Johan Birch

-Hmm, what to say here?

This tale is actually a continuation of the 'Jaci Stone' series.

I have tried to make it standalone, but that's hard since I know every character in my head and don't know what I'm missing that the readers need to know.

As one reader has pointed out, I do have a tendency to leave certain things out.

I'm working on it, seriously.

Johan Birch = Jaci Stone. (Kindof)

Jaci Stone is a transgender hero(ine) from previous stories.

If you don't like transgender characters, those stories are not for you, and you might seem lost looking at this story.

This story contains magic; a lot of magic or references to magic.

This story is long.

gaia, don't think less of me for the intentional non-capitalization of your name.

I think that is all the information I need to impart as far as warnings go.

It is zero hour, and I need to get some sleep.

Toodles.

Sometimes fate likes to knock you upside the head for shits and giggles. This time, fate just plain knocked my ass over.

The woman who helped me back up? Her name was Petra Aslantis, and she was an angel. Or a demon. She had helped bring me back from death, telling me that Harriet probably would have done the same thing.

The Meddler, Harriet Thatcher, was definitely a demon. Sometimes. She helped when she wanted to, and sometimes when her help wasn't wanted.

I remembered being

Jaci Stone,

she was graceful and respected. And loved. She had quite a few children, and a few grandchildren. Then she died. I didn't remember her death, and I didn't want to hear about it more than once.

A being known as a Revenger had pulled Jaci Stone's soul out of her body at the moment of her death, trapping it while Petra constructed a new body to put Jaci's soul into. Constructed a new body, just hearing about that piqued my interest and made me sick at the same time. No biology or magic book that I had read even mentioned 'constructing' a body.

Their initial attempts to put Jaci's soul into a new body had been a spectacular failure. Evidently the energy from the body had been overwhelmed and rejected Jaci's soul by exploding. Petra took to constructing yet another body, and when Jaci's soul was stuffed into it, it stayed in.

Joshua, the Revenger who had been playing warden of my soul explained that soul-yanking and soul-jamming was part of his torture repetoire. I hadn't felt any pain, except for the fact that I woke up in a new body when I was supposed to be crossing over and on my way to The Wall.

The Wall was at the edge of the universe where all souls met, Petra had explained to me. Souls even came back to have chats with the ones they had left behind. I got upset then, knowing that I had been robbed of the chance to see my father and mother again made me want to rip some fucking heads off.

Before I would be able to rip heads off, I would have to learn how to walk normally. Jaci Stone had been a graceful creature, many times being told that she walked like a model. Now I was a big bear, a centimeter shy of two meters and ninety kilos in weight.

I had to relearn a lot of things about walking. First and foremost, I had to learn how to walk like a man. That was really hard. Jaci Stone was almost never without heels on her feet, and breaking the habit of swaying my hips died hard. My first attempts to run ended up with me tripping over my longer legs and larger feet.

Martial arts were hard for me as well. I remembered the lessons, but attempting a spinning high kick on my second day landed me on my ass. It didn't help that Jaci Stone had been cheating when she fought. I eventually caught onto the fact that she was faster than most because she was using second-long dilation waves to get ahead of her opponents.

Another thing about my new body was that It felt like a full kilo of my weight was hair. Except for the hair on her head, Jaci hadn't had the need to shave, she had just willed the unwanted hair away. Petra had begged me not to do anything with the hair, save cutting my head and facial hair. There was just something in her voice that made me give in.

Jaci and Petra's daughter, Aysun, called me 'dad' from the get-go. Jaci Stone's other children, the children she had with Samantha Birch, quickly jumped on that train. It actually felt good, bear hugs from the boys on an almost-weekly basis.

I wouldn't be able to meet with Jaci's other children for a while, if ever. There was just too much at stake, their lives. We knew that Jaci Stone had died, but Miranda Olsen's death couldn't be confirmed. As long as Miranda was out in the world, Jaci Stone's children would be in danger.

Eventually I picked everything back up. My life had changed, and while I didn't think that beneficial in the beginning, I learned to love myself.

There was someone else I learned to love, and that was Petra. Jaci Stone had loved her wife Samantha more than anything, but Samantha was on a plane of existence that Johan couldn't visit.

One day, I asked for some time alone. I needed to choose between the feelings that Jaci Stone had for Samantha, and the feelings that Johan Birch was developing for Petra Aslantis.

When the day ended and the next had begun anew, I made my choice: I would love Petra. The moment to show her came during a yoga tutorial. Petra was teaching me how to stay flexible so that I could work on my martial artistry. She was wearing a beautiful yellow and blue sports bra and shorts combination, my favorite colors. She was bending me over for a stretch, and I grabbed her and pulled her into a roll so that I was on top of her.

Her eyes went wide, and for a second I thought that I had misinterpreted all of the signs. Then she made a pucker with her lips and then I knew she wanted me. Sex was the one thing I hadn't relearned yet. My abstention had been voluntary, and that would end today. My hands released hers and I leaned back so that I could rip her sports bra in half. Her luscious brown breasts spilled out and my hands went for them like a starving man goes for food. Her nipples got immediate attention from my mouth, sucking them to hardness before my thumbs and forefingers caught them between.

I got a pouty lip because I hadn't kissed her lips first, but that only lasted a moment because my assault on her nipples caused Petra's eyes to roll back into her head. The gasp that escaped her made me smile. I worked my way up to her neck, nipping at one ear followed by the other. When I started to use my beard to tickle her face, she took action.

Petra reached behind my head and locked my hair into her fists. She pulled my head down, almost into a kiss, but not quite. Gentle kisses were planted all over my lips before she pulled me to her fully. My tongue invaded her mouth, beginning a dance with hers.

After what seemed like hours, she released my hair and started to wriggle underneath me. I rolled to the side so that she could sit up, followed by her standing all the way up. Her breasts were mesmerizing, nipples still hard and looking tasty.

She peeled off the shorts she was wearing and beckoned to me. I let out one of my big bear grunts as I got off the floor, making her laugh. Kneeling on the floor in front of me, she pulled my pants down, leaving my underwear in place.

I went to pull off my shirt, but she stayed my hands. We were there for the longest, her on her knees centimeters away from my trapped hardon, just kneeling there. After a moment I teasingly thrust my hips toward her face. She leaned back, keeping the same distance between her and me.

This wasn't going to work. I grabbed her hair and pulled her face into my crotch. Her response was to bite on my cock until I pulled her head away. She wasn't fighting against my hands knotted in her hair, so I kept them there and knelt with her. Her face was unreadable, so I let her hair go.

Petra reached out with a smile and touched my shirt, which instantly disintegrated. She ran her hands along my hairy chest, taking a moment to pinch my nipples hard. Her hands went down, and I felt my underwear vanish. Her hands pulled my cock up, and she slowly crawled up so she could straddle me.

Her intentions became clear: She didn't want me all the way inside her the first time I penetrated her. She easily slid onto my cock, rocking back and forth to get me settled. I watched her face as she moved on me, winces giving way to sighs and moans. She pushed back on my shoulders, wanting me to lean all the way back to the floor without slipping out of her.

The move wasn't difficult, and I was stretched out pretty good so I leaned all the way back, bucking up my hips so I could straighten my legs out. Petra slid all the way down my cock and stopped. I could feel her moving her muscles, settling around my cock, getting used to my fleshy invader.

Petra smiled down at me, giving a little shake of her tits to remind me that they were there. I shook my head, causing the cutest pouty lip. I finally obliged her, cupping her breasts up so I could pinch her nipples. They instantly responded, so did the rest of her. She started to move her hips, taking me in and out of her now dripping wet pussy.

Her movements were slow at first, slow and easy. Then she started to speed up and thrust her hips harder. I alternated pinching her nipples, intending to unbalance her buildup to orgasm. She grabbed my hands, pulling them up and falling forward to protect her tits from any further assault. The look on her face when she started moving again was confusing, like she was feeling something new.

Delight sparkled in her eyes when she started moving again, rubbing her pubic bone along my boner was putting pressure on her clit. She forgot about my hands and let them go. I reached up and pulled her into a hard kiss, feeling her groaning in my mouth.

Groaning built up to a wail, and I felt her explode around my cock, her inner muscles squeezing me then quivering around it. She slumped against me, her gentle breathing telling me she had passed out.

Petra started to stir a few minutes later and rolled off of me with a grunt. My boner had subsided, but my pleasure remained. I rolled onto my side, propping up my head with my arm. And smiled.

"What are you grinning at?" Petra grumbled.

"You. That failed seduction, all the way up to you passing out."

She pulled herself up into a lotus position, her glorious tits just resting on her chest, partially covered by her long, jet-black hair. "You caught me unaware. I didn't think you were ever going to make a move on me, so I kinda forgot how I was going to get you inside me."

"Forgot? You were trying to stage a scene?"

A giggle. "Just trying to combine the best, I guess."

Best?

"Movies? Petra watching porn?"

She sighed. "I have no frame of reference, okay? The last time I had a pecker inside me...I was with Jason."

Wow.

"Don't get all full of yourself and think that I was waiting on you!" Petra wagged a finger at me. "I did date."

"I didn't say anything."

"You know, it was just so hard. I couldn't go on a date without picking up surface thoughts. There were some times...I just wanted to zap the hell out of them."

"No vaporization factor? You dated all magicians?"

"Strangely enough, no, I didn't have to worry about that. Mom thought it might have had something to do with bearing Aysun..."

"I think we should shower and get dressed," I said. "Cause you look awful tasty, and I have a language course in a half-hour."

"Tasty?" Petra asked with a smile.

"Divine," I replied.

***

I spent eight months learning how to use the body my soul had been shoved into. I had to shed all my feminine tics, to walk and talk like the big, burly man-specimen that Petra now loved. I spent some time watching men move and dance, learning how to seduce Petra on the dance floor as well as everywhere else.

There was a simple explanation for my name: Johan Birch. It was the first thing that Petra had thought of when Jaci's soul was being jammed into my body, so she decided to run with it. That caused me to laugh so hard I hyperventilated. When she finally contacted The Birch Sisters, they weren't pleased, but said that they would accept me as a long-lost nephew.

When the other five sisters left the room, Natalie Birch offered me a job. Two years prior, they had offered control of the Birch Research, Development and Production company to Jaci Stone. That merger had never been finalized, and Brookstone Pointe agreed to withdraw from the proceedings.

So the company was theirs to give again, and they needed a shrewd businessman to take care of their interests in the Americas. I was so stunned at the offer that Petra had to agree for me. I thought I did a pretty good job of feigning disinterest at the amount of capital I had available to me, over thirty billion dollars, with a capital 'B.' That amount of money instantly made me suspicious, so I made sure that I got contracts, Laws of Man and all that.

The sisters would eventually tell Samantha when she asked to come back from Fontalan. It had already been almost two years on the Terra plane, which was over a hundred years on Fontalan. I didn't know if she would come back at all, or take her last breath on that horribly empty plane of existence.

The children from Jaci's wife Samantha; Calleigh, Correy and Mathis came to see me every week and actually liked to hang out with 'Dad.' Correy and Mathis had management positions with Birch Industries in Dubai and Lagos, doing a variety of things for the company. Calleigh wanted to come to work directly for me when I got everything situated.

***

Petra told me I was fit to go back to the US, confident that I wouldn't betray my past life. My first order of business was to go tour the fields that Doctor Erin Granger had planted. I wanted the company called Boulder, Limited, under my flag; and quickly moved to make it so.

Doctor Erin Granger's confusion at my appearance was evident. She wanted to know who I was and what possible interest that I would have in her farming technology. I gave her the spiel about how Birch America had been formed to both help the environment and to also take science forward. Erin understood that I wanted to pick up where Jaci Stone had left off. With that in mind, she took me to the offices of Brookstone Pointe.

Janine Olsen, who was the caretaker of Brookstone Pointe after Jaci Stone had been declared dead, was reluctant to let that company go. Erin, as the leader of the science division convinced Janine to sell the company to me, that I could take it forward. One of the plusses would reduce Janine's workload by a factor of twenty, and Boulder, Limited was't helping out Brookstone Pointe's bottom line. I knew why Janine was hesitant, because almost two years later Jaci's death was still affecting her.

Petra admitted something to me after we finalized the sale: Jaci's body had never been recovered. Janine and Marci were holding onto the possibility that she was still alive somewhere.

I couldn't tell Marci and Janine that I had the soul of Jaci Stone in my body, they wouldn't believe me.

***

-Six months later-

I couldn't resist chuckling at the woman I had just hit with a whammy, Hillary Milano. She was the owner of a company called Jacer Semiconductor, a company that made solar panels in the deserts of Nevada.

"So let me get this straight, Mister Birch," Hillary said.

"Please, call me Johan."

"Johan, you want to lease one of my warehouses. Warehouse Thirteen, no less, and the adjoining land all the way up to that line of asphalt called a road on the edge of my property."

"We are going to make a connecting road for our use so we don't tie up yours," I added.

"Why there? That warehouse has no power to it because I couldn't afford to run the lines out that far. I mean, I can afford to run the lines now, but I have no use for that building."

"We'll make our own power," I countered. "It will only take a few shipments of our panels to make our own power grid."

"Which brings me to my next question." Hillary paused. "Why do you want to use my land to make solar panels on? Your wanting to manufacture solar panels technically makes you my competition."

"Hillary, there are plenty of places that need solar. I don't want to compete with you, goddess knows there is enough demand for us both." I shrugged. "You have an established infrastructure, I just want to use a little bit of it, and will even pay you for the privilege."

"What else?" Hillary prodded.

"There is a relative amount of security being out here in the middle of nowhere."

"I know. Some scientists are running some interesting tests thirty kilometers to the west, they're good folks. They also like their security by obscurity."

"There are probably a lot of people hiding out here in the desert," I agreed.

"Are you bringing your own material?" Hillary asked.

"Until we get everything settled," I nodded.

"If you need metals, I can hook you up with a good supplier. He's got a good supply of copper, if you can find someone to smelt it into cables or busbars."

"Copper's good. I won't be interfering with your supply, will I?"

Hillary waved her hand. "When I say a good supply, I mean tonnes of the finest powder I have ever seen. I couldn't buy one percent of that."

"Plenty of sun power out here to smelt it," I mused.

"If you can do that, I'll pay you a premium for finished product," Hillary chuckled.

"I'd have to build another warehouse for the smelter," I teased.

"All right," Hillary nodded. "I agree to let you lease that warehouse and the adjoining land for fifty grand a month. If I need to use your roads, I'll pay you a toll fee based on vehicle, to be negotiated later."

Only fifty grand a month.

She wants goods.

"Plus, I want five percent of your output. You probably already guessed that, that package you brought in with you."

"You got me," I shrugged. "What do you need my solar cells for?"

"I have a project that's stretched me to the limit. I can finish it faster if I have more panels."

"Your system is twenty-four volts?" I asked.

"Exactly," Hillary nodded. "How much power do your panels produce?"

"The panel I brought with me, two-fifty by five hundred centimeters is three hundred watt-hours. Typical two meter by one meter panel produces eleven hundred watt-hours."

I saw sparkles in her eyes. "That's pretty good."

"I've brought enough panels with me to start one etcher, and I'll scale up from there. Before full production can start, I'll need six weeks. That's the best I can do."

"Six weeks is enough," Hillary nodded. "You have a contract lawyer?"

I fished my phone out and tapped out my prearranged message to Petra:

Fish on hook.

Arthur in Vegas, five hours

, was the reply.

"Fourteen hours, Vegas?" I asked.

"That's fine," Hillary nodded.

10-4.

I sent back.

Hillary couldn't wait to get the panel unwrapped. She and one of her assistants carried it outside and set it on a sun table. While Hillary examined the physical properties of the plate, her assistant wheeled a cart loaded with equipment into the alcove.

Together they hooked leads to the panel and pulled out the support legs for the table. Next came the panel clamps so that the panel wouldn't fall off the table when they adjusted the angle and rotation.

Next, they started jacking the table up. Two meters was the optimal height, my scientists had told me. When the table reached one meter eighty, they adjusted the angle and then rotated it toward the sun.

"Optimum angle, Chels?" Hillary asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Chels replied.

"Lock into place," Hillary ordered.