Infinite DC Journeys: "They Live...Again!"

Part Six

“Hello, Rick.”

Holly was casual in her address, like she was flirting with the old man. Cara made this observation right away, and it disgusted her. “Seriously?!”

“What?” Rick played innocent to her scrutiny. “You really think I’d go for that?!”

“Harshness aside, he’s right,” Holly vouched. “There was only one man I could’ve loved in the other world…in the fight against the Overtakers. But it wasn’t meant to be.” She took a breath, reflecting on the heartbreak of her past. Then she was over it in a second. “Love is the reason I failed my original mission. I will not make the same mistake now.”

“It’s never a ‘mistake’ to love someone,” Cara ridiculed her while giving Rick a longing look.

“Then you’ve never experienced true love,” Holly disputed.

As she flew into a long-winded debate on the issue, Rick handed over his portal gun to Cara behind their backs. The look she gave him a second ago was the same look they always gave each other when one of them had a plan. Either that or she genuinely meant what she said about love.

“I’ve had enough of your idiotic sense of compassion,” Holly told Cara. “I’m about to rectify another mistake: killing you!”

Thompson fired her gun at Cara.

Cara avoided the shot by opening a portal in front of her, allowing the bullet to fly directly into it. She jumped through on the other side, materializing behind Holly and punching her right in the face. It was a move that amused Rick and the boys.

While Holly was incapacitated from the blow, Cara took advantage of the moment to gloat in her face. “I told you that you were gonna regret ticking me off,” she said before shoving Holly into a portal that she opened behind her and closing it thereafter.

Following Holly Thompson’s banishment from their reality, Gumball asked Cara, “Where did you send her?”

“Oh, you know,” Cara replied in a nonchalant manner. “Someplace where she’ll be the greatest abomination in the world.” She winked at Darwin, who smiled and winked back, being the only one who understood the reference.

With Holly out of the way, Rick fired at the satellite with his signature laser gun, destroying the signal.

-------------------

Mere seconds after the signal’s destruction, all of Elmore became aware of the Overtakers’ true presence, driving them out of their town and dimension altogether. Many residents were glad to see them leave, except for one hobo, who nearly struck a lucrative million-dollar deal with them.

Regrouped in her T.A.R.D.I.S., Cara, Rick, and the boys watched the purge over the console room viewscreen. Cara was glad not to have to wear her “Dinkley” disguise anymore. Likewise, Rick and Morty were glad to be back in their own skins.

The only uncomfortable one was Gumball, who couldn’t help but wonder, “What if they’ll just try and takeover another dimension?”

“Then we’ll be there to stop them again,” Cara reassured.

“Yeah, we make a pretty good team,” Rick said.

Cara detected that hopeful look in his eye as he made that remark. “Don’t mistake teamwork for love, Sanchez.”

“Wasn’t it you that said it’s never a ‘mistake’ to love someone?” Rick countered.

The way he used that logic against her (the woman who came up with it) brought out a little snicker of amusement in her. “You know somethin’, Rick? In my butt, you’ll always be a pain. But, in my hearts, you’ll always be a friend.”

“You should write for Hallmark,” Rick jokingly complimented.

He and Morty said their farewells to Cara, Gumball, and Darwin before leaving for their home dimension through the portal.

Alone once again with the Watterson boys, Cara fiddled with the T.A.R.D.I.S. controls. “Where to next, guys?” she asked with the utmost exuberance. “We’re only just getting started! More worlds to see, more people to meet, and more—!”

“You’re not going anywhere without me.”

A small new voice spoke inside the room – that of Anais Watterson. She stood near the exit, her tiny arms folded with a determined demeanor.

“What are you doing here?!” Darwin asked their little sister.

“More importantly, how did you get in here?” Gumball inquired.

“You guys have been gone for seven months – that’s seven months more maturity than either of you had in seven years,” Anais calculated. “The way I see it, I’m beyond entitled to a trip aboard this confusing alien construct.”

Anais’s level of ingenuity was impressive for a girl her age. From Cara’s perspective, it was something that was sorely needed in their traveling troupe.

“I like this kid,” she said, surprising Gumball and Darwin. “Having another girl around isn’t such a bad idea. Where’d you like to go, sweetheart?”