Chapter Text
Morty liked to think that since his traveling with Rick days that he had calmed his violence streak down a bit. Compared to his time on the purge planet for sure. It wasn’t even a comparison. Morty still felt sick just thinking about how ruthless he had been that single night. Compared to that night Morty had quelled much of his bloodlust.
That did not mean he was not bloodthirsty though.
One did not spend ample time with exposure to Rick Sanchez without coming away unscathed. Most of the time it was death, but on the off chance you lived then more than likely you’d come away a bit darker, a bit less caring, with a peculiar taste for pain.
Did Morty revel in the pain of others? Of course not. Not just anyone of course.
But traitorous scumbags?
Yeah. Those guys Morty had no problem beating the shit out of. He had a special taste for their blood, it was soothing to his life-weary palette.
Morty stepped into the familiar facility of Paachi’s smuggling business. He’d spent a lot of time going over plans and jobs with the Prinkian in this place and he was pretty familiar with most of the alien’s workers. A few waved to him in greeting as he strolled casually by, furry purple claws raised in the air. Morty, not being one to be rude for no reason, waved back.
That at least answered one of his questions. Had his mission to that VAULT™ facility really been legitimate then Paachi’s smuggling hands would’ve known about it, and the fact that they didn’t raised a few alarm bells. They wouldn’t be so casually waving to him as if he hadn’t disappeared for an entire day and been hours late with the delivery. There would’ve been questions and concern, likely meant his whole mission had been covered up.
But Morty wanted to hear it from Paachi himself.
So he kept walking through the building calm and collected, offering smiles and greetings to those Prinkians he recognized, and made his way in the direction of Paachi’s office.
And to think, he helped that little bastard build this place up. Once just a smuggling business ran out of a tiny warehouse, less than fifteen men to his name, had now become a entire building and over 200 Prinkians strong. Morty tisked in displeasure, if Paachi did betray him then the Prinkian chose the wrong side.
Morty turned the corner and Paachi’s office came into view. The door was closed and his longtime bodyguard Toorni stood out front waiting. The abnormally large Prinkian was a deep purple in color with splotches of dark blue, almost black, sprinkled across his fur (in most Prinkian culture, that darker the fur the more viral, powerful and healthy).
Toorni wasn’t looking his way as Morty approached and finally did noticed him when the human was a mere few meters away. Morty didn’t miss the way the large Prinkian’s three mouths tightened at the corners, or the way his beady black eyes seemed to widen in panic. Nor did Morty miss the minute twitch of the alien’s hand towards the communicator at his side.
That was all the evidence Morty needed. Without warning he surged forwards, white coat billowing behind him. He swiftly pulled the blaster tucked into his back waistline and immediately, but silently, shoved the nose of the weapon into the mouth on Toorni’s belly. Toorni gagged at the sudden violence.
“I-I-I wouldn’t do that if I-I were you,” Morty warned softly but no less dangerous. “Keep you-your-your claws away from that comm.”
The bodyguard’s steadily inching hand halted. Toorni’s eyes shifted towards the office behind him, Morty followed his gaze and cocked his head.
“Is Paachi in there?”
When the Prinkian didn’t look like he wanted to answer, Morty pressed the blaster further into his mouth, blue saliva began gathering and started to drip down fur.
“I’ll a-ask again Toorni. Is Paachi in there?”
“Yes,” the Prinkian growled out low from his primary mouth. Morty smiled.
“Good,” the human said. “Now Toorni, we-we’ve known each other for a long time and I’d r-r-rather not kill you if I don’t have to but I’m going to h-have to have to talk with Paachi in that office for a little while.” He pause then added, “ alone.”
Toorni narrowed his black eyes at the much shorter human, abdominal mouth now aching around the biting metal, but he didn’t say anything. Morty saw this as an agreement and moved to pull his blaster out when the Prinkian’s arm suddely twitched violetly towards his communicator and pressed down on the button.
“Boss! Smith is here-”
The Prinkian didn’t get to finish his sentence because Morty had fired a fatal blast straight down Toorni’s gullet, gray blue blood spraying the door and the large body guard collapsed to the ground dead. Morty couldn’t hear anything through the soundproof walls and room of the office but he could hear distinctly panicked shuffling coming through the communicator on the now dead Prinkian.
“Toorni? Toorni?!” The panicked voice of Paachi buzzed through.
Morty coldly stepped over the cooling corpse and ripped the communicator from the dead alien’s belt and held it up to his mouth.
“T-toorni is dead,” the scientist said fridgedly. “I-I-I hope you-you’ve got a backup plan Paachi. You picked the wrong side.”
“Smith?” Came a shocked reply. “I-” Whatever the smuggler had to say Morty didn’t hear because he had turned the communicator off.
Not a moment later he made quick work of the door, blasting off the hinges of the old fashioned design and kicking it down, only to catch sight of Paachi’s furry ass disappearing through the backdoor and several agents began shooting at Morty. The man immediately took cover behind the door while he fished out a vaporizing grenade from his pocket, chucking it into the room, and barely hearing the sounds of alarm before a bright blast signaled the vaporization of anything living in there.
He jumped over Toorni and ran into the room past piles of smoking ash and did the same with this door as he did the last. He came into a hallway that stretched out in two different directions and groaned in annoyance. Morty fiddled with his wrist watch for a moment and finally found the setting he was looking for.
His form split into two identical Morty and both immediately took off in opposite direction, blasting down doors as they went. He had never been to this part of Paachi’s facility and was unfamiliar with the layout, but he knew they were close to the telipad.
When the Morty that had ran right came across the telipad room he pressed another button on his watch, teleporting his other self to him and merging the two bodies and memories. Then he burst into the room and saw Paachi frantically fiddling with the telipad controls. Morty angrily shot blast at the panel and it exploded in the Prinkian’s face.
Paachi let out a noise of alarm and frantically backed away from the now flaming telipad control panel but Morty was almost immediately there, sweeping a leg under the alien’s feet and the large beast toppled to the ground with a groan. The human aimed his blaster at the Prinkian’s chest, where his main heartbeat.
“E-end of the line Paachi,” Morty hissed cruely. “Why’d y-y-you d-d-d-do-do it huh? You know what I do to people who betray me a-and to them of all people?” Fury burned in his chest.
“Morty! Please Morty, we’re friends aren’t we?” Paachi asked panickedly. He looked around for something to defend himself with to no avail. “Please Morty, you’ve gotta know there was nothing I could’ve done! You know how they are, how he is. How could I have said no?”
Morty rolled his eyes and ruthlessly kicked the Prinkian in the side to shut him up, “Don’t sa-ss-say my name Paachi.”
“P-p-please Smith,” the Prinkian begged. “You have to understand I had no choice!”
“No choice?” Morty raised a brow, “You could’ve come to me. I would’ve helped you. But n-n-no, instead yo-you thought it would b-b-be be-be-better to lead me straight into a trap.”
Paachi nervously laughed, but it was almost mocking. “Come to you? Please Smith, you couldn’t have protected me! And what would you have me do? Abandon my entire operation? I have workers to pay, they have families to feed, I’ve got a family to feed!” The alien’s face contorted into something ugly, “And for what? It’s not like he would hurt you in anyway whereas I would be forfeiting my life and my men’s lives if I hadn’t agreed to help him- Oooff! ” Morty had kicked him again.
“So you’d have me be a prisoner,” the human viciously stated. “I helped you build this entire operation Paachi. You have me to thank for all this and this is how you repay me?”
Paachi, having grown furious with the conversation, spat at the human. “Well I guess this is what I get for dealing with a fucking Rick.”
Morty’s eyes were cold, “I am not a Rick.”
“You sure about that- Urgh!”
Morty didn’t stop kicking at the giant alien until his leg was sore, and then he kicked a couple of more times just to push home the point. He was breathing heavily by the end of it and the Prinkian was moaning lowly in pain.
“I will not go back to being a prisoner,” Morty hissed. “You’re lucky we were friends Paachi or you death would be far more painful.” He readied his blaster.
“You’re-” Paachi coughed out gray blue blood. “Full of shit Smith.”
Morty blasted his face in.
~*~
After those emotional last few hours Morty had expected to come back to his hideout and rest for a bit, really just let the last few days soak out of his body. Maybe he would visit Summer and catch up a bit with his big sister.
Except the moment he stepped back into his lab it was the the sight of destroyed machinery and ruined workstations, notes and papers throw about everywhere, and cabinets rummaged through. At first he was fucking pissed and immediately knew this was the work of that last hound, which meant this position was definitely compromised and would need to be disposed of completely and virtually unusable now. And even though this in and of itself was an annoying revelation it was the other implication that really set Morty on edge.
The fact is that the hound was no longer in his lab, which could only mean that it had reopened one of Morty’s portals from here (by reaching in and tearing open the weak spot in reality that Morty’s portals had already created). There had only been four portals opened here recently and two of those were to enter the lab (including the one Morty just opened), and judging by the damage and stillness of the place the hound had left quite some time ago. Enough that if it had followed Morty he likely would’ve ran into it at Paachi’s warehouse.
Which could only mean one thing.
“Fuck.”