Some Kind of Wonderful- Part Seven by: Enemyoffun Charlie Sandsmark and his mother, Helena, travel around the world from one archaeological dig to another, looking for evidence of the ancient Amazonian culture. So far they have found nothing, until Charlie discovers something wonderful about himself on a small island in the Aegean Sea.

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Author's Note: Here's seven, its one of those transition chapters that seem to pop up every once and a while in my stories. Its a nice little slide from Greece back into the US. I'd like to thank DC Comics for wonderful characters and djkauf for the wonderful editing.

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Chapter Seven:

A bump woke me up. I opened my eyes; have expecting to find myself lying on my mother’s lap in the back of the Hummer. I was shockingly surprised to find that I was resting comfortably on a cushy airplane seat. I blinked, rubbing my stiff neck and trying to figure out how exactly I’d gotten here. I wracked my brain for answers. I remember falling asleep after our escape last night and I think I vaguely remember waking up at least once in transit. But after that, everything was a blur. I continued rubbing my neck and looked around at my surroundings. I was on a plane but from the look of things, it definitely wasn’t a commercial airliner. For one thing, everything was much closer together, the cabin was much smaller and everything had a sleek fake wood look to it.

I stretched my stiff limbs and looked out the window next to my head. It was daytime now, white fluffy clouds were passing us by. Ok, so clearly we’d been moving a lot since I fell asleep and from what I could tell it was at least morning. I looked over the seat in front of me trying to see if I was alone or not. But I got my answer pretty quick. I heard voices coming toward me, angry ones. Being taller now meant I could look over the seats in front of me and I saw Agent Faraday and my mother coming toward me. They were arguing about something and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what, especially when I heard the word “island” mentioned more than once. I groaned, shocked that my mother would still be going on about that.

When the two of them saw me, their argument quit. There was a look of relief in my mother’s eyes but it quickly disappeared. It made me happy that she at least cared a little about me. But it also pissed me off that she was still going on about that damn island. And as far as our relationship was concerned, nothing had really changed. Last night had been hectic and overwhelming for all of us and my mother’s momentary lapse in caring was just that. I’m sure as soon as we got back stateside she’d ignore me as she always has.

To confirm my theory my mother didn’t even look at me as she brushed by me. She was fuming mad at Faraday. The agent didn’t look peeved though, tired but not peeved. His gray suit jacket was gone, so was his tie. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He looked exhausted. Clearly, he had had quite a night. I wish I knew what went on after I fell asleep. I was about to get some answers though because he sat down in the seat across from mine, trying to put on a brave face but I could see the tired look in his eyes.

“Rough night?” I asked as he ran his fingers through his hair.

In the morning light---not the dismal one from the interrogation room---I could see that his hair was actually white not white blonde like I thought. That surprised me because he didn’t look old enough to have white hair. In fact, he didn’t look old enough at all. I know his face was creased with stress lines and some battle scars but he couldn’t have been more than thirty-five. He didn’t answer me right away; instead, he looked at his watch and sighed.

When he finally spoke, it was an apology. “I’m sorry about last night; it shouldn’t have gone down like that.” I nodded. He sighed. “Intel dropped the ball there. We thought Andreas was a paper-pushing bureaucrat looking for a ladder climb. It turns out we couldn’t have been more wrong. Captain Marco Andreas has been dead for two days; they found him in a freezer in his apartment. The man and his personnel there were all plants. Everyone else was new, including the poor temp receptionist. Whoever he was he’s been planning this for a few days now.”

“Who was he?”

Faraday shook his head. “We don’t know. After we fled the scene, the Greek government sent in a team to investigate. I’ve been on and off the phone with officials all night; no one seems to know what’s going on. But as far as I can tell those men who tried to kill you on the island were mercenaries for hire.”

“Andreas told me as much” I said, he nodded. “Did they know who he was?”

Faraday shook his head. “They were dead by the time the authorities got to them. We think Andreas or whoever he was killed them after he fled the Antiquities office.” Faraday sighed. “He’s definitely made a mess of things. He’s gone, too, disappeared into the ether. We’ll try our best to pick him up again but without any proof or ID it’s going to be really difficult.”

I nodded and bit my lip. How much should I tell Faraday? I knew he was a good guy, I think. I mean the US government was the good guys, right? But how much did I trust him. Clearly, he’d proven himself last night; after all, he helped save my mother and Donna and protect them. He also got the three of us out of there but maybe that was all a part of the plan, too. I groaned, it was so damn hard. I hated that there was a piece of the puzzle he didn’t know but at the same time I wasn’t sure I could tell him about it. After all, I didn’t really understand it either. I was pretty certain what the fake Andreas was after, hell he’d told me that much. But for what end? He said his people were protectors of the Girdle but I was pretty certain that was a lie.

Faraday seemed to sense my thoughts. “I need to know exactly what you two talked about before I got there, it might be really important.”

I bit my lip. I couldn’t tell, not yet anyway. So I lied. “He wanted to know why we were on the island. He kept asking me over and over again. He seemed to think we were hiding something. He said his people were protectors of it but I think he was bull-shitting me.”

Faraday nodded. “And he didn’t say what he wanted there?”

I held my breath and shook my head. I was always a really bad liar. My grandfather used to say that I made a lousy poke player because I had more than one tell. The first being biting my lip, I did that a lot. The second was when I held my breath. That one was harder to notice but according to him, my cheeks puffed a little bit. He said it wasn’t noticeable unless you knew what to look for. Agent Faraday was staring at me, his eyes narrowed a bit. He knew I was lying but he also knew there was no way I was going to trust him. I think he understood that too. He didn’t acknowledge my lie but it was in his eyes, they kinda nodded to me in a way.

He didn’t pursue a line of questioning about the fake Andreas. Instead, he seemed more interested in me. The first question out of his mouth was “how?” I suppose I was expecting it.

But I still couldn’t trust him. “Its like you said, I’m a Meta, I think.” Hell for all I knew that could be the truth. Maybe I imagined the whole Hera thing. But feeling the gold bracelets on my wrist I knew that wasn’t the case. “It happened on the beach, one of the tomb raiders shot at me and I changed.”

He nodded. “It has been known to make its presence known that way. You’re not the first one who exhibited her powers through a traumatic event and if I know your kind, you probably won’t be the last either.”

I nodded. There was so much to take in. Now that I’d finally gotten a chance to breathe---the last twenty-four hours or so had been so hectic---I wanted to scream. I’d only been paying half attention to what he was saying in the interrogation room before but what I heard was pretty clear, there were others out there like me. And not just the superpowers bit. Most of those out there had spontaneously changed sex too. The government doesn’t know why it happens or how to stop it. They even tried to regulate, create their own hero. It worked in a way I suppose but I wasn’t really paying attention to that part.

I took a deep breath. “What happens now?”

He ran his hand through his hair again. “Nothing has been officially established yet but I unofficially work for an organization called the Bureau of Metahumans Affairs. We’re still in the early planning stages at the moment but our ultimate goal is the safety and organization of Metahumans the whole world over. Right now we’re only domestic but hopefully by the end of the year we will have a solid organization in place to help us better regulate your kind.”

Regulate, I didn’t like the sound of that. “What does that mean exactly?”

He sighed; I could hear it in his sigh. He wasn’t comfortable talking about it but what choice did he have. There was nowhere on this plane for him to run and hide from me. “There are some of you out there who are not the most sociable individuals. Some of your new brothers and sisters.” He tried to think of the proper way to word it. “Let’s just say they don’t like to play well with others.”

So that was it in a nutshell. His organization was there to make sure we played nice with others or else. It was as simple as that, get with the problem or get locked up for the rest of your life. “So where does that leave me? Are you going to burn numbers into my arm and throw me in a hole somewhere?”

He laughed. It wasn’t a very promising one but it was still a laugh. “Far from it actually. After I heard the radio chatter---heard what you could do---I was hoping that we might come to an understanding. The government already has a powerhouse, she’s a great soldier, duty bound and all that but she’s nothing like you. I was a bit reluctant about you before but after seeing your performance, you more than proved me wrong. You’re one of the most amazing people I’ve seen. You tore through those men like they were nothing and the way you deflected those bullets, stopped that car. Hell if I was fifteen years younger…”

He let that last statement slide. He was lucky; I wasn’t in the mood ending up in prison for slugging a federal agent.

“You didn’t answer my question?”

He nodded. “While you were asleep, I made some calls. The boss was very anxious to meet you but I told him you weren’t ready for that. He tried to talk me into recruiting you but I already knew how you’d answer. So instead he’s authorized me to tell you that we’ve made arrangements to have a new identity written up for you, a new passport, driver’s license, social security card, hell even a birth certificate if you want.”

“And the old me?”

What about my old life? What about my friends? My school, what the hell did all of this?

“One step at a time, Wonder Girl.”

I groaned. “Wonder Girl?”

“What, you don’t like it?”

I rubbed my temples. I didn’t have a response to that. He laughed and patted me on the knee then his phone rang. He excused himself as he pulled it from his pocket, getting up and disappearing down the aisle. I closed my eyes and fell back, falling onto the empty seat next to me. This was crazy, all of it was crazy. First being transformed by a Goddess, then getting arrested, escaping custody and now this. The American government tried to recruit me. What the hell was that about? I tried to force myself back to sleep but no matter how much I tried, it wouldn’t come. Instead I continued to lay there, my eyes closed, trying not to think about the globes on my chest as they rose up and down as I breathed. But no matter how much I tried to ignore it there was no way I could ignore the fact that I was never going to be the same again.

I felt sick. The bile rose up my throat. I snapped my eyes open and jumped up from my seat. I looked frantically around the cabin, holding it in. I clutched my stomach, looking for the bathroom. I saw it toward the back of the plane. I stumbled down the aisle, swaying. Donna was a few seats behind me, engrossed in a magazine. She saw me, dropped the periodical but I waved her off. I didn’t want her to see me puke. Instead, I stormed to the bathroom, tore open the door and slammed it shut behind me. I just made it as I fell to my knees and threw up. It was only a matter of time I suppose; after all, I’d been under a lot of stress.

I threw up two more times until there was nothing left. Not that there was much there anyway, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast yesterday morning. I got to my feet and wandered over to the mirror. I wiped my mouth and chin, groaning at the nasty tasting bile in my mouth and up my nose. I turned on the faucet, splashed water in my face and then looked into the mirror. The girl staring back at me still looked gorgeous even though she just blew chunks all over the place. I groaned, why the hell did they have to make me look so damn pretty?

Who were they? That’s what I’d like to know?

When I left the bathroom and stumbled back to my seat---feeling much better now---I found Donna sitting in the seat next to mine. I tried to look happy and surprised to see her there but to tell you the truth I was hoping for some more alone time. I needed time to figure out what the hell was going on with me and how I was going to handle it. Not that I didn’t want her around but it’s really hard to think when you’ve got someone trying to see if you’re all right. I tried my best not to look annoyed as I took my seat but I think she noticed. So when I sat down, she grabbed my head without saying a word to me and laid it on her lap. Then she proceeded to stroke my hair, petting me as if I was a cat. To tell you the truth it felt kinda nice.

As she stroked my hair, I closed my eyes. I wonder if she did this for her girlfriend, Barbara. It seemed like something two people with great affection toward one another might do. But I’m sure if Barb saw her doing it to me; she’d get really pissed off. I’d only met her once and I didn’t care for her. She was an archaeology student too, but she TA’ed under another professor---I don’t remember his name---but her specialty seemed to be in Africa at the moment. I think Barb was a little jealous that Donna landed the coveted role as my mother’s TA. It’s definitely put a strain on their relationship. I know the two of them are still happy and very much in love but Barb hated it that Donna got to go gallivanting around the world whereas she was stuck in a classroom all day.

Barb seemed like the kind of person who was short tempered and hard to please. Except when she and Donna were together, they clung onto one another and showed their love in great displays of open affection. I was a bit jealous of that.

Donna continued to stroke my head, lulling me into a sense of complacency. I didn’t even notice when she stopped. Not until she asked me the question, I was hoping she wouldn’t ask: “What’s bothering you, kiddo?”

I groaned, opening my eyes. I sat up, wiped away the tears I didn’t even realize were there and sighed. “Do you even have to ask?”

She laughed. “Ok, fair enough” She took a deep breath. “You want to talk about it?”

I shook my head but talked anyway. “This is so fucked up. I didn’t ask for this, I didn’t ask for any of it. But Hera had other plans apparently. She made me put on that stupid Girdle and now” I grabbed my breasts, hefting them up in my cupped hands. “Look at these things.”

I started crying, this time I noticed. Donna took me into her arms and allowed me to cry on her shoulder. The last time I openly cried like this was at my grandfather’s funeral. That had to be the worst day of my life. I was angry and upset for a long time afterwards. I wanted to find the bastard who killed him and make him pay for it. After the anger subsided then came the numbing pain. I cried a lot then too but I did that in secret. My grandfather was the kind of man who said, “Shed tears for those you love in public, shed tears for yourself in private.” I shed a lot of tears for myself then. But for some reason the tears I was shedding now I couldn’t hold back. I wanted to go to the bathroom and cry but it felt so nice to be held.
I cried a long time with Donna.

Then after that, the two of us sat quietly next to one another. She tried to get me to read her magazine but I wanted nothing to do with it. Some girly rag catered to fashion. You wouldn’t think that that was her kind of thing but apparently, she didn’t wear the pants in her relationship. Me, I just sat there. She did switch seats with me though so I could have the window. I found myself staring out it, lost in my own thoughts. I looked at the clouds and wondered if there was a God out there staring back at me. It’s funny how that worked out. I didn’t believe in God, at least not the Christian one. I would have said that all other Gods didn’t exist either until I’d been proven wrong. Hell, I met one, right? It made you wonder what else was out there too.

I scoffed. Remember how I mentioned Mom having a boyfriend? Well it’s nothing too serious, the two of them casually date. He’s a professor too but unlike her, he’s a strict Academic. He also only works at the university. He’s a Demonologist---yeah, I didn’t think something like that existed either until I met him. He’s cool though. He’s Mom’s age but there’s something about Jason that makes him appear a lot younger. Maybe it’s because he’s such a cool guy, strange but cool. Whenever Mom’s in town for more than a few weeks at a time---sometimes she even goes off without me---Jason comes around the house. He spends a lot of time with Mom but he also tries to entertain me too. He gave me this book he wrote, The Etrigan: The Demon Inside All of Us. It was kinda cool but it wasn’t really about real demons, more like a metaphysical one. Though he does talk often about how such a demon---in a person with a strong spirit---can actually manifest itself. Before I thought it was a load of crap but if Gods are real, maybe just maybe demons are too.

I shuddered at the thought.

I tried to think of other things for the rest of the flight. I’m not sure how long we were on the plane before I woke up but the plane landed about an hour and a half afterwards. We touched down at JFK then ten minutes later we were rushed to another plane, this time heading to O’Hare. I barely got time to grab a bit to eat---a hotdog---before we were rushed onto our new plane. This one was a commercial one. I half expected to lose Faraday in New York but he boarded with us. He explained that it was his duty to see us all safely back where we came. I think he was really keeping an eye on me. As much as he fed me the company line, I was certain there was a part of him that didn’t trust me about as much as I didn’t trust him.

We were in the air for about two hours. There were a lot of people on the flight, seeing as it was now the end of Winter Break. A lot of them were families with little kids, probably coming back from vacation. I sat wedged between an overweight elderly couple, both of them trying to show me pictures of their grandchildren at the same time. The wife also seemed a little upset with my choice of clothes. I wasn’t wearing the shorts anymore---thank God. While I was eating at JFK, Donna ran off to a little boutique and got me some pants. They were black and stretchy but tight and form fitting too. I think she called them yoga pants. The shoes were another pair of flats; ones that I promised to give to her after I ruined the pair she lent me before. So my outfit wasn’t something that someone would normally wear on a plane. At least I had a bra now, it was a sports bra but it was better than nothing. It felt much better to have my mountains supported and not swaying free.

We landed in Chicago two hours after taking off from NYC. There was a black SUV with government plates waiting for us when we left the airport. The driver was a tall stern looking man with no expression. He opened the door, allowing the three of us to get into the back while Faraday got up front with him. My stomach was a bundle of nerves and excitement. I’d left Chicago about a month or so ago as a bored, distracted slacker boy and now I was back but this time as a tall, leggy blonde knockout. It freaked me out in New York. As soon as I walked into the airport, everyone kept looking at me and whispering. A lot of people thought I was a model. The guys stared and drooled, the women stared with jealousy. At O’Hare, it was no different except I felt more nervous from the stares. It was very possible that I’d run into someone I knew and I wasn’t sure how I’d react to that.

Faraday spoke to us as soon as the car got on its way. He hadn’t spoken since leaving the private jet back in New York. “We’re going to take you FBI Headquarters first for a debriefing then I’ll make arrangements to have the three of you seen safely home.”

My mother didn’t like that one bit. “I don’t see why that’s necessary.”

Faraday smiled. “Dr. Sandsmark, as of this moment your new daughter is a threat to national security. I know she wouldn’t intentionally harm anyone but with her raw power I want to make sure that we’re all on the same page here.”

“My daughter wouldn’t harm a fly.”

I was touched and shocked at the same time. My mother had never shown this much concern for me back when I was Charlie. I couldn’t even remember the last time she used “son” and “my” in the same sentence. But it kinda freaked me out that she adjusted so quickly as to calling me her “daughter”. My apprehension wasn’t lost on Donna, who gave me a look. She smiled but I wasn’t buying it. My mother wasn’t the kind of woman to change things so easily.

“Besides” she continued, sticking a knife in my ribs. “I don’t want this to get around; my reputation is already tarnished by the island incident.”

I scoffed. Tarnished? She’s the one who tarnished it. I bit my lip and gripped the seat. I couldn’t believe her. She took this situation---my problem---and made it all about her. I would have screamed if I wasn’t afraid that I might shatter everything in the car, glass and eardrums included. Instead, I fumed. Donna tried to reassure me as she reached over and grabbed one of my hands. It was a little help but I don’t think any amount of comfort would stop me from being pissed at that woman.

The rest of the ride, my mother kept her mouth shut. I was glad. If she’s opened it, again I’m not sure if I could have kept mine shut.

We got to the FBI building and once again we were put into three different rooms. My room was a lot nicer than the one at the Antiquities building in Greece but it was pretty much the same thing. So was the Agent who interrogated me. He was a real arrogant prick named Broderick. He kept treating me like I was the bad guy. No matter how much I tried to explain my side of the thing he kept going back to how it was somehow my fault. He was starting to piss me off. At one point, I almost snapped his stupid neck. Instead, I grabbed the end of the table and bent it upwards. The look on the jackass’ face was priceless. He left the room in a rush and a new agent talked to me for the rest of time.

After the questioning---which took at least two hours---I was led to a room where I had my picture taken. The woman there said it was for my new identification. I filled out a lot of forms for that but apparently; my new name was already filled in for me: Cassandra. That had to be my mother’s doing. It was the name of the Seer at Troy, a big feminist heroic icon. I was surprised that she didn’t go with something over the top and really woman empowered like Atalanta or Diana. Cassandra I could work with.

“Cassandra” said the photographer, another woman. “That’s a pretty name, its Greek I think?”

I smiled. Close enough. The woman was a talker, she chatted me up as she finished snapping few shots then loaded it up into the computer. I was amazed at how quickly she did it. I looked at the program over her shoulder, seeing her place my photo into a Driver’s license format. It boggled my mind. When I first learned to drive last year–my grandmother’s Prius actually---it took me weeks to get my license in the mail. I suppose that’s how the DMV worked. But here she was, typing in all my information. I watched as she typed, wondering what my new ID was going to be like. She filled my age in as seventeen, which I guess, was as correct as it was going to be. I don’t officially turn seventeen until February nineteenth but technically, you’re seventeen for the whole year leading up to that. At least that’s how I see it anyway. That’s how my mother saw it too. The only one who liked to celebrate my birthday on my actual birth was my grandmother. My mother always said that the “ritual was antiquated and stupid. Who would want to celebrate becoming a whole year older and closer to death?”

That’s Mom for you.

“Wow honey, you’re a natural,” said the woman as she centered my picture. “Have you thought of doing photos professionally?”

I shrugged. “I’ve only been a girl for less than twenty-four hours I haven’t really thought of anything.”

She smiled weakly at that. She printed out my new ID a few minutes later, her chatty nature gone after that. I couldn’t blame her I suppose. She probably thought we were all freaks. To tell you the truth, I kinda felt that way, too. I thanked her and took the card. I looked at the picture. Usually these things are hideous right, isn’t that how it works? Well looking at the smiling blonde girl staring back at me---Cassandra Elizabeth Sandsmark, Age 17 F---I was surprised at how gorgeous she looked, I mean how gorgeous I looked.

Outside the photo room, Faraday was leaning against the wall. There was a yellow envelope in his hand. He nodded to me as I walked out. He was wearing a new suit, freshly pressed by the looks of it. His hair was nicely combed too and it looked like he’d gotten some coffee in him because he didn’t look so exhausted anymore.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the envelope.

He handed it over. “The new you, Miss Sandsmark.”

I took it reluctantly. “Just like that?”

He nodded as the two of us walked down the hall. We didn’t say anything until we got to the door at the end of it. He stopped and gestured to a vacant room. We slipped inside and turned on the lights. He looked around to make sure we really were alone but seeing that it was vacant, I’m not sure why he was being so paranoid. When his check was over, he shut the door.

“I just got off the phone with my superiors” he said, his voice calm and soft. “I’m going to be sticking around here for a month or so to make sure that you acclimate to your new lifestyle.”

I nodded. “Keeping an eye on me? Making sure I don’t destroy a city block?”

He smiled. “The video footage from the Antiquities building has made its way to them. They feel that someone with your talents should be monitored just to make sure you’re not a bigger threat than you are. I tried to argue your case but they’re insistent that I remain here for at least a month to make sure that you don’t do anything that might cause a problem later down the road.”

“They’re scared of me?” I smirked; it was funny to think of myself a National Security threat.

He nodded. “You’re an unknown. They don’t like unknowns. After the monthly grace period, if you’ve proven yourself to be a team player than they’ll authorize me to leave you alone. But if you prove to be too much to handle, I’m authorized to bring you by any means necessary.”

“Is that a threat, Agent Faraday?”

This time he smirked. “A warning.”

I didn’t like that. I didn’t like it one bit. Now I knew I couldn’t trust this guy. Not only was he going to be lurking about for a month, he’d probably be watching me too. I’m not sure if I liked that at all. But frankly, I don’t think he cared. It was how the government ran things now. If they didn’t like something, they surveillanced the hell out of it. The message was pretty clear: be a good girl or they were going to come for me. I suppressed a laugh. They saw what I did in Greece; they’d have to come at me with a lot of firepower to take me out. And guess what, I wasn’t planning to go down without a fight.
After all that, we didn’t say a thing to one another. He led me out of the room, through the door and into a cushy waiting room. Mom and Donna were waiting for us. Donna ran over and gave me a hug. I exchanged a hard look with Faraday over her shoulder; he shot one right back.

Donna let go of me and smiled.

“Welcome to the sisterhood, Cassie.”

I smiled, Cassie huh? I could live with that, too.