The Protagonist System

243 Magic Is Magic

“Damn.” I whispered at a teenager having the body to pull off Zatanna's outfit.

Zatanna's eyes that were looking around at everything around her, focused on me. She gave me a once-over and smiled knowingly. “Are you enjoying the show, handsome?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” I answered. Even though I was only wearing faded jeans and a t-shirt, they fit well and I looked good.

“I claimed dibs first!” Green Fairy suddenly said.

Lisa Drake barked a laugh. “You tried to.” She said and nodded at Zatanna. “He even offered her a hand to shake.”

Green Fairy opened her mouth to refute that and then sighed.

Zatanna looked impressed. “You must have a lot of magic potential for a fairy to refuse a freely given offer to share.”

“He does.” Rose Psychic said. “His first accidental apparition was at eight years old and he travelled halfway across the country.”

All three young women whistled, clearly impressed.

“Your parents must have been pissed.” Lisa said and Zatanna nodded.

“How long did it take you to get back?” Green Fairy asked.

“Only a few minutes. He saved someone first and apparated back home afterwards.” Rose told them.

“You seem to know a lot about that.” I commented and tried to poke into her head with a very light telepathic probe. It was firmly rebuffed by her husband, whom she somehow shared a body with.

“None of that now. My secrets are my own.” Rose admonished me.

“I wanted to know how you knew.” I responded.

“You can ask.” Rose said with a smirk.

I sighed. “Why? You'll give me the same answer.”

“Yes, I would.” Rose said and motioned for Zatanna and myself to follow her. “Usually, if someone is too young to handle their magic and it goes out of control, we try to assign a mentor of sorts. In Zatanna's case, we didn't need to. Her father quickly stepped in to help her handle the magical energies her body had access to.”

“And in my case?” I asked as we walked across the quad towards a building that looked like it had apartments inside.

“After careful observation of your... ahem... many many apparitions...” Rose gave me a look full of judgment and she found me acceptable. “...you didn't do anything that needed the immediate help of a teacher.”

The building's doors opened on their own.

“We also couldn't find an appropriate person to fill the role, considering the types of magic you were using.” Rose said as we entered. “The dorm is co-ed and also split between the sexes and species, so you're on your own for keeping your personal space personal.”

I sighed again. “I only just moved out of the house on my own and now I have to share a room with someone?”

Rose patted my shoulder. “It won't be that bad. You'll see.”

I highly doubted that as she brought us into the male wing of the building. We went up the stairs two floors and down a hallway to stop at the third door. She knocked once, waited for a breath, and opened it. Floating in a seated position was a smug looking young man wearing sunglasses indoors and my danger sense blared at me about both him and the thick book he held.

“Sebastian Faust, meet your new roommate, Clark Kent.” Rose introduced us.

I didn't hesitate and unleashed my full powered heat vision upon the book. It incinerated almost instantly, as did the young man's hands, his guts, and then his spine. Faust screamed for the second it took for me to raise my gaze to his face and his head disappeared.

Zatanna gasped and Rose sighed as she gave me a sad look.

“Was that really necessary?” Rose asked me as she waved her hand and reversed time in the room. My heat vision was still on, so I did the book again and then his head. “Clark, stop that!”

“You want me to bunk with a future villain that's planning on sacrificing several virgins for more power.” I argued as she reversed time again. I did his face first this time.

Rose shut the door and reversed time again. I burned the door down and killed him again.

“We're trying to save him from that!” Rose spat and glared at me.

“You're doing a terrible job of it if he's still alive and thinking those thoughts.” I countered.

“Private thoughts are supposed to be private, Clark.” Rose said and didn't try to reverse time again. She realized she was just causing Faust to suffer as she tried to save him. “Just because he's thinking of killing someone, that doesn't mean he will.”

“He's not killing them. He's sacrificing them. The demons he's going to summon to empower himself will do the rapes and murders, so he's mostly guilt free.” I explained and Zatanna gasped.

Rose looked disappointed with me. “You need to be a bit more accepting of people to properly help them.”

I gave her a stern look back. “If you've kept an eye on what I've been doing for the last few years, then you know I am perfectly fine with helping keep someone on the right path.”

“Yes, so why are you...” Rose started to ask.

“I have an inherent danger sense that's telling me he's evil. It's not hinting at it and it's not warning me he could be evil. He's just evil.” I interrupted and answered her.

Rose sighed and crossed her arms. “I need some time to find you another dorm assignment.”

“Why? This room's fine.” I said and motioned behind her. “I removed the danger.”

“I meant I wanted to get you away from here to restore him.” Rose said.

I shrugged. “I can hit him from anywhere, so making me leave won't save him.”

“You are causing him to go down the dark path faster!” Rose tried to argue.

“To gain more power to defeat me, yes?” I asked and she nodded. “Then I'm right and he's a constant danger to those around him he knows are stronger than him. How many people will he have to kill before you decide he's not worth saving?”

Rose opened her mouth to answer, paused as she listened to something, then sighed. “Let's just get Zatanna settled into her dorm for now. We can come back to this later when you've cooled off.”

I wanted to argue that I wasn't angry and her pointed look stopped me. “Sure. I'd like to see where the daughter of a stage magician is going to live and what kind of monster you're pairing her with.”

Five minutes later, we were in the female wing of the dorm and standing outside Zatanna's room.

Rose knocked on the door and waited for a breath, just like she had with my room, and opened the door. “Pia Morales, this is your roomate, Zatanna Zatara.”

Again, my danger sense went off, only it felt different this time. It wasn't as demanding or pervasive, so she was a threat, only a minor one or could be a huge one in the future. Her thoughts on the other hand... I pushed Rose out of the way and walked into the room, ignored the woman's protest, and put a hand on the young black woman's shoulder.

“You are not your power, Pia.” I said and she looked shocked. “If that was true, I'd be a mindless entity roaming the cosmos looking for two brain cells to rub together, without realizing I had been solving the problem I had without knowing it.”

“Wh-what?” Pia asked me as her black eyes were full of confusion and locked onto mine.

“Entropy. It's easily bypassed by shifting to a new dimension.” I said and she still looked confused. “That doesn't matter right now.” I said and paused the world.

Rose gasped behind me and I glanced back and saw her head turning around and looking at the greyed out world with wonder.

I went back to what I was doing and added Pia Morales to my party as a temporary member, then spent the Karma Points I gained from killing Sebastian Faust on taking her Necromancy power and giving a healing power similar to what I had given to my mom in Worm.

I only gave her the basic tune-up package and not Vicky's powerset, since that wasn't something Pia needed in her life. I somehow gained a ton of Karma Points from that and laughed, making Rose behind me speak up.

“Clark what is this place and why are you laughing?” Rose asked.

“I've apparently solved a huge future problem without realizing I was.” I said and paid the points to remove Pia from my party without consequences.

“You don't mean Sebastian, do you?” Rose asked me.

“No, he's just evil.” I said and unpaused the world.

Pia caught her breath and stared at me as she felt the changes she had undergone.

“I'm sorry for barging in like this, Pia. I just saw your sad face and knew I had to say something.” I lied and she narrowed her eyes at me. I smiled and gave her shoulder a squeeze. “You should have an easier time of things now.”

Pia nodded, knowing I was telling the truth that time.

“Being cute helps.” I said and she blushed, because she knew I wasn't lying. “It was nice to meet someone that's going to become one of the best healers in the world.”

Pia looked embarrassed and stepped back, removing my hand from touching her, and she frowned slightly at losing the feeling.

“It's not fair to compare.” I whispered and walked back out of the room.

Rose gave me a look that said we needed to talk. “Zatanna, go on in and pick a bed. Your other roommate...”

The bathroom door opened and a sexy goth girl stepped out wearing only a towel. “Great, you're giving me another whiny bitch of a roommate to deal with?”

“June Moone, this is Zatanna.” Rose introduced her.

“I prefer Enchantress when in this form.” The goth girl said and stopped beside one of the beds and looked over at me. Her face changed from annoyed to interested. “Who's the hunk full of yummy magical energy?”

“He was just leaving, as was I.” Rose said and turned around and shut the door. “You might want to avoid her.”

I gave her raised eyebrows and she didn't elaborate. The thing was, my danger sense barely tingled. Either Enchantress was much more relaxed about things or she was very good at hiding how evil she was. Maybe that was why Sebastian Faust set me off so much? He didn't bother trying to be less imposing magically and was too dangerous to ignore?

Rose took my arm and led me back down the stairs and out of the building. We passed someone riding a Pegasus as they landed and sauntered around a crowd of relaxing students. A few of the girls barely looked at the horse and the guy riding it let out a disappointed sound and kicked the flying horse into action and flew away.

“It takes more than a pretty horse to impress a girl at a magical academy.” Rose informed me.

“Was it a manifestation, a summon, or a familiar?” I asked.

Rose paused walking to give me a searching look, smiled at my genuine curiosity, and brought me into the main building. “It was a summon and a familiar, which will make things a little awkward for him during class.”

I chuckled at the thought of trying to have the Pegasus perch on the guy's shoulder.

Rose brought me into her office and sat me down in front of her desk. She walked around it and sat down herself. She didn't say anything as she stared at me and looked deep in thought.

“You're going to keep reacting like that, aren't you?” Rose asked me.

I gave her a blank face back. “How long did you say you had surveillance on me?” I asked and she didn't respond. “About that, if you knew I had magic, why didn't you send a letter or something when I was eleven?”

Rose scoffed. “Thanks to those books, everyone thinks magic manifests the best at eleven.”

“It doesn't?” I asked and she shook her head.

“You proved it yourself that you can be any age to have magic appear. Some are born with it, some need to mature for it to appear, and some need to wait a specific time before their magic settles and can be trained in its use.” Rose said and smiled knowingly. “In your case, it's been exactly seven years.”

“Seven...” I paused and thought it over. It really had been exactly seven years, from 8 years old at the end of August, to 15 years old and the end of August.

“Seven is a magically significant number.” Rose said and folded her hands under her chin and rested her elbows on her desk. “Now I just have to decide what to do with you.”

“Well, you're married, so the options are limited to academically.” I joked and she huffed. “You could...”

A glowing orange circle appeared on the right wall and interrupted me. The center filled in and swirled with an unnatural darkness. A man dressed in a villain costume styled like a Victorian era Egyptian Pharaoh ripoff stepped out of it and his hands were glowing orange, probably to maintain the magical portal.

“What has happened to my bastard son, Doctor Psychic? I can no longer feel his magical resonance!” Felix Faust asked, angrily.

I wasn't one to miss an opportunity when it was handed to me. My heat vision burned through the side of his head and melted his brain before he could cast any more spells. I thought about casting a stasis spell on him and chose not to, in case Rose reversed what I just did and the spell wouldn't take. I cleaned up the mess by burning up the rest of him, too.

Rose sighed and gave me an exasperated look.

“What? He's pure evil.” I said to defend myself and my actions.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“My pocket dimension is supposed to be a safe haven for all magical beings.” Rose said.

I stared at her for several seconds and didn't laugh in her face. Barely. “You believe that.”

“It's one of the main tenets of running this university. All of the staff have to uphold it as well.” Rose said. “Otherwise, we couldn't have professors like Xanadu and Frankenstein teaching here.”

I was taken aback hearing that. “Do you mean the man or the monster he created?”

Rose smiled. “Most people assume I mean the monster, even if he wasn't really one.”

That gave me some very important information about Rose Psychic. She either could use her powers to the point that she could portal into the past or she could access dimensional analogs where time either ran differently or events happened to ensure certain people still exist.

“Is he or she a descendent?” I asked and Rose's smile grew, which meant she wasn't going to tell me. I looked down at the small pile of ashes on the floor by the wall. “Are you going to bring him and his son back?”

“Yes.” Rose said and didn't say anything else.

“Then you need to understand that all of the deaths they cause from that point forwards, will be your fault.” I said and she caught her breath. “They are gone and done with now. There is no more danger to anyone, especially me, and you want to restore them and let them murder more innocent people?”

It was my turn to give her a disappointed look and she knew she deserved it.

“I don't think I can learn anything good from an institution run by a woman whose morals are so corrupted that she can condone so many future crimes against humanity.” I said and stood up. “Do we need to head back to the quad for you to send me back home?”

Rose sat there and didn't respond as she stared at me.

After a minute, I shook my head at her and walked over to the door to her office. “I'll just go say goodbye to my new friends while you enable the deaths of so many people.”

Rose stayed behind her desk as I left the office and went out into the quad. I saw Zatanna, Enchantress, Lisa Drake, and Green Fairy surround Pia Morales as she healed an overweight kid in a wheelchair. I went over to them to say goodbye and to tell them about what was possibly the shortest enrollment in a university of all time.