Thunderfist's Turmoil Ch. 03

CHAPTER III -- SPELLBINDER'S SOLUTION

(Quick note to the reader: Those of you who have read the previous chapters might remember that I mentioned the sexy stuff starts to happen in Chapter III. I'm afraid I had to push most of it back into Chapter IV. Apologies)

The next three days passed. Danni kept to herself and still refused to go out. I kept myself busy as best I could but found it hard to concentrate on anything. My attempts at writing were pitiful. I called Marie a few times to check on her but all I could do was leave messages on her voicemail. I checked in with Agent Freedom who assured me that the Guardian Society was fine and that I could take as much time to take care of my family as I needed. I asked if he'd heard from Spellbinder and he told me he hadn't, but that was nothing alarming since she was a part-time member of the team even at the best of times.

That evening, Marie appeared in our living room out of the blue. If this were a movie, her appearance would have been accompanied by a flash of lightning outside, a loud clap of thunder and the howling of the wind. Because in movies, that's what happens when something very dramatic is going to take place. And what would transpire in the next few hours would indeed change our lives forever.

Marie told Danielle and I to sit down and started talking.

"You know I cannot bring back the dead. That is black magic and black magic never leads to anything good. My magic allows me to change some things and see what others cannot see. I cannot turn a desert into a forest or part the seas. And I cannot see the future or into the past beyond what I remember of it."

"But sometimes I come across... It's difficult to explain... Something big that started with something small. I can see the small thing and how changing it could lead to altering the big thing it became. Sometimes. It's like... imagine a rockslide that started with a little pebble. The little pebble got loose and rolled down the slope of a mountain, shaking loose more and more rocks. So many that the entire mountainside got loose and destroyed a village at the bottom of the mountain. Now imagine if you go back to when the pebble got loose. Imagine you changed it's path so that the rockslide fell away from the village."

"Can you do that?" Danni asked her.

"Normally no." Marie continued. "It is destiny that makes a pebble go in one direction instead of another. There have been many times I wished that I could change what destiny has given us, but that is beyond my magic."

"But sometimes I come across those who have broken away from destiny. Most of them are dangerous fools. They have to be stopped before they bring our reality crashing down upon us. And after they're stopped, I always have to repair what they've done. I may not be able to alter destiny but fix it, yes, that I can do. It's hard. Sometimes if feels like trying to shove an angry cat into a box that's not big enough for it. But I've always managed. Except once. Once I saw destiny had been changed and I made the mistake of thinking it was all right to leave it as it was. Because it wasn't done for bad reasons, it was done out of love by a baby in her maman's belly.

"Me?" Danni asked her.

"Oui my little one." Marie answered. "You were never meant to be a boy. When you made yourself one before you were born, you changed your destiny. It was the only time I ever saw so small a change and it never seemed to endanger our world the way other changes did. If sorcerers and villains kept their changes so small, I'd be tempted to let them get away with it. All you did was make your mother happy. And I knew you would become yourself eventually anyway. So I let the change stand."

"Reality isn't in danger now, is it?" I questioned.

"Non" Marie assured me. "As terrible as things are today, this destiny will not endanger reality. We can do nothing and let the world continue on as it will. Or I can put destiny back the way it should have been from the beginning. Danielle," she said as she turned to my daughter. "I can make it so you were never a boy. You will have been a girl all your life. You will still be the hero you are, but when you tried to save Josephine Randolph, she won't have run away from you."

Both Danni and I took in a sharp breath as what Marie was saying sunk in. "Are you sure?" Danielle asked Marie.

"Yes" Marie insisted. "I have spent every moment since I was last here studying my spells. I have consulted the oracles and even forced the Fates to show me the threads of your lives. To Josephine Randolph, you will have been a normal hero and she will have gone with you away from danger. The world will not be condemning you for a tragedy that did not happen."

"Whoa whoa whoa" I interjected. "Before we all lose our heads here, let's think about this for a second. What else will have changed? You've told me often enough that you can't predict what your magic will do sometimes. That it isn't an exact science. What if fixing her destiny means she got hurt or became something terrible. Or that I did, or something worse than that?"

"Non non non mon ami" Marie reassured me. "You and Danielle will not change. You will remember everything you remember now. You will remember the years with the male Daniel. I will remember them too. But we will be the only ones. The world will remember a little girl who became a hero, who stood by her father's side as her mother was buried. Angele dying is something I cannot change. Believe me, if I could change that, I would have long ago. The change will be to the outside world. Not to us. And I would not suggest we do this unless I was sure it will not cause terrible consequences."

"François, Danielle" dhe went on. "The universe does not like to be tampered with. I can mend the tears in its fabric because it allows me to. In this, I am an agent of much higher powers. The chaos, the pain of the last few weeks, I think it was destiny's way of telling us we need to restore the balance. Maybe not because reality is in danger, but because we've gone done a path that should never have existed. Everything I have uncovered in the last few days tells me that there is no danger in doing this. That as much as we think otherwise, in the grand scheme of things, we are not that significant to reality. The change will be small, and it won't affect much beyond preventing the hostility of the last few weeks. If the universe is affording us a second chance, why not take it?"

"Daddy, we could save Josephine's life if we do this" Danielle reminded me.

We discussed the idea for the next few hours. Danni was very much in favour of it but I had doubts that needed to be addressed so that's what Marie did. She didn't shy away from discussing some of the drawbacks of her plan. Our memories of the world wouldn't jibe with its history. Marie assured me the changes to that history would be minor according to her research. A restudy of our old case files would be enough to get us up to speed on our modified heroic past exploits.

Things would be more difficult for our civilian identities. Danielle would probably have made different friends at school as a girl than she had as a boy. She agreed that it would be an adjustment when she returned to school but pointed out it would be a minor inconvenience compared to the status quo. There would doubtless be changes in my life as well but Danni's point remained valid. Would the trouble I'd have adjusting to my new past justify facing public mistrust and leaving the Randolph family in shambles? As uncertain as I was about Marie's plan, I knew I couldn't live with myself if I didn't take the chance it offered to undo that family's suffering.

I offered up one final argument against undoing all that had happened since Danni had outed herself. The media's attention had, for better or worse, brought attention to the issue of trans rights. By erasing that attention from existence, I argued, we'd be running away from the problems of the trans community. But Danielle reminded me that I'd promised to stand by her decisions when she'd decided to reveal her real gender to the world, and this was her decision as well. That put the issue to rest. I agreed to go along with Marie's proposal.

We moved the rugs and furniture out of the living room to clear out a space a dozen feet square. Marie drew a perfect circle out of chalk on the floor and filled it with some mystic symbols (no pentagrams. Marie tells me pentagrams are strictly for the rubes). She had Danni and I join her in the circle and warned us not to step out of it until she was done with her spell. The three of us held hands as she started to speak in a language unlike any I'd ever heard before. Her voice, normally pleasant and delicate, seemed to turn guttural and harsh.

The hairs on my arms stood up as I began to feel a strange energy in the air. I looked at my daughter and I could see she sensed it too. Marie's eyes were glowing now, seeming to smoke in the air as she continued to cast her spell. The room seemed to fall away as the symbols on the floor flashed with different hues. My vision of what lay outside the circle was full of stars one instant and fire the next. Marie's clothes and hair were flowing like she was caught in a windstorm but Danielle and I felt nothing. I caught glimpses of shapes drifting just outside our protected area, ancient creatures of some sort. All the strange adventures I'd been on and all the wonders I'd witnessed as a superhero hadn't prepared me for what I was seeing.

Marie's spellcasting seemed to reach a crescendo as a blinding white flash burst from the center of our circle and shot beams of light in all directions. Marie continued to chant but the power of her words seemed to be waning. I almost lost my balance as I felt a sudden sense of forward momentum and the next thing I knew, the circle was again illuminated by the lights of my living room. The chalk on the floor faded away until there was no trace of it whatsoever. Marie opened her eyes and whispered "It's done". She let go of our hands and lost her balance. I caught her before she could fall and saw that she was as pale as a sheet.

"Ooh, that took more out of me than I expected" she quietly said. "I think I may need to lie down for a while. Be a dear and put me on your couch, will you?"

"To Hell with that" I said as I carried her up the stairs with Danni right behind me. "You look like you're about to pass out. You can sleep this off in bed."

"It is a comfortable bed..." she said as she drifted off before I'd even reached my room.

I laid her out on the mattress and made sure a pillow was tucked under her head. "Could you help me undress her?" I asked Danielle as I reached for Marie's blouse and started undoing the buttons.

"Maybe I should do this alone?" Danni carefully suggested as she removed Marie's shoes.

"Honey, it's nothing I haven't seen countless times before" I said and immediately realized that she had no idea that Marie and I were lovers. I straightened myself up to look at Danielle and caught her expression of surprise.

"No wonder she said you had a comfortable bed" said Danielle as her mind quickly put the facts together. "How long has this been going on?" she asked me.

"Since the spring after your 12^th birthday." I answered her. "We were talking one night after you'd gone to sleep and it just happened. I think she knew I was ready to move on from grieving over your mother so she made the first move and I went along with it. We came up here and made love and I fell asleep. The following morning, I woke up and she was gone. Then, the next time she visited, it happened again. It kinda became a habit."

"Hmm" Danni said noncommittally as I looked for some reaction to my confession. "Are you two in love? Are you dating?"

"No to both" I admitted. "We like each other but she's never wanted to be more than just friends. Part of it is that she's lived so long, I guess it hurts to get too attached to someone you know you're gonna lose one way or another. And then she's always saying that magic is a..."

"...difficult and dangerous path to follow" Danielle finished with me, throwing in a decent impression of Marie's French accent. "Yeah, she told me the same thing a few times when we talked about it. Makes it hard for her to relate to people when she sees the world in a totally different way then they do. And after what we saw tonight, I think I understand that a little better now."

"Me too" I said in agreement. "So we're just friends who sleep together sometimes. Friends with benefits, as they say."

"Why didn't you tell me?" my daughter asked.

"Well," I said as I searched my mind for the answer. "At first it was because I thought you were too young for me to discuss it with you. And after a while, since it was clear that Marie and I were never going to be anything serious, I didn't think I needed to tell you about it. Plus, it's been going on for so long, I thought maybe you'd figured it out at some point and just didn't care."

"Nope" Danielle advised me. "Didn't have a clue. I mean, I knew Marie was beautiful and could get any man she wants. I just never thought she'd be treating my dad like a booty call."

I chucked at the term. "That's one way of putting it, I guess. Anyway, that's why she knows about my bed and why it's okay for me to undress her tonight. Are you okay with all of this?"

The question snapped Danni back to the task at hand. "Sure" she said as she started unbuttoning Marie's pants. "Now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I'm glad you're getting some action. Some action that doesn't involve punching people out, that is."

Between the two of us, we quickly stripped Marie down to her underwear and tucked her in. With the immediate situation handled, I realized that we'd have to see what Marie's efforts had wrought. "Ready to see if this was all worth it?" I asked my daughter.

"Yes, but..." she said as she pointed to a picture I had on the drawer next to my bed. "I think we already know it worked."

I picked up the picture and saw that it wasn't the one I remembered. It was of me, Angela and Danielle on a camping trip. I'd asked the father of the family in a neighbouring campground to take a picture of us together. But I remembered it with six-year-old Daniel in it instead of six-year-old Danielle.

I looked around the room and saw other pictures that had changed. Danielle with Angela. Danielle with Marie. There were a few that I'd never seen before at all. Danielle with her friend Simon from school at what looked to me like Junior prom. I showed that one to Danni who exclaimed, "Oh God, I went to prom with Simon? Man, I hope I'm not dating him! That'd be too weird".

"Nice dress though" I said with some amusement at my daughter's comment. After the events and revelations of the evening, I needed a laugh.

'Green's my colour" she agreed. "And this is definitely a step up from that tuxedo I remember wearing that night. I wonder..."

Suddenly, Danielle's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. "No no no" she repeated as she dropped the picture and ran out of my bedroom. It was only my quick reflexes that avoided a broken frame as I caught it before it hit the floor. I quickly put it back in its place and followed Danni out to her room. Since she'd been a girl at home for months at that point, she'd already "feminized" her room so it didn't look all that different to me. She was standing next to her dresser and going through the clothes she found. She didn't seem to like them.

"Dammit!" she exclaimed. "All the clothes I bought for myself got turned into boy clothes! All the girl clothes that are left look like..."

"...like I bought them for you" I finished for her as she stood there fuming. I, on the other hand, couldn't help but be amused. "Honey, I hate to twist the knife in the wound, but that happened to that mini skirt that I didn't like?"

My daughter head dropped and her shoulders slumped as she turned towards her closet. She opened it and looked at where she'd stored the troublesome garment. She reached in and pulled out a pair of boys' bike shorts.

"I never even got to wear it" she said in a plaintive voice. Then she looked at me with a pleading look and I knew my bank account was going to be decimated by the end of the week. But after all she'd gone through since her coming out, I knew my daughter deserved a little retail therapy.

"All right." I assured her. "We can go shopping for a new wardrobe for you. You can even buy that mini skirt again on one condition: You gotta promise to only wear it when you're hanging around girls with even shorter skirts. That way, you'll be less the less objectionable one."

She jumped into my embrace and gave me a big hug. "Thank you Daddy!" she said. Then she looked over my shoulder to some pictures on the side of her room's vanity mirror. "I don't think wearing that skirt's gonna be a problem. Take a look at this."

I turned to see some pictures of Danielle with a trio of teen girls. One of them, a Latino-looking girl with curly black hair, seemed to favour booty shorts, as she was wearing them in numerous photos. "Guess these must be my friends" Danni said as she looked over the pictures. "I've seen them at school but I don't even know their names. I think this one's name is Estelle or Stella or something."

"You'll have time to get to know them later" I told Danielle. "Right now you better put on your costume. We need to go to the Guardhouse."

I returned to my room to change into my Thunderfist uniform. Strictly speaking, it wasn't mandatory that I wear it when going to the Guardian Society's HQ, but more of an informal rule. Besides, the way this evening was playing out, I figured it was best Danielle and I be ready for the unexpected.

I made sure that Marie was still sleeping soundly before going down to the living room where I put the furniture back in order as I waited for my daughter to finish changing. For some reason, the same wardrobe change I'd just done took her three times as long. The ways of women continued to be a mystery to me.

When she finally was ready, I activated the Society's matter transporter signal and the two of us were instantly aboard the orbiting satellite base. Given the late hour, there were no heroes around the main hall so Danni and I made our way to the computer room. There, we found my friend Brimstone sitting in front of the main bank of monitors. He swiveled his chair as we entered and said "Heya 'Fist, Kid. Burning the midnight oil?"

"Just checking out a detail on last week's Technocrat attack" I explained. "Everything quiet up here tonight?"

"Nothing we need to worry about" the reformed demon assured me as he turned his attention back to the monitors. "Sure wish I was allowed to watch HBO on this thing."

Danielle had already made her way to a computer station on the side of the room where she accessed our files on the battle in Beaulieu Springs. She scanned through footage from dashcams and security cameras, looking for the moment she'd approached little Josephine Randolph. I stood back and let her search. She was already a better investigator than I was and she'd been in the battle so I knew she'd find what we were looking for far faster than I would.

"Is this like you remember it?" I asked as she scanned footage.

"Pretty much" she answered without looking away. "Here it comes."

The footage looked like it came from a stationary camera, probably an ATM or store's security. I saw my daughter run to a doorway where a little girl was cowering. Even with the graininess of the image, I could see Josephine was trembling. The image showed Danni quickly kneeling by the scared child and saying something. The girl jumped into Danielle's arms and my daughter carried her out of camera range.