and Rick’s groan came from the garage. Astrid peaks in and asks, 

“You okay..?” 

She sees him standing with two liquor bottles in each hand and a fallen box from the metal shelf next to the door. 

“Just b-bumped in-into something, it’s fine.” He replies tipsy. 

She looks down and sees one of the liquor bottles he was holding was already half empty. She picks up the box and puts it back on the shelf as he kind of backs over to his work bench setting the bottles down. As he leans up against it  he asks, 

“ Y-you up for some-some more? *burp*” 

She sat down on his wheely stool and takes a few chugs and then sets her sights on Rick. He doesn’t notice she’s looking at him for a minute while he also chugs some from the other bottle. After he put his bottle down he looks down at her and makes eye contact. Astrid looks up at him through her eyelashes, also a little tipsy and asks him, 

“Why are you so chill with me all of a sudden after today..?” 

He comes up with, “W-well… I mean you helped get the kids out of a few bad spots already and you took that prank pretty well…either you’re a real psycho or y-you just got guts and care for them.” 

She quietly smiles for a second looking down. and then looks up at him and asks jokingly “what if it’s both?” 

Before he could react they get interrupted by Summer coming in to tell her “The pizza is ready! Also I got my homework “basically” finished.” 

Astrid suddenly thinks about how she doesn’t want to get too comfortable around Rick so she quickly says “Actually Summer… I’m not feeling too hungry right now and it’s getting late. I think I might head out.” 

“Wait- you could sleep over if you wanted!” Summer quickly offered.

 Astrid nicely declines saying, “Honestly I just want to pass out so then I can have time to get up early and plan some lesson stuff for class.” 

Summer understood and walked her to the front door while Rick went to go sit back down in the living room. After Summer shut the door behind her Astrid paused, thinking about Reagan as she was leaving. She then pulled out her old communicator and started typing up a message to send. While she stood there on the sidewalk she hadn’t notice that space Beth was sitting in her ship on the driveway. Astrid finally sent a message saying, 

“It’s been a while. How’ve you been?” 

After standing there staring at her phone for a few minutes after no reply she let her tipsy nerves get the better of her. She hit the call button and waited for an answer only to be met with ringing and then the, 

“Leave a message after the tone.” 

Astrid awkwardly stood there for a second while playing with her hair trying to figure out what to say. 

“Uh hey….Reagan…it’s me. I’m uh well… back in the area kind of… and I wanted to see if we could maybe catch up sometime..? I know we left things off on the wrong foot but I’d really like to see if we could maybe fix things… sorry I disappeared off the face of the planet but… you know…. Work is complicated…. Well, uh give me a call if you get this.. or I don’t know… just let me know if I should just forget about it.. okay… bye.” 

She then hung up and sighed. She then tried calling Reagan again but got the, 

“This person’s mailbox is all full. Goodbye.” Automated response. 

“Fuck it… I need to just let it go for now.” Astrid said defeated as she walked back towards her apartment. 

Space Beth having overheard all of that made a mental note as she walked inside the house to greet the family. 

“Uh who was that on the phone outside?” She asked curiously. 

“Oh thats just our new friend Astrid.” Summer said casually. 

Rick perked up curiously and asked, “ W-who was she on the phone with..?” 

—- PART FIVE COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch4. Gone Hunting

(tags: substance use/ violence / gore ) —- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #4 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

It had only been a day and a half since the sleepover at the Smith house. Astrid was feeling rather upbeat since her encounter with Rick. She had dissected every second of their brief conversation over and over in her head. She knew that Sanchez was a bit suspicious of her, however he did also insist she call him by his first name… so did that mean she was making progress? Or did he just hate formalities..? Either way she intended to find out. It was half way through the school day when Morty and Summer came to find Astrid in the lunch room. They quickly interrupted her as she was mid sandwich bite. 

“Astrid! Okay listen we have to meet up with Grandpa Rick after lunch but we want you to come on the adventure with us!” Summer said determined. 

“Y-yeah Grandpa Rick can’t say no this time!” Morty echoed.

“Rick will say no whenever and however many times he wants. You two know that.” Astrid laughed and continued eating knowing she didn’t want to seem excited, knowing the siblings would fight harder if Astrid pretended to be a bit reluctant and disheartened. 

“No- ASTRID!!” Summer protested even harder. 

“You can’t just keep letting him push you out of adventures! You seemed to even want to go last time!” She insisted. 

“Summer, when have you ever gotten Rick to actually do something he didn’t want to do? Oh and without it coming back to bite you later?” Astrid looked up at Summer and Morty as both of them were quiet for a minute. 

“B-but like… we could s-still try!” Morty rubbed the back of his neck realizing this was probably a pointless battle. 

“I mean sure we can try, but you both know your grandpa more than me.” Astrid said finishing her lunch. 

The three of them left the lunch room and went out to the parking lot outside of the school to wait for Rick while Summer and Morty both tried discussing tactics to try to get Rick to let Astrid come with them. Astrid unamused stood silently against the brick wall outside waiting for his arrival. Astrid knew none of the things the kids would come up with would work to change Rick’s mind so she wondered if there was anything she could say that might do the trick…. But most of the things she could say would compromise her cover. She kicked a rock at her feet. It went flying into the air and suddenly made a loud sound as it impacted glass. It hit Rick’s space ship window as it popped out of a portal right across from the three. 

“HEY! WHAT THE-“ Rick shouted as he quickly threw open his door. 

“Shit…” Summer said under her breath. 

“Aw jeez” Morty echoed. 

Rick stomped over to the three with a sour face and the siblings prepared to defend why Astrid was here. Astrid looked over at them and stood up from the wall and walked towards Rick. This action seemed to slightly surprise Rick and he stopped in the middle of the parking lot. Astrid stood there holding his gaze plainly standing only a few feet away. He looked back as her without a word for a few seconds before he turned and waited for the other two to join them. 

“Grandpa Rick, Morty and I both want Astrid to come with us on an adventure.” She said very firmly.

Morty nodded and echoed a “T-that’s right Rick!” 

“And why would I-“ Rick started before Summer interrupted him again. 

“I’ll exchange my adventure punch cards for it!” She yelled in his face. 

“Holy- shit! M-me too. I-I’ll give up my punch cards too.” Morty also stated. 

“Wait what? No… guys don’t give up your stuff just so I can tag along.” Astrid said quickly not quite knowing what the punch cards were but assumed the just of it. 

Rick’s eyebrow rose and he squinted at the two. He rubbed his face and sighed, 

“Okay. Y-you two are serious? Y-You’re just going to cough up y-your choice adventures just for a chance to get another friend of yours killed?” 

The siblings kind of stammered and looked at Astrid slightly guilty looking. Astrid wasn’t going to let that stop the progress now. 

“You two I’ll be fine. If you insist on using whatever to get Rick to let me come with, then of course I’ll come. But if you rather keep your adventure tokens or whatever then do that.” Astrid insisted with confidence to sway them away from guilt. 

Rick glared at her for a second before glaring back at the kids. Morty rubbed his neck and then looked at Astrid, then to Rick, 

“I-if Astrid wants to t-try… t-then we’re doing it!” Morty said and Summer nodded. 

Rick looked over at Astrid. Looking her up and down asking, “You’re going on a dangerous space mission in that?” He said looking down at her skirt. 

“I got shorts on underneath. Also my docs will be fine for pretty much any terrain.” She said quickly without missing a beat. “But if you have anything that you’d suggest I’m open to it.” 

Before Rick could complain about anything else Summer shouted at him, “ Grandpa stop clothes shaming Astrid!” 

“Fucking fine. G-get in the ship.” Rick said with a huff but relaxed once he sat in the driver seat. 

“Hell yeah!” Summer cheered as the three of them piled into the ship.

“Just r-remember I warned you about getting y-your little friend killed.” He said while adjusting his rearview mirror and eyeing Astrid in it. 

“I’ll be just fine Mr. Sanchez. I thought I already passed your test.” She looked back at him in the mirror as she settled in the back seat with a grin. 

“I already t-told you, call me Rick.” He said bluntly as he shifted the spacecraft into gear. 

Morty settled into the passenger seat and Summer next to Astrid in the back as the ship rocketed through the cosmos. 

“What are we doing on this run?” Summer asked. 

“We’re hunting a specific t-type of creature known as a “Gallapazeer” on this grass planet we’re going to.” Rick said plainly. 

“Oh..uh- are they like grazing types of animals…? Something kind of easy..?” Morty asked worried about how intense their first adventure with Astrid would be. 

“No MORTY. These things GRAZE on the animals that graze in the grass fields. SUPER aggressive actually.” Rick mocked. 

Summer rolled her eyes and looked at Astrid hoping her nonchalantness would help keep Astrid from being anxious. She was surprised to see that Astrid in fact looked the complete opposite of anxious. She sat comfortably looking out the window at all the stars. It had been a while since she’d been on a space ride, she really missed this type of view. Rick glanced back at Astrid in the mirror also noticing her calm reaction. 

“It’s like super pretty right? I guess we kind of forget about it sometimes but it’s cool isn’t it?” Summer asked Astrid also looking out in the direction of her widow. 

“It’s gorgeous.” Astrid replied still enjoying her reunion with space. 

Rick stole a quick glance at the seemingly unbothered Astrid in his side mirror and grit his teeth and pulled off on the accelerator as they came into orbit. The ship started to get close to what Astrid assumed was the grass planet Rick mentioned moments ago. As they neared, Morty started to sweat a little and so did Summer. 

“You know, if it starts getting too intense we promise we can get grandpa to portal you home right away.” Summer said nervously hoping not to lose a new friend. 

“Don’t worry about me Summer. You’ll find out I’m a pretty sturdy bitch.” She said with a laugh while shooting daggers at Rick in the rearview mirror. 

Rick didn’t look up that time as he started to pull the ship into the atmosphere and down towards the surface. Once landed, Rick opened his door and walked back to the trunk of the ship. Morty opened his door and got out but turned around and held out his hand to Astrid to help pull her out of the ship. Astrid reached out and took his hand and joined him outside. Summer followed suit as they waited for Rick at the trunk. He tossed two hunting laser rifles over to Summer and Morty. He swung another one on its strap over his shoulder and then held up a fourth one in his hand. He looked over at Astrid and asked, 

“Think you can handle one of these?” He spun it around on his trigger finger waiting for a response. 

Deep down this made Astrid want to giggle because of course she could handle a laser gun, she’d grown up using them and almost every other type of weapon known in the universe. 

“Ive been hunting before. Im guessing this is similar. You going to show me how it works or am I supposed to figure that out on my own?” Astrid asked plainly while holding eye contact with Rick. 

“H-here kids. T-take initiative and show your teacher….friend- whatever- how to use it.” Rick said annoyed as he tossed the gun to Astrid and closed the trunk. 

Both the siblings huddled over near Astrid and started pointing out different parts of the gun and showing her how to hold it. 

“So it’s like using a normal gun right?” Astrid quickly asked again in an attempt to speed up the supposed learning process having been taught quite well already by the agency how to use most weapons in the universe. 

“Uh… yeah. Basically. Except it’s like a laser.” Summer said as she shot a bird out of a nearby tree. 

“O-oh Astrid you’ve u-used a gun before…?” Morty asked meekly. 

“Yeah…. I uh.. used to go hunting a lot when I was younger.” Astrid insisted with an awkward smile. 

“Oh sick. That’s SO cool!” Summer said impressed. 

“Wow. We got a real natural among us Hu?” Rick said sarcastically. 

Before Summer was able to retort, Astrid looked directly at Rick and grinned, “I was meaning to ask, do you have hunting knives too?” She said almost too eagerly. 

Rick looked at her funny and quickly pulled out one from his coat pocket, “Like this..?” As he presented a very sleek high tech looking hunting blade he had clearly designed himself. 

Astrid couldn’t even contain the excitement on her face and let out a very pleased “oh wow it’s  gorgeous!” She gushed. 

Everyone seemed a little confused by her change in enthusiasm but Rick couldn’t help feeling his ego inflate after the praise for his design. 

“Go nuts I guess.” He tossed it to her and explained a little about the design, “that metal has a perfect slick overlay so it won’t get stuck in anything- not even bone. It’s also powered by your body heat so it stores up and you can heat it and sear through objects or any type of hide or scales.” He explained as they all continued to walk through the forest nearing a clearing. 

“O-okay… enough about tech stuff.. I’m sure telling Astrid about what we’re hunting is more important. L-like I’m assuming these creatures are w-way more dangerous than any animals on Earth?” Morty seemed to get anxious worrying about her not taking the situation seriously. 

“Oh yeah grandpa can you like show us a visual or something of what these things look like and give us the run down..? Like why are we even hunting them anyway?” Summer asked. 

“W-Why would you need a visual w-when there is a small heard of them right over there?” He said nodding in the direction of the clearing while leaning against a nearby tree. 

From a distance the creatures looked a little similar to Earth’s zebras but their stripe colors were all a mix of black, dark brown and crimson. Clearly they were much larger than normal zebras, maybe slightly bigger than bulls on Earth. But not much else could be seen of them with all their heads lowered and in the tall grass. 

“We are hunting them because their bones are known to be super conducive and their pelts are perfect insulators s-so I need that for my work. Also they make a mean steak.” He replied quietly as they all crept up to the edge of the clearing while keeping low. 

“They seem pretty normal to me. Let’s get started!” Summer quickly pulled up her gun and started to aim. 

“They are also worth tons one the black market.” Rick said amused. 

Astrid started to realize the species Rick was describing, her memory surged and she quickly realized the horror show they were all about to deal with. Before she could shoot her hand out and stop Summer, she had already taken the shot and it hit directly into the ribs of one of the creatures a few yards away. 

“Wait- Rick…. why are they worth so much…? Didn’t you say they were dangerous in the car?!”  Astrid asked with urgency. 

Six giant screeching heads whipped up from the grass belonging to the heard. Each head looked like that of a horse if its jaw reached to the back of its skull. Making their mouths open looking unnaturally wide. Each jaw contained rows among rows of horribly long and sharp teeth. A pink like drool dripping from their gums as they salivated looking at their new prey.

“OH HOLY SHIT YOU’VE DONE IT NOW.” 

Rick yelled as he looked from Summer to Astrid, with an excited shit eating grin he replied to her previous question, “They’re expensive cause it’s rare for hunters to survive hunting em.” 

Within seconds the heard was upon them. Morty screamed in fear seeing the horse creature Summer had shot was only a yard away from them with its fellow monsters nearing close behind. Its jaw disgusting cracked open spewing forth a sharp dark green barbed tongue that shot feet ahead towards Summer. She quickly fell backwards in fear trying to avoid contact. Rick, with natural instinct shot his laser rifle right in the creature’s face as it neared only feet away. This caused the creature’s head to explode and body to go instantly limp, dropping and sliding hard towards Morty, knocking him to the ground. Both the siblings screamed and grappled around for their lasers. Before Rick had even turned to look at the rest of the nearing heard, Astrid had scaled the tree next to him and had her sights all aimed up. Rick heard Astrid let out one steady breath before he heard three shots go off from her gun. His vision was met with three of the front creatures getting perfect shot through the skull, thus going limp and dropping to the ground. This then caused the other two creatures to fall over the other corpses landing on their front legs and faces. 

“Hurry!” Rick yelled as he aimed for the nearest creature on the ground as they all stumbled back up. 

Morty and Sumer both aimed and shot in return to whatever creature they spotted first. 

The Gallapazeer Rick had aimed at went down instantly from a head shot, another stumbled back a little after it had gotten hit by the shots from the kids. It continued to rush towards them with a slight limp. Astrid jumped down from the tree above Rick, ontop of the last Gallapazeer. She whipped her arm around its neck, holding the hunting blade and slitting its throat. She rushed to pull back on its neck causing it to rear back and fall over before stomping Summer to death. After the body landed just in front of her she let out a,

“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!” And clamped her eyes shut and then quickly opened them to see Astrid flying forward from the momentum. 

Astrid went sliding off the creature and onto the ground with a thud. As she got up and brushed herself off, little bits of blood splattered onto the ground around her. Astrid looked down to see her arms had been coated in the Gallapazeer’s dark purple blood. 

“SUMMER! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” Morty yelled at his sister as he struggled to shove off one of the corpses from his legs. 

“Y-yeah. Honestly Summer, that was pretty idiotic, even for you.” Rick chirped in reply. 

“J-Jesus! You made it seem like everything was non threatening!!” Summer shouted back at Rick.

Suddenly Rick paused and turned to look at Astrid seeming to put together what had just happened. He squinted at her for a second as if letting the gears in his brain catch up to his body. But before he could say anything out loud Astrid cut him off with a shit eating grin,

“Well looks like we got six of em down, how many more where you hoping to hunt?” She then stood and shook off more blood as she waited for a reply. 

“You smug little shit. How did you do all that?” Rick insisted. 

“Do what? I thought this was an adventure?” She said casually while walking over to help Summer up. 

“Yikes Grandpa. Not you getting mad at the friend of mine who just SAVED me.” Summer added while brushing herself off. 

“Did either of you bother to notice how skilled she is!? Does a normal human teacher take down horses with their bare hands and have an aim rate like that?” He barked at Summer. 

“Oh my gosh GRANDPA! Can we talk about how you brought her to this planet as her first adventure expecting her to almost die?! Because that’s basically what just happened to me! YOUR granddaughter!” Summer screamed back pissed. 

“Y-yeah Rick…. You’re just kind of proving that she actually can hold her own with us on a mission. I-is that why you’re so butt hurt?” Morty said now joining them. 

“Are you two high on adrenaline or something? You’re clearly missing the point.” He said more plainly now, tired of clearly not being listened to. 

“Don’t be sore Rick. Now you can have more help with stuff right? I mean clearly I know how to hunt and hold my own. That’s a starting point for other adventures right?” She said calmly with a smile. 

He looked at her for a second with a lack for words, this was quickly making him frustrated again. But Astrid took that cue and tried to play on his good side. 

“If you don’t think I did good enough tell me how many more we need to hunt. I’ll go get however many you tell me to!” She insisted pretending to turn it into her need for his approval. 

The switch up actually made Rick pause. But he quickly thought of a way to turn it around back onto Astrid, “Fine. I needed about t-twenty of those things anyways.” 

He leaned back against the tree casually and pointed at the dead creatures on the ground, “I thought I’d ultimately need to hunt most of t-them myself..” he shot a look over at Summer and Morty. 

“That’s not fair! I totally could hunt these things I just jumped the gun so to speak.” Summer insisted while crossing her arms. 

“Right….” He continued rolling his eyes, “A-Astrid if you can hunt down six of those things by yourself before I get back to the ship a-after I’m done hunting, you can come on another adventure. I’ll give us a few hours to catch some. If y-you can’t do it, you’ll admit you CAN’T hang….. and you won’t give me a hard time anymore about it. No popping up trying to come on missions with us.” 

“That’s fine, I already got like four of them. What’s two more?” She laughed and grinned back at him. 

“Nope. Six MORE not counting the encounter Summer caused.” He said frankly standing up and turning to walk back into the woods. 

“Oh my gosh how is that fair?!” Summer questioned him. 

“W-What? That’s the kind of stuff I have you doing on adventures. If she can’t HANG then she can’t hang. Simple as that.” He stated. 

“Got it. I’ll get started then I guess.” Astrid said nonchalantly and slipped into the woods the opposite direction as Rick. 

“Wait- Astrid!” Summer called out to the forest. 

“C-come on Summer. You and M-Morty try to get some too. I’ll over shoot by getting eight of them since I KNOW none of you will hunt an exact number I gave you.” He said bitterly. 

“You fucking suck right now Grandpa. Why are you being such a hard ass?” She angrily grabbed Morty and dragged him along with her in a different direction in the woods. 

Once alone in the woods Rick pulled out his scanner and pin pointed where another heard of  creatures were up ahead of him. He mumbled to himself as he started to track them, “Something isn’t normal about her. Who has perfect aim like that…? Even for a supposed “great hunter” ….and how she killed that last one… that was demented shit…. Impressive but I’m not fucking fooled. She’s not just a fucking Earth “teacher’s assistant” fuck no.” 

He huffed and triggered his rocket boots and launched into the air, speeding closer to his prey’s spot. He pulled out a high tech eye screen  that zeroed in on all the creatures resting in a different field. He pulled out his gun as he flew past the heard. There was about seven of them this time, all their heads whipped up to look at him. A few of them sent out their tongues to try to catch him mid air but he dodged all of them with ease. Shots rang out from his gun, one by one all of them quickly dropped limp in the grass. 

A few hours later Morty sat back on a rock sweating and groaned. Summer was panting as she stood up from a few dead corpses of Gallapazeers, “oh fuck… fuck these things are tough.” She also sat back on a nearby rock. 

“D-do you think Astrid is doing okay on her own..? I know she pulled out s-some crazy moves but… by herself ya know…?” Morty anxiously asked Summer.

“Yeah Morty. Did you see how she handled it earlier? Honestly grandpa might be kind of right. She’s really skilled for some reason. Who knew we made such a bad ass friend right?” She said triumphantly. 

“Y-you weren’t scared when she slit that things throat right in front of you..?” He’s questioned a little. 

“Actually I thought it was pretty awesome. We do that type of stuff with grandpa Rick all the time… so like isn’t it cool we have a friend who isn’t just traumatized by our family stuff for once?” She said simply. 

“W-well when y-you put it like that… yeah actually it makes me feel way less guilty that we brought her along.” He said relieved as he wiped sweat off his brow. 

Somewhere off in the distance from the siblings, a now blood soaked Astrid chased after another creature. She happily listened to “Immigrant Song“ by Led Zeppelin through her headphones while hunting. An unsettling grin sat on her face as her pace quickly caught up to the beast. It recoiled away from her sensing horrifying danger. Her eyes looked like that of a different creature, slit pupils and glowing red. 

“Aw what’s the matter? Don’t I smell like your friends?” She mockingly asked it as it tried to buck its back legs at her to get away. 

Not having had this much fun in a while she took her time and moved with quick ease. It was like watching a wind spirit around the creature, her slicing up its skin and tendons with the hunting knife. It caused the creature to collapse to the ground but its fear forced it to scramble back up to run. Her face started to morph and change like tar being thrown in a vacuum. Her body now shifting as well into an even larger Gallapazeer. A deep guttural laugh came from the creature now standing in Astrid’s place but with an excessively larger head than the injured one. 

“I love playing cannibal.” She said in a husky creature voice and cracked open her jaw like the others had, crushing the Gallapazeer’s skull in her mouth. 

Blood sprayed everywhere as she transformed back to her human like state. Spitting out bone fragments from her mouth. She then looked around and sniffed the air. Her nose shifting into a different creature’s for a few seconds to get a whiff. After she had honed in on another one nearby, she grinned having also faintly smelling Rick near by also. She darted off in the direction of her last prey. 

“I got five more down Sanchez! There is no way I’m losing.” She said out loud in excitement as her voice echoed through the forest. 

Rick had already gotten plenty of Gallapazeer kills, just for fun he continued to trail one silently on the way back to the ship. A streak of color rush by him in the woods. It barraled towards the creature, it had been a laser from Astrid’s gun. It slammed into the side of the beast’s head taking out its ear. 

“What the-“ Rick crouched down and whispered to himself as he looked around for her in the woods. 

He caught a glimpse of her running towards it with her gun stretched out in front of her. Noticing that she hadn’t seemed to notice him he remained silent as the creature stumbled over and slammed into a nearby tree. He then looked up and saw her coming in his direction pretty fast, right as she was about to send the final killing shot her legs knocked into him causing her gun to fly out of her hands. They both tumbled to the ground and blankly looked at each other for a second before Astrid heard the creature get back up.

“Fuck!” She cursed and shoved herself off Rick quickly trying to grab for the gun. 

“How many did you manage to get?” Rick questioned quickly to her as the creature got its footing. 

“This is my last one!” Astrid yelled as she got up and stumbled to grab the gun that had flown a few feet away. 

She glanced up noticing Rick’s ship was only a few yards ahead of them. Her head whipped around to look at Rick wondering if he was going to run to the ship to time her out of the challenge. Rick realized what she was wondering and grinned over at the Gallapazeer gaining momentum as it began to get farther away, rushing past the ship. They both briefly made eye contact before both racing to try to get ahead first. As both of them ran, Morty and Summer popped out of the woods to the side of the ship. They caught sight of them neck and neck closing in. Summer let out a cheer for Astrid. Morty then ran ahead screaming for her to hurry, noticing that the ship was so close. In that moment Astrid knew she could make the shot. She could even outrun Rick. But she thought about how that would only prove Rick’s point about her being abnormal. She considered her options, if she won fair and square she’d technically still lose to Rick. She quickly decided to try something different to try and change Rick’s level of suspicion for her. She kept pace with him for a few more seconds before acting like she lost her balance bumping into him slightly and falling forward. She tumbled to the ground and grabbed her leg letting out a disappointed: 

“Fuck! I twisted my leg when I ran into you the first time in the woods!” She said sounding defeated. 

Rick quickly pulled back in his tracks surprised looking at her but still angled as if he’d take off running again at any minute. He looked at the creature, it had almost made it to the opposite tree line past the ship. He then looked back at her as she got up, grabbing her gun and aimed. Rick also pulled out his gun and aimed for the creature. He held out his other arm and supported Astrid so she wouldn’t fall over on her leg. Two shots rang out, impact was made on the upper neck of the creature right next to its spine and the other impact completely burrowed through the middle of the animal’s skull. With a distant thud it was now  motionless on the ground. Astrid looked up at Rick with wide eyes searching for his reaction. 

“What…? Jeez… you would have gotten it in the first place if I hadn’t have interfered with you in the woods.” He sad frankly as he helped her properly stand. 

Astrid felt a rush in her gut after realizing he let her off the hook. She gently took his hand and stood completely up. Her heart was pounding from adrenaline but she felt a slight warmness in her cheeks for a second thinking about Rick. She quickly rubbed her face and leaned down to check her “hurt” leg. 

“M-Morty, Summer, come help Astrid to the ship.” He ordered as he trotted over to the ship and started it. 

Both the siblings ran over and supported Astrid as Rick flew the ship over closer to them. They then walked her a couple of feet to the ship door. 

“W-What happened Astrid?! Y-you’re covered in Gallapazeer blood!” Morty panicked worrying she was badly injured. 

“Morty look, she’s fine. It’s just her leg.” Summer said calming him down. 

“But seriously what just happened…? Weren’t you and Grandpa racing?” She asked confused. 

“God Morty. If y-you must know, back there in the woods I tripped up Astrid before she made her last kill. I’m not that much of a sore loser.” He said rolling his eyes as the siblings helped Astrid into the ship. 

“So wait… does that mean she won the challenge?!” Summer beamed excitedly at them. 

“But what if I didn’t even make that last shot-?” Astrid was quickly cut off by Rick. 

“Yes. She gets away with this once…this ONCE.” He stated annoyed and pulled up the ship high into the sky. 

“YES!!” The siblings yelled out in excitement while congratulating Astrid. 

“You get to come on more adventures!” Summer stated proudly. 

“Y-You actually handled pretty well for a first mission.” Rick said casually as he took a quick glance at her in the rearview mirror before going back to calibrating the scanner. 

“H-holy shit yeah! I wasn’t even that good on my first mission. You did great Astrid!” Morty praised from the front seat, turning to look back at her. 

“Same here. My first one was a disaster.” Summer said with a laugh. 

“When we get back to the house I’ll treat you to a beer, but let’s get all our work cleaned up!” Rick said to her as his scanner had fully located all their kills on the planet below them. 

Rick then held out his portal gun and plugged it into the scanner’s wires. He pulled the trigger and multiple little portals showed up on the map swallowing the various Gallapazeer corpses they had left, sending them to who knows where. 

“I was wondering how you were going to retrieve all of them..” Astrid muttered as she watched the portals close up one by one once the job was done. 

“Let’s BOUNCE” Rick yelled as he flew the ship into another portal. 

Suddenly they were back in Earth’s solar system and flying past the moon and towards Earth’s atmosphere. They zipped along through the clouds and eased up speed once the sight of their house came into view. Once the ship landed in the driveway they all piled out. Rick walked over to his garage work bench and looked around for something. 

“So what about that beer?” Summer joked. 

“I didn’t mean for you. I let it slide w-when you and y-your friends are having parties or whatever but you’re still not old enough.” Rick said casually as he grabbed two beers from his mini fridge. 

“Yeah yeah.” Summer smiled and rolled her eyes. 

“Jeez… uh Astrid do you n-need a change of clothes or something..? R-rick has some stain remover that can get rid of anything.” Morty asked as he looked at her clothes. 

“Oh I can let you borrow something of mine to wear in the meantime while your clothes are in the wash!” Summer shouted already past the kitchen and headed towards her room to get her some. 

“Buddy, can you go grab grandpa his pain pills?” Rick asked Morty who then nodded and left the garage to retrieve them. 

Rick turned and handed Astrid a bottle of beer after opening it for her. He popped open his own and took a swig and leaned back on his work bench. Astrid took a few swigs and also leaned up against the opposite side of his work bench supposedly taking weight off her “hurt” leg. Rick looked at her leg then back up at her. 

“Y-you think it’s just a twist? I could take a look at it if you-“ he asked and was interrupted while grappling for conversation. 

“It should be fine, I’ve done way worse.” She cut through the small talk with a casual smile. 

“Well I’ll give you a pain killer of mine while you wait for any swelling to go down…” he trailed off. And turned to tinker with something on the bench top. 

“Thanks Rick.” She said with a smile and continued to drink her beer. 

She eyed over his shoulder at what he was messing with but then he turned and squinted at her. She leaned backwards a little, holding his gaze and waiting to see what he was going to say. His face relaxed again and he turned back to what he was tinkering with. 

“You were quite the surprise today…” he said with a smile, “I don’t know what you’re playing at but I’d choose how you tread now. Wouldn’t want to disappoint the kids.” His tone changed and he set down his tools. 

Right as he was about to turn around and look at her, Astrid paused and leaned in slowly near Rick’s ear and breathed out a little. 

“Choose how I tread…? Weren’t you the one watching me in the woods earlier? Didn’t your mother ever teach you it’s bad to spy on ladies?” She said with a cheeky grin. 

He limply swatted her away and let out a grunt of annoyance, “I’m not going to deal with some Tammy bull shit again! If you so much as-“ 

“Tammy…? What about Tammy?” She asked confused. 

“Oh…Y-you really don’t know about that? I thought Summer would have told you about it.” He said with an emotionless face and then quietly went back to messing with his tools. 

“Uh yeah anyway…. “ Astrid paused for a second and then smiled up at Rick again, “thanks for the advice.” 

While she was talking he glanced at her for a second and noticed something shifted. A very abrupt feeling and look he got from Astrid sent shivers down his spine. It reminded him of the first time he ever encountered a black hole. For a split second he felt like her gaze was pulling him into the jaws of some unknown impending doom. He turns to face her again almost enraged by this feeling but is yet again left wordless as she speaks up again. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” and winks at him. 

Just then Morty and Summer enter the garage with the pill and clothes for Astrid. 

“H-here you go Rick.” Morty tries to hand the pill to Rick which he declines and says, 

“That’s for your friend.” He then turns back to what he was working on. 

Astrid takes it and the clothes from Summer and goes to change in the bathroom. After that she hangs out with Summer and Morty in the living room until her clothes are done in the dryer. Summer and Morty both walk her to the door once she’d changed back into her clothes and stated that she needed to head back home. She says goodbye to the siblings and shouts a little 

“Bye Riccck!” as the door shuts behind her. 

After hearing this, Rick shot down like lightning to his basement lab under the garage. He entered into a large meat locker and started scanning the Gallapazeer corpses. He wanted to see if Astrid had made that last shot. He finds the last one they killed and traces which laser beam the head shot had come from. He grit his teeth as the result came back. This then sent him on a tailspin scanning and examining the other Gallapazeers that Astrid had killed. All of them had either laser wounds to the head or various lacerations from the hunting blade he had let her use.

“Fuck… I didn’t get the blade back from her!” He irritatedly scolded himself under his breath. 

His attention was quickly brought back to the task at hand when the scanners picked up extremely different wounds on two of the bodies from her kill count. They were entirely missing their heads and necks. He swiped all of the other data away and zoomed in on the torsos. He quickly realizes the wounds look like something had either torn into them with teeth or claws. 

“W-w-what the hell…?” He muttered while calibrating the scanner.

He then scanned them again but no trace of any identifiable DNA came back. He leaves the locker and goes to his big computer and furiously plugs in all the data he’s collected. Still no DNA matches come back. He groans loudly and then starts trying to calculate what might have caused the wounds.  

“What the hell? How did she do that…?” He ranted while waiting for the computer to come back with results. 

After taking a few swigs from his flask while waiting finally the computer beeped notifying him of its findings. It showed him the bite marks matched and likely belonged to a much larger Alpha Gallapazeer. His eyebrows furrowed as he scratched his head in confusion. 

“Did she not actually kill these two….?” He thought out loud. “But Gallapazeers’ have a strong heard mentality… an Alpha wouldn’t kill its fellow kind like that would it…? Did she somehow get an alpha to fight her battle for her…? Did she just happen to chance upon a freakish opportunity once one went berserk and killed these two for some reason…?” He kept mumbling and rubbing his face trying to piece it together. 

He sat back in his chair and pulled up footage of her from the previous times she’s  been at the house to see if he could find anything suspicious in her behavior on the footage. Replaying specific moments when no one was around to watch her. Still nothing odd came up. He slammed his fist down on the table and puts his head down on his desk to think. 

“She must have been close to these two Gallapazeers when they had died due to all the blood splatter that had gotten on her… but then how did she survive and not get a single scratch on her if a frenzied alpha had been so close to her..?” He gulped down more from his flask in frustration. 

On the walk back to her apartment Astrid listened to “Queen of Disaster” by Lana Del Rey in her earphones. She could feel her heart pounding from the excitement of today’s events. 

“I wonder if he’ll notice the bite marks on some of them..?” She hummed thinking about Rick. 

But her humming stopped as she got a notification from Glacks again. Her mood quickly soured and she checked to see if any other messages had come in for her. Sadly nothing showed up. She thought about her Handler and then about Reagan. Why did it seem like all the people she was waiting to hear from never got back to her..? She opened her apartment door and angrily threw her keys across the room. She slammed her door shut and slid down the back of the door. A few tears trickled down her face as she looked down at the floor. 

—- PART THREE COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch3. FickleRick

(Tags: substance abuse / harassment / substance use / intoxication / 18+ minors DNI)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #3 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

 The next day she felt horrible. Astrid followed the regular routine of shifting to look just fine and blurring out her day with music in her earbuds. Her old agency communicator was blowing up from messages sent by Glacks demanding to know why she left the “party” without saying goodbye and how she needed to come back soon as to not keep him waiting. She muted it and groaned. Why did she keep doing this? Why couldn’t she just move on and enjoy a real restart like the “vacation” was for. Suddenly she felt a hard bump to her side,

“Long time no see sexy.” Harris emerged from seemingly nowhere while Astrid had been zoning out. 

“Jesus. You always pick the worst times.” Astrid groaned under her breath. 

“Oooo touchy this morning. Had a bad night? He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close, “Someone not giving you what you need?” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down in a suggestive manner. 

“I’m clearly older than you Harris, why do you keep harassing me every day?” She tried pushing him off lightly but he wouldn’t budge. 

“Come on Astrid! Age is only a number. Besides you’re not that much older than me right..? What like 6-7 years? Wait or is it more than that?” He counts on his fingers and looked up at the ceiling mockingly pondering. 

“Wait….. you have to be right? I mean you look young…But you’re already graduated from college if you’re like a teacher assistant now..??” He started to really ponder and question.

Astrid felt a dull pain in her chest. She really had no clue how old she was. The Agency had never given her that information. But she recalled hearing the news from an inside source when C-137 Rick Sanchez’s original family had been killed. That had been a couple of years before she had gone on an assisting mission to help Cognito inc. while working for the agency. She seemed young but she definitely had to be much older than all these high schoolers. 

“Yes Harris. I’m definitely older than you.” She hissed back and roughly tossed him off.

“Hey wait! I didn’t mean it like that! I don’t care I still think you’re hot.” Harris insisted and grabbed her arm as she pulled away.

“Harris stop it. I need to get to class. And so do you! Don’t get on my last nerve.” She irritatedly pulled away. 

“Come one Astrid give me a chance! You at least gotta give it a try. One date. Then you can tell me to fuck off.” He pinned her against the hallway lockers. 

She felt the hairs on her neck rise and her blood started to boil. She couldn’t blow her cover though. Should she still beat his ass and claim she knew self defense…? She couldn’t take this anymore she was going to rip him to shreds- *Wheeerammp* a familiar portal noise interrupted her train of thought as Rick Sanchez entered into the school hallway. He looked up and noticed the high school boy pressing up against Astrid as she clearly was pushing him away angrily. 

“Oh W-WOAH now.” Rick announced loudly. 

“I think the f-fuck not.” He said plainly as he pointed the portal gun at Harris’s feet. 

A portal opened up below Harris and he in turn plummeted through it. Rick then raised the gun to aim at the ceiling above the portal on the floor and fired another one off. This then caused Harris to continuously fall in a loop through them as he screamed out in confusion. Astrid bust out laughing so hard she started to wheeze. 

“Holy shit. Thanks!” She breathed out heavily as she caught her breath. 

“Y-yeah *burp* don’t mention it.” Rick stated.

He kind of awkwardly stood there a moment while she composed herself. Kind of glancing in her direction and then around in the empty hallway. 

“S-so yeah… You know where the kids are? They not with you?” He kind of mumbled out while looking at a clock on the wall in the hallway.

“Oh right.” Astrid wiped her eyes from tears of laughter, “they are both in first period by now.” She then calmly stated. “Morty is in history class, down the hall and to the left.” 

“Appreciate it.” He nodded and walked off in the direction she pointed. 

A loud thud came from behind her as Harris hit the floor after the two portals closed. She turned and smugly looked at him. Harris whined and got up clearly terrified. He then proceeded to run in the opposite direction down the hall. Finally some peace and quiet. She put her other earbud in and continued on towards her first class. “Count Contessa” by Azealia Banks played. She smiled to herself and thought about Sanchez. What an odd guy. She looked forward to seeing him again soon. 

Suddenly the spring had come and gone. The summer season had arrived. And in timely fashion, Summer Smith had invited Astrid to a girl’s sleepover night with her friends at the Smith house. It had been a few months since the occurrence in the hall where Rick had helped Astrid. But things seemed to have gotten more civil between her and Rick. Any time he showed up at the school looking for one or both of the siblings, he’d ask her where they happened to be, now knowing she knew their schedules. Nothing crazy. But it seemed like they were on good terms now. 

 Astrid stood in her apartment bathroom finishing her appearance shifting in the mirror. Making it look like she wore a light amount of eyeliner and a couple of fake black stars on her face. She wanted to look nice but still herself when seeing the Smith family and Summer’s friends. She wore a pair of high waisted black jean shorts with black fishnet tights underneath. She bent down and laced up her doc marten boots. She then stood back up and adjusted her black cropped t-shirt and black choker. She sighed and tapped her fingers on the sink. 

“First time for everything right?” She muttered as she looked at herself in the mirror.

 She left the bathroom towards the living room to retrieve her overnight bag as she slipped out of the apartment. She quickly locked up behind her and set out towards the direction of the Smith house that was only a few blocks away. 

Physically walking there gave her some time to mentally prepare for it. Summer had introduced her a while ago to her friends Grace, Tricia, Tammy and Nancy. She’d been around Tricia and Nancy a few times after that. Hadn’t met Grace much so there wasn’t much to note. However she had heard a thing or two from Summer about how something bad had happened between her family and Tammy. She was hoping to learn more later that evening. 

Nearing the Smith front yard she glanced over to  the yard across the street where she had impacted that one night. The crater had been filled in with dirt. Lawn Flamingos and flowers decorated the top of the new soil. They rubbed their face in embarrassment thinking about it.

“Thank fuck no one saw that.” They whispered to themself as they turned up the sidewalk to the front door. 

They breathed in and stared at the doorbell, this couldn’t be worse than an undercover mission right? They rang the doorbell and waited. Hearing some stomping and yelling from inside before the door quickly swung open. 

“Omg Astrid! You came!” Summer shouted enthusiastically as she grabbed their arm and pulled them inside. 

They climbed up the stairs to her room where Nancy sat on a bean bag with a book in her hand. 

“Hello Nancy!” Astrid greeted her from the door.

“H-hey.” Nancy shyly answered as she kept reading her book. 

“Heyyyyy bitchhhhh!” Tricia called out from the other corner of the room where she sat atop Summer’s desk. 

“Okay everyone is here, Grace couldn’t make it tho…. so let’s get to it!” Summer shouted as she pulled out a secret stash of what looked like alcohol and drugs from the desk drawer. 

“Hey wait, aren’t y’all too young to be doing all that..?” Astrid asked a little concerned. 

“Oh come on Astrid!” Tricia laughed.

“Yeah it’s really not that big a deal.” Summer insisted casually. “We only do it when we have sleepovers or parties at home. Also it’s not like my parents really notice or care. I mean grandpa Rick always knows what to do if something goes wrong so I mean we’re home free!” 

“I don’t really partake myself. Don’t feel like you have to.” Said Nancy timidly. 

“Oh no. I mean… I’ll partake. I just was worried about you guys…. And I mean like what your parents-“ Astrid got cut off.

“Come on Astrid you’ve met my parents before. You know they don’t care unless it becomes their problem.” Summer doubled down. 

Both Summer and Tricia shared a swig or two from a bottle of liquor and pursed their lips. 

“Uhg it’s so bitter! I want a chaser!” Tricia complained and got up off the desk. 

“Let’s go get one, Astrid, Nancy, want to come with us?” Summer asked as they walked towards the door and exited. 

“I’m fine staying in here for a bit.” Nancy replied still enthralled with her book. 

Astrid then made her exit as well and followed the girls down the stairs to the kitchen. They rummaged through the fridge and grabbed some sodas Tricia had brought. They both proceeded to take sips and laugh while Astrid glanced over at the garage door. 

“He’s not in there right now.” Summer noticed,

“He’s off doing a quest or something.” She took another sip and grinned at Astrid.

“Rick! R-Rick….?” Morty’s voice shouted from in the den. 

“Grandpa isn’t here Morty!” Summer yelled in annoyance back.

Morty entered the kitchen and rubbed his neck as a nervous laugh escaped his lip, “oh jeez, h-hey Astrid! Uh h-hey Tricia.” 

“Hey Morty” they both replied in unison and then looked at each other and laughed. 

“S-so y’all partying… or what?” Morty meekly asked. 

“Yeah nerd. We’re all ganna get lit and have a GIRLS NIGHT!” Summer whooped and took another swig of the liquor. 

“Here, Astrid it’s your turn.” Summer handed her the bottle. 

“Well…. If your parents are okay with y’all doing it…sure why not?” Astrid grabbed the bottle and downed at least haft the bottle and let out a large burp. 

“H-holy shit Astrid!?” Morty asked shocked.

“WOOOOO!!!!! ASTRID!! ASTRID!!!” Tricia and Summer chanted. 

Astrid laughed and wiped her mouth, “Don’t worry Morty. This Liver is one of the strongest livers on Earth.” 

“Ha…. T-that’s something grandpa Rick would say..” he replied. 

“Well I’m not your grandad.” Astrid said with an eye roll as the two other girls laughed. 

“Damn Astrid I guess we’ll have to catch up. Do you feel anything at all?!” Tricia questioned. 

“Nope, just warmed me up.” Astrid sighed and continued to pass the bottle between the three of them as Morty awkwardly watched from the side. 

“Wait are your parents going to be coming home soon…?” Astrid asked hoping to not cause a bad impression. 

“Oh yeah, my dad is like in his man cave… but he probably won’t bother us. And Mom is working late. She’ll probably come home in a couple hours.” Summer replied. 

The night continued on with some pizza, and finishing the bottle…but mostly by Astrid. The other two girls had only taken a couple of sips and seemed pretty buzzed. They all sat around the tv playing video games or watching interdenominational cable in the living room. Morty had stuck around and sat in the arm chair while all the girls sat on the couch, even Nancy had come down to join them. After a few hours had past and the night got late Earth Beth came home and greeted the girls and Morty but then went upstairs to bed after a glass of wine in the kitchen. Astrid was a little relieved that the family seemed so chill on her first time coming over. But she still kept expecting Sanchez to show up, she glanced back over towards the kitchen. Was he always somewhere else when he wasn’t with the kids? She contemplated but was distracted when Summer let out a yell at the screen when Morty seemed to be beating her in their street fighter game. 

“Y-Yes!! Ohhh hoo! Take that Summer!” Morty cheered and pointed. 

“Whatever! I’ll get you next time!” She shouted back.

“Uh no offense guys but can we watch something on that uh thing…?? You know the cable tv your grandad brought you.” Tricia asked getting bored of watching Summer and Morty have a pissing match. 

“Yeah! Of course!” Summer said enthusiastically as she switched it over. 

Time passed and it had gotten to the late hours of the night. Morty had fallen asleep on the arm chair, Nancy and Tricia had already gone up to Summer’s room to sleep. Summer laid against the couch nodding off but started to wake up. Astrid, still awake continued to sit watching TV hoping she’d get a moment to herself if the siblings went to bed soon. And like clockwork Summer stirred and looked over at sleeping Morty. 

“Morty!” She said a little louder than a normal whisper. “Go to bed!” 

He too stirred and rubbed his eyes as he slowly got up and stumbled over to the stairs to head to bed. Summer then stretched and looked over at Astrid, 

“You tired? Or are you good chilling down here for a while?” 

“I’m more of a night owl, I’ll be fine just hanging out down here for a bit.” Astrid said relaxing into the couch. 

“Okay cool, I’ll see you in the morning Astrid. This was fun. We should all do this again sometime.” Summer said as she got up and went towards the stairs. 

“Yeah. I’d like that.” Replied Astrid just before Summer was out of earshot. 

Astrid sat quietly on the couch as she listened for Summer’s last footsteps upstairs and bedroom door closing. She then got up and went towards the slide door leading to the back yard. She quickly unlocked it and slipped outside. She inhaled deep enjoying the night air and silence. She put an earbud in and shuffled through some songs while simultaneously pulling out her pipe she had in her bag. She packed it and sparked up her lighter. As “Them Changes“ by Thundercat played she took a big inhale. She blew the smoke into the night air and tried to stifle her coughing as to not wake anyone. She started to kind of slowly sway with the music and enjoy how her night went. Was this what it was like to have a normal life and make friends? Seemed… mild but nice. Really nice actually. This felt like the first time Astrid had really breathed in a long time. But that feeling was cut short when the sliding door slid open. She quickly exhaled a small puff and looked over to see who was coming from the dark room inside. Rick came out from the dark room wearing his typical lab coat and light blue shirt with slacks. He looked tired but alert as he let out, 

“Jesus!” Rick exclaimed as he noticed Astrid standing in the shadows of the back patio, “I didn’t hear a-anyone come out here. How are you that quiet?” He asked eyeing her while standing in a spot the floodlights were lit on the patio. 

“I mean… I left the TV on and the door was cracked open. I thought that would indicate someone is out here.” She stated amused. 

“I thought it was one of the dumb kids leaving it open tonight.” Rick explained irritated. 

His eyes adjusted and he realized by the smell and the small ember that Astrid was smoking. 

“Y-you come out to smoke at night too?” His grumble shifted from irritated to more enthusiastic after getting a whiff. 

“Yeah… I’m guessing you too?” She asked as he pulled out a pipe of his own from behind his back. 

He laughed and sat it down on the patio table and pulled out a grinder, “I guarantee my shit is better than your shitty Earth weed.” He said smugly. 

“Ha, probably” Astrid lied knowing full well her weed was from a planet a couple galaxies over. It was grown specifically on a dispensary planet, it was good stuff. 

“Grew and engineered this baby myself for the perfect high.” He grinned referring to the weed he finished packing in his pipe. 

He took out a robotic looking lighter out and lit it. Taking a deep drag and then exhaling out. Astrid eyed the lighter and wondered if that’s all it could do, knowing how Rick was with gadgets. 

He noticed her staring at it and grinned. 

“Oh you like this?” He dangled it up in the air causing it to reflect a patch of light on to Astrid’s face in the shadows. 

“Yeah, knowing you it probably does something crazy besides just lighting your pipe.” She snorted. 

“C-check this shit out.” He clicked the lighter three times and a blazing tower of flame protruded out of it forming a flame blade. 

He tossed it around and did a couple of swooping motions to show off how it handled before letting it go back down and putting it away. 

“Nice, a lighter lightsaber.” She laughed. 

Rick rolled his eyes and fought back the urge to explain how his lighter worked and took a swig from his flask. There was a long awkward pause as he looked at Astrid from the corners of his eyes while standing facing the yard. 

“S-so you’re like actually hanging out with Summer and Morty now?” He asked. 

“Yeah…? Is that like a problem or..?” Astrid waited for his response. 

“Fuck I don’t care. I just was getting tired of hearing them complaining when you wouldn’t hang out w-with them.” He said nonchalantly.  

“Yeah well I was kind of busy with life stuff for a bit there. And I don’t know… I wondered if they actually wanted to hang around me being older than them and all.” She said honestly. 

“I d-don’t see the problem unless you’re looking to cause problems.” He gave Astrid a quick sharp look. 

Astrid felt like he was implying more than just her causing normal “friend” problems. She felt the suspicion creeping out from him. 

“The strangest thing happened an about a month ago.” He said, his tone changing to amused. 

“Oh yeah..? What’s that?” Astrid awkwardly asked as she took another hit from her pipe. 

“Something caused a huge crater in my neighbor’s front yard the other night.” 

He eyed her intensely. 

Astrid’s cheeks heated in embarrassment as she choked out her exhale. She tried to act as if she had taken too large a hit and started coughing a little. 

*cough* “T-that is weird,” *cough* “did you happen to find out what did that…?” She looked back at him doe eyed in an attempt to throw him off. 

He recoiled a little after seeing the seemingly innocent and confused face she gave him. But then his brows furrowed as he squinted at her for a second before he relaxed and turned back to look at the yard. 

“N-nope. Haven’t found out yet.” He stole a quick glaring glance at her again then took another drag from his bowl and muttered, “maybe I’m just seeing things.” 

Continuing to play the ignorant act Astrid persisted, “Seeing….what exactly…? The crater?” 

Rick grabbed his forehead in annoyance, “No! I know the crater was there. It’s s-still there, they just filled it up with tacky lawn ornaments.” He waved his hands around as emphasis, “I mean I thought I saw someone climbing out of it that night.” He huffed. 

“Odd…but I mean that’s your area of expertise right..?” Astrid paused for a second and looked at Rick’s face, “Summer tells me you’re the “smartest man in the universe” right? I’m sure you’ll catch whatever creature must have crash landed.” She took another hit and exhaled. 

His eyebrow rose and he looked at her again more inquisitive, “Oh so you t-think you have me all f-figured out now cause Sumsum tells you all about g-grandpa hu? You seem-*eeeuurhh* awful calm if you think an alien creature just crash landed on Earth.” He took another swig and waited for a response. 

“Ha, I don’t know shit. Just what I’ve been told. And I’ve seen some weird stuff I guess it’s not that shocking to me? I mean you transported me off planet the other day at school didn’t you..?” She tried to brush off his questions casually. 

He wasn’t convinced but let it go and pulled out a chair from the patio table and sat down with one ankle propped up on top of his other knee. He took a swig and started to pack another bowl. Astrid awkwardly stood there a second before thinking of something else to talk about.

“It’s nice, you’re not shoving me in and out of a portal for once.” She said jokingly. 

“Yeah well I was busy. A-and I didn’t have time for back talk at the moment.” He said plainly.

“Do you really think I’d be that useless on an adventure with you guys?” Astrid questioned. 

“Here.” Rick held up his pipe to her, “Smoke this and let’s see.” He beckoned her to take it. 

“Wait… okay…? Sure.” She took it from his warm hands gently and proceeded to partake. 

He sat there and waited as she blew out. Suddenly she felt intensely high. Her eyes felt dry and everything felt like a dream around her. She rubbed her face and handed him back the bowl as she let out a few coughs.

“How was that?” He grinned waiting for her reaction thinking it had to be the most powerful shit she’s smoked. 

Astrid stood there a second and looked around the yard in a daze, “ Wow it’s good. But it makes me feel kind of tired now.” 

His face fell slightly in disbelief from her mild reaction, “Jesus y-you must smoke a ton. O-Or… where do you get your weed from…?” He asked again inquiring. 

“Ha…I probably smoke more than I should, I’ve been trying to lay back on it. And ya know..from here and there. Nothing like perfect genetically altered weed made by a mad scientist.” She laughed trying to dodge his last question. 

“You think I’m mad Hu?” He scoffed. 

“Yeah you’re nuts. But like in a fun threatening erratic way.” She said with a laugh.

He started to grin but then coughed as he took another hit. Astrid started to feel the anxiety of trying to hide her identity creep up on her. She knew if she stayed out and chatted too long with Rick he’d start asking more questions. And the effect of the weed he let her try was starting to make her feel like she wouldn’t mind telling him even. But that was risky and she’d rather play it aloof for now. 

“Well thanks for the sesh.” She said cheerfully, “I’m getting a bit tired so I think I’ll hit the sack.” 

Rick raised his eyebrow at her but did not protest. He continued to sit stoically on the patio. 

“Goodnight Mr. Sanchez.” She said softly as she went towards the sliding door. 

“Call me Rick.” He said bluntly over his shoulder before she closed the door. 

A rush went down her spine and her heart pounded as the went up the stairs to Summer’s room. She felt a kind of nervous thrill by being under Rick’s suspicion. She was going to have to play it safe as long as possible… but if things where going to be like this…she grinned ear to ear as she quietly snuck into the room to her sleeping bag and laid down. She couldn’t wait to see if Rick fell for her act or not. 

—- PART THREE COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —-

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch2. You’re Not Invited

(Tags: substance abuse / harassment / intoxication / adult situations and themes / Minors DNI)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #2 —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

 The next few weeks and month ended up roughly similar to how things went that other day at school. Astrid kept finding herself in seemingly awkward or uncomfortable run ins with Rick Sanchez as she tried hanging around his grandkids more. Getting used to working at the school really started to open her eyes as to how much Rick really did show up unannounced. Always plucking Morty and Summer off the face of the Earth and going off on some insane quest for personal gains. Part of Astrid felt a little envious of all that freedom Rick had no problem abusing. Even going so far as getting a little excited when she was accidentally teleported along with the three off planet yet again. 

 “Fuck. N-not this again.” Rick groaned while  looking at Astrid in his rear view mirror. Astrid sat in the back seat next to Summer in the space ship.

 “Mr. Sanchez you’re the one who teleported me here.” Astrid almost annoyed stared directly back at him through the mirror. 

His eyes narrowed even more after receiving the comment, “Oh y-yeah. RIGHT. I’m s-supposed to know my dumb grandkids are still *burp* b-barking up the same tree.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Summer asked annoyed as Morty quickly blurted, “Please Rick! Come on! Let her come with us.” 

“It means Summer…..” Rick shouted over Morty, 

“I’m not h-humoring another little unrequited *burp* crush Morty has-“ 

Morty’s face went red as he was about to yell when Summer interrupted him, “Well what about me grandpa?! I want her around. What are you going to say to that?” 

“T-that’s self explanatory.” He smugly laughed, “You’re a stupid teenager. Y-you’d get bored of her. End up being-becoming enemies. She would end up flirt-taking your *eeeruuhg* boyfriend or something stupid and petty like that.” 

 “Well you seem to have it all figured out old man.” Astrid said sarcastically as they propped their feet up against the back of his seat. 

 “That’s it.” Rick huffed and pulled out the portal gun. 

“NO! RICK!” Morty protested. 

Rick fired his portal right next to Astrid and reached back from the driver seat and grabbed her hard by the upper arm. 

“Try again next time.” He sarcastically smiled at her and shoved her through the portal back into an empty school classroom. 

She heard Summer complain, “You fucking suck grandpa!” Right as the portal snapped shut again in her face. 

 “God. Fuck you Sanchez!” Astrid said to herself but stood up grinning. 

She thought about how fun it might be to make her new personal mission to get under Rick’s skin. She laughed and headed home. Maybe things could get more interesting if she started not taking things so seriously. Could be a fun experiment. 

  Easier said than done. It had been weeks since being kicked out of Rick Sanchez’s space ship. She had still caught wind and tail of him in the past days popping in and out of the school. However today ended up not being so great for everyone. Summer and Morty had both freaked out after a mission had almost gone wrong with Rick. They explained to Astrid not take it personally. They just needed alone time after whatever it was that went down. They refused to go into details. This made Astrid always worry about them, relating to how they felt in those moments. It reminded her of how bad training days at the agency went in the past when she was around their age. But she respected their space, worrying it could make it worse if she tried to persist on the topic. 

  It had been hard on her lately too. She had found herself on a drinking binge that previous night after yet again checking in with her Handler and being told to return back to her post. He barely looked at her these days. Always keeping his back to her. So she fell back on old habits and got too plastered to think what was a good vs bad idea. Astrid haphazardly tried to use her “magic” abilities to open a makeshift portal off planet while intoxicated to a popular strip club on a distant planet’s moon. They used to work there during their honeypot training days for the agency. In spite of their current Handler warning them not to return anywhere near the club after the “incident”. Of course they did anyway. In their drunk state of mind they figured they could at least make some cash and be a complete mess at the same time and no one would say anything. In fact the Club’s owner was almost a little too thrilled by their return. The owner went by the name Glacks Asmodeus. Playing into his roll as the said club owner of “The Room”. As loud music boomed through the building he slid over to greet Astrid.

“Hey baby, it’s been tooooo long~” he crowed to her in a sickly sweet voice. 

This sent a shiver down her spine. But she was drunk enough to power through it. She played it up as if she had missed him too. Fake love was currency here. He fancied her as his favorite trophy due to her natorious reputation around the universe.

“Hey daddy.” Astrid quickly replied and braced herself for a hug he would inevitably give her. 

He smoothed back his hair that looked like a slicked down Mohawk full of thousands of sharp quills. His body looked like that of a leather gimp suit if it were for a reptilian. He wore a large fur coat with pink,red,purple and yellow patches all over it. Under that he had a black combo of a button up, vest and matching pants. Multiple chains and pearl strands hung from his neck. And to finish it off he had pointed steel metal toed shoes with custom engraved designs of alien words in the metal. 

“Like the new coat? Hunted it myself.” He hissed proudly, “Finally decided to come back hmm?” He whispered in her ear as he came in for an overly tight and dominating hug. 

“You know I was about to send people to go find you.” he said in a joking manner even though it was clearly a threat. 

“Well you know the agency…” Astrid forced a fake smile, “They insisted I needed a little time off, but you know I couldn’t stay away from you.” She playfully glanced up at him. 

He grinned wide showing his endless rows of horrifying dagger like teeth. 

“That’s right baby.” He pulled her over to his VIP booth and sat her down on his lap with is leather glove covered hands. 

“You’ll always come back to me.” 

He grabbed her chin and took a large hit of some type of cigar and pulled her in close to his face. He pressed her cheeks together making her mouth open and blew a huge puff of smoke in her face.  

“Perfect timing, you showing up.” He laughed as she coughed, “My crew just pulled up to the docks this afternoon looking for some fun tonight.” He gripped her tightly from behind. 

“You can handle a little partying with us like old times right?” He growled in her ear, “That little incident got fixed up by the agency …right?” He curiously pried as his yellow/green reptile eyes locked in her gaze. 

“Yeah…. Completely resolved.” Astrid laughed. “Got reprogrammed with new codes and triggers.” 

“Oh really?” He hissed having a hint of suspicion in his voice, “Well that’s too bad… it was kind of fun hearing you had gone completely ape shit just because of a little office scientist.” he breathed heavily in her ear. 

“Got me all excited seeing what I could have done with all that power if I had gotten the chance.” He chuckled as the velvet curtains around the booth moved to reveal his crew entering.  

As the group of fellow shady looking aliens came in, his attention was completely taken by them as he slid Astrid off his lap to get up to say hello. Astrid knew it was going to be a long night so she took out a small bottle from her bag and chugged some more of the mystery liquor she had thrown in for this exact moment. The rest of the night was a blur again. Partying with hardened criminals, keeping up appearances and numbing the horrible discomfort she felt deep inside. But money was money. The agency only funded things that helped keep her cover. Like her apartment, food, car and gas on Earth. This made it so that she was limited in what she could do besides having a little bit of money being a teacher’s assistant. 

She’d fetch drinks for the group and put up with them toying with her for entertainment. She didn’t dance that night but clearly they got plenty of entertainment by messing with her all night as they’d throw her tips and random jewelry they had definitely stolen on “jobs” they had gone on. After having too much of quite a few different substances, she quickly slipped away from the group. Stumbling through the club’s crowd and down a darkly lit hallway to the bathroom to hide. Being that heavily intoxicated normally meant some of them would end up getting belligerent and try making real passes at her. So she tried attempting another portal back to Earth. However sometimes her “magic” abilities (outside of shape shifting and the agency’s specific training) could get a little unpredictable. Especially when she was fucked up. 

She started getting paranoid about being at the club again. The “incident” that got her in this “vacation” mess was actually partly because of an ex co worker from Cognito Inc. She started to panic and sob in the bathroom. And quickly threw up. As she muttered incoherently some spell like combination, a hole cracked open with bolts of electricity flying in and around the small bathroom. Clearly it was unstable. She continued to persist. Promising out loud to no one in particular that she’d sober up and do better next time. That she just needed a break. Just this once. 

“Please. please. please work.” She breathlessly muttered as she started to slump against the bathroom wall. 

“I know they are waiting out there for me like sharks.” She moaned looking in the direction of the locked door almost falling unconscious trying to grip onto the edges of the portal. 

“Please just send me somewhere safe on Earth.” She said loudly trying to keep herself awake. 

She just had to focus on a location… her mind wandered back to the nights she’d pass the Smith’s house on the way home from the bar. She thought about when Rick had grabbed her arm and shoved her through his portal. 

“What a dick” she thought as she slipped out of consciousness and her body fell sideways through the quickly closing portal.

 She shot through the Earth’s atmosphere like a comet. Little bits of electricity and burns appearing by her sides while slamming into someone’s front yard. She had been lucky it was in the dead of night when no one was around…. Well almost no one. Rick had been up late tinkering in the garage when he turned in the direction of a distant crash outside the house. He went to the dining room and looked out the large window to investigate. He spotted something crumpled up inside a crater that had now formed on the front lawn of the neighbor’s from across the street. He pulled his welding mask off and squinted to see in the dark. But no such luck, so he moved toward the front door wanting to find out what the mystery thing was. But as soon as he opened the front door and peered out, it was gone. He sighed and went back inside. He thought about how he could have sworn he saw something familiar..

 Astrid had momentarily gained consciousness after being awoken by the impact. The first thing she saw in the dark was the faint glow from the Smith house and Rick’s silhouette in the dining room. Her mind instantly raced to not wanting Rick to get the upper hand. She refused to be perceived as weak. With the last of her strength she forced herself up on her feet. Stumbled a bit and attempted to run but instead hobbled over to a nearby fence. Lunging up over it and collapsed on the other side of the wood boards. After she heard the front door of the Smith house open, then close again, she disappeared into the neighborhood limping it off and huffing the cold night air. Astrid wasn’t going to let Rick Sanchez have the satisfaction of finding her a mess in his neighbor’s yard. 

—- PART TWO COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —- 

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Ch1. Falling In

(Tags: Alcohol / harassment / substance use / 18+ Minors DNI)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE MEMORY CLUSTER #1  —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

 Astrid walked down the sidewalk listening to “Every Day Is Exactly The Same” by Nine Inch Nails in their earbuds while nearing the entrance of the school. Waking up with a hangover was something no one at school could tell that Astrid was dealing with most mornings. They’d simply shape shift to look completely rejuvenated even if they felt dead inside. You’d never be able to physically tell, but for some reason Summer and Morty could always tell when something was off those days. They seemed to be nicer, as if they knew and were worried. She figured it was because they were familiar with what alcoholics were like in the Smith family. Their mother and grand dad being pretty hard core raging alcoholics themselves. She had heard all about it from the kids throughout the time she had known them. She had been there for them on the occasional times both the siblings were having some kind of mental breakdown during the school day due to alcoholic family issues. That morning Morty had picked up some books she had dropped during a lesson. He smiled kind of worried at her and whispered as he picked them up handing them away to a fellow classmate, 

“H-hey Astrid are you doing o-okay?” 

Astrid smiled back and tried to play it cool, 

“Yeah Morty I’m okay. Just a little tired this morning.” 

He didn’t seem convinced but tried to take a different approach,

“You-you know.. Su-Summer and I sometimes meet up before lunch a-at her locker if you’d like to come h-hang out..I-I mean like Rick will probably show up and pull us out of s-school around then so like no pressure.. haha.” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. 

“Okay Morty. Tell Summer I’ll give her back that eyeshadow she let me borrow a few days ago when I see you two.” Astrid replied casually knowing Morty’s nerves were getting the better of him. 

“Ha! O-okay cool!” He happily but awkwardly laughed and went to sit back down. 

The rest of class went on like normal, typical boring high school history class. On the way to the next class she popped an earbud in again and “Restless” by Unkle played. Suddenly they got stopped in the hall by one of the Seniors that was known for being quite the delinquent around school. His name was Harris Hailer. He wore black ripped skinny jeans with chains hanging from the belt and a black hoodie with random spray painted words on it. Harris was known for causing problems around school but never actually showed any signs of being a real threat, well… at least that’s how Astrid felt about him. He often would come around to bother her after class. 

“Well hey hey Astrid.” He looked down his nose at her from under his long black messy bangs. 

He looked to her side and spotted Morty slightly following behind her. 

“God this little kid is always following you around school like usual hu?” He grabbed Morty by the collar and held him slightly suspended an inch or two from the ground. 

“O-oh h-hey wait!” Morty squirmed and tried to pull away from him. 

“Weird to be talking about yourself in the third person today Harris, but whatever.” Astrid replied annoyed while snatching Morty effortlessly from Harris’s grip and setting him down. 

Morty awkwardly laughed at Astrid’s comment and quickly walked on ahead a few feet towards his class as to keep away from Harris but close enough to keep an eye on Astrid. 

“Wow holy shit- you’re strong Astrid… do you work out or something?” Harris replied trying to still lay it on thick while attempting to reach his hand out and play with her hair. 

 “I don’t have time for this Harris, go to class.” She quickly replied and brushed him away while walking towards Morty. 

“Oh come onnnnnnn Astrid! Don’t be like that, you’re so FINE though..” he mockingly moaned and quickly flipped up her skirt as he passed. 

 “H-hey quit it! L-leave her alone!” Morty whined from the other end of the hall. 

“Haha whatever loser. I’ll see YOU later.” Harris smirked and continued on to whatever class he had next. 

 Astrid and Morty continued on walking towards their classes. 

“I-I don’t know why y-you put up with him every day.” Morty said angrily. 

“I won’t let him get to me, he’s just an idiot anyway.” Astrid said through gritted teeth with a fake laugh. 

She knew she could have demolished Harris with the flick of her pinky if she wanted to but she needed to keep her cover on Earth. So she let it slide knowing he was just a meaningless pest in the grand scheme of things. 

 They parted ways as Astrid came to the classroom she needed to be in for that next class, 

“See ya later Morty. Have a good class.” she said as she entered through the room. 

 Morty thanked her and waved as he turned to go to a classroom a couple of doors down. 

 This history class was Summer’s. Every morning Summer would come up to the front of the room and make short talk with Astrid before class began. Summer always seemed happy to be around Astrid. She’d always updated her on the high school drama of the senior girls, their crushes and things they were up to that week during and after school. Astrid always found the info completely useless yet entertaining. She was just happy to humor Summer as she got ready for class and waited on the teacher. 

 “Heyyyy! Did Morty ask you to come hang out with us at my locker later?” She leaned on the front desk and arched her eyebrow. 

“ I mean, like it’s not just going to be me and Morty obviously. Like some of my other friends will be there too… if Morty is getting on your nerves lately or anything.” Summer quickly insisted before Astrid responded. 

“Oh no he’s sweet.” Astrid replied “I’ll definitely come hang out with you two later. Oh and here is your eyeshadow I borrowed.” She pulled the makeup out of her coat pocket and handed it to Summer. 

“Oh thanks! How’d you like it? Did you use it for a hot date?” She produced a cheeky grin while awaiting a response. 

“It’s pretty! But… I think it’s too warm a tone on me.” Astrid replied avoiding the subject of dating entirely. 

The main teacher walked into the classroom and announced class had started. 

 “Okay we’ll talk later!” Summer winked and returned to her desk. 

Astrid would never say it but she never really needed the makeup Summer lended her in the past. Being a shape shifter made those things unnecessary. But Summer was always so excited to share things with her or invite her to places. Astrid was starting to feel guilty for blowing her off so many times previously. Recalling all the times she spent at home alone trying on some kind of lipstick or eyeshadow Summer had lent her just to kill time. But who knows maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hang out with the Smith’s for real this time. Moping around until she got a new mission was getting old. She could try her hand at having normal healthy friendships… right? 

Ever since the incident it had become painfully obvious how different her life was compared to others around her. It was an isolating feeling. She didn’t know why she kept pushing them away but never having relationships outside of her working as an agent started to weigh on her mind. There had to be more to life than what she had been trained to do. But every passing day she could feel the ache of the co-dependency she developed for her Handler and the adrenaline rushes she had gotten from her many dangerous missions. 

Maybe this is why she gravitated towards the Smith siblings. They seemed to be more relatable than most the other humans on the planet. They had seen things. They had been THROUGH it. Hearing them talk about their grandpa reminded her of previous handlers she had in the past. This always caught her curiosity. Wondering if Rick Sanchez was anything like the rumors or what her Handler had said about him. But hearing about him from the kids gave her a new insight to the said grandiose reputation that followed their grandfather around. 

  Most of the school morning came and went in a blur. After the two classes with the Smith siblings she mostly went on auto pilot listening to one earbud hidden under her hair as the other classes dragged on. Soon the school bell rang out indicating it was time for lunch period. Astrid contemplated what she should do. Technically she had already returned the makeup to Summer… she could use that as an excuse to justify not meeting up with them. Like do they actually want to hang out with a teacher’s assistant? She didn’t even know what her real age was but she definitely looked and acted older than both of them. Still they actually seemed to still want to hang. Does that mean Summer saw her as like an older sister or something? She didn’t know but paced around the empty classroom now that everyone had left for Lunch. “Faceshopping” by SOPHIE blared through her ear bud. She wondered,

“What if we all end up getting close and then the Agency gives me a mission and I have to leave?” 

She paced.

“What if I end up getting the order to go after and assassinate Rick Sanchez? Their Grandfather….” 

She paced more. 

“What if the friendships end up getting weird or toxic like the ones I made at Cognito Inc.” 

She paced even more.

“What if something like the incident happens again….?” She shook her head and pressed her back against the wall and breathed. 

“Would they hate me if they found out who I really was? Would Rick try to eliminate me once he knew the proximity his grandkids had to me?”

She looked up at the ceiling. 

“They seem like tough kids though…. They’ve definitely been trained in some ways by their Grandfather right…?” She sighed.

“I mean I’m not actually hunting them… So I’m not technically hiding anything… if they ask I’ll tell them stuff… just not everything maybe.” 

She got up.

“I can at least try to be fucking normal.” 

She left the classroom and walked briskly down the hall towards the direction of Summer’s locker. 

 She had waisted a few minutes pacing so she picked up the pace. Turning the corner Astrid could see the siblings chatting at the locker as some of Summer’s friends turned and left towards the lunch room. 

“Hey guys, sorry I got caught up after class.” 

She called to them as the two turned to look at her with big smiles on their face. 

“H-hey Astrid-“ Morty cheerfully got cut off by his sister “Omg heeeeeeyyyyyy Astrid you actually showed!” 

“Sorry you guys I’m going to be better about that.” Astrid awkwardly laughed.

“No! I mean I’m joking like you don’t have to hang with us girl, I’m just glad you want to.” Summer said nonchalantly. “Let’s go grab lunch together.” 

“Haha- yeah! I’m starving” Morty said with a smile. 

Right as “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC played in Astrid’s ear, both the siblings turned and Summer grabbed Astrid’s arm to pull her along with them. Astrid looked down and noticed her shoe had come untied. 

“Hold on guys let me tie my shoe” she said as she crouched down. 

As she laced up, she heard a noise that she was able to identify as a type of portal. 

A voice loudly announced, “SUMMER. M-MORTY. N-NO *burp* TIME!! COME WITH ME!”

Astrid heard another portal noise and suddenly fell backwards through the floor. She looked up and saw her and the siblings were falling through a pastel purple sky of an unfamiliar planet onto hard dry orange soil. Seeing a portal hole close up above their heads made Astrid realize Summer’s hand was still on her arm. Astrid brushed herself off and looked up to see Rick Sanchez now on the ground standing with them. 

“Grandpa Rick you need to start waiting until after lunch before you try to pull us on one of your adventures!” Summer yelled back at him. 

While also brushing herself off, she looked down to see Astrid next to her on the ground. 

“Oh shit-“ she started to say before Morty also yelled out “Y-YEAH! RICK! I’m tired of this!! I’m Starving right now m-man!” 

“S-stop you’re bitching you fucking pansies! T-this is important- yuuuhhrrrgg*burp* you guys need to trust Grandpa! Y-you-your Grandpa will give you something better than lunch! I have countless inventions that can make you feel like you had WHOLE MEAL!! S-shrunk down FULL COURSE MEALS M-Morty!!” He raged on at them as the siblings stood up. 

 Astrid had only ever caught glimpses of Rick when he picked up the kids from school. She mostly ever just heard him yelling something of urgency before suddenly the Smith siblings were gone out of thin air. Or the occasional moment where she would happen to see him running through the school frantically with or looking for the kids while something insane chased after him. 

 “Fuck I’m so sorry Astrid!” Summer quickly said while Astrid helped her up. 

“I didn’t mean to actually drag you into this! This is so wack right..?” Her nervous rambling went on, “Are you going to freak out now and like hate us….? I know we are like on an alien planet and everything… we can take you back to school I promise-“ 

“W-who the FUCK is that?” Rick demandingly asked. 

Astrid looked Rick in the face as Morty asked if she was okay. She suddenly realized this was the first time she was meeting THE Rick Sanchez. Probably one of the most wanted men in the universe. Considered a terrorist amongst countless planets. Yet he stood here arguing with his two grandchildren in the dirt. 

 “I’m terribly sorry sir.” Astrid spoke and extended her hand towards Rick. “Nice to meet you. My name is Astrid I’m-“ 

Morty cut her off with “she-she’s our teacher’s assistant at school!” 

“Oh yes the-*uhrp* little fucking assistant friend you two never shut up about that keeps g-ghosting you.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes, 

“God will y-you two take a hint? She obviously doesn’t want to waist her time on you.” He said annoyed as he shot his portal gun off to the side in Astrid’s direction. 

His eyebrow raised as he noted she didn’t flinch the slightest bit in surprise of her surroundings.

“S-shut up Rick!” Morty yelled, “Astrid came to h-hang out with us! Maybe we wanted to bring her with us!” 

 “Wait yeah!” Summer agreed now also noticing Astrid wasn’t freaking out about the situation and seemed fine with it. 

“She’s really cool Grandpa. Give her a chance! We could all have fun on a mission together or something!” She said practically exploding with excitement to have a friend to share adventures with.

“Fuck no.” he barked abruptly. “I’m not d-dragging around another dumb fu-fucking little friend of yours. Think about the last couple of classmates you two g-*aahhhh*-gained the privilege of losing once they realized they couldn’t fucking HANDLE IT!”  He quickly took a swig from his flask and stomped over to Astrid. 

“N-nice meeting you but I’ll t-take it from here.” He shoved her backwards through the portal and back into the school hall. 

“See you later!!” Summer quickly said to Astrid as Morty whined in protest behind her. 

“Yeah see you later.” Rick sarcastically echoed as the portal snapped shut leaving her alone in the hallway. 

—- PART ONE COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —- 

[cherryfairytwist]

RickFic Prologue

(Tags: Substance Use/18+ Minors DNI)

—- HELLO —-

—- INITIATING DOWNLOAD SEQUENCE FOR PROLOGUE MEMORY CLUSTER —-

—-PULLING UP EARLIEST ASSISTED MEMORY RECORDS —-

—- NARRATION SIMULATING NOW —-

 Astrid was finishing up their last drink at the local shitty dive bar. The lighting was dim and the place was filled with various cheap flat screen tvs. Regular patrons buzzed around the bar chatting amongst themselves. It was a distant lull of white noise to her. Astrid had drank enough to kill a large human man but still barely felt a buzz. You see they weren’t exactly “from here”. They had taken up listening to a lot of Earth’s music in the last year in a half while being relocated to Earth. “Alien Blues” by Vundabar played in their earbuds as they tapped their fingers on the bar. Ever since the incident, they had been finding it difficult to cope with the lack of action they were accustomed to. With no REAL mission what were they even supposed to do now? The waiting felt eternal. Painful. 

 They had tried getting accustomed to living as a human during the week days. On the weekends they would muster up some time to go on some kind of adventure for a cheap thrill to keep themself occupied. Making sure to never cause too much trouble bringing attention to their true identity. The last thing they wanted was for their higher ups or Handler to catch wind they weren’t quite taking the “vacation” seriously. But the vacation was bull shit. It was just a way to keep them out of the way while their Handler kept busy with his current assignment. Since the relocation, they had tried to find enjoyment by using their abilities for themself for once. But even that started to get old. Clearly they were still too valuable to their organization to be terminated. But as every passing day came to a close, a sense of doom welled up inside and made it hard not to wonder if their days were numbered. 

 They threw a couple of dollars on the counter as a tip and slid their black trench coat on. They pulled their long black hair out from underneath the collar and shook it out. As she passed a few patrons on the way towards the door they all quickly avoided her line of sight as she lit her own strange type of cigarette. They all quickly learned to leave her alone these past few months after a hand full of eligible bachelors met some painful ends of the night after trying to take a pass at her. She shoved her way out of the door into the cold early spring night. Some mist was in the air making the street lights dull and hazy. She wasn’t far from her apartment from here. They passed the Smith’s house on their way home. Sometimes they’d catch a glimpse of the family eating dinner in the dining room in the evenings if they were out earlier in the evening. 

 They knew of the Smiths because as “her”human cover they played the part as a female teacher’s assistant at the local high school. She knew Summer and Morty personally. The siblings were both in her history classes. Astrid assisted a few of the different grades there. She was actually quite fond of the two siblings. They were both good kids who definitely seemed to hang around her a lot, more than the other kids did. That is, when they happened to actually show up to school or stay long enough to finish all their classes. And yes, she had heard plenty about their grandpa Rick. Not just from them complaining or him showing up unannounced and pulling them out of school “early” most days. No, Astrid had heard plenty about Rick Sanchez from her Handler and various aliens in the universe. She knew he was a wanted man too. She had been warned to keep a low profile on Earth because of him. 

Apparently having the smartest man in the universe aware of the Agency’s doings was not a great idea. They had the policy that if they left him alone he’d most likely leave her and her team alone as they conducted business on the planet. But that didn’t stop Astrid’s curiosity from wondering if Rick was really such a threat. Being a dangerous individual themself, they often caught themself guilty of trying to size him up and obtain little bits of info from the kids. Just to see what it might be like if they were to ever find themselves enemies. But only as a curiosity. She really had no interest in being on the opposing side to Rick. In fact his grand kids made the mundane week days go by quicker when they did show up in class. Astrid found Morty to be quite sweet and considerate even if he was an awkward teenage boy. And she was actually quite close with Summer. Her being the older sibling helped, she just really vibed with Summer’s attitude and personality. Summer had often tried to invite Astrid to hang outside of school. But Astrid was still struggling with their own personal feelings as of late. So they often turned Summer down but made sure not to make it seem personal, that it was just bad timing.

You see, Astrid not only was dealing with work problems but was also dealing with problems of the heart. Their Handler had been ghosting them a lot lately and this definitely caused quite a stir of depression for them. They didn’t have very many friends on Earth. Also they didn’t really have many early memories of their years as a youth. But she did remember when they had first met their Handler. She had been smitten since. Astrid’s Handler insisted they needed time off to “relax”. He often would dismiss her any time she came back to check in with him. Claiming he was handling everything just fine and that there was nothing for her to worry about. Often times it would cause fits of rage for Astrid. Dealing with those feelings they would either blow off steam by causing mild havoc while purposefully getting lost somewhere in the universe or by trying to get as intoxicated as possible to let the emotions dull. This too was starting to get old. 

 Astrid, now at the apartment door, lazily groped around in their pocket for their keys. They opened the door and slammed it behind them, not even bothering to turn on the lights. They stood in the living room soaked in dull blue moonlight from a nearby window. She threw her coat over a black wicker chair near the door and walked over and bent down to turn on a little black vintage radio that sat atop a glass coffee table in the middle of the room. Weird unintelligible voices and static emitted from it. Sometimes she would hear scratchy whispered voices coming from it when she left it off a channel in the static. As a comfort she left it on whenever she was in the room. Astrid then went and sprawled out on their black couch and pulled out a liquor box from underneath the table. Astrid selected a random bottle from it and started to drink straight away. She had cycled through multiple songs since leaving from the bar, the song that played now in her earbuds was “Season of the Witch” by Donovan. 

They then looked at themself from the couch at a mirror that was on the wall next to the door.  They took a swig and played with their hair. They continued chugging some more while pawing and pulling at their face. Face, then to neck, neck to stomach and then all over their body violently. 

“This body” they thought, “what am I doing?” 

To a human Astrid certainty looked like a woman. Having the bodily features and details all perfect and appealing. They stood up and moved about while inspecting themself in the mirror now more blurry as she finished the bottle. Turning it to see that the label revealed they had finished their last bottle of bourbon. Now she’d be stuck with vodka until she went to the store again. They tossed the old bottle and grabbed a new bottle of vodka. They laughed pessimistically and slowly started to dance in the mirror as the song was now halfway through. As they continued to pull and paw at their body it then started to morph and change with every movement they made. She wore a  black plaid skirt and black sheer mesh top with tank but her size and shape continued to morph and change into different aliens and creatures. This caused the clothing to either stretch or wither with lack of mass supporting it up. Their colors, bone structures, texture, gender, no gender, hair, no hair, feathers, fur, scales, plastic, metal, wood, plants, fins and voice all changed and cycled continuously for a few moments. They then abruptly stopped and changed back to their human femme looking form.

“This is on of the longest I’ve kept a single form in a while.” She complained out loud to herself. 

She adjusted her outfit slightly as she morphed back. 

“But I don’t know… I guess this is the default form I always go to since I can remember.” She said with a fond but melancholic tone. 

“I guess it’s the one the kids seem to like.” She sadly smiled to herself thinking about the Smith siblings. 

“It’s the form he seems to like.” She mumbled to herself bitterly thinking of her Handler.

Astrid slid back down against the couch and slowly passed out while the song “Jingle Jangle Jingle” by Kay Kyser played. 

—- PROLOGUE COMPLETED —- 

—- SHUTTING DOWN —-

—- GOODBYE —- 

[cherryfairytwist]

Set Up for the RickFic

—-Hey again! Just making this post to kind of be a sneak peak/reference/trigger warning post for the fan fiction I’ll be making multiple chapters for! —-

So I’ve decided I’ll be introducing y’all to an equally queer/gay and fucked up main character that I think would realistically be a good match for Rick. They are going by she/they and sometime he. But it will be slowly introduced through the plot so just know it’s there. This will in fact be a super slow burn. However it will be full of action and drama as well as some spicy moments. The series will center around both how they are dealing with their own personal issues as well as how they effect each other (for better and for worse). Also Summer and Morty will be main catalysts to how the two will meet. This will definitely be full of angst so 🤪 whoops sorry. I also will try to keep it as canon with the show as possible because I think it’s fun. OH but I’ll also be doing a bit of a crossover with the series “Inside Job” and maybe one other cartoon series…. 🤔 (I’m heart broken still about the Inside Job cancellation so I need it to live on in the fanfic!!! IDC!!! You’re ganna love it anyway.) Please keep in mind I’m definitely NOT a professional writer 😅 I just have great story ideas but the actual writing part is a little hard for me! Sorry if the way I write is odd. But I hope you enjoy the little universe I made for them here.

Trigger Warnings: I’m definitely going to be bringing up harder topics such as fucked up situations, substance use, addiction and moral problems that multiple characters are dealing with and facing (in a weird way this will be therapeutic to myself since I’ve gone through rough things recently) I’ll make sure to update more specific warnings for each chapter but I’m just letting y’all know now it’s ganna get a little freaky sometimes. I got a weird mind and I need to put this shit somewhere. HOWEVER, my main character is definitely going to be an adult so anyone feeling weird about reading fanfics of Rick going after high schoolers, this is FOR YOU BABY!

[cherryfairytwist]

Possible Fan-fiction

Hey so I’m new to all this but recently I've been obsessing over a long form story for possibly an OC or Y/N x Rick story. A main character with just as much wild backstory as the other characters in the show. Like multiple chapters to kinda run along side the actual show. So like if you fellow fans are needing a hit of the ol rickamaroll then maybe I got the fix for ya. Seem interesting?

(It’ll probably be a mix of just regular action storyline with some fluff and smut..?)