The Protagonist System

254 L’amour En Abondance Conclusion

Blackbolt's proclamation, to keep me as far away from Crystal's purity as possible, was a couple of years off. She was the daughter of the previous queen and had snuck out in disguise to see how the common people lived. She had met one of the commoners and had a quick liaison with the young man, both knowing it was just a fling, and she had been left thinking it was always like that until you were married.

Not surprisingly, we ended up at my mansion in the main bedroom and I spent several hours showing her how I treated my own liaisons, while Lockjaw had a grand old time with a giant rubber ball and an enlarged roast that was almost as big as him. He kept the bone to chew on later.

A very happy dog and a very happy princess teleported back to the moon just before sunrise and I stepped from my mansion into the hotel bathroom. I changed into my normal look and went to bed. I needed a few hours of sleep after being awake and active for so long, just to refresh myself mentally.

As I dozed off, my thoughts of only having a sole woman to call my own in this world, floated away. It might still happen later, so I wasn't going to lose hope. Then again, Lisa rejecting me had opened me up to not having any lasting commitments, and look how that turned out after only a single day. I had both an Avatar of Order and the princess of an entire people, without even trying.

Maybe not being tied down wasn't going to be so bad this time. In fact, I thought that it was about time I started having fun with this life and I wouldn't worry too much about messing things up with Lisa. We hadn't made any commitments and would talk about things after the trip, as agreed. Until then, I was a free agent and not beholden to anyone.

*

Lisa wasn't sure why she wasn't as into Clark as she was at the start of their vacation. Was it his constant attempts to see to her needs that was annoying her? She didn't know. It was both sweet and kind of off-putting, as if he was more concerned about what she thought of him and he didn't care how other people saw that.

During the latest tour of the vineyards, her eyes caught the look on the daughter's face when she saw Clark was actually helping her father tend to the grape crops and knew what he was doing. She was hungry for him and that was annoying, because the young woman knew he was there with her and she was giving him that look anyway.

Although, she did notice that Clark wasn't trying to encourage her, even if he did smile at the girl's attempts to flirt with him. Why wasn't he fully shutting her down? Did he like the fact she was a farm girl and shared his own passion for growing things? Lisa herself had no interest in that at all. Maybe that was the problem she kept having with him? Their worldly experiences were too far apart?

Lisa refrained from drinking too much this time, mostly because she had joined Clark on touring the fields and there was little chance to enjoy the various vintages the vineyard produced. It also let her see what exactly Clark was doing and who he was doing it with. It was boring and she didn't enjoy it, just as Clark had warned her she wouldn't, even if she did get to see him sweating in a white t-shirt.

Unfortunately, the little farm harlot also saw him in that state and she definitely wanted a taste of him. Clark had laughed her offer off as a joke and even her father seemed amused at the girl's attempts to seduce one of the guests. It wasn't reassuring at all that the girl had tried it only once before with someone else, whom also didn't take her up on the offer.

Lisa relaxed as they drove away from the farm and she glanced over at Clark as he drove confidently. She noticed he wasn't slouching or trying to hide his height, which she knew he had tried to do douring the tour. That let her know he was actually trying to make himself less appealing, only all it did was make him seem more humble than he already was.

Does everything he try come out in his favor? Lisa asked herself, not realizing he had done her as well and that hadn't turned out in his favor at all.

They stopped at several shops and Clark paid for several very nice outfits fo her, his excuse being she needed them for her upcoming attempts to start her acting career and shouldn't show up at her interviews wearing jeans.

There was nothing wrong with jeans, was there? Lisa asked herself. Everyone wears them.

They went back to the hotel to change into better clothes and then went to the in-house restaurant and enjoyed another great meal. The all-inclusive package really had been the best deal for the trip and she was grateful that she hadn't needed any money.

It wasn't until after she had showered and was in bed that she realized Clark hadn't tried to proposition her or joined her in the shower. He even stayed on his side of the bed and hadn't woken her in the middle of the night to have some fun. Who was this guy, anyway? Why wasn't he taking advantage of her? She was right there in bed beside him and he wasn't making any moves on her.

Didn't he know that when a girl says no, she only meant that one time and not always? Why wasn't he trying again? Was something wrong? Was it her? Did her one rejection make him think she never wanted him to try again? Why would he think that? A girl had the right to change her mind, dammit!

Lisa went to sleep feeling frustrated and wasn't sure how to handle things. How was she supposed to figure things out if he didn't even try to talk to her about it?@@novelbin@@

*

I cast a sleep spell on Lisa to stop her runaway thoughts. I hadn't meant to listen in, except her body was tensed up and I wondered what was wrong, only to have my own thoughts stumble over her back and forth circular reasoning.

That was a conversation I was not stupid enough to initiate, mostly because I would be seen as ignorant if I asked her about what she thinks I should ask her about and didn't know the answer already. Yeah, I wasn't opening that can of worms anytime soon.

I climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom, changed into my Atlas persona, and closed my eyes to check on something. I had an errant thought after meeting with the Inhumans. If they existed and it was the television versions, perhaps there was more out there than I thought there was.

I let my concentration focus down onto whom had the worst experience in the Marvel television series, Jessica Jones. I had no idea how old she was when Kilgrave kidnapped her, so getting a head start on that whole thing was a good idea, in my opinion. What I hadn't expected was to find a 14 year old girl riding in the backseat of a car and her last name wasn't Jones, it was Campbell.

Since I was watching her and could sense the area around them, my danger sense blared at me. I immediately stepped from where I was into the street in front of the car, caught the front bumper, and let myself be pushed as I slowed the car down without causing the passengers and especially Jessica any harm.

Behind me, the screech of tires sounded and a large military vehicle zoomed right through where the car was going to be.

“Excuse me for a moment.” I said and disappeared from there and did the same thing to the runaway transport that was full of radioactive chemicals.

A quick check with my x-ray vision showed a mechanical failure to the brakes and I melted the tires with my heat vision to stop the vehicle from moving. Two soldiers hopped out of the cab and gave me shocked looks, one because of my outfit and the other because I had melted the tires.

“I suggest you call this in to your commanding officer.” I said and turned my head to look at how close we were to the civilians, only to see a young Matt Murdock and his father standing on a nearby corner. Son of a bitch! I just stopped the creation of both Daredevil and Jewel.

“S-sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the military asset you just damaged.” One of the solders said as the other used his radio to call the incident in. Not surprisingly, they left out the transport being out of control and only reported my intervention and damage of government property.

Well, I wasn't going to stand for that defamation without proving it was true. I picked the thing up like it weighed nothing and flew up into the air. I created a portal out of sight from the road and then threw the transport over the closest building and through the portal to the sun. No one was going to use those chemicals to create anything else, like Luke Cage, Cloak, or Dagger.

I flew back down to the soldiers and they just stared at me. “Thanks for the idea on how to deal with that.”

They stared at me as their radio squawked at them to report on what I just said. I chuckled as I walked back over to the car where I had left the family I just saved. Jessica and her parents were out on the road and hugging each other tightly.

“Thank you, whoever you are.” The father said.

“You saved our lives.” The mother said and kissed her daughter's forehead.

“Actually, I was only trying to save young Jessica from years of pain and heartache if she lost you.” I corrected her and they looked surprised.

“You know my name?” Jessica asked, surprised.

“Of course I do.” I said and smiled at her.

“What's yours?” Jessica demanded and looked quite cute doing so.

“You can call me Atlas.” I said and walked over to pat her on the shoulder to give her the basic upgrade package. “You might see me around or on the news.” I told her and then chuckled. “Don't believe everything they say, all right?”

Jessica beamed a smile at me and nodded.

I floated up into the air and waved to her, nodded at her parents, and flew off. I didn't go far, just to the top of the next building and out of sight, and used my clairvoyance power to look at Wilson Fisk. He was already working on his Kingpin persona and building his influence in the underworld.

A step brought me to his room and I had him sell me everything he owned and then transferred all that money back into my offshore account. Getting free stuff from villains and criminals was the best feeling in the world.

I started his disintegration by using a black energy blade, then realized I shouldn't be leaving bodies on the moon for others to find and experiment on, like aspects of life and death or something, so I stepped to the moon and set about dissolving everything and then used a touch of Black Hole to clean up, just in case.

I stepped back to Earth and let my mind go over the next big thing to happen, and suddenly felt a spike of mental pain. It wasn't mine, it was sent psychically, and I concentrated on it and stepped forward. A teenage Jean Grey knelt beside her best friend that had just been run over by a car.

“No! Don't go! DON'T DIE!” Jean yelled, both out loud and with her powerful mind.

“It's all right, Jean.” I said out loud as I felt her mentally link herself with her dying friend. I'm here now. I sent to her mind. Everything will be fine.

Jean gasped and looked up at me, her eyes wide and her mind was completely open.

I knelt beside her and touched the dying girl and healed her with Panacea's power. I also gave her a limited telepathic power and connected it back to Jean along her own signal, essentially using the trauma as a reason to bring the two friends closer together.

She's going to need your help to handle things from now on. I sent to her. You know why.

Jean looked from my face to her friend's and saw her eyes flutter open. “Sarah?”

“Jean?” JEAN? Sarah said softly and yelled in her mind at the same time.

Jean winced and tried to whisper both out loud and in her mind. It wasn't quite working and I realized this was the first time she had used her powers, as this triggered her mutant powers to activate.

Allow me to show you how to do that. I thought to both of them and they both stared at me, then they shivered as I sent them the information they needed to use their telepathy without harming themselves or others. I also gave them mental dials to increase or decrease the gain, so they could control how much they could see and hear of other people's thoughts.

A crowd of people rushed over to us, including the parents of both Jean and Sarah, and they were hugged and grateful thanks were given to me for appearing out of nowhere and saving them.

The driver! Jean sent to me and gave me a mental picture of both the drunk man and the car.

He won't get far. I sent back and floated up into the air. He'll confess as well and will find it quite difficult to get drunk from now on.

Thank you. Jean thought and smiled at the thought the man would get violently ill every time he took a drink. Thank you very much for saving my best friend!

Sarah blushed as Jean hugged her and they both looked up at me with adoration and awe on their faces. Will we ever see you again?

I nodded and tapped my temple, telling them how they could contact me, and I flew off and out of sight to handle the drunk driver. I also had a few more places to visit to finish off my lists and I looked forward to completing my tasks.

*

The rest of the vacation went by without a hitch, or in my case, meeting any more women or setting up future meetings. It was a little disappointing, since I had hoped the last delivery of rescued women would have earned at least a lunch date with Wonder Woman. Oh, well. Ten years wasn't that long to wait to see if she wanted to date, was it?

Pietro Maximoff was having a grand old time with SHIELD and learning how to fight, use explosives, and being an all-around soldier. He intended to save his people from oppression and Nick Fury was fully onboard with helping him achieve that. He was also in contact with the Themyscrian Embassy and both Pietro and Wanda had regular contact.

Wanda was also having a great time with the Amazons, as was Natasha and the other future assassins. Learning how to make themselves stronger, how to repel mental influences, and how to fight, made them all extremely happy. Their gratitude towards me for setting them onto that path, grew every day.

Lisa's attitude didn't change, so after we arrived back in Smallville, we had that discussion and she politely declined the offer to live with me. I went with her to negotiate a better rental rate at the motel, considering she would be staying for a bit longer to make enough money to survive in Metropolis.

When I offered to give her a loan for however much she needed, she refused and claimed she didn't want to owe anyone. I made her promise to stay in touch and to call if she was ever stuck anywhere, needed money, or a place to stay. I would be there to help if she needed it and there would be no strings attached.

She didn't believe that last part, unfortunately, and she thought I was just desperate to keep her in my life. All I could do was tell her I hoped she had a great life and didn't try to kiss her goodbye. She looked sad that I hadn't and I shrugged it off. I had better things to do, now that I had so much experience and knowledge on how to properly care for my crops.

So, that's what I did. I went back to my farm, after delivering a few souvenirs to my parents, and went right to work. The sooner I had the grapes stable and growing, the sooner I could start digging up the basement for the house.