#automation-rick

“Uh…” Morty stared up at the rather imposing Robot Rick, looking startled and a little scared.

After a moment, Morty snapped back to reality and relaxed, giving the other a wide smile. “Oh! Stories about me? I-I didn’t know people even t-uh,, talked about me. Did you purposely come to find me..?”

automation-rick

“Hello, lead scientist, CGZ-034,” Rick said with confidence and ease, “I believe the Galactic Federation has given me new orders from the very top, I’d like to see if my orders were changed.”

Rick quickly flashed a security card with those exact numbers and a barcode underneath. Rick, while he had been shaking hands and making false pleasantries with those drunk idiots downstairs, he swiped three security cards. One from a private cop who worked here, another was a vaccine maker, and one more was the leading scientist for the man upstairs.

Stupidly enough, and what made his day, the scientists keycard didn’t have a photo badge. Only a secret number, no actual name.

“This here,” he rolled his shoulder in Morty’s direction, “Is a younger Federation veteran, he’s here to make sure everyone’s in order. Do you know agent Tammy of the Federation? He’s working under her.”

The android scanned the card, and a green light flashed next to the device. Morty was looking at Rick with wide eyes, wondering when did he steal those without even him noticing. At the mention of his name, the boy snapped out of his astonishment. He straightened up his back and tried to appear as confident as possible, even if he wasn’t sure the android could see him.

It took him a few seconds to remember why the name of his so-called superior sounded so familiar: Tammy was his sister’s friend, and, since this party (or this disaster, from his point of view) Rick and Summer had organized, Bird Person’s girlfriend. Morty liked to come with his grandpa and his sister when they were paying them a visit.  Hearing Rick talk of her as an agent of the Federation was confusing, but now wasn’t the time to ask questions. Maybe in this dimension, she wasn’t as kind as the one he knew.

- Please, wait.

Standing at Rick’s doorstep, Morty was nervously tugging at his own sleeve. - Someone told me that it w-was safe to come to y-you for help, and… I k-kinda need a place to stay for the night.The boy was very tired, judging by the dark bags under his eyes. The “man-you-look-like-shit” kind of tired. And he was dirty. The “are-you-sure-you’re-not-a-scrappy-Morty” kind of dirty. Being this vulnerable in front of a Rick wasn’t something he really enjoyed, but in his situation, it was not like he has a lot of choices. He was running from the Council from two days, and now that he was pretty sure he had lost them, he just wanted to feel safe. Even for one night. Morty had heard about R128-Ω Rick by another Morty he had encountered a few weeks ago. He had said he could go to him if he really needed help. By instinct, it was hard for him to trust a Rick. But he also knew all of them weren’t mean. And since he had so little to loose, he would have been an idiot not to give it a try.