The Adventures of Rajada: page 16

The lab was nearly empty now except for the three of them. Only night-shift guards remained at work. Rajada led them into the time machine chamber once more. "I was repairing the time machine and studying what Balthazar had done to it. I found two things: one, the modifications have changed the function of the machine. It no longer travels through only time, it now travels through time-space. Two, someone has used the machine a total of 65,536 times before Balthazar modified it. This is likely the reason why it exploded when it was activated." G-MO looked at RTSPlayer. "What, me? I haven't touched the thing! None of us did! We were shooting things like, the whole day!" "Time moves in mysterious ways," Rajada replied. "However, this is not the point of this meeting. Rather, I have discovered a parallel dimension." Rajada paused, waiting for replies. but none came. Clearing his throat he continued. "I may not be the first to discover it, Balthazar probably already knew. I'd ask him but he's currently in permanent containment. You see, despite the removal of the chips and some minor brain damage, he is regaining the pow- uhhhhh... cheats once again. I can't stop it, because the parallel universe is moving increasingly closer to ours." G-MO wrinkled his face a bit. "Moving?" "Allow me to explain," Rajada said, putting his index fingers together in front of his face. "When I refused to work with Balthazar, I in essence, created a paradox. I'm still shady on the details, but the universe split into two distinctive universes." Rajada separated his fingers, pointing them apart. "In this alternate outcome, I joined forces with Balthazar, and became powerful and evil. Obviously, by refusing the cheats, I created this universe as well where I'm-" Rajada looked around at the lab and recalled yesterday's events. "Well, I'm not evil that's the point."

G-MO nodded. RTSPlayer put his hand to his forehead. "I'm calling it, this is gonna get worse." "But wait," Rajada continued, "it gets worse. The two universes are connected on a quantum level. What happens in one affects the other. I can't just destroy the other universe," Rajada wiggled a finger, "because it will destroy this one." Rajada wiggled his other finger. "Not only that, but they're approaching each other at an alarming rate." Rajada drew his fingers closer together. "Their universe is winning too, it has more pull because Rajada, errr, two, has been using his powers." "You mean cheats right?" RTSPlayer interjected. "Yes, of course," Rajada continued. "I'm using my powers because it makes the universes more similar, and the more similar they are, the less attracted to each other they'll be. Granted, I can't stop them from colliding, but I can slow it down, give us time to th-" "Woah," G-MO interrupted, "collide? Is that going to kill us?" Rajada laughed. "No, G-MO, it just means the universes will become one again, reaching some average between the two. The problem is that, once again, the other universe is a bigger number, so that average is going to be skewed towards it." Rajada placed his fingers ever closer. "In a few weeks I'll become even more intelligent, Rajada two has augmented his mind with chemicals." Rajada drew his fingers closer together again. "In a few months, I may be unable to resist the temptation and I may use the powers for evil." Rajada touched his fingers. "I don't know how long it will take but at this point, I will have lost my entire mind to evil." G-MO shook his head. "That won't happen." "Yes, it will," Rajada continued, "unless of course, we do something. We have to think of a clever way to keep our more evil universe from completely overtaking us. If we fail, well..."

Rajada flipped a switch on the machine and a TV screen sprang to life. Static slowly faded away to the view of a large metallic hall not unlike Rajada's lab. "I stole this recording from Rajada two's computer banks." Suddenly G-MO appeared on the screen, running down the hall, armed with a minigun. "Hey, what am I-" but G-MO was cut off by the sound of a bullet striking the camera. Static. The feed changed to another camera. G-MO was there again. He looked straight at the camera. "I'm coming for you Rajada!" he yelled. "You hear me? You thought you could get away with resurrecting the dinosaurs and controlling them with subliminal messages implanted in pop music, using them as an unholy army to destroy downtown! But I'm going to stop you! I'm going to kill you this time!" The camera cut to static again as the minigun was fired. "Am I going to kill you?" G-MO asked. "I hope not," Rajada replied, "but it may come to it. G-MO, you're a renegade cop in this universe. You seek justice without compromise. You also cause like, an average of 1.5 million dollars in collateral damage every month but, that's beside the point." The screen flicked back to life, this time the feed was from a concealed spy camera hidden in a waiter's lapel. G-MO was sitting at a table, across from a woman. "Oh G-MO. Thank you for taking me to this super-fancy French restaurant." Rajada's eye's widened a little. RTSPlayer pointed to the screen. "Uhhh, is that Yaaamaaahaaa?" "You're welcome babycakes," the G-MO on the screen continued. "But how did you afford it?" asked Yaaamaaahaaa. RTSPlayer's grin spread wide across his face. "I have seen it all now." Rajada turned to him. "Don't be so quick to judge, you're his know-it-all partner there, well, really more of a sidekick." RTSPlayer's smile faded. "Awwww, nuts." G-MO seemed to not be paying any attention. He tucked something back into his wallet and looked up. "Yeah that's Yaaamaaahaaa alright." There was a silence. "I uh, know, because, she uh, one time we..." The silence returned. "So how we gonna stop this thing?" G-MO asked awkwardly. "I'm glad you asked!" said Rajada. "To the meeting room!"

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