The Protagonist System

244 A Resounding No

“I didn't think she could be that big of a bitch.” Lisa Drake commented after I told her what happened and the other girls gave her odd looks. “I mean, I barely know her personally; but, she's the headmaster of a university full of magical beings of all kinds. How could she approve of her students planning and executing evil plans?”

My danger sense went off a little and it was wavering, just like it had with Pia when we met. The girl and her group approaching us were threats and might become a huge one later.

“I think she's a perfectly fine headmaster. She stays out of things and lets the students handle their own problems, just like responsible adults should.” A pretty young woman said. Her long dark hair framed her face and the group of girls behind her had blank faces. They all gave me a similar danger sense.

“Well, well, well. If it isn't Melissa, the Queen Bee herself.” Enchantress said, her voice full of derision. “What made you leave your ivory tower at the Thriae Society Sorority?”

Melissa looked right at Zatanna. “A potential pledge to my society has appeared.”

My danger sense went off as I saw something like pollen float off of the girl. I did a wide spread of my heat vision that barely did anything except burn away the nearly invisible pollen.

“Why are you assaulting a fellow student with a mind controlled substance?” I asked and the girls not part of the sorority reacted by taking a step back. I did a quick mind probe on the girls behind the queen bee and was horrified to hear their mental screams as their bodies were not under their control at all.

“Is that why I was denied when you tried to recruit me and then treated me like garbage?” Enchantress asked. “I was resistant to your control and wouldn't fit in?”

“The better question is, can I kill you without making your drones go crazy?” I asked and her eyes widened as she stepped back and the girls of her sorority surrounded her to protect her. I didn't want to touch her and take her powers, because transforming into a giant bee and converting my followers into bees as well was a stupid power.

“What's going on here?” Rose asked as she stepped out of her portal distortion.

“I've found more proof that you're too morally bankrupt to run a school.” I said and pointed at Melissa. “You've allowed a student to mind control and convert these poor girls into mindless giant bee drones for years.”

“Why do you care? They're drones and their lives don't matter.” Melissa said, as if defending herself.

“You're causing the depopulation of Homo-Magi.” Zatanna said. “All of our lives matter, not just yours.”

“You'll feel differently when you join my colony.” Queen Bee said and released another pollen wave, this one much stronger. It was also within the girls she was controlling, so I couldn't use my heat vision, even on the lowest setting.

I produced a ghostly Glaistig Uaine behind her and then Valefor. “Command her to stop her actions and release her drones from her control.”

Valefor did so and Melissa stopped producing pollen, then she stood there and did nothing. She doesn't know how to release drones. It's never been done before.

“Doctor Psychic, slow down time for the sorority girls.” I ordered and nodded at Glaistig. A delicate ghostly hand touched Queen Bee and the young woman died and collapsed to the ground.

The girls of the sorority started screaming and changing into giant bees.

I glared at Rose for not doing as I asked and she looked horrified as the girls shredded their clothes as extra legs grew and giant wings popped out of their backs. “Command them to sleep.”

Valefor did and the giant bees dropped to the ground, their bodies stopped mid-transformation.

“It seems to work better with Homo-Magi because of their potential for animagus transformations.” I said and knelt by the closest bee-girl.

“I really hate those books.” A man's voice said and I looked over to see Rose had become Richard, or Doctor Occult.

“They might use silly names for things; but, nearly everything they mention is true.” I told him and placed a hand on the bee-girl. I winced at the damage she was suffering, because I was wrong. It was more like a werewolf transformation instead of an animagus transformation, because she was losing her mind and was full of pain as she changed.

“We don't allow coerced spirits on the campus, Mister Kent.” Doctor Occult said and pulled out a talisman.

I felt how wrong it was and was instantly beside him and grabbed his hand, and not the talisman, and crushed both.

Richard yelled and pulled his ruined hand away from me and I let him. The brief bout of pain also let me get a glimpse into his mind and I knew what he was going to do.

“Don't you dare try to exorcise part of my powers, you arrogant hypocrite.” I spat at him and looked over at the manifestations. “Thank you for your help.”

Both Glaistig and Valefor nodded and faded away.

“What... what was that?” Green Fairy asked.

“Part of my power is to summon ghosts of people with powers.” I told them and they looked shocked, except for Enchantress. She looked hungry. I ignored her and knelt by the closest bee-girl and closed my eyes. It took me a few minutes to find the mental trigger for transforming and turned it off. The poor girl had been a bee for too long and would always have it as an alternate form.

I couldn't find anything that would make her become a queen bee, either mentally or physically, so all I could do was restore her back to her human form. I also took out a blanket from inventory to cover her as her bee features faded away and revealed her normal and quite naked form.

“How are you doing that?” Pia asked me.

I smiled and motioned for her to come closer as I moved over to the next girl. “Put your hand by mine and you'll see for yourself.”

Pia gave Enchantress a look and the goth girl nodded, so she walked over and knelt beside me. She placed a hand by mine and her other hand gripped my muscular arm. I didn't comment on that, because she visibly relaxed as she did so, and I started fixing the second girl. Pia sucked in a sharp breath and closed her eyes and seemed to wallow in what her now power was showing her.

“Will I ever be that good at this?” Pia asked as the girl under our touch reverted back into a human form and I covered her with a blanket.

“You'll be better, because it's solely your power. I have so many that I can't specialize.” I explained and she gave me a disbelieving look. “I'll only guide you with the next one and you can work with your power for yourself.”

“O-okay.” Pia said and we moved to the next girl and I did as I told her. I only 'showed' her what to look for, what to change, and how to initiate the reversal of the transformation. When I covered the girl with a blanket, Pia leaned against me with a smile on her face. “Marry me.”

Lisa Drake laughed and shook her head. “Geez, Clark. You're gathering up all the hot and horny girls and you're not even trying to.”

Zatanna saw the slightly red faces of Green Fairy, Enchantress, and Pia. “I think I'll back out of the competition before it gets heated.”

“Only because you don't know enough magic to fight for real.” Enchantress said and it was Zatanna's turn to have her face go red.

“I'm not staying, so there's no competition.” I said and nodded at Pia to touch the next girl. “I'll only observe this time.”

Pia nodded with a confident look on her face and I followed along as she did a similar procedure as the last two times, adjusting it for the slightly different biology of the girl. That was something I didn't tell her to do and I nodded with approval as she finished with the girl reverting back to her human form.

We split up and did the last four girls separately, two each, and that was that.

We stood up and Doctor Occult was Doctor Psychic again and her hand was fine, as was the talisman. She put it away and glared at me.

“These girls are your responsibility, Doctor. I hope you have a great time breaking it to their families that you let another student alter their DNA and made them into mindless giant bee drones.” I said.

“I didn't know...” Rose started to say.

“Before you keep lying, you have clairvoyance powers, as does your husband. If you checked everyone as closely as you did me, you should have known what your students have been doing and will do in the future.” I said and she closed her mouth. “Was Queen Bee right? You thought they were already drones, so their lives were already worthless? Why help them when it won't actually help?”

Rose didn't say anything, because she knew any response she gave would damn her. She just didn't realize that not saying anything was also a response.

“You really are a bitch.” Lisa Drake said with a chuckle. “That's good to know.”

Zatanna gave the girls on the ground a sad look and then looked at Rose. “I don't have any choice about being here. I need to get my father back from Lleh and I need to learn how to control my magic to do that.”

“Same here.” Enchantress said. “The choice between some help and none is easy to make.”

“I... ah... me, too. I came here to learn how to use my healing powers... and...” Pia looked at me. “I wish you could stay and keep teaching me.”

I shook my head. “My views are as unwelcome here as my actions against those that harm others while under the so-called protection of the headmasters, that only seemed to apply to the more evil-inclined students and leaves the good ones to be preyed upon.”

Rose looked guilty and didn't refute my words, because she knew it was true. She was so focused on helping the people she knew were going to end up evil that she was almost ignoring the good ones that actually wanted her help. Those thoughts gave me an insight that I realized was why she didn't like those books.

“You're filling the role of Albus Dumbledore.” I said and her eyes widened. “You're willing to sacrifice all the good people in the world to save the few villains that don't want to be saved and didn't ask to be.”

The girls exchanged looks and looked back at Rose.

“Yeah, I definitely don't want to learn anything you have to teach me.” I said and motioned to the spot where the distortion that brought me here had appeared. “Could you send me back, please? I have greenhouses to build and a farming business to start.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Rose nodded and walked over to the spot and a distortion opened up. Since I didn't trust her, at all, I clamped my hand onto hers and copied her power. She gasped as she felt my own influence on the portal and it changed locations to where it was supposed to be and the time differential reset to normal.

“Nice try, Doctor Psychic.” I said and crushed her hand. She screamed and I let her pull her mangled hand out of mine. “Interfere like that again and I'll make sure your husband is the only one possessing your body.”

Rose's hand reformed and she glared at me. “I've seen your future, Clark. I'm trying to help you.”

I smiled and waved a hand at her hand, letting it become crushed again and she screamed. “We all know what you stepping in to help means, Doctor Psychic. You want evil to flourish and then be redeemed.”

All of the girls except one gasped.

Enchantress let out a soft moan and gave me a sexy look. “Call me.”

I gave her a little wave before I stepped through the distortion. I reappeared back on my farm, right in the same position I had left from, and not into the middle of the town where tons of witnesses would have seen me appear and given away that I had powers. The distortion disappeared and I nodded.

“Some alterations to my ward scheme seem to be in order.” I said out loud, just in case someone was listening in or watching. I knelt to start adding in a new detection grid when my clairvoyance power told me Rose had just brought Sebastian Faust back to life. A second later, Felix Faust was brought back as well.

I knew time moved much differently there, so I waited for a full thirty seconds before I opened a portal and yanked Sebastian Faust out of the pocket dimension and shoved a blade made of disintegration magic into his face. A second one went into the book he held and then I opened another portal and his father fell out. Another blade to the face and another portal, this one to the sun, and it was done.

I wasn't surprised when I didn't gain any more Karma Points for both deaths, since I had already been rewarded for them the first time. I smiled at not being able to so easily farm points by killing someone purely evil a bunch of times and resurrecting them.

A smug feeling touched me and I nodded, because I was sure it was Death that was letting me know I was never going to abuse their hospitality like that.

*

Over the next three months, Zatanna practised her magic as much as she could, failing miserably most of the time, and her growing feelings for Sebastian were starting to interfere with both her studies and her personal life.

Why did the arrogant asshole have to be so damn enticing? Zatanna asked herself as she sat in her room and studied an old tome of magic that her mentor found on Logomancy, or speaking spells backwards. She hadn't thought she was someone to fall for a bad boy and now she had the feeling she was hooked. She didn't have it as bad as her roommates, though.

Both Pia and June were besotted after their brief encounter with the powerful mage named Clark Kent. June because of his magic and Pia because of his body. They both claimed he was perfect, for different reasons, and always brought him up whenever they could. She couldn't hold it against them, though. She was getting just as bad as she brought Sebastian into their conversations just as much.

June suddenly transformed into Enchantress and let out a soft moan. “He finally did it!”

“Did what?” Pia and Zatanna asked at the same time.

“He dealt with the asshole.” Enchantress said and weaved a spell circle into the air and viewed what happened.

Zatanna and Pia stared as Clark murdered Sebastian without a word and then murdered his father, shocking the three of them, then a bright portal opened inside the view and almost blinded them. Enchantress ended the spell and the room fell into darkness as the three young women blinked their eyes to try and get the spots out of their eyes.

“What was that thing?” Pia asked.

“I don't know.” Zatanna said.

“I do.” Enchantress said and laid down on her bed. “It was the sun.”

“The... the sun?” Pia asked, nervously.

“Yes, the spacial coordinates on the portal's magic match the location we worked out in our astronomy class.” Enchantress said and weaved another spell, this one full of numbers. “The first was to Sebastian's room, the second to Faust's castle in England, and the last was the star in the center of our solar system.” She said, awe and desire in her voice.

“He can make portals almost a hundred millions of miles from Earth?” Zatanna asked, her own voice full of awe.

“Yes, isn't he deliciously powerful?” Enchantress asked and let out another moan. “Come on, Clark. Call me. I'm waiting.”

Zatanna didn't say anything in response and thought about that. Clark was ridiculously powerful if he could open and maintain a portal across a solar system. Maybe... just maybe... she could convince him to open a portal into a particular realm that she absolutely needed to enter to save her father.

It was a thought that drove her to study harder. She needed to control her magic if she wanted to have any hope of rescuing her father from the fiery pits of Lleh she had accidentally sent him to.