- 1 -
They told me afterwards it was a hollow-point round, the bullet that pierced his head and blew out the back of his skull.
But, no. That's not the right place to start my story. Perhaps a better place is that evening a couple of years earlier as I stepped out of a taxi, pulling my coat around me tightly, as I sought protection from the chill January air...
It was freezing, yet as the cab pulled away I still paused to stare across the city, my gaze coming to rest on the floodlit Washington Monument. DC was beautiful by day, but perhaps even more so by night. Turning, I headed up the steps and into the blessed warmth of the hotel lobby where the cloakroom attendant took my coat and directed me to the ballroom. Before heading over there I made use of a bathroom just off the lobby to check my appearance and freshen up.
I combed my hair first to corral a few stray, blond locks, straightened my tie, then studied my reflection thoughtfully. My name is John D. Martin and at thirty six I was nine years older than my wife Michelle, but I still had the youthful good looks that would help me in the political career I was putting together. A square jaw and impressive cheekbones were not the sorts of things anyone listed on their resume, but I knew their value. Where Michelle was a political science major who had paid her way through college with modelling gigs, I was a former star athlete, and I'd kept myself in shape. At the top of my class in law school, I'd interned with a Supreme Court justice then joined a prestigious law firm. Now that definitely did belong on a resume.
Satisfied with my appearance, I headed back out. When I got to the ballroom I paused at the entrance, looking around the high-powered assemblage for the woman I had an assignation with. I couldn't see her but I did spot Frank Becker, her business manager and also a hotshot political lobbyist. Diana was hosting this whole event on his behalf so I really should introduce myself to him. Most of those he lobbied were based in Washington so it made sense to hold the event here in one of DC's most opulent hotels rather than at her Hollywood mansion. My eyes narrowed as they alighted on Senator Teddy Thaxton, my political nemesis. I wondered if he knew yet that I was intending to stand against him in the forthcoming election, which were pretty swift affairs in our state, and decided he probably did. You don't survive in politics as long as he has without developing good intelligence sources. That's how I knew the man had a serious heart condition, a piece of information I didn't intend leaking unless I really had to. Even as a politician you had to have some standards.
I looked around for Becker, who was now nowhere to be seen, my eyes alighting instead on a pretty young blonde and the huge, hairy, man who had a beefy arm around her shoulders. I recognized him as recently retired pro footballer Juan Vargas, which meant the blonde was probably Louise Becker, Frank's step-sister. She saw me before I reached them.
"Mr Martin," she said. "My brother told me Princess Diana had invited you."
"Where is she?" I asked. "I don't see her anywhere."
"She went to powder her nose about ten minutes ago," Louise replied, gesturing in the direction of the bathrooms.
I turned and there she was: Diana, Princess of Themyscira - Wonder Woman. Tall, with long, thick dark hair, Diana was breath-takingly beautiful. Her magnificent body was currently sheathed in a strapless black designer evening gown that hugged her every sensuous curve, along with five inch heels, diamond earrings and a diamond choker. As soon as she stepped back into the room she was, inevitably, surrounded by men. From her regal bearing and confident smile as she glided across the ballroom it was clear she regarded such adoration from the male of the species as her due, but I already knew *I* was the man who would be sharing her bed this evening. It was why she'd invited me here.
"Hello, John," she purred when she reached me. "So glad you could make it."
"Wouldn't have missed it for the world," I replied.
She held out her hand and I took it, touching my lips to it while at the same time deftly palming the hotel room key card it was concealing. Diana leaned in to whisper in my ear.
"Go to my room and I'll slip away after a decent interval," she said. "I expect you to be naked and waiting for me by the time I get there."
She moved away to talk to others. After a few minutes had passed I excused myself and headed up to her room. When she joined me twenty minutes later, I was indeed naked and waiting for her.
My wife and I had an open marriage and I'd always enjoyed making love to Michelle, yet sex with Diana was on another level. There was an animal passion, a *hunger* to her love-making that left me both exhilarated and exhausted. Afterwards, laying together, we talked.
"You're not at all like I imagined you'd be when I used to watch news reports of your super-hero exploits," I said, gently stroking Diana's perfect rear.
"I was playing a role then," she said, "as part of my mission here."
"Your mission?"
"My people, the Amazons, were out of contact with the rest of humanity for many centuries. I was sent as an ambassador to man's world and charged with experiencing all aspects of your culture and reporting back on how it had changed during that time. My period as a superhero was part of that cultural exploration, one I eventually had nothing more to learn from. It was time for me to move on, so I did. I was intrigued by celebrity culture and wondered what it would be like to be one of those wealthy young women who are always in the news for their 'celebrity lifestyle'. Since we don't have anything like it on Paradise Island, I decided this was the next thing I should explore. Also, after being all about duty for so long, I was looking forward to seeing how self-indulgence and the public pursuit of pleasure would suit me. Quite well, it turns out. Frank seemed like someone able to get things done so I approached him to be my manager."
"So taking up smoking and drinking were part of exploring that lifestyle?"
"Not really. I've been a smoker for years. It annoys me that it's frowned upon in someone expected to be a role model but it is, so it's one of those things about me I chose not to share with the world. It's a relief not having to hide it anymore. The same goes for my love of single malt whiskies, preferably at least twelve years old. Smoking and drinking were some of the first things I became curious about after arriving here in man's world so, of course, I had to try them for myself. I was delighted to find I really enjoyed both."
"And men."
"Oh, yes," she chuckled. "Most definitely men."
"But you grew up on an island of women."
"True, yet I've never been wholly attracted to women. Discovering men was a glorious revelation, and a relief. I find them endlessly fascinating. I love men, and I make no apologies for taking full advantage of all the adoring male attention my looks attract. It would be a criminal waste of what I've been given not to use it to indulge my appetite for them, don't you agree?"
Yes, perhaps that was the start of my story. Or perhaps it began eighteen months later when Brenda and Theodore 'Teddy' Thaxton had come to visit what had been his senate office but was now mine. They brought Frank Becker with them for what I thought was merely a courtesy call. I was behind my desk, shirt sleeves rolled up, while Michelle was sitting on one edge of it. We were busy getting organised but I was happy to give them a few minutes.
"Teddy, Brenda, good to see you both," I said, "and this must be the hotshot Frank Becker, I've heard so much about yet keep missing. We meet at last!"
"Pleased to meet you, senator," he said, offering his hand.
We shook, then I bade them sit in the three chairs arrayed in a semi-circle in front of my desk.
"I have all the stuff you left behind ready for you to take away," I said, indicating the boxes next to the chair Brenda Thaxton had chosen to sit in.
She picked up a large trophy sitting in an open box within easy reach, opened the bottom of the base and reached inside. To my surprise she took out a handgun, training it on Michelle and me. I tried to stay calm but I was stunned by this.
"Don't call out, don't make any sudden moves, and keep your hands where I can see them," she said. "The same applies to you, Frank. Now go and stand next to them."
"What's the meaning of this?" I asked, more calmly than I felt. "What do you hope to achieve by it?"
"Everything," said Teddy, "we hope to achieve everything. Now if you would, Frank, please use your power on Mr and Mrs Martin and instruct them to remain calm, remain still, and not to say anything unless spoken to."
Becker looked startled at this, but didn't move.
"That was not a request," said Teddy, coldly. "We're both over seventy and with nothing to lose, so don't doubt our resolve. Either you do everything I tell you to or none of us is leaving this office alive."
With obvious reluctance, Frank placed a hand over mine and Michelle's and did as ordered.
"You will both remain calm, remain still, and not say anything unless spoken to," he said.
The effect was immediate, the worry I'd been feeling washed away in an instant, as did my desire to do anything about the situation.
"Good. Now I need you to swap my mind with the senator's," said Teddy.
Again, that look of startlement and reluctance. Brenda waved the gun at him.
"Do as you're told if you want to live," she growled.
Reluctantly, Frank took Teddy's hand and mine then closed his eyes for a few moments. And just like that I was in Teddy Thaxton's body, looking out at my own. I watched calmly as Teddy raised my hands and stared at them in wonder.
"Teddy?" said Brenda. "Is that really you?"
"It really is, darlin'," he said, patting down his new young body and laughing, "honest to God it really is! What a trip!"
"Then that only leaves one thing for Frank to do."
"That's right," said Teddy. "Now I need you to transfer those powers of yours to me."
Again the startled consternation at how much they knew, and the look of resignation when Brenda waved the gun. He took Teddy's young hand one last time, briefly closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"It's done," he said, shoulders slumping.
"Hot damn, it surely is!" said Teddy. "I swear I can feel it surgin' through me. I bet you're dying for me to tell you how I could know about your powers."
"Of course I am," said Frank.
"Well, why not? But first..."
He took Frank's hand.
"You will remain calm and remain still," he said. "Now go stand next to the Martins."
Brenda let out a sigh of relief.
"Everyone is now under our control," laughed Teddy, "which means we did it, baby, we actually it!"
- 2 -
Teddy cleared his throat as Brenda was putting the handgun back in the trophy base, then he began the tale.
"Over the years I've occasionally had dealings with certain less than reputable characters. Not long after that shindig that Princess Diana hosted for you one of them, a Dr Moon, reached out to me. Ah, I see you know the name. An occasional associate of the criminal Dr Cyber, Moon found himself in some difficulty with the authorities and wanted me to intercede on his behalf. If I did he promised to share information with me that he claimed could be of great benefit to me. That information concerned your powers, an' how you were usin' them. I did some investigatin' and what he told me looked like it might check out. So I decided to *really* look into you. What I found was very intriguin'. Not too long ago you were a kid raised in a trailer park who was earnin' a living pumpin' gas. No way you had these powers back then, so where had they come from? I hired a private investigator to look into you and he discovered that three and a half years ago you'd met with multi-millionaire consultant David Graham at a hotel in Des Moines, the first thing of any interest to ever happen in your dull little life. Soon afterwards, David Graham checked into a nursin' home where he died of cancer two months later. His wife Natalia inherited his fortune then embarked on affairs with a number of beautiful young women until finally settling down with a man ten months ago. She's now heavily pregnant with their first child. My investigator discovered Natalia was suspected of killin' her first two husbands, somethin' Graham had to have known, so why marry her? It only makes sense once you know about these powers. He married her so he could steal her body, ultimately leavin' her to die from his terminal illness. A look into his background showed that like you he was someone who came out of nowhere, a former soldier turned high school math teacher who suddenly became a high-priced consultant. Clearly, these powers were transferable. While I have no idea who passed them on to Graham, I *do* know where they originally came from thanks to a stroke of luck by a team of researchers I assigned the task of lookin' into such abilities."
"Looking?" said Frank. "Where?"
"Now, now, that would be tellin'," chuckled Teddy. "What I will tell you is you were stronger than you prob'ly realised. Turns out that not only is it impossible to read the mind of anyone affected by these powers but no magic or science, be it human or otherwise, can undo anythin' done with them. Only the powers themselves are capable of that. Isn't that interestin'?"
"I wish I'd known that," said Frank.
"I thought as much. 'Course, your big mistake was usin' them to swap your mother's body with Princess Diana's. Don't get me wrong. The new Diana is a delightfully sexy an' uninhibited young beauty, as I learned when I talked with her at your shindig. She's a big improvement on the buttoned-up, self-righteous original I once had the misfortune to meet. I applaud her enthusiastic pursuit of pleasure, the acquisition of wealth, and livin' a life of luxury. We all love our mommas and want them to be happy, but that use of the powers brought you to the attention of Dr Cyber an' others. You should have only used them on the down-low and chosen someone less high-profile for her. Through clever use of the persuasion power you convinced most of those you needed to that despite the changes in her life she was the same Princess Diana she had always been, but you were inevitably going to miss someone you shouldn't have."
"Now that you have them, what do you intend doing with the powers?"
"I should've thought that was obvious. America is the greatest country in the world, but we don't always get the respect we deserve. I'm going to change that. Presidents get to shake hands with world leaders, and I'll make a point on every foreign trip to meet all of their ministers, too. With these persuasion powers I'll ensure everyone defers to us. We'll finally rule the world, as God always intended we should."
"Given time you can win over everyone in Congress, but you can't use that power on tens of millions of voters."
"True, but I'll have all the finest public relations minds in the country workin' on my image. John and Michelle Martin will be the young candidates that everyone loves. Fortunately there's time before the next election for her to have a baby so we can present the perfect family image to the electorate."
"Never mind all this," said Brenda, impatiently. "Let's get on with it."
"Sorry, honey," said Teddy. "You're right. It's time to finish this."
She went over and stood next to Michelle, grinning and looking her over admiringly before turning to face her husband, clearly expecting to be made young again, and beautiful for the first time, with her whole life ahead of her. Teddy smiled and took her hand. She was shivering with anticipation as he opened his mouth.
"You will stand here calmly and say and do nothing unless I ask you to," he said.
Teddy then took Michelle's hand in one of his, but instead of taking Brenda's in the other he took hold of mine, a hand that had been his own minutes earlier.
Then he switched our bodies.
"You are now the woman you've always secretly wanted to be," he told me, "and I'm your ideal man. The only thing you want more in life than to be my loving wife and political partner is the babies I will soon be giving you."
As soon as he said this it was true. The life he described *is* what I'd always wanted, and he *was* my ideal man. The thought of having his babies made me giddy with excitement and I could hardly wait to get started on that.
He turned to Michelle, who was now in his old body.
"You've always known deep inside that when John married you it wasn't because he wanted you but because he wanted to *be* you. Such is your love for him that you're happy to give him the life he wants even though it means becoming Teddy Thaxton. And you *will* become him. You'll adopt his swagger, his mannerism and way of speaking, so that no one would ever guess you hadn't always been him. And Brenda is now your wife."
Then came Frank Becker.
"So far as you're aware, you came here to meet up with Teddy'n'Brenda, who were introducing you to the Martins. You used your powers on John Martin and succeeded in influencing him to vote the way you want on some forthcoming legislation. Nothing else happened here. When you left the office, you also used them to influence someone else in some minor way. You're going to eventually realise your powers are gone, and that someone probably took them, but since you'll also recall using them after leaving this office you will dismiss the possibility it happened here."
Finally it was Brenda Thaxton's turn.
"Sorry, darlin'," he said, a note of regret in his voice, "but this is a new world we find ourselves in, and neither of us really understands these new concerns folk have these days. I need someone by my side advising me who does, someone with the political experience to win us the youth vote, and sadly that's not you. I can't deny knowing who's really inside that sexy body when we make love is gonna be a turn on, but that's just icin' on the cake."
He took her hand for what she must now know would be the final time.
"You know nothing about any powers. To you, Frank Becker has never been more than a talented lobbyist. You and Teddy came here today to pick up some personal possessions and to congratulate John and Michelle Martin, and that is all that happened here. You and Teddy will now go home together, having retired from politics. Your husband has been getting increasingly forgetful lately, and you will do all you can to remind him of things when he does. He may be old, but he's still the same man you fell in love with all those years ago, after all."
He released her hand.
"Okay, everyone," he said, "move to the positions you should be in and when I snap my fingers you will all be able to move and speak freely once more. Everything will then be as I've told you it is."
Brenda returned to her chair, he snapped his fingers, and it was so. My husband and I were standing behind his desk, his arm around my slender waist, and I was gazing up at him adoringly.
"It was good seeing you all," said John, "but now the little lady and I have work to do."
He shook each of their hands in turn then they all filed out.
In my mind-altered state I could hardly believe what had happened. I was now the woman I'd always wanted to be and married to the man of my dreams. He was wonderful, and I wanted nothing more than for everyone else to leave so he could throw me down on the desk and have his way with me.
And when they had gone that's exactly what he did.
Which brings us to the hollow-point round, the bullet piercing John D. Martin's head and blowing out the back of his skull, the spraying of blood, brain matter, and bone shards all over those around him.
Including me.
I'd been standing next to him on those town hall steps in Iowa, the dutiful wife heavily pregnant with our first child. As screams and pandemonium followed, as people on the steps dived for cover, a couple of campaign staffers rushed me away.
From freshman senator to the front-runner for our party's nomination for President in a matter of months was unheard of, yet John Martin had managed it. He became a political rockstar over those months, the subject of adoring magazine profiles and fawning interviews from TV stations of all stripes. This was supposed to have been the latest leg of what even his opponents assumed would be a triumphal procession to the White House. But now the dream was over, ended by an anonymous assassin's bullet.
I was in shock, but after they cleaned me up I gave a brief, teary address to the press. I moved through the day immediately after that in a daze. Three days later we buried him. My grief at the funeral was real, but my tears weren't for him.
Afterwards, as I was being led back to my limo from the graveside, a man approached me - Frank Becker.
"I know this is not the time," he said, as my security guard Kyle stepped between us, "but we need to talk. Here's my card. Call me when you're ready."
I nodded to Kyle, who took the card and passed it to me. As I was climbing into the vehicle I paused to watch Becker walk away. He was right. We *did* need to talk. So two days later I rang him and arranged for him to meet me at my hotel.
- 3 -
Frank Becker was tall, handsome, and thirtyish. He had come out of nowhere three years ago and quickly become a phenomenon in his field, the hottest young lobbyist in Washington DC. All that changed six months ago, and I now knew why. Looking at him as he took a seat across from me in my hotel room I wasn't yet sure what my feelings towards him were. That would all depend on what he had to say for himself.
"Well," I said, "here we are. Just the two of us."
"Good," he replied, looking around the room nervously. "Things will be said between us today that neither of us will want to go beyond these four walls. First I'd like to say how sorry I am about what happened to you, and to express my deepest sympathies for your loss - your real loss, that is."
I nodded.
"I flew down there and attended the funeral yesterday," I said. "Brenda Thaxton was devastated, but we shared no words of mutual condolence. We both now knew what she'd done and I could barely bring myself to look at the evil bitch. As soon as the funeral was over I flew straight back to DC. I knew from our opposition research that Teddy Thaxton had a serious heart condition, and it seems the shock when Michelle...when she..."
"The instant the senator died everything he'd done with his persuasion power was undone," said Frank. "We all woke from it at once but your wife, in Thaxton's old body... The shock of it triggered a fatal heart attack. I don't know who the assassin was, but their bullet caused two deaths that day."
I swallowed hard, fighting back tears.
"The powers," I said, pulling myself together. "Where did they come from?"
"They'd been passed from person to person for decades. I now know that the first person they were given to was Madam Fatal, a crime-fighter back in the 1940s."
"And does what they did with the persuasion power come undone whenever someone loses it?"
"No, this is the first time."
"Do you know why?"
"Yes, because Thaxton taking the powers from me was the first time they had not been given up willingly. This was a built-in safeguard against abuses committed with the persuasion power continuing after the thief no longer wielded it."
"But body swaps remain in place."
"Sadly, yes. And as you heard when Thaxton had us in his power, no mortal magic or science can undo them."
So there's no way I'll ever be a man again, even if someone was willing to swap bodies with me. I was glad I now knew but not at all sure how I felt about it, particularly given how the hormones surging through this body thanks to the pregnancy were affecting my mind. If I was destined to remain female I would adapt. But it would be nice to have had a choice.
"How do you know all this?" I asked.
"I just do. Knowing their limits and how to use them are things that come along with the powers. Now I have a question for you. So far you've made no attempt to let people know who you really are. Will you, or are you going to continue to play the part of Michelle Martin?"
"Of course I am!" I snapped. "Not that I really have a choice. Everyone believes Senator John D. Martin died that day, and they have to continue doing so. Why would I want to tarnish my memory by claiming otherwise? Also, my parents are dead but Michelle's are still very much alive, so I will continue my life as their daughter rather than have them have to deal with her loss. I can't do that to them. Like it or not I am Michelle Martin now. And from what you've just told me I always will be."
I laid a hand on my belly.
"I remember being so excited when I learned I was pregnant, and thought I was a willing participant in the conception. But I wasn't. And I wasn't the only one. Teddy Thaxton didn't just rely on my male looks when he bedded other women. How will they be affected by what he did coming undone?"
"Honestly? They'll probably shake their heads and wonder what they could have been thinking. Unlike you they don't know he used a special power on them. They'll put it down to normal, human persuasion on his part."
"Good. Did you ever...?"
"No," he said, quickly.
"A few years ago you were a gas pump attendant," I said, studying him thoughtfully. "Then, out of the blue, a rising young political lobbyist. Yet in all that time you don't appear to have had any girlfriends."
"How could I?" he said.
"What do you mean?"
"The persuasion power made it impossible. Yes, I could win over a woman without using it, but what then? At some point in our relationship there would come a time where we'd disagree or argue. The way women argue can be infuriating. In that situation I wasn't sure I'd resist the temptation to make her be more 'reasonable', to see things my way. I wasn't prepared to take that chance."
I was impressed. Given that power not many men would have had the strength of character to resist such a temptation.
"But you still used the power as a lobbyist," I pointed out.
"I did, yes. I used it to 'nudge' politicians on certain issues, to make them more amenable to putting the needs of ordinary people ahead of the needs of big business. I make no apologies for that. What I didn't do is use them to attempt to take over the country like Teddy Thaxton did. That's why the powers were never supposed to end up in the hands of a demagogue. They were far too dangerous for that. Not keeping them on the down-low could also make you a target, as Thaxton discovered to his cost."
"And now that you no longer have them you've given up on the lobbying and fallen back on your job managing Princess Diana. Did you ever use your powers on her?"
"She came to me of her own free will, I swear to you. And I never used my persuasion power on Diana after taking her on as a client, nor would I ever have. Apart from taking advice from me, her mind is as free of my influence now as it's always been."
"But you used it in her service?"
"To ensure that any deals I struck on her behalf were fair ones, yes. To be honest I wasn't sure how effective a deal maker I would be without that power. I got to test my ability to negotiate without that crutch a few days ago, to see how much I'd learned and how good I was."
"What happened?"
"A major Hollywood studio wants Diana to play herself in a new Wonder Woman movie, and she's keen to do it."
"Really? Can she act?"
"That's what the studio wanted to know. So she did a screen test for them, and it turns out she can. They were ecstatic. With her powers she can also do many of her own stunts too, of course, which will save them lots of money. After that it was my job to get her the best deal I could."
"And did you?"
"Script approval, twenty five million upfront, a percentage of the box office gross, and she gets to choose her male lead. It's the first in a planned trilogy with the same deal applying to the follow-up movies. So, yeah, I think Diana's going to be very pleased."
"What about the mind-swapping power? Did you ever use that?"
"Yes. When they were passed to me the deal was that I would swap the bodies of that guy and his much younger wife. He was dying and, as you heard, she was a black widow, a woman who marries rich guys for their money then bumps them off. She'd gotten away with it twice already. When she set her sights on my guy she had no idea he knew exactly who she was and what she'd done. It's why he married her. He'd get a new body and she'd get the justice she'd so far managed to elude."
"And you? What did you think about all this?"
"I think by taking her off the board he saved the life of whatever rich schmuck would've been her next husband."
I sat back in my chair and sighed. This was all a lot to take in.
"Well," I said, "thank you for answering all my questions. I'm glad we've cleared the air."
"So am I, but there is one other thing."
"Oh?"
"Yes. They've been relatively respectful so far, but now that the funeral of John D. Martin has come and gone the press are going to be all over you."
"They already are. Where are you going with this, Mr Becker?" I said, studying his face.
"Rather than face all that alone, Diana has asked me to offer you a place at her mansion until your baby is born. It's very secure, fully staffed, so you could relax and mourn in peace. Plus she and I both know what was done to you and what you're going through as a result, so if you need to talk about it we'll be there. Let us take care of you. What do you say? Oh, and call me Frank."
Which is how I came to meet up with Wonder Woman again. It would be a very different encounter to our last one.
*******
The End
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Next: Whatever Happened to Wonder Woman: 9 The Goddess