Rick and The Loud House

"Sigh." Lucy groaned as she arrived home. She hadn't had the best day at school as Haiku was still upset with her for the biting incident and the rest of the club were still somewhat scared of her (apart from Boris for some reason). She had decided to go on a nightly stroll to try and clear her head, though it didn't help much.

"Guys, this looks so good!" Lucy heard Leni's voice from upstairs.

As Lucy made her way upstairs, curious about what was going on, she heard Lori say. "We should literally be interior designers!"

Lucy entered the bathroom to see all of her siblings painting the walls pink. "Hey, guys." All of them jumped and gasped in surprise. "Why are you painting the bathroom my least favorite colour?"

"Uh, duh! We voted on it at the sibling meeting, remember?" Lynn replied.

...

Earlier, while Lucy was out, the siblings were gathered in Lori's room as she held two cans of paint. "So, based on the leftover paint in the garage, our options are pink..." She giggled as she raised the pink can. "...or black." She frowned as she raised the black can. "All in favor of pink?"

Leni, Luan, Lola, Lily and Lori herself raised their hands. "Aye!"

Lori frowned. "Black?"

Luna, Lynn, Lincoln, Lana and Lisa raised their hands. "Aye!"

Lori sighed. "Looks like it's a tie. Guess we'll just have to settle this on a coin flip." She got out a coin. "Heads for pink, tails for black."

As Lori flipped the coin, Lincoln then realised Lucy's absence. "Hey, shouldn't we ask Lucy what she'd-"

"And it's heads. Pink it is!" Lori interrupted. The siblings that voted pink cheered while the rest just shrugged.

...

"Sigh. Well, I wasn't there. But of course, as usual, no one noticed."

Lola raised an eyebrow at Lucy. "Oh, come on! Exaggerate much?"

As Leni kept painting the wall with a roller brush, she then accidentally painted Lucy with it. "Whoops. Sorry, I didn't notice you." She gave Lucy a poke on the nose.

...

After cleaning herself up, Lucy growled to herself as she carried her Edwin bust into the attic. As if her problems at school weren't bad enough, she was now reminded of the fact that all of her siblings seem to forget that she's even there most of the time. This wasn't the first time she found herself ignored. She whimpered as she placed the bust onto a box. "Edwin, no matter what I do, my siblings walk all over me. At least when things get bad, I can go to my secret dark place." She looked around, realising that the attic was cluttered with stuff. "Which they've filled with their junk. Typical. Sigh." She picked up a broom to push all the stuff out of the way. She then came across a trunk which she then tried to push out of the way before noticing a tag on it. "Oh, look. This trunk belonged to Great Grandma Harriet." She opened the trunk and picked up a photo of her great grandmother who had sadly passed away sometime before Lucy was born. "She was a pretty cool lady. See?" She showed the photo to her Edwin bust.

The photo of her was an old photo from when she was a child. She had a striking resemblance to Lucy though she wore white pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, a black dress with a brown waistband and brown cuffs and a brown 1930's hat. Lucy then got out a crystal ball and some fake skulls before noticing a secret compartment at the bottom of the trunk. "Ooh. What's this?" She opened the compartment to find an old book inside. She picked it up a blew the dust away before reading the title. "Ancient Book of Spells. Whoa!" She opened the book and looked through the spells. She started grinning. Maybe a curse or two will get through to her siblings.

"Hey, Lucy, what are you doing?"

"Gah!" Lucy jumped, not realising that Rick had come into the attic.

Rick's eyes widened as he noticed the trunk. "Oh shit! I didn't know Lynn kept all this stuff!"

Lucy watched as Rick looked inside the trunk. "You...knew Great Grandma Harriet?"

Rick turned to her with a raised eyebrow. "Well duh! She is my mother after all."

Lucy gaped in shock. She knew she shouldn't be that surprised but she was finding it hard to believe someone like Rick was raised by someone like Harriet. "Really? What was she like?"

Rick smiled nostalgically as he looked back on the memories of his childhood. "Oh, she was great."

...

A young Rick stared through the window of the toy store. A new toy car had just come out and he really wanted it. "Mom, can you buy me that? Please?" He asked, pointing towards the car."

His mother frowned. "Sigh. Don't you already have a toy car? This would just be a waste of money."

"But it looks really cool!" Rick argued.

"Cool? It's a car. They exist to get us from point A to point B. There's nothing special about them. There's far more interesting things that exist in this universe. You should focus on something more worthwhile."

...

"Yep. Wouldn't be the man I am today if it weren't for her." Rick then noticed the book Lucy was holding. "Oh hey, that's Mom's old spellbook." He then took the book and started flipping through it.

"Um. Does it work?" Lucy asked.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Course it doesn't work. Mom was convinced it did though. She was always obsessed with spells and witchcraft and all that crap."

Lucy slumped. "Sigh."

"What did you want to use this for anyway?"

"I got sick of my siblings always ignoring me so I was hoping I could...curse them." Saying it out loud, she started to feel a little guilty for thinking like this.

Rick didn't seem too bothered. "I mean I can pretty much do all this stuff myself so, you know, you always have that option."

"But...isn't that kind of...immoral?"

Rick sighed as he put the book down. "Listen, stuff like good and evil isn't real. There's only two types of people in this world. Smart people and idiots. I know you're a smart kid, Lucy. But when you're as smart as me, you realise nothing really matters. When you know nothing matters, the universe is yours. And I've never met a universe that was into it. The universe is basically an animal. It grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them. You know, smart people get a chance to climb on top, take reality for a ride, but it'll never stop trying to throw you. And eventually it will, unless you put a saddle on your universe and let it kick itself out. You understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

Lucy thought about what Rick said. She understood the gist of it. Take control of your life and don't let others pull you down. It kind of reminded her of something Luna had talked about. About how pointless it was to worry about all the bad things happening in the universe as the universe was infinite. Therefore, it was impossible to try and fix everything wrong with it. Lucy knew the universe was a cold and dark place. Maybe Rick's right about not letting it affect her any more. "I think...I see your point."

Rick nodded in approval. "Hey uh, me and Lincoln were gonna go on a ride through space. You coming?"

Lucy smiled. "Sure."

...

Lincoln and Lucy sat in the back of Rick's cruiser as he casually cruised through space. Lincoln gave Lucy an apologetic look. "Hey Lucy, sorry about the whole bathroom thing."

"It's fine." Lucy replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. After thinking about it, the colour of the bathroom isn't really that important."

The two then heard a splat. They looked forward and yelped as they saw a big alien bug had splatted against the front window. "Relax kids. That's what windshields are for." Rick said.

"I didn't know there were bugs out in space." Lincoln remarked.

"Well, w-what did you think, Lincoln? Life just developed on earth by itself? Here, let me take care of this." Rick then activated the windshield wipers though all it did was make more of a mess, smearing the bug all over the windshield.

"Ok, that's disgusting." Lucy said.

"Yeah, I really don't want to keep looking at that." Lincoln added.

"Yeah, guess I'm out of fluid. L-Let me find a place to stop." Rick flew the cruiser over to a nearby planet. This planet was populated by light brown furred, cat-like humanoids. The clothing and buildings looked similar to those of amish culture. Rick stopped in front of a man wearing glasses and rolled down his window. "Hey, muchacho, does your planet have wiper fluid yet, or are you gonna freak out and start worshipping us?"

The man pointed towards a nearby building. "The general store ought to have what you need."

"Thanks."

"Of course, you'll be wanting to be gone from here by sundown."

"Yeah, sure thing." Rick started to roll his window back up before pausing and rolling it back down. "Wait a minute. What? Why?"

"Sundown is when the festival begins." The man cheerfully replied.

"The festival?" Lincoln asked.

"Ooh, well, for millennia, our society has been free of crime and war, living in perfect peace." The man explained.

"Oh, I know what this is!" Rick said excitedly. "You've been able to sustain world peace because you have one night a year where you all run around robbing and murdering each other without consequence."

"That's right."

"What?!" Lincoln exclaimed in horror.

"It's like 'The Purge,' Lincoln. That movie 'The Purge'?" Rick explained.

"The...Purge?" Lincoln asked apprehensively.

"I've seen that film. It kinda sucks." Lucy remarked.

"Oh, have you been here before?" The man asked.

"No, no, but I've been to a few planets with the same gimmick." Rick explained. He then turned to Lincoln and Lucy. "You know, sometimes it's called the cleansing or the red time. There was this one world that called it just murder night. I-It's a purge planet. They're peaceful and then, you know, they just purge."

Lincoln stared at Rick in shock. "That's horrible!"

"Yeah." Rick then grinned. "You want to check it out?"

...

As Lincoln hurriedly filled the cruiser up with the wiper fluid, urgent to get off this planet while Lucy waited in the cruiser, Rick started up a conversation with an elderly man sat on a rocking chair. "So, what do you do during the festival? You lock yourself in, or you go out and do some stuff?"

The man grinned sinisterly. "Oh, I do some pretty bad stuff."

"Oh, I bet you do, old timer." Rick laughed.

As Lincoln finished, he nervously glanced at the sun as he shut the door hatch. "Um, Grandpa Rick, can we please hurry up? I really don't want to stick around here."

"All right, well, w-what do I owe you for the wiper fluid?" Rick asked the elderly man.

"It's on the house."

Rick smiled. "Oh, no way. That's really nice of you."

"I'm a nice guy... For now." As the man said this, Lincoln again glanced at the setting sun.

"Ohh, I don't doubt it." Rick chuckled. "Hey, have a good festival, old timer."

"I intend to."

After Rick got into the cruiser, Lincoln attempted to open the door, only to find it locked. "Um, Grandpa Rick, could you please unlock this?!"

Rick appeared to be watching the sunset. "Just a second, Lincoln. Oh, look at that sunset."

Lincoln scowled. "Rick!"

Rick then unlocked the door as Lincoln quickly got back in. He then activated the windshield wipers. This time, the mess was washed away. "There we go. Much better. Now we can see."

"G-Great..." The longer they were here, the more nervous Lincoln was starting to get.

As the cruiser set off, the sky started to turn to a dark shade of red as it started to get closer and closer to nighttime. "Hey, you know what, Lincoln? Why don't we christen our squeaky-clean windshield here by watching a little of this purge through it?" Rick suggested.

Lincoln looked at Rick in disgust. "What?! Why would we wanna watch any of this?"

"I don't mind." Lucy said.

Lincoln gave Lucy a look of shock. "W-What?!"

Lucy shrugged. "It's not like it matters. If they're okay with doing this, I don't see anything wrong with watching."

Lincoln could hardly believe what his younger sister was saying. He knew she was dark but he never knew she was this dark. "B...But why would either of you want to watch this? It's just people killing each other!"

"Lincoln, grow up." Rick snapped. "If you don't want to watch, don't watch but, you know, it's my car."

Lincoln gave both of them appalled looks. "How could either of you be into this?"

Rick rolled his eyes. "Lincoln, the only reason you're not is because you're afraid of your own primal instincts. So you stuff them down and-" The three then heard a bell chime as it was finally nighttime. "Oh, oh! Shh. Shh. It's starting." Both Rick and Lucy looked out the window, seeing the townspeople already starting to riot. "Oh-ho-ho! Here we go."

Lincoln folded his arms. "You two are sick. I'm not watching."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, your medal's in the mail." Rick snarked. "I'm gonna get a closer look." Rick flew his cruiser closer to the action. He and Lucy watched as the townspeople slaughtered each other with various farming tools. "Whoa, they are purging the fuck out of each other!" As blood started to splatter on the window, Rick's grin started to fade. "Oh my God. Oh!" Rick fliched as a large amount of blood splattered on the windshield. He then activated the windshield wipers. "That was...okay, yeah. T-That was gross."

Likewise, Lucy's enthusiasm quickly faded as she watched the purge. Turned out that watching characters in a horror movie get slaughtered was much different then watching real people get slaughtered. She started to feel queasy. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

"Wow. Man, I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach on this one, kids. Ugh. My appetite for purge-spectating got filled pretty quick. Oh God." Rick started to retch as he opened the window and started to puke out of it.

Lincoln and Lucy then heard screaming. They looked out the window to see a teenage girl with brown hair and a blue dress with a white apron surrounded by three men with weapons, backing her into a haystack. She waved around a lit torch to keep the men away. "Get away from me! No! No! Help! Somebody help me! Aah!"

"All right, kids. L-Let's get out of here." Rick said after recovering from his puking session.

"Wait, hold on. We have to save that girl!" Lincoln pleaded.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Uh, Lincoln, in space, we have something we call the non-interference policy. We got the wiper fluid. We watched them kill each other. We're leaving."

Lincoln scowled at Rick. "Help me save that girl, or I'm telling Mom and Dad you brought us here."

Rick narrowed his eyes at Lincoln. "You little turd." The three then heard screaming again.

"Please! Leave me alone!" The girl begged.

One of the men grinned evilly at her. "Leave you alone? During a purge? I don't think so, baby!" The man was then squashed by Rick's cruiser. Rick got out of the cruiser and shot another man with his lazer gun while the last man ran away.

The girl dropped her torch and cowered away from the three approaching her. "It's okay. We're not gonna hurt you." Lincoln reassured her. "My name is Lincoln. This is my sister and my grandpa. We're tourists."

"Not anymore." Rick said as he noticed a crowd of people heading towards them. He got out his laser gun and started firing at them. After a couple kills, he started grinning. "Oh my God. This is fucking awesome! Lucy, this is really cool. Hey, y-you want to help me out here and kill some people?" He got out another laser gun and handed it to her. "It's fun. We're totally justified because we're saving a little girl. I mean, w-w-we're all free and clear to murder these people."

Lucy stared down at the gun, unsure of what to do. After what Rick said, she thought she'd be fine with doing something like this now. It might even help her vent out some frustrations. Yet, she still couldn't help but feel hesitant. "Um...I-I don't..."

As this was happening, Lincoln was talking to the girl. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." She gasped. "I have to find somewhere to hide."

"Well, don't worry, you can hide with us. Grandpa Rick?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we could take..." Lincoln turned to the girl. "What was your name again?"

"Arthricia."

"Could we take Arthricia up in the ship until this purge is over?"

Rick stopped firing and gave Lincoln an annoyed look. "Oh, Lincoln, how can I refuse after all you've done to blackmail me?"

The four quickly ran into the cruiser as Arthricia sat up front with Rick. As Rick set off, Arthricia looked around the inside of the ship in wonder. "Your vehicle...is it from the gods?"

"Yes." Rick replied.

"No." Lincoln replied.

"Huh?" Lucy responded.

After Rick flew high enough above the town, Arthricia, looked out the window, watching the carnage continue. "So why did your people start doing this anyway?" Lincoln asked.

She turned to Lincoln with a sullen look. "Well...it-" She then gasped. "My Nana!"

Rick raised an eyebrow at her. "Huh?"

"My Nana! We have to save her."

...

After following Arthricia's directions, Rick landed the cruiser near a house in some kind of swamp. "You just now remembered your Nana exists." Rick interrogated Arthricia.

"I-I was traumatized." She stuttered.

"Haven't you been through like, fifteen purges? I mean, some as a child?"

"Will somebody just help me get her?" Arthricia pleaded.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. Lincoln, Lucy, stay."

Rick got his laser gun out as he and Arthricia got out the cruiser and went into the house. Lincoln and Lucy stared at the house for a moment before suddenly, their eyes widened as lasers started coming out of the house. "W-What's going on?" Lucy asked nervously.

Arthricia then bursted out of the house, holding Rick's lazer gun. She then aimed the gun towards Lincoln and Lucy. "Get out! Get out!"

Lincoln and Lucy stared at her in shock. "W-What?" Lincoln stuttered.

"Get the fuck out of the flying machine!" Arthricia shouted as she fired the gun upwards to threaten them. Both of them yelped as they quickly got out of the cruiser, raising up their hands. Arthricia then walked around them. "Back up!" Both of them whimpered in fear as they stepped away from the cruiser. Once she knew it was safe, Arthricia then got into the cruiser. She calmed down and gave both of them an apologetic look. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry, but that's not really worth anything tonight, is it?"

"W-Why are you doing this?" Lincoln asked as Arthricia started up the cruiser. "Wait please! You can't just leave us! We'll die out here!" Lincoln's pleading fell on deaf ears as Arthricia clumsily took off in the cruiser. While Lincoln stared despairingly at the cruiser, Lucy growled in frustration.

Both of them then ran into the house to find that it had been set on fire. Rick was lying on the floor, bleeding from the side of his stomach. "Lincoln! Aah! Fucking Amish bitch shot me!" Rick grunted. "She tried to purge me, Lincoln. You tried to play superhero and now I'm dead."

"Rick, she took the car!" Lincoln informed him.

"You fucking kidding me, Lincoln?!" Rick snapped. "She took my car and the gun. We're like the rest of these assholes now. W-W-We're gonna get purged, Lincoln. Help me up."

Lincoln and Lucy helped Rick get up and carried him out of the house. "Wait, Grandpa Rick, why don't we just use your portal gun?" Lucy asked.

"Because I left it in the car." Rick grunted. "Oh, God, it hurts. She got me right in the goddamn liver, Lincoln. It's the hardest working liver in the galaxy, Lincoln and now it has a hole in it. I hope it was worth it."

"I-I was just trying to do the right thing," Lincoln tried to explain.

"Yeah, well, that's not really the theme of tonight's party." Rick then noticed a mob heading towards them. "Oh great. Wait, Lucy! You still have the gun I gave you right? Quick, purge them!"

"M-Me?" Lucy stuttered.

"No, me. Should I rub my liver hole on them? Just shoot them!" Lucy got out the gun and aimed at one of the men coming close to them. Lucy's hand trembled for a moment before freezing up. Luckily, Rick noticed this. "Oh my God." Rick quickly got out a small device and threw it towards one of the men. The device electrified the man, leaving nothing but ash behind. Seeing this caused the rest of the mob to pause. Rick then picked out something else from his coat pocket. "There's more where that came from! You want to get purged, you bring it! Drop your shit! Drop it all." The rest of the mob fearfully dropped their weapons. Rick then whispered to Lincoln. "Lincoln, go get their shit. Hurry up. I only had one of those things I threw. I'm holding a box of tic tacs right now."

...

Back at the Loud house, Lori was sat on her bed, texting with Bobby before receiving a call. She groaned as she realised the call was coming from Rick before answering it. "What do you want Rick?"

"Hello to you too." Rick responded. He was currently in another house, mixing various liquids together. "Listen I need you to do me a favor. Lincoln, Lucy and I are on a planet that's purging. I need you to take down-"

"Purging? You mean like the movie 'The Purge'?"

"Yes, I-I need you to take-"

"There's actually planets like that? And why did you take Lincoln and Lucy to a place like that?!"

"Look, long story short, this is all Lincoln's fault. We lost our car and we're in a purge. Now hold on a sec." Rick put the phone on speaker mode and put it down on the table.

"Rick, I swear if anything happens to my siblings..." Lori threatened as Rick got out a dropper and used it on the liquid in the bowl that he had been mixing before squeezing a drop on the spot where he had been shot.

"Aah!" Rick winced in pain.

"What was that?" Lori asked.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Grar!" A man holding a bloodied up rake then bursted into the house. Rick immediately got out the laser gun he had taken back from Lucy and shot the man in the head while Lincoln and Lucy hid behind the table.

More townspeople then tried getting into the house, only to be shot down by Rick. As this was happening, Lincoln spoke on the phone. "Lori! We need you to take down this number!"

"Lincoln? What's going on? Are you and Lucy okay?"

"No. I'll explain later."

Rick quickly ran over to the table. "Are you writing this down? Will you please write this down?"

"Write what down?"

"7-7-1-9-8..." Another man then came in. Rick quickly jumped across the table to shoot him dead. "3-6-4-2-1-1-2-5."

"W-Wait, let me get a pen first!"

Rick slumped. "Oh my God..."

He was then caught off guard by a man running in with a knife, causing him to drop the gun. Rick tried to defend himself by holding the man's wrists though the man's strength caused Rick to fall to the floor, still trying to hold off the man that was currently on top of him. "You son of a bitch! Kids, I don't want to be the 'a little help' guy, but a little help?"

Unsure of what to do, Lincoln threw a spoon over to Rick. Rick decided to make do and stabbed the man in the eye with the spoon before punching him, knocking him out. "Okay, I have a pen. Go." Lori said.

Rick sat up. "7-7-1-9-8-3-6-4-2-1-1-2-5." He stood up and turned to Lincoln. "A spoon, Lincoln? A spoon?!"

"I'm sorry. I-I panicked."

"Yeah clearly. Lori, on the shelf above my workbench in the garage, there's a red box with a keypad on it. You're gonna take that box outside and you're gonna type the number I just gave you into the keypad. Got it?"

"Got it."

...

Rick carried his laser gun as he and the two siblings made their way towards a lighthouse on top of a cliff next to the ocean. "Kids, if I can get to the top of that lighthouse, I can send the beacon, and your sister can launch our package. Just remember, if there's people in there and they try to purge us, we got to purge them first."

"Shouldn't we try to avoid killing anyone as much as possible?" Lincoln asked.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Lincoln, this isn't the time to be playing Ace Savvy. It's kill or be killed out here."

"Grandpa Rick's right. Besides, they'll inevitably end up killing each other anyway. Who cares what we do?" Lucy added.

Lincoln gave Lucy a critical look. "Is that really what you think, Lucy?"

Lucy went silent, not really sure how to answer that. Like Rick had said, her killing anyone here would be completely justified and she would suffer no consequences for it. And yet it just didn't feel right to her. She couldn't bring herself to actually do it. Was she just a coward? It's not like one kill would really have much of an effect on her life. Would it? As she was lost in thoughts, she hadn't time to answer that question before Rick rang the doorbell to the lighthouse. The person to answer it was an elderly, bespectacled man wearing a brown vest with a red bowtie. He raised his hands defensively. "I take no part in the festival. If you desire to kill me, I only ask you do it quickly."

"No such agenda, chief." Rick reassured him.

"We were just hoping to get on the roof of your lighthouse so we can send a beacon to my sister on earth. It's a different planet." Lincoln explained.

"By the way, life on other planets exists. Don't let it distract you." Rick added.

"I'll let you use my lighthouse for shelter and beacon-sending on the condition that you listen to my tale." The man offered.

Rick shrugged. "Ok."

Lincoln smiled. "Deal."

"All right, I'm gonna go to the roof and set things up." Rick explained. "Lincoln, Lucy, you listen to his tale."

"Ok." Lincoln said.

...

The interior of the lighthouse was also the man's home as Lincoln and Lucy noticed his bed along with a stove and a cupboard filled with cooking utensils. Lincoln and Lucy were sat in the centre of the room on a wooden bench while the man sat in front of them on a rocking chair next to a stump which had a single candle lighting up the room. To his other side was a coffee table which had a pile of scripts on it. He picked up one of them and blew off the dust before he cleared his throat and started to read it. "'Fade in. Exterior. Unnamed city. Day.' The hustle and bustle is a symphony of progress. We pan past windows, each of which contain a different story, to find Jacey Lakims, 28...hot, but doesn't know it. Jacey stops when her high heel gets caught in the grating of a sewer. Suddenly, a man steps into frame and points a gun at her. This is not her day. Fade to black. Title...'three weeks earlier.'" While Lucy listened with interest, Lincoln couldn't help but stare at the man in confusion.

...

Rick was at the top of the lighthouse, attaching the beacon that he had made with whatever he could find, which included a fishing rod and an alarm clock, to the railing. "Come on, Lori. How hard is it to type some numbers into a box?"

The beacon then started beeping as a voice then came from it. "Target locked."

"Oh, thank God." Rick then leaned against the railing, getting out his flask. "Well, I did my job. Lori did her job. Now all Lincoln and Lucy have to do is finish listening to that tale."

...

"Blane: Maybe I don't need a new friend. Jacey: Maybe you're the only friend I need. Blane: Need, or want? Jacey: I've never been much for wanting. Blane: Spoken like someone with needs." At this point, Lincoln looked bored out of his skull while Lucy looked unimpressed. "Jacey reaches out and touches his face. It's clear he needs what she wants. She's a woman. He's a man. The city burns in the background as he takes her in his arms. Fade out. Title... 'The End...Question mark.'"

"Um..." Lincoln tried to think of what to say about that. "That was...cool."

"You liked it?"

"Uh, yeah."

The man frowned. "You didn't laugh at the scene in the bar."

"I-It was funny. I just wanted to hear the rest is all."

"Do you have any thoughts? Notes?"

Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "Not really. I liked it. It sounded fine to me."

"Seems a little insincere."

"What? No."

"You don't have to mollycoddle me. I want to improve my writing. Tell me your real thoughts."

"Well to be honest." Lucy then said. "I thought some of the scenes were a little cliché. Like the 'three weeks earlier' thing. It's kind of-"

Before Lucy could continue, the man stood up with an offended look on his face. "Get out."

"Um, what?" Lincoln asked as both of the siblings looked at the man in shock.

"No, I'm sick of this. You bang on my door, you beg me to help you, I share something personal with you, and you take a giant shit on it."

"I thought you said you wanted us to be honest?" Lincoln asked. He then stood up. "And all we wanted was to put a beacon up."

"Well, you can't. I want you out of here. Your sister's a petty person and she's insecure and she's taking it out on me. That's a good script."

The man then made his way upstairs, Lincoln and Lucy followed after him. "Wait, I'm sorry. Please don't make us leave." Lucy pleaded.

"I don't care. I want you out." The man said as he reached the top of the lighthouse.

"What?" Rick asked, turning around.

"Take that thing down. Your granddaughter is a shitty person. Leave now."

The man's scathing comments caused Lucy to shrink back. Upon seeing this, Lincoln started to get angry. "Hey, you can't talk about my sister like that."

The man put his hands on his hips. "It's not my fault she can't handle the truth."

"Hey, you're the one that can't handle the fact that your screenplay sucked!"

"Whoa, Lincoln! We're guests here." Rick said.

"I'm taking down this beacon and I want you, your grandson and your awful granddaughter to get out of here." Before the man could walk over to the beacon, Lincoln stepped in front of him with a look of fury on his face, causing the man to pause. He growled in anger. How dare this guy talk about his sister like this. This adventure was awful enough and he was starting to lose his patience with the people on this planet. Lincoln wasn't normally a violent person but at this point, he really felt like punching this guy's lights out.

Before he could do something he may have ended up regretting, he felt Lucy's hand on his shoulder. "Sigh. Let's just leave."

Lincoln turned to her as his anger dissipated. "Huh?"

"I don't want to cause any trouble. Maybe it's best if we just left."

Rick gave both of them annoyed looks. "Uh, are you two forgetting that we kinda need this?"

The beacon then started beeping. "Beacon arriving."

"Huh. Well that's convenient."

...

After leaving the lighthouse, the three walked over to a nearby field. "You know, for the record, you two could have totally gotten away with murdering that guy if you really wanted to."

Lucy slumped, starting to feel mentally exhausted. "Sigh. He may have been a jerk, but that doesn't mean he should've died for it."

Rick raised an eyebrow at her. "Geez, Lucy. You seemed fine with all this earlier. What happened."

"I...guess I just don't have it in me to actually kill anyone. Even if it's justified."

Rick then noticed another mob heading towards them. "Well you might want to rethink your stance on that Lucy." Rick then noticed the elderly man he had talked to earlier was at the front of the mob. "Hey, there he is."

"Here I am." He said as he held up a spiked bat.

The three backed off from the mob until they started to hear a whirring sound. An orb-like probe with two circular, red screens landed in front of them and opened up, extending upwards. Rick pressed a button on it, making it assemble suits of weaponized flying armor onto their bodies. "If you two still don't want to kill anyone, I suggest you both stand back." Rick's arm then fired a rocket towards the mob, blowing up some its members before he used both of his arms to fire lasers at them.

While Rick was handling most of them, he didn't notice one slip by him, approaching Lucy. Upon seeing him, Lucy aimed her arm at him. Yet once again, she found herself freezing up. "D-Dang it..."

"Grargh!" The man raised his axe towards her. However, before he could attack, he was then shot in the head, immediately killing him.

Lucy looked over at who had shot him. To her shock, it was Lincoln himself who had done this. "Lincoln, you...you killed him?"

"O-Of course I did." Lincoln said, seeming a little rattled by what he had just done. "If I didn't, he was going to hurt you. I don't like it, but I couldn't let that happen to you, Lucy."

Lucy stared at her brother in surprise. This whole time, she had been feeling like her siblings barely cared about her. Lincoln putting aside his feelings about killing to save her had showed her just how wrong she had been. Touched, she ran over to Lincoln and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you, Lincoln."

Rick then approached the two after finishing killing the rest of the mob. "Whoa. I saw what happened. Lincoln, you just purged."

Lincoln gulped, not feeling proud about that at all. "I-I only did it to save Lucy!"

Rick shrugged. "Whatever you say. All right, let's go find my ship." The three then activated the rockets on their feet as they flew over the town. Rick eventually spotted his cruiser, which had crashed into a building. "Hey, hey, kids, kids. There it is down there... my ship. It looks to me like the bitch crashed it."

Arthricia crawled out of the ship and across the ground until she came across three pairs of legs. She looked up to see Rick, Lincoln and Lucy glaring down at her as Rick pointed his arm at her. "Wait, stop! Please, don't kill me!" She pleaded. "I-I never intended to harm you, I swear. I am trying to end the festival."

"W-W-What do you mean?" Rick asked.

"I was going to use your ship to destroy the rich assholes that run our society and save my people from the horrors of this yearly festival." Arthricia explained.

Rick thought about it for a moment. "Well, hey, I'm always up for killing rich, old bastards."

Lincoln glared at her. "Are you sure we can trust this dirtbag?"

Arthricia got up and clasped her hands together. "Please. These people only care about themselves. Lots of people have spoken out against the festival but they do nothing but ignore and disregard the rest of us, no matter what we do. If they're gone, we could stop all of this killing."

"I think we should trust her." Lucy then said.

Lincoln turned to her. "You sure?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes. I know how it feels like to be ignored and disregarded."

"Ok. Well then, where are these rich people?" Rick asked Arthricia.

...

After taking the armour off Lucy and giving it to Arthricia (since Lucy obviously wasn't going to use it), the group flew over to a giant mansion far away from the rest of the town. "Ok, since neither of you want to join in, both of you can just stay out here. Lincoln, if you see anyone, protect your sister."

Lincoln nodded. "Got it."

Rick and Arthricia then entered the mansion. Lincoln then turned to Lucy. "Lucy, can I ask if anything's bothering you lately? You've been acting kinda...dark today. Well, darker than usual."

Lucy slumped. "Sigh. Lately I've been wondering if anything really matters."

"Why would you think like that?"

"Well, it feels like my sisters don't think I matter. I guess if nothing really mattered, why let anything stop me from doing what I want. Though, I guess murder isn't really something I want. I guess I just got so fed up with the way you guys walk all over me."

Lincoln sighed. "Lucy, I'm sorry you feel like we've been ignoring you. But you could've just talked to any of us about it."

"Sigh. You're right. I should have made more of an effort to tell you guys how I felt."

"We'll talk to the rest of our sisters when we get home. And whether or not you really believe nothing matters, I can tell you, you definitely matter to me. And I know the rest of our sisters feel the same."

Lucy gave Lincoln a light smile. "Thank you, Lincoln. And sorry you had to...kill that guy."

"I'll be fine." Lincoln sighed. "It...wasn't exactly the first." He hadn't really thought about it but he already killed Krombopulous Michael before this. He supposed if it was for the greater good, then there was nothing wrong with killing people like him and the guy that attacked Lucy. Right?

...

Inside the building, the rich were currently have a feast accompanied by some classic music as a man at the end of the table tapped his champagne glass with a teaspoon. He then stood up and raised his glass. "To another successful year of the festival, pitting poor people against each other for thousands of years." The rest of the rich people raised their glasses before clapping for the man. He then started to hear an odd type of music coming from behind him. He turned around. "Wait, w-where is that music coming from?" The door was then kicked open by Rick, along with Arthricia. His suit was playing 'Feels Good' by Tony! Toni! Toné!. The man then put his hands on his hips. "What is the meaning of this?"

"I'm not here to judge. I'm just a guy from another planet." Rick explained. "But this girl is one of your poor people, and I guess you guys felt like it was okay to subject her to inhuman conditions because there was no chance of it ever hurting you. It's sort of the socio-political equivalent of, say, a suit of power armor around you. But now things are evened out, so, Arthricia?" Rick stepped back to allow Arthricia to do what she came here for.

She first started with using a knife that came out of her arm to slice off the man's head, causing everyone else to gasp. She then flew onto the table and started shooting lasers at everyone. "Happy festival, cocksuckers!"

"Geez." Rick remarked.

"You want to get in on this, Rick?" Arthricia asked.

Rick put his hand up. "No, I really...honestly, I-I've had my fill. It's gratuitous at this point."

"You sure you don't want to join in? This is really amazing." Arthricia said as she used her flamethrower.

"Yeah, but...ah, all right. Fuck it." Rick lifted off with his rocket feet before using them to burn the heads of a couple rich people.

Once the two had finished off slaughtering all of the rich folk, the two then started to celebrate by dancing over a pool of their blood. "Okay, now it's time we do a little dancing to...to Tony! Toni! Toné!" Rick cheered. "Look at my fucking feet, motherfucker!"

"Whoo! Aw, yeah!" Arthricia cheered. "I don't know what song that is, but I fucking love it!"

"'Feels Good'." Rick answered. "It's a fucking hit song. Topped the charts, I think. Ho, ho!"

...

After the two were finished dancing, Rick spent the rest of the night repairing his cruiser while Lincoln and Lucy attempted to go to sleep inside it. Rick kept his armour on to deter anyone that attempted to attack them along with Arthricia, who assisted Rick to make up for betraying them. By morning, he was ready to go. "Hey, thanks for helping me, Rick. You're a pretty great guy." Arthricia said after giving Rick the armour back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck you for shooting my liver. I'll see you around." Rick said before walking back over to his cruiser.

Lincoln and Lucy had recently just woke up. Lincoln sighed. "I really can't wait to get off this planet."

"Same." Lucy added.

As Lincoln got into the cruiser, one of the townspeople remarked. "It won't be easy creating a new society from the ground up."

"Well, a helpful rule might be if you need something, you get it." Rick suggested. "Pretty simple, right?"

"I need food." Another townsperson said.

"Who's got food for that guy?" Rick asked.

"I do, but this is for me." Said a man holding some bread.

"Can't you make some more?" The other man asked.

"Oh, sure. And while I'm making food for everyone, who takes care of my kids?"

"I'll take care of your kids, if I get some extra food for it."

"Extra food?"

"Well, I'm not gonna do extra work if we all get the same."

"All right, okay, fair is fair. If you do extra work, you get extra food." Rick said as he got into the cruiser.

"If you want my advice, you should listen to each other more and take other people's feeling into account." Lucy added before getting into the cruiser. The townspeople muttered amongst themselves in agreement as the cruiser set off.

As Rick flew the cruiser through space, he then decided to ask. "Man, Lucy, you really missed an opportunity to just do whatever you want back there. Don't you regret it?"

Lucy shook her head. "No. Not really." Lucy decided to think more about what Rick had said to her. While she agreed with the idea of taking control of your life and not letting people hold you back, she wasn't sure about the idea of doing it at the expense of others. Nor did she agree with idea that her friends and family were holding her back. Perhaps the idea of nothing mattering was a lot more complicated than Rick had made it out to be. One thing's for sure, she did not like seeing other people suffer. Though, she wondered how Rick had ended up feeling that way. What happened to him that caused him to take so much joy from slaughtering people? She shuddered at the thought. At least it gave her some inspiration for her poetry.