The Protagonist System

262 Kamar Taj Reborn Part Two

Doctor Fate was quite surprised when she was contacted two weeks later and asked to start her lessons on teaching the demonic younglings magic. That was years before she had assumed they would be ready, so she didn't quite believe Clark's teleported letter. It wasn't until she opened a portal to the set coordinates and stepped through into the training arena that she believed it.

Before her were 36 teenagers that all looked surprisingly similar, with their long black hair tied back into ponytails and fighting against each other and their mothers. She watched them for several minutes before she walked over to where Clark was watching them with a smile on his face.

“They're magnificent, aren't they?” Illyana asked as she stepped out of a portal.

Doctor Fate gave her a glance and then looked at Clark.

Clark gently took Illyana's hand and pulled her in to give her a tender kiss, one that made the girl blush, and she pushed him away and opened a portal above the large arena and a large glowing rock that was half melted with magma dropped down into the fighting area.

“Stop trying to distract me.” Illyana said with no real heat in her voice as the fighters dodged the large projectile and then they tore into it with their clawed hands to use both the magma and rock as fighting aids.

“She chose to wait and handle things on a more human scale.” Clark whispered to Doctor Fate.

“Ah, I see. That's understandable.” Doctor Fate said. The thing was, she really did understand. She hadn't had any children herself, mostly because she didn't have the time or the inclination to handle both motherhood and fighting the Forces of Chaos. It wasn't until recently that she had contemplated the thought of having a child.

“We're also working on sending her back to her own time and having a child might interfere with that or might stop her from going back entirely. The magic she uses and her own mutant power can be funny like that.” Clark said and Doctor Fate nodded.

“I'm not as worried about it as I used to be.” Illyana said, even if she looked embarrassed.

Clark pulled her back in and hugged her. “I won't condemn you or our future child to become time displaced, just because I care about you.”

Illyana sighed and didn't push him away this time. “I don't know if I can make myself wait until you're in your thirties before I'll approach you and we can start off this whole thing between us again.”

Both Clark and Doctor Fate chuckled.

“What?” Illyana asked, slightly offended that they were laughing at her feelings.

“You are much too young to worry about how practically immortal beings are going to feel about the age difference between you when you jump around the timeline at whatever apparent age you are now.” Doctor Fate said as an explanation.

Illyana blinked her eyes several times before she looked at Clark, whom nodded.

“I'm not going to look much different by then, especially in my hero persona as Atlas.” Clark said and changed into it, showing off what he was always going to look like when he was out saving people.

“You won't have a problem with my age, even if I showed up 20 years or so from now?” Illyana asked.

Clark looked thoughtful for a moment, then chuckled. “I'm pretty sure that's going to be an interesting time for you to appear in, assuming I stand by and do nothing.”

Doctor Fate reached over and slapped him on the back of the head. “Bad Clark! Bad!”

Clark laughed and let Illyana go. “Yes, yes, I know. Consulting with you is more important than trying to predict if things will happen the same way after all of the things we've done so far to deal with everything that might happen.”

Doctor Fate nodded. “I've thought over your plan to set the titans against each other.”

“Really?” Clark asked. “I wasn't sure you would be able to help me pull that off.”

“I think planting some evidence to cause them to start fighting is well within my purview as a Lord of Order.” Doctor Fate said.

“By causing chaos.” Clark said, a grin on his face.

Doctor Fate nodded again. “If we can put a few things into place, using our combined abilities to adjust the details, I'm sure the mad titan Thanos can be set upon the enormous task of taking down the rival of the New Gods on Apocalypse, Darkseid himself.”

“It should also severely decimate their respective armies, since they were relatively at the same power levels around this time.” Clark said. “If we can get it to work.”

“With your knowledge and my skill, then my knowledge and your skill, we will succeed.” Doctor Fate said. “All we need is to be careful and the two situations should resolve themselves.”

“Or keep them too busy with each other to think about coming here for a few centuries.” Clark said with a chuckle. “Either way, Earth benefits and it'll make our future prospects that much brighter.”

“Yes, it should.” Doctor Fate agreed and turned her attention back to the demonic teenagers. “I'm a little surprised you didn't have them all be female.”

Illyana let out a girlish giggle before she could stop herself.

“What is it?” Doctor Fate asked.

“If they had a choice about it, all of their firstborns would have been male.” Clark said and Doctor Fate hid her surprise at that. “They wanted strong sons born from their first true mating.”

“No, they wanted only sons.” Illyana corrected and looked amused. “Clark needed a few days after the female births to convince the mothers to raise them to be as strong and smart as them instead of killing them off and asking for another round of births for more sons.”

Doctor Fate wanted to say how barbaric that was, then remembered they were dealing with demons, slaves or not, and their mentality and morals were much different than what a normal person's was.

“After a few days, they were glad they did, because their daughters turned out to be much better faster learners than their brothers.” Illyana said, a little proudly. “They also won't let the boys forget it.”

Just then a gargoyle-like male was flung by where they stood and he crunched against the wall, his wings barely catching the brunt of the impact and he only grunted slightly in pain as his wings twisted against the magically protected walls. He slumped down and pushed off the mass of molten rock before it cooled.

“Nice one, Harshan.” A female gravelly voice praised and a gargoyle-like female flexed her muscled arms, then her mother punched her and she was flung across the same distance and slammed into her brother. “Don't get cocky.”

“Sorry, mom.” Harshan said and climbed off of her brother. She brushed off her training uniform as she turned to offer her brother a hand, then she saw Clark and blushed. “F-f-father.”

Clark nodded and motioned to her brother. Harshan picked him up like he weighed nothing and flew back over to her mother to continue their training.

“What was that about?” Doctor Fate asked.

“I'd say it was a long story, except it's not.” Clark said. “She saw my transformation the last time I visited her mother in their breeding pit.”

Doctor Fate looked over at Dimetara and how much bigger than everyone else she was, then she looked back at Clark and imagined how much bigger he would have to be to have sex with her. “Oh.”

“Sometimes, size really does matter!” Illyana said with a laugh and jumped into the arena to help with the physical training.

Clark shook his head at the girl and turned to face Doctor Fate. “You didn't have to come over right away. I only wanted to arrange tutoring sessions for when you had time available.”

“Considering my lifestyle, that's not a realistic expectation for you to have.” Doctor Fate told him. “I think it would be better if I bring them to the Tower and...”

“No.” Clark said, stopping her from explaining why. “They are in a critical stage of development with their accelerated growth rate. I won't remove them from their homes and deny them access to their parents for however long you need to train them.”

“Then why did you contact me?” Doctor Fate asked and tried to not sound frustrated.

“I thought you would want to help develop their magic education and lean it more towards your style of fighting, while they are still young enough to easily adapt. They're going to be fully grown in another two weeks and I believe fully set in their ways.” Clark answered. “They train around the clock in everything, including basic magic techniques, only stopping long enough to enjoy a meal with everyone.”

Doctor Fate cast a detection spell and nothing showed up. “You aren't using your chronomancy powers. How are you making them...” She stopped talking and gave him a very pointed look. “You didn't.”

“I did.” Clark said, a little proudly. “Upon conception, I chose both accelerated pregnancy and accelerated growth to adulthood, the options only being available because of their adaptable demonic magic.”

“Is that how they can reproduce in such ridiculous numbers in various hell dimensions?” Doctor Fate asked.

“Mostly. It's more that their sheer numbers and breeding pits keep a constant flow of new fodder for their armies than anything else.” Clark responded. “With my own powers added into the mix, even with such a small gene pool of only ten female demons, our family will have about a hundred Earth-bound demonic acolytes by the end of the year.”

“A hundred.” Doctor Fate whispered.

“It probably wouldn't be that high if their mothers weren't so adamant to build on the success of the first batch.” Clark said with a chuckle. “They've adapted well to the whole 'being real mothers' thing and don't want to lose the strong feelings it brought forth in both them and their children.”

“Switch forms!” Illyana suddenly yelled and all of the children changed from their demonic bodies into their humanoid disguises before they continued fighting. A lot of them grumbled about the differences and kept fighting anyway, mostly because it was to get them used to moving around in a more acceptable form.

“They can all change like you do?” Doctor Fate asked, clearly surprised.

“What can I say?” Clark asked and looked proud. “I spared no expense to ensure they were going to be the best.”

Doctor Fate thought about that and nodded. “I'll stay here and help them learn for the next two weeks, as long as you help me tackle the threats that will pop up during that time.”

Clark put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a sad smile. “You forgot that I offered to do that all the time, didn't you?” He asked and Doctor Fate was glad he couldn't see her embarrassed face. “I told you to call when you needed help. I've finished the farmhouse... well, farm mansion, really. I'm building the infrastructure for my factory to get that up and running for the next little while.”

“What about your crops?” Doctor Fate asked.

“They're coming along well.” Clark said. “I can't use chronomancy when planting the seeds, since I need to prove the technology is viable for others to grow things. It's also a litle easier to harvest them as well, since it's quite easy to set conveyor belts between the rows and shelves and have them deliver the food products to the end of the greenhouse to be packaged up for sale.”

“Sales? Does that mean the farmer's market was a success?” Doctor Fate asked.

“It was better than that.” Clark said, again looking proud. “Since what I grow isn't touched by the elements, like wind, rain, or blistering sunlight that is fully regulated, I had bumper crops and all of them were nearly twice the size and many times the quality they should have been.”

Doctor Fate gave him a searching look. “Will everyone cover their farms with greenhouses like you did?”

“No, my father was right about the cost effectiveness and how much of a money sink it would be at first. Most families would go bankrupt if they tried to convert their entire farms like that.” Clark told her. “They are going to go with my initial idea and only cover a single field to try it. If it works on the smaller scale, they can eventually earn enough do the next field and keep going.”

Doctor Fate nodded. That was a viable way to not destroy their only source of income for something they might ot be able to handle all at once. It would also give them experience with the different techniques they would need to learn for farming inside a building instead of out in an open field. It would also let them see both the benefits and the drawbacks of both systems.

“What about offering subsidies to help them?” Doctor Fate asked and Clark perked up at her words. “I assume with the model becoming accepted by the wider community that the ideas and techniques you've created and patented for its creation and maintenance are bringing in unexpected funds.”

Clark nodded. “It would also let me anonymously invest some of my ill-gotten gains.”

Doctor Fate gave him a bit of a glare. She didn't quite approve of robbing the dead like that, except she couldn't really blame him, either. Most of the people he had pilfered were dead and had no heirs or family left, so that money would have just sat there or been claimed by either the banks or the government.

“Of course, with so many people needing the resources to build greenhouses, the price of construction materials is going to go through the roof. Maybe I should diversify a little and buy a lumber distribution center? I could teleport in the goods instead of using shipping containers and save millions, keeping the price of goods reasonable.”

Doctor Fate didn't really need the proof that he was much smarter with his money than she assumed he was going to be, which in her mind was the old adage of 'throw money at it to solve the problem'. She had seen it many times before and assumed he would be the same way, so she was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

“I'll need to make a few calls to arrange things before they get out of hand.” Clark said and motioned towards the door. “You're welcome to come with me.”

Doctor Fate looked over at the demons instead. “I think I'll stay here and start working out the best way to start educating the students I didn't expect for years.”

Clark stepped close and hugged her. “I'm not going to apologize that I inadvertently found a fast way to get you more help that didn't involve extra-dimensional entities.”

Doctor Fate's helm dissolved into motes of light. “You could apologize for giving me so much extra work to do.”

Clark chuckled before he kissed her deeply. “Sorry, not sorry.” He said and let her go and started walking away. “I'm also looking forward to having you around more often.”

Doctor Fate watched him walk away and could help admiring him. “I suppose I am, too.”

“You suppose?” Clark asked and turned back to face her when he reached the door. “We still have to work out how to deal with Thanos and Darkseid without getting caught.”

“That's what I meant.” Doctor Fate said with a smile.

Clark laughed and left the training room.

Doctor Fate turned her attention back to the fairly large force of demonic and chaotic energies that made her skin itch a little. The thing was, she could also feel the benevolent undercurrent of Clark's own magic mixed in there. It was the only proof she needed to know that they really were his children and that he had done all of this for her, despite his excuse that it was for his demon slaves.

She wasn't going to throw away this opportunity to turn a force of chaos into a force for order. That would be both foolish and against her own beliefs that everything had a purpose, even the evil things that existed. Without something to fight ir struggle against, life itself would have no meaning.

Doctor Fate used Clark's transmutation technique to reform some of the rubble into as many desks as there were demons, then she took out a book on magic and made that many duplicates and placed them onto the desks. When she was done, she let out a small pulse of magic and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to face her.@@novelbin@@

“Class is now in session.” Doctor Fate said. “It is time for you all to sit down and learn.”

“A-all of us?” Polundara asked, surprised.

“Clark said the children were to be taught and I won't disappoint him by leaving the parents out of it.” Doctor Fate said. “It also lets you bond more with your children, too.”

To Doctor Fate's surprise, a fight didn't break out for the demons to figure out who would be the first to sit at the front. The group split up and sat with their family members and showed her that the largest group were the pterodactyl-like demons and everyone else had two or three children, which meant she would have an abundance of naturally flying attackers in the future.

“Magic is not a toy, even if you can have a lot of fun with it.” Doctor Fate said and a few of the teenage girls let out little laughs. “Yes, I meant that way and I'll show you a few others.”

The boys joined in the laughs, knowing she meant that magical pranks were going to be okay for them to use in her presence and they would learn a lot more under her tutelage.

“The first thing I'll show you is how to use and then exhaust your magical reserves. The more you do so, the more you get used to straining yourself. These exercises will let you become stronger with your spell casting and will slowly expand your reserves and your powers.” Doctor Fate told them.

All of the demons perked up at that. Getting stronger in any respect was the bread and butter of a demon's mentality. Any information they could get to do so would be eagerly learned, just as Doctor Fate knew it would be.