"Time to get ready," Morty said, as he set the Meeseeks box down and Summer closed the portal. "I'll get our fur suits."
"Or we could just stay in ghost form all night," Summer pointed out, "though I suppose we should be seen arriving in them."
"We only have to wear them for two more nights," Morty said with a shrug.
"Yeah," Summer said thoughtfully, feeling a bit conflicted about finishing their temp job. "It's been fun hanging with you, murderous possessed animatronics aside. I'm kinda sad to see it end."
"We can still hang out," Morty quickly assured her. "I mean, we still have loads of clones to go through and we haven't even started on Mom's yet."
"Yeah," Summer said, perking up, "we've got tons left to do."
"I'll go pack us a lunch," Morty said, turning into a ghost and floating up from the floor. "Do you want ham or bologna?"
"Bologna, the pimento stuff," she replied before he phased through the ceiling.
Summer smiled and leaned back in her chair. She briefly wondered what her relationship with her brother would have been like if she'd spent time with him like she had with Morty. Logically it should have been roughly the same, but after seeing all the different possible worlds she was seriously starting to doubt that.
On screen the two Meeseeks released the two clones from their Rick Balls and vanished. The pair examined themselves, smiling broadly at their now toned and fit bodies before noticing one another and staring.
"You could cut glass with her nipples," Summer muttered and quickly switched views as the two approached one another, their intentions obvious.
The screen showed Morticia and Summer sitting at the table having pizza with a pair of Morty clones, who were dressed in T-shirts and shorts. The clones were blushing under the attention the two girls were paying them.
"Looks like she took my advice," Summer said smugly, surprised to see her other self sitting there as she hadn't thought Morticia got along with her Summer. "Guess I was wrong," she decided as she watched Summer give subtle cues to Morticia on how to flirt with Morty.
On a whim she set the console to search for Morty's original world. Morty told her it had been Cronenberged and only he and Rick had made it out, but she was curious.
The portal quickly located what she'd searched for and she stared in shock; Morty's family was alive!
Sure they were living like savages and dressed like extras from the Flintstones, but they were alive and completely unaffected by the virus that had devastated all other life on their Earth.
"Man, I am totally rocking the cave woman look," Summer said, "and look at that six pack."
She watched them for a minute, but quickly switched the portal to a random world when she heard Morty returning.
"I packed soda and bottled water," Morty told her.
"Always nice to have a choice," Summer said, unsure if she should tell Morty that his original family was alive and well. Morty was happy and loved here, besides surely Grandpa Rick knew and would have said something unless there was a good reason not to, right?
For all she knew, they'd treated Morty horribly and Rick had decided this world was better for him, she tried to convince herself.
"Yeah," Morty agreed, "and I did some more research on the pizza place."
"What'd you find out?" Summer asked, grateful for the distraction from her own thoughts.
"That there are a lot of weird people doing fan art and making stories up about the animatronics," Morty replied. "I'll send you some links on your phone."
"Well, that's one way to help pass the time," Summer said.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"Foxy and Chica?" Summer asked in disbelief as she looked at her phone, glancing at the monitor that showed the yellow bird animatronic walking about the kitchen. "I just can't see it."
"Well… foxes do eat chickens," Morty offered, trying not to laugh.
Summer groaned. "You sent me this link just to make that lame joke, didn't you?"
"Maybe," Morty said with a grin. "Anyway most of the real stuff I've discovered is just bizarre. The original place burned down, but they're pretty sure that was done by the owners to try and make up for all the money they were losing. See, it was real popular when it first opened, but a number of kids went missing and the scandal tanked their business."
"So how did the animatronics survive or are these all new ones?" Summer asked, unable to stop herself from paging through the fic.
"These are the same animatronics," Morty replied, "that's why they were so sure it was arson, even though they couldn't prove it, all the animatronics were found outside completely unharmed."
"And it's not something they were programmed for," Summer guessed. She winced as she read something. "Why would a robot fox even have a knot on its junk?!"
Morty snickered. "Yeah, some of the fan stuff is really out there."
"You can say that again," Summer agreed. "They put way too much thought into this," she muttered as she continued reading, unable to stop.
"I prefer the comedy ones myself," Morty said, "and the crossovers, like the one with the Ghostbusters."
"Ghostbusters?" she asked, finally reaching the end of the fic or at least as far as the writer had gotten before starting another story.
"Yeah, all the disappearances turn out to be part of a ritual to summon Gozer," he explained, "it was really well written."
"I think it'd cross with the Terminator franchise easier," Summer offered.
"How would that work?" Morty asked, tapping the button to close the door as the bear animatronic approached, since they had taken off the top of their suits so they could use their phones.
"Skynet sends a Terminator back and it makes the animatronics, using them to remove the leaders of the resistance when they're children," Summer suggested. "Instead of just going after John, it takes out all the competent commanders, so even if John is still around he'll have a harder time of it."
"Huh," Morty said thoughtfully, "I could see that working."
"Animatronic themed pizza places were all the rage, so he wouldn't even have to come up with something new, just set one up in the spot where his targets were and wait," Summer said. "Next thing you know, Boom! Skynet wins thanks to a knock off Chuck E Cheese."
"That would work," Morty agreed. "Anyway, we have the animatronics from the original place, which seems to be haunted and are definitely not working the way they were designed. There is a long line of dead security guards, so two guesses who's haunting them."
"Vent," Summer said, quickly suiting up.
Morty put on the top half of his Luigi-dressed-as-a-tanuki suit just before the vent was pushed out and Foxy crawled out of the vent.
The one-eyed animatronic fox with a hook for a hand stared at the two, raised his hook to wave, and walked out the open door.
"Yeah, they definitely weren't programmed for that," Morty agreed. He got up and put the vent cover back in place.
A low growling noise, that sounded like metal tearing, echoed through the building.
"What was that?!" Summer asked nervously.
"I don't know," Morty replied and quickly cycled through the cameras. "Everything looks fine."
The sound repeated causing the two to shiver.
"That's not fine," Summer snapped. "It sounds like something coming to kill us!"
"Should we check it out?" Morty asked. At Summer's look, he nodded. "Right, stupid idea. Do we hide in here or do outside patrols for the rest of the night?"
"Ghost and outside patrols," Summer decided. "We can peek a head through the walls as needed, but I think-" she was interrupted by a loud screech and the two turned towards the monitors, an unholy amalgam of animatronics, with glowing red eyes and several extra limbs was on the monitor, having come out of the store room, "-that we should continue this outside!" Summer exclaimed, quickly going ghost.
"Good idea," Morty agreed, going ghost and grabbing the cooler.
The two flew up through the building to the roof.
"This is the worst part time job ever," Summer said, as they landed on the flat tar and gravel roof.
"Which part, wearing these outfits or being chased by murderous pizza mascots?" Morty asked.
"I'm just going to go with yes," she said after a few seconds of thought.
"Know what will make you feel better?" Morty asked, feeling a lot safer being outside and wanting to cheer her up.
"No, what?"
"Boop," Morty said, tapping the nose of her suit and activating the vibrator.
"But the batteries were dead!" Summer squealed and quickly shut it off before chasing a laughing Morty through the air above the haunted pizzeria.
"I replaced them!" he called back, laughter in his voice.
Several hours later…
"I fold," Morty said, setting his cards down. They'd pulled down the tops of their costumes so they could play cards while remaining in ghost form so they could ignore the cold.
"Too bad, cause I was bluffing," Summer said with a smirk as she revealed the garbage that was her hand.
The pair ignored the angry screech coming from inside the restaurant, which had been getting more frustrated but weaker over the last half hour.
"Think it's going to give up?" Morty asked while getting the cards for another hand.
"Not till morning," Summer replied.
"We could just quit," Morty suggested halfheartedly.
"I really don't want to find out what other part time jobs Grandpa Rick would find for us if we didn't stick it out," Summer said.
"Yeah," Morty agreed, "I don't know that he could find worse, but we only have one more night after this."
The two started looking around as they sensed the haunted animatronics getting closer, but didn't see anything. They saw glowing red eyes surrounding them, appearing along the edges of the roof, as the animatronics pulled themselves up.
Morty grabbed Summer's hand and flew upwards, the moonlight shining down on the flat gravel roof revealing the mascots, eyes glowing a feral red as they gathered under them and stared.
"I'm so glad they can't fly," Summer said.
"Yeah," Morty agreed. "Should we do something about all of this?"
"All of?" Summer asked, not quite sure what he meant.
"I mean, should we get someone to perform an exorcism or ask Rick for some ghost busting device," Morty explained. "If we don't do anything, more guards are going to die and it'll be our fault."
"Morty, we didn't cause the situation, so in no way would it be our fault, but yeah we really should do something," Summer agreed.
They watched the red eyed figures stare up at them motionless for a few seconds.
"I know this is supposed to be scary, but I'm getting kinda bored," Morty admitted.
"Yeah, and I could really use a cigarette," Summer said.
"Did you leave your cigarettes in the security office?" he guessed.
"Along with everything but our lunch, which is in the cooler," she agreed, gesturing to the cooler which was next to the bear animatronic.
"Well, the office is probably empty," Morty said, "I could go grab them while you keep an eye on these guys."
"It'll be faster if I grab them," she said, "I know where they are, you keep an eye on… those creepy things."
"Alright, but be careful and hurry back," Morty said.
"It'll just take a minute," Summer said, putting back on the top half of her costume before dropping straight down and passing through the roof.
The animatronics turned to stare, the blue bunny stepping over and poking the roof to confirm it was still solid before they all turned their attention back to Morty who waved. The right arms of all the animatronics twitched and their eyes flickered for a moment before standing motionless once more.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Summer ghosted into the security office and tried to open her backpack, but was stymied by the clumsy hands of her costume. After a few seconds of struggling with it, she gave up and undid the top half so she could use her hands. "Finally," she said as she grabbed her cigarettes.
"SCREECH!"
Summer spun around and saw the mangled animatronic in the doorway. She didn't think twice, ghosting out of the bandicoot outfit and throwing it at the monster to delay it before escaping through the ceiling.
"Summer," Morty exclaimed as he saw her, "what happened to your clothes?!"
"I panicked, okay?" Summer snapped, her heart racing in her chest. "That mangled thing snuck up on me and I threw my suit at him." She examined herself. "At least I still have my underwear."
"And my shirt," he agreed, calming down.
"I probably could have ghosted through him," she said, "but I didn't want to chance it; that thing really freaks me out."
"Aren't you cold?" he asked.
"No, I guess I don't get cold in ghost form," she said, relaxing a little and trying not to blush, floating half dressed in front of him.
"Well, as long as you're okay," he said, grateful his fursuit prevented her from seeing him blush.
"Yeah," she agreed, "It was just a little scare. Of course… I still have to go back down there."
"What? Why?"
"I didn't grab my lighter," she replied.
"Let me get it," Morty said with a grin, "you don't have much more clothes to throw at it."
"Pshaw, let's see you do better when faced with that thing," she said.
Three minutes later…
Morty handed Summer her lighter. "Shut up," he said before she could say anything as he floated there, dressed only in his boxers and left sock, while she tried not to giggle.
Typing By: Abyssal Angel