The Adventures of Rajada: page 13

I'm not sure exactly what you did to me back there, the way you infested my mind, but you should know by now I'm not all about gadgets." Rajada's eyes narrowed. "You say you regained your powers, those weren't powers, they were the very fabric of the universe. I should have known you'd try to use them to your advantage." Balthazar attempted a step forward but was frozen in place. Rajada clenched his fists. "And even now, as little as I wanted to do with your dangerous tampering with the universe, I still see the words! I thought Gods were speaking to me! All this time, it's been you!" Balthazar spoke. "You saw them too?" But Rajada wasn't listening. "Now I will end your meddling forever!" Balthazar's eyes widened in fear. "No wait you can't! You can't kill with the power! Please you have to believe me! I-" Rajada brought Balthazar to his knees with his mind. "You think I'm going to take advice about moderation from you? After all you've done? Well I'll tell you what, since you think your powers make you un-killable, let's see how many punches you can really take!"

Rajada kicked Blathazar's face and he tumbled over on his back. Rajada then proceeded to throw thirty quick punches to Balthazar's chest. There was no lasting effect. Balthazar slowly attempted to regain his footing. Rajada performed a sweep kick and took Balthazar back down. "Please, old friend, I nee-" "Old friend this!" Rajada screamed grabbing Balthazar by the throat and lifting him into the air. Rajada angrily sent a few more punches with his left into Balthazar's nose. "Why..." he said striking Balthazar "...won't..." another punch "...you..." another punch "...die?!" one last punch. Rajada threw Balthazar against a wall. Both of them were breathing heavy, but Balthazar seemed to be doing all he could to keep his injuries at bay.

Balthazar spoke. "You just going to keep doing this? Wondering why I haven't just teleported out of here I bet. Rajada you have to s-" Rajada pulled a Hyperstrike out of thin air and quickly emptied it into Balthazar, but every shot bounced off. Rajada dropped the gun and approached Balthazar again. "You haven't left because, I won't let you. My powers are coming from you, and I'm not leaving you anything to work with." Rajada slapped Balthazar aside, sending him flying across the room. Balthazar's body struck the time machine's control panel. The machine whirred to life as Balthazar staggered to his feet. But Balthazar's modifications were not yet complete, and the machine began to emit a grinding noise. Balthazar looked at Rajada. "Did you hear him? Wes? He couldn't fix things either, you told me but I... you were right." Rajada stopped, the machine's components were becoming worryingly unstable. "I was... what? Wait, Wes? I think I know... that name." Rajada yelled over the increasing noise. Balthazar was stunned. "I thought you knew! I thought you were trying to keep it for yourself! All the power!" "What are you talking ab-" but Rajada was cut short when a wall-mounted tank ruptured, knocking him back. As the room filled with black smoke, the machine shut down. Rajada heard Balthazar groan one last time before losing consciousness.

...

Rajada looked over Balthazar's body on the operating table. Beside him was a tray with a pile of computer chips, torn to shreds by metallic shrapnel. All of it had been removed from Balthazar's brain. G-MO entered the observation room, supporting RTSPlayer on his shoulder. RTSPlayer hobbled a little, his left leg lined with a mechanical splint. Rajada wheeled the table over to a slot in the wall and dumped the contents of the tray into it, sending them to the incinerator.

Rajada opened the door to observation and sat next to G-MO and RTSPlayer. "He'll be fine, I think. All this time I had thought he gained those powers from that tablet we found. The tablet was just a key, he was getting his power from me, because I refused it. His madness was my fault." G-MO turned. "No, no it wasn't, he chose to-" Rajada cut him off "He didn't choose anything! That tablet let us see what the universe was made up of, and we could manipulate it. Every secret that was whispered skipped right past me and filled his head with voices. It must have been maddening to know so much." They were silent for a moment. "Would it have mattered?" G-MO asked. "If you had that power instead of him, wouldn't you have done the exact same thing?" "I don't know..." Rajada replied.

G-MO stood up. "I have to take RTSPlayer home. we'll talk more tomorrow." G-MO left the room with RTSPlayer, leaving Rajada to his thoughts. It was getting late now, but he still had one last thing left to do.

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