"I wish DeMorrell was here in this room with us unarmed, without his guards, and willing to negotiate."
There were cries of protest from some of them and everyone shied from the flash of energy. When they could see again DeMorrell was standing there, mouth open in midsentence, " - - return what was taken from me. Wish my manhood healed, whole and complete, and I will trouble you and yours no more."
Demorrel was using a cane to help him walk and still moved very gingerly. The sight brought an ugly smile to Nora's lips. Jonni knew the next part of her plan would please the young woman even more. Silently praying she had this all properly worked out Jonni lifted the amulet hanging from her neck in one hand and the all powerful stone in the other.
"I'd like to accomidate you, Lucius," Jonni began in a tone that indicated she was glad she could not comply, "But you have already set things in motion by wishing we would be wed and, seeing as you lack the necessary equipment, physically and emotionally, I don't think you would make a very good husband."
Jonni concentrated on the amulet. DeMorrell's face became very afraid. He could feel something happening to him. His towering form was dimnishing with every passing second. The heavy muscles were melting away, his face blurring. He dropped the silver tipped cane from a hand that was suddenly slender. His beard had disappeared and the squareness of his jaw was softening. "No, Jonni, stop, don't!"
"Stop? What for?" Jonni smirked, watching her tormentor transform. His expensively tailored suit was rumpled and baggy now, the much smaller body nearly swimming in it. "You're going to be very happy like this."
Breasts had blossomed on DeMorrell's chest and her hips were widening. DeMorrell was very definitely a she now. The new woman was still darkhaired and dark eyed with almost sinister arched brows and lips even more sensual than before, but everything else was radically different. She was model beautiful with high firm breasts and long legs.
Jonni decided to keep DeMorrell's hair short just as DeMorrell had done with Jonni's own female form.
"Please, no," DeMorrell whimpered in a soft, husky voice, hands going to her crotch, "I was willing to make a deal."
"I could never trust any promise you would make," Jonni said acidly, "I have to do this, to do something to make you less of threat."
"So do I," the female DeMorrell sneered, her brow furrowing in concentration.
"I wish DeMorrell had the normal desires of a hetero woman!" Jonni said in a panic, unsure how quickly DeMorrell's suspected power might work, "I wish DeMorrell loved me and wants to make me happy!"
Jonni felt herself begin to change. DeMorrell's power was still working. Luckily her last two wishes had affected how it was working. Jonni was getting taller, the contours of her body flattening and broadening, putting on all the hair and muscle DeMorrell had so recently lost. There was a swelling down between her legs, Jonni was Jon again! Young and male, but even better than before, Jon perfected.
"What? How?" DeMorrell sounded perplexed though not exactly displeased by the sudden change in Jon's form.
"You wished to be able to change my body however you wanted," Jon said in a voice deeper than he recalled, "That was why I still remembered my old form when you made me into a redheaded sex-bomb. Now that you're a woman and in love with me this is what you want."
"Oh God, you figured it out," DeMorrell bit her lip, a strange light in her dark eyes, half frustration, half adoration. She couldn't help her tone of voice. After all, she did love him, "I'm so sorry I hurt you, Johnny."
"I wish I was wearing normal clothes," Jon frowned even as the jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers popped into being like a second skin. Johnny. Jonni. He disliked the name, though he knew how his newly made admirer meant it. It was an unpleasant reminder of what he had endured, "I wish you would only call me Jon or Jonathan, never Johnny."
"Yes, Jon," DeMorrell said softly, hanging her head. She was powerless now and knew it, bound by invisible chains of love. Even had a wish not enforced it she would have obeyed.
"Well played, Jon," the woman that had been Jon's grandfather smiled, "I am very proud."
"Why did you use the amulet instead of just wishing DeMorrell was a woman?" Karyn piped up.
"Because all the wishes DeMorrell made to his old body might have been gender specific - - I am the handsomest man and so on. The amulet gets around that," Jon gave a slightly smug smile. He might have been disturbed to note how much he looked like the male DeMorrell when he did.
"But it doesn't change reality!" Karyn persisted, "No one knows who this new person is."
"True," Jon grudgingly nodded, "That is going to take a little more work. We have to create a new reality for our new Ms. DeMorrell, but I can start that right now." Jon turned to the nervous new woman in the rumpled suit, "I wish your name was Lucinda DeMorrell. I wish our baby's birth certificate lists you as the mother. I wish you remembered giving birth to our child and loved her as a mother"
Almost on cue Jon's baby began to fuss, reminding him of another detail. Employing the amulet once more, he chuckled when Lucinda gasped and cupped her breasts. They were visibly swelling underneath the suit jacket.
"Jon, really!" Jon's mother made a token protest, but couldn't help a little trill of laughter. Even she was enjoying the humbling of the man who had turned their family upside down.
"Milk," Jon answered Lucinda's questioning look, "For our child. I wish you were wearing some clothes appropriate for a new mother and feeding the baby."
In a small wink of light Jon and DeMorrell disappeared. When they reappeared Jon was standing and Lucinda was in the chair, babe in arms and the neck of her dress open, one breast popped free of her nursing bra, nipple in the baby's mouth.
"Oh!" Lucinda's cheeks blushed deep red upon realizing everyone was watching, but she made no move to stop feeding the child. Needless to say things hadn't gone the way she had planned them in the slightest. She didn't think her snipers were still monitoring the building's exits nor was she quite sure what she would order them to do even if they were.
Poor Lucinda's thoughts were severely conflicted. Deep down she was still DeMorrell and remembered everything about both her lives (before and after the stone up to this point), but she was female now and had all the desires of a young woman. She loved Jon and wanted to be loved. She wanted help caring for and raising her daughter. She wanted to be successful and respected. She wanted to be told she was pretty and be treated like a lady. She - -
Lucinda knew almost all of her mind had been rewritten in the space of a few moments. She had heard the wishes so she was aware that she had been other than she was now, but the now governed her every opinion and emotion. Yes, she could still look back on a criminal career and life as a man that spanned over eight decades. She remembered every lie, every theft, every beating, every burning, every woman, every seduction, every rape - - but that had been Lucius.
She was Lucinda now. All she could think about was the wish that she and Johnny - - she could still think of him as Johnny at least - - were to be married and how she would now have to fulfill that wish - - as the wife. She was already the mother of his child, would being his wife be so hard? Lucinda remembered giving birth as if she actually had done it herself and with Jon's wish that she love the child as a mother it was already getting hard to remember she hadn't really undergone hard labor. The memory of the pain was so intense.
She was still most likely capable of murder. Lucinda wasn't certain, but she thought she was just as fast and powerful as before. The wish to be three times strong, quick, and agile as a normal human being still applied to her, but it was three times as strong, quick, and agile as a female human now. Some of her strength had been traded for greater balance and flexibility, though this did not make her any less deadly. Lucinda did not detect any squeamishness in her nature and could likely still do the deed with her bare hands, but the "normal desires" of most women did not include the urge to do murder. To protect her baby? Yes. To get the stone back from Johnny? No.
"Well, now that you have things pretty well in hand," the man with Jack Merlin's face spoke up, "Could you put Jack and I back the way we belong?"
"I wish that when Nora wished to become Jack Merlin and vice versa she also said, 'until the crisis is over,' " Jon looked up with an air of finality in his eyes, "I wish the crisis is now over."
Jack and Nora both closed their eyes and swayed briefly, when they both looked back up they seemed different though it was nearly impossible to say how. Something in their eyes, their postures, seemed to be minutely adjusted. They looked at each other and smiled like two old friends who had not seen each other in a long time. Nora, female once more, looked down to the child in her arms then back up to Jack and laughed, "I never planned on being a mother, but at least I didn't have to do all the hard stuff!"
Jack looked down to the young woman's face and felt something stir in his heart that had been asleep. Nora was Nora again, her eyes no longer filled with hate, her expression open and honest. "No, but I did. That's my baby boy and you better let me help take care of him."
Nora smiled. Jack kissed her.
"Jon?" Lucinda looked up from the baby, dark eyes imploring. Her voice was hesitant as if afraid of the answer, "When - - when are we getting married?"
"Tomorrow," it was Jon's dad who answered, "At least that's what the invitation in my pocket says."
Gary Gibson waved a fancily printed little slip of paper in his left hand.
"What?!" Karyn burst into tears.
