AN: I'm so sorry for the long absence, but I'm finally back (more or less). Everyone, who followed me on Twitter (hopethecrazycat) had surely noticed that I was taking a break from things.

Anyways, this is a fanfic that I had finished for a while already, but I hadn't posted it before because I wanted to add more visual stuff to it (may not make much sense for you here on FFN, but does for AO3, my tumblr (ramheavenandhell) and my DA (hope27), so yeah). However, I never really finished any of those plans and so I give this to you now as it is.

Still, I'm excited to finally be showing this to you.
While it is a direct continuation to all the previous stories in the "Entricked Fates" series, I'll tried to write it in a way that you will still understand what's going on even if you haven't read them (of course, this will still be more fun for you to read if you have read all the other ones before).
Also, if my "Entricked Fates" series has something like arcs this story could be considered the season 1 finale.

Warnings: there will be Rick/Morty and Rick/Rick and also smut in later chapters, but for this one only mentions of trauma and past rape

The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 1: Getting into the Game

~Though they were born beneath alternated stars

they will join in one battle
and will fight under the same sky~

Rick C-137 scowled as he walked over the plaza with his Morty in tow.
They were now stuck on the Citadel of Ricks, with no portal gun and forced to participate in this stupid "Pocket Mortys Game" if they ever wanted to leave again.
He actually had to beat all of the council clowns' asses if he wanted to win his portal gun back and it was just rickdiculous.
They would regret making him do that and the only Rick who would regret this whole thing even more would be that Mysterious Rick that was responsible for this whole mess.
C-137 was going to pay this guy back, no matter what it took – not only because of his portal gun, but also for what he had done to his Morty.

"If you want to know about the rules and details of the game, just ask someone from the staff from Morty Inc." Riq IV had said with a smug grin.

The rest of the council clowns wore a matching expression on their faces.

Apparently the Morty Day Care and the Morty Games Coliseum were owned by Morty Inc., but there was also Salesman Rick's (the official Pocket Morty Shop) and the Morty Healing Center and they would also be free to ask for advice at any of those places.
Those were all the shops that had been specifically set up for the Morty Trainers whether they were newbies or veterans in the Morty training business.

Rick looked around the plaza in the main atrium that they were standing at after they were more or less kicked out of the building where the Council of Ricks resided in, being surrounded by busy Ricks and their Mortys as well as some other alien folks and he couldn't contain his frustration any longer.

"I really fucking hate this place!" he groaned aloud.

Rick C-133 and his Morty looked around the busy plaza that had Ricks, Mortys and some aliens roaming about.
They had followed that ominous Morty to the Citadel of Ricks, but now what?
How where they supposed to find one Morty in this mass?
C-133 had to congratulate the little bastard for finding the possibly best hiding place for a Morty in the entire multiverse.
It would be like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. The only difference was that finding that needle would have been far easier for Rick even if the damn thing would have been a toothpick.
He didn't even know if that Morty was still on the Citadel, but then again this was the best hiding place that he could ever get so C-133 hoped that the boy was indeed still here.

"Fuck! Finding the little shit here will take forever…" The Rick groaned out loudly.

They continued to walk over the plaza, C-133 trying to look out for a Morty with a wounded arm since he remembered that the other seemed to have broken his arm before he fled from the scene. However, after seeing a bunch of wounded Mortys walking around and even almost running into a little group of Mortys who looked like they had several broken limbs led by one Rick who looked absolutely fine, he figured that even that wouldn't be a good enough indicator to find the culprit that he was searching for.

"If I at least knew from which dimension that Morty was…" C-133 mumbled, getting quickly tired of the sight of hundreds of yellow t-shirts.

He happened to overhear another Rick who was close by complaining loudly. "I really fucking hate this place!"

"Tell me about it. This place sucks!" he agreed.

C-133 wasn't one of those Ricks who frequented the Citadel, much less thought about staying here for a longer period of time or even come to live in this place.
Actually, he pitied the Ricks who were stuck here a little, but then again they were responsible for their own misery and didn't deserve something like pity.

"All of those stupid Ricks are nothing but dumb sheep that try to cling to their terrible ideas and idealisms, which are nothing more than poor illusions." C-137 continued.

"That's exactly what I always say, too." C-133 agreed fully to that.

It was nice to know that there were still some Ricks who had their head on right and saw this the same way that he did.

However, this opinion also raised an interesting question. "Why are you even here if you hate this place so much?"

He didn't want to sound like a hypocrite, but at least he had good reason to be here no matter how much he hated the Citadel.

"Some Rick-asshole stole my portal gun and then gave it to the Council as a present who now force me to participate in this stupid "Pocket Morty Game" to get it back." Rick C-137 summed the story up. "And why are you here?"

The question was warranted.

Rick C-133 tried to give the short version of his story, too. "A Morty had hired a bunch of Mercenary Ricks to kidnap and kill my Morty and wanted to us me as his replacement Rick."

Even though both Ricks left out some very important details in their stories, Morty C-137 could see how the other Morty became really pale.

"Are you okay?" he asked the other boy, sincerely worried about the other brunet's health.

He himself had been through a rather traumatic event just recently thanks to a Rick and he figured being kidnapped and almost dying at the hands of a bunch of Ricks was probably not less stressful than that.
Morty C-133 kept silent for a moment and looked at the other Morty as if he was contemplating about something before he finally gave in.

"Uh… could you… I mean could we… have a little talk, over… a-alone?" he asked.

Seeing, as their Ricks were still busy discussing about one thing or another, he shrugged and quietly excused himself before walking over to the side of the street to an empty corner where it was a bit quieter.
After looking around almost as if he was paranoid and making sure that no one would listen in on their conversation, Morty C-133 finally started to talk.

"Um… actually… those Ricks that had kidnapped me… they—they… they raped me…" he confessed.

Morty C-137's eyes widened in shock before his face took on features of sympathy.

"You know… I was also raped by this Rick who is responsible for us being in this mess." He answered.

Somehow, both boys felt as if a little weight was lifted from them by talking about what had happened to them and having something to share even if it was undeniably a very horrible experience.
It somehow just felt good to be able to talk with someone who understood exactly what they themselves had gone through.
Without really noticing it another Morty suddenly joined them and made himself known.

"So, you were both victims of Rick-rape?" he quipped in.

Both C-dimension Mortys looked at the newcomer with big eyes.
While both of them looked like typically "standard Mortys" with their short brown hair, yellow shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers and having no significant features that differentiated them from another, the Morty that had approached them looked considerably different.
At least he was dressed differently in that he wore brown pants, a green vest over his yellow t-shirt and a white and dark-gray baseball cap that had the letters "D'n'J" stitched on the front in a blue-green color.

"Um… have you been, too…?" they both wondered aloud, simultaneously.

"Oh, no. I'm not a victim of any Rick-crimes…" He instantly declined that notion. "…but I have just recently assassinated a Rick, Rick S-121, who put up a front of being a Morty-activist, but was actually a mortyphile. He had adopted Mortys from the Mortyphanage and raped them or forced them to work in illegal Morty brothels."

The C-dimension Mortys looked pretty shocked at that information.
To think that something like that was happening on the Citadel… well, after what they had just been through, it was not impossible to imagine it, but it was shocking to think that such organized crime was going on.

The Morty continued, "I'm currently trying to investigate more about that since a lot of Mortys in other facilities have also gone missing. Even though this isn't an actual mission. I mean, I wasn't hired by anyone to do this, I'm just doing this because I want to put a stop to Ricks abusing Mortys like that and my Rick lets me be in charge for this investigation."

"It's pretty cool that your Rick lets you be in charge." Morty C-133 said in amazement and C-137 also nodded his head to that.

He knew that his Rick would never let him have the command unless he evoked his right to a Morty adventure, but even then he would constantly complain and give him a hard time.

The other Morty sighed. "That actually just means that my Rick is gonna sit back and do nothing while I have to do all of the work. So yeah, it's not as amazing as you think it is. Anyways, could you tell me more about what had happened to you? I want to know if your cases could have something to do with these illegal brothels or the Ricks that are behind it."

Morty C-137 and C-133 looked at each other at that before C-137 was the one to answer first.

"I'm not really sure if the Rick that had kidnapped me has something to do with it. I mean, he had some weird dungeon underneath his hideout that was full of Mortys, but it didn't really seem to be a brothel…"

Of course, he couldn't be too sure about that, but if it had been a brothel then there should have been at least other people – well, customers – too, right?

"The Mercenary Ricks that had kidnapped me were actually hired by a Morty and they were actually supposed to "get rid of me" so I don't really think that it has anything to do with the incidents that happened to other Mortys." C-133 answered now.

The investigating Morty agreed – at least to what Morty C-133 said, he still wasn't entirely sure about the Rick from C-137's story.

"Do you guys have interdimensional mobile phones?" he asked. "I would like to add you to my contacts so I can maybe ask you for more information if I might need it. Also, I would inform you in case I hear anything about that mysterious Rick or Morty. By the way, I'm Morty from dimension K-4872." He finally introduced himself.

"Ah, I'm from C-133. And yeah, I would like to add you, too."

"Same. I'm from C-137."

"Oh, you're the Morty from the "Rogue", huh?" K-4872 noticed.

C-137 blushed a little at this, not aware that he and his Rick were actually that famous amongst other Ricks and Mortys.

"It's funny that our dimensions are pretty close to each other." C-133 only commented towards C-137.

The Mortys exchanged their numbers, actually happy that they were able to make friends with someone even if that someone was literally themselves, but they didn't mind that fact.
Surely, it would be benefiting all of them if they would try to work on their individual problems together and the C-dimension Mortys also really wanted to help K-4872 clear up this case.

Having just recently been victims of rape themselves, they wanted to prevent something horrible like that to happen to other Mortys.
They were also very grateful that K-4872 would try to help them finding the culprits behind the crimes that were done to them, too.
Not that they didn't have any faith in their Ricks, but you could never have enough help…

The boys were so engaged in conversation that they didn't notice a Rick approaching them.
He wore frameless, rectangular glasses, a black long-sleeved sweater with a blue short-sleeved and unbuttoned button-up shirt over it, brown slacks and black sneakers and he held a bag in his hand that smelled like burgers, fries and chicken nuggets. Apparently, he had gotten it from McSanchez – at least that's what was written on the bag in big, yellow letters.

"Made some new friends?" Rick K-4872 asked his Morty.

The boy turned around to his Rick and tried to explain that it was a bit more than just that. "These Mortys were in some incidents that might have something to do with the case that we're investigating."

Well, the "we" was used very loosely here, seeing as Morty was the one bothered about this whole thing while his Rick acted as if he could care less – probably because no material award was awaiting him for their troubles.
Figures…

"I think that at least this "Mysterious Rick" sounds very suspicious since he seems to have kidnapped a bunch of Mortys and…" His Rick cut him quickly off.

"Or, he's just a Morty trainer who wants a complete collection." He intervened. "I know that this is your investigation and all, but if you want some advice from me: you should stick to the leads that you have now, since they're more valid."

Morty K-4872 huffed a little, but had to agree. So far, he only had vague assumptions about this Rick and those could hardly be considered a lead.
Still, he didn't want to rule out any possibilities.
Promising the other Mortys again that he would still keep an eye out for the Rick and the Morty that they were looking for, he left together with his Rick to go and have lunch while going over the information that he currently had again.
He knew right from the start that cracking this case would not be an easy task, still he felt that it was something that he needed to do and he wouldn't back down until he exposed the criminal who was behind this illegal Morty brothel ring even if the authorities of the Citadel had failed in doing it so far…

While the Mortys had been talking amongst themselves, the C-dimension Ricks had a conversation of their own.

Looking around and seeing aliens and Ricks alike being followed by flocks of Mortys, C-133 couldn't help but comment on it.

"This whole "Pocket Mortys" business is really weird. I didn't even know that this was a thing since I usually don't visit the Citadel. Makes looking for the Morty that I'm searching for even more of a hassle…"

"Well yeah, who would have thought that having alternate versions of our grandson fighting each other would become so popular? At least this lets me make good use of my newest invention." C-137 claimed.

"And what's that supposed to be?" C-133 asked skeptically.

With a little triumphant sound, C-137 held up his great invention.

"This is my Mortytector. It locates every Morty in the multiverse and shows me not only their position, but also their dimension. This little baby also helped me when that Asshat-Rick had kidnapped my Morty."

A scowl was instantly on his face again at the memory of that guy.
C-133 mused silently that he could certainly use something like that, too, even though he had been very capable of finding his kidnapped Morty again without it thanks to the implanted microchip.
Still, at the moment, it wouldn't be of any use to him because un-fucking-fortunately, he didn't know from which dimension that little fuck he's looking for was.
However, he should probably get around building a similar device just in case that another Morty would try to replace his grandson again…

After the two Mortys had returned to their Ricks' side, C-137 cut the conversation short. "Well yeah, better get going if I ever wanna get my portal gun back."

"Yeah, I'll never find that little shit by standing around here either." C-133 agreed.

"Let's go, Morty." Both Ricks said simultaneously as they each went their separate ways, off-white lab coat billowing behind them.

Rick C-133 was a genius and he was a clever enough man to know that he won't be able to find that Morty just on his own.
So, he actually called one of his acquaintances, Rick P-78, who agreed to meet him at one of the bars on the Citadel.
Entering the appointed pub, C-133 didn't have to search long for the other.
The P-dimension Rick easily stood out with his different clothes, – the gray, sleeveless lab coat and the black long-sleeved turtleneck shirt underneath it as well as equally black slacks that had emptied weapon holsters attached to them and a pair of brown boots – the scar that went vertically over the left side of his face, and that optical prosthesis in his left eye socket.

Easily, he slid on the stool next to his acquaintance and ordered a whisky for himself that the Morty bartender quickly served up.
His Morty took a seat next to him and only ask for a glass of water in his stuttering voice.
P-78's Morty sat on another stool by his Rick's side and sipped something that looked like orange juice.

"So, what's the big favor that you're asking for?" The Rick with the mechanical eye asked.

"Long story short: I'm looking for a Morty."

P-78 raised one side of his eyebrow and looked pointedly to the brown haired boy at his side. "Don't you already have one?"

C-133 sighed exasperatedly. "Ha ha, very funny. I'm looking for a specific Morty, dipshit."

The other Rick wasn't offended by the rude name-calling. He only waited for C-133 to continue.

"H-hey, Morty? Why don't you go and play with that other Morty while I have a talk here, all right?"

C-133 didn't need his grandson to overhear this whole thing. It was worse enough that he had been through it already so no need for him to relive the memory while he was retelling it to the other Rick.
His Morty only nodded and slid a few stools over as he waited for the other Morty to join him.
As Morty A-22β6 looked up at his Rick with a questioning gaze, the older man only nodded and the boy joined his fellow kind.
While the Ricks were starting to talk in hushed voices, the Mortys started a conversation of their own.

"So… you're Rick P-78's new Morty?" C-133 started a bit awkwardly.

"Y-yeah. H-he's a-a really nice R-Rick…" A-22β6 stuttered.

The extreme speech-impediment wasn't lost on the other, but he decided to not comment on it. "Um… why did you get a new Rick? I-I mean, what happened to yours— i-if you don't mind me asking?"

Morty C-133 had hurried to add the last part, not sure if the other would be even comfortable talking about it.
Even if most Ricks were assholes, many Mortys still loved their grandfather and would be very sad if he died. Especially if it was a very traumatizing death.
It wasn't exactly as if Mortys were asking to get reassigned to other Ricks. Most of the time the Council of Ricks would decide such things over the boys' heads, often enough even taking Mortys from dimensions where no Ricks lived anymore just to have a few spare ones that they could redistribute to others whether those Ricks had once an affiliation with the Citadel or not.

A-22β6 had been quite for a while and just as C-133 thought that he wouldn't answer, he began to speak. "M-my R-Rick is d-dead…"

Even though that much was obvious even to Morty C-133, he still offered him his condolences "I'm sorry."

"N-no. Don't b-be." A-22β6 continued. "I-I-I w-was the o-one, who k-killed him."

"WHAT?!"

C-133 quickly realized that that came out too loud even before he had the eyes of every Rick, Morty and alien in the near vicinity on him.

"S-sorry." He apologized to the other patrons with a blush on his face.

With wide eyes, he looked back at his conversational partner, silently urging him to continue. Aside from having a hard time believing that this extremely skittish Morty would have the guts to even do such a feat, he was obviously even more interested in getting to hear about the 'why'.
Sure, Ricks were generally sociopathic madmen (some a little more and some a little less), but that didn't automatically warrant that they deserved to die – even if they had the talent to get their Mortys quickly riled up to the point that they wished to do it with all the bullshit that they were putting their grandsons through.

"…H-he…" A-22β6 swallowed heavily before he seemed to find the strength in his voice to continue. "He was a-a r-really bad R-Rick. I m-mean r-really really b-bad…"

The boy nervously stroked over the long yellow sleeves that were covering his arms.

In a slightly squeaky voice he continued "…h-he abused me… a-and r-raped me even…"

Sympathy immediately surged through C-133 at those words.
It was certainly one thing to be abducted by some other Rick and have this happen to you, but having your actual Rick being such a sick bastard – having to endure that over and over again for who knows how long he had to live together with his grandfather – was an even more horrible fate.

"Jeez, I'm really sorry about that…" he muttered, not sure how to respond to that. "Uh… you know… I kinda know what that's like…"

The other Morty finally dared to look up into his eyes. He had turned his face away and stared at the ground after they had started with the topic of his original Rick.

"R-really? Y-you d-do?" A-22β6 asked in surprise.

It still wasn't easy for C-133 to talk about it even if he had told Morty C-137 and K-4872 just recently. The memory was still fresh in his mind and so far, his Rick hadn't given him a break so that he had some time to think about or even properly process it yet.
The time that he had scrubbed his skin raw in the shower didn't quite count…

"Yeah, just… just recently I-I was kidnaped by some Ricks and they also…"

His voice trailed off at the end, but he didn't need to finish the sentence.
It was obvious what he wanted to say and A-22β6 sincerely felt sorry for his alternate version as well.

"You know, apparently this seems to be a weird "trend" among Ricks…" C-133 continued after a little bit silence.

"Huh?"

"Well, I heard from another Morty that a lot of Mortys are recently getting kidnapped and sold off in illegal Morty brothels."

A-22β6's eyes widened at that. He seriously didn't know that something like that was happening at the Citadel at the time. His Rick certainly hadn't mentioned anything about that.
Morty C-133 explained all the details to him and added him to his contacts while also giving him the numbers of the other Mortys.
Since Rick P-78 would help them out, his Morty was also more than willing to do whatever he could to help.
However, A-22β6 still felt like he needed to add something.

"Y-you kn-know, not a-all R-Ricks are l-like that though… T-there are a-also s-some really n-nice ones who d-don't just u-use Mortys."

He hoped that his words would cheer the other Morty up because he knew that it was the truth.
Since he had met Rick Q-89, who was a Rick that did have sex with Mortys, he knew that this alternate version of his grandfather was very different and a really nice guy. Morty A-22β6 really liked him and the only Rick that he could ever like more than him was P-78.
He tried not to blush at the thought, but he felt a definite warmth in his chest at the thought.

The Ricks meanwhile were still whispering in their conversation, C-133 laying everything of what had happened down on table.

"So, you see. I somehow have to find that little piece of shit." He finished his story.

After taking another sip from his drink, he added, "I know that you're the only Rick who I can ask about this because you got some experience of your own how dangerous a Morty can be. Most Ricks wouldn't ever consider a Morty a threat, but this mysterious Morty is gonna mean serious business. All of us Ricks should always keep in mind that a cocky Morty means a lot of trouble…"

P-78 had listened quietly through the whole story.
With one last gulp, he finished his drink and put the empty glass back down on the counter.

"'Kay. You can count me in. I'm gonna help you hunt that little shit down." He said.

As he looked over at A-22β6, he thought that this wasn't only to help out an old friend, but also for the safety of his own Morty.
He wouldn't know what he'd do if something like that would happen to his little boy…

The C-137 duo made their way towards the Morty Day Care.
Morty was honestly not quite sure what to think about that particular shop.
However, after having been to a daycare that was full of alternate versions of his dad – the Jerryboree – he probably shouldn't feel surprised that Ricks would come up with the idea to do the same thing for Mortys.
Still, he couldn't say that he didn't feel at least a bit offended about it…

For Rick, any place to ask was as good as the next one and seeing that there was a long line at the Morty Healing Center and Rick somehow wanted to avoid Salesman Rick's shop, he picked the place that had the shortest line – and there the last customer just left and C-137 wouldn't even have to wait at all!

As he approached the Rick, which had a permanent frown on his face and a toothpick between his lips, he could actually see some scribbles on his right arm.
Rick C-137 recognized it as a formula that he had just come up with last week – it was a more efficient recipe for dark matter fuel.
As he and his Morty came to stand in front of the counter, the other moved the toothpick to the corner of his mouth in a routinely manner to freely talk without obstructions.

"Welcome to Morty Day Care!" Storage Rick said in a monotone voice from always having to say this same sentence a few hundred times a day, day in and day out. "What do you want? Store, Withdraw, Bootcamp or Combine?"

"Wait? You can actually combine Mortys? Seriously?" Rick C-137 asked.

Wow, what kind of Rick had come up with that sick idea?
He was certainly a genius!

"Yeah, if you have two Mortys of the same type, you can fuse them together to get an evolved Morty who is better and stronger than the two previous ones… You're a noob, aren't you?" he asked, eyeing first Rick and then his Morty before bringing his attention back to the Rick again.

"Yeah, I'm new to this whole game. Care to explain the rules since the Council didn't bother with it?"

"Sure. It's simple. You just go out there, using the communal portal gate at CentRick Square, which will teleport you to a random, registered dimension. There you can find Morty trainers who will want to battle you and Wild Mortys that you can fight or catch. Also, there is always a Rick who's like the boss of that dimension and who you will have to challenge to win a badge. And in case that you don't have a portal gun of your own, you'll have to beat him to get back to the Citadel."

Storage Rick rattled the explanation down in a monotone voice as if he was in a hurry to get this whole thing done.
Why did the noobs always have to ask him about the rules? There were many other Ricks to bother around…

"Okay, that sounds pretty simple, but how do I do that whole Morty catching business? I mean, I can't just walk up and ask if they're interested in joining me or something like that." C-137 interjected.

He was really trying to stay focused even though the rules were easy enough that a little kid could understand how it works, but he was quickly being bored with these explanations and just wanted to have this over and done with as quickly as the Rick behind the counter.
Go through portal, defeat trainers, catch Mortys, defeat Ricks – got it! It wasn't that hard!

"Of course not. You let your Morty fight against a Wild Morty to weaken them and then you have to plant a Morty Manipulator Chip on them. When the LED on the chip lights up green, you were successful and the caught Morty will think that you're his Rick and will follow you."

"Okay and where do I get an injector and those manipulator chips?"

"Are you for real? C'mon, you're a Rick." Storage Rick inquired with one side his eyebrow raised. "You can make these things yourself. Fortunately, you can find spare parts scattered across the dimensions and workstations are set up all over the place."

Storage Rick suppressed the urge to sigh. Who knows how often he had these conversations already.

"Really?! I have to handcraft all the stuff that I need by myself? That's taking way too long! I-I mean I have stuff to get done here, man!" C-137 complained.

"Well, you can actually buy Morty Manipulator Chips from Salesman Rick, but he's only authorized to sell them to advanced trainers. I know, it's real tough for newcomers, but I guess this is kinda like, you know, sorting the wheat from the chaff. There are so many people, who think that this Morty training business is such a cool thing, but as soon as they find out how much work is behind it all, they just lose heart and give up. So, you know, all of the ones that are still participating in it are hardcore enthusiast who take this seriously."

At least Storage Rick wished that would be the case, but he worked so long in this job that he knew better by now.

"Well, at least you already have a Mortypad." Storage Rick commented at seeing the former iPad in the other Rick's hand.

"This is a Mortytector." C-137 corrected with a crease in his eyebrow that showed his displeasure about thinking it was the same thing that every other Rick ran around with.

Storage Rick looked unimpressed.

The scientist from the C dimension continued. "Okay, fine. Anything else that is worth knowing?"

Rick C-137 was getting annoyed and just wanted to get started so he could get this whole ordeal over with soon.

"Not really. Oh, but one more thing: you can only have five Mortys with you at once. If you capture one more, a Courier Flap will get that one and bring it to me for storage. So, if you want that one in your team, you will have to come here first and exchange them…" It was kind of a stupid rule, but Storage Rick wasn't making the rules here.

Before Rick C-137 had the chance to comment on that, his Morty suddenly interposed "Why five?"

"What?" both Ricks asked back in unison and looked down at him with an equal, questioning, but also annoyed expression on their faces.

"Why is it that you can only be accompanied by five Mortys at a time? That number seems pretty random to me."

"It's not random. Everyone knows that you don't need more than five Mortys." Storage Rick replied dryly.

"Exactly, Morty! Because it's enough to have five Mortys and-" Rick C-137 stopped in the middle of the sentence as he remembered the reaction that Morty had when he told him about his experimenting with five Mortys and a jumper cable – which was, of course, completely hypothetical!

His Morty looked expectantly at him to finish his sentence yet looked like he probably wasn't going to like what he would have to say and so he quickly continued "Anyways, no one needs more than five Mortys. There never was a Rick who had or needed more than five Mortys and that's canon."

"So, you mean to say that you would only need five to win our portal gun back?"

"Yeah. That's what I said, Morty. And now shut up!"

Turning back to the Rick behind the counter, he asked "Oh, by the way. Do you happen to know a Rick that is nicknamed Mysterious Rick? Black hat, red cape…"

Storage Rick cut him off and was almost tempted to ask who didn't know this guy by now. "Yeah, I know the weirdo but haven't seen him since he withdrew all of his Mortys. Figures that he probably stopped playing and released his Mortys in the wild."

Of course, Storage Rick was sure that that was not the case. There was no way that that mortyphile would actually do that, but seriously, it wasn't his business what that Rick did.
If he had to guess, he figured though that Mysterious Rick must have rubbed the newbie the wrong way and probably tried to get his Morty.
His guess was pretty much confirmed as he could see how uncomfortable the little Morty looked about the current topic.

"Well, okay. That's too bad then, 'cause I thought that I might meet him here. Whatever. Let's go, Morty." Rick C-137 had heard enough and just wanted to get into battle now.

He actually had to collect a shitload of badges if he wanted to fight against the Council and he had to catch some Mortys to get himself a decently strong team so that he could beat them up properly.

"No, wait, Rick. I still have some questions." His Morty interjected once again and turned towards Storage Rick. "I-I've heard that there is an increase in Morty abductions on the Citadel. Have-have you heard anything about that? I mean, do Mortys happen to vanish from here, too?"

Storage Rick's eyes narrowed the slightest bit at the question and suddenly the Guard Rick that was stationed at the electric fence burped loudly and shifted a little in his stance, momentarily distracting the keeper of the Day Care and causing him to quickly glance over to the guard for a brief moment before he finally answered.

"Don't worry. Morty Day Care is the safest place that any Morty could ever be at on the Citadel. I'm leading a proper business here and got nothing to do with that so nothing of the likes happens here. But, hey—you know, if you're looking for suspicious Ricks there are plenty around." Storage Rick started to gesture with his hands.

Pointing over in the direction of the Healing Center that was literally next door, he continued, "Have you met Surgeon Rick yet? That guy's not quite right in the head. You know, I've heard that they won't assign any Mortys to him anymore and he's been degraded from his position as a Paramedic of the Citadel's Militia because of the same reason. I also think that he shows a little too much interested in Mortys."

Storage Rick paused a little in his speech to make a face and shifted his toothpick from the left corner of his mouth to the right one.

"I also see sometimes Mortys going in, but never coming out again, not even their corpses or whatever. It's also quite suspicious that there are bloody Morty clothes in the dumpster behind that place every so often. I don't know what you think, but I tell you that the guy has Morty blood on his hands and not just from healing wounded ones."

Morty made a face at the mentioning of the blood, but Storage Rick didn't stop there yet.

"He also seems to be in on something with that Rick from Morty Labs, so that guy is probably worth checking out, too. Those guys are not the only ones though. I think you should also check out Salesman Rick from the Morty Item Store. The guy's always all smiles, but I have a feeling that he's hiding something. And you know he's the only one that has free limited access to those Morty Manipulator Chips. For all we know these things could be used to easily kidnap Mortys."

He seemed to pause a little bit in thought while Morty C-137 tried to process all the information that he received. His Rick was barely listening to all the droning.
Why was his Morty suddenly interested in that crap that had absolutely nothing to do with them?

Storage Rick seemed to remember one more thing. "Oh, I guess you should also check out Dirty Rick. I mean that guy has "Dirty" in his nickname and he certainly is a really shady guy. You can find him at the Morty Games Colosseum."

"O-okay. Thank you."

While all of that information was a bit overwhelming, it was a starting point.
Since he doubted that his Rick would give him the time to check all of those places out, he would just have to contact the other Mortys and tell them about this.
Maybe they could share the work and figure something out by working together. The thought made him a little excited.

"What-what is this suddenly about? Morty kidnappings?" his Rick asked in confusion.

Oh, right.
He should probably let his Rick in on this whole thing that was going on. Morty could imagine that he probably wouldn't help out and complain that they don't have time for this crap, but maybe he would be in a good enough mood to allow Morty at least to investigate a bit on this.
He just had to bring up that the others would also be helping out with looking for Mysterious Rick. It wasn't a completely one-sided thing – they would all help out each other!

As Morty C-137 explained to his Rick what was going on, the scientist already decided that this thing wasn't really his deal and he would only focus on getting back his portal gun and find that Mysterious Rick to pay him back for what he had done.
If his Morty wanted to play detective and help some of those other Ricks and Mortys then he could do that, but he shouldn't count too much on Ricks help for it.
Since they were entangled in their own conversation, none of them paid any more attention to Storage Rick as they left.

The Rick of the Morty Day Care waited patiently till the duo was out of sight, watching them with narrowed eyes.
As soon as they were gone, Storage Rick called one of his Worker Mortys over.

"Hey, Morty. Come over here." he called out.

In an instant as if he could only mean one Morty in the entire Day Care with that, a Blue Shirt Morty was standing at his side.

"Take over the counter for a moment. I need a smoke break…"

Bonus:

***extra to the conversation between Morty K-4872, C-133 and C-137***

"So, what kind of facilities are you talking about exactly? I mean, what's that Morty orphanage?" C-137 asked now curious since he wasn't too well versed with the Citadel.

"We're calling it Mortyphanage here." K-4872 corrected.

"Yeah. What's up with those places?" C-133 also wondered about that.

"The Mortyphanage is one of the three main facilities where Ricks can get new Mortys. Even if Ricks hate to admit it, they need us Mortys—"

"Yeah, because of our brainwaves…" C-137 threw in.

K-4872 looked at him funny now. "Well, that probably, too, but it's not the only reason. Ricks are very depressed and self-destructive so they need someone who looks up to them and cares for them. But like I said, they try to deny it, because of their stupid pride."

Both C-dimension Mortys nodded. They understood now even if they probably haven't ever really thought about it like that.

"Anyways…" K-4872 continued his explanation. "…the Mortyphanage is where they put obviously the orphaned Mortys. Those who not only have no Rick, but also no family anymore. Sometimes, they don't even have a home dimension that they could be returned to.

Now, you would think that those Mortys are the first ones who would be reassigned to a Rick, but most Ricks think that these Mortys are "broken". Aside from that, there's very strict requirements that needs to be upheld by the Rick, not to mention the fee that needs to be paid.
Many Ricks think that it's not worth it, so these Mortys are the least desirable ones and don't get adopted very often.

Another facility where Ricks can get Mortys is Morty Academy. Mortys who have lost more than one Rick are generally being placed here because the Council thinks that if the Ricks, who these Mortys are assigned to, keep dying, it's somehow their fault. Not because Ricks are suicidal and self-destructive and can make mistakes sometimes that get them killed.
So, they put those Mortys into a learning program, where they basically try to shape them into perfect companions for Ricks. And the only thing that Ricks need to do it is to register themselves there within a certain time span. Aside from that fee again, of course.

Obviously, these Mortys are the most desirable ones and everyone who manages to graduate will definitely be assigned to a Rick.
The assignment is determined by the time that Ricks need to show up for the waiting line and for the Mortys by how well they did on their graduation certificate. It's basically that the first Rick in the line will get the first Morty that gets called up and the first Morty that will be called up will be the valedictorian and the grades will go down from there.
The only downside about it is that Ricks will only be able to get a Morty on graduation day.

And then there's the Morty Reassignment Center. This used to be the first and only place where Ricks could get a new Morty – or receive one for the first time if they happen to be from a dimension where they never had a Morty to begin with.
Even up to this day, it is the main facility where Ricks will go to get a Morty. This is also the only place where Ricks won't have to pay a fee if they happen to have a free Morty voucher that the Council sometimes hands out as a reward."

C-137 emitted an indignant sniff at the mentioning of the voucher.

K-4872 continued, undeterred. "The Center does have a storage place for Mortys that have been picked up after their Ricks died, but they also relocate Ricks to rickless dimensions where they integrate themselves into the Smith family as the new Rick of that dimension.

However, most Ricks dislike the Reassignment Center because of all the paperwork and long waiting times. They can also not choose which Morty they are assigned to as you could at Mortyphanage or to a certain degree at Morty Academy.
Some Ricks can also get a ban if they lose too many Mortys within a short amount of time. So that's that."

Both C-dimension Mortys looked with big eyes at the other brunet as they let all of the new information soak in. They certainly hadn't been to the Citadel often enough that they knew anything about its inner workings.

Knowing about all that made them also realize that Ricks were really serious in needing a Morty at their side if they put so much work behind assigning them.
In fact, Ricks seemed to need Mortys more than Mortys actually needed Ricks…

AN: This first chapter is more of an intro. The real story begins from next chapter onwards and you will see the structure of how this is all going to be told.
Also decided to add these little bonus things at the end, because I've done that for another (later) chapter and thought "why not do it for every chapter of this story?" Sometimes they will be informative (like the one in this chapter) and add to the world building and other times they will be just funny.
I hope you'll like this story so far and will enjoy what's later to come :)